When you create a character in Path of Exile, you choose a league for that character to exist in. We expect and encourage most players to play in the default league, but other leagues exist for specific play styles or events.
Characters can only see and interact with other characters in the same league. In this way, each one is its own isolated economy. The default league is extremely large and hence acts as a general economy for all characters that were not created in a specialist league. All characters in a league have access to the same shared stash pages.
Competition
Each league has its own set of ladder rankings. We’ll be frequently creating short term leagues that last varying durations (a day, a weekend, a week, etc) with item rewards for the highest placed characters on the ladder at the end of the league. There are leagues that end once a specific goal has been met (a race to level 90, for example).
League competitions are another way for players to get rewarded for their play skill and to be competitive with other players as an alternative to PvP.
Completion
There are a few permanent long term leagues including the default “standard” and “hardcore” leagues. All other leagues have a duration value and a parent league. When the duration is over, all characters in that league become part of the parent league.
Whenever any league ends, its characters are all converted back to its parent league. This way, no one loses the character they were leveling (it just ends up in a less restricted economy/ladder than the one it was initially being played in).
Game Modes
Leagues are able to apply a different set of game rules to their players. For example, increased monster difficulty, world PvP, permadeath or various "Ironman" rules.
We have many plans for interesting game modifiers that leagues can apply, but one rule is clear – they must only make the game harder. Because characters transfer back to the parent league when a league ends, it is important that the character’s journey to its current status was equivalent or more difficult than gameplay in the parent league.
Paid Leagues
In addition, we plan to allow guilds or groups of players to pay for the creation of their own league with a choice of game rule modifiers. Only players invited by the people who paid for the league can create characters in these private leagues. This option helps cater towards any groups of players who want to play online together but don’t want their playgroup to have access to items traded from external players.
The following are examples of leagues that we are working on designing. Feedback and ideas are greatly appreciated - we're very keen to hear what you think on the forums.
Hardcore
Typically, “hardcore mode” in action RPGs involves permadeath. A character killed in this mode cannot be accessed any more. In Path of Exile, slain hardcore characters revert to the parent non-hardcore league. This system encourages non-hardcore players to try the hardcore game mode, while still permanently removing hardcore characters from the economy when they die.
Ironman
In Ironman, players are unable to trade with vendors or refill their flasks in town. Mana regeneration is disabled by default. Players are encouraged to band together and manage their resources in order to survive.
Cut-throat
The cut-throat leagues appeal to the niche of players who demand the most hardcore gaming experience possible. In this mode, all world areas are public, with full PvP enabled by default. Slain characters drop all their items upon death. This game mode can also be combined with Hardcore to create an even more unforgiving world.
Attrition
An attrition league is a short duration league that starts with a fixed number of players and eliminates the player with the lowest amount of experience at periodic intervals. For example, a 24 hour attrition league might start with 100 players and eliminate one player per 12 minutes after a four hour initial leveling period. Players would be able to see how close to elimination they are on an on-screen ladder display.
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I think with cut-throat to make it even more interesting... Have it to where there is no level cap.. you can just level and level. that is if you surivive ofcourse. that would be... The ultimate best EVER.
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I am so happy to get into beta now after I saw leagues system and read about Cut-throat league which sounds like it will give me most fun I ever had since D2.
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I wont be playing cut-throat im an old man now (gamer wise) and dont have the time or inclination to play that way. But its cool people have that option, and it is an option after all nobody is forcing you.
That aside I predict a few months after release cut-throat will only be populated by organised guilds who travel in packs. People playing solo wont ever bother wearing anything worthwhile to potentialy lose it, the only people who will are those in large groups. Not that theres anything wrong with this, but thats how it will be. The difference with D2 hardcore is in that game you could make private passworded games, you could to an extent limit your exposure to unfair odds in all manner of ways cause it was a lobby style online game. This cut-throat mode will not be like that though, it will be public areas where you have no control over who and what numbers of people enter your game. So tbf comparing it to hardcore in D2 is not helpful as its actually going to be much closer to a true MMO than diablo was. Honestly I dont see it being very popular, maybe a whiles down the line veterans will start dabbling in it just to pass the time for the challenge, but it will be the least played league type imo Last edited by RodHull on January 12, 2012 3:47 PM
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I have never played any Diablo game but I got extremely intrested in this game after talking to my friend about my ideal game..
"My dream is that there would be a game that is both a mmorpg (or similar) with roguelike hellish hardcore challenge to play and PVP." He then introduced me to this game and I was immediately amazed. Whenever I get to play this game (I've only waited 4 months for the beta key, so maybe not soon) I will definately and immediately go to Hardcore Cut-throat league and start learning the game with the hardest way possible :) Roguelikes and games that somewhat imitate them (like Demon/Dark Souls etc.) are imho the best games ever made. I used to play UO when I was younger and then I played other mmo:s but as time went by the games started to get easier and easier and more boring. Having a game with mmo social aspect added with hardcore "1 life"-spice is the recipe for creating a truly amazing, long lasting and hopefully an extremely influential experience that other game developers will hopefully start to imitate. Of course, not all people like this style of gameplay, which is why there is other leagues too, but having an option for every type of player is the way to go. Nowadays, most of the game companies create games for the most extremely "casual" players who play games maybe 3 minutes a day and who get annoyed if the game is in any manner challenging. It's nice to see that atleast some indie companies are trying to develop and evolve the game industry to another, more sensible, path. |
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My primary concern lies with how the skill gems work, if you die you're basically screwed in such a way I'm not sure you'll be able to recover or progress. Will be very interesting to see how it pans out. Skill gems don't drop particularly often enough for you to just go find one and start slaying again. If the fighting begins at a very low level before you have a chance to establish yourself it seems like it would be very hard to recover from a death without being able to use any abilities on anyone else after your first death.
Do you think this will put melee characters at an advantage? Simply spamming stats to do more damage might be very lucrative in this game type, such that if you were to fall in combat you could just go pound on some kid for his gems to get something for yourself. Also do you think this will lead to higher level characters going to pick on lower level characters to re-establish themselves, or do you think this game type will often exist only for very short spans of time? It seems like the best way to deal with this would just be to only play cut-throat hardcore, either deleting your character upon death or simply letting it default league itself and forgetting about it. PM me in forums if you need any help!
Malice's Newbie FaQ: http://tinyurl.com/72wrafn Last edited by Sarganym on January 18, 2012 9:07 PM
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delete
Last edited by gastoncho on February 12, 2012 8:50 PM
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Don't take this as whine to "niche" gameplay-style because I played my fair share of games with full loot (Argentum online), but it's not a matter of "If you are not hardcore enough do not play", because having full loot as the game is right would simply not work.
Gear is too important, and you would lose your skills upon death. Yes, some people will play it but if a faction gets overpowered, they might be left playing alone which defeats the purpose of this game. So what changes should be made to still have an uber-hardcore league working? Well, some games (Helbreath) have some rare items called sacrificial stones, which if you manage to get one are dropped instead of your equipment. Idea1: Have an item called sacrificial box, maybe like D2 "Horadic cube" that needs to be filled with 10 "Orbs of alchemy" or equivalent "Currency items" (maybe a conversion table displaying something like 1 O.A = 5 Blessed orbs) to start working. If the requirements are met the items inside your box are dropped instead of your loot. Idea2: Basic equipment and skill stones should be FREE, but skill stones used this way carry strong penaltys. Example: Having 2 of them equipped gives you severe moving speed reduction or elemental weakness. This way Mages would not be at such a disadvantage compared to Marauders. Idea3: Amount of items dropped be level dependent. Example, up to lvl 20 no items are dropped upon death, lvl 30: 25% random items dropped lvl 40+ all items lost unless you have a sacrificial box I think fine-tuning this ideas could make a pretty challenging game with full-pk. What do you think? |
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Helbreath didnt had full loot tho...2 random items droped on death if i remember good or zemstone of secrafice droped if u had it.(it wasnt that rare to get but it had charges 3/3, so if u had 3/3 and som1 killed u the one who survive get 2/3 zemstone, if u had 1/3 nothing at all droped from u, so most of ppl were using 1/3 zems to not give anything upon death to enemy:) Last edited by Farin on February 20, 2012 11:04 AM
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I guess the best is to have 2 leagues.
1 Full drop and the other just droping up to 3 equiped items and all of the inventory and maybe some exp penalty. But thats just my ranting about the subject. |
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It's a free game, and you can choose your league. End of story.
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