Before I start, I would like to point out that this is my personal opinion and I do not intend to speak for anyone. You may disagree with this, so please join the discussion. I’m also not the smartest, I’m not a developer, I just want items in LE to be cool.
I was thinking to myself that currently item sets are quite poor, negligible and do not generate excitement when they drop.
HIDE item type: set items
So I started thinking about it. So far my experience from other games (for example Diablo franchise, Grim Dawn, Torchlight, Titan Quest, Heroes of Might and Magic, Dragon Age franchise) is this:
- Sets that offer absurd increases in stats/damage aren’t cool, because what good is jumping many steps in the damage „ladder” in a short period of time if that’s the only advantage of the set? Ultimately, they are boring.
- I had the most fun with sets that, within the skills I used, changed the rules of their operation or their interaction with the player/world/other skills.
- I really liked combination of artifacts in HoM&M3 (for example Armor of the Damned). For those who don’t know: „They can be created by combining a set of specific artifacts. Combining is performed by equipping all the required artifacts, and right-clicking one of them. This will also dismantle the combination artifact back to its original pieces. Combination artifact reserves the same artifact slots as its original artifacts. Original artifacts still give their regular bonuses and the bonuses given by combining are added to those.”
- Sets from DA:O received full value when all items were worn. A single item had “some” of the set bonuses, but if it was worn with another the stats added up increasing the value of the items worn, encouraging the completion of more parts of the set. For example Juggernaut armor set.
So
- Every aspect of the loot should be something to get players excited about. In my opinion, making items that are just bags for stats contradicts the idea of chasing gear in the endgame.
- Currently, the sets are rather meh and even if used by someone for a while they are quickly exchanged for other Rare/Exalted/Unique items because the stats of the individual items are so poor and the bonuses from wearing the whole set are not significant enough to not to exchange them. Especially in empowered monoliths.
- Gear should at its core be the player’s interface towards modifying their gameplay-affecting stats or abilities.
- Say what you want about Diablo 4, but some items are interesting. For example, Dolmen Stone, which dramatically changes the principle of skills and (unfortunately) forces interaction with another skill, but introduces an interesting aspect of skill modification.
- From what I’ve noticed, there are rather few items that change the rules of skills. There are, for example, Kermode’s Cage, Hive Mind or Falcon Fists and they for me - personally - are interesting. What I don’t find interesting are items that have a list of affixes that increase this, increase that, the end (example: Fighting Chance).
A good way to approach this is to look at all the game mechanics and think of them as things that can be modified in some way by equipment. For example, in Cyberpunk 2077, changing leg implants can change the way a character jumps (high jump vs. double jump). In my opinion, you should never add anything to a game just because you think it should be there. You should consider what the equipment is for and make its design serve that purpose.
Don’t provide equipment that is useless to the player unless it can be exchanged or modified for something that IS useful. No one likes to get new equipment if it is useless. Loot filter gets around this a bit, but still, it doesn’t solve the problem.
It made for a long argument… so I came up with ideas for the set pieces:
- If you have a duplicate of any part of the set, you can go to an NPC that will combine them and cumulate their stats for increased effect (like combining Uniques with LP and Exalted items).
- Any item in the set could have Weaver’s Will or when you gather all pieces then Weaver’s Will is unlocked for set bonuses. This I think is almost impossible to implement but it’s and idea.
- Each item from the set could have a development path where, for example, after completing the dungeon, we reach a forge or NPC that allows us to improve or modify, for example, the affixes of the set item.
- I would limit sets to 2 or 3 pieces at most.
- Unique items or other items from a given item database could have a “Set Potential”, which, similarly to Legendary Potential, would allow items to be combined into set elements.
- Sets could consist of items/idols/other things. Why limit yourself to equipment only?
- Sets could be a drop item like an affix shard or runes - like a „Rune of Set creation” (you name it) - that you apply to existing gear to turn it into set items. You could make any item set item that way.
- What if we designed sets specifically for Arena/Dungeon/Leveling/Mono? It’s risky but it opens up possibilities.
- Sets not as predefined sets, but bonuses for wearing a given category of items (example: bonus for Falconry items – Helmet, Armor)
- In my opinion, the set should significantly modify builds/skills, which would significantly distinguish them from other items. Example: Disintegrate now attacks in 4 directions or is a toggle-able ability, creates a huge ring around you and allows you to move.
- Affixes on other items / idols like “+X to something when you have 2 parts of the set”. Not any specific one, but just a set.
Here’s my 2 cents. I know this topic has been discussed for months, if not longer, and I realize how hard it is to design good sets of items so that they are not absurd but I have hope that EHG will manage! Have a great day!