We need some fun

[Dante]

At the moment we only have cows.

cows cows cows cows.

Nobody runs Baal, does public inf cows, inferno, plagueland , nothing. No worldstone event, no cs, nothing public at all.
And if so, we have 8 player restriction which is really bad, considering everybody can load so many chars.

If you keep creating new content with 3 organs required, 1 key required, 5 fragments required etc, that wont help it. In reality nobody likes to share their runs if you spend hours to get a org set together, which is understandable.
We need something fun and easy like cows, I mean you created so many mobs, it's super sad we don't have any public runs at all.

Diablo 2 is easy, something simple like kill waves of enemies while they get stronger with each wave and drop better loot is so simple and would bring a lot to community play.
I mean I think about 2 seconds and I have ideas like that which bring a lot more fun then just a new boss with a new super unique that maybe 2 builds and 5 player will run solo and 1 shots all other players that try it with some new idea builds. That means you can come up with even more public oriented levels.

This server is about softcore, it should be easy, if you want a challange go hardcore we don't need bosses that oneshot you.

[Dante]

I remember the best time was, when you first released Dreamland. We had groups doing it together, each game's loot belonged to someone.
This is stuff we need, not new items. This will keep players interested in the server a lot more.

[Lampogriz]

All new areas are static. Imho we need them with randomized map, but I realize its very hard to create.

[Game]

I guess I will leak some info then. Patch 3.1 has added content called The Crucible. This is a 20 level dungeon with different monsters / tileset every level. Every 5 levels you will fight a special boss who has brand new items. The catch is, if the "leader" of the party (the person who started the crucible) dies even once, the crucible is over. You will have to start over from level 1 in a new game. You also have a 10 minute time limit per level too. If you have not cleared every monster and reached the end of the level and retrieved the key to open the next level, you will be locked out and will need another game to start back at level 1. It starts off somewhat easy but after the first boss (level 5) it starts getting quite challenging. I have been working on this non stop for the last several weeks, and saying it has been a challenge is a definite understatement. I hope you guys enjoy it.

[LordManhammer]

That sounds awesome. Looking forward to the challenge:)

[PSyren]

I guess I will leak some info then. Patch 3.1 has added content called The Crucible. This is a 20 level dungeon with different monsters / tileset every level. Every 5 levels you will fight a special boss who has brand new items. The catch is, if the "leader" of the party (the person who started the crucible) dies even once, the crucible is over. You will have to start over from level 1 in a new game. You also have a 10 minute time limit per level too. If you have not cleared every monster and reached the end of the level and retrieved the key to open the next level, you will be locked out and will need another game to start back at level 1. It starts off somewhat easy but after the first boss (level 5) it starts getting quite challenging. I have been working on this non stop for the last several weeks, and saying it has been a challenge is a definite understatement. I hope you guys enjoy it.

Yeah this sounds amazing :) I can't wait for it.

[Dante]

Thanks, it's nice to know that you see this issues and have already implemented it basically as we speak lol.

Focus on teamplay is the thing to go to with this server now imho.
Something casual players can enjoy without grinding the same areas over and over alone.

Also guys, wow it's almost a year now. I'm totally impressed what you achieved within this time!

[Game]

Thanks, it's nice to know that you see this issues and have already implemented it basically as we speak lol.

Focus on teamplay is the thing to go to with this server now imho.
Something casual players can enjoy without grinding the same areas over and over alone.

Also guys, wow it's almost a year now. I'm totally impressed what you achieved within this time!

Thanks :) The first 4 months of the year was definitely rough on us too with us unable to identify the attack crashing us, I think next year will be even better. Thanks for sticking around so long guys!

[SaintSlavut]

The Crucible reminds me of a dungeon called Endless Tower in Ragnarok Online. Exact same concept except ET had 100 levels. Can't wait to see the party system come back to life. I'm all about PvM groups so I'm pretty excited about this. :D

[StenchTrench]

While I am all for new content to keep things interesting, I have to address the elephant in the room: server crashes. It kind of deflates the purpose. No one is going to invest their time and efforts into the crucible with constant crashes and disconnects. I would suggest improving server stability first before adding new content.

[SaintSlavut]

Server stability has always been the #1 priority here. Annihilus used to be way worse with crashes but most errors have been fixed. This next patch may iron them out completely. The owner of this server is seriously a pro at coding this game and I have no doubt that he will nullify all issues eventually. You will see. ;)

Those who have been around since the beginning know what's up. It's impressive as hell how far this server has come.

[Game]

While I am all for new content to keep things interesting, I have to address the elephant in the room: server crashes. It kind of deflates the purpose. No one is going to invest their time and efforts into the crucible with constant crashes and disconnects. I would suggest improving server stability first before adding new content.

While your point is usually valid, that isn't the case this time around. A friend of mine (his name is lolet, you won't see him on D2 as he doesn't actually play) does the "outside coding" of the game, we've come to the conclusion most of the crashes from the extra code we have patching onto the game server, allowing us special features no other server has, such as 64 player games. The outside code is all his and he is a complete genius at it, but him working on that has absolutely nothing to do with me working on the actual content in-game, such as The Crucible :). We are well aware server crashes are a huge priority but these things take time, as I have said from the beginning we are ALWAYS looking into crashes and ways to fix them.

Just like NeckBeard said, we have come so far since last January, and let me tell you the first 4 months of the server being up was EXTREMELY rough and stressful due to a very harsh attack against the server from an outside source. We were finally able to stop that and have come so far since then. I appreciate you all sticking around and dealing with the occasional crashes, but please take my word for it when I say we're always prioritizing the crashes over anything else, but that doesn't mean I cannot make content while lolet focuses on the crashes behind the scenes. We actually have completely negated crashes (we may get an unrelated occasional crash every so often but nothing related to what we have now) if we leave the player cap at 8 next patch, but we have made stability changes and I want to test 64 player games again to see if we've made progress there. All I can do now is promise you guys we're always looking to improve stability and content, and continue to give you more and more to do than you've ever had to do on Diablo 2 while lolet improves the outside coding.

[StenchTrench]

While your point is usually valid, that isn't the case this time around. A friend of mine (his name is lolet, you won't see him on D2 as he doesn't actually play) does the "outside coding" of the game, we've come to the conclusion most of the crashes from the extra code we have patching onto the game server, allowing us special features no other server has, such as 64 player games. The outside code is all his and he is a complete genius at it, but him working on that has absolutely nothing to do with me working on the actual content in-game, such as The Crucible :). We are well aware server crashes are a huge priority but these things take time, as I have said from the beginning we are ALWAYS looking into crashes and ways to fix them.

Just like NeckBeard said, we have come so far since last January, and let me tell you the first 4 months of the server being up was EXTREMELY rough and stressful due to a very harsh attack against the server from an outside source. We were finally able to stop that and have come so far since then. I appreciate you all sticking around and dealing with the occasional crashes, but please take my word for it when I say we're always prioritizing the crashes over anything else, but that doesn't mean I cannot make content while lolet focuses on the crashes behind the scenes. We actually have completely negated crashes (we may get an unrelated occasional crash every so often but nothing related to what we have now) if we leave the player cap at 8 next patch, but we have made stability changes and I want to test 64 player games again to see if we've made progress there. All I can do now is promise you guys we're always looking to improve stability and content, and continue to give you more and more to do than you've ever had to do on Diablo 2 while lolet improves the outside coding.

Sounds good. I plan on sticking around for the long haul myself. It's good to hear that stability is the overall top priority. I look forward to the next patch and the improvements that come along with it.

[sine25]

it is still a better server than most. either the server content is way to far left of d2, just the same as bnet, or requires a full group to play. this server allows me to either play by myself or group up, not forcing me to one or the other. this is the only server i have ever thrown money at, so that is saying something. i have been here since the first few hours of the server and the stability has improved by leaps and bounds

[sine25]

oh and game that guy we thought might have been the issue for the ddos attacks, his server crashed and burned awhile back

[Game]

it is still a better server than most. either the server content is way to far left of d2, just the same as bnet, or requires a full group to play. this server allows me to either play by myself or group up, not forcing me to one or the other. this is the only server i have ever thrown money at, so that is saying something. i have been here since the first few hours of the server and the stability has improved by leaps and bounds

Thanks :) We have MUCH more content of all kinds coming as well, solo and group!


oh and game that guy we thought might have been the issue for the ddos attacks, his server crashed and burned awhile back

Yeah, I have a VERY good idea of who was behind it all along, but we figured out their exact method and patched it. They tried a few more things then finally resorted to just a DDoS rather than a specialized attack, I moved to a more expensive host with better protection and ever since then the attacks are gone. Just good old legit crashes now!

[alteredbeing]

Perhaps a youtube campaign would benefit the server. While i appreciate the players we have, the community is too small, clicky, and attractive to asperger-types who don't value community.

[Game]

Perhaps a youtube campaign would benefit the server. While i appreciate the players we have, the community is too small, clicky, and attractive to asperger-types who don't value community.

Indeed that would definitely help, but we would need users to volunteer to make decent videos.

[Dante]

Why not start a vid dump/pic dump to collect some material, as I suggested a while ago already. We can update the frontpage with new stuff too then.
Also give away like 50g or smth each highly voted pic or pic.

I'm sure we have plenty of creative people here who would voluntarily create content.

[Game]

Why not start a vid dump/pic dump to collect some material, as I suggested a while ago already. We can update the frontpage with new stuff too then.
Also give away like 50g or smth each highly voted pic or pic.

I'm sure we have plenty of creative people here who would voluntarily create content.

I would really like to get 3.1 out and maybe even some more stability fixes before we try bringing in a wider audience though, a bad first impression would be terrible ;(

[sine25]

game, we need to work out something with a credit card or something because my wife can see the paypal account lol

[SaintSlavut]

Lol I hear that. You should be able to put in your credit card info through PayPal without signing into an account. It will show up on your bank statement as a PayPal purchase though.

[Game]

game, we need to work out something with a credit card or something because my wife can see the paypal account lol

Haha, I think SNB is right you can use a debit / credit without signing into PayPal through our system, try that!