I've said it once and I'll said it again... - Page 4

Good suggestion LaZeR. Not to hard to implement, but a lot more fun to play |||I can see what Knight_Wolf is worried about. Say you have 5 zombie dogs, 1 Gargantuan and a Fetish Army, clicking on each one to order commands would be time consuming, Even if you had a system kind of like the hunter from WoW where you have 3 buttons on your UI (1 for aggressive, 1 for defensive, and 1 for passive) you would still have to press a few hotkeys to get them to do what you want. Unless the commands affect all the pets, but in that case you lose some customization.

I have an idea that may make the WD a little more complex but will give him a ton more control over his pets. Each summon would have a control option page where you could adjust how far the pet strays from you and how aggressive it is as well as who they automatically go for when they do attack (e.g., weakest, strongest, closest to them, closest to the WD) This would keep the UI the same but also give more control. I will say something needs to be done about pets and their AI. To often (in other games) they do things that you don't want, making the game frustrating at times.|||Slow and time-consuming like starcraft, you mean. Wait, oh. STARCRAFT IS FAST-PACED. Commands for minions would've been god-sent for the necro. If blizz comes up with commands similar to what the OP said... Guess what character I'll play?|||Quote:








Slow and time-consuming like starcraft, you mean. Wait, oh. STARCRAFT IS FAST-PACED. Commands for minions would've been god-sent for the necro. If blizz comes up with commands similar to what the OP said... Guess what character I'll play?






Well, Diablo is faster paced than SC .... and Diablo isn't a strategy game too .. you should only control ONE character not an army .. want to play around with an army go play SC or WC3.

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Titan Quest did it just right .... In TQ:Immortal Throne expansion you could set your Pet/summon behavious to Aggressive/Neutral/Defensive and if you wish you can select and order them to move ... but frankly that was only needed in orginal TQ where you couldn't set behaviors .. but once you are able to set behaviors (in TQ:IT) you don't need it anymore.

Setting AI behaviors is sufficient to give players lots of control on their summons without requiring them to stop mid combat trying to spot their summons or figure out what orders they should give them now (when having more than 6 summons at the same time is is quite confusing and slows the combat pace greatly)|||@Knight_Wolf

Heads up, a summoner controls an army.. Albeit, a small one. Jay Wilson, also commented about making D3 more strategy based than the previous titles. Lastly, if I wanted to play SC or WC3, I wouldn't have bothered posting my thoughts here.

If you played the demo, you would've noted that the mongrels were, to put it bluntly, stupid. Having control on their actions, like you suggested: Aggressive(attack current target), Neutral (follow), Defensive (attack nearest), would suffice.|||Quote:








I can see what Knight_Wolf is worried about. Say you have 5 zombie dogs, 1 Gargantuan and a Fetish Army, clicking on each one to order commands would be time consuming, Even if you had a system kind of like the hunter from WoW where you have 3 buttons on your UI (1 for aggressive, 1 for defensive, and 1 for passive) you would still have to press a few hotkeys to get them to do what you want. Unless the commands affect all the pets, but in that case you lose some customization.

I have an idea that may make the WD a little more complex but will give him a ton more control over his pets. Each summon would have a control option page where you could adjust how far the pet strays from you and how aggressive it is as well as who they automatically go for when they do attack (e.g., weakest, strongest, closest to them, closest to the WD) This would keep the UI the same but also give the more control. I will say something needs to be done about pets and their AI to often (in other games) they do things that you don't want, making the game frustrating at times.




I understand this problem. And it IS a crucial one. There are only 2 solutions I can come up with:

1. Make commands effects all of your minions/only your Z-Dogs/Only your Gargan. It looses diversity, but it's right in between "better than D2 no control at all" and "just too hard to complex".

2. Use the mechanic you've suggested. It's actually a nice one, although I'm not sure if it fits Diablo.|||Sorry if this was brought up, but I think Lazer's idea is good as long as everyone's merc gets in on it too.

Or, maybe have it like in Fallout 2 where you give instructions on how minions behave in advance. This could be done by going into the options menu, and that would not require new skills, hotbar, or w/e.

So you pre-arrange for them to flee from combat either when they are hurt a bit, half dead, never, etc. You could tell them to hang back or charge in, when to use a potion even, etc.|||Personally it wouldn't bother me if you couldn't control your pets.

However, I reckon it would be fun if each pet type just had different behaviours. Like personalities! You lose immediate customization but it would be sort of cute.

I think the time spent herding your minions would be better spent throwing flame-skulls and voodoo powder. Then again if they merely gave you the option it could make playing the Witch Doctor a potentially deep and strategic affair. I wouldn't object overly much to it, myself.|||Won't happen.

7 hotkeys. Enjoy Diabwow. =D

Snarkiness aside, it's a cool idea, but they're married to the limited Wowesque hotkeys so that kills it unless they implement a shift+right click context menu for pets. Doubtful.|||Quote:








Personally it wouldn't bother me if you couldn't control your pets.

However, I reckon it would be fun if each pet type just had different behaviours. Like personalities! You lose immediate customization but it would be sort of cute.

I think the time spent herding your minions would be better spent throwing flame-skulls and voodoo powder. Then again if they merely gave you the option it could make playing the Witch Doctor a potentially deep and strategic affair. I wouldn't object overly much to it, myself.




Actually, that would be a good idea for merc's. You pick out the one whose behavior you want. In d2, they're all the same AI.