Now, onto the feedback from this past week!
From: K&H Drainage
Subject: original stats display
just a small idea. How about a plug-in that enables you to see your stats as they are without any modifications. ie a floating window like a tooltip in windows. just to let you know what your dexterity is at, without going through your belongings to take off everything that applies dexterity so you know where to put those skill points. one time it took me about five minutes just to see how my equipement and level up would work together taking one bit off and putting another on. just a small idea like i said.
This probably isn't possible with the current methods of modding Diablo II but would be a nice extra feature. The best way, probably, would be to just have a tooltip-style display when you hovered the mouse cursor over individual statistics, showing the base statistic level before magic enhancements.
From: AnthroposXES
Subject: Mod Idea
If I ever get the time to create a mod, or if anyone wants to steal my idea, it would be a sets oriented mod. I think a mod with around a hundred+ sets (maybe have users create them and have a moderator add in all the appropriate ones) would be really fun. Setting the set drop rate to one in 20 or so. [Careful... a 1 to 20 standard drop rate for even the best sets might offset balance.] With a ton of sets it would still be hard to get matching pieces once you get into higher levels, but a starting char would probably be able to complete a set or two fairly quickly since there would probably be few low level ones. The proportion of sets go up exponentially with the level, so when you are small you are only getting drops from 5-10 sets, while when you get above level 65 or so, you would be getting drops from fifty or more. Couple this with having most sets be 5 - 10 pieces would be really fun hunting down the pieces you need.
Personally I would have the best items be fairly weak or negative (example, a ring with drain life 5 and all resistances -10 when worn alone) [Ouch!] and have huge item bonus' for several items from the same set. Also It would be good if every full set had at least one weakness, be it low +skills, low resistances, low damage, or something or other, so that the ultimate set up would be 3 pieces from one set, 2 from another, 4 from a third or whatever. This would make Item hunting and experimenting the focus' of the game. [It isn't already?]
To balance this out, I would have mosters dramatically more dangerous, [*shudder*] and make people have to have to think about what they wear, or find matching pieces to be able to survive. I would also make a great forum community [PDF!] with people posting finding from good combantions or pieces for different classes. here are a few idea's of mine.
- Defence auric set
- offence auric set (necro shield in it to make most benefit for army necro's)
- Life set
- resist set
- damage set
- defence set
- hell set (all items crippling without 3+ items)
- elemental dmg set
- physical dmg set
- speed set
- paladin crossbow set
- melee sorc set (high +enchant, high dmg orb with elemental attack)
- skill set (need 2 rings and an ammy for enough items to get best results, barb helm, sorc armour, asn boot, pally shield, necro belt, zon bow in set, no class can complete :P something like that)
- many added class specific items for restricting completion of good sets, or to make some sets impossible.
- adjust rares to be best items in game (except set pieces with several, 6+, components by making weak mods not spawn at higher levels) but actually rare to find.
Dont know what to do with uniques and runewords or gems.
[There's a lot of neat stuff you
can do with uniques and runewords.] I personally
don't like mods that are runeword centered, having to have
a reference document that takes an hour going through each
time you want to check to see what you can make is no fun
to me, takes away from playing time. [What about all the sets and finding the best combinations when there are so many?]
feel free to flame me, and if you wish to get this started before I get around to it, let me know, I'd like to see this in action, I think it would be the most fun type of mod.
One big part of items in Diablo II is that none were
to be cursed like some were in the original game. Your idea
brings cursed items back in an interesting, new way that could
work if a modder could get it to work correctly. Having such
a high drop rate for all sets may not be such a good idea.
Another thing to consider is restricting what set items can
drop as a character reachs higher levels. It would be good
to avoid piles and piles of low-level set items in drops an
instead provide, perhaps, a better chance for higher level
characters to get set items (and other types of items) that
would actually be of use to them.
From: Shock2k3
Subject: Concerning Valve
After all the mumbo jumbo on leak of Half Life 2
I am seriously starting to be angry at Valve. I just found
out how much of liars they just are [Prove
it!] and how bad the company is turning. It's
sad when companies stoop as low as 3d Realms. [Hey
now, at least Valve can make a good game.] Fortunatelly
there are 2 companies that I will trust unless they do something
as stupid as Valve did and that is totally lying about release
date of Half Life 2 and pushing peoples anger limits
to highest levels. I am not just angry at Valve I am furious.
Id Software, Blizzard, and perhaps Westwood studios are
companies I trust the most since they don't really push
out lies. [What about the horrible
delays of StarCraft and Diablo II?]
Atleast they can handle telling their customers the truth.
What I love about Blizzard is constant patches [Don't
you love it when a company fixes its product after
you've paid for it?] for Diablo 2 which
makes it more interesting and fun to play. Id Software handles
telling the truth and crisis of being leaked very well.
And Westwood studios well they tend to release their games
in a good timely manner.
PS. To : George Broussard [3DRealms - Bio] if you ever read this I HATE YOU!!!
(DNF = NEVER)
Patience, my son. Icons like Half-Life 2 and Duke Nukem: Forever will come out at some point. The better the game is, the more the wait is worth it. Although, with DNF, we can't be too sure...
From: neil beard
Subject: If I could make a mod it would be like...
In a few words, Terrifyingly spooky. I would like to see
a mod that hasn't only tweeked exsisting levels but created
new sublevels, Like a few have by add a second cow level,
But I would change it so it wasn't a cow level, Make it
a whole level [Um, an Act?]
with a "safe zone" Like Sanctuary, Lut Golain, Kurast [I
hope you mean the docks!], ect. I would make
it darker, and would run with a Vampire, Horror theme, Kind
of like Blood Omen meets Diablo, If you
will. [Oh, how refreshingly original.]
Or WarHammer meets Diablo.
I would be tempted to shorten up the Barbarian and call
the race Dwarf. I would might set it up so you play as a
skeleton looking thing, [Would that
be... a Skeleton?] or a zombie and call it a
revenant. [Diablo is not
Doom.] I would definetly have a playable
Vampire that look cooler than the vampires in the game.
Maybe do something with Tyriel and hadriel's animations
so that they can playable as a "Dark Angel" when you complete
a set. [Now that would be
cool, but also would make no sense.] something
along those lines. A hole big Gothic hooror castlevania
meets Blood Omen meets Diablo vrs. Everything
good and decent. *smiles evily* Maybe set the "new level"
up as a gargantuan cemetery level with the safe zone being
Haunted castle. Set it up so you have to deal with heros
and peasents as well as the invading demons who are trespassing
on your turf. Something like that. Halloween on steroids.
lol.
"Halloween on Steroids" might just be a good name for a mod like that.
From: Michel Fiallo-Pérez
Subject: Mailbag - v1.10
I have an experimental assassin build on U.S. East [Realm],
an elemental assassin who is maxing (among other things)
Phoenix Strike and Lightning Claws [Claws of Thunder]. It's
been moderately successful thus far, better than many assassins
at fighting groups of monsters (when you can freeze everything
in your radius with 3 charges of Phoenix Strike, cowing
is fuuuuuun) but not capable of the insane amounts of damage
that maxed Tiger Strike and Claw Mastery assassins can do
with their Cruel Scissors Suwwayhas and such. Now, with
the system in v1.10 where skills complement each other,
what are the odds that my build is going to suddenly become
a lot more powerful?
Claws of Thunder and Phoenix Strike certainly benefit each other with the information we have from v1.10 beta. Note that the statistics for v1.10 beta synergies may change when the final version of the patch is released. But for now, Phoenix Strike provides Claws of Thunder a bonus of "+8% Lightning Damage Per Level" while Claws of Thunder provides Phoenix Strike a bonus of "+13% Lightning Damage Per Level". On a related note, expect that PD's skill statistics pages will be updated with all the synergies statistics very soon.
From: Ralphy Boy
Subject: Question
Your site says that in the new 1.10 patch, the Azurewrath is being beefed up ALOT. My barb has an Azurewrath, will it upgrade or remain the same when the new patch is out? I hope you can help out.
When Blizzard releases a patch that changes the attributes and magic effects on items, ones that have already been generated (for instance, your Azurewrath), are not converted into the new item. You won't lose your Azurewrath, but it will be no different after applying the patch. To get the new version of the sword, you'll need to find it again.
From: SKTRteen7
Subject: Can u fix
Hi its me again. I dont care about what ever new patch u put out there but can u plz stop Diablo 2 internet connection from dissconnecting. With me i either get dissconnected or my game freezes for a few sec theni end up dieing or something. I Asked some of my frineds if it has happened to them and said yes. Its seems to happen more and more. I think my comp runs on the 1.09 patch i don't care what u do but can u please fix this problem because more and more people are finding this very annoying and would like this problem fixed. If u don't believe me make a mail bag about diablo 2 connection and freezing. See what u get back in. Anyways please fix this problem!!! Thank you very much
Yes, we can fix all of your internet connection problems
(and apparently, your connection to Diablo II). Stop
using AOL and get DSL or a decent cable internet connection
provider.
The cows never saw it coming...
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!
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