Development Manifesto: Harvest Crafting

I was coming back this week, heard of harvest back this league. I'm sad that harvest garden completely disapeared and not "adapted", this garden can be a very nice piece for hideouts, if rightly reworked.

I have quited since mid-heist league, I was tired of trading all the time. In all the time I played (at least 8000h), I slamed maybe 5 exalts and trading was the only way to have access to decent items for me. Deterministic is the right way for me, I don't like gamble at all.

With havest this completely changed, no more needed to trade like hell. Even with harvest it was very hard for me to craft perfect items.

You have to stop making this game for the 0,1% god players. You can do that without making the game casual.

Deterministic craft vs gamble and hard to access perfect items is actually the core question of this game. You have to put all your efforts and minds in that question for the cming times. No right to make an error here. Maybe I don't come back next time, and I'm not alone to have this mood.

The game is simply unplayable (in entirety) for most of us without a better way to craft. There is sooooo much to explore that having easier craft mechanics is really needed.

Maybe it's the end of Path of Exile, or maybe Path of Exile can be our game forever, it's the time of deterministic for all of us, it's the time of choice.

Meh, not the play.

'Harvest' was no fun, when it was a league and is still no fun to play. Please abandon it completely. Please ...

Good job, glad to see the changes.

"

Boonce wrote:

Ballsy move GGG, Good sign for the longevity of the game.

Very happy this is the last Discord league. Endgame gear progression was never meant to be this easy and deterministic.

Gamblers rejoice! Super keen for 3.14

Even if you like it contrary to most of us, you have not fully comprehended one thing.

Next league will have even more "discord trade". Why? Because the high level crafts that rest (augment fire/cold/inf/etc) will have a lower chance to spawn, so they will actually be more expensive. Imagine an augment speed that costs 5-7 ex on TFT, and actually has few outcomes so can be a good "ex slam" to do. It will cost at least 10 ex or more next league.

They nerfed harvest (i disagree how it is but okay, hell even pro streamers like path of math disagree, check his video quite well explained, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pdpA_xHXhEA

So yeah, harvest nerfed, but the biggest problem, having to trave using a third party discord to trade not even adressed... (and that goes for betrayal benchs and others, not only harvest)

"

SeeleVonMensch wrote:

'Harvest' was no fun, when it was a league and is still no fun to play. Please abandon it completely. Please ...

Just don't run it. I don't like blight, doesn't mean it should be removed for everyone. I just simply don't do it.

"

This sentiment was summed up by a member of our design team who recently said "We don't want to take away the feeling of closing your eyes and Exalting an item, scared to see whether you ruined it or not."

That's the most disconnected phrase I've heard in a *LONG* while.
Remember when slamming exalts on imprinted items was literally the only way to do high-end crafting? I do, and NOT fondly. Those times were absolutely terrible.

As many others have stated already, nerfing Harvest from it's current state is going to affect the casual player base the most, not the high-end-mirror-tier crafters.
I believe this course of action to be a big mistake.

I have been playing since the beta test. I want to say that "alt|regal|chaos|exalt" craft was a pain for me. Harvest became the salvation! I do not support your decision.

rip this game

I am very sad about harvest getting nearly useless for me as a averrage player.
After 2000 hours of playing PoE, harvest gave me the possibility to craft my own items instead of save up currency till mid league when i can afford the good items for my builds. offcause i could play other builds which have more afforable gear, but for me PoE is all about possibilities, when i again could only play builds which can barely do T16 Maps and i have to throw away my gear every time an Exalted Orb drops, i will lose allot of fun in this game.

I get the point of grinding for good gear and i am willed to do so, but with the latest changes i will stop crafting again, i tried multiple times to craft really good gear but when i have to spend 50ex and weeks of gambling with the risk to loose it all this doesnt seems clever when i can buy a finished one.

Another Point is, when everyone (except the 0.001% of player who could craft there ultimate gear) have to buy there Gear again, Bots will grow again, cause its all about Currency again.

In the Annoucement there was the line: "The entire rest of Path of Exile's crafting system is somewhat redundant with Harvest Crafting in its current form." and i agree nearly all crafting possibilities are so inefficient, that they are useless for nearly everyone who plays PoE (i would say Fossils quite good, but then they possibly get nerved next).

With the current Announcement, me as an averrage player will skip harvest cause the only really helpfull thing is Alch Maps and even this is only needed till some point in the league.
And yes the Oil/Catalyst/Fossil/... gamble is nice but at least i didn´t get something good enough to do harvest just for them.

I understand there are some people who have really fun gamling in this game and crafting really good stuff, offcause they do cause they made a allot of currency in the past (and still do, i still haven´t my end game gear cause i do not get the Augments/Annuls i need)
but these kind of HardCore Crafters will allways craft some legendary dragon sword +2, but i will be forced again to buy there items cause i have nearly no chance to get them which this makes me really sad.
In my mind the people complaining how easy Harvest makes the game need to play 24/7 cause for me who plays ~5-6h nearly every day after work it is not easy it is still hard work of days and days farming Harvest and hoping for the right Augment/Annul/RemoveAdd.

And offcause i could just go somewhere an pay someone who has the Harvest crafts to just finish my items, but why would i do that and break the improvement cycle when i have the option to grind for it? I am still a person who buys nearly all of my Gear but with harvest i at least slowly startet optimizing and this league even startet to craft my first own really good items and now i am again only able to craft maybe even good items but why grinding for good items, when i could grind curreny to buy nearly perfect items?
I grind for improvement, but when the Improvment never ever could nearly reach whats on the Market, then why even trying, this way it is just frustrating to craft, so just buy the finished ones and cry about the prices.

Like said before, for me PoE is all about the freedom to play cool and funny Builds and it seems like i am loosing this freedom, cause i can´t craft myself and most of the time can´t afford to just buy the Gear i want. So i have to play Cheep Builds and grind at Yellow maps and Hope for Exalted Drops to gear the character i want to play which doesn´t sound fun to me.

So i get the point of the nerve, but in my mind it again hurts only the averrage players and takes away the posibility to improve my gear on my own.
What i read in the Manifesto is: Let the 0.1% of players rule the Gear market again and Bots Dominate the currency market and destroy the averrage players capabilities, which makes me sad.

I will try it next league but then maybe switch to Standrd where Currency is not a problem and i have my freedoms.