Getting to the end game takes too long

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TheBitterness wrote:

With that said, I'd be inclined to agree with your 3rd idea in allowing maps to occur sooner and given that the story has been experienced. Given the narrative it just doesn't make sense that players should have to wait to fight Atziri on Cruel or even Normal if they wanted to -after all, the last three letters of ARPG and that means a legitimate focus on story and, truly, one that isn't unduly gated by game mechanics.

If players were allowed access to maps at earlier difficulty tiers it stands to reason that something meaningful would have to happen to experience/items/access to difficulty tiers to prevent exploits. One option would be to prevent map exclusive items from dropping in lower-tier versions to preserve the integrity of the item's exclusivity. Another option would be to cut off experience past a certain point to prevent undue over-levelling, viz. over-levelling that wasn't a result of what I'd call 'natural play' in clearing but not repeating all of the zones, Corrupted areas and Forsaken Masters missions that are come upon. A further option would be to force completion of particular story-related maps to access higher tiers of difficulty. These are just off the top of my head and, of course, all of these can be done together or separately.

When it comes down to brass tacks I'm totally on board with allowing more players to see more cool things like maps. But, more than that, the notion of 'end game' and that being where the game actually starts needs to be put to fucking bed. Playing the game up to and through the most challenging content is the point, not experiencing a tiny slice of content that is supposed to be what the gameplay is all about.

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Kranyum wrote:

You are right in the fact that the game-play aspect of the game is not different in the early stages of the game compared to merciless and maps. However the economy is vastly different there.

The amount of wealth a level 65+ generates doesnt even come close to compare to what a low level character gets. Therefore, as economy is a big part of the game, especially in obtaning those items and gems that define your build (uniques, multistrike, cwdt, certain rares, etc) playing the late-game compared to the early game is definitely a lot different.

Also, maps in general, with their bosses and randomness also provide a good chunk of content which many players will rarely see.

Again this is more valid in hardcore than in softcore, but really applies to all the game...

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CanHasPants wrote:

^ I already addressed that last point of concern, but you've either ignored it, or I didn't explain well enough ^-^

Brief:
-No greater farming benefits than regular zones of the same level (gut map features that would enhance farming benefits--iiq, pack size / rarity mods, etc)
-Not freely sustainable, but very cheaply sustainable (if just buy, trans, and no rerolls, <1 alch max cost each); no added cost is necessary because they provide no greater farming benefit.
-Balanced solely around the concept of fun and variety.

Strictly speaking, frequent users of these features would be operating at a loss compared to farming regular content. They would receive the same quality of rewards as when facing similarly leveled content, but at an added cost of ideally only ~2 alterations. A cost content farmers do not need to pay. This feature exists solely to enhance the entertainment value when grinding those extra three or so levels to overcome the next difficulty wall in core content.

To put it differently, because I've already said this a few times. It is just like running regular content, except you are paying a nominal fee to experience a random environment with random pack compositions via a map-lite kind of system to do it--because most of the work for a map-lite kind of system already exist within the game.

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h3rp3s wrote:

HC isn't for you.