Diablo II "LoD" CLASSIC STYLE MOD for v1.10

[nobbie]

Cold-only, fire-only, lightning-only, physical-only, etc., builds can make it, though they'll use more mana and/or attacks on super-resistant monsters. Previously they would have to run past or camp such monsters to continue through the map, or start a new game and hope for better results.

That is my plan, and with a cap of 90% for every immunity for normal, non-boss monsters, the new synergies in 1.10 will finally make sense! I mean, why would anyone make a Meteor- or Blizzard-Sorc using synergies when 1/3 of all monsters on the map must be skipped later in Hell? It seems that Blizz - like so often - had an intially good idea, but didn't implement it consequent enough. Monsters in patch 1.10 got so much more power in Hell that it would have done no harm to the game belance to cap immunties at 90%. The label "Immune To XXX" under the life bar of each and every Hell monster in the original patch is actually quite silly - it's the same as if you would say to a player: "Now here's a monster that's 100% immune to XXX spells. Please use spell YYY or ZZZ now (if you have one)." Is this a GPS navigation-system for RPG-players? ;) With a 90% cap, a spell caster has now to observe the life bars of the monster packs he attacks to find out the most effective spell. Also, spell casters like Elemental Druids, who are limited to fire and cold elemental attacks (Armageddon/Hurricane), will find a 90% immunity cap very pleasing, and spells like Fire Claws will actually make sense. Poison Necros, Lightning Trap Assassins and so forth will become much better playing alternatives.
I'm currently making a Hell test with a Tri-Sorc that has a level 30 Frozen Orb, level 30 Hydra, level 30 Thunderstorm and no synergies, and it seems that a 90% cap for all normal monsters across all acts seems to be just right.

[lfd]

cap immunties at 90%. The label "Immune To XXX"

An agreement and a minor nit: you mean "cap resistances at 90%", not immunities. It makes no sense to say 'cap immunities' since immunity is just a label that's displayed when a monster has 100% or greater resistance to an element. You can't have a degree of immunity; something either is immune, or isn't ;)

That said, I think it was much better before when the highest base resistance a normal monster had was 75% (which could be raised up to 95% by enchantments on superuniques and other bosses).

Hephasto should be extra strong, cursed, magic resistant as well instead of this random aura guff. :)

[nobbie]

An agreement and a minor nit: you mean "cap resistances at 90%", not immunities.

That's what I meant ;)

[w0qj]

nobbie,

just a quick question on your "LoD" CLASSIC STYLE MOD for v1.10


a) with regards to your 26-June-04 MOD version (Diablo Clone got harder, but just before Rune drops got nerfed):

what is the best Rune drop for Hell Countess in your MOD?

you've improved Rune drops, but does these "best" Runes drop from Act Bosses, or do they drop from regular monsters too?


b ) your 2-Aug-04 MOD version (Rune drops got nerfed somewhat):
what is the effect of this?
what is the best Rune drop for Hell Countess in your MOD?


thank you in advance for your help!
(i'm a 100% Single Player--play only on my computer. a dying breed nowadays...)


[Edit: got rid of the funny face emoticons]

[nobbie]

a) These are the "Countess" drops (also see the ReadMe.txt ;)) :

Normal difficulty: up to IO (rune 16)
Nightmare difficulty: up to UM (rune 22)
Hell difficulty: up to LO (rune 28)

Good runes can drop everywhere, including simple chests. However, Act bosses, superunique bosses, quest and random bosses, and champions, have the best chances to drop an item from the "Good" category, which includes runes.

b ) Rune drops got nerfed a bit, but good runes still drop plenty (compared to Battle.net). I have just played my Werewolf Druid through the last revision of my MOD (which will be released this week). He's now in Act 5 Hell, level 85 and wields a "Silence" Thunder Maul. The "Countess" in Hell dropped the required VEX rune during the first quest run ;)

[Bob the Beholder]

Hey, Nobbie.

I'm liking this resistance cap. As I've said before (It's been a while, since I stopped coming here about a month ago), I very much like the pre-expansion Diablo II. One of the things that made it better was that the monsters had the same resistance cap as the players: 75. In this way, a one-element character (Ember!) can get by, it's just difficult. Difficult, in this case, is code for 'interesting and fun,' unlike the immune-fest we're seeing these days, making some more creative characters either reliant on others (No thanks, I play single player), or entirely worthless.

90 percent might work fine; I haven't tested it or anything. Normally it would be my preference it's lowered closer to its original standing, but if you're going the single-element way anyway, then that would free up more skill points for synergies, which would probably make up for the lowered damage.

Of course, as I've mentioned, I still prefer back in the day where each skill (with a few exceptions) was powerful enough to get by without synergies, if you work at it hard enough. But that's kind of beside the point right now.

[nobbie]

I'm liking this resistance cap.  As I've said before (It's been a while, since I stopped coming here about a month ago), I very much like the pre-expansion Diablo II.  One of the things that made it better was that the monsters had the same resistance cap as the players:  75.

75% might be too low because of the new synergies, which can make a spell really powerful. Anyway, I'll upload the revised MOD during the next days, and might make further changes based on the feedback of the users :)

[nobbie]

The "LoD" Classic Style MOD got another major update!

The most significant change is that IMMUNTIES for normal, non-boss monsters don't exist anymore, which eliminates a lot of annoying quirks and limitations in the Expansion, and brings back true "classic" Diablo II feeling back into the game!

Quote from the ReadMe.txt:

- Replaced all Immunities (100% or more Resistance) of all normal, non-boss Monsters by Resistances of 80%

NOTES:

1) The original concept of random immunities for normal (Hell) monsters made certain spell-caster builds like a Fire-only Sorceress rather senseless, because 1/3 of all monsters on the map had to be simply skipped later in Hell difficulty, even if the new skill synergies have been used. This has been solved now by setting a cap of 80% on all resistances. Also, spell-casters who are limited in their elemental spell choices, i.e. an Elemental Druid with his fire/cold spells or a Necromancer with his Poison spells, will be much better playable.
  
2) In the original 1.10 patch, some Physical Immune (PI) monster types in Hell difficulty, i.e. Wraiths or Swarms, posed a real problem for several "untwinked" solo characters without high elemental damage skills or weapons, i.e. for Werewolf Druids. By setting a cap of 80% on Physical Damage resistance, this imbalance has been solved, too.

3) Constructs still retain their original stats, i.e. Catapults, which are "Immune To Poison"

New Monster Changes/Updates:

- Reduced the Group-Size of "Scarab"-type monsters and the Minions (Skeletons) of "Unraveler"-type monsters

- Reduced the Number of Minions of some Superunique Boss Monsters

- Removed or replaced some Monster types that caused imbalances in certain areas, i.e. the "River of Flames" Maggots with their excessive amount of Maggot Babys

- Reduced the frequency of Boss Monsters with the "Immune To Physical", "Stone Skin", "Mana Burn" and "Cursed" properties

- Reduced the "Mana Drain" value for the monster-classes "Wraith" and "Wisp"

- Removed the "Iron Maiden" curse casting ability from the "Oblivion Knight" monster-class

NOTES:

The superunique monster "Lord De Seis" is now the only "Oblivion Knight" who can still cast this "cheesy" curse ;)

New Gameplay Changes/Updates:

- Decreased the Life-/Mana-Steal Penalty for Hell difficulty to that of Nightmare (50%)

- Increased the Experience Points for every killed Monster by 25% in all difficulties

New Chapter: "General Playing Tips for the MOD"

General Playing Tips for this MOD
=====================

In the following, you can find some general playing tips for this MOD.

- Gambling items is now again - like once in "Classic Diablo II" - a good way to get decent armors and weapons (early on), because the gambling chances for rare, set and unique items have been increased significantly. Also, rare items can get better stats. The higher the level of your character is, the better are the chances on good rare stats. Gold for gambling can be collected much quicker now, because valuable items like staves, wands and class-specific items can drop with the same frequency as normal items in the MOD.

- The availability of "Tempered Items" (see above) allows you to get started much smoother now, because i.e. Mana and Life leech are no more dependent of your luck in finding or gambling special magic items that have these properties.

- Upgrading rare, unique or Set items (see above) is a very good way to make your weapons and armors more powerful as you progress in the game. Since the runes for the upgrade recipes drop more frequently in the MOD, make use of this feature as soon as possible!

- The MOD has 10 new, original Superunique Boss Monsters (see above). These bosses have particularly good chances on dropping good items, so visit them often ;) Tip: In Single-Player, the game's actual automap will NOT be regenerated every time you start a new game, so finding the location of the bosses is much easier than in the Battle.net because you can always use the same map. The map only gets deleted and regenerated if you change the game difficulty or delete it manually. "The Countess" in Act 1, by the way, is a hot tip for good runes because her drops have been improved as well!

- The game has a multiplayer simulation option that allows you to simulate any number from 1 to 8 players in the game. When you notice that things become too easy, or the experience points for killing monsters start to drop, increase the number of players using this option. The monsters will then get more hit- and experience points, and items drop with a higher frequency. The command is "/players X", where "X" is any number from 1 to 8. The command must be typed on the commandline in the game. Note that there is a "/" at the beginning of the command. If you forget the slash, the command will not work!

- Even though the item drops have been improved in the MOD, finding the items that are especially useful for your character class can become very time-consuming. In fact, it almost seems that the game drops just the good items that you cannot use, i.e. a unique Barbarian helm for your Sorceress ;) So, here's a tip: "Virtually" trade the good items that you find, but can't use, by using the integrated CubeMOD recipes for the creation of items that you can use! If, for example, your Sorceress finds an "Arreat's Face" Barbarian helm, you can "trade" that helm for a similarly valuable Sorceress item, i.e. "The Oculus" unique Sorceress Orb. The recipes for creating an "Oculus" with the CubeMOD can be found in the file "D2X110_CubeMOD_ReadMe.txt". After you've created the item, throw the Barbarian helm away (or sell it to a vendor), and the "trade" is complete. This is fair solution without cheating that you can use at any time when you would have made a trade in the Battle.net.

- Some items will drop much more frequently in the MOD, i.e. (valuable) runes, but the size of the stash and inventory are quite limited. Here's a tip to "increase your stash" in Single-Player: Take a pencil and a sheet of paper, or create a text file on your computer, and write down every valuable item you would keep in your stash. After you've written down the item, throw it away (or sell it to a vendor), so that it doesn't occupy the valuable stash space anymore. This way, your stash size is virtually unlimited, and any time you need the items again, because you've just found i.e. the last item that completes the "Tal Rasha" set, or the third FAL rune for a rune upgrade, simply re-create them using the integrated CubeMOD recipes! The recipes for creating all kind of game items with the CubeMOD can be found in the file "D2X110_CubeMOD_ReadMe.txt". After you've re-created the items, delete them from your list again and you're done. Note that some items can have varying stats when they drop, i.e. "The Grandfather" Colossus Blade, but the CubeMOD allows you to re-roll such items until you get about the same stats as the original drop. More about re-rolling items can be found in the "D2X110_CubeMOD_ReadMe.txt" file. Rare items, for example, will hardly be reproducable using this method, because their stats are completely random. Such items have to be kept in the stash then, in case you want to use them later.

In addition to the above mentioned changes, the drop chances for runes, gems and set items have been tweaked again for better balance.


You can download the updated MOD as always here:

1.10 LoD Classic Style MOD

Due to the significant changes in this update, I'd be very interested in your impressions and opinions, especially about the removed Immunities for normal monsters!

Have Fun! :D

[lfd]

Removed the "Iron Maiden" curse casting ability from the "Oblivion Knight" monster-class

Removed or replaced some Monster types that caused imbalances in certain areas, i.e. the "River of Flames" Maggots with their excessive amount of Maggot Babys

Noooooooooooo!

In My Opinion™, with these two changes you're moving away from the feel of Classic D2 - the entire last set of updates seem to be completely designed to make the game (much) easier. Whilst I think the removal of immunities is a good thing, messing with the monster spawn in the first four acts and defanging the oblivion knights in the chaos sanctuary is a step too far.

...however, if you ARE going to adjust what spawns where, how about putting the fallen class that used to spawn in the durance of hate as boss/champion packs back? I think it was Warped Ones. ;-)

And yes, these things are pretty trivial to adjust/fix by oneself, but you asked for feedback. :)

[nobbie]

I think Iron Maiden™ and Massive Maggots™ were cheese already in Classic D2 :)

The MOD is still anything but easy to play with an untwinked character in Single-Player. Note that the MOD is intended primarily for Single-Player and not for Battle.net/Multi-Player, where you got some Amazons or Necros handy that simply blow the Maggots and Oblivion Knights away ;) In patch 1.10, many things were just way too overpowered, and they have now simply been readjusted to a reasonable pre-1.10 level.

Also note that many of the "innovations" in LOD (Immunities, extreme Life/Mana leech penalty etc.) were once designed to force party-play and the search for the new LOD "uber"-items. In other words: They have been designed to sell more LOD packages ;)

[Smoketest]

Alrighty then, a new update. :)

I don't mind Iron Maiden being cut. For my melee characters it was a nuisance, and for my ranged characters' melee mercs, it's just a way of forcing me to spend up to 50k a pop in resurrections. The OKs still have several other curses they can cast, so it's not like they're being crippled. The mana burn reduction is also nice. Blizzard seemed to enjoy coming up with ways to punish or cripple players. Some call that 'spice', I all it annoying.

The immunity reduction is something I've enjoyed for quite some time now, so I already know this part of the mod will be nice. It's great being able to build the characters I want, within reason, and have them succeed, albeit with some or many challenges, in all difficulties. This is a game after all, and while I don't mind challenges, Blizzard's abuse of immunities really hurt the fun factor.

I use the expanded stash mod, which I downloaded back in 1.09 and updated myself for 1.10, and it works great alongside this mod when implemented with the -direct -txt method. That helps alleviate the ultra cramped inventory Blizzard likes to inflict players with.

Gambling is fun again. I usually try for rares, but occasionally I'm surprised to see a set or unique item pop up. That rarely happens online; I'm more likely to be hit by lightning.

[Bob the Beholder]

Rock on, Nobbie. This mod is the greatest draw for me playing more DII. But, durn it, I've got such a list of new games I haven't finished that a bigger draw--which this update definitely is--is going to really screw up my gaming schedule.

Not to mention that I've recently spent almost 200 bucks on books... and I want to get down to reading. But Diablo II is the ultimate addiction.

Also, I agree that it is a good thing that only non-boss monsters have the resistance cap. Bosses are bosses, and this they should stay. It's a good thing to give them something special, so one of them is a bigger threat than your average swarm. And even single-element characters could, usually, get by, due to bosses' usual lack of regeneration. A character could just improvise--a staff with skills of a different element, for example, or poison potions or something--and have a long, huge battle to chip the monster down to low health.

Champions could end up the worst, though. I used to have problems like this with my melee characters, before I learned to keep a poison damage charm around to negate regeneration. Normal monsters are only a problem in groups, and bosses don't regenerate, like I said. But champions have the regeneration to keep going for a long time, unless you can apply heavy poison or huge amounts of damage.

All good, though, Nobbie.

[nightwing]

Nobbie, couple of comments on the latest version of the mod:

I welcome the tweaks in the elemental immunities (reducing them to resistances) because it makes spellcaster play less tedious/frustrating and allows for greater flexibility in terms of skill selection. Bravo!

QUOTE
- Reduced the "Mana Drain" value for the monster-classes "Wraith" and "Wisp"

Thanks, one of my worst memories of the 1.10 patch (original, not your mod) was having my sorceress cheesed to death in Throne of Destruction by those damn Black Souls. Huge dmg and no chance of teleporting because of the insane mana leech they had.

QUOTE
- Removed the "Iron Maiden" curse casting ability from the "Oblivion Knight" monster-class

Thanks....I think :). I agree that having your melee character cheesed to death was frustrating, having a merc whose AI would not recognise that attacking while IM-ed is a Bad Thing ™ was frustrating, but somehow the IM cheese has become part of the chaos sanctuary for me. It's the one really unpredictable thing that made a Diablo run with a lvl 90 barbarian a rather edgy experience. I'm torn...on the one hand I acknowledge the cheese factor while on the other I'm actually going to miss it.....OK's are one of the monsters I was really wary of :)

QUOTE
- The superunique monster "Lord De Seis" is now the only "Oblivion Knight" who can still cast this "cheesy" curse wink.gif

Any chance you could replace his original "thief" ability? Now that was cool :)

I'm also not sure about the exp boost you've included with this patch. Perhaps the fact that characters can take on the Diablo Clone and possibly acquire Annihilus is bonus enough. I find that the characters I have started in your patch have easily reached level 90 by playing through all difficulty levels and doing a few Diablo and Baal runs with friends. In other words the exp was just fine. Admittedly I was playing in players 4 or 8, but this boost potentially makes it too easy for players to stay in players 1 and get tons of exp...perhaps something to think about?

Thanks again for your work, my friends and I are still loving SP thanks to this mod! Any chance of those new runewords sometime?

Nightwing

[nobbie]

The mana burn reduction is also nice. Blizzard seemed to enjoy coming up with ways to punish or cripple players. Some call that 'spice', I call it annoying.

Yes, "Mana Burn", "Stone Skin" and "Immune To Physical" spawned way too often, especially since patch 1.10. It literally cripples players by making any skill that uses Mana impossible. A rather senseless increase in "difficulty".

I agree that it is a good thing that only non-boss monsters have the resistance cap.

The implementation of Immunities for normal (Hell) monsters is probably the worst addition in LOD. They were probably implemented to force party-play/realm-play, but their drawbacks for spellcasters are too high. Not to mention all the variants that have been made impossible, especially in Single-Player.

Thanks, one of my worst memories of the 1.10 patch (original, not your mod) was having my sorceress cheesed to death in Throne of Destruction by those damn Black Souls. Huge dmg and no chance of teleporting because of the insane mana leech they had.

The excessive "Mana Drain" of "Wisps" and "Wraiths" are yet another example where the patch programmers went way too far in 1.10. They have removed cheesy 1.09 One-Hit-killers like Multishot-Lightning Enchanted Bosses and super-strong Fanaticism Frenzytaurs, but have implemented exessive "Mana Burn", "Stone Skin", "Immune To Physical" and "Mana Drain" instead. Makes any sense? :)

Any chance you could replace his original "thief" ability? Now that was cool :)

I've activated "Thief" for "Lord De Seis" again, but couldn't notice any effect so far. Maybe it's also disabled in the game code. What exactly did "Thief" do, and what were the chances that it has an effect?

I find that the characters I have started in your patch have easily reached level 90 by playing through all difficulty levels and doing a few Diablo and Baal runs with friends. In other words the exp was just fine. Admittedly I was playing in players 4 or 8, but this boost potentially makes it too easy for players to stay in players 1 and get tons of exp...perhaps something to think about?

I've boosted the experience gains, so that single-players don't always stay too far behind the Monster-Level/Char-Level curve while playing through the game. With 125% experience, you should now reach Act 5 Hell (no-twink) at about level 85 which seems to be just fine. Leveling up to 99 still takes a while then, and if you reach it and get bored, well, then just start a new char. Leveling up faster, "completing" your characters earlier, and playing more different chars, is part of the philosophy of this MOD. You don't need ages anymore to do that :)

[nobbie]

Thanks for the opinions so far.

The "Iron Maiden"-casting "Oblivion Knights" are now back again, but their number in the "Chaos Sanctuary" has been lowered on average by adding "Abyss Knights" and "Stranglers" to the monster-mix. In addition to that, the curse level of the "Oblivion Knights" has been reset to level 2 (patch 1.09 level). This makes especially the "Iron Maiden" curse less overpowered.

Another addition are the "Warped One" monsters, which can now be found in the "Durance of Hate" levels.

You can download the updated MOD as always here:

1.10 LoD Classic Style MOD


Have Fun! :D

[lfd]

Yes, "Mana Burn", "Stone Skin" and "Immune To Physical" spawned way too often.

"Immune to physical" doesn't really spawn as such. Stone Skin causes monsters to gain an additional 80% physical resistance (and higher defense), so if it turns up on a monster with more than 19% Physical Resistance normally, you'll get the physical immunity.

With that in mind it ought to be safe to give Toorc his Stone Skin back, as I don't think council members have that high a physical resistance (and it could be reduced if they do, anyway).

The excessive "Mana Drain" of "Wisps" and "Wraiths" are yet another example where the patch programmers went way too far in 1.10

The code readers seem to think this is a bug, and that 256 times the amount of mana damage is being done than was intended.

I've activated "Thief" for "Lord De Seis" again, but couldn't notice any effect so far. Maybe it's also disabled in the game code. What exactly did "Thief" do, and what were the chances that it has an effect?

It probably is disabled in the code; someone like Myrdinn on the AB or some of the PK people can probably confirm this. What it did was cause a potion to be dropped from your belt onto the ground whenever you were struck by a projectile from Mr De Seis; back then he had oblivion knight minions, so you'd be getting pelted by a lot of projectiles and thus being able to drink potions was a necessity. It was removed for being buggy - if you were struck when your belt was inaccessible, such as during a leap attack or whirlwind, you'd cause a crash. Needless to say I didn't really experience that problem playing in single player 1.02, but it happened enough for Blizzard to disable it, rather than actually fixing it. Shame.

[lfd]

Another addition are the "Warped One" monsters, which can now be found in the "Durance of Hate" levels.

Heh, I missed this at first. :)

Yay nobbie :D

[nobbie]

"Immune to physical" doesn't really spawn as such. Stone Skin causes monsters to gain an additional 80% physical resistance (and higher defense), so if it turns up on a monster with more than 19% Physical Resistance normally, you'll get the physical immunity.

I tested the Travincal Council many times in Hell, and Toorc Icefist spawned a lot with PI. His base PD resistance in Hell is 50%, so he could easily be PI with "Stone Skin". I didn't want to remove that base PD resistance from the "Councilmember" class, though, so I decided to generally lower the frequency of the Unique Mods "stoneskin" and "resist", and forbid them for the "Councilmember" class, because solving the "Compelling Orb" quest is critical for no-twink melee chars in Hell. The "resist" Mod seems to affect all resistances, incl. PD resistance.

It probably is disabled in the code; someone like Myrdinn on the AB or some of the PK people can probably confirm this. ...

Thanks for the info, that's what I guessed. So, "Thief" is not back then in the MOD ;)

Any chance of those new runewords sometime?

If Blizzard releases their stats, then of course :)

[Smoketest]

Thanks....I think :). I agree that having your melee character cheesed to death was frustrating, having a merc whose AI would not recognise that attacking while IM-ed is a Bad Thing ™ was frustrating, but somehow the IM cheese has become part of the chaos sanctuary for me. It's the one really unpredictable thing that made a Diablo run with a lvl 90 barbarian a rather edgy experience. I'm torn...on the one hand I acknowledge the cheese factor while on the other I'm actually going to miss it.....OK's are one of the monsters I was really wary of :)

I've seen enough frustrated zealots, including my own, die from IM that I don't mind it being toned down at all. And I don't mean just the occasional death, but many deaths, often because multiple OKs like to chain-cast IM. You get your body and five seconds later you're dead again, struck in mid-zeal with IM. (Fend zons are also susceptible to this problem.)

Therefore, OK IM will remain disabled in my game. (I'll add Warped to Durance myself and just skip this update.)

[nightwing]

Smoketest I couldn't agree more, just a few nights ago I was able to (finally) make breath of the dying in a colossus blade for my paladin, decided to test it out in the Chaos Sanc (silly idea, I know). Was zealing happily with Baranar's star and decided to try charging with the BOD sword. It was amazing, it was fun, he was unstoppable until in mid charge I heard that terrible sound and saw the IM "spikes" above his head...helpless I watched my valiant paladin charge himself to death on a weak little stormcaster. Retrieving his corpse was....interesting, and to further put me in my place, another OK cast it soon afterwards.

Cheesy for sure, but it's the only thing that makes me tread lightly in that section, and I feel the path to Diablo should be fraught with undertainty and danger. Strange but true, so I'm not too bothered. I think Nobbie toning down the IM feedback is a step in the right direction, and I'll be testing it out later....wish me luck :)