Small technical issue (or 2)

[Sidhe]

I waved to some people in the EMB, but hey all again! After my some-years-long-absence I'm back to play *wave*

So a few months ago I got the for many familiar itch of wanting to play D2 again. Happily I got my discs and went on to install everything, only to discover that I've been so smart as to throw out the keys when I moved! So after some thinking I remembered I had the whole game on a memory stick, I copied that to the computer, popped in the LoD disc and got told that "Blizzard is unknown". Yay. I gave up.

But I still had the itch! So I bought Diablo II again, installed it, and went to play. Only the original though, and I rather have a bit more. My brother used to play D2 +LoD as well, but he since he doesn't have any time to play anymore (busy job, toddler at home, wife pregnant with second) he let me borrow his LoD disc. I tried to install that, and here comes the first problem: that LoD disc doesn't recognize the fact that I already have D2 installed and doesn't want to install! It also doesn't want to do anything with the D2 +LoD I have on the memory stick (when I copy that over). I think I can fix this by borrowing my brother's D2 original as well, but I'm not sure. What do you guys think?

Now for my second problem... I'm not sure I like patch 1.12 which is what my D2 comes with apparently. I'd rather play 1.09, b or not, just to have some happy easy relaxed play without having to think on synergies and whatsnot. But I when I try to use Trenshadows version switcher, it doesn't even want to download! Is there any way I can either make this work, or that I can get this patch downloaded from the official site or something? Would that work?

I think my brother's version comes with 1.09, so if I borrow his, all this may even be a non-issue, but it will take a while before I see him again, so any input would be lovely.

[Sky Lynx]

Very strange. If you installed D2 original properly it should have the record in the registry and every LOD installer should see it. Probably you installed it using smallest installation, try insert you D2 disc again and do Full Installation. If that's already the case then you should probably ask your brother for his disc, perhaps there's some kind of incompatibility between different releases.

Maybe you just changed something in the registry by accident, removing necessary records, maybe some program blocked blizzard installer from making them.

As for patch, you can find all patches for the game on Blizzard FTP: http://ftp.blizzard.com/pub/diablo2/patches/PC/

[imakeigloospat]

To install LOD with your brother's disk you can simply change the install path for Diablo 2 in the registry. It is most likely not properly set for some reason.

To do this follow these steps:

1. Go to "run" (win key + r) and type regedit
2. Open up HKEY_CURRENT_USER, then go to software, then go to blizzard entertainment. You should see Diablo II there. Click it!
3. Double click the "Install path". Change it to the proper location of your Diablo 2 install (check your c:\ drive and click yourself into the Diablo 2 folder. Once you are there copy the path to the folder and paste it into the register.
4. Hit "OK!" and click "x" to get out of the registry editor.
5. Pop in the LOD disc and it will grant you the possibility to install the software.


Have fun with LOD.

[Sidhe]

Thanks for the replies. I find it quite strange as well, especially since I only installed it and didn't even go off the given path. As in, I installed it purely following the installment process, not going into the registry or whatever. The weird thing is, now that you mentioned it Sky Lynx, I didn't even get the option to do a Full Install, it just gave the option to install, full stop, no choices. I remember having a choice on my old discs.

Just looked on the back of both my new copy of D2 and the LoD box, and I may have found the problem (though it still doesn't make sense). The LoD disc is older, and on the back it has Windows XP as the newest Windows version, my new D2 discs talk about Windows Vista. So maybe that's the problem in recognising one another. I think it would be easiest to just borrow my brothers copy, least then I can play LoD, which would make things way more fun.

Also, it may be just me, but is 1.12 harder than any of the previous patches?

[Sidhe]

As for patch, you can find all patches for the game on Blizzard FTP: http://ftp.blizzard.com/pub/diablo2/patches/PC/

Thanks for that too. Any idea how I can make 1.09(b) work for me? Cause now when I download and try it, it just says "your version is already more up to date", which is logical, but slightly annoying.

Of course, I can also just wait till tomorrow and ask my brother for his discs, which is way easier

[jiansonz]

Also, it may be just me, but is 1.12 harder than any of the previous patches?

The biggest change is from 1.09 -> 1.10 with all the synergies, much beefier monsters, etc.

1.10 -> 1.11 brought 11 new runewords to Single Player (seven +2 class skills armor runewords and Duress, Prudence, Splendor and Wind).
FE explosion damage was nerfed a lot in Hell (the FE bug introduced with 1.10 wasn´t actually fixed, but was made much less likely to kill you).

1.12 is exactly the same as 1.11, except that you no longer need to have the CD in the player to play.


Changes 1.12 -> 1.13 can be seen here.

[RobbyD]

Now for my second problem... I'm not sure I like patch 1.12 which is what my D2 comes with apparently. I'd rather play 1.09, b or not, just to have some happy easy relaxed play without having to think on synergies and whatsnot. But I when I try to use Trenshadows version switcher, it doesn't even want to download! Is there any way I can either make this work, or that I can get this patch downloaded from the official site or something? Would that work?

I think my brother's version comes with 1.09, so if I borrow his, all this may even be a non-issue, but it will take a while before I see him again, so any input would be lovely.

Heh - I am with you! I've been playing 1.09 for the better part of 2 years. I invite you to check out my 1.09 guide. I never used the version switcher though, so my recommendation would be to simply trade discs with your brother (as long as he plays 1.13).

As far as the versions from that link, once you have a later patch, you can't convert to an earlier patch to that game install. My trick (I know you don't currently have access to a 1.07 disc, but if you get a hold of it) is to rename the current directory to say something like "Diablo II 1.12" and then to make a clean install from the disc. The game always goes to the directory exactly named "Diablo II", so once you have the clean 1.07 install, apply the 1.09 patch. Then you can switch between 1.12 and 1.09 by renaming the directories so that the version you want to play is the directory called "Diablo II".

That's with a 1.07 disc though - I'm completely clueless to how to use the version switcher.

[tavaritz]

Here is a thread discussing on version switching and it also has a link to all patches except 1.13b and 1.13c.

1.13c is available from Blizzard, but I don't know where one can get 1.13b.

[Sidhe]

As far as the versions from that link, once you have a later patch, you can't convert to an earlier patch to that game install.

Yes, I noticed that, and though it's a pity, It's kinda logical, right?

I now have a different problem though. I borrowed my brother's discs, all of them (so D2 and LoD) and installed them. It's working fine, but it's 1.07. So I tried to get to patch 1.09, but it doesn't work. I get the following message: "This patch cannot be applied because it's for a different version of the game". I tried to do the step in between, so get patch 1.08 first, same message...

Does anyone have a solution for this? Or an idea at least?

Thanks in advance!

BIG EDIT: Ugh, never mind, I feel so silly now! I had downloaded the D2 file, not the LoD file... It's fixed now and working as intended

Thanks all for the replies!