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Often times while playing The Dark (the Hellfire MOD), I'm overcome with thoughts of modifications for the game I'd love, but which I'm sure are probably impossible. This "wishful thinking" has inspired me to create a 'dream' list, if you will, of the future enhancements I'd love to make to this fantastic game. They are listed below in order of importance:
1.) New graphics for the Barbarian and Bard, specifically showing duel-weapon usage. This would include armor and weapons and all angles. Perhaps include more armor/weapon graphics for all classes instead of the dictated three.
Why? I feel this would not only further define your character in terms of class, but would give you a personalized appearance that would not only separate you from other players, but would be fun to cater to.
2.) Upgrade the pixel resolution to LoD standards. I've seen games, such as Ever Quest, Doom 1 and 2, Hero Quest, Diablo 2 to LoD upgrade not only the resolution, but have the video card make the lines disappear and the graphics smoother.
Why? I guess this isnât exactly that important as the graphics are rather nice now, but in my fantasy it would be nice to see upgraded graphics. Nothing major, just a slight increase.
3.) Instead of displaying the function key text messages such as "I need help," it would be nice hear voices based on proximity, like Diablo 2 does. This would give you a true sense of dungeon depth and your relation to your party members.
Why? As I stated in my list, I feel function key voice proximities would enhance that 'dungeon feeling' for several reasons: because you would feel closer/further to companions, would be able to find each-other based on sound, and would be more realistic then seeing text messages appear, which sometimes are not read in the heat of battle!
4.) An item selling/buying interface which displays the items Griswold is selling in a screen like your inventory, that way you can hover your mouse over the item and see its statistics and the type of weapon it is. Keep the "repair" and "repair all" functions of Diablo 2.
Why? Again, as with #2 on my list, this is not an imperative function, but useful. I feel being able to look at all the items Griswold is selling would save you a little bit of time, not to mention sanity. Repair All or even just a repair button showing your inventory screen would save you the hassle of accidentally repairing items in your inventory you do not want to repair. It would also save you a tremendous amount of time! On that note, I'm sure there are those of you asking, "why not have Cain identify ALL items like he does in Diablo 2?" Well, that is not that important to me, and this is my "wishful thinking."
5.) Increase the level limit to 75 or 100 and add in two levels to each area, thus Catacombs would be 6 levels deep instead of 4, Caves 6 instead of 4, etc. Monster difficulty and treasure levels would increase proportionally to the added levels.
Why? While this may seem a bit monotonous for the players, with #6 on my list, I feel it will be justified because of the challenge of the added quests. The repetition will not only be negated, but the fun factor will increase dramatically. Another reason for this is that while playing The Dark, I'm already level 30 with two of my characters in Normal difficulty. The experience is plentiful and it's still challenging with the items I have. When I do finally go to Nightmare, I'll be level 50 way before I get to hell.
6.) New multi-player quests (added graphics and sounds for the quests if need be). I'd like to see at least 12 new quests, but any amount would be acceptable. Right now, there are only 5: The Butcher, King Leoric, Diablo, The Hive, and The Other Diablo.
Why? With new quests involved in the game, I feel the challenge and excitement of the game would be increased even more so than it is now because of these factors: new areas to explore, new quest rewards, and new challenges.
Thank you for taking the time to examine my "wishful thinking" list. Feel free to add your 'wishes' for Diablo 1 or even to respond to my comments.
"The true value of a human being is determined primarily by the measure and the sense in which he has attained liberation from the self." -Albert Einsetin
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>Why? With new quests involved in the game, I feel the challenge and excitement of the game would be increased even more so than it is now because of these factors: new areas to explore, new quest rewards, and new challenges.
Because I gotta tell ya, I hate the idea of mandatory quests. The worst\best example would be D2 act 3. In Hellfire, the scroll "quest" needed to access the Crypt. Can't enter the Crypt without exposing your eyeballs to the ugly colours, and even uglier looking monsters in the Hive. And by ugly I don't mean challenging or tough. I mean fell down the ugly tree, and hit every branch on the way type of visual appeal.
Though I certainly wouldn't mind seeing a modder trying to ressurrect Tremaine's quest.
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Many of these things make Diablo just what it is. If we were to change the graphics, number of levels, cain and the showing of items for sale, then to me thats exactly like Diablo 2, which is what I try to get away from by playing Diablo 1!=)
Simplicity=Goodness
"The axe? Aye, that's a good weapon, balanced against any foe. Look how it cleaves the air, and then, imagine a nice fat demon head in its path. Keep in mind, however, that it is slow to swing - but talk about dealing a heavy blow!"
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Would you mind answering-who is Tremaine-or Tremayne? I have seen his name,but he doesn't appear to be in Diablo or Hellfire
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Tremaine is a priest who apparently existed in Tristram at some stage in development of the game. He still has at least sound files on the Diablo CD (Lemming has extracted these and posted the text somewhere), but obviously he never really made it into the release version of the game. There are a lot of graphics and soundbites on the Diablo CD that didn't end up in the game for one reason or another. I would say that in general the material that got used was better than that which didn't, but modmakers love that unused material to give their mods a different feel.
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Interesting list, but I hope you aren't expecting anyone to say "Wait a minute, we can do this!". Of course virtually anything is possible, but the amount of effort needed to implement any of these thing is tremendous (a few of them more tremendous than others) and none of them really add much to the 'meat and bones' of the game.
Item 4 would be on my nightmare list instead of my dream list though. IMHO the shopping interface of D1 is *far superior* to that of D2. In D1 you can approach Gris and know every item he offers as fast as you can read a screen of text. In D2, you have to hover your mouse over each and every item that looks like it has a "good color" to see what kind of item it is. Yuck!
And regarding higher level limits, there is really no point to a sorcerer having levels beyond 40 (some might even say 30) or the other classes beyond 45. I suppose in a mod with different monster difficulty this might not be the case though.
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Interesting. We have such different desires -- here's my wish list, and I think we don't even overlap once!
#1. Please please please release a version of Classic Diablo that can be loaded to hard drive. No more disk spin! It would be nice if this would take care of the time needed to load dungeon levels (including using Town Portals), but even if it didn't, I'd be willing to plunk down my money all over again to buy a copy of Diablo that loads to hard drive (perhaps a Ten Year Anniversary Edition?). You don't have to change a SINGLE aspect of the game -- not monsters, magic, money, graphics, sound, ANYTHING -- just let it load to Hard Drive. (And please don't send loyal fans on an Internet search to find a CD Emulator or Virtual CD program that requires downloading, installing, rebooting, and updating. Simply make it an option when installing the original game.)
#2. Use more game items graphics. When I started playing The Dark ( a Diablo Mod), my jaw nearly fell open when I saw all the fantastic items graphics -- and my jaw literally DID fall open when I found my first Civerb's Cudgel! What a cool graphic! Then there's all the bands and amulets, Stonecleaver (what IS that?!?!), Magestinger, the Emperor's Plate, the Acolyte's Amulet, the Ring of Battle, the Leather of Aut (new graphic), Mindcry (new graphic), plus the new graphics of the standard skullcap, longbow, breastplate, scale mail, . . . . I could go on and on. When you find all these different/new graphics in a mere MOD, Classic Diablo begins feeling . . . . unfinished, or rushed to production. Were all these graphics available in the original? Or were they added with Hellfire? And my question then would be if a mere Mod maker -- not a salaried employee of Blizzard -- can somehow figure out how to make these changes, why can't Blizzard? (Apologies to the Mod makers about use of the word "mere" -- I use it just to emphasis a point. Your work is amazing!)
#3. Patch some more bugs, and address the bug list at the Lurker Lounge. Now I'm not saying FIX every bug mentioned at the LL; just MENTION that you (Blizzard) looked into it and can/cannot do it. It seems a shame that the most loyal fan-base for Diablo has pretty much been ignored by Blizzard for every single Diablo "patch" that comes out. It's hard to endure nine patch releases when not ONE addresses certain bugs, some of which -- again -- Mod-makers have fixed in their games! Argh! If the Mod-makers can do it, why can't Blizzard?
#4. Add some new bosses. Let's see Lord of the Pit and Webwidow and Fleshdancer in the regular game. How difficult is this to do when the Mod-makers have ALREADY DONE IT?
Now nearly all of the above all seem possible: again I point out, the Mod-Makers have already done most of them. My next wish will probably be impossible but here goes . . . .
#5. Notice how the numbers of Diablo players has dropped to nearly nothing? (Log on to Diablo and type in /users. Probably less than 1000 players online in Diablo. I can remember 30K online in Diablo alone.) One of the reasons players log onto Multiplayer is to do just that -- play with other players (multi). But the cheating, hacking, and pking is so rampant now that creating a game and actually expecting public players to show up who wish to play the game the way it was initially designed in a co-op atmosphere . . . well, that's just an exercise in futility and shows how naive you are. Let's face it -- Diablo is extremely Multiplayer UNFRIENDLY _if_ you actually desire to play a co-op, standard, public game.
When playing co-op, the players seek to kill the monsters in the game, and NOT each other. Yet the way Blizzard has the game presently presented, an unfriendly player can WITH ONE CLICK go "player hostile" and quickly "ruin" the game for the other players present. Not only that, there is NO WAY you as a co-op player can prevent this from happening. So, technically, Blizzard FORCES you to play with potential Pkers every game you player; Blizzard gives you NO OTHER RECOURSE in multiplayer public games.
I know that Everquest has No-PK realms. Can Blizzard do this also? Disable the Player Attack mode there? Yes, it wouldn't be a total fix (friendly fire would still be anything but) but this would at least bring back SOME players to the multiplayer game. Would this mean increased revenues for Blizzard or no? Wouldn't this be a win-win scenario?
Of course, along with that Blizzard would have to introduce some sort of "hack check" or "cheat check" which would go over the parameters of each players' spells and items -- looking out for the infamous "Dreamflange ring" and "Demonspike hat" and Godmode and TownKill spells. Those players with those things would be denied entrance to the Realm.
I have no idea if that is possible, but this is just a 'wish'.
Anyone else see the irony in that wanting to play a public co-op game using standard rules/items/spells without threat of Pk is the most impossible wish of all?
Eh.
Still love the game. Just don't play public games anymore.
Attika
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>#1. Please please please release a version of Classic Diablo that can be loaded to hard drive. No more disk spin!
>Simply make it an option when installing the original game.)
Hell yeah! I'd even add to that making sure it will work in future OS's, or somehow transferring it into a format that can work on all platforms without too much hiccups. I certainly wouldn't mind doing a quick Laz run on a future Palm Pilot while I'm waiting in line somewhere.
>#3. Patch some more bugs, and address the bug list at the Lurker Lounge. Now I'm not saying FIX every bug mentioned at the LL; just MENTION that you (Blizzard) looked into it and can/cannot do it.
I know what you're saying. I wouldn't mind if 1.10 comes out for D1 that addresses the block loss bug. However Bliz fixes lately hasn't given me much confidence.
At this point I'd rather bliz not touch anything, since their fixes can often be worse than the problem. It wasn't until 1.09 came out that I realized just how crappy 1.08 handled the walking path. Some bugs are just not worth the bliz type of fix imo.
>Diablo is extremely Multiplayer UNFRIENDLY _if_ you actually desire to play a co-op, standard, public game.
>Anyone else see the irony in that wanting to play a public co-op game using standard rules/items/spells without threat of Pk is the most impossible wish of all?
I respectfully disagree. The same could be said with a chat program, or a public message board. I don't believe it's limited to Diablo or even B.net. I think it's more to do with the kinds of people in the community. Or as one saying goes: "The problem with online communities is there's people in it".
For some reason anything that gives the feeling of anonymity (the net, b.net, a magic ring that turns you invisible etc) has the potential bring out and amplify some of the jerk tendencies in all of us. I don't think Bliz has a patch to fix that.
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Tremaine is a priest who apparently existed in Tristram at some stage in development of the game. He still has at least sound files on the Diablo CD (Lemming has extracted these and posted the text somewhere)...
Linkage
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RE: Do you expect this to be put into a patch in the future?
It's just a wish list of fanciful ideas I had while daydreaming of The Dark. I absolutely have zero expectations to see any of my ideas implemented in any patch or MOD in the perceivable future.
RE: I love the way Griswold sells items and hate the D2 interface...
I like the strength of your convictions in regards to how the item interface works. While I disagree, I do see your point of view, and there are certain elements that make it seem more personal. When I posted my wishful list, I knew there would be those that disagreed and agreed with my ideas and I feel fine about that because it's just a "fantasy" of mine that I enjoyed sharing.
I like some of the ideas listed above about the No-CD spin/load from the HD. As for the "fix all bugs" bit... all I can say is not in our lifetimes ;) . Any other "wishes" you lurkers have always had for D1?
"The true value of a human being is determined primarily by the measure and the sense in which he has attained liberation from the self." -Albert Einsetin
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>Any other "wishes" you lurkers have always had for D1?
I always wished Hellfire and it's mods would be playable over B.net.
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06-06-2003, 05:20 AM
(This post was last modified: 06-06-2003, 05:21 AM by the Langolier.)
2.) Upgrade the pixel resolution to LoD standards. I've seen games, such as Ever Quest, Doom 1 and 2, Hero Quest, Diablo 2 to LoD upgrade not only the resolution, but have the video card make the lines disappear and the graphics smoother.
I actually love the Diablo graphics. Just considering the fact that they still look sharp based on today's standards, they were amazing when the game first came out. They also really add to the gothic feel of the game.
4.) An item selling/buying interface which displays the items Griswold is selling in a screen like your inventory, that way you can hover your mouse over the item and see its statistics and the type of weapon it is. Keep the "repair" and "repair all" functions of Diablo 2.
That would be quite a task. As Nystul said, I like it how it is much better than diablo 2. Not only can you read text must faster, but you also get a feel for different base items (dmg range, AC range, etc.) which I don't get get in diablo 2 (except for, sword, sword that does more damage, bow, cool looking armor, etc.) Also, if you just go to griswold and press enter on "Repair Item" and hold it, after a slight pause it will fly through the list and repair everything in a fraction of a second.
5.) Increase the level limit to 75 or 100
Take a look at how much experience your character has. Level 50 is 1.3 billion points. My lvl 40 sorc has but 200 Million or so. Even if the level limit was increased, I doubt many characters would even reach 51, let alone 75+. The only way this would be feasible would be to rework the exp gain. In the end this would result in a proportional scale, except instead of 1-50 it would be 1-75. In this case the game would have to be completely rebalanced considering how many times clvl shows up in character calculations.
Attika: When playing co-op, the players seek to kill the monsters in the game, and NOT each other. Yet the way Blizzard has the game presently presented, an unfriendly player can WITH ONE CLICK go "player hostile" and quickly "ruin" the game for the other players present. Not only that, there is NO WAY you as a co-op player can prevent this from happening. So, technically, Blizzard FORCES you to play with potential Pkers every game you player; Blizzard gives you NO OTHER RECOURSE in multiplayer public games.
I don't know where this fear of PKers comes from. I actually enjoy people who attempt to pk me. Most of them are so stupid and know nothing about the game it is almost an insult to be attacked by them. Ever have a warrior try to kill you with chain lightning? A sorcerer use gaurdian on you? A rogue try to use a staff of APOC on you? So very entertaining. The last PK attempt was on my sorcerer who joined the game "legit" which turned out to be a level 1 game. Some warrior was gone for 20 minutes obviously use a trainer. When he was finally done, he came down my tp full clad in GPoW and a king's sword of haste (most likely). Who would have thought a lvl 1 warrior with max strength with 200% to hit could only do 20 damage or so and have a bit more than a hard time hitting a clvl 40 tank mage? Soon he decided to run away, so I let loose a fireball or two to dent his 700 hp. Fireball number one hits: warrior goes into hit recovery. Needless to say he was dead very quickly. After he dies, he calls *me* the hacker, and leaves the game. If you find your foe is too powerful or uses God mode, simply run down to the next level after setting up a TP block. Then you even get to taunt them about how they can't kill you!
I know that Everquest has No-PK realms. Can Blizzard do this also? Disable the Player Attack mode there? Yes, it wouldn't be a total fix (friendly fire would still be anything but) but this would at least bring back SOME players to the multiplayer game. Would this mean increased revenues for Blizzard or no? Wouldn't this be a win-win scenario?
Hmm, this sounds like a "screw-the-warrior" realm. The only class who really needs the player attack option is the warrior because he relies on a melee weapon. Rogues have arrows and spells, and sorcerers have their magic as well. It would actually make it MORE convenient for PK's to target warriors because they would have really no way to fight back. It would work if any friendly damage was removed, but many people would be against this because it would lead to very sloppy co-op play. I understand where the desire is coming from. For now though, a quick TP block is a fun and effective way to deter PKers.
As for what I would like to fixed is just major bugs such as the MS bug and the duping bug. Also, I would like to see arrows become more effective. You are lucky to hit anything that is moving. The sole reason I don't play a bow rogue is because of this. Think about enemies like balrogs, drakes or even fallen ones. It can be hard to hit a simple zombie in the church with a bow. Sure, you can line up your shots in straigh paths, but c'mon!
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I don't know where this fear of PKers comes from. I actually enjoy people who attempt to pk me. Most of them are so stupid and know nothing about the game it is almost an insult to be attacked by them. Ever have a warrior try to kill you with chain lightning? A sorcerer use gaurdian on you? A rogue try to use a staff of APOC on you? So very entertaining.
Fear? I didn't see any fear in Attika post. I saw irritation caused by grief players. No matter how many inept PKs there are, successful griefers are numerous enough to have affected virtually everyone who's ventured into public games. And that's a damn shame.
But it's not surprising. Widespread availability of third-party programs combined with newbie-armories of duplicated "uber" items created literally thousands of people capable of ruining a good afternoon. And why? Boredom, most likely. Cheating's about as interactive and stimulating as watching grass grow. (Additional factors: anonymnity, nothing-to-lose, and a severe lack of multiplayer ethics.)
Recall the question, "Where does a 600-lb. gorilla sleep?" Anywhere it wants. The gorilla doesn't know it should have any additional reasons; it just knows that nothing stops it. Same deal with cheating griefers, and I think most of us understand this. It's not about fear. It's about being pissed off that people do this sort of thing.
Even so, I think there's little that can be done about it. Filtering your co-op partners is still the *best* way to ensure a pleasurable game. Frankly, I think it'll always be that way. People will find ways to "grief" no matter what barriers are in place. There's just no way to make everyone behave.
Oh, maybe I sound like a pessimist, but one sunny thought keeps me content: As sure as nothing will stop the idiots, nothing will stop the persecution of idiots.
On that happy note, I'm off to bed.
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Hi,
5.) Increase the level limit to 75 or 100 and add in two levels to each area, thus Catacombs would be 6 levels deep instead of 4, Caves 6 instead of 4, etc. Monster difficulty and treasure levels would increase proportionally to the added levels.
One big fix would be to add 25 levels to the nightmare monsters and 50 levels to the hell monsters. As it is, after facing level 25ish monsters in normal hell, you go to level 15ish monsters in nightmare church. And the same in going from nightmare hell (~40) to hell church (~30).
Actually, if Buzzard had come up with a set of formulas for adding difficulty levels rather than hard wired values, the game could be truly open ended. Imagine a dialog box asking for "difficulty level" where you could type in "5" and be facing monsters 125 levels higher than in level 1 (normal) with all stats, drops, etc. adjusted accordingly.
But that too is glue :)
--Pete
How big was the aquarium in Noah's ark?
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Hello MEAT,
Only 6 points? ;)
My wishlist for The Dark is several pages long, so I won't bother you with it. Instead, I'll give a list of modifications we did up to now, for the new 5.0 version.
Changes in The Dark, so far:
Monsters have full HP in Single Player mode
Boss packs have 12 monsters instead of 8
Close standing monsters will alert each other when activated (that also goes for all 30 of Leoric's minions)
All barrels, sarcophages, urns and pods may contain monsters, and not only skeletons or monsters that already appear on a level
Golems and Charmed monsters will no longer attack each other, or Stone Cursed creatures
Charmed monsters will no longer attack characters
All types of Hiddens and all shooting monsters will attack Golems and Charmed monsters on sight
The Defiler has a pack of tough Flesh Things
Stalking Death will only flee when halfway damaged
Scavengers heal faster
Adjusted Monster Autohit to make high AC (350+) more valuable for high level characters
Slightly lower ToHit for spells
Charged Bolt can now be cast at a remote spot
Knockback for Flamewave, Doomserpents and Arcane Star Spells
Corrected Flash damage (for both characters and monsters), matching display in Spellbook now
Seeing spell has a longer fixed duration and ending sound
Murphy Shrine is no longer shared
Improved Oils (better Tohit, better damage, higher durability, full repair, etc.)
Items will not break when current durability is depleted, but have their maximum durability decreased
When maximum durability is lowered below 1, items are destroyed
Maximum character statistics have been changed
All unique items can now be found
High end base items will no longer drop in Normal mode
And lots of small things ...
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Hail Zenda,
That list looks both incredible and exciting! I didn't even know you and Zamal were still working on The Dark. That makes me very, very happy :D ! I probably should post this on the dark forums but I might as well ask here: Any ETA for 5.0?
"The true value of a human being is determined primarily by the measure and the sense in which he has attained liberation from the self." -Albert Einsetin
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What I constantly wish is that Adria the Witch and Wirtless the Peg-Legged Boy were in town on the main drag instead of remote wilderness area...
Stand for something or you'll fall for anything.
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Quote: What I constantly wish is that Adria the Witch and Wirtless the Peg-Legged Boy were in town on the main drag instead of remote wilderness area...
Moving townies around is easily done. I made little dat not so long ago that does just that. Could put it up for download easy enough.
One could, of course, argue the legitimacy of such a thing, but it's only a cosmetic change.
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LemmingofGlory,Jun 30 2003, 05:12 PM Wrote:One could, of course, argue the legitimacy of such a thing, but it's only a cosmetic change. ... since moving Wirt closer to the players' starting point would make Wirt runs less time-consuming. Fortunately, the odds for good Holy/Tigers and Godly/Whales are tiny. Strange/Hastes and Emerald/Ages would be much more common though.
That's why I don't think it would only be a cosmetic change.
OK, another reason is that Wirt's a rude brat and the town folk probably wouldn't like him in their midst. The latter is probably also true for Adria thanks to the misconceptions about juju ladies.
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I'd considered the "shopping" angle, but I considered it negligible. Anyone willing to bore themself senseless shopping will still be able to do that. I didn't "optimize" the locations for shoppers. Wirt's not standing near game entry point waiting for you to deposit your 50 gold, pull his lever, and watch the jackpot roll by. Wirt and Gillian simply swapped places. That's still a good bit of walking.
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