[2020] Patch Preview: Beta 0.7.6

Overview

With Patch 0.7.6 we are taking the opportunity to focus on community feedback and implement some changes which have been requested over both the short- and long-term.

We’ll be posting the patch notes in their entirety when releasing the patch.

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Highlights

Systems

• This patch implements the previously-unannounced Idol system!
  • Idols are a brand new type of item. They are intended to facilitate further fine-tuning of builds with niche and, in some cases, class-exclusive affixes.
  • Idols are equipped in their own exclusive 4x4 grid in the inventory.
  • Idols come in a variety of sizes from 1x1 all the way to 4x1 or 2x2.
    • Larger Idols are more powerful than smaller ones.
  • Some Idol affixes are exclusive to specific base classes.

 
Endgame Changes

• We’re adding three new Arena zones in this patch.
  • Disclaimer: Your safety in the new zones is not guaranteed.
• The Monolith of Fate will no longer offer modifiers which are already in effect.
• Five new modifiers are being added to the Monolith of Fate.
• The chest rewards from the Monolith of Fate will scale with the number of enemies killed.
  • Enemies are being weighted for this - a group of small, low-health enemies will contribute about as much to your rewards as an individual, larger enemy.

 
Campaign Changes

We are streamlining Chapters 1 and 2 to improve the new user experience.

One of the design goals with Chapter 1 had been to make repeated use of time travel due to it being a core part of Last Epoch. We also wanted to do this to introduce the player to the various eras in Eterra’s history, and the different factions from those eras.

We have consistently seen feedback that the beginning of the story can be difficult to follow, and so we are reducing the number of time travel occurrences - for example, you no longer briefly visit the Imperial Era in Chapter 1 - and the number of enemies involved.

 
Quality of Life Improvements

• It is now possible to move through your minions.
• This patch includes the Buy Back feature!
  • We’ve posted all of the details of how it works here.
• Improvements are being made to mousing-over creatures in Last Epoch, with the goal of making it easier to see the health bars of enemies who are obscured by minions.
• We are adding fly-out menus to the Modifier Item and Support Item sections of the crafting window which allow you to access your Runes and Glyphs, respectively.
• We are updating approximately half of our skills to make using them feel more responsive.
  • We have written a Developer Blog about these changes.
    • Additional skills have been updated since this was posted.

 
Bug fixes

• We are improving the handling of peripherals to resolve cases where the game detects a controller (perhaps erroneously) and fails to accept input from mice and keyboards.
• We are resolving an issue where characters could continue taking damage for a short period of time when entering Time Rifts.

 

Optimisation

Patch 0.7.6 removes one source of stutter, improves the performance and appearance of Ambient Occlusion, and improves the performance of several skills and enemies.

 

After This Patch

We have already started working on Patch 0.7.7, which will be the next content patch.

Work is under way on Chapter 8, which is likely to be one of the first Phase 3 entries from our Early Access Forecast to be made available. Work continues on the remaining Phase 2 entries, such as the Character Introductions and the Mechanics Guide.

Definitely an influence!

We aren’t ready to say for sure just yet.

The next phase of our Early Access Forecast includes new classes, so a portion of the time we spend on skills and specialisation trees isn’t reflected in patches we release. On top of that, the combination of Christmas, the new year, and PAX South meant sticking to our regular release cadence left us with less time than usual to work on skills.

Patch 0.7.6 focuses heavily on improving what’s available, and that’s true of our work on skills. We’ve spent a lot of time adjusting skills and their trees - and there’s also a few new unique items which might encourage you to experiment with new builds.