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: 🌼👋 Dev Discussion: Gatherable Spawning System
The random gatherable spawns is a good change, but I would stop there.
The big clusters of rare resources that are we supposed to fight over sounds like another feature that only helps the large guilds while cutting off the smaller guilds (and casual players too).
Not everything needs to be oversaturated with PvP where bigger numbers win. Not every feature in the game needs to be appealing only for zergs. We already have enough systems that are based around this flawed logic, like caravans and world bosses, and the small guilds are already getting cannibalized because of these.
I hope you are going to consider this while developing this system.
The big clusters of rare resources that are we supposed to fight over sounds like another feature that only helps the large guilds while cutting off the smaller guilds (and casual players too).
Not everything needs to be oversaturated with PvP where bigger numbers win. Not every feature in the game needs to be appealing only for zergs. We already have enough systems that are based around this flawed logic, like caravans and world bosses, and the small guilds are already getting cannibalized because of these.
I hope you are going to consider this while developing this system.
Daggial
2
Re: Fast travel
No fast travel please, current iteration is amazing. It provides a grand scale to the world, prevents zergs from instantly being everywhere and promotes a LoTR style of adventure. It will be even better once the world is fully built because it will allow lots of little communities to exist almost independently, and distance will be a safety net.
They have already commented that at some point there will be a taxi service and thats plenty. Or if an academic node levels up, there will be some sort of fast travel between nodes in its area of influence.
They have already commented that at some point there will be a taxi service and thats plenty. Or if an academic node levels up, there will be some sort of fast travel between nodes in its area of influence.
Tahiti02
6
Re: corruption system needs a rework
I'll agree that corruption shouldn't make you helpless. But the timer to drop corruption should be in the hours not minutes. Killing a non-flagged player one moment then the next going about your non corrupted life the next shouldn't be a thing. The length of corruption should be more of a deterrent than the nerfing effects. I'd also be okay with a 'revenge' kill system that didn't give corruption. If you're killed not flagged you should have a limited time to get a revenge kill that won't give corruption even if they're not flagged.
Lawful zones are to appease the PvE crowd. The Lawless zones are to appease the PvP crowd. In general PvE crowds are bigger and PvP relies on PvE more than PvE relies on PvP. I don't think they mix well in MMOs. Too much difference between playstyles, stats, loadouts, and so. Also they attract different player mindsets which tend to be conflicting. Trying to be fair to both will just everyone feel cheated.
Lawless zones were never an intended feature of the game. They were added as a temporary system to A2 developing zones. When pushed on lawless zones they kept their stance that the only place free of corruption would be the ocean and some islands in the ocean.
Lawless zones are not a reliable solution to any issue because it's not going to be prevalent at launch.
I do agree that corruption should be a lengthy thing. Bounty hunter system for hunting corrupted players exists, but with the current design of losing corruption with 2 kills it's never going to be used. Even if you require a bunch of kills, players will just feed kills to allies and lose corruption.
1. Corruption should be a long endeavor. You get corrupted, you deal with the consequence for at least hours, preferably days. But for that to be possible, either you can't get corrupted on a single kill, or the first tiers of corruption must be very lenient (very low to no chance of gear drops, full material bag drops, slightly increased exp debt). They need to implement a hard to get hard to clean philosophy.
2. To avoid people feeding kills to get rid of corruption, it also needs a timer. It needs a period where no matter how much you die you'll remain corrupted. Along with this, you need to add a character persistent timer like a 3~5 minute countdown that the players need to wait before safely logging out and removing the character from the world.
3. Corrupted players should be allowed to fight back. If the corrupted player gets more corruption by fighting back, there is 0 chance anyone is risking going corrupt, and if they do they will just feed kills/log out to get rid of it. Allowing them to fight back incentivizes them to stay logged in the game to try and clean corruption/ deal with bounty hunters and players who want to kill them.
The main issue with corruption being applied in the first kill is the certainty for the other player that you'll get corrupted if you kill them. This gives them complete safety and even an advantage in dying to get you corrupted. This creates various awkward and unpleasant scenarios of players' corruption baiting, karma bombing, playing purple footsie, and open world PVP basically becomes a pseudo opt-in system. If you want players to kill each other only when there is consent and both go purple, then just create a opt-in flagging system and cut the bullshit (please don't, that's the whole point of this feedback).
When you don't have players going corrupt on the first kill, you have the uncertainty of corruption. This means players have much less to gain by allowing them to kill you. Without this certainty, dying a person is not the best outcome, and fighting to survive and fighting back are your best options. This essentially removes all the issues of players reverse griefing and allows the flagging system to be properly used in scenarios like contesting POIs, fighting for resources, and even for events like world bosses, things that intrepid claimed they want but it's pretty much not occurring at all.
Corruption is a tool to deter grief. Griefing is the repeated targeted harassment of a player or group. A single kill is not considered griefing. The corruption system should not be used to stop players from committing isolated murders.
Imnotkio
3
Re: Not looking forward to node destruction...
New World ( I know... I know..) had a little element of this where the crafting stations and other town benefits would be degraded after certain events ( I'm not sure what events but PvP had a role in some of it) and after awhile the player population just couldn't stand it anymore and it was eventually stopped and now, at least crafting stations, don't degrade at all. It would not be surprising to see a substantial relaxing of this mechanism in order to respect the players time and commitment to the game overall.
I think that's the problem with trying to build an immersive MMO. You build a world that has mechanics that increase immersion like node destruction, but then you still get mechanics-focused players who just see those mechanics as obstacles to their mechanical gameplay. If those mechanical players are influential enough to the devs, the mechanic will get removed and immersion drops.
Because New World is, as far as I can tell, operated by project managers rather than designers, they often give in to their player complaints regardless of whether it actively hurts their core design. I hope Ashes doesn't end up doing the same thing and end up sacrificing the impact of their most unique mechanic because players see it as an obstacle and not part of why they're playing in the first place.
Re: Not looking forward to node destruction...
This is going to suck for so many players. I mean the level grind isnt really the main bulk of the game, its building your node and gathering and professions. Getting your node destroyed is total garbage.
And i dont know what kind of sadistic ass even wants to do that to someone else. I sure as hell dont. Why do I want to make people feel depressed and quit the game?
I'm all for some friendly competetition, fighting over spots and pvping etc., but this idea is just cruel.
Re: Crafting Professions
Please consider unlocking all crafting professions and no more gatekeeping behind 5 mastercrafting. Since I do not have a crystal ball and do not know what this finish product will be like. At the very least try it during this Alpha phase. Over the weekend, I went to all three desert nodes and checked their store fronts. There was only 2 to 3 pages of items for sale, per node. If a node is to specialize in a certain craft. That doesn't seem like a promising feature when content dries up. I understand what the devs are trying to achieve, and, also understand that this is a Alpha. It is not working as intended. It may never work as intended.
This topic isn't about trying to control the market. Crafting is typically a gathering/money sink that some do not enjoy. It's about being able to play the game in other ways than farming mobs for xp. Once again, no idea what finished product will be like. But, if it stays on this track, as solo, non guild person. It would be more enjoyable to be able to craft gear, food, mounts and so on without the aid of others.
Thanks for reading
Side Note: Started testing/playing Jan 5th as ranger. That char is lvl 9 and felt it was too squishy. Rerolled a cleric, lvl 20 currently. Tried group content once, but found standing in one spot and farming adds a bit boring.
Wait so....you just solo all the time? A big part of the purpose of crafting is to incentivize behaviors between players rather than lone crafters, whether it's coming together to get specific boss loot with fighters or working together with other crafters to make a masterpiece that requires multiple different skills in different stages.
People also specialize in certain crafts. Limiting it enables interactions between players, which is the point of an MMO. It seems weird to push for a feature that explicitly reduces interactions between people...
Please give Judgement seperate Offensive and Defensive casts- like quick wit
Title- it can be frustrating trying to self heal or heal via defensive frames- if judgement were optionally separated in two spells like quick wit it would be perfect!
Re: When Rogue and Summoner Showcase ?
I managed to catch Wind of a Moment where Sir Steven said, that (and why) the CURRENT Ashes right now is the "worst Ashes you will ever see" and so on.
And that apparently to the Middle-point of this Year or maybe a bit further moving onwards to Autumn this Year -> the whole Western Continent could already be finished.
Apparently the Updates which come out now, around monthly or so -> will be huge.
And dear Sir Steven also said the Reason that right now -> the Reason why the Alpha Two looks almost like it is standing still and that it will take an Eternity for new Stuff to come out,
is because the things that are workest most and hardest on, are ingame Updates which are not visible yet. People can not see the Progress -> because the way is being paved for the huge Updates and rapid grow of the ingame World to function when it is supposed to be added to the already available Area's and Content.
Long Story short it appears it will get REALLY exciting the next Months and until now was just the most boring and painful seeming Start of all Time.
The Reason about not a single other Video Game Company ever gave such an early glimpse into a Game's Development is because they wanted to avoid exactly this super-frustrating Moment in time in which it looks like the Development is standing still.
And that apparently to the Middle-point of this Year or maybe a bit further moving onwards to Autumn this Year -> the whole Western Continent could already be finished.
Apparently the Updates which come out now, around monthly or so -> will be huge.
And dear Sir Steven also said the Reason that right now -> the Reason why the Alpha Two looks almost like it is standing still and that it will take an Eternity for new Stuff to come out,
is because the things that are workest most and hardest on, are ingame Updates which are not visible yet. People can not see the Progress -> because the way is being paved for the huge Updates and rapid grow of the ingame World to function when it is supposed to be added to the already available Area's and Content.
Long Story short it appears it will get REALLY exciting the next Months and until now was just the most boring and painful seeming Start of all Time.
The Reason about not a single other Video Game Company ever gave such an early glimpse into a Game's Development is because they wanted to avoid exactly this super-frustrating Moment in time in which it looks like the Development is standing still.
Aszkalon
1
Re: 📝 Dev Discussion #73 - Boss Environments 👹
Major Points Discussed:
1. The importance of scale in boss encounters.
2. Making boss fights more immersive by giving players personal responsibility for the fight's success.
3. Shifting from linear boss mechanics to dynamic, unpredictable mechanics.
4. The impact of deadly mechanics versus drawn-out health pools.
5. Shifting the balance away from Zerg guilds and towards smaller, more coordinated groups.
6. The importance of the boss interacting with the environment and players using the environment to their advantage.
7. Making boss fights feel more like the boss is alive in the world, rather than a static encounter.
How can the environment and setting of a boss encounter enhance the challenge and immersion of the battle?
I don’t necessarily expect this from Ashes, but just speaking generally about what I find interesting in boss encounters... one of the biggest things for me is scale. Bosses in MMOs rarely feel as challenging or as impactful as I’d like them to. Most of the time, fights boil down to the same general formula: a bunch of people spamming their rotations, dodging circles on the ground, and slowly whittling away at a massive health pool. It works, but it doesn’t always feel epic.
If I think about the most memorable boss fights I’ve played, they come from games like Dark Souls. Obviously, MMOs can’t directly replicate that experience. Part of what makes Dark Souls bosses so intense is that you’re fighting them alone, which forces a sense of personal responsibility and tension that’s hard to replicate in a large-scale MMO fight. But I do think there’s something to be learned from that: bosses in MMOs could be way more immersive if players felt more individually responsible for the fight's success.
Right now, when you’re in a massive boss fight with a ton of players, it often feels like your presence barely matters. DPS meters were at least one way to make people feel engaged, giving players a way to compete for performance, but outside of that, the actual mechanics often make players feel replaceable. So how do you make a boss fight feel more immersive?
One way is to lean into deadly mechanics over drawn-out health bars. A lot of MMO bosses feel tanky just for the sake of it, dragging out fights rather than making them actually dangerous. I’d rather see bosses that can wipe a group quickly if players fail mechanics, but also don’t take forever to kill if the group executes everything correctly. This creates a much higher skill ceiling and, more importantly, shifts the balance away from Zerg guilds that just brute force content by throwing bodies at it.
Right now, bosses like Firebrand or Tumag are really only killable by massive Zerg guilds, but what if those bosses had mechanics that made coordination more important than numbers? Imagine a fireball that instantly kills a player, then bounces to the next person nearby, forcing everyone to be precise in their movement and positioning. In a system like that, a smaller, well-coordinated guild could have an actual shot at taking down these bosses, rather than just being overrun by sheer numbers.
To me, that's what makes boss fights immersive: a sense of personal responsibility, mechanics that reward skill over numbers, and an environment that forces actual coordination rather than just spamming rotations in a DPS race.
Another aspect of boss fights that I think is really immersive is when the boss interacts with the world around them. I think stage design typically plays a big role in boss encounters. Usually, fights feel very linear, like get the boss to point X, and once you reach that point, the boss transforms or changes mechanics. What would be more interesting, in my opinion, is if the boss mechanics were more dynamic rather than rigid. This would demand more coordination and collaboration, encouraging players to be more aware and adapt during the fight. What I mean by this is that while players definitely need to train on boss mechanics, learning the mechanics should not be so straightforward. Boss mechanics / stages don’t need to be linear they can be dynamic, and this dynamic approach would make the encounter feel far more immersive and challenging than the typical, predictable rotation of actions.
I also love when bosses interact with the environment, using environmental factors to gain an advantage, or even when players can use the environment to their benefit. For example, setting a forest on fire to trap a boss in a specific area. It creates a sense that the boss is alive in the world and responds to its surroundings, rather than just being an animated puppet.
1. The importance of scale in boss encounters.
2. Making boss fights more immersive by giving players personal responsibility for the fight's success.
3. Shifting from linear boss mechanics to dynamic, unpredictable mechanics.
4. The impact of deadly mechanics versus drawn-out health pools.
5. Shifting the balance away from Zerg guilds and towards smaller, more coordinated groups.
6. The importance of the boss interacting with the environment and players using the environment to their advantage.
7. Making boss fights feel more like the boss is alive in the world, rather than a static encounter.
How can the environment and setting of a boss encounter enhance the challenge and immersion of the battle?
I don’t necessarily expect this from Ashes, but just speaking generally about what I find interesting in boss encounters... one of the biggest things for me is scale. Bosses in MMOs rarely feel as challenging or as impactful as I’d like them to. Most of the time, fights boil down to the same general formula: a bunch of people spamming their rotations, dodging circles on the ground, and slowly whittling away at a massive health pool. It works, but it doesn’t always feel epic.
If I think about the most memorable boss fights I’ve played, they come from games like Dark Souls. Obviously, MMOs can’t directly replicate that experience. Part of what makes Dark Souls bosses so intense is that you’re fighting them alone, which forces a sense of personal responsibility and tension that’s hard to replicate in a large-scale MMO fight. But I do think there’s something to be learned from that: bosses in MMOs could be way more immersive if players felt more individually responsible for the fight's success.
Right now, when you’re in a massive boss fight with a ton of players, it often feels like your presence barely matters. DPS meters were at least one way to make people feel engaged, giving players a way to compete for performance, but outside of that, the actual mechanics often make players feel replaceable. So how do you make a boss fight feel more immersive?
One way is to lean into deadly mechanics over drawn-out health bars. A lot of MMO bosses feel tanky just for the sake of it, dragging out fights rather than making them actually dangerous. I’d rather see bosses that can wipe a group quickly if players fail mechanics, but also don’t take forever to kill if the group executes everything correctly. This creates a much higher skill ceiling and, more importantly, shifts the balance away from Zerg guilds that just brute force content by throwing bodies at it.
Right now, bosses like Firebrand or Tumag are really only killable by massive Zerg guilds, but what if those bosses had mechanics that made coordination more important than numbers? Imagine a fireball that instantly kills a player, then bounces to the next person nearby, forcing everyone to be precise in their movement and positioning. In a system like that, a smaller, well-coordinated guild could have an actual shot at taking down these bosses, rather than just being overrun by sheer numbers.
To me, that's what makes boss fights immersive: a sense of personal responsibility, mechanics that reward skill over numbers, and an environment that forces actual coordination rather than just spamming rotations in a DPS race.
Another aspect of boss fights that I think is really immersive is when the boss interacts with the world around them. I think stage design typically plays a big role in boss encounters. Usually, fights feel very linear, like get the boss to point X, and once you reach that point, the boss transforms or changes mechanics. What would be more interesting, in my opinion, is if the boss mechanics were more dynamic rather than rigid. This would demand more coordination and collaboration, encouraging players to be more aware and adapt during the fight. What I mean by this is that while players definitely need to train on boss mechanics, learning the mechanics should not be so straightforward. Boss mechanics / stages don’t need to be linear they can be dynamic, and this dynamic approach would make the encounter feel far more immersive and challenging than the typical, predictable rotation of actions.
I also love when bosses interact with the environment, using environmental factors to gain an advantage, or even when players can use the environment to their benefit. For example, setting a forest on fire to trap a boss in a specific area. It creates a sense that the boss is alive in the world and responds to its surroundings, rather than just being an animated puppet.
