Action-RPG in Early Access 'Last Epoch' adds in online multiplayer

Couple of things after spending my Sunday afternoon playing with a friend:
1. On Linux native, using mesa, I had to use -force-vukan to get any textures to load in this game. This was first reported to Last Epoch on the Steam Forums in 2018, so it's incredibly disappointing it's still not fixed.
2. When transitioning from one zone to another in multiplayer, the guest will frequently disconnect if they click on the zone transition first, before the host (who was on Windows). Pretty frustrating, so I switched the game to Proton Experimental and removed -force-vulkan. After doing so, I didn't get any disconnects through around 5 hours of play, even when the host and I were in entirely different zones for extended periods (which is rare, but sometimes happened if we needed to offload loot).

Other than the -force-vukan issue, performance seemed reasonable. My beast PC handled it no problem, and my mate who is on Windows with 1060 also oggled at the pretty graphics and commented how smooth it played. So the heavy optimisations you can read about in their blog have paid off. Zone transitions still take a few seconds to load though.

The long and short of it - this is finally a game that scratches my Grim Dawn itch. It's a little more "zoomed in" than GD, but nowhere near as bad as Path of Exile. Build customisation is decent (although we're only just level 20) and the various skills are inventive. For example, the mage has a skill called "static" that deals immense damage, but he need to move around to build up charge! The Acolyte has a hilarious skill where she summons flaming zombies who then run screaming at the nearest enemy and explode - like those bomb guys from Serious Sam. They're hilarious and can get you into trouble sometimes by running off to attack a horde of enemies you hadn't spotted!

Lots of fun, basically. Really enjoying it.

Seems pretty clear to me this is one of those games where you are better off just playing the Windows version through Proton.

2+ years for fixing a platform-specific bug?

Invisible character bug is not a new things. It is here with about year or so...
Vulkan API not working or maybe another worked before multplayer patch with 1-3 FPS. So picture slider and not a game. Now after multiplayer patch - Vulkan api load up to main menu (still feels like 1-3 FPS) and then whole game crashing.

Only OpenGL render works but... with many major issues.

Spend a few hours in single. Apart from no-textures-during-choosing-a-character at the beginning, I encountered no notable bugs. Performance was also good on my side. :).

If you go into steam for the game, and force it to use proton experimental, the game will do an update then it fixes all the texture stuff. Character choice screen is fine, etc... I played it a bunch yesterday without any issues at all. Really liking it!

I tried the linux version, it runs smooth around 15-20min then crashes the whole PC. :(
I hope they will do a steamdeck verification, then all the issues should be addressed.

Spend a few hours in single. Apart from no-textures-during-choosing-a-character at the beginning, I encountered no notable bugs. Performance was also good on my side. :).

If you got the no-textures during character select, then you're probably missing the mini-map borders, ground textures and quite a few particle effects. The game was much, much prettier with -force-vulkan for me. But I did the same - played for 45 minutes thinking this was the experience, then went hunting for Linux issues and discovered that vulkan fixed so much of the game's engine.

If you go into steam for the game, and force it to use proton experimental, the game will do an update then it fixes all the texture stuff. Character choice screen is fine, etc... I played it a bunch yesterday without any issues at all. Really liking it!

Or just use -force-vulkan on the native version, provided you don't intend to do multiplayer with Windows users.


Last edited by scaine on 13 March 2023 at 6:01 pm UTC

FYI, characters are stored on their servers. You have to login to play.

Offline play is promised at release. Shady stuff IMO.

I only had graphical errors on the character selection screen with the native linux build, everything else was perfect now.

FYI, characters are stored on their servers. You have to login to play.

Offline play is promised at release. Shady stuff IMO.

This is completely wrong, offline characters are stored locally.

How's the game? Is it any good compared to Torchlight?

How's the game? Is it any good compared to Torchlight?

HAHAHAHAHA! very smart joke. Torchlight is mobile game now. so cant be matched to this masterpiece.

Spend a few hours in single. Apart from no-textures-during-choosing-a-character at the beginning, I encountered no notable bugs. Performance was also good on my side. :).

If you got the no-textures during character select, then you're probably missing the mini-map borders, ground textures and quite a few particle effects. The game was much, much prettier with -force-vulkan for me. But I did the same - played for 45 minutes thinking this was the experience, then went hunting for Linux issues and discovered that vulkan fixed so much of the game's engine.

Tested, but -force-vulkan showed very controversial results for me. While it fixes textures in character selection, it also makes all grass to just disappear from the game. And those two things are the only things I can spot -force-vulkan to have any influence on. Mini-map has borders and graphical special effects look fine (and the same) in both regimes as far as I can see.

Thanks, but all in all, I will probably play without it.

How's the game? Is it any good compared to Torchlight?

Can't compare to Torchlight, but I can say that so far I'm having fun playing it. Even despite some notable graphical issues.

FYI, characters are stored on their servers. You have to login to play.

Offline play is promised at release. Shady stuff IMO.

This is completely wrong, offline characters are stored locally.

That's true, but currently does demand an online login in order to play. They intend to remove that requirement with the v1 release, but even then, of course, you'll still have to login every 30 days for Steam to validate your account.

Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/LastEpoch/comments/112eq94/no_real_offline_mode/

How's the game? Is it any good compared to Torchlight?

HAHAHAHAHA! very smart joke. Torchlight is mobile game now. so cant be matched to this masterpiece.

Dunno about v3, but Torchlight 1 and 2 were both superb. What's your beef? Why the weird antagonism towards it?

How's the game? Is it any good compared to Torchlight?

It's less focused on loot whoring. Instead, you earn your money through kills and quests. Instead of giving you tools to sell loot, like Torchlight, Last Epoch has the most incredible loot filters I've ever seen in a game. You effectively build a firewall ruleset out of loot filters, line by line. Sure, that could be a single line saying don't show tier 1 or 2 items. But it can also be insanely complex, like:

• Hide T1 and T2


• But show all axes, regardless of Tier


• Capitalise any equipment that does Necrotic Damage


• And re-colour any Axes that also do Necrotic Damage to RED.


• Never show Staves or Wands of any Tier


• And so on...

It's insane! So powerful! And intuitive (mostly).

Last Epoch is a strong candidate for best ARPG in my book. I still miss some things from Grim Dawn:

• Grim Dawn had better voice acting


• Grim Dawn zooms out just a bit more, which is far more comfortable


• Grim Dawn lets you rotate the map, which makes "fighting downwards" a non-issue, you just rotate down to up!

But all told, it's very nice.

How's the game? Is it any good compared to Torchlight?

I'm going to guess you mean TL2 from forever ago, and not whatever hot garbage a completely different studio released within the last few years. The ancient TL2 is amazing, but definitely a different feel from this.

This feels like a really good combo of the best parts of D3 & POE. I put some hours into it this weekend, and am looking forward to playing it tonight as well.

Also worth a mention: Wolcen just got a HUGE update, so not sure if that's gotten better or not. Might try it too.

EDIT: holy crap, nevermind on Wolcen, just tried it, it's a mess in many ways. Awful experience. Fired up LE right after and it was nice and smooth. Wow.


Last edited by Jarmer on 14 March 2023 at 9:39 pm UTC

How's the game? Is it any good compared to Torchlight?

HAHAHAHAHA! very smart joke. Torchlight is mobile game now. so cant be matched to this masterpiece.

Dunno about v3, but Torchlight 1 and 2 were both superb. What's your beef? Why the weird antagonism towards it?

How's the game? Is it any good compared to Torchlight?

It's less focused on loot whoring. Instead, you earn your money through kills and quests. Instead of giving you tools to sell loot, like Torchlight, Last Epoch has the most incredible loot filters I've ever seen in a game. You effectively build a firewall ruleset out of loot filters, line by line. Sure, that could be a single line saying don't show tier 1 or 2 items. But it can also be insanely complex, like:

• Hide T1 and T2


• But show all axes, regardless of Tier


• Capitalise any equipment that does Necrotic Damage


• And re-colour any Axes that also do Necrotic Damage to RED.


• Never show Staves or Wands of any Tier


• And so on...

It's insane! So powerful! And intuitive (mostly).

Last Epoch is a strong candidate for best ARPG in my book. I still miss some things from Grim Dawn:

• Grim Dawn had better voice acting


• Grim Dawn zooms out just a bit more, which is far more comfortable


• Grim Dawn lets you rotate the map, which makes "fighting downwards" a non-issue, you just rotate down to up!

But all told, it's very nice.

Thanks, i guess i'll get it then. For whatever reason i pegged this as a windows game, so i was pleasantly surprised it's native. The loot filters are something i definitely appreciate, I'm a bit burned of the hoarding mechanics from many games.

And yes, Torchlight 1 & 2 are the last diablo-likes i played. I haven't played diablo 3 either as the changes they made vs. D2 made me not want to buy it. For me D1 and 2 will be the etalon for the nostalgia factor, but i think i had overall better time with torchlight.


Last edited by dvd on 14 March 2023 at 8:13 pm UTC

Anyone know how to fix 1-5 FPS with Vulkan API? OpenGL show normal FPS but causing graphics issues (invisible characters) while forcing Vulkan fixes it but gives 1-5 FPS.
RX 580 8GB, latest mesa 23.0.0

Anyone know how to fix 1-5 FPS with Vulkan API? OpenGL show normal FPS but causing graphics issues (invisible characters) while forcing Vulkan fixes it but gives 1-5 FPS.
RX 580 8GB, latest mesa 23.0.0

Stuck compiling shaders?

Or possibly picking up llvmpipe/lavapipe instead of your GPU?

... Last Epoch has the most incredible loot filters I've ever seen in a game. You effectively build a firewall ruleset out of loot filters, line by line. Sure, that could be a single line saying don't show tier 1 or 2 items. But it can also be insanely complex ...

WHOA! Thank you so much for saying this ... I normally wouldn't have even checked this out, but because of your comment I did, and MAN ALIVE. This loot filter is a game changer. And I mean that in the very literal sense of the phrase. I don't know how I can ever play any other ARPG without a loot filter like this again. Instantly spoiled by it. It's AMAZING.

I was able to setup an extremely specific filter for the bow I wanted and I can ignore the rest. Same for filtering out a certain set of rarity items that fit my class and ignore the rest.

Love it.