Torchlight II (not the MMO)

[Azazel]

Highly likely, the gender mods are some of the most popular in Torchlight as it is.  Who doesn't want to play a destroyer with the vanquisher model?

Is there a good central depository for TL mods somewhere?

[Malakili]

You customize your dude with your min/max mojo on his skill screen.  Torchlight II could use a few more robust options in that department when compared to its predecessor.  They didn't really go over that exactly in the interview.  But it seems like they're trying to address the shortcomings of the original, so I'll keep my fingers crossed.

I happen to agree but am less optimistic.  I think I saw the word "accessible".  At the very least, I can assume we won't be seeing the Fate skill system.

I don't know how you can get much more accessible than Torchlight 1 :-/. 

Also, I know some people around here didn't like that shared passive skills, but I think they were actually a really good idea and achieved just what the developers wanted, in that you could really choose to play any of the classes multiple ways, and without those passive abilities, I don't think it would have been possible (example: A melee alchemist, or Vanquisher with lots of pets/minions).  Add on the fact that a melee vanquisher played different from a melee destroyer played different from a melee alchemist, and there is a LOT of variety to be had in Torchlight. 

I will grant though, that I only tried most of these builds on Very Hard Hardcore, so you really have to play to the strengths of the build  and on hard and lower you might be able to just faceroll through the game with little variety in how you play between the classes.

[Yegolev]

I don't know how you can get much more accessible than Torchlight 1 :-/. 

This is what worries me.

Meanwhile I will forget about this and play Castlevania: Harmony of Despair.

[sickrubik]

I don't know how you can get much more accessible than Torchlight 1 :-/.

Deathspank.

[koro]

Highly likely, the gender mods are some of the most popular in Torchlight as it is.  Who doesn't want to play a destroyer with the vanquisher model?

Is there a good central depository for TL mods somewhere?

Get Torchleech and browse its mods for high-rated stuff that looks interesting. It automatically downloads, installs, and uninstalls mods for you, warning you of any conflicts.

[Malakili]

Highly likely, the gender mods are some of the most popular in Torchlight as it is.  Who doesn't want to play a destroyer with the vanquisher model?

Is there a good central depository for TL mods somewhere?

http://forums.runicgames.com/viewtopic.php?f=20&t=6610

[Azazel]

Thanks guys, I'll check them out!

[Malakili]

True, open multiplayer would be effectively worthless. I assumed they wouldn't go that route, but who knows.

Looks like no closed server system:

http://forums.runicgames.com/viewtopic.php?f=30&t=14451#p122389

Hey guys - just to let you know that this has been read

We're considering our options here. To be up-front - we won't be making a D2 style dedicated server (where ALL game-logic is managed on the server, period, and there is no client trust whatsoever ). Mostly, we just can't afford to operate and optimize that sort of server farm.

That said, we are talking about the ability to run a client as a dedicated server - ( no player, no art - just a continuously running server which fields invites and is the primary game authority, and simulates all the game units. It is 'basically' a dedicated server ), both for LAN play, and to be listed in a separate gamelist in the lobby system.

We are most definitely looking at providing tools to group your games online - the ability to partition groups of games off for a specific subset of members that can be controlled by a guildleader to prevent random players from joining your games. We can most likely allow these communities to specify specific mod-sets ( or a lack thereof ) for all games within the grouping. This can also probably be done for the 'dedicated server' ( if we can pull that off ).

We are still debating modding 'rules', and how that will best function online. It is unlikely that we will physically deliver mods between players ( the liability there could be pretty bad ), however we are looking at a more robust mod system wherein mods are packaged with GUIDS that are unique, and that remove a lot of issues of versioning - we can show the mods allowed for a game, color-code whether you have them, allow you to turn them on and off, include URLS to the modder's site/download, and so on. The degree to which you can modify the game makes this complicated - are players characters only valid for a specific modset? Are some non-critical and don't invalidate a player? And so on and so forth.

So, no final answers or anything for you here - but a heads up to inform you that we're keeping on top of your discussion and having lots of them here. Hope that's encouraging!

Travis & Crew

[koro]

I actually really like that idea myself.

[Malakili]

I actually really like that idea myself.

Yeah, its really not the worst possible scenario, and with the tools to segregate by clan/community, we should be able to set up an f13 server if we want to, which would be pretty 

[Paelos]

I'm not really pleased by the decision. Then again, I understand their points.

[Malakili]

Gamescon trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ejqCZw4Mua4

[Ratman_tf]

Gamescon trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ejqCZw4Mua4

Lookin' good so far.

[Malakili]

http://www.gametrailers.com/video/gc-10-torchlight-ii/703546

5 minutes of gameplay.  Kinda peeing myself.

[Musashi]

 

[Paelos]

Looks like Torchlight, and that means it looks fun. Also, was that a pet ferret?

[Soulflame]

Pet ferret mod was added to Torchlight by Runic Games not all that long ago, I believe.

[Fabricated]

I'm hoping they improved the loot to make more sense.

More interesting/useful stats, less +1% damage to 2 random elements and like 4 of two resistances.

[Malakili]

[Malakili]

New Dev Diary: http://torchlight2game.com/news/2011/05/20/making-the-world-of-torchlight-ii/

Talks a good deal about the new outdoor zones and some about dungeons, also 8 new screenshots.  Looks like the big zones will be a lot bigger than the biggest levels of the Torchlight dungeon.

I'm still looking forward to this a lot, even with Diablo 3 on the way.

[Ratman_tf]

New Dev Diary: http://torchlight2game.com/news/2011/05/20/making-the-world-of-torchlight-ii/

Talks a good deal about the new outdoor zones and some about dungeons, also 8 new screenshots.  Looks like the big zones will be a lot bigger than the biggest levels of the Torchlight dungeon.

Bigger zones aren't necessarily better, but it sounds like they're trying to fill them with fun stuff. So that's good.

I'm still looking forward to this a lot, even with Diablo 3 on the way.

Considering how Activision/Blizzard has been acting, I'm kinda looking forward to TL2 more.

[SurfD]

I want to know if they are going to do anything to the Enchanter dude and the way he works to give you some incentive to use his services on a specific item more then once or twice.

Nothing killed my urge to play more then getting that awesome weapon or piece of armor, sticking it on the enchanter, and having him turn it into a statless piece of garbage after the second click.  Having the items actually have "base" stats might be nice.  Currently, EVERY stat on an item is considered an "enchantment" so if the enchanter flubs the item, you get back a "glove" or "sword" of nothingness.

[Yegolev]

How you say... wonk woonnnnk.

[Malakili]

I want to know if they are going to do anything to the Enchanter dude and the way he works to give you some incentive to use his services on a specific item more then once or twice.

Nothing killed my urge to play more then getting that awesome weapon or piece of armor, sticking it on the enchanter, and having him turn it into a statless piece of garbage after the second click.  Having the items actually have "base" stats might be nice.  Currently, EVERY stat on an item is considered an "enchantment" so if the enchanter flubs the item, you get back a "glove" or "sword" of nothingness.

When the game was brand new you could enchant things endlessly, and people just ended up enchanting the first thing they got forever and never "upgrading."  The disenchant thing was put in to counter act that and make you actually use loot you picked up.  I'm pretty sure there is a mod around that restores the enchanter to his original functionality.  I think scaling up the cost really high would probably do just fine as a limiting mechanism, sure you CAN enchant that level 10 sword once more, but you may as well upgrade to the level 30 one that dropped because its about as good and doesn't cost 100,000 gold, or whatever.

[SurfD]

I want to know if they are going to do anything to the Enchanter dude and the way he works to give you some incentive to use his services on a specific item more then once or twice.

Nothing killed my urge to play more then getting that awesome weapon or piece of armor, sticking it on the enchanter, and having him turn it into a statless piece of garbage after the second click.  Having the items actually have "base" stats might be nice.  Currently, EVERY stat on an item is considered an "enchantment" so if the enchanter flubs the item, you get back a "glove" or "sword" of nothingness.

When the game was brand new you could enchant things endlessly, and people just ended up enchanting the first thing they got forever and never "upgrading."  The disenchant thing was put in to counter act that and make you actually use loot you picked up.  I'm pretty sure there is a mod around that restores the enchanter to his original functionality.  I think scaling up the cost really high would probably do just fine as a limiting mechanism, sure you CAN enchant that level 10 sword once more, but you may as well upgrade to the level 30 one that dropped because its about as good and doesn't cost 100,000 gold, or whatever.

Ahh, never new about the "unlimited enchanter" thing.  It just sucked that items dont have "base" stats.  I wouldnt mind it so much if the enchanter flubbing my Rare or Legendary quality item returned it to base stats on the 6th try or something, but losing the item completely because it gets wiped back to a completely blank statless item just made me completely paranoid about Enchanting anything even remotely valeuable more then two times.   The Risk Vs Reward ratio was just way out of whack.

[Malakili]

I want to know if they are going to do anything to the Enchanter dude and the way he works to give you some incentive to use his services on a specific item more then once or twice.

Nothing killed my urge to play more then getting that awesome weapon or piece of armor, sticking it on the enchanter, and having him turn it into a statless piece of garbage after the second click.  Having the items actually have "base" stats might be nice.  Currently, EVERY stat on an item is considered an "enchantment" so if the enchanter flubs the item, you get back a "glove" or "sword" of nothingness.

When the game was brand new you could enchant things endlessly, and people just ended up enchanting the first thing they got forever and never "upgrading."  The disenchant thing was put in to counter act that and make you actually use loot you picked up.  I'm pretty sure there is a mod around that restores the enchanter to his original functionality.  I think scaling up the cost really high would probably do just fine as a limiting mechanism, sure you CAN enchant that level 10 sword once more, but you may as well upgrade to the level 30 one that dropped because its about as good and doesn't cost 100,000 gold, or whatever.

Ahh, never new about the "unlimited enchanter" thing.  It just sucked that items dont have "base" stats.  I wouldnt mind it so much if the enchanter flubbing my Rare or Legendary quality item returned it to base stats on the 6th try or something, but losing the item completely because it gets wiped back to a completely blank statless item just made me completely paranoid about Enchanting anything even remotely valeuable more then two times.   The Risk Vs Reward ratio was just way out of whack.

Yeah, it definitely had its desired effect.  It also made enchantment shrines especially awesome to find, because they didn't ramp up in terms of disenchant chance.

[Amaron]

Yeah, it definitely had its desired effect.  It also made enchantment shrines especially awesome to find, because they didn't ramp up in terms of disenchant chance.

Actually the biggest problem with the enchanter was that the "enchantment" was based on your character level instead of the item level.   Since you're character level was often far above even the best items you'd find this was plain ol overpowered.   Eventually they fixed this for the in-town enchanter but I don't think they ever got around to fixing the shrines.   Thus after you figured out where a bunch of shrines were you could just grind the levels repeatedly.

Hopefully they'll fix all this for the second one.

[01101010]

Actually the biggest problem with the enchanter was that the "enchantment" was based on your character level instead of the item level.   Since you're character level was often far above even the best items you'd find this was plain ol overpowered.   Eventually they fixed this for the in-town enchanter but I don't think they ever got around to fixing the shrines.   Thus after you figured out where a bunch of shrines were you could just grind the levels repeatedly.

Hopefully they'll fix all this for the second one.

I'll let the you're part slide, but does anyone else think this is just wrong? Not really specific to this game but in general... I never could wrap my head around why on earth at say level 10, I could loot a lvl 10 mob and find a green lvl 7 sword. Why not just up the level of the drop to be even with the player instead of always finding shit that would have been great 4 levels ago?

[Amaron]

I'll let the you're part slide

I obviously know how to use it correctly (since I did it the first time :P).   It's just a phonetic typo.

[Fabricated]

In general Torchlight's loot needs improved. It was good but you really couldn't look at most later pieces of loot (especially weapons) and be able to easily figure out what was better if the DPS/Armor values were similar.

[Amaron]

It was good but you really couldn't look at most later pieces of loot (especially weapons) and be able to easily figure out what was better if the DPS/Armor values were similar.

They could definitely make what the bonuses do far more clear.   There was wayyy to much nonsense like %casting speed would affect physical dps abilities.    Plus a lot of stuff that you'd expect to be really good like swing speed was in fact mostly worthless.

[Xuri]

I'll let the you're part slide

I obviously know how to use it correctly (since I did it the first time :P).   It's just a phonetic typo.

Ooor....it could be that you had no idea, so using it twice with different spelling in youre sentence gave you a 50% chance to get it right at least once! 

(unlike me...)

[Malakili]

http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/06/09/e3-2011-torchlight-pirated-over-5-million-times-in-china-runic-ceo-thats-fine-with-us

On DRM:
“You’re fighting against an immovable force by complaining and being paranoid about [piracy] and all that. We figure if we’re just nice to our customers, charge a low price for our game to begin with, don’t over-burden them with crazy DRM, and customers will be nice to us too. And so far, they have been.”

“We got a lot of letters from people saying ‘Hey, I pirated your game, but it was really cool, so I bought it.’ Y’know, we’re cool with that, we’re not as concerned about that sort of thing as other companies, especially if it makes our honest players inconvenienced. We assume that everyone is an honest player, and we want to make their experience as cool as possible.”

On LAN support, which was just confirmed:
“I don’t know why everyone else doesn’t do it. I understand that a lot of other companies want to run you through their portal to expose you to the other products they have and make it easy for you to click a button and buy other stuff. But we’re a small company–we have Torchlight and Torchlight 2. There’s really no reason for us to do that sort of thing. And it’s something [fans] have requested, and we’re happy to be able to do it.”

Hell, even if I didn't like the first one I'd consider buying Torchlight 2 just for this interview.

[Yegolev]

Looks like even Torchlight 2 is a ramp-up to Mythos 2.

[Malakili]

Looks like even Torchlight 2 is a ramp-up to Mythos 2.

Yeah, they've been saying that, more or less.  Also, for the sake of clarity, I don't think they'venamed it yet.  Another company picked up the old Mythos and it kind of sucked after that, so they aren't really going call it Mythos X for sure, just wanted to make sure people realize they weren't responsible for the version of Mythos that actually got released, because it was kind of crap, especially compared to how good Mythos was during its beta.

Edit also:

Here is some  info from e3:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bV-yjSUMSY8 (Armor Sets Video)
http://www.g4tv.com/videos/53439/Torchlight-2-Floor-Report-E3-2011-Live/ (General Interview/info)
http://www.gamefront.com/e3-2011-torchlight-2-hands-on-berserker-class-reveal/ (Berserker class Reveal/info)