🚀 go-pugleaf

Somewhere on teh intarweb "Greg Vilardi" typed:
> In article <483c9700@news2.actrix.gen.nz>,
> ~misfit~ <misfit61nz@hooya.com.au> wrote:
>> Somewhere on teh intarweb "Greg Vilardi" typed:
>>> In article <483a4e00$1@news2.actrix.gen.nz>,
>>> ~misfit~ <misfit61nz@hooya.com.au> wrote:
>>> <SNIP>
>>>> Does anyone know if ATMA or PlugY or that runeword patch work with
>>>> 1.09 Gemstone? It'd be nice to have the best of all worlds. :-)
>>>> --
>>>> Shaun.
>>>
>>> Yes, It certainly does. I've been using it for years. PlugY that is.
>>> I am using version 7.01b. I think I have the installer here or at
>>> home, if you'd like a copy.
>>
>> Hi Greg. Thanks for the reply. So you're using Gemstone 1.09d and
>> PlugY
>> 7.01b together? (Just want to be sure before I hose my install, for
>> some reason Windows XP won't let me back up the install folder,
>> tells me either I don't have permission (I'm admin) or it's in use
>> (it's not when I try). So... I just want to be sure that it's not
>> going to ruin all my hard play. <g>
>>
>> Oh, it seems that I have PlugY versions 7.01b and 8.0 already,
>> thanks heaps for the offer. I used to have a thing about archiving
>> every D2 mod I could find (which turned out to be fortunate for a
>> few who've wanted Gemstone).
>>
>> Not that I doubt you, I just want to be sure (to be sure) that we're
>> on the same page. ;-)
>
> I am indeed running WinXP SP2 Plus all patches. (I'm giving SP3 some
> time to mature... %-)

LOL! Sounds like we are alike in a few ways. I have installed SP3 
(downloaded the full install ISO) on a couple of my older, fully imaged 
machines to test it but have kept it off my main machine. The main reason 
I've installed it on these other machines is that they are older. (Tualatin 
Celerons, ~384 - 512 MB SDRAM) I've heard that SP3 is actually a first for 
MS, an "upgrade" that actually speeds up the OS. I can't confirm as I use 
those machines so rarely. However, it hasn't slowed them down.

> LoD v1.09d, Gemstone 1.5 and PlugY 7.01b on two
> separate systems. If you'd like, I can send you the splash screen to
> prove it. ;-) The PlugY text overwrites the Gemstone version label a
> bit. PlugY should not step on your D2 install because it overwrites
> nothing. I don't recall any installation gotchas, but this was a few
> years ago... Hmmm. Wait a minute. I just did this again when I got my
> crap-top, and it went quite smoothly there too.
>
> Also, PlugY won't run if you don't launch the plugy.exe instead of
> Diablo II.exe, so there should be no real possibility of this
> screwing things up, barring PEBKAC issues and random acts of
> God^H^H^HMicrosoft. Having said that, if you run into trouble, I'd be
> happy to try to assist you, but I'm generally only reading news in
> the middle of your night, since I'm in NY, USA and reading USENET
> from work.

Thanks again for your reply Greg. I have successfully set up PlugY (7.01b, 
seems I have three versions (7.00, 7.01b and 8.00) stored locally. <g>) on 
my main machine, thanks for the boost that gave me the confidence to do it.

*However*, I've run into a problem last night on a second machine that I'm 
trying to use to mule* items from. I copied the same install directory and 
whenever I try to create a game I get an error. Now I see it it's the same 
error I got way back when I first tried to use PlugY and the reason I wasn't 
using it until now.

Whenever I start a game (Other multiplayer, TCP/IP as I have a flatmate and 
often we play together. Incidently part of the reason for going back to 
Gemstone and away from cattlenet, people to play with, or lack thereof). 
Anyway, whenever I try to start or enter a game on the second computer I 
get:

Diablo 2 Error
Location : D2Hell\SRC\Archive.cpp line #59
Expression : D:\Program Files\Diablo II S2\PlugY\statsinterface.txt.

I haven't installed on my flattie's PC yet as I wanted to make sure all was 
well first.

Now, I guess I should mention a peculiarity of my installs. Between my 
flamate and myself we have four sets of D2 amd four LoD discs. Four complete 
keysets so we could mule, co-op play, self-rush etc. on battlenet. The four 
installs are backed up and called "Diablo II S1", "Diablo II S2" etc. It's 
easir that way than digging out the documentation over which keys are used 
with which others to avoid conflicts on Bnuts. (It's happened, it was a 
frustratiing day, re-installing.. until I found "ShowCDKey".)

When machines are rebuilt, reformatted or whatever no disc-shuffling is 
needed. The archived install directory is copied from the server and an 
image of the LoD disk is mounted with DaemonTools. Make a shortcut of the 
game.exe to the desktop (run vidtest if needed) and Bob's your uncle.

For the Gemstone 1.09d install, the other day I bit the bullet and did an 
install from the discs (to Program Files\Diablo II), dug up the 1.09d patch 
then swapped dlls for the Gemstone version. Once that was done I backed up 
*that* install as well so I wouldn't have to go through it again. I remeber 
for 5 years back when I only had one disk-set that, for a local TCP/IP game, 
keyset numbers aren't important.

The peculiarity is that, although I'm playing from the second install 
directory, the character files are saved to the 1.11b install directory 
"save" folder rather than the save folder in the install directory I'm 
starting the .exe from. Strange, I can only assume that it's following a 
registry entry's path directions. <shrug> I'm not that up on Windows 
registry.

I copied the Gemstone image to my flatties machine and we started a game. 
All was well. It was so refreshing to play without the lag problems that 
have plagued us, playing as we are on US West for New Zealand.

LOL. A side note: The day before yesterday I read a web article about how 
difficult it is to get 'users' to backup their computers. The author said 
"It's different for some, we are geeks, it simply wouldn't occur to us to 
NOT back up, it's in our blood." I laughed and thought "How true!".

Little did I know that, less than 24 hours later, I'd be going through my 
old CDRs and that I'd find a backup of my Gemstone 1.09d/1.5 playing 
characters and mules from early '03! Unfortunately it seems that I'm not an 
uber-geek as the backup wasn't the ultimate pinnacle reached by my 
characters. In the backup my strafer is only lvl 96, I actually got her up 
to lvl 98 (and found *lots* more goodies in the process as she was mainly 
MFing).

Well, it seems that this post can now be relegated to the "information" pile 
rather than the "need information" one. I have solved the problem whilst 
writing about it. I guess sometimes it pays to go through it with a friend. 
;-)

As the save path seems to be dictated by the registry to the previous 
install I tried copying the PlugY folder to that install as well. Just the 
folder, not the .exe, .dll or .ini. That worked! I now have PlugY 7.01b 
working with Gemstone 1.5 on LoD 1.09d on that computer too. I've loaded all 
my old characters to that machine and will plunder them and fill my new, 
massive stash with the goodies. (I have every rune, multiple times for the 
most part. The only exception is ZOD, I only have one.)

(I'd previously tried to enter my PlugY game with the other computer running 
rom the Gemstone Diablo II .exe to see if I could transfer goodies that way 
and got the message: "Unable to enter game, generic bad file".)

I'm at a loss to know why things went differently on the two machines. Both 
have two Diablo II installs (with the 1.11b version named differently but 
pre-existing) in the same Progam Files directory. On my main machine, the 
one character I've created *was* stored in the original 1.11b save folder. 
On installing PlugY (and halfway through writing this) I noticed that the 
character files were now in the correct directory. That promprted me to copy 
the char files on the other machine to the other directory too. That didn't 
work but copying the PlugY folder the other way did. Strange! It's things 
like this that stop me from being a Windows guru. <g>

Anyway, thanks for leanding an ear. That did the trick. Now I've just got to 
remember how to build characters in 1.09d style after having played 1.10 and 
1.11 for many years.

Cheers,
-- 
Shaun.