EDIT: Atlas is saved.

That atlas killed my motivation to play.

In principle I really like it but the sheer grind to get influence and then to get 2 taunts to get a spawn sucked the fun out for me. 100+ maps each time.

I only started playing seriously at Delve league and have played a decent chunk of time on most leagues since then. Synthesis just sucked and I quit. Apparently they fixed it soon after. Here's a hint, test it first?

The Sirus fight is just stupid. I enjoyed Shaper and Uber Elder, this to me is just hide and seek. Maybe its better than that but with all the bugs and the sheer grind I didn't get too many tries at him.

I'll check the patch notes for the next league, but unless there are big changes wont bother.

I'll give POE 2.0 a try (if my interest in the game hasn't dwindled by then)

The new atlas is a pain. I am stuck in low/mid tier maps. The progression is not obvious nor is where to focus. More layered rng that accomplishes the developer goal of a timesink but doesn't keep interest enough for longevity.

New atlas is garbage. I'm running correct maps (4 watchstones in region and running highest tier maps in that region) and it's not uncommon to take as many as 200 to spawn one Sirus. Right now I have 3 influences spawned after killing my last Sirus and I couldn't spawn 4th one with 60 maps. It's either bugged or is it actually expected from player by design to run even up to 10,000 maps total to spawn sirus 75 times for that endgame grind challenge, if they are not lucky with rng? Something like spawning endgame boss shouldn't be luck based, it's just stupid system.

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LowBudget780 wrote:

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TheBlackMage23 wrote:

New atlas is garbage. I'm running correct maps (4 watchstones in region and running highest tier maps in that region) and it's not uncommon to take as many as 200 to spawn one Sirus. Right now I have 3 influences spawned after killing my last Sirus and I couldn't spawn 4th one with 60 maps. It's either bugged or is it actually expected from player by design to run even up to 10,000 maps total to spawn sirus 75 times for that endgame grind challenge, if they are not lucky with rng? Something like spawning endgame boss shouldn't be luck based, it's just stupid system.

Yeah not fun. Once you hit endgame there is really nothing to do but pray for RNG to be on your side to spawn Sirus while being forced to run a bunch of maps you might not enjoy.

I'm actually already afraid of their solution to this problem. It's most likely gonna entail something overly and unnecessarily complicated....

The thing is, they probably want to slow us down. Slow down the amount of maps per hour as well as exp per hour. What they have done with the new atlas does indeed accomplish that goal. I can't speak for everyone, but some of these maps I have to run take me twice as long. I understand the reasoning behind it. But I would caution GGG that if accomplishing their goal of slowing down end game comes at the cost of fun, they will lose some of the player base.

I think OP's solution is actually quite simple and could potentially keep everyone happy. For the people that enjoy the current atlas, just leave it alone. For the people that have a list of maps that they find un-fun and aggravating to say the least, offer the option to block those maps from dropping.

A healthy balance between the two would be maybe to only allow a certain number of maps to be blocked. Or perhaps the loss of atlas/awakening bonus is enough penalty for running maps your enjoy.

For me, it isn't that I can't just run the same map over and over again. While I didn't mind spamming elder burial chambers, I am not opposed to variety. What bothers me is that sheer number of possible t14/15 maps that can drop and how many of those maps are just aggravating for me to run.

I don't even mind that the conquerors are RNG. To me, they are a bonus of mapping, which I would be doing anyway. But seriously, if I have to run one more map with long hallways that dead end, I'm going to go even further insane.

I don't mind the endgame being slowed down a bit, but having to back track so far back that my buffs fall off before a I reach a new pack is really killing the fun of mapping. Variety is good. Choice is better. I'm sure a compromise can be reached.

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Antigegner wrote:

I'm actually already afraid of their solution to this problem. It's most likely gonna entail something overly and unnecessarily complicated....

the solution is kinda simple.. add the conquerors just like elder guardians (careful here because if they add it while bosses being affected by map affixes it will only push further than now the fotm builds) on maps as t17, drop fragments like shaper to face sirus and move on.. this way you don't have to deal with this garbage un-fun rng system that they expect everyone to praise

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Dragon585 wrote:

Spoiler

The thing is, they probably want to slow us down. Slow down the amount of maps per hour as well as exp per hour. What they have done with the new atlas does indeed accomplish that goal. I can't speak for everyone, but some of these maps I have to run take me twice as long. I understand the reasoning behind it. But I would caution GGG that if accomplishing their goal of slowing down end game comes at the cost of fun, they will lose some of the player base.

I think OP's solution is actually quite simple and could potentially keep everyone happy. For the people that enjoy the current atlas, just leave it alone. For the people that have a list of maps that they find un-fun and aggravating to say the least, offer the option to block those maps from dropping.

A healthy balance between the two would be maybe to only allow a certain number of maps to be blocked. Or perhaps the loss of atlas/awakening bonus is enough penalty for running maps your enjoy.

For me, it isn't that I can't just run the same map over and over again. While I didn't mind spamming elder burial chambers, I am not opposed to variety. What bothers me is that sheer number of possible t14/15 maps that can drop and how many of those maps are just aggravating for me to run.

I don't even mind that the conquerors are RNG. To me, they are a bonus of mapping, which I would be doing anyway. But seriously, if I have to run one more map with long hallways that dead end, I'm going to go even further insane.

I don't mind the endgame being slowed down a bit, but having to back track so far back that my buffs fall off before a I reach a new pack is really killing the fun of mapping. Variety is good. Choice is better. I'm sure a compromise can be reached.

Yeah, this new atlas as a whole just screams "let's slow down the endgame to keep players playing leagues for a longer period of time". It's a very ham fisted approach, though, and I'm sure a lot of players with low playtime are struggling to unlock their watchstones and getting burnt out.

When I play, I play a lot, so for me personally the slower path towards the final endgame is not a huge issue, but the complete lack of a reward in the end ruins it. A reward for me would be the ability to control which maps I don't want to drop, like shaper/elder orbs did previously. Watchstones are a neat concept, but only offer one half of the control we need, which is completely useless to me without the missing half.

I was going to play two more characters this league, but with no way to avoid the annoying layouts within a region, I think I'd rather watch paint dry.

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Somelia wrote:

Spoiler

now you run maps, have no conqueror after about 1 minute and run the map annoyed to the end or break it - that's really fun...

That's also something I noticed for me. I'm not that far into the atlas yet (only 6 watchstones so far - practically nothing compared to you guys - and the first 4 were guaranteed spawns/drops if I understand correctly). Now ofc I want to progress and I'm hunting for those conqueror spawns...

So I open up a map and it's exactly like you said: If I don't see a conqueror after a short while into the map, I pull a wry face and run the map annoyed to the end, especially if it's one that I don't even really like to run. The only other option would be to leave the map immediately and do the next, but that'd be kind of a waste then. So I run them annoyed to the end.

I also really don't think that's something GGG wants... because that's a whole truckload of negativity right there permeating the entire endgame.

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TheBlackMage23 wrote:

Spoiler

is it actually expected from player by design to run even up to 10,000 maps total to spawn sirus 75 times for that endgame grind challenge, if they are not lucky with rng? Something like spawning endgame boss shouldn't be luck based, it's just stupid system.

Totally agree. Gating the endgame boss behind such massive amounts of RNG is more than just somewhat less than perfect. It's a big no-no, actually. Even when you're not aiming for that challenge, it's badly designed.

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Dragon585 wrote:

Spoiler

The thing is, they probably want to slow us down. Slow down the amount of maps per hour as well as exp per hour. What they have done with the new atlas does indeed accomplish that goal. I can't speak for everyone, but some of these maps I have to run take me twice as long. I understand the reasoning behind it. But I would caution GGG that if accomplishing their goal of slowing down end game comes at the cost of fun, they will lose some of the player base.

"

carkasjak wrote:

Spoiler

Yeah, this new atlas as a whole just screams "let's slow down the endgame to keep players playing leagues for a longer period of time". It's a very ham fisted approach, though, and I'm sure a lot of players with low playtime are struggling to unlock their watchstones and getting burnt out.

It definitely seems as if this was the main intention behind it, besides spicing the endgame up with a few changes, new bosses etc.

I found the old atlas system already challenging. This new system, convoluted as it is with all the RNG involved definitely didn't tone it down.

From what I've seen so far, read and heard about it, it seems to be an absolutely crazy grind compared to the old system - and I'm not looking forward to it, let alone to do this every 3 months from now on.

This new system, which probably is supposed to slow down the highly experienced and highly efficient powerplayers... you can imagine what it does to beginners/intermediate players that are far less efficient or people that don't have as much time on their hands to play the game. I'm fairly sure these changes will put a bunch of people off.

Overall, I don't think that it'll stay exactly like this. I'm pretty sure GGG isn't going to turn a blind eye to this.

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Cendrake wrote:

Overall, I don't think that it'll stay exactly like this. I'm pretty sure GGG isn't going to turn a blind eye to this.

I really hope you're right, but my outlook is not terribly optimistic. They have a long history of leaving things in an awful state for several leagues before fixing them. It would be encouraging if they'd at least acknowledge the multiple problems with this atlas and tell us what they're doing to solve them. Personally I have no doubt that they'll shorten the grind in an attempt to retain casual players eventually, but I am worried that they may never bring back the level of control I enjoyed with the previous atlas, and I fear the game may be dead to me forever.

"

Dragon585 wrote:

The thing is, they probably want to slow us down. Slow down the amount of maps per hour as well as exp per hour. What they have done with the new atlas does indeed accomplish that goal. I can't speak for everyone, but some of these maps I have to run take me twice as long. I understand the reasoning behind it. But I would caution GGG that if accomplishing their goal of slowing down end game comes at the cost of fun, they will lose some of the player base. ...

I would question GGG's intention to slow the game down. What is the point? Achieving level 100 is longer a feat worth much. There is nothing special about reaching 100. Those that compete for lvl100 do not care whether it takes them 7 days or 10. They will reach it extremely fast one way or the other.

Power difference between characters at lvl93 and 100 is also negligible. Those additional 7 skill points will not represent any meaningful difference .
This game is clearly focused on challenge leagues and GGG's ability to release new content every 3 months. There is no reason to slow players consuming content because there will be a new batch in couple of weeks/months.

So why would GGG have a need to slow players down?