The Future Of Diablo

General Discussion
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Future of Diablo IMO is about not making mistakes from the past (which every single one of them could be treated as a blessing not to repeat) and offering everyone (except the far-side casual and far-side competitive) something to “hook up for” once they “beat” the game

  • Mistakes from D3 to not repeat:

ALL 4 of them, (this may be actually 100th time talking lol)

  1. SkillTrees to build the character (not max lvl and you’re a Chameleon ffs)
  2. Trifecta. Don’t put Crit (or pure damage enhancements) as a baseline feature. Especially not when Skill damage is connected to that
  3. Toughnes/Recovery system being more than just stacking Vitality, Armor, & Res. In D3 they made Str/Dex increase Armor and Int increase Resistances. In addition Resistances are directly linked to CC reduction, DON’T do that
  4. No “endless power ramping up” endgame. This is hardest to come up with cause whatever it is should be something new. D2 didn’t have a “late game”, D3 had a one that was meaningless
  • Mistakes (or at least things that should be improved) from D2 to not repeat:
  1. No passive hit or Aura effects. That mob has a frost aura, great, now you can’t move at all unless you kill it. Or even better - Thunderstorm proc of 2k or whatever damage. Mana burn as well, hey one of the elite packs have Mana burn per hit, well all the things just drain your mana instantly with 1 hit lol
  2. Survivability/Combat effectiveness should be as far as away from RNG. Yeah, not good, not only you force people max on FHR and Vita but also the whole combat is based around RNG% to whether you get hit or you hit instead
  3. No Zerging and no Brickwalls (or gearlock). D3 did solve the “No Zerging” problem (partially) by having TPs be channeled and stopped while in combat and boss areas not allow TPs, BUT the survival of D3 was all about LPH returns and damage, sooo no for both of those models, we need (as a difficulty progression feature/system) something else

At this point frankly think whatever comes out would be solid as long as those problems don’t occur but have some suggestion examples as alternatives. Will try to be as short as possible

  1. Make difficulty dynamic. Add extra abilities to mobs (and better cooperation between them) on higher difficulty settings. Could also “toy around” with scarcity of Gold/Crafting-mats as a resource while at that
  2. Add stamina/stagger bar for hits suffered. THAT WAY you won’t ignore being hit by “thrash mobs” but you wouldn’t rely on RNG% whether you hit them or they hit you either
  3. “Toy around” with TPs, use both ways from D2 and D3 where appropriate, and even new ways. For ex. in open world keep it Channel, in Dungeons make it D2 as purchaseable. Some dungeons might have only a one way out TP to “reset” it and start again, others might have a limited number of TPs (per player, or even per party total) before it “closes”. Some dungeons might have a bunch of TP-Stones but you have to charge it with kills instead. It’s important cause more “free but limited usage” of TPs might mean less need for Potion spam
  4. Not make lategame as “only grind” or “only empower”, try make it appeal to more-persistent/hardcore players (since chances are those would play more), but spice it up with some “special events”. Think of these like “This week’s mutation mission” from Starcraft, that’s Blizz’s most successful game/franchise and is probably the most-stream friendly (IMO) as well. Not everything has to be a “hard grind” to perfect the 4% of your item X you’re missing or get “maxx level”, but not everything has to be a “we’ve done for now, tune in next season” either
  5. Try not make what other games have done on the market, as long as other mistakes mentioned don’t get repeated. If D4 is a PoE clone then just a matter of time PoE guys go back to their original game. Give everyone something fresh/new, the ADA system is great start, just need be implemented in better way, one way I think could be used is to “couple” it with the Rune/Runic system of skills from D3 (i.e. put some of the powers into skills in order to empower them with a special/scaling rune-power effect)
  6. Make every item usable in as much as possible ways but not overly-usable. Many would say this has much higher priority (which itemization IS) but the approach/purpose here is different. For ex. if a Barb is able to use a Mighty weapon, equip the possibility for the Druid to carry it as well. Try experiment with “per class” items to be intended for 2 classes instead, that way the feeling won’t be “man when am I ever gonna get something good but usable” whilest also (potentially) keep the need (and even the impact) for trading slightly in check

That’s kinda what I think I’ve gathered SO FAR from my own thoughs as well as discussions with other members. Hope we get to hit as many “checks” of them. Anything else is a bonus from that point onward I’d say, a welcome one but still kinda from priority’s standpoints somewhat lower

Thx for all those who managed to endure this wall of text :slight_smile: