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Single Player Game
Crunchy222
Member CommonPosts: 386
Ok all the launch fiasco's aside, the games not terrible. Yes combat is very lacking, and the skill tree needs some balance as well as melee needs a lot of love in terms of making melee fun and viable. Other than that its a soild, deep, ARPG, with a great gritty look and feel to it. It does a lot of things right which seem to over shadow the games lackings.
One thing i really wish they would give attention to, is making this game more...multiplayer. I waited though a 20k queue and found a total of 15 public games. 15 is as high as ive seen it, being under 10 for nearly all of closed beta.
I think the free for all loot is a big reason, but also they dont really make it easy to hop in to a public game. One must be created by a player, and for all but the difficult boss fights, there seems to be no advantage to even finding a group.
When you are in a multiplayer game, and your not with real friends, it becomes more of a loot fight since loot is shared, also the other players make it difficult to attack mobs sometimes, as mouse clicking isnt very accurate in the game, especially with small mobs. I found myself constantly targeting a templar who was melee causing my elemental bow character to run up to the mobs all the time, i could use shift to stand still, but when i need to hit that right mob or when things are moving too fast for shift+fire while standing still, its a pain. Worse is someone with minions, makes it nearly impossible to target mobs.
Top it off with a global chat that seems to have to be turned off to even enjoy the game, non stop D3 talk and a constant sea of questions with no answers (god help you if you have a question, which you will) and an economy that sees player to player trading nearly null...people only want certain orbs for gear, and if you had those orbs you really wouldnt even need trade chat. Other than people who cant find the skills they need there doesnt seem to be much of an economy brewing since everyone can just make their own stuff, and reroll every aspect of that gear on their own, so the only real market is for the crafting orbs...no one wants the gear, and if they do...they certainly have nothing to trade for it (asking for freebies basically)
This whole single player feeling didnt quite hit untill i saw the queue lines. All through closed beta i hadent realized i had been playing a single player game, chats all turned off, self sufficiant in gear, and with multiplayer being more dealing with loot fighting than actually playing...it hit me when i saw that line, that 20k people are waiting to get in, that a game that size should have a vibrant multiplayer aspect to it...else...why even have it online and a queue for me to wait though? Add in the constand disconnects that make you have to redo content and the mob desync that gets you killed...which i understand is a launch issue as it was fine in closed beta, aside from desync that was there.
I just feel this game would be a whole more enjoyable if it was more directed towards playing with other people.
Comments
I'm confused regarding the first part of your first sentence. What made the launch a fiasco? The blatant DDOSing causing the server issues? Other than that, the launch was pretty stellar. Just my opinion though.
The game has the tools for a social experience. The boards for grouping are there. I guess i just dont' agree with you.
At top difficulty level you don't plow through all the mobs like you will be doing now. The multiplayer loot issue is only bad because loot is dropping like crazy. At top level you'll be leaving most of the yellow drops and you kill things slower so loot doesn't drop constantly.
So, it gets better as you go along.
I do wish it had individual loot drops though or that your allocated loot had at least a 1 minute timer before it goes public.
I had the client installed already and updated to the open beta client before ob went live and it was a quick dl.I've played multiple hrs every day since (2-4 a day) and only had 1 dc and that's it.The queue they have today is because of ddos attack's on the server's,they're limiting the access to 45k or so while they get this straightened out.
I cant agree with combat being lacking as it's just as good as D3 and the skill tree is like a work of art.It does seem overwhelming.but once you play around with it,it become's easier to use.
As far as grouping I'd say try and find a few friend's in the game (or guild) to try and play with.I've watched some on Twitch and have seen duo's work well.Playing solo or duo is fine from what I've seen.The key seems to not be the weapon's you loot,but actually how you upgrade what you already have.
Some day I'm going to put a sword through your eye and out the back of your skull!
Arya Stark
I don't really agree totally with your thoughts. The survival aspect is more than fine as a grouping incentive. If anything the current system supports forming a group of friends that cooperate instead of random groups.
I dont either where this Fiasco ?
As long as the loot system is designed such that playing multiplayer means having to play selfishly and prioritize clicking on loot ahead of killing the mobs that are still alive, I will play PoE 100% single-player.
From some of the threads on the official forum (including a 300+ page monster on the loot system), it's clear that an extremely large number of people who love everything else about the game feel the same way.
That's probably a big part of the reason for there being so few multiplayer games active.
Yep. Right now, you've got a couple of options:
1) Play with friends
2) Play alone
3) Play with PUGs and be annoyed
And none of my friends play PoE.
I wouldn't agree that it is a single player game, because once you get to end of act2 in the first difficulty the game become pretty hard and a group is much more effecient or actually needed to continue. In closed beta, there were loads of solo builds which are not really good anymore (such as summoner).
The game does have some problems with group play, and you like many other quickly found the worst.
Friendly targeting makes it hard to target monsters - Its been reported before, but so far they refused to acknowledge the problem. Battle spam from effects in group bigger than 3 people is also a problem, atleast combined with your insignificant looking cursor that gets lost all the time. Looting is so-called cutthroath, but closed beta players know groups had a silent agreement to kick any ninja looters and not group them again, so the cutthroath is not what players want - Also here GGG should drop their know-best attitude and implement a loot system. Chat system is just bad, a huge window on the side that cant be moved, no reply shortcut and other silly things. If you dont know the game very well, all your builds will suck when you hit midgame, beeing unable to survive - You really have to follow a recipe to have success - Although theorycrafting is fun enough it you will end up failing if you go much out of the proven formulas.
So crappy game ... nop PoE rock on every other aspect, and it is much more fun and interesting in the long run than for example D3, it just has some child diseases and hopefully their devs will listen a bit closer and improve on the problematic parts.
For all the disconnects and whatever problems, it is not as bad as many other launches of multiplayer games.. Its annoying but expected.
"I am my connectome" https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=HA7GwKXfJB0
red: disagree
green: agree
ITS STILL BETA
Yes the real market is orbs. However UNIQUES are tradeable. Recrafting gear into whatever I want is the best thing ever. It's still rando, but it lets me play with loot until i have a very good chance at making it awesome.
Minions do get in the way of targeting in groups.
I don't group much because I dislike the FFA loot system. Everyone stops fighting and swarms to your yellow, often causing you to have to path around them and if you are in Plate and dont yet have the speed keystone you can get SOL on loot. So i play alone right now. Hopefully they will implement a ruleset option in a leauge where the league creator can make loot hardbound for 2-3 minutes. I will play that league.
While I know I am not as strong as the caster classes I am still having fun on my melee. If it wasnt for my unique 2h I dont think i would have stuck with my melee into the 40's. My ranger has a much easier time overall.
I play solo, don't really see the point on grouping with randoms, from my understanding the mobs get harder in groups. once you fail against a boss and understand why you die then you can go back and kill the boss easier the second time round with the knowledge of its strengths and weakness.
Always carry 3 or 4 sets of rings with different elemental stats, then swap them in, it makes survivability so much easier.
"Happiness is not a destination. It is a method of life."
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This multiplayer is still way better than D3 as of right this second. At lower levels most people are vultures scooping up any blue that drops but at higher levels it gets alot better. People will stil jump to the good stuff that drops but thats just part of the game. Seeing amazing things drop and you are just a second too late kinda sucks in a way but it adds some excitment to it. In my experience i have racked up way better stuff in a group than i do solo, the drops are just that much better.
Also once you get into cruel difficulty and above there starts to be alot more groups forming because the game gets more difficult. I think overall the game isnt lacking in anything right now. If you have played all the Arpgs that have come out in the past 10years you will appreciate a game like this once you get your hands on this beauty.