The performance update looks impressive, almost looking forward to that more than multiplayer itself.
Did have a question about something rather trivial. With the new adaptive damage simply being called “throwing damage” for example, I assume “adaptive spell damage” will be changed to “spell damage”?
I know it’s just a name, I’m just a sucker for consistency…
Going out on a limb here to say it will not, due to element spell damage in % form. The adaptive is to cover all types including necro, not just elements, so there has to be some sort of named difference, I think it is good.
Do CT will keep their char they used to test the alpha MP for 0.9 ? And then for the release ?
Nothing from CT client will go to live or ever did in the past.
Death Seal’s new SFX is very good
This is correct! We didn’t mention it here, but for consistency we are dropping ‘Adaptive’ for spell damage. So for any ‘adaptive’ flat damage it will be ‘Melee Damage’, ‘Bow Damage’, ‘Throwing Damage’, and ‘Spell Damage’. Very keen on that one there.
No. The Community Testing Program members often have access to features which are not yet complete, or may be provided items or progress in order to test certain features. The CT Program is also not an ‘early’ early access program, and so characters do not transfer between the testing environment and live.
I assume this still leaves Armour Shred stackable due to its inherent Diminishing Returns?
Lets gooooooooooooooo 
The problem with that is that there’d be flat spell damage & % spell damage. I hope they keep the adaptive & possibly add it to the flat melee & throwing damage names.
In which case, how will you more easily differentiate flat melee damage from % melee damage (& bow, throwing & spells) given some people already get confused?
Yes, since armour is not a resistance, armour shred won’t be affected by the changes to resist shreds.
Love the audio and skill effect changes, the new totems look really cool. I am excited for the changes but have a few concerns.
This is very interesting and should boost a bunch of skills (Lightning swipe) however since damage type is going to be linked to skill tag then I think this might need a revamp of many melee skill tags then and can cause issues for many builds. For example most hit damage(non proc) Warpath builds take Maw of the deep since it provides a generic damage increase but with this change most such builds would be funneled into going Void damage, similar with Rive and the ignite nodes. Also can have cases with the opposite issue like Vengeance which has nodes for fire but does not get the tag.
This is something which already occurs with other sources. We feel that it’s easier to explain when the same rules apply more universally than just one source of added damage. Utilizing the term “adaptive” for just spells would only raise more confusion, as it is already commonly inquired. Having them all written the same way means once you understand one, you understand them all. We also have alt text to help describe how it is adaptive, and to provide information alongside the game guide on flat vs increased.
Yup, and that’s what we’re doing. It was just a quick line in the post, but to clarify: We are revisiting skills which gain tags for damage types, but don’t convert base damage to better utilize these changes and continue the goals of matching items to builds more clear. This change is not just limited to the items, we recognize other systems need to adapt to these these changes as well (pun intended).
I didnt refute any of your concerns, just emphasised what the devs have actually been working on because your post seemed to indicate you either didnt know or dont consider the volume of work their dev blog indicated… Yes, it may not get more content in this next 0.9 patch , but there is PLENTY to look forward to even without Multiplayer… If you dont see that, then you’d best just forget about LE till it launches…
Special thanks for this small but very important change.
Great news! Hope there are more updates on the trade system once MP is online. I was back in POE for few days before being reminded again of why their trades and drop rate causes me to burnt out in yhe past.
Right, going to be controversial, but I understand Ild concerns and I want to express a few of my own…
Fair enough, we always knew it wouldn’t.
Or much after?
Last time I was here, I was under the (extremely negative) impression that a full campaign had been pretty much ruled out of the mysterious “launch” concept…
Personally, I did forget about LE until it is “complete”, which in my book means only two things: a complete storyline and all the classes I see on character creation screen available.
Development has been extremely slow (I know, that’s the first very controversial point). 3.5 years in beta, and it looks like we will need at least 1 more full year, probably 2-3, to see completion.
Now, based on that, my concerns (you’ve been warned, they are controversial):
From a competition point of view: the idea would have been outlandish one year ago, but it now seems increasingly likely that Diablo 4, and maybe PoE 2, will be complete before LE. And when they come, they will be a huge hammer blow on the market’s head…
From a technical point of view: yes, we do need performance improvements, and combat feel, graphics… Question is, how much, and how fast? Computers change quickly. So do engines, and programming languages. It is a kind of permanent process. Waiting for perfection is a recipe for paralysis, and getting outpaced by the technology. You cannot wait forever. At some point, you have to jump. You can still keep improving later.
Changes to skills and ailments and whatnots are fine, and always needed. But it is a permanent process. No matter what you change, some clever bugger will always find an “ultimate” trick, and you will need to change it again. And again. And again. That’s the way this type of game goes. Which raises the question: isn’t focusing on them now a bit of a “cart before horses” move?
I would say complete the game with the skills as they are. You will have time to change them later, in each and every season… If you wait for a “perfect”, immutable skills system before finishing the game… Well, it will never happen. This is simply impossible.
Conclusion:
I uninstalled LE in March. I said at the time I would come back once the campaign is finished and more classes are available. But the longer it takes, the less I am sure I will come back at all.
Nowadays I just pop in once a month or so to check if anything is happening. (It is not, people don’t even bother posting builds anymore).
Please, EHG, finish your MP if you must.
But after that, “launch” your game. By 2030, we will all be playing different things. On different computers.
And I have always read you want a “seasons” system anyway. The key point of such a system is that you don’t need to be perfect at launch, you can tweak / improve every 3-4 months…
Honestly, I have been involved in development projects my entire life - either doing them myself or as part of a team or actually being the project sponsor… Its all normal to me - I dont see anything concerning about what EHG is currently doing and how its progressed in the past… In fact, all things considered, it could be in a FAR FAR worse situation.
Even without scope creep and things like refactoring code big development projects like this take time - especially with small teams and limited funds… and sometimes throwing money & resources at a problem can have the opposite effect too.
Besides understanding the nuances of development like this, I am also far more patient than I expect the general public to be… I also consider the existing game to be well worth its box price - I have more than enjoyed what is available for the price I paid and have ZERO negativity around the possibility of the game never launching… When viewed from this perspective its much more relaxing…
I also dont attribute so much emotional baggage to games (or any form of optional entertainment)… It really doesnt matter to me as much as it seems to matter to other people who like me, have no skin in the game, financially or otherwise…
I also honestly do not understand the current trends of demanding things now/immediately/asap and getting worked up emotionally when demands are not met - my mind just doesnt work like that and its very difficult for me to understand how people can behave like that…
Do I want it to be successful? yes. Do I want to play more content with new classes? yes. Would I be disappointed if it never launched? Yes, but I’d move on in a literal heartbeat.
Philosophy aside.
Taking advantage of the market space re D4 and PoE2 and any other game? Sure, thats the business side of the gaming industry and yes, there is an opportunity cost of not taking advantage of this… But honestly, its just a HUGE industry that there is, imho, more than enough to go around, especially for indie development to be profitable… Just trying to beat anotehr game to market for profit reasons and launching something thats technically crap is 100% guaranteed to be a failure. And just glancing at my steam library, I have plenty of ARPGs that I have played over the years… they all got my money anyway… when they launched made no difference…
Performance & technical improvements… There are two sides to this… stability and performance… at the moment, LE must address the stability issues that are caused by in-game settings related to visual quality/bugs/etc… those are a must - no-one wants to play a game that crashes or looses progress… Performance wise… This is a decision that the devs need to make - i.e. pick a goalpost and do that - e.g. 1080p, Medium quality, 60fps average on X class GPU and Y class CPU when playing all content areas… … once this is achieved, performance dev is done to a sufficient level. any tweaking beyond that is bonus but not needed. EDIT: Netcode / online services would fall into both categories re stability and performance - again making sure its stable bug wise and meeting whatever goalpost is set for network / server performance.
Game balancing etc… that is a continual thing… Even GD released a huge number of balance changes in their last patch and that game has been out of dev for years… What they do need to do complete all skills and get them all to the same level - a side effect of a long dev cycle… If they dont do that, then the potential for clever buggers is very high as will there be disappointment on game launch when people realise entire skills are meh (like Black Hole etc).
I ALWAYS recommend to people that they dont participate in EA Beta games unless they understand the process and have the patience and emotional detatchment required to handle the long dev cycles and the very real possibility that the game may never be done to their liking or could even fail.
PoE still isn’t done after 5 or 6 years and still experiences game breaking, and player attitude breaking , changes.
PoE 2 is not going to be a problem to keep people away from LE.
Am i being controversial ?
Meanwhile i’m very happy with the fact that EHG emphasizes correctness and stability. Do i wish the new classes were here tomorrow ? YES. Am i going to quit because it’s taking “longer than it should” ? NO.
if it drags on too long, could that be a problem ? yes. and I think EHG is keenly aware of that.
Wow, awesome! Can’t wait, let’s go !!
PoE 2 is also not going to be any different in that regard, all it is is a different campaign, some new classes & ascendancies. GGG have done a phenomenal job of rebranding it.