Alternatives to Campaign Skips lets discuss

"

default_mp3#9394 wrote:

"

bloomhead#3858 wrote:

What freedom? You go into a map, kill everything you need in it, and go out. Literally the same MO as the campaign.

Mapping is just tip of the iceberg of what you can do in the endgame. Do league mechanics, get loot, tinks, crafting currency, everything that can help elevate you further, improve your builds, get richers, do the most juiciest stuff possible, etc. Yes even within the CURRENT form of the endgame that is going to be improved in 0.5 and the game eventually will get bigger and bigger. More stuff to do.
And what does the campaign bring, outside of another 10 hours of inevitable misery? I have 1000 hours in the game I run this campaign many times at this point. I despise it already, I despise it's length, I despise it's story-gated obstacles, I despise it's long mazy maps. I hate everything about it.

So long story short. I need an alternative leveling system with bunch of straitforward maps without dozen of branches, scripted dialogues, packed nicely in 5-6 hours. If we could have something like this, then alright. You still have your original campaign. 20 hours, 100 hours, doesn't matter as long I am not forced to deal with it each new character I do.

Not sure if you're talking about endgame, or campaign. Because you can do all that in both.

What if they remove level requirments on gear and gave you a box you can check off to autoskip all dialogs and cutscenes this would surely shave a ton of time off repeated playthroughs.
Merely for convenience n funs sake.

But if you think this is a solution to "allow a workin ppl who only hav x hours" to compete with no lifers your thinking is critically flawed as they will always have more time and your better off not worrying about such things.

"

PseudoErekt#9714 wrote:

But if you think this is a solution to "allow a workin ppl who only hav x hours" to compete with no lifers your thinking is critically flawed as they will always have more time and your better off not worrying about such things.

you will never fix such thing. blaster with 24 hours a day of disposal will always win. If you try to cater to everyone we might end up in D4 situation.

campaign is the best part.

YOU ARE NOT AN INVINCIBLE GOD WIPING AWAY AN ENTIRE enemy hoard WITHOUT
A SECOND THOUGHT. 44 hundred million eliminatons? i dunno... an hour?

you are less powerful to eliminate only several thousand per day.
but its more complicated to eliminate them efficiently right?

so some people are bad at it. others are good.

we are all just doing our best to free wraeclast now aren;t we. ?

I like a closer more visceral encounter. blasting 1400 monsters
in 3.5 minutes is something. we did that. lets make the conflict more
complicated and difficult. lets continue to focus on competition.
challenge and ugg. hrmm. uh. excellence?

You were right to focus on campaign. everyone deserves a campaign.
its really good. its balanced as far as i can tell so far.

you always must build from the ground up. you have solid ground
keep building. that being said balance the game from campaign first
and into maps only a tier at a time. if there is a lvl 97-100 situation
that comes up deal with it. but the key audience is the audience.

the people who paid you. fix stuff from the ground up

this is an excellent piece of work. its got mad potential.
most of your audience is not capable of the grandest of feats.
so do not fixate on such things as can not be sold.

"

AgnosiousD#2205 wrote:

I like a closer more visceral encounter. blasting 1400 monsters
in 3.5 minutes is something. we did that. lets make the conflict more
complicated and difficult. lets continue to focus on competition.
challenge and ugg. hrmm. uh. excellence?

there is a game for you exist already. It's called No Rest For The Wicked.

"

default_mp3#9394 wrote:

"

AgnosiousD#2205 wrote:

I like a closer more visceral encounter. blasting 1400 monsters
in 3.5 minutes is something. we did that. lets make the conflict more
complicated and difficult. lets continue to focus on competition.
challenge and ugg. hrmm. uh. excellence?

there is a game for you exist already. It's called No Rest For The Wicked.

You know that there's something inbetween "1 click map wipes" and "fighting 1 monster 20s"?

Hello all!

Please walk with me on this grandiose idea... suspending your possible bias towards any solution other than your own.

First — yes, a campaign skip should be an option. Full stop. You want to get to the Atlas? Well, all you need to do is "X" (finish the campaign, be certain level, etc.)

Second — your campaign choices should directly shape your endgame experience, making engagement an attractive option over skipping.

A character who skipped the campaign arrives at the Atlas as a blank slate. No faction allegiances. No Atlas Passive Skill Points tied to your story choices. No faction-specific Waystone crafting options. No exclusive questlines. No vendor pools unlocked by who you sided with in Act 2. Generic. Unfactionized. Starting from zero.

A character who engaged with the faction system? They arrive at the Ziggurat Refuge with advantages, mapping options, and endgame content that the skipper simply doesn't have access to. The hook isn't "the story is better." The hook is "your story choices give you a head start and a distinct endgame identity." You can skip. But skipping has a cost.

The Approach
The campaign has two real problems. First, some areas are genuine slogs — I'm looking at you, Karui blood warriors. Second and more fundamentally, replaying it feels completely identical every time. Same choices, same factions, same corridor. That's a design problem. A skip doesn't fix it — it just lets you avoid it faster.

What actually fixes it is making the campaign feel different on subsequent playthroughs — and making those choices matter when you finally arrive at the part most of you actually care about: the Atlas.
PoE2 already has everything it needs (i.e. - factions are already there). They just exist as set dressing right now with zero persistent consequence to your choices. PoE1 already proved this playerbase responds to meaningful choice. The Bandit quest is a small decision players still debate years later.

What the storyline variation actually looks like
Three natural fault lines already exist in the campaign.

Act 2 — Ardura or Faradun
Side with the Ardura and you earn their warriors as allies, their merchant contacts, and their perspective on what's corrupting the region. Side with the Faradun and you get insider knowledge of Oriana's movements, whisper networks, and a darker lens on what the Countess is actually building toward. Different vendor pools. Different optional quests. Different crafting recipes. Same act boss. Completely different context arriving at that fight.

Act 3 — Reckless or Cautious
The Vaal civilization faced the same choice between power and restraint — and it destroyed them. Now you make it.
Pursue the ancient knowledge aggressively and you unlock Vaal-flavored corrupted crafting — high variance, high ceiling, capable of producing items unavailable any other way. You might brick something. You might create something extraordinary.
Heed Doryani's warnings and you get controlled, deterministic crafting options. Lower ceiling, guaranteed outcomes. A unique bench recipe. A permanent passive bonus to crafting reliability. A Doryani-exclusive support gem or unique item the reckless path never sees.
One path is for gamblers. One is for craftsmen. Neither is wrong. Both are mechanically compelling enough that the storyline reason for choosing actually matters.

Act 4 — Three Paths
The Bandit quest in POE1 has four outcomes including killing all three so this isn't as wild or unprecedented of an idea at first glance.
Open Opposition — Fight the Twilight Order from the outside. Reward: a permanent passive bonus structured exactly like the Bandit quest — plus a tribal warrior-flavored unique weapon reflecting who fought alongside you.
Infiltration — Work from within before the Order collapses. Reward: an exclusive support gem or active skill gem reflecting forbidden knowledge that exists nowhere else in the game. Plus Oriana's full backstory — recontextualizing her from straightforward villain to someone who watched gods destroy civilization once already and decided prevention justified any cost. The boss fight hits differently when you understand her.
Expose and Betray Both — Play both sides and deliver everything directly to the Hooded One. The loneliest path. The most morally grey. Reward: a permanent utility bonus or unique amulet reflecting the Hooded One's trust. Narratively the most interesting. Mechanically distinct enough to be genuinely tempting.
All three paths converge on the same Act 4 boss. The fight is identical. What's different is everything you understand about why it's happening — and the permanent mark your character carries into the endgame.

The Deepest Reward
No single character ever sees the complete picture. The full truth of who Oriana really is, what the Twilight Order actually believed, and why the Beast matters only assembles across multiple playthroughs. Your first character gets one version of events. Your second gets a different angle. By your third you're filling in gaps you didn't know existed.
Every character arrives at the Atlas carrying permanent mechanical consequences from campaign choices. Different vendor pools. Different crafting paths. Different gems and unique items. Different Atlas Passive Skill Point bonuses. A distinct endgame identity built on decisions that actually mattered.

The goal
Fix the slogs. Add faction depth. Let campaign choices shape your Atlas experience and your character identity. Give people the skip option although make engagement an attractive choice.