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Since owning a copy of D1 legitimately (thank you, battlechest), I hadn't really played it in depth other than a few normal mode runs with the Hellfire addon just to check it out. But the excitement surrounding Diablo 3 has me playing the old guard again. A few things, never played D1 on bnet. Doing this for the first time really opened my eyes. D1 on bnet is MUCH harder than in sp mode. I emptied an entire belt of mana potions and level 3 charged bolt into the Butcher, and he still didn't go down. Secondly, it doesn't run very well for some reason, too much mouse clicking or spamming of spells causes some aweful lag, is this normal? Even walking multiple steps in a row causes sound to get choppy. One time in fact, I got surrounded and spammed rapidly and it caused me to lose my connection. I do understand the age of the game, and the fact there is no reason for Blizzard to support the servers for it (hell I'm just glad they still run them), was just wondering if these things were normal. On the plus side, after playing D2 for so many years, I was happy to find that the slower gameplay, creepy environments still resonate after all this time. I still think the music in D1 is better than in D2, and ranks among the best game music ever. D1 is more about exploration than D2, it actually makes sense to open EVERY chest, and hit every barrell, rather than the whip through as much as you can to get a high level gameplay that is I feel the only negative point with D2. Anybody load up D1 recently? I'd like to know your impressions on how the game has stood up (even if you are playing the playstation port).
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I was playing online at work yesterday (my home connection has way too high latency for gaming), and didn't experience any problems with lag.
And yes, MP Diablo is more difficult than SP. You don't have to be on bnet to play it though, you can play your MP character offline by selecting LAN, Modem, or DCC instead.
"What contemptible scoundrel stole the cork from my lunch?"
-W.C. Fields
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Figured out the stuttering issue, turns out it had to do with the Zune software and it's little 'stubs' that stay in memory when you shut down the program. Uninstalled Zune, now it works perfectly, go figure.
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Quote: I'd like to know your impressions on how the game has stood up (even if you are playing the playstation port).
It stands up quite well IMO. It's not perfect, I think the Black Death zombies permanently damaging your HP, along with the Fascinating Ornate Sacred shrines damaging MP stats, are way too harsh. It goes beyond 'punishing' the character to just punishing the player. D2 incorporating an auto click system, something that saves fingers as well as countless mice.
Aside from those issues which is relatively small in the larger context, D1 is IMO remarkably as close to perfect for what it is. (With the HF:Fixed mod, it's even more perfect-er for me.)
I remember reading some video game history book or such and such, and it had a blurb on Diablo 1. And I'm slightly paraphrasing here due to faulty memory, but the creators said when they were designing D1, they wanted to create a game where can play for 5 minutes before going to bed, AND\OR play for 5 hours into the wee morning. They definitely accomplished that goal in my book.
Now, if only bliz would re-release D1 as a re-mastered classic. A la' Half Life1:Source.
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Quote:It stands up quite well IMO. It's not perfect, I think the Black Death zombies permanently damaging your HP, along with the Fascinating Ornate Sacred shrines damaging MP stats, are way too harsh. It goes beyond 'punishing' the character to just punishing the player. D2 incorporating an auto click system, something that saves fingers as well as countless mice.
They aren't actually that harsh though... more old school. A newbie who chooses a terrible stat or skill distribution in D2 could put his character at a greater disadvantage in the long term than one who hits every shrine and takes on a few black death. Press and hold attacks would have been a nice feature for sure. I would also add customizable keyboard controls, because the function keys are really not a great place for your most important game controls at all.
Little things about Diablo made it interesting in ways that some of clones don't seem to be. The goat archer who moves at the exact same speed as your warrior and keeps running away as you chase him into the next room and now you have caught the attention of a dozen of his buddies. The cave enemies who have the option of attacking you with spells or running up and mauling you, and how they can use the lava streams or fenced rooms against you (or you against them). Trying to act like a matador when your rogue is facing a charging horned demon. The complete difference in game play between a level 13 with blood knights and cave vipers vs. a level 13 with counselors and snow witches. And let's not forget that first battle with the Butcher!
I guess the bottom line is that a lot of games in this genre seem to be dictated by your choice of skills and the items you come up with. With a good skill progression, most of the common enemies are just blown away as you zip on down to the next uber boss whom you will have to kite for 15 minutes until he dies of poison. It seems like in Diablo, you just had to pay more attention and have more fun battling each enemy along the way (until you got level 8 CL and teleport and started clearing the entire game in 2 minutes, but that's another story!).
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Hi,
I've played Diablo 1/2 & Hellfire almost every year since they were released, it was my intro into online gaming :wub:
LAG & Blizzard are one in the same since day 1 :P
IF your having fun try one of the many Mods they will make your day !!!
http://diablo.phx.pl/awake/
________________
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Jim...aka King Jim
He can do more for Others, Who has done most with Himself.
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Quote:They aren't actually that harsh though... more old school. A newbie who chooses a terrible stat or skill distribution in D2 could put his character at a greater disadvantage in the long term than one who hits every shrine and takes on a few black death. Press and hold attacks would have been a nice feature for sure. I would also add customizable keyboard controls, because the function keys are really not a great place for your most important game controls at all.
That's true about D2's stat\skill misplacement penalty, though if 1.13 comes out intact the re-spec ability might eliminate or at least eliviate that. (Eliviate it with extreme prejudice!111) I am definitely in the club that thinks re-spec is a long overdue fix for D2.
And yep, customizable hot keys are teh hotness. I have to give D2's team credit for improving the UI on that one.
Quote:Little things about Diablo made it interesting in ways that some of clones don't seem to be.
Yeah, there's a magic about D1 that no clones so far IMO, has ever captured.
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Welcome back. Indeed, MP is harder then single player, cause the monsters have double hp then they do on SP. In addition, the great items are harder to come by. You can buy jewelry at the vendors in single player, but in MP it must be FOUND. Cheating is still pretty rampant in public games so if you wish to avoid that, you may want to check out Diablo LE channel in the east realm, pretty much one of the last active legit channels left.
D1 is forever, and while I will try D3 out, I dont think the original can ever be topped.
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"Your very ideas are but the outgrowth of conditions of your bourgeois production and bourgeois property, just as your jurisprudence is but the will of your class, made into law for all, a will whose essential character and direction are determined by the economic conditions of the existence of your class." - Marx (on capitalist laws and institutions)
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Well I actually run solo on bnet so cheating isn't an issue for me, I mainly elected to go the bnet route for the more challenging and balanced gameplay. Not interested in mods, really, I wanted to do the whole vanilla/bnet experience so i didn't even install Hellfire. Just D1, hooked up with bnet and let it rip. Been having a ball, the music and sounds with the overall atmosphere are even more effective than I remember them. Great fun, guarantee now that I'm off for a few weeks I'll be spending many hours just relaxing deep in those catacombs.
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Hi,
Quote:Well I actually run solo on bnet so cheating isn't an issue for me, I mainly elected to go the bnet route for the more challenging and balanced gameplay.
I think you are missing the point here. The differences in D1 are between single player and multi player, not between playing solo locally or on bnet. The only reason to play on bnet is to play in a group. If you are going to play solo, you'll have exactly the same game if you play on your LAN, or by direct connect, or by modem as you would on bnet, with the exception of some of the lag (typically not too much of a problem even on bnet solo since D1 is a peer-to-peer machine).
So, unlike D2 where the only way to play the fully updated multi player game is to play on bnet, there is absolutely no reason to play D1 on bnet unless you want to play with a group.
--Pete
How big was the aquarium in Noah's ark?
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Hi,
Quote: . . . (until you got level 8 CL and teleport and started clearing the entire game in 2 minutes, but that's another story!).
Just build another Immortal and try again;)
In many ways, D1 is the best computer game I've ever played. It had a great mix of tactics and twitch. At mid levels (say up to a 3@30) it had reasonable balance. It wasn't overly dependent on gear -- most good players could get through hell-hell at 30 with anything but the worst drops. It could be played solo or with a group and still remain very interesting.
It does have some shortcomings. There are some bad blunders in the program, especially some of the problems with MS. The progression of difficulties is poorly done, with nightmare church being about the same difficulty as normal caves. And single player should have more and better difficulty levels -- to have the full spectrum of quests and the monster stats of multi would be fun.
One of the beauties of the game is its relative limited viable options for a build/class. Instead of having to work out the interactions of a brazzilion page manual, a good player would get through with a limited set of tactics, applied with timing and precision.
Of course, it is humorous when people speak with wonder at its longevity. Compared to chess, backgammon, go, etc., it's a brand new game. It's a shame that, since it is a computer game, it will probably not have a chance at having a similar lifespan.
--Pete
How big was the aquarium in Noah's ark?
OldSchoolForLife
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I decided to give this great game another spin on B.NET but there seems to be a problem... It says "Querying Gateway"/"Connecting to fastest server" but then it throws an error about me not being connected to the internet, even though I am. Anyone else experiencing this? I would really like to play this classic game online again with (preferably) non cheating, mature players! BTW I have V1.09.
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Ahahah wow was perusing these dusty old forums, just came across this thread i started a year and a half ago.....guess what I was back to doing the past week....playing Diablo 1 YET AGAIN, running all the way through as a melee warrior, something I've never done, believe it or not. I've always enjoyed playing as those wicked sorcerers and that nasty old chain lightning. Playing as a warrior has introduced me to a new way of playing the game where you actually have to use the doorways and stuff rather than just stand back and nuking everything before it's on screen. Actually looking forward to playing a rogue all the way for the first time. Some things i've noticed running vanilla Diablo. There's only one difficulty, totally forgot about that. Also I am finding I totally enjoy it without Hellfire. It seems more balanced with the item drops, in HF there's just too much elite stuff that drops and the bovine plate is just stupid ridiculous lol. the HF fixed mod is even worse, but I suppose those items are necessary for the nigh/hell difficulties. anybody still playing?
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Welcome back again!
I can't speak for all the bnet channels, but I know I see up to a couple dozen people on US East, and around ten to twelve players on the west. Diablo is still quite alive.
Just thought I'd let you know, on single player you can actually select a higher difficulty, though it's a glitch. In Jarulf's guide, you'll find that if you start a multiplayer game in a higher difficulty, leave the game, and then start a single player game, the game will be set to that difficulty.
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