Best Of
Re: Citizen node war is a bad faction system, open PvP should be about GvG only.
I'm coming from Albion Online (AO), so it colors my viewpoint somewhat. I definitely find AoC's flagging/corruption system amusing. Most players in AO are 'faction flagged' for pvp all the time, voluntarily, because it provides 4 things of value to the player:
- lots of opportunities for pvp without bothering pve players or new players (this is separate from zone lethality, and I'm setting that aside for the purposes of this discussion)
- valuable reward system (xp/silver/gear/faction rank) for doing normal things while faction flagged, even pve or gathering, so people want to be flagged all the time, even if you lose fights/gear some of the time
- allows you to easily form ad-hoc groups without lfg, which I think is helpful for large scale pvp and even smaller skirmishes and dungeon crawling
- its a clear system that has no surprises - you won't suddenly be thrown into pvp because there is a war at the city gates
People who aren't flagged are typically new, gathering in enemy territory, or transporting.
From a game loop perspective, especially an end game loop perspective, AO factions allow new players to participate in a low risk/high reward way, even in full loot lethal zones at lower levels. They can mix with experienced players and learn without level penalties, and they don't have to commit to a guild just to do content.
AoC feels like it's doing the opposite for reasons that are unclear to me. You can end up in pvp all of a sudden, you have to pay taxes to be a citizen instead of being rewarded, and you have to spam the chat or be in a guild to do a lot of content. And of the 150+ hours I've played the game, the town I am in has had maybe 1 'war', so I'm currently in the 'what's the point of this' category. AoC needs to work on this system some more.
I certainly think GvG should have a place, but if AoC is going to onboard casual players and new players or have ad hoc large scale wars, they need a place to learn to pvp, and for experienced players and new/guildless/casual players to mix and node warfare looks like a good spot for it in this game. In fact, I think that there should be ready options for 1v1, 2v2, party v party, GvG and ZvZ pretty much all of the time. I would worry about a GvG focus, unless they become large enough to turn into proxies for factions.
IT's OVER !!!!!! The game is DYING
I’ve played MMOs most of my life(over 30 years). I backed Ashes of Creation for £240 years ago. At this point I probably have thousands of testing hours logged.
Characters tested:
- Tank 25
- Bard 25
- Rogue 25
- Ranger 21
- Cleric 21 ……..etc
So no — this isn’t a drive-by rant from someone who logged in once and quit. As you can probably tell from the title, I’ve reached the end of my patience.
I used to be a fanboy too. I defended this game for years. But at some point, reality catches up, and that point is now.
The last post I wrote back in December 2025 is still relevant today — and that’s the problem. Almost nothing has meaningfully changed. I don’t know who Intrepid has working on core systems right now, but whatever they’re doing is not working.
In fact, in some areas, the game has actually gone backwards.
Getting on your mount used to be smooth as butter.
Now? What the hell happened to it?
Lag spikes when crossing server grids are worse, not better — and more frequent.
And I won’t even bother listing the mountain of bugs and systems that still haven’t been fixed.
I’m also not going to comment on performance once more than 20 players are on screen fighting at the same time…
You know — the same game that promised 250 vs 250 siege battles.
This is why Ashes will die.
Veteran AoC testers have watched the progress (or lack of it) over the last 3 years, and the bottom line is simple:
IT's Not Good Enough.
You can take that vague roadmap and stick it where the sun doesn’t shine. If you can’t get the game running smoothly at level 25 after all this time, how are you ever planning to ship level 50 characters, with augments, in 100 v 100 battles ?
You aren’t.
And deep down, a lot of us who’ve been here the longest already know it.
I'll be back in another 12 months to see what has been achieved or if the game is still in development.
By the end of February, ill have alook on Steam to see if my predictions are true.
Re: We lost half of the players, Intrepid do something.
I agree on most of parts just not on new content etc, it has enough content. Interprid just finish the god damn existing content to full loop and players will stay
Stop Putting Dates on Roadmaps — Frame Updates as Patch Targets Instead
Dates on roadmaps backfire. They turn every slip into a drama cycle and force teams to rush or go quiet.
Suggestion: shift public roadmap language from “by/on X date” to “in Patch X / Update X” with clear scope.
How to structure it:
- Use patch-based milestones
- “Next Patch” / “Patch 0.X” / “Update: Trade & Economy”
- Not “by March 15” or “Q2 guaranteed”
2. Show status clearly without promising time
- Not Started / In Progress / In Test / In Cert / Shipping
- Add “blocked by” notes when needed (1 line)
3. Scope first, not schedule
- List what’s in the patch in priority order
- Mark items as: Confirmed / Likely / Stretch
- If something slips, it moves to the next patch without a PR meltdown
4. Communicate cadence without calendar promises
- “We ship when it’s stable.”
- Share short patch notes + what’s next after each release
Why this is better:
- Less pressure to rush broken features
- More trust (no missed date headlines)
- Players still get visibility on priorities and progress
Bottom line: roadmaps should be about what’s coming, not when you promise it. Use patches and status labels, never dates.
Re: Risk, Reward, Difficulty & FUN: What Intrepid is Missing
For Ashes to have any chance, there should not be any penalties when a (MAX or near MAX) level character causes the death of a lower level character (as in even if a mob gets the KB, since a higher level character hit them or dragged mobs onto them, no penalty)
Basically, do not punish players trying to level up.
The end game should focus on MAX level v Max level, not griefing, etc. Getting griefed/ganked AND suffering death penalty will have this MMO at less than 20k in under a few months after launch. And then continue to drop from there since no (or barely any) new players will ever grind to max level. Have seen this so many times before, this setup = DOA MMO.
⇒ There is a minor issue where some players would try and abuse this, like running caravans with lower level chars, so no XP death penalty/etc. is what I mean. Caravan loot gets dropped.
⇒ A possible tougher one to fix is some players will stay low level and gather, since it would be 'safer'. Can't gather the best stuff at lower levels, so consider this a non-issue and most likely it would mean they are a bot.
All HARDCORE MMO PvP should always be about MAX level players fighting MAX level players. Right now Ashes will already attract the most toxic, horrible players to play with in an MMO. They will grief this game to death in under 6 months. In fact, the way to fix the corruption system is to make it very harsh for MAX (or near max) attacking/harassing lower levels (even if they don't die, punish em anyways, even low leves harrassing other low levels, needs to be high punishment) and far far less corruption when it is MAX v MAX. That makes competitive PvP more prevalent, (hopefully) keeps griefing in check and makes the END GAME where the risk - reward happens. (where it should be)
Re: Cleric Talent Ideas
Had a couple other ideas. Still would love to hear other clerics' thoughts. Don't be shy!
Illuminating Deliverance
Have a full cast of deliverance refresh soothing glow on the target (if active). Capstone could be a full cast puts soothing glow on the target or deliverance receives bonus throughput on targets that have soothing glow on them.
Comments:
I'd like some synergy in the talents that promote builds/focuses based on talent choices.
Brilliant Defiance
If Defiant Light target does not suffer fatal damage the cooldown refunds 3/5/7/10 seconds (example of cd reduction off the top of my head). Capstone for this would be that any target that damages the target suffers a blind debuff (or chance to apply it).
Comments:
I think this would make the ability more flexible so it can be used in different ways. Adding some utility and depth to the use of this ability.
Leukael
Re: Can not launch the game. Unexpected error. Enviroment not found
solved.
In my case, I had zapret installed. I guess if you have a vpn, hamchi, or something similar enabled that affects your Internet connection, then this is what prevents you from opening the launcher. After logging into the launcher, if there is a problem logging into realm, you can turn the vpn back on.
Re: Early game crafting broke!
total resource requirements are absurd.
Zero incentive to craft while leveling as drops are adequate. People leveling will continue to push through to cap without crafting and that makes me sad.
Processing/crafting costs need to be reduced. If slowing progression is the goal, make more xp per level while still being 'cheap' to progress. but even slowing progress has its pitfalls. At the current rate, players will be level 50 by the time tables are ready for journeyman so they will just rely on drops yet again. Need to find the balance of level progress, resource gathering, artisan progress and node progression. not easy task but we are way off currently.
total resource requirements MUST be lower. it takes 93 copper ingots for the level 10 flayer's fleshripper. thats a total of 279 copper ore to make all those ingots. Its pretty insane to think players can and will contribute that much to one low level item. Im not saying make it easy just find something close to reasonable. Id say consider what a couple days of grinding resources would give you and let that be the cost for the weapon. Armor should be less about a day or less per piece resource grinding.
I know Steven did recently say the econ team overshot the mark so its been addressed, just sharing my thoughts.
MDS
Re: New Forums = Bad?
We will also be making adjustments, so if you can articulate what's bugging you about the new look, we can try to tackle things. I know the editor and quoting were top of mind before our break.
Mepps