An ATMA question

[amalthea]

I tried posting this inquiry in the official stickied ATMA thread, for fear of being slapped with a trout and kicked in the shins (not to mention that I would like to spare another blame laid on Durf), but I gave up - seems like no one's reading the questions posted there. :(

So the asking goes as: Is there a way to transfer stuff from a stash, created in ATMA IV, to another .d2s or .d2x file, supported by ATMA V?

Up until few day ago, I was using the previous version of ATMA, because I was still playing with patch 1.10s. I reinstalled the game and patched up to 1.10, respectively getting ATMA V to support my characters. Unfortunately, ATMA V doesn't support the files created by ATMA IV, which is pretty bad, since most of my good stuff remains blocked in the old stashes, that cannot be accessed by my characters.

Is there any solution to this problem? Thanks in addvance for the kind help, if any is available.

[Method0ne]

If you dont have any characters left in the previous (1.10s) version you were using, I'm not sure, but if you have, I believe that if you take items from the 1.10s stash and place them onto your characters from the same version (1.10s), upgrade to the latest patch, then one by one open your characters and then save and exit to update them and their items to the newest version of the game (1.10), you should then be able to mule them off into a newly created ATMA V 1.10 stash.

I'm not sure if what I've written there is actually exactly how it works, but it's the only way I've seen items from older stashes being incorporated to newer ones.

I'd wait for someone else to either confirm what I've posted and/or clarify more on the points that must be covered to get it to work properly. Much as I really want to help you, and believe I'm right, I dont want to be responsible for you losing your items.

[amalthea]

If you dont have any characters left in the previous (1.10s) version you were using, I'm not sure, but if you have, I believe that if you take items from the 1.10s stash and place them onto your characters from the same version (1.10s), upgrade to the latest patch, then one by one open your characters and then save and exit to update them and their items to the newest version of the game (1.10), you should then be able to mule them off into a newly created ATMA V 1.10 stash.

I'm not sure if what I've written there is actually exactly how it works, but it's the only way I've seen items from older stashes being incorporated to newer ones.

I'd wait for someone else to either confirm what I've posted and/or clarify more on the points that must be covered to get it to work properly. Much as I really want to help you, and believe I'm right, I dont want to be responsible for you losing your items.

Thanks for trying to help, Method0ne, but I'm afraid that won't work.

The previous patch of the game (1.10s) is completely lost - I mean, I uninstalled Diablo II & LoD, then installed them afresh and directly patched with 1.10. The only thing I saved aside was the SAVE folder, that contains the characters. After the new instalation was complete, I simply moved it in place, so the game could access it. I guess this option completely converts them to 1.10 and no sign of the 1.10s remains anywhere.

My guess was probably to patch back to 1.10s (I wonder - is that possible?), then create a bunch of mules, load them with the stuff from the ATMA IV stashes and repatch with 1.10 again. It possibly could work ths way, but the thing that remains uncertain is can I patch back to a previous version, I've never done something like this before. Could someone of the geeks around here give a legitime opinion on this question?

[Randall]

Yes, it's a matter of copying a few files and you are patched to a previous version. There are even tools for this. (Version switchers)

But if you still have ATMA IV you could try to create character mules with this version and transfer some items from your old stash to your old mule. Then load the mule into 1.10 final. (It could work, then again it could not. Better make a backup before trying).

Randall

[Method0ne]

Actually, thinking about it, that *should* work, and fairly quickly too.

Make sure you do the backup of your main stash and your main character files though, just in case.

I haven't seen ATMA IV, so I aren't sure, but if as with ATMA V you can create characters for all versions it supports, you should be able to create a version 1.10s mule, move a few items onto it, load it into version 1.10 and get the character in game, save and exit, and it should solve your problems.

Make absolutely sure you have everything you want/need muled to 1.10 and make sure that ATMA V can mule the items between characters and stash files before you delete your backups though, this way at least if something does go pear-shaped you've not lost anything.

I hope you fix everything up ok, good luck!

[amalthea]

Yes, it's a matter of copying a few files and you are patched to a previous version. There are even tools for this. (Version switchers)

But if you still have ATMA IV you could try to create character mules with this version and transfer some items from your old stash to your old mule. Then load the mule into 1.10 final. (It could work, then again it could not. Better make a backup before trying).

Randall

You mean, I can create a .d2s file with ATMA and it will work as a proper character, if I move it to the SAVE folder of the game? That's odd, how is it supposed to function as a character, if the rest of the files (with the info about the map and so on) are missing? I think that even when starting a new char and not playing it at all, the game creates the pursuing files, along with the .d2s, while ATMA creates a single .d2s with no such attributes. Or am I missing something? :scratch:

[Method0ne]

In D2 if you start a new character, it automatically puts you in game, thus the maps are generated at creation.

With ATMA, if you create a d2s, it's essentially just a level 1 character, with a name, that hasn't entered a game yet. Once you enter the first game, it generates the map files and so forth. Quite nifty if you ask me, especially for the allowing to create Hardcore characters without beating the game in softcore, as this saved me the hassle of a level 30-40 character that would be deleted straight away.

Again, I hope things turn out well for you.

[amalthea]

In D2 if you start a new character, it automatically puts you in game, thus the maps are generated at creation.

With ATMA, if you create a d2s, it's essentially just a level 1 character, with a name, that hasn't entered a game yet. Once you enter the first game, it generates the map files and so forth. Quite nifty if you ask me, especially for the allowing to create Hardcore characters without beating the game in softcore, as this saved me the hassle of a level 30-40 character that would be deleted straight away.

Again, I hope things turn out well for you.

I never thought about it in this way, it should really work and will certainly save me the pains of patching back and forth or installing versions switcher. I'll test it tonight after work, since I'm not at my home PC at the moment.

Thanks a bunch for the hint, it was truly nice of you. I promise I'll archive everything in 2 copies, so nothing gets lost while testing and even if it does - you know it will be Durf's fault, not yours.

[Method0ne]

Fingers are crossed for you, though I'm not sure it'll do my joints much good holding them this way for a long time

Also, if you have any of the characters that you used in 1.10s in your current folder that you *know* you haven't opened in 1.10 and saved again, you should still be able to mule items to them using ATMA IV, since with the save games, they are not, as I recall, updated physically until they are next accessed and saved over. Again this may be of use to you, but if not, the other way is just as fast, and is essentially the same process (1.10s stash -> 1.10s characters -> update in game = 1.10 characters + items, simplified).

Let us know how it goes

Edit: As another point supporting this theory, this also must be pretty similar to the way that the battle.net realms work as well, since items from previous patches are still in the system, such as the 1.08 Arkaine's Valor and Vampire Gaze uniques that were all the rage in 1.09. As such I'm not sure it'll actually physically update the items to be exactly the same as in 1.10, but if there are no item changes between the patches then there should be no difference anyways, and this is primarily and essentially just a way of getting items from a 1.10s ATMA IV stash into a 1.10 ATMA V stash so they are usable again and not lost.

Mayhaps if the creator of ATMA sees this thread, he may (or may not) be able to shed some light on whether or not, in the future, entire ATMA stashes could be updated for new versions without going through this stage by stage process. I realise it isn't the same as having all the items on an actual character mule, which would update the next time it was accessed and saved in-game, but maybe there's a way around it, and if there is, figuring it out would be a pretty useful thing for the program. Well, at least if there's going to be any more patches released for Diablo II, unlikely as it seems.

[Randall]

I never thought about it in this way, it should really work and will certainly save me the pains of patching back and forth or installing versions switcher. I'll test it tonight after work, since I'm not at my home PC at the moment.

Thanks a bunch for the hint, it was truly nice of you. I promise I'll archive everything in 2 copies, so nothing gets lost while testing and even if it does - you know it will be Durf's fault, not yours.

Otherwise, I can create a 1.10s character for you and you can use this multiple times to upgrade stuff to 1.10 final.

I had to reinstall D2 a while ago and I was smart enough to patch it to different versions and saved each set of dll's. I can now switch to 1.0 classic, 1.07 LOD, 1.09d LOD, 1.10beta LOD and 1.10 final
I was thinking I might want to play a lower version sometimes, never did find the time though.

Randall