Reply With QuoteI thought so too, but that didn't do the trick. No issue though, I don't think it looks any worse in netbook mode!Originally Posted by forgeforsaken
Sacred 2 is not a click and move game, even on the PC. It's a "drive your character around with a stick" game (or on the PC, "drive your characer around with WASD"). It looks like Diablo/Torchlight, but the similarity is superficial. It doesn't control anything like Diablo/Torchlight. And that's basically my point--in order to make a game like Diablo or Torchlight work on a gamepad, you basically have to make it into a completely different game. Then you need to rework combat and pacing to suit the completely different control scheme, and at that point, why bother? Just make a new game.
I thought so too, but that didn't do the trick. No issue though, I don't think it looks any worse in netbook mode!
Before I played Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance on the PS2, I would have agreed with you. But the pace on that one is pretty frenetic, and yet it plays wonderfully for all 3 classes. Plus its the best game of its kind that I've played for same-screen Co-op.
What they did is a bit like your second suggestion: you control where the character is moving and facing. For the archer, you get a laser-sight so if you lightly hold down fire, you can aim first before fully pulling the trigger, so I actually had a blast playing as an archer. My friend has a blast playing as a dwarven fighter, and everyone had a blast when our other friend would join in as the sorceress. Her magic missile spell was homing and would pick targets automatically. Other spells like fireball were aimed directionally, and meteor shower just showered the whole area. It all worked surprisingly well. It's nothing like the problems console RTS designers face, believe me. Once you play BG: Dark Alliance, you'll be a convert. It's like the Halo of console Diablo games.
P.S. For god's sakes don't play the horrible sequel Dark Alliance 2. Done by a different team, and lost a lot of the charm and polish and addictiveness of the first game.
Doesn't the witcher on pc let you choose from these two different control schemes and that is in the same game.
Well, to use thier existing game to make more money.
I'm not a game dev, but I assume it would take less time/money to rework contols and balance for a gamepad, than to build from scratch.
All right, all right--I can tell we're not going to agree, as I said in my first post. Suggesting that gamepads aren't always right for every game is a hot-button topic for a lot of folks, so let's just leave it alone and get back to talking about Torchlight's awesomness.
Agreed. Though, I still recommend you play Dark Alliance on PS2 if you can get a hold of it, just so that we're at least talking from the same experience-base. If you still have a PS2, I'll happy lend you my copy if you want. It's a great game, and you'll see console diablo games in a new light after playing it, I'm pretty sure.
Torchlight is so good that I'm taking a new stab at learning the Tristram theme, only this time I've found settings on my amp that sound insanely good.
I have played it (on the Xbox). I also played the Everquest one, and some of Sacred 2. I haven't liked any of them as much as Diablo, and a large part of that is the controls.
And now I will shut up on the matter.
I absolutely love this game. I am presently duel wielding with an Alchemist and I have an axe in one hand and a wand in the other. So when I'm close up in battle my dude attacks with his axe that has a decent chance to cause enemies to flee in fear, and then when they flee my bad ass wand (best item I've found thus far after 2 hours of playing) attacks with 3 different types of elemental damage. Amazing.
Has anyone got a particularly nice combination of spells for their dog/cat? I've got the zombie horde in one slot, obviously, but I'm completely torn over what to put in the second slot. I can afford to purchase the fireball spell and a fireball spitting, zombie summoning dog sounds ace, but what if there's something better! Argh, decision making.
I'm not sure if I like the fact that Torchlight leaves the choice of difficulties up to the player. So instead of the game being really well tuned from the get-go like in the Diablo games, you soon find yourself wondering "Is it going to stay this easy?" "Should I have started on a higher difficulty?" "Will I be making it too hard later if I start over now?"
From the comments in this thread though, it sounds like "Hard" is the right difficulty to start on. Normal played out way too easy for me (but then again, maybe it was supposed to in the beginning).
Well, outside of Diablo, is that not an issue with most games for which you have to select the level of difficulty?
I like him to specialize in summoning, myself. Currently, my dog summons a skeleton and a flaming sword.
This works well with my Alchemist, who's summoning specialized (and otherwise a glass cannon). With 5 imps and a copper golem out, the dog summoning up 2 more critters makes my battles pretty much pointing at monsters and saying: "Uh, kill that."
So far, all mine has is the Summon three skeletal archers. Often times, I can just go around cleaning up loot while my pet and archers polish off the stragglers.
The whole pet dynamic is a welcomed addition.
No, not really. Usually if I don't know what difficulty to start on, I pick Normal, and that usually turns out okay. For first person shooters, I might pick hard just because I tend to be pretty good at them.
I hear ya, I just do not see how different that is with Torchlight. Those of you who are Action RPG afficionados went straight to the upper levels of difficulty or Hardcore. I just picked the wrong level as I underestimated my competency. Should have gone one level up from Normal.
I'm playing on hard, and while the first few levels were actually very easy, things have gotten more difficult as I've worked my way down the dungeon.
Still early going, but another hearty thumbs up. Runic just nailed the atmosphere, but more importantly, the feel of what this type of game should be like. I was very late to the party and just tried Titan Quest:IT a few months ago - it scratched the Diablo itch pretty well, but it just feels like you are playing underwater. The action in Torchlight moves fast and smooth, just like Diablo. Goodbye TQ, I hardly knew ye.
I sure hope this has good replayability and huge amount of loot, which is so important for this genre.
Oh, and it is wonderful to hear Matt Uelman's music again - the riff on Tristam in the town of Torchlight brought a big old smile to my face.
They should have described those difficulty levels.
EASY - if you never played Diablo or any other action RPG before
NORMAL - if you played Diablo or some other action RPG before, casually
HARD - if you are experienced action RPG gamer
VERY HARD - if you finished Diablo on hell
HARDCORE - do we really need to describe this?
So, I'm far enough in that restarting won't bother me - I hate losing at anything and I've played a ton of Diablo-style games before. Those of you who have more hours - would you throw down at Normal or Hard?
Edit: Dammit - concurrency violation. Stupid barbershop. Needs a semaphore. Other miscellaneous programmer joke.
If you buy and tackle the 1-10 dungeon (scroll in a shop) around level 4 or so, even with chappy assisting (forgotten his name) it's rather challenging compared to the main dungeon/mine you're hacking through.
I'm playing on Hard. If you have played a ton of Diablo-type games before, I wouldn't recommend playing on Normal.
Yeah, I had not played one in the genre in a while and decided to go with normal and after 10 levels I can see that I should have gone with Hard. I would think the difficulty levels are fairly self explanatory as long as you have a good assessment of your own skills at these types of games.
As far as TQ goes, I just wasnever all the way sold. I played it for a bit and went back to it a couple of times, but it never stuck. Tt was definitely missing some of the charm of Diablo and, at least early on, it appears that Torchlight has recaptured it. BTW, Diablo is one of the few games I have ever actually finished, so it is not like it is a genre I am neutral on.
Currently level 12 on my Vanquisher, I get to the 7th Floor (Tomb of the Awakened) and check a pack of shamblers dragging themselves in my direction. I start to wipe them out with my pet in the middle of the fray, keeping my distance, another pack appears from the south and almost at the same time a third one from the north side; my character changes from her smoothbore to dual pistols of poison and flame and burns them all down; it was epically brilliant.
Nothing to complain about the game so far, runs smoothly on my old rig; I just wish there were more classes instead of subclasses or at least more differentiation between subclasses. That and a male Vanquisher, perhaps with the steampunk-ish model of the Alchemist.
I reckon it will be possible to model swap or something like that when the TorchED is released, right? RIGHT? *begs*
Due to the lack of multiplayer, I am playing this on Very Hard Hardcore. In this way, it has became more like a roguelike rather than hack-n-slash lootwhoring. Loving it so far.
A question about the weapons, are the modifiers (+fire damage, +attack speed, etc) included in the DPS?
Fairly sure they are - I've noted the DPS change when enchanting stuff that adds +poison damage, for example.
Good call on VH Hardcore. That's my next step. I'm just happy it works like butter on my work PC... :)
Yeah, I didn't care for TQ, either. There were a bunch of little things that I didn't like about it, but the main problem was that my weekly gaming group bought it specifically to play through in coop mode, and it's a terrible multiplayer game. But even putting that aside, the combat didn't have the same slick, visceral feel that Diablo's combat had. Torchlight has no coop mode, but it does capture the essence of Diablo's combat really well.
Are you on a Steam build Greg?So this is interesting...
I just started a new character on Hard, got about five minutes in and suddenly found myself stuck in the world geometry, unable to escape. There are no enemies around to kill me and when I exit and restart the game, it loads me up stuck in the same place.
Easy enough to re-roll another character since I just started, but this makes me a little nervous. What do I do if it happens again much later in the game? :-/
-Vede
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EDIT #2: Crap. The solution below doesn't work for me. The console won't open in this build. Time to start a new character. Hoping Runic gets this fixed ASAP.
If you end up editing the settings.txt file while the game is open ( in windowed mode or minimized ), the game will resave when it shuts down, possibly wiping out your changes.
Also, the console is ONLY openable when you are actively ingame, so it won't pop up at the main menu.
You can shoot me a mail at [email protected] and I'll get you sorted-
Sorry for the trouble!
I gave my dog, BusterB, a healing spell and put him on aggressive. It's worked well so far.
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