Developer Questions and Answers

Hi to everyone and especially GGG devs ^^

Its my first post here and I would like to share my thoughts on game developments and possible future content.
I just hope im not "talking to wall", because there are like 30+ pages without answer (so i guess real title should be: Developer Questions Without Answers... ;))

You GGG devs made HUGE step from beginning, no argument about it for sure, but many ppl here pointed out areas of game that need little attention and I agree with most o them. I have another vision also (maybe some will agree) and will explain later.

Someone mentioned "sieges" (well im not sure how large could players group/team be so that game can handle it without crashes or lags/disconnects etc) that would be very nice add-on (ofc no penalties (exp, curr), no forcing to make "pvp-only char" so free4all policy (just obvious char lvl restrictions), rewards for winners team and personal achievements...etc) and also leaves some area for more "tactical" builds to play around rather then pure dmg.

Lot of ppl mentioned also new in-game automatic trading system (or auction houses).
I STRONGLY agree with that and hope it'll turn to reality some day soon ;)

Overall game performance... Well i dont know how about u guys but I totally wouldn't mind if it took few gigabytes more from my hard drive in exchange for better performance (so it doesn't have to load everything over and over again). Focusing just on internet (like loading stuff in background all the time) isn't best way to go here. Before recent major update, atleast lags and disconnects where more... hmm... "predictable" (?!) (strongboxes etc) ;). Now ppl experience more lags, game freezes and disconnects, so I think: more on hard drive, less background downloading.

Difficulty types... Someone suggested that there is no point in going through all game content 3 times. Well i partially agree with that but it would require huge redesign of game acts and thats where my vision kicks in ;)
Thats very interesing because in this situation each game act would have become a different type of "difficulty" so to speak. Besides even now locations in every act have certain "monster lvl", so what would need a change is game content itself, and that what everybody would want I think.
Content of each game act should be much much "broader", extended storyline, more side quests with better rewards, more larger locations, groups/teams restricted large locations (special quests(?)) with special unique monsters or even bosses (what also ppl mentioned here), in other words, it would be more like a journey through acts (espacially for new players) rather then "taxi Merci" ;) It wouldn't be so super fast...
Every act content could have something from past challenge leagues and present (not just option in Zana'a device), or something completely new and fuse it with default game...
Yes, I said it.. ;) IMO there is no need/point for challenge leagues if default game is updated, extended, more content etc simply more attractive and You (GGG) could use stuff that You would normally put in next league, why not?
Now You release new challenge leagues and then try hard to fix lot of bugs and crashes, rather then improve whats already made so default league wont be so boring (like there is nothing to do there).
I think game should focus more on larger groups/teams content like sieges, quests, side areas, maps etc (dedicated)
Someting like Voting Panel in-game for new content updates would be nice (someone mentioned it earlier likewise).
In exchange for no challenge leagues You could bring Race Seasons back to life again (also mentioned some pages back I guess and ppl really want it).

Another issues are Full Respec (tree passive points) and currency stash tab. Keep Full Respec available more often or maybe as reward for special quest (even without unnecessary challenge leagues). Besides some players got tons of currency (e.g. regret orbs) and can respec all chars they have many times (in other words they got "full respec" almost all the time!). How is that fair? There are ppl who struggle to make ANY currency. Orbs of regret will still be needed for passive tree little adjustments and other stuff, so I think some balance is highly needed here.

Last thing... FREE! Currency Stash Tab... because this game is ALL about currency... Everybody got some... Everybody need some... It should be "by default" when u start game. There are tons of other ways (stuff dedicated for fans) u can make real money rather then from things so necessary, "mandatory", crucial for optimal game experience for everybody.

Thank you all for reading.
Thx GGG for creating one of most popular games of this type.

Hiya PoE devs, I got one for you (yeah, it took a while and it's an odd question)

Me and my friends like PoE and like to see how effective one anothers builds are but wouldn't it be fun we could 'testdrive' each others characters?
I know, it's a bit crazy but it would be crazy-fun!
When someone testdrives someone else's build it should of course be a read-only sort of build so no modifications can be done.
Probably this one is a bit far fetched but hey, I can ask right :)

Please don't make too much graphic effects for spells. It makes it hard to see what's going on in the field.

Sorry if any of my questions was posted earlier but getting through 39 pages is time consuming.

Here are my questions concerning game development:

1. What in your opinion is better to get into game development, to use some game engine/game dev tool like Unity or to learn some programming language and make games from ground zero? What tool/langauge would you suggest to someone who knows a bit about programming in general but never made a game? Why?

2. If I remember correctly in last Q&A you've said you are using your own game engine. I'd expect it to take a lot of work to make a new game engine. Why wasn't it possible to use any existing one? What were the engines features (or lack of them) that convinced you to make your own engine?

Other questions:

1. Chris, what is a holiday place of your dreams? Where would you love to go for holiday?

2. What is the most played game in GGG (excluding PoE ofc)? What game genres do you guys play the most, is it hack'n'slash or something else?

3. How many people are there in GGG currently? What is male/female ratio?

4. How long did it take to get through all those questions?


Have fun answering those and have a good day :)

Will you ever consider making a caustic arrow mtx?

Will mine classic green frog pet ever be reduced to its original very small size? I bought it as a small hideout detail and not to have an oversized toad jumping through my home.

I dont know when this happened (as I haven't played a lot of SC this league so far), but I really think you shouldn't change MTX in any way after its release. I bought it with one intention and I dont like it in this new form at all :(

Read quite a few pages but didnt see it asked.

Are there many/any more fated uniques / prophecies to come?

also why cant we upgrade alt art items into fated versions?

Why is quality of life not a priority?


There are so many areas which could greatly reduce the amount of monotony the game faces (just a few before i get buried into page 100000000):

• identify all for inventory (spend wisdoms)
• vendor buyback
• reliable tooltip dps (e.g. SRS, minions, Firestorm, bleed and poison builds)
• auto pickup wisdom and portal scrolls (like FPS ammo) if you have a partial stack (apply this to all currency, because as much as i love a currency chest, god is it annoying to pickup)
• trading (god do i hate afks, and would offline trading really change online trading all that much except to make it slightly easier for monopolies (after all, they can just online trade, and offlines can be ignored...))
• daily rotations
• dps dummies for hideouts (visualize our dps for builds where the tooltip is inaccurate)
• visual DPS numbers
• character names (let us have unique account names, drop the character names and let us just add notes to each character, visible on the char select screen),

Party play needs sooo much TLC:

• Display the owner of a loot drop for parties
• Map pinging
• Challenge: party with six players and maintain >30fps

You guys often mention that you want to focus on new content, however you are a MTX profit based company, so why is the duration players play for (before going inactive in a league) not a priority? After all, can it not be said that a player which plays long enough to identify with their character wants MTX's for it...?

have you guys plans for add the 3d art of the uniques that don`t have yet? common...

Hideouts are kinda a pain getting decorated in the temporary leagues.

1. have u thought about changing either the favour amount gained or the cost of decorations?(maybe even making them free)
2. have u thought about just giving people access to whatever hideouts they want in whatever size they want?

As it is now hideout customization is such a chore to grind up enough favour to buy the different pieces.
Nobody starts customizing before they have 2 masters in lvl 7. because hidout size limits the number of masters and it really makes no sense to start on an awesome medium Tora hidout when Elreon is the master who will first reach lvl 7.(forcing you to delete the whole hidout in order to get master number 4 or suck up having 1 less master in your hideout.)
kinda same problem goes with you being forced to take somewhat "worse" masters to your hideout for dailies just to get enough standing to get their hideouts.

as it stands right now you are either forced to give a crap about hideouts until ultra late game or criple yourself on mastercrafting/master currency dailies.