Current Development Priorities

Stability
There are currently no known realm stability issues. We've had to deal with two unrelated types of realm crashes so far and are very sorry about the frustration they caused. We expect it should be smooth sailing from here.

With the recent fixes to several Perandus fight crashes, client stability has improved. We still have to make headway here, but there are many programmers assigned to tracking down the crashes and fixing them. We deploy these fixes (usually in an unnoticeable way) several times per day. So far they have significantly reduced the number of crashes occurring per day. We will continue to aggressively work on this. As I type this post, the guys tell me they have created a fix for another two client crashes that we'll be deploying this evening.

Instance server stability is in a good place right now. After the fixes on the weekend, we don't know of any current instance crashes that need fixing.

Performance
We are currently working hard on improving the performance of the Perandus encounters. There are some significant improvements coming, some of which may be deployed tonight or in the morning.

We also need to work on the preloading/RAM usage situation. We are both using too much RAM (approaching the 4gb virtual memory limit on 64 bit windows) while simultaneously not preloading enough to prevent asset loading during combat occasionally. This is very high priority for us and we will make sure it is improved as soon as possible.

The Labyrinth
The goal of Labyrinth's design was to make a section of a game that players have to complete in one run. This means that we don't need to design around Alt-F4ing in combat or refilling flasks via portals. This makes for a very different experience to regular Path of Exile play. It also give Standard players a taste of the adrenaline experienced by Hardcore players.

The stability issues mentioned earlier are unfortunately frustrating for players who are playing the Labyrinth because it's a lot of content to re-play if you're disconnected due to a server issue. We're really sorry about this. We believe that the fixes so far and those planned for the next 24 hours will almost fully resolve any issues that cause Labyrinth runs to be aborted. While we're sympathetic about disconnected players wanting to be able to reconnect, we can't tell the difference between legitimate and intentional disconnections. We don't want people to drop their connection on purpose just before they die in the Labyrinth.

On launch day, there was a Labyrinth layout where one of the two possible paths had an invalid blockage. This is resolved and should not affect future Labyrinths.

Some Standard and Hardcore players (i.e. not those in the Perandus leagues) have a lot of characters that they want to Ascend. Running 18 Trials and 3 Labyrinths is a lot of work when you have several high-level characters from each previous challenge league. We will be running a process tomorrow that will grant some Ascendancy points to existing Standard/Hardcore characters. Characters in Cruel will receive two points and characters in Merciless will receive four points. You still need to run a Labyrinth to actually choose an Ascendancy class. This means that if you run the Merciless Labyrinth, it'll be equivalent to running all three (due to the bonus four points). Note that this is a one-time process that we run, and only applies to existing permanent league characters.

EDIT: The way that this was run granted people who have completed Merciless difficulty six points.

Regarding trading from the Labyrinth, we want to note that our planned trade improvements include the ability to trade across instances. This means you'll be able to trade items from your Labyrinth stash whenever you access it.

Labyrinth leaderboards (and prizes) are coming as soon as we get time to finish them (potentially this week). These will probably highlight the fact that some people are getting sub-10-minute Labyrinth runs on certain layouts. For an example of the interesting economic benefits of planning runs like that, check out this reddit thread.

Perandus League

This league has been really popular! Turns out people really like bonus uniques.

As mentioned above, there are some significant performance improvements coming to the fights themselves. We have fixed most of the crashes that players were encountering during the fights, and expect to have the remaining ones fixed soon. Once this is done, it'll be working exactly as designed.

Keep an eye on Cadiro. He certainly has a few treasures that people aren't expecting.

"

鬼殺し wrote:

stay cool

You know our office air conditioner has been broken for a week, right?