Development Stories: Timelines & Retcons

At the moment the constant crashes on console make me not care about the story. Besides once you've completed the campaign the story is obsolete, if a story in an ARPG is ever needed. I appreciate the efforts to add lore however silly or convoluted to justify the Role Playing in an ARPG but PoE isn't gonna be Tolkien. After playing for years I care less and less about the motives or justifications of the games protagonists. Characters like Einhar and Sister Cassia feel like memes or even worse, such as Jun, boring.

There will be players who enjoy, maybe love (although I'd find that hard to believe), the lore and characters of Wraeclast but I suspect the majority end up not caring. They just want to play.

"Who is It That Fled dating these days?!?!?"
-I see what you did there

also, I have 2 ideas for a new league. The best one is a tall tower where you ascend. It replaces the current atlas mapping system cause it get's boring really quick. It's like delve except you place maps in the slots to go from floor to floor. It's basically like mapping except there's a more interesting place to put your maps.
There would be certain areas where you don't need to place a map, as a mechanic is already there. They could implement the synthesis memory mechanic here. And there would be secret passages leading to all kinds of rewards, maybe something that makes certain other maps on a floor more rewarding by adding additional league mechanics or have something specific drop in it - like activating a special sextant for certain map slots or all mapslots on a floor. Regular sextants would work the same way, letting you use them on a floor instead of on the atlas.

The idea is to have as much fun on a floor as possible, and move on to the next floor when you've unlocked it and want to proceed. Also, the difficulty and rewards of the tower will scale slightly with each floor, but the main difficulty factor will be the map tiers you place in the slots.
Opening a new floor will be as simple as CTRL clicking and making a new one, but you cannot open a floor before you've reached it in the tower. So if you're at floor 34 you can't go to floor 35 before you've unlocked it somehow. Likely by doing x amount of maps in a floor before.

"

Currently, the last time we see Zana, she is heartbroken and alone after the necessary deaths of her father and every single one of her former friends. We can’t leave things like that!

Zana and Jun, first canon couple of POE? All jokes aside, I'm rooting for them lol

Nah, Jun fancies zana but Zana likes dudes so the next league is going to be Jun's revenge on Zana.
We already know that Jun is all about revenge and that all evil in this game start with Zana so it's a perfect fit!

Step 1: Kill Zana's father.
Step 2: Kill Zana's boyfriend
Step 3: Kill Zana's girlfriend

...yeah, there's a pattern developing here.

I like the idea of the Day Zero rule as a whole. It provides stable Cannonization that both makes sense and is satisfying to the player.
PoE2 is a strange case in this sense because the PoE2 and PoE campaigns share the same endgame, if I remember correctly.
I’m interested to see what build up PoE might have to the day zero of PoE2 and how the day zero of the map system will match them together.
This has no obvious solution but that’s part of what makes it a fun and creative challenge for the writers. You have boundless options in-spite of or even because of that confine.
Will PoE and PoE2 reach a point when the mapping system becomes two converging universes forcing them to share the same endgame? Will there be a shift in time for the exiles of PoE to meet up with the exiles of PoE2? Will the maps and the atlas transcend the bounds of cannon and force the exiles into a world where time and space have lost their meaning? And what could cause these phenomena? The breachlords? The elders return? Are the creatures from beyond starting to pull US to them instead?
There’s so much to think about and I’m excited to see whatever it is. And as always I’m sure GGG will deliver in Spades.

This was an interesting read, the storyline of PoE matters a great deal to me. And i think it is really funny to have past leagues preserved in the story so you can get to hear tid bits from npcs regarding events etc. To me this is not a must though, as my own experiences with the leagues is enough for me, if that were all we got.

I have always wondered what the fundamental difference between players like me, who don't know the lore despite playing since the beta, and players who know, remember and engage with the story.

I don't read fiction, i prefer to watch it. I read non-fiction. I don't read any lore in games, i prefer to min-max.

I don't care as much about what you think as about what you do.

The lore I know from WoW, despite playing in that beta as well is that Jaina is a sorceress or mage or something and uses cold spells a lot. Thrall is a character and there was a Tauren good guy and a bad guy who is hunched over and has a beard.

The PoE lore i know is Zana is Shaper's daughter (because she says it at least 5,000 times during the fight) and Piety something, something experiments... OH, and she thinks the duelist is cute.

I can however tell you about much of the mechanics thread that Mark started replying to about 7 years ago. I find it challenging and interesting; practical for my ability to min-max. It would be a waste of time to read the lore or let it take up valuable space in my head.

I like science, not history. Facts, not opinions.

I think I am seeing the pattern now.

I am glad there is lore for the fiction readers out there so that they will also play this game. It takes all of the types to keep a game like this alive. I don't have to understand it to appreciate it (even though it is really girly and dumb).

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juo wrote:

I like science, not history. Facts, not opinions.

"

juo wrote:

(even though it is really girly and dumb).

Well, glad we cleared that up.

I cannot stress ENOUGH how badly I want more about Sirus and the Elderslayers, and their relationships to other people we know in the world. For example, there's a tiny lil tidbit that Cassia is one of Baran's friend from the beforetimes! There are some hints that suggest Al-Hezmin was of the Redblade (tribe? faction?), but Zana says he was an exile like the rest, how did he come from Wraeclast to Oriath to be Exiled, and over what?

Also there's the Zana/Jun thing that's kind of hinted around, all of her old friends are gone but she's got new ones!! Do they end up adopting a gaggle of orphaned Oriathans, does she get involved with Kirac, like??

Listen. I love the way you manage to preserve the old storylines while leaving breathing room for new ones, it's excellent!! But we get such tiny pieces of this huge, incredible tapestry, and I know it's greedy but I always want more. XD

Looking GREATLY forward to what the new Day Zero in PoE 2 is gonna bring us. Thanks very much for all the hard work!!

Day zero is perfect storytelling device, period.

To answer your question though, about which league story is important to continue?

Synthesis without doubt..
First, it was the most genuine and intriguing story for a league. From first announcement of league it was clear it's canon, and that man is so important to the events that shaped wraeclast that we knew (and he was)

Second, memories were awesome, lore wise. The concept of exploring memories from the past and putting it together was second best concept introduced in league story after syndicate lore. Mechanics wise it might have been a disaster, but we are not talking gameplay here, are we?

Third, League was so open ended, heavily suggesting a follow up.. actually the atopy never ended, the antagonist just leaves you in middle of league, to plot his own plan, and you are left with zany to manage the memory nexus. There must be a follow up!


After adding synthesis in way to poe2, you should change syndicate, shuffle them in more drastic way... like adding new members, with more interesting mechanics.. and remove some members who grow so strong that they become endgame super boss on their own.. like It that Fled could flee to the dark place it loves, but instead of Jun dungeon, it goes to deepest delve, and add syndicate flavor to some of delve. Do this with other leagues, syndicate improve themselves and spread their infulance all over all content,, they are the old masters after all, and they are immortal.. they should continue as canon, with things to do 2ith more than just Jun.

All invading forces from other dimensions should invade, or let exile invade them.. Sir us operated in the heart of the atlas for too long, he was so powerful he messed up few things that it's reach went sending ripples all over all dimensions. All other worlds are affected, and now reacting.. Actually, make Sirus defeated, but not just by zany and exiles.. these were not probably enough.. make epic cinematic that show otherworldly beings helping defeating Sirus, and changing atlas forever (evolving it to whatever poe 2 atlas will be).

And finally rogue exiles should be given more meaning, and story, and side quests. We can get a whole new game around rogue exiles, with stories and all .. make players action affecting them and their allegiance.. and turn them into factions, or make them join legion, or recreate legions in present, or anything that combine them in core game with a meaning