UIUX, InGame, and Crafting problems

Hello GGG,

First of all i would like to thank you for POE2 which may not be finished yet but has already given me 150 hours of fun. I think that POE2 will be a top ARPG for several years. Like POE was and still is and which has brought 2300+ hours of fun and also frustration. Therefore, the reason for my post is the hope that the points i will list for POE2 will be revised.

UIUX

1: Clicks

In general i have the impression that in POE2 more clicks are needed to perform actions with NPC's, Gem System, Waypoint System, etc compared to POE.
Some examples:

- On the world map Act1 there is the point Mud Borrow. I click on it and level -1 of the world map is displayed where I click on Mud Borrow to finally teleport.
I would get less clicks if I just click on the world map level 0 Mud Borrow and teleport directly. I understand that we are in early access but there is no 3rd level in acts 1-3. Furthermore, in the endgame there is never again talk of any level of the world map(perhaps this will change when delve is implemented). So I ask myself why we need the thing with the levels at all?

- Why we have Salvage Bench, Reforging Bench and Disenchant Items.

# Reforging Bench:
In POE when i wanted to make 3 tier 2 maps out of 9 tier 1 maps i just sold 9 tier 1 maps to a seller who returned with 3 tier 2 maps. If I perform the same action in POE2 with Waystones and the reforging bench, this simply takes far too long as one Waystone is now produced after the other and has to be clicked for each production.

# Salvage Bench and Disenchant Items
If i sell an item in POE that is linked and has 3 different colors i get a Chromantic orb regardless of its rarity. Maybe we might have the same behavior if we sell an item with sockets to a seller and get Artificer's orb back. However, I do not want to say that this is the solution. However, what I would like to highlight is that there is a central point in POE where you can do all 3 actions. This is not the case in POE2. Which leads to the fact that when I finish a map I have to run back and forth to do my sales actions(At this point I would like to thank the person who designed Limestone Hideout because here all the action is in one place and close to each other).

2: Design

I think that the world map and the gem system are more confusing than they should be.

# World Map:

This takes a few minutes of reflection to understand what is happening.

As a new player, I didn't understand:
- How to go where
- The levels of the world map
- Did I make a boss or not

Once learned, this is no longer a problem, but in my case I created a second character to understand if I had made the boss. This is because the difference between a gray skull and a gray-yellow skull is very hard to see. The same goes for the treasure chests, etc.The world map is definitely not self-explanatory. With the second character I also understood how the map works in general. Because I paid more attention to it. A map should not leave any questions unanswered, neither claim my full attention.

# Gems
I'll say it right away, the gem system in POE is better!

in POE:
- All gems can be clearly identified(better design)
- I always know which gems I can have when I go to a seller(it lacks some ergonomics here, but if you have Siosa it's ok).
- All gems are available in endgame at Lilly. Here I would like to highlight that the way the gems are displayed is better. This is a more pragmatic approach.
- I see if a support skill gem is linked to a skill gem. This is displayed in the action bar(twitch).

in POE2:
- The pictures in the gem are so small that i can't clearly identify them.
- The gem list is only accessible if i have an uncut gem. Why? I begin the game I have no gems how do I plan my build?
- The Gem menu, it may be cute but it is less useful. And also here I find that more clicks are produced than before?


InGame

1: Path finding

It happens very often that my character gets stuck on a vase, pot or something else.
I find this annoying in some situations (with or without enemies) as it interrupts the fluidity of the game. If I remember correctly, there was the same problem in POE with Cyclone which was later solved by you. It seemed to me during this time that the path finding was generally improved for every character (and not just for the Cyclone skill).

2: Checkpoints

Where are the checkpoints in the endgame? After you have made it possible to teleport from one checkpoint to another, the checkpoints MUST be included in the endgame in order to eliminate backtracking.


Crafting

Sad truth. There is no crafting in POE2 and it is not so good in POE(even after all the improvements). I think using orb is a bit more like going to a casino than using a workbench.
Example: I take white shoes and use orb of transmutation. Yeah! Now I have 30% more movement speed. Now I use orb of augmentation and get more life. Ahhh, that's not so good as I have an Energy Shield build. And the shoes go in the bin.
At the moment, crafting is too random.
At least the Crafting Bench and the Blacksmith from Kingsmarch are missing. However, I also think that this is because we are in early access and many elements of the complete game are not yet available.


Your game is great, keep up the good work!