Map drops - assessment of 2.0.0, and changes coming in 2.0.2

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ShirosLullaby wrote:

This is why GGG is one of the best game companies around.
They make a change, get the data while listening to customers and adjust things if necessary.

YEP AND ONLY 1 MONTH AFTER THEIR 3 MONTH BETA IS COMPLETED!!! /s

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ElChivoDiablo wrote:

I stopped spending my currency like that. Now my rule of thumb is to use exactly 1 alch on a map, and run whatever it gives me. So far the results have been similar compared to spending chisels and chaos on each map. Not worth spending the currency.

DING DING DING!

Alching at all is a waste of money. You won't get it back most likely. If you do, it's just RNG.

GGG's fundamental issue is lack of reward. It frankly always has been. Essentially currency at the blessed and above level needs to drop twice as often. Probably more. Everyone should see more than one EX drop in a 3 month league. It's rare to get one at all.

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Qarl wrote:

Maps in the level 80 to 82 range are rarely run relative to other maps. This is intended; these maps are supposed to be dangerous and special, and are also intended to be not sustained in the same way as other maps. Expert players can (and do) maintain 79+ map level runs, but within the range are forced to play a variety of maps. We do also see more hoarding of maps in this level range, where players often choose to not run these maps (we assume until they improve their character).

I have asked this before in this thread, but I got no response, so I will ask again.

a) what map level is intended to be sustainable, and at what cost?
b) are maps intended to be a currency sink (require more currency than they yield?)
c) how are you trying to balance solo mapping vs. group mapping or are maps supposed to be run in groups?


The reason I was hoarding, as in not running my high level maps, was very simple: I am not very specifically a friend of gambling, but I am even less a friend of gambling when I do not know the odds. Since I do not know how much I have to invest into a map to get (on average) a positive ROI (return on investment), I was waiting for any comment on that.

Furthermore, "expert players" mostly means wealthy players, I assume. You said you wanted to reward taking risks. You are, at the moment, not rewarding risks, what you are rewarding is spending a lot of currency on rolling maps. As a solo player, I cannot afford this, it is not sustainable.

For example, take some of the Zana mods that are popularly run to increase map drops. Do they increase difficulty? Hardly. Does adding SAC fragments to the map increase difficulty? Not at all.

So, if possible, please have a look at this. SAC fragments are already going up in price, and it will be worse.

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donaldtroll wrote:

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ShirosLullaby wrote:

This is why GGG is one of the best game companies around.
They make a change, get the data while listening to customers and adjust things if necessary.

YEP AND ONLY 1 MONTH AFTER THEIR 3 MONTH BETA IS COMPLETED!!! /s

Month and a week. And what am I supposed to do until then, not run any maps?

High end content, like Lightning Coils, Mjolners, Uber Atziri, and high level maps, should belong to the rich and the lucky.

I disagree with this change.

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Charanjaydemyr wrote:

Welcome news.

I particularly like the distinction made between 'softcore' and 'hardcore' mapping methodologies.

Dude i never realized there was such a HUGE difference till this whole map changes!
I was one of those... playing WBs.. Grinding as hard as possible and investing every single thing i could into my maps and simple was left emnty handed! At that point i got bored and i was faced with 2 choices... Quit.. Or start playing in HC and see what happens! So atleast one good thing come from the terrible map drop rates.. it pushed me into HC! And im enjoying myself more now than ever!

And mapping in HC is ALOT different than in SC! Once i got to maps in Tempests i did NOT have the same issues! At the same time you also dont want to just do the hardest map you got at your diposal and climb as quickly as you can!
Instead you save those maps till you lvl enough to be comfortable in the map! Thats what i noitced as soon as i got to maps in Tempest.. The way i look at maps in Tempest its as if the changes were alot more conducive to that style of play!

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Qarl wrote:

.... We will be amending our map drops to smooth the curve into level 74-79 maps....

Thanks God! I mean, Qarl!

Thanks for the write up. Also please buff Zana, she's kinda useless now.

Yes, a good start but I've said it before and I will say it again, it doesn't look good for a game to create an ep, than later create another ep which undermines the last ep.

Zana. She was touted as the most awesome of the forsaken masters. Fine. Then 2.0 comes out and she receives a nerf that makes her useless.

This infers that the devs feel the last ep was stupid.

Since PoE is free, and thankfully you guys are not EA charging ridiculous amounts for questionable content, it isn't a cardinal sin but it still looks plain silly. It looks like you don't know what you are doing.

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Xavderion wrote:

Thanks for the write up. Also please buff Zana, she's kinda useless now.

This ^
Please.

She is -9 to -7 now.

That's a hard nerf.