![Kronus Emblem, created by Mordred[KRO]](k.gif)
23 members, 8 places available
This page is best viewed with IE 4+
Shards - a "must read" for all Kronus members [top]
OK, this is important, "Hello everyone,
Since there seems to be a great deal of aprehension about the
"shard" issue, I thought this might be a good time to
address it. First of all, we don't call them "shards."
OK, that's not true, we do actually call them that. But we're
trying to think of something a bit more original.
("Realms?!")
There seems to be quite a bit of misinformation about our
"shard" system. Some of this is because we haven't talked
about it, and some of it is because we haven't finalized every
aspect of it. The fact is that we have to have shards, and
shard-specific characters.
People have to realize something about Diablo II. You really
can't compare it to other games due to the amount of people who
will be playing. We anticipate at least 50,000 users at any given
time. That is far more than are playing any other game
simultaneously except maybe for StarCraft, which isn't
client-server. The technical requirements for handling that kind
of number are staggering. The shard system is therefore necessary
to distribute the load and make the task at least somewhat
manageable. The Diablo II multiplayer architecture is doing
things no other game has ever done.
Nevertheless, you will find that shards are NOT the end of the
world. Quite the contrary, you'll hardly notice them. Consider
the following:
1) We intend to have at least 10,000 simultaneous users PER
SHARD! Not 10,000 accounts, but 10,000 simultaneous players. The
number of accounts per shard will probably approach 100,000.
That's more people in your "shard" community than the
total number that play virtually any other game. Other massive
online games have "shards" a small fraction of this size.
Rather than having many shards all over the place, we will have
fewer than 10 total shards strategically placed throughout the
world.
2) You will be able to create characters on any shard with
available space. You are not limited to one character.
3) We are working on the technology necessary to be able to
transfer characters from one shard to another. This is not as
easy as you might think, and we don't want to keep people from
playing while we solve this one technical issue. We hope to be
able to add this functionality sometime following the game's
release. We cannot guarantee this, but we are working on it.
I realize this doesn't answer all the questions you have, but
this is all the information I can give at this point.
Thank you for your continued interest and input into this
undertaking,
Max Schaefer
A quote from diabloii.net
"A couple of posts of interest by Blizzard employees today.
In the War Room Shlonglor replied to a person asking about "closed"
and "open" characters, as they are described in the newly updated OFAQ.
To give a quick explanation, since this is a popular topic to be confused about:
"Open" characters are basically identical to Diablo characters. You can play them
offline, or over a modem, LAN, on Bnet, Kali, etc. They are no more secure from
hacking than D1 chars, aside from some more complicted encryption in the code.
"Closed" characters are ONLY playable over Bnet, and they can not be played with
"open" characters. They are stored on the Diablo II Bnet servers, and are
therefore theoretically hack-proof.
The other post by Shlonglor of interest can be seen here. Quick quote:
"If you have any suggestions as to what you would like to see on the Blizzard.com site,
post them here or mail to [email protected]
It would appear that the long-awaited remodelling of Blizzard.com
is at least in the planning stages, so if you've always wanted,
say, an animated gif of a clown juggling human skulls in all four
corners of the browser window, now is your chance to request it."
The Official FAQ has been updated, check it out here: http://www.blizzard.com/diablo2/faq/index.htm
New SSOTW, I'm damn tired now, so i'll just quote Diabloii.net
"Act Three, Wilderness. Raining. The Paladin here displaying a new aura along with its newly revealed icon. As to what the aura could be, well there are still many that we have not seen before, Defiance for instance, a skill which boosts the Paladin's AC. Which, judging by his impending melee foray, seems like a good idea. However, the icon appears to be similar to Prayer although the hands look a bit emaciated, a bit too 'choir boy'. But if they are hands it could be that the skill is one of his 'healing' type auras, such as Cleanse or Meditation perhaps? No official descriptions on either of these skills. These Frog Demons attack with poison in Act III but the Paladin isn't currently poisoned. Still, that certainly doesn't stop him casting it before stepping into a situation where he knows he's going to get a big ball of poison spat at him? He is up against the newly-named Frog Demons, a variety of the Razorbacks we are familiar with from Act I, although they are brown there. These are well camouflaged against the wooded background though. Mostly green with smatterings of brown. Of course the big red glowing eyes sort of give the game away a bit. You can see them out in the open in this shot here. There appear to be two but with all the foliage it's not clear there aren't 10 of them lurking. A couple of other new features are firstly the Monolithic stone head. We have seen them previously in Act II but this is the first viewing of one in this act. Aside from the nice art, with his clearly-defined mouth, he may be more function than just mere form. A gem shrine perhaps? The hut bottom right is a new style also, much more basic in construction. Previous huts have had nice neat tended roofs. Also there looks to be two skulls on the wooden spikes protruding through the roof. One each on the left and right. One curiosity of this shot is how the "glove icon" is in its passive condition (hand opened) rather than in an active condition, with the pointing finger indicating an attack in progress, or a casting taking place. We do not know how long a character has to remain inactive before the hand changes to active but from the face-off we witness here the Paladin surely hasn't been inactive for long, he'll certainly not be for much longer. -- 3d-enhanced shot, 10/99."
Check out the screenie here: http://www.blizzard.com/diablo2/ssotw31.htm
Shards - a "must read" for all Kronus members
Posts
Official FAQ updated
New SSOTW
launched the idea of "Shards", basicly this are own gaming enviroments, with 100'000 account places,
this means that there can be a total of 100'000 characters in one Shard. Only 10'000 people will be able
to play together at a time, and you can only play with people whom's characters are on the same Shard.
There will be 10 Shrads placed over the world, in strategic positions.
is working on a technology to transfer characters from one Shard to another. But this will not occur until
after the release of the game.
FOR US THIS MEANS: IF WE WANT TO PLAY TOGETHER, WE NEED TO HAVE OUR CHARS ON THE SAME SHARD.
THIS MEANS TOO, THAT WE NEED TO CHOOSE A SHARD THAT WORKS WELL FOR EUROPEANS AS WELL AS FOR USA/CANADA.
Read the post of Max Shaefer here:
VP, Blizzard North"
![Credit to Savage[KRO] for this one](End.jpg)
