Mobile is taking a bit of a back seat at the moment. Don't expect to see it until well after PoE2's release.
Mobile is taking a bit of a back seat at the moment. Don't expect to see it until well after PoE2's release.
I have a lot to say about this topic, but it will have to wait until a later time. We will have a big discussion on the details of item drops at some point next year before beta though!
I have a lot to say about this topic, but it will have to wait until a later time. We will have a big discussion on the details of item drops at some point next year before beta though!
Do we still keep the awesome hanging opening character selection scene? Please say yes, that was iconic!
Yep, that's for character creation. This scene here is the background when you select existing characters.
Do we still keep the awesome hanging opening character selection scene? Please say yes, that was iconic!
Yep, that's for character creation. This scene here is the background when you select existing characters.
It's honestly insane when you consider they balance drops/crafting and build progression not on the average player.
If the average player does half a div an hour, are they expecting top players to be doing 500div/h?!?
I think you highly overestimate the average player!
Also, you might think 1000x is high, but in PoE1 right now the disparity is much much higher than that.
It's honestly insane when you consider they balance drops/crafting and build progression not on the average player.
If the average player does half a div an hour, are they expecting top players to be doing 500div/h?!?
I think you highly overestimate the average player!
Also, you might think 1000x is high, but in PoE1 right now the disparity is much much higher than that.
(Paraphrasing)
I believe the income disparity (per hour) between the top player and average player should be 1000x
I believe we shouldn't force you to play something you don't want want just to get more loot per hour. (near 2h 9m mark)
Please, Johnathan, pick one? There'll always be a meta for best build, and that forces the best players play the meta build just to get top loot per hour.
I don't accept that there will always be a best build. There should ideally be good builds with many classes / skills.
Hopefully you would agree that we were able to get a reasonable variety in PoE1 with top tier builds.
(Paraphrasing)
I believe the income disparity (per hour) between the top player and average player should be 1000x
I believe we shouldn't force you to play something you don't want want just to get more loot per hour. (near 2h 9m mark)
Please, Johnathan, pick one? There'll always be a meta for best build, and that forces the best players play the meta build just to get top loot per hour.
I don't accept that there will always be a best build. There should ideally be good builds with many classes / skills.
Hopefully you would agree that we were able to get a reasonable variety in PoE1 with top tier builds.
Can’t recall if this officially came from them, but the explanation I’ve seen is that deaths are very rarely due to one thing and are typically tons of different effects/hits stacked on top of each other that kill you.
And the strain on servers to keep a history of everything and share it for every death that happens would be too much
It's not a strain on the servers. We would keep that information client side if we were doing it.
It's just that it's a complicated UX task with a lot of considerations, and a lot of tricky details. We could get 90% of the way there very easily. And the last 10% of making it correct/useful would require way way more work.
We don't currently have attribution to specific skills at all. It would be easy to say "Fire damage killed you". It would be easy to say "The boss killed you". Harder to say "This corpse explosion skill did X damage to you", and much much harder to say "This debuff resulted in Y extra damage to you".
If it's not accurate, then it's kind of useless. So we would have to get this stuff right.
And to be completely honest, I just don't value it as much as other improvements we could make to UX. It's not like it's off the table. But there is a lot of other UX improvements that would come first before implementing such a screen.
Read moreCan’t recall if this officially came from them, but the explanation I’ve seen is that deaths are very rarely due to one thing and are typically tons of different effects/hits stacked on top of each other that kill you.
And the strain on servers to keep a history of everything and share it for every death that happens would be too much
It's not a strain on the servers. We would keep that information client side if we were doing it.
It's just that it's a complicated UX task with a lot of considerations, and a lot of tricky details. We could get 90% of the way there very easily. And the last 10% of making it correct/useful would require way way more work.
We don't currently have attribution to specific skills at all. It would be easy to say "Fire damage killed you". It would be easy to say "The boss killed you". Harder to say "This corpse explosion skill did X damage to you", and much much harder to say "This debuff resulted in Y extra damage to you".
If it's not accurate, then it's kind of useless. So we would have to get this stuff right.
And to be completely honest, I just don't value it as much as other improvements we could make to UX. It's not like it's off the table. But there is a lot of other UX improvements that would come first before implementing such a screen.
Read moreBasing it on map-tier is pretty reasonable, and something suggested internally as well.
I don't love the idea of having different rules for different outside-map endgame activities though. I just worry it's something that you will easily miss, and having to remember what activities do what is a bit of a pain. Ideally we can come up with a consistant rule that is easy to understand and remember.
Basing it on map-tier is pretty reasonable, and something suggested internally as well.
I don't love the idea of having different rules for different outside-map endgame activities though. I just worry it's something that you will easily miss, and having to remember what activities do what is a bit of a pain. Ideally we can come up with a consistant rule that is easy to understand and remember.
Okay so, here are the specifics.
If you are playing single player and you log out, the instance is paused. If you then log back in, you will resume right where you were so long as the instance is still open. Instance timeout is still a thing.
It seems clear to me looking at it now that when logging in, we will have to present an option to the player about if you would like to log in to the existing instance, or log in to town (and lose the instance) so that if you do want to reset the boss, you don't have to wait.
In multiplayer if you log out, the instance is not paused. In this case, if you were in a boss fight then you are not allowed back into that instance again and will log back in to town.
This is really the only approach to prevent abuse.
The abuse (and what Mark was originally talking about at Exilecon) is the fact that we don't want you to log out / log in in order to dodge an ability, then continue the boss fight. That is important for maintaining integrity of the fig...
Read moreOkay so, here are the specifics.
If you are playing single player and you log out, the instance is paused. If you then log back in, you will resume right where you were so long as the instance is still open. Instance timeout is still a thing.
It seems clear to me looking at it now that when logging in, we will have to present an option to the player about if you would like to log in to the existing instance, or log in to town (and lose the instance) so that if you do want to reset the boss, you don't have to wait.
In multiplayer if you log out, the instance is not paused. In this case, if you were in a boss fight then you are not allowed back into that instance again and will log back in to town.
This is really the only approach to prevent abuse.
The abuse (and what Mark was originally talking about at Exilecon) is the fact that we don't want you to log out / log in in order to dodge an ability, then continue the boss fight. That is important for maintaining integrity of the fig...
Read moreActually caring about your mana pool is something that you should have to do in PoE2, and it is an explicit goal.
As you said, the first thing we had to do to make that possible was removing the reservation system in favor of spirit. This was one of the primary drivers behind that change in fact. You cant make mana costs matter when you don't have a big enough buffer against them, and players will always choose a smaller buffer in exchange for more power.
For refilling frequency, I would say that it's your flasks that are the real "state" of your character. Your mana orb can fairly quickly with mana regeneration stats, but if you use supports wtih high costs or supports with high mana multipliers, you are going to want to pack some mana flasks.
It should of course be possible to make your build such that mana is no longer a concern regardless, but it will need to be at the cost of damage or defense.
Read moreActually caring about your mana pool is something that you should have to do in PoE2, and it is an explicit goal.
As you said, the first thing we had to do to make that possible was removing the reservation system in favor of spirit. This was one of the primary drivers behind that change in fact. You cant make mana costs matter when you don't have a big enough buffer against them, and players will always choose a smaller buffer in exchange for more power.
For refilling frequency, I would say that it's your flasks that are the real "state" of your character. Your mana orb can fairly quickly with mana regeneration stats, but if you use supports wtih high costs or supports with high mana multipliers, you are going to want to pack some mana flasks.
It should of course be possible to make your build such that mana is no longer a concern regardless, but it will need to be at the cost of damage or defense.
Read moreI don't love ragdoll on monsters because I think hand crafted death animations look better. One thing we are doing in PoE2 though is that each monster will have 5 death animations.
One for each direction, and one directionless death. Depending on the damage direction and if the monster is running or not, we play the correct one. A skill like Ground Slam would play the directionless death because the monsters are getting hit from below.
Not every monster has had all the deaths created yet which is why the demos don't often demonstrate it.
I don't love ragdoll on monsters because I think hand crafted death animations look better. One thing we are doing in PoE2 though is that each monster will have 5 death animations.
One for each direction, and one directionless death. Depending on the damage direction and if the monster is running or not, we play the correct one. A skill like Ground Slam would play the directionless death because the monsters are getting hit from below.
Not every monster has had all the deaths created yet which is why the demos don't often demonstrate it.