Torchlight

Anyone else playing this gem? It's old school Diablo gaming (minus the multiplayer), with the nice additions from Titan Quest (remove gems from sockets, etc) and full modding capabilities.

Anyway, I thought I might plug my own mod for the game. This is my first modification. It changes the default Vanquisher skin into either a dark grey color (similar to the Drow in Dungeons & Dragons) or a dark blue color (similar to the dark elves in EverQuest). Both skins have slightly brighter green eyes and a lush red lipstick.

http://www.robotparty.us/DarkElf.jpg http://www.robotparty.us/BlueDarkElf.jpg

Included in the screenshots is the Vanquisher Hair Color (Silver White) mod, but it is not included in this mod itself.

Download:
Dark Elf Vanquisher
Blue Dark Elf Vanquisher
PSD files if you want to edit them yourself

This mod is compatible with all clothing/hair mods that do not edit the Vanquisher skin.

Simply unzip in your %appdata%/Roaming/runic games/torchlight/mods/ directory.

It's a superb game, really. It's essentially Diablo 2.5, and that's a compliment. Given the price, it's a great game. If only it had multiplayer...

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Originally Posted by TinCow

If only it had multiplayer...

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They are working on it as we speak.

The game's got great customer support too. One person posted on the official boards that their character was stuck and couldn't move (and included a save file), so one of the devs uploaded a copy of the player's character edited so that the character was back in town. When was the last time you've seen developers going out of their way for something like this?

It's fun, but it's also horribly, horribly unbalanced and broken at higher character levels.

Everything is fun and games, a reasonable challenge, until you start hitting the late 60's. Then it starts to get progressively harder, until in the 80's or so my chars just get utterly destroyed by everything and anything.

For example, ember lance. They nerfed that way too hard, due to the knockback inheritance it had. What they should have done is made it so that it only inherits a fraction of your bonuses to attack, based on how many skill points you have in it.

What they need to do with this, is fix it so it remains a challenge throughout BUT doesn't get impossibly easy or hard. Ideally, one should be able to install that clvl and fame limit increase mod, and the game will scale right along with you as you go. That means loot drops get progressively better, possibly higher skill level limits, all that jazz.

For all these reasons my friends and I stopped playing it about 2 months ago. Have checked back a few times, there doesn't appear to be any patch in the works, or any mods that address these problems to date. Will keep looking though, I really want this game to be fun again, and soon.

I've played Alchemist and Vanquisher builds and had fun with it. Worth the $20 or so I paid for it. Yeah, definitely has a Diablo 2+ or 3- feel to it, not surprising given a major Diablo designer is directly involved.

Agreed about the unbalance--enchanting can get out of hand, yielding some outrageously powerful equipment eventually. Nevertheless, the enemies scale with you and become very hard eventually.

Worth a look if you liked Diablo 2, are looking forward to 3, and want something similar in the meantime.

The only problem I have with the game is the lack of classes, though mods do help in that regard. Torchlight sits just below Titan Quest and just above Diablo II in my list of great dungeon crawling games.

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Originally Posted by Masamune

I've played Alchemist and Vanquisher builds and had fun with it. Worth the $20 or so I paid for it. Yeah, definitely has a Diablo 2+ or 3- feel to it, not surprising given a major Diablo designer is directly involved.

Agreed about the unbalance--enchanting can get out of hand, yielding some outrageously powerful equipment eventually. Nevertheless, the enemies scale with you and become very hard eventually.

Worth a look if you liked Diablo 2, are looking forward to 3, and want something similar in the meantime.

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They moderately nerfed enchanting with the last patch (that I'm aware of). Even so, it does NOT help at the higher levels like I was saying. I tested this through cheating with items. Removed the enchant nerfs, gave myself a fortune in gold, and enchanted equipment until I was blue in the face and a walking God, with a capital bold G. I still got my butt handed to me. It took me an average of about 120+ seconds to kill ONE boss monster on the lava fortress style map, and that's starting from full health with no minions around to attack.

I'd say this game has the potential to be far greater than Titan Quest, if it can be fixed. Diablo and Diablo 2 will always hold a special place on my all time favorite games list and can never be replaced, though the later patches did sour the game and my rose tinted memory significantly. My fear is that the devs are going to put all their weight and time behind the upcoming MMO version of this, which I will ignore completely since I did and still do loathe everything MMO.

I really like it! Especially since Diablo III isn't coming out until 2017 or whenver. I've got a higher level Alchemist and a low level fighter (forget what the class is called) and really enjoy it. It's my default laptop game now instead of Plants v. Zombies. I like the pet, it's very useful for looting. I haven't gotten to a high enough level where I'm getting my butt handed to me, right now I still kill pretty much everything with my golems. Plus, my dog summons zombies, which is awesome.

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Originally Posted by Kekvit Irae

They are working on it as we speak.

The game's got great customer support too. One person posted on the official boards that their character was stuck and couldn't move (and included a save file), so one of the devs uploaded a copy of the player's character edited so that the character was back in town. When was the last time you've seen developers going out of their way for something like this?

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I would love multiplayer for this game! Do you know when the devs will make it available?

Got this for $5 during the Steam silly-sale. Fairly fun though it's not my home genre. Was playing the stabby class but now working on a shooty class (not the magicky class).

The magic class is pretty imba. All I do is right click and everything dies. Though it makes it abit too easy.. also, I don't think I was meant to put all my stat points into just magic either...

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Originally Posted by Whacker

They moderately nerfed enchanting with the last patch (that I'm aware of). Even so, it does NOT help at the higher levels like I was saying. I tested this through cheating with items. Removed the enchant nerfs, gave myself a fortune in gold, and enchanted equipment until I was blue in the face and a walking God, with a capital bold G. I still got my butt handed to me. It took me an average of about 120+ seconds to kill ONE boss monster on the lava fortress style map, and that's starting from full health with no minions around to attack.

...

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Yeah, I didn't spend enough time with one character to get past level 60; highest was 57 or so and things were getting dicey if I recall correctly. I thought it was my build (an Alchemist caster, trying to "synergize" all the possible bonuses to spell-casting through skills and equipment/enchant, etc.), but further reading supports what you are saying--that the games imbalances at high levels.

I kept reminding myself that it wasn't D2, and that perhaps the scaling was meant to be ideal in the level 30-50 range, not the 85-91 that is typical of D2 LoD. D2 holds a special place in my gaming heart as well, so I've been hard-pressed to keep from viewing Torchlight from a D2-istic perspective. Without actual synergies, I found the skills/equipment bonuses lacking in sophistication compared to D2. I didn't have nearly as many options to manipulate and fine-tune while designing my "ultimate" build for a given character type.

But I did enjoy the game for a while, long enough to justify spending money on it, and I'm sure I'll get more out of it at some point, when I feel like playing it again. A nice prequel to D3.