Supporter newsletter 52

Issue
This is a copy of Eternal and Diamond Supporter Newsletter #52, published by Grinding Gear Games.

Hey Diamond, Eternal, Unique Item Creators, and now, Conqueror Supporters,

The name of the upcoming mini-expansion was revealed on Friday. Check here: http://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/793831 if you haven’t seen it yet.

Working on this content has been a great deal of fun. Since the initial concept was developed, it has taken on a life of its own, and a lot of great ideas have flooded from the initial concepts.

I really look forward to players being able to play with what we have been working on. The corruption of the Vaal past on the gems has been especially interesting. We’ve been able to combine the old skill gems with new mechanics with really fantastic results.

I have started including Conqueror supporters in these newsletters since Conqueror supporters have shown an interest in receiving the newsletter.

Flavour and Items

Balance and game mechanics are not the only consideration when making an item. Flavour also matters, and the game mechanics should respect and complement this flavour. An item can have a particular theme of its own. For example, has two related themes: Area of Effect and Gore. These combine into a splash damage theme that follows into every part of the item. The name (as well as matching the name of the supporter whose item it is), the flavour text and the mechanics all work together for this theme.

As well as flavour related to the item itself, flavour needs to consider two other elements. The cultures and time periods of Wraeclast, and the correspondences of attributes and elements.

Most of the unique items in the game come from the time period of the Eternal Empire. There are number of cultures from this time period, such as the Karui, the Maraketh and the Eternal Empire itself. There are also earlier and later cultures such as the Vaal and the Azmeri. There are also some items from cultures further afield than mere time differences such as Ephemeral Edge and Voidhome.

We aim to keep the art history and the mechanics of these peoples consistent and appropriate. I won’t try to give you a full breakdown of the differences here, but if you look closely at the unique items you should see repeated patterns there.

We also have a very deliberate system of correspondences between elements, attributes, mechanics, cultures, classes and other game elements.

In general uniques will follow these correspondences. Sometimes we deliberately pitch uniques as having things counter to these correspondences as being what is special with the item. We are gratified when this gets noticed (although we have been accused of making mistakes in these cases), and we generally provide some flavour that explains it is meant to be off “colour pie”.

A well designed item is a complete package of mechanics, balance and flavour. All these elements should meld together into a understandable whole. Anyone should be able to look at an item and understand its theme and function at a glance.

Insider Info

Newsletter number 47 included some concept art for an upcoming monster (http://i.imgur.com/X4RLLPG.jpg). This time, you can see further development of the monster:

http://i.imgur.com/NW1SplF.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/TZFaYk1.jpg