Best Of
Re: Mud Shield
I could see this being an augment for a Tank primary that select a Mage secondary.
Vargan
1
Re: Vassal resentment
That's just personal preference though. I want to live in a mountaneous divine node. There'll only be 2-3 such nodes on the entire map, if that. It's not "the first node that cought my eye". It's the gameplay style I chose for myself.Though I will add: I do think you're taking the node pride thing a bit too far.
My take on balanced node pride is that, even if you're a player with strong ideals who wants to write their personal lore as the result of their history in the game, you shouldn't pledge unconditional allegiance to the first node that catches your eye.
And then it's also entitled of all the guilds to assume they're worthy of trying to get a castle, or go to war against other guilds. It's also entitled of nodes of other vassal systems to want to war and siege their neighbor vassal systems. It's entitled of other people to have the ability to hit me when I'm walking around.It's nice that you want to stay loyal to your node. But it entitled of you to think that "your node" is the one that deserves to be on top, and should have multiple chanced to get there.
Do you see how this one rule does not match with the entire design of the rest of the game? Steven claims to have given players freedom of choice (with appropriate consuequences), but then takes away one of the biggest choices in the game.
As you said yourself, the nodes will most likely stay static after their first settling of progress. Prices to siege a node would be insanely high and would reap very vague benefits for the attackers (especially if you consider that those costs are meant to be paid by a single person that casts the siege scroll). All while there's more than enough benefits, motivation and reasons for vassals to want to go up in lvls.
This is just yet another contradiction in the current design.
Ludullu
2
Re: [Feedback Request] Alpha Two Citadel of the Steel Bloom & Firebrand Preview | August Livestream
There are waaaaaayyyy too many combat resurrections. In combat res's should have like a 30 min CD, being able to spam resurrect mid raid is dumb an it cheapens the fight.
This looks like Steven just used his dev perks to ignore cd and costs for the purposes of showing the boss and additionally keeping all the alpha 1 testers in the fight. Keep in mind they are respecting OUR time of the viewers. if they failed to kill it in the first play through and had to repeat it multiple times it would make the showcase too long. they clearly wanted to tease some of the loot. Steven also had God mode on for his character so that they could have a consistent camera lens on the fight, and so that steven could totally stress free troll the team of course. lol
Re: Resurrection during combat
It's really sad that Steven showed another boss in the open world WITHOUT PvP. Because of this, some, ahem, experienced PvE mmorpg players can't understand how the PvP aspect affects the game experience.
Korela
6
Re: 📝 Dev Discussion #67 - AoE Form and Function 💣
When it comes to AoE indicators, answer is really simple-Transparent slightly burning circles. XD
Too be honest though, I wouldnt indicate anything in both pvp and pve. Just a personal preference.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6FFmzBHfm0
Too be honest though, I wouldnt indicate anything in both pvp and pve. Just a personal preference.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6FFmzBHfm0
Re: List of reasons to allow Shadow computers
JeanPhilippeGunghar wrote: »1st: In Canada no way I can get a rig for 1000 and under. Our dollar is weak (0,76 for 2 single US one)
2nd: Best Buy is shit. They are expansive for nothing. I want a real gaming rig.
Then you need to establish some kind of income for yourself. Obviously if you have no income and bad credit, you’re not gonna be getting luxury purchases.
Caeryl
1
Re: 📝 Dev Discussion #67 - AoE Form and Function 💣
I'm curious to know how AoEs work in the PvE setting, especially relating to flagging.
If you're unflagged, what happens when another unflagged player walks into your AoE?
What if they're a combatant? What if they're corrupted? What if they're corrupted AND attacking you?
My main concern is whether players can abuse your use of AoEs to flag you against your will.
If you're unflagged, what happens when another unflagged player walks into your AoE?
What if they're a combatant? What if they're corrupted? What if they're corrupted AND attacking you?
My main concern is whether players can abuse your use of AoEs to flag you against your will.
TehOwn
2
Re: 📝 Dev Discussion #67 - AoE Form and Function 💣
I understand that some games just can't make challenging content whose AoE attacks are actually sensibly connected to their character models (again, discounting Mage type enemies, who can be done like the Poison Elder Dragon from A1 or the Twins, shown below for reminders)
(man I love watching that fight...)
As the person in our group that deals with adds, off tanking, and large area of effect damage this would normally be where I have a lot to say. Rewatching these fights after seeing Firebrand, however, reminds me just how much I was really prepared to play 'classic' AoC as it's being affectionately referred to. What an excellent example of how well done AoE effects and large scale combat can be done. I miss that poison dragon. I miss those eldritch nightmares. So much so, that I'm going to let my group leader handle the rest on this topic out of respect for the past development.
JustVine
1
Re: 📝 Dev Discussion #67 - AoE Form and Function 💣
Area of Effect (AoE) abilities are a common staple in MMORPG combat. We’re curious to know what your thoughts are on AoE abilities and the way they’re displayed.
I absolutely love the way AoE was handed in Ashes of Creation Alpha-1. I believe A1 Ashes already counts for me as the pinnacle of immersive, fun and most importantly relevant/visually appealing AoE effect and telegraph displays. Those days were the '10/10, no notes' days for me.
This isn't a critique of anything seen recently either, mostly because we haven't seen much of anything recently that I believe needed a true AoE telegraph.
In PvP, which Area of Effect (AoE) abilities, should be telegraphed to enemies?
I believe that there is minimal need to telegraph AoE to enemies in PvP except for continuous effects such as Blizzard from Mages. My preference for combat design is much simpler. I don't care about 'everyone being able to theoretically react to everything', particularly in PvP, so the 'windup animation' of the telegraph matters more than any indicator of the AoE target zone of the ability.
If a mage has the ability to cast a spell 'behind them' or 'at their own feet' (e.g. Sevarog using Subjugate for an escape in Predecessor), I feel that PvP is actually cheapened by having any indicator that this specifically is happening, but I strongly believe in having an indicator that they are planning to cast something.
So overall, to keep it simple for this post, I don't think AoE needs to be telegraphed. Any AoE that is 'so instant that you can't get out of it anyway' or 'so instant after the startup animation that you couldn't', should either not be very powerful, or have a clear and visible startup. Preferably with sparks of power of some kind on the user and a relatively clear idea of where it will go based on their facing direction. This might end up being too 'Action Combat' but I believe with the Hybrid Combat style, this is a reasonable ask for people. "You must be facing the area you want to put Chains of Restraint in order to put it there", even if you only turn to face that spot after you begin the channel for it.
How clearly should AoEs be to enemy and friendly players?
No strong opinion. If the game is designed around making people have the skill to tell them apart, they should be able to. If it is less this, then it matters less to me. An MMO, of course, has the issue of their being far too many players to 'read/know the intent'. In a smaller battle game, even when two of the same character/build are available, you can generally tell whose AoE you are dealing with by having some idea of the 'intent'. However, since even this is sometimes a skill issue within groups, I guess I'd err on the side of making them distinguishable from each other whenever this doesn't ramp up a performance cost or something.
Do your thoughts differ in a PvE setting?
Somewhat, since PvE AoE tend to be much bigger. Even when they're not persistent. But I only care about this when they're disjointed from the visual representation in some way, and I don't really enjoy games where the idea is 'move out of the RedZone Telegraph'. I dislike them even more when the design to 'mix it up' involves having some abilities that don't have the telegraphs, because it makes working with Pick Up Groups, or less skilled players, a whole emotional management minigame. I don't come to MMOs to play emotional management minigames, but I do still want to organically play with others.
I understand that some games just can't make challenging content whose AoE attacks are actually sensibly connected to their character models (again, discounting Mage type enemies, who can be done like the Poison Elder Dragon from A1 or the Twins, shown below for reminders)
(man I love watching that fight...)
Do you have examples from other games in which AoE abilities are presented in a way you like? If so, please share them!
I have minimal examples for this. I love FFXI of course, but that's a 'Raiding is Reading' game by most standards, (a concept referenced in my most recent TheoryRaid thread: https://forums.ashesofcreation.com/discussion/60640/lets-theoryraid-5-tiamat-ffxi-vs-firebrand ). The Telegraph there is 'X starts casting Y on Z' or 'X readies Y' and then you look at where X is facing. I don't want this.
Nearly every other game that has this goes right to the redzone territory and I hate it every time. It's not immersive, it's almost always conveying an effect that takes place instantly after a certain period and which can, in many cases, just shred you, making you look/feel like an idiot for not avoiding it, etc.
A simple example from Onigiri (this video claims to be a Momotarou fight, but also includes an entire Tiamat fight, solo, easy mode both, but this is good, as it doesn't drag on, while still showing off basically all moves of each)
And for contrast(?) a simple TL fight with some larger 'telegraphs', TL is useful as an example for me because it has all three types:
1. Attacks that have a windup but no TL equivalent of any 'redzone', just facing, and an obvious follow-through
2. Attacks that have a windup but also the TL 'redzone' (the circle warning, but since these fury attacks all have different startups, you use that as your marker to 'pay attention to the animation', not as an autoresponse, basically changing from the FFXI style 'reading the log' to a 'reading the screen')
3. Attacks that have a ground telegraph and maybe some dialogue but not always the circle warning.
Even better for me, FFXI+L2-lovechild fan as I am, the '2' type matches FFXI's 'X readies Y' without any actual information about the target, so you get that feeling (this might not be a positive for most people) of 'knowing that you have a damage opportunity because you trust your Tank and believe they are the target' without a redzone to confirm it.
As the introductory group boss of TL, this satisfied all my wishes exactly and made me feel the same as fighting in Alpha-1, a case of 'TL making me nostalgic for AoC'.
I absolutely love the way AoE was handed in Ashes of Creation Alpha-1. I believe A1 Ashes already counts for me as the pinnacle of immersive, fun and most importantly relevant/visually appealing AoE effect and telegraph displays. Those days were the '10/10, no notes' days for me.
This isn't a critique of anything seen recently either, mostly because we haven't seen much of anything recently that I believe needed a true AoE telegraph.
In PvP, which Area of Effect (AoE) abilities, should be telegraphed to enemies?
I believe that there is minimal need to telegraph AoE to enemies in PvP except for continuous effects such as Blizzard from Mages. My preference for combat design is much simpler. I don't care about 'everyone being able to theoretically react to everything', particularly in PvP, so the 'windup animation' of the telegraph matters more than any indicator of the AoE target zone of the ability.
If a mage has the ability to cast a spell 'behind them' or 'at their own feet' (e.g. Sevarog using Subjugate for an escape in Predecessor), I feel that PvP is actually cheapened by having any indicator that this specifically is happening, but I strongly believe in having an indicator that they are planning to cast something.
So overall, to keep it simple for this post, I don't think AoE needs to be telegraphed. Any AoE that is 'so instant that you can't get out of it anyway' or 'so instant after the startup animation that you couldn't', should either not be very powerful, or have a clear and visible startup. Preferably with sparks of power of some kind on the user and a relatively clear idea of where it will go based on their facing direction. This might end up being too 'Action Combat' but I believe with the Hybrid Combat style, this is a reasonable ask for people. "You must be facing the area you want to put Chains of Restraint in order to put it there", even if you only turn to face that spot after you begin the channel for it.
How clearly should AoEs be to enemy and friendly players?
No strong opinion. If the game is designed around making people have the skill to tell them apart, they should be able to. If it is less this, then it matters less to me. An MMO, of course, has the issue of their being far too many players to 'read/know the intent'. In a smaller battle game, even when two of the same character/build are available, you can generally tell whose AoE you are dealing with by having some idea of the 'intent'. However, since even this is sometimes a skill issue within groups, I guess I'd err on the side of making them distinguishable from each other whenever this doesn't ramp up a performance cost or something.
Do your thoughts differ in a PvE setting?
Somewhat, since PvE AoE tend to be much bigger. Even when they're not persistent. But I only care about this when they're disjointed from the visual representation in some way, and I don't really enjoy games where the idea is 'move out of the RedZone Telegraph'. I dislike them even more when the design to 'mix it up' involves having some abilities that don't have the telegraphs, because it makes working with Pick Up Groups, or less skilled players, a whole emotional management minigame. I don't come to MMOs to play emotional management minigames, but I do still want to organically play with others.
I understand that some games just can't make challenging content whose AoE attacks are actually sensibly connected to their character models (again, discounting Mage type enemies, who can be done like the Poison Elder Dragon from A1 or the Twins, shown below for reminders)
(man I love watching that fight...)
Do you have examples from other games in which AoE abilities are presented in a way you like? If so, please share them!
I have minimal examples for this. I love FFXI of course, but that's a 'Raiding is Reading' game by most standards, (a concept referenced in my most recent TheoryRaid thread: https://forums.ashesofcreation.com/discussion/60640/lets-theoryraid-5-tiamat-ffxi-vs-firebrand ). The Telegraph there is 'X starts casting Y on Z' or 'X readies Y' and then you look at where X is facing. I don't want this.
Nearly every other game that has this goes right to the redzone territory and I hate it every time. It's not immersive, it's almost always conveying an effect that takes place instantly after a certain period and which can, in many cases, just shred you, making you look/feel like an idiot for not avoiding it, etc.
A simple example from Onigiri (this video claims to be a Momotarou fight, but also includes an entire Tiamat fight, solo, easy mode both, but this is good, as it doesn't drag on, while still showing off basically all moves of each)
And for contrast(?) a simple TL fight with some larger 'telegraphs', TL is useful as an example for me because it has all three types:
1. Attacks that have a windup but no TL equivalent of any 'redzone', just facing, and an obvious follow-through
2. Attacks that have a windup but also the TL 'redzone' (the circle warning, but since these fury attacks all have different startups, you use that as your marker to 'pay attention to the animation', not as an autoresponse, basically changing from the FFXI style 'reading the log' to a 'reading the screen')
3. Attacks that have a ground telegraph and maybe some dialogue but not always the circle warning.
Even better for me, FFXI+L2-lovechild fan as I am, the '2' type matches FFXI's 'X readies Y' without any actual information about the target, so you get that feeling (this might not be a positive for most people) of 'knowing that you have a damage opportunity because you trust your Tank and believe they are the target' without a redzone to confirm it.
As the introductory group boss of TL, this satisfied all my wishes exactly and made me feel the same as fighting in Alpha-1, a case of 'TL making me nostalgic for AoC'.
Azherae
1
Re: 📝 Dev Discussion #67 - AoE Form and Function 💣
I think the primary issue point to focus on here with Ashes is the fidelity of AoEs. There are two sides to this issue. Either you use clear and concise circular and rectangular AoEs to ensure that the player can apply the maximum amount of skill during gameplay. Or, you allow beauty and creativity to take paramount.
In my opinion, Ashes should always go for the latter. It is clear that Ashes is building the MMORPG that we've always wanted. As Intrepid and us enjoyers often state, we're trying to follow the rules that the acronym set forth. Roleplaying game is the concept that I'm far more concerned with here.
"Realistically" Magic doesn't work in perfect circles, physical attacks don't work in perfect circles. Things are shaped to the caster's creativity, the shape of the weapon, the intention behind the maneuver. This means that the impact of AoEs should be fluid, have unique shapes, and challenge the player to use their skill in unconventional matters rather than simply reacting really fast to big bad red circle.
Does this sacrifice ease of development and visual clarity for the sake of cosmetic satisfaction and immersion? Absolutely, and I have no regrets. If people have conflicts with the concept of uniquely shaped AoEs in association with skill, clarity and creativity... Look no further than league of legends. Champs like Aatrox and Diana have incredibly unique interacts with the shape of their attacks. Although there is always reason to complain with Riot's capability to handle a game... I think they have created some absolutely gorgeous game interactions with some of the uniquity in AoEs.
Ashes of Creation should always be beauty, immersion, and fantasy first and foremost. There's no reason to think that gameplay must suffer to accommodate those things. Big bad red circle is horribly boring and overdone, we're here to push boundaries and make something unique, let's do that.
In my opinion, Ashes should always go for the latter. It is clear that Ashes is building the MMORPG that we've always wanted. As Intrepid and us enjoyers often state, we're trying to follow the rules that the acronym set forth. Roleplaying game is the concept that I'm far more concerned with here.
"Realistically" Magic doesn't work in perfect circles, physical attacks don't work in perfect circles. Things are shaped to the caster's creativity, the shape of the weapon, the intention behind the maneuver. This means that the impact of AoEs should be fluid, have unique shapes, and challenge the player to use their skill in unconventional matters rather than simply reacting really fast to big bad red circle.
Does this sacrifice ease of development and visual clarity for the sake of cosmetic satisfaction and immersion? Absolutely, and I have no regrets. If people have conflicts with the concept of uniquely shaped AoEs in association with skill, clarity and creativity... Look no further than league of legends. Champs like Aatrox and Diana have incredibly unique interacts with the shape of their attacks. Although there is always reason to complain with Riot's capability to handle a game... I think they have created some absolutely gorgeous game interactions with some of the uniquity in AoEs.
Ashes of Creation should always be beauty, immersion, and fantasy first and foremost. There's no reason to think that gameplay must suffer to accommodate those things. Big bad red circle is horribly boring and overdone, we're here to push boundaries and make something unique, let's do that.