Why I'm done with this game (at least for now)

If you feel the aprg game has to end when you hit level cap, I think you are stuck thinking about games how they were 10 years ago rather than how they can be today.

Hellgate, Diablo 3, and other game will/have proven additional content at level cap is perfectly enjoyable in the context of arpgs.

As long as you're improving your character somewhat consistently, he will still be a lot of fun to play. People stop playing characters when that cycle ends or slows down so much they get bored.

Just want to put in a quick point on the "craft vs. trade" debate - once there is a large enough population in-game that there is a functional economy, those two things will hit an equilibrium point. Either it will be easier to find good items as drops, or it will be easier to craft them. If it's easier to get them as drops, people will farm as their main mechanism to get items, with crafting just a bonus that gives nice results every now and then. If it's easier to craft them, then market prices should settle so that it is slightly more expensive to buy a good item than it would be to craft it for yourself.

In other words, once this game gets bigger - and I fully expect it will - trading won't really be a viable way of getting high-level gear, as it'll take as much work to get it by farming or crafting. (With the exception of "I've got a good witch item, you've got a good duelist item, let's swap them" trading... which I think is a much rarer form of trading than trading for currency.)

Median XL crafting gives one or more near-guaranteed affixes depending on which reagent you use + you are usually only looking for one specific affix, at best two, because you can add all the other ones yourself with a different recipe. Reagents also drop fairly commonly in piles of 10 and you rarely need more than 100 rerolls to get what you need (a scary number in itself).

And still this is a giant dupe magnet.

Spending resources and having nothing to show for it is not fun.

......

This thing is the reason why Diablo 2 went from a rare-centric economy before the expansion to a unique/runeword-centric economy afterwards.

Due to the extreme randomness of rares, there was a huge difference between regular gear and The Best gear. An item with X number of good affixes it is much harder to find than the same item with X-1 good affixes and WAY harder to find than the item with 1 affix, but also much stronger.

As a result, the game started out fairly hard but became easier and easier as time went on and more people laid their hands on super rare gear with multiple powerful affixes.

It is much easier to control the power curve in a unique-based environment: either you have the unique or you don't.

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Zaanus wrote:

If you feel the aprg game has to end when you hit level cap, I think you are stuck thinking about games how they were 10 years ago rather than how they can be today.

I dont say, it makes no fun to play a topped char - I say it is given from the concept that there it no further "extra" reward to do so... There comes a point where its not necessary (and maybe a point where its not even possible) to further improve this char, at least from this on, the reward (in drops) is "only" to get (better) items for your other (or completely new) chars, or for trades.

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Zaanus wrote:

Hellgate, Diablo 3, and other game will/have proven additional content at level cap is perfectly enjoyable in the context of arpgs.

Hellgate failed by ways I cant comment from never having tried, and D3 is (at least to me) equal far in the future like POE release, and the changes they announce sounds not like so much addtitional features beeing fix.
My comparsion for "additional end game content" so far is Median (XL) - and even there its only a limited part of the game (if the bonus quest reward has varying values, you can try to perfect it, beside this there is no reward to do it multiple times (you get the reward only once to use). Make specific items drop only in predefined areas is not a problem demanding content-after-game_end...

As long as you're improving your character somewhat consistently, he will still be a lot of fun to play. People stop playing characters when that cycle ends or slows down so much they get bored.[/quote]

For my understanding of this games: if you dont enjoy to play your (finished) char without reward, without constantly further improving: you made a wrong char. Or (even if you're not willing to make a new one) you play the wrong game.

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BrotherLaz wrote:

Median XL crafting gives one or more near-guaranteed affixes depending on which reagent you use... Reagents also drop fairly commonly in piles of 10 and you rarely need more than 100 rerolls to get what you need (a scary number in itself).

I pointed at the MXL shrine craft system some time ago for taking out some of the arbitrary randomness of the reroll craftings. "Problem" at MXL (compared to POE adaption) is that it is out of reach for the first half (or 2/3) of the game (by the availability of the shrines, as difference between making crafts and rerolling/improving magicals/rares)

Another difference in the behaviour of MXL results from the limited possibilities of changing the core content of D2 - leading into all that endgame content, which makes these parts way more enjoying for the most players. With the concept of POE (and its further support by the devs) it is possible to include all this into the regulary storyline, writing the story itself further more and more
-> the additional content can be moved from (after-)"end" game into the game.

lol this is still in close beta and there will be a wipe before open beta therefore to be in cb u should be testing builds, make constructive suggestions and report bugs etc...

just my 2 cents

Another alternative occurred to me, one which would probably require more interface work than anything else. I think it would be great if you could, when you were rerolling an item, lock some things in, so you'd only reroll stats you weren't satisfied with.

This totally avoids the main psychological problem here - the de-motivating effect of "losing" something you "have" when you're forced to reroll a halfway decent item with one or two great stats, to try to get something better than halfway decent. Sure, it'll reduce the number of rerolls needed to make a great item - but it's not like it would only take 10-20 rolls, it would just go from "totally ridiculous" to "a lot". And, it would have interesting decision-making points - do I let myself be locked in at +X% damage or attack speed, or do I let that good number go, hoping to get something great?

I too know what it's like to feel thirsty.

Haven't played since I had the same experience in 9.3.

nough said :(

RNG, someone please tell me what that really means. I always thought that it meant "Randon number between a and z, not 99% random number between a-m and 1% random number between n-z."

Used alpha chars as an example, hope you guys get my point.

Sad puppy :(

Wow, thx kodr for answering a completely rhetorical question.