Version b1.033 - bugs and suggestions

[Paar]

Created warrior and played it a little and I must say that this mod is amazing. Very modern and very fun. At the same time it keeps the feel of the original which is great achievement.

Bugs:
1) Slain townsman speaks even when he is dead. Happens when you accept the Butcher quest, quit the game, load it and try to talk to him again without killing the Butcher.
2) Sounds of the steps are somewhat desynchronized (in comparison to the original game).
3) Belt key must be pressed twice to work (show/hide).
4) There's no combat damage when hit by explosive barrel or when standing on acid puddle.
5) Sometimes, when holding ALT, the tag of the item is not aligned properly. And when there're more items on the floor and you are holding ALT and picking them up, the tags tend to randomly jump from side to side. Or is it intentional?
6) I think the lightning dart trap doesn't do any damage. Maybe all projectile based traps behave the same way?
7) When you hover with your cursor over the "Automap" button and you have your belt stash unfolded it shows tooltips for both the button and for the potion which is in the belt (the last position in the second row).

Suggestions:
1) Combat text is very nice addition but sometimes it's a little hard to read. For example when you kill an enemy you can see how much damage you dealt and how much experience you gained, but the latter is overlaping the damage information and you cannot see it properly. Is there any way to make it more readable?
2) It would be nice if Cain could identify all items at once.
3) It would be nice if waypoints could be visible on the automap.
3) The icons for "repair all" and "recharge all" buttons should be different from "repair" and "recharge".
4) Could make descriptions for skills? For example with my warrior I can use skill "Cleave" but I don't have any idea what it does excatly (apart from increased damage). - not relevent anymore

Questions:
1) There's a cutscene when you are confronting the Butcher. Did you make it or is it an unused material from Blizzard?
2) What is the grey area above the experience bar for? Do you intend to make combat log or something like that?
3) I noticed the Tristram is expanded. Do you intend to make alternative outside areas?
4) Do you plan to isolate warrior/rogue/barbar from sorcerer's spells and make for them their own abilities?

EDIT: I updated the lists.

[Constance]

Hi there .o/

If this thread is a good place to report bugs, then here is one : in the singler player menu, if there are less than 5 characters, the user can click bellow the "New hero" selection, and the animated pentacles (which are usually on both sides of the selection) disappear. If he either double clicks there or clicks there and then clicks OK, the game crashes, possibly sending an "Unknown error" message.

[Jofuss]

The acid puddle bug doesn't seem to be 100 percent continuous. Some times I take acid damage... Some times I find myself taking damage from acid puddles, other times not.

Also I don't recall a single time a barrel explosion hasn't hurt my character on the current patch... but that's just me.

I have noticed that attacks that completely bypass mana shield have increased significantly in the current patch.

I have also noticed mana shield dropping frequently of its own accord when the duration is not even close to running out.

[radicool]

The acid puddle bug doesn't seem to be 100 percent continuous.

After a spitball is shot or a acid pool is left on a unit's death, the acid will stay active for a short time and hurt if you stand upon it. After a small time, the acid will "neutralize" so to speak and not hurt you anymore. This is the same for the original Diablo 1. I haven't noticed any bugs, but I could be wrong.

I have noticed that attacks that completely bypass mana shield have increased significantly in the current patch.

I have also noticed mana shield dropping frequently of its own accord when the duration is not even close to running out.

I made a thread about Manashield bug. Take a look at that. Is it the same problem your having?

http://awake.diablo1.eu.org/manashield-bug-t452.html

2) It would be nice if Cain could identify all items at once.
3) It would be nice if waypoints could be visible on the automap.

Definately agree on these points.

4) Could make descriptions for skills? For example with my warrior I can use skill "Cleave" but I don't have any idea what it does excatly (apart from increased damage).

I thought skills already had descriptions? All my Sorcerror spells have detailed descriptions of what they do, how much damage they do, their cooldown, manacost and what variables improve it (skill level, character level, etc).

1) There's a cutscene when you are confronting the Butcher. Did you make it or is it an unused material from Blizzard?

As far as I know it was an unused cinematic from Blizzard. Though I'm certain this mod team didn't make it. Glad they used it.

[Paar]

I thought skills already had descriptions? All my Sorcerror spells have detailed descriptions of what they do, how much damage they do, their cooldown, manacost and what variables improve it (skill level, character level, etc).

That's true for spells but not for skills that are not in the spellbook.

[radicool]

That's true for spells but not for skills that are not in the spellbook.

My Sorrcerror has descriptions for all of his spellbook skills. And my level 8 Rogue has descriptions for her first two. Maybe your character is incomplete. Particularly if your one of the new characters.

[Paar]

That's true for spells but not for skills that are not in the spellbook.

My Sorrcerror has descriptions for all of his spellbook skills. And my level 8 Rogue has descriptions for her first two. Maybe your character is incomplete. Particularly if your one of the new characters.

My bad, I was looking for it in the spellbook. I didn't notice there is separate skill section.

Anyway, I found other problems.

Bugs:
1) My hero tends to follow and attack retreating monster relentlessly even when I'm not clicking on it with my mouse. He does so until I click somewhere else.
2) I found a door I couldn't go through. It seemed as there was some invisible obstacle, even the monsters couldn't get on the other side. You can check the attached screenshot.



3) I don't know if it's a bug or not. When NPCs and monsters are walking, their animation is not looping smoothly. There's some stuttering.
4) When fighting the main goat boss from Poisoned Water Supply quest I noticed it's sprite was shrinking when standing idle. I didn't look right.
5) I died. Then I opened my inventory, tried to use some item and my hero told me that it isn't possible. Weird.
6) Hitting W key (switching weapons) is often unresponsive and laggy.
7) In caves I noticed the projectiles shot by enemies disappear in midair. It looks like they vanish when travel a certain distance without hitting a wall.

Suggestions:
1) There are too many barrels to my taste.
2) Same for libraries. There are too many of them.
3) Could you implement better support for foreign keyboards? It's annoying to hit ALT+SHIFT everytime I start the game just for using my quick potions.
4) It would be nice if tooltips wouldn't appear when holding an item.
5) It would be nice if you couldn't see tooltips of doors/cauldrons etc. when holding ALT.

[Constance]

Hmm the number of barrels seem pretty much OK to me, what I don't really like about them is how the players projectiles always hit them if they're in the way between him and the ennemy he's actually trying to reach, but the opposite doesn't seem to apply.
It's kinda unfair. You also may not want to destroy some barrels, so they can act as a barrier between monsters and you, which was possible in the original game, but isn't really anymore

[radicool]

5) I died. Then I opened my inventory, tried to use some item and my hero told me that it isn't possible. Weird.
6) Hitting W key (switching weapons) is often unresponsive and laggy.
7) In caves I noticed the projectiles shot by enemies disappear in midair. It looks like they vanish when travel a certain distance without hitting a wall.

To help the devs, try to be a little more specific.
5.) Which item did you try to use? Any item or a specific one?
6.) Does this happen to all weapons or certain weapons. Are they both 2 handed weps, or is 1 a 1 handed and the other 2 handed, etc.
7.) Which enemies? All of them? My guess is it was one of those acid spitting dogs?

[Jofuss]

6) Hitting W key (switching weapons) is often unresponsive and laggy.

Don't run from the disk and that problem will go away. Its not the game, its access time for the new sprites from the CD to be loaded up.

You would have the same problem if you were changing armor from leather to chain to plate in the middle of combat all the time.

[radicool]

Its not the game, its access time for the new sprites from the CD to be loaded up.

I suspected that was the case. However the weapon change lag can affect gameplay, the armor, not so much. Therefore the game needs to overcome this, which is entirely possible. Isn't it a matter of preloading both weapons into RAM? Then theres no access time for the HDD. Just a thought.

[Paar]

5) I died. Then I opened my inventory, tried to use some item and my hero told me that it isn't possible. Weird.
6) Hitting W key (switching weapons) is often unresponsive and laggy.
7) In caves I noticed the projectiles shot by enemies disappear in midair. It looks like they vanish when travel a certain distance without hitting a wall.

To help the devs, try to be a little more specific.
5.) Which item did you try to use? Any item or a specific one?
6.) Does this happen to all weapons or certain weapons. Are they both 2 handed weps, or is 1 a 1 handed and the other 2 handed, etc.
7.) Which enemies? All of them? My guess is it was one of those acid spitting dogs?

5) I think it was Scroll of Identify.
6) I copied DIABDAT.MPQ to harddisk and it is noticably faster. Still stutters a little but I guess it cannot be removed entirely.
7) Yes, it was acid from those spitting dogs.

[Constance]

By the way, I think I've noticed another bug, though I'm not 100% sure of it, and it might be a design choice (which I then fail to understand): it seems that, when you have a contact weapon that also deals elemental damage, that elemental damage is applied to targets you attack even when your attack fails to hit them (?)

[Jofuss]

I suspected that was the case. However the weapon change lag can affect gameplay, the armor, not so much. Therefore the game needs to overcome this, which is entirely possible. Isn't it a matter of preloading both weapons into RAM? Then theres no access time for the HDD. Just a thought.

I'm not saying its good or acceptable or whatever... I'm just listing the cause. There still is a minor lag even on a hard drive yes I know. Original diablo 1 is the same way though. It might be a technical limitation so the best we can do is minimize it by not running from CD until otherwise directed.

By the way, I think I've noticed another bug, though I'm not 100% sure of it, and it might be a design choice (which I then fail to understand): it seems that, when you have a contact weapon that also deals elemental damage, that elemental damage is applied to targets you attack even when your attack fails to hit them (?)

I have noticed this as well. You will also notice that it is applied after the physical damage is. IE you break a barrel with a chilled weapon, which spawns a skeleton. The barrel breaks from physical, the skeleton is hit and chilled by the cold damage.

7) Yes, it was acid from those spitting dogs.

Working as intended would be my guess? In vanilla diablo this was also the case. I don't recall if EVERY ranged attack in diablo 1 had a fall off but I do remember some did. In diablo 2 all projectiles had a falloff point, even spells.

3) I don't know if it's a bug or not. When NPCs and monsters are walking, their animation is not looping smoothly. There's some stuttering.

This is most likely due to the fact that the game was original designed for a much lower frame rate than Belzebub runs at. It also is why the game kind of almost gives the impression that its being fast forwarded even though its running at normal speed. Kind of like if you go to see a movie at the theater in the new 48 fps format vs the traditional 24 fps format. It looks like its a fast forwarded version of them moving slow because you are given a smoother frame rate than you are traditionally accustomed to.

Then again I might be misunderstanding your comment.

1) My hero tends to follow and attack retreating monster relentlessly even when I'm not clicking on it with my mouse. He does so until I click somewhere else.

Diablo 1 used an attack move command. Kindof like in starcraft, if you tell a marine to attack a specific target, he will ignore everything on his way to attack his target. If you hold shift and click you will swing wildly in the direction of your click. I find shift-click to be invaluable to physical damage classes in original diablo (as well as this.)

Or are you saying if you click once on a monster you're hero will hit it, follow it and hit it again from only 1 click... If that's the case I have not had that experience that I have noticed and WANT that problem when I'm playing a melee character plzplzplz! My carpel tunnel and tendinitis would be happy with less clicking!

[Paar]

This is most likely due to the fact that the game was original designed for a much lower frame rate than Belzebub runs at. It also is why the game kind of almost gives the impression that its being fast forwarded even though its running at normal speed. Kind of like if you go to see a movie at the theater in the new 48 fps format vs the traditional 24 fps format. It looks like its a fast forwarded version of them moving slow because you are given a smoother frame rate than you are traditionally accustomed to.

Then again I might be misunderstanding your comment.

The fluidity of the animation seems fine but when some NPC character is walking away and the walking animation needs to start over again (for each step) there seems to be some stutter (or brief pause inbetween the loops).

Diablo 1 used an attack move command. Kindof like in starcraft, if you tell a marine to attack a specific target, he will ignore everything on his way to attack his target. If you hold shift and click you will swing wildly in the direction of your click. I find shift-click to be invaluable to physical damage classes in original diablo (as well as this.)

Or are you saying if you click once on a monster you're hero will hit it, follow it and hit it again from only 1 click... If that's the case I have not had that experience that I have noticed and WANT that problem when I'm playing a melee character plzplzplz! My carpel tunnel and tendinitis would be happy with less clicking!

The last case is true. But it only applies when a monster is retreating, i.e. goat archer when you get too close. I only click once and my character keeps following the monster and attacking even though I'm not pushing/holding any button.