Over the past several major content releases, we’ve heard consistent feedback from our community around patches feeling “solved” too early; specifically, that early access to character builds and systems has led to highly optimized guides being published before players have a chance to explore and theorycraft for themselves. We understand how important discovery is to the Last Epoch experience, and we want to preserve that sense of excitement and exploration for the entire community.
As a result, we’re making some changes to our Community Testing (CT) Program and how early access is managed for content creators and media partners.
First and foremost, we want to express our sincere gratitude to the creator community that has grown to include more than 1,000 passionate individuals. Your contributions have been instrumental in shaping the game’s visibility and helping players of all types engage with Last Epoch. These changes are not a reflection of any one group or creator, but rather a necessary step toward ensuring a more balanced and engaging launch experience for all players.
Going forward, media partners and content creators will no longer be eligible to participate in the CT Program. Instead, access will be limited to datamined information; intended to support tools like build planners and databases. This means that all guides, videos, and related content will need to be created using the live client when it becomes publicly available, aligning with when the rest of the community gains access.
We know this is a meaningful shift, and we remain committed to working alongside our creator partners in new and creative ways. Our goal is to continue fostering a healthy, collaborative environment where all players, whether content creators, hardcore theorycrafters, or newcomers, feel equally empowered to explore what Last Epoch has to offer.
Thank you for your continued support, and we look forward to sharing the journey with you in Season 3 and beyond.
While I think this is a great change to add discovery to the game, this really should not be done without other big changes. Every content creator is now going to feel forced to go into offline mode the moment the patch goes live and we will have the game “solved” within a day. PLEASE add a delayed release to offline mode so that we can also enjoy the game and discovery. The same thing you are trying to prevent will still happen if this is not also done.
I’m not sure why offline mode is such a big deal for benchcrafting. It’d still take time and would take time away from playing the real game in the live server, no?
I think they should do what the other arpgs do and make the new items and content season only. Sure you could test minor things on non season from balance but that helps a lot with that.
I believe that this would solve a lot of the issues. However, instead of everyone playing new builds and experimenting we will just have everyone playing old builds that are tried and tested. People that want guides, will still look for a guide.
Oh alright CT players spoiling builds…
And why I’m thinking about falcon OP crap popping up every season?
Don’t ever trust falconers in CT if they’re talking about balance
What % of the player base is playing offline? Can’t be very many. With that in mind you are saying let’s not solve a problem so we don’t alienate a very small portion of the community. Let’s instead continue to have the same problem while alienating a much larger portion of the community. Makes sense.
So that’s essentially an NDA for the CT Program? Honestly, doesn’t seem too bad in my opinion.
The race to get out “content” as fast and quick as possible has been bothering me personally in the past anyway. Any new hyped game comes up, you’ll have some “creator” uploading a video with a thumbnail of the final boss within the first 3 days.
Obviously, an early access like the CT Program would be misused for that purpose.
