I never really liked D2 (D1 was ok though) because after a couple of hours into the game it got boring. It's all about non-stop hacking and slashing, it gets...repetitive. The 'missions' had no feel to them either, they were there to give the game a sense of structure. For D3 I hope that: - They focus more on story telling. - They add LOADS of missions which contribute to side-quests, and not to advance the game. - Improve the skill / spells mechanic. I don't want to spam one spell throughout the game. - Not a zillion types of stash (look under that rock, inside that sculpture, under the blanket, in that egg etc. etc. what happened to good old chests?). - Loot. Stop dropping that much loot!! I don't need lvl3 boots when I'm halfway through the game. - Less (yes, less) open areas as in D2, I want the D1 claustrophobic feeling back. - No 'square' maps. - Not being able to just run around and evade every single enemy that you wish to evade (this goes together with the less open areas, in D1 you really had to kill every single unit - every kill counted and if you just ran through you would quikly die). I know some of theses 'hopes' have already been answered to. Thank you, Blizzard. What do you want in D3?
Actually I think D2 vanilla had it's flaws. But some of the mods were really good. At the moment I am playing one called "Median XL". And it fixes most of the issues you talk about. I really like that Diablo 2 mod. What I want in Diablo 3 is: - As you say some extended dungeon crawls. So that sense if fear and terror you got in Diablo 1 can be there in Diablo 3. - Bring back the town portal scroll/spell. But Blizz has already said they are doing away with those in Diablo 3. A shame I know. - Real spell graphics. What I mean is in Diablo 2 I thought the spell graphics were a little on the cartoony side. I much prefer the more real styled Diablo 1 spell graphics. And I hope Diablo 3 keeps in the Diablo 1 style for the spell graphics. - A decent stash size. - Spells/abilities that do not suck at the higher difficulties of the game. in vanilla Diablo 2 almost every spell/ability was no ineffective in killing Hell difficulty mosters. I know some mods for Diablo 2 fixed this issue. But I'd like Diablo 3 vanilla to have this issue fixed. - Respeccing skill trees for a cash cost like in WoW. Not the once per difficulty as in D2 patch 1.13 - More balanced loot drops. Like for the most part the game drops are a ton of garbage. With the odd good piece if you're willing to farm a boss for 3 days. I think good loot should take a while to get. I understand we can't give it to the players. But having to farm it for weeks on end is no fun. And have you ever seen a non duped Zod rune in D2 vanilla? I don't think many people have. - Blood spells like were in Diablo 1. The spells that used your life instead of mana to cast. I think they were cool. - More varied character classes. Like the Diablo 1 expansion hellfire tried to do with it's monk etc. Even if they have to look into the D&D world for inspiration. Stuff like a blood spell using monk with no strength or a mind controlling priest where you actually got to use those you mind controlled like in WoW for a time. Or other such crazy idead would be cool. - /players x. I'd like to see that go up to 16 in diablo 3. In diablo 2 it only went up to 8 in vanilla. - Side quests and some non quest dungeon crawls. They'd extend the life of the game and make it fun for those who want to take a break from the main questing. - A D1/D2 styled invertory. But I think Blizz is using the WoW style for D3. Which is a shame. - A non mana using class. Blizz even realised a fighter/barbarian does not use mana to swing a sword. Neither does a bow user (fixed in catclysm there). So for D3 spell users need the mana but non spell users do not. They should have a rage bar or focus/energy bar or something else but not mana. - Adding skill points yourself per level as in D1/D2. I hope the don't have the stats all on items as in WoW. I'll think of more when I can.
- They focus more on story telling. I'm confident that that's in their plans. See their aims with SC2, I don't see a reason why they should abandon that attitude for D3. - They add LOADS of missions [...] Pretty much the same as the previous point, but even more so. In a strategy game with campaigns I think it's harder to pull off side missions well, but Blizzard will tackle it, so I expect D3 to take it even further. - Improve the skill / spells mechanic. [...] Well I sort of agree with you but wasn't the D2 mentality along the lines of "fewer skills at higher levels the better"? I wouldn't expect that to change because higher level skills will obviously be more effective. - Not a zillion types of stash [...] I'm positive they're not going to go back to just boxes but I see why you're saying it. In my opinion if they eliminated empty stashes, as in if you can click it it'll contain something, that would be a fair compromise. - Loot. Stop dropping that much loot!! [...] There has to be bad drop for you to value good drops - Less (yes, less) open areas [...] I don't think you'll get it. One of the reasons for open areas, I'm sure, is for you to make decisions. If you're up against a long corridor full of monsters, that will get repetitive and boring. In the open you have the choice of fleeing, picking off secluded monsters, attacking from an angle to increase AOE efficiency, using an assortment of items/skills, etc. - Not being able to just run around and evade every single enemy [...] Again, you'd take away the power of decisions. Besides, you're already forced to kill the most number of monster albeit in a more subtle way - if you miss a lot of monster, you're missing a lot of experience points, and you'll sense that difference, surely, when you're having increasing amounts of difficulty killing monsters. And I didn't get the idea behind 'square maps' What I'm wondering about is why they changed the potion mechanic to the current crappy one. That is if I didn't misunderstand it and it works so you can only drink them when dropped from a monster. That doesn't make sense from any perspective, I mean they used to be able to make potions and now all of a sudden they can't? And these monsters, they're saying "oh you could defeat me, here is your reward". lolwat edit: ark, the barbarian in D3 has something other than mana already
Another thing I'd want is: - The cryptic shrines from D1. Like the ones that spit out the weird messages at you and you have to try to guess what it did to you. I hope they are in Diablo 3.
I want an interactive merc. I don't care if the merc is significantly weaker in damage compared to me, but if he says random quotes throughout the game like "This place is full of evil, it'd be best if proceed slowly," I'd enjoy having a merc. Also, if I can talk to my merc like an NPC to see what he thinks about the area, or maybe tell a short story about his life.
story telling: i'm going to agree, D2 was really just a slashfest. mission? who do i have to kill? you guys have a problem? i'll kill it for you! side missions: technically D2 also had tons of side-missions, or at least missions that weren't required to advance to the next act. but yeah, side missions are fun. but what kind of rewards would you receive? D2 is really an item-collection game underneath the hacking and slashing, which is why people get addicted... - Improve the skill / spells mechanic. I don't want to spam one spell throughout the game. AGREED. personally, i hope for more diminishing-returns skills- maybe with a "bonus" for maxing it out, so distributing among several skills or maxing out a few would both be valid build choices. - loot: no. more l00t, more w00t. - square maps: that was probably done to make it easier to randomly generate maps. hopefully they'll overcome that limitation, since computers are just a wee bit faster these days. - running through: depends on how well you run. seriously, some areas are impossible to just rush through unless you're a sorc with teleport. even paladin/vigor can't get you past some parts of the game...
All 'maps' (the playing-area) are squared in D2. i.e. when you find the edges of the current playing-area you're in, you would find that you're playing on a 'square' map. It's hard to explain
Y'know the entire reasoning behind a stash is to put valuables in a place no-one would think to look, right? That being said, I was kind of confused with the random chests strewn across the fields in Act I.
well, the map generator is pretty simple. it just places areas next to each other like tiles, and places a random "connection" point between each. squares are the easiest way to do this. with random shapes, there's a chance of accidental overlap or weird bugs.
well i D1, areas weren't connected beside each other. moving to a different "area" meant changing levels entirely. taking the stairs = load a brand new map.
the talking with an interactive merc sounds interesting. They could do it like in albion, where you can just ask your other characters for information on something.
I believe this will be the case in D3. Just read the class backgrounds on Blizzard's D3 website. There is some mystery around the Barbarians after their mountain got blown up. The backgrounds of the monk and wizard class have some nice "pepper" too. The writings from that Abd al-Hazir dude are just interesting. Any ways, talking about story. I may have missed it somewhere, but for me it is still unknown how Diablo, the Lord of Terror, can/could walk the earth again?
