Tips For Leveling Characters...

[Major420]

I have had some success in leveling my characters by using certain software that you can display the monster levels with. Using this you can find areas where the monsters are at 50-55 percent of the character level. I put it on players 16-32 (if you can kill fast enough) and this seems to yield the maximum xp/ease of killing ratio for me.

My bowazon is in the mid 90's now and act 5 normal and normal cows yield good experience. My merc however has not leveled. I have tried the 50% trick with his level (64) but havent seemed to have much effect on merc exp. This is frustrating as I am in act 2 Hell (or whatever the new name is...lol) and my merc simply cannot stay alive even with good gear. I have a Holy Freeze merc from nightmare.

[Al-T]

[quote=Major420";p="274611"]I have had some success in leveling my characters by using certain software that you can display the monster levels with. Using this you can find areas where the monsters are at 50-55 percent of the character level. I put it on players 16-32 (if you can kill fast enough) and this seems to yield the maximum xp/ease of killing ratio for me.

My bowazon is in the mid 90's now and act 5 normal and normal cows yield good experience. My merc however has not leveled. I have tried the 50% trick with his level (64) but havent seemed to have much effect on merc exp. This is frustrating as I am in act 2 Hell (or whatever the new name is...lol) and my merc simply cannot stay alive even with good gear. I have a Holy Freeze merc from nightmare.[/quote]

Do yourself a favour and read the ToS. Sorry but this is the last time I go out of my way to help you. After this you are on your own.

[dmoogle]

[quote=Al-T";p="274766"]Do yourself a favour and read the ToS. Sorry but this is the last time I go out of my way to help you. After this you are on your own.[/quote]
What did he do wrong?

Anyways, you've pretty much got the best method for leveling so far. I'm a level 55 paladin and I'm playing act 3-act 4 for leveling up and my merc levels up once for every five-ten levels I have, but she (level 38) does fairly well leveling up in the beginning of act 2.

[nec5]

[quote=dmoogle";p="274776"][quote=Al-T";p="274766"]Do yourself a favour and read the ToS. Sorry but this is the last time I go out of my way to help you. After this you are on your own.[/quote]
What did he do wrong?[/quote]I believe he referenced a hack/bot type program of some kind. I don't use them. Discussing them is a no-no.

[dmoogle]

[quote=nec5";p="274777"][quote=dmoogle";p="274776"][quote=Al-T";p="274766"]Do yourself a favour and read the ToS. Sorry but this is the last time I go out of my way to help you. After this you are on your own.[/quote]
What did he do wrong?[/quote]I believe he referenced a hack/bot type program of some kind. I don't use them. Discussing them is a no-no.[/quote]
He wasn't discussing them at all; he barely mentioned a small hack (which is completely different from a bot. Mods themselves are big hacks. The ToS states that discussing hacking/botting on Closed or open battle.net is a no-no, but there's nothing wrong with using (for example) a map-hack playing Single Player.

EDIT: Sorry for being off topic. But hopefully the next patch will have changed the way players and their mercs level up.

[Major420]

Actually, I simply referred to monster level not a specific hack or cheat. monster levels can be looked up other ways as well. I have seen some of these cheats/hacks referred to as M*&#(*k and nothing was said to those persons. so therefore i dont feel I did anything wrong. This mod is a work in progress...Its ok to use character editors to set up test characters? But i mention "certain software" which is very vague and nonspecific but ive done something wrong? I play this mod because I like it. I go to the trouble of posting bugs etc when i dont actually have to and I would like to help even if it is in some small way. But if this is what I receive back for my troubles then whatever.

For your troubles Al-T I did read the TOS.. I quote the following.

XV) Any and all discussion of closed and/or open Battle.net cheating/hacking is prohibited. This includes discussion of player-activated auxiliary software or software extensions that could be used on Battle.net for cheating or hacking, whether discussed in that context or not. Although mods themselves could be construed as potential Battle.net cheats or hácks, a mod cannot be supported in closed Battle.net and can be played on open Battle.net in dedicated games. But any mod (and discussion of such mod) that implements features (e.g. mapháck equivalents) which are considered Battle.net hácks by Blizzard and/or the Phrozen Keep staff shall also be prohibited. Posts violating this proscription will be deleted and/or locked and the responsible party issued a warning for first-time offenses. Second-time offenders will be permanently and immediately banned from using this bulletin board. You are permitted, however, to discuss editing any code necessary to accomplish the implementation of a feature into your mod including but not being limited to Horadric cube recipes, potion replenish rates, damage dealt by hired mercenaries and damage dealt from in-game boss uniques/superuniques. All topics related to editing code should be referred to as "editing" and not "hacking".



My comments on this would state that outdated software that would no longer function on Battle.net cannot be construed as hacks/cheats by the definition of the TOS. They simply dont work on Battle.net as a result of them being outdated. The TOS specifically refers to "auxiliary software or software extensions that COULD be used on Battle.net for cheating or hacking". I did not mention any specific sofware that COULD be used on Battle.net.
And I did not discuss a Mod that implements such features as The Fury Within does not implement any such feature.

[Myhrginoc]

I don't know if /players X does a thing for merc experience (mod or vanilla), and I would doubt it anyway. Blizzard used a whole different scheme for merc stats, purely based on experience. I have bent this system to try to better align merc levels with player levels, but in no way will merc stats always rise and fall identical to a player. A merc can get decent treasure drops on higher /players X because the TCX "no drop" field is treated the same way regardless of who makes the kill.

I do appreciate bug reports. When I get them, I see what needs doing, and where I am successful I squash them. But we still have to keep our rules in mind when posting here. Article XV of our Terms of Service suffers from the problem of attempting to exclude cheats and hacks while permitting mods that can be narrowly construed as cheats and hacks. Therefore it reads like a section of the US Tax Code already. Any attempt to cover all the cases and exceptions would be too long to write, too long to read and accomplish nothing. But there has been enough written, in the ToS and in various responses to numerous threads, to allow a reasonable person to judge what passes and what does not around here.

First, mapháck is bad news, plain and simple. It doesn't matter to us if version A works with Battle.net B or vice versa. It is true some mods use certain features found in mapháck, such as colored text for special items. Those are trivial arguments. One primary consideration for why we dump on mapháck is the disclosures of position and capabilities of monsters. Another primary consideration is the use of such "tools" to get more information than the modmaker is willing to share---call it our "honor among thieves" principle.

Second, mods that could be used in Battle.net realms would be client-only mods. (In many senses, mapháck itself is a client-only mod.) TFW and most other mods here have server-side components, or are entirely server-side, so they won't work on Battle.net realms as mods. But components might work, so we don't discuss any mod on closed Battle.net. Open Battle.net is far more lenient, and some mods work just fine on open (e.g. Middle Earth). The rule of thumb here is "don't break the environment."

Let's keep the intent of these Terms of Service in mind, try not to split hairs too much, and when in doubt ask one of the staff before charging off into the blue.

[Brother Laz]

[quote=dmoogle";p="274790"]The ToS states that discussing hacking/botting on Closed or open battle.net is a no-no, but there's nothing wrong with using (for example) a map-hack playing Single Player.[/quote]

Ethics? Many modmakers don't exactly like it when they put years of work into a mod and then you cheat at it. That's like saying 'your mod is not worth playing for real, show me all the new stuff so I can go play something else'.

[nec5]

[quote=Myhrginoc";p="275106"]I Therefore it reads like a section of the US Tax Code already. [/quote] Nothing is quite that dense and impossible to interpret.

[dmoogle]

[quote=Brother Laz";p="275118"][quote=dmoogle";p="274790"]The ToS states that discussing hacking/botting on Closed or open battle.net is a no-no, but there's nothing wrong with using (for example) a map-hack playing Single Player.[/quote]

Ethics? Many modmakers don't exactly like it when they put years of work into a mod and then you cheat at it. That's like saying 'your mod is not worth playing for real, show me all the new stuff so I can go play something else'.[/quote]
You could say the same thing about putting money in the middle for Luxery Tax and the sort in Monopoly. Hell, you could say the same thing about modding in Diablo 2 in general. Ever used a Gameshark (for console games)? I have one, but only because it can expand a game. I'm not talking about Infinite Health, but messing around with a Debug Mode to create otherwise-impossible situations.

If somebody wants to alter a D2 mod so they can play it the way they want to, so be it. I don't think there's any reason that it should be looked down upon.

[Al-T]

[quote=dmoogle";p="275269"][quote=Brother Laz";p="275118"][quote=dmoogle";p="274790"]The ToS states that discussing hacking/botting on Closed or open battle.net is a no-no, but there's nothing wrong with using (for example) a map-hack playing Single Player.[/quote]

Ethics? Many modmakers don't exactly like it when they put years of work into a mod and then you cheat at it. That's like saying 'your mod is not worth playing for real, show me all the new stuff so I can go play something else'.[/quote]
You could say the same thing about putting money in the middle for Luxery Tax and the sort in Monopoly. Hell, you could say the same thing about modding in Diablo 2 in general. Ever used a Gameshark (for console games)? I have one, but only because it can expand a game. I'm not talking about Infinite Health, but messing around with a Debug Mode to create otherwise-impossible situations.

If somebody wants to alter a D2 mod so they can play it the way they want to, so be it. I don't think there's any reason that it should be looked down upon.[/quote]

We are all entitled to our own opinions and can choose to play any game any way we want but as it clearly states in the ToS which we all agree to when joining the Keep, discussion of such matters that you highlight is at best frowned upon here and at worst a breach of said ToS. If you want to cheat go ahead but don't openly discuss it here especially as you are advised not to and in any case, common decency should dictate that you respect mod-makers wishes that you don't try to circumvent the restrictions they place upon their modifications.

[Myhrginoc]

What Al-T said.

Ever heard the expression, "when in Rome, do like the Romans?" This here is the Keep, so Keep rules rule. We don't tell you what to do in your own space, and you don't decide for us how to run ours. That is harsh and perhaps rude, but if you want blunt honesty from us I can't put it any plainer.