Chris_GGGs answers to Raptr Questions

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robbie5325Yesterday at 9:19am How much will the endgame of PoE change upon 1.0, and are you going to break all the popular builds now, as in weaken them, instead of buffing other builds (as you should?)

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Chris_GGG wrote:

The balance changes are pretty drastic. A lot of builds work differently now. Other builds are also possible due to the new skills/supports/class.

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SkypactYesterday at 3:08am hey chris! i have a few questions about the pvp system:
1) what will the levelcap be for "arena" and capture the flag?
2) will there be ladder for 1v1 and another one for 3v3 and so on.... ?
3) how exactly will the laddersystem work ? like in world of warcraft where you gain a rating?
4) will there be any rewards for pvp players?
5) are you planning to create uniques only for pvp, with stats for only pvp (like: +% damage on players etc...) hope you could answer a few of my questions. keep up the good work, anddo more awesome stuff. thanks for an awesome game! greets Autariel

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Chris_GGG wrote:

1) Currently undecided, sorry.
2) The tournament events have their own ladders within that tournament. I think they're all 1v1 currently. This will be expanded over time
3) I believe that in the tournaments you get score for kills and then the overall placing determines who wins PvP points
4) Yeah, alternate art unique items
5) Damage on players isn't on the list currently but we view uniques like Dream Fragments and Eye of Chayula as PvP uniques for obvious reasons.

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ABM_HeLLsBeLLs18 hours ago GUILDS! GUILDS! GUILDS!!!! Can we please get some info on how the guild structure/support will work prior to the final game release? For those of us already in guilds it would help with planning. (Guild Leader, Guild Officers...etc). Knowing what the game will offer as far as Guild Features will assist us in establishing the right people in the right job rolls to for the guild. How does someone go about creating a guild? Is there any microtransaction costs associated with guilds and if so what are they? Who will have access to the guild stash and will there be levels of access for guild members?

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Chris_GGG wrote:

There are members, officers and leaders. Guilds are free but the guild stashe tabs cost money. They're all premium tabs. I don't know how much they'll be but probably slightly more expensive than regular premium tabs. Guild stash tabs do have different levels of access. I am pretty sure you can create a guild from the social screen.

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Will builds that previously went through the centre of the passive skill tree be forced to play Scions now, or is there an accessible way past the middle point? If there is not way past the middle for the other classes, do you think there will be a lot of people that play the Scion class compared to all the other classes since they are the only ones capable of going through the middle?

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Chris_GGG wrote:

They either need to play Scions or to go around the long way. In order to not have this create millions of Scions, we're moving some passives around so that they're not necessarily on the wrong sides of the tree from each other.

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Xehv1 hour ago * Hey Chris! with the Scion being introduced in release, 1 question comes to mind, is there gna be a new base armour type? as in es/armour/eva that requires the 3 stats, keeping up with the whole theme of the game. edit: maybe also a weapon base type requiring the 3 stats? Awesome job with the game so far, Keep up the good work!

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Chris_GGG wrote:

There used to be, and they may make a return sometime.

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Pokop52 minutes ago Is there any possibility that belt, rings and amulet could have gem sockets?

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Chris_GGG wrote:

Yes.

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MorgalYesterday at 3:53am As a casual gamer (full time job + partner), the ladders are increasingly hard to rank on (certainly 2 months after a new league starts). Any plans to expand the number of users on them (past 15,000)? The reason is that for me, its a really nice "log in and play" motivator to be able to see your rank going up. Even if they aren't publicly available, just a number on your profile screen for your currently selected character is enough for me. Thanks Morgal

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Chris_GGG wrote:

I think this is a technical issue, but I'll bring it up with the guys to see if we have room to improve it.

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HealExperienced in Path of ExileYesterday at 5:01pm via desktop app Can you illustrate to the players reading any new upcoming features we'll be seeing introduced to Player vs Player in Path of Exile?

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Chris_GGG wrote:

Dueling: Just right click a character in town and select "Duel". If they accept, both of your parties will be teleported to an Arena.

Tournament Seasons: A tournament is a short duration event (typically an hour or so) that you enter with a specific character. You play rapid-fire PvP rounds against other entrants, with matchmaking occurring within the tournament only. The goal is to accumulate as many wins as you can during the event, so you're encouraged to play aggressive characters that get decisive victories. Based on your overall placing in the tournament, you'll win PvP points which allow you to unlock various PvP-specific item rewards throughout a season.

Capture the Flag: Themed around Act 2's bandit lords who vie for control of the Phrecian Forest, players enter Capture the Flag events in teams and score points by capturing and returning a flag from their enemy's war camp. Fighting alongside their bandit lord and his followers, teams must carefully plan both their party build composition and strategy for defending their flag while claiming their enemy's. We are also experimenting with three-way Capture the Flag events (with up to 18 players at once).

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Are there any plans for a full day Descent or Endless Ledge again?

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Chris_GGG wrote:

I am sure this will happen in the future.

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meerkatz13Yesterday at 3:01am Many players are interested in playing the game in their native language. Are there any plans yet, when the time has come to add other languages?

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Chris_GGG wrote:

It's something we're investigating in the months following release. Substantial work has been done on the ability to localise the text in the game.

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Meowington707Elite in Path of ExileYesterday at 1:58pm via desktop app Will we ever be seeing more slots for gear in the future? Such as pants, or capes/cloaks? Maybe even a microtransaction for it?

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Chris_GGG wrote:

Our concern with adding more slots is that it leads to item stat dilution. There may be ones in future expansions or more cosmetic options like the capes/cloaks you mention.

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ShadingShadowYesterday at 7:37am As I am using a low-end computer, my question would be: Are there comming any way to turn off/decrease particles?

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Chris_GGG wrote:

Performance on low-end machines is an important concern. We have a dedicated graphics guy working on optimisations all the time. Our lead programmer, Jonathan is aware that people want to be able to reduce particle effects and is keen to find a solution that doesn't make your spells look terrible to other players. You'll see improvement over the coming months!

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Currently the number of spells which are suitable as main spell seems a bit limited. Spork, Firestorm, Fireball and Freezing pulse are basically the only ones one would pick while arc, nova spells, ice spear and others just seem not be worth using besides as a supporting function. Will some of them be rebalanced (I'd love to use arc but it just seems not worth it) and will you add new spells (Piety's lightning ball, some sort of snow storm, the beam of Vaal...) in the future?

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Chris_GGG wrote:

Yes, we're expecting to rebalance old skills as we introduce new ones in the two-weekly content patches.

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dezerteYesterday at 6:01am Any plans on adding itemlevel to display on the item tooltip by default? I find it such a chore having to do /itemlevel to check it.

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Chris_GGG wrote:

Our line of thinking was to have it visible (as a separate hover) whenever you have an orb that cares about itemlevel in use at the time. For example, if I right click an Exalted Orb and hover over my bow, it'd say "Can add a mod up to level 71". This isn't done yet, though. As you can see, we're resistant to having the item hover always say "Requires level 75. Item level 71" or something similar. It may make sense to literally everyone in this discussion, but confuses the hell out of new players!

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xXRoxXx
The game looks great,do you plan on releasing expansions or dlc later on and if so when?

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Chris_GGG wrote:

Yes, large-scale patches (in the form of free expansions) every four months.

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sober667
I have a question about triger gems is this posible to detonate (not place) mine using triger gems?

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Chris_GGG wrote:

This is an interesting idea, and after release we're considering a "Detonate" gem to do just this.

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eoryu7 hours ago i know you are planning a bi-weekly update for adding new gems or uniques and such, but what about major content like new acts? what is the plan for that? every 3 months? 4 months? when it's done?

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Chris_GGG wrote:

Major content is on a four month schedule, but it may not be an act every four months. That depends on the size of the team and our budget. Full acts are likely to take 12 months, but maybe we should split them into two halves like we did with act 3?

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GrimrathYesterday at 1:12am * You are developing PoE at a very fast pace. You announced to release updates at a frequency of 2 weeks for the future. -Dont you think that the game will become too complex too soon for new players to join? In my opinion this strategy will "force" players to play a high amount of time to stay competetiv. -Since your game is currently being build around competitions, how do you want to attract the casual gamer in the long run that cannot keep himself that competetiv? My fear is that you burn the game by pushing it and by trying to ride the current wave of success losing the long term perspective. I personally would be very satisfied to have an update for which I can prepare between every season ( 6-8 weeks). So everybody has time to get himself updated with the new features and prepare for the next events.

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Chris_GGG wrote:

There are several extremes with updating games. If you bundle up all the changes and release them every say 8 weeks (or even less frequently) then you can get a fair amount of attention for the changes (and a surge of interest), but in the quiet periods between patches you see users get bored and leave.

If you release every change as soon as it's ready, then you run the risk of confusing players with many changes, but there's always something exciting going on and players can look forward to an evolving game each day. This unfortunately makes it harder to get media publicity because none of the changes are individually large enough to talk about.

We prefer a hybrid model - iterative content every two weeks and larger four-month changes that we can push as decent expansions. I understand that some players may find it overwhelming for stuff to change every two weeks but that frequency appears to have the best results in terms of user engagement for us historically.

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UgmYesterday at 2:34am
Hi! I know that you don't want to add Self-Found League at the moment, but maybe if you introduced account bound items, any league would have support for ironborn players. Let's say that items would be bound by using some orbs with higher chances of positive effect (which you could buy at vendor or so). Anyway account bound items wouldn't necessarily have to be dropped, so players who don't like such mechanic wouldn't even notice it. What do you think of such indirect ways of introducing support for self-found players? Are there any other plans of making solo players life easier?

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Chris_GGG wrote:

The issue with introducing bonuses for binding items is that then it will affect normal players - they'll have a choice between binding (destroying the trade value of an item) or using it in an unbound and worse state. I don't really like that tradeoff. We're definitely trying to support players who refuse to party or trade, but those are both systems that require effort and that effort is rewarded.

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BereadytocryYesterday at 7:07am What's your opinion regarding the amount of white items that drops currently, any changes planned? What is your stance on showing damage numbers similar to D3, any plans on adding an option to turn it on/off? Do you have any plans on updating the UI in the near future? I think the map in particular could be improved, thoughts?

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Chris_GGG wrote:

Way too many white items drop in the end-game. This is being addressed. We don't like damage numbers, sorry. They clutter the screen a lot and it's hard to even know the correct damage at the moment of impact (due to network latency). I would like to continue to improve the UI over time. That's certainly something we can work on in ongoing content patches.

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missmisiowaYesterday at 8:04am The short races with random currency orbs as rewards. Will they ever return?

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Chris_GGG wrote:

Probably not. If the currency is set too low, people don't play them (better to farm docks). We have seen this in Closed Beta. If the currency is set too high, then there's no point playing the real game because it's better to just race. We saw that as well in the Closed Beta.

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Dissolator2 hours ago Is there any plans to make filters in options menu for dropped items? like show only whitys with 3/4/5/6 linked or 6 sockets, or just linked RGB sockets. There's often a lot of useless thrash on the screen, and that make gameplay less fun.

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Chris_GGG wrote:

Our plan is to reduce the useless trash. It's crazy how much stuff drops when there's too much quantity in play.

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StevebooMonday at 11:27pm The desync insn't much of a problem to me, but what do you think about all the /oos spammers, do that fix the desync and does that affect the servers in a bad way?

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Chris_GGG wrote:

It's rate-limited so you can only do it every 10 seconds or so. It doesn't hurt the servers.

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haplessG00N9 minutes ago @Chris_GGG hmm is this a confirmation that a new flask is coming out or are you referring to the flask mod that gives +% evasion? I think cudez was referring to the flask that actually gives evasion like a granite would give armour.

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Chris_GGG wrote:

It's a new flask we're testing.

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Waves_Blade wrote:

Will there ever be (or allowed to be) unqiues that link slots between items?

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Chris_GGG wrote:

This was discussed just yesterday, actually. I hear it's hard, but may be possible.

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porathYesterday at 12:14am * Are there any plans to rework the balance between soloing and partying? It really feels like the game is balanced around playing in a full group and trading for gear. Monster HP for parties could easily be buffed, and the loot quantity bonus per player reduced, and overall drop rates increased.

- A concerned self-found soloer

edit: Also, the way magic find works in this game seems to be limiting people to certain builds and gear, and limiting parties to having 1 or 2 magic find players. I'm sure this is being looked at. When can we expect some changes?

edit 2: I had hoped someone else would ask this, but alas. Regarding Steam integration: Will the full game data be distributed via Steam, or only the launcher? I'm pretty sure I know the answer to this, but I just want to make sure. It would be great to be able to preload the 1.0 client, and download patches via Steam rather than taxing your CDN (not to mention automatically while at work for example,) but I'm not sure what the logistics of getting the patches up to Steam would be, since GGG's patching system is... Quite unique.

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Chris_GGG wrote:

Soloing vs Partying: While going to the effort of playing in a group (which requires coordination and dealing with other humans) and trading (which requires learning a lot about items) should be rewarded, we definitely want to make sure that it's still fun and compelling when you don't engage in these systems. We're already making changes to how MF and party bonuses work, so there may also be some that affect the difficulty of play in parties. We're not sure how that'll end up yet - still testing!

MF: I discussed changes to MF in another reply already :)

Steam: We use the Steam patching system rather than our own for the Steam version. They're updated at the same time.

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TyronisMonday at 11:10pm There are currently a few unique items in the game that are often seen as overpowered compared to their Rare counterparts. (Kaom's Heart, Lioneye's Glare, Soul Taker, etc). How do you plan on addressing the balance issues with these items?

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Chris_GGG wrote:

Yes. Some members of our design team are not happy with them. Any changes to them might be at release or in ongoing patches after that point. We're trying to be mindful of their rarity, prestige and value, but do agree that some are just far better than rares (which is not a good thing at all).

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GrimRaithNewbie in Path of ExileMonday at 11:03pm Are there any plans to implement more vendor recipes for the currency items that currently do not have them?

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Chris_GGG wrote:

Yes, over time. I think there are no new currency vendor recipes in the 1.0.0 version though.

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BrigsYesterday at 1:52am Many of us enjoy the racing aspect of the game. Are there plans for a fifth racing season? And will the community have any input on new race-types? Personally, I would love to see races that start in Act 2 or 3!

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Chris_GGG wrote:

Race Season Five starts a few weeks after Release, and probably also includes PvP Tournament Season One also. Our team is working on a "Descent 2" which will hopefully be ready in time for season five. Please do continue to suggest race types you'd like to see.

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ManolarenElite in Path of ExileYesterday at 3:54am * Is there any chance to see in the future:
1. Interactive Mouse/Cursor
2. Better map/minimap
3. Option to see party portraits all the time
4. Buyback option from vendors
5. Better UI and some options about it, like resizing chat or moving tabs in general.
6. Info for Latency / FPS
7. Total online players in game/league/map

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Chris_GGG wrote:

1. What does this mean?
2. Yes, probably.
3. Can you clarify what you'd like changed here?
4. Possibly, but then it becomes an interest-free loan.
5. Possibly, but probably not in the immediate future.
6. Yes
7. Possibly

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wooser69Monday at 10:32pm With the 7th class out and the passive tree massively changed, can we ever expect more of these, respec-inducing large passive tree changes to come in future expansions or is this the version we will be using for the next few years?

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Chris_GGG wrote:

There will be continued large-scale changes in the future. Maybe on a four-monthly basis?

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farmerjoe73Elite in Path of ExileYesterday at 3:56am Once the Scion class has been unlocked in a league, let's say in Hardcore, would it also be unlocked and playable in another league like Standard? Or would players need to unlock the class per league? A follow-up question would be: would the Scion be available for everyone during races? Thanks Chris!

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Chris_GGG wrote:

The current implementation is that it's unlocked for your whole account. If you've ever finished normal difficulty, it's available to you immediately upon release (this is partly to discourage people from racing through all the new content on super high level characters and ruining the fun play experience for themselves). The scion is available in races.

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hot_sext_mamma wrote:

hot_sexy_mammaYesterday at 12:21am:

Are you planning to implement some kind of feature, which will reduce randomness of that so called RNG, mostly in these cases: - Getting maps - mostly high level - Getting links - mostly 6 links Most people who played open beta knows that. But there are two examples - You could get your 6 link in several fusings, or you could spend 4-5000 for that. - You could get 10-15 maps in random alched map, and you could get 0 in maze+pack+90% shipyard or so. Thanks for your time here!

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Chris_GGG wrote:

The examples you've given are "high variance" random events. We're definitely investigating (potentially drastic) changes to how fusing works. There are some ways to make it easier (using the quality trick before fusing), but I'm not entirely happy with the fusing system as a whole. We generally like the randomness of the map system the way it is. It's meant to be really swingy with streaks. Having said that, there are quite a few changes coming up at launch (for example, we're experimenting with some changes to the map mods that are not final yet). One of our goals is that maps aren't the only way to reach level 100. We're making some changes to the experience equation so that it's at least possible to reach 100 in any end-game content (though that's not making it any faster than it currently is in high maps).

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ForTheEnd wrote:

ForTheEnd Yesterday at 4:18am Hello, Chris.Tell please, you think in the future to add the talismans ? Take a place in inventory, but give certain bonuses.I think it interesting.Thanks.

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Chris_GGG wrote:

We considered this system but in the end decided that we don't like giving players the choice of trading (already constrained) inventory space for stat bonuses. In addition to discouraging people from picking up items, it provides more item stat dilution. We're considering other systems that allow you to have non-equipped items, but they don't consume your inventory.

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Jaqen_poeYesterday at 1:00pm There is a huge problem on this game: desync. Are there any plan to fix this soon? Because of this desync problem hardcore leagues nearly unplayable for new players (wtihout op gear, u can die immediately in the middle of the group of a white zombies on merciless) The another problem is, mf system. Mf system is pushing people to make "sporker" or "summoner" build. U said before, mf system will change. But how?

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Chris_GGG wrote:

I feel your pain. We have some improvements we're trying to get in for Release (or a patch soon after). I'm being really careful before deploying combat sync changes to the live realm because it's very easy to make it a lot worse if they're not tested correctly. The easiest way to make it substantially better is just to relax the server control on some combat combat checks, but that'd allow cheating and we do not want to make that possible. We will solve it the hard way, even if it takes a lot of research and time. Thanks for your patience! I'll be answering the MF question in a reply to the post by "haplessG00N" soon.

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haplessG00NMonday at 10:28pm *Do they plan on changing the magic find system at all? If so, what kind of changes can we expect? Are there going to be easier less expensive ways to level high level characters? If so, can you share some details? Are any map mods being reworked? Are any new mods being added? If so, what is your reasoning?

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Chris_GGG wrote:

We're trying to make sure that IIR isn't so overpowering that it becomes mandatory from an economic sense. There are changes to its diminishing returns to accomplish this. As an experiment, the new challenge leagues do not have IIQ as a magic/rare item property. The IIQ support gem is also disabled in these leagues. This is partly to see how MF builds will adapt to using pure IIR, but also because we're trying hard to reduce item spam in end-game situations. We're also probably changing the party per-player bonus to be less quantity, more rarity. These changes could easily change again in the future - we see the ongoing balance as a big experiment which will hopefully improve the whole MF system.

Yes, high level characters will be able to level up in any end-game content. You can farm docks to 100 if you want. This won't be any faster than it currently is (may be slower than the top tier of maps), but it's our goal to not *require* that you engage in the top tier of maps to be able to hit 100.

Map mods are currently being re-evaluated for release but changes to them may occur in ongoing content patches shortly after if we don't have time to test them fully by release itself. We do want to add more mods (perhaps Nemesis ones? :-)) to both add more variety to maps but also to replace some of the potentially problematic ones that we have currently (the Maze one didn't have the result we wanted).