Hello hunters, Torchlight: Infinite is now 5 weeks into the CBT and everything had been incredibly favourable! We are beyond grateful for everyone's affirmative and supportive feedback on hero builds as core gameplay, as well as all of your constructive suggestions. We want to be mindful of all aspects and elements and continue our observations and detailed analysis with a focus on the game's later stages.
This CBT is expected to end on March 14th.
We would like to share our development and optimization strategies after carefully processing an incredible amount of valuable feedback from players.
Matter: Lack of content in later stages
In this CBT, players clear the game by defeating Timemark 7 Realmlord. Although exploring different builds is highly encouraged in endgame, gameplay without a clear mission goal can be off-putting, leading to a major interest loss. We have come up with 2 strategies to solve this matter:
1 - Gameplay Expansion:
Netherrealm Timemarks will increase along with higher difficulties, and the new Timemarks will somewhat different from Timemark 1-7 in this CBT including –
- rarer beacons;
- stronger spawns;
- better rewards, such as new rare drops, new currency to breakthrough skill levels;
- new legendary gears yielding to more build possibilities.
In addition, new challenge-oriented gameplay is planned, which is largely different from the current Netherrealm farming and grinding, and all with enhanced enemy fortification and formation! Hunters will have chances to exhibit and testify all sorts of unique builds.
2 - Content enrichment:
Despite the expansion of existing heroes and skills, we will introduce new heroes, bosses, monster species, challenges and maps. We have 1 new hero almost completed! This hero targets players who enjoys simpler action controls. While numerous new skills are developing, some existing skills are being reevaluated and adjusted to support a rich selection of combinations, with a focus on linked supplementary skill recipes.
(Can you see the new hero?)
Attention to details, Gameplay optimization:
While focusing on content development, our work on optimizing gameplay is never overlooked.
1 - Item pickup UX optimization:
First, gear drop animations are lengthy, second, the pet's pickup ability works rather slower than satisfaction and can only cover a small area. Both issues will be addressed in the next CBT. Hunters' speedy grinding builds suggest the speed of item collection should be modified as well. Furthermore, the overall visual of item pick up will be improved to support easier and faster pick ups.
2 - Netherrealm optimization:
Along with new content, we are also focusing on gameplay optimization for the Netherrealm challenges. Adjustments including:
- a portion of the Plan Watcher's attention points will return if a boss challenge failed;
- lower level Timemark portals will also be active with the current Timemark;
- overly intensified damage from herds of monsters spawning in a small/narrow space causing larger than expected damage is modified; improved death report panel;
are all on the radar of our next CBT release.
3 - Comprehensive optimization on hero talents:
The talent panels are somewhat off-balance to our understanding:
- available talent nobs seem short on survival boost options;
- imbalanced inactive panels by neglect.
We will be revising talents as a whole to update and provide players with new talent nobs.
4 - Hero Board - New:
Hero Board is just a temporary name, it is not a traditional \"ranking list\" which issues rewards, instead, it will exhibit master builds extending to equipped gears, skills, hero traits, and talents combos. It is designed to serve as references for hunters to explore different builds.
(Hero Board panel mockup)
Other identified bugs that aren't listed here are in the process of optimization in our internal version updates.
The exciting news is that our 2nd Closed Beta Test is scheduled to release around mid-April! Torchlight: Infinite is ready to welcome new hunters on board!
Stay tuned to learn more updates on development progress in later Dev. Blogs, and follow us on our social media platforms to get to know more behind the scene stories!
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Lastly, we have prepared a fun infographic highlighting some astonishing stats from our hunters. Let's get to know more about what's happening in Leptis with the Crow's Daily!
Need PC release now.
2022-02-24
PC CBT is scheduled. :)
2022-03-04
When will the release be planned for EU users?
2022-02-28
Yes, region lock will be lifted.
2022-03-01
Hi, forgive me because I am unsure exactly where to provide feedback for the beta. (Usually games have a forum or something but I haven't beta tested a game in about 8 years now). I just started yesterday so I know I'm not far and I'm only level 21, but I still want to give initial feedback. I'm enjoying the game a lot. As a player who has some disabilities affecting my hands, that can make games difficult, so far this game has been ok without issues for me. That's is a huge plus to me, as I am even unble to play the new Pokemon Arcues game because of it. But it does have some downsides as well and perhaps I'm just not far enough to have found the features that seems to be missing. There doesn't seem to be any customization. It seems your appearance is tied into the character you choose as well as gender. Armor does not change it either. Maybe I'm missing a setting someplace to see armor. I feel like since this is an MMO you will eventually run into others, and if everyone looks the same it will get boring really fast. There also doesn't seem to me any gold or money system. Selling items doesn't get anything but an item I have not figured out how to use yet. And all stuff, even purple drops sell for the same price. That's not necessarily a bad thing, I know sometimes games with money systems and trade houses can get insane for the casual player really fast. But I always loved Torchlight for the loot and how much stuff always dropped and the gold that was always just lying around. It doesn't feel quite like Torchlight without it. And speaking of, it also feels like it's missing the embers that can be added to weapons, the ability to transmute and pets. Like I said though, I'm still really early game, and I'm guessing some of those features, especially based on stuff I've read, are unlocked later. But I feel like those things not being available right away may turn away some players as well. I'm not young, I'm a 44 year old mom, so perhaps I'm not the target audience of this game, but I was a huge fan of the original torchlight and Torchlight 2 (which I still play on my switch and I eagerly look forward to introducing to my 7 year old daughter) and I feel like there are still many of us out there! If there is a better place for feedback please let me know. I did see discord, but I don't really use it or other social media. Another issue I found, as far as bugs and such, is sometimes when clicking the "orbs" that are journal pages, for example, the text appears on screen and stays for a decent enough time to read it but if you leave and start battling you miss the rest of the text as it changes and more appears, or it's covered but other text. I wish there was a way to go back and see what I missed. I'm someone who actually like reading in games and likes getting the full story. There also seems to be a few bugs involving NPCs who follow you, such as the little dwarf automaton. He disappears but will still be talking to you. The same thing happens with your Crow Aria and the Hunter in the beginning. I forget the name, but they both accompany you, but disappear. I thought they wear supposed to be gone but realized I was still having a conversation with them and eventually they were seen on screen again when I went into a new area. And finally the 2 side quests that come early and involve speaking to the arms merchant do not make any sense. There's no explanation for them but you simply speak to him and get a reward. There's no indication of what you did that he wanted. It feels out of place. Maybe he can at least give a reason for the reward.
2022-02-25
Author likedAppreciate your words! This means a lot for us when the game is reaching different audiences. For forums or SNS, please follow us on Twitter, Instagram, Youtube, Discord (currently most active for instant game info exchange), and here on Taptap. Simply click on the linked names in this blog, text is in blue. At anytime when you feel like sharing your thoughts, you are welcome to contact us via email as well, [email protected]. To answer some of your questions, we are not aiming to have the game developed in the MMO category, there will be multi-player supported in the future versions. For heroes' appearances, gears shall appear differently when equipped, and accessories and clothing will be adjusted in later versions. Item rewards from the merchandisers in hideout are somewhat important for early players to spend a little time learning the different build possibilities.
2022-02-25