Piotr Maciejczak: You just showed Path of Exile 2 and everything related to it. But it seems that we will have to wait a little longer for PoE 2 . For ten years, PoE fans got used to getting a new league roughly every 13 weeks, but recently that has changed - with the Crucible League going 19 weeks. Will it stay that way or is it rather a result of temporary restrictions related to preparations for ExileCon ? What can you say about the size of the upcoming 3.22 expansion? Should we expect this to be one of the bigger PoE expansions before 2 debuts?

Chris Wilson: We like our 13 weeks, it's been quite beneficial for us, and the longer break is of course due to the ExileCon timing. When we looked at the Diablo 4 release date and the event date, we figured we needed to take a 19-week gap to release the next league at the right time to be able to safely promote ExileCon and avoid accidentally getting in the diablo 4 parade . So we opted for these 19 weeks, but our intention is to go back to the 13-week system - for example, we are now planning to release League 3.23 thirteen weeks after League 3.22. Of course, we'll be monitoring what other popular games come out close to our scheduled release date to potentially slightly change the release date of each league. In terms of size, 3.22 is going to be quite an extension. No one has asked about it today, so I'm all the more willing to tell you. It's a big league [equivalent to Diablo seasons - ed. red.], the subject of which will revolve around ... sport. More specifically, the league mechanics will be a bit like football and you will definitely like it. In addition, there will be a lot of changes in the balance of the game in the expansion. We've improved the next two ascendancy classes, there will be 14 new support gems, as well as 16 additional large options in the atlas development tree that affect the endgame and several other gameplay elements. And the league itself has about 14 new unique items. So as you can see, this is a pretty big PoE updatewhich we will talk about later at ExileCon - I have a 30-minute presentation on it, where I will go into all the details. [The presentation has already taken place - editor's note. ed.].

Piotr Maciejczak: Do you think that some stubborn players will not want to move from PoE to PoE 2 ? Are you talking about it in the studio? Do you have any ideas on how to attract these players to the new installment of the game?

Chris Wilson: Many gamers are very interested in Path of Exile 2 . The content and quality of the game beats Path of Exile , which is my favorite game after all. Even if someone finds something they don't like about PoE 2 and decides to stay with "one", we will tempt them regularly. It can also play both games. And as Jonathan explained, by extending the development time on Path of Exile 2 , there's just going to be more of everything in this game, more to do than in Path of Exile 1. So around the eighth or ninth week of the Path of Exile 2 League , players will be able to expect a new League in Path of Exile 1 . At this point, a lot of fans will be switching to "one" to pass the time somehow in these 4-5 weeks leading to the next league in PoE 2 . However, because all microtransactions between PoE and PoE 2 are shared, players can focus on either installment of the game, and their purchases will also remain relevant in the latter part. I'm sure there will be some players who will play only "2" or only "1", but we expect a large group to play both parts. Jonathan, do you have anything to add?

Jonathan Rogers: I feel like in PoE 1 ... there will still be things we can't do in PoE 2 . For example... The amount of exaggerated ways to upgrade and craft items in PoE 1 has meant that the rate of growth of player characters' strength exceeds common sense. So playing both games will be a very different experience, some players will certainly be tempted and return to the "one" to play with it. But I hope players will like it either way. Although I do not hide that I hope people will like PoE 2 more, because it's a game I'm working on.

Piotr Maciejczak: In 2019, during the first ExileCon, you mentioned that your planned way to increase the replayability of the game is to implement special character seeds that would make the campaign different for each exile created by the players. Is this something you're still working on, or do you have another idea on how to keep the campaign interesting over and over again?

Jonathan Rogers: Yes, yes, I remember! OK, so we tweaked it a bit. Previously, each character had a unique seed that transformed how the world was built for them. Ultimately, however, we decided to implement it differently, because while the idea worked for solo players, it was quite annoying for players who prefer team play. So what we decided to do was... make this seed generation not per character, but just per league. Each new league will redraw and rearrange the entire world for each player. League seed, not characters. In the previous implementation, the problem was the status of quests and playing with others, it was all complicated and too much trouble. This is now no longer an issue, while still maintaining our original goal - to make participating in each league significantly different from each other and provide players with new, different experiences.

Piotr Maciejczak: Speedrunners will thank you.

Jonathan Rogers: [laughs]

Piotr Maciejczak: One of the things Path of Exile is known for is its specific, unusual economy - there's no gold or anything like that! No universal currency that would solve all problems, instead various orbs evaporating from the economy due to their use in item transformation. And yet... Path of Exile 2 introduces gold. Gold in Path of Exile - it couldn't be an easy decision. How hard was it to convince the team that adding gold was a good move? Was the previous three-week Ruthless with Gold special an endorsement of the idea of ​​gold among players?

Jonathan Rogers: It was definitely a difficult decision. Of all the things we do in PoE 2 ... Well, we operate on the principle that even if we come up with an idea that could improve our game in some way, we conclude that it doesn't fit the idea of ​​what it is PoE ... we let it go. Gold is the only thing we've ever decided to implement, even though it doesn't seem to fit the game's concept. One of the things Path of Exile is known for is its huge character development tree - if we removed it, there would be no PoE anymore . You know what's going on? That's why we approached gold with caution. However, we decided that its implementation would provide the game with many more advantages than problems. Currently in Path of Exile, defeated enemies drop an incredible amount of crap, and we realize that this knocks players back. Or that they feel compelled to use external tools such as loot filters. However, by adding gold, we can change the approach and make opponents drop less equipment, but more interesting - and fill the gaps between drops with gold. Gold, on the other hand, can be collected and collected to finally use it. As for your question about our experiments with Ruthless mode... Gold is something that is difficult to enter correctly. So we said, "Hey, why not try an experimental test league to see how our models and predictions work out." So we weren't so much looking for player approval as collecting data. In addition, such a test allowed our employees to feel how gold can work in practice.

Chris Wilson: When we decided not to introduce gold to Path of Exile , we did so to achieve some of our goals. There were quite a few things we didn't like about gold, but we figured out how to implement them into PoE 2 while achieving all our goals. Mainly because we were very careful not to do anything bad with the gold.

Jonathan Rogers: We don't want gold to become a currency to trade with other players. Players will still trade chaos orbs and exalted orbs instead of gold.

Piotr Maciejczak: Exalts? oh! [Until recently, these were very valuable orbs, for some time they have been replaced in trade by divine orbs - editor's note. ed.].

Jonathan Rogers: Yeah, well. You see - you don't appreciate them now [Chris and Jonathan laugh] but you'll think differently about them when you see the changes we're making to orb chaos.

Piotr Maciejczak: In PoE 2 , you introduce 6 new, additional base classes, including a sorceress. So far, the only character in the intelligence archetype has been a witch, and as you said, you want the witch to stay focused on the occult and necromancy, and the newly introduced sorceress to focus on elemental magic. What does this mean for an elementalist - one of the witch's ascensions?

Jonathan Rogers: The elementalist will probably become one of the sorceress' ascensions, and the witch will get something new. So when we decide to remove some ascension and move it to another class, the previous one will also get something new. For example: in the case of Templar and Druid [new strength and intelligence archetype class - ed. red.] there is nothing to reroll, because they are very different classes, but in cases such as witch and sorceress - absolutely. Ultimately, all ascensions will be completely rebalanced in the context of Path of Exile 2 anyway, so - as long as the theme of the old ascensions is retained - the details of operation will be completely different. [It is worth mentioning that the new classes are: sorceress, mercenary, warrior, druid, monk and huntress - note. ed.].

Piotr Maciejczak: Path of Exile is a game that... already has an overwhelming amount of content. So much so that one of the most common things we hear from new and returning players is, "Hey, there's too many mechanics here, what's the matter?" Can you tell us about your plans to deal with how overloaded the game is right now? Do you already know what mechanics you would like to get rid of for the premiere of PoE 2 ?

Jonathan Rogers: Well, I'm not ready to give you a list right now [Jonathan laughs], but I guess we'd love to see every mechanic come back someday, even in a minor form. For example, the crafting of fossils is currently very extensive, there is a lot going on there. And we think there's nothing wrong with restoring a few fossils without restoring all of them. This helps minimize player overwhelm while preserving the essence of what was cool about the mechanic. Personally, I'm a fan of the idea that there should be something impenetrable about crafting, and if someone finds a way... Let's say there's this interaction of this and this, and it works like this, and you can get this result from it... It's beautiful feeling. And we want to preserve that by having plenty of niche patents for interacting with items. But to achieve that, we have to reinvent them all in relation to each other. So we have an opportunity to step back a bit and reflect: this is what we're moving [to PoE 2 - ed. red.], then we add, it will help us with this and so on.

Piotr Maciejczak: Is there anything your team has learned from the release of Diablo IV ? Did something go well or fail so well that it made you rethink your design choices?

Jonathan Rogers: Honestly, I wouldn't say we fell into any of the traps they [Blizzard - ed. ed.]. I think we're doing well in that regard. I remain confident in our design decisions. I'd say Diablo IV is a completely different game than ours, and they [Blizzard - ed. red.] took a much stronger turn towards MMO - in a way that we don't go. So yes, it's really a different production. When I play it, I don't even have the impression that it's an action RPG. For me, it's more like... an MMO vibe. So it seems to me that they [Blizzard - ed. red.] they went in a different direction than us, which is good for us because we do our thing and they do theirs. They do have damn good looking rugs though. Let me tell you, I'm definitely going to look up their ability to render carpets.

Piotr Maciejczak: Looking at my friends list in the game, I notice that from league to league private leagues are becoming more and more popular. Whether it's small leagues with friends or medium-sized leagues centered around streamers or reward challenges. Do you have any plans to further develop the possibilities of players in private leagues in PoE 2 ?

Jonathan Rogers: I've always wanted us to be able to do more with private leagues. To be honest, it's a real shame that it's one of those things that just has a lower priority than delivering a new league. It's a pity, because I have a lot of cool ideas for private leagues, but I haven't had time to implement them so far. So yes, we will continue to support private leagues and do things like that. We would like to do more. There are so many things we could do... and the time will come.

Piotr Maciejczak: With the upcoming release of PoE 2, there are more and more questions about new language localizations. In Poland, where I come from, it is one of the most frequently asked questions by players considering starting their adventure on the Shipwreck Coast. Aren't you planning to aggressively enter new markets, such as Poland, thanks to location?

Jonathan Rogers: We're always keen to add more languages, although of course it takes quite a bit of work, and more importantly, it complicates the publishing process and introducing new content. By this I mean that with the right popularity [games in a given country - editor's note] red.] we'll do it. So the question is whether there will be enough people who will use this language. Usually Chris is in charge of this sort of thing, so he'll probably give a better answer. Have you researched the Polish language issue?

Chris Wilson: Polish is really high on the list. However, we noticed that our Polish friends understand English quite well, and moreover, players who are interested in action RPGs have made an effort to learn English, so there is no [Polish - ed. red.] on the list of languages ​​that we absolutely must implement. What we did discover was that adding Japanese to the first Path of Exile - it was the last language we introduced as there is very little English in Japan - actually cost us over $100,000 for translations etc. In the case of Path of Exile 2, it would of course come out less, because now in this game - as it is new - there are fewer words ...

Jonathan Rogers: ...but that's a valid point - we can probably add more languages, because we don't have such a gigantic database as in PoE 1 .

Chris Wilson: It's also more than just a language, because then [once we implement it - ed. red.] we want to make sure that we have good servers very close to the country and the ability to officially support them, as well as customer service that can do more than just use Google Translate. For a language investment to pay off, we also need to make sure we have a good, truly end-to-end payment processing system and a community team that will be able to post in Polish on Twitter, other social sites, on an update schedule [e.g. on Steam - note ed.] etc. So it is quite a multi-dimensional investment, which I would like to implement for Poland. I think it lies on the verge of profitability, especially since the Polish community has been supporting the game for a long time.

Piotr Maciejczak: It seems that over the years Path of Exile has become a game that is really difficult to play without a second monitor. Whether it's checking the details of crafting or what modifiers can be obtained for a given weapon ... the average player can have trading pages, PoEDB and a few others open at the same time. Is this something you plan to change?

Jonathan Rogers: It's definitely something we're talking about. It's just that it's largely about information that is difficult to convey in a useful way in the game client. Browsers are a sensible tool for presenting information if we are talking about something that would require a large spreadsheet. When it comes to mechanics, it seems that browsers are a better solution. If we're talking about something that's a megalithic block of information, you might as well have it in your browser, right?

Piotr Maciejczak: Currently, console players have a built-in loot filter from Neversink from the very beginning [member of the game's community, creator of filters - editor's note]. Playing without such a filter can be depressing - if only due to the fact that noticing a good item on the floor is unrealistic, and in addition the sheer number of items lying there can be overwhelming. Do you think the loot changes in PoE 2 will make the game playable without filters?

Jonathan Rogers: Yeah, that should be enough. Well, we'll continue to support loot filters because why not, but we expect filters to be used mainly to highlight the most interesting items, and not, as it is now, to hide a ton of useless stuff. Personally, I'm not a fan of how some people set their filters to all the colors of the rainbow, I like the basic color palette. But I understand that players want to be able to set everything to their preferences, so we will still allow it, of course. However, I hope players don't feel compelled to use filters to hide items on the ground. That we can construct the loot system in such a way that there is no need for it.

Piotr Maciejczak: Before our conversation, you mentioned that you expect the game to be more brutal from now on - not only in the way the player perceives combat, but also simply by increasing the difficulty level. You said that you expect permadeath players to die more often. For this reason, as a hardcore player who likes to make up for skill gaps with over-preparation, I want to ask: do you expect players to still be able to tank bosses at will with enough effort?

Jonathan Rogers: You'll... you'll be able to tank boss attacks. Yes. But due to the balance changes, we expect players to die. So you'll either have to be more skilled than before... Or spend more time gearing up to get to the point where you feel safe as a mechanically weak player. But still - it should be possible. For sure, if you decide to focus on stamina, your offense will suffer and you will have to prolong the boss fight.

Chris Wilson: It's worth adding that - as you know - in Path of Exile 2 if you die [or stop playing in some other way, as I understand - ed. red.] during the boss fight, you will have to repeat it. So we can change the boss design philosophy and balance enemies around the idea that players have to complete a fight from start to finish in one go. This allows us to design skirmishes that are not based on the so-called "one shots". Correct me if I'm wrong, Jonathan, but the current experience seems to be much better for hardcore players in that the game expects them to end up with one life.

Jonathan Rogers: That's true... but there are also more subtle differences regarding the mechanics of potions and their regeneration and other things. But we're not going to get into that today.

Piotr Maciejczak: These are all my questions. Thanks a lot for taking the time for me.

Jonathan Rogers: Thanks!

Chris Wilson: Our pleasure - have a nice day!

Source: https://www.gry-online.pl/newsroom/zawartosc-i-jakosc-poe-2-pobije-na-leb-poe-1-nasza-rozmowa-z-twor/z025fb1