PoE needs a difficulty factor setting

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Worldbreaker wrote:

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ScrotieMcB wrote:

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johnKeys wrote:

/players 8 ?
Yes, definitely.

Definitely not. It's just another difficulty slider and has all the same problems I described earlier.

I wish uninstalling had a slider.

Quick like a bandaid, or slow and dramatic.

I've got a bit of time to decide which will be more fitting for PoE.

The good news for me is a lot of my other games are no longer updated. I don't have to worry about the vocal community changing something I may enjoy as-is.

I fail to see what your complaint has to do with my comment. Seems a total non sequitur to me.

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ScrotieMcB wrote:

I fail to see what your complaint has to do with my comment. Seems a total non sequitur to me.

"/players x" is a risk-reward Band-Aid.
it's not a fix - because a fix would literally mean turn the game upside-down from the core, in ways I and many others described in countless prior posts - but it stops the bleeding.

"/players x" in the abstract sense, of course:
you set this - monsters hit harder, have more life, spawn in larger packs, with Onslaught and whatnot.
you beat them - you get more EXP. maybe better loot. but you also lose more if you die, because greater challenge comes with a price.
risk/reward.
your actions and skill actually mean something.
your bravery in accepting greater challenges, means something.

I know you enjoy rolling dice, Scrotie. you enjoy being completely dependant on RNG in absolutely everything, and the more random the better.
enjoy being both completely randomly fucked up the arse, or completely randomly rewarded.
enjoy gameplay skill or accepting challenges, having absolutely no meaning whatsoever.
enjoy, in some sick twisted way I admit I will never understand.

but you know, some people just don't.
some people enjoy seeing the fruit of their hard labour, skill and dedication.
some people with a stronger will than mine, take great pleasure in uninstalling games, that are quite literally designed to shit in their face and see if they come back for more.

@johnKeys: I seriously believed you were one of the forumers most concerned with the establishment of dumb, gearcheck-based difficulty rather than more properly implemented difficulty. I'm actually flabbergasted that you don't understand and accept my argument against difficulty sliders, and that you don't see how it applies to the /players x system.

You seem to be trampling on your professed ideals here.

Also, it's not about RNG in this case, because what we're comparing here is dice vs more dice.

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johnKeys wrote:

"/players x" is a risk-reward Band-Aid.
it's not a fix - because a fix would literally mean turn the game upside-down from the core, in ways I and many others described in countless prior posts - but it stops the bleeding.

"/players x" in the abstract sense, of course:
you set this - monsters hit harder, have more life, spawn in larger packs, with Onslaught and whatnot.
you beat them - you get more EXP. maybe better loot. but you also lose more if you die, because greater challenge comes with a price.
risk/reward.
your actions and skill actually mean something.
your bravery in accepting greater challenges, means something.

It also makes the already-prevalent gear snowball even worse.

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I know you enjoy rolling dice, Scrotie. you enjoy being completely dependant on RNG in absolutely everything, and the more random the better.
enjoy being both completely randomly fucked up the arse, or completely randomly rewarded.
enjoy gameplay skill or accepting challenges, having absolutely no meaning whatsoever.
enjoy, in some sick twisted way I admit I will never understand.

but you know, some people just don't.
some people enjoy seeing the fruit of their hard labour, skill and dedication.
some people with a stronger will than mine, take great pleasure in uninstalling games, that are quite literally designed to shit in their face and see if they come back for more.

I don't know if that's called for -- I agree w/ Scrotie here but I'm not a fan of high-variance RNG (mirror drops, 6L w/ fusings, and the like).

consider this my "I surrender" statement, Scrotie.

I accept the fact Path Of Exile will forever remain one giant random gear check.
no amount of words spilled on the forums, Reddit or whatever, will make GGG change the game from the core.
I doubt they can, even if they wanted to - and they don't.

we will not have the kind of skill-based, AI-based and interesting-design-based awesome risk/reward game I dream of, at least until PoE 2 comes out, if it ever does.

so at least make the gear check somewhat risk/reward, for now.
let the players pick their own gear-check poison, with an abstract slider going from "mild food poisoning" to "a bucket of Black Mamba venom".
if you are brave - and stupid - enough to pick the bucket, you should be rewarded for your bravery.
unless of course you die for your stupidity.

EDIT after reading your reply:

I'd be insulted, but then I never cared about what you or anyone else thinks about my feedback.
surrendering when - after all this time and effort spent - one realizes GGG don't give a damn, isn't a sign of weakness.
it's accepting reality.

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syrioforel wrote:

I don't know if that's called for -- I agree w/ Scrotie here but I'm not a fan of high-variance RNG (mirror drops, 6L w/ fusings, and the like).

I don't have a problem with Mirror drops. You still get usable stuff when you slay monsters; it's not always "OMFG Mirror" but you normally get something good.

I actually do have a problem with Fusings. It isn't the high variance, it's the fact you don't get anything usable unless it's "OMFG 6L" or "OMG (no F) 5L." If anything, such a system is usually low variance: 99% of the time the result is shit. At least with Chaos or Exalts you get some random affixes which, while perhaps not what you wanted, are at least variable and meaningful.

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johnKeys wrote:

consider this my "I surrender" statement, Scrotie.

It seems I've somehow overestimated the legitimacy of your caring. Which is surprising, since my initial opinion of your feedback was never that high to begin with. I guess it really was all about rationalizing your in-game failures to yourself.

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ScrotieMcB wrote:

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syrioforel wrote:

I don't know if that's called for -- I agree w/ Scrotie here but I'm not a fan of high-variance RNG (mirror drops, 6L w/ fusings, and the like).

I don't have a problem with Mirror drops. You still get usable stuff when you slay monsters; it's not always "OMFG Mirror" but it's something good.

Just to clarify: I'm not opposed to mirrors, but mirrors don't add anything to the game for me. I'm more likely to throw an exalt at something (and I probably won't ever).

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I actually do have a problem with Fusings. It isn't the high variance, it's the fact you don't get anything usable unless it's "OMFG 6L" or "OMG (no F) 5L." If anything, such a system is usually low variance: 99% of the time the result is shit. At least with Chaos or Exalts you get some random affixes which, while perhaps not what you wanted, are at least usable.

I was referring to the variance of the random variable "do I get a 6L from this fusing." I meant that, since the odds are so low, you can get really unlucky with your rolls. (By comparison, if anyone flips a fair coin 1000 times I would be shocked if they had, say, 600 heads or more.)

I agree with your sentiment. It would be very nice to have more useful results than just 5L/6L. I don't really see that happening, though, without some serious tradeoffs to socketing -- like if there are 4L combinations, which don't plausibly extend to 5L/6L combinations due to costs or something, that are competitive with 6Ls (while having the proper supporting gear).

I want the PoE optimization problem to have more viable local maxima :). They're fun to find.

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ScrotieMcB wrote:

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Worldbreaker wrote:

I wish uninstalling had a slider.

Quick like a bandaid, or slow and dramatic.

I've got a bit of time to decide which will be more fitting for PoE.

The good news for me is a lot of my other games are no longer updated. I don't have to worry about the vocal community changing something I may enjoy as-is.

I fail to see what your complaint has to do with my comment. Seems a total non sequitur to me.

Sorry, I go off on tangents sometimes due to my 80HD.

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Worldbreaker wrote:

Sorry, I go off on tangents sometimes due to my 80HD.

That's not nearly enough jiggabytes.

noty