devtrackers.gg
Heyo,
Last Epoch started off in the form of free pre-alpha demos we made available, beginning in late 2017. We continued to work on updates and in 2018 brought Last Epoch to KickStarter.
Back in the day, progression was definitely expedited so that people who don’t play for long could experience (and provide feedback on) as much as possible. Since Last Epoch entered the alpha stage of development in August 2018, we’ve been gradually iterating on things to bring them closer to how they will be at release. This is very much a work in progress.
Currently I wouldn’t say that progression is deliberately faster than it will be at release, but so far we have invested relatively little time in balancing, and so there will be changes coming in future. To offer one example, the time it takes to level up skills will likely see adjustments, with a focus on the last few levels taking longer to obtain than is presently the case.