He probably misses having a destination activity. We don’t get those anymore other than altars and blind well, and those are also over 5 years old. I should add on a destination that has public events and can run into people in patrol, so this excludes the pale heart.

[quote]He probably misses having a destination activity. We don’t get those anymore other than altars and blind well, and those are also over 5 years old. I should add on a destination that has public events and can run into people in patrol, so this excludes the pale heart.[/quote] We’ve had a destination activity with every expansion outside of beyond light. The pale heart and wellspring have it match made. Per player feedback about struggling to find people for alters or blind well. Takes the magic away, huh? The community asks for convenience and the cost is the game’s soul.

Negligible comment. By destination activity, I’m saying an activity you can access through patrol, on planets using the multiplayer system. Also no one said anything about magic, however I find it hard to believe players couldn’t find at least two other people to run ep, altars or blind well with. The reason pale heart has it match made is because the destination itself is single player.

[quote]Negligible comment. By destination activity, I’m saying an activity you can access through patrol, on planets using the multiplayer system. Also no one said anything about magic, however I find it hard to believe players couldn’t find at least two other people to run ep, altars or blind well with. The reason pale heart has it match made is because the destination itself is single player.[/quote] And player feedback at the time complained about the lack of matchmaking. That’s why they emphasized the throne word activity having matchmaking back in the day. Escalation protocol was not doable by a team of three back when it released. People manipulated the patrol roster in order to get teams of 9 players to beat it. That was part of the fun. It would be far less memorable today if you match made into it. As for alters and blind well, people didn’t like those since they were super easy and had no desirable rewards outside of the guaranteed subclass tree unlock. Again, soul at the cost of convenience.

To be fair you could argue D2 in general lost soul compared to D1 by the change in art direction along with a few other things. But forcing players to match make instead of running across teams in patrol definitely didn’t help.

I will fully admit I missed all of that (I started playing super casually at Forsaken, took a break at Shadowkeep, and came back properly 3 weeks before BL). My take on EP (what I played of it) is that the gameplay loop was solid (as long as you could get a populated instance), and that it would be cool if that gameplay came back, but with a modern reward structure, and a dedicated matchmaking node (like BLind Well now has, but Alters for some reason does not). Basically EP might have had problems, but it also had some good aspects that could be updated and returned.

[quote]I will fully admit I missed all of that (I started playing super casually at Forsaken, took a break at Shadowkeep, and came back properly 3 weeks before BL). My take on EP (what I played of it) is that the gameplay loop was solid (as long as you could get a populated instance), and that it would be cool if that gameplay came back, but with a modern reward structure, and a dedicated matchmaking node (like BLind Well now has, but Alters for some reason does not). Basically EP might have had problems, but it also had some good aspects that could be updated and returned.[/quote] Escalation protocol had a very simple structure to it. It wasn’t a very special activity outside of it getting hard hard at the end. Not like the hard of today. Back then we did not have crazy powercreep. The game was simpler. The other thing it had was the ikelos shotgun and sniper. Two weapons that defined the meta. The shotgun was meta even after random rolls got reintroduced. Strong weapons that were very very rare. It took me more clears of EP for that shotgun than it has of any raid or dungeon for any exotic. The chase made it memorable. Cause once you got that shotgun, you used it. Content being good doesn’t matter. Having a chase doesn’t matter. Having good content or honestly even mediocre content with a good chase is what this game is missing. And the loot pool is so bloated and screwed up right now to fix. Not to mention ruin the entitlement of the vocal playerbase. Imagine a rare exotic that has a random drop chance. Boy would that not be received well.

Oh, I remember the Shiekers and Ogre at the higher levels on the few times I found a populated instance. It's part of why Ogres were my least favourite enemy in the game right up until the introduction of Wyverns.... I admit I HATE the sound of that level of RNG chase; but I do think at least some of the World Pool loot should have dedicated sources out in the world, like the Dreaming City still has. It's entirely possible to make a chase memorable for the wrong reasons (aka it's too long, and people remember the misery of it not dropping over and over instead of the joy of finally getting it; I have a good selection of those from across numerous games). But that's why I'm fully in favour of bad-luck protection systems like Oversoul Essences, and what crafting could and should have been (i.e. taking >10 hours per gun, but never more than >30 hours, or something sensibly calibrated to be annoying but bareable).....

[quote]Oh, I remember the Shiekers and Ogre at the higher levels on the few times I found a populated instance. It's part of why Ogres were my least favourite enemy in the game right up until the introduction of Wyverns.... I admit I HATE the sound of that level of RNG chase; but I do think at least some of the World Pool loot should have dedicated sources out in the world, like the Dreaming City still has. It's entirely possible to make a chase memorable for the wrong reasons (aka it's too long, and people remember the misery of it not dropping over and over instead of the joy of finally getting it; I have a good selection of those from across numerous games). But that's why I'm fully in favour of bad-luck protection systems like Oversoul Essences, and what crafting could and should have been (i.e. taking >10 hours per gun, but never more than >30 hours, or something sensibly calibrated to be annoying but bareable).....[/quote] In the D1 days, legendaries used to be hard to obtain. They took effort and time. Made getting a godroll actually feel like you have something. The guns were way weaker than what we got now, but they felt better to own since they were more valuable. And a lot of people you’d run into could tell you about how they got their specific god roll. Often times, you’d get a god roll for a gun you would not care about normally. But just because the roll you got is good, you’d have an attachment to that. And then there were exotics. Getting one to drop was exciting. People would make video compilations of reactions to legendary and exotic drops. Yeah, xur sold exotics and legendaries piled up the more you played, but new rewards were desirable. Obviously not everything needs to be rare. But you really can’t have the game like it is now where every activity drops multiple rewards and each tier 5 gun has the equivalent to 9 single perk random rolled guns. They removed crafting only to make it easier to get a god roll than it was to get 5 red boarders… D1 did not have better loot, yet the loot was way more valuable. I don’t care about anything I get anymore and I’m not alone. TLDR: I said this in another reply, but convenience comes at the cost of the game’s soul.

Yeah, and there's a reason they decided to move away from that; there are only so many players who value that kind of chase over actually using the weapons they want to. And now that they've opened that box, they [b]cannot[/b] close it without killing the game, because they relied on the extra players making the chase less cancerous got them. Look at what happened with EoF's drop (well, the systems changes that came with it); that was a direct result of prioritising 'the chase' over widespread appeal. You might not appreciate the same things that fall under 'widespread appeal', but unfortunately in a world where money exists and things have costs, 'widespread appeal' is gonna be king for anything not developed by a tiny team of <10 fanatics.

This 100% Everyone HATED EP back then since it was nearly impossible to do without cheating the matchmaking, loot was super rare, and the only thing people farmed it for (because of fixed rolls) was the shader which was consumable.

[quote]This 100% Everyone HATED EP back then since it was nearly impossible to do without cheating the matchmaking, loot was super rare, and the only thing people farmed it for (because of fixed rolls) was the shader which was consumable.[/quote] The people on these forums have genuinely no idea what they actually want because they’re totally unaware of what makes them happy in this game. Game is too far gone. A sequel and fresh playerbase is needed.