Divine Font random gems, very unhappy

The biggest issue with the randomness is that GGG went to great lengths to destroy alternate quality gems, stuff around with the base level gem, then said "but hey, here's lots of cool stuff to play with instead". It's bait and switch at its worst.

There's simply no need to have this additional friction in obtaining the basic skills to play the game with. The only logic behind it is that GGG believe trade is god and someone, somewhere thinks Lab is the best thing since Donkey Kong, which it isn't.

Standard GGG approach of "no, it's not me, it's the children that are wrong". You will engage with Lab and you will love it, or else!

As someone previously stated, there's a reason GGG eventually changed the gem system and gave us a hideout vendor with full access. Because muling for gems is bad design.

As for expecting a mid league adjustment - you're dreaming, it ain't gonna happen. GGG have frequently demonstrated their passion for sunk cost fallacy and never like to be seen to give in to the player.

The insistence on putting randomised stuff at the end of the labyrinth is weird to me, as if the dungeon that each character already plays four times needs to be forced to be repeated even more. It doesn’t!

Now I don’t have a problem with the labyrinth. And I’m sure I will get the gem I’m after if I keep going. But I don’t enjoy this design for getting these gems. There’s no feeling of progression in playing the labyrinth, getting options I’m not interested in, playing the labyrinth again, getting more options I’m not interested in etc.

It’s better than the helmet enchantment situation due to the smaller pool and options (I don’t think I’ve ever used a helmet enchantment in all the years they were around) but that’s not saying very much.

Uber lab rolls "turn gem into a transfigured version of inserted gem" pretty often. Getting that option roughly every 2-3 runs.

guys.. these gems, all of them, are ~1c in trade right now. buy lvl 1 gem, run lab 2-3 times to level it up, few more runs later you have 20/20 gem, no risk involved

there are so many problems and yet you are discussing something that is not a real problem anymore. gems, even the good ones are extremely affordable

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Anonymous1749704 wrote:

Uber lab rolls "turn gem into a transfigured version of inserted gem" pretty often. Getting that option roughly every 2-3 runs.

Nice I'll have to do that. Someone else claimed they were getting it only 5% of the time. They must have been exaggerating.

2nd or 3rd labs seem like the play for farming gem quality. I got 15% quality from 3rd once.

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sidtherat wrote:

guys.. these gems, all of them, are ~1c in trade right now. buy lvl 1 gem, run lab 2-3 times to level it up, few more runs later you have 20/20 gem, no risk involved

there are so many problems and yet you are discussing something that is not a real problem anymore. gems, even the good ones are extremely affordable

I mean I don’t trade so this doesn’t matter to me. But even setting that aside, game design issues don’t disappear when you paint some capitalism over the top of them.

If acquiring these items is supposed to be trivial then there’s even less reason to gate them behind dicerolls in the first place.

i havent discussed that - OP complaint is about grinding for gems.

POE is a grindy game, so it is pretty much given that you HAVE to grind for everything. be it gems or currency to buy such gems. game is designed and balanced around trade. in said trade environment this issue stopped being relevant on day 2 of current league

if one mean SSF or any other self-limiting 'mod' to POE - this is consequence of playing said mode/set of rules, nobody forces anyone to play this way, devs dont care nor support it

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sidtherat wrote:

i havent discussed that - OP complaint is about grinding for gems.

Well okay. You started with "guys" so it didn't sound like you were only addressing the OP.

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sidtherat wrote:

POE is a grindy game, so it is pretty much given that you HAVE to grind for everything.

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sidtherat wrote:

in said trade environment this issue stopped being relevant on day 2 of current league

These two statements are in opposition, which is where the point in my previous post came from. Clearly, despite saying "you have to grind for everything", it's actually considered so acceptable for these items to be trivial to acquire that it's not even considered a relevant concern.

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sidtherat wrote:

if one mean SSF or any other self-limiting 'mod' to POE - this is consequence of playing said mode/set of rules, nobody forces anyone to play this way, devs dont care nor support it

This is such a strange attitude. I mean for starters it's factually incorrect. The devs literally support it - the devs are the ones that put an SSF option in their game, intentionally. They didn't have to do that, they chose to.

But what I really mean is the dismissiveness. I play SSF not because it's harder to get items, but because trading sucks the enjoyment out of the game. Yes, I expect item acquisition generally to be more difficult; that's a natural side-effect. But the game is not one uniform monolith. Playing SSF does not somehow obligate me to agree with every specific design decision the devs make, any more than it does anyone else.

Especially since SSF players aren't the ones calling the concern irrelevant. If you feel the state of this system doesn't affect you then surely you don't really have a horse in this race?

SSF has been added by GGG because people were moaning about it at every damn opportunity, for years. some wanted it as a challenge (fine) some wanted to leave the trade market (kinda not fine, just dont have public tabs and noone will ever bother you with trade). they stated publicly that the SSF is what it is and they do not intend to ever change their main game to appease SSF players.

not my words, do whatever you wish with that


as for the lab - in trade, the OPs problem is not relevant. you can get any gem you want for few chaos. what you need to grind for is the 'get gem xp/quality' as you most likely need few copies for 21/20 or even vaal version. there is a grind, but it is not the obvious one.
(and during said grind you might actually find rare font modifiers that can be quite powerful - worth the grind on their own)

but as for the gems - it is not-a-problem situation, just buy any gem you want for few C and level it up organically or grind for gem XP/quality

SSF players kinda have to live with consequences of selecting this game mode

side note: i do not like the lab change at all, but this specific complaint simply doesnt hold water (in trade)

If it such a non-problem that everything can be had for cheap, then why would it be an issue to just make all the gems available at the usual gem vendor?

Is this extra friction really adding any real play value to the game, or is it just an unnecessary annoyance?

By all means, leave the other features at the Divine Font and people can run those as they wish, but moving all gems to a gem vendor would mean players can actually play the new skill they want immediately. There's no shortage of other things to grind in this game.