What should PoE 2 avoid in order to beat Diablo 4. Opinions ?

Soo i tried Diablo 4, even tho im not a huge fan of it. Their latest title in the series is not bad for what it`s meant to be, but it has so many negative elements that would make "me as a huge Diablo fan" if i were one, to avoid it at all costs in order to not support them create more things like this. Imo, Diablo 4 now is an extremely basic version of Lost Ark, that took almost same time to create, but with just 10-15 % of the content. So, some things i`ve noticed in D4 and disliked a lot, and for sure i would love if PoE 2 can avoid:

- psychological pricing. It`s the first thing that you see and it annoyed the hell out of me. Price is 69.99 not 70 $. This felt like an extremely cheap and greedy move, like a sleazy seller that tries to trick you into thinking its cheaper if you buy from him.

- 4 days early access for 30 $ more.What bothers me here is not this per say, but the dates between "releases". They used another extremely cheap trick here, as the official release date for "poor" gamers takes place in a work day, not start of weekend like the early one. This makes everyone with an actual job, to enjoy it fully for 4 more days after official release because work. This way they press u to spend the 100 $. Extremely cheap move.

- reused assets. Many complained about lack of colors in environment, and lack of diversity since all acts kinda look the same and all dungeons are exactly the same with different layout. They did this because it was cheaper.. and it shows. The maps are bland and if u did one dungeon, then u did all. Bosses get in this category also. 0 imagination, 0 creativity, reused same 5-6 bosses for 3-4 times. Once you finish story and reach end game, there is nothing new in matter of bosses.

- story is .. i mean PoE has almost no story so thats a + for Diablo. But their story is so badly written and cringe that it can easy pass a being written by a 12-14 yrs old school kid. Wont get into details here because spoilers.

- no end game. 0 . nada . Once you finished the 10-14 hours campaign, you might as well close the game and touch grass. Some dailies and same repetitive dungeons as in Diablo 3 and Lost Ark. Also u can spend 8-10 more hours to collect 160 shrines lol. "Try a new class, mew mew" For what ? If you make a new class u will reach the same 0 content end game, till u try all classes, and then what ?

- extremely tiresome music . I would like to invite those who created it into a room and keep them there 8 hours a day listening to it, in order to see for how long they can preserve their sanity. I could not handle it for more than 5 hours. Same repetitive drums and yelling music. Epic ofc, first 2-3 times, after that tho .. If you, as a composer, cant stand your own music that long, dont make others do it.

- Diablo IV was rated as a 88/100 9/10 game a week before it was even officialy released. This smells. And it smells really bad. They managed to transform every 4 classes internet journalist or wannabe content creator into a reviewer to raise the score of an unreleased game in order to trick as many people as possible into buying it. I for one will never trust any reviews ever again based on what happened now. Same with some streamers. At least i know where most of the game budget went now .. because sure as hell wasnt into its development lol .


Cant think of anything else right now but please PoE, please please dont mess it up like they did :( . If anyone else have other opinions i would love to hear them.

at some point games became less about the product and more about the money.

I'll name it "HAS" for Horse Armor Syndrome

On Topic of what poe in general should avoid to beat diablo:

-it should avoid forgetting where it came from and how it got here

-it should avoid dumbing down mechanics instead of adding simpler mechanics for those who would prefer them as an option.

RIP:
-Bethesda
-Blizzard

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WaterDropy wrote:

- story is .. i mean PoE has almost no story so thats a + for Diablo. But their story is so badly written and cringe that it can easy pass a being written by a 12-14 yrs old school kid. Wont get into details here because spoilers.

PoE has no story? What are you smoking? Have you ever even bothered to dive into any part of the story at all?

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TemjinGold wrote:

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WaterDropy wrote:

- story is .. i mean PoE has almost no story so thats a + for Diablo. But their story is so badly written and cringe that it can easy pass a being written by a 12-14 yrs old school kid. Wont get into details here because spoilers.

PoE has no story? What are you smoking? Have you ever even bothered to dive into any part of the story at all?

He hasn't he doesn't read.

A story that is badly told is the same as no story at all. I agree POE has a story but I think its presentation is so poor it is as if there is no story at all.

Things like persistant characters don't show up until the very endgame(Kirac, etc)

There should be characters that should move from town to town with you. Not counting Helena since she does nothing in the story.

Town's should be towns. This is a criticism I have of Diablo as well (Haven't played D4). When I enter a town I want it to feel like a town/settlement. Not a campsite with 5-6 people. Not everyone in town has to have a purpose. A bigger more important town increases the importance of the events going on in the story. If in act 5 there was a bunch of people holding up and trying to escape danger I would feel more impact from the story.

Explain events in the story visually instead of through text and audio clips. It doesn't have to be in cutscenes but more in game moments of stuff happening and the environment is changing right in front of you.

Environment change while you are looking at it. Most of the map changes occur off screen and that loses a lot of impact. Imagine if you saw the destruction of Templar Courts and Oriath as it was happening instead of just being that way suddenly.

Cumbersome trading?

"Friction" aka "player frustration".

POE Game has more to offer at this point in D4 stage this being said
D4 will make more money and have more player playing it then POE
Based on the player base
Even if POE and POE2 is better then D4
D4 is more noob friendly then POE

I'm sure if 1 million player starts D4 and POE today new a lot more player will stay with D4 more noob friendly since their seeing success in their character which feels good
In POE you will guaranteed to need help and understanding when starting which feels bad

Blizzard is just a bigger industry game then GGG
Much higher player base then POE
there advertisement hype -movie trailer and probably and marketing are better then POE


POE can become the king long live POE :)

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TemjinGold wrote:

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WaterDropy wrote:

- story is .. i mean PoE has almost no story so thats a + for Diablo. But their story is so badly written and cringe that it can easy pass a being written by a 12-14 yrs old school kid. Wont get into details here because spoilers.

PoE has no story? What are you smoking? Have you ever even bothered to dive into any part of the story at all?

What story? You were exiled to a post-apocalyptic continent for reasons the Templar likely fabricated to get rid of you. You perform a lot of jobs for people simply asking for favors, yet have no real ambitions of your own. You don't go out of your way to kill Dominus and Malachai, you simply did it because someone in town asked you to. Gods start waking up and causing havoc so another god tells you to fix your fuckup and has you start collecting souls he needs to make you something to defeat the Big Bad.

The endgame? Turns out there's worlds between worlds and now there's an infant eldritch horror nesting in it and your job is to keep it preoccupied in that domain while shaking off other eldritch horrors from claiming it. Again, you didn't go out and do this of your own volition, someone else told you to do it.

If there's anything to glean from this "story", you're a much smaller version of Sin's Beast. You're a two-legged monster with no ambition, yet you carry weapons and magic rocks that not only kill gods, but eldritch horrors from the void.

Going to throw my two cents in here. POE story is great 'IF' you look for it. For a personal favourite example, Fairgraves. If you pay attention to what happens just with him, he backstabs us round 1 (ok, fine, maybe we would have done the same), but our toon then holds a major grudge. This is why he dies instead of resurrecting after round 2, we may have gone and gathered his ingredients for him, but we blow out his lantern/flame/resurrection thingy before he drinks his concoction. It's not rubbed in your face story-wise, you have to pay attention to what's happening/been happening to pick up on what he means by 'what have you done?'.

As for towns, no, I would be disappointed if POE2 towns were like, say Baulder's gate, or even divinity. I hated running around talking to every peasant in them on the off-chance they might have a side quest for me. Oh, didn't check every inch of the wheat field? No super quest chain for you then (laaame)...

For what I would like them to avoid, yeah, all your points like psychological pricing or crappy music are good points, but I feel they all come under the larger umbrella of 'made for the gamers'. If a game is made with the gamer's experience as a priority, it really does show. If the game is made with money grabbing exploits in mind, well, it also shines through. Lot of developers think they're being sneaky nowadays, then wonder why they lose so much of their player base so quickly. So yeah, the core of POE is a solid base to work from already, I'll be happy if POE2 is just made for the gamers...

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Mezbanine wrote:

Going to throw my two cents in here. POE story is great 'IF' you look for it. For a personal favourite example, Fairgraves. If you pay attention to what happens just with him, he backstabs us round 1 (ok, fine, maybe we would have done the same), but our toon then holds a major grudge. This is why he dies instead of resurrecting after round 2, we may have gone and gathered his ingredients for him, but we blow out his lantern/flame/resurrection thingy before he drinks his concoction. It's not rubbed in your face story-wise, you have to pay attention to what's happening/been happening to pick up on what he means by 'what have you done?'.

Either they changed Fairgraves's lines, or this is completely made up. Nowhere in the quest to make him kill himself to try and trick the Allflame into reviving him does it suggest you sabotaged his efforts. He drinks the plum juice, feels really weird, then realizes the Allflame had gone out. He panics, sees death approaching, and promptly dies.

Nowhere in that exchange is it suggested you blew out the Allflame to spite him. Hell, nowhere after the first encounter was it implied you have a grudge. You made a remark and moved on, assuming he was dead for real. Hell if you play the Duelist or Ranger, it sounds like you feel sympathy towards his current situation. That doesn't sound like someone who wants to blow out the flame.