Chapter 187: Game Settings Modification
Zhao Yunting said, "Store manager, I have a question."
Zhao Yunting was responsible for game operations and promotion, and her current main job was handling the daily operations of *Onmyoji*. However, once the new game was developed, she would definitely be in charge of its promotion.
Chen Mo nodded. "Mm, just ask directly."
Zhao Yunting said, "I’m not worried about the game’s quality. What I’m mainly concerned about is that this theme has too many bloody and violent elements, like the corpses and blood plasma in the dungeons, and there’s also a necromancer class. Will these get stuck during censorship?"
Chen Mo said, "Don’t worry about that. I’ve already been to the Game Committee’s censorship department. This game is rated 18+, so passing the review won’t be a problem. Everyone, don’t hold back because of censorship concerns. It’s unnecessary. Elements like corpses, blood plasma, and severed limbs should be made as realistic as possible, without compromising the game’s overall atmosphere."
Su Jinyu sighed, "Impressive. Being an honorary committee member really lets you do whatever you want."
Chen Mo chuckled. "You talk too much. Alright, everyone should have a good understanding of this game’s content now. Go prepare. Hongxi, I’ll send you the outline for this storyline later. Make sure you prepare well."
"This storyline is going for a dark fantasy vibe. Players should constantly feel like they’re in a world of despair. Look into the dark histories of medieval Europe—things like the Black Death, burning at the stake, soul purification, hanging cages, iron maidens. All of these can be considered for use in the game, especially as material for the Hell chapter."
Zheng Hongxi wiped the sweat off his forehead. "Alright, I’ll do my best..."
...
After the concept presentation, everyone began rushing to prepare the various tasks for *Diablo*.
While the others were gathering materials and understanding the design intent, Chen Mo couldn’t afford to be idle either. He started using memory recall potions to recollect and sort out the key designs of *Diablo*.
The difficulty this time lay in the fact that the *Diablo* Chen Mo was creating actually used the storyline and basic gameplay of *Diablo 3*, but merged it with the art style, atmosphere, settings, and highlights of *Diablo 2*. It was a hybrid work, so he had to recall the content of both games and then slowly consider how to make trade-offs.
First, regarding the storyline flow, he would follow the plotline of *Diablo 3*.
Starting with the falling star crashing into the Tristram Cathedral, Act 1 would involve defeating the Skeleton King Leoric, Act 2 would go to Caldeum to defeat the Lord of Lies Belial, Act 3 would defend the Bastion Keep and charge into the Core of Sin to defeat Azmodan, Act 4 would feature the final battle in the High Heavens against Diablo, ultimately defeating him.
From a narrative perspective, the storyline quality of *Diablo 3* was quite good, at least above average, and not inferior to *Diablo 2*. Of course, due to the art style and specific presentation, *Diablo 3*’s storyline lacked immersion, but that wasn’t a problem with the script—it was an issue with the narrative technique and overall style.
As for the script itself, the entire *Diablo 3* storyline had a solid structure of introduction, development, twist, and conclusion. The major scenes—dark lands, deserts, snowy plains, Hell, and Heaven—were all excellently executed, even being repeatedly borrowed by domestic ARPG mobile games.
Additionally, beyond the main storyline, players could collect notes, letters, and other elements. Through NPCs, they could hear side stories that revealed the world’s background, complementing the main plot.
Second, regarding class settings and combat systems, he would follow the design of *Diablo 3* but make numerical balance adjustments.
*Diablo 3*’s skill system allowed players to equip two primary skills and four shortcut skills, along with three passive skills. The entire skill system and control scheme were very mature designs, which was superior to *Diablo 2*.
Moreover, the entire skill allocation system didn’t require respecs or starting over, which was a very friendly feature for new players, broadening the game’s user base.
Although *Diablo 3*’s skill system was criticized by many players for having too few variations—only a few popular skill combinations with little innovation—in reality, *Diablo 3*’s skill system was quite rich. However, after introducing the ladder system, players inevitably became short-sighted, seeking the strongest skill combination among the options. This combination would quickly be imitated by other players, homogenizing the class skill setups.
Thus, the ladder system was the main reason *Diablo 3*’s combat system felt monotonous.
Many people thought *Diablo 2*’s skill system was good, but if that system were used for ladder grinding, players would still find the most powerful skill set to use, with the same result.
As long as there was a utilitarian goal, this kind of grind-heavy game easily became monotonous, because most players, driven by utility, would abandon inefficient self-exploration and instead follow the strongest player’s build.
For this, Chen Mo considered adjusting *Diablo 3*’s skill system himself, pairing it with an improved equipment system to make the gameplay more diverse.
Third, regarding the equipment system, he would reference the design of *Diablo 2*.
Although *Diablo 3*’s equipment system continued *Diablo 2*’s random attributes, it wasn’t very successful. Its biggest problem was setting a ceiling for equipment—for example, a specific class had to obtain a specific piece of gear to support a build, rendering other seemingly excellent equipment completely useless.
On this point, Chen Mo considered increasing the randomness of equipment drops and attributes, further expanding the equipment pool.
Of course, the potential consequence of this was making the game’s numerical system uncontrollable. With a powerful class, a powerful skill set, and powerful equipment, under multiple random combinations, no one knew what kind of monstrous character players might create.
But this was ultimately a single-player game, and Chen Mo didn’t plan to create an auction house system, so the risk of randomness was greatly reduced, unlikely to cause any major damage to the game.
Fourth, regarding game difficulty, Chen Mo made fine adjustments to *Diablo 3*’s difficulty. The default story mode had an official designated difficulty, and players had to experience the story at that difficulty.
This difficulty still posed some challenge for new players. Some bosses required proper positioning and technique to defeat. Combined with the art style and field-of-view design, this would greatly increase the sense of frustration for new players, making them die easily.
If players died repeatedly, the difficulty would automatically decrease somewhat, but overall, players couldn’t breeze through the entire story chapter without pressure.