Early access feedback - bugs and suggestion list

Just want to start by saying thank you for the game so far. While it is still a work in progress, it has the potential to be grater than the first iteration. I personally had a lot of fun playing it, and I am sure I will have more along the way.

There are some bugs I'd like to point out, that are still not addressed, and some suggestions that would make the game more enjoyable, at least for me, that is. I will start with the bugs I have found:

Bugs
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1. DirectX 12 crashes - the game just freezes and I need to ALT+F4 it, or it closes and I get a message about a DX12 texture. It happens at least once an hour, and it is not fun.

Workaround: Switched to Vulkan. I only had a couple of crashes in weeks. Won't be going back to DX until the issues are fixed.

2. During the campaign I got the Trial of Sekhemas flagged as not completed, and kept going on that cavern for a few times, killing the boss. It did not clear.

Workaround: Ended up by ignoring it, and got the coins from drops, and was able to finally complete the trial and get my ascendancy, later on. So it seems that it was just an issue with marking the quest as completed, and it did not affect my progression as I had feared.

3. For the Burning Monolith I had a quest appearing, saying "Talk To Doryiani". However, nothing happened when I tried to do that.

Workaround: I was afraid that the end quest was bugged, but again, it seems that it was just something that solved itself. It seems that if you start exploring around the starting point at the atlas (marked with Home icon), and go about 2 screens in each direction, eventually you will find the Monolith when looking from the top of a tower. Only then will the dialogue continuation will be available from NPC, asking you to investigate. Make sure you have conquered the 3 Citadels and have a fragment from each to brave the Arbiter.

Suggestion: When the quest 1st appears, enable Doryiani to advise the player to search close to the starting point for the monolith and come back afterwards.

4. When doing the Sun Temple Map, and fighting the boss: Tonqui, Seer of the Sun. I have jumped toward the soldiers, and got caught on top of them, being unable to move. This happened once, and I almost died. It was a T16, but managed to kill the boss, and my char got released when the soldiers dissolved.

5. There are some maps that after fighting the boss in the arena, you cannot exit it anymore. There are 2 maps where this happened: Steaming Springs( a few times) and I think Woodland (only once).

Workaround: Create a portal outside the arena, or not, but do not open a portal inside the arena, or your map is lost. Once the boss is killed, if the exit is blocked, exit the game, char selection is OK, and log back in. You can take a portal where last opened. Learned it the hard way.

6. Forge Map - sometimes it feels as if I fall out of screen - all goes dark. I manage to roll back into the screen, but it looks bad, and may be dangerous.

7. Some maps do not allow you to open the portal from the arena after you killed the boss. It says, 'Portals are not allowed during a fight with the boss'. Two of them have this issue: Expedition Boss, and well, forgot the other.

8. Essences - if little spiders are trapped within - the will jump through the spell and hit you, follow you even. And they are invulnerable. You need to trigger the essence fast or you might be toast.

9. Sometimes the checkpoints are in the décor, and we are unable to trigger them. I.E. Steaming Spring starting checkpoint - it has happened many times.

10. Mobs are in an area that is completely inaccessible. It has happened a few times in maps like Savanah and I think Deserted, the ones which have those stalagmites rising from the ground. Once a rare got in one and I was fortunate to sneak a few arrow through and kill it, but it was not easy.

11. Sometimes I get slowed in a map, and the effect persists, with no debuf on my char

Workaround: Port to hideout and enter the map back. This seems to clear it.

12. In the Vaal Factory, sometimes you get ensnared by the ropes of the mobs, and they seem to lengthen and come with you for a few screens before breaking off.

13. Even after the 0.1.1 patch, some Citadels show as failed after boss is defeated. Sometimes is no big deal, other times it sucks, since that blocks your progression in Atlas and you need to go around a lot to continue on your path.

14. Untainted Paradise - The experience gain shown in the Atlas doe not match with the one displayed in the map itself, on map info (hitting Tab). I see like ~500% on the Atlas, but only ~290% in the map info.

15. Sometimes portions of the Atlas are not loading
Workaround: Go to char selection page and try again. It usually works after 1st try.

I am sure I have noticed more, but that is what I remember. Now, lets get to the things that I would like to see, aka Quality of Life improvements:

Suggestions and feedback
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1. The Atlas needs to have a bookmark feature. There are maps that I may want to visit at a later time. For example Citadels that I discover, but I want to try them once I level up, so my experience is not lost if I die. Maybe some Unique Maps that I want to do later, or even some buffed up maps I can't do right when I find them, since I am following up on some other task. Once the Atlas exploration goes to a certain size, it is hard to find a spot from before you want to visit later. If we would have the capability to mark such spots, it would be a breeze to go back to them, instead of browsing endlessly on the Atlas in the hope you will find that map you know you discovered.

2. Experience lost on dying. I know this is a hot topic. For the players that put more time than a casual in it, it is not such a big issue. You get more currency and popping an orb of Amelioration that negates 75% of experience lost when dying is not so bad, so I don't mind it too much. But for the casual player, it kinda stings. Maybe something should be done in this direction.

3. Since POE 1, the arrow keys are hardcoded to move the map around. However, I use them to play, and there is no way to assign other keys to move the map.

Could we add some other keys, or just use a combination of key + mouse to do that. It is implemented already in the Waypoint map system, so it should be easy enough to do using that mechanic. Even use the Waypoint map layout would be fine, just let us access it at will.

4. And talking about the waypoints, it is a good idea, but needs more flexibility. For example there are huge maps with only 2 waypoints, at the start and at the end. I have rarely used them, even on the maps where there are more than one.

The big reason is that you can only access a Waypoint from another one. It would be great if there will be more, like on some particular maps, and if you could access them from anywhere on the map, say, if you are out of combat.

5. The drops for Breach, Simulacrum, Expedition, Ritual should be evened out. Right now there is a big discrepancy in being able to advance the Atlas section for them. For example for Breach is quite easy, then Expedition comes, which is not too bad, then Simulacrum, which takes forever to get the shards, but you still can, and then, well, I still need to see the Meeting with the King for rituals, which never drops. Will get it from the market, but I think the drop rate should be adjusted.

6. For Ultimatum, please add a way to save your progression in a similar way you do it for Sekhemas. Auto-save + optional save. It was not once that I crashed or dced/crashed in the middle of it, or even at the end, and all my progression was lost. Shouldn't be too hard to address.

7. During the campaign, the drops are very scarce, I felt like on Ruthless on POE 1. With no easy way to effectively find good gear(and no real currency that early into the game to buy it) some bosses proved a notch too hard to down by myself, so for a couple I needed to ask help from other players. Which is fine, but maybe some adjustments to drops/bosses should be done.

8. And talking about partying with other people, well, in groups I died mostly because I could not see anything through all the spell effects on the screen. Could not even see myself. Please make it an option to be able to hide other players spell effects, so we can effectively party. They are awesome and all, but can't see a thing of the real fight because of them.

9. I know a lot of people are complaining that the Sekhemas are too hard, and it took me a long of time until I have found the best relics that allowed me to claim the last points in my Ascendency, but it is doable. However, after I have done that, I have found out I have no real reason to go back there, and have a lot of coins just sitting in my inventory, so I don't pick them anymore. How about make it worth revisiting - for respecing your ascendancy or well, just for special loot?

All in all, the game is awesome, and the boss fights are some of the best I have seen. Good job on that, and keep adding more fun fights. It may take a while to learn them and they may seem hard/frustrating at times, but they are so fun.


Thank you for taking the time to read this, and thank you for an amazing game. Can't wait to see more.