Who here has played Zelda 1?

[Steven Hazani]

For those of you that haven't (or don't see why this is relevant on a D3 board) in Zelda 1 there were enemies called Leader monsters. If you killed them, every enemy in the area would also die.

Now take a look at D3. Know those enemies like trees, beasts, hulks, etc that are often skipped because they just have so much HP in favor of killing larger numbers of lower HP targets? Know those single target skills that, even if they did good damage don't get used because picking off enemies one at a time is too slow and tedious?

Now imagine this same functionality in D3.

 

[yovargas]

Hey, that's actually a cool idea. (Also a cool idea - playing Zelda 1. It's great.)

 

[Disciple of Erebos]

I tried Zelda 1, but I didn't like it that much. I didn't get it until I'd played a whole bunch of other Zelda games, and Zelda 1 felt too different from what I expect a Zelda game to be like. I've watched a whole bunch of speedruns of Zelda 1, so I've seen all of the dungeons, and I don't really like Zelda 1's gameplay compared to the other Zeldas. There's a lot more emphasis on exploration, which I like, but there's also a lot less puzzle-solving; a lot of puzzles seem to be pretty obscure, such as knowing exactly where to bomb or burn a tree in order to get something. Obviously, these being speedruns, maybe the information is there, but the guy already knows so he doesn't bother to find the information and just does what he needs to; in that case, I don't really have a problem. But I feel that the dungeons don't have much of a feeling of puzzle-solving to them, and the puzzle-solving is mostly my favorite part of the Zelda series, so to me that's a pretty big hit to my enjoyment of the game.

In terms of the idea, though, I like it. You probably couldn't have the enemy's death kill all other monsters on screen though; that would probably be too powerful, even if it ignored Champions/Elites. Perhaps a good way to do it would be to ascribe Champ/Elite affixes to these enemies, except that instead of working on you while the monster is alive, they proc when the monster dies and they work against the other enemies. In that case, you might kill one of these Leader monsters and proc a red Arcane laser to hit enemies, or get a free Frost Nova out of it, or get an invincibility shield for 5 seconds, or some thing like that. This would give players a good reason to focus on dropping the big guys first, or pick skills that help them drop the big guys quickly.

 

[Sulle]

This actually made me think of an afix called invunerables back in the beginning of D3V, where you could only kill the whole pack of elites, if you killed the leader or boss. I actually liked that afix a lot, because you had to play more tactically and it was a really nice challange, but they removed it, because some people apparently thought they were too difficult. I would love to get something like that back again.

http://www.diablowiki.net/Invulnerable_Minions

 

[Vitaeus]

Wow, Zelda 1, that was the first game I played "hardcore".

 

[yovargas]

Heh, I realized that this idea is kind of just the Grotesque's explosion but with a bigger punch.

 

[HardRock]

Heh, I realized that this idea is kind of just the Grotesque's explosion but with a bigger punch.

Yeah, and I think Grotesques prove that this idea would work on a larger scale, because they are just about the only big enemies I always stop to kill. It's such fun watching them explode while bringing down everything around them as well.

Also, I must play the Zelda games...

 

[Steven Hazani]

It wouldn't be anything around them dies, just linked packs. Say you're doing the typical FoM run and you get 1 Scavenger pack, 2 Khazra packs, 2 Savage Beasts, and 1 Tree. Normally players would kill everything except the last 3 mobs then leave, as their high HP and not much higher xp/loot compared to a single enemy with much lower HP means it's a lot of wasted time to just focus on them and often they'll follow and get AoEed down, anyways. Now imagine killing a Beast means killing any Khazra they came with, but only the ones they came with (meaning if they already got AoEed down, this is of no use), then expand this throughout the game, then give good single target skills so we can actually utilize this dynamic.

 

[Apendecto]

Sadly, I have the urge to play Zelda...but not D3.

 

[ShadoutMapes]

I think a good start would be to just let the big mobs actually give a reasonable amount of XP and drops. How hard can that be :/

Making monsters linked is a fun little idea though.

 

[Steven Hazani]

I think a good start would be to just let the big mobs actually give a reasonable amount of XP and drops. How hard can that be :/

Making monsters linked is a fun little idea though.

Yes, but remember a long time ago when Blizzard pointed out a Mallet Lord is only 50% better than a scorpion, and they deduced from this that they should 1: Nerf scorpions. 2: Not buff Mallet Lords?

They only understand MOAR, and then are mystified when players play for MOAR.