Mark continued:
Its very easy to get over complicated with these elements.
So we’ve tried to keep it not too heavy on the engineering needs.
If you were to do that as its own game, you would go way more in-depth there.
This isnt so in-depth that you feel like you’re not playing an action-RPG anymore.
The team does not intend on easing up with future expansions, either.
Ideally, we can keep doing it.
I’m going to push that as far as I can every single time without question.
This isnt to say that Settlers of Kalguur wasnt directly impacted by Path of Exile 2, however.
In fact, it owes a hell of a lot to the sequel’s development.
Being able to use that art allows us to do a lot more, a lot quicker.
This doesnt take anything away from Path of Exile 2, however.
I’m certainly not going to stop here.
I really, really like that stuff.
Like, a lot.
Its not that difficult to keep the ongoing lore of both games straight, either.
This way, the player gets to choose how much of their actual time the shipping mechanic uses up.
Another system coming to Settlers of Kalguur is actually fairly old: recombination.
It is Kalguuran technology, and we figured were doing a Kalguuran League.
Some of our players are pretty crazy, he laughed.
But this is a play-at-your-own-pace League, you know?
Like, do what you want.
Do what you feel comfortable with and optimise the way you want."
Like, how big of a shipment should I send?
Should I upgrade disenchanting, or should I spend this gold upgrading mining again instead?
Should I hire more people, or should I do something else?
There are so many different decisions to make and there’s no real wrong answer.
Just do whatever you feel comfortable with, what you think is right.
You wont be overly penalised for doing anything.
Melee characters are also getting a massive overhaul with this expansion.
To compensate for this loss, almost every single Melee Skill has been buffed for more damage.
Mark seemed particularly enthused by these changes.
Its something we havent done in a long time on the live realm.
So are so many of our staff.
Its unprecedented for a lot of us.
Im going to try making a melee support character and get that going, using Warcries and Banners.
Im confident it will work to some degree.
Im very excited for that, honestly.
Was this expansion affected by negative player feedback to the Necropolis League?
Path of Exiles last 3.24 update, the Necropolis League, wasnt exactly received warmly by most players.
I would say there’s no direct correlation in that regard.
We changed internal processes to see to it we’re more careful.
When you are pushing out patches this big and this quickly, there’s obviously risk involved.
Balance in particular, can go out a little bit volatile.
And that was something that happened a lot in 3.24.
Mark continued by saying that, I think [Necropolis] still was a pretty big success.
Nothing is off the cards.
Everything is something we want to reevaluate and get right.
