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: Why make everything so punishing??
People don't like disrespect to their time.
This is basically what it boils down to.
Different people have different ideas of what disrespecting ones time looks like, but no one likes it when they feel their time isn't respected.
Noaani
1
Re: Fix this crap before more people leave!
Everythings okay guys, it's alpha. This is placeholder. The fix is in development.
I want a New Realm that wipes every month with accelerated drop rates, exp, and materials.
Yeah the whole idea of the "node destruction" was suppposed to replace the realm wipe mechanic as the form of death and rebirth in the realm.
Unfortunately for Ashes, the reason people like game wipes is because EVERYONE starts off at the same spot again. People like it when they are playing a fair game against others, that's fun.
But if the only "wipe" is a node, then the winners are just that much stronger and the losers are that much weaker... It's not a fresh start at all!
No incentive to keep playing when the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. More and more losers drop out of the game as this cycle continues until all you are left with is guild die-hards and people without jobs, which will not give the numbers Ashes needs to sustain even 1 realm with 10,000 players.
They need to seriously start thinking about how to cater to the crowd who only has a couple hours a day to play with some friends after work and help them still be competitive (character power-wise) with people in elite guilds and no lifers. I guess if they want to pvp they will just have to look for a diff game. This is why Guild Wars 1 started in the first place.
Xeeg
3
Re: [NA] Overlord | Hardcore | Organized PvX | Server First | Alpha/Beta Required - 350+ in A2
How can you expect people over 18 (normally people with jobs for the most part) to put in 40 hours a week? I don't understand how that's even possible unless you literally don't sleep, in which case you might be able to live for maybe a week or two before actually dying irl.
tl;dr your requirements are confusing.
tl;dr your requirements are confusing.
Pham
1
Killing a player in town vs paying for materials......
That is it for me. I have put up with soo many bugs. This is it thou. No player should be able to come into a town looking to buy materials and be able to war deck you, kill you, and take your mats.
Re: I dont see myself subscribing, if the current trend of grind and character power continues
I've been hammering this point in almost all my feedback.
The current TTK with meta gear is around like 5 seconds. Their intended design is:
"If I were to say average TTK between same level characters and average gear score, I would say that we're probably talking anywhere from 10 to 15 seconds upwards of 30 seconds, depending on the archetype." – Steven Sharif
So while they are iterating on TTK, I still think they are sticking with their design of trying to balance it around a 10~15 seconds for a same level same gear DPS duel, as I pushed Steven on this in the discord:
So while It's going to get better, your issue with it will not be solved. A TTK of 10~15 seconds for the same level and the same gear 1v1 means an instant kill TTK for an unbalanced encounter. A guy that has reached max level and has started working on BiS gear will instantly kill a level 40. And healers and defensive won't do anything here, a guy that can be killed by a couple of abilities from a single person will be totally destroyed in large-scale pvp regardless of healers and support from other archetypes.
How long will a new player take to reach level 40? A couple of weeks if he rushes like crazy? More likely the general audience will take a couple to a few months. So the question would be, how long before a new player can participate in PVP content with the older player base? How long til he can engage with the other pvp systems and content?
Will the player base grow if no new player can participate in PVP content with the established players before putting in 200~300 hours just rushing leveling? I seriously doubt it. And this is not a game with instanced content. Node wars happen whether you like it or not and you're fighting against higher level more geared players. Guild wars are also a player-driven event and you don't choose where and who to fight. Most important of all, open-world PVP is supposed to be an important feature of the game. There is no matchmaking, there is no auto-balanced ranking system to put you in the same category as your enemies. You'll spend 90% of your time fighting ppl either stronger or weaker than you. If that power difference means you kill or die in a split second, without a chance of playing the game, no one will participate.
I'm not talking here about completely destroying the feeling of progression or even giving a level 40 a chance to win in a 1v1 duel against a level 50 player. I want players to be able to play, press their buttons, and feel like they have a chance to escape or contribute to the fight before dying. You can still have fun participating in large battles and group pvp if you have a chance to use your abilities and contribute to the fight, even if you are contributing way less than the other more progressed players. This can't happen if the TTK is 10 seconds for a balanced 1v1.
If you increase TTK back to the original design of 30~60 seconds, when you introduce gear and level unbalances an under-geared and under-leveled player can still survive long enough to play, have fun in the fight, press their buttons, and feel like they're a part of the conflict.
I beg you intrepid, do not design the power curve and TTK in the game like you would for a game with matchmaking ranked battles.
The current TTK with meta gear is around like 5 seconds. Their intended design is:
"If I were to say average TTK between same level characters and average gear score, I would say that we're probably talking anywhere from 10 to 15 seconds upwards of 30 seconds, depending on the archetype." – Steven Sharif
So while they are iterating on TTK, I still think they are sticking with their design of trying to balance it around a 10~15 seconds for a same level same gear DPS duel, as I pushed Steven on this in the discord:
So while It's going to get better, your issue with it will not be solved. A TTK of 10~15 seconds for the same level and the same gear 1v1 means an instant kill TTK for an unbalanced encounter. A guy that has reached max level and has started working on BiS gear will instantly kill a level 40. And healers and defensive won't do anything here, a guy that can be killed by a couple of abilities from a single person will be totally destroyed in large-scale pvp regardless of healers and support from other archetypes.
How long will a new player take to reach level 40? A couple of weeks if he rushes like crazy? More likely the general audience will take a couple to a few months. So the question would be, how long before a new player can participate in PVP content with the older player base? How long til he can engage with the other pvp systems and content?
Will the player base grow if no new player can participate in PVP content with the established players before putting in 200~300 hours just rushing leveling? I seriously doubt it. And this is not a game with instanced content. Node wars happen whether you like it or not and you're fighting against higher level more geared players. Guild wars are also a player-driven event and you don't choose where and who to fight. Most important of all, open-world PVP is supposed to be an important feature of the game. There is no matchmaking, there is no auto-balanced ranking system to put you in the same category as your enemies. You'll spend 90% of your time fighting ppl either stronger or weaker than you. If that power difference means you kill or die in a split second, without a chance of playing the game, no one will participate.
I'm not talking here about completely destroying the feeling of progression or even giving a level 40 a chance to win in a 1v1 duel against a level 50 player. I want players to be able to play, press their buttons, and feel like they have a chance to escape or contribute to the fight before dying. You can still have fun participating in large battles and group pvp if you have a chance to use your abilities and contribute to the fight, even if you are contributing way less than the other more progressed players. This can't happen if the TTK is 10 seconds for a balanced 1v1.
If you increase TTK back to the original design of 30~60 seconds, when you introduce gear and level unbalances an under-geared and under-leveled player can still survive long enough to play, have fun in the fight, press their buttons, and feel like they're a part of the conflict.
I beg you intrepid, do not design the power curve and TTK in the game like you would for a game with matchmaking ranked battles.
Imnotkio
2
Re: Tab Targeting Feature Request
I think it was Neverwinter Online that had similar tab targeting, it's been so long that I can't remember correctly, but it also had the "action" mode by default and I loved it. Love it in Ashes, would love to be able to tab target better while tanking. Having it tab at whatever the center of my screen is pointed at, not relative to my character's LoS would be a godsend for tight pulls.
Re: Tab Targeting Feature Request
Again though, what is stopping you from using your lmk to pick the target? That's what L2 did and that seems to be what Steven wants you to do, considering that in tab mode Q is your basic attack button, instead of lmk.I am not talking about action combat.
The idea is there is no seperate button to pick your target, you just use tab as normal. The only difference is your mouse pointer dictates what tab target it selected purely by where it is sitting on your screen.
Making it more predictable and accurate on what tab target is selected.
Doing that is waaaaay faster and easier than making a move with your hand but then picking the target with your other hand, while also taking your finger off of movement keys.
Muscle memory difference.
Azherae
1
Denial of gameplay as a "strategy?"
Currently, large guilds are incentivized to spawn camp during node wars/guild wars, with the express intent of forcing players to either drop citizenship (if they can make it to the NPC before getting ganked again), or drop guild in order to continue playing unmolested.
I feel this creates a pretty major quit point that needs to be addressed; if I'm excited to log in and do some grinding with the boys, and suddenly we're literally unable to do anything except die repeatedly, (theoretically) lose access to the benefits of Citizenry, or access to our guild (What's a guild leader supposed to do when they're getting spawn camped?), then we're just going to play another game where we feel there's a better balance of power and that we have a chance to get some W's in.
I get that this is a niche game, that caters to a niche audience, but it seems counterproductive to champion a game design that creates a pretty obvious quit point.
It also seems like it would be useful for players to have either a warning *before* logging in, and prominently displayed somewhere on the UI that they are entering/are in a zone currently engaged in a node war, even if they aren't part of the node war (I was killed at storage because they were rolling anyone that might be helping, had no idea the zone was at war).
While we're at it, it doesn't seem right to me that *a single person* has the ability to upend hundreds of peoples' plans, without warning, for hours at time. Currently, most of the New Aela wars on Vyra are long and drawn out, meaning that if those players that went to do something else because they were getting spawncamped decided to log back in four, five, eight hours later, they might find themselves *still* being spawn camped, and with little, if any ability to progress their character, this creates a separate quit moment, where the player's perception is that of "I like the game, but every time I try to play it, I get spawn camped."
If you expand the area that players can't be camped, then the spawn campers will just spread out further; functionally all that creating a "safe zone" does is corral the weaker players so they can be picked off by groups, while giving stronger players a focal point for their griefing/denial strategy.
I'm just wondering if denial of gameplay like this is part of Intrepid's intention with their design - Since it's a monthly sub, I am assuming (perhaps incorrectly) that they want/need people to continue playing the game. Maybe they just want that first month payment, I don't know. It would be nice to get some clarification on the team's intent, versus what's reasonably implementable.
In a similar vein, is it intended that nodes be able to build a crafting station and then intentionally demolish it after "their" people have gotten whatever benefit it is? Being unable to advance core character aspects doesn't feel good, especially with gathering professions - This seems to incentivize devolution of a server, where the goal is to obfuscate and frustrate individual growth, rather than giving the players the illusion of a semi-even playing field. It doesn't have to *actually* be an even playing field, players just need to *think* that it is, and that they have the ability to at least stay competitive with the server's average gear score/power level.
We had a great, evenly matched fight up in the tropics with a group that was kitted out about equal to my group, and made some friends as a result; this was over a caravan (that had long been destroyed, and that we had no actual investment in), not interpersonal drama, and we've also had our caravans hit by groups that we made friends with because of how much fun both sides had. I have a guildie that's going in hard on learning medieval tactics, and another guildie that's new to the game and is just cutting their teeth on PvP and has become bloodthirsty for more.
I would rather lose every single PvP fight and feel like I have a chance, than to steamroll my opponent; I don't learn anything, I don't get to refine a rotation, I don't get challenged in new, unpredictable, or unique ways, I don't have to think about strategy, and I don't get an adrenaline rush. The same goes for me if I'm losing, but the end result is the same, nothing is gained from these interactions and all I have in return is a repair bill (and potential xp debt). It's clear that some of the testers in the alpha would rather force other testers out of the testing environment. I have heard one griefer laugh about "ruining peoples' Christmas" by camping them at the storage, which is the sort of toxic and counterproductive behavior that I would expect from a live environment, not a test.
Just wondering if this is intended gameplay or not, so I can adjust my expectations accordingly.
I feel this creates a pretty major quit point that needs to be addressed; if I'm excited to log in and do some grinding with the boys, and suddenly we're literally unable to do anything except die repeatedly, (theoretically) lose access to the benefits of Citizenry, or access to our guild (What's a guild leader supposed to do when they're getting spawn camped?), then we're just going to play another game where we feel there's a better balance of power and that we have a chance to get some W's in.
I get that this is a niche game, that caters to a niche audience, but it seems counterproductive to champion a game design that creates a pretty obvious quit point.
It also seems like it would be useful for players to have either a warning *before* logging in, and prominently displayed somewhere on the UI that they are entering/are in a zone currently engaged in a node war, even if they aren't part of the node war (I was killed at storage because they were rolling anyone that might be helping, had no idea the zone was at war).
While we're at it, it doesn't seem right to me that *a single person* has the ability to upend hundreds of peoples' plans, without warning, for hours at time. Currently, most of the New Aela wars on Vyra are long and drawn out, meaning that if those players that went to do something else because they were getting spawncamped decided to log back in four, five, eight hours later, they might find themselves *still* being spawn camped, and with little, if any ability to progress their character, this creates a separate quit moment, where the player's perception is that of "I like the game, but every time I try to play it, I get spawn camped."
If you expand the area that players can't be camped, then the spawn campers will just spread out further; functionally all that creating a "safe zone" does is corral the weaker players so they can be picked off by groups, while giving stronger players a focal point for their griefing/denial strategy.
I'm just wondering if denial of gameplay like this is part of Intrepid's intention with their design - Since it's a monthly sub, I am assuming (perhaps incorrectly) that they want/need people to continue playing the game. Maybe they just want that first month payment, I don't know. It would be nice to get some clarification on the team's intent, versus what's reasonably implementable.
In a similar vein, is it intended that nodes be able to build a crafting station and then intentionally demolish it after "their" people have gotten whatever benefit it is? Being unable to advance core character aspects doesn't feel good, especially with gathering professions - This seems to incentivize devolution of a server, where the goal is to obfuscate and frustrate individual growth, rather than giving the players the illusion of a semi-even playing field. It doesn't have to *actually* be an even playing field, players just need to *think* that it is, and that they have the ability to at least stay competitive with the server's average gear score/power level.
We had a great, evenly matched fight up in the tropics with a group that was kitted out about equal to my group, and made some friends as a result; this was over a caravan (that had long been destroyed, and that we had no actual investment in), not interpersonal drama, and we've also had our caravans hit by groups that we made friends with because of how much fun both sides had. I have a guildie that's going in hard on learning medieval tactics, and another guildie that's new to the game and is just cutting their teeth on PvP and has become bloodthirsty for more.
I would rather lose every single PvP fight and feel like I have a chance, than to steamroll my opponent; I don't learn anything, I don't get to refine a rotation, I don't get challenged in new, unpredictable, or unique ways, I don't have to think about strategy, and I don't get an adrenaline rush. The same goes for me if I'm losing, but the end result is the same, nothing is gained from these interactions and all I have in return is a repair bill (and potential xp debt). It's clear that some of the testers in the alpha would rather force other testers out of the testing environment. I have heard one griefer laugh about "ruining peoples' Christmas" by camping them at the storage, which is the sort of toxic and counterproductive behavior that I would expect from a live environment, not a test.
Just wondering if this is intended gameplay or not, so I can adjust my expectations accordingly.
Fix this crap before more people leave!
Something has definitely changed in the game in the last week or so. Prices everywhere are skyrocketing, at first i attributed it to new lvl 20 gear opening up due to advanced Nodes. This is not the case, i don't normally dab in rumors but its coming from multiple sources now, of a program that is allowing certain farmers to locate near their location, the rarities of gatherable nodes before engaging that gatherable. Every successful Gatherer i know has been stating the same thing as of this week, " Its becoming impossible to locate the static spawns of Legendary BLANK that are in high demand". I am talking about 20-30 people that i know across multiple guilds who farm hours upon hours in each day. What ever it is Fix this, prices are not rising due to just demand, they are SKYROCKETING from 10G 2 weeks ago to 15G then 20G to 25G and then last night 30G for 1 gathered item! This shit will kill the game even faster than Static spawn gatherable. I will not play a game that requires me to purchase hundreds of dollars of in game material every month just to stay relevant
!
!
methose1
1
Re: Weekly Feedback Request - 02/27/2025
Top 3-5 Most Important Feedback Topics:
1. Static Spawns, There is a way to create the tension being looked for vs static locations. Allow Nodes to define outposts (Mines, Groves, Hatcheries) where high quality nodes spawn change this from a needle in a haystack to something we actively fight over.
2. PVP was a blast to play on that tech server for that day you wanted us to test it, going back to the current version I noticed a distinct different in the fun I was having. I know enchanting is being reworked but some more details would be ideal
3. Hard to put into exact words but the relationship between Nodes and Guilds right now feels more focused on the guilds vs. Nodes as a whole. There isn't enough ownership to go around for anyone but the guild managing the town to feel impactful - outside when you need help placing a building. Perhaps and adjustment on the town quests so instead of them being selected they just turn on based on resources being provided?
1. Static Spawns, There is a way to create the tension being looked for vs static locations. Allow Nodes to define outposts (Mines, Groves, Hatcheries) where high quality nodes spawn change this from a needle in a haystack to something we actively fight over.
2. PVP was a blast to play on that tech server for that day you wanted us to test it, going back to the current version I noticed a distinct different in the fun I was having. I know enchanting is being reworked but some more details would be ideal
3. Hard to put into exact words but the relationship between Nodes and Guilds right now feels more focused on the guilds vs. Nodes as a whole. There isn't enough ownership to go around for anyone but the guild managing the town to feel impactful - outside when you need help placing a building. Perhaps and adjustment on the town quests so instead of them being selected they just turn on based on resources being provided?
