Re: Soo... When is the next patch?
 

I know where you're coming from, but for the purposes of enjoying this debate, I'll focus on the opposition.

So, really, what's so fun about killing 1000 monsters in Diablo, and getting equipment you'll never be able to use?
At least in Nox, your time wasn't wasted with out of class loot. In Nox, you certainly did know where equipment was, but the underlying mechanics were good enough on their own merits. As well, even if you got the best weapon, the careful level design meant it did not suck all the fun and challenge out of the level. In practice, as well, the complete lack of random items and random drops meant that you could not farm respawning monsters for gold. That meant there were game altering decisions based on your purchases at the shops. The first time trough, you'd buy and sell the best equipment you could afford. Which wasn't much. Never stuck with the best unless you found it first. The second time through, you'd consider whether you could afford to skip that purchase. Knowing where the 'best weapon' actually increased the challenge, not decreased it. Certainly, if you bought something in a store, found the good weapon, and sold back the weaker one, it was easier. But the highly limited amount of gold and exp in the game (no farming) meant that to really maximise the benefit of that weapon, you had to go in and get it without making a shop purchase. It actually increased the challenge. As well, this whole 'best weapon' thing is nonsense when there is no random monsters or items, and serious thought gets put into weapon and monster design and placement.

Re: Soo... When is the next patch?
 

> What's great about Dominions_3 is the quantity of the game content

True, but I also consider it a quality that there are no Fireball I, Fireball II, Fireball III, Blast Fireball I, Blast Fireball II, etc.

I get very annoyed when I find items like 'Swift Blade of the Badger', 'Swift Axe of the Badger', 'Cruel Spear of the Badger'. I do not count these as different items, but one. And one that is more boring as there are several similar ones. If there was one 'Swift Blade', one 'Axe of the Badger' and one 'Cruel Spear' I would like each of them more than the generic ones. I instinctively considers the generic items as generic and thus never fun and always of possibly lesser power or usefulness than items with unique (even if common) names and abilities.

Re: Soo... When is the next patch?
 

> On a game with only 200 fixed items there's a more likely chance the gamer will find the best weapon and armor

On the contrary. WIth generical items there are bound to be better combinationbs that are quite easy to percieve. With premade items you can tweak and give disabilities etc that the generic items will never have if crafted by optimizing players, and in case of random finds, be obviously better than others.

Re: Soo... When is the next patch?
 

As much as I love random (you know I do) I have always considered the best in any game decision to be a mix of random with some logical boundaries. If the things that a spear cold be boosted to do is defined, and particular pronouns defined in their effect, and certain adverbs, etc etc then random creation shouldnt be too bad.

I TOTALLY understand the thing about players not knowing what is best for them. Ive admined online worlds and sometimes had to laugh at what players wanted because giving it to them would do totally destroy their fun in the game.

Re: Soo... When is the next patch?
 

Many roguelikes, like Dungeon Crawl, use both unique, pre-defined artifacts (Ring of Shaolin, increases your defence +8) and randomly created items (from +2 spear, to +2 axe of chopping, to +4 axe of chopping 'Teuhha' which increases your eyesight, lets you go berserk and makes you vulnerable to cold). Something like that, but with generic items limited to trinket power, could work well.

Re: Soo... When is the next patch?
 

I personally feel the monsters from Diablo_2 were not made correctly. The average monsters died way too quickly(1 or 2 blows) and most enemy bosses could kill the player way too quickly.
I also disagreed with how Diablo_2 dropped way way too many items and disagreed how Diablo_2 had chests lying all over the place.

NOX was a good game and I'd still be playing it today if the game didn't have fixed maps.

The farming problem is because developers don't create a changing evolving world. Thus there might be a quest to kill enemy boss XYZ which is the foretold destroyer of the current world yet the player could take 5 years or more where nothing in the game changes. Since players know the game doesn't have any real threat of you losing after X amount of time thus gamers spend time farming. Eventually we might see a game where the harder difficulties cause bad events to happen in the game world which effects the player(s) who's wasting time farming or being lazy. Poor Diablo never stood a chance because him and his minions were couch potatoes.
Knowing where the best weapon can be found might increase the challenge initially yet if you've played the map 3 times or more then the challenge continues to decrease as you know what to expect.

The serious thought for the placement of monsters and items should be left to the gamers which use the map editor and modding tools. A perfect example of this is the original Neverwinter Nights where the editor has produced tens of thousands of campaigns which satisfy the tastes of every RPG or hack/slash gamer or whatever tastes in the middle and beyond. As time passes when the developers have moved onto other work the editing gamers can then continue to evolve/expand/improve these campaigns for the community. Let the developers provide us with the random map/world generation, game editor and modding tools while talented fans from the community create the MANY uniquely creative campaigns.

Re: Soo... When is the next patch?
 

The rigidness*sp* of Dom3s item system always bothered me some..

Some randomness, or a create your own item or heck even allowing players to add and edit items in a mod would be great

Re: Soo... When is the next patch?
 

I think a great addition was if randomly generated items were given to some independents thus adding more mystery.
I was under the impression the modding/editing of items was suppose to exist or added via patch for DOM_3 yet it never arrived.

Re: Soo... When is the next patch?
 

The very basics of item modding already exist. We have tools for editing costs of existing items. We can't create new items or add any abilities. It's there, but it can't really be used for much besides balancing the costs.