Readjustment of Progression?

Grim Dawn Ideas and Feedback
1

I’ve seen that Path of Exile is readjusting their progression system to 10 acts with 2 difficulties (previously 5 acts with 4 difficulties) and making it possible to reach max level before getting to the end of the game on the 2nd playthrough.

IMO this kind of change would greatly benefit Grim Dawn with its upcoming expansion. It would kill off the most repetitive part of the game of having to slog through the game 3 times in a row to complete it and better the focus on gameplay/loot hunt. Would the development team consider such a change?

2

To be more accurate:
PoE got 4 act and 3 difficulties. They are adding 1 act and removing 2 difficulties.
The story will expand to 10 act as, at the end of the 5th act, it will make you go back to the first act and make you progress through the same areas (act 1-5 become 6-10) that have changed since you first went there.

But the campaign is not their main content. So reducing its length won’t reduce as much the playtime of the players, and it will allow them to reach faster the main content.
In GD, the campaign is the main content. Reducing its length will have a much bigger impact as it will only let players reach faster the moment to reroll or leave.

3

4 times in a row?

People seem to keep making the same assumption: that all uniques Acts is more enjoyable than playing through the same acts multiple times.

What if the only enjoyable acts end up being the first ones?

4

PEople make a big mistake. PoE is developed with end game in mind. Meaning that they naturally want you to go throw the leveling proces asap.

Grim Dawn is NOT designed, nor developed, with endgame. Many of us want the older school multiple difficulties and enjoyable leveling. I don’t want to rush through the game to do boring unrewarding end game like Diablo 3 and PoE. In fact with games like t his I end up playing A LOT and making A LOT of builds. In games with a liniear campaign like Torchlight, Hellsing and what PoE is going to do will leave me unfulfilled after a playthrough and not in the mood to keep going for another run.

In short. Different games, different goals, catering different aspects of the aspects of this genre, different people get attracted. You either like it, or not.

So no it won’t even be considered. And I know this also for a fact since it has been brought up several times. Zantai himself said nothing will change in the department of “end game”. What we have is what we’ll get more off.

Until developers find a way to design a proper end game environment they shouldn’t even incorporate it. Mapping and rifting with either unrewarding or meaningless loot is as fun as repeatedly bashing your head against a wall.

5

4 times in a row?

Typo. Meant to say 3.

So no it won’t even be considered. And I know this also for a fact since it has been brought up several times. Zantai himself said nothing will change in the department of “end game”. What we have is what we’ll get more off.

Show me where he said that.

Until developers find a way to design a proper end game environment they shouldn’t even incorporate it. Mapping and rifting with either unrewarding or meaningless loot is as fun as repeatedly bashing your head against a wall.

Well with people like you with your obsessions of archaic design, we probably won’t.

Many of you seem to think the Campaign is too short or it can be blitzed through in a matter of hours all the way to Ultimate.

I think it is long as hell, in fact too damn long to warrant that many difficulties. And I sure as hell cannot blitz this game to Ultimate in a matter of hours. However I can do that on PoE, but PoE’s campaign is nowhere near as big as Grim Dawn’s and PoE is a harder game to play.

Besides, the end-game has already been determined based on the current design. You get to Ultimate difficulty and you beat it while also getting the best gear you can get for your build. So why would shortening the amount of playthroughs by 1 be that big of a deal? Why do we need to go through the game that many times? I get bored so quick after the 2nd playthrough because everything is exactly the same, nothing is random except the regular mob placements. There is no point in even exploring after your first playthrough because you already know exactly where everything is and it’s a waste of time unless you get to Ultimate.

1 playthrough to check everything out and get a feel for your character/build. The next playthrough for challenge and maxing your character. It would be so much better that way.

6

Bear in mind that there’s also the story to consider - nothing feels lazier than 5 whole acts of “oh no, new enemies have appeared in these exact same areas you’ve been to before, go kill them all again thx” storytelling, especially when it’d be literally half the game.

I think the whole ‘10 acts/1 playthrough’ thing might have worked well if it were designed that way from the beginning (and who knows, I may have even preferred it to what we have), but as it is it’s probably too late to get away with such a change at this point in development without a pretty significant drop in overall quality.

7

so let me get this straight, you want one less difficulty so you reach ‘endgame’ sooner, which is running a select few areas with bosses and nemeses, to have less repetition. Am I the only one seeing the flaw in this reasoning ? :wink:

I think it is long as hell, in fact too damn long to warrant that many difficulties. And I sure as hell cannot blitz this game to Ultimate in a matter of hours.

have you tried ? Of course clearing all areas etc takes time, but staying on the road and skipping unnecessary areas (like all of act 1 in the 2nd and 3rd difficulty…) reduces that a lot.
Never did it, but I guess you can easily reduce the time by 50% if you really wanted to - at the price of being lower level in each difficulty

However I can do that on PoE, but PoE’s campaign is nowhere near as big as Grim Dawn’s and PoE is a harder game to play.

PoE is about grinding, GD is about the journey. I take GD over PoE any day, nothing is more boring and repetetive than grinding. I much rather play through a third time than spend the same amount of time grinding.

Besides, the end-game has already been determined based on the current design. You get to Ultimate difficulty and you beat it while also getting the best gear you can get for your build.

‘while’, as in ‘you get the best gear simply by completing Ultimate’ ? your luck must be unreal then…

There is no point in even exploring after your first playthrough because you already know exactly where everything is and it’s a waste of time unless you get to Ultimate.

then don’t explore everything…

8

So let me get this straight, you want one less difficulty so you reach ‘endgame’ sooner, which is running a select few areas with bosses and nemeses, to have less repetition. Am I the only one seeing the flaw in this reasoning?

What’s the flaw? You all do this anyways, except with 1 more difficulty added.

have you tried ? Of course clearing all areas etc takes time, but staying on the road and skipping unnecessary areas (like all of act 1 in the 2nd and 3rd difficulty…) reduces that a lot. Never did it, but I guess you can easily reduce the time by 50% if you really wanted to - at the price of being lower level in each difficulty

Yes I have tried and what you said is exactly what happens, if I rush it I lose out on a lot of power gain to where I cannot get through Ultimate without finding everything like the shrines etc. So I am forced to at least try and rush the side areas for the sake of being viable in Ultimate.

PoE is about grinding, GD is about the journey. I take GD over PoE any day, nothing is more boring and repetetive than grinding. I much rather play through a third time than spend the same amount of time grinding.

WRONG. Every game similar to this one is about the grind, there just happens to be less of it in Grim Dawn. You would still be spending the same amount of time grinding now, just with 1 less difficulty.

‘while’, as in ‘you get the best gear simply by completing Ultimate’ ? your luck must be unreal then…

You read that wrong, try again.

then don’t explore everything…

I don’t, that’s why this is all an issue for me, I want a reason to no matter which difficulty I am on. If there was one less difficulty, I can concentrate on everything and not be so goddamn BORED.

9

I completely disagree with that. I hardly ever grind. Either I stop right after the campaign (assuming I like it enough to finish it), or I grind for a few hours only, when I really enjoyed the game. Never more than that.
I then either move on or start a different build (again, if I liked the game a lot).

Grind is at best not a complete hinderance to my enjoyment, it never is part of it.

You read that wrong, try again.

sorry no, then you expressed it wrong, there is no other interpretation for ‘while’ :wink: it should have been ‘afterwards’

I don’t, that’s why this is all an issue for me, I want a reason to no matter which difficulty I am on. If there was one less difficulty, I can concentrate on everything and not be so goddamn BORED.

lol, so you are bored from the repetition of going through the campaign a third time, but not from the repetition of grinding ?

Consider the third time part of the grind then, with the one-shot chests you benefit from it too

10

Show me where he said that.

I can confirm he did in fact say that Crate has no intentions to make an endless grind, but I couldn’t be bothered to do the dirty work for you and look it up.

11

no…no they’re not actually. analyze the games properly and notice there are three different schools of thought and different approaches/emphasize.