WELCOME!

Hello everyone. I'm new here. Male, 32 years old, married... completely new to the Diablo universe (I still haven't play any Diablo but will start as soon as my Diablo 1 & 2 + Expansions copies arrive).

Clearly I have a few doubts, maybe someone over here will be kind enough to help me out:

1. Would you recommend me to play the original Diablo 2 before trying the XL enhancement?
2. Is the XL enhancement aiming at improving the game or rather at creating an entirely new experience?
3. Where can I go for help if I have problems installing the XL?
4. I've seen a few variants to the official XL, most notoriously "Sigma", which has its own zone on this forum, is "Median XL Ultimative XVc" the best one, or the answer may be highly subjective?
5. If I find myself in problems to progress in the adventure, a regular walkthrough from Gamefaqs will be enough to help me out or I may need to ask the creators of this patch for help?
6. How would you describe the levels of difficulty in XL? I mean, I noticed you're talking about a better AI and some stuff being exclusive to the hardest mode, so I am a little bit worried about it.
7. Do I need a tutorial in order to be able to get the best out of this enhancement? If so, where can I find it?

While I've never played a Diablo game in my life, I'm not completely ignorant on videogames or strategy games. I played Age of Empires I a shitload years ago, a few years later I played Age of Mythologies and enjoyed the PSX era (became a pro at Tekken 3 and enjoyed a few jewels, such as MGS1).

The thing is I stopped playing videogames a long time ago, and I've never really been much into this kind of games, but given the huge status of Diablo I decided to make a come back to videogames. Right now I'm planning to dedicate Diablo some serious time and dedication, so any kind of help regarding my 7 questions will be highly appreciated.

Augusto wrote:Hello everyone. I'm new here. Male, 32 years old, married... completely new to the Diablo universe (I still haven't play any Diablo but will start as soon as my Diablo 1 & 2 + Expansions copies arrive).

Clearly I have a few doubts, maybe someone over here will be kind enough to help me out:

1. Would you recommend me to play the original Diablo 2 before trying the XL enhancement?
2. Is the XL enhancement aiming at improving the game or rather at creating an entirely new experience?
3. Where can I go for help if I have problems installing the XL?
4. I've seen a few variants to the official XL, most notoriously "Sigma", which has its own zone on this forum, is "Median XL Ultimative XVc" the best one, or the answer may be highly subjective?
5. If I find myself in problems to progress in the adventure, a regular walkthrough from Gamefaqs will be enough to help me out or I may need to ask the creators of this patch for help?
6. How would you describe the levels of difficulty in XL? I mean, I noticed you're talking about a better AI and some stuff being exclusive to the hardest mode, so I am a little bit worried about it.
7. Do I need a tutorial in order to be able to get the best out of this enhancement? If so, where can I find it?

While I've never played a Diablo game in my life, I'm not completely ignorant on videogames or strategy games. I played Age of Empires I a shitload years ago, a few years later I played Age of Mythologies and enjoyed the PSX era (became a pro at Tekken 3 and enjoyed a few jewels, such as MGS1).

The thing is I stopped playing videogames a long time ago, and I've never really been much into this kind of games, but given the huge status of Diablo I decided to make a come back to videogames. Right now I'm planning to dedicate Diablo some serious time and dedication, so any kind of help regarding my 7 questions will be highly appreciated.

Welcome!
1. Yes, just to experience that wonderful game. It's not necessary to play d2 before playing median, but you will have some basics after vanilla walkthrough.
2. Both. Subjectively it is an improvement, but the experience is completely different.
3. Guide section in the forums.
4. Sigma is a WiP project, it is slowly being developed. XVc is the latest version and I suggest playing it as most of the people here are. It's not 'better' than older versions, but it's probably the most balanced. If you decide to play on our realm, there are a few new features not available in singe player.
5. The story is the same as in original Diablo 2, but the difficulty is different. Gamefaq might help with story, but if you get stuck on enemies or in an area then I suggest asking specifically or looking into a full character guide(those usually cover early game).
6. If you've never played vanilla Diablo 2 then it's hard to compare the difficulty to anything. You basically play the game 3 times(Hatred/Terror/Destruction), each time the difficulty is higher. You keep your character and can freely switch between difficulties. The regular story mode can be completed by anyone without too much trouble. The 'endgame' is usually referred to 'ubers', which are special areas that do not appear in vanilla Diablo 2 and are designed to be much harder than the regular game. The best items are available only in the highest difficulty mode(Destruction).
7. The mod is complex and there are many things which aren't intuitive. The best source of knowledge would be the documentation. This is basically our bible and we often send new players to study it. This is a long read, but you don't need to know everything. Cube recipes and challenges sections are probably the most important ones for a new player.

If you dicede to play Median and ever find yourself stuck you can always ask here, in the shoutbox, or, if you decide to play on realm, in the game lobby.

Thanks a lot...!

Please tell me there is a PDF version of that documentation...!!!

There isn't, but you can download the html version to have offline. It's on Information/About page, 2nd link below the picture.

Welcome. Get ready to become addicted. My advice is to just play Median. Especially online realm. There's no mod like it...period. You have a great modder, sweet docs for reference and a pretty neat forum with some hardcore veteran players to help you in case you're stuck. Just use the short questions thread and read the docs cause it's the only Bible you should ever read and need in life.

Enjoy!

Now that I think about it, I never introduced myself in here and it has been almost three weeks lol..

Hello, my name is Brian *hello Brian*, you know me more as Proff.Glasses or the guy with the cereals/millions of amazons on stream. Im almost 23, and I love to pew pew monsters on stream. I've been playing/lurking median on sp for 1 year and a half, and I've been streaming all my MP adventures on my channel (http://www.twitch.tv/kittensspitacid), where u can see me dying 400 times go get my quovtsin charm with my bowzone pantheon set.
I'm a musician, or thats what people say and a pro player (1500 on europe League of Trollers) so, thats it. Report me, hammer me, Veil king me and vroom vroom! :flip:

Probably better to use the actual Introduction Thread here:
viewtopic.php?f=9&t=147

Augusto wrote:snip

01001010 (also known as "J" or "binary guy") gave you a very good rundown of the game and the mod in his 7 answers, but I'll also give my two cents.

1. I think you should play the games. You'll find that d2 contains elements of d1 lore and expands them, and you'll find median has elements of diablo lore in general that were left out from d2 (mainly in the form of uberlevels and items). Also by playing original d2 (also referred as cLoD -- classic Lord of Destruction) you'll kow what changed in the mod (almost everything) and you'll be better able to form and express your opinion on the mod, hopefully in the form of constructive criticism.

4. As J said, Sigma is a work in progress mainly aimed at improving d2's engine, whose bugs and limits have become apparent to modders after 15 years. Right now sigma doesn't exist; the current Median XL iteration is called Ultimative and the current version is XVc. You may read about a XVr version. That's the version currently running on The Sin War (median's realm) but you don't have to download it, it runs on top of XVc when you connect to the realm.

5. If you're struggling with cLoD you can check on gamefaqs or similar sites, if you're struggling with median you can check out and ask questions in the sort questions thread

6. Diablo 2 has 3 difficulty levels called normal, nightmare and hell. You start at normal and when you finish the game you can start it again at nightmare, etc. Median, being based on d2, has the same mechanic but changes the difficulty names to hatred, terror and destruction (based on d2's main bosses: Mephisto, Diablo and Baal). The highest difficulty doesn't bring any AI change, but it's where uberlevels will drop their highest prize: the boss charm. Don't worry about it now, it'll become clear when you decide to start playing median.

Okaaaay... my copies haven't arrive yet and I'm kind of hyped. I've been trying really hard to remain far from youtube in order to avoid seeing anything (lol). So, how much would it take me to finish the game? Diablo 1 and then Diablo 2...?

It's kind of weird being hyped by such an old game... right?