Art, Areas, and Effects Feedback Forum

Not sure if it has been mentioned, but the lightning at the beginning of the game was too much. Generally lightning doesnt light up a scene quite like that if the scene is already lit by the moon ( considering we see anything, I take it that it is being lit by the moon ) The lightning was soo strong that I got annoyed very quickly and wanted to just run past everything and into the town. The effect needs to happen a little less frequently, or make it more varied. 2 one subtle/far storm sound, and one stronger/closer sound. The rain could use a different look as well. First thing that people commented around me was that it was too much and looked bad.

Other than that, the game plays well, and looks nice over all. The towns lag a bit as well. I take it that the reason for it is because of the large variety of different items on the characters, while being in the outside world there are many instances of the same few enemies.

For the explorers...

More random caves, pits, buildings, mystery portals.

Not all of them have to show on the mini-map/overlay either.


Finding some areas of the game very skippable, and certainly not inspiring repeat visits (yes jungle run, between end of act 1 and act 2 town, I'm looking at you) the inclusion of more random areas portals would entice further exploration (and use of portal scrolls)

Triggers could include either damage to activate/open (portals that need certain elemental damage to open or a dps requirement)
Sequence activation (think guild wars desert jump portals) or most devious of all, the invisible cave-in transition, activated just by travelling over it.

They might be big, they might be small, they might 'hidden' exit you to the same area you started in or link to an area 2 zones away, they might lead to another hidden area where a venerated legendary item resides or just be a disappointing dead end.



Some of the areas could include a mash-up of already made assets (with addition of transition tiles)

Shallow 'Dry' caves with tunnels and occasional holes in the roof for lightbeams allowing ferns etc to form on tunnel walls, leading to small pockets open to the outside with lush jungle vegetation.

Flooded caverns, with areas of water at ankle depth, where the path through to raised dry areas is completely obscured visually (tho retraceable on the overlay) A variation on this would be a tidal pirate cave, where a slow rise and fall of the water level hides and then reveals the path.

Burial Mounds / Hall of the dead. Who knows how deep this goes down... - Unsure of existing assets to bring this one off.. thinking re-skinned cavaliers and the human foes to look like stone statuary or suits of armor lining the walls, with a chance to 'come alive' when in range.

Witches Tower - Cannot remember if you have a stone&wood wall asset.. Think of this as the opposite of the burial mounds except this one is vertically up (like the pyramid) rather than down. Rooms, corridors, alters, seeped in creep with blood, cages, fixed statues that shoot magics (like portal turrets) areal rabbit warren and a firetrap to boot.



I guess what I'm saying at the end of the day is that variation in environment is key to multiple playthroughs, and whilst the destination is the same each time, the journey need not be.

Design consistency: Act 2 - Alira's camp and the road area preceding it

The road that runs South from the forest camp doesn't fit in, in my mind. The North road has at least one broken wagon, making the existence of the road more realistic. At the moment, the Southern road feels extremely barren. Even the addition of some broken wagons or caravans would tie the area together much better. It would also help to add overgrowth or signs of wear on the roads to make them feel more broken in (instead of being immaculately maintained in the presence of bandits).

In Alira's camp, the excitement of the fight with Alira and her guards is lessened significantly by the massive numbers of human enemies that roam outside of her fenced area. I feel like the bandit tribe should be localized to their fence area in specific, and the surrounding jungle should be populated exclusively by monsters. I'd just finished murdering dozens of Alira's followers when I entered her camp, and was thrown off when no one attacked me. The same principles could also be applied to the other two bandit camps.

In a game where repetition of areas is a common element of gameplay, making scripted instances/boss fights more unique adds to suspense, excitement and enjoyment.

I recon town could do with more people, NPCs. I'm still in the first act but the town seems rather lifeless, with small areas and only three people. Not very sociable area, even with other players present.

I didn't read the 9 pages of comments, because I don't have time and because I believe I can give raw feedback about my first impression of the game:

Basically some light effects are neat, but something is missing: Shooting fire/electric/ice arrows doesn't light the surroundings, as well as monsters on fire or struck by electric arrows.
I know it might need more resourceful computers, but could it be an activated option?

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98pounds wrote:

..mystery portals..
..Triggers could include either damage to activate/open (portals that need certain elemental damage to open or a dps requirement)
Sequence activation (think guild wars desert jump portals) or most devious of all, the invisible cave-in transition, activated just by travelling over it..

Love this idea!

Lets dream a little bit about portals.. since portal is magic substance it can be unstable and lead to some unusual/"secret areas", lets say same chance as find rare loot. However chance to open special portal can be increased by opening portal in the place:
1) near to some anomaly/hardly visible sign/effect/mark on the ground
2) of massacre.. ~300 mobs killed in one place or how many them in one area ?)
3) of death of your companion. Tricky one.

It will give portals second live as now they are not very popular imho and it will definitely give some random to the game.

I found an art bug related to the Blackgleam unique quiver. I didn't know if I should report it here or in the bugs and support forum, so I'm compromising. I made a thread describing the issue in the bug and support forum and I'll link that thread here so that the Art Devs will see it.

http://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/30366

In general, things are hard to see. Things like the main character that I am controlling, interactive materials (chests and barrels), mobs, and item drops should be more visible against the background. Because of this, it is hard to target mobs, see how many mobs I am facing,and what kind of items dropped (unless I turn on the description text). Traps are also a problem because of this, since I cannot see where I put my traps. I know you guys are trying to give it a gritty feel, but I think the game play and flow should be sacrificed just because it is prettier. Also, the maps are hard to see. Depending on the background, I have to change map opacity, which gets annoying after a while.

Hi i am new to PoE , i just bought it because i really think this game deserve support it is a great game , thus said the first thing that i think is quite important is to valorize the rare and unique items , visually of course , meaning if you wear some unique item you should recognize a way or an other that it is unique . Whatever we say we LOVE showing off and look badass with awesome gears and when u party with people u want to look great also , ppl just love this , and also the fact that when some beginners or video viewers look at some awesome characters they just want to jump in and be also an awesome chara . So the most obvious thing would be a soft glow for ex and get stronger as the quality improve for ex but it could be something else, just, it need to be visible i think :)

Oh and also would be nice an option to be able to check someone else gears (right click on the dude and maybe an Equipment option for ex )if a feature like this is added .

I hope i don't repeat too much what have been said and that i am also in the right section .

Good luck for the team , i am currently working in a big game company and i know the amount of work needed so i wish you the best of luck and keep going the awesome work!!