The Phrozen Keep

Diablo 2 Heroes of the End mod. My project of 12 or so years now, and a testament to my journey in video game modding.

Requires D2SE modmanager. No exceptions

Download link: (Alpha 01e)
https://mega.nz/#!KjxzWaAb!w4HSzTPo5LWX ... wuhh5AdiAA

General mod info:

===Keep in mind that this mod is still very much a WIP and not complete. I release updates as I make them for those interested in playing around with it. =====

Changes skills:
All classes have brand new, overhauled skills spread across 5 skill trees. The skills are very complex in nature, and your character's stats play a huge role in how well they perform.

Hardcoded stuff:
Thanks to various friends and members of the keep, I've implemented some hardcoded changes as well. The biggest one players will notice is the automatic gold pickup. The rest of them just lets me do cool stuff with d2 that wouldn't otherwise be possible.

Items:
Many crafting recipes. Blacksmith vendors sell material reagents which can be cubed with weapons and armors.

Immersion:
Many items have flavor text added to give the game a more immersive feel.

Monsters:
Brand new monster types and behaviors. Zombies can now spit poison at you, vampires can cast earthquakes, golems can spawn from the ground... And many, many more. Every monster is hand-crafted to give you a unique experience that beats the "point click kill" monotony.

Boss monsters:
Superunique monsters have been massively overhauled. Every superunique monster is a unique monster in and of itself - with tactics you haven't seen until encountering them. Learn their patterns and exploit their weaknesses to obtain victory.

A few level edits:
There are a few new maps in this mod, and some expanded maps. While map and level design hasn't been a focus of this mod to this point, there are a few new and changed areas. Some include crypt, mausoleum, underground passage lv. 2, harem level 1, swampy pit level 3, and arreat summit. Check them out!

Installation:
First, you'll need diablo 2 Lord of Destruction. You'll need to install d2SE modmanager. It would be a good idea to take a look at the snej website and links for d2se as it contains specific instructions of how to install it properly. Then, extract the contents of the .zip file. Move the Heroes of The End folder into the MODS folder in your d2se/diablo 2 setup.

Changelog, Troubleshooting & documentation:
I've included some .txt files inside of the archive in the documentation folder.

If you get random c0000009 or c0000005 errors, simply try to reload the game again. This happens sometimes for some reason, and I haven't narrowed down as to why.

Is there a reason to package the mod into Patch_D2.mpq, when it forces you to include all unnecessary files such as staredit.exe, MPQ2K and such? Personally I would be OK if you distributed your mod to work with -direct -txt, or packaged it with MPQDraft (which should eliminate the need to package unmodded files along with modded ones).

I'll report back after a playtest in a day or two.

Edit: I know this sounds whiny, but the early game feels too harsh. At level 1-2 my Sorceress is forced to lure monsters to the edge of the town, alternating between hitting a couple of times and running back to heal. I'd be okay with ramping up difficulty at Den of Evil or Cold Plains, but instakilling monsters at Blood Moor?

Corpsefire was tough. Often he would teleport on top of me and spawn 5-6 minions who would stunlock me to death. I was killed ~10 times before I discovered a "strategy" of tanking damage with health potions and casting Apocalypse over and over, but it was very boring, especially with him teleporting away in that twisty little den.

Blood Raven feels nigh impossible. Every now and then she regenerated any damage I did to her. Coupled with her high HP I think it would be impossible to challenge her as a low-level character. Also, am I supposed to dodge her multiple shot or "tank" the damage with potions?

The skill graphics are very fancy, but somewhat misleading as to how powerful each of them are. Some skills seem to do far more than their listed damage amount, while others seem to do far less. Buff skills (e.g. Recharge) don't show the length of their duration or an overlay indicating their application. Also most skills seem to be click-and-spam skills, with no tactical decisions such as kiting monsters, keeping distance, or proper aiming involved.

Skill descriptions are cluttered and hard to read. Why make skills with blank or identical icons? It's difficult to see whether I have Recharge, Focus, or Town Portal at my right-click button.

Overall I believe you are missing your mark with the difficulty. Shouldn't a player be allowed to test his new skills before being challenged with hard monsters? Do all bosses need to have so much life?

EDIT: Struck out some emotional comments.

mmpx222" wrote:Is there a reason to package the mod into Patch_D2.mpq, when it forces you to include all unnecessary files such as staredit.exe, MPQ2K and such? Personally I would be OK if you distributed your mod to work with -direct -txt, or packaged it with MPQDraft (which should eliminate the need to package unmodded files along with modded ones).

I'll report back after a playtest in a day or two.

Edit: I know this sounds whiny, but the early game feels too harsh. At level 1-2 my Sorceress is forced to lure monsters to the edge of the town, alternating between hitting a couple of times and running back to heal. I'd be okay with ramping up difficulty at Den of Evil or Cold Plains, but instakilling monsters at Blood Moor?

Corpsefire was tough. Often he would teleport on top of me and spawn 5-6 minions who would stunlock me to death. I was killed ~10 times before I discovered a "strategy" of tanking damage with health potions and casting Apocalypse over and over, but it was very boring, especially with him teleporting away in that twisty little den.

Blood Raven feels nigh impossible. Every now and then she regenerated any damage I did to her. Coupled with her high HP I think it would be impossible to challenge her as a low-level character. Also, am I supposed to dodge her multiple shot or "tank" the damage with potions?

The skill graphics are very fancy, but somewhat misleading as to how powerful each of them are. Some skills seem to do far more than their listed damage amount, while others seem to do far less. Buff skills (e.g. Recharge) don't show the length of their duration or an overlay indicating their application. Also most skills seem to be click-and-spam skills, with no tactical decisions such as kiting monsters, keeping distance, or proper aiming involved.

Skill descriptions are cluttered and hard to read. Why make skills with blank or identical icons? It's difficult to see whether I have Recharge, Focus, or Town Portal at my right-click button.

Overall I believe you are missing your mark with the difficulty. Shouldn't a player be allowed to test his new skills before being challenged with hard monsters? Do all bosses need to have so much life?

Again,

a) This mod is imcomplete, it is still in the early stages of what it will be.
b) It's not meant to be easy. Dodging attacks is essential to survival, you can't expect to just be able to walk up to things and kill them without a fight
c) There are lots of kiting techniques required. For example, you played sorceress. Kiting is essential to survival.
d) Corpsefire and every other superunique after that is meant to be a boss battle. You have to fight them carefully, they're meant to be stronger than regular monsters.

I got around to trying the Sorceress a few more hours and the mod is actually pretty good, if a bit difficult. I admit I was overly vicious in the previous post.

That said, some issues:

1. Flame Laser is a rather underpowered starting spell. Thankfully, getting to level 2 only requires a few kills, but running into teleporting dragons at Lv1 is painful. (This is probably what rubbed me the wrong way the first time)
2. The purple firestorms cast by Slain Heroes need some cool sound effects. Also, it seems 5-6 points in damage reduction completely nullifies its damage. Perhaps a DamageRate change in missiles.txt is in order?
3. What is the Unlimiter Stone? When I right-click it the game plays a sound effect but nothing else happens, so I assume it's a cube ingredient, but for what?
4. The version of Rogue Camp with 5-o'clock entrance is from unmodified LoD (no wells, no shrine). I can't seem to change the map to the changed Rogue Camp without creating a new character.
5. I acquired the Defense Gene item, but the Defensive Form skill is unusable (i.e. has a red icon). How do I enable it?
6. Several items and skills don't have proper names (shows as "An Evil Force"), e.g. Warrior Gene

As for Blood Raven, using a weapon with Open Wounds to spam Tidal Wave worked wonders. In fact I would go as far as to say that Tidal Wave is slightly overpowered, since it procs multiple times per cast + knocks back enemies.

Hi,

I played a few hours yesterday and found a some odd things.

-You used different tilesets from other Acts in Act1 which goes around with some graphic problems, someone uploaded a recolored tilesets from each Act useable in each Act, I recommend using these.
-One Rune gives a Sanctuary Aura with a lvl range. As Runes must have a fix value you should change it.
-I played a Assasin and couldn´t pass Black Marsh, tried different skills, even Nova from Runes (lvl 36) and was unable to kill any mobs. Also spamming Nova just leads to reaching the spirit limit.
-You said some monsters keep respawning, for example Golems in Stony Field, but if you are able to kill them fast (for example by using Nova from Runes) you can probably farm forever as I was nowhere close to reach the end as you said. Also every respawned mob can drop Items which just leads to a full screen of junk.
-Seems like you created some Item/Rune Graphics by yourself, as someone who even cannot make something like you did, I would still recommend using Graphics someone already created or converted, for Example the Graphics uploaded by Eimernase, until you improved.
-Probably one Act1 Map is bugged which lead to these gamecrashing Errors, however not sure about it.
-...

I must say you created some pretty fancy Skills and Animations, you should focus on finishing these first. Also the Idea with respawning Mobs is great, but you should use it for endgame content, or change the infinite amount of drops. I´m tired of seeing the same new mobs over and over again, Eimernase (again) uploaded some pretty neat new mobs which you could use. He (again) also uploaded a lot decent looking item graphics (I resized most of and already converted them, so ask me if you want them).

I can offer you some help when dealing with Items and such stuff as I personally don´t like messing with skills or mobs. Just message me if you want and we can talk about it.

tl;dr : Focus on finishing your Skills and Animations. Everything else comes after that.

Cheers

I've been playing all players for a few days now. I added the Collectors backpack by Volf for more bag space and it's huge! I really like the Amazon skills and also the Machinist Rogue a real kick ass trapper. I found the best thing to do is keep moving and farm later.lol I should have two players in act2 in a few hours. If I get the chance I'll try to find some skill tabs for you.

mmpx222" wrote:I got around to trying the Sorceress a few more hours and the mod is actually pretty good, if a bit difficult. I admit I was overly vicious in the previous post.

That said, some issues:

1. Flame Laser is a rather underpowered starting spell. Thankfully, getting to level 2 only requires a few kills, but running into teleporting dragons at Lv1 is painful. (This is probably what rubbed me the wrong way the first time)
2. The purple firestorms cast by Slain Heroes need some cool sound effects. Also, it seems 5-6 points in damage reduction completely nullifies its damage. Perhaps a DamageRate change in missiles.txt is in order?
3. What is the Unlimiter Stone? When I right-click it the game plays a sound effect but nothing else happens, so I assume it's a cube ingredient, but for what?
4. The version of Rogue Camp with 5-o'clock entrance is from unmodified LoD (no wells, no shrine). I can't seem to change the map to the changed Rogue Camp without creating a new character.
5. I acquired the Defense Gene item, but the Defensive Form skill is unusable (i.e. has a red icon). How do I enable it?
6. Several items and skills don't have proper names (shows as "An Evil Force"), e.g. Warrior Gene

As for Blood Raven, using a weapon with Open Wounds to spam Tidal Wave worked wonders. In fact I would go as far as to say that Tidal Wave is slightly overpowered, since it procs multiple times per cast + knocks back enemies.

Thx for trying it again! I understand the beginning can be frustrating....

1. I agree. I am probably going to increase the potency of flame laser.
2. The purple firestorms are actually a barbarian skill. I'd like to keep it as a multi-hitting skill, and part of the strategy for defending against it is damage reduction. Also, defense plays a factor in everything (even spells.) You might just have high enough defense to where it's not hitting you at all
3. The unlimiter stone was something I was going to implement early in the mod's development to increase potency of skills (e.g. range, seek range, homing capability tracking, number of hits, AoE damage, etc.) I am unsure whether I am going to continue with this idea or not, but currently it doesn't work. I forgot to remove them from vendors.
4. I edited some of the maps way back when, and have since lost the editing tools. My goal was to edit all of the towns and make new variations. Some maps I haven't gotten to. Either way, I'm going to do this in the future (my main priority right now is finishing skills and monsters.)
5. The "gene" items are actually for paladins. Paladins have the skill "Ascension" which allows them to use the oskills granted by the gene items. It allows them to transform into different dragon forms. I am planning to implement a better way of obtaining them. Monsters will drop reagents, and you will have to cube certain reagents to get certain genes. For now superuniques drop them so they are accessible as no reagent items have been added yet.
6. That's a string problem. I am working on it, just slowly but surely.

Indeed, tidal wave is very OP. I am still working on balance as well as I make all the skills.

Anyways, thanks for giving it a second try. I know it's imba and frustrating at times, but thanks for sticking with it and the positive feedback.

Nacnud" wrote:I've been playing all players for a few days now. I added the Collectors backpack by Volf for more bag space and it's huge! I really like the Amazon skills and also the Machinist Rogue a real kick ass trapper. I found the best thing to do is keep moving and farm later.lol I should have two players in act2 in a few hours. If I get the chance I'll try to find some skill tabs for you.

Thanks

AlphA - The Real One" wrote:Hi,

I played a few hours yesterday and found a some odd things.

-You used different tilesets from other Acts in Act1 which goes around with some graphic problems, someone uploaded a recolored tilesets from each Act useable in each Act, I recommend using these.
-One Rune gives a Sanctuary Aura with a lvl range. As Runes must have a fix value you should change it.
-I played a Assasin and couldn´t pass Black Marsh, tried different skills, even Nova from Runes (lvl 36) and was unable to kill any mobs. Also spamming Nova just leads to reaching the spirit limit.
-You said some monsters keep respawning, for example Golems in Stony Field, but if you are able to kill them fast (for example by using Nova from Runes) you can probably farm forever as I was nowhere close to reach the end as you said. Also every respawned mob can drop Items which just leads to a full screen of junk.
-Seems like you created some Item/Rune Graphics by yourself, as someone who even cannot make something like you did, I would still recommend using Graphics someone already created or converted, for Example the Graphics uploaded by Eimernase, until you improved.
-Probably one Act1 Map is bugged which lead to these gamecrashing Errors, however not sure about it.
-...

I must say you created some pretty fancy Skills and Animations, you should focus on finishing these first. Also the Idea with respawning Mobs is great, but you should use it for endgame content, or change the infinite amount of drops. I´m tired of seeing the same new mobs over and over again, Eimernase (again) uploaded some pretty neat new mobs which you could use. He (again) also uploaded a lot decent looking item graphics (I resized most of and already converted them, so ask me if you want them).

I can offer you some help when dealing with Items and such stuff as I personally don´t like messing with skills or mobs. Just message me if you want and we can talk about it.

tl;dr : Focus on finishing your Skills and Animations. Everything else comes after that.

Cheers

Alright, I think I'll take you up on your offer. Thanks for trying it


To everyone:

Version 0002 is out now! Give it a try. I took some of your suggestions and also fixed some things I felt need fixing.

Also, due to the positive feedback, I'm going to continue working on this. So check back for more updates.

anything going on here???your mod sounds promising...

Lucifer666" wrote:anything going on here???your mod sounds promising...

Yes! I'm working on version .004! Just releasing .003 as we speak. Lots of changes. I'm slowly (but surely) adding content. RL stuff has been keeping me busy... but I am still working on it. I have not given up. Way too much work to give up on it. And like you said, promising.

Also, I'm thinking about changing the name. Sounds too much like "Heroes of the storm."

But give it a try, it's still pretty good even in alpha. Let me know what you think.

What version of LoD needed to play the mod? Try to start it through the D2SE, but get an error (attached).

keep up with the good work

I got the same error as the guy above.
Playing under 1.10

Chiron" wrote:What version of LoD needed to play the mod? Try to start it through the D2SE, but get an error (attached).

I currently use 1.13

Try updating to the latest patch and see if it works. If not, you might need to try loading it without d2SE.

Kuss" wrote:I got the same error as the guy above.
Playing under 1.10

Definitely need a higher version, 1.13 at least. I made the patch_d2.mpq with 1.13 files though, so that may be a factor...

Awesome work, Jason!
I have played for a couple hours total and am highly impressed with the quality of work you have put into this project.
The difficulty is def harder than D2, which I'm sure was the point.
I'm not very talented at dissecting game mechanics and giving constructive criticism, but I most certainly cant wait to see where this goes from here.
You're very talented and I look forward to playing this with a "few" people soon!
You know how to get ahold of me anytime, plz do so! Lol

Keep up the awesome work, bro!

Howdy!

Yes your mod sounds incredible to say the least!
The only thing that keeps me from downloading it, is the fact that so far it seems unplayable via D2SE, which I find kind of odd?!
I got so many different mods installed and playing through em quite regularly that it would be a shame to distort the original gamefolder (and some sort of unwillingness to make a 2nd installation just for 1 mod )

So if you kindly could create a D2SE Plugin i'd love to play your mod for you and come up with some feedback

Cheers and keep it up!

gogodanny" wrote:Howdy!

Yes your mod sounds incredible to say the least!
The only thing that keeps me from downloading it, is the fact that so far it seems unplayable via D2SE, which I find kind of odd?!
I got so many different mods installed and playing through em quite regularly that it would be a shame to distort the original gamefolder (and some sort of unwillingness to make a 2nd installation just for 1 mod )

So if you kindly could create a D2SE Plugin i'd love to play your mod for you and come up with some feedback

Cheers and keep it up!

Same here.

create a folder "heroes of the end"

put the patch_d2.mpq in the folder
create a d2se_setup.ini (or copy one from another mod)

clear the d2se_setup.ini and put the following in:
works perfectly

Tried to Download it, doesnt work - i always get an error saying error 400 bad request ...

got a solution for that? :-)

Here is the full Mod folder, just put it in your D2SE Mods folder and it should work.
http://www.file-upload.net/download-116 ... d.rar.html


Maybe Jase can update his first post with this file when he see it.

Grinch" wrote:Here is the full Mod folder, just put it in your D2SE Mods folder and it should work.
http://www.file-upload.net/download-116 ... d.rar.html


Maybe Jase can update his first post with this file when he see it.

Thanks for creating this! Hah, I'm from the old school 1.10 days before I knew what D2SE was. I'll add this so d2se users can use it. Again, tyvm

Edit: The file seems to have been taken down or reported by someone.

Edit 2: I just uploaded a d2SE compatible version. Have fun!

gogodanny" wrote:Howdy!

Yes your mod sounds incredible to say the least!
The only thing that keeps me from downloading it, is the fact that so far it seems unplayable via D2SE, which I find kind of odd?!
I got so many different mods installed and playing through em quite regularly that it would be a shame to distort the original gamefolder (and some sort of unwillingness to make a 2nd installation just for 1 mod )

So if you kindly could create a D2SE Plugin i'd love to play your mod for you and come up with some feedback

Cheers and keep it up!

Just created a d2SE compatible version. Check it out!

Barbarian's skill -> Force Blow

The AOE is huge and it even affects targets behind me, which doesnt make much sense. Especially when u can use the skill with any weapon.

bug with the sorc if you try to reset skills using the button you loose all said skill points

bleedingapathy" wrote:bug with the sorc if you try to reset skills using the button you loose all said skill points

Is this when using plugY with D2SE, the respec token recipe, or via Akara?