North Star information

[54x]

I'm still preparing the (now public) alpha, but I have some very good news:

I've found a new installer that will compress the full direct version to UNDER THE SIZE OF TWO FLOPPIES, so you can take NS to your friend's house with you The install is also all classy and Installshield-like. There's even a cool NS graphic next to the licence! Aren't I proffessional?

And then there's the whole revamped Den of Evil, the beginnings of quest alterations, and stuff like that. I'm gonna try and get my DLL editing skills going and add some cool quest changes and the like... (especially if SG keeps spilling out his new discoveries like he is at the moment very helpful)

The difficulty and drop systems need work, and so does the economy. I'll get to these soon before the beta release.

Sound good? Good.

[Drax]

would it be possible to get this dowload thingy for ndx too?

oh yeah would it be possible to make it so that there where two files? one for each disk and then you could download the two install files, put them on disks and then install. . .out of breath

[54x]

It's one 2.5mb file. Therefore, small enough to be put on a spanned zip over two discs...

Yes, I will be distrubuting the MPQ version this way for the next NDX upgrade. (it will come with the VB launcher script, so that you can seperate your NDX saves from your D2 saves, and so there're no more batchfiles)

I'll also be offering a direct version in this form, also with the VD launcher scripts.

I've already fixed almost all of the set item bugs, btw

[Drax]

nice. . .i like set items

[54x]

And there's a new set :p

[54x]

Back onto the NS topic...

I've fixed the bug that was puzzling me, and shelved NDX temporarily... as soon as I do some weapon adjustments, (a lot more complicated than it sounds, trust me, you'll understand when you get the beta) and finish editing Act 1 monsters, I'll release a beta with a complete Act 1

I also have a bit of interface work left to do, but that can be done any time I like really, so it's all sweet. Also my level editing is now bug-free as well, so it's looking good

[54x]

Right... managed to get the elemental gems sorted... doing the level entry text... new inventory screen is on it's way... (I need to iron out a few oddities) the next alpha is looking better

[Zallambo]

Ok- I installed North Star on my comp, following all the directions & its scary. The file ur supposed to read once u dl it onto ur d2 folder is empty except for titles. I couldnt find anything on the North Star site. Theres funny files in my d2 folder. When i run d2 it works but without the mod. HELP!

(I hope I am not being stupid , also, just a quick thank u for responding nicely to my other post . Yes, i do say a lot)

[54x]

Yeah, this might have something to do with the fact the current installer SUCKS. heheheh. I've scripted a new one, should work better.

The readme is on the website as well as ATTEMPTING to be installed... (the problem with that is that the installer doesn't install the images along with the readme)

Basically what it is, is that you should direct it to a folder inside your Diablo II folder. In there it installs all of the mod files, and a bunch of scripts that make Diablo II run with the mod, without actually overwriting any files Also it changes the save directory, keeping your North Star characters seperate. The only disadvantage is that at the moment you have to copy an unmodded patch_d2.mpq to your North directory. Then you just make a shortcut to the script and you're home free.

At the moment, as I've said MILLIONS of times earlier, Act 1 is the only act finished

[trage47]

all i did was i got the zip file and un zipped it and got the 4.7mb patch out and named it d2_patch.mpq and replaced my d2 patch and it worked so that might work

[54x]

? There is no patch_d2.mpq for NS...

Are you thinking of New Dawn X?

[Mathiu Silverburg]

Mayby he made mpq version, like I did for the latest version of NDX.
btw: in the patch_d2.mpq the screen, where you choose your character remained uchanged I must have missed file... would you remind me which one? ( because I dont wanna check all 400+ file to see if I haven't missspelled sth) Thanks

- Mathiu Silverburg

[*Astalion*]

Its data/global/ui/frontend/gameselectscreenEXP.dc6 .

[Mathiu Silverburg]

Thanks

- Mathiu Silverburg

[trage47]

yeah sry i meant for ndx not ns i wasnt reading close enough

[54x]

Hey, NS alpha 2 approaching

Just getting the loadingscreen fixed now, and I need to add a bit more content (ie. convert monsters to the new resistance system, which is easy but boring as hell and involves a lot of copying and pasting)

Any ideas/requests?

Oh, and I plan to start giving clues for the stonebuilding recipies, and start making the new properties for Runes for either Alpha 2 or Alpha 3.

Alpha 2 will likely contain MOST of Act 2. Not sure how much yet.

Also: NS is going to be a lot easier to install. Only problem ought to be copying the patch file...

[Mathiu Silverburg]

The only request I can make is that you are not going to lvl up too fast, but assuming you havent done sth strange with experience.txt and the file where monsters resides ( monsters.txt ?) I would be able to switch experience from ns to the onle from older ndx, am I right?

- Mathiu Silverburg

[54x]

NS has it's own experience system. I believe at the moment the only NDX file left in NS is skills.txt, and that's also been modified a bit.

[Mathiu Silverburg]

Ok then, hope I won't be leveling up too fast.

- Mathiu Silverburg

[54x]

Hahahah.

NS levels SLOWER than LoD. Trust me, you won't level too fast. To compensate, I have, however, increased the amount of stats and skills per level. Also there are only 90 levels in NS. Exact opposite of what I did with NDX.

[Mathiu Silverburg]

Slower leveling up is good idea I'd prefer 250 lvl rather than 90, but it's your choice, I'll make the final opinion after I played it not before

- Mathiu silverburg

[54x]

Slower levelling AND 250 levels? It'd take forever to get anywhere!!! lol.

90 levels is alright. Let's do the maths here:

89 x 2 = 178 skill points from levelling
178 + 12 = 190 skill points to allocate

7 x 89 = 623 stat points from levelling
623 + 15 = 638 stat points to allocate

Let's compare with NDX:

249 + 12 = 261 skill points to allocate

249 x 5 = 1245 stat points from levelling
1245 + 15 = 1260 stat points to allocate

And D2:

98 + 12 = 110 skill points to allocate

98 x 5 = 490 stat points from levelling
490 + 15 = 505 stat points to allocate

In short, you get more stuff than D2 anyway, but less than NDX, so the overall effect is that each level is worth more to gain, and hopefully more exciting to reach because of that.

[Mathiu Silverburg]

Perhaps, but I'll wait with judging it till I'll have a chance to test it myself. About my previous post... I meant slower gaining decent level... lika it was 100 in case of NDX ( in my opinion ).

- Mathiu Silverburg

[54x]

probably about 35 would be decent in NS, not entirely sure though- that's 25 for all skills, plus another 10 levels to chuck in another 20 skillpoints. 35 should be decent, but that'll probably take you until at least Act 4 or 5, even if you're powering lvling.

[Mathiu Silverburg]

And one request... would you do sth with the necromantic skill called "lower resist"? It stops at lvl 16/17 ( dont remember well ) at 6x % ( also dont remember exactly ). In comparison to "amplify damage" which give +100% physical damage it isn't enough. ( not to say that necro is second most difficult character to play, the most is elemntal druid )

- Mathiu Silverburg