oh wait. ;)

We may as well say why fix Atheon, it;s more fun to fight him; why fix the Templar, Cheesing him removes all the teamwork; why have a hidden treasure chest, people will block teleport for the fun of it.

It works for us, but for the population at large it's a loot game and that means you need to think about where your carrot and stick are driving behaviors.

Designing for the ideal player who likes finding new challenges "just because" is nice but won't hold up one single day in the real world. PoE 2.0 will immediately become "Treasure Farm the easiest path while ignoring all the others" unless you take a bit of control and force new experiences on them. And even then you're going to be flooded with Youtube videos of people bailing if they get a boss who is a smidge harder than the ideal path.

PoE 2.0 could retain the rotating modifiers, so each boss fight would be slightly different 1 week to the next. This would help mix things up in terms of experience and difficulty (the easiest path one week wouldn't be the easiest path the next week).

Sometimes, empowering the player with the ability to make choices is inherently compelling. Players will take different routes simply because they can.

You realize you're talking about the same people that would willing spend hours upon boring hours standing outside a cave shooting enemies right?

I don't know. I'd really like to see some numbers/studies to see if people need an incentive to bother finding/trying other routes. Perhaps an incentive at the end is a deterrent to exploration.

I think that some people would probably just go down the default path a couple of times, and that's it. But I think people (like us) who play a lot of Destiny will naturally try to find new things to do. If you've already beaten the default path 4 times, why wouldn't you try to search for some of the alternate paths so you could see the other boss fights?

If that doesn't end up being enough, a few hidden Ghosts might help :)

Then people would whine and complain about gating, artificially increasing the amount of time required to level gear. I agree, I like your idea of giving an incentive to fight other bosses.

Why couldn't the incentive be "I haven't fought this boss before and want to try something new?"

I like the idea of the group being able to decide exactly which bosses they fight on a case by case basis. I could see this being a bit problematic in matchmake groups, though.

I'm good with that too, I just want to make sure that there is something that keeps people from deciding exactly to fight the exact same set of bosses every time (shades of not preventing templar teleports and running past most of a strike). Perhaps if each boss dropped a different kind of currency that you need to level items P)

Then people would whine and complain about gating, artificially increasing the amount of time required to level gear. I agree, I like your idea of giving an incentive to fight other bosses. Maybe this could be done by randomly picking which of the next bosses have a chest drop & indicating it somewhere over the exit doors which it will be? That way they could choose if they want an easier boss on the way to the end or an additional loot drop.

Can we have a jump puzzle for one of the 'bosses' please? Maybe some gorgons too? ;) (I'm serious here, I love those bits of the VoG & how they change things up).

I like the idea of the group being able to decide exactly which bosses they fight on a case by case basis. I could see this being a bit problematic in matchmake groups, though.

I'm good with that too, I just want to make sure that there is something that keeps people from deciding exactly to fight the exact same set of bosses every time (shades of not preventing templar teleports and running past most of a strike). Perhaps if each boss dropped a different kind of currency that you need to level items P)

One problem I foresee is people picking the "right", "easy", or "Best" path and never doing anything else.

I like the idea of the group being able to decide exactly which bosses they fight on a case by case basis. I could see this being a bit problematic in matchmade groups, though. A possible solution that I mentioned in another post is to have 2 versions of PoE 2.0: the primary "quest" version, and then a stripped down matchmade version that just picks a few encounters at random and throws you in.

It's a problem to take away the matchmake level 28. As someone who's leveling up a character from scratch on Xbox it's a very welcome part of the game and a useful break from strike playlist.

Fair point. Perhaps a 3rd, lower difficulty setting?

I don't like escort missions, and I never will. I can't forgive them for the death of my boy.

I don't usually like them either, but they worked really well in Mass Effect 3 for a few reasons. From my other post:

"First of all, the thing you are escorting can't die, so that's a big frustration out of the way. And the drone in ME would actually attack enemies if it was fully powered (your entire team was standing around it). This is another cool feature, IMO.

Also, the way you complete the escort is somewhat flexible. If your entire team crowds around the ghost, it will be riskier (you're all somewhat exposed) but the ghost will move faster. Alternatively, you could have 1 or 2 guardians handle the escort duties while the rest of the fireteam provides cover from a safe spot."

Ghost scanning terminal sounds suspiciously like talky key missions from vanilla destiny. I like the idea of special and optional objectives, but not defending the ghost while he scans.

Scanning a terminal to unlock a branching path was just an idea off the top of my head... I didn't imagine a scenario where you would then have to stand around and wait while the ghost takes its time... more just a quick simple scan to trigger the alternate path. But other objectives could fill this roll just as well, if not better.

If you saved Falco back in the city within a set amount of seconds, the game would actually force you through the waterfall. Still, you had to do something that didn't seem obvious.

Sick burn on Falco. Saving him would be downright antithetical. P)

It's a problem to take away the matchmake level 28. As someone who's leveling up a character from scratch on Xbox it's a very welcome part of the game and a useful break from strike playlist.

I'm all about it becoming more designed by lore. I'm sure you're tired of me talking about how stupid having a vex gate in a prison is every time we go to the vex room. Open ceilings into space are also pretty questionable.

This seems like a lot of change. it might make more sense to have a different activity that follows this model.

WOO! Checkpoints!

I don't like escort missions, and I never will. I can't forgive them for the death of my boy.

Ghost scanning terminal sounds suspiciously like talky key missions from vanilla destiny. I like the idea of special and optional objectives, but not defending the ghost while he scans.

Because I was.

Buy or don't buy TTK. I'm all about letting the market decide.

I don't care except I'll miss playing with you.