Best Of

No.

If you want to know about someone's gear - ask them. If they don't tell you - then you shouldn't know that info. And if you say "then just have different viewing rights for different groups of people", the answer is simple - why overcomplicate the game with random additional features when people should simply be able to link items in chat. That feature would accomplish the same goal, on top of a multitude of other goals (which include trading and selling, that you talked about in the 2nd paragraph).

No reason for people to be able to inspect what I'm wearing.

+1 more to Static Nodes are awful.
I understand the idea, but in practice, it's just not enjoyable. I'd prefer each resource node to be random after each harvesting.

Next point is about Lumberjacking. Lumberjacking is fricking horrible. There's no real difference between Novice, Apprentice, and Journeyman. As a Journeyman Lumberjack, I'm still there chopping Ash and Oak, cos there just aren't enough Willows or Braidwoods around. It just doesn't feel different enough.
Take Mining, for example. There are loads of different rocks and gems to mine at each level. Lumberjacking has a single Apprentice Tree. Mining Nodes respawn pretty quickly. Trees take bloody ages.
There's just no real difference between Novice and Journeyman Lumberjacking, cos there are so few non-Novice trees, and they take so long to respawn. It's just not fun.
It would also be nice to have some different skins for the gathered Wood, cos some of them look almost identical. I still struggle between Ash and Willow. And one of the new Desert ones is very similar, too.

Hunting feels pretty lame, at the moment. It feels like there should be a different technique to getting either Trainables or Carcasses. The idea that a trained Hunter going out for pelts would come back with a set of live animals instead, is just weird. And there don't ever seem to be any Carcass Rarities above Rare. I don't think I've seen any Legendary or Epic Carcasses, whereas other gathering types seem to drop them more frequently.

Herbalism and Mining seem ok. There are enough different items to collect to keep it interesting, and they look different enough to tell them apart.

Fishing is just an AFK thing at the moment. Something you start while you're actually doing something else. There was a quote you guys gave a few years back, where you said something like: If someone can still progress without actually playing the game, then we've done something wrong. This is that something.


It would also be nice to have a smoother way of swapping over the Artisan gear. Having the different pieces fly about the inventory trying to fill weird and wonderful slots seems unusual. If I'm swapping out an Artisan Shirt, then just replace it with the Artisan Shirt that I'm putting on. It doesn't need to try and find a new inventory space.


My final point would be that with all these things we collect, in all the different Rarities, for the different gathering branches, and then all that again for each biome type... we need more Storage. Or at least to have you make the Specialist Storage options hold more of that resource type. It would go some way towards helping if you started the cost of the new tabs off a little cheaper.

Taiisien wrote: »

@Vaknar So in one day there are already 3 full pages worth of responses on the forums about the intended gathering changes, reading through them here are the top 5 issues (based on how many times this issue was brought up) and how the community would change them.

1. Rarity: Do not in any way have this be static. Use random spawn times, random spawn locations, random spawn rarity with a limit set at rare (to produce heroic/epic/legendary you must have levels and gear).
2. Conflict: Not everything in the game needs to push for additional conflict between players, stop trying to force this and let it occur naturally. If you must implement something like this, do it in a lawless zone with higher rarities available there.
3. Pylons/Surveying: Increase radius to an appropriate size/area, do not show respawn times.
4. Hunting: Allow a choice to tame vs kill, additionally allow hunters to gather carcasses from killed mobs.
5. Tools: Make stats (Quantity, Speed, Rarity) on all tools actually effective and worth getting. Speed rating that lowers time to collect by 0.03 seconds is pointless, Quantity ratng proc'ing 1 in 300 collections and only giving a single extra resource is also bad.

Bonus Item...
Inventory/Storage: With 6 rarities per gathering item bags and storage need more available slots.

Great summary. This needs to be thumbed up and reviewed over and over.

REHOC wrote: »

brettapuss wrote: »

Hi so i really wanna give this game a try but i dont understand the payment system at all. I see the games early access is and extortionate $100 but when i look online it says "Ashes of Creation will be a subscription game with no box fee". I dont know about anyone else but $100 upfront kinda sounds like a box fee to me, in fact that about the price of two box fees depending on the game.

So is there a subscription on top of that $100 or are they no asking for subscritions right now due to the fact its still in development and thats why its $100 upfront?

If anyone could help clarify this for me i'd appreciate it thank you.

Hope this helps!

thank you this helped a lot!!!

Ludullu wrote: »

GrandSerpent wrote: »

It's a cool idea, but I feel like that might be too much mechanical complexity for an open-world boss. There could potentially be a hundred players all getting into each other's way trying to do a jumping puzzle while also handling all of the boss's other mechanics.

Yeah, that's why I asked about the holes. Maybe the debris could be huge and instead flown into the cave through the entrance during the flooding? So instead of small pieces of wood it would be more like a few huge ship-deck-sized spots and it'd take some time for the boss to destroy them. Could be closer to a "boss stage" mechanic than a pure "keep jumping to avoid death" one.

Feel like that would be slightly easier for most people. And the complexity of combat during each stage could come from adds jumping onto those debris, while the boss chooses a random place to attack with a few skills of its own.

GrandSerpent wrote: »

I think that world bosses are a pretty challenging thing to design, because they need to not be overwhelming for casual players, while still being interesting enough to not feel like a big HP bar.

While I do agree with the premise itself, I do think that there still gotta be a range of difficulty/complexity of OWBs, so this Lev could be either in the top3-5 or even the most difficult one, if its loot supports that.

Yeah but when MMO players are trying to fight an Open World Boss, the thing that is 'complexity' isn't the same. Because these bosses are by nature very HP-sponge but can also have powerful mechanics, it's just that if you kill them fast enough, you don't see those.

It basically always goes the same for the Top 3-5 world boss type. 'Untethered' DPS show up to boss, they (or anyone, really) flub some mechanics, they blame Tanks and Healers, then the Tanks and Healers get tired of being blamed and stop going, the DPS start to fail (or the game weakens the boss or boosts the playerbase).

So I'm not saying it wouldn't be a phenomenal experience, but if you go above a certain complexity level in a World Boss, you have turned it into a Guild Boss almost automatically.

As for 'do they have the technical skill to implement that', absolutely, we have tons of similar fights, they're just not Open World. My first post wasn't talking about anything on that tier tho, just 'hey the weather makes this different'.

brettapuss wrote: »

Hi so i really wanna give this game a try but i dont understand the payment system at all. I see the games early access is and extortionate $100 but when i look online it says "Ashes of Creation will be a subscription game with no box fee". I dont know about anyone else but $100 upfront kinda sounds like a box fee to me, in fact that about the price of two box fees depending on the game.

So is there a subscription on top of that $100 or are they no asking for subscritions right now due to the fact its still in development and thats why its $100 upfront?

If anyone could help clarify this for me i'd appreciate it thank you.

Hey there!

I understand the confusion surrounding *Ashes of Creation's* pricing and access. Let's break it down:

**Standard Subscription Model:**

Upon official release, *Ashes of Creation* will operate on a subscription-based model without any upfront box cost. Players will simply pay a monthly fee of $14.99 to access the game. This approach ensures that there are no additional costs beyond the subscription, and expansions or DLCs are included in this fee.

**Alpha 2 Access and Pricing:**

Currently, the game is in its Alpha 2 testing phase. Access to this phase is available through specific bundles offered by Intrepid Studios. These bundles not only grant Alpha 2 access but also include other benefits such as Beta access, game time, and in-game currency. The pricing for these bundles is as follows:

- **First Wave Bundle – $120:** Grants access to all three phases of Alpha 2, starting from November 8, 2024.

- **Second Wave Bundle – $110:** Provides access to phases 2 and 3 of Alpha 2, beginning December 20, 2024.

- **Third Wave Bundle – $100:** Offers access to phase 3 of Alpha 2, starting May 1, 2025.

Each bundle includes:

- Access to the specified Alpha 2 phases

- Access to Beta 1 and Beta 2

- One month of game time (valued at $15)

- $15 in Embers (in-game marketplace credits)

**Clarification on Costs:**

The $100 (or higher) upfront cost is specifically for early access to the game's testing phases and is not indicative of a standard "box fee." This payment is a one-time charge for those who wish to participate in the Alpha and Beta testing phases. Once the game officially launches, only the monthly subscription fee of $14.99 will be required to play, with no additional upfront purchase necessary.

**Conclusion:**

Participating in the current Alpha 2 phase requires purchasing one of the access bundles mentioned above. However, if you prefer to wait, you can access the full game upon its official release by simply subscribing for $14.99 per month, without any additional upfront costs.

Please note that all this information is based on current plans and is subject to change as development progresses.

Hope this helps!

Andretious wrote: »

I'm level 21 right now. I've grinded in ROS. Looking to move onto carph, but no one seems to want to do carph. I'm told the reason is, is because you can just enchant level 10 gear to plus 8 and it's better than the carph drops and enchanting carph gear takes too many resources?. My suggestion would be to not allow enchantment of items that are level 10. Only 25. If the level cap is raised, then also raise the cap for enchanting items. To a new player (me) it seems the game is just a crafting sim passed level 21. Imo pve content needs to be strong with lots of dungeons ,raids. My feedback , for what it's worth...

Lots of dungeons and raids are fine. FFXI and TL show that good dungeons and raids can help carry a lot of water, but they also show that this alone doesn't fix PvE. In a game where the openworld matters at all, then you gotta make the open world be pleasurable content! TL overworld is bland and mindless before Talandre. After Talandre it is fine but it encounters the 'outleveling' and 'out enchanting the complexity' that you mention in your op very quickly. I get we need casuals to enjoy the game and the open world can't be too difficult but danger and difficulty are NOT ACTUALLY THE SAME. Difficulty is a matter of execution, time, and effort. Danger is a matter of strategy, knowledge, and 'fighting the "right" thing in the '"right" place'.

As an example, let's take FFXI which does in fact have a lot of good dungeons/raids and challenging open world stuff. When I'm going through the standard journey to 75 (let's not touch on the modern level cap or we'll lose all details) I have a ton of zones where I'm forced to pick my specialty. Every zone has an ecology and that ecology of enemy type was intended to correlate to what each class was intended to specialize in For example, as a Red Mage I mostly focused on things like plantoids and arcana. This was because I could burst through most of their healing/big dps, but I could also really feel the meaning of my buffs and debuffs. I could fight a morbol, to be more specific, but there was also bigger more complex morbols in the zone (usually an elite mob) that would fucking own me even though I was at level for the content. But fighting the lower morbols DID help me learn how to beat the nm's. And eventually I got 'mastery' to handle any situation like a random social aggro or bad pull where I had multiple morbols. As a puppetmaster, on the other hand these enemies fucking destroyed me and I was 'forced' as a puppet master to learn how to fight birds and beetles. Less complex, but the evasion and defense respectively required a different set of skills that would cause my poor Red Mage to tear her hair out.

That's a lot of words to say that PvE in a good game requires scaling complexity IN ZONE. Not 'by level'. Otherwise everyone, and I mean this with all the respect I can muster, will ignore the mobs you spend a lot of time on to make interesting and cool looking and flavorful for the setting (side eyes are happening here Throne and Liberty, great job with the Black Anvil zone though that was a great example of positive improvement.)

So now that I've established that PvE requires good mob design and different levels of complexity in a zone to truly fix PvE let me now explain why it must be this instead of dungeons and raids (as the sole issue). Tl;dr modern players whine about hard content being too strong and requiring a party. In FFXI this happened too, but for open world areas! So it's not a new problem. But you know what happened once they started designing even more complex zones? The players moved on to new things to whine about! It's a solved problem! Because you know why? And this is entirely speculation on my part. They probably stopped sucking at fighting morbols and got to be in a party to fight the cool morbol bosses in a party because they stopped dragging down the party's they joined you know? In TL they tried to fix this by having a weaker version of their morbol equivalent to 'practice on' but while that works for already established groups it makes for TERRIBLE PUGing. And in fact this was possibly the number one complaint for TL before Talandre. There were too many people struggling with dungeons and getting kicked out of groups and that killing a lot of ability for players to progress. In an open world design the stakes are lower than a dungeon. You just have more freedom to fail and learn. And the developers due to both budget and sensible design, tend to give you a progression of things to fight if the game is good.