Ah thanks for the response! You gave a lot of insight into how people view it before knowing the background. I'm glad I was able to get the message across with the art! I already posted the story on the actual thread. I just decided not to post it here. You can go check it out on the submission thread.
Just did and I love it. Much better than what I hastily threw together! Good luck with it!
Besides lore and function? The pic is great. The recap has me feeling that your idea is comparatively amazing and innovative (not that it isn't by itself). Despite the feral appearance, the stance of the creature has me thinking it is a mage or summoner style enemy. That could help you to describe its function (the more complete a submission, the more impressive it can be). The headpiece screams Mephisto so I guess it could be his disciple or something. An example of lore could be something like this:
The disciple of hate is a being corrupted in flesh by his already corrupt soul. Those who learned of Mephisto's true identity (not as a benevolent god in the Triune) became obsessed with the dark arts. The disciples believed in compounding the hatred of humanity to form a malevolent entity capable of serving under Mephisto. Sacrificial rituals were perfrormed in secrecy using the most hateful human beings. From the deranged and murderous to the erudite but spiteful, the disciples melded others into themselves until flesh and bone became one. The combined result holds the great powers and discipline of a mage as well as the physical brutality of a psychopath. When not surrounded by his minions, the disciple of hate goes into a frenzy, assaulting all those around him.
Now you just need a more fearsome depiction for him in rage mode as well.
I honestly really like it. You should try to expand on its lore at least somewhat and describe its function (Miniboss? Enemy spawner type? Tank? etc.) and you would definitely have a good chance.
Touche good sir. It's just unfortunate that others have not yet commented. The more opinions the better. Maybe we can really get something out of this pic (nothing groundbreaking, but it may be diablowiki worthy if some proof were to reveal itself).
If you look closer you see that the parts of fire go away from a certain point, which would be the centre.
Those fire parts could be parts of a monster that were blown up and are flying outwards like they do in the picture.
It could also be part of a skill which has a explosion like thing which blasts outward, which is a skill the Witch Doctor has, and it´s called Flaming Skull? Don't know, he spams it in the gameplay video however.
No matter how you look at it, it's not a rain like effect but more a outwards explosion.
SOME of the flames are shot out at an arc away from the player and I do agree it looks like an outward blast, but look at the fire in the upper left corner. It doesn't look like it came from such an explosion because of its isolation and direction. There is also fire raining down towards the WD's line of sight. It would have to be a really odd explosion and "Flaming Skull" looks nothing like it (not even the rune-enhanced versions).
That aside, what would you identify that monster as then?
But let's just pretend it isn't a random explosion 30 feet in the sky that's causing fire to rain down (pretty odd phenomenon isn't it?). I think it explains the dude in the corner although I have no clue as to why he is blue. Cold effect perhaps?
If you look closely, there is a little ugly dude at the bottom right corner waving his hands in the air (like he just does not care) and seemingly calling down a firestorm. It is obviously NOT a fallen (doesn't even slightly resemble it) and the fact that the Witch Doctor is there validates it for me: this is the Pit of Fire skill for the WD. Pit of Fire summons fetishes to bath an area in flames which it certainly seems to be doing. You can argue the flaming debris may be from the firebomb, but it doesn't explain the fire raining down or the small pool of flame next to the creature. My question then is whether or not the design of the fetish creatures and the skill are satisfactory. It is a big departure from the D2 fetishes and seems a bit too generic for my tastes. It's obviously a WIP at this point (like the rest of the game), but what do you, the ever-faithful minions of Blizzard, think about it?
Maybe Blizz could go as far as counting a "Sidekick" as another player in the game, causing more drops. As for increasing enemy HP, I'm not sure, it could go either way. If enemy HP increases, it defeats the purpose of a merc, but if it doesn't the enemies might be too easy.
Thoughts?
I don't think a merc should count as an extra player. That would be like having monster HP levels increase when you summon creatures. If you could have more than one merc (and they could be fully geared and levelled up), then I could see this happening.
If there are mercs, I'd like to see it done sort of like Fallout 3 where you can't just hire anyone, you actually have to earn their trust / meet certain prerequisites (based on who you are or how you play). Of course there'd still be some that you could just hire (or that would just join you regardless of who are).
I always found that touch of realism interesting in that game.
That would be pretty tedious unless:
A) You actually cared about these merc's (whether it be for story related reasons or side quests). They are much stronger than the regular merc.
C) The requirements are easy to fulfill.
Restricting access to certain hired hands based on your character seems a bit much. It would be nicer to have a trust system for a merc which would dictate how much they actually cared about you (based on your character) and could have some (low trust) who just killed enemies and others (high trust) who would heal you and defend you. Letting them level up would also be pretty nice.
It would be great to see a class that incorporates ranged attacks, traps, and shapeshifting. Bows could be used to pick off foes from afar, traps to keep rushing enemies away from you, and, if all else fails, changing into a beast to go toe-to-toe with your remaining adversaries. No idea what it would be called though...
I would love to see a secret level that was entirely too colorful (as a joke for those who originally complained about Diablo III) with smiling clouds, rainbows, and killer unicorns. As a bonus, you could get that awesome Diablo 3 shirt (that so many people wanted) as an in game piece of armor once you defeat the "Super Happy Unicorn King."
I voted undecided on the poll. The only thing I can say is that the dungeon showed needs to be a bit darker like in those comparison pics and has to look old. The outside forest is fine, hopefully it will be more sinister at night. The best idea that I can agree with is contrasts between areas.
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Just did and I love it. Much better than what I hastily threw together! Good luck with it!
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The disciple of hate is a being corrupted in flesh by his already corrupt soul. Those who learned of Mephisto's true identity (not as a benevolent god in the Triune) became obsessed with the dark arts. The disciples believed in compounding the hatred of humanity to form a malevolent entity capable of serving under Mephisto. Sacrificial rituals were perfrormed in secrecy using the most hateful human beings. From the deranged and murderous to the erudite but spiteful, the disciples melded others into themselves until flesh and bone became one. The combined result holds the great powers and discipline of a mage as well as the physical brutality of a psychopath. When not surrounded by his minions, the disciple of hate goes into a frenzy, assaulting all those around him.
Now you just need a more fearsome depiction for him in rage mode as well.
Just kidding. Sorry for not being much help!
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SOME of the flames are shot out at an arc away from the player and I do agree it looks like an outward blast, but look at the fire in the upper left corner. It doesn't look like it came from such an explosion because of its isolation and direction. There is also fire raining down towards the WD's line of sight. It would have to be a really odd explosion and "Flaming Skull" looks nothing like it (not even the rune-enhanced versions).
That aside, what would you identify that monster as then?
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Or it could be that...
Yep it's totally that.
But let's just pretend it isn't a random explosion 30 feet in the sky that's causing fire to rain down (pretty odd phenomenon isn't it?). I think it explains the dude in the corner although I have no clue as to why he is blue. Cold effect perhaps?
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If you look closely, there is a little ugly dude at the bottom right corner waving his hands in the air (like he just does not care) and seemingly calling down a firestorm. It is obviously NOT a fallen (doesn't even slightly resemble it) and the fact that the Witch Doctor is there validates it for me: this is the Pit of Fire skill for the WD. Pit of Fire summons fetishes to bath an area in flames which it certainly seems to be doing. You can argue the flaming debris may be from the firebomb, but it doesn't explain the fire raining down or the small pool of flame next to the creature. My question then is whether or not the design of the fetish creatures and the skill are satisfactory. It is a big departure from the D2 fetishes and seems a bit too generic for my tastes. It's obviously a WIP at this point (like the rest of the game), but what do you, the ever-faithful minions of Blizzard, think about it?
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It is a good thing we already know what he looks like (mostly).^_^
I will be impressed if the fifth class can top all the other ones.
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I don't think a merc should count as an extra player. That would be like having monster HP levels increase when you summon creatures. If you could have more than one merc (and they could be fully geared and levelled up), then I could see this happening.
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That would be pretty tedious unless:
A) You actually cared about these merc's (whether it be for story related reasons or side quests).
C) The requirements are easy to fulfill.
Restricting access to certain hired hands based on your character seems a bit much. It would be nicer to have a trust system for a merc which would dictate how much they actually cared about you (based on your character) and could have some (low trust) who just killed enemies and others (high trust) who would heal you and defend you. Letting them level up would also be pretty nice.
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I would definitely love to have more demonic and varied forms (or just one big brawler type for general close combat).:)
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The level should also be called "The True Hell."
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