Master of Arms Version 2.01a
Preliminary Alpha Release



Welcome to a taste of the upcoming new version of Master of Arms. This is an alpha release
 and does not contain all the elements the final version will eventually have. But since I
am branching into new areas as a modder, such as monster and skill editing, it may be a
long time until those aspects are ready and I wanted to give the fans of the first MoA
something to enjoy.

Here's what you will find in this mod:

- Monster drops reduced. Potions, equipment, gold, etc. are significantly less abundant.

- No magic, set, rare or unique items. These have been completely eliminated (hopefully.
Let me know what happens when you kill hell bosses ;)

- Weapon upgrade system implemented. Here's the deal: You start with a couple basic items
on your character, including the cube and special item. Use this special item in the cube
immediately and keep it on you at all times. This item is what allows you to gain upgrade
hammers as you level. So, I guess you really just want to make sure you have it when you
might level, but it's only 1x1 so just keep it.

Now go out an kill some stuff, get a little gold together. (If this is too big a pain let
me know and I'll hook you up.) Once you have a little gold, go to Charsi; she's got all
sorts of weapons and armor, also ammo and a ring and amulet. Pick out what is appropriate
for your character and go see Akara; she'll sell you various "enchanters". Choose and
enchanter that has the mods you want and put it in the cube with a piece of equipment. Now
your item is enchanted to be that type. The more expensive enchanters are not necessarily
more powerful, just more exotic.

Now go out and kill, kill, kill. Each time you level, you get 5 upgrade hammers to use. 
Put one in the cube with any enchanted item and watch it become more powerful. Patience,
deary - you won't be godly immediately (although the early Acts will probably be easy).
You can upgrade any item 99 times, but... you'll never get enough hammers to do so for all
your equipment, so choose wisely. Oh yeah, the level requirement goes up each time too, so
be careful not to over-upgrade vital items.



Known bugs:

- Balance issues. I'm sure they're out there. Since this is intended to be an early version,
I have not played through Hell with a variety of equipment. Abuse them...try equiping more
than one item with added damage, etc. and see if anything dominates. The point of the system
is to force a choice between what mods a character can significantly obtain from his or her
equipment. If it's not working out that way, let me know.

- Level requirements are screwy on items that involve skill bonuses (ie., Summon enchanted
items and class enchanted items). Level requirements jump based on what skill gets added,
so a low-level item might jump to req level 30. So be warned.


Installation:


This mod is in -direct -txt form. Copy the text files into data\globa\excel. Copy the ui
and items folders into data\global.  Copy the local folders into your data directory. For
more information on this, see the Idiot's Guide to Mod Making.