Week 4: Path of Exile Legacy

Aside from Hearthstone, which I talked about in week 2, another game I play a lot is Path of Exile. Path of Exile is a free to play online Action RPG developed by Grinding Gear Games. Every three months, Path of Exile is updated with new content and a challenge league is introduced. Challenge leagues are a way to add diversity by allowing players start again with a fresh economy and a new set of rules. Most of the playerbase plays the game in this three month cycle. Player numbers are high in the beginning of a new league and drop off later on as most people have achieved their goals for that league.

This weekend was the release of update 2.6 along with the Legacy Challenge League. Legacy League is meant to be a way to wrap up the 2.x series of updates in anticipation of the 3.0 update, which will change a lot of core game mechanics. Legacy League allows players to combine up to three rules from past challenge leagues by using a new type of item called a Leaguestone. While using a Leaguestone, players also have a chance to get items from previous versions of the game that are unobtainable through regular gameplay.

The challenge league was well received and player numbers were the highest they have ever been this weekend. A lot of players wanted to experience leagues they missed or relive their experiences from the past, and Legacy League is a great way to do that.

However, a lot of people have expressed their concerns about the Legacy League UI. When you open the Legacy tab you have 3 slots to put in Leaguestones. Under each slot there is a a bar that shows you how many uses you have left. That is not a very accurate way to measure your uses, so you have hover over each Leaguestone and to read the text to actually see. This could easily be fixed by having a number counter under the bar.

Legacy Tab

Another issue is the lack of feedback when a Leaguestone runs out of uses (They start with 1-8 uses). Players have to keep checking the Legacy tab to see how many uses they have left, and that interrupts gameplay. When you want to add a new Leaguestone, you have to search through your inventory to find the ones you want to add, and it's easy to forget to do it. A lot of players suggested a queue system where you place Leaguestones and they are activated when your current leaguestones run out. 

Some of these Leaguestones can be quite valuable, and they are automatically activated when you enter a new area. The problem with that is that there are NPC's in lower level areas that you might need to talk to, but you waste a charge by doing so. This forces players to use up their Leaguestones before talking to the NPC's. This could be fixed by allowing players to set a level floor for them to activate, so they can choose not to activate them when going to lower level areas.

In conclusion, playing in this update has been a lot of fun, but these inconveniences make the experience feel worse than it should be. A better UI would mean I get to spend less time checking if my Leaguestones are active and more time playing the game.

Bibliography:

https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1834597
http://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Legacy_league