Idea: Damage cap against bosses ( optional )
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people don't play SSF for a challenge. They play it so they can say "I play SSF, btw"
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" That's not true, I play SSF because I consider trade league easy mode and I don't like the idea in a game to farm currency to buy whatever item I want. I never did a trade in poe1 and poe2. So saying "people play SSF for a challenge" is like saying "people play SSF because they prefer to play games in normal mode instead of easy mode" |
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This to me actually sounds like a balance discussion because SSF only ensures that gameplay decisions are made solely in the context of what is in *an individual's* stash, and not *everyone's* stash - the additional challenge arise from the altered decision-making constraints, not content difficulty modifiers.
The fact that this is a post asking for a mode in SSF which restricts the trivialization of boss-killing by adding in a difficulty modifier suggests to me that player-power is generally too accessible in the game's current state. Access to the most powerful tools or synergies which literally trivialize high-level content need to be unrealistic to expect to self-find, and additionally, those items needs to be rare enough that they're also difficult to trade for. Please note I'm talking about actual trivialization of the content, not gear required for run-of-the-mill good builds. You do not want situations where players can *easily* trivialize high-level content because it means most players will circumvent the satisfaction of overcoming content from the game and it turns into a cookie-clicker casino simulator. There is also the fact that when it is *difficult* to trivialize the game, an additional dimension of satisfaction emerges from role-playing as an all-powerful god-slayer when that power-level is able to be achieved. This is the level that needs to be restricted and difficult to achieve. It's the carrot that a lot of players will aspire to. When it's too accessible, god-level is the default, which ironically makes it unexceptional, and undermines it's own fantasy. This game is not balanced around trade, it's actually the opposite - it's balanced around the accessibility of self-found player power in the context of the content. All items are self-found. Trade only expedites the acquisition of gear someone else self-found. It does not enhance the gear. Restricting access to trivialization-level power is not balance, because trivialization is inherently unbalanced. It's not a huge deal if someone can one-shot tier-3 Xesht by trading for the 3 rarest items in the game - of which there are 15 of each - and then supporting them with all t1-t3 affix gear that they farmed 1500 other maps to also trade for. If someone wants to do that - let them. It's a big deal when 300,000 people can one-shot tier-3 Xesht using mediocre ssf gear or uniques that drop in act 4, because then we get people asking for ssf damage-caps on bosses to retain some form of "challenge integrity". I would expect some nerfs to many of the mechanics enabling our current level of accessibility following this league. |
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" that is a very reasonable take and I'm sure you never miss an opportunity to tell people about it XD |
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tbh I find it unfortunate this is a game about scaling risk:reward when the reality is you can just run a build that minimizes or even trivializes the risk.
obviously capping damage against bosses in general would undermine the time and investment players put into their characters, but on the other hand that's what robs players of a clearly defined, relatable challenge in an arpg. if they were to make an out of map boss gauntlet and could normalize the difficulty in some way then I think that'd be a great addition to the game. players could just ignore it like they do with Ultimatum or Sekhema. |
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I'd be a fan of a damage cap stat you gotta scale, pretty much mandatory, which kicks in waaaay before you reach max dmg with your gear.
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" Well written post. I agree with basically everything you said. It is definitely a balance issue and I really hope that there is going to be a lot of work on 0.4 to reduce the power gap between players and bosses. |
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" I don't care at all about telling people the way I play. I am telling it now only because, people that play poe2 the way I don't like have been too vocal during 0.1 and 0.2 and the game is getting closer and closer to a Poe 1.5 instead of a brand new game with meaningful combat. I am glad to see that many posts are rising the same issues that I have and hopefully GGG will listen to them. If they do, don't worry I will not write about how cool it is playing SSF. |
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