A New Adaptive Combat System for Diablo 3

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The Adaptive Combat Speed System

…by: CallsignAPOLLO

.                          In these Diablo 3 speculation threads I’ve seen many combat tweak suggestions; the one that inspired my idea is called “Tackle Diablo” and is by Stillman. The system I have come up with has two parts:

1. Enemies can slow your character’s ‘combat speed’.
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2. At some point your ‘combat speed’ not only returns to normal but accelerates.

.                      I propose that enemies can ‘cling’ to your character; your character would have ‘cling points’. These are basically places where enemies can attach themselves to you. Each character class could have 5 or some could have more than others. These would act like a slot system to be filled with enemies. Each character class could have distinct points or they could be similar; ex. head, left leg, right leg, back, right arm. Now I would like to give a fleshed-out set of rules that could be implemented by Blizzard in a similar system.

The Rules

Part 1: Clinging

1. Some enemies take up multiple clinging points.
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2. Some enemies encumber your character more than others.
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3. The more clinging enemies the slower your Combat Speed.
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4. Combat speed is the response time it takes to perform spellcasting, walking, running, combat moves, item pickups, and any other similar actions.
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5. Some characters are more easily encumbered by clinging enemies than others.
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6. Some characters have fewer clinging points than others.
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7. Extricating your character from a clinging opponent is a function of how long the enemy has been clinging to you, how much damage you are dealing in HP to other enemies, and how much your character is moving.
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8. Modifiers and skills and armor can effect how many clinging points your character has and reduce the effectiveness of enemies while clinging.

Part 2: Acceleration

1. After breaking free from a clinging enemy your character’s Combat Speed is accelerated.
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2. Combat Speed acceleration depends occurs every time an enemy falls off.
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3. Your character can be accelerated even if other enemies are still clinging to you.
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4. Acceleration is decreased depending upon the number of enemies clinging to you, how long the thrown enemy was clinging to you.
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5. Acceleration is increased depending upon item modifiers, skills, and how quickly the clinging enemy was thrown.
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6. Combat Speed is increased by increasing stats like attack speed, cast rate, and run/walk speed.
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7. The length of time that you are accelerated is also a function of how long an enemy was clinging to your character and how many enemies are clinging to your character presently.
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8. Modifiers and skills and armor can effect how much Combat Speed acceleration your character has and increase your weapon/skill damage while accelerated.

*Explanation of Clinging: This combat effect is not meant to slow down combat. It is meant to increase the player’s sense of being overwhelmed and add a new way to utilize the game’s physics engine.

*Explanation of Combat Speed: This lumps several different speed values into one and allows your character as a whole to be sped up or slowed down. It is very important that this can effect all of your character’s rates/speed values otherwise the player would feel a disconnect in being able to for example move slowly but use spells quickly.

*Explanation of Acceleration: This allows for the pace of combat to actually be increased by clinging enemies which is something that I think Blizzard would find very appealing. Acceleration also serves to further stress the impact enemies have on the player’s character; you are slowed more than normal and then sped up more than normal. This should make combat more engrossing.

Let me know what you think!

Comment, but don’t hate!

-CallsignAPOLLO

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*This post is an extracted selection from one of my threads at diii.net forums for which the link can be found below; please feel free to comment but be constructive!

http://forums.diii.net/showthread.php?t=710571