General Game Stuff
(risingson) As a Mac user, how far into next year will have to wait before I can play TL 2 with my PC buddies?They are currently not focusing on the Mac right now until they finish the PC version. Travis said he didn't anticipate it taking as long to port to the Mac this time around because they already had a lot of the code in place. That being said, he thought there might be some bottlenecks that they don't see. For instance none of them have any experience with firewalls on the Mac.
(risingson) Any chance of TL2 on the Mac App Store?
They would like to have this as an option as long as the DRM is not a huge deal.
(derekffs) How much harder do you think torchlight 2 is on max settings compared to the first 1?
It is definitely harder. I would say it is about one step up in difficulty level (with normal being like hard and hard being like very hard). This is not because it is more grindy (like the first game), but primarily because there are more interacting creatures and boss combos on the screen that are simply more dangerous.
When we were playing the first time on normal, we got into an area that outleveled us a bit and I died 10 times on the destroyer. On very hard I was able to do fairly well, but an epic dividing archer boss pack killed me withing 30 minutes when they backed me against a corner.
(kukuku) Are there any other confirmed pets as yet?
Yes, there are now 7 pets in the game. The original cat and dog (most likely these will only be put in as fish), a new bulldog, a panther, a chadoway (dinosaur type thing) and a hawk.
(kukuku) Is the fishing mini-game still in and has it improved for the sake of sanity?
They haven't worked much on fishing yet as there are higher priorities. One thing that Travis mentioned they were thinking of adding is limited fishing pools that were depleted quickly but gave enhanced loot. This would be in addition to maybe decreasing the fishing cast animation time, so fishing worked better for multiplayer.
(laharl9999)* How does the enchantment system works exactly ?
Enchantment has gotten a HUGE (yet subtle) upgrade. First... town enchanters will only be able to enchant your equipment 2 times. These will be lesser quality enchants that have a wide range of possibilities. There will be no wipe possibility this time. Instead you will have to pay to have the enchantments wiped off your gear so you can try again. Wiping enchants will not affect the items base enchants. Bonuses you add from an enchanter will be a different color than the item's original attribute so you won't have as much trouble seeing what has changed this time around. Possible enchantments will also get better as you level (which means you will want to periodically wipe them and re-enchant).
You will be able to find specific named more-focused enchanters randomly while adventuring. Some will do fire enchants, some will do attribute enchants, some will add sockets, etc. These will be higher quality than your basis enchants. Some enchanters will be able to enchant a third enchant on your gear. There are also rumors of very rare enchanters that might even be able to enchant your gear a fourth time or add a third socket.
(laharl9999) Can you explain in details the post-game features
You will finish the normal game at around level 50. Once you've done that, you will be able to play through again with your current character with monsters starting at level 51. You will probably be somewhere around 70-80 when you finish New Game+, and will most likely be able to restart again and do New Game++. Marsh didn't have an idea of how many times you would be able to replay this time around.
There will be armor up to 100. You will be able to do linked maps with friends that have boss monsters at the end of them.
Pacing: In Normal, all game will be more tailored and you will basically be able to play through doing some sidequests, etc, but no grinding. In New Game+, Marsh said they will add randomized quests and expect you to do some grinding to stay on level pace.
Basically there are four kinds of quests: In Normal, Story, Sidequests (extra objectives), event / overland quests. New Game+ will add random quests are slightly more grindy (kill x creatures etc).
(mrpinsky) What is the final decision on the difficulty options? What's this game+?
I explained new game+ in the previous sections. Right now there are 4 difficulty options: Easy, Normal, Hard and Very Hard. All of them are more difficult than the previous game. You will be able to change difficulty level whenever you create a game and you will inherit the difficulty from the game you join in multi-player. Drops will most likely be the same... only difficulty will be harder.
It is possible there might be an unlockable difficulty level.
(Risingsun)* How flexible or robust is the cosmetic character customization in the game? I know we wont be picking eye color or the width of our nose bridge. I do know there are options for gender, face, hair, hair color, and skin tone. Are there a lot of options in each category? Are there enough options to create "yourself" in the game? Enough options to create characters of diverse backgrounds?
At PAX this was rather limited (only 3-4 selections per feature). It had expanded to 8-9 selections per choice when we got to play the game. Basically one of the artist, Jeff, keeps making new skin tones and faces whenever he needs a break. They look really considering the low poly count.
(jamesl) can someone explain the Recovery aspect of Dexterity ? I would assume Recovery is how long it takes you to recover from being stunned or something like that, but it says "Reduces the damage penalty if an attack is fumbled"
A fumble is the opposite of a critical (basically you do less damage instead of more). Dexterity reduces your chance to fumble.
(tomagabriel) If there will be limited number of activations for the game bought at Runic site, will the activations replenish in time or on demand?
It will most likely be the same as last time (10ish keys), however they plan on automating this system for people who create accounts on their site. You will be able to ask for new keys through a web page and get them without having to go through a customer service rep.
(sixshotoverdrive) A majority of the enemies you encountered in torchlight were quite humanoid in appearance/movement, is this still the case for TL2 or will we be seeing some more beastly monsters?
We saw a lot more diversity in the Act 1. I saw slug beasts, demons, undead, humanoids, slimes, spiders, etc. There are just a ton more creatures and creature types than TL 1.
(universum) will there be a limit in the number of attributes an item can have or can get through enchanting?
Yes. Two from town, three from random enchanters and perhaps a fourth from a very rare enchanter.
(universum) will there be sockets on every item type?
Yes, however Travis didn't remember if belts had them.
(universum) will there be pet-only equipment? (always wondered why pets wear rings)
Yes... they have added collars this time around and some can give your pet new skills!
Gameplay
(TheLurker)Will Main or Side Quests have Different Reward Options based on Character Type?At first they will definitely give class specific stuff, but as you play through the game you will start to see a bigger variety of things. This is so that people who play rare combinations of classes (a Destroyer with a staff) still can get loot from quests.
(Webbstre) So what's the final verdict on respecs this time around?
They are still having a conversation this time around. There will probably be some type of respec, but it will be limited.
(kukuku) With elemental resistances being limited to the belt and amulets, are the resistances going to be percentage based now?
They are still flat for the most part.
(kukuku) Are there going to be any differences in the elemental effects between poison and fire? They both do DoTs.
Nope. Just the resist and animations are different.
(Thormodr) Will you be able to hire a mercenary/ally like in Diablo II to adventure with you? (In addition to your pet.)
They haven't decided if they want you to be able to do this or not. It would be easy to add, but there is limited screen real estate in a multi-player game and they don't want the experience to get too busy.
(TheLurker)
a) Will there be a tactical advantage (i.e. coded - to hit/damage modifiers) or disadvantage in combat based upon differences in elevation?
There are no hit/damage bonuses from range.
b) Will (monster) ranged attacks (from higher up) be able to reach players also now?
It depends on the skill. Some skills can target vertically at a bigger angle. I found there were several times that monsters could shoot me from above but I couldn't reach them from the ground and had to run around.
(TheLurker) Will Monsters have Access to Different Offensive Options depending on either # of Players or Level of Difficulty? (Game/Game+ mode)
No... not at this time.
(mrpinsky) Do they still have the 3 respawning options after death? (I hope not - it's like Death asking you "how would you like to die today?")
Yes, but they are talking about very hard not giving you the option to respawn right where you died.
(NavyPaul) Will basic attacks (swing a sword, shoot your bow, fire your wand) be viable throughout the game, or will 'signature' skills take over?
Yes, in fact your charge bar mechanic is driven primarily through normal attacks. You will most likely end up using a combination.
(ZXaeon) Is there anything in Torchlight 2 similar to the purple phase beasts found in Torchlight 1?
Yes, but this time around there are even more cool things and a bunch of different ones. The rooms will most likely be smaller than Phase beast rooms but they will be more frequent.
(tomagabriel) Can we send the pet in town to buy scrolls?
Yes, they are adding a shopping list feature to your pet.
(NavyPaul) Will level progression effect the main quest difficulty, in regards to following only the main quest or doing lots of side quests (are we expected to do a certain amount of side quests in order to keep up)?
Yes... if you don't do any side quests you will most likely hit a wall eventually. Early on, areas have a level band and adapt to players, but this band will get narrower as the game progresses.
(laharl9999) Will there ba a skill like ember lance (even Diablo 3 has a copy of this spell : disintegrate !)? If yes, does it works properly in stairs ?
There is not one yet, but it might be added. Some skills still have targeting issues with stairs, but this is often by design (some follow the ground, some have less of a vertical angle, etc). You will probably want to experiment and find the right spell for you since they have a variety of delivery systems.
(turnipz) I'd like to hear more about the charge system, are you able to use the charge for anything else like weapon attacks? What are the goals of the system, and why did they decide to implement it.
It was implemented to give you a reason to stay in combat and also to give each player a secondary mechanic that felt different. For instance, the engineer has skills that use charges directly while the outlander gets more of a scaling bonus when she fills her charge bar. (She can even share the bonus with friends!)
(universum) Does the class you play influence your class specific drops? (not even a little bit?)
In certain cases, like certain quests, yes. Not normally, however.
(universum) will there be a filter for items? (like alt for all, x for non-white items)
Travis throught this was a good idea and they might add it.
Multiplayer
(derekffs) Will there be a chat lobby?
Not at Launch.
(derekffs) Will there be any emotes?
Not at Launch.
(derekffs) Will there be any trading feature?
There might be. They are not sure.
(Gluemchen) Have you considered developing server client host tools for private servers? Or can it be that you are already working on them?
They are not currently working on these, but they like the idea. It may be something that gets worked on after launch.
(Dusho) Will Steam's 'invite friend to game' work with private TL2 games?
They were actually currently working on this now... They would love to have this if they can make it happen.
(Wuddles) -How will duplicate names work in multiplayer? Will names have to be unique? If not, will there be a way to differentiate between two characters with identical names?
They will be okay. They may either give your name and end ID or use your account name.
(Rusty) Can you kick people from the your multiplayer?
They plan on adding a democratic vote feature.
Modding
(talyn) I would like to know if changing the ui in such a way as to allow wasd movement and mouse aim is possible. so we can make a TC of shadowgrounds/alienshooter/alienswarm pedigree.You would have to hack this.
(talyn) will it be possible to define different classes of socketables and sockets (ie an upgrade that only works on armour and a socket that only accepts that type of upgrade)
Yes to both since you can now define your own unit types.
(Arkham) Robes. Will there be robe/skirt/kilt armor in TL2 (basically, any armor that droops substantially below the character's legs)? And whether it is being included by default or not, how possible/feasible would it be to make mods that add such armor?
You would need to know 3D studio Max.
(laharl9999)
- Will it be possible to mod a dye system ?
Yes, but you would have to make new skins for all the armors so it would be clunky.
- Will it be possible to mod a transmogrification system ?
They will have a limited one in game, but they are actually removing things like upgrading gems because they found it encouraged plaeyrs to horde their gems.
- Will it be possible to mod difficulties?
Yes.
(sixshotoverdrive) How many different weapon attacks are there (pistol, polearm, slash etc) and are they still tied to unit-type or can we override them on an individual item?
There are a lot. And are each tied to unit type. Each type of attack has its own animation this time around.
(Webbstre) Will Torchlight 2 allow us to create our own machinima? Like, controlled events we script out and record, and change the camera angle for, etc?
You could probably do this, but it would be a lot of work. On a side note, you can save cinematic as bink files and run them from game.
(Sixshotoverdrive) Will we still need to add new wardrobe files, meshes, etc. to the TorchED directory before we can select them? (TorchED2 question)
Yes
(DarkTails) Through mods, will we be able to change the camera's position and zoom to make talking to quest givers more interesting?
Not through gameplay, but you could if you created a cinematic or scripted sequence.
Lore
(Thormodr) What is the name of the world that Torchlight exists on?The continent is Vilderan and they developers have been arguing about the main name.
(Thormodr) Are there any things/properties that make the world of Torchlight different from our planet earth? For example, does the world revolve around a binary star system or are there 25 hours in a day?
Travis started to answer this then he was stopped and told this was story territory.
(laharl9999) - How does the Embermage wild magic works ? Can you give ue some examples ? (Webbstre's note, I'm not sure if he meant lore-wise or gameplay-wise)
It is more of a lore/ visual thing and her concept has changed a bit.
(chepelink) What is the "meaning" behind "low magic" of the Outlander?
It is kind of gypsy / hedge mage style magic as opposed to the collegiate magic of the Ember Mage.
Technical Stuff
(ZXaeon) - Does Torchlight 2 use the same sound system (Fmod EX) as Torchlight 1?
Yes
- Does Torchlight 2 utilize OpenAL or DirectSound (which)?
Most likely depends on platform
- Is Torchlight 2 recorded in 5.1 audio, or still 2.0/2.1?
Music 2.0 / 2.1. Effects in 5.1
(tomagabriel) How big will TL2 be? (in Gb)
Over a gig
(wolfmane) TL was very click intensive outside of combat (vendor trading, loot organization, stacking, transferring items to pets, etc.). The mouse interface was also a little twitchy when trying to target a monster, I think due to hitbox size. This made it difficult to deal with targeting correctly in combat at times causing your character to move forward instead of attacking in place. I'm wondering if they viewed this as a problem and if they've gone through and revised some of how the game handle's both for in combat targeting fluidity and reduction of number of clicks per action for interfacing with objects and NPCs.
They increased monster hit box size so it is easier to target monsters. There are trade offs though since this can make it harder to path around monsters and click behind them.
(Dusho) Are there different death and hit animations for monsters that are hit with different types of weapons (heavy 2hander vs. light 1hand sword) ?
Nope, but there are different swing, run, and dying critical damage. For instance monsters die differently when frozen etc.
(laharl9999) What is the damage formula ?
Still being tweaked
How do resistances work?
Flat
How does total armor work? (is it a flat damage reduction? does it affect only physical damage or all damages ?)?
Armor is still flat damage, but it doesn't just have to affect physical damage.
(ZXaeon) Is Torchlight 2 able to take advantage of more than one CPU core/thread?
When loading yes.
(universum) what will be the buy/sell ratio in item prices?
There will be one, but I believe it is still in flux.
Company and Franchise Stuff
(Zidders) I guess the only question I would ask is if Runic would ever think of offering some kind of merchandise, such as limited edition signed prints of artwork, and would they ever consider putting some original artwork pieces up for auction in the name of charity, say for childsplaycharity.org, just to name one of my fav charities?They hadn't talked much about this yet.
(Risingsun) Along with merchandise, any plans or ideas for a transmedia expansion of the franchise?
I'm sure im not the only one would like to see more of the Torchlight universe in novel, comic book, or graphic novel form. There are probably a lot of stories you could tell in that universe.
Not yet. They are too focused on the current project.
(hawkn) Are there plans for a Torchlight 3, even if they still do the MMO, as long as Torchlight 2 sells well? Or will they move on to a new IP?
No idea. They are still focused on this project.
(hawkn) Will there be TF2 hats for ordering/pre-ordering on Steam?
They have talked about this and want it in game.
(hawkn)* Is the MMO still going to come out, or are they taking a more "We'll see how it goes" approach? As in, if TL2 does well, will Runic continue to develop other games instead?
We'll see how it goes.
(talyn) any plans for expanded universe stuff (ie books)
Not at this time.
(kukuku) Will there be a means of purchasing the soundtrack via digital distribution?
They want to figure out a way. They tried itunes last time but it didn't work out. Maybe Amazon?
(laharl9999) Will there be a console version on PS3/PSVITA /XBOX 360 ?
This will be tough. They are not thinking about it right now.
(Risingson) Max mentioned that Gamersgate didn't to very well for them and they didn't like having 10 different versions of the game with different DRM wrappers that they needed to maintain and patch.
-So my question is, other than steam and their own website, what other digital distributors, if any, is Runic looking to put TL2 on?
Steam / Runic for sure. It really depends on DRM.
(detama) Will they make more single player Torchlight games after they release the MMO?
They really have the staff for one project at a time.
Other Questions
(laharl9999) Do you think we will be playing Torchlight 2 many years after it's release date and why ?
They hope so. Travis thinks it will depend on how well the multiplayer modding community takes off.
(mrpinsky) How is the Diablo3 beta?
Great! They all like it. They believe it is enough of a different game that both games can coexist side by side.
(adoomgod) What is the latest overhaul/new feature you've added/changed in the game that you can tell us about?
Travis just put in soft shadowing.
(adoomgod) Were there any ideas that were initially planned but tossed out/changed during the development process? If so, what?
They scrapped having their own player storage. They decided to just use steam cloud. (Webbstre's Note: I'm not entirely sure what this means, but I did get clarification that this does NOT mean the game requires Steam to play and save characters)
(tomagabriel) How many "actors" did the voice acting?
8-10
Roughly how many types of enemies are in TL2 (as in how many 3D meshes)?
All variations, about 150ish but this includes some color shifts / alternate meshes. At least twice as much ad TL 1. There are also over twice Three times the animations per class.
(Risingson) How is Runic planning to handle DRM in general across all versions of the game?
Different distributers require different DRM.
(Prod) Is there any chance to have TL1 on a discounted price while we're waiting for TL2?
Most likely there will be Holiday sales and some type of bundle when the game releases. No definite plans right now, however.
(Brixtan) Will there be a collector's edition for TL2 offered at launch?
No.
(chepelink) I remember a sword in TL1 that every time I swung it made weird sounds. Are there going to be weapons with such weirdness?
Yes... and there will be even cooler easter egg items, but they don't want to spoil it.
(NavyPaul) Can you tell us a bit about the design philosophy behind the different stats and how you envision their use (is every stat usefull for every class, can we get away dumping a stat, do we try to maximise one exclusively for build efficiency)?
They want all stats to be useful for each character build. That's why they did things like make strength affect all weapon dps (not just melee or ranged) and have focus enhance execute. They want to give people choice without punishing them too harshly if they don't min-max their stats while also opening up the variety of possible builds.
(laharl9999) Is it possible to find random loot better than the best unique/set items ?
They don't know yet and will have to see what players come up with. Loot goes up to 100 this time around, though, and Uniques are going to have some really cool effects.
(Wuddles) Will there be a way to wear one piece of armor but have another show? (put another way: if I have a set that looks great together but then find an item with superior stats, is there a way to keep the set look and the new stat upgrade?)
No
Extra Notes:
- It will be released when finished. I don't anticipate it this year any more. My guess is late winter / Spring.
- There is a lot of little stuff left to do.
- You can now press “Z” to pick the most efficient healing potion and “X” to pick the most efficient mana potion.
- You can do the same thing by clicking on your pet (your pet uses the most efficient potion)
- Potions have been modified so that they are regen based with a 9 secondish cooldown so you can't spam them as much. This makes the game much more tacticle.
- Strength has been modified to increase all weapon damage... not just physical weapon damage.
Marsh on modding:
- TorchED won't be released at the same time as TL2
- When we join a multiplayer game it will
- List the mods required
- If you have the mods you can join the game, otherwise it will tell you where to get them.
- Perhaps link a website?
- You will be able to select mods on and off
- Some mods will require a restart so you will have to select a new character.
Charge Mechanic
- Every character had charges this time around.
- They all felt different and all charged as you attacked with basic or certain skills.
- Engineer used charges directly in skills.
- Outlander got passive buffs (e.g. attack speed, movement speed) that increased as her bar filled.
- The Embermage entered a clearcast state where spells cost nothing and seemed to fire faster.
- The Berserker entered a state where every attack was a critical.
- Classes has various abilities that increase their charge management.
- For instance Outlander had a skill which allowed her to share charge with others.
Beta
- They are going to have a beta
- They will only include the assets for act 1. That way if it gets pirated, people won't have the full game.
- They plan on a small closed beta. The idea is not stress test (since they don't have their own servers), but to test things like connectivity, sockets, firewalls and hardware configurations.
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