The Druids of Scosglen failed to recreate the eagle shapeshift form due to a lack of art resources... er... spirits. Yeah, we'd need a lot of spirits to recreate that. It is said they decided to venture in a different direction altogether... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wl90tt4newk
Taking a quick look at new shapeshifting skills, I have an impression that Andariel's "Die, maggot!" will become pretty accurate and not insulting thing for her to say.
I have been trying out the pre-alpha build and have been positively surprised by how nice the mod already feels, even though it is indeed in very early form. There are, however, a few things I have been pondering while playing the game again for the first time in almost 10 years.
First is the matter of inventory, and to be more precise, charms in the inventory. I saw it has already been discussed here before, so I thought I'd add my two cents, in case the matter is still up in the air. Having a large inventory is great, and one of the biggest improvements to the game as far as I am concerned. Despite that, I would highly advise putting some restrictions to how many charms can be placed/used in the inventory. Such a thing has been done already in at least one mod to my knowledge (Path of Diablo, I believe), and having charms active in only a portion of the inventory ensures that the game balance is not shaken. Balancing the game to take into account an increased amount of charms is another way to solve this, i.e. making enemies tougher.
Second are the skill trees. I have been combing through this thread and seeing the new expanded skill trees has been thrilling to say the least. What I am worried about, though, are the original skills. I understand the determination to stay true to the original feel of the game and to keep the vanilla builds viable and intact. There are, however, multiple skills in the original game that have been lackluster, pointless or redundant. Making an enhanced edition/overhaul of the game presents an opportunity to correct these issues and revamping the original skills/skill trees would seem like the best way to do this.
Example: Probably the weakest skill tree for me design-wise has been the barbarian. Inherent with redundancies, such as weapon masteries that do not dictate the way you play, but are rather respondent to the loot you are lucky enough to get. These weapon masteries are pretty much a waste of room on the skill tree and could be reduced to three masteries that dictate the way you play the game from early on. (not counting the new ones you have added) The Path of Diablo mod revamped these to 1-handed weapons, 2-handed weapons and throwing weapons, I think something similar should be done here. There are also useless skills, such as find potion. These could be replaced/redesigned into something worthwhile.
Paladin is another character I would take a look at, mostly in consideration to the new skills being added in this mod. The paladin has two skill tree tabs full of auras. I like these auras for the most part, but there is a problem inherent in them. You can only use one at a time. This restriction makes the paladin somewhat less interactive than the other classes. I don't know exactly what kind of skills you have added based on the pictures on this thread, but I would recommend leaning towards adding passives, active skills and summons rather than a bunch of new auras. (Unless they serve a distinct purpose) I would actually clump all the auras into a single tab of the skill tree and expand upon the combat skills tab, as you have already done. This would leave one tab for passives or something completely new. Not sure if changing the trees is possible, but it's a thought at least. (This paragraph is mostly guesswork by me as I do not know the details of the skills you have added into the mod, but I hope I was still able to give some useful input)
I have things to say about all of the original skill trees, but this post is already getting long so I'll leave it for now.
I hope you will at least consider touching the original skill trees, even if it is only balance tweaks. In any case, I can't wait to play this mod in an officially released form. Great job!
The Paladin is THE class that seems like it was designed specifically for multiplayer. Having Auras that can benefit 7 other people is the very definition of a support class. When it is just you and your merc, it's alot less interesting. For instance, running a full 8 man group with a Necro with a full screen of summons makes Thorns amazing. It's basically useless on your own.
The Paladin is THE class that seems like it was designed specifically for multiplayer. Having Auras that can benefit 7 other people is the very definition of a support class. When it is just you and your merc, it's alot less interesting. For instance, running a full 8 man group with a Necro with a full screen of summons makes Thorns amazing. It's basically useless on your own.
That is true, the paladin is very powerful in these situations (not that it was weak to begin with). Paladin is actually my favorite class, so by no means do I mean to belittle them. Paladins just always seemed less interactive than others in this regard. You usually just switch between a couple of auras and spend points in others simply for synergy benefits (not all skills even have those, which is another opportunity for improvement, synergies for each skill). In a perfect world there would be a use and need for every skill in certain situations. For paladin I think the problematic auras are the ones that do pretty much everything better than others do.
Example: "Might" is the only aura that boosts attack damage as it's only function. Despite this, it progresses poorly compared to the other damage auras ("Concentration" and "Fanaticism"). This makes "Might" a completely useless aura, with the only reason for spending points on it being that it is required for the latter auras. I see this as poor design, resulting in a wasted skill on the skill tree. How I would see it done: Make "Might" have the biggest damage potential of all the auras. "Concentration" would have the uninterruptible quality, but would not have as high a damage potential as "Might". "Concentration" should probably have something else added to the mix to make sure it is worthwhile. "Fanaticism" would be the most comprehensive aura, giving benefits to pretty much all attack related stats. None of the individual benefits would win out against the other auras, but having them all in one aura would make it a worthwhile choice regardless.
The same kind of issues linger in the defensive aura section, specifically the resist auras. "Salvation" is pretty much as good as the single resist auras in giving resistances, but it gives resists to all elemental damage instead of just one. It doesn't increase the max resists like the single resist auras do, but I don't think that is enough to make up the difference. This makes the single resist auras pretty much pointless. They do have the hidden benefit of passively increasing one's max resists for every two skill points spent on them, which is insanely good, but this should not be the only reason for getting them as it is not their main function. I would cut the resists of "Salvation" in half (or by a third) as a quick solution, but other methods may prove more productive.
In a nutshell, if there is a skill that only seems like a stepping stone (a skill dump) for the next skill, it should be revised. Every skill should have a function that would be worth considering.
My biggest problem with Paladins is that they have skills that work like two skills combined from other classes. Example: Zeal > Amazon's Jab and Fend combined, especially since Zeal has synegries. It is also arguably better than Barbarian's Frenzy, especially combined with Fanaticism.
Also, granted, in multiplayer things can work differently for Paladins, but for single player person like me it doesn't matter in the slightest.
So, screw Paladins.
The "skills serving only as a prerequisite and sometimes not even as that" problem, however, is just tied to skill tree system as a whole. It is in no way, shape or form restricted to Paladins.
My biggest problem with Paladins is that they have skills that work like two skills combined from other classes. Example: Zeal > Amazon's Jab and Fend combined, especially since Zeal has synegries. It is also arguably better than Barbarian's Frenzy, especially combined with Fanaticism.
Also, granted, in multiplayer things can work differently for Paladins, but for single player person like me it doesn't matter in the slightest.
So, screw Paladins.
The "skills serving only as a prerequisite and sometimes not even as that" problem, however, is just tied to skill tree system as a whole. It is in no way, shape or form restricted to Paladins.
There are definitely issues with all classes and all skill trees, which is all the more reason to take a dive into them and try to fix these issues. I don't see there being any unsolvable issues however, and there is much potential to be had there. I am sure paladins can be enjoyable/viable in both single- and multiplayer.
I accidentally encoded D2EE's main theme all wrong. What's interesting is that Diablo actually played the file in spite of my mistake. It got, however, all stretched-out and slowed down.
Serendipitously, the Bird of Dawn now sounds all the more sinister... was it my doing, or was it the Lord of Terror himself?
Really like the mod. But the new character stat screen is really hard to like. Top Left Bottom Right for setting spec points is weird. The gorillian new skill slots on skill tree seems overkill. You should look into the 4th skill page screen instead IMHO.
BaseMod would be pretty neat to implement for all its quality of life features.
Looking forward to the future of this mod since it seems to stay as close to lore as possible. Median XL is great for what it is but its just not diablo 2. Monsters seem out of place.. skills dont reflect their class or are just lame.
Appreciated.
Though I'm not sure where you got the mod, as I disabled the download links to revision:Tainted recently
I assume you downloaded the initial pre-alpha release before the links were removed. If you found it somewhere else, please let me know.
character stat screen is really hard to like. Top Left Bottom Right for setting spec points is weird.
You may have missed the post where I noted this but that implementation was just a placeholder.
In the next releases, the stat screen will look more or less like this, with layout close to vanilla Diablo II:
The gorillian new skill slots on skill tree seems overkill. You should look into the 4th skill page screen instead IMHO.
Have you been following the thread? I am intent on filling many of these skill slots with, well, skills.
And the skill trees will be cleaned in the next releases, like this:
At this point, I have drafted over 200 skill additions. And that's just a start.
Also, the 4th skill page screen plugin is incompatible with other features we are using.
BaseMod would be pretty neat to implement for all its quality of life features.
Which quality of life features in particular do you mean?
devurandom's BaseMod plugin supported v1.13c, v1.13d and v1.14d last time I checked, which means it is incompatible with the Enhanced Edition.
Some of BaseMod's features probably will be integrated with the Enhanced Edition at some point.
Looking forward to the future of this mod since it seems to stay as close to lore as possible.
A key tenet of the Enhanced Edition is staying fanatically true to the game's core mechanics, lore and aesthetics, and so that is the creative direction I enforce in the project.
Well, yes, Median XL is... uh... interesting. I can understand its appeal, and its popularity.
The Enhanced Edition is a much younger project with fewer resources available, so it may take quite some time before we catch up with them.
I actually to be honest don't even know where I downloaded this mod. I read about it somewhere and had to try it. I googled Diablo 2 Enhanced version and downloaded it from who knows where, (Kinda scary really because I thought it was yours. I didnt know you took down the links) probably because I didnt see a link here. I am not much of a forum dude i didnt look through 8 pages of people talking sorry :S
(I just had the idea i can look into my history to see where I DL'ed it from. The link was some google drive but it says access is denied now. So maybe it was from here. I really did think it was from you though.
That new skill page is very good looking and clean. I have no idea how one can make too many more skills without it being redundant, (ex: A green poison tornado vs druids tornado) crap like that which is what i consider to be lame. Its not really "new" imo. But beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
The QoL features i would be referring to would be the ability to hold ctrl + left click to move items around. Auto gold only pickup is pretty nice too if you got lazy fingers. You can see the whole list of features and improvements it makes on the phrozenkeep. the 25FPS bypass is nice in basemod. Does appear to make things look smother. I did notice the game is running on 1.10 of diablo, but i did see the mention of 1.13c on the first page of this forum as a prerequisite for D2EE. (Prob mentioned somewhere in the 8 pages of forum i didnt read ) I suppose its a give or take on what you can and can't do with different versions.
Your mod with built in high resolutions is pretty nice though. I think 1024 is the sweet spot for sure and its glide so however way you've done it is perfect. D2Multires does only direct3d it seems at least as far as I can tell. Windows 10 also runs diablo 2 better on glide. Also glad to see that new character screen. That looks really nice. Incredible You should add mana regen and health regen too if it matters at all.
The link was some google drive but it says access is denied now. So maybe it was from here. I really did think it was from you though.
Ah, right, that was my link. It looks like I simply forgot to remove one of them, fixed now. Hard to remember all the places you put links in a multiple page forum topic.
I have no idea how one can make too many more skills without it being redundant, (ex: A green poison tornado vs druids tornado) crap like that which is what i consider to be lame. Its not really "new" imo. But beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
Skill development is a challenging process indeed and redundancies are a problem.
Using any of the Enhanced Edition new skills will be entirely up to the player, though. It is one of the project's principles that all the Diablo II: Lord of Destruction skills and character builds remain intact. We aim to expand the skill selection and bring more variety rather than shoehorn people into specific skill selections.
the 25FPS bypass is nice in basemod. Does appear to make things look smother
As far as I know there is no benefit to bypassing the 25 FPS limit, as the engine renders 25 frames of visuals regardless. But I will double check if there are any situations where this improves performance, as I know of a few when the game tends to drop a good 5-10 FPS. Thanks for reminding me this is a thing.
Diablo II Enhanced Edition [pre-alpha revision TAINTED-2] is now available at Millaire Industries as a Cactus-compatible Platform & D2SE Mod.
This revision has limited features, and also a few fun bugs, but you are still welcome to playtest it.
As before, three things are needed: ✓ a valid Diablo II licence key issued by Blizzard
✓ a valid Diablo II Lord of Destruction Expansion licence key issued by Blizzard
✓ patience
And, since TAINTED-2 onwards: ✓ acceptance of our terms
There are two release branches available:
A D2SE plugin release.
Note that D2SE requires an installation of Diablo II: Lord of Destruction 1.13c or older. I already provided instructions in this post on how to install 1.13c and a D2SE mod plugin.
A Cactus-compatible release.
Cactus is a file-based version switcher by Jonathan Vasquez (fearedbliss) that also works with newer versions of Diablo II: Lord of Destruction. Installation instructions are found on the linked release page (installation instructions tab), but I recommend to carefully read fearedbliss' readme on GitHub, so that you understand how Cactus works before using it.
If any further assistance is required, feel free to ask questions here, or on the project forums
Urgent: It seems that inventory issues still persist in some installations.
Another hotfix release will be uploaded soon that will, hopefully, eliminate those issues once and for all.
The TAINTED-2.2 revision of the Enhanced Edition is now available.
In this release: Fixed: Issues and crashes related to the inventory and NPC trade panels should now be fixed. Fixed: Gold should now drop less frequently from regular monsters. Fixed: The Summoner's skillset was reverted to vanilla skills. This is a temporary fix to make it easier to progress through Act 2. Misc: Removed more unnecessary files from Patch_D2.mpq. Misc: The Enhanced Edition installers should now automatically detect your Diablo II installation folder and install files into the correct subdirectory without the need for manual path entry. Advanced users can, of course, install the files to any directory and manually carry them over to their desired location.
I hope that TAINTED-2.2 is now stable enough to serve as a base for the inclusion and development of new features. Unless any major issues surface, we will proceed to TAINTED-3.
Thanks to everyone who tested the TAINTED-2 series of releases and helped us find bugs!
Comments
art resources... er... spirits.Yeah, we'd need a lot of spirits to recreate that.
It is said they decided to venture in a different direction altogether...
Hm... but what if I made Deckard Cain a hireable companion? Surely that is a highly desired feature!
I have been trying out the pre-alpha build and have been positively surprised by how nice the mod already feels, even though it is indeed in very early form.
There are, however, a few things I have been pondering while playing the game again for the first time in almost 10 years.
First is the matter of inventory, and to be more precise, charms in the inventory.
I saw it has already been discussed here before, so I thought I'd add my two cents, in case the matter is still up in the air.
Having a large inventory is great, and one of the biggest improvements to the game as far as I am concerned. Despite that, I would highly advise putting some restrictions to how many charms can be placed/used in the inventory. Such a thing has been done already in at least one mod to my knowledge (Path of Diablo, I believe), and having charms active in only a portion of the inventory ensures that the game balance is not shaken.
Balancing the game to take into account an increased amount of charms is another way to solve this, i.e. making enemies tougher.
Second are the skill trees. I have been combing through this thread and seeing the new expanded skill trees has been thrilling to say the least.
What I am worried about, though, are the original skills. I understand the determination to stay true to the original feel of the game and to keep the vanilla builds viable and intact. There are, however, multiple skills in the original game that have been lackluster, pointless or redundant. Making an enhanced edition/overhaul of the game presents an opportunity to correct these issues and revamping the original skills/skill trees would seem like the best way to do this.
Example:
Probably the weakest skill tree for me design-wise has been the barbarian. Inherent with redundancies, such as weapon masteries that do not dictate the way you play, but are rather respondent to the loot you are lucky enough to get.
These weapon masteries are pretty much a waste of room on the skill tree and could be reduced to three masteries that dictate the way you play the game from early on. (not counting the new ones you have added) The Path of Diablo mod revamped these to 1-handed weapons, 2-handed weapons and throwing weapons, I think something similar should be done here.
There are also useless skills, such as find potion. These could be replaced/redesigned into something worthwhile.
Paladin is another character I would take a look at, mostly in consideration to the new skills being added in this mod. The paladin has two skill tree tabs full of auras. I like these auras for the most part, but there is a problem inherent in them. You can only use one at a time. This restriction makes the paladin somewhat less interactive than the other classes. I don't know exactly what kind of skills you have added based on the pictures on this thread, but I would recommend leaning towards adding passives, active skills and summons rather than a bunch of new auras. (Unless they serve a distinct purpose)
I would actually clump all the auras into a single tab of the skill tree and expand upon the combat skills tab, as you have already done. This would leave one tab for passives or something completely new. Not sure if changing the trees is possible, but it's a thought at least.
(This paragraph is mostly guesswork by me as I do not know the details of the skills you have added into the mod, but I hope I was still able to give some useful input)
I have things to say about all of the original skill trees, but this post is already getting long so I'll leave it for now.
I hope you will at least consider touching the original skill trees, even if it is only balance tweaks.
In any case, I can't wait to play this mod in an officially released form. Great job!
For paladin I think the problematic auras are the ones that do pretty much everything better than others do.
Example:
"Might" is the only aura that boosts attack damage as it's only function. Despite this, it progresses poorly compared to the other damage auras ("Concentration" and "Fanaticism"). This makes "Might" a completely useless aura, with the only reason for spending points on it being that it is required for the latter auras.
I see this as poor design, resulting in a wasted skill on the skill tree.
How I would see it done: Make "Might" have the biggest damage potential of all the auras. "Concentration" would have the uninterruptible quality, but would not have as high a damage potential as "Might". "Concentration" should probably have something else added to the mix to make sure it is worthwhile. "Fanaticism" would be the most comprehensive aura, giving benefits to pretty much all attack related stats. None of the individual benefits would win out against the other auras, but having them all in one aura would make it a worthwhile choice regardless.
The same kind of issues linger in the defensive aura section, specifically the resist auras. "Salvation" is pretty much as good as the single resist auras in giving resistances, but it gives resists to all elemental damage instead of just one. It doesn't increase the max resists like the single resist auras do, but I don't think that is enough to make up the difference. This makes the single resist auras pretty much pointless. They do have the hidden benefit of passively increasing one's max resists for every two skill points spent on them, which is insanely good, but this should not be the only reason for getting them as it is not their main function. I would cut the resists of "Salvation" in half (or by a third) as a quick solution, but other methods may prove more productive.
In a nutshell, if there is a skill that only seems like a stepping stone (a skill dump) for the next skill, it should be revised. Every skill should have a function that would be worth considering.
Also, granted, in multiplayer things can work differently for Paladins, but for single player person like me it doesn't matter in the slightest.
So, screw Paladins.
The "skills serving only as a prerequisite and sometimes not even as that" problem, however, is just tied to skill tree system as a whole. It is in no way, shape or form restricted to Paladins.
I am sure paladins can be enjoyable/viable in both single- and multiplayer.
Jazreth the Summoner will receive significantly improved AI... and enough room to use it.
Serendipitously, the Bird of Dawn now sounds all the more sinister... was it my doing, or was it the Lord of Terror himself?
Stay a while... and listen:
BaseMod would be pretty neat to implement for all its quality of life features.
Looking forward to the future of this mod since it seems to stay as close to lore as possible. Median XL is great for what it is but its just not diablo 2. Monsters seem out of place.. skills dont reflect their class or are just lame.
Keep up the excellent work! I envy your talent.
Though I'm not sure where you got the mod, as I disabled the download links to revision:Tainted recently
I assume you downloaded the initial pre-alpha release before the links were removed. If you found it somewhere else, please let me know.
You may have missed the post where I noted this but that implementation was just a placeholder.
In the next releases, the stat screen will look more or less like this, with layout close to vanilla Diablo II:
Have you been following the thread? I am intent on filling many of these skill slots with, well, skills.
And the skill trees will be cleaned in the next releases, like this:
At this point, I have drafted over 200 skill additions. And that's just a start.
Also, the 4th skill page screen plugin is incompatible with other features we are using.
Which quality of life features in particular do you mean?
devurandom's BaseMod plugin supported v1.13c, v1.13d and v1.14d last time I checked, which means it is incompatible with the Enhanced Edition.
Some of BaseMod's features probably will be integrated with the Enhanced Edition at some point.
A key tenet of the Enhanced Edition is staying fanatically true to the game's core mechanics, lore and aesthetics, and so that is the creative direction I enforce in the project.
Well, yes, Median XL is... uh... interesting. I can understand its appeal, and its popularity.
The Enhanced Edition is a much younger project with fewer resources available, so it may take quite some time before we catch up with them.
(I just had the idea i can look into my history to see where I DL'ed it from. The link was some google drive but it says access is denied now. So maybe it was from here. I really did think it was from you though.
googledrivelink
That new skill page is very good looking and clean. I have no idea how one can make too many more skills without it being redundant, (ex: A green poison tornado vs druids tornado) crap like that which is what i consider to be lame. Its not really "new" imo. But beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
The QoL features i would be referring to would be the ability to hold ctrl + left click to move items around. Auto gold only pickup is pretty nice too if you got lazy fingers. You can see the whole list of features and improvements it makes on the phrozenkeep. the 25FPS bypass is nice in basemod. Does appear to make things look smother. I did notice the game is running on 1.10 of diablo, but i did see the mention of 1.13c on the first page of this forum as a prerequisite for D2EE. (Prob mentioned somewhere in the 8 pages of forum i didnt read
Your mod with built in high resolutions is pretty nice though. I think 1024 is the sweet spot for sure and its glide so however way you've done it is perfect. D2Multires does only direct3d it seems at least as far as I can tell. Windows 10 also runs diablo 2 better on glide. Also glad to see that new character screen. That looks really nice. Incredible
Skill development is a challenging process indeed and redundancies are a problem.
Using any of the Enhanced Edition new skills will be entirely up to the player, though. It is one of the project's principles that all the Diablo II: Lord of Destruction skills and character builds remain intact. We aim to expand the skill selection and bring more variety rather than shoehorn people into specific skill selections.
Can't make any promises but we sure will look into these features.
As far as I know there is no benefit to bypassing the 25 FPS limit, as the engine renders 25 frames of visuals regardless. But I will double check if there are any situations where this improves performance, as I know of a few when the game tends to drop a good 5-10 FPS. Thanks for reminding me this is a thing.
Mana & health regen rates are a bit tricky to display as stats due to the complex calculation involved but I'll see what can be done.
Thanks for the feedback
Also, the original post has been updated with an in-development feature list that more accurately reflects the current state of the project.
This revision has limited features, and also a few fun bugs, but you are still welcome to playtest it.
To find out more about the project visit:
https://millaire.com/diablo-2-enhanced-edition
Thanks to all the amazing Contributors who made this release possible:
(alphabetical list)
• ALPHA
• BARBY
• CARL OLSEN
• CLA$$ICS
• DAV92
• DELAPOUITE
• EIMERNASE
• HARVESTWOMBS
• HAUJOBB
• KINGPIN
• LEEKUN
• LORC
• NECROLIS
• NEPHRETES
• OGODEI
• PHROZEN HEART
• RADAMENT
• RED HAVOC
• SKOLL
• SVR
• SZUMIGAJOWY
• ZEROMANCER
https://millaire.com/topic/15-revision-tainted-21-is-now-available/
It is recommended that TAINTED-2 users upgrade to TAINTED-2.1.
Hopefully the Classic (4:3) resolution mode will no longer have issues with the inventory panel!
✓ a valid Diablo II licence key issued by Blizzard
✓ a valid Diablo II Lord of Destruction Expansion licence key issued by Blizzard
✓ patience
And, since TAINTED-2 onwards:
✓ acceptance of our terms
There are two release branches available:
Note that D2SE requires an installation of Diablo II: Lord of Destruction 1.13c or older. I already provided instructions in this post on how to install 1.13c and a D2SE mod plugin.
Cactus is a file-based version switcher by Jonathan Vasquez (fearedbliss) that also works with newer versions of Diablo II: Lord of Destruction. Installation instructions are found on the linked release page (installation instructions tab), but I recommend to carefully read fearedbliss' readme on GitHub, so that you understand how Cactus works before using it.
If any further assistance is required, feel free to ask questions here, or on the project forums
Another hotfix release will be uploaded soon that will, hopefully, eliminate those issues once and for all.
In this release:
Fixed: Issues and crashes related to the inventory and NPC trade panels should now be fixed.
Fixed: Gold should now drop less frequently from regular monsters.
Fixed: The Summoner's skillset was reverted to vanilla skills. This is a temporary fix to make it easier to progress through Act 2.
Misc: Removed more unnecessary files from Patch_D2.mpq.
Misc: The Enhanced Edition installers should now automatically detect your Diablo II installation folder and install files into the correct subdirectory without the need for manual path entry. Advanced users can, of course, install the files to any directory and manually carry them over to their desired location.
https://millaire.com/topic/16-revision-tainted-22-is-now-available/
I hope that TAINTED-2.2 is now stable enough to serve as a base for the inclusion and development of new features. Unless any major issues surface, we will proceed to TAINTED-3.
Thanks to everyone who tested the TAINTED-2 series of releases and helped us find bugs!