Please let us skip campaign!

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SomeCrazyGamer wrote:

My thoughts exactly. It really is a fantastic campaign. But after 50+ times, I'm...I'm kinda done. Especially multiple times per League.

An Adventure Mode would be really helpful, or at least something like the Azurite Mine or little maps. Or just start secondary characters at level 67 or 68 if the "main" one has already gotten to maps. That'd be something.

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stalkingjackal wrote:

I mean, he got a point.

They literally spent numerous years just making a new campaign - aka PoE2.

Someone got to break it to GGG that no matter how good a campaign is, people are not gonna like playing through it 50 times. Especially in an endgame-focused arpg

Why stop at 67-68? Just start people at L100 because most people use 5-ways to get there. Give them all the BiS gear to start with too because grinding sucks.

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TemjinGold wrote:

"

SomeCrazyGamer wrote:

My thoughts exactly. It really is a fantastic campaign. But after 50+ times, I'm...I'm kinda done. Especially multiple times per League.

An Adventure Mode would be really helpful, or at least something like the Azurite Mine or little maps. Or just start secondary characters at level 67 or 68 if the "main" one has already gotten to maps. That'd be something.

"

stalkingjackal wrote:

I mean, he got a point.

They literally spent numerous years just making a new campaign - aka PoE2.

Someone got to break it to GGG that no matter how good a campaign is, people are not gonna like playing through it 50 times. Especially in an endgame-focused arpg

Why stop at 67-68? Just start people at L100 because most people use 5-ways to get there. Give them all the BiS gear to start with too because grinding sucks.

I get that grinding is a part of the game, and I'm fine with the leveling that starts at endgame. There's a big difference between the endgame grind and going through the story over and over. Once again, it's one of the few things that Diablo III did better than Path of Exile, and to give credit where it's due, Path of Exile does things much better in general.

I like the idea. its probably gotta be locked to standard.

but if it isnt... why bother catering to "racers" who want
to beat the campaign fast. skip em. if they want to race, start
at level 60 and get into maps in under an hour with no gear.
(should suspend kiracs first map reward. force casters to
at least search for maps in campaign levels)

like start the player at level 60 after killing kitava.
they get every skill and quest reward. all of them.
but they only have start of the game items. itemlevel 1.

they have nothing other than quest rewards. obviously
they have to return to act 1 or 2. kill a few monsters.
equip some blue items. move on to act 3 or 4. repeat.
(casters can probably skip to a3-a4 right away. even
a garbage wand can kill)

spend a few hours getting basic blue gear that can allow
them to survive harbour bridge. then they run that for a
few hours. equip some rares. spend a few chaos on decent stuff.

then hit t1 maps. and off to the races.

the whole plan would be to get enough mediocre gear to survive
maps than you just blaze forward.

They bother catering to racers/top players/etc. because that's the core demographic they want to cater to. People don't seem to understand that. They are not interested in garnering huge populations of the types of players that all other games out there cater to probably because there are tons of other games out there who already do.

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TemjinGold wrote:

They bother catering to racers/top players/etc. because that's the core demographic they want to cater to. People don't seem to understand that. They are not interested in garnering huge populations of the types of players that all other games out there cater to probably because there are tons of other games out there who already do.

?

when you design some system, you always scale it considering the most extreme parameters or conditions, game design is no different. so endgame difficulty is scaled for the most skilled of gamers and their items.

cause why design ultra powerful items if there is no content in the game that requires it? are you asking that ggg removes all the top end gear and weapons?

and when it comes to rewards, not every rare item ox valuable currency is hidden in late endgame, mf chars hunting div cards for example often just invest alot more time than casual gamers.

I'd love to skip it, but having your atlas tree effect the campign sounds good too. It has no replay ability right now, you're just forced to play it at least twice a league.

Options like playing endless delve or heist instead of campaign would be appreciated.

The campaign is a rite of passage, there are barriers to overcome. It serves its purpose. If you suck at leveling, get better at it. Use a weapon you can leap slam with, you get faster attacks at lvl 8 now, and leap slam frost blink.

Min maxing leveling speed is fun. i went from 1 char a league to 6-7 and loving the campaign.

They don’t do this because it would be bad for the game. Literally worse for the game than letting you just start a level 65ish character.

Imagine if alternate leveling is faster than the campaign: alternate leveling is now mandatory. Everyone has to go through it for new characters once they unlock it. It’s probably more repetitive and less fun than the campaign(more on this later). The worse experience is now the optimal experience and people will be clamoring for it to be faster and faster.

Now imagine if alternate leveling is slower than the campaign or just as long. Well, most people won’t use it because it’s probably more repetitive and less fun and there’s not even an advantage in it.

Why would it be more repetitive and less fun?

In alternate leveling, benchmarks are just a number - you reached level X in time Y. With a campaign you reach an act/location. You have memories of reaching it before, a sense of how hard it should be and whether you are under or over performing, feelings about how much you like the gameplay in that act. You may be eager to experience it again or relieved when it’s over. With endgame systems though, it’s really just a number. Level of character, tier of maps. Depth of delve. You’re still just trying to get leveling over with, only now there’s nothing stopping you from repeating the most xp rich content available over and over. You don’t care about anything but xp because low level drops have an extremely limited value. It will turn out like leveling via crafting in Skyrim. It will all blend together in one boring blob of time because there’s only one reward system you care about and it isn’t deep enough to be interesting. XP is ultimately the only reward with long term relevance in the campaign too - but that’s why having good benchmarks is so important - they provide something besides the usual reward system to keep it from being too much of a slog.

To use an analogy, would you prefer to repeatedly drive along a long road where all you see is a concrete wall with mile markers or one with landmarks that you’ve been to and have significant memories of?

I don’t think they should add a “start at 65” feature either because your time investment in a character is important to its value - but that would certainly be better than trying to leverage endgame systems(or worse, Diablo’s adventure mode) as an alternate form of leveling.

I hate repetitive campaign for each league. Diablo 4 gave the option to skip camgaign. Hopefully POE2 will do the same.