Development Stories: Timelines & Retcons

i hope poe2 eventually fixes the handling of "past content" and the current inconsistencies.

when the acts 5 to 10 were released, it's been possible to get back in time when visiting old areas because future events changed the state of npcs.

while you handled that pretty well in the burned down oriath by not allowing to visit old areas, the rest of the game is still a time warp experience.

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not a problem for longtime players but i can imagine new players get confused why suddenly using the same waypoint brings you to different areas depending on who or whether you partied up with and who opened the instance.

Harbingers must have conclusion. Thats too hot to spill.

You're (at least part of) the reason Haku went from being one of the two nicest Forsaken Masters ("You are a welcome sight." vs. Vorici's "YES...! What IS it...?"), complete with Totem Buddy Backpack, to being a Zangief clone. (Look at that Betrayal investigation board and tell me that isn't Zangief in Haku's portrait. I dare you.)

Granted, Zangief was my favorite Street Fighter 2 character... but he is not an upgrade from the good-natured giant who regularly sold weapons that added +6% quality to socketed gems. (Made EmEn gems* feel right at home, they did.)

The rest of the lore is neither here nor there for me, for the most part... although I do wonder where one might find more backstory for the three bandit kings. Having typed that, I suppose it's probably better that their rift is alluded to, rather than spelled out.

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* Empower, Enhance and Enlighten

I'm no author, or creator of canon so it seems you're solution makes sense to me. The Story has to evolve in some way things can't just stay put.
On another note " Zana, she is heartbroken and alone after the necessary deaths of her father" ...wait what? One of the bosses we kill is Zana's father? My guess is Shaper or Elder...thanks for the spoiler!

"

Mamluke38 wrote:

Here's a theory: the events that Sirus and the Conquerors cause by losing control over the Atlas awaken a new beast that the Shaper and Elder were trying to keep hidden away. Maybe it can merge with Zana or something. Either way, the stories that are being told by you guys are really interesting, and I'm excited to see whether the old leagues will be offically canonized.

New Beast Merges from Einhar we need Zana to help us like always.

and Harbingers need more Harbingers lol

i like this way and its cool

i hope majority of the past leagues get put in but simpler ways. perandus and harbingers redone, because i loved those old leagues. but delirium and abyss can be updated and meshed in the story line.
talisman needs to be redone and changed or allow the bench thing to come into play maybe have beasts drop them and then update the beast bench to allow to put them in it since it summons monsters to kill also. idk would be cool to have a purpose for talismans since every league still allows them to fall.


for new leagues for zana tho. have her be able to do all past leagues and allow players to choose more then one mod to do. it still cost currency. but allow players to pay to mesh them together. like when unlocking so like when we get sirus lvl 6 or 8 or something then it will allow zana to not only unlock zana mods, but allow players to choose more then one mod. say like 3 or more that also will help keep player retention and allow us to make choices and currency sink it also. especially if the latest league goes live, because you can just use the bench to freely use as currency to roll ur maps. so just a thought.

just something cool like that to help give us more choices instead of rotating them out. give more endgame choices to help keep us around.

in all honesty i know people like crafting stuff from this league and i do to.
i just personally hate doing the farming and setting up the area and doing all that useless tedious work. its like setting up your hideout for an actual use and its just annoying and one reason between work and real life i havent played much. delirium spoiled us with the just kill monster route and not having to trivialize every small detail to get things out of it. make it simpler since there so much to do right now.

also change the stack of delirium to 100. ik why chris said it might be a problem but still even if more falls on certain occassion is it really all that bad? it is still one of the best endgame mechanics there is to do.

also for a newb like me who needs cheap chrs dont kill off that wand spell build thats currently op. some of the best cheapest fun builds I ever played

Hi all.
What, i think, can be modified and continued in PoE 2:
1. Anarchy and Betrayal can be combinated into one.
In Betrayal it was difficult for me to understand, how play effectively in this league.

2. Beyond league was fun.

3. Domination can be changed that all guarding enemies should be killed (can be turned into something like harbingers)

4. Bloodlines and Nemesis can be turned into one. Would be something like "enhanced monster group"

5. Breach league was fun

6. Abyss can be turned into something more complex. My suggestion: you fight Abyss monsters on surface, then descend into "mini-dungeon" (like Delve), and you choose your path through it's depth. Can be 3-5 floor with varying monster levels (monster have higher levels on deeper gungeon floor). And you can't re-enter this dungeon or it's floors, or cast portals.

7. Incursion was interesting as a side-mechanic, not as league (it's mechanics can be given to Abyss)

8. Delve is good alternative endgame. Can be modified into something more complex.

9. Synthesis (in my opinion) was "good on paper", but i had this problems with it:
- you can't stop your "memories" run, so it puts pressure on you.
- you can't have more than 10 "memories" (yes, it puts pressure on you, because you can lose/not receive "memories").
My suggestion: you could loot them like harvest seeds (but 1 memory dropped at
a time), and you could store them in some "memory library". When you are ready, you can combine them into self-made dungeon. Also special item (currency?) let you put "save point" (it portals you out and you can enter dungeon from this "memory" fragment)

10. Legion was good. But i thought, that that legion emblem map will be more interesting.

11. Blight was good. Liked it.

12. Delirium was 50/50. (=good on paper, yes :) )
All loot should drop, when you ended delirium, not while you completing it (like in Delve, Incursion). Yes, i know that you can die in a map and lose your loot, but it would happen on your first or second portal anyway, not sixth.

13. Harvest was good (in that you can do things in your pace and on your rules)

I will have to disagree with you. When Conquerors story gets replaced in the future, it will make us feel bad just like when you took out Shaper story. All this day zero stuff is lame. Sorry.

Hi Rachel,

This was a really enjoyable read and I think the storytelling philosophy to move Day 0 honestly works really well to canonize a version of events players get to experience. I look forward to finding out some answers to questions from leagues in Path of Exile 2.

As someone who has played off and on since Nemesis league, it's a fantasy of mine that the league release cycle would be halved again such that there is a 3 month league up 50% of the time, with the 3 months in between dedicated to supporting mini-events such as mayhem blitz-leagues, community races, etc. That schedule would allow you guys to really add that last bit of polish to a league with much less time pressure, possibly integrate moving Day 0 more frequently to provide story updates from popular leagues, and finally take a few days off. But it's likely an economically prohibitive daydream.

The day one system is a false premise because you do show that previous leagues happened in the past. By travelling back in time to Alva's temple to create a league content room. Or when you go delving. I think it's assumed if you find something buried deep underground it happened in the past. The premise of legion implies it happened in the past. And a couple leagues share names with base weapon types (abyssal axe, legion sword) and even if that was unintentional a player will assume a connection, and that these weapons come from that time period or are somehow related.

If a player played a previous league by mentioning it in the current league it makes sense to them because it refers to their real life past as well. If anything this post proves that point. That canonizing content makes people's experience feel valued. Well that should happen when a league's content goes core. If they are a new player having the game acknowledge content gives it context. I remember being a brand new player in harbinger league and finding breach weird because it was just this inexplicable encounter that's never referenced by anything.

I think because path of exile has unmatched content creation, it has the unique opportunity to have an ever evolving storyline along side its ever evolving game play. The player base is pretty smart so as long as you don't do a 1984 hypocrisy and say we're at war with eurasia this league and then say we've never been to war with eurasia next league you should be fine.