10-25-2006, 01:08 AM
Quote:TQ has some quality dilution. The point is not about getting phat l00tz in every encounter producing boredom by riches, but it's also equally ridicilous to have players slog through a virtual pauper's existence.
Yup. TQ dropped an enormous number and variety of items, but almost without exception (the very occasional set item) I found the contents of majestic chest after magestic chest to be useless for anything except selling, and even that became pointless after a while given how easy it was to accumulate gold. You could buy better, though hardly overwheleming, items (along the lines of good blue items in DII) with a few trips to a merchant. For instance, as an archer, I never found a single bow drop the whole time I played the game (up to nearly the end of epic) that I was remotely tempted to use. I simply upgraded my bow at merchants as they sold better base types. Also (with perhaps a slight degree of exaggeration, I could hardly tell any difference in the quality of the drops at clvl 1 and 15, or between clvl 30 and 45, which seems very strange.
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I am saying D2 could have benefitted greatly with more ruthless editing, especially during Act 3.
I agree entirely. One big advantage of randomized environments is that they can be much more condensed and nonlinear than the huge linear expanses typically required for pre-generated maps , which enhances the game-play . DI was a prime example. Maybe in part because of their eagerness to include outdoor areas, Bliz lost quite a bit of that in DII.
The Act III jungles are the worst, but did Act 1 really need every one of those fields, Act II all those deserts (would anyone miss the Roscky Wastes), or Act IV those plateaus (I doubt that 95% of the b.net population even knows that the Arreat Plateau exists, never mind the Pit of Acheron, except perhaps as a waypoint they might get from someone else to complete the set)? And much as I like the glacial trial and ancients way, are they both essential, not to mention the separate jail and catacomb levels in Act I?
A good deal of concentration of the areas would definitely have helped DII quite a bit.