Do you want a balance patch?

[yerkyerk]

I'd think adding another difficulty level to the game would be too repetitive... but the idea is exiting. Perhaps it can be the one difficulty that is meant for real hardened veterans - though I think legendary should be that difficulty.

If, instead of opening 'Mythical' difficulty after completing Legendary, you could be taken to a whole new map with different enemies, than we could start talking about an expansion

[luedtke6788]

If, instead of opening 'Mythical' difficulty after completing Legendary, you could be taken to a whole new map with different enemies, than we could start talking about an expansion

actually both could be done, in my experimenting i also found it possible to add maps, though the process would need to be refined a bit and tested heavily

[BeaverusIV]

I like the idea of having an arena of sorts to finish greek & egyptian & asian myths, but that is quite beyond this thread... we'll have to dig it up later

For all the people who are noting the twinking side of things; even though we are talking about bossting items, etc. its not like we're going to boost them past the current overall winners, nor are we going to change those items... and I think yellows/greens could do with a bit of a change. I don't know about you guys but I've never thought of wearing retaliation/honour guards/indomitable/stalwart etc, etc. These need to be boosted to effectiveness or have their frequency turned down so we get generally better yellow item drops.

I believe a character should be able to finish the game with yellows, just with a lot of skill and patience, but have enough damage output none-the-less.

[claudius]

"For all the people who are noting the twinking side of things; even though we are talking about bossting items, etc. its not like we're going to boost them past the current overall winners, nor are we going to change those items... and I think yellows/greens could do with a bit of a change. I don't know about you guys but I've never thought of wearing retaliation/honour guards/indomitable/stalwart etc, etc. These need to be boosted to effectiveness or have their frequency turned down so we get generally better yellow item drops."

That sounds promising from my standpoint. I would just like the possibility of completing legendary without twinking. In that case I would still be interested in the patch or mod. Its difficult to see overall the whole picture. Some godly items may be toned down while yellow, green, and less than pick of the litter blues/purples might be enhanced. That might even the gap between non-twinking and twinking enough so that a difficulty balance such as harder 1-3 easier 4 HARDER epic and legendary might be a possible challenge for non-twinking players and yet still a challenge for every player. And its no skin off a twinkers back if they are leaving items on the ground that are halfway decent compaired to all the garbage you find now.

[Irma2]

Originally Posted by BeaverusIV

For all the people who are noting the twinking side of things; even though we are talking about bossting items, etc. its not like we're going to boost them past the current overall winners, nor are we going to change those items...

So what is actually going to change? If I use Batrachos Greaves and SBC now, and you buff up currently unappealing yellow and green items to be closer to BG and SBC (but still not comparable, let alone better), why would I be tempted to try out the boosted yellow/green gear? I'd just continue with my current gear, surely?

The same applies to skills. There are only so many skill points to go around, you can't max every tree. So, in every mastery, you make your choices. Currently in Nature, my choices would include maxing Plague line, HoO line and Wolves line. How much better would you have to make Briar Ward/Stinging Nettle in order to convince me to drop either Plague or HoO or Wolves?

[luedtke6788]

Originally Posted by Irma2

So what is actually going to change? If I use Batrachos Greaves and SBC now, and you buff up currently unappealing yellow and green items to be closer to BG and SBC (but still not comparable, let alone better), why would I be tempted to try out the boosted yellow/green gear? I'd just continue with my current gear, surely?

The same applies to skills. There are only so many skill points to go around, you can't max every tree. So, in every mastery, you make your choices. Currently in Nature, my choices would include maxing Plague line, HoO line and Wolves line. How much better would you have to make Briar Ward/Stinging Nettle in order to convince me to drop either Plague or HoO or Wolves?

We don't want to change your mind on what skills or items you use or don't use
We only want to make more usable(for lack of a better word) choices. right now there are only a handful of decent character builds and item sets to chose from, we want to expand that while still keeping a reasonable difficulty to the game

[BeaverusIV]

... and not leaving behind the entry-levelness of the game, i.e. you can not now anything about the game but still have fun and get to the end of it. (Unlike a certain Diablo game...).

I hope this game becomes the anti-D2 in the fact that everyone has a chance and it doesn't become elitist (i.e. 'haha, you n00b; you're sapros is only 64%!!!'). I like the friendly community and generally not-so-dark TEOTWAKI-ness of the game.

[Narcolepcy]

I really loved diablo 2 (classic only), but for much different reasons than this game. D2 had great multiplayer and pvp, and i hated it in single player, while this game rocks in single player and i havent even tried multiplayer yet. In my opinion these games may be designed similarly, but the way they play is almost uncomparable. Yellows are mainly meant to be sold, as they are one step above crap. If you start making yellows good this game will change from excitement at getting good drops, to tedium as I am forced to examine everything. My opinion is, I am not intrested in making every item good, bad idea. The less a game makes me think, and analyze it, the worse.

[Diogenes]

... and not leaving behind the entry-levelness of the game, i.e. you can not now anything about the game but still have fun and get to the end of it. (Unlike a certain Diablo game...).

It takes only as much skill to finish Diablo II normal as it does Titan Quest normal. The difference between the two is that Titan Quest peaks in difficulty at that point (the beginning of Act 4 Normal, which is rather tough) while Diablo II realizes some kind of compromise between accessibility and depth, and gradually amps up the challenge between its three difficulties in way that isn't apologetic.

To summarize my point, It is not to anyone's detriment that Diablo II's Hell is such a challenge, but that Titan Quest's Legendary is so easy is detrimental to almost everyone who has invested enough time to get there, so I disagree with the assertion that a challenging 2nd or 3rd play-through is elitist, exclusionary, or at all a forfeiture of anyone's experience.

The way I see it, Normal should provide a playground where classes are free to solidify at a very forgiving pace and new players can enjoy the game's flavor unshackled by its mechanics. Titan Quest does this rather well, but perhaps with some uncomfortable troughs (the entirety of Act 2) and zeniths (Act 4's beginning). Epic represents the shift at which the player stops playing for the storyline and begins playing strictly to advance his character in gear and levels - it is the gym. It should be more fruitful in cool items than it is challenging, although not to the point of boredom, as is currently the case with Act 1 and 2 Epic. Lastly, Difficulty 3 is the track, the test for which your character has been preparing all through Epic. In Immortal Throne vanilla, Legendary is a lackadaisical tube ride with a few inconsistent and brief sections of rapids. That is a problem, and if a community balance patch dealt with that the longevity of Titan Quest would be significantly expanded and its accessibility not compromised.

[Narcolepcy]

I totally, absolutley agree with you Diogenes. Games should be challenging enough to make you create a strategy. I would support creating more viable strategies, but dumbing down the game so that any and every strategy works is a very bad idea.