[HN Gopher] The Beautiful Diablo 2 Resurrected Machine
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       The Beautiful Diablo 2 Resurrected Machine
        
       Author : phenylene
       Score  : 122 points
       Date   : 2022-05-09 02:39 UTC (20 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (fabiensanglard.net)
 (TXT) w3m dump (fabiensanglard.net)
        
       | etempleton wrote:
       | Interesting read. I have never played Diablo 2, but might have to
       | try resurrected now.
       | 
       | I found Diablo 3 boring, but hearing about some of the
       | differences maybe Diablo 2 will be more interesting to me.
        
       | clircle wrote:
       | I just replayed diablo 2 a month ago, but since I don't have a
       | windows computer, I went for the Path of Diablo[1] mod. This is
       | an excellent mod that stays pretty close to the original
       | experience, but makes the game a bit faster and more comfortable
       | for the 2022 gamer.
       | 
       | [1] https://pathofdiablo.com/
        
       | outworlder wrote:
       | I'm wondering why they even bothered with an external GPU, when
       | an APU would have way more power than the best GPUs of the time
       | even dreamed of.
        
         | Cuuugi wrote:
         | The new game "Diablo 2:Resurrected" has more modern
         | requirements ( i believe an NVidia GTX 1060 card for example).
        
         | neogodless wrote:
         | The game mentioned is Diablo II: Resurrected. See system
         | requirements[0].
         | 
         | Minimum: Nvidia GTX 660, AMD Radeon HD 7850
         | 
         | Recommended: Nvidia GTX 1060, AMD Radeon RX 5500 XT
         | 
         | They aren't terribly steep, but they are not on the same level
         | as the original game[1]!
         | 
         | > DirectX compatible video card, 8MB Glide or Direct 3D
         | compatible video card for optional 3D acceleration
         | 
         | [0] https://us.battle.net/support/en/article/284798
         | 
         | [1] https://www.pcgamer.com/diablo-2-resurrected-pc-system-
         | requi...
        
           | viraptor wrote:
           | That's close to Skyrim remastered requirements and that works
           | ok on an integrated Intel.
        
       | nickjj wrote:
       | Fun read as I also played that game in the past.
       | 
       | In the article he mentions "the game has changed" with new quests
       | and a synergy system but these weren't added to resurrected.
       | 
       | The extra act came with the D2:LoD expansion in 2001 and skill
       | synergies became a thing in the 1.10 patch in 2003.
        
         | btmiller wrote:
         | The game changes in dimensions beyond synergies and quests. For
         | instance, there are new runewords. D2 is the pinnacle ARPG with
         | a die-hard community, so even minor changes to area levels,
         | runewords, or skill attributes can open up all sorts of new
         | possibilities.
         | 
         | I'd personally prefer if the gaming community wasn't so
         | monoculturally driven to a prescribed set of game attributes
         | (e.g. end game content, DLC, battle royale, loot boxes, skins,
         | sandbox, open world). D2 isn't for everyone nor should it be :)
        
         | nathias wrote:
         | yea, and you can play a pre-LoD mode as 'classic' when making a
         | new char since then ...
        
         | kemayo wrote:
         | Yeah, the only real changes in the initial Resurrection release
         | were the obvious graphical improvements, and some fairly minor
         | quality-of-life improvements to the stash system.
         | 
         | That said, they _have_ started to make actual gameplay changes
         | since then. Last month gave us the first gameplay patch to
         | Diablo 2 since 2010: https://news.blizzard.com/en-
         | us/diablo2/23788293/diablo-ii-r...
        
           | matttb wrote:
           | Weapon swap glitch was also 'fixed'
        
         | thriftwy wrote:
         | You are killing me since I was thinking of synergy system as
         | "that recent thing"
        
       | Aragorn2331 wrote:
       | Amazing setup for amazing game ! Thanks for this post, i love to
       | read you :-)
        
       | PainfullyNormal wrote:
       | > "Maybe Diablo 2 difficulty and savageness belong to another
       | era."
       | 
       | The popularity of the dark souls series would indicate otherwise.
       | I feel the invisible hand of upper management here, using words
       | like "casual" and "accessible" to justify the decision to make
       | games "easier".
        
         | boomboomsubban wrote:
         | Dark Souls lacks permadeath. People are fine with hard but
         | ultimately fair, die and learn the patterns then eventually
         | win.
         | 
         | Diablo 2 could erase weeks of work by one monster spawning an
         | unfair combination. Practically nobody is truly looking to
         | bring that back. Though, people are fine with that work
         | improving further runs with rogue-likes.
        
           | tomc1985 wrote:
           | Have you even played Path of Exile? People LOVE that shit.
           | Endgame bosses hit you for integer multiple of your HP, the
           | only way you survive is through theorycrafting how to
           | mitigate it (or be one of those losers who has to follow a
           | guide)
           | 
           | Hell regular bosses LOVE massive damage spikes. I'm with you
           | that it pisses me off and I since left for greener pastures
           | (Grim Dawn)
        
             | cmeacham98 wrote:
             | Path of Exile doesn't have perma-death. There is a hardcore
             | league, but dying simply drops your character to the
             | softcore league (rather than deleting it).
        
             | iamacyborg wrote:
             | It's not even just endgame bosses that can wreck your day
             | in PoE, a few unlucky rolls and even the first boss you
             | encounter is going to be a tough one to beat.
        
           | thaumasiotes wrote:
           | > Though, people are fine with that work improving further
           | runs with rogue-likes.
           | 
           | Sad to see people contrasting Diablo II, an actual roguelike,
           | with "rogue-likes".
        
             | anthk wrote:
             | Diablo II is not a roguelike. Diablo 1 it's _based_ on a
             | Roguelike, Moria, but with real time features and no
             | permadeath.
        
             | thriftwy wrote:
             | Diablo II is a real-time game so it is, with all due
             | respect, a rogue-like.
        
               | TillE wrote:
               | Diablo 1 is probably the only notable game you could
               | legitimately describe as a real-time roguelike.
               | 
               | Diablo 2 drifts pretty far from the formula, to the
               | extent that it largely defines the "action RPG" genre as
               | we still know it.
        
           | ar_lan wrote:
           | > Diablo 2 could erase weeks of work by one monster spawning
           | an unfair combination.
           | 
           | Only if you play Hardcore mode, which is entirely optional.
        
             | worker_person wrote:
             | Hardcore mode adds huge amounts of fun to the experience.
             | You feel so invested into what's going on, calculating how
             | much risk you can safely manage, etc. Leaderboards are more
             | interesting. Finding secondary gear for when your main
             | eventually dies.
             | 
             | Dying because I was being stupid is just part of the fun.
             | Re-role. Use some saved resources to skip the early grind.
             | 
             | Dying because server crashed, internet lagged for 6
             | seconds, etc. Those hurt. They are the vast majority of
             | deaths.
        
             | selbyk wrote:
             | There is also an experience penalty on softcore in hell.
             | 10% experience at lvl 98 is a few weeks of work for me.
        
               | Vadoff wrote:
               | Getting to level 99 or playing hardcore mode isn't the
               | objective for 99+% of players.
               | 
               | Diablo 2 is a fairly forgiving and moderately casual game
               | imo. Most builds require only one skill for damage, and
               | respeccing and how easy it is to get a character rushed
               | means it's easy to experiment or fix builds.
        
               | seanp2k2 wrote:
               | Where is Jamella Editor Resurrected? D2 was a great into
               | to memory and hex editing as a kid :)
               | 
               | Edit: wouldja look at that
               | https://github.com/dschu012/d2s
               | 
               | Also fun:
               | https://d2esr.fandom.com/wiki/Eastern_Sun_Rises_Wiki
        
               | iamacyborg wrote:
               | I played D2 pretty obsessively for a few years during my
               | teens and never bothered going higher than 92, rolling
               | new builds was always more fun than endless baal runs for
               | me.
        
       | doikor wrote:
       | > One thing we never got to do was slay Diablo clone. Installing
       | software to track IP address of the server was too unappealing.
       | 
       | This was actually changed in 2.4 (the patch with the ladder
       | season added). Diablo clone now is tracked by the region.
       | 
       | https://news.blizzard.com/en-us/diablo2/23788293/diablo-ii-r...
        
         | tomwojcik wrote:
         | Yep. And here's the tracker updated by volunteers
         | https://diablo2.io/dclonetracker.php
        
       | jhartwig wrote:
       | I love this guy's books!
        
       | mathnode wrote:
       | Slightly related, it's been posted before; OpenDiablo2 is an
       | effort to re-write Diablo 2, in Go:
       | 
       | https://github.com/OpenDiablo2/OpenDiablo2
        
       | rodolphoarruda wrote:
       | Kind of off topic. What an impressive post! It's refreshing to
       | see that the open web is not dead yet.
        
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       (page generated 2022-05-09 23:01 UTC)