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: French canadian server? (NA FRENCH)
Going a bit extreme there.[Forcing an entire group of people to speak and write in another language reminds me of Indian reformatory schools, or in my case, of the Franco-Algerian conflict.
The problem with this is that servers in Ashes really do need a minimum population to be viable in a gameplay sense - not even an economical sense.
The target goal for a server in Ashes is 50,000 players in total calling that server home. With 11 million French speakers in Canada, that would mean that 0.5% of that population would need to play Ashes in order to maintain that one server at it's optimal population level.
If we took that 0.5% figure and moved down to the US, that same figure would mean the game would have over 30 US servers. However, the likely scenario for this game is that there will be two or three US servers by the time the game is a year old - meaning if we moved those numbers back, the French NA server would have 10% or so of the population it needs. This would see a point where if every single player on the server logged in, the server would still only be at half of it's concurrent capacity.
Realistically, Intrepid need populations of 50,000,000 or more to make a server viable. French NA just doesn't meet that.
Noaani
1
Re: French canadian server? (NA FRENCH)
That's very interesting because in the 90% of canada that speaks english we are expected to learn french in fact we have whole schools for french immersion where kids are not allowed to speak english when in school! Why is this not expected from Quebecers? Sounds like the racism your talking about is probably coming from the reflection in the mirror and not from the games your playing. That would coincide with Quebec's overall attitude to anyone who is not a Quebecer!Warius The Dwarf wrote: »Hi ho everyone. You can see i can write in an "OK" english, but it was not always the casse. I was FORCE to learn english and install the games in english because my two only option are 1)Lag free USA english server 2)EU far and laggy Server. Game maker forget that Canada have 2 mains languages.
On many games it was very hard for us to regroup on a guild because we had no dedicated server and lot of us had to play on EU FR server to avoid racism. Racism is a thing on all games.
Zehlan
1
Re: Weekly Feedback Request - 02/27/2025
I'm sorry for such bad English. This is an automatic translation from Russian. I'm bad at English. If it is not clear, I can publish the Russian version of my feedback.
Top 3-5 Most Important Bugs:
1. I'm tired of flying to carfin when you transport caravans. This is very problematic and is now a problem of the highest importance.
2. When you sell any product to a seller and then want to transfer things to the warehouse, they are not transferred with simple mouse clicks. You must drag and drop by hand or re-enter the game. It gets in the way.
3. Players should not be allowed to transport caravans that cannot be broken due to a bug. There are players who register for their caravan to attack and this leads to an error. The caravan becomes invulnerable. This abuse of a bug has a very bad effect on the gameplay as a whole.
Top 3-5 Most Important Feedback Topics:
1. The idea of citizenship is poorly implemented in the game. Now any twin can become a citizen. This has a big impact on elections. False votes should not be allowed. There should be only 1 vote per player. Moreover, it’s bad that spare characters can become citizens of other nodes. There must be one citizenship for the entire account. You need to consider a system like in Black Desert Online, where all characters are tied to one account and all activity is recorded per account, and not per character individually.
2. I would also like to add to point 1 that the idea where players are forced to transfer their resources to their other characters through third parties is very bad. Why do we need to distract our friends every time for such a small thing? But without their help, I cannot transfer my resources to myself. This is nonsense. Why can't the warehouse be shared by all characters on the account? This will fix this situation. This inconvenient system creates the false impression that players will willingly interact with each other. But that's not true. I have not yet heard a single satisfied player who would respond positively to this system with divided scalads for each character. This is nonsense and stuffiness. As they say, “open the window, it’s stuffy.”
3. There is another mechanic that looks very stuffy, this is the limitation of upgrading professions per character. This is also nonsense and stuffiness. This restriction gives absolutely nothing. Those who need to upgrade more professions simply upgrade them on other characters. Moreover, I do not believe that the restriction should be removed completely. I suggest changing it a little. Now for one character you can upgrade 2 professions to level 50, 3 to level 40, 4 to level 30 and 5 to level 20. And it doesn’t depend on what kind of professions you train. Why not make a restriction that will work within one direction. For example, one collecting profession can be upgraded to level 50. One crafting profession up to level 50 and one processing profession up to level 50. Two professions for collecting up to level 40. Two crafting professions up to level 40 and two processing professions up to level 40. And so on. And I would also like to add that it would be nice to link this not to the character directly, but to the account. Yes, again I am referring to BDO. But precisely because such a system has proven itself well. Many people like this. Moreover, I do not propose to start transferring all the ideas from there!!! No way. There, only this system works well and the graphics are nice. The rest of the game sucks. Most of the mechanics in that game are terrible. Most of the decisions are unpopular and stifle players. In general, you don’t need to look up to them. But it was the system of surnames and the general account that showed itself well. I suggest developers pay attention to this. Please. ))
4. Static spawns for resources are terrible. It is impossible to allow the collection of a legendary resource from the same place. This breaks the game's economy and has a bad effect on the overall gameplay.
Top 3-5 Most Important Bugs:
1. I'm tired of flying to carfin when you transport caravans. This is very problematic and is now a problem of the highest importance.
2. When you sell any product to a seller and then want to transfer things to the warehouse, they are not transferred with simple mouse clicks. You must drag and drop by hand or re-enter the game. It gets in the way.
3. Players should not be allowed to transport caravans that cannot be broken due to a bug. There are players who register for their caravan to attack and this leads to an error. The caravan becomes invulnerable. This abuse of a bug has a very bad effect on the gameplay as a whole.
Top 3-5 Most Important Feedback Topics:
1. The idea of citizenship is poorly implemented in the game. Now any twin can become a citizen. This has a big impact on elections. False votes should not be allowed. There should be only 1 vote per player. Moreover, it’s bad that spare characters can become citizens of other nodes. There must be one citizenship for the entire account. You need to consider a system like in Black Desert Online, where all characters are tied to one account and all activity is recorded per account, and not per character individually.
2. I would also like to add to point 1 that the idea where players are forced to transfer their resources to their other characters through third parties is very bad. Why do we need to distract our friends every time for such a small thing? But without their help, I cannot transfer my resources to myself. This is nonsense. Why can't the warehouse be shared by all characters on the account? This will fix this situation. This inconvenient system creates the false impression that players will willingly interact with each other. But that's not true. I have not yet heard a single satisfied player who would respond positively to this system with divided scalads for each character. This is nonsense and stuffiness. As they say, “open the window, it’s stuffy.”
3. There is another mechanic that looks very stuffy, this is the limitation of upgrading professions per character. This is also nonsense and stuffiness. This restriction gives absolutely nothing. Those who need to upgrade more professions simply upgrade them on other characters. Moreover, I do not believe that the restriction should be removed completely. I suggest changing it a little. Now for one character you can upgrade 2 professions to level 50, 3 to level 40, 4 to level 30 and 5 to level 20. And it doesn’t depend on what kind of professions you train. Why not make a restriction that will work within one direction. For example, one collecting profession can be upgraded to level 50. One crafting profession up to level 50 and one processing profession up to level 50. Two professions for collecting up to level 40. Two crafting professions up to level 40 and two processing professions up to level 40. And so on. And I would also like to add that it would be nice to link this not to the character directly, but to the account. Yes, again I am referring to BDO. But precisely because such a system has proven itself well. Many people like this. Moreover, I do not propose to start transferring all the ideas from there!!! No way. There, only this system works well and the graphics are nice. The rest of the game sucks. Most of the mechanics in that game are terrible. Most of the decisions are unpopular and stifle players. In general, you don’t need to look up to them. But it was the system of surnames and the general account that showed itself well. I suggest developers pay attention to this. Please. ))
4. Static spawns for resources are terrible. It is impossible to allow the collection of a legendary resource from the same place. This breaks the game's economy and has a bad effect on the overall gameplay.
BIGDEN
1
Re: Weekly Feedback Request - 02/27/2025
Top 3 Most Important Bugs:
1 - The dragon is still respawning on every server reset or at random times when the mesh crashes and the event starts
2 - Guild/Node wars have no consequences for the loser side of it, so people don't care about it and don't defend it - rewards are exploitable and bad. Having buffs for the winning side and Debuffs on the losing side for the events would fix these issues
3 - Resources spawn with the same rarity, so people sit and farm a legendary ore/tree over and over, getting the same rarity mat every time
Top 3 Most Important Feedback Topics:
1 - Item power in PvP is completely unbalanced. PvP TTK when people have epic/legendary lvl 10 gear is 2/3 hits, this leads to very low skill gameplay with the current direction - nerfing enchanting isnt enough as power creep will continue to scale up - suggestion to add a reduced pvp dmg stat
2 - Open-world PvP is dead because of how harsh corruption is - dropping 3 to 5 items on your first kill due to blight is crazy. No one goes corrupt, and corruption baiting is very common. World bosses not being PVP zones makes this very frustrating currently
3 - People join/drop guilds with no meaning, we need a progression path that makes players value their guild so they don't drop out without thought - suggestion to separate power/artisan guild skill tree path and make that one individual so each player levels their own guild tree with XP - and keep the member slot path as the shared skill tree
1 - The dragon is still respawning on every server reset or at random times when the mesh crashes and the event starts
2 - Guild/Node wars have no consequences for the loser side of it, so people don't care about it and don't defend it - rewards are exploitable and bad. Having buffs for the winning side and Debuffs on the losing side for the events would fix these issues
3 - Resources spawn with the same rarity, so people sit and farm a legendary ore/tree over and over, getting the same rarity mat every time
Top 3 Most Important Feedback Topics:
1 - Item power in PvP is completely unbalanced. PvP TTK when people have epic/legendary lvl 10 gear is 2/3 hits, this leads to very low skill gameplay with the current direction - nerfing enchanting isnt enough as power creep will continue to scale up - suggestion to add a reduced pvp dmg stat
2 - Open-world PvP is dead because of how harsh corruption is - dropping 3 to 5 items on your first kill due to blight is crazy. No one goes corrupt, and corruption baiting is very common. World bosses not being PVP zones makes this very frustrating currently
3 - People join/drop guilds with no meaning, we need a progression path that makes players value their guild so they don't drop out without thought - suggestion to separate power/artisan guild skill tree path and make that one individual so each player levels their own guild tree with XP - and keep the member slot path as the shared skill tree
Makakao
1
Re: Weekly Feedback Request - 02/27/2025
Top 3 Most Important Bugs:
1 - Dragon is still respawning on every server reset or at random times when the mesh crashes and the event starts
2 - Guild/Node wars have no consequences for the loser side of it, so people dont care about it and dont defend it - rewards are exploitable and bad, having Buffs for the winning side and Debuffs on the loser side for the events would fix this issues
3 - Resources spawn with the same rarity so people sit and farm a legendary ore/tree over and over getting the same rarity mat every time
Top 3 Most Important Feedback Topics:
1 - Item power in PvP is completely unbalanced, PvP TTK when people have epic/legendary lvl 10 gear is 2/3 hits, this leads to very low skill gameplay with the current direction - nerfing enchanting isnt enough as power creep will continue to scale up - suggestion to add a reduced pvp dmg stat
2 - Open world PvP is dead because of how harsh corruption is - dropping 3 to 5 items on your first kill due to blight is crazy, no one goes corrupt and corruption baiting is very common - world bosses not being PVP zones makes this very frustrating currently
3 - People join/drop guilds with no meaning, we need a progression path that makes players value their guild so they don't drop out without thought - suggestion to separate power/artisan guild skill tree path and make that one individual so each player levels their own guild tree with XP - and keep the member slot path as the shared skill tree
1 - Dragon is still respawning on every server reset or at random times when the mesh crashes and the event starts
2 - Guild/Node wars have no consequences for the loser side of it, so people dont care about it and dont defend it - rewards are exploitable and bad, having Buffs for the winning side and Debuffs on the loser side for the events would fix this issues
3 - Resources spawn with the same rarity so people sit and farm a legendary ore/tree over and over getting the same rarity mat every time
Top 3 Most Important Feedback Topics:
1 - Item power in PvP is completely unbalanced, PvP TTK when people have epic/legendary lvl 10 gear is 2/3 hits, this leads to very low skill gameplay with the current direction - nerfing enchanting isnt enough as power creep will continue to scale up - suggestion to add a reduced pvp dmg stat
2 - Open world PvP is dead because of how harsh corruption is - dropping 3 to 5 items on your first kill due to blight is crazy, no one goes corrupt and corruption baiting is very common - world bosses not being PVP zones makes this very frustrating currently
3 - People join/drop guilds with no meaning, we need a progression path that makes players value their guild so they don't drop out without thought - suggestion to separate power/artisan guild skill tree path and make that one individual so each player levels their own guild tree with XP - and keep the member slot path as the shared skill tree
Harushi
2
Re: Weekly Feedback Request - 02/27/2025
Alpha Two Phase II Feedback
Top 3-5 Most Important Bugs:
1. Server stability
2. Enemies becoming "Green non-attackable/killable" but can still attack and harm you
3. Caravans having difficulty in spots to convert raft.
Top 3-5 Most Important Feedback Topics:
1. Static resource spawns are a huge problem, eliminates the feel of scarcity in the game. Damaging the economy, funneling large guilds, reducing desire to gather (as they are most likely already claimed and on timers). This creates zero PvP as you may not even know there is a resource spawn to contest at all. This incentivizes alt creation to merely camp, collect, reset timers, log out. Leaving whats left on the server the undesirables , hence the lower desire to go out an gather or hunt for high rarity when they are seized already. For those who don't play with alts, this creates a forced game loop (if you wish to be competitive)
2. Nodes technically are not owned by guilds, I believe was a statement made on it. while technically true, the reality is large guilds own Mayorship. Voting system means popularity contest, guild mates tend to favor guild mates, large guilds tend to out vote the smaller ones. The guild tends to control the direction of the node, the relationships of said guild influences heavily who targets citizens and war declarations for that node. etc. Nodes are just home bases for the largest guild that is citizen to it and everyone else has to deal with the reputation they harbor.
3. Caravans not having any real incentive to defend for defenders excluding the one launching the caravan. This is a problem, currently only your buddies will defend or people with friendly relations to you. Solo caravaning for guildless or solo players or even smaller guilds leave you mainly with a large target or ignored by players running buy who would rather not partake at all. The downside of losing everything yet giving nothing to those who try to defend is crippling and makes many not even want to attempt for the reward. Caravans don't draw in outside defenders as much as attackers, not that it needs to be on equal footing but near 0 defenders vs many attackers is not the way to go either....
4. Static resource spawns should be removed. My opinion on it just to put it out there... The base for a resource spawn should be random. The base for a resource spawn should never be higher than rare. To get higher rarity should be based on the gathers quality rating to push it above its base and possibly into heroic/Epic rarity but extremely difficult at lower levels and better as you choose to promote and enhance your tools as a gatherer. The level of the material should be a factor in it rolling up vs your current rank. You want us to be THAT GUY right? This should translate to processors who have a chance when processing to roll it higher into another tier beyond, and again with crafters in the same way. It should be a system where GM Gatherers proccing up resources handing it off to GM Processors procing it up handing it off to GM crafters who again proc it up that creates the opportunity to create legendaries. GM's given tier 1 mats should be more likely to roll them up significantly across the artisan chain to produce legendaries for T1 mats/items. However with GM mats its much much more difficult even if they are GM, but they would be the ones with the best chance. They are THEM after all! In other words the rarity and value of the final result should be from the artisans working in tandem, not by the initial resource being epic or legendary right off the bat for literally anyone who can swing a tool.
Top 3-5 Most Important Bugs:
1. Server stability
2. Enemies becoming "Green non-attackable/killable" but can still attack and harm you
3. Caravans having difficulty in spots to convert raft.
Top 3-5 Most Important Feedback Topics:
1. Static resource spawns are a huge problem, eliminates the feel of scarcity in the game. Damaging the economy, funneling large guilds, reducing desire to gather (as they are most likely already claimed and on timers). This creates zero PvP as you may not even know there is a resource spawn to contest at all. This incentivizes alt creation to merely camp, collect, reset timers, log out. Leaving whats left on the server the undesirables , hence the lower desire to go out an gather or hunt for high rarity when they are seized already. For those who don't play with alts, this creates a forced game loop (if you wish to be competitive)
2. Nodes technically are not owned by guilds, I believe was a statement made on it. while technically true, the reality is large guilds own Mayorship. Voting system means popularity contest, guild mates tend to favor guild mates, large guilds tend to out vote the smaller ones. The guild tends to control the direction of the node, the relationships of said guild influences heavily who targets citizens and war declarations for that node. etc. Nodes are just home bases for the largest guild that is citizen to it and everyone else has to deal with the reputation they harbor.
3. Caravans not having any real incentive to defend for defenders excluding the one launching the caravan. This is a problem, currently only your buddies will defend or people with friendly relations to you. Solo caravaning for guildless or solo players or even smaller guilds leave you mainly with a large target or ignored by players running buy who would rather not partake at all. The downside of losing everything yet giving nothing to those who try to defend is crippling and makes many not even want to attempt for the reward. Caravans don't draw in outside defenders as much as attackers, not that it needs to be on equal footing but near 0 defenders vs many attackers is not the way to go either....
4. Static resource spawns should be removed. My opinion on it just to put it out there... The base for a resource spawn should be random. The base for a resource spawn should never be higher than rare. To get higher rarity should be based on the gathers quality rating to push it above its base and possibly into heroic/Epic rarity but extremely difficult at lower levels and better as you choose to promote and enhance your tools as a gatherer. The level of the material should be a factor in it rolling up vs your current rank. You want us to be THAT GUY right? This should translate to processors who have a chance when processing to roll it higher into another tier beyond, and again with crafters in the same way. It should be a system where GM Gatherers proccing up resources handing it off to GM Processors procing it up handing it off to GM crafters who again proc it up that creates the opportunity to create legendaries. GM's given tier 1 mats should be more likely to roll them up significantly across the artisan chain to produce legendaries for T1 mats/items. However with GM mats its much much more difficult even if they are GM, but they would be the ones with the best chance. They are THEM after all! In other words the rarity and value of the final result should be from the artisans working in tandem, not by the initial resource being epic or legendary right off the bat for literally anyone who can swing a tool.
datrican
3
Re: Weekly Feedback Request - 02/27/2025
Top 3-5 Most Important Bugs:
1. Can't keybind mousewheel up/down
2. Marketplace defaulting to materials if no items
3.
Top 3-5 Most Important Feedback Topics:
1. Static quaranteed rarity gatherable spawns bad
2. Improve Action Cam
3. Add cast bar under nameplates
4. Option to remove soft lock
5. "Hard Lock Hold" Keybind option that does not overwrite other keybinds = able to have Action Cam attack + Hard lock hold on left mouse button.
1. Can't keybind mousewheel up/down
2. Marketplace defaulting to materials if no items
3.
Top 3-5 Most Important Feedback Topics:
1. Static quaranteed rarity gatherable spawns bad
2. Improve Action Cam
3. Add cast bar under nameplates
4. Option to remove soft lock
5. "Hard Lock Hold" Keybind option that does not overwrite other keybinds = able to have Action Cam attack + Hard lock hold on left mouse button.
Mayhem
2
Re: 📝 Dev Discussion #73 - Boss Environments 👹
I'll keep this short since I talk about it so much as it is.
I like when the enemies around and the weather situation change the battle, this is Macro-environment for me.
https://forums.ashesofcreation.com/discussion/52939/lets-theoryraid-1-jormungand-vs-xenojiiva
Xeno'jiiva's arena in its 'normal' form also has some elevation changes that you can use until it destroys them, but it's subverted because the thing you normally use elevation for (mounting the monster) doesn't work on it.
I like when bosses can 'call adds' but it isn't just some base mechanic they have at a scripted time. Tumok shaking spiders out of trees would be in my wheelhouse then. Muh immersion.
https://forums.ashesofcreation.com/discussion/55622/lets-theoryraid-2-cyclops-v2-no-depth-perception
I also like chaotic/war settings, especially when it temporarily 'takes over' a familiar location, causing the player to rethink the area and form new 'memories' and concepts.
https://forums.ashesofcreation.com/discussion/55673/lets-theoryraid-3-putting-heads-together-hydra-illuyankas-ffxi-vs-tiamat-onigiri
Illuyankas can be part of Besieged and attack Al Zahbi, alongside many troops, and even though this is the equivalent of a Castle Siege defense so there are many players to deal with the many enemies, it still feels good.
In terms of actual environments, everything about Toublek is great, and it becomes greater when you fight the Tier 2 version Kertaki. FF11 would have added even more to this, making the 'weather' in the area change based on certain area-statuses like the fog, or having things like 'windy weather' affect the fight.
https://forums.ashesofcreation.com/discussion/58812/lets-theoryraid-4-briareus-and-tourblek-reimagined
https://forums.ashesofcreation.com/discussion/60640/lets-theoryraid-5-tiamat-ffxi-vs-firebrand
FF11 Tiamat is mostly, again, just 'enemies around and weather situation'. Firebrand, when fully implemented, will be even more amazing for similar reasons. Steam to block vision, ground hazard lingering burning areas, locations where the breath would be blocked by terrain... I look forward to seeing Firebrand fights in all sorts of cool environs.
Other than that, as another poster mentioned, the 'ground falling out from under you' thing is always at least somewhat interesting (FF11 Diabolos fight, for me, but obv many others).
There are too many recent examples from Throne and Liberty to even go into. They seemingly try to keep these complex mechanics out of Field Bosses since those 'need' to be accessible to the least invested players, but I'd say that there are more battles with environmental components than without them, so it would really just be 'a list of TL Dungeon Boss and miniBoss mechanics, excluding Heliber/Karnix'.
My personal favorite is Carmine Rage Island because the layout is just so good, it really gives that 'I'm having an adventure in a goblin forest' feeling, MiniBoss #1 being a 6v6 is fun but not really environmental. MiniBoss 2 has an environmental 'mechanic' placed around a Goblin... Hellcaster (idk we just call this mob 'Hydrolox').
Hydrolox has various moments where you can imagine the Arena floods with magical energy from some huge Runestones that surround it, and each player gets one protective rune 'attunement' applied to them. To survive the blast that will come or at least not get massively chunked down health-wise, you have to 'notice which Runestone has the mark matching your resonance, and move to it'. But the Runestones themselves aren't all in your field of view and the mark doesn't last long. Similarly, a teamwork aspect comes up since if you miss yours, you can 'know not to go to a spot where you see a teammate'. Hydrolox also changes position and focus during this, I think, and being aware of all three things at the same time enhances the feeling of stress in the boss fight.
There are also multiple hints on the ground patterns of boss arenas, which I'm not personally a huge fan of (and my group has to constantly be reminded to take a look at the floor before engaging the boss to get a starter-guess of where to stand). I think it was also for 'accessibility', but probably for communication purposes, as it makes it easier for the Lead Adventurer to coordinate the.. "C-Ranks", for lack of a better term.
The inverse can be 'seen' in Monster Hunter games (well, moreso World), where the spot you fight a monster changes the planning and fight, sometimes massively, and environmental 'bonuses'/hazards abound. Since the monster moves around or can start in different areas on the map, it helps somewhat, as even 'special hunts' aren't really 'scripted' in the normal sense. Things like 'Kushala Daora going into locations it wouldn't normally go and creating new battle mechanics' like its Fire tornadoes.
MMOs are often forced to limit this type of content for the sake of not disrupting newer players, which I understand (but of course, as a 'veteran', find to be a little disappointing). There are many arenas and environments that can feel recontextualized by adding boss encounters in this way.
FF11 eventually implemented this using a system that didn't have the best immersive effect on me, the 'Voidwalker Notorious Monster'. This was done in the way it was mostly to prevent low level players from stumbling across potentially-aggressive forms of 'things they absolutely should not mess with' in a punishing game, but the ability to fight a devastating Raid Level black dragon in what has, for all your 'life' on that character, been either a Starter zone, or at worst, a war battlefield in one small section, makes an impression very different from fighting effectively the same thing in just a 'standard arena', though that Arena had good 'vibes' too.
Long live Anguis, Long live Yilbegan, down with Overlord Bakgodek.
I like when the enemies around and the weather situation change the battle, this is Macro-environment for me.
https://forums.ashesofcreation.com/discussion/52939/lets-theoryraid-1-jormungand-vs-xenojiiva
Xeno'jiiva's arena in its 'normal' form also has some elevation changes that you can use until it destroys them, but it's subverted because the thing you normally use elevation for (mounting the monster) doesn't work on it.
I like when bosses can 'call adds' but it isn't just some base mechanic they have at a scripted time. Tumok shaking spiders out of trees would be in my wheelhouse then. Muh immersion.
https://forums.ashesofcreation.com/discussion/55622/lets-theoryraid-2-cyclops-v2-no-depth-perception
I also like chaotic/war settings, especially when it temporarily 'takes over' a familiar location, causing the player to rethink the area and form new 'memories' and concepts.
https://forums.ashesofcreation.com/discussion/55673/lets-theoryraid-3-putting-heads-together-hydra-illuyankas-ffxi-vs-tiamat-onigiri
Illuyankas can be part of Besieged and attack Al Zahbi, alongside many troops, and even though this is the equivalent of a Castle Siege defense so there are many players to deal with the many enemies, it still feels good.
In terms of actual environments, everything about Toublek is great, and it becomes greater when you fight the Tier 2 version Kertaki. FF11 would have added even more to this, making the 'weather' in the area change based on certain area-statuses like the fog, or having things like 'windy weather' affect the fight.
https://forums.ashesofcreation.com/discussion/58812/lets-theoryraid-4-briareus-and-tourblek-reimagined
https://forums.ashesofcreation.com/discussion/60640/lets-theoryraid-5-tiamat-ffxi-vs-firebrand
FF11 Tiamat is mostly, again, just 'enemies around and weather situation'. Firebrand, when fully implemented, will be even more amazing for similar reasons. Steam to block vision, ground hazard lingering burning areas, locations where the breath would be blocked by terrain... I look forward to seeing Firebrand fights in all sorts of cool environs.
Other than that, as another poster mentioned, the 'ground falling out from under you' thing is always at least somewhat interesting (FF11 Diabolos fight, for me, but obv many others).
There are too many recent examples from Throne and Liberty to even go into. They seemingly try to keep these complex mechanics out of Field Bosses since those 'need' to be accessible to the least invested players, but I'd say that there are more battles with environmental components than without them, so it would really just be 'a list of TL Dungeon Boss and miniBoss mechanics, excluding Heliber/Karnix'.
My personal favorite is Carmine Rage Island because the layout is just so good, it really gives that 'I'm having an adventure in a goblin forest' feeling, MiniBoss #1 being a 6v6 is fun but not really environmental. MiniBoss 2 has an environmental 'mechanic' placed around a Goblin... Hellcaster (idk we just call this mob 'Hydrolox').
Hydrolox has various moments where you can imagine the Arena floods with magical energy from some huge Runestones that surround it, and each player gets one protective rune 'attunement' applied to them. To survive the blast that will come or at least not get massively chunked down health-wise, you have to 'notice which Runestone has the mark matching your resonance, and move to it'. But the Runestones themselves aren't all in your field of view and the mark doesn't last long. Similarly, a teamwork aspect comes up since if you miss yours, you can 'know not to go to a spot where you see a teammate'. Hydrolox also changes position and focus during this, I think, and being aware of all three things at the same time enhances the feeling of stress in the boss fight.
There are also multiple hints on the ground patterns of boss arenas, which I'm not personally a huge fan of (and my group has to constantly be reminded to take a look at the floor before engaging the boss to get a starter-guess of where to stand). I think it was also for 'accessibility', but probably for communication purposes, as it makes it easier for the Lead Adventurer to coordinate the.. "C-Ranks", for lack of a better term.
The inverse can be 'seen' in Monster Hunter games (well, moreso World), where the spot you fight a monster changes the planning and fight, sometimes massively, and environmental 'bonuses'/hazards abound. Since the monster moves around or can start in different areas on the map, it helps somewhat, as even 'special hunts' aren't really 'scripted' in the normal sense. Things like 'Kushala Daora going into locations it wouldn't normally go and creating new battle mechanics' like its Fire tornadoes.
MMOs are often forced to limit this type of content for the sake of not disrupting newer players, which I understand (but of course, as a 'veteran', find to be a little disappointing). There are many arenas and environments that can feel recontextualized by adding boss encounters in this way.
FF11 eventually implemented this using a system that didn't have the best immersive effect on me, the 'Voidwalker Notorious Monster'. This was done in the way it was mostly to prevent low level players from stumbling across potentially-aggressive forms of 'things they absolutely should not mess with' in a punishing game, but the ability to fight a devastating Raid Level black dragon in what has, for all your 'life' on that character, been either a Starter zone, or at worst, a war battlefield in one small section, makes an impression very different from fighting effectively the same thing in just a 'standard arena', though that Arena had good 'vibes' too.
Long live Anguis, Long live Yilbegan, down with Overlord Bakgodek.
Azherae
3
Re: Pylons as "Player-Driven Events"
In light of the 'revelation' in your other thread, I might not actually spend too much time on expanding on this one, actually...
Everything I'd have said depends entirely on an interpretation of Ashes' intended flows and PvP 'penalties' that we're no longer sure of, maybe.
And if you think it's fine that Pylons can't overlap, and that the playerbase will just have to deal with whatever exploits/frustrations that brings, then there's no 'issue' there either, it would just be a design thing I would 'disagree with', but wouldn't say 'this is a problem'.
Always a hard case when talking about game design stuff, knowing when 'I don't like this' isn't the same as 'this is bad', but I think in this case, 'non-overlapping Pylons' is 'I don't like this'.
Everything I'd have said depends entirely on an interpretation of Ashes' intended flows and PvP 'penalties' that we're no longer sure of, maybe.
And if you think it's fine that Pylons can't overlap, and that the playerbase will just have to deal with whatever exploits/frustrations that brings, then there's no 'issue' there either, it would just be a design thing I would 'disagree with', but wouldn't say 'this is a problem'.
Always a hard case when talking about game design stuff, knowing when 'I don't like this' isn't the same as 'this is bad', but I think in this case, 'non-overlapping Pylons' is 'I don't like this'.
Azherae
1
Re: Weekly Feedback Request - 02/27/2025
Alright I have never posted in here before, but there is a really simple change that needs to happen.
General bags can hold 20 stacks of materials. In town storage holds stacks of 20 materials. Processing stations can only process stacks of 10 or 25.
This means when i spend hours running around gathering, fill up my bags and head back to town. I have to either craft 10 and put the other 10 in storage to do later, or I put 20 in storage and wait till I find 5 more to do a 25 stack.
My storage is always full, I am a heavy miner, there are a dozen different mining materials multiplied by 6 grades = I come back from a mining run and I just have to NPC sell half of the materials because they won't fit in storage, and they don't fit on the processing tables. I might come back with 17 Epic metal, and I want to process them all, but I have to do 10, 5, 1, 1 at a time, very tedious. Instead, I put them in storage and wait till I find 8 more, and do the full 25 stack.
Can we just process any number? Is the 1, 5, 10, 25, 50, etc. really necessary? Can process the whole stack be an option? I've already paid the 5 gold in two cities for extra storage, and I spend hours running back and forth managing storage. Having more space would be great, having taller stacks would be great. But having the default processing amounts equal the default stack amounts is a no brainer.
Thanks!
While I'm on it, this game is heavy on teamwork and player to player interactions, great! I love mining, and I have a scribe friend who wants my rubies for ink. I collect every ruby I see, but have to save them till I meet up with him next. This is fine in theory, except my storage is always full, I have half stacks of epic/legendary materials, and I just don't have room for the space rubies take up. I NPC so many stacks that I want to keep, but I have to choose between my 3 legendries or the 20 commons. I NPC the commons.
Storage is really a pain point. I have tried the town storage specializations, and it still doesn't work last I checked. Provides less space then general storage, and no increased stack size. Strait worse. I have journeyman bags which are great, and have deep stack sizes, but I can't carry around valuables when the punishment for death is so high.
Increase storage space? increase stack depth? add guild storage? make processing amounts match storage amounts? change deaths to like drop half but only destroy 1? or add a cc immunity equivalent - (I died 3 times last night in the same pull) only drop half the materials on the first death, and have a cooldown before I drop another half? It's not just dropping, but materials are destroyed on death means no recovery. I could have 100 materials, die 3 times and I only have 12 left, with a max of 40 if I pick everything back up. Maybe drop 50% first death, but only drop 25% if you die again within 10 minutes? then 10% if you die again again? etc. The xp debt and travel time already feels bad, the rate of materials being destroyed on death could be adjusted... and again, I wouldn't tend to go grinding with 100 materials in my bag, but town storage is always full, so... I have to sell them before I leave town.
I don't want to sell, I want to mine, I want to collect high rarity materials, I want to save materials for my friends. I am stuck in a lose lose situation of I have to sell materials I want to keep, I have to run across the world to store them in a different node, I risk losing them if I die, or I quit mining? Not great options. Not to mention I can't store any other non mining gatherables... which are required if I want to craft my things...
Ah this is plenty long enough... storage is frustrating.
General bags can hold 20 stacks of materials. In town storage holds stacks of 20 materials. Processing stations can only process stacks of 10 or 25.
This means when i spend hours running around gathering, fill up my bags and head back to town. I have to either craft 10 and put the other 10 in storage to do later, or I put 20 in storage and wait till I find 5 more to do a 25 stack.
My storage is always full, I am a heavy miner, there are a dozen different mining materials multiplied by 6 grades = I come back from a mining run and I just have to NPC sell half of the materials because they won't fit in storage, and they don't fit on the processing tables. I might come back with 17 Epic metal, and I want to process them all, but I have to do 10, 5, 1, 1 at a time, very tedious. Instead, I put them in storage and wait till I find 8 more, and do the full 25 stack.
Can we just process any number? Is the 1, 5, 10, 25, 50, etc. really necessary? Can process the whole stack be an option? I've already paid the 5 gold in two cities for extra storage, and I spend hours running back and forth managing storage. Having more space would be great, having taller stacks would be great. But having the default processing amounts equal the default stack amounts is a no brainer.
Thanks!
While I'm on it, this game is heavy on teamwork and player to player interactions, great! I love mining, and I have a scribe friend who wants my rubies for ink. I collect every ruby I see, but have to save them till I meet up with him next. This is fine in theory, except my storage is always full, I have half stacks of epic/legendary materials, and I just don't have room for the space rubies take up. I NPC so many stacks that I want to keep, but I have to choose between my 3 legendries or the 20 commons. I NPC the commons.
Storage is really a pain point. I have tried the town storage specializations, and it still doesn't work last I checked. Provides less space then general storage, and no increased stack size. Strait worse. I have journeyman bags which are great, and have deep stack sizes, but I can't carry around valuables when the punishment for death is so high.
Increase storage space? increase stack depth? add guild storage? make processing amounts match storage amounts? change deaths to like drop half but only destroy 1? or add a cc immunity equivalent - (I died 3 times last night in the same pull) only drop half the materials on the first death, and have a cooldown before I drop another half? It's not just dropping, but materials are destroyed on death means no recovery. I could have 100 materials, die 3 times and I only have 12 left, with a max of 40 if I pick everything back up. Maybe drop 50% first death, but only drop 25% if you die again within 10 minutes? then 10% if you die again again? etc. The xp debt and travel time already feels bad, the rate of materials being destroyed on death could be adjusted... and again, I wouldn't tend to go grinding with 100 materials in my bag, but town storage is always full, so... I have to sell them before I leave town.
I don't want to sell, I want to mine, I want to collect high rarity materials, I want to save materials for my friends. I am stuck in a lose lose situation of I have to sell materials I want to keep, I have to run across the world to store them in a different node, I risk losing them if I die, or I quit mining? Not great options. Not to mention I can't store any other non mining gatherables... which are required if I want to craft my things...
Ah this is plenty long enough... storage is frustrating.
Goldren
2