10-20-2006, 03:38 AM
Quote:Here you simply have to play TQ to understand the broken nature of the AI involved in the limited range of monsters from their spawn points. It is as if they're tied to a piece of stretched elastic.
Once they reach that limit they turn around and start to run back. You can then attack them, and move forward. The monsters turn around and run back toward you (unlike what happens in Guild Wars, where as far as I remember from my time playing it, the monsters scuttle away completely, and regenerate health fairly fast), you move back, they run away, you attack them, you move forward, they turn around, you move back, they run away, you attack them...It's truly silly. Now you can say don't use it then, but that kind of self-imposed limitation on admissible tactics is also really silly IMO, unless you are aiming for some sort of variant play.
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Certainly, DII has it's cheesy points too --- for example, the way in which a bowazon can trap meph across this moat and kill him from range with zero risk (though once you have a high lvl valk, it can tank meph just as easily; the near indestructibility of the valk in 1.10/1.11 is also a bit cheesy IMO) --- but I really think the combat, the monster variety and AI, the bosses, the item system, and the character classes are all just better done and more polished, for all their lack of graphical perfection, in DII than in TQ.
I've been lurking here for a while, and I had to jump in on this topic. I agree with your assessment of the combat AI in TQ. Also, I pretty much agree that while TQ is a good game, it isn't D2. The loot system is to blame, too. There doesn't seem to be a proper reward system in TQ. I've found more unique items off of random monsters than in boss or difficult battles. IMHO, the sense of strategy and reward isn't quite as good as D2's.