My Unofficial Hellfire 1.02 Mod

[Hammerskjold]

Changing the items to retain oil effects might be possible with some advanced code alterations (perhaps using extra bytes that are always 00's in the item's trans or check codes, and having the code read those as oil applications might work), but that's quite a ways over my head at this time.

If it's too much of a bother, I personally would not worry too much. It's a nice to have (IMO a very nice to have), but not super critical if it's too much of a headache to do.

My concern with permanent oil effects is that it allows some characters that already do insane amounts of damage

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.

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.

It's true the Gnat Sting becomes a fearsome short-range weapon when you add in the Rogue's character damage to all 3 arrows, and if Fast Attack did actually make it shoot faster I share the concern that it might become a bit too powerful. It would need some testing.

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.

On the other hand I enjoy HF's different pacing (no need to worry about Speed+ bows, a rogue's innate bow attack speed is enough for any and all bow etc). But I still enjoy how D1 classic handles bow speed.

'Tastes Great! No, Less Filling! No, Tastes Great! No! Less filling!'

... but vs non-resists an elemental bow still does more damage than Gnat's triple hit and is easier to aim. From afar where multiple hits are increasingly unlikely, elemental bows can still put out consistently better damage vs immunes, and easily double Gnat Sting's damage if the monsters are only resistant.

I appreciate your thoughtful analysis and number crunching. I think the key thing here is the aiming method.

Just to be sure that we're on the same page, we're talking about the somewhat counter-intuitive way of aiming it correct? The cursor point at the farthest edge of the monitor screen? I find it easiest with the corner screen, because the middle vertical and horizontal is not great IMO. Basically drawing an 'X' vs '+' on the screen.

I usually try to get the arrow pattern as parallel as possible, iirc the corner edges gives the tightest parallel pattern. Middle vert and horizontal doesn't, and the closer the cursor to the char (central point) the more the pattern forks out into a 'Y' pattern. Whereas I want it to be more like '|||'.

Positioning and the counterintuitive aiming is admitedly, a PITA sometimes. When it does work, IMO it works great. Personal playstyle also plays a not so small a part in this I think.

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

I have seen occasional double hits with them, and the rare double then instakill (always satisfying for some reason). But it's mostly because they're so purty looking. I'm just vain (vane? har har...groan) when it comes to arrow types.

Anyhow, back on topic. Testing definitely won't hurt, and the possibility of bringing D1 classic bow speed into HF is very intriguing.

whereas a Sorcerer can clear a whole room full of threats with a couple spell casts.

Yep. Now I like everyone in the roster. Having said that, I do have personal favourites depending on my mood. Having said -that-, an unrestricted sorcerer is a walking artillery already. Nowadays if I want to play a magic flinger, I usually play a bard instead of sorc.

Since I figure I'll still be playing them on and off years from now, they're well worth a little care and polish to me.

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 -still- have HF:F on my drive, and I spent last sunday night powerleveling a Bard.

If this was a board game, it would be hailed as a classic and undisputed success due to it's longevity. Since this is a video game, unfortunately there's still some stigma of having a game that is 'old' and still playable\enjoyable.

But that's another rant for another time.

[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.

[Hammerskjold]

Sorry, long post again.

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.

Quite. I used to try to remember some key numbers like min stun dmg needed for H\H regular monsters, to hit %, Dex number for block at what clvl etc.

IIRC the difference between 63 and 65 dmg was negligible. The difference between 60 and 63 dmg was sometimes, the difference of getting consistent stun dmg.

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

Absolutely. It's a fine line between fun and this is too dang easy.

Yes. The Amazon's Multi-shot skill in Diablo II is aimed the same way; ...

Your text, my thoughts. We are in sync on this one.

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.

Yep. I don't use the 'Y' pattern shot much, because most of the time
it frankly sucks. There are rare occasions however I found the 'Y' pattern useful when shooting witches from a corner. But it's fairly rare and niche situation. It definitely favors, almost needs a maxed dex&str \ higher char levels to really shine.

I did use it on a middle clvl rogue once to cover her deficient dmg.

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.

We're in sync on this one as well. D1\HF is not perfect. But it still has one of the best feedback for control. It's hard to describe it, it's like a coupe with a tight turning radius vs a big town car.

D2 is a fine game, but to me there was always that slight bit of 'skating on ice' feel in the char controls and feedback.

TL2 is IMO very good with feedback on control, surprising considering AFAIK it doesn't use the grid system of D1, but it doesn't feel as 'slidey' (Not a real word, just the closest I can describe it.) as D2.

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.

The Bard was the second last char that I actually 'got', because when I first tried it I thought she was another Rogue. Due to the shared graphics. 'WTF? She's crap using a bow. NEXT!'

After reading and playing it some more, I finally understood she's the Jaquie of all trades Mistress of none type. Similar but different than the Rogue. But since she's pretty good\decent enough with Magic and Melee, it's not a big loss in my eyes. That and dual wielding. Decent Dex max limit for to hit and blocking, sweep dmg, arguably second strongest spell slinger. ID'ing as a native skill, possibly the best innate skill in the game.

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.

The Barb was the first one I tried when I bought my HF disc. And I grok-ed the char instantly. I thought, this is how the warrior should've been. We know Warriors are very, very good with Weapon\Shield melee. Barbs, are -excellent- with nearly all melee excepting staves iirc. Phenomenal with 2 handers. I had a high level Barb with Kings Axe of Vampire that was quite fun. And a mid-high level that cleared H\H with just a Bashing axe. He was a blast to play as well.

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.

IMO, he suffers from not up to par artwork. Sierra probably was not given enough time, conflict\quibbling between bliz and sierra etc whatever the reason was.

Now I can overlook a lot of stuff if the gameplay is solid. As long as it's not too fugly, I can be generous. Monk, is too close to fugly IMO. The stance and walk cycle looks like he's doing a Ministry of Silly Walk. It's the bent angle at the knees I think.

It may not have been in the original model, maybe it was skewed. But on screen, it looks fugly, and out of place in comparison to the rest of the artwork\models. Monk's model\animation is the 'Hive' of HF char design to me. It sticks out, in a not so good way.

HF:F IMO at least made the monk playable. But a huge fix like a complete redraw of the artwork\re-model, especially with the sprites\individual frames system. Is likely too tall and big, time consuming, difficult and expensive for modders.

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,

That sounds awesome.

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 like to think it just might need time. Maybe it just needs to gain some more years until 'old' rolls over into 'classic retro'.

[Belix]

I agree with or don't have comments for most of what you said, so this'll be a short one.

TL2 is IMO very good with feedback on control

I am double-checking that this is on my 'play it sometime' list now.

Monk's model\animation is the 'Hive' of HF char design to me. It sticks out, in a not so good way.

That's a good analogy. My understanding was Blizzard made the Hellfire team restart all their artwork from scratch 3 times, and between deadlines and probably being sick of working on it is why we never got Bard or Barbarian graphics. I also think they didn't have the type of cutting edge tools to work with that Blizzard did, as evidenced by the overall lesser quality of Hellfire assets.

But despite Hellfire's flaws, I love it (moreso now thanks to stuff like HF:F, Marsh's mod and my own adjustments that help iron out Hellfire's rough edges), because it offers up more of an already great game. Hard to complain about that. Diablo lifts Hellfire up far more than Hellfire drags Diablo down.

I don't think the Monk itself looks too terrible as far as the colors go; he does have that Hellfire look, but it's the animations that I think push him into the awkward zone. You mentioned his funny legs when he walks, which is certainly outstanding, but there's several others. Have you seen how he looks with some of the other items in the game? He holds weapons and shields out away from his body like he's afraid they'll bite him, haha. On the other hand, his lightning cast animation looks quite nice.

But a huge fix like a complete redraw of the artwork\re-model, especially with the sprites\individual frames system. Is likely too tall and big, time consuming, difficult and expensive for modders.

That's basically what he needs. Since Hellfire was kind of obscure back in the day and didn't get that treatment by anyone in the community then, it seems improbable it could happen any time soon given its current status as all but forgotten. But nothing is impossible, and a resurgence of classic PC gaming combined with the many free tools available to people since 1996 to create art and models and such with... who knows. Of course, it'd be nice if the Bard and Barbarian had their own graphics too. I've learned enough I think I could implement new graphics for these characters in Hellfire... if only they existed.

Apologies for so much talk in your thread that isn't specifically about your mod, Marsh.

Here's a link to the thread where I will upload my character graphics fix pack, Marsh. Feel free to include it in your mod if you like. I'd be happy for it to reach as many Hellfire players as possible. Would certainly make the hours of work going into it feel more rewarding!
http://www.lurkerlounge.com/forums/thread-15743.html

[Belix]

I hope you and Marsh continue on.

Wish granted, good sir (though I can't speak for Marsh - I do hope he comes back though, as he seems better at this than I).

I will soon be reuploading the additions I offered to Marsh's mod in an earlier post here as a proper, full-fledged update in its own thread, which I will link to here when ready. The old version has been removed from this thread as I noticed only one person had downloaded it yet, and there was an unintended issue with it that made Scrolls of Infravision more likely to drop that will be fixed in the next offering.

The full repackaged version will have a much better formatted change list for easier reading, and offers nearly twice the bug fixes and improvements.

EDIT: Hellfire V1.02.A1 update for Marsh's mod now available: http://www.lurkerlounge.com/forums/threa...09052.html

[mindtraps]

Marsh, great work with this mod! I'm happy I was able to find forum and grab a copy of this great work! This game has turned around and is a little more fun, let the LAN parties begin!!!!

[fhansen]

I simply can't get the cowquest to work. I've tried removing # in front of the cowquest and many other things. Installed Diablo and Hellfire. Got the V1.00-1.02 mod and the A2. It's still the farmer showing. Even tried adding the command.txt, even if it's stated that it's not needed. Running Win 7 64bit. Running hellfire.exe via .bat file which closes Explorer. Can't run Loader.exe since it keeps asking for the CD. Any thougts? Is it correct understood, that I'm just to copy all files to Helfire folder? And files in newer versions should overwrite older version files?

[Belix]

Can't run Loader.exe since it keeps asking for the CD. Any thougts?

My apologies. I did not notice this post until now, almost a year later. Hopefully you resolved this by now, but in case you haven't and come back, and for the benefit of anyone else:

Without running Loader.exe you can't enable the cowquest (or benefit from any of the changes of my add-on to this mod, for that matter). To correct the CD issue I included some instructions in my thread, which I will paste again here:

........Note: A default setting makes Hellfire look for Diablo's data file in its own folder instead of the CD and can cause "Disc not found" errors!
........Here are the three settings to take a look at:
........Options: • Disable_CD_protection= Recommend you set to NO as you need the CD for data files, or the game crashes. Don't know why this option exists!
.................... • use_DIABDAT_from_HD= This causes Hellfire to claim the CD is missing even if it is in your drive. But it's actually quite useful; if you copy
..........................DIABDAT.MPQ from your Diablo CD to the Hellfire directory, you can run the game from your hard drive, vastly reducing load times!

Also, I'd like to report details of a serious problem I found in Marsh's Unofficial Hellfire Mod that I believe can cause the game to crash to the desktop in the Crypt.

This mod uses the unique bosses introduced in Hellfire: Fixed. Lemming assigned the AI of the Skeleton King to Fleshdoom, a new unique Reaper found on the 4th floor of the Crypt. This probably caused crashes in HF: Fixed in single player where Fleshdoom would of attempted to raise skeletons in the Crypt thanks to his AI assignment. Marsh further enabled Leoric to raise skeletons in multiplayer, which makes Fleshdoom cause crashes in the Crypt in multiplayer also.

This problem will be fixed in the next version of my patch-mod that builds on Marsh's Unofficial Hellfire Mod, but I'm specifically posting the information Marsh needs to fix this here in his own project:

exe address: AF850
old code: 0A
new code: 02
Will change Fleshdoom's AI from Leoric to that of Skeletons/Black Knights and should resolve the crash issue.


Remember, you can find my extensive update to Marsh's mod here on the Lounge, currently in version 4 (5 sometime this month) which aims to complete his work with many more fixes and improvements, along with the ability to customize features to your liking with a few simple text edits:
http://www.lurkerlounge.com/forums/threa...09052.html

[kgonepostl]

loader makes hellfire black screen in windows 10

[Belix]

PlugUlmo's loader does work in Windows 10, so I suspect the issue lies elsewhere.

You can try updating your Hellfire's .dll files inside the zip I'll attach to the bottom of this post, which should get along better with newer versions of Windows.

Unfortunately I haven't found time to sit down with Windows 10 yet and put together a comprehensive installation and setup guide, but it does work. I have played with several other friends who are using it and I have it running on my Win 10 system as well.

[mindtraps]

PlugUlmo's loader does work in Windows 10, so I suspect the issue lies elsewhere.

You can try updating your Hellfire's .dll files inside the zip I'll attach to the bottom of this post, which should get along better with newer versions of Windows.

Unfortunately I haven't found time to sit down with Windows 10 yet and put together a comprehensive installation and setup guide, but it does work. I have played with several other friends who are using it and I have it running on my Win 10 system as well.

I can agree with this statement, I'm running this way now, make sure you run as admin, disable display scaling on high DPI settings, and run 640 x 480 screen resolution. I also have the "ColorFix Hellfire 64-bit.reg" imported as well.

[Meat]

Hey, made an account just to give my solution to the patcher not working. I noticed it was bringing up "Sierra.inf" and "Version.txt" as reasons for not being able to determine the version to see if patching was necessary. I was going to try and edit them but figured to try just removing them first before putting in unnecessary work. This basically solved the problem and the installer ran as intended not caring about the files giving bad information anymore.

So just delete those two files and run the patcher.

[silver-razor@hotmail.com]

Someone can post the patch 1.02, the link at page 1 doesn't work anymore. Thanks!

[Phoenix7786]

PlugUlmo's loader does work in Windows 10, so I suspect the issue lies elsewhere.

You can try updating your Hellfire's .dll files inside the zip I'll attach to the bottom of this post, which should get along better with newer versions of Windows.

Unfortunately I haven't found time to sit down with Windows 10 yet and put together a comprehensive installation and setup guide, but it does work. I have played with several other friends who are using it and I have it running on my Win 10 system as well.

I can agree with this statement, I'm running this way now, make sure you run as admin, disable display scaling on high DPI settings, and run 640 x 480 screen resolution. I also have the "ColorFix Hellfire 64-bit.reg" imported as well.

I have had no luck despite all those changes. My Windows 10 Laptop will continuously give me a black screen. The game's sounds and music are playing just fine but I cannot get the black screen to disappear.

This sucks because the gf and I really want to sit down and do a run-through on Hellfire.