The title pretty much runs over the idea, if you want to get exactly what i'm saying, read the entire post.
So the Mercenary system was fantastic, I truely thought it had potential, but I understand that due to the technical limitations all it could do was wander around like a pet, seeming somewhat animated and alive by randomly wandering around, but in close proximity to the owner, it really was primative, when the expansion came out they added inventories to the mercenary system, as well as a melee DPS class, the barbarian.
I was disappointed by the primative system because the mercenary died and was largely useless in the long run, it was unintelligent, the system of choosing a merc was portrayed in each town having a mercenary vendor, with no jeperody nothing engaging at all. These vendors all seemed unfit for such a thing, but of course this was a game with its limits, so I understand why it was a poorly delivered system. The inventory system helped make mercenaries engaging, as you could equip them with the kinds of armor you had, but they were limited to the Diablo 1 inventory.
What I am proposing is to change the way the system is projected, so that means the name of Mercenary is on hiatus as how you would define this companion is more of an Adventurer but for this proposal I will simply call them mercenaries.
Contents
1 - Tavern, mercenary recruitment and resurrection
2 - New AI, personality
3 - Skills, diversity, and dialogue
4 - Conclusion
1) Recruiting a mercenary should be different. It should be limited to taverns, you could enter a Tavern and talk to the Bartender, which would bring up a large list with a picture of the character and stats, as well as a small history of the character to make the characters existence in the world as your companion some how related in even the smallest way, for example: The mercenaries parents were killed by demons when they were young, they were tutored in demon hunting and have been drifting from town to town purging demons. The gold standard must never go away in regards to recruiting a mercenary, but it should not be cheap and easily affordable, it's got to be spendy, mercenarys must give gold a presense. The way that mercenarys entered the world was so sudden and funny, it was less animated than summoning a poisonous vine. When you recruit a merc, it should come from a door you cannot open on the second level of the tavern, and walk down to you, and then greet you. The way you resurrect a fallen mercenary should be different from the bartender, like it used to be in diablo 2, it should be done by a healer NPC, the cost of reviving shouldn't be scaled properly, making it 25% the price of purchasing the mercenary may be sufficient.
2) The mercenaries were much in the same regards to a golem, except that as they became more expensive the higher they became. Mercenaries simply followed you around in a somewhat drifting manner, however they never wandered on their own or showed any life, they were blandly following you within a specified radius, and drifting much like a necromancer pet, so basically they were universal pets. I think that the AI should be improved to accomodate a mercenarie that feels alive and has a common interest, that fulfills its story by matching with a personality, let's say that you're running through a forest and you've only been engaging creeps, but no demons, that demon hunter you recruited begins getting restless and chooses to run ahead a little and finds something to loot, setting an encounter in which demon ambush him, when you're both done slaughtering the demons, a couple drop some interesting items. This is where he takes into consideration his stats and works on improving himself. When he looks at items, his icon will flash and a box will come up where the item is displayed and he says simply "This item will help me, do you want it instead?" with a Yes and No option. This item/stat checking will be based on a succession of Damage, Health, and Armor rating in relation to the current item, so say he finds a sword with +10 health but he has a sword with +10 fire damage, he will favor the damage over health unless the health bonus is more. With multiple stats he would take into account the size of the improvement of damage or health or Armor rating and adjust accordingly. You could even set what he favors aswell, this would not only make mercenaries viceral, but customizable. It would also be exciting to watch him trigger random encounters. It would also be quite useful to put those voice commands to use, which were unused in Diablo 2 in to this game, as a tool to communicate with your mercenary.
3) Mercenaries had a couple skills, this is the one part that doesn't need much change, except that maybe all mercenaries should have something like 5 skills. In the diablo 2 mercenary system each type of mercenary had 3 types of skill trees, such as the Rogue having Fire, Ice, and Lightning. This diversity could switch over, it's a good idea, they could even share traits with known classes, so it's not like Blizzard would have to strain to make them totally unique. The diversity of mercenaries was limited to 4 types. In Diablo 3, this could be increased conservatively to 6 to give the mercenary system some depth but not overly demanding so it doesn't dominate any other game mechanics. Within those 6 classes there could be 3 specializations, such as the Demon Hunter having specialtys in Bows, Melee, and Restraining. So for example with the Restraining specialty the Demon Hunter could stun the demons that ambushed him with some concussive explosives. This would give the mercenaries a bearing in the world by having tactical potential if you're being overwhelmed in both PvP or PvE of stunning things that may otherwise give you trouble, this would add a new factor to how the game is played. The dialogue is also important, In diablo you would kill Diablo with your mercenary either dead or intact and he would say NOTHING, but you would, in diablo 3 maybe you could both say something together, at least a little dialogue, the only thing they said in Diablo 2 was "I feel stronger now" or something along those lines.
4) I can't see why this idea would be shot down other than it would take emphasis off of your character and be a check and balance of your power aswell as time consuming to build the AI. This isn't true, it's not my intention to make the mercenary an equal, just a follower that is being pulled into the story unknowingly but of no more signifigance than a side quest in terms of impact on the story arc. It doesn't have to be a super freaking smart AI. Blizzard had to create their own system just to show the opening cinematic of Starcraft 2 because of the limitations of the standard software. This Mercenary system is not out of their reach, this is what I have no doubt about and it could make a game that is anticipated to succeed greatly, something to marvel as time the ages pass. Much in the same way that the attention to small details in games like Mass Effect made it so fun. Natural motion, Dialogue based endings.
The mercenary system was not as cool as it could have been and that's why i wrote this.
I think my idea is good and you may not agree but here it is anyway, discuss amongst yourselves.
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