- Joined
- Dec 19, 2021
- Messages
- 843
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- 28
Hello all,
I want to announce that I'm officially marking the current release of Succulent as the final version for the mod since I am much more confident about the state that its currently in and consider it complete. After 12+ years of experimenting with Vanilla Frosting, and then Succulent, I believe Succulent is in an excellent state and expresses a lot of the beautiful things I've learned from my experience Time Traveling, and I'm happy that it blended different concepts and ideas in a way that still feels like the original Diablo II (because essentially it's a polished version of 1.09 but with the feeling of 1.07/1.08 and prelod). I don't believe there is anything more that I want to add to Succulent and am happy just letting it be. If there are any issues or mistakes that should have been fixed in the current release, I will follow up with a fix if possible, otherwise we are good.
As for what's next in the world of modding Diablo II, I'm currently replaying Grim Dawn (since the last time I really played Grim Dawn was many years ago when the Ashes of Malmouth expansion came out, so even though I've been actively following Crate on and off, and have purchased all of their expansions and supporter packs (that are also DRM free / Offline Single Player), I didn't actually play Forgotten Gods, etc. As I'm now playing all of Grim Dawn from scratch, I'm taking note of a lot of the design decisions they've made from their learnings working on Titan Quest, and then Grim Dawn afterwards, and their interpretation of ARPGs. I'm also allowing my existing biases regarding Action RPGs to be more malleable and approaching things with a more open mind. With this in mind, I may make another mod either based on 1.05b or 1.10, re-use a lot of the technology developed in Succulent, but really look at changing things up in those patches in a different way, in a way that tries to maximize the fun while balancing out the time commitments and reward/dopamine ratios for our play sessions. This definitely will mean a substantial rebalancing of drop rates since we would want loot drops to be a lot higher than what existed in 1.05b, and in some ways 1.10 as well. Other aspects of the game will need to be tweaked. For example, most likely lowering the attack rating of monsters in 1.05b given their 4x AR bug which essentially makes defense useless (from what I hear). The no mana potion situation is something that will need to be looked at as well if the mod is 1.05b based. While I do like the concept of not having mana in vendors in my more traditional action rpg / d2 perspective, and it makes sense why original D2 was like that given the balance and the other game mechanics regarding mana, the reality is that mana drop rates are really low in 1.05b, and the lack of mana severely limits the progression speed for all characters in 1.05b. That's just some of my ideas, but like I said, I really am trying to destroy any of my current biases regarding ARPG design, and any stigmas that may exist for any game mechanics, and re-looking at things with a clearer and more modern perspective. I believe there is a lot of beauty that can be salvaged from 1.05b (and of course 1.10 given that Peter Hu did a lot of work to get things to be in the most moddable / mod-friendly state possible, before his departure from Blizzard North. Thank you Peter!).
I'm excited for the future. Let's see where it goes.
Happy holidays and happy new year everyone, stay safe,
Jonathan
I want to announce that I'm officially marking the current release of Succulent as the final version for the mod since I am much more confident about the state that its currently in and consider it complete. After 12+ years of experimenting with Vanilla Frosting, and then Succulent, I believe Succulent is in an excellent state and expresses a lot of the beautiful things I've learned from my experience Time Traveling, and I'm happy that it blended different concepts and ideas in a way that still feels like the original Diablo II (because essentially it's a polished version of 1.09 but with the feeling of 1.07/1.08 and prelod). I don't believe there is anything more that I want to add to Succulent and am happy just letting it be. If there are any issues or mistakes that should have been fixed in the current release, I will follow up with a fix if possible, otherwise we are good.
As for what's next in the world of modding Diablo II, I'm currently replaying Grim Dawn (since the last time I really played Grim Dawn was many years ago when the Ashes of Malmouth expansion came out, so even though I've been actively following Crate on and off, and have purchased all of their expansions and supporter packs (that are also DRM free / Offline Single Player), I didn't actually play Forgotten Gods, etc. As I'm now playing all of Grim Dawn from scratch, I'm taking note of a lot of the design decisions they've made from their learnings working on Titan Quest, and then Grim Dawn afterwards, and their interpretation of ARPGs. I'm also allowing my existing biases regarding Action RPGs to be more malleable and approaching things with a more open mind. With this in mind, I may make another mod either based on 1.05b or 1.10, re-use a lot of the technology developed in Succulent, but really look at changing things up in those patches in a different way, in a way that tries to maximize the fun while balancing out the time commitments and reward/dopamine ratios for our play sessions. This definitely will mean a substantial rebalancing of drop rates since we would want loot drops to be a lot higher than what existed in 1.05b, and in some ways 1.10 as well. Other aspects of the game will need to be tweaked. For example, most likely lowering the attack rating of monsters in 1.05b given their 4x AR bug which essentially makes defense useless (from what I hear). The no mana potion situation is something that will need to be looked at as well if the mod is 1.05b based. While I do like the concept of not having mana in vendors in my more traditional action rpg / d2 perspective, and it makes sense why original D2 was like that given the balance and the other game mechanics regarding mana, the reality is that mana drop rates are really low in 1.05b, and the lack of mana severely limits the progression speed for all characters in 1.05b. That's just some of my ideas, but like I said, I really am trying to destroy any of my current biases regarding ARPG design, and any stigmas that may exist for any game mechanics, and re-looking at things with a clearer and more modern perspective. I believe there is a lot of beauty that can be salvaged from 1.05b (and of course 1.10 given that Peter Hu did a lot of work to get things to be in the most moddable / mod-friendly state possible, before his departure from Blizzard North. Thank you Peter!).
I'm excited for the future. Let's see where it goes.
Happy holidays and happy new year everyone, stay safe,
Jonathan
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