Keep Update 11/22/03

[Myhrginoc]

We have had a full week at the Keep! I am a day late but not a dollar short getting this update out to you. Patch 1.10 has been out almost a month now, and people who waited for the betas to stabilize have are releasing. Well...almost everybody...

Little Sister Site
We have rather stringent requirements for hosting mods, and even getting a thread in Non-Hosted Mods can seem onerous at first. Our reason is to feature relatively finished products (although no mod is truly finished) for you to read about and download. But projects in formative stages get left behind. Or perhaps a modmaker prefers alternate hosting. The PK Incubator is now up and running to provide a home for up-and-comers. As Jeff Bouley says: "This is primarily to be a place where new modders can get a site and a Web presence while their mods are still in pre-development, early development, or early testing stages. Theoretically, once they release mods, they should be able to apply for hosting at Phrozen Keep, essentially "graduating" from this site."

Magical Modifiers
kingpin picked up where Nefarius left off, and presents the Magical Modifiers list for v1.10. Magical modifiers are the properties that make a weapon something other than a stick or slab of steel, give that extra protection in armor, and allow rings and amulets to be something more than pretty baubles. Find out all the new things you can add to items!

Events List
Some modifiers and skills cause events to happen, such as the damage to attackers from Thorns or the thorns magical modifier. A round of applause to Forsaken for organizing these events into a handy list. Get it here.

A New Home and a New Version
Varaya and Khan have moved their mod website to PlanetDiablo, update bookmarks to here. Set in the universe of J.R.R.Tolkein, this may well be the oldest concept mod of all with roots in the original Diablo. And if that is not enough, v1.9 is now released for Patch 1.10!

In His Own Words...
Kato said it best: "ZyEl mod version 3.3A (for 1.09d) is released. I have updated my mod for 1.09 - yet again. I refuse to do any modding on the 1.10 patch until they've resolved some of those bugs. There have been persistent rumours of a certain super-model appearing in my mod. I want to state now and unequivocally, that these rumours are completely, totally and 100% . . ." Kato will continue to support v1.09 for the forseeable future, and a whole new mod is planned when he is satisfied with 1.10's stability. Read about his projects here.

Something New
Adhin has released a beta of his new mod, Blackened. The mod is intended to be a melding of the story depths of the Forgotten Realms and the dungeon crawling randomness of D2 we all know and love. Get the details and the files at the Blackened website.

The Hordes Are Coming! The Hordes Are Coming!
A new beta is available for The Hordes of Chaos, brought to you by Darque and Onyx. Get the details and download the beta at the Hordes of Chaos website.

See It to Believe It!
Volf and kingpin are pioneering a new way to see works in progress - in-game video demos!
- Volf's Mod demo video. Requires Windows Media Player.
- Dark Alliance demo video. Requires DivX v5.01 or better and a media player.

Mods and Mods and Mods
- Character Builder v1.0 for v1.10 by Kittina. Read here for details.
- Cheater's Choice Mod v1.0 for v1.10 by Volf. Read here for details.
- Valhalla v3.4 for v1.10 by Afterlife. Read here for details.
- Drop Mod for v1.10 by Reiyo_oki. Read here for details.
- Corrupted Death v1.4 for v1.09 by ChaoticDeath and FirEFroG. (No separate readme yet.)

Talk About It!
You asked for it, you can get it! Here is a web-based interface to the Unofficial Phrozen Keep Chat Site on IRC. The interface is preset to connect you to several channels.

New Monster Plugin
Onyx releases a new Hellfire plugin "The Felltwin" on Incandescence.

Gearhead Goodies
A few releases from Myhrginoc's Code Shop, available at the File Center DLL plugins page:
- Rebased D2Common.dll -- this version is identical to Blizzard's except the preferred loading address no longer conflicts with D2Game.dll.
- New Titles plugin, D2Extra Toolkit, Tutorial and Jump Table -- maintenance fixes to keep base relocations at bay.