Topic: Titan Quest is pretty cool.

[idolminds]

I should go buy this...

[MysterD]

I should go buy this...

$20 at Best Buy.

I got the DVD Edition online from their website, which had FREE SHIPPING on it when I ordered it (on this past Sat or Sunday).

[MysterD]

Umm....what's up w/ the lack of character models for your hero/heroine???

Are there any other models you can select from besides the one default for the hero and one default for the heroine?

[idolminds]

Probably not. This isn't "that kind" of RPG.

[MysterD]

Probably not. This isn't "that kind" of RPG.

This game comes w/ an Editor, so I'm wondering if there are any SKINS out there for characters models made by modders/players?

[MysterD]

I began TQ last nite. Holy shit, TWO HOURS flew by REAL fast w/ this thing. Yeah, this game is definitely well made and thought out.

What this game really does well is so many things -- from the combat to the interface. A lot of it seems like they been watching Dungeon Seige 2. Everything is so clean and well laid out. Not cumbersome at all or anything.

The combat is addictive. The action is quick and there are lots of loot dropped -- to add to that, many different types of loot -- so I find myself heading back to town a lot to sell my stuff A LOT. So, b/c of this, I really love this portal thing -- just throw a portal back to town, and then come right back to where the hell you were at. I did that a lot in DS2, as well. I'm a loot whore -- a pack-rat, so this really helps my damn cause!

The skill systems looks really good. Forget the class system, develop what skills you so want to; period. Right now, I'm concentrating increasing my character as a Rogue w/ lots of strength. For Rogue abilities -- namely, I'm working on the POISON ability. Oh man....magically and naturally POISONING my attacks are freakin' nasty in this game. I'm lovin' that!

Though, performance is not the greatest. I got things on medium and sometimes, the framerate will go from say 50 to like 15-20 in a flash. At least, it is not for long when it does this.

I wish I could auto-sort loot, like you could in DS2. Though, at least the TQ expansion will add that option.

[MysterD]

There is also a distinct lack of oooomph in the combat. It isn't bad, but not very impressive. Still it is highly addictive, and I hear it gets a lot better.

I think it's not the combat itself, which I find very addictive.

It seems to be lacking some good sound effects, when it comes to the actual sound of the combat in the game.

[Pugnate]

haha you bought it! Awesome. We should play together.

[MysterD]

haha you bought it! Awesome. We should play together.

I haven't tried the MP.

Is it Co-Op? PvP?
Or can you choose b/t the two?

Can I use my same character from SP in the MP?

[idolminds]

I was extremely tempted to purchase this tonight. Only thing that held me back was no one had the DVD edition. Might just order it off amazon or something.

[MysterD]

I was extremely tempted to purchase this tonight. Only thing that held me back was no one had the DVD edition. Might just order it off amazon or something.

My local Best Buy had a bunch, this past weekend.

Too bad Best Buy isn't doing free shipping this week; they did the last 2 weeks.
And I made sure I ordered the DVD Ed from BestBuy.com, when I saw free shipping that week.

[idolminds]

I'm going to keep looking. I only checked the one BB and a gamestop. I'm sure I'll find it.

[MysterD]

I'm going to keep looking. I only checked the one BB and a gamestop. I'm sure I'll find it.

G'luck.

TQ is fun, but it's not the best performing game....Be warned....
It runs better than NWN2, though....

[idolminds]

Found the DVD edition tonight and grabbed it. Also found Darwinia for $5 and figured "Why not?"

[Pugnate]

I want to find Darwinia for $5. 

[idolminds]

It was just lucky at Gamestop. They also had the collectors edition of Prey for $20...but I was already getting TQ so held off.

[MysterD]

Found the DVD edition tonight and grabbed it.

Sweet!

Also found Darwinia for $5 and figured "Why not?"

Ooooh....you gotta let me know how Darwinia is!
$5 for that sounds good to me!

It was just lucky at Gamestop. They also had the collectors edition of Prey for $20...but I was already getting TQ so held off.

Ooooh...Prey: Collector's Ed rocks.
I love the metal tin the DVD comes in, too. Freakin' awesome.

[idolminds]

Darwinia is cool. I downloaded it when it came out and played through a bit of it. I havent installed the retail copy yet because I'm lazy. I just wanted to have it. Oh, it also came with a poster and a Darwinian keychain.

Back to Titan Quest. So far very cool. I can see where Pug said the combat lacked "oomf" when you start. I wasn't sure what build to make...and its kind of a bitch to try them out since you have to level before you can use the abilities. So I grabbed a trainer that allows me to screw around on some "cheat" characters and try stuff. I like the rogue stuff, but leaning towards a Hunter/Wilderness dude like pugs (thats my WoW druid coming back to me). Though a total caster would be fun as well....hmmmm....

[JacksRag(e)]

Damn you guys, I just went and picked up a copy of Titan Quest earlier tonight, too.  I seriously have to study, fools.

[MysterD]

Darwinia is cool. I downloaded it when it came out and played through a bit of it. I havent installed the retail copy yet because I'm lazy. I just wanted to have it. Oh, it also came with a poster and a Darwinian keychain.

Back to Titan Quest. So far very cool. I can see where Pug said the combat lacked "oomf" when you start. I wasn't sure what build to make...and its kind of a bitch to try them out since you have to level before you can use the abilities. So I grabbed a trainer that allows me to screw around on some "cheat" characters and try stuff. I like the rogue stuff, but leaning towards a Hunter/Wilderness dude like pugs (thats my WoW druid coming back to me). Though a total caster would be fun as well....hmmmm....

I'm a Rogue Mastery.

I love the poison ability. Maxed that sucker out, ASAP. Basically, one blow on most monsters, I can just sit back and then just let the poison grind them to death.

I think what the combat lacks is good sound effects. The game's hits, I'm just really not feeling too much -- namely, on the ears. Oblivion *sounds* like when you hit someone (or are being hit), you're knocking the shit out of them. Dark Messiah also *sounds* good when hitting someone. NWN2 sounds good, as well, when you hit them.

That is something Titan Quest lacks.

[idolminds]

haha, this trainer is awesome. I maxed out like everything and was launching baddies into the air when I hit them. There was a group of like 8 enemies fighting a NPC and I did like a fireball on them...launched all of them into the air. It was raining bodies and weapons.

[Pugnate]

Damn you guys, I just went and picked up a copy of Titan Quest earlier tonight, too.  I seriously have to study, fools.

muhahaha...

You know there are two people who I know will enjoy this. Sirean and Que.

Umm....what's up w/ the lack of character models for your hero/heroine???

Are there any other models you can select from besides the one default for the hero and one default for the heroine?

Yea that ticked me off as well. Idol is right, it isn't that sort of RPG.

Diablo 2 has you start the game by picking one of five characters. Each character is of his own class and thus own skill tree. The character models were also beautifully designed, but not customizable. But the advantage of selecting a character early on was that it gave some variety online.

In Titan Quest online everyone looks the same. That and the lack of oomph early on are my two negatives, otherwise the game is highly addictive.

But D is right, it wasn't the combat as much as the skill system that caused my addiction.

[Quemaqua]

I think I would definitely like this, but my RPG needs are being completely met by Oblivion right now, and I've got several projects now going in that arena which make it tough to get into anything else.  I'm going to be working as an editor over at The Imperial Library, and I'm also compiling a massive Elder Scrolls Dictionary.  And with Shivering Isles coming out... yeah.  I won't be budging from Oblivion for a good long while.  I'll probably snag TQ when it gets a gold edition DVD with the original game and the expansion for cheap.

[MysterD]

Diablo 2 has you start the game by picking one of five characters. Each character is of his own class and thus own skill tree. The character models were also beautifully designed, but not customizable. But the advantage of selecting a character early on was that it gave some variety online.

In Titan Quest online everyone looks the same. That and the lack of oomph early on are my two negatives, otherwise the game is highly addictive.

Agreed w/ the lack of character models.

But D is right, it wasn't the combat as much as the skill system that caused my addiction.

I think the combat itself is fun. I like the combat, gameplay-wise and all. It's pretty addictive. That's not the problem....

...It's just the *sounds* (sound effects) need to *sound* like someone is gettin' knocked the hell out of it -- like it does in *many* other RPG's.

Even Silverfall (in the demo) sounds much better, sound-wise.

[Pugnate]

Once you enhance your weapons the impact is far bigger.

[MysterD]

Once you enhance your weapons the impact is far bigger.

In the game's sound effects department??

[Pugnate]

Oh yea. Try a weapon with a few fire mods or lightning mods. Massive impact.

[MysterD]

Oh yea. Try a weapon with a few fire mods or lightning mods. Massive impact.

I'll have to mod-up my weapons, then,

Even zoomed in, the sound effects ain't so hot.

[Pugnate]

You haven't modded your weapons yet? How far are you BTW? You will find tons of artifacts and if you use a certain set together then you get bonus properties.

[MysterD]

You haven't modded your weapons yet? How far are you BTW? You will find tons of artifacts and if you use a certain set together then you get bonus properties.

I just finished killin' the beast so I can talk to that guy, in the Spartan Camp.
Spoke to him, about to do whatever's next.

[Pugnate]

Sweet. I was looking up the expansion and I can't believe how massive it is.

[MysterD]

Sweet. I was looking up the expansion and I can't believe how massive it is.

Yeah, especially w/ the new Dream Mastery addition....

...even though it'll only be 10 hours of new quest content.
So, that means it'll take me say....15-20 hours...
Yeah, like it did for me w/ DS2: Broken World.

The Underworld in Immortal Throne does look cool, though.
I like dark tones & settings in my games.

Can I have more than one Specialization in TQ?
Right now, I'm focused on the Rogue.

[idolminds]

When you hit level 8 you get to pick a second specialization. So you could be a rogue/hunter or whatever you want. Kind of like Guild Wars in that manner.

[MysterD]

When you hit level 8 you get to pick a second specialization. So you could be a rogue/hunter or whatever you want. Kind of like Guild Wars in that manner.

Ooooh, freakin' sweet....!

EDIT:
I'm like Level 6 already, BTW.

[MysterD]

Patch 1.30 is out now.

REQUIREMENT for this patch -- you must already have Version 1.20 installed.

[MysterD]

I wish more RPG's had as many unique stacks of lots and so many different enchanted variations of loot like this game has.

It's as if Iron Lore stuck a bunch of guys aside from the beginning of development and said, "Okay, guys -- all I want you guys to do EVER is make as many variations and different amounts of loot and we'll see what you guys made in around some 2-3 years, when it's all done."

Hehe.

Are there any other RPG's w/ this much loot in many different unique sets and different enchanted variations of loot as this game???

The amount this game has is, well, quite staggering....

[idolminds]

Diablo 2, for one. Hellgate is supposed to have similar loot generation. You can also try Fate.

Or heck, even World of Warcraft.

[MysterD]

Diablo 2, for one. Hellgate is supposed to have similar loot generation. You can also try Fate.

Hellgate will??? Really?

Ooooh, that's interesting. I was already looking forward to HG. Even more so, after hearing that.

I always seem to be swapping weapon and armor in and out for my character in Titan Quest, unlike most other RPG's. Usually, in most RPG's, I change armor and weapons here and there, not all the time.

I swap weapons and armor all the time in TQ for my character. I always am selling armor in TQ, like I do in most RPG's -- but even more so than most, here, too.

I wish Oblivion's loot was more varied like say TQ's.

[MysterD]

For those playing TQ...

1. What is the "class" the game has deemed you actually (based namely on what skills you choose to upgrade)?
2. What level are you?
3. How many hours you into the game?


Me, I'm
1. An Illusionist (namely working on Rogue and Nature skills)
2. Level 11
3. Over 8 hours.

[MysterD]

"Medierra" of Crate Entertainment, who was an ex-Iron Lore dev on Titan Quest + Immortal Throne, talks about the problems of "Creative freedom" that they ran into w/ THQ publishing and wanting more control over MANY aspects of the game.

One example of this would be the mandate that enemies not use language or build anything that would make them seem like they had more than animal intelligence. It was felt by one of the higher-ups that people might feel wrong killing enemies that displayed any obvious intelligence. I guess somehow it is wrong to fight intelligent enemies but okay to slaughter dumb animals? We also weren't originally allowed to have humans die, ever, in the game and no human corpses.

Basically, my belief is that Titan Quest never had as much style and character as it could have because we were afraid to do anything even remotely controversial. When I first designed the skill masteries, they were all based on Olympian gods, with skills modeled after the powers or attributes associated with different gods in mythology. This was rejected because it was potentially too religious and people might not want to feel like they were worshiping mythological gods to receive their powers.

We ended up with a game set in Greek mythology that barely contained any actual mythology other than the inspiration for some of the monsters and dialog on peripheral story-teller NPCs stuck off to the side in the towns. The first quest I put in the game, when we were prototyping it for THQ was modeled after one of the 12 labors of Heracles. The Erymanthian Board was terrorizing a town and the hunters they sent after it hadn't returned. You had to ascend mount Erymanthos, discover the wreckage of the hunter's camp, and then continue on to the snow-capped summit to battle the monstrous board. Of course, I was told we couldn't have snow on the summit because people might not realize it snowed in Greece and then later the whole quest vanished and was replaced by generic crap like retrieving a dowry ring so some chick can get married while monsters are overrunning the world.