Is visual progression a thing?

[Quaylie]

I was wondering how the visual progression is in this game. I got nervous when I saw there was a game shop with cosmetics, so I actually refunded the game pretty quickly and might now have given it a fair chance.

I am a sucker for visual progression, and I absolutely hate bought cosmetics.. For me it is all about gear looking good an representing something powerful..

How is this compared to Diablo IV and PoE?

In Diablo IV it feels like that gear has been made intentionally bland and boring, even uniques... to lure people into the shop and buy cosmetics.

In PoE stuff doesn't look very cool as well, however the game is free to play so they need to make money somewhere.

My problem with the above is, when a game has cosmetics you can buy with real money, there is absolutely no incentive for the designers to do cool looking in-game gear. First I thought, nobody actually buys these expensive cosmetics, right? Damn, I was SO wrong. Read posts on Reddit on the D4 forum where people talked about spending 100's of € on cosmetics.. If the companies can make that much money designing a freaking hat, why even bother about visual progression?

Some of us actually enjoy games like D2, D3, Grim Dawn, Titan Quests etc. where micro transactions are not a thing, and where unique items has a distinct look and power which you are able to recognize by looking at it..

So how does Last Epoch do in this regard?

[Shiyo]

No, everything is ugly.

[ppaladin123]

The cosmetics so far are for capes/backpacks, town portals, pets and some headgear. With the exception of helmets these are not things you would be able to get in game through drops.

I think at least so far the idea is to make you look cooler as you level up but:

1. I think that is really not until end game (there isn't a clear slope of increasingly cooler and more elaborate stuff)

2. I am not sure how exciting the end game visuals are for the equipment. Like they are definitely different but are they visually appealing at the level people might want? It's a small company and I don't think this was a top priority.

[JoeWhizer]

From cosmetics point of view it's lacking quite much currently I think. Even some items looking completely different on you, as preview-picture on the tooltip.

For me this isn't really essential, as to me the gameplay is important. But for someone this is important, the game needs much improvements on gear looking.

There are not that much MTX cosmetics in the game yet you can purchase. Three sets of full armour I think, capes, portals, pets. But all very limited. You see online a lot of same looking people in town.

So as said, from the cosmetic point of view, its currently lacking.

[Gorwe]

No Transmog for you.

[Quaylie]

Originally posted by Gorwe:

No Transmog for you.

Don't misunderstand me, I do not like transmog systems either. I just want the item that drops late game to reflect some awesomeness and power.

EDIT: not necessarily only late game. But I like when powerful items have a distinct look and feel to it. If the item does not look cool by design, you can just slap a cosmetic from the shop on top of it, I hate that idea. Now the item might look cool, but it is a disguise.

However, I know a lot of people want a transmog system, I do not blame them. Personally I am not fan, but I don't have to use it.

[JoeWhizer]

Originally posted by Quaylie:

Originally posted by Gorwe:

No Transmog for you.

Don't misunderstand me, I do not like transmog systems either. I just want the item that drops late game to reflect some awesomeness and power.

To give you a better visual look at it, I made a shot of a level 10 Acolyte with leveling gear at that time, my current level 98 warlock/Acolyte -- and the character slots. In the character slots, you see what the level 98 is currently actually wearing.

See yourself:
https://imgur.com/a/pyNHbB8

[Limp Squirrel]

Personally, the visualization of gear is a bit underwhelming. The game's aesthetics are originally quite gloomy and the gear follows a similar style. I've only played sentinel so far, but the armor sets all tend to look quite similar. A lot of unique items also do not have unique 3D skins (weapons mostly do, but armor generally does not).

There aren't too many flashy colors and items that make you look particularly godlike (like some of Grim Dawn's sets do).

The cosmetic shop on the other hand, is an artistic mess if you ask me. it does the polar opposite. To juxtapose, a lot of items in the shops have rather extravagant designs:
- A big colorful blooming flower bud or an active waterfall cape
- Armor sets with very bright color particles (green, purple, red, ..)
- A golden weapon skin
- Pets (bright purple flying dragons, a flaming tiger, ...)
- D3-style wings (when will devs stop this terrible trend of adding cosmetic wings, it makes everything look like a joke). If it were a type of broken or remodelled set of wings from the bird enemies, sure, I could see that.

TLDR: The gear visualization is rather subdued while the cosmetic shop tends to provide the exact opposite.

[Quaylie]

Originally posted by JoeWhizer:

Originally posted by Quaylie:

Don't misunderstand me, I do not like transmog systems either. I just want the item that drops late game to reflect some awesomeness and power.

To give you a better visual look at it, I made a shot of a level 10 Acolyte with leveling gear at that time, my current level 98 warlock/Acolyte -- and the character slots. In the character slots, you see what the level 98 is currently actually wearing.

See yourself:
https://imgur.com/a/pyNHbB8

Thank you!
Are you wearing any set items there or is just random stuff?

[JoeWhizer]

Originally posted by Quaylie:

Originally posted by JoeWhizer:

To give you a better visual look at it, I made a shot of a level 10 Acolyte with leveling gear at that time, my current level 98 warlock/Acolyte -- and the character slots. In the character slots, you see what the level 98 is currently actually wearing.

See yourself:
https://imgur.com/a/pyNHbB8

Thank you!
Are you wearing any set items there or is just random stuff?

The red background items you see are legendaries. So basically unique items with some additional stats. The other stuff is just random exhalted items.

That are these items:
https://www.lastepochtools.com/db/items/UAzBsNI
https://www.lastepochtools.com/db/items/UAzAsEYCYDYg
https://www.lastepochtools.com/db/items/UAzDMCYA5SA
https://www.lastepochtools.com/db/items/UAwRgTAzMxA

[Quaylie]

Originally posted by Squidcake:

The cosmetic shop on the other hand, is an artistic mess if you ask me. it does the polar opposite. To juxtapose, a lot of items in the shops have rather extravagant designs:
- A big colorful blooming flower bud or an active waterfall cape
- Armor sets with very bright color particles (green, purple, red, ..)
- A golden weapon skin
- Pets (bright purple flying dragons, a flaming tiger, ...)
- D3-style wings (when will devs stop this terrible trend of adding cosmetic wings, it makes everything look like a joke). If it were a type of broken or remodelled set of wings from the bird enemies, sure, I could see that.

And that is the whole problem. Usually when people see some saturated colours and a flaming tiger they go "wow, I want that" and they swipe.. It is such a shame because the developers never want to use the resources creating actual cool looking gear which fits the game world for free when people swipe and buy the ones from the shop.. At least that is my take on it.

Looking at the gear in Diablo IV shop, I think a lot of it actualy fit the game fantasy and it looks amazing, the details are many, problem is it costs 15-20€ and people pay for it! And the gear in-game is bland and boring in comparison.

[Quaylie]

Originally posted by JoeWhizer:

Originally posted by Quaylie:

Thank you!
Are you wearing any set items there or is just random stuff?

The red background items you see are legendaries. So basically unique items with some additional stats. The other stuff is just random exhalted items.

That are these items:
https://www.lastepochtools.com/db/items/UAzBsNI
https://www.lastepochtools.com/db/items/UAzAsEYCYDYg
https://www.lastepochtools.com/db/items/UAzDMCYA5SA
https://www.lastepochtools.com/db/items/UAwRgTAzMxA

Does not look too bad.

[Knavenformed]

No real "free" cosmetic progression currently

Many unique items don't have an unique skin even, and without transmog you really can't select from earlier game armor pieces that may look better with your current gear

Rogue has a lot of cool strapped on blades etc in the models, but can't be set as your preferred visual

Some classes have better looking stuff as higher tier items, but for some the mid-game items are definitely my preferred models

[All Day I Dream About🪓]

“In Diablo IV it feels like that gear has been made intentionally bland and boring, even uniques... to lure people into the shop and buy cosmetics.”

Yeah, to me base armor sets in D4 looked pretty neat and more interesting than whatever they are selling in the shop. I prefer more grounded and realistic look instead of chinese MMO badtrip.

But to answer your question: LE got a little bit more variation than PoE but nowhere near D4. Edit: that strictly speaking of in-game unlockables.

[Koala 4peace]

In my opinion, the "free" looks are unremarkable.

[Echorion]

Originally posted by Quaylie:

I was wondering how the visual progression is in this game. I got nervous when I saw there was a game shop with cosmetics, so I actually refunded the game pretty quickly and might now have given it a fair chance.

I am a sucker for visual progression, and I absolutely hate bought cosmetics.. For me it is all about gear looking good an representing something powerful..

How is this compared to Diablo IV and PoE?

In Diablo IV it feels like that gear has been made intentionally bland and boring, even uniques... to lure people into the shop and buy cosmetics.

In PoE stuff doesn't look very cool as well, however the game is free to play so they need to make money somewhere.

My problem with the above is, when a game has cosmetics you can buy with real money, there is absolutely no incentive for the designers to do cool looking in-game gear. First I thought, nobody actually buys these expensive cosmetics, right? Damn, I was SO wrong. Read posts on Reddit on the D4 forum where people talked about spending 100's of € on cosmetics.. If the companies can make that much money designing a freaking hat, why even bother about visual progression?

Some of us actually enjoy games like D2, D3, Grim Dawn, Titan Quests etc. where micro transactions are not a thing, and where unique items has a distinct look and power which you are able to recognize by looking at it..

So how does Last Epoch do in this regard?

I mean yeah I really like Last Epoch gameplay but Diablo wins in that regard and it's not even remotely close.

-Diablo has WAY more unique models for armour, weapons, etc...
-Diablo has a transmog system
-Diablo has a dye system

The only visual stuff LE has is shop stuff that is imo overpriced just like Diablo stuff is; and even there Diablo has a lot of it.

I find it funny that Diablo has such amazing looking armour you don't even feel the need to spend real money. Meanwhile in Last Epoch everything is kinda bland, but the flashy stuff costs a lot of money; it's actually more gross than Diablo in that way at least.