1.0.5b Patch Notes and Other News

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Qarl wrote:

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lethal_papercut wrote:

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I would like to hear what Qarl has to say for himself because personally I feel the guy is out of touch with the game. Apparently he only just realised there may be a problem with IR...the community has been saying as much since deep CB, yet is has come as a revelation to Qarl.
Back in CB we were told that "we are looking at rebalancing every skill"...that never happened.

I would be happy to discuss balance and other game elements on a podcast (and I know Rory is also keen).

The interpretation that us sharing some stats for interest means that is all we know about the game is false. We frequently look at what is happening in the game in far more depth, but thought the community would be interested in some of the stats we normally see.

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lethal_papercut wrote:

We are always told Qarl is rushed off his feet doing behind the scenes balance work but we never see a balance patch come out. Just reactionary patches to gems they didn't test properly that are being abused. Look at the recent trigger gems...literally every single one was released with abusable problems that had to be hotfixed. It's getting embarrassing.

So I don't see why you would think it so unreasonable of me to hope for Qarl to do an interview & shed some light on the method to his madness.

We love to add things like the trigger gems. Dangerous things which leave possibilities open. If we didn't want to allow players to explore such things, and only wanted balance above all things, we'd not add much to the game, certainly nothing as dangerous as trigger gems, or totems, or traps, or mines, or keystones.

There is always a tension between adding things that allow for emergence of interesting things.

We are trying to allow players with more experimental bent to access new things, like Shrines and Nemesis mods in the new leagues.

If you aren't interested in us adding cool new things into the game that allow awesome and terrifying things to happen, and things that are going to be very dangerous to game balance, you may want to avoid 1.1.0. There are some big changes in that update.

As for being run off my feet, it’s true. I’m also often working on production or other things that aren't balance. Luckily we have more people than just me involved in working on the balance.

We have been progressively updating skills. There is a wide variety of build diversity this season, both at high level play and throughout the game.

Yes, the one week race had a narrower range of builds, yet it was still diverse.

Am I happy with the balance of the game? No, I never am. Is there method to the madness? Yes.

The nature of the game highlights balance issues fast. Our players are good and excessively good at exploiting the smallest of advantages. We love our players for that and like the game that it makes.

Considering how much freedom we give the player, I am proud of how well the game balance turns out.

I'd be keen to see what games out there at the moment have better balance for high end play, and how many viable builds they have.

In Onslaught there were at least 14 different build templates used by players that effectively dealt with high end content, and there were variations within them. We have more variety this season.

As for your comments on the podcast, I thought it was good, and interesting. Which is why I would be keen to discuss things with them. I wouldn’t be surprised if what they see as being balance issues is different to what you see as a balance issue.

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Qarl wrote:

... delicious design talk ...

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leto2626 wrote:

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Finnien wrote:

Coincidentally, I have the same concern over nemesis league ending. If the nemesis mods are just folded into standard the way rogue exiles were, it'll be another example of a difficulty increase without a reward balance. Over time, those changes will certainly hurt the play experience, in my opinion.

I'm quite sure the majority of players want the nemesis mods in standard/hc/new softcore leagues. I'm tired of these people whining about every 'harder' thing introduced without a reward they expect because they have a bit more trouble with it. I mean come on, where does this come from that every tiny single thing needs a reward based on how hard it is? Last time I checked many people were complaining this game becomes too casual, what you claim is the opposite.
Maybe for one time just try to play for fun, ah wait people like you don't play for fun, only for the rewards.

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Qarl wrote:

Hi my name is qarl and everything I just said is awesome

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lethal_papercut wrote:

@Qarl
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14 different endgame Onslaught builds might sound kinda cool but when consider you the potential of the skilldrasil, skills & supports as well as sockets & gear itemisation one would think it would boil down to a number larger than 14.

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