Detailed Atlas Mechanics

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iCatalin wrote:

If you shape a map it's permanent?

You can respec the decision to upgrade a map by trading 20 Cartographer's Chisels and 5 Orbs of Regret to a vendor. This is intentionally an expensive operation.

So as i see it, best way for people like me that would want to play only good maps is to wait for few days, watch streamers play maps and see which maps have best layouts and are best in general, then buy those maps and get only good maps as drops. To not miss out on map drops unlock 1 map in each tier, or more if there are more good maps in same tier. If you don't unlock every tier than it is possible if rng decides that T6 map will drop and you have 0 T6 unlocked, you will get nothing.

Anyone see any flaws with this?

- so far open map content is now "guarded"
- demands planning of what maps to grind
- less map variety
- some complicated nonsense with special non-tradeable items


and we get:
+ can upgrade map tiers
+ some new maps

nice "expansion"

This is pretty terrible design in general which is sad because its so messed up and so close to release that this is what we're gonna get. At worst AoW can be summed up to just be a map drop rate bonus (when you unlock all the maps) and at best you're limiting your already extremely limited map drops. Lets say you're running a map and get one of two possible +1s but its a terrible layout. From there you've got either 1. A useless map 2. Something to run to try to unlock the good layouts, BUT WAIT you can't kill the boss otherwise your Atlas is ruined. Where is the most common place for maps to drop? Remember when GGG butchered drop rates globally then increased boss map drop chances? WELL NOW YOU CAN'T EVEN KILL THE BOSSES TO ACTUALLY GET THE MAPS.

EDIT

While the above is still true, on the flip side I'm happy with every T8 that drops being a Tropical Island. The only problem with this is that you have to follow a path gated through RNG (the map in the path you want to follow) which is already gated by RNG (the map you run in the first place). Basically this expansion is encouraging players to trade maps, something that a large amount of the playerbase has been extremely hesitant to do for various reasons (myself included) however that is absolutely the best way to approach the atlas. Unlock all whites for map drop rate then cherry pick a single path up to t16 and just buy the other T14/15/16s leading up to Shaper and you've got all the endgame content unlocked (as in they'll drop for you no matter where you're mapping) while maintaining the best layouts for T8-13. While this design choice is ...interesting... by either allowing players to avoid certain maps or reverting back to before AoW with a slightly higher map drop rate. This mechanic will only really work through map trading (SSF players kinda get screwed if they want to manage their atlas efficiently) and this will probably be the first league I trade for a significant amount of maps. This is probably going to be a really good expansion for those willing to plan ahead. I kinda feel bad for those who don't though cause of the whole account bricking thing.

Push us only buy the best map in each tier? Then only the best map in each tier will drop?
OK, AFK.

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morbo wrote:

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acme_myst wrote:

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BerryP" wrote:

I also doubt that we are going to be allowed to cherry pick maps via trade. GGG would be stupid to allow us to 100% optimize our map pool. I, like other people, bet that when you unlock a high tier map via trade that it burrows a path back to the nearest t1.

Agreed there.

Which then implies that you cannot unlock, for instance, the new Guardian fights without screwing up your T12-T15 map pool at the account level.

Rich players will be able to buy T15 maps and play only those 4 maps, to get access to T16 guardians and farm Shaper. You dont have to complete any other map on the Atlas, ever. You sell T14 drops from T15, to help you buy more T15.

Well, that's depending on how the trade-for-map system works (see the quote I was replying to).

I agree that, as written, your interpretation seems to follow from Chris' post. It just feels too OP to me, but I might be wrong there.

Also note that you can play T14's perfectly fine, those won't mess with your odds of finding the T15's that you're after.

Yeah Im not sure about this reveal. I really don't like atlas being account wide, it can gimp people who play multiple characters in a league.

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You can trade for maps and play them regardless of which ones you've previously completed. If you trade for a map and complete it then it unlocks on your Atlas, even if it's not connected to any other ones.

Wait... Doesn't this raise a massive red flag? This is a clear incentive to only do specific maps and completely ignore rest of the content.

What about people who play solo? This has potential to completely brick an entire ACCOUNT by getting crap layout maps that are simply not fun to run.

Is there any way to reset atlas mid-league? Do you realize to what extent this will be abused? You were quick to address the issues on Essence League, I expect you to address this quicker, because this is literally a game breaking flaw.

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acme_myst wrote:

Well, that's depending on how the trade-for-map system works (see the quote I was replying to).

I agree that, as written, your interpretation seems to follow from Chris' post. It just feels too OP to me, but I might be wrong there.

Also note that you can play T14's perfectly fine, those won't mess with your odds of finding the T15's that you're after.

There is no much room for interpretation:

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Chris wrote:

You can trade for maps and play them regardless of which ones you've previously completed. If you trade for a map and complete it then it unlocks on your Atlas, even if it's not connected to any other ones.

You buy the maps you like, complete them and those maps will only drop themselves, maps that are connected to them and T1 maps.

If you spread your map selection across all tiers, you can exclude a huge portion of the Atlas from dropping and dont miss out any tier drops. The only drawback is that you dont level up your completion map drop bonus.

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Avenroth wrote:

Well it appears to be a less radical of a change that was generally expected it seems, but I overall like it. Really don't get the uproar about the shaper orb. It still seems very useful.

Well personal challage for the essence league is to fill in the Atlas then!

If you want to get random map drops as a reward, then that's exactly what you should do.

If however you hate to run Graveyard and you complete a Graveyard you are forever adding that map drop chance to the pool. The more undesireable map drops in your pool, the more chance of getting a map you don't want to run and the less deterministic your outcomes are.