Gameplay Suggestions for PoE2

[Shevek]

I am trying to see if I can collect and categorize gameplay feedback/suggests for PoE2 to compile. Chances are this will probably be ignored but I will have a bit of time off in coming weeks - so I am taking this as a bit of a side project. So, basically, give 3 specific suggestions to further improve PoE gameplay for PoE2. Suggestions beyond the first 3 will be ignored as will anything that is not gameplay related. I will collect feedback over the next week or so and then start to compile it.

 

Heres mine:

 

1. PoE2 should do more with its injury mechanic. Theres untapped potential there. Instead of just having major injuries resulting from failed athletics checks, minor injuries could accrue from being knocked out, hitting certain traps, allowing certain effects/poisons to go uncured, getting critted by certain powerful/named creatures, etc. This could both incentivize better play and add a further drain on rest resources.

 

2. Something to disincentivize just trekking back to buy more camping supplies when you run out. This could be carrot (xp or stat bonus accruing over x number of fights that resets on rest, etc) and/or stick (partial respawns when you leave an area, etc).

 

3. More interesting spell mechanics for Wizards. This could mean metamagic or spell sequencers/contingencies/etc. This could also mean something to promote Grimoire switching. Perhaps different Grimoires could give bonuses to different kinds of spells - thereby incentivizing the maintaining of different spellbooks.

Edited September 8, 2015 by Shevek

[Oralaina]

1.  No opinion.

 

2.  I've never had to do that.  In fact, I've marked places on a map I keep locally where there are supplies I couldn't pick up since I had no room.  Generally I don't go back to get them though - I just go back to Caed Nua.

 

3.  I don't play wizards.  So again, no opinion. 

 

I don't use the premade NPCs.  I use a party of my own custom girls.  I set them up the way I want them.  I haven't had any gameplay issues at all with this game, so I don't have anything to add here.

[Shevek]

Its not about commenting on my suggestions. Its about giving me YOUR suggestions about anything gameplay related. Your top 3.

[Oralaina]

Oh.

 

*shrug*  I don't have any suggestions, because the game plays fine for me without me needing to mess with anything much.  I guess the only thing I think would be better (for me personally) would be if the devs didn't waste so much time on silly party-joinable npcs.  Hate 'em, won't use 'em, spend that dev time on more areas for gameplay I guess.

[Crucis]

1.  Get rid of Ranger animal companions.

 

2.  Alternatively, give Rangers the option to not have an animal companion.

 

3.  See #1 and #2.

[Shevek]

1.  Get rid of Ranger animal companions.

 

2.  Alternatively, give Rangers the option to not have an animal companion.

 

3.  See #1 and #2.

You just made what amounts to a single gameplay suggestion. Care to reformat and add 2 more?

Edited September 8, 2015 by Shevek

[Oralaina]

 

1.  Get rid of Ranger animal companions.

 

2.  Alternatively, give Rangers the option to not have an animal companion.

 

3.  See #1 and #2.

You just made what amounts to a single gameplay suggestion. Care to reformat and add 2 more?

 

Well, it's not really a single suggestion.  If you get rid of the pets, that's one thing (please don't, devs...)  If you make the pet optional, that's a totally different thing that will need tweaks to various aspects of ranger gameplay and management.

Edited September 8, 2015 by Oralaina

[Shevek]

Essentially, make the pet optional to the ranger or remove it is basically a bit of feedback/suggestion having to do with a singular aspect of the gameplay - the ranger's pet. But, hey, you want to leave one suggestion, thats fine by me.

[sp3cw4r]

I'm on a pirate kick with this game since I've been playing a raider from Deadfire. I'll suggest:

 

1) Ability to own your own ship. Could be a choice of new stronghold type, with others available to suit other classes/backgrounds.

 

2) Ability to sail it! Trek the uncharted waters around the Deadfire not knowing what type of sea monsters you might encounter.

 

3) Fish from your vessel. Nets, cages, and poles. Could be a way to gather resources, or something even better. Maybe searching for old souls from a ship wreck or something that may/may not provides answers to a mystery at sea.

[globalCooldown]

1. Expand on Stronghold. Make it more useful somehow, or tie it into the plot more. Caed Nua was just kind of...there.

 

2. We can enchant armor and weapons, so why not capes and hats? I want an enchanted Duelist's Hat! The one with the feather!

 

3. This may sound weird, but how about being able to participate in party banter on rest? I'm firmly rooted in the "I Love All My Companion NPCs" camp, and would love to have more of a reason to talk to them.

[Crucis]

 

1.  Get rid of Ranger animal companions.

 

2.  Alternatively, give Rangers the option to not have an animal companion.

 

3.  See #1 and #2.

You just made what amounts to a single gameplay suggestion. Care to reformat and add 2 more?

 

 

The point clearly eluded you.  My distaste for animal companions is so great that any other second and third suggestions would pale in comparison to the importance I place on dealing with those annoying animal companions.

 

However, here's another suggestion, consider it #11.

 

11.  Get rid of the weapons groups.  They're too artificial and too limiting on character creation.  Only a very few character concepts work with the weapons groups as is.  But IMO, others are incapable of using the weapons groups as is while remaining true to their concept.

[danielkx]

Well, these may not be the only suggestions I have but they are the first ones I am thinking of.

 

1. Remove camping. In its place use injury kits, a la DA:O. I am aware this will not go well with everyone since PoE is based on IE games, but I am not a fan of camping mechanism. I think a more enjoyable and overall better mechanic would be to have injury kits heal wounds, certain potions to restore fatigue, and inns/stronghold resting will heal all, restore fatigue and give bonuses.

 

2. Similar too what was mentioned above, the weapons groups is not a really good system. If you want to give an accuracy bonus to weapon types then just have weapons in their damage type groups, i.e slashing, piercing, etc...

 

3. This has been discussed a lot since release, and while from what I read about the expansion and latest patch that enemies are a bit more challenging than before, there is still a TON of work that needs to be done with enemy encounters. They are extremely repetitive, simple and aside from a small number of encounters, easy. As most know, the bulk of encounters boil down to reusing a couple of the same tactics for most encounters. While I am completely aware that you can try out other tactics, it would be enjoyable if the game would FORCE you to use different tactics across many different encounters.

Edited September 8, 2015 by danielkx

[ruzen]

1. Stronghold is must be expanded and more involed in story. More management options collecting taxes or holding territories. MGSV base management is really fun.

 

2. There has to be Survival(bit more complex camping, random events) elements and Day&Night cycle has to be entegrated with the gameplay as; NPC routines, Beasts sleep time and ofcourse the most important thing: SNEAKING & theavery.

 

3. Party Relationship has to be a thing. Managing 5 other people (never mind 5 different race and gender) is must be a challange and must offer some gameplay elements in the game.

 

PoE had 2 biggest flaw in my eyes. First the combat can be very frustrating with spells and combat going crazy and you dont know who is who (not to mention you cant see anything behind objects) and the second, Gameplay was very limited and I have to say before 2.0 combat was unbareable walking simulator. They should really focus on gameplay side two or maybe three times over this time.

[Crucis]

Well, these may not be the only suggestions I have but they are the first ones I am thinking of.

 

1. Remove camping. In its place use injury kits, a la DA:O. I am aware this will not go well with everyone since PoE is based on IE games, but I am not a fan of camping mechanism. I think a more enjoyable and overall better mechanic would be to have injury kits heal wounds, certain potions to restore fatigue, and inns/stronghold resting will heal all, restore fatigue and give bonuses.

 

2. Similar too what was mentioned above, the weapons groups is not a really good system. If you want to give an accuracy bonus to weapon types then just have weapons in their damage type groups, i.e slashing, piercing, etc...

 

3. This has been discussed a lot since release, and while from what I read about the expansion and latest patch that enemies are a bit more challenging than before, there is still a TON of work that needs to be done with enemy encounters. They are extremely repetitive, simple and aside from a small number of encounters, easy. As most know, the bulk of encounters boil down to reusing a couple of the same tactics for most encounters. While I am completely aware that you can try out other tactics, it would be enjoyable if the game would FORCE you to use different tactics across many different encounters.

 

I'll repeat a suggestion I made 2-3 months ago on this topic.

 

Dump weapons groups, and replace them with the following.  Put a LOT more emphasis on fighting styles, i.e. 2 handed weapons, 1 handed weapons, dual wielding, and weapon & shield.  And perhaps have Marksman as a 5th style for ranged combatants.  (Or for a tiny bit of granularity in ranged weapons, one might split bows from firearms.  But Xbows are sort of a cross between bows and firearms, since they are conceptually a spanned weapon that a bow mechanism to propel an "arrow".  And yet, they're held, aimed, and fired very similarly to a gun.  I don't know where they're properly belong, if there was a split here.)

 

As with weapons groups, have 3 different levels of skill in these groups, but get away from those wretched description terms (except for Mastery, keep that).    Come up with some better sounding terms that don't sound like they came out of an IT manual.    Maybe Apprentice, Journeyman, and Mastery levels in the styles, as a first suggestions.

 

Regardless, how each level of skill in the styles could be handled similarly or uniquely to each style.  Uniquely is probably more interesting. Levels of skill in each melee style could affect accuracy, damage, recovery speed, and so forth, with similar modifiers for skill in ranged style(s).

 

IMO, the advantage of this concept is that you don't have to worry about these bizarre weapons groups, nor do you have to worry about skill levels in each weapon individually.  Admittedly, it's not perfect.  For example, it's easy to argue that using a quarterstaff is very different from using a greatsword, even though both are 2H weapons.  That said, it seems to me at first blush to be a more flexible and elegant way of handling the issue.  You're not stuck with some artificial weapons groups that work for a few character concepts but fail miserably for many others.

 

For example, say that you have a character who is a ranged specialist, but may be only barely skilled with melee weapons.  He might take 3 levels in Marksman but only a single point (or none at all) in one handed weapons. 

[Crucis]

1. Stronghold is must be expanded and more involed in story. More management options collecting taxes or holding territories. MGSV base management is really fun.

 

2. There has to be Survival(bit more complex camping, random events) elements and Day&Night cycle has to be entegrated with the gameplay as; NPC routines, Beasts sleep time and ofcourse the most important thing: SNEAKING & theavery.

 

3. Party Relationship has to be a thing. Managing 5 other people (never mind 5 different race and gender) is must be a challange and must offer some gameplay elements in the game.

 

PoE had 2 biggest flaw in my eyes. First the combat can be very frustrating with spells and combat going crazy and you dont know who is who (not to mention you cant see anything behind objects) and the second, Gameplay was very limited and I have to say before 2.0 combat was unbareable walking simulator. They should really focus on gameplay side two or maybe three times over this time.

 

1. Gods, NO!  IMO, it should be made far simpler.  I have no interest in managing a castle and its surrounding lands, and collecting taxes, and so forth and so on.  I'd be happier if the "stronghold" was, for example, a room in the Crucible Knights' keep, if you were a fighter, or paladin, etc.  Or maybe a townhouse in Defiance Bay, or a simple house in Dyrwood Village.

 

[yaggaz]

Make it everything like BG2/Planescape and nothing like Icewind Dale.   And drop all the "There is no good or evil" philosophical gobly **** horsecrap and bring back high fantasy.

[iLurk]

1 Allow hard counters, honestly most times while playing PoE, I never did pay much attention to status except for charmed, most of them go by unnoticed. In IE games, they are potent.

 

2 Pre-buffs, if I scout and see shroom, I should be allowed to use protection against charm before engaging them.

 

3 None combat spells, sorry if these already exist and I missed them. In IE you have spells to reveal map, talk to Jins for extra information, invisibility, etc.. In PoE no such things AFAIK. Don't just concentrate on combat.

Edited September 8, 2015 by iLurk

[TheisEjsing]

1) Boomerangs, throwing stars, and whips! Also talking weapons.

 

2) Pickpocketing.

 

3) Ranged animal companion. Idk, a spitting llama or something.

[FlintlockJazz]

1.  Keep weapon groups.  I like them, better than only having one weapon, keeps options open and lets you adapt to what you find better.  Also means that less 'popular' weapons end up being used and may lead to them being more embraced.  I would say actually expand on the weapon group system, dunno how as I ain't a designer but I feel there is more potential there for developing them as fencing schools and the like (fencing schools actually taught the use of many different weapons originally, and the famed zweihander wielders needed to have a certificate showing that they had been trained in the use of longswords for instance, which included the use of daggers...).

2.  Emphasise firearms and crossbows more. In fact, emphasise all the late medieval/early renaissance aspects more and I think not having the printing press in the setting was a bad idea.  Emphasising this would lead to a more 'bladepunk' or picaro type setting and help differentiate it more.  Fencing school students fighting each other in the street for their honour, banks and Churches taking the role megacorps would have in a cyberpunk setting, etc.

3.  This bit involves the main plotline and is huge spoilerific so will be spoiler tagged. 

Move away from the whole "The gods are fake!" thing.  Some questions should be left unanswered, and the woman who led the heresy came across as an obnoxious Mary Sue.  I'd like her to be the one proven wrong I found her that obnoxious.

 

[Crucis]

1.  Keep weapon groups.  I like them, better than only having one weapon, keeps options open and lets you adapt to what you find better.  Also means that less 'popular' weapons end up being used and may lead to them being more embraced.  I would say actually expand on the weapon group system, dunno how as I ain't a designer but I feel there is more potential there for developing them as fencing schools and the like (fencing schools actually taught the use of many different weapons originally, and the famed zweihander wielders needed to have a certificate showing that they had been trained in the use of longswords for instance, which included the use of daggers...).

2.  Emphasise firearms and crossbows more. In fact, emphasise all the late medieval/early renaissance aspects more and I think not having the printing press in the setting was a bad idea.  Emphasising this would lead to a more 'bladepunk' or picaro type setting and help differentiate it more.  Fencing school students fighting each other in the street for their honour, banks and Churches taking the role megacorps would have in a cyberpunk setting, etc.

3.  This bit involves the main plotline and is huge spoilerific so will be spoiler tagged. 

Move away from the whole "The gods are fake!" thing.  Some questions should be left unanswered, and the woman who led the heresy came across as an obnoxious Mary Sue.  I'd like her to be the one proven wrong I found her that obnoxious.

 

 

Gods no.  The weapons group model is HORRIBLE.  Absolutely horrible! 

 

I like coming up with concept characters, and the weapons group model keeps making it nearly impossible to develop any concept that isn't a perfect fit for one of the existing weaps groups.  And the number of character concepts that are perfect fits a exceedingly small.

 

Right now, I'd like to play another character, but I can't come up with a good one because the weapon groups are a damned straight jacket!!! 

 

 

[Crucis]

1 Allow hard counters, honestly most times while playing PoE, I never did pay much attention to status except for charmed, most of them go by unnoticed. In IE games, they are potent.

 

2 Pre-buffs, if I scout and see shroom, I should be allowed to use protection against charm before engaging them.

 

3 None combat spells, sorry if these already exist and I missed them. In IE you have spells to reveal map, talk to Jins for extra information, invisibility, etc.. In PoE no such things AFAIK. Don't just concentrate on combat.

 

No to pre-buffs.  If they allow pre-buffs, then people will start pre-buffing for every frickin' encounter, and then the game would have to be balanced under the assumption of everyone constantly pre-buffing.  And that screws over anyone who is perfectly content not pre-buffing.

 

No, pre-buffing was a terrible thing in the BG and IWD games.  And PoE is vastly better without it.  Limit pre-buffing to food and potions.

[Merany]

I have no #3.

My #2 was to allow single character stealth which has already been implemented.

Which leaves me with only one:

Improve mages battle. I think that is one of the reasons BG2 combat system is so good.

Walls of protections you have to take down. Incredibly powerful spells and summons. Contingencies, Time Stop, Crowd Control, Protection from magic, Invisibility, all their respective counters.

 

I think that makes for some seriously strategic and challenging encounters.

Edited September 8, 2015 by Merany

[Bill Gates' Son]

1.Bring back utility spells like knock, sanctuary/invisiblity, and detect spells

2.Redo the whole skill system.  It's basically an inferior version of DnD 3.5 system's.  Only 2 out of the 6 skills are useful.

3.Not being locked to a room due to combat.  I should freely be able to leave a house or go to another area even in combat mode just like in the other infinity engine game.  This could be abused to do certain tactics, so perhaps the enemy's health could return to full whenever you rest somewhere.

 

PoE combat and gameplay still need A LOT of work, but the above things are good things they can start with.

Edited September 8, 2015 by Bill Gates' Son

[Rusknight]

What I would like to see in the sequel?

1. More complicated personal relations between companions and more complicated companion quests that could give them some unique weapons or spells for example or influence gameplay in some other way. Companion quests in original game are quite useless since they actually don't influence gameplay in any way.

2. Implement more strategy elements with Citadel management like taxes, trade routes and so. In original game, once you have a Citadel and upgraded it for 100%, you don't really have to make any choices anymore about it - it just generates you some income regulary and that's it. Managing Citadel should be both rewarding and challenging at the same time.

3. Optimize new area loading time somehow! City locations where you have to load new area for a minute entering every house is a real pain. Its the only thing that made me mad while I played the game.

[VahnXIII]

1. Larger pool of story characters to recruit from (I'm talking 20+ possible characters to add to your party).

 

2. Better environmental and ambiance for immersion (random NPC's with actual personalities, more NPC's in cities/towns, randomized weather patterns and not by region).

 

3. Class specialization (ex. brawler, swashbuckler, mage school specialization, etc.) and expanded multiclass system.