A.) Large amounts of the important game code (code relevant to gameplay) was rewritten from scratch (this is about 1/3 rd of the D2 engine if we go about functionality and influence of this code on how the game works). This includes:
1.) All known major bugs in the D2 engine have been fixed, there are still a load of unknown minor bugs, but I'm speaking about bugs that are generally talked about (FE bug, see the topic I made in general discussion about D2 bugs).
2.) Most major skill functions (summons, aurae, curses)
3.) Large parts of the level generation (much work still needed here, but this is comparebly easy, although convulged).
4.) Almost all AI code, the engine now supports scripted AI and has a way more efficient target picking mechanism.
5.) Large parts of the monster related code.
6.) Almost every single object related function in the game.
7.) Almost the entire combat and damage related code.
8.) The code responsible for almost every single stat in the game.
9.) Item and Treasureclass generation has been replaced.
10.) The majority of the NPC related code.
11.) Large amounts of the character related code.
12.) A complete side quest engine with support for 2048 individual quests per difficulty. (Can be expanded on the fly to any limit, but we kept it at 2048 for tcp/ip traffic stuff not taking too long).
13.) All 1024 level slots functional, rather then just the first 256
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B.) From the above the features below are taken in whole or in part.
1.) Act independant movement, that is, you can go to any act at any time. Ofc there are storyline related restrictions here, but there is no need to 'do everything here and then go there'.
2.) Quests that span over multiple acts and timelines (vanilla difficulties will be changed to timelines / alternate realities) --- while most will be the same per difficulty, this only applies to the main flow of the game --- the last and final battle however can only be done on 'hell'
3.) Totally different spell, skill and character systems --- these bear no resemblence to D2, most of this is somewhat along the lines of the infinity engine games.
4.) The item system is rather different from D2 (I say rather because I didn't feel everything has to be replaced here, it has many good aspects to it). However there is a great reduction in grind, that is, you'll easily find good equipment and don't have to waste a lifespan to find it. Rare items are back to their original glory from v1.00-v1.06. Note that many of the items generally overpowered in v1.11x are going to remain there, with minor tweaks, but there is no need to nerf them in this new environment. Keep in mind that rare items will usually exceed these however in terms of general useability. There are affixes spawning only on rare items now (and so on and so forth).
5.) A crapload of new in-game chat commands and keyboard keys and a ini to toggle many settings, you will be able to customize a fair bit of stuff, I don't like forcing a static game on people. There will always be those who complain things are too hard to too easy, this allows you to customize many aspects of the difficulty (the harshness of the 'rules'). Some sidequests and other things are only available on very high difficulty however.
6.) Many new Npcs and also a load of new vendors, in multiple towns per 'act', also Npcs will react more to your advance in the game and to your reputation in general.
7.) Spells and skills are available to everyone equally, there are now class restrictions like in the D2 system, what you can and can't use depends on your subclass not class. There are also many skills using entirely new code never seen before in D2.
8.) General increase in difficulty and need for strategy. Everything is generally a lot harder, the environment is as harsh as can be. Difficulty and harshness however comes in many forms and does not mean you'll be facing the proverbial x8 crap everywhere.
9.) Along the previous lines, the AI is smarter, a lot smarter at times, it's lean, it's mean, it will play tricks on you, stab you in the back and then laugh in your face. Smarter units will chose the most efficient attack against your character beware.
10.) Among the side quests and also main quests, we plan to have more then one way to beat them in most cases. However unlike vanilla you can also fail quests (without a chance for a rematch, how is this role playing if you can repeat the same thing until it works, that never made any sense).
11.) Loads of other stuff I forgot to write.
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C.) Stuff that may make it in, if there is enough interest and time on our part.
1.) There may be skin-able GUI, it's not hard to make D2 load BMP or GIF files, so no need to convert it to DC6 files on the user part.
2.) Integrated MP3 Player, we won't bother anyone to download the extra music that will be added to the game by metalstorm, this is a standalone extension of the main project. Now if we get the time to, we may integrate a MP3 player configureable via the INI to play whatever you like.
3.) New entry, me and Joel had the idea to convert the D2 GUI to parsed XML so it can be modified and expanded without bothering with much extra code when new GUI stuff is added.
D.) General policy on nerfing
I hate to have to nerf things and I dislike nerfing approach taken in general (see Ultimate Fixer for my oppinion on blizz nerfs), it's a bad excuse for not testing at the start and then using then steamroller approach in panic. The only things that will be nerfed in general are those that are really broken (overpowered due to bugs or unintentional side effects of other things). Everyone can use everything, this makes nerfing a lot less mandatory here then in a D2-ish environment anyway. Some things are just stronger then others, it's in the nature of things. If something turns out broken beyond repair it will be permanently removed, no questions asked, no mercy, complaints should be directed to dev/nul. Amen.
E.) Code Statistics
Code: Select all
D2Functions.cpp 2742
MpqLoad.cpp 30
NefexLib.cpp 591
Patches.cpp 3043
PseudoImports.cpp 660
Log.cpp 160
Modules.cpp 32
Nefex.cpp 402
ConfigFiles.cpp 159
Toggles.cpp 130
Items.cpp 2591
TreasureClass.cpp 591
Objects.cpp 1423
ObjSpawn.cpp 328
Shrines.cpp 1012
Characters.cpp 1152
PlayerCount.cpp 128
PlayerList.cpp 166
AiFuncs.cpp 1287
AiSeq.cpp 1440
AiTarget.cpp 280
MonAi.cpp 401
MonMode.cpp 174
Bosses.cpp 345
BossMods.cpp 1942
Monsters.cpp 1255
Missiles.cpp 833
NpcDialogs.cpp 1373
Npcs.cpp 337
Stores.cpp 414
Combat.cpp 853
Damage.cpp 2914
Speed.cpp 498
Stats.cpp 1935
Callback.cpp 134
QuestMeta.cpp 774
Quests.cpp 234
Chat.cpp 799
NetCode.cpp 254
Common.cpp 2457
Randomizer.cpp 458
Strings.cpp 75
NewTables.cpp 1644
Dungeon.cpp 1373
ExtLevel.cpp 37
Skills.cpp 2267
Automap.cpp 251
ClientEffects.cpp 926
FrontEnd.cpp 487
KeyboardHooks.cpp 53
MonDesc.cpp 161
SkillTrees.cpp 256
*.h, *.def 12445
Sum: 56706F.) Latest Stuff (not gameplay related)
1.) Made D2 save screenshots as PNG
2.) Support for >65K shared palshift (palshift accessable from any token)
3.) Ability to load 4 custom TBL files
G.) Latest Stuff (Gameplay related)
1.) Fear effecting the player
2.) Amout 500+ more lines of vanilla code replaced
3.) Durability lost when hit by missile attacks
The act change is independent of the quest accomplished. This is the idea that many MMORPG games contain. Since the game is multiplayer, it makes things fresh. Set off on any hunt. No matter which act is considered. I love the idea. Creation of five (or more) different acts, where many areas are within the touch at the start, while in the vanilla you had to struggle with final act bosses. That brings quite a new gameplay I think. I am eager to hear more about the idea.
- Hans
! I hope Nef takes well deserved breaks sometimes...
