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.
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.