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A guy clarify why it can take so long time to release the Diablo 2 patch 1.13, which been over 6 month delayed so far. I must admit from my knowledge of IT, that there really could be issues with hardware infrastructure/software build back in 2000 could be incompatible with newer hardware. So its a really huge problem for Blizzard, and such upgrade in hardware would be very expensive and time consuming.
Read the full article about Diablo 2 patch 1.13 shash and hardware issue:
I can’t seem to figure out how increasing the stash size could be game-breaking in any way. As far as I can imagine, it would only mean a few more database records to keep track of what is in those slots for each character (very minimal impact – only slightly increases the size of the database), a UI adjustment to show the new slots (should have no impact at all), a small increase in network bandwidth utilization to send the extra packets for the new slots or increased packet size for stash packet if they are all sent in a big array instead of single packets (very minimal impact on network performance), and probably a tiny bit of actual coding to make the client aware of the new space (should be no impact at all).
So, from all of that, the only actual impact I can imagine would be a slightly increased Database size, and maybe a slight increase in network bandwidth. Really, both of these combined should be extremely low impact to the game. Maybe the dev team is anticipating a huge increase in player-base after the patch is released (which is to be expected), which may push their current servers and bandwidth limits to their max. If so, that very tiny bit of extra from the stash increase might play some part in making the game slightly less playable, but it would probably not even be noticeable at all. The real issue there would be the limitations of the Servers and Bandwidth that are allotted for Diablo2 being too low for the expected number of players after the patch, not the stash increase.
The only other reason I could see the stash size increase affecting the game is if it does more than what they are telling us so far. If the stash size increase also included a shared stash space, that might complicate things a bit more and without knowing the details on what they are doing, it is hard to guess the potential impact.
Stash size increase or not, I am sure they will work it out. I am just really puzzled at that reasoning for delaying this seemingly simple patch for months.
The service is designed specifically for the requirements of the game. Meaning that specific hardware has and continues to be used because the game was designed to run on it. The limitations now are that this hardware is pretty old, the storage capacity is more than enough to hold the data from an increased stash size, but at peak load can the service and database actually handle the ability to record all the data without fault? The feeling is probably not.
Now, that’s only a reasonable doubt. If we were to throw caution to the wind and see if it works anyway the teams that would be responsible for cleaning up the mess are hard at work on completing the new Battle.net for StarCraft II. We’re just not willing to bet the manpower that it will work and potentially impact one of our next major game releases.
The question then comes up that why don’t we just upgrade the hardware? As I sort of hinted at this isn’t off the shelf hardware and we can’t simply throw in some new parts and hope it all works. It would be months of work, again, by teams of people that we simply aren’t willing to remove from their current tasks.
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It has been a while since the last update, and I’m sorry about that, but we haven’t had any new developments until recently. As much as some people want daily affirmations, they aren’t helpful. We’ll give updates when they matter, and we have a meaningful one going up this week.
A user ask why there is no updates on D2 patch 1.13
Q u o t e:
So if you know the update, why aren’t you updating us? Wait, dont tell me. You will update us “soon” yeah??
Approvals and localization.
I don’t get to post everything I want to right when I want to. Some times, not all the time.
Update #2 – No more stash increase in Diablo 2 patch 1.13
The 1.13 patch is very far along so it should only be a limited amount of testing before it hits the Westfall PTR. Still, any number of issues could delay a release so any dates or estimates for release won’t be made available.
Bashiok: We’ve recently completed a revised version of the Diablo II 1.13 patch that removes the increased stash size. A larger stash will unfortunately no longer be a feature included in patch 1.13 due to the previously mentioned concerns. As higher priority work continues on Warcraft III we’re hoping to complete our quality assurance tests for the 1.13 patch in the next few weeks. But as always, the types of issues that may appear and take higher priority are rarely foreseeable. We continue to plan a release based on our best intentions.
