Last Epoch 1.0 Overview by Game Director, Judd Cobler Last Epoch is Releasing 2024-02-21T17:00:00Z (UTC)! Welcome everyone to the Patch Notes for Last Epoch 1.0! It’s been an amazing road to this point, and it’s unreal to be writing patch notes without using the term “Beta Patch”. With this pat...
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.