Hell's Revenge

[Alkalund]

And here we have a new project, by ShadowLord:

Hell's Revenge

Title: Hell's Revenge
Names: ShadowLord (Tim Rehberg).
Version: 1.10 final, Expansion (there are older versions of the mod available for 1.09d)

~ Story ~

(Short Version)

Diablo has defeated the Hero who tried to finally kill him. He obtained Mephisto's Soulgem and Revived his fallen Brother by letting him take posession of the Hero's Mind and Body - Just like Diablo himself did once.
Now the three Prime Evils are united. And they want Revenge.
(Note: Hell's Revenge describes the World after the Reunition of the Three)

~ Items ~

- Realistic Item stats (Damage, Durability, Speed etc.)

- New Uniques, Sets etc. (Uniques done, working on the Sets)

I took most of the 1.09 Standard Uniques and upgraded them, sometimes removing useless stats and sometimes just boosting Values.
I've also made a few ones completely from Scratch (that's what all Uniques will be in the final Version)
Examples:

Crown of the Damned (former Undead Crown)
10 Charges lev 10 Skeletal Minion (or whatever this is called)
10 Charges lev 10 Skeletal Mage

(Note: This one's nice not only for Necros but also for everyone who needs some Blockers)

Sunder
+42 to Strength
41% Crushing Blow
+80% Damage

These are Lo-Lev Items, the higher ones will of course have more (and more complex) Stats. I just wanted to get rid of these useless +1 Light +5 Attack Modifiers so the first Uniques are simple but stylish. (Well, at least i think they are)

- Armor works different now: Absorbs physical Damage but decreases AC (making it harder to avoid Attacks)

- Armor does also break much faster (less Dur), but won't have to repair a slightly damaged Item. Just wanted the little Monsters who don't do enough Damage to pierce your Armor to stand a Chance vs. Barb and Pala.

- Evil repair Costs for mag. and rare Items, so unless you're Hi-Lev, you'll have to choose your equipment carefully.

- Magical Modifiers improved(boosted), weak Modifiers cannot spawn on Rares any more.

- All items cost more Gold. Magical Stuff is now really expensive. Modified Shops so it's harder to get Mag. Stuff

- Item Stat costs increased.

- Modified Drop chances. Bosses don't force-drop Mag. Stuff anymore.

- Magical, Set, Rare and Unique items will seldom be dropped.

- New Gems

- Exceptional and Elite Items have been removed.

Planned Item Changes:

- More Gems, Base items

- Completely new Runewords

- Item Crafting System will be changed to a more User-Friendly Formula

- Will add more Stuff like Katanas and Armors from special Materials(Bone, special Ore and of course Adamantium) which can be crafted.

Conclusion: I've tried to make Magical Items and Rares more valuable. I don't want Lo-Lev Players to use Uniques or Sets. And I'm gonna Add some new interesting Stuff.

~ Skills ~

- Changed Skills to realistic Values (Damage an so on).

- Skills balanced, Lo-Lev Skills are now more useful

- Increased Mana costs

- Made old and useless Configs playable again. Example: Nec with Skeletons

Planned Skill Changes:

I'll replace some Skills with more useful ones. Who needs THREE different Ice Armor Skills? Possible Ideas (not sure if they will be implemented):

-Meteor Shower or Fire Rain: I think the Sorc needs a cross-screen Fire spell. Not just a Blizzard or Thunderstorm conversion but something that burns (and looks kewl).

-A Skill that unsummons Creatures (won't work in 1.09). Nice in PVP and vs Undead.

-A few new Minions, probably a Skill tu summon a Demon (Demons Rock in HR so it'll be a Mana-wasting Thing)

-Teleport will be a townspell

-Maybe i'll try to upgrade some Monster Skills like Burning Soul (A powerful Attack used by my Vampires) and give them to Players.

-Probably a (self-)healing spell for Sorc, Dru or Barb

-Maybe a Skill for throwing Potions

-Of course many new D1-Style "Bolt" Skills (No clear Concept yet).

~ Characters ~

- Stats changed to realistic Values ranging from 20 to 110 at Lev 1.

- Lev 1 Characters do now have 200 Stat Points in total.

- More Experience is needed for Lev-up.

- Chars are Re-Balanced.

- Because of the extreme Difficulty, more Character Configs are playable.
(Example: My Pala has a Bow in Slot 2 and frequently uses Holy Bolt)

- You do still get 5 Stat Points and 1 Skill Point per Level, but this might change.

Planned Changes:

More Char-Specific Items (Katana+Wazikashi+Tanto, Necro Daggers and Scythes(unique), Rune Traps like those from D1 Add-on(Sorc only)... )

~ Monsters ~

- Realistic Stats (Health, Damage, Resistance and Immunities)

- Upgraded some Monsters to hunt down specific Chars. For Example i take a Monster that is not that tough, give it some more melee Damage and incredible running Speed. That one's wont stand a chance vs melee Guys with fat Armor but can easily hunt down and Ama or Sorc.

- Added new monster Skills and Abilities.

- Some monsters are more specialized. For example i give a Monster some great Stats (incredible AC or powerful Spells), but tweak other Attributes.
Example: the squeaky, creepy Fetisch. Minimal Life, no Spells, no good Stats, but incredible Poison Damage.

- Added Resistances and Immunities to Player's Minions.

- Demons and Bosses are MUCH more powerful.

- Unused Monsters (like Quill Bears) have been enabled.

Planned Changes:

- completely new Monsters. (Dont like the Graphics i have, will make new ones)

~ Music, Graphics ~

coming soon

~ Website ~

My Webspace has too many Commercial Popup Banners, in don't dare to present that.
I'm already looking for a new Server, but this may take a While.


~ "Global" Conclusion ~

Hell's Revenge is designed for Hardcore D2 Players. A single Arrow can kill you. It's a dark, twisted World, no longer controlled by the Forces of Light. It's damn HARD, but also adds some new Stuff for D2 Veterans, many new Items to find, and more Char Setups to try.

Normal Difficulty only. It's hard enough anyway

[ShadowLord]

News ticker:
-Re-Balanced a few monsters today, currently boosting Magical Stats again.
-Modified Shops again. Scrolls will now be much harder to get.
-A public Beta Version will be available next Monday


I've uploaded some Screenshots, but my provider suddenly decided that linking to single Files isn't allowed any more. Will have to look for another webspace


News Update: 24//July

-Modified Charged Items to Diablo-1-like Appearance. Staves and Wands do now hold Charges, most other items won't.
-Redone Skill Balance and removed a Bug that caused Inferno to do way too much Damage.
-Homepage is under Construction

-Beta is finished. It can be found at: http://mitglied.lycos.de/hellsrevenge/
Note that this is a "light" Version, without the new Strings and Graphics. I was unable to upload the "Full" Version. However, this one includes every Gameplay Change.
The new Uniques are included, but not their Graphics and Names.

-Minor Bug found: Characters who use hirelings and leave the Game after dying (and not picking up the Corpse) may sometimes not be saved correctly. There are 2 Ways to aviod this: either pickup your Corpse before leaving the Game or make Backups of your Savegames.

-If anyone plays HR, please tell me which Monsters are too hard and where you had major Problems.
I won't weaken them (it's meant to be hard), but increase the XP given by these Monsters.


News Update: 30//July

Changed many Uniques, altered Stats of existing Ones.
(No Screenshots here because my english D2Lang.dll is damaged so my D2 is now semi-english )
Tried to make them more stylish, and perhaps a little bit darker, like in Diablo 1.

Examples:

-The Crown of the Damned does now use Life instead of Mana when raising Skeletons.

-The Lich (Long Staff, new):
+200 Mana (at Night)
Mana regen +37%
+2 to all Skills
Half freeze Dur
16% dual leech
costs 1,6 life per Second (in HR that's pretty much)

-Song of Decay (Wand, new)
Level 7 Decrepify (12 Charges)
+1 to Necro Skills
+7 to Poison Explosion
+7 to Corpse Explosion
+7 Mana after each Kill

[Alkalund]

[quote=ShadowLord";p="115825"](No Screenshots here because my english D2Lang.dll is damaged so my D2 is now semi-english )[/quote]

What seems to be the problem with your dll file? We have clean copies of all 1.09 dll files at the Keep (for 1.09b and 1.09d). D2Lang.dll is the same for 1.09b and d, you will find it in the 1.09b dll pack.

[ShadowLord]

Changed Weapon Stats:
-Requirements slightly improved
-Two-handed Swords have been "slowed down"
-Daggers and other "small" Weapons do less base Damage but recieve greater Bonuses from Strength and Dexterity.
-Strength is now the primary Attribute for long Bows.
-Slowed down long Bows and Crossbows again. These Weapons are damn slow but do an extreme amount of Damage.

Will upload the new Beta today.

@Alkalund: My english D2Lang.dll is damaged, i have to use the german Version. I did only edit String.tbl, meaning that german and english Strings are mixed. Thx for the Hint.

Edit: new Beta is has been uploaded.



News Update: 4//August

Set Max Level to 50.
Boosted Medlev Sorc Skills
Currently doing a global Balance Check.


News Update: 5//August

Changed Graphics and/or behavior of some Hi-Lev Skills.
Balanced Dru Skills.
Balanced Necro Skills.


News Update: 7//August

Made completely new Runes, including Translations.
I'll now make new Runewords
Uniques and Sets will also be taken care of.


News Update: 14//August

The Prefixes are now done. Items are now more specialized, meaning that certain Prefixes can only spawn on few Items. I've also upgraded many
Prefixes to enable some special Powers.

Here's an Overview:
Weapons: everything that does Damage, gives Attack Rating and the like
Armor: Protection, sometimes Stat Bonuses
Belt: Stats and Protection
Gloves: Weapon-related Stuff and Protection
Boots: Stamina and Protection
Rings: Special abilities, Stats, Healing
Amulets: Resistances, Damage reduction, Healing
Circlets: No automagic-based dmg reduction, but Skill Bonuses and other interesting Things

I've also decreased Cold Duration. Lo-Quality Ice Gems are now less powerful.

Next Step would be to finish the Uniques, but I'm gonna kill Andariel which might take a couple of Days
If my Pally gets thru, I'll try to boost some Act 2 Monsters, they're still too weak (Well, they aren't really WEAK, but act 1 and 3 are much harder )


News Update: 26//August
Long Time no News, I know. Had much to do. However, I did of course not abadon HR, so here's the News:
-Found Beta testers who spend some Time trying to reach Lev 2
-Tested new Rares, they're great!
-Continued working on Runes, Uniques and Monsters. It's a little harder now, but most Players probably won't even notice.

Oh, and by the Way: My Pala has now killed Andariel (yes, it took me some Time ), so i'll soon get the Cube and test some new crafting style Stuff

[Alkalund]

[quote=ShadowLord";p="118298"]-Continued working on Runes, Uniques and Monsters. It's a little harder now, but most Players probably won't even notice. [/quote]

Well if you're unhappy with the results, you may consider making things even harder. Use your own judgment to balance it the way you feel is best, don't sacrifice your personal satisfaction and enjoyment in making the mod to please others

[ShadowLord]

The Problem is that Act 2(except the Dungeons) is way too easy compared to the other Acts. I can't boost these Monsters without sacrificing Realism. There is no Gargantua or Skeleton Archer in the Desert (except in the Valley of Kings)
I tried to give the Monsters some new Abilities, but most of them are still weak.




News Update: 29//August

The Material System is now enabled. Most Weapons and Armor will show up as "Iron Scimitar" or "Steel Helm", instead of just "Scimitar" or "Helm".
There's no major Difference between Iron and Steel, but metal Armors are much stronger than Leather Stuff. Same for special Materials:
The "Crystal Sword" is replaced by "Crystal Long Sword", which means that there will be more crystal Weapons in the Future.
Useless to mention that crystal Weapons are expensive but powerful...

The new crafting System:
Instead of crafting magic Items, Players will use raw Materials and horadric Scrolls to make "normal" Items. These Items (that are usually more powerful than Things found or bought) can then be enchanted, using either Charsi or additional Cube Recipes, which will work like the old crafting System.
Example: You take 5 Pieces of "raw Adamantium" and one "Horadric Scroll of Long Sword", put them into the Cube and voilá, there's your "Crystal Long Sword".
You can then give it to Charsi for Enchantment, or enchant it yourself.

These Materials will be available:
-Leather
-Iron
-Steel
-Bone
-Silver
-Crystal(Adamantium)
-Obsidian
-something special (Secret )

One last Warning: for repairing Crystal Weapons and Armor, a Blacksmith will need to buy Adamantium, which costs a lot. Do not use these Items if you don't have the Money to fix broken Stuff!
(Same for Silver, Obsidian and the like)


News Update: Sep//7

Kept working on the Crystal Weapons, but i'm somehow unable to get them displayed properly on the Player
However, the Inventory Pics look great.


News Update: Sep//11

And here's the latest News
I changed the Bow Damage Formula again. While the small, fast Bows still need only Dexterity, the long Bows get their Damage Bonus mainly from Strength. The Composite Bow gets the full Strenght Modifier plus an additional Dexterity Bonus.
Crossbows do incredible Base Damage but get only 80% of the usual Dexterity Bonus. The Strength Requirement is awesome, but there's actually no Strength Bonus for Crossbows.
A similar System for melee Weapons is currently being re-balanced.

Depending on the Sort of Weapon, you have to think about what you'll wear, and spend your Stat Points according to your specialization.
This System combined with the Level-50-Cap will hopefully make these 20/1 Builds a rather rare Thing.

I'm also replacing some less challenging SuperUniques like Corpsefire with more powerful ones.

Edit:
Balancing is now done. Here's an Overview:
major Mod
medium Mod
minor Mod
minor Bonus

Short Bows: Dex
Long Bows: Str Dex
Comp. Bows: Str Dex
Crossbows: Dex
Daggers: Str Dex
Swords: Str Dex
Axes: Str
Throwing Knifes: Str Dex
Throwing Axes: Str Dex
Throwing Spears: Str Dex
Hammers,Maces: Str
Clubs: Str
Polearm Weapons: Str Dex

[Alkalund]

[quote=ShadowLord";p="127480"]Edit: Is there probably a Message Length Cap?[/quote]

Yes there is, but you were nowhere near the cap Maybe the forum was unstable at the time you tried to edit the message... still, your edit is showing up in your post above as far as I can see.

Hmm, and one thing I didn't understand... Crossbow has strength requirement but no strength bonus from what you said above; in your listing, Crossbow has Dexterity as a Medium Mod. What exactly does this mean? I'm not sure I fully understand what you meant with the listing

[Malachai29]

With a crossbow, you have to have the strength to load, and the dex to fire, the better the dex, the better the aim....the only strength requirement would be for loading of it.....at least, that is how I would see it, if this assessment is wrong, I apologize in advance!

malachai

[ShadowLord]

You need a certain Amount of Strength (and Dexterity) to use the Weapon, but the Damage you do is only influenced by your Dex.

The Difference between major, medium and minor Mods is the % Bonus you recieve.
"Minor Bonus" means an additional % Bonus that exceeds the usual Max.
The max Value is 50 for one-handed and 55 for two-handed Weapons.

Example #1:
Crossbow
Requirements: 54 Str, 33 Dex
Mods: Dex(medium)
The actual Dex Bonus Value is 40, meaning that 40% of your Dexterity is counted as "% enhanced Damage".
A Dex Bonus Value of 50 or 55 would be called "major Mod".
-> You need a certain Amount of Strength to use this Weapon, but you won't recieve a Damage Bonus for your Strength.

Example #2:
Long Sword
Requirements: 55 Str, 39 Dex
Mods: Strength (major)
Bonus: Dexterity
The Str Bonus is 50, so 50% of your Strength is counted as "% ED".
In Addition, there is a Dex Mod of 5%. This is shown as a "Bonus" instead of a "Mod", because this Weapon exceeds the Max of 50 for one-handed Weapons.

[Alkalund]

Ah, now I see. Thanks a lot for clarifying, sounds really nice

[ShadowLord]

News Update: Sep//21

Currently testing. Everything seems fine so far. I'll have to get thru act 3 and 4 to see the hi-lev items in action.

(Yes, I've killed duriel )




News update: Sep//23

Slightly decreased level requirements for skills. Steps are: 1, 5, 10, 15, 20 and 25.

Re-balanced starting stuff, gave the chars a few more items.


News update: Sep//25

Did some more lo-level balancing.

New beta is ready for release, just have to find a damn webspace for it

[Alkalund]

[quote=ShadowLord";p="128824"]New beta is ready for release, just have to find a damn webspace for it [/quote]

How big is the mod? We may study some ways to get the file to me, so I can put it up in the File Center.

[ShadowLord]

[quote=Alkalund";p="129770"]How big is the mod? We may study some ways to get the file to me, so I can put it up in the File Center.
[/quote]

Would that be possible? As a .zip file it's about 1 MB, uncompressed it's 7 MB.

[Alkalund]

There you go:

Hell's Revenge (Public Beta 2)

[ShadowLord]

Great, thank you.

By the way, here's the news:

-Added the 5-step staff system:
1. You take a staff and an empty soul stone and put them in the cube, what you get is an enchanted (crafted) staff.
2. You collect glyphs.
3. You meld the glyphs, combining the effects of your choice.
4. You put the final glyph into the cube, along with your staff. All the glyph's stats will be added to the staff. In addition, the staff gets one socket.
5. You put a rune, jewel or gem into your staff's socket. Voilá, there's your personal enchanted staff.

To create a good staff, you'll need six things:
-A good base item (you won't find that in act 1)
-Money (to buy the soulstone, which isn't cheap)
-Lev-ups (To improve the crafted item's quality)
-Luck (Most of the stats are random)
-Glyphs (Cannot be bought, you'll have to find or trade them)
-A good gem, jewel or rune (Gems can be cubed, jewels and runes have to be found or traded)

The enchantment's randomness and a large number of possible choices makes every staff unique.
And, by the way, you can gain riches by creating staves and trading them

Oct//23
New news

I've increased the damage done by fallens and other weak monsters. Could not yet test the new hi-lev items 'cause my pala is stuck in act 3

Oct//28
With the release of 1.10 final, I have decided to convert everything to 1.10.
The 1.09 version will be released, but I'll now focus on the new version.
I'm then going to add more powerful monster skills as soon as the txt files are updated.

Nov//2
Everything except some minor things has been converted, but the monstats.txt doesn't work the way it should. Since monster life/damage is essential for gameplay, I won't do anything else until this is fixed.

Nov//7
Now that monstats.txt is working, the mod is fully playable in 1.10
1.09 HR characters can be loaded and will be converted automatically (just like in normal 1.09/1.10).
Unmodded characters won't be accepted any longer so you can't mess up your chars by accident.

Next step will be slightly altered player skills and major monster skill changes.

Edit:
Added new skills to most spellcasting monsters. Some monster spells vary depending on which "edition" of a monster you face (Exapmle: while the fallen shaman uses charged bolt, the dark shaman uses teeth and so on). Hope this helps players not to get bored too fast

Nov//8
Finally completed the self-enchanting system for staves. Also removed a bug that prevented players from getting stat points.

[BeArE]

i was wondering if this mod could come as a mpq-file..

when i tried it another mod showed up with -txt -direct

not gonna tell you wich mod

[ShadowLord]

If this is wished, I can of course make a mpq version, but it might take a few days until it's ready 4 download.


Edit:
Since Beta 3 ain't uploaded yet, I believe you use the 1.09 version?
You say another mod showed up... maybe you still had another mod's mpq in your d2 directory? (if you have both a mpq mod and a -direct -txt mod installed, they might end up mixed)

You could also try if the new beta works (should be uploaded during the next days), it has detailed install instructions.

[Alkalund]

Oops, I had forgotten to post here... beta 3 (direct txt version) was uploaded already:

http://www.fileplanet.com/dl.aspx?/plan ... _beta3.zip

[ShadowLord]

Great, thanks!

I'll then prepare an mpq version in case it still doesn't work.


News: Nov//13

Spent most of my time playing and testing. Everything seems to work well.
By the way, I've found 2 rares, here's the stats so you can see what good HR weapons look like:

Rune Saw
Iron Scimitar
One-hand damage: 23 to 66
Durability: 22 of 22
Required Dexterity: 21
Sword class - very fast attack speed
adds 1-18 damage
+16 to attack rating
adds 43-60 fire damage
adds 37-39 cold damage
Repairs 1 durability in 33 seconds

Doom Breaker
Steel Morning Star
One-hand damage: 54 to 127
Durability: 72 of 72
Required Strength: 36
Mace class - fast attack speed
+47% enhanced damage
+1 to maximum damage
adds 43-47 cold damage
+61 poison damage over 20 seconds
+4 to life
+50% damage to undead

[Alkalund]

[quote=ShadowLord";p="138671"]By the way, I've found 2 rares, here's the stats so you can see what good HR weapons look like:[/quote]

It is interesting to see the elemental damage in them, they have 2 types of elemental damage each... are these good weapons to be used in Hell Difficulty?

[ShadowLord]

There is only "normal" difficulty in HR (it's hard enough), but these rares are good act 4 weapons, which can be compared to hell difficulty in unmodded d2 .

[Alkalund]

[quote=ShadowLord";p="139206"]There is only "normal" difficulty in HR (it's hard enough), but these rares are good act 4 weapons, which can be compared to hell difficulty in unmodded d2 .[/quote]

Ah, so yours is the mod with only Normal difficulty... I was sure there was one, but I could not remember with so many projects to keep track of

Sounds really cool

[BeArE]

ooh..
i dunno with the mpq file..
i think i´ll just reinstall diablo2 instead
have to many mods installed and reinstalled that it makes me crazy..
and i´ve lost track of wich files got replaced by what mod..
both mpq and dlls and the data-directory..
but i can´t wait till i am gonna try your mod.. i have been playing hellfire a little lately.. and I wanna try out hellfire in d2 so to speak.. hehe

but real life events has been keeping me from playing and fixing with d2 lately

but if an mpq is coming then i´ll be happy ( cause i am lazy )
but don´t do it if it is only me asking for it..
it´s just troublesome.. and I can reinstall d2 when times come..


PS. and for your info it was a VK mod that popped up

[ShadowLord]

...and here's the news again

Nov//17:
Removed almost every "old" cube recipe and added a few new ones. Here's a list of all active recipes:

Old recipes that still work
New recipes

3 health potions + 3 mana potions -> rejuv potion
3 rejuvs -> 1 full rejuv

3 gems of same type+quality -> 1 of higher quality

(And of course the quest related stuff)

1 perfect diamond + low-quality weapon/armor -> upgrades to normal quality

x perfect Skulls + normal weapon/armor -> adds x sockets (max 6)


It might seem odd to sacrifice a perfect diamond just to get a normal quality item, but when you find a "damaged gothic plate", you'll understand

[BeArE]

omfg.....

that was one of the hardest thing i have ever played..
got killed instantly by archers..
brrr.. and no IDscrolls either.. so what can you do when you find a magic item
and those brutes.. got killed in one hit..
hehe.. slowly i got more and more xp.. but no IDscrolls ARGHHHH

is it supose to be this hard..
i am trying the version you did for 1.09..
haven´t been around to fix 1.1 yet