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 I'm sure I don't need to introduce Diablo, the progenitor of its own game genre. Other games are described as Diablo-likes as a shorthand for how they play and what the systems inside are. So we're going to be taking a look at the game that started it all, the granddaddy of the point and click and loot genre. This LP will follow the adventures of Rogue, the Rogue (so named because the official "canon" name is loving stupid) as she investigates the ruined cathedral in the vaguely Scotch-Irish town of Tristram. I'll be employing speed-ups and fade cuts liberally so as to keep things moving along at a decent clip. I'll also be joined by I'm aiming to update twice a week, on Mondays and Thursdays. Spoilers!? Diablo is a 20 year old game, but I would rather not have stuff spoiled. There isn't a lot of story, so let's not spoil what little there is. To that end I would also greatly appreciate it if we didn't get into gigantic lore discussions. For the most part, the lore in this series is pretty bad and the games can be enjoyed without understanding a lick of it. Also many people haven't played this game before, so let's not be a dick yeah? Videos: Videos:  Direct Link Direct Link with YappingEevee Direct Link with CirclMastr Direct Link with Bohampscious Direct Link with YappingEevee Direct Link with CirclMastr Direct Link with Bohampscious Direct Link with CirclMastr Direct Link with YappingEevee Direct Link with Bohampscious Direct Link with Zeratanis Direct Link with Aces High Direct Link with YappingEevee Direct Link with Zeratanis Direct Link with Bohampscious Direct Link with Aces High Direct Link with Zeratanis Direct Link with Zeratanis Direct Link with Zeratanis
DoubleNegative fucked around with this message at 01:05 on May 2, 2017 |
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Feb 20, 2017 13:13
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Will you be addressing the expansions like Hellfire? Why do you think that the canon name of The Rogue is stupid? I was going to post it, but then I realized that it might be considered a spoiler. >.>
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Feb 20, 2017 14:11
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sethimothy posted:Will you be addressing the expansions like Hellfire? - Sorceror: Daddy Darth - Rogue: Aeris Dies - Warrior: Bruce Williswasaghostallalong
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Feb 20, 2017 14:44
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I thought the cannon spelling for Rogue in the Blizzard universe was 'Rouge'? Colour me surprised!
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Feb 20, 2017 14:57
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There's something about these games that transcends what I typically hate about Blizzard. Diablo rules pretty hard. I've been thinking about getting back into DIII, since I was gifted, but never got around to playing the expansion. I'm into this.
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Feb 20, 2017 21:47
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I've actually never seen Diablo 1 in action and have been getting an ARPG itch as of late, so let's see how this goes.
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Feb 20, 2017 21:51
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C-Euro posted:I've actually never seen Diablo 1 in action and have been getting an ARPG itch as of late, so let's see how this goes. I pity you that you don't get to feel the same sense of nostalgia at every sound effect, and every voice clip that this game will play. That Cathedral dungeon music is so deeply branded into my brain that I may someday be able to use it to travel through time.
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Feb 20, 2017 22:19
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I was SUPER into Diablo 2 as a teen, it was basically the only game I played for years, and I still get itches to revisit every now and then (though usually I'll just Start Another Character in Dark Souls instead); in 2010ish, I saw Diablo 1 randomly on sale somewhere and figured why the hell not. One would expect that going back from 2 to 1 would make the experience miserable, but it really isn't? I'm not gonna say that D1 has aged perfectly well or anything - it is, however, perfectly playable. There aren't even that many things you should really know about before you start, something I can't claim for, say, Fallout 2. (to put that into context: I bought FO2 a few years later, same "hey it's on sale why not" deal, and I had absolutely zero idea what I was doing, what was going on, how to even play the game, and got my rear end handed to me repeatedly until I quit in frustration. Don't get me started on Baldur's Gate 2.) It's really just simple enough to not overwhelm you, complex enough to be intriguing, and simply good enough to not be a chore. Even back then, Blizzard knew what they were doing in making accessible games. You really should stay clear of yellow zombies, though. And I didn't relish learning that you had to save manually in Single Player because otherwise death is, well, Game Over.
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Feb 20, 2017 22:41
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Simply Simon posted:You really should stay clear of yellow zombies, though. And I didn't relish learning that you had to save manually in Single Player because otherwise death is, well, Game Over.  Those yellow zombies! Diablo 1 didn't stray too far from its roguelike roots, and those assholes are the perfect example why. Each hit they land on you permanently removes 1 maximum HP. I've got the first four floors recorded and they thankfully haven't shown up yet.sethimothy posted:Will you be addressing the expansions like Hellfire? I don't plan to, no. I don't own a copy of Hellfire anymore, and from what I remember it was pretty mediocre anyway. Sierra developed it when the Diablo team didn't really have an interest in making an expansion, and it has none of the care put into the base game. There's a GDC retrospective out there on the first Diablo and in it the lead guy reveals he's still kind of mad at Sierra for their shoddy work on the expansion, if that tells you anything. Also the canon name of the rogue, Moreina, is like the most fantasy rear end name ever. It's the sort of name you come up with for a RP character when you're 15.
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Feb 20, 2017 22:52
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DoubleNegative posted:
EDIT: They can appear from level 3-5, I looked it up. You're not in the clear yet! DoubleNegative posted:Also the canon name of the rogue, Moreina, is like the most fantasy rear end name ever. It's the sort of name you come up with for a RP character when you're 15. Name sillyness aside, I really enjoyed the first video - you have a good handle on when to speed up and cut already, I think. Looking forward to more! Another aside: I did first play as Warrior and got only until too many enemies with range attacks and no cover showed up, until then it was ALSO a chore but doable, you're quite correct that Rogue is the way to go. Finished the game with her, but later returned as Warrior with more knowledge and some carefully chosen support spells to do it again. People swear by Sorcerer to break the game wide open but I hate the early game and think the breaking requires too much effort as opposed to, you know, just clicking on dudes. Simply Simon fucked around with this message at 00:57 on Feb 21, 2017 |
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Feb 20, 2017 23:14
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I actually liked Diablo 1 the most of the three Diablo games, when it was a dungeon crawler and not a lootathon.  DoubleNegative posted:Spoilers!? Diablo 1 and 2 were way better about it since it wasn't shoved in your face.
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Feb 21, 2017 01:12
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Danger-Pumpkin posted:I pity you that you don't get to feel the same sense of nostalgia at every sound effect, and every voice clip that this game will play. That Cathedral dungeon music is so deeply branded into my brain that I may someday be able to use it to travel through time. I haven't actually played any Diablo games 
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Feb 21, 2017 01:46
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It's been ages since I played the original Diablo myself, and I can't tell from watching the video if you're missing some of those enemies or they're taking hits and not having any feedback to it whatsoever. It also feels weird, coming back to this after all the evolution the genre has been through, to see all of those enemies just dieing from a single arrow. Sure, it's the first floor, but even still, you'd think there would be some challenge. Speaking of challenge, you're taking more damage from exploding barrels than you are enemies. Shoot them from a distance, you're a ranged character for a reason!
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Feb 21, 2017 03:00
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There's an open-source Diablo engine rewrite in the works. It's somewhat early days, though. There's also a DiabloRL, which translates Diablo into a turn-based roguelike in ASCII, but it's been abandoned; it, too, is open-source, however.
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Feb 21, 2017 04:16
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C-Euro posted:I haven't actually played any Diablo games Well, then you better stay awhile... and listen. Aerdan posted:There's an open-source Diablo engine rewrite in the works. It's somewhat early days, though. There's also a DiabloRL, which translates Diablo into a turn-based roguelike in ASCII, but it's been abandoned; it, too, is open-source, however. Reminds me, there is a three part Russian-made Doom wad which is essentially a love letter to Diablo and Hexen, and it's absolutely fantastic. It's called "The Inquisitor." and it's very good. Pros: -Absolutely gorgeous (as far as Doom WADs go) and there's a ton of it to play through. -The levels and challenges are hard enough to be interesting, even if you play Doom religiously. -Varied game styles, with some replayability. Inquisitor 1 has an interesting survival horror feel, Inquisitor 2 is very much a proof of concept for a Diablo-like in Doom, and Inquisitor 3 takes them both to the logical conclusion, while increasing the scope, visuals, and options (since you now have mutually exclusive build options.) Cons: -All text is translated from Russian, which I found hard to follow in some places. None of the voiced audio is translated, which means you miss out on a few important clues here and there. -Sadly, no randomly generated levels, so while you can play through (at elast) part three with a few different playstyles, it's going to be the same levels every time, give or take the placement of enemies on different difficulties. There is actually a small handful of programs that generate random Doom maps, but I suspect the amount of effort that would be necessary to get one of those to produce the kind of gorgeous levels with full quest scripting intact would be unfeasible. Still if you like Diablo, and/or you like Doom, this is totally worth checking out. Danger-Pumpkin fucked around with this message at 05:31 on Feb 21, 2017 |
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Feb 21, 2017 05:15
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Oblivion4568238 posted:Speaking of challenge, you're taking more damage from exploding barrels than you are enemies. Shoot them from a distance, you're a ranged character for a reason! Attacking the barrels from range doesn't do anything.  You've gotta run up to them to break them open unfortunately.
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Feb 21, 2017 06:01
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DoubleNegative posted:Attacking the barrels from range doesn't do anything. Really? Gee, it's like this 20 year old game has some questionable design or something  Nothing against you of course, that being the case. Like I already said, the ways the genre has evolved since this game have made me forget what it was like back then. Probably doesn't help that I probably played Warrior a lot? When you're a melee character, exploding barrels seem like a fact of life that ranged characters shouldn't have to deal with.
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Feb 21, 2017 20:47
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It's more realistic this way. If you bash a barrel with a club it'll probably break. Shoot it with an arrow, not so much.
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Feb 21, 2017 22:19
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suicidesteve posted:It's more realistic this way. If you bash a barrel with a club it'll probably break. Shoot it with an arrow, not so much. You just need to score a critical hit.
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Feb 22, 2017 02:44
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Memories from my childhood. Hell yes I am gonna lurk the poo poo out of this, maybe even post some.
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Feb 22, 2017 02:56
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Oh, it's live? Let's see what you can wring out of LPing D1. [aggressive clicking intensifies] Pierzak fucked around with this message at 02:50 on Feb 23, 2017 |
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Feb 23, 2017 02:15
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I spent many a wee nights just laying in my bed listening to the narrator read a whole bunch of Diablo lore to me from the PS 1 port, at the time it sounded like the coolest thing ever proving that everyone at Blizzard writes with the mindset of a 12 year old.
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Feb 23, 2017 03:01
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Because it's technically Thursday, even if it is 6:30 AM and I've long ago given up pretending I sleep like a normal human. Direct Link Today's update features the vocal talents of YappingEevee, and we take on the game's first boss The Butcher.
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Feb 23, 2017 12:29
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Quick question. Will you be covering every quest?
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Feb 23, 2017 13:46
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Cador_2004 posted:Quick question. Will you be covering every quest?
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Feb 23, 2017 14:15
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Cador_2004 posted:Quick question. Will you be covering every quest? I'm gonna do my best, yeah. Quests are more or less randomly chosen, but the presence of some locks out others. I used to have a fairly thick strategy guide for the game that described the quest relationships, but I haven't seen it in years. For a quick and explanation, there's five quest "groups" and out of each group, one quest is omitted in every game. You can actually do a quick check for this by repeatedly starting a new game. The second group only has 2 members: either the Poisoned Water Well or the Curse of King Leoric. So if the well in the middle of town is blue, like it is in the LP, then you'll be facing the Skeleton King as a boss on level 3. If the well is full of unhealthy looking yellow water, then you instead get a(n infinitely easier) small mini-dungeon on level 2.
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Feb 23, 2017 15:29
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Also if I remember right, online didn't randomize the quests so you always got the same set. It also had death that wasn't a game over, and other people in the dungeon with you, so the feel of it was radically different
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Feb 23, 2017 15:49
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FoolyCharged posted:Also if I remember right, online didn't randomize the quests so you always got the same set. It also had death that wasn't a game over, and other people in the dungeon with you, so the feel of it was radically different
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Feb 23, 2017 16:17
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My first exposure to Diablo was the PS1 port, only having heard the name before. I remember one of my friends at the time saying the game looked boring as hell. "Don't worry," I told him, "it'll probably pick up once we get to the second town  "
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Feb 23, 2017 17:10
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Simply Simon posted:You dropped all your poo poo on death so you had to go where you died naked (or with an extra set of gear?) and pick it up again. Also, friendly fire lol It also had an extremely easy way to duplicate items without having to modify any game files or use third party programs, so very quickly it was easy to just join a game and find some guy throwing 50 Godly Plates of the Whale on the ground. Grab new gear from the pile if you die. The game really does have a serious nostalgia benefit to it though. The little mini-dungeon they added in D3 as an Event was actually pretty cool to see the little references they threw in that I remembered from my childhood, and the music was great. The Butcher will also stick in my memory forever due to the first time I ran into him. Right up there with the first boss of Wolfenstein 3D for surprise boss doors.
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Feb 23, 2017 18:23
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Didn't you have to hack the Godly Plate of the Whale into the game anyway? I thought it couldn't actually drop normally.
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Feb 23, 2017 18:37
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suicidesteve posted:Didn't you have to hack the Godly Plate of the Whale into the game anyway? I thought it couldn't actually drop normally. Not that I recall? There were ones with hacked stats you could get that weren't legit, but I think the drop itself was possible.
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Feb 23, 2017 18:46
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Google tells me that it's impossible for any monster or vendor in D1 to generate Godly and Whale on full plate because the item level is higher than they're able to drop/sell. So it was probably possible on lesser armor.
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Feb 23, 2017 18:55
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suicidesteve posted:Google tells me that it's impossible for any monster or vendor in D1 to generate Godly and Whale on full plate because the item level is higher than they're able to drop/sell. So it was probably possible on lesser armor. Could be, or I might be thinking of Lordly, which if I recall was the next step down from Godly. It was amusing that most of the best items in the game were just blue magic items.
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Feb 23, 2017 19:14
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The worst part about rolling a mage is walking to Adria to replenish on mana potions, it takes forever. I heard the phrase "I sense a soul in search of answers" so many loving times it got stuck in my head for years.
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Feb 23, 2017 21:39
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Angry Lobster posted:The worst part about rolling a mage is walking to Adria to replenish on mana potions, it takes forever. I heard the phrase "I sense a soul in search of answers" so many loving times it got stuck in my head for years. Also relying on her for a specific spell book. Walk alllll the way there and nope, just three more copies of circle of flame or whatever.
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Feb 23, 2017 22:02
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I sank so many hours into this game, as it was my first real online gaming experience. Shareware, at first. Then I got the full version...then i learned how to dupe, and later, figured out how to really cheat via trainers and hack tables. I will be watching this, because even though the Warrior was my favorite character, the Rogue was the easiest one to play. Do you plan on trying to do any multiplayer? Also, Godly Plate of the Whale can exist in the game, but is unobtainable by any legitimate means. It can't be dropped by monsters, but it can show up being sold by Peg-Leg Wirt...for more money than you can actually carry.
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Feb 24, 2017 05:17
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Simply Simon posted:You dropped all your poo poo on death so you had to go where you died naked (or with an extra set of gear?) and pick it up again. Also, friendly fire lol A Pleasant Hug posted:Also, Godly Plate of the Whale can exist in the game, but is unobtainable by any legitimate means. It can't be dropped by monsters, but it can show up being sold by Peg-Leg Wirt...for more money than you can actually carry. Now, I was playing with the Hellfire expansion that adds an amulet that doubles your gold carrying capacity, but our version was modded so the NPC who rewards that amulet was replaced with something else. So I had to pester my friend to unmod his game, go do the quest for the amulet, and then join my game to bring it to me along with some extra gold so I could get the axe. Diablo 1 might not hold up too well nowadays gameplay wise, but there is a certain kind of charm to it that the sequels don't have and the atmosphere is great. The few music tracks it has are all better than anything the sequels came up with. Well, the Hell theme is a bit meh, but the rest are all gold.
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Feb 24, 2017 18:56
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DoubleNegative posted:I'm gonna do my best, yeah. Quests are more or less randomly chosen, but the presence of some locks out others. I used to have a fairly thick strategy guide for the game that described the quest relationships, but I haven't seen it in years. You're right about the quest groups but there's an additional quest that always happens on Level 6, plus the 2 endgame quests. FoolyCharged posted:Also if I remember right, online didn't randomize the quests so you always got the same set. It also had death that wasn't a game over, and other people in the dungeon with you, so the feel of it was radically different Sort of...the Butcher, Skeleton King, and endgame bosses just appear on the normal levels wandering around instead of their special areas. All the other quests don't happen.
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Feb 25, 2017 23:40
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| # ? Apr 25, 2024 23:32 |
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Designer of Diablo talking about his process of coming up with the design and the history of its development: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VscdPA6sUkc Obviously there may be some spoilers for the game in this video, so caution advised.
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Feb 26, 2017 09:33
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