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: Ashes of Creation node resources and systems network (and 2.5 economic network failures)
@REHOC
Thanks for spending the time to read my wall of text and share your thoughts. I also shared this on Reddit and wrote a follow up post with potential solutions here but my ideas weren't incredibly well received. I thought a solution could be to give Nodes more power as "open membership guilds" to compete with guilds, guild and node membership to be mutually exclusive, and to separate the gear and gold economies - the two main "currencies" of Ashes between nodes and guilds respectively to promote real exchange and allow non-guilded players to organise in a manner that can meaningfully compete with guilds.
I'm really convinced my observations in this forum post are correct and I worry that the way the economy is set up that all the amazing systems Ashes came up with such as Nodes, Societies and the true player-driven aspect will just be "flavour fluff" with the real economies happening within guilds. However, perhaps my solutions are not the right ways to fix the problem. I don't want to get rid of guilds ofc, but I want every player, guildless or not to be able to contribute to their chosen community. Guilds just aren't it for a lot of players but Ashes doesn't - on paper at least - require guild participation for a player to not be a solo player. The guildless players should also be part of wider communities such as Nodes and Societies, in a meaningful manner, even if they choose not to join guilds.
Edit: I do think power should to a degree concentrate in well-organised groups but those groups should still need and desire to play against meaningful competition. They also shouldn't be able to grab all the power right from day 1. It should be impressive not inevitable.
I would appreciate any thoughts and feedback to continue the discussion honestly - I really think this has to be examined in real economic terms and look at how systems in place may end up inevitably making monopolies. Having the whole glint -> gold "processing skill" via caravans is a really cool way to ensure gold farmers will never be able to ruin this game, but tying this to an activity that will be de facto guild based will only ensure guilds not only dominate but consolidate insurmountable advantages that not just "solo players" but even smaller or would-be competitive guilds may never overcome.
Thanks for spending the time to read my wall of text and share your thoughts. I also shared this on Reddit and wrote a follow up post with potential solutions here but my ideas weren't incredibly well received. I thought a solution could be to give Nodes more power as "open membership guilds" to compete with guilds, guild and node membership to be mutually exclusive, and to separate the gear and gold economies - the two main "currencies" of Ashes between nodes and guilds respectively to promote real exchange and allow non-guilded players to organise in a manner that can meaningfully compete with guilds.
I'm really convinced my observations in this forum post are correct and I worry that the way the economy is set up that all the amazing systems Ashes came up with such as Nodes, Societies and the true player-driven aspect will just be "flavour fluff" with the real economies happening within guilds. However, perhaps my solutions are not the right ways to fix the problem. I don't want to get rid of guilds ofc, but I want every player, guildless or not to be able to contribute to their chosen community. Guilds just aren't it for a lot of players but Ashes doesn't - on paper at least - require guild participation for a player to not be a solo player. The guildless players should also be part of wider communities such as Nodes and Societies, in a meaningful manner, even if they choose not to join guilds.
Edit: I do think power should to a degree concentrate in well-organised groups but those groups should still need and desire to play against meaningful competition. They also shouldn't be able to grab all the power right from day 1. It should be impressive not inevitable.
I would appreciate any thoughts and feedback to continue the discussion honestly - I really think this has to be examined in real economic terms and look at how systems in place may end up inevitably making monopolies. Having the whole glint -> gold "processing skill" via caravans is a really cool way to ensure gold farmers will never be able to ruin this game, but tying this to an activity that will be de facto guild based will only ensure guilds not only dominate but consolidate insurmountable advantages that not just "solo players" but even smaller or would-be competitive guilds may never overcome.
Re: What If Caravans Were Real Trade, Not Just an NPC Delivery Quest?
Quite honestly, it can be dangerous.I think early community discussions are still valuable, not as final solutions, but as inspiration for design directions or potential pitfalls. Moreover, the administration noted in various topics that such conversations are very useful, not only feedbacks.
The amount of people that mistake uninformed player discussion for things that are actually possible (or even things that Intrepid have said) is astonishing. We had someone on these forums in the last few hours say they thought Intrepid said 2 years ago that the game would release in a year - Intrepid have never said that, but some uninformed, optimistic posters did.
The result of that is this poster now has a lesser opinion of Intrepid, because uninformed players had an uninformed discussion and an even more uninformed person didn't understand the level of information lack that was on display.
Discussions of "I think it would be cool if *a game* did this thing are always great. Discussions on how Intrepid should do things are not so good.
As to Intrepid saying they have found some threads useful - a few things to keep in mind. What is being said is that the community team have found the threads useful as a single source on a given topic (thinking the biome thread here). This makes it easier for the community team to take this to the developers. The comments in regards to a thread being helpful were not meant in terms of "this helps development of the game", but rather "this helps me write a memo faster".
The other super important thing to keep in mind - Intrepid are experienced MMORPG developers. They don't need our help.
Steven may, as he isn't experienced - but the rest of the team are.
Our value to Intrepid is in commenting if things feel right, or work correctly. It isn't in trying to come up with how things should be - that is what the experts are for. If something doesn't feel right, we tell them, and they work out a way to remedy the situation - we don't do that.
Noaani
1
Black Screen
When i launch the game it's all fine, game starts, character selection shows up ok, no problems there, but when i try to log on the character i want to play the screen goes dark and music still plays but nothing else going on, no loading screen no error no nothing, anyone else having the same problem? any fixes?
Re: Ranger Archetype Changes
Focusing soley on the question asked rather than generic ranger feedback:
If so, what are your thoughts on the changes?
- Focus
15% multiplier damage on abilities based on how many auto attacks you get in. I think this is pretty useless as a class mechanic? I like that its supposed to be rewarding for rangers who can keep uptime with auto attacks so their skills hit harder. What ends up happening is that the boost is significantly less impactful than pushing buttons. So your overall gameplay is unchanged with or without this mechanic. Even if you are about to do the 3rd auto attack and trigger your combo for extra focus - its better to immediately use an ability. If you can't keep uptime with auto attacks, the ranger will hit a bit less. But there are like 7 or something ST spells you can cast, there is very little space in the rotation long term to be auto attacking anyways. Will have to see how it is post-squish.
Comparing this to other classes - Bards get to 'cash in' to amplify their song's focus which is cool. Momentum is a mechanic you fight against for longer berserk uptime, and the auto attacks resetting overpower means its better to AA for overpower to extend berserk sometimes. Including stocking momentum for CD resets. Clerics get to trigger instant cast giga heals in a class that is very reaction based and is great (or free mana for lower skilled players / solo players). Tanks are lol still but I at least understand how you want to min-max being full cause they get a fair amount of downtime. Rangers' is uninteractive as the tank's, but at least tanks can pick between damage, being tankier, or stockpiling for a second. Rangers thought process is: Do what does more dps. And currently, there are no options, its always use ability ASAP.
- Salvo
Its a cool skill, I like how it feels. I don't like that it always consumes all charges. The cast time means that its actually kind of low on the priority list in terms of net DPS compared to other skills. I would love to barrage, 1 salvo shot, thundering. But if you press salvo all the stacks are gone. Cool skill, it feels like since its so arced it should be 35m as a long range 'salvo' you know?
- Power Shot
Like the post above with focus, the focus impact is so small its not worth playing around. That also included with this skill. The only thing special about it is the extra range which is cool. The animation is the same as snipe which is sad. Overall this is the 'worst' ST ranger dps skill in the game, if not for its extra 5m range
-
- Marks and Hunts
I like bear and tiger decision thinking. I don't like that raven is pretty much only ever going to be used during the early part of leveling, then never again (at least I believe so?). Its kind of a set and forget forever. Also hunts are bugged in that you don't always get it re-applied after casting mark.
Mark - When you cast mark on a target, they all look the same no matter what hunt you use. Or at least you can't really tell what type of mark it is while its flying. The tooltip should say debuff duration. I personally can't tell if the mark really helps the raid or not - there isn't really good feedback? I kind of just use it because it feels like I should. Main use of mark is to regen hp and mana from the siphon talent.
- Barrage
I don't like barrage giving stam to enemies who dodge it but - imo the changes are fine. This is one of the highest dps abilities I believe. With all the extra ST dps buttons to push its fine with this having a longer CD. Everyone thinks barrage is cool
- Arrowstorm and scattershot Knockback.
I kind of miss knockback for kiting but - QOL and how the game feels its a lot better not being bumped around by your own scatters constantly.
For arrowstorm - I mean its still strong, but without the 'unintended interactions' in combo with all the skills to push - The Damage:AS ratio means that you should basically always be going longbow. Shortbow does to more auto attack dps now but when you factor in AOE and skills longbow on top. Not to mention 5m extra range of longbow. Maybe with the squish shortbow will be viable end game, but it should only be viable solo or 'pretty small' scale. Even small scale you could do a bigger snipe and skills though so who knows.
Overall kind of sad about how focus worked out to be gameplay wise. Will see how it is post squish and how it feels while leveling but right now its a pretend it doesn't exist. Lots of rangers like auto attacking and we have kind of turned into an arrow spellcaster with all the cast times.
If so, what are your thoughts on the changes?
- Focus
15% multiplier damage on abilities based on how many auto attacks you get in. I think this is pretty useless as a class mechanic? I like that its supposed to be rewarding for rangers who can keep uptime with auto attacks so their skills hit harder. What ends up happening is that the boost is significantly less impactful than pushing buttons. So your overall gameplay is unchanged with or without this mechanic. Even if you are about to do the 3rd auto attack and trigger your combo for extra focus - its better to immediately use an ability. If you can't keep uptime with auto attacks, the ranger will hit a bit less. But there are like 7 or something ST spells you can cast, there is very little space in the rotation long term to be auto attacking anyways. Will have to see how it is post-squish.
Comparing this to other classes - Bards get to 'cash in' to amplify their song's focus which is cool. Momentum is a mechanic you fight against for longer berserk uptime, and the auto attacks resetting overpower means its better to AA for overpower to extend berserk sometimes. Including stocking momentum for CD resets. Clerics get to trigger instant cast giga heals in a class that is very reaction based and is great (or free mana for lower skilled players / solo players). Tanks are lol still but I at least understand how you want to min-max being full cause they get a fair amount of downtime. Rangers' is uninteractive as the tank's, but at least tanks can pick between damage, being tankier, or stockpiling for a second. Rangers thought process is: Do what does more dps. And currently, there are no options, its always use ability ASAP.
- Salvo
Its a cool skill, I like how it feels. I don't like that it always consumes all charges. The cast time means that its actually kind of low on the priority list in terms of net DPS compared to other skills. I would love to barrage, 1 salvo shot, thundering. But if you press salvo all the stacks are gone. Cool skill, it feels like since its so arced it should be 35m as a long range 'salvo' you know?
- Power Shot
Like the post above with focus, the focus impact is so small its not worth playing around. That also included with this skill. The only thing special about it is the extra range which is cool. The animation is the same as snipe which is sad. Overall this is the 'worst' ST ranger dps skill in the game, if not for its extra 5m range
-- Marks and Hunts
I like bear and tiger decision thinking. I don't like that raven is pretty much only ever going to be used during the early part of leveling, then never again (at least I believe so?). Its kind of a set and forget forever. Also hunts are bugged in that you don't always get it re-applied after casting mark.
Mark - When you cast mark on a target, they all look the same no matter what hunt you use. Or at least you can't really tell what type of mark it is while its flying. The tooltip should say debuff duration. I personally can't tell if the mark really helps the raid or not - there isn't really good feedback? I kind of just use it because it feels like I should. Main use of mark is to regen hp and mana from the siphon talent.
- Barrage
I don't like barrage giving stam to enemies who dodge it but - imo the changes are fine. This is one of the highest dps abilities I believe. With all the extra ST dps buttons to push its fine with this having a longer CD. Everyone thinks barrage is cool
- Arrowstorm and scattershot Knockback.
I kind of miss knockback for kiting but - QOL and how the game feels its a lot better not being bumped around by your own scatters constantly.
For arrowstorm - I mean its still strong, but without the 'unintended interactions' in combo with all the skills to push - The Damage:AS ratio means that you should basically always be going longbow. Shortbow does to more auto attack dps now but when you factor in AOE and skills longbow on top. Not to mention 5m extra range of longbow. Maybe with the squish shortbow will be viable end game, but it should only be viable solo or 'pretty small' scale. Even small scale you could do a bigger snipe and skills though so who knows.
Overall kind of sad about how focus worked out to be gameplay wise. Will see how it is post squish and how it feels while leveling but right now its a pretend it doesn't exist. Lots of rangers like auto attacking and we have kind of turned into an arrow spellcaster with all the cast times.
Re: Ashes likely biggest launch issue
Terranigma1 wrote: »and let's be honest. The MMO core audience isn't getting any younger and if you want to succeed, you need a healthy playerbase whose average age isn't 40+ and who can tell stories about the good ol' times in EQ1 or DAoC.
I disagree with this part.
Younger people aren't really interested in MMORPG's in general. They would rather a shorter gaming experience which is why games like Fortnite are so popular.
Rather, in order to succeed as an MMORPG in today's market, you need to appeal to the 40+ (35+ really) market. However, in doing this, you need to understand that people in this age bracket with the disposable income to subscribe to an MMORPG generally all work 40-50 hous a week, as well as having actual commitments many nights each week. In order to be a successful MMORPG today, the game needs to take this in to account by not penalizing players that cant dedicate 20+ hours a week, and that is what Ashes doesn't do.
Noaani
1
Re: Cheaters
That's pretty sad for them.
Report and move on. Neither of you should care about competitive success in the game at this stage in development.
Report and move on. Neither of you should care about competitive success in the game at this stage in development.
Alpha Two Update Notes 0.10.2 - Sunday, May 18, 2025
These are the update notes for changes to the Alpha Two that went to testers on Sunday, May 18, 2025
As a reminder, if you come across bugs during Alpha Two testing, please report them to us in-game using /bug
ALPHA TWO UPDATE NOTES 0.10.2 - SUNDAY, MAY 18, 2025
As a reminder, if you come across bugs during Alpha Two testing, please report them to us in-game using /bug
ALPHA TWO UPDATE NOTES 0.10.2 - SUNDAY, MAY 18, 2025
- Resolved a storage-related bug that was causing server workers to unexpectedly crash.
Tank in general needs a better name
Historically in MMO's, the tank is a role, not a class. If the devs were aiming to go a different route then why give the other class's class names and not name the ranger 'DPS'? The tank class needs to be named something like knight, paladin, etc. Thanks
Xosimo
3
Re: Return PvP to the tropics islands
It wouldn’t need to offer "the best" rewards for free.
Honestly, the scale of reward just informs the flavor of how this would be bad.
Obviously not "for free", but it will need to offer the best rewards. It would have higher risk.
If such an area doesn't offer the best rewards, it will go largely unused. The only people using it will be those out looking for PvP, taking that away from the rest of the game world and thus lessening the game.
If such an area does have the best rewards, then the games entire meta becomes joining a zero and running this lawless area. This would still have that same issue of removing PvP instigating players from the rest of the game world.
No matter how you look at it, any area that entices PvP focused players in to one area is a detriment to the game. The game needs these players spread out across the server to be PvP instigators, not concentrated in one area and fighting among themselves.
So yeah, it literally can not be added to this game without being a detriment. It is the very existence of a PvP focused area that is bad for the game.
People just wanting some PvP will eventually have an arena - which in itself is going to remove a lot of PvP from the open world.
Noaani
1