More lively world, fights, quests...

[andreyy]

First a question. Was it only me, or the whole, basic Titan Quest questline was the same, monotonous thing throughout, gameplay-wise, and it started to differ a bit with the Immortal Throne chapter and a tad more with the higher difficulties (immunities and all that stuff)? That's what I'd like to change.

1) World. I'd like to see more random and not random encounters. A chance to stumble upon a fight of a guard patrol with monsters. Some actual patrols walking around! A caravan trying to fend of an attack. Traps and ambushes in random and fixed places. I know it's not a free-roaming RPG, like Oblivion, but it also shouldn't be a desert with a set of spawn points.

On a side note. You're discussing random world generation in other threads. My opinion is - do it 50:50. The most "healthy" way, imo, would be to make a set of premade locations linked with randomly generated landmass. Why I'm writing this here? Because random encounters would be best suited for the randomly generated areas.

2) Quests. First of all, compare TQ and TQ:IT. TQ had barely any quests with NPC interaction. Then, in Elysium, we finally had some WAR. Everyone likes war (in games, ofc). Everyone likes to fight along with some allies. To have a bit more chaos on the screen, more action.
Another thing to consider are quest types. Again, compare the basic game and expansion. In TQ they were all the same, in IT they improved a little. I'd like to see defence, guard and escort quests (with the NPC interaction, mentioned above). Siege (perhaps some big siege quest, where you'd go through several parts of it). King of the Hill. Heck, Aeon of Strife (more often associated with DotA).

3) Monsters. They should annoy the player in different ways. Reborn, ressurect their allies. Teleport around. Explode on death. Kamikaze units. Multiply themselves (mirror images, clones, BLOOOOB!). Run in unusual patterns (not that it would do something, except for avoiding arrows, but just the eyecandy would be cool). Stun, slow and poison in many different ways. They should use some physics spells - push and pull you, smash you against the wall!

4) Bosses. Most of the point 3) applies here. One of the thing I'd suggest, is to make some of the boss fights commence in stages. Example: you enter some Necromancer's filthy cave. The entrance closes and you're swarmed by skeletons from all sides, digging out of the ground. You need to take care of all the entrances, gates, altars, portals or whatever they would come out of, by closing, collapsing, destroying them. When you do that, you proceed to the Necromancer's chamber and fight the actual boss in the new environment. Boss fights shouldn't be just grinding. They're bosses, after all, fights with them should be a blast, something refreshing! So much more physics, than you'd usually deal with, more environment/landscape interaction, etc.

It all comes down to a single word. Variety. I wish you the best of luck with the game development.