So with the release of D3 I really wanted to come up with a game mode that not only makes the game more challenging, but also more fun for people to watch for people doing Let's Plays and the like. I was inspired by something I came across called a "Nuzlocke Run" for Pokemon games. What is a Nuzlocke Run?
What is the Nuzlocke Challenge and what the hell is a ‘nuzlocke?’
If you’ve come to this site and don’t know, chances are you’re asking yourself this question right now.
The good news is that it’s relatively simple—there are only two rules! But before we get into that, let’s get into how it all started.
It was finals week of winter quarter 2010 for a bored not-yet webcomic artist at UC Santa Cruz. Having taken nothing but bullshit classes that quarter, he decided to entertain himself while everyone else was studying by starting a new file in his old copy of Pokemon Ruby.
But he had grown tired of his old Pokemon games; they had become repetitive and unchallenging after many play throughs. Deciding to make the experience more interesting, he set two rules for himself:
1. He could only capture the first Pokemon he encountered in each new area.
2. If a Pokemon fainted he would consider it dead and release it.
The results were unexpected; rather than simply increasing the difficulty, these rules caused him to care for his monster companions more than ever before. He found new appreciation for Pokemon he would have previously never bothered to capture, and worried deeply for his team, knowing any knockout would mean goodbye.
Wanting to share his experience with others, he drew up a few crude comics of his adventure and posted them on the 4chan /v/ideogame board, where he had enjoyed many vidya-related comics in the past. The doodles were met with surprising approval, especially towards the Seedot/Nuzleaf that bore the image of LOST’s John Locke.
These /v/irgins dubbed it the “Nuzlocke Challenge” and the sensation was born.
Since then countless “Nuzlocke runs” have been attempted, completed and failed by denizens of the Internet, many of them recorded in comics or stories. This is the true magic of the Nuzlocke Challenge: everyone has a story of triumph and loss to tell.
In case you haven’t figured it out yet, I am that bored student that so many refer to as Nuzlocke. Here you can follow comics of my own nuzlocke journey (Pokemon: Hard-Mode) or countless others created by fans, many of which are better than the original.
So go forth and experience the Nuzlocke Challenge, either by reading these comics or taking on the challenge yourself. But be warned, challenger, there is no victory without loss.
So here are my ideas for what a Nuzlocke Run could look like in Diablo 3:
- All characters must be played in Hardcore Mode, but you may choose any class you want.
- When entering a new area or dungeon, you can only use the first piece of equipment you find in the area/dungeon. Exceptions:
- If the item that drops first is a class-specific item that you cannot use, you may use the first equippable drop instead.
- Loot dropped from bosses or epic chests, and quest rewards can be used.
- However you may only use the equipment dropped on the first boss /quest run for each difficulty (grinding bosses for equipment is not allowed).
- Any other items you find may be sold for gold, but not equipped.
- Crafted items are allowed, but only if you are two areas behind in a given slot (for example, if chain mail is dropping in your current area, and you still have cloth in one of your item slots, you may craft up to chain gear).
- Sockets may be added to items, but you may only have one of each color gem equipped at any given time (so one piece of ruby equipment, one emerald, etc.).
- Only one rune of each type may be equpped on skills at once (so you can put an alabaster rune on a skill, but you cannot then use it on a second skill unless you take it off of the first skill).
- If a player somehow survives to Inferno, all restrictions on crafted items and runes are removed, however, grinding bosses for gear is still illegal.
- Since you will be dying a lot if you play this way, it is encouraged that you come up with a clever naming scheme for your characters (i.e. characters on your favorite TV show, famous world dictators, etc.) and give each new character a new name.
I'm looking for feedback. Does anyone see any problems here that will make it completely non-viable? Anything that could be added to make it more interesting? I'm open to feedback
There was a "challenge mode" in D2 that you could only use the first unique weapon you find and nothing else (naked).
D3 seems like it will be harder so, you may only use the first unique items you find for each slot and sell everything (or just give it to another char).
I think this could be pretty fun. Your idea I think has too many rules, try to make it simpler.
Good point. I think I can easily remove the rune restrictions, because it's probably more fun/interesting to have all skills available.
If I split it up like this I think it looks simpler:
1. Game Mode: Hardcore 2. Gear: Only equip the first drop of each "zone" and quest/boss rewards on first boss kill (no boss grinding), sell anything else. 3. Crafting: Only if you are significantly behind on your current gear, and only the first piece you craft (no bonus farming). Sockets may be added. 4. Inferno: If you somehow survive to Inferno then you may *choose* to craft any gear you want so you have a fair shot of making it through, but other restrictions still apply. 5. Naming: Optionally, pick a theme for naming your characters as you will probably be dying a lot.
I don't think it's possible to make it more simple than this and still have it be interesting to watch. The danger factor does make it somewhat interesting, but I think having boss drops provides some excitement to (okay, this boss will drop cool stuff he can use, is he gonna get anything good???). Just thinking from a viewer's perspective.
I also think that since they added crafting to the game, it should be used. It adds another dice roll (okay, he's been stuck in a rag tunic for a while, now he can craft something better, will it have a decent bonus???) which is exciting for viewers. It also helps keep the game mode viable. If you just always die at a certain point because you will almost never have the luck to get a decent set of gear by a certain boss/event then the game mode becomes broken, and it removes the suspense (oh, well he's coming up on this part of the game so this is where you always die). For the sake of viewership I think it's necessary to make certain rules that allow getting all the way through the game on every difficulty, even if it's extremely unlikely/challenging to do so.
There was a "challenge mode" in D2 that you could only use the first unique weapon you find and nothing else (naked).
You'd never find a unique in DII without any MF................
Not true. YOu might not find a GOOD unique, but you do find uniques. I almost never ran with MF, because I never had the gear that would give decent MF, and still be decent enough to kill anything near optimally, and I found several. Sure, they were crappy (I think I found Griswald's Edge a half dozen times. What a crappy sword).
Personally, If I were to make HC harder (I don't think it needs to be), I'd just use the classic Juggernaut method. It is (I think, it's been awhile):
1) Can only talk to NPCs for quests. No shopping, selling, or repairing.
2) Can only use items you pick up/quest rewards.
3) Can switch any time.
4) As you can't repair items, you end up replacing them relatively often.
5) Continue until you die.
That said, I think durability is less of an issue in D3, at least it seemed to be in the Beta, because I never even was able to repair items.
That said, if durability really isn't a big limiter in earlier difficulties, I'd say you can only use whites. Maybe you're allowed to use Blues or higher if it's a class specific item, but otherwise, white only.
Now that I think about that, it'd be crazy hard, what with how bad whites are.
There was a "challenge mode" in D2 that you could only use the first unique weapon you find and nothing else (naked).
You'd never find a unique in DII without any MF................
Not true. YOu might not find a GOOD unique, but you do find uniques. I almost never ran with MF, because I never had the gear that would give decent MF, and still be decent enough to kill anything near optimally, and I found several. Sure, they were crappy (I think I found Griswald's Edge a half dozen times. What a crappy sword).
Personally, If I were to make HC harder (I don't think it needs to be), I'd just use the classic Juggernaut method. It is (I think, it's been awhile):
1) Can only talk to NPCs for quests. No shopping, selling, or repairing.
2) Can only use items you pick up/quest rewards.
3) Can switch any time.
4) As you can't repair items, you end up replacing them relatively often.
5) Continue until you die.
That said, I think durability is less of an issue in D3, at least it seemed to be in the Beta, because I never even was able to repair items.
That said, if durability really isn't a big limiter in earlier difficulties, I'd say you can only use whites. Maybe you're allowed to use Blues or higher if it's a class specific item, but otherwise, white only.
Now that I think about that, it'd be crazy hard, what with how bad whites are.
Or the old Diablo 1 Ironman challenge, one way trip to diablo. No return to town. Made those staff charges and juvie potions really valuable. Ah.. Good times.
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What is the Nuzlocke Challenge and what the hell is a ‘nuzlocke?’
If you’ve come to this site and don’t know, chances are you’re asking yourself this question right now.
The good news is that it’s relatively simple—there are only two rules! But before we get into that, let’s get into how it all started.
It was finals week of winter quarter 2010 for a bored not-yet webcomic artist at UC Santa Cruz. Having taken nothing but bullshit classes that quarter, he decided to entertain himself while everyone else was studying by starting a new file in his old copy of Pokemon Ruby.
But he had grown tired of his old Pokemon games; they had become repetitive and unchallenging after many play throughs. Deciding to make the experience more interesting, he set two rules for himself:
1. He could only capture the first Pokemon he encountered in each new area.
2. If a Pokemon fainted he would consider it dead and release it.
The results were unexpected; rather than simply increasing the difficulty, these rules caused him to care for his monster companions more than ever before. He found new appreciation for Pokemon he would have previously never bothered to capture, and worried deeply for his team, knowing any knockout would mean goodbye.
Wanting to share his experience with others, he drew up a few crude comics of his adventure and posted them on the 4chan /v/ideogame board, where he had enjoyed many vidya-related comics in the past. The doodles were met with surprising approval, especially towards the Seedot/Nuzleaf that bore the image of LOST’s John Locke.
These /v/irgins dubbed it the “Nuzlocke Challenge” and the sensation was born.
Since then countless “Nuzlocke runs” have been attempted, completed and failed by denizens of the Internet, many of them recorded in comics or stories. This is the true magic of the Nuzlocke Challenge: everyone has a story of triumph and loss to tell.
In case you haven’t figured it out yet, I am that bored student that so many refer to as Nuzlocke. Here you can follow comics of my own nuzlocke journey (Pokemon: Hard-Mode) or countless others created by fans, many of which are better than the original.
So go forth and experience the Nuzlocke Challenge, either by reading these comics or taking on the challenge yourself. But be warned, challenger, there is no victory without loss.
Source: http://www.nuzlocke.com/challenge.php
So here are my ideas for what a Nuzlocke Run could look like in Diablo 3:
- All characters must be played in Hardcore Mode, but you may choose any class you want.
- When entering a new area or dungeon, you can only use the first piece of equipment you find in the area/dungeon. Exceptions:
- If the item that drops first is a class-specific item that you cannot use, you may use the first equippable drop instead.
- Loot dropped from bosses or epic chests, and quest rewards can be used.
- However you may only use the equipment dropped on the first boss /quest run for each difficulty (grinding bosses for equipment is not allowed).
- Any other items you find may be sold for gold, but not equipped.
- Crafted items are allowed, but only if you are two areas behind in a given slot (for example, if chain mail is dropping in your current area, and you still have cloth in one of your item slots, you may craft up to chain gear).
- Sockets may be added to items, but you may only have one of each color gem equipped at any given time (so one piece of ruby equipment, one emerald, etc.).
- Only one rune of each type may be equpped on skills at once (so you can put an alabaster rune on a skill, but you cannot then use it on a second skill unless you take it off of the first skill).
- If a player somehow survives to Inferno, all restrictions on crafted items and runes are removed, however, grinding bosses for gear is still illegal.
- Since you will be dying a lot if you play this way, it is encouraged that you come up with a clever naming scheme for your characters (i.e. characters on your favorite TV show, famous world dictators, etc.) and give each new character a new name.
I'm looking for feedback. Does anyone see any problems here that will make it completely non-viable? Anything that could be added to make it more interesting? I'm open to feedback
D3 seems like it will be harder so, you may only use the first unique items you find for each slot and sell everything (or just give it to another char).
I think this could be pretty fun. Your idea I think has too many rules, try to make it simpler.
If I split it up like this I think it looks simpler:
1. Game Mode: Hardcore
2. Gear: Only equip the first drop of each "zone" and quest/boss rewards on first boss kill (no boss grinding), sell anything else.
3. Crafting: Only if you are significantly behind on your current gear, and only the first piece you craft (no bonus farming). Sockets may be added.
4. Inferno: If you somehow survive to Inferno then you may *choose* to craft any gear you want so you have a fair shot of making it through, but other restrictions still apply.
5. Naming: Optionally, pick a theme for naming your characters as you will probably be dying a lot.
I don't think it's possible to make it more simple than this and still have it be interesting to watch. The danger factor does make it somewhat interesting, but I think having boss drops provides some excitement to (okay, this boss will drop cool stuff he can use, is he gonna get anything good???). Just thinking from a viewer's perspective.
I also think that since they added crafting to the game, it should be used. It adds another dice roll (okay, he's been stuck in a rag tunic for a while, now he can craft something better, will it have a decent bonus???) which is exciting for viewers. It also helps keep the game mode viable. If you just always die at a certain point because you will almost never have the luck to get a decent set of gear by a certain boss/event then the game mode becomes broken, and it removes the suspense (oh, well he's coming up on this part of the game so this is where you always die). For the sake of viewership I think it's necessary to make certain rules that allow getting all the way through the game on every difficulty, even if it's extremely unlikely/challenging to do so.
Not true. YOu might not find a GOOD unique, but you do find uniques. I almost never ran with MF, because I never had the gear that would give decent MF, and still be decent enough to kill anything near optimally, and I found several. Sure, they were crappy (I think I found Griswald's Edge a half dozen times. What a crappy sword).
Personally, If I were to make HC harder (I don't think it needs to be), I'd just use the classic Juggernaut method. It is (I think, it's been awhile):
1) Can only talk to NPCs for quests. No shopping, selling, or repairing.
2) Can only use items you pick up/quest rewards.
3) Can switch any time.
4) As you can't repair items, you end up replacing them relatively often.
5) Continue until you die.
That said, I think durability is less of an issue in D3, at least it seemed to be in the Beta, because I never even was able to repair items.
That said, if durability really isn't a big limiter in earlier difficulties, I'd say you can only use whites. Maybe you're allowed to use Blues or higher if it's a class specific item, but otherwise, white only.
Now that I think about that, it'd be crazy hard, what with how bad whites are.
Or the old Diablo 1 Ironman challenge, one way trip to diablo. No return to town. Made those staff charges and juvie potions really valuable. Ah.. Good times.