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Diablo II 1.10 Beta Patch Released

Posted by simoniker on from the oink-oink-flap-flap dept.

seirui writes "Blizzard today announced the beginning of the public beta test for the Diablo II: Lord Of Destruction 1.10 patch. Conspicuously absent from the downloadable-now beta patch is Battle.net support (both open and closed), but present are a multitude of little changes, including a rollback.bat file for reverting back to 1.09 to play online. Now that hell has frozen over, the quest for items can continue! Here's a BitTorrent link for the 5mb patch." An anonymous reader also points to a hands-on account at DiabloII.net describing the changes for V1.10.

41 comments

  1. Nice !!! by sweede · · Score: 1

    sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet !!!

    I've been waiting for this forever !!

    The patch, not first post that is :)

    --
    I follow the SDK and GDN principles.. Spelling Dont Kount, Grammer Dont Neither
  2. Hell froze over? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    Diablo 1.10 in Beta!
    Duke Nuke Forever is probably getting ready to go gold then!

    1. Re:Hell froze over? by L1Trauma · · Score: 1

      No, this just means it's time for DNF to switch to a new 3D engine.

  3. Oh well... by Leffe · · Score: 1

    Guy at beta test:
    "Are these hacked or what?"
    Blizzard:
    Oh nos! Teh hackers are everywhere!

    I think there is a bit too much cheating going on in Diablo II, it's nice that a lot of people got banned(or whatever) some weeks ago, IMO.

  4. What the heck? No Angband release info? by jvmatthe · · Score: 1
    I mean, come on, Diablo is really just Angband with fancy graphics. Yet, Slashdot feels the need to post on every tiny patch for the Diablo games and Angband doesn't get any mention whatsoever. Jeez.


    And, heck, Angband is actually (mostly) FREE SOFTWARE for crying out loud! Doesn't that fit with Slashdot's mission? ;^)


    Yes, I'm just kidding. But there is a grain of truth... :^D

    --
    Curmudgeon Gamer: Not happy
    1. Re:What the heck? No Angband release info? by alyandon · · Score: 1

      The 1.10 patch isn't some minor bugfix patch. It adds new skills, items and other content to the game.

    2. Re:What the heck? No Angband release info? by pezpunk · · Score: 1

      have you seen the features list? the 1.10 patch is virtually an expansion pack. they dont post on "every tiny patch" either. in fact, this is the first patch in well over a year for this game.

      --
      i could live a little longer in this prison
    3. Re:What the heck? No Angband release info? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Blizzard said that parts of Diablo were inspired by nethack (a more popular rouge-like game than angband).

    4. Re:What the heck? No Angband release info? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      ...and let's face it. Angband *is* pretty shitty.

    5. Re:What the heck? No Angband release info? by AceM2 · · Score: 1

      hmmm.. I didn't realize Slashdot had a *mission*.. Sure some parts of /. are biased towards the opensource community, but we get stories on all sorts of closed source games.. The fact is a lot of people don't think Angband is all that great, and can you really blame them? It looks like games we played 10 years ago.. I mean, you wouldn't expect /. to post every time a MUD is updated just cause it's a lot like an open source version of Diablo would you? ;p

      Oh yeah.. Nice pointy nose ya got there..

  5. Its taken so long... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    and its only a beta right now, what's with that?

  6. Windows only for now by derdesh · · Score: 3, Informative


    They promise another announcement when the OS X patch is available.

    1. Re:Windows only for now by SN74S181 · · Score: 0, Flamebait

      You can go buy your software in that short half-row in the back of the store, cool dude.

  7. This is necessary by Rudeboy777 · · Score: 5, Informative

    Speaking as someone who has spent many hours playing D2, I must say this is a good way to beta test this patch. For those that don't know, this will practically be an expansion pack with the amount of changes being made. There are SO MANY factors that go into D2's combat system that balancing is an enormous task that even after 3+ years is not ironed out. The new forums on www.battle.net indicate to me that they will be listening to a lot of userland suggestions. That kicks ass. I know /.ers are supposed to hate Blizzard but I am just too much of a fan boy to go against my gamegeek leanings.

    --

    From hell's heart I fstab at /dev/hdc

    1. Re:This is necessary by Omestes · · Score: 1

      But here's the ironic thing about bug reporting, you can't post bugs unless you have an active bnet account, you can't activate a bnet account with 1.10beta since its only TCP/IP, and Single Player. Bugzilla it ain't.

      Thats what I get for sticking to single player until the patch came out. I really should keep my mouth shut though, since the only two bugs I've encountered HELPED my character, my circlet was upgraded, and my Assassin can hit people 5 tiles away.

      --
      A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government. -edward abbey
    2. Re:This is necessary by GoofyBoy · · Score: 1


      The Assasin is pretty powerful now.

      Try either one of the spinning blades skills. (not the blade shield one). They went from useless to might be overpowered.

      --
      The surprise isn't how often we make bad choices; the surprise is how seldom they defeat us.
  8. Disappointed by Krellan · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I'm disappointed that they didn't do more in the 1.10 patch. A fourth difficulty level, "Inferno", beyond hell, would have been great to have and it would reduce the boredom at high level. The changes they're doing to Act 5 could have been applied to all acts at this new difficulty level.

    There's other nitpicks that make the game still feel incomplete. Act 4 still only has very few waypoints, compared to all other levels. Adding some more waypoints, or even a new area or two, to Act 4 would have been great.

    A much-needed "No Hostile Players" checkbox, to prevent players from going hostile, should have been added to the game creation options. Grief players have ruined many a good game by unexpectedly going PvP.

    This wishlist was made 2 years ago, when rumours of 1.10 first began:

    http://www.krellan.com/rant/diablo.html

    A shame that so little has been done in so long.

    --

    Dr. Demento On The 'Net!

    1. Re:Disappointed by dark_inchworm · · Score: 1

      "Act 4 still only has very few waypoints, compared to all other levels. Adding some more waypoints, or even a new area or two, to Act 4 would have been great." That's a little more than they could do in a patch... they're only able to edit the game's features to an extent.

    2. Re:Disappointed by DCSteelShaft · · Score: 1

      I say get rid of that stupid Secret Cow Level and create a Secret Pig Level or a Secret Walking Crossbow level or something remotley stupid and annoying like the Cow level. But new all the same.

    3. Re:Disappointed by zathcw · · Score: 1

      "I'm disappointed that they didn't do more in the 1.10 patch. A fourth difficulty level, "Inferno", beyond hell, would have been great to have and it would reduce the boredom at high level."
      They've increased the difficulty of more than Act 5. Supposedly level 70 is going to be high level.

      "A much-needed "No Hostile Players" checkbox, to prevent players from going hostile, should have been added to the game creation options. Grief players have ruined many a good game by unexpectedly going PvP."
      PKers are an essential part of the game, if you could make a game where it's certain a player won't attack, a lot of equipment would become less needed and you wouldn't see so many different character builds. And hardcore mode would lose it's appeal (to me anyways).

    4. Re:Disappointed by rpillala · · Score: 1

      A "No Hostile Players" checkbox at game creation time is one of the best D2 ideas I've ever heard.

      Not sure about your necro ideas though. And apparently they are nerfing necromaners even more. Or were at one time anyway.

      Ravi

      --
      When the axe came to the forest, the trees said, "Look out - the handle was once one of us."
    5. Re:Disappointed by Omestes · · Score: 1

      4 difficulty levels are fine for me. Took me 4 months to get to hell in SP. Took me 3 months to get to hell in uswest, with absolutly no twinking, rushing, or nonlegit items. Died several times, got very angery, was happy.

      I might be assuming much here, but I'm guessing you get rushed to hell, then barter for all the best things, then complain your bored. Like 90% of bnet.

      And actually if you actually play a character in hell mode, you'll realize that it is PLENTY hard now. My Druid has been killed about five times in act4 hell (hell hell), which is a nice change since he was unstoppable.

      --
      A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government. -edward abbey
    6. Re:Disappointed by carcosa30 · · Score: 1

      There is another difficulty level, it's called Hardcore.

      Pass Hell difficulty on Hardcore, THEN come around asking for yet another difficulty setting.

      --
      Intolerance for ambiguity is the mark of the authoritarian personality.
    7. Re:Disappointed by Krellan · · Score: 2, Interesting

      About Hell and Hardcore:

      I played the game 3 times through to reach the end of Hell mode, not being rushed. It is more fun that way. I didn't do every quest, but I later went back and mopped up the remaining quests after getting to Hell. A lot of other players just get rushed, that's true. One day I saw a Level 1 character on Hell!

      Adding another difficulty level beyond Hell probably wouldn't improve the current situation, unless rushing is nerfed. There's lots of ideas to make it so that high level characters can't bodyguard low level characters as easily, which I won't go into here. At least Blizzard was wise enough to put minimum level requirements on their items, so the problem of twinking (high level items on low level characters) isn't as bad as it is on Everquest.

      As for Hardcore, no thanks. To me, it seems like just a competition to see which player has the better Internet connection. One burst of netlag, slowing down the response time of your character, and you are permanently dead. This is especially bad, when combined with the problem of grief players declaring hostility. Hitting Alt-F4 at the first sign of trouble helps, but still isn't enough to save you if you're in a hard area and the lag catches you by surprise.

      I still think it would be fun to see a fourth difficulty level beyond Hell, "Inferno", geared for characters who are very high level. Currently, at high level, there is nothing to do except repeat the cow run over and over, because nothing else in the game is worthwhile. The enhancements Blizzard is proposing in Act 5 of Hell might be better served by applying them to *all* acts, thus creating an entirely new difficulty level with not much new programming required!

      --

      Dr. Demento On The 'Net!

    8. Re:Disappointed by thdexter · · Score: 1

      Have you tried playing Hell yet? It's not really so easy, dude. You can't make the game harder unless you make the resistances -200% and give everybody MSLE.

      --
      I'm on a road shaped like a figure eight; I'm going nowhere but I'm guaranteed to be late.
  9. hack? by DCSteelShaft · · Score: 1

    i wonder if they got rid of that little dealy where people trick nOOb's into droping their prized weapons that they think are so cool. Something about buying a bunch of keys and a belt or something like that. I fell for that and lost 2 SOJ's and the IK set. Boy i was ticked. Hackers is why i quit diablo 2 LOD and started play Tribes 2 instead.

    1. Re:hack? by Rudeboy777 · · Score: 1

      You were told that by doing those steps you could dupe your own items. Your own greed cost you those items, not the jokers who pulled it on you. You got what you deserved.

      --

      From hell's heart I fstab at /dev/hdc

  10. Timing by Kris_J · · Score: 1
    I think the timing points to something sus. Two main Blizzard people bail only days before a public beta is released? Not the world's best portent.

    Meanwhile, I've patched one of my PCs and I must say I'm fairly dissapointed. Not only have they seriously nerfed my only two characters that actually made it through to the end of the game, but characters that were part way through Hell difficulty are now struggling in Nightmare. There are critters in Act V Nightmare that hit as hard as the next version up of them did in Act II Hell.

    (I also hit two annoying bugs after only about an hour and a half of play.)

    I'm going to revert and wait for a non-beta, or power up Neverwinter Nights again. I believe there was an expansion for it recently...

  11. Re:Oh no! by Lord+Bitman · · Score: 1

    You mean your characters arent godly anymore? The game is more challenging? The new skills system has ruined your previous method of twinking?! THIS IS FUCKING OUTRAGEOUS! HOW DARE THEY IMPROVE THEIR GAME!!??

    --
    -- 'The' Lord and Master Bitman On High, Master Of All
  12. Re:Oh no! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    HORSESHIT. If they change how it's played by nerfing things, they're not improving the game...they're making it as unbelievably difficult as their much-lauded Warcraft III:Korean Edition. Bite my shiny Paladin ass.

  13. Re:Oh no! by Cais · · Score: 1

    They didn't nerf anything: It's just the previous builds were made obsolete by changes to both difficulty (monster hp, immunities, etc.) and boosting of previously underpowered skills.

  14. Re:Oh no! by Kris_J · · Score: 1
    They didn't nerf anything
    Guided arrows don't pierce, a Rogue merc with +3 to all/Amazon skills doesn't do the lightning thing anymore, Necro's Skeletons appear to max out at 7 (I had 15). These were not godly characters, they struggled through the game with periodic help from friend's characters.
  15. Re:Oh no! by Cais · · Score: 1

    Guided Arrows was a bug fix (Come on, that was hideously overpowered), didn't know about no more lightning hose), skellies were buffed up.

  16. Re:Oh no! by dalassa · · Score: 1

    A note, the piercing guided arrow and the rouge lightning hose are known bugs. Blizzard always said they intended to patch them. Not nerf, bugfix.

    --
    Feminism is the radical notion that women are people.
  17. Your link goes to the old Angband page by nefertari · · Score: 1

    The Angband-page moved some time ago. The new URL ist www.thangorodrim.net. Another really good Angband-page is http://angband.oook.cz/.

    --

    use Bielefeld.pm

  18. secret pig level by leuk_he · · Score: 1

    If you knew about it it wouldnt be secret would it?

    But there is a secret set.

  19. 1.10 is a Memory hog. by leuk_he · · Score: 1

    I havent played lod in a long time, but after playing the beta for a couple of hours i must conclude something went wrong with the memory.

    On a 128 MB 850 Mhz win98 machine it is swapping bad in (tcp-ip) multiplayer. And this game is supposed to be playable in 64 MB! They better update that in the readme.

    I know 128 MB is not a lot these days, but this is our 2nd pc, and I am not supposed to touch it since it my wifes PC.

  20. Re:Oh no! by NanoGator · · Score: 1

    Hey dude, our original thread finally closed. Continue here? Are you monitoring this post?

    --
    "Derp de derp."
  21. Come on by qu4rtz · · Score: 0

    The Secret Cow Level wasn't just some random idea thrown in there for no reason. It was a spoof on an old rumor that there was a secret level in the original Diablo that one could access by casting a town portal between two of the cows in town. This was, obviously, not true, but the rumors were so persistent that it became legend. Thus, Blizzard saw an opportunity to stick some extra gameplay into their sequel, and took it. It was a joke, but it certainly wasn't random. How about lightening up a bit, eh?

  22. Re:Oh no! by Anonymous+Custard · · Score: 1

    plus, a piercing guided-arrow zon with a buriza could take out any boss in the game in a few minutes. It was waaaaaaay overpowered; basically guaranteeing the zon at least 3 powerful damage enhanced always-hit strikes per guided arrow fired.

    Skeleton nerfing seems unfair to the necromancer, unless those 7 skeletons are much more powerful now. But zon's were way overpowered.

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