Alright, if there was a shapeshifter class name some cool ideas of spells and abilities he/she should have. I'll start off naming a couple.
Elemental Rage (the name can be changed, if the devs want) - Shapeshifter becomes made out of any element (earth, water, fire, air) and gains different strategic advantages while in this form.
Earth - While in earth form the caster is much more resistant to attacks and does double damage when he is attacking melee. It is an armor bonus and attack bonus.
Water - While in water form, any non-magical attacks pass right through the caster dealing no damage, but the caster suffers from a lack of damage dealt to enemies when dealing melee. Caster also suffers extra damage from magic attacks while in this form.
Fire - Caster's whole body becomes fire and he deals fire damage just by touching an enemy. He can walk through any living thing and when he does it burns their life away.
Air - Caster is virtually invisible in this form but can not attack.
Consume - Caster can use this ability to consume the form of any non-boss creature that is near death. Upon consuming an enemy, the caster stores their form in one of 5 available shape shifting slots. At any time he can discard one form stored in a slot so he can replace it with another.
The caster has the ability to shape shift into anything he has consumed and that is stored in a slot. When in the form of an enemy, the caster has all of the creature's weapons, abilities and spells available for use. He can pass behind enemy lines in the form of this disguise, without being attack until he provokes an attack. At that point, any creatures who have witnessed him attacking will turn on the shape shifter and attack.
The duration a caster can remain in the form of enemy depends on their level. It drains mana over time to remain in this form, though using the consumed creature's spells and abilities drains no mana whatsoever. When the caster's mana inevitably reaches 0, he is transformed back into himself. Therefore, extremely powerful and high level shape shifters can remain in the form of enemy for VERY long time periods.
There's no more love for us monsters any more. :/ Everyone wants to be the goody two-shoes who saves the world. Well, EVERY game lets you do that. It's getting old.
I was huge fan of the second one (and the first) and had a blast modding it. I know Blizzard announced they "don't like people hacking their games", but does that mean they won't provide tools for the modding community? If that does mean that, it just sounds as an excuse for being lazy and not wanting to spend another month or two preparing the SDK to release.
Maybe they will instead give us a controlled game editor so we don't have to mod it? Not like a map editor, but like a character class editor, monster editor, weapon/item/spell editor? I think it would be really cool if we could swap the appearance of any character or monster in the game with different appearances, at least to experiment for our mod. The shelf life of the game seems REALLY shortened by not having the capabilities to mod. I mean, I STILL play Diablo II every weekend simply because of modding and I bought it the day it came out.
Then again, I don't think Blizzard is very committed to this sort of thing any more. I mean, it took them like 8 years or more to finish StarCraft II and they're still not finished. I don't know if they just sit around their offices eating pizza and watching Family Guy all day, but Epic finished Gears of War 2 in like 2 years and that game was amazing.
EDIT: Okay, I called it the solution to PvP, but it's not a solution. It's more of a different style of PvP. It would be nice to have both normal PvP and this as well.
Okay, so right off the bat, a lot of you won't like the sound of Players vs. Monster Players, but read everything I have to say before you provide input.
Left 4 Dead handled versus mode AMAZINGLY. After realizing the way L4D decided where to spawn boss infected and normal infected, I saw it was quite similar to the way monsters were spawned in Diablo II.
Now, this is where everything gets really complicated, yet interesting, so you're going to want to read on.
When joining an online match, you can choose to either jump into a game with empty player slots as your BattleNet character OR choose 'Monster Play' and join a game, no matter how many player characters are already in that game. When you join, it doesn't tell any of the current players playing that there will be human controlled monsters in the world -- they are oblivious to the fact you are even there.
Monster players can see messages that the normal player characters are sending to each other, to coordinate attacks, but the normal player characters can not see what the monster players are typing to each other -- they must remain COMPLETELY oblivious to the fact that monster players are in the game.
Now, you're probably wondering how the game decides which monster(s) you spawn as, right? It bases it off the level of your strongest normal BattleNet character. Using the level number, it randomly decides what to spawn you as and where to spawn you, based on the current level and location of player characters.
Let's say your most powerful normal BattleNet character is level 42. I don't even know what the level cap is, but that doesn't matter. This is all for demonstration. ;]
If the majority of the players in the game are fairly weak and still in the easier areas of the game world, the game will spawn you as a random assortment of monsters in the same area as one of the player characters, but the level of the monsters you control will all add up to your player character's level of 42. You will be able to control your monsters in a 'free-cam' RTS style. If you want to access their individual special abilities and spells, just individually select one of them. So you may be spawned as five level 5 fallen ones, two level 6 fallen shamans, and one level 5 zombie -- which all adds up to your player character's level of level 42. It's all random, based off the area the player characters are in and based off your character level.
So, let's keep in mind your most powerful normal character is at level 42.
Now pretend there is a strong player character in hell, while you are in monster mode, but there are also three weaker characters in the game in other parts of the world. There is a chance that the game will want to spawn you near the more powerful character, just as much as there is a chance it will spawn you near the weaker characters. If you happen to be spawned somewhere in hell, near the powerful character, the game will be more likely to spawn you as fewer units, yet of greater power. Maybe 2 level 16 balrogs and a level 10 death knight. Again, it's all random.
Finding the players and getting right to the action...
To be able to quickly hunt down the player characters and get right into the action, without wandering around too much. Certain areas of the border of your screen will glow either red, yellow, or green indicating how close the player characters are. For example, imagine you are spawned into the game world maybe 4 screens away from the nearest player character and they are in the direction of the bottom right hand corner of your screen. A two inch wide yellow tint will encompass the border of your screen, because they are not too far away (if they were it would be red) and you are not quite very close to them yet (if you were it would be green). So you automatically know, the quickest way to get to the player characters is to follow the bottom right hand corner of your screen.
But the player character doesn't just stand there. She moves upwards a screen or two as you get closer to her. This 2 inch tint would then move up the side of the border of the screen to tell you that is the quickest way to get to her. As you approach her, the side of the screen would turn green, until she was in your screen. At this point, the glowing would stop.
Keep in mind, there will be a 2 inch slightly tinted are on the border of your screen for every character that is in the game. The farther they are away from you, not only will it be red, but the tint will diminish to the point it is hardly noticeable. You will only see the tint if they are within a reasonable distance to pursue and attack.
Death and respawning...
Once all of your currently spawned minions are slain, the game will immediately re-spawn you near a new random character with a new random selected group of minions adding up to your main character's level. Not waiting, no delay. Right to the instant, explosive action!
With the click of a button, you can even force respawn, if you get bored controlling your current set of units or if you choose to do so because there are no more player characters near by. Upon clicking 'force respawn'...
A) IF there are no player characters within site of your current controlled units, they will all instantly be deleted from the game and you will automatically respawn with a new random set of minions near a new random player. IF there ARE player characters within site of your current controlled units, it will surrender control of your minions to the AI and you will automatically respawn with a new random set of minions near a new random player.
However, there is a 1 minute cool-down timer on the 'force respawn' function, to prevent monster players from spamming the world with monsters.
So what's the point of Monster Play? How does it even benefit your main character?
Well, there are a number of ways. For one, with every successful hit you land on player characters you get a very small amount of XP added to your current most powerful character on BattleNet. If you happen to successfully KILL a player character, you get a lot more XP, based on how powerful that character was.
Additionally, if you kill a player character that is above level 10, the game will present you an option of receiving a copy of whatever their most powerful item is in their inventory for your own main character. You can always tell the game 'No', if you don't want it.
Not only is it a great alternative way to play Diablo III, when the normal game gets stale, but you'll actually be growing and enhancing your main character while you enjoy it!
What do you all think of this as a PvP alternative?
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If this character was a Zakarum that would be the character I would ALWAYS play hands down.
I would also kind of like to play a Zakarum Cantor or High Council Member from Diablo II.
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Elemental Rage (the name can be changed, if the devs want) - Shapeshifter becomes made out of any element (earth, water, fire, air) and gains different strategic advantages while in this form.
Earth - While in earth form the caster is much more resistant to attacks and does double damage when he is attacking melee. It is an armor bonus and attack bonus.
Water - While in water form, any non-magical attacks pass right through the caster dealing no damage, but the caster suffers from a lack of damage dealt to enemies when dealing melee. Caster also suffers extra damage from magic attacks while in this form.
Fire - Caster's whole body becomes fire and he deals fire damage just by touching an enemy. He can walk through any living thing and when he does it burns their life away.
Air - Caster is virtually invisible in this form but can not attack.
Consume - Caster can use this ability to consume the form of any non-boss creature that is near death. Upon consuming an enemy, the caster stores their form in one of 5 available shape shifting slots. At any time he can discard one form stored in a slot so he can replace it with another.
The caster has the ability to shape shift into anything he has consumed and that is stored in a slot. When in the form of an enemy, the caster has all of the creature's weapons, abilities and spells available for use. He can pass behind enemy lines in the form of this disguise, without being attack until he provokes an attack. At that point, any creatures who have witnessed him attacking will turn on the shape shifter and attack.
The duration a caster can remain in the form of enemy depends on their level. It drains mana over time to remain in this form, though using the consumed creature's spells and abilities drains no mana whatsoever. When the caster's mana inevitably reaches 0, he is transformed back into himself. Therefore, extremely powerful and high level shape shifters can remain in the form of enemy for VERY long time periods.
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Maybe they will instead give us a controlled game editor so we don't have to mod it? Not like a map editor, but like a character class editor, monster editor, weapon/item/spell editor? I think it would be really cool if we could swap the appearance of any character or monster in the game with different appearances, at least to experiment for our mod. The shelf life of the game seems REALLY shortened by not having the capabilities to mod. I mean, I STILL play Diablo II every weekend simply because of modding and I bought it the day it came out.
Then again, I don't think Blizzard is very committed to this sort of thing any more. I mean, it took them like 8 years or more to finish StarCraft II and they're still not finished. I don't know if they just sit around their offices eating pizza and watching Family Guy all day, but Epic finished Gears of War 2 in like 2 years and that game was amazing.
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I am sure it would work in this style of game, cos the action is so fast paced and intense.
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Okay, so right off the bat, a lot of you won't like the sound of Players vs. Monster Players, but read everything I have to say before you provide input.
Left 4 Dead handled versus mode AMAZINGLY. After realizing the way L4D decided where to spawn boss infected and normal infected, I saw it was quite similar to the way monsters were spawned in Diablo II.
Now, this is where everything gets really complicated, yet interesting, so you're going to want to read on.
When joining an online match, you can choose to either jump into a game with empty player slots as your BattleNet character OR choose 'Monster Play' and join a game, no matter how many player characters are already in that game. When you join, it doesn't tell any of the current players playing that there will be human controlled monsters in the world -- they are oblivious to the fact you are even there.
Monster players can see messages that the normal player characters are sending to each other, to coordinate attacks, but the normal player characters can not see what the monster players are typing to each other -- they must remain COMPLETELY oblivious to the fact that monster players are in the game.
Now, you're probably wondering how the game decides which monster(s) you spawn as, right? It bases it off the level of your strongest normal BattleNet character. Using the level number, it randomly decides what to spawn you as and where to spawn you, based on the current level and location of player characters.
Let's say your most powerful normal BattleNet character is level 42. I don't even know what the level cap is, but that doesn't matter. This is all for demonstration. ;]
If the majority of the players in the game are fairly weak and still in the easier areas of the game world, the game will spawn you as a random assortment of monsters in the same area as one of the player characters, but the level of the monsters you control will all add up to your player character's level of 42. You will be able to control your monsters in a 'free-cam' RTS style. If you want to access their individual special abilities and spells, just individually select one of them. So you may be spawned as five level 5 fallen ones, two level 6 fallen shamans, and one level 5 zombie -- which all adds up to your player character's level of level 42. It's all random, based off the area the player characters are in and based off your character level.
So, let's keep in mind your most powerful normal character is at level 42.
Now pretend there is a strong player character in hell, while you are in monster mode, but there are also three weaker characters in the game in other parts of the world. There is a chance that the game will want to spawn you near the more powerful character, just as much as there is a chance it will spawn you near the weaker characters. If you happen to be spawned somewhere in hell, near the powerful character, the game will be more likely to spawn you as fewer units, yet of greater power. Maybe 2 level 16 balrogs and a level 10 death knight. Again, it's all random.
Finding the players and getting right to the action...
To be able to quickly hunt down the player characters and get right into the action, without wandering around too much. Certain areas of the border of your screen will glow either red, yellow, or green indicating how close the player characters are. For example, imagine you are spawned into the game world maybe 4 screens away from the nearest player character and they are in the direction of the bottom right hand corner of your screen. A two inch wide yellow tint will encompass the border of your screen, because they are not too far away (if they were it would be red) and you are not quite very close to them yet (if you were it would be green). So you automatically know, the quickest way to get to the player characters is to follow the bottom right hand corner of your screen.
But the player character doesn't just stand there. She moves upwards a screen or two as you get closer to her. This 2 inch tint would then move up the side of the border of the screen to tell you that is the quickest way to get to her. As you approach her, the side of the screen would turn green, until she was in your screen. At this point, the glowing would stop.
Keep in mind, there will be a 2 inch slightly tinted are on the border of your screen for every character that is in the game. The farther they are away from you, not only will it be red, but the tint will diminish to the point it is hardly noticeable. You will only see the tint if they are within a reasonable distance to pursue and attack.
Death and respawning...
Once all of your currently spawned minions are slain, the game will immediately re-spawn you near a new random character with a new random selected group of minions adding up to your main character's level. Not waiting, no delay. Right to the instant, explosive action!
With the click of a button, you can even force respawn, if you get bored controlling your current set of units or if you choose to do so because there are no more player characters near by. Upon clicking 'force respawn'...
A) IF there are no player characters within site of your current controlled units, they will all instantly be deleted from the game and you will automatically respawn with a new random set of minions near a new random player.
However, there is a 1 minute cool-down timer on the 'force respawn' function, to prevent monster players from spamming the world with monsters.
So what's the point of Monster Play? How does it even benefit your main character?
Well, there are a number of ways. For one, with every successful hit you land on player characters you get a very small amount of XP added to your current most powerful character on BattleNet. If you happen to successfully KILL a player character, you get a lot more XP, based on how powerful that character was.
Additionally, if you kill a player character that is above level 10, the game will present you an option of receiving a copy of whatever their most powerful item is in their inventory for your own main character. You can always tell the game 'No', if you don't want it.
Not only is it a great alternative way to play Diablo III, when the normal game gets stale, but you'll actually be growing and enhancing your main character while you enjoy it!
What do you all think of this as a PvP alternative?