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Quote from Bashiok »

But remove the word rune, and you're looking at a system that simply upgrades items.

Similarly, runes in Diablo III, take away the word rune and we're looking at a system where skills and abilities can be altered to behave differently, simply increased in effectiveness, or some combination thereof.

I think Blizzard should think about changing the nomenclature. If people are having that much difficulty understanding how the system works just because the word "rune" is used, they should use a different word.

As for why system I would like to see to upgrade weapons, I like the gems from Diablo II.

I wish the D2 gems actually scaled properly. They did not do nearly enough damage by the time Nightmare/Hell rolled around. It was high runes or bust.

I know that Bashiok would like to make money worth more in Diablo 3 than in Diablo 2, so I think a good way to kill two birds with one stone is to have a blacksmith system. Upgrade weapons with cash. Better blacksmiths cost more, and would be found in different areas. You could pay more for magic upgrades, maybe also have some kind of system in which you can only upgrade a weapon so many times.

In my opinion there really is no reason to upgrade weapons other than end game items. Any other item you could simply replace rather then "upgrade" your current one. To implement an entire system for end game seems a little redundant to me. I would prefer more items all together. More uniques, magic, and or set items. Customization can come from what type of unique you use (a unique that adds strength and knock back or a different unique that adds + to skill). Lets face it, everybody used the same rune words anyway so it really didn't customize anything.

I think it is pretty obvious that it will be multiple things.

Enchantments using some sort of materials, gems, jewels, skills (They might put 'professions' into D3)... And any number of other things you can think of.

I think Blizzard knows items and enhancing items is the key to the entire series, even more so than game play, so they will pull out all of the stops to make equipment as customizable as possible.

Quote from "scyberdragon" »

In my opinion there really is no reason to upgrade weapons other than end game items. Any other item you could simply replace rather then "upgrade" your current one. To implement an entire system for end game seems a little redundant to me. I would prefer more items all together. More uniques, magic, and or set items. Customization can come from what type of unique you use (a unique that adds strength and knock back or a different unique that adds + to skill). Lets face it, everybody used the same rune words anyway so it really didn't customize anything.

Yeah I totally agree. The point you make about how in d2 everyone just ended up using the same gear in the end should be taken into consideration by blizzard. Players will always find out what the best items are for what class/build and before you know it it will become a cookie cutter just like d2 and everyone will be using them. However, if they can create mass amounts of uniques/items that can cause some more 'compitition' between other items it will give users alot more choice in regards to what gear to use when at end game. for example for a wizard have like 5 or 6 different choices for end gear wands each with their own disadvantages and advantages and make it an actual tough decision for the user to pick between them and they have to consider their playing style etc (this can be hard to keep it balanced tho if not people will just still start leaning towards 1 specific wand and everyone will use it). In d2 they had plenty of items but not really for end gear. example in d2 for a poison necro the only good top end wand was Death's Web, not much choice This along with rune skill customization, awesome random stat generating rare items and then gem/jewell for gear customization should offer plenty.

also sorry if my post is hard to read or doesn't make sense, im at work and just typed if heaps fast lol

Actually I loved the system in HGL. You could break down dropped items to different components and then use them in combination with a rarely acquired component (nano shard) to upgrade your weapon even higher. On top of that there was the ability to add specific items to a weapon to give them specific and known properties (mainly elemental damage) but it also altered its appearance. It at least gave you something to do with good drops on weapons you could use other than hock them.

Just use the K.I.S.S. method and adopt the basic item enchants from WoW. The main difference being have the enchants gained from an NPC and the needed components as drops from various mobs created another economic facet to the game.

I always thought runes just made it even more apparent that coins never did what they were supposed to do.

I have a feeling they have something up their sleeves that will be better than runewords...

Definitely through use of the Blacksmith.

Quote from "AcidReign" »

I have a feeling they have something up their sleeves that will be better than runewords...

Indeed. It's always nice to expect those kinds of surprises.

Quote from "naksucow" »

I know that Bashiok would like to make money worth more in Diablo 3 than in Diablo 2, so I think a good way to kill two birds with one stone is to have a blacksmith system. Upgrade weapons with cash. Better blacksmiths cost more, and would be found in different areas. You could pay more for magic upgrades, maybe also have some kind of system in which you can only upgrade a weapon so many times.

I do quite like that system. Say you could pay to make whatever item (let's say just basic, non-magical) get properties. Now, the number of properties would obviously be capped, costing more each time.

Let's say with the parameters you could get potentially one of the best items in the game, assuming you "upgrade" a good item, just like some rare's can potentially be better than elite uniques in D2.

Who wouldn't use it? Gives a potentially great reward, would be kind of like gambling, except hopefully more effective. If you have already used say, 3 upgrades on it which are average, do you go for the 4th, costing a lot, in the hope that it will make your weapon great, or do you start again with a new item?

Quote from "pernunz" »

I do quite like that system. Say you could pay to make whatever item (let's say just basic, non-magical) get properties. Now, the number of properties would obviously be capped, costing more each time.

Let's say with the parameters you could get potentially one of the best items in the game, assuming you "upgrade" a good item, just like some rare's can potentially be better than elite uniques in D2.

Who wouldn't use it? Gives a potentially great reward, would be kind of like gambling, except hopefully more effective. If you have already used say, 3 upgrades on it which are average, do you go for the 4th, costing a lot, in the hope that it will make your weapon great, or do you start again with a new item?

I never upgrade.

I for one love the new system there making everything I've been waiting for in a rpg, the rune skill system is going to be kick ass, I get the idea that it will be like we will get something like a set limit of sockets per skill for each character, if we put the runes in a certain order we would get a uber skill level, while also having different sets of uber skills for each rune combination for that single skill like 6 or 10 different uber levels where it would depend on what skills you all ready have learned, each would have there pros and cons with the different abilities you would want, like say you have the barb and when you make an uber level on whirlwind it would do something like, +25 cold dmg, Stuns target, 20% life stolen, 10% mana stolen then for the rest it would differ for each uber rune skill or something a long the lines of that.

Quote from "naksucow" »

I know that Bashiok would like to make money worth more in Diablo 3 than in Diablo 2, so I think a good way to kill two birds with one stone is to have a blacksmith system. Upgrade weapons with cash. Better blacksmiths cost more, and would be found in different areas. You could pay more for magic upgrades, maybe also have some kind of system in which you can only upgrade a weapon so many times.

I like this idea but instead of just upgrading with money maybe have it where you need to find certain gems, skulls, and jewels with money as well where it could be like ivaron said "Oh hey I just found this cool weapon with 2 slots .. now which of these gems am I gonna use to customize it? What do I need right now.. cold, fire, lightning? Well I'm already doing lightning damage from my skills, so.. Cold and fire it is!" by using a blacksmith or jewel, gem crafter but have it where you need to do certain quests from the blacksmith or the jewel, gem crafter in order to receive higher upgrades for your weapons like trust quests, need to earn there trust for them to upgrade your weapons where you would of have to saved alot of gold for it but when you finish the trust quest you dont get any gold from it, the reward is them allowing to upgrade your weapon and you wouldnt be allowed to upgrade it again untill either getting to a higher level in that area or moving on to another area and doing another trust quest for either the blacksmith or the jewel, gem crafter.

... by using a blacksmith or jewel, gem crafter but have it where you need to do certain quests from the blacksmith or the jewel, gem crafter in order to receive higher upgrades for your weapons like trust quests, need to earn there trust for them to upgrade your weapons where you would of have to saved alot of gold for it but when you finish the trust quest you dont get any gold from it, the reward is them allowing to upgrade your weapon and you wouldnt be allowed to upgrade it again untill either getting to a higher level in that area or moving on to another area and doing another trust quest for either the blacksmith or the jewel, gem crafter.[/quote]
I think this would be fun, and would add more depth to the game. I would also like it if different blacksmiths specialized in different things, i.e. helmets, chest plate, leggings, etc.

Quote from "Bluntman" »

... by using a blacksmith or jewel, gem crafter but have it where you need to do certain quests from the blacksmith or the jewel, gem crafter in order to receive higher upgrades for your weapons like trust quests, need to earn there trust for them to upgrade your weapons where you would of have to saved alot of gold for it but when you finish the trust quest you dont get any gold from it, the reward is them allowing to upgrade your weapon and you wouldnt be allowed to upgrade it again untill either getting to a higher level in that area or moving on to another area and doing another trust quest for either the blacksmith or the jewel, gem crafter.

I think that would be fun, and would add depth to the game. I would also like it if blacksmiths specialized in different pieces of armor, i.e. helmets, chest plate, legging, etc.

I would like to see a system for leveling up equipment in Diablo 3. The one good thing Hellgate London did (literally one, I counted) was having an item forge that allowed you to bring the stats of your favorite equipment up to the standard required for your current level.

Having an item forge that allowed players to 'level up' equipment would also solve the problem of how to improve set items. Item sets in Diablo II were a lot of fun, and gave neat bonuses unavailable elsewhere, but by the time you collected an entire set its stats would be inappropriate for the level of enemies you were facing.

With an item forge, if you find a Wand of Chicken at level 1 with low stats but a good chance to change enemies into chickens, you could keep it throughout the game and do decent damage.

In Hellgate, you could only level up a weapon every 5 levels you earned, and it only improved base damage dealing or damage resistance stats, never touching special damage or effects. A Diablo item forge could be similar, never re-rolling the number of gem slots or special effects, only the base stats.