[03-09] September, 2003
Description: Archived Keep updates.
Categories: Keep Updates
September 26, 2003
by Phrozen Heart
Yep mod fans, me again. The rotating news update
thing seems be working out pretty good with everyone getting to ramble
on incoherently for excessive amounts of time not to mention it gives
Mr Bouley a little time off every so often to further other pursuits.
Anyway, on with the show...
Give Me Sanctuary
Talking
of Jeff's other projects, a prominent one in the D2 mod community is
his Sanctuary in Chaos mod which WAS supposed to be released by this
update but owing to a handful of unforseen circumstances, it'll be a
touch later than expected. Jeff asked me to let everyone know however
that the druid skill bug has been fixed and v2.21B of the mod will be out in the very near future. Visit Jeff's Sanctum Arcanum forum for the latest news..
Long Hard Road Out Of Hell
Long time skill-guru Brother Laz, author of the popular Demon Trip mod
series and all round pain in the ass (j/k) has finally released his
first project for the v1.10s patch in the shape of his Median mod. Well
when I say 'released', it's still a relatively early beta (v0.2) but
still looks seriously impressive. He's thrown together a bare bones
website for the beta download which can be found at http://laz.d2mods.com and any feedback regarding the public beta test can be discussed in Laz's forum under the assumption he doesn't get sick of the bugs and scrap the whole thing to start over again :)
Like A Pheonix From The Flame
Onyx once again continues where Incandescent One left off in his
animation conversions of monsters from Sierra's D1 expansion Hellfire.
Newly added to our file center is the byclops (click here), the gravedigger (click here) and the reaper (click here). All monsters have an animation preview on their corresponding download page.
Rubics Nightmare
Sorry about the poor heading but there's only so many cube-related bad
puns available to choose from so bare with me. Anyway, I've put out a
new version of my Cubaholics mod (v0.9.1) for v1.10s which
re-implements the 'programmable charms' feature from the v1.09d patch.
Check out the readme for more details and click here to grab a copy :)
The Name Game
And lastly on for grabs this week is another useful resource for
modders which lists 250 potential names you might wish to use for
unique items, sets and set items, runewords, superunique monsters or
pretty much anything in your mod. You can take a look by clicking here.
September 19, 2003
by Myhrginoc
Back to college special - here are some new mods, tutorials and files to help you relax after going back to the lecture halls. While they won't improve your grades (and could well make them worse), they will help distract you from dreading those term papers.
Burnishing a classic
Jeff Bouley has provided another update for Sanctuary in Chaos, now at version 2.21a. Improved drops, monster changes, new recipes and sets---this is more than a minor revision. (There is still a problem with the Druid's Celestial Tempest skill, and Jeff is working hard to unkink it.) You can find it in the Sanctuary in Chaos download area. The mod is for v1.09x.
Getting better all the time
The Revival Mod gets some bug fixes and game tweaks from GuyAskingQuestions. The 1.00a version is available here. Another mod for 1.09x users.
More punishment
The screws are turned a little harder in this 2.2 beta 1 version of The Punisher Mod, as the monsters are better able to dish it out. Hardy says, 'click here and take your medicine!' Better have 1.10s ready for this one.
Two for the show
Here are a pair of 1.10s treats. First we have the Cubaholics Mod v0.9a by our guiding star, Phrozen Heart. Cube until you drop! Next, the redoubtable Spiral Simian stops monkeying around and gives us the Turbo Level-Up Mod 1.0, for those of us just dying (too often!) to get to Hell.
That is how he did it!!
Darque unveils the secret to Multi-Homing Missiles in his 1.10s tutorial. Sink your teeth into this one!
What is that...Thing?
Onyx has converted the Flesh Thing from Hellfire to DCC format. Catch one here.
I did what to those files?
It never fails, you change and adjust and...it just doesn't work the way it should. But what happened to the backups? Oh no!!! But never fear, we are here, with a ready set of clean Patch 1.10s DLLs to get you back into the swing of things. Thanks, Phrozen!
Turn your head and COF
There are .cof files and there are cmncof files. Blizzard provided the cmncofs to preload information for frequently-used animations. Sometimes they are a pain in the groin to our avid animators, but we have a cure at hand. Here are a set of 'empty' files so the game will use your standard .cofs instead. Not sure what this is about? Read on, bold one...
Czy mówi pan po polsku?
Xeniph has kindly provided us with a set of Polish .tbl files to add to our languages collection.
September 12, 2003
by JBouley
Ahhh...you thought I was gone? Nay! Nay, I say. However, I'm pretty sure you'll see a different 'face' here again
next week, as we're trying to rotate home page update duties a bit more. Besides, I'll just be getting back from an
out-of-town business trip.
I should probably start out with a bit of news that might strike some as 'scary,' but I wouldn't panic just yet. I've
heard rumors from pretty reliable sources (including Bolty at Lurker Lounge) that Peter Hu, the man who is virtually the only person working on Patch 1.10,
has left Blizzard. Frankly, I'm not surprised after the exodus of 'The Four' who founded Blizzard. But I wouldn't worry
just yet. It may be that the patch is far enough along that it won't take much to finish it up. After all, Peter has already
gotten so much of the good stuff in there and mostly it's bug fixing right now. Also, even if Blizzard coughs up a huge
hairball instead of a finished patch, I'm not concerned. If it begins to look like 1.10 might never arrive (or will arrive
sometime around the second coming of Christ), I don't think it would take more than a few weeks for modders to band together
and create a .dll plugin to address the biggest bugs...which would result in us having a stable patch anyway for modding. So,
we're still in the modding game here. Just sad to see how the big media company Vivendi has put Blizzard (which it bought
a while back) in such dire straits lately.
Blast From the Past (Sting From the Past?)
The 'Back to Hellfire' mod from onyx isn't done yet by a long shot (in fact, he is looking for a partner or two to help out
so that he can speed up development), but it is moving forward. In fact, onyx has released the .dcc animation files for the
Stinger/Venom Tail monster from the original Hellfire expansion for D1. You can find it his area of the
Hosted Sites portion of the File
Center. Or, for immediate acces, just click
here.
Our Founder Gives It Up
No, I am not suggesting that Phrozen Heart has become sexually promiscuous. He's actually a monk in a monastery who has
taken vows of poverty, silence and celibacy, as well as having had to vow to wear only 'leisure suits' from the 1970s. (It's
a very hip monastery.) But back to my point: Phrozen has found time in between prayer duties and wine-making to release a
bunch of plugins for use in patch 1.10. And here they are:
From the Standard Plugins
Section
>> '2Play' Plugin (Get it Now)
>> '4Play' Plugin (Get it Now)
>> '8Play' Plugin (Get it Now)
>> '80% Experience' Plugin (Get it Now)
>> 'Double Buy Cap' Plugin (Get it Now)
>> 'Hell Items' Plugin (Get it Now)
>> 'Tougher Newbies' Plugin (Get it Now)
>> 'Starting Skills' Plugin (Get it Now)
LATE-BREAKING NEWS: Phrozen Heart was just ejected from the monastery. Something about a priest, a rabbi, a nun and the
Los Angeles Lakers cheerleading squad.
I Wonder What's On the Other Side?
New to our Animation Plugin area is a
Baldur's Gate Town Portal Plugin by |-|Seto|Kaiba|-|, which you can get immediately by
clicking here. I don't know which exact
animation was used from BG, but most of the teleportation/portal animations from the Black Isle AD&D games are cool, so I'm
certain it's a worthy addition to our DCC Plugins.
Put On Those Thinking Caps
Myhrginoc has kindly (at at great personal cost to his time, sanity, and typing fingers) released the 'Beginner's Guide to
Modding v1.4,' which includes information on modding for patch 1.10. Currently, only the Word version is available, though
a PDF version will likely follow soon, and maybe a PHP version as well (we hope). It's in our
Downloadable Resources area, or you
can click here to view it right now.
More Mod Madness!
In our Mod Archives, we have
three new mods, one for 1.09 and two for 1.10s.
Revival v1.0 by GuyAskingQuestion
For patch 1.09.
(Get the Mod)
Socket To Em v1.0 by Spiral Simian
For beta patch 1.10s. A socketing and rune/gem/jewel hunting mod.
(Get the Mod)
Barberlicious Mod by Maxx Power
For beta patch 1.10s. A barbarian synergy reworking mod.
(Get the Mod)
Shameless Plug...
My own mod, Sanctuary in Chaos, was recently released in version 2.21. I didn't really publicize it, as I wanted to get a
little testing time first. And now might not be a great time to download it, as I will very soon (within a day or two) be
releasing version 2.21a, with some bug fixes and lots of cool new stuff. Keep watch on my 'Sanctum Arcanum' forum in the
Phrozen Forums if you're interested. There will probably be an official 2.21a announcement in next week's update, too. The
mod is for 1.09, by the way, and this is likely to be the last version of the SiC mod I release, as I'll be moving on to
modding for patch 1.10 next, and will start a whole new mod.
September 5, 2003
by Myhrginoc
Another month, another update to the main page, and by another reporter to boot. It has been a
busy week with lots of new updates.
Make Them Sing and Dance
Some skills cannot be assigned to other monsters because they don't have an animation sequence to
match the skill, such as Leap. But this new tutorial by kingpin will show you how to make your own
sequences. You can read about it
here.
The Bare Facts for 1.10 and 1.10s
Did you know the Nude Assassin Mod works for the beta versions as well?
Click here
to see for yourself, if you don't already have it.
Keeping Your Balance
Do you think 1.09x was too easy, but 1.10x is too difficult in Single Player? Tertsi gives us
some breathing room in the
Balancer Mod, version 1.2c.
Moo! Moo! Moohahaha!
We have an update to a classic mod provided by Fr@nc0-DX, the
Mad Cow Disease 2K3
for version 1.10s. Grab your knives and carve some steak!
Red Alert! Red Alert!
Reddot bring us his latest beta for the Swamp Mod, now at version 0.011.f. Get it
here.
Color Me Blue
Our ever-prolific toolmaker Joel Falcou has produced
Palshifter v2.05. Palette
shifting gives you all those colorful variations for your monster groups.
Spin the Runes
Tired of trying to find that missing rune for your Word of Power? This plugin from PhrozenHeart
will let you start with any rune and cycle through until you have the one you want.
Great for testing your combos, and no hunting down quill rats to do it.
Click here to grab a copy.
Monster! Monster!
Alkalund has crafted a pair of animation plugins using new tokens! Step up to the
Earth Elemental
from Icewind Dale 1 and the
Bone Golem from Baldur's Gate 2,
and show your mettle! And if that isn't enough, Alkalund also tells us what we used already, with the
Original Tokens Master List.
Native Tongues
The Keep now has sets of clean .tbl files and the language-forcing Use file bundled for your convenience,
compliments of Myhrginoc.
Parlez-vous Français?
Sprechen Sie Deutsch?
Say it in English?
Poster's Madness
We have added a new section to the Terms of Service Addendum about using the Edit button instead of posting a
new message.
Members are strongly encouraged to edit previous messages to add additional content,
if no response has been posted yet. A large EDIT button is provided for this purpose at the
upper right corner of each post. Occasionally separate messages are appropriate, if significant
time has passed or the new material is sufficiently different from the preceding material.
Slipping Into Darkness...
Last month's news is now archived.
Link to this article: Select all
[url=https://www.d2mods.info/forum/kb/viewarticle?a=165&sid=f7310da2553ae4c1451df2906183ffd9]Knowledge Base - [03-09] September, 2003[/url]