Atlas Map Drops For Fully Locked Tiers (Unspecified Interaction)

So far GGG has not mentioned what happens when the game will try and drop a map for a tier that you have completed locked. For example, if you buy a tier 15 map when you haven't done anything in your atlas thus far you'll have only that tier 15 and it's adjacent maps, along with the starting tier 1s, as eligible map drops. So what happens when the game decides to drop you a tier 7 map? Let's add one more stipulation that you have a certain tier 3 map unlocked as well for the sake of discussion.

There are a number of ways to handle this and I'd love to know what GGG's current plan is on how to handle it and what others would want to happen as well. The reason this is important is it could heavily influence how you fill out your atlas.

As far as I see it these are the 4 possible resolutions:

1) No map drops at all, you don't have that tier unlocked after all.

2) The lowest tier (1) map drops instead, you should still get a map of some kind.

3) The tier immediately below drops that you have unlocked (tries to drop 7, but you only have a tier 3 unlocked so it drops tier 3). Same rationale as 2, should still be rewarded for your earned drop, though at a fraction of the value since you haven't unlocked things.

4) The tier of the map is entirely rerolled.


I personally think the 4th option is very abusable and not a good idea, but it is a possible solution.

edit: Since it came up in the thread and is a good point. I'll add that the normal use case of just playing through the atlas runs into this issue as well. Imagine you're playing your first map, so you can only drop tier 1s and a single tier 2 (the one you're connected to). Now you kill the boss and it wants to drop a +2 map, but obviously you couldn't have had one unlocked yet, what does it do with that map drop? Solution 1) above seems incredibly punishing, you essentially got the best drop possible but instead because it's your first map it turns out to be the worst drop (of course you'd never know and you would just think it didn't roll any map drop, but still).

I've been expecting (2) or (3), but if GGG thinks the +100% global map drop bonus is significant enough to outweigh tier abuse by only ever running gorge and its neighbors, then I could see them using (4).

(1) seems kind of horrible though.

.

I expect #3.

#4 would be way too easy to abuse, especially since they now announced you can relock maps if you don't want them in your pool. You could go up the tiers normally, get to t12+, lock everything below and have greatly increased chance of t12+ maps.

"

Entropic_Fire wrote:

#1 seems most likely to me, why would they reward you further for buying a top tier map and skipping progression like that?

Neither 2 nor 3 is a "reward" in any sense at all. #1 is just the strictest possible "punishment". Only #4 is a "reward".

According to the ZiggyD Atlas video, #1 is the correct answer, or a "failed drop".

"

rondanashu wrote:

According to the ZiggyD Atlas video, #1 is the correct answer, or a "failed drop".

Unless I'm missing something, his wording doesn't imply 1) at all, in fact all 4 possibilities in the OP fit with what Ziggy said just fine. All it says is that you can't get a +2 if you haven't unlocked it, that is known. What isn't known is if that +2 would turn into a different map drop or just be nothing.

Obviously it could be 1), it just hasn't been explicitly mentioned to my knowledge.

.

"

Entropic_Fire wrote:

"

habbey wrote:

"

rondanashu wrote:

According to the ZiggyD Atlas video, #1 is the correct answer, or a "failed drop".

Unless I'm missing something, his wording doesn't imply 1) at all, in fact all 4 possibilities in the OP fit with what Ziggy said just fine. All it says is that you can't get a +2 if you haven't unlocked it, that is known. What isn't known is if that +2 would turn into a different map drop or just be nothing.

Obviously it could be 1), it just hasn't been explicitly mentioned to my knowledge.

Wait are +2 maps ever directly connected to each other on the Atlas, or does this mean you can never find +2's at all as you're progressing through the Atlas the first time?

Looking at a map, it's hard to say in all cases, but certainly there appears to be many cases where there are no +2's connected, so ya. Which is another reason it'd be really good to know how the mechanic works (and why solution #1 from the OP seems bad), its pretty lame to miss out on your map drop because it's the first time you have played a tier and you had the bad luck to roll the +2 tier.

"

Entropic_Fire wrote:

Wait are +2 maps ever directly connected to each other on the Atlas, or does this mean you can never find +2's at all as you're progressing through the Atlas the first time?

This is a really good point.