For those that don’t want to open the Google doc file, here it is:
Time Splinters
An exploration into Last Epoch’s Monolith of Fate, its issues with player agency, and a proposed solution.
By Ejz2002
Section 1: Monolith and its current problem
Last Epoch’s Monolith endgame is a very good base to start with, it is simple for players to understand, offers repeatable and diverse endgame content, and is cohesive with the rest of the game. Yet the system suffers from a glaring problem, its complete and utter halt of player agency and choice.
Up until later levels the experience and choices for players is one of the best in video games, no contest. The choice, agency, and satisfaction that comes with progressing one’s core ability set and passives is a gameplay loop many other games try and fail to achieve. But at these later levels (about 70-75) both leveling and player choice slow dramatically, core abilities are either fully or nearly fully specced, passive points become fewer and slower to gain, and the progression changes mainly to gearing. This is not a unique situation to Last Epoch, quite the opposite, every major arpg, Diablo III, Grim Dawn, and Path of Exile shares this “problem” as it is generally necessary to keep endgame balanced, sustainable, and rewarding. The problem lies in that the current main endgame mode of Last Epoch is substantially lacking in player agency.
Last Epoch’s monolith endgame is a number of paths the player must follow and choose which areas to enter and complete, this does seem to give some player choice as the direction and areas players go is up to them, but in reality, often fails in having that choice be meaningful. Going after specific rewards is often up to a dice roll, sessions of monolith farming can either be exciting or painfully tedious based on the areas randomly chosen for the player, where time can either feel greatly rewarded or utterly wasted. Searching 30 timeline areas for a single unique/set shield node and then not even getting the reward you wanted feels awful.
This is an inevitable flaw of any rng based endgame system as players cannot simply be handed the rewards they want without any random factors. As if they were rewards would come too easily and thus no longer feel truly rewarding, the “chase, is why players keep playing, and to take away that chase destroys the very fabric of the Last Epoch endgame. Yet because of the lack of meaningful choices to make in the endgame besides praying for rngesus to bless both your areas and your drops, the monolith can often feel like a slog without any substantial action a player can take to have control over what they are doing and how they are doing it, as opposed to the quicker leveling and passive specing previously filling that role.
The solution lies not in removing rng, but much like how Last Epoch’s crafting system was overhauled, making the rng work for the player more than work against them. If the problems are that player agency slows significantly in the endgame monolith and can often feel like an rng praying simulator, then it makes sense that changing rng to be more consistent while allowing said change to reintroduce more player agency at this stage of the game would do wonders for the endgame monolith system as a whole. Thus, I bring you.
Section 2: Time Splinters and Uncertain Paradoxes
Time Splinters are a new item reward type players can acquire through certain activities (Monolith area completion rewards, random drops, guaranteed dungeon drops) and each one is randomly rolled (potential to allow crafting on them). These random rolls consist of prefixes and suffixes just like items. I believe it would be easiest to first give an example of a potential Time Splinter a player could get.
Heoborean Raider’s Splinter of Frenzy
Item rarity Increased by 111%
Enemies gain 123% increased damage and 87% movement speed
Lasts for 3 areas
Shard creates 2 Sigil reward areas
Shard creates 1 Exalted Shield reward areas
Shard creates 1 Unique/Set area
Areas are more likely to be Heoborean areas
Let’s break this new item type down.
Function: Not weapons, armor, nor trinkets, these are not equipable items but rather ways to manually spawn areas of a player’s choosing. These new items will be placed in new timeline special nodes (like vessels of chaos) called Uncertain Paradoxes, after entering an Uncertain Paradox area and completing the unique objective, players can slot in any Time Splinter they have acquired in the timeline overview menu, this will spawn the reward areas listed on the Splinter to be placed after the Paradox node as well as applying the global modifiers listed in the Splinter’s prefixes for the set number of areas also listed.
Prefixes: There is a reason for this chosen method of prefixes. When considering the best way this can be implemented in game it would be best to have the rarity and enemy difficulty modifiers rather than usually given in smaller doses in each normal monolith areas, but instead having a global rarity and enemy modifier be applied to the timeline for a limited number of areas as to create better balance for Splinters as a whole. This makes it so while Splinter created areas won’t have additional modifiers. But it also means that Splinters a player doesn’t have use for as the area rewards listed aren’t the right type they need or that the enemy types to be encountered in the spawned areas are too hard for their build, aren’t useless for them. As these players can use the Splinter but choose to use their few areas of increased rarity on already existing nodes on their timeline, meaning that players will never have to worry about their splinters being useless, and also allows for creative uses of them, in turn creating even more player engagement with the system.
Suffixes: More self-explanatory. Once again this is subject to change but a maximum of 4 modifiers would create variety in the reward areas spawned and also allowed for the unique design aspect of Splinters often having a certain theme which are more likely to spawn certain kinds of areas with certain kinds of enemies, bringing a thematically interesting aspect to the Splinters besides gameplay itself. Additionally suffixes that add unique/set zones could not have a specific type of unique/set reward type be created but rather that specific area be chosen out of the unique/set reward types chosen for the timeline. For example, a Splinter with a unique/set area spawned suffix used in The Black Sun timeline would have a 50% chance of spawning a shield reward type or a 50% chance of spawning a helmet reward type.
Why this is good for Last Epoch’s monolith system: This introduction simultaneously creates player agency and engagement as well as a reduction to the overall rng of the system while not getting rid of rng entirely. These Splinters would still be randomly rolled (again with discussion of crafting on them) but would give players choices and control over their rng, both in rarity, and areas spawned. Balance is still a very tentative discussion, and it is likely some values would need to be changed for any actual in game release. This system creates new reward types, player agency, a smoother endgame experience, a more fun endgame experience, more rewarding gameplay, player engagement, and overall endgame choice.
A final message to EHG: Please consider this, I’m not saying my idea is perfect, nor that it is the only way to fix monolith’s current issues, but this is a seriously awesome idea that I think not only fixes many of those issues with monolith, but does so in a way that with correct implementation, is not only very feasible, and balanced to keep the “chase” intact, but also content that can be connected to present and future parts of Last Epoch (Like future league/season mechanics being available in Splinter types). If you want to contact me to hear me about my idea, message me on discord (Under the account TheNuggetLord#8461) for more details. I’m very much up for discussion about this game I love and this idea I’m so passionate about.
