answered some



Could you imagine a concept of Solo Self Found for Guilds with a maximum number of players?

So what you're trying to achieve here (summarising the rest of the question which was not quoted above) is to have an SSF mode with limited trading - within your immediate play group. I think that this becomes very easy once we support custom leagues, as groups of player can make their own private league where they have free trade with each other within their league.



Are there any improvements for Cyclone planned, considering you get stuck so often on random clutter/objects resulting in a quick death? I'd love to have this changed somehow so you just keep spinning along the object, making Cyclone way less clunky to play and more on par with the vast majority of skills. Thanks!

Yes. You'll hear some more news about this later this week.



When are you going to add a reason to enter the Dread Thicket?

There's currently a reason to go there half the time.



Was the launch of legacy league satisfying for you? And did you have time to play the league (if yes, what did you play?)?

The launch of the Legacy League was very satisfying for me personally. I was in America at the time, attending GDC. While I had allocated the entire Friday to be available to help fix problems that occurred, there really weren't any major ones. The team back in NZ handled the launch like pros and we broke all of our previous player concurrency records.



I haven't personally played Legacy since it was on our internal testing servers, because I have been very busy working on getting the 3.0.0 Beta ready. 3.0.0 has its own challenge league that we've been working on as well, of course (though this isn't in the Beta).



When 3.0 will come out will there be a new league coming out in same day?

Yes.



How many new skill gems you are going to introduce with 3.0?

The current plan is between two and four. We have many prototypes in development, but only intend to release skills when they're ready and awesome.



Are you happy with the thousands of ShaderCache files that are being written to our disks? Are they ever read again?

Yes. They're a cache so that if that shader is encountered again, it can be read off the disk rather than recalculated, which prevents a short lag spike. If you have been playing for many years then it's probably fine to delete them and allow a smaller set to be regenerated, but it's harmless to have them around. Over time we get more and more of the shaders into the GGG-provided ShaderCache built by our build system.



What about the delay to place and remove items in the guild stash?

This is the communication with the main database. It's necessary so that other people can see the items immediately!



Why don't you make inventory bigger x1.5 or x2 size? Current inventory is sort of old diablo mechanic, today there is no pros from it.

The constrained inventory with large items is vital because it gives items weight and makes them feel important. They aren't just a list of thousands of things you carry around, but actual space-filling equipment that has an opportunity cost. It's also used in the pacing of how often return trips to town are, as a clue for how much stuff to truck back to the vendor, and a way to limit the item output of maps. It's definitely something that many players (and other developers) would change in a heartbeat, but that doesn't mean that such a change would be correct.



There is no UI button to open inventory via mouse without opening additional menu.

There used to be, but no one clicked it.



Why no easy selling items to vendor? I must use both hands or drag and drop to sell items. Make please selling by just Right Click Mouse button to item.

Right clicking is used in the vendor for identification currently. Requiring two clicks or ctrl+click also helps prevent accidental sales.



Will there be any improvements for Currency drops like Exalted Orbs/Mirrors in the Future?

These items are valuable because they are scarce. Making them drop more often will just make them not valuable. Then people will want to trade in something else that is scarce and will then complain that it drops too infrequently.



Is there any plans on making an in game "inspect" feature for both player items/skill build? If deployed with the proper privacy options I think it would be well received by the community.

We have this on the website at the moment, but players requested that we make the default privacy settings hide their build unless they specifically grant permission.



I was thinking that a "one-life" league would be an interesting thought. A third league would accompany the fresh leagues each patch - you create one character and if that character dies you are unable to enter that league again. If anything you'd have to wait for the next major patch and the next new leagues to try again. I'm not a great player, by any means, I was just wondering how this mode would impact how people would play the game and what concerns you would have developing this sort of idea. Would players feel the need to team up more often? Because you cannot enter the league again how would player deaths affect trading? Would it simply be too unfair due to bugs and lag?

The idea appeals to me, but has some problems: A lot of the fun of Path of Exile is saving up items on your first character to make your subsequent ones stronger or faster to level. This would be completely removed if you can only create one character.

I suspect people would just make new accounts to play subsequent characters, so the actual restriction of the game mode itself would be hard to enforce.

It may also be a bit punitive because of bugs and lag, as you say. At least in regular Hardcore, you can at least start a new character if your current one dies by accident.

What decides whether or not a previous league will have more of an impact on the future of the game. For example after the Prophecy league ended, prophecies are still a major part of the game but when it comes to Talisman and Perandus we don't really see them.

There are many ways that we can use leagues after they end: Folded into the core game going forward (like Torment, Anarchy or Tempest).

As a Zana mod (like Perandus).

Enabled when Unique items are equipped (like Rampage).

On Map mods (like Beyond).

As Cartographer's Sextant mods (like Invasion).

On Prophecies (like Beyond or Invasion).

In Flashback events.

In leagues like Legacy or Darkshrine.

On events that affect Standard. We haven't run any of these yet. We don't add every league to the core game immediately. Some are saved for other purposes. We have to be careful not to water down the game with too many active at once.



Will Halloween-exclusive MTX ever make it back to the shop at a future Halloween?

Old exclusive microtransactions won't be sold again, because we promised that they were exclusive. We may make new seasonal microtransactions non-exclusive in the future so that more people have a chance to get them over the years. The policy going forwards is still being discussed.



When you started up GGG, you already had experience in the industry, right?

Our founders had no professional game development experience when we started Grinding Gear Games. We had experience in our respective fields (like programming and art), but hadn't worked on a commercial game of this scale before. We now have over a decade of experience each, but it was a bit of a trial by fire.



How do you peeps see yourselves now as part of the Kiwi games industry?

As far as I'm aware, we're currently the largest game development studio in New Zealand. Other studios have huge plans for expansion, so we may not keep that title in the long term, but it's great for the New Zealand industry either way.



We have heard a while ago that we would eventually be able to buy hideout layouts. Is this still planned?

Yes, we plan a hideout revamp at some stage when we get time. There are a few cool hideout tilesets that will be available for sale alongside the ones that are currently offered by Masters in game.



When are the Fall of Oriath supporter packs coming? I can't wait :D

They'll be available the day that the Beta for The Fall of Oriath starts. We will announce a date as soon as we're close enough to predict it with accuracy. Currently the Beta content is still in full production, but it's getting closer to when you guys will be able to check it out!



Will there be option implemented for showing possible rolls on unique items stats by pressing a certain key?

We've been considering this recently. More news once it's decided!



What part of the game/content changed the most from initial idea to full implementation?

In my opinion, the item allocation system. We were initially very set on Free-for-all looting, so the Closed Beta launched without any other item allocation modes. People complained bitterly, so we added various item allocation modes and changed the default away from FFA. I sometimes feel that something was lost that day.



Will there be any missing content in 3.0 beta? I mean missing lore, audio or animations?

Yes, though it will be iterated on and improved during the Beta. If you want the full experience then I'd recommend playing on release day rather than helping us Beta-test it. Note that the Beta includes Acts 1-8, but not 9 and 10 (which will be released on 3.0.0's release day).



Do you plan on using the same vendor for PoE t-shirts for supporter packs going forward? I'm typically a L when it comes to t-shirt sizes, but the past several shirts have run a bit tight on me. I'm thinking about ordering an XL for my next shirt and want to make sure it will fit me nicely.

The next packs likely have two different shirts available, at different tiers. The one in the cheaper pack uses the same vendor as the last shirts, and the one in the more expensive pack is printed with a different type of shirt that is more premium (higher thread-count) and slim-fitting. We'll publish more information about the sizing once the packs go live!



Explain in detail what happened to the added hideout decorations that were introduced a while back (Ascendancy I believe) that suddenly were removed.

We have a plan to do a hideout revamp in the future. In preparation for this, a developer worked on updating the available hideout decorations to include ones that we hadn't released yet. No discussion had yet taken place about which ones would be for sale at the Masters and which ones would be in the microtransaction store. When he committed this work, they were accidentally still in an "enabled" state without correct pricing. They went out in a patch but were caught and reverted. We will release these in the future.



How do you manage to keep the game and lore consistent? Do you have some internal Knowledge Base tool (maybe a wiki beyond the community one or something custom)?

The lore team use a very large set of Google Documents to house this information. I delve into those documents only very rarely, but whenever I do, it's an eye-opening experience.



Can we get a definitive answer on whether there will be any kind of transfer/sharing of our Path of Exile PC account to the Xbox version? i.e. Will microtransactions we own be available on the xbox version, or do they have to be purchased again?

PC and Xbox One accounts are completely separate. You can't transfer anything between them.



Are we going to see any updates to the minimap in the near future?

Yes. Last month we asked the community for questions for our developers to answer. We have already of these questions, and today's answers extend that to the first 52 pages.So what you're trying to achieve here (summarising the rest of the question which was not quoted above) is to have an SSF mode with limited trading - within your immediate play group. I think that this becomes very easy once we support custom leagues, as groups of player can make their own private league where they have free trade with each other within their league.Yes. You'll hear some more news about this later this week.There's currently a reason to go there half the time.The launch of the Legacy League was very satisfying for me personally. I was in America at the time, attending GDC. While I had allocated the entire Friday to be available to help fix problems that occurred, there really weren't any major ones. The team back in NZ handled the launch like pros and we broke all of our previous player concurrency records.I haven't personally played Legacy since it was on our internal testing servers, because I have been very busy working on getting the 3.0.0 Beta ready. 3.0.0 has its own challenge league that we've been working on as well, of course (though this isn't in the Beta).Yes.The current plan is between two and four. We have many prototypes in development, but only intend to release skills when they're ready and awesome.Yes. They're a cache so that if that shader is encountered again, it can be read off the disk rather than recalculated, which prevents a short lag spike. If you have been playing for many years then it's probably fine to delete them and allow a smaller set to be regenerated, but it's harmless to have them around. Over time we get more and more of the shaders into the GGG-provided ShaderCache built by our build system.This is the communication with the main database. It's necessary so that other people can see the items immediately!The constrained inventory with large items is vital because it gives items weight and makes them feel important. They aren't just a list of thousands of things you carry around, but actual space-filling equipment that has an opportunity cost. It's also used in the pacing of how often return trips to town are, as a clue for how much stuff to truck back to the vendor, and a way to limit the item output of maps. It's definitely something that many players (and other developers) would change in a heartbeat, but that doesn't mean that such a change would be correct.There used to be, but no one clicked it.Right clicking is used in the vendor for identification currently. Requiring two clicks or ctrl+click also helps prevent accidental sales.These items are valuable because they are scarce. Making them drop more often will just make them not valuable. Then people will want to trade in something else that is scarce and will then complain that it drops too infrequently.We have this on the website at the moment, but players requested that we make the default privacy settings hide their build unless they specifically grant permission.The idea appeals to me, but has some problems:There are many ways that we can use leagues after they end:We don't add every league to the core game immediately. Some are saved for other purposes. We have to be careful not to water down the game with too many active at once.Old exclusive microtransactions won't be sold again, because we promised that they were exclusive. We may make new seasonal microtransactions non-exclusive in the future so that more people have a chance to get them over the years. The policy going forwards is still being discussed.Our founders had no professional game development experience when we started Grinding Gear Games. We had experience in our respective fields (like programming and art), but hadn't worked on a commercial game of this scale before. We now have over a decade of experience each, but it was a bit of a trial by fire.As far as I'm aware, we're currently the largest game development studio in New Zealand. Other studios have huge plans for expansion, so we may not keep that title in the long term, but it's great for the New Zealand industry either way.Yes, we plan a hideout revamp at some stage when we get time. There are a few cool hideout tilesets that will be available for sale alongside the ones that are currently offered by Masters in game.They'll be available the day that the Beta for The Fall of Oriath starts. We will announce a date as soon as we're close enough to predict it with accuracy. Currently the Beta content is still in full production, but it's getting closer to when you guys will be able to check it out!We've been considering this recently. More news once it's decided!In my opinion, the item allocation system. We were initially very set on Free-for-all looting, so the Closed Beta launched without any other item allocation modes. People complained bitterly, so we added various item allocation modes and changed the default away from FFA. I sometimes feel that something was lost that day.Yes, though it will be iterated on and improved during the Beta. If you want the full experience then I'd recommend playing on release day rather than helping us Beta-test it. Note that the Beta includes Acts 1-8, but not 9 and 10 (which will be released on 3.0.0's release day).The next packs likely have two different shirts available, at different tiers. The one in the cheaper pack uses the same vendor as the last shirts, and the one in the more expensive pack is printed with a different type of shirt that is more premium (higher thread-count) and slim-fitting. We'll publish more information about the sizing once the packs go live!We have a plan to do a hideout revamp in the future. In preparation for this, a developer worked on updating the available hideout decorations to include ones that we hadn't released yet. No discussion had yet taken place about which ones would be for sale at the Masters and which ones would be in the microtransaction store. When he committed this work, they were accidentally still in an "enabled" state without correct pricing. They went out in a patch but were caught and reverted. We will release these in the future.The lore team use a very large set of Google Documents to house this information. I delve into those documents only very rarely, but whenever I do, it's an eye-opening experience.PC and Xbox One accounts are completely separate. You can't transfer anything between them.Yes.