[03-07] July, 2003
Description: Archived Keep updates.
Categories: Keep Updates
July 24th, 2003
by JBouley
Well, once again (as usual) there are more things that I wanted to put into the update, but time has been short...so I
didn't get to everything. On the bright side, I want to get back on the regular Monday or Tuesday update schedule again.
So, with a few things left over, maybe I can actually find time to do an update after the weekend and get back on the
more predictable update track.
News From Baldur's Gate
Eisead uploaded a set of reference guides for the Baldur's Gate Mod v1.06 to help people who want to know more about
what sets to complete, what uniques to hunt for, and so on.
(Get the Guides)
(Visit the BG Mod Site)
First of the File Guides
Another new file guide for you for beta patch 1.10. This time, the MonUMod.txt file.
(Visit the 1.10 Beta Guide Section)
(View the Guide)
Oh, the Torment...
I re-uploaded the Boss Torment mod again recently because it was missing the sounds.txt file. However, if you downloaded the
version without the sound file, fear not. The sounds.txt file is also available as a separate download now for those who
don't want to do an 87 MB download again.
(Get the Mod)
(Get the Sounds File)
Tools and Stuff
We've got a couple modmaking tools and a 1.10 beta patch for you.
A Clean Patch Job
If you need an unmodded patch_d2.mpq file for beta 1.10, we've got one for you in the Clean Install Files area of the
'Patches' part of the File Center.
(Get the MPQ)
Finding Those TXT Files
Also have a new datafile for you to use with MPQView if you need to extract files from the Beta 1.10 patch. With 1.10,
many new .txt files have been introduced that won't be found if you use the datafiles for v1.09.
(Get the Datafile)
Peering Out at You
Evil Peer has released a new version of the Peer TBL Editor, bringing it up from v3.37 to v3.38.
(Get the Editor)
July 17th, 2003
by JBouley
Well, this update didn't happen on Monday or Tuesday as I had planned, but you still didn't even have to wait a week
for it, so I'm still providing you a little bit of a bonus. At least, I hope I am.
And, things are hopping around here. Phrozen Heart was able to rise above his real-life Internet-access problems and
lack of free time (temporarily, at least) to produce some Web pages with tutorials and file guides for 1.10 (and other
site work as well)...thank goodness, too, because I was running out of energy and Myhrginoc was only able to gain
admin-level access to the site as of yesterday. Whew! Oh, and if you're interested in seeing what the staff composition
looks like right now after the recent promotions, click here. Anyway, I have a wide variety of
modding goodness to pass along this update. Off we go...
Hosted Site News
One site gets a new look; another gets a new home (sort of).
Darkness Weaves Site
RexxLaww whipped out his online surgical tools and gave this site a face-lift that he seems to have been wanting to get
done for a while now. It's still a work in progress, but feel free to drop by for a visit now and again.
(Visit the Site)
Baldur's Gate Forum
As you may recall from earlier episodes of our home page update, Eisead is the new modder in charge of the Baldur's Gate
mod for D2. Between real life and awaiting the release of patch 1.10, there hasn't been much for him to get all fired up
about. But that's changing now, and he's getting ready to start putting together a BG Mod for patch 1.10. Because this new
incarnation of the mod is still in development, Eisead has asked me to move the BG Mod forum in our
Phrozen Forums to the 'in development' hosted site area
instead of the 'released' area. He'll also be updating the BG Mod site at some point,
but for now it remains the same, and the downloads for the patch 1.09 versions of the mod are still available.
(Visit the Forum)
First of the File Guides
Well, technically, we have a goodly number of 'file guides' in the Phrozen Forums already, which are being posted in a
single thread on the topic of...of course...file guides for 1.10. Three such guides have been nicely formatted thanks to
the work of staff members (including Paul Siramy, kingpin and Red Havoc) and Phrozen Heart (I cannot take any credit). They are up
in our File Guides area under a special section for the 1.10 BETA patch. Remember, these guides
are for the beta, so they will be changing as modders learn more, and they will probably change again when 1.10 is officially
released. So please, don't think of these as 'modding gospels' yet...just as very excellent beginning resources.
(Visit the New 1.10 Beta Guide Section)
(View Armor Guide)
(View Difficulty Levels Guide)
(View Superuniques Guide)
Tutorials, Too...
File Guides aren't all we have. We also have new tutorials for 1.10. Again, these may change, though probably less so, once
the official patch 1.10 comes out. As with the file guides, a special area has been established for the beta version of 1.10,
and no pages will be added to the official 1.10 tutorials area until 1.10 is, well, official.
;-)
(Visit New 1.10 Beta Tutorials Section)
(View 'Creating New Auras' by ChaoticDeath)
(View 'Randomizing Preset Levels' by kingpin)
(View 'Creating Temporary Stat-Altering Potions' by Drackin)
Have We Forgotten 1.09 Already?
Hell no! Not everyone is ready to try out the 1.10 BETA patch yet. Even when it does come out officially, not everyone will
want to switch over right away (90% of you will, sure...but not everybody). And so, in this spirit, our intrepid mod
reviewer, Eisead (yup, same guy who inherited the BG Mod), has provided two...count them, two!...new reviews for 1.09 mods.
Wanna see 'em? Click on the links below...
(Read Review of Kraj's Master of Arms v1.2)
(Read Review of Blue Orange's Nude Assassin mod v1.0)
More Music, Maestro
And another couple of gifts to you all: Something that can be used for 1.09, 1.10, or just to tickle your eardrums with
sonic pleasure. That's right, two new compositions from Elafar. This time, one of his tunes is named in honor of my
Sanctuary in Chaos mod. I didn't pressure him, I swear! Heck, I didn't even know he had played my mod extensively.
(Get 'March of Despair')
(Get 'Sanctuary in Chaos)
And Now, a Grab-Bag of 1.09 and 1.10 Mods
Four mods to bring to you right now: one an update for 1.09, one a new mod for 1.09, and two of them mods created
for the 1.10 BETA patch.
For 1.09
Boss Torment Mod by James Suber
Play as Andariel, the Cow King, Diablo, Baal or Duriel, complete with powers emulating what they flung at you when you were
being the hero in 'vanilla' Diablo 2. You even get a soulstone to carry around, folks (which acts as your Horadric Cube).
One important note: I had to take down this mod for a day or so because of serious bugs. The fixed version was uploaded on
July 16, so if you downloaded the mod before then, you might want to consider downloading it again (even though it IS a huge
mod file...more then 80 MB).
(Get the Mod)
Punisher Mod by Hardy
Updated to version 1.2.1b on July 15.
(Get the Mod)
For 1.10 Beta
Tinkers Mod by Jawdrooler and Nexus
These modders couldn't wait to start fixing problems in 1.10...even before Blizzard does (we hope) in the official 1.10
patch. This project is a fusion of .mpq files and plugins, created, the modders say, 'out of frustration in not having a
expanded stash in beta 1.10 LOD. So, we tinkered with plugins to create something that fixes 1.10's obvious discrepancies,
i.e. stash and droprate.'
(Get the Mod)
Diablo Clone Mod by Tekron-X
No, we still don't know what triggers the 'world event' in v1.10 of D2 (and it probably isn't even active yet in the beta
patch, since it's supposed to be a Realms-only experience). In fact, we don't plan on revealing the secret even if someone
tell us what the triggering actions are. But, you can get a mod that spawns the 'Diablo Clone' who almost certainly seems
to be involved in the World Event, and you can get the powerful Annihilus charm that also seems to be part of that event
(in the Nightmare and Hell levels of this mod, you can get the charm, anyway...not in Normal). Tekron-X weakened the Diablo
Clone to make him not so hard to kill...which is good, since he spawn in the Blood Moor in Act 1 in this mod.
(Get the Mod)
I realize that the mods for 1.10 are, so far, fairly simple ones. That is to be expected, as the beta version of the 1.10
patch only recently came out. Many modders will probably wait until the patch is official before modding. Others might mod the
beta but are still figuring out the new files. And for modders with 1.10 mods already planned, this beta patch is serving mostly
as a way to get a head-start on finishing their mods quickly when 1.10 becomes official. So, don't expect too many highly advanced
1.10 mods just yet. Simply enjoy the ones we have, and revel in the joy that 1.10 is finally no longer a dream.
July 11th, 2003
by JBouley
A few people have been enquiring what happened to the usual Monday or Tuesday update. Well, there are four reasons I
didn't do it: (1) extremely busy, especially getting things in order with Phrozen Heart's departure (which will, I hope,
only be a temporary and short one); (2) you got one on the 4th of July, which means it's only been a week since the last
one; (3) my stepson came to spend the summer with us, which has taken up some of my time...and he got sick today, which
further delayed me since I was called upon to make some home-made chicken noodle soup; and (4) I just don't care. OK, I
admit, that last one is a bald-faced lie. I actually feel bad for making everyone wait. But as a kind of penance, you won't
have to wait a week for the next update. I'll probably do another one on Monday or Tuesday as usual.
So, enough jabbering about pointless stuff as I so often do. There is some important news this week of a mostly
non-modding nature: three promotions at the Keep. To help fill in on the webmaster/admin side of things (both on the main site
and in the forums), Myhrginoc joins me, spin (forum guru) and Nefarius (temporarily sidetracked by work) at the top of the
heap. His promotion left the need to fill the void he left as a senior moderator, so kingpin now becomes our newest senior
moderator. Do you sense a 'domino effect' here? Yes, kingpin's elevation left us short one moderator for one of the most
important forums, the General Modmaking Forum. So, please welcome Drac0 as the newest moderator of that forum. I don't think
we'll see any more major shifts in staffing anytime soon (unless someone suddenly vanishes).
The Sun Rises in the East
One of the great-grandaddies of more recent mods, the Eastern Sun mod continues to go strong. This is no old geezer. And the
beta version of the updated Eastern Sun continues. That means we now have Eastern Sun 2.2 beta 5 release 2. I'm not entirely
sure if the beta will continue to be developed for 1.09 or shift over to 1.10. But regardless, I'm sure Perfect Cell could
use some feedback on this latest beta to help him make a great final product whichever path he takes in the near future.
(Get the Latest Eastern Sun Beta)
Changes Over at the Zy-El Ranch
Kato removed Zy-El 2.6 and 2.6B from his area of the File Center, and the 'Elafar music' version of Zy-El 2.7, too, for
lack of storage space, in part because he uploaded (ta-da!) version 3.0 of Zy-El. He is also offering .wav files of
Elafar's music, which so delightfully adorns a larger version of the Zy-El mod. Elafar's music is also available in the
Plugins area of the Keep's File
Center, under the 'Audio Plugins' category, but those Keep files are in .mp3 format. You need to convert them to larger
.wav files to work in D2. If you don't want to do that yourself, Kato's saved you some work. You can visit the Zy-El/Myrada
portion of the File Center by clicking
here. And if you haven't noticed, Kato has now extended into a second page in his area of the File Center, so don't
think you've seen everything on that first page.
(Visit the Zy-El/Myrada site)
(Get MPQ for Zy-El v3.0)
(Get DLLs for v3.0)
(Get documentation for v3.0 (Word File))
(Get documentation for v3.0 (PDF File))
(Get MPQ with music for v3.0)
More Space for Your 1.10 Character?
People are already busy poking around the beta 1.10 files to see what can be done. A few have even decided to make mods for the
beta version of the new patch. Yes, significant things could change in patch 1.10 still, which might mean that these mods
will soon be obsolete. But then again, maybe they'll still be usable when patch 1.10 becomes official. In any case, if you
have been trying out beta 1.10, and you're already ready for a mod, one of the first out of the starting gate was goro3d with
a 'mega-inventory' mod for beta 1.10. Nothing fancy, of course, but it will be appreciated by those who are running out of
room to store cool new items from those nasty 1.10 monsters.
(Get the Mega-Inv Mod for Beta 1.10)
Back In Action
Some people were disappointed when I uploaded the new Economy Mod version 1.1 recently. Oh, not because of v1.1 specifically.
No, the problem was that I had taken down v1.0 when I did this, and some people preferred certain aspects of that earlier
version. So, I have restored it to the File Center for those who want it.
(Get the Mod)
In a Few More Days...
...I'll have another update. It will include more new music from Elafar (was going to roll that out this time, but it looks
like he won't be able to compose any more new stuff until late summer or early fall, so I thought I'd save it for a few more
days instead of rushing to unleash it. Also on the schedule (tenatively, at least) are two or three more new mods for the
beta 1.10 patch. Also, an update for the recently released Punisher mod (for D2 1.09), which will bring the mod up to
v1.2.1b. In all honesty, all the things I just mentioned will probably appear in the file center later tonight or
over the weekend...I just won't announce them until Monday or Tuesday.
;-)
July 4th, 2003
by JBouley
The wait is over! Well, almost, anyway. Blizzard has released a BETA version of patch 1.10. This is the first time,
apparently, that they've ever done beta testing for a patch. But given the extensive changes that are being made, it's
not really a surprise. In some ways, this patch is almost like a mini-expansion.
You'll find a number of threads in the Phrozen Forums on issues related to BETA v1.10. Much is already being discovered
and much will remain to be discovered. Of course, this isn't the time to start making a 1.10 mod. After all, we don't know
if any other changes will take place between now and the official release. But this is a GREAT time to start exploring the
files and seeing how changes work, so that you'll be ready when 1.10 is made official.
To get the beta patch for 1.10, go to Blizzard's site at
www.battle.net/diablo2exp/beta/. Remember, this won't work on Bnet, so
if you install the beta patch, be prepared to revert back to 1.09D if you want to go online.
Also, some of our intrepid modders were kind enough to extract the new .txt files (many have been changed, and there are
numerous entirely new files to edit). You can get those in our File Center in the 'Patches' area, under the 'Clean Install
Files' subsection. Or just Click Here to
get there right away.
Happy exploring, my fellow modders! And thanks to Peter Hu and anyone else at Blizzard involved with this patch. We
love what we see so far, and we're so glad you've kept us informed of so many upcoming changes while it was still in
development.
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[url=https://www.d2mods.info/forum/kb/viewarticle?a=150&sid=af58aab52d5b247c5104748ba3e40be6]Knowledge Base - [03-07] July, 2003[/url]