RE: What kind of in-game events would you like:
Things that are interesting and change the core gameplay, limited time and possibly “voided.” Things like seasonal mechanics present in every zone (rotating) like Path of Exile has done as races (but without the race part being required), or loot enhanced enemies like Diablo has done with its loot goblins. Just things that are interesting and change up the core experience particularly when things slow down 2.5-3 months into a season.
Finding items is a fun activity for me. At the start of a season, you can launch a quest:
Find 100 figurines, say, owls.
All players who start a new season and find all the figurines can receive a lizard skin. Now, instead of lizards emerging from the ground, an owl appears from the sky, dropping feathers instead of a tail.
The first 1,000 players to find the figurines receive an owl as a pet, and the first 100 receive one with a special effect. The numbers here are just examples; they can be changed.
I think the most important thing that EHG can bring to the community is consistency in communication. Consistency in pace, consistency in scope, and ideally aimed at the core community with updates on development wins and development struggles. Updates should follow a trend and be predictable. Monthly is a great pace, I think. Additionally a small community-aimed survey a week or so before a monthly update could help guide the content of that update towards desired topics.
Once a better and more stable dialogue between community and development can be established then i think people will be overall happier.
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As far as streams go, I really like Mike but I’ve never liked streams where the person answering questions is playing the game while answering them. All it does is cut into the time for answering them. But that’s a me problem and I understand why it’s done. Ideally one person would be playing while another answers questions.
I like the idea of official races, preferably with custom cosmetics for the winners. Sadly, the unofficial Maxroll races barely got any participation. But maybe there’s a way to let companies sponsor official races but have them advertised when logging in and such.
It may simply not work with Last Epoch though as far too many players and content creators treat it as a one week or less visit between playing games they like more.
The biggest issue facing this game is the super long seasons causing people to lose interest and maybe even forget about the game. And now that console development is interfering with season delivery, the situation is getting worse. It feels like there is always an excuse for why seasons take so long to deliver.
I might be in the minority here but I found the Normal, Greater, and Challenging Rift game play of D3 to be really fun to progress through. I know the monolith system does something similar but it feels awkward going from map to map. Almost like progression is reset every few mins. Which hurts my momentum and you don’t see rewards as frequently.
Seasonal challenges would be awesome. Don’t even need mtx rewards if it’s too much effort. Just some way to display how many we’ve done per season (like totems in poe1) would be awesome
i like that they directly ask us what they want. but on the flipside i can see how some questions have answers that feel… incomplete or out of touch.
for example what give aways do people want?
i feel like their marketing team failed massively if they havent identified what players want in this regard and at the same time its detrimental to the company.
- supporter packs. no other game hands out supporter packs as part of give aways. in fact. the proper thing to give away are IN GAME COSMETICS. you guys fucked up with your terminology badly on this. also supporter packs are badges of honor. i want to proudly display to people that i supported the devs. giving away free supporter packs is devaluing the essence of what a supporter pack is. if supporter packs are given away easily, we will have players flaunting their supporter packs that they received for free. might as well delete all forum badges/titles.
second. merchandise? WHO DOESNT WANT FREE MERCH? thats a no brainer. but can krafton keep the game afloat by giving out free merch? i’d probably participate in activities that has a high chance of me getting free merch or using low effort. but even then its “fake engagement”.
third. in-game items. as someone that is against “pay for advantage” mechanics. rewarding players with in-game items feels… wrong. theres a massive disconnect between the marketing dept and their understanding of the game fans.
and thus i refuse to answer this question.
i would also add. tho i love engagement between devs and players. do you guys even have enough resources to do so?
one harsh lesson i learned was from d4. before the game released the devs constantly shared their vision and wip in posts/vids. it got me hyped. i saw the passion, i saw the vision. i had originally given up on diablo franchise at that point but it got me into d4 for a time.
now? their recent campfire chats have a lot of “unanswered questions” where in their qna, many questions players asked were answered with non answers or skipped entirely. in one dev chat players/streamers actually realized they WASTED all of our time just going over stuff that was already previously revealed. a nothing burger.
my feedback is not that the game needs more marketing. my feedback is the game needs to be better. put more resources in development.
if you’re going for the “we’ll market the game and get a new audience” approach, you already lost to d4. they already cornered the market on that. a lot of casuals are very shallow people. LE already lost these casuals to d4 due to the visuals. you can forget traditional “marketing to new players”. even if you manage to build up buzz to attract people to have a look at LE. they come, look and see and might not like what they see. thats wasted effort.
i have mentioned. d-likes are a niche game genre. we are a closely knit bunch. if you guys make the game better. PLAYERS will sing praises. STREAMERS will amplify these praises. you practically have free marketing. but the cost comes at making your game better. fuck marketing. marketing at this point is more akin to getting peoples attention, having them come over to look, and when they look they will say, “oh i’ve already seen that, its not what i like”.
the current fans already like what you have. but you need more to get more fans.
What kind if in-game events would you like?
I would like Eterra and Orobyss to have more impact in the game world. I would love it if there were moments where Eterra blesses you in a monolith, like a shrine buff, but indefinite for the echo you are clearing. Things like increased chance to find items, or a “buff everything” but one that lasts the echo. It would be nice to see Eterra whisper words of encouragement to you like “You are never truly alone, Traveller…”
Now the opposite side of this, Orobyss not being an expected element like in the weaver tree, but instead a surprise ambush encounter that is impactful, lore-deepening. You hear a loud crack, fissures form in the echo you’re clearing, then again, harder, louder and the cracks get worse and then a disorted sort of sound as the fabric of that reality rips open and Orobyss decends… angry. “You will not halt oblivion… Traveller!” and defeating him summons Eterra to seal him again who then grants you a bounty for stopping him from escaping.
Fix bugs.
Seasonal content - playing a new class or skill is fun, but not enough to keep it fresh after you tried 1-2 builds per class,
Having 4-6 mo until next season is not a major problem, it is far worse to get something rushed bugged
Expectations - having a release date, even approximative one, is far better than none, it helps people to have realistic expectations of when we can actually enjoy the game again.
Regarding in-game events, anything is good provided it doesn’t take much effort to ignore if you don’t like them. Feeling forced to interact with an event or mechanic I don’t enjoy would kill my enthusiasm to play a new season pretty quickly.
It’s currently part of the reason I’ve gone back to sitting on the fence about this game. I don’t like having to go into a Weaver’s Tomb or Dino cave and spend as much time or more in there than I would with the echo I was in. I also don’t like them due to the dead ends, loop backs, slow spawning mobs in them that make them take so long. Yet I feel forced to do them for Weaver’s Idols, Weaver’s points/progression, access to T8 and primal uniques/items.
Core mechanics to the game are locked behind things I currently dislike, my friends feel the same. You don’t have to get rid of them but could someone at least look at streamlining them if they’re core to the game and expected to come up frequently? Cut down the size/length of the Tombs, let weaver’s echos have a small chance to spawn naturally (without weaver’s tree points), let us interact with the Dino/Hunter without having to go into a cave.
YT videos that showcase the process on how 1 bug unequivocally certainly without-a-doubt was PERMANENTLY DELETED from the game and can NEVER return in future patches. That would be cool
More challenge items similar but different to cursed veterans boots
- End game content. Things that can be added to the game without making it boring. OK, to have content that takes us away from the epochs. No OP content. No too much loot. Nerfing is more difficult than increasing power.
- Continue improving graphics and performance. Improved graphics will make cosmetics more appealing.
- New class → Expansion: New epoch (maybe one where there are gunslingers or some other advanced tech). At least gradually lead to this.
Why not start by finishing the game before constantly adding more and more things, and working (very poorly) on so many things at once? The seasons, new mechanics, balance, an expansion that isn’t really an expansion, new classes, PS5 version… the campaign isn’t even finished, and the classes don’t even have all their skills. The game keeps getting worse and worse as more things are added on top of an incomplete and shaky base. It still doesn’t deserve a 1.0 status. The seasons were definitely launched way too early. What a shame to ruin such a good game by trying to do too much…