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So, obviously, I've been playing D1 a lot lately. And I just wanted to make note of a few maybe not-so-obvious things that I like about the original, maybe spark some discussion.
I like the idea of items that when you find them, they are almost useless, but if you hold on to them and do certain things, they become valuable. For example, if you find a Thinking Cap, you note the 1/1 durability and assume it's trash. But if you know there are shrines that increase your items' durability permanently, you hold onto it, and you find a couple, suddenly you have a nice hat for your sorc.
I like the idea of the Enchanted Shrines. They are very exciting to find, but in reality, don't overpower your character or anything. If you think about it, they're basically like finding a whole bunch of gold, more or less - they don't give you anything you can't get with patient Adria shopping. But they give you a reason to explore the first half of the dungeons end-game, and that's pretty cool.
I like that no matter how good of stuff you find, or how high your level, you have a to have a certain level of healthy respect for the monsters - they hit too hard and too fast in hell, and even a rich character must proceed with strategy.
Other random thoughts:
1. Stone Curse is the most ridiculously overpowered spell, although by way of drawback it makes for a very slow clear
2. More things that add nice varied replay value to the end game - Bookshelves, Armor racks, Elixirs
3. I never played a BNM, and I get mad when the full plate or jewelry I found is cursed, but cursed items win in terms of "unintentional replay value"
I don't think you can really find a cursed FPM, because cursed items only drop up till about dlvl 7, and I don't think you can find FPM there, even in Hell games.
One thing I really liked about D1 is what I called 'ring' levels. Every now and then, you'll get a level where you find 4 or 5 rings or amulets, and few other magic items at all. It's fun thinking about all the chances you'll have to get Obs/Zod jewelry.
slightly OT, but I was really disappointed with shrines in D2. That they were so temporary, none did anything very impressive, and they weren't even very imaginative. Exp shrines were fun, and monster shrines were kind of clever, and evil urns added some spice in act 5, but the rest were so unimaginative.
I didn't miss the potentially character-hobbling mana thieving shrines, but most of the D2 ones were such afterthoughts. And then no changes to them at all in d2X. How was there no random shrine? No GF or MF shrine? No super rare shrines with substantial benefits (random rune drop shrine? Random item upgrade/socket shrine?)
Yeah random rune shrine would make it worthwhile to actually play the areas of Diablo 2.
Maybe they just didn't want maphackers to exploit good shrines with permanent outcome?
I love Diablo 1 bookshelves and elixirs. Every time you find one, it's like a small level-up.
I love that you can use money to buy good stuff, elixirs and books from the town. Money is important in the game and I like that a lot. I feel that no dungeon goes a waste - I always get XP and through gold, items and everything I need.
And it's great that everyone can get spells. Collecting them is maybe just as fun as leveling - they give me the "small level-up" feeling, even if it is a crappy spell like inferno.
I just found a "ring-level" - 5 rings, 2 amulets, 3 bosses on the same level with butcher! And a lot magic items - too bad it was dungeons.. nightmare dungeons, but still dungeons, so it was all more or less crap.
Monster diversity is one I'd like to mention. I'm not just meaning tons of "different" monsters, but you can tell so much thought went into every monster in the game. In d2, sure, you have these different monsters but I think the attention to detail in d1 is astounding. Just yesterday I discovered that, upon closer inspection of spitting terrors, their backs also seethe and bubble with acidity, going along with their general theme.
The monsters also look and die in much cooler ways- Red Storm demons a great exemplar!
Was it just me or did the characters also look substantially cooler? My plate mailed warrior just radiates cool. I didn't get that from any character in D2.
I have mentioned this before, but the sense of "progression". Sure, in D2 you change acts and such, but the original has this sense of "Descending", like you're working towards a goal that isn't just illustrated in some quest-reminder menu. The books about the Horadrim, the Sin War, etc. add to this. The immersion factor just isn't matched with d2.
Finally d2 monsters are mostly fodder, admittedly. You can actually complete several areas without encountering a monster that can do much as put a dent in your health orb, but Diablo 1 has much more formidable monsters that foster a more healthy respect.
Add to all of this the fact that you can mod Diablo 1 with ease (and d2 to an extent, but d1 is easier :P), it just makes it that much more fun. I've got it modded so that unique monsters are insanely difficult (10x hitpoints, one graduated level of magic resistance beyond their regular and 2x regular damage), item prefixes and suffixes are effectively 3x as potent, as well as spells, and have removed the threshold on stat allocation to 250 for all stats with all classes.
I don't think you can really find a cursed FPM, because cursed items only drop up till about dlvl 7, and I don't think you can find FPM there, even in Hell games.
One thing I really liked about D1 is what I called 'ring' levels. Every now and then, you'll get a level where you find 4 or 5 rings or amulets, and few other magic items at all. It's fun thinking about all the chances you'll have to get Obs/Zod jewelry.
Not sure when the game starts being able to generate FPM, but according to Jarulf's Guide armor racks in dungeon levels 10-12 have a 33% chance of being cursed. Definitely some "heavy armors" can be, even if not FPM, which are still quite valuable!
slightly OT, but I was really disappointed with shrines in D2. That they were so temporary, none did anything very impressive, and they weren't even very imaginative. Exp shrines were fun, and monster shrines were kind of clever, and evil urns added some spice in act 5, but the rest were so unimaginative.
I didn't miss the potentially character-hobbling mana thieving shrines, but most of the D2 ones were such afterthoughts. And then no changes to them at all in d2X. How was there no random shrine? No GF or MF shrine? No super rare shrines with substantial benefits (random rune drop shrine? Random item upgrade/socket shrine?)
I also found the D2 shrines to be unsatisfying. The only one I ever looked for or enjoyed finding were the gem shrines. They definitely could have done a better job with that. D1 had a lot of fun shrines - Thaumaturgic? Eldritch? Any of the stat boosters?
Shrines that made permament alterations to items or characters in D2 would have been wildly overpowered, unless they were capped at some very small number somehow.
But shrines that repaired all items in your INV, shrines that dumped tons of gold (countess-style), shrines that cast random spell effects (moreso than just Poison and Fire shrines), or shrines that gave non-class skills for short periods of time - this could be done through a non-repairable charm with a limited number of charges, so Sorcs could get necro spells for example.
Kunzaito
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