Kalguur is a home run.

This is by far the best league this game has ever had. It's not close at all.

That said, even if the settlement portion of the league doesn't go Core, gold/currency exchange must. It takes this game's historically awful trade system and makes it way more manageable without having to cross that hard line in the sand that GGG set forth so long ago--no item AH. This is a decision I've long disagreed with, but the CE is a compromise that I can happily live with. Well done.

Don't worry, they have said it already that they are aware that removing it won't be possible. They rightfully understand that there would be no end to hate for removing faustus

I responded to another thread about "Kalguur isn't for casuals" or something.

"

If I had only an hour a day to play, I wouldn't use the town. I'd just save my gold and use it for Currency Exchange. That's all you truly need it fore. The rest of it is just convoluted mechanics to convert gold into usable currency.

Basically, the only thing you'd want to invest in is the Runeforging. Past that, dumping gold into the city to convert it into currency is merely a luxury. Casuals and "dad gamers" need not deal with all that if their time is limited.

It begs the question, though:
-- What will future gold sinks look like if Kingsmarch itself doesn't go Core? (I kind of feel like it should, though.)

If the only way to spend the gold is the currency exchange they need to reduce the amount of gold that is dropped to prevent botters from owning the market

By far the most fun i had with PoE in YEARS! Last time i was this invested was Delirium.

The league is a banger, I agree.

And while I would LIKE it to go core, I just don't see HOW. And I've thought about it a lot. My mind is constantly searching for solutions to justify the league to go core, but I fail to come up with an answer.

The Currency Exchange Market will stay, so don't worry about that.

Rune enchants will probably not stay, at least in its current form. While this is the simplest thing to implement from the current league, it needs a lot of balancing, and a lot of the enchants screams "borrowed power". A lot (most?) of them would just be too much in the core game, and make a lot of other mechanics obsolete.

The league is a joke. Too much currency, it's ridiculous

I am going to avoid ranting or being overly negative but the only redeeming factor of this league is the currency exchange and maybe runecrafting. Every other aspect requires more time investment than I care too do. I don't want to check my ships every 32 minutes or whatever, I don't want to grind gold for the ships, I don't what to have to ferry items to the disenchanter.

The timesink is just too much for me. I turned the town off and the league became immediately better. I never got anything notable from shipping despite doing large shipments (because I wasn't spamming them) I fulfilled my quotas and promptly ignored the mechanic.

If it doesn't give me loot why would I engage with it at all? Especially when I could be doing things that are more fun like heist/blight/sanctum/maven/altars. Going to kingsmarch was just a drag because I felt like I should be able to do it from the hideout.

If I want gacha mechanics I will play a gacha game.

There are a couple of really good rune enchants and the rest are going to be heavily ignored, it really pushes weapon base types as a restriction, which limits what attack skills you can do with them.

Despite GGG gutting Heist due to mass summoner meta thus being unable to 'stealth' I feel Heist has the most RPG elements and content of any league they've ever produced.

13 characters, all with their own stories, dialog with motives, quests, dialog with each other during play. All leading into the league main quests and bosses. Settlers is like "Hey. Who are you?" - "Build a city!" - "No, no. Who are you? Why are you here?" - "Build a city!".

Just like Heist. This league feels like some things just failed in concept. The Shipping bonuses for instance. Most players are shipping nothing but crops. Both because currency is better and because the Ore/Ingots are crazy high amounts. So nothing rotates.

Unlike Heist it's filled with characters I don't care about at all.

Dopamine hits from fulfilled currency exchange orders...