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

I'm in no position to say whether or not the randomness that Rodhull was talking about makes for a good system or a bad system. I, personally, think it's bad - and I tend to think in the long run they would make more money if their system provided rewards that were more in line with what people traditionally respond to. But, my personal opinion isn't backed up by any kind of data, it's just my personal opinion.

HOWEVER... if it's a bad system, "that's how ARPGs do it" isn't a good reason to stick with it. Assuming GGG wants to make a game that is seen as a leader, rather than just a clone of something else, slavishly following bad genre conventions is not the way to go. Also, I fully agree with Die_scream that the randomness of orb rolling is a different kind of randomness than one expects in an ARPG - as evidenced by the fact that although I generally like ARPGs, and don't mind the loot drop system, the rolling system in POE frustrated me enough that I'm not playing any more.

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simnel wrote:

I tend to think in the long run they would make more money if their system provided rewards that were more in line with what people traditionally respond to.

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simnel wrote:

slavishly following bad genre conventions is not the way to go.

Alrighty then.

I have a suggestion to increase the chances with some orbs. You could combine orbs, such as jewelers to increase the chance you would get more sockets. Something like 5 jewelers to guarantee at least 3 sockets and 15 jewelers to guarantee at least 4 sockets. Same thing with fusing orbs. The ratios I have used are just examples of how the system would work and would need to be tweaked. I'm not sure if it would be a good idea to say combine 50 jewelers and be guaranteed 6 sockets though. Sure some people may like the 100% chance for 6 sockets but it will totally take the risk out. Also to combine these orbs you would need a very rare combining orb.

This is just a quick suggestion or how to increase the chance for people, without making it too easy to perfect your gear still.

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Sarganym wrote:

Should players be guarunteed to get better gear? Were you ever guarunteed to get better gear in the old greats of HnS?

Its not a one of the "old greats" but this doesnt matter if there is an example to improve - Torchlight:

It is areal mess to ruin a long awaited 'blank' item with (a) rare and expensive ingredient(s) - and thats how crafting works right now.
In Torchlight you got a chance to improve an item, with a rising risk of a total ruin as drawback (chance & risk calculatable in %), ending in a (for my opinion) well balanced option. I suggested earlier (in this or other therad?) to adapt this for the crafting in POE, maybe by new, additional orb recipes. (could be as rolled stat modifiers with larger + then -, could be as a chance to upgrade a tier of affixes, or other ways somebody could imagine - with a major percentage to do nothing and a very minor percentage to went negative)

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morgjorg wrote:

Because time is a finite resource in short supply to most human beings?

Whats beeing wrong with the developers intention to stay on the game for a decade? There is a inherent need to consume time in the game concept...

If you have no time for anything but (a) game, you may be addicted; if you want to be always the fastest (and best), no matter of your available time compared to others (instead of maybe become best in some time), I'd call you a fanatic.

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Chris wrote:

It's pretty likely that an upcoming patch will contain the following change:

When you use a Jeweler's or Fusing orb on an item, the quality of the item will be set to zero, and that quality will be consumed increasing the chances of a good outcome of the orb.
For example, if I have a sword with 10% quality and I use an Orb of Fusing on it, there's a higher chance that I get good links. The sword is then set to zero quality.

This has several side effects:

• People are able to use their lesser currency items to increase their chances of their risky rolls going well.
• Currency items like whetstones will be needed at additional stages in the crafting process (for example, to restore the quality after using the orb that consumes it).

It's possible (but not certain) that this change could also affect other currency items, also. We're still iterating on it.

Any thoughts?

Sounds good, but it also sounds like you'd need to drastically improve the drop rates of armor scraps and blacksmith whetstones considering people routinely use hundreds of fusings and jeweler's orbs and fail to get the results they wanted. The current ratio of armor scraps to fusings or jewelers is nowhere near 20:1.

This is why I have high faith in you guys. You always find great solutions to nasty problems, and not rarely outside the box. You listen to your fans well.

I like the new idea, but I can second that it will need some re-evaluation for the droprate of the droprate of all the orbs, socketing and quality alike for the system to be good.

One more possible idea would be a rare "orb of luck" which could be used in a similar way without messing with the quality item economy. One could say that the quality currencies may need to have a larger significance in the market.

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Chris wrote:

It's pretty likely that an upcoming patch will contain the following change:

When you use a Jeweler's or Fusing orb on an item, the quality of the item will be set to zero, and that quality will be consumed increasing the chances of a good outcome of the orb.
For example, if I have a sword with 10% quality and I use an Orb of Fusing on it, there's a higher chance that I get good links. The sword is then set to zero quality.

This has several side effects:

• People are able to use their lesser currency items to increase their chances of their risky rolls going well.
• Currency items like whetstones will be needed at additional stages in the crafting process (for example, to restore the quality after using the orb that consumes it).

It's possible (but not certain) that this change could also affect other currency items, also. We're still iterating on it.

Any thoughts?

Two possibilities:
- Bonus from quality sucks enough so that it does not matter in practice - making the entire mechanic a waste of time.
- Bonus from quality matter enough to make it a must, turning the game into an endless right click + left click fest - Using 10 fusing on a rare = 210 right clicks + 210 left clicks.

On the surface a good idea, but getting it implemented right won't be easy.

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Honestly I think the currency system is broken.

The "real" value of currency items is very limited - Sure you can roll new mods on a rare with a Chaos Orb, but the odds of rolling something good (or even godly) are so mind-numbingly low, that in practice its not worth it.

Add to that silly low drop rates, and you end up realizing that even if you played 8 hours a day for years, you will never ever have a practical shot a rolling a godly or near godly item (and I mean 1 item).

(I'm trying to say that the inherit value in no way lives up to the rarity - only exception is the mirror).

As-is the system is just pure frustration and disappointment.

So either dramatically up the drop rates and/or add full conversion (buy and sell, with a spread) OR add in a bias (higher ilvl (+quality?) = higher chance to roll high level mod(s) / max sockets / max links).

Then they just have change the shift right click on stacks a bit so you can use 20 whetstones at once on an item.

edit: or something as ctrl click on a stack