The Janissary (name can be different) would be perfect as a dark "mercenary" class, because it could function between a paladin class, rogue class, and ranged class, depending on how it is outfitted. The key would be to arrange the skill tree so that the skills would be relevant to multiple builds/equips. (this is not my art...obviously it would look cooler).
The way i think of it is imagine a musketeer (w/o musket) who spent some time in japan to train in ninjitsu, and then came back through mongolia and into the middle east/Ottoman empire to fight as a mercenary for cash. Can use small bucklers with bows.
Could be a "dark" class...maybe developed a use for a range of good/evil spells/energy
In terms of skills:
Roguish:
Fog of War: Ninja smokebomb that blinds/slows enemies with smoke and cripples with schrapnel (could be runed up to clusterbomb/grenade or something)
Camouflage/Shapeshift: Can take form of enemies and move undetected for an amount of time
Poison Clasp: tiny explosive device with poison needles that can be planted on enemies to kill them after a few seconds
Paladinesque:
Death by 1,000 cuts: Medium-fast multi-strike with sword to multiple targets in an acrobatic way (like Zorro or something)
Black Lotus/Focus: Brief state/buff that slows time *a bit* and gradually returns to normal speed over a minute or so...boosts agility, block stats, reduces casting cost
Ranged-like:
Legionnaire: Multi-weapon combo "state" where reserve ranged weapon is automatically fired (on click) for targets beyond a certain range, and melee is used for close-range. Crit chance increases during this time. Possible "long-term" mana drain depending on lvl. (i.e. lower levels experince greater mana cost/sec)
Assassinate: Ranged attack with 99% chance of critical hit with modifiers for bosses and champions that causes a longer "wind-up" or targeting phase that is disturbed by both movement and getting attacked depending on the "strength" of the target.
I couldn't really think of holy/unholy stuff aside from possible auras and/or spells of some kind...any suggestions?
Oh yea! Maybe some Djinn magic/summoning or genie stuff...some blessings/curses that function like auras
Ok, I wrote this whole other nicely thought out post that just disappeared, so... here's the short version.
1. Teganze (the Witchdoctor's homeland) is not on the map. Why?
2. An "african" land in diablo 3 could be really cool if the devs do their homework (and talk to some african history profs). I think they incorporated an Ibn Battuta -type character (Abd Al-Hazar) that works really well with the synthesis of an ancient mythic world.
3. Kurast is not an Inca/Mayan/Aztec derived name, as far as i know, while Tristram, Caldaeum are clearly European (british/roman respectively).
4. African art and weaponry could really make Teganze sing. Maybe if they got Toumani Djiabate to play some Kora for the music or something, maybe incorporate some african dance or african metallurgy practices in there to make the towns seem really distinct and beautiful, I think that would be awesome.
5. Voodoo is spelled Vodou, first of all. But what is more important is that Vodou is the caribbean derivative of Vodun, which is an east-african religion that is RIPE with spiritual lore and characters that would just fit so well into D3. I think the "unformed land" should be an explorable realm like Heaven or Hell (maybe the battlefield between the two, or some alternate space), using some Vodun and/or Vodou mythology. If the devs and art directors could take some time to go to haiti or west africa, that would be awesome. But since they probably wont, they should take the time to speak with some professors who know about african history (primary sources and all), african and african diasporic religion, and african art/music/dance. Seriously, there is so much, from weapons to mythical bestiaries that could inspire a really awesome addition to the diablo series. (aside from the zombie, which is a western interpretation of a zombi, which is TOTALLY different).
6. I thin this is also true for south asian, east asian, middle eastern, south american, and north american cultures that haven't really been represented or referenced appropriately. All of these cultures deal with good and evil, war and myth, and should be treated as rich cultural resources to add to the depth of the game, as well as its broad appeal. (if it's done the right way...with some good knowledge of history).
So that's about it...(i had more and better with good links and all in the first one, but it was lost). I hope they take advantage of the opportunity they have here to make Teganze BADASS. I'm looking forward to it.
i think it's stunning overall, but there are only a few points i don't like.
as long as they change the lethality animation (which is cheezy when i saw it on youtube) into a more "gruesome death" thing that doesn't look like an aura, i'm happy with everything else. i would like it to be a little less cartoony (but it's a good compromise between realism and cartoon) by making the blood darker, and in general i'm one of those people that wanted it to be a more sinister and edgy-looking game, but i suppose they have their rating to consider. Also there's no accumulation of blood-spatter on the character. I think the death sounds of the monsters are a little too similar, and there should be more to make it seem more realistic, and some sort of animation that gets one monster in a group to point at the character and call his friends over, or get angry, or maybe cower in fear or run away.
However, i do think that their entire artistic theme as it is executed is beautiful in and of itself, and the attention to detail is fantastic. I guess i'm just one of those people who like it darker than the rating may allow.
hmm. the only way that i could see this working is if dungeons and wildernesses were separated from the towns, because if a party comes through and kills everything in a dungeon, and another party comes in, there won't be any monsters to kill.
i like open world for the social aspects, not for the gameplay aspects. I like room-based for the gameplay, but it limits the social elements.
it would be nice to have the town/city areas as open, and the rest as closed (so that you will basically be taken into a "room" alone with your party from there)
yeah, if you wanted to do it online, i think it would be a mix of the alignment factors of those present over the whole level/area, so if a party of like 10 evil people walked into a level section with 10 good people in it, the outcome would be neutral behaviors, but as soon as the good party left, it would all go straight to hell
you could either have the alignments of the characters in solo gameplay and online play separated, or you could have both of them carry over into each other (which I would like to see). It may even be interesting to give (minimal) party buffs based on alignment, so that a mixed party got something for being together, an all-evil party gets something else, and an all-good party gets something else. These buffs could range from the chances for certain items to be dropped to enhancements of certain skills/abilities that are influenced by alignment, or a "thieves/donations" thing that affects gold...all kinds of good stuff...
it would be hilarious to have a party of like the 12 evilest characters, and go into a town, and as soon as they step in, all of a sudden there are brothels opened up, and people are mugging eachother in the streets and all the doors are locked and the trees are dead, and people are getting the plague, etc...
either way, i really think they should make alignment modifiers to character attributes, appearance, and the environment...it could be so sick!
i like the idea in the sense that your gameplay changes your character and his/her gear and attributes over time, but at the same time, i think this is more useful for character uniqueness instead of actual gameplay buffs.
it would be awesome to be able to make your sword a "legendary item" when you kill x amount of baddies with it, so that in it's name, if your character is "Antaeus", the title of the sword becomes..."Antaeus' Blood Scythe" or something like that, which stays with the item if it is sold (unless someone else does enough kills with it). I always hated that you couldn't make your armor a rare item over time by playing long enough in it.
However, it would be cool if you wore a suit of armor that was made of different stuff, but over time, it would start to look alike, and if you wore it long enough it would become a single suit that would bear your name, at which point you could customize it to a certain extent as a bonus.
things like this i think add to the character and customization of the game, but can detract from the gameplay if they are too influential. Things like this should be mostly for the aesthetic of your character, and less for the damage/buffs they get, so i think the alterations based on use should be minimal in relation to the rune system/skill tree, but they should be in there nonetheless for the cool factor.
it would be cool to have some "townsfolk" and depending on your alignment, they would either become more virtuous or depraved depending on your presence. At higher levels, you could enlist familiars (evil) or disciples (good) to fight for you, and they could follow you around based on your alignment score and mana (one time cost). I think it makes it more interesting to have your alignment cause ambient changes in the environment, like if you are super evil and walk into a pub, everyone starts fighting each other and so on...like the longer you are in a place, the darker it becomes, and the more corpses you see around and the more the trees start to die...kind of like the wandering stranger. But, if you are super good, people start having a good time, and helping eachother, and the weather gets nicer, etc... you hear more laughter as opposed to cries or shrieks around town...
i don't know if you could call them "skills" per se, but you could have a skill that could allow you to enlist or posess townspeople and make them your familiar or your disciple...they could equip items you don't need, and so on...it would be pretty cool to have an upper limit of like 12 or so, instead of buying mercenaries. The vassals could get a certain percentage of your skills/stats when they enlist/are posessed, and you share your life with them (you won't die if they are killed, but their life is a percentage of your own).
it would be crazy if you could leave a town with like 12 people and walk into a dungeon...they're all carrying crosses or holy things and singing and stuff...(or an unholy parade of sinners and criminals!!)
I do think it would be cool to have meditations or curses, and there would be cool animations along with them that were alignment-based, so holy characters would pray (like num3n suggested) and unholy characters would do some sort of hand symbol or bite somebody or go crazy like the thousand pounder with light trails...
i think that the alignment stuff needs to be used for more cool effects...it adds character to the game, and while it shouldn't be like Fable necessarily in that sense, i think they could come up with more interesting repercussions of your alignment on the environment outside of the gameplay, so that you would essentially be evolving from an average human into a "boss" of your choosing as you go through the game...from a noob into "the butcher" or "azrael" or whatever...
angels = paternalistic authoritarians driven by self-righteousness with strict hierarchies based on law
demons = decentralized meritocrats driven by ambition with fluid hierarchies based on strength
i think what would be better is that you get skill bonuses based on your gameplay and experiences based on the things you don't control. so if you come across a bunch of monsters with cold and defeat them, your cold resistance goes up by some small amount... or if you get hit by baddies all the time, your base armor points increase by a percentage...
so there are these non-skill buffs that are affected by your gameplay, but don't interfere with the direction you want to take your character. kind of like the fallout buffs...
Witchdoctor: astral projection: projects into the unformed land (change in scenery obviously here) and does damage to multiple enemies as a spirit entity for a short period
i'd like to see changes in the characters as they level with a sin/virtue system or something...so that eventually you can become angelic or demonic, which has their own skill trees...
you can fight your way through either realm (hell or heaven) to become the ruler of one and the conqueror of the other. or, you can stay human and destroy both because you are sick of them all.
0
The Janissary (name can be different) would be perfect as a dark "mercenary" class, because it could function between a paladin class, rogue class, and ranged class, depending on how it is outfitted. The key would be to arrange the skill tree so that the skills would be relevant to multiple builds/equips. (this is not my art...obviously it would look cooler).
The way i think of it is imagine a musketeer (w/o musket) who spent some time in japan to train in ninjitsu, and then came back through mongolia and into the middle east/Ottoman empire to fight as a mercenary for cash. Can use small bucklers with bows.
Could be a "dark" class...maybe developed a use for a range of good/evil spells/energy
In terms of skills:
Roguish:
Fog of War: Ninja smokebomb that blinds/slows enemies with smoke and cripples with schrapnel (could be runed up to clusterbomb/grenade or something)
Camouflage/Shapeshift: Can take form of enemies and move undetected for an amount of time
Poison Clasp: tiny explosive device with poison needles that can be planted on enemies to kill them after a few seconds
Paladinesque:
Death by 1,000 cuts: Medium-fast multi-strike with sword to multiple targets in an acrobatic way (like Zorro or something)
Black Lotus/Focus: Brief state/buff that slows time *a bit* and gradually returns to normal speed over a minute or so...boosts agility, block stats, reduces casting cost
Ranged-like:
Legionnaire: Multi-weapon combo "state" where reserve ranged weapon is automatically fired (on click) for targets beyond a certain range, and melee is used for close-range. Crit chance increases during this time. Possible "long-term" mana drain depending on lvl. (i.e. lower levels experince greater mana cost/sec)
Assassinate: Ranged attack with 99% chance of critical hit with modifiers for bosses and champions that causes a longer "wind-up" or targeting phase that is disturbed by both movement and getting attacked depending on the "strength" of the target.
I couldn't really think of holy/unholy stuff aside from possible auras and/or spells of some kind...any suggestions?
Oh yea! Maybe some Djinn magic/summoning or genie stuff...some blessings/curses that function like auras
0
THAT IS SO AWESOME HELL YES
dagger+evil spells+shapeshifting(demonic transformation)
astral projection?
sacrifice?
cannibalism?
chakra?
poison?
the possibilities are endless!!!
0
1. Teganze (the Witchdoctor's homeland) is not on the map. Why?
2. An "african" land in diablo 3 could be really cool if the devs do their homework (and talk to some african history profs). I think they incorporated an Ibn Battuta -type character (Abd Al-Hazar) that works really well with the synthesis of an ancient mythic world.
3. Kurast is not an Inca/Mayan/Aztec derived name, as far as i know, while Tristram, Caldaeum are clearly European (british/roman respectively).
4. African art and weaponry could really make Teganze sing. Maybe if they got Toumani Djiabate to play some Kora for the music or something, maybe incorporate some african dance or african metallurgy practices in there to make the towns seem really distinct and beautiful, I think that would be awesome.
5. Voodoo is spelled Vodou, first of all. But what is more important is that Vodou is the caribbean derivative of Vodun, which is an east-african religion that is RIPE with spiritual lore and characters that would just fit so well into D3. I think the "unformed land" should be an explorable realm like Heaven or Hell (maybe the battlefield between the two, or some alternate space), using some Vodun and/or Vodou mythology. If the devs and art directors could take some time to go to haiti or west africa, that would be awesome. But since they probably wont, they should take the time to speak with some professors who know about african history (primary sources and all), african and african diasporic religion, and african art/music/dance. Seriously, there is so much, from weapons to mythical bestiaries that could inspire a really awesome addition to the diablo series. (aside from the zombie, which is a western interpretation of a zombi, which is TOTALLY different).
6. I thin this is also true for south asian, east asian, middle eastern, south american, and north american cultures that haven't really been represented or referenced appropriately. All of these cultures deal with good and evil, war and myth, and should be treated as rich cultural resources to add to the depth of the game, as well as its broad appeal. (if it's done the right way...with some good knowledge of history).
So that's about it...(i had more and better with good links and all in the first one, but it was lost). I hope they take advantage of the opportunity they have here to make Teganze BADASS. I'm looking forward to it.
0
as long as they change the lethality animation (which is cheezy when i saw it on youtube) into a more "gruesome death" thing that doesn't look like an aura, i'm happy with everything else. i would like it to be a little less cartoony (but it's a good compromise between realism and cartoon) by making the blood darker, and in general i'm one of those people that wanted it to be a more sinister and edgy-looking game, but i suppose they have their rating to consider. Also there's no accumulation of blood-spatter on the character. I think the death sounds of the monsters are a little too similar, and there should be more to make it seem more realistic, and some sort of animation that gets one monster in a group to point at the character and call his friends over, or get angry, or maybe cower in fear or run away.
However, i do think that their entire artistic theme as it is executed is beautiful in and of itself, and the attention to detail is fantastic. I guess i'm just one of those people who like it darker than the rating may allow.
0
i like open world for the social aspects, not for the gameplay aspects. I like room-based for the gameplay, but it limits the social elements.
it would be nice to have the town/city areas as open, and the rest as closed (so that you will basically be taken into a "room" alone with your party from there)
0
you could either have the alignments of the characters in solo gameplay and online play separated, or you could have both of them carry over into each other (which I would like to see). It may even be interesting to give (minimal) party buffs based on alignment, so that a mixed party got something for being together, an all-evil party gets something else, and an all-good party gets something else. These buffs could range from the chances for certain items to be dropped to enhancements of certain skills/abilities that are influenced by alignment, or a "thieves/donations" thing that affects gold...all kinds of good stuff...
it would be hilarious to have a party of like the 12 evilest characters, and go into a town, and as soon as they step in, all of a sudden there are brothels opened up, and people are mugging eachother in the streets and all the doors are locked and the trees are dead, and people are getting the plague, etc...
either way, i really think they should make alignment modifiers to character attributes, appearance, and the environment...it could be so sick!
0
their souls would kind of be like a dropped item
0
it would be awesome to be able to make your sword a "legendary item" when you kill x amount of baddies with it, so that in it's name, if your character is "Antaeus", the title of the sword becomes..."Antaeus' Blood Scythe" or something like that, which stays with the item if it is sold (unless someone else does enough kills with it). I always hated that you couldn't make your armor a rare item over time by playing long enough in it.
However, it would be cool if you wore a suit of armor that was made of different stuff, but over time, it would start to look alike, and if you wore it long enough it would become a single suit that would bear your name, at which point you could customize it to a certain extent as a bonus.
things like this i think add to the character and customization of the game, but can detract from the gameplay if they are too influential. Things like this should be mostly for the aesthetic of your character, and less for the damage/buffs they get, so i think the alterations based on use should be minimal in relation to the rune system/skill tree, but they should be in there nonetheless for the cool factor.
0
0
i don't know if you could call them "skills" per se, but you could have a skill that could allow you to enlist or posess townspeople and make them your familiar or your disciple...they could equip items you don't need, and so on...it would be pretty cool to have an upper limit of like 12 or so, instead of buying mercenaries. The vassals could get a certain percentage of your skills/stats when they enlist/are posessed, and you share your life with them (you won't die if they are killed, but their life is a percentage of your own).
it would be crazy if you could leave a town with like 12 people and walk into a dungeon...they're all carrying crosses or holy things and singing and stuff...(or an unholy parade of sinners and criminals!!)
I do think it would be cool to have meditations or curses, and there would be cool animations along with them that were alignment-based, so holy characters would pray (like num3n suggested) and unholy characters would do some sort of hand symbol or bite somebody or go crazy like the thousand pounder with light trails...
i think that the alignment stuff needs to be used for more cool effects...it adds character to the game, and while it shouldn't be like Fable necessarily in that sense, i think they could come up with more interesting repercussions of your alignment on the environment outside of the gameplay, so that you would essentially be evolving from an average human into a "boss" of your choosing as you go through the game...from a noob into "the butcher" or "azrael" or whatever...
0
demons = decentralized meritocrats driven by ambition with fluid hierarchies based on strength
0
so there are these non-skill buffs that are affected by your gameplay, but don't interfere with the direction you want to take your character. kind of like the fallout buffs...
i like those kinds of things...great idea.
0
i'd like to see changes in the characters as they level with a sin/virtue system or something...so that eventually you can become angelic or demonic, which has their own skill trees...
you can fight your way through either realm (hell or heaven) to become the ruler of one and the conqueror of the other. or, you can stay human and destroy both because you are sick of them all.
i like progressive customization....