Interview - (2003-02-09) Rav3n
Description: Mordini freelance for the Phrozen Keep interviews Rav3n on his Doomsday mod and mod making in general.
Categories: Interviews
MORDINI |
Tell everyone a little bit about who Rav3n is. |
RAV3N |
Well... My name is Gustavo, I live in Brazil, where I was born. I'm 16. Other than modding I like playing drums, praticing Jiu-jitsu (Brazilian Martial Art), and of course reading RPG books, I'm a complete Dungeons & Dragons addict. |
MORDINI |
How did you come up with your somewhat unique username? |
RAV3N |
I took the name RAVEN from VULCAN RAVEN, the big boss guy with a Machine Gun in Metal Gear Solid (great game btw!). I used RaveN for some time but since RaveN is such a common username I decided to give it a 'l337' look by putting a 3 instead of E. :) |
MORDINI |
How did you first get into mod making for Diablo 2 and how long ago was it? |
RAV3N |
I first modded when I was just 14, in D2C 1.03 times... But I stopped modding when I completed DoomsDay 1.0 and returned to Modding like 3 months ago. |
MORDINI |
Is Doomsday your first undertaking in D2 modding or were there any other lesser known projects you've been involved in? |
RAV3N |
Yes, and no. DoomsDay is my first Mod but the version that is currently being produced, which is 1.1, is the sequel of the first DoomsDay 1.0, released 1 year and a 1/2 ago. |
MORDINI |
For anyone who might not have heard of your mod, could you give everyone a quick overview of DD? |
RAV3N |
'The basic concept of DoomsDay is to re-design Diablo 2 in an innovative way. I wanted underused aspects of the game such as Gold management, Crafted Items, Gambling, Potions and Gems, etc. to have a real utility even in high-levels. Also I completely edited all Skills and Skill Trees, so that the old character concepts such as SF/Frozen Orb Sorceress or WW Barb with polearms become weaker, and new strategies need to be discovered'. I used quotes since that's the text I used when DoomsDay was presented in the Non-Hosted Mods Forum.For much more in-depth information visit |
MORDINI |
What features would you have liked to include in the mod but couldn't? |
RAV3N |
I wish D2 Modding could be as easy as FPS modding, so that adding new Models and completly changing Tiles and Areas would be easing as extracting/inserting a file in a .mpq... :( In FPS MODs you can make insane things, COMPLETLY editing the game. Sometimes I even forget that Counter Strike is a MOD sometimes, it simply has nothing to do with Half-Life! Imagine how cool it'd be a Diablo with robots, machine-guns, nukes and such... lol... |
MORDINI |
What plans do you have for DD or any other modding projects in the future? |
RAV3N |
After I finish DD I'll make one or two more versions to correct Bugs, add runewords/sets and a few other things... Then I'll either go to Warcraft III Modding or make a completly new MOD. But this is not defnitive, maybe I'll just make a sequel to DD... who knows? :) |
MORDINI |
Other than your own, what mods either past or present have sparked your interest? |
RAV3N |
I have no favorite MOD at all, but big influences would be the whole Eastern Sun series, Demon Trip 2, and of course, the old Mods by Teknokyo and Fusman. These two, together with Nefarius and a few others are responsable for what today's Mod Making is. |
MORDINI |
In your opinion, has D2 mod making suffered much due to the delay in Blizzard releasing the new patch? |
RAV3N |
NO. You must be thinking 'What the f***, 'NO'?' and I say: Thanks Blizzard for not releasing 1.10! Let me explain: Due to the fact D2 got boring and realms are dominated by Hackers, lots of players found a way to make D2 fun again in Mods. I'm an example of player who got fed up with B.net and came back to Modding, and here I am, MOD-Making and playing MODs once again! :) |
MORDINI |
If Blizzard announced they were going to release one part of D2's source code for modders to work on and the public could vote on which part, what would you choose and why? |
RAV3N |
Prolly 'Skills'. The rest of the game's aspects don't suffer that much for being hardcoded... With the source code for Skills I believe that many Modder's would come up with very cool new ideas for Skill Trees and it would give a new flavour to Characters. |
MORDINI |
And finally, what advice do you have for someone just starting out in modding for D2 or atleast thinking about it? |
RAV3N |
Mod-making requires patience, dedication and it consumes time, but really, it's not that difficult. The Phrozen Forums are a great place to solve any problems you may come up with, there are always peole willing to help there. After you get used to the files and how they work all you need is creativity and a good mp3 player. :) |
MORDINI |
Thanks a lot for your time. |
Anyone wishing to check out the Doomsday mod can do so by visiting the official website at http://dd.d2mods.com.
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[url=https://www.d2mods.info/forum/kb/viewarticle?a=90&sid=57c37692fc8c088954b923545e222944]Knowledge Base - Interview - (2003-02-09) Rav3n[/url]