You should balance SSF game mode separately from trade.

It should be comfortable single-player gameplay. Not a grind challenge.
Given that there's no "economy" to be worried about, there should be more drops and crafting options to compensate the absence of trade. Old un-nerfed harvest, recombinators, crucible and everyrhing else you can think of that could make a single-player experience better.
Also a way to somewhat reliably drop/craft/gamble various build-enabling uniques. Maybe a set of divination cards for every single unique item, so you could farm it over time (with much better drop rate).

They should remove trading entirely as it is and only allow trading with a short time allocated loot via party play. Also with a re balance of crafting and loot with the removal of trade.

+1

This would mean the world to me and probably a lot of other people as well. They don't even have to replace SC trade, let the people who think trade is awesome have their fun, no need to ruin it.

We already have an SSF mode in the game, just make it an actual game mode rather than selfinflicted punishment. GGG had the devtime to make ruthless which is the same thing just in an opposite direction. Can't be that hard to adjust drop rates and put the old harvest recipies back into the game.

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Baharoth15 wrote:

GGG had the devtime to make ruthless which is the same thing just in an opposite direction. Can't be that hard to adjust drop rates and put the old harvest recipies back into the game.

But ruthless is nothing else but PoE2 alpha concept testing.
SSF is sadly not beneficial for PoE2 so they don't care much about it

Even tho alot of people like that idea, it will probably never happen. PoE is based on the idea that everything has to be tradeable, because for GGG an ingame economy is key to an ARPGs success.

Trade however is cumbersome and needs interaction with other players or at least people need to have an understanding of what items are worth ect.

If GGG changes SSF to be much more accessible for new players or a more casual playerbase, that means it will become the default game mode and trade will die out over time. No one wants to deal with people or an complex economy as a new player, if they can just play solo and find everything themselves.

What I do hope they think about tho, is changing the loottables of the endgame bosses, specifically ubers.
It's very hard to build up a reliable uber killer in SSF in the first place, but even when u did it's basically selfharm to try and farm them for their drops.
Those invitations need so much grinding, except for maybe maven and shaper, that u have to play all league to maybe get one uber item drop. It's ridiculous. I did like 30 Uber Maven and 20 Uber Shaper this league without anything. I tried to farm an Awakener's Orb for weeks... did around 25 Sirus without one dropping.
That's the point when I get frustrated about SSF^^

I'm conflicted with this suggestion.

On one hand, I would like if SSF wasn't just a challenge mode for masochists. I'd almost certainly jump to it were GGG to make it so it was balanced without trade in mind.

On the other hand, SSF forces you to play solo. While I do mostly play alone, I do enjoy the time I get to play with me fiance if I can manage to convince him to hop in for a league. Playing SSF without worrying about trade and doing things that are considered profitable is nice, but then I'd miss out on playing with him.

What's the point to play SSF if it's easier then the base game?

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6_din_49 wrote:

What's the point to play SSF if it's easier then the base game?

Because people don't want to deal with the hassle of trading and not be punished for it.

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6_din_49 wrote:

What's the point to play SSF if it's easier then the base game?

uh....to play single player in an environment actually designed for it?

I'm almost perfectly fine with the Masochist description, I'd just like to have some recognition for the trouble, like having a slightly different look on the totem pole for every challenge run purely in SSF, or a different color in the forum like with the ruthless challenges. And maybe a few minor adjustments, like a guaranteed Doriyani's map drop from the first Grand architect's temple - they are a pain to find anyway, and no one would push through SSF to that point for that slight benefit.