Glorious Alpha Two Testers!
Alpha Two Phase III testing has begun! During this phase, our realms will be open every day, and we'll only have downtime for updates and maintenance. We'll keep everyone up-to-date about downtimes in Discord.
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 Phase III testing has begun! During this phase, our realms will be open every day, and we'll only have downtime for updates and maintenance. We'll keep everyone up-to-date about downtimes in Discord.
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: why are you putting the cart before the horse?
First off, thank you all for the detailed, passionate, and thoughtful feedback. Posts like these are exactly why we love this community. You're not just pointing out issues—you’re helping us pressure-test systems from all angles, and that’s invaluable in an Alpha environment.
@KrystalKitten, huge shoutout to you for laying out your experiences as a gatherer and crafter with such clarity. From apprentice bread woes to caravan chaos to spreadsheets on cooking—your love for the game (and for seeing it improve) is shining through. We know some of the current tuning feels rough, and yes, power-leveling and drop pacing are still under review. Testing the foundation of crafting and gathering while progression systems are still in flux is messy, but it's part of getting this right long-term.
We’ve reported folks' feedback on early game itemization, quest polish, artisan balance, and yearning for more testing direction. These are absolutely things we want to refine as we move forward. Your point about timing—especially when different systems come online—is well-taken.
To keep the conversation going:
If you could change one thing about early-game crafting that would make it feel more rewarding right now, what would it be?
@KrystalKitten, huge shoutout to you for laying out your experiences as a gatherer and crafter with such clarity. From apprentice bread woes to caravan chaos to spreadsheets on cooking—your love for the game (and for seeing it improve) is shining through. We know some of the current tuning feels rough, and yes, power-leveling and drop pacing are still under review. Testing the foundation of crafting and gathering while progression systems are still in flux is messy, but it's part of getting this right long-term.
We’ve reported folks' feedback on early game itemization, quest polish, artisan balance, and yearning for more testing direction. These are absolutely things we want to refine as we move forward. Your point about timing—especially when different systems come online—is well-taken.
To keep the conversation going:
If you could change one thing about early-game crafting that would make it feel more rewarding right now, what would it be?
Re: Make PvP Viable
So, I just asked someone that would be capable of implementing a system like this (not saying which game they are working on now other than to say it is an MMORPG).Yep, this was the thing I was referencing with the SoT-like comment. I'd love that, but I dunno how difficult it is to implement in a massive mmo.Then you create a boarding system (and a means of defending against it) that opens up PvP at an individual scale within the platform, and you have your system for naval corruption.
They said that there is no reason to assume this whole system would be harder to implement than creating a part of the world that is exempt from a system like corruption.
Noaani
1
Re: Range feels terrible in most scenarios with the current TTK situation
Yeah rangers not the greatest with their skill kits atm
They should be the reverse of rogues to a degree, rogues are mostly melee with some range skills ranger should be mostly ranged with some melee skills, there need to be some more combo within there kit for example disengage makes next snipe half the cast speed or something.
im playing a rogue atm in 2.5 and playing it as a ranger it actually feel so much better than the actually ranger right now imo, better mobility and kiting, better utility and scouting and better single target dmg and sustain. It just lacking AoE that ranger have atm
They should be the reverse of rogues to a degree, rogues are mostly melee with some range skills ranger should be mostly ranged with some melee skills, there need to be some more combo within there kit for example disengage makes next snipe half the cast speed or something.
im playing a rogue atm in 2.5 and playing it as a ranger it actually feel so much better than the actually ranger right now imo, better mobility and kiting, better utility and scouting and better single target dmg and sustain. It just lacking AoE that ranger have atm
Veeshan
2
Re: Steven, Please Rethink “Not for Everyone”
https://ashesofcreation.wiki/PvX
This is good for read or reread. I think it really shows that the game is NOT for everyone. They are aiming for a specific audience.
Here's a couple things that stood out to me.
Ashes is a PvX game; and so in that regard, your ability to wholesale disconnect from the PvP elements of the game are likely not going to be entirely successful.
So, not everybody is going to like that and we accept that; and we're not trying to build a game that everybody is going to like,
A defining principle of Ashes of Creation as a PvX game is that PvE builds the world, and PvP changes the world
PvX players are the core audience of Ashes of Creation.[
What PvX will actually look like in Ashes won't be seen until later, probably late beta. We're still missing Religion, Vassals, and other systems. These will effect the actual PvP in the game quite a bit. I think those come in P3, well all features should be in before alpha is over.
For the game killer will be if my progress can be stopped by other players and I have no other viable, compelling, fun, way to continue my progress. If a large multi guild is just steam rolling Nodes stopping and regressing players progress for their leveling, gearing, Node leveling, gathering, ect. I just see a LOT of people quitting. People won't want a massive grind with a massive potential of loss, and if you drop the loss you lose people, if you drop the grind you lose people. It's like mixing oil and water... Seeing your efforts get wiped out from something you have no ability to stop isn't going to be fun. Steam rolling a Node 40 to 1 isn't going to fun. IMO this is Ashes greatest challenge second only to exploits, cheats, and RMT. If they nail it, they'll have created something amazing. If they go to far towards pvp it'll fail (in the ROI sense), if they go too far toward pve it won't be very unique, but it'll have more chances to actually succeed of hitting an ROI.
So even at this point I don't know if Ashes will be a game for me. Too much is unknown. Something might look good or bad on paper but in practice is the opposite.
This is good for read or reread. I think it really shows that the game is NOT for everyone. They are aiming for a specific audience.
Here's a couple things that stood out to me.
Ashes is a PvX game; and so in that regard, your ability to wholesale disconnect from the PvP elements of the game are likely not going to be entirely successful.
So, not everybody is going to like that and we accept that; and we're not trying to build a game that everybody is going to like,
A defining principle of Ashes of Creation as a PvX game is that PvE builds the world, and PvP changes the world
PvX players are the core audience of Ashes of Creation.[
What PvX will actually look like in Ashes won't be seen until later, probably late beta. We're still missing Religion, Vassals, and other systems. These will effect the actual PvP in the game quite a bit. I think those come in P3, well all features should be in before alpha is over.
For the game killer will be if my progress can be stopped by other players and I have no other viable, compelling, fun, way to continue my progress. If a large multi guild is just steam rolling Nodes stopping and regressing players progress for their leveling, gearing, Node leveling, gathering, ect. I just see a LOT of people quitting. People won't want a massive grind with a massive potential of loss, and if you drop the loss you lose people, if you drop the grind you lose people. It's like mixing oil and water... Seeing your efforts get wiped out from something you have no ability to stop isn't going to be fun. Steam rolling a Node 40 to 1 isn't going to fun. IMO this is Ashes greatest challenge second only to exploits, cheats, and RMT. If they nail it, they'll have created something amazing. If they go to far towards pvp it'll fail (in the ROI sense), if they go too far toward pve it won't be very unique, but it'll have more chances to actually succeed of hitting an ROI.
So even at this point I don't know if Ashes will be a game for me. Too much is unknown. Something might look good or bad on paper but in practice is the opposite.
Volgaris
1
Re: Why Summoner should be a melee Archetype
I don't understand what this would mean because your main weapon is what determines your range.
Do you want to force Summoners to not use Wands or Focii? Because even tanks can do that. Wand Tanks dancing around slow enemies is an entire specific way of gaining exp.
Do you want to force Summoners to not use Wands or Focii? Because even tanks can do that. Wand Tanks dancing around slow enemies is an entire specific way of gaining exp.
Azherae
1
Re: Modern clothes and themed clothing like Xmas Easter etc in MMOs
Too late. They have sold irl themed cosmetics in the past. They handed out a slew of Christmas hats in A2 directly from Steven, and now you can pick them up during testing from a vendor. The cosmetics were sold without some blurb of "can only be worn between X and X date." as just a couple examples. 
Re: 📝 Dev Discussion #77 - Let’s Talk Quests! ❗
I’m legally blind and currently struggling to engage with the game due to the lack of accessibility features. Specifically, the quest text is unreadable for me as there’s no option to increase the font size or enable screen reader support.
With over 295 million people worldwide living with moderate to severe vision impairment, accessibility isn’t a niche concern—it’s essential. Adding scalable UI text and screen reader compatibility would go a long way in making your game more inclusive and enjoyable for a broader audience.
With over 295 million people worldwide living with moderate to severe vision impairment, accessibility isn’t a niche concern—it’s essential. Adding scalable UI text and screen reader compatibility would go a long way in making your game more inclusive and enjoyable for a broader audience.
donlols
2
Re: 📝 Dev Discussion #77 - Let’s Talk Quests! ❗
I would give this entire alpha a solid 1 in total for all aspects of the game, but to answer your question;
Questing: 1
Quest rewards: 1
Were the quests engaging? No they're were absolutely, ungodly trash. Minecraft has better quest depth.
The quests had no soul, there were no connections AT ALL to ANY NPC in the game. I don't even remember the town names because they're so obscure and useless to know because NOTHING EXISTS.
I invited someone to my room and let them look around and there was literally nothing to see; I had to awkwardly answer questions because the game has nothing to offer. I had to tell them 'well you levelup and there will be 'x' soon™ and x x x... soon... it's not quite... well it's still in...' yeah the game kinda sucks right now but it'll get better I think.
I'm not refunding because I refuse to believe that this much time and money is going to waste.
This game better be good.
And I am not filtering myself for YOU shitting the bed.
Questing: 1
Quest rewards: 1
Were the quests engaging? No they're were absolutely, ungodly trash. Minecraft has better quest depth.
The quests had no soul, there were no connections AT ALL to ANY NPC in the game. I don't even remember the town names because they're so obscure and useless to know because NOTHING EXISTS.
I invited someone to my room and let them look around and there was literally nothing to see; I had to awkwardly answer questions because the game has nothing to offer. I had to tell them 'well you levelup and there will be 'x' soon™ and x x x... soon... it's not quite... well it's still in...' yeah the game kinda sucks right now but it'll get better I think.
I'm not refunding because I refuse to believe that this much time and money is going to waste.
This game better be good.
And I am not filtering myself for YOU shitting the bed.
Splinter Topic: 'RP-Frames' (mostly about quests/oneshots)
A Splinter for some ranty information that probably shouldn't go directly into the Feedback Thread. Plz merge if considered better there.
An RP-Frame for my group is 'a set of conditions or lore that give context to an action'. It does not require actual Roleplaying, but it doesn't exclude it. The purpose is to increase immersion for those who like storyline. Here are some random examples of recently used ones and mild explanation for why they worked.
Throne and Liberty:
There is currently a visual bug in some clients of TL where under certain conditions, the sun is black. The light source itself doesn't vanish, the skyglow around it is fine, the sun itself is just black.
There are also at least two 'Ocular' bosses that 'could be responsible for this', Grayeye and Malakar. Their lore is provided to us in game in small blurbs that are easily accessible to everyone. The current RP-Frame is quite strong, able to lead us along a multi-pronged path of investigation, theories, diverse roles, and 'fear', based on just these two things.
The requirement for this to work, other than RP-skill, is the strong worldbuild, but also the large 'empty space' allowed by not pushing too hard on the specifics of these bosses. We know a reasonable amount about them, both through blurbs and through battle, but the game has not 'told us a very specific, locked-in story' for them. This, afaik for most of my group, increases immersion.
Not simply because 'we can RP stuff', you could do this with anything, make up anything about any character in the game, etc, but because it's connected to something, and it's flexible enough that you could probably describe it to someone else, both the reason for your RP, and the reason you took X action, without having to worry that the Game Canon will clash super hard against it, so even if that person is 'more knowledgeable' than you for some reason, it doesn't apply to these enemies as much.
Final Fantasy 11:
The Grauberg area contains a roost of Wyverns, and a Dragon who can communicate with people if you befriend her in various ways. It is geographically above an area where sheep graze and people could, somewhat realistically 'raise' them.
For various reasons I won't go too much into, this mentally lends itself rather well to the idea that if you somehow 'didn't see enough sheep' in that area for a while, or 'certain Elite/Notorious Monsters weren't spawning for a long time', that the Wyverns might be overhunting (for example) and the Dragon might ask someone to help deal with the more aggressive ones. This tier of thing could be an ingame quest or event, but then it would probably be less fun because it'would be so unlikely to be triggered by something that people would accept being so random, with so many prerequisites. (FF11 does have quite a few quests or situations that are that random/dynamic/rare, but we do not expect these in modern games).
It is more than enough that some dynamism is involved, enough to get this feeling oneself. Are the Wyverns starving because they're grounded by a recent spate of summer thunderstorms? Emboldened by some other change in the world? Is the Dragon even in the area and not visiting a City at the moment to be able to know this? Did she 'bring this quest with her' when she came to your city to visit a different friend?
This one really 'feels like it could work as a normal quest', in a game where the Devs somehow have the time to spare to make content that only 1-5% of people will even know exist, but the important part is that creating just the components required for this RP-Frame is so much easier and such 'relatively incidental work' that it is enough to increase immersion on its own. Other than that, the same thing from TL applies.
If you go up to the Aery and find another group there, you have a grounded, ingame way to reference and explain the reason you are there, and one that they all have access to the pieces of. It's not just random stuff in your own mind. They 'could have noticed the summer thunderstorms', they 'could have someone who is also friends with the Dragon', they could 'understand that this is what has led to the higher prices of Ram Leather lately on Auction'. They could absolutely not care whatsoever. But they are no longer as likely to be a threat to immersion 'just because they don't Roleplay, themselves'.
Elite Dangerous
https://inara.cz/elite/squadron/1568/
Those folks literally worship aliens we just got out of a humanity-wide war with, though I guess they weren't technically on the same side so that term is wrong.
Their star system can be analyzed to get all the information you need for coming up with a way to interact with them, and they clearly have some intent, or at least, present one to other players in a way that prevents your immersion from being automatically broken unless they intend it. 'Automatic OOC indicator' basically.
This isn't really a case where the Background Simulation is incredibly important to the RP-frame, though, most of the information is available already. Without the Thargoids ever having any specific interaction with this group (there's some information in the link though), you have all the context required for immersion. It does not matter if the players actually fought on their side in the war, only that there was enough dynamism (the war itself, and any aspect of the BGS changing during the time then or since) for context.
The requirements for these that I have learned as RP-Lead, especially within my group of people with differing levels of skill and investment into the RP itself:
1. No rigid set of actions that must be taken in response to the world change or 'frame trigger' (strong suggestions are fine, so this is hard to really explain without another Elite Dangerously long essay)
2. Enough lore information to give various players context for engagement, even if they choose not to, because somehow this works for immersing even those who have poor memory/relational skill
3. A limit on that lore information so that the space can be filled at all instead of 'everyone worrying that there's some discordant canon that will be jarring later' (I've been told by multiple group members that this fear of being 'squashed by canon' is almost crippling in terms of being imaginative, for them)
4. Enough universal dynamism in the worldsim that is very clear and strongly canonical, for a foundation. Basically, don't let 'real, repeatable things that happen' be too open to interpretation. If a minor event-state spawns 'for no reason' it has to be something that seems like it should (or a bug, or a weird patch, at least then most people experience it the same way).
5. If #4 is not possible, some ecological/meteorological tie-in that can be observed by everyone, and I mean 'everyone period', not 'everyone in a specific Roleplay group'
Quests are a great way to deliver all this, or they can be a terrible wrecking ball to destroy it all even when it already exists.
Since the Quest/Narrative/World Manager team surely knows how they want to approach most/all of this already, it's just a rant that seemed just about worth typing up, but not directly relevant to the Feedback Thread since it's moreso about a tangential experience to Quests, than anything about Quests themselves.
An RP-Frame for my group is 'a set of conditions or lore that give context to an action'. It does not require actual Roleplaying, but it doesn't exclude it. The purpose is to increase immersion for those who like storyline. Here are some random examples of recently used ones and mild explanation for why they worked.
Throne and Liberty:
There is currently a visual bug in some clients of TL where under certain conditions, the sun is black. The light source itself doesn't vanish, the skyglow around it is fine, the sun itself is just black.
There are also at least two 'Ocular' bosses that 'could be responsible for this', Grayeye and Malakar. Their lore is provided to us in game in small blurbs that are easily accessible to everyone. The current RP-Frame is quite strong, able to lead us along a multi-pronged path of investigation, theories, diverse roles, and 'fear', based on just these two things.
The requirement for this to work, other than RP-skill, is the strong worldbuild, but also the large 'empty space' allowed by not pushing too hard on the specifics of these bosses. We know a reasonable amount about them, both through blurbs and through battle, but the game has not 'told us a very specific, locked-in story' for them. This, afaik for most of my group, increases immersion.
Not simply because 'we can RP stuff', you could do this with anything, make up anything about any character in the game, etc, but because it's connected to something, and it's flexible enough that you could probably describe it to someone else, both the reason for your RP, and the reason you took X action, without having to worry that the Game Canon will clash super hard against it, so even if that person is 'more knowledgeable' than you for some reason, it doesn't apply to these enemies as much.
Final Fantasy 11:
The Grauberg area contains a roost of Wyverns, and a Dragon who can communicate with people if you befriend her in various ways. It is geographically above an area where sheep graze and people could, somewhat realistically 'raise' them.
For various reasons I won't go too much into, this mentally lends itself rather well to the idea that if you somehow 'didn't see enough sheep' in that area for a while, or 'certain Elite/Notorious Monsters weren't spawning for a long time', that the Wyverns might be overhunting (for example) and the Dragon might ask someone to help deal with the more aggressive ones. This tier of thing could be an ingame quest or event, but then it would probably be less fun because it'would be so unlikely to be triggered by something that people would accept being so random, with so many prerequisites. (FF11 does have quite a few quests or situations that are that random/dynamic/rare, but we do not expect these in modern games).
It is more than enough that some dynamism is involved, enough to get this feeling oneself. Are the Wyverns starving because they're grounded by a recent spate of summer thunderstorms? Emboldened by some other change in the world? Is the Dragon even in the area and not visiting a City at the moment to be able to know this? Did she 'bring this quest with her' when she came to your city to visit a different friend?
This one really 'feels like it could work as a normal quest', in a game where the Devs somehow have the time to spare to make content that only 1-5% of people will even know exist, but the important part is that creating just the components required for this RP-Frame is so much easier and such 'relatively incidental work' that it is enough to increase immersion on its own. Other than that, the same thing from TL applies.
If you go up to the Aery and find another group there, you have a grounded, ingame way to reference and explain the reason you are there, and one that they all have access to the pieces of. It's not just random stuff in your own mind. They 'could have noticed the summer thunderstorms', they 'could have someone who is also friends with the Dragon', they could 'understand that this is what has led to the higher prices of Ram Leather lately on Auction'. They could absolutely not care whatsoever. But they are no longer as likely to be a threat to immersion 'just because they don't Roleplay, themselves'.
Elite Dangerous
https://inara.cz/elite/squadron/1568/
Those folks literally worship aliens we just got out of a humanity-wide war with, though I guess they weren't technically on the same side so that term is wrong.
Their star system can be analyzed to get all the information you need for coming up with a way to interact with them, and they clearly have some intent, or at least, present one to other players in a way that prevents your immersion from being automatically broken unless they intend it. 'Automatic OOC indicator' basically.
This isn't really a case where the Background Simulation is incredibly important to the RP-frame, though, most of the information is available already. Without the Thargoids ever having any specific interaction with this group (there's some information in the link though), you have all the context required for immersion. It does not matter if the players actually fought on their side in the war, only that there was enough dynamism (the war itself, and any aspect of the BGS changing during the time then or since) for context.
The requirements for these that I have learned as RP-Lead, especially within my group of people with differing levels of skill and investment into the RP itself:
1. No rigid set of actions that must be taken in response to the world change or 'frame trigger' (strong suggestions are fine, so this is hard to really explain without another Elite Dangerously long essay)
2. Enough lore information to give various players context for engagement, even if they choose not to, because somehow this works for immersing even those who have poor memory/relational skill
3. A limit on that lore information so that the space can be filled at all instead of 'everyone worrying that there's some discordant canon that will be jarring later' (I've been told by multiple group members that this fear of being 'squashed by canon' is almost crippling in terms of being imaginative, for them)
4. Enough universal dynamism in the worldsim that is very clear and strongly canonical, for a foundation. Basically, don't let 'real, repeatable things that happen' be too open to interpretation. If a minor event-state spawns 'for no reason' it has to be something that seems like it should (or a bug, or a weird patch, at least then most people experience it the same way).
5. If #4 is not possible, some ecological/meteorological tie-in that can be observed by everyone, and I mean 'everyone period', not 'everyone in a specific Roleplay group'
Quests are a great way to deliver all this, or they can be a terrible wrecking ball to destroy it all even when it already exists.
Since the Quest/Narrative/World Manager team surely knows how they want to approach most/all of this already, it's just a rant that seemed just about worth typing up, but not directly relevant to the Feedback Thread since it's moreso about a tangential experience to Quests, than anything about Quests themselves.
Azherae
1