Hellfire Patch v1.02.A5: Classic HF with less bugs and more polish!

[Belix]

First of all I'd like to say thank you for your work. [...] the ability to turn them on and off to fit personal playstyle is great.

You're very welcome, Diablo is one of my favorite games. It was fun to polish it up for the years ahead, and I'm glad it can help improve the experience for others too. Turning features on/off was originally a side-effect of implementation, but I now regard that as a feature instead of a bonus, so I'm going to keep it.

- Is it possible for you to provide options to turn off features from Marsh's mod that you use for base?

I only have a few of Marsh's changes toggleable now, but eventually do hope to have them all optional. Marsh only gave partial info about changes he made to the Hellfire.exe, so I have to rely on mod notes and byte comparisons to pin them all down, which is an arduous process. If we're lucky, Marsh might see this and volunteer more info.

Regarding your specific example, not blocking projectiles you're resistant to was a change Blizzard officially made to Diablo in a patch. But, since I'm trying to find all of his changes anyway, I can aim to find that particular one early so you can toggle it next version.

Regarding "affixes that can't be fixed without causing items to morph"...

Unfortunately, it wouldn't change only items with the affected affixes. Diablo basically generates a data table containing all possible items, and items saved on a character and in the stash are tied to an item code that points at their location in this data table. Modifying what can or can't exist in the game can shift things around a lot in this table, and suddenly my Lord's Sword of Vampires becomes Grand Rags, because that's what the item code now points at in the altered data table; now my Warrior may not have a good weapon, or even any armor.

Since Marsh's mod included the feature of Gillian's Stash, I am reluctant to make changes that would invalidate all the treasures some of you have been collecting, especially since the stash would still offer your old items - only for them to randomly morph into some other item later if they're on your character when you start a new game! That could cause a lot of frustration for someone.

That said, at some point I'll probably implement those fixes as an option you can switch on, but I'll first try to set it up to avoid ruining existing characters equipment/stashes by forcing it to use new saves/stash files if possible. For now, most of these issues only effect low level gear and would hardly be noticeable to the people it would most inconvenience.

According to Jarluf's Guide class inherent block value resets to 0 in games after the first - any chance of fixing that?

I did think about looking into this, but it slipped my mind at some point and never ended up in my notes. I have now added this and the rejuvenation potion bonus bug to my list of stuff to look into.

Anyway regardless if any of the above can be done, thanks again for doing a great job.

And thank you for taking the time to offer feedback and suggestions, I appreciate it. Most seem to prefer to enjoy it silently - which I'm completely okay with! - but the little digit displaying how many downloads it has isn't as encouraging as a warm thank you.


EDIT: Malek, because I'm uncertain when I'll get around to updating this, I decided to dig around for you and was able to find the blocking behavior change Marsh made. If you'd like to go back to always blocking spells, create this new entry in the dat file:

Code:

start HF1.02Marsh "Reversion: Block spells regardless of resistance"
42F8CA 90E9A2920500 8B45083945F8
488B72 837DF4000F8F956DFAFF8B45083945F8E9496DFAFF 000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
end

Just be be weary of block-lock. It is easy to get overwhelmed in a fight with a mix of melee & casters this way, especially with the slower blocking characters. Blocking a projectile you're 75% resistant to only to get hit instead by a Blood Knight's blade may not be such a good trade!