Development Manifesto: Harvest Crafting

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GFGino wrote:

Perhaps if good loot actually dropped, instead of the garbage it drops now, we wouldn't need Harvest crafting to such a degree. 99% of current loot is filtered away anyways, check out a deli map and try holding alt without your pc freezing. Shame.

true. press alt to relog. perfect design.

Only time I'm slamming an exalt is when I'm metacrafting something; regular players literally never use exalts for their base purpose and always use them to buy their actual gear because crafting in this game is fucking ass. Chaosing or using the current iteration of fossils almost never gives you something useful, with usable items having 3 or more dead stats, but Harvest crafting actually allowed you to try and fix those types of items, but I guess that's just asking for too much.

I hope this is them trying to find another way to provide users more ways to craft gears. At the end of the day, you can hope your player base to grind all day for a good piece of gear. But do remember, grinding gears in game is literally like trading their life span for some chaos/exalted orbs. If the game devs push things too far people will decide to use their time elsewhere instead of to exchange for some exalted orbs.

In this league, i can exchange 100 hours of my life to exchange for a decent build and now if you ask me to spend 400 hours to get to the same level, i am just sorry that i cannot afford it anymore.

Well, instead of bricking a really good Game-Mechanic i would focus on improving the Performance.

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Kasamakii wrote:

Well, instead of bricking a really good Game-Mechanic i would focus on improving the Performance.

true

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Viesniaq wrote:

I am a semi-casual player. I do not do leagues as I cannot stand wasting time to level characters to mapping stage. Harvest crafting was a way to BRING hope that one day I would be able to create a meaningful item that would elevate my gaming to a higher standar. This hope for a realistic chance of crafting something nice drove me to play. With harvest nerfed, I am just going to quit playing. I am not a super fan of hardcore crafting and this is now the only way to push characters in POE. With Harvest nerfed I will not feel like playing the game as droping meaningful loot is almost impossible. Crafting has become so complex now, that it seems one cannot create an item without watching a guide about it on YT. POE is a great game, I love the systems that are introduced to the game, but it is just sooo unfriendly to casual or semi-casual players. Experimenting with new skills and builds is a nightmare (having to constantly socket gem in and out). The total lack of UI for this is just so surprising for me. Trying out a new build takes days to logistically organize, which is such a pitty, as there are so many skills that I would love to try out, but without all the hassle. I will stop my rambling here, I think I am just getting old and stupid and need a simpler game. Cheers

Old and in the Way...LoL...I whole heartedly agree exhile! Now excuse me while I grease my mouse! ;)

harvest in its current form got me back into poe after a year+ break.

becouse of the unparalleled freedom it gave me currency whise, i was able to reaaaly help people i met this league. kind strangers that ended up in my HO for a simple trade. but left with so much more

people who had a few leagues under there belt's. without 3000 hours played

i helped em this league i could afford NOT to pinch every chaos for my endgame goal. i still hit what i aimed to achieve, and i only hit 19 days /played becouse of the new frends i made along the way.

guess future leagues its back to being selfish, adding harvest realy was the right move. who cares if trade league items are accesable to everyone

the pixels are just pixels, the kind gestures i could do without harming myself were real and tangible.

ty for taking this amazing tool away from the average joe. but not realy..

I really really don't like how effective this makes sniping semi-niche items on trade.
I prefer finding and crafting items I need myself instead of camping trade 24/7 with live searches.

With Harvest gutted, self-crafting non-meta items will become unfeasible and push people away from demanding (in terms of itemization) non-meta builds.

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SA_Lumis wrote:

If the community reaction to nerfing Harvest is negative because people liked it and chose to repeatedly farm it for gear IN A GAME ABOUT GETTING GOOD GEAR over all the other content in the game, maybe Harvest isn't the problem.

Maybe the problem is that the other content in the game isn't nearly rewarding enough.

99.9% of the stuff hitting the ground is garbage that people just won't pick up. That's just not good design.

Deterministic outcomes is something the game needs, whether it be in Harvest or some other form that significantly mitigates the RNG aspect of the game. The outcry should really illustrate that.

This !!!! +1

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Turtledove wrote:

I thought Chris Wilson's opening post was well written and thought out. It would seem from his OP that the two big mistakes made was releasing harvest the way it was in the first place and then compounding that error by releasing the insufficiently nerfed harvest in the second place. It pains me to see all the folks that are upset by this decision by GGG. PoE is a fun game with or without harvest is what I'd like to remind folks.

There's a conflict here between making a project based on passion and based on business.
There are rare cases when you're passionate about some ideas and they happen to be the solution for a wide audience and that's an instant hit.

Then the remaining 99% of the time you have this dilemma: You either stick to your ideas and take the risk that it won't find an audience, or you give up that part of your ego and just go for user experience.
Both suck big time.
Either you're a misunderstood genius struggling to pay the bills or let the control out of your hands, let your best ideas called stupid, etc, and get paid for executing. And you make this decision each week or so.

I think this is the case here. The team has a vision but at the same time has an established user base. For one reason or another, doesn't really matter, the vision of the team diverged from the vision of the user base (or business interest to be more precise, as of course, not everyone is against this change).

How to resolve this?
- Either you just don't. Depending on the investor situation, go with your gut feeling and hope for market fit regardless. Or just don't care about business at all.
(- Convince the user base how this will make the game better)
- Come up with a new solution that satisfies the demand
- ???

all the options are valid and understandable but comes with consequences.