Diablo 2 on Battle.Net - An Overview
Diablo 2 is one of the hottest selling games of the year. Millions of people have grabbed the game and brought it home. As I've said in my original review of the game, written when it first came out, it in many ways is a huge disappointment. Single player games are like being led by the nose through a pixellated universe.
I decided recently to give multiplay a try on Battle.Net - home to most multiplayer Diablo 2 games. Many people in fact get the game and go directly on line - not even bothering to learn the basics of the game in single player mode first.
First - be prepared for some updates. The very moment you try to connect to the net, you're saddled with up to 15 minutes of patch downloads to get you up to speed. Be patient, they will eventually end.
Second - choose your username and password extremely wisely, and NEVER TYPE IT IN DURING A CHAT. Many, many people spend all day trying to trick people into giving out their password, so they can steal items from the characters and delete them completely. They'll say things like "type /m mystatus password to learn your ranking". There is NO command at all in chat that requires your password. All of these messages are attempts to steal your password.
Likewise, if you choose a normal word as your password, chances are some hacker will guess it and break into your account. Choose two words put together, or another combination that is hard to guess.
Note there is NO way for a Diablo 2 player to change that password. You have to go into Battle.Net with StarCraft (which shares the same accounts) to be able to make the change. If you don't have StarCraft, you can download the demo to do this.
Once you're in safely into the system, you'll see a number of people with you in the general chat area. You can go into chats by class, or special chats for hardcore gamers. No matter what, take a look at the Games listing to see what games are running. Join one, or create a new game, and let it load. Voila - you're in Diablo 2 online!
Looks familiar, eh? It's the exact same Diablo missions, with the exact same prompts and sequences. The difference is that there are many of you running through it, trying to solve it together. One person clears out the Den of Evil, it is now clear for everyone.
Waypoints are individual - each person must step onto the waypoint to add it to their own list of available waypoints. Also, shrines don't refill for each person, so whoever gets their first makes it unavailable for subsequent visitors. Be sure to coordinate who needs it most badly before randomly activating every shrine you come across.
Important keystrokes to know include "P" and the ENTER key. "P" brings up the Party screen - this is where you invite other players to join your party. You can see party members location on your map if they're near you, and also their health on the top of the screen. This can be very important for large scale combats.
The ENTER key brings up a chat window, allowing you to communicate with other players. Just as in Nox, the message will appear on the screen even if the player is far away. This helps you coordinate movements and share treasure fairly.
Sometimes multiplay can make quests tricky. If one player gets for example the order to activate the stones in Act 1, and then leaves, nobody else can now activate the stones at all. Keep that in mind if you plan on leaving a game early for some reason.
If you're a Diablo 2 online player, stop by the forum and let me know! I'm on as BellaLisa, and love to play the Amazon!
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