What Mayhem can teach future leagues

Mayhem still has several days left, and everyone I have talked to loves the temp league. It really got me thinking why this league was so much more fun than any other I have seen to date.

- On your toes gameplay. It didn't matter what level my character was. I never felt safe. In a map, in a zone, whatever. If you weren't paying attention, you could easily be killed.
- Greater rewards. Everyone loves more loot. This league gave an opportunity to get a lot of loot simply from drops and that is rewarding. Especially for those who like to play SSF. I didn't feel the need to do the chaos recipe for the first time ever in a league.
- Closest thing I've seen to "adventure mode". I'll be honest. Even with the new acts, I hate being forced to play through a story mode. By the 3rd, 4th, etc. time you couldn't care less and just want to get to maps. This league made the story and leveling so much less of a chore. I was too busy trying to survive. I realize this is counter to what they have spent all this effort doing in 3.0, but I still think this is worth mentioning. Going through the same drill over and over even with 10 acts will still be lifeless on its own.
- Interesting mechanic interactions. I actually thought legacy league did a pretty good job of this at times. But the density and quantity of league mechanics in this league led to some very cool and unique encounters. Rares with several ghosts made me abandon content at times and I had to laugh. I think it should be like that at times. Fights with exiles that gang up on you with different tactics. This is good stuff! I also had a fight with a breach lord and a random ghost was nearby. I was freaked out that the ghost could possibly possess the lord. Can it even do that? Who knows. But I abandoned fighting the lord to kill the ghost because I didn't want to find out! These are all situations that made you think and react and that is a fantastic thing.

So what can we take away from this?

- I think potentially the best thing that could happen to this game is that they continue to build and mesh league mechanics together. This league made me think that it would have been really cool to have more combinations of mechanics together to re-create more scenarios like Iisted in #4 above. Instead of 20 exiles in a zone/map, they could have had a dominating mechanic and sub mechanics. Maybe 10 exiles and 5 of 2 other mechanics. This isn't much different from legacy except you don't choose and it opens up the door for more random encounters. With Harbinger and future leagues, maybe this means harbinger would always be the major and minors would be random mechanics.
- Could this become another tier of league? I realize this is probably not for everyone. This league was tough. Super tough. But for those of us that have been playing for a long time, it felt appropriate. I want this level of difficulty without permanent loss of character. I want more loot opportunity. I want more random encounters. I just want more. Maybe they should call it the "More" league haha. This amount of content layered artificially gives you more loot and wealth as well as challenge. It encourages you to spend more time playing and less time micro-managing items, drops, etc.
- This could potentially be a counter to bots. I've seen a lot of chatter for the last few leagues about economy imbalance, bots, and market manipulation. All of these things can be tough to police and I understand why GGG isn't being more proactive about dealing with it. But one counter we have seen is nerfing of loot drops. So lets look at it from a different perspective. If loot drop ratios stay the same and there is more content per zone and therefore more total drops ... there will also be a great deal of inflation. Items will definitely lose their value (making them more affordable) and making a bot less effective. To be honest, even getting the ability to attain more currency is a bonus because you can focus on making your own 6L or crafted gear or more affordably buy cheaper versions others are selling. It makes the economy less extreme (except for the highest tier of gear) and allows for better accessibility to build defining gear. I would like everyone to take note that I said nothing of raising drop rates here. Simply the fact that there are more league mechanics generating extra loot.

In any case, I have to say thanks to GGG for taking the initiative to create so much variety in their game. While every other ARPG remains stuck in the mud, this one continues to evolve and get better with every evolution.
Last bumped on Jul 5, 2017, 3:03:27 AM
Good write-up. I have not played in Mayhem but people keep saying the regular game just doesn't feel the same after you do. Is it possible tho that it's better as a temp thing? Fun for a while but not as the norm.
Strictly SSF HC legit dual-wield Duelist.
Women swoon at the sight of him
Men tremble at the thought of him
And few that face him in battle live to tell the tale.
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Is it possible tho that it's better as a temp thing? Fun for a while but not as the norm.


That's a really good question. It's different, so that definitely helps the excitement level. But there's also the fact that you really do have to consider what you are doing before you do it. Otherwise you run a real risk of dying and this is even with very geared chars.

If I had to figure out how they could execute something like this, I think they do so as:
1) Its own season (not Mayhem, but similar concept). The catch to this is people really don't have an option to turn it off if they don't like it.
2) It's own league like standard. IMO the best way to execute it. Essentially a POE league on steroids that you can expect to be more difficult than standard.
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The_Witch_Hunter wrote:
Is it possible tho that it's better as a temp thing? Fun for a while but not as the norm.


That's my thoughts on it, great for 2 weeks but it would be dull for 3 months. Leveling is the most interesting part since you constantly get different mods but once you start mapping a lot of people will just go for the low risk high reward option all the time ie. strongboxes for loot or breaches for xp.

Massively increased drops also gets old, the occasional loot pinata is great but when it's just loot pinata after loot pinata constantly it's not exciting any more.
Didnt play but I like higher difficulty and dislike more loot.
No wonder it's lost, it's in the middle of the jungle!
the thing with loot pinatas, is it is build enabling. you'll get things drop for you that may normally take months to get. this will keep you playing because you'll want to keep making different builds after different builds. at least thats how it would work for me.
Perhaps Mayhem is the pilot for a possible alternative pure SSF standard.

Hmmmmm? HHHHHHMMMMMMMMMMMM??????
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Slaanesh69 wrote:
Perhaps Mayhem is the pilot for a possible alternative pure SSF standard.

Hmmmmm? HHHHHHMMMMMMMMMMMM??????


Doubt it GGG said when they launched SSF that they wanted to keep it as identical to the base game as possible
I dont see any any key!
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That's my thoughts on it, great for 2 weeks but it would be dull for 3 months. Leveling is the most interesting part since you constantly get different mods but once you start mapping a lot of people will just go for the low risk high reward option all the time ie. strongboxes for loot or breaches for xp.


Did you play Mayhem? Not trying to be critical. The reason I ask is because while you are definitely right at the early mapping stages (what would typically be dried lake time), in mapping you do not get to choose what the map has. It makes staging the type of mods enabled not possible.

I definitely agree this mode of play is not for everyone. That is why I think it would ultimately have to be a league type.
Last edited by jddc78#1131 on Jul 3, 2017, 11:02:12 AM
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jddc78 wrote:
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That's my thoughts on it, great for 2 weeks but it would be dull for 3 months. Leveling is the most interesting part since you constantly get different mods but once you start mapping a lot of people will just go for the low risk high reward option all the time ie. strongboxes for loot or breaches for xp.


Did you play Mayhem? Not trying to be critical. The reason I ask is because while you are definitely right at the early mapping stages (what would typically be dried lake time), in mapping you do not get to choose what the map has. It makes staging the type of mods enabled not possible.


Yeah you're right in that you don't get to choose but since each map keeps the same mod for an hour and someone has knocked up a tracking site it's not hard to find out using that site or by asking in global which maps currently have Strongboxes and then do only those for the next hour (assuming you have a big enough map pool).

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