I’ve been thinking about how Last Epoch could improve its social aspects and make endgame content, like monoliths, more engaging for group play. I think many may agree that while the monolith runs are a core part of the experience, doing them solo can get a bit monotonous. My main suggestion is to add a Party Finder Interface to the game. This would make it easier for players to find groups for monolith runs or other activities, especially for those of us who might not have a regular crew to play with.
Why a Party Finder Interface?
Social Engagement: By facilitating easier connections among players, the game can encourage a more vibrant community. Shared victories and challenges have a way of bringing people together.
Higher Difficulty, Greater Rewards: Group play naturally allows for scaling up the difficulty of challenges we face. In return, it would be nice to see enhanced rewards that match the increased risk. This balance between risk and reward is a core aspect of what makes ARPGs so compelling.
Accessibility: Not everyone has the luxury of a recurrent group of friends with matching play schedules. A Party Finder would help group play, making it accessible to all, regardless of their social circles or time zones.
Why It Matters:
Playing with others can completely change the game experience, making it more fun and dynamic. Plus, tackling harder content with a group should naturally come with better rewards. It’s about making Last Epoch not just a solo grind but a shared adventure.
The Proposal:
Implement a user-friendly Party Finder Interface directly in the game. This interface would allow players to list their monolith runs or other activities, specify the type of group they’re looking to form (e.g., casual, hardcore, specific farms / objectives), and set requirements or preferences for joining. Players could browse active listings and join a group that matches their interests and goals.
Yes, totally agree with this, Warframe solved this in very elegant way, you just set your session either as Open, Friends only, Solo.
Open - you start a map and anyone who also starting the same map as you (and he is also Open), matchmaker quickly forms these together, it just find ones with reasonable ping range and close difficulty, starts the map and sync the start for whole party. Then anyone can flee or stay in the Party and play together as usual. If the party has less than four, the server again tries to fill-up the party upon next map start.
Friends only - you start a map alone, and anyone from your friends list can hop-in anytime after you. No rules there - you’re open for your friends.
Solo - pretty obvious, you want to play …. solo!
In Warframe, there is a small but cool benefit from this mode - you can pause the game anytime during mission for short breaks (cofee, wc, pizza delivery …).
And thanks to this swiftness and openness, where no one is either forced to any party and also anyone can freely flee that party anytime, the community there is still polite and helpful for so many years even till today.
Wanna fight the map and boss alone? No problem, set Solo. Is it too difficult for you and your friends are offline, set Open and hope. Do you wanna be opened just for friends? No problem.
I would lose my shiz if they added matchmaking, that would be so epic. EPIC!! I love games with matchmaking, meet people, and have fun experiences that can change stagnant content into something more enjoyable simply through fun grouping scenarios.
I don’t disagree with you but as is, when I group with people, we run into so many issues and have to individually close and restart the game/Steam/etc that I don’t think this can be implemented very well, yet.
-They have also addressed looking into group members sharing monolith maps, etc which is nice. At least they are thinking about it all.
-I just think they have a lot of tweaking though before this can be viable. I have no clue how often you have tried to do various activities with other people but as is, it can be a real pain.
