Odin’s Runeword Mod

[ShadowLord]

I'd also be willing to test. I've got a lot of free time, and this mod seems to be a very interesting one...

[mishy23]

I'm glad to hear there are interested people, Unfortunately I had no chance last night to pack together my files and upload.
But don't worry I am free all weekend and I will get the mod up somewhere for download, even if I have manually crank my 56k modem the entire time.

Warwolf: The game select screen looks so much better in-game, I had to convert it to jpeg to put it up on the webopage and it distorted it very badly.

Okay I bet you guys will want a readme file, I better start doing that.
Too bad i'm going to miss this friday's update on the front page
-Mishy


EDIT 08/07/04

My website is apiece of garbage and i'm trashing it as soon as possible.
I am done the mod, it is zipped and ready and the readme is even written with all the cube recipes and changes.
But no my website won't let you upload zip files.
Well I emailed phrozen to see if he can give me a home, so as soon as I here back, We'll see what happens, otherwise does anyone else have a place to upload the mod.
File sizes are
Bin files 924k zipped
DLL files 326k zipped
and the text readme file.

So luckily as you see its not a huge download,
this wait though has given me a chance to add a few more cube recipes in at the last second

-Mishy23

Ah what the heck here is the official readme:

INSTALLATION INFO:
This mod uses bin files and is run with the -direct switch.
There are 3 different parts to this mod:
1)The README file you are currently reading
2)The bin files, you must put the folder orm-beta into your D2 directory, and the shortcut anywhere you wish,
the shortcut shold run the mod without further editting.
3)D2Common.DLL, this editted version is needed to run ORM, please backup your current version of D2common.dll,
and place this modded dll into your D2 directory.

Double click the shortcut and welcome to Odin's Runeword Mod.
To be able to play vanilla D2 or any other mods again, just remove the modded d2common file, and use your backed up
copy of D2Common.dll, and everything will work perfectly. BTW, the only code edit to this DLL file is too allow runewords in magic, rare,
set and unique items, if you want this ability in vanilla D2, by all means feel free to use this DLL with it.
Though runewords in set items is bugged.
-Mishy23


Mod Info - Version 1.02
-All wearable items, except rings and amulets now automtically have 2 sockets.
-Gloves, belts and boots now have sockets.
(gloves are socketed as weapon type, belts are sockets as armour
type, boots are socketed as shield type).
-All unique and set items have been removed.
-New Itemtypes added or replaced old itemtypes.
Robes and Cloaks are a new type of torso armour.
Katana type is a new type of assassin weapon, but all classes can
use.
Wands are used by druids now, Knives are used by necromancers.
Archer gloves replace chain gloves.
Wizard sashes replace sash type.
Druid pouches replace belt type.
Necro gloves repace hard leather glove type.
Barb boots replace hard leather boot type.
Assassin Kicking boots replace chain boot type.
-staffmods changed to automod system, many new items have automods,
Axes have +50% damage to demons.
Archer gloves have amazon automods.
Wizard sashes have SOR automods and faster cast automod.
Staffs have a built in AC% bonus.
Throwing knives and normal knives have NEC automods.
Necro gloves have cursing skill automods for NEC.
Heavy armour and paladin shields have aura automods for PAL.
Knight Swords have combat automods for PAL.
Barb boots have passive automods for BAR.
2handed swords and throwing axes have BAR automods.
All thrown weapons have self-replenish automods.
Druid wands have elemental automod for DRU.
Druid pouches have transformation automods and replenish life for
DRU.
Katanas and claws have automods for ASN.
Assassin boots have trap automods for ASN.
Rings have automods that reduce resistances of enemies.
Amulets have MF automods.
Jewels have ASN skill automods.
And more...
-rune names and abilities changed, 32 runes, and 10 broken runes.
Power runes form runewords, broken runes are for cube recipes.
-gems have been removed, replaced with broken runes.
-rune drops increased incredibly.
-runewords can be added to magic and rare items!!!!!!!!
-order of runes does not matter for runewords (i.e. rune2+rune4 = same runeword as rune4+rune2).
-every combination of runes will form a runeword, though some may be
VERY weak.
-items drop from monsters more frequently.
-magic and rare items drop more frequently.
-many runewords use oskills, and cast spell on strike abilites, including a
few item only spells.
-two different runewords, generic runewords and power runewords,
generic runewords are weaker and work
on almost all item types, while power runewords are stronger and
more rare as they only work
on one type of item.
-charms only drop as small and medium, also charms now have +skill
automods!!!
-skills have no pre-requisites.
-monsters have boosted ar, def, damage, hp and grant an increase in xp.
-monsters appear in larger groups now.
-monsters have new special abilities.
-color codes have been fixed resulting in all items gaining color in the
inventory screen AND in-game screen.
-increased run/walk speed slightly (for monsters also!)
-monsters resistance increased in normal and nightmare, immunity
removed in hell though resistanes
are up to 99% (this increases difficulty slightly, while monsters aren't
immune, no immunities
display to show player what element will do very low damage)
-cold mastery increases damage instead of lowering resistances.
-quick xp gain for levels under 8
-gamble odds increased slightly, now able to gamble charms(not small)
and runes.
-character stats adjusted, energy has better investment returns. i.e sorc
gains 3mana per energy point.
-all monsters can block now, even without shields, this includes npc and
summon monsters.
-casting delays have been lowered slightly for many spells.
Teleport has gained a 1/3rd of a second delay. Ffrozen orb has had
its casting delay raised slightly.
-current itemtypes have been modified, creating more subgroups, this
gives more control over power runewords.
Now some runewords will only work in two handed swords, or heavy
armour, or archer gloves.
-cube recipes for rerolling and upgrading itemtypes plus more added!
Crafting runes include in order of rarity:
Chipped, Cracked, Flawed, Blank, Fake, Corrupted, Defiled,
Sealed, Tainted, Unknown Runes
5 chipped = flawed
5 cracked = blank
5 flawed = fake
5 blank = corrupted
5 fake = defiled
5 corrupted = sealed
5 defiled = tainted
5 sealed = unknown
Other recipes:
1healing+1mana+cracked = small rejuv
1cracked+1blank+1corrupted = full rejuv (full rejuvs do not
drop in game, except hell act5)
3small rejuvs+1blank = full rejuv
2rings+1flawed=magic amulet
2amu+1blank=magic ring
1charm+1blank+1fake+1jewel=rerolled charm
1chipped+1flawed+1fake+1defiled = 1 mystery rune
1cracked+1blank+1corrupted+1sealed = 1 mystery rune
non-ethereal weapon or armour+1chipped = item repaired
Any item+1defiled+1blank= socketed runes/jewels removed
and destroyed from item
Any item+1tainted+1unknown= socketed runes/jewels
removed from item but kept
REROLLing Items:
magic ring+2chipped+1corrupted+jewel
magic amulet+2cracked+1fake+jewel
rare ring+2flawed+1defiled+jewel
rare amulet+2blank+1sealed+jewel
magic normal weap+1chipped+1ring
magic normal armo+1chipped+1amulet
rare normal weap+1flawed+1ring
rare normal armo+1blank+1amulet
magic exc weap+1fake+1ring
magic exc armo+1corrupted+1amulet
rare exc weap+1defiled+1ring
rare exc armo+1sealed+1amulet
magic eli weap+1tainted+1ring
magic eli armo+1unknown+1amulet
rare eli weap+1tainted+1ring+1jewel
rare eli armo+1unknown+1amulet+1jewel
Upgrades:
magic weap+2flawed+1chipped+1small charm=exceptional
magic armo+2blank+1cracked+1small charm=exceptional
rare weap+2fake+1flawed+1small charm=exceptional
rare armo+2corrupted+1blank+1small charm=exceptional
magic exc weap+2defiled+1fake+1small charm=elite
magic exc armo+2sealed+1corrupted+1small charm=elite
rare exc weap+2tainted+1defiled+1small charm=elite
rare exc armo+2unknown+1sealed+1small charm=elite
-Runewords completed = 400, all runes from 1-10 will work in all items in
any order
Future patches will be released with additional runewords in the
future!


ENJOY!





Thanks to EVERYONE at the Phrozen Keep forums, who with patience and knowledge have helped me
develop this mod. Without them I would never have made it this far.
Special thanks to: Kingpin, Warwolf, onyx, GuyAskingQuestions, Darque, Paul Siramy, Tron Bonne, DeClineD,
Pmpch, Mouse, Char, Joel, Myhrginoc, PC-Baal, afj666, Eltear, and everyone else if you were left off by accident!!!!
Playtesters: Warwolf, Kiwivagrant, freykin, Malachor, Shadowlord



One last thing not mentioned above:
Vendors only pay up to $1000 per item, so money on the ground will become more important, you are lucky I raised it from $1

[WarWolf]

Tell us when Phrozen replies

[xeno]

Hello, mishy! I've always been interested in your mod (one day I even wanted to prove you that it isn't possible to balance ALL 4096 runewords; but then after one or two hours thinking about, I'd came to a conclusion that it isn't such unreal). As I realize I'm late for testing, but if you include me, it would be great!

[mishy23]

Okay I really want this started,
I decided I will email the mod out to anyone who wants to start early.
And Xeno, no worries there wasnt any dead line, I just wanted to see if there was any interest at first, so heres the deal, send me an email at:
myrddhin23@yahoo.com and I will email you the mod, it shouldnt be a problem as all the files together are only 1.2megs, that should be safe to email.
-Mishy23

[xeno]

By the way, instead of including the ~whole~ d2common.dll into the mod archive you (or I, just ask) could write a program in assembly language (approx. size 2-4Kb) which will patch d2common if it's from original 1.10 (tests size and socket-related code bytes) and unpatch it to the original if it's already patched. So, you can save 300Kb file size. Great, yeah?

[WarWolf]

Xeno, I guess that is a nice idea I'm sure this would help mishy a lot

Mishy, I sent you an email ^^

[mishy23]

To tell the truth Xeno, code editting is not my forte in the least, and when i editted d2common I got lucky and it worked and i fear trying to figure out how to do what i did.
Also Phrozen did get in touch with me and i'll be able to get this up on the keep soon, but for now since im impatient i will spend 10minutes sending to whoever i have to, cause hey its exciting sharing my first public work.

okay i should get the mod out ot the 5 or 6 ppl that requested it today.

I don't have any specific areas for each individual tester.
Here are the things I wish to playtest, but if you just want to play for fun that is okay with me too:
1) Color: does all monsters and items look okay, do any items lack color or look bad.
2) Runewords: Do all work, do the oskills and hit-skills work correctly, do any seem to weak or powerful for when you acquired them.
NOTE: this mod is on the powerful side, in my opinion none of the runewords are too powerful so far, as only the first 400 are done, and this beta so far is only for NOrmal difficulty acts 1-3, though you should be able to play all of normal,.
3) Monsters: are any too strong, too weak.
4) Skills are only slight modded, and I can mod them more in the future, though i wouldnt add new ones but would balance the ones from vanilla d2
So let me know if some are too powerful with the adjustments or too weak.
5) Gold: is it too abundant, do any prices seem to high to low.
6) Rune drops: Are they frequent enough, to frequent? I have them dropping ALOT but thats because i want ppl to have the freedom to make many many runewords, and constnatly be upgrading.
7) IS THIS MOD FUN, thats the biggest thing I care about.

Xeno in comment to your balance questions, here is my set-up and how I am using it.

Normal uses runes 1-16 (1024 runewords)
Nightmare uses runes 17-24 (1024 runewords)
Hell uses runes 25-32 (2048 runewords)

Half of these rune words are duplicates so I can get r01+r03 = ro3+ro1
So technically the numbers are half, but shhh I like the sounds of the inflated number.

Half again of these runwords are generic runewords, meaning the generic weapon runewords work in all weapons, and the generic armor runewords work in all armors, I have taken special care to make the generic armor runewords weaker as you could possible wear multiple copies of them in different armor slots.
The other half arre called power runewords, these will work only in specific itemtype.
For example runeword rune4+rune7 will have a version that works in all weapons, one in all armours, one in (just example) only axes and one in only shield.
A big concern is did i spread the power runes out between the itemtypes evenly, i try but let me know your thoughts.

The power runewords have more chance of being over-powered but are obviously more rare so this was meant to be that way.

Oh yeah Xeno, runes are added to gloves and belts and boots as well just in case you didnt know., so more itemtypes to spread the runewords over, also i made subtypes so some runewords work only in heavy armours or light armours or heavy swords or light swords, or the new class items that are in the mod. So with all the itemtypes now the runes will be spread well across them. So there won't be 450 runewords just for helmets in normal difficulty. Unless you count the generics, and they are plentyful and weak on purpose.
I do not think there are too many runewords, I want this mod to be all about choice, With no uniques or set items runewords must


My intentions are that when I get to them all the Hell diff, runewords will be powerful, but the monsters will be as difficult, I want hell to be hell. But the characters should be gods by that point.
But at the same time while the higher runes will be rarer it will never get to the point that blizzard did with there runes, i developed this mod for single player, the odds are good enough that everyone should be able to see each rune even the highest one by playing through once, but then you will see thousands of runes by the time you are done, and maybe 1 or 2 will be the almighty Odin rune, then again playtesting later on will let me know if these high end runes 27-32 are dropping to much.

Well I hope this answers some of the issues you emailed me about Xeno, lets keep continuing this discussion..
And remember its not a perfect world, so i know perfect balance is not possible, and once the runewords get out and ppl start knowing the mor epowerful versions, there is not much I can do to stop power playing, but for the beginner I hope this mod to be a fun game of discovery and challenge

[WarWolf]

Ha, just installed it and played a little, i just cleaned blood moor, i'll do den of evil tomorrow morning, because there are much enemies and i'm too tired but I like it... runes dropping everywhere and everything has sockets... really amazing and exciting.

First thing I noticed: You get too much exp. After I killed the first zombie in Blood Moor that I met, i was level 2. After cleaning Blood Moor i nearly was level 8. Did you raise the level cap? Well, I'm gonna play this mod tomorrow the whole day, stay tuned for more bug/balancing reports

[mishy23]

Cool Warwolf!

Its built in so you level up to level 8 very quickly, after that it goes back to nomral leveling. You need the boost at first because of the difficulty in the beginning. And because its just not fun playing with no skill points.

Den of evil is no push over, I advise clearing the next few areas first and going back, the density in there is crazy, and I purposely made it more difficult.
And as always the countess is a rune dropping machine if you really need to find more runes.
I'm interested in knowing what class you are playing, the spellcasters are harder at first, and a quick hint, you start with 4 runes, and i'd advise using atleast 2 in a weapon.
Try to find the power runewords, i'll give one freebie try runeword r1+r1 in a pair of boots.

[xeno]

Hello everybody! I have some suggestions and ideas about the mod.

Runeword catalysts
I think it would be interesting to have ~rare~ runeword catalysts, which augment runeword properties. Something like that: all runewords consist from rXX+rXX+catalyst. So that when you insert a common catalyst, you'll get common stats, the rarer catalyst is, the better are the stats (I think this idea should be applied to generic runewords only). Or the second variant. Adding cube recipies: catalyst+runeworded item=augmented runeworded item. Possible implementation: each runeword adds an invisible stat and all runeword stats depend on it (like stuff per level stats); then the recipie will boost this stat by a fixed amount. You may even restrict the number of such enchantments. BUT, catalysts should be really rare!

Runeword clues
What about adding runeword clues? Or at least clues for rare power runewords. Some weeks ago I saw a post about implementing such stuff.
Just an offtopic. How will we, testers, know about all possible runewords? Is it allowed to decompile your binaries?

Readme suggestions
I think it would be better if mod features descriptions in readme will be structured in several groups (for better readability). Personally for me, the readme looked smth like that: (no offense )
"Mod Info - Version 1.02 -All wearable items, except rings and amulets now automtically have 2 sockets. -Gloves, belts and boots now have sockets. blah-blah-blah or replaced old itemtypes. Robes and Cloaks are a new type of torso armour. Katana type is a new type of assassin weapon, but all classes can use. blah-blah-blah..."

And, finally, another list of balance questions:

Generic rw vs. Power ones
As far as I can understand you have two types of runewords: generic (comparatively weak, just plain mods) and ~power~ ones (strong and maybe ~unusual~). Will your implement them as Char wrote in his modmaking guide (in "uniques" section)? I mean, generic runewords will have average values of useful modifiers and power ones are to possess single-item-specific properties (e.g. new cool-looking states or new affixes).

Oskills kill the balance
Won't a big number of oskills spoil the gameplay, mixing up character classes to only several cross-class builds? Personally I never thought in such way (in my opinion such feature seems to diversify the gameplay, revealing totally new skill interactions [sounds great for readme] ), but my friend kison pointed me that you can run into balance problems by having only a small amount of ~really~ different builds (similar to Brother Laz's notice).
BTW, pleeeeease, don't make Life Tap to be a hit-skill. It's a horrible disbalance.


P.S. After having a sleep, I'm going to write a patcher for you. Approximate size: not more than a kilobyte.

[EDIT 1].P.S. Have just downloaded the mod. I like the main screen image, but ~imho~ you have troubles with the palette. Try asking in "Multimedia" forum (personally I'm a total newbie in graphics). What concerns other changes ...aaaaaaaaah... I'm going to go to sleep now. Good night!

BTW, couldn't you include me into official list of beta-testers, please?

[mishy23]

Great idea with the the runeword catalyst, cube recipes was the last thing I looked into and still new to me, I will see if its possible to take only runeword items as the input, and possibly work towards something like increases the mods to a higher degree, i'll definately look into something, i definately wanted to add more recipes.

The palette for the start up screen was personaly made for me by Kinpin, and as such its about as best as I can get, the blue shadowing on the other screens I sorta like, I think this may not really be able to be improved.

When I created scroll clues, the way I implemented it was so shoddy i hated it and took them out, I will look into other ways, its just alot of work for little reward, as you cant really screw up with the runes, all combinations work, and i sorta want the power runes to be rare, so i want the player to experiment, obviously when itemtype-rune combinations are discovered ppl are free to share them and in the future might even have a collection on the keep here.

And sure I can add you to the next release README as beta tester
Sorry about how the readme looks, it was hastily written, and i've never been good with organization, maybe someone can help me out and make it look better, and if you want to write a script for the installation Xeno, i'd love it. I'm just an old man out of date with how to do most of this stuff, i'm amazed i was able to zip my own archive

And about the lack of balance with hitskills and oksills, well I like them and thats why they are part of my mod, I want to see character styles blend, I want to see that barbarian that focus on direct attack spells. I think it adds flavor and helps ppl that like one character diversify their experience. There is no competition in this mod, its meant for experimenting and having unique skills, and I hope people play it that way, if they want to use the most powerful broken combos I cant stop that, and it would lessen the fun of everyone if i overbalanced everything in that regard.
And don't worry if I agree with lifetap, and if it is used it will be very low percentage with very rare components. I may balance skills, and life tap could be one that starts off weak and get stronger at high levels and the hit skill would not be high level.

Gotta go,
Thanks for all the feedback!
-Mishy23

[xeno]

Good morning everyone! After a good rest I'm finally able to test the mod. Here are my first impressions about it. (I have already a level 18 paladin)

1) Color: does all monsters and items look okay, do any items lack color or look bad.

Cool idea with colors! Everything looks fresh and new, and it's great. Personally I especially like "Torrent's Alacrity" runeword (crystal red transform color). But...I think, you should change champions' and uniques' colors, because now they aren't so easily-notified (e.g. Rakanishu among his minions, carvers).

2) Runewords: Do all work, do the oskills and hit-skills work correctly

Seem to be okay. EDIT: found a pretty bug. I equipped a clear helm, then made "Sea's Lullaby" (rw with mana leech). It required 18lvl (I was approx 15lvl) and was displayed in a red background, but mana leech STILL worked!

... do any seem to weak or powerful for when you acquired them.
NOTE: this mod is on the powerful side, in my opinion none of the runewords are too powerful so far, as only the first 400 are done, and this beta so far is only for NOrmal difficulty acts 1-3, though you should be able to play all of normal,.

I'll be able to say this after some days of playing. From the first look, it seems that you've got the balance between amount of power and generic runewords: it's always some sort of discovery when you complete the POWER runewords.

3) Monsters: are any too strong, too weak.

This is the most annoying part of the gameplay. Imho, monsters should have less HP (unless your battles lead to boring: "bam-bam-bam-bam..."), but ~more~ damage. BTW, my paladin (beginning from lvl7) was a sort of invulnerable woodpecker, standing in a great crowd of fallen (TOO MUCH FAAAAALLEN) and doing bamm-bamm-bamm with his scepter.
Giving monsters event-skills is looking fresh and unusual. I especially like Battle Cry from brute-type monsters.
And my personal request. Please, do more unique bosses even in normal.

4) Skills are only slight modded, and I can mod them more in the future, though i wouldnt add new ones but would balance the ones from vanilla d2. So let me know if some are too powerful with the adjustments or too weak.

Some suggestions about summoning oskills. Are they made for tanking casters and rangers or helping players in battle? I think, first answer. A good option is to increase their damage and (slightly) decrease their HP.

5) Gold: is it too abundant, do any prices seem to high to low.

OK. But maybe you'll increase this cap up to at least 5000 (I guess that in Nightmare and Hell, 1000 won't be enough).

6) Rune drops: Are they frequent enough, too frequent? I have them dropping ALOT

Nice. But there are two problems. The first is low drop-rate at the very beginning (I've got only two or three runes in Blood Moor, Cold Plains and Den of Evil, while doing approx. five moster runs). The second is that The Countess traditionally drops many runes and here she drops MUCH MORE than a hundred monsters (I remember one run, when I got FOUR (!) mystery runes, Ang and Mal (all runes from her!!!)). Maybe the solution would be to change her treasureclass...Well, at least, you should be aware of this exploit!

but thats because i want ppl to have the freedom to make many many runewords, and constnatly be upgrading.

Great idea! I feel myself great when experimenting with runewords, and especially when finding power ones.

7) IS THIS MOD FUN, thats the biggest thing I care about.

Definitely it IS.

But at the same time while the higher runes will be rarer it will never get to the point that blizzard did with there runes

Sounds cool.

i developed this mod for single player, the odds are good enough that everyone should be able to see each rune even the highest one by playing through once, but then you will see thousands of runes by the time you are done, and maybe 1 or 2 will be the almighty Odin rune, then again playtesting later on will let me know if these high end runes 27-32 are dropping to much.

I guess you should ban lower rune drops in Hell difficulty; unless you'll have thousands of {filtered} Feh's, Mal's and Thor's instantly dropping. That's just a mess, similar to Hell item drops in vanilla, when [quoting Char] 95% of drops are crap just because of their base type. (I H A T E B R E A S T P L A T E S !!!).

And remember its not a perfect world

Of course! But we'll try to make it in this way, yeah?

When I created scroll clues, the way I implemented it was so shoddy i hated it and took them out, I will look into other ways, its just alot of work for little reward, as you cant really screw up with the runes, all combinations work, and i sorta want the power runes to be rare, so i want the player to experiment, obviously when itemtype-rune combinations are discovered ppl are free to share them and in the future might even have a collection on the keep here.

But maybe rune descriptions will contain masked clues on runewords (ever read alchemists' recipies ("tiger lily" and so on) ?). You could even make additional clues to be shown, when player completes a particular quest or finds a specific potion or.... Another interesting idea is to make special runeword lists or at least a list of the most important runewords (when a player completes the runeword, it'll automatically appear in his list). But I have no idea about implementing such stuff.
EDIT 1: Well, at least you could include Yohann's PlugY into the mod, thus allowing players to store infinite numbers of different runeword.

And sure I can add you to the next release README as beta tester
Sorry about how the readme looks, it was hastily written, and i've never been good with organization, maybe someone can help me out and make it look better, and if you want to write a script for the installation Xeno, i'd love it. I'm just an old man out of date with how to do most of this stuff, i'm amazed i was able to zip my own archive

No problem! I've already written the patcher. Check your mail! I can also help you with the readme.


Good luck, mishy!

[mishy23]

Aweome, thanks for the patcher, I will add it to the next release, I am guessing this will backup d2common and put the files in the right places?

One quick thing I noticed you started your char at level 7, if you start at one, you will be at level 8 before you leave the blood more, as the xp needed in the very beginning is made for quick leveling.

Hmm I will think about lowering the amount fo fallen, they are meant to be annoying, but there are MANY, they have very low AR so do not hit alot, that is why your paladin could tand in a sea of them and not be too hurt, I wouldnt suggest this with any other monster. They are there more as distraction, atleast that was the point, in my playtesting I ignore them, except for the clean up in den of evil.

I am testing also and i'm just about to hit the countess, if 6 runes are droppin I will lower it.
By the way, chest drops have been made alot nicer, alot of runes will drop from them, so make sure to check out all of them if you can. In the beginning of the game, checking chests gives more runes then monsters but this changes around in the later game.
I will see about adding more superuniques and uniques, I like them also, but from what I read some map editting has to be done to add more, and well that scares me

If you find any runewords that are incresing the level requirement up higher than the highest runes level, let me know, I marked down sea's lullaby, there is also another one wind's echo, i think its a 3-1 bow, that raises equirement level to 24.
I dont understand why some mods raise the level so high, and I don't want items made unusable if the runes and item were already usable by the char.
I will have to adjust the stats to lower the level requirement or change the runes for the runeword so that it works okay.
Its strange that any mods worked after the item became red, possibly it was showing manaleech but was not returning any mana, i'll either balance the level of this item or do somthing to fix it.

With colors there is a small bug that some runewords, strips the color of the item if it already has one, I have been unable to stop this in some cases.

I actually like the fact that the uniques and champs are hard to distinguish, gives the game more challenge, I dont think I will change this, I was so happy that by total accident that Rakanishu was the same colors as his minions.

About the hp, this starts to even out and is only very noticable in the beginning until you get a good weapon, I will ait on further comment from other ppl before I determine what I will do.
The damage the monsters do is already pretty high compared to before, I would invest heavily in Vitality.
I am going to raise the AR of some monsters as they are hitting very low% even when player has very low defense.

I might raise the sell limit in NM and Hell, but not for normal, gold find will be a very important part of this gold.

Please let me know what act-area you find your first rune over #10, it shouldn't be until act3 but I want to make sure, because I obviously had a rare drop in early act1, a #8 rune dropped 8o

Well this concludes another dis-organized post from your friendly neighborhood Mishy!

[xeno]

Some quick notices about patcher. My patcher works in such way: (try it yourself)

0) Firstly it checks whether d2common is of appropriate size (and skips patching in the other case).

1) If d2common.dll isn't patched i.e. it has 04h byte at the offset blah-blah-blah then it will change this byte to 0ah (enabling runewords in ALL types of items: that includes magics, rares, sets, uniques, crafted and tempered).

2) Else (if runewords in ALL itemtypes are enabled) it unpatches d2common (i.e. allows runewords only in loq, hiq and normal items). So you don't need to backup your old dll; my patcher will automatically restore it when necessary.
Of course, there is a query for confirmation of patching/unpatching.

Just try it yourself , and you'll see the design (I'll accept and implement all your suggestions).

[WarWolf]

Noooo don't change the countess for the way down she has to somehow pay you out. And on the way down there I find items where I put in the runes, and -poof- all runes are gone again

[freykin]

Good to hear there's a version out for testing I'll be able to help test starting Thursday, as I'm out of town right now, at the siggraph convention. Looking forward to it

Oh, if you still need file hosting by then, I might be able to temporarily put it up somewhere for download.

[mishy23]

The Mod is now in the filecenter
so if anyone needs it, run on over there.
And Xeno, that patcher is so friggin sweet. You might want to post about it in the code editting forum and possibly have it as a stand alone download, because I know alot of people that asked about just being able to allow runewords in all types of items. And others might have use.
I will definately add to next version, as it will cut 300k off my uploads, and everyone elses downloads.

[xeno]

Some more ideas about runeword clues. Firstly, it would be great if you added a dummy property to every runeword, this property sould do nothing, but only displaying inserted runes (it's so nasty to get a cool power runeword and forget about rune names ).

Sorry...I'll continue later (in 15-30 minutes).

[mishy23]

Xeno, it still displays what runes are in the runword on the item,
It just uses the names of the runes.
For example, if you make rune1(feh) and rune2(mal)
The item says:
FehMal on it in addition to the runeword.

I could have it display this way if you:
Feh[1]Mal[2]
so it shows up that way on the item,

Its a waste of a property to have the rune names in the list of property, especially, since imight have to add some properties if I
am able to come up with a a catalyst system.
-mishy23

[xeno]

blah-blah-blah

[xeno]

[quote=mishy23";p="187900"]
Xeno, it still displays what runes are in the runword on the item,
It just uses the names of the runes.
[/quote]

No-no-no. I meant runewords in rares and magic items. Then you'll get displayed only the ~name~ of the runeword.

[quote=xeno";p="187889"]
Sorry...I'll continue later (in 15-30 minutes).
[/quote]

The second idea is another variation of runeword clues. You can have special scrolls for storing information about completed runewords via cude recipies: scroll+runeworded item=scroll (with an added note)+runeworded item.

Hidden rune sets
By the way, you could implement hidden sets bonuses (interactions tbetween two or more runewords). Personally for me it seems to be a great idea.

Naming problems
I think you have some. Yeah, I understand that you've got 4096 runewords. and it's not a perfect world BUT!

Everyone who played vanilla D2 knows about unique items with cool both name and stats. And everyone like them more than other plain ones. NOTE: I mean not only uber-leet stuff such as Windforce or The Cranium Basher, but also items like Razortail, Gore Rider... They have cool-looking stats and the name fits stats perfectly.

But let's see some generic runewords in ORM. For example, Voodoo (sounds great and scary, but stats...), Final (yeah, really very pretending name. I think any of death-skills are a MUST) or Sentinel (here you should have defense mods, when-struck skills). You've got an idea? In my opinion, names don't fit stats very often, and moreover, not all runewords have cool-looking stats But we MUST mention Beginning of Journey (really cool boots), Force Cage, Fable, Shroud, e.t.c.

I wanted to ask you to pay more attention on plain generic runewords, since they are used ~very~ often. And more. I think that many of power runewords could have better names and very ~special~ stats (auras that do nothing, but are pretty; "Reduce Casting Delay" prop...)



Now I realized that my critics can be very offensive. And also using my poor english I can't say everything, which I could say in russian. So, please, no offense! I really like this mod and just want it to become better and better.

GG, testers! GL, mishy! See you later!

[mishy23]

Ack! I never noticed magic/rare items don't display runes....
Hmm..I will solve this somehow...

And I want real feedback, so dont worry about offending me, i'm a big boy. And its great to hear these things.

The runenames well...
Its hard man, and i couldnt make the runewords too powerful in the beginning, but i am playign as well and you are right some are just weak, i think i'd rather have one okay property then, 3 super weak ones.

First thing I am going to do when I get home is relook at the runewords and rebalance a few.

Its great to have specific examples like above.

By the way if you didnt guess by now, generic runewords have single or double names (double names are slightly more powerful, probably not noticable) and power runewords are in the form of Person's Something. More like a unique name.
Well back to work.
-Mishy23
PS see if you can delete that double post

[xeno]

[quote=mishy23";p="187914"]
And I want real feedback, so dont worry about offending me, i'm a big boy. And its great to hear these things.
[/quote]

OK, no problem.

[quote=mishy23";p="187914"]
The runenames well...
Its hard man, and i couldnt make the runewords too powerful in the beginning, but i am playign as well and you are right some are just weak, i think i'd rather have one okay property then, 3 super weak ones.
[/quote]

Sorry, but you've got me wrong! I meant ~cool-looking~ but not cool properties. They can either be very unusual or connected by a specific theme (see my examples).

[quote=mishy23";p="187914"]
i think i'd rather have one okay property then, 3 super weak ones.
[/quote]

But they still can be connected by a general theme.

[quote=mishy23";p="187914"]
PS see if you can delete that double post
[/quote]

That {filtered} post!

Good Game!

[Kiwivagrant]

Heya Mishy.

You might want to take my name off the PT list. I have just been assigned several audits to do and these are going to take up most of my time over the next month or two. I will still download and play the mod when I can but I am not going to be able to put in the hours to warrant being a PT'er.

Thanks heaps and looking forward to checking it out once fileplanet gets it's servers back up.



K.