My opinion of PoE.

I love the passive skill tree, probably one of my favorite features in the game, also love the currency system, no need for gold since you don't need to buy anything anything anyway. At least I don't, everything I have i found/made myself.

As for the graphics I personally think they're amazing as well.

My current complaint is elemental damage seems way to strong. Especially those stupid Skelton mages. Those piss me off

Opinions like the OP's are important to the game. Once the game is purely f2p your first impressions count for a lot.

I'm strongly of the opinion that the game needs a much better tutorial. The current starter system is excellent for people that know what skill gems are, how to attack things, and what a wisdom shard is. But to people that are literally brand new to the game, and haven't done hours of research, the first impression of the game is a giant brick wall.

Also for new players: check beta manifesto before giving advice to GGG.

"

Asmodeous666 wrote:

Graphics. The graphics to my eye "date" to around 2004. The game is a step up on the classic D2 but pales against titan quest of 2006.

All I can say is that I disagree with you. These graphics are the best I've ever seen *for this type of game*. They're obviously not trying to do Skyrim graphics, but for an isometric ARPG they're the shit.

Titan Quest is the one that looks dated IMO, though those graphics are still really good. But no, this game's graphics should be compared against D3 and Starcraft 2 and Grim Dawn and Torchlight 2.

"

Skill map. It's overally complicated. I get the concept of any skill but I feel I need to attend a course at school to learn PoE's skill system.

I know. Isn't it great? :D

It's not? Well, I suppose that's a matter of perspective. Sure, it doesn't need to be THIS complex, but I'm sure not going to complain about the fact that it is. Almost an endless variety of possible builds.

"

Perspective. It's too high in that your looking down on your character at the wrong angle. I find the persepective angle of D2/Titan quest easier on the eye and easier to see what is going on.

Eh, it just needs to let us zoom out a little further, and we need transparency in our light radius so we can see the enemies that are attacking us.

The angle itself ... I don't see why anyone would actually bitch about that. "Wrong angle." O.o It's fine.

"

Barter system. I get what GGG are trying to do here. But money is a corner stone of every form of society mankind dares dream up. I get that GGG wants to be different from other games out there, but this is one rule of these sorts of games that shouldn't be broken imho.

I'm glad GGG disagrees with you. There are many reasons that I won't even go into here.

"

Bits of scrolls. So you trade for bits of this and that. 5 of these makes this, 20 of that makes another. These things aren't important so why do we need to micro manage them? It's the fallout of the barter system and proves why mankind embraces currency.

Dude, their gold was taken away. This is all they have. Managing shit is part of the fun of the game.

"

The ugly.

Clever. Good, bad, ugly, huh? LOL

"

Online only game play. This is the main reason why I won't be playing PoE on release. D3 has shown to me why I won't be able to play PoE. I get 350-600ms on D3 and already players are being hacked and the chat channel is being spammed by people trying to sell some rare for 50 million gold.

Then don't play it? :(

D3 is not PoE. The servers are completey different. PoE has to be online-only because of the things that are stored on their servers. D3 didn't have to be. Also, PoE doesn't charge you $60 so have to play online. It's free.

This game isn't being hacked. Yeah, sometimes people try to sell things but it's really not so bad in this game and, well, there isn't gold, so you don't have that worry here. :)

"

The latency for myself is similar on PoE. The fact that I am likely to face similar grief of high pings, hacking and exploits from other players and one day, logging on and finding everything gone is the deal breaker for me.

The only exploit I can think of is Flicker Strike. That's going to get a nerf, but as it is I wouldn't recommend trying to play PvP (which we can't yet do anyway). Logging on and finding everything gone is only going to happen at the end of Closed beta, and it HAS to happen. Maybe don't play until August then?

As for hacks, I haven't seen a single one yet here.

"

I wish GGG well with PoE, I really do. But with an online game only it is clearly not for me. I could play the beta further and get a better opinion and see more of the game world. Truely, I'd like to. But I can't see the point in doing so with a game that I clearly cannot play.

You do have a point in that if you can't play it, you can't. If you don't have a good enough connection then well, that legitimately sucks.

But the game's design hinges on online play, and as it's free I think that's just the way it is, as unfortunate as that is for players like you who don't have a good enough Internet connection.

"

Prior to the D3 fiasco, I would have embraced PoE a bit more eagerly. But there is an old saying that says once bitten, twice shy.

Come on though, man. Don't blame PoE for the mistakes of Blizzard.

This actually annoys me quite a bit. So Blizzard fucking something up is GGG's fault? No. GGG is trying to do it right, and if they fail, then THEY fail, but damn, let them try to succeed!

If all the disgruntled D3 players gave up on other games just because of how badly ActiBliz bit them in the ass, that would be tragic indeed.

"

TheRabbit303 wrote:

Opinions like the OP's are important to the game. Once the game is purely f2p your first impressions count for a lot.

I'm strongly of the opinion that the game needs a much better tutorial. The current starter system is excellent for people that know what skill gems are, how to attack things, and what a wisdom shard is. But to people that are literally brand new to the game, and haven't done hours of research, the first impression of the game is a giant brick wall.

True. Some (optional) system should be implemented that teaches new players the basics of the game.

I kind of agree that it needs a tutorial, at least an in game user manual. But since this is closed beta I don't really see a need yet. New players should be in the forums because we're here to test. If you just want to play and not test then you really should wait for the "official release"

Your characters will be wiped anyway so you shouldn't play like these will be permanent characters.

But like the other above poster said, this kind of feedback is needed.

"

rustypup wrote:

Have you read much on the game?

Just curious.

Also curious how one would go about "buying" a F2P product.

No I didn't read much about the game apart from the basics. I thought that I would try the game without reading too much about it and form my own opinions. I read enough to realise that it is a potential game of interest to myself.

As to "buying", ok wrong use of terminology. "commit to play" then as in forming an interest in, learning and devoting time to play. "buying" is simple way to put it but in this case, incorrect. My bad there.

"

MaxTheLimit wrote:

Yeah TQ looks pretty lame when compared to PoE WHEN MAXED. It is nice that POE scales to lower end machines, but the graphics do start to really lose their pop as you scale downward the graphics options. When you max everything out I would say it's definitely on par with what I would expect from a modern game.

OP - what are you playing at for display settings?

Erm, the default settings. I glanced at them and noted the resolution was maxed but I didn't pay attention to the other settings too much. My system is reasonable, dual core intel, GTX560 nvidia 1 gig video, but the ram is low at 4 gigs. I'll play with the settings and see if their is an improvement.

"

VideoGeemer wrote:

This game isn't being hacked. Yeah, sometimes people try to sell things but it's really not so bad in this game and, well, there isn't gold, so you don't have that worry here. :)

Afaik, D3 beta wasn't hacked either. The hackers waited for the release before they started. No idea what hacks are in future for D3 either.

"

You do have a point in that if you can't play it, you can't. If you don't have a good enough connection then well, that legitimately sucks.

But the game's design hinges on online play, and as it's free I think that's just the way it is, as unfortunate as that is for players like you who don't have a good enough Internet connection.

Thats a fault of where I live. I have the best internet connection I can purchase here in Perth west australia. (ADSL2+. The beta download speed was only 800-900 kilobytes per second. The whole 3.8 gig download took about 45 minutes.
It's lame by international standards, but pretty elite by aust standards. I had hoped that PoE being a NZ developed game, the servers would be in aust/nz, but clearly by the pings, it's hosted overseas somewhere in america or similar judging by the ping.

"

Come on though, man. Don't blame PoE for the mistakes of Blizzard.

This actually annoys me quite a bit. So Blizzard fucking something up is GGG's fault? No. GGG is trying to do it right, and if they fail, then THEY fail, but damn, let them try to succeed!

Not blaming GGG for something blizzard has done. All blizzard has done is open my eyes to reality. I haven't attempted to play an online game since early D2. back then my internet was dial up/early ADSL and 25 kilobytes per second download. I hoped that my faster internet connection would help with D3, but it didn't. It's nothing to do with download speeds, it's all about latency when it comes to online gaming.

because of my remote location, Im basically unable to play online real time games. Not my fault or blizzards or GGG's. Its reality.

A couple of things here

1) Online only

This is an absolute necessity for a free-to-play game. There is no way you can have both f2p and an online option, because having a balanced microtransaction system relies on being able to show off your cospetic upgrades to other players, envy and vanity etc.

I'm going to say it now: If online-only is a deal-breaker to you then I am afraid there is nothing that could or would ever be changed by the developers to make the game offline. It's like asking to have an offline option on an MMO.
Having separate, purchasable, offline version of the game is also not going to happen since including all the game architecture in the local code presents terrible security issues to the online version of the game (becomes so much easier to find any weaknesses, or simulate events). See Diablo 2 for this. This is also one of the main reasons D3 was moved to online-only.

2) The barter system

I agree that this is a very weak and confusing system in the first few hours of the game. Particularly when you are just starting and are unfamiliar with sale recipes. I disagree that a high-volume gold currency is the solution, or even a good idea. These orbs simulate what tends to happen in many online games later in life anyway, when the main currency devalues and wide-utility equipment or consumables become standard currency. There is a developer diary that explains it quite well here.

"

SpudOfDoom wrote:

A couple of things here

1) Online only

This is an absolute necessity for a free-to-play game. There is no way you can have both f2p and an online option, because having a balanced microtransaction system relies on being able to show off your cospetic upgrades to other players, envy and vanity etc.

I'm going to say it now: If online-only is a deal-breaker to you then I am afraid there is nothing that could or would ever be changed by the developers to make the game offline. It's like asking to have an offline option on an MMO.
Having separate, purchasable, offline version of the game is also not going to happen since including all the game architecture in the local code presents terrible security issues to the online version of the game (becomes so much easier to find any weaknesses, or simulate events). See Diablo 2 for this. This is also one of the main reasons D3 was moved to online-only.

Then I would argue as to why PoE is a f2p game. Let's put it another way. If PoE was in a box on a shelf at my local game shop with a $80 aus price tag and offered off line play, I'd buy it. I like the game from what I have seen enough to warrant spending money on it.
I'd also argue for two of my freinds who love playing D2/ titan quest. Neither of them have permanent internet access for gaming and therefore can't "commit to play" PoE. neither of them have any issues paying for a game either. One of the problems facing many west australians who fly in/out for work. They earn bucket loads of money and no internet access in a work camp during their off time.

"

2) The barter system

I agree that this is a very weak and confusing system in the first few hours of the game. Particularly when you are just starting and are unfamiliar with sale recipes. I disagree that a high-volume gold currency is the solution, or even a good idea. These orbs simulate what tends to happen in many online games later in life anyway, when the main currency devalues and wide-utility equipment or consumables become standard currency. There is a developer diary that explains it quite well here.

I think you may have mis understood the point I am trying to make. Likely, I didn't convey it properly so I'll try again.

PoE is an ARPG. role playing game. PoE has a semblence of a society within it as you have traders prepared to "trade" with you. The world that GGG are protraying in PoE is a world that does not have currency but a barter system which historically predated currency in reality, where people traded a sack of grain for a chicken and so forth. Barter systems where cumbersome hence why currency was invented to make trade easier.

My point is why portray the game world with a barter system? It's a game world "flavour" aspect that might sound cool, but adds complication for the player. I ask why make something so minor in the game, complicated? The game has other complicated apsects such as the skills
tree and skill gems. If there are too many complications in the game, then it's overly daunting for the noobs like me and likely to be turned off playing it at all.

First few hours impression are the most important are they not?