Glorious Alpha Two Testers!
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.
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: [Fan Art] game-inspired paintings
Py'rai Learning how to summon , using Ashes on Ritual Altar 
Sajrajt
1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FdOHR5T8KDk
Re: Nvidia driver stability
On a 4060TI 16gb here.
I have noticed a few weeks ago that I was getting crashes all of a sudden like once or twice a day. I was playing like 12 hours a day at the time.
I was recommended to update my drivers to help with this. After updating to the latest drivers I am crashing 4-6 times a day.
All unreal engine crashes.
I am hoping for a fix soon.
I have noticed a few weeks ago that I was getting crashes all of a sudden like once or twice a day. I was playing like 12 hours a day at the time.
I was recommended to update my drivers to help with this. After updating to the latest drivers I am crashing 4-6 times a day.
All unreal engine crashes.
I am hoping for a fix soon.
Vhaeyne
3
Nvidia driver stability
Hi folks, what are your experiences with recent nvidia drivers in Ashes?
I am still using the 566.36 drivers on my 4090, and they've been stable for the most part. I have been getting a few CTD's this last week of testing though, but I am not sure if that is related to the drivers at all.
I've read the 572.XX drivers are ok too, but anything more recent than those are ranging from bad to garbage. Nvidia seems to have really fallen off in their driver department.
Anyway, I am hoping some of you have specific feedback regarding driver versions and Ashes stability.
@Vaknar do you guys at Intrepid have any recommendations you can share? Like, if you all internally mostly run certain drivers and such.
I am still using the 566.36 drivers on my 4090, and they've been stable for the most part. I have been getting a few CTD's this last week of testing though, but I am not sure if that is related to the drivers at all.
I've read the 572.XX drivers are ok too, but anything more recent than those are ranging from bad to garbage. Nvidia seems to have really fallen off in their driver department.
Anyway, I am hoping some of you have specific feedback regarding driver versions and Ashes stability.
@Vaknar do you guys at Intrepid have any recommendations you can share? Like, if you all internally mostly run certain drivers and such.
Nerror
3
Re: Steven, Please Rethink “Not for Everyone”
What would be success to you? A player count? Specific ROI? I guess I'd say success is that if it runs for at least as long as it was in active development for. But there are different stages of development so that might not be always fair.
People hate me for saying this, but to me, success would be one fully populated server and Intrepid being able to afford a small, sustainable team to maintain and update the game.
If they leaned further into the sandbox side rather than sandpark, they'd benefit from more evergreen content and less reliance on constant story updates or raid tiers. The strength of sandbox MMOs is that players are the content. There's no seasonal need to invent a new “big bad” that ends up forgotten a year later.
I don’t think the size of Intrepid’s team is what determines success. If, in the end, Steven is running the game solo from his basement but the servers are full and players are having fun, that still counts as a win to me.
It's a fair point of view. I personally don't see sandbox games that lean into the players generating the content being successful or being fun for an extended period of time. Much less deserving of a sub.
One server would never meet the required ROI of course, but I've played games that existed on one server and they were fun, some are still running decades later. A dedicated core fan base will keep playing and pay for sure.
Volgaris
2
Re: Steven, Please Rethink “Not for Everyone”
TheDarkSorcerer wrote: »That mindset is great, but it doesn’t pay the salaries of 100+ employees for years to come. And to my earlier point about hiring, top talent isn’t lining up to join a studio working on a title that might not make it past a year or two. Longevity and financial stability matter, not just for players, but for the people building the game.I don't know what success is to Steven, but he's not worried about the money as far I can tell. I assume success to him is going to be a couple healthy realms mostly full of players exploring the game and fighting it out over resources.
I agree you need to make enough money to attract the talent to make the great things that will attract and keep the players. I don't know if there is a talent drain happening. I can tell you I looked up the salaries they're paying a few months ago and it's not much, especially for San Diego.
I might have missed your point on why the game might not last, but I do agree it's possible. But I think exploits, RMT, hackers will be their largest challenge. With the game leaning so heavy into competitive play people will use everyone advantage they can get. And I think enough will chance it to get ahead. Cracking down hard on cheating has the effect of making cheating even more valuable. I don't think a sub model is a large barrier, the most successful MMOs use them, but just having one doesn't mean you're successful.
What would be success to you? A player count? Specific ROI? I guess I'd say success is that if it runs for at least as long as it was in active development for. But there are different stages of development so that might not be always fair.
Volgaris
1
Re: How much does the quality of the game drop
As I have said to other posters on these forums, this game is in very good shape for what is still early (as in, not yet half way through) alpha.thunderfury2024 wrote: »I like to test games, but only those that are worthwhile. And with this game, I don't see it ever being any good.
If you are used to beta testing games, beta testing MMO expansions, or beta testing translations, then yeah, it will look really bad to you.
However, for an alpha test of a large scale MMORPG, it is in better shape than a number of released MMORPG's that are currently considered successful were at this stage.
However, lets look at your actual complaints about the game, you listed three.
The first is no quest system. You are correct - it isn't in the game yet. There are quests, but they are filler.
The second is that there are no instances. Ashes isn't really leaning on instances for content delivery, so that is expected. Instances will be used in small amounts, but largely for story progression and such - and so there is no point working on them until the quest system is in place.
Your third issue is combat. It is bad right now, you are also correct here. Combat design in an MMORPG is an iterative process. This means that they add in all of the abilities they think they want, and then they iterate on them to achieve both balance and fun. It is a system that isn't going to be "finished" until launch, although to be honest it still won't be finished by then.
Helping to shape that iterative process is one of the things us testers are here for. It is what gets done (at least the major steps) during an alpha test.
So really, with your three complaints, you are completely right in that the test environment doesn't have those things - but that is because that is what an alpha test is about. If the game had a properly functioning combat system, quests in place and zoning sorted out to the point where instances were being created, we would be beta testing rather than alpha testing.
Noaani
1
Re: Steven, Please Rethink “Not for Everyone”
What would be success to you? A player count? Specific ROI? I guess I'd say success is that if it runs for at least as long as it was in active development for. But there are different stages of development so that might not be always fair.
People hate me for saying this, but to me, success would be one fully populated server and Intrepid being able to afford a small, sustainable team to maintain and update the game.
If they leaned further into the sandbox side rather than sandpark, they'd benefit from more evergreen content and less reliance on constant story updates or raid tiers. The strength of sandbox MMOs is that players are the content. There's no seasonal need to invent a new “big bad” that ends up forgotten a year later.
I don’t think the size of Intrepid’s team is what determines success. If, in the end, Steven is running the game solo from his basement but the servers are full and players are having fun, that still counts as a win to me.
Vhaeyne
2
Re: Node Level Confusion.
I think it could be okay if they have a few (Let's say 4) nodes anchored as "special" and inherently high-level, to give them an anchor for story arcs with special unique locations.
It would be a slight let-down compared to a completely fluid map, but as long as the rest of the map can still shape flexibly and become important as more players go there, it might be an acceptable trade-off between design-feasibility, unique quest-influenced story locations, and player-impact.
I'd prefer it if everything was player-influenced, but this counter-example is roughly the limit of compromise I'd be willing to deal with.
They could also announce it to be temporary for the first 1-3 years after publishing, if they maintain the modular framework as the basis of the system, and work on making the system even more flexible once the game releases.
That said, if they just give up on node levelling shaping the world (in ways that reshape where different kinds of gameplay happen), I'd be kinda done with the game, and I hope they understand that that's not a compromise they can make. Find another investor instead, if that's the limiting factor; abandoning your promises is not an option.
If the nodes aren’t equally compelling, then the vision of a player-driven world across multiple servers risks falling apart before it even begins.
Players naturally gravitate toward optimal choices. If certain nodes are inherently better—whether due to location, resources, or narrative significance—they’ll become the obvious picks, and the rest may end up largely ignored. At that point, it’s no longer about meaningful player choice—it’s about the meta.
If there are plans to anchor specific nodes, I hope the team considers ways to balance that carefully—perhaps through resource scarcity, increased development costs, or other trade-offs—to preserve the broader vision.
That said, I’d personally prefer to see all zones designed with equal potential. I understand it’s a significant amount of work, but so was designing unique outfits for every race. That commitment to extra effort “to make the game better” is part of what sets this project apart—and I think ensuring a fair and flexible node system is even more crucial to its long-term success.
Vhaeyne
5
Re: Game Balance
Yeah, I had no issue understanding it. Seemed straight forward to me.Not really sure why that last sentence is so hard for you to understand.
As to your issues in the OP, I break them down to two main issues.
The first is that it isn't solo friendly, the second is that the quests are lacking.
While this doesn't help you today, the only real thing to point out here is that the developers have said that there will be improvements to the solo leveling experience. It won't match that of the group experience, but it will get better (this is an alpha test after all, things are supposed to be kind of bad).
For questing, they are still working on the actual quest systems. What we have so far are kind of place holder quests - so you can again expect improvements there at some stage.
No timelines on either of these.
Noaani
2