I'm playing this game yet again

[KingOfPain]

Of course the big development that came while I was playing this was the release of Resurrected.  I don't know if I want to get into that; my current computer isn't anywhere near the requirements, but it might finally be time to build a new one.  I'll see what happens, but for now I think this series is concluded, thanks for reading.

Just a quick info regarding D2R: to play it i finally pushed myself and upgraded my 11 year old 1.gen I7 from Windows 7 to Windows 10. Thx to pleny of RAM and SSD (both cheap updates today) there is no diffference in performance, so as long as your PC is not much older than mine it should do as a Win10 base. D2R uses about 5 Gigs of RAM while running, so aim for at least 8 Gigs of RAM and a fast disk/SSD to reduce load times: D2R is 28 Gigs in size.

However my GTX 760 is the noticable D2R performance bottleneck; i'll try to get something better as soon as prices are back to a reasonable range, hopefully an RTX 3060.

I got a new machine last year, i9 and all that. Runs fine, however, the fan goes on hyper active mode and quite loud. I haven't the time to investigate why yet, know anything?

[T-hawk]

My PC won't do for Resurrected at all. It's a Core 2 Duo from 2009, predating even the i3 core series. 4 GB RAM max. I just haven't had any interest in any games new enough to be worth bothering to upgrade. I think Civ 5 is still my most recent purchase on Steam.

superdeath, if you want more necro, tell Blizzard to give him a paladin's life total in the next patch and I'm all in

[superdeath]

My PC won't do for Resurrected at all.  It's a Core 2 Duo from 2009, predating even the i3 core series.  4 GB RAM max.  I just haven't had any interest in any games new enough to be worth bothering to upgrade.  I think Civ 5 is still my most recent purchase on Steam.

superdeath, if you want more necro, tell Blizzard to give him a paladin's life total in the next patch and I'm all in

Just dont get him killed! Dont need high life total if you dont get hit

[Dr.Disaster]

Of course the big development that came while I was playing this was the release of Resurrected.  I don't know if I want to get into that; my current computer isn't anywhere near the requirements, but it might finally be time to build a new one.  I'll see what happens, but for now I think this series is concluded, thanks for reading.

Just a quick info regarding D2R: to play it i finally pushed myself and upgraded my 11 year old 1.gen I7 from Windows 7 to Windows 10. Thx to pleny of RAM and SSD (both cheap updates today) there is no diffference in performance, so as long as your PC is not much older than mine it should do as a Win10 base. D2R uses about 5 Gigs of RAM while running, so aim for at least 8 Gigs of RAM and a fast disk/SSD to reduce load times: D2R is 28 Gigs in size.

However my GTX 760 is the noticable D2R performance bottleneck; i'll try to get something better as soon as prices are back to a reasonable range, hopefully an RTX 3060.

I got a new machine last year, i9 and all that. Runs fine, however, the fan goes on hyper active mode and quite loud. I haven't the time to investigate why yet, know anything?

I can think of multiple things for a CPU fan going wild:

1) Fan is set to full power in BIOS .. or it is set to full power by some chipset tool from the driver cd.
2) CPU temperatur sensor is either bad, disabled or set wrong, causing the fan to go ful speed -> BIOS check again
3) The heat sink was not seated properly so it can't transport the feat away from the CPU while the fan tried to keep the CPU from dying.
4) It could also be a cheap fan / heat sink combo, like those Intel includes with their CPU's -> replace with a better model

Let's hope it's not 3 since this requires disassembling and re-assembling the entire heat sink including cleaning stuff and fresh colling paste for the heat spreader.

[KingOfPain]

In case that wasn't clear, it only happens when I run D2R, even when I tried with lowest graphic settings

Thanks, at least some places to start the trouble shoot

[Dr.Disaster]

In case that wasn't clear, it only happens when I run D2R, even when I tried with lowest graphic settings

Thanks, at least some places to start the trouble shoot

Oh, when it's only running D2R: are you really certain it is the CPU fan?

Alt-Tab out of D2R and open task manager, then check the performance bars for CPU and GPU. I'm pretty sure the issue is the GPU fan.

When in-game my I7 is quite calm having 10 to 25 percent load while my 760 GPU is always maxed out but thx to her being a dual-fan model there is no noise.

[timmy827]

Thanks T-Hawk.  I fell off reading the past month but just caught up and it was a really educational read for someone who only dabbled in D2.

[T-hawk]

I put this writeup on my web site too: http://www.dos486.com/diablo/starteam4/

With the final equipment chart here, for those that like perusing that: http://www.dos486.com/diablo/starteam4/equipment.shtml

[Kylearan]

Hi T-hawk,

good to see you're still here doing interesting stuff!  

I really enjoyed your writeups. I bought D2R on the day it was released after not having played D2 for at least 15 years or so, and I'm really hooked again. To reacquaint myself with the game, my first goal was to solo the ubers, something I hadn't done back in the day, without any trading. I have a magic find barb for hunting uniques/set pieces, a javazon for hunting runes and bases, and finaly a kicksin for actually going after the ubers (almost there).

But I now start to remember what I didn't like about D2: The grinding, the power creep from certain runewords and how easy the core game becomes in SC with twinking, even without trading. I watched some modern build guides on YouTube and really had to roll my eyes at all the enigmas, inventories full of skillers and everyone having a CtA on switch. Where's the challenge, variance and fun in that?!?    I realized that's why I had preferred playing solo hardcore back in the day...

So I started to think about variants, remembered my favorite place for that and came back here. I really, really like your variant ruleset! It preserves the living-off-the-land, play-the-hand-you're-dealt mindset while making sure you still have a real chance at creating some runewords and making use of class-specific items. I think I wouldn't allow myself power-shopping, as it feels too much like grinding again and somewhat against the spirit of the ruleset; looking at what the vendors have to offer when you're in town anyway would still be fine of course. I also think about doing full clears on P1, but I'm not so sure yet if that's really a good idea and how it changes the challenge level, especially what level I could expect my characters to be at certain important points in the game.

I'm also not sure I'll have the time for a full set of seven characters, but reducing this to four or five chars might take out some of the fun (class items; fewer runes).  Maybe I just start with seven and see where it leads me; and maybe playing on a higher player count (and no full clears) actually speeds it up and makes it more doable? Hm...

Anyway, I probably should wait until patch 2.4 arrives to see what the skill changes they introduce; also I'll have to find out if there's a way to share items between single player characters in D2R, as playing hardcode on b.net might not be the best idea... Will think about my builds until then.

[Meiz]

Yes, single player does include shared stash tabs, so exhanging items between sp characters is easy.