PC Gamer unveils Descent race events

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Hruthgard wrote:

Dont really know how to feel about this type of race. I mean that crazy amount of afford they needed to put into all the stuff they created for this descent race and in the end we cant fight against the new monster they created especialy for that race in the normal game, why they did that? Its only criticism on a low level because its new stuff ggg adds to all the race players but for myself i appreciated this kind of stuff to be in the main game and not in a seperated race. Im looking forward it and judge finally if i can play it but i cant understand why all that stuff the new environment/monster/items are "only" for a good race experience?

I would presume if this works theres every chance some of the mechanics that went into generating these areas can and possibly will be used in later versions of the game. A lot of call for changes to mapping going on, but also a lot of other ideas out there that involve a lot more work but would be really amazing, like infinite dungeons, infinite areas, infinite dungeons you can find in infinite areas, things that give us everything maps give us but are separate and allow the map system to stay as excitingly rng as it is without disrupting the endgame play by being dishearteningly rng at the same time.

I see a lot of hope for the main game in this, maybe thats overly optimistic, I dunno, but for this to function the way everyones assuming it will atm a lot of the work towards features that could take the main game to the next level have already been ironed out.

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Jarchan wrote:

This sounds pretty awesome, but my first impression is that one hour seems too short for something like this. Hopefully you'll have some two hour versions as well.

same first impression, an hour is cool but Id love to do this for 2 or 3 hours. Maybe cause of no town they think 3 is too brutal, but 2 surely is alright.




Im not really one for racing, I have epicly long load times, I crash a lot, it doesnt really grab me, usually when I think hey, would be really fun to play from the start again, thats time to plan a new fun endgame build for me.

But this sounds amazing, Im well up for these, cant wait. Its new, I hate playing the same thing over and over, I tune out, I need to be kept on my toes by extreme levels of environment and monster rng.


This sounds so fun, and I hope if this is an endless dungeon type affair that the ability to string essentially endless maps together makes its way into main game functions. GGG Im going to shut up about map drops from now until the game release, Ill play these epic dungeon crawls, and I really hope when the game goes live later in the year if theres nothing new added for higher level characters in there then at least youll make some kind of statement to let people know if you still plan to add a way to level outside of maps and give us some hope for playing and developing characters as far as our enthusiasm will take us within the level cap, not as far as our orb supply will take us.

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Kyrnan wrote:

Descent sounds great. Without even playing it, I can imagine it would be a great on-going ladder league where the object was to get as deep as possible in a never-ending dungeon where things get harder and faster the further down you go. Basically a Rogue-like mode for PoE where you are expected to die and the fun is trying to last as long as possible.

The ladder needed for something like this is already in place for Onslaught where dead characters are shown in grey. It could even be setup with league prizes more for being alive at the end at the deepest level and/or character level and still some for whomever reached the deepest. Add in random shopkeepers at some points to make loot relevant as well. I could see this working with parties or single player - possible with A town above that you start in to form a party but once you enter the dungeon you can't get back out.

that would be great. The shops you find would probably have to work like checkpoints I guess, so if you relogged, got dc etc thats where you log back in, the last shop.


I love party play, Id love to play this with my friends when theyre online too. Maybe you could have portals in a party version, but they can only be opened in shop areas, allowing party members to port from their current shop checkpoint to their friends before entering the dungeon again together.

You could even take off the level cap for a league like that, just make sure that the difficulty keeps scaling to the point where people will eventually die, so that no matter how far someone got, in theory you can still get that 1 level further, all the way till the league ends, regardless of an unforeseen lvl 100 coming through mid season.

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Snorkle_uk wrote:

that would be great. The shops you find would probably have to work like checkpoints I guess, so if you relogged, got dc etc thats where you log back in, the last shop.


I love party play, Id love to play this with my friends when theyre online too. Maybe you could have portals in a party version, but they can only be opened in shop areas, allowing party members to port from their current shop checkpoint to their friends before entering the dungeon again together.

You could even take off the level cap for a league like that, just make sure that the difficulty keeps scaling to the point where people will eventually die, so that no matter how far someone got, in theory you can still get that 1 level further, all the way till the league ends, regardless of an unforeseen lvl 100 coming through mid season.

Good point about keeping progress. Perhaps they can use the quest system to help place you in the right level when you log back in. Like a marker for every few levels you descend. Probably have to spawn a new version of the farthest level you reached when you log back in, but that would be okay.

Be nice to maybe run into the rogue exiles down there too.

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Kyrnan wrote:

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Snorkle_uk wrote:

that would be great. The shops you find would probably have to work like checkpoints I guess, so if you relogged, got dc etc thats where you log back in, the last shop.


I love party play, Id love to play this with my friends when theyre online too. Maybe you could have portals in a party version, but they can only be opened in shop areas, allowing party members to port from their current shop checkpoint to their friends before entering the dungeon again together.

You could even take off the level cap for a league like that, just make sure that the difficulty keeps scaling to the point where people will eventually die, so that no matter how far someone got, in theory you can still get that 1 level further, all the way till the league ends, regardless of an unforeseen lvl 100 coming through mid season.

Good point about keeping progress. Perhaps they can use the quest system to help place you in the right level when you log back in. Like a marker for every few levels you descend. Probably have to spawn a new version of the farthest level you reached when you log back in, but that would be okay.

Be nice to maybe run into the rogue exiles down there too.

rogues would be sick, esp if they dropped the exact gear inc gems they were using to attack you. Regarding the level of the dungeon, yeah it would have to remember. Perhaps the level of the zone every time you descend a floor is set to the level of the highest player entering automatically, so you cant really boost lower guys, either everyone can stand the pace of the highest group member or they rip. No going backwards, only option is to go forward into the rng pit, every transition is 1 way only and takes you to a new rng floor at your level or a shop.

OP GGG!!!

Gah, I'm on a long vacation starting on the 28th and this race mode is a wish come true for me. I guess I have to take my laptop with me anyway and mooch Wifi on McD parking lots on the way. -_-

I'd love to see some lomher interval leagues with this ruleset. While there definitely shouldn't be a permanent Descent league, I'd love to see 1 day, 1 week, and 1 month variations.

I didn't do any races sofar, but I'll definetely do this one!
Sounds great, I'll finally have a chance for the top gear! ;)

Keep up the great work GGG!!

Miss ing the Details we ill get later from Chris, but sounds interesting even at this Point of Information.

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Chris wrote:

There's more info about their structure (and how certain item decisions are given to you at certain points so that it's not so heavily RNG-based) coming on Monday, NZ time.

Is this also applied to gems from quest rewards?