作者：Joshua McDonald

尽管暴雪的《暗黑破坏神》创造了动作类RPG的分支，并影响了其它RPG游戏，但其卓越之处并不仅仅在于创造性。虽然这款游戏在某些方面看来是过时的，但是游戏中依然存在许多后来者（也包括其本身的续集）难以超越的元素。最近重拾这款游戏，我再次肯定了它身上的那些闪光点。

打败敌人的类型而非敌人的等级

我认为，RPG面临的一大糟糕趋势是利用敌人生命值旁边的数字代表能量，后来出现的对手威力肯定要比之前强100倍（尽管外观与行动均与之前出现的角色相同），或者其威力跟与之同一级别的巨人相同。

《暗黑破坏神》针对敌人类型做了一些调整，并且谨慎地限制了每个角色所能够爆发的能量。

很多开发者反对使用这种做法的原因在于，改变敌人类型会产生更多美术工作，但实际上并非如此。事实上，正是这种局限性优化了游戏设计。

游戏不是让一个20级角色与两个20级小妖战斗，或者一个40级角色与两个40级的巨魔抗衡，而是让一个40级的角色面临被带领一群小妖的巨魔，或者将这个巨魔设置成一个能够召唤小妖的魔法师。虽然这些小妖的威力与你之前对抗的角色相同，玩家能明显看到自己角色的进步（“我记得之前这些角色很难对付”），但却仍然不失挑战性。比起改变每个敌人的属性，改变他们的战斗环境更为有效。因为这么做将能够进一步创造游戏的多样性，而不再只是添加一些功能不变的新角色。

现实而可观的道具掉落机率

这里的关键词是“现实”，也就是排除了0.00001%这种没有意义的低概率。不要将特定战利品局限在某种特定的敌人或地区（游戏邦注：但是可以让战利品的威力与敌人威力相挂钩）。限定哪类敌人会落掉什么道具，可能会促使寻求某种装备的玩家不断刷任务，而放宽这种限制却可鼓励玩家尽情享受随机获得强大战利品的游戏乐趣。如果玩家知道自己在任何游戏期间都有可能获得可观的奖励，他们将会更加积极地参与常规的游戏任务。

如果你想要创造一些让玩家选择性收集的道具（而不是随机提供），那你就必须合理地设置这些道具的承载对象（例如打败巨龙就能够获得X剑），或者让他们通过购买而获得道具，这样玩家就不会认为自己只有撞大运才能拣到优质道具。

Hell inventory(from diablo.incgamers.com)

较少的道具陈列位置更能体现每件装备的价值

如果你能够装备20个都具有属性的不同道具，那么你便只会发现游戏中掉落的战利品并没有什么明显区别。如果我没记错的话，在《暗黑破坏神》中只设置了7个道具位置，每当玩家用一种道具取代其中一者的位置时，就会明显发现其中的不同之处。

如果你真的想要设置多个道具位置，你可以选择将其中一些设置为不包含属性的特殊道具。在《魔兽世界》中，较低级别的小道具便不具有特定属性（游戏邦注：如“Gnomish battle chicken”和“Linken’s Boomerang”），而到了更高级别，这些道具也将拥有属性框，或者拥有价值（尽管只是消极效果）。

商店含有一些随机而有益的装备

在《暗黑破坏神》中获取金币比我在任何RPG游戏中获取的奖励更有价值，因为有时候，前者的商店将会提供一些真正有帮助的道具。另外，该游戏还允许玩家将一些用不到的道具高价卖出。虽然买入黄金对于MMO游戏来说是个较为复杂的问题，但如果不是MMO游戏，就应该让这些金币发挥有趣的作用。

明确区分掉落道具的用处

在很多现代游戏中，你会发现自己所收集到的道具都非常有帮助，你不愿意错失任何一种道具，所以你便需要花费更多时间去分析它们的用途，例如分析哪些道具所拥有的属性能够真正帮助你提高完成任务的效率。

在《暗黑破坏神》中，玩家只要看名称便能够快速意识到哪些道具值得进一步研究或者用于今后的买卖；游戏总是以一种极其有序的方式去罗列这些道具（并且也不会让玩家感到道具不足）。同时我也发现很多动作RPG都出现过道具掉落设置过于杂乱的情况。

可以随机或通过购买而获得永久奖励

在《暗黑破坏神》中，这一方法只适用于能够使用魔法的角色（一般来说也就是魔法师，尽管其它两类角色也经常会使用一些咒语）。找到复制的法术书将能够永久提高你的法术。这一机制的优点便是玩家不用担心

会出现更好的内容取代这种永久性奖励。这种方法也不适用于MMO环境，而对于其它游戏，它却能够为战利品机制添加额外的惊喜。

其它角色也能够通过不老长寿药等道具而得到这种永久性奖励，但其设置的趣味却少了很多。

结论

从很多方面看来，《暗黑破坏神》是一款过时的游戏，但是游戏中的许多巧妙设计却是值得所有RPG设计师进一步参考与借鉴的内容。

（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，拒绝任何不保留版权的转载，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

What the current RPG can learn from Diablo 1

by Joshua McDonald

Although Blizzard’s Diablo basically invented the Action RPG subgenre and influenced many other RPGs, it wasn’t just innovation that made it a great game. Though outdated in many areas, there are other aspects of the game that are rarely if ever done as well in the games that came after (including its sequel). Having gone back and played it recently, these are the things that stood out to me.

You fight an enemy type. Not an enemy level:

In my opinion, one of the worst trends in RPGs is representing power by a little number next to the enemy’s health bar. A skeleton that looks and acts just like one from earlier in the game will literally be 100 times as powerful. And it will be the same power as the giant you just fought that happened to be the same level. Sure, Diablo did some reskinning, but it carefully limited how powerful each model could get.

The automatic argument most people make against this is that you need too much art to keep changing enemy types, but this isn’t true. In fact, it’s one place where the limitation actually leads to better game design.

Instead of a level 20 character fighting two level 20 goblins and a level 40 character fighting two level 40 ogres, maybe the level 40 character will fight an ogre surrounded by a horde of goblins. Or maybe the ogre will be a mage that summons goblins. Since these goblins are the exact same power as those the player has fought previously, their character’s progress is highly visible (“I remember when one of these guys used to be hard”), yet they are still challenged. Instead of changing the stats on each enemy, change the context under which they are fought.

This will actually add more variety than making a bunch of new models that are functionally the same as the old ones.

Anything had a realistic chance of an awesome loot drop:

The key word in this sentence is “realistic”. A .00001% chance doesn’t count. Further, don’t confine specific loot to specific enemies or areas (other than loosely connecting power of loot with power of enemies). Setting which items drop from which enemies encourages grindy behavior as players seek specific equipment, while loosening this up encourages players to just play the game and enjoy the occasional great drop. If players know that they have a reasonable chance at getting a great drop from any playing session, it greatly increases the excitement they feel when going through the regular game tasks.

If you want to make some items that the player can choose to obtain (rather than relying on randomness), make those items reliable drops (ex: dragon boss always drops sword X) or purchasable so that they player doesn’t feel like effort to gain that item is simply wasted until they get a lucky session in.

Fewer item slots made individual pieces of equipment more meaningful:

When you can equip 20 different items that all give stats, a loot drop rarely makes a significant visible difference in your performance. Diablo, if I remember correctly, had 7, and I tended to notice a significant difference most of the time when one of them got replaced.

An alternative if you like a lot of slots is to have a few with very specialized roles that do not include giving stats. Low level trinkets in WoW function like this (i.e. Gnomish battle chicken and Linken’s Boomerang do not give stats), but at higher levels, they just turn into stat sticks like everything else you equip or have useful but very passive effects.

Shops had equipment that was both random and good:

Getting gold in Diablo was more rewarding than in any RPG I’ve played since because the shops, on occasion, would carry really awesome items. Likewise, good drops that you couldn’t use sold for a lot, so finding those was still exciting. Naturally, this becomes a more complex issue in MMOs because of gold buying, but if it’s not an MMO, make money fun.

Minimal clutter in item drops:

In many modern games, you get so many drops that are potentially good that to feel like you aren’t missing stuff, you have to spend a lot of time mathematically analyzing them. I’m not talking about interesting choices (i.e. Do I want the bow that stuns the enemy or the one that hits targets behind it). This is more focused on analyzing which stat stick will increase your effectiveness in doing the exact same thing you’ve been doing.

In Diablo, drops that were worth investigating or even carrying around to sell were quickly identified, often just by the name, and were rare enough to avoid excessive clutter (while being common enough that you didn’t feel too deprived). I’ve found that action RPGs in particular tend to be overcluttered most of the time.

Permanent cool bonuses could drop or be purchased:

In Diablo, this only applied to characters who used magic (generally the mage, though the other two classes would often carry around a few spells). Finding duplicate spellbooks increased the power of your magic permanently and significantly. The advantage to this is that it provided drops that were ALWAYS exciting with no fear of simply being replaced when something better came along. Naturally, this won’t work in an MMO environment, but in any other, this adds another layer of excitement to looting.

Other characters were able to get permanent bonuses in the form of elixirs, but these were a lot less interesting.

Conclusion:

In many regards, Diablo is an outdated game, but there are enough well-designed aspects of this that every RPG designer should give it a second look.(source:GAMASUTRA)