loobkoob

joined 2 years ago
[–] loobkoob@kbin.social 3 points 2 years ago

You're welcome, of course! I'll definitely see about refining it and finding somewhere to post it, that's a good suggestion! It's given me some ideas to discuss in a more broad essay about complexity, depth and accessibility, too.

One criticism I'll add that I didn't mention in my above comment (because I ran out of characters and had to trim some stuff!) is the atmosphere of the game. It's not bad, and some of the level design is really nice, but the game doesn't have a strong tone, aesthetic or level of writing in the way Grim Dawn does, for example (although Grim Dawn is probably the peak as far as atmosphere and world-building in ARPGs goes, I think, so maybe that's not a fair comparison). Last Epoch has some interesting ideas relating to time travel, and it's pretty cool seeing some of the same areas in different eras (plus it's a clever way for them to reuse assets, I imagine), but I'd say it's weaker than other major ARPGs in the story/world-building/atmosphere department. Of course, most people tend to play ARPGs for the gameplay first and foremost, and LE does a great job with that, so it's a more minor criticism from me than it would be in other genres of game.

But yes, definitely look into it!

[–] loobkoob@kbin.social 5 points 2 years ago

It was somewhat less of a knock when they first started making the game; it was a successful Kickstarter project ~5 years ago so it's been in development for a while. For what it's worth, I've got ~250 hours in the game and think it's shaping up really well (you can find my not-so-mini-review elsewhere in this thread).

[–] loobkoob@kbin.social 5 points 2 years ago (3 children)

I've played Last Epoch for ~250 hours (and counting) over the last year since I bought it, so I'll give a mini-review here. The TL;DR is that it feels like a brilliant middle ground between Path Of Exile and Diablo - it has depth and complexity but doesn't have the brutal learning curve that Path Of Exile does. It doesn't have the content variety that Path Of Exile has, but it's also an early access game right now so that's expected. It's a great foundation, their patches have been substantial, their communications tend to feel good, and I feel like they're a good development studio. A lot of the developer insights make it feel like they take very good approaches to problem-solving, too.


The combat feels absolutely fantastic. The animations are smooth and feel modern. It can feel a little "floaty" for some people, but personally I have no issues with the way it feels. It's paced in such a way that fighting regular enemies still feels engaging (unlike Path Of Exile's zoom- and dopamine-fest) but isn't a slog, and more powerful enemies can put up really good satisfying fights. There's a good variety of skills and the way you modify them with the skill tree system can change them significantly. The build depth isn't quite as crazy as Path Of Exile's, but considering most POE players just follow build guides rather than taking their own builds, I'd say that won't matter for most people. And for people who do like creating their own builds from scratch - which I do - there's still plenty of depth to Last Epoch's system.

It's very realistic (and encouraged) for new players to experiment and create their own builds. Respeccing is pretty simple, and the skill systems are simple enough that new players can work it out for themselves, but there are also some interesting combinations and min-maxy things for more advanced players can figure out and build around. Each skill has its own skill tree, and while the trees aren't super complex, there's a good variety of ways to modify each skill. Some of the skills also have interactions with other skills - for instance, Teleport has a modifier that means your next skill has no mana cost; Meteor has one where your Fireball has reduced mana cost for a few seconds after casting it. You can chain that into a skill rotation: Teleport > Meteor (which normally has a high mana cost) > Fireball spam and suddenly you're going to have a much better time with mana sustain, but perhaps need to work out a way to deal with the fact that your movement skill is being used offensively and won't be available for dodging. So the game sort of gently hints at some skill combos like that, but they never feel forced and you still feel smart when you put it all together yourself.


The loot system is good. It has the single best crafting system I've seen in any ARPG, and crafting is absolutely worth your time and a necessity if you're pushing your build as far as it goes. But you need good starting items to work with - you can't just take a terrible item and craft it into something amazing. Crafting lets you upgrade the tiers of modifiers, add new mods if there's space, and sometimes modify items in slightly more spicy ways if you're feeling brave. But items have a "crafting potential" which depletes as you craft on them, so looting items is important.

The legendary item system is also very good. Unique items have their usual fixed stats, but they can have something called "legendary potential", which rolls between 0 and 4. Legendary potential does nothing by itself, but it allows you to combine a purple-tier item with your unique item; the amount of legendary potential you have dictates the number of mods from your purple item that will be randomly added to your unique item. Non-unique items can have 4 modifiers, so being able to create legendary items with the unique stats and powerful regular item stats is a really good end-game chase.

Most unique items are target farmable in the end-game. That's not to say you can get them immediately, but you can target "unique rings" as a reward, for instance, or target a specific boss that can have a chance to drop the item you're looking for. So overall, I think it's a good item system!


I think they've taken a very good approach to problem-solving - their upcoming trade system, for instance, looks (on paper) like it'll fix the biggest issues with Path Of Exile's trade system and Diablo 3's auction house, while also having the benefits of both and while giving players an avenue to progress without engaging with trade at all. (Basically, players join either the trading guild or the "solo" guild. Traders can trade, solo players get a boost to their loot and can target farm things more easily. People can trade with their party/friends separately from this trading system so the whole guild system doesn't matter for co-op play.) It's smart, and that kind of thinking can be seen across multiple systems in the game.

[–] loobkoob@kbin.social 17 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

Especially because it's a lemmy.world community. If it was on a US-specific instance then it'd be fine but, as it is, it's a pretty bad case of US defaultism.

[–] loobkoob@kbin.social 12 points 2 years ago

I'm sure I must be misinterpreting your comment because it reads to me as if you think opposing Russian's invasion is wrong and the result of being gullible...

[–] loobkoob@kbin.social 49 points 2 years ago (5 children)

I mentioned this one to my friends the other day and it took so much convincing before they actually believed me! Definitely an interesting one. Venus also spins the opposite direction to all the other planets in the solar system, meaning the sun rises in the west and sets in the east.

[–] loobkoob@kbin.social 24 points 2 years ago

The whole website needs to be xeeted out of xistence at this point.

[–] loobkoob@kbin.social 2 points 2 years ago

I know multiple queer people who use "faggot" in a way that lets them take ownership of the word rather than allow it to be a slur. But importantly, there's context to them saying it that makes it clear it's not a slur. It'll be among friends who know them well enough, or on dating profiles/kink websites where it's abundantly clear from how they use it and everything else they've written that it's them reclaiming the word.

Your comment doesn't have that context. You're an anonymous stranger in a thread filled with anonymous strangers, and there's nothing about your comment that implies you're not using the word as a slur. In fact, the way you used it was as a pejorative. It comes off as offensive and inappropriate.

[–] loobkoob@kbin.social 24 points 2 years ago (1 children)

If a single one of those niche subreddits disappears, the site will be fine. So, sure, you can argue they're individually irrelevant to Reddit as a platform, I guess. But Reddit having a vast collection of niche subreddits is what keeps the platform alive. Do you think people would be nearly as engaged in the long term if it was only world news, politics and memes? Those broad categories are going to have the widest appeal but they're not what a lot of people stay for. They stay so they can discuss their favourite TV show, the specific game they're playing right now, the niche hobby they're interested in, the particular celebrity they're weirdly obsessed with, that incredibly specific kind of porn that gets them off.

And there's a reason a lot of people add "reddit" to the end of their Google searches - there are all kinds of niche subreddits with information they're looking for about a particular issue they're having right now. If I'm having issues with my electric garage door, having a high-quality, well-maintained forum dedicated to the subject - filled with experts and knowledgeable enthusiasts - is exactly what I need, and Reddit had that.

Memes might have a broader appeal and be more monetisable right now, but losing all the niche subfora is something that will hurt Reddit in the long term.

[–] loobkoob@kbin.social 15 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 children)

I'm not from the US either so I can't speak to how common a name it is. But Barbie is a diminutive of Barbara (and the dolls were actually named after the creator's daughter, Barbara Handler). Barbara isn't a particularly common name nowadays, so I doubt there are that many Barbies around. And it's probably less common because of how strong the association of the name Barbie is with the brand these days, too.

But it is a real name.

[–] loobkoob@kbin.social 2 points 2 years ago

What's a little treason among friends, eh?

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