Last Epoch needs to let us skip the campaign once it has been done once.

I do not play these games for the dogshit story, I want to kill stuff and get new loot and the story gets in the way of that.

Same thing with PoE (haven't tried PoE2). I don't want to have to rush 5-6 hours on a new char just to get through the dog shit story.

Diablo 3 fixed that a decade ago. Shouldn't be that fucking hard.

There actually is a campaign skip. It's baked into the map via the dungeons (and you can skip to boss now with charms), but you can skip two thirds of it on a second playthrough.

I'll contest that i think the skip function needs a little work but it does exist

I 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?

Last epoch's campaign is so mid too. I feel like they somehow both underplayed and overplayed the time travel stuff. At least it's pretty short

Let's hope the new Titan Quest is decent enough

Torchlight is so highly spoken of... Am I the only person that thought it was pretty pedestrian?

Being able to function on the deck does not make it a good game, just saying

Love the down vote lol

"Is this a good game"

"It runs on hardware I own"

Fyckkkk lol

Different tastes.

The simplicity, artwork and playability appeals to me.

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.

Additionally, once you unlock your mastery at the end of time, you can just go straight to the end game monoliths on a second character - there's literally nothing stopping you from doing this.

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.

I think a lot of it is timing, too. Remember, the first Torchlight was 2009, we're talking pre-indie craze. There's been no Super Meat Boy or Fez yet, I think. ARPGs hadn't absolutely flooded the market yet and seeing a very competent and stylized, if simplistic Diablo-like back then could generate some interest. That carried on to the 2nd, which had a lot of improvements.

There's a bunch wrong with 3 and Infinite, but they were also competing in a saturated market and, you're right, the Torchlight "brand" didn't really have enough luster on its own to carry a series.

EDIT: Diablo II was 2000 and Diablo III would be 2012. We were fucking starving back then.

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.

The campaign is long for what it is. The time travel adds absolutely nothing to the gameplay.

There was a 3rd Torchlight game?

Just play grim dawn if you need that itch. It also has a great story to go with it.

Yeah it was absolutely insane how long Diablo 3 was taking, so yeah Torchlight released when people were desperate for ARPGs.

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

Additionally, that's a minor aspect of d4. For each alt i need to run around to every region and do all these side quests to get reputation points, and i need to do it in each difficulty. I have to do it multiple times, whereas i don't really need to do that in last epoch.

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. D4 is an objectively much worse game than LE; i absolutely do not think that LE should strive to be more like it.

How much have you actually played both games?

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 campaign 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.