Self found can use a bit of love

I was really excited for Atlas of Worlds, especially after coming off of the fantastic Prophecy league which had tons of buffs and features for self found players. Atlas was a huge step backwards in that respect, though. I have a few issues with self found play in POE that I would like to see addressed.

Old issue:

1) Gem availability: This is still one of the biggest problems for self found players. I don't think there's a single build that receives every gem it needs. This means players have to either mule gems (if they're not playing character-based, which I do) or they have to wait until the gems drop. In the case of gems like Increased Duration where you can easily need two or more, you may never find those gems.

New issues from the Atlas expansion:

2) Map diversity: Acquiring a diverse selection of maps without trading is a nightmare. If there's a recipe for the next map up, your best bet is to skip running a map until you've saved up enough for the vendor recipe. This can take a really long time, during which that section of the Atlas is cut off completely. Since most of your highest maps are in this category, this means you should never be running your best maps and should instead be grinding the lower tier maps over and over and over again.

For maps that don't have a recipe, you're forced to grind the same maps repeatedly hoping for a lucky drop that lets you move up in tiers. You won't actually have enough maps to grind out the next tier up most of the time, though, which means you have to wait until you have lucky drops for the map you're running that lead to a lucky drop of the map you want to unlock. And if you fail to unlock a map on your first attempt due to unexpectedly tanky bosses like Burial Ground Alira, deaths, crashes, or whatever else, you have to start all over again hoping for lucky maps drops on top of lucky map drops. Just the idea of failing to unlock a map on my first try is enough to keep me from playing POE in its current state.

Zana goes a small way toward easing this problem, but she's no guarantee, plus she only offers new maps once per day.

3) Shaper's Orbs: These are one of the coolest features of the Atlas expansion. The problem is that some of them are locked away behind unique maps, which means they're essentially locked away from self found player's completely. Self found players are missing out on much of this cool and interesting feature because of...

4) Unique maps: The change to make unique maps only drop when you're adjacent to them was just brutal for self found players. Self found players essentially no longer have access to unique maps outside of Zana missions, and you've made it so that Zana maps don't unlock the Atlas. Players enjoy running unique maps. Unique maps give bonuses on the Atlas. Self found players no longer get this enjoyment due to the drop rate change, nor to they get those bonuses on their Atlas. It'll be a rare self found player that even gets +1 from having a single unique map unlocked, which is just a sad state of affairs.

That's it for my list of issues. There are certainly other changes that would improve self found play, but (aside from gems) these are all recent issues that are easily fixable without negatively impacting the game. I believe the fixes would even improve the game due to eliminating the most annoying sorts of trivial trades and unnecessary gating of cool features.

Solutions:

1) At some point in the game pre-maps, have a vendor offer all gems for sale that aren't drop only. This could be an existing NPC or a new NPC introduced just for that purpose. Trading for gems should be necessary for people trying to acquire gems of a specific level or with quality. It shouldn't be necessary for literally everyone.

2) Allow maps adjacent to any other map you've unlocked to drop anywhere. This still gives a feeling of progression, but eliminates the excessive and repetitive grind necessary to unlock maps when RNG is not in your favor.

3) Move all Shaper's Orbs to non-unique maps. They're not so absurdly powerful that they need this sort of rarity-gating. They're just fun. Locking the fun aspects of POE away behind these sorts of walls is just frustrating.

4) Revert unique map drops to their previous state. Unique maps were a treat. They're a rare and special break from the regular grind players get to experience on the rare occasions they pop up. Now they're no longer a treat. They just don't exist. A fun aspect of POE that was a nice break from the usual mapping has disappeared.

I understand that some players believe self found players should deal with literally any negative aspects of POE no matter what. Nothing should be changed to improve the game in respect to self found players, even if it improves the game as a whole. "You're self found; deal with it" is a common sentiment. I find that attitude elitist, insulting, and absurd.

There's plenty of room to create a version of POE we can all enjoy. I hope GGG can read this and take a few more steps down the road to creating that game.

Did you know that self found is not actually how the game is intended to be played and that playing selffound is to intentionally put a handi cap on yourself?

look more power to you for challenging yourself but it seems pretty dumb to expect the game to accommodate a play style that it clearly isn’t designed to support .


You chose to forsake trade in a game about trade . please gracefully deal with the consequences of that decision

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Saltychipmunk wrote:

You chose to forsake trade in a game about trade .

So did GGG. As long as all they have in-game is the "trade chat channel" I'm going to keep playing self found too.

I don't care what GGG says; I only care what they do. It looks to me like the game is not supposed to be about trade.

I do self found currently in the new league. I must say that the essences help a lot.
If you have time you can bypass the skill gem problem by leveling multiple characters.
Or lower your standards and join a guild to check the guild stash for gems. This is my current sollution. (Don't tell that to the real self found hardcore fundamentalists. ;) )

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SudianX wrote:

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Saltychipmunk wrote:

You chose to forsake trade in a game about trade .

So did GGG. As long as all they have in-game is the "trade chat channel" I'm going to keep playing self found too.

I don't care what GGG says; I only care what they do. It looks to me like the game is not supposed to be about trade.

You are aware that you can list all your items in game and that you can search for items using a very similar interface that most games would have, its just outside the game?

The ignorance of comments like yours reflects on the SSF community poorly, no wonder why almost every thread that has QQs about SSF result in the typical, you choose to play the game in an unintended fashion, why should GGG make changes for that sort of playstyle?

I'm well aware of the trade forums as well as several 3rd party item listing/searching sites.

"in-game"

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SudianX wrote:

I'm well aware of the trade forums as well as several 3rd party item listing/searching sites.

"in-game"

There is little to no benefit of having such an interface in game, people like you make it seem like if GGG would just implement a web browser inside the game that did what poe.trade did it would be "in game", you know you can do that yourself running the game thru the steam launcher? It doesn't even have to be the steam version either, just add a non steam game and it loads the overlay on top.


The trade forums you aren't required to visit to list your items. Yes technically some of the items are out there (those that use acquisition) but if you use premium tabs ingame it is well in game, there is no other way to argue that.


If you don't want to trade, that is perfectly fine, just don't bitch when the game doesn't work in your favor when its designed around player trading.

+1 to OP, I too think the Atlas really fucked up SSF big time.

Maybe GGG will do something about it, but the only realistic expectation I hold is regarding unique maps drops ( they'll remove the adjacent rule at some point I bet, maybe even remove the link on the Atlas), other changes are likely here to stay, otherwise "you'll all be lvl 100 in no time, and we know you enjoy a longer grind"... /facepalm

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Wazz72 wrote:

other changes are likely here to stay, otherwise "you'll all be lvl 100 in no time, and we know you enjoy a longer grind"... /facepalm

I'm a bit more hopeful that GGG will fix those issues than than you are. The thing is that trading already eliminates all the artificial slowdown that the extra Atlas grinding creates. GGG's aware of that, so I think they'll understand that the changes I propose won't actually affect the pace of reaching 100 at all.

well, when i still SFF'd, the usual thing was to either plan your character in a way that you get all the gems from vendors, trust your luck OR ROLL ENOUGH MULES, SOMETIMES EVEN TO GET SOMETHING FROM LATE CRUEL.

Maps have always been a slight problem but back in 1.0/1.1 it was impossible to get maps higher than 70 and my gear sucked so hard that i got killed anyways

It's only under a week since release and SSF*ers are complaining that mapdrops suck.. go back to poe.trade boys, seriously.