To start of this is not a current issue or concern as far as I can tell.
Additionally, I’m just talking about “content bloat” related to item drops in this case and not special features such as the different forges.
So when I say “content bloat” I’m referring to a situation where a game has been out for a “significant” duration. And has been receiving multiple content updates adding in numerous different mechanics/side arenas throughout the games lifespan. And is now in a state where players feel there is “too much” side content and has become a “hassle” to do, or is no longer fun.
Typically you could assume if the game side content is unappealing to a player they can just ignore it. Of which I believe is a valid statement generally. The issue I find is when items are locked behind unenjoyable/undesirable/unwanted content and if you choose to ignore said content you could potentially be hindering your build.
I personally believe that when an aspect of the game becomes a negative experience or it’s decided by devs to “trim the fat”. that the items associated with the identified issue should just be added to the global drop pool.
Let’s use primordial uniques as an example. If it ever becomes a situation where the devs decide to remove the rift beast from the game. I personally hope that the devs transfer the location/mob specific drops and then add them into the global drop pool.
TLDR: If content is ever removed from the game I hope the associated drops are added to the global drop pool.
I think that is pretty save to say and will never happen. The devs are not interested in removing thigns from the game they put in work to get into the game.
Having features or content changed, adapted or removed will naturally change some of the rewards associated with it and maybe shift them aroudn or rework it in some capacity. But especially regarding uniques or exclusive affixes/base items etc I don’t even think any other game did something like this previously, so not sure why you would even fear that this will happen?
“Worst case” would be a specific item getting reworked or overhauled so that it doesn’t function the same anymore, but they devs would not even have interest in removing stuff.
In your example of the Rift Beast exclusive drops (and items sold from Skarven). If they ever would overhaul or remove Rift Beasts from the game that would definitely come with either a replacement or maybe fusion of other mechancis to not make rewards go away entirely.
As Heavy said, it’s not likely we’ll get mechanics removed, especially when you consider that what they’re adding is still part of the core game and not just a seasonal mechanic.
If anything does get removed it would be a smaller part of it (like Rift Beasts, yes) but only years from now and I’m sure we’d get the items available somewhere else.
What I would like them to do is something that PoE doesn’t and which I personally dislike a lot, which is providing alternative ways of getting some rewards/drops.
In PoE if you want, for example, an alternate gem that is required for your build and you hate the lab, well, that sucks because it’s the only place you can get one. And it’s this way because the game is completely balanced around trading which bypasses this. But SSF players are basically screwed in these situations.
So I hope that once we start getting more mechanics in the game that we get more ways of getting those things, because unlike PoE, LE actually has a lot of non-traders as part of the core playerbase.
So I just reread my post to make sure, but I didn’t just reference removal of content I just used a specific example which included a situation of content removal. I also mentioned content becoming non enjoyable to players or non desirable.
As to where the whole idea stems from of content removal is the whole idea of seasonal content vs core content. And the potential situation where after a season there is a possibility that the seasonal stuff won’t be added to the core game.
I also started off with mentioning this is a non issue atm. I put this in off topic and not in an area such as feedback/suggestion. And stated in title it was a personal take. As for the no idea where I get this idea/fear from I know I’m not the only player who’s concerned about this issue once games adopt the seasonal server model. I may be the only one atm commenting on it in the forum, but I know for a fact it’s been mentioned in legacy global chat by more then just myself. You can choose to believe me or not on that statement but it is a real concern of what may happen by some players.
Fair point if you read it all then ended on the tldr it would be an issue. That being said a bunch of people are not down to read the novel in my brain and the tldr I used I believed to be the easiest to sum up the threads topic.
I guess a better TLDR would be; old mechanics specific items should be added to global pool.
The issue with saying that is the people who would say well why don’t you just remove the whole thing or what’s the point of items without the mechanic. Also it wouldn’t mention how I was referring to the old and “negative mechanics. Mostly it’s just I tried to include something for those who don’t like reading more then a line or two, and it caused a conflicting issue with those who took the time to read my full post.
I don’t think people would say that, though. Even in a very specific example like PoE’s prophecies, that were widely disliked, when GGG decided to get rid of them and also of the fated uniques, people complained they were no longer available.
If we take the example of Rift Beasts in LE, it would only make sense to remove the mechanic if you had a similar one fulfilling the same role. And in this case, the only thing Rift Beasts actually provide exclusively is the uniques and the primordial rune, which could easily be shifted to some other mechanic or even a simple NPC vendor in town/“hideout”.
I actually read your post and the reason why I replied with my suggestion is only because your issue seems to be mostly about something being discontinued and having alternatives to still get it. Or you focus on mechanics that are widely disliked, but these are rare. Almost all mechanics have plenty of people who enjoy them, as can be easily seen with arena.
However, I think that any meaningful progression mechanic or build defining unique should be available in multiple mechanics, so we don’t feel forced to play ones we don’t like. And while PoE gets around this issue because of trading, LE has half the players using CoF, so it’s more of a necessity here.
i disliked prophecy, to an extent i also disliked perandus. i m not one of those who are unhappy its no longer available, in fact i celebrate it as theres many other systems that do something similar or in fact do it better.
i did and have complained about the removal tho, as players that did hoard up the relevant league specific currencies were left high and dry. i had collected thousands of silver coins over the years with the idea that one day i would roll prophecies and try to get some high value prophecies. i had many mid-high value prophecies itemized too. a huge lot. every league i would also buy up a large amount of perandus coins “just in case” cadiro offered a mirror (he never did).
after ggg announced their plans to remove the content, i had VERY LITTLE time to use them. both were VERY TEDIOUS. i also tried to get perandus to appear in my maps with the relevant watchstones. he usually sold rubbish and i ended up earning more coins.
by the end of it all. i got burnt out. i could not even finish using 1000 prophecy coins as i got tired of clicking a hundred times to reroll a single prophecy. i got tired trying to get perandus to appear in maps only to get some shitty item being sold.
i let the days go past then poof. all the hard work and effort i had put into these leagues went POOF. i have many hundred thousands and perhaps millions of perandus coins now. for what?
to me i m fine with older stuff needing to go. but i dont want all my hard work to go to waste. cull off older content if required but dont forget to reimburse/reward perpetual players for their efforts.
You managed to choose about the only thing that doesn’t have multiple places you get it from. Most other things you can get from Kingsmarch shipping/mapping & the like.
TBF, if you’re playing SSF & want a specific gem you’re kinda screwed & just have to repeat lab until it procs or you get the reward that allows you to get a transfigured version of them gem you put in.
Kingsmarch is an abomination. Even most content creators agree on this. The loot it provides is so much better than anything else in the game that it becomes mandatory to use it. And it’s tedious, as well, to me anyway.
Also, Kingsmarch is a very recent addition, so for the vast majority of PoE’s lifetime, this wasn’t the case.
Also, there are still plenty of things that don’t drop in Kingsmarch. Delve items, Heist items, etc. Basically any mechanic that doesn’t spawn in maps isn’t available there.
Not to mention boss drops, especially the ones that require you farming some mechanic to access it, like Betrayal.
And, like mentioned before, alternate gems, which are often integral to your build and you can’t get it working without them.
I’m fine with stuff like Uby having no other way to getting them. The stuff he drops are often BiS but they’re not build defining.
But other important drops, like altars/corruption runes should eventually have alternative ways of acquiring them. Especially when those mechanics favour a certain playstyle (AoE, in this case) over others.
Not entirely, you can get fossils & resonators from Kingsmarch, you can also get them from Ritual rewards. You’d be surprised just how much you can get from not-the-original-source content.
I’m not sure where I stand on this, even if we ignore that LE just doesn’t have the breadth of “side content” that PoE has. On the one hand, I like that you can get stuff without having to do a particular content that you may not enjoy, but I also get limiting specific types of rewards to specific types of content.
My suggestions were not for something they should add right now. For now they’re still adding core content, so it makes sense to keep the current model. But adding some redundancy to future mechanics should, in my opinion, be something they should consider afterwards.
It honestly depends on what the rewards do. It’s kinda fine in PoE (even before Kingsmarch) because you have several ways of achieving the same end result in a lot of cases. Some are just easier (and thus cheaper) than others. Not to mention that trade is central to balance in the game and thus is the main way to bypass this.
But if we look at what LE offers in terms of progression we have primordial uniques, which are often build defining. And now we have altars/omen idols dropping from omen windows. Both rewards are mandatory for many builds. And they encourage different build types for their content.
So what I suggest isn’t simply that those things should drop from anywhere (like random drops in echoes) but that maybe when they add a future mechanic that encourages a different playstyle they also add a way to get some of those rewards.
We already see the beginning of this with the bags being sold for currencies that drop in other mechanics, which I think is a good way to approach this. They don’t entirely replace the other mechanic, but they offer another way of farming said mechanic without having to interact as much with it.
