[02-06] June, 2002
Description: Archived Keep updates.
Categories: Keep Updates
June 29, 2002
by JBouley (Jeff)
This is gonna be real short (I've had unexpected work this week and I'm still desparately trying to finish
version 2.0 of my mod)...However, I should have something more to post early in the week...so at
least you won't have too wait long for the next bit of news. :-)
The File Center is still a work in progress, but it's coming along nicely. I've been helping Phrozen
with some of the uploading, and he's working as fast as possible on the File Center pages themselves. You can
visit the File Center (in its unfinished but still very useful state) by visiting
http://files.d2mods.com.
In other news, we have a new interview from Deathscythe, this time with Rexx Laww of the Darkness Weaves mods.
Head to the Interviews link in our NavBar...or just
click here to read it.
Also, got a small but nice item pack from giacatdangkhoa with 'dolls' of the various D2 enemies, and a few other
inventory graphics as well, such as some swords and such. Until it gets a permanent home in the File Center, you
can get it from our temporary folder by
clicking here.
Catch you in a few days with more stuff. Ciao for now...
June 22, 2002
by Phrozen
Nothing special, just thought I'd chime in and say sorry to everyone that this file center
situation is taking so long but with the Phrozen Forums along with behind the scenes work
here at the Keep, it's turning into quite a slow process. As Jeff's mentioned before, you
can access the file center by visiting http://files.d2mods.com
which is growing slowly but surely. The tools section is done for now, the animation
plugin part is nearly done too and my next area to work with is the rest of the plugins
followed after that by the mods archive which is going to be a pretty mammoth task ;-)
While I'm here and on the subject of animation plugins in the file center, some of you
may have noticed the absense of any animations from Diablo 1 or Hellfire. This is because
our hosted site Incandescense has
now become our sole source of D1 and HF related materials. Whether it's the Butcher's sound
bite or acid beast animations for your mod, Incandescent One has all your Diablo 1 needs
covered :-) Click here to visit Incandescence!
You'll have to wait for Jeff to get the next real update because I'm too busy :-P
btw. If you hadn't guessed it, I archived last month's news too...
June 20, 2002
by JBouley (Jeff)
Just a few quick things. There will be another update over the weekend or on Monday. But before we get to
the 'good stuff' today, I just want to remind anyone who hasn't been reading the news updates that the File Center
is being reconstructed from scratch. Go to the recent news items below this current update to get the links
to the functioning areas of the File Center, and to link to new mods until we get the Mod Archives back in
action. (By the way, Phrozen Heart and I will be starting on the Mod Archives part of the File Center in the very near
future.)
Also, a quick bit of shameless self-promotion for myself: Version 2.0 of Sanctuary in Chaos is very close to
completion, and will be out by next week...possibly over this weekend if all goes well. Barring, of course, any of the
usual major crises and disasters that enjoy striking my life at random. Check out my forum for more on the mod, and look
for a revamp of my hosted site here, which will soon be oriented toward the expansion and my current mod, instead
of housing old classic D2 stuff exclusively. ;-)
Behold the New Dawn
Maxx Power has another review for us, this time of the mod 'New Dawn X.' You can find it in our Mod Reviews
section, or you can just
click here to see it this very moment.
Changing Monsters to Suit Your Mod
Alkalund has provided a very thorough tutorial on changing monster animations, along with explanations of
what the various filnames and animations are. This is more advanced that the simple token change method described
in my own monster animation tutorial, but not as complex as dealing with hex editing and .cof file issues. Go to
our Tutorials section to read it, or just
click here.
Improving Odds for Items
From RelliK comes 'The Economy Mod', which basically improves your ability to get good items, without unduly
unbalancing game economy. Vendors don't pay as much for your items, but the odds of rares, sets and uniques dropping
is increased, as well as the chances of good magical affixes appearing on items. Vendors in Nightmare sell only
exceptional items and those in Hell sell only elites. Rings, runes, amulets, charms and jewels are all buyable. There
are other changes as well, including various useful Horadric Cube recipes, and you can get the mod by
clicking here, at least until the Mod Archives are up and running.
June 14, 2002
by JBouley (Jeff)
Sorry for the one-day delay in the weekly update. My FTP program decided to 'lose' all my login info
for this site (and every other site in my site manager file), and my freelance work really picked up.
But there's some good stuff here...worth the small wait, I think. ;-).
But before I get to all that, I just want to remind you that while our File Center is still under
re-construction (Phrozen Heart has been pouring every available second into the process, but it's a huge task...
and I wish we lived in the same state so I could buy him a few pints for his troubles), some areas are either
complete...or at least complete enough that the most critical downloads are in place.
They are the the Mod Tools section, which you can get to by
clicking here, and the
Patch section, which you can visit by
clicking here.
According to Phrozen Heart, the Patches section is complete and Mod Tools is nearly so. And there's another one to add:
He's also nearly finished with the Resources portion of the File Center, which you can reach by
clicking here.
Next on the 'to-do' list will be the Plug-Ins section. Three cheers for my fellow webmaster! Go Phrozen, go Phrozen...
Can't Remember Our URL?
Well, we all know that the Phrozen Keep's URL is a tad...unwieldy. And you may not always be at a computer where you've
bookmarked this site. The answer? We give you another URL that's easier to remember. The current one remains our 'real' URL,
but you can also now link to us through http://www.d2mods.com. Best yet, we have unlimited subdomain redirects as well.
So, for the Phrozen Forums, it's http://forums.d2mods.com and for the Off-Topic Forums it's http://ot.d2mods.com.
And the File Center is http://files.d2mods.com...but remember, like I already said, that File Center is still
under construction, so don't e-mail me about how some of the sections are 'broken.'
Our hosted sites are also welcome to have these simpler URL redirects...if you are a hosted site and want a
www.XXXX.d2mods.com redirect, let Phrozen Heart or me know.
Oh, and by the way, it was the generosity of some visitors and members who donated through that Amazon Honor
Progam link on the bottom left corner of this page that made the purchase of the new URLs possible. Thanks
to all of you who gave...we really do spend your money on the Keep, not on our wives. ;-)
'Iron Man' Mod Gets a Refit
RexxLaww's 'Darkness Weaves' mod was recently rebuilt to fix some bugs and make some tweaks. You can get it by
clicking on the Darkness Weaves link in the Hosted Mods box at left, or you can use this link right here
www.planetdiablo.com/dweaves. Now, remember, this is an iron man mod.
That means you have to live with whatever you find from monsters and chests. You pretty much cannot buy anything.
It's definitely not a mod for the faint of heart...but it does add a real element of survival and risk.
You Beast, You!...Yes, Play as a Monster
Several mods in the works are changing the animations and skills for the characters, including one that Apocalypse Demon
is working on and one that Zhoulomcrist is putting together. But it all started with Brother Laz and his 'Demon Trip'
mod, which allows you to play as monsters, with very extensive and radical changes to skills and gameplay. As I understand
it, some (maybe all?) of the characters now rely on spells, not actual attacks, and they start with items that give
you the ability to use those combat spells. Also, you can only choose from among four of the characters...so DON'T choose an
Amazon, Paladin, or Barbarian unless you like chrashes.
You can get the mod by
clicking here. It's in a temporary file until the File Center is up and the Mod Archives restored. I understand that
the readme file in that .zip is not very easy to follow nor very complete, but you can visit a thread on this mod in our
forums by clicking here, where you'll
also be able to see a little of Caan, who has taken up where Brother Laz left off and who will be taking the mod in
some very new directions. In fact, it's gonna be a whole new mod with an entirely different name. Check out the Visitor
Announcements forum to learn more about Caan's efforts.
Better Drops and More
Another mod I've placed in our temporary folder for now is titled (right now, at least...the author is not sure if it
will change) the 'Super Unique Monster Helper' mod. In general, super unique and boss monsters drop unique items, set items,
runes, and gems at better rates so that you don't have to wait forever to find them. In some cases, enemies will drop partial
sets to make your set-hunting a little easier. Also, the few runewords Blizzard activated have been beefed up, though no
new runewords have yet been added. Other changes have also been made...but you can download the mod and consult the
readme file for more on that. Thanks to Meneldil for making this mod and sending it to me. You can download it by
clicking here.
And...Yet Another Mod
I'm just stuffing our Temp folder full today, aren't I? I know we'll all be glad when the Mod Archives are back in
action...Phrozen Heart will probably be happiest of all. Anyway, this last mod is called 'Orbital Fushion,' and it's
from a guy known as {filtered}. The file is a .rar, not a .zip, so you'll need WinRar or some other program that
can read .rar files to uncompress it. Unfortunately, as I don't have WinRar and has long since lost the e-mail
he sent me...I don't remember exactly what changes were made to this mod. Sorry about that. But you can get it by
clicking here.
A More Up-to-Date Shadowmaster
Last time, I gave you a link to an early version of Shadowmaster. Well, now we have the most recent
version online. It's still a beta, as the author never really 'completed' it and possibly never will.
But still, this version, 0.87, is still a very useful character editor. It's in a temporary file now until
we update the File Center and get it all back online. To get Shadowmaster 0.87, just go ahead and
click here. Chances are that Phrozen Heart will add it to the Mod Tools section of the File Center (see my
note at the top of this update about the File Center) as soon as he can, but the Temp Folder will do for now.
June 6, 2002
by JBouley (Jeff)
Remember, we have a new forum up and running. If you go to the old site, you can only
view old threads (a wealth of information, true...but not very interactive). To view the new forums,
which have a lot more functionality than the old ones,
click here.
If you haven't registered there yet, please do. Also, whether you are a new or existing member of
the forums, make sure to read the Terms of Service. They've been updated recently with important
information you need to know to make sure you don't violate any rules. Also, check out the Staff
Annoucements Forum on a regular basis. Important announcements about terms of service changes and other
critical forums issues get posted there by the admins and moderators.
One other thing: You may have noticed that the links for downloading mods and modding tools have
been taken down recently. Phrozen Heart is rebuilding the entire File Center from the ground up, so please
be patient while we get things together. It's going to look much better, be much more functional that it
has been lately, and will be easier to navigate.
Two areas of the File Center are more or less up and running (though not yet 100% complete),
the Mod Tools section, which you can
click here to visit and the Patch section, which you can visit by
clicking here. Still
a fair amount of work to go, but at least it's a start if you need some critical tools right now. We will let
you know when the File Center is completely up and running.
Everything Old is New Again
The Ancients: The Fury Within mod has been updated to a new version: V 1.01. You can use the Hosted Sites link
on the left side of the page to visit the site for that mod any time you want, or you can just
click here if you cannot wait.
The 'Inside Information' You Need
Visit our revamped File Guides section
for resources to help you make sense of the columns in various .txt files you work with. Recently updated file guides include
the automagic.txt
file guide, the hireling.txt
file guide, the magicprefix.txt file
guide, the magicsuffix.txt
file guide, and the weapons.txt
file guide, all courtesy of Ric Faith.
New Home for Mod
The Eternal-Destruction mod has a new home and a new Web site design. You can visit it at
www.wildaim.com/ed/index.html. It's one the 'Other Mod Links'
that has been listed for a while in our links on the left side of the page. If the link there hasn't been
updated yet to the new URL, it will be soon.
A Mod 'to Die For'
Recently added to our 'Other Mod Links' list at left is the site for the Suicidal Tendencies mod
(currently in beta testing) from Spin and Aludin, which can be found at
http://iceman.maxcom.nl/d2mod/.
Not surprisingly, the mod is for Diablo 2 LoD version 1.09d, though three 1.09b dlls are provided with mod so that
you can avoid some of the bugs Blizzard introduced with 1.09d. Features include the return of the Black Tower Key
that Blizzard never really implemented in the game (but left and entry and graphic for), lowered levels on set items,
increased drop rates for high-level runes so that you'll find them before you're old and gray-haired, the full
roster of 170 runewords, more items, more monster variety, new cube recipes and much more.
Another Character Editor
We have Jamella's Hero Editor in the tools section of the Keep, but we never had Shadowmaster, another useful character
editor. Well, now we do. For the moment, I've uploaded it to a temporary area you can reach by
clicking here. That location will likely change when Phrozen Heart finishes up the File Center. But at least for now,
you have a place you can go to get this tool. The version I uploaded is version 0.82 and is designated a beta version.
It's served me well for making test characters and other things, even though some planned features aren't yet in place
in this version. If there is a more recent version someone would like to point me to, please e-mail me about it and
I'll get it uploaded as soon as I can.
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[url=https://www.d2mods.info/forum/kb/viewarticle?a=137&sid=4e1a0091dc0dfcd28d7544b574f7da6d]Knowledge Base - [02-06] June, 2002[/url]