So, last night, my games computer lost a drive. Dead, unrecoverable mechanical failure (Hey, it happens). The drive that died, of course, would have to be the one that held my Diablo II game files. No, problem, I’ve got a spare drive on the shelf, and a tape backup, so it’s just a little work, right? Wrong.
I replaced the drive, restored from backup, and found that the tape was from before I installed the D2: LOD expansion pack. OK, fine. I re-installed the expansion, but when I did, I got a “Bad MPQ file: Recomend uninstalling Diablo II and reinstalling” error (I think that was the text, but the “MPQ” might have been some other similar TLA). OK, It’s a pain in the butt, but no problem, I pulled the whole installation, and reloaded it all.
Now, here’s the problem: While I’ve got a fully patched (v1.08) D2: LOD installation, I can’t see any of my old characters, even though their files are still present in the \Program files\DiabloII\Save directory. I even tried copying just those files off of tape, and still, no go. Next I tried using the “save” files in a clean, newly installed, patched Diablo II w/no expansion. They worked just fine. How the hell do I get these saved characters visible in LOD again?
I don’t know how to help you, but something’s messed up. If the save files work in D2 non-expansion, then they should at least show up as non-expansion characters in LOD.
When you say that “they worked just fine” in plain old D2, did you actually load the characters or did they just appear in the char selection screen? Could maybe one of your char files have gotten corrupted?
You might try Blizzard’s Technical Support Page and see if that helps. I perused that link and didn’t see anything specifically about your problem, but ask them. They know more than I do.
Oh, yes. They loaded just fine, with inventories and experience intact, in plain 'ol D2. I looked at Blizzards page, and found nothing helpful. I also dug through the forums at Diabloii.net, and found nothing useful there, either.
Hmmm, can’t get the link to work in the preview window. Well here’s the solution they give:
Multiplayer and Full Installs:
[ul]
[li]Delete the “d2char.mpq” file from your Diablo II install folder.[/li][li]Copy the “d2char.mpq” file from your Diablo II Play Disc into your Diablo II install folder.[/li][li]Right click on the d2char.mpq and select properties.[/li][li]Unmark the check box READ ONLY and choose OK.[/li][li]Run Diablo II.[/li][/ul]If this problem continues, please reinstall DirectX from the Microsoft DirectX Page.
I’ve got the 1.09 patch, but the BugTraq files on Diabloii.net indicate that the 1.09 patch itself has issues. I was going to wait until I’d found and fixed the problem with the missing characters before changing anything else. I’d missed the fix you posted on Blizzard, but I’m off to try it right now. Results will be posted in about 20-25 minutes…
After downloading and reinstalling DirectX, still the problem persists.
I dug around on Blizzard’s site some more, and found a topic that seems to be aplicable. It seems the process of loading the LOD expansion actually downgrades the version of the characters to v1.07. WTF?! Observant soul that I am, I had failed to notice this previously. I went ahead and created a new character, and sonuvagun if version 1.07 wasn’t displayed in the upper right corner of the screen. OK, so Blizzard’s instructions at this point are to to load the v1.09 patch (your instincts were right in line, bafaa). Right, then I’ve got the patch sitting right here on my drive, and away we go… Nowhere.
“BNclient.dll not found in archive.”
WTF??!! That file is all over the place, in three different locations on the hard drive, and one on the CD. Whaddaya mean “not found”?
“Patch failed. Uninstal and reinstall Diablo II. Contact Blizzard technical support if problem persists.”
!$%&*#!!
All this dancing around, and not only are my saved files still not usable, the bloody expansion pack has down-versioned them for me.
Anyone got any bright ideas, other than wait until tuesday and burn about $20 worth of phone time?
Aaaah, you installed the patch and then LOD?? Hrmph.
I’d do what they say - uninstall completely, then reinstall. It could be that reinstalling DirectX messed things up. Fresh install, delete all the files that the old install created and left after the uninstall.
Maybe look into trying it with patch 1.08 instead of 1.09.
Are you running single player, multiplayer, battle.net, open games…?
Nonono, here’s the sequence: D2, then the patch v1.08, then D2:LOD, then attempt patch v1.09.
Now, according to what I think Blizzard is saying, the process of installing the D2:LOD expansion actually down-versions the game to patch v1.07. Once I read that, I went back and looked, and sure enough, there’s the version marker for v1.07, hiding in the corner of the screen. Patch v1.08 is only for plain 'ol D2, and won’t execute once D2:LOD has been installed, so apparantly, there is no such thing as LOD running under v1.08, only under v1.07 or v1.09. When I attempt to run patch v1.09, that’s when I start getting error messages.
I’m getting ready to slick the OS completely at this point, as now I’m begining to get registry errors as well, and I’m not up for a finicky restore.