If it’s truly an alternative, I’d put it in the first town. However, putting it at EoT after you get your Mastery would be fair too.
Edit:
I would put mutually exclusive ways to get the extra idols and passive points in that alternative mode as well in a corresponding fashion. This is just to ensure the integrity of both modes and the character builds themselves.
To an extent, the areas had a max level as well.
@NukedGypsy Quite a lot of us grew up during the 80s and have seen the gaming industry evolve & grow. A lot of it has changed for the better, some of it has changed for the worse (predatory microtransactions) & some things are both good and bad (F2P, because it allows many more people to try a game but it often leads to the game costing a player more due to being nickle & dimmed all over the shop).
I think the level restrictions on items make people want to skip the campaign as well. Especially in PoE, since that is a popular comparison. Most of the valuable and sought after items have an item level of at least 74 and above to the coveted I84 and I85 items. This makes you feel the pressure of getting to those levels even greater because you know nobody wants to buy any rare under those item levels. This to me feels like shooting themselves in the foot, by making all the other items feel useless in comparison. We’re all about the loot in these games. We go where the loot is.
Maybe a solution could be as you are doing quests in the story, there is a very small percentage that some cool mtx can drop only while on the story quests. Once you are done, you no longer have that chance. So at least every time you level a character there is some feeling of excitement that while you are doing this that something really badass could drop before it is over. And to prevent abusing the drop chances by never finishing the quest, the chance can drop to 0 after you find x amounts of mtx like 1 or 2.
I agree with your premise, but the solution doesn’t really fix the problem, imo. Also, I’d be a bit sketchy about putting MTX in the mix like that. It risks two things that would sorely undermine the integrity of the game.
That’s okay, though, because there are many other avenues of approach worth exploring. If we agree on the premise in the first place, we can aim at the solution together.
Please accept a genuine apology and thank you for answering my question. For about three days I’ve been attempting to place alternate content locations into LE was a grueling exercise.
I think many would be on board with your approach. I have thought, hey after the first shard where you fight the first boss was a cool spot, it introduces you to the portals, and let the journey begin.
I guess mtx was the wrong word. Nothing cash shop related. Some cool chase items that would make the campaign for the 50th time still feel exciting. But it’s only tied to the story to make it feel exclusive to that and give it a little more meaning to do over and over for those who feel like a new build isn’t enough of a reason.
Or take it as far as each time you complete the story with a new character, you get a passive point that goes into a global passive tree for all characters. Another way to add layers of defense or dps or add more rarity to items.
This is true, I would rather buy a supporter pack every league instead of having to grind the hell out of the game to unlock certain things just to keep me “playing” / keep torturing me.
Just a +1 to the OP
While I have not yet finished the campaign, I know that if the game will be successful, and there is incentive to create new characters (which is implied by the amount of classes), an alternative way to level or “reach the endgame” instead of the normal campaign would be appreciated. It does not have to be on the same production value as the campaign itself, just as an alternative way to level up.
Can you clarify what you mean here?
In POE for instance I have to unlock all Atlas maps and then I have to unlock them again in order to get additional bonuses which are necessary to be successful in the endgame. You have to grind maps in order to unlock Passive trees etc. Chris follows the philosophy that the longer a player plays the game the money he will spend. I completely disagree with this logic.
Agree with OP – would love to have a system in place for additional characters after your main character to jump right into the action instead of trudging countless times through the “training mode” introduction which is the initial campaign. Don’t get me wrong, I loved the campaign and thoroughly enjoyed it, but once I’ve already played through it, there is no mystery left to solve. I’d much rather start playing my character in monoliths or something similar instead of trudging through the same quests over and over. All of the “extra” passive points and idol slots from quests could simply be distributed at specific levels up until ~level 50 or so when you’d normally reach the monoliths anyway.
Personally I don’t mind running the story thousand times. I’m used to it for so many years.
It makes me sad that there are so many people that say “story is boring”. This is a very long thread already and I followed him ocasionally. And there are people that say “ARPGs need no story” @Shtrak .
I can’t say if I’d like to have an alternative way to level. If so, it should also be something completely different to the current endgame systems. First because its endgame. Second is because if I ran monolith on a character to level 85, I’ve no intention to go playing mono with a new character from lvl 1 on again. This will get boring and repetitive very soon.
Story in a game is very important for me. I need to be immersed into the world of a game to have a long term motivation to play. I think EHG have put a massive amount of ressources into creating the story and campaign, as have other developers on other games.
If it was so obvious that a forced story playthrough is tedious and boring, why don’t games ged rid of it completely these days?
I know, most people here are asking for “an option to not play campaign” so everybody who likes could skip it. But this feels to me like EHG wastes their time an effort to create the campaign if they allow people to skip it. The game might already have been out a year ago if they would not have developed a campaign. And if the majority of players dislikes the campaign, theres a fundamental flaw in the game design.
I’d like to see if a mmo, loot shooter or RPG really has that longevity if it would be developed without a story. Just raw game mechanics. No lore, no character design. Just a pure grind simulator. I wonder why this is not already the case with many games when the opinion on that is so absolutely clear like it is described in a lot of this posts.
My bet is that any rpg like game that doesn’t create lore and story content will only be an empty hull of a game.
The journey of a character from level 1 on is a key part of this kind of games. Earning the right to enter endgame by following the story campaign. Having a story that is completely different from endgame activities already provides diversity.
I don’t see how adding a grind mode (alternative leveling system) before entering another grind mode (endgame system) adds a lot of variety.
But maybe I just have the fear that this change in game design could be so successful, that in the future ARPGs are developed without story. Just 2, 3, 4 different mini games put together with some endgame activities after reaching a progression threshold. And the complaints that arise then: “My favourite game mode is 2. I hate game mode 1. But 1 is more effective. Why am I forced to play mode 1? Nerf! Buff!”
Peace! 
I’d like to be sure I was clear… I’m not someone bored by stories. I’m a writer, imagine if I have interest in stories. 
And I always find very sad people who rush through the campaign and who then say “I have no clue what the story is about, I read nothing, I just follow the arrows”. I would even find this disrepectful, but that’s another story (!)
What I get a bit bored of is doing this same campaign around thirty times in three months. I’d like the story to remain a pleasure, so I’d like to play it when I want. And this includes replay it with a grown-up hero, by the way.
One thing I try to keep in mind and perspective is that even games like PoE didn’t have an endgame let alone other ways of leveling for a looong time. It was the same 4 acts over and over in progressively harder modes D2 style. It’s what a small team can manage. As they grew bigger, things changed. LE in beta has more to offer via endgame and progression wise already, and they just keep adding more great stuff.
Completely agree with this comment. The lack of that campaign “journey” very well may be the thing that people miss if the game ever becomes a monolith grind-fest from start to finish. Something about that new character journey attaches me to a character. If I jump right in and do the same content I’ll be doing in the “end game”, it completely takes away from what end game actually is, and then the sense of progression is no longer there. This is where adventure mode in d3 completely failed for me. It no longer felt like I was building a character, and there was no sense of completion or transition or break from the grind of end game systems. It felt so much more hollow to reach any sort of milestone.
PoE is a decent example. You might do a thousand maps or more in a league. Breaking it up by spending some time casually doing the acts again is really nice. At that point you might have a bunch of gear to look forward to, or a change of scenery as you use lower tier less intense maps or other content to level. As weird as it sounds, it’s one of the things that kind of revitalizes a league for me if I’m getting bored of what I’m playing. Breaking apart the monotony, even if it’s with a different kind of monotony is kind of useful. These games are supposed to be grindy and anyone who has been playing arpgs (or most games for that matter) for years has come to expect that they’ll be repeating story content, and that’s not a bad thing.
I think it would work if you beat the game (story) on one character, it causes a rift to open in the first town. They could even add a little story bit to it. It would allow new characters to enter the portal to go to the end of time and access an alternative way to level/progress. It would be a neat little added story bit that once you beat the gods or whatever, it messes with the timeline and opens the rift. It would be like an account wide story progression.
I conjures images of Chrono Trigger with the portal to Lavos in the first town. You never go in it until you have done the new game + several times to be much stronger.
same 4 acts, boy you had it sweet. It was 3 acts when I started PoE back in 2014 (1.2 Forsaken Masters). The Piety and Dom runs. Which got nicknamed PityDom.
you were an alpha. I had an account but got hacked in the Paypal incident in 2014 and had to start over in 1.2
Ah, that sucks.