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Perhaps it would be a good idea to have a loot generator which can be biased in a certain direction. eg Kill some specific fire like NPC, very high chance to drop flame proccing gear which high heat resist, etc. That way it remains procedural, but loot is vaguely specific to each Boss. You could also add in different descriptors to the item (eg for 'The Butcher', he might drop 'Singed Carvery Bracers, where the adjective carvery associates with this Boss). All of this could be easily extended from Etaew's old ROG script, and database driven (something like MobXLootTrait, where loot 'traits' (ie above) could be associated to mob names similar to how the current named item drop works. When generating RoG, an item is first generated as per usual, then extra traits are added, with a little randomisation, by picking random entries from the database. It still requires a small amount of database work, but with maybe 4 traits per boss it would generate a substantial amount of varied loot for little work.8. Modify the mechanic of loot generation so more loot is created automatically and less or no loot has to be created by hand. I dislike custom loot for the end game mobs. In Diablo II the end game boss had a higher chance to drop rares, 'uniques', and sets, but rarely anything specifically unique to the boss.
Yup, socket wrenches etc handle the job of gear customisation fine anyway.REMOVE CRAFTING.
It also removes a level of player interaction. Removing the CM would make guild-specific vaults far more valuable, as players need to pool their items and talk with one another. That's better for community long term aswell.10. THINK HARD ABOUT REMOVING CONSIGNMENT MERCHANTS, MAYBE HOUSING. The CM can break a game dependent on drops, I should have seen this ahead of time.
I think the problem is not the drop rate itself, but the fact that its very easy to get hold of alot of it at low levels. Players walk around handing it out like candy, so when I was level 10 I already had a few plat from some charitable soul. I have no idea how long that takes a high level character to earn, but for a low level character its game breaking. This wont change regardless of tweaking drop levels.money drop rate
Agreed.Use drills and wrenches to move bonuses from an ugly item to a good looking one.
Set bonuses could be specific to a boss using the above - ie wear all armor from 'The Butcher', gain +50 good looks.Maybe I can come up with something similar to allow players to make set equivalent items that provide an added bonus if the entire 'set' is equipped? Real set items require a crap ton of work for me to create. I'd love to have them, but realistically it's not going to happen.
I don't have a huge problem with this. However, given that you would have roughly half the abilities that you have now, would existing mobs/quests/encounters need to be reworked to compensate for the relative lack of power on the players part? Also, are you going to continue to assign spec points at every level? I'd like to be able to raise some of my minor skills at the odd levels just to keep it from seeming like I just leveled and I got nothing for it.2. Raise level cap to 100 and re-work XP ladder to create a more even feel to leveling. The standard spells and skills will be given to players every other level (Skill level = level / 2) to make it easy for me without needing to edit all spell lists. This also adds a neat requirement for players to get to 100 in normal in order to gain all their skills.
Are you going to implement your own version of the pet interface, or will it stay the same as it has been? This was the change that you spoke of to let pet casters still use their pets and to have hirelings.5. Removal or nerfing of overpowered henchman.
This is a big one. Let's take it in it's individual parts.7. Removal or nerfing of overpowered gear to allow for re-balancing of end game mobs. Also think hard about modifying how combiners can be used or getting rid of them. I like socket drills and wrenches, but combiners are used to max stats and remove randomness. In addition, weapon speeds, cap issues, and other problems with gear have to be solved. An item gained at level 60 should not be useless at level 70. I need to somehow change the item power curve. In Diablo II a new drop might do a little more damage, but that damage might be mitigated by better bonuses on the lower level item.
A simple (but possibly unbalanced) solution would be to make standard mobs have a 10% chance to drop 'magical' items and 0% to drop 'rare' or 'unique'items. Rare mobs could have a 75% chance to drop 'magical' items and a 20% chance to drop 'rare' items with 0% chance to drop 'unique' items. Bosses could 100% to drop 1-3 'magical' items, 75% to drop one rare, and 25% to drop one unique. A potential problem I see with this is boss camping though. Also, low level mobs (say, under level 10) should have a 50% or so chance to drop completely normal items so that newbie players can gear up.8. Modify the mechanic of loot generation so more loot is created automatically and less or no loot has to be created by hand. I dislike custom loot for the end game mobs. In Diablo II the end game boss had a higher chance to drop rares, 'uniques', and sets, but rarely anything specifically unique to the boss. This is a tricky one to get right. First off, Diablo II had a crap ton of standard and magical drops, but the client was built to handle it. In DAoC the drop mechanic does not work well ... TOO MANY DAMN DROPS. I think I have to bite the bullet and make any drop fairly rare, and rare drops really rare at that. In this way fighting a boss to get an almost guaranteed rare drop is worth something!
Oh well, you can't win them all I suppose.9. REMOVE CRAFTING...
While I understand your point, I really think you should leave it in the way it is and just point out that you will not focus any energy on crafting at later dates. I don't care if salvaging does not work right. Reason I say this is crafting is a big part of my fun. I have 5 accounts and play many characters. I like to be able to outfit one of my fresh characters with a full crafted set of armor and weapons. Removing crafting will now force me to go farm low level mobs for hours to outfit them, not to mention that now, I will be forced to use 100's of plat to purchase socket drills, where with crafted gear the 8 slots on each piece was enough for most of the time.9. REMOVE CRAFTING. This is a royal pain in the rear for me. "Hey, I can't salvage XYZ or such and such is not implemented." Unfortunately I really don't care. Adding crafting recipes is not fun, extremely time consuming, and not enjoyable in the least. Diablo II did not have crafting, why do I support it? I can use those models for drops.
That's quite alright Tola. You know I have been here on and off since the start and as always its great fun and we all appreciate the work you put in.I don't think any of this will move forward. I tried to build some kind of plan but I just don't have the time.
Look for D2 to continue, probably a few tweaks here and there over the winter months, and probably some new area to explore.
Also think hard about modifying how combiners can be used or getting rid of them. I like socket drills and wrenches, but combiners are used to max stats and remove randomness.
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