DiabloFans

Quote from "Umpa65" »

I has the 2 boxes

Quote from "Genesis" »

I think this thread has made everyone go on repping spree's...
A few people have 2 boxes now

I've checked some rep histories of posters in this thread. It's a good thing we have no rep-spamming rules, or some people here would be in trouble :cool:

Quote from "luc1027" »

It's just useless content, I don't want the game release delay because of that little detail bringing nothing to gameplay essence.

It's not useless content. It's great, it adds to Diablo a depth that is rarely seen in other games, and which makes it all the more memorable to (most) of us.

Gameplay is such a vague term it's ridiculous. My gameplay will most certainly be enhanced if I get lore added into the game, and a platform from which I can easily access it. For me, Diablo is not just about going from one next monster to the next, and therefore this is a change that I and many others welcome.

As I was perusing the game files today I came upon some very interesting images. After extracting and piecing them together, I had five images not at all used by the game. They suggested large plans were in the making for D2, but never made it out from the closed doors of the developers. Blizzard has stated they had to cut features from Diablo II due to time constraints, and here we have some hints of what those features might have been that Blizzard had in store for our favorite game.

Guild Icon Background


Called guildiconbckg.dc6, this page seems to show an option for players to select a guild tabard or banner for their guild. The coloring boxes indicate that the banners could have been colored differently by the players.

Sadly, this is just a background, and it appears Blizzard quickly scrapped their plans shortly after making this picture, for only one guild icon was ever finished, or is at least present in the game



It's very dark and not very clear. However looking at the backgrounds I really like most of the pictures. I think had they been implemented they would have worked very well in the Diablo setting. Although a few, like the Pentagram, would probably have been more popular than others

And notice the Cow banner option in the top right corner

Guild Bank


Called guildvault.dc6 in the game, the name leaves little guessing. Apparently plans were to implement a guild bank as well for guilds, something which is very common in many MMO's today.

What could the top area have been used for? Perhaps a log of what people had put in/removed? A message the guild leader could leave for his members?

And as some of you may notice, Blizzard's early philosophy of inventory space is maintained. The storage space is far from spacious, especially when considering that this would be for much more than a single person.

Bank


Simply called bank.dc6, this design seems to suggests that some sort of bank system was to be put into the game. However personally I think it more likely that this was an early design for the personal stash.

Once again, notice the storage space. Spacious to say the least :rolleyes:

Update: Apparently this is how the stash looked at release. I blame ten years for not remembering.

Trophies


trophycase.dc6 is an interesting picture. What exactly would trophies have been used for? Now some of you might be suggesting that this is where the Standard of Heroes is supposed to go, but keep in mind that these images all come from the Classic Diablo II files, and the Standard of Heroes was introduced in Patch 1.11, long after these plans and images had been scrapped.

What would trophies have been then? Perhaps an early version of what we generally call achievements these days? What do you think?

Update: spierce7 has pointed out that all of these Guild features were announced and subsequently dropped by Blizzard before Beta even began. The trophy hall was supposed to have been a guild feature, not a player feature. Read it here

Steegstone


This last picture is very ambiguous. It is simply called steegstonebckg.dc6 in the game, and that doesn't really say anything.

I'm theorizing that this is some form of profile page. The top left appears to be a place for a picture, most likely of the character class. The large box to the left could be for stats and the large to the right for skills and items. The right button also seems to be scrollable, suggesting a lot of info could go in there.

The field with the star indicates some sort of title. Is this where Slayer/Champion etc would have been displayed, or perhaps would a title earned in the aforementioned Trophy system be displayed here?

Update: T'hain Esh Kelch has suggested that this last picture might actually be how the guild chat would have looked. If you look closely, the black box in the left corner is the same size as the guild banner backgrounds shown earlier in this post. It would make sense for guilds to have a guild interface to interact with each other with.

Update 2: spierce7 pointed out that the steeg stone was a feature used to upgrade your guild. By adding gold, players could upgrade their guild to new levels, adding more functionality and features to it. Read it here

Lots of mysteries. Let the speculation begin

Quote from "Seth" »

There is no relation between lore (a creative expression) and difficulties (an incremental tool), but there is a relation between what you get from the reward and the difficulty level.

While that is true, I'm not inclined to agree that it means no new lore should be added in the later difficulties.

I'm in agreement with just about everyone else that the main storyline should be completely expressed finished in Normal, nothing else makes sense. However I do not see why a side quest could be Nightmare/Hell specific.

Take the books. The books most certainly add much lore to the series, however that knowledge isn't given to player who play Diablo II, and undoubtedly all the info won't be given to them in D3 either. So in order to grasp all of the lore first-hand, you need to also read the books.

The same point could be made for side quests. To experience all events first-hand, you would have to play through all difficulties. Although all the lore will naturally be available on various fan sites in due time if you want to read up on it.

Quote from "purelog1c" »

Ha. This thread is in the spam section, making every award completely meaning less.

That's odd. Looking at the description of the spam forum, I come across this:

Quote from name="teh forum god (or forum header)" »

For pointless posts, random fun, and forum games.

Humm...

Quote from "Donsro" »

Find out how many are Diablo fans. Massive LAN parties sound about perfect right now =(. Oh well, few years.

And if there are any, recruit them to Diablofans

Quote from "Seth" »

It really shouldn't be that hard to implement. Just get the template used for constructing vBulletin pages, add some links here and there, some conditional statements, add a table to the database, and link users to their trophies with a short script. (And then the display of the data, but that really shouldn't be that hard, either). The hardest part would probably be the moderation interface(s). There's probably a dozen good modules out there for trophies, though.

Well I was hoping for some curse input on this to get some info on whether this is possible or not.

Quote from "Seth" »

I really think- well, continue to think, I suppose- this would be a very good way to bring members together and, obviously, would be an awesomely convenient way to reward users. In the past, we've mostly only been able to reward users with custom titles or, very rarely, merchandise or tickets. (Of course, it would be nice if we could get more of the latter, too, but I think a proper trophies module would be a good first step to a better system.)

Exacly. It's not supposed to work as a substitute for other prizes, just as a complementary feature.

Quote from "Seth" »

This would be really great. Rewards for really contributory members, like Kamrad who has really brought a lot of life to the previously-dead RP subforum, several users who have found a lot of news things and PMed or posted them to get them in the announcements forum, and so on, would be really a great way of rewarding.

All good ideas, and precisely the things that should be pointed out. Otherwise no one will remember what users have helped out with news tips in the pats, but with some trophies, it'll be known by everybody.

Other ideas would be to implement wiki rewards as well. You could get trophies for how many good guides you've written, how many edits you've done, information written and other things. It would have to be a manual process done by us, but I think it could work. So long as the trophies aren't too ambiguous, it should be pretty straight-forward.

Quote from "Odin" »

as for MMO(RPG)'s
free & good economy - EvE
regulate & bad ecnomomy - WoW, Lotro ...

Many of you are missing the core issue that Blizzard is trying to adress with this change, and that's to create a way to dump worth (gold, items etc.) out of the game.

If there are no sinks in the game, the game will accumulate more and more worth as time progresses, flooding the market with more and more items at a larger rate than new players are coming into the game. This was, as Bashoik pointed out, adresses in D2 through Ladder resets, in which the economy was completely wiped out once a reset commenced.

Eve, as above mentioned, has a more free conomy because people can loose stuff. Their ship gets blown up, and the gear is gone, meaning new has to be procured. This keeps the economy stable, as items and equipment disappears from the market everytime a player dies, which offsets new items being gained and created by players; thus the market isn't flooded.

In D3, you can't loose items. Even if you die, you can just pick up your body. Thus articifial ways of forcing items out of the market have to be created. Ladder is one, BoE is another. Removing items from the market continuously is imperative to create a healthy economy, to ensure that items don't loose their value and keep trade and treasure-hunting rewarding for all.

Yet at the same time, Blizzard has at this time demonstrated that they do not wish to hamper trade at all, since Bind on Pickup items will not be in the game. Such a limit would not benefit trade, and so Blizzard has opted not to include it. Have a little faith people, and try to look at this not as a copy from WoW, but as another aspect of the game designed to improve gameplay for all of us.

This post will explain the very basics of using the program called Dr. Tester, which can view and extract pretty much all visual files in Diablo II, be it item images, monster animations, ui buttons, characters etc. It was made by SVR over at the Phrozen Keep (which I am not affiliated with in any way, despite my name).

The program is included as an attachment at the very bottom of this post. It's in a .zip archive, so you'll need a program like WinRAR to extract it.

1. What is it used for?
Originally it was developed for Diablo II mod makers, but for us, it serves the purpose of providing us with whatever in-game images we need from Diablo II for our wiki articles.

2. What it looks like


File: Select which MPQ you wish to open.

• D2char.mpq: Contains Amazon, Barbarian, Necromancer, Paladin and Sorceress animations
• d2data.mpq: Contains monsters, missiles, items, objects, terrain and ui files.
• d2exp.mpq: Same as above, but expansion content. Also contains Druid and Assassin animations
• patchd2.mpq: Contains newer versions of files in the others that have been updated through patches.

Depending on what you want to do, you will utilize different functions and thus files.

3. Extracting item images
Item files can be in data, exp or the patch file. Most are contained in D2 data however.

3.1 Finding the item
First open, the select mpq archive. Then, enter "dataglobalitemsinv" in the search field. This will take you to the beginning of the inventory images of items (just entering items takes you to the flippyfile of the item, which is how the item appears when lying on the ground).

Now it's a matter of searching. If you know how to look through the .txt files of the game, you can do that to easier find items. They are sorted by their code, so Ancient Armor, which has the code "aar" will be found under dataglobalitemsinvaar.dc6 (dc6 is the filetype used by Diablo II). Exceptional and Elite versions of a Normal item have the same inventory image file.

If you do not know how to look in the .txt files, then just scrolling down works too, though it takes a long time if you're looking for more than one file.

3.2 Coloring the item
After you've located the item, you must apply the correct color if you wish to extract a set item or unique item. How an item is colored depends on the base item. In Dr. Tester, there are several different palettes to choose from when coloring an item. If you click the Index button in the lower right corner you will see the following list of palettes. We are only interested in three of these:

• dataglobalitemsPalettegrey2.dat
• dataglobalitemsPalettegreybrown.dat
• dataglobalitemsPaletteinvgreybrown.dat

All items in the game are recolored using these three palettes (with the possible exception of recolored magic/rare items, but that's of little interest in this guide anways). To find out which one is used by what unique/set item, you must look in the weapons.txt and armor.txt files.

Example: Tyrael's Might is a unique Sacred Armor. In the game, it appears blue. Ti find out what palette is used, open up armor.txt and locate the row for Sacred Armor. The scoll to the far right and locate the column InvTrans. The number in this column will always be either 0, 2, 5 or 8. 0 means that the item is never recoloured no matter what, 2 means it used grey2.dat, 5 that it uses greybrown.dat and 8 that is uses invgreybrown.dat. In the case of our Sacred Armor, the number in this column is 8, meaning Tyrael's Might is recolored using the invgreybrown.dat palette.

Next, to find out which color to actually use, open up UniqueItems.txt, and locate the row for Tyrael's Might, then the column invtransform. In this cell there will be a four letter code that tells the game what color to use. The list of colors is available in Colors.txt, or you can view the list under here:

1. White - whit
2. Light Grey - lgry
3. Dark Grey - dgry
4. Black - blac
5. Light Blue - lblu
6. Dark Blue - dblu
7. Crystal Blue - cblu
8. Light Red - lred
9. Dark Red - dred
10. Crystal Red - cred
11. Light Green - lgrn
12. Dark Green - dgrn
13. Crystal Green - cgrn
14. Light Yellow - lyel
15. Dark yellow - dyel
16. Light Gold - lgld
17. Dark Gold - dgld
18. Light Purple - lpur
19. Dark Purple - dpur
20. Orange - oran
21. Bright White - bwht

The number is what you use to get Dr. Tester to display the correct color. For Tyrael's Might, we see that the file says dblue, which refers to Dark Blue, nr. 6. Thus, we enter 6 in the little box in the lower right corner of Dr. Tester. And we're done!

3.3 Saving the item
When you save the file, select save as, and that's about it. Don't bother with changing the filename, it will save images to folders, and renaming in the program will only change the name of the folder, not the actual image.

4. Extracting monster animations
Regular monsters are found in d2data.mpq, expansion monsters in d2exp.mpq. Quite simple.

4.1 Finding the monster
Just like with items, enter "dataglobalmonster" into the field. This will take you to the monster categories.

Now monsters are a lot harder to locate than items. Scrolling through them will literally take forever, so unless you know the monster token (or code) it will take time. Monster codes are located in monstats.txt. It begins with 10 (which are those trapped soulds in Act 4) and ends with ZZ (Zealots from Act 3).

Locating the monster code is done through opening monstats.txt. In the column code, there will be two-digit combinations for all monster. This is the code you enter in Dr. Tester to display the monster. Once again, open the .txt file with MS Excel or similar spreadsheet program.

4.2 Confiruging the monster
After finding the monster, you can run different animations for it. After selecting a monster file, click the "Run F" button. This will cycle through the frames for that animation. Most monsters have attack, get hit, running, idle and death animations, as well as a few others. Select the appropriate one (by scrolling down in the list and selecting the appropriate .COF file).

Next, we need to color it. This time, select Shift instead of Index in the lower right, and look for the same token the monster you've selected has (meaning if you want to recolor a Zealot, you'll want to look for "dataglobalmonstersZZCOFpalshift.dat.

After that, select the colors. First monster types, such as Fallen, correspond to the number three. Carvers are 4, Devilkin 5, Dark Ones 6 and Warped Ones 7. It always goes in order so it's quite simple.

Some monsters won't let you configure their colors. This most often applies to monster who have cloud-like effects like Wraiths, Pain Worms, Gloams etc.

4.3 Saving the monster.
This is basically the same: select save as, keep transparent checked, but make sure you check "Full size frames", otherwise the image may stutter when viewed.

5. Final words
If there's something unclear, post it and I'll update the guide.

All new staff members, do not talk aof this outside the staff forums. That should go without saying since it is posted here, I'm just making it clear.

Earlier today I decided to create a small mod for Diablo II which centers around the Diablofans community. I originally thought of this a few weeks ago when I got the idea of creating items of the members here (one such item was Spirit of Umaro, a set Amulet) however I ditched that idea as soon as I realized I sucked at actually creating good items. I was horrible at balancing them, it just turned into a collection of item way above Breath of the Dying and similar runewords in terms of power.

So what I did today was instead to create a few monsters of a few of you fellow mods here. I had only the vaguest idea of how to do this prior to today, but a few hours of searching for and looking through guides, readmes and forums, coupled with periodic bursts of frustration, I finally managed to add four of you into the Diablo II game. On top of that, it appears to be completely bug-free as of now as well (except Stormcat spawns with a whip instead of a javelin, but that's not too major).

I figured this could be a fun way to reward people. Prominent members of the forum and the wiki can be "immortalized" in the mod, much in the same way as Atrumentis comic works I suppose

I don't imagine many will actively play it, seeing as it's neither compatible with B.net or mods like Eastern Sun (it is compatible with PlugY however), so I want to check what you all think of this before I invest more time into it. Eventualyl if all goes well, it could potentially include monsters, items, cube recipies, skills, perhaps even new levels as well if I figure out how to do that. So what do you all think?

And these are the monsters so far:

Siaynoq
Superunique Blood Maggot
Cold Enchanted
Stone Skin
Spawns in Tristram

Stormcat
Superunique Night Tiger
Lightning Enchanted
Spectral Hit
Spawns in Harem

Seth
Superunique Doom Ape (sorry, couldn't find a hamster in the game files :P)
Extra Fast
Aura Enchanted
Spawns in Durance of Hate Level 3

Rykker
Superunique Oblivion Knight
Extra Fast
Multiple Shots
Spawns in Chaos Sanctuary

Oh, and if you have any complaints of suggestions for these and future personifications, do voice them.

700w is more than adequate for those specs.

Personally, I would look for a better motherboard and possibly a different processor. The Q6700 is a great processor, but there are other choices. I'd stay away from Asus, but that's just me.

Everything else is fine I suppose.

I am a bit confused about this. Not about Blizzard decision, but about the community's general opinion over the net, especialy on bnet forums.

The main opinion I keep seeing every 2 posts is : This stats auto-assignment is dumb because it destroys the customization. At the first thought, I agreed, but after remembering my Diablo 2 experience. I changed my mind and told me this : What customization!?

Try to remember your first Character you've made in Diablo 2. Back when you didn't know the game mechanics, what items was gonna help your hero to kick some asses, what spells were going to be useful at level 90 and which one would be totaly useless. I can bet that EVERYONE here had is first character badly built than after like 30 levels, realised that you should have done your character a certain way. After a few tries, you finaly realised that there was a perfect way to build a character.

Put a minimum of strength and dext since items bonuses would compensate, max out Vitality and leave Energy untouched. This brings us back to the question: What customization?! Is maxing Vitality really a customization?! I mean, after 5 months, EVERYONE realised it, and All characters will have the same Stats. So What's the big deal about it? Did you really think you were the only one who had this overpowered build? Everyone who played this game long enough realised how it really worked. In D3, if they put the same stats mechanic, It will take only few months for the entire planet to know 1 perfect build.

So, if 2 millions of people, including you and me, put the same number of points in each stats because we allllll know that this is the best build, is this still customization? I think it's not. So instead of puting customizable stats live for 5 months, just trhow this shit away and find another way to customize a character. Make every spells worth the be maxed out, make every item stats useful in some way. Make every class good in pvp and pve. Thats what Blizzard is trying to do.

well, I'll make an admission

Johnny, you make a good argument for LAN that it could be useful in situations where internet is not an option no matter what your economic status is. Though I will stick to my guns in that Diablo 3 is an impractical game for LAN, though I acknowledge your viewpoint. I just don't think Blizzard is going to change their minds on this one no matter what anyone says.

Isnt the symbol more of the artist's own personal symbol that he puts in all of his work? Meaning it wouldnt be true to just warcraft. And if Blizzard said "hm we need some ice for the teaser, who should we ask to draw it" I think I would take the guy working on the WOTK.

Why don't you try googling it? Actually make an effort to find stuff on your own before you go asking for stuff.


First of all, do this:

Google "how do i make wc3 heroes higher level in world editor" as I did in this picture.




Click on the link I highlighted.

Press Ctrl+F and type in "hero level" in the little box.






And that is all there is to it. So easy. Stop being lazy and research your own stuff.

I joined some time ago but never had a chance to post until now, so I've not had any interest in reading many posts until just now, and I find that the "Tyrael = bad" formula is somewhat frowned upon. Woops. Well, read and see if this is still worth it. :3

Now, I'm not one for prophecies. Downright detest them, honestly. They always spoil the ending -- and the ending here is that Sanctuary dies. There are multiple prophecies recited throughout Diablo II material and various iterations thereof, and the following are the elements I wish to focus on: that, according to Lan Esen by way of Alkor, Sancutary is destined for ruination; the Prime Evil's defeat is "illusory", and they've yet to play the "final gambit"; and that the lore of each character faction (Druids, Barbarians, Amazons, etc.) assert that Sanctuary, by the end of days, shall no longer by at the whim of outside powers. For quick and easy reference, I quote the Prophecies:

Quote from name="Prophecy of Lam Esen (presumably) " »

"And the evil that was once vanquished shall rise anew. Wrapped in the 'guise of man, shall He walk among the innocent and Terror shall consume they that dwell upon the Earth. Behold, the war amongst the Heavens shall not be contained and the sons of man shall be engulfed in the flood of conflict, and all hope shall be lost unto them. And He shall make war upon the Heavens, and the Heavens shall gur themselves as for battle. The righteous shall fall upon the wicked and lay siege to the very gates of Hell. And He shall take peace from mankind and loose great Destruction upon the Earth. The Lord of Hatred shall ascend his throne, and the fires of Hell shall devour all. And He shall meet out his vengeance upon all flesh and the blood of innocence shall run as great torrents. Who then shall be saved?"

Quote from Prophecy of Bul-Kathos »

"And a child will cradle Terror in his breast as the heart of man falls under the shadow.
A Wanderer will pass through the ancient lands trailing chaos in his wake.
The Three Brothers will be reunited as the mortal world trembles before their might.
And so it was foretold that the Three, once reunited, would be shattered again—
Their defeat would be illusory—that the final gambit had yet to be played..."

"And now at last the storm surges forth from the southlands, and the hand of Destruction
Reaches out to undo the workings of the Ancients. The tides of Hell surge—ready to smash
Down upon the shores of the mortal world — to drown the guilty and the innocent alike."

Quote from name="Athulua (Amozonia) »

"[The Amazon's'] oracles long ago predicted the Dark Exile, and they have been preparing to combat it ever since. Amazons regard the destruction of the Three Prime Evils as their destiny, ushering in a new era when mortal men and women can at long last take their rightful place in the universe, no longer merely playthings for the beings of the Outer Realms."

Assuming all of these prophecies are accurate -- and many HAVE been fulfilled thus far by that Band of Adventurers -- then there is obviously some contradictions, making them mutually exclusive. Right? Not necessarily. This is where I, one who specializes in speculation and ramblings, do what I do best. The following is just a possiblity of what may be to come.

A major problem facing a continuation of the Diablo franchise centers on the fact that two of the Souls Stones have been destroyed, supposedly casting Diablo and Mephisto to the furthest most reaches of the Abyss. (Digression: I, for one, consider the scenario where Lillith reincarnates the Three as apocryphal.) However, in Mephisto's case I see an easy solution: it is known that he corrupted the High Council of Zakarum with shards of his Soul Stone, the largest of which was implanted in the hand of the Que-Hagan of that Order. What of the other shards? Certainly the Council Members were killed, but their shards were left unacconted for. Might it be possible that a risiduum of Mephisto's essence remains? Obviously. Moreover, were the shards re-united, he may manifest in an even greater, more powerful form, given that their collective mass/energy would probably surpass that of the Stone held by the Que-Hagan. This would then validate the Prophecy wherein it is stated that "The Lord of Hatred ascends his Throne". Mephisto has thrown the Zakarum into chaos and left them decimated. Too, the Eastern Jungles are a loci of great power, so it's reasonable that many of the local mage clans have also suffered heavily. Lastly, Mephisto hasn't received his due, in my opinion, though his influence is arguably the most far reaching in Sanctuary: he bent the Zakarum to his will, clamped down on the East, and sent forth lieutenants to Tristram resulting in Diablo's release.

Now, what of Diablo? After rallying the legions of hell, his Stone was shattered at the Hell Forge, casting him into the Abyss. (Note a curiosity here: a band of mortals succede at punching through the Hellish legions and ripping out its black heart, where demigods strove to do just this for aeons but failed...) For his return I see little alternative than to again pull upon Mephisto, who may have provided his brother a shard as a backup to take to Hell. It is my belief that Diablo rallied those demonic legions that once helped overthrow he and his brothers, leaving the greater bulk of the loyalists relatively unscathed. Why? Loyalty is a fickle thing, and The Three simply used the lesser evils -- Andariel, Duriel -- and their adherents. As I'll explain later, the Three may have smelled trouble brewing in Hell, and modified their plans accordingly...

Finally, Baal. We know little of his fate, other than that he succeded in corrupting the World Stone, the bridge between the realms. Before its destruction at the hands of Tyrael, Baal's spiritual essence fled into the Stone. Where to from there? According to my hypothesis -- HEAVEN!

See where this might be going? Mephisto remains at large in Sanctuary; Diablo lingers on in Hell; and Baal, by the power of the World Stone (which, as I've read, was created by the Angels, particularly Inarius) awaits in Heaven. Each of them is positioned in each of the dominant Realms. I'll leave this you with this ominous message as I jump to another strand of my web of intrigue.


Enter Tyrael. Rebel, forger of Orders, curiously neglectful, and refuses to adhere to the dictates of Heavenly isolationism. Repeatedly he intervenes on the part of Mankind, to the chagrine of his colleagues. My hypothesis?

Tyrael is dead.

The entity leading the Heroes is an imposter; none other than Belial, Lord of Lies. Having witnessed that the Prime Evils' efforts in the mortal plane, Belial slays Tyrael and takes his place (or, perhaps, "Tyrael" was created by Belial to begin with) and attempts to stop the Brothers in Sanctuary. This would explain Belial's absence. In the end, pulling upon the powers granted him by both Heaven and Hell, "Tyrael" destroys the World Stone and severs all three realms. But to what end? To fulfill the prophecies, of course -- to ensure that SANCTUARY comes to dominance. With the World Stone destroyed, the remainder of the demonic legions on earth are left stranded, as are those Angels who followed "Tyrael". And as we know, Outer Beings are left weak without a connection to their home realms, and can maintain their existence only through using humans and their souls. Maybe it is Tyrael's/Belial's plan to wait out the aeons, rally those Outer Being survivors and lead them in this new world, where they shall corrupt and possess all of mankind, the most plentiful source of energy through out the realms. Years into the future, when the link between the three realms is re-established, Belial will have succeded where Diablo, Mephisto and Baal "failed" -- procuring an endless source of spiritual, HUMAN energy, and directing it via an Angelic and Demonic alliance against both Heaven and Hell. In this way, Sanctuary is no longer at the whim of outside forces.

It is at this time that The Three, strategically located in Heaven, Earth and Hell, pull their final gambit, using an unwitting Belial as he used them, and strike out with a ferocity this world -- no world -- has ever witnessed.


All will quake with Fear.


Hatred leads to suffering.


And the suffering begets the final Destruction.






Afterword

One strand to tie up: Asmodan. What has the lord of Sin been up to? I've no clue, honestly, but I think he had something to do with the onset of the SIN Wars. Perhaps it was he who secretly suggested to the Three totake Sanctuary as their own, and used this as an excuse to unite the other Evils together in an attempt to overthrow them. Of course, he vainly believed Heaven would abandon its own defense to aid Mankind against the banished Three; actually, they would up doing the exact opposite, fortifying their realm even further. But again, where does he FIT? Sins lead to Terror, Hatred, Destruction, Lies, Pain and Anguish....

Another prominant character whose fate is unknown is Horazon the Summoner. He vanished, leaving some depraved Vizjerei contemporary of Drognan to take up his mantle. Might he prove pivitol in empowering the Three, or re-establishing a balance between all Realms? Will he at some point embody one of the Evils? I see no reason that Horazon, possessed by the essence of Mephisto, could not take advantage of the blurring of the lines between the Realms and pull Diablo's essence from the Abyss before it is fully diluted. The ensuing chaos and a quick marshalling of demonic forces could liberate Baal's Soul Stone from Tyrael's clutches, allowing for his own reincarnation as well. Who knows.

I don't have the PDF version either.

"'We like you, made false assumptions about this place, false assumptions about the creatures spawned by both our kind.'
A blazing red eye materialized, then winked in the direction of Auriel, who utterly ignored it."

It doesn't say it had a different name (At least I'm pretty sure it doesn't), it says its name "Kiss of Mephisto" was meant for someone of whom Lucion would not speak.

Quote from "Equinox" »

To Atrumentis
Well, if you ask me, you should do the exact opposite of what Obalobex told you...

I'd turn away from that as "jerkish attitude". I don't like guys who think they are the top of the world. Confident, sure, but not a superstar. The guy has to win a girl, because a guy is stronger, smarter, on the general scale. But the girl shouldn't be too proud, either. E.g. they should just get together and talk. No stupid hard to get games, no games at all. Just be sincere and honest. If one of you is a liar or a jerk, it would be visible.

Oohh, right, and the girl is going to be like "he doesn't like me" and never talk to him again. That's how it would be for me. If a guy is cold toward me and doesn't express anything, I assume he's either not interested or has a girlfriend already. I don't understand how this advice would help get a certain block of girls. It would probably help with "naggy" girls who get a target and aim at it, but I prefer to be polite. If the guy has no interest in me, I am not going to bug him.

All the best girls are kinda shy and they want attention from guys. Not the other way around. Guys are the requesters. They should pay attention. If the girl starts using that attention, wrong girl. In rare cases, girls are requesters, then it's the other way around. In fact, I think the idea of girl requesters is getting kinda popular, lol...

Why would you want a girl that chases you? That girl is probably a bit dumb...

Good girls are rare, and good guys are rare, and both are to be valued and respected.

Obalobex, your advice is for getting whores. But, I guess, what did I want from a fucktard.

Wow, someone is hostile. I'm not saying to be cocky or anything like that. Equinox, you are a girl? I assume you are from your phrasing. I refute your declaration of me being a fucktard or trying to pick up whores. I am a nice guy, but there are some things that are psychologically programed into your brains that are simply evolutionary. You evolutionarily want a man who is of high value to you, a man who is sensitive and yet strong, a with the attributes to grant you the highest chance of survival and the survival of your offspring. I don't pick up whores or sluts, in fact my standards are high and I do not have random hook-ups really, and I generally like girls for the company.

When I said "like a superstar" I meant have the confidence and the self perceived high value that you would think Brad Pitt would have. And I didn't say I want girls to "chase" you, but they have to be interested in you and eager to learn more about you.

Put yourself in the position of being in a bar with a couple other girls Equi, now imagine a man approaching you. If he came directly towards you, staring at you, speaking hesitantly and only to you, saying "I'm James, I like you, can we talk? want to dance?" would you really be that interested in him? Especially if he was of a lower social value (not as attractive) as you, then the answer is no.

If instead you see him right next to your group talking with a couple girls (jealousy switch activated) smiling then leans over a shoulder and asks your entire group something like "hey, can I get an opinion from you guys?" Not even looking directly at you. He is totally non-interested in you, not trying to GET anything from you, just talking to you and your friends. He already has women in his life as seen and he is not TOTALLY in to you, just being social. He is not threatening at all, and you evolutionarily will be MORE attracted to him than the man who came directly to you.

This sort of social dynamics I don't really have to think about before going to a public gathering or anything, I have been social my whole life so these principles comes naturally to me. However there are many many men out there who simply have not had much experience talking to strangers and women or people who just fail to put them selves in the shoes of females.

Girls like attention yes, but they want it in a non-threatening way from a man who they perceive to be of high value. This is science, and programed into all females, despite what Equinox might say.

I agree.
Druids need more love!

I need to read a little more before I'd attempt to posit their relation to Trag'Oul, though.

Nice subject, Atru.