Eyes on Eterra
Travelers, we’ve said it so often it hardly needs repeating, but the feedback we receive is so critical to the decisions we make in the studio. So, please continue to share your thoughts and ideas with us no matter how big or small. An incredibly long list of this feedback is already in the works and being morphed from idea to reality. While the list is far too long to include in this article, we can share a few items on the road to reality.
Comparing Off-hand Feature
The inventory UI is getting some new features we hope you will enjoy. One UI function that has been asked for is the ability to compare items against your equipped Off-Hand or 2nd Ring slot. We hope this new feature will provide a smoother gearing experience.
Boss Ward
Recent feedback regarding Boss Ward has been fairly substantial. Whether you find yourself on the side of approval or not, the team has worked to balance the effect of Boss Ward. With the release of Harbingers of Ruin -update, we replaced Dynamic Damage Reduction with a Boss Ward mechanic, and have read all your feedback on the change. We'll be doing some adjustments to the Boss Ward mechanic in Season 2 by reducing how often players encounter it during campaign and in the endgame. Only enemies that feel like should have it, will have it, such as chapter bosses in campaign and more notable bosses like Dungeon and Timeline bosses. Boss Ward will no longer appear on Exiled Mages, Nemeses or mini bosses. On top of that, we are also adjusting the decay rate to be faster. The decision came as a direct result to player data in 1.1.
Evade Improvements
A fairly obnoxious and deadly bug involving the Evade skill, where using the skill could incorrectly queue another use of it and immediately return you to your original location, when the player only wanted to use it once. The team has been working on solving this issue and, in an effort to make the mechanic worth while, they have been working on a few new quality of life changes. They've been working on making Evade more responsive at higher latency, improving animations, and fixing bugs. Thanks to these changes, Evade will be more consistent and feel more responsive to use.
Dungeon Key Inventory UI
Keys are getting their own stash-wide dedicated storage that can hold an unlimited number of keys. This new function will allow players to always have the right keys on them without taking up standard inventory space. Subsequently, this also means keys won’t take up space in your stash tabs either.
With just a short window between now and Q1 2025, you can expect some pretty substantial improvements to Last Epoch in Season 2. A launch date for Season 2 is still in discussion but a date reveal should be on its way very soon.
Last Epoch started as an ARPG made by ARPG players, exactly as we wanted ARPGs to be played. Nearly 8 years later and this is still the core of EHG’s drive. Keep your attention on our Forums to get a first look at new features and improvements coming your way.
Twitch Updates
The poll is over! You spoke, we listened and emotes have been forged. Here are some teasers to tide you over until Mike’s next stream!
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Mike's Teaser's of the Month
Mike’s Dev Streams have always been filled with the best kind of leaks, so let’s review the November Twitch Stream Teasers.
11-1-24
Mike was rather tight lipped in the beginning of the month and brought a singular teaser to the stream. A taste of something new for the Void Knight.
11-8-24
The following week was geared toward clearing up some misinterpretations. The previously revealed node was thought by players to be an Anomaly node. We hope this was cleared up and has been confirmed to be a node for Volatile Reversal.
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11-15-24
The third week of November, Mike showcased two new nodes for Sentinel’s Vengeance skill.
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11-22-24
On the 4th week, Mike was joined by Community Manager Wick on stream where the pair played some Last Epoch and answered questions from the community. During the stream, Mike revealed 4 new and updated nodes for a handful of classes; followed by a new masked character he did not say a word about.
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Build Spotlight
The team is putting on their dancing shoes and lashing out with this month’s Community Build Spotlight!
Wander explains that this build is Crit focused, and as we see it, you’ll be literally dancing between skills to maximize its potential. They explain that to get the most out of this build you’ll need to use Dancing Strikes between EVERY button press to keep your Rhythm stacks going, creating an infinite amount of mana. Wander does mention in the review video that this build is still a work in progress but that just means you’ll have some wiggle room to dance to your own music. The build features the skills, Dancing Strikes, Shift, Shadow Cascade, and Synchronized Strike. The build guide on Last Epoch Tools also features Umbral blades, but according to the video review, this is not necessary, leaving the 5th and final skill up to you. We love a flexible build.
As far as gear is concerned, Wander recommends a Traitor’s Tongue with 12 or 13 base Crit Chance, and +2 Dexterity. The rest of the affixes on it are just nice to have, so play around with them. Next on the list is a Shattered Chains with some cooldown recovery speed. You’ll also want a Smoke Weaver for Dodge rating. Wander says other daggers work too, but has found the Smoke Weaver to be the best option thus far. Next you’re going to need to find a few items that grant Increased Damage per Shadow with Shadow Cascade, or Increased Damage of Attacks by Shadows. These affixes can pop up on a few different items so you’ll have options. Boots are going to be a tough one. Wander shows off a pair of Lessons of the Metropolis that they just got lucky with, but the focus was T7 Movement Speed, and increased Crit. Finally, a Syphon of Anguish for Doom application is really going to tie all of this together.
It’s a bit of a list, I know, but the results are worth the effort. Wander was far more detailed in their explanation in the video, so I highly recommend watching it through and diving into this build to try it for yourself.
Meet the Team Spotlight
This month I had the pleasure of sitting down with Fritz Dittmer; the Senior Technical Environment Artist on Last Epoch. We discussed the finer points of his career and the steps that brought him to our studio.
Tell us a little bit about yourself and your role in the studio.
Initially I was brought on as part of the level design team, and was going to help with layout levels and start that process of building things. It was chapter 8 and it was like, “Hey, we need all hands on deck. We’re shipping the Lagon boss fight and we’ve got to get people in to build the levels.” I kind of got in when things were chaotic, and it was like “I can do level design stuff.” and “Look, I can help and build these environments out.” It’s funny, because so many of the levels have changed and been updated because I started in level design. I did a bit of work in shaders, and kept kind of building that side of things which is where the technical art kind of comes in. Then just building assets out as we needed them and creating levels.
What initially drew you to environment art, and how did you develop your technical skill set in this field?
It’s a lot of the “find out” half of the “Mess around” process really. I went to school for animation and game dev, and was very ambitious. At that point I was kind of just a 3d generalist without a solid sense of direction or specific position I wanted I found myself drawn to the procedural asset generation and the technical problem solving it presented. Then I got in with a bunch of architecture geeks and I’m like, “Oh, you can do some really cool stuff with design.” Dark Souls 3 came out and I was like, “Oh, my eyes are open I’m just gonna look and stare at all of the stuff.”I loved trying to reverse engineer all of the amazing stuff in the games I loved. It’s funny because for a while I was starting to develop a little bit of a reputation as the guy who’s just staring at a wall while my team mates rushed ahead. People are charging through, trying not to die and I’m just here staring at the wall trying to figure out the parallax texture, and how they got that depth, what they’re doing, where the geometry is. Now that I think about it, I lost incalculable time to Halo Reach and its map editor; just making that stuff for my friends. That was probably the very first dabble into Level Design.
What’s a particular environment you’ve created that you’re especially proud of, and what unique challenges did it pose?
Oh my gosh, there are so many, but I think the one that I think about the most is definitely in Last Epoch, and it’s Majasan Heights, where you steal the giant bird. Originally, we didn’t have the tech to make you walk on something that’s moving. It was one of those, “Okay, I know we have the whole fighting a god later, but hijacking the giant bird is the coolest and most memorable part of that chapter.” I was viscerally upset when they said, “We’ll just fade to black, have a “caw” and the sound of something getting shot down.” I was like, no, so I ended up just finding a random crow model and sized it up to scale so you could be on its back. Then I built a support platform and this whole jig of trying to essentially fit the bird under something that rotates under the player. The player is actually completely static, we’ve just got wind particles and stuff flying in the way. The way I ended up selling it to both the level design lead and the project manager was just “Here’s the clip of Futurama where they realize the ship isn’t moving, the universe moves around the ship.” My project manager gave me a "if you have extra time moments and if you think you can make it happen, do your best. I don’t think anyone believed I could pull it off and that’s what makes it so sweet to go back and be like, “I did it.”
How do you strike a balance between visual quality and performance when building environments, especially on limited hardware?
Well, a lot of it is just building smarter, it’s all about draw calls. Essentially, every material and every new object or mesh gets a draw call, and the more draw calls you have the slower your game. There are also systems that let you scatter things and kind of rearrange stuff in a performant way but it comes down to finding ways to not calculate things. Instead of having one blade of grass with as few polygons as possible, you reduce your draw calls by grouping a bunch of blades of grass together into one object. It’s great for visual cohesion, as well as making stuff more unique and feel actually Last Epoch, but having things made specifically for that kind of set. Like the Imperial City is all one set of meshes and one material. So instead of having dozens of draw calls were able to cut it down and just have really good looking assets that also match with the enemies.
What tools, software, or techniques do you find are “Must Haves” in creating immersive game environments?
Of course the obvious, whatever you use to make a Filmbox file, your game engine, and then honestly, finding good post processing. Basically, knowing how to use your engine efficiently so it’s burning the ins and outs. Prefabs with Unity and prefab variants is something I’m always pushing for and making progress on. But really, it’s the lighting plugins in the post processing that really make the difference between an okay looking asset and something that’s just 10 out of 10. We do also have in house tech artists that have put really cool tools together, but honestly, the difference between an okay looking game and a great looking game is cohesive visuals, lighting, and post processing to make that happen. For example, for fog you have to make the air feel like it’s around you because otherwise you’re walking around in a vacuum. You’ve got to make it look like there’s air, and a lot of that comes from volumetrics and tech like wind shaders, where you can use your vegetation to sway in the wind and have it all match. It’s really the icing on the cake, that last 20%, that makes makes a world of difference.
Can you walk us through a problem-solving moment where you had to innovate to achieve a specific visual or technical effect?
Honestly, I was really proud of this one, but for the bazaar there’s lots of weapons vendors and I really wanted to avoid the “We have swords here.” and then they’re the same. Every time I wanted it to be like, here’s weapons and here’s a big umbrella stand full of spears or axes or whatever it needed to be. I wanted it to change dynamically. make it feel like it was an active shop that lived changed and existed when you weren’t around. I needed a way for the weapons to change between visits. I was looking into ways to find if there’s a plugin that will do this for us. Can we build some code that will do it? Then I realized, “Oh, wait, you can set particles to have an infinite lifetime and it can spawn whatever mesh or material we have.” It will just populate those and have them be stationary. So, a lot of what you can see the vendor selling in the bazaar is a particle system. So, every time you reload the scene, it reloads the particles with a different seed and gives you a different arrangement of weapons. So, that was fun and I started using stuff like that all over the place.
How do you ensure that your environments support gameplay and storytelling, not just aesthetics?
I did a lot of studies of concept art from Blizzard, they did a fantastic job of blocking their values for the past two/three years at this point. So much of it is actually going in and making sure that the floor is both interesting (textures, vegetation) but also is blocked out in a way that, in grayscale, the character and their abilities are standing out. There’s always, with different sets, different interpretations but generally I try to keep the floor as close to a pure white value as possible and push the walls to have a little more noise. This is because player isn’t going to be lost in all of that extra detail so you can push more assets and more interesting stuff up against the wall. It’s just blocking it so that the character always stands out. You just try and simplify everything while giving it enough. It’s that kind of impression of detail where you have low contrast.
Do you take inspiration from any particular sources you’re fond of?
I think I come up with my best ideas when I’m just going on walks and giving myself the time to kind of zone out but still sort of be present. I think when it comes to storytelling as well, like fiction will never be as crazy, stupid, hilarious, and fun as real life stuff. So I try to go out and find weird, wacky or fun stuff and that’s where most of my phone’s memory goes. Heck, I even found some really cool berries the other day where I just thought, “Why do these have a shell of spikes? I don’t know, they’re really pretty and also look like they could kill me on multiple fronts…. Maybe this can be used in the ancient era.” I think there’s a lot that can be learned from other video games and I’m a sucker for Dark Souls, especially the way they do that twisted gothic horror, but there is really something about getting out and just seeing it in real life.
How do you approach collaboration with other departments, like level design or lighting, to bring a cohesive vision to life?
What the Level Design Lead and I do is: I have a scene, I do X amount of stuff on the scene, and then I get to a point where I’m like, “Okay, I think I like it, but I’m starting to hit a wall. Hey, do you want to take it?” So we end up swapping scenes and that gives us a good point where we can be inspired by each other. I’ve learned that even just having working sessions has been really helpful for me as far as getting that feeling of inspiration. Recently with some of the new tooling we’re doing, I’ve been sitting down and just saying “Hey, this is annoying to work with. What do we think of this?” Honestly, being in the same scene and seeing what other people are doing has been probably the most important part of collaborating. Sometimes you look over and you see something weird is happening but it’s cool, so you take a look back and think, “Oh, I like this. This gives me an idea for this other situation.”. Also being open to feedback, to any kind of input, and letting people go wild with your ideas. I’ve had some cases where it’s like, “I really, really love this. If anyone touches this, I think I’ll be heartbroken.” But then someone touches it and comes back with an even cooler version of it. And I’m like, “Now I’m inspired. Can I do a little more polish here?”.
What’s a technique or project that challenged you and led to significant growth in your career as a technical artist?
All of the above, literally everything in my career has been new challenges. When I first got on the team, I was not used to being on a headset in a work context and being the “expert” in the room. That was something to get used to, like, “Oh, wait, I might know what I’m doing. This is unusual… People trust me… What’s happening?”. I don’t notice the growth until I look back and realize, I’ve come very far. Each day is really just another day to get out there and do cool stuff and reach for the sky, and eventually you’re on the top of the mountain.
What tips or advice would you give to junior artists who want to improve their technical skills in environment creation?
Do stupid stuff, no preconceived notions, just try it. Have someone that you could pass off work with and that you enjoy collaborating with. I think if you enjoy what you’re doing and you find yourself gravitating towards it, just follow that. Find a community of people that will give you feedback, even if it’s hard, and you can give them that same level of feedback. It’s important to be able give and receive feedback, not even only in a positive way, but being able to be in that creative and collaborative environment. That’s where I started improving the most. I was following the dopamine, doing what was really cool to me and with a supportive group that would help me. They’d point out where I’m doing stuff wrong, where I’m making my life harder and for myself. That was the first thing the Level Design Lead really taught me. “Hey, if you were organized and go into it smarter, everything will be much easier.”
Is there anything else you’d like to tell our readers?
I love hearing the feedback. It’s so fantastic to see how much love and support we’ve gotten as the game has grown throughout the whole thing, especially the early days. People were so understanding of where we were as a team. They were just there and supportive and that felt amazing and it made me want to make cool stuff because, cool stuff isn’t cool unless you have people to show it to. Thank y’all for all the support and love for Last Epoch.
Discord Fun
November began with a few late entries to the October festivities, but we’re happy to share them with you all here! Last Epoch has become such a beloved world in our community, a few decided to share it with the world in their own pumpkin carvings.
The original Last Epoch logo was carved by Vezidoroga on our official discord. They have been perfecting their skills for several years and we are honored to have been chosen this year. This carving came with a wood craft project hot on its heels, which Vezidoroga is hard at work on as we speak.
Our very own Server Cryptid joined in on the carving celebration with their own Gregory the Gourd! It goes without saying just how happy our intern was to “pose for the pumpkin” and have his likeness etched into this lovely decoration.
Following the Immortal Uprising Event, players strut their stuff with the Immortal Emperor’s crown in their very own impromptu Last Epoch fashion show. Players mixed and matched their MTX with the crown in an effort to find the best combination to show off their hard work.
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If you haven’t joined our official Discord, it’s not too late. Come join in on the fun and hang out with other travelers like yourself. Also, if you haven’t collected your Emperor’s Crown MTX, it’s free in the MTX shop waiting for you!
A Taste of Eterra
A cryptic character visited the studio this month. They didn’t say much, just sort of stood in the doorway surrounded by flares of void energy. It was an incredibly strange encounter. When they left, one of the interns found a recipe on the floor so we collectively agreed, “What’s the worst that could happen?” and we gave it a shot. The result was an absolutely wonderful dish we feel compelled to share with you. Especially with the holidays right around the corner, we hope this one will find it’s way to your table this year.
Epoch Berry Pie
- 1 Frozen Pie Crust
- 1 sheet of flat pie crust dough (for topping)
- 2 lbs. blueberries , fresh
- 2/3 cup white sugar, heaping
- 1/4 cup cornstarch
- zest of 1/2 a lemon
- 1/4 tsp Cinnamon
- 1/8 tsp All Spice
- 1/8 tsp salt
- 1 Tbsp of butter, cut into small pieces
- 1 egg yolk
- 1 Tbsp Heavy Cream
- coarse sugar, for topping
Pie filling:
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Assemble:
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- IMPORTANT: You’ll want to put the pie back in the fridge for at least 10 minutes before baking.
Bake:
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What’s Next
While we may not always have something we are prepared to share, you can sleep soundly knowing we are always working on something for you. With that said, I’ve collected a touch of new information straight from our dev team for you this month.
Thanks to Mike’s teasers it was revealed that Volatile Reversal, the time bending Void Knight skill, is getting some much needed attention in Season 2. According to reports, the skill will be transformed into a combo in which the first time you cast it, it will hurl you forward in time to a targeted location. Recasting it again within 3 second will wrench you back to your original location. Both the leap forward and leap back will launch a devastating attack upon landing.
This change comes with reduced mana cost and cooldown so it can become a new source of damage. Due to these changes, the team has also placed the Volatile Reversal skill tree, and several others, under the microscope and have made a large number of node adjustments to better suit the skills new functionality. While the details are still mostly under lock and key, I was able to collect a few new skill tree nodes for all you theory crafters out there.
A few of the new nodes are:
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Now, please keep in mind these are only a few of the nodes being added to the Volatile Reversal skill tree; there are heaps more and all with brand new effects to twist the skill to your will.
With all of these new changes, it’s important to know this is one skill on a long list of adjustments being made. The team has also considered the effects this change will make across other skills in all three Sentinel class trees where Volatile Reversal would have created a lack of power in its absence. That now missing power has been added back to the other skills and passive trees in various ways to give them the strength they deserve. Because of this, Volatile Reversal can stand on its own as a skill. Originally it provided so much power to other skills, it felt necessary to use even if it didn’t feel great.
Closing remarks
There is always something happening in Last Epoch. With the holidays quickly approaching and great things on our horizon, The team would like to wish you all, in advance, a heartfelt thank you for your support and a Happy Holidays. With that in mind, the team would like to let you all know that our December Edition of Eterra Monthly will be releasing on January 3rd rather than December 31st, to allow everyone time with their families as we enter the New Year.
This has been Eterra Monthly; a report on the happenings and changes in the world of Last Epoch. We hope you have enjoyed this month’s report and will see you all again soon
