Diablo 2: Median XL Ultimative

[Lilura]

Post has been rewritten.

 

[Surf Solar]

Looks very clusterfuck-y to me..

 

[Greatness]

Looks very clusterfuck-y to me..

That's just Diablo in general. It wouldn't be edgy enough if people with epilepsy could play it.

I put some time unto this mod awhile back. It is the best form of Diablo if you're into that sort of thing. Far more depth than D3 and a nice improvement over vanilla D2. Dunno why this would be posted in "General RPG Discussion" though.

 

[ASTRAL]

I tried it once and it seemed to really up the clusturfuck ( including basic player skills ) tenfold so I didn't stick.

 

[Siobhan]

I tried MedianXL many years ago, but don't remember much about it. That being said, your description does make it sound like it fixes some of my main gripes with vanilla D2's single player experience (slow character progression, underwhelming loot, low enemy density), so I might give it one more try. Btw, how do you feel about the Back to Hellfire mod? As someone who greatly prefers D1 over D2, I have a soft spot for it, but it's very different from MedianXL regarding how it solves some of D2's problems, e.g. replacing skill points by books rather than reducing the time between level-ups.

 

[Torrasque01]

Eastern Sun is better.

 

[Raapys]

Eastern Sun is excellent. Haven't tried MedianXL, but I struggle to see how it could be better than ES.

 

[Gregz]

Looks very clusterfuck-y to me..

It's really great actually.

 

[DDZ]

Is there a high res/widescreen hackmodthing for this yet?

 

[Average Manatee]

400*300px (half game-size) screens don't do this game visual justice, they're only for illustration of concepts. Real-time hardware accelerated lighting and perspective effects from Glide Wrapper are not seen properly, Median XL must be seen in motion for appreciation, and preferably not at 240p on youtube.

What exactly does the Glide wrapper add? I use DirectDraw since it's the only thing supported by the High Res mod. Do you have comparison pics?

 

[dnf]

There is plenty of sprites of other games in this one, Baldur's Gate, Age of Wonders, Planetscape,etc

 

[Lilura]

I tried MedianXL many years ago, but don't remember much about it. That being said, your description does make it sound like it fixes some of my main gripes with vanilla D2's single player experience (slow character progression, underwhelming loot, low enemy density), so I might give it one more try. Btw, how do you feel about the Back to Hellfire mod? As someone who greatly prefers D1 over D2, I have a soft spot for it, but it's very different from MedianXL regarding how it solves some of D2's problems, e.g. replacing skill points by books rather than reducing the time between level-ups.

B2H is a great mod, but the difficulty and cool-factor just isn't there for me. The mod will only run on post-XP Windows without sound (-ns), if you want sound you need Sanboxie or Virtual Box, and that's annoying.

Eastern Sun is another great mod, but isn't as actively maintained (or as challenging).

Is there a high res/widescreen hackmodthing for this yet?

Here.

I don't use widescreen for Diablo 2, cuz you can see and attack what should be off-screen packs without risk. I prefer display driver hardware scaling to maintain 4:3 aspect ratio on widescreens, this is for me the solution. You can also play in Windowed mode, preferably using Glide Wrapper (and -w -3dfx shortcut switches)

What exactly does the Glide wrapper add? I use DirectDraw since it's the only thing supported by the High Res mod. Do you have comparison pics?

DDraw looks awful, only use that as last resort if you can't fix compatibility or slowdown issues. I get no slowdown with Glide Wrapper which allows gamma and perspective effects in Windowed mode (-w -3dfx) and looks glorious in fullscreen with all the hardware accelerated effects (lighting).

There is plenty of sprites of other games in this one, Baldur's Gate, Age of Wonders, Planetscape,etc

Legions of modron reanimates facing off against packs of Dustmen, funny shit...

 

[Akratus]

I've played Eastern Sun, Median XL and vanilla extensively.

A monocled mod.

 

[Akratus]

 

[Akratus]

 

[Akratus]

There should be an achievement for making someone so butthurt that they delete their posts.

 

[bloodlover]

I played Median many years ago but I don't remember some of the feats you mentioned. Like the box dropping from Griswold and the respec option. I do remember however that it was quite hard compared to the original game and I spent some time just farming decent gear (or maybe I was just unlucky with the drops).

Maybe I will give it a shot since I am kind of bored with Torchlight 2.

 

[Hobo Elf]

Looks like turboshit. I'll stick to Diablo 1.

 

[Damned Registrations]

I plaued Median XL quite a lot some years ago, while Laz was still in charge. I enjoyed it up until the endgame; all the later ubers involve invincibility gimmicks, which I hate in pretty much any game. It seems to be because he hit the cap for enemy hp, and resistances obviously mean nothing since the game is filled with - enemy resist skills. But that doesn't really fly with me as an excuse; I don't like fights where I'm forced to sit around dodging for long periods of time with nothing else to do.

 

[Lilura]

I played Median many years ago but I don't remember some of the feats you mentioned. Like the box dropping from Griswold and the respec option.

Gift Box is an addition to Ultimative, you must have been playing the older MXLv005. I believe respec was in MXLv005, too (and ofc clod with x3 Akara quest). Most players additionally use PlugY for stat respeccing, this lets you hold down Alt-key to unspend points, and also hold down Shift-key to spend all remaining points. It doesn't work for skills, but is very convenient since it's so easy to accidentally gimp yourself without it.

I do remember however that it was quite hard compared to the original game and I spent some time just farming decent gear (or maybe I was just unlucky with the drops).

Probably just a bit unlucky, though farming - while fun for awhile and highly efficient - isn't absolutely necessary now in Ultimative, not on a level that's gonna break down your will to play, anyway. You might do 10x 1min Meph runs just to see what (100% chance) uniques he drops, up-tier a few of those you can use, and then move on.

I plaued Median XL quite a lot some years ago, while Laz was still in charge. I enjoyed it up until the endgame; all the later ubers involve invincibility gimmicks, which I hate in pretty much any game. It seems to be because he hit the cap for enemy hp, and resistances obviously mean nothing since the game is filled with - enemy resist skills. But that doesn't really fly with me as an excuse; I don't like fights where I'm forced to sit around dodging for long periods of time with nothing else to do.

I'm not particularly fond of them, either. In fact, some of the endgame challenges suck ass and swallow. But many of the untargetables and immortals can be debuffed by shattering a device of some sort, otherwise many times it comes down to survivability: slow, maxBlock, Avoid, DR, reanimates and summons, epicAC, leech life, life after kill, FRW, teleport, procs and super-maxed resists. I've completed 6/8 dungeon uberquests, 7/8 summoning uberquests, 5/8 uberlevels and 2/4 heroics, and I'm absolutely by no means a pro-player.

 

[you know what time it is]

Haven't played in a while, but when Laz was still in charge of things it was quite good. It was unplayable on hardcore though, hence why i dropped it.

 

[DraQ]

I think the first test a monocled mod must pass is a random passerby being more or less able to describe what they see on its combat screenshots.

If the description can't progress beyond "a bunch of random glowing uhh... stuff?" the test can be considered failed.

 

[Turisas]

MXL always looked like ass, guess nothing has changed on that front. Eastern Sun may not be updated anymore, but at least it's a tastefully done mod, worthy of playing.

 

[Lilura]

In the 2nd and 3rd shots it should be easy to see what's going on, also because I actually gave descriptions... >_>

The 4th and 5th shots were just to illustrate enemy density. I've also explained how still shots don't do the game visual justice, it has to be seen moving for full appreciation. Please read the topic before making dumb remarks.

But here are high res shots of two uberlvls.

This is Tran Athulua uberlvl, showing my barb tanking heavy amazon fire, also some Zons are preoccupied with modron reanimates, and bots (in blue):

This is Fauztinville uberlvl, show my barb fleeing a horde that rapidly converges at an intersection. This lvl is difficult to navigate, because it has a height map, the sidewalk being higher than street lvl. The necrobots - clearly shown at top-left - are the tankiest generic foes, and are also phys-immune. The orange guys are chargers (PS:T sprites) and you can see undead stealthed here, bottom-left and center screen:

These shots were taken in a 1080p game using D2MultiRes v1.02 and DDraw (not D3D or Glide).

 

[Goat Pervertor]

My brother is playing thiss atm... I cant finish Bloodlines because of him

He says that its uber and all but it kills the atmosphere completely... Not just the rainbow effects but stuff like the crosbow shooting GRENADES instead of arrows.. I like the idea but it does not fit diablo AT ALL... Barb is now a summoner like he summons shit wtf. And the Assasin has a fucking NUCLEAR BOMB as a skil for christsake. A voice says LAUNCH DETECTED when you activete it FOR REAL...

I belive that its hardcore and everything but as my brother says the guy who made this is "a bit crazy".