Seven Lances

A modification for Diablo II: Lord of Destruction 1.09+

In ages past, an ancient and powerful race, the Eternals, waged the War of the Seven Lances. In the aftermath of this war, the denizens of Hell seized the opportunity to invade the world of Sanctuary. The only hope for the mortals of Sanctuary is to discover the artifacts of the Eternals and take them up against the sinister Three.

The purpose of this modification is to create a more balanced and challenging Diablo II: Lord of Destruction, and while playable in single player, it emphasizes the dynamics of a well-built party. All skills, items, and monsters have been adjusted towards this end. Additionally, many new items, monsters, and levels have been introduced to make the experience fresh. We at the Seven Lances team hope you enjoy this new take on Diablo II.

Installation and Use

To install, simply extract all files and folders into your Diablo II directory, with the directory structure intact. Make sure you have played a game in standard Diablo II once since the OS has been reinstalled, so that the proper registry entries are available.

To play, go into the Seven Lances folder, and double-click “Play Seven Lances.vbs.” You can also create a desktop shortcut to this file. To play in windowed mode, double-click “Play 7L Windowed.vbs”

Technical Issues

1.10-1.12: The full PC install is now completely compatible with 1.09, 1.10, 1.11, 1.12, and likely any future releases. This feat is accomplished by swapping enough files to make the game behave as if it were 1.09d.

Multiplayer: Seven Lances can be played in multiplayer via TCP/IP. It cannot be played on the official Battle.net servers.

Item Transfer in Single Player: You need to have a TCP/IP protocol installed on your computer, which you very likely do if it has internet access or is connected to a LAN. To use:

-Start up Seven Lances Windowed mode.

-Select other multiplayer, TCP/IP, and host a game.

-Start up Seven Lances Windowed mode again, creating a second instance of Diablo II.

-Use this window, select TCP/IP, pick a different character, and then join the game with IP 127.0.0.1.

-You should now be connected to the game you hosted earlier with Seven Lances.

-Switch between the two windows as you wish, swapping items between your characters.

-Remember if the host leaves the game, the other window in the game will also have the player kicked. The characters should save properly though.

-If you have a lot of memory, you can try running more instances and thus have multiple characters moving around.

Crash Problems: If your computer freezes while playing Seven Lances and you must reboot, this may cause problems with playing Diablo II or Seven Lances again. If you have any trouble running 7L or D2, run the Recover From Crash.vbs file in your Seven Lances directory first.

Nothing happens: if you click to start Seven Lances, see an hourglass briefly, and then nothing happens, it is likely because Diablo II cannot find your Lord of Destruction CD. Seven Lances still retains the CD-checking from 1.09, so you will not be able to take advantage of the built-in no-CD feature in 1.12. If you are trying to use D2Loader, then you need to obtain D2Loader version 1.09b11. Rename this to “7Lgame.exe” and place it in your Diablo II folder, overwriting the previous one.

“The Diablo II installation could not be found”: Try starting a single player game in normal Diablo II, but when you do so, be sure you are logged in as a user with Administrator privledges. (See the Control Panel-> Users to check on this.) Then quit out of D2, uninstall and re-install Seven Lances, and give it a try.

“Object Wscript not found” or something similar; the Seven Lances executable scripts require Windows Scripting Host in order to function. Normally this is installed standard with Windows, but some systems may not have this product installed. You can download this from Microsoft’s web site, for Windows 2000/XP or Windows 98, ME, & NT 4.0 .

.D2Accelerator: D2Accelerator is a program that can lower the detail on CPU-expensive effects to improve game performance. This is especially important in Seven Lances as many skills no longer have timers. D2Accelerator currently only supports 1.09 D2, but it will work fine with Seven Lances no matter what version of D2 you have installed. You can download D2Accelerator from sevenlances.net.

To start up D2Accelerator, select "Add a mod", type in "Seven Lances",

then navigate to the directory your put the Seven Lances MPQ, and select it. Now adjust it how you like, and click

"Apply Changes." Do NOT USE D2Accelerator's "Run Diablo II" to play, this circumvents the modified DLLs and will cause errors. Instead use the usual Seven Lances vbs files.

English Language: Seven Lances currently exists only in English. The mod will work with any national version of Diablo II; however when running Seven Lances, all text will appear in English.

Information

Characters no longer gain mana on level up. However, they receive 6 stat points instead of 5. You can put that extra point into energy for the mana, or somewhere else if you wish.

Experience penalty upon death is 3% in nightmare and 6% in hell.

Players now start with 60% maximum resistance, meaning that your resistance turns gold and does not increase further after 60.

The reward for rescuing Anya is now 5% maximum resistance instead of 10% standard resistance.

Resistance penalties have been changed to -30 in nightmare and -60 in hell.

Healing potions heal 1.5 times the listed value, healing proportionally faster as well. Mana potions give twice the value.

Life and mana steal are divided by 2 in nightmare, 3 in hell, rounding down. Meaning 8% life steal in hell difficulty

will behave as if it were 2%. (8/3 = 2.7, round down to 2)

High-level experience penalties after level 75 have been removed. However, the experience bonus per party member has been reduced to 15% from 35%.

The absorb % cap was lowered to 45%

Items

All exceptional/elite sets and uniques replaced, including a unique for every elite item, including class-specifics.

Magical and rare affix pool has been cleaned up, and it is weighted such that higher-level affixes are more likely to drop than low-level ones. Blues, rares, uniques, sets, and socketeds should all compete for viability.

Base items are now themed by act, so you can only find a particular base item in one or two acts. The exception to this is some act 5/hell difficulty monsters, and the occasional superunique drop. Chance for exceptional in nightmare is one half, and in hell the chance to get normal, exceptional, or elite is 1/3rd each. All base item stats were rebalanced for speed, level, and requirements.

Freeze Target and Hit Blinds Target have been changed. Level of the attacker/defender is now irrelevant. These now start

off with a fixed small chance/duration, that will increase as you wear more items with the stat.

Monsters

Smarter, faster, randomized, and hurt more, especially in hell. Resistances/immunities were modified. Some new monsters have been added. Normal monsters have generally better drops. Elemental attacks are more varied and much more dangerous. In normal HPs were increased and scale down to near-standard HPs in hell. Physical resistance in hell averages at 25%, but it varies between monsters.

Act boss damage vs. minions has been lowered considerably. Superunique and act Bosses had their drop quality reduced, although they improve more with more players in the game. Hell bosses are not as super-powerful relative to the regulars as they were in D2X. Superuniques have a "good drop", but it becomes invalidated if you leave the awareness of the superunique. This means if you wake up a superunique and then let it "sleep" by either running far enough to lose it or using a town portal, stairs, or waypoint, the drop quality will be reduced.

Version 1.20 and later now features some new monsters, beware their new special abilities:

Burning: this is a poison-style attack, except your character will have a fire graphic on them instead of turning green. Like poison, burning damage can only take players down to 1 hit point, no lower. Beware: this damage cannot be resisted in any way, even fire resistance is useless!

Phasing: these monsters become invisible when they are moving about, regaining visibility as they strike at you.

Regenerating: these monsters have extremely fast regeneration. Consider poison, prevent monster heal, or open wounds when dealing with them.

Skills

Most of them have had their stats changed for improved challenge, diversity, and balance. Some skills work differently or have new features, most of these have been added to the skill descriptions. Diminishing returns skills tend to start out lower but approach similar amounts in higher levels, some of them end higher.

Almost all skills have had their timers removed. Most spell-like skills have had their costs raised significantly, especially previously timered ones. Base mana regeneration on all characters is doubled, regenerating an empty bulb in one minute instead of two.

Most minions have a slow negative regeneration, so you might have to spend a little mana occasionally! They also no longer scale their HPs with the number of players in the game. Additionally, powerful minions have a long resummoning timer, and many minions have special resistances and vulnerabilities.

Vendors

They almost always sell exceptionals and elites in hell difficulty, though they are acts behind what you can get via drops.

Still a good way to buy some equipment.

Gambling was changed: 9% chance for rare, 2.75% chance for set, .25% chance for unique. Same chance as in LoD for a gamble upgrade to elite/exceptional.

Items can only be sold for 1/8th of their value (instead of 1/2 )

Levels

There are now underground shortcuts through the various acts. Taking these shortcuts blindly might put your character behind the monster level curve, but some may prefer the challenge, so choose wisely. The horadric cube area in Act 2 is very tough in nightmare and hell and meant for characters that have defeated Baal. There is also a secret "dungeon" in Act 1, if you find it, it is also meant for characters that have beaten Baal in that difficulty.

The Secret Cow Level can only be found in hell difficulty, and instead of the leg and tome, it requires seven new items spread throughout the various places of hell difficulty. You will know the strange item when you see one. If you manage to collect all seven, beware, for deep within lies the ultimate challenge, dark and forgotten powers that dwarf those of the Prime Evils combined.

Hirelings

Hirelings have some more health, better resistances, modified (sometimes lowered) skill levels, and are much cheaper to resurrect. Barbarians have more defensive AI, using hit and run tactics, to keep themselves alive. Desert Mercenaries will hang back defensively and refrain from attacking, unless you lure monsters toward them.

Changed Act 2 mercenary auras:

Each type of merc (combat, offensive, defense) starts with their own aura. This is the same whether you hire the merc in

normal, nightmare, or hell. However, mercs hired in nightmare will at a certain level switch to using a new second aura.

Mercs hired in normal do this level up twice switching to a new third aura. The hell and nightmare mercs have higher

levels of these said auras though.

When a mercenary hired in normal only gains its final aura, it will also gain the ability to use whirlwind.

Runes & Runewords: see 7L Runewords.htm

Horadric Cube

Cain will summarize the important new cubing recipes if you ask him about the Horadric Cube.

Socketing Cube Recipes: these recipes allow you to add sockets to normal (non-superior), magical, and rare items

2 cracked gems + any normal item -> socketed normal item

2 flawed gems + any normal item -> 2 socket item

2 normal gems + any normal item -> 3 socket item

2 flawless gems + any normal item -> 4 socketed item

2 perfect gems + any normal item -> 5 socketed item

4 normal gems + gems + any magic item -> 1 socket magic item

4 flawless gems + any magic item -> 2 socket magic item

4 perfect gems + any rare item -> 1 socket rare item

Rune Cubing: 3 of any rune will cube to the next highest rune, all the way up to Alt, #30

Ethereal Cubing: (does not work on staves, wands, scepters, or rods.)

3 flawless gems + ethereal magical weapon = reroll the magic ethereal, also resetting the durability

3 perfect gems + rare ethereal weapon = reroll the rare ethereal, also resetting the durability

Crafting: There are seven crafting series, with 3 levels, and this is subdivided twice for armor and weapons. Each series

has a particular gem associated with it that is used in recipes. All crafts will also require a rune which is different

per level and series. A jewel of any type must also be added to each craft. The higher level runes contain reminders about what type of gem (by color) as well as which items they work on. These recipes replace the old LoD crafting recipes.

Though crafts are based on player level, "quality level" of base items also matters. If the base item's level is higher than

the player level, the base item's level will be used instead. Using this may generate items of too high a requirement for

you to use initially, so you may want to try crafting a base item from a previous act to avoid this.

Knowledge: Sapphire

Entrophy: Emerald

Hatred: Ruby

Greed: Topaz

Gossamer: Diamond

Chaos: Amethyst

Deadly: Skull

Universal Crafts: all of these work on any weapon or armor. The level of affixes is 80% of your clvl.

Magic item + Jewel + 2 Flawless Gems + Rune + Jewel

Focused Crafts: these work on specific rare weapon and armor types, in at least nightmare difficulty.

Level of affixes is 90% of your clvl.

Rare item + Jewel + 1 Flawless Gem + 1 Perfect Gem + Rune + Jewel

Greater Crafts: these work on even more specific rare weapon/armor types, in Hell difficulty only.

Half of them are for class-specifics. Affix level is 100% of your clvl.

Rare item + 2 Perfect Gems + Rune + Jewel

Item Classes for Crafts

Series | Focused Weapon | Focused Armor | Greater Weapon | Greater Armor
Knowledge | staff, orb, wand, club, scepter | helm | staff, orb, wand, scepter | circlet
Entrophy: | dagger, polearm | totem, bone helm, bone or spiked shield. | dagger | totem
Hatred: | axe, blunt | torso armor | axe | primal helm
Greed: | bow, spear, javelin | gloves, circlet | amazon weapons | gloves
Gossamer: | mace, sword | shield | mace | auric shield
Chaos: | polearm, axe | belt, pelt | polearm | pelt
Deadly: | claw, sword | boots, gloves | claw | boots

Runes for Crafts (by rune description)

Series | Universal | Focused | Greater
Knowledge: | Spirituality | Water | Essence
Entrophy: | Infinity | Time | Despair
Hatred: | Body | Fire | Pain
Greed: | Fame | Earth | Consumption
Gossamer: | Friendship | Life | Darkness
Chaos: | Curiosity | Void | Fear
Deadly: | Haste | Air | Death

A Special Note for Modders

Seven Lances is "open source." Feel free to copy or use any and all parts of this mod as your own.

Simply credit the mod if you are going to take large portions of it.

Use the included listfile.txt as an MPQView/MPQ2K listfile for extracting files from the mod.

Credits

Spiderdrake: creator, design, items, characters of the War of the Seven Lances world

FoxBat: previous project coordinator, monsters, drops, skills, code, this readme, a little bit of everything else

Nozzit: a lot of item design and coding

Flechette: fixes from 1.24-1.26

Sekundus: item design

Manacraft: item design

T-Hawk: vendors, sets, bugs

Myhrogenic: runes, sets, code

Fuzzbox: unique coding

LiquidDamage: horadric cube coding

Koalachan: set names

Community item designers: SillyGirl, CoviTical, Brista, Gabrielis, Loschonorg, Shadguy, Sephiralenden, Phage, The Luminare, Rabaril, Gawdly, Bonki, Siramy, BLoodbath

Community admins: Mephista, TheDragoon, Usyr-Illus, Lucky-Charms, Aurikan

Thanks to:

Phrozenkeep, THE D2 modding resource. Full of good information and helpful people. http://www.d2mods.com

Jarulf, Myhrogenic, Sir_General, T-hawk, Hammerman, Ruvanal, and Joel for lots of code/statistics info.

Astalion for his map plugins.

Joel for Genie plugin.

King Cold for Dragon plugin.

Varayna + Khan, fathers of Diablo modding. http://vkmods.d2mods.com

Zamal + Zenda, creators of the incredible The Dark hellfire mod. http://www.xs4all.nl/~a3n/

Jarda + Wesson & the rest of the Fusion Team, had a great "balance" mod for CD2.

Rana Loreus for the old The Forge website, and getting me (FoxBat) into D2 modding.

The Amazon Basin for community support. http://www.theamazonbasin.com/d2

Blizzard for making, and breaking, Diablo II and Lord of Destruction.