The Path of Exile beta for The Fall of Oriath is still ongoing and while it was overall a quiet week, a lot happened to get the expansion ready for launch later this year. In addition, devs spent time at last week's E3 in Los Angeles and have a brief wrap report with links to some of the awesome coverage.
GATHERING DATA IN BETA
So many players have been taking part in The Fall of Oriath expansion beta that GGG has been able to gather a ton of data to make some alterations in game play and fix some bugs. For over a week's worth of data, it's a surprisingly small amount of things to fix, once again showing the attention to detail that devs put into content before releasing it.
The first more major round of fixes, though other, smaller hotfixes have also been deployed. The major points addressed are as follows:
Below we've listed some of the core fixes going in the patch. (Note: These are not the patch notes and smaller updates have been excluded from the list):
- Players can no longer bypass the magic barrier in The Ruined Square by using movement skills.
- Shock Nova can now be supported by Spell Echo
- Vaal side areas will no longer spawn inaccessible portals.
- The Atziri portal variation will no longer apply to regular maps.
- Monsters will no longer leave floating weapons on death.
- Crimson Scholars can no longer be desecrated.
- Fixed several audio problems, including crackling.
- Fixed an issue where the "More Fire Damage" on a "Chance to Ignite" support gem was not working correctly.
- The "Bloodlust" support gem will now properly indicate "Supported Attacks cannot cause Bleeding".
- Bleeds applied by Spike Traps found in the Labyrinth and Trials now deal more damage.
- You can no longer return to the Act 5 boss room completing the fight.
- Fixed an issue with the "Cluster Traps" support gem applying the "Less Trap Damage" modifier twice.
- Fixed an issue where Bannon would output dialogue to chat incorrectly.
- Ascendancy Trials found in Maps can now be interacted with and will show your current trial completion.
- You can now interact with the noticeboard in Act 7.
- Arakaali should no longer be able to drop inaccessible loot.
- You'll now only find one Vaal Vessel in a Corrupted side zone.
- Saving your settings should now properly save them.
- We have fixed several crashes.
And, yes, the Ebony Barracks waypoint has been moved back to its original position!
There will be another round of fixes patched in later this week and a beta wipe when that happens. This will allow the team to collect more data on leveling and Act 8. Once that's done, the third patch should be deployed next week that will target balance and polishing.
In addition to working on the game itself, GGG introduced a new set of eleven support gems covering a wide variety of uses. You can check them all out here.
E3 EXCITEMENT & COVERAGE
GGG's Chris, Jonathan and Nick were on hand during E3 in Los Angeles last week and gave attendees a chance to check out Oriath and the XBox One version of the game.
Hey guys, Chris here! We had a crazy week at E3 showing The Fall of Oriath and our Xbox One version to dozens of members of the press and thousands of gamers. In addition to our own private meeting room at E3 (for journalist appointments), we were lucky enough to have a stand at the Microsoft booth with four Xbox One X consoles to show Path of Exile off at 4k/60fps. I'd like to also thank all the community members who came up to chat and check out the latest version of the game. It was great to meet you all.
You can check out all of the press coverage here.
That pretty well wraps up the week. While quiet, a lot of good things are happening in beta. Have you been testing Oriath? What do you think so far? Leave us your thoughts in the comments!