Ambiance - Giving Diablo II a more immersive setting

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Ambiance - Giving Diablo II a more immersive setting

Post by Rattlecage » Tue Nov 23, 2010 10:04 pm

Hey all. For this topic I'm aiming to promote discussion about ambiance, setting and mood as well as share my ideas and take suggestions from the community.

For my mod I want to give Diablo II a darker, more frightening and claustrophobic Diablo-I-esque ambiance, and I feel that my changes so far have been quite successful. The theme for my mod "Other Worlds" is that each act is a separate 'world' with Act I being Sheol, meaning grave: a perfect place for me to play around with making the game more frightening.

I. Environment
One of the first things I noticed while revisiting D1 was just how dark the game is. Your light radius is quite small and the dungeons are pretty poorly lit for the most part. Even the town of Tristram is quite dark. Diablo also had some pretty evil sounding and very atmospheric music which really added to the environment. So, I decided to emulate this in Act 1 by giving the outdoor areas a very dark blue, almost black light and the caves a very dark red. I also have the lights at a low intensity to keep everything nice and dark. Part of the reason why poor lighting is scary is because you can't hardy see what the hell is coming after you. I also changed the music, and imported some music from D1 and Mortal Kombat Deception. While none of the MKD tracks are used in my mod so far, the caves in Act 1 are using the cave theme from D1 while the wilderness is using the D2 cave theme. The dark setting and and focus on immersion makes the music all that more impactful. The town is equally as dark and uses the Act 1 crypt theme, while the crypts use the D1 cathedral theme, as do the monastery, barracks, jail and catacombs. By using a very low intensity cyan/teal lighting (not the playskool looking high intensity cyan lighting in D3), I've given these areas a very cold feeling.

II. Aesthetics
Most of Diablo II's areas have very boring, generic names, and since my mod aims to put the "evil" back in "devil," all the old area names just have to go. Since Act is now Sheol, I've given some of the areas more fitting names.
Rogue Encampment ===> Darkholme
Blood Moor ===> Fields of Decay
Cold Plains ===> Plains of Sheol
Stony Field ===> City of the Dead
Dark Wood ===> Forest of Suicides
Black Marsh ===> Casket Garden
Tamoe Highland ===> Necropolis
I've still got plenty more naming to do, but, I like what I've got so far. I've also extracted every single .ds1 from d2data.mpq and each one is going to get a rework to look more like a creepy cemetery rather than a cattle ranch. I also plan on rewriting all the dialogue so that the characters have more personality and fit the them of 'Sheol' better.

III. Population
One thing that I think Diablo II really got right in the atmosphere department was how the various levels were populated. You don't see jungle hunters in the middle of the desert for instance. It's important that the monsters that populate a level really fit it's theme. Crypts should be populated with undead, demons and other critters that you'd normally find in caves, like rats and bats. You're generally not going to find a lot of birds in crypts. Monster names can also help build up an atmosphere. Being some sort of art nerd, I've not only added some new tokens and monster graphics from the infinitium, but I've also made new palshifts for them and changed palshifts for old monsters. It's also important to have some variety in monsters, not just graphically, but also in the way that they fight and how players must react to them. That's a big part of why Median XL has been so successful. There are some monsters in which you can fight against mobs, but others require more hit and run tactics or having a minion or merc draw their fire or even luring them into an open area and getting them separated so that you can take them out one by one. One monster type that I've added, the Hammerman (uses nameless one with hammer graphics) is very large and slow with high HP and high damage. They tend to spawn in groups, and since they are slow, it's hard to get them separated from one another. You basically have to use hit and run tactics to get their numbers down to the point that you are able to rush in and kill what's left.

That's what I've got so far, any suggestions, comments and discussion is much appreciated! Screen shots coming soon to demonstrate what I'm talking about.
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Re: Ambiance - Giving Diablo II a more immersive setting

Post by nightshade00123 » Wed Nov 24, 2010 3:27 am

Sounds very good and well thought out, I myself like dark and atmospheric type games.

A suggestion for your spooky music though. If you want really dark and scary ambient music you should look into the silent hill soundtracks. These are probably some of the most terrifying sounds I have ever heard while playing a game, like metal scrapes and distant moans and wails of the tortured.

And also you can add in to your tracks custom ambient effects that will really pay off if you spend the time with it.

But overall I like the direction you are taking, it sounds very good and like the levels are being populated the right way.

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Re: Ambiance - Giving Diablo II a more immersive setting

Post by mirecek » Wed Nov 24, 2010 12:31 pm

Rattlecage: Words of Wisdom you say - Yoda would tell


Althou maybe the area names should sound much scarier, I personally would not name the fourth level of act1 as city of dead. You will find yourself out of scary names for the later acts if you want to graduate them until the worldstone, or you will end with less scary names in more difficult areas.

Necropolis - if you want to prepare the player before big preset ds1 monastery and its underground levels, thats great. But most of time I remember the undead's main hall in War3.

iirc - tamoe has no special ds1 parts, but dark wood uses fence maze, stony building, the woods with shamans - everytime the map generates they are randomly placed there. Mabe for boss/quest/warp ;)

I would love to read more updates of your progress with your "ranch > cemetery" (and maybe learn something new)



good luck.
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Re: Ambiance - Giving Diablo II a more immersive setting

Post by Rattlecage » Thu Nov 25, 2010 12:10 am

Act II will take place in a volcanic wasteland.
I also plan on editing every single .ds1 in the game. Act 1 will have some fog, more structures around and lot's more dead bodies laying around. I'm also going to redo/replace all the fallen camps since I'm saving them for later acts. :)

I'm home from college right now without my comp for thanksgiving, but I'll have some more updates soon. Here's a screeny from the Forest of Suicides:
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Re: Ambiance - Giving Diablo II a more immersive setting

Post by nightshade00123 » Sat Dec 04, 2010 9:12 am

Your ideas sound really good and I agree with what mirecek said about the names.

I made that mistake, only it was with the items I was making, and soon found out I had no more names to use for the later ones because I used the best ones first and I couldn't have the later more powerful items with names less meaningful......that sucked. Had to redo a ton of them.

But your map ideas sound very good, that is the one part I am holding off on until I get balance for all my new skills,monsters, and items in place and also dreading at the same time, I hope I can be creative enough to think of something that is unique as yours.

"EDIT" just out of curiousity how long does it take you guys to complete a map, like for say bloodmore or the den of evil. I'm trying to see how much time it will take to do these once I begin. Keep in mind I have not read much about the map editing as of yet and I'm assuming it is veeeeeeeerrrrrrryyyyy time consuming , I'm pretty resourceful though...........................

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Re: Ambiance - Giving Diablo II a more immersive setting

Post by kingpin » Sat Dec 04, 2010 12:39 pm

"EDIT" just out of curiousity how long does it take you guys to complete a map, like for say bloodmore or the den of evil. I'm trying to see how much time it will take to do these once I begin. Keep in mind I have not read much about the map editing as of yet and I'm assuming it is veeeeeeeerrrrrrryyyyy time consuming , I'm pretty resourceful though...........................
It depend on the size and complexity off the map.

For me an outdoor area with everything on it takes between 1 week to 4 weeks. This includes new quests / all objects / monsters populated, drops added to tc.

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Re: Ambiance - Giving Diablo II a more immersive setting

Post by nightshade00123 » Sat Dec 04, 2010 7:22 pm

Ay yi yi yi yi, wow this is going to be something that I'm going to have to set alot of time aside for.

So basically if I start now I will be done by 2014.......hahaha, just kidding I do plan on taking my time however.

Sorry for hijacking the thread.

And thanks for your honesty.

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Re: Ambiance - Giving Diablo II a more immersive setting

Post by Rattlecage » Sat Dec 04, 2010 9:52 pm

This thread isn't specifically about my mod but about changing the game in general to be more immersive, so you're fine. :)
As far as my item names, normal exceptional and elite items have the same names, except that exceptional items are followed by an [E] for Elite and Elite items are followed by a [V] for Veteran.
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Re: Ambiance - Giving Diablo II a more immersive setting

Post by nightshade00123 » Tue Dec 07, 2010 6:18 am

Hahaha....I did that too. I got so sick of stopping to look up if my current weapon/armor upgraded to the next tier I needed to make a special unique or something like that or I would completely forget what it upgraded to.

Honestly theirs just to many names in classic for the same thing in my opinion.

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Re: Ambiance - Giving Diablo II a more immersive setting

Post by cla$$ics » Wed Dec 08, 2010 8:41 pm

I'm also working on level design. My take is a bit different than yours though. The levels that I am using will be a very different feel to them. As soon as my Code Editing really takes off, I might do as D2 was supposed to have done, and have enemies that respawn, or spawn at night, etc.

My mod takes place at about D3's time, but very loosely mingles with the story of D3. You will meet Leah Cain, but you will also see a few familiar faces, such as Warriv, Atma, Halbu, and Jamella (albeit the latter two have a larger speaking role)

I appear to have gotten off topic though. :P

My outdoor areas will have a very calm and cool feeling about them. I added the pine trees from Act 5 into Act 1 successfully, and I'm using some of the Outland music from WoW (very calming stuff) and a few of the Echoes of War tracks as well.

Of course, that's once you get to experience the natural beauty of the outdoors. :P
Although done for our needs, mod-makers should like these changes, too.
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Re: Ambiance - Giving Diablo II a more immersive setting

Post by Wopsh » Fri Jan 14, 2011 7:53 pm

I have put a few punchier sound effects into the game and it made a HUGE difference in the feel of the act I zombies even though nothing about them has yet been changed in terms of gameplay mechanics. No longer do zombies say "uff" and "uhh..." relaxedly as they are literally split in half by the force of whatever blow kills them. Many Diablo II sound effects are too bland or annoying to hear repeatedly and it's not to much work to swap them out.

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Re: Ambiance - Giving Diablo II a more immersive setting

Post by ascar » Sat Feb 12, 2022 5:42 am

hello

I love your post, sad there is few answers

Im too modding for making a darker and harder game.

I modified a lots a things but im stuck with maps colors...

I got PSP (old version) but i didnt manage to change the grass color or walls etc...
I followed some guides but there is lots of glitchy colors in game when i modify

If someone knows^^ thanks a lot

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Re: Ambiance - Giving Diablo II a more immersive setting

Post by Desocupado » Sat Feb 12, 2022 1:15 pm

1 - Well the game isn't grounded in a terror approach. It's a loot fest monster eradication power fantasy. Given how many monsters the player kills, the darkness would more likely be used by monsters to avoid the player.
2 - Do names affect it that much? I mean the monastery could be called "church of the merciful light". It's not like these places didn't exist before the demonic invasion or people would call it by the name demons gave to them.
3 - Monsters need to feel interesting to fight. Don't we hate cantors teleporting then healing? Sand leapers taking their time to die? Bosses have a lot more freedom for interesting fights, as seen on Median. The enemy you are describing is basically Blunderbore.

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Re: Ambiance - Giving Diablo II a more immersive setting

Post by ascar » Sun Aug 14, 2022 1:20 am

changing the aidel and aidist changes a lot the terror aspect, reducing stamina and puting screen size to d2 classic ^^

Added d1 sounds is good too

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