Echoes of the Atlas Lore: Creating the Maven

Maby instead give new mtx, an atricles about maven you improve performance of the game, fix crashes, textures loading every new map, town etc.exiting the game time and many many more. Maby time to end winter sleep....

This was honestly an eye-opening read, and gave me new appreciation for the character. I can wholeheartedly say I love the concept and the arc built for her (at least as far as I've currently seen it).
It also made me realize the issues I have with her have nothing to do with "Cassia's song".
When you think of it, I did get averse to hearing those lines awfully quickly. Not out of frustration following repetition, but a mismatch in expectations. "When did I volunteer for toddler duty?" I was asking myself.
With the current hindsight I feel like those issues stem from that and the fact that it's likely impossible to perfect the pacing of story in a game as the same story will feel completely different for those pushing through it in days and those still on tier 7 after a month or two.

I also wonder how I will feel about this character in a league or two. If I still only played standard I could already welcome her as a great addition to the experience, as there the initial learning phase would certainly need to be reasonably long to properly linger in the mind, but I'm unsure if I won't be frustrated by getting sent back on toddler duty come the new league or a few.
Do I get over it and welcome each new iteration with the enthusiasm I do Izaro's bombastic lectures? Maybe one, but likely not both. Shall I respond with the same ire as I do to Zana blaming the railroaded player? No, I don't think I will.

Then again, I'm pretty sure I'm only closing in on the part I'll love the most, as it's only been a few days since I've yet to get anything that ticks all the boxes of a complete sentence out of Maven. I shall look forward to the story cashing in the chips - assuming my build will make it.

Matt is doing such an amazing job as Narrative Director, holy crap.

I urge anyone else that's in love with the writing for Maven or that loved Synthesis to give his book series, "The Portal in the Forest" a shot - just the sheer scope of its worldbuilding is CRAZY (good).

I'm really enjoying what his writing is doing for the lore in PoE and can't wait to see more!

The best endgame expansion so far, also because of the multiple Voicelines. Thanks for the awesome work!

Elder is the "perfect Lovecraftian monster" and Immortal Syndicate is the perfect detective investigation and texture streaming works as intended.

really loving the lore and where The Atlas is going! keep up the great work, the story telling in current PoE reminds me of Dark Souls story-telling, my all-time favourite way of telling stories; where the player must seek out bits of knowledge in dark corners of the world and piece them together themselves!

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magpye wrote:

I really liked the progression of her understanding of speech, and the concepts she improved on. It was disturbing to hear her learning as i went through the atlas.

I second this, it's awesome and very disturbing at times. Great job!

Maven feels great and complete, i love it. And on top of that, bossfight is clean and understable. Great work.

Does GGG realize they have created a lore vacuum with the removal of shaper and elder as core end game?

If you're a veteran, you know the story of shaper, you remember reading his lore tablets, and you Remeber his chided when he shows up on an influenced map. But if you're a fresh player who joined during echoes of the atlas, you may understand the elder, but you sure as hell don't know who shaper is, or why he has 4 guardians.

For a new player, the story goes: exiled to wreaclast, chase piety, dominous, malacai, kitava, meet kirac, meet Zana who is currently trying to seal in SIRUS. She is no longer pursuing her father the shaper you don't even get to learn his story anymore because all of his lore has been removed.

Shaper needs to be better integrated into the core game, he should be someone you fight before chasing the 4 guardians even begins quite honestly, but for sure his lore should be reasdws to the game.

Maven story is cool, but it doesn't make up for the pitfalls of the shaper and elder story lines that were removed when you guys cut out strongholds and elder influence Atlas.

You guys made the same mistake with betrayal when you removed all the old masters and added them into that mechanic, then never answered the question "betrayal of whom?"

Dont get me started on atziri, and how the hell would a new player ever figure out how to get to the pale council without Google?

PS, the map kore from synthesis was incredible, fracturing was awesome, it was the stupid puzzle that failed. You Guys fixed bestiary and harvest, but abandoned synthesis, why?

That was very interesting to read. Great job on the maven all around!