Hellfire: Fixed v1.21

[LemmingofGlory]

Read on, Hellfire fans. More bug fixes, improvements, and features. Plus a spankin'-new expansion exclusively for Hellfire: Fixed. The end boss? None other than Wirt himself. Albrecht, eat your heart out.

[o: *LEMMING* :o]

[Slayer(SoU)]

i'll go try it...

[Smoketest]

Too bad there's nothing like this for the standard game, which I prefer better.

[LemmingofGlory]

I doubt you're alone in asking, "Why's some damn fool making mods for godawful Hellfire?" Because Hellfire is awful.

Diablo v1.09 is "done." A few annoying bugs remain (MS, duplication), but it's very much playable. Hellfire v1.01 just isn't. Bugs aside, Sierra added some real crap features. Worse yet, many of their more desirible features didn't work at all. The crap overwhelmed any redeeming qualities.

Zamal and Zenda did a *lot* with Hellfire in their mod The Dark. It's a great mod. But players who enjoy a game of "vanilla" Hellfire are pretty much stuck with the double-helping of crap Sierra squeezed onto their plate. Hellfire: Fixed exists to correct that.

So, why the "expansion?" Because no other mod has done it. Because HF has a wider selection of spells, monsters, items, and two new areas. Maybe it'd be nice to make a 1.09 Wirtistopheles, but it wouldn't be as complete as in Hellfire: Fixed.

Why do you prefer the standard game, then? Multiplayer? ;)

[o: *LEMMING* :o]

[Smoketest]

I like it (standard game) because it's complete. Hellfire just didn't feel right as part of the game, almost like someone tried to graft apples to an orange tree. While the additional spells were kind of nice, the graphics for the hive section are awful where visibility is concerned, and the addition of even more fire and run monsters had me spouting more colorful metaphors than usual while playing my warrior. All in all, the good portions of Hellfire were outweighed by the rather annoying bad portions, to the extent that I finally got rid of it altogether. (The lack of further patches from Sierra made this decision even easier.)

Yes, the standard game is playable, just like most other bug-infested games out there, but I get tired of seeing inaccurate/incorrect/missing spell information and other such bugs in the game, so that's why I expressed my thought in the previous post.

Multiplayer was nice while it lasted, but singleplayer will always be my favorite part of games.

I'll just keep plugging along with my 1.09 unmodded D1. At least until I find the time to learn how to mod it myself. That seems to be the only way I ever get what I want for my favorite games.

[LemmingofGlory]

Hellfire just didn't feel right as part of the game, almost like someone tried to graft apples to an orange tree. While the additional spells were kind of nice, the graphics for the hive section are awful where visibility is concerned, and the addition of even more fire and run monsters had me spouting more colorful metaphors than usual while playing my warrior.

The Hive is indeed an abomination. Crypt, otoh, I've found pretty nice. Good mix of animal/demon/undead and monster immunities. It also has a "dungeon"-esque feel, even if the "Gothic" look is a tad over the top.

But if you're more a solo guy anyway, why not backwards patch to v1.07? You'll have a good number of mods available to you -- unless you prefer SP over even solo MP.

At least until I find the time to learn how to mod it myself. That seems to be the only way I ever get what I want for my favorite games.

That's the spirit. :) If you're up for it, start here:
http://www.xs4all.nl/~a3n/modwork.htm

Don't miss the Dark Mod Notes at the bottom of the page. Much of it is Hellfire (and in Dutch), but there's plenty of v1.07 D1 info too. Some of it you can apply to v1.09 without too much trouble.

Z&Z also have a modmaking forum, but it's down at the moment.

[o: *LEMMING* :o]

[Puma]

Do you know that,when starting a new game in HF:Dark,ALL uniques morph into useless crap? That's why I got rid of that mod.(Although the mod itself is terrific)

[ArthurDent]

Dear Puma,

what is really the reason for playing a mod if you expect to port all your "Uber" characters with accompanying "uber" gear directly to it?

I think that you miss the whole point, and along with that a terrific opportunity to experience the finest "Diablo-themed" gameplay available.

TheDark, although it easily surpasses other Diablo incarnations, is not for the feint of heart. I for one always diskliked the "porting" of chartacters between games. Think about how it would be if one could port directly his lvl 50 char from Diablo to D2. It is common the case with mods that one may easily be tricked to assume that he already "knows the game". Learning curves, in order to be effective, have to
be climbed and not landed on top of.

All in all, I do think that you should start with a fresh char and see for yourself what TheDark really has to offer. You will not be dissapointed ;)

Have fun!
ArthurDent

[LemmingofGlory]

Do you know that,when starting a new game in HF:Dark,ALL uniques morph into useless crap? That's why I got rid of that mod.(Although the mod itself is terrific)

Of course porting v1.01 Hellfire characters into HF:TD will cause morphing. Enchantments and uniques changed drastically, and the code doesn't necessarily support the "old" stuff. You can't have something that doesn't exist.

If you play the game using items you actually found in HF:TD, those won't morph in new games. Simple solution.

[o: *LEMMING* :o]

[Ell_man]

Maybe Lemming and Arthur are reading something else from your post, but I think you're problem might be with singleplayer quest items morphing, rather than converting characters from classic hellfire > HF:TD. In singleplayer for HF:TD, the quest items( butcher's cleaver, griswold's edge, etc.) will morph upon creation of a new game. To get around this either find the items in the new game you play, or just play multiplayer. In multiplayer the quests are disabled, but you can still find those unique items. They're just like any other uniques and do not morph when you create a new game.

[Thenryb]

I do not think Arthur or Lemming were reading the post incorrectly. I have seen a lot of new Dark players create characters by renaming their regular hellfire characters and then expressing chagrin that the items morphed. Those people eventually acquired decent Dark gear with their imported vanilla hellfire characters, but I have not seen many who became very good players in that mod. Arthur is right. Learning to play the mod is best done with new characters. Also, it is primarily a coop mod and is not conducive to solo play, particularly on hellmode. This is why I still like to play hellfire fixed when I am unable to find a Dark game due to time zone issues. (Most good Dark players are European). Thankfully, since HellfireFixed is available, there is no reason to play Hellfire 1.01 and I have stopped playing that version for the reasons alluded to earlier.

After rereading the post. I think Ellman may be right that Puma was talking about quest items in SP games. They do. indeed , morph when a new game is made. However, those items are so overpowered anyway, I cannot imagine that is any real concern.

[Puma]

I didn't rename my HF char into the mod-i began it right from the scratch...(to experience everything)...

[Selby]

It's good to see people still playing Hellfire and the original Diablo.

I broke out my old notes and files collection from over 4-5 years ago for the first time this last week. I forgot so much, good thing I wrote it all down!

There's actually a couple of things that Diablo classic could stand to benefit from, but not as much as Hellfire needed...

Selby

[LemmingofGlory]

Your notes are superb. I use them as a reference whenever I'm modding; they save me so much time. In fact, I was about to make monster/item offset lists myself until I found yours. ;)

There's actually a couple of things that Diablo classic could stand to benefit from, but not as much as Hellfire needed...

What do you have in mind?

[o: *LEMMING * :o]

[Selby]

What I would do... (had to think about this for a while, put me on the spot =P )

1. Eliminate duping bug (it isn't that hard, I saw what Dr. Zed did and he didn't exactly have to rewrite the entire engine from scratch).
2. Re-work the way the gold and inventory is handled (lots of overhead here, it's rather complicated and redundant in places; this was another Dr. Zed fix).
3. Fix mana shield to be the way it was intended (higher level gives more damage reduction, and eliminate the anti-stun bug [assuming it is still there, 1.07 I believe had it and I doubt 1.09 fixed it]).
4. Rework the unique items so that all of them drop (not a big deal, but it is annoying you know ;-) ).
5. Fascinating, Sacred, and Ornate shrines - Eliminate the -10% mana penalty (-5 Magic or something else can go here instead).
6. Black Deaths - drop -1 Vit per hit unless Vit <= 5 or so.
7. 127 object limit. Probably extend this to 255 (feasible? who knows. haven't looked into it)
8. Increase trap damage based on difficulty (not really a big deal, but they are rather worthless in higher difficulties).

The first 4 are bug fixes, 5 and 6 are annoyances with the original version that most people don't like, 7 would be nice (but not necessary), and 8 is just something that makes me laugh.

I've been going through the assembler the last few days just for the heck of it and finding all sorts of neat things in the way the game behaves. Not anything that wasn't already known of course, but it is rather nifty, like the gold routines search your belt for gold (which can't be put there).

Selby

[Zenda]

Hello Selby,

It's nice to hear from you again. Like Lemming, I would like to thank you for all the time your nifty lists saved me :).

"like the gold routines search your belt for gold (which can't be put there)."

Funny yes, but there more such things: the Stome Shrine for example checks each belt slot to see if you managed to put a staff there that needs recharging :).

Zenda

[sojourn]

I just started trying this a few minutes ago. Went straight down into the church, second monster I killed was a skeleton that dropped my first item, which was a torn flesh of souls. I'm starting to like this already. Obs. of Zodiac, I come to hunt you down again.

[LemmingofGlory]

Crash Hazard
Wirtistopheles has a tendency to crash on dlvl 12, particularly around TDL Bosses. So far this has only been observed in games with multiple players, but caution is advised solo as well. For safety, pack your things and/or backup your character before starting dlvl 12.

The Hellfire: Fixed team has an idea what's causing the problem and a fix will be added in the next release.

Other Things
The following things are not crash related.

In Single Player HF:F, The Dark Lord will not drop random magical items (RMI) as the readme indicates. (He always drops the Butcher's Cleaver instead.) This is a carryover from a multiplayer change and will probably be fixed in the next release.

Since the suffix "of Readiness" was disabled in Hellfire: Fixed, characters porting between vanilla HF and HFF may experience morphing if they have weapons with extremely low-level enchantments (Readiness, Sturdiness, Strength, Vitality, etc.).

Thenryb brought to my attention an oddity which exists in both vanilla Hellfire and Hellfire: Fixed involving the suffix "of Decay." For those not familiar with the affix, "of Decay" provides a substantial +Damage% bonus but decreases by 5% with every successful hit (on bows, with every shot); upon reaching -100% damage, the item is destroyed. Thenryb noticed that his Black Razor, which has +450% Decaying damage in HF:F, regenerated its damage between games. After further testing:
1) Dropping an item "of Decay" on the ground, exiting the dlvl, and returning sets the Decay damage back to full.
2) Joining a new game sets the Decay damage back to full

Interesting bug, no?

[o: *LEMMING* :o]