Game Length

[An7hraX]

Originally Posted by medierra

I agree TQ drags on in areas. We definitely want to refine the experience and accelerate the pace with GD. Honestly though, we don't have the time to build such a massive game anyway.

It's kind of funny but I think I'd prefer to replay a shorter game more than I'd want to slog through twice as many hours of unique gameplay to finish a game once. I even feel that way about D2. I've finished countless replays of the game with dozens of different characters on multiple difficulties but there are times when I get to Act3 and just feel like "oh god... not this place again". Same with the arcane sanctuary...

Unfortunately with TQ I feel that way immediately when I go to run through Greece again.

Yeah thank goodness for the loopholes in act 3 so that you can rush yourself through it with someone who has the last 2 WPs.

Someone mentioned different scenery and I think that it's an almost perfect statement. You can create the same epic sized world we saw in Titan Quest, just break the areas down, for example for it's size Greece can easily be two different acts instead of 1.


That being said I liked arcane sanctuary, yes it was long especially if you and your party weren't strong enough to separate and go in different directions. But that being said it looked so unique and it was designed like no other dungeon, so that made it a lot less tedious than Act 3.

[Darkruin]

Originally Posted by eisprinzessin

I think TQ has a lot of meaningless fighting, which can get boring. A better level design would help here ... regardless of the world's size.
I feel the same. Throwing in some ideas:
- Let the world grow from normal to epic and from epic to legendary mode. Unlock some dungeons or even whole areas on higher levels only.
- Make side quests for epic and legendary mode only.
- Even the main quest could expand from mode to mode.

Awesome idea! I couldn't agree more! I enjoyed killing the few unlocked beasts in epic and legendary modes in TQ but it just left me wishing there was more.

[eisprinzessin]

Thank you, starkaas and Darkruin ... well, this can turn out to be a great incentive to replay the game on higher modes ... but it needs to be communicated, that epic and legendary have much more content. Otherwise it will result in a lot of frustrated casual gamers, who wonder why the game is so short.

[Chameleon]

I'm leaning towards having a shorter more distilled and intense gaming experience with GD.

As someone else suggested you could make each difficulty level open up more sidequests/side areas. It would make it faster to get to Legendary and gives you more motivation and reason to get to Legendary and subsequently more fun once you got there as you would get new experiences only found there.

[subshape]

Sorry for the thread hijack:
Act 3 was an abomination. I hate those stupid blow dart ass clowns. I can promise you we will have NOTHING as stupid and retarded as that. OMG just thinking about Act 3 is pissing me off. Although, one area i DID like in Act 3 was the final battle area. Mephisto's area was AWESOME and I liked searching for the tome or whatever it was in the ancient ruins.
However, leading up to that was just the worst.
B

[medierra]

Well, I'd keep in mind that the game won't be short, just the first installment will be. Basically we don't have the budget to make enough content for a full-length game as our first release. So, instead, we're doing it in installments and using the profit from the first to help fund the next. Think of it like we're currently making Greece.

The swamp wasn't bad as a sorceress where you could teleport across the river and frozen orb everything to death in one shot. It was unbelievably frustrating as a melee character though where you constantly had to chase around after little enemies that were constantly fleeing, individually posed no threat, and were totally unsatisfying to kill. After my hundred-thousandth or so sorceress build I started playing paladin and druid a lot. With those classes I'd just run through the swamp ignoring most of the enemies if I could because I hated fighting them so much.

[Roros]

What I disliked the most about act3 was getting lost and the amount of backtracking you had to do to check the other path in a fork. Especially in a multiplayer game which usually races along, the start of act3 is where everything may or may not come to a complete screeching halt as we run around looking for the one path we missed.

[Renevent]

I just hope you guys make it feel like a full game. Torchlight probably has the same amount of actual content Greece did...but they made it in such a way that it could stand alone.

[eisprinzessin]

Originally Posted by subshape

Act 3 was an abomination.

I just thought: "WTF is wrong with the Orient?" ... well, as it turns out, I never played Diabolo

Originally Posted by Renevent

I just hope you guys make it feel like a full game.

Originally Posted by medierra

Well, I'd keep in mind that the game won't be short, just the first installment will be.

I'm looking forward to a nice cliffhanger.

I wonder how leveling will work with multiple installments. How will our epic and legendary toons fit into the next installment? Can we continue on the same mode? If quests of the new content provide us with bonus health, skill and attributes points, then we will only benefit from them, if we complete quests on lower modes, won't we?

[Roland]

I personally like a "full" sized game, the greater the variety of areas the better...I'm not one that likes to have every stone and bush memorized

I like how TQ:IT also built in a somewhat random mob placement for areas that you travel through again and again. Not that I've farmed much but upon occasion it's been nice to have the spawns mixed up and not completely static.

For me and my play style TQ & the Expansion make pretty much the perfect length for a ARPG.

But I understand the economy of need and the plans for episodic release.

"Lots of little things combine to form one BIG thing"