Blizzard understands the difficulty curve better

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auspexa#1404 wrote:

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JODYHiGHR0LLER#6171 wrote:

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auspexa#1404 wrote:

your feedback doesn't mean much if you're not part of the target audience.

do you think the target audience is the smaller part of the playerbase who enjoy things like ruthless/hc?
personally, i think the target audience is the larger part of the playerbase who do not.

just remember these things when the changes come in:

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auspexa#1404 wrote:

feel free to leave.

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auspexa#1404 wrote:

leave and play diablo

of course there will be hundreds of changes changes, this is early access. but none of the changes will be to please a bunch of naysayers who were never a part of the target audience anyway

there's a reason poe 2 is a separate game. it's built upon completely different fundamentals and has an entirely different target audience. it was never made for poe 1 players. I played hc ruthless for a month before I quit poe for good, to get used to poe 2's pace (because we knew it's going to be very similar to ruthless), and my favourite arpg is Grim Dawn, and I'm having a lot of fun in poe 2.

Odd, POE1 was built on different fundamentals at first as well. Look where it is now. There is a reason ruthless is so unpopular. They also obviously meant for POE1 players to play POE2 since MTX transfers from POE1 to POE2. So yes, POE1 players are their target audience.

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th3orist#5387 wrote:

OP has a point, its crazy how dismissive some people are here instead of trying to understand the actual meaning. It's not about wanting to make PoE2 feel like D4 lol. If thats what you understood from OP then "please leave" because clearly you don't know how to put stuff into context.

OP means that its absolutely good for PoE2 to have the philosophy it has and it would not be ruined by starting off a bit easier. Let's take the normal difficulty of D4 (not hard, not expert) when starting the game. In my book this is a 1/10 difficulty if you are even an averagely experienced ARPG player. The first few hours of PoE2 however are for an averagely experienced ARPG player an 8/10. It would absolutely NOT hurt the game if this would become a 4-5/10.

Well said +1

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Stalyn#6523 wrote:

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auspexa#1404 wrote:

but none of the changes will be to please a bunch of naysayers who were never a part of the target audience anyway

there's a reason poe 2 is a separate game. it's built upon completely different fundamentals and has an entirely different target audience. it was never made for poe 1 players.

It had more to do with the systems and architecture, not the gameplay experience.

No, the gameplay experience was the biggest reason why the games are separated. They didn't want to force PoE 1 players to play PoE 2 because they knew most of the PoE 1 players aren't going to like PoE 2.

Regarding the idea that "the first mission must be simple," I hold a different perspective. I once tried Path of Exile 1 for about ten minutes before quitting, but Path of Exile 2 genuinely caught my interest. I've played many games where I got beaten by the first enemy (recent examples include Dark and Darker or various Soul-like games). It's not that getting defeated is inherently fun, but rather the thrill of overcoming those challenges—and, of course, the rewards that come after breaking through.

Games where you realize "this approach won’t work," then change your strategy to make a comeback, can actually be very engaging. I enjoy loot-based hack-and-slash games, and I also like Soul-like titles, but I feel Path of Exile 2 has truly opened a unique door of its own.

That said, I do agree there’s undoubtedly an audience that prefers the Path of Exile 1 experience. Perhaps the developers could find ways to cater to both sides, such as introducing difficulty options that affect enemy attack frequency or damage. In return, there could be adjustments to experience points or drop rates to balance the gameplay.