We have hard mode… Where is easy mode?

I applaud the development and release of hard mode. I believe that more game modes are healthier for the game. Being able to tailor your experience around what you find most fun is beneficial for everyone.

POE developers have done a great job meeting the wants and interests of those who enjoy gruelling experiences. From gauntlets to UBER bosses, from HC SSF to Ruthless, POE offers difficulty.

POE developers have not done a good job of meeting the wants and interests of those who enjoy easier, more rewarding experiences. From the introduction of almost game-breaking archnemesis monsters which prevent easy gameplay in all facets of the game, to a variety of nerfs to league mechanics (e.g., harvest) and player power since ritual league, it is clear that the main game is not meant to be rewarding.

I’ll be the first to agree that you can’t give the players too much. In games like POE, it’s the journey, not the destination that matters. The core game can’t be too easy.

However, I don’t see the point of not having a separate mode, like Ruthless is separate, for people who want to have a more rewarding experience. For those who don’t have the time or the patience to grind out hundreds of hours to make a character who can breeze through red maps comfortably or prepare resources to try a new, wonky build. I think especially of casual players who play POE not for difficult encounters requiring speedy reactions, but for a relaxing rhythm of blasting monsters and building their wealth. There is a group of players who would be very happy to have an easier mode.

There are many challenges of having an easier mode. Firstly, you risk compromising the core economy by splitting the player base. Secondly, if there is a method of transferring wealth from the easy mode, you taint the validity of other modes. Thirdly, challenges and achievements made in the core game need to be separate to retain their value. I think that an easy mode can be implemented that overcomes these issues, and brings in new advantages.

I propose a kind of isolated SSF mode with greatly boosted currency generation. Isolated means no transferring characters or items from easy mode to other modes, and gameplay in easy mode doesn’t contribute to challenge progress in other modes. Boosted currency generation means currency drops in stacks of 5-10x of what normally drops (or in some cases, for very rare currencies, that they appear more often but still individually). Some key items that gate content, like the access to the Oshabi fight or the Ultimatum fight, should also be increased in appearance.

Why would this be good? Most importantly, it increases gameplay-based progression. Remember, this is still SSF. It means that farming essences to roll a life chest is much easier. It means that getting enough fusing orbs to make a 6 link goes faster. It means that your progress isn’t dependent on other players, fostering your sense of accomplishment. It means that casual players who have never been able to play these parts of the game - like fracturing an item on the harvest bench, or fighting the ultimatum fight - can experience more of the game. It means that trading away your keys and items to someone who can use them better/faster isn’t more profitable than doing them yourself.

There are other smaller reasons. It reduces scamming (since it’s SSF) and the amount of time you spend in trade windows. It encourages experimentation. But yeah, the main thing is - allowing a whole class of players to actually experience the expansive content that is in POE.

It is true that some knock-on effects are possible. For example, players may try builds in easy mode before trying them in core - thereby reducing some of the core economy because the trial and error phase isn’t part of the core economy. However, I believe these problems will be slight. The key reason is that an easy mode that is SSF may not actually accelerate gameplay that much - because a player needs to craft all their gear from scratch in SSF, it may not make it too much faster to get to Maven or any other content. But it will make players FEEL like they are progressing faster. And this is the key - player feeling, player enjoyment, FUN.

I hope some developers who can empathize with having little time for gaming/hobbies, and develop some will (as Chris had will to do hard mode) to make an easy mode for the benefit of all those who feel they’ve lost before they even begin because they can’t sink 500 hours into every league.

(Don't @ me because I have 38 challenges, this isn't just about me and one day when I graduate and have a house and work every day I won't have the same time... I hope when that day comes I'll be able to come to a POE that's rewarding even for limited time)

+1

Trouble is, it's not just having the game showering you with currency that would make easy mode work. Extra currency on its own means nothing as it would just mean the economy becomes inflated, assuming there will be enough players in it to do trading reliably to begin with.

Stats would need to be rebalanced, mechanics would need to be reintroduced (a perfect opportunity to bring back 3.13 Harvest), monsters and bosses would need to be re-tuned. Drops should be reworked to focus more on quality and less on quantity. Less garbage rares and more high tier mods that synergize.

Even if this easy mode becomes SSF-like (with party mechanics please?) and everything gets voided or dumped into easy mode standard, I'd be more than happy to hop over to it.

Surely if it’s to be “easy mode” it should be a trade league by default, not limited to SSF.

easy mode could mean more determined ways to get items, as the non easy mode all depends on luck and random bullshit.

I would not mind killing 1 boss 500 x if i know i get the thing i want, meaning that every item should have a determined drop. Instead of this diluted random gambling bullshit.

Same would be for crafting and for whatever you want to do, no random shit anymore except the stats of the rolls. it would get the fun back into the grinding instead of this did i all-ready mention bullshit gambling machine.

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Shadeless01 wrote:

easy mode could mean more determined ways to get items, as the non easy mode all depends on luck and random bullshit.

I would not mind killing 1 boss 500 x if i know i get the thing i want, meaning that every item should have a determined drop. Instead of this diluted random gambling bullshit.

Same would be for crafting and for whatever you want to do, no random shit anymore except the stats of the rolls. it would get the fun back into the grinding instead of this did i all-ready mention bullshit gambling machine.

In trade league everything IS deterministic though. Every map you open - even an alch and go map with no atlas nodes allocated - is a value-add proposition. You will only ever gain currency and commodities deterministically, which you can then cash in at a trade window for the thing you want.

As one of the "must get 1% gear to smile" players I want easy mode desperately. You need mageblood or HH to feel even 1/10 as strong as we did in 3.7.

You'd think I want scarcity, for me to have great gear and YOU not have anything... fuck no, I want it RAINING head hunters and mageblood for everyone. I think if you can do 200 crimson temples you should just get the fucking mageblood in the mail system or guaranteed cards after every 25 map 100% clears.

Yes, I just said I want free magebloods for anybody who can stomach 200 crimson temples. Do that many maps = have belt. No RNG, just here's the fuckinb belt congrats.

GGG, you will NOT slow me/us down. You can only make us hate the game too much to play.

POE used to be a fantastic brain off experience. Turn on music, turn off game sounds, I'd do maps for hours without using my brain ONCE, and smiling the entire time.


I use my brain all day long, I play video games to turn that brain off. I'm the kind of player that wants quest markers on my NPC's so I don't even have to listen to the mediocre dialog. For me, video games are meant for relaxing -- Not to be work. I don't play video games to work, and when I have to put in time AND effort, frankly i'm annoyed. I don't play games to exert effort, I do it to smile, trying = no smiles. The game is too tedius to smile. It shouldn't take 200+ hours to gear one character to mediocrity. Profits should be raised so high that we earn a head hunter every 10 hours of grinding. Day 1 noobs should expecjt a HH in their playthrough. that's what an ARPG is. We want / crave / deserve a nice FUN experience, where I don't even have to think once. Not once.


I keep saying "HH" as an example, but really mean smile-enabling-gear. no chase item should take longer than 10 hours to earn, including the most expensive shit in the game outside of actual mirror items.


Nobody wnats to put in more work than a career playing a video game. Even the streamers started saying "Well frankly I don't have enough time to even bother trying to win events" -- The time investment need is so astoundingly high, that people who play 12h per day don't even have enough enough time to keep up with super players.


Every league, no matter how much Bullshit GGG does, it has no impact on my play itself... The only thing the moving goal post does is piss me off. I will still get the 1% gear every league until the game is so ass I can't even bother playing.... Guess what happened this time?

First league I've not even bothered to get a HH, HH essentially is a tabula to me, a 100% necessary item meant to make the game less painful.

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GulpShitto wrote:

I’ll be the first to agree that you can’t give the players too much. In games like POE, it’s the journey, not the destination that matters. The core game can’t be too easy.

That's what makes me quit on the spot. I want items funneled to me QUICKLY, and we should average about 1-2 divines per alc n go. Raw divines, with no MF.


I think what people don't realize is when we are talking "Hard" and say the game is "hard" or even "Too hard" we mean tedius.

Tedius is NOT fun. Nobody but GGG is into that shit.

See GGG doesn't know the difference between challenging and tedius. Perhaps they only make shit tedius because they are unable to actually make the game challenging.. So they make it tedius.

It takes like 10x longer to gear a toon than it ever has since I started. In 50 hours in 3.7 you'd have a build that shattered bosses before they could even phase... Bosses used to last about 0.5 seconds... We don't have that power anymore.


GGG has essentially turned POE into something that feels like a DMV simulator. Be prepared to be heavily annoyed, wait way too long for any gratification, and feel like shit when it's done and you've gotten nothing for your extreme effort.

Easy mod where you can't lose.
Easy mod where you can buy anything for super low prices instead of grind.
Easy mod where you can ask for help and play in party.

Definetely not a SC Kappa

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Alendert wrote:

Easy mod where you can't lose.
Easy mod where you can buy anything for super low prices instead of grind.
Easy mod where you can ask for help and play in party.

Definetely not a SC Kappa

Everyone has their own ways to enjoy the game.


You know what I enjoy? Outgearing the content. The game was plenty hard enough before, ziz ripped before more than he does now that defenses actually got a rework (not a "rework" nerf fest), I could run triple nem or triple beyond and earn massive currency so I could get to the fun part -- having the gear.


There seems to be a huge divide in the community. Half of you get excited doing the work FOR the reward, not having the reward... The other half enjoy HAVING the reward.


I don't have fun WORKING for the chase items. I have fun USING the chase items.


And every. single. league.... It takes more work and more time to get the same exact results as the league prior. That is not okay -- you can't make the same shit you've always had progressively harder to get. That's like getting a pay cut every year instead of a raise.

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Rakie1337 wrote:

You know what I enjoy? Outgearing the content. The game was plenty hard enough before, ziz ripped before more than he does now that defenses actually got a rework (not a "rework" nerf fest), I could run triple nem or triple beyond and earn massive currency so I could get to the fun part -- having the gear.

There a little something that is common for most people on games: Actually having the gear/achieving 100%, gets boring fast

Once you reach the point where you cant see anymore how to improve further the toon, that marks you are quite close to the point where youll ditch the toon

Chase itens like mageblood and similars only feel amazing if you still have ways to try to improve further by comboing with other chase stuff: If you have the full set, then... well... why you are even still playing at this point? Not much diff from when you level and gear your party to top end on rpgs: Whats left after you beat all optional bosses, aquire all ultimate gear and solve all sidequests? New game + or new game entirely, thats what

Super easy acess to top content is super fun on the first few days, but reaches the point where it isnt fun anymore fast, its a rather large part why D3, where you can complete a build in an afternoon, had such a brilliant start but turned into a ghost town in record time for a blizzard game(not even heroes of the storm died as fast)

Its rather simple: outpowering the game means theres nowhere to go anymore, either you restart with a fresh condition(a new toon) or youll gonna be bored out of your skull from being directionless