Note:
I am not a game developer, nor do I have the necessary background to tell them how to develop their game!
I am simply stating my opinion to spark ideas and discussions that can be useful.
Please feel free to give your opinion as to why or why not my ideas are good / bad!
TL; DR: Prime Evils take over the World Map, generating events, influencing items/vendors/players. (Old iteration)
2nd TL; DR: This was conceived before David Kim put his post up (12.03.2019) for the [System Design in Diablo IV]. I will try to include those changes into my post, keeping the old ones for reference. Everything new is underlined; everything old is Bold / Italic. Could not post links, but the post is also on reddit.
Given the fact that the Prime and Lesser Evils have been released again in the wild, they should start trying to take over Sanctuary. Although they are brothers, they have a pissy attitude over who is the Big Boss! (Old iteration)
New iteration: The Angels and Demons try to spread their influence all over the World of Sanctuary, thus reviving the Old religions: [The Cathedral of Light, The Triune, and the Nephalemic Worship]
They could manage this by starting to influence different regions of the World, affecting the town, items, monsters, dungeons, etc.
ENTER MY PROPOSAL: Influenced World Map!
Region is Influenced by Terror (red)
New iteration: Region is influenced by Absolution! (Angelic Power) Golden Color on the World map
Region is Influenced by Destruction (green)
New iteration: Region is influenced by Damnation! (Demonic Power) Red Color in the World map
New iteration: Region is influenced by Mortality! (Ancestral Power) Green Color on the World map
World and Monsters
While under influence, town vendors have increased prices on items, repairs, and the player receives higher level crafting / salvage materials, but reduced in quantity (risk vs. reward)
Absolution: More quantity / low quality / no quests because people / vendors pray
Damnation: Low quantity / high quality / no quests because people / vendors are afraid
Mortality: no effect / can take quests from people / vendors.
Monsters and dungeons in these regions are affected by unique affixes closely tied to their Master, on top of the ones they can spawn with. (Old iteration)
Letting the Influence spread over time spawns the Prime Evil in a dungeon, which can be further augmented with dungeon keys for greater rewards. (Old iteration)
Clearing dungeons (not a Prime Evil dungeon) / helping NPCs in the region makes the influence smaller but moves it in the opposite direction. (Old iteration)
If the Prim Evil is killed it will respawn somewhere else on the map, after some time, thus beginning the cycle anew. (Old iteration)
Items
Items “touched” by the Prime Evils should have their own benefits but should not outshine every other item in the game and should come with drawbacks. (regardless of item rarity/level) (Old iteration)
New iteration: Items touched by Angelic / Demonic / Ancestral Power should have their own benefits but should come with drawbacks.
OLD: Terror=>Destruction
NEW: Angelic => Demonic
OLD: Destruction=>Hatred
NEW: Demonic=> Ancestral
OLD: Hatred=>Terror
NEW: Ancestral=> Angelic
Terror strong against Destruction, but weak against Hatred (T>D, T<H)
Angelic strong against Demonic, but weak against Ancestral
Destruction strong against Hatred, but weak against Terror (D>H, D<T)
Demonic strong against Ancestral, but weak against Angelic
Hatred strong against Terror, but weak against Destruction (H>T, H<D)
Ancestral strong against Angelic, but weak against Demonic
This means that Armor and Weapons are strong / weak against their counterpart.
A portion of the weapons damage is transformed into Terror (Angelic)-dmg, Destructive (Demonic)-dmg, Hatred (Ancestral)-dmg, ignoring the/some of the defensive stats.
E.g.: 1000 dmg, where 100 dmg is Terror (Angelic)-dmg, ignoring Destruction (Demonic) influenced monsters/players (yes, players, we will get there!) defense.
No idea how to incorporate the Lesser Evils. Sorry!
Crafting (applies to both iterations)
Essence can be extracted from the “touched” item.
This can be used to enhance items, turning them into “touched” items.
Adding / combining more essence yields greater rewards, but at the risk of destroying the item.
E.g.: First Empower has 100% guaranteed, 2nd has 75% / 60%, 3rd has 50% / 30%
Cannot combine Demonic/Angelic/Ancestral essence with other essences. (or can you? And create a new tier of items: Abominable items (new idea on the fly))
PvP
Wearing x-number of items “touched” by the same Prim Evil, turns you into their respective Aspect, turning you instantly hostile towards players of different Aspects. (in PvP zones) (Old iteration)
New iteration: Having x-amount of Angelic / Demonic / Ancestral Power turns you into their respective Aspect, turning you instantly hostile towards players of different ones. (in PvP zones)
Currently there are 5 armor slots (helm, body, gloves, pants, boots), 3 jewelry slots (2 rings, 1 amulet) and varying number of weapons slots, depending on revealed and unrevealed classes.
Given this, weapons cannot be “touched” or do not count towards the Aspect system.
You need 3 armor slots with one affinity to turn into that Aspect. (Old iteration)
New iteration: Amount of one of the three Powers (Angelic / Demonic / Ancestral) should be higher than the other two, to be able to turn into their respective Aspect.
The above formula still applies, meaning that there will be a “balance”, where one Aspect does not outshine all the other. Whilst engaged in PvP combat, gear swap is disabled!
Skills
When a player becomes an Aspect, skills that have a certain affinity gain the same treatment.
Fire->Destruction / Terror (can’t decide)
Fire->Demonic
Ice->Hatred
Ice->Ancestral
Lightning->Terror
Lightning->Angelic
Slash->Terror
Slash->Angelic
Bludgeon-> Destruction
Bludgeon->Demonic
Bleed-> Hatred
Bleed->Ancestral
Nature->Hatred
Nature->Ancestral
Shapeshifting (Wolf)->Destruction
Shapeshifting (Wolf)->Demonic
Shapeshifting (Bear)->Terror
Shapeshifting (Bear)->Angelic
This is up for debate, which skill what kind of affinity has.
Pros:
- promotes exploration, by not having all players camp the high-level zones (if they don’t do level scaling)
- terror / destruction / hatred touched items for diversity (Old iteration)
New iteration: Angelic / Demonic / Ancestral touched items for item diversity
- zone replay-ability because of the random nature of influence spawning
- overlapping influence for bigger rewards / greater threats (overlap all 7? to spawn The Prime Evil for epic battle) (Old iteration)
- “balanced” PvP
- Aspect system promotes build variety given the bonus damage against their counterpart.
- NEW IDEA: Overlap influence from Angelic / Demonic / Ancestral Power in a PvP zone to spawn a BATTLE ROYAL Event where x-amount (4 players per Influence) battle in a Tug-of-War like event, where killing other players increases your influence up to a cap for the win. This can be also done with only 2 of the influences, for smaller skirmishes.
Cons:
- Ret-coning the back story to go with this game mechanic
- Extra Development time for a starved audience
- Skill system balance
- Ability clutter in 3-way (phrasing) BATTLE ROYAL
Please help me expand this idea into something great!
If you managed to read this far, THANK YOU!