Hello Marsh, and everyone else following his mod!
EDIT: This post originally contained some add-ons to use with Marsh's mod. I have repackaged them into a full, comprehensive update with many other features and put it in its own thread here:
Hellfire V1.02.A1: http://www.lurkerlounge.com/forums/threa...09052.html
Discussion about ideas for Marsh's mod remains in this post and continues now.
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I'm also working on another graphical fix. Anyone who has played a Bard very far in Hellfire is probably familiar with the Rogue character getting really visually dark during her one-handed sword attack animation (no shield), which a dual wielding Bard will always use. The change in brightness level when she starts or stops attacking is a bit jarring.
EDIT: This is done now. You can get the graphics/animation fix pack here: http://www.lurkerlounge.com/forums/thread-15743.html
I also attempted to re-implement Hellfire: Fixed's addition of the Book of Resurrect, but with one caveat: I wanted to achieve this without modifying Diablo's generated item table in any way, so that no items (even if possibly only books in this case) would morph. I had what I felt was the brilliant idea to convert the Torn Notes in the Crypt into Book Pages, the assembled result being the Book of Resurrect... unfortunately, the game automatically changes the graphic and spell attached to any Book once it is created, so it resulted in random spell books that would morph into different random spellbooks upon starting a new game. I am sad, as the treasure hunt for Resurrect Books would of been quite fun.
I'd like to ask Marsh to make some changes to Shrines, which would allow Resurrect to be learned a unique way without causing books of it to exist in and thus disrupt the item table... these are half-baked ideas, but I think they would be neat:
- Ornate: +1 to Resurrect
- Sacred: +1 to Healing
- Fascinating: +1 to Infravision
The idea behind this being that Shrines never teach spells that might be 'useless' to some characters (what is a Barbarian going to do with levels of Firebolt?). I'd also like to recommend a mana cost formula for the Resurrect spell, to make raising its spell level worthwhile:
Resurrect: Start at 160 mana cost, reduce 5 per level (90 at level 15), minimum mana cost of 60 (level 21 for +spells items).
Using this formula, a Warrior with Max Magic can cast it at Level 15 without any gear, and at its starting cost of 160 all characters but the Warrior and Barbarian can possibly use it even at Spell Level 1, if their Magic/Mana is high enough. And, as would be reasonable, getting a Barbarian to cast Resurrect at all would not be a simple task.
As a quick note for Marsh, I believe it is possible to enable the Resurrect spell (and any other) to be learned without making books appear in, and thus modify the item table at all: Set the bytes for the book availability for a spell not normally available from FF FF FF FF to FF 00 00 00. This gives the book a qlvl of 255, which shouldn't ever be generated by the game, but lets the game see it as a valid learnable spell (I tested it and it seemed to work, no books morphed for me at all this way).
p.s. Marsh, if you ever decide to commit to changes in your mod that would alter the item table significantly, let me know so I can toss in some other suggestions. If that leap is ever taken it seems a good idea to try to change all possible related stuff at once so that the item table should never need to be tweaked again.
EDIT: This post originally contained some add-ons to use with Marsh's mod. I have repackaged them into a full, comprehensive update with many other features and put it in its own thread here:
Hellfire V1.02.A1: http://www.lurkerlounge.com/forums/threa...09052.html
Discussion about ideas for Marsh's mod remains in this post and continues now.
--------
I'm also working on another graphical fix. Anyone who has played a Bard very far in Hellfire is probably familiar with the Rogue character getting really visually dark during her one-handed sword attack animation (no shield), which a dual wielding Bard will always use. The change in brightness level when she starts or stops attacking is a bit jarring.
EDIT: This is done now. You can get the graphics/animation fix pack here: http://www.lurkerlounge.com/forums/thread-15743.html
I also attempted to re-implement Hellfire: Fixed's addition of the Book of Resurrect, but with one caveat: I wanted to achieve this without modifying Diablo's generated item table in any way, so that no items (even if possibly only books in this case) would morph. I had what I felt was the brilliant idea to convert the Torn Notes in the Crypt into Book Pages, the assembled result being the Book of Resurrect... unfortunately, the game automatically changes the graphic and spell attached to any Book once it is created, so it resulted in random spell books that would morph into different random spellbooks upon starting a new game. I am sad, as the treasure hunt for Resurrect Books would of been quite fun.
I'd like to ask Marsh to make some changes to Shrines, which would allow Resurrect to be learned a unique way without causing books of it to exist in and thus disrupt the item table... these are half-baked ideas, but I think they would be neat:
- Ornate: +1 to Resurrect
- Sacred: +1 to Healing
- Fascinating: +1 to Infravision
The idea behind this being that Shrines never teach spells that might be 'useless' to some characters (what is a Barbarian going to do with levels of Firebolt?). I'd also like to recommend a mana cost formula for the Resurrect spell, to make raising its spell level worthwhile:
Resurrect: Start at 160 mana cost, reduce 5 per level (90 at level 15), minimum mana cost of 60 (level 21 for +spells items).
Using this formula, a Warrior with Max Magic can cast it at Level 15 without any gear, and at its starting cost of 160 all characters but the Warrior and Barbarian can possibly use it even at Spell Level 1, if their Magic/Mana is high enough. And, as would be reasonable, getting a Barbarian to cast Resurrect at all would not be a simple task.
As a quick note for Marsh, I believe it is possible to enable the Resurrect spell (and any other) to be learned without making books appear in, and thus modify the item table at all: Set the bytes for the book availability for a spell not normally available from FF FF FF FF to FF 00 00 00. This gives the book a qlvl of 255, which shouldn't ever be generated by the game, but lets the game see it as a valid learnable spell (I tested it and it seemed to work, no books morphed for me at all this way).
p.s. Marsh, if you ever decide to commit to changes in your mod that would alter the item table significantly, let me know so I can toss in some other suggestions. If that leap is ever taken it seems a good idea to try to change all possible related stuff at once so that the item table should never need to be tweaked again.