Mandatory Campaign is a good thing

I like the character growth during the campaign - for me it's the journey that is most enjoyable.

Once my characters are fleshed out and into maps, the game becomes too repetitive.

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superbomb1967 wrote:

I like the character growth during the campaign - for me it's the journey that is most enjoyable.

Once my characters are fleshed out and into maps, the game becomes too repetitive.

Yep. For me, it's not about how the new build will fare at endgame; it's how it will do in the campaign as it develops. =^[.]^=

If botting could be reduced to 0 they could make the campaign more rewarding in terms of currency and other drops. That alone would make the economy focused players suddenly find the campaign much more 'fun' even though the actual button pressing, combat, dialogue, etc etc wouldn't have changed at all.

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Phrazz wrote:

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TheBagman wrote:

If you don't mind it, power to you. Some of us want an alternative (looking at you, Endless Ledge). Players should have a choice.

I'm not really disagreeing with you, but to balance this would probably be a nightmare. Just wait a few months, and we do actually have two choices. How long does it take for players to want 3? 4? 5? And how many choices should GGG spend time on developing and balancing? What about league mechanics in all of these choices? How to balance them, when certain players are running in a straight line, while others are playing in an "open" area?

Simple. Don't balance it. Make league campaign runs the competitive mode, and campaign adjacent stuff purely for fucking about. GGG seem to have somehow forgotten that ARPGs are, to a lot of gamers, fucking about exercises. I assumed that's what legacy/standard was going to be back when we were collecting alt art uniques and planning private leagues with crazy variants...2012/13 era. But once GGG committed to leagues and streamer visibility and almost compulsory trade...well, that all died. I don't see it as as an either/or but it's ended up there anyway because GGG were terrified of any mode of which no-lifers could get bored. They failed to provide a casual experience because casual became anathema.

And that's a fucking shame because few games have the potential for really fun fucking about with its mechanics as PoE. It's like this awesome rube goldberg labyrinthine chaos engine...and all it's used for is to make different cars go really fast.

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Raycheetah wrote:

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superbomb1967 wrote:

I like the character growth during the campaign - for me it's the journey that is most enjoyable.

Once my characters are fleshed out and into maps, the game becomes too repetitive.

Yep. For me, it's not about how the new build will fare at endgame; it's how it will do in the campaign as it develops. =^[.]^=

Same here.

Lack of accessibility is never a "good" thing. Give players the option and let them decide. That's often the best course.

Developers sometimes make the mistake of having the impression that telling players what they think is fun is optimal (because they presumably know better), but they sometimes fail to remember that this is a product with customers.

If your customers don't like the product, you dont have a business. The industry is full of cautionary tales of developers getting out too far on their philosophy skis, and death spiraling their own games.

That said PoE2 is coming with a new campaign, so you can table the notion that an alternative leveling option is coming for a few years at least, if ever.

pain is only 1st char in new league....after that,with a bit of knowledge and invest (max 30 chaos) u car run campaign and get maps with no risk in max 5h .....
campaign is also a way to learn new league mechanics....

I think your first playthrough in a league is fine in a campaign. But when you are finding new items left and right and the community is discovering interesting new builds to try out, it's a slog then. Especially if when you try that new build and it doesn't work out.. then you gotta turn around and potentially do it again.

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DarthSki44 wrote:

Lack of accessibility is never a "good" thing.

Accessibility has a specific meaning that it’s important not be watered down by conflating it with ‘fulfilling players’ preference in playing what they want’. Cheers!

The solution always goes back to making it More FUN. How do GGG make it more fun and perhaps variably faster going through another campaign for making your second, third character?

Create another mode of Campaign where monsters are way DENSER so I.E.: Normal, Chaotic, Apocalyptic. Each mode increases the pack of monsters monumentally. The other modes opens up after you finish Normal mode.

To supplement this change of modes comes a stronger, more AOE and more flashy oriented TWINK gears. Then, ADD an Overkill effect on monsters so that when you blow them up you could feel, hear and see their bodies flying viscerally. This makes going through campaign blazing, more hyper action-oriented and creates an illusion that 'time flies'.

This way it prevents the loss of weight of character if campaign is removed instead, because once you create an option to skip a campaign from the start, nobody except tytykiller is going to use campaign anymore, people will always choose the most efficient way, that's just human nature.