Regarding Map sustain in 3.24 Necropolis League..

Greetings;

First, yes I understand there are map scarabs, that is not the point. Maps are essential to game play and should be self sustaining.

Second, When I say Craft league I mean the ones I played (Harvest and Synthesis), I also call these poverty leagues.

When I first started playing POE around, which around the introduction of Delve, map sustain was a real problem. Then at some point GGG increased the drop rate of maps so a player with approximately 1-4 hrs of time 3 to 4 days a week could sustain maps. This meant I could log in and pick a map and run it, which was a huge boost both in Quality of Life and the ability to explore highers levels of gear. This makes a league worth my time and quite enjoyable.

But, once again for whatever reason, maps are no longer dropping even with scarabs. I had very few problems up to Tier 10 maps, however, maps in the range between T11 - T14 have been non-existent. This is obviously bad for me.

I can't farm much currency or items because... I have no maps.
I can't get more Atlas points, because... I have no maps.
I can't level my character because... I have no maps.
... Additionally, since advancing maps from T11 up requires corrupting them, it makes ~ 1 out of 7 maps non playable for my character.

Crucially, if I can't login and feel as though I'm advancing in some way.. what is the point? Driving toward the above objectives are what make the game enjoyable to me.

<What follows is criticism, if it makes you a sad panda just stop reading here. >

Look, I like this game and think GGG generally does OK at balancing things but this is silly. Why would you throttle map drops? It makes absolutely zero sense! The entire basis of GGG's income comes from Micro Tx, which requires player engagement, but throttling map drops is the antithesis of player engagement from my perspective. In short, I don't tend buy Micro Tx, when I don't play the game, I hope that makes sense.

Every league that has introduced a new crafting system (heretofore Crafting/poverty leagues) GGG has made has been sub par when compared to all other leagues. They seem to be economically unstable in terms of how crafted items using the new system will interact with existing items. This seems to cause GGG to throttle back drops of currency (mid-tier and higher) and Unique items (again mid-tier and higher) in order to encourage (force) players to interact with the crafting system. The result is insufficient currency and build enabling Unique items for a casual but dedicated player. I say dedicated because of all the games I play I come back to Path of Exile more often then any other game.

In my experience EVERY Crafting league has been fraught with poverty for me. Since poverty sucks, I almost always wind up quitting at or around level 90 -92 and either playing Standard or playing something else.

< What follows here is the appropriate solution based on MY experience this league, again, sad panda rules apply.

Make maps at or above the level of the current map drop much more frequently. Again.. yes, I understand, there are map scarabs but do you know where those happen to drop.. in maps and yes I could buy them. However, I think the map scarabs should enhance map drops not by required to sustain game play.

in conclusion, overall this league while interesting, does not measure up to the quality of non-crafting leagues in terms of engagement from my perspective, I'm going to attempt to fill in my atlas because I bought the Kirac Vault thing, which again REQUIRES MAPS. I don't have the desire to play a boring game and craft leagues are really, really boring. Craft leagues ( overall are dis empowering and remove player agency. Call me when map drops don't suck anymore, hopefully I'll be able to finish the Kirac Vault thing.

Thanks for reading this diatribe about Crafting/Poverty leagues. have a great day.

Delve and Alva are crazy good for maps. With the introduction of scarabs you can have any league mechanic you want any time, anywhere. Sustaining maps is easier now than ever. I haven't played enough this league to be sure of it but when i was in lower tier maps and found few vaal outpost nodes in delve I had like 20-30 maps dropping just by running a few nodes

Map Sustain is non-existant across all tiers of maps - even t1s (not a joke LOL), without scarabs.

Game throws literally any tier of maps like crazy at you for free even without any scarabs.

explain to me how i have 600 t16 maps in hcssf and you cant even sustain t1s

I have 8 tabs full of 16s what are you doing dude lol