Nice

[Reltach]

Very well balanced, seems to lack some of the lower level items to play with though. shops are full of mod happy items which cost way to much to buy early on.

The challenge in the blood moor is nice, but, I found it very easy to keep going after I completed the blood moor, possibly too easy, as I usually 1-2 hit everything except the Shamans and mini boss/unique/champion monsters. even the minions are 1-2 hitters. Are Assassins a bit overpowered early on or is this the same for everyone? Or maybe my strategy of putting 3 Life Waters in my helmet, and 1 life water in each claw put me over the edge?

If you could keep the blood moor tension throughout all the areas it sure would be great.

Whats with Griswald? Isn't he undead? I Always thought he was a zombie... I was leeching from him. In fact, he didn't do much damage at all, even while I had amplify damage on me.

It seems to be balanced very well if in multiplayer, but in single it seems to be about the same, other than blood moor and stronger bosses.
I just don't feel it should be necessary to do players X top make the mod difficult. Granted it may make party play almost unbearable, but.. thats where players would have to use their ingenuity to use skills and classes that support each other.

Just curious, is their a group of peeps that player tcp/ip or open battle.net games together that I could join?

Reltach

[enq]

Shops have been fixed in the next version
I didn't realise just how bad they were! I was even getting a crash from one opps.

The areas after the Blood Moor are quite easy, currently I like it that way.
However the plan is to have the towns seem under attack but as you get further into the wilderness there are fewer monsters but the ones you do find will be tough (this is the bit I need to work on )
This is the same for all characters - though those Blood Waters will help

I never noticed that bug with Griswold before! Fixed that just now

A few versions ago I had the monsters harder (with players x making things quite hard).
Basically I'm not keen on changing the monster life again (most monsters have about 150% of their upper standard in LoD).
I have been planning some changes to resistances/immunities along with a few defence heavy monsters for variety
I think that this may be a better route than increasing monster life. This way players can choose the level of monster life via players x while still needing the skills to get through the monsters natural defences

I don't know of any TCP/IP groups
Most people play the mod either on their own or in a LAN environment which is how I generally play )

Thanks for the comments - I now have a few other ideas in the works hehe

[noELrunes]

for the TCP/IP thing, we could set a day and time.


it would be hard for the time though, since everyone is in a different time zone..


best bet for a day however is sometime in the weekend.

[Zool or Bubsy]

Or to list accounts, pick a certain realm to play on, stick each other on freinds list, and use open

[Reltach]

I still find it too easy .. even blood moor, i made a new assassin and set it to players 8 right off the bat and it was still fairly easy. Although, getting to level 6+ before exiting bloodmoor seemed to make everything up until the rakinishu speedup, spend 15 minutes walking from him, stopping every now and then to let him swing at me and then running quickly and shooting a few arrows at him... Glad i cleared all of stony field before getting to him!

Yes, if the monsters outside bloodmoor could be fewer and stronger it would make things a lot more fun. The worst problem i had with my assassin was getting claws. I just killed Andarial, it was a very fun fight, a lot of running away to pick up more potions off the ground. and plenty of tossing up traps and running in circles in hopes not to get poisoned!
And finally found my first set of claws.. a magic katar with a few % ed on it.... only claw i've gotten to drop so far.

It was obviously just bad luck on my assassin's part, because my druid has picked up and sold several dozen claws and already has 40 chipped gems, and he is just entering the catacombs. he's yet to be killed or even run from a fight.

Druids skills are a lil overbalanced, as i read somewhere, that the elemental powers were balanced before they could be cast while in a Were-form. That is very obvious. But, even more noticable is the druids pets! I just played today for awhile, Black marsh-Inner Cloister and only 1 of my wolves died (out of 5) Their damage seems fine, but they seem to not take damage very much, .. Their hps don't seem all too high at all, they rather seems to not take damage at all. it's odd, and i'm sure not true, it just seems so. .. Or, a longshot here, Does all of my chars + replenish life go to them aswell? I would doubt it, but, they truely seem to heal fast from something.

Once again though, besides the mod happy shops, lower level items have never been very prominent in any MOD i've played, but they're very nice to be able to find decent low level mods, not alwyas enhanced damage or anything overpowered.. just a neat combination of mods, Almost need to make a few items (gloves/boots/belts/) that drop in blood moor depending on what class you are (if that's possible). So that some, pre set, neat mods could be on them, but would likely stick with you for most of act 1.
I don't know about most people, but for me, Diablo 2 has always ended after i've killed Baal in normal, after that it's always turned into a boring leveling fest, and truely loses everything fun about it. With the different gem types and altered skills here i'm hoping that i might have the heart to go further.

Just an idea, is their anyway to make a skill similar to jab for assassins, It has always boggled me how zons can attack faster with jab at level 1 than an assassin with 20 burst of speed. Another reason why i mention jab instead of Zeal/Fury, i dont; think an assassinw ould be concentrating on several monsters at once, thats what the traps are for.

[enq]

There are a few areas (mainly in Act1) that are too easy. Gotta fix that for the next version, or the one after that... I have a LAN coming up (50ish people) for 4 days over Easter weekend - the best holiday (you know what to get people, you know what to ask for and everyone loves chocolate )
Anyway, I should get some testing done there and get a version out after it sometime

I'm not sure what to do about the Druid's skills as he will be easy either at the start or in his mid 30's if I change too many things
The wolves eat corpses and get health from them - that may be it but otherwise they are not too tough (one type gets resistances IIRC )

I can make some low level items that will only spawn in the Blood Moor and similar areas but I intended the Traveller items (the ones you start with) to cover that area with the Oils allowing you to add power to them.
That said I can think of a few ideas that would work in with that idea: such as having Rogue items in Act1 some Desert Mercenary items in Act2 etc that both you and your mercenary can use

Assassins' do have Dragon Talon which gets three kicks with a few points but maybe I have the mana too high on that? Which would may mean there too much damage on that skill...

I do hope you enjoy the mod after Normal - there are the new gems to get, but I understand what you mean - it's really just scaling up what you have already.
I did discuss this with a mate of mine some time ago but as yet I haven't put too much thought into finding a way to change this system and offer different rewards in later difficulties - maybe once 1.10 comes out and quests may be able to edited

[Zool or Bubsy]

Give the starting items +defence per level to make em that bit more useful

Still playing my necro, up to middle of act 4 normal without too many problems, taking a general overlord playing style.

Skels seem great, barring a little weak to elemental damage, but then i doubt many things stand up well against the number of unique cantors and blood lords i found in travincal 8)

And screw trying to give the impression that the towns are under attack, give that type of monster spawning to every area, must have met about 10 uniques in first area of act 4, sweet

[enq]

I contemplated adding defence to the Traveller items but thought that since I have lowered the attack rating of monsters that it may make the characters too powerful to begin with

The other reason was that I wanted the Traveller items to have drawbacks - just like they have low durability

Tavincal gives everyone a lesson in hit and run
It has to be my favourite part of the game - I tend to almost die at least half a dozen times there, exciting!
Thus far I don't think I have got through Travincal without doing a full clear of that area. Also the class specific bows I use lots here - especially just trying to get in under the arch to enter the place!

[Zool or Bubsy]

Travincal:

Tonnes of skellies and magi as decoy fodder.

High amp.

Decent CE.

Loadsa fun 8)

[enq]

That's interesting, I would have thought that the skeletons would get cut down pretty quickly by the Blizzard and Lightning being cast from the Cantors.
Though there is no shortage of bodies there hehe

Probably the easiest time I had in Travincal was when I had my bow Barbarian
He just did quick hit and run attacks while taking a fair bit of damage, but he was relatively safe the whole time 8)

[Reltach]

Here's a quick idea for a new oil.. or more, a mixture of oils...
Alchemists Mix
Weapons/Shield --- Helms/Armour
+3 Max Stamina --- Heals Stamina 10%
+2 Replenish Life --- +3 Replenish Life
+4 Regenerate Mana --- +5 Regenerate Mana
+1-3 damage --- +5 defense
Repairs 1 durability over 60 seconds (if that is possible?)

Akara sells for 1300 gold or so.

Has several nice mods, yet, definaly not overpowered at all

As for some lower leveled items.. I mean they should be possibly, class specific, and can ONLY drop for that particular class.. If that is possible.. That way, it wouldn't have to take up a travelers slot, pretty sure Druids don't start out with gloves, Or maybe,.. just make belts for all? since the hunt for a belt worth keeping normally lasts until near act 2.

Only thing i find a problem is that the uniques that drop are rarely ones you can use. I don't really think you can change this... It would be nice.. But, i'm not sure, thats why i'm suggesting the lower level item that would be really useful, and, either drops beign class specific to your class or being usable and worthwhile for all classes, a Belt seems to fit rather well, since none have starter belts (at least none i've tried..)

As for playing after normal.. Well, Here goes.. Are any of you up to playig on Open bnet or TCP/IP I can be avaliable at just about any time of day in probably all time zones ... What i'm really looking for are a few people that would have chars specifically for playing in this private game, and not play that character otherwise, and, perhaps we can meet once a week or so. We could attempt to play through the whole game, from level 1 to whatever level we end up when we kill Hell Baal.
And we can kill all three Baal's until they're dead!


This is something i've always wanted to do, On battle.net that was just never possible, And, since i rarely ever went on forums or newsgroups in the past, getting friends or finding times to join others rarely occured

Anyone interested PM me or post here.

[enq]

Sorry this reply is a little late - I've been thinking about some of the points and how they relate to changes I have planned.

The Oil suggested may be too powerful for Act1 - maybe something similar in Act2 would suit.

I can make items drop but not for a specific character
Belts I didn't add because they allow more potion carrying and I quite like the sashes with Attacker Takes Damage of 1 etc style mods at the start

In a later version (maybe the next, if things go well ) I will have more control over drops and so lower level uniques will drop where they should - not in places like Act4...
The good thing about the new drop system is that I can easily force drops and make boss/minion/normal monster drops balanced. Currently boss running is the way to do - I prefer that bosses drop several items (normal monsters drop one or two) but every monster has the same chance to drop rare/set/unique items so farming becomes clearing areas (like the good old days ).

Check this thread for people
Edit: Just noticed you already have - I should go back to bed