Biggest Issue: The Map Layout is always the same.
(This is not a big deal in Story Mode - Yes i know there a a lot of advantage to “Handcrafted” maps…)
But in Endgame i don’t care about “Handcrafted Details that much” and it becomes kind of boring when you run hundreds of Maps. When you run the SAME Maps over and over this absolutly kills the long therm Motivation.
I switch off when i run a bad Layout Map the 3rd time in a row.
Fast Fix/Workaround/Little Improovement for Monolith:
Block the Map which i run last. The next run always must be a differnt map. (So no more run 2-3 times the Same Map/Quest in a row)
There is no excuse for not randomizing the Endgame Map Layouts! Really No.
Have a look at the speech of Chris Wilson at GDC 2019 - Design ARPGs to be played forever -> You will find it on Youtube…
Randomized maps would be cool but I’ll be honest - I believe they just don’t have tech for it yet and not sure if they will have anytime soon.
They already have performance problems and I believe, one of their major performance boost was when they baked lightning/shadows onto maps themselves - it works great in static maps, but could be major problem in generated layouts so I don’t see them to tackle this anytime soon.
Maybe I am wrong, but this is how I understand their current tech and reasons, why we have static maps only.
I know that is a lot of work and not only write a few tiles and a generator with pathfinding etc. The Topic is not Prio 1. But it is Prio 2 at least.
Personally i can handle Games where the Grapics (Shadow, Lightning, Details, Handcraft,…) etc. is not that nice if the fun fits. (You can’t make a bad game to a good one when only the grafics is awesome… - It’s just a short term eye catcher.).
On long term/on long run, randomized maps are much more important than some details or lightning effects. I hope the DEVs invest the needed time into that.
And yes - this would cost a lot of time and it is on the product owner / game designer to decide if its worth the effort. (To underline my argument i added the link to Chris Wilsons GDC Talk. A lot of his Ideas/Oppinions make absolutly sence… (Not only the randomized maps).
It been said the randomize map will be there before release but how long it will take nobody can tell.
Even if new maps came with 7.9, like you said, running hundreds and hundreds of them you start to know every objectives of every corresponding map of each timeline by heart and the burnout is inevitable.
My ideal scenario would be randomized normal echoes but static quest echoes. I like the feeling of exploration that comes from running around in normal echoes, and sometimes I’ll fill them out simply for the pleasure of completion. When it comes to quest echoes, having a pre-defined layout helps me to learn from a failed past run, which is more important as quests are the ones that are particularly important to defeat in order to progress.
