It's Baaaaaack!

It certainly has been far too long since a Mailbag was posted on Evil's Planet. There have been plenty of your interesting e-mails to use in the column, but up until now they have been gathering much dust. We hope to remedy that tragedy for a game community so full of activity and creativity. Thanks for joining us for our first new Mailbag!

Some Departures...

Before we continue to the comments and questions received of late, I must announce that two great sites have quietly left our side of the GameSpy Network. These are both great sites centered around unique aspects of the Diablo series community, and while we were sorry to see them go, we know they will continue to be great resources for fans.

The first to depart was Raymond Kleefstra and his Diablo II Encyclopedia program, a great offline source of information and statistics. Later, The Phrozen Keep's staff decided that largely due to their dislike of FilePlanet's download service, our network was no longer the best place for them. We thank the Keep and Raymond for their work, and will continue to promote their work.

When The Phrozen Keep left the GameSpy Network, several of our hosted mods decided to follow, and we support this decision, so that the mod community can remain concentrated and communicative as it has always been. However, don't forget that we're always interested in hosting unique projects, including mods, and several are still present here on Evil's Planet.

You can reach these two resources from their new locations:

• The Phrozen Keep
• Diablo II Encyclopedia

Send in your reviews, comments, and questions regarding Version 1.10.

Now, onto the feedback!

From: Ambivalentiowa
Subject: WarCraft Action Figures

In your news about the new warcraft action figures, you list stores where you can get them. You can also get them at Target when you buy the game. Just FYI.

Thanks for the information. As previously mentioned, for those who may have missed the announcement, these action figures are also available through various sources such as the Blizzard Online Store, GameStop, CompUSA, and more stores online and offline. Catch 'em while they're hot!

From: Gusta Sulc
Subject: encyclopedia

Hi. I'm looking for D2 Encyclopedia which was on http://www.planetdiablo.com/encyclopedia/ . Could you help me, please??

We've received countless e-mails asking about the Diablo II Encyclopedia program. The author's web site, which was hosted at PlanetDiablo until a few months ago, has jumped networks and is now available at another location.

From: Stu
Subject: How To?

Maybe a how to section would help new players? I've played Diablo 2 since its release (I honestly cant remember when that was - I live under a rock). For instance, I read an article about a staff's Hardcore Paladin. It mentioned seting up a game for 8 players. How did he do this? If you could tell me or forward this question to him It'd make me a very happy chappie!

If you already have a how to section, please tell me where it is - I'm a 56ker and looking thru websites takes ages.

Cheers

That is a great suggestion, which we have been thinking about for some time. This would probably, actually, appear in the form of a large FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) section. To answer your question directly, it sounds like you are referring to the simulation of 8 players in a single-player or open multi-player game instance. This allows one to receive a nice experience bonus while also increasing the difficulty of the game (via increasing the strength, life, etc. of monsters).

In a game instance, press the "enter" key to open a chat window and and type in this command, substituting the number for how many players you'd like to simulate:

/players 8

From: James Bayani
Subject: Error on Chaos Rune Word

Dear Planet Diablo,

You guys have an excellent site and I go here many times per day. Anyway, I just wanted to point out something. For the new rune words for Diablo’s upcoming 1.10 patch, there’s a Rune word called “Chaos” which is used for 3 socketed claws and one of the stats says “+ 1 to Whirlwind”. Is that right? Does the assassin have a whirlwind skill like that barb? Ha Ha that would be cool. Imagine that a whirlwind assassin. Oh well, just wanted to point that out to you.

Keep up the good work,

James

Yes, that is correct. Notice how the item effect does not read "+1 to Whirlwind (Barbarian Only)". One of the great new features in v1.10 is the ability for characters to use certain skills of other characters, because of bonuses from items. Such effects are also available on the new unique items added by this huge patch.

From: Teknokyo
Subject: AR Beta for LOD v1.10 Beta RELEASED

Just wanted to LYK [Let You Know] that I've ported AR to LOD v1.10 Beta. It's still also a Beta till Blizz releases v1.10 Final. There are some new things but mostly ported over from ARv1.07 to work the the v1.10Beta.

Regards

TeknoKyo

Any self-respecting Diablo II mod player knows of Teknokyo's works. Now that he's released a beta version of Ancestral Recall, players can enjoy both beta testing v1.10 and playing it with a Teknokyo mod. Thanks for the update!

From: Peter Post
Subject: A few D2X questions

I'm a Dutch D2X player and I play open multiplayer games on the internet since a few weeks, I have a question about open battle.net games. When I play multiplayer games I often see people wearing equipment (always white) with a gigantic amount of bonuses and defense sometimes over 300.000 defense,and my question is: where do they get it , I suspect it are cheats but I'm not sure.

My Barbarian named Cernunnos is now at clvl 38 and I have just defeated Blood Raven on Nightmare mode, and I have some questions about stat points and skills. I'm planning a Barbarian with 20 points in PA mastery, 20 points in BO, max WW and 20 points in Berserk , do you think this is a good plan or do you suggest an other build?

I devide my stat points 2-2-1 but I read that you need not more than 50 vitality is this true?

I've read your article and I hope you can answer my questions,

That equipment is definitely hacked. That's why most players tend to avoid playing on Open Battle.net in public games; there are too many cheaters out there. For your Barbarian, that's not a bad build, but I would recommend considering using Leap Attack as an alternative to Beserk. Whirlwind will be very useful as you are going for a Polearm-based attack. However, 50 Vitality is nothing; you definitely need more. Over 120 is not uncommon for high-level Barbarians. Trust me, you'll know why once you get into Hell difficulty.

From: Mike Rector
Subject: Diablo like games

I’ve been searching for some info on whether or not there are any other games in the world that have the same feel and game play as Diablo. The era or genre of the game doesn’t matter. Sci-Fi, fantasy anything. I just really like the Diablo games and want something else similar to play. If you could help, thanks a lot.

When you have an amazingly successful and popular game like Diablo (the original) and its sequel, there will always be knock-offs. Before Diablo II came out, many fans got some relief from their impatience by playing Darkstone, Westwood's Nox, and other titles. Darkstone is a good game, and provides a bonus of a 3D environment, but is ridiculously similar to Diablo.

It may be a Microsoft product, but Dungeon Siege is still a great game. Personally, I lost interest in it rapidly, but then again, I played through a good portion of it. Honestly, what I took from the multi-player experience is that it seemed to be lacking some substance. However, a number of great looking mods are being developed for DS and some are already available. Check PlanetDungeonSiege for more information on this.

Y'all come back now, ya hear?

That's a wrap for this week, folks! Be sure to send in your comments, questions, and other notes of interest regarding next week's topic. Feel free to ask or comment about other topics, too!