1801

Sorry for the noob question, but if you haven’t played the original TQ, is it better to make a character and get it to the level cap (if there is one) first or just install both at once?

1802

Always install both, always run the expansion executable, always make a new character from within the expansion. Otherwise you’d miss out on all the goodies that were added to the original game!

1803

Install the expansion right away. Once you start playing you’ll realise how silly the thought of hitting the level cap first really is and you’ll have a laugh at yourself. :)

1804

Thanks! Will get both installed then.

1805

Install both at once. If you’re starting a new character, you’ll have to play through the original game anyway.

1806

I had to install both simply because the exp lets you turn off shadows. Having them on any setting in the original gave me BSODs.

1807

I’m playing a Harbinger (Dream/Warfare) and I have to ask,

Do the upper tiers in the Onslaught tree function even if you aren’t actually using Onslaught? I’m using Psionic Touch as my primary attack, and I’d love to be able to combine that with Ardor or Ignore pain.

1808

nope, anything that’s connected to onslaught must have it activated to worked. I tried using that with my assassin combo. I went with using the rogue’s primary attack power instead.

1809

In general, anything that’s attached to an active skill needs the active skill to be used/activated in order to have its effect. If the first skill in a branch is a passive skill, though (denoted by being a circle), they are the ones that are always active no matter what.

1810

Grats! I got mine after two tries. I read that some people try like gadzillions of times and they cant get it, so its a pretty random thing.

1811

Aaargh! Will someone finally tell me what this turtle secret is?

1812

I wont write it down explicitly in case it is considered a spoiler. But, those who are interested, check this out…

http://vnboards.ign.com/titan_quest_general_board/b23058/101978904/p1/

1813

http://youtube.com/watch?v=er9Fgx1fPeE

I haven’t tried it yet, turn down the volume. The second song is ok, first sucks.

edit: Damn, you beat me too it.

1814

Sorry, I just happened to log onto the board at the right time I guess, hehe

I got the turtle on my lvl 39 Spellbreaker (spirit-warfare combo). Seeing the Templar in action (nice vid btw), I cant wait to see how my Diviner (dream-spirit combo) would do on this, but I suspect it will be easier cos dream mastery absolutely rocks.

1815

Thanks for the spoilers! Finally this is cleared up… I was so worried that I missed something on my first run through Normal.

1816

Does anyone know what the level limit is now in the expansion? It used to be 65 in the original right? Thanks in advance!

1817

I believe it was increased by 10, so that would mean 75. I can’t say for sure, since my highest character is only in the 50’s.

1818

So what are the better melee fighter mastery combos here? From what I heard a warfare+hunter combo is a bit ineffective until the higher levels, and hunter+rogue is a little too frail. Would warfare+rogue be the way to go, or is it better to mix warfare with one of the elementalist masteries to get a permanent offtank pet? I’m also open to other caster combos as long as they aren’t too gimped.

1819

There was a Titan Quest dev chat the other day hosted by Xfire:

There’s a chat transcript up:
http://www.xfire.com/cms/xf_titanquest_immortal_throne_transcript/

I’ll highlight some stuff:

Question: PhrasEEruption: - Is RPG the only genre Iron Lore will focus on, or can we expect other kinds of games?

[IL] Brian Sullivan: Answer: Over time we hope to be working on other genres. I spent 6 years working on RTS games (AoE1 and 2), and hope to get back to RTS sooner rather than later. But we do love RPGs and it has been a blast working on TQ.

Question: Lord Rick: With MMORPGs in even greater demand than ever, has Iron Lore considered the possibilities of developing an MMO, with the classic, fast paces gameplay style of the Titan Quest series?

[IL] Brian Sullivan: Answer: We do think about making the jump to MMOs, possibly even with the TQ franchise. But it is a big jump, and one we would have to make with our publisher. At this time we do not have solid plans, but I do think there is a great need for an MMOActionRPG.

Question: Wormhole-MP: Any ideas or hopes for this game to go on Console like PS3 and use the PS3 cell processor to increase the speed of the game?

[IL] Brian Sullivan: Answer: We did talk to THQ about moving TQ to a next gen console and there was a fair amount of interest, but at this point, I think it most likely we will reserve going to console for any future products in the franchise.

Question: jrodkiller: what will you do to stop the spread of hackers/botters in the game?

[IL] Brian Sullivan: Answer: The best way to stop hackers is to go to a server based on-line game. Unfortunately, even thought we wanted to do that with TQ, it was way out of scope for our first game. I think any game we do in the future will have to have server based security (or with the console, we get it for free since they have a closed architecture.)

Question: HeatDrive: Is there a reason why a multiplayer system, how you have a central server that finds games for you, wasn’t included in the game? Even if you didn’t add it to the core, why didn’t you add it to the expansion when you had the chance?

[IL] Chooch [Chris, from the QA team]: Answer: We added a number of multiplayer lobby enhancements to Immortal Throne to help you better find games, but the cost of a centralized server that stores characters (ie: battle.net) is an issue of money. If you know someone with a few million dollars hanging around we’d be glad to work on an implementation! ;)

Question: potte: Do you have any other games then TQ exp. coming up in the next few years?

[IL] SFrison: Answer: Of course! We’re not quite at the stage where we’re willing to talk about details yet, but we’re working on a new project right now that we’re pretty excited about.
The transcript formatting was a bit wonky, esp. with 6 people sometimes answering the same question in succession so I cleaned it up a bit for the highlights above.

1820

I have been playing around with Warfare/Dream (Harbinger) and Rogue/Spirit (Warlock). I also had a War/Earth hybrid my first time around with the game.

Spirit is a fairly decent secondary tree for melee characters. You get a life drain, PB AoE debuff, Death Ward, blood pact, and that awesome fear/fumble AoE. The problem is that you get very little dex and no strength from the mastery.

Earth sort of sucks. You’ve got the Ring of Fire skill, but the active energy cost on that is fairly prohibitive. The weapon buff is decent, I suppose, but probably not worth taking the mastery for. I don’t like the main defensive buff (stone form?), as it immobilizes you.

Dream is excellent. You get high strength from it, and the skills complement melee VERY well. You’ve got psionic touch, the teleportation attack, and some awesome passive buffs to your defense and physical attacks. Then you have some pretty good auras (I’m using Tranquility at level 22 and it friggin’ ROCKS) and a bizarrely overpowered Tier 1 AoE spell.