DaveO wrote:I suspect the release of 1.13 may be closer than most believe. There is nothing wrong with doing 1.12 as the previous person mentioned, but I think 1.13 will be out in the next six months if not sooner.
Is there any special information you have access to that makes you think the 1.13 release will be sooner than most other people believe?
Blizzard announced the 23rd April that they are planning for the ladder reset to coincide with the release of the 1.13 patch, and in the annoucement they said:
"We don't have a final release date for the patch yet, but we're providing early warning as a reset could occur as early as the end of April. We'll be providing updates with more certain dates once the patch is closer to release."
The 1st May they said:
"So yeah, we're still working on the patch. It's coming along really well. We're getting there. I can't give an estimate or date, we're expecting there to be a good amount of testing required due to the types of changes being made. We want to take our time and put out a solid patch, and that means we don't have a release date right now.
Some exciting news - and it also may be some comfort - due to the types of changes we're making we will be offering the Diablo II 1.13 patch for testing and feedback on a test realm before its release. We'll have more information about how you'll be able to help test it in the coming weeks."
As a response to someone who was complaining about Blizzard stating that the new patch could be out before the end of April when it is obvious that is not going to be the case, they responded the 2nd May:
"We try to give everyone at least a two week notice before a ladder reset. When it became apparent that the patch could potentially launch in two weeks, we put up an announcement just in case.
Now, even though no promises were given it's going to create some hope that it will be out, but we can only do so much to balance between expectation and information that's necessary for the community to have."
Then, the 12th May they stated:
"It's coming along. We're still in the process of refining and testing the changes going into the patch. Work is progressing, we haven't stopped working on it or anything like that.
As far as information of what's being changed in the patch, almost anything we're working on now could be removed. Testing could deem any change unworkable and we'd have to remove it. By releasing any information on possible changes we'd be raising expectations that the change is guaranteed to make it in, no matter how many disclaimers we place on it. That said, one change we're planning is to increase the stash size to 12x10. As I said it is in no way a guaranteed change. Any number of reasons could mean it will not make it into the final patch. But enjoy the breadcrumb maybe?"
And finally, 19th May, they said:
"Til the morrow sun doth shine
Do not fear the demon kind"
So, as far as I have seen, not even a hint of a release date...and they haven't released any more information about the test realm or even how people can participate in the testing. So I think it's still going to be a while. But of course nobody outside of Blzzard knows just how long. However, I still remember the "within weeks now" that turned out to be 54 weeks
