Crows Corner Q&A Recap: S3 1-7
Crows Corner is a podcast-like livestream that occurs every Tuesday at 11 PM EST inside Torchlight Infinite's official Discord Server. Its hosts are GG-Lawren (XD Community Manager) and our own Xtra37. Together, they answer questions submitted by the community, the livestream's audience, and even each other! If you'd like to ask XD developers a question about Torchlight Infinite, you can do so here.
For our first Crows Corner Q&A Recap, we're covering everything that was asked, answered, and discussed during the first 7 Crows Corners of Torchlight Infinite's 3rd Season: Cube of Rapacity.
Discussion Recap
Much of the best information to come out of Crows Corner is unplanned. Below, you'll find everything we've learned from the discussions between GG-Lawren and Xtra37.
TapTap Presents: Something?
July 8th marks Torchlight Infinite's showcase at the TapTap Presents 2023 Chinese Digital Event. GG-Lawren says information regarding Torchlight Infinite's 4th Season will be shown at this event. Though this event will only be available in Chinese, GG-Lawren promises that key information from this event will be revealed to the international community within the same day.
Auto Loot Buffs? Something like that
While addressing a community member's complaint over needing to manually pick up absurd quantities of Desire Beads, GG-Lawren mentioned that XD is currently developing a new system that will allow players to automatically collect nearby similar currency after manually picking up a currency once. GG-Lawren adds on that they would like to ship this feature with Season 4, but they can't promise that at this time.
A Tale of a Pirate Lord and New Technology
If you've been playing Torchlight Infinite in the month of June, you're probably quite familiar with the Blacksail Rises Again Event. To catch everyone else up to speed, this Event allows you to challenge a modified version of the Lord of the Void Sea, with 5 variants of increasing difficulty. Players do not need invitations to participate in this Event, and dying in it does not come with an XP penalty. Players who succeed in taking down the Pirate Lord are rewarded with cosmetic MTX and Jagged Primocrysts. If you'd like to try your hand at this event, you have until August 31st.
So how did this Event come to be? GG-Lawren explained that it was made possible thanks to newly developed in-house technology. He elaborates that it was all made by a single developer in their free time over a week, and after presenting a demo of it in a meeting, Blacksail Rises Again would go live the following week. This new technology allows the developers to design Events where players can enter an encounter from the Events page without needing an invitation item, and allows them to disable the normal Death-XP-Penalty inside these encounters. GG-Lawren is certain we will see more Events like this in the future.
Mid Season "Mini Leagues"
According to GG-Lawren, XD is now developing what Lawren has called "Mid Season Mini Leagues". These are described as similar to Path of Exile's Events, and will serve to make the normally-dry middle point of Torchlight Infinite's Seasons more exciting. Outside of the basic premises, not much is known about these Events, though the terms "Hardcore" and "Tons of extra loot" have been thrown around. GG-Lawren says that XD is hoping to have these go live during Season 4, but it may take them longer.
Community Q&A
Every week, Torchlight Infinite's community submits many questions to ask XD. Every week, XD presents answers on Crows Corner. This section of the article features content from the first 7 Crows Corners of Torchlight Infinite's 3rd Season: Cube of Rapacity. Below, you'll find:
- The Community's questions
- GG-Lawren's answers to those questions
- Xtra37's live commentary
- Editor's Notes that add context when needed.
Note that duplicate questions are not included and that all questions, answers, and discussions are paraphrased for your reading convenience.
Currently, the Hero Leaderboard sorts by Level and then Attack Power, but does not take into account who reached Max Level first. Can you adjust the leaderboard to add this functionality, or make a separate leaderboard for this?
GG-Lawren: We're planning to prioritize displaying players who reach the Max Level first above the rest.
The Tax System disproportionately affects players who wish to fund a second Character by selling the first Character's equipment, paired with inflation this issue harms player retention late as the season drags on. Can Tax Vouchers be issued proportional to inflation rates?
GG-Lawren: We are not considering dynamic distribution of Tax Vouchers proportional to inflation. However, we will observe and determine if we need to distribute more Tax Vouchers.
Will we get a detailed explanation about Aria's fate in the next story update?
GG-Lawren: We will expand upon the story next season, giving players a deeper insight into the lore of Leptis.
Why did you remove the ability to refine your Auction House Search for similar items?
GG-Lawren: We did not do this.
Xtra37: They didn't do that.
Editor's Note: They didn't do that.
Some DoT skills have a duration for their DoT. (Wilting Beam and Mind Control, for example). This was confusing since I can deal DoT indefinitely as long as I use the skill! does this mean DoT duration modifiers work with these skills? Does Reap Purification work with this?
Xtra37: I got this one, Lawren. You're right, DoT Skills all have their own debuff duration, which is what you're seeing. This debuff duration can be scaled with DoT duration or Skill duration modifiers, letting you scale damage with Reap Purification. I have a Maxroll article on the subject that you'll want to check out.
Editor's Note: Xtra37 is referring to the DoT & Reaping Guide they authored.
Could you make it so that message options are saved between logins? It's frustrating needing to turn off world chat every time I login. Would also be nice if I could close the chat window entirely.
GG-Lawren: We will address this issue and explore ways to optimize it.
Many people, including myself are concerned and unhappy with the new Crafting System. Prototype Crafting is especially painful, thanks to the Plasticity mechanic. Any chance you'll update Crafting or revert the Season 3 changes?
GG-Lawren: We will continually monitor players' opinions and feedback on the Crafting system.
Editor's Note: This question would be asked several more times. XD has since raised the droprate of Refined Fossils and added in the Stardust currency which is exchanged for strong item bases to craft onto. They may change more things later in Season 3, and have changes planned for Season 4.
Crafting perfect equipment (6 Tier 1 affixes) was possible in previous seasons, but the new Crafting System makes this almost impossible. Do you plan to change this system to align with what we had before?
GG-Lawren: We use players' feedback and data to evaluate how certain systems are performing. The goal of these Crafting changes was to make the process more surprising and feel more rewarding. With the previous Crafting system, it was too easy to make perfect equipment and use it to clear everything the game had to offer.
Xtra37: The old system definitely had its problems, rarities other than Normal and Legendary never mattered and the actual process of crafting was extremely dull. While the new system definitely has its problems which need to be ironed out, the game is in a much better position with the current system.
Can you please fix Autoloot by making the pickup radius the whole map, so that we never have to go back to pick up currency? Really kills the enjoyment of the game, having to go back every few seconds.
GG-Lawren: We have increased Autoloot's pickup speed and range many times, and we've even made monsters drop items faster. We will consider your feedback.
Xtra37: Yea, Autoloot feels fine to me right now. Never really had a scenario where I have to go back for something, and I consider my build pretty fast. I think most players are on that same boat, there.
Editor's Note: Autoloot's speed and range has been buffed several times over several updates, and monsters now instantly drop loot when defeated, versus before when there was actually a delay!
The Pricecheck function does not work with Divinity Slates currently.
GG-Lawren: We have developed this feature, it will go live in the next update.
Editor's Note: The Pricecheck function now works with Divinity Slates.
Can you make it possible to speed up Cube of Rapacity's animations when coveting?
GG-Lawren: No adjustments for this are currently planned.
Editor's Note: GG-Lawren would later say that this may be optimized in a future season.
The Ranged Attack Archetype's Movement Skill options are poor comparative to others, with Blink Bow and Rocket Jump moving the player backwards instead of forwards. Any plans to make these skills more natural, or adding new Movement Skills usable by Bows or Cannons?
Editor's Note: GG-Lawren initially misunderstood this question, he would go on to report this feedback to the devs after Xtra37 explained it.
The Permanent Server's stash hasn't been accessible since Season 3 launched!
GG-Lawren: The Stash will be unblocked on the Permanent Server after the next update.
Editor's Note: The Permanent Server's Stash has been made functional since.
I've heard a rumor that the Trade Houses between the NA / EU / Asia servers are split, is this true?
GG-Lawren: All Servers share the same Trade House.
Xtra37: This rumor comes up every season, and it is always wrong!
Editor's Note: There are two versions of the game. An international version with the NA / EU / Asia servers, and the Chinese version of the game. The Trade Houses between the two game versions are separate.
Can the delay between listing an item on the Trade House and the time where it actually shows up be lowered?
GG-Lawren: We're working on resolving server issues that have increased this delay beyond what we intended.
Drop Rates of many items seem to have been lowered this Season. Prices for items are much higher compared to Season 2. Any mid league adjustments planned to address this?
GG-Lawren: We do not have plans to adjust item drop rates at this moment, but we will monitor this closely.
Editor's Note: With the assumption this community member was asking about rare Legendary Items, the most likely cause for their price increase is the new Crafting System; which has made the acquisition of powerful Crafted Equipment difficult and expensive.
Currently the Law Bearer's invitation has the same rarity as a Timemark 1 Beacon. Auto loot does not collect it, and loot filters can hide it. It is easy to miss, please make it show up as a rare drop!
GG-Lawren: In the next update the Law Bearer's invitation will be given a special marker and drop effect to ensure that hunters do not miss it.
Xtra37: Oh, so that's why I've yet to see one of these. Here I was thinking it was absurdly rare!
Editor's Note: This issue has since been fixed, the Law Bearer's invitation is extremely difficult to miss and shows up when using any loot filter.
Do bonuses from Drop related Pact Spirits, such as "Additional Flame Fuel Quantity" affect drops from mechanics like Dark Surge or the God's Trials?
GG-Lawren: These modifiers do not have any effect on the drops from special mechanics, including Dark Surge and all of the God's Trials. These mechanics have their own special loot rules and normally cannot be influenced.
Does Moto: Charge Calling's Self Destruct mechanic work with damage conversion?
GG-Lawren: Yes!
I'm someone who's ran a lot of maps already this season, and I have yet to see most of the Legendary Chaos Cards. Are there any plans to change how often these appear?
GG-Lawren: No. It's possible that you did not unlock those Chaos Cards, as they each have distinct unlocking requirements.
Dealing DoT to yourself causes you to receive Affliction, and this scales with your own Affliction effect. Because of this, my character instantly dies when an enemy deals DoT to me. Are there any ways to mitigate this effect?
Editor's Note: GG-Lawren initially misunderstood this question, he would go on to report this as a bug to the devs after Xtra37 explained it.
Necklace of Firebird is one of very items with a unique Skill associated with it. While it says it deals Spell Fire damage, it would be nice to have a way to take a deeper look at these effects, even if it's just so we can see what "tags" they have.
GG-Lawren: Necklace of Firebird's Burst Skill is tagged with Fire and Spell, though it does not count as a Triggered Skill.
Void Rifts appear commonly throughout the campaign, though I've yet to see one in the Netherrealm. Are they just extremely rare? Or is their exclusion intended?
GG-Lawren: Currently, Void Rifts can only be encountered in the Story Mode.
Xtra37: I actually quite enjoyed the Void Rifts I did through the campaign, would be pretty neat if they were eventually made to show up in the Netherrealm.
When is Hardcore mode coming to Torchlight? What would need to change in the game to make this happen?
GG-Lawren: Hardcore mode isn't going to be in the game for a while, but we're always working on developing new content and gameplay!
For some inexplicable reason, my Spirit Magus takes between 2.5-3k damage per second while in Path of the Brave. Is this intentional?
GG-Lawren: Season 3 introduced a bug into Path of the Brave that causes minions to take massive amounts of damage over time constantly. This is a big problem, we are aware of it and are working on it.
Other Currencies had their max sell quantity raised above 99 this Season, such as Proof of the Braves. Can we get the ability to sell over 99 Flame or Ember currency at a time?
GG-Lawren: We currently have no plans to do this, but we will keep an eye on feedback and we may consider optimizing this in the future.
Xtra37: Ideally the economy never gets to the point where there's a genuine need to sell over 99 of a currency at once.
Youga: Elapse's Spacetime Conversion trait states that it increases "duration of skill effect" as skill radius increases. Does this mean I can extend DoT duration of some skills by increasing their radius?
Editor's Note: GG-Lawren provided an incorrect answer to this question, possibly misunderstanding it. The correct answer is yes, with this trait, raising Skill Radius causes DoT Skills to have a longer duration DoT debuff.
Render quality on mobile is set to UHD. Because of this, I get like 15-20 FPS (formerly 30-40 fps from last season) and the device overheats. Can mobile get more graphical options to allow more players with low-end devices to enjoy the game?
Editor's Note: Neither GG-Lawren or Xtra37 really understood this question due to its technical nature, GG-Lawren made sure to forward this to an appropriate developer afterwards.
GG-Lawren: We will improve the game over time to make it run smoothly on as many models of phone as possible.
Reap Purification states that it additionally settles remaining remaining damage when reaping. My questions are: 1. How is "remaining damage" calculated? 2. Can Reap Purification apply to Skill based DoT, and not just DoT Ailments?
GG-Lawren and Xtra37: 1: Take however much damage the DoT would have dealt to the enemy over its lifetime, and instantly deal 80% of that before removing the DoT. 2: Yea, that's right. You can scale Reap Purification's damage with Skill DoT by raising Skill Duration.
Where are the Youga Elapse Buffs?
GG-Lawren: This season, we massively buffed the Affliction mechanic, making DoT stronger and indirectly buffing this Hero.
Xtra37: He could still use plenty help, though. The Affliction buff offsets the Crafted and DoT centric Legendary Equipment nerfs, and Elapse doesn't really synergize that well with DoT mechanics compared to other characters.
Neither of the Carino Trait's Ammo mechanics interact with Spell Burst in any way. Any plans to change this to add an interaction?
GG-Lawren: We are aware of this issue, but we didn't have time to address it before Season 3 launched. We will consider the most appropriate way to handle this, and resolve this in the future.
Frost Terra and other DoT skills possess an "Effectiveness of Added Damage" percentage, but the functionality of this is not apparent as forms of added damage don't work with DoT. What does this stat mean for these skills?
GG-Lawren: Currently, nothing at all. We will remove irrelevant damage multiplier values from Skills in a future update.
Will Loot Drops have its own adjustable sound option? Currently they share the SFX Sound Slider with Skill Sounds, so you can't mute your Skill's audio without also muting the sound of Loot Drops.
GG-Lawren: We have no plans to change this at the moment, but we will seek feedback from players for this issue.
Using Variel's Snicker grants the player a Void Orb, dealing damage to the user whenever a Skill is used. Currently when I use this item with a Channeled Skill, it damages me every single tick versus only once, and it even ignores my own Armor! Is this a bug?
GG-Lawren: We haven't changed this item in a long time, it shouldn't have changed between seasons.
Xtra37: I experimented with this item a lot back in the day. This thing is super cool, that Void Orb Self Damage? That's you hitting yourself! This item is the one and only method of hitting yourself. It hasn't changed at all, and it's always had wacky synergies or anti synergies like that. I love this thing, I wanna make a cool build out of it one day.
Ghost Blade Einherjar does not work with Quick Advancement. Is this intended or a bug? Also, mobile's Auto Aim makes dealing with Proximity Shields on monsters annoying, will that be addressed?
GG-Lawren: Regarding Quick Advancement, we'll need to look into this. Thanks for reporting. Regarding Proximity Shields, it is neither intended nor a bug, though there is a problem and we will begin working on it.
There are one or two regular Map Bosses (not Watchers) that seem to be immune to the Freeze debuff. Is there any particular reasoning for that?
GG-Lawren: This is a bug and it will be fixed later.
There's a Netherrealm map modifier that causes enemies to Reap players, this bypasses the Energy Shield and instantly kills characters that reserve most of their life. Is there any way to defend against this as a Low Life Energy Shield based character? If not, could the mod be highlighted in Red to warn the player?
GG-Lawren: Currently, player's cannot resist Reap effects. We will consider displaying this Map Modifier in Red to improve visibility.
I'm noticing some weird behavior from the Entanglement of the Immortal belt, it seems to be scaling with my character's Ignite scaling. Despite mine saying I should be taking 138 damage per second from the Ignite, I take 4000, and because my max Ignite count is 5, I can apply 5 of these Ignites to myself. Is this intended?
GG-Lawren: As this self Ignite is technically your own Ignite, having it inherit your max Ignite count is intended. However, it dealing more damage is not intended, so we will take a look at that.
Hey guys, any info on when the Demon Gemma Skin will release? I'd love to pay for it, but I can't!
GG-Lawren: This skin is currently unavailable, Stay tuned for our official announcement regarding its release date.
Why is Indifference unaffected by sources of Additional Cast Speed when similar modifiers like Play Safe and Youga's Spacetime Resonance are? If this is not a bug, I tooltips to be more consistent.
GG-Lawren: For modifiers that cause increases or reductions to one stat to also increase or reduce another stat, additional modifiers aren't designed to work unless otherwise specified.
The notion that the development team is "monitoring" or "making adjustments" does not provide much assistance, I think swift changes are urgently needed. Many players share my feelings and have lost faith in the development team.
GG-Lawren: As many of the current issues involve complex logic and macro-economic aspects within the game, it's impossible to make adjustments immediately. We need to make observations and collect data before deploying changes targeting these issues.
Xtra37: Yea, guys, Game Dev is not easy! Nobody has a "make game gooder" button that they can just press to magically solve all of the game's problems.
Are you planning on improving the PC version's interface? Visuals, the ability to double click to perform actions, right clicking, etc are all things that would make the game more friendly for us PC gamers who play ARPGs a lot.
GG-Lawren: We optimize the interface and user experience for players on both PC and mobile platforms every season. For instance, this season, we've added features like viewing the info of dropped items by hovering your mouse over them, saving pact spirit configurations, and more. We will continue optimizing and adjusting the game to enhance the players' experience.
Xtra37: Can confirm, having been with this game since the start, stuff like navigating menus and general quality of life have gotten better every release. I'm certain this trend will continue.
Sentries have inconsistent wording with some modifiers. For example, Medium Talent in the Machinist tree and Multifaceted Guard both state the same thing but they have different effects. Is the intended effect supposed to be 1 additional Sentry placed at a time, or is it supposed to be 1 additional Sentry can exist at a time? Also, does "Additional Cast Speed for Sentry Skills" increase how often the Sentry uses its Skill, or how quickly we can place them?
GG-Lawren: For your first question, you've encountered a translation error with Multifaceted Guard, which is supposed to increase how many Sentries an individual skill can place by 1. We will correct this in a future update. For your second question, if you're referring to the Talent, it means the placement speed.
As a new player, I find the default 9 slots in the Trade House to be too small, and I find that needing to buy additional Trade House tabs every season to be excessive. This makes selling things difficult unless we vastly under price items, just to free up space without losing Flame Elementium. Are there any plans to raise the minimum amount of slots for F2P users to say, 18?
GG-Lawren: At the moment, there are no plans to add free slots to the Trade House, but we will consider it.
Currently, all rare gear drops appear as a Sword icon on the minimap, even though many of these drops are in fact not swords. Could we have different minimap icons for different base equipment types?
GG-Lawren: Indeed, currently there is no distinction between the minimap icons of dropped equipment. We will gradually refine this feature to improve player experience.
Rehan: Anger's Silent Roar Memory is not working at all, it does not activate when I trigger warcry skills. Is this a bug?
GG-Lawren: There is indeed a design flaw with this Memory, it is challenging to change. We will optimize the design in the next season.
Editor's Note: Xtra37 asked GG-Lawren to elaborate about this optimization, GG-Lawren confirmed that this item will be reworked next season to do something else.
It is difficult to check for items that have dropped with Ultimate Affixes, as they share the same displayed rarity when dropped as normal Tier 1 Affixes. Are you considering creating a special icon for dropped items that have an Ultimate Affix on them?
GG-Lawren: Presently no, but this is a very good idea and we will discuss it and see what we can do.
Xtra37: That is such a good idea, this needs to happen Lawren! Would save me so much time.
There seems to be quite a few Affix mods, Skill tags, and mechanics that are translated or explained poorly or inconsistently. Take +1 Empower Skill Level, there are no Skills with an Empower tag, they instead use the Activation tag. While translations have gotten better since Closed Beta Test 1, having such a big difference in something like that can be very confusing. Are you guys planning to review existing translations and change them?
GG-Lawren: Translation errors will be addressed in future updates.
Xtra37: Seeing another Closed Beta Test 1 vet is a rarity. Yea, everyone else, it used to be so much worse than it is right now. While translations definitely still needs some work, back in Closed Beta Test 1 there were more incorrect descriptions than correct ones, making a build was pure guesswork!
I have noticed that when targeting the Training Dummy in Town, Youga's Clone doesn't consume your Spell Burst Charges, and he instead uses his own. But while inside a map or boss encounter, he does use your Spell Burst Charges. Is this a bug?
Editor's Note: GG-Lawren misunderstood the question, and was unaware of this bug. Xtra37 explained the bug to Lawren and emphasized it was devastating to Youga players. GG-Lawren assured everyone he would bring this information to a developer as soon as possible.
How do you plan on fixing the economy? Prices are going completely nuts and many items take weeks of farming to be able to afford. Many build enabling items are in the price range of 5-12k Flame Elementium.
GG-Lawren: This season, we made no changes to the drop rates of Legendary items. Because our Crafting adjustments have made Legendary options more desirable, and because there are less players Trading, the prices of key items have significantly increased. We will make some adjustments later in the season to reduce the initial cost of crafting and encourage player engagement. Going forward, we intend to boost the appeal of crafting and make it more cost effective, and we will consider increasing the drop rates of key items. We will internally classify Legendary items as either necessities or luxuries going forward, and will ensure the supply of necessary Legendary items meets the demands of most players.
Editor's Note: GG-Lawren refers to the Stardust currency that has since been added when talking about reducing the initial cost of Crafting and encouraging player engagement. This currency drops from Watchers and can be exchanged for Equipment with high Plasticity and two Tier 1 Affixes on them.
Why do I feel like Timemark 8 is unrewarding? Even running good cards with compasses and 100% quantity / rarity, I find it hard to make back the investment put in. Is it a problem of loot or the economy?
GG-Lawren: The T8 profitability this Season is very good as far as we are aware. Still, you'll need to properly match Compasses and cards to maximize your farming returns.
Xtra37: I'm not entirely sure what this person's on about? Definitely does not mirror my experiences. I'm suspecting that they're just buying a whole bunch of Timemark 8 Beacons and are running juiced maps with no care. You're supposed to run T8 at the end of a Chaos Invasion cycle after you have several Trait and Chaos cards there to boost the rewards.
Do you guys consider all Skills / Hero Traits to be viable for Juiced Timemark 8 maps, or Uber Bosses at high difficulties? Torchlight Infinite is a new game, and having barriers that few builds can cross reduces player interest. I'm sure Season 1 had much more retention than Seasons 2 and 3 due to this poor balancing.
GG-Lawren: I'm very sorry, but with the current design, we cannot guarantee that all Skills can pass the highest difficulty bosses. Different Hero Traits require varying amounts of Flame Elementium to clear them. Balance adjustment is a long-term issue, and we will continue to work on it.
Xtra37: Balance isn't easy but it definitely could be a lot better. Fun fact, Thea's Incarnation of the God's Trait offers 1000 times more power than what Carino: Ranger of Glory offers. We did the math on that. She's that stupidly good and Ranger of Glory is that stupidly terrible, sorry Ranger of Glory mains. Definitely would love to see this gap between Hero Traits reduced going forward.
Editor's Note: GG-Lawren found this fun fact very amusing.
It seems many of the Heroes' alternative traits are very purple. Is there any specific reason behind that? Can we expect a purple Erika and Bing in the future?
GG-Lawren: This is probably a coincidence. We cannot disclose any information regarding Bing and Erika's alternative Hero Traits at this time.
Editor's Note: GG-Lawren really likes the color purple.
I hope the developers eventually add a customizable layout for using Skills, this would be helpful especially on mobile.
GG-Lawren: We have no plans to allow players to adjust skill layouts themselves at this time. We do however plan to introduce options in the future that will allow Mobile players to use some Active Skills automatically.
I find it bizarre that obtaining the final Avarice Code point takes so long, yet it does not allow you to reach another major end-node. So much work for so little payoff.
GG-Lawren: The final skill point serves as a small bonus for core players. Casual players do not need to unlock it, as it has minimal impact.
It was said before that loot-Pactspirits did not affect loot from Path of the Brave. Rumor has it that the Kong Pactspirit is increasing the amount of Fluorescent Memory Cards dropped from Path of the Brave, is this intentional?
GG-Lawren: Previous Drop Pactspirits do not have any affect on Path of the Brave because affixes like +XX% Drop Quantity cannot activate in Path of the Brave. Kong's Outer Ring modifier works because it instead causes dropped Fluorescent Memory Cards to double, and only Kong has any modifier like this.
Editor's Note: Xtra37 has asked about Kong's Path of the Brave interactions repeatedly, they have learned that while the interaction was not intended or designed, XD has no intentions of removing this interaction, much to Xtra37's disappointment and frustration.
When are you guys adding Co-op?
GG-Lawren: The multiplayer mode is in active development, it will be released in an upcoming season.
My character can instakill pretty much everything in Timemark 7 and can tank volleys of attacks from non-boss monsters here. But in Timemark 8, it seems pretty much anything can overwhelm your defenses. This makes "kill anything you see in an instant" the only viable way to survive. Is this power gap intended? Can we have content in between the two difficulties to bridge the gap?
GG-Lawren: The difficulty gap between Timemark 8 and Timemark 7 has indeed become more noticeable, particularly on the Survival front. In fact, Timemark 8 does not require that much damage output, so players may need to sacrifice some of their damage output to improve their Survival.
Xtra37: I don't know about that Lawren, I heavily disagree. In order to gain more defense, you must sacrifice offensive power. Enemies in Timemark 8 deal an absurd amount of damage but really don't have that much more HP, it's much more efficient to just build yourself as a glass cannon these days. I also agree that the gap between Timemark 7 and 8 is just way too wide right now.
Editor's Note: GG-Lawren has since stated that XD is planning to smoothen the progression of difficulty in a future update.
I'd like to ask as to why Fossils or most Legendary Memory Cards are not available in the Cube of Rapacity as possible rewards? Any plans to add these kinds of rewards to the Cube in the near future?
GG-Lawren: There are currently no plans to include these in the Cube of Rapacity's possible rewards.
Currently a fixed-fee taxation system in the Trade House exists to control inflation. However, many currently perceive it as a failure because costs are still high and climbing while the Tax takes more money out of our pockets. I believe this is one of the contributing factors to the skyrocketing inflation instead of existing to mitigate it. What are your thoughts on this?
GG-Lawren: We do not think that the Tax system has led to inflation, our data shows it has instead curbed it to an extent. Nonetheless, inflation remains a central issue this Season. We intend to explore optimization methods, improve Crafting's cost-effectiveness, and potentially raise the availability of key Legendary items.
One of the advantages of this game is its lightweight nature. Transitioning between differing builds used to be easy, and while I do believe that content-related issues can be resolved over time, I think that in this Season all of the strengths the game once leveraged are gone. Are the developers taking things seriously? Or do they not mind since some people are still playing?
GG-Lawren: We are taking the current situation seriously. We are tackling many different issues in future updates, and are constantly monitoring the game to keep track of problems.
Spell Burst's implementation was a massive buff for many non-channeling Spells. It worked like magic and brought back Illusion Youga from the grave! Can we expect this kind of solution for Channeling Skills?
GG-Lawren: Currently, there are no plans to alter Channeled Skills to this degree. For this season we focused on introducing Auto Guide and other support features to improve the experience of players who use Channeled Skills. We will continue to assess the strength of these skills, and balance adjustments may occur in future Seasons.
How do modifiers which provide additional damage against enemies in the "center of the area", like Focused Strike work? The Shapes of Skill areas drastically differ between each Skill.
GG-Lawren: These modifiers work on any Skill with the Area tag. Usually the area it refers to is the geometric center of the Skill's area shape. The exception to this is any Skill with a Fan shape, like Flame Slash's Steep Strike, where the area that these modifiers apply to is the Fan shape's origin point, so for Flame Slash's this would be the directly in front of the player.
When Lightning Shot hits a monster, it will Split. How does this Split mechanic work with Projectile Penetration? Also, does Lightning Shot's inability to Split against bosses mean that it doesn't get that damage increase?
GG-Lawren: The Split will occur after hitting an enemy when the projectile is no longer capable of penetrating. The on hit Lightning effect will always apply to enemies the Skill hits, regardless if the projectile has Split or not. Lightning Shot does not gain increased damage from splitting.
Xtra37: That's similar to how Jump works, where penetrations also occur first. If you have other questions about that type of thing my Skill Mechanics Maxroll guide can probably help you out.
Editor's Note: Xtra37 refers to the Skill Mechanics guide they authored.
Having your Pactspirit follow you around is a cool idea, and many Pactspirits look awesome. However, I noticed that Pactspirits that I've set to follow me have a collision volume, which can affect movement and combat positioning. Are there any plans to modify this aspect?
GG-Lawren: We are working on this aspect, but progress on it is currently not as smooth as we'd like. We will explore alternative solutions.
Is it possible to add new items into the list of things that Auto Loot can pickup?
GG-Lawren: There are no plans for this currently, but we will further explore and investigate the prospect of Loot Filter customization.
Are you guys considering a bigger chat limit for either World Chat or Clan Chat? I'm someone who loves helping out people in the World Chat and I'd love to be able to type a bit more!
GG-Lawren: The current chat restrictions for the World Channel are mainly to mitigate RMT messages spam. In the future, we will optimize Chat Channel limits to create a better environment for players to communicate in.
I'm a controller player, and the game experience provided by the controller accounts for 70% of my positive feedback. The remaining 30% is dissatisfaction, stemming from some interfaces lacking necessary controller-relative keys. These include Path of the Brave, Corrosion, the Void, Traits, Pacts, Boons, Outfits, the Trade House, Hero Ranking, Mail, Gear Crafting, the list goes on. All of these functions can only be navigated to with the Joystick, causing my hand to become inflamed. I hope you guys can improve the remaining 30% of my game experience.
GG-Lawren: Thanks for your feedback! We will continue to optimize the game's Controller experience.
Xtra37: Controller support only began last Season and I've heard very good things about it. Some hiccups are expected from new things but I'm confident here that Controller support will only get better.
When will Illusion Essence and Insight Essence have more items available to exchange them for? Some players have thousands of them, with nothing to spend them on.
GG-Lawren: We will gradually add more items that can be exchanged for these two currencies.
Can drop rates be adjusted specifically for the international server? By mid-season, few items are sold and the ones available are expensive. The international server has fewer players compared to the Chinese server, resulting in a lower relative output of items.
GG-Lawren: At present, we will not be adjusting the drop rates.
Editor's Note: Xtra37 and GG-Lawren would discuss this problem many times. XD would like to do this, but they do not yet have the technology that would allow them to make server-side balance changes. Because the Chinese and International versions of the game are the same, they cannot raise the drop rates on the International Server without also doing so on the Chinese Server, which does not need boosted drop rates as their population is quite large. XD is looking into developing the technology they would need to make server-side balance changes.
Only having Advanced Auto Loot be allowed to pick up Desire Beads is unfair, especially when the screen is absolutely overflowing with them in the late game. Collecting hundreds or thousands of these in one map is very unpleasant, please add this item to normal Auto Loot.
GG-Lawren: We will reconsider this and may implement a one-click similar item auto-loot feature.
Editor's Note: Xtra37 asked GG-Lawren to elaborate on this new feature. With this feature, manually collecting a currency will automatically collect all identical currencies that are nearby. XD would like to release this feature in Season 4.
Would it be possible to add a live-bidding feature to the Trade House? Also, can player-to-player trading be implemented?
GG-Lawren: We currently have no plans for player-to-player trading since it may encourage real-money trading (RMT) and complicate our efforts to monitor it.
Editor's Note: GG-Lawren did not initially understand the first part of this question. After Xtra37 explained it, both agreed that it was a weird idea.
I love the game, but can you guys zoom out or widen the screen more for Mobile? It's too cramped and small, especially at Timemark 8 or 7.
GG-Lawren: The primary concern is mobile device performance. Expanding the field of view would increase the number of on-screen monsters, resulting in higher battery usage for mobile devices. We will revisit this issue at another time.
Editor's Note: Xtra37 pointed out that increasing Mobile's field of view specifically for boss encounters would be very welcome, and that increasing the number of on-screen monsters would not be of concern for these encounters. GG-Lawren said he would forward the feedback to the dev team.
Hi, I'm an Erika using Ghost Blade Einherjar. Multistrike causes me to summon Sentries multiple times, thus causing some of my buffs to not apply to my Sentries. These include Darkchaser, Stab In The Back, and other things. Is it by design that Multistrike affects the number of Sentries summoned?
GG-Lawren: This is by design. Stab In The Back and similar modifiers are not designed to work with Sentries, we will assess whether these bonuses should be applicable to Sentry Skills in the future. Darkchaser's buff can work with Sentries, simply summon the Sentry and then reacquire the buff.
Can you allow different types of weapons to drop for each Hero in the Story Mode next season? Currently, each Hero only has access to a few weapon types as they progress through the Story. I feel like this would be a nice quality of life change to implement into the game.
GG-Lawren: To ensure a smooth experience for new players, we aim to minimize early choices that may cause confusion and hinder story progression, potentially detracting from their experience.
Editor's Note: Xtra37 and the entire Livestream audience agreed that this was a really bad idea.
Currently the campaign takes roughly a day or so to complete, are there any plans to make the time spent in the campaign portion of the game shorter? I think it would help a lot of the casual players get into the more exciting endgame.
GG-Lawren: We are evaluating the best approach to optimize this aspect of the experience.
Xtra37: While it would be nice to allow your second character within a season to skip the campaign, I'll have to disagree that the campaign itself takes too long. Your mark is wrong, there. Brand new casual players I think can get through the campaign in 8 hours or less, while experienced players get through in 4 or less.
Are there any plans to add more permanent Hero skins to the shop? And will there be themed cosmetics for events in the future? Like how the Chinese New Year event should have had the outfits that were shown. I had the expectation that these outfits would be for sale, I would have 100% bought it if this was sold, and would have considered throwing money at a banner.
GG-Lawren: We appreciate your feedback and will work on diversifying future outfits, offering players more options.
Editor's Notes: GG-Lawren and Xtra37 had a conversation on the subject of the potential development of the Chinese New Year skins for Thea and Erika. XD did not have enough time to make them, but did develop art for them. Xtra37 argued that going forward XD should probably not release character outfit art for outfits that will not exist, lest some players will be made disappointed.
Will this game come to consoles, especially Xbox?
GG-Lawren: Due to limited development resources, there are no plans to release the game for consoles at the moment.
I am currently playing this game on a tablet, however the UI for tablet is quite uncomfortable. Skill buttons are located too far from the corner so I have to extend my thumb or hold the tablet in a bizarre way to use my other fingers. Could you take a look at this? x
GG-Lawren: We will gradually improve the gaming experience on tablets.
What is involved in creating a new hero, from first idea to launch, within the dev team? I understand that there are many steps along the path, though the Heroes don't appear to be crazy complex. When designing a Hero, is it similar to designing a new Legendary equipment?
GG-Lawren: Designing a Hero is more complex than designing equipment, as the Hero represents a combat style and requires planning and considering from an overall perspective. We need to account for its interactions with all other Equipment and Hero Relics and Memories. As a result, designing Heroes becomes more difficult as more factors need to be considered.
Currently there are only 2 Melee Erosion Skills. These are Spiral Strike, which sucks at targeting enemies properly, and Wilt Spike. Will there be more options for Melee Erosion Skills in the upcoming season? Will there also be new Shadow Strike Skills?
GG-Lawren: At this time, we do not intend to introduce more Erosion Skills next Season. Nonetheless, we strive to incorporate new Skills with each Season's release.
Is there any consideration being put towards changing the current seasonal gameplay loop model? Every single season so far has involved killing marked monsters within a Map, finishing the Map, interacting with the Seasonal Mechanic after the Map Boss has died. Is the Seasonal gameplay loop being looked at, so that potentially a Season Mechanic involves players doing something during a map instead of after the map has been completed? Take Delirium, Ultimatum, and Scourge mechanics from Path of Exile for example. Second critique: Cube of Rapacity's Avarice Code Skill Tree has no long form progression, a player with 1500 maps completed and one with 10,000 maps completed have the same experience with this mechanic. With that in mind, is there going to be more design put forth towards long form progression during a Season?
GG-Lawren: Next Season's gameplay mechanic will offer Hunters a fresh experience. For your second question, we have been striving to balance this for both core and casual players. Our goal is to minimize the gap in strength and rewards between them, and we will continue to design content with this philosophy in the future.
While using Channeling Skills, there's often a need to use a buffing or utility Skill, stopping the player from Channeling. I would like if the Auto Guide feature wouldn't be stopped if I use another Skill.
GG-Lawren: These issues are currently being addressed.
We were told that more Crafting materials shall be provided to encourage players to get their gear by crafting. Does this mean we will get new types of Fossils? Or does this mean the Star Dust currency and more Gear with random, irrelevant Tier 1 affixes?
GG-Lawren: We have made adjustments to Crafting, including increasing the drop rate of Refined Fossils, adding the Star Dust currency which can be exchanged for item bases to take into Prototype Crafting. Stay tuned for further adjustments within future official announcements.
Do Talents affect Frost Core and Thunder Core Sentries? Do modifiers on your Equipment affect these Sentries too?
GG-Lawren: A Skill's Tag shows which Talents and Mods can affect that Skill.
I am having a lot of fun trying to figure out how to build my Hero for and learn the mechanics of Lord of the Void Sea: Event Tier 4. What if all boss fights were like this - you open it and it stays open until you beat it, but if you die the boss resets. Currently the game encourages you to build enough damage to quickly burn through the Bosses' phases, and dying to mechanics is no big deal since you have 6 lives. People feel discouraged to try bosses due to their keys being expensive, so may as well go through the path of least resistance ala building to be a Glass Cannon.
GG-Lawren: We plan to incorporate more mechanics into future boss fights, preventing players from relying solely on Attack power to instantly defeat bosses and bypass mechanics.
I feel like Embers after the consolidation and Crafting rework became even less needed than they were before, its made Ember-related loot modifiers from Trait Cards and compasses worthless. I'd like if we needed to use more Embers, for say, Prototype Crafting, without the Fuel requirement. How do the devs feel about Ember?
GG-Lawren: The current Ember consumption is low, we are thinking about ways to make Ember more useful and valuable.
Please consider spawning Zenoth the Lightless inside Path of the Brave after defeating the Boss of the final Stage, so that players could choose to either start another instance of Path of the Brave or go back to Town. If you can't do this, tell us why.
GG-Lawren: The absence of an option to immediately start another instance of Path of the Brave is intentional, as allowing this would make it even easier for Bots to automatically farm this activity.
I am constantly finding Caster Gear (Intelligence based) with melee/attack stats on them. Imperishable Touch often rolls with modifiers that grant increased Attack Speed or added damage to Attacks. Are these junk stats intentional?
GG-Lawren: Equipment is not strictly categorized based on Spell / Attack. For instance, if you prefer a high-intelligence Cold Attack build, the Equipment you mentioned could be used.
Editor's Note: Moon Strike and Will of Fight are some things that a "Caster Gear" based Attack build may consider using.
On the left Avarice Code Tree, the "20% chance for the Stage to have a Malice Judge" modifier is nowhere near 20% in Timemark 7 and lower. I'd think 5%. In Timemark 8 maps, the 20% chance feels accurate. Also, the "Party of Sin" modifier is nowhere near its advertised 10% chance, even in Timemark 8. Ran tons of maps and have only seen this activate once! Please review your weights for these occurrences, as I am certain what is displayed is incorrect. If there is a probability penalty for Timemark 7 or lower, please make that clear somewhere in the game.
GG-Lawren: We did not intentionally design it like that; if there are any issues, we would consider them to be bugs. We have tested this reported problem multiple times ourselves, but we have been unsuccessful in recreating the issue as you've reported it. This may be due to a large variance in individual experiences. As it appears that only a few players have reported this issue, we think widespread feedback would be present if it were a genuine problem.
Cat Girl Maid Moto Skin when???????
GG-Lawren: hahaha, maybe next year's April Fool's day.
Xtra37: The community will never let this go. Eventually, Maid Moto will happen.
Will Limited / Exclusive Pactspirits have a rerun? Or added to the Standard Boon in the future? FOMO!
GG-Lawren: We agree that the Seasonal Pets from previous should be more accessible, we will consider adding them at an appropriate time.
Will you develop the ability to transfer an account from one server to another? (Example: From Europe to Asia).
GG-Lawren: There are currently no plans for this, but we can discuss the feasibility.
Editor's Note: Xtra37 and GG-Lawren discussed this issue. It is a difficult technical problem for XD to solve, but they would like to solve it. Xtra37 finds it unfortunate that players who move between continents are subjugated to painfully high pings.
Hi, my question is about Erika's Cat Dive Trait. Its description states that it gives a chance to deal max Multistrike damage count at any point in the attack, and that it gives +1 Multistrike Count. I found that it does not give any Multistrike Count. Did I misunderstand something at some point, or is it really a problem? Please check it out, thank you!
GG-Lawren: With Cat Dive, Stalker increases the Maximum Multistrike Count, and raises the probability of reaching the maximum Multistrike count during a Multistrike, which means you can achieve higher damage with the same number of combo attacks, rather than increasing the number of combo attacks.
Xtra37: I think this is one of those things where you guys should probably retranslate the entire subject at some point. I understood none of that, Multistrikes make little sense to me and clearly I am not the only one.
Will the Cube of Rapacity and its Avarice Code stick around as a permanent part of the game next Season? I like it, simple but quite rewarding.
GG-Lawren: The Cube of Rapacity and Avarice Code will be part of upcoming seasons, similar to Dark Surge and Blacksail. The chances of the map being influenced by the Cube of Rapacity will be reduced, but players have some degree of control over this mechanic with Chaos Invasion Cards and Compasses. Talents from Avarice Code are subject to change.
One of Summon Grim Phantom's abilities is tagged as a Spell, so can it be affected by Spell Burst?
GG-Lawren: Summon Skills cannot trigger Spell Burst, nor can they establish a maximum Spell Burst Charge amount.
Youga: Spacetime Elapse is not fun. It offers nothing much to gameplay and there is nothing much we can do to utilize its Traits fully. What is the point of playing as this character, when its ability is so boring?
GG-Lawren: Youga: Spacetime Elapse is a very cool time-alchemist, able to manipulate fields of time in combat. Its current performance may not meet expectations, possibly due to the overall weakness of Damage Over Time. We will work on optimizing and adjusting its features.
Editor's Note: Xtra37 and GG-Lawren had a lengthy conversation about this question. They both agree that the purple stuff in the Hourglass is cool. Xtra37 argues that DoT itself isn't weak, but Elapse is, and that other Hero Traits can do a better job at supporting DoT builds.
Is it planned to merge the International version of the game's 3 Trade Houses with China's Trade Houses?
GG-Lawren: We have no plans to make such changes at this time.
Editor's Note: GG-Lawren explained that they cannot do this due to a major technical difficulty.
Please do a better job at clearly explaining what types of damage Support Skills and Traits apply to. Some modifiers state they grant "additional damage" but don't apply to Ailments, while some some suggest compatibility with DoT but do not affect DoT Ailments. In-game help said DoT is the skill effect of the skill, that's clear. But Ailments are awkward.
GG-Lawren: Your feedback is appreciated, we will gradually enhance this aspect of the description.
Xtra37: You guys really need to clean up the in-game help. Almost all of it is bad info at the moment, and hasn't been updated in a while. I still see some stuff in there that was last applicable from Closed Beta Test 2 in there!
Editor's Note: GG-Lawren acknowledged the in-game help translation issues, stating that XD will try to fix it.
So, recently I decided to try out Ring of Blades. I asked around and was told Projectile Speed made the Skill go faster. I was later told otherwise, and that this part of the skill was nerfed because of how absurd Projectile Speed scaling used to be. Would it be possible to undo the nerf done to Ring of Blades regarding how it is affected by Projectile Speed?
Editor's Note: Ring of Blades was nerfed to have a fixed hit rate of once every 0.2 seconds. Xtra37 explained this to GG-Lawren, who was unaware of this nerf, though was aware that Projectile Speed does make the Skill spin faster, just not that it does not amount to increased damage output.
GG-Lawren: Projectile Speed does affect this Skill. We are currently evaluating potential adjustments, with the goal of implementing changes to this Skill next Season.
Regarding Revival Tokens, have you considered lifting their usage restrictions, allowing them to be used at Levels 96-99?
GG-Lawren: We will revisit this matter later.
Only More From Us, at Maxroll
This is the first of many Crows Corner Q&A Recap articles from Maxroll. We intend to publish one of these articles every two weeks, and those will only cover two Crows Corner sessions at a time. If you haven't already, head over to our Discord and select the Torchlight Infinite role in #roles to stay up to date with our content development. Keep up the fight, Hunters!
