Glorious Alpha Two Testers!
Alpha Two testing is currently taking place five days each week. More information about Phase II and Phase III testing schedule can be found here
If you have Alpha Two, you can download the game launcher here, and we encourage you to join us on our Official Discord Server for the most up to date testing news.
Alpha Two testing is currently taking place five days each week. More information about Phase II and Phase III testing schedule can be found here
If you have Alpha Two, you can download the game launcher here, and we encourage you to join us on our Official Discord Server for the most up to date testing news.
Best Of
Re: Looking for House of Sagacious members
Sorry, haven't checked back in awhile. I was Flag/Phlegm the putrid on AC, Abe Bonebreaker on DAOC, and then was Horror on WOW when we had the guild there. Was trying to see if we had enough members to start up the old HOS on here.
Re: Looking for House of Sagacious members
We were Katanji / Nanji / Abordabe / Tess from AC to DAoC to WoW, played in HoS on Illidan while we were there and Barn of Sagacious on Bleeding Hollow
Actually playing on the Seedsow AC Pserver while we wait for Alpha 2
would be fun to gather people together and carry the torch
Actually playing on the Seedsow AC Pserver while we wait for Alpha 2
would be fun to gather people together and carry the torch
Lleshi
1
Empyrean Customization Feedback/Wishlist
I would like to start by stating I am acutely aware that this is only Alpha 2 and not the finished product of the character models, so I'm not aware of any changes that may be occurring behind the scenes, but I would still like to give some feedback on the character models and customizations to give a larger window for possible change, mainly for Empyreans. I would also like to clarify that I mean no disrespect with this feedback, I want to be as clear and constructive as possible with my criticism because I have really high hopes for this game and would love for it to be in the best position it can be!!
I just recently jumped into Alpha 2 this week for the first time and was playing around with the customizations for Empyreans and was having difficulty landing on something I was satisfied with for my character. Femme Empyreans kind of feel like their skin is a bit shrink-wrapped to their faces as of right now, almost like a facelift that was pulled too tight. I think part of this is due to not being able to make the mouth smaller currently, you can change the size and corners of the lips but the actual corners of the mouth are static so the lip can end but the mouth extends beyond that, kind of like a Joker smile. It seems like having more angular faces with high cheekbones is a staple for them, but as of right now, they look a little gaunt when you play with their customizations and it's kind of hard to add more fullness to their faces to soften them up a little.
Default Empyrean Femme Face
Another point I would like to bring attention to that I think is important for the fantasy of this race and any other race that will later be added to the testing phases is silhouettes. As it stands right now, proportionately and silhouette-wise Empyrean, Kaelar, and Vaelune all have very similar silhouettes and idle animations. I think it's important for these races to stand out more by either changing their idle animations to seperate them or changing their body proportions so that even with a full set of gear covering their body you can still make out what race is under the armor. I think a great solution could be changing the proportions of Empyreans, and even Py'rai, giving them longer legs could even help diversify their silhouette from the human races and connect them as Elven races. Though the elves are still humanoid, changing their proportions to have longer legs is a subtle difference that helps them further be unique past their ears. This isn't so much of an issue for Vek and Dunir since their silhouettes are very different from the other three playable races, and it pays off in the game being able to differentiate them under their armor. But I do think all races would immensely benefit from having different idle and movement animations that lean into the fantasy of these races and give them character to help them feel more alive.
Body Proportions Side by Side
Now moving on to my wishlist of customizations that I would like to see in the game!!
As far as makeup and eyelashes go, I think a game like Naraka does a great job with its face customization options, letting you change anything you want with the faces as well as letting you customize your makeup in any way you like. Eyelashes in particular are an important option to have for your character because they can completely change the shape of your character's eyes. Since the concept art for Empyrean seems to draw inspiration from Peter Jackson's "Lord of the Rings" Elves, I think it would be amazing to have similar jewelry pieces like Arwen's headdress or Galadriel's crown for Empyreans to give them a more regal and opulent appearance. Lastly, I am a sucker for power tattoos, for example: in World of Warcraft there is a race called Nightborne who are elves that were exposed to A LOT of Arcane energy for thousands of years, and because of this it changed their appearance by carving Arcane Tattoos into their skin and making their hands and hair glow with mana. I think having the magic that you use to reflect on your character's appearance is such a fun concept and would love for that to exist in Ashes as well!!
Naraka
Arwen's Headdress
Galadriel's Crown
Nightborne Customization
Last thing before I go, there is quite a big bug with tattoos currently on Alpha where you can't remove a tattoo option once you place it and it's quite buggy when you start moving it around your character's body!
Feel free to reply to this discussion with customizations you would also like to see in-game!!
I just recently jumped into Alpha 2 this week for the first time and was playing around with the customizations for Empyreans and was having difficulty landing on something I was satisfied with for my character. Femme Empyreans kind of feel like their skin is a bit shrink-wrapped to their faces as of right now, almost like a facelift that was pulled too tight. I think part of this is due to not being able to make the mouth smaller currently, you can change the size and corners of the lips but the actual corners of the mouth are static so the lip can end but the mouth extends beyond that, kind of like a Joker smile. It seems like having more angular faces with high cheekbones is a staple for them, but as of right now, they look a little gaunt when you play with their customizations and it's kind of hard to add more fullness to their faces to soften them up a little.
Default Empyrean Femme Face
Another point I would like to bring attention to that I think is important for the fantasy of this race and any other race that will later be added to the testing phases is silhouettes. As it stands right now, proportionately and silhouette-wise Empyrean, Kaelar, and Vaelune all have very similar silhouettes and idle animations. I think it's important for these races to stand out more by either changing their idle animations to seperate them or changing their body proportions so that even with a full set of gear covering their body you can still make out what race is under the armor. I think a great solution could be changing the proportions of Empyreans, and even Py'rai, giving them longer legs could even help diversify their silhouette from the human races and connect them as Elven races. Though the elves are still humanoid, changing their proportions to have longer legs is a subtle difference that helps them further be unique past their ears. This isn't so much of an issue for Vek and Dunir since their silhouettes are very different from the other three playable races, and it pays off in the game being able to differentiate them under their armor. But I do think all races would immensely benefit from having different idle and movement animations that lean into the fantasy of these races and give them character to help them feel more alive.
Body Proportions Side by Side
Now moving on to my wishlist of customizations that I would like to see in the game!!
- Makeup
- Eyelash
- Jewelry
- Hair Jewelry
- Glowing Tattoos
- Runic Tattoos
As far as makeup and eyelashes go, I think a game like Naraka does a great job with its face customization options, letting you change anything you want with the faces as well as letting you customize your makeup in any way you like. Eyelashes in particular are an important option to have for your character because they can completely change the shape of your character's eyes. Since the concept art for Empyrean seems to draw inspiration from Peter Jackson's "Lord of the Rings" Elves, I think it would be amazing to have similar jewelry pieces like Arwen's headdress or Galadriel's crown for Empyreans to give them a more regal and opulent appearance. Lastly, I am a sucker for power tattoos, for example: in World of Warcraft there is a race called Nightborne who are elves that were exposed to A LOT of Arcane energy for thousands of years, and because of this it changed their appearance by carving Arcane Tattoos into their skin and making their hands and hair glow with mana. I think having the magic that you use to reflect on your character's appearance is such a fun concept and would love for that to exist in Ashes as well!!
Naraka
Arwen's Headdress
Galadriel's Crown
Nightborne Customization
Last thing before I go, there is quite a big bug with tattoos currently on Alpha where you can't remove a tattoo option once you place it and it's quite buggy when you start moving it around your character's body!
Feel free to reply to this discussion with customizations you would also like to see in-game!!
Saphras
2
Re: Mounts - the "need for speed" meta - time for a quick rebalance?
Weeks on, croc speed hasn't been adjusted yet. I understand Intrepid has their priorities, I suppose we have to wait.
Meanwhile in "totally" unrelated news I'm under impression the raptor mount's HP pool has been slashed by approx. 30 percent.
Meanwhile in "totally" unrelated news I'm under impression the raptor mount's HP pool has been slashed by approx. 30 percent.
Re: 📝 Dev Discussion #71 - Spells & Abilities ⚔
When I think about spells in MMORPGs, there's one ability I always remember fondly. It's Volatile Infection from the Summoner class in Allods Online. That game was a pretty solid PvX experience, so you could get killed at any time and lose experience. Kind of like Ashes of Creation in that way, but a lot more of a railroaded themepark.
Alright, let me tell you about this ability because I seriously miss it. I haven't seen anything like it in any other game.
Volatile Infection
"Infects the target and all enemies within a 10 yard radius of the target with a virus that explodes when the Volatile Infection effect fades, and inflicts X damage to the targets and up to 3 enemies within a 10 yard radius of the targets."
Range: 40 yards (I remember it as a medium range, just barely out of range for some other class to charge at you)
Mana Cost: 25 (medium-ish mana cost, so spamming this thing did get expensive)
Cast Time: 2s (fairly long, so people could see what you were doing and maybe silence or interrupt you)
No cooldown
In PvP, it was incredible. You'd chuck it into a zerg of players, and half the time they'd either panic or fail to react until it was too late. I'm talking specifically about large, uncoordinated groups that didn't communicate or cleanse at all. When that explosion went off? Absolute bliss.
The ability was actually pretty balanced. The counter? Good communication and teamwork. You could cleanse it or spread out to reduce the damage if cleansing wasn't an option. It forced large groups to pay attention and work together. Running around as part of an unthinking zerg trying to brute-force content was risky because a well organized group could and would punish you hard.
This ability was pretty useful for pressuring enemy teams. You could force them to burn cleanses, put their supports on edge, and overall be disruptive. If their supports weren't on top of things, it could get out of control rather quickly. Timing was key, too. You could wait for them to use up their cleanses, then throw it in to force them to scatter and break formation. If your team was well coordinated, you could combo it with crowd control to trap them together, turning it into a devastating wipe. Pulling that off wasn't easy, but when it worked, it was perfection.
In PvE, it was great for clearing out mobs, especially in dungeons and raids. The damage scaled with the number of enemies, but the virus took time to spread and explode, so you couldn't just spam it mindlessly. You had to stay alive and count on your team to cover you while it did its thing. Some encounters felt tailor made for this ability, and when you got to use it in those moments, it was beyond satisfying.
Another "Spell" of sorts that I like is Eldritch Blast from Dungeons & Dragons.
Why?
I like that it starts out as this simple and effective magical ranged attack but gets stronger over the course of your adventure. As you level up and choose upgrades for it, the "spell" essentially levels up as well, rather than staying the same like so many other spells or abilities. I like to imagine that with each significant upgrade, the visuals of the spell also become more... well, intense.
The way I picture it is that it starts out as a small magical blast, but as you grow stronger, it eventually becomes this devastating, chaotic beam of raw obliterating power.
Alright, let me tell you about this ability because I seriously miss it. I haven't seen anything like it in any other game.
Volatile Infection
"Infects the target and all enemies within a 10 yard radius of the target with a virus that explodes when the Volatile Infection effect fades, and inflicts X damage to the targets and up to 3 enemies within a 10 yard radius of the targets."
Range: 40 yards (I remember it as a medium range, just barely out of range for some other class to charge at you)
Mana Cost: 25 (medium-ish mana cost, so spamming this thing did get expensive)
Cast Time: 2s (fairly long, so people could see what you were doing and maybe silence or interrupt you)
No cooldown
In PvP, it was incredible. You'd chuck it into a zerg of players, and half the time they'd either panic or fail to react until it was too late. I'm talking specifically about large, uncoordinated groups that didn't communicate or cleanse at all. When that explosion went off? Absolute bliss.
The ability was actually pretty balanced. The counter? Good communication and teamwork. You could cleanse it or spread out to reduce the damage if cleansing wasn't an option. It forced large groups to pay attention and work together. Running around as part of an unthinking zerg trying to brute-force content was risky because a well organized group could and would punish you hard.
This ability was pretty useful for pressuring enemy teams. You could force them to burn cleanses, put their supports on edge, and overall be disruptive. If their supports weren't on top of things, it could get out of control rather quickly. Timing was key, too. You could wait for them to use up their cleanses, then throw it in to force them to scatter and break formation. If your team was well coordinated, you could combo it with crowd control to trap them together, turning it into a devastating wipe. Pulling that off wasn't easy, but when it worked, it was perfection.
In PvE, it was great for clearing out mobs, especially in dungeons and raids. The damage scaled with the number of enemies, but the virus took time to spread and explode, so you couldn't just spam it mindlessly. You had to stay alive and count on your team to cover you while it did its thing. Some encounters felt tailor made for this ability, and when you got to use it in those moments, it was beyond satisfying.
Another "Spell" of sorts that I like is Eldritch Blast from Dungeons & Dragons.
Why?
I like that it starts out as this simple and effective magical ranged attack but gets stronger over the course of your adventure. As you level up and choose upgrades for it, the "spell" essentially levels up as well, rather than staying the same like so many other spells or abilities. I like to imagine that with each significant upgrade, the visuals of the spell also become more... well, intense.
The way I picture it is that it starts out as a small magical blast, but as you grow stronger, it eventually becomes this devastating, chaotic beam of raw obliterating power.
Teyloune
2
Re: Weekly Feedback - 01/20/2025
1. The inventory UI has dimentia. Basically, when gathering (not resource specific) you can only move so much stuff around before the database stops talking to the UI. There IS a stack of wood in that bag space, but the UI shows it as open, yet you can’t move anything to that spot in the grid. Oh, and my bags are full but the UI clearly has open space. The only fix is to relog. Then it happens again maybe 7-10 mins later. This is super annoying.
2. Node warehouse and bag inventory desync. This is very similar to number 1, except it happens at least 3x - literally - every time I am moving resource between the warehouse and my bag. Everyone hates plumbing issues, and there are some serious leaks in the system. As with number 1, the only fix is to relog.
3. Wingardium leviosa. My horse/wolf/bear are not flying mounts, but they cleary have ambitions because they float all the time. This is pretty easy to reproduce, just jump down from a minor ledge twice in a row. Boom. My mount is an enlightened being. The only fix is desummon / resummon.
2. Node warehouse and bag inventory desync. This is very similar to number 1, except it happens at least 3x - literally - every time I am moving resource between the warehouse and my bag. Everyone hates plumbing issues, and there are some serious leaks in the system. As with number 1, the only fix is to relog.
3. Wingardium leviosa. My horse/wolf/bear are not flying mounts, but they cleary have ambitions because they float all the time. This is pretty easy to reproduce, just jump down from a minor ledge twice in a row. Boom. My mount is an enlightened being. The only fix is desummon / resummon.
CROW3
4
Re: Live Streamer Grief-Pulling Mobs for Over a Week
Walmart Lover and VetsforShrooms train mobs on Vyra but in Highwayman Hills which to me is even worse. There's no legitimate reason for a high level to do this to a party of level 10s other than to get their jollies off griefing other players. If that's their idea of fun, they are sociopaths and should spend their alpha testing money on seeking professional help instead. Players should have to flag up if they want to contest an area. Training mobs is just cowardice and the game mechanics should not allow or reward it.
oddstero
1
Re: Live Streamer Grief-Pulling Mobs for Over a Week
They should (and will) fix the current bug associated with specifically spec'd tanks gaining hate on mobs that are currently chasing a character that they are on or near zero hate with, this much I agree.You're not necessarily wrong. But I will say that just because it likely wont go away, that shouldn't mean that Intrepid should stop trying to make it more and more difficult or punishing for players to do it.
However, that is all they should do.
Mob training should be a part of the game.
I honestly don’t understand. If you attack a mob, it should follow you and only you no matter what. If no one else attacks it, why would it attack them? They wouldn’t have aggro.
To allow mobs to attack ppl based on proximity is just lame.
Re: Why the endgame progression feels bad and what to do about it
well you have far more testing than i do in that case so i will take your word for it. Either way i think that if they are wanting to push that crafting to be the main way that people get gear there needs to be a way for the crafters to get the mats then need to make the gear before it becomes irreverent because people just grind out their set even if the drop rate is really low.
Re: Why the endgame progression feels bad and what to do about it
I haven't gotten very far in the crafting system yet, but from what I've seen so far, I'm seeing similar things to what is brought up here.
I've also been attempting to dive into being a scribe, but as the OP mentioned, it is just a huge gold sink for seemingly no reason.
Is crafting intended to put value into items? or is it intended as another grind to keep the economy moving?
If someone gets to the master artisan level, can they actually up charge for the items they make? or will the raw materials still be worth more?
I really want the artisan system to feel good at all levels, but so far it leaves a lot to be desired.
I've also been attempting to dive into being a scribe, but as the OP mentioned, it is just a huge gold sink for seemingly no reason.
Is crafting intended to put value into items? or is it intended as another grind to keep the economy moving?
If someone gets to the master artisan level, can they actually up charge for the items they make? or will the raw materials still be worth more?
I really want the artisan system to feel good at all levels, but so far it leaves a lot to be desired.
