How to fix Diablo II
#1
A horribly pompous title, but that's not why I'm writing :P These thought arose while I was doing a few Mephisto runs - one of the many mindless things in Diablo which I'm about to comment on. I was thinking about how I'd like to get that Lightsabre for my new paladin, or to finally get to Hell with my sorceress, or how I might level up my amazon in Cows later on. Then it struck me:

Diablo II is broken.

Click the "join" button in Hell difficulty today, and the vast majority of games will have some form of the word "cow" in their name. Now, why is this? The answer is simple - Cow games are easy, rewarding, and to some extent enjoyable (although hopefully the same could be said of the rest of the game). Easy, and rewarding. My amazon uses Lightning Fury; if you've ever seen this skill in action in a cow game, you'll see how devestating it can be. However, she found the Chaos Sanctuary nearly impossible; it was only with the help of a friend that I was able to pass this area of the game. And that's why cows are so popular; No immunities, stupid, slow enemies, and worst of all, an easy ride even for low level characters.

Diablo II is primarily about quests, and items.

It is because characters are so centred around items today that rushing is so popular; who wants to fight through Nightmare difficulty with a Windforce in their stash? Yet, rushing circumvents the other most important part of the game - and, surely, without content Diablo would have been nothing. As it is, Blizzard could have shipped with nothing but Act 5 and the Cow level. And this is the problem - the majority of battle.net players have never been inside the false tombs in Act 2, simply because there is no incentive to go there.

"My Constricting Ring for your Windforce" is no better than "My Doom Grip for your Carrion Song", regardless of the legitimacy of the uniques.

As the system stands, the majority of items which one might want to use are uniques. This is the fault of LoD; people complained that D2C uniques were too weak, so strong ones were brought in with the expansion. The problem is, new measures were brought in to counter this; Act 5 monsters had more HP, immunities were introduced, resistance penalties were increased, etc, etc. In this respect the cow level is only part of the problem - nobody wants to fight in the Chaos Sanctuary when they can get more for less elsewhere, but without uber items, fighting in Hell CS is extremely difficult. I'm sure this is not what Blizzard originally envisioned when they created Diablo; yet, as it stands, whole builds are based upon these uniques. Ever played with a Burizon?

Variety is the spice of life.

This, in my mind, is one of the main problems with the game right now. I shouldn't need high quality items to be able to play my barbarian in the harder areas of the game. Yes, one hopes that by now I might have a high damage sword, etc. But everyone marvels at how enjoyable it is scrounging for items when playing untwinked, or just starting HC, or whatever. Items make up an incredible portion of the game as it stands, yet almost everybody wants/uses the same - a sorry state of affairs, in my opinion. What the game really needs to revitalise it is the reintroduction of rares and the massive "nerfing" of uniques back to their useful-in-the-right-circumstances levels. Uniques should not be the be all and end all of items, they should be an interesting diversion.

Uniques are not unique.

The best model for item production is that of rares and magics; yet these come along so rarely that few are of true value, relative to unique items. How could this be combatted? I think that a modification to the item dropping system could be easily made - only normal items can be found in Normal, only exceptional in Nightmare, and only elite in Hell. Crafting was a much-vaunted addition to the expansion, but crafted items remain a niche market, despite their great potential both for rewards and enjoyment. People's best items should be truly unique; If one is luckily enough to find, for example, a dual-leech circlet, it should be the only dual-leech circlet exactly like that on battle.net.

Items should follow the player, not the other way around (Boy, if I carried on like this I could make my own 95 theses - although perhaps a game called Diablo isn't the best to compare to religion).

Each character's item set should follow him through the game; your equipment shouldn't be what you've found from countless Mephisto runs, but what you've scrounged from boss drops, shop vendors, and lucky finds from normal monsters. It should be beneficial to stay in an area appropriate to your level; for only here would you stand a chance of finding items that your character needs or wants. This brings me around (conveniently ;) ) to the next area I'd like to talk about - questing. Why do people rush in the first place?

Level caps for difficulties are needed.

This is a definite in my opinion. However, with other changes it need not affect the player at all; if the game were balanced correctly, it would not matter. Nobody wants to stay in Act 1 Hell once they get there, merely because the rewards in terms of experience are so meagre; if this were not the case, this area would be far more populated. If one could gain, say, 5 levels in Act 1 at level 60 faster than in Act 5, at level 60, then level 60 characters would level in Act 1. This would be the perfect solution to people "not playing the game". Level caps for the Ancients were a good idea; yet it still needs that little bit more.

It should be impossible to skip areas.

Everyone has taken a TP to a WP ahead of their position at some point. If areas were flagged to see if the player had previously visited them, then it would be easy to prevent people from taking a town portal to next week. Or, perhaps, it could be made so players could only advance depending on completed quests. That much is open to discussion, of which I hope there will be at least some in response to this hopelessly long-winded post :P

To summarise, I see two problems with online Diablo today - rushing and the prevalence of uniques, etc. This could easily be fixed with some tweaking :) If you managed to read the whole thing, well done - I'm sorry it had to be quite so long, but I wanted to get this off my chest :D

Cheers,
-Bullit.
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#2
You are definitelly right! ;)
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#3
Well. I don't say I don't understand what you're saying. I just can't see the point.

Diablo2 is a game. It was built so that people have fun with it. Any constraints imposed on them would reduce the fun factor. (Mind you, I DID suggest a few years ago that one should be unable to take a TP from a map location they had not yet visited, since this would give a solution to all the no-rush! cries out there, but it does not mean I agree with myself :P).

Quote:Click the "join" button in Hell difficulty today, and the vast majority of games will have some form of the word "cow" in their name.
Well, I play Europe. The common word in game titles now is "Baal", the terms "Enigma" "Teleport" and "BO" added to it as appropriate. And while it's not so easy as the cow games used to be, it certainly is tedious. However, how would you solve this?

Higher level monsters should give you more exp and have better drops. Were this not so, everyone would be killing the easier monsters. It just happens to be, that the Baal runs contain a large number of very high level monsters, so people do it. But I still don't see the problem.

Quote:Uniques are not unique.
No kidding? Well, at least in 1.10 uniques are not always the most powerful items, however they are the cheap, reliable solutions. The cream are the runewords (I'd sell my soul for an Engima, for example, whereas I failed to buy a Gladiators for 5 PGems yesterday), they are THE best armors and weapons the game has to offer, but they are rather hard to come by (it's Ladder we're talking here). Some high-end rares have a chance of outperforming even runewords (see Electricblue's were guide for examples), but they are so insanely rare that they should not even be considered. And there come the uniqes.

The best change in 1.10, at least for me, is the increased frequency and better quality of drops. And even though I am struggling with the no-enigma problem, I am actually rather glad that runes are so rare. See, what we have here is that runes became the currency (again, talking about ladder here), and you can buy the top-notch items with them. My IST would buy me ANY unique or SET in the game (with the exception of SOJ, TYRAEL or AZURE), and I am rather glad of it. You can "fall back" to using grandfather if you (like me) can't afford BotD, Doom or Beast. And yes, the game is not "unique", but the economy works. Sort of. So again, I don't see the problem.

There is a priblem, however. And it does relate to 'runs'. This problem is the lack of long-lasting games: most games last only 5 minutes these days, and if you want to have fun, you'll have to adapt to this. There are solutions to this issue as well, by the way:
  • Join a run, and do your work while the others do their runs. You quit with them, join the next game, and continue where you left off -- or at the last wp.
    <>
  • Try the AB games. I myself never did; but they have a good reputation.
    <>
  • Play with friends. When we "mf" with my friends, it's always the three of us (usually with 4+ characters) doing private Hell clears of 4 act bosses and Mausoleum, Pit, you name it. It's a lot less tedious, thus more fun, and the grabbing is less intense as well.<>
    [st]
    Ok, but it would be pretty much pointless to have wasted half an hour replying if all I said was that "your problems are no problems", so here, some solutions to your issues as well.
    Lightsabre
    While I was attempting to get a Mavina's Diadem yesterday, I met a person who needed perfect gems (charm rerollers own). Since I have a gem mule, we set up a private game, and I traded a characterfull of gems. For that, among other things, I got a Lightsabre, Duriels, Tal's mask/belt, 67% Kira, Jade talon, Barctuc's and some other tasty items. It's easy and convenient, and you can get gems easily:
    Avoiding rushes
    I also have a Lightning Fury amazon. They were claimed to be less powerful these days, so I was going to give one a try. She is awesome, and is doing cows like there's no tomorrow. While the drops and the exp has been nerfed, it is a great place to find white/gray items and, yes, PGems as well as jewels and charms.
    The key is, that you play in Baal games. I can clear the cow level during one baal game if I don't stop to look at the loot. This is essential since I can solo-8 the cow level, and the drops are better. Then after everyone left, I walk around the dead meat, collect the items I need (or want to sell for gold), fetch another leg, and join another Baal game. To ensure one's privacy it is advised to trap the Red, it is certainly a nasty thing to do and no respectable D2 player would resort to this (ahem).

    I hope that helped.
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#4
That this thread was originally posted over a year ago? Prior to 1.10 rolling out with Ruststorm® and the new *cough anti-rush measures? Chances are that our esteemed poster no longer has the same complaints that prompted the original thread. :P
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#5
Heh, if I was checking the date on all the posts, I would have time to write my thesis :P

Besides, LoWang said he agrees. Maybe I just replied to the wrong post? :P
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#6
There are still a few really boring areas in the game, like the act 2 deserts and the sewers that go on and on and on, so these people still have a point.

Edit: Those are the only areas I find boring.
I may be dead, but I'm not old (source: see lavcat)

The gloves come off, I'm playing hardball. It's fourth and 15 and you're looking at a full-court press. (Frank Drebin in The Naked Gun)

Some people in forums do the next best thing to listening to themselves talk, writing and reading what they write (source, my brother)
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#7
Caaroid,May 25 2004, 01:31 PM Wrote:Heh, if I was checking the date on all the posts, I would have time to write my thesis :P

Besides, LoWang said he agrees. Maybe I just replied to the wrong post? :P
OMG, I didn't realize it's that old :lol: But anyway I like to dig in really old posts and forums and suddendly (not expected by anyone:) take them back to top again :D
But I think it's still actual...
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#8
I beg to differ, huge majority of hell difficulty areas are crammed with monsters (barring A3, though). My 1st 1.10 char, an ironbarb, found a BulKathos ring as he was looking for the Halls of Dead dungeon.

Rust Storm is still suspect in my book, as it had not killed any of the items in my 1.09 chars, who are all sporting 1+ duped uniques/runes each.

I do not believe the mechanics of D2 is utterly broken, merely the ways that players are taking advantage of the flaws.
-- Ryan
Between GW2, AirMech, Firefall and Torchlight 2, who has time for gaming? Smile
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#9
I haven't actually been in hell yet, so I don't know how the deserts and sewers are there. It sounded like I thought there are more boring areas, but there aren't. I'll just go back and edit it. Otherwise I have no comments. 1.10 still does a great job of making more possible characters.
I may be dead, but I'm not old (source: see lavcat)

The gloves come off, I'm playing hardball. It's fourth and 15 and you're looking at a full-court press. (Frank Drebin in The Naked Gun)

Some people in forums do the next best thing to listening to themselves talk, writing and reading what they write (source, my brother)
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#10
People should have the choice of whether or not they want to zip to the end of the game, or play it out.

There are two ways of playing Diablo II:

1. Rushing your character, and level up in Baal runs and cows. That's pretty much it. They turn these characters into PvP or MFers, and do only the quests with swell rewards.

2. Complete the game, cover to cover, with no help from lvl 90 characters, and getting as much fullfillment out of the game as possible.


I think people should have a choice in what they want to do. I usually try and get rushes for my Magic Finders/PvPers, but if I am testing out a build for fun, (majority of my characters), I play the game all the way through, in a game with level restrictions.


I do not think however, that Blizzard should make rushing impossible. If people think the heart of the game is cowing/baaling, then so be it. As long as they are enjoying themselves, I don't think Blizzard should interfere. People who want to play the game all the way, still have the option to do so no matter what. I do not see why you would want to mess up everybody elses' gaming experience.
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#11
ryan4nayr,May 25 2004, 05:01 PM Wrote:my 1.09 chars, who are all sporting 1+ duped uniques/runes each.
From the FAQ:
Quote:If you use cheats in multiplayer games, you are not welcome at the Lurker Lounge, and its administrators and posters would appreciate it if you respected our opinion and moved to another website with less stringent attitudes about cheaters.
Why can't we all just get along

--Pete
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#12
Quote:Posted on May 26 2004, 04:31 AM
QUOTE (ryan4nayr @ May 25 2004, 05:01 PM)
my 1.09 chars, who are all sporting 1+ duped uniques/runes each.

From the FAQ:
QUOTE
If you use cheats in multiplayer games, you are not welcome at the Lurker Lounge, and its administrators and posters would appreciate it if you respected our opinion and moved to another website with less stringent attitudes about cheaters.

Maybe he only has them to... to... well, to test the effectiveness of Rust Storm, yeah, that's it!
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