Five Weeks into 0.2.0, POE2 is Down 93.2% Players All Time & 83.9% from Patch Launch

After playing LE, it became painfully clear how far POE2 is from even qualifying as a game. The endgame still small, sure but meaningful, and somehow already deeper than POE2's. There's a trade system — not perfect, but it’s actually integrated into the game instead of relying on bot-spamming. Each character has at least three viable builds that actually feel different and it can go through all endgame content smoothly. You're not stuck in an endless loop of dodge-rolls or permanently stun-locked, or fight against white mob within a hour.

Yes, there are one-shot mechanics, but they’re telegraphed, and — imagine this — the game tells you what killed you.

POE2 still has potential — 0.1 patch proved that. All they had to do was not actively destroy it with 0.2. It’s really simple: either you rework every system from the ground up for a tactical playstyle — slowdown the mobs, shrink the maps, reduce stats and mob density — or just commit to making a POE1 remake. But right now, it’s pure design schizophrenia: trying to mash together incompatible ideas and pretending it’s some kind of “vision.”

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keppie#6373 написал:

Bof, i understand you're talking about the crowd that's still liking POE 2, but just a few comments. I personally never minded the XP loss, but that's cause i do have a fondness for the older games i suppose. And i don't feel as if difficulty was an issue in POE 1. Sure, a lot of builds wiped everything, but there was enough player agency left to choose wether to play such a build or not. Something that is severely lacking in POE 2, btw. And if you DID slap something together yourself that wasn't TOO powerful, I feel POE 1 content could be more than challenging enough sometimes, so i have a hard time understanding this fixation GGG has on making things more difficult. Especially now that it turns out that they're only making things more frustrating instead :S

Yeah, they are hardcoding RNG into everything and hoping we don't notice. The hwole idea behind towers is just an annoying mini game, which keeps us from even running the content we want.

Crafting is just RNG as well.

Otherwise I never hated xp loss either, I thought it was fair for a game that intentionally wants to be hard and punishing -- No game "Punishes" me, that's fine, I can handle that. I keep saying, I don't believe being able to breathe should qualify you for getting level 100.

The fact it keeps people from getting to 100 means it's doing what it's supposed to do. Levels are the most powerful thing, it tapers off for sure, but IMO it's just bogus to give that for free in a game that wants you to feel/be punished by design and developer intent.

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keppie#6373 написал:

The point is, if it works, don't touch it. If it's the best out there, then DEFINITELY don't touch it

GGG did the exact opposite of this with POE2. The better something worked in POE1, the more the mechanic got fubar'd in POE2.

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ShaDarkLord#6528 написал:

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The only thing I see POE 2 players want is an extremely easy game with no downsides, no loses, no experiences losses, and builds that exclusively 1 shot top content -- AKA, they want Diablo 4 2.0

You're completely lost in your delusions. Can you name even one person in this thread asking for an easier game with no downsides? People are telling you directly — the game isn't hard, it's just dumb and boring. The crafting is pure RNG hell, all the content is ripped straight from POE1 with zero changes — and of course, it's the most hated parts. GGG apparently has developer amnesia and is repeating every mistake they've made over the last 10 years. The acts are artificially stretched, endgame was murdered in patch 0.2. But sure, tell me more about how we just want Diablo 4.2.


After patch 0.2, everything that was remotely fun got trampled. Any build variety? Gone. Playing by GGG's “intended rules” has been debunked in a hundred threads — you simply can't parry a thousand mobs rushing you from all directions. Bloated mob HP and neutered player damage doesn’t make the game Soulslike, and it certainly doesn’t make it difficult. Lords of the Fallen and The Surge already proved that point

Every person crying for zero xp loss.

Everyone crying that all the OP builds from 0.1 can't 1 shot everything anymore.

Those aren't the problems -- the problem is GGG has designed a bad game, specified here by you:

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Any build variety? Gone. Playing by GGG's “intended rules” has been debunked in a hundred threads — you simply can't parry a thousand mobs rushing you from all directions.

We know, that's the kinda shit were talking about when us "POE 1 doomers" are saying POE 2 is a bad game with bad design decisions.

Many of us were excited and immediately let down with how insanely easy POE 2 was. It's still insanely easy... And you tourists who just started want it even easier (perhaps not you directly homie, but I see a LOT of whinging about how we don't just get free level 100, how it's too punishing, etc etc).

Believe it or not. No game ever punishes me for failing. I kinda like it. It makes me fail a lot less, and I don't want that taken away from me for a tourist who won't even be playing in a year.

I been here 7 years. I'm playing POE 1 and 2 until the sun dies. I'm not ever going anywhere -- none of you will be here in 6 more months.

I have a vested interest in the game not sucking.

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Galtrovan#5344 написал:

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keppie#6373 написал:

The point is, if it works, don't touch it. If it's the best out there, then DEFINITELY don't touch it

GGG did the exact opposite of this with POE2. The better something worked in POE1, the more the mechanic got fubar'd in POE2.

They did indeed, and it frankly is, pretty depressing :S
Instead, we end up with yet another prime example of how to fuck up an absolute winner, because that's what a regular sequel to POE 1 would undoubtedly have been.
Let's face it, no company is ever going to go back on so much development time and change just about everything, so this version is here to stay. The best we can hope for is a good deal of buffs here and there, but i doubt anything will ever change to the infinite atlas or that all the horrible mechanics polluting the passive tree would be entirely removed or all skills being redesigned without those severe dependencies on weapon types, attributes, etc and to not have such significant major drawbacks heaped upon them. It would require deconstructing everything.
They wanted to make a different game and they will have one. It just won't be a good one to most people that supported them in the past.

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keppie#6373 написал:

They wanted to make a different game and they will have one. It just won't be a good one to most people that supported them in the past.

Couldn't agree more on that!

PoE 2 will be a different game from PoE 1... but, sadly in the wrong direction.

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Many of us were excited and immediately let down with how insanely easy POE 2 was. It's still insanely easy... And you tourists who just started want it even easier (perhaps not you directly homie, but I see a LOT of whinging about how we don't just get free level 100, how it's too punishing, etc etc).

Believe it or not. No game ever punishes me for failing. I kinda like it. It makes me fail a lot less, and I don't want that taken away from me for a tourist who won't even be playing in a year.

A "new" game, must be scaled for "new" players. You are not a "new" player. If the title is scaled for "old guard" players, then it will only appeal to "old guard" players, and likely only a subset of them at that. Which means, it's dead in the water.

If anyone failed, it was you, when you didn't set appropriate expectations.

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keppie#6373 wrote:
They wanted to make a different game and they will have one. It just won't be a good one to most people that supported them in the past.

This is probably fine. You have to take some losses to gain wider appeal. Plus, new blood = new money. They obviously wont have all the tabs you do.

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keppie#6373 написал:

They wanted to make a different game and they will have one. It just won't be a good one to most people that supported them in the past.

Looks like it's not a good one to people who supported it either.

Making 0.1 so easy was a mistake, all us vets knew it wasn't what they promised for years, and that most new players won't be able to hang at 0.2 -- and it all happened. Including the backlash we all saw coming.

The only people who seem to be surprised are GGG (as always) and new POE 2 players.

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cyranis#7939 написал:

A "new" game, must be scaled for "new" players. You are not a "new" player. If the title is scaled for "old guard" players, then it will only appeal to "old guard" players. Which means, it's dead in the water.

If anyone failed, it was you, when you didn't set appropriate expectations.

No it's not... did you follow them for the last 5 years and watch all their interviews about the game?

This was supposed to be significantly harder/ more challenging than POE 1, SPECIFICALLY for POE 1 players... Their official stance before EA release was "we don't care about new players", they sang that in interviews for years until release.

This was meant to be the hardest ARPG on the planet, designed with POE 1 players in mind.

like wut are you on dude? lol

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Rakie1337#5746 написал:

This was meant to be the hardest ARPG on the planet, designed with POE 1 players in mind.

like wut are you on dude? lol

lol, economics is a harsh mistress, who punishes those who disobey her.

That might have been their intention, it might have been their vision, but it doesn't really matter, because no one can sustain a money pit that nobody wants to play.

Speaking of harsh lessons, have we realized that "meaningful combat" doesn't work at scale in practice yet?