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Fans of Blizzard Entertainment's real-time, role-playing hack-and-slash Diablo II and its expansion pack, Lord of Destruction, can remember a time not too long ago when games on Battle.net Realms were largely certain to be free from duplicated items and hacks. Recently, however, some unscrupulous players have found ways around some of Battle.net's defenses and shamelessly exploited them. Blizzard has worked hard to squash these hacks, but life on the Realms can be fraught with dangers outside the intended scope of Diablo II's gameplay.

In response to this, the folks over at Diablo II.Net have put together a good overview of the current state of the Realms, including information about how Blizzard's dupe detector works to filter out some of the duplicate items that have flooded the game:

The way the dupe detector is working on the realms is that multiples of the same item in the game, the first one stays, any others vanish. So if you have five of the same duped Windforce on a char, when you join a game four vanish, the first remains. Blizzard set it this way (I assume) so that people who traded for a dupe don't lose it immediately, but the big dupe hoarders lose most of their full mules.

The problem is if you join a game with what you think is a legit item, or at least one you traded legit items for, and someone else already in the game has that same dupe, yours will vanish. We've heard from people who are afraid to join any games now because of this, and will only create and hope others join.

The latest item duplication exploit that occurred over the last several days has been stopped....

A reminder: Any individual caught using a hack on Battle.net (including, but not limited to "dupe" hacks and "server crash" hacks) may have their items, characters or accounts deleted. It is a violation of Battle.net's Terms of Service to utilize duplicated items. Do not use them. The Battle.net team is devoted to nullifying all hacks and exploits on Diablo II realms as well as catching individuals exploiting our games.

Update: At the time of this posting, DiabloII.Net has temporarily removed its Realm Issues article and replaced it with the promise, "Article back soon."

Blizzard: World of Diablo

DiabloII.Net: Realm Issues

Battle.net: Diablo II: Item Duplication, Realm Stability

Buy Diablo II

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The folks at HomeLAN have posted an interview with Nic "Rhyn" Munroe, the main programmer of the nostalgic Unreal Tournament mod Marathon|Rampancy. In the interview, Munroe talks about the early days of Marathon, his team's reasons for choosing UT as the engine to build the mod around, and even his repressed desire to play Halo.

Here's a snippet from the interview:

HomeLAN: What made you decide to make a mod based on elements of Marathon?

Munroe: Just like the desire to play over ethernet caused us to create our own crossover cable back in the days when not many people knew you could do that, the desire to play against other people over the Internet caused us to consider the idea that we could make a Marathon mod for an existing engine. We couldn't play against each other anymore. We're all too competitive and would usually just end up pissed off at each other after playing Marathon over LAN. We also wanted to break into the game industry, and figured that this would be a great way to gain some experience. Two birds, one stone, yada yada. =)

HomeLAN: Why did you decide to use Unreal Tournament as the basis for the mod?

Munroe: We did some searching around, and it appeared to us at the time that the mod community for UT was much more supportive and less secretive than other engines. We knew absolutely zip about starting a mod, and I think UT was the first engine we were able to create *anything* for and there appeared to be some good tutorials to get us going in the right direction. At least I think that's how it happened... it's been a while and we don't really remember. We think there were some other reasons, but we've forgotten. Heh.

HomeLAN: Marathon|Rampancy Interview

Marathon|Rampancy (add to watch list)

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Mac OS X users who have been waiting for a chance to play version 1.2 of the Rune Co-Op mod for Human Head's Viking slasher, Rune, need not wait any longer. An OS X version is now available.

It seems Mac OS 9 users, however, will have to continue to wait to upgrade to version 1.2, and there is no word on the Rune Co-Op web site of how much longer.

In addition to adding a cooperative multiplayer mode to Rune, Rune Co-op has the following features:

• Original cinematics converted to real time
  
• Health & size increased drastically
  
• AI has been increased by 50% per level
  
• Extra health is added to all the levels
  
• Weapons will travel to the next level with you
  
• Shields can't be broken by a team mate
  
• The AI has more hit points and there are more of them to battle
  
• New Bosses have been created with 3 to 5 times their original size
  
• Speed has been increased for some really intense fights

Rune (add to watch list)

Rune Co-Op

Rune Co-Op 1.2 for OS X (51.3 MB)

The development team behind Target Rabaul, the upcoming WWII-era flight simulator developed around Sickware's game engine, have updated their web site with some additional news regarding the game's progress. Along with an updated Targetware engine, the following features have been added:

• Lapwin designed some really neat graphics for us which will show up in .32 and elsewhere.
  
• Blowhard finished up 2 great textures for our Japanese trucks.
  
• Got a first look at the Beaufighter 3D model... nice!
  
• Flight Models readied for Beaufighter I and VI.
  
• Upgraded all FMs to conform to .32 changes
  
• Did some testing with new terrain resolutions, and settled on a 250m resolution terrain for use with the .32 build. This terrain is really going to look nice with proper textures.
  
• Added F4U-1A (bubble top) Corsair 3D model
  
• Fixed a bug with the Rufe 3D model that was causing low FPS
  
• Located and purchased several sets of ships plans. Work is newly underway on a liberty ship and a Gato class submarine.
  
• Several of the artists previewed possible future airplanes they have been working on. Wirra-what!?
  
• Lots of tweaks to existing 3D models and textures; too many to mention (or remember :-)

The heart of the game is a hyperstrategy-driven flight sim that will allow the player to experience the overall flow of the war from its start on December 7, 1941, to the last day of combat, August 15, 1945, while flying combat missions common to the day-to-day operations of the war. The first campaign that Target Rabaul will model is the 1943 New Guinea/Solomons Campaign.

Target Rabaul

Target Rabaul: Dev Team News

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