eXtreme Diablo II by EvilB.

For other Diablo II tools and updates check out http://www.gameskingdom.co.uk/totallyevilb

If you are a fellow mod maker, then you will be interested in the section at the end of this readme file about the overrides folder.

This little application allows you to tweak the difficulty of the original game, but only in one direction, UP!
The application dynamically patches your Patch_d2.mpq file so you can adjust your settings as often as you like, and as blizzard brings out new patches you can simply patch them! No more waiting for updated mods as with traditional mod files.
The application will create a backup of your Patch_d2.mpq file called EvilB_d2.mpq. If you already have a modified Patch_d2.mpq file, make sure you replace it with the original before you run this application. 
Finally, if Blizzard issues a new patch file, simply press the reset button to restore your Diablo II back to its original state. You  should then be able to update your game as normal, and if you wish, re-patch the new mpq files again.

How to use.

Simply extract all the files into a single folder, run d2mod.exe, Choose file.. open and navigate your way to your diablo II folder and select the Patch_D2.mpq file, then make your changes in the editor, choose save, and play the game.


The application consists of several sections:-

Global Settings

On the first page there are the global monster settings you can adjust. The values shown in brackets below, indicate the normal minimum and maximums that may be applied, using the up and down arrows next to the value. You may however, manually type values into the edit areas and go above the usual limits.
Don't worry, if you enter an invalid value, the application will tell you.

Multiply monsters health by (1-16)
You can modify monsters base health by x1 to x16, (or above if you manually edit the value!).

Monsters hit harder (0-100)
The damage monsters do per hit is increased from normal (0) to double (100).

Monsters block better (0-50)
Each point placed here, adds 1% to the monsters current base blocking percentage, to a maximum (total) of 75%. Be careful setting this too high!

Monsters appear in larger groups (0-25)
For every point here, the size of the monster groups created by the game increases by 1. Ever been to the cow level ? You'll know what I mean by large groups! Setting this value to 5 or above for some eXtreme carnage.

Increase Experience
Tick this box to gain additional Experience based on the monsters health multiplier. The formula used is the same as for multiplayer games (see the blizzard website).

Increase Item Drop Rate
Item drop rates increase in line with the monsters health multiplier, to a maximum of 95%

Monster Appear on AutoMap
Tick this box if you want monsters to appear on your AutoMap.

The reset button.
This replaces the Patch_d2.mpq file with the backup copy. A save box will appear. Simply navigate your way to your Diablo II folder and click save.

Monster Locations button.
This accesses the second section of the application:-

Monster Locations.

On this page you can specify what types of monsters appear in which areas of the game. You can also specify what types of monsters can appear as bosses, and the minimum and maximum number of bosses that will be in the area. You'll notice on the monster list, some monsters which you may not have seen in the original game. I've tried selecting some of these but they don't appear. If they are going to work at all, you may need to adjust the individual monsters settings using the monster editor.

Monster Editor.
The third section of the application allows you to alter most of an individual monsters settings. The figures shown here are the base values before any multipliers/additions set in the first section of this application (Such as the health multiplier for instance). The only field I'm not sure about is 'spawned' which I think sets whether monsters will appear or not. Try it out and see.

Armour Editor.
Allows you to edit the most common features of armour and shields. If you also download the graphics pack and extract the files into your eXtreme mod engine folder, you will get images of the items appearing in the dialog box. A future enhancement will allow you to change those images. Note that if you change the images files used by the mod engine, it will not affect the images used in the game.

Weapon Editor.
Allows you to alter weapon statistics.



Simulating multiplayer games.

If you want to use this app to simulate multiplayer games, then only use the Increase Monsters Health, with values up to 8 (only 8 players can play in a normal multiplayer game), and keep both Increase Experience and Increase item drop rates ticked.

The overrides folder.

The eXtreme mod engine now allows mod makers to use it as a method of dynamically updating mpq files with their files. If you want to use the overrides folder, simply open windows explorer, and go to the folder named 'overrides', which will be a sub folder of where ever you extracted the d2extreme files. Simply drop files into it and when you click Save on the eXtreme mod engine, it will scan any files in this folder and add them to the patch_d2.mpq file. In order to work out where the files should go in the mpq file, you need to use a special filename, e.g.

Data!Global!Excel!Skills.txt would go into Data\Global\Excel\Skills.txt in the mpq file.

In previous versions of the mod engine, the overrides folder was checked first, so that any changes made by the engine itself, took priority. From now onwards, the overrides folder is checked LAST, so any files in here, can override anything you may have set using the user interface. This is really for mod makers or power users.

EvilB