| Date | Action |
|---|---|
| November 16, 2001 | Updated my links page. Added a link to my new Civilization III page, and moved links to some non-Diablo related pages from the index to the links page. |
| November 1, 2001 | Posted the final two chapters for Wussie Girl. You can navigate there by going through the link to my Diablo II page (unexpanded version) on the Expansion index page. This update is everything you've been waiting on, so don't miss it! |
| September 28, 2001 | Updated my links page: Starbabie's new site, plus restored the link to the LL, which will remain open as an archive site. Added a link to my new Jagged Alliance 2 site on my main index page. Announcing also the Expansion Elemental Strike Team page, where I'll have two different sets of rules (Easy and Challenging) for the Expanded EST, along with some reports from my ongoing team variant. Other promised updates are still in the works but coming a little more slowly than I expected. Also coming soon, an update to Steve's corner: his expansion adventures with Chain Lightning, and other Deep Truths from the host of the warpcore. |
| September 19, 2001 | I don't have any new content to post today, but I wanted to offer a few remarks. |
| I have not been playing much Diablo the past two weeks. The terrorist attacks are one of the factors, but not the primary reason. With the Lounge closing, I suddenly find that in not reading about and discussing the game on a near-daily basis, that my enthusiasm has waned. My dissatisfaction with the finer details of the expansion pack gameplay is probably the worst factor. We're nearing three months since the release, and I am still not finding the fun, for the most part. The arrgh factors have piled too high, and I am being called to other forms of entertainment, which I am currently finding more engaging. I've been getting much more enjoyment out of replaying some of my old favorites in the turn-based strategy category, and I am certainly going to pick up a game or two in that genre that I have been meaning to get around to, and play those. | |
| What all of this means to my site here, I do not yet know. I am still interested in continuing some of my characters, just not doing so right at this moment. Subpoena, for example, is still quite interesting to play, and I have taken him well into Nightmare already. I was very disappointed with Hotfoot, though. Not since Thrower stalled out with overweening tedium had I found one of my character designs simply not fun to continue, and the disappointment of what has happened to the sorceress class with the timers and other changes is very disenchanting to me. I will try to post the rules changes regarding the Hall of Heroes by the end of the week. The flow of new content to this site is going to slow a bit, but I do remain committed to continuing it, so stay tuned; but understand that updates won't be coming daily. | |
| I gave some serious thought to starting a forum here, but once again I have concluded that that's not the right decision for me. The warpcore has an operational forum in place, and I have administrative access to it, where I could add new rooms. The server can handle the traffic. However, I cannot handle the responsibility, nor do I desire to. I miss the Lounge, and unless it is replaced by somebody, at least up to a point, my ties to both the community and the game itself will continue to wane. Perhaps as I take this step back for a while, there will be a new forum in place when I return. There are several existing forums, and some of them are very busy, but I feel orphaned, and I am not willing to settle for adopting an existing forum just to have somewhere, anywhere, to go. There was a reason you never saw me interact much on the other forums. | |
| Most of my characters are ahead, in gameplay, of where their reports currently stand. It has always been this way, as my enthusiasm for the idea of things that sound fun often exceeds my commitment to follow through with the work of writing about them. I imagine much, but realize only some of my plans. That is how it should be. Conceiving of something and deciding to pursue it should not necessarily obligate one to have to follow through. One of the gifts of imagination is the opportunity to explore, and in exploring many options, you can find the ones most worthy of a deeper commitment. I'm sorry to say that the D2 Expansion is not turning out to be, on the whole, nearly as worthy as I hoped, but it still has its moments. My next two updates will concern the Hall of Heroes and the conclusion of Softcore Wussie. I'll see you then. | |
| September 16, 2001 | I've written another article, this an open letter to people of Islamic faith. |
| On Thursday, September 13, I took my housecat, a pet I've had for twelve years, to the veterinarian. Over the last year and a half, he had had increasing difficulty with eating. I knew that his teeth were going bad on him, but I never imagined that he would develop advanced cancer in his jaw. Over the last few weeks, he had gone from needing special attention with his meal preparation to help him eat, to requiring more and more attention, and ultimately refusing to eat at all. This was taking its toll on him as he lost weight over time. When he lost his will to eat at all, in the final days, he suffered dehydration and other effects that were sapping his will. He had begun to show signs of pain, moping around and demanding extra attention, to be comforted. I understood that he might be terminally ill, even, and that I might lose him soon. When I got the diagnosis, saw the extent of the disease for myself, I had to make a most difficult decision, on the spot, to end his sufferings, to put him down. I could have brought him home for a few days, but to be honest, he was already two days past enjoying any quality of life. He suffered in his last two days. He was a such a spirited animal, and had continued to eat and drink, albeit gingerly, through the pain, with me unaware of the severity of his affliction. I couldn't do that to him, to make him live through more of that just so I could take him home and hold and comfort him, and weep over him. So I held him for a few minutes, in private, and said my final goodbyes to him, then gave him to the vet to do what had to be done. | |
| The timing of this, and the suddenness of it... for all that I saw the possibility looming, I still had no understanding that the end might come so quickly. Accepting responsibility for a pet includes the eventual guarantee of its passing, as their lifespans can stretch only so long. I was, despite all my mental preparation, caught completely unprepared. This, while already grieving for my nation and fellow citizens. It has been a most difficult three days for me. I cannot even imagine what kind of Hell it has been for those who have lost people this week. I am holding up rather well, but everything in and around my home reminds me of my little buddy, and I miss him very much. It may be some time before I come fully to terms with his passing. On top of that, all the other emotion of this past week... sometimes life gets tough. I am not anywhere near despair or hopelessless; quite the contrary, I am personally as strong as ever. But I am sad right now. Very sad. With time, the sorrow will fade, though, while the memories of his spirit, of the love I gave to him, of the joy he brought into my life, of all the little things about him that I appreciated, those will endure. And so, life goes on. | |
| September 13, 2001 | I've written a third article, which is rather a series of smaller pieces, each focusing on different subjects pertaining to the attack. |
| September 12, 2001 | After yesterday writing an article describing the events of September 11, today I present you a more personal article, with more detail in depth about my ties to these places and events and commentary about what it all means and will mean. An article I've entitled, "Soul of the United States". |
| September 11, 2001 | The United States of America was attacked today. People all across the world are stunned. I have already received email from fans abroad, expressing concern, outrage, and support. Thank you. |
| A multi-pronged terrorist attack was carried out by way of hijacking four commercial airliners and turning them into human guided missiles, complete with nearly-full tanks of highly explosive jet fuel. Each of the World Trade Center towers in New York City was hit, and they have collapsed, incurring an untold loss of human life. A third jet was crashed into the Pentagon building. The fourth plane failed to reach a target. It has been crashed in a field just a few miles east of my home in Pennsylvania. I have written an article about the events of today, my thoughts, feelings, and how this has touched my life. I have opened and will maintain a page here at my site, dedicated to these tragic events and the enormous worldwide fallout that is certain to follow. Follow the link on my main index page to read my perspective regarding the Attack on America. | |
| September 10, 2001 | After nine days out of action, my site returns to full operation today. |
| The warpcore server has switched providers as a side effect of a huge business transaction involving my generous webhost and his company. They landed a huge new contract and had to make some changes to keep up. The warpcore server was only down for a couple of hours, but FTP has been firewalled over the past week, pending security upgrades. I have three updates to do, but only time enough this morning to bring you two of them. New inductees and updates for the Hall of Heroes, along with rules updates for the 1.09 patch, will be coming this week. In the mean time, enjoy the fresh reports. | |
| Also of some note (people have been emailing me to ask about it): the Lurker Lounge forums have been out of action. The forum server had a disk crash, so says Mavfin, the server administrator. He is working on the problem but offered no ETA. Incredibly, this timed out to coincide with my down time, but I assure you the two matters are entirely unrelated. I didn't expect my outage to last as long as it did, but there have been times when I've gone more than a week without new content before, so I told the sysadmin not to hurry on my account. (He was very busy, you know). My loyal fans and regular visitors know I will keep them informed as developments arise. | |
| September 5, 2001 | Subpoena's page has been updated. Added Act Four. Where Hotfoot's report is Rated R for "Rough", being a rather bleak piece of writing, Subpoena's is rated PG for "Pretty Good". Your basic wholesome family entertainment in motion. I've even dabbled a bit here in a new form of expression. Enjoy! |
| September 2, 2001 | Today's my birthday. I turn 32. Going to head on over to my Mom's house and enjoy a juicy burger and a pleasant visit. I hope your day goes as nicely. |
| Hotfoot's page has been completed. I've posted the report through the completion of her journeys. Fair Warning: this is a rough ride, not for the faint of heart. | |
| August 28, 2001 | I'm proud to announce the opening of Moradin's Diablo II Art Gallery. |
| A fan of my Diablo website has graciously offered to devote some of his spare time and artistic talent to illustrating my characters. The first picture has been completed. You can view it in the new art gallery, linked near the bottom of my index page. We intend to fill the gallery with more and more paintings over the months to come. This is great practice and publicity for Moradin, and an added touch of class for this site. | |
| Yes. Of course we had to start with Ember! | |
| We all must face our demons sooner or later. :) | |
| August 27, 2001 | Patch 1.09 raises several issues for Ember's Hall of Heroes and Expansion Exploits. I intend to address these within the next few days, including rules updates, a few words of warning to players regarding the new patch, and some general commentary. Tune in to the Expansion Exploits page for the details. I should have the update ready before the end of this week. |
| August 22, 2001 | More info regarding "UnterRares". |
| Some email has been trickling in, along with more play by me. Five out of five rares for me today all 4+ affixes (all but one 5+). That is quite odd after 13 in a row with 3 affixes. One player emailed me with a screenshot of a 6 affix rare from act one Normal, so whatever is up with UnterRares, it's not the difficulty setting. Some players report everything working normally, others have noted that they've seen this problem with 3-affix rares, too, including quest rewards. Whatever the problem is, it's not a simple "we broke it" kind of bug. That is likely why it slipped through. I'll tell you this, though. All the way through the beta and 1.08, I never once saw a rare circlet or sorcie orb with just three affixes, nor do I ever remember getting a reward ring from Akara or Ormus with just three mods. (They might give junk, but that's because the affixes often stink -- a whole different matter). Counting +skills and automods, most rare orbs have a long long list of goodies to show off. I've studied probability and statistics. Luck happens, but past a certain point the odds are so low as to raise suspicion. When an entire uberdrop comes up UnterRares, that's what tore it for me. I'm glad this problem is not as bad as it first looked, but in another sense, that only makes it worse, because it will be harder for them to track down. | |
| August 22, 2001 | Thirteen out of thirteen rares (including a gamble and a quest reward) turned up with only three affixes on them yesterday. That was all with Hotfoot, in Normal act five. |
| This morning I took her on to Nightmare, and the first rare dropped with six affixes. Whatever was going on yesterday may not have been as bad as I first believed. There definitely was a problem (I'll detail more in her next report) and it spanned two different playing sessions, but how widespread this problem may be remains up in the air. If the 3-affix rare bug is limited to Normal only, or happens only through some obscure combination of factors I just happened to trigger, then I'll almost surely work around it. Pending more certain results, I intend to stick with Hotfoot and perhaps one or two other chars, for at least the next week or so, and leave the rest parked. | |
| August 21, 2001 | SNAFU: Situation Normal: All Fouled Up! Yes, there are some serious problems with the 1.09 patch. |
| Blizz shut down all the Realms today. There's a bug eating whole characters now, on Realms only. There's also another serious new bug in 1.09: rares have been wiped out. A fix meant to ensure that rares spawn with at least three affixes has instead ensured that they spawn with ONLY three. This breaks 1.09 item integrity as badly as 1.08's was broken. I'm back to having my characters on hold again. Here's hoping Blizz decides to fix these two problems quickly, then issue a minipatch. I'm going to be monumentally unhappy if they ignore this, or patch it server-side for Realms only. I'll see how things develop over the next week before I rush to judgement. | |
| August 20, 2001 | More info about the Patch. |
| There's an option for single player to adjust game "size" to match the effects of multiplayer games. (Will this lead to a migration of solo-8-ists to single player, where they can get all the old benefits AND play lag free? Pssh, I doubt it. I think more of them are glory seeking than admit it even to themselves). In any case, this new feature will have a DEEP impact on Ember's Hall of Heroes. I have not figured out what to do just yet -- need more information and also confirmation about how the feature works -- so for now, ALL Hall of Heroes and Expansion Exploit characters are instructed to continue to play only in solo-1 game strength until I've figured this one out. | |
| August 20, 2001 | D2X v1.09 is out. |
| I've grabbed it and read over the patch.txt, and there are some points of note that all players should take notice of. 1) -MD has been nerfed against frame-based attacks, perhaps dramatically so. Thus, prepare to get your tushy handed to you by Diablo, as well as monsters with inferno/firewall/meteor/arctic blast. How much of a nerf, I have no idea yet, but I presume it's devastating unless shown otherwise. (This may be a good thing, though). 2) Throwing potions can no longer be repaired, yet they still can't be bought, either. That's going to make any variants who rely on them have a tougher time doing so. 3) A lot of item changes have been made, but not detailed. It's going to take some time for players to accumulate reliable data. I liked almost everything I read in the patch.txt -- however, along with the Lying Character Screen, I have also seen the Lying Patch Text before, so everything they claim has changed must be checked to see if it actually has changed. Rather than start in on any further commentary, I plan to play for a while, evaluate, enjoy (I hope), and stew, and not focus on further changes until I've given these a fair shake. First up: Hotfoot. So here I go. (Wish me luck!) | |
| August 19, 2001 | The Patch to End All Patches comes out tomorrow. Finally. While you wait, perhaps you should cruise on back to my original Diablo II page and check Wussie Girl's latest installment. Perhaps it will help you to pass the time. |
| August 13, 2001 | Ribinak the Stalwart has been rescued from certain demise. You'll never believe the identity of his savior. |
| August 7, 2001 | Updated Subpoena's report with a new section. |
| August 5, 2001 | Updated Dizzy's page. Posted her Introduction. |
| August 3, 2001 | Updated Venus Fly. Added her report through most of Normal. |
| July 31, 2001 | Added Subpoena and Minima to the site. Posted the Introduction and Act One for Subpoena. |
| July 27, 2001 | Updated Rill's page. Added the full account of her journey so far, to the end of Act Four, including some general commentary about D2X on the whole. |
| July 22, 2001 | Added Felgar to the page and posted an Introduction for him. |
| Updated Hotfoot's Journeys. Added the report for Normal Difficulty. | |
| July 20, 2001 | I updated my Protest page. I made a few minor editing changes to the end of the recently posted section. I also added a new page to the protest record, entitled The Last Word. It's not what you may imagine when you consider that title, so give it a look and see what you think. |
| July 19, 2001 | Since I posted Blizzard's response to my protest three days ago, I have received a lot of thoughtful emails from readers. With each new response that comes in, I am moved more and more toward the creation of a Protest Mail Bag page, wherein I would select a representative sample of mail on this subject for posting. |
| I do have some reservations about the idea. One concern is that the nature of replies would be changed, with people knowing there was a chance their letter might be publicized. At this moment, I haven't received a single flame (unusual -- I've received a few scattered ones in the past) and that might change. I also wouldn't want to discourage anybody from writing to me, but that can be solved by you asking that your replies be kept confidential -- I will honor any such request that you make. I would post the letters unedited, and include the sender's name, nickname and/or email address ONLY if they expressly give permission for each. | |
| I don't want to start another forum. There are plenty of those, and many that are better run than I could manage. My time is already spread a little thin with my existing commitments, and it's impossible to walk the line between censorship and losing control of the quality of a forum without unhappy compromises on both ends. This subject cannot get the airing it deserves (either pro or con) on a forum, anyway. It is just too volatile. I don't know whether a mail bag would do any better, but I am thinking it is worth a shot. | |
| I'm interested in what you think about this. If you believe this is either a very good idea, or a very bad one, write to me and tell me why. I'll give it a few days, maybe up to a week, then make my decision. Also, if you've written to me in the past -- SPECIFICALLY about my protest -- and would like your letters kept confidential, drop me a note saying so. Thanks. | |
| July 16, 2001 | Updated my Protest Page. I posted the complete, unabridged exchange with Max Shaefer, VP of Blizzard North. Also posted my current thoughts on this matter. |
| July 14, 2001 | The first two inductees to Ember's Expansion Exploits have been posted. Congratulations to Jester and iNsAnItY on their accomplishments. Please note, not all updates to the Expansion Exploits will be noted here or marked on the main page. So check "Latest Inductees" at the Expansion Exploits page from time to time to see what's new there. |
| July 11, 2001 | Added introduction chapters for Rill, Hotfoot, and Venus Fly. |
| July 9, 2001 | Opened Sirian's Diablo 2 Expansion Page. Initial characters portrayed included Rill, Dizzy, Grizzet, Venus Fly, Lady Thrower, and my Expansion incarnation of Hotfoot. Also transferred over from Diablo 2 include: Sissy, Lytra, Zap, and Smasher. The fate of other characters is yet to be determined, though some will definitely be retired permanently. |
| Main Page |