single player

[dvdljns]

I only play single player and am new to d1. Most of what I know is just from playing the game and learning as I go along. The websites seem to be aimed at leval 30 or higher. I am not there yet or close. my aproach is to build one of each charector and play it straight through and build other players to use as learning tools. like build a rogue and do nothing except add to dex to see how for that gets me so on and so on. What I would like to do is speed up the learning proccess. What do I need to open files with an sv extention. levaling up five points at a time is a slow way to learn.
I do not know if this makes a deferance but I have a retail version with nothing added. I've never downloaded any patches or anything to it.
Can anybody help me.

[Urza-DSF]

Well, while cheating isnt as bad a thing if your doing it in singleplayer, it would be a bit more simple if you just checked out the resources availible for starting players: Freshman Diablo

http://www.arewehavingfunyet.com/diablo/diablo.shtml

Hopefully that will be a whole lot more helpful than getting a trainer so you just gain the levels and not the skills to go along with them.

[Thecla]

Not quite sure what your question is exactly, but you won't learn anything by opening sv files instead of playing the game. The following website has lots of good info for starting out:

http://www.arewehavingfunyet.com/diablo/diablo.shtml

You should download the 1.09 patch however you play:

http://www.blizzard.com/support/?id=msc0389p

And you can play multiplayer games solo (just select direct cable connect). It's a little different from the single player game, but will allow your character to go onto b.net if you want and is better in the long run.

[dvdljns]

I disagree. I have both of those websites bookmarked.The the 101 articles are intertaining .

Heres what I have done.
I have one of each charator that I play honastly no restarts with new games,no nothing. These are my players.
Then I have one of each that I call test mage, test rogue, excetra.
I want to play around with the stats on the test charectors.
When I started this I was surprised about what I found.
I thought that higher magic would make me find more staffs and other magic items. Thats not what happened. Not only that but not having any strength to speak of I did not find a single sword or sheild I could use. I only found one staff of holy bolt in the first three levals,and no bow. also I only found about half as many potions of life and mana. The only good thing is my spells from the spellbooks start out using a lot less mana.
The problam is at five points a level up it is taking to long.
I have other stuff to do also. If I can try out diferant setups I can learn more a lot quicker. at five points a shot I am looking at what 45 leval ups before I can max out magic.
As for as cheating . That website that has the 101 guides. one of the guides I think said that you should not level up life untill you max out all other stats and that should happen before level 15. Not without cheating. I have been down as for as level fifteen between 1 and 15 there are not that many level ups.he restarted the game a lot of times.

[Urza-DSF]

I disagree. I have both of those websites bookmarked.The the 101 articles are intertaining .

Disagree with what? That the freshman diablo articles are excelent resources for players who are new to the game? Not really with you on this one.

I thought that higher magic would make me find more staffs and other magic items. Thats not what happened.

Of course not, because there is no relation between your character and what spawns. It's all determined by your system clock.

Not only that but not having any strength to speak of I did not find a single sword or sheild I could use.

Um...This really isnt a suprise if you dont have enough strength to use them. As stated earlier, your stats have no effect on what drops

I only found one staff of holy bolt in the first three levals,and no bow. also I only found about half as many potions of life and mana.

Again, as stated before, everything is random when it comes to item drops, so for all intents and purposes it comes down to luck.

The only good thing is my spells from the spellbooks start out using a lot less mana.

This one I really dont understand, unless you mean that because you had a higher mana pool, you were able to cast more spells that are of the same mana cost?

I have other stuff to do also. If I can try out diferant setups I can learn more a lot quicker. at five points a shot I am looking at what 45 leval ups before I can max out magic.

Again, not really getting what you mean here. Different setups? Not to mention the fact that a diligent player can max out all of his stats as early as clvl 26 by simply buying strength, dexterity, and magic potions from Adria

As for as cheating . That website that has the 101 guides. one of the guides I think said that you should not level up life untill you max out all other stats and that should happen before level 15. Not without cheating. I have been down as for as level fifteen between 1 and 15 there are not that many level ups

I believe you got this wrong. What your probally talking about is the fact that Vitality is widly regarded as a worthless stat, and points should only be distributed to it after your other stats are maxed. However, it does not mean that you should be able to max your stats at clvl 15. At that point you would have only 75 points for distrubution, which could get a single stat to around 100, depending on which one.

I really dont understand what your attempting to "test out" either, espically as a brand new player. What you really should be working on is honing your skills so you know automatically what you should do when confronting a pack of Lava Maws as opposed to a group of Vortex Lords, or any of the many other situations where strategy is far, far more important than your equipment. Remember, this is Diablo 1, not the click-fest that is Diablo 2.

But hey, thats just my opinion.

[LemmingofGlory]

What do I need to open files with an sv extention. levaling up five points at a time is a slow way to learn.

You don't need to open up *.sv files at all. I think the most you'd get out of that is figuring out how the game stores data. Read the assembly of <diablo.exe> to learn how the game actually computes things.

OR: let Jarulf do it for you with his handy-dandy technical guide (or download it here).

If it's not in the guide, somebody here probably has the answer.

-Lemmy

[dvdljns]

But hey, thats just my opinion.

Thats what a forum is all about opinions. Let me see if I can clear some of this up.
First off I am probly wrong about some this stuff. But I know from testing it seems that drops are not as randam as claimed.
I built three mages and called them test mage 1,2,3 and played till I maxed strength
then built repeated it adding to magic. Leaving strength at starting level. Everytime I got better drops with the mages that I added to strength.

Now I know that since I am not testing on a wide of machines this is not proof of anything.
But it is suggestive.

This one I really dont understand, unless you mean that because you had a higher mana pool, you were able to cast more spells that are of the same mana cost?

no! I mean the mana cost on my mages that I added only to magic started out less. for instance healing on the mages that I added to strength on started out at 28 and the ones I only added to magic started out at 7.

Again, not really getting what you mean here. Different setups? Not to mention the fact that a diligent player can max out all of his stats as early as clvl 26 by simply buying strength, dexterity, and magic potions from Adria

W ell lets see if this helps. If I remember right a mages magic tops out around 225. thats what? 45 level ups? at leval 13 I think it was adria offered 1 elixer of magic. She has not had any since. between 13 and 15 I have found three elixers. not much help. pepin has not had elixers for sale.

I want to adjust the magic on my test mage. the strength on my Warrior and dex. on rogue.

I believe you got this wrong. What your probally talking about is the fact that Vitality is widly regarded as a worthless stat, and points should only be distributed to it after your other stats are maxed. However, it does not mean that you should be able to max your stats at clvl 15. At that point you would have only 75 points for distrubution, which could get a single stat to around 100, depending on which one.

If I remembered it wrong all I can do is apolgize reread it A.S.A.P

But I am not getting much in the way of elixers in my main characters and I am real serious about not restarting them hoping to get bettor luck. Evan though my mage does not have chain lightning and that it tough on level 15.

I really dont understand what your attempting to "test out" either, espically as a brand new player. What you really should be working on is honing your skills so you know automatically what you should do when confronting a pack of Lava Maws as opposed to a group of Vortex Lords, or any of the many other situations where strategy is far, far more important than your equipment. Remember, this is Diablo 1, not the click-fest that is Diablo 2.

I want to test which is better to my style of fighting " Say for instance higher magic verses higher strength verses a balence of the two.

What got me to thinking about it was level 13. I was down there with my warrior using a good sheild and a lifestealing sword. Was really having a hard time untill I got fedup and through down my sheild and sword and took an ax out of my inventory evan though my armor dropped quite a bit and my damage points lowered I had a lot less of a problam with level 13.

On the other hand with my mage I carried a staff and used magic never evan had a hand to hand encounter. Worked great.

Whether it is my style, My comp, or my luck the differant stats make a big diferance in the game to me. As for as skill thats what my origanal three characters or for. And I will play them straight through without any new game starts to get better drops or shrine hunts.

I do not know If I covered everything. But I hope you understand better what I am talking about.

Disagree with what? That the freshman diablo articles are excelent resources for players who are new to the game? Not really with you on this one.

It's probly just my style. But I seem to do a lot better when I don't apply the advice I find those 101's.
NO Disrespect ment.

[dvdljns]

You don't need to open up *.sv files at all. I think the most you'd get out of that is figuring out how the game stores data. Read the assembly of <diablo.exe> to learn how the game actually computes things.

OR: let Jarulf do it for you with his handy-dandy technical guide (or download it here).

If it's not in the guide, somebody here probably has the answer.

-Lemmy

I have the guide. I will check it over again.

I think the most you'd get out of that is figuring out how the game stores data.

Than I do need to open the sv files.

[LemmingofGlory]

But I know from testing it seems that drops are not as randam as claimed. I built three mages and called them test mage 1,2,3 and played till I maxed strength then built repeated it adding to magic. Leaving strength at starting level. Everytime I got better drops with the mages that I added to strength.

Now I know that since I am not testing on a wide of machines this is not proof of anything. But it is suggestive.

The game determines drops at game creation. It has no earthly idea how you'll distribute your level up points. What you've experienced is just the Murphy factor : you find particular items when you build characters not geared toward using those items.

no! I mean the mana cost on my mages that I added only to magic started out less. for instance healing on the mages that I added to strength on started out at 28 and the ones I only added to magic started out at 7.

Healing mana cost is determined by character level and spell level.

But I am not getting much in the way of elixers in my main characters and I am real serious about not restarting them hoping to get bettor luck. Evan though my mage does not have chain lightning and that it tough on level 15.

If you want mass quantities of elixirs, you'll need to "shop." Adria's inventory refreshes when you re-enter town from the dungeon. Simply leave town, return, and check her inventory for elixirs until you've attained the desired quantity.

As for Chain Lightning, CL is not a necessity. You can complete Normal/Hell without too much hassle using just level 1 Lightning.

What got me to thinking about it was level 13. I was down there with my warrior using a good sheild and a lifestealing sword. Was really having a hard time untill I got fedup and through down my sheild and sword and took an ax out of my inventory evan though my armor dropped quite a bit and my damage points lowered I had a lot less of a problam with level 13.

Loss of a shield is bad not because AC goes down, but because you lose blocking. If you had an easier time of it with an axe, that's probably because the axe either did enough damage to stun enemies or had a +ToHit modifier. If you don't have stun damage or enough ToHit with the sword, you'll be hurting.

On the other hand with my mage I carried a staff and used magic never evan had a hand to hand encounter. Worked great.

That's because mages kill with spells; they can prance around naked without much trouble. And, I'll note, Naked Mages suffer fantastic finds at the hands of Murphy, who constantly taunts them for their refusal to use items.

-Lemmy

[LemmingofGlory]

Than I do need to open the sv files.

Why? Do you delight in seeing a bunch of data that simply tells the game how much str, dex, mag, and vit you have? That's not useful information; you can get it by pressing "C" in-game.

-Lem

[dvdljns]

Why? Do you delight in seeing a bunch of data that simply tells the game how much str, dex, mag, and vit you have? That's not useful information; you can get it by pressing "C" in-game.

-Lem

For me I beleive it will be usefull. and no I cannot get the same thing from pressing c.

[Malakar]

I think what you are missing here is that this game is many years old, and has been pretty much completely "figured out" by many players. By now, nearly every aspect of the game has either gone through extensive testing, or been looked at in the assembly code, or both. Most things have been proven beyond a shadow of a doubt.

The game does not treat you differently because you're playing on a different PC. The only difference is your luck. Luck can be deceiving sometimes, and you'll inevitably run into freak patterns that may confuse you.

Anyway, most of the proven information is contained in Jarulf's Guide, and is thus referred to as the Diablo Bible by many players. If you can't find the information you want in there, it's more likely that you simply looked in the wrong section than it not being present. However there are a few things not in the guide. But like Lemming said, if it's not in there, somebody here probably has the answer.

As for stats, they are fairly easily maxable by shopping at Adria. The quickest way to shop is to cross the bridge behind her (up a little bit from the shop), and enter the Catacombs entrance which is up-left. You will probably need to start new games after you've cleared all the levels, simply to spawn more monsters to get more exp/money, not to "restart" because of bad luck. If you don't, that's kind of like playing a Variant, which I'm not sure you should do just yet since you're so new.

[krishta]

If you want faster level-ups in Single Player Diablo then try Nightmare or Hell difficulty games. Start up a multiplayer game, set the difficulty, then start a new game. But you cancel back through the selections until you get back to where you can choose single player again. Your new SP game will have the difficulty level of the last MP game you started.

If you can stand up to your foes on this tougher game, you'll gain exp very quickly and level-up like mad. For a real challenge, start a brand new character on Hell difficulty. [hush up you guys, let him figure this part out himself (evil grin)]

[--Pete]

Hi,

Any fool can learn from his mistakes. A smart person learns from the mistakes of others.

I strongly doubt your few paltry hours of playing the game will teach you anything that the combined efforts of dozens of people over a three year period failed to find. Especially since some of those people (Jarulf, Crystalion) pretty much took the whole executable apart and figured out how the game did everything.

There are two aspects of game knowledge: knowing how the game works and knowing how to play the game. Bumping your character up five points at a time here and there will accomplish neither. And learning that your character's data is stored in reverse big endian alternate skip zeros run length encoded format is not only useless, but the very desire to do that show that you are clueless as to how to analyze a game.

You want to learn all about D1? Read freshman Diablo. Skim Jarulf's guide, then refer to it often as you play. Go golden (in multi player) with a level 30 beyond naked mage. Ditto with a rogue using only short bows and a level sixish stone curse. Get a character, any character, up to forty. Play a few variants.

Don't waste your time pondering the code (where there is some information, but better minds than yours or mine have already mined it all) and especially don't waste your time with the saved files where there is *nothing* you can't get from Jarulf's easier and faster.

--Pete

[Selby]

A little late, but better than never ;-)

Not to mention that I believe the .sv files were encrypted to prevent players from editing their saved games (see: "Another Blizzard Folly"). So a simple editor wouldn't get you very far anyway.

If the original poster is still around, try this. Freeze your system clock (there are utilities out there, I have a few) and play a bunch of different games doing everything under the sun you can think of. Bet your drops are all the same and not different in the slightest. Not only that, I bet the dungeons and monsters are all the same too. Want to know how we know that? Because we've done testing on the game for years and know how it works.