May 6th, 2009   Posted by Adhin

Few changes... I'm working on some updates for the site, some may of noticed the intro has been changed which is an example of a the new menu screen (which is mostly done). I used some stock photos and created an animated 'Blackened' logo for the D2 menu, figured id use em here too just cause. Also updated the features page to hopefully be less confusing as to the current state of the mod (both that B3.5 is OLD and what I'm working on is almost like a new mod). And I listed that the mod is for v1.10 in 3 separate places - Intro, Downloads, and Features pages (probably throw it in about section when I get around to that too). I am also planning to do a few changes to the menu system on the webpage here, at the top header mostly. Just to have it blend in better with the left side (I was lazy before) and fade into the black much like it does on the lower left side. I had originally planned to do symbols for each left menu change depending on if it was on classes or whatever. Not sure if I'll ever get around to that but guess it really doesn't matter to much, looks good as is. As for news DIRECTLY on the mod its self, well its currently in a shift in balance for items. Necrolis had gotten in a change which allowed glove/boot slot to change the armor look and color them independently from torso armor. Due to what I had already in place I had opted to have that removed but ultimately I decided to go with it (It only got half removed and I figured, the less differences in are DLL's the smoother things will go between us - I can be stubborn as is). So what this ultimately means is instead of having an Artifact slot (which didn't have anything for it currently, and wouldn't in B4) and boots converted to Ioun Stone slot im now splitting up 'Armor' (torso) into 3 sections (listed out below). Amulet slot will become the new Ioun Stone slot, and the 2 ring slots will get turned into 'misc' slots (amulet and rings will go there + any misc charm like items I want to make). Chest Armor - the main chunk of armor factors (Armor Defense Rating and Armor Class). This'll change torso and shoulder graphic on player Sleeves/Gauntlets - half of the left-over ADR and AC of full sets goes into this section, it changes right/left armor graphic on the player (color as well) Leggings/Greaves - just like sleaves but handles the legs graphic/color There's a few new little features going a long with this to make it all match up with my older, simpler armor setup. Basically all of these will have a weight attached to them (in lb - not important to know lb's specifically, its just a number). Depending on the total weight is what class of armor you have on. For instance if you have 'less then 10' (1-9) its not considerd heavy enough to even count as 'light armor'. This is used for general clothing stuff, Padded armor, and Robes. 10-29 is Light Armor, 30-49 is for Medium and 50+ is Heavy. Class choices have proficiency training in Light, Medium, or Heavy (Heavy would count for all 3, medium would count for medium and light, and light only light). If your not proficient in an armor type you only get half benefit from the ADR. Now, this weight system really allows for a fluid setup, for instance a Breast Plate is 30 weight, its part of the 'Heavy' Full Plate set (Breast Plate, Plate Gauntlets, Plate Greaves), but alone with say, simple leather sleeve/pants it would be considered just Medium armor and be about the same ADR as full chain mail (which is also medium). Weight will also factor into run speeds, heavier armor your wearing the slower you run. STR will allow you to bypass the majority of the weight (20 str would compensate an entire full plate set). However depending on the category of legs your wearing (plate greaves being 'heavy') you'd have a base run speed you can't bypass with STR. So full Plate set, while str bypasses the weight limit there's still a -15% run speed cut. Its minor, doesn't make to big an impact considering you run much faster in B4 then base D2 (same walk speed though). There's also Arcane Cast Penalty (ACP) and Armor Dex. Penalty (ADP). There's no ACP on Legs, small amount on Chest (only heavy pieces), with a heavy dose of it on the Sleeves (some light, all medium and heavy). The Dex penalty has its own values, roughly same pattern but with a small penatly on leggings (just heavy leggings). ACP adds to your arcane spell delays, each point = 1 second, so getting to much can really hamper your ability to cast spells as a mage (which is why there's robes/clothing for mages). The ADP will basically cut into your Attack Rating IF your gaining it from Dexterity. What this basically means is if your an Archer (uses DEX as AR at base) you'll incur a -AR penalty due to to much armor. Or if your playing a Finesse melee-ist (aka, using Finesse passive with proper weapons and thus - dex is your AR source) you will also incur a penalty to your AR. Normal melee fighters (STR = AR/DMG) wont have to worry about ADP, and priests who use Zen Archery (Mentality for AR instead of Dex with a bow) also wont have to worry about the penalty. It's there to stifle AC stacking from dex and higher end armor. But a Weapon Master could easily go full medium armor and not worry to much, they have a lot of AR and the penalty they'd get (by using a BP and lighter arm/legs) would be so minimal they wouldn't really notice it. All depends on your combination and play style really. ...So ehh yeah, enough babbling from me today. Hopefully I'll have some more info soon. And Congrats if you read all of that nonsense heh.

 

Feb 26th, 2009   Posted by Adhin

Rawr? So one thing I've been currently working on have been some repopulation efforts for the game. Removed all of the existing monsters and making all new ones as replacements. Decided to do this because with the old monsters blizzard had they weren't as aggressive as I'd of liked and just altering global values wasn't balancing things out as I was wanting. So I figured for test purposes, and to get a head start on work to come after I complete all the character classes I'd go ahead and work on this part of the game - not as much as I have planned ultimately mind you, just a few things. Now I've got quite a good chunk of monsters in and working. I figured just for the hell of it I'd go ahead and list out all the monsters I have planned for the next test release (which means what will be in the next public release) with screenies for a few of em. Keep in mind majority of quick screen shots I take are in windows mode so, lighting is kinda crap. -Beasts- Stirge Giant Spider - Screenshot -Magical Beasts- Storm Bats - Screenshot Phase Spider -Monstrous Humanoids- Minotaur -Undead- Zombies Skeleton (one throws axes) Skeleton Archer Mummy Mummy Lord (Priest) Wraith - Screenshot Dread Wraith Shadow Greater Shadow Grave Shadow -Extraplanar- Red Slaad - Screenshot Blue Slaad Green Slaad - Screenshot 1, 2, 3 Gray Slaad Death Slaad This isn't everything that'll be in the test, I plan to do some demons but I'm not really decided on which ones. I'll also probably do the 4 elementals as well. Few things - Dread Wraith looks same as wraith (though color change). Minotaur uses graphic from A5 minotaur things. Red Blue and Green Slaad use same graphic (all act differently) but Gray and Death have there own, separate graphics from the other 3 slaad. Phase Spider looks like a giant spider but colored white (and it teleports/acts differently). Storm Bat's turn blue like that (they 'spark up') before they use a small electric nova that does about x2 there normal dmg, but its used once and the state dissipates. In general I've done a lot of play testing with each monster I've created here (and will do for ones not yet done) to try and ensure there behaviors as ruthless as the monster should be, trying to make the encounters a challenge. But you know, some are just to stupid to go to crazy with like Zombies. I mean, c'mon - its a damn zombie. But they'll still pose a threat surprisingly in numbers - you will be hit, you will take damage and if you get surrounded chances are you'll die. Well, Unless you tipple there lvl and have a solid items then you really shouldn't worry to much as you can destroy the fewls quick like. Oh yeah, thinking of using Diablo model as a balor/balrog...

 

Feb 18th, 2009   Posted by Adhin

Stupid web-thingy... I've been working quite heavily lately, made a lot of progress and whatnot. It's taken me so long to update as I seem to of had lost my damn FrontPage CD (yes I know, its scary I use that for this). I'm terrible at language stuff, html included. Oh and this will be a long post. So recently (few months ago) ran into a little issue with the system of classes and skills. Turns out the 3 skills I had didn't work out as well as I was hoping, everything else was fine, sort of. Biggest issue with base 3E (d20, DnD) is not everyones exactly 'equal'. Which works fine for PnP and a game incorporating all of the rules but I was having to really mutilate a lot of it to fit it into D2. What this meant was I'd have to gut that system to keep it going but that meant redoing thousands of lines of work over again just to get back to where I was with a system that had the unique classes with far more options then the 4 base ones, which meant the base ones where mostly just added flavor. So I was left with 2 options the way I saw it - quit completely, or revamp the entire system to something both completely different and yet keep the same class idea, with sub-classing. So I kinda went with option two, obviously since I'm still working. Now don't freak out to much I already have all the base stuff done, and at the moment I'm even working on some monsters to add in. I plan to get just enough (with out adding new mon-graphics in) to populate all 5 acts. Your probably wondering what the heck the new stuff is right? Well first off I'm no longer making a distinction between Spells, Feats, Skills, whatevers. It's all just skills again, its simpler. All skills have a max level of 5, regardless of who's class there under or whatever, always max 5. As for classes its a 2-3 step process, at level 1 you select your base class 'everyone' has the same base classes, in fact Tab 1 (where you pick them and there skills) is identical for all characters. Every base class has 3 skills associated to it and theres also 8 shared passives on the same tab - all of that is shared for all characters, tab 1 is Identical for all. At level 6 you select an Advanced Class. Now theres 4 'shared' ones (one for each base class) that all characters have access to, that would show up on the left side of each Tab, where as the right side of the tab would be unique Advanced Classes to that character. So for instance you could always play a Fighter/Weapon Master regardless of your character. But if you wanted to play say a, Mage/Necromancer  you'd have to select the Nerullite (Necro char, not sure if that racial name will stay). I'll do a quick list here on the tabs, it'll just be the shared stuff which ALL is done and working right now, hence why I'm doing monsters. -Tab 1: Base Classes and Passives- Fighter: Power Attack, Expertise, Cleave Rogue: Opportunist, Vital Strikes, Evasion Priest: Heal, Bless, Armor of Faith Mage: Magic Missile, Mage Armor, Dimension Door Passives: Toughness, Concentrate, Improved Initiative, Weapon Finesse Passives: Spellcaster Prodigy, Strong Soul, Dodge, Zen Archery -Tab 2: Advanced Fighters- Weapon Master: Universal Skills: Keen Strikes, Superior Focus Melee Skills: M.Specialize, Sunder, Rend, Ki Strike, Whirlwind Ranged Skils: R.Specialize, Aim Low, Puncture, Focus Shot, Swarm of Arrows -Tab 3: Advanced Rogues- Monk: Ki Aura: Ki Aura, Spark (Earth), Spark (Fire), Spark (Wind), Spark (Water) Passives: Still Mind, Fast Movement, Diamond Soul Abilities: Stunning Kick, Ki Blast, Ki Discharge, Wholeness of Body (heal) -Tab 4: Advanced Priests- Warpriest: Damage Spells: Spiritual Hammer, Glyph of Warding, Flame Strike AoE Buffs: EnhanceStrength, Enhance Vitality, Spell Resistance, Battletide Single Buffs: Magic Weapon, Magic Vestment, Death Ward, Divine Favor Healing: Mass Heal -Tab 5: Advanced Mages- Archmage: Passive/Buffs: Wildmage, Spell Focus: Evocation, Warding Fire: Combust, Burning Hands, Meteor Swarm Lightning: Electrocute, Lightning Bolt, Chain Lightning Cold: Icy Grasp, Coldsnap, Ice Spike If you managed to read this far, congrats! And if you want to do any private testing try to contact me in IRC, either phrozen-keeps channel or blackened one. You can get to either via the web-based IRC at phrozen-keep. If you know how to use IRC programs like mIRC, we're on gamesurge, #Phrozen-Keep or #Blackened-mod (or both?).

 

July 23th, 2008   Posted by Adhin

My Laziness knows no bounds... Alright so I haven't posted in a while, year or some nonsense. But hey I'm still working on the project so y'all forgive me, yeah? Well I've made some changes to the overall system of how classes are handled. There's now a sub-class system in place where, at level 1 you select your 'base class'. At level 11 your allowed to select a sub-class (only 1) but this will take a feat point away, and gives you access to about half the feats that class would have if it was taken as a base. What this essentially means is if your characters a caster, such as a necromancer you never dilute your primary spell/feat powers, your 100% necromancer...your just adding on some flavor with the sub-class. Thanks to the wonderful efforts of Necrolis, there has been a rather large overhaul of the code changes. A very sexeh prime example of this would be we now have 'State Tracking'. Basically there little icons on the side of the screen (left for buffs, right for debuffs) that show when a state is on you (if I want you to know that states on you). And, I've got a little screenshot to show off the feature. State Tracking and Runic Items As you may notice the mouse is over a unique helm. This is a representation of what I'm calling Runic items. Runic Items are considered uniques and replace rare items as drops. Basially there a unique that can drop on multiple base items. For instance Tranquility can appear on helms and staffs. The other thing about runics (and why I'm calling them 'Runic') is your capable of creating them with Runes and the Cube. For instance, with Tranquility there. If you have a Helm, or a Masterwork Staff  of some kind. You would place it with the runes R, and O in the cube and combine, you'd get that base item with Tranquility on it. And as i said earlier they can also drop off monsters as uniques. That's about all the news I have other then im close to having 4 unique classes done (working on Cleric at the moment). And once I do have him done ill be creating a MPQ version of the mod, and doing play tests. From that point on, I'll be doing closed beta tests (and ill be taking sign ups later) for each unique class, once all 7 is done ill be publicly released Blackened Release 4.0. On and another screen shot (the msg is only to the player who got the crit....) Crit Screenshot - Enjoy