Best Of

Shabooey wrote: »

Ye this is this the bit I'm struggling to get my head round. When it's come up in the past people are saying it's more like a Vassal kingdom Vs Vassal Kingdom but I struggle to marry that with the idea that your Node is the most important thing to you. Node loyalty, Steven wants, to be more important than your guild. But if you can't really do anything to advance your Node when it's locked in a Vassal then ye we will have to see how it plays out I suppose but I envisioned more battling within the Vassal system to become the top Node and stay there.

Yeah, we've discussed this at length over the years and some of us DO want the ability to rise up against our patron nodes. We'll see if Steven ever considers our feedback on this as valuable enough to address. Not like any of his precious pvpers care about this shit.

Imanek wrote: »

Shabooey wrote: »

When the Node hits L4 those lower than it will become part of the L4 Vassal system and you won't be able to siege it. You'd have to siege other Vassal systems at that point if you want a Node war.

I admit this is the part I’m struggling to fully grasp because in the end, if a node automatically gets vassalized as soon as a neighboring one hits stage 4, then the fastest-growing zone will always stay ahead. The leading node will likely keep its advantage for a long time, especially since, judging by how far apart stage 5 and 6 nodes are, any real opportunity to contest a neighbor won’t come anytime soon.

I would’ve liked to see some kind of influence system maybe wars, direct confrontations, or even cultural pressure where vassalization happens over time. At least in the early stages, it’d be nice if a neighboring city could try to challenge a more advanced node.

So yeah, I’m really curious to see what the studio has planned to make node conflict more dynamic and interesting.

Ye this is this the bit I'm struggling to get my head round. When it's come up in the past people are saying it's more like a Vassal kingdom Vs Vassal Kingdom but I struggle to marry that with the idea that your Node is the most important thing to you. Node loyalty, Steven wants, to be more important than your guild. But if you can't really do anything to advance your Node when it's locked in a Vassal then ye we will have to see how it plays out I suppose but I envisioned more battling within the Vassal system to become the top Node and stay there.

As a Offlaner/Jungler and Fighting gamer, I can tell you that there are multiple reasons for why people think that way.

In general, most MMORPG combat falls below the threshold of higher level Offlane 1v1. And by 'higher level' I mean 'Silver Rank' in Pred at least because, as in most fighting games, 'top of Silver' is already 'top 10% of players' and at least 'top 30% of consistent players'.

Dune is a perfect example of how most MMORPG combat is weaksauce (whether you consider it one or not), but people imagine that solo play in an MMORPG will be strategic/better. Plus, one thing you do 'get' is that in an MMO, if you can beat up enough other people and get on a leaderboard, some other people might conclude you're skilled (this illusion doesn't seem to work as well these days).

So first you gotta imagine a bunch of people who think they are good at combat games because they can beat most of the people they know (totally accurate), and can call anyone who beats them constantly tryhards/sweats (debatable, but likely at least in comparison). You've met a person like this, you know who I mean.

Then give those people a game where they can blame gear or class balance when they lose, and yet tell their opponents that they got outskilled and need to git gud, when they win. I'm sure you've met those people too.

Then give them the prospect of a new MMO where their vast depths of unrecognized talent will surely finally propel them to greatness (basically Silver Rank).

The difference between an Arena and a Lawless zone is simply that an Arena almost always results in matchmaking-style behaviour or dodging bad matchups, whereas a Lawless Zone is more like queueing for matches in another game type, but with even less matching of skill.

Statistically, 10% or so of the people who want a new open world MMORPG will turn out to dominate at that game, really enjoy that feeling, and praise the game (until they lose consistently). You know the drill. But for those people, a new game is a chance to relive that opportunity. And I can't fault them for that because we all play games because we like some feeling the game gives, they just happen to often seek an experience that isn't related to the game itself, but in this case requires the game to do something specific to offer that experience.

I would like to have a fix to the Combat Log, so you can finally filter out things from it. It's painful to read the log as a bard, as stuff like Pensive Melody keeps filling the log up with useless data. The current filters (the last time I checked) do NOT work.

Vaknar wrote: »

Appreciate both perspectives here! being that there is a tradeoff between convenience and preserving the value of regional knowledge.

• Do you think having buffs visible on the map would make gameplay feel smoother, or would it diminish strategic depth?
• Do you think there could be a middle ground, and if so, how so?

Looking forward to seeing more discussion here!

I think having buffs visible on the map is the alternative to people having a community website that is used to track all buffs. Having them not be visible serves no purpose in my mind, that doesn't add depth to the player type who needs it added.

I sympathize with the subsection of the playerbase for whom Node Buffs specifically are part of their exploration loop, I'm sure they must exist, but I don't really think having Node Buffs visible on the map for them would hurt too much.

A middle ground would be making it 'easier' to see what Buildings are active in the normal flow of play, but that's not really very 'middle' or particularly 'different' than now.

As for Node Buffs themselves, I dislike them, but that's from the 'strategy game player' perspective. I am hoping that the team comes up with buffs and bonuses on both Node Buildings/Social Org things and Quest Reward gear, that is more niche/less meta, but presumably we are not going to see such things in this Phase, so while I'm against Node Buffs as they are now, I'm not necessarily opposed in general.

This post doesn't speak for my group today.

You just haven't yet seen the Tier of Node that would be 'memorable' for most people.

They're coming, and by the nature of the game, we're going to see the world change, but not so incredibly fast or so much that most players won't experience Nodes as a consistent, memorable thing.

I'd take bets on certain City (Tier 5) Nodes on certain Servers literally never falling, or at least lasting more than 4 years.

Vaknar wrote: »

Just to reiterate here, the design intention of zones and how they progress does indeed remain the same. The quotes from Steven on this page are still accurate at this time
https://ashesofcreation.wiki/Zones_and_progression

Upon deep review of that page, I have not found a clear answer to my question.

While Steven has confirmed that all nodes start at "level 0" and progress, there is nothing stating that "level 0" is the same "level 0" for each node when it comes to mob levels.

This is what’s so frustrating—it was never even a question that nodes could have different base level ranges until the penultimate livestream.

I am grateful you took the time to reply, but the question lives on.