@God One piece of feedback and one question: Feedback: some monster auras doesn't work. Holy Freeze in particular, made fight against Duriel much easier.
Question: HAve you, by any chance, raised the damage outoput by some monsters? Most notably Ghoul lords variants (especially in Travincal/Durance of Hate) and Pit Lords/Venom Lords? Because I am not to recall them being this damaging.
@God One piece of feedback and one question: Feedback: some monster auras doesn't work. Holy Freeze in particular, made fight against Duriel much easier.
As for Duriel, I may have reduced his aura skill level on Normal difficulty (resulting in smaller area of effect) for balancing purposes, since I restored two of his most damaging skills that were cut. Auras should work normally as I didn't change them in any way. Will test if everything works as intended and rebalance if needed.
Question: HAve you, by any chance, raised the damage outoput by some monsters? Most notably Ghoul lords variants (especially in Travincal/Durance of Hate) and Pit Lords/Venom Lords? Because I am not to recall them being this damaging.
Didn't change anything about monsters other than their AI range. Might be that Blizzard nerfed the monsters you mention at some point past 1.10f, however, and if it was a hardcoded nerf (like removing the Iron Maiden curse from Doom Knights in 1.13) it may be difficult to carry it over to Diablo II Enhanced Edition. If feedback from other users confirms that this is an issue, then I will look for possible solutions.
@God, thank you for detailed instructions, I will try them when I have time and report back. But I can assure you there were no changes in my system at ALL (for the last several months, not only days:)
Diablo II code extensions are implemented in a very hacky way and for that reason they are sensitive to the slightest changes in memory structure. In simple terms, c0000005 pops up whenever the game tries to access something it shouldn't or fails to access something it should. Vanilla Diablo II is a bit less prone to c0000005 errors occurring, but it does happen on many systems and often enough to warrant its own support article from Blizzard itself. From what it looks like, @mlnevese most likely faced a minor issue related to the PlugY save interception procedure that makes the shared stash available (hence it appeared upon creating a new character save file). Glad to hear it was resolved.
@O_Bruce It looks like Holy Freeze does deal damage correctly but the chill/slow effect is not being applied at all. Weird, it should work okay. I'm starting to understand why Blizzard didn't roll out a second expansion... This engine really is a heck of a mess, bugs just keep popping in all the unrelated places Will look into some fixes.
I also bumped into some Ghoul Lords while checking out Duriel. They didn't get insta-killed by a maxed out Holy Freeze like the rest of critters around, which shocked me at first, but then I remembered they do have a really huge health pool and something like 50% cold resistance. Their behaviour seems correct as far as I can tell, but if other players confirm that their attacks are way OP, I'll send them to study at Nerfland University
It's 2016; the 20th anniversary of the Diablo franchise and 16 years since Diablo II was published. Curious, no? If you can spare a moment to indulge an old man, stay a while and listen to David Brevik sharing fascinating behind-the-scenes insights on how the series first came to be and recounting the many outright miraclescoincidences that made the original game even possible. And you will even learn how to pronounce 'Uelmen'.
Ok, I've tried all the steps, but haven't succeeded. Neither disabling the PlugY, nor other options did help to get rid of that error. I've uninstalled and reinstalled everything again, and then again uninstalled the EE. After that I installed only the PlugY on my general Diablo and that worked without problems. So something is giving me a bad time precisely in either D2SE or D2EE. I'm on Windows XP, so maybe this is the problem, such an old OS.
This shouldn't be the case. Usually it's the more recent versions of Windows that are prone to causing issues due to incompatibility. Windows XP should run both the game and D2SE just fine. Except it looks like it doesn't. Oh, damn
You mentioned the issue occurring randomly, so I must ask: 1. Is it specific to one character? Or did it affect multiple characters? 2. Does it affect the game world only? Or does it appear in the main menu as well? Try navigating back and forth between Character Selection, Character Creation, Credits and About options for a moment to see if it pops up. 3. Do you notice any circumstance patterns in relation to the error occurring? E.g. one such example would be if it happens when opening, closing or interacting with interfaces and not in other situations.
A very important update regarding the aura/curse/hell-knows-what-other-skills-may-have-been-affected issue raised by @O_Bruce I investigated the reported behaviours and found the cause. It seems that the Tainted release is... well, thoroughly Tainted
Or, at least, the skill table is. Numerous signs of Tainted presence were spotted in its endlessly winding caverns.
It is said that the Tainted were led by a fearsome monster known as Microsoft Excel, uh, Feces Clot the Rim Ox, likely some distant relative of Pitspawn Fouldog's. A truly disgusting creature by all means.
But fret not, its corruption will spread no more. The Tainted have been promptly exterminated and the issue will not be present in future revisions. Hopefully Also, an emergency hotfix is attached to this post.
It is strongly advised that this hotfix is applied to ALL Diablo II Enhanced Edition rev:Tainted installations!
How to apply: Overwrite the files found in the Diablo II Enhaced Edition installation directory with the ones found in the zip. Note that the folder structure is important and the fix will not work if it is not preserved.
@JuliusBorisov not promising anything but this might as well fix your issue, if it was in any way related to the skill table (which is quite possible)
As you can see on the screenshot, the curses from wands are working properly after hotfix. But as you can see on the lower left side, some thing require... adjustments.
But as you can see on the lower left side, some thing require... adjustments.
Oh, that pretty little thing's as old as LoD itself. Such a fine example of Blizzard's mapping skill at its best You can admire this all-out glitchety glitchy glitch even with perspective disabled, but when you have it on and come a little closer to the cliff edge, then the full spectrum of its beauty is immediately unravelled: Must be a portal to Candy Mountain or something
Like the many other cases of Blizzard's unfinished area edges e.g. beyond the walled-off boundaries of Act 1 areas, this cute glitch will be revisited later on, when I get to work on the maps. But I'm really not in the mood to struggle with the command line right now.
That may be true. However, original Diablo 2 was meant for 640x480 and 800x600. I don't think that unfinished area edges are due to incompetence, but rather because the player woulnd't see them anyways.
As you know, the encounter with Jazreth the Summoner has always been very underwhelming for such a kool boss with his own quest log entry and lots of background lore.
Well, not any more! The upcoming revision features some kick ass enhancements. His AI and spell arsenal will be reworked in an attempt to make him behave more like a powerful sorcerer and less like a mindless fireball-hurling turret. Some demon summonings will be included too. The Summoner will also meet a well-deserved dramatic end. No spoilers, but it'll definitely be much more memorable than just plainly going like
Ok, I've tried all the steps, but haven't succeeded. Neither disabling the PlugY, nor other options did help to get rid of that error. I've uninstalled and reinstalled everything again, and then again uninstalled the EE. After that I installed only the PlugY on my general Diablo and that worked without problems. So something is giving me a bad time precisely in either D2SE or D2EE. I'm on Windows XP, so maybe this is the problem, such an old OS.
I had the same issue with no mod installed just today. Only reinstall helped. I suspect that a windows update caused the problem, but can't confirm it for sure.
Edit: however, @Julius have an xp, while i have win8. Win xp should not update nowdays, supposedly?
No Windows updates for me. I've tried again this time, with the fix posted above. The conclusion: The game didn't get any errors with a new character till I closed it. But as soon as I loaded the save with that character and went into inventory, I got the same error. I don't get errors in the game Menu. The error happens after the first loading of the save and persists afterwards.
Sounds like there might be some more Tainted to hunt down, likely burrowing in the game's item tables this time. Damn, them ugly guys never seem to give up Will investigate.
@JuliusBorisov@lefreut It might be helpful if you zip up your save folders and attach them.
@lefreut@JuliusBorisov The good news is that your saves give me no errors on a clean installation of Diablo II Enhanced Edition, which means the save files themselves are okay and your in-game progress is safe. However, since I've been unable to reproduce the errors, the bad news is that I don't have a reliable fix for your issues yet. I'll keep trying to find one
In the meantime... it's teaser time!
Update: The Legendary Artifacts of Sanctuary
"...And so, locked beyond the Gateway of Blood and past the Hall of Fire, Valor awaits for the Hero of Light to awaken..." Arkaine's Valor is one legendary item that deserved its Enhanced Edition treatment perhaps more than any other. No longer will it appear bland and generic!
As you can see, unique pieces of jewellery will also receive a visual overhaul. @O_Bruce and others familiar with Diablo III will probably recognize Mara's Kaleidoscope, The Eye of Etlich, Bul-Kathos' Wedding Band, Manald Heal, Nagelring and perhaps The Stone of Jordan as well, though I redesigned it slightly to better fit the Diablo II aesthetic.
In Diablo II Enhanced Edition, (almost) all unique items and set components will be given custom appearances of their own, as was originally intended by Blizzard. Of course, due to the sheer amount of items, this will be an ongoing (very) long-term process.
Thanks to input from @lefreut as well as @mlnevese who also encountered similar c0000005 exceptions earlier, I finally managed to reproduce the behaviour reported by them and determine its causes. It's definitely not a Diablo II Enhanced Edition issue, as I reproduced it in many other mod environments as well. It may be somewhat of a PlugY and D2SE issue, as these could probably be coded in a way such that would prevent it from happening. Primarily, however, it is an issue with our dearly beloved Windows
c0000005 pops up whenever the game tries to access something it shouldn't or fails to access something it should. Vanilla Diablo II is a bit less prone to c0000005 errors occurring, but it does happen on many systems
Any leftover data in the memory can potentially cause issues. This is why I keep stressing rebooting your computer is important. A reboot will, like, get rid of unwanted leftover data, right? Right? Right???
Nuh-uh. Serves me right for trusting Windows to reboot itself effectively. It turns out that a so-called soft reboot (sometimes known as a Restart in Windows systems) is often not at all sufficient to clean troublesome leftover data from the computer's memory. It appears the system may, in fact, hog such leftover data and reboot with it preserved in place, accumulating more and more of such digital tidbits over time. Talk about being the hoarder of hoarders!
So, now that we know Windows is obsessively sweeping stuff under the carpet, how do we get rid of the c0000005 that keeps popping up despite a few soft reboots? Personally, I would perform a hard reboot (i.e. a shutdown forced by denying power to the computer). This, however, is reported to cause issues with Windows sometimes. I like to live dangerously but, in not wanting to break your systems, I moved heaven and earth to find an obscure, nearly esoteric feature within the system itself that should achieve the same effect.
A well-hidden option called an Emergency Restart. Instructions on how to perform it can be found here.
This should kill all the hideous memory parasites Windows was happy to adopt into its care. Note that this feature is only available in Vista and later unfortunate incarnations of Windows.
For @JuliusBorisov and any other Windows XP users facing a c0000005 while playing Diablo II Enhanced Edition, this might just work:
Using Windows Explorer context menu (normally accessible with a right mouse button click), create a new shortcut in any place convenient to you.
When asked for location, paste this code: shutdown.exe -s -f -t 00This will instruct the system to shutdown and force running applications to close with a time delay of 00 seconds upon executing the shortcut.
You will be requested to name your shortcut. I suggest something informative, like Shutdown, Выключение, 关机, L'arrêt or Herunterfahren, for example.
Save and close any files or important processes you might have open and execute the shortcut. This should supposedly kill the many applications creeping in the background just before they lay their eggs and shut the system down immediately.
Turn on the computer again.
Caveat: can't say if it does what it's needed to do, as I don't have a Windows XP installation to test it on.
If the suggested fixes are insufficient to purge memory, it might be necessary to use some sort of RAM cleaner software, if any exists, or perform a hard reboot by denying the device access to power.
Now I need to quit doing QA overnight. At least for a while
@God Are you sure this reboot stuff does not involve candles, mystic diagrams and chanting? If it doesn't I've been doing it wrong for a long time...
Well, you got it right at least once, as you reported it fixing the stash issue. In my personal view, the world definitely needs more candles, mystic diagrams and chanting, so don't let my instructions prevent you from using them. Just adjust your ritual accordingly if its arcane ways ever fail to defeat a stubborn c0000005. And maybe double the amount of chanting for good measure, 'tis better to be safe than sorry after all
Do you find yourself deeply depressed by these dead-silent mercenary companions of yours? Despair no more! Soon they will be glad to insult their enemies with some entertainingly awful voiceovers, and might even occasionally complain about the weather. I'm taking extra care to adapt some of the most awkward and obscure voice acting ever recorded in videogame history to imbue your loyal mercenary companion with some much needed flair. Trust me, you will like them much more that way. But that's not all there is to your randomly generated little friend. Mercenary companions will receive some actual NPC features. Their names will be displayed on your minimap like that of other NPCs. You might even be able to initiate some basic dialogue with them when in safety. With Greiz's men being the only mercenary class to get a small upgrade between difficulties, further enhancements and tweaks are planned in this area. More skills might be added to companions, too. Generally, my approach is to make the companion more like another hero one might team up with on Battle.net, but with none of the hate and drama A selection of never before seen mercenaries is intended to be introduced at a later point. With the available companions being loose equivalents of select existing character classes (i.e. Amazon, Paladin, Sorceress and Barbarian), these new mercenaries will correspond to character classes not represented (i.e. Necromancer, Assassin and Druid) in a similar manner.
You know what else really grinds my gears? The mercenary commanders. I wonder if you ever wanted to call their bullshit when they said things like:
"I have placed several of my best warriors at your disposal." Kashya
"I might spare you a few of my men. Why, enough gold can muster an army." Greiz
"If you're going into the deep desert, why not hire a few of my men to watch your back?" Greiz
"Rumor has it that you've come here to help. If that's true, then I'll let you hire some of my mercenaries." Asheara
"Why fight fair, when you can hire some of us?" Asheara
"If you wish you may hire some of my mercenaries that you've saved." Qual-Kehk
I sure did. Now, while I lack the inclination to turn Diablo II into a fully-fledged RPG-RTS hybrid, an ability to enlist multiple mercenaries into your service is mentioned by the NPCs way too often for me not to turn it into reality. This is why in Diablo II Enhanced Edition, with a heavy enough purse, you will be able to assemble an actual mercenary army by buying mercenary contracts from the respective commanders. These will put you in charge of mercenary troops unlike your smart and talkative interactive companion; troops that are mere meatshields of the most stupid kind, more reminiscent of what may know from Diablo II Classic. They will lack any particularly powerful skills, you will not be able to share equipment with them and their contracts will expire upon ending the game session. Still, I believe that such cannon fodder will greatly increase the viability of defensive, party-oriented skills in singleplayer. Might also feel extra cool to besiege places with this spiteful mob following your command. Or at least just following you, as they will lack the intelligence required for properly obeying orders. Unfortunately, Blizzard did not fully implement follower orders in the game, though interestingly, sound files related to such commands exist in the game.
Finally, I will restore allied combatants unaffiliated with the player party. While such helpers were meant to be present throughout the original campaign, this idea was scraped, likely due to time constraints, to be then revisited and properly implemented in the later expansion's Act V. Originally, Blizzard intended for the Order of the Sightless Eye to help the player in combat, and a voiceover for a Rogue scout saying that Kashya sends help can still be discovered in the game files. While this was cut from the final game, Kashya explicitly mentions having scouts out in the wilderness, and not just one poor lonely Flavie. I think it is only fitting to scatter some friendly NPC Rogues here and there for the sake of consistency. Likewise, it is only logical that some friendly palace guards are placed down Jerhyn's Harem, as is reported. I really want to add some nice NPC harem girls too, or maybe just a single very frightened one, but that's a little more complex an undertaking. Then again, since the corpses of Greiz's and Asheara's troops are so widely strewn about the land as lootable objects, I believe occasional survivors will further enhance the overall cohesiveness of the game, and uphold the impression of an ongoing conflict taking place.
Originally, Blizzard intended for the Order of the Sightless Eye to help the player in combat, and a voiceover for a Rogue scout saying that Kashya sends help can still be discovered in the game files. While this was cut from the final game, Kashya explicitly mentions having scouts out in the wilderness, and not just one poor lonely Flavie. I think it is only fitting to scatter some friendly NPC Rogues here and there for the sake of consistency.
I want to elaborate on this thought a bit.
As you know, some of Kashya's Rogues will be on the lookout in the wilderness in Diablo II Enhanced Edition. Sometimes, they will literally be fighting for their life out there. You also know all too well that the the Maiden of Anguish, Andariel, inflicted a demonic taint upon the Sisterhood which somehow abducts the Rogues' souls and turns them into those sexy demonesses with murder in their eyes that roam on the rampage all around the Monastery.
Now, imagine a lonely scouting Sister. She's really quick on her legs, wields a mighty long bow and does her best to stay alive. But let's say that she gets overwhelmed and falls prey to Andariel's lackeys.
Now, imagine a lonely scouting Sister. She's really quick on her legs, wields a mighty long bow and does her best to stay alive. But let's say that she gets overwhelmed and falls prey to Andariel's lackeys.
Guess what might become of her
My thoughts are impure and I don't care about the fact that they are...
Comments
One piece of feedback and one question:
Feedback: some monster auras doesn't work. Holy Freeze in particular, made fight against Duriel much easier.
Question: HAve you, by any chance, raised the damage outoput by some monsters? Most notably Ghoul lords variants (especially in Travincal/Durance of Hate) and Pit Lords/Venom Lords? Because I am not to recall them being this damaging.
From what it looks like, @mlnevese most likely faced a minor issue related to the PlugY save interception procedure that makes the shared stash available (hence it appeared upon creating a new character save file). Glad to hear it was resolved.
When Duriel's aura doesn't work even in close range, then something is wrong here....
It looks like Holy Freeze does deal damage correctly but the chill/slow effect is not being applied at all. Weird, it should work okay. I'm starting to understand why Blizzard didn't roll out a second expansion... This engine really is a heck of a mess, bugs just keep popping in all the unrelated places
Will look into some fixes.
I also bumped into some Ghoul Lords while checking out Duriel. They didn't get insta-killed by a maxed out Holy Freeze like the rest of critters around, which shocked me at first, but then I remembered they do have a really huge health pool and something like 50% cold resistance. Their behaviour seems correct as far as I can tell, but if other players confirm that their attacks are way OP, I'll send them to study at Nerfland University
Developer Flashback: Diablo
If you can spare a moment to indulge an old man, stay a while and listen to David Brevik sharing fascinating behind-the-scenes insights on how the series first came to be and recounting the many
outright miraclescoincidences that made the original game even possible. And you will even learn how to pronounce 'Uelmen'.Stay tuned, the next revision of Diablo II Enhanced Edition is coming soon.
I'm sorry that you are still facing issues. This shouldn't be the case. Usually it's the more recent versions of Windows that are prone to causing issues due to incompatibility. Windows XP should run both the game and D2SE just fine. Except it looks like it doesn't. Oh, damn
You mentioned the issue occurring randomly, so I must ask:
1. Is it specific to one character? Or did it affect multiple characters?
2. Does it affect the game world only? Or does it appear in the main menu as well? Try navigating back and forth between Character Selection, Character Creation, Credits and About options for a moment to see if it pops up.
3. Do you notice any circumstance patterns in relation to the error occurring? E.g. one such example would be if it happens when opening, closing or interacting with interfaces and not in other situations.
I investigated the reported behaviours and found the cause. It seems that the Tainted release is... well, thoroughly Tainted
Or, at least, the skill table is. Numerous signs of Tainted presence were spotted in its endlessly winding caverns.
It is said that the Tainted were led by a fearsome monster known as
Microsoft Excel, uh, Feces Clot the Rim Ox, likely some distant relative of Pitspawn Fouldog's. A truly disgusting creature by all means.But fret not, its corruption will spread no more. The Tainted have been promptly exterminated and the issue will not be present in future revisions. Hopefully
Also, an emergency hotfix is attached to this post.
It is strongly advised that this hotfix is applied to ALL Diablo II Enhanced Edition rev:Tainted installations!
How to apply: Overwrite the files found in the Diablo II Enhaced Edition installation directory with the ones found in the zip. Note that the folder structure is important and the fix will not work if it is not preserved.@JuliusBorisov not promising anything but this might as well fix your issue, if it was in any way related to the skill table (which is quite possible)
You can admire this all-out glitchety glitchy glitch even with perspective disabled, but when you have it on and come a little closer to the cliff edge, then the full spectrum of its beauty is immediately unravelled:
Must be a portal to Candy Mountain or something
Like the many other cases of Blizzard's unfinished area edges e.g. beyond the walled-off boundaries of Act 1 areas, this cute glitch will be revisited later on, when I get to work on the maps. But I'm really not in the mood to struggle with the command line right now.
Unless the player is going to use HD mods
Update: Overhauling the Summoner
As you know, the encounter with Jazreth the Summoner has always been very underwhelming for such a kool boss with his own quest log entry and lots of background lore.Well, not any more! The upcoming revision features some kick ass enhancements.
His AI and spell arsenal will be reworked in an attempt to make him behave more like a powerful sorcerer and less like a mindless fireball-hurling turret. Some demon summonings will be included too.
The Summoner will also meet a well-deserved dramatic end. No spoilers, but it'll definitely be much more memorable than just plainly going like
Stay tuned, more news is coming soon
Edit: however, @Julius have an xp, while i have win8. Win xp should not update nowdays, supposedly?
The game didn't get any errors with a new character till I closed it.
But as soon as I loaded the save with that character and went into inventory, I got the same error. I don't get errors in the game Menu. The error happens after the first loading of the save and persists afterwards.
Will investigate.
@JuliusBorisov @lefreut
It might be helpful if you zip up your save folders and attach them.
The good news is that your saves give me no errors on a clean installation of Diablo II Enhanced Edition, which means the save files themselves are okay and your in-game progress is safe. However, since I've been unable to reproduce the errors, the bad news is that I don't have a reliable fix for your issues yet. I'll keep trying to find one
In the meantime... it's teaser time!
Update: The Legendary Artifacts of Sanctuary
"...And so, locked beyond the Gateway of Blood and past the Hall of Fire, Valor awaits for the Hero of Light to awaken..."Arkaine's Valor is one legendary item that deserved its Enhanced Edition treatment perhaps more than any other. No longer will it appear bland and generic!
As you can see, unique pieces of jewellery will also receive a visual overhaul. @O_Bruce and others familiar with Diablo III will probably recognize Mara's Kaleidoscope, The Eye of Etlich, Bul-Kathos' Wedding Band, Manald Heal, Nagelring and perhaps The Stone of Jordan as well, though I redesigned it slightly to better fit the Diablo II aesthetic.
In Diablo II Enhanced Edition, (almost) all unique items and set components will be given custom appearances of their own, as was originally intended by Blizzard. Of course, due to the sheer amount of items, this will be an ongoing (very) long-term process.
Important update on c0000005 errors
Thanks to input from @lefreut as well as @mlnevese who also encountered similar c0000005 exceptions earlier, I finally managed to reproduce the behaviour reported by them and determine its causes.It's definitely not a Diablo II Enhanced Edition issue, as I reproduced it in many other mod environments as well. It may be somewhat of a PlugY and D2SE issue, as these could probably be coded in a way such that would prevent it from happening. Primarily, however, it is an issue with our dearly beloved Windows
As I already mentioned before Any leftover data in the memory can potentially cause issues. This is why I keep stressing rebooting your computer is important. A reboot will, like, get rid of unwanted leftover data, right? Right? Right???
Nuh-uh. Serves me right for trusting Windows to reboot itself effectively.
It turns out that a so-called soft reboot (sometimes known as a Restart in Windows systems) is often not at all sufficient to clean troublesome leftover data from the computer's memory. It appears the system may, in fact, hog such leftover data and reboot with it preserved in place, accumulating more and more of such digital tidbits over time. Talk about being the hoarder of hoarders!
So, now that we know Windows is obsessively sweeping stuff under the carpet, how do we get rid of the c0000005 that keeps popping up despite a few soft reboots?
Personally, I would perform a hard reboot (i.e. a shutdown forced by denying power to the computer). This, however, is reported to cause issues with Windows sometimes. I like to live dangerously but, in not wanting to break your systems, I moved heaven and earth to find an obscure, nearly esoteric feature within the system itself that should achieve the same effect.
A well-hidden option called an Emergency Restart. Instructions on how to perform it can be found here.
This should kill all the hideous memory parasites Windows was happy to adopt into its care. Note that this feature is only available in Vista and later unfortunate incarnations of Windows.For @JuliusBorisov and any other Windows XP users facing a c0000005 while playing Diablo II Enhanced Edition, this might just work:
- Using Windows Explorer context menu (normally accessible with a right mouse button click), create a new shortcut in any place convenient to you.
- When asked for location, paste this code:
- You will be requested to name your shortcut. I suggest something informative, like Shutdown, Выключение, 关机, L'arrêt or Herunterfahren, for example.
- Save and close any files or important processes you might have open and execute the shortcut.
- Turn on the computer again.
Caveat: can't say if it does what it's needed to do, as I don't have a Windows XP installation to test it on.shutdown.exe -s -f -t 00This will instruct the system to shutdown and force running applications to close with a time delay of 00 seconds upon executing the shortcut.This should supposedly kill the many applications creeping in the background just before they lay their eggs and shut the system down immediately.
If the suggested fixes are insufficient to purge memory, it might be necessary to use some sort of RAM cleaner software, if any exists, or perform a hard reboot by denying the device access to power.
Now I need to quit doing QA overnight. At least for a while
In my personal view, the world definitely needs more candles, mystic diagrams and chanting, so don't let my instructions prevent you from using them. Just adjust your ritual accordingly if its arcane ways ever fail to defeat a stubborn c0000005. And maybe double the amount of chanting for good measure, 'tis better to be safe than sorry after all
Update: Say Hello to Your Little Friend
An outline of future mercenary overhaulsDo you find yourself deeply depressed by these dead-silent mercenary companions of yours?
Despair no more! Soon they will be glad to insult their enemies with some entertainingly awful voiceovers, and might even occasionally complain about the weather. I'm taking extra care to adapt some of the most awkward and obscure voice acting ever recorded in videogame history to imbue your loyal mercenary companion with some much needed flair. Trust me, you will like them much more that way.
But that's not all there is to your randomly generated little friend. Mercenary companions will receive some actual NPC features. Their names will be displayed on your minimap like that of other NPCs. You might even be able to initiate some basic dialogue with them when in safety.
With Greiz's men being the only mercenary class to get a small upgrade between difficulties, further enhancements and tweaks are planned in this area. More skills might be added to companions, too. Generally, my approach is to make the companion more like another hero one might team up with on Battle.net, but with none of the hate and drama
A selection of never before seen mercenaries is intended to be introduced at a later point. With the available companions being loose equivalents of select existing character classes (i.e. Amazon, Paladin, Sorceress and Barbarian), these new mercenaries will correspond to character classes not represented (i.e. Necromancer, Assassin and Druid) in a similar manner.
You know what else really grinds my gears? The mercenary commanders. I wonder if you ever wanted to call their bullshit when they said things like:
Now, while I lack the inclination to turn Diablo II into a fully-fledged RPG-RTS hybrid, an ability to enlist multiple mercenaries into your service is mentioned by the NPCs way too often for me not to turn it into reality. This is why in Diablo II Enhanced Edition, with a heavy enough purse, you will be able to assemble an actual mercenary army by buying mercenary contracts from the respective commanders. These will put you in charge of mercenary troops unlike your smart and talkative interactive companion; troops that are mere meatshields of the most stupid kind, more reminiscent of what may know from Diablo II Classic. They will lack any particularly powerful skills, you will not be able to share equipment with them and their contracts will expire upon ending the game session. Still, I believe that such cannon fodder will greatly increase the viability of defensive, party-oriented skills in singleplayer. Might also feel extra cool to besiege places with this spiteful mob following your command. Or at least just following you, as they will lack the intelligence required for properly obeying orders. Unfortunately, Blizzard did not fully implement follower orders in the game, though interestingly, sound files related to such commands exist in the game.
Finally, I will restore allied combatants unaffiliated with the player party. While such helpers were meant to be present throughout the original campaign, this idea was scraped, likely due to time constraints, to be then revisited and properly implemented in the later expansion's Act V.
Originally, Blizzard intended for the Order of the Sightless Eye to help the player in combat, and a voiceover for a Rogue scout saying that Kashya sends help can still be discovered in the game files. While this was cut from the final game, Kashya explicitly mentions having scouts out in the wilderness, and not just one poor lonely Flavie. I think it is only fitting to scatter some friendly NPC Rogues here and there for the sake of consistency.
Likewise, it is only logical that some friendly palace guards are placed down Jerhyn's Harem, as is reported. I really want to add some nice NPC harem girls too, or maybe just a single very frightened one, but that's a little more complex an undertaking.
Then again, since the corpses of Greiz's and Asheara's troops are so widely strewn about the land as lootable objects, I believe occasional survivors will further enhance the overall cohesiveness of the game, and uphold the impression of an ongoing conflict taking place.
Update: The Cursed Sisterhood
I want to elaborate on this thought a bit.As you know, some of Kashya's Rogues will be on the lookout in the wilderness in Diablo II Enhanced Edition. Sometimes, they will literally be fighting for their life out there. You also know all too well that the the Maiden of Anguish, Andariel, inflicted a demonic taint upon the Sisterhood which somehow abducts the Rogues' souls and turns them into those sexy demonesses with murder in their eyes that roam on the rampage all around the Monastery.
Guess what might become of her