The unique builds friendly diablo 2 mod + getting the game to run on windows 11

[imperfectionisperfection]

mirror from https://svenskadikter.com/Dq

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/lIngCldI6Z0

INFO

this allows you to use any skill in the game, at level 1. you spawn with a book of skill, and there are no pre-requisites at all, and no max amount of points you can put in a skill either.

this will make it easier for people doing videos such as this one www.youtube.com/watch?v=g3sLljKnNGs

or just for anyone wanting to try a unique skill setup, without having to reach up to level 30 to put a single point into it.

i have tried modding the game 3 times, first after modding got easier with a patch, then some years ago, then a month ago.

this is part of an edit which is quite easy to make yourself. to balance it would take too long for me. im not that clever, i just get cool ideas. eventually after reaching higher level / difficulties, the skills will balance themselves out (if they are feasable). anyway, i have modded it quite some (especially back in the days), but i gave up after just balancing 1 skill seemed too difficult all the way from lvl1 to hell baal, and i do not have the txts of that mod left anymore. i have modded the game more than this recently, but figured i should re-mod with what would be most interesting for the youtube community. changing things around more would probably anger most.

and anyway, this is what the game, or really, any RPG; is about. i wonder how many people really know it means Role Playing Game. you play a role, a character, a unique character, not a cookie cutter like everyone else to "impress" people. its about the immersion. back in the days, even before youtube, i loved reading stories about peoples attempts at managing to overcome the game with weird builds, both on the lurker lounge, amazon basin, and the many other fansites.

MODDING

to make it yourself:

download mpqeditor, it has 64-bit support www.zezula.net/en/mpq/download.html for the program listfiles are needed as well, 10mb, scroll to bottom.

download AFJ tbl Editor d2mods.info/forum/viewtopic.php?t=15454

start mpqeditor, open patch_d2.mpq, extract skills.txt, misc.txt and charstats.txt

open d2exp.mpq, extract local/lng/eng (or whatever your language) expansionstring.tbl

download d2mods.info/forum/viewtopic.php?t=15454

move the "data" folder one step up (from "work").

i was going to recommend a lightweight diablo 2 excel clone, but the one i tried was buggy. google sheets works, all you need is a gmail account. just open the .txt in notepad.exe, copy to google sheets, do the edits, copy back to notepad, save.

open skills.txt (these are in data/global/excel)

remove anything in the columns reqlevel, maxlvl, reqskill1, reqskill2, reqskill3.

save and exit

this part is thanks to d2mods.info/forum/viewtopic.php?t=67774

open misc.txt, copy the whole row "book of skill" to the end of the txt, rename "Book of Starting Skill, remove whats in "quest" and "questdiffcheck", change item type to "misc", change code to "asz", set pspell to "3", stat1 to "newskills", and calc1 to "1".

open charstats.txt, for every character, in the row item6, enter "asz" and in item6count enter "1"

save and exit

HOW TO PLAY ON LATER WINDOWS VERSIONS

go to your game directory, is probably C:\Program Files (x86)\Diablo II, create a shortcut to "diablo II" (rightclick and drag), rightclick on it, click "properties" (alt+enter). in "target", add -window -direct -txt. the game bugs out in fullscreen mode on later windows versions (thus the use of the "window" parameter), so remember to reduce the resolution of your screen (rightclick on desktop, click "screen settings"). the most presentable i find (without getting black bars on the side) is 1280x720, after having set the game resolution to 800x600.

without using "window" you get graphics blinking in and out all the time. some people think this is with newer windows versions forcing "vertical sync", but i wonder.