Development Manifesto: Harvest Crafting

Honestly i couldn't care less how you change Harvest. Or any other system in the game at all. I'll adapt. Because after 8 years i still kinda like this game. Might like it further down the road. Who knows?

In the beginning of my travels i started with the notion to pick up any item in the game - and with the orbs provided - i could make it the best item in the game. How cool is that? That's a game i want to play.

Oh boy, how wrong i was.

After 1 or 2 leagues it dawned on me, that the orbs i needed to craft my item(s), are pretty rare. I got the alts and augs running Merveil non-stop with qual/quant-gear, but chaos/regal/ex/eternal were far between - non existant.
I needed to step up my game.

Only option - trade.

Can't remember what i traded, but it all went downhill from there. I became a Spark-totem-Dock-slave. After one trade, i never even considered to use an orb for its purpose. For the exitement - eyes closed or open. Never ever again.

Every orb became a currency.

At that point i wasn't even playing the game for myself anymore. I played for the market.

I stopped playing.

With the addition of SSF, 2-3 leagues later, i came back to the game. And it was a blast. Still is.

The stick to get the carrot - you will never get the carrot - became x-fold larger. I understood that. I'm ok with that. And all my orbs i collect are free again. I like that a lot.

But what i don't like in the system - in general - is the creation of illusions. In some kind of way or form you suggest that everything is possible. - It is not.
Never has been, never will be.

And i'm running out of illusions, mate.

Well after reading the manifesto bout 3 times and some random posts from other players (reading through 300+ pages is a bit too much) i think they should have implemented currency costs of the harvest crafting itself

example with phys modifiers:

augment/add phys - is like 1x Annulment Orb + 1x Exalted Orb, since it targets a specific mod it should cost (in this case "physical" mod) = 1x annul + 1ex + 1x jagged fossil -> Jagged fossils after all makes physical modifiers more likely

if it is augment/add phys with lucky modifiers = 1x annul + 1ex + 1x jagged fossil + 1x divine

augment phys would be just 1x ex + 1x jagged fossils

I think this implementation can also be achieved with other specific mods.

With that method we get the feeling of "closing your eyes and pray for the best slam" feeling.

Before you complain bout the cost ... the crafting bench also cost something, why not harvest too? especially if it can roll t1 rolls and also offers deterministic crafting.

But then the main problem would be the currency drops itself. Not everyone wants to play a "zoom-zoom-quantity-find" build, spending hours just to find the currencies, while having the crafting mod waiting in the horticraft station. Of course also trading is a way to get your currencies. But what bout SSF players?
Of course also the Exalted Shard recipe will be more important in that way too. But thats a pain in the ass to collect everything in your already small limited iventory.

Regarding current situation of Harvest in Ritual league:
The main problem of the current Harvest crafting is
-> Discord Trading ... ah such a shame it exist. Without Harvest Trading players already need luck to get the crafting mods they need. Especially finding a Harvest in a map/Zana mission.

In Ritual League i was trying to craft a ring with Harvest and without the Discord Trading. When i finished crafting the ring i was already lvl 99.


Since i am working in a hospital (12.5 hours 3-4 times in a week, sometimes more due corona, or 2-4 of my coworkers are bedridden) i often play only 1 char/build and try to beat the endgame content with it.
I also try to reach 36-40 Challenges depending on
1)how much time i have
2)how much fun my build is to play and lastly
3)how much fun the current league and "all its contents" is

I must admit that Harvest Crafting is a fun addition to that game. It surprisngly makes me more to play the game just to reach/craft something for my build i couldnt normaly get with normal ways beside trading.

I hope GGG has a better idea than those nerfs they mentioned in their manifesto, and maybe my idea is somewhat acceptable for others or gives some other good ideas.

Best regards Zodrac
(sry for my bad english)

Little mathematic

Helmet without maven's orb:
20 exalts for 2 affixes by fossils. (2 suffix)
17 * 3 = 51 exalts to 1 affix (prefix)
24 exalt's to 1 affis (suffix)
16 * 3 = 48 exalts to 1 affix (prefix)
summary: 143 exalts. WHICH NEWBEE PLAYER CAN ACQUIRE THIS COUNT OF EXALTS???????

And this item it not mirror item. and not god item. because have no maven's orb stats.

with maven:
best variant 100% proc maven:
+11 orb, +25 exalts to affix, + 11 orb. => 190 ex.
1 bad proc maven's orb:
+11 orb, +25 affix, + 11 orb, + 25 affix, + 11 orb = 226 exalts.
add possible to maven's orb eat maven's stat:
+11 orb, +25 affix, + 11 orb, +51 affix, + 11 orb = 252 exalts with only 1 maven's stat on helmet.

IN WHICH UNIVERSE THIS IS EASY TO TAKE PERFECT ITEM?
ANSWER ME PLS GGG.

You managed to identify that the ability for the community at large to pool their harvests together and sell them; effectively giving any player with currency and the risk tolerance to hand over his item to a stranger access to nearly unlimited harvests was the issue. You then failed to do absolutely anything about it.

I do understand that people chased harvest and I think it's fair that there be some sort of change to bring them closer in line. Part of this is tied to the atlas system making some regions specialize in harvest, which looking back should have been gated behind The Uncharted Realms so people didn't run atoll 24/7. I would have preferred bringing the other systems UP a little bit and perhaps taking harvest down slightly. However we got the worst of both worlds. People will still make ungodly items but it will take two weeks instead of one.

"

DDusk wrote:

This is a horrible change for players with limited playtime...
I had fun in harvest and ritual because it allowed me to reach end game fast.

for most players.. it actually meant they reached end-game.

not even faster but just getting there....

If this was the last change GGG ever made to crafting, this would be the worst thing ever!

It’s not though, is it. It’s one thing they want to bring crafting back to what they prefer as the system in their game. With future improvements to crafting (like there are most leagues) the crafting in this game will be better.

The sky isn’t falling, pull your head in.

Some of the streamers and players that are advocating for the harvest nerfs are getting it fundamentally wrong. It‘s not about the general nerf that people are upset about. It‘s primarily about a flawed design change they are making. They are chosing Random Gambling that nobody is enjoying and almost nobody can afford over Deterministic Crafting which has been embraced by a vast majority of the poe community.
What will this lead to? It will take people away from playing the actual content because they could spend less time for getting their chars ready and play less niche builds because people like to experiment with things that would not be possible without harvest crafting. There is so many more urgent things to work on that have been named countless of times, such as performance issues, server disconnects and an abysmal trading system to name a few. And even though the ritual league mechanic does not provide a lasting long term motivation, people kept playing the league. And the main reason being harvest.
It‘s a reverse Robin Hood move from GGG to first give people harvest which they enjoy and then be like nop you are not able to get items that people are getting which are abusing other OP things in this game. So the consequence is that people will start to emphasize on having xxx live searches, doing 6 man beast vm shenanigans and obviously RMTing.

"

example with phys modifiers:

augment/add phys - is like 1x Annulment Orb + 1x Exalted Orb, since it targets a specific mod it should cost (in this case "physical" mod) = 1x annul + 1ex + 1x jagged fossil -> Jagged fossils after all makes physical modifiers more likely

if it is augment/add phys with lucky modifiers = 1x annul + 1ex + 1x jagged fossil + 1x divine

augment phys would be just 1x ex + 1x jagged fossils

literally the best idea on how to do this the right way!

this and being able to put crafts on orbs to trade with other players.

Harvest was a mistake, remove it and give us a crafting alternative in one of the next leagues that is actually fun to interact with, because the old systems are not fun and harvest is annoying.
You shot yourself in the foot when you introduced awakener orbs and maven orbs and all these influence types. If you dont want us to use these mods then nerf them into the ground, so they are only slightly better than a non-influenced rare. Maybe they are the real problem.

Crafting perfect gear pieces has become what I enjoy most out of Path of Exile. These changes will undoubtedly make me play the game less