2.21B progress

[jbouley]

So far, so good on 2.21B

Still testing recipes, but they seem to be working well so far, and I'm pleased with the changes to the socketing and etherseeking recipes. I think they'll enhance balance in the mod...insofar as the thing can ever be "balanced." (i.e. it never will be, truly, 100% balanced...especially if you're a bowazon or a sorc. )

Haven't tested the four new runewords yet, though I will soon.

Should be on-track for a Monday or Tuesday release if things continue to go this well.

[Max-Violence]

Well, I've got one more item for you to check into, and it's a serious issue (assuming you consider crash-causing items to be serious issues).

Y'know the two rings for the Ringmaster's set? Well, the higher-level one (requires clvl 29 IIRC) acts really wierd with the other ring equipped and one repairs it -- every time I try to repair it (i.e. recharge it) with the other ring on, the clvl 29 ring gains charges of "Attack" and, quite often, will crash the game when I mouse-over it. Other times the game crashes after I repair it and switch to my other weapon slot. Other times it's fine. Note that I've been steadily "upgrading" my secondary weapon (i.e. using a better and better weapon as I level up), so it's not the secondary weapon's fault.

Right now, I can't use one of my characters (a lvl 35 amazon) because of this little problem. I go to load her in singleplayer and the door just won't open . The instant it should start to open, I get the wonderful "access violation" error message box. The error log says something about D2common.dll. I can email you the character's .d2s file if it'll help.

Sorry to dump this on you at the last minute, JB, but it just cropped up.

[jbouley]

That's bizarre. Well, my solution won't help your currently problem, but probably the best thing I can do for future "finders" of this set (yourself included if you replace the items) is probably to remove the charged skill(s) so that you don't need to "repair" a ring. Offhand, I don't recall the powers of the items, so I'll have to look into that

I'll figure something out. I seem to recall this set causing some problems before (different ones).

Did you socket one or both rings with anything? I wonder if that might be a possible source of trouble as well...(again, I don't recall if those rings come with sockets or not...been a while since I created that set).

[grumpybears]

I've had the same problem with this ring as well. If i recall the skill on is not all that great and I for one, wouldn't mind seeing it go. I've gotten carefull with skills on rings.

O, I had put a seasonal rune in it when it happened. It worked fine until I added the rune, then i repaired it and boom, stoped entering games. When repaired it gained a second skill in green, like a set bonus.

Hope this helps. Grumpy

[jbouley]

I will send the skill bye-bye...and I'll test the socketing of it a bit to see if perhaps socketing anything in it (even without the skill) is a problem....just to be thorough.

[IronSigil]

. I bear bad news.

Having just leveled my elemental spearazon a few times, I have notice some serious problems with the 2 highest spear/jav skills. Firstly, Storm of the Abyss (jav skill) does NO damage on the secondary bolts. None at all. It looks pretty, but it does absolutely nothing, much like my ex-girlfriend.

The spear skill (where chain lightning comes out) is VERY impressive effect-wise, and it does some damage... but the damage is VERY far below the listed damage. It might have something to do with the graphic... in any case, the mechanics of it feel wrong when compared to the real chain lightning/tempest wraith. I would guess that it does a tenth of the damage it is suppose to (and the listed damage ain't so great either). I seem to recalled that there is a similar probelm in vanilla lod, but seeing as this is a mod, perhaps the simple thing to do is to boost the damage through the roof and put something in the notes about this... sort of like using a assault rifle on full auto because you can't aim.

Thank God neither of these skills are crashing... sorry to bring this up at the last minute, but I JUST found it out.

EDIT: Well, I've been thinking about this. Having no real clue about game mechanics, my thoughts are not particularly profound. Storm of the Abyss has a ground graphic... little patches of fire that race across the screen. Maybe they are not staying on the enemies long enough to do damage? Maybe something about the graphic makes it so that the game is unable to register hits from them in general?

[jbouley]

This is the first I've heard of problems with those amazon skills...and the skills have been modded like that since, what...1.0 of SiC?

OK, I'll have to fiddle with the missles and hope to hell the game doesn't crash...do you mind if I post a link to an amazon skill patch or two (like I did with the druid before)...and maybe you can test-run the changes for me to tell me what works or doesn't?

Let me know.

[IronSigil]

I believe I mentioned the storm of the abyss problem back in 2.20 (I believe the graphic has changed since then). I am a mac user, so while I would be most happy to test for you, effects may differ... maybe someone else should test as well, especially if no one has mentioned this.

Actually, I dug up from my sordid past an evil cheat program for the mac. I have never used it for SiC, but it allows me to edit characters and equipment for testing purposes. My Spearzon had an uh... accident due to frustration, but she can easily be recreated.

[Max-Violence]

As far as the ringmaster's ring problem goes: Yes, I socketed it (Balrog's Eye, memory serves), but I do believe the ring crashed me before I socketed it.

BTW, speaking of repairing rings, you know that the +defence rings (all of 'em) can have the "self-repair" line of suffixes, right? Seems kinda odd, seeing as how they have no durability/are indestructible.

I've never played a spearazon in SiC (I'm more of a sorc/barb/druid kinda guy), so I can't comment on that/those issue/s.

[jbouley]

Problem with making new items is that sometimes, you get affix combinations that just don't make sense.

I seem to recall tales of the one-handed "amazon" spears spawning with +skill levels to the bow tree.

I haven't dealt much with the affix files, so I'll have to see if there's any easy fix or if it's something everyone will just have to deal with (and that I'll have to explain away as "vendors trying to cheat you" or "products from incompetent enchanters.";))

[Yonder]

[quote=IronSigil";p="130474"]Firstly, Storm of the Abyss (jav skill) does NO damage on the secondary bolts. None at all. It looks pretty, but it does absolutely nothing, much like my ex-girlfriend.[/quote]
LOL

[quote=jbouley";p="130493"]This is the first I've heard of problems with those amazon skills...[/quote]
I assume the reason for this is that spearazones are almost as common as spearsorcs. Nobody plays them anymore thx to LoD, where all elemental spear skills were bugged or just useless.

[IronSigil]

I assume the reason for this is that spearazones are almost as common as spearsorcs. Nobody plays them anymore thx to LoD, where all elemental spear skills were bugged or just useless.

I have a spearsorc! the mechnic bladestick in its various incarnations is the weapon of choice for my melee sorc until I find (or etherseek via my now complete spreadsheet) Cleaving the veil or Eternal Sun.

As for the lack of spearazons in SiC, that would be unfortunate due to the innate coolness of a lot of the skills. Hellfire spear is like a firewall you THROW at something, Call Lightning is chainlightning you poke something with, and Storm of the Abyss is a Wake of Fire you throw.

[jbouley]

Oh, and by the way, I probably don't really need to state the obvious, but...

...these last-minue fixes have, of couse, delayad release slightly.

Still aiming for this week though. I want to have the mod up (if possible) before I do the Friday update.

[jbouley]

Gee...want to know how stupid my error with Storm of the Abyss was?

I didn't list any kind of elemental type for the fire missiles that travel along the ground, so they did no damage.

One could say that this mistake was perfectly reasonable. After all, the unmodded D2 files don't list damage or an elemental type for the secondary missiles (presumably, damage is drawn from the main skill damage). However, I had enough sense to know I'd need to add damage to those missiles to give fire damage separate from the lighting damage of the thrown missile...one would think I'd have enough sense to give an etype of "fire" to make sure it did fire damage as I intended.

[Brother Laz]

As for Lightning Strike, it's very bugged in 1.09, and fixed in 1.10 by... introducing a new bug to replace the old.

In 1.09 the problem is not a real bug with the way the skill works [unlike 1.10 LS] but just because LS has very low damage listed for the bolts in missiles.txt, and IIRC there's also something with attack rating in missiles.txt that causes the lightning bolts to have a sub-100% chance to hit based on your AR, and once one of them misses, the rest of the chain bolts are just graphics and do no damage.

[FYR, in 1.10 the damage is right but when two bolts hit the same enemy within a few frames, one of them ends. Unfixable. Increasing the damage, changing one 1 to a 0 and adding a synergy bonus was all they had to do, and they manage to break the skill in the process. Wonderful]