Is GGG taking the right path? crafting and maps.

Hello exiles,

This post is designed so that anyone who has an opinion about it can do so and we can discuss without comments from young children. This is not made to cry but for all to focus on the current state and the future.

CRAFTING: The current state is as follows: http://poedb.tw/us/mod.php (absurd the number of mods that exist, I will not waste time counting them)
This makes the rate of creating a yellow item with value fall to very small numbers (I do not speak of an uberitem, but rather a curious item)

As GGG introduces content, it adds more and more crafting mods, creating a problem that for example had DIABLO 3 and that they fixed by removing mods that were garbage or were not used at all.
One way to fix this problem could be to eliminate unusable mods, another eliminated tiers according to object level (a level 75 object can not have a tier4 or tier5 mod)

MAPS: With the arrival of the war of the atlas the total maps is 159, the majority repeated but with different names and tiers.
This point I believe in my way of seeing a game with a good endgame, it has been a very serious error.
Perhaps it was not better to add a new mechanics than to introduce equal maps to extend the endgame?

They have made the map device a simple contraption instead of enhancing it, for example.
Any map can become an Ubermap adding currency, not how the ZANA mods but something more epic. (You can give examples) And you would not need 159 maps that the vast majority are a copy of paste of existing ones.

Another problem is drop of maps. In all the leagues there are many players who are unable to complete the atlas because their drop is random and does not tend to any standard, you can be days or weeks without advancing in the atlas for this fact.

It's late and my head asks me to rest, but they are points that make you think. GGG is going the right way or just repeating the same thing over and over again. I would like to see a real evolution.

A lot of your complaints (Atlas progression especially) can be overcome in a trade league. If you're not one of the racers pushing for first to 100 (and if you were, you'd know how to do it) then just buy the maps you need. Find and sell some items to raise the currency, or even just do the chaos recipe. It's not the most efficient thing in the world, but it will very reliably generate chaos orbs and you can buy the maps you need. If you need other ideas there are plenty of folks who post money making guides and map sustain guides on youtube. I get that not everyone wants to do research on a game, but it's like any other hobby really, the more you know the more you'll get out of it. And the information is available.

Regarding maps, I just find myself setting up an 'Elder/Shaper flipflop' and then run the same map forever and ever and ever. Like Burials and Elder UGS maps are the 2 maps you see in your sleep.

The Atlas added more map sustain but in terms of map variety added nothing. Also I get punished for running a variety of maps because I could lose my Elder/Shaper flipflop, not to mention that I might have active sextants on another part of the Atlas. Why would I run a T16 that has no sextans/elder/shaper? It's better to sell those and just run the same map instead.

I figured out (like many others) how to sustain T16 maps and sadly this means running the same one forever and also includes a bit of research to get going.

Sextants and Zana mods are also boring since you are forced to take certain ones (some sex mods give no iiq and no packsize so always reroll them).

Also inviting leechers to your party for more sustain = bullshit mechanic. The extra currency drops and IIQ you get is just so much.

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Hellshout wrote:

...and we can discuss without comments from young children...

Wow, did you just step in it... You may as well have announced that there were "free boobs" in this thread.

For the record, I'm friggin' ancient, retired, and play video games when I'm not trimming my nose hairs or cutting my toenails. I don't pay attention to ear hair at all. Maybe I'll get it braided?

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CRAFTING:

A couple of points:

1) You will NEVER be able to make items easily that have the exact affixes on them that you want. Never. At best, what you'll get is similar to the Delve system. You will also likely only see fixes, balances, and accommodations for new content additions as far as crafting is concern. "Crafting" in PoE is GGG's equivalent of a "Gold Sink." As soon as crafting becomes awesome, easy, and everyone gets what they want without one single dead affix on their favorite item, this game will be dead. So, aside from fixes, tweaks for new content/skills, balance changes, etc, you won't see anything that significantly improves crafting over what Delve does now. (IMO)

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MAPS: With the arrival of the war of the atlas the total maps is 159, the majority repeated but with different names and tiers.
This point I believe in my way of seeing a game with a good endgame, it has been a very serious error.
Perhaps it was not better to add a new mechanics than to introduce equal maps to extend the endgame?

The Atlas is a "Random Content Generator" with scaling difficulty level and a requirement system for the selected map to be generated. It can also be "crafted" to a certain extent. That's all it is. But, its presentation is what is important - It's an "Atlas" and there are dudes fighting over it...

"

They have made the map device a simple contraption instead of enhancing it, for example.
Any map can become an Ubermap adding currency, not how the ZANA mods but something more epic. (You can give examples) And you would not need 159 maps that the vast majority are a copy of paste of existing ones.

Even though every single spot on that Atlas is, in the practical scheme of things, meaningless in-and-of-itself (They're just generated instances) again, it's the presentation that matters to the player.

GGG announces "New Content! "The Battle for the Atlas! A hundred and a bajillion unique areas for the player to master and to battle the evil no-gooders, the Shaper and the Elder! ZOMGZ NEW MTX TOO!"

Contrast that with:

"New Content! Five new maps for the player to.. Hey, stop that! Stop throwing stuff! We worked hard on these things all weekend! Look! New shinies! Ouch! Hey, it's free!"

Less maps with more mechanics involved would not seem like a radical new "Expansion" would it? Nope. Go big or go home, even if it's all the same basic stuff. That it is "the same, but different" doesn't matter until you've been plowing through it over and over forever.

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Another problem is drop of maps. In all the leagues there are many players who are unable to complete the atlas because their drop is random and does not tend to any standard, you can be days or weeks without advancing in the atlas for this fact.

I agree, there. But, I'd also caution that some people who may be screaming about maps may not be trying to work other angles really hard. Buying maps works, too, if you can generate the currency. Vendor recipes, etc.

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..I would like to see a real evolution.

GGG has a mechanic down pretty well - The player clicks the button and a new world is generated for them to 'splode monster guts all over. PoE does that pretty well. AND, THERE'S LOOT! Oodles of loot. They are called "Grinding Gear Games" for a reason, right? It probably isn't because the didn't change their transmission fluid.

The "gear drop" incentive mechanic has been pushing ALL RPG games since RPG games. GGG ramps it up several notches with very complex bits and pieces of gear with unique synergies with skills and even with other pieces of gear. That's a pretty big achievement if it can hold the player's attention.

"Real Evolution" is generally contained in a full "Expansion." That means a LOT of work and a LOT of money thrown at something that's actually worth putting in the game. GGG is already mashing together new "content" (Stuff for the player to do) every ninety days. That's an achievement, too. We get our "It's all going to be a new experience this time" fix every ninety days. Unless it's Bestiary. Then we get to muck out the stables and spend friggin days chasing after some crappy reskinned mob with a scale tweak just so we can get.... WTF was it again? Who cares?

All it takes is "something new." But, what GGG is doing, and is doing fairly well, is working with well-understood mechanics that the game has been using forever in order to put a twist on it, reskin it, rename it, and package it as "something else." Delve is actually "something new," more or less. It's a pretty big leap, in my opinion, towards creating something that is very capable of being a prominent part of the game.

How about this - A new continent to add to the campaign. At its center is a new "gameplay activity." Building a "Player Outpost?" Fortifying a beleagured settlement so it can withstand wave after wave of attacks? (Fifty bajillion waves, to be exact.) Connecting the continents with a system of portals, delves, railroads, etc? Rideable mounts? Airships? Player owned boats? Steamships in space? A giant orc horde led by necromancers who keep asking us about a lost ring?

All of that is possible. For GGG to be convinced to put in that much effort, there has to be a reward to pay for it. Where there is a pocketbook, there is a way. Figure out a new way for GGG to make money without alienating players while generating the new "evolution" of content that you want and GGG will be happy to do so, IMO.

PS - PoE is pretty "mature." It has been around for awhile. Few games like this last for as long as PoE has. GGG knows that PoE will "die" as soon as they stop making quarterly content. Nothing can interfere with that. There will come a time when GGG has to weigh the costs of proper stewardship of their title and new content additions or expansions. I hate to say "Maintenance Mode" but it's going to come one day.

I am happy that PoE is not like d3

Your crafting suggestion will absolutely trivialize insane gear. Items got way too powerful already in my opinion.

why do people who don't understand the basic conceit of ARPGs, that the best loot is supposed to be hard to get, post giant walls of text?

spent years and years chasing 'Zod', never found one. good times, nothing wrong with chasing the dream ;)
easily attainable = boring

Tell me about it. Years upon years, thousands of hours played, I've never seen a mirror, or a mirror shard, or a divination card which gives mirror. Doesn't mean I don't have the desire to keep playing.

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Kurgosh wrote:

A lot of your complaints (Atlas progression especially) can be overcome in a trade league.

Then GGG has to fix trade so that everyone who isn't a no-lifer can sell to make currency to be able to buy items. GGG has forever refused to give us the tools to be able to sell while not logged in (hey GGG, we have real lives!). In order for selling to work well for us we have to be instant message notified of a buyer. A cell phone app is the perfect way to be notified and make the sale (the app must allow us to invite the buyer to our stash and sell the item). For example, I am on-site working during the day (yesterday I was at 5 locations) and thus am not at home and logged into PoE. If I had a PoE sell app I would be instant notified of a WTB whisper, could take a work break for a couple of minutes, invite the buyer into my hideout, make the sale all from my cell phone, and then resume my work.

If trade is so GD all important to GGG then why the hell are they content to leave it non-functional for all except a tiny percent of no-lifers. It's very unfair that I have to be logged into PoE and chained to my gaming rig to even know that there are any WTB messages. This is a complete failure on GGG's end and the reason that PoE sucks so badly in trading. A simple phone app for instant notification and selling (but not buying, only selling) would solve this problem and also eliminate 99% of buying frustration by significantly reducing the no response to our WTB whispers.

Every time a thread is posted and someone responds with "that's what trading is for" I get angry that we don't have a PoE selling app on our cell phones already. I honestly don't know why the hell Chris and company have not seen the light and coded a cell phone app for selling PoE gear. Explain to me why this would be bad in light of GGG's design of PoE to have trading to be of central importance to their game?