Phrecia Atlas Idols

I have limited experience with idols (1 lvl 80 character).
Overall I believe the skill tree is better for the whole game and this is why:

Atlas passive tree
- provides a lot of player agency upfront
- well weighted when picking a set of league mechanics to focus on
- provides consistent power up with a hard cap in nodes
- highly granular
- while initially daunting, it is very easy to "skill up" on using it, unlike character tree, where you need to know mechanics, math behind it, unknown quirks etc.
- is a WISIWYG experience
- you can ramp up knowledge with starting with league mechanics you're comfortable with
- you can adapt it to any playstyle with relative ease
- provides atlas-on-rails progression

Idols
- player agency shifts from strategy to RNG and economy
- are a detractor for SSF-based leagues, alot less player agency there
- not a complete WISIWYG (you don't know from the game all that can roll, whereas with tree you see everything you can do, again pushing you to yet another tool to use to check available base mods)
- provide short boosts/spikes/increments in farming power, then become stale - this is like everyone hunting for the old regal-to-exalted trinket once they know what's best
- not so granular, more impactful in short term and more steep rich-vs-poor curve
- more abrupt power curve, vs the gradual tree
- while fun in the short while, they can provide faster economy shifts, depending on how well you roll them, how well the population knows how to roll them - the faster you get smart at rolling them, the faster you can exploit the league mechanics
- provides prolonged atlas climb

Thoughts for future
- Atlas skill tree can be pruned and given bigger boosts to simulate idols without inventory management, but then you need to think how you link number of maps on atlas to points
- if Idols get balanced to more dull levels of impact, they suddenly become unfun and a mood killer
- biggest question is: where do you want the bulk of the playerbase? stuck climbing the atlas (idols) or playing endgame (atlas-on-rails passive tree)?

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Phrazz#3529 wrote:

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SerialF#4835 wrote:

isnt that just power creep ?

It isn't just power creep. It is also new items to chase, new ways of specializing and a lot more strategies to explore. Sure, it's also power creep, but power creep in actual atlas mechanics lets you run content you wouldn't run before because they weren't good enough.

Combine that with completely new ascendancies, and you have a lot of cool stuff to explore. If this event also mixed up the actual league mechanic and didn't just throw all of this into an already very old league (Settlers), it would be a 10/10 event. I'm actually 3% sad that I'm on vacation in the Canaries from a very grey Norwegian winter. Only 3%, though. But I got to play it for a week, and will sink myself into several builds when I get home.

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I have been playing for 12 years and maybe because of that I give this baby league the MVP award. I don't mind Settlers so much because I learned how to do it efficiently so I didn't waste too much time. Anyway, because of the idols I had a complete build and 100 divines in my stash before I hit yellow maps. It was absurd if you knew what you were doing.

I liked them at first, but now when I want to try a new strat, I price it out and see different things from 5 to 30 div.

With the atlas tree, its the price of a few orb of unmaking or I just have a spare atlas tree already.

So we went from virtually free to huge div investment.

Just further encouragement for RMT.



I have 4 full stashes of idols, including plenty of conq. idols, and there are tons of mods I havent seen at all even a weak version of.

So, its an interesting change, but not really a fan.

Atlas tree should have sockets for Idols just like skill tree has for jewels.

I like the idol system.

Any endgame mechanic that relies on trading for meaningful progression gets a big raspberry from me. Idols can die the same death as necropolis imo.

Im going to break with my typical sourness.
and say.

This is done right.

Yes it is RNG heavy.
However the counter is its all positive outcomes.
Somebody has a character that would love whatever it is.

However the upside for persistence and using the recombination.
Buffs that are tangible and good.
You can't argue the good, you can see it ..... right.
You picture the potential of it.

Immediately you are counting the squares and looking to see how you could fit different idols in.

You can envision trying to break that mechanic ...
and then you try .

And that is good.
I have never been pissed off picking one up.
seeing one is always a good reaction.
Like rare currency, except you get one more little feel good identifying.


Its that the pay off is there.
The RNG is the obstacle.
The RNG is not painful you are just not getting perfection.
But you are always getting something .... and you can work with that.

A slot machine steals your money.
This mechanic gives you a prize every time.

"

Jitter912#4278 wrote:

A slot machine steals your money.
This mechanic gives you a prize every time.

Hmm to be fair Ive made more money selling idols than doing any actual strat.

At the same time, if you have a new strat you want to try it does feel a bit like you have to buy the content. Like trying the strat will cost you a few divs, whether it works or not.

Do we really need to gatekeep more content behind buyable items (looks at T17, uber bosses)?

Idols should be craftable.

"

Jitter912#4278 wrote:

Im going to break with my typical sourness.
and say.

This is done right.

Yes it is RNG heavy.
However the counter is its all positive outcomes.
Somebody has a character that would love whatever it is.

However the upside for persistence and using the recombination.
Buffs that are tangible and good.
You can't argue the good, you can see it ..... right.
You picture the potential of it.

Immediately you are counting the squares and looking to see how you could fit different idols in.

You can envision trying to break that mechanic ...
and then you try .

And that is good.
I have never been pissed off picking one up.
seeing one is always a good reaction.
Like rare currency, except you get one more little feel good identifying.


Its that the pay off is there.
The RNG is the obstacle.
The RNG is not painful you are just not getting perfection.
But you are always getting something .... and you can work with that.

A slot machine steals your money.
This mechanic gives you a prize every time.

I triple support you. I love the idol system. I love to search for the perfect idol in trade to replace my current ones. After all, why do we farm currencies? To improve our character in every possible way right? So I think this works well.

Love the idols.

Love the customization, ability to have a ton of small idols or big ones, or choosing to greatly specialize in one strategy. Such type of stuff was never possible on the Atlas.

I will miss them, I miss them already.