[Dev. Blog #8] | Stepping into the next phase
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!
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