[Tencent drama] Now's a good time to talk about how Xbox did in fact affect PoE's balance

When the Xbox version of PoE was announced, Chris said the following in an interview:

"

PCI: For future updates, how are you going to tackle balance. A console is a lot less flexible so how are classes, items etc going to be handled moving forwards? Will everything be balanced with both versions in mind?

Chris Wilson: The two versions can have separate balance. We’re attempting to use PC balance as much as possible on console, unless there’s a good reason not to.

[...]

PCI: As far as technical improvements are concerned in future updates, do you see the limitations of the Xbox version having any impact on the PC experience at all?

Chris Wilson: Absolutely. They have and will continue to result in performance improvements that affect the PC version as well.

Roughly speaking, there are two ways you can optimize a computer game:

1. Optimize the code, so that it chews through the workload faster
2. Change the game's design, to reduce the workload in the first place


We've seen some of the first kind of change, such as reworked ground/water effects and dynamic resolution. But in the last 2 or so years, there have been a number of significant gameplay changes, and almost all of them have one common thread running through: they reduce the number of Hits that the game needs to process in a given timeframe. Let's go through some of these, in no particular order:

- AoE rework: the number of Hits an AoE effect can trigger is proportional to its area. Old AoE scaling meant that the area grew quadratically with investment, and so did the number of Hits. In the new system, area scales linearly.

- Flat cooldowns on triggered skills: CoC, Mjölner, etc. Pretty self-explanatory, a Spectral Throw + GMP + CoC setup went from being able to trigger dozens of casts in a frame to just a few casts per second.

- Promoting DoTs: heavy push to make poison/bleed relevant, as well as new DoT skills like ED/Contagion and Scorching Ray. These trigger few/no Hits. It's interesting to note here that in the same patch that most AoE skills got a significant nerf to their area, RF got a huge buff.

- Pierce rework: capping the number of times a projectile can pierce means capping how many Hits it can produce. Before, a single projectile could pierce through dozens of targets in its lifetime.

- Reworking skills to Hit less often: Blade Vortex, SRS, and Summon Skeleton(s) all had changes to this effect.

I feel like I'm forgetting some others, but you get the idea by now.

To be clear, I'm not making a statement as to whether these changes were good or bad for the game. Certainly, GGG were happy enough with these changes from a balance standpoint, and they undoubtedly improved performance.


"But wait, what does this have to do with Xbox?", I hear you ask.

Well you see, Microsoft (and Sony, and Nintendo) just won't publish your game if it doesn't run reasonably smoothly on their console. Given that the Xbox One is not a particularly powerful machine, and that PoE wasn't a terribly well-optimized game to begin with, GGG were under major pressure to get framerates within spec. Clearly, much of that effort took place on the design side.

In a nutshell, Chris was entirely right. The PC and console versions use the same balance, and optimizations to Xbox "trickle down" to the PC version. Just not exactly in the way we may have been expecting. Basic mechanics have been redesigned in both versions in order to conform to Microsoft's expectations of performance.


Which brings us to Tencent.


Yes, we're being reassured that Tencent will not interfere with the game's design. Fair enough, I'll buy it.

However

"

Chris wrote:

Going forward, we will have financial reporting obligations to Tencent but this will have minimal impact on our philosophy and operations.

Let's be honest, what this means is you will be pressured to make Tencent enough money. Again, fair enough, that's what investment is all about. But what happens if/when you start underperforming?

Tencent may not directly tell you to implement X/Y/Z features. But the threat of losing the greatest teat of all to suck on may well compel you to implement features that you otherwise would not have, on your own impetus. Just like with all the performance-driven design changes for Xbox.

I'm not trying to be a doomsayer here. I don't necessarily think that the Xbox partnership was bad for the game, and I'm not convinced that the Tencent one will be bad either. But statements like:

"

Chris wrote:

We retain full control of Path of Exile and will only make changes that we feel are best for the game.

are incredibly naive, in my opinion.

"

suszterpatt wrote:

are incredibly naive, in my opinion.

I do not have issue with Tencent buying this game,they do not have really bad history with lol as example. But that was not just naive but lie too. "full control" and "control" are much different things. They can literally get shut down tomorrow,how is that full control.


I just hope ggg/tencent will release better pack for next league,current offer is very uninteresting.

Also, did we notice how a lot of the newer skills are very controller-friendly? Channeling skills, Ancestral totems, "aim in a general direction and watch things die" skills like Sunder and EQ. Probably not a coincidence either.

"

suszterpatt wrote:

Also, did we notice how a lot of the newer skills are very controller-friendly? Channeling skills, Ancestral totems, "aim in a general direction and watch things die" skills like Sunder and EQ. Probably not a coincidence either.

Path of Easy has been a thing long before xbox version was even announced

This is OBVIOUS to anyone with HALF a BRAIN...............! GGG is NO LONGER GGG just like how Blizzard DIED when Activision bought them out! It's OVER!

As it was for the xbone case there's a decent chance the changes would be for the better. I wouldn't expect huge gameplay changes but I might expect things like trade improvements, tutorials, phasing out of third party sites and other stuff that currently act as a barrier to new players. Hopefully Tencent buy path of building because that thing is amazing and the guy deserves legit money for it.

OMFG this is getting stupid. All those topics change nothing, it already happened, deal with it or leave if it hurts you so much. Crying over and over again changes nothing. DO YOU REALLY WANT THEM TO FAIL SO MUCH? I see no other reason for all this bulshit. It not bad until its bad. Nothing happened yet, game is the same as it was.

"

suszterpatt wrote:

But what happens if/when you start underperforming?

probably the same thing that would happen if Tencent hadn't bought them.

WHAT ? Those nerfs are not because xbox but because PEOPLE WHINING about how strong they are especially for CoC / mjornel and BV. This whole deal getting ridiculous, you making things up just to fit the narrative.

I'm glad I stopped playing. I thought it would be impossible, yet I replaced poe with less grindy game, then went back to playing single player titles which are even less time consuming