What version of diablo should I play?

[hybridmoments]

Greetings all. I've been lurking around this forum for the better part of a month, and thought I should finally just register.

Anyway, I used to play D1 as a kid, and have been wanting to return to this amazing game. I have both Diablo and Hellfire, and have downloaded Marsh's diablo fix as well as the patch Belix made for Marsh's fix. I also have another installation of Diablo running The Hell mod.

My question is, What should I play? Is The Hell mod the best thing to go for these days because it adds a lot of things, or do you think I should stick with the more vanilla Belix patched Hellfire? I should mention that I'm not an online player, so if either is better for single-player, maybe I will go with that.

[qualakon]

I have just put together a package that has all the mods you've mentioned and optimized some settings for stability and 2014. You can download it from here:

http://khanduras.net/2014/01/repo-hellfi...-qualakon/

It is a vanilla hellfire game so there isn't any extra content but it will be a new experience for you, more balanced and the like.

I still recommend The Hell as there are extra quests and content but it does take a lot of grinding to find the equipment you need to complete those areas. These quests and areas are single player only so you're in luck!

[hybridmoments]

Qualakon,

Thanks so much for the reply! I appreciate the effort you put into compiling this package.

I'm going to start with vanilla hellfire, and go onto the hell once I get a couple high level characters. Unfortunately I'm not at my computer at the moment, so I can't download this until the afternoon. Once I download it however, I'll report back my findings. Thanks again!

[qualakon]

Make sure you save often playing Single Player. If you get too annoyed and just want to play without the Bloom/HDR effects then just rename ddraw.dll to ddraw.bak but be sure to the appropriate .reg file for your system or else you'll have funny colours.

[hybridmoments]

Qualakon,

This package you have put together is truly amazing. I love the hdr and bloom effects, it gives d1 just the right amount of modern flavor.

The installation I was using of hellfire before had frequent crashing problems, even after the proper checking of compatibility settings. This package you have put together runs like a dream, even on my windows 8 system.

I think this thread should be stickied, or a link to your mod package be put somewhere prominent so as to give new or returning Diablo fans the chance to play in the easiest way possible..who knows, it may draw in more people!

Thanks again!

Edit: I just visited Khanduras.net, and saw that your mod package is in fact right there on the front page. Looks like ill have to sign up for the forums over there!

---

Apologies for the double post, but I have one more small question.

I had actually patched Hellfire 1.00 to 1.01 before I copied the contents of your mod package into my Hellfire folder. Will this affect anything negatively or can I just roll with it?

[qualakon]

I'm glad you like it. I don't have Windows 8 to test it out, but it's good to have a testimonial of someone saying it works.

I appreciate the kind words, and I'm sure everyone who's helped to make these mods appreciates them too. This is truly a community effort and I'm sure it will continue to improve as more people are drawn to the game.

Feel free to drop by the forums, I'm working on collecting all there is to know about Diablo/Hellfire modding to prevent it from disappearing forever. It's looking pretty good these days.

You should be good even if you copied to your Hellfire 1.01 folder. Even if you have Marsh's v1.02 patch, as long as you overwrite all files. You should see Hellfire v1.02A1 in the corner of the Main Menu screen.

[hybridmoments]

So I've been playing your mod package for about an hour, and I JUST noticed.....there are no footstep sounds in the dungeon! Bug or feature? I could see some people thinking the footstep sounds get annoying, but I like them.

I am aware that when you have the "jog" option toggled to ON, there are no footstep sounds in town, but in my old hellfire installation i always had footstep sounds in the dungeon when you are only allowed to walk.

Strange.

[qualakon]

Hmm I just tested that here with no luck on fixing it. I'll work with Mordor and try to bring some extra atmosphere features to Hellfire. In The Hell he made different footstep sounds based on the type of ground. We'll see where this goes.

[Belix]

I suspect the footstep sounds were disabled by Hellfire itself. I can imagine it must of sounded horrible in town with the jogging feature added. I certainly didn't turn them off.

[hybridmoments]

So I've been playing Qualakon's Hellfire mod package, and have a level 21 warrior so far. This game is just amazing...I can't believe I didn't play it much when it first came out. I love how much different the pace is in comparison with Diablo II, of which I put thousands of hours into over the years. It seems like there is a lot more strategy than just, "run in and kill everything."

I've also started a paladin in The Hell mod, and it is DAMN challenging. I got my paladin to level 12 so far, and I've been really frustrated as it seems that I just cannot find good enough equipment to really survive, and I'm only in horror difficulty! I've just resorted to running the first 5 or so levels of the dungeon over and over again to gain exp, and try to find half decent equipment.

Anyone have any Hell mod tips for a noob such as myself?

[qualakon]

For The Hell, the best advice is to take it slow and try to stay alive, if you can take some hits the damage will come with time.
DFE is more important than AC but it maxes out, based on base VIT.
If you can't get by a certain area, pay attention to the element type because resistance will work.
Paladins have several play styles, but a sword/club and shield combo for the shield block chance.
Basically the idea is to stay alive and redo the levels you can beat until you find the right equipment.
It can get grindy but not until you get to the lair or crypt.
Hope that helps.

[FireIceTalon]

I finally tried The Hell out after wanting to all these years. This game is just brutal, lol, in a word. I was shocked at the challenge factor right from the get go after having played vanilla D1 for so many years (and primarily on high level, perfectly geared chars at that). While I think difficulty curve is a bit steep, I think its a great mod overall, and it presents a "genuine" challenge compared to say inferno difficulty on D3 does (which was largely artificial difficulty, at least originally). The atmosphere is incredible, even darker and grittier than vanilla D1, lots of pretty cool new items and skills, and so forth.