Torchlight Frontiers Gets Greasy, Reworks Progression

Any dev blog that starts uses "greasing the wheels" to describe the changes it's making has to be good, right? That's how the latest missive from Echtra Games concerning Torchlight Frontiers goes, with the dev team talking about the new direction for progression, built from the feedback it received from alpha tests from last year.

But why would you have to grease the wheels? Because of friction, duh.

"During Closed Alpha we discovered a good deal of friction generated between the Skill Point costs for armor and weapon levels and the costs for new combat skills. We’re greasing the wheels with a Frontier gear progression that governs your ability to wear better equipment."

Basically, players had to decide between acquiring new combat skills or the ability to equip better armor, and that rubbed them the wrong way. And where you have bad rubbing, you typically need some grease, and it comes in the form of a traditional leveling bar for each Frontier. As you level your Frontier, you'll be able to equip gear of the same level, thus decoupling it from the acquisition of new skills.

You can read about the new system in the dev blog on the Torchlight Frontiers site. Just try not to get your hands too greasy.