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Torchlight 2: The Game Before The MMO, Announced
modeps
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Kind of surprised no one has posted this yet, but here goes. Torchlight 2 (PC) has been announced by Runic Games. It's the follow up to their first game, released last year. It will be released at some point next Spring (2011). Unlike the first game, Torchlight 2 will have full on co-op for at least 4 players.
Official Website: http://torchlight2game.com/
PC Gamer Written Interview with Max Schafer and Travis Baldree: http://www.pcgamer.com/2010/08/04/torchlight-2-interview-with-runic-games/
PC Gamer First Artwork: http://www.pcgamer.com/2010/08/04/exclusive-torchlight-2-first-artwork/
Gamasutra Interview with Max Schafer: http://gamasutra.com/view/news/29743/Interview_Runic_CEO_On_Torchlight_II_Digital_Strengths.php
Evil Avatar's Shotgun Podcast Torchlight 2 Interview: http://shotgunpodcast.com/2010/08/shotgun-81/
Key Features:
- Multi-player – Play with your friends over a local area network, or over the Internet. A free matchmaking peer-to-peer service lets you make new friends for exciting co-op play.
- Customizable Characters – Players create and customize a character from one of four classes available and choose an animal companion. Through cosmetic, class, and gender choices, skill path decisions, and the treasures they acquire, each character can be custom-tailored to each player’s needs.
- Moddability – Torchlight II will release with an updated version of TorchEd, the Torchlight editor. Players have the option to create their own mods, adding even more content to the world. You and your friends can download the same mod and play together!
- New User Interface – Torchlight II boasts an entirely new, improved user interface, designed to be easier than ever for new players to pick up and play. Thanks to this intuitive interface, players have immediate access to a rich and varied world, with little experience necessary.
- Overworld Areas – Torchlight II has large randomized overworld areas to explore with weather, time of day cycles, and random events that provide players with even more content to experience.
- Random Dungeons – Delve into randomly generated dungeons within the game at any time for extra experience and rare loot. Dungeons in Torchlight II have even more branching paths to explore with friends filled with random events, rewards and dangers.
- Retirement System – Once characters are sufficiently leveled up, they can “retire” and bestow specific benefits and perks onto new characters.
- Pets – Players choose a pet to accompany them. Pets level up along with the player, and help in battle, learn spells, carry items, and perform a variety of support services.
- Fishing – Fishing returns in the sequel! Players can take a break from the high-energy pace of adventuring to relax by one of the many fishing holes and see what they can catch. Fish have unique benefits for the player and pet, while a number of other rewards can also be discovered.
Expanded Details (from Audio Interview)
- Max was likely a bit tipsy when he slipped about Torchlight II at GDC earlier this year. (2:20)
- Runic is still "relatively" Independent, and Perfect World is the "Investor." (2:49)
- Currently at 32 people on staff and no plans to get much bigger. (3:25)
- Roughly 4 Digital Downloads for every 1 boxed copy of Torchlight sold. (4:25, beginning of Runic Team Growth Talk)
- They want console releases, but haven't managed it so far. (6:00)
- Never really considered Torchlight II as an expansion pack. (7:00)
- MMO pushed to the back-burner for now. (8:04, beginning of MMO talk)
- More classes, non-linear advancement and outside worlds. (8:45)
- Mac version sooner after the PC release than the last game. (9:39)
- Likely to have Steam availability on day 1. (9:12)
- No modding tools for Mac again, because they are programmed in C#. (10:04)
- A writer has been hired and there will be actual narrative. (11:05)
- You will not be starting in the town of Torchlight.
- Lots of regions and cultures in Torchlight II.
- In a lot of ways the changes from Diablo 1 to Diablo 2 are comparable to Torchlight 1 and Torchlight 2. (12:20)
- No plans on any kind of import from the old game to the new one. Much of the game has been revamped or improved, which makes it difficult to try to import anything. (13:00)
- Itemization system is being changed and will match the new classes. (Starts at 12:47)
- The Railman class is "an engineer turned into a melee tank." They are charged with developing transportation and pushing it into the wilderness. (15:40)
- The Outlander is a hybrid of ranged with "superstitious magic." Survivalist vibe. (16:25)
- Torchlight has its own style of steampunk that they have been working with for the art style. (17:22)
- The UI has been totally overhauled. (18:30)
- Identification system will be changed, if not completely removed. "Less onerous." (18:47)
- Chatting in multiplayer. (19:09)
- Trying out a bag-based system for the inventory. (19:16)
- New pets, but Dogs and Cats of some sort will be included. (19:55)
- More monsters scaling this time, not as much as oblivion but better than the main dungeon in the original game. (20:20)
- A lot more balance between classes this time, especially for skills. (21:15)
- Endless dungeons and retirement will return "in some way, shape or form." (22:09)
- PvP might appear in the game, but it won't be possible to do it cheat-free. (23:30)
- They want to make it possible for people to play with mods with other people. (25:20)
- There will be a friends list. (26:20)
- Inline character saves so that people can play on the go from anywhere. (26:40)
- Monster scaled via proximity. "If you are in Act 3 and I'm in act 1..." then the Act 1 monsters won't get harder. (27:50)
- The loot you see drop will belong only to you, and item trading will be available. Trading interface included, but you can throw things on the ground for anyone to pick up if you want. (28:15)
- Co-op is at least max of four players, and a possible maximum of eight. Summons are a major factor in these numbers. Not finalized. (28:52)
- Video at Gamescom! (29:50)
- The game will be playable in Pre-Alpha form at Gamescom later this month. (30:4
- Alpha (or Beta?) testing MAY be early next year, and they want to involve the community but don't know how they want to do that yet. (31:10)
- You can see what mods someone has if they join your game, and they will need to be the same to join.
- Skill system has changed.
- The world will be divided into zones with sub-areas, and random outdoors. (35:44)
- Three major distinct outdoor types - Grassy mountain Steppes, Desert and Dark, Spooky Battlefield Forest (Swamp?) (36:19)
- Random events like caravans being attacked. (38:14)
- 200+ Unique weapon models. (38:25, 39:10 Key points)
- New weapon types, including Cannons and Fist weapons. (39:20)
- Weapon specific walking and attack animations. (39:45)
- Fishing may be revised, but it will return. (40:50)
- No mounts. (43:30)
- Price point close to the last game. (44:30)
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Classes so far:
Rail-man (or women): Prospector / Engineer type who seems to be clad in bronze armor and monocles.
Out-lander: Ranger archetype.
edit: Also so that my contribution here isn't entirely negative, steampunk melee fighter engineers woop woop.
It serves no purpose whatsoever except to have another consumable to take up your inventory space. What you get is random anyway, why make the player have to go through an additional step just to see the stats? I'm aware there's some cases in D2 where an item is more valuable in trade if it's unidentified (charms), but that's not really a justification to keep that dumb shit in. They have taken them out of MMO's that have the same drop mechanics of these games, so why keep them in?
Please please please, take them out.
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"But, heck, that guy’s killing stuff and it’s dropping loot for me."
Uh oh, I hope I'm not looking too deeply into this but I think that means the loot is shared and not seperated like Diablo 3 will be. I hope they fix that before the game comes out otherwise multiplayer will be hurt since it will simply come down to who click the phat ass epic first and not a fair round the robin style loot:(.
Despite my complaining I loved Torchlight so I'm very excited for this.
This used to be coupled to a DnD mechanic where you could equip an unidentified item, which would identify it. There were also cursed items that, once put on, couldn't be taken off unless special conditions were met. That at least made identifying things an interesting choice. It's not so bad now since you can get the Identify spell and not waste storage space, but being down a spell slot kind of sucks too.
3clipse: The key to any successful marriage is a good mid-game transition.
They're either going to revisit how identification works, or remove it completely. It won't remain the same that it was in the first game for sure.
Basically, the loot YOU see, will be yours and no one else's. Once you pick it up you can drop it, then it becomes public. There'll also be a trading mechanic as well.
You can mod the identifying out I believe, though honestly, players shouldn't have to resort to that kind of thing to remove a rather archaic and worthless game mechanic.
Oh good good, I'm glad it works that way, awsome.
We really don't have many games that use the one dungeon that goes on for quite a while method. :?
Well, if you wan't that experience... you can always play the first Torchlight or Diablo
AFAIK all Japanese rogue-likes still have cursed items (the Mysterious Dungeon series, Shiren, etc.). Also potions and scrolls and wands also tend to require identifying or experimenting (and you can rename items too once you discover what it is without identifying). So yeah, identification matters for THOSE games.
Meanwhile, this game is so far off that I'm probably not going to care until next year.
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That's never the answer to that complaint and I don't understand why people use it.
The overworld is really just another part of the dungeon though, the dungeon being the entire game.
"Orkses never lose a battle. If we win we win, if we die we die fightin so it don't count. If we runs for it we don't die neither, cos we can come back for annuver go, see!".
You have to also think from a developer standpoint, there are people that do not want more of the same.
It'll make multiplayer a nuisance if mod up heavily and most other people you know don't.
All they need is a button for "enable mods" that you put a check mark on.
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Yeah, there's stiff competition coming out for sure. Along with Diablo III, there's Grim Dawn as well (Titan Quest ex-devs)
Maybe they can add some rainbows to make the dawns look a little less grim.
The game is called GRIM DAWN. You must be joking.
Yeah, just allow mod checkboxes/etc. and separating graphical and content mods. That should work for multiplayer.
I hope they introduce more item effects. Possible item mods in TL1 were few and bland compared to Diablo II's mass of weird effects. Limited customizability kinda sucked too.
Any news on what matchmaking system they will use for MP?
Loved the first game, and I'm interested to see how they handle overworld areas.
(Speaking of which, got Torchlight? Check out this dude's absolutely beautiful Retexture Mod. Gives a more gritty, detailed, Diablo-like vibe to the art.)
Wow that's impressive dude
That mod looks great, I'll give it a shot - thanks!
-Louis C.K.
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/29788/Torchlight_Sales_Well_Over_600K_Primarily_Downloads.php
Surprising maybe because of Titan Quest, which is a mellow Mediterranean romp where your enemies are trippy pink and purple giant insects, rat men, and weird naked blue ladies. :P
I beat it once on Hard, but the last boss didn't really inspire me to do another run through.