New Mod for Old
tsuru has done it again, with an other update to the Eastern Sun Mod. You can get update patch R3E here, or visit the official website for more information. Stop by the forum for the latest words, and find out about the tournaments this mod's many followers conduct!
New Mod for New
A new project has begun by SheX, The Parallel Worlds. The mod is a playable beta covering Act 1 only at this point. You can download it from our File Center, or find out more in the announcement thread.
New Maps for You!
Diabolic Cartography is also starting the year strong, with seven new maps. SheX contributed a new Rogue Encampment, and Cubaholic went berserk with two new Countess levels and four new Graveyards. Enjoy!
New Plugin System for 1.11b
Ace codebender Nefarius has developed a method for constructing new code in the latest version of Diablo II. Modders everywhere rejoiced when SVR released the D2Mod System and some truly amazing plugins became available. But D2Mod only works with v1.10, which is why so many recent mods still look to the older version. When Blizzard released v1.11, then v1.11b, the code changes were too radical and mod support suffered. The NefEx Code Edit System makes advanced plugins possible for the latest version! Find out more here.
New Levels Plugin for v1.11b
Not one to rest on his laurels, Nefarius has developed a plugin for his new plugin system. This one builds upon afj666's earlier work to provide expansion capability beyond Blizzard's original 133 levels. Get the scoop here.
Data Overload
We have a new resource and a number of resource updates to announce. Nefarius is responsible for most of these...it has been a busy week for him!
- At long last, a file guide for Inventory.txt. This is where the big stashes and deep pockets are done!
- A complete listing of object tokens. Similar to monster tokens, these link the animations to the txt records.
- An update to the DifficultyLevels.txt file guide, with corrected information about UniqueDamageBonus and ChampionDamageBonus.
- From Necrolis we have a new Missile and Overlay Master List. Find out what all those mysterious DCC files show!
All in the Family
Charsi's Forge is back in business after service provider confusion. Our sister site is dedicated to mod projects that don't have all the bells and whistles PlanetDiablo expects when you apply for hosting. If you have a project on the front burner and don't want to get too involved in website design, stop by!
Screenshot of the Week
A new way to look at your skills is displayed in this week's offering. A couple of very small code edits discovered by RicFaith allows up to ten rows of skill icons in your speedbar. Got any good screenies you would like to see featured? PM an admin or senior moderator with details.
Lady Luck Strikes Twice
...for BrotherDog, the latest twofer winner in the OT Lottery! He collects another $20,500 on top of last week's nearly $100,000. Have you noticed the last few months have not been dominated by AdiTT? Why not go for the gold yourself? You know where to start...
Concept Review
We save the best for last, not the least because it is longer than our usual fare. Nefarius provided this review for the Update:
[align=center]Dark Planet
by Fish of Muu[/align]
This mod is about three infidels whos defiance angered the gods who in turn darkened the skies by taking away the sun. The plot as far as I understand cycles around a war that broke loose as a result.
On the gameplay department this mod is planned to change quite a few things, for example the mod author has linked magical damage to the amount of mana you've got left and physical damage to the amount of stamina you've got left, a nice twist, while this has been discussed often, not many mods have actually implemented it, It will be interesting to see if Fish of Muu succeeds on this front. Fish of Muu also replaced the strength requirement on items with a new weight stat (pretty much an encumberance system that slows you down the moment you start carrying around too much weight). As the name of the mod suggests, light radius items and skills that light up the place will be of pretty high importance in this mod to see anything, just what I'd expect from a mod focusing on a sunless world
. The mod makes stat points a lot more crucial as I see from the description, with only 1 point being available per cLvl, this is a nice approach if Fish of Muu succeeds in balancing the game around it. Fish of Muu also intends to completely alter the skill system with nine unique mini trees available to every class and more skill points available every cLvl, Fish of Muu intends to make the maximum level of each skill depend on the amount of points invested in skills on another tree, so the more power you pump into one tree, will reduce the maximum level attainable with other trees, again quite a balance challenge, that could turn out very interesting. The runewords in his mod will follow a logical pattern which is also something nice that I haven't seen too often.That is all we have for this week. Play on!!