Mini Review: Master of Arms

[Eisead]

This is a 'Mini Review' Basicly its not ment to be posted for perment documention on the keep but does deserive to be mentioned. Also, this is most likly off the top of my head and not likly to be spell checked

Master of Arms
(Maxx Style Review)

What works:

Everything! Well almost but I'll get to that. In Master of Arms you get the power to create your own weapons and armor. This is also where the uniqueness comes to play. You'll only get a limited amount of the hammers required to make this items. This forces you to make the hard choices of how and when to use the hammers.

I only played an assassin though nightmare, using Mainly Martal arts skills. I would have to say I did end up wasting some hammers from my newbness to this mod and that may have cause me problems, but it was a good fourm of problem causing. The mod also featured the basic reworked levels.txt and tougher monters.

What does not work:

Not much doesn't work great. Combared to other major mods out there, you'll be in lack of the very basics, even the title screen is left unchanged. It lacks many of the fluff that players demand from mods nowadays.

Overall:

If you can get over the fact it lacks a title screen, and skills, and requires some brain power then you'll find this mod to be a really great run for your download.

-Eisead
Grand Master Mod Reviewer of the Elite Phrozen Keep, Hosted by Planetdiablo, a member of the gamespy network

[Maxx Power]

Yeah, I had a blast at this mod a while back, and I thought it was pretty good, although in my mind it's really RUNE mod for beginners. Of course, Rune mod is my favourite mod by far, so maybe I'm biased, but this mod is really good all the same.

Incidently...

Master of Arms
(Maxx Style Review)

Maxx style? Dare thou attempth to immitate the almighty Maxx Power? Beware, for the wrath of the gods themselves with come and smite thee! *KAPOW*

[Phrozen Heart]

Not so fast guys. No such thing as a mini-review around here so when's the full version gonna be ready?

[Eisead]

I don't really think Master of Arms is ready for a full, biased review. I think I'd end up dicing it apart to nothing. Because right now, it's just a Forge Mod. It would a sad review

But on a lighter note, I didn't think it was a RUNE mod. Seeing as how there were no runes in sight. I think its a brand new type of mod.

[jbouley]

I think Maxx was likening it to a Sir_General Rune Mod-type mod, but less complex. I may be wrong, though.

Let's see where this mod goes in the coming few weeks. If it ends up worthy of a full review, great. If not, maybe we'll promote the mini review here into the Mod Reviews section as a "mini" review. Maybe.

But a nice synopsis all the same.

[Kraj]

Well thanks for the flattering comments. But I saw my mod in the subject line and shouted, "No! Don't review me yet! I've got more work to do!" :)

I will admit I'm a bit anti-fluff. You'll never see an new title screen from me. I have neither decent software for the creation of such, nor do I have one speck of artisitc talent. I suppsoe if someone was enthusiastic enough, I'd welcome it if they wanted to design/produce the screen for me.

I was also determined to leave the mod untouched other than items. I'm not sure if I will fuse this mod with a more general one in the future or not. I'll have to see how the item upgrading system will interact with a more general environment. Or maybe no one would possibly care about a general mod by me, so I'll take Master of Arms in a new direction. Dunno yet.

I guess no one really does bother to read the readme's. I actually credit Sir_General for inspiring the mod. The idea is almost 100% ripped-off from his Rune mod (well it is). I was playing it and said to myself, "I absolutely love this idea, but I feel like I'm just running around and cubing every rune I find with some piece of equipemnt or other." I wanted to take the idea of the Rune mod and (dare I say) perfect it.

I have one more version coming soon, which will fix the couple remaining bugs, add some new item varieties, and (with a little luck) add some brand-new items.

I was a little confused by the mention of reworked levels.txt and tougher monsters. I've not done anything with levels, other than disable weapon racks/armor stands. As far as monster toughness, I've not edited that either. If you've noticed the monsters are tougher, then it's simply a side effect (and a desireable one) to the controlled equipment environment.

So... what exactly would make this "worthy of a full review"? Does a mod have to seize controll of every aspect of the game to be considered a real mod?

[jbouley]

So... what exactly would make this "worthy of a full review"? Does a mod have to seize controll of every aspect of the game to be considered a real mod?

Bad phrasing on my part. Based on on the previous posts, I had gotten the impression that perhaps your mod was still due for some more major enhancements. In fact, your own post makes me think the same thing...that you aren't ready for a review yet

If the mod is in its more or less complete state, that's sufficient...assuming someone is ready to give it a full and complete review. Eisead doesn't feel comfortable doing it, I think, because he fears he'll end up giving it short-shrift.

But I'd be happy to have someone do a full review of your mod at some point, whether now or later...if someone feels up to the task and is willing to volunteer.

[Eisead]

Ouch, thats hurts

I have to agree with jbouley on the fact that I didn't think it was ready for a full review. But when I picked it up and played it I thought "Jeez, this mod is cool, I should write something about it." So I did.

And Second, I need to apoloize for the mention of monsters and levels, to many mods in one day, i got mixed up Sorry Thats why I cross check full reviews

But not releted to Master of Arms, but it got brought up. Maybe I'm just a hard reviewer. But having things such as redone monsters and a title screen does help a mod when it comes to the review block. It almost a thing that many mod player demand . But I would never hold something like that against a mod, I would more or less mention it a small senetece towrd the end. A good mod has playibly, clean and new features, and something the tells me, go kill baal again.

Yah, I think I'll go crawl back to my hole

[Kirel]

Kraj: I'm thoroughly enjoying the mod! Thanks for it. I like being able to plan my character instead of depending on blind luck.

Point of interest: It just crashed on me. Looks like you missed a weapon rack in the Mausoleum...

("Assertion Failure
Location : urce\D2Game\ITEMS\Items.cpp, line #101
Expression : nFindIndex < nCount")

- Kirel

[Kraj]

Hey folks! Look for the final update to be on the keep very soon. It'll fix the armor stand/weapon rack bug, (hopefully) take care of the Corpsefire silliness, and add a set geared toward each class. Other than that, there will be no more v1.09b updates to this mod. After 1.10 is out (yeah, sure) I'll continue the mod in a new direction. So, once you've got MoA v1.2, review away cuz there ain't gonna be no more changes :)

[Phrozen Heart]

[quote="Kraj";p="68026"]Hey folks! Look for the final update to be on the keep very soon...[/quote]

Guess that means I've actually gotta do a little work then huh?

So who's going for the MoA v1.2 review then guys?

[edit]As a testament to me not even paying attention to my own work, I was just reviewing the next Keep update and realized I've already coded the appropriate pages ready to be uploaded [/edit]

[Kraj]

Hey, now that there's a playable version of the damn thing out there, anyone want to go for the final review?

[Phrozen Heart]

EISEAD!?

[Eisead]

I must first apologize, School is coming to a head and its crunch time. I’ve been extremely busy and I overlooked reviewing. I’ll have you a review of Master of Arms by.. Tuesday-ish

Once school ends, and I get back from my week-and-a-half Leadership training segment I’ll be able to get review out much, much, quicker.

-Errick