My thoughts on Delve

I try to limit my rants about things, but with all due respect, this is the second league I've seen that makes me want to.

The infinite dungeon idea itself is awesome - I've seriously been wanting to see this since the first Endless Ledge races. I also like the idea of the environment punishing you for straying too far from the beaten path without some level of protection. I'm even a fan of the Crawler being used for navigation, plus the Voltaxic Sulphite used for it. However, Delve makes a lot of the same mistakes as Bestiary - which saps enough of the fun out of the league to make me not want to play it.

One, Delve introduces new controls to the system. We have more than enough controls to not need to add more - I shouldn't have to go assigning more keys to do stuff like throw flares or dynamite.

Second, Delve requires too much micromanagement. It would have been much more straightforward to take a cue from Incursion and make Dynamite a simple non-stackable inventory item that is used as soon as you interact with an eligible target (without needing a new user input command) - Niko could be adjusted to sell dynamite. The flare concept could have been set up as a torch on your helmet (for example) that powers off of Azurite, and shuts off automatically when in the presence of something that consumes Voltaxic Sulphite (thereby keeping the Crawler intact). It would still be possible to keep the upgrade parts relatively intact for the torch by relating light radius, etc. to it.

Third, the major elements are poorly explained. If there is an explanation for Fractured Walls, it's sorely lacking in clarity.

I think the league can be salvaged...but as much as I hate to say this, especially so soon on, I'm leaning more and more towards supporting it sharing the same fate as Bestiary if it stays the way it is now.

It could be me, but this league (I've been playing the game since Breach) is the first one that kept me locked in with the screen for full three days. As a side note, I skipped delves while leveling because previous leagues did not leave a good impression on me until I got to the maps and picked up some gear along the way. Just after that I started enjoying them so I did not want to risk with this one.

Some small things I do feel need polishing but I am not sure how exactly.
1) Flares: I don't feel safe using them. I am not sure where it will drop and when it will lit up (that could be because I usually start panic-clicking in darkness)

2) Crawler: I am not sure when it will (or will it) stop. I keep trying to calculate the timing but without success. I am usually left out in the darkness too far. Some already suggested, maybe introducing stop command could help.

3) Very strong contrast in rooms: I sometimes have no idea what is happening because of the black background with very strong fluorescent colors over it. It feels like I'm on a rave party with too much LSD.

Regarding the expensiveness of the upgrades, I think the reason for it was to push player to play left/right a bit more than just going straight forward down, trying to push ladder. Now, this has two sides: I understand this is a very big downsides for players fighting for their spot to shine, but there is A LOT of us which don't feel that competitive and don't really think about this league that way. From that perspective, I enjoy searching for azurite and I don't feel like it's a punishment. Along the way I pick up items, gems and everything I need. Having to calculate what amount of azurite to spend on what keeps me engaged in the game and not just mindlessly grind.

The concept of endless dungeon is awesome and I can't stop exploring. I run through the maps just to pick up sulphite and jump back into the mine. This is the first league where I feel like I am playing another game and it's a great enhancement for me.

Overall, I feel like it is very hard for developers to keep happy all type of players at the same time; HC, SSF, new players. First ones will die too soon, second ones need more loot and the third ones have no idea what is happening.
Maybe you could engage one of each type in QA process just to be sure what are the downsides and try to ease them.

I see now I left too far away from the point I was trying to make:
there are players which really enjoy this league and I just wanted to say that out loud.

do you think the devs or exiles gonna waste time reading such a long posts or can you atleast short it a bit?

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dvasan wrote:

do you think the devs or exiles gonna waste time reading such a long posts or can you atleast short it a bit?

if think reading a post that takes ~2 minutes at most is hard maybe you shouldn't be thinking about giving decent feedback the developers can chew on for awhile about options to improve w/e is people feel is bad.