POE2 disrespecting our time (Post-0.4.0)

"

Japonbu#0742 wrote:

"

Skadrel#3812 wrote:

Just wanted to chime in here.

I disagree with OP. Y'all asking for a rush here are used to effective slot machines. :D

I don't have 16 hours a day. I'm much more along with Tri. Campaign is really good. By far the best part of the game. Including the downtime (which bluntly I don't even feel, it's very easy to zoom through.) Problem is endgame sustain because the systems are too shallow and there's too little to do both in mid endgame and after you've done the bosses.

On Youtube recently, the algorithm showed me PoE1 closed beta gameplay for some reason. If it were up to me, I'd design the game around that pace. As players want faster gameplay, there's a middle ground to be had. That's fine. I can live with a faster vision.

But the pace shouldn't be too fast. The point isn't actually to speed to maps. The campaign shows the potential of PoE2, it's so good. It is not the area that needs attention.

It's also fine that a few areas are a little slow. Even the starry heydays of Impossible Standard Of Polish Blizzard had really, really sucky levels, zones, designs, encounters, depending on the game. Games are still classics.

The benefit of live service model is that they are expected to continuously tinker at weaker elements, but one zone being a bit bad was never what broke a game. And if you have to run for 30 seconds every once in a while because you missed something, that's not the end of the world. If you always have to run 30 seconds to somewhere you missed, you're not pathing the zones correctly.

If I were to prioritize dev time, it's the endgame overhaul that's already being worked on, and getting more skills and weapon types into the game. Make the game wider. It's fast and tall enough.

Another point of feedback I do think is needed here. It's telling that a lot of players are frustrated. I do think GGG has pulled back a bit communicating why certain changes are made. They're still far and beyond the industry standard, but there have been a few puzzling choices that weren't well communicated, and it was always better explained when Chris was overseeing things.

Right now I'm playing through campaign for fun with a grenade mercenary. Me and two friends had a session for 3 hours this Sunday. It was hilarious. People that dislike this do so because they're missing out on divs/hour, and I hold they're then missing the trees for the forest, reversing that idiom on purpose here.

I respect your perspective, especially regarding the "social fun" with friends. That is definitely a highlight.

However, your argument about "missing out on divs/hour" completely misses the mark for us SSF players.

I play SSF. I literally cannot trade.

"Divines per hour" is a meaningless metric to me.

My currency is Time and Fun.

When I complain about the Campaign, it’s not because I want to rush to a "Slot Machine." It’s because I want to play my build. In the Campaign, my build is often incomplete, mana-starved, and gated by fetch quests. In Maps (Endgame), my build actually functions as intended.

You say the Campaign is "by far the best part of the game." I agree—for the first run. It is cinematic and beautiful. But asking me to re-watch the same 40-hour movie every time I want to try a new character isn't "enjoying the art"; it's being held captive by it.

We don't want to delete the Campaign. We just want an Alternative (like Adventure Mode) for our 2nd, 3rd, and 4th characters so we can actually explore that "Wider Game" (more skills/weapons) you mentioned without paying a 40-hour entrance fee each time.

"

Skadrel#3812 wrote:

Asking seriously here, are you presenting these numbers without making an overstatement? I know you're frustrated, but accuracy would help a lot here; I do not believe you're playing campaign efficiently with these numbers, and if I were to to believe you, I'd say your efficiency needs severe improvement, and GGG would not be reasonable restructuring the campaign around your experience, since you're at new player pace, in which case inefficiencies and mistakes are teaching moments which they mindedly aren't usually bothered by (by new player, I don't mean ARPG veterans, I mean new player. Like if I invited my girlfriend to play).

Or, bluntly, you're zooming so fast that noncombat content actually takes so much of your time, in which case you're such an efficient corner case of a player that it'd be insane for GGG to implement systems wide changes around your experience.

Like, I just don't trust the numbers. Do you seriously think 66% of your time in campaign is spent on walking, phasing animations, environment animations and unskippable dialogue?

"

Skadrel#3812 wrote:

Just a quick note, divs/hour was more a broad attitude, and not targeted at SSF specifically; that players want to get to endgame quickly, get to endgame expressions, get their build to pop off. That kind of stuff. Like, enjoying the tall end of tall. It's the difference between "I need to be somewhere else as quick as possible" and "What can I do with the content in front of me", if that makes sense.

For a lot of players, the latter did miss the mark somewhat. But they've sped up the game a lot since 0.1 and I'm very worried they rework the game into something similar to PoE1. PoE1 is good, but we already have it.

"

JamsonOmagi#5040 wrote:

I enjoy running the campaign each league the first time. I'd be inclined to play longer if I had a means of more quickly being able to get a second character to endgame. For GGG, that means another opportunity to sell me MTX for that character.

Once per league is enough.



To make leveling work. Put us in a room with waves of mobs to level 65. If others choose to do the campaign. Great let them! Options in ARPGs are perfectly okay.

"

Japonbu#0742 wrote:

Hi everyone,


3. SSF IS UNPLAYABLE (Forced Trade) I want to play Solo Self-Found. I don't want to trade. But the game punishes me for it. Why does SSF share the same Item Rarity/Quantity rates as Trade League?

The game is balanced around a Trade Economy.

Solo players are left starving for loot.

Fix: Give SSF a dedicated loot buff or a "Loot 2.0" system. I shouldn't be forced into Trade League just to make a build viable.