Just fix your crappy servers, or let people play without having to be connected to them.

That be some great news!

Sweet crackers!  Good stuff. 

This is a BALANCE change, not a fix.

However, I agree with it. Its a very good idea to balance the game's items.

"Successful Troll is Successful"

This was argued to death when the game first came out, I even remember it and it was a year ago. It was decided that the game isn't realistic in any other way, it's not as if the items you buy are represented on the characters in any way. The "type" of item (armor, helmet etc) were chosen to signify what the item does (helmets for mana, armor for health etc) this was a game usability decision so that players could easily recognize and find items that did what they wanted.

No other DotA derivative game has such a restriction, why people think that Demigod for some reason needs this feature I do not know. Perhaps the solution to health stacking is not to reduce the ability to health stack but to make the other items more powerful as to make NOT health stacking a viable choice. In DotA for example you can get the same item 6 times if you really want, you already can't do this in Demigod as a use of restriction to enforce "balance". These restrictions ultimately just end up hindering your choices in game and the flexibility of the game.

Imagine if you really could only wear one helmet, the entire game would change:

• Consider Demigod's that don't need Mana much, having a helmet for them would be pointless. This would effectively restrict them to only 2-3 items. Not a whole lot of choice there.
• As such, you would need to re-engineer every item slot so that helmets did more than just give mana so that slots were not wasted.
• Once you have rebalanced the items, there would be health available for every slot and you could health stack anyway.

If you are really suggesting that you want even less choice in your item selections, then I doubt you have really thought that much into the implications.

The REAL solution to health stacking is to make other items more viable and useful, or to make health items less effective. A restriction on only one item of each time is a solution that only hurts the game by not allowing combination's of items that work well together. Not to mention that Stardock/GPG would never put the time and money into re-engineering the entire item structure. If we're lucky we could get some balance fixes perhaps, but what you are talking of is time consuming and wouldn't address the real issue whatsoever.

Did I mention anywhere that we should only improve DPS items? Perhaps you should actually read my arguments before declaring them false as I think we may have similar views. My argument was that restricting items to one of each type was completely pointless in solving the actual Health Stacking issue. You seem to be arguing something else entirely.

Buying one of each item wouldn't solve the hp stacking problem. It would just make the gear diversity narrower in most games imo.

Armor: standard best item you can buy with most hp/armor gain.
Boots: unbreakable boots
Gloves: wraps slayers (I hate buying dmg gloves but X2 dmg and +10 hp makes it the prefer choice if I have too)
trinkets: Narmoths ring
helmet: some mana helm (Waste for me since I usually go BOTS builds)

w/ botf favor item

Boom! Restricted but still efficient hp build which I would argue is better then most gear you could buy with this method.

Anyways what is wrong with hp stacking? Makes fights last longer and rely on your dg skills and timing.  Do you really want to play an AF reg that much?

Wow... that sounds like the best idea I have ever heard...

But how could you not take more items in the shop in a 4vs4 if only 1 of each item can be on each team. You'd have to learn to use them. "Ah man, Sabatons! If only I laned better"

Regardless, my real position has always been many of the items cost way too much money. Once you get over 1750, it's hard to justify the cost for something that doesn't give you life or mana when cit upgrades are also necessary.

eg: If theurgist cap was 1500, might you think about taking it if you are playing a minion build? You'd obviously still take unbreakable over it, but really, why are you going to consider an item that does not give you life or mana, and costs far more then the life or mana items that you so despeartely need.

What about warlord's punisher? 1250? You might actually be able to afford it when it can make a difference. At the beginning of the game.

Forest band. 750? 600? Would you use it as a temporary pickup item if you had spare change after buying unbreakable after your 1st shop visit? It can make a difference when you are pushing towers with early minions before they get strong/numerous enough.

Sabatons. 200? (banded, sabaton and TP/potion at start)

Duelists/Vengeance: 1500 each too? Would that be competitive with Nimoth depending on which DG you are using?

List goes on etc... but for items, it's easy to buff some of the expensive items too much accidentally, so the game becomes even more slippery slope for the people who have more money. Probably best to lower prices of the current items instead of improving them, to make them competitive with the typical choices.

An auto balance button would also be nice.  Just saying.

I'm already positive it would not work.

GPG's coders tried to write Hello World once and it came out Goodbye World. Seriously, nothing they right works 100% the way it should.