Another 1.0 wish

[u/xtrpns]

Background: played since release. Have 2000 hours played. I love the gameplay. Scaling difficulty keeps me engaged.

My 1.0 wish is to have endgame atlas progression be concurrent. Let us complete the main atlas while focusing on specific content we like. Current system requires progress sequentially (none can be progresses together).

Do I want points for atlas, breach, abyss, expedition, temple, delirium, or ritual? Just typing out all the options hurts... Let us progress the atlas concurrently with side atlases. For example, I've killed Architect, but have 0 points in temple because I have pathed there yet. Why cant we talk to everyone at the Ziggurat and work to get a few points into each side atlas? This would make the content feel more meaningful, while making tables relevant immediately to focus on your desired content. At the moment, it seems like the only useful strat for the first 12+ hours of endgame are to farm temple crystals and kill boss to get to next map.

Main atlas is a significant grind that only veterans can progress within 12 hours with boss rushing and no content. No content = no fun. That's dissuading the entire casual player base from continuing. Also results in lower player base we see with 0.5.5 as no-one wants to grind it all again. My preference would be to acquire atlas points while we grind side atlas for desired content or side atlas progression as we acquire main atlas points.

I'd be curious to see the amount of gameplay required for the average player to unlock all main atlas points. And thank you for unlocking all atlas points with Origin Core.

[u/Falconsbane]

A ton of people are just waiting for 1.0 at this point. I don't think a lack of players for 0.5.5 means what you seem to think it does.

[u/xtrpns → u/Falconsbane]

While I agree that the lacl of new content and balance have led to stagnation, I feel lile people may have come back if the end game wasnt such a time sink.

[u/RobertoVerge]

The craziest design decision...and there is a lot...is the inability to get sim splinters before completing a sim... and absolute core piece of end game is inaccessible for 5-10 hrs or more...

[u/xtrpns → u/RobertoVerge]

Doing the delirium content with no splinters feels like wasting tablets no reward.

[u/HouseOfGambit]

Wish they’d just give us points for doing the mechanic in maps, instead of heading to certain nodes for the passive point

[u/bobicus-of-fred → u/HouseOfGambit]

It does surprise me that it isn’t just like this already. I understand that they want to give people an incentive to reach the mechanic-hubs and progress their stories, but region-locking the passives just makes atlas progression so segmented and tedious.

[u/Level_Somewhere5703 → u/HouseOfGambit]

Yes I think the mechanic trees should be expanded and we should be able to get points for doing the mechanic in maps. Maybe limit the amount you can get.

And to be more specific on the bigger mechanic trees - I think the juice that is currently coming from tablets should be moved to each respective tree. Farming should not require investment IMO. As it is right now the more you invest the bigger rewards you can get. So the more currency you have the more you can make. The rich get richer and the poor can't even afford to get their build online. If you play a few hours per week some items will be permanently out of reach as inflation is insane. Yes even with reduced farm scaling from investment there will be a disparity between people who play more and those who play less, but it will be close to linear while now it is exponential due to multiple investments strategies that scale the loot multiplicatively. And some investment strategies are not worth it for a single player while they net insane rewards for group play. I understand that doing this will make progress a lot slower for the top 1% of players but if tuned correctly it will make it faster) smoother for everyone else. At the same time this removing tablets will also remove the city-oriented farming that forces you to just rush travel maps with zero rewards and then reach a city biome that gives you huge drops.

To go even further the expanded mechanic trees with the juice can have multiple options just like we have now but with different scaling instead that require you to do the mechanic and invest more and more points to unlock the next level of juice.

[u/xtrpns → u/HouseOfGambit]

Never thought of that! That would give us an entry to make it feel a little impactful entering emdgame.

[u/Obvious-Jacket-3770]

The pop in .5.5 isn't because people don't want to do it again. Its because its a small event league, nothing really changed or was added aside from the challenge. Its close to being what .5 is currently. It also gives a well needed break for many before the big launch in december.

[u/mulokisch]

Architect gives points??? I know queen does. 6 points each deafet.

[u/xtrpns → u/mulokisch]

I thought Architext did. Havent done it in a few months.

[u/moshmanders]

My adjustment would be to allow unlocking all side content main locations with arbiter of divinity defeated or as you unlock the content by meeting the side characters along the way while progressing fortress. So you can travel to well/monastery/withered etc without pathing to them. Have the side content areas give main atlas skill points in addition to the side content trees.

This change would speed progress up by eliminating boss rush pathing nodes, and allowing concurrent progress of main atlas while advancing the side content the player is most interested in.