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A review said it requires a server connection in order to play offline?
Not at launch, there will be a true full offline mode.
But not for multiplayer, correct? No LAN coming? I imagine they wouldn’t want to let you play offline when it has the in-app purchases tag.
The in app purchases are entirely cosmetic. The shop is set up to be really player friendly, though. For example, item prices and currency amounts match, and there aren’t any bonuses for buying more at once. You can even buy up to 200 stash tabs with regular in game gold.
There isn’t an option for local LAN play as far as I know.
Cosmetic or not, it provides them an incentive to want to keep you online for multiplayer, so they’re probably not in a rush to add a feature like LAN that’s just plain better for the customer to have.
How much demand is there for LAN play, though? The friends I would want to play with are cities and states away, so we couldn’t use LAN even if we wanted to.
The demand for LAN skyrockets to 100% as soon as it isn’t profitable for the developer to run a server for the game anymore. LAN (or private server, or direct IP connection) games can be played via low-latency VPN when there is no official infrastructure for the game anymore. Devs like to pull out the excuse that LAN isn’t used very often for why it doesn’t get implemented, but it’s a dishonest answer. It does take development resources to build, and playing with official online infrastructure is in fact the path of least resistance, but the death of that infrastructure is inevitable, and even when it’s running, you can run into an issue like Helldivers 2 is right now where it just isn’t reliable. If you want to omit the feature because most people never use it, you may as well design cars without seat belts or air bags. Grim Dawn and Titan Quest will be playable in multiplayer indefinitely into the future, because they have LAN.
ARPGs have basically been live games since Diablo 2 and only gotten farther down that route ever since.
If it is at the point where the developer can no longer justify maintaining the master servers, the game is (generally) dead as a doornail and the “100%” demand is a very small number.
I always prefer to have the option to do whatever I want with a game. But I fully acknowledge stuff like LAN mode for a live game is something that only benefits a small subset of players and is very much about “What happens after we have all lost our jobs?”.
Its the same reason that any studio that claims they will make all the DLC free or remove the DRM or whatever before they shut the doors are, at best, naive. And most likely lying. Because that is the farthest thing from a priority when you are trying to rip the copper out of the walls before you get called in for your layoff.
holy shit! Wonder if it works on linux for real yet. Ill download it and give it a shot on my Steam Deck again.
With proton, it works flawlessly :) . I’ve been playing it for 2 years now.
There was a Linux version, but it didn’t work as good as the windows+ proton version. I don’t know if it’s still maintained or if it got improved since the 0.9 version.
Sweet ill give it a shot. The linux version had a major Graphic driver problem iirc. the player character was invisible.
Oh yeah!! I tried a couple classes and had a whole lot of fun, then I purposefully put it down to wait on 1.0. Have fun everyone!
And yet even with chat disabled, “Welcome to Last Epoch chat!” still pops up every time you change zones, as it has since day 1 of the chat function being forced on users, even users playing offline, sometime last year. And while a bug like that might be irrelevant, it captures the essence of the experience of playing the game perfectly: incompetence and thoughtlessness shine through absolutely everywhere, and nothing works the way it ought to.
I wanted to love this game, but it’s impossible. I’m pretty sure the devs have their hearts in the right place, but they’re not good enough to maintain a game of this type and scope. Even the graphics look like a $5 asset pack from the Unreal store.
Considering that the game is done in unity, the graphics looking like a $5 asset pack from the Unreal store sounds like praise to me, given that they have custom made all the models now.
What a bizarre reply.
As bizarre as someone saying that incompetence and thoughtlessness shine through everywhere.
incompetence and thoughtlessness shine through absolutely everywhere, and nothing works the way it ought to.
I mean the website also feels quite amateurish, as does the art-design. It’s not bad for an indie game, but it seems to want to be so much more.
1.0 is getting a “true offline” mode where there won’t be any chat (and where a connection isn’t required for server authentication). Personally, I quite like the chat and the sense of community it brings (apart from when it’s filled with “D4 bad”) but I can see myself wanting it turned off if the game gets much more popular and attracts a more casual playerbase.
Honestly, though, I feel like that’s such a minor quibble to have - especially for a game still in beta. While Last Epoch obviously doesn’t have the budget behind it that Diablo 4 or Path Of Exile has, I think it’s done a great job of cementing itself as a worthwhile addition to the genre already. The developers have done a brilliant job of coming up with creative solutions to problems (both LE’s own problems and problems that other games have suffered from) and I think they’ve laid a very strong foundation to continue to build upon going forward. The game is mechanically interesting, has probably the most interesting itemisation and by far the best crafting in the genre, and generally feels good to play.
I agree that the art style isn’t as strong as Diablo 4, Path Of Exile or Grim Dawn, but I think it looks much better than a cheap Unreal asset - especially with the lighting overhaul in 1.0. And I’m glad that it isn’t just another dark fantasy setting; as much as I love those kinds of settings (Grim Dawn’s, especially), having the more lush, vibrant style of Last Epoch makes for a nice change.
It’s not a perfect game by any stretch, but I think it’s a very good game and I think it has a lot of room to grow going forward.
I find the graphics to be on par with grim dawn and path of exile, and I don’t feel d4 is a good comparison because the art styles are so different.
FYI the disable chat bug has been fixed for several months now. We’re also getting true offline mode with 1.0 tomorrow. I think the current version of “offline” will still be available, but I’m not certain.
How much have you played the game?
It’s in a very good state, even with the bug you describe which is very low priority and I haven’t even noticed myself, the majority of people play online.
They have made a game that is objectively better than D4 in some areas, I think that’s pretty good for a small studio and saying they are incompetent and thoughtless just sounds like back seat driving to me.
Interesting, but the implementation feels a bit meh. This implies traded items are sub-par, right? Since you get better items if you join the faction that causes them to be non-tradeable.
As I understand it, the loot for the selffound faction is better in a sense that it’s what you want for your build (since you can customize your drops to an extent). On trade, you will also find good loot overall, but not necessarily fitting your build (so you trade it away, and buy the stuff you want).
Just from this screenshot, it seems that good loot will drop more frequently if you choose to disable trading, to make up for the lost opportunities I guess.
Item drop rate, and chance for higher quality items will be higher. But that is to make up for the fact that you won’t have access to the entire aggregate market of drops. The highest tier item that can drop in solo mode is equivalent to the highest tier item that can drop in trade mode. But in solo mode your chances of actually seeing it drop for you are higher.
Just to be clear, which faction you choose does not impact who you can group with. Items that drop because you’re in circle of fortune will require that faction to use that item, but the base item drops won’t require either faction. You can even give items to party members that were present when the item dropped (like D3), or if you party with the same people often you’ll get special materials that will let you give them items even if they weren’t there when it dropped.
The whole system is a really creative solution to how to balance loot for both trade and self found players.
Yeah, I’m really happy to see them trying something different to add some balance
