So, it's almost Valentine's Day. What's that? You have no one to share your heart-shaped sugar-candies with? Well, that's too bad. Unless you're wholly addicted to sugar-candies. But, that's another story.

I can offer you a fraction of an hour of entertainment, however. So, let's start this thing off...

Next Week's Topic Will Be:

What is the most times you've died against one opponent? What were the circumstances?

Send your thoughts in to feedback@planetdiablo.com!

Last bag's topic: If there was anything you could change about Diablo II, what would it be? Other than the obvious connectivity issues. Perhaps certain gameplay elements?

The following are largely opinions on the subject, so I'll leave it up to you, the reader, to form your own opinions -- with minimal comment from me:

From: Fenris
Subject: one change to Diablo 2 that I'd like to see

Hiya,

Some of the changes I would like to see made to Diablo 2 are being addressed in the expansion (better set items, socketable magic and rare items, more monsters, more areas , more, more, more... sorry, I just got carried away for a moment..) but if there was only one thing I could change it would be to add random quests to all of the acts. Here's how I see it... Each act (except 4) has 6 quests, but not all of them are quest related and some of them aren't really separate quests at all (the Kill Summoner quest from Act 2 springs to mind...) Why not have a pool of quests for each Act that are randomly chosen for each game as well as the plot specific quests (there are extra sub-areas available in most acts, and you could have 6 quests for Act 4 instead of a measly 3...) If you also have different rewards for each of these random quests, the replayability of the game goes up as players try to do all the quests and get all of the different rewards (or certain ones they want to get again).

Fenris.

PS I found a way to beat lag and connectivity issues... I switched from the Asia Realm (I'm from New Zealand, so that was my default) to USWest. Consequently when I log on to play the time difference means the USWest realm is pretty quiet, and I don't have the problems I was having joining or creating games I regularly ran into on Asis, plus lag is almost non-existent (it's still there, but nowhere near the problem it was...) And before anybody gets on my case about switching realms, Patch 1.02 switched the default realm for Australia from Asia to USWest and New Zealand is further from Korea than Australia is... Besides, this way there's a good chance I can get a game with players who speak English (or at least American...)


From: Keith
Subject: this week's topic

I've never really posted to this site, but I feel I have something to contribute on this topic. I think there is one majr thing that I would change in Diablo II. It is simply the random quest generator from Diablo I. Right now there is no reason to play single player over multiplayer except for the lag issue. Otherwise there are no game differences. I loved that in Diablo I there was a real reason to play single player. You only got certain quests in single player and also with that you only got certain items in single player. I loved that the game was a little different each time you played single player because the quests would change. The random quest generator gave the average game player a reason to player the game more than once; you wanted to play the other quests. In Diablo I, I played single player a lot to get the other quests and such. It added to the replayability of the game. Now in Diablo II the only reason to keep playing the game is to advance your character. In my opinion taking out the random quest generator made the game less of a general "hit" than Diablo I. In Diablo II unless your into the "RPGness" of building characters there is less of a reason to play D II than Diablo I.


From: MRIND
Subject: Blackbook

Might sound stupid, but a real easy thing to do... A buddies or partners list (or a little 'blackbook'). This list keeps a character name and type list of those folks you want to look up everytime you come back to play. This list should be accessible from the channels, and perhaps even list if they are in game or in a particular channel. Saves me alot of time whispering to folks wondering if they are there to play or just ask around if anyone has that frosty weapon. An updated list of their level would be nice, but probably more of a strain on the servers to look this up for all of your friends each time you bring it up. You should also be able to add players to your list in game or out, (heck if the chat rooms know which weapons you are holding, you can add folks to your blockbook them from within the game). If I get into a game with some folks who play well, and I would like to find them again without having to whois... it would be alot easier to keep a cohesive party together. My pad of paper listing folks sucks, I want it online, with a locater and whisper button.
.

From: Jake
Subject: If there was something I could change about Diablo 2, what would it be?

I think the game play is amazing! What I've had a beef with is the resolution and color depth. Their choice is good, I mean the game looks clean and all, but while I sit here watching the happy resolution, my 32 meg video card is crying for attention. A weird thing is, the happy little program that autoselects a 'suggested' type of video card mode always gives me the damn 2D. I run Unreal Tournament and Counter-strike in 1280x1024 flawlessly, why does it think that my video card can't handle a minimal depth, low resolution game? Another thing I would have liked is the ability to create genders. Y'know it's kind of messed up when you are running around a Blizzard server with your high level Sorc and these damn 12 year olds keep hitting on you like you're some hot chick on the other end of the computer screen.Female necromancers, male amazons.... eh It'd be odd but hey, it's a damn game:) Hoping that this will be different by Expansion, the sets are basically worthless. I have a Barbarian that's level 17, he has Bezerkers crap and well... it's worthless. The best set falls short to a freaking rare item. And my last gripe is what I call the funnel affect. At high levels, characters basically turn into one type. I had a spearazon, whipped ass all the way through nightmare. When I got to hell, I was molested in the worst way so she had to change to a Bowazon just to survive. They should give better level 30 abilities or high ranked abilities because quite frankly, those abilities really only work good at the lower levels unless they are pumped up to max. Eh, thats my rant.


From: Patrick
Subject: What I'd change in Diablo II

As it stands, the Necromancer's poison dagger is less than useless -- why not throw the necro a bone by giving it a duration like the sorceress "enchant" skill rather than it's current 2mana-a-whack arrangement. Between the time delay nature of the damage, it's dagger-only restriction, and antidote potions and anti-poison magical items, I don't see making this change as being a disasterous thing. Currently, is there any point to taking the skill for any reason except as a pre-requisite for other skills?


From: Tyler
Subject: What should be in Diablo 2

I wish there was a quest system that was complex and replayable. If you were to imagine the weapons+gems+sets+magic kind of paradigm applied to quests -- this is what I'm thinking of. Arrive at a town and the game generates 6-8 random quests of varying difficulty (tuned for the character level) rather than the set number of fixed quests built into the game now.