I'm aware that the game has only been shown for 20 minutes and not many details have been revealed but this is something I'd still like to discuss, so here are my annoyances and ideas for Diablo 3
- Darken the environment and compare it to the current build, take the best aspects of both and create a middle ground. e.g The mystical looking water in the current build and the great looking endless dark pits from the darker style get mixed.
- Revert back to the old inventory system, It is nostalgic and unique though the new block system could easily stay for use in the stash however since it was said to be near infinite or something like that.
- The colours seem to washed out and it would be nice if they were more vivid.
- The lightning enchants aura seems excessive to the point where it looks like the barbarian is holding a glowing orb of doom rather than a small axe.
- The textures lack the detail which an entry into this series requires, though I accept this may be a performance issue rather than a choice.
- An option have have the UI cover the entire bottom of the screen would be a nice addition. I have a small computer screen.
- Perhaps a few beards, faces, hair or tattoos to give some character distinction this doesn't have to be excessively detailed, but every bit helps.
- Fire looking like Fire. This is down in some places but not in others. Fire Bomb isn't really all that fiery.
- The new rune names are bland as anything, bring back the old mystical sounding ones, minor power ruin reminds me of Guild Wars(yuk).
- Return to the old colour scheme for rare items, Unless you've added some new UBER tier which is purple it shouldn't need to change.
- The ghoul attack was amazing until I heard them sounding like Gnolls dying in WoW, this is not cool.
- Statistics such as strength and energy need to have a larger effect on your characters performance since energy is very neglected by magic classes and strength stops once you can equip the armor and weapon you'd like.
- The Stamina bar is gone which seems to reflect the more linear feel of D3, Perhaps this could be brought back if the maps become larger in scale? Which would be nice.
- Witch Doctor swarms eating skeletons down to the bone? I don't think so.
- The Witch doctors excessively poor posture seems very odd amongst all the rest of the classes through Diablo history and even in comparison to his female counter part, the added character is nice but lets not go overboard.
- Some more epic death animations, the siege breakers head bite is amazing but it'd be great if he could impale you upon his large middle hand spike or stomp you to death, this would add to replayablity as well.
- Fading blood splatters on characters would look great, the start of the demo where the barbarian has no armor is a great example of how this would add to the game, why is he so clean after pummeling blood everywhere?
- The new mana pool is very cool, perhaps this could deepen in colour as the pool becomes larger over your levels? The same to health starting off pale and shifting blood red after more Vitality?
- The Barbarians Hammer doesn't give a Heavy Dull Thud! When it's swung, in fact I couldn't tell it apart from the small axes, Large Blunt Hammer needs more THUD!
- A larger weapon should send an enemy flying on death, and have innate knock back on smaller foes, the larger and slower the weapon and the stronger the wielder the larger the effect. I saw the odd knock back upon death but not often enough to be believable. This applies to the siege engine of hell as well, he should have a strike that sends even the barbarian reeling if not flying, nothing wrong with a combo but these strikes are HEAVY!
- The mutilated corpses ain't very mutilated, compare to the dead rogues in D2, blood on the dead? OH NOES!
- Wall of zombies appears to act much more like Fire Wall than an actual combative wall, as in enemies just run into it and die, very odd.
- Weapons should sound more brutal with higher strength and spells become flashier with more Energy? Or with higher ranks in the skill/mastery?
- The barbarians jumps are far too graceful and light, leaps in D2 had the feel of a mountain of muscle trying to lift into the air and absorb the huge impact upon landing, Don't forget he's wearing plate armour!
- Lets have skeleton archers not look like a cartoon creation. The hunch, the hood and the overexaggerated firing movements do nothing for them.
- Cain seems very unfazed by his guards head being smashed in by 2 giant maces! Perhaps even a tiny AH!?
- Fading Corpses should be an option.
- Sets were often quite easily overshadowed by uniques, having more powerful and customizable sets would be nice, perhaps one that gives you tyrael style wings .
- Stone Of Jordan, or rare ruins is no basis for an economy, gold needs to have more value than was seen in D2.
They need to get back to Diablo 1! That game had atmosphere. Diablo II really didn't have any to speak of, but I think the original has a great feeling to it. I could play D2 all night and not ever feel on edge but opening the butcher's door and hearing that classic "Ahhh, fresh meat!" gives me shivers every time. If they bring that back into D3 they will have a serious classic game on their hands.
Agreed with pretty much all of OP. I also didn't like the conversation system. I much prefered the D2 style narrated scrolling text. Having the player character talk takes away from the immersion.
I wonder if the witch doctor's animations are intentional. If you look closely at his arms he looks like he has parkinson's disease or something. Maybe they wanted him to look psychotic.
Right now if they just fixed the wow color pallette I would be happy. They can leave the rainbows and rabbits in for all I care, so long as it doesn't look like wonderland.
I disagree with the gold thing, I think a rares-economy is good, because it introduces huge variety.
I played Diablo II from the day it came out til around like Ladder Season II, and I can EASILY say that the best days of DII were by far before the expansion. The best items were rares, there were not nearly as many dupes, no maphack, etc. Your best items came from imbuing and Charsi and luck could make or break you. I remember imbuing a super awesome LL VIAS cold damage gothic bow and trading it for a wormskull/umes/silks to the at the time #1 Amazon (who was level 76 - back when lvl 99 was damn hard to get to). That was considered a pretty good trade too; rares had *value* No duped CCS with a duped runeword inside it, no duper-rune engimas, etc. I also remember imbuing a really godly lance, because back then lance barbs were the best, but it had the "howling" modifier that enemies flee in fear or w/e...that alone dropped its value enormously. My point is that a rare economy is just so much more interesting than a set-range-of-values unique and duped-rune economy. It makes everyone different. Back then you'd see a barb with a red skull helm and black armor and a blue lance and you'd have no clue what the hell it was...now if you see a green skull helm you know it's vamp, if you see a mage-plate on a barb you know it's an enigma, if you see a peasant cap you know it's a shako..it's just boring when everyone is the same
After the expansion came out, the super strong cookie cutter uniques, the tons of duped runes and runewords....it just became boring.
That's a good point about the rares trading, however I'm not fond of the idea of having my larder stocked to the brim with gold and it having no value, perhaps something along the lines of an imbue system which cost ALOT of gold would raise it's value enough to remain a dynamic of D3 and keep rare trading alive? A extremly cost intensive re-spec system could help here as well, Stone of Jordan, 5 Rares runes for the Gold it costs to re-spec?
Another aspect of the rares thing that I didn't mention before was that it made the game more difficult. With the runewords and uniques from the expansion a PvM can be basically invincible. Before the expansion a bowazon would be lucky to be getting 75 damage on their gothic bow, and going into the hell CS was a lot more difficult that it is today. You just put 9 gc, anni, torch, +20 from your items, and you have a cold orb that one hit kills any monster....not so back before the expansion.
It wouldn't really affect PvP either since everyone would be on that level playing field of not doing insane 47k damage lightning (pvp light sorc reaches this number pretty easily).
Yeah I agree with witchdoctors posture. My mom said I should stand up straight and she might not let me buy this game because the witchdoctor might influence me to slouch.
On July 01 2008 02:26 EnergyTraction wrote: I disagree with the gold thing, I think a rares-economy is good, because it introduces huge variety.
I played Diablo II from the day it came out til around like Ladder Season II, and I can EASILY say that the best days of DII were by far before the expansion. The best items were rares, there were not nearly as many dupes, no maphack, etc. Your best items came from imbuing and Charsi and luck could make or break you. I remember imbuing a super awesome LL VIAS cold damage gothic bow and trading it for a wormskull/umes/silks to the at the time #1 Amazon (who was level 76 - back when lvl 99 was damn hard to get to). That was considered a pretty good trade too; rares had *value* No duped CCS with a duped runeword inside it, no duper-rune engimas, etc. I also remember imbuing a really godly lance, because back then lance barbs were the best, but it had the "howling" modifier that enemies flee in fear or w/e...that alone dropped its value enormously. My point is that a rare economy is just so much more interesting than a set-range-of-values unique and duped-rune economy. It makes everyone different. Back then you'd see a barb with a red skull helm and black armor and a blue lance and you'd have no clue what the hell it was...now if you see a green skull helm you know it's vamp, if you see a mage-plate on a barb you know it's an enigma, if you see a peasant cap you know it's a shako..it's just boring when everyone is the same
After the expansion came out, the super strong cookie cutter uniques, the tons of duped runes and runewords....it just became boring.
That was perfect. This post basically explains the reason why I don't really play that game anymore.
The over powered expansion content seems to be something blizz does with these games, I recall the same thing with burning crusade and I expect it with WotLK. Granted blizz north was a different studio but the statement holds.
This shouldn't be a problem as long as blizz resists the urge to make a Pwn all monsters runeword/enchant.
At least this it isn't the expansion it should release tough and balanced, The siege beast fight looks like it'll be tough in the proper game....providing that stays.
A lot of what you say is about things that we don't know the details of. Some of the other things I just disagree with. Also you seem to contradict yourself by saying you want darker environments but you also want more vivid colors.
On July 01 2008 02:53 thoraxe wrote: The game is due this September you know.
how can you eat skeletons down to the bone?
Sauc- I mean source please.
I lol'd.
Gay
NO U!
Ok but in all seriousness, I want D3 to have serious balance testers for PvP. PvP in those games is so horrible. Maybe balance the skill PvP damage out? I mean D2 has a reduced dmg %, but its a flat rate for everything. Hammerdin > Anything for PvP. Make the % reduction based on the skill in question.
I'd also like to see some sort of reward other than just gold for PvP. I'm not sure on what you could do though, that would prevent people from exploiting it.
Make gold really fucking hard to collect. I just really want to see a game where people have to scrimp and save for the most part, where dying means you actually get put behind a bit. (This would give PvP'ers a reason other than just being a dink to PK.)
Maybe ditch off the loss of exp during death though. Nothing like lagging out for a few seconds... Then dying and losing 10-20 games worth of runs. Coupled with that, I'd like to see reduced exp gain. Make getting to level 99 even harder.
Make more equipment type items. Don't over do it like some MMO's though. Because after all it needs that D3 feel.
Make an extra difficulty. Make Hell difficulty really fucking hard.
As OP stated, I'd also like to see more customization for heroes so you can actually make your guy unique.
The only huge draw back to my suggestions is the fact that D3 would become more of a grind. Ugh I hate the grind... But I think it makes the game fun and more of a challenge.
Find some way to stop people from maphacking. I'm not sure what you can do exactly though. Maybe try to even it out, by making shops sell "rough" maps of each location.
On July 01 2008 02:53 thoraxe wrote: The game is due this September you know.
how can you eat skeletons down to the bone?
Sauc- I mean source please.
I lol'd.
Gay
NO U!
Ok but in all seriousness, I want D3 to have serious balance testers for PvP. PvP in those games is so horrible. Maybe balance the skill PvP damage out? I mean D2 has a reduced dmg %, but its a flat rate for everything. Hammerdin > Anything for PvP. Make the % reduction based on the skill in question.
I'd also like to see some sort of reward other than just gold for PvP. I'm not sure on what you could do though, that would prevent people from exploiting it.
Make gold really fucking hard to collect. I just really want to see a game where people have to scrimp and save for the most part, where dying means you actually get put behind a bit. (This would give PvP'ers a reason other than just being a dink to PK.)
Maybe ditch off the loss of exp during death though. Nothing like lagging out for a few seconds... Then dying and losing 10-20 games worth of runs. Coupled with that, I'd like to see reduced exp gain. Make getting to level 99 even harder.
Make more equipment type items. Don't over do it like some MMO's though. Because after all it needs that D3 feel.
Make an extra difficulty. Make Hell difficulty really fucking hard.
As OP stated, I'd also like to see more customization for heroes so you can actually make your guy unique.
The only huge draw back to my suggestions is the fact that D3 would become more of a grind. Ugh I hate the grind... But I think it makes the game fun and more of a challenge.
Find some way to stop people from maphacking. I'm not sure what you can do exactly though. Maybe try to even it out, by making shops sell "rough" maps of each location.
Overall I just want D3 to be a serious challenge.
ehhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh hammerdin is not very good in competitive PvP. Also being able to buy maps is not a good solution to maphack...having a team that updates the game and actively searches out and gets rid of hacks is the answer. I imagine for awhile D3 will have that before it goes the way of D2
On July 01 2008 04:28 Pangolin wrote: A lot of what you say is about things that we don't know the details of. Some of the other things I just disagree with. Also you seem to contradict yourself by saying you want darker environments but you also want more vivid colors.
You can have a darker environment while still having much more solid and vivid colouration and what is visible to you. e.g A pale gray pillar vs a solid dark stonework, or a much more intense flame effect instead of the slightly pale which doctors one that reminds me of warcraft.
I recall firewalls outside your light radius being bright and lighting up the environment! Which was great when you saw a small army waiting for you.
As for stuff we don't know the details of the would fall under suggestions, you may or may not being doing this blizzard but here's what I think.
Krohm I fully agree about it being more challenging, ever typed /players 8 which sets the game to act as if there are 8 players in single player? That helps =).
I shouldn't think buying maps is too bad of an idea though, It's another gold sink, they'd only be available from people who have been to that location and they'd be incomplete. The only problem though is it looks like with the shift to 3D they will be redundant after one play through.
Diude good RE5 clip, the colours in that a so solid and defined! The textures look great as well. The begging reminds me of Lut Golen which is realy cool.
EPT
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