Improving Communication: The Development Manifesto (Please Read First!)

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Chris wrote:

Build of the Week
This has to return, and soon.

You've clearly got too much on your plate. Just delegate BotW. In fact, if you want the name to be meaningful (i.e. 1 build a week, like it says :P), surely it's a full time position for someone.

That, or turn it into Build of the Month.

Great idea on bringing the manifesto back. This will make a lot of people more satisfied and less bitter with the game.

It has probably been mentioned countless times over, but I would really like to see a thread created regarding RNG. The main issue that has caused all of my friends and a lot of my previous guildies to leave isn't desync--it's the fact that good items hardly drop and crafting isn't viable. When a chest you want to use remains in your stash for 2 months because you can't 5-link it, it's really hard to not get discouraged and quit, in particular if you're just a casual player and not fully committed. I don't mean for 6Ls to be easy for everyone to get--they should require dedication. But something like an incremental percentage for success with every fusing could easily be implemented while not affecting much.

You guys are improving the experience for the non-masochistic players with things like checkpoints and more balanced bosses. I sincerely hope that this means there are plans to also address the RNG as a form of gating the user both from items and content (Atziri should be available to fight after maybe a few hours of farming fragments, not one week).

Also, can we please open a debate on your view of what "crafting" is? I don't mean in the sense of socketing/fusing/chroming, but in terms of creating items with stats. Now that I play Standard for example, I require very specific items in order to finish my build. But there is only ONE ring published on XYZ with the stats I need, the guy never logs on, and there's no possibility for me to even craft what I need. Crafting could really make this game so much better. There needs to be a way to enable the common player to do it. Look how fun it can be to yolo exalt in Descent Champions! Yet in the real game, I exalted just once, and cringed at the sacrifice. You guys really need to find a way around this, causing players to suffer due to RMT is not a solution.

Another thing that requires some sort of official comment at this point is the state of the new trading system. It's been promised for over a year now, and all we know is that it would have been coming soon after the expansion. This needs to happen, and it should be a top priority at GGG to devote resources to getting it out as soon as possible. As a game that revolves around trading more than finding loot, it's just way too overdue.

We also need an updated manifesto on skill/monster balance and where it's headed. This last expansion and Chris' direct sudden involvement and comments prove that there's people within GGG that hold a different vision for the game. What can we expect going forward? What plans are in place so that things stop being nerfed from one patch to the next, breaking so many builds? And why are we suddenly getting BiS items like in Atziri? What changed regarding the design philosophy for uniques that these items slipped through? Was this a result of not enough checks and balances, carelessness, or what?

Post ended up being a little long, but hopefully it'll be read. These are to me the bigger issues with the game. I tried quitting for D3 but came back--because the positives in PoE are *really* positive, and I'm still hopeful to see a lot of things addressed. The return of the manifesto is a great step in this direction.

It doesn't have to be each week so you might to change the name. Also feel free to take builds made by the community and give them credit for their build.

build of the weeeeeeeeeeeek

Thanks for this manifesto it should be a good way to follow actively the PoE's dev work and improve communications.
Can't wait for a thread about trading part in PoE.

Finaly :p

H.

Thanks for posting the manifesto topics you've alredy posted :).

I am looking forward towards the topics about "RNG", "Economy" and how far you are willing to compromise those 2 topics to attract and retain a larger playerbase.

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MrEnzyme wrote:

Could you do one of these on PvP progress? That's an area we get basically no communication from you guys on.

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GrindcoreTHRALL wrote:

Glad to hear it chris. I understand the synchronization and client performance is important to both PvE and PvP as well but we definitely need some updates on the development of pvp aspects. Even though your client isnt currently optimal for pvp, in my personal opinion I think public testing is definitely still viable since I know different aspects of GGG work on different areas and multitasking towards completion can be important.

Not to be rude but its far over due, and I think you know it is...which is why you guys continue to avoid the inevitable. If the pvp content is far away just say so, please do not deceive us, thats when we build resentment.

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Lord_Kamster wrote:

But something like an incremental percentage for success with every fusing could easily be implemented while not affecting much.

This, and also i would like a rework of the orbs
Chance works as normal (maybe).
Alteration: turns white into blue with just 1 prefix or rerolls the current prefix or adds a prefix to a blue item with no prefix.
Transmutation: turns white into blue with just 1 suffix or rerolls the current suffix or adds a suffix to a blue item with no suffix.
Augmentation: adds a prefix to a blue with just 1 prefix or rerolls the last prefix (increase drop rate to equal alchemy).
Alchemy: adds a suffix to a blue with just 1 suffix or rerolls the last suffix.
Exalted: adds a prefix to a blue with exactly 2 prefixes (so its not wasted instead of an augmentation) or rerolls the last prefix.
New Orb: adds a suffix to a blue with exactly 2 suffixes (so its not wasted instead of an alchemy) or rerolls the last prefix (drop rate equals exalted).

In top of this I was thinking in 2 other craft rules:
When crafted, an item gets the highest of its possible mods (for example a weapon of ilvl from 28 to 40 that gets a spell critical modifier will always get the of Disaster) or it can get any of the mods in the group and it can scale a level with another orb (lets say with the same example that the item got of Havoc and can increase to the next level with a new orb, but cant get beyond its max possible mod).
When crafted, an item cant get the same mod twice until it has passed for all the mods (for example I try to get damage return on my helmet, and I use alts to get it, I will know for sure that if i get item acquisition twice before getting damage return first)

So to craft an item i start spending alts/trans, then alc/augm n finally exs/new so i can get the mods I want

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Chris wrote:

We're not repeating the Invasion mistakes again, though.

Contents actually going to get tested before its released next time? Excellent!

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unsane wrote:

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Chris wrote:

Build of the Week
This has to return, and soon.

You've clearly got too much on your plate. Just delegate BotW. In fact, if you want the name to be meaningful (i.e. 1 build a week, like it says :P), surely it's a full time position for someone.

That, or turn it into Build of the Month.

Sounds like a better idea, reviewing a build a week that's too ambitious. A week passes quickly...

Also I think it will get harder and harder to find a distinguishable build when you have to find one every week.