Yep, as long as this absurd mechanic is in the game we’ll keep seeing those posts. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Unfortunately, i don’t see a “Vote”-Button for this important topic, so please consoder my reply a “+1 vote” - -i would very much appreciate an auto-pickup-feature for shards!
1 Like
“I have to pick up items in a loot focused game” isn’t something I’d describe as absurd, but setting that aside, there doesn’t need to be a new post on this every other day when there are plenty of posts already complaining about it for people who don’t like it to participate in. Making a new one is just spam.
Given the recent influx of players and new feedback, we have recently discussed this again in a game design meeting. We are not interested in implementing this at this time. We may discuss it again internally but do not expect this to change by launch.
We believe that it’s important for the feel of the game loop to have enemies fairly frequently drop items that you want to take an active action to pick up, but which you don’t have to take time to inspect to work out whether it’s good for you. However there are times where it feels bad at the moment, especially when it’s just one shard, so we’re planning to have them drop slightly less frequently and in larger groups on average. We’re also planning to add more of a sink for shards you don’t want, so that it feels less futile to have picked up a shard that you aren’t planning to use and already have hundreds of.
10 Likes
That’s awesome Mike. Any thoughts on making the diameter range of the pick up a little larger?
Pretty sure I saw something to do with that going in recently.
3 Likes
There should also be a timing minigame and if you miss you don’t get any shards. If you miss three times in a row you fail the echo.
1 Like
I can understand that. But is there a reason why the team don’t consider moving to the shards an active action?
To me, moving to the shards is an active action that fits the gameplay flow and thus feels good. Conversely clicking on a bit of orange text that I don’t have time to read breaks the core gameplay flow… which is why it feels bad.
6 Likes
After 5th fail the game auto uninstalls and Diablo 3 is installed in its place as punishment.
I like the idea of an active action button you can use to pick up shards near you, but then it moves to how do we prevent the player from having to constantly spam this, or making a macro that constantly presses it. Is there a cooldown on it? Would that feel worse?
I think just providing the option to make the shards easier to click is a good middle ground. I personally would like a 5 second cooldown button that will pick up shards. Enough that macroing it is not perfect but still useable.
Thats great and all and I dont mean to sound douchy but doesnt the general consensus of the community playing the game for hundreds or even thousands of hours hold more weight than the feel of the people developing the game. Im guessing you all are very busy and almost certainly dont actively play like we do. Theres nothing pleasant or fruitful feeling about this, it was the one thing I hated about poe, having to click on hundreds of thousands of currency items. At the absolute least you should significantly increase the vacuum radius. Also adding in sinks of any kind is really not a solution to this.
9 Likes
I guess I’m just looking for the Grim Dawn gameflow where after fight you zip around the map and the bulk loot flies to you. You still need to take an action… but its that case the action just feels like controlling your character in the game… rather than an immersion breaking ‘click on text’ action that we currently have.
Not Mike, obviously, but A) No, it doesn’t, and B) That’s not the general consensus of the community.
Currency items in POE and affix shards in LE are absolutely not comparable to each other.
While we’re on this topic again. I thought of a unique idea for a “loot goblin” while in monoliths.
There’s a crystal of a specific group of shards (say a purple crystal that has void damage, void pen, and +level of various void skills) and you start the process of mining it to break it down to shards. Once you begin mining it waves of enemies spawn to stop you.
Could be one of the fun distraction events added to monoliths and intrinsically ties out with the systems already in place. (Don’t know the lore for crafting shards though)
Edit: also the shard pickup at the end would be a little reminiscent of lightless arbor. I would also remove the shard shrine when this gets added.
It’s not a general consensus though.
To be fair, they are equivalent within their own crafting schema.
The question was very clearly rhetorical, its obvious it doesnt but thanks so much for your clarification
You cant honestly think this, im not talking about the random person trying the game out who has played 20 mins total or the super casual that plays a couple hours a week. But if you poll 100 ppl if they preferred the proposed or the current shard pickup mechanic how many would say they love clicking thousands of shards so keep it? Maybe 10 ppl, half of those 10 would be just trolling or mis-clicks likely so 5 total?
In this context they are identical. Items that drop by the tens or even hundreds of thousand that are tedious to have to click on.
Im taking you seriously but the more I respond the more I think you are just messing with me.
4 Likes
Sure I can, and here’s how: A few dozen people complaining is not a reflection of the general consensus of the community, for reasons including the extremely small portion of it that’s here, and the well known phenomena that angry people are more likely to use forums, whereas content/happy people are more likely to just be playing the game.
Yes, if you were to put an survey question in front of people that’s extremely loaded to solicit a viewpoint that agrees with yours, I’m sure that lots of people would agree with you. The reality of an objective attempt to survey the actual community (not the forums), though, would not be that most people “love clicking shards so keep it”, but rather that most people don’t care either way.
No, they’re not, for several reasons:
- In POE, currency items don’t vacuum.
- In POE, not picking up most currency items (again, individually) is a bad idea, especially if you’re going to do any crafting of any kind. In LE, so many more shards drop than you will ever use - including for affixes you will never use - that you can skip picking them up a large portion of the time, especially if you have to go out of your way to do so, and never be negatively impacted by it.
1 Like
I agree with that - EHG has actively asked for feedback, suggestions and player-participation in the development of LE - so i think, the aformentioned point IS of relevance.
I would happily give up 5 passive points in the generic class tree for a passive that activates auto shard pickup and increasing the radius.
9 Likes
When I first started playing Last Epoch and experienced my first vacuum, i thought “oh thats neat i dont have to click a thousand of these”.
350 hours in and I actually like it more now.
As I got deeper into the game, I started using more restrictive loot filters, so I dont see as many equippable items drop.
When shards drop, I have a moment of excitement if there is a rare one but often I’m fighting something else and am focused elsewhere.
When I pick the shards up, I have an opportunity to slow down and think about how they could be used. Of course, I don’t do this every time, but I can. All the shards are different shapes and colours and theres a theme apparently, though I haven’t quite figured it out yet. Future shards might be different shapes!
The sound effect when I transfer shards to my materials inventory is a satisfying shoom. Beneath the shoom, it feels a little crunchy, like a bag of coins being moved. I could be making that part up.
From a design perspective, because shards are items and are not auto-collected, they offer some interesting future options. For example, they might be combined together in some way in the inventory. Or, a skill might interacts with items on the ground. A shard might also be used as an idol!
There’s a lot to lose with an auto-pickup and it would be harder to go back after it were done. Like Joni Mitchell said “you dont know what you’ve got 'til its gone”.
I’m really looking forward to the planned changes Mike mentioned. I think a bigger radius and fewer single shard drops will have a very positive impact on the way this mechanic feels.
2 Likes