Helllo Codexians,
I've recently finished putting up together a Diablo II: Resurrected mod which is now available for download.
It's called Diablo II: Merciless, and it's a very ambicious project that attempts to fix almost all of the long-standing issues in Diablo II.
Charms, inventory size, the Hammerdin, Teleport, potions, dead-set gear roadmaps, Runewords, bad Magics & Rares, age-old unbalance and abuses, the lack of a "true SSF" mode—you name it, it's been fixed.
The list of changes is gargantuan, but the mod stays very close and true to vanilla, both in feel and gameplay; it's just every run has been made incredibly exciting since Rares once again rule the day, and has even returned much of a "Roguelike" feel to the game.
Here's a teaser of the mod:
You can also watch the full trailer here:
There's also an autistic playthrough* of me going through the mod's Beta in my personal channel:
*: includes a couple of very minors bugs, fun blunders and comments on the current state of ARPGs.
Here's a list of the mod's main features:
- New foundational Recipes have been added, inspired in Path of Exile’s crafting Currency, making items in the game much more dynamic and interactable.
- All previous non-quest Cube Recipes have been disabled.
- Massive Rare and Magic item affix overhaul, with higher floors on certain modifiers, more tiers, and more endgame affixes, rewarding players who are proactive in updating their gear until the very end.
- Socketed items have been reworked and have become an item archetype in itself, competing with endgame Rares and Uniques
- Resistances are generally harder to acquire—particularly Poison.
- '% Chance to Get Better Items' is harder to obtain, with Set items becoming key transitional stepping stones. Putting up together a strong, endgame MF character is now meant to be a player's crowning achievement.
- Larzuk and Qual-Kehk's quest rewards have both been disabled.
- Runewords have extremely high affix variance.
- The Countess no longer deterministically drops Runes.
- All other drop rates and treasure classes remain the same (ie., your chances of dropping a Mara's Kaleidoscope, a Zod Rune or a Diamond are exactly the same as in vanilla).
- Vendors no longer sell equipment items except for some very basic gear and consumables. You must now acquire all your gear from drops.
- All items sell for 1 Gold. Large quantities of Gold can only be accumulated in its raw form.
- A new Currency type that enables a familiar style of crafting, which only drops under certain conditions and on a separate item pool that does not affect core drops.
- Movement and crowd-control skills have cooldowns.
- Characters start with +33% Stamina, and +20 Life (previously +30). All classes receive -25% less Life/Stamina points per Vitality point, however, more Life can now be acquired from gear than before. You must now keep upgrading your equipment to not fall behind in your defenses.
- Rebalance of overpowered builds and archetypes
- Two-Handed Melee Weapons now deal damage in a small area.
- All non-Sundering Charms have been permanently removed from the game. As a consequence of this change, the inventory size has been increased +50% to a 12×5 grid (previously 10×4). With Rare and Magic items rolling better stats on average, the introduction of late-game socketable items that can grant '+To Skill Tabs', and a larger inventory, their retirement should not be missed.
- An additional optional version of the mod—the Modder's Cut Edition—with a more traditional Roguelike feel and balance, pushing players into making harder, more permanent choices with their items.
- Includes full controller support.
Feel free to join the Discord as well. It's crappy and it's just been set up, but I will give you a 'glittering gem of hatred' tag while you're at it if you tell me you come from here.
Anyway, I'll be around here in case you want to discuss the mod further or ARPGs in general, as they've become a recent passion of mine—enough to push me into making a mod.
Cheers,
1eyedking