Topic: My Thoughts & Suggestions & Bug Reports

[bluebyte]

Hi,
First of all, I greet The Chaos Empire Community.
I am a long-time D2 player and fan, and for some time I was trying the MODs, so far I have tried 5-6 MODs and I can't say that I am totally satisfied with any of them.
CE 7.66 SP3, which is my latest discovery, is the best of them. This mod is great, and I am almost sure that I will play CE all the time from now on. Some mods change the game entirely (total conversion) so much that it becomes like an another game, which I don't like. CE keeps the original content the same, but adds new things. This is very nice. I am considering making a donation in a few days, to show you my appreciation.
I don't play multi, only SinglePlayer.
I will try to make constructive feedback about the mod, and will post any bugs that may I may find. Right now I have a few thoughts and one little bug, but in the future I will update this thread with new messages for future bug findings, feedback etc...
With that said, I also should mention that I find this mod relatively stable (compared to others).

So, here we go, this small bug first:


- I think the new appearance of Wraith monsters are a bit dull. I prefer the old appearance, or a more enriched/beautiful would be better IMHO.
- Also the quest completion sound effect, I think the original was better. And the same for town portal effect. I personally think that they are a bit out of place. But maybe this is just because I am used to the original ones. Oh well, at least no Homer Simpson 'Doh' effect when opening a trapped chest, as in Zy-El

I will keep posting others in the future.
Congratualtions on this MOD, keep up the good work!
Greetings from Turkey

[Fenris]

where do you see a bug there? the scrolls are from a very,very old version, they contained informations about items and monster(some of them are still usefull)
sometime the were deactivated, at the moment you can cube 10scrolls to get a random rune

the graphics are like they are, some people like them, some not, can you give everybody what he wants?

btw you know that you can make up to seven 7 golems in ce? every 20 points you skill you get one

[bluebyte]

Dummy Text73 seemed like a left-over string in .txt files, so I guess this is the actual name of the scroll?
About golems: yes, I read somewhere that you can have multiple golems at once in CE

[Fenris]

hmm nobody seemed to have a problem with this dummy texts, so i think chaos wanted that they are like they are

[bluebyte]

Just finished act2
When fighting Duriel, merc didn't attack. He ignored Duriel. I tried teleing / changing position but to no avail.

[Fenris]

hmm i didn´t ever hear of this bug, but it must be an d2 intern, and chaos won´t be able to fix it i think

[webwalker]

As a thought here, the Skelliemancer is a BUSTED BUILD.  It's my favorite, so this provokes serious whining, which I usually keep to myself.

In Hell/CGS, monster mobs are thick enough that having 2 (or more) aura-enhanced bosses within 2 screens of one another is not uncommon, and the aura is high enough in level that if anybody has an aura, everybody within 2 screens has it too.  Therefore you run into multiple-aura mobs.

If one of those auras is Concentration, then the damage they deal is very large. 
    Result1: (this affects everybody) Monsters can (often enough) do 4000 dmage in one hit.
    Result 2: (this renders the skelliemancer impotent in Hell/CGS) lvl 52/53 raise skeleton/skeleton mastery minions get shredded like tissue paper.

Work-around: build a poison/bone or poison/golem mancer, maybe (just maybe) use skellies as an assist/backup.

So far, attempts to converse about this with the Mod Team have not gone well.  It's been this way for about a year, and looks to be permanent.

[ChaosEmpire]

nothing is permanent...but with a higher level they dont die..
level 50..is something for mid LR...

[bluebyte]

I also thought about this, and suspected that they will get overwhelmed in hell. I planned this build like this:
Max skel mastery
Max skel warrior
10-15 Revive
Amp damage, Decrepify for more aggressive enemies, Attract(crowd control) as primary curses.

This was the initial proposal. But I soon realized I will face many unbreakable PIs, so also
Max skel mage
Put points in Lower resist.

And for left over points, either a fire or iron golem.

Also Very important: Oak Sage for the survuvability of my army.

I intend this build to be a physical summoner.
I will make a faith crossbow for my necro and use it (will actually fire with it, putting points into Dex., so hoping contribute to the killing speed)
Might merc(do they exist in CE? If not, some other way to get might)
Concentration(Pride runeword or some other new CE item giving this aura)
At the moment, I would be glad for item recommendations to get those three auras.

So I hope that this will make for good physical damage. But I think PIs will cause some headache to me. I consider getting freezing arrow oskill or explodiong arrow or something for my necro (recommendations?). Another possibility is to get an act3 merc for elemental damage.

Edit: Also noticed that Corpse explosion was severely nerfed. Can someone give me an idea what radius does it have at which skill level?
***

I noticed in some areas I cannot teleport, but in some areas I can. For example, no teleport in Plains of Despair, but I can teleport in City of the Damned.
I understand that for Durance Level 3, but can't see the logic for others? Especially two similar areas, but one has teleport the other doesn't. Is this a bug?

[webwalker]

If you're going with a Faith bow in the end-game, grab a "Ranger's Sting" unique short war bow (level 30) and strafe like mad until you're able to equip the Faith bow.  Alternate: "Beeswarm" unique long battle bow for Multi-shot for the same period.

I find skel mages to be detrimental: they block stairs and doorways until they die or until their target dies or move away.  That can be very slow if a poison-mage is firing is little green blobs at a poison immune monster.
Look into Poison Nova.

If you temper the faith-bow for elemental damage, you can help with the physical immunes there.  Note that throwing spears (Harpoons) can receive the Faith runeword, allowing you to carry a shield while throwing.

Might mercs exist, Act II (hire in NM and keep him).  Alternate is the Act 5 merc (Hire in NM, he has Conviction which will make hitting targets easier)

Corpse Explosion has been nerfed into uselessness.  If you're playing Single Player, create a new link to the game executable with a command line like ["C:\path\to\Diablo II\game.exe" -act5] (keep spaces, omit square brackets), then when you create a character he'll be level 95.  Spend the skill points how you want to, and see how the synergies and radius add up.

Mod feature: Anti-Rushing involves disabling Teleport in some places.  This is a severe pain in those places, because the Teleport Spell (a.k.a. Summon Minion) is vital.

About "Level 5x is OK for mid LR/NM": I got plusses to RS/Summoning/necro/all: 3 from hat, 4 from shield, 5 from wand (actually HotO), 4 from anni, 2 from belt, 5 from rings & ammy, 1 from skiller: 24 + 30 is 54.  That's about as many plusses as I can count on always being able to get.  So I guess Chaos has agreed that the Skellimancer has been busted in CGS, or has been made extremely dependent on gear that I don't think we can get in NM/LR.  The Hardcore Ladder has some high level necro's on it, I suspect they're all poison/bone/golem mancers. No Skelemancer Guide for 7.65 exists.

[Fenris]

yeah you can get an might merc, use the boots called lysianns eyecatcher for concentration
and an infinity or doom weapon(slow or lower resis/def)

use fire golem, its much better

btw why only oak sage and not bo?

i´m not sure if there is a way ot get one of this bow skills, but you can get guided arrow+ venom for teddy

it isn´t a bug, it´s antirush feature that you can´t teleport in many areas


edit:

brian was faster-.-

btw

then when you create a character he'll be level 95

it´s level 96

I find skel mages to be detrimental: they block stairs and doorways until they die or until their target dies or move away.  That can be very slow if a poison-mage is firing is little green blobs at a poison immune monster.
Look into Poison Nova.

fire golem may be an option, too

[bluebyte]

Oh man. This was disappointing :/
Faith in javelin seems attractive though. Even can make me start a new char for it.
What about baba wielding two of them? Will fana aura stack (i.e lvl 24-30)?

[Fenris]

yes it will stack

[bluebyte]

Here are some fresh ideas from me;
- Poisonable Concrete traps : Looks silly, and senseless in my opinion. They should be immune to poison i think.
- Mercenaries
In this mod every mercenary can use every type(well, most of) of weapons. For example, a barbarian merc can use a dagger. But I think that he shouldn't be able to use a dagger as good as a sword. Because obliously they have characteristics and specialities.

What I suggest is, to give them implicit bonuses to their specific type of weapons. For example, implicit passive Sword Mastery skill for barbarian, and bow mastery for rogue, etc...
Or vice versa, penalties for any other weapon than the specific weapon.

In this way, our example barbarian merc can continue to use other weapons, but he is far superior with the sword than any other weapon...

- Also about mercenaries; I can equip a merc with a quiver of arrows(and only a quiver of arrows). This also doesn't make sense.

So that's it for now. I think those changes are needed. The first and the last are not that important but I think that the second one is.
BUT, I can understand you have other reasons behind those decisions, or maybe those are not possible.
For example, the skill slots for mercenaries may be full or something like that, and those mastery skills can't be added. I am not sure.
Postet at: June 19, 2006, 05:23:37 pm

btw you know that you can make up to seven 7 golems in ce? every 20 points you skill you get one

Can you make this a bit clearer please? I now have lvl 14 clay and 4 blood golem but one destroys the other. If I understand you right, a golem which is more than lvl 20 won't be killed by another summoned.

[Fenris]

first no everything is logic^^

second  first i thought you want that mercs only use the weapon u see on them, but then: "hey good idea!"

third hey u can use an arrow to kill somebody if it is poissened adn you don´t even need a bow to do it, do you?

hmm no only the points you skilled work(like synergies), +skills don´t work