Community Q&A with Chris

Hi there Chris,

even if the spell effects topic was mentioned already zillion times,because it is an issue,i want to look at it from a different extended perspective. Back in time when i was playing AoC,i made a mod,released on Curse,which allowed players to turn down the spell particle intensity,allowing people with lower PC specs to actually enjoy raids. The mod had different options concerning the particle intensity,you could made it lighter using less layers or you could even shut it completely off,in case of really desperate situations. AoC engine was very flexible and devs released the extended sheet containing all the hidden settings you couldn't normally reach if just using the standard graphic settings UI in game.

To the point:
is it possible to do something similar with PoE,so to have an extended sheet of all the hidden graphic setting values which we could eventually add,lets say,into the production_Config.ini file?
If this could be possible then we could have a stickied forum thread in which users can share the best fine-tuned settings and workarounds,which can suit a large variety of HW configurations. (things like: using pixel shader 2.0 instead of 3 or even 1.9). This would allow the ones with low end machines to fully enjoy the game,hence a larger user base,hence more popularity for PoE.

I really hope to get a response from you.
Last but not least,i want to thank you guys for the amazing work and effort you are putting into this gem of a game.

gast

EDIT: the mod is still there! http://aoc.curseforge.com/addons/particle-density-mod/images/ just hover on the images to watch and have an idea of what i mean.

Will public stash tabs be linkable on both the forums and in-game? Any timeframe as to when they will be released?

Will you bring back the Maelstörm of Chaos or similar end-game content beside than the maps for more fun and diversity poor +80's ?

More specific endgame: Is an endless dungeon a possibility at all?

Not a question: Great game! I love it!

Will we see Floating combat text aka our pewpew numbers when we hit mobs?

Will you make the character stats sheet (aka the defences/offenses menu thingy) more attractive and rearranged? It is now dull and boring to look at.

Can you introduce a 'raid boss'-esque encounter where you need more than 4 players? you can make the encounter in an area where you only find that boss, and it has various stages with waves of monsters etc and gives better loot drops?

Are their any Deities in the Wraeclast lore or something equivalent?
Will you expand the lore? I love lore.

Response to the now 718 page thread on looting?

My question is:

Maps are just plain boring with its totally random mobs, and they are very generic. Will you tweak that each map has always unique features and certain type of mobs?

I think noone likes a random mob mess.

The game's character customization is very deep, but the gameplay is shallow (ranged AoE spam wins the day). Do you have any plans for adding more interactions between skills? Also, I find that aura stacking is too strong and trivial to do (blood magic support gem) and forces nearly everyone to go that route. Would it not be preferable to allow one active aura at any one time? Players could, for instance, use grace when engaging a melee heavy mob pack, and switch to purity when fighting casters. That's the kind of dynamic gameplay which IMHO PoE sorely needs.

Thank you.

This is more on GGG's company policy.

I like Valve as a company, at least in design and theory, but I can't expect other companies to take after them. Notably, Valve is flat. Gabe is CEO but he can do whatever he wants; he doesn't need to be caught up in paperwork if someone else is willing to help him out.

Chris, do you want to step back away from the game's balance / design? Not entirely of course, but do you want to focus yourself elsewhere within the company? Or do you want to stay close to how things are done?

I ask this, because Gabe has pointed out the advantages for the Valve flat model. Gabe can at any time decide to work on company management or video game design. He can hop on various aspects of design and know somebody else will pick up the slack where he doesn't.

What kind of role do you think you're best suited in Chris? Constantly dealing with balance/design of the game? Managing the company? Switching on and off both? Because I think, you're so busy, we simply cannot expect you to do all these roles all the time. You'll go nuts.

If you're going to continue to post/talk about the game's design/balance as you have been, you obviously need to stay in-touch with the development of the game. Some game companies create "community manager" positions; but these people just distance developers from seeing the direct-reactions to their game design/balance.