Diablo 2 Mods

This is a selection of modification I’ve done for Diablo 2 1.12 (and now 1.13). They’re mostly small gameplay tweaks or fixes that you can mix and match with each other or mods from other authors as you see fit.

Consistent Leveling Mod

Improves game pacing by making characters level more consistently instead of progressively slower

This mod changes the amount of experience needed to reach levels 4 through 30 such that the frequency of leveling is more consistent. This change fixes the default leveling system where players level up very quickly early on (gaining 16 levels in Act 1) and hardly ever in the late game (gaining three levels in Act 4). Though it’ll take longer to access higher skill tiers, I feel that this change really improves on the pacing of the game. I know I can trace back at least one of my own games going unfinished due to getting bored with the long stretches of time between leveling late in the game.

To balance the resultant difficulty differences, monster levels have been lowered by the number of levels which the player level is behind the original player level. This affects monster hitpoints, defense, attack rating, and damage; any other attributes, like resistances, are unaffected. However, during the last play-test, I didn’t notice any areas where monsters felt harder or easier than in previous plays without the mod.

Here are a few statistics to give you a rough idea of the changes to the leveling system.

• Levels 10-12 have the monsters with the most reduced difficulty (74% of original values)
• Level 15 is the level farthest behind the original levels at -3.31 levels behind
• Level 20 is the level with the greatest difference in XP needed for the next level compared to the original XP (i.e. the point you will level slowest comparatively)
• Level 25 is the level where the modded leveling system is gaining levels faster than the original system
• Level 29 is the level with the greatest negative difference in XP needed for next level compared to the original XP (i.e. the point you will level fastest comparatively)

10 x 10 Stash Mod

Doubles the amount of storage space in the stash

This simple modification increases the stash inventory space from 6×8 (48 spaces) to 10×10 (100 spaces).

Note that any items in a character’s stash before applying this mod will still be intact afterwards.

Balanced Better Drops Mod

Improves chances of getting Unique and Set Items from monster drops and gambling

This mod gives the player better chances to find unique and set items. I was quite disappointed to only find two set items in the whole game and the only uniques dropped by Baal at the very end. This mod should be a balanced way to give the casual player a decent chance at some quality items without having to play the game all the way to the end of Hell difficulty with the same character. Also, gambling has a much improved chance for set and unique items.

The general breakdown for drop improvements are as follows:

• 110% Better Chance for Unique Items
• 35% Better Chance for Set Items
• 10% Better Chance for Rare Items
• 0% Better Chance for Magic Items
• 16% Better Chance for High-Quality (e.g. superior, socketed) Items
• 100% Better Chance for Normal (non-junk) Items

Also, lower level monsters have a better chance to drop higher quality or higher level items now.

Gambling breakdown:

• 79% Chance of Magic Item (was 89.85%)
• 15% Chance of Rare Item (was 10%)
• 4% Chance of Set Item (was 0.1%)
• 2% Chance of Unique Item (was 0.05%)

(Note that because certain item types don’t have a unique or set item available (either by design or it’s already been dropped), the perceived chances for unique and set items may be lower.)

And finally, skulls have just as good a chance to drop as other gems now.

Fixed Font Mod

Fixes the 5 looking like a 6 in one of the game’s fonts

This mod merely fixes the game’s 16pt font (used on tooltip descriptions mostly) so that 5′s don’t look so much like 6′s.