(Old league) Cut-throat testers wanted

EDIT: There's another one today (Saturday NZ time): http://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/28850

If you don't know what cut-throat mode is, please read this page.

Although it's not 100% confirmed, we're hoping to run a temporary cut-throat league this weekend (instead of the normal rush league).

We haven't tested this game mode enough and we need some help. I want to run a private testing event tomorrow (Thursday, NZ time) during the NZ workday. I'm guessing say 1pm. This is about 6pm Pacific time.

This testing league will be password protected and will probably be very rough. It may not be any fun the first time. We'll find out how it goes, will make some changes, then will run one again a few hours later if needed. This will continue until the weekend, when we hopefully have the game mode compelling enough for public access :)

Please post in this thread if you're interested in helping us test this mode. We'd prefer testers with a good post history of solid feedback. What happens in the testing league is secret and shouldn't be discussed publicly. It may require some tweaks before we get it right, so we want to avoid posts of "well I tried cut-throat and it was lame".

If you're selected, we'll PM you some details before the event.

Please don't be offended if we don't select you to help. There may be a lot of candidates and we don't quite know how many people we'll need yet.

UPDATE:

It looks like we're still (tentatively) on for two hours from now. We have some bugs to fix and then a bit of testing, followed by deploying 0.9.8e which will contain the changes.

I will post the league password in this thread so that I don't have to send out 150 PMs. Please understand that this is just an early test of cut-throat and will probably be terrible the first time. The fun depends a lot on things like PvP damage multipliers (which we may not get right initially). Thanks for your patience :)

UPDATE2:

- This is a separate short-duration league that has its own stash (as usual). At the end of the event, characters and stashed items will be moved to Default.
- There's a PvP damage multiplier on levels below 15 because players start with a lot more life than they do damage. This multiplier will be adjusted substantially based on feedback from this event and others.
- Players are hostile by default to players who are not in their party.
- You can ctrl+click on the entrance to an area to use the Instance Management screen to manually enter any other player's instance of an area.
- The maximum party size is still 6.
- Cut-throat instances can hold a maximum of 12 players. This means that a full party is not safe because another party can invade them.
- This test is not a hardcore league. When you die, you lose the normal experience penalty for your difficulty plus 10% of your current level. You also drop all inventory and equipped items. Your flasks and equipped skill gems are not dropped.
- If you were killed by another player, your lost experience is awarded to them.
- If you attempt to abruptly leave the game in a non-town instance, you have to wait 5 seconds and are unable to move or use flasks.
- The grace period of invulnerability upon entering an area is 10 seconds rather than 5 seconds. This should start once the player is mostly done loading.
- Changing area or going through portals also has a five second delay where you are on the loading screen and are vulnerable to attacks. This is a bug.

You'll definitely want to store spare copies of items in your stash. When you die and lose your gear (but retain skill gems), you'll need some more items to go and try to find/steal more gear.

This game mode is designed to make you lose your items. Please don't play it if that's going to upset you. It's meant to be hectic and you shouldn't expect to keep anything for long. The stash is your friend.

UPDATE3:

0.9.8e has been deployed. We're going to create the league and will give out the password soon.

The first league will last for one hour.

UPDATE4:

It's ready now. I've put the password to the league at the end of the notes above (so that you read them all, please do!)

"

Dreggon wrote:

I have an important (serious business!) question about this league. Will you drop ALL items on death (inventory + equipped) or just inventory? (doesn't include stash, I don't think) If it drops equipped items, that includes skill gems, which is problematic since skill gems are the only way to use skills.

This is a very good point. We'll get back to you.

...

"

Chris wrote:

"

Dreggon wrote:

I have an important (serious business!) question about this league. Will you drop ALL items on death (inventory + equipped) or just inventory? (doesn't include stash, I don't think) If it drops equipped items, that includes skill gems, which is problematic since skill gems are the only way to use skills.

This is a very good point. We'll get back to you.

After correcting this oversight, it works as follows:

All equipped items are dropped (not including Inventory/Stash/Relics). The gems will pop out into your inventory if there is space, otherwise they'll fall to the ground. We recommend leaving some inventory space open to catch your gems.

Note that the above can (and will) change based on your feedback tomorrow and this coming weekend.

Edit: For now, Flasks will not be dropped on death either.

EDIT2: We've changed our mind on the above stuff. Now inventory items are dropped as well. You still keep your equipped skill gems and your flasks though.

"

visiON123 wrote:

Will this not just lead to macros being developed for unequipping everything?

Yes, and we'll have to solve this. Not by the first test this weekend though.

"

Chris wrote:

"

visiON123 wrote:

Will this not just lead to macros being developed for unequipping everything?

Yes, and we'll have to solve this. Not by the first test this weekend though.

Okay, NEW RULES:

You drop everything in your inventory and all equipped items.
You do not drop equipped skill gems (they are placed in your inventory on death). You do not lose your flasks. You do not lose items from your stashes.

This is going to be a bloodbath.

"

Il_Problem wrote:

How many testers do you want/need anyway?
And do we keep the lag grace when you enter an area, is it extended?
what do we do to stop people just going and killing low level characters?

I'm unsure how many testers we'll need. Not everyone will be around at the right time so it's good to have some spares.

The grace period is now 10 seconds (rather than 5).

High level people will have less incentive to kill low level ones because the initial leagues will be quite short in duration. We'll have to sort out a better solution for longer ones.

"

overpowdered wrote:

Question:
Alt+F4 = ????

Either you oneshot someone or he will press Alt+F4 before dying right now.
Makes the league kind of pointless.

There's a countdown before you can leave cut-throat instances. If they alt-f4 or disconnect, the'll be left in the world for a while.

"

Amarena wrote:

BTW, already giving some feedback... what if you DC and your character is left in the middle of a swarm? I already smell the tears of HC players.

This is a mode that will mercilessly kill you and take all your items in situations like that. Only people willing to have that happen often should play.

UPDATE:

It looks like we're still (tentatively) on for two hours from now. We have some bugs to fix and then a bit of testing, followed by deploying 0.9.8e which will contain the changes.

I will post the league password in this thread so that I don't have to send out 150 PMs. Please understand that this is just an early test of cut-throat and will probably be terrible the first time. The fun depends a lot on things like PvP damage multipliers (which we may not get right initially). Thanks for your patience :)

"

Sanctum wrote:

100% interested. I stopped playing for a bit waiting for cuthroat to be implemented, so this would be GREAT.

aww saw this too late anyone gonna stream?

We'd prefer people don't steam today's event, it's just a test and is pretty secretive.