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What changes would you make to TL2?
FrodoFragins
Member EpicPosts: 5,905
Caveat, this is a fun ARPG and well worth the $20 fee.
It's a fun game, but it's definitely not the next D2. I'm beginning to fear there really never will be a next D2. I'd love to see a company take all of the good from D2, add some new stuff and make an amazing and deep ARPG.
I think TL2 has a very solid foundation but not the budget, team size or ambition to make the defining ARPG. My additions would be geared towards being what D3 could have been. Maybe something to target with TL3.
1) Closed bnet like servers - yeah I know it won't happen
2) Incorporate charms, runes and runewords from D2
3) Updated engine with higher rez assets
4) Full respecs but double the number of classes and add a new class every 6 months
5) Better story and voice overs
6) Less potion spamming - I kind of like D3's solution to this
7) Less steam punk and cartoony
8) Less reliance on resistances and incorporate a deeper itemization system like D2 had, such as class or class tree bonus skills (ie. SOJ, Shako, ...)
9) Uber bosses with uber loot
10) More class balance
11) More players per game
The cool thing is that everything except for #1 and #3 are doable with mods.
Comments
On your first point, that's actually probably going to see a very similar solution coming up around the bend. The Devs for Runic have said that they're contemplating giving the players the ability to host Private Servers that can connect via their lobby system. There's also talk about how they'll have the choice of separating Modded servers vs. Vanilla servers and such. Basically, think Neverwinter Nights style.
On some of your points, I can see and even agree with, but overall it seems that you just want Torchlight 2 to, well, *not* be Torchlight 2.
As for the story, it's almost an exact carbon replica in terms of main elements of the Diablo storyline, except that Diablo already has a third portion in that series, where Torchlight still only has 2 chapters in their story.
I also feel that the cartoony, steam-punk style of Torchlight is actually done pretty well. They actually make the style work for them, and I have to give them kudos on that one, but I can see where you're coming from on this. While Torchlight can have a dark and grim feeling all its own, sometimes you want a bit more in terms of finer detail and a darker mood.
Respecs have never really bothered me, especially since Diablo 2 never really had much of a respec system. There are, however, mods out currently that allow you to buy the respec potion from a vendor to prevent you from getting flagged for 'Console Testing.' It keeps you unflagged, because buying the potion from a vendor is still legit in the system check, and drinking the potion doesn't flag you.
I'd love a Runeword system in the game as long as it didn't become as broken as in Diablo. By this, I mean that every Runeword should have a meaningful effect that would truly make you choose, kind of how they did the Attributes in the game (excepting maybe vitality for anything not going tanky).
I can't, however, agree with the +Skill or +Skill Tree affixes for items. It just wouldn't work well in Torchlight 2; they'd completely break the system. It worked for Diablo, because the skill level you could reach was well scaled for it, but in with the way skills scale in TL2, they'd be significantly more important than most any other stat at that point. I'd propose, perhaps, bonus tiers for certain skills on items. Significant enough to make you want it, but not powerful enough to blot out most other affixes; although, the bonus tier additions would have to be significantly small coming from items, so that might be tricky.
"Society in every state is a blessing, but government even in its best state is but a necessary evil; in its worst state an intolerable one ..." - Thomas Paine
While I love the Torchlight games, Runic will do anything in their power to not run official servers. I wish they would understand this is whats killing the game right now. The playerbase is so fragmented and angry toward one another with how its set up. They need to step in and give some structure else this will be the games downfall.
It's just not going to happen. They have a small dev team and they don't want to mess with it. I get the impression they've gotten burned out by big projects and publishers in the past. They have the team they want and they put out the types of games they want with the understanding that they are a small dev house.
Adding private server code and the servers would add tons of employees and potentially wreck their corporate culture. I'm disappointed that they set their goals so low these days but it's better than nothing I suppose. It would also take them a long time to accomplish.
Hopefully they will focus on getting private server code out there for others to run and maintain. This seems like a reasonable compromise, but I'd certainly prefer it if they ran their own closed servers.
That's what I touched upon; they're talking about giving players the ability to have their own private servers. Kind of like Bioware did with Neverwinter Nights. The servers people came up with ranged anywhere from adventure storylines, pvp arenas, areas to simply cheat the game, or even just roleplaying areas.
On my wishlist is the hope that they will add not just more classes, but also more area types and add them to the original game.
I also wish they had the TL1 maps that you can buy off the vendor, just for the sake of dungeoning. I mean mainly for the middle of the game, not the thing you get once you have finished. I really loved how in TL1 you could just pop a random dungeon for specific level ranges at any time.
Contrary to FrodoFragins, I would love to see more steampunk.
Upgradeable stashes would be cool too and tons of recipes for the transmuter.
Playing MUDs and MMOs since 1994.