An idea of some kind of QoL for lazy or casual players: could we consider a way to have temporary heroes?
Sometimes, we see a build that looks rather nice but we’re not really sure. The best way to know is to play it. So it would be nice to be allowed to create a hero, give them a suitable level, give them gear and specialized skills. A fully grown hero.
Then, we would be able to play this hero in Monoliths and in a specific version of the Arena, with no ladder. The only goal would be to play this hero for maybe one hour or two and see if we like the playstyle.
Then the hero would be deleted and would let nothing behind, all related to them would vanish. But we would know if we like the playstyle of the build and if we want to invest time to build an existing normal hero.
This would avoid having to respec and regear a hero just to see we don’t like the build and have to revert all changes. Or it would avoid to create a new hero and level it high enough to benefit the new build.
Would that be something acceptable and compatible with the spirit of the game?
how is that supposed to work with specific gear needed for a build?
i dont think that would fit in a game like this.
i think to level your char is part of the journey and maybe on the way you find a playstyle you like even if you dont like the build you wanted to try in the first place.
It would require an editor that could provide all this.
But agreed, I’m not sure it’s a good idea. It’s a QoL trick that would be very useful sometimes, but I’m not sure it’s suitable for a game like this. Just shooting the idea…
The only implementation that comes close to this i could think of would be something i already suggested a couple of times before.
A Trainings Room Enviroment, with maximum skill points and passive points.
You can change skills, masteries and passives as you desire in a specific area with several trainings dummies, maybe even spawn specific mob types that fight you.
Once you leave, everything returns to normal, how it was before you entered that trainigns room.
This feature could be somewhat tied into the “time traveling” aspect, where your hero explores it’s potential futures.
This could be accessible before choosing the mastery in the story.
I don’t think this is something we would be willing to provide - or even allow to be possible.
An ARPG is fundamentally an item hunt, and the rarity of some equipment is one of the reasons people keeping playing; acquiring specific items one of the goals they continue to have. It really isn’t healthy for such games to facilitate people having access - even temporary access - to the most seldom encountered of items without investment. Even for those that never use such a feature, simply knowing it is there - that they can have any item, at any time - will change how they see the game & make the most rare of items feel a bit less special and a bit more obtainable. There are also other side-effects, such as the race to ‘solving’ aspects of the game (e.g. establishing which gear is Best in Slot, which class passives are optimal) being shorter-lived.
We’ve been having conversations internally about preventing offline characters being used for this purpose when the game leaves Early Access. While we don’t yet have anything to announce, it is something we perceive as a problem & it is absolutely on our radar.
Edit: I don’t know if you’ve looked at any yet, but build guides on YouTube might help, @Shtrak.
Yes, I’ve watched many of them, but you don’t have the feeling of playing by yourself. Some builds look amazing but when you play them you can get bored quickly or simply dislike the way to play them.
BTW, thanks for you response. It’s very clear and I must admit I agree with you!
…provide an “Offline Demo Version”, content wise from the very beginning of this game over all 9 chapters, ending on the “End of Time”. But NO Endgame Content and NO futher updates like “normal” ones (balance, QoL, new Items and so on), Leagues and such for it.
-> This way you can hold your promises, so no one looses his offline characters and can futher play with them if intended. And in the End the offline chars will be out of date and no hazard for all the updated content the online version provides.
PLUS 2) …do a paid online only version with all intended kind of stuff plus newest updates (balance, QoL, new Items and so on)…
On summary this way it is less crucial if someone cheats on his offline char and makes some “youtube-stuff” to show us things without all the new and fancy updates coming over time online.
Why would they need to provide an “offline demo version” if they’re intending to provide a full offline version so that people can continue to play their existing offline characters? Only people that have bought the game would have characters to play in it.
I think that’s a reference to being able to modify your offline characters & other things that the devs don’t like rather than an offline version at all.
