Very impressed.

Just wanted to tell the team that I'm very impressed with what I see so far. I'm a die-hard fan of Diablo-style games and have been infected with I-quit-but-I-will-come-back-10-more-times Diablo 2 disease, because there are very few games out there that can compete. Torchlight was nice, but not online (2nd one will be). This game, however, might definitely quench my thirst.

I have one question, though, and I apologize if I missed the answer somewhere on the website:

This game will be free-to-play, but the company must make money one way or another.

In FAQ, #6 says:

What does Path of Exile cost to play?
Path of Exile is 100% free to play, for everyone, forever. Our website will allow the purchase of many in-game perks and aesthetic upgrades, but all of these are completely optional, and players can have a complete, fulfilling gaming experience without spending a penny.

Now, if you get a second, I'd like this question to be answered by the team.... how true is that statement? You see... I've played many games where companies state the exact same thing, but in the end, the rich players are incredibly overpowered. What can you tell me about the purchasable item system in this game? Will someone who has lots of money to spend be be overpowered and have a huge advantage of non-paying players?

I should also add that #7 says:

7. I still don't understand how it's free to play - what's the catch?
There is no catch at all, once you download the client you are free to play for as long as you like, with no charge. The purchasable perks do not convey any gameplay benefit, but help you create a unique look for your character and its fighting style.

But I'm just wondering about the whole fighting style thing... will it make them more powerful? Or just the animation? Not sure what it meant exactly.

http://www.pathofexile.com/about/

"

To fund the development and maintenance costs of the project, we plan to let players purchase aesthetic perks for their characters such as:

Additional character animations (for example, taunts or PvP victory animations)
Dyes and item skins
Alternate spell effects
Social pets

We will also offer some optional paid services such as:

Inter-realm/inter-account character transfers
Character renaming

You’ll notice nothing in the list above confers an actual gameplay advantage.

Different animations do not enhance the damage or anything.

I still want that crow pet that is picking the eyes of the corpses I kill!

Oh, thank you very much for that, DoDoBird -- that answered by question in its entirety. :)

I think GGG plans to offer custom leagues too, for cash. I guess it means I could, for example, buy ticket for custom league and made it so that:

1. drop rates are 100% higher
2. there's much more champion and rare monsters
3. league lasts for 7 days and allows no more than 3 hours per day gameplay

Custom leagues would not affect default leagues at all. Nothing within custom league is transferable to other leagues, and all vanishes once league ends. Sort of a temporal private server within PoE realm :o)

I been recruiting people on Diablo 2 and so far lot of people seem to enjoy the game

"

tormenta wrote:

I think GGG plans to offer custom leagues too, for cash. I guess it means I could, for example, buy ticket for custom league and made it so that:

1. drop rates are 100% higher

No, I don't see this ever happening. It has been stated that leagues will only ever make the game harder.

"

tormenta wrote:

Custom leagues would not affect default leagues at all. Nothing within custom league is transferable to other leagues, and all vanishes once league ends. Sort of a temporal private server within PoE realm :o)

I'm fairly certain that this is also wrong. Characters and their gear, and also the contents of the stash would be transferred over to the default league when the temporary league ends, regardless of if it was private or not.

Malice is correct, onve the temporary or custom league finishes the character and all their equipped items as well as stashed items transfer to the parent softcore league.

However stashed items do not always transfer over e.g. when a hardcore character dies the character and their equipped items trasfer to the softcore league but the stashed items stay in the hardcore stash.

"

Covert wrote:

However stashed items do not always transfer over e.g. when a hardcore character dies the character and their equipped items trasfer to the softcore league but the stashed items stay in the hardcore stash.

Now that IS hardcore...still i suppose it better than absolute perma death with no transfer!