Act 3 time gate bug POE2

Tried browsing through the bug reports and sadly couldnt find what I was looking for so posting it here.

When Act 3 is completed and players continue to Clearfell through the River to start the campaign again on the next difficulty. After making our way to the River into clearfell all this works perfectly first time.

The difficulty which now arises is, when trying to help friends or other people in global chat with Act 3. Attempting to use the gate to time travel sends us to the river instead of back into the past when the Vaal were alive in the city etc.

This becomes a problem because we have to kill Miller in order to return to the past instance of act 3.

A fix for this could be the ability to teleport to the waypoint in the past by offering another floor on the map for act 3 Or where act 3 is shown at the tabs at the top of the map, to offer a subcategory allowing players to enter Act 3 - Past or Act 3B.

Wanted to report this as a bug/oversight error and offer a suggestion on how it could be resolved at the same time.

Thanks for taking the time to read this.

TLDR: You can portal out of the Riverbank (Cruel) to return to Act 3 town.

I believe this used to bring you back to the past encampment, but it now leaves you in the present day map. See further below about testing how to access both the Present and Past from here.

If you are in a party with someone located in the Past or Present of Act 3, you should be able to teleport to them directly (click on the blue swirly icon on their player portrait / select to teleport to player however that works on controller) without worrying about navigation back to Act 3.

___________________________________

I would agree that the current Early Access situation with accessing Act 3 areas and vendors is quite awkward. I assume that GGG is trying to leave the Act as it would be in the final game, to the extent possible, but it gets very confusing.

However, should you find yourself accidentally in the Riverbank (Cruel) from entering the Gateway (Act 3 Past), you can create a portal to return to the Ziggurat Encampment (Act 3 Present**). You don't have to kill the Miller to access a waypoint or to return to the previous act.

Trying to return to the present or the past later in the game can require workarounds. They made this easier in Act 6 by giving you access to both Present and Past waypoints in the map, though you would still need to access the Present Day encampment from an adjacent area in the Present.

Before you activate the Chaos Trial waypoint in Act 6, you are able to travel to the Chaos Trial waypoint in Act 3 as a way to access waypoints in Act 3 Present day. This ceases to be an avenue once you have activated the waypoint for the trial in Act 6.


___________________________________

Further testing actually got me to any of three Act 3 towns from other waypoints , seemingly inconsistently:
- Ziggurat Encampment Present (with waypoint)
- Ziggurat Encampment Present (without waypoint)
- Ziggurat Encampment Past

If you are having trouble accessing "Past" areas in Act 3, I was able to flip the map back to the Past again, oddly enough by exiting the town to the Drowned City and returning to the encampment via waypoint. Sometimes I ended up in the Present and sometimes in the Past?!





edited for what clarity I could provide