Shards?

If you mean gems that you can put in sockets, then yes. You can unlock a merchant in Chapter 2 that has a few randomly-selected gems and spells. Not very many, though - dungeons will always be the more reliable source.

Cool, thanks for the info. I've missed playing this game. Is Torchlight III any good?

Originally posted by RBJets:

Cool, thanks for the info. I've missed playing this game. Is Torchlight III any good?

The servers for TL3 had issues so it's basically a single-player game from what I last heard.
There's sub-class Relics that are chosen one time for every character early in the game and that can expand builds somewhat along with 2 native skill trees per class.

It's more linear and hall-way filled compared to TL2.
There's the Genie quests for the post-game that resembles TL2 Mapworks.
TL3 does allow a feature to keep specific affixes later in the game.
TL3 departed from the design of TL2 so it's up to the player to figure out if those changes are satisfactory.

Hmmmm, might avoid that one. Thanks for the info. :)

TL2 is the pinnacle of the series in my opinion.

TL3 had ... issues. Runic ceased to exist after Hob (an unrelated game that followed TL2), with two of the lead devs (Eric Schaefer and Travis Baldree going off to form Double Damage Games (which was just the two of them) (Baldree also writes books in the "cozy fantasy" sub-genre)). Max Schaefer (the 3rd lead dev) formed a successor company (Echtra Games) and attempted to continue to his own dream of building a Torchlight MMO.

However, Perfect World (the corporate parent), wanted a Game-as-a-Service platform and that was heavily coded into the base game concept. But when fans beta tested it, they were disappointed by the direction of the game. Max Schaefer attempted to "adjust" the direction, bringing it more inline with the TL1 and TL2 experiences, but ... ran out of money (trying to build a game that attempted to please three separate dissimilar goals (Max wanted a World of Warcraft version of Torchlight, Perfect World wanted a Microtransaction mobile game, and fans wanted a newer, bigger, better version of stand-alone TL2)). This essentially means that TL3 feels somewhat unfinished. It's playable, but ... it lacks the scope and depth of TL2 and feels more like TL1 in terms of story and general feel (at least that's the way it feels to me).

It's ... not awful, but I personally was rather disappointed by it.

Echtra got sold off to Zynga after TL3, so they no longer work on the IP.

TL Infinite is an unrelated game by an unrelated studio that utilizes the Torchlight IP under license from (I think?) Perfect World. For a while, Perfect World (at least the North American section) was owned by the Embracer Group during their big push to build a conglomerate gaming empire. But they did not receive a big funding bid and instead ended up selling off pieces (including Gearbox Entertainment (the parent of Gearbox Studios) which was going to be the primary controller and publisher).

I'm a bit unclear who actually owns the IP these days. I THINK it's technically Gearbox, but ... regardless, the 3 lead devs from Runic have all moved on to other projects.

Wow that world seems to be changing all the time. Were some of TL! and TL2 developers from Blizzard (Diablo)? Thanks for the background info Nakos.

Yes, Max and Eric Schaefer (brothers) were part of Condor Games, which eventually became Blizzard North.

My recollection is that they met Travis Baldree when all three were working on Hellgate: London, but I could be mistake about that.

Eventually Max and Eric and Travis went on to form Runic Games (along with several other alums from Blizzard North). They then built Torchlight 1, which was (basically) an updated version of the original Diablo game, only in a cartoony, up-beat style.


Curiously enough, David Brevik (who did work on Hellgate: London) who's the true "father of modern ARPGs", and who was the lead dev at Condor Games (Blizzard North), was not part of Runic Games, and didn't work on the Torchlight series.

However, when XD Inc. started making Torchlight: Infinite, they actually did use David Brevik as a consultant.

That is so cool to get the history of developers, thanks. :)

Quite interesting, indeed! Thanks for sharing, Nakos.