What are your 2018 toughts about an Hardmode in the PoE's futur ?

This is the same argument made in about 4 other threads recently, just in a slightly different form.

And OP, purposely or otherwise, completely missed the point of several early responses.

This is not about hardcore versus softcore, or group versus single player. This is, as pointed out by another post, the 1% versus the average player.

My counter has always been - who provides GGG with the most cash as a business?

If it the 1%, sure, make more hard mode stuff. Double the hps and damage output. Go for it.

But if it is the "average" player, you risk losing the majority of your support if you implement more difficulty in the base game, or even design an entire league around the same concept while leaving the base game the same.

GGG has more at stake to look beyond a personal "game too easy" experience and really evaluate how something like OP suggested would affect the player base as a whole.

In before "1,000 hour playtesters" comment.

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Prizy wrote:

The game mode you are talking about would have VERY few players.

Streamers would and their viewers would probably be most of the league's players. Streamers need to feed their egos to prove "they still got it". Then the sheep that copy those streamers would feel the need to do the same.

At the end of the day, you would get a LOT of posts about "why the fuck is this game so unrewarding"?

People EXPECT rewards for effort. If you suddenly up the effort to 10x what it currently is, and keep the rewards stagnant it would create animosity.

I'm all for trying it in a void league or even a normal league or whatever... but just expect the drop of players to be MASSIVE. I could see 80% of players giving up within the first week if the difficulty is overtuned. Even if it is marketed as a "super hard" mode.

The best place to try this is at the end of a season for 1-month races (like we are about to receive) to see how the general crowd perceives it.

The game mode you are talking about would have VERY few players.

I'm not sure about that, as i said lot of players want difficulty, they just can't find it trought permanent death HC offers to them ( different difficulty approach let's say that ).

Anyway the goal is not to bring a majority of players, just the one that know where they are putting their feets, like it's the case with HC and SSF ( wich are not populated by many players either ).

Streamers would and their viewers would probably be most of the league's players. Streamers need to feed their egos to prove "they still got it". Then the sheep that copy those streamers would feel the need to do the same.

Streamers has always been an important part of the PoE popularity, and i don't see anything wrong with that they are just a media like any other, medias create hype and trends. Oh well i don't watch much streams tho so i might be wrong in how i percept that.
From my understanding there is a lot of hate when they are monopolizing some achievements challenges or get all the attention, but is it different in any games after all ?
Most succesful games at this hour has been oriented by dedicated and / or pro players there is nothing wrong with trying to push userbase to the top, aslong you don't let it down in bottom stairs, i don't think it's the case in PoE everybody can achieve anything he want with some dedication ( depending of RnG and economy skills aswell ).

At the end of the day, you would get a LOT of posts about "why the fuck is this game so unrewarding"?

I tend to agree on that part, but it's already the case with main game or at least it was for most of the leagues GGG released over the years Incursions is a bit different, it's over rewarding players.
You know achieving level 100 doesn't give any rewards except two mins of fun and the five following one wondering what you have done with your life ( that's what happened to me, and to be honest i'm glad i never did it when it was a thing going for few months ), and people keep going 100 anyway for literaly nothing. The reward is not material for everybody.


I'm all for trying it in a void league or even a normal league or whatever... but just expect the drop of players to be MASSIVE. I could see 80% of players giving up within the first week if the difficulty is overtuned. Even if it is marketed as a "super hard" mode.


To be honest i'm not that ambitious, i would be fine with a 24h event to get started, maybe for next 1st April ahah

I'm all for the game getting harder but I don't believe that path of exile as currently designed could even accomplish this.

First of all, game balance would have to be overhauled completetly. You can't balance this new found hardmode around the top 5 builds that are just plowing through content. If you do, you alienate all the lesser builds that GGG don't really seem interested in working on. So then this huge passive skill tree with asc classes, uniques and gem combinations don't work really well anymore. People aren't going to want to play a mode where by default their build is just going to struggle while the meta player next to them is reaping all the rewards.

As others have said, you would then need to rebalance all the rewards. It's going to feel terrible to scratch and claw your way through a tough map only to get to a boss that drops 5 rares and couple blue items. (This already feels awful)

They then would have to slow down production of all new content to accomadate this. The reason that game is so out of control atm is that they just keep releasing more and more toys for us to play with. Changes to mechanics, buffs to others, item changes, all lead to builds gaining power. Rarely do we see any changes to enemies. I mean I've seen a patch or two that talks about some change but I never feel it in game.

Lastly, you need to define what hard mode even is. Is it just that enemies are tougher to kill and hit harder or are there going to be new mechanics at play to pay attention to and dodge. If it's just a numbers change then people are going to play builds that have even more life that also can allow for high damage. If it's a more mechanical approach, then... well again, huge redesign of all the enemies.

Ultimately I'm with the idea of the game being harder, but they didn't make that game. They wanted this arcade style game where you plow through enemies and constantly roll the dice gambling on various league mechanics, map endgame, crafting, etc concepts. A game where you don't really have to pay attention until that 1% rare combination appears on the screen, then you focus on it.