Hi all. I just registered here on these forums yesterday though I've been coming here for my D3 updates for many months now. I've had some thoughts and suggestions for D3 based on what I've read/heard/seen and wanted to bounce those ideas of you guys.
1. GAMEPLAY
At first glance it all looks pretty awesome. Though when they say there is a big emphasis on killing masses of monsters they aren't kidding. I remember act 1 in D2 where the killing starts pretty slowly. From what I've seen in the videos I have no complaints. I am a little concerned for the checkpoint/waypoint issue. Like many of you I'm sure, I tried different games to satisfy my D3 hunger, one being Titan Quest. That game uses a checkpoint system where the player has to activate a fountain for the checkpoint to be saved. Though I agree this did in most cases help keep me immersed in the action, sometimes it had a severe opposite effect. Not knowing where the next town would be I had to run way back in many cases because my inventory was full, etc. As long as waypoints stay in the game at a reasonable spacing I don't think running back would be a problem. Though it does take the player out of the action much more than simply making a town portal. Of course then I found out that my player in Titan Quest could open a portal to any major city I had been to. That all said, in the new screens it looks like there are town portals on the hotbar. I'm not sure if that means tps will for sure be in the game since I remember there being some debate about it.
An issue that ties in with waypoints/checkpoints is boss runs. I discuss this more in the items section. How easy should boss runs be? Should item aquisition be centered around it? Well I think that bosses should always be able to drop the best items and as long as that is true there will always be boss runs. Taking away waypoints/checkpoints near bosses will only make it more difficult for the less hardcore players to keep up.
1a. Mercenaries
Well they appear to be random occurances rather than hireable. I actually think this is a good move. Heroes don't need help but mercs can tag along if they behave. The only reason it seems like a big change is because D2, after 10 years, has insane items that grant auras that people put on mercs. Without auras, I doubt many people would miss mercs much.
2. SKILLS
2a. Barbarian
Looks pretty cool so far. No comments really except see passive offensive skills section.
2b. Witch Doctor
Again, looks pretty awesome. Especially with the rune system.
2c. Wizard
Gotta say I'm quite impressed with the wizard but I don't really like disintegrate. It's not that I see this being the most played wizard build at launch it's just something about the skill. It doesn't look right. The way the wizard aims it kind of makes it look like she turns into a giant ray gun. It might be more believable if it came out of the end of a staff but then it wouldn't make much sense when a staff isn't equipped.
2d. Skill Tree
I understand that hoarding of points is a failure in the eyes of the developer. Unfortunately, some ideas are born better than others. Forcing players to spend points (more than 1) on prereqs just to avoid hoarding doesn't address the problem. Synergies in D2 attempted to make lower skills more attractive but all they really did is bolster the same select skills that were being used before. Instead of focusing on having players use a wide range of skills count of them choosing only a few. I think no matter what builds turns out to work, they will only consist of a handful of skills. That's what makes the build unique. If all builds require highly diverse point spending then all builds approach being similar.
With that in mind choosing only a few skills may not be possible unless you want to have unused points. Skill rank 2/5? It looks like the max skill level will be 5. I understand its much more exciting to gain new skills than gain another point in the same skill but it seems as though with 90+ skills to eventually work with I can almost have one of everything (the level cap will be 99 right?). I hope lots of these skills are passive so I don't have to juggle using 10+skills to play the game.
2e. Passive Offensive Skills
In Titan Quest certain skills were passive skills but instead of D2 passive skills like Iron Skin or Dodge they were aggressive skills like counter-attack. As I leveled and put points in these skills I felt a significant increase in power. Moreso than when gaining usable skills. I think it would be cool for classes like the barbarian to have skills like these. Having a chance to hit more than one enemy or attack with both weapons really makes a barbarian feel more powerful and unpredictably destructive. These would have to proc off normal attack and certain skills to be viable (since I don't imagine many people will be killing with normal attack once they reach a decent level)
3. ART STYLE/ANIMATIONS
3a. Environment
I love it. Especially outdoors with the weather effects. Hopefully there will be a variety of intense weather effects in the game. I hope in time those who don't like it will come around. Those people who say Blizzard doesn't listen to you are a little confused. They listen but that doesn't mean they're going to do everything you say. If I tell you to start dressing differently and you don't do it does that mean you're just not listening to me? I have never been disappointed with a Blizzard game and I doubt it'll start with D3. One comment though. In the wizard gameplay movie as she enters the dungeon, it seems a lot darker (in terms of light not colour) than in the original barbarian gameplay. I hope this is the case because the lighting for that dungeon has been adjusted since the original gameplay demo.
Just watched the gameplay demo again and had to reiterate how impressed I am with the art style. I really think it will breath life into discovering areas in D3.
3b. Animations
As the wizard executes some of her skills she looks a little like a ninja with the jumping in the air and creating ninja clones of herself. Seems a little bit much but I've only seen small clips of it so I won't judge it yet.
Monster death animations = awesome. So cool to be able to follow a trail of corpses and know exactly what/who killed them.
4. UI
Well the UI. I know many more iterations are to come but I have some thoughts.
4a. Skill Bar
Looks like I would expect so far but theres a small point that kind of annoys me. I really liked in D2 how the left click skill was on the left side of the bar. Now both left and right click skills are on the right. This is just me clinging to old ways I guess. Also, the 5 skill hotbar seems really good for skills like holy shield, shiver armor, etc. but with a max of 2 right click skills it seems like it might make some players only want 3 aimed skills (1 left, 2 right). I know Bashiok has addressed this be saying its actually very easy to pick up using aimed skills on the hotbar but I still can't help but think it will get annoying especially when one of those 2 right click skills is taken up by something like teleport.
Also, this might have been answered but assuming there will be a weapon switch I'm also guessing there will be a hotbar switch connected to that?
Lastly, during the outdoor video footage and screenshots, it looks to me like the UI is too bright compared to the environment. It stands out too much. Maybe its cause I'm crazy or maybe its cause I think the skill icons are too bright (discussed 2 sections down).
4b. Inventory Screen
I like the changes since the first gameplay video but it still needs work. It may come as no surprise that the rather chaotic layout of the equipped item boxes doesn't look right for me. From reading around, many people agree with this. I would change both rings from the left side of the armor to one on each side. The chest armor box is bigger than the rest. In fact, for most of the items being the same item size, the item boxes that fit them seem to vary a lot. I can understand wanting to give a sense of scale where there really isn't one but if I have to choose sense of scale over an organized layout I would pick layout. One thing I think that may solve this is having large and small item graphics. Once the item is equipped the graphic fills the whole box, in similar proportions to D2. When it was announced that all items would be the same size I was actually really disappointed even though it makes sense. I like to see the item graphic.
On a separate note, the graphics for some items look very cartoon-ish at the moment. I assume this is just a temporary thing.
Lastly, the bagged inventory. Though I prefer to see all my items at once I think my biggest problem with the current setup is that it looks like the items autosort. Meaning, if I remove the first item all the other items move to fill in the gap. I hope the final build has gridlines so I can move my items as I please without autosort. If anyone played Nox they will know what I'm talking about when I say autosort is a frustrating system. Of course I could be totally wrong about the autosort. Just looks like it at this point.
4c. Skill Icons
I read a post by a forum member that the skill icons are too shiny and round. I completely agree. I really liked the D2 icons but I am not averse to colours. In fact with the new skill bar and other changes I agree that colour is necessary. I just think they need to be more solid looking, washed out and rugged. Almost like a painting on a rock surface.
4d. Fury Balls
It's an interesting change and definately eliminates any confusion between rage and mana but I don't quite see how its any different than before. Maybe even worse. Say I quickly look down and see half a globe of rage. I have about half my rage. Now suppose I see one ball of rage. I now have to look to see how close I am to getting a second ball of rage before I know if I have 1/3 or almost 2/3 of my rage. It seems like it's less straight forward than the old system. But hey, I haven't played it so I don't know best. It it's just a matter of visuals how about something like a ring system charging from the centre outwards.
4e. Cursor
The arrow looks sort of like it belongs in SC2 or something. I like the hand style one. Not the exact same but something similar.
5. ITEMS
5a. Item Colour
Well seems like almost all the same colours will be back. I was pretty excited to hear that purple might not be unique but instead a new item type? Badass. The blue in D2 was sort of a light blue and I think if purple is the same sort of light purple it will fit in perfectly. But please keep uniques gold/brown-ish. Is orange in use? Could rares maybe be a little more orange so as not to confuse them with gold? It's just that one of those things that will let me know I'm playing Diablo is seeing that beautiful gold amulet or ring lying on the ground.
5b. Item Types
I'm sure we'll see a bunch of item types and probably some new ones. But will class specific items return? I think I remember hearing the answer to this but I can't find it now.
5c. Item Descriptions
Based on the fact that there weren't any item requirements in the gameplay demo I would say that the item descriptions are not finalized. Some thoughts though. I don't think its necessary to show the item graphic again in the item description. Also I'm not a fan of the bulleted item attributes. I would like to see a system where the innate item properties and additional magic/rare/unique/other mods are separated. Again, not too much on this since I'm sure it has changed a lot.
5d. Item Models
Looks like weapons with elemental damage have a graphic to match. What about rares with multi elemental? I suppose it could be both graphics on top of each other but it might also be cool to have separate graphics for certain combinations. Like +fire and +poison might show the weapon dripping fire. It's a bad example but you get the point right? I am also assuming that unique items will have unique models instead of just changing colours like in D2.
5e. Item Drops
It looks like special monsters are harder to kill in D3 and there is more focus on the style and mechanics of those monsters. It also looks as though better items drops accompany this which I am happy to see.
As far as boss runs go I think blocking them would be a poor idea and as a result they will be inevitable. I have no problem with this. If other people want to run Baal (or Boss x in D3) over and over that's fine. What I'm concerned with is how I will keep myself busy. I think that Bosses should always have a chance to drop the best items but I have a problem with them having the only chance to drop certain items. I hope that the random quest feature will use named monsters as a way to keep item hunting interesting.
Separate drop screens = genius. One of the best ideas I've heard for D3. I know it's going to make me want to MF with other people and that alone will make the game better.
5f. Set Items
I understand Blizzard's point of view. I have no ideas at the moment for how to make them more meaningful.
EDIT: Not actually a set item really but what about items that when equipped sort of create set type bonuses. Like a certain "set" amulet doubles the lighning damage you do. Or maybe instead the amulet will add 200 defense if your armor defense is less than 500. Rather than just getting all pieces of a set you sort of make your own. It would be a balance between how many "set" items you equip and the rest of your gear since you want maximum normal gear for the item to affect. I dunno. Maybe this is also too complex. I'm a dreamer. What can I say.
5g. Runes
Badass. nuff said.
6. STORY/QUESTS
In Titan Quest, on the best D2 clones, I got the feeling that there was real chaos going on and not just a few events caused by the end-game evil. This was because of the sidequests. Remember, you can never have too many random sidequests. Especially if you plan to wait another 10 years before D4 (but seriously don't do this).
7. TRADING
With a max of 4 or 5 players to each game there will be a huge number of games going on. The last thing we need is to make even more with trade games. Trade channels you can never see whats going on because everyone spams and when D2 was big there were so many of them. Well I was thinking. With talk of trade cities and whatnot how come I never trade there? Would be cool to have an area you could join sort of like the main cities in Guild Wars. You join this trade area and suddenly trade with a bunch of other people. No need to create private games for each trade or whispering to 4 people at once. You can run around, trade, obviously not use any skills, but basically it adds some fun to trading. Because of the volume of players you would still need a bunch of trade games at any given time. The way it worked in Guild Wars is you just selected which game or channel you wanted to join and it took you there without quiting the game.
Also, I haven't decided if this idea fits Diablo yet but you could also have personal BUY and SELL lists. There was mention in the forums of having notifications in case an item you need drops for a party member. If that happened, your BUY list would pick up on it and you would be notified. The same would happen if an item on your SELL matches someone elses BUY. Again, I'm not sure if this fits since you would have to pick your items from a master list within the game. Just a thought. In fact, after writing about it, it sounds too complicated.
It has also come up in the forums that with separate screen drops you might not be able to drop gold or drop an item for another player. Well why not make it so you can drop an item on a party member's portrait and it drops on their screen. Maybe it would show on your screen on the ground greyed out so you know it made it. Regarding trading on the battlefield, I think this would solve the problem of giving an item to a party member. But trading? Do you really carry around items in case you need to trade on the battlefield? In my opinion, let players give all
the items they want but leave trading for town.
8. Secret Happy Unicorn Rainbow Level
Pretty please?
EDIT: Wanted to add this because I thought it was was really cool idea. The poster seems to be a little angry that blizzard doesn't listen to the fans' every word but still...found it here: http://www.diablofans.com/forums/showthread.php?t=15612&highlight=unique+model
Being able to bet on duels. There would need to be a countdown before hostility was activated and maybe an option of disabling potions (if they turn out to be in the game) for the duration of the duel or best of 7 duels. Lots of options I'm sure but worth considering I think.
Thanks to those who read all this. Comments/additions would be welcome. Am I totally out of line? Let me know.
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- Ftero
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Last active Fri, Aug, 13 2010 00:46:46
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