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: Game Balance
That last sentence is worded extremely incohesively. I'm guessing you're trying to say that you want to be able to achieve more on your own, because that's the only interpretation that makes sense.It is starting to feel more and more like a job where you just log in and find a group (fates willing) and just go grind the exact same area for hours on end where it takes an entire group to kill a single mob. If I wanted to play Dark Souls or Elden Ring then I would, but I don't. I want to play a fantasy MMORPG where I can feel like I can accomplish more than just mining or harvesting on my own.
In that case: Wrong game.
Go play WoW, Black Desert, Guild Wars 2, or ESO - or New Worlds, if you want something more modern. They all still exist. Or, really, play a light-hearted single-player RPG, that would really be the best use of your time.
Not every game needs to fit the same formula. This one emphasises Holy Trinity groups, PvP interfering with PvE, and guild expansion and territory control. You could hardly have picked a worse game to make this complaint in.
Unless of course you can find it in yourself to care enough about those things to give up on the "I need to do be able to do everything I want, when I want, without preparation, on my own" mentality, and start enjoying the coordination of group-focused gameplay, and the long-term vision of growing your node and shaping its future. Then, welcome to the tribe.
Re: Node Level Confusion.
push
valid concern!
i want a dev that can answer that question to do it pls.
valid concern!
i want a dev that can answer that question to do it pls.
Birqa
2
Re: Node Level Confusion.
I'd assume they meant for 'during Alpha Testing'.
I'm honestly sick of dealing with assumptions.
In this case, it's a big deal because, at best, they're temporarily developing the game in a direction that makes me less interested in the project—and at worst, they're permanently destroying the appeal of the node system.
Vhaeyne
3
Re: How much does the quality of the game drop
P3 will have EU servers.Once again, until the problem with the servers is solved.
That is, adding servers for all regions, which would eliminate the delay
This is not a game yet, hence why it's not suitable for playing. It's very suitable for testing though. And our testing directly helps Intrepid solve their issues. The most direct example of this I can give is the Proper Burial quest. 2 days ago the location near the cemetary was lagging so damn much that you couldn't even kill a mob properly. Yesterday it was completely fine.And until the problem with the monsters that teleport for 2-3 chunks from the game will not be solved
The game is not suitable for playing
And Intrepid keep saying every day that they're working on more and more such locations. And they would only know which locations to work on if we overload the servers in a semi-natural way.
Ludullu
1
Re: How much does the quality of the game drop
If Steven is to be believed, we've got 8k people on Shol concurrently. That's an insane number, considering that the og plan for the FULL RELEASE was to have 10k concurrent players. And even despite that huge number the game as a whole is getting more stable. Yes, super popular places are really fucked by lag/rubberbanding/broken spawns, but that's also the point of stress testing the server and it gives Intrepid a ton of data for player activity heatmaps and overall behavior.
As for zergs - we have no proper tools to deal with them yet. No properly balanced guild wars or node wars, no fully designed corruption and bounty hunting, no proper PvE AI that would react to a zerg in the best way possible. So of course zergs would dominate right now.
Though, none of this is to say that on the full release zerg still won't win most of the time. That's simply the nature of these kinds of games. It's impossible to completely stop a zerg from winning in an open world mmo. And with Steven's love for that kind of gameplay, it was kind of obvious that the game would inevitably have the design that appeals to zergs. So the best thing we can do is just keep reminding Steven to implement at least a few tools that help players deal with zergs.
As for your friends. If they left because they completely dislike the game - that's a shame, but they wouldn't have stuck around either way. But if they left because the game is unfinished, then just keep their information and then contact them when the game does release.
As for zergs - we have no proper tools to deal with them yet. No properly balanced guild wars or node wars, no fully designed corruption and bounty hunting, no proper PvE AI that would react to a zerg in the best way possible. So of course zergs would dominate right now.
Though, none of this is to say that on the full release zerg still won't win most of the time. That's simply the nature of these kinds of games. It's impossible to completely stop a zerg from winning in an open world mmo. And with Steven's love for that kind of gameplay, it was kind of obvious that the game would inevitably have the design that appeals to zergs. So the best thing we can do is just keep reminding Steven to implement at least a few tools that help players deal with zergs.
As for your friends. If they left because they completely dislike the game - that's a shame, but they wouldn't have stuck around either way. But if they left because the game is unfinished, then just keep their information and then contact them when the game does release.
Ludullu
1
Game Balance
I am enjoying the game so far but I personally feel that the balance between even a single lvl is too skewed at most times. While I am all for promoting group activities for it to be almost a dependency in order to play the game is not really my cup of tea. The ability to quest alone is almost impossible unless you go to areas with mobs that are more than a few lvls below you.
Furthermore, the lack of quests or story driven immersion is greatly lowering the fun factor of this game. It is starting to feel more and more like a job where you just log in and find a group (fates willing) and just go grind the exact same area for hours on end where it takes an entire group to kill a single mob. If I wanted to play Dark Souls or Elden Ring then I would, but I don't. I want to play a fantasy MMORPG where I can feel like I can accomplish more than just mining or harvesting on my own.
Furthermore, the lack of quests or story driven immersion is greatly lowering the fun factor of this game. It is starting to feel more and more like a job where you just log in and find a group (fates willing) and just go grind the exact same area for hours on end where it takes an entire group to kill a single mob. If I wanted to play Dark Souls or Elden Ring then I would, but I don't. I want to play a fantasy MMORPG where I can feel like I can accomplish more than just mining or harvesting on my own.
Omega187
1
New Player Experience/Thoughts While Playing
Thanks for reading, this was a couple hours worth of playing and writing all this. I know the devs have worked really hard and I want to say thank you all! What I've seen has made me super excited for the future of Ashes!!
New Player Experience
Random thoughts while playing:
⦁ Chopped down a tree but where did I get this axe from? Would feel better if I crafted an axe to chop down trees with.
⦁ Maybe different grades of axes would be cool, after a certain grade you need a certain mastery to equip it? Holding a dragon axe again like runescape sounds cool!
⦁ Size of quest font originally is very small. Maybe include other forms of information gathering to quest system (like an audio 'ding' when completing a quest objective)
⦁ First quest gave me "glint", so I see in the chat box "Received: Dull Glint", it would be nice if, when I click on something underlined in the chat box, and it also has the "Received" tag, that it will open up the corresponding inventory area, where that item goes.
⦁ In the skills tab - when hovering over a skill, it should outline it slightly. It does wonders to make the game feel new and not old.
⦁ In the skills tab, Lvl 1 looks like Lv 11 in the game, first impressions... made me feel stupid. Suggestion: Add a period, like "Lvl.1"
⦁ Love love LOVE the animation for "Zone Entered Lionhold", but I didn't see anything on the way out. It's probably just being worked on.
⦁ Man, the chat box felt like a total mess. My feed wasn’t caught up, so I had to scroll down manually. I couldn’t figure out how to get my cursor back, so I hit Esc—only to find out it kicked me out of the chat box without any warning. It would’ve helped if there were some kind of visual indicator, like the box being highlighted or un-highlighted. After scrolling, I tried to type again, but I guess the focus wasn’t on the typing area anymore. Instead of writing anything, I ended up opening a bunch of random windows I didn’t even want. Just chaotic. Suggestion: Pressing enter, should also bring up the cursor. Or give me an option for that please please.
⦁ After writing that last bit, I tried clicking on the options icon in the chat box. I hit Esc again to bring the cursor out, and that opened the options menu as expected. But when I clicked the actual chat options button, the first menu didn’t go away—so I ended up with two menus overlapping each other, not nice.
⦁ I love that there's no weight limit! This is freaking awesome!
⦁ Again I pressed Esc to pull out the cursor and that darn menu stays up despite me going in my inventory. So frustrating! I wish it was like BDO, where L-CTRL brings out the cursor.
⦁ Really nice that the Lumber milling station works on it's own! Wish it gave me a running timer when I exit out of it though.
⦁ Found the cursor button!! It's R-CTRL?? So confused! Where is the option to keybind this, I can't find it anywhere? This is such a huge detail to overlook.
⦁ Staggered's definition is "Disable Evasion reduced by 25%"... I have no earthly idea what Disable Evasion means or is. This feel intentionally unclear. If it's what I'm speculating, then maybe it's their chance to evade? But then, why not just say "Reduce target's chance to evade by 25%"?
⦁ Found the character sheet, Physical Disable Evasion. After reading the definition, I'm still confused. It says it's disabling physical effect (like what?). Maybe, slow, bleed? So Staggered must be an "Effect Penetration" debuff? I feel like there are so many better words to describe this than "disable", and I still have no idea what it does.
⦁ Love how friendly the community is!
⦁ Found the 2nd page in the character sheet that shows the artisan tools, it would be better if we equipped them ourselves in the beginning, for reasons like - it shows me where that tab is, it tells me that tools exist in the game, and that they can be upgraded, it get's me thinking about the artisan professions (btw at that point, it'd be a great time to segue into how many professions you can master, etc).
New Player Experience
Random thoughts while playing:
⦁ Chopped down a tree but where did I get this axe from? Would feel better if I crafted an axe to chop down trees with.
⦁ Maybe different grades of axes would be cool, after a certain grade you need a certain mastery to equip it? Holding a dragon axe again like runescape sounds cool!
⦁ Size of quest font originally is very small. Maybe include other forms of information gathering to quest system (like an audio 'ding' when completing a quest objective)
⦁ First quest gave me "glint", so I see in the chat box "Received: Dull Glint", it would be nice if, when I click on something underlined in the chat box, and it also has the "Received" tag, that it will open up the corresponding inventory area, where that item goes.
⦁ In the skills tab - when hovering over a skill, it should outline it slightly. It does wonders to make the game feel new and not old.
⦁ In the skills tab, Lvl 1 looks like Lv 11 in the game, first impressions... made me feel stupid. Suggestion: Add a period, like "Lvl.1"
⦁ Love love LOVE the animation for "Zone Entered Lionhold", but I didn't see anything on the way out. It's probably just being worked on.
⦁ Man, the chat box felt like a total mess. My feed wasn’t caught up, so I had to scroll down manually. I couldn’t figure out how to get my cursor back, so I hit Esc—only to find out it kicked me out of the chat box without any warning. It would’ve helped if there were some kind of visual indicator, like the box being highlighted or un-highlighted. After scrolling, I tried to type again, but I guess the focus wasn’t on the typing area anymore. Instead of writing anything, I ended up opening a bunch of random windows I didn’t even want. Just chaotic. Suggestion: Pressing enter, should also bring up the cursor. Or give me an option for that please please.
⦁ After writing that last bit, I tried clicking on the options icon in the chat box. I hit Esc again to bring the cursor out, and that opened the options menu as expected. But when I clicked the actual chat options button, the first menu didn’t go away—so I ended up with two menus overlapping each other, not nice.
⦁ I love that there's no weight limit! This is freaking awesome!
⦁ Again I pressed Esc to pull out the cursor and that darn menu stays up despite me going in my inventory. So frustrating! I wish it was like BDO, where L-CTRL brings out the cursor.
⦁ Really nice that the Lumber milling station works on it's own! Wish it gave me a running timer when I exit out of it though.
⦁ Found the cursor button!! It's R-CTRL?? So confused! Where is the option to keybind this, I can't find it anywhere? This is such a huge detail to overlook.
⦁ Staggered's definition is "Disable Evasion reduced by 25%"... I have no earthly idea what Disable Evasion means or is. This feel intentionally unclear. If it's what I'm speculating, then maybe it's their chance to evade? But then, why not just say "Reduce target's chance to evade by 25%"?
⦁ Found the character sheet, Physical Disable Evasion. After reading the definition, I'm still confused. It says it's disabling physical effect (like what?). Maybe, slow, bleed? So Staggered must be an "Effect Penetration" debuff? I feel like there are so many better words to describe this than "disable", and I still have no idea what it does.
⦁ Love how friendly the community is!
⦁ Found the 2nd page in the character sheet that shows the artisan tools, it would be better if we equipped them ourselves in the beginning, for reasons like - it shows me where that tab is, it tells me that tools exist in the game, and that they can be upgraded, it get's me thinking about the artisan professions (btw at that point, it'd be a great time to segue into how many professions you can master, etc).
Re: 📝 Dev Discussion #77 - Let’s Talk Quests! ❗
Dev Discussions are an opportunity to join in on player discussions about topics that Intrepid Studios want to hear your thoughts on. This is less about asking us questions, and more about us asking YOU the questions! If you do have questions about Ashes of Creation, keep an eye our social media channels for our monthly Q&A thread, check out the Ashes of Creation community wiki, or try the #questions channel in Discord!
In this thread, we’ll be discussing:
Dev Discussion - Let's Talk Quests!
The team would like to gather comprehensive sentiment on quests as they currently exist. Nothing is in the final state, as we’re always looking to refine and make improvements to systems during Alpha Two. While fine-tuning will be a main focus of later testing phases, we still want to hear your thoughts on what can be improved regarding quests!
We’d love your thoughts on:
- On a scale of 1–5, how would you rate the current quest rewards in Alpha Two? (1 = Very poor, 5 = Excellent)
- How would you describe the current quest rewards in Alpha Two? What’s working well, and what could be improved?
- 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?
- 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?
Don’t feel limited to the thought-starters above. Feel free to drop whatever feedback you have regarding your experiences with quests below 👇
3. I feel like quests should been used to teach mechanics of the game, while also helping with experience gain. Adding any kind of loot or materials to be gained from a quest I feel defeats the purpose of a player driven game, if the NPCs are supplying you with a bunch of items. Personally, I think area events should be more common as well.
4. 25-49% so thats a difficult question to answer, become if this game is meant to be social, then allowing solo players to rush through the game via quests would diminish the player engagement with the social aspect of the game. In my humble opinion, I would argue that the best way to earn Exp should be with grouping or helping with a node. Have quests made to be completed in a group at Pois that have enemies designed to be taken by a group. Have a node loyalty system that rewards players a bonus in exp for completing gathering, crafting, and PvE, PvP commissions. Offer higher exp yields for events that gain more players. Have exp being earned through actually interacting with the world and the player base, instead of letting players solo zerg through, and only participate in the PvE part of the game.
5. I love this question. Adding on top of what I said in my last answer, design the game to require you to actually interact with other players and nodes themselves. This not being a theme park MMO, the player doesnt need to be the chosen one, or someone who can solo all the content by themselves. Create an environment where the players WANT to be a part of this world. I'm a PvE player by heart, but give me the chance to be a part of a node that is unique compared to others, so I can defend it or siege other nodes that dare to threaten our home! Grant more space for freeholds, so towns and cities actually feel lived in, rather than a hub to buy stuff and store your items at.
mr_taffy
1
Re: Make PvP Viable
That's a lot of strong feelings towards optional content / areas, no one forces you to enter.
