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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.
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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: Ashes Terrain Topography and Cohesion
[*] What kinds of landmarks or terrain features make a zone feel memorable to you?
I enjoy this kind of thing a lot, grassy/flowery fields with vegetation that isn't overly flat or bland looking. The pictures below are from the Nesting Grounds in Throne and Liberty, it's filled with rivers and flowers and the excessive flatness of the area is contrasted by a few giant rocky bird nests and by the observatory ruins overlooking the area from high above. It's these contrasts and the beauty of the vegetation that make it notable to me.
I also enjoy stuff like FFXI's Uleguerand Range. It is a mountainous snowy biome and the reason it's memorable is because of the difficulty in traversing it combined with the beauty. Scattered through the entire range there are crevasses that you might fall into, leading through complex frozen cave systems with difficult enemies. The climb to the top of the Range is long and difficult, but also marked by beautiful views due to the height. Reaching the top lets you then slide down a snowy slope in order to reach a particular cave you can't get to any other way. If you fail to glide the right way, you need to restart the climb.
The Yuhtunga Jungle in FFXI was also memorable. When maps used to be unlocked via quests only, that area was really difficult to navigate by just walking through, because it's an actual labyrinth. I ended up writing a journal with the attempted routes until I mapped out a successful route through. I'll always remember it because no other area in any MMO made me feel as a cartographer/explorer in quite the same way.
[*] Do you like big, dramatic features or more subtle stuff that you discover as you explore?
A mix of both, please. I enjoy large dramatic features like magic obelisks, tower ruins and so on, as long as they overlook terrain which is beautiful in its own right and as long as I can walk around and discover small details. I'm generally afraid devs will either overdo it with the dramatic or put so much thought into the subtle exploration that they forget to make screenshot worthy vistas.
[*] What kind of biome-specific gameplay would help tie things together for you?
I like the concept of terrain that changes with the weather/tides. Tidal flooding changing your pathways through an area for example. Day/night cycles changing the way you approach areas (ffxi has undead spawn at night, TL turns some areas into pvp at night etc). Mob tribes fighting each other in certain conditions and you adapting to them being distracted. Volcanic erruptions being both an obstacle and a source of minerals. Sudden weather changes meaning some resource/mob spawns that is suddenly more profitable than what you were doing, meaning you have to think on your feet and act fast to make a good profit.
Re: Why The Game Needs Fast Travel
Ashes design in regards to PvP and the economy does mean that fast travel will screw other those aspects.
However, Ashes large world size means that no fast travel will screw over players wanting to run content. Its almost as if major decisions about this game are being made by someone that has never created a game before or something.
Ashes needs fast travel of some form to be playable as an MMORPG, as opposed to a PvP murderbox or economy simulator. Not the family summons - but something.
Finally you and I agree on something
I think New World here did a great job. There's wayshrines, but they're quite far apart from one another.
Re: What keeps me from playing
GreatPhilisopher wrote: »....Another theoretical solution is to give casual players best in slot gear, but in a way where it is only best in slot for casual content....
Another, possibly easier solution to enact and manage, would be to remove crafting restrictions and allow players to craft their own decent but not BIS gear. Also, stop the insanely long processing times, 1 minute per item??!!! Hell, I processed 25 timber and for 25 minutes I went out back and cleaned the rear deck. That is just insane, make people stare at the screen for no good reason, a process per item shouldn't be longer than 5 seconds each (I think I hi-jacked this thread a little bit to vent on how stupid the timetables are for processing).
true , i dont think they understand that good game play isnt stupid grind but accessibility and then making higher tier stuff have a mix of easily gathered mats, mid difficulty stuff and a piece or two that are hard to get which is what leads to adventure ,group play,pvp and conflict not having everything in the game require a billion mat,hours and money even a beginner tool ..its so stupid
I played Chrono Odyssey last weekend and was thrilled to craft items that were meaningful within the level I needed them. Also getting exp that leveled my char so I didnt fall behind while crafting. I am not saying Chrono is a standard of an awesome game, I would just like to see Ashes tuned crafting this way as well.
Re: Ashes Terrain Topography and Cohesion
Appreciate all the details here!
Interesting points about terrain shape, variety, and zone identity. The screenshots and comparisons help paint a clear picture of how things feel on the ground right now.
Here are some follow-up questions for those who haven't specified on them in this thread:
- What kinds of landmarks or terrain features make a zone feel memorable to you?
- Do you like big, dramatic features or more subtle stuff that you discover as you explore?
- What kind of biome-specific gameplay would help tie things together for you?
I reply to this even though my post contains those answers.
1. I provided 2 landmarks from league of legends cinematic. Those instantly feel unique, specific, memorable. So probably this style of terrain shaping would be ideal.
2. I think both are necessary, big/grand landmarks make the world feel memorable, fantasy, unique. Small features, details that you discover when exploring, they add depth and immersion to the world. Good fantasy open world game would ideally have plenty of both.
3. I am not sure what you mean by "biome specific gameplay". I think my post would not impact overall gameplay that much, but technically you can have AoC gameplay on grayboxed UE5 flat plain. Having good memorable, natural world with grand monuments, fantasy landscapes, but also filled with discoverable details would compliment gameplay without necessarily altering it.
Snekkers
1
Re: Mob drops, coexisting with crafters
This has been brought up a few times. Here were the good ideas I heard. No particular order.
1. Mobs only drop "damaged" or "degraded" gear. So a mob would and could drop a copper greatsword, but it'd be a "damaged copper greatsword". The drop rate would still be low though, but higher than it is. Higher tier mobs drop have higher rates and chances to drop higher tier 'damaged" gear. This can persist throughout the leveling process. I'd advocate for very rear actual gear drops. So low, no one actually grinds for them, but have them exist.
2. Material drops from mobs at a low rate, about the same as the damage gear drop or a little higher. This might not be needed if gathering and markets are balanced. But it'd still give that combat focused player an easier in to crafting, or something to sell on the market if they don't want to bother with gathering or crafting. In no way should this be a faster way to get material actual gathering.
3. Gear should be dismantlable for either materials or study it for a chance of or progress towards the recipe. This should include all gear. Such as the rare drop in idea 1 that dropped from a mob, maybe you can dismantle it for a high tier material or study it to learn how to make it. Or you never got that one recipe of that super cool breast plate but now you can buy a number of them and study them to learn it.
These were the main ideas. There are a ton more. I'd like to see a dev discussion on this if there hasn't been one. The ideas above would allow for mob drops but would still hold crafted gear as the best and most common option. There would still be a lot of balancing to make all this feel right. Looks good on paper to me but implemented wrong it could be a mess.
1. Mobs only drop "damaged" or "degraded" gear. So a mob would and could drop a copper greatsword, but it'd be a "damaged copper greatsword". The drop rate would still be low though, but higher than it is. Higher tier mobs drop have higher rates and chances to drop higher tier 'damaged" gear. This can persist throughout the leveling process. I'd advocate for very rear actual gear drops. So low, no one actually grinds for them, but have them exist.
2. Material drops from mobs at a low rate, about the same as the damage gear drop or a little higher. This might not be needed if gathering and markets are balanced. But it'd still give that combat focused player an easier in to crafting, or something to sell on the market if they don't want to bother with gathering or crafting. In no way should this be a faster way to get material actual gathering.
3. Gear should be dismantlable for either materials or study it for a chance of or progress towards the recipe. This should include all gear. Such as the rare drop in idea 1 that dropped from a mob, maybe you can dismantle it for a high tier material or study it to learn how to make it. Or you never got that one recipe of that super cool breast plate but now you can buy a number of them and study them to learn it.
These were the main ideas. There are a ton more. I'd like to see a dev discussion on this if there hasn't been one. The ideas above would allow for mob drops but would still hold crafted gear as the best and most common option. There would still be a lot of balancing to make all this feel right. Looks good on paper to me but implemented wrong it could be a mess.
Volgaris
1
Re: Steal Chrono Odyssey's Horses
If they're going to steal anything mount related from any other MMO then copy mortal online's two taming of animals for hunting as well as their skinning mechanic. It's on a high version of unreal 5 as well.
Barab
1
Re: Steven, Please Rethink “Not for Everyone”
Pulling New World into this will 'obligate' me to write up a YouTube Video Essay worth of additional context and information, please spare me!
NW couldn't have changed too much in any other way from the baseline it had, if given the goal of 'engage or retain PvE players' or even 'make PvP-avoidant players happy while not driving away our PvP audience', because NW is an Action-y combat game with multiple very strong meta-pressures.
It's just not 'on the side of the MMORPG curve' that lets it choose a different path.
NW couldn't have changed too much in any other way from the baseline it had, if given the goal of 'engage or retain PvE players' or even 'make PvP-avoidant players happy while not driving away our PvP audience', because NW is an Action-y combat game with multiple very strong meta-pressures.
It's just not 'on the side of the MMORPG curve' that lets it choose a different path.
Azherae
2
Re: Mob drops, coexisting with crafters
I don't know how easy it would be but I also would like if you can take the weakened items to a crafter to bring up to full power, woth half or partial crafting resources
Re: Mob drops, coexisting with crafters
I would like to add the drop ratio should also promote taking the items to the crafters (i.e. mats/required materials). OR make it so crafters have a better/guarenteed chance (e.g. using a ruby for fire related stats) at getting specific stats on those weapons so there's an added want to find crafters.
Re: Ashes Terrain Topography and Cohesion
@Vaknar just look at it mate, this is Chrono. This is actual forest, that's how forests should look in ashes, that's how Jundark should look.
Snekkers
7