QOL Idea for Consideration

[ScissorShiv]

First off I'd like to say how amazing this project is for a game that is not only a significant landmark in gaming, but also an amazing game to play and experience to this day. Cheers!

When playing this game in the past, I obviously was restricted to using a keyboard and mouse. The addition of controller support is absolutely a welcomed sight. The QOL addition I'd like to suggest is something that I was able to do with the mouse and keyboard, but not the controller. This was the ability to quickly swap weapons during game play (even during combat when openings arouse).

What I'd like to suggest is the addition of an ability given to all characters that allows for being able to swap weapons. I very much do not want to change the Diablo 1 game play experience and offer the following manner in which to implement the idea with, what I feel is no downside, as follows:

1. The weapon swap would be an ability that each of the characters has.
2. The ability would be handled just as other character abilities, found in the spell HUD as a gold icon, and able to be queued in the speed book hotkeys.
3. When the ability is selected, the cast button would be used to initiate the ability (just as other abilities).
4. The ability would allow the character to swap into a different weapon preset, that has been selected beforehand in the equipment menu.
5. The ability would have a "cast" duration just as other spells/ abilities, that could be cancelled and interrupted by receiving stunning damage (just like spells work currently).
6. The alternate weapons need to be in the players inventory for the swap to occur.
7. The weapons being swapped out would automatically be placed in the characters open inventory space, if there is not enough room in the characters inventory for one or both of the items, it or they are dropped to the ground.
8. The left and right hand would be handled separately, so that if nothing is preset in one hand it would simply keep the current item equipped (ie swapping your sword for a mace while retaining your shield in the right hand) or place it into the characters inventory if needed (ie swapping from a sword and shield to a two handed sword)

Other thoughts:

The time it takes to swap weapons could be tweaked to be slightly longer for certain characters than other (just like how it takes longer to cast a spell for a warrior than that of the sorcerer) - not necessary, but could be a unique way to add some difference in the classes.

A toggle in the options menu to enable or disable this modification.

Final comments:

I truly feel that this addition would not alter the Diablo experience at all. This is something that could already be done, but it is discouraged by being clunky and needing to open panels, drag and dropping...etc, detracting from the immersion of the game. By creating this less intrusive manner in accomplishing the same end, the player is now encouraged to do so allowing for more strategy when facing down a level. The idea of seeing a horde of undead skulking toward you and being able to swap out your sword for a mace to take advantage of the damage increase without needing to open panels and rearrange items in your inventory just sounds amazing. I understand that something like this was implemented in Diablo 2 and some other mods, but the reason I detailed the manner I recommend above is to do everything possible to not alter the Diablo 1 experience. The swap requires the use of a skill that takes a brief moment to execute and it does not create additional inventory room, meaning you have to weigh out whether it is worth carrying the extra gear, whether you want to take up one of your hotkeys for the ability...etc. At any rate, I can't thank those who have created this mod enough and appreciate your time and consideration of this addition to an already amazing effort.

Cheers!

[yuripourre]

@ScissorShiv I think this idea makes sense. It's something that players do (swapping weapons) so it's not an entire new mechanic.

Having said that, could you elaborate how do you envision this "preset" mechanism? The player needs to select one or two items to be the ones to be switched. How do you envision that?

This by itself adds a lot of complexity to the QoL.

[julealgon]

What happens if the weapon you are equipped with is larger than the one currently in the inventory that is the target for the swap, and your currently equipped weapon doesn't fit the inventory?

[AJenbo]

I guess the hero just complains about lack of space instead of swapping.

[ScissorShiv]

In the event that this occurs, then the offending equipment (ie the equipment that does not fit in the inventory) would be dropped to the ground. This instance would occur most often when swapping from a sword/mace and shield (9 inventory spaces) into a two handed weapon such as a bow/staff/axe/two-handed sword/maul (6 inventory spaces), and the rest of the inventory space is filled or unorganized. There is the possibility of this occurring when swapping from a sword (3 inventory spaces) to a dagger (2 inventory spaces). This is what players would often do when switching weapons and this issued occurred. Using the same example, the player is swapping from a sword/shield into a two-handed weapon. The inventory panel is opened, the two-handed weapon is dragged and dropped into the right hand, the sword is automatically placed into the inventory while the shield is affixed to the cursor. The player then clicks off screen and drops the shield to the ground.

[AJenbo]

Can't wait for the bug reports "Important gear vanishing with no trace randomly", then weeks of debugging and not realizing they didn't notice when the feature dropped there good gear instead of the junk they picked up during that session.

[ScissorShiv]

I suppose the alternative would be exactly what you mentioned, the swap doesn't occur, and the character says "now where would I put this".

[AJenbo]

I think this is the best proposal for how to handle this, but I'm having a hard time understanding how the player assigns pairs of items to the ability?

It also very easily slips in to mod territory.

[AJenbo]

not very intuitive, but comparatively easy to implement and avoids going many of the things that makes it feel more like a mod

[StephenCWills]

I don't know that it's comparatively easy to implement. What if you have both a Short Sword and a Dagger in the staging area for the left hand?

[AJenbo]

i would pick the first valid that i find in the area, not very intuitive, so not saying it's all good :)

[StephenCWills]

Well, personally I think the hardest part of any suggestion for this feature is computing the space available for the items you need to dequip and then proceeding to swap all the items around. I guess it does make things easier if you only have to look at the 2x3 space below each hand. I think it does make things significantly more complicated for the player, though, if we don't take special care to avoid those areas when auto-populating the inventory.

All this discussion has got me wanting to try my hand at implementing something, but I feel I need to focus my energy on gamepad for the upcoming release.

[AJenbo]

Yeah a good place to start would be to implement in-place swapping for shift+click. The reason we don't have that atm is also because of the difficulty in calculating the available space ahead of the move.