Diablo 2: Median XL Ultimative

[Goat Pervertor]

PLUS



Staying alive in Diablo Median with discomancer

 

[Clockwork Knight]

He says that its uber and all but it kills the atmosphere completely...

This is Diablo 2, there was no atmosphere to begin with.

 

[Lilura]

He says that its uber and all but it kills the atmosphere completely... Not just the rainbow effects

I don't play Diablo for lore, setting and plot. The 2nd vid you posted is a thing of beauty, spoiled by a shitty song and lowres capture.

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...

Awesome isn't it.

But then Xbow Necro skills already include shot-gun, SMG and sniper styles, so what's wrong with throwing in "grenade launchers"? And Barb is summoner? No, any class can be effective at summoning to an extent, but only one class excels to the absolute and total max (Necro). This goes for many of the traditional combat roles of the classes. Sure, anyone can muck around with gimmick builds in the first two difficulties and psycho players can give genuine exceptions to these rules using esoteric gear combos and "oskills" (a strength of MXL), but for most the Sorc is gonna be THE energist caster fullstop, the Barb THE melee guy, and so on.

I've played with Sins, Limpet Laser of the Bombsin was a standout. You attach laser turrets to walls which freeze the enemy, they have this warning beep which reminds me of Deus Ex LAMs. IDGAF that they're not in accordance with the lore, they're in accordance with MXL lore, which is its own mod/game.

If you want a mere extension on basegame clod, I can just refer you to Eastern Sun. Great mod, but expect tedium and very slow game-play.

 

[Revenant]

Diablo II: Retinal Rape Edition (C)

 

[DraQ]

 

[Surf Solar]

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".

What the fuck

Now I'm glad I didn't download this thing

 

[felipepepe]

Seems like the biggest challenge would be to fucking understand what's going on.

:mrfussy:

 

[agris]

A monocled mod that has crossbows shooting grenades? I think not..

 

[Average Manatee]

From what I've seen the mod only exacerbates the core issue with Diablo 2 gameplay: That there is only 2 types of monsters that matter, those that can 1HKO you and those that are useless fodder.

 

[Lilura]

The Xbow "grenades" mentioned are actually a 4th tier Necro skill with lvl18 prereq called "Fragmentation Shot", which Shoots an explosive alchemical potion to the target point resulting in a powerful but relatively small radius AoE. You hold shift down to lock your Necro in place, target a point on the ground which becomes the center of the AoE, and fire. Lovely skill.

The Sin's nuclear bomb mentioned is a clvl90 uber-skill called "Beacon", which When active, periodically targets a nuclear bomb at a nearby spot, with a 20sec cooldown. You can only choose one uberskill of five unique ones per class, and two of those must be unlocked by completing Challenges.

Nothing to get your panties in a twist over.

From what I've seen the mod only exacerbates the core issue with Diablo 2 gameplay: That there is only 2 types of monsters that matter, those that can 1HKO you and those that are useless fodder.

You actually believe this, don't you. Sad.

 

[DraQ]

I believe the word you want is "fabulous", not "monocled".

 

[Average Manatee]

You actually believe this, don't you. Sad.

You're the one who is defending Diablo 2 gameplay made more degenerate. Don't pity me.

 

[Ranselknulf]

I'm still working my way through the D1 The Hell mod and I'd highly recommend it.

How is the Back to hellfire mod for D2? I didn't think it was possible for a good D2 mod to exist but if it's aiming for The Hell type gameplay then I'd download that and try it out.

The thing I like the most about The Hell mod is how I have to actually pick and choose which armor to wear because I wouldn't be able to afford repairs if I wore my best shit all the time.

 

[Lilura]

Back to Hellfire unfortunately only runs properly on Windows XP. You can play on W7/8 but without sound by using -ns switch in shortcut, if you want sound on W7/8 then you need Virtual Box or similar. I know, it's BS. You also need to downgrade to 1.10, if you're not already running that version.

 

[Siobhan]

Back to Hellfire unfortunately only runs properly on Windows XP. You can play on W7/8 but without sound by using -ns switch in shortcut, if you want sound on W7/8 then you need Virtual Box or similar. I know, it's BS. You also need to downgrade to 1.10, if you're not already running that version.

Proving once more that Linux is the best platform for playing Windows games.



As for the downgrading, there's a tool to switch versions easily: http://diablo.incgamers.com/forums/threads/bliss-version-switcher.849147/

How is the Back to hellfire mod for D2? I didn't think it was possible for a good D2 mod to exist but if it's aiming for The Hell type gameplay then I'd download that and try it out.

Like pretty much all mods it ramps up the difficulty quite a bit, though apparently not enough for the hardcores like Lilura. As a rather casual Diablo player who can't be bothered to study the mechanics in great detail I found it a nice challenge, enemies take and deal a lot more damage. I also like that skills are now improved by reading books you find, the Blood Wizard is a very interesting class to play, and the atmosphere is top notch (by virtue of being D1).

 

[Goat Pervertor]

The Xbow "grenades" mentioned are actually a 4th tier Necro skill with lvl18 prereq called "Fragmentation Shot", which Shoots an explosive alchemical potion to the target point resulting in a powerful but relatively small radius AoE.

oh sorry

i guess they arent grenades then... It can also shoot rockets... It ssays a flying rocket that decimates your enemies. Im just saying how it looks like watching from the side. Im not a dablo veteran so no need to go all 3CPO man... I wasnt dissing the mod or anything. My brother sure drooles over it.

But you have to admit that its a bit ridiculous... A barbarian at start can do VISUALY what only the sorceress could do in vanilla at endgame. I mean wtf. It doesnt make sense.

 

[coldcrow]

Actually the mod went to shit pretty much after median2006. I playtested for Laz alot those days and can only say that the first versions of median contained far more basic skills, normal enemies were ALOT harder - instead of filling the game up with puzzle boss battles - and there weren't fucking disconovas going off every 0.1 sec leaving you seizuring after 1 hour of playing.

I think Median2SE was the hardest version of the mod. The somewhat after Laz started to care about the whining of players - make it easier, we want more lootz, more goofy skillz, you know the drill.

So yea, even mods decline.

 

[Mastermind]

What's the big deal about strapping a grenade to a crossbow bolt? Diablo 2 already had explosive arrows and grenades.

 

[SerratedBiz]

Still, MXL is a decent mod to fire up if you enjoyed the original Diablo 2 and have played it to death over the years. If nothing else, it's more content from the get-go: every class is completely different, enemies are more powerful, items are revamped, and so on and so on. It's also more difficult overall, even though the difference is not as obvious from the start as it is when you start delving into the custom areas.

It's worth a try if you want something D2ish and have come to understand that D3 isn't it.

 

[Jaesun]

Diablo 2 had "atmosphere"?

 

[Revenant]

Yes it did

 

[Damned Registrations]

I hadn't played vanilla Diablo 2 in so long, I'd forgotten how piss easy and dull it was.

Decided to give Ultimative another whirl, it's had some nice improvements. The new hoarder monsters are nice, no more picking up a billlion pennies everywhere you go to get gold, just keep an eye out for a few (dangerous!) enemies that drop a ton of it at once. The gift box thing is also nice, really helps in the early stages when you're experimenting with the classes to not have to spend hours grinding for gear to make them play properly. Checking the documentation they seem to have added a fair number of bosses to the endgame too, which is cool. Seemed to be some other new enemies as well, annoying little bastards dropping minefields when they die, and the horde of sewer rats caught me off guard.

 

[Lilura]

no more picking up a billlion pennies everywhere you go to get gold, just keep an eye out for a few (dangerous!) enemies that drop a ton of it at once.

And no more picking up normal and magical items of every kind that you don't even need, just because "they're worth something". White and blue items sell for like 1gp, so the tedious "pick up and sell everything" behaviour is removed early on. Instead you look for money-bag enemies and pick up apples, Rares and GP signets. You really only pick up things you can actually use, or which can be sold for loads of cash (like 250,000 gp sacred rares). And cash is important, you need it for Mystic Orb enchanting and alchemy, not just gambling.

For Battle.net and SP I spent time configuring maphack just to hide the millions of utterly useless items that would appear when holding down the Alt-key to show items. You could literally miss out on god-tier loot buried under these massive piles of shit because there was no room on the screen to display all the descriptions, and short of picking them all up one by one to make the room (uh, NO), you would never know if you got cheated out of a Zod rune, or just another identify scroll. This reared it's ugly head in late-Nightmare, reaching insanity in Hell with Chaos and Cows. No wonder people botted hard on Battle.net...

I've noticed that in Ultimative - even on /players8, wherein you get maybe 50 enemies on-screen simultaneously - that this problem is rarely an issue, because drops are quality over quantity. However, in areas where you have hundreds and hundreds of enemies, like Fauztinville or Tran Athulua, sorting through the shit can still bore me, despite my personal ability to appraise at a glance. Admittedly this issue doesn't come close to Stock but MarcoNecroX still needs to finally fix it for the last time, imo.

The mod's not perfect, not even close. It just shits all over other mods (imo), and Stock.

 

[bloodlover]

Is it better than Hell Unleashed though? Imo that is the definitive Diablo 2 mod.

 

[Akratus]

He says that its uber and all but it kills the atmosphere completely...

This is Diablo 2, there was no atmosphere to begin with.

Just because it's not as slow as the first game, doesn't mean it has no atmosphere. The art is dull in color where it needs to be and bright where it needs to be (outside of poisoned/frozen/etc monsters), properly medieval in style, with a gothic edge. It contains too many jail cells, torture devices, dead bodies and other macabre elements to count. The game is populated with diverse and creative creatures drawing from many mythological representations of evil. Voice acting is hardly bad, and the dialogue at least serviceable. The award winning music could hardly be better and most well-done of all are the cinematics, which are better than most actual movies and truly stand out in their field.

"Wrapped in the ‘guise of man shall He walk amongst the innocent; and Terror shall consume thee who dwell upon the Earth."

Regardless, I still get a shiver when I hear Ed Trotta exclaim: "It is good to see you again, mortal."