D2 and high runes - what to do?

[yerkyerk]

Tonight I had been playing D2 again with a friend, just for kicks, on Single Player.
We used plugY and we like that it gives us full access to the game - the ability to respeccing of skill - and attributepoints make the game all the more interesting to us.

Now, the following problem occurs; the highest of runes are near impossible to find in the game. We use plugY to get full access to the game (as well as some other neat options), but some stoned smokers, also known as Blizzard devs, decided to make the chance of finding a high rune so incredibly low that Al Bundy at a feminist convention has more chance of getting lucky than you have a chance at finding a high rune.
I'm not going to farm for them, as I would consider it to be impossible to find them even if I would.

So, what we need, is some way to increase the odds. Since we play in Single Player, pretty much everything is possible (we can simply add everything to the game we would want). We can have rules about when to get those high runes - or we could download dropmods that only affect the chances of high runes dropping (do those even exist?). We don't want other dropchances to increase, we just want to have a good chance at finding high runes - but not so good that there's no excitement in finding them anymore.

[Nuwine]

The standard D2 way of getting them legit is to play ladder so you can use the cube to keep going up the rune tiers. I guess there might be a way to put that into your single player game somehow as it has already been implemented in the online ladder play. Not to mention the ladder play adds numerous other recipes amongst other things. One thing you will never get without multiplayer is an annihlus charm whish is an uber inventory item. Other ridiculous items i dunno if you can get in single player would be the ultra sexy torches as well. The ladder and online play does actually add to the game quiote a bit imo.

[yerkyerk]

Well, plugY actually allows that kind of stuff in single player (torches, annihilus (sell a SoJ to spawn uberdiablo)), crafting, etc...


All you need to get a Zod is 835,884,417,000 Els
Anyway, cubing a high rune is not a viable option.

[Nuwine]

Well, it is the way the devs set the game up so I guess you can do whatever though. Also the lower runes only go up so far so in theory what your saying is wrong. I haven't played D2 in years though so I dont remember specifics, but I believe around the lvl 45 runes and down could be synthes as hi as the lvl 45 runs, then the rest up. This by no means is the actual system this is from a 3 y/o memory.

[Soranor]

I'm sure there are mods that give high runes a better drop chance. Just google them and maneuver past all the hacks that are usually found at the same places where the mods are. ;)

In my experience though high runes were never meant to be nearly as abundant than in online games, where people just dupe them. Basically, all that runewords do is the same as set/unique/rare items do, but they're a bit better at that. If you increase the runedrops then a lot of uniques will become obsolete, which is sad if you want the thrill of finding something. Also, some very good runewords can quite easily be created (found) in vanilla D2.

[yerkyerk]

True - but the runewords that require high runes can never be created. Only for people with no life at all - but they should have serious RSI problems, so won't be able to do much with it either. I think people keep overestimating the chances to find them - they are, truly, ridiculously low. It's stupid.

The only reason you see people with hr stuff online so much, is because of dupes.

[BlueNinja]

I know there's a mod to let you combine runes infinitely up to Zod. My wife and I used it when we used to play Diablo2 on a regular basis with each other. Once we'd gotten a mule up to having one complete rune of every type, we made a backup of his file to ensure we'd never have to go through it again.

[Haktar]

I recall that playerX command can increase overall drop rates (along with monster numbers and toughness), maybe that's the way you should go?

[yerkyerk]

Well, there's no problem in obtaining the runs illegitemately. I use plugY and that lets you combine runes - I also had a program that let you create whatever you'd want, so I could insert any runes I want in the game even without the hassle of cubing them. But the problem is that I need to find a balance in it - they still have to be rare so we can still get excited when we get one and feel like we earned it, but not so ridiculously rare that we'll never even find one - and even a single hr is mostly useless at that.

"/players 8" does indeed increase overall droprates and monster toughness, and though we use it, it's probably not ever going to net a single hr in hundreds of hours of playing...

The highest I ever found in the game, after extensive periods of farming, was a Gul. And that doesn't qualify as a high rune.

[Terca]

I recall that playerX command can increase overall drop rates (along with monster numbers and toughness), maybe that's the way you should go?

As far as I recall /player x doesnt increase rune drops at all.

I know there are mods that let hr drop of every mob killed, so I'm pretty sure there is something out there for you :)

[yerkyerk]

"/players x" decreases the chance for monsters to roll a "no drop", effectively increasing their chance to drop stuff - I think this includes runes.

But, well, heh, I'm not looking for a mod where I can find hr's for every mob I kill. I'm looking for a balance of finding hr's that I feel the devs failed to provide.

[Tyr]

"/players 8" doesn't necessarily increase rune drops, but it does increase the drop rate and quality of item drops in general. Unfortunately if you try to upgrade a rune drop the higher level rune has a lower chance of dropping, and as a result you'll probably get the alternative drop which is some other rare or magical item or whatever. This is in terms of a single monster, however (like bosses). If you plan to take on an entire act then turning on "/players 8" would be better because it increases the overall drop rate of items.

The best way to farm runes today are by doing Countess runs. The Hell Forge quests also gives good runes. People who are interested in completing certain runewords usually do Countess runs a lot because she has a better chance of dropping a high level rune simply as a default drop. Avoid using "/players 8" on her though, it forces her to drop a "better" item which may not be a rune.

[Nuwine]

I have done so so so many countess runs and yes she drops great runes, and for ladders cubing I spent quite a few months in her tower, but other runs I did with it were for the items to pop the uber worlds and get torches, and I believe she also drops 1 of those very items. Then the act 2 summoner and another npc in act 5, the total run only took about 5-8 minutes with a hammerdin, which is by far the best farming char in the game though a bit cheesy, only excels with the enigma runeword though as alot of non sorc classes for farming. I cubed up to the runeword long before I entered hell difficulty however and the entire normal game is just way to easy as a hammerdin with enigma.

[Redvex]

/Players 8 actually reduces the %nodrop from monsters. It does not "increase" quality.
Just clear lvl85 areas to get more rune drops (and socketed stuff). Running bosses is the worst way to drop some (except Council Members)

At P5+ areas like Cow Level are a lot more interesting, also for charms. (Hell Bovine has an awfully huge %nodrop)
Tbh, it'd farm CS area a lot (and i did ^^ )

Also, you can tweak the rune drop yourself from the txt files.

[yerkyerk]

Also, you can tweak the rune drop yourself from the txt files.

Really? How does that work, exactly?

[Redvex]

You can extract the txt files from the patch_D2.mpq file and edit them as you like (D2Excel recommended :) )

You can get some tools from that website (safe link)
http://constancejill.free.fr/D2LoD.htm

The page aint uptodate though, there are txt packages but not from 1.12.

Dont forget the -direct -txt command and place the edited files in matching folder
(D2\data\global\excel\ if i remember correctly)

[yerkyerk]

Ah, thanks very much. I'll probably try that. Now I have to figure out a good weighing :)

[Tyr]

/Players 8 actually reduces the %nodrop from monsters. It does not "increase" quality.
I said in general. Some specific drops are affected by the number of players around, like the Countess'.

[Redvex]

Check the files, afaik she as a max number of drops (i'd say 7) the game "rolls" each one based on her %nodrop (quite low, just like act bosses and such).
Rolls are %rune, %junk etc... you wont get 2+ Vex Runes or 2x Soj just because of other people being around.

Sometimes you can get a drop without runes, or 3 keys at once or almost nothing, not even junk...

It's just she has a very very low %nodrop quickly adjusted almost at 0 when not alone in game.
The only "specific drop' she has is this: Key of Terror (3%) and the biggest %rune (up to Ohm) of the game. And the fact she's a Super Unique monster.

[Megika]

"What to do?"

My own personal suggestion: download and play this mod. (http://modsbylaz.planetdiablo.gamespy.com/) It's much better balanced, in my opinion, and a lot of drop rates are considerably higher, so it's actually possible and fun to get the highest runes.

Every item and every skill in the game is replaced, and lots of mechanics are changed. Also, every single skill in the game is useful, unlike cLoD (classic Lord of Destruction).

Best of all, it's ridiculously easy to install and uninstall - just copy the patch_d2.mpq into your Diablo 2 folder, and play. Make a backup of the file in case you don't like it - alternately, you can just manually download the most recent patch.

[Tyr]

I think I complicated things. I'll try rephrase my point as correctly as I can: "/players 8" gives you more items, and as a result more magical, rares, uniques, etc. That's basically it.
I once downloaded a mod that makes the cows in the cow levels drop runes exclusively, I'll try to find that mod.

[yerkyerk]

Hm, I don't even know how to extract the patch_D2.mpq..

[Redvex]

If you need a tool to extract stuff from the mpq, i gave you a link with you can get 2, prolly MPQ Extractor :p

how to extract the patch_D2.mpq
I guess that was a typo, if it wasnt, just have a look in the main D2 folder.

[yerkyerk]

It wasn't a typo (dunno how it should be a typo actually?), looking in the main D2 folder didn't make anything more clear... I managed to extract the patch_d2.mpq file with the MPQ editor, but now I've got a bunch of .xxx, .dc6 and wav files. Still doesn't make much sense and, although I can play the wav files, I can't access the others with the D2 excel.

[bulletbutter]

Haha, I remember running ladder always thinking to myself, "Ill never see a rune over fal". So I said screw it and purchased another D2/LOD, installed it on my other computer and rushed my 6 year old to hellforge hundreds of times a month. With my soc a norm-hell rush only took about 20minutes assuming I could fing grush toons. I ended up cubing a crap ton of ists (the ones I didn't trade) to make all of my runewords.

[lufe]

I did actually once found a Vex, in the cow level. It was the richest experience in D2 gaming I've ever had, pity that it wasn't worth nothing in comparison with the thousands of duped runes around...