WiSPS the antithesis of good game desing in an ARPG
|
Wisp has it all...
#1 It fosters back tracking: Standing near to rare on your map already when encounterimg the wisp. Most of the time rest assured the wisp will pick another rare much more Further away, so you can come back later and run across the whole map. Same if you want engage a mechainc that is just across the way. If you do it the wisp is most likely gone. #2 it slows you down: You run a bit too fast in the right direction, rest assured the wisp does not catch up but is gone. You dare to kill a rare before the wisp felt in the right mood to posses the rare, be preapred to run in yet another direction. An ARPG is about 2 thing: LOOT & EFFICIENCY. How somebody could ever think a mechanic that slows the pace like wisps would be a good idea is beyond my imagination. You play it 2-3 time and you instantly see the flaws... HOW IT should be: YOU catch the wisp, get possesed and carry the wisp, and you decide were to carry it... IGN: “_THE__ROCK_”: level 92 melee ranger >>>> Tougher than any Marauder, no silly walk or spinal injury and has pants <<<< Other currently retired toons level 83-85 fitting the description above… Last edited by Conan_xxx#1131 on May 25, 2025, 10:08:37 AM Last bumped on May 26, 2025, 8:01:49 AM
|
|
" not so much. The wisp can be good , as long as the reward would be more than enough to compensate the valid points you make. The wisps give too little bonus to care for. |
|
|
I mean better loot would boost the tolerance level. But in essence it still stays "colorful flying poh". Because there are so much better and more engaging mechanics to copy from the base game.
Want to chase something --> Abyss: Great monster density, dark theme, sometimes a suprise (boss fight) at the end Want to fight special rares ---> Beasthunting (and Einhar beats the new guy by miles, the new guy has the personality of a sack of potatoes ;)) IGN: “_THE__ROCK_”: level 92 melee ranger
>>>> Tougher than any Marauder, no silly walk or spinal injury and has pants <<<< Other currently retired toons level 83-85 fitting the description above… |
|
" Yeah, no.. it's not. It's about real-time combat (the Action part) instead of turn based or menu-based combat. The RPG part is player skills/abilities and character progression, like traditional RPG games. That's it, that's what ARPG means. Anything else is a style, flavor or subgenre. |
|
|
I think wisps are fine in the campaign, but this mechanic has no place in endgame maps imo, i don't want to interact with them at all
|
|
|
The implementation does need a lot of work.
My experience with wisps is generally: - "No no no not now not NOW where dafuk d'you come from!?": 40% of the time - Found NPC but no wisp because I've killed all the rares: 30% of the time - Actually found wisp and am ready to activate it: 30% of the time Definitely needs some work. |
|
|
It is a really bad design because the wisp follows you, but you have to kill everything in your path.
Legit if you have a build that is good, it just does nothing unless you purposely do not kill things and go slow. It feels really awful to play with, playing with it is costing you an incalculable amount of efficiency, it really doesn't even matter how good it is. Unless that shit is printing divines at an unhealthy rate, in it's current state, it is completely useless and frustrating. |
|
" You do have to include efficiency in a discussion about something that is meant to juice your loot, or else, what is the point? The whole point of the mechanic is to get better loot. If it is inefficient in terms of getting more loot compared to just running the map faster, then it has failed as a mechanic. It's that simple. Last edited by AverBeg7#1689 on May 26, 2025, 5:04:05 AM
|
|
" My point is exactly what I stated, in response directly to what I quoted. ARPG is not about loot and efficiency, that is NOT what defines the genre. The versions you like to play may have that as a core mechanic, but that does NOT dictate what all ARPG must be like. You are correct that if a mechanic, like wisps, is designed to make drops better but it is is less effective than ignoring the mechanic that there is a problem. Could be a design issue, or it could be an understanding issue (Sentinel for example in POE1 had the exact same complaint about it... at first, until people figured out insane things you could do with them). But that has nothing to do with what an ARPG is, and the OP has an incorrect understanding of what the ARPG genre. It doesn't matter what the genre is, if doing X should make Y better but has the opposite effect then there is a problem. |
|
|
I enjoy the wisps, if you go faster than them it usually mean you have a zoom zoom build that's getting nerfed next patch, we know you want them to follow you instead but that's not challenging for non-meta builds.
Wisps going in a direction you don't want is totally fine, it's made to be challenging. Wisps ignoring a nearly rare is not really true, what true is that they fixrate on a rare but it's usually the closest one. Tech guy
|
|
