Diablo III has come, and some bitter cynics might say gone, but Torchlight II is snug still in its cocoon, growing legs, wings, axes, helmets, and all the other bits an action-RPG needs. But when will it come, and why is it taking so long? Runic president Travis Baldree has said the studio's being "deliberately vague" about release dates, and shared a little insight into what's going on.

"My hope is that if I give you an idea of what we're doing, what it takes to do it, and the scale of it, it will make it apparent why that is," Baldree said in a forum post (via Blue's News).

He explained, "Immediately after the Beta we spent a good bit of time doing the last big changes that we were comfortable doing"--a revamp of skills. The new system gives snazzy bonuses for every five points you put into a skill. The engineer's machinegun bot, for example, now gets ricocheting bullets, then piercing, and then they triple, so it's more fun than a simple damage boost.

The "most time consuming" piece to finish up, though, is polishing the acts. While the game can be played from start to finish, and items and events and boss battles and whatnot are in, Runic's giving the game's monsters more punch. The fiends are being reworked to compliment each other more, fit an area's theme better, provide more interesting battles, or what have you.

There's heaps more going on at Runic, so do read the full post if you're interested. Baldree says he'll try to offer such updates on a "more-or-less weekly basis."