Developer Questions and Answers

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Shimaran wrote:

I have a question that's been on my mind for quite some time now... :
Will there be one day any new end-game content or mechanic that could mitigate the lack of significant character progression past a certain level ? Excepted new levels and the (very) occasional gear update, I feel there should be at least one more way of making our characters better once we get around level 80 and beyond. (maybe a new kind of specialization ?)

Never thought about it before but this would be awesome, but a higher level, like 90+. I'm not a serious player and it's not that trivial to get to 80. But 90+? or 95+. That would give people more reason to stick to their characters and get them all they way up there. I got to 85 on one and stopped leveling it because it was fine where it was and I didn't really have more reason to continue. (as a casual player) But if there was a higher tier of things that you could do with your character at 90+ or 95+ then I would def- consider continuing to level him.

This is more of an open letter than direct questions.

As others have stated, I would really like to see a more diverse endgame. Maps are great and all but it's not something I particularly look forward to repeating level after level. Perhaps when you hit the 80s, you have access to something more profitable both in experience and items.

And I've always wondered...why is the risk vs reward on hardcore leagues so...well...non-existent. It seems backwards. If you face harder foes, you should be well rewarded. Your thinking might be, "well if hardcore players find a lot of good gear, the game will have a tough time killing them". While I can see the truth in that, that doesn't really promote a good atmosphere for hardcore players. Players, default or hardcore, play the game to find nice items and to receive a challenge. No one, or at least a lot of people, don't want things handed to them. However, being rewarded fairly for beating difficult content...I think that's what everyone wants.

Lastly, rework or remove item rarity/quality. In the current state of the game, if you don't run at ~75% item rarity or higher, you're going to have a bad time. I want to play the game and feel a sense of accomplishment, not beat into the ground because I have to play a certain way or play with certain people to be able to get decent item drops.

Okay maybe that was more of a rant than an open letter but I want this game to do well. This game has a lot of areas to improve in but I'm confident that GGG can make it happen.

why are there no crossbows ? we have bows and daggers and stuff. but no crossbows :(

also. will you be making any staff mtx's ? i think its time they got some love

I don't expect any of these to get answered so if you choose to read this, any/all questions being answered is great.

For R&D (or whatever you'd call it), how far ahead do you try to stay regarding "Research" over development of actual content?
Just curious to see if GGG puts a lot of ideas on a whiteboard and then, whenever some free time begins to crop up, you select what makes the most sense to start developing or putting hard man-hours into for development.



Another question (which I doubt you can answer):

Is GGG trying to get the game to a point where they no longer have to take long looks at older content to try and make new content fit in? Or will they ever try to do that?
What I consider a very good example of this would be introducing newer tiers of affixes for everything (with Act 4!.. Kappa), essentially reintroducing some of the rebalanced stuff that is considered legacy.

I do not feel as though Path of Exile provides very many incentives to play as a team in the vast majority of the game. Are there any actions, planned or considered, to make cooperation more attractive than lone wolfing everything?

Also, Aura slaves with culling aren't exactly teamwork in my eyes.

When will we have Guild achievements and Guild events ? Have been standing "coming/starting soon for a long time now under guild at your website. http://www.pathofexile.com/guild/profile/11185

Will there be something new/changes for guilds i the near furture.? ( Bosses/events you only can do in a guildparty and more option for guildcontrol eks. logfile. how long time ppl have been offline etc etc)

I know that you've mentioned a rework in the current trade system. Would it solve the issue of where I message someone about something on their account but they are in an opposite time zone and I would never be on when they are on? Such as tabs set aside for trading, anything in these tabs gets a buyout or you'd have to make an offer and then they'd later have to accept or respond to said offer but eventually when a price was settled I could put my currency into this trade system and then when they get on they could accept it. Then when I get on next I would be able to grab it out of said trade system.

Like a market guy in town and I find an item I want. It says it's 3ex, I give 3ex to the market guy. Then later the seller accepts the transaction. I then could come on the next day and pick up my item from said market guy.

I have come across situations a few times where someone is selling the EXACT thing I need but they aren't on so I message their account and then it turns out that they live in a time zone that doesn't match up well with my own. SO through days of trying to get on when this guy is on, I never meet him and the item ends up being sold.

I would love this type of trading system. You could log on to loads of trade offers accept them all and then the other person could get their stuff later.

On top of that, lets say I make an offer to someone and then I decided that I wanted to go for something else, I'd need to be able to back out of the previous trade offer. SO long as the other guy hadn't accepted it yet I would still be able to do that. Once he did accept it though, that's it.

WOULD LOVE

Edit: I wouldn't mind if the seller had a set b/o already then I could put what he wanted into the trade system and it traded automatically. Then if the item just said offer it could go into the negotiating a price part. But yeah. And to add to make this less annoying, you can't add a message to any items being sold. Or else it'd turn into a trade channel house which would be horrible.

Essentially Poe.trade in game and automatic

Are you guys willing to consider having any map base drop as any map level? It has been suggested in the past to at least make it so a map's current level is it's new maximum level (meaning a Gorge map can drop from 66-74).

This would open up a lot of variations (some 800 possible combinations if you were to allow any base-any level) and would certainly help break the monotony of running maps. Zana's missions indiciates you guys may already have the technology to implement something like this.

Do you plan hosting any 1 week, 2 week, 1 month or simular event before expansion (aka act 4)?

Are you aware that most players leave new leagues after 1 month (more or less) and events mentioned in question above would bring a part of them back?

Why do you shit on feedback players give u? (EXAMPLE: in past years or so two most liked races were 1 hour endless ledge and descent champions, and u removed those events completly)

In terms of resources, what does it take for GGG to make a race that gives no points, for example fun races like exiles everywhere or cutthroat?, and if possible why dont u make alot more side events that could (but dont have to) be for prices (points/whatever) ? (PVP is not an event, its waste of time and resource for 99.95% of population)

What are your thoughts on expiriance items in longer races (leagues) ? Are u aware that these items are completly wrong in 1 week time span events in so many ways ?

Why dont u hire more people for your balance/test team (I'm sure there are many volunteers out there, and is it truly more important to keep new content so secret and safe than to have balanced and bug free content)?

Why are demigods sellable? (why not account bound something that by its nature is account bound)

Are u aware when u allow people to earn money from legit scams (crossleague trading where u delete negative feedback to prevent possible "witchunts"), and on the other hand remove hybrid rolls in master crafting "for economy", you look like complete and utter douchebags without any credibility at all? (this is not an attack, i'm not trying to be rude, i'm pointing the facts)

Any plans/news/thoughts (if you dont have any thats fine 2, just let us know if possible):
- trading system
- maps
- why are u keeping death penalty in standard leagues/events?

Any remorse/regret/shame that u allowed
- CI TRAIN in onslaught (u didnt touch life 4 months, disgrace and shame in my eyes)
- u take pride how hardcore this game is, and yet u fail to give players deserved credit (Baker reached 100 first in hardcore league yet he is not rank 1, HvR reached first 100 in standard yet he is not rank 1...is it so hard to fix that? (its symbolic, Medal of Honor is symbolic too..)
- burning misecration abuse in nemesis for summoner builds, u knew that and allowed it, what were u thinking?
- u lost 50% of invasion players in first week alone, who tested those bosses?, how? ... i dont even...

Level design question:

You guys do very well with randomized levels which is great. Do you plan on working on more set-piece level design in which the levels / environments are dynamic in some significant way (as opposed to randomized static environments)?

Examples of dynamic levels include deteriorating paths/bridges/walls. Anything exciting like explosions and collapsing structures.

Or even without 'dynamism', interesting examples of level design where positioning your character or destroying structures resolves a boss fight or puzzle.

Existing things that come to mind are the unique maps like Death and Taxes or the one with the various rooms of totem bosses.

Thank you!