Mercs?

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samkremers wrote:

Item trading will be less due to people keeping the items for the mercs they want to equip.

Or more due to people trading items for their mercs to equip.

I don't think you're taking into account the fact that GGG is a small team and making mercs in a game requires a lot of work (i.e. balancing, merc AI, pathfinding...).
The studio has enough work as it is and more work would mean that the game will be released a lot later than it's planned to.
It would be a good idea to put them in an expansion, but in the initial game.

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Lino wrote:

I don't think you're taking into account the fact that GGG is a small team and making mercs in a game requires a lot of work (i.e. balancing, merc AI, pathfinding...).
The studio has enough work as it is and more work would mean that the game will be released a lot later than it's planned to.
It would be a good idea to put them in an expansion, but in the initial game.

I agree.

I certainly don't want Mercs screwing up the current development cycle and/or quality of initial product. I'm sure most people here will agree with that.

I love mercs, it's another game in itself just looking after them and equipping him/her with sweet sweet gear.

I agree that Mercs may not be in the cards right now, but something to consider for the expansion.

Sometimes I wonder if Mercs are really necessary. If I wanted a faceless merc, why not just give me two main characters instead of one.

Party members with personalities and such are a different story of course.

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tpapp157 wrote:

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Malice wrote:

So you can't really say "well, people who don't want to use mercs don't have to, but they're there for people who do want them".

Either no-one will use them because they are useless, or everyone will use them because they are useful. There isn't really any inbetween.

This is very true. That's why I think mercs should be temporary and purchased at a cost. They should also result in decreased loot drops because the merc would obviously want their own share of the loot.

The merc should really be treated as if you are playing with another player with all the benefits and drawbacks that comes with.

I think tpapp really hit the nail on the head here. What I see it coming down to is a gameplay issue. (For the most part) if a merc is gonna help you find better loot/grind faster/etc. players will pick them up. If they're causing less loot to drop/slower xp gain/etc. players will not want them. Maybe I'm really missing something but this seems to be the whole crux of the debate.

Personally, I couldn't really care less. For some chars in D2 I had mercs, while on others I didn't need them. It really just dependent upon the build (i.e. hammerdin vs frost sorc). I could see this issue possibly become less of a deal if there are abilities (i.e. summons/gems) in the skill tree that would allow you to pull up pets as needed for a build. What was the deciding factor for a merc or not was if I needed a tank or if my char was built to tank. I could see the skill tree/gems fixing that if arranged properly.

I like the idea of a one man army plowing through your enemies. It adds a little to the game. If you have to add a merc it takes that way a little.

I don't like gameplay with mercs, they tend to die in some stupid ways, sometimes making berserk charge on some boss who is 3 screens from you then getting back with him and 2023 monsters on his back or just getting stuck/late.

Playing hack and slash with mercs is more like The Sims than Diablo tbh.
You are caring more about him then about your mates and sometimes even yourself.

Besides the less NPC in a fight the better (that includes swarms of some conjured minions).
Quality>quanity.

I'd like there to me mercs or a companion in PoE, I liked the way they worked in Diablo 2, I personally just loved the one with the spear from act 2.