POE2 disrespecting our time (Post-0.4.0)

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Turtlerer#3183 wrote:

the reason they don't buff SSF Loot,
is you can convert an SSF Character to standard.

everyone would go there Farm Loot/currency, then move to Trade league and dominate.

That is an easily solvable engineering problem, not a philosophical deadlock.

The Solution: If GGG buffs drop rates in SSF, they simply need to Disable Migration to Trade League for those characters. Treat "Buffed SSF" like a Void League or a completely separate realm.

Current SSF: Standard Drop Rates -> Can Migrate.

New SSF (or SSF+): Buffed Drop Rates -> CANNOT Migrate.

I guarantee you, 99% of SSF players would happily sign that contract. We don't play SSF so we can eventually move to Trade and get rich; we play SSF to get away from Trade entirely. Using "Migration" as an excuse to keep drop rates low is lazy design. Just add a "No Migration" tag to the mode and let us have fun with decent loot.

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Krytren#1839 wrote:

I agree, I don't even mind the idea of starting at lvl 1, having a T0 map for leveling. Making the unlocks achieved by level after they were achieved on the main. If you didn't unlock it on your main, SOL.

This is the perfect blueprint. You nailed it with the "Tier 0 Map" concept.

Technical Efficiency: GGG doesn't need to create "new" content for leveling. Just take existing T1 Maps, downscale the monster level to 1-60, and call them Tier 0. The assets are already there.

Progression Integrity: Your point about "Achieved on Main -> Unlocks on Alt" is crucial. It solves the "Skipping Content" argument.

You still have to beat the Campaign and unlock the systems once (proving you deserve it).

But your Alts simply inherit that status based on their level.

This preserves the value of the Campaign (you must do it at least once per league) while respecting the player's time on subsequent runs. It is the definition of a "Golden Middle Ground."

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Krytren#1839 wrote:

I would say they should make SSF gear BOP. But that would be some major coding.

Actually, from a technical standpoint, that is NOT "major coding" at all. It is a simple Boolean Flag (Tag) on the item data.

Evidence: The game already has this technology.

Quest Items: You cannot trade them or drop them for others. They are Character/Account bound.

MTX: Account bound.

Non-Tradable Currencies: Gold is already account-bound (cannot be dropped).

Implementation would be as simple as adding an AccountBound tag to every item dropped in the SSF League. If you migrate to Trade League, the item keeps the tag.

You try to put it in the Trade Window? -> "System Error: Item is Account Bound."

You try to drop it on the ground? -> It destroys the item (like in WoW).

Last Epoch handles this perfectly with their "Factions" system. The barrier here isn't Technology (it's arguably the easiest thing to code); the barrier is Ideology. GGG is philosophically opposed to items having "zero market value," even if that market doesn't exist for the player holding them.

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xayd#4454 wrote:

We know all we need to know from their actions in the past two weeks.

There's a bug causing a severe shortage of fracturing orbs that has existed for weeks. People found out their hidden / undocumented change to get omens of light and that was patched out as soon as a streamer pointed it out, the very next day.

Similarly, when people figure out the laughable bugs in their new temple mechanic and make a lot of currency from it, that was patched out immediately after a holiday weekend.

That tells us that scarcity / RNG crafting is intended and they are seeing if they can use it to make people hang around in leagues longer.

IF scarcity were not intended, we'd see fracturing orbs back to normal availability.

You just described the unwritten "Fun Detected" Protocol perfectly. Actions speak louder than manifestos, and the response times tell the whole story:

Beneficial Bugs (Loot/Omens): Treated as DEFCON 1 Emergencies.

Reaction Time: < 24 Hours.

Logic: "Players are bypassing our grind! Shut it down immediately!"

Detrimental Bugs (Fracturing Orbs/Scarcity): Treated as Low Priority.

Reaction Time: Weeks (or "We are monitoring data").

Logic: "Players are struggling? Good. That means they have to play longer to get what they want."

This asymmetry proves that Scarcity is the design goal. They believe that if they starve us of resources, we will play longer like donkeys chasing a carrot. But they forget that if the carrot is too small (or bugged out of existence), the donkey eventually just stops walking and goes to play a different game.

It is not incompetence; it is a Philosophy of Friction.

in any play method, this game is unrewarding, because of the fucking group bounos. consediring that most of players are doing it solo 99% of time.


seriously. fucking crap game mechanics for loot.

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KaiserBlade42#7840 wrote:

in any play method, this game is unrewarding, because of the fucking group bounos. consediring that most of players are doing it solo 99% of time.


seriously. fucking crap game mechanics for loot.

You hit the nail on the head.
It feels unrewarding because Solo players are essentially playing a different game than the 6-man "Cartels."
The issue isn't just that groups get more loot. It is that Group Multipliers (Quantity/Rarity) scale exponentially, not linearly.
• Solo Player: Kill monster -> Get 1x Loot.
• 6-Man Optimized Group: Kill monster -> Get massive Multipliers + MF Culling -> Screen explodes with loot.
This creates Hyper-Inflation.
Because groups flood the market with high-tier items and raw currency, the purchasing power of the Solo player is destroyed.
We are the 99%, yet the economy is balanced around the top 1% of organized groups.
It makes Solo play feel like you are working minimum wage while watching groups print money in the background. If the game is mostly played Solo, the reward structure shouldn't treat Solo players like second-class citizens.

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Japonbu#0742 wrote:

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Krytren#1839 wrote:

I agree, I don't even mind the idea of starting at lvl 1, having a T0 map for leveling. Making the unlocks achieved by level after they were achieved on the main. If you didn't unlock it on your main, SOL.

This is the perfect blueprint. You nailed it with the "Tier 0 Map" concept.

Technical Efficiency: GGG doesn't need to create "new" content for leveling. Just take existing T1 Maps, downscale the monster level to 1-60, and call them Tier 0. The assets are already there.

Progression Integrity: Your point about "Achieved on Main -> Unlocks on Alt" is crucial. It solves the "Skipping Content" argument.

You still have to beat the Campaign and unlock the systems once (proving you deserve it).

But your Alts simply inherit that status based on their level.

This preserves the value of the Campaign (you must do it at least once per league) while respecting the player's time on subsequent runs. It is the definition of a "Golden Middle Ground."

Nothing i dread more than having to redo the campaign over and over every league, because I want to try a new build with another class. I'm ok with doing it once per league, but doesn't matter if it's PoE1 or PoE2, the having to redo the entire bloody campaign again and again is one of the things that make me not want to try more builds and quit early.

So I'm in full support of this idea of having a way to skip campaign and then just have endgame maps or something else to do for leveling.

You can't make doing the campaign over and over fun, it's not possible. There's not enough variation.

Maybe if they could make the entire game after first playthrough like Act 4 or the Interlude, where you more or less pick what you wanna do in whatever order you feel like. But everything before that, has to be skippable somehow.

+1 brother, PREACH!

Also a lot of streamers are buying crafting materials online you can find sites listing what they have to sell and that is a big advantage in the success in end game plus if you don't use the trade option give up in the end game I don't like contacting people or their bots

An improved SSF mode with better drops, new means to obtain unique, with non transferable characters would be really beneficial for the game.

The gap between casual and hardcore player has been out of hand this league, by the time a normal player set foot in the end game, he's facing an inflation that would make look the Turkish Lyra like a reserve currency.

A "turbo" SSF mode would make everyone happy, reduce the rampant RMT problem, and surely appease the tensions appearing in the forum against a few individuals.

Some players just wanna play at their own pace, not with a gun pointed at their head with a countdown forcing them to rush before the economy gets out of hand.


As for campaign skip, this is an early access, player should be able to reroll new classes without spending 12 to 15h in a content that is trivialized anyway with twink items.
Campaign should be skippable until act 4 at least, thus giving you more data on newer content to adjust later on.

There's even the possibility to create bound to account items that would let you skip an act entirely, let's say you kill the arbiter on your first toon, you would drop an item to skip an act, same goes for other end game content.