Not a Blog Redux

[BCOProwler]

I could kiss you for this amazing post!

Thanks for taking the time to share this insider's view of what life is like at Runic right now. It answers so many questions, has an earnest tone to it that just soothes the impatience like a topical balm,

I love you guys. Cheers!

-snip-

[Seer]

Thank you for this oversized tidbit-thing-of-sorts, it must have taken some time for you to write all this.

[D1Tremere]

I actually loved this post, just wish it answered even one question. Saying something while saying nothing has become an art form.
1: What is the new target release date.
2: When will the mod kit (originally advertised as shipping with the game) be available
3: Will mods still be clunky in terms of loading conflicts, especially new class replacement mods.
4: Hardware requirements.
5: DLC/Expack release schedule, if any.
6: Will it feature controller support.
7: Will it ship with a server client, how will that be handled specifically.
I'm not trying to be negative or a jerk, and I do appreciate this type of communication, but it isn't the same as pertinent information.

[travisbaldree]

1: What is the new target release date.
2: When will the mod kit (originally advertised as shipping with the game) be available
3: Will mods still be clunky in terms of loading conflicts, especially new class replacement mods.
4: Hardware requirements.
5: DLC/Expack release schedule, if any.
6: Will it feature controller support.
7: Will it ship with a server client, how will that be handled specifically.

1. The target release date is still 'summer'.
2. The mod kit will be released after the game is released. This will be partially dependent on if the scale of post-release support and any problems or patches that we have to jump on. Probably a couple of weeks at least. It is likely that we will release some assets in advance of that so that people can get a head start.
3. The aim is for mods to be smoother to use - for it to work in multiplayer, they have to be more flexibly enabled/disabled.
4. Hardware requirements are still low, but higher than Torchlight 1. We do not have a 'netbook mode', but it should still run fine on most PCs. We've introduced more controls to make it more scalable ( you can now disable specific types of particles, for instance ). Expect requirements to be a little higher when playing with other people, due to the increased number of units onscreen.
5. We have no plans for an expansion or DLC at this time. However, we are tentatively planning to do free releases of stuff after launch. ( Not expansion-pack level stuff - but a new pet, or some new items, or spells, or what have you, depending on demand, reception of the game, and our exhaustion level. )
6. It will not feature controller support. The UI needs are totally different and require a completely different setup. ( We know, because we had to do it for Torchlight and it was an enormous amount of work )
7. No stanadlone server will ship with the game. We have discussed and are interested in releasing a standalone server mode, but this will not occur at launch, and we haven't committed to doing so yet.

How's that?

[travisbaldree]

What's the word on pets? In that interview with Erich he mentioned prior plans of expanding both skills and cosmetics for our furry/scaly/feathered friends, but it was all shelved. Is this something Runic can patch in later, or are you guys gonna pass the concept over and let modders do it? Will you guys keep it in your collective pocket and implement it into the TL mmo, at least?

(I'm a big fan of the pet system... I love it; to me, it's as big a part of the TL universe as the art style. So I was a little dismayed that these plans were on the table but put aside... I'm not questioning why, mind you- conceptualizing, balancing and fleshing all of that out would undoubtedly push release further away at this point. Just wondering if Runic has any plans- official or tentative- on revisiting this ridiculously awesome-sounding concept for pets in TL2 or not. )

You can change the appearance of pets now ( different skins ).

As for a skill system, never say never I guess, but I don't anticipate adding a pet skill system. Pets can still use spells ( 4 instead of 2 now ), and we now have 'passive' spells. Since pets now have specific gear, it isn't out of the realm of possibility to make pet-specific skills to attach to items, but it won't happen at launch I don't think.

[travisbaldree]

Would it be wrong to assume that adding tier bonuses to skills means that you had to rebalance the whole game? (mob levels and skills, group spawns, etc)

Nope, we did not have to rebalance the whole game to add tiers.

[Ager]

5. We have no plans for an expansion or DLC at this time. However, we are tentatively planning to do free releases of stuff after launch. ( Not expansion-pack level stuff - but a new pet, or some new items, or spells, or what have you, depending on demand, reception of the game, and our exhaustion level. )

Oh boy. Ohboyohboyohboyohboyohboyohboyohboy.
I do like free stuff.

[LordZakath]

I was wondering how/if the fame system is implemented in TL2. Does it simply give a title and a skill point? Or do things actually change in the game (differences in how people speak to you, that kind of thing).

Cheers, and love all of this info, it makes the wait just that much easier to bear.

[travisbaldree]

I was wondering how/if the fame system is implemented in TL2. Does it simply give a title and a skill point? Or do things actually change in the game (differences in how people speak to you, that kind of thing).

Still there, still just a skill point and title. We talked about doing fame-required weapons, but have not done so.

[Syntax]

This is my first post here but i've been reading this forum for a week now, but i couldn't take it anymore because i didn't see anyone talk about this. I've played D3 since the release for almost 500 hours in total. I've finished inferno and after farming too many hours i got bored, so i started looking around for other games on the arpg market. That's how i got to torchlight 2. I've preordered it and got the first torchlight for free, so i tried it out. I liked it but the combat just didn't feel right. I regret to say i haven't played the TL2 beta so i don't know if any improvements have been added to the combat feel of the game. The main thing about arpg is the combat, everything else is build upon it. What i mean with doesn't feel right is the fact that when you shoot at a mob sometimes it just goes through them with out hitting them. This is when you stand still and attack (use shift-click) without actually individually targeting them. An other thing that i've noticed and that i'm really glad about is already added is the queuing of actions.
BUT here is my biggest problem so far with the combat TL2. If you look at D3, anytime anyone gets hit the character flashes white. It doesn't seem like much but it's essential. For example when you get hit your champ flashes white, this way you know you are getting hit. Just try to stand in some fire pit in D3, for every tick while standing in the fire you flash white. Often times in torchlight i don't really feel i'm getting hit but suddenly i die because i didn't really noticed it before it was too late. Also when mobs or bosses gets hit and flash white you know you are actually hitting them. It all feel much more responsive. I've watched lots of beta gameplays of TL2 on youtube and i've not seen anything that comes close to this. And nothing has been mentioned about it in the post-beta patch notes.

I'm not going to spend a lot of time talking about potential features, and so on - because we're way beyond that point in development.

I know is late in the development process but could you guys please consider adding this one thing, i and a lot of other gamers out there will be really grateful.

Keep up the good work you guys

[littlewierdo]

Wow, based on everything I read here, it sounds like you are taking and fixing from Diablo 3. Having just barely started Inferno in D3, I can see where Blizzard needed another couple months to 'polish' the game, there are alot of problems.

While I dont want to draw comparisons, there are really three games that stand out in this genre, Fate, Diablo, and Torchlight and right now, I believe Torchlight is in the front leading the pack.

Having said all that, I have two questions.

1. Having played the sh*t out of Torchlight but got frustrated trying to eek the last few levels my characters needed (I have a level 96 character and another level 93 character - mobs got way too difficult for me to handle once I got far enough into the endless cave), Im well aware of the new game+ option. But what I would like to see is a progression system that allows me to start a new game and have all the content generated for my level rather than just starting a new game with my character at level 35 smashing through level 1 monsters. My thought is, something similar to how D3 handles it EXCEPT, difficulty level is not tied to this, it is just handled by the engine. Meaning, if I finish the game say at level 30 and start a new game, the content at the start of the game would be designed for a level 30 character and progress from there. If I decided to do some grinding and finished the game at 40 and THEN started a new game, the content would be dynamically shifted to be tuned to my level 40 character. This allows for, in a sense, truly unlimited replay ability. For me, its not very fun hulk smashing, I like some challenge. In fact, I think it would really be interesting to have NO difficulties involved, just have the game tuned the way you guys think it should be, but I know thats not the norm.

2. Will there be a way to prove that a character has not been modified? Some sort of 'official' cloud stored character that, for those of us that are interested in such things, can show off our gear/builds knowing that (and proving that) the character has not been modified using a third party tool?

________
The answer is 42, but whats the question??

[Plague83]

Thanks again Travis for all the answers to peoples questions
The feedback in this thread is amazing. Its rare to see à company that
cares for its fans as much as Runic does. Thanks again

[travisbaldree]

I liked it but the combat just didn't feel right. I regret to say i haven't played the TL2 beta so i don't know if any improvements have been added to the combat feel of the game. The main thing about arpg is the combat, everything else is build upon it. What i mean with doesn't feel right is the fact that when you shoot at a mob sometimes it just goes through them with out hitting them. This is when you stand still and attack (use shift-click) without actually individually targeting them. An other thing that i've noticed and that i'm really glad about is already added is the queuing of actions.
BUT here is my biggest problem so far with the combat TL2. If you look at D3, anytime anyone gets hit the character flashes white. It doesn't seem like much but it's essential. For example when you get hit your champ flashes white, this way you know you are getting hit. Just try to stand in some fire pit in D3, for every tick while standing in the fire you flash white. Often times in torchlight i don't really feel i'm getting hit but suddenly i die because i didn't really noticed it before it was too late. Also when mobs or bosses gets hit and flash white you know you are actually hitting them. It all feel much more responsive. I've watched lots of beta gameplays of TL2 on youtube and i've not seen anything that comes close to this. And nothing has been mentioned about it in the post-beta patch notes.

There are numerous differences to combat in TL2 -
Some of these changes have happened post Beta.
1) Combat in TL1 was single target. TL2 isn't - enemies within the arc of your swing are struck. Your primary target is struck for full damage, and the other targets take secondary damage. Arcs and damage% differ between weapon types.

2)As mentioned, queuing is now in

3)Characters do not flash when struck in TL2, but as of a week ago, they 'push' - there's a fast, half-sinewave 'strike' motion in the direction of the attack that makes it possible to tell you struck them, and if they aren't interrupted (which triggers an animation) still provides feedback on a successful strike. Of course, there are strike particles and sounds, but this makes it less ambiguous. We have talked about doing the flashes, but have not done so because of how many targets you can hit at once with your weapons, given that we fear it will look like a lightshow. So this was our compromise. The reason you won't see it in any videos is because it was post-Beta.

4) Combat is faster, and animations have quicker blends which makes it feel more fluid

Travis

[Jerich]

Thank you for adding this feature Travis. This is one of the best developers blogs I have read in a while and reminds me a bit of Tan Adams developer notes (the maker of Dwarf Fortress). I think they are part of the reason he has such a loyal fanbase. Thanks for taking the time to do this.

[travisbaldree]

But what I would like to see is a progression system that allows me to start a new game and have all the content generated for my level rather than just starting a new game with my character at level 35 smashing through level 1 monsters. My thought is, something similar to how D3 handles it EXCEPT, difficulty level is not tied to this, it is just handled by the engine. Meaning, if I finish the game say at level 30 and start a new game, the content at the start of the game would be designed for a level 30 character and progress from there. If I decided to do some grinding and finished the game at 40 and THEN started a new game, the content would be dynamically shifted to be tuned to my level 40 character. This allows for, in a sense, truly unlimited replay ability

That's basically how it works - however, it doesn't relevel based on your ending level, it relevels based on how many times you've started over and a projected level - so, let's say 50, 85, 95, 100 or so - we haven't finalized the wraparound threshholds yet. The reason that it needs to be on a fixed progression is so that you can join an MP game with another person based on their NG+ level and have it work out.

Will there be a way to prove that a character has not been modified? Some sort of 'official' cloud stored character that, for those of us that are interested in such things, can show off our gear/builds knowing that (and proving that) the character has not been modified using a third party tool?

Not a foolproof way, no. IF we do a standalone server mode, the potential is there for us to keep the players stored on that server machine. But that's a big if. We are toying with a 'suspect' command in MP that will look at another player and try and rank whether it thinks they have cheated or not, but there is no way this can be 100% reliable.

[Richie]

Even though it sounds fun to have "legit" standards, I'm thinking that on a game that's available to single player, save file backuping would basically say otherwise.

I would really, really hate to not be able to save my game and able to re=load one point without having it auto sync'ed to the cloud, and if it detects that I at some point ever deleted my file and used an older one, marks me as "modded" it wouldn't sound too pleasant. I guess the closed server idea is just catering to a certain group of people, (well, same as my idea of save/load not affecting "legit" characters, different people different interests?) Or maybe I'm just missing the point that it's only mods that would define a character as "modded" and not save/load.

[Lactoso]

This is really fantastic.

[BlondeKnight]

Gah...the anticipation of release is growing to critical proportions.

/enable patience

[Spirit]

Thanks for the info so far. I guess the only question I have really is run speed - is it the same as in the demo? I would kinda prefer it to be a tad slower but its not exactly a deal breaker. It was a hot topic here a few weeks ago.

As an aside, has the hud been changed at all since the demo build? If so, could you share a pic? I know its undergone some iteration in the past, was wondering if its changed again.

[travisbaldree]

Run speed is the same as in the beta.
However, about 2 days before the beta shutdown, I implemented a targeting alteration that compensates for fast run speed. When you are moving, all target clickboxes are increased in size by 50%. If the target is moving as well, a further 50% - this makes it much easier to click what you intend to during motion and solves the primary issue with fast speeds. Or at least, it appears to, and the feedback on the change was good.

Bear in mind, we don't do the same amount of move speed% increases on items in this game as we did in TL1. We keep it fast, but try not to have it go bonkers. The faster movement really, really comes in handy in the large outdoor areas.

The hud is mostly the same. There have been tooltip alterations and changes to various submenus, but the HUD layout is not changed much.