My Unofficial Hellfire 1.02 Mod

[Belix]

Sorry, long post again.

That's a valid point with dmg+ oil. I think it would probably even out after a high enough char level, but in general dmg+ is not that hard to get as is. It's a nice enough balance IMO.

True, when you consider that most physical damage comes from character attributes, tacking another 10-20 on to the damage display at high levels seems like a small thing, but sometimes a few numbers make a big difference. For example, slaying a monster in 2 hits consistently instead of 3. That just increased the beating you're dishing out by 50%.

I think for me the accuracy+ oil becoming permanent is more intriguing.
Mostly for the Warrior IMO, that can benefit even from this small bump.

Yeah, the Accuracy oils would be nice for turning inaccurate Uniques into decent weapons. And requirement oils would be nice if they could only be used once and not stacked on in such a way that a Rogue could wear two Mercurial Rings and Full Plate Mail (no str req) if she can get as little as +5 to all or strength on her amulet. Yikes, the damage bonus a high level Rogue would enjoy with an extra +120 Dexterity from two of those rings... that would bring her base damage up over 90 per shot even when you factor in the Strength loss. Suddenly a single arrow hit from Gnat Sting would be comparable to a perfect Merciless Long War Bow hit. Then Gnat could be boosted another 30ish damage with Sharpness oils.

Anyway, lots of ways the oils could be used that are nice... and some sadly kind of exploitative.

It is definitely interesting. Not just about Gnat Sting I mean, but bringing back D1 classic bow attack speed into HF. I think I wouldn't mind trying out a D1 classic style Needler with one of my high level HF Rogue.

Exactly! I miss my Needler and of Swiftness bows that I used to use in Diablo 1 all the way to the end of the game sometimes. They're basically useless in Hellfire because slightly faster arrow flight isn't very good. Some of the notes from other people who have modded Hellfire are a bit vague, but it looks like the team that worked on The Dark were looking at or implemented something that appears related to Diablo 1 bow behavior, which I think is attack speed. But I haven't played the mod so I can't check, and some of the things in their heap of notes they never implemented. Marsh seems to have had better luck with some of the more complicated changes, such as Shrine behaviors, so I hope he'll look into it.

HF's different pacing

Speaking of Hellfire's pacing, if you use Jog in Town in Hellfire, loading up plain Diablo 1 and walking around in town is strange now. It used to feel fine back in the day, but too much exposure to the Jog feature and now it feels like you're dragging a ball and chain around. Haha.

Just to be sure that we're on the same page... The cursor point at the farthest edge of the monitor screen?

Yes. The Amazon's Multi-shot skill in Diablo II is aimed the same way; target close for a wide spread, far for a tight spread. Since the spread angle usually doesn't hit anything on the sides, naturally Gnat Sting performs best when you target the edges of the screen to try to concentrate its fire and sink multiple arrows into one target.

It's a neat unique in Hellfire, a bow with its own little flavor. But I did find myself totally missing occasionally because a monster weaved out of the expected path. Had I been shooting closer the spread may have hit it, but trying to concentrate the firepower yields a complete miss in this case. Of course, as discussed already, sinking all 3 arrows into enemies at the edge of the screen is unlikely since you can't tighten the spread enough. The diagonal angles work best for Gnat because you can see further in those directions thanks to the isometric perspective of Diablo.

As one more thought on Gnat Sting's performance, since it does 1-2 damage and has no elemental enchantments, it reaches its peak only with Max Str & Dex and at the highest character levels. Whereas most of the elemental bow's punch comes from the item itself, rendering them relatively potent as soon as you can obtain one (around Level 31, give or take, I believe), and only improving slightly with stats/levels. But it's an amazing bow if you find it really early, and definitely a worthy choice later on against some of Hellfire's fire and lightning immune monsters where physical damage is all you can do.

I have played with elemental bows, and I'll be upfront with this. I like 'em because they look purty.

Nothing wrong with that. I think the visceral feel of the game, the nice sounds and visuals are an important part of the lasting appeal it offers. Compare this with some of Diablo II's (in my opinion) relatively underwhelming sound effects and graphics, say, the original Fireball with Diablo II's. Enough said.

I like everyone in the roster.

Likewise. I fell in love with all of Diablo's original characters, as they are all quite enjoyable and play distinctly enough to give the game a different flavor. The game also rewards mixing and matching the perceived character styles; a Warrior can do wonders with a little magic, a Rogue with a fast sword and shield is virtually untouchable by melee foes unless surrounded, and a Sorcerer using Stone Curse can get his melee on with Civerb's Cudgel.

Like you, I immediately warmed up to Hellfire's Bard, because I'd become much too good with the Sorcerer. Since this mod I've been reluctant to play Sorcerers any more because without the concern of friendly fire, nothing about the game holds back his insane destructive potential besides running out of mana potions. The Bard will never have his massive mana pool, casts slower, and is tougher to get spells up to high levels.

I was admittedly reluctant to try the Barbarian until recently, but I found him enjoyable enough to finish Nightmare with. Not being able to hide behind a shield like the Warrior or Rogue definitely makes melee... interesting.

I'm set to play my first Monk soon. I'm hoping he'll surprise me because he seemed the least interesting of the Hellfire classes, like a confused Bard that can block but is slow with everything except staves and bare hands.

I have TorchLight 2 on my comp, IMO the spiritual sequel to D2, and displays a pedigree of D1's team. I enjoy it.

I'm guessing you probably know that Runic Games, the creators of Torchlight, are composed of some of the same team members that worked on the original Diablo. I met and played with some of them (including Max Schaefer, who was quite nice and insightful) during the Mythos alpha test, when they'd recently formed Flagship Studios, which was sadly ill-fated. I'm really happy that they kept at it, got back up on their feet and tried again - this time to achieve success.

But that's another rant for another time.

Agreed... sadly different entertainment products enjoy very different life spans before they are all but forgotten, and video games have by far the shortest life spans in that sense.

I spent last sunday night powerleveling a Bard.

Ah, speaking of the Bard again, I'm going to go upload the Rogue/Bard animation fixes I finished last night. I'll put a link here when I'm done, for convenience. As a fellow Bard fan you might appreciate it.