Towers: Identity, Function, Design, and Farsightedness

Hey GGG, just wanna give my 2c on POE2's tower changes in 0.3.1 and maybe offer some food-for-thought.

Identity
With the change in 0.3.1, towers play like any other node on the atlas. Aside from the expected tablet drop, there is nothing really special about it. It seems to me the change makes the mapping experience more in-line with POE1, and I think this compromise should be changed in future patches.

I do love POE1, and the mapping experience in POE1 has become....expected and comfortable. I feel like you guys should continue to take risks with the atlas in POE2 and try to innovate on it based on the fundamentals of POE1's endgame.

So here are some ideas I think would make towers interesting and scalable as more content are pumped into the game:

Towers act as content blockers: Perhaps after the map is completed by activating the precursor beam, allow the map owner to insert [fragment, tablet, something_something_stone, etc] to activate the tower to block specific contents.

I think this is a viable way to make sure towers stay relevant since most of the complaints moved from them being tedious to the need to target overlaps as to avoid the FOMO.

Towers types providing benefits to specific biomes within its range: If a specific type of tower is tied to a specific biome and provide additional benefits for maps in said biome, then it'll add a layer of benefit without necessarily feeling the need to try to hunt for overlapped regions. I think for this to be done well, the graphics of the towers in the atlas need to be reflect their types.


Towers are only accessible after a certain number of maps within its range is completed: This would've been a very bad idea pre-0.3.1, but since each map can be juiced individually, there is no downside not NOT run a tower. So why not make it a special event like the new dangerous boss encounters?

With that, maybe give the tower an additional benefit for completion. Something like: expanded reveal radius based on the amount of tablet(s) used, or a special orb that creates a new connection between an accessible node and an unreachable node (given there is no existing edge or vertex between these nodes), or a consumable that can be used on a waystone to gives a fraction of The Grand Project's benefit.

Atlas Passive tree providing tower specialization: I think this is a no-brainer.

Special effects for when towers overlap: Yes, it was tedious to try to find an optimal path between towers that are nearby as to make sure the encroached nodes are sufficiently juiced, but I don't think we should throw away that playstyle completely.

Maybe we could have overlapped regions to give a chance to NOT consume a charge on the tablet as a type of secondary benefit? This would make it so that we don't have to go out of way to hunt for overlaps all the time but still feel good when we do set those up.

At some point...

Catering to the players' outcry is fine if the adjustment is proportionate and understandable. This 0.3.1 change says to me that you guys are going to play it safe for now and revert to something that has a proven track record (POE1). That is understandable and fair. However, that would defeat the spirit behind making a separate game from POE1. The design choice of the atlas has been a unique one since its inception, and there are many setbacks and challenges when implementing something revolutionary. This brought me back to when I first played POE1 all those years ago; the skill gem system was completely different than anything else I have been before, and once I understood it, the non-linear nature of it made POE1 very appetizing. POE1's endgame is great, but I don't believe POE2's endgame has to step back into those old shoes.

A worry I have is that you guys are too strapped for time and resources given the two games' release cadence...I hope this tension is eased upon POE2's 1.0 release, and you guys take enough vacation not feel the burnout.