gogoblender 3,420 Posted October 19, 2024 On 8/15/2024 at 8:26 AM, xeyp said: Haha, sorry about that, it's just more of a personal background info that isn't as relevant to the topic so it can be skipped over entirely. That's why I've lowered its contrast. If there is debate, I feel, it would be the best case scenario as there will be more information and points of view to form (at least in my head) a more comprehensive view of the 'landscape' of mods, fixes etc. If this happens I would more than gladly write another post, where I would condense the answers, opinions and etc. I would not try to force a unified opinion because it would be easier for a new/returning player to just read 'this is the particular way in which we all play', rather I want to see what is the general stance of people, if there are certain groups/divisions or if it's a free-for-all, where everyone is running something slightly differently and therefore any multiplayer, should be coordinated. That's exactly the type of info I wanted, thanks! That's very interesting to hear, as I said I read the change-logs with limited understanding of Sacred 2, so I could only theorize how massive or little some changes are. What is the thing in EE that kills all spell-based builds, if you don't mind elaborating? (you could just give me a link or copy-paste some changes from the change-log that made the most difference) Same on the build hopping! Superspawn sounds neat, a game-wide spawn increase and if you can handle it, it will increase your XP gain, not unlike the Overspawn-ing in Underworld, but the "alt-tabbing" and "suspend process" definitely becomes very annoying, very fast. Massive thanks for your elaborate answer @SLD On 8/14/2024 at 9:49 PM, xeyp said: Hello Some of you may know me as I started posting in the Underworld part of the forum recently. I've put many hours in the original and bought the sequel on launch, I played a Shadow Warrior I think until the end of silver, and experimented with the other characters a bit and was in love, for all it's faults it really is a 'sacred' experience for me. (lol) What I did realize was that there were still some things I wanted to accomplish and figure out - and classes that I hadn't even touched, before I 'moved on' to Sacred 2 and spent and equal amount of time there, until a day arrives where I just boot up whichever one I feel like. It might seem a little weird, but I try to get in a certain headspace for ARPG's so I can memorize as many spells, set and item modifiers and other such moving parts in order to start seeing weird interactions I can turn into builds or just power up 'conventional' builds in a different, possibly better way. I found myself recently with a little bit of time on my hands and slowly came back to the original, wrote myself a bunch of builds to test for the purpose of picking one to go to Niob (for the first time) with and started playing. Now, in parallel I've started slowly going through the entries in the Sacred (2) wiki to remind myself of mechanics and other useful things in the game, after all the two are as much similar as they are different. Now there are some questions I have regarding the installation/ additional downloads and mods, the changes introduced by CM and EE and other bits and I hope that we can make this topic a more universal - 'FAQ/Need to know' for people, in order to make getting into Sacred 2 much easier for New and Returning players. In any case, please add to the questions (and also answer them if you can, or provide links to Wiki/Forum posts) if you can think of anything that may not be intuitive, downright hidden or can just stump said New or Returning players. I think it would be optimal if wherever possible the posts made here can provide at least a short answer to reduce having to jump around (and if a related topic or something in the wiki exists) a link as well. After getting some answers from you wonderful people I'll attempt to condense it all in a 'Start here' thread with all necessary links so we can more easily convert moar people to the Sacred religion, lol. Additionally, if such a topic already exists, please direct me to it. Here are some of my questions. I've numbered them so it's easier to provide an answer even without using quotes. (please bear in mind that I've not played Sacred 2 since release, so it's all a blur ) Single Player vs. Multiplayer 1. Let me start with a bit of an Underworld player confusion. Since there are no character exports/imports - what happens if you fail a quest in a certain difficulty, is it permanently failed? There are a lot of issues the Import/Export system could circumvent, I'm assuming you could just boot up freeplay/campaign if SP character or SP campaign if LAN character and redo the quest? 1a) What is the difference between LAN and Single Player characters? 1a-1) Is it that LAN characters cannot save their progress in Single Player Campaign, and Single Player characters cannot save their Multiplayer Campaign progress? 1b) Are the SP characters and LAN characters' shared stashes different? 1c) From what I understand, the game automatically 'Exports' your character and 'Imports' it every time you open whichever Game Mode you choose? 1c-1) If you want to test something I.e. skill/attribute point allocation - is the only way to do so to back-up the respective save in "%USERPROFILE% \Saved Games\Ascaron Entertainment\Sacred 2" and then overwrite it? 1c-2) Following this logic, duplicating items for tests or whatnot can be accomplished by backing up and then overwriting the .sacred2chest filer? 2. Unique mounts - there was something about only being able to get them in Single-Player, can you get them as a LAN character in a Multiplayer Campaign? Additional Downloads, what to get and what to avoid 3. Elite textures & PhysX 3a) Elite Textures - I found this topic, and the related: https://mega.nz/folder/UpMxUILY#prDhBn_AbrBtJSDpdZoMeA link to download them. Are these the 'latest' Elite Textures, I'm asking because I saw a link to a larger 'Trimmed Elite Textures' file in DIMITRIUS'S CM PATCH ADDENDUM - 2023 1.0.0. These are the 'high-resolution' textures *but fixed* of legend (at least for me) from back in the day. Here are some questions regarding them: 3a-1) Are they, specifically the trimmed ones, available w/ either the Community Patch or the Enhanced Edition - or do we need to manually download them and quoting the thread: dmitrius154: "Back up original graphics20 - graphics24.zip, then paste zips from the archive to the pak folder of the game(alternatively, use Generic Mod Enabler)." (in .../Sacred 2 Gold/pak) 3a-2) Does this visual bug still persist. (The solution is dimitrius154: "An unfortunate side effect of some peculiar dds misinterpretation by photoshop. Remove graphics24.zip\hq\maps\spells\mahlstrom\t_dm-mahlstrom_do.dds.") 3b) PhysX - Legacy Driver and PhysX.pak - what to get, what to avoid. 3b-1) PhysX.pak - this comment in the same thread mentions Legacy PhysX.pak At the same time the EE Change Log mentions "All PhysX particles removed in CM Patch 1.60 have been restored and optimized to prevent crashing." So, assuming one doesn't use the EE he might need to manually download them, but risk crashing the game - and if one does, they need not worry? 3b-2) PhysX Legacy Drivers This wonderful Steam Post: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1254244510 Mentions downloading a Legacy PhysX driver. What is the general opinion on that, does it work, is it needed etc. ( this is the link they provided: https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/drivers/physx/physx-9-13-0604-legacy-driver/ ) 4. Mods I'm looking through Nexus mods, and besides CP,EE and Purist, which we will discuss later - I'm curious which mods the Veterans recommend and why. Here are some I've found useful/beautiful and wanted to ask your collective opinion about. (also if there are any mod conflicts / mod induced instabilities, please let me know) - Reduced Fog \ Reduced Fog (DarkMatters) - Looks like an absolute visual necessity. - Grass Mod (The Ancaria Beautification Project) - I find the added variety(compared to the regular Grass mod that just desaturates), very visually appealing. That being said they're not Sacred 2 original textures so: - Realistic Grass mod \ (realistic) Grass Mod (DarkMatters) - Sacred Font - Sacred 2 Character Editor CP, EE, Purist (and Vanilla Drops for Community Patch) Before starting to write this post, I sat down and read the final Change-Logs for both the Community Patch 1.60 and the Enhanced Edition 3.2. Judging by the amount of work and bugfixes I assume that Ascaron left Sacred 2/Blood & Ice in a finished, but quite unpolished state, so something like the Community Patch, I feel, is more of a mandatory download, which is why it's in a different section in this post. What I'm trying to understand is where the Enhanced Edition/ Purist mod fit in. Here are some considerations I have. 5a) What is the most common configuration among players? I'm asking because I believe some people, at least myself, are interested in experiencing multiplayer again and a particular configuration of mods may allow for a bigger 'player' pool to choose from. Is CE-only the most common, is it CE + EE, how do people feel about the Alternate Spells module, is it widely accepted as 'cannon' now? 5b) Other players prefer a 'fixed' vanilla experience, what is the best solution for that? Let me explain myself a bit here. In Underworld you either have PureHD, which is largely just a fix for widescreen with a few bonuses -or- you have ReBorn, which is more of a total overhaul. Now, I think ReBorn might've solved a lot of issues, like spell damage capping at ~65k damage before Crit and WIDD and have added some QoL, but also in my opinion changed the game too much.From my limited understanding of Sacred 2 and having read the Change Logs for the CP and EE, at most there are tweaks to the balance and general fixes, rather than a full-blown overhaul/re-balance, is that assumption correct or is CP / EE a more radical departure from vanilla. (that being said, Underworld, I feel was in a lot more mature place when they stopped updating it versus Sacred 2, for obvious reasons and I assume some more 'radical' (but obvious/ still in the spirit of the game design's original intent) changes needed to be made to fix some oversights that would've been addressed in future patches, had Ascaron continued to exist. 5b-1) Here's the technical bit for this question, what configuration should one, aiming for the vanilla experience choose, but with an added twist! What would you recommend and why, please explain. -What are the implications of the tweaks and rebalances of the CP and EE, what was the Good, Bad and Ugly in Vanilla Sacred 2's original balance even after the bug fixes? -In other words, would you consider Vanilla as compared to CP or CP+EE worth the time of someone who hasn't yet gotten into the game, are they so different from the Vanilla experience to warrant an additional playthrough? (that being said, I've yet to see a recent Sacred 2 gameplay video w/o the Community Patch at least, so in a sense that is the Community's Vanilla, lol) Let me quote Flix/ster from the Purity FixPack Nexus Mods' page: "Sacred 2 is a game sorely in need of rebalance, and I still believe that the Community Patch + Enhanced Edition is still the best way to experience the game. However, I also believe that people deserve to be able to play the game that the developers intended, as bug-free as possible. That way the player can decide if they want to then try a more streamlined and robust mod like Enhanced Edition." Do you believe that pouring 100s of hours trying the 'Vanilla-as-possible' version of the game worth it, especially considering you'd possibly have to start from scratch when moving on to non-Purist CM+EE? My personal opinion on having read the Change-Logs and also having checked all of the changes made in the Alternate Spells module is that it all makes sense, it's not a radical departure from what was but really bringing up lagging parts up to the rest and removing superfluous/dysfunctional CA/Spells in exchange for something that is useful and can create more build options, but that comes from a very good understanding of the original and not-so-good understanding of the sequel - so please correct me if I'm wrong, but the feeling really is that of Streamlining as Flix/ster eloquently put it. - Purist Fix Pack \ Purist Fix Pack (DarkMatters) - all bug fixes from CP 1.60 and EE 3.2, but none of the fan-added content. - Community Patch + Vanilla Drops for Community Patch (all fan-made items disabled) - Community Patch + Enhanced Edition (Flix recommends. I assume this would be the answer to 5a - as the most common configuration?) - Community Patch + Enhanced Edition + Vanilla Drops for Community Patch (does that configuration even work? This seems like a middle-ground as you get all relevant fixes, tweaks and rebalances with minimized 'fan-impact' but you could also enable non-vanilla drops at any time w/o a risk of conflicts I would assume. EDIT: I forgot to mention what seems to be a very useful video of the Installation process for the CP and EE. Youtube// Cheeser: Sacred 2 - 2022 Setup Gameplay related 6a) Regarding this post Is level 200 even attainable? Is experience gain really that slow and punishing? Has this been addressed in either CP or EE to make maxing characters actually doable in a non-life-consuming way? (hopefully, without feeling like you're cheating) I realize this post is from 2024 and the last update of EE seems to be from 2023, but I'm unaware of which configuration of Sacred 2 w/ mods they're talking about. 6b) Expert touch - I'm ashamed to admit, every time I come back to Sacred 2, I've forgotten what this was for and I always have to search for an explanation. Here's the best one I've found: What does expert touch mean? The last conclusion by chattius really simplifies and sums it up, so I'll dare to quote it here: "So my conclusion so far is: Use old regeneration system if you use single combat arts of several aspects in a random order. Use expert touch if you play only one aspect or if you always use combinations. RpH works on all three channels. Which favours expert touch too. If the last Combat Art in a combination is a weapon attack with RpH expert touch really shines." --- Please add things you feel like I might've missed, especially to the gameplay related part which I barely touched - which mechanics are poorly explained and even going through DarkMatters might leave Newbies in the Dark (hehe)? With this first post I really just wanted to get the initial setup of installing and modifying out of the way w/ some good to know 'on character creation' questions answered, which is why I asked about LAN vs SP and added the Expert touch at the end --- Thank you for being awesome and keeping this game and the nostalgia of my childhood alive, please help navigate me and (hopefully) many others back into it easily <3 --- Beautiful guide, easy to read and potent Its the first thing I'm reading this morning with the coffee up. Schot and I are looking for which type of Sacred 2 game to get, and then which version of Sacred 2... CMpatch, EE, Pure WE found GOG online for 4.00 CAD Woooo! But Ric72 is currently playing on line with a ranged build and has show interest in MP, perhaps SLD as well (he's on CP) ..Ric's also also playing with steam which we can get for around 18 dollars, sounding again reasonable... we want to play with least amount of friction between the games' versions people are playing Look like right now this would go way of CMPatch or EE? And... I'm hoping that a game bought on GOG would be compatible across the board with a game bought on Steam... I especially love how you surfaced this question: Quote What I'm trying to understand is where the Enhanced Edition/ Purist mod fit in. Yah CMPatch... necessary ... but tween EE and PP... gogo ps this topic is also super data rich concentrated I just wanted to say thanks to to all the writers for focused collection, I'll start a new topic which will ask who is interested what are they currently playing what should me and Schot purchase and which mod based on those answers the two of us will then know the way to where highest player interest is which leads to... dom dom dom dom... Online Mp Joy! Deeeeelish gogo 1
SLD 524 Posted October 19, 2024 5 hours ago, gogoblender said: But Ric72 is currently playing on line with a ranged build and has show interest in MP, perhaps SLD as well (he's on CP) ..Ric's also also playing with steam which we can get for around 18 dollars, sounding again reasonable... we want to play with least amount of friction between the games' versions people are playing Look like right now this would go way of CMPatch or EE? And... I'm hoping that a game bought on GOG would be compatible across the board with a game bought on Steam... That I'm on CP doesn't matter anymore. I have finished that bfg sera playthrough so I can clean up and change version to basically anything else but PFP. PFP is supposed to be installed on a non CM patched game. That I can't easily create right now. Everything else is a cm patch base with something on top (like EE, Addendum, D2F). That's just some minutes of change and a cleanup of the savegame folder etc. The amount of friction with my client can't be reduced as it's the original box version. Friction with ric could be entirely removed by using steam. The GOG game client should be compatible but if you want more info on that, I think @xrystal would be the one to ask. He's made the multiplayer, so he'll now what's compatible there and what might not be. 5 hours ago, gogoblender said: Yah CMPatch... necessary ... but tween EE and PP... The PFP is an alternative to the CMPatch not an addition. As ric is currently playing on EE with alternate spells and you were very interested in his wet poodle, I would suggest using that. It is also the game version I played the least, so if I find time to play that would be somewhat more interesting for me as well. EE also comes with a superspawn module to get some more stuff to kill and a challenge mode to draw more aggro, so I guess for most fun I'd advise using those as well. But these two aren't "character changing" so characters played with one or both of these will be compatible with those that don't and these extra modules can be swapped in and out at will with only a client restart needed tp play. Actually I just checked, as these two modules only affect server scripts it might actually be possible to play on servers with and without these without ever changing the client at all. That would basically mean, If xrystal supplies the servers you can just choose in game where you want to go with this. The alternate spells however are a quite impactful change that basically needs its own characters and client version, so alternate spells yes or no is something that has to be agreed on for compatibility. 1
Hooyaah 3,111 Posted October 19, 2024 31 minutes ago, gogoblender said: We just downloaded two Gogs sale 4.99 each ... schots installing them in on our computers now gogo Rommel, I recommend Purist Fixpack; it is what I'm playing now on Niob level. It removes all but original vanilla items, making sets easier to acquire. Also, mutations set will occasionally drop. The CM Patch already is included in the GOG Sacred 2 Gold Download. 1
gogoblender 3,420 Author Posted October 19, 2024 10 minutes ago, Hooyaah said: Rommel, I recommend Purist Fixpack; it is what I'm playing now on Niob level. It removes all but original vanilla items, making sets easier to acquire. Also, mutations set will occasionally drop. The CM Patch already is included in the GOG Sacred 2 Gold Download. Looks like its a tossup between EE and Pure ...have you tried EE Steve? (Thats was Ric was using with his EE build.. i like the spirit of the CA's interpretations in that... e x c i t i n g) I was looking at all the goodies on that too ... Were open to ideas, discussion, votes ... we havent tried any of them yet...but were hoping to get on servers tonight or tomorrow... we have our first idea for a meetup... gogo 1
gogoblender 3,420 Author Posted October 19, 2024 3 hours ago, SLD said: That I'm on CP doesn't matter anymore. I have finished that bfg sera playthrough so I can clean up and change version to basically anything else but PFP. PFP is supposed to be installed on a non CM patched game. That I can't easily create right now. Everything else is a cm patch base with something on top (like EE, Addendum, D2F). That's just some minutes of change and a cleanup of the savegame folder etc. The amount of friction with my client can't be reduced as it's the original box version. Friction with ric could be entirely removed by using steam. The GOG game client should be compatible but if you want more info on that, I think @xrystal would be the one to ask. He's made the multiplayer, so he'll now what's compatible there and what might not be. The PFP is an alternative to the CMPatch not an addition. As ric is currently playing on EE with alternate spells and you were very interested in his wet poodle, I would suggest using that. It is also the game version I played the least, so if I find time to play that would be somewhat more interesting for me as well. EE also comes with a superspawn module to get some more stuff to kill and a challenge mode to draw more aggro, so I guess for most fun I'd advise using those as well. But these two aren't "character changing" so characters played with one or both of these will be compatible with those that don't and these extra modules can be swapped in and out at will with only a client restart needed tp play. Actually I just checked, as these two modules only affect server scripts it might actually be possible to play on servers with and without these without ever changing the client at all. That would basically mean, If xrystal supplies the servers you can just choose in game where you want to go with this. The alternate spells however are a quite impactful change that basically needs its own characters and client version, so alternate spells yes or no is something that has to be agreed on for compatibility. Were gonna mess around with the game a bit... we got it from GOG .. can we play with you guys if it says EU ? I'll ask Xrystal more questions about accessibility, and get more info and i'll update that first post on this topic which I had to drag along.. ahhh, forums... We're both stoked to play... I think we'll use schots luckiest man alive community build to supply us all with early level schtuff? I haven't felt the texture or "touch" of this game in years, very exciting gogo
Hooyaah 3,111 Posted October 19, 2024 1 hour ago, gogoblender said: Looks like its a tossup between EE and Pure ...have you tried EE Steve? (Thats was Ric was using with his EE build.. I like the spirit of the CA's interpretations in that... e x c I t I n g) I was looking at all the goodies on that too ... Were open to ideas, discussion, votes ... we havent tried any of them yet...but were hoping to get on servers tonight or tomorrow... we have our first idea for a meetup... gogo Rommel, as a purist myself, I haven't tried Enhanced Edition. I like the game as close to how it was when released. It even took me quite a while to get used to the Ice & Blood expansion. If one carefully crafts a character and uses the right gear it works better than any "goodies" added from later improvements, enhancements, and augmentations. That's my opinion. 1
SLD 524 Posted October 20, 2024 3 hours ago, gogoblender said: I think we'll use schots luckiest man alive community build to supply us all with early level schtuff? Why do you have to immediately grab that cheated character? (and yes he modified the game files to get it so it is a cheated character...) First you want a closed HC realm and now you want to cheat? I don't like where this is going... 3 hours ago, Hooyaah said: The CM Patch already is included in the GOG Sacred 2 Gold Download. why do you always have to say this? we already had this conversation here: On 8/30/2024 at 5:15 PM, Hooyaah said: The CM Patch is already included in the GOG version of Sacred 2 Gold. On 9/3/2024 at 6:42 PM, idbeholdME said: It is not. You get the regular install version. On 9/3/2024 at 9:54 PM, DruidoMatto said: Confirm that, bought Sacred 2 Gold Edition from GOG at the end of June '24 and there's exactly what idbeholdME said. Community Patch have to be added manually from you if you want to use.
gogoblender 3,420 Author Posted October 20, 2024 1 hour ago, SLD said: First you want a closed HC realm and now you want to cheat? I don't like where this is going... For community playing we are looking for different outcomes.. not necessarily ones you have done before The possibilities are endless... taking the *thinking* of this game outside the box... MP needs new ideas to remain fresh... Schot ran the Kamikaze's for years with full servers... players love excitement. And that was in limited HC Closed servers.. now with mods and no Closed anyone can do anything, we have to take everyone's word at face value, so we want to create true genuine interest so that people want to play with us and keep up hard work. This isnt Closed, , so anyone can cheat.. heck in the old days anyone who wasn't in c]Closed HC for me was kinda a cheater to me .. Many years later, I'm more thoughtful ..ive started to not get stymied at *oh that isnt HC Closed * but instead continue my journey of appreciation to ... ... ahhhh, looky... someone's having fun ... onwards joy ...We have to come up with entertaining, interesting limits that everyone will want to try and be forthcoming about. Be patient friend, we're ready to try many options, were hoping some will work out gogo
gogoblender 3,420 Author Posted October 20, 2024 5 hours ago, Hooyaah said: Rommel, I recommend Purist Fixpack; it is what I'm playing now on Niob level. It removes all but original vanilla items, making sets easier to acquire. Also, mutations set will occasionally drop. The CM Patch already is included in the GOG Sacred 2 Gold Download. I hear ye regarding the purity ... im soooooooooooo interested in that new stuff though.. after so many years of not setting foot in Ancaria, its like i'm a kid in a candy store ..i just gotta plaaaaaaaaaaay Maybe after we try out all that new shiny stuff with EE... wed be ready to go back to pure again? I've def got my eyes and heart open to all possibilities gogo
ric7202 192 Posted October 20, 2024 This all sounds very fun and exciting I used to play Diablo 2 a lot, and the D2R revived it quite a bit so I'm still returning to it from time to time. Now that there is a D2 mod for Sacred 2 and a living community to experience it with, I'm so happy. I've never played MP Sacred 2 before and look forward to give it a try. There is so much to do in Ancaria and still after all these years I find new places and things I've never seen before in the game. Just recently I found a Hellhound Boss for the very first time. I still have my CDROM copy of Sacred 2 for when I feel like going back to the original, or purist, stuff, and I might just do that soon, just to be able to play my favourite Pelting Strike Sera again, or the Dryad Magic Staff build. The feeling when you whack one on the head and dozens other all over the screen, and beyond, just screams out in unison agony is disturbingly satisfying *grin*. 1
SLD 524 Posted October 20, 2024 9 hours ago, ric7202 said: I still have my CDROM copy of Sacred 2 for when I feel like going back to the original, or purist, stuff, and I might just do that soon, just to be able to play my favourite Pelting Strike Sera again, or the Dryad Magic Staff build. The feeling when you whack one on the head and dozens other all over the screen, and beyond, just screams out in unison agony is disturbingly satisfying *grin*. The purist fix pack is everything but pure. It already contains the cmpatch "fix" that destroys magic staves. The pelting strike sera however should be "pure", with only 2 shots per CA usage. 10 hours ago, gogoblender said: Many years later, I'm more thoughtful ..ive started to not get stymied at *oh that isnt HC Closed * but instead continue my journey of appreciation to ... ... ahhhh, looky... someone's having fun ... There is a reason why I never played "open" in Sacred 2 or Sacred 1. But I do remember looking through the open lobby in Sacred 1 just to see how far people went. I clearly remember that one vampiress with wings... Yes, someone certainly had fun 1
gogoblender 3,420 Author Popular Post Posted October 20, 2024 12 hours ago, ric7202 said: This all sounds very fun and exciting I used to play Diablo 2 a lot, and the D2R revived it quite a bit so I'm still returning to it from time to time. Now that there is a D2 mod for Sacred 2 and a living community to experience it with, I'm so happy. I've never played MP Sacred 2 before and look forward to give it a try. There is so much to do in Ancaria and still after all these years I find new places and things I've never seen before in the game. Just recently I found a Hellhound Boss for the very first time. I still have my CDROM copy of Sacred 2 for when I feel like going back to the original, or purist, stuff, and I might just do that soon, just to be able to play my favourite Pelting Strike Sera again, or the Dryad Magic Staff build. The feeling when you whack one on the head and dozens other all over the screen, and beyond, just screams out in unison agony is disturbingly satisfying *grin*. Woooooooooooooooo...u got the spirit! I dug up a few pix of online play with the gang from the old days.. Schot used to organize The Kamikaze of Evil! once a week: a few months later this is a big group split into small commando groups... Zinsho took point on this one, he tanked it while the rest of us just laid back, ate popcorn, kept out of the way, got the shared exp... WOOOOOOOOOOOOO... and shared our buffs gogo 2
ric7202 192 Posted October 20, 2024 2 hours ago, gogoblender said: Woooooooooooooooo...u got the spirit! I dug up a few pix of online play with the gang from the old days.. Schot used to organize The Kamikaze of Evil! once a week: a few months later this is a big group split into small commando groups... Zinsho took point on this one, he tanked it while the rest of us just laid back, ate popcorn, kept out of the way, got the shared experience... WOOOOOOOOOOOOO... and shared our buffs gogo Which dragon is that? And where can it be found?
Hooyaah 3,111 Popular Post Posted October 20, 2024 48 minutes ago, ric7202 said: Which dragon is that? And where can it be found? It's the Grunwald Dragon and may be found in the human territory in a cave. Use this map. 1 1
ric7202 192 Posted October 20, 2024 13 minutes ago, Hooyaah said: It's the Grunwald Dragon and may be found in the human territory in a cave. Use this map. Ahh that one, I know it well. Thx for info.
gogoblender 3,420 Author Posted October 21, 2024 On 10/19/2024 at 4:47 PM, Hooyaah said: Rommel, I recommend Purist Fixpack; it is what I'm playing now on Niob level. It removes all but original vanilla items, making sets easier to acquire. Also, mutations set will occasionally drop. The CM Patch already is included in the GOG Sacred 2 Gold Download. Loved the price! We just downloaded it yesterday and we have to make some changes *cough* computer *cough* ... Brad says theres two ways to download from GOG... our way , which we custom drew down a exe and five files...and using the GoG's version ...their own player.. maybe that way would have the already-onboarded CMPatch which you mention which would be nice and convenient ... will keep y'all informed! gogo
xrystal 77 Posted October 21, 2024 On 10/19/2024 at 8:17 PM, SLD said: The GOG game client should be compatible but if you want more info on that, I think @xrystal would be the one to ask. He's made the multiplayer, so he'll now what's compatible there and what might not be. Yes, the GoG version works fine - only important thing, but I assume thats only a thing one would have to check for old CD versions, is that the game is patched to the latest version of Sacred, I.e. Ice&Blood 2.65. In theory, older versions could work, too, but are untested and also all the hosted servers use the latest ones and would probably be incompatible should any game files differ in the older version. On 10/19/2024 at 11:30 PM, gogoblender said: Were gonna mess around with the game a bit... we got it from GOG .. can we play with you guys if it says EU ? The lobby is not separated like it was originally - all regions connect now to the same shared instance, even if they are configured to connect to different sacred2 subdomains or ports by default. Depending on the game servers region and your respective local region for some people the latency might be worse than for others, but that's about it. If for some reason the lobby is not found for a player, it's possible to manually force a specific lobby ip and port in "%APPDATA%/Local/Ascaron Entertainment/Sacred2/optionsCustom.txt", for instance like this: Quote network.lobby_ip = "eu.sacred2.net" network.lobby_port = 6800 1
gogoblender 3,420 Author Posted October 21, 2024 41 minutes ago, xrystal said: Yes, the GoG version works fine - only important thing, but I assume thats only a thing one would have to check for old CD versions, is that the game is patched to the latest version of Sacred, I.e. Ice&Blood 2.65. In theory, older versions could work, too, but are untested and also all the hosted servers use the latest ones and would probably be incompatible should any game files differ in the older version. The lobby is not separated like it was originally - al l regions connect now to the same shared instance, even if they are configured to connect to different sacred2 subdomains or ports by default. Depending on the game servers region and your respective local region for some people the latency might be worse than for others, but that's about it. If for some reason the lobby is not found for a player, it's possible to manually force a specific lobby ip and port in "%APPDATA%/Local/Ascaron Entertainment/Sacred2/optionsCustom.txt", for instance like this: Xrystal! Woot, awesome to see you here! Just a few questions pls Are we allowed to name the Servers, for example: DarkMatters : No Better Time to Die Aaaaaaaaaaaaand... are we allowed to password protect servers? For the Mods... does everyone have to be playing the same mod...for example can a character with Pur, be playing with others who are EE... or does everyone have to be EE or everyone have to be Pur What is the max number of players allowed... what are reports like... do they feel "robust"? I'm not even caring that much if we have as many drops in the old days...just a group of us all hanging out in front of the doors on the way Assault The Guardians... S O THRILLING!!! Everyone yelling and jumping about all excited and frothing like wet poodles, getting all our buffs up and making sure everyone knows what to do... WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO 9 on server in this shot before the assault... C R A Z Y !!! Second pic is an attack on a dragon... four of us at a time.. look at us all sharing buffs... (someones gonna have to document this in wiki or in DarkMatters ? I dont think any of us thought of it.. what can and cant be shared in sacred ? have the modes changed this.. hope not ) Check out the HUGE TG Loop around the Dragon... e p i c 1
xrystal 77 Popular Post Posted October 21, 2024 23 minutes ago, gogoblender said: Xrystal! Woot, awesome to see you here! Just a few questions pls Are we allowed to name the Servers, for example: DarkMatters : No Better Time to Die Aaaaaaaaaaaaand... are we allowed to password protect servers? [...] For the Mods... does everyone have to be playing the same mod...for example can a character with Pur, be playing with others who are EE... or does everyone have to be EE or everyone have to be Pur What is the max number of players allowed... what are reports like... do they feel "robust"? [...] Sure, I mean, you are also allowed to use more optimistic or heroic names, but that's up to you... I have not seen more than 5 players at once on a server so far, but that's the technical limit for campaigns only, free play mode allows for a maxiumum of 8 players (how have you done those 9 in your screenshot? :D). How stable that is probably depends a lot on the CAs spammed and the stability of Sacred2 itself... ;) You need all to have the exact same gamefiles/mods active to play together. If your gamefiles differ from those on the server, you'll have issues joining the servers (usually wrong mods crash on join) and probably all kind of undefined behaviour even if not. So you kind of are forced to decide on which mod you want to play, sorry By default, the servers have no passwords, but yes, can be configured - if you have a specific configuration in mind I can either add that one to the preconfigured list with a password for you or you could of course also startup a server via the s2gs.exe and register it to the lobby. The later requires setting up port forwarding/firewall, tho. Just wanted to clarify that even if it's a bit of a hassle to setup in general anyone is able to register any kind of server against the lobby. 1 1 1
gogoblender 3,420 Author Posted October 21, 2024 Thanks for the info, Xyrstal...I perfectly get it now And yah...I guess title was a bit too daaaaaaaark and jamesbondey for our first outing ? 33 minutes ago, xrystal said: (how have you done those 9 in your screenshot? :D). How about 16? I think it was a achievement... Group Hug... its hard to get so many people together for pix, even these days But back then... we some how did.. first attempt was a fail... some loco came on just to do a few kills.... so we had to postpone...but everyone who hard heart came again.. and so... ugh...photo bucket! tomorrow Ill cough up five bux and reclaim that dang account...but looky everyone smile!! Group achievement hug ..in action!
Schot 431 Posted October 21, 2024 Kamikaze... Reloaded? Reborn? Resurrected! Ah the good O'l days of readying for battle and sharing buffs! Play loud as possible! 1
gogoblender 3,420 Author Posted October 21, 2024 4 minutes ago, Schot said: Kamikaze... Reloaded? Reborn? Resurrected! Ah the good O'l days of readying for battle and sharing buffs! zomgod... the First Person View , is epic...I sometimes forget that Sacred 2 can do this... and seeing it being used while we all get pumped before battle... E P I C I need headphones ! gogo 1
SLD 524 Popular Post Posted October 21, 2024 1 hour ago, xrystal said: Sure, I mean, you are also allowed to use more optimistic or heroic names, but that's up to you... While we are at server names, the servers you supply have longer names than can be shown in the lobby. For example the PFP christmas server ends at "chr..." and there is no way to see the full name in the lobby overview. It might make sense to put the Server Name/ the full information contained in it, into the Description. I mean EE + Su... is probably superspawn but the description doesn't say so and we also don't know if there's another "+..." behind that one. Which brings me to the next topic. I just tested the Realm with an EE client. -I can create my own server, though I doubt someone else could connect to it. Nothing special here. -I can slam my EE Alternate Spells character into the supplied EE server, that says it only needs the core mod in the description. I guess this would crash along the way as the "shared" data wouldn't match. -I get a disconnect error when trying to Squeeze myself into a supplied PFP or CMPatch server. Wrong error message, but at least I can't join, therefore it's working as it is supposed to The alternate spellls one is the only oddity among this stuff. The scripts for sacred 2 are sorted into 4 folders. Client, Particle, Server and Shared. Client and Particle are probably purely clientside so if those differ from the server it will look odd and not match what's actually happening, but other than that it shouldn't matter at all. Server scripts are probably only run by the server meaning they just overrule whatever one might have locally. So differences here should also not matter at all. But what happens with the Shared scripts. I would have expected they need to be identical between client and server, but it seems there is at least no check for that, as I could join EE with alternate spells... So either this causes horrible crashes or those are actually also temporarily overridden by the serverside versions? I did not try an altered CA yet... Edit while still not posted I tested an alternate spell and it just reverts to the original, so I guess Shared is overruled by the server side as well. That is probably also the reason why I am allowed to join, as there is no real version mismatch anymore. I get all the wrong local stuff like the alternate skill descriptions, but interestingly I did get the correct Archangel's wrath animation and not that sonic thing... So as a coclusion Alternate spells characters might actually be compatible with normal EE servers, but I still wouldn't recommend that. Challenge mode and Superspawn however really shouldn't matter at all. They are fully server side only changing balance.txt and spawn.txt. @xrystal, do you have any insight on version stuff beyond that? Am I wrong with some of those assumptions? Otherwise I would argue for a set of premade EE 3.2a Alternate Spells Challenge Mode Superspawn Free Play servers as they would be compatible with ric's already existing characters and add the most stuff to kill and loot, but also some challenge. That set would not need to include a bronze server as those are just a total waste anyway, so that way we can spare some xrystal resources. Any objections to this idea? 3
SLD 524 Posted October 21, 2024 1 hour ago, xrystal said: free play mode allows for a maxiumum of 8 players (how have you done those 9 in your screenshot? On lan you can make free play servers for up to 16. I guess it was the same in closed. I have no clue where your limit of 8 might come from. I just tested it and created a 16 player free game on your realm 49 minutes ago, Schot said: Kamikaze... Reloaded? Reborn? Resurrected! Anything, as long as it's not reforged 1
xrystal 77 Popular Post Posted October 21, 2024 9 hours ago, SLD said: While we are at server names, the servers you supply have longer names than can be shown in the lobby. For example the PFP christmas server ends at "chr..." and there is no way to see the full name in the lobby overview. It might make sense to put the Server Name/ the full information contained in it, into the Description. I mean EE + Su... is probably superspawn but the description doesn't say so and we also don't know if there's another "+..." behind that one. I put everything which matters into the description (aside from the fact that I did indeed forgot to put "alternate spells" into the alternate spell server... ) Superspawn, since it is just a serverside config file, is not a technical requirement from the client, as you already wrote, so I have not included it in the mod list. I tried to put it into the more informal server title, but yeah, not much space there for full titles. Quote Client and Particle are probably purely clientside so if those differ from the server it will look odd and not match what's actually happening, but other than that it shouldn't matter at all. Server scripts are probably only run by the server meaning they just overrule whatever one might have locally. So differences here should also not matter at all. But what happens with the Shared scripts. I would have expected they need to be identical between client and server, but it seems there is at least no check for that, as I could join EE with alternate spells... So either this causes horrible crashes or those are actually also temporarily overridden by the serverside versions? I did not try an altered CA yet... @xrystal, do you have any insight on version stuff beyond that? Am I wrong with some of those assumptions? All I can say is that I made the same assumptions and it indeed seems to be that way - actual insight I have not. I have a short list of files which I need for running a server without a complete game directory, which for a vanilla game is the following list - maybe it's possible to remove even more, but this works well for me so far for standalone servers: Quote vanilla/pak vanilla/pak/generic.zip vanilla/pak/spawn.zip vanilla/pak/persector.zip vanilla/system vanilla/system/s2gs.exe vanilla/system/plugin_filesystem.dll vanilla/system/stlport.5.0.dll vanilla/system/s2core.dll vanilla/system/orcSystem.dll vanilla/system/plugin_win32platform.dll vanilla/system/s2logicdll.dll vanilla/system/s2logic.dll vanilla/system/s2vista.dll vanilla/system/memmgr.dll vanilla/system/tincat3.dll vanilla/system/plugin_filezip.dll vanilla/system/plugins_srv.cfg vanilla/system/MemLeaks_s2gs.xml vanilla/system/zlib1.dll vanilla/scripts vanilla/scripts/autoexec.txt vanilla/scripts/roadmap.txt vanilla/scripts/startPos.txt vanilla/scripts/behaviour.txt vanilla/scripts/genMipMapInfo.txt vanilla/scripts/heightmap.txt vanilla/scripts/shared vanilla/scripts/shared/itemtype.txt vanilla/scripts/shared/spells.txt vanilla/scripts/shared/staticinfo.txt vanilla/scripts/shared/typification.txt vanilla/scripts/shared/defines.txt vanilla/scripts/shared/iteminfo.txt vanilla/scripts/shared/books.txt vanilla/scripts/shared/material.txt vanilla/scripts/shared/creatureinfo.txt vanilla/scripts/landscape.txt vanilla/scripts/server vanilla/scripts/server/weaponpool.txt vanilla/scripts/server/drop.txt vanilla/scripts/server/treasure.txt vanilla/scripts/server/worldobjects.txt vanilla/scripts/server/heroes vanilla/scripts/server/heroes/templeguard.txt vanilla/scripts/server/heroes/centurio.txt vanilla/scripts/server/heroes/inquisitor.txt vanilla/scripts/server/heroes/seraphim.txt vanilla/scripts/server/heroes/highelve.txt vanilla/scripts/server/heroes/dragonmage.txt vanilla/scripts/server/heroes/dryadin.txt vanilla/scripts/server/pathObjects.txt vanilla/scripts/server/questscripts.txt vanilla/scripts/server/weather.txt vanilla/scripts/server/spawn.txt vanilla/scripts/server/region.txt vanilla/scripts/server/worldobjecthints.txt vanilla/scripts/server/triggerarea.txt vanilla/scripts/server/faction.txt vanilla/scripts/server/waypoints.txt vanilla/scripts/server/triggervolumes.txt vanilla/scripts/server/equipsets.txt vanilla/scripts/server/portals.txt vanilla/scripts/server/blueprint.txt vanilla/scripts/server/respawn.txt vanilla/scripts/server/quest.txt vanilla/scripts/server/balance.txt vanilla/scripts/server/creatures.txt vanilla/scripts/server/spawnpos.txt For each mod, I replace the existing files or add new ones in the order of installation (for instance, first cm patch, then ee patch, then ee modules) ignoring the client side files. For alternate spells, the server side looks like this, so it's just a handful of extra files and some file content changes: Quote s2ee32a_alternate_spells/pak s2ee32a_alternate_spells/pak/persector.zip s2ee32a_alternate_spells/pak/generic.zip s2ee32a_alternate_spells/pak/spawn.zip s2ee32a_alternate_spells/pak/physxExt.zip s2ee32a_alternate_spells/pak/hq s2ee32a_alternate_spells/pak/hq/fx s2ee32a_alternate_spells/pak/hq/fx/dr_rindenhaut2.dds s2ee32a_alternate_spells/pak/hq/fx/dr_rindenhaut3.dds s2ee32a_alternate_spells/pak/shader.zip s2ee32a_alternate_spells/scripts s2ee32a_alternate_spells/scripts/server s2ee32a_alternate_spells/scripts/server/triggerarea.txt s2ee32a_alternate_spells/scripts/server/creatures.txt s2ee32a_alternate_spells/scripts/server/faction.txt s2ee32a_alternate_spells/scripts/server/weaponpool.txt s2ee32a_alternate_spells/scripts/server/weather.txt s2ee32a_alternate_spells/scripts/server/pathObjects.txt s2ee32a_alternate_spells/scripts/server/blueprint.txt s2ee32a_alternate_spells/scripts/server/treasure.txt s2ee32a_alternate_spells/scripts/server/waypoints.txt s2ee32a_alternate_spells/scripts/server/equipsets.txt s2ee32a_alternate_spells/scripts/server/spawn.txt s2ee32a_alternate_spells/scripts/server/heroes s2ee32a_alternate_spells/scripts/server/heroes/dragonmage.txt s2ee32a_alternate_spells/scripts/server/heroes/dryadin.txt s2ee32a_alternate_spells/scripts/server/heroes/inquisitor.txt s2ee32a_alternate_spells/scripts/server/heroes/seraphim.txt s2ee32a_alternate_spells/scripts/server/heroes/highelve.txt s2ee32a_alternate_spells/scripts/server/heroes/centurio.txt s2ee32a_alternate_spells/scripts/server/heroes/templeguard.txt s2ee32a_alternate_spells/scripts/server/region.txt s2ee32a_alternate_spells/scripts/server/triggervolumes.txt s2ee32a_alternate_spells/scripts/server/worldobjecthints.txt s2ee32a_alternate_spells/scripts/server/spawnpos.txt s2ee32a_alternate_spells/scripts/server/balance.txt s2ee32a_alternate_spells/scripts/server/respawn.txt s2ee32a_alternate_spells/scripts/server/worldobjects.txt s2ee32a_alternate_spells/scripts/server/drop.txt s2ee32a_alternate_spells/scripts/server/portals.txt s2ee32a_alternate_spells/scripts/server/quest.txt s2ee32a_alternate_spells/scripts/server/questscripts.txt s2ee32a_alternate_spells/scripts/landscape.txt s2ee32a_alternate_spells/scripts/roadmap.txt s2ee32a_alternate_spells/scripts/startPos.txt s2ee32a_alternate_spells/scripts/autoexec.txt s2ee32a_alternate_spells/scripts/shared s2ee32a_alternate_spells/scripts/shared/staticinfo.txt s2ee32a_alternate_spells/scripts/shared/creatureinfo.txt s2ee32a_alternate_spells/scripts/shared/material.txt s2ee32a_alternate_spells/scripts/shared/iteminfo.txt s2ee32a_alternate_spells/scripts/shared/books.txt s2ee32a_alternate_spells/scripts/shared/typification.txt s2ee32a_alternate_spells/scripts/shared/defines.txt s2ee32a_alternate_spells/scripts/shared/spells.txt s2ee32a_alternate_spells/scripts/shared/itemtype.txt s2ee32a_alternate_spells/scripts/heightmap.txt s2ee32a_alternate_spells/scripts/behaviour.txt s2ee32a_alternate_spells/scripts/genMipMapInfo.txt s2ee32a_alternate_spells/scripts/optionsDefault.txt s2ee32a_alternate_spells/system s2ee32a_alternate_spells/system/tincat3.dll s2ee32a_alternate_spells/system/s2logic.dll s2ee32a_alternate_spells/system/s2vista.dll s2ee32a_alternate_spells/system/orcSystem.dll s2ee32a_alternate_spells/system/plugins_srv.cfg s2ee32a_alternate_spells/system/plugin_filezip.dll s2ee32a_alternate_spells/system/s2gs.exe s2ee32a_alternate_spells/system/s2core.dll s2ee32a_alternate_spells/system/plugin_filesystem.dll s2ee32a_alternate_spells/system/zlib1.dll s2ee32a_alternate_spells/system/stlport.5.0.dll s2ee32a_alternate_spells/system/plugin_win32platform.dll s2ee32a_alternate_spells/system/MemLeaks_s2gs.xml s2ee32a_alternate_spells/system/memmgr.dll 9 hours ago, SLD said: On lan you can make free play servers for up to 16. I guess it was the same in closed. I have no clue where your limit of 8 might come from. I just tested it and created a 16 player free game on your realm Hu. Seems like I mixed that up with something else. Well, very good to know, thanks 1 1
