A Veteran's Proposal for a Self Found League - Poll Included!

After reading the tons of material in several threads concerning similar principal issues, I started thinking that just skewing the item drops might be good enough to satisfy a wider audience. One key idea keeps getting mentioned more or less directly throughout the discussions about PoE - improving the item drop system.

If the monster was slain by Lightning Arrow, it would have a higher chance of dropping a bow, quiver or gear with the weapon elemental damage type of useful mod. If the monster was slain by Heavy Strike, it would drop better physical weapons. If the character has the Chaos Inoculation keystone, it would see more Energy shield based mods on his drops, and if the character has a high critical chance while killing monsters, they would drop more critical improving gear.

While that idea is not quite thought out entirely (neither am I good enough with English language to elaborate properly, nor am I a game developer to be able to foresee all the consequences on a larger scale, positive or negative), it seems like a fair suggestion which would actually help out the less-trade-oriented crowd. The traders would still get to really min-max their gear on a very high level of play, but the ones who don't rely on trading and try to play mostly self found would be more rewarded as well - that way the experience for traders and highly competitive players stays the same, while the experience for self-found, solo or more casual players would be vastly improved. One important point here is actually enabling people to get that edge in power required to keep them entertained and looking forward to further progress - in form of items they can actually use themselves, and not have to trade for currency and pile the currency up to buy a useful item.

My latest project was a burn based marauder in Ambush. I was not around for several months before the announcement of Ambush, and wasn't familiar with what people considered FotM and faceroll - I started theorycrafting around searing bond and fire trap only to find out it became extremely popular with the updates in the meantime. I started up the character, played for a few days, and opened up a shop thread - I actually made dozens of Chaos orbs and a few Exalts within a few days, finishing my burn Marauder in a record time frame. This resulted in getting bored and stopping playing, because I knew the only improvement I could get was to power farm for weeks, just to be able to sell the mediocre and the occasional good item and buy an upgrade. The chance to actually drop something better than what I bought is too low to count on. After about a hundred merciless piety runs (which isn't by any means a lot), I found a couple cool items - non of which were usable for my character. My experience with the game isn't really hardcore in any way, I'm more of a casual player overall, and the circumstances do not allow me to play HC leagues seriously, but I would still like to play for longer than a week and feel rewarded for it - just trading around to make considerable progress doesn't appeal to me.
And while for me in particular it would probably be much easier to find a single player game which suits my needs, I still enjoy the ability to play with random people, socialize and have fun with friends within it. Facerolling the content isn't fun, lets just get that clear as well.


A little off topic addition...
As for the actual profit part for GGG - this fireworks idea is absolutely magnificent. It is a very simple addition which has an enormous amount of hidden messages. It is funny, it is a troll, it is pretty, it is cheap, it is desirable in every single way - and yet it doesn't mess with the actual gameplay experience whatsoever, making it perfectly in line with the principal ideas GGG is trying to stick with the whole time.

Updated poll results.

About 500 people either in favor or not against the test league. Pretty good considering its just the forums.

Updated and I'll probably close this poll in the not too distant future, the voting patterns have been stable for a while now.

Petrov.

I am ok with SFL if only these happen

1. No budget cuts from development or other leagues are made in order to satisfy the minority

2. Drop rates remain the same, no increase, no reduction.

3. No trading what so ever

4. No team play, that would go against SFL cause then it would be other people find but I picked up league

P.S I don't know how some of yall don't like trading. I love trading. I remember the days of sitting in west britan bank trading rares and such. Only old school gamers will understand what I mean.

I'm playing self found too and joined this game in 2011 like op, all i can say is that the game feels so much more enjoyable and satisfying.

[Removed by Support]

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radmanvr wrote:

I am ok with SFL if only these happen

*my important conditions*.

You, as some random dude on the forums being ok with it means alot to SFL community, thank you for laying out the conditions!

@topic: would love to see the option of a balanced SFL in PoE.

Permanent SFF leagues besides existing leagues

Better loot and/or better crafting

No trading

No better loot in parties

"

symban wrote:

"

radmanvr wrote:

I am ok with SFL if only these happen

*my important conditions*.

You, as some random dude on the forums being ok with it means alot to SFL community, thank you for laying out the conditions!

@topic: would love to see the option of a balanced SFL in PoE.

I would like the option to start with a 6L in this optional SFL. Options are never bad!