Version 6.00 - Uniques items design

[Xaphan]

Today I wanted to finally put my hands again on unique items. They have been tacken out for quite some time now (as you can see in the public beta of version 6.00).

While I cannot do them all yet (I need to finish characters skills first) I can start on the class specific items for characters I have already done.

I want to make unique items interresting, not just simple rare items with preset stats, so I decided to do something similar to Diablo 3 legendary items, but less complex (Diablo 2 dosen't allow me to do things like diablo 3 do anyway).

Here is, for exemple, the very first unique item I made for the necromancer :



Unique items will consist of 5 preset magic properties and will have an unique power. Each unique item will have it's own power, wich can be multiple things. This one improve one of the necromancer spells, but others may do other things. Unique items can also have up to 2 sockets like any other piece of gear.

Class specific unique items will be designed to be part of some builds for that class, while other unique items will be more general ones.

Please note that this item, as well as any other I am currently making may change before final release if I find thems to not be balanced. This is mostly tests for now, but I do like what I am able to do.

[FPeacee]

woo!

[Xaphan]

Here are more informations about how I'm making unique items :

This is how I balance things for class specific items :
-> There is 2 types of class specific items per class. Each type has 15 items tiers, so that's a total of 30 unique items per class.
-> Half of thems is dedicated to one mastery (so 15 items). The other half is dedicated to the other mastery.
-> I then split the items as follow : one class item type get 8 uniques for mastery A and 7 for mastery B, while the other type of class specific item get 7 uniques for mastery A and 8 for mastery B. As an exemple, for the necromancer, there will be 8 mojos dedicated to death mastery and 7 mojos for demonism mastery. There will be 8 ceremonial daggers for demonism mastery and 7 for death mastery.
-> In order to keep things balanced, for each mastery there is 1 item dedicated to each skill, so 10 items dedicated as there is 10 skills per mastery. The 5 remaining items are still bound to the mastery but give some more general bonus.

All of this allows me to make items that can then be easily inserted into builds players will create once they play. Of course, this is only unique items and there will be set items later, but I will talk about this once I start working on thems.

Here is some of the uniques I created so far. You may see that I changed things a bit, I prefer it this way :













Feel free to tell me what you think of thems, or even give me ideas for powers. This is the only uniques I will show, to keep the surprise once you drop thems in game

[prodigypm]

Good idea for a diversity in items dude .I wish to see them all ingame.Will really hope its not too easy this time and I really look forward to your Nighmare and Hell review aswell! Keep it up.

[GrandMaitre]

Looks really nice. Good Job!

[Lurix]

Icy Grip is overpowered

[Xaphan]

Icy Grip is overpowered

We'll see

The way I'm doing theses powers allow me to update thems even if the unique item has already been droped by the player, without having him to drop an other copy of the unique item. So I can buff or nerf any unique at any time without issues.

[Nephretes]

Duh, I may not be active here like I've used to be, but since I enjoy this project I might try to help here and there. If there are no scythes in d3, why not make one?

This is my first attempt to mimic d3 style, I hope that it's not that bad. The only thing I know so far is that resolution of two-handed weapon is 64x128, but the rest is a mystery for me. Xaphan, if you like it let me know how I should prepare files for you for easy use:

Three regular scythes and one legendary

[Xaphan]

Hello Nephretes,

Glad to see you like my project

Scythes are weapons I like a lot and that I would like to implant for quite some time now, but unfortunately, I am not an artist so I do not know how to make new graphics for thems.

Currently, in diablo 3 there is only 2 items that look like scythes :
and

It look like you are doing a pretty nice work however and I really like the 2 scythes you just made. In fact, they even look better that the 1st one I linked from d3 because theyre are not truncated at the bottom. The legendary one is very nice as well (it may just be a bit hard to put in game because of the fog, but not sure).

I would be very happy if you want to help me out on this and design some items that I can use in the mod. The scythes you just made could be easily used as they are now, because I've inccreased the grid size in my mod to 32x32 pixels per square, so 64x128 for the scythes. Also, I have 18 tiers for each weapon and armor in game (15 in normal mode, 15 same ones in nightmare mode and 15 same ones + 3 new ones in hell ). For some weapons there is also a starter weapon version. However, I am using one item graphic for evey 3 tiers, so I only need a minimum of 6 different graphics for a weapon. To be honest, I would like to add more graphics (1 for each weapon tier) but that is a lot of work to design all the new graphics. It's only needed for weapons however, as I have already all graphics I need for armors.

Also, I haven't looked for any special graphics for unique items yet, that would be a lot of new graphics to do as well...

So, yes, I DO like thems, and if you want to help me designing some items from time to time for the mod, I would be very happy. You will be credited of course

[AlphA - The Real One]

@Xaphan: You could also use images I uploaded from various games as Path of Exile or Grim Dawn. Those also need not more than to be resized. As most also come in a 32x32 grid (Grim Dawn). I added two as an example. Which is the reason why I wanted to expand the 28x28 grid in my mod too, but unfortunately code editing is required behind my coding skills (offset changing:D).

Edit: I cold resize those you wanna use to your needs if you want my help. May also be useful for other modders like Barby who also use a 32x32 grid.

PS: First is from Grim Dawn, second from Path of Exile

Cheers
AlphA

[Xibalba]

Nephretes, i really thinked they were diablo 3 items until i saw you made them you have incredible talent! I would love to see your work in version 6

[Nephretes]

@Xaphan
I think I will be able to make basic 9 scythes for you. For now I am quite creative, but later you may send me some suggestions of what you would like to see in items

As for legendary skull scythe, I can make version without it as well if it won't work other way.

Also, you haven't quite answered my question. In what form I should send you files? Is it fine if I send them in .bmp file on one-color background with d2 palette adjustments? Should I also add shadow to that?

Also, I encourage you to look again at my released items, I might try to convert them to d3 style as well if you need any of them as legendary items

Here is another Scythe. I wanted it to look a little tribal.


@Xibalba
Thanks mate! I was afraid that I won't be able to capture the style, as they seem to have painted textures, while I am texturing with other method, but it seems it turned out quite ok

[Xaphan]

Hey,

Yes .bmp is a good format, so they don't loose quality. No need to apply a d2 palette to thems. The background should be black. In fact, everything that is black will be transparent in game. As for the shadows, well, the way you did thems here is fine, they can be keept that way.

Oh, and for inspiration, here is a galery of scythes from the game Guild Wars. Some look really interresting, but they are in 3d.

[Nephretes]

Thanks, will prepare them shortly. However I am afraid, that I won't be able to include the shadows, as .bmp don't have alpha channel.

Do you plan on using existing diablo 3 scythes? I could fix truncated bottom of the first as well if you decide so.

[Xaphan]

Hello,

You can do thems without shadows then, it's not that much on an issue.

For the d3 ones, well, I don't like the 1st one that much. But I think have more than enought pictures is better, especially if it dosen't take you too much time to fix it. For the 2nd one I need to reverse it, pretty simple so they are all in the same direction. I like it so yeah, I think I will use it. The 1st one could be a starting weapon, or one that drop at the begining of the game since it's quite a simple scythe. So yeah, we can tell that I'm gonna use thems both

[Nephretes]

Didn't have much time lately, so I have just prepared scythes I did already in .bmp format and d2 palette. For any adjustment will need to see them in game first

https://www.sendspace.com/file/soi0yw

[kingpin]

Really like your idea on unique items xaphan. Will be fun see those in game.