There's some things that people have done with that game that I think are exemplary. GamePlanet: Have you guys ever played any of the mods that you get for Diablo II, the likes of the Median XL mod? Have you heard of that? Kevin Martens: Oh yeah, I played that like crazy! I love it! GamePlanet: So have you taken any sort of inspiration from some of the changes he has made at all? Kevin Martens: You bet! It kinda hit us a few months back, people started playing a lot of it and brought it in and we took a look at it. Median is popular and technically proficient enough that it was commented on by some of the Diablo 3 designers during an interview at Blizzcon 2009. The mod changes many variables in the game including class skills, player mechanics, monsters, levels, items among other things. Median XL was the new name, and the mod that has been continuously updated since then. The sequel to Median 2008 was released in October 2008 together with a new website. The median mods started looking less and less like a mod, and more and more like a Diabloish game on its own. In December 2007, Brother Laz released Median 2008, wich enhanced his series of mod to an even higher standard with more features and more fun. He took the opportunity to add new content and replace some of the existing unbalanced content, creating "Median 2 Special Edition", released in December 2005.
After a couple of months, Laz wanted to fix some issues with Median 2 but was unable to because the fixes would corrupt existing characters. The development took about two or three weeks (spread over a long time) and became a hit among fans. In early 2005, development on Median 2 started, using the files from the first Median as a base. Somewhere in Act II, characters got corrupted, and he could not find the cause, thus scrapping the mod.
It had a skill system similar to Diablo I, where skill books were used to learn new skills. In 2003, when Patch 1.10 was still in beta, he worked for two months full-time to create the mod called Median. The video here is an example of Barbarian gameplay in Median:
These mods were in Laz's own opinion sloppily coded, but as time passed and he felt he grew mentally he wanted to do better. They were the first mods to replace character animations and the first mods to feature new skill trees. His first real set of followers he got under his own name was from making the Demon Trip mods. He released his first mod, Inferno ( download) under the name "Myokai", and was in hindsight regretting publishing his first mod, as he felt it was so bad, looking back. Median XL's creator, Brother Laz first started modding in Patch 1.09.
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