Development Stories: Path of Exile 2 Narrative Design Philosophies

So many bits of cRPG elements inside of this ARPG that if those were expanded on it would go such a long way in terms of character depth. I know it’s wishful thinking but things like good or evil alignment (with skills to match) based on decisions made in quests like bandits or syndicate would add such a rich layer to the game it would be insane. Your decision made to help or kill affecting your abilities or relationships in heist; I mean there is so much potential there. Without the sort of stuff you see in a cRPG the story is as hollow as your character and visa versa.

Sounds fantastic and like everyone I cannot wait to see where you lead us all in POE2.

Personally I would like to bump into Innocence again way down south as he claims he is going there to meditate on his wrongdoings.
What has he learnt on his self imposed exile?
What is this area he speaks of? But until that day I will remain in the furthest south, in a place of ice and ash, of blistering seas and abysmal storms.
Do we get to go there?

Those are the characters i would like to see (or at least some more lore about them)in poe 2 In order of importance: EINHAR. Zana. faregraves. Cassia. Waylam and Lilly roth (TSOATHA!). Niko. Sin and Innocence. the delirium person.

Essentially, the story has to matter if you're doing it from the ground up and want to compete with others in this ARPG space.

PoE pre-act 4 was so devoid of hope, it stood out. You were alone, you didn't know the whole story or history of the continent or its inhabitants, and you had to survive. There was no outright exposition to much of the relevant historical figures and locations, and that felt just about right.

Then, act 4 happened, and it felt a little bit weird, but still told the overall story more or less cohesively. You beat Dominus, now you have to fight Malachai. Sure, easy to understand, but... this is where the game started getting weird and a little off-beat. You go inside a flesh mountain to fight some skull-headed dude and three hearts, but first you must kill two somewhat irrelevant figures as dream-reincarnations? This is where the game started becoming too fantastical and losing touch with the original feeling and world. It introduced odd supernatural superbeings who felt out of place.

This only got worse in acts 5-10, with the whole, "Kill the gods!" motif. They're just vehicles to getting more passives, essentially, with zero relevance to the story or world. Thematically, they're out of place, and mechanically, they are just the classic, "go kill the big bad to get the thing," accessories. They're unimportant to the average player, and Kitava's mostly a joke as an end boss. We don't feel his impact, nor do we care that he's around, for the most part. I don't, anyway.

To compare this to a few games, just story-wise, let's look at Grim Dawn, Diablo 3, Van Helsing, and maybe Torchlight 3.

Grim Dawn may feel a little sluggish, but you feel like you're making a difference in a doomed world. The events aren't too far out there, until the expansions, to be unfathomable, and there's only... like... one weird, out of place superboss, similar to the whole Belly of the Beast area in PoE. That also derails itself from the understandable, relatable world to some flesh fantasy, in the negative sense. But, the rest of the story immerses you in the events of the world, quests are present everywhere, side areas are useful, and you're making progress organically instead of just hitting some checkboxes, like the gods in acts 5-10 here.

Diablo 3's story sucks, but we all know this. It also feels mostly hollow after act 1, kind of like acts 5-10 feel here.

Van Helsing suffers from a great world with bad gameplay. They imagined a unique blend of Slavic folklore and steampunk themes, added some funny one-liners, but forgot the fun mechanics. However, you do feel like you're making a small dent in the mostly grim world, and there's at least enough plot to continue moving forward. Kind of like acts 5-10 here.

Torchlight 3's story is bland and generic, there's no real motivation to stopping whatever calamity is happening or why it's happening in the first place. You've beaten them in this regard.

Basically, Grim Dawn's world is impressive and immersive, quests happen naturally and so do rewards and progression. This is probably the best game, to my knowledge, in the ARPG space and perhaps PoE 2 can take a page from its book in narrative and quest design.

Make the game feel alive, make the world matter, make the people carry through your tales, and make us care about it all. A tall order. Litter the world with small shrines, activities, rewards, quests, unique encounters, and let the world flow more naturally within itself. Grim Dawn has no overworld loading screens, and you can walk the entire game without seeing one, I think, if you exclude a few mandatory dungeons between sites.

Do away with loading screens where you can. It sounds like you're adding a reputation system, so that's good, too. Overall, just... be more like Grim Dawn, less like acts 5-10, and continue creating an experience more rooted in folk lore, steering away from super beings and some weirdly-written, forced encounters like the minor gods in our campaign. Reduce repetition and grind, make quests start and finish in different areas, for example, and continue working on that smart NPC system you mentioned, that keeps track of player interactions with them.

In summary, take it back to basics, remove the crust, keep the world relevant and the characters important, and forge forward. What you've written here is a great start to a larger, more impressive narrative than what you already have. Make the world and story believable.

Really excited for this new take on the narrative, looks like a GREAT campaign will wait for us on PoE2. :)

The ultimatum itself is even good, but the general changes in the harvest and in the rewards of the leagues are just horrible. Do you even know that recipes have ceased to come across in the harvest? Normal recipes do not appear at all. And this is against the background of the nerfs of everything else? Is it a bug? that there are no recipes in the harvest or a chance like a mirror?
The league is great, but the rest of the changes are just disgusting. I hope YYY will think about it. Sorry for my English.

Scarabs do not drop, delirium orbs do not exist. Blight maps are not dropped. And this is just the beginning.It's not even funny.

Desert Bus remake confirmed.

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Mistform wrote:

Overall, just... be more like Grim Dawn, less like acts 5-10, and continue creating an experience more rooted in folk lore, steering away from super beings and some weirdly-written, forced encounters like the minor gods in our campaign.

I agree, but if I understand it correctly the endgame isn't going to change all that much which means we'd still need a way to,

1: Acquire the god-passives
2: Engage with the fantastical world of the Atlas

This means they could not steer away from "super beings" as you call them, but rather would have to rewrite them into the story in a more natural fashion. My first thought is that--if it is 20 years later--perhaps you can find old Exiles who imbue you with their god-powers as you travel along.
(These would have to be forced into PoE 2 by design as the PoE 1 campaign would still exist and you want both campaigns to have given the same results when you reach the endgame.)

I wanna see the Coves(Before mervail) and the Dark Forest before Wester Forest(Where weaver used to be) I wanna see Solaris Temple back to its 10 zone-long size, what place do I wanna see from PoE 1? I wanna see PoE Classic, before the nerfs to CI and Insta leech, before the cooldowns on triggers, before Discharge Mjolner was gutted, back when Broadstrokes still dropped, and people farmed Mervail for Andvariouses.

#IStandWithPoEClassic.

I also believe every account which was created and saw playtime in closed beta, either from lucky draw or paid supporter, gets a 3 month headstart into PoE 2, with no wipe at the end.

GGG has done nothing to thank us, who have played since the very beginning, not a dime, and it's insulting. You know, I still have NEVER dropped a Mirror of Kalandra? The least GGG can do, is give us Closed Beta and Alpha testers first access to the next game.