Mainline Patch - May 5, 2020
Originally posted by TeamTo work closely with the Closed Beta testers, we continue to do weekly updates. While it means that some bugs might make it past our QA team, it does help us get more immediate feedback from our changes.
A "mainline" patch brings all of the past week's development work into the Closed Beta test. There will be a maintenance downtime during this patch release, after which the patch will be released for download.
Bug reports in the Steam Bug forum, via Feedback button in-game, and through Discord are incredibly helpful, thank you! Players will notice many of their reports listed as fixed in today's Patch Notes.
It’s another terrific Tuesday Torchlighters!
And today’s patch brings some pretty significant changes to how skills are dispersed! Previously players were required to spend skill points on previous skills (points in tab) before being able to open up new skill options. This has been updated and skills will now become available as a player’s level increases (currently these levels are set at 5/10/15/20). We have also limited the points from 100 to 60 in order to increase the importance of skill point allocation.
Additionally, many skills were moved around so that there are generally 3 skills unlocked at a time. We will continue to be moving skills around in the coming weeks as we look at each class's gameplay. Because this update is such a big change to the way skills are currently handled, we are forcing a skill respec to all characters. When you log back in today you should expect to see your character skills reset so that you can rebuild them the way you want with the new skill updates implemented.
We received a lot of great feedback asking for more class/build options; the team believes this will help give players more build flexibility and earlier opportunities for customization as they can now choose to hoard their points in order to invest in skills that are unlocked at a later level. We will continue to work on other areas to encourage more build variety in the coming weeks.
Additionally, the design team has been tackling the tuning of specific skills and classes, below you will notice some updates for both Sharpshooter and Forged alongside some designer’s notes.
Thank you again for continuing to test and providing your feedback / bug reports! You are helping us make Torchlight 3 better one bug report and suggestion at a time.
See you in-game!
- Echtra Bean
PATCH NOTES
[h2]GENERAL[/h2]
- Fixed a treasure chest that could spawn underground in certain underground levels (like The Shattered Void).
- Fixed issue with ‘Hold Position’ not working after first traveling to Edgewood Bluff for the first time.
- Reduced the expected armor values at each level to set goals that at the average defense per level can get you close to 60% mitigation.
- Introduced greater granularity for getting greater amounts of defense than expected for more mitigation at lower levels.
- Decreased the factor of difficulty on incoming monster damage based on difficulty level to reduce instances of getting one-shot.
- Increased the range of expected defense values on the lower end so that if you have the minimum amount of defense for an area (from a full set of expected quality armor), you can get to around 25% mitigation. When you have an average amount of defense for an area (from a full set of expected quality armor), you can get to around 50% mitigation.
- Increased the granularity for expected defense value gains above the average so you can see more gradual increases in mitigation. Currently maxes out at 89%, but many levels below your armor level.
- Fixed Logaan, potion vendor in Trevail Point, as you couldn't buy the Antidote Potion and he didn't have any Polarized Potions in stock.
- Painful and Ridiculous Difficulties should now always be unlocked.
- Turning on client side root motion by default to resolve charges / knockback stutter.
- Fixed a situation where a party member would exit from the game during travel (or a few other rare situations), and would result in an inconsistent state between the rest of the party members and that party member. Now the party member that dropped out will be removed from the party after a timeout and can then be re-invited. If it was the party leader that dropped, then a new party leader will be automatically selected and the old party leader can be re-invited after the timeout.
- Fixed Relic Collector Achievement being impossible to earn.
- Fixed dead players not showing up on the minimap
- Guards in Echo Landing, McTyres' Cove, and Trevail Point are a little chattier.
- SFX Updates:
- Rescuing Hix and Kenik now have cocoon splat audio.
- Berserker monster affix audio designed and implemented.
- Spirit Well promoted legendary affix audio implemented.
- Fixed ambience not playing in some levels.
- Fixed scatterer instruments in 2D sounds not being audible.
- Scatter shot sounds updated.
- Goblin Legion and Shasta skill sounds implemented.
- Exploding barrels now have a tell sound.
- Added additional generic guard quips (VO and bubble text). There might even be a joke in there.
- Mother and Ordrak VO implemented.
- Ordrak boss music implemented.
- Squawkclaw VO implemented, remixed.
- Rescuing Hix and Kenik now have cocoon splat audio.
- VFX Updates:
- Leaf Pile Leaves FX now playing
- Shockwave Stomp (Work in Progress)
- Ordrak Death
- Ordrak Invulnerability
- Brall
- Leaf Pile Leaves FX now playing
[h2]ENVIRONMENT[/h2]
- Ferns wiggle for less time when run over now.
- Replaced an unbreakable empty crate in the Occupied Trevail Point with a breakable crate, so you can BREAK ALL THE THINGS!
- Fixed Empty title card on destructibles.
- Temporarily removed shaking from explosive barrels.
- Fixed boss chests that were erroneously appearing in various Hyvid hub areas.
- Change Warp portal to appear after opening the boss chest, not when you kill a boss.
- Fixed Netherim Pylon that was spawning in an unreachable location in the Guarded Path.
[h2]MONSTERS[/h2]
- Fixed boss warpback portals that were not spawning.
- Removed the generic warps from both Brall and Sadista's arenas, put the warpback location closer to the boss chest.
- Brall no longer floats in the air after dying.
- Fixed Ordrak's Shockwave Stomp not functioning properly. Goblin Chanter, Brute and Riders no longer spawn below ground.
- Voltura Gliders now have a Behavior Tree hooked up again.
- New Sadista Glaive draw and montage for updated Boss fight design.
- Fixed Galvanic Slayers dealing fire damage instead of electric.
- Accentuated Stone Elemental death.
- Fixed missing poison debuff description when poisoned by Venomfang Spiders.
- Reduced the chance that Sadista and Brall will focus on your pet instead of the player's character.
- Sadista's Ultimate Form Leap missiles' damage reduced significantly
- Sadista's Ultimate Form now properly spawns Nether Well hazards in her arena as intended
- Sadista's Glaive Throw and Leap attacks no longer fail to deal damage
- Fixed Squackclaw improperly rotating when he returns from his 'laser eyes' phase, resulting in being permanently pitched downward.
- Fixed Squawkclaw being targetable still during 'laser eyes' for a brief moment
- Fixed Squawkclaw continuing to rotate towards the player while recovering and taking a knee after using its spin attack.
- Squawkclaw's electric ball projectile no longer has a ground telegraph, and no longer immobilizes you. The skill is simply too quick for this punishing effect..
- Boss Tuning (all bosses are currently undergoing a tuning review):
- The health of most major story bosses has been doubled:
- The health of Wideload & Strongtusk have been doubled.
- Strongtusk's Pylons HP has been tripled.
- The health of most major story bosses has been doubled:
[h2]QUESTS[/h2]
- Fixed an issue where the task to "Find Hix" in Bolt Town for the quest "To the Rescue" would sometimes not complete.
- Fixed an issue where party members were unable to collect important quest objects because they missed the gadget interaction.
- Fixed typo in "Excavated Workshop" task of "Ancient Weaponry" quest.
[h2]UI/UX[/h2]
- Increased the size of the legendary affix header icon.
- Fixed Railmaster: 'Hardened Craftsman's Mask' item name overlapping the 'Level' text string in the displayed description window.
- Exit button in the menu dialog is no longer overlapping other buttons.
- Centered the class mechanic screens in the panel better.
- Sharpshooter: Helm, boots, gloves icon updates.
- Railmaster: Boots and Gloves Icon fixes.
- Duskmage: Helm Icon fixes.
- Forged: Armor, Locomotion, Chest, Cannon, Shoulders and Gloves Icon fixes.
- Revised and standardized Sharpshooter skill tooltips and descriptions for grammar and spelling.
- Fixed Spirit Well summon duration typo.
- Revised and standardized Dusk mage skill tooltips and descriptions for grammar and spelling.
- Updated DPI curve to scale the UI correctly at 4K.
- More enchanting UI polish.
- Increased the size of the Essence currency.
- Increased the disenchant dialog blur intensity and added the gold currency to that layout so it is not blurred.
- Increased the size of the disenchant button in anticipation of future potential loc issues.
- Fixed overflowing text in Reliquary and Enchanting tutorials when playing in Russian or Brazilian Portugese.
- Fixed the title of McTyre's Cove Portal in Trevail Point - it was too low
[h2]FORT[/h2]
- Fixed issue with Dusk Mage being unable to interact with Arcanum.
- Fixed oversized alpaca pet preview in the Pet Shelter.
- Fixed issue with character getting stuck behind the lantern located in front of the big tree in the Fort,
- Fixed it so that the Jawbreaker Hunter (Sharpshooter) wardrobe is properly given to you when you use the unlock item.
- Fixed it so that the unlock item cannot be sold.
- Set the display name for all the monuments so that the correct names will display when you toggle on the nameplates
[h2]RELICS[/h2]
- Blood Drinker Spinning Blade reworked to last longer visually on screen.
- Firestorm proc given a 4s cooldown.
Designer’s Note: We like the fireballs falling randomly, but even with a 10% chance to occur they were happening ALL. THE. TIME. Thus we added a 4s cooldown, which still allows it to happen frequently, but not so much that it feels busted. - Adjusted Flaming Destroyer's "Reign of Fire" skill duration from 10s to 6s, and changed the time between meteor spawns from every .2s to every .4.
Designer's Note: This skill was not only very taxing on many PCs, networks, and super overpowered, but it also started to look terrible with so much vfx hitting all at once. This slight adjustment in missile spawn time feels good to us now, and the decreased length is still long in game terms, without just feeling never ending. We may adjust damage up in the future to compensate but will have to see.
[h2]ITEMS & WEAPONS[/h2]
- Fixed it so that the secondary affixes on 2H weapons are never of a different element than the primary damage affix.
- Fixed crit chance vs. bleeding targets enchanting recipe so that it gives a chance for common quality weapons.
- Updated texture colors on some Legendary Sharpshooter sets.
[h2]CLASSES & SKILLS[/h2]
- All skills layout completely reworked for all classes. Each tier we unlock new skills by level now has three new skills, except for the final tier, which is 2 across all classes.
- Skills all reworked to be unlocked 1, 2, 1, 2, 1 across ALL classes and trees. This was inconsistent.
- Skill screen's level requirements should say (Current Level / Level required) instead of referencing the difference between tiers.
- RAILMASTER
- Rearranged all the train car skills descriptions to lead with their passive benefit, followed by their active benefit, then noting their mutual exclusivity.
Designer's Note: This is due to feedback we had that it was a bit confusing to figure out what the train car would do as its default, non-active skill behavior. Hopefully this rearranging helps with clarity. - Shocking Rounds damage reduced from 130% weapon damage for the chain lightning to 20% base. Active portion’s lightning strikes are still 130%.
Designer’s Note: The active skill portion should still feel powerful, but the passive benefit to the main turret was far, far too powerful and overtuned. This was basically just a value thrown in by design during the implementation phase just to see if it worked that should have never shipped to players. Due to this being passive damage from an immortal train that can’t be targeted, and that chains to a second enemy we had to lower it significantly. - Torque Swing damage was changed from 200% to 210% weapon damage, costs 3 Endurance, and has had its cooldown removed.
Designer’s Note: This skill was added hastily during the Milestone rework and as such failed to get a proper tuning pass besides some preliminary guesstimates. Now we’ve put it through our tuning algorithms and reconsidered its place in the kit. As such we’ve removed the cooldown and given it a more substantial Endurance cost. - Torque Spin got a cooldown of 8s again.
Designer's Note: We had this at 12s and after re-tuning it for damage, pushed it to no cooldown with an endurance cost of 3. But the thing is, with its tier 3 restoring endurance this didn't make sense for the feel of the skill or its intended functionality. We have now changed the cooldown back to 8s, while keeping the damage the same as what it was. - Revised skill description for Hammerspin to note its escape use.
- Pound's 0.6 second cooldown (triggered after its 0.4 second contact frame), is now baked into the skill's animation. This means holding the button down will cause Pound to repeat, but no faster than it did before. The skill can still be interrupted after reaching its contact frame, so it will not cause any more amount of 'character lock', being unable to move, than it did before.
- Rearranged all the train car skills descriptions to lead with their passive benefit, followed by their active benefit, then noting their mutual exclusivity.
- FORGED
- Adjusted Forged locomotion and hatches so that they don't implode on low end machines.
- Forged snake locomotion mace attacks now have slot progression assignments and will show up in game.
- Cyclone Mode gets a slight damage increase from 30% per hit (hits twice a second) to 40% per hit.
Designer’s Note: This occurred because we weren’t accounting for the higher heat cost yet. - Furnace Blast damage increased from 150% to 210% weapon damage.
Designer’s Note: Previously the skill shot out a ton of low-damage missiles. After reworking it to be a huge DoT that just hits all at once, and has a cooldown, we failed to run it through our tuning sheet. The end result is that we just input a number we thought was good, but was slightly off.
- Adjusted Forged locomotion and hatches so that they don't implode on low end machines.
- DUSK MAGE
- Reversed the current positioning of Luminous Run and Consecration
Designer's Note: This is to add more strategic gameplay in the dusk mage's kit earlier on, while still giving a secondary escape option down the line. - Absolver skill damage reduced from 220% to 190% weapon damage base.
Designer's Note: This errantly was overtuned, so to make it still competitive with other skills but also note its ability to pierce and hit many more enemies at a faster rate than, say, Holy Bolt, we slightly tuned the damage down. - Dark Spears weapon damage reduced from 140% to 90% weapon damage.
Designer's Note: This was originally accounting for it's smaller size and much higher Mana cost. With the size increased and mana cost reduced, we lowered the damage accordingly while still making it threatening at level one to most small mobs. - Energy Spike weapon damage lowered from 60% to 40% weapon damage.
Designer's Note: Energy Spike is still a great skill, and only gets greater with more points into it. It usually hits most targets multiple times, and while we did lower the damage it should be noted that the pathing for the missile is far more predictable (though still chaotic) than it was in previous iterations. - Entropy base missile lifetime reduced from 3s to 2s.
- Entropy tier 1 milestone speed increased slightly, now moves at 25% of base missile, and lasts only 4s instead of 6s. Tier three version that also does blasts of dark energy now adds 30% to the skill's Mana cost.
Designer's Note: Entropy was made a bit too overpowered in our most recent push to add "milestone bonuses" to all our skills. We had to re-evaluate the speed of the "slow" version, as well as its lifespan which was just way, way too long. With the tier three version the extra damage it added was also extremely powerful, and we felt it needed a mana cost addition to offset how good it was. - Holy Fury damage lowered from 290% to 260% base weapon damage.
Designer's Note: This was simply the wrong number inputted accidentally. Corrected. - Light Spear weapon damage decreased from 280% weapon damage to 170% weapon damage.
Designer's Note: It was simply way overtuned from when it still had a significant cooldown. It would have been lower still, but we removed the default "healing" tag it had since that is now locked behind milestones. - Radiant Blast base skill damage lowered from 200% to 160% weapon damage. Secondary blasts remain at 100%
Designer's Note: This was way overtuned after we removed the knockback effects and also when we removed the waves of missiles slain enemies used to spawn. This has been corrected slightly, but we've left the secondary blasts relatively powerful to give it continued utility. - Unholy Bolt weapon damage reduced from 130% to 100% weapon damage.
Designer's Note: When we got rid of the "shotgunning" ability for Unholy Bolt that was the tried-and-true strategy for so long we overtuned the skill in an attempt to make it competitive with Holy Bolt. It fires three bolts and can still hit multiple targets and needed a very small change in damage. It should still be useful for driving down mobs and raising your dark charge bar. - Spirit Well minions lifetime reduced from 60s to 30s.
Designer’s Note: We wanted this to have less uptime so we reduced it. 30s is still a very long summon duration.
- Reversed the current positioning of Luminous Run and Consecration
- SHARPSHOOTER
- Revised the placement of Goose and Goblin skills in the Adventurer tree.
- Fixed common helms that resulted in Sharpshooters being bald or otherwise not having an actual helmet mesh.
- Fixed it so Ghost Visage now gives its Precision Skill bonus again.
Designer's Note: This was accidentally disabled when we were implementing the skill milestones, and as we implemented the ghostly sharpshooter clone on the tier three for this skill, we forgot to hook up an important blueprint node that continued to grant the bonus charges. - Changed the base Ammo recharge rate, increasing it more than 4x from where it was.
Designer’s Note: We nerfed this way too hard to make Reload more relevant and to make its per-level bonus not too powerful. Basically, we were trying to find a good way for the class to feel based around one skill which was a poor choice. We think we've found a good place where Reload no longer feels essential, but can feel good if you're focusing on Ammo heavy builds such as using Onslaught a lot. - Curse of Pi’pi has had its blind removed and had its damage raised from 50% weapon damage to 60%.
Designer’s Note: As we added a damage component to this, and lowered it’s cooldown from previous iterations, it just didn’t make sense for it to also have a hard crowd control element anymore. This has been removed, which in turn increased the damage for the skill slightly, though it is still not its primary focus. - Scattershot default charge bonus changed from 100% to 200% weapon damage for a fully charged shot. With the milestone bonuses, it can go up to 250% instead of 150%
Designer’s Note: The skill just wasn’t providing the damage oomph we wanted when fully charged, so to make it more worth the charge time we upped the damage.
- Revised the placement of Goose and Goblin skills in the Adventurer tree.
