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
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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: AoC isn’t Punishing its Frustrating
My main issues with XP debit is all of you would still play and love the game if it were gone, but there are an unknown number of potential players who won’t play the game because of it.
This game needs to attract a healthy full player base, and XP offers nothing positive and only negative.
It is an objective negative for this game to implement it.
Sure, but I also play Throne and Liberty as my main game now, and therefore I'm not as hardcore as the people who want to play Ashes.
But that's kind of the point. It's not necessarily a negative, because people who really don't want exp Debt have an objectively better (using your logic) game to play already, considering their main playstyle profiles.
Why should AoC strive to compete with a game for an audience that is better suited for that game already? It makes no sense as even a business plan.
Azherae
1
Guild and Node Wars need a war declaration timer before hostilities can begin
Any war time window should happen during the server peek time hours also. Is this coming any time soon?
Majority of the paying playerbase is in education, works, has families /businesses and other responsibilities to attend to.
Majority of the paying playerbase is in education, works, has families /businesses and other responsibilities to attend to.
Re: Let's talk about crafting in Ashes as it currently works.
Right, but that's all obviously just some stuff thrown in for testing.
It's obvious to anyone that having a game where crafters are supposed to be very important but mobs drop usable finished gear is just a mess of hot garbage.
But that's kind of what I'm getting at, the current implementation is so obviously bad and full of holes that the most reasonable assumption would be that they're still just testing other things.
I understand that the thread is about discussing crafting as it currently works, but it doesn't work. It'd be great if they explained why it's like this for the time being, but if they don't already know that it's terrible, there's not much point in having any hope for it at all.
We're probably supposed to just grind in dungeons and run caravans until they overhaul it all. I'd say that I kinda 'don't agree that these are the foundations', because when you have the feedback from literally dozens of players all repeating the same obvious flaws in your systems, practically 'in passing'...
It would mean that whoever is designing it either knows this is temporary, or did not even have the skill to deal with foundational problems that probably a hundred people have told them long before we even got this far.
'Logically', therefore, this is all just gonna be irrelevant entirely in a month or something when someone updates a bunch of drop tables and Node Progression... this isn't 'not fleshed out yet', it's effectively 'not even actually started yet', Crafting made more sense in A1, yet nearly none of that remains. That too, was just 'here have something that looks like Artisanship so you return to town at the right times'.
It's obvious to anyone that having a game where crafters are supposed to be very important but mobs drop usable finished gear is just a mess of hot garbage.
But that's kind of what I'm getting at, the current implementation is so obviously bad and full of holes that the most reasonable assumption would be that they're still just testing other things.
I understand that the thread is about discussing crafting as it currently works, but it doesn't work. It'd be great if they explained why it's like this for the time being, but if they don't already know that it's terrible, there's not much point in having any hope for it at all.
We're probably supposed to just grind in dungeons and run caravans until they overhaul it all. I'd say that I kinda 'don't agree that these are the foundations', because when you have the feedback from literally dozens of players all repeating the same obvious flaws in your systems, practically 'in passing'...
It would mean that whoever is designing it either knows this is temporary, or did not even have the skill to deal with foundational problems that probably a hundred people have told them long before we even got this far.
'Logically', therefore, this is all just gonna be irrelevant entirely in a month or something when someone updates a bunch of drop tables and Node Progression... this isn't 'not fleshed out yet', it's effectively 'not even actually started yet', Crafting made more sense in A1, yet nearly none of that remains. That too, was just 'here have something that looks like Artisanship so you return to town at the right times'.
Azherae
2
Re: So Disappointed
i can promise you one thing i do not watch streamers or content creators or fan boy over any one i may watch the occasional video from no one in particular but i never take anything any of these people do or say as gospel till ive seen or experienced it for myself then i make my own judgment and opinion. This is my own opinion as it clearly states at the end if you disagree then that's fine.
But please don't think im a fan boy of any steamer or content creator i make my own mind up and express my own opinion and im happy to read your responses and opinions without bias and without reacting by labelling you.
Also i agree steven did need to respond to alot of what was said but my problem is he responded in MY OPINION like a 12 year old who did not like what he was hearing. you feel different that's fine but don't think because you disagree with me it makes me a minion of some kind to some content creator your miles away from the truth there i cant stand them . their fickle and only loyal when things go how they want them to go . their opinions change on a weekly basis they think because they open their mouths everyone should listen so yeh your miles off it there with the "sounds like another streamer minion" comment.
you know there are some of us out there who can actually engage our brains and make our own opinions and decisions without influence.
Ok, so let's say it is pure coincidence that you quote a streamer verbatim and seemed to be spewing the exact same talking points, let's put that all aside.
In your initial post, you went on for an entire paragraph attacking the developer of this game. Your statements were vague but quite hostile. You were suggesting everything from Steven needed to step away to him not having respect for players, to him chasing away a large portion of players (love to see where you pulled this statistic from). You went on to declare that Steven had this huge change in attitude toward people since Christmas and stated that he acted like a 12 year old. All this vitriol and not one example of any action on Steven's part that warranted this paragraph long attack?
To make the situation even more confusing, in your last reply you stated that you agreed that Steven DID need to respond to remarks made by Narc but then repeated that he acted like a 12 year old while once again not providing any examples? And you wonder why people like myself might be questioning your intent and bias? 🤦♀️
Okay, I will make this easy for you... cite the stream and/or statements made by Steven that resulted in you taking a paragraph to bash the guy. No vague generics please, actually statements.
Its_Me
1
Re: Sagas and Themes - impact and cost.
Intrepid has been saying" "don't tell us how to fix it just tell us what is wrong."
What is wrong is that I build up three solid self buffs over the course of a minute and a half.
Then I spend those buffs on some of the weakest abilities in the game for the effort it takes to cast them.
And it takes extra skill points and hot bar slots to do all of this.
In almost all cases I would rather just have my three stacks of the buffs it takes to cast sagas.
What is wrong is that I build up three solid self buffs over the course of a minute and a half.
Then I spend those buffs on some of the weakest abilities in the game for the effort it takes to cast them.
And it takes extra skill points and hot bar slots to do all of this.
In almost all cases I would rather just have my three stacks of the buffs it takes to cast sagas.
Vhaeyne
1
Re: Eliminate these reason to quit
A game should strive to cast as wide a net as possible while sticking with its core game pillars.
At the end of the day, MMOs are only fun with people to play them. Ash’s needs to be somewhat casual friendly or else these aspirations for giant servers with giant meaningful battles will just be a pipe dream.
You don’t want ash’s to too punishing right out the gate, because then players won’t invest the time to find out the game can be fun and worth the punishment.
I really worry that most of the people in these forums are missing the forest for the trees.
At the end of the day, MMOs are only fun with people to play them. Ash’s needs to be somewhat casual friendly or else these aspirations for giant servers with giant meaningful battles will just be a pipe dream.
You don’t want ash’s to too punishing right out the gate, because then players won’t invest the time to find out the game can be fun and worth the punishment.
I really worry that most of the people in these forums are missing the forest for the trees.
RonDog98
1
A Small Amount of Feedback on Ranger - New for Alpha 2
I am new to Alpha starting with this phase of Alpha 2. These are my feelings on ranger after playing it as my main. I am normally a lot of bow/ranger/archer classes in mmorpgs, and while I feel like there are some great things, there are some that make this class feel very sluggish or uninteresting.
1. Scrap or Redesign Marks
I get where you all are going with marks and their class flavor, but having a VERY miniscule buff a few seconds every minute is just no fun, ESPECIALLY if this is supposed to be our core mechanic.
If you are all set on this being the mechanic, it has to be something we interact with more. I don't know if you all maybe just have plans for the augments to primarily focus on these or not. However, if you keep them in, we have to be able to press them or have them last a bit longer than like 3-5 seconds. I don't know many rangers atm that even bother taking them unless specifically just for the crit on snipe wombo.
2. Movement
There is zero reason that bards should be moving faster than rangers imo. I understand that this could be contentious for some but at the moment I feel like that is our main thing. But bard is a whole other issue that seem to do everything better than everyone.
3. Thundering Shot
This ability is WAY too slow and really takes you out of the immersion/rotation/etc. It feels like we are actually casting a long spell in the middle of a rotation and moving at a crawl speed. The long cast would be okay but the fact that we move so crazy slow is kinda crazy and counter intuitive to the ranger class.
4. Regeneration
This ability feels absolutely useless early on, and probably will feel mediocre later. Honestly, I find this to be an entirely waste of an ability.. Give us something fun and just increase our regen or lower our mana costs passively. I dont exactly understand why we feel like the most mana intensive class as an archer. Feels kinda weird.
5. Air Strike
This feels like the most sluggish ability I have ever used in any game. This really should just move at the same speed as Disengage, or at least close to it. I feel like using this ability in PvP against anyone competent is just a death sentence. If it was an i-frame I would say that it is fine functionally, but either way moving that sluggish just feels bad as the ranger class.
6. Strider
I am not entirely sure why this isn't just a toggle or at least a longer buff. Even from an RP perspective, I feel like it would normally just be the passive of a ranger.
Conclusion:
Anyhow, I am not ENTIRELY worried about the balance as I know that is more of a beta/polish thing. But the issues with these abilities of this class are more focused on the fun and fluidity issues. At the current moment, I kind of feel like I can make a better archer as a Fighter or Bard and skip ranger altogether in that endeavor.
1. Scrap or Redesign Marks
I get where you all are going with marks and their class flavor, but having a VERY miniscule buff a few seconds every minute is just no fun, ESPECIALLY if this is supposed to be our core mechanic.
If you are all set on this being the mechanic, it has to be something we interact with more. I don't know if you all maybe just have plans for the augments to primarily focus on these or not. However, if you keep them in, we have to be able to press them or have them last a bit longer than like 3-5 seconds. I don't know many rangers atm that even bother taking them unless specifically just for the crit on snipe wombo.
2. Movement
There is zero reason that bards should be moving faster than rangers imo. I understand that this could be contentious for some but at the moment I feel like that is our main thing. But bard is a whole other issue that seem to do everything better than everyone.
3. Thundering Shot
This ability is WAY too slow and really takes you out of the immersion/rotation/etc. It feels like we are actually casting a long spell in the middle of a rotation and moving at a crawl speed. The long cast would be okay but the fact that we move so crazy slow is kinda crazy and counter intuitive to the ranger class.
4. Regeneration
This ability feels absolutely useless early on, and probably will feel mediocre later. Honestly, I find this to be an entirely waste of an ability.. Give us something fun and just increase our regen or lower our mana costs passively. I dont exactly understand why we feel like the most mana intensive class as an archer. Feels kinda weird.
5. Air Strike
This feels like the most sluggish ability I have ever used in any game. This really should just move at the same speed as Disengage, or at least close to it. I feel like using this ability in PvP against anyone competent is just a death sentence. If it was an i-frame I would say that it is fine functionally, but either way moving that sluggish just feels bad as the ranger class.
6. Strider
I am not entirely sure why this isn't just a toggle or at least a longer buff. Even from an RP perspective, I feel like it would normally just be the passive of a ranger.
Conclusion:
Anyhow, I am not ENTIRELY worried about the balance as I know that is more of a beta/polish thing. But the issues with these abilities of this class are more focused on the fun and fluidity issues. At the current moment, I kind of feel like I can make a better archer as a Fighter or Bard and skip ranger altogether in that endeavor.
Knetik
4
Re: Please don't make our silence tied to a long cast time
"I play range class, i have more advantages compared to a melee class....they get instant CC in melee range so i must get an instant range CC myself!"
P.S. "i play an archetype(ranger) that is very capable at 1-2 shotting people in pvp atm and i have a root ability that can root a whole raid of people at range. I totally need an instant range CC that stuns, sleeps, trips or silences."
lmao.
I mean I am not sure if you play ranger? But this is just untrue
We can break it down
Mobility wise ranger gets strider 10% movement speed, and disengage a small backflip backwards about the same distance as a roll
Every single class has counter plays for rangers toolkit, where as ranger has none for other classes kits, this is more noticeable if you actually play ranger but for example
Fighter gets 20% speed buff with momentum, fighter gets a charge that goes 3x the distance as disengage, fighter gets a leap that goes twice the distance of disengage, fighter can break out of roots with momentum, and if all of that fails fighter just swap to a bow and can kill you from range quite easily, not to mention fighters multiple knockdowns
Tank gets a charge ability that goes twice as far as disengage, tank has multiple trips, tank can grapple you back, tank can also break out of roots I believe
Cleric, the archetype we would need this silence for, has dispels for daze so any good cleric will never actually get silenced, 99% of clerics are using ranged weapons so our mobility is useless, and even if it wasn't we can't run and reset because we have no defensives, to even get the silence off on a cleric you would ideally want to land it when the cleric is 50% hp, this is next to impossible to do as this silence takes about 6 seconds to setup if all the stars align
Mages, have more ST damage than a ranger, and an absorb shield that is a second health bar, their burst is also faster and again our mobility does nothing vs this class, we can kill a mage if it's a stealth gank and we get a lucky crit but in a duel no chance
Bards this matchup is tough because of bards huge toolkit, they have insane damage for a support class, can out heal almost all of our damage, and are more mobile than rangers in pretty much every way.
I think you miss understand the point of the post I'm not complaining and saying we need everything but it's very clear that rangers toolkit does not synergize well compared to the state of other classes
Not to mention they buffed dodge roll so any good player that knows a silence is coming because of the extremely obvious and long setup we need to do, will just double roll when it lands and take 0 damage with our entire burst
Chicago
1
Please don't make our silence tied to a long cast time
I am greatfull that our silence has been fixed but my god does it feel bad, first off you need to use the worst of the three ammo imbues, then hope for a daze proc and then hope that daze procs at the time you want to time your burst window, then whilst this is happening, you need to stop your dps rotation to hard cast thundering shot, which is such a huge dps loss it's insane, then hope that your target doesn't heal whilst it has its god awful slow travel time through the air, taking a path to the target that is not even a straight line so add another full second before the silence even hits it's just awful
I know this miiiight have a place In group play but even then, when every other class has more than 1 hard cc, stun, trips, knockdowns, sleeps, rogue has insta silence and a snipe that does not have a cast time, please review this
I know this miiiight have a place In group play but even then, when every other class has more than 1 hard cc, stun, trips, knockdowns, sleeps, rogue has insta silence and a snipe that does not have a cast time, please review this
Chicago
1
Re: AoC isn’t Punishing its Frustrating
I’m not saying any one of these is bad in a vacuum, I’m saying that all three together suck and will discourage a large number of players.
Also, there’s a difference between “participation trophy players” and players who don’t want their time to wasted.
XP debt is an outdated mechanic and there’s a reason that almost no games utilize it. It is not a rewarding type of difficulty and it psychologically not fun.
Also, nothing about removing XP debt goes against any of the core pillars of this game.
Hell, I think making all your materials recoverable on death also doesn’t go against it.
Waste is a subjective term but in the purest sense, anyone this concerned about wasted time should consider avoiding games all together and stick to real life.
I found humor in your statement that xp debt is wrong because 'it is not fun or meaningful' and that dropping loot is okay but you want it all recoverable. The fact that you feel a risk/penalty should be fun and you think that there should be no risk to dropping loot, just demonstrates your confusion on what a penalty is.
XP debt is not an outdated mechanic but by your suggestion that almost every consequence is bad (xp debt, dropping materials not against core ect.), I see why I might have hit a nerve bringing up participation trophy types of players. 😉
Its_Me
1