Hey Travelers! If youve been waiting for your chance to put a little extra shine on your favorite hero of Eterra then todays announcement is for you - Rising Flames brings the beta launch of Last Epochs Cosmetic Store and our new Supporter Packs. We are very excited to bring some of these awesome upgrades to our community for the first time, and we cant wait to see all the amazing work our designers have created - wielded by, conjured by, and running alongside the Travelers of Eterra. As fans of the genre ourselves, we know that Cosmetic Stores come in all shapes and sizes, and so they inspire a wide variety of opinions from players. We get that. So let us take a moment to share our thoughts and guiding principles below.

Why are we introducing a Cosmetic Shop?

It has always been our goal at EHG to develop a great ARPG for the community to enjoy for the next 10 years. We want to deliver new content multiple times each year and continue to lift expectations and push limits of what a great ARPG can be. To be transparent, this is an expensive goal. Content production at this magnitude is a multi-million dollar annual development expense, with millions more in sever expenses each year. The Cosmetic Store is our way of introducing a fully optional, power-free, and truly feels-good way for our fans to unlock cool new stuff, and support the development of Last Epoch so we can create great content in Eterra year after year. [/expand]

Will there be pay for power in Last Epoch?

No. Weve been saying this from day one, and it wont change. Pay for power, no matter how little of it is introduced, simply breaks the spirit of the game. We will not be offering a head start to those who pay more, we wont be offering a battle pass stacked with power-based currency, or anything else that gives you a competitive advantage. Every purchase in our shop will be purely cosmetic and entirely optional. [/expand]

Supporter Packs

After the launch of 1.0 each new Cycle will bring with it a new set of supporter packs for our players to enjoy. With Rising Flames, we are kicking off our Pre-Launch Support Packs - the Eternal Series. These packs feature exclusive Portals, Backs, and Pets from each of the four Eras in Eterra. When new supporter packs are launched, those packs will only be available during the current Cycle in which they were introduced. For the Eternal series, this timeframe will last from the launch of Rising Flames until 30 days beyond the launch of 1.0. Supporter packs offer exclusive cosmetics to players joining us for a specific cycle (these items are not available in the shop). Once a given set of supporter packs retire, players will no longer be able to purchase those cosmetics. We will certainly give our community notice when a series of supporter packs are no longer available for purchase.
Supporter packs will be available directly through Steam, or through the in-game store which redirects to a Steam-purchase overlay. We also intend to have them available for purchase through our web store in the future.

Cosmetic Shop

The Cosmetic Shop will be available in-game either by using the hotkey (by default U), or through the menu. The in-game store will allow you to filter what kind of cosmetic youre looking for, and provide you a large view of those items while browsing. Its also important to note that the items available in the Cosmetic Shop during this beta launch are only a small sample of what we intend to launch with future patches. This phase of the Shop is designed to gather and incorporate feedback from the community, work out any bugs, and provide an early look at the types of cosmetics players can expect. The Shop will be launching with only a select amount of Back, Portal, and Pet slot cosmetics. As you can see on the sidebar in the preview below, we intend on exploring other categories of cosmetics in the future, such as weapons and skill VFX.
Selecting an item will give you a larger in-game rendering of the item, with any related animations, as well as include a video of the cosmetic in action so you can be confident in what the cosmetic really looks like - all while browsing.
(Edit: We do apologize, these captures had an incorrect price listed for this particular item. We recognize that caused some headache. We have corrected the error from 250 EP to 165 EP for the Glacial Path portal)

Epoch Points

Previously called Cosmetic Coins, Epoch Points will be the primary method of acquiring cosmetics from the Cosmetic Shop. For many familiar with Cosmetic Shops, this should be a fairly familiar experience. Basically, EP provides a way to pre-load your account with funds for cosmetics, these points will be available to purchase cosmetics with at any point. Your already existing Cosmetic Coins will be displayed as Epoch Points - this is just a name change, not any difference in value or quantity.
Epoch Points can be purchased through Steam, and are automatically loaded onto your account. They will be available in the following denominations: - 9.49 USD for 120 points - 18.99 USD for 265 points (240 + 25 bonus) - 49.99 USD for 755 points (630 +125 bonus)

Last Epoch and MTX

With the Cosmetic Shop Beta becoming available, we want to strongly reiterate our stance regarding MTX. We will not offer power or convenience as MTX. This has always been our stance, and we have no intention of changing it. We will not sell loot pets, we will not sell experience boosts, or dungeon keys, stash tabs, or anything of that nature. It is important to note that we are building the Cosmetic Store as a way to support the long term development of an amazing ARPG we love - not the other way around. We want to ensure the game itself always offers the best quality of life features and conveniences we can create, and nothing is held back for monetization. We will also continue to push our standards for non-purchasable in-game gear models, animations, VFX, and everything else that makes Last Epoch look great. Thank you all for joining us again for todays blog post, as we get ready for Patch 0.9.1 Rising Flames, and well be back tomorrow to talk about Weavers Will!

[ 2023-05-18 16:13:30 CET ] [ Original post ]