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: So how many still excited?
I'm happily confused. Love the vision. I love the combat feel and that's hard to nail down. Love the classes design structure but the need love. The Confused with is the size of the world, needing 10k a server to feel alive. So that size of a population would require casual players. Casual make up most MMO population. But the game is so harsh when it comes to a casual players needs. This seems like a conflict in design. I can't reconcile this and I have tried.
This could be a massive issue this game from everything I've seen and heard, will not keep the causal player beyond the first month, maybe some will ;last 3 and that's it.
People that argue this point, just do not know MMO's, I've played this them since Ultima Online, and bar Conan, I've called them all in the last 2 decades spot on.
My gut tells me if they don't change the game to make it casual friendly, this game will fail.
It might be fun for the niche player, but even that, for how long, before not seeing others , or waiting hours for a group, will it seem fun?
I just want a fun to play MMO again, one that I can put 3 to 5 years into
Nemeses
2
Re: 📝 Dev Discussion #77 - Let’s Talk Quests! ❗
- On a scale of 1–5, how would you rate the current quest rewards in Alpha Two? (1 = Very poor, 5 = Excellent)
I'd probably give it around a 2 or 3 only cause I just remember getting some glint for the most part which isn't supper exciting or memorable other than the new token system. - How would you describe the current quest rewards in Alpha Two? What’s working well, and what could be improved?
Well for one there just are not a lot of quest to be had to have an opinion on yet. But I think the newer ones that offered the tokens that let you make choices about what you were getting were nice. I think having an option on rewards, gives the player some agency and for those who like doing questing that maybe is bellow level you can still choose a reward that is useful for you now. - In your opinion, what makes for engaging and fair quest rewards in a game like Ashes of Creation that features an economy-driven PvX system?
I haven't played seriously that many of the MMOs that work on a completely player driven economy other than Eve. I would say just giving Glint/Gold cause of that is going to make the entire system super boring so we better think of some good ideas now. Depending on the quest complexity I hope there are still occasionally items as rewards. Also given the crafting systems rewarding appropriate high quality resources the player could have used in the creation of something is certainly an option. Enchants and useful consumables in this kind of game would also be good rewards. Finally of course token systems work for providing options for rewards, also reputation for doing the quest would be worthy rewards. - Roughly what percentage of your leveling experience do you feel should come from questing compared to other activities (e.g., grinding, gathering, events)?
- Less than 25%
- 25–49%
- 50–74%
- 75% or more
- Why did you choose that percentage?
- What helps you feel connected to a game world, and what could Ashes of Creation do to feel more immersive and dynamic?
My general thoughts:
I'm hoping for a lot of improvement in how quests work, I know you are working on the big systems now. I find even just whether someone has a quest for me is unclear in Ashes. I think we need a more clear marker when interacting with an NPC a quest is available/turnin. The UI obviously needs improvement in general but its functional right now.
I find the quest tracking system very cumbersome trying to figure out what is my area whats not make it visible to watch. I loved the WoW mods I used that basically tracked the quests for the areas I was in. I think it would nice if it just did that, show the quests I could be doing for where I am.
I don't think I've heard what Steven thinks of quests. I don't like systems that are super hand holdy, but systems like vanilla WoW were you had to deduce what they wanted you to do to complete the quest is also bad. I'd like something in the middle that gives me a clear indication of the goals, and at least generally where I should be completing them.
Hoping for it all to be voice. I know you guys are working on things, It would be awesome if it could be done with AI and universal and could then applied to every language. Don't make another MMO asking everyone to read little boxes of text.
Hopefully more options for types of quests, the board quests of go kill 20 wolves or whatever are the kind of quests I'd expect from 20 years ago. Lean in to the dynamic world and have quests that you do night, or are only available in winter and that kind of stuff as well. Have more stuff tied to the node creation that gets you connect with the city your living in and trying to grow.
devmage
1
Creating a living, breathing world in Verra
During this month's live-stream, we learned a lot about systems that are being used to create the world of Verra and help it to feel alive and immersive. Hearing about the Procedural Content Generator and how it is going to be used to inform NPC behavior to help achieve this feeling of a living and breathing world, really got my mind spinning.
What if they expanded this to the “world bosses” and other event-type scenarios. When Firebrand is “off-timer” they are patrolling the skies. Flying around the world, roaring, scaring the wildlife into different movement patterns. Potentially having some small response when those with flying mounts approach too closely. Just the thought of having their shadow move across the landscape as you’re out gathering - EPIC! Or Tumok stomping around the mountainous edges, ripping up trees and shaking the earth!
Then that got my gears turning: how can we implement gathering/crafting into our “world boss” engagement? Within their available phase, what if we had to leave offerings? Lumber Millers creating a post, Weavers braiding the rope, Farmers offering up their livestock - think Jurassic Park “Where’s the goat?”
I was really excited when I heard about this in the live-stream and I’m looking forward to seeing the ways that this system will shape Verra. I look forward to seeing other’s thoughts and ideas.
What if they expanded this to the “world bosses” and other event-type scenarios. When Firebrand is “off-timer” they are patrolling the skies. Flying around the world, roaring, scaring the wildlife into different movement patterns. Potentially having some small response when those with flying mounts approach too closely. Just the thought of having their shadow move across the landscape as you’re out gathering - EPIC! Or Tumok stomping around the mountainous edges, ripping up trees and shaking the earth!
Then that got my gears turning: how can we implement gathering/crafting into our “world boss” engagement? Within their available phase, what if we had to leave offerings? Lumber Millers creating a post, Weavers braiding the rope, Farmers offering up their livestock - think Jurassic Park “Where’s the goat?”
I was really excited when I heard about this in the live-stream and I’m looking forward to seeing the ways that this system will shape Verra. I look forward to seeing other’s thoughts and ideas.
Re: So how many still excited?
I'm happlly confused. Love the vision. I love the combat feel and that's hard to nail down. Love the classes design structure but the need love. The Confused with is the size of the world, needing 10k a server to feel alive. So that size of a population would require casuel players. Casuel make up most MMO population. But the game is so harsh when it comes to a casul players needs. This seems like a conflict in design. I can't reconcile this and I have tried.
Re: Ashes Terrain Topography and Cohesion
GreatPhilisopher wrote: »GreatPhilisopher wrote: »lmfao we got the anvils ... same bland thing as before its even worse since it literally riverland with a different tree ...then we got a look more fugly races yea i am just legit about to give up honestly. they dont listen to any feedback
Work. In. Progress.
That's not even remotely what it will look like in the future.
Yes I'm going into overprotective manager mode now because seriously they keep saying this...
sure like the rest of the biomes..right , like the same rock used in every biome its like even irl type and look of rocks change but not in ashes i guess and lets be real its still gonna be 1 small tree in most of the zone with 0 diversity or well 2 trees i guess that appear sometimes.
i am tired of all of this honestly
Steven literally said that they are going to replace entire mountains, come on!
If you're tired of all this, it's technically on you, just don't go around spreading ideas like 'Oh it's the same shit" or "they don't listen to feedback". If the feelings aren't good right now, sure, fine, but at least pay attention to it when they tell you 'we're working on it and this part is early'.
entire mountains as in the biome borders not the same looking "shit" in the biomes , i am not spreading anything its literally the stuff we've been seeing for months and still nothing changed but sure lets wait and see when these mountains change if the "shit" inside the actual biomes change or they add any diversity or fantasy to them
Re: why are you putting the cart before the horse?
There are a number of reasons, but they won't become apparant in game until much later on.I can't stress enough just how much of a bad idea this is.MargaretKrohn wrote: »If you could change one thing about early-game crafting that would make it feel more rewarding right now, what would it be?
Cap a character's level to the tier of the Node they are a citizen of, so that crafters have someone to sell their stuff to.
You make a lot of good points in these forums, so I'd like to know why this is a bad idea.
As far as I can see you can still race to max level, you just need to level your node with you. When your character hits 50 you will have access to max crafting too - which is a win all around is it not?
With what the alpha test is now, I'm sure it would make some sense to do things this way - but changes should be made (and suggested) with an eye on the final game, not just with an eye on the alpha test as it stands today.
With the live game though, not every node will be able to be bought up to max level. If your neighbor node hits level 4 before you do, your node becomes a vassal of that higher tier node, and you are unable to level up your node any longer. This doesn't mean players should abandon their node, as there are perfectly valid reasons for wanting to be in a given node as opposed to being in a metropolis tier node.
Not every player will want to be a citizen of a node at all, let alone a metropolis node. There is no specific need to be a citizen of any node if a given player isn't after any of the specific perks that come with citizenship.
It may well also be optimal for some people to be in a city level economic node that is next to a metropolis level scientific node.
Additionally, there are reasons players will want to spend time in more outlying areas (resources, for one), and so they would probably want to be a citizen of an outlying node.
These players are valuable members of the larger node cluster community, but your suggestion would see them needlessly capped - something that would be absolutely horrible for these specific players as they would be more reliant on caravans getting the resources from those far flung parts of the world in to the metropolis nodes for consumption.
Basically, a change as drastic as limiting your characters level to the node you are a citizen of would change the game completely, and would require redesigns of a large number of systems just in order to make the game function.
There may well be a reason that is important enough to warrant making a change like that, but doing it just so that crafters have a market is not that reason - there are plenty of other, better ways to achieve that without gutting the game as a whole.
And that is without even getting in to the notion that this change wouldn't have the desired effect at all, if anything it would probably be the opposite.
If a change like this was made, players would do one of two things. The first is that they would all just move to what ever node was the metropolis - Intrepid would need to make changes to the games design to allow for this otherwise people will simply play a different game (an open world PvP game where you are prevented from leveling to the cap is simply not viable).
If this happens, it has no change at all on crafters.
On the other hand, the other possibility is for players to stay in their node and sat at the level they were stuck at. I don't see why any player would do this, but lets look at what they would do if they did.
The first thing that would happen if players did this is they would stop upgrading their gear. If I am level 20 nd can not progress, that means crafters just lost the ability to sell me level 25 gear, and level 30 gear, and level 35 gear. I just have no need to buy it off of them. I have my level 20 gear, and I am stuck at level 20, so no need for me to be a customer of theirs any longer.
Ah yes, good points. Thanks for taking the time. Damn I thought I was on to something there.
Would this alternative work: Cap player level by the highest level node on the realm? No citizenship required.
The fact that the initial notion you put forward has flaws doesn't mean the core idea isn't valid.
As to the second idea you've put here, the games design has a softer version of that built in.
Content is supposed to be tied to node state eventually. When this happens, there won't be any higher level content until there are higher level nodes. No higher level content, no way to level to higher levels.
Noaani
1
Re: corruption system needs a rework
I like the idea of dynamic PvP zones. I just hope its really worth farming in those zones.. like extra % rare spawns in materials and maybe drop chance increase aswell so people go there and you easily find pvp. And people who really dont want to pvp can just go to the safer zone.
Exzear
1
So how many still excited?
So we had a few Alphas now, with loads more info out there.
Taking how you felt, what 6 or 7 years ago, when this game was still in its infancy, how do you feel now about it?
For me, there’s a lot I don’t like anymore, but will leave that open.
I do think this game will end up with a very niche player base.
But more than happy to be proven wrong.
Taking how you felt, what 6 or 7 years ago, when this game was still in its infancy, how do you feel now about it?
For me, there’s a lot I don’t like anymore, but will leave that open.
I do think this game will end up with a very niche player base.
But more than happy to be proven wrong.
Nemeses
1
Re: Action camera mode - Targeting - Something have to change
Will need to check it out, cause I've had quite a few frustrating moments when trying to target the correct mob during an aoe encounter.SmileGurney wrote: »There is an option in the settings which lowers the time required to switch targets, it actually makes action mode targeting more usable.
Ludullu
1