Atlas Changes in 3.10.0

This is why I gave up on trying to figure out the new map/s...

After having played PoE since Open Beta, going away after Talisman league, then coming back... AND being a person that treasured complexity of this game in that it allows min-maxers to squeeze as much as possible out of the game -- I find the socketing system to have a bit too steep of a learning curve.

The biggest issue that I've come across is actually just sorting through the maps I've attained, to visualize where they go on the Atlas. There are 8 sections on the map, yet all of the icons of the physical maps in the inventory only distinguish themselves by tier but not the map region they belong in.

I finally got the new Map stash tab tonight. While I was pleasantly surprised to see that each Map becomes highlighted when its under Crusader/Shaper/Elder influence, I still need to click through each Map while holding Alt to see its geographical region on the Atlas (ie: Tirn's End).

Before I had the Map stash tab, I couldn't see which Maps had influence, but I could at least organize the stash tab I put them in to to indicate which regions they belong in. For example, I'd place Haewark Hamlet maps in the top-left, Tirn's End in the center-left, Lex Ejoris in the top-right, Lex Proxima in the center-right, etc.

These condundrums gave me an epiphany tonight.

**I think some simple but effective quality-of-life solutions for all players, new & veteran alike, are:**

1) Consider altering the shape of the inventory icons of Maps to indicate their region (or letting players do so, for their own sake), ie: Triangle shape for Glennarch, Circle shape for Lex Ejoris, etc.

2) AND/OR Consider altering the hue of the inventory icons of Maps to indicate their region (or letting players do so, for their own sake), ie: Dark Red hue for Haewark Hamlet, Red hue for Tirn's End, etc.

3) Consider allowing players to zoom the Atlas out if the inventory is open.

4) Consider showing on the Atlas how many of each Map the player has on each node, say with a counter. A fun addition would also be a logging functionality to show how many times that player has run that Map, and the average time of each run.

5) Consider adding customizability to Map stash tabs so players can choose between Roman numerals or Modern numerals, and also allowing players have the Maps in each tier sorted by Map region, and perhaps frequency of that Map having been run (tied into the previous suggestion).

There's definitely some room for improvement when it comes to Mapping, and while the Atlas is a MASSIVE improvement and a quite impressive one, the manual inventory management of Maps that a player has to do is not so intuitive (in my view).

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t0lkien wrote:

That's not better, it's far worse. You haven't given me more choices and ways to play, you've forced me through obnoxious recursion in order to get to the lower difficulty levels I enjoy farming with MF builds. How does that make sense?

And let's not talk about having to relearn everything again with each remade iteration of the Atlas.

Please consider going back to the old way, or forward to a new, similar way. It was much more enjoyable. Target farming maps was elegant and rewarding. Now it's the ultimate grindy chore (and as a result I haven't done it; coupled with the league mechanic that turns a beautiful and varied game into a bland monochrome speed run with unavoidable one shot deaths, I just couldn't face the grind).

It would be no problem if you could quickly unlock the Atlas without any external trading. It's the stupidest thing ever to force a player out of the game, to go to a trading site and search 300 times for their stupid maps to buy. It's just insane. They should soon implement instant Ingame Trading to save their game.

Thank you so much for adding the Atlas Region names to the Map Stash Tab as I suggested in a prior post! GGG is awesome!