Impressions from a new player (30 hours in)

[ThomasPiketty]

This will be much less constructive criticism, as it will be encouragement for the devs. I am a lover of rpgs and a very analytical gamer in that I very actively notice any given game’s systems and how they work, the music, the art, the world building and so on. I am the type of gamer who is very enthusiastic and whose friends tell me to shut up about the details I notice while playing. I am absolutely loving this game, so I have started lurking this forum quite a bit, and I have noticed a tendency of a lot of PoE player coming on here, and making points that to me make no sense at all. First of all:

• The skill system: Is absolutely brilliant, easily the best in any aRPG on the market today. It encourages use of several abilities, allowing a lot of depth, while at the same time being very intuitive to use. This is something I have always critiqued other aRPG’s for, and I feel a lot of thought has went into this system.

• The combat: Again brilliant, and of course is in large part a result of how the skill system has been designed. I feel in general, that most of LE’s systems, are created in such a way that encourages more active playing and decision-making. The pace is much preferred to other aRPG’s on the market, being slower and more tactical.

• The levels, art and music: Are all great. The music and art create a really cool atmosphere, and I really appreciate the use of layering and verticallity present in a lot of zones. People have critiqued the use of handcrafted levels, but I think this approach often shines. Certain areas would not be possible, or atleast impossibly difficult to create, if they were randomly generated. Going back to PoE, I absolutely loathe getting a quest in an area, and when having to turn the same quest in, the whole area has been randomized, my map reset and quest giver moved to another location, this makes no fucking sense. I think randomization could be used for endgame content, but for the story chapters I think the handcrafted levels are a good choice.

• Itemization: Not really my strong suit, I will leave it to other members to comment on these systems, but in general I think it already works fine for the most part, and the crafting system is rather enjoyable.

• The end game system: I really think this system is brilliant. I of course understand that constantly creating new content is time consuming and expensive, therefore I think letting us grind reused content, to slowly letting us unlock new content and cool boss fights is a really good idea, both from a player and dev perspective.

• In summary: You guys have created one of the games I would have created were I a game dev with a team behind me. Almost every design choice I completely agree with, and I hope you stay true to your vision, because I have faith in it, as do my friends. Some people on here seem to think that this game has to be more like PoE to compete with PoE, but I think that is completely wrong. While it may be true that PoE has a big player base, I think there is an equally big percentage of people in the aRPG sphere, that could never really get into PoE, me and my friendgroup being among those people. PoE is great for theorycrafting and checking market prices, LE is great for active and dynamic gameplay and character building.

I realize this post will sound very antagonistic towards PoE players, but for the love of god, why not go play PoE or wait for PoE 2 instead of trying to move this precious project in the wrong direction.

[RawSuicide]

Hey Thomas,
Welcome to LE. Hope you have a good time playing!

@ThomasPiketty

The levels, art and music: Are all great. The music and art create a really cool atmosphere, and I really appreciate the use of layering and verticallity present in a lot of zones.

Yeah, defenitely. If you pay attention to the soundtrack and background/ambience sounds they are really nice. Just that there could be even more stuff to spice things up. I really love how PoE creates a really dense atmosphere in their dungeon levels with really creapy ambience sounds like screams and growl and stuff. Also the music, as nice as it is, often doesn’t really fit to that what happens on the screen. The music when fighting should be more action packed and epic. Often you fight while hearing a calm and chill track that in no way matches the gameplay. Would be nice to have improvements in this regard in the future.

@ThomasPiketty

I realize this post will sound very antagonistic towards PoE players, but for the love of god, why not go play PoE or wait for PoE 2 instead of trying to move this precious project in the wrong direction.

From what I’ve seen so far there are at least 2 types of player coming from other games like D3 or PoE ore else:

1. Players are bored by the content of their main game because they reached everything the league offers or don’t like the current leage mechanic

These players come to LE for fresh stuff. They are really used to the mechanics and controls of their “main” game and want LE to work the same way so they don’t need to adept too much and learn new things.

2. Players got frustrated with their former main game because of some of its mechanics. They come to LE and want its mechanics to NOT be like their former main game.

Of course this is very simplified. Both player types need to realise that its is neither gamebreaking to copy existing mechanics nor to do something new. “Never change a running system” is a generalisation that is only right in 50% of cases. Because in the other 50% of cases the lack of innovation of a product is what people complain about.

These are tough decisions for the devs. I would not generally say “If people want things they liked in other games, they should play these other games then.” In some cases they might be right with “why reinvent the wheel?”. I personally really loved Warframe a while ago. I’d love to see some mechanics also implemented in LE. There’s so much fun stuff that could be easily adapted to LE. Playing Warframe is not the solution in my case, because I’ve had enough of this game.

Let people write their suggestions, no matter what they are. And when you don’t like them, feel free to answer their posts and write down how and why you don’t like what they suggest. The devs will pick what they need, based on the average player feedback and their own vision for this game.

By letting this happen, we will have a really nice game that combines new elements with elements of other games. The result can be awesome

[Defz]

The skill system really is incredible, it always feels like you have JUST enough points for whatever you’re going for, and can also spend hours/days trying new setups to eek out the perfect amount of offense/defense from the tree to suit your build.

@ThomasPiketty

Some people on here seem to think that this game has to be more like PoE to compete with PoE, but I think that is completely wrong. While it may be true that PoE has a big player base, I think there is an equally big percentage of people in the aRPG sphere, that could never really get into PoE, me and my friendgroup being among those people. PoE is great for theorycrafting and checking market prices, LE is great for active and dynamic gameplay and character building.

This is so true and I hope EHG sticks to their guns about the way they are doing things without caving to the vocal minority asking for things like free/insta respecs etc that take the weight out of your choices and speed up gameplay.

[Heavy]

@ThomasPiketty

This will be much less constructive criticism, as it will be encouragement for the devs.

Your post is just as much valuable feedback as some people suggesting new things or changes.

Simply liking or agreeing with game systems or chocies the devs made is also very valuble feedback.

And i personally do feel the same with alot of points you borught up. Sure there is always room for improvements and LE is still very early in it’s development lifetime.

But i often times simply like what EHG did. Every major patch that changed stuff i coudl easily see why they changed certain stuff.

I also played ALOT of PoE a few months/years back and i will msot definitely start PoE with the new expansion/league, because it looks very much like what i like in aRPG: Boss focused content)

I would never want LE to become Path Of Exile 2.0. LE has enough things to make it stand out and i can easily enjoy both games for what they are.

That’s being said, it’s never a bad idea to lookwhat otehr games do or did. Not to solely copy them, but maybe to try simialr stuff, but maybe put your own spin on it.

Welcome to the LE Forums, i hope you enjoy your time in the LE Community!