Transfigured Gems - Why only one source to get them - not very SSF friendly, eternal lab not popular

Dear GGG Team,

Is this really a good idea, if the only source for Transfigured Gems is the lab, and especially only the eternal lab ?
This sound especially bad for SSF. How many eternal lab runs - which are not
very popular for most players - should anyone do in SSF, till he hits the gem
he wants?

Are there any other sources for those gems except the eternal lab and trade?

If not, are you sure you have thought this through? Actually it sounds like a very bad idea.


kind regards

SSF is supposed to be a challenge mode. I don't think GGG cares whether or not SSF players will have a hard time with labyrinth to get the new transfigured gems.

It is not only a SSF problem. The eternal lab is not very popular, and this for good reasons - its boring -
GGG offers SSF-play, so they should care about it and not make it worse.

And for non- SSF: Why again create a new bottleneck for casual players?

Why make such a loud noise about the new fantastic Transfigured Gems, if al lot of players actually cant get the ones they like. Because they are casual players, because it is SSF (and these are not in a huge minority).

I do believe, that GGG somethimes has the tendency to shoot themselves in the foot: huge announcments to all, but at the end it benefits only a small group of players who can spare a lot of time - students, streamers -.


I do miss a player base-friendly game design, which would attract more players in the long run.


regards Arkon

Well that's the thing with this change: If you don't like lab, then you just trade for the gems. If you can handle the lab, it's now actually finally worth farming. Normally I do the lab just once for ascendancy, but if I actually bother to pay attention to what is meta this league, I could probably farm that content to make trans gems for profit which beats the hell out of helmet enchant grind.

GGG offers SSF-play, yes, but it's literally a challenge mode. You're handicapping yourself by disabling one of the most core features of the game which is trading. GGG has literally balanced the game almost entirely around a player-run economy which means everything, especially drops and their rarity, was tweaked to encourage people trade with each other for the stuff they need. By playing SSF, you're opting out of that feature which means making the game harder than was intended.

"

ArkonHC wrote:

This sound especially bad for SSF. How many eternal lab runs - which are not
very popular for most players - should anyone do in SSF, till he hits the gem
he wants?

It looks like there's more degree of control than there was with Enchants, together with what sounds like the chance to run Normal Lab for a chance for the Transfigured Gem you want. With varying degrees of accuracy, such as the example shown in the reveal that had "random Transfigured gem of the same colour" which they described as being something you could cancel out of if you didn't like the choices.

As someone who played SSF but never ran lab aiming for specific helm enchants, this is something that I might actually give a shot.

"

As someone who played SSF but never ran lab aiming for specific helm enchants, this is something that I might actually give a shot.

If it is "a" shot I tend to agree, but if you need hundreds of runs on average, no "sane" Exile will do it. And this outcome is much more typical for GGG, considering the last years.

I posted three good reasons in another thread, why this is not a good idea from GGG, if those gems are only locked behind the eternal lab:


Reason 1:

The lock behind the eternal lab is not casual player friendly. These are the majority of the player base.


Reason 2:

The lock behind the eternal lab highly prefers a game mechanic, a lot of people (really )dont like. Those who does like it are in a significant minority.


Reason 3

And it is definetely very unfriedlich for SSF (SSF, SSFHC, RLSSF, RLSSFHC). Those players cant trade, like to play SSF and are NOT just a couple of a few hundred players. They are an integral part of the game.


My five cents, if those gems are eternal lab only:

Typical GGG - again, (like the archnemsis mods), never asked the player base
before something gamechanging is announced and implemented in the game.

Similar with the "reworked chieftan". Everone at Exile Con, who knew the game a little better, knew the moment the new stats were shown, that no one will like it, almost no one will play it, because it is not good at all, its crap. Well, no the modified it.

Why do not simply ask the player base in advance ? There are a lot of good streamers, who know the game well... Just aks them, what the think of it and why.

regards

1. Majority of the player base, which almost exclusively includes casuals, quits after act 10 Kitava. This isn't just my word on it, Chris himself has said as much during an interview around Expedition league that most players bail on the game for the league after beating the campaign.

2. There's a number of exclusive rewards you can get in the game which are gated behind mechanics you may not like. I'd love to have a Mageblood, but I'm not ever gonna get one unless I run some blitz clear mapping build to grind for their cards, but I don't like that content. :P

3. You kinda put yourself in a handicap mode and made the game harder as a consequence. The game is balanced fundamentally around trading, and opting out of it will make the game more difficult. You don't have anyone to blame, but yourself for what is effectively deliberately aiming down and shooting yourself in the foot. :P

The game was never intended to be friendly to casuals. PoE has always tolerated the existence of casuals but that's as far as that goes.

If you are playing SSF and are picky about certain kinds of league content, then you are making a choice to do without. SSF generally means if you want something you go farm it, period.

exactly what I am saying:

1. Make the game more player friendly till Act 10.

2. Those gems are not "exlusive rewards", they were designed to replace
an integral part of the game, starting in NORMAL lab, where you could
get your first enchantment.

3. So, if the game is balanced around trading, why is GGG offering so much
different versions of SSSF ? Much more then trade league ? Any good ans-
wer to that ? + They stated, that they will support/stimulate more SSF.
If true, they should support it, and not dry it out.

regards

1) They don't want to. That's not their goal. You seem to think they want to appeal more to casuals. They don't. This is not that kind of game because literally every other game on the market already does that.

2) As per the Q&A, you can just run the normal lab. There's no reason to have to run the eternal lab.

3) I've played exclusively SSF for the past few leagues now and can tell you if you actually have a ton of game knowledge (and if you don't SSF won't be fun for you), you would know they've done a LOT recently to make SSF easier. But that's not to say they are aiming to ever make SSF just as easy as trade, which is what you seem to want.