Unforgotten mod for Diablo II

D2: Unforgotten started out like most other mods do. A few friends layin' around talking about how Diablo 2, one of the best RPGs ever, could be interesting again. I started thinking, "Hey, why can't someone play through a mod without checking online for cube recipes, or where to find 'teh uber lewt'?" "Why would someone give up before beating Hell difficulty?" "Why.. does someone need to refer to online forums to fully realize a mod's potential?" The answer to all this is what I would like to call, Unforgotten. A mod where there is a noticeable difference between every level, a mod where killing a few fallen could prove to be difficult, and most of all, a mod where one can progress throughout the whole game discovering many new and unique cube recipes, gemwords, and runewords by finding the many different scrolls and books inscribed with the formulae. Thus came the mod to prove that Diablo 2 has not yet been erased from the hard drives of the many fans hopefully awaiting Diablo 3. Diablo 2 is Unforgotten.

Right now this mod is just being started. I have most of the concept ideas down, I've been learning more and more about modding D2 everyday, and this will be right up there with some of the best mods for Diablo 2. Here's some of the features I hope to implement although some of them might be a little bit of a stretch or might just take a lot of effort:

--Reasonably expanded stash, cube, and inventory
--Much greater range of base stats on items so some normal uniques dropped in nightmare or hell might equal their exceptional or elite counterparts.
--Addition of a fourth universal skill section on the skill tree for skills related to any normal persons personality or bodily training. For example a skill on this tree might be Charming Personality giving the character reduced vendor prices, or Athletics which could give the character increased run/walk speed.
--Extreme balancing of all skills and the replacement of a few. A lvl1 req. skill that a character puts 20-25 skill points in should definitely be better than a lvl30 req. skill with 5 skill points in it. Also, skills like poison nova or bone spirit or other skills that kill at the same speed whether youre a veteran or a nubcake will be changed so more strategy is required.
--Following the balancing of all skills and stats, the balancing in this game will not only be that the monsters have more life and do more damage, there will be more of a strategical aspect to the game. Players with minions or summons must protect them as some will be weaker but have beneficial auras, or some will be resistant to physical damage but destroyed easily by the elements.
--Fewer drops per monster, but the drop percentages and stats on items are greatly increased.
--Addition of Normal and Unique "clue scrolls" or "recipe books" that will be read like the scroll of inifus but obviously instead of the cairn stones, it will show the order of a few runes or gems that when put in the type of item shown will result in a runeword or gemword. My goal is that once this mod is installed, every time someone plays for a little while they can find something new, or something new to look for. If they find a recipe but dont have a certain rune, they might end up finding a recipe that will give them a much simpler recipe to make the rune they lack. I want this mod to be able to be played through without having to consult a forum online or something like that. If there is a forum used for this game I envision it being a place where players can discuss what they've found that no one else has seen yet, not somewhere they can go to find a shortcut to becoming godly.
--PETS: I'm going to try and add an NPC to each act who will be a pet handler or trainer or something like that. You'll be able to have most of the monsters in the game, besides the undead or just the plain ridiculous ones, as pets that can level up with you and a hireling if you have one too. Not sure exactly where this idea will go but It should be pretty cool.

If anyone would like to help or has any ideas that they've been dying to see in a mod, leave comments or messages.

Update, December 2, 2007:  Since I started work on this I went off to boarding school.. This might be a setback but I've still bee able to work on it a lot and I'll put up some screenshots in a couple weeks.