Q&A with the Developers!

What do you think about the current status of SRS? How did the increased duration, the faster cast speed, the dps nerf, and the new AI worked out?
I have read many complaints about the new AI ( wrote one myself ). Are you planning to change anything around this skill?

Thank you for the Q&A. Just a question that have been bothering me the last 4.5k hours of playtime..

I know fishing is real and is hidden deep in the game. I tried to gather a lot of hints and farmed like crazy for the rod or Krillson but he was nowhere to be found. Can fishing me made more mainstream or at least the hints and chances be improved and where hard work can pay off?

I am very curious if there will be new masters introduced into the 4th act. Also, I would love to have access to the 4th act decorations! o^_^o
I would like to make a comment regarding the MTX armor. Everything looks like armor. It would be nice to see something less armor-y and more wizard-like. Wizard robes would be nice in a variety of styles from formal to a wilderness wizard. Also I need that pilgrim hat that I keep seeing that was before my time. Will it never be offered again?
I found an Albino Rhoa Feather during the Talisman League. I thought fishing was myth propagated by trolls... until I found the feather. What do I do with this feather. If you can't say outright then please at least give some sort of cryptic hint!

Now that you've introduced lockstep, can you speak about any improvements to the game you're planning for 2016? Trade and performance improvements would sum up my wishlist.

HI there GGG! I really love to keep up to date and compete in the "ladder race" at the start of any new season. My question is do you have a plan to increase the longevity of this race by increasing the exp required from 97-100 by 3 times or more? This will make the race seem more of a marathon than a sprint and get a more dedicated winner over time rather than the guy with no job or 2 week vacation.
someone getting 100 within 2 weeks is so boring, seriously. Anyone remember the old d2 classic ladders? much better IMO.

When will u reveal rest of ascendancy clases, items, skills, etc.. ??

Will you lower Blasphemy's reservation at least to 30% ??
Because now its near to useles, it cost too much for just automation of 1 or 2 curses

Will u remove chance to flee gem ??
Because its 1000% useles

Will u make something with CH:EX ratio to stabilisate/lower it or will u let it go hight to oblivion???
Because right now NO new players are able to buy single piece of better armour/unique/etc..

If i corrupt enchanted (ascendancy enchanting) item, can we get 2 implicit mods ??

Will u change cost of master's craft mods from EX to chaos ??
Because right now with more than 60ch to 1EX ratio its TOOO expensive for hughe part of players, and the ratio is still increasing ..

Will u remove ALL legacy items ??
Because noone from newbies will never be comparable to people with acces to this legacy gear (NO acces because they are TOO expensive and we, new players will never have enought currency to buy it with the still increasing ch:EX ratio)

Can u give us possibility to buy unidentifed rare items with signature mod on them from masters??
Because crafting it to usable rare (augmentation,regal,EX EX EX, and then 90% to vendor it because it has useles mods) is impossible for people without currency so when buying alredy rare item with 4+ mods it will be a lot better/cheaper/usefull

What kind of global data storage / pub sub system does the gameserver use? Redis? Memcache? An In-house tool? Also, is this the same system used for the global item storage as well?

As we can see here:
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/131533/postmortem_blizzards_diablo_ii.php

"

'Almost all of Diablo II's in-game and cinematic art was constructed and rendered in 3D Studio Max, while textures and 2D interface elements were created primarily with Photoshop. The programmers wrote in C and some C++, using Visual Studio and SourceSafe for version control.'

Diablo started development around 1996 or so, so that means they were using Visual Studio 97 / 6.0. I'm not sure if it was Visual C++ or Basic, but I imagine it was Visual C++.

Out of curiosity from this old screenshot here, was Visual Studio used in the development process at all, and for which portions of the game? (for example, In-game windows, inventory, tooltips).


Also, when opening up the inventory or game panels the games screen is shifted to the opposite direction. This is apparent in Diablo and Diablo 2, and it happens in POE as well. Was this a legacy/nostalgic 'feature' you guys wanted to bring down from Diablo? This doesn't happen when opening up your stash either (which is the same in Diablo).

How are the item loot labels forcefully positioned as well? When items are generated on the server do they each have their own x,y,z coordinates and are moved/pushed out of the way from other items (via a loop on each time the items drop) so they don't overlap each other? Or is it all graphical and the items just float in the screen and don't overlap? I would think it would be hard-coded as you would need to check for the character's position when clicking to loot it so they have to be range, but I'm just so curious how that's done on the server.


What language / format do you use for IPC or client to server communication? Binary? BSON? Custom?

What do you think of these suggested changes to melee splash: https://www.reddit.com/r/pathofexile/comments/3ynbfs/melee_splash_should_change_behaviour_of_the_skill/

Hey, are you planning some alternative effect for arc?

Will the developers ever fix the clean caster builds not to be just a fun build in a short terms, but not an end-game builds ?!

Ice Spear ?! do this forgotten by the heavens spell ring a bell ?!