An Update from Chris

even though i didn't like synthesis, you still have my respect, very cool stuff, good job GGG.

thanks a lot for the explanation and your hard work <3

Just one thing. while you focus on future leagues, we players are always stuck in the current state of the game. So while things steadily improve over time (QoL improvements, fixes of long term bugs, etc.), the player experience is that of a an overcrowded, hard to decipher amount of content, that doesn't interact well with each other (eg. abyss and breaches in Nexus).

So, a little more investment into improving the current status of the game keeps the players happy and will be greatly appreciated (or at least, produce less angry threads). while cool new leagues are great for buffing the numbers of off-and-on short-time players, the current state of the game is always what the long-term PoE players live with. Just some more attention to how the game plays and feels would be nice, because all the flashy, soon-to-come things in the future - or even patch notes that will likely come next week - are a nice touch, but don't change the player experience in the current state of the game.

ty <3

I never post on the forums, but this needs an answer.

In my opinion, given that Synthesis is ending there’s no point on focussing on fixing it right now.

Focus on what is coming, there were a lot of things that stole development time from what i see. No point in fixing problems that won’t matter in three weeks to then have problems with the next content. It’s a vicious circle, but it’s okay to temporary accept a bad apple if the next one is back to normal (or even better).

In the end we’re all humans and we all make mistakes sometimes or have some problems out of our reach.

So again, focus on what’s important for the progression. Leave Synthesis behind as it’s to its end. We (will) understand.

"

deefa wrote:

Second worst experience was Betrayal. Please remove this mechanic from the game. It was worked out a long time ago players like to choose whether they wish to engage with alternative content or not. Betrayal, specifically Intervention, is terrible especially when you only play hardcore leagues. Having mobs magically appear on you, possibly freeze your system for seconds and one-shot you is not fun. It's stupid and needs to be removed the game.

Is it possible to return to four month leagues? I miss being able to mess around in perma-leagues and build up proper hype for the next league. I thought 3 months would be great but the burn out has become too real with no time for recovery. It's clear GGG aren't able to manage these shorter iteration periods with players alpha or beta testing new league content.

Totally feel the same way.

Appreciate the update from Chris, but feel really disappointed there was nothing mentioned about betrayal. A league that did go core and which many players dislike. Judging from the posts on the forums here. And not just because of the lag though.

Now about the three month cycles, I've usually found them ok. But if there is anything else in real life, or another game holding an event, three months is really short. In which case I simply rush to do the challenges and then leave asap to do the other thing. Even if I liked the league.

My post about betrayal from another topic about betrayal here on the forum:

"

My issues with betrayal have nothing to do with build or player skill either:
1: Betrayal monsters do so much damage each that they do triple the boss's one-shot damage compared to the map tier you are in. Making them not in line with map tiers and their bosses, betrayal is atleast 15 tiers above the map tier you are in.
2: Betrayal monsters are like three or four map bosses in one go. All with their own one-shots AT THE SAME TIME! Wth do we even have map bosses for?
3: It is hard to see which one shot(s) they are firing, where it is going and where to go to avoid it. This because of the adds, portal, smoke clouds and other environment obstacles and player/monster skill effects.
4: When leveling, still gearing or not having a meta build betrayal is a 99,9% chance to lose 10% experience. GGG should understand characters are not always at 100% power.
5: Tight space maps do not allow you to avoid their one-shots at all, small rooms/corridors etc. Bye 10% experience.

Really wish GGG would stop allowing logout macros for the "I think I'm elite"-crowd and just removed one-shots from the game entirely, make PoE again like PoE used to be. Building the game around allowing this is terrible.

Betrayal league was so popular not because of betrayal league itself, but because of all the reworks to skills, hideouts and masters. Which everyone wanted to see.

Chris and everyone else on the team - thank you so much!

I dropped from Synth league very early (about 3 weeks in), while in Betrayal I played from start to very finish.
I LOVE the art and sound design of Synthesis, I like the story parts very much. The gameplay was clearly undercooked, so even casters update could not keep my interest for long enough.

Reddit went full circlejerk lately and it was getting tough to stay positive.

This earnest and humble post just won me all over again.
Please stay true to yourself. You are the best and you know that, so don't ever change.

I will surely be here for 3.7 and I will gladly keep throwing my money your way.

Hard agree about not riding your employees 14 hours a day. You're a good man, and a boss to wish for.
Good luck in the upcoming releases.

Keep up the good work! I believe GGG is one of the best companies out there)))

"

A big topic in the gaming industry recently is development crunch. Some studios make their teams work 14 hour days to pack every patch full of the most fixes and improvements possible. Sometimes when we read our own Patch Notes threads and community feedback, we feel that we are being asked to do the same. I will not run this company that way. While there's inevitably a bit of optional paid overtime near league releases, the vast majority of a Path of Exile development cycle has great work/life balance. This is necessary to keep our developers happy and healthy for the long-term, but it does mean that some game improvements will take a while to be made.

Nothing but respect for this.

i feel like you guys are putting in too much work and ur not seeing the benefits of it, youre trying to achieve way too much and constantly falling just short enough to make you feel like the last thing u can do is stop or pull back because youre constantly trying to make up for that previous shortfall.

Player retention seems bad from where Im standing, I dont even have a number beside my name this league. In breach it was 36, more recently its been getting down to 14, 12, 7, this time nothing. This pattern is similar for most people I know who play.

People love the flashback stuff, theres so many good old leagues and in combo theyre really fun. You cant keep making a great league every 3 months, you just cant, the game doesnt need that many new features, theres not enough time to get the good ones right. I feel like you should seriously consider just halving the amount of new leagues you make and have every other league some kind of semi flashback event where you pick 3 or 4 old leagues and smash them together. Make some updates to the leagues, change some things that looking back could have been done better.

You cant make another breach every 3 months, ull kill urselves trying and every league is gonna keep coming out half baked and were gonna see this massive drop off after a week or 2. People love flashback, they loved legacy league...

One thing I rly wish I could put into you guys heads is that this is an arpg, you just throw around items so much they become meaningless, I cant even play the game without a filter and getting the items i need to smash all ur content is so easy its pathetic. Meanwhile u seem really scared of letting people play the content they want to play, you throw all the gear at them and then dont allow them to use it. There needs to be a switch here where you go back to the arpg idea of letting people play the content they want to play and making the items they need to do all the content a bit of a challenge to get. Youe got it backwards and its like a cancer in the heart of the game, it stops the game having gameplay or a sense of purpose because you get the gear needed to stomp the content wayyyy before you can ever access the content, so youre locked in this endless bullshit faceroll where youre always overgeared for everything and ur stuck grinding content you hate for gear you dont need with no gameplay.

People want legacy, they want delve, they want breach, they want flashback, just let them play it. I guarantee you if youd just opened the door and let them play this stuff that youve already made rather than making synth a lot of us would still be in there playing right now, and all that time u spent making synth you could have used to make sure the next league was the next breach or delve, something we actually enjoy playing because its fun.

Maybe when it comes to new stuff less is more and actually theres a lot more legs in the highlights of stuff uve already made than u think there is. I didnt stop playing because Im bored of everything youve made, I stopped playing because you dont let me play the bits I love.

thank you for not merging this synthesis league into core