Quote:Introduction
============

This MOD hasn't been named "LoD Classic Style MOD" because it modifies especially the classic, non-expansion Diablo II portion of "Lord of Destruction", but because it restores for the most part the expansion's early "classic" look and feel, especially in Act 5 of the game. In addition to that, the monster and item generation have been completely revised and rebalanced, and the gameplay set to a difficulty level that is playable by all kinds of players from beginners to pro's and all character classes/character builds in "Single-Player" and "TCP/IP Multiplayer" mode.

When the officially last patch for Diablo II "LoD", the patch 1.10, was released last year, it caused a lot discussions. Many people absolutely liked the biggest game patch ever in Blizzard's history because it was feature-wise almost an expansion of the expansion package, but at least the same number of people had controversial feelings. There were on the one hand the new game features and many new, even more powerful items, but the game difficulty, on the other hand, had increased so much that the game was often unplayable in "Hell" difficulty for solo- or single-players (even for seasoned ones). Such an increase in difficulty might make sense for party-based multiplayer gaming, and the game is actually - more or less good - playable this way, but it's an annoyance for single-players because the game's best experience gains and items are available only in "Hell" difficulty.
Reason for the steep difficulty increase in the end-game are first of all the significantly, partly dramatically increased monster and champion/boss monster stats (damage, hitpoints, defense, resistances etc) and their faster movement and AI (Artificial Intelligence) speed. The synergy of these changes alone already create a massive increase in difficulty because you now have normal and champion/boss monsters that can do more damage on top of better physical stats on top of faster movement and AI speed. The second reason for the steep difficulty increase comes with a new feature introduced in patch 1.10: the randomization of monsters in Act 5. Monsters in these areas are now selected from pools of melee and ranged attackers which contain improved versions of the original Act 5 creatures and improved versions of creatures found in all earlier acts (Act 1 to 4). Because only some monster types, usually three, are selected at random from a rather large pool of ten monster types per area, imbalances in combined monster power are practically inevitable. The previous patch 1.09 didn't have this balance problem because the monsters were chosen from a fixed set of types.
The monster types chosen for the randomization of monsters in Act 5 are furthermore a matter of taste. In the original 1.10 patch, you can now find, for example, Fetishes together with Mummys, Gloams, Scarabs and Skeleton Mages in the Worldstone Keep levels. The programmers certainly wanted to showcase proudly as many new game features as possible, but this resembles more a rather wild creature show with no attention to graphic design rules and concepts:)There is actually just a handful of non-Act5 creatures that would fit design-wise into the cold highlands, ice caves and dungeons of Act 5, and these are the Brutes (which are from the same monster family as the Act 5 Snow Yetis), the Vultures, the Goatmen, the Bat Demons, the Arachs or the ClawVipers. While the "Deja Vu"-effect created by the extensive Act 5 monster randomization in the original 1.10 patch is indeed quite funny, this effect has already been taken care of in a better fashion in Baal's Throne Room where Baal casts four boss packs which are unique representatives of each previous act: "Colenzo the Annihilator" (Act 1), "Achmel the Cursed" (Act 2), "Bartuc the Bloody" (Act 3) and "Ventar the Unholy" (Act 4). This "Deja Vu" creature show by Baal is very well designed, but it loses its uniqueness in the original 1.10 patch because the whole Act 5 is quasi a "Deja Vu" show there.
Last but not least, the quality of the rare item generation and the drop rates of high runes could still be better, at least for Single-Player. Rare items still spawn with too low or useless affixes in the higher game difficulties, and high runes (like VEX and better) are still much too rare. It makes no sense to provide over a dozen new, cool rune words when most (single-) players will never find the required runes anyway.

The "LoD Classic Style MOD" now tries to combine the best of patch 1.09 and 1.10, with a focus on Single-Player. If you liked patch 1.09, but wish that it would be a bit harder to play and offer more randomness, features and items, then you will certainly like this MOD. In addition to the original 1.10 patch features, a couple of extras have been created. These include, among other things, the spawning of the so-called "Diablo Clone" and thus access to the "Annihilus" charm, and the spawning of ten additional, original superunique boss monsters. Also included as extra are all recipes of the "Cube MOD" for Diablo II "LoD" 1.10 (see the D2X110_CubeMOD_ReadMe.txt file for more information) which allows you to create almost all game items directly on your character using the Horadric Cube. These recipes are intended to test out game items, but not to help you cheat your characters through the "LoD Classic Style MOD". You should play your characters through this MOD from scratch using the items you'll find, so show some self-discipline and use the "Cube MOD" wisely:)

Comments and critique about this MOD are always welcome, because they help to improve the MOD in future updates. Post your comments/critique in the thread of the web site where you've downloaded this MOD.

Have Fun!

Quote:Monster Changes
-------------------

- Reduced the Hitpoints of all Monsters by 15% in Nightmare and Hell difficulty

  NOTES:

  1) the Hitpoints of Baal and his Clone have been corrected to 25% in Hell difficulty
  2) the Hitpoints of the 3 Ancient Barbarians on Mount Arreat have been corrected to 25% in Hell difficulty
  3) the Hitpoints of the "Diablo Clone" have been reduced by 90% in all difficulties (but he's still tough enough ;))


- Reduced the Damages (physical and elemental) of all Monsters by 15% in Nightmare and Hell difficulty

  NOTES:

  1) the Lightning Damage of the Wisp class monsters has been reduced by 30% in Hell difficulty
  2) the Lightning Damage of the Bighead class monsters has been reduced by 25% in Hell difficulty
  3) the Missile skill levels of the Abyss/Oblivion Knight monsters have been reduced to level 1 (= patch 1.09 value)
  4) the Inferno skill levels of the Megademon class monsters have been reduced by about 40-50%
  5) the Corpse Explosion range variable of Nihlathak has been reduced by 33%
  6) the "Extra Fire" Damage of the (High-)Council class monsters has been reduced by 50% in Nightmare and Hell difficulty


- Reduced the Movement (not the AI!) Speeds of all Monsters by 15% in all difficulties


- Increased the "Drain" values of all Monsters in Nightmare and Hell difficulty as follows:
 
  0  -> 10 (Skeletons, Swarms, Wisps etc)
  20 -> 33 (Baal + Baal Clone)
  33 -> 50
  50 -> 66

  NOTES:

  1) a higher "Drain" value means that you can better leech life and mana off this monster
     (Drain 0 = no leech possible, Drain 100 = 100% leech)
  2) all monsters that were previously unleechable (Drain = 0), i.e. Skeletons, Swarms or Wisps, now offer 10% leech
  3) the "Diablo Clone" has still his original Drain value (15% leech), so beware when you fight him! :)


- Reduced the Monster Density in all areas by 15% in Nightmare and Hell difficulty

  NOTES:

  The following areas still have their original Monster Density:

  Kurast Levels 1- 4
  Travincal
  Bloody Foothills
  Halls Of Pain
 

- Reduced the number of Champion/Boss Monsters in all areas by 15% in Hell difficulty

  NOTES:

  1) the Throne Room in Act 5 spawns only 2 to 3 Bosses/Champions in Hell difficulty
  2) the Halls Of Pain in Act 5 spawns 6 to 8 Bosses/Champions in Hell difficulty


- Added the following new "Treasure" Areas in Hell difficulty:

  The Crypt (Act 1)
  Temple Entrance ("Pindleskin Area" in Act 5)
  Halls Of Pain (Act 5)
  Frozen Tundra (Act 5)

  NOTES:

  The above "treasure" areas have their area level set to 85 in Hell, and 65 in Act 5 in Nightmare difficulty


- The "Diablo Clone" now spawns in the 3 Hell Pits of the Act 5 Highlands in all difficulties:
 
  Abaddon (Frigid Highlands)
  Pit Of Acheron (Arreat Plateau)
  Infernal Pit (Frozen Tundra)

  NOTES:


  1) these 3 Pit areas have their Monster Densities lowered, so that only 1 to 2 "Diablo Clones" can spawn here
  2) only the "Diablo Clone" can spawn here, all previously resident monsters have been removed


- The Superunique Monsters "Thresh Socket" and "Sharptooth Slayer" can now be found again in their original locations


- Significantly boosted the Druid's Spirits and Vines, and his Ravens

  "Oak Sage", "Heart Of Wolverine" and "Spirit Of Barbs" have their stats changed as follows:

  Immune to Physical and Poison Damage in all difficulties
  40% resistant to Magic, Fire, Lightning and Cold Damage in Normal difficulty
  60% resistant to Magic, Fire, Lightning and Cold Damage in Nightmare difficulty
  80% resistant to Magic, Fire, Lightning and Cold Damage in Hell difficulty
  Damage Regen is set to 10

  "Poison Creeper", "Carrion Vine" and "Solar Creeper" have their stats changed as follows:

  Immune to Poison Damage in all difficulties
  50% resistant to Physical Damage in Normal difficulty
  60% resistant to Physical Damage in Nightmare difficulty
  70% resistant to Physical Damage in Hell difficulty    
  20% resistant to Magic, Fire, Lightning and Cold Damage in Normal difficulty
  40% resistant to Magic, Fire, Lightning and Cold Damage in Nightmare difficulty
  60% resistant to Magic, Fire, Lightning and Cold Damage in Hell difficulty
  "Poison Creeper" Damage Regen is set to 10
  "Carrion Vine" and "Solar Creeper" Damage Regen is set to 15

  Ravens have their stats changed as follows:

  50% resistant to Physical Damage in all difficulties
  20% resistant to Magic, Fire, Lightning, Cold and Poison Damage in Nightmare difficulty
  40% resistant to Magic, Fire, Lightning, Cold and Poison Damage in Hell difficulty
  Hitpoints have been doubled in all difficulties


- Increased the Physical Damage Resistance of the Assassin's "Shadow Warrior" and "Shadow Master" by 25%


- Removed the "wild", uncontrolled Monster Randomization in Act 5

  NOTES:

  1) although the distribution is no more random, the fixed monster pool per area contains more different monster types
  2) in addition to the original Act 5 monsters, a couple of new, non-Act5 monsters have been added to the mix

   

Item Changes
---------------

- Significantly improved all Magical Affix Chances across the board

  NOTES:

  1) this modification affects only the CHANCES on better affixes, not the affix itself
  2) the further you advance in the game, the better is your chance on good affixes now


- Disabled the spawning of more or less "useless" Affixes, like many of the Charged Affixes

  
- Significantly improved the Rune Drop Propabilities and Rune Qualities across the board


  NOTES:

  1) lower quality and common Runes for various Horadric Cube recipes drop much more frequently now
  2) high Runes (like VEX and better) are no more wishful thinking :)


- Improved the Rune Drops of the "Countess" (in Act 1) as follows:

  Normal difficulty: up to KO (rune 18)
  Nightmare difficulty: up to IST (rune 24)
  Hell difficulty: up to BER (rune 30)
  

- Significantly improved the Gem Drop Propabilities

  NOTES:

  Lower quality Gems (chipped, flawed, normal) for various Horadric Cube recipes drop much more frequently now


- Improved the Magical Item Drop Propabilities across the board for all Monsters, incl. Boss and Act Boss Monsters

  NOTES:

  The propabilities for Act Bosses are now the same as the "Quest Drop" propabilities during the first kill


- Improved the Normal Item Drop Propabilities across the board 


- All Item Types have now an equal chance to be dropped, incl. Wands, Staves and Class-Items


- All "Automagic" Mods have now an equal chance to appear on a Class-Item


- Significantly reduced the Repair Costs for "Superior" type normal Armors and Weapons

  NOTES:

  This price reduction is especially important for superior Rune Word items which were previously way too costly


- Improved the Set Item Rarity

  NOTES:

  Higher quality set items like the "Tal Rasha's Adjudication" Amulet drop more often now


- Improved the Unique Item Rarity

  NOTES:

  Higher quality unique items like the "Stormlash" Scourge drop more often now (compared to uniques of the same type)


- Unique Items are no more divided into "Normal" and "Uber" quality


- Enabled all Ladder-Only Uniques


- Enabled the unique "Constricting Ring" (mainly for testing purposes with the "Cube MOD")


- Disabled the "Fullsetgeneric", "Monsterset" and "Fade" states for all Expansion Sets

  NOTES:

  1) the "Monsterset" state on the "Trang-Oul's Avatar" Necro set severely limits the casting speed of the Necromancer
  2) the Valkyrie-type aura that is added via the "Fullsetgeneric" state to the in-game character looked too UGLY :)
  3) the (black) "Natalya's Odium" Assassin set looks better without the semi-transparent "Fade" state :)


- Restored the Item "Color Shift" Values to patch 1.09 state because they made most items look just plain UGLY in 1.10! :)

  NOTES:

  The single exception of this modification is Sacred Armor which looked all quite good, i.e. the blue "Tyrael's Might"



Gameplay And Miscellaneous Other Changes
-------------------------------------------------

- Significantly reduced the Experience Penalties as follows:

  From Level  1 to 80:  100.0 % Experience
  From Level 81 to 85:   87.5 % Experience
  From Level 86 to 90:   75.0 % Experience
  From Level 91 to 95:   62.5 % Experience
  From Level 96 to 99:   50.0 % Experience

  NOTES:

  No more endless stupid "Baal Runs" required for level 99 :)


- Reduced the Death Experience Penalties as follows:

  In Nightmare difficulty to 3%
  In Hell difficulty to 5%


- Significantly increased the Gambling Chances as follows:

  For Set items: 15 times better chance
  For Unique items: 15 times better chance


- Added the following very useful Normal Item Socketing Recipes (for use with the "LoD Classic Style MOD"):

  Any Normal Weapon + PUL Rune + Chipped Skull -> Add 1 socket to Weapon
  Any Normal Armor + PUL Rune + Chipped Skull -> Add 1 socket to Armor
  Any Normal Weapon + PUL Rune + Flawed Skull -> Add 2 sockets to Weapon
  Any Normal Armor + PUL Rune + Flawed Skull -> Add 2 sockets to Armor
  Any Normal Weapon + PUL Rune + Skull -> Add 3 sockets to Weapon
  Any Normal Armor + PUL Rune + Skull -> Add 3 sockets to Armor
  Any Normal Weapon + PUL Rune + Flawless Skull -> Add 4 sockets to Weapon
  Any Normal Armor + PUL Rune + Flawless Skull -> Add 4 sockets to Armor
  Any Normal Weapon + PUL Rune + Perfect Skull -> Add 5 sockets to Weapon
  Any Normal Armor + PUL Rune + Perfect Skull -> Add max. (4) sockets to Armor
  Any Normal Weapon + PUL Rune + 2 Perfect Skulls -> Add max. (6) sockets to Weapon
  Any Normal Armor + PUL Rune + 2 Perfect Skulls -> Add max. (4) sockets to Armor



Miscellaneous Extras
-----------------------

- The "Diablo Clone" now spawns in the 3 Hell Pits of the Act 5 Highlands in all difficulties:
 
  Abaddon (Frigid Highlands)
  Pit Of Acheron (Arreat Plateau)
  Infernal Pit (Frozen Tundra)

  When killed, the "Diablo Clone" has a 100% chance to drop the "Annihilus" charm in all difficulties.


- Added the "Korlic's Hew" unique Great Poleaxe as new game item

  NOTES:

  1) This item only exists in this MOD and will vanish if you should load your game character into the original 1.10 game
  2) Foreign language strings for this new item exist in German and French, the rest is displayed in English


- Added the "Tyrael's Blessing" Elite Set from an elaborate "Year 2004 April Fools" hoax as new set :)

  NOTES:

  1) This set only exists in this MOD and will vanish if you should load your game character into the original 1.10 game
  2) Foreign language strings for this new set exist in German and French, the rest is displayed in English



Bug Fixes
-----------

- Fixed the aura stats description for aura-enhanced items that caused a crash in the German version

nobbie,Apr 25 2004, 01:22 PM Wrote:M$ Excel changed due to similar named program variables some parameter entries while saving the Skills.txt game table, so that for example the Necro's Amplify Damage curse couldn't work anymore. This has been fixed.

Quote:Ravens have their stats changed as follows:

50% resistant to Physical Damage in all difficulties
20% resistant to Magic, Fire, Lightning, Cold and Poison Damage in Nightmare difficulty
40% resistant to Magic, Fire, Lightning, Cold and Poison Damage in Hell difficulty
Hitpoints have been doubled in all difficulties

Quote: I just have i few questions for this MOD...
1.If you start a new Character Offline and Lvling it up will your MOd still work for this Character

Quote:How do you get Diablo Clone to Spawn on a Offline character?

Quote:Otherwise, though, I think it would be awesome for a similar mod to be created, except taking the "classic" thing a bit farther. Like, back to the time before spell timers and immunities, ...

Quote:It happens to the best ;)
Welcome to the modding community, noobie.

Fed up with BNet? :P

Quote:I thought ravens coun't be targeted at all. This is a change in 1.10 that they need resists?

Quote:

"Flamespike the Crawler" - a well-known foe from Act 1


ACT 1:

"Flamespike the Crawler" (Razor Spine) -- Near the Waypoint of the Inner Cloister
Special basic abilities: Fire enchanted, Cursed




"The Tormentor" in Act 4 - The one and only "Burning Soul"


ACT 4:

"Riftwraith the Cannibal" (Corpse Spitter) -- Near the Entrance to the Plains of Despair or the City of the Damned
Special basic abilities: Cold enchanted, Teleportation

"The Tormentor" (Burning Soul) -- In the Plains of Despair
Special basic abilities: Fire enchanted, Magic Resistant

"Taintbreeder" (Stygian Hag) -- In the Outer Steppes
Special basic abilities: Extra Fast

"Darkwing" (Venom Lord) -- In the City of the Damned
Special basic abilities: Extra Strong, Cursed




You think Succubi are easy to beat? Try "Hell's Belle" in the "Halls of Vaught"


ACT 5:

"Hell's Belle" (Hell Temptress) -- Near the Evil Urn in the Halls of Vaught
Special basic abilities: Fire enchanted, Cursed

"Blaze Ripper" (Death Brigadier) -- In the Frozen Tundra
Special basic abilities: Lightning enchanted, Extra Fast

"Magma Torquer" (Demon Sprite) -- Near the Entrance to the Ancient's Way (in the Frozen Tundra)
Special basic abilities: Extra Strong, Cursed

"Vinvear Molech" (Vile Witch) -- Near the Entrance to the Arreat Summit (in the Ancient's Way)
Special basic abilities: Cold enchanted, Extra Strong, Magic Resistant

"Axe Dweller" (Blood Lord) -- Near the Entrance to the Worldstone Keep Level 2 or 3
Special basic abilities: Fire enchanted, Magic Resistant