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Croquette@sh.itjust.works 3 days agoI know that skip, but it’s not a real solution. Why is it a problem to let people enjoy the gameplay loop without forcing them to go through the pacing of the story?
abysmalpoptart@lemmy.world 3 days ago
I’m not entirely sure what you’re requesting then. The end game monoliths start at level 58, and the lowest level I’ve been able to complete them without dying repeatedly is level 30 or so. The campaign skips start at level 20, and give passive and idol slots. Are you asking for the game to just start your alternates at level 60? I’m not following.
As it stands, you can skip 3/4 of the story if you use the current method. Now that you can skip dungeons and go straight to the dungeon boss, you are easily able to bypass a ton of story, and fairly quickly. I have 6 characters in this season, and i did the campaign skip on each one. You can get past the entire campaign in about 90 minutes with this method now, which doesn’t seem too bad you me. You also get passive points and idol slots for completing the skips. You can actually skip almost straight from the first major part of the ruined era (level 20) all the way to the level 50 era in a matter of minutes. If you’re geared up for this, go for it!
When i said i was contesting it, i was conceding to you that i somewhat agree with the skip function needing improvements. That being said, I do think as they’re adding general game improvements, it is making the idea of having alternate characters much better and easier.
Croquette@sh.itjust.works 3 days ago
Let’s take D4. For all its flaw, you can start a character without having to re-find all the Lilith statues and nothing is locked behind the campaign.
You venture out in hell tides or do a few dungeons to unlock some legendary aspect right off the bat.
This is what I want with Last Epoch. The campaign is essential because it unlocks totem slots and passive points. Taking an hour and a half of content (probably more if you don’t have as much experience as you) I don’t want to do just so I can start playing my character as I want is not fun.
I only have an hour a night max, every few other nights, so these 2-3 hours to “start” a character is 2-3 nights for me.
When a new season start in D4, I name my character, assign my 10 skill points and go do whatever I want. It it takes a min and I’m started and I don’t need prior equipment to do so.
abysmalpoptart@lemmy.world 2 days ago
Yeah but D4 is designed to be an MMO and is open world, where last epoch is linear. It’s hard to try to bake in the exact same mechanics when the games are so different
I’ll reiterate that if you try the skips as designed it’ll be close to what you want. But i agree that it needs improving
Croquette@sh.itjust.works 2 days ago
D4 is objectively a worst game than LE, I agree. But in my situation, when I play looter, I play D4 because I can get right in. I haven’t played this season, but in 2 mins I could be logged in and on my way to do what I like in D4.
D3 already had adventure mode, so the MMO argument is not valid. D4 iterated on that.
In D4, once you’ve unlocked everything in a realm (hardcore or softcore), the unlocks that matter (skill points, obols and paragon) are forever unlocked in or out of season. You don’t need to do renown unless you want the gp reward and the xp boost. It does not block your character to be at its strongest, unlike LE where I need all the totem slots and passive points in the campaign for each char.
I have 150ish hours in both, thoughI haven’t played LE in a while because I don’t have the will to go through the campaign again and the performance isn’t that great. Though it’s mostly because of the campaign. The performance is just another friction to add to that.
To get the skip in LE, I need to get to act 5, skip to act 9 and complete the quests for totems and passives. I need the keys for the dungeon skips as well.
You can start monoliths after your specialization, but you’ll be level 20ish for level 58 content. So you either twink (not possible on the first character of the season), need to know your build extremely well and still do the campaign rewards after that.
In D4, I create my char, jump in the game, do the introductory mission for the season event and play the game as I want.
LE game loop, just like PoE and D4, is what keep people coming in, and the LE get in the way of that for a lot of people. I play looters for the loot, as the genre implies, not the milquetoast story that I am forced to play.
D4 has got the mechanic right for that and other looters could iterate and benefit from the mechanic.