Keep Update 10 Aug, 2021

[kingpin]

ITS ABOUT TIME!!!

Yes, I know we been off with news for years. This doesnt means there havent been any news to report. It have only been the staff been busy for different reasons and haven't put the needed effort into news.

But, there is a change to come.....

Yes, YES yessss...

You know what I'm going to talk about.

We all know about Diablo 2: Resurrected are coming. A date is known for quite some time now and Diablo 2: Resurrected alpha was earlier this year around februari for invite only. As we lacked invite to alpha we couldnt cover it from own gameplay experience.

Early Access beta starts 13 Aug, 2021 and will contain first and second chapter like the closed alpha. We will have access to two additional classes Paladin and Druid. This means 5 classes is accessable now. Only Necromancer and Assassin are missing out now. that will be available at launch.

Open beta starts 20 Aug, 2021 and will contain same as early access.

You can read more about it here at Blizzard section

There is somethings interesting to read in their FAQ that give some valued information. As Phrozen keep is mainly a community about modding the Diablo 2: Resurrected will change modding alot.

Lets head over the FAQ and I will make some comments to them.


Q: Why is my character still attacked while at a loading screen?
A: As mentioned in the Technical Alpha Learnings blog, characters will no longer spawn in a hostile place until the game is fully loaded, preventing characters from getting attacked or harmed during a loading screen. This fix is not in the build for the Early Access and Open Beta, but it will be in the game for launch. We didn’t want to delay the timing of the upcoming tests for this issue.

Reflection: This is the major issue as player and is potentional a game breaking experience. It's great it get fixed before launch, or it would kill the player experience completely. I would wish they fixed the long loading times, but most likely that would require to high hardware requirement to solve.


Q: Will TCP/IP support be available in the Early Access to Open Beta tests?
A : TCP/IP support will not be available in the upcoming Beta or the final game. After careful deliberation, we will no longer be supporting this option as we identified potential security risks and are committed to safeguarding the player experience.

Reflection: This is a major part for mods. Remove tcp-ip will affect modding alot, as people want to experience their work or others work together in multiplayer. This decision is very strange decision for it's reason. As someone who know the code in diablo 2 alot. I dont know why this would be a potentional security risk. It's for sure somethings else behind this decision, but easier to play around with technical words. This decision could be a make or break it for mods to arise in Diablo 2: Resurrected. Time will tell if we will see any larger mods coming, or if modders go back to mod their belowed Diablo2: Legacy instead.


Q: Will there be a physical edition of Diablo II: Resurrected?
A: Diablo II: Resurrected is a digital-only product.

Reflection: This was kinda expected to happend. But, worth mention for collectors this is a sad part.


Addition not mentioned in FAQ:
We dont know if modding will be enabled in early access or open beta. If modding is opened up we will start posting guides.

I have one final word to mentioned NO CODE EDITING (read code injection) is allowed in diablo 2: Resurrected. This means any code heavy mods or mods that is very popular realm mods like Median, Path of Diablo or Project Diablo 2 is possible in diablo 2: Resurrected. This also means we arent allowed to fix any bugs in Diablo 2: Resurrected or add complete new features. Also, dont ask for enable any disabled features on forum or discord. We will not have any code editing section for diablo 2: Resurrected here on keep. We always want to stay within Blizzard's rules regarding modding. We wish they would have reach us out from Diablo 2: Resurrected team and discussed with us how to improve modding. We have helped Blizzard to keep the game alive for 20 years by support mods.


Over to news been suppose to be written during 2020. I will post them here and catch up with other modding news overtime.

Plugins/Tutorials/Other releases
Shex - Lost Mage has some new map plugins, some of them using tilesets from across acts, and others that more closely resemble how they looked in beta.
You can check them out here
Leekun has released a ton of new assets from Planescape Torment, you can find his map plugins here and his creature pack here
- Bonus, a D1 Tristram map in the style of D2 Download

CaiMiao has released a new tool that allows you to easily import new fonts for your mod, check it out here

- Staff Updates: Welcome Spike, Kieran, Meanski, Korelik, Shalzuth, Classics, Ivenend to the staff who have joined during the 2020/2021.
- D2 "Fan Remaster":
- D2 Diaramas (Act I & Act II): https://www.instagram.com/witolszewski/
- D4 June Update: https://news.blizzard.com/en-us/diablo4 ... -june-2020


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This was all for today, I see you in another 2 years?? sorry was just joking, I will try post news as frequently as my time allows it! have a great time playing diablo 2: Resurrected with start on friday for pre-orders.