I’ve not been anywhere near as active on these forums as I once was (at least as a silent member reading and keeping up with the times) but boy am I glad when I checked this yesterday at work! Meant I knew exactly what I was doing when I got home…
Loving the new HUD, makes it so much easier to monitor energy and health levels at a glance. Also, the game in general feels so clean and polished - amazing work everyone at Crate. Hard to believe it is still in Alpha! Can not spruik this game enough to other gamers I know…
I have really enjoyed act II, especially how the broken hills remind me of TQ.
Game looks great, runs great, and is chock full of unique monsters to chop down and farm. Keep the game in this direction, and it will be one of my favorites!
Since you’ve ditched the Blade Swarm from Nightblade mastery, will you use it as a granted skill obtained from items?
In Zantai’s twitch presentation of act 2, one of the cool things I saw was a change in lightning for certain regions. When he was heading to a place where lots of skeletons reside, the “atmosphere” changed its colors to some sort of greenish mist. During my act 2 playthrough, I’ve seen the change in lightning scenery, however it wasn’t as noticeable as it was in the video presentation.
Have you lowered the effect or changed it or ditched it, or something else?
I was wondering, when you are designing a skill, does updated TQ engine allow you to create stuff seen in moba games (DOTA, LOL)… for example: creating a black hole that pulls opponents to its center, making one or multiple illusions (copies) of yourself that will attack enemies, instant teleport to target location, shapeshifting, movable skills (like casting a storm and moving it where you want)… stuff like that
Due to limited money and manpower, certain elements of the game, atm can’t be improved. I think one of these elements and also the one that is getting the biggest “cut” is (hand-crafted) unique and set loot. TQ had LOTS of unique loot for all masteries and for all level ranges. I realize do to reason stated above, you want be able to produce the quantity of items TQ had. Also, you’ve added 3 new item slots (shoulder, pants, ribbon), only increasing the need for producing additional loot. What is your view on this issue and how are you planning on solving it… are you planning on increasing the unique loot for all level ranges in upcoming expansions ?
Thank You, for creating one of the best ARPGs to date, surpassing D2 and TQ (IMHO)
^I’ll comment on a few of your questions/comments - not everything I comment on is an answer obviously.
1: Atmosphere change in skeleton areas still changes though I’m not sure if it was changed. I know that the Junk Yard area in Act 1 has a green haze when you go there.
2: Mesmar (overseer) and Cronley (human) both use an illusion ability that creates 2 copies of themselves.
3: Movable skill I would think could work like a pet since when you summon them you can use a key to control where they move or whom they attack. Would be interesting but yes I believe it would be possible to create a storm that remains where it is unless you choose for it to move via pet movement keys. - Just me taking a guess on this.
4: Itemization isn’t complete. There still needs to be crafting, legendary items, 2handed weapons and whatever else that needs to be added to the game.
The question is: Who are Robert, Ryan, and Rockford? And how did they die?
I’m guessing these are the 3 outcasts of Old Arkovia still bound by the curse but shunned by all the other regular skeletons considering their distance from the others.
Blade Swarm will likely be reused in some fashion. We have not decided yet how, but an item is a good candidate.
Still the same, the transition may be more noticeable depending on the time of day you get there.
There is some new stuff for skills, but there are still limits (there will always be though) to what we can do.
Why do you think loot got a big “cut”? Our unique item selection is actually quite extensive. There are over 280 epics in the game already, and there are still over 100 legendaries that are on the way. This includes 20+ sets. Now I have no idea how these numbers compare to TQ, but I like to think that’s a pretty big list.
Compeleted ACT 2 with my 10 guys&girls. To my mind, Barren Heights is too empty in terms of content. It will be a good idea to add one little dungeon (like gutworm’s) or an extra quest there (short one).
Also, I’d extend quest line in arkovian undercity a little bit.
As for itemization, I personally can’t wait to see unique art and 3d models for the new (around a half of availiable) items.
Here is the equipment database for all TQ items. For example, set items alone count for 47 and additional 20 from TQ expansion. Not to mention hundreds upon hundreds of non-set unique items. However I realize that comparing the ex Ironlore that had manpower and funds, and Crate that has what it has, is not fair.
As for skills, I’ve noticed that most of them are similar in functionality with TQ, except Possession, Blade Spirit, Thermite Mine and maybe few more, that is why I’ve asked what else is there to expect from skills variety.
yeah TQ had a pretty large list, then again, in my last playthoughs of TQ, I only really found a small fraction of that gear, the drop rates for some items were really low, and by the time I hit the third difficulty, my stuff wasn’t that good to get any farther. I stopped playing it after a while,
I really do like the items in GD, at least most that I have found, some items could be better, the omen is a pretty weak blue item, but some items are really powerful, it depends on the build,
TQ Gold has a total of 1,752 collectibles including things like the Easter Egg sets, funny parchments, etc. Sets, including the Easters and 4 special code ones, are 42 Epic and 24 Legendary. I’m not going to count all the others, but if anyone wants to you’ll find them all listed here in the TQCollector program:
This works with the game and the TQVault program to keep track of all those goodies you find.
Given that the long term plan is for more expansions of GD I expect the final total will surpass TQ’s by a wide margin.
I just hope that the drop rate for MI’s is better than TQ’s. I’ve got 1,382 of the 1,752 items (78.88%) and most of the missing ones are MI’s. Given that I’ve been playing the game almost exclusively for 6 years the fact that so many of these are still missing from the collection is depressing to say the least. Sometimes it makes me want to .
Just completed Act II and would like to comment on what I liked/disliked:
Although I didn’t actually clock the time spent on Act II, most of the time was invested this past weekend…I’d estimate around 6-8 hrs, but it felt a lot shorter than Act I. Perhaps this had something to do with my level 25 char on steroids who was donning some very welcome “blues” thanks to some trades with a couple of helpful guys on here. Maybe I should have started from scratch, but having already run through ACT I four times with different chars and numerous farming runs, I just couldn’t muster up the patience for that slog. That said, my char had a hard time beating the high priest skeleton dude…3 deaths actually.
All in all, I found Act II highly and thoroughly enjoyable, as was to be expected.
What I especially liked:
The wasps. They were brilliantly animated and looked astonishingly real in terms of their colours.
SKELETONS. I have a fetish for skeletons…I should say, for video game skeletons, otherwise folks might get the wrong idea. Playing the Necromancer in Diablo was the ultimate as far as I was concerned, and I recall chuckling at the sound of their bony little feet scuttling around as your minions followed you around the map…good times. GD Act II skeletons were brilliantly animated and it was pure fun battling it out with them.
What I disliked:
The vultures (or were they eagles ?)…very pesky indeed…an absolute nuisance, but maybe they were meant to be…if they were, it worked.
The wild pig thingies…barely recognisable and I still don’t know what they were supposed to be, but not enjoyable as an enemy…I found they lacked anything “monstrous” or fearsome.
Blue drops…I’m now convinced that there’s something hardcoded in the last few lines of the random generator function that’s preventing me from getting the goodies…probably along the lines of: GET USER IP; IF IP# = Personicus’s IP#, THEN = drop-loot-items = yellow crap only; ELSE = drop-loot-items = tons of blues like there’s no tomorrow !!
Very nice content with the exception of the vultures and pig thingies. Cheers.
Act 2 is good, enjoyable, but I would prefer a more visible change in scenery. Act 2 does feel a bit shorter but that might be due to our chars being maxed (25) when we approach it.
Skeletons own, they are great, great looks, sounds and animations, can’t wait for a necromancer mastery!
eagles, yes they are bland, poor animation I would even say, vultures with thin necks would fit the mood of the game better
boars - guys, boars in Titan Quest look better, someone did a poor job with the boars
Overall very positive, can’t wait for more (crafting, arcanist!, multiplayer!)
I found one murderer MI yesterday, was maybe my 5th time going through that place. I also found one Spectral and one Incrndiary MI during those runs, so not too bad…
.