Maybe Atlas should have a starting point that, for example, points us north.
Turning west, we're taken to maps that are compatible with Zoom Zoom, of course, with mechanics that match them, e.g., Breach, more mobs, more currency drops.
Turning east, we arrive at a place with fewer creatures, fewer currency drops, and a large number of bosses. Maybe even in every location with mechanics like Betrayal from PoE 1. The reward for this is powerful crafting items, like omens, which aren't available on the west side "zoom side".
Just saying...
Going more north we finding more citadels and endgame bosses plus some corrupted zones and maybe some super deadly unique maps like Valdo's map in poe 1
Interesting idea, but I think monster and skill design just need to be too different for zooming/engaging combat. Also would be balance hell Id guess.
True, balance would be hell, especially at the beginning, but I don't see why not try something like that.
Maybe the ascendancy would also be more focused on one style or the other.
E: I'm saying if you take loot out of the equation FIRST, then we can get down to the root of "engaging combat." Because there are lots of forms of engaging combat. Batman arkham asylum, dark souls, and baldurs gate gate 3 are all completely different games and all could be argued to have engaging combat. It's just in what way would THIS game have to cultivate it.
I said this in my very first post in this thread lol. it's also something that CANNOT BE DONE.
You cannot "take the loot out" of a loot-based game.
And if you do exactly as you describe: temporarily remove the loot, figure out combat, add loot back in......you are left with d3-like lootsplosions. No matter what. And the SLOWER the gamepace is, the greater those explosions need to be.
It is the most disengaging form of loot hunt at that point, in a game where 99% of the game loop is the LOOT. Loot has many problems in both PoE 1 and PoE 2, but that type of design would be worse than both.
Not only that, but it fundamentally changes the game loop, and brings problems that some people have already complained about the CURRENT zoom zoom creating: if all monsters take 10x as long to kill, and they are few and far between....it encourages gameplay of skipping nearly every fight EXCEPT the ones that will actually give you the most rewards.
You would end up spending magnitudes more time OUTSIDE of the very combat you want to engage in.
And if loot ends up concentrated in, say, 5 fights instead of 50....that results in you STOPPING for a much longer extended period of time looking through a pile loot instead
There's a good reason we don't have loot goblins in this game....
And again.....these ideas stem from BAD comparisons to games completely outside of the genre you are currently playing. You are trying to turn the game loop you are choosing to play into something that doesn't belong or work in the system. You say "pleasing everyone" won't work.......crossing genres is WAY WORSE. You end up with NO audience that way: a loot arpg that fails at loot. A souls-like that fails at being difficult. A platformer that tries to function as an rts. Etc. I could find perfect versions of EACH of those types of games that would do it better than a PoE 2 designed in such a way woudl EVER do.
Why are you still here talking nonsense again? A bit lacking in the self-control department, are we? You know what other type of people have that issue?... people with gambling addictions.
