So this "adjustment" is a step TOWARDS PoE 2?

Well.

If this is just the beginning to slightly adjust the gameplay, difficulty and pace for PoE 2...

Well....

No ty.

Dark Souls is something entirely different and to be fair, Dark Souls had a LOT LESS things you needed to know to be good at it.

Sure as always people who really went into it, would have an easier time, but I never understood the whole "git good" thing because there were set attack patterns that you could learn quickly as well as opponent range and solid visual queues and cycles for boss fights with the ability on your side to avoid, block and/or parry.

PoE is a topview ARPG, loothunting, visual awe-fest. And it should be.

Unless you are bringing the cam down to first person or more in line with the dark souls cam etc and make it more technical without hoards of monsters and random stuff that you CANNOT avoid but just mitigate...

Do you want to have an ARPG loothunting game or some grindy, mechanical learning curve?

PoE has so many aspects to it that you can already spend hundreds of hours to get it all down.

Who is up for that?

This game thrived on seasonal content that adds a bit of flavor to the existing things.

Where are the chaseitems now?
What is the point of having leagues when they have become tedious?

Let me do some simple math here. Really simple.

Let's assume player numbers average out after a couple more leagues again.

Say around 80,000 active players on average.

Of those 80k,for arguments sake, let's assume each person spends 20 Bucks per league. (Discounting Newcomers who may spend more to get tabs etc)

That gives us 1.6m per fiscal quarter and roughly 6.4m turnover p.a.

Now deduct salaries (roughly 110 employees if I am not mistaken) and corporate tax and share of that which tencent gets. What is the actual profit?

Isn't it wiser to have a much larger audience where more people are going to buy MTX? And people have fun playing the game?

With ARPGs the audience will always change.

Chris's vision of the same players still playing PoE 65 when they are 75+ years old is unrealistic, not to say completely bonkers.

Gaming demographics are somewhat solid up to about 50yrs of age, with obviously higher age meaning a lot less active players which is likely due to real life.

If you want "older than 12" people to play it needs to be less convoluted, less punishing and more achievable with less time invested.

Not to smash the game and all its content but at least to get you on a straight and narrow to experience endgame where only experience in your chosen build and game mechanic knowledge are the 2 contributing factors to you doing better next league.

Sure it looks good on paper to have a more populated game with a younger audience but they aren't the ones having the money to spend 500-600+ Bucks p.a.

Pace and power are also what set PoE apart from the massive pool of other ARPGs out there in my humble opinion.

League content and exciting new skills and skill tree changes paired with new chase items and better game performance and visuals and that feeling of OOMPH when you splash hoards of mobs at once.

There are plenty of loot walking simulators out there already.

If you make the game too Big with too much to do, to the point on where I have to focus on specific past league content sif Im entering a niche market...well lame.

3 Months is a limited timeframe already. I do not have the time IRL, nor would I invest it if I had it for a few pixels, to make 6 different characteres each league to tackle all the content I want to.

1 farmer and bosskiller AT THE MOST should be sufficient.

If you slow stuff down offer more choice. Don't make me slowpoke my way through the campaign.

How about something like adventure mode in D3? Not the same etc but just a different way of getting to endgame. It's your job so come up with something.

PoE 2 only offers a new campaign, as in another similar slowpoke way to reach endgame.

I honestly think Chris should rethink his approach and redefine his endgame-goals.

I usually supported the changes but this is not good for the longevity of PoE as a game and as a franchise.

It won't die completely Im sure coz there are still plenty of D2 OG players out there but it will by far not be the same as it has been during its glory days.

Ehm 80k x 20 = 160k ??
You are a math wonder i see :)

"

2656913 wrote:

Ehm 80k x 20 = 160k ??
You are a math wonder i see :)

Hahaha.

Yea. I is math. /facepalm. Obviously add a 0. Great that the obvious mistake was all you took from it though. really constructive.

Are you talking about standard play or league? Through act 7 the game doesn't feel harder to me.

I've done the league content in every zone and died 10 times to that. I died once to non Expedition content (Deli + Abyss). The challenge league content is challenging. The rest really isn't.

If you're talking about standard wait a week and the patient people will have guides for you to copy.

Been playing since alpha. I have to admit that there have been some amazing advances since then but that's not going to help at the end of the day. The problem with GGG is they refuse to listen to the player base. They don't care about making a game that players want, they want to make a game that they want.

This is all fine and dandy but if you want to make money and be able to keep the game alive then you HAVE to listen to the players. This has been their cardinal sin since early days. currently I have ZERO faith in GGG after the last patch, it basically patched (almost) everything that wasn't needed and ignored what was needed.

If you're releasing the game to the public then you simply CANNOT have this attitude, this is obvious to anyone.

I've spent many hours playing this game and while the content added has been good, I honestly don't think that GGG have even the slightest clue on how to improve things and whats wrong with the game, and making PoE 2 is just an admission that they couldn't get it right so "lets start again and make the same mistakes because we can't listen to the people who pay our wages!!!".

PoE 2 is likely doomed to fail because GGG can't listen to their players. It doesn't help that the moderators are deleting posts from people who make ANY kind of critisim either, you can pretend that everything is fine and dandy while the titanic sinks but personally? I would be trying to find a life raft to keep things alive instead of just sipping a glass of wine.

Haven't found there to be a problem with the new "difficulty"... but I'm not geared up yet.

Think there's a lot of people who just want to complain about stuff. If that's the way you find fun, then by all means, keep complaining. That's what we're here for. Fun.

I like the new NPCs. A little bit for anyone. I think the currency is uncessessarily complicated.

How can you honestly sit there and proclaim that you do not feel any difference?

Twilight strand was already painful enough. Not hard. Not difficult just super slow and draggy.

Progressed further. Mudflat encounter with summoned undead rhoas. Cannot damage them. League mechanics not explained properly. They charge at constant intervals so not even kiting really does anything. Cant damage the main guy either.

Had to run circles around sidequest boss to recharge mana. Killed all enemies to get some charges.

Not hard. Just ducking boring to the point where I want to scratch my eyes out.

The comparison to Dark Souls is not good. PoE will throw sometimes dozens of mobs at you. Dark Souls never did that.

Sure, Dark Souls had cheap death mechanics like mimic chests. Though I can't recall anyone enjoying wiping to a mimic chest and then liking the fact they had to grind their way back through an area.

So really what are we trying to capture? That one guy who liked dying to a cheap one shot in Dark Souls that doesn't mind repeating the areas over again? For years?

I'm not so sure these two games should ever be compared again. Maybe I would have made this comparison myself years ago but the more I think about it the less sense it makes. There are too many differences.

In POE2, everything will be slower. 10 minutes to kill brutus.

It might just be playstyle. I don't rush. I went through the mudflats three full times before I went further. I was trying out stuff to see if I noticed much of a difference. I didn't. It has been pretty smooth sailing all the way to act V... but again, I'm taking my time and looking at stuff. I read the posts that the league is based on before I set charges. I try to figure out how to proceed. I do the side quests.

Probably not your typical player, but maybe closer to what GGG thinks the typical player should play like.