Questions about singleplayer mode.

[andreasdr]

Questions about singleplayer mode.

Hello there.
I've played D2 since it came out. First a little bit of casual singleplayer and then always on battle.net, alone or with 1-2 friends. I recently started a skeleton necro in single player SC, tempted by the possibilities of the "/players8"-command and the permanent area maps. It's a lot of fun, normal is a lot tougher than... normal, the leveling rate is much higher and the drops better.
I have some questions though:
How do you usually play a singleplayer game? I realise you have no choice but to play "untwinked" (or whatever only using items found by the character is called), so how do you usually proceed? Do you for example play to hell and then mf in the pits in order to find equipment good enough to be able to go through hell in /players8?

I've noticed that people congratulate each other here for creating a patriarch/matriarch. What is meant by this, a /players8-pat/mat or a HC pat/mat?

I've also heart talk about rerolling area maps, for example for efficient meph runs. The only way I know how is by starting a new game, but I suspect there is another way, how is this done? Are all areas in the game rerolled?

/Andreas

 

[Damnatorius]

Re: Questions about singleplayer mode.

People tend to use ATMA fo rmuling items between characters, download link is in the stickies. Although some people do prefer to play untwinked. Tournaments are pretty much always untwinked and in hardcore, although occasionally they will allow ATMA as an 'extended stash' for the tournament character.

Rerolling maps can be done by switching difficulties, if you play in normal, then start nightmare, go back to normal again, your normal map will be rerolled.

Any mat/pat will be congratulated I guess, since you can't rush in single player, so it's always an accomplishment.

edit: oh and welcome!

 

[smips]

Re: Questions about singleplayer mode.

You can use ATMA to mule items off and store them so you can twink other characters.

Most people start MFing with NM Meph, then move on to Hell Meph. After that, it depends on the build.

As for the pat/mat threads, they're just so you can tell the story of your character and others can read it. Nothing wrong with sharing the glory, right? A HC pat/mat thread would be a "Guardian", since that's what the title is for completing Hell in HC mode.

To reroll a map, you can either join an MP game or go to a different difficulty setting, then go back to the one you're trying to reroll.

Have a look at the stickies, most of the questions are answered in greater detail than I did here.

edit: semi-pwned by Damnatorius.

 

[andreasdr]

Re: Questions about singleplayer mode.

Alright then, thanks for the info and the welcome
Time now to go down and fetch the much beloved book of skill.

 

[factotum]

Re: Questions about singleplayer mode.

As far as /players 8 is concerned, I don't think anyone necessarily expects you to get through Hell difficulty on /p8--you need uber equipment to have much chance of doing that in single player. Personally I usually drop back to /p1 on Hell, though I go through all of the earlier difficulties (including bosses)* on p8!

*Well, except for the Countess...I drop her back to p1 because of the better rune drop chance, not because she's too hard on p8.

 

[Uzziah]

Re: Questions about singleplayer mode.

Do you for example play to hell and then mf in the pits in order to find equipment good enough to be able to go through hell in /players8?

Let me put it this way if you can beat from start to finish in a single pass on players 8 with a less than cookie cutter build, than you are far better at this game than some of the best players here. /players 8 nightmare is hard enough let alone /players 8 hell remember it's just you and your merc in SP unless you MP with other SP's.

I've noticed that people congratulate each other here for creating a patriarch/matriarch. What is meant by this, a /players8-pat/mat or a HC pat/mat?

Getting a SP character through the game without the help of other players is much harder than Bnet or MP games. Remember its just you and your merc. Meaning you have to be able to handle multiple immunes, fend off fast/extra strong bosses, and Kill the Hell ancients by yourself, not an easy task for some of the builds people have used to do such feats. Heck I have had builds get stuck in Hell act 1 more often than I care to admit.

I've also heart talk about rerolling area maps, for example for efficient meph runs. The only way I know how is by starting a new game, but I suspect there is another way, how is this done? Are all areas in the game rerolled?

Maps get rerolled if you start in a different level of difficulty, or you manually delete your characters map file (D2LOD only needs the d2s file for the character to exist).

 

[Skinhead On The MBTA]

Re: Questions about singleplayer mode.

Actually, the map doesn't re-roll if you delete the map file - it just becomes undiscovered again, while retaining the same actual map seed.

 

[NeoKnuckles]

Re: Questions about singleplayer mode.

Getting a SP character through the game without the help of other players is much harder than Bnet or MP games. Remember its just you and your merc. Meaning you have to be able to handle multiple immunes, fend off fast/extra strong bosses, and Kill the Hell ancients by yourself, not an easy task for some of the builds people have used to do such feats. Heck I have had builds get stuck in Hell act 1 more often than I care to admit.

I think the "congrats on your mat/pat" that each mat/pat thread gets is more a formality, more of a "good job, I read your post and I approve, keep on trucking, trooper" rather than a "wow, good job doing something very difficult."

Though there probably are people that really, truly do mean congrats, I think sometimes it's just to show a bit of recognition to someone that made the effort of sharing their adventures with us. And I know a lot of us do enjoy reading other people's adventures, seeing what they struggled on, their good and bad fortunes and all that stuff

 

[Simbacca]

Re: Questions about singleplayer mode.

Let me put it this way if you can beat from start to finish in a single pass on players 8 with a less than cookie cutter build, than you are far better at this game than some of the best players here...

Q.F.F.T.

...to show a bit of recognition to someone that made the effort of sharing their adventures with us. And I know a lot of us do enjoy reading other people's adventures, seeing what they struggled on, their good and bad fortunes and all that stuff

Right On, NeoKnuckles unk:

 

[lionheartthebrave]

Re: Questions about singleplayer mode.

And I know a lot of us do enjoy reading other people's adventures, seeing what they struggled on, their good and bad fortunes and all that stuff

Indeed, for me, the joy is in the journey, hence my insanely long, screenshot heavy write-up for Nuke

Remember that we play the game, no GRush and endless Uber levelling

 

[andreasdr]

Re: Questions about singleplayer mode.

Thanks for the clarifications. Yes, I do suspect trouble in /players8 hell, although I still have faith in my skelemancer Maybe I'll go down to /players1 in hell, although I will try to avoid it, since it seems like that will be quite easy because of the higher level than usual I'll have by then. I could be terribly wrong though..

 

[jiansonz]

Re: Questions about singleplayer mode.

I like /p3 in Hell with reasonably strong builds. Monsters only get double hitpoints, so Crushing Blow and corpse explosion skills are still very powerful, but the no-drops are reduced significantly (especially for chests and other containers).

 

[factotum]

Re: Questions about singleplayer mode.

Thanks for the clarifications. Yes, I do suspect trouble in /players8 hell, although I still have faith in my skelemancer Maybe I'll go down to /players1 in hell, although I will try to avoid it, since it seems like that will be quite easy because of the higher level than usual I'll have by then. I could be terribly wrong though..

Hell easy? You'll think that right up to the point where you run into your first boss pack... :wink: