We have waited for certain features for well over a year that just don’t seem like they are coming. We have some serious problems with the current game including performance, trading and mechanics suffering from a far lower population than they were balanced for. As a result, our community has diminished almost to the point of no return and we ( The Path of Exile Console Discord) are posting this as a last effort to regain what we have lost.

1. Performance issues plague every single league, and these are no minor issues. At the beginning of every league, so far, there are consistent crashes, disconnects, lag, freezes and stutters. Often times, some of these are resolved with a patch, but in many cases, it can take weeks for issues that impact the ability to engage with not only these new mechanics, but even the core content. And sometimes, these fixes can introduce substantially more or worse problems (as happened with 3.6.1). We think and feel that there is not adequate or proper QA fulfillment prior to the release of new content, and would like you to rectify that problem. The game is unplayable for so many, that it’s incomprehensible how we still have an active player base. The fact that we do is a testament to how much we, as a community, want Path of Exile to be a success on each platform you choose to release on.
2. Missing, but promised, features really hurt the community, especially in situations where those features are community-oriented. Guilds, for instance, allow players to pool resources, achieve shared goals and reduce reliance on trade for progression. Just this feature alone would dramatically improve the community on console by reducing the impact of other issues. Guilds has been promised for more than a year, and has been in PC since release. If you recognized the need and desire of guilds upon release on the PC, then this really should have been a priority on console and available upon or near release, certainly before Private Leagues. This establishes the perception that features for console are designed based on the current state of the PC, and therefore providing very little value to the console community.
3. Without the above, LFG is virtually impossible without external resources, such as Discord. While Path has game invites, and friends open games, this is not enough as the population varies widely even among friend groups based on ALL of the issues presented in this petition. While the Xbox has LFG built into the platform, many LFG posts are utilized to supplement the lack of other missing or poorly implemented features, so many people don't use them. PS4 does not have platform integrated LFG system, though there are built in communities. This means that many utilize Discord and similar apps to coordinate and group. Keep in mind that Xbox does not have access to discord and requires not only external software, but also external hardware, which negates much of the purpose of purchasing and utilizing a console to begin with. We need more ways to connect with people, this is a multiplayer game after all. We request that LFG be strongly considered for console. In the cases where possible, a full in-game system may need not be developed, merely that LFGs can be pulled and added directly to/from the platform. PC players don’t really have an issue with this because they use those outside features on their platform (PC), while these outside features are not available on console.
4. In-Game Chat is another promised (likely 2018) missing feature. This allows players to discuss and share in-game events and topics. Since there are no guilds, no LFG, and further, since all in-game communication is anonymous (via Trade Board), the lack of chat has an incredible impact upon the community. Considering that a simple real-time chat engine can be implemented by novices in as little as 30 min, this makes it seem to many as if this is a choice or logistical issue, rather than a technical one. If it is, indeed, a technical issue, we request communication to that effect.
5. Since community connections are so difficult on console, the ability to progress comes down to knowledge and efficiency and some luck. In essence, when the population declines each league, many of us are playing SSF games in a trade league. As a result, we rely very much upon item filters to remain even remotely competitive with others, whether we're looking for sell-able items or nice craft-able bases. Neversink is the one who provides us a set list of preconfigured filters. While this is amazing on his part, and we are thankful, we are also aware that he will not be working on this once a “New feature” has been implemented. This was almost a year ago we were promised this and have yet to see or hear any progress on said feature. All we want is the ability to customize our filters so that we can pick up Portal Scrolls on filter 4 for example.
6. Mechanics in the game that drive a healthy PC economy are actually counter intuitive to the console economy due to the vast difference in population. On console, currency drop rate is the same as PC, but league mechanics, item drop rates and everything else is also the same as PC. The problem this creates is that on PC, you can find hundreds of well rolled items built by league mechanics (Double corruptions, veiled modifiers, fractured mods, etc) at a fairly reasonable price that allows players to create cool builds in a reasonably short amount of time. On console, due to the lower population and issues listed here, creating those same builds takes a considerable amount of time. They are also often exponentially more difficult in terms of currency because the items are far more rare yet the currency drop rate is the exact same. The imbalance between the PC balanced mechanics vs. the Console lower population is effectively neutering the vast majority of the player-base who are casual 10-20 hours a week players. These players do not get to experience the majority of the content created each league. For reference, take a look at how many players have actually achieved 40/40 challenges, or even 30/40. Achievements/Trophies are also a good indicator for reference, as many of these do not require nearly as much investment, yet the large majority of players who stick with the game for a few acts have not even made it to the epilogue. As such, we require specific console balancing in order to bring the players ability to experience the endgame on console achievable on a slightly more casual user base. While this issue is likely the most definable issue of the console world, it is not the most important and as such is more of a plea for help rather than a demand for change.
7. Due to all of the previously discussed issues, the majority of console players rely heavily upon economy within the league to achieve any degree of competitive completion. As such, it is a requirement for most players that the economy be healthy (increasing the number of exchanges per player). Anonymous traders has created a problem where people violate all sorts of GGG and Microsoft TOS by anonymously messaging vulgarities. This also makes it extremely easy to price fix items (even currency) at inflated rates and reducing the average number of exchanges per player. By this definition, anonymity alone is significantly harming the economy. We need the anonymity removed, and we request to be able to blacklist specific users so that their items do not show up in our searches. This will eliminate the toxicity and also eliminate players abusing the trading system.
8. It is a very common experience for players who bid on an item that has a price to have one of three things happen: a) the seller is or has been AFK for a long time; b) the seller declines and you have no feedback whether or not the item has been sold to someone else; or c) the seller is simply price fixing and not selling the item, and may intentionally hold onto the offer to reduce offers to other real sellers. Since there is no feedback on your offer until the seller gets around to accepting or rejecting it, this makes a single acquisition one of the largest time sinks in the game. To make matters worse, it reduces the productivity of the player, as in many cases, progression may be limited by the lack of ability to acquire the item. We propose that you fix the AFK system to be more in line with a 5-10 minute timeout so their items do not show on the trade board. It would also help drive the economy upwards, by allowing more exchanges, as it allows players to spend less time staring at their offer screen and more time playing the game farming items and currency. This concept is backed up by real life trading in that countries thrive so much better when there are less regulations, less red tape and can move product more frequently. In order to facilitate this, it would be worth considering a buyout option (at least temporarily) at least until many of the other issues in this petition are addressed. To not consider and discuss this option, at least as a functional supplement to the social and economical factors in the game, promotes the perception that the console player's time and experience is not important.
9. The trade board is a very difficult beast to navigate. If you want to find a jewel with flat health, you can highlight all of the jewels that have life on them, but there is no way to narrow down the hp range. There is also no way to search hp and flat lightning damage within certain ranges, or tiers. This needs to be solved by adding usable filters much like poe.trade uses, or at the very LEAST, remove all items that do not have hp when searching for hp, rather than highlighting all the items and making us sift through hundreds of pages to attempt to find a usable jewel.
10. Continuing on the trade board problems, tab pricing like what is available on PC would really cut down the time required to trade, and would fit well with buyouts being available. The vast majority of items on the board are not priced, and this exponentially degrades the flow of the economy. Less items traded, less currency being moved around, less currency being used means higher priced items due to excess currency because of the rarity of trades being made.
11. One of the major features many people have asked for, which we think will really help nullify a lot of the above issues is either full cross play between Xbox and PS4, or at the very least cross play between the TradeBoards on both platforms. Cross play has been available for Xbox games since 2016. And since Sony has now offered for specific games to cross-play with Xbox, we think this should be thoroughly explored. This would simultaneously expand the community and increase the availability of currency and items, potentially significantly reducing (not eliminating) the impact of all of the issues addressed herein.

While we are extremely grateful for the ports and all the hard work the console team has been doing, we have to take a stand here. We have to give you the outside perspective because we feel that this game is on it's death bed if these issues are not addressed soon. We would go so far as to suggest skipping a league on console just to free up the resources to get these issues resolved.

Thank you for your consideration -

Path of Exile Console Discord