torchlight - a baby diablo

yeaaaaa half of those are mine

I've been playing in offline mode, otherwise I'd add 20 more hours to that. haah

I bought a Heal II spell and then stupidly "accidentally" unlearned it...down 2000 gold but whatever, I have so many heal potions that it doesn't matter I guess for now.

gold was rolling in when I went into the level 1-10 pocket dungeon which was more fun than the normal dungeon b/c it was harder. I'm playing on normal so maybe that's why this seems kinda easy and thus kinda silly to me...despite that I'm still gonna play through b/c it's satisfying in the way it's satisfying to play an old-school arcade shooter like 1942, full of mechanical violence without worries about "plot".

Oh yeah that reminds me of something I wanted to mention. This is a small thing in scope, but I love the fact that when you start a new game, and they give you a description for each difficulty. Sure - maybe it seems obvious what "Easy", "Medium", "Hard" and "Very Hard" mean, but it never is, since you never know what basis a game is using that as (like what's "Normal" difficulty, and to who?). Since the description for Hard actually say it was for people who had played Action RPGs before and I think it says Very Hard is for masochists or something like that, I knew Hard was the way to go for me. Every game with difficulty settings at the start should have verbose explanations, since you usually can't change the difficulty mid-way (and even when you can - it usually feels like a cop-out, TWEWY-aside).

I felt kind of stupid about being shocked about the pocket dungeon above - I didn't realize the Level 1-10 doesn't refer to your character level but to a random floor of the main dungeon, so I think the first time I picked up one it was like 5 floors ahead of where I was. Also more lulz at that post - I was probably inches away from the portal exit, since they end shortly after you hit the second floor.

I usually pick Normal because I'm not very good at games, but here I wish I'd picked Hard. Aside from the pocket dungeons, it's not even possible to be harder on yourself (go down further, faster) because you'll just end up leveling as you clear all the mobs on the linear path.

That said, crushing things and making them go splat is pretty satisfying.

huh I didn't realize that the levels in the random dungeon were random. I'm glad I got a difficult one!

Wait, so can you change difficulties in this? Google search is just confusing me: it says you can now do it with a patch but only in "console": does that mean I can't do it in the main game and have to load some other program?

I have no problem with changing difficulties midway through, if it makes a game more fun for me. Fun's the only reason I'm playing. I think I would like to move up to Hard in this.

Ah, didn't realize that you could do that! The console is in the game, but you need to change line in the settings.txt file to enable it. See here for info on that file's location - easiest way is to run %appdata% and browse to the runic games\torchlight folder.

http://strategywiki.org/wiki/Torchlight/Console

It's not listed there but after hitting Shift+~ ingame, the command should be SETDIFFICULTY 2. Valid numbers are 0-3 for the different difficulty levels.

ok cool, I will do that!

I assume steam games get patched automatically?

yep yep

once you enable the console you can also redistribute your character's skillpoints - type 'respecpotion' into the console

i'm told that labels you a "cheater" and you can no longer share items with other characters

It looks (from reading around) that changing difficulty doesn't make you a "cheater", but changing other stuff in console can.

you mean some random person on the TL forums was incorrect?!?!?!??!

haha I think it was fixed in a patch but fuck, reading online about this game isn't very helpful for some reason.

I think respecpotion is officially sanctioned; not sure

runic games' forum is a good place for info

Ok, those forums DO have a lot of info! Though i now i realize i may have to respec my summoner/caster/dual-wand (ok maybe I did try too many things) Alchemist since i dumped too many points in the wrong skills. The game does encourage this, though, with the skill level tiering - which is totally cool - because it IS more fun to try out a dozen different abilities than to power build - though my eyes are definitely changing for my games with the other classes. Glad the respec potion exists, though, so I don't have to completely start over with Alchemist!

I hit level 10 last night and am thinking, even with kicking the level up to Hard, that this isn't going to take so long to complete. So I'm cool with screwing up my tank by choosing specs badly and then playing again as a blaster. It's mostly just dumb button-mashing fun for me so far, kinda like Marvel Ultimate Alliance (I played Diablo but not Diablo 2, and it was a long time ago...this is the first game like this I've played since then).

Haha, don't worry about completing the game here, trust me. There's... something afterward.

haha ok, I guess I can create multiple characters then? I want to see how the other classes work, esp. b/c I'm avoiding distance weapons and (for the most part) spells with my tank.

sure, why not? all your characters stay selectable/reloadable from the main screen in any case

cool, I think I'll do that then!

wow, playing on hard really cleared my sinuses out, so to speak: I was midway through a pocket dungeon (level 8; my char is level 10) and I ended up dying uh, 6 times? And that was just on the small second floor. Then I went back to the main dungeon and I did better, so I guess it was just the beefed-up pocket mobs that were the trouble.

best tip from the forums so far, if you haven't seen this:

before you go to the gambling man in town, put a socketed item in your pet's inventory. mouse over an item the diceman is selling. if:

-it has at least 3 requirements (level + 2 attribs)
-the socket/gem appears on the item in your pet's inventory

you have a 90% chance of getting a rare/unique item. (maybe all unique items have 4 requirements? dunno.) yeah i was complaining about being overpowered earlier. whatever, now i have a mace with a ram's head.

hah - I just sunk a couple of points into Barter, too. maybe I'll turn my chararcter into a gold finder

i didn't even bother with magic or gold find bonuses on my first main runthrough - a foolish decision! even getting 2 or 3% find, especially gold, makes the game go so much smoother

gonna try out that tip on the gambler - so far i've gotten screwed over for the most part on those

So far (about 6 hrs of play) I haven't found gold to be particularly necessary. The gear that pops has been plenty good, I think. Is there significantly better gear available for purchase at the store?

my best weapons have been store bought (drops have not been kind to me)

I should start checking out the store then; the town is kind of a dreary place to spend time so I try to get out asap.

I make enough money that I clean the gem seller out of gems every time I get - also I check to see what spells she has

I have a bad habit of constantly using the enchanter, which just eats up gold at a crazy rate, but then you get these awesome items with 10 bonuses and slots and whatnot. But I am probably better off buying more store stuff.

just finished this on hard, have absolutely no desire to do the endless dungeon or very hard

ok whoa is this fun as alchemist; sitting back, blasting away...and I just figured out that wands shoot too! but who needs to when you've got serious triple ember bolts blasting away!

dual wand, motherfucker! what's really sick though is if you go the summoner route, between all the different summon spells, your imps and golems you can control a ridiculous little army

yeah I am rocking dual wands! is there some reason not to? b/c so far no mob gets close to me when I'm blasting away with ember bolt (it has 50% knockback I think). playing on hard now too...but I think I"m only level 6 with this char so far.

RPS review spot-on, I think: www.rockpapershotgun.com/2009/10/30/wot-i-think-torchlight/

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2009/10/30/wot-i-think-torchlight/

That RPS review is quite correct, and I really like those guys, but wow did it really need 15 paragraphs to say "best diablo since diablo ii, shallow and great"? Ah, that's what they always do, though.

Euler: There's a dual-handed proficiency you might want to invest in at Level 20, I think, but the main reason not to do dual wands is to have a shield for better defense and blocking. But I'm pretty ok with that general strategy of blasting away anyone who gets close with spells. You'll know when the game wants you to slow down because you'll spawn on a new floor and BAM instamob death, kinda like forks said way early in the thread.

I may as well get a shield now b/c I'm mostly just perma-ember-bolting---it's so tactile-y satisfying to play on my macbook pro b/c blasting is two-finger-click (that gets a right click) and it just feels shooty, feels right.

it's gonna be tough to turn away from double wands now b/c I am rocking two sweet ones. whoooo this game is fun (thank goodness I don't have much time for it, o/w I could get sucked in)

game is 6x as interesting on Hard than Normal. i appreciate the level design more now that i'm not burning through them as fast. i have to make actual tradeoffs in spending / character setup.

Yes: although I haven't found hard to be very difficult either. I've moved to carrying a shield instead of double wands, b/c the occasional flash crushings by a huge gang of mobs o/w ends with me dead quickly. But as long as I can avoid getting hit much and I have enough mana potions handy (easy since they drop like crazy) then I can blast my way through anything. I hit level 20 last night. My kitty is pretty tough now (though a spider for 3600 seconds! kinda confusing mostly) and my golum soaks up plenty of damage. When I hit 25 I'll get the other golum too.

I think I'm on the cusp of starting to get better gear too. I seem to hit plateaus of gear, where the stuff I'm getting is no better than what I have, and then all of a sudden all of my gear starts to look worse than what's dropping. I just get attached to what I have so it takes me a while to give up. I wish better rings would drop though.

And I wish I could convince myself to *use* the gems I have instead of hoarding them on the hopes of maxxing them out with transmutations. If they were more common or cost less I might use them, but as it is they're just not good enough, esp. for the defensive abilities they confer.

Might as well use them, since you get so little money from selling gear that you're gonna upgrade out of eventually - - destroy it to get the gems back and keep transmuting. Though yeah, it does seem like a joke to get an extra 15 poison damage out of a weapon that's dealing hundreds of DPS already.

Btw, the Web spell is totally awesome. Especially as a summoner it's practically essential to surviving later on, but I imagine it's a good spell for other alchemist types as well. It's especially great to tie down minibosses while my army of minions completely eats them up. Wish I'd picked it up a lot earlier in my game!

I recommend the respec and potion stack mods (and Torchleech, why not), it's nice to not have to waste extra inventory slots on potions, identify and town scrolls.

Can I use those mods w/o becoming a cheater (whatever that means for a singer player game)?

Yeah, it doesn't turn on the cheat flag (which kills the shared stash).

Can those of us using the Mac/Cider port use mods?

Answer: yes, although finding the right spot to put them was annoying.

I installed the potion stack mod (using Steam) but it doesn't seem to work, at least not as I thought it would (letting me have 200 potions of a given type in a stack, rather than just 20). It doesn't seem to do anything. I did get the "installed a mod" achievement though.

level 22 now and it hasn't gotten too tough yet; I'm getting a little worn out with hoarding eq to transmute to gems, prob. b/c I don't have enough open sockets now to use the sweet gems I've acquired.

That's pretty much what the pot stack mod does, though it's nice that it also works for ID/TP scrolls too. One super slick thing - didn't realize Steamworks also syncs your mods! Pretty slick.

ok I got the potion stack mod to work; I think I needed a reboot maybe? Whatever; it's very nice now, though I'm hardly using potions at all now.

So I'm level 26 on hard, and the game is starting to get boring again: waaaay easy but yet annoying as the difficulty seems to have become a function of having tons of goblins thrown at me plus those annoying phasing dogs. None of them pose any serious threat to me so I can just stand there and blast, but I also can't really see what's going on (too many explosions, and I just mash mash mash blast blast blast). I'm at maybe level 27 of the dungeon: will the mobs soon get bigger, like in terms of screen real estate? I'd love to fight more of the big trolls or (way better yet) dragons or something huge. I can tell that I'm getting close to the end of the main quest but I'm kinda losing steam (haha). Is there cause for hope in finding bigger mobs soon?

the final battle(s) are pretty tough and mobbish iirc. there's also a monster in the last few levels who will devestate you if your deflect missile rates aren't up

so i guess now that this out for mac im getting it huh?

just in time for nice weather and lots of work that needs to be done!

Sequel announced - NOT the MMO, but a new single player game with online co-op modes! New classes, more MMO-style customization, outdoor environs...

http://www.pcgamer.com/2010/08/04/torchlight-2-interview-with-runic-games/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ejqCZw4Mua4

Not Torchlight, but another Diablo-alike, Path of Exile, is having a public stress test this weekend. Not many New Zealand-made games around, so I'm curious to see how it holds up.

it's out. get hype.

no hype for me. Gotta wait for the Mac version.

hey guys, you know what's a good game? 2012's Torchlight II.