A few questions about Annihilus

[Qwazym]

Hey guys and dolls!

Before I get started, I would like to advise that I haven't browsed every (well barely any) post on this forum to find the answers, I thought the best option would be to post and get more direct answers!

Considering getting back into d2, after I convince the GF to join me :) I was looking for a High Resolution mod with servers to check out. Came across this and it looked like a fair bit of effort has gone into this.

I have previously played several thousand hours on D2 + LOD, and probably a good few thousand hours on a mod called Hell Unleashed (might give insight into some of my experience & questions). Due to loving d2 so much, I've also spent around 1000 hours on d3 (maybe more now).

I'm a Hardcore player, who almost exclusively plays hardcore because it's more thrilling and with softcore, you can just throw corpses at it until you win. HC just makes the game more exciting.

AS FOR THE QUESTIONS!

1: What's the Hardcore community like? How many active players are there every week in hardcore? if not many, how about softcore? I had a look at the server active games list and saw that there is definitely a few people playing.

2: Would you recommend playing hardcore in this mod? I've entirely solo'd the other mod (Hell Unleashed) in hardcore up to level 101 which is designed for 6 player parties, and am just curious of the difficulty and if there any bull**** things that happen to suggest I start softcore?

3: I've read about a few of the major changes between this and D2+LOD and know a few, but I didn't see anything in passing about skill changes. Have the skills etc been overhauled as well as everything else or are they largely the same?

4: What resolution does this mod run with?

5: How stable and fast are the servers considering I'm from Australia? what about the fact that they have so many people able to be in 1 game at a time? Will I get smashed for latency in a non-empty game?

Any other things you might think I need to know please let me know. I'll check back here tomorrow to see all of your helpful updates!

Thanks in advance for your help and I look forward to saving the world with you all.

Regards, Qwazym.

[Equalibrium]

Hiya quaz
HC is not massive here as the dificulty of end game content puts alot of people off. as you have played d2 for so many years you will know the diffrences in mentality for HC and SC players so sadly atm HC population is very low. im also HC only player and have cleared some of the endgame stuff. i joined anni a few months back and was told then that all HC content had been soloed so it is possible but only by the very best and dedicated players.

as for skills there are a few new ones and some have been reworked one example being druid crow skill. it now has a % chance of crushing blow and they attack alot more and dont stop once blind is applied. some are still the same but Game and the team are working very hard on adjusting others.

as for server im in england and have run in 8 player games with no issues. server is very good for a private server. i usualy run at around 140-170 which is more than playable. considering server is in us.

hope this helps abit and hope to see you and the better half in game soon :)

[Game]

Hey guys and dolls!

Before I get started, I would like to advise that I haven't browsed every (well barely any) post on this forum to find the answers, I thought the best option would be to post and get more direct answers!

Considering getting back into d2, after I convince the GF to join me :) I was looking for a High Resolution mod with servers to check out. Came across this and it looked like a fair bit of effort has gone into this.

I have previously played several thousand hours on D2 + LOD, and probably a good few thousand hours on a mod called Hell Unleashed (might give insight into some of my experience & questions). Due to loving d2 so much, I've also spent around 1000 hours on d3 (maybe more now).

I'm a Hardcore player, who almost exclusively plays hardcore because it's more thrilling and with softcore, you can just throw corpses at it until you win. HC just makes the game more exciting.

AS FOR THE QUESTIONS!

1: What's the Hardcore community like? How many active players are there every week in hardcore? if not many, how about softcore? I had a look at the server active games list and saw that there is definitely a few people playing.

2: Would you recommend playing hardcore in this mod? I've entirely solo'd the other mod (Hell Unleashed) in hardcore up to level 101 which is designed for 6 player parties, and am just curious of the difficulty and if there any bull**** things that happen to suggest I start softcore?

3: I've read about a few of the major changes between this and D2+LOD and know a few, but I didn't see anything in passing about skill changes. Have the skills etc been overhauled as well as everything else or are they largely the same?

4: What resolution does this mod run with?

5: How stable and fast are the servers considering I'm from Australia? what about the fact that they have so many people able to be in 1 game at a time? Will I get smashed for latency in a non-empty game?

Any other things you might think I need to know please let me know. I'll check back here tomorrow to see all of your helpful updates!

Thanks in advance for your help and I look forward to saving the world with you all.

Regards, Qwazym.

Welcome to the server! I think a lot of us here were extreme Diablo 2 players back in the day :)

1) As Equa said HC could pose to be quite challenging for certain content... but there is also plenty of new endgame content you can definitely do if careful. I think you'll have a blast here, I have put in literally over 1000 hours in developing content alone.

2) Kind of answered that with #1 (http://annihilus.net/usertag.php?do=list&action=hash&hash=1) , there is definitely a HC playerbase, it is quite a bit smaller but it is there! I am always looking to make things a bit more HC friendly in future patches.

3) A lot of skills have been changed in a variety of ways, whether it is the way they function or synergy, you'll see quite a bit has been changed. Each class also has 1 new skill.

4) You can use 1024x768 or 1280x1024, along with the original resolutions. We didn't want to go too high! This can always change in the future.

If you have any other questions, feel free to ask! We try to put out huge content patches every few patches, so it's never really boring around here :) I look forward to having you around!

[Qwazym]

Hey,

Thanks for all the tips, seems promising!

I'll start the download i guess and see how it is :)

Still happy to have more answers as well if there are any.

one more question, are there any videos to any gameplay on this server? i guess its still gonna be the same game but it'd be nice to see some just to get an idea. I checked out Boozy's stream and couldnt find any videos.

[Boozinbear]

Yea I need to make some videos, I should start doing that here this week. Welcome to the Server btw.

[Equalibrium]

just a quick tip mate. make your games without pw so us HC players can jump in and say hi and offer a bit of help if wanted ofc.
no pks around as far as i know so its perfectly safe to do so.

[HoLy]

I'm a frequent HC player as well. I was actually influenced and helped out a lot by equa, but he's a great dude and I'm sure he wouldn't mind helping. I can help as well just ask me anytime. I'm on almost everyday.

[Qwazym]

hey, appreciate the offers, gonna try and find out the little "dont go here yet" things about the mod before getting rushed.

story time

went into tristram following an also new sorceress, read the barricades and she went through anyway, i followed reluctantly. i insta died, she ran away using me as a scapegoat.
TIP: follow instructions writton on barricades...

was just in act2 in the tavern, saw the portal. learnt my lesson and decided not to go in. these places really need level requirements on the portals though haha!

as for making open games, i did, just hadn't actually gotten the game upon last posting.

[Lucid]

Welcome to the server :)

And welcome to our hc fam!

[HoLy]

The most active users on HC are gonna be Equa, Myself, Apoc, and of course Lucid. I have see a few more but not as active. Grieves gets on occasionally too.

[LordManhammer]

I've recently started playing hardcore. There are end game areas that can be farmed depending on your class. I'm using a shield throw barb (one of the awesome new skills) and have been able to farm nightmare Tristram monsters. It's a all about avoiding the center of the map and only pulling one at a time when possible. Shield throw can stun lock the mobs so the danger mostly come from approaching the monsters. If you target them and throw a shield as you run in you can stun them while you dodge their fire attacks. As I don't have a way of penetrating phys immune yet I just start a new game if I run into too many ghosts. I can stun them but can't damage them. You can use this method with a Smiter but it would be tedious and more dangerous as you can only stun lock one at a time. Shield throw will bounce between five targets.

For leveling I used cows. You can open the cow level without having to kill Baal in this mod. With decent aoe damage you can start killing them early but the optimal level to start normal cows is 25. You won't get much xp earlier than that because of your level difference from the cows. Shield throw on its own has enough damage at lvl 20 to farm cows even without a weapon:)

[Dante]

Hi and welcome,

just wanna say that if I gonna continue playing I will play HC only here, This being said, I would NOT recommend to start with HC here and instead exploring all SC first. There are a lot of new things and traps for HC players. New bosses, stuff that 1 shots you, areas that you can't use TP etc...

HC is a really true and fun challenge here and the player base will for sure grow, but the truth is, it could be a bit boring (few players) and frustrating (too hard or too many new things) for you to start with.

As for the community and help, there are a lot of super nice and friendly players here. Enjoy the server :)

[LordManhammer]

Hi and welcome,

just wanna say that if I gonna continue playing I will play HC only here, This being said, I would NOT recommend to start with HC here and instead exploring all SC first. There are a lot of new things and traps for HC players. New bosses, stuff that 1 shots you, areas that you can't use TP etc...

HC is a really true and fun challenge here and the player base will for sure grow, but the truth is, it could be a bit boring (few players) and frustrating (too hard or too many new things) for you to start with.

As for the community and help, there are a lot of super nice and friendly players here. Enjoy the server :)

I completely agree. Getting a feel for the server on SC first will make your HC experience much more fun and a lot less frustrating:)

[SaintSlavut]

Hi Qwazym, welcome!

Here is a video of Inferno Cows. There were over 50 characters loaded in this game!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T3XR3kmBOd0

[Qwazym]

Hey all, thanks for your input, this morning I ran through from arcane sanctuary in act2 to killing mephisto. so I'm now around level 35-40 (cant remember) in act4 normal!

so far it's been quite easy in hardcore except for following another player into tristram through the barricades, I remade lol... looks like most of the content is the same except for things that are quite obviously different (again barricades, or the portal in tavern in act2) which can't really be accidently mistaken for old content so I'll leave for a time when I can ask if ill survive or know and test myself.

I'll be on tonight 7pm Sydney time (4 and a half hours from now if that helps). about 7:45 if I go to the gym on the way home. So if anyone wants to run act4 and 5 with me (join not rush) then see you soon!

[Dante]

Yea questing will be fine in HC, that's no big deal. Care for the new endgame content :) But I'm sure you will get a feeling for it if you play with others in HC.

[Qwazym]

So I have a few more questions after playing for a few days. these are more a "is it already possible"

1: Can the UI resolution be changed to match the in game resolution, so when you open your inventory and character screen etc they aren't 1/3 of it's half of the screen, or what it used to be which leaves a big blank un-clickable space.

2: Is it possible to die in spectator mode? I was about to run act5 normal and began spectating with an alt, I walked out of town from next to the character to begin clearing the act. (Note: When spectating the players HP shows as 1 hp). As I left the town I walked through a fire, after which the players hp showed as full for an instant and then dropped to well below half. I quickly ran back out of the fire and toward the town, switched to my other screen and stopped spectating. The alt's hp was about 1/8 full and he was standing with me outside the town. this was odd because he had no health regen so it should have either been 1 hp or full right? also when I stopped spectating the character should have been where I left him in town? I then instead set him to spectate someone who was already just outside the town with me and it seemed to work normally from there. Question is, would it have been possible to die while spectating or did it just seem like my character was walking along with us (for many reasons)

Sorry for no paragraph's in #2 (http://annihilus.net/usertag.php?do=list&action=hash&hash=2) , I'm at work and sick of formality

did have more questions, but forgot.. I'm sure ill remember as soon as I log in when I get home.

[Mephisto]

Yeah ive seen it happen that sometimes a spectator dies. Be carefull in hardcore with this!