March 21 Updates: Flask System Dev Diary/Screenshot of the Week

Unique potion flasks? Bought! ... oh wait, the game's free.

By the way, has the skill bound to the middle mouse button been introduced yet? It looks like it could be Multishot or Poison Arrow...

I think yes. You can see in the picture that there is middle mouse button function. It may be useful but how about if you don't have the button ( not so much people but some people might not have it on mouses ) not looking at that it is a good thing to be able to use more skills with your mouse.

I meant the skill that's currently bound to the middle mouse button, not the fact that you can bind skills to it. It's the green icon that shows three black arrows.

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eversorgod wrote:

closed beta wont be 1 month though lol

also yea belts = flask slots would be good, as for what you said the point of this system was to stop hoarding but this system encourages me to hoard flasks for different situations, careful planning will mean you have an answer to everything if you have a decent selection. this is mainly down to the flask mods and the fact that it seems there is no limit on inter changing

hm i don't think that this is such a great problem as you always have to drag and drop the flasks to your belt slots or play with an open inventory all the time. However if that turns out to be a problem you can simply say that only the flasks in your belt can have charges and as soon as you put them in your inventory they will loose their charges automatically... So everytime you change the flasks you have to fill them first...

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The difference is that you won't be spamming a hundred different potions. You'll probably have a few alternates that you'll use depending on the situation but that's not necessarily any different than all your other equipment. Plus with five different flasks, you can have a very broad range of effects to choose from at all times.

Is that how it works i thought you lose whatever charges that you may have for that flash if your take it off your belt? So that only flasks on your belt would be able to be used.

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Because our Flasks can only hold charges while they’re equipped in a character’s belt

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Zidjian wrote:

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Because our Flasks can only hold charges while they’re equipped in a character’s belt

problem solved :)

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Chris wrote:

We've changed the website to say that the beta starts in "mid 2011" rather than "early 2011".

The About and FAQ pages still say early 2011.

Edit: Press Release page as well

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nice to finally have the flask info on record .

ive always hated 'potions' in games , the flask sys puts a nice spin on recovery.

it takes me back to one of my favorite games
king's field *not quest* , it has refillable crystal flasks instead of potions . there were a limited number of crystal flasks .

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Oasisbhrnw wrote:

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Chris wrote:

We've changed the website to say that the beta starts in "mid 2011" rather than "early 2011".

The About and FAQ pages still say early 2011.

Edit: Press Release page as well

Yes the info is a little bit hidden... Did not even notice it until tpapp talked about it in this thread...

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tpapp157 wrote:

Why does the unique flask say "Minara's Vial" and "Crystal Vial"? I think you really only need the first one and you'll get the point across just fine. Saying that it's a crystal vial as well is just very redundant and only serves to add more text to an already wordy box.

Speaking of redundant, why are usage instructions written on every single flask? It's not like the player will need constant reminders. "Oh yeah, I need to right click on it to use it". I would suggest replacing all of that with a once and done bit of text in the very beginning. Have an NPC in the Shore Encampment say it, get it over with, and you never have to look at that same bit of text ever again.

I can't say I agree with you at all. I like the fact that the base item type is clearly shown. And it's not like the help text is getting in the way of anything. There might even be a help text toggle option implemented.

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tpapp157 wrote:

More to the point, I hope you realize that you absolutely can't push it farther back than this. The game needs to be up and running well before D3 if you want any chance of keeping a sizable community. If that means that you'll need to release with not quite as much content as you originally intended then that's how it has to be.

I'm not convinced that D3 will negatively impact the size of PoE's player base. It is even possible that it could bring extra players to PoE, by creating a massive wave of interest in the genre as a whole. Also PoE will be free, so it's not like people will have to choose to buy one or the other. Even if PoE got released tomorrow, it's not going to stop anyone from playing D3.
I think PoE will get most of it's players, at least at the beginning, through word of mouth. That's how I ended up here, someone posting about PoE on the forum of some other ARPG (can't remember where). The more people playing ARPGs, the more word of mouth.

If there is one thing that is CERTAIN to negatively impact the size of the player base, it is rushing out an unfinished game.