Performance Issues

Hi,

I'm sure there have been tons of variation about this topic, but since it's about feedback, here's my take on this.

Performance issues are the once thing that I really believe should take precedence over anything else. I'm playing with an expensive, gaming laptop and I've got no issue playing other games. Because it's still somewhat old (as in, 3 years old, not that much) I still play PoE2 with low settings to avoid any issues. Yet I keep coming across the following:

- Coalesced Corruption/Simulacrum/Altars/Breaches: Every time I have to do one of these, I use a low level Waystone. The reason? Quite simple: when I cross the Simulacrum portal, activate the altar and so on, the game will begin stuttering and suffering a bad FPS drop; even worse, sometimes the game keeps "going" while I'm getting stuck: dodge unresponsive and then becoming surrounded by mobs, game catching up with a few seconds of lag, etc. When proper timing and skill is important, these performance issues prevent fluent gameplay. I'm not a computer expert, but surely some form of buffer, preload or anything could prevent this? Once the initial stutter has passed, the game runs like a charm again, so clearly is the initial loading that makes it suffer from poor performance. Before anyone says it, I've already pointed out, I've got a proper gaming laptop and I have no issues in any other games I play, and I'm still playing with low settings to avoid this, to no avail.

- Network issues: They come and go, but they're still an issue. First, in the same line of what I've mentioned before, surely there's a way to create a buffer for data to make the game smooth even when there are minor problems with the network. I've played enough MMORPGs, all Diablo series (including 4) to know this is possible, making only the longest and most severe connection losses impossible to fix. Over my 120+ hours playing the game, I've lost Djinn Baryas, Ultimatums, Essences, a divine orb, even a unique item on the floor, because of poor connection, and just today I lost two waystones because when you try to connect back immediately, it doesn't even try to keep the game where it was before being disconnected for a few minutes, which I would consider almost a must when it comes to preventing the loss of precious items and/or XP as a result of poor server performance. Also, before anyone says it as well, I've got a really good connection and I don't experience any problems with any other network based services (or other games), but even if it were that today, for an obscure reason, I had some high ping, which I seriously doubt was the case, there should be a way to counter this.

I've dealt with the XP loss (just dying less and getting better), with the crazy sun priest beams (trying my best to kill them fast and dodge the beam!), with the considerable difficulty of the game (still learning, and having fun doing it), and all of those things I can cope with without issue, as I'm having a tons of fun with the game and I genuinely believe it's a lot better that some of the criticism I've read, but performance issues are the one thing that really makes it frustrating for me. I know it's Early Access and that problems are expected to exist, but these things should be a priority, in my opinion, much more than anything else: no matter all the discussions about balance, loot and whatnot, if the game doesn't run properly, then it goes nowhere.

So, long story short. I love the game, I'm having lots of fun playing it despite the difficulty, but I would really like to see some more work being done in terms of performance and connectivity, and I think that, of all requests, this is a very reasonable one.

This is definitely something that was very commonly shouted about in POE1's starting days, and if the current crowds roars are to be even half believed, has hit again with POE2.

Personally, i havent had any issues with game, aside from a little bit slow on a few zone transfers (chalkin that up to my old SSD needing an update), but... i definitely recall beta days of POE1, and yea...

That said, i wonder if we all just managed to upgrade our computers over the years to the point that we out powered POE1... And now, POE2, same engine (improved?), but demanding even moar power!

I think the engine has always had a few issues. I'm not sure it will ever 'truly' be fixed. If it even can be.

But, just my opinion.

The network issues are a huge buzzkill. I get kicked around once every 20 minutes. Makes the game feel like an alpha version.

And I am not sure this is really an ongoing service attack. By now their bot nets should have been depleted.