I just read this bit of news:
http://worthplaying.com/article/2011/2/10/news/79761/
A bit non-specific about what improvements, however i'm very glad to hear about it being free to hook up with buddies. This is exactly the way that I used to love playing Diablo 2 (i know that some of the D2 team left Blizzard and developed Torchlight), and truth be told Torchlight 1 was really just Diablo 2 with prettier graphics - and all the better for it!