Diablo 2 Fallen Creatures Thread

[Flix 5,184]

Whenever I work on the D2F Wiki, I get ideas of things to improve and bugs to fix. Now that the Boss Bestiary is done on the Wiki, here's a round of boss creature changes for the upcoming patch. ETA Valentine's Day.

 

Fixed a bug where Walther (Christmas boss) had the wrong faction ID assigned. I don't think it negatively affected the ability to kill him but he had a friendly faction assigned by mistake.

 

Fixed two employees from the Epic Office Quest sharing Father Dagon's creature model (they now use Swamp Olm models instead).

 

Fixed Kujin boss sometimes exploding and not dropping loot when her health reaches 50%. I don't know why this happened (something to do with being a mounted opponent maybe) but I think I fixed it.

 

Fixed a vanilla bug where the Grunwald, Desert, Swamp, and Girvym Dragons didn't have names in the "Last Opponent" window.

 

 

The following three changes are just instances of Dragons using inappropriate tiny little fireballs like small dragons use. They are replaced with more appropriate spells.

• Replaced dragon boss Magmadur's smaller fire ball with a burning hard hit attack.
• Replaced Undead Dragon's smaller poison ball with a poison hard hit attack.
• Replaced dragon boss Xanthiar's small fire ball with a large fire ball.

 

Significantly increased the Ice Hydra's resistance to ice damage (via damage mitigation). He's practically ice immune now, better choose another element.

 

The elemental lords got some revised attacks:

• Replaced the Earth Lord's Freezing Hard Hit with Bleeding Hard Hit.
• Replaced the Ice Lord's Ice Missile with a Freezing Hard Hit. Significantly increased his resistance to ice damage (via damage mitigation).
• Replaced the Poison Lord's Spider Spit attack with a Poison Skin damage aura.

 

Increased the size of the Scaron boss and gave it stun immunity. Also fixed a vanilla bug where the Scaron didn't have a portrait in the "Last Opponent" window. They never made an icon for this boss so I made one from scratch:

 

 

Buffed the attacks and resistances of the Evocator boss. Also gave him a new ghost-summoning spell. The Evocator is no longer a pushover boss. He's at the end of a long chain quest which gives a good reward (Shadow Weaver) so he's got better ice and magic resistance plus he has the Ancient Magic skill now. I also buffed the XP reward from killing him.

 

 

Added a powerful new dragon boss: The Phantom Dragon. It is found in the Wastelands.

In the Wastelands, follow the path up the cliff side to the Temple of the Gods. On the overlook you will see the skeleton of an impaled dragon. His ghost still haunts this spot.

 

The design of this dragon was used for the ghostly dragon of the Dragon Mage's class quest. Since that opponent is replaced with a different enemy in the Druid's quest, this design was unused. The Wastelands is the last region without a dragon, so in an ancient battlefield where dragons perished by the dozens, there is the Phantom Dragon.

 

 

He is extremely dangerous! Only take this path up the mountain if you are sure your character is powerful. I will post his stats and abilities on the Wiki after the patch is released.

[gogoblender 3,223]

Whenever I work on the D2F Wiki, I get ideas of things to improve and bugs to fix. Now that the Boss Bestiary is done on the Wiki, here's a round of boss creature changes for the upcoming patch. ETA Valentine's Day.

 

Fixed a bug where Walther (Christmas boss) had the wrong faction ID assigned. I don't think it negatively affected the ability to kill him but he had a friendly faction assigned by mistake.

 

Fixed two employees from the Epic Office Quest sharing Father Dagon's creature model (they now use Swamp Olm models instead).

 

Fixed Kujin boss sometimes exploding and not dropping loot when her health reaches 50%. I don't know why this happened (something to do with being a mounted opponent maybe) but I think I fixed it.

 

Fixed a vanilla bug where the Grunwald, Desert, Swamp, and Girvym Dragons didn't have names in the "Last Opponent" window.

 

 

The following three changes are just instances of Dragons using inappropriate tiny little fireballs like small dragons use. They are replaced with more appropriate spells.

• Replaced dragon boss Magmadur's smaller fire ball with a burning hard hit attack.
• Replaced Undead Dragon's smaller poison ball with a poison hard hit attack.
• Replaced dragon boss Xanthiar's small fire ball with a large fire ball.

 

Significantly increased the Ice Hydra's resistance to ice damage (via damage mitigation). He's practically ice immune now, better choose another element.

 

The elemental lords got some revised attacks:

• Replaced the Earth Lord's Freezing Hard Hit with Bleeding Hard Hit.
• Replaced the Ice Lord's Ice Missile with a Freezing Hard Hit. Significantly increased his resistance to ice damage (via damage mitigation).
• Replaced the Poison Lord's Spider Spit attack with a Poison Skin damage aura.

 

Increased the size of the Scaron boss and gave it stun immunity. Also fixed a vanilla bug where the Scaron didn't have a portrait in the "Last Opponent" window. They never made an icon for this boss so I made one from scratch:

 

 

Buffed the attacks and resistances of the Evocator boss. Also gave him a new ghost-summoning spell. The Evocator is no longer a pushover boss. He's at the end of a long chain quest which gives a good reward (Shadow Weaver) so he's got better ice and magic resistance plus he has the Ancient Magic skill now. I also buffed the XP reward from killing him.

 

 

Added a powerful new dragon boss: The Phantom Dragon. It is found in the Wastelands.

In the Wastelands, follow the path up the cliff side to the Temple of the Gods. On the overlook you will see the skeleton of an impaled dragon. His ghost still haunts this spot.

 

The design of this dragon was used for the ghostly dragon of the Dragon Mage's class quest. Since that opponent is replaced with a different enemy in the Druid's quest, this design was unused. The Wastelands is the last region without a dragon, so in an ancient battlefield where dragons perished by the dozens, there is the Phantom Dragon.

 

 

He is extremely dangerous! Only take this path up the mountain if you are sure your character is powerful. I will post his stats and abilities on the Wiki after the patch is released.

 

 

Lovely work to read this morning

especially your gift of the phantom dragon...and its a good story about it being from the land where most of them perished, and this ultra dragon arises

looking forward to the stats

good story writing!

 

gogo

[Daniat 57]

I really like the idea of a phantom dragon near his own skeleton, its like his soul is still linked to that place where his fellows and himself perished and can't leave yet until the war in Ancaria finishes once for all

[Dragon Brother 619]

The phantom dragon is a great idea!

 

Also impressive how you continue to fill in the blanks left in the base game by the Ascaron developers

[Flix 5,184]

Now that I've had a chance to review all the Super Unique enemies of the mod, here's the list of changes coming in the next patch:

 

Activated an unused giant scarab creature and assigned it as the new model for the superunique enemy Beetleburst.

 

 

The game that keeps on giving. I found yet another unusued creature designed by Ascaron that was never put in the game. It was perfect for Beetleburst, who I kept changing because I was never quite satisfied with him. Now he's both unique and powerful looking.

 

 

Balance Fixes:

• Fixed some typos in the bonuses of Pindleskin and Ancient Kaa the Soulless that caused them to lack their intended poison mitigation and also inflict way too much weapon damage.
• Fixed a typo that caused Griswold's hit chance to be too low.
• Added some damage mitigation to The Ancients based on each one's primary elemental resistance. Also improved their chance to hit.
• Significantly boosted The Butcher's damage and chance to hit. He also has "Chance for Mortal Wounds" bonus now.
• Significantly boosted Dac Farren's dexterity, evade chance, and movement speed. He is greased lightning now! Also increased his size.
• Boosted Frozenstein's overall base stats and bonuses (was missing an assigned template creature ID).
• Boosted Colenzo the Annihilator's hitpoints and evade chance.
• Boosted Creeping Feature's damage and evade chance.
• Boosted the strength, dexterity, and vitality attributes of Dark Elder and Eldritch the Rectifier.
• Hephasto the Smith and Icehawk Riftwing now have high ice damage mitigation.
• Added fire and ice armor resistance to Blood Raven. This was done because she already had high damage mitigation against these elements but this resistance wasn't visible to the player.
• Added magic armor resistance to the Blood Lord. Same reasoning as above.
• Fixed a bug that caused Thresh Socket to deal about 10x his intended damage. Sorry about this one. His damage was INSANE.
• Boosted Tyrael's hitpoints and attack speed. Also replaced his Sanctuary aura with a Lightning Nova (due to bugged animations).

[Flix 5,184]

Now that Patch 2 is released, as promised The Phantom Dragon is now added to the Wiki.

 

I have also added him to the Map of New Bosses and Super-Uniques, and the List of New Enemies by Region.

 

You will see that I also corrected Thresh Socket's location on the map (oops). I guess most people never found him. But he was bugged so he inflicted 10x damage, so it's probably a good thing he was hard to find! He's fixed now.

 

Here are the other creature-related changes in the new patch that I haven't discussed yet:

• Populated the Whisperwood with more Vampires and Banshee-style ghosts and fewer animal ghosts.
• Removed the cooldown from the enemy version of the spell "Telekinesis." Only Scaron, the Evocator, the Banshee, and elite Flying Skulls use this spell, and they may spam you with it now.
• Fixed a bug where normal and elite green Scorpions had swapped icons.
• Fixed a bug where the green Thorned Hulks didn't have any armor or damage (was missing an assigned template creature ID).
• Fixed a bug where Scarabs were missing damage and armor values.

 

Regarding those last two changes, you would have seen they had no damage or armor in the "Last Opponent" window. They simply didn't have those bonuses applied until now. The Thorned Hulk was my fault, but I think the Scarabs have always been that way. Before/After:

 

 

[Daniat 57]

Superb!!, my brand new PC is comming on this Friday (hope so ) and now I see the ultimate patch of Diablo Fallen Angel has been released, guess this weekend's gonna be quite fun with the Sorceress an the Necromancer

Thanks again Flix for creating this amazing mod that greatly combines the characters, spells, enemies and classic iconography from Diablo with Sacred 2 unique and limitless in deep character buildup, 3d open world gameplay and real time and intuitive combat system. Dev teams of both Sacred 3 and Diablo 3 should come here to learn and see how to make a fraking decent ARPG game instead of that static Hack and Slash garbage, hope they learn from you for the nex time.

[gogoblender 3,223]

Superb!, my brand new PC is comming on this Friday (hope so ) and now I see the ultimate patch of Diablo Fallen Angel has been released, guess this weekend's gonna be quite fun with the Sorceress an the Necromancer

Thanks again Flix for creating this amazing mod that greatly combines the characters, spells, enemies and classic iconography from Diablo with Sacred 2 unique and limitless in deep character buildup, 3d open world gameplay and real time and intuitive combat system. Dev teams of both Sacred 3 and Diablo 3 should come here to learn and see how to make a fraking decent ARPG game instead of that static Hack and Slash garbage, hope they learn from you for the nex time.

The read on Batlle notes and Special Abilities on the Phantom dragon reads like a marvel super powers list...what a great addition to the game as it's final enemy... is this then probably the biggest, most powerful hitter in the game besides bosses?

 

 

gogo

[Flix 5,184]

Creature Update

 

While, preparing the D2F Bestiary, I made so many changes to enemies and NPC's, I decided to delay completing the Bestiary on the Wiki until all the changes were released. This post will begin a series of updates counting down to the release of Beta 8 on April 16th.

 

This update concerns simple changes: Adjustments to enemy names

 

The tiny spiders are now named "Small Spider." They also have a fuzzy texture on their carapace.

Du'rach Officers are renamed "Du'rach Marauder," after the D2 enemy.

Fixed a bug where the names of Dark Stalkers, Vile Lancers, and Demon Gremlins would sometimes be mixed up.

Skinned Ones are now all renamed "Flayed One" in keeping with the associated dialogs and quest text.

Undead Reservist renamed to "Undead Auxillar." In other words elites and normals both share the same name now.

Moldered Skeleton renamed to "Moldered Skeleton Archer."

Cursed Priests renamed to "Mummy Priest."

Gave new names to all Swamp Olm based on what kind of attacks they use.

Gave new names to all Thraconians based on what kind of attacks they use.

Gave new names to all Dark Cult members based on what kind of attacks they use.

Jungle Lizard, Elf Pirate, and Dragon Cultist names shortened e.g., Leader of the Dragon Cult becomes "Dragon Cult Leader." These insanely long names usually got cut off so you could never read them. So names like "Seawoman of the Jade Buccaneers" etc. are all shortened in a logical way.

Amazon Shaman NPC's renamed to "Askari Oracle" in keeping with D2 lore. Askari is the culture, Amazons are the warriors, and Oracles are the shamans.

Renamed Mephisto ("Faust" chain quest) to Mephistopheles. This is because we now have the D2 demon boss Mephisto. So the Faust character gets renamed to his original moniker from the legend.

Next update tomorrow!

[Flix 5,184]

Creature Update

 

This update concerns the Orcs and various NPC's, quests, and designs associated with them.

 

"Master of the Hunt" Bosses Revamp

 

In Beta 8, I fix a vanilla bug whereby the two "Master of the Hunt" orcs (Ogan Kandimiro and Lupus Coldhand) were generic orc hunters instead of the unique boss creatures that Ascaron designed for these NPC's.

 

 

Ogan Kandimiro (left) is the Master of the Hunt for Light-path characters (found in Entruag)

Lupus Coldhand (right) is the Master of the Hunt for Shadow-path characters (found in Ruka)

 

So, they're big bad boss-class Orcs now. I found their original, unique designs that were included in the game files but were not activated until now. For the Amazon, this means another chance to farm for rare Orc Trophies.

=========================================

"Hired Assassins" Chain Quest Activated

 

In CM Patch 1.40, the unfinished Nor Plat chain quests "Hired Assassins (Light)" and "Hired Assassins (Shadow)" were partially activated. I took the last few steps to finish these quests. I filled in and corrected some text and also activated the unique NPC appearances that Ascaron designed for the characters involved in these quests.

 

There are four unique Orc NPC's/enemies that you may encounter:

 

Light Path version (in Entruag). Orc Merchant Kales (left) hires you as his bodyguard to protect him from assassins. Rival Ignatz (right) may or may not be behind these attacks.

 

Shadow Path version (in Ruka). A similar story as above. Orc Merchant Xerxes (left) needs protection from assassins. Track down Varuck the Rich (right) to solve the mystery. The shadow version of the quest plays out much more interestingly.

=========================================

Elite Ore-Thag and Grurag Orcs and Goblins are now more common.

 

The elite versions of the Grurag/Ore-Thag Orcs were (mostly) not set to spawn. Likewise there were very few Grurag Goblins at all. Now there are more of them to add some variety to the Orc hordes.

=========================================

Female Orc Merchants now use the proper "Greetings" and "Farewell" voice files instead of gossip dialogues.

 

I am reversing a CM Patch change here. The CM Patch changed female orc merchants from the usual "Greetings" and "Farewell," because there were no voiced files for these lines in the German version. So they changed the scripts so that the merchants used gossip lines instead:

"It's a pity we see so little of each other, but I turn my back on those children for two seconds... and they break something!"

 

I have an irrational hatred of this line. Since there's no German localization of the mod, I switched the lines back to the original Greetings and Farewell. This would apply to the French version as well.

=========================================

Improved Texture Quality of Several Orc NPC's and Enemies

 

When I first released D2F, I imported Wardust's Serious Textures lock, stock, and barrel. Over the years I have refined it and replaced most of his changes with my own custom textures. Beta 8 will see the final wave of such texture replacements/updates. I have been using the elite character textures to make these changes, which result in better quality visuals.

 

 

Also, for example, Wardust reduced the coloring of the Orc clans from Blue/Red/Yellow to Black/Brown/White, whereas I have restored the original coloring but simply toned it down to be more earthy and less saturated than in vanilla.

 

 

Next update tomorrow!

[desm 330]

The CM Patch changed female orc merchants from the usual "Greetings" and "Farewell," because there were no voiced files for these lines in the German version. So they changed the scripts so that the merchants used gossip lines instead:

"It's a pity we see so little of each other, but I turn my back on those children for two seconds... and they break something!"

 

I have an irrational hatred of this line. Since there's no German localization of the mod, I switched the lines back to the original Greetings and Farewell. This would apply to the French version as well.

A good thing, I can't bear it anymore either.

[Flix 5,184]

Creature Update

 

This update is about humans and elves!

============================

Fixed a vanilla bug where some elite Thraconians in the Northland weren't properly flagged as elite rank.

So, the enemies now called "Thraconian Berserker" (left) now have elites among their ranks. You may also see more of their leaders, now called "Thraconian Commander" (right).

 

 

============================

Fixed a vanilla bug where both normal and elite ranged Slave Outcasts were flagged as elites. The (true) elites now have a poison arrow attack.

============================

Fixed a vanilla bug where Inquisitor Ortlewyn and Bodyguard Narmonn (quest enemies in Tyr Lysia) wore generic grey robes instead of the special "high priest" robes that Ascaron designed for them.

============================

Added more Dark Paladins to spawn among the Dark Army ranks. Originally these enemies only spawned in a single area. I dispersed their spawn locations throughout the Dark Army's forces.

============================

Added a bigger variety of soldiers to the Wastelands battles. You can expect many more different type of fighters, both good and evil, to spawn in these dusty canyons. This includes Inquisition guards, and High Elf soldiers and officers, and also a new High Elf Paladin (right).

============================

Several NPC's are switched from the same generic "Human Noble" appearance to unique designs made by Ascaron.

Do you recognize this guy? I bet you do. This design appears for almost 20 different quest NPC's. Chances are if you meet a human citizen during a quest, it's this guy. I call him the "Generic Human Noble." Lucky for us, Ascaron made lots more Human Noble designs that are mostly (or even entirely) unused. So let's get granular and add some variety:

Dr. Faust gets a unique appearance. He now appears as a mage or warlock wearing runic robes.

Moneylender Rikal, Mine Owner Haldur

Beltario, Conjuror, Temple Provost Julius Migolo Fernal, Mister Shultz

============================

Renamed Lord of the Castle NPC ("By Order of the Crown" chain quest) to "Baron Reikenstein" and activated the unique appearance that Ascaron designed for him. No more does he have the "generic human noble" appearance.

His snazzy new outfit aside, this guy deserved a name change. What kind of name is "Lord of the Castle"? He's the lord of Fortress Reikenstein! Let's make him a proper Baron like the other castle lords of Artamark.

============================

Improved the texture quality of several NPC's. Particularly High Elf thieves and brigands. These are hq upgrades to Wardust's changes. Vanilla elf bandits had matching shirts and trousers which gave the appearance they were wearing onesies or pajamas. Their clothes are less brightly colored and flashy and more "dusty robber" now.

Next update tomorrow!

[desm 330]

Awesome fixes and additions, very encouraging.

[Flix 5,184]

Creature Update

This update concerns wild animals, insects, and other fauna of Ancaria.

==========================

Fixed a bug where the Toughness skill wasn't working for elite Blade Spiders.

Fixed a vanilla bug where Polar Bears and Snow Leopards had the fur shader applied to their teeth, claws, mouths, and noses. No wonder they were so cranky.

Polar Bear Before/After:

Snow Leopard Before/After:

Added some elite Aracin and elite Ursacin to spawn in the Crystal Plane (previously only appeared as quest targets).

Redesigned the appearances and spawn locations of the various types of Wolves. For example, Black Wolves are now actually black and will appear in packs in eastern Artamark.

Redesigned Wargs and Alpha Wargs with new unique models to make them distinct from regular Wolves.

This a brand new model brought in by Pesmontis. In fantasy (and in Sacred 1), Wargs are generally different creatures from wolves. Now Wargs (located in Nor Plat) look much more vicious. There are three types:

Warg v1

Warg v2

Alpha Warg

Improved the texture quality of several Wild Animals

Boars and Bears have had fur added to their textures since the first release of D2F. In Beta 8, I redid the designs to make some improvements and to make use of the elite quality textures.

 

 

Next update tomorrow!

[Flix 5,184]

Creature Update

 

This update is mostly about changes to Undead and other monsters in Beta 8.

===============================

The three Lich of the Legion enemies ("Undead Legion" quest) are now elites with more abilities.

You still have a squad of High Elf soldiers helping you during this quest phase so they shouldn't be a problem for a strong hero, right?

===============================

Skeleton Archers and Skeleton Warriors now have distinct appearances from each other.

Warriors (right) use the original design, Archers (left) use the Dryad's old summon skeleton design. This goes for their "Moldered" cousins in the Swamps as well.

===============================

Lord de Seis (superunique opponent in "The Lich" quest) receives a new unique design and stronger powers.

This superunique has always just been a generic Lich so I'm really pleased that he now has a unique appearance and special powers. This skeleton model didn't want to join the game but Pesmontis beat him into shape! I'll update his Wiki entry after the release of Beta 8.

===============================

Added more Moldered Lich Kings to the Swamp.

Simply put, these enemies would almost never spawn. Now, anywhere you can find a Moldered Lich (left) in the Swamp, you may also see their elite bretheren, the Moldered Lich King!

===============================

Undead who are not Undead Legion will no longer summon Undead Legionaires (will summon Skeleton Warriors instead).

Since the Undead Legion are a special kind of cursed Undead unique to Tyr Lysia, it doesn't make sense that Mummy Priests in the Desert or Moldered Liches in the Swamp would summon Legionnaires. They will now summon Skeleton Warriors instead.

===============================

Skeleton King Leoric gets a new texture.

As if this guy wasn't spooky enough. I retextured him since I really wanted his flesh and armor to look like he had spent years rotting in the swamp. Here's a gif that compares the new and old skins:

===============================

Added more elite Small Earth Elementals to spawn above ground in Tyr Lysia.

In the vanilla game, they are very few elite Small Earth Elementals. They are hand-placed in a few caves around Tyr Lysia. In Beta 8 they will now have a (small) chance to spawn anywhere the normal packs of Small Earth Elementals spawn, which includes several above-ground locations.

===============================

Added an inactive red variant Draconic Dragonfly to the Blood Forest.

This was an unused Ascaron design that I found. I set it to spawn in the Cursed Forest in all the areas where the other two Dragonflies would spawn.

Next Update Tomorrow!

[Flix 5,184]

Creature Update
=================================
There are a larger variety of Dragon Cultists in the Dragon Caves now. Dragon Cultists are outfitted with new equipment.

Up til now all Dragon Cultist enemies looked identical. The game didn't really take advantage of all the different Dragon Cultist armor and character designs. Now ranged units (green) look different from melee (red), and elites have extra armor.


=================================

Devilkin Wolf Riders have a new armored wolf mount.

 

=================================

Goblin Boar Riders have a new armored boar mount.

 

=================================

Added a new normal rank Bog Demon to the Swamps.

Sacred Underworld demons are back! Pesmontis imported a few models and let them loose in Sacred 2. The first is a normal Bog Demon to complement the elite one that was added to the Swamp a while back.

=================================

Added a new normal rank Death Mauler to the Blood Forest and the Wastelands.

The elite Death Mauler now has a normal counterpart that can be found in the same areas.

=================================

Gave Demon spellcasters in the Wastelands new unique designs and renamed them "Demon Summoner."

This was done to differentiate them from the melee demons, who they previously shared names and skins with. The normals (left) use a Sacred Underworld demon model with a modified skin. The elites were made by activating a Sacred 2 demon design.

=================================

Master Bruin gets a new unique polar bear model. He may have a spiffy new coat but he still doesn't want to give up his hat and scarf, so you're going to have to fight him for it.

[gogoblender 3,223]

Outstanding

does having more varied models showing in an area have any effect on game performance?

Loving those underworld demons... great work guys!!

 

gogo

[Flix 5,184]

does having more varied models showing in an area have any effect on game performance?

No reason why it should. If the new creatures had an extremely high polygon count or very large textures, then maybe. But there's nothing in the mod like that. 10 identical goblins would tax the system about the same as 10 different enemies.

[Flix 5,184]

Creature Update

I expect this will be the final creature update before the release of Beta 8 on Sunday.
============================

Redesigned the Blood Dragon to have a new unique model. I wanted this enemy to appear more demonic, which is fitting for the Cursed Forest. Behold and despair.





============================
Mother Hydra gets some visual improvements to her model. Pesmontis applied his magic touch and smoothed away any imperfections in the mesh.

============================
The two "Young Hydra" enemies spawned by Mother Hydra now have unique designs. They're designed to look somewhat like baby versions of the larger Hydra that spawn in the Swamp.

 

============================
Guide Jaftar (human enemy, Light path main quest) is now a boss-level opponent. If you don't recall him, Jaftar is the despicable person dealing in human trafficking. He pretends to be a "guide" for elf travelers and then abducts them.

I made this change because the Light path hero has no human bosses to fight, while the Shadow Path gets both Blackhammer and the Gambling Den Owner.

Speaking of the Gambling Den Owner, he now gets a dagger and improved AI that lets him use some hard hit attacks. So does Jaftar.

============================

Mephisto now has a mist effect on his model. If you recall the original Diablo 2 enemy, Mephisto floated around on a cloud of evil smoke. So now he does in D2F as well.

============================
Here are some general balance changes to enemy spells:

• Spectral Hand has been removed as an enemy spell because the spell class was re-purposed to make Blessed Hammer for the Paladin. Enemies that used to use it will use other spells instead, like Poison Nova or Twisted Torment.
• Enemy Hard Hit attacks have cooldown increased from 2s to 5s. Since many more enemies use these kind of attacks in D2F, I don't want them spammed on the player.
• Ice Cloud spell: replaced Movement Speed debuff with Chance for Freeze, to avoid the player being excessively slowed down. My experience in the Crystal Plane is so many enemies were slowing you with this spell that it was almost impossible to move around at all. Changing the debuff to Chance for Freeze gives the players a chance to resist the effect.
• Poison Spit spell: reduced damage and poison DOT. The problem here wasn't the damage in and of itself. The problem is that you were most likely getting drenched with poison spit from dozens of Spitting Spiders all at once, which would chew through your hitpoints in moments. It's been dialed back in Beta 8.

============================
Weakened the damage output of some enemies:

• Baal
• Pindleskin
• Sharptooth Slayer
• Firewound the Grim
• Tainted elites (now also much less common in early regions)
• Putrid Defilers
• Basilisks & Basilisk elites
• Dark Elves

============================
Although some new enemies got weakened, some vanilla bosses got powered up in Beta 8:

• Gar'Colossus now inflicts higher physical damage and has higher physical resistance.
• Octagolamus now inflicts higher physical damage and has improved chance to hit.
• The Swirling Mist of Miasma now uses its special "Weakness" buff that was designed for it (causes ice damage, lowers player stats and speed).

Did you ever think the Mist of Miasma was an incredibly nonthreatening boss? Well, it turns out the Mist was scripted to use a special buff that was like... well, a miasma. This buff is an area of effect debuff that causes light ice damage, lowers player attributes, and slows movement speed and attack speed. This buff seems to have had a bugged spell class that was keeping it from functioning. So now I've fixed it.

============================

These are just some miscellaneous texture changes I made:

 

Elf Witch Lizardmen

[gogoblender 3,223]

blood dragon is amazing. its straight ouf of a horror novel with the colors and "wretched" detailing.

this thing betides loads of pain and suffering

 

 

gogo

[Flix 5,184]

blood dragon is amazing. its straight ouf of a horror novel with the colors and "wretched" detailing.

this thing betides loads of pain and suffering

 

 

gogo

Terrifying. I ran into it on accident the other day while testing some other things in the region. My heart thudded and skipped a beat. Probably the most frightening enemy in the game now.

 

Here's a high quality rendering if anyone's interested:

 

[King Angel 69]

Wooooow Nice Dragon and Hydra

Edited April 21, 2017 by King Angel

[desm 330]

He is really magnificient indeed. Fits perfectly into the Blood Forest. Great job.

Edited April 21, 2017 by desm

[Flix 5,184]

Creature Update for Beta 9

Balance:

• Reduced the damage output of Dark Stalkers.
• Frost Imps now have better armor resistances and ice damage mitigation, but also a new sensitivity to fire damage.
• Misshapen will now use their Fire Missile special attack.
• Elite red Young Dragons will no longer cast Meteor Shower.
• Small Dragons now have a sensitivity to ice damage.
• Elven Apparitions now have ice resistance (like other ghosts).
• Fixed a vanilla bug where elite Ancestral Spirits were missing their armor and damage mitigation values, as well as their physical-to-ice damage conversion.
• Added some physical damage to Spectral Wolves, like other spectral animals.

 

Dungeon Master Mazzagon is now a boss level opponent and is more powerful. This was done so that there's a boss-level enemy of the Amazon racial type and also to increase the challenge of this encounter.

The Countess is now equipped with dual wielding swords.

The caves underneath Khorum (where Radament's Lair takes place) are now populated with Undead instead of Scorpions.

The caves underneath the Ruins of Gazath (where The Curse of King Leoric takes place) are now populated with Undead instead of Bats.

Dark Elder gets a new unique model.


Corpsefire gets a new unique model and upgraded powers. He is moved to a new location and is now part of the Den of Evil quest.


Pitspawn Fouldog is moved to a new location and is now part of the Poisoned Water Supply quest.

Fallen Ones, Flayers, and Goatmen now use their original Diablo 2 voices. I imported the classic soundsets from D2 to get some more of that tasty nostalgia.

Death Cult Lizards and Jungle Lizards now use different shields. I made this change in a previous release of the mod, but due to a typo, all Lizards were using Death Cult shields (as you can see HERE). In Beta 9, Jungle Lizards will have their own unique shield design.

[Flix 5,184]

Here's a small but atmospheric change. The dragons and reptiles at the Druid's starting location have been replaced with wolves, bears, deer, and other wild animals.