Massively.com: Torchlight my fire

ThomasN7

For the past week I've been delving deep into the dungeons of Runic Games' Torchlight and found the experience to be nothing short of joyous. Granted, like many other people I also wish some kind of co-op shipped with the game (even over LAN) but thankfully the developer's next project will be an MMO built upon the foundation laid down by last week's release.

My joy for this game most definitely bleeds into its MMO incarnation, which has led to far too much thinking on additions I'd like to see made. So this week, I'm going to get them all off my chest in the hopes that I'll stop obsessing over them. Of course, there's never a guarantee with these things.

Importantce of names

Man, what are they going to call this thing? Torchlight Online? Heroes of Torchlight? Tales of Torchlight? There's a ton of possibilities to consider; most not so great as to warrant too much thought.

The problem is that Runic really needs to build on the name of Torchlight while also having a unique name for their new MMO that isn't, well, silly. It dawned on me recently that much of the story behind the game deals with a magical resource known as Ember. To me, ember evokes a visual of several small dim lights in spread throughout darkness -- which one could associate with an MMO. So, how about Emberlight? It's both similar and related to the original title with an added bonus of sounding pretty cool, if you ask me.

More classes, please

The three classes offered in Torchlight come equipped with sumptuous abilities to unlock and level up. There's no doubt that much fun awaits within their meaty skill trees, but frankly it's not going to be enough for an MMO crowd. These are the people who hit level caps in a month flat. They're like slavering content predators circling fresh patches and expansions the moment it slides out of development steaming hot, wet and seeping with glistening juices.

I love how Torchlight's three classes can each specialize in a skill tree that transforms them into any other class. This blends well with the ability for any class to utilize any weapon -- yes, even the burly tank can dual wield wands. For the MMO, I'd love some more granularity. Adding a necromancer class, but allowing for a battle necromancer or a pet necromancer would bring much glee to my already quivering heart. Oh, and something that expands on the Alchemist with his cool mechanical glove!

Expanding pets

The pet in Torchlight is awesome, because he's so very useful. Indeed, I love my dog because he can hold items, run them to a vendor while I continue to fight and even cast spells all on his own. Something else I enjoy is the ability to feed my pet fish to transform him into a huge swath of monsters with boosted abilities.

What would really light my fuse is the ability to both level and 'evolve' my pet, which does creep slightly into Poke'mon territory, but risks be damned! Functionally, it doesn't need to be super deep to begin with -- just something allowing me to know my pet will become more awesome looking as well as performing. A visual cue goes a long way to help promote a sense of progress in games.

Guilds

I know the functionality will be there, it's the degree to which it will be there that I've been pondering. A strong sense of community always helps flow life-giving blood into the veins of a newborn MMO. My personal favorites are guild levels, guild PvP and guild housing. Beyond that I'm usually okay so long as all the standard features are there; basically what you see in World of Warcraft, more or less.

 

Page 2: www.massively.com/2009/11/02/the-digital-continuum-torchlight-my-fire-page-2/

Malifiss

I'm loving the game. 

jimsmith08

Theres a community made necromancer mod on the way. Somebody ha already released a conversion for the vanquisher which gives it a summoning tree with skellys, zombies and golums for the time being. Its very possible we'll see a necro style class for the MMO as the frameworks already there with undead summons, poison attacks etc.

Hopefully the MMO version will retain the Diablo esque skill trees from Torchlight rather than the passive heavy trees from Mythos, the Diablo way of doing it is much better. I also hope they keep the FATE style learnable spells to give everyone more choice.

astrob0y

love how this single rpg game is top voted at this moment on the front page of mmorpg.com

cant we have oblivion as well? 

RedMajesty

Interesting read, I shall throw in my two-cents to your points!

Importance of Names:

I too realised that Torchlight may very well be a fitting name for a game centered around the town of Torchlight and the dark depths below it, but as you say, it'd be like calling World of Warcraft... Darnassus, or something.

Though from a marketting perspective, I think they'll have to incorporate the Torchlight name whatever the weather. It's going to be a while until the MMO is out and so the name my slip out of the minds of many gamers. To that end, releasing the MMO under a different name might not jolt something within those gamers such as "Hey! The Torchlight MMO is finally ready! Awesome" but more "Hmm, Emberlight... never heard of it."

But yeah, I totally see where you're coming from.

More Classes, Please:

I've primarily played the Destroyer and Vanquisher classes in my adventures in Torchlight so far. I'm awaiting myself to have the stones to check "Hardcore" before rolling Alchemist, just to add an extra level of challenge to the mode.

To that end the speciality trees somewhat enabling each class to become copies of each other has evaded me in lieu of me only playing a melee class and a ranged/melee hybrid class.

Whilst I'll no doubt be experimenting a lot further with spec-trees in the coming weeks, I question if the fact the spec-trees allow classes to basically merge is a subtle extra way Runic have added character customisation. Maybe someone would enjoy a burly male Vanquisher.

Though in an MMO setting, as you say, everything changes. With balancing for group-play and PvP, there will no doubt be extra classes and the classes that do exist now will probably be tweaked to be more streamlined with their desired purposes.

Plus by then there'd be many more ways to customize the characters, so if it indeed was a sneaky way to add some variety then they wont need to resort to it.

As for what classes will be gracing us, I'd keep a firm eye on any tidbits of lore you discover as it might cast a light on such things.

Expanding Pets:

Watching your pet grow as you do is a concept that very few MMOs cater for, in fact the only time i've seen a pet "evolve" as such was in Aion. Of course there may be many more MMOs that do this, I've just clearly missed them.

But admittedly, depending on the level caps they have planned, the pet will be at your side for a fair amount of time and everyone will have one. So I'd guess that some variety on that side of things will be greatly welcomed as well as some improved means for the pets to live longer towards the lower floors (higher levels) as they do like to run into hoardes of enemies and get pulverised quick.

Guilds:

Being part of a great guild, I agree, is one of the most awesome perks to playing an MMO. Some guilds fail, others are too hardcore for their own good. But needless to say there are types of guilds for all walks of life in any MMO.

I think you touch on it a little bit later, but one of the key components of a successful guild is having a goal. Some guilds like to raid, others are more PvP orientated, but a goal is a goal.

To this end, you're probably going to have guilds of all sorts as I explain above, this may or may not be good for a F2P game since there will be guilds that clear everything insanely fast and then are just left farming until something new comes along. To this end, I guess we'll have to see what Runic comes up with. I for one have never played a F2P MMORPG which has the level of development Torchlight has/will have. But I have faith in them to deliver something that guilds can chew on and work towards without exhausting content too quickly.

We shall see, we shall see.

Setting:

The Alchemist class deffinately look very Steampunk and what with the mixture of olde worlde fantasy and mechanical devices of all kinds, it seems like steampunk is a direction that will make it's mark more apparent in the MMO.

I am a little unnerved though, since it's not too far off the general theme WoW follows with Gnomes and Goblins tinkering with engineering. That said, WoW is by far not the first game to include steampunk artifacts in it. That wont stop the naysayers though.

I'd be a bit cautious with mirroring such themes as MMO players are the sort of gamers that will be quick to point out any similarities they can find (and find them they will).

Player vs ?:

In my opinion, the ARPG game leads me to wonder if PvP would actually be more enjoyable in the MMO than the PvE. Of course it still relies a lot on balance, a feat that many MMO developers fail on time after time.

However, the eerie aura of Torchlight gives me a Mordheim vibe, a tabletop game by Games Workshop where gangs of fantasy treasure seekers and looters roam the streets of Mordheim looking for loot and skirmishing with other gangs.

To that end, fast action like that sounds very intriguing and might very well nudge me to be more open to PvP in the MMO since I commonly like to avoid it in most MMO games, favouring PvE content.

PvE content will be interesting. Whilst it will no doubt be a "sometimes there is fire" type of PvE which, essentially is hard to escape in this genre, there will be differences due to the gameplay mechanics. Which might lead to PvE encounters giving refreshing challenges and enjoyment to what there is in the MMO world today.

Dev of Personality:

I agree, from reading their forums posts to the vibe they give out in interviews, you can really tell Runic Games care about the most important factor in making games, fun.

It's this aspect to them that make me phase out all the doubters and people that put the MMO down before it's even off the drawing board.

For the size, price and length of time it took to create, Torchlight nails the enjoyment factor. They have more time to expand upon the Torchlight universe, the lore, characters, locations... everything in regards to the MMO.

And if Torchlight is what they can do when pushed for time... the MMO should be all kinds of interesting!

Thenarius

Originally posted by astrob0y


love how this single rpg game is top voted at this moment on the front page of mmorpg.com
cant we have oblivion as well? 

Because they'll release a P2P MMORPG with the same IP in a few months.

hidden1

Originally posted by astrob0y


love how this single rpg game is top voted at this moment on the front page of mmorpg.com
cant we have oblivion as well? 

 

lol astroboy, the dev said they would be releasing an MMO version shortly after SP release.  I think it's listed for the anticipation of the MMO version.

Loke666

Well, why not? As long as they don't turn it into a EQ/Wow copy I am all for it.

I want a good group system with smart mobs. In a single player game there wasn't need for that but the classes will have to fit well together, preferably without the old watered down "holy triad".

Mobs should also try to react to what the whole group does, not standing still and taking it like a b***... 

MMOExposed

There is going to be a MMO?

where?