TLDR
Please, create guild system or let us create our own “chat rooms” of some kind where we could communicate in smaller communities. This would extremely benefit non-english speakers whose language is not officially in the game.
Background why I am suggesting this and my reasoning
For quite some time already I stream and create ARPG related content in Czech language (not in the game and might not ever be).
With the release coming soon, I am very often asked by my viewers if there are guilds in this game. The reason they ask is actually not the need for a full-fledged guild system, rather than the need for a “chat room” where they (we) could speak in our native language. A place where they could flex with the drop and get authentic reaction in their native language, ask questions right in the game rather than on some discord etc.
I feel that this feature strongly resonates with the players that are not that proficient in english and their language is not implemented in the game - and yet they love the game. At least this is true to my viewers - it is the number one question I’m getting related to the Last Epoch.
As an extra example - this is tbh the only reason why I have a guild in another ARPG game, Path of Exile, and I can’t imagine being without it. The solely reason we have the guild there is that we can chat ingame in Czech language and it works well for that (except that we can’t fit more than 250 ppl there )
This isn’t an awesome solutin but there are several dedicated Discord servers for specific languages. Maybe this helps? Afaik EHG never had intrest in guild or big group (chat) systems.
Yes, Discord servers are an option, but very far from being any good, that is why i posted this suggestion.
There’s way too many cons to using Discord or any 3rd party tool for this, e.g.:
You have to alt-tab
It breaks immersion
You can’t link item in the Discord, you have to figgle with screenshots etc.
You can’t expect immediate reaction on the Discord, while ingame you can
Some players actually don’t like Discod
And I could come up with much more examples like that.
Eg. - even a simple thing like setting up a party is much worse experience when done by 3rd party tools like Discord.
Discord
A: “Anyone wanna party for some Echoes”?
B: “Sure, what’s your ign” → A: “xyz_zzz” → B: opening social, inviting → “Did you spell your ign right?” → A: “Yeaaa, sorry, it is xyz_xxx” → B: opening that social screen again → I guess you get the point by now
or this happens:
3 hours passed since A’s message → B: “Sure, when?” → A: “I’m done for today, maybe another time?”
Ingame:
A: “Anyone wanna party for some Echoes”?
B: right clicking on “Invite to Party” in chat → done, everyone is happy and it took 5 seconds
Even as an English speaker, guild chat has been incredibly useful in curating my ARPG experience, specifically in POE. I dont know why EHG is so resistant in implementing such basic functionality.
It’s not that they’re resistant to it. Mike has said in his stream (or in the recent interview, maybe?) that they want to come up with something new for guilds, so they’re not just a closed group chat like in other games. But he also admitted he wasn’t sure what they could do and that maybe they will just implement it that way.
Basically, something will come in the future when they analyse it better.
Well yea. I’m familiar with what he had said, because every time he said that, I was providing EHG feedback that just having a closed group chat (which I assume would take little dev effort to implement) would be super useful in organising group/guild play if they have no better idea. GGG also had no ideas what to do with Guilds for the longest time but Guild Chat at least allowed me and my friends to communicate between ourselves.
At launch, trying to have conversations between more than 3 - 5 gaming friends will be such a nightmare without guild chat.
They are resistant to it, they don’t want guilds to be a glorified chat roof & a way to trade without any llimits (easy/free access to the guild stash).
Making this kind of things costs Work and resources. May not be a HUGE thing, but is still a thing and it requires work.
It is also a feature found in more well established games, which Last Epoch still not is, even though very popular. It is still as of now, not an official released game yet.
But also with these kinds of groups, they also tends to hold the more so-called Popular people. Ever heard that term Popular?!
I am not sure about closed beta in PoE as Jerle stated, however I believe that PoE added guilds on release in version 1.0 - so the same kind of stage LE is in right now.
Guild stash in LE does not make any sense and would be contradictory with the upcoming faction system - and most importantly - that’s not the point why most of the players I talk with want the guild system. I don’t want guild for trade without limits. I don’t need to trade with my guild mates at all or “resonate” with them and gift them items…
It is kinda simple, yeah - players want to have a chat with guildmates. We seriously don’t need anything else from guilds - at least now. And to not implement it just because it would be lame to have guilds just and only for the chat is just…sad and I feel that it is wrong to think about it in this way.
Not everything has to be special, innovative or one of a kind system - we will be ok with simple guild chat and nothing more
In the stream, Mike said he didn’t want guilds to just be a glorified chat system. He said that they were trying to come up with something new and fun. HOWEVER, he also said that if they can’t come up with anything they might just implement it that way.
Personally, regarding to chat, I’d be happy with just a group chat and a friend chat. That would cover my needs for communication in LE.
I accept that you don’t want to, but if there was a freely accessible guild stash, that’s what it would be used for. The obvious thing to do therefore is to not have a guild stash, but once guilds are implemented with just a chat channel the next thing that would be asked for is a shared stash.
Though they could just have it function as a guild-only AH with the same requirements as the normal AH/trade.
Well, that is actually a fair point and I can see that happening.
I feel like the easiest way would be to have some sort of group chats that one could manage, invite (or kick ) players to that group chat and - that the chat would be permanent across multiple playing sessions (unless you leave, you are kicked out of it or the “owner” of the chat just disband it)
On the other hand you can create exactly that and call it a simple guild system with chat…Or yeah - you can call it a group chat if you don’t want guilds in your game and say it is even better, cause you can be a part of multiple groups!
Some great posts here by DJKiller666, I agree with pretty much everything he said.
The argument “we don’t want guilds to be just chat-rooms, so we won’t have chat-rooms at all” is very weird and unconvincing.
If the issue is to reserve the concept of guilds for something more elaborate later, simply don’t call them guilds. Call them chat-rooms or friend-chats or private-channels or whatever tickles your fancy and keeps options open for the future.
I don’t think they’re saying that. They’re trying to come up with something interesting. If they can’t, they might implement it this way. Or they might come up with something new and still implement the chat rooms. I think we won’t have anything like this yet because there were other priorities, not because they don’t want it.
Possibly, but it would also be a support’s (as in EHG’s support/customer service team) nightmare. Owner gets pissy with someone for not being suitably subservient or something, kick’s person who then complains. Same with Guilds in general TBH. Glad I don’t have to deal with that shit.
Well, it’s what they’re doing. They’ve said they want Guilds to be more than just “glorified chat channels” & they’re not adding Guilds until they can figure out something “revolutionary”. Like Adventure Mode, or Maps/Delve/Heist/Grifts/etc. Revolutionary stuff like that thata’s never been done before.
I played a bit of FF14 a few weeks ago and I was pleasantly surprised that the game offered me to join a “Welcoming channel” in chat. A channel where new players and veterans that accept to help and be friendly are put together.
It was a simple but well-implemented idea. The vibe was great and people were patient. That really helped me and improved my moment with the game.
If channels becomes too crowded or toxic, maybe EHG should consider it ?
Would love to see guilds or similar aswell, specially with this new faction system coming up would be super cool to be able to create “private SSF guilds” or something like that.
)
Glad I don’t have to deal with that shit.