Monday, 4 March 2013

A List of Realistic Things I Expect to See in the Expansion


A list of things I would realistically like to see in an expansion:

2 New Classes
Most potential classes are already touched upon by the current classes, but I would personally like to see a STR Paladin/Knight and a Dex Shapeshifter/Druid. But whatever it turns out to be, I would like to see 2 new.

2+ New Acts
I would like to see at least 2 new Acts to play through. It’s important that these are atmospheric and make you feel immersed in the world. (Something which I think Act 2,3 and 4 fail to do imo). These Acts could focus on chasing Adria, Kingsport or finding ‘Wisdom’ who apparently has gone missing.

The Ability to Waypoint Between Acts
An ‘Infinite Dungeon’ is not needed. I think it would be more fun if you could Waypoint between Acts which would allow the player longer runs, and choose the areas they enjoy the most.

Significantly Increased Mob Density In Acts 1, 2 and 4
Act 3 is so heavily farmed due to high density of mobs in places like Keep Depths 2, Bridge of Korsikk (Fields of Slaughter) and Arreat Crater 2.

Class Redesigns to Encourage Build Variety
Build variety in this game is obviously lacking. Tweaking damage numbers will not encourage people to use different abilities. Please see my other thread for how I would personally change Barbarian / Monk. (Ideas from the top of my head, please note that I am not a Game Designer).

Perhaps A Couple Of New Runes Per Class?
I’m unsure about this one. There are already tons of skills and runes in the game that are simply not being used. It would still be nice to have a few new runes. (Per class, not per skill). Every idea I’ve had for a new skill can easily be worked into a current skill via a different rune.

At Least One New Follower and In-Depth Follower Customisation
I found gearing my follower a fun little side task. I think it would be wonderful if we were able to equip our followers in an entire gear set, and if there were more skills / runes to choose from. A new follower could also be easily implemented. Perhaps it could be a ‘non combat follower’ that allows you to vendor, and picks up gold for you. The damage followers would obviously need to be made more appealing if this were to be introduced.

Detailed Banners As Show in the Original Trailers
When the game was announced, the banner system looked really cool. You could unlock different lapels and bases for your banner, to make it look seriously bad ass. I really think they need to implement this to add a new level of customisation to the game. Banners could also be automatically deployed when a character levels up, gets a killing spree and ‘Killed X with One Blow’.

With public games becoming more popular, a good looking banner could be as prestigious as Paragon 100.

PvP and Minor Balance That Affects PvP Only
This is an obvious one. Duelling is really good fun, but obviously we need a structured PvP system, with atheistic rewards and more arenas. Duelling has shown that Class balance is a serious issue. My friend’s Wizard can 2 shot my Barbarian with Storm Armour, just by standing near me. I think fights should be long winded and slow, instead of a nuke vs nuke. I think PvP should be balanced BUT I think PvE should not be touched.

For Example: “7 Sided Strike has a 35% chance to stun targets for 1.5 seconds (5% chance for 1 second in the PvP Arenas)”

A New Artisan
The mystic was obviously cut late during development. I think they could re-add something that would allow us to add sockets to items / reroll an attribute.

Note: If they did allow us to reroll an attribute or add a socket I think it should be a very expensive thing to do. The Mystic could also add class based bonuses to armour (Spirit Regen, Maximum Fury, Mana per sec etc)

Improvements to Other Item Attributes
All people focus on these days are All Res, IAS, Crit chance, Crit damage and main stat. I’m personally a huge fan of the idea of Thorns. I would like to see some changes to Thorns, Health Regen, Life on Kill and Armour, to see these stats more sought after.

Slightly Less Realistic Things
I believe the above things are a realistic selection of ideas that could make it into the expansion. The below things are stuff I would like, but I doubt they will ever happen.

A New Item Tier
So legendary items were improved a couple of patches ago, and although this is a step in the right direction; a lot of them are still pretty meh. An axe that sends out a chain to pull enemies towards you is awesome, but as it only goes up to about 900 DPS it’s pretty useless. Most characters past paragon level 5 are nearly full equipped in Legendaries. On my Barbarian, only my Gloves and Shoulders are not.

I think there should be a new item tier (Angelic or something). These items should be VERY RARE. I’m talking…. Youmay get one drop after 250 hours of straight playing. These Angelic items will definitely be ‘game changing’ and should not be Bind on Pickup. I think these items should be so rare and expensive, that no player should ever have the resources to be equipped with more than 1 or 2.

US and EU Auction House’s merged and raise the 2bil cap
The EU Gold Auction House is pretty dead. Unless your item is nearly best in slot, it’s difficult to sell. The EU RMAH has never been good. I love the idea but no items get posted on their, and it’s nearly impossible to sell anything. It would be great if all Auction Houses were merged into one. Also, raise the 2 bil cap. A lot of items are still selling for more than 2bil on private websites and forums.

Private Chat Channels / Guilds
I know this isn’t an MMO, but it would be great if friends could all chat in a private channel. A Guild system could be easily implemented which would introduce aesthetic rewards, a Guild tag, Cape and a Guild Stash.

Custom games
Now there is Duelling, Key wardens, Uber bosses, Monster Power, EXP runs and Item runs in the game… it’s really important we get custom games. It’s a pain to search the barren General chat for specific runs I wish to do.

Character Customisation
It’s unlikely we will see this, but I am pretty annoyed that all Characters look physically the same. I like my Monk, but I don’t like the idea that I’m some tiny skinny bald guy. Everybody looks the same. Why can’t you change your characters physical appearance like height, hair and size?

Naphalem Skills
As we are all “Nephalem” wouldn’t it make sense for all classes to have 3-4 generic skills? These could be ‘Summon Angelic/Demonic Horde’ ‘Push back all enemies with a wave of Light/Darkness and damage them for ‘X’ etc

Reset Tome
Rare consumable item, allows you to change your build once without loosing NV stacks.

Capes
Capes would look amazing in this game. They could be rewarded for achievements or in PvP, and won’t necessarily have to have stats.

So that is basically the list of things I think will be coming, and things I would like to see. What do you guys think of my idea, do you hope to see something that is not listed?