How We're Developing Our Next Expansion Differently

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DixuMixu wrote:

damage control by the man himself!

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Atlas expansion

and that's what everyone wants to hear! league mechanics that are not tied to the core gameplay of poe, which is mapping, are awful as history has shown

So either delve is the exception or the rule. Delve in an entirely different region, system and gameplay loop, yet it is loved so many people that they create delve only characters, leveling after maps entirely in delve and going as far as they can go.

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Erexonvayne wrote:

"

DixuMixu wrote:

damage control by the man himself!

"

Atlas expansion

and that's what everyone wants to hear! league mechanics that are not tied to the core gameplay of poe, which is mapping, are awful as history has shown

So either delve is the exception or the rule. Delve in an entirely different region, system and gameplay loop, yet it is loved so many people that they create delve only characters, leveling after maps entirely in delve and going as far as they can go.

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Delve is the exception except that Heist could have been in that same category if implemented correctly. Frankly the idea of another popular "out of atlas" expansion was probably perfectly timed. Even with the near complete clusterfxxk most experienced players are making a ton of currency in Heist and they probably enjoy it.

again nothing is being said or done about the core problem here -->
1. Infrastructure is unstable and bugged.
2. To many bugs ingame / bugs that have been fixed is back.
3. Missing optimization of game client so it runs better.

So just more "jokes" from Chris......

Best thing to do, was tale 6 months and use ALL DEV time in fixing the above things as a MINIMUM !!!

Does that mean that future league will not ber overtunes and playable day 1 ? How will you manage to tune down the feature creep without taling things out of the game (like Bungie is doing with Destiny and not very popular...) ?

PoE was enjoyable until Betrayal, after that, I felt playing PoE was a real time job...
I'm waiting the 3.13 to see how you include Harvest in the core game, and if it is somewhat enjoyable to play PoE again...

Have they considered changing leagues to 17 weeks at a time while just doing the same amount of stuff as current leagues?

Or even just do less for each league, and if it goes core do the extra work to make it fit in well and be excellent quality. It really sounds like they are just doing too much.

The amount of stuff added for each league is definitely more than enough. Developers having some slack time is a great thing. If there is no slack time it suggests that things are always behind schedule. Some slack time has to be good for the mental health of the workers as well, lots of crunch time is certainly bad for it.

Personally as a casual player a slightly longer league would work better for me, but maybe that is generally not the case.

This announcement definitely sounds like they are going to go in a better direction now.

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Myozhen wrote:

Have they considered changing leagues to 17 weeks at a time while just doing the same amount of stuff as current leagues?

My recommendation for the past couple years has been to actually do away with "4 expansions of content every year" and instead replace a lot of the time with a variety of mini-leauges/long races to fill in all the gaps.

If GGG's goal is to retain players, longer leagues, while desirable to the minority of casual players that stick around, would actually be counterproductive; by far the most activity is around the launch of each league, and after the first 2-3 weeks player counts start plummeting continuously, bottoming out around 10% of the initial peak.

Pretty much since 3.0 came out and GGG discontinued races, we've had the drop-off get that steep; a larger fraction stuck around in the 2.x era, with Legacy League managing to maintain a sizable fraction of its players even some 20 weeks.

Legacy League's success (in spite of being the lowest-content league ever made) is why I feel that's the best direction GGG should head in.

The arbitrary 13 week deadline is the problem. You set yourself a target you can't meet but instead of giving yourselves more time, you make less content instead.

Welp i came back to try PoE after not playing for 4+ leagues and quit a few days in because it seemed like nothing had really changed, as stuff seemed even more obfuscated than before.

Might try the December one out seeing as this direction seems very reasonable. Not a fan of convoluted, cryptic leagues. An ARPG should be about killing mobs and getting loot.

The majority of these 3rd gen leagues have not been as good as the 2nd gen ones, so maybe this will change it towards the better, even before 4.0.

My take on this... for what is worth.

I love this game, even with a couple of MAJOR flaws that pretty much will one day take its toll. Maybe not, hope not.

You're saying basically that it is a hard time (it is indeed) to make more complex mechanics leagues. Well, your simpler leagues are the ones that were met with more success, right? At least for me PoE is all about killing monsters and loot the stuff they drop, so I love leagues like Delve (my personal favorite mechanic, not league), Legion, Delirium and Metamorph (just out of the top of my head on the most recent leagues) whether more complex leagues like Betrayal, Synthesis, Harvest and Heist are, well, you know...

Take this "opportunity" to do what you do so well.

One day PoE2 will be out and that will be another time to experiment again on different mechanics.

Stay safe and all.

Chris,

I am inspired by your innovation. As a program manager I understand requirements creep and applaud your effort to maintain a streamlined baseline. I look forward to a release that prioritizes quality and performance versus quantity. I also look forward to the key balance changes you guys prioritize.

Cheers