Dear EHG,
Thank you for always listening to your community and taking feedback. I dont write much but this issue is very dear to my heart. As a person that has spent hundreds on POE, until I quit due to loot boxes and other scummy monetization things, I had alot to say on this topic. The Cosmetic store changes are very welcome. One of LE’s greatest strengths has been having something for everyone and a responsive dev community. There is one more issue that I beg you to please look into and address with cosmetics. The issue of offline players losing access to cosmetics they have purchased.
As it stands, players who supported the game with supporter packs and play offline have basically been robbed of what they legitimately paid for seeing as the points they spent cannot be redeemed and used offline. A good portion of your players are offline players myself included. Pet cosmetics that have been available offline for years already, overnight they have been removed from our accounts. That is not right.
You are worried about offline players getting them for free? If someone was going to do that rather than support the developers, they were never going to pay for them in the first place offline or not.
Following this reasoning, you might as well go back on your word to have true offline mode. True Offline mode means the game can be pirated doesn’t it? Does that mean no more true offline mode as well? To stop potential piracy?
There is already a last epoch modding community that’s been around for years and not one person has messed with pet cosmetics to get them for free. They don’t support that kind of thing. Please, there must be something you can do. Maybe a few suggestions below:
Implement encryption of some sort to those cosmetic files in the offline client so they cannot be messed with.
I personally don’t care for “True” offline mode, but some do, in this case the compromise would be to require a brief connection to verify cosmetic ownership on each startup if an offline player wants to use cosmetics.
If your stance is to not allow offline players access to what they have paid for, (a mistake in my opinion) then make the cosmetics earnable in offline gameplay through challenges.
Another solution is to provide tools for offline players to Mod their own cosmetics since they can’t be allowed to access and support dev created ones.
Please offer a compromise. Do not be your way or highway. We want to support this game. You have allowed us to enjoy it in our own way. Don’t take that away from your offline base now. This game is a labor of love and is community driven. Please compromise on this issue.
Probably because there weren’t any in the game (besides the one everyone got for buying it in early access) until recently (the supporter pack pets).
You have allowed us to enjoy it in our own way. Don’t take that away from your offline base now.
You might be playing the wrong genre of game if the only thing allowing you to enjoy it are cosmetics. If this is that much of an issue for you, don’t buy them. Simple. Sending a message with your wallet is the easiest way to get the point across.
Pets were in the game. Everyone got them for supporter packs. Dont like it dont buy it is not constructive here. Enjoying a good looking character or not wanting to see my acolyte run around in rags does not mean I am playing the wrong genre either. Be constructive and offer helpful thoughts.
I must of missed it as my brain is fried atm, can you link me to where EHG made the statement that offline characters cannot use mtx? Thanks.
What is the rationale? I know there are pirated copies out there, but they never would be able to access the mtx shop in the first place. What purpose is this serving?
I really wish they’d just understand this. It feels like exactly the same approach as what led to the initial mtx stuff: they’re following advice from people who have been in the industry doing the same old stuff over and over, and it’s changing how they come across as a company. 0.8 ehg best ehg.
I don’t think players not buying something that wasn’t available to them, in the first place, is going to get the point across. My refusing to buy dinner for Scarlett Johansson isn’t going to get the point across that she should start dating me.
Patch 0.9 will not include the MVP of the MTX store, however some functionality support for it will be set up, including the online cosmetics panel. As the appearance tab is only available for online players, legacy cosmetics will not be available for offline characters. You will still be able to equip legacy cosmetics for online characters.
With the addition of online multiplayer, our plan for offline mode is to create a truly offline mode. This means that until you click the “Play Online” button, no data is sent across the internet. No account login, no account check, nothing. Fully offline. This means offline (which will become fully offline) cannot support connective features such as chat, leaderboards, or the cosmetic shop.
Bought 100$ supporter pack and wanted to regularly buy cosmetics, but since I only play offline feels like I wasted 65$ since I could have just bought the game at 35. One possible solution is that mtx be account-wide and treated almost like an update or hotfix when purchased (am not in software dev so dont know if this is feasible at all, dont jugde)
Even offline players will receive updates, patches and hotfixes so why lock us out of a chance to support the devs and make our build look nice.
Devs, I implore you to look into this and not just ignore it.
PS and no - I will not “just play online” as some on this forum will likely say
With all due respect that sounds like an excuse. There is no such thing as “True offline”. If it were so, the game would never get patches or content updates. Ever. This feels like a decision taken with monetary interests rather than technical considerations.
When the game was launched, you promised offline mode. As a result two types of people supported the game. Online players and offline players. There was no mention of no cosmetics for offline. Are you saying its really okay to retroactively remove the cosmetics people purchased and already had on their account with no recourse?
For integrity’s sake you would leave the old cosmetics where they were (accessible offline) and then say future ones will be available only online. Or you would offer a onetime offline purchase so end users can spend the cosmetic points they acquired with early supporter packs, then you close up shop and go online only. You would not retroactively smash and grab and take away what people paid for with just a “you are offline, deal with it” sentiment. Thats wrong and its theft. Its plain theft. Thats taking the kids lunch money and shoving him aside and telling him to go cry to his mommy. That is wrong. It is wrong whichever way you want to see it. That’s not cool EHG. That is really not cool.
We actually looked into this, both as DLC, and as Steam Inventory Items. There was a few reasons. The first was doing it as DLC, Every individual store item would need to be an individual DLC. You can’t ever remove them, or they stop working (and some other issues that arise in removing them), which means if you can imagine many years down the road, that’s going to be an extremely long list of DLC’s. The next issue we found was that in-game currency can’t be used to purchase DLC’s on Steam, which means all the currency coins we previously issued couldn’t be used, which we won’t do. With Steam Inventory, it had the same issues as being offline, in that they require an internet connection regardless to verify, so wouldn’t get any closer to working for a true offline mode.
I don’t know if I understand correctly but I’d be fine if I had the option to either connect to the internet to verify my cosmetics or to play without them if I can’t.
Your argument brings abolutely nothing to the table.
„play something else” or „dont buy them” are literally the cancer or argumentation. Your input is zero, yet you pretend as if presenting a coherent argument.
Friendo, if OP made a post about the cosmetics, then maybe they do matter. So arguing they dont is just idiotic.
If offline players can view chat and interact with other players, then they have (limited) access to the server. So why not have a protocol specifically for them?
If you cant, or not able to, then why not make it fully offline? As in you dont even have to connect to the internet. You know, what offline used to actually mean.
