[old Median_2 beta thread - locked]

[ShamanKing]

I'd actually prefer to make them indestructible, to make them a level trap to discourage fighting around them. Good or bad idea?

idea sounds great! only problem i see is that the current missles' range is a bit large...maybe you should replace the skill to be nove or inferno-like?

[Brother Laz]

Patch v0.7beta will be a monster patch, the one-point-ten of Median 2. A preview:

- Acts 4 and 5 are easier than act 2. This will change big time. Resistances will be needed much more than they are now.
- Pretty much half of the monsters will undergo major changes. Ranged monsters will be weakened somewhat, but melee monsters will be a lot more dangerous.
- Monster resistances and immunities will be in. Better use those 30 points you have lying around because you kept everything at level 1 to learn some backup skills.
- To compensate, item quality in Normal has been improved greatly. Affixes are generally better, especially resistance affixes [what a coincidence] and you may actually find a rare once in a lifetime from other monsters than bosses.
- Hopefully the last round of skill balance changes. 'Apocalypse' will lose the life cost again, the often asked for speed-buff-through-empty-areas skill is present, and much more. No more 'Blood Storm' cheese from two screens away.
- Unique and champion monsters will be balanced properly. I don't know why this wasn't already the case, but now it is.
- Merc balancing, yay!

It should be online by next Monday or Tuesday.

PS: I do read every reply and the majority of your complaints | issues | bugs will be addressed in the patch.

[ShamanKing]

ideas from the guy who cant perform them himself! yay!

I had an idea that could really create a large difference between melee + ranged characters

i figured that if they were more and more different they would need more diverse strategies to overcome:

Ranged Monsters: shoot missles rapidly and with multishot, but with low damage

Melee Monsters: slow attack speeds but high damage
(with a small % of knockback and a small % of stun...ect...???)

oh well, take it or leave it im just poppin em on the forums as i think of em

( i thought of this one when i saw the tp-state-thingie on the last page) My other idea is that instead of having a "speed" skill or w/e its being called you could have all characters run at two or three times their current speed by default, but give all monsters a aura that gives your a character a "state" that makes them run at normal speed (basically, super speed in the open, but normal speed near eneimies)...it would open up a space to have another cool skill instead of the speed one, and it would be interesting to see...you could give a powered up version of the "State aura" to act bosses to keep players from running

if i failed to send a clear message on something, or you want me to explain what i mean further,
just tell me and ill clear it up

[Brother Laz]

ideas from the guy who cant perform them himself! yay!
[...]
Melee Monsters: slow attack speeds but high damage
(with a small % of knockback and a small % of stun...ect...???)

This would equal to CLoD balrogs, and if you have ever been hit by one as a sorc, uninstall the game and go play Whack-A-Mole or War3 hero arenas.

I mean you can just stand there, wait for them to swing at you, run away, and get at least three character lengths away before their attack swing hits. Which is why they have some serious IAS in this mod.

I don't like monsters that are only a challenge to one kind of character, and childishly easy to everyone else. Only encourages exp farming. [see also: frozen creepers, flesh spawners...]

...it would open up a space to have another cool skill instead of the speed one, and it would be interesting to see...you could give a powered up version of the "State aura" to act bosses to keep players from running

That 'other cool skill' that got replaced was 'Disengage'. Ever used it? Me neither.

Also, I have 6 more cool skills lying around waiting until I find a way to implement them. I was thinking of 'item challenges', which involve getting exactly +17% fire resist or +53 to life before you can put a point into them, but it would be more annoying than fun.

Another idea was 'SkillMiles', which you would get when you buy items at the vendor, and you would only be able to put a point into one of those skills when you have more than x SkillMiles, and investing skill points subtracts from your amount of SkillMiles. I may implement that one in the patch after this.

[ShamanKing]

so they would be like "skill credits" ?

[gwolf]

gwolf here,brother laz i like your mod,it is quite refreshing from some of the other mods. I only have one problem,i cant download current version,because of links,i click on it and it sends me to page saying that the link is not working and goto page four,i go there and start to click on the link stating at the top and it redirects me to the first page saying your link is down,then finally try all of the links on page 5 and that happens here to me there to,so i ask where do i go to download the newest version,pleases help me i would like to try the newest version,

thanks gwolf

[ShamanKing]

gwolf, you arent clicking on the download links...the links you speak of are brother laz's signature, which is meant to send people to this thread...go to brother laz's most recent beta update and click the link in that post, i think it is on page four

[ExaMind]

I've been playing Median 2 some and I have the following comments:

-Magic Missile
While overall, I like the idea of this skill, I have noticed that it has some significant problems with targeting.
First, it has a tendency to ignore nearby monsters in favor of monsters which are far away, and sometimes outside of its range.
I often click on a monster onscreen, only to have the missiles turn away
and go dissipate before doing anything.
Secondly, once it targets a monster, it doesn't seem to be possible to get it to target a different monster without killing the first monster it targeted.
This leads to a lot of situations where I either have to ignore all the monsters I'm trying to fight and chase after my magic missiles to find the monster they want to attack, or switch to a different skill, and I wind up giving up on the skill.

-Searing Orb
I do use this skill (in .2b, it was my main attack skill), and I think it has some really nice qualities. It's especially good for getting rid of ranged attackers who are behind melee attackers, since it fires through monsters, does good damage, and has a blast effect. It seems to me like a targetable version of apocalypse, and as a sorceress, I find it more useful than apocalypse.

-Mind Flay
I love this skill, but I do agree that the current version is too powerful. Maybe, since it's a mental attack, multiply its current damage by the percentage of mana you have remaining? That way, it's as powerful as the current version when you have full mana, but if you spam it, it will grow weaker as you run through your mana, and you will have to recharge your mana to get its power back up.

Overall, the mod looks great, and I can't wait for the next version.

[Brother Laz]

[ Link removed - see sticky thread in Mods by Laz forum ]

And the readme is here!

It's a monster update in more than one way. Monsters have been rebalanced, and act 5 is very much harder now, as it was intended to be. Items have been improved to compensate, so if you are in act 4 or 5 with crap pre-this-patch items, spend some time farming to get at least some defense and resistances. It is now much easier to get good resistances, but you will need them in act 5.

Feedback is always welcome.

* New content *

- Changed 'Banish' to decrease monster max hit points by a percentage.
- Replaced 'Disengage' with 'Demonic Speed', toggleable speed buff.
- Implemented monster resistances.
-- in Normal, monsters can have only one immunity, not counting poison.
-- exceptions: Advocate [fi,li,WSK3-4]; Obsidian Lord [ma,co,WSK3-4].
-- physical immune: Soul Burner [WSK3-4].
- Added chance to cast and skill charge affixes.

* Bugs *

- 'Mind Flay': no longer hits the same target multiple times.
- Baal's beam attack no longer kills in one hit.
- Fixed balrog splash damage.
- Knights of War, Pestilence and Famine now actually spawn.
- Vampiresses no longer do excessive fire damage on striking.
- Nihlathak's ranged spell attack now works.
- Extra Strong now properly increases damage.

* Balance *

- 'Blood Flash': now steals a percentage of your total life.
- 'Vampiric Icon': slightly reduced spell timer.
- 'Vanquish': increased bonus attack rating.
- 'Apocalypse': removed life drain component.
- 'Blood Storm': reduced acquisition range and damage.
- 'Holy Trap': increased minimum damage ramp.
- 'Hunting Banshee': increased maximum damage ramp.
- 'Pandemonium': decreased maximum damage ramp.
- 'Ring of Light': increased damage.
- 'Searing Orb': increased damage.
- 'Skarra Dawn': greatly decreased damage.
- Slightly reduced mana regeneration rate.
- Increased chance to drop Rare items.
- Reduced level and level requirements of most affixes.
- Reduced poison damage on early weapons.
- Decreased maximum sell price in late Normal.
- Greatly increased merc leveling rate.
- Mercenaries now do more damage to bosses.
- Increased monster density in various areas.
- Moved monsters around in act 4.
- Monster bloodstars now do fire damage and can be resisted.
- Reduced AR bonus of monster charge.
- Monster death fire explosion damage increased.
- Decreased monster corpse explosion damage.
- Many monsters have faster reactions.
- Ape shockwave damage increased.
- Increased firebolt damage of Advocates and Counselors.
- Removed Advocates from Nihlathak's temple.
- Avatar type monsters can now spawn in groups of two.
- Azmodan now comes with two minions.
- Baal now uses 'Blood Storm' instead of 'Pandemonium'.
- Balrog class melee attacks are now mostly fire damage.
- Added lightning damage to the weaker kinds of bats.
- Blightfire's bloodstar damage reduced.
- Greatly increased firewall damage of Destroyer Shamans.
- Duriel now uses 'Time Strike'.
- Fallen Hero and Fallen Warrior now have a charge attack.
- Damage of frozen creepers upped; melee damage is now mostly cold.
- Reduced chance to attack of Gargoyle Traps.
- All types of gargoyle warriors cast Stone Form more often.
- Ghouls and Ghost Zombies now have a cold attack.
- Granite King and Stone Warrior damage and speed increased.
- Grimspike is now a Spike Fiend instead of a Jungle Rat.
- This is a subliminal satanic message. Lucifer owns.
- Ice Demon ranged attack improved.
- Increased Intruder elemental damage.
- Izual now uses 'Glacial Nova' instead of 'Bloodlust'.
- Hell Toads now explode on death.
- Lightning Demon physical damage decreased, lightning damage increased.
- Knight of Famine cold duration greatly reduced.
- Reduced hit points of Minions of Destruction.
- Oblivion knights' 'Plague Avatar' spell damage decreased.
- All types of quill rats now inflict poison damage.
- Increased movement speed and damage of Rust Monsters.
- Decreased skeleton archer damage.
- Vampires now use bloodstars instead of searing orbs.
- Wisps now have a small chance to use a ranged attack.
- The Summoner now uses the 'Banish' spell.
- Increased damage of monster 'Immolation' attack.
- Modified champion and unique monster stats.
- Reduced chance for champions to be Ghostly.
- Unique monsters in Hell can no longer spawn Fire Enchanted.

* Misc *

- Added extra sound effects to several states.

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.
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- Magic Missiles [...]

Bug with the lightningfury hit function. Unfixable.

- Mind Flay [...]

Bug with Mind Flay. Fixed.

[Phrozen Heart]

*This topic has been moved from Member Announcements to Mods By Laz*