.plan for version 4

[enq]

In the next version I am trying to make the skills pan out a bit better than they do some get overpowered etc etc.
It was kinda a silly idea to not have new skills beyond clvl30 so my new plan is to have new skills available at longer intervals – this is still quite open and I’m not completely sure how it will work as yet.

Here is a sample screenshot of the new Amazon Javelin and Spear Tree: http://sa.d2mods.com/images/Screenshots ... l-Plan.jpg

As far as using skills goes this is how it should work out (for those worried they will have no skills to use until the later levels ;P)
Basically at the moment the skills are divided into 3 layers: 1, 33 and 66 with some skill in-between these layers some may/should be above 66 but I haven’t worked on that just yet.

You will receive enough skill points in each layer to make full use of the skills available to you.
Ie. You can use Jab and raise its level up to 99 if you put a point in every level. However you could also invest in a level 66 skill and it will be powerful enough to use from that level up to 99.
That does not really explain the system too well but the basic idea is that you can use any group of skills within a skill layer then mix and match them with higher layer skills or never use them again and go with the higher level skills alone!

I can see problems with passive skills due to the way hex editing skills works.
Also there will be some doubling up of skills but I will hopefully make them all individual: this can be seen with Poison Javelin and the new skill Pestilence Javelin available at level 66. If I am able to get the missile tables working then some cool things should happen and new skills will be created

[enq]

I still haven't quite worked out how the new skills will be gained access to in the next version

Though I do plan to have public betas go out once I get a character skills set up - I'm kinda close with the Amazon currently so here are a couple of teaser shots of two new skills:

http://sa.d2mods.com/images/screenshots/kick1.jpg
http://sa.d2mods.com/images/screenshots/kick2.jpg
This kicking attack works similar to the original kick skill Blizzard intended on including with the game. This skill will add damage and knock most monsters back

http://sa.d2mods.com/images/screenshots ... sparks.jpg
Thrust Sparks is a kind of interesting little skill, similar to the Amazons other lightning based melee attacks only a few small sparks fall from the weapon as a monster is hit and electrify the ground under them, shocking them even more

The Amazon is becoming more of a melee fighter with a tree devoted to these skills along with a ranged skills tree, with Passive and Magic Skills making three.
A mixture of ranged and melee skills along with a good investment of passive skills will make her a good cross between the bowazon and spearazon styles. So the lack of crowd control of the spearazon should be fixed with the poor boss killing ability of the javazon also improved

[enq]

The Amazon has become a true Javazon setting down her bow in favour of the spear and javelin.
With excellent ranged abilities but also good close combat skills she is a real little battler
(Those who may miss the bow skills fear not – the Paladin and Barbarian will be getting some similar skills to the Amazon’s bow skills )

Kick
A strong defence can be a good offence. By keeping attackers out of melee range a young Skirmisher can deal with multiple enemies.
http://sa.d2mods.com/images/screenshots/kick.jpg
Kicks and sometimes knocks back and stuns the target. More damaging that it appears

Triple Strike
The precursor to Fend, this skill while unable to attack as many opponents focuses on just three. This focus enables the Skirmisher greater concentration and strike more successful hits.
More damage than Fend but less targets, however you can easy concentrate that damage.

Skewer
Once a Skirmisher can successfully Impale a target, this ability is built upon so that she can run an opponent through, quite literally.
Quicker than Impale but less chance to strike successfully.

Nova Strike
Once a Skirmisher has mastered infusing her weapons with electricity, fighting multiple opponents and achieved much skill with ranged combat, she can combine all these abilities together into one skill.
A defensive ring of electricity along with ranged lightning bolts is the final accomplishment.
http://sa.d2mods.com/images/screenshots ... trike1.jpg
http://sa.d2mods.com/images/screenshots ... trike2.jpg

Casts an electrical Nova at the same time as a Lightning Bolt is thrown into the target at close range.
(In the screenshots the lightning bolt can be seen piercing the target)

Conjure Javelin
Sometimes a Skirmisher may run out of javelins during the course of a battle. With training she may collect other weapons and magically fashion them into suitable throwing javelins.
Summons a thrown enchanted javelin that costs mana with added magic damage.

Frost Shard
By throwing a light javelin with great speed the Skirmisher can cool its surface and begin to form icicles before it hits her target. These icicles often spray onto her enemy, chilling them and hampering their movements.
A very quick thrown javelin attack that can freeze the target.

Lightning Bolt
Skirmishers have had a long history of infusing weapons with electricity. Now the skill has reached such a level that small charges of current leap from the weapon to electrify the ground beneath attackers.
http://sa.d2mods.com/images/screenshots ... g-bolt.jpg
Throw a Lightning Bolt that on contact releases a series of small lightning mines.

Burning Javelin
Slowing an enemy down can be done without chilling them. By setting a javelin aflame adversaries can be scorched or even have armour fuse in place restricting movement.
http://sa.d2mods.com/images/screenshots ... avelin.jpg
Throw a fiery javelin that explodes on impact.

Hunting Javelin
By studying how missiles can be controlled and perceiving potential threats about her the Skirmisher can being to move a thrown javelin as it travels, chasing down her target.
A thrown javelin that will track it’s targets.

Immolation Javelin
By attaching oil pouches to an ignited javelin patches of flame can be left burning after the initial explosion of flame.
Throw a fiery javelin that explodes and leaves patches of fire at the point of impact.

Freezing Javelin
With a much greater potential to explode on impact combined with the infused chill of a Frost Shard this skill can stop and even shatter enemies to broken ice.
Throw a chilled javelin that will shatter and freeze targets.


Skills that didn’t make the cut:

Thunder Strike
You would hit the target in melee and call down a Fist of the Heavens style attack.

Solid/Sure Strike
Just like the Barbarian skill Concentrate.

Thrust Sparks
Was going to work in the same way as Lightning Bolt does now, only it was going to be a melee attack. It just worked and looked so much better with the Lightning Bolt skill.

Blizzard Javelin
I thought about the lag if this thing pierced
That and I couldn’t get the damage to work – my missile table skills are very basic

[enq]

The next release is not too far off now - maybe a week or two

What's changed:
Traveller items are much better in that they come socketed The good thing about this is that you can either use any gems or jewels you find early on in them or save them to make runewords in

http://sa.d2mods.com/images/screenshots ... erclet.jpg
This screenshot is a v4 preview where the Amazon has become a Skirmisher with new skills - I will be releasing this with the next version as a separate download just so people can play with the skills etc

Jewels have been improved as have Prefixes and Suffixes have been altered:
http://sa.d2mods.com/images/screenshots/rare-jewel.jpg

I have also moved to Foxbat and Myhrginoc's and modified 1.09d .dll files so that the mod will work on a server with chance to cast skills being effective. Also in the .dll changes: Crushing Blow works better than before.

Items have had a bit of a makeover:
Runes drop quite a lot more.
Blocking is less easy to get early on.
You can gamble or shop for most class specific items.
Throwing potions have been improved and can be bought.
Quite a few items gain automagic properties.
Swords, Axes and Maces have been balanced a bit more.
Sorceress Orbs are now much more powerful - or nerfed badly, depending on your point of view

Some hirelings have additional skills or skill changes so that they are more powerful than before.

Monsters have had quite a change to. Defence will be more important as monster Attack Rating has been reduced.
Some monsters drop full runewords

________________________
To do for the current release:
Crafting: This will be much better and more versatile. Right now the crafting system is very specific and variant style play is hampered by the lack of choice in crafting.

Once crafting is done I have a few other small things to tinker with (some skills/monsters etc) then I will release this version. It won't be version 4 as I am working up to that but the new skills are on hold a little while I still try to figure out a new skill system that works with them.

[enq]

In the next version...

Already done:

Items
Improved the spawning of prefixes and suffixes on all items.
Elite Belts can now be gambled.
Removed level requirements from potions as they didn't prevent their use anyway
Increased the range of Normal and Exceptional two handed axes.

Monsters
Increased Fowl Crow type monsters damage.
Increased Goatmen damage.


To do and ideas:

Reduce the durability on all items and give bows durability - the idea being that town trips are already frequent so broken items wouldn't be that bad, it's just that currently you are a real trooper if you see a weapon break - that's not a Traveller item
Fair level requirements on all items - just a better progression through the levels.
More throwing potions - I remember saying to someone via email that I would try to create more throwing potions and have them viable throughout the game. Well if I can find the room in missiles.txt then I'll add them
Increase the damage on Throwing Clubs - a definite.
Fix potion drops, again (still far too many).
Remove Knockback from bows and thrown items? - I'm not sure about this one. On one hand it would make bow and throwing users have to move more. Then on the other it is a really valuable mod to get on a ranged item - does it make it too easy, that's the question.
Remove Blizzard's timer and reduce it's damage... again no sure on this one.
More Werebear defence - a definite.
Reduce Werewolf life bonus - a definite.
Make everyone walk? - Increase the walk/run default speed so that you can walk everywhere as fast as running but if you wanted to sprint you could This would add to the value of defence and blocking and hopefully make you use run as need be (I would probably reduce stamina with this so you could only sprint for a short distance )

The major change in the next version will be to base items. I plan to make them a bit more balanced with good and bad points for each so they are somewhat even.

As for skills and monster editing they are on the back burner currently. Mainly as I still can't get this skill system working right.
That and I don't want to change them too much when items are being changed. With the planned changes to characters that could also mean I would have to redo the lot of them

[enq]

Some of the above changes have already been made, some won't work and below are the additions

Good changes
After talking to my good mate who has just got back from being overseas I think I have found a way to balance items once and for all! - this will need testing, though I know how to go about it etc. Everything is in place apart from the raw data I need to make the global changes
This is really cool, nothing new as far as games go, but will make SA a bit more involved and hopefully more fun - can you tell I'm excited about this one? hehe

However, it involves me making and exiting games at least 100 times in a row just to check the simple changes and collect the data


The other changes: (Both of these I can change easily and quickly, have tested and work with no worries )

A complete fix for running/walking and the lack of defence/blocking while running problem.
Following this would be making stamina useful.

Along with these changes I have been progressing through the game, with a... softcore character - it's can't all be good news
Anyway, I am hand tweaking each area for monsters and then hand tweaking each monster. The kind of half guess, half formula method I had been using was just not working out right.

Edit: To much excitement, not enough puntuation

[noELrunes]

o_o

try balancing the barbarian's passive weapon skills.

level 20 sword mastery was bad enough in D2.

level 30 may be overkill..unless you're keeping the same damage ratio per level or something

[enq]

The Barbarian's masteries at slvl40 have the same values as slvl20 does in standard LoD

Hopefully that and the fix to the Critical Strike bug should make the Barb a bit more balanced - though I have not played a melee Barb past a few levels. Which is the reason the masteries have that quick fix to them currently

[noELrunes]

hmm, you could add more affix and suffex magic mods?
And of course see if its true about that people can't craft. I don't know yet since I can't even get passed the undead knights (I had a level 20 barbarian, and died in 1 hit when trying to get the cube )

and for SA 4 are you going to be using it with 1.09 or wait with 1.1

I'd like SA 4.5 to be with 1.1, to see what 1.1 has to offer with a mod such as this..

[enq]

There will be new affixes sometime in the future

As for 1.10, once it is released I plan to start transfering the mod to that version (most of it should just be copy and paste )

Version 4 of SA will be a while as that is when I have new skills/characters planned, well in pencil at least
The Skirmisher test I released with v3.19/20 was an example of my planning/ideas for that.

[enq]

Characters
Mana regeneration rates have been changed from the default 120: Amazon [30], Sorceress [120], Necromancer [120], Paladin [30], Barbarian [0], Druid [60], Assassin [30].

For those who have never used walking in Diablo II you will need to learn how to use the Ctrl key and run as needed not as wanted:
Characters no longer gain stamina with each new level.
Running now uses stamina much faster than before. However you now run at a greater speed: Sprinting
You can sprint a nice short distance at the moment to outrun monsters or retreat as needed.
To sprint further you should obviously look for items with +stamina or +stamina regeneration ;P

Skills
Werewolf life bonus is reduced to 15% from 25%.
Werebear defence bonus increased so that he receives 610% increased defence at slvl40. However his life bonus is reduced to 30%.
Frozen Orb's delay is now 2 seconds. The other cold spells work very well so this is not really a big deal

Weapons
All Elite weapons now deal the same amount of damage as Exceptional weapons.
However, Elite weapons gain much more extra damage. This damage if factored in from your characters strength and dexterity.

Items
Added Renew Oil, Ven Potion, Life Water, Liquid Mana, Antifrost, Restoration Oil which can be socketed into items.
Traveller items gain +per level modifiers.
Improved the spawning of prefixes and suffixes on all items.
Elite Belts can now be gambled.
Removed level requirements from potions as they didn't prevent their use anyway
Increased the range of Normal and Exceptional two handed axes.
Paladin Only shields no longer gain automagic resist all. They now gain a bonus to attack rating and either Damage to Demons or Undead.
Staves now gain automagic Faster Hit Recovery.
The Paladin starts with a new item: Arched Long Bow, as does the Assassin: Bamboo Shoot (Bow) - both start with no arrows which I am sorry for but there is no room to add them without removing another item
Increased the damage of the Druid's Rata Throwing Clubs.
Fixed the bug that prevented you from imbuing Normal Class Specific Bows.

Uniques
Hell Forge Hammer is now a useful item, use it or get the gems?

NPC's
Gheed now sells Necromancer Shrunken Heads. He doesn't like you Necromancers but that never stopped him selling to you before

Monsters
Increased the Fowl Crow monster types damage.
Increased Goatmen damage.
Most Zombies have a 50% chance to inflict poison damage.
Pitspawn Fouldog changed from a Damned to a Disfigured - damn he was hard LOL!
Treehead Woodfist has less defence so melee characters should be able to hit him a bit easier.
Succubi deal Magic damage rather than Fire damage on their missiles CARE~~~

To be changed (should be in the next version
Remove the global physical resistance from monsters in Hell.
Rebalance Zeal.
Preventing Mana Steal and Life Leech from all rare/magic items that are not weapons.

If I get time:
Socketed Rings and Amulets - they will be sweet
Change Traveller items to be transformed into a complete set.

There are also a couple of hidden surprises that are not too hard to find and are quite cool

[enq]

I've started what I thought would be a huge task... I am planning realistic drops for the next version

So basically if a monster is using a bow then there is a high chance of them dropping a bow, rather than a staff for example

Due to the way I am doing this I don't expect it to take as long as I originally thought it would. In fact I don't think it will take too long to get the ground work done the main part will be to sort out which monster can drop which items.
The other thing is that Town Portal and Identify Scrolls/Books will no longer drop - why would monsters want to go to town, or use magic find on each other?
Actually that would be quite cool if they did but I digress

I am probably going to prevent potion drops to but I plan to enable monster organ drops to even this out a bit

[Xphalo]

hey i think the skirmisher idea is cool... althought i havent yet tried her out cause your link is broken... i was wondering if u were going to make any changes like this to all the other chars?

i mean if the skirmisher is just spear jav + passive... ( still have to test these,.... Sounds REALLY cool!

perharps you could make the druid a shifter ( one form ) and have wear skills- combos of elemental and norm and summons....
this is done in baulders gate very well.. .and makes for a very intresting alternative char.( if u like this idea i strongly suggest looking at the druid in bg mod)

the sorc could just be called the mage... and change her skills a bit ... like put the lower skills as higher lv and higher skills lower to allow for more skill to be used when killing... ie: frost nova...around 18 or 24 and higher dmg. FROZEN ORB lv 1 or 6 ish and like 3-7 dmg ... or alike to make for the bigger radius skills to kill at low lvs.. but make the mage work to kill in hell ... make teleport lv 1 because walking is a {filtered}.. especially if u dnt have a huge radius skill..... dnt make it too hard but cause killing one monster at a time does really suck so something like nova or frost nova at lv 30 and blizzard/ frozen orb /firewall at lower lvs... make chain lighting like the origional Diablo, sends a bolt at all enemies in the area o and if u add a fire nova (ie immolation, u could use the barbarian warcry image instead of a billion fireballs which are too powerful and look bad) so there you could have your 3 lv 30 skills... 3 novas... frost nova/nova/Immolation with a warcry image.

BARBARIAN:
Make the Barbarian only close combat... It is a barbarian they dnt know how to use a bow!.... only an AXE!
althought the least moddable char i am sure u could do something....

like add elemental effects if skills hit.... and add some defensive skills..... ie:iron skill= normal +to def but chance to cast (insert SKill) when struck just to make for a more intresting barb.... and chance to cast (skill) on striking Skills...

ie: Bash=change name to flaming fist and have % to cast holy fire or fire bolt on attack.... make the % chance to cast skill 1/2 the skills lvl ie lvl 2 bash = % to cast lvl 1 firebolt... etc..... make it start with 0% and add 5% per lv....lv 20=95 % to cast lv 10 (insert appropiate skill here) on strike.

and if it is possible ( doubtfully) could u make whirlwind stay in one stop and send tornados in all directions doing % of attack dmg? as to make it live up to is name?.

then with the passive skills you could have % to cast when wielding tat weapon...

iE: lv 2 sword mastary : 5% to cast lv 1 enchant on striking when wielding a sword...?

then the defensive ones
Iron skin % to cast warcry when struck ( the dmg/stun one)

i think these ideas could make the preety ordinary barbarian into a really intrestin char....

changes to the warcry skill tree could go well too... change a few useless ones ( find potion, grim ward, find item, battle cry, taunt, howl)
to do elemental damage or deadly strike or alike.....
Ie: Tribal Kalls ( spelt with the K):
lv 1 : shout- cool skill gtta keep
lv 6 : Keen Eyes: on self: adds % deadly strike to attacks
lv 12: Serrated Blades : on self : attacks cause open wounds
lv 18: On enemies: Radius 3.3 metres+ 1.1 per lv lowers (i dunno how big a metre is on screen so just roughly) .... lowers ac, def, dmg, and speed of surrounding enemies + stunss..
lv 30 ; Call of the tribe: on self:Adds % deadly strike, crushing blow, and open wounds based on char lv....

I think a name with the word TRIBAL in it would suit him... ie: Tribal Leader, or Tribal Warrior, Tribal General, Tribal Acrolyte, Tribal Guardian, Tribal Elder?

For the Paladin
Rename to Knight> sounds cooler
change defensive auras to have % when struck properties as well as constant benifits.... make some really good ones with huge bonuses and % chance to damage self (or alike) lowering based on slvl and such

change fist of heavens and blessed hammer ( both suck) make blessed hammer more like a throwing hammer that is purly magic dmg... one direction ( non of this spinning nonsense) and stuning .... fist of the heavens... could it be made to say : be like the new blessed hammer but cast the old FOH on anything it hits and pierces and stuns? and make the old FOH tat it cast send charged bolts as aposed to holy bolts to make it effective against non-undead...

the necro... hmm tough one.....re name to Acrolyte
change curses definatly... remove whole left side...all useless....
change them to be more effective:

applify dmg: lv 1 +50% +5% per slvl
could u make a curse that creates a skeleton or a revived when the creature dies?... cause that would make it very useful... and cool

make life tap lower lv... and change it to suit...
LVL 6 : Leaking soal: 5% dual leach + 5 % per lvl

Posion /bone spells= rename to Acrolyte Teachings
make bone armour have new graphics and add % dmg reduction based on slvl

bone wall .... MAKE hirelings and summons NOT attack it...
bone cage: make it affect all within a certain radius and make it look like diablos....

corpse explosion... remove % of corpse life... make it send teeth or bone spirts in all directions... amound based on slvl ...
ie: lvl 1 corpse explosion: sends 4 bone spirts in closest direction of enemies or in N S E W directions....

remove posion explosion... make a area attack spell?...

Lv 30: Pentagram.... makes a pentragram of fire appear under the caster for 2 seconds doing no dmg but sends a nova of bone spirits>

replace posion nova with magic dmg.... rename to circle of power.


Assassin:
change traps to allow for more variation.... meteor traps , cursing traps,
ie: lv 24 Doom Sentry, cast descripy and cast meteors... on opponents.

A nova/frost nova/immolation trap?
A artic blast trap/ venon sting? ( posion inferno)

change blade fury to do added on striking spells? ( yes i am very fond of this idea of skills with % to cast spells)


Martial skills
change charges on all skills

ie: Tiger strike : charge 1 : +100 % physical dmg
charge 2 : +100% physical, + 100% magic
charge 3 : +250% physical, + 250% magic

Phonix strike:
Charge 1: Armageddon
Charge 2: Nova ( extended range)
Charge 3 : hurricane

shadow skills... remove cloak of shadows.. this skill only {filtered} people off...

remove first clone.... keep master
change venon to add magic dmg rename to silent skill
change fade to have absorb at higher lvs.

i think tat is all of the characters....assassin, tribal ..., skirmisher, shifter,mage,knight,acrolyte.... yep tats all 7... koool


hope u use some of my idea... and i hope they help.

ok ciao

[noELrunes]

if enq were to do a knight, then he would have to severely redo the stats on the skills on offensive > defensive


gona post more, but schoool is going to let out

[enq]

The Skirmisher was just a test to see what I could do with the tools I have currently
I did it to have something out there that would be the building ground for changes once I can do more with the skills in 1.10.

Your suggestion of the Druid from BG is a very good one - I will definately look at putting something like that in
I only really have character changes for the Amazon, Paladin and Barbarian - so ideas are more than welcome

With the Barbairan I was going to add some bow skills in for him - or at least some for throwing swords/knives/axes.
Note on Grim Ward and Taunt - I love those skills (they will always be there, Taunt I use almost constantly as a Barb).

With the Paladin, Knight is definately one of the names in my list.
I was thinking of removing all the Offensive Auras and only having Defensive ones (the Offensive tree seems to dwarf the Defensive one a bit too much )
That and in party play the Offensive auras make things far too easy.

Necromancer I thought of having his Curses could be melee and/or ranged attacks to be used with a weapon.

Thanks heaps for the list, I like many of those ideas - I note all these down in my changes/todo file

Sadly most are falling into the can't do until 1.10 comes out section

The Druid idea I like especially, I need to play more BG
Also your ideas for the Barb warcry's would be really cool... he instead of getting really powerful melee attacks would have to keep himself buffed to add damage types, interesting

[Xphalo]

ok cool i hope my ideas helped.....

one thing but with the knight.... try not to dwarf him too much into only party play... in vanilla LOD he is really boring to play (in my opinion) because without a party he doesnt make for a very intresting char... but keep in mind this is a mod and almost 1/2 ( or more) of its users play it solo... so u know try not to make him too party reliant.

and with the barb... i think try the throwing things a bow i think doesnt suit him at all

ps : afta 1.10 i would love to see a extra version hosting as many changes ( simmilar) as u could make in my list..... would be really intresting.... just another seperate dl like the skirmisher.... just for fun....

o and your link is broken... all the ones that link to Pdiablo for screens in your posts and the ones on site that link to dls....

ok well ill keep thinking of possiablilites....ill try to post a few short ones as apposed to the one huge one as above.

well keep up the good work

[enq]

one thing but with the knight.... try not to dwarf him too much into only party play

This is exactly my intention with removing the Offensive Auras
I always felt that they kinda made the Paladin a helping hand style character rather than the party leader he was supposed to be.
Instead of people following him because of his auras, he seems to follow others so that he can get by, which is silly

Basically he will get some nice melee and bow skills (just because I like rangers ) then have the Defensive Auras - maybe a couple of Offensive ones will remain such as:
Holy Freeze, Blessed Aim (another one I like) and maybe Sanctuary.

ps : afta 1.10 i would love to see a extra version hosting as many changes ( simmilar) as u could make in my list..... would be really intresting.... just another seperate dl like the skirmisher.... just for fun

I may release another of these before 1.10 if I get the urge - basically that was what happened with the Skirmisher test. I thought of the idea, sat down for a weekend and got it done

well keep up the good work

Thanks, I'll do my best

Bugger about the links, I'll change them as soon as able.
Edit: done

Also to note, the changes I am making to TreasureClassEx.txt regarding the realistic drops are going really well
It is a good feeling when I can just say I want this to drop here with this probability, along with these items - and it works
Now people will start to see some Cherished gems , but more than that is it allows me to tweak things better and make the side quests a bit more interesting.

[enq]

Just a couple more ideas that have passed the yeah, maybe - I'll see if that will work stage

Like in Dungeon Siege I have been thinking of items like Townstones for each act. While I am not 100% sure on what they will do (if anything) they will drop maybe as part of a side quest.
One idea I had for them was to allow them to be used in a cube recipe so that you could make an enhanced item (different from Normal/Exceptional and Elite items) but then this may not work if can get several of them - maybe it's another thing to socket or even a charm
A Clover leaf for Act1 is already set.

Another idea that I picked up from a thread a few days ago was to have quest unique items that are almost required to get past a certain area of the game - I really like this idea, kinda like Khalims' Will in Act3

If I can shrine descriptions and symbols will be removed, fun

[noELrunes]

if this happens with the townstones, there are going to be alot of hoarding, resulting in stuffed stashes.

I have a stuffed stash myself, waiting to get to a decent level so I can equip some of my crafted things.

speaking of which, why is the repair cost so high? My assy's claws have no charges whatsoever yet it costs near 10K to repair them.

It took about 1500 a while back to repair rare ones though



and I forgot, did the paladin have bonuses to various skills on his shields? If not, it would be good in later nightmare - hell. Seeing as he may need the help..

[enq]

The townstones I believe are able to be set as a quest item ie. you would only be able to hold one of them at any given time.

Repair costs are coming down - they are way too high
Assassin's have been hit the hardest - I was buying new claws rather than repairing old ones!

Paladins do gain the automods on their shields but I may boost this a little as I have done with Assassin claws(+to Martial Arts IIRC).

[FoxBat]

one thing but with the knight.... try not to dwarf him too much into only party play

This is exactly my intention with removing the Offensive Auras
I always felt that they kinda made the Paladin a helping hand style character rather than the party leader he was supposed to be.
Instead of people following him because of his auras, he seems to follow others so that he can get by, which is silly

Another idea, you could set the radius on the offensive auras really low if you don't want them helping the party...

[enq]

I'm not so keen on doing it for a couple of reasons:
I prefer the defensive auras
I want to add more combat skills and magic/healing/demon or undead killing spells.
That said it is something I'll keep in mind once I get around to the defensive auras

I always saw the Paladin as a bit weaker as one skill would almost always be used up by an aura - compared to the Barbarian and Amazon where they get boosted by their passive skills.

I tend to think things were done right with the Assassin as she has the semi-aura skills leaving the right skill open, you need to work to get damage via charges and then backup with the traps