Difference between revisions of "Patches"

Revision as of 02:03, 17 March 2012

A patch is an update to a computer program that fixes bugs, makes changes, and adds content. Most computer games are patched regularly, to fix problems, adjust game balance issues, and sometimes add content. Patches are designated by version numbers; v1.01, v1.02a, v1.2b, etc.

Patches are usually embraced by players, as they bring desired bug fixes and can shake up the game with rebalances, added items, and more. Opinions always differ though, since while everyone likes improvements and buffs to their character, cries of "nerfed!" always ring out, as various overpowered skills, items, monsters, and other things are reduced in value or power, much to the chagrin of players who had come to count on those imbalances working to their favor.

• See the wikipedia patch article for far more detail than you might want to know about software patches.

Diablo Patches

There were numerous patches issues to Diablo II, and they continue to this day. The game is up to v1.13c, with the most recent patch released in May 2010.

Diablo II has released more content and major changes via patches than is common for computer games; especially ones that have been on the market for years and years. Several of Diablo II's patches, most notably v1.10, introduced a great deal of new content and brought about sweeping changes in the balance of the skills, characters, monsters, and more.

Diablo III Beta Patches

Blizzard patched the beta client numerous times, making changes both large and small. All these patches came with lists of feature changes, and many more details about them were uncovered by data mining. See the Diablo 3 Beta patches article for more details, or click on the individual patch pages.

• Beta Patch 2
• Beta Patch 3
• Beta Patch 4
• Beta Patch 5
• Beta Patch 6
• Beta Patch 7
• Beta Patch 8
• Beta Patch 9
• Beta Patch 10
• Beta Patch 11
• Beta Patch 12
• Beta Patch 13
• Beta Patch 14
• Beta Patch 15

Diablo III Patch Plans

The Diablo III developers will support their game with regular big fixes and other patches; this is standard for Blizzard games, since the company has a legacy of providing excellent long term game support. The D3 Team is not planning to include a great deal of new content in the patches though, since they want to save it up and make major updates in expansion packs. Jay Wilson spoke on their philosophy in an interview from Blizzcon 2010.^[1]

When asked in January 2012 on Twitter by @Procrastajason, "Is the retail release of the game the entirety of the content we'll see for a while or will there be content patches ala WoW?" Blizzard reiterated^[2]

A list of all patches released for Diablo 3.

When to Expect Patches

Virtually every game features a patch almost immediately after release. There are always bugs discovered in the early days, as thousands (or millions) of gamers commence to crash test the game far more vigorously than any company's Q&A and beta testers can. It's quite common for a game to immediately patch to v1.01 when first installed, even the day of release, as bugs found since it went gold are addressed.

After the first bug-fixing patch, there's usually a fairly substantial bug and content patch after a month or two. Early balance issues crop up, some game features are discovered to be not working as designed, or the hive mind of all the players find exploits and other issues that the developers never noticed or never thought would be such an issue.

This was the case for Diablo II, and a major content patch fixed numerous skill functions, put a cap on magic find improvements, and fixed numerous minor exploits and imbalances a few weeks after the game was released. Two examples:

• There were no diminishing returns on Magic Find in v1.00 of Diablo II, and players who specialized in +MF gear found that it was possible to make every single item drop a rare, set, or unique item.

• Spawned baby monsters gave full experience and dropped items, and players found that they could level and item find their way to obscene wealth in areas like the River of Flame, simply by letting all of the maggot eggs hatch and then killing the little larvae.

It's entirely possible that Diablo III will have some similar issues, and players who leap heavily into the game right from the start will undoubtedly find some interesting features that will never be seen again.

References