Tales From an Alpha Tester Part 2

I think the devs know what they're doing from what i've seen anyway. I trust them.

Man... I have one word for you. Epic!

I checked the forum a quicky at school today in hopes for something new and interresting. and when I saw this thread I was so eager to get home and read it!

Thanks a lot!

Thank you for the information.
IN life - I am really envy person ,but this time i know that you got the alpha key because you deserve it ,good luck man.

Good that you shared this information with us, it was really interesting reading all of this.

I really would like to know whats the gameplay like with Marauder, if you could please test him for a little bit and post your opinion here.

Thanks, everyone, for the congratulations. And now for a long post.

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thedarkwolf333 wrote:

Here's a question. How's the variety on item affixes?

I have no idea how many affixes there are. A whole lot.

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Zidjian wrote:

I don't think this was mentioned before, but Chris with the passive skill tree are there any groups of skills that when they have points allocated into the give an addition benefit like chain passives? Or should we assume that each passive skill is independent even if it works well with other skills?

Currently, no. Each node is independent. Again, the passive tree will change from where it is now. We've been discussing ways to restructure and streamline it in the alpha forums.

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Zidjian wrote:

Oh and Tpapp just asking how much time have you already dropped in the game?

Haha. You probably shouldn't ask me that. I really have no idea but easily about 20 hours.

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Bulkathos wrote:

what league do you play now,did you try pvp

I just play in the normal league. Hardcore was added in 0.8.0 and there's no structured pvp yet.

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Vandro wrote:

- What character are you going to play after the wipe?
- How is the overlay map? We have seen a very early draft, did it improve from that screenshot?
- How is the drop distribution of items at the moment, do they drop all the time like in Titan Quest or..?
- Any comments on the quests, do they enhance the gameplay?

- I have no idea. Half of me wants to replay the Duelist to see how the changes in 0.8.1 affected him. The other half wants to play one of the other classes. I'll probably decide as I'm installing the update.
- Not much has changed about the overlay map since it was shown but I know that improving it is definitely on the list of things to do.
- Items drop from a minority of monsters but there are still plenty that do drop.
- Unfortunately, a lot of the in game text is temporary for now. Chris tells me they have a member of the team working on it so hopefully we'll see that improve soon.

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Covert wrote:

Have you died yet?

What was the hardest boss/mobs you have fought?

Of course I've died plenty of times. The difficulty ramps up noticeably between the difficulty levels. I'm working my way through the second difficulty now but I hear rumors from other testers that the higher difficulties can be crazy. Difficulty is always something that's being balanced.

Some of the harder fights I've had are when I accidentally barge into a room that has ~30 enemies, maybe a unique random monster, and a handful of monsters with affixes. The Duelist I've built can't handle hordes very well so times like those I need to use a doorway or other terrain to keep from being overrun.

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eversorgod wrote:

i have a question about leap slam though if its possible to answer. in diablo 2 you can float as far as you can see and it looks like you sprout a hot air balloon out your arse. How does it feel and look here and is there restrictions such as walls and distance. also does it re correct trajectory if the target has moved

There are definitely walls and obstacles that are too tall or too far to jump over. Normally, the river I mentioned is too wide to jump across but occasionally you get lucky and it narrows down just enough to get across. Of course, you can always just use the bridge that's only a few seconds jog away but that's beside the point. Leap Slam has a good weight to it. The distances jumped are easily something you could expect a good track & field jumper to handle (though maybe not in full armor).



In regards to the passive tree, no one plans on giving up any of the options and versatility of the current iteration. Restructuring does not mean dumbing down. It just means reorganizing to make it more intuitive so the first time you see it you don't need to spend half an hour figuring it out.

Great post tpapp. I can say that I share his opinions mostly.

One thing to note, PoE alpha is more balanced and less buggy than games like Mythos. The game runs smooth @ 24" 1920x1080 with Highest settings and 4x AA (didn't need more AA because it was more than enough). I should also mention tpapp's system is definetely better than mine.

I think only thing tpapp left is music and it's amazing. While I was in caverns, I suddenly stopped and listened to the perfect music. So atmopsheric and thematic. Generally musics don't take the D1 route and other clones'. They have unique feel to them.

And the only thing Tpapp mentioned wrong was overlay is improved from what we've seen before now but it will still be improved upon.

BTW ignite, freeze, chill effects; lightning damage on monsters look amazing just like the game's amazing art and graphics. On a side note, there are very diverse amazing environments (many of them haven't been revealed yet) and you'll never become bored because of the game's look.

Also, I took my critics about the red-line back :)

You can ask me questions too as long as they are related to revealed information.

Edit: I think I can comment about two acts' length (consider the fact that quests and generally both acts are not finished). As long as you don't rush and if you try to explore beautifully rendered environments, two acts will offer you play time around 12 hours. This will only grow with fleshed out quests and environments.

Thanks guys for sharing with us "less fortunate" ones. :)

So, permaximum. Would you like to tell us a little about which classes you've played so far and how you played them?

Also, how are the sound effects in general?

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permaximum wrote:

Edit: I think I can comment about two acts' length (consider the fact that quests and generally both acts are not finished). As long as you don't rush and if you try to explore beautifully rendered environments, two acts will offer you play time around 12 hours. This will only grow with fleshed out quests and environments.

Are the acts comparable in size to Diablo 2?

So as some of you might know i'm an alpha tester too. I think that tpapp and permaximum mentioned all the important things already so that there is barely anything left for me to say... So i just tell you something about the characters i played so far:

The first character i played was a marauder focused on two-handed weapons and area of effect skills which was a lot of fun. I played that character to level 28 and the second difficulty level.

My second character was a ranger focused on bows, the new charges system which was mentioned in the dev diary "development of an alpha patch" and some unnanounced skills in combination with multiple projectiles. I played that character to level 32 and the 3rd difficulty level.

I also tried the witch and the duelist but only to level 5 and 6 or something like that. In the next build i'll play the duelist some more i think.

Overall i have to say that the game is awesome and definetly on the right "path"!

Please feel free to ask everything that comes to your mind. But as tpapp already said we aren't allowed to answer everything.

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topic - sounds good .

for me music is as important as enjoyable combat .

looking forward to it .