The "Vision" is trying to make the ultimate skinner box through deception. And you're failing

Sorry, but even you admitted that the loot CAN be less, meaning that you just need to be smart about it - you need to know which mechanics remained pretty much unchanged (chests like Legion and Expedition) and which ones became more profitable (basic mobs).

It prolly sucks for the people who don't have this knowledge BUT this is not the end of the world. There are ways to gain currency that don't involve looking for Solaris with MF. And yes, they are for "average" players too because they don't run 100% 4 scarab delirious maps.

"

SilentSymphony wrote:

Me and Johny_Snow here aren't exactly pals but I'm gonna vouch for him here on the loot, he knows his stuff enough to do very well every league i've seen him play, If he says the loot is increased i'd take his word for it.

Sure and me and the top streamers aren't exactly pals either but I'm gonna vouch for them because they know their stuff more than Johny_snow does considering how well they play and don't have 6700 forum posts defending GGG at every turn. If them and my personal friends who have 10,000+ steam hours and thousands of players I don't know say the loot is crap, I'll take their word for it.

My honest take is that I don't know what level of drops is fun in a game like this.

But in my opinion this ain't it. I feel like a lot of systems don't work well with currency being starved.

I think they may need to rethink alch and vaal maps for atlas completion, especially since vaals can randomly change your map to make it really bad for a build, or just change the map to a different one.

The divine orb change is weird since most exalts came from cards and shards. Rare drops are pretty rare.

A number of massive changes to player per occurred this league, it feels like a different game. Though not in a good way. It feels like a lot of the changes were made to waste player time. At least they could have made the game harder with a more interesting method than more monster health/damage and very little currency.

"

UguuAuu wrote:

"As we mentioned in our last post, some players have noted that they'd prefer item drops to have lower variance - i.e. fewer big spikes of valuable rewards with the rewards averaged out across more encounters. This is something we're still discussing. "

Ah yes, still discussing something that was more than fine just 2 weeks ago. I had such good loot in standard, just from the atlas and alched t16 maps. It actually felt like I'm playing a league and not standard, and that it was finally worth to play standard instead of going on the league treadmill.

Now I'm playing the league and it feels like how standard was. Well, keep discussing I guess.

On the "there is no such thing as hitting the lottery ticket". Really? Cause I've made 20 divines in the league so far, and big surprise, 13 divines were from an aegis aurora drop. Totally not the lottery ticket, absolutely no massive luck involved.

Similar to some other players experience i have also invested in specific content with which i know rewards are fairly consistent, Ritual and Expedition specifically, One of my divines from expedition and another simply off trash mobs.

I say that having given away pretty much half of the currency i've earned this league which might tell some people a few things about how things are now compared to before when i struggled almost every league just to get by just to take care of myself and would regularly come to these forums complaining about Enlighten, Empower or some other element getting in my way of having fun.

I'm no longer struggling, That does not mean nobody else is however but i felt the need to share this because while things may not be perfect they are in fact headed in a better direction than they had been for players of both average and lower experience levels.

I've been thinking on this topic along the same lines for a while. There's one thing I would like to add:

IF what you are saying in the OP is true (there is still a chance the devs just fell off their chairs and hit their arse too hard) it begs the question: Who are the players GGG is trying to skin?

In truth, the majority of in-game purchases probably come from a small percentage of the player base. Somewhere between 5% and 10% of players "keep the lights on" at GGG. These are the "whales" of PoE while the rest of us are part of the product.

The balancing act in any F2P is keeping the compulsion loop engaging (read addictive) enough to satisfy whales (read heavy spenders) while appeasing the remaining "filler" players enough they stay and create an economy and excitement around the game.

As mentioned, it appears GGG is attempting to better define and extend the peaks and valleys of excitement, and hence better manage dopamine hits of addicted whales. Hence, it may not matter what the low spending players think as long as enough of us stay to not completely collapse the economy and social engagement opportunities in PoE.

Please note, I WANT TO BE WRONG. I don't want the game we've come to love and appreciate going down this route. However I am quite concerned.

except their monitization hardly makes any sense and most people would probably spend a lot more if the prices were anywhere NEAR reasonable.

I remember back in 2006 i could spend $10 for a game to get a set of 4 individual armor peices that gave my character increased defense.
In this game you pay $40 for a cosmetic-only item that can only be worn by ONE of your characters, and constantly has to be swapped around.

Skill effects? $15
a hat? $15
and this is stuff on the low end
whats that purchased a special hideout for yourself? Have a guild? well you cant use that hideout for a guild that YOU own.

Yes the whales are certainly buying many supporter packs. and god bless them, they love to show their support awesome. But everyone else at the bare minimum buys a few stash tabs and thats it because everything else is so obscenely priced.

I can buy 20 hats in real F-ing life for the same price as one of your virtual hats. Your visual effects are infinitely available to anyone who clicks "BUY NOW" be reasonable GGG.
The production of that hat asset takes : I'm going to be generous here. from no model to in game about 3 hours. you never have to reproduce this asset, you never have to source materials, you never have to throw out faulty items. yet it costs more than real clothes on your back. Obviously that asset funds the game, funds your production. but you could have sold that hat 10 times instead of 1 and still made your profit. And still refusing to make things that would actually make the game easier on the eyes, and brain.

Not being able to reduce effects via the skill effects is also a giant detriment to solo and more importantly multiplayer.

At most you can turn off one of your auras for the whopping price of $5 per aura. whats that ? changed characters? re-equip those effects.

I would have loved to buy more stuff and support this game more. But its so incredibly bizarre to try and sell these things off at such astronomical prices and which such LIMITING properties.

You can buy a whole season pass for certain games including costumes and characters for $20 or less. so don't give me that BS.

"

Johny_Snow wrote:

Ok, so you lied. I am running influenced bosses + Kirac + Strongboxes + Shrines tier 16 and I am getting more loot than normal. So your thesis that once you reach yellow maps you get less is wrong.

You don't know what you are talking about.

"

Sabranic_SilverDeth wrote:

"

Johny_Snow wrote:

Ok, so you lied. I am running influenced bosses + Kirac + Strongboxes + Shrines tier 16 and I am getting more loot than normal. So your thesis that once you reach yellow maps you get less is wrong.

You don't know what you are talking about.

He could be getting more loot than he's used to, how do you know :P?

I have consistently felt more rewarded not only in general but also for tiering-up my mapping activity's.

.