All my friends are getting D4: comments on mechanic complexity

As the title states most of my friends are grabbing D4, Most of them wouldn't interact with PoE anyway past an initial trial run except for a couple, If it weren't for people i know getting the game I'd not even give it any thought but since there are and i am..


I think its important going forward after PoE2 to polish the big wheel of content that will exist so that you have a variety of mechanics that require higher or lower amounts of available bandwidth for users to efficiently compete with each other in their given play styles and time availability.


Harvest on original release kept people like me very busy organizing gardens and optimizing them where as other users hated it with a burning passion it being a nightmare for them to manage all of the requirements and interconnected parts.


I guess what im asking you to consider here is:

-have x amount of very complicated mechanics for the mega-nerds

-have x amount of intermediary complexity mechanics for those who walk the line.

-have x amount of simple mechanics for people who just want to relax and play.

-even consider more social integration into mechanics that are alternatives to the traditional grind such as card games, raising monsters and fighting them or whatever crazy thing yall could come up with for people to stand around all day doing i would love to have even 1 decent non-map-grind social game to play within PoE.


You've done a pretty good job opening things up and allowing more varied playstyles and methods of currency acquisition but my RPG-casual friends just won't touch your game and that's perfectly fine if they never do but i can hope someday this game will offer them something attractive enough to give it a try again.

Edit: Continued two things that are also a huge concern for me in regards to the longevity and attractiveness of this game for a wider audience are..

-Player Education
Most players that i meet struggle with almost every aspect of PoE and guiding these players towards the most critical knowledge is so very important, Be it modifications to the tutorial or supporting educational content creators.. even some sort of integrated learning tool that ties in with a build-release system to better help guide people especially per-point-per-level allocation support will also help people learn about proper ratio's of damage to life/etc.

Additionally on social "content" as a learning tool any games created inside of PoE could also be bound to its rules and conditions such as an auto-battler where you can equip an exile with various equipment and send them into battle against another players team, This mechanic wouldn't be deleting exp and players would be able to have some fun while also learning about how to put together solid characters with defenses and offenses.

-Economy Cleansing
Sometimes items build up to a point that they have little to no value anymore and this isn't ideal in many contexts so i think its VERY important that you create a mechanic or game-feature at some point that encourages the consumption of the most readily available items in the economy be it currency or unique/rare items with a preference towards the most abundant items.

Watching d4 videos is a more painful experience than watching d2r videos.

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didira wrote:

Watching d4 videos is a more painful experience than watching d2r videos.

Whats sad is if they keep playing D4 i will actually get it, With good friends even a bad game can be fun for a while.(no real opinion on it yet)

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SilentSymphony wrote:

-have x amount of simple mechanics for people who just want to relax and play.

Essence, Breach, Harbinger are pretty simple mechanics that a new player can handle.

Idk, game's been out for a while. Warframe, WoW, LoL, there's a learning curve to all these games and you're not gonna master the game in a day or a week in any of them. Players can learn PoE if they want to. Forums are here, wiki exists, TONS of good videos on YT, daily question thread on reddit, etc etc.

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innervation wrote:

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SilentSymphony wrote:

-have x amount of simple mechanics for people who just want to relax and play.

Essence, Breach, Harbinger are pretty simple mechanics that a new player can handle.

Idk, game's been out for a while. Warframe, WoW, LoL, there's a learning curve to all these games and you're not gonna master the game in a day or a week in any of them. Players can learn PoE if they want to. Forums are here, wiki exists, TONS of good videos on YT, daily question thread on reddit, etc etc.

Well those good video's arent making it to the people who need them very effectively, Perhaps again GGG could spotlight content/creators that does a good job at teaching people these much needed information to be able to even begin making your own builds, interacting with trade and all of that.

Said Person/s could occupy a prized spotlight position and would create some more serious demand for educators.

The wiki at least the new one is definitely written with some bias and i don't personally care for a lot of the terminology being used on it versus the old wiki, Specifically the insertion of the word Softcore into countless articles where this was not featured in the old wiki outside of maybe two total legacy references when it was essentially removed as a used term, The addition of this term with such veracity was a conscious decision by someone as it had to be edited into all of the information being ported over, Why would someone go to such great lengths to edit in a term which diminishes the core population of the game on the official wiki? Beats me but i wont support it.

PoEDB is basically the wiki now for almost everything, no bias just helpful and accurate information.

The forums are definitely more inviting these days than they used to be, perhaps the help section was friendly in the old days but the feedback section i don't remember ever being so peaceful as it has been recently.

how i'd put it.

diablo 4 is a nice steak cooked well done.
some people with more sophisticated tastes might want it more towards rare.

but in any case it tastes good enough.

poe is like wagyu beef. eating it well will be a waste, but to most people who are used to eating it well done, they wont appreciate it.

in fact they will criticize it. why is the price so expensive?

to me, i have given up trying to think of ways to streamline POE. that's up to the devs. POE2 probably will streamline things a little.

ultimately i dont think POE needs to be made less complex.

its complexity is its selling point.

i have stopped recommending POE to friends. i would mention it in a passing AFTER recommending other games like diablo 4 first.

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exsea wrote:

how i'd put it.

diablo 4 is a nice steak cooked well done.
some people with more sophisticated tastes might want it more towards rare.

but in any case it tastes good enough.

poe is like wagyu beef. eating it well will be a waste, but to most people who are used to eating it well done, they wont appreciate it.

in fact they will criticize it. why is the price so expensive?

to me, i have given up trying to think of ways to streamline POE. that's up to the devs. POE2 probably will streamline things a little.

ultimately i dont think POE needs to be made less complex.

its complexity is its selling point.

i have stopped recommending POE to friends. i would mention it in a passing AFTER recommending other games like diablo 4 first.

I prefer complex content but if there's a high demand for simpler stuff i think it would be best for them to curate a certain amount out of the total mechanics for that portion of the playerbase but at the same time set expectations a little better.. Crucible not dropping loot for example would've probably gone over better had that been mentioned before the league landed.. Though that's just my opinion.

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exsea wrote:

how i'd put it.

diablo 4 is a nice steak cooked well done.
some people with more sophisticated tastes might want it more towards rare.

but in any case it tastes good enough.

poe is like wagyu beef. eating it well will be a waste, but to most people who are used to eating it well done, they wont appreciate it.

in fact they will criticize it. why is the price so expensive?

to me, i have given up trying to think of ways to streamline POE. that's up to the devs. POE2 probably will streamline things a little.

ultimately i dont think POE needs to be made less complex.

its complexity is its selling point.

i have stopped recommending POE to friends. i would mention it in a passing AFTER recommending other games like diablo 4 first.

Exactly my thoughts. The game is good because of its complexity. It doesn't have to appeal to everyone. The ones who do enjoy it love it.

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axeltt012 wrote:

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exsea wrote:

how i'd put it.

diablo 4 is a nice steak cooked well done.
some people with more sophisticated tastes might want it more towards rare.

but in any case it tastes good enough.

poe is like wagyu beef. eating it well will be a waste, but to most people who are used to eating it well done, they wont appreciate it.

in fact they will criticize it. why is the price so expensive?

to me, i have given up trying to think of ways to streamline POE. that's up to the devs. POE2 probably will streamline things a little.

ultimately i dont think POE needs to be made less complex.

its complexity is its selling point.

i have stopped recommending POE to friends. i would mention it in a passing AFTER recommending other games like diablo 4 first.

Exactly my thoughts. The game is good because of its complexity. It doesn't have to appeal to everyone. The ones who do enjoy it love it.

Well when i say simple content i mean less straining than expedition in some ways but more complicated than fighting stuff in the menagerie.

on the Complicated end the RPG elements would be much more meticulous but on the Simple end the Action would be the higher contributor.

Either way its good to see posts not wanting the game to be simplified.