Direct Connection

[VoidEngineer]

Runic, why don't you allow direct connections between players outside of a LAN scenario? Your servers won't be online forever and it's going to eventually cripple your excellent game. Also, this would insulate people from any infrastructure problems you guys are having, such as the current lag issues that just put the brakes on my game a minute ago.

[MageThis]

Probably because of DRM. Direct connect would mean pirated versions could MP.

[VoidEngineer]

Torchlight 2 is available for download on about a million torrent sites right now. They use Tunngle/Hamachi for play across the Internet. If they did it for piracy reasons (which would be pretty dumb imo) then their plan has utterly failed.

[MageThis]

Any plan would fail but that doesn't mean they can't abate piracy even a teeny, tiny bit..

[VoidEngineer]

At the cost of screwing over their customers and crippling their game? I think that's just poor decision making. Also, the ease with which you can pirate this game clearly shows that their efforts didn't abate any piracy. It was cracked within a day of release. Their logic baffles me.

[MageThis]

At best a miniscule number of their customers feel "screwed over" by not being able to direct connect MP. Soooo, why would they bother to put any effort into the code?

[VoidEngineer]

I already said why: when their servers go, so goes the game unless you use third party VPN tools/run LAN games. As a programmer, I know how trivial it is to add this kind of functionality (and it IS trivial). What I don't know is why they chose not to.

[xnate56]

no drm unless u want another titanic like d3.

[MageThis]

Originally posted by BASTID!h4x3r:

I already said why: when their servers go, so goes the game unless you use third party VPN tools/run LAN games. As a programmer, I know how trivial it is to add this kind of functionality (and it IS trivial). What I don't know is why they chose not to.

Write the code and submit it to Runic.

[VoidEngineer]

Originally posted by MageThis:

Write the code and submit it to Runic.

MageThis, why exactly are you arguing with me? If you disagree with something I've said, state what it is and why. I really have no interest in a back and forth with you when you don't seem to have anything useful to say. If you're just trolling and trying to pick a fight, then go away.

[Candesco]

I guess that runic's server will be online for a little while. It ain't EA, who shut down the service after a year of the game it's release. Also, the first 2 diablo game lived pretty long and you could play them for quite some time after their release. Same goes with the first starcraft. Heck, blizzard north even came with patches several years after the initial release.
Considering that runic is formed from former blizzard north keypeople i think TL2 will at least be save for the next couple of years.
Why they don't allow direct connection? I guess that it has to made how the game is being developed. You see, originally torchlight was gonna be a MMO, but they have changed their mind and came instead with 2 games with sp and mp. Still, you can see that it used to be a MMO. I don't think that it's about piracy, otherwise you would have activationstuff and other garbage.
But if you really want to know why they don't allow it i would contact them directly, instead of making here a thread. Runic doesn't come here. Maybe once and a while, but you find them more often at their own site. runicgames.com

[Cric]

So, it happended faster than some people thought!

[Jaxx0rr]

so basically they want you to buy the next torchlight and that is why theres no option to write an ip in the game? but there is no torchlight 3 as of 2019 ... !? and now I want to play on lan and cannot ... :(

[general_windu512]

You do realise how old this topic is right ? Runic as a studio does not exist anymore. And the new publisher who owns the rights now apparently doesn't feel obligated to improve the pc version . I honestly hoped with the release of the switch version they would also fix a few things for the pc version but ... apparently not.

Originally posted by zeek:

All online functions appear to still be available. You can still create new accounts and log in. I could be wrong but you should also have no issues creating and playing multiplayer games.

Requesting a new password doesn't work anymore in case you ever forget yours (two of my friends had that problem recently). The server is sadly not up to date because no one is maintaining it anymore , so eventually playing online won't be possible anymore either sadly.

[HiFive]

Perhaps you would find this thread helpful for making a new password:

https://steamcommunity.com/app/200710/discussions/0/1660069015249179709/#c1660069015249505684

[VoidEngineer]

If only someone had foreseen this problem and asked for solutions back when Runic existed! I still can't believe I had people arguing with me about this.