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Pre Launch: Items
From Hellgatewiki.com
| Pre Launch Article |
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This article contains information that is old, or outdated, but saved for future reference, and a historical overview of Hellgate: London through the course of development of the game. These articles are NOT meant to be updated any further. You can find more articles from before launch here. |
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Items Overview
As in most role-playing games, items are a major aspect of Hellgate: London. Finding better items, using new weapons to do more or different damage, switching equipment in and out to increase your character's overall effectiveness, and leveling up to meet the requirements of higher level items are constant activities in Hellgate: London, whether you're a casual player or a dedicated "min/max" type of guy.
"Like any action RPG of worth, we offer over a hundred distinctly different base weapon types with multiple versions of each type, and they can all be modified with multiple categories and types of add-ons."
--Ivan Sulic, April 2006
Legendary items will abound in Hellgate: London as well, with Set items, Rare items, Unique items, and more, many with special properties not found on regular magical weapons and armor.
"Just like randomization, we're applying the concept of rarity to everything we can in the game. That means we will have normal items, rare items, epic items, legendary items and so forth. We also love collectability, so things like item sets and unique items fall into that category. We apply all of these elements to weapons, armor, mods, and any other types of items we create."
--Bill Roper, Fansite Interview, September 3, 2005
There are no charms or other "stick in your inventory for stat bonuses at the expense of inventory space" type items in Hellgate: London.
Items can be modified and customized much as they could in Diablo II, thanks to slots and the five types of "mods," items that approximate the jewels, runes, and gems of Diablo II and have effect only when inserted into a weapon.
Item Qualities
Item Crafting and Upgrades
Flagship initially said there would be no crafting in the game, at least not in anything as involved as the Horadric Cube recipes of Diablo II. This concept changed during game development, and as of mid-2007 there were various crafting recipes in the game, most of which take advantage of a type of recycling, in which players may break down items into components. These raw materials are then used in various crafting recipes. In addition to the crafting item recipes, machines in town allow players to spend palladium to add modifiers to their weapons.
Upgrade items. You can keep the same level with you over time, and keep upgrading it. If you pay enough and keep working on that item, you can keep it going level after level. But you're going to be so tempted by all the new stuff you see dropping that you'll be like, "Do I want to take this new thing... do I want to keep this old thing..."
--Tyler Thompson, IGN video interview, E3 2007.
Item Variety
The sheer profusion of items, especially of weapons, in Hellgate: London can be confusing. Keeping the huge variety fun and not intimidating is a design and presentation concern.
We have to be careful to balance the progression and addition of new things. As we did in Diablo II, we only introduce a few of them at a time. So you've got 3 skills to pick between at the first level. You'll be okay with that. At the next level [the second tier of skills becomes available at character level 5] of you've got four more skills to choose from. Weapons are handled in a simlar style. early on you get machine gun type stuff... we only slow introduce the radical, wide variety of weapons. By that time you've got 20-30 hours in, you're educated, you know what's going on, you know what you're picking between.
--Tyler Thompson, IGN video interview, E3 2007.
Stats, Attributes, Defenses, and Damage Types
See the Game Mechanics and Character pages for far more details about damage types, stats, defenses, and more.
All Hellgate: London characters share the same four attributes:
- Accuracy
- Points here increase your % chance of Critical Damage and to/hit, as well as damage on some item types.
- Strength
- Points here increase your damage with some item types, and may also boost defenses.
- Stamina
- Points here increase your hit points and stamina points.
- Willpower
- Points here boost your power, as well as armor and defenses.
Strength recently replaced Concentration, and substantially changed the stat's function. Your character will gain five points to spend amongst these stats every time you level up. Equipment may also add bonuses to these stats.
There are five types of damage and five corresponding "states" in Hellgate: London.
- Physical
- May knockdown target, which results in a short delay before action may be taken.
- Fire
- May cause target to ignite, resulting in a loss of 5% of total hit points per second.
- Electrical
- May stun target for X number of seconds. Stunned targets can not move or attack.
- Spectral
- May phase target. Phased characters/demons take double damage and deal half damage for the duration.
- Toxic
- May poison target, resulting in X damage over X seconds. Poisoned characters/monsters may be slowed in movement and attack for the duration.
You'll find weapons with all these types of damage, as well as armor to protect against them. Other character aspects include critical hit damage (various skills and weapons raise your % chance to hit for double or triple damage), increased speed (for attacks and/or movement), hit points, health and shield regeneration rate, and many more.
Paperdoll and Inventory
The paperdoll and inventory space in Hellgate: London have both undergone a lot of changes. The equipment slots have been streamlined a bit on the paperdoll, and the inventory spaces have changed as well. In early versions of the game inventory had 12 slots for large items (guns, armor, swords, etc) and 24 slots for small items such as mods and health injectors. This changed several times during development, and the latest inventory can be seen to the right, beside an older version. It's 6 spaces wide by 12 high, and large and small items fit into it together.
Equipped items do not take up space in the inventory; armor and weapons are moved from the inventory into your paperdoll item slots and three weapon switch slots.
Flagship has talked about enabling additional carrying space through backpacks or jewel (mod) bags or other common RPG features, but nothing is confirmed yet.
Item and Skill Prerequisites
One tricky aspect of Hellgate: London is that all of your attributes will be involved in meeting your item requirements, and the requirements are cumulative. In Diablo II you just needed strength and/or dexterity to equip gear, and the requirements were not cumulative. If your character had 100 strength and she needed 75 for her boots, 60 for her belt, and 100 for her armor, she was fine. All that mattered was that you had more than the minimum requirement.
In Hellgate: London, everything you wear (all higher quality items, at least) will have some sort of stat prerequisite, and they add up. So if your Templar's helm requires 3 Concentration, his armor requires 4 Concentration and his gun requires 6 Concentration, he'll need 13 Concentration to equip them all. And if he's only got 20 Concentration, that's just 7 left for other equipment. On top of that, many skills (higher level ones at least) will also have attribute requirements. So if your 20 Concentration Templar wanted to use a skill that cost 8 Concentration, he'd be out of luck. He'd have to put more points into Concentration, take off one of those items, or use a different skill.
This is a much simplified example with pretend values, but you get the idea. In the actual game, items will have all sorts of different attribute prerequisites, but they'll also have a chance to add to your attributes and other stats. Building a good character with just enough attributes to play, but without lots of extra points wasted in non-critical attributes will be quite a jigsaw puzzle of a challenge. See the Weapons and Armor pages for more details.
Skills on the other hand, are likely to have no requirements, beyond the level required to enable it and whatever Concentration or Power the skill costs to use. The Hellgate Team has long talked about "skill menus", rather than "trees", where players would be able to use any skills they wanted, without having to waste points in lower level prerequisite skills that had no long term use. In Hellgate: London the team wants the lower level skills to remain useful, and they don't want to require points in them in the first place. Much more about skills can be seen on our Character page.
Class and Faction-Specific Items
Another form of item requirement is a class or faction requirement. The Hellgate Team said this issue was under debate during the early design period, but looking at the game as it goes into Alpha testing, it's clear which side won that discussion. Most of the items in Hellgate: London are class-specific, and not just weapons; armor of all types is class-specific too, even when there doesn't seem to be any reason for it. It's not just high level armor, or unique armor; there are essentially three parallel lines of equipment, one for each faction, and that goes all the way down to the lowest level stuff. Junky one modifier leather boots you find at level two and discard at level four? Cabalist, Templar, or Hunter only.
- Only Templars can equip swords or other melee weapons.
- Only Templars can equip shields.
- Only Blademasters can dual wield swords.
- Only Cabalists can equip Focus Drives.
- Only Evokers can dual wield focus drives.
The result of this is that your character can actually use only a little more than one third of the items you find early in the game. It's odd to open up your inventory after a quick quest mission to clear an area, and realize that almost everything you've picked up has a red outline and has no use for your character. You can sell the items, or break them down into components to save for crafting, or if you're playing in a party with other classes you can trade the stuff around. You can not put it on though.
My impression was that it was the item, not the modifier that determined which class could use it, and it seemed that there were almost three parallel lines of armor. Basic leather armor with equivalent stats, but one only wearable by the two classes of each faction. Why is this necessary or useful when it's just junky low level armor? Good question. Perhaps to prepare us for the higher level equipment when there are real differences between the armor types?
While the armor didn't seem to really matter if it was faction-specific or not, since the stats and bonuses were equivalent to identical, it matters a lot with weapons. Of the 100+ weapon types in the game, it looks like virtually all of them are faction-specific. They're divided up evenly, in theory, and thematically. Tyler Thompson told me that they went crazy on the bug stuff for Cabalists, and that there are several revolvers and rifles that fire various types of bugs, and they're all Evoker and Summoner only. The Hive Blade is an exception to this rule, obviously.
Choosing to make nearly all of the items faction-specific is an unusual choice, and it will be interesting to hear Flagship's rationale for it once players are into the game and noticing that they can't use 2/3 of the weapons/armor they find.
Obtaining Items
We don't know much about finding items in Hellgate: London yet, and even if we did it would probably be tweaked all out of recognition before the game is released. Balancing item drops is one of the trickiest aspects of a good RPG, and in a very equipment-dependent game like Hellgate: London, it's really a challenge. The Hellgate Team has said that they want players out finding good items, rather than trying to buy them. You can buy things, and you can sell everything, but the game is meant to be about killing and having fun, not reloading town hundreds of times in an effort to spawn one super special item on an NPC merchant.
"Basically, anything you find in Hellgate you can probably purchase somewhere. Whether you choose to or not is entirely up to you and in no way reflects upon the importance of economy in our game, nor does it imply money is 'almost' useless.
"That being said, the game is more about discovery than acquisition. We encourage our players to kill monsters because the rewards are worth the work."
--Ivan Sulic, March 2006
They've also said that the endless boss runs so many players busied themselves (or their macro bots) with in Diablo II will be a thing of the past. Every level is going to be randomized in Hellgate: London, as are the locations of boss monsters, so killing the same monster over and over again just won't be possible; at least not quickly enough to make it worth the effort.
"Just like randomization, we're applying the concept of rarity to everything we can in the game. That means we will have normal items, rare items, epic items, legendary items and so forth. We also love collectability, so things like item sets and unique items fall into that category. We apply all of these elements to weapons, armor, mods, and any other types of items we create."
--Bill Roper, Fansite Interview, September 3, 2005
There's not yet been any word on Magic Find equipment, though Diablo II fans who loved the stuff in that game certainly hope some variation on it will appear in Hellgate: London. Magic Find was great fun, and also a very useful balancing agent, since it actually encouraged players to play with weaker characters, thus increasing the game difficulty. Item/Magic Find junkies would sacrifice all sorts of hit points, defense, resistances, and other bonuses just to slightly increase their chances of finding high quality items.
There's also no firm decision on gambling in Hellgate: London. In Diablo II, gambling was about the only thing high level characters had to spend gold on, and also a great way for lower level characters to fix up weak spots in their equipment. Gambling was done with an NPC and it entailed buying an item without knowing its stats; they were rolled randomly when you made the expensive purchase, and while the vast majority of gambles got you something worthless, a small percent of the time you got a Rare with multiple mods, or even a Set or Unique item. If there's no gambling in Hellgate: London, the question as to what high level characters will do with their gold becomes an interesting one; especially given how many large items can be carried in the inventory, and then sold once you're back in town.
Spotting items on the ground is easy too, because they glow, sending up beams of light and sparkles; brighter ones for better quality items, it seems. You can see the effect (sort of) in this image, taken from a gameplay movie. There are two items here, each of which is sending up a plume of blue/white light.
Who got the items that dropped was a matter of who was closer and quicker in Diablo II. The Hellgate Team is still debating how this will work in Hellgate: London and they've said they are considering some limits on speedy greedy item thieves. The latest information said that items would be assigned to players in turn, and that each character would only see items they could pick up. For instance, if a boss monster dropped 4 items, and there were 3 players in the game,the players would see 1, 1, and 2 items, respectively, with each player seeing items more appropriate for their character. How exactly this will work in practice, what happens to items 1 player wants that another sees, and so on is not yet finalized.
Soulbound Items?
It's not known if all items will be holdable and tradeable yet. Lots of RPGs, especially MMOs have introduced features to make items only usable by the character who finds them. Or once an item is equipped it can never be equipped by any other character. Given how many types of items in Hellgate: London are class or faction-specific, Soulbound stuff could be difficult to manage. The items would likely have to be set to bind upon equipping, rather than picking up, since otherwise they'd be unusable to 2/3 of the factions who found them.
Will Hellgate: London have soulbound items at all? It's been under debate during development, and in 2006 the answr was no.
"I don't believe we have soul bound items at all then. It's my understanding that our system of item management will be much more similar to Diablo than WoW."
--Ivan Sulic, March 2006
More recently, an early 2007 MMO Games magazine preview quoted Bill Roper saying that there would probably be some soulbound items, but very few, and that they would probably be very high level items. How the binding will be handled remains to be seen.
More recent info, from July 2007.
"We have some items that are no-trade. We don't do that much. We initially made that technology explicitly for quests, because you don't want to trade your quest items. We have in some cases made other items no-trade, but we don't swing that around very often. I'd be surprised if there are more than five or six items today that are marked as no-trade. You know, we'll see. If [item sales] look like a problem, we have measures we can take. We can mark a bunch of items no-trade. We can come up with more money trades for players. We can change how much gold you find at high levels. It's only a problem if players perceive it as a problem, and are running into it in a way that affects their gameplay. If it affects the economy in a natural way, that's not the end of the world. At least that's my opinion."
--Tyler Thompson, Shacknews Interview, E3, July 16, 2007.
Combat
Hit the target, try not to get hit by the target.
Jonric: What kind of combat system will Hellgate: London have? How will it function in overview, and how important will this element be?
"Hellgate: London will have a unique hybrid combat system, reflecting its blend of RPG and action-shooter gameplay. In Hellgate: London a hit is a hit; if a rocket looks like it hits a demon, and explodes, it will do damage. We do not do any "to hit" calculations. However, how that damage gets applied to your target relies on a complex statistical system taking into account armor, shields, weapon and skill bonuses, temporary buffs, etc. With some character classes and builds, the player's ability to maneuver and aim will definitely help, but will not be enough to advance too far without paying attention to skills, equipment and leveling up.
"Combat, and your character's ability to defeat monsters, is paramount to your success in Hellgate: London. You must defeat demons... lots and lots of demons... to propel yourself through the storyline."
--Erich Schaefer, July 2006, RPG Vault interview.
A special exception to the usual targeting rules in Hellgate: London is the Hunter faction, and their FPS-style targeting. Both classes of Hunter, Marksmen and Engineers, aim their targeting reticle just like it's aimed in most First Person Shooter games, such as Halo, Quake, Doom, and others. Hunters do not have soft lock targeting like Cabalists and Templars. See the Hunter pages for more details.
Mods
Mods are small, socketable items. Like the runes, jewels, and gems in Diablo II, they have no function on their own, but can add great benefits and bonuses to equipment, once you stick them into the socket.
"Mods are smaller items such as fuel cells, batteries, relics, ammo, runes, gems, and so forth that modify the abilities of the weapon. Everything from increased range to different damage types to affecting rate of fire and on and on and on can be achieved through adding mods to a weapon. Not every weapon has mod slots, and not every kind of mod fits on a weapon. It is a very simple, but very deep metagame that players can dissect for hours and hours, looking for the perfect combination of weapon and mod effect."
--Bill Roper, etoychest Preview, Jan 11, 2006
There are currently six types of mods in Hellgate: London:
- Ammo
- Rocket
- Battery
- Fuel
- Relic
- Tech
Each weapon type has a number of possible mod slots, into which only certain mod types can be slotted. For example, the Plagueblaster pistol has max mod slots of 4 fuel, 2 relic, and 1 tech. This means that you could find a plagueblaster with any combination of those mod slots, up to the maximum. You might find one with 2 fuel and 1 relic, or 1 fuel and 2 relic and 1 tech, etc. These mod slots occur in addition to any random magical modifiers a weapon might possess. While we know that weapons have max mod slots, we don't yet know if they have minimum. Every plagueblaster might have at least 2 fuel mods, for instance. We also don't know yet if it will be possible to add mod slots, up to or beyond the maximum allowed, through quest rewards. It seems a pretty likely bet, though.
As for the properties of mods themselves, they'll be random and highly-variable, but should be grouped somewhat logically, by type and function. An ammo mod would probably do something like add to your firing speed or range, while a battery mod would add electrical damage or improve your accuracy. Mods can fit into all types of weapons though, so don't think they're entirely predictable.
"Right now they're named a little strangely (and sometimes don't make much sense)... Keep in mind I said the titles for these mods were still placeholder and could be a bit misleading, so that's why it may seem most would only apply to projectile weapons... Right now we have a Holy Grilled Cheese Sandwich you can stick into your gun for a powerup. I kid you not.
"All mods obviously do not apply to all weapons, but you'd be surprised how many a melee weapon can hold. Fuel for instance, could also grant a melee weapon toxic spray damage and rocket could grant a melee weapon an extra explosive effect..."
--Ivan Sulic, March 2006
Healing and Power Ups
Read much more on this subject on our Game Mechanics page.
Characters in Hellgate: London regenerate power, health, and shields, over time. Various items can be equipped to raise the health and shields levels, as well as increase the regeneration rate. Shields take damage first, and only after a character's shields are exhausted does she begin to lose hit points. There will be very few ways to "leech" power or health in the game; the Cabalist has a few skills that do so, but the property will be very, very rare on items. The Hellgate Team thinks they made leeching too easy in Diablo II, and they want to change that balance in Hellgate: London.
The mechanisms to regain your health and power have worked in various ways during Hellgate: London's development. Potions have dropped, regeneration rates have been tweaked, and for a time dying monsters left floating, glowing little orbs of blue and red that could be walked through for a quick refill. Those are out of the game at this point, but the final balance has yet to be set in stone. The design goal is a firm one though. The Hellgate Team wants to keep gameplay fast and fluid, without forcing players to stand around regenerating, or to return to town for healing from an NPC. They also don't want the game to be so easy that players charge along at full speed, effortlessly sucking down a healing potion whenever they're in danger.
Healing is now handled by health injectors, which grant 300 points, but take 10 seconds to do it. Values and time may change, of course.
Besides healing, there may be small packs or kits to boost other character stats.
Q. Can you take something like Adrenalin-Drugs to gain more Power for a short time?
A. "Yes. We have all sorts of power-ups. We even have power-up kiosks scattered throughout the game world."
--Ivan Sulic
And as Ivan alludes to, there are shrines that give temporary boosts to your stats. See the shrines page for more details.
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Categories: Pre Launch | Items | Basics
