Really wild game change ideas

[Minionman]

Here are some really wild ideas for game changes to Diablo 2.

It's wierd how act 4 is so short. I like act 4 so far and think more terrain and quests would make it more interesting. Areas with names like "Lava fields" with river of flame terrain or "plains of death" which would be like outer steppes/city of the damned. I could see extra dungeons called something like "torture chambers" in the uper hell terrain or "lava halls" in the river of flame terrain. The hellforge would probably be its own area. Extra quests might be things like freeing stuck human souls or getting back some angel's weapon.

One quest could probably be a way to get necromancer type mercenaries. Mercenaries in non-expansion D2 seemed based on the D1 characters, and with barbarians added and lut gholein mercenaries getting auras, All the original D2 characters were mercenaries except necromancers. These adt 4 necromancer mercenaries would probably be ranged, use wands and shields, use low level bone spear or bone spirit to attack, and use curses like amplify damage, lower resist, maybe life tap or iron maiden. The story would probably be that they were warriors who got stuck in hell, and got partially corrupted or just learned their skills to survive. You would get this quest from Izual, and would have to free the mercenaries from a dungeon farther on.

Thunderstorm apparently doesn't get used because it attacks one enemy at a time. Thunderstorm would be more useful if instead of just attacking 1 enemy at a time, each time it fired it divided the screen into areas and hit one enemy in each area. This would work something like if the screen was divided into four squares, and there was 1 enemy in each square, thunderstorm would hit all of them, but if those four enemies were all in the two top squares, thunderstorm would only hit 1 enemy in the upper right square and 1 enemy in the upper left square. There would probably be more squares if this was actually used in the game, and thunderstorm would than be useful against spread out enemies. It's mana cost would be increased, or the duration or damage would be decreased, or some combination to balance it out.

These ideas will probably never get used and would change the game a lot if they were, butI just felt like writing them somewhere.

[Bob the Beholder]

Before the expansion, Act IV was great how it was. It was short, climactic, and hectic, with the strongest monsters in the game, with the most powerful abilities (Doom Knights spectral hit and blocking; the inferno demons, the oblivion knight's curses and bone spells). And the lack of a mercenary added to that (back in the days of mercenaries that you couldn't equip, revive, or take between acts) climactic feel.

But, nowadays, all that's down the tubes anyway. Making it bigger and with more stuff could only help, really.

[Guest]

Thunderstorm apparently doesn't get used because it attacks one enemy at a time.

I've found Thunderstorm to be a staple in any pvp build for a sorc. Orb/Thunderstorm is the most solid combination I can think of against other players.

[Minionman]

Instead of Armegeddon and firestorm, druids could use something like earthquake and seismic wave. Earthquake would be a hurricane/armegeddon type spell centered around the druid, but would send out circular waves from the druid that would cause physical damage to all enemies that they hit. Seismic wave would be like wearbear shockwave except no stun and doing damage for a level 0 spell, doing physical damage, and would make more sense synergized with earthquake. earthquake would be subbed in because it would be more accurate than armegeddon.

Or for an even more wild change, take away some wind and fire skills and add plant/poison skills, such as entangling roots.

[Minionman]

Yea, That is true, in regular you have a short, hard end act, in expansion it's sort of a little side trip before going on to act 5. I figured the mercenaries wouldn't make much of a difference since whenever I played regular D2 the mercenaries would get killed pretty quickly.

[Bob the Beholder]

Yeah, they get killed pretty quickly, but they get killed and you don't. If you're going into a very dangerous situation, and you know about it, then they can help, if only as a decoy.

Back in the day, however, you didn't have that luxury in Act IV.

[lfd]

Back in the day, however, you didn't have that luxury in Act IV.

...and in expansion pre-1.09 it was risky having your (possibly fully equipped) mercenary tag along in act 4, in case he/she died and got permanently eaten by a corpse spitter. :)

[NiteFox]

Y'know what I'd change? I'd change it so that the game recognises the fact that, since you've unsummoned fifteen lit Skel Magi to stop making the next corpse you raise a Mage of the exact same type as the one you've unsommoned.

I hate lightning mages. The damn buzz of the bolts annoys the hell out of me, it sets my teeth on edge and really makes it hard to tell if my pack of minions two screens away is fighting an LEB or not. I prefer fire or poison mages (But I'd take a cold one if none of my preferred choices are biting, so to speak.) but... Dammit, I swear out of every ten Skeleton Magi I raise, six of them are lightning.

So, yes, game, I've unsummoned a menagerie of lightning mages and wasted four full balls worth of mana in raising more and more. I'm telling you something.

[Bob]

One quest could probably be a way to get necromancer type mercenaries. Mercenaries in non-expansion D2 seemed based on the D1 characters, and with barbarians added and lut gholein mercenaries getting auras, All the original D2 characters were mercenaries except necromancers. These adt 4 necromancer mercenaries would probably be ranged, use wands and shields, use low level bone spear or bone spirit to attack, and use curses like amplify damage, lower resist, maybe life tap or iron maiden. The story would probably be that they were warriors who got stuck in hell, and got partially corrupted or just learned their skills to survive. You would get this quest from Izual, and would have to free the mercenaries from a dungeon farther on.

Thief! Criminal! vagabond! robber! pilferer! etc!

That's my idea. Well, almost. My idea was based around a 6th act even further to the east, fighting the two remaining lesser evils as the boss, together. Necros were going to be the mercs. (actually, that's about as far as our ideas are similar, I take back my insults.)

One thing that I would suggest though, is that they have a summon (read golem). You could then have various types (like offensive, defensive & combat on guardsmen) to decide on what golem they had. Clay, blood, or fire. (Iron's out, since it requires an Itamplzplz).

Another feature I'd like to see is an improvement of mercs. (possibly requiring a quest completion to be allowed ot access it)
1) multiple mercenaries, so long as they are of different types. A barb could have a might merc & a cold wolf following him around.
2) full arming of mercs - I want to be allowed to arm them with other cool stuff. Gloves with crushing, or a prismatic ammy of the squid (can that exist?)


-Bob

[Minionman]

"One thing that I would suggest though, is that they have a summon (read golem). You could then have various types (like offensive, defensive & combat on guardsmen) to decide on what golem they had. Clay, blood, or fire. (Iron's out, since it requires an Itamplzplz)."

Golems seem like they would make these mercenaries too powerful. They already have curses which are like the auras from town guards, and adding a damage absorber seems like too much, since golems have more hp than mercenaries. I could see this if the golems were low level and the mercenaries didn't use their curses that much. With golems, the types might be elemental (fire golem, lower resist, bone attack), physical (amplify, clay golem, bone attack), and leeching (blood golem, life tap, bone attack). That way they at least have patterns in the spells.

"1) multiple mercenaries, so long as they are of different types. A barb could have a might merc & a cold wolf following him around."

Another way to do that might be having up to something like 3 mercenaries, but having the extra ones use skill points, such as the first one being money only, the second one being money and 3 skill points, and the third one being money and 7 skill points. That way support charaters might have some way of doing damage by themsevves by helping an army of mercenaries. Actually, having several mercenaries is something I'd hope they do if they make Diablo 3.

What were some of your ideas for this 6th act?

Also, how do you get those boxes around the quotes? Nothing in the typing screen seems like it would work.

[ogot]

Added mercenary abilities? Like Leap Attack when the Barbarians reach Level 40, and Whirlwind when they reach 50, and having a few warcries as well? The Act 3 Merc using skills like Blizzard when they reach level 40, and Frozen Orb when they reach 60 (less damage, I imagine...), even Thunderstorm and Hydra?... Act 1 Merc being able to Strafe and Multishot and casting her own Valk? Act 2 Merc being able to use a shield and a spear at the same time, allowing Smite, Holy Shield, even Charge?

Of course the mercs would be SO much more expensive... Like hiring being more than 50,000... And resurrecting reaching amounts like 300,000...

And how about having a Tower that goes up, instead of down? More Council Members, fighting one at a time at first, then in twos, then threes, all under Meph's view?

Added cube recipes! Like an expensive recipe that can take away etherealness of items, and another one that can give it!

Edit: Added the bit about cube recipes...

[NiteFox]

Also, how do you get those boxes around the quotes?  Nothing in the typing screen seems like it would work.

And for subsiquent quotes, use the standard {quote}Hihihi{/quote} tags. (With [] instead of {})

[Minionman]

And for subsiquent quotes, use the standard {quote}Hihihi{/quote} tags. (With [] instead of {})

That's good to know