Path of Exile 2 - Interview @Gamebanshee

The devs of Path of Exile 2 were interviewed by Gamebanshee.

GameBanshee: Path of Exile 2, together with Blizzard's Overwatch 2 by the looks of it, is aiming to redefine what a sequel is, and I for one welcome some experimentation in that particular area in this age of live games. At the same time, I'm slightly confused about how your idea of "one game, two campaigns" will actually work. Can you elaborate on that?

Chris Wilson: When you create a new character in Path of Exile, you'll be able to choose between the original characters in the Path of Exile storyline or one of the new characters in the Path of Exile 2 storyline. Both stories end with a map device, letting players play the same Atlas maps endgame. We haven't yet decided whether and how players can trade between the storylines, but it's something we'd like to facilitate.


GB: You will also be introducing 19 new Ascendancy Classes while keeping all the old ones. It seems like a daunting task to balance such a staggering amount of classes. How do you intend to deal with this?

CW: It is certainly a daunting task, but one that we welcome. Ascendancy classes are a core part of a character build's identity in Path of Exile, so it's very important that there is a lot of variety. While having everything balanced is certainly a goal, part of the fun with Action RPGs is finding the rough edges in the balance and building a character around powerful interactions. So we'll make our best effort to keep things balanced and players will enjoy capitalising on the places where we have made small mistakes, until it's later adjusted and they have to find new overpowered opportunities with other classes.

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PoE the first never grabbed me. I recognized it as a quality piece of work, but for some reason, after a bunch of hours experimenting with different classes and builds, I had little desire to fire it up.

I am interested in PoE2 and will definitely check it out. The change in how the gems work appeals to me as the old system just felt clunky. My biggest complaint about PoE was that the target area on the enemies seems much smaller than other games.

Originally Posted by tekulte
My biggest complaint about PoE was that the target area on the enemies seems much smaller than other games.

While that might be a valid criticism early on, by the time you reach mid-game, your abilities should be of the kind that you vaguely aim somewhere and everything in the vicinity dies quickly.

Which just speeds up towards the end game, where it's basically your glass cannon against a world full of glass cannons.

The interview actually addressed that, too, but it doesn't seem they want to change that too much.

Anyway, my point is that enemies' hit boxes really don't matter in the game anywhere past the beginning. And you absolutely must master the "attacking without moving" command - can't think of a build where you would even use any normal non-skill attack.

A ton of interesting Diablo clones coming out in the near future.

Good times.

Not a big fan of PoE for a variety of reasons, but this does look at lot better - and I suspect it will end up taking the crown.

They certainly suggest a few very promising features for Path of Exile 2.
I'd just hope they'd also fix their econony.

Maybe even *gasp* finally implement their own trading tools/guis, rather than relying on third party tools and websites to fix a major part of their game. The reason they give against that in the interview is just denial. It's just gatekeeping for people who do not bother to use 3rd party tools. For everyone else, trading already is rapid and with minimal interaction.

Well, I think the problem is that people confuse optimal efficiency with something that's meant to be available easily to everyone.

That's how it always works with games like these - and the reason people end up telling themselves they need to trade to "be effective".

That's essentially what Diablo 3 already solved with the in-game auction house.

But people were too stupid to understand how progressive that actually was.

I think many people objected to the real money involvement in that auction house, not the auction house as such. They killed both versions of it, but at least they adapted their game accordingly.

In PoE, you have poor trading tools yet much stronger incentives to trade.

Originally Posted by Cacheperl
I think many people objected to the real money involvement in that auction house, not the auction house as such. They killed both versions of it, but at least they adapted their game accordingly.

I know - though you could easily use the Gold money auction house.

Still, it was put there in order to avoid third party crappy trading - and it didn't harm anyone in any way.

Well, except in their imagination and they complained about it.

In PoE, you have poor trading tools yet much stronger incentives to trade.

I'd say the incentives are similar.

You want something - and it's easier to trade than to grind.

The worst part of PoE, by far, is the trading; I've long thought that GGG should implement the Guild Wars 1 mechanic of having a readily accessible vendor that you can buy the various trade currencies from (chromatic, chaos, exalted, etc). The price, as in GW1, would fluctuate in real time based on how much had been traded to the vendor at any given moment.

Items and such could still be traded via PoE.trade - it would be a great compromise in my opinion - and would reduce the hour(s) spent sending blind WTB tells to people who don't respond.

Originally Posted by DArtFlash
I know - though you could easily use the Gold money auction house.

Still, it was put there in order to avoid third party crappy trading - and it didn't harm anyone in any way.

Well, except in their imagination and they complained about it.

We will probably not agree on that part of the issue.
I think that real money trading strongly affects the game economy. Hence, it can harm even those (or especially those) who do not take part in it.

Originally Posted by DArtFlash
I'd say the incentives are similar.

You want something - and it's easier to trade than to grind.

Yes, that motivation is always a given. What I meant are the incentives that come from the game itself: depending on how rewarding the loot system is, the randomness of the crafting system, the gear dependency of builds, and the gear-diversity of different builds.

Originally Posted by Drithius
Items and such could still be traded via PoE.trade - it would be a great compromise in my opinion - and would reduce the hour(s) spent sending blind WTB tells to people who don't respond.

I'd prefer an integrated interface, rather than a 3rd party site. Including automated exchange of traded items. If they really want it to be non-rapid, give transactions a processing time. Horrible idea, but everything would be better than what PoE has now.

Originally Posted by Cacheperl
We will probably not agree on that part of the issue.
I think that real money trading strongly affects the game economy. Hence, it can harm even those (or especially those) who do not take part in it.

It affects the economy, yes - but the economy is optional in Diablo 3 and, indeed, most of these games. That's kinda my point.

People are CHOOSING to make it non-optional. I give you my personal guarentee that there are people succeeding in PoE without trading much if at all.

Anyway, you're right - we don't agree and that's ok.

Yes, that motivation is always a given. What I meant are the incentives that come from the game itself: depending on how rewarding the loot system is, the randomness of the crafting system, the gear dependency of builds, and the gear-diversity of different builds.

Well, essentially - it's a human trait to go for the easier route. I'm afraid that's pretty universally true.

Meaning, if you can make less of an effort to acquire something - then 99 out of 100 human beings will tend toward that, unless there's some special reason not to do it.

I'd prefer an integrated interface, rather than a 3rd party site. Including automated exchange of traded items. If they really want it to be non-rapid, give transactions a processing time. Horrible idea, but everything would be better than what PoE has now.

I generally stay away from trading in games like this.

Then again, I've played enough of these games to know that they end the moment your characters are optimised

I'd rather not rush towards that goal.

I guess that's my special reason not to go for the "easy" route.