I don't know about you lot, but I'd like to see a wide range of effects an item has on the character wearing it, barring visuals because that's obvious, and barring effects already present in Diablo II. Here are a few things I thought of: Weight: In the item description this would display as -__% moverment speed and -__% attack speed. Armours, helmets, and weapons would probably have both but for example boots and belts would only have the former, because they dont hinder the ability to swing your weapon. On this note I'd like to mention that if the movement speed went below a certain level the character could walk instead of slowly running. Defense: In Diablo II defense meant the chance you had to be hit and you had no idea how much damage you'd take if you were hit (be polite if this is BS). Defense stats from items would add points to your overall defense (and not defense rating) which would be subtracted from the enemy's total attack damage points. This would display as Defense. Dinamic inventory: Every item would have a certain number of 'pockets' ranging from 0 to about 20. These numbers would convert to the number of small cells added to your inventory, which is divided into these small cells like in all RPG games. Belts and torso armours would generally have more of these 'pockets'. The feature would display as Space. These are the ones I thought of. They're not necessarily genuine, but anyway. I think these would add more diversity to the abundance of items in the game, and would provide new aspects for deciding what to wear in certain situations and character types. Feel free to add your ideas.
Weight? Definitely not. Stamina was a terrible mistake in Diablo2 that only slowed the game down, especially when travelling, so it would be completely ignorant for them to add a brand new feature to slow you down. As for attack, it would have to only be affected by the weapon. Otherwise things start to get unbalanced. I'm not too crazy about the Defence idea. Diablo's meant to be a hard-hitting game and it's not really designed for you to sit there and take the brunt of the damage, but as long as Defence doesn't dampen the attacks too much, still making hits fairly significant, then I guess it could be alright. However, not dampening the attacks too much could lead the Defence being a useless attribute. Inventory? Diablo kinda already has a system like this, but how would yours work? Would low level characters have next to no Space, while advanced characters would basically be carrying a storage hanger? The level of space would have to remain fairly consistent throughout because the number of items that drop and equipment you need to carry don't really change throughout the course of the game. The only thing that would really need it would be things like potions in belts, just like in Diablo2, as you need more potions for harder fights, but that's been removed in Diablo3. Defence and Space could work, but definitely not Weight.
i agree weight was bad. the idea i thought of that was new is stacking. being able to put similar items on top of each other, such as keys were in the second game. it was a good idea, and i don't think it'd be too difficult xD
Also the idea of wheight was covered in another fashion in D2 with strength and dex requirements. Personally I think a hydrid of damage reduction (your suggestion) and miss chance (what was in D2) would be best for defense, I really hate systems that are all one or the other because different flavors of characters can be made from the different systems. For example the big Barb just sitting there taking punishment to his armor and minor amounts to himself while some Assasain like char is dogding every other attack. Something I would like to see changed with items would be more player control over the ability to aquire certain types of items and/or their abilities because in D2 it really seemed like you doomed to fate with everything you did as far as aquiring gear.
Yeah, that's definitely true. Most gear had a set requirement for Strength, to symbolise weight, and Dexterity, to symbolise skill, which is more than enough. Reducing movement speed slows the game down and does nothing else. Stamina was a huge mistake in Diablo2. No-one bothered using Stamina Potions, unless they happened to drop when you needed them, so it just made travelling distances harder. Fortunately the Druid was my favourite class, and Werewolves had extraordinary Stamina.
Movement speed is extremely important in tight situations. Remember how dangerous it could be to be frozen by those skinny monsters and have the beasts with frenzy home in on you. LK, I said in my first post that these would be on top of the already existing ones, and defense rating is among them. The % chance to be hit would still be there, separate from the defense mechanic. @Itza: about the inventory idea. A fully equipped character would have about the same inventory as in D2. So if we have 8 types of equipment and the invetory size is 400 cells then the average pockets an item has would be ~50 (contrary to my previous 0 - 20 thing... that was way out of proportion ). The numbers are not important though, it's the concept that items dinamically increase and decrease your inventory size that matters. For example you could have really strong armours decreasing your inventory (or rather not adding as many pockets as other, less valuable armours) for combat characters and you could have stuff with more pockets for casters to place your potions there or for your item characters to be able to hold more stuff.
Movement speed is important in battles, but permanently slowing down your character is just a tax on the game's enjoyment. Imagine in Diablo2, if you wanted to be powerful, i.e have the best gear available to you, you had to walk everywhere. It would just slow the pace of the game down and make it less enjoyable, not to mention limit your character's capabilities. I don't really like the inventory idea. It, too, just seems to slow the game down. Characters of all levels need to carry lots of gear, not just high level characters, as do all classes, not just spellcasters. Basically, with your system, spellcasters, or just classes that don't wear heavy armour, would be able to use all the best gear available to them, as well as have a large inventory, but Barbarians, or classes that do wear heavy armour, will have to compromise one or the other. The only thing I really see it working with is potions, as higher level characters genuinely need more potions than lower level characters, and I don't see it working with actual inventory space at all. What I'd like to see is for characters not to start off with one flimsy weapon and possibly a cheap shield that each sell for a single gold. If Blizzard could make the start of the game start of as being more epic, I feel people would get into it more. Obviously they wouldn't sell for much, but just starting at a higher level, if you catch my drift, will make the start so much more enjoyable than the start of Diablo1 or 2 was.
I dont like you idea of starting a bit more epic Item wise, because shouldnt it feel like the player is making the game and the character epic? I agree with the rest IHG.
Your character shouldn't start off being epic, but he or she should at least have the proper basic equipment, so you're not immediately wearing the very first item that drops, and for your opponents to start off a little stronger, so they're not so pathetic that you down each creature, regardless of whether it's in a camp, like Fallen Ones, or not, like Zombies. Just so the beginning is a bit more captivating and not just a tedious segue to the actual game.
In D2 armours that needed lots of strength generally provided better protection. Of course there were exceptions with -requirement enchanments and light plates, but generally speaking, the 'heavier' the armour was, the more protection it gave. Pockets would work exactly the same way, there would be a general tendency for heavier armours to have more pocket (for example for more potions - melee fighters need more than ranged warriors) but there would be exceptions. Don't think about pockets as things that would prevent your character carrying lots of stuff. The changes would be minor, something like how certain armours had a defense bandwidth in which they got a random number when dropped. The feature would not be there to hinder gameplay, it would be there to create further possibilities and strategies.
Items in Diablo2 had requirements, so if a character was strong enough to hold it, then they'd reap the rewards. If that was the case with pockets as well, then physically weak classes would not be able to hold as much, despite needing to hold just as much. If there is any pattern in the number of pockets to the type of equipment, like heavy armour giving more pockets or light armour giving more, etc, then there's a problem as certain classes are being restricted in an area that should be equal across all classes. Also, with potions, I'd say that melee fighters wouldn't require as many potions as ranged fighters, as melee fighter have the health reserves to cope with it, while the ranged fighters, which don't have as much health, would need to constantly stay on as full health as possible because they're more fragile to begin with. How would this feature create further possibilities and strategies? Just saying that it will doesn't necessarily mean it's true.
I'm not just saying it, I'm supporting it in my posts if you haven't noticed. Are you saying making a choice between carrying lots of stuff with weak armour and carrying fewer stuff with a stronger armour isn't a clear decision a player has to make? Just saying that it will slow down the game doesn't mean it's true.
It's definitely a clear decision, but it doesn't create strategies. It just determines how quickly you have to go back to town or not. Why not, instead of having to acquire all these pockets, just give you an appropriate amount? They can compensate for the quest items you need and the number of items that will drop and give all characters an appropriate sized inventory accordingly. If certain players have to sacrifice either stats or pockets for the other, then they'll either be slower at fighting and unable to take on as many or as powerful creatures as they otherwise would have, or have to return back to town much more frequently than they otherwise would have. Either way, they've been slowed down. The appropriate way to do it would be to have a set number of Bag slots to fill, similar to helm slots, main-hand slots and off-hand slots, which would increase your inventory space independently of your gear, or just to give all players and characters a set amount, like in Diablo2.
