How We're Developing Our Next Expansion Differently

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DeathfulDan wrote:

Keep up the good work, GGG!

About the other replies... I, and apparently GGG, disagree with all the people saying they want less stuff in the game and there are too many mechanics and too many different things to learn. This is what I want on a game to hold me for years, and that's what GGG wants. It is SO COOL how, even after months playing, a new player still often finds out new things, new mechanics, new build, etc. There is always something to learn, and there is always some way to get better at the game or improve your current build or do a completely different build. This is what I tell friends when I'm telling them they should play this game. And NONE of that holds you back. You can play and do everything you want perfectly fine and at whatever pace you feel like before ever knowing what is uber elder, delve boss, corruption altar or that you can control-click npcs. And even if your build or gear isn't really great, that never feels frustrating to play - BECAUSE this game can be played at whatever pace you like to, and because there is always more to do that you haven't done before.

I like new mechanics... for a league.

I don't like when 90% of the new mechanics get ham fisted into core.

On the one hand, it is right to praise good intentions. These "changes" clearly come from a good place, so kudos. Perhaps this will provide the momentum needed to tackle further issues and the game will start improving again.

On the other hand, some of the most valuable advice we can receive in life is not positive, nor easy to hear. so here goes;
The key issues with the game are not related to the leagues themselves.
They include:

- Party play is exciting in theory, sucks so hard in reality. This is not an easy fix. Start by reducing the RNG in the game, this should make lag less of an issue with parties. I think Chris uses the word 'cool' too liberally. There have been so many 'cool' features lately that should have been squashed at the idea stage. Alternately, why not take time to develop party specific content - content designed only around party play, not trying to make solo play and party play both work at the same time.

- The game is not a 13 week game. It is too repetitive. The gameplay is a 3 week game at maximum, and if you get the balance right, you can expect players to try 3 or 4 different builds to endgame, or to try creative builds and items after getting once to endgame. You have not gotten the balance right. You are instead trying to stretch out content too far by being miserly and making it take longer to reach. Players quit, and complain instead of playing. To fix this:



- Screen clutter is out of control. Surely you sell more MTX if people can actually see it? Again the solution is simple: make monsters do less ridiculous AOE screen flashbangs, and allow the playing area to be zoomed out a bit, so any big explosions do not cover the entire screen, just a part of it. This would also allow actual gameplay, such as kiting and strategic placement of skills to mean more.

- Trading. Surely anything is better than the current state? Why not try a small scale auction house - such as an "essence only" version. No one collects these right now. If we could more easily get 50 high level essences, we may be more likely to buy a stash tab to store these useless things. If you don't want to do this, then make it a quarter of the grind to get a deafening essence.

- Unique Item balance. This game had the best unique items ever. They were creative, and they didn't have too many prohibitive drawbacks to making fun builds. Then you doubled monster HP, and most of them became useless. Then you released almost every new unique to have such prohibitive penalties they could only be used in very very niche situations. Balancing so many uniques to match a changing meta seems difficult, but is not actually. The key is to accept that players will find powerful interactions, and not try to stop them. Just leave powerful unique interactions as a part of the game, rather than getting rid of them completely.

Cheers. Hope it goes better. Had no passion for Heist. Simple can def be better.

lot of people quit heist from start already. then poe itself.

maybe try to show gameplay of next league so people still keep intrested in this game, and still recive feedback of it.

and give love to bows. not dot based build. or too. weak and fragile

So you have finally worked out that it might be better to underpromise and overdeliver, eh? More stability, less hype. Yeah, we'll see.

I for one will be waiting for you to make good on your previous (oft-stated) observation...

"Actions speak louder than words"

I won't be holding my breath, and I hope I can still be pleasantly surprised by GGG. However, realistically, you guys have a LOT of problems to fix, or PoE 4.0 will be a bust.

The league content itself is important
But if there was only the league I would play less
So for me a league needs to have at least new skill to try or mecanics or ascendancy change

1.) I read that already for years. I want to see it first, then I believe it.

2.) Many of us don't ask for new leagues all the time. A 'we fixed as much as we could and added QoL as much as we could' league would also be fine for me and I would pay double for it at least.

One of my issues with this post. Is if the next league fails, Chris could just say that the experiment failed...

I hope that it isn't used as a scapegoat.

I just want more voice lines for exiles after act 4 lol
DAMN THE EXPENSE GGG D:(

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