Wolcen Hype Release!

China's middle-class segment of the population is larger than the entire population of the US. So, yeah.
I have a pretty good sense of humor. I'm not German.
*sees Flagship comparison*
*Desperately needs a lie-down now*

Spoiler
*goes and plays more Wolcen instead, of course*


"
aggromagnet wrote:


And while the game does have potential for solid replayability, it only takes 2 or 3 expeditions to realize you've already seen just about everything you're going to see for now. And there's minimal incentive for your average player to keep replaying the same 4 or 5 tilesets they already played through the whole campaign, and facing the exact same 2-3 dozen enemy types they already faced through the whole campaign.


And now you know how sane people feel when they hear Exiles go on about PoE. ^_^
Warhammer 40k Inquisitor: where shotgunning is not only not nerfed, it is deeply encouraged.

Dogma > Souls, but they're masterworks all. You can't go wrong.

I was right about PoE2 needing to be a separate, new game. It was really obvious.
Last edited by Foreverhappychan on Feb 28, 2020, 6:04:01 AM
"
Johny_Snow wrote:
1. It is next to impossible for the game to be review bombed by customers on their own. It costs, as of now, 35 dollars. Nobody in their right mind will organize a massive campaign to purchase copies for the sake of dropping a bad review.

2. There is no prominent competition that will benefit from review bombing Wolcen. Blizzard don't care, Diablo 4 is far away. The other ARPG companies are either too small to afford that or don't particularly care like in Grim Dawn's casee, where the game has ran its course.

Which means the only credible source of review bombing would be PoE as the only active ARPG game which is big enough to afford it. Are you accusing GGG of paying for negative reviews?


Nobody needs to review bomb it anyway, if you release a steaming pile of shite and then lie to your customers that's what you get naturally. Quite funny really as well since they did pay plonkers like Rhykker for a positive review. Perhaps they should have paid people to test before releasing it instead.
Last edited by RandallPOE on Feb 28, 2020, 6:13:08 AM
"
*sees Flagship comparison*
*Desperately needs a lie-down now*

Spoiler
*goes and plays more Wolcen instead, of course*


"
aggromagnet wrote:


And while the game does have potential for solid replayability, it only takes 2 or 3 expeditions to realize you've already seen just about everything you're going to see for now. And there's minimal incentive for your average player to keep replaying the same 4 or 5 tilesets they already played through the whole campaign, and facing the exact same 2-3 dozen enemy types they already faced through the whole campaign.


And now you know how sane people feel when they hear Exiles go on about PoE. ^_^
I already know all too well. My wife is a gamer, albeit a casual one, and her eyes just glaze over any time I try to convince her to play PoE with me lol. She gave it a shot for a while about 4 yrs ago, and she was done not long after hitting maps. She is definitely the sane one in this household.
I have a pretty good sense of humor. I'm not German.
Well, the GFiancee and I used to play during closed beta but that didn't last long. She figured out long before I did that the game is more work than fun, and that until you realise that, your attitude towards both work and fun changes and not in a good way.

Still, she had a ball designing a Map and getting her own forum avatar. Like me, she's more the right-brain creative type than the sort of analytical left-brain thinker that PoE so ghoulishly torments and delights.

Needless to say, she has zero interest in Wolcen and I am careful not to babble about it as I did PoE for years, but that's okay. She has The Sims, Pokemon, Pokemon, Pokemon...you might think I'm repeating that for emphasis, but she actually plays pokemon on three platforms. THREE. We find some intersection with For Honor, Warframe, and right now we're waiting for Anthem to stop sucking -- invested in a few cheap copies not long ago because, hey, you never know.
Warhammer 40k Inquisitor: where shotgunning is not only not nerfed, it is deeply encouraged.

Dogma > Souls, but they're masterworks all. You can't go wrong.

I was right about PoE2 needing to be a separate, new game. It was really obvious.
Last edited by Foreverhappychan on Feb 28, 2020, 7:09:27 AM
Did some changes to my character, adjustments etc you know the things you're suppose to do in arpgs. Storming through champion now, I think I have 4-5 more leaps before getting to the next stage. I been slowed down more from the recent bugs from that latest patch. Been getting the hardly any monsters in the zone a ton and can't finish the expos because of it. Also just had an issue where I was going to build something but realized I didn't want after selecting so I cancelled it and lost my 200k gold lmao. I'm pretty pissed by that, not sure why I don't get it back if it didn't have any productivity or at least tell me I won't get it back. Gold feels too little, I thought it would go up as I got higher but noticed after advancing quite a bit the gold amount hasn't changed.

So much for spell builds being "weak", doing fine and feeling strong. I don't know if some of the nodes I chose even work correctly or at all. I know I had to do a few respecs since you can't just undo a few points in the tree. I hope they add something like POE has with a orb of regret or just having the option to get a few undo points in the future.

For anyone that is still playing Aether Blades is really fun!
It's really stupid for this to even be necessary, but for the no/not enough mobs bug...don't move for about 10-15 seconds after you enter the expedition. The problem seems to be something to do with a loading delay for the spawn points. And if you've already moved past a spawn point before the mobs spawn, they won't spawn.

Giving the game some time to catch up fixes it. I've not had a single instance of not enough mobs since I started doing that.
I have a pretty good sense of humor. I'm not German.
"
Well, the GFiancee and I used to play during closed beta but that didn't last long. She figured out long before I did that the game is more work than fun, and that until you realise that, your attitude towards both work and fun changes and not in a good way.

Still, she had a ball designing a Map and getting her own forum avatar. Like me, she's more the right-brain creative type than the sort of analytical left-brain thinker that PoE so ghoulishly torments and delights.

Needless to say, she has zero interest in Wolcen and I am careful not to babble about it as I did PoE for years, but that's okay. She has The Sims, Pokemon, Pokemon, Pokemon...you might think I'm repeating that for emphasis, but she actually plays pokemon on three platforms. THREE. We find some intersection with For Honor, Warframe, and right now we're waiting for Anthem to stop sucking -- invested in a few cheap copies not long ago because, hey, you never know.

Honestly, at the moment Wolcen feels more like work to me than PoE does. Which is something that seemed rather weird to me, though I honestly don't know why. Seriously, I don't know why the heck I feel that way... then again, might just be the PoE addiction speaking there. Which reminds me... I still gotta decorate my hideout. I completely neglected that this league... I wish they kept housing in Wolcen. It was a lot of fun (though seeing how much of a success the transmog system is, there might be hope)... maybe I should wait for some favour improvements though. That stuff really needs fixing. BADLY.

Wait, what? Three?? HOW??? Then again... if we count DS and 3DS as different platforms - which they only kind of are to me - then I was most certainly guilty of that myself, back when Pokemon Go was still new and EVERYONE played it. Though nowadays I'm weirdly more interested in breeding Pokemon than actually using them in battles... I guess my habit of trying to make whacky builds starts to bleed into other games at this point (I have no other excuse for "SR 71 Rekbird", my choice specs boomburst Chatot. Though it did OHKO a mega rayquaza one time, which makes it totally worth it imo). Just... don't look into their family trees, ok? You'd find some SERIOUS crimes against nature in those.

Regarding Anthem, I recall hearing (or reading, I don't remember all that well, could've been either) somewhere that there are plans for remaking it from scratch pretty much, leaving it in the current state for now while working on the new version to roll it out one day. I was playing with the thought of picking it up at some point, as it seems like an absolute blast in concept. Anything shooter with unusual movement systems sounds immediately exciting to me (I played a lot of Tribes: Ascent when it was rather new and still play a round of Titanfall 2 every now and then). And I've always been a sucker for flying in video games, at least in genres where you're usually restricted to movement on the ground.




I gotta say, I do enjoy Wolcen for the most part, but as someone who likes to do weird builds most of the time, it's not really all that great at the moment. Stacking stats other than crit? Not really worth it due to diminishing returns (looking at you attack speed score). Passives with interesting interactions? Either don't work (yet) or don't have enough skills to interact with. Uniques that could enable, well, unique playstyles? They exist, but are pretty rare from my experience (am I really in the wrong for wanting to use "Deathgazer" Railgun on my Infinity Blades/Anvil's Woe staff character?).

Also, the endgame system, while looking pretty interesting at first glance, needs some SERIOUS grind to get going properly. With the limited variety in tilesets in particular, that's what gets to me the most for now. I'd rather grind for a long time through a plethora of different tilesets for a fairly low reward than through a small number of tilesets for the same amount of time for slightly better rewards. Which is also something that made me dislike the D3 "endgame" (far from the only reason, but a reason nonetheless), so it's definitely not an issue unique to Wolcen. Heck, I hated mapping in PoE for the longest time because of that, as only a fairly small amount of maps was easily sustainable without some huge setups.
I just wish there was more variety. Variety in everything really... tilesets, enemies, skills... though I guess all that will likely come in the future. I just have to be patient for now, which, admittedly, is not exactly one of my strengths. Unfortunately.
I make dumb builds, therefore I am.
Spoiler
"
FCK42 wrote:
"
Well, the GFiancee and I used to play during closed beta but that didn't last long. She figured out long before I did that the game is more work than fun, and that until you realise that, your attitude towards both work and fun changes and not in a good way.

Still, she had a ball designing a Map and getting her own forum avatar. Like me, she's more the right-brain creative type than the sort of analytical left-brain thinker that PoE so ghoulishly torments and delights.

Needless to say, she has zero interest in Wolcen and I am careful not to babble about it as I did PoE for years, but that's okay. She has The Sims, Pokemon, Pokemon, Pokemon...you might think I'm repeating that for emphasis, but she actually plays pokemon on three platforms. THREE. We find some intersection with For Honor, Warframe, and right now we're waiting for Anthem to stop sucking -- invested in a few cheap copies not long ago because, hey, you never know.

Honestly, at the moment Wolcen feels more like work to me than PoE does. Which is something that seemed rather weird to me, though I honestly don't know why. Seriously, I don't know why the heck I feel that way... then again, might just be the PoE addiction speaking there. Which reminds me... I still gotta decorate my hideout. I completely neglected that this league... I wish they kept housing in Wolcen. It was a lot of fun (though seeing how much of a success the transmog system is, there might be hope)... maybe I should wait for some favour improvements though. That stuff really needs fixing. BADLY.

Wait, what? Three?? HOW??? Then again... if we count DS and 3DS as different platforms - which they only kind of are to me - then I was most certainly guilty of that myself, back when Pokemon Go was still new and EVERYONE played it. Though nowadays I'm weirdly more interested in breeding Pokemon than actually using them in battles... I guess my habit of trying to make whacky builds starts to bleed into other games at this point (I have no other excuse for "SR 71 Rekbird", my choice specs boomburst Chatot. Though it did OHKO a mega rayquaza one time, which makes it totally worth it imo). Just... don't look into their family trees, ok? You'd find some SERIOUS crimes against nature in those.

Regarding Anthem, I recall hearing (or reading, I don't remember all that well, could've been either) somewhere that there are plans for remaking it from scratch pretty much, leaving it in the current state for now while working on the new version to roll it out one day. I was playing with the thought of picking it up at some point, as it seems like an absolute blast in concept. Anything shooter with unusual movement systems sounds immediately exciting to me (I played a lot of Tribes: Ascent when it was rather new and still play a round of Titanfall 2 every now and then). And I've always been a sucker for flying in video games, at least in genres where you're usually restricted to movement on the ground.




I gotta say, I do enjoy Wolcen for the most part, but as someone who likes to do weird builds most of the time, it's not really all that great at the moment. Stacking stats other than crit? Not really worth it due to diminishing returns (looking at you attack speed score). Passives with interesting interactions? Either don't work (yet) or don't have enough skills to interact with. Uniques that could enable, well, unique playstyles? They exist, but are pretty rare from my experience (am I really in the wrong for wanting to use "Deathgazer" Railgun on my Infinity Blades/Anvil's Woe staff character?).

Also, the endgame system, while looking pretty interesting at first glance, needs some SERIOUS grind to get going properly. With the limited variety in tilesets in particular, that's what gets to me the most for now. I'd rather grind for a long time through a plethora of different tilesets for a fairly low reward than through a small number of tilesets for the same amount of time for slightly better rewards. Which is also something that made me dislike the D3 "endgame" (far from the only reason, but a reason nonetheless), so it's definitely not an issue unique to Wolcen. Heck, I hated mapping in PoE for the longest time because of that, as only a fairly small amount of maps was easily sustainable without some huge setups.
I just wish there was more variety. Variety in everything really... tilesets, enemies, skills... though I guess all that will likely come in the future. I just have to be patient for now, which, admittedly, is not exactly one of my strengths. Unfortunately.
Yep, endgame is very sorely lacking in many areas and it's definitely work rather than fun.

Both the gold and affinity costs are steep and demand a ton of grinding. Rolling mods on expeditions requires some praying that your expedition won't crash, DC, or simply bug out in various ways. The majority of Stormfall upgrades you grind out all those resources for are also like....uhhh, yay? And the utter lack of anything resembling variation just makes it all a bland and mind-numbing grind.

Having to pick up every item that might be a potential upgrade to have any idea what it actually is also tedious. Even something as simple as adding the "class" type to the tooltip would go an awfully long way to improving that. It's not a huge deal during the campaign on a non-twinked char since everything is a potential upgrade and you can just port to town to sell what you don't need. But in the endgame expeditions with no porting, it's pretty bad and a huge waste of time.

Endgame is also where you see just how scattershot the itemization is as well. Builds are very heavily dependent on getting good amounts of flat damage/defenses to really push the endgame, but finding items with the right useful + mods is a big grind by itself. I really wish it was more balanced between D3's cookie-cutter itemization and PoE's scattershot itemization, but it's definitely well into the PoE side without anything resembling a trade economy to bridge the gaps.

I'll probably call it a day after this weekend then check back in a few months to find out if they sink or learn how to swim.

Edit: Also, the Stormfall system has already been done in Guild Wars 2. The original upgrade system for guilds (before they reworked it and simplified it, sadly) functioned in exactly the same way. Except it was actually rewarding for both the guild as a whole and individual guild members. It's one of the many things Wolcen does that was already done way better elsewhere.
I have a pretty good sense of humor. I'm not German.
Last edited by aggromagnet on Feb 28, 2020, 8:46:54 PM
Sure, another game's done it, but no ARPG has to date, so there's that to consider. Or don't. I don't care.

^_~

___

SO after well over a year, Primordial Insights is *finally* working. Crit ailments is a thing and it is utterly beautiful.

I played some MP last night with a friend. I do not recommend being put out of action in MP. It's...brutal. Don't do it. Just. Don't.

Six slots is still killing me and I'm pretty sure extra character slots will be one of the first things they sell. Sigh.

Lightning-modded Anomaly makes for a very good Nikola Tesla theme.

Not sure how I feel about A Certain Specific Railgun yet, but it's certainly rewarding when you time a snipe shot against a boss and a whole crazy chunk of their life goes bye bye. And creating a Lyudmila Pavlichenko-alike was fun.

Dodge is incredible.

___

2DS, Switch, Phone. I think. Might be a 3DS. They're honestly all the same to me.

___

One look at the Delirium trailer and I knew I'd never be back. But that might be, as you put it, my lack of addiction speaking there. This is no 'honeymoon' period (as others have said) because I'm not married to Wolcen. I play other things; I'm a free man! What this is is the opposite of a honeymoon period. It's the release of divorce after a long, intense but ultimately harmful dependency. Key to that is not wanting to find a replacement to that which has been removed, don't you think? So it stands to reason I would like Wolcen precisely for the same reason so many people don't: it's not PoE. It's not trying to be PoE and it doesn't have to be PoE. Whatever that might mean.

Anyway, back to it. ^_^
Warhammer 40k Inquisitor: where shotgunning is not only not nerfed, it is deeply encouraged.

Dogma > Souls, but they're masterworks all. You can't go wrong.

I was right about PoE2 needing to be a separate, new game. It was really obvious.

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