Stress Test Weekend impressions/suggestions

I've played the beta up through the baleful skill gem.

This is a fantastic game. I love the graphics engine, the music, the sound effects, and the addictive item hunt. I enjoy the more drawn out fights where monsters rarely die in one hit. I like the FF7/FF10 inspired leveling system as well; you are just getting bigger numbers, you're getting cool perks. Your currency system is innovative; all of these different orbs and gems are much more useful and interesting than gold. If you anyone liked Diablo 2, then they'll love this game.

But here are my suggestions/criticisms:

- There absolutely needs to be a minimap that shows up in a small portion of the screen. The current map takes up a huge chunk of the screen and really takes away from the overall look of the game. The map is going to be on constantly, so it has to look less intrusive.

- Inventory management. Because most normal and magic items are worth about the same, I found myself picking pretty much every 1x3 or 2x2 item and returning to town every few minutes (particularly in act 2). Either your backpack should be made bigger, the items themselves should be smaller, or the loot should drop less frequently. Preferably most of the items should have so little impact on your overall wealth that you don't even bother with them (like quivers in Diablo 2).

- Act 2 level progression. Act 2 consists of fewer levels that are gigantic. Because of this, my character leveled up much faster than the monsters. I found myself in zones 5 levels below my intended level. When coupled with a focus that adds 1 level to my fireball skill gem, I was constantly scoring 1 hit kills. Either there needs to be a greater monster level gap between act 2 zones or experience should diminish significantly when you attack monsters more than 2 levels below you.

- Trade. At the very least, there needs to be a designated trade channel. Currently, everything is crammed in the global chat. A nice feature would be a formalized market place. If you just have the trade channel, people will probably spam the same channel over and over just to make 1 trade. There should be some sort of in-game store where a users list the items they're interested in and/or what they want in exchange (sort of like a Path of Exile Ebay). For example, I have a rare chestpiece and would like 6 orbs of chance. There could also be some flexibility like (I will accept a lvl x blue gem or y scrolls of wisdom).

I look forward to a trade system other than throwing items on the ground. Perhaps players wouldn't even have to physically meet to conduct a trade.

- Co-op loot. Diablo 3 and Torchlight 2 will have a personalized loot system for co-op. People feel discouraged from playing with strangers when they worry that one of them is going to pick up all of their loot. A set of loot for each individual player would resolve that issue.

You all have an awesome game so far and I eagerly look forward to the release version. I believe certain revisions could really make Path of Exile the best RPG of all time.

"

Gattsu wrote:

- Act 2 level progression. Act 2 consists of fewer levels that are gigantic. Because of this, my character leveled up much faster than the monsters. I found myself in zones 5 levels below my intended level. When coupled with a focus that adds 1 level to my fireball skill gem, I was constantly scoring 1 hit kills. Either there needs to be a greater monster level gap between act 2 zones or experience should diminish significantly when you attack monsters more than 2 levels below you.

I concur with this, for a very long time monster scaling both level wise and difficulty wise just don't scale with the player that he/she has been wandering throughout Wraeclast. Therefore, you end up bored just one-shooting almost every white monsters on your path.

Both levels of monsters and their toughness should be increased at least about 25% more for each difficulty.

I am going to piggy back a bit on this post even though I should be enjoying the stress test weekend.

-Minimap or at least the option of a minimap is a necessity especially if your goal is to have micro transactions that are based around the way things look in the game.

-I think the inventory is fine. Yes it is a pain but if you increase the amount people will sell then I think there will be an imbalance in the amount of things you have from selling items... i.e. 80 scrolls of wisdom in 1 act of the game.

-I thought act 2 was okay I just hope you will have a boss at the end of it at some point. I feel like I am cheating by just putting that key in.

-A trade screen is very important if you want players to focus on the exchange of items. Although I can see a big reason why you would want to leave it out.

-I am 100% against co-op loot. Co-op look takes out the urgency of grabbing items. This urgency is one of the major driving forces for us to get excited and essentially emotionally invested in the game.

-I did notice some glitchiness with double attack skill. My attack speed was really high and would sometimes, maybe once in 300 kills, would skip the animation.

-I would like to see a second weapon slot or at least an easy way to switch gear. I would mainly like to do this because the molten shield guys hurt. But this is really a minor thing. Having too weapon slots might make a character overpowered and could actually be a negative thing. No bolding here because I am somewhat unsure where I stand on this.

-Diversity in quest rewards. I would like to see a quest in each act that gives you a random rare item based on your skill point allocation OR you could make them unidentified rares and keep up with the selection option. Say the vendor gives you an option between an unidentified belt, armor, helm etc and have the base determined by character level

-Quest rewards for gems is somewhat broken. After doing a quest I would expect some type of worthy payment. The gems that were offered after doing a ruthless quest were all gems I already had or were not that powerful. They should scale with your level or at least offer 1-2 higher level gems.

To address some of the issues brought up:

- the minimap is being reworked.
- inventory space and management are purposefully designed that way: You are not supposed to pick up everything and hoard. You should be picky about what you take with you and even about what you identify.
- there is a trade system in the works, afaik.
- Act II will feature a boss, it's just not in yet.
- The level progression is far from final. Act III is being worked on (and nearly finished, iirc).
- Co-Op looting will likely not be in. The devs want a cut-throat feel when playing, and designated loot doesn't work for that.

For myself personally, the lack of coop loot is a major flaw. I simply will NOT group with any one because a lot of random strangers, simply put, are greedy bastards.

this is not a perfect utopia where every one shares and works as a team together (although this does happen in groups of friends)

if there is one thing I have learnt from my years play warcraft is that:

anonymity + random loot drops = unreasonable greedy douchebags

Well, somethings should be ruthless, not all things could be given to every player exactly at the same ratio, which also reminds me the real world we've been living in.
So is the loot system.

How about you only stick with the people you know them better ?

"

BrecMadak wrote:

Well, somethings should be ruthless, not all things could be given to every player exactly at the same ratio, which also reminds me the real world we've been living in.
So is the loot system.

How about you only stick with the people you know them better ?

Of course the world is unfair. If you get hit with an arrow or fireball, you'd likely suffer a permanent injury and become crippled for life; your fighting days would be over. Even if you die in hardcore, you can still make a new character or have the ability to play some other game; it's a huge penalty but does not even come close to reflecting death in real life. Real world cruelty cannot and should not be replicated in a computer game.

I'm definitely not playing co-op with any stranger if I think he's going to take all the loot. High quality item drops are hard enough to get. In Diablo 2, the average battle.net game was 1.2 players, meaning that people hardly played together, which I don't think is the end goal of this game. I don't see how unregulated griefing is not going to significantly reduce co-op.

Individual drops have been discussed a lot over the last year or so, especially with the it's introduction onto D3.

To be honest the Pro's out weigh the Con's, by a long way.

Any game that promotes grouping/team play and then promotes negative group play will encounter a few issues. Mainly no one will like to group with strangers.

The one reason I hear from forum goers and mods is they want the game to be a bit more cut throat.But there is a fine line between global drops being a fun cut-throat game mechanic and pure frustrating/griefing.

I'm kind of split down the middle on the cut-throat style of looting.

Having never had personalized looting in my 13 years with this genre I don't really require it to enjoy the game.

However, I do agree that this discourages group play. In D2 for example, the people who got the loot from most boss encounters were the people with faster computers and internet connections. The Diablo boss fight in Act 4 is a prime example. I used to get about 2-3 seconds of lag when he died back in the day and by the time the spike was over the loot was gone. So I never even seen what dropped let alone have a chance to pick it up.

I don't know if that's an issue here or not since I have one of the best computers that can be had now as well as cable internet and I haven't noticed any lag (other than server lag here and there because of testing, or w/e).

But I also haven't grouped yet out of habit. I usually only group with friends for these very reasons. So I don't know how group play is affected and the game isn't even finished yet.

(Plus I'm used hardcore and public hardcore almost always led to certain death from cheaters with hacks)

I'd like to piggy back here as well after the weekend with some feedback.

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You should be able to...

- ...arrange items in the sell window, without having to take them out.
- ...put an item to the sell window with one click.
- ...zoom in and out.
- ...auto arrange your inventory (eg. with a button).
- ...configure the chat window (eg. resize, dim the text, etc.).

- Auto stacking similar items doesn't always work (eg. sometimes you end up with the same type of scroll in more than one stack unintentionally).
- The map should show the portals summoned by the players.
- The map is barely useable sometimes because it blends completely into the background (eg. in the cave areas).
- In the cave areas sometimes, when you are in a tight corridor, you don't see the monsters simply because they are covered by the wall. It is hard to target them. Maybe you should change the opacity of those walls, at least when the player is close to them.

- Judging by Act 1, it seemed too easy to progress, a little bit more challange wouldn't hurt. I felt overpowered against the monsters too fast.