Median XL 2017

[void]

good work marco! nice to see pics of the progress

[Jampula]

Awesome work! Especially the dmg change as I myself hate these freaking big numbers on mxl... it's like I'm playing Final Fantasy or something.
Just waiting for Sigma to reduce them even more.

[UnDrac]

Great work!!! So a monster with 10,000HP will now have 9,992???

Actually what I'm thinking is more along the lines of Dmg/8 and HP/8

So a damage of 10000 would be 1250 while a monster HP will be 1250 instead of 10000.

But in the way the client and server handles values, let's say you'll be more likely to hit a hypothetical cap of 65536 damage or HP, but you'd have the ability to surpass that up to 100k, but only the first 65k counts

Reducing the values doesn't change that cap it's still at 65k but you're able to reach a higher value proportional to the reduction.
100k becomes 12.5k, so you now have full use of your maximum potential and you no longer have to worry about the cap (unless your damage surpassed the cap by almost 8 times already).

In a way you won't feel any difference in how fast you kill things or things kill you, as long as all the flat values are equally reduced to 1/8th of it's current value (that also includes added percentages from Base Stats and/or item stats, but I'm sure they came up with something that balances it all nicely).

That and the fact that math with small numbers is somewhat slightly easier than math with big numbers, not sure how much it would impact performance but it sure has to be a bonus considering memory mapping.

[-----]

Great work!!! So a monster with 10,000HP will now have 9,992???

Actually what I'm thinking is more along the lines of Dmg/8 and HP/8

So a damage of 10000 would be 1250 while a monster HP will be 1250 instead of 10000.

But in the way the client and server handles values, let's say you'll be more likely to hit a hypothetical cap of 65536 damage or HP, but you'd have the ability to surpass that up to 100k, but only the first 65k counts

Reducing the values doesn't change that cap it's still at 65k but you're able to reach a higher value proportional to the reduction.
100k becomes 12.5k, so you now have full use of your maximum potential and you no longer have to worry about the cap (unless your damage surpassed the cap by almost 8 times already).

In a way you won't feel any difference in how fast you kill things or things kill you, as long as all the flat values are equally reduced to 1/8th of it's current value (that also includes added percentages from Base Stats and/or item stats, but I'm sure they came up with something that balances it all nicely).

That and the fact that math with small numbers is somewhat slightly easier than math with big numbers, not sure how much it would impact performance but it sure has to be a bonus considering memory mapping.

You're right. I was just making a bad joke

[ricardas374]

So I have a question: do you have to update the client manually or what? I don't know how these updates are downloaded so I can play them, do I just need the mxl mod downloaded and it updates automatically or what?

Also what are heroic shields?

[Nitz]

So I have a question: do you have to update the client manually or what? I don't know how these updates are downloaded so I can play them, do I just need the mxl mod downloaded and it updates automatically or what?

Also what are heroic shields?

Yeah you will probably have to download the new patch from the official site, then replace your game.mpq file in your D2 directory or D2se Mods folder with it.

Heroic Bosses, Dest Baal and some others have an annoying heroic shield that makes them immune to everything but sometimes they randomly lose one or more resistances and you can damage them.

[Marco]

100% DS on any wdm char going to be new meta?

Well, even though "deadly strike" sounds deadly it's an ok stat, it's pretty much a wdm pierce equivalent. Plus, you can only get up to 20% with orbs.

I think max orbs per item will be nerfed too.... anyway 2% DS and 4 lvl req... so 1% for 2 lvl req. And i think also deadly strike will replace crushing blow so it's not that good.. As for Vizjun's Ball Bearing: Ok. There's at least 2 nearly useless stats and all for +10 lvl req. But It's still better than just 2% DS only (+4 lvl somewhere for 10% run/walk, +6 lvl somewhere for 6 dex)

And where did you read %CB orb is being removed?
Most UMOs are rather terrible now, so the comparisions don't do much atm.

Very nice! I was wondering if the purchasable MO will be removed from the drop pool... that would be another nice improvement, imho

Yes that is done already.

In a way you won't feel any difference in how fast you kill things or things kill you, as long as all the flat values are equally reduced to 1/8th of it's current value (that also includes added percentages from Base Stats and/or item stats, but I'm sure they came up with something that balances it all nicely).

That and the fact that math with small numbers is somewhat slightly easier than math with big numbers, not sure how much it would impact performance but it sure has to be a bonus considering memory mapping.

Thanks for clarifying to others since I gave it for granted.
Indeed this reduction will effectively translate to damage increase to all skills that were having damage cap issues.
And yes, one of the nice things suchbalance mentioned after this implementation is that numbers feel much more natural now.

So I have a question: do you have to update the client manually or what? I don't know how these updates are downloaded so I can play them, do I just need the mxl mod downloaded and it updates automatically or what?

We (Quirinus mostly) have been working on a launcher that does everything for you, for quite some time. We will certainly launch this new median version together with it, which will make the whole installation AND updating process completely automatic.

[Nitz]

Yes that [Removing buyable MOs from drop pool] is done already.

We (Quirinus mostly) have been working on a launcher that does everything for you, for quite some time. We will certainly launch this new median version together with it, which will make the whole installation AND updating process completely automatic.

SWEEEEEET

[-----]

That and the fact that math with small numbers is somewhat slightly easier than math with big numbers, not sure how much it would impact performance but it sure has to be a bonus considering memory mapping.

For a computer the cost of math on small numbers is identical to large numbers assuming the values are stored with the same variable type. The memory mapping (pointer size?) also depends on variable type, not value. So I think there should be no impact on performance with respect to lower damage/hp values unless they were very ambitious to move ints to shorts, implement reduced precision floats, etc. (thereby lowering the damage cap, too)

[UnDrac]

That and the fact that math with small numbers is somewhat slightly easier than math with big numbers, not sure how much it would impact performance but it sure has to be a bonus considering memory mapping.

For a computer the cost of math on small numbers is identical to large numbers assuming the values are stored with the same variable type. The memory mapping (pointer size?) also depends on variable type, not value. So I think there should be no impact on performance with respect to lower damage/hp values unless they were very ambitious to move ints to shorts, implement reduced precision floats, etc. (thereby lowering the damage cap, too)

Was actually talking about doing the math ... like you know ... pen and paper. xD
I know ... call me a nerd, but I like to juggle numbers in my head sometimes and big numbers ... tend to do "wordwrap" in my head and I get confused, even if the info is easily available.

And for the memory mapping part, I really don't have any experience coding other than some "hello world" in java and a small-ish stats calculator for a game (no interface, just inputting the stats on a command window and printing out the results in a spreadsheet like format) so that just came outta my arse.