Is PoE2 even PoE?

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nagisanzeninzz#2697 wrote:

Do act without it and tell me how it goes.

Pretty smooth, just like PoE1 works without movement abilities.
But of course I'd be stupid to not make use of the provided movement abilities in both games to speed things up lol

But that's just a preference, so you could still skip it if you don't like it.

But I take it, your new to both games and still confuse a simple movement ability with soul-like games. But damn I really wish PoE2 had hard boss fights, cause in the current state power creep is already dominant enough to make boss fights look like a meme, while in souls-like you'd be punished for just hugging the boss all day long to auto attack spam.

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Pashid#4643 wrote:

But damn I really wish PoE2 had hard boss fights

I don't, as I agree with every ARPG developer to date.

Gear and builds are too important in an ARPG to make boss fights "hard" no matter your gear level and your build quality. The "harder" they make the fights, the more narrow your build/gear freedom becomes.

If a very tanky character has to dodge everything a sqishy character has to, build freedom/diversity is thrown out the window. There 'has' to be room to (almost) trivialize fights based on good gear and a clever build - if the developer wants gear to matter. And the moment gear doesn't matter, "no one" will play an ARPG.

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Phrazz#3529 wrote:

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Pashid#4643 wrote:

But damn I really wish PoE2 had hard boss fights

I don't, as I agree with every ARPG developer to date.

Gear and builds are too important in an ARPG to make boss fights "hard" no matter your gear level and your build quality. The "harder" they make the fights, the more narrow your build/gear freedom becomes.

If a very tanky character has to dodge everything a sqishy character has to, build freedom/diversity is thrown out the window. There 'has' to be room to (almost) trivialize fights based on good gear and a clever build - if the developer wants gear to matter. And the moment gear doesn't matter, "no one" will play an ARPG.

They aren’t wrong.
From a developer’s perspective, every boss encounter represents a substantial investment of effort. These fights come with carefully crafted mechanics, deliberate attack patterns, clear telegraphs, and an underlying philosophy about how the encounter should feel. But all of that becomes meaningless when a player can vaporize a boss in a few seconds, or simply stand still and auto attack it to death without breaking a sweat because it poses no meaningful threat.

It is perfectly fine if late game fully min maximized characters delete bosses in moments. That is expected once someone reaches the absolute peak of optimization. But when a freshly made character can kill a boss with the default auto attack, that is just bad. It trivializes the encounter before it even begins.

It is a frustrating state of affairs, especially when the developers clearly envision PoE2 with a very different mindset and design philosophy. Yet player power has already shot so high into the stratosphere that large portions of the content feel irrelevant before they properly launch. And really, if bosses are going to be that effortless, why should developers keep pouring hours into designing intricate encounters. At that point they may as well do what some other games settle for, which is to put a regular enemy model into the arena, inflate its damage and health, and call it a boss.

This is exactly why boss encounters should be harder. Not in an exaggerated or unfair way, but also not so trivial that you can melt them with idle auto attacks. The game needs a proper middle ground, challenging enough to respect the developers work without turning the experience into frustration.

at the moment it feels to me that PoE2 is like some of the shit TV shows based on books or established IP's

They take all that money and put their own spin on something that people loved and end up with something that the older fan base dose not like, but fuck it, they got some new fans right?

PoE 2 is worse than PoE 1 Ruthless.

Enough Said.

Ok I get it they want to lure in new kind of players. The simpler ones that like to play games like d4. Problem is that they are killing poe 1. The last league was brutally low effort one.

Its like 80% of the team is working on poe 2 and 20% on poe 1. They are secretly hoping poe 1 will die.

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eternalJOURNEYofTHEloser#5873 wrote:

Ok I get it they want to lure in new kind of players. The simpler ones that like to play games like d4. Problem is that they are killing poe 1. The last league was brutally low effort one.

Its like 80% of the team is working on poe 2 and 20% on poe 1. They are secretly hoping poe 1 will die.

80/20?

try 95/5

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eternalJOURNEYofTHEloser#5873 wrote:

Problem is that they are killing poe 1. The last league was brutally low effort one.

Its like 80% of the team is working on poe 2 and 20% on poe 1. They are secretly hoping poe 1 will die.

It is more that they shift their limited workforce toward whichever game is next on the list, then scale it back once that game gets its patch. It’s obvious they still don’t have the amount of workers needed to push all the content they’ve planned for a league in both games in time, and you can see that in the overall quality and polish of the patches for both titles. Even with everything being squeezed into these 2-month cycles, they still manage to put out pretty solid content for the time they actually have, which shows they’re trying hard to keep both games moving forward. If they wanted PoE1 to die, they would’ve already stopped updates and ended leagues completely.

And to be real, if it weren’t for the instant-gratification crowd that needs a fresh league every 4 months, and they instead released a league every 6 months, the quality and amount of content would look completely different. But as long as that audience keeps demanding more and more, without noticing how much pressure it puts on a studio that’s already going above and beyond just to hit these 4-month schedules, nothing’s going to change. That crowd seriously needs to wake up and realize that a lot of the limitations they complain about come from their own expectations.

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VoidWhisperer42#5989 wrote:

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eternalJOURNEYofTHEloser#5873 wrote:

Problem is that they are killing poe 1. The last league was brutally low effort one.

Its like 80% of the team is working on poe 2 and 20% on poe 1. They are secretly hoping poe 1 will die.

It is more that they shift their limited workforce toward whichever game is next on the list, then scale it back once that game gets its patch. It’s obvious they still don’t have the amount of workers needed to push all the content they’ve planned for a league in both games in time, and you can see that in the overall quality and polish of the patches for both titles. Even with everything being squeezed into these 2-month cycles, they still manage to put out pretty solid content for the time they actually have, which shows they’re trying hard to keep both games moving forward. If they wanted PoE1 to die, they would’ve already stopped updates and ended leagues completely.

And to be real, if it weren’t for the instant-gratification crowd that needs a fresh league every 4 months, and they instead released a league every 6 months, the quality and amount of content would look completely different. But as long as that audience keeps demanding more and more, without noticing how much pressure it puts on a studio that’s already going above and beyond just to hit these 4-month schedules, nothing’s going to change. That crowd seriously needs to wake up and realize that a lot of the limitations they complain about come from their own expectations.

1. Stop glazing million dollar company. Steam number alone showed that there are 2.5 million players, that alone is $75 million dollars. The realistic total revenue GGG made from PoE2 is $160 million dollars (Early 2025) according to Google. So screw your and your "They don't have workers". GGG have long passed the "think of the poor poor indie company :(" period.

2. 4 months league, which previously was a 3-month cycle, is entirely a self-imposed rule from GGG. They have all the financial incentive do release 3-4 leagues a year. Long time players all know that they make the bulk of money in early league as lots of players come back. This is fact, stop blaming it on players with instant-gratification and what not.

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nagisanzeninzz#2697 wrote:

1. Stop glazing million dollar company. Steam number alone showed that there are 2.5 million players, that alone is $75 million dollars. The realistic total revenue GGG made from PoE2 is $160 million dollars (Early 2025) according to Google. So screw your and your "They don't have workers". GGG have long passed the "think of the poor poor indie company :(" period.

I think you might be oversimplifying how game development works. First, developing a game is extremely expensive. It is not a one-time payment that magically covers everything, even with millions in revenue.

Revenue does not automatically mean a company can hire unlimited workers. A company can only hire as many skilled people as actually apply. GGG is based in New Zealand, which has strict labor and immigration laws. Even if they are constantly searching for new talent, their hiring is limited to qualified applicants. Recruiting overseas under these regulations is a huge challenge and cannot be solved just by throwing money at it.

Claims that GGG is somehow neglecting their workforce are unfair. They are clearly doing their best to manage development within real-world limitations. It is worth understanding these complexities before dismissing the company as greedy or lazy.

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nagisanzeninzz#2697 wrote:

2. 4 months league, which previously was a 3-month cycle, is entirely a self-imposed rule from GGG. They have all the financial incentive do release 3-4 leagues a year. Long time players all know that they make the bulk of money in early league as lots of players come back. This is fact, stop blaming it on players with instant-gratification and what not.

Yes, they started with a 3 month cycle and later moved to a 4 month cycle, which significantly improved the quality of patches. That said, it does not change the fact that we still have a segment of the player base driven by instant gratification, people who go into full panic mode at even minor delays or when a patch is not released immediately, as if they are entitled to a new league every 4 months.

While the 3 and 4 month cycles worked in the past, the situation has changed. With the same-sized development team now splitting efforts between two games and two major patches, the 4 month cycle effectively becomes only 2 months of development per patch per game before the team has to switch focus. This inevitably impacts patch quality, yet complaints persist.

And here is the catch, if GGG were to extend the development window to improve patch quality, people would still complain. A 4 month league with a fresh league that only had roughly 2 months of development? "The game is bad, the league is bad, GGG is bad, doom and gloom."
Delay the release to allow more time for a polished patch? "GGG is bad, where is my new league?"

No matter what they do, the same instant gratification portion of the community will always be upset. It is a no-win scenario, and understanding that context is crucial before leveling criticism and blaming the company for doing nothing wrong at all.