1.13 Public Test Realm online!

[maareek]

Re: 1.13 Public Test Realm online!

@Arkardo: Yes, they do. Consult silo's drop counter (linked earlier on the page you posted on) for the exact differences, if you're curious, but for the most part they're small (of course, in the case of some of the really rare items small is fairly big).

As for the second, if it's not available on Blizzard's site, then probably not.

 

[Nubikoen]

Re: 1.13 Public Test Realm online!

I still have two questions I hope someone could answer for me:

• Does the inclusion of the new items for the Act bosses decrease the chance of dropping other items, like the Keys do?

Yes

• Is the 1.13 beta downloadable as a file? You know, for time travelling purposses, should there be interesting stuff...

No.

That was to the point, wasn't it?

If you read up on Trenshadows Version switcher, I'm pretty sure you'll eventually find a 'How to', describing what files you need to extract from the 1.13 install to use it with the version switcher. I know I've seen it before, I just don't remember where, sorry.

Edit. Timetravelling ninja'd by maareek?!. I swear, your post was not there when I posted my reply, nor afterwards.. ?!

 

[Cius]

Re: 1.13 Public Test Realm online!

A little disappointed at how little they implemented for the insanely long wait. For that much time I would have thought a lot more skill bugs like Inferno and Impale could have been fixed.

That being said I am happy about the FE bug, IM, respec, etc. They all make the game more playable for people like me with very limited gaming time. Still, this patch is not nearly enough to make me install the game again. I've been checking the forums on and off for months waiting for 1.13 while playing other games and this is mostly a bit of a let down. Ubers in SP is what was needed I think and they seem to have shafted SP again.

 

[Arkardo]

Re: 1.13 Public Test Realm online!

@Maareek & Nubikoen: aw, that sucks. Guess I'll keep my Blizzard sorc and Windy druid in 1.12, then. Or at least for now. Thanks for the replies!

 

[Tubba Blubba]

Re: 1.13 Public Test Realm online!

@Maareek & Nubikoen: aw, that sucks. Guess I'll keep my Blizzard sorc and Windy druid in 1.12, then. Or at least for now. Thanks for the replies!

It's one item which drops once in 15 drops. I doubt the difference is particularily notable.

 

[Hrus]

Re: 1.13 Public Test Realm online!

IMHO This Patch Fails.
The main role of the patch is to fix bugs (especially those who cause the program to terminate unexpactanbly) and if it's really necessarry - do some balance enhancements. The content is only secondary function of the patch.

BUG FIXES 0/10
None Fixed.

Ha! you say FE bug is fixed? Willowisps are fixed?
No they are not. FE damage was never a bug, it was an intended feature, but it scaled a lot when they multiplied the monster HPs in 1.10 by a lot and didn't thing about scaling this FE damage too. It's only a balance thing. WHAT is really bugged with FE explosions - Scarabs FE damage with each bolt, multiplied damage with FECELE monsters, incorrect FE damage of embalmed type of creatures where the poison cloud is released - that WAS NOT FIXED.
Willowisps - did they really repaired the part of code where their damage is incorrectly taken from another column (IIRC manaburn)? No, they have only balanced it.

What about bugs which cause termination of game or making some skills useless?
Cloak of Shadows sometimes terminates the game (especially at Ancients), -ns command terminate the game when the cinamatics are to load...
Skills which are bugged - Inferno, Sanctuary (should add damage to monsters), Curses radius/diameter, Fend (actually I am not sure if it is supposed to be uninterruptible, but if it is interruptible, then make it interruptible at client side too!) etc etc.
What about insane manaburn making the Energy shield useless?

What about Malah scrolls resistance, what about bugged Vipers?


There is a ton of minor bugs and few major bugs I haven't think about...
And lot of them is very easy to repair!


BALANCE ENHANCEMENTS 3/10
OK, HR drop odds got better, removing IM, Reducing FE and Willowisp damage are some balance things. But why don't you also reduce bugged vipers (which aren't supposed to be that dangerous) damage and for example dolls (which I am not sure I want to have balanced but imho they are more dangerous than souls)

LOL at skills balance changes
WHY give PNova and CE MORE damage? FW didn't need any fix either. Immo arrow did need a fix, but it is clearly not enough. Overpowered (and bugged) Shock Wave got damage synergy? LOL. I didn't realized wereforms needed a buff while druid Fire spells are still so week in comparison with Tornado or sorc fire spells.
What with very cool looking Inferno/Arctic Blast?


GAME ENHANCEMENTS 6/10
Yes, I am satisfied here. Scalable Windows, not minimizing when clicking outside the window, orange color of runes etc., Respec is a big thing, contraversional here but for majority of D2 community, it's positive.

BUT they promised us bigger stash !!!!

NEW CONTENT 0/10
LOL - 4 ingredients making another respec possible - LOL


HEHEHE.
Now after some ranting, I will take what's positive and I will be grateful.

 

[Kefir-Tribe1]

Re: 1.13 Public Test Realm online!

Here’s my view of some of the changes that 1.13 might bring.

- Respecialization is now possible! Completing the 'Den of Evil' quest will now additionally reward 1 free respec which can be saved. Players who have already completed this quest should receive 1 free respec in Hell difficulty.

At first glance I don’t like this at all. Being able to respec without limits makes planning ahead for skills and stats unnecessary, which kind of defeat the purpose of having to distribute them at all. Since a character consists of a name, a class, stats, skills and items, taking skills and stats out erases a large part of the characters “identity”.

On second thought respec opens up new possibilities:

a) As others have said, the less experienced player gets a chance to correct mistakes and thereby keep the game interesting. D2 1.10+ is friggin hard if you don’t know exactly what you’re doing.

b) As others also have pointed out, you can use a different build in early on, which maybe makes actually playing Normal worthwhile.

c) A character with end-game ambitions can be played untwinked for the challenge, and then have the stats fine-tuned for end-game gear.

d) Upon starting fresh in the new patch you only have to play one Sorceress as you can change build for new MF targets as the item pool grows.

- Increased the drop rate of high runes.

One more reason for me not to return to the insanity that is HF rushing. That’s a good thing.

- Some rare drop items now have an orange color. i.e. Runes and items required for Uber Tristam.

Makes a lot of sense.

- Nightmare/Hell WilloWisps champions/uniques have had their damage greatly reduced.

Good. One more instant death scenario made less common.

- Greatly reduced the explosion damage dealt by Fire Enchanted monsters.

Didn’t they fix this in 1.11? (Apart from NM Councils)

- Removed Oblivion Knight's Iron Maiden curse.

Wow! I did not see this one coming, but IM was imbalanced and I’m glad it's gone. I’ve some mixed emotions though, since it has been my arch-enemy for almost 10 years. It feels a bit empty.:hanky:

- When creating a single player game, pressing the 'Enter' key now automatically creates a Hell difficulty game if possible.

After all talk about ignoring us, isn’t this at least a little flirt with the SP community?

-Werebear - Damage bonus increased by 15% across all ranks.
-Werebear - Increased health by 25% and armor by 1% per point.
-Shockwave - Synergy from Maul adds 5% damage per point.

One of my favorite builds gets a little boost. That’s nice.


Overall I’m a little disappointed since all the talk about new contents and the postponed release, got my hopes up for new items or skill rebalancing that would change the game in the same fashion as 1.10 did. It’s good to see that Blizzard is still paying some attention to this old game. I don’t think they’re trying to kill off D2 to make room for D3 as some are speculating, the release of D3 too far off. I think they simply try to keep the Diablo trademark alive.

 

[Pijus1]

Re: 1.13 Public Test Realm online!

@Hrus: Very good analysis of what wasn't done. Makes me wonder if Blizzard is even aware of these bugs, and if they are, why can't they fix them. Although I have an idea as to why - Say if they fixed Smite(it would no longer be autohit), then they'd have to balance the game to compensate for that. Could this be why they don't fix many of the bugs?

 

[Hrus]

Re: 1.13 Public Test Realm online!

LOL, have seen another thread where it was confirmed that Duriel's drop was screwed big time (he can drop only up to 5 items and there is a 33% chance that each item will be a town portal scroll. So it's possible he will drop 5 town portal scrolls. LOL.

And the fire rate of hydras was actually decreased, not increased. LOL LOL ROFL

 

[Corrupted]

Re: 1.13 Public Test Realm online!

For those who missed it, I'd like to point out this post by Bashiok from friday:

I hear ya Big Mike. We're reading the majority of threads and any feedback is welcome. Since we're heading into a weekend this is sort of a note to everyone that we are reading threads. Please just make sure you're following the few requests in the FAQ before posting.

Maybe most importantly, and I know everyone wants to put in their 0.02, but the more you can add to an existing thread instead of creating your own only helps concentrate feedback, helps us gauge the "popularity" of it, and simply makes it easier to read and find specific topics.

Thanks all.

If people make well-articulated posts in one or a few threads, there's chance we could still see some balancing/fixing. As long as it doesn't get cluttered with what Blizzard should have done instead and added this and that. Some poeple have already c/p'ed the 1.10-1.11 bug list from the Phrozen Keep but I fear it's far too large for them to bother with. However, maybe if we pointed out the most critical and game-changing ones.

Oh and, Bashiok did state in the previous months that "content" simply meant a patch that wasn't just 1.12, fixing technical issues. Furthermore he stated that "unfortunately they weren't able to add any end-game content". With those two statements in mind, I'm satisfied with the Patch because I didn't expect much more.
I do hope that the Token gets altered though, three respecs per character is plenty in my opinion. I don't have any idea of what it should be changed to though.

Oh and damn, starting untwinked HC will be tough. Meph is crazy now!

 

[UllaV]

Re: 1.13 Public Test Realm online!

Some poeple have already c/p'ed the 1.10-1.11 bug list from the Phrozen Keep

Can you point out (pm me) where the bug list on PK is? I tried serching for 'bu list', 'bugs' etc. on PK without any rersults.

Ulla

 

[jiansonz]

Re: 1.13 Public Test Realm online!

I'm annoyed that blizz didn't add realm runewords to SP, only for the sake of segregated trading pools (and so jianzon could see the awesomeness that is Insight...)

So that I could make another attempt at a staff-amazon, you mean? One that doesn´t need to find a Ribcracker or make a Passion staff to be able to deal some actual damage...
:smug:

 

[UllaV]

Re: 1.13 Public Test Realm online!

Here is link to Blizzard's official 1.13 bug report & suggestions forum:

http://forums.battle.net/board.html?forumId=20601702&sid=3000

Hope you all go and write there as the normal drivel there is bnet based.

Ulla

 

[Hrus]

Re: 1.13 Public Test Realm online!

Can I download the 1.13txt files somewhere?

 

[maxicek]

Re: 1.13 Public Test Realm online!

@Hrus: silos has updated GoMule, so the text files should be included in that.

I spent about an hour trawling through the Blizzard site last night, looking at the suggestions posted there. Amongst all that drivel, my conclusion is that our subset of D2 players is so small and so different to the way that most BNet players play the game, our opinions will not even register with Blizzard. Some of the BNet wishes may overlap with ours, for example some of the bug fixes. But generally I think getting worked up about what is on the patch is futile. We will get what we get.

 

[EmperorMoo]

Re: 1.13 Public Test Realm online!

I spent about an hour trawling through the Blizzard site last night, looking at the suggestions posted there. Amongst all that drivel, my conclusion is that our subset of D2 players is so small and so different to the way that most BNet players play the game, our opinions will not even register with Blizzard.

Can't someone write a spambot then?
:wink:

 

[TheNix]

Re: 1.13 Public Test Realm online!

Baddies can still walk through closed door and the merc still turns invisible, so nothing new there. Ghosts seem to be more transparent and move a bit quicker too. Has Kaa gone AWOL or did I just miss him?

 

[Raskah]

Re: 1.13 Public Test Realm online!

I have been reading this thread with some attention and I must agree with a few already said. This patch is a bit disapointing... Oh well, live with what you can get.

I might install this patch to try the respecialization thing (since I have a few mid leveled broken character that need a face lift) after I do a clean install since I have the modified d2fgx.dll and I didn't back it up (Doh!)

 

[neno]

Re: 1.13 Public Test Realm online!

Epic fail imo... expected so much more. Especially concerning the uniques and sets, since they improved HR drops. To be honest, it looks to me like they didn't do a thing on that patch until last month, then they simply hurried to make at least smtn 'cos they promised patch. I know it's probably not like that, but it's the way I feel.

Back to AoC I guess which is ownage after all those fixes.

 

[Shagsbeard]

Re: 1.13 Public Test Realm online!

Fail... but hardly epic. There are a number of bugs that they could have fixed. Should have fixed. Well known bugs and even the reasons behind the bugs and fixes for the bugs are known by the community. That's just shameful. I'm wondering if "Blizzard 2009" shares any of the same business structure as the "Blizzard" that made the name famous. I doubt it.