So I've been playing Project Diablo 2 for quite a while.
I feel like reporting a little (?) about it.
I won't repeat the points I listed earlier, the QoL changes and so on. They're far from irrelevant of course but I'll try to be as brief as I can.
Post-Hell Maps.
This is the main addition of course. The fabled "endgame" content.
It works like this. Tier 1 maps (rarely) drop in high level areas. They give access to (manually crafted) level 87 areas. You can open a portal to the maps with a character who's beaten Hell Ancients (or Hell Bhaal?)
They are mostly huge. They use existing game assets but some of them do manage to feel different somehow.
It's good work I'd say.
Plenty of monsters inside, and a Boss.
Chances for new maps to drop are higher inside a map. So, when you open one, you'll hope to find at least another one - for "sustainable mapping", so to speak. But no guarantees.
Tier 2 and Tier 3 maps (level 88, level 89) can
only be found in map zones.
Map alterations.
Maps can be normal or magical, which implies higher monster density, or extra resistances... all kinds of stuff. But higher rewards too (like increased experience, increased Magic Find, etc.).
You can modify maps, before using them, with items sold by Anya, or with other items that can be found.
Map Events.
There are a few kinds of Events that may sometimes trigger in a map zone. For instance, Gheed might show up, with a special gambling offer. He'll have a few gambling items on sale for
1.000.000 each.
Guaranteed Uniques, but you can't know Item Quality beforehand. So you'll mostly get Normal uniques, but they might also be Exceptional or Elite.
Another example: there's an event that gives a chance to drop an Uber ingredient (more on this later).
Corruptions.
Now, I haven't investigated the lore behind this (I'm sure there is). Basically you can try to grant more power to your items, but it's a gamble: you might ruin them for good.
So you'll probably try this with average items, or even with great items if you happen to have suitable spares, or if you feel especially daring.
For those who play online, this creates a market for truly fantastic and sought after items.
Charms cannot be corrupted, for understandable balance reasons.
New Items and Runewords.
I've found a few. They often come with new (and nice) art.
They seem well balanced and mostly aimed at filling some "holes".
For instance, there was no Unique Normal Javelin. Now there's True Silver (unique Maiden Javelin), which has no "plus Skills" modifier, but comes with Magic Find. So you might want to use it for a MF build with the usual trade-off in terms of power.
Ubers and new Ubers.
The originals are still there, though rebalanced.
The Keys can be obtained from a few more bosses, and they're still the most "easily accessible Uber ingredients": with this I mean that sure, you'll need a good number of targeted runs, but you know where to go with a reasonable chance for one of them to drop.
Then there are the
new Ubers. They each need 3 specific, separated ingredients to gain access to their encounters, with potential special rewards.
These ingredients are hard to find (frustratingly so?) and require, it seems, intensive farming.
One drops only in Corrupted areas. One only drops from Demons, one only from Undead. One drops only in Tier 1 maps, one in Tier 2 maps, one in Tier 3 maps. One only drops from map bosses and one only from a specific map event.
Another one only drops in Red Portals zones. One only drops, sometimes, from slain bosses in Uber Tristam.
It's a bit of a mess, to be honest. On the other hand, it forces varied play instead of repetitive Mephisto runs and the like.
The Good AND the Bad: addictiveness and degenerate play
I've played single Player Diablo II, on and off, for years. Learned about PlugY a few years ago, and this started me on a new "wave" of Diablo sessions, and even to try the experience of "repeated boss runs", like I knew online players use to do all the time.
But still it remained more or less a contained thing.
Lately I'd say that I've definitely been playing too much. I've not been playing anything else (which I resent) and I've been stealing time from other stuff I needed/wanted to do.
I've found myself doing
targeted runs for a unique item.
Looked online for a calculator, found out that with a 300 Magic Find the best chance was given by Nightmare Mephisto at about 1 in 600 / 1 in 700 chances.
Made a superfast builld optimized for that specific run, and got in the habit to make 10, 20 runs when I got a window of time.
And what do you know. I did find it, too, in a couple of weeks. And I've kept playing, hunting for Uber ingredients. Fun, on the one hand... on the other hand, it's been a constant generator of the famous
"I shouldn't be doing this!" feeling.
I mean, better than gambling with real money I guess, but still.
The Upgrade issue.
I'd downloaded the Season 10 version and the PlugY package adapted to PD2 (In truth this was updated for S9 I believe, but it still works).
If you play SP, of course it's possible to just be content with this and never look back... But curiosity won and I checked the S11 changes (each Season is basically a reset, which I suppose makes sense for online play).
Now I'd want to try the updated version but I'd lose all I've collected until now. Also it doesn't seem like the PlugY version is being updated.
Well it's all, for now, if someone even got this far
