Vanguard: Master of Arms 2

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Vanguard: Master of Arms 2

Post by Alkalund » Sat Dec 13, 2003 1:40 pm

And here we have the official announcement of the next version of Master of Arms, by Kraj:

Vanguard: Master of Arms 2

Project Name - Vanguard: Master of Arms 2
Author - Kraj
Version - D2 Exp v1.10 final

Project Details -

Vanguard: Master of Arms 2 builds on the concept of upgradeable equipment and expands it into further reducing reliance on random drops. The backbone of the mod will be upgradeable equipment instead of random drops but players will have a lot more choices. The main features of the mod are:

Upgradeable equipment
Crafting (not what you think)
Rune Trees
New item modifers
New skills (dependiing on what I can make work)
Some monster and map editing (depending on what I can make work)
Vendors much more focused

Reduced random drops
Little to no magic and rare items


The equipment upgrade system will be considereably different than in the first version of Master of Arms. Base items of all types will be available, as well as an enchanting item of some sort. A player can then choose which basic item to grant what type of powers by cubing it with an enchanting item. So instead of having to purchase the pike to get a lightnign damage weapon, you can now choose a sword or axe or bow or pike and make it "lighnting enchanted".

Furthermore, there are no set levels and rigid stats for the items. Once you have a lightning enchanted sword, you can upgrade it at any time and the item will gain bonuses based on what level you are. The higher the player level, the more powerful the stats that are added to the item. An item can be upgraded as many times as you want at any level, but the catch is the item's level requirement goes up by 1 with each upgrade.

Crafting:

Crafting will be a big part of the mod, but nit 'crafted items'. Crafting will be done by combining ingredients with some kind of factilitating item to produce an effect. The effect could be creating ammunition or a potion. It coule be adding sockets or repairing and item. What makes this system unique is that the more you perform the craft, the better you get at it. For example, if you use your PotionCraft ability to create healing potions instead of buying them, at first you will only make minor healing potions and then increase to light, regular, greater and super, and then potions more powerful than you can buy. This occurs without altering the ingredients used. In case the advantages of this system are not yet clear, take RepairCraft for example. At low levels, it may be more expensive to buy an iron ingot for a couple gold to repair your armor with than it would be to pay Charsi, because wehen you do it, you only repair one or two points to the durability. But after you've done the repairs yourself many, many times, for the same price of the little iron ingot you can fully repair the item.

Rune Trees:

Runes will play an important role in the mod. Their primary function will be for use in runeword, which are organized in "Rune Trees". Runes will add no bonuses to items when socketed by themselves but are associated with a certain bonus. Meaning an 'El' rune will add no bonus on its own, but any runeword with 'El' in it will have a strength bonus, for example. Runes will be more easily obtainable to facilitate experimentation. Experimentation is also facilitated by the rune trees. A rune tree is a set of runewords where the more complex runeword build off of less complex ones. For example, a player may try different 2-rune combinations an find that ElEld is a working runeword. You then know that there is a 3-rune runeword that has ElEld in it, such as TirElEld or ElEldThul. If TirElEld is a working runeword, then ZodTirElEld might be and so on. The purpose of this system is both to help players find runewords for themselves and to elminated the need to search through endless lists of runewords to find what you want. The items that the runewords will work in will be as least restrictive as possible. Most runewords will either work in any weapon or any armor.

Vendors More Focused:

A wider item variety will be available to buy, but you may have to go to particular vendors to buy them. No more cookie cutter set of vendors for each act.

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Re: Vanguard: Master of Arms 2

Post by kingpin » Sat Dec 13, 2003 8:46 pm

I see forward for this project, i have always liked Master of Arms a lot. Its very different from anything else. Good luck with your Master of Arms 2 ;)

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Re: Vanguard: Master of Arms 2

Post by nazo » Mon Dec 15, 2003 6:48 am

The next edition to MoA seems far better than the first. The crafting skills seem like an excellent idea, mostly because of the high price for repairing and low pont healing of the poitions, except full rej of course. I can't wait for it to come out. Good luck with the mod. It seems like it will be a long process to creat it...but it shall be well worth the effort...
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Re: Vanguard: Master of Arms 2

Post by Kraj » Thu Dec 18, 2003 7:20 am

I've been working a lot the past couple weeks, so I haven't had much time to code items yet, but here's a couple of tidbits I forgot to include in my announcement.

Magic and rare items will most likely not exist. It's a mammoth task simply try to balance these two item classes and still have anyone care about them. They might possibly make cameos as vendor items or from gambling and such. We'll see.

Set items will be different than the previous version. The plan is to have a superunique associated with each quest in the game. That superunique will drop or have a chance to drop a specific set item. Every act in each difficulty level will have one full set to collect. So...if you do all the quests, you'll get a set. The intention is to encourage playing more areas of the game.

I played with runetrees a bit and wasn't happy. Originally they were going to be random runes, but it made for really dull runewords. So what I've decided is that runewords will fill the function that uniques do in vanilla d2. They will be themed to a degree and still be organized in trees to assist in discovery. Also, a theme of runewords is the stats will be highly variable, so you can make and remake the runewords once you find one to try to get the best values in the mod range.

And finally, the uniques. Uniques will be extremely rare; a character should not acquire more than one or maybe two through the normal course of gameplay. Uniques will also be very powerful, but more importantly, each one has an ability that no other item in the game has. For example, there is an armor that gains a socket each time you right-click it, and returns to one after the sixth socket. You can use the armor to create any (armor-based) runeword and it's the only item that can remove the runes from the sockets to be reused. Another is a bow that fires a different energy missile depending on what is quivered.

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Re: Vanguard: Master of Arms 2

Post by nazo » Fri Dec 19, 2003 11:50 pm

I had an interesting experience while tinkering around with d2 files. I had originally intended for all of the gems to be random, meaning that in every grade of gem there would be different quality gems. The gem property values were supposed to be random, but it turned out differently. The gems were like rouletts, the numbers rapidly cycling through the limits I had set. It made for interesting equipment. A gem would have one property when you set it in, and it would stay that way until you put another gem/rune in the item, or you saved and exited. When you come back the gems would re-roll and be different. Perhaps you could fit this kind of randomness in any gems or runes you create, perhaps even the unique items themselves. It was just a thought...
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Re: Vanguard: Master of Arms 2

Post by Myhrginoc » Sat Dec 20, 2003 8:13 am

In 1.09x the variable stats would end up in the middle of the range. I don't know if that bug still exists.
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Re: Vanguard: Master of Arms 2

Post by Kraj » Mon Dec 29, 2003 6:24 pm

The controversy of rune trees continues... I don't like the themed either; they are too much like the upgradeable equipment. So for now runewords are scrapped until I can find a better fit for them, but runes will still have a strong showing in the form of talismans.

Talismans will be crafted jewels based on the runes inputed that get more powerful as you progress. If you do it enough, you can get an idea of what runes give you what result and design your own equipment (to a degree).

Edit: Finished planning the attributes for the upgradeable items. There are 19 base items (armor and weapons), a ring, and an amulet; and 32 'themes' to combine, making a total of 672 equipment options. Additionally, the 19 base items will have exceptional and unique versions available in NM and Hell, allowing you to create more powerful equipment later in the game by using better base items.
Last edited by Kraj on Mon Dec 29, 2003 10:41 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: Vanguard: Master of Arms 2

Post by Kraj » Sun Jan 18, 2004 6:07 am

Wow. Sorry about the long hiatus. During the holidays my partner went into the hospital and just came home a couple days ago, so I haven't had any time to work on the mod. But I've still been getting ideas so hopefully I'll make a lot of progress in the next couple weeks.

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Re: Vanguard: Master of Arms 2

Post by Kraj » Wed Feb 11, 2004 8:05 am

Finally! Some good progress. I got a big chunk of the upgrade system done today and will probably finish it tommorrow. I still have to code the actual upgrade recipies, including designing the mods on each item; and once the system is working I'll do the string table and customize the graphics for each item. So the upgrade system is about half done; all the items are coded into weapons, armor and misc and the recipies to create an "enchanted" item from a base item are done. I'm looking forward to finishing this part of the mod and moving on to new things. The ideas keep coming!

2/15 Edit: The upgrade system is nearing completion. The mammoth task of creating the cube recipies is finished (barring any major problems I have yet to find). Now I just have to design the item mods (also mammoth, but more fun) and put the final touches on the string table. Then it will be on to new game elements! Like the crafting skills...yay more cube recipies.

Current cube recipie count: 46,440.

PS. I also just realized I never posted the change to the upgrade system. Due to many issues, the original idea of correlating upgrades with character stats proved to be infeasible. This was a bit dissapointing, but I'm happy with the current solution. Upgrades will have set attributes per upgrade, independant of any other factors. This time, however, items can be upgraded every level but do not have to be. Each time you upgrade, the item's required level goes up one, so be careful: you can upgrade beyond your current ability to equip an item.

Also, upgrade hammers will be distributed more evenly: you get five hammers every time you level, and probably get fronted with a start-up stash. No more waiting to finish a quest to get an extra hammer or two. And you'll need every hammer you can get since you can only upgrade half your equipment each level at best.
Last edited by Kraj on Mon Feb 16, 2004 8:12 am, edited 2 times in total.

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Re: Vanguard: Master of Arms 2

Post by Keeshi » Tue Feb 24, 2004 8:31 pm

I had a question....


What kind of stuff are you going to do for quests? And what about a storyline?




Can't wait to try btw ^_^
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Re: Vanguard: Master of Arms 2

Post by Kraj » Thu Feb 26, 2004 7:20 am

I have already listed every major element of the mod. There will be no changes to storyline or quest structure.

There will, however, be changes to monsters encountered in quests and the rewards. There will also be additional incentives to completeing all the quests. I won't know the extent of these changes untill I go to do them, but there will be some.

Monster additions will pretty much be limited by what the wonderful folks at Infinitum churn out, since I spent many hours on COFs and Animdata entries for the converted dcc files previously available and 75% of the monsters I added had major problems and I have no idea why.

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Re: Vanguard: Master of Arms 2

Post by Kraj » Thu Mar 11, 2004 8:20 am

Huzah! FINALLY... all the upgrade recipies are done and appear to work. Now I just have to test every friggin' one to find any bugs and tweak power, and then it's on to new features!

EDIT:

I've also come up with a new idea for runewords. Any unique items I have planned that do not require special itemtypes, automagic or other built-in properties will instead be runewords. There will not be many of them, but they will be more powerful than the items you would otherwise be able to equip.

Runewords recipies will be listed on an item that drops. That item will also be part of the recipie. So to make a runeword, you need a special item to drop and it will tell you the recipie. If you already know a recipie, you still need the item to drop. That will prevent the abuse of the overpowered runeword.

What do you think? BTW, the idea was inspired by Zy-El, which uses the same system for delivery of cube recipies.
Last edited by Kraj on Sat Mar 13, 2004 12:17 am, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: Vanguard: Master of Arms 2

Post by Alkalund » Mon Mar 15, 2004 3:19 am

Kraj";p="159947" wrote:Runewords recipies will be listed on an item that drops. That item will also be part of the recipie. So to make a runeword, you need a special item to drop and it will tell you the recipie. If you already know a recipie, you still need the item to drop. That will prevent the abuse of the overpowered runeword.
I do think this is very nice, it indeed does prevent runeword abusing and is good for players, who won't have to play with a printed runeword list in hand :)

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Re: Vanguard: Master of Arms 2

Post by Kraj » Mon Mar 22, 2004 8:55 am

Thanks for the feedback. I may start on those next just to break up the monotany of cube recipies.

Speaking of which, I've gotten the first of the crafting systems done - socketcraft. You will now be able to add any number of sockets to any item whenever you want...if you've used your socketing ability enough, that is.

Hopefully the other systems will work out as well.

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Re: Vanguard: Master of Arms 2

Post by WarWolf » Sat Apr 10, 2004 3:09 pm

I hope you are still working on your mod, I liked the first one and this looks very interesting... just continue your work :)

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Post by Kraj » Fri Apr 23, 2004 1:27 am

Don't worry, the project is still alive. But I needed to take a break, so I've been having some fun on Battle.net for awhile. I'll pick it back up soon :)

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Re: Vanguard: Master of Arms 2

Post by nazo » Fri May 21, 2004 5:56 am

It's been far too long since I've been to phrozen keep. I'm glad to know that you're still working on the mod and that you can still manage to pump fresh ideas into it. If you have time to, and don't shoot the screen over frustrastion just to do it, could you throw in class specific items can be made? You could still buy an assassin's claws from Charsi, but other things like armor, or in the sorc and necro's case a ring/amulet, would have to be made. Of course there would have to be a reason to make a class specific item. The reason would be that all of the class specific weapons would be very fast attack and the armor would give them skills in that class. A sorc amulet, for example, might giver her +2 to firebolt, as well as mana/energy, or a barb's bone plate, again just as an example, might give him vitality/strength as well as iron skin or something. I'm pretty sure you get my point. Like I said, this would be something to throw in if you have the time/patience to do it. Don't shoot the computer over frustration or quit modding out of boredom just to do it. We need you to make mods! :cry:
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Re: Vanguard: Master of Arms 2

Post by Kraj » Fri May 21, 2004 10:28 pm

Thanks for the encouragement, although I've hit a point where I just have no desire to work on the damn thing. I've just posted a call out to anyone interesting a helping with the project. (care to?) So we'll see. I may end p taking a long hiatus until my interest is worked up again.

As the items are so far, the only class-specific item is the assassin claw, since as far as I am aware, it has to be for her to dual wield it. If I can change that, I will. However, each class has an "enchanter" item associated with it, so you can create items that skill class-specific skill bonues. It wouldn't be too much trouble to add/alter recipies so certain classes get bonuses to certain items no matter what, or certain items get bonues no matter what. I've also got some class-specific sets in the works, but so far those are intended to foster unconventional builds.

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Thanks but...

Post by nazo » Sat May 22, 2004 2:11 am

I really don't know very much about modding. I know only the basics, and even then the knowledge is kinda thin. About the only things I know how to do are modding monsters a bit (like HP, group size, easy stuff), moddin weapons a bit (again, only the easier stuff), and inserting monsters into levels. If you need anything like that done then sure, but if it gets any more complex I'm afraid I'd have to decline. :(
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Re: Vanguard: Master of Arms 2

Post by L337onimusha » Fri Jun 11, 2004 10:21 pm

Hello! I just DL'd the mod a while ago, and it's great! Finally, a change to 5 (?) years of menotomy!

I remeber the you (Kraj) said somewhere along the line that when 1.10 came out, you were going to include some gameplay changes. How's that coming? I know nothing about modding, nor do I have the time to explain it, so I'll just give an example. The mod with the best gameplay changes that I've seen is Hell on Earth 2. Unfortunately they stopped working on it, but c'est la vie... Anywhoo, the changes to the difficulty were the greatest I've ever seen. Also, their modifications to the skill tree are the most extensive I've seen, and they just plain make the skill tree make more sense. Plus, you no longer have to worry about wasting SP on a lame skill to get the good ones.

As to the main focus of the mod, being the item crafting, I really see no need to change anything. It's perfect as it is! I'm sure that any change you make will be well justified, and I place my trust in you. I always thought that it would be cool to spend some time with your equipment. In all the tales you here, the heroes always have their own items that are unique to them. The only suggestion that I have for this, though it's probably impossible to implement, would be to have the ability to name your equipment. That's just my idea though. I thought that it's fit with the idea behind it.

Thanks for the greatest mod ever! I can finally play D2 without being bored! :D :D :D

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Re: Vanguard: Master of Arms 2

Post by L337onimusha » Sat Jun 19, 2004 6:36 am

Hmmm... Don't tell me that the mod is dead. That'd suck.

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Re: Vanguard: Master of Arms 2

Post by L337onimusha » Thu Jun 24, 2004 6:04 pm

<Gives up hope and leaves.>

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Re: Vanguard: Master of Arms 2

Post by Kraj » Thu Jun 24, 2004 10:14 pm

This mod is not dead, but is currently on hiatus. I'm confused as to teh nature of your posts; you seem to be inquiring about whether there wil be a 1.10 version of the mod, which this is the thread for. Look at the top and you will see a great deal of information on the mod features.

I'm glad you like how I've handled equipment, but the new version will be completely different. The concept is the same, but items will be immensely more customizable and far less restrictive. Depending on what you like, that may eb a drawback, but I decided that if someone wants to make a pike Barb, they shouldn't have to setle for lightning as their elemental damage. The new system will allow any combination of items with mods, as well as a more linear upgrade progression since you can upgrade your equipment every level.

As far as naming items, I'm assuming you mean giving your item a name such as appears on a unique. First off let me say that is a kick-ass idea and worth posting in Mod Concepts & Research. However, what I visualize is, say, a quest reward that prompts you for an item, then prompts you for a string and adds the string to your item. In thoery this should be possible since the pieces are there in the game code. But that is waaaay beyond my abilities.

I have thought of a non-coding possibility, though, but I'm pretty sure it won't work. I'll test it at some point and let you know.

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Re: Vanguard: Master of Arms 2

Post by Super Cat Of Doom » Sat Sep 04, 2004 5:54 pm

ugg i wish i had an ounce of knowledge about anything to do with modding, so i could help you with this. This looks like the coolest mod in quite a while
:D


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Post by Myhrginoc » Wed Sep 08, 2004 6:05 am

You may not have noticed Kraj's last post was three months ago. He announced the mod is on hiatus. I am closing this thread in keeping with our policy that non-hosted mods with three months inactivity will be locked down until such time as the modmaker resurrects an inactive project.
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