Best Of

zapper wrote: »

CC at 10s is pretty useless

Well, this is, to put it mildly, not true

Malorymortis wrote: »

Here are some general questions I have for example:
- In what way will the primary feedback, including bug reports, be submitted?
- Since most game content is distributed through the developer’s official channels, will testers be under NDA??
- Are the servers for the Alpha test all located in California, or are they already partially distributed across other planned regions, such as Europe?

If you have something to share close to the topic, please don't be shy. And thanks in advance for your answers!

- they said in the last stream that they have in-game reporting too. So you open a dialog and type your finding
- no NDA for Alpha 2: https://ashesofcreation.wiki/Alpha-2
- some servers will be located in Europe too

A reminder that for TL you need to multiply the number of players on steam by at least 4 to get the approximate Console player audience unless you're just discounting them.

Leveling in TL is fast, at the moment, because Amazon insisted, I guess. They said they slowed it back down but JustVine reports this isn't true on the Early Access server, and doesn't yet seem to be true on the standard servers.

That said, 'Fast' is still 11-22 hours if you are not rushing it. MMOs literally can't win anymore. Their longevity depends on people not leaving, but people leave if they don't get what they want fast enough, yet they cannot define 'what they want'.

My advice is 'TL;DR', where 'DR' is 'don't reference'. Don't know why it was even brought up, but since I'm definitely one to admit to playing and liking it, even on these forums, my advice is to ignore it because it will not be a support to anyone's points unless that person is very shallow.

Flanker wrote: »

Zehlan wrote: »

It's funny how you only understand what you want to understand and divert and deflect facts or play ignorant on anything you cannot.

I just debunked your bs above and the only thing you're capable of now is parroting the same nonsense, trying to accuse me in something you are actually doing yourself.

RIP

You haven't said anything to debunk what i have said or Dygz you have just played victim and are trying to deflect the conversation.

Flanker wrote: »

Dygz wrote: »

Flanker wrote: »

Appreciate your detailed explanation about something that I never actually suggested.

You did suggest what I said you suggested here:
If you can't compehend a simple fact that someone who plays 6/h day will reach the level cap faster than someone who play 3h/day, NO MATTER HOW LONG IT TAKES, 50 or 5000 hours - you shouldn't have missed the Math classes in your Elementary school.
That obviously has to be about DAYS rather than HOURS because if it's 225 hours to max Adventurer Level it doesn't matter how many DAYS it takes. Casual Time v Hardcore Time is irrelevant.
It will take the Casual Time player 225 hours. It will take the Hardcore Time player 225 hours.

Buddy, what are you even talking about?

I'm responsbile for what I say. I'm not responsible for 100 possible interpretations of my words. You completely missed the point that I made and instead, you talk about some "days" that I never even mentioned.

Like, what?

And of course, your fangirl will like anything you say as long as it is you disagreeing with me.

It's funny how you only understand what you want to understand and divert and deflect facts or play ignorant on anything you cannot.

Maybe instead of cc abilities you could spec into a cc stat tree, or your base stats. So just like when you level up you get strength, defense, intellect etc. If it is point allocation , then say we get three points to use/distribute amongst our base core stats, one of the stats categories could be "cc break". The higher the point allocation into that category, the higher chance to break cc. You would not have to worry about creating abilities, or setting a cooldown on them, or thinking about the right balance b/w perma stuck and always free, the stat would do it for you without those restrictions.

I am not really in the Target Audience for Ashes, so my perspective is mostly irrelevant on this topic.
I am more focused on RPG designs, while Ashes is primarily a PvP-centric game...

I don't think much about CCs and CC Breakers.
Rather, I think about the Fantasy aspects of the Classes.
I want my Rogue to feel like a Stealthy Thief and I want my Mage to feel like a Scholarly Wizard.
I want my Cleric to feel like a Wise Healer.

I do expect Rogues and Rangers to be able to Slow and Snare targets with Poisons and Traps.
And I expect them to know how to Disable Traps. (Mages should also be able to Freeze targets).
I do expect Mages and Bards to be able to Mesmerize and Stun and Distract opponents. (I love Blind)
I expect Clerics and Bards to be able to Cure Poisons/Wounds and Debuff afflictions.
Seems as though a Tank should be able to Shield Bash hard enough to Stun foes. Perhaps Tanks should be expected to Knock Down foes and trample over them.

Of course, Augments should be able to bridge the gaps for any Primary Archetypes that don't have CCs or CC Breakers. And some Passive Skills may be able to mitigate CCs.

What's most important in an RPG is that my Rogue feels like a Rogue. And my Mage feels like a Mage. And my Cleric feels like a Cleric.
But... PvP holds my least interest in RPGs.
And Ashes is a PvP-centric game, so...

Flanker wrote: »

Appreciate your detailed explanation about something that I never actually suggested.

You did suggest what I said you suggested here:
If you can't compehend a simple fact that someone who plays 6/h day will reach the level cap faster than someone who play 3h/day, NO MATTER HOW LONG IT TAKES, 50 or 5000 hours - you shouldn't have missed the Math classes in your Elementary school.
That obviously has to be about DAYS rather than HOURS because if it's 225 hours to max Adventurer Level it doesn't matter how many DAYS it takes. Casual Time v Hardcore Time is irrelevant.
It will take the Casual Time player 225 hours. It will take the Hardcore Time player 225 hours.

Which is why I replied:
I dunno what you can possibly mean by "slower" and "faster".
Now, you seem to want the time it takes to reach max Adventurer Level to be measured in days, rather than hours. In that case, there would need to be a programmed restriction on how much Adventurer xp can be earned per day.

You also later suggest:
The "gap" between casual and hardcore players can be adjusted by balancing Rested XP - simple as that.

I expected a feedback thread and I wrote down a lot of things. I hope it's still welcome here. I'll answer the questions first:

What’s the first thing you plan to do when Alpha Two servers go live? Share your game plan with us!
Getting a feel for the game pace and tone. I hope for a slow rythm, a humble beggining that inspires you makes progression on your character exciting.

What systems do you interact with most in other MMORPGs that you play? If those systems are present in the launch of Alpha Two, will you be testing them?
PvE content and professions I'd say. And I'll try everything of course. Another thing I love but I can't interact with because it doesn't usually exist is all the naval stuff. I hope it comes to A2 soon.

Now the feedback I wrote:

* ALL TIMESTAMPS REFER TO THE 4K VIDEO ON YOUTUBE.

IMMERSION / TONE / FEEL:
- I love the level 1 outfits, very humble and rudimentary like they should be.
- Exception: the cleric staff is a bit too fancy.
- I like that you start only with 1 ability at level 1. I could agree on 2 but not more.
- I don't like that you receive an uncommon and a rare item so early in your adventure, even if it's not gear and not really relevant. It sets a certain tone for the game that I don't like.
- NPCs talking to you from far away with those chat bubbles is cool.
- The fact that people can fall from the Lionhold bridge holes and players below could see it is amazing.
- A couple or three more NPCs in Lionhold doing their activities or walking around not paying attention to you would be nice.
- An example of that would be someone washing their clothes using the small flow of water in the middle of the town.
- Camps like 33:18 could be improved by not being empty.

GAMEPLAY:
- Aggro range still way too short / inexistent.
- I really dislike that you interact with things with a keybind instead of your mouse in tab-target mode. I think interacting with the mouse and having the cursor change depending on what you're hovering has a lot more benefits and feels better overall.
- Jokes apart, the jumping puzzle should be easier for a new player's spawn. Not the best moment to build silly frustration so early into the game.
- Very happy that the player is taught the various systems via quests/hints instead a more railroaded experience or a tutorial.

GRAPHICS / ANIMATIONS / ART:
- Both the ruins and Lionhold look amazing.
- There is way too much wind for an interior. Specially noticeable in NPCs' capes.
- The lightning transition when entering and exiting the ruins looks on point.
- In contrast to that, there is a high amount of lightning bugs and popping.
- Waterfalls look very good.
- The rocks the goblins are throwing in the distance at 15:20 have very weird trajectories sometimes.
- Multiple graphic artifacts on the floor from minute 15:20 onwards.
- Some goblins on the way down to Lionhold are floating when doing the crouch animation (17:59).
- Several shaking NPCs (examples at 23:45, 24:14, 27:30).
- Floating and freezing NPC at 27:05. Also a lightning bug.

UI:
- Nameplates of NPCs and Players should be differently colored. At the moment they are all green.
- The book icon above quest givers is enough information to notice them. The effect on their names I feel it's unnecessary and a bit too flashy.
- Health numbers on targets are not centered in the Y axis.
- Speech bubbles look clean.
- Commission board doesn't. A lot of stuff in little space.
- Last part of the storage hint 2/3 at 27:25 could be wrongly interpreted as "if I visit that node once, then the cargo in it is accesible from anywhere". Not a good thing for a new player to believe. I suggest finding a better wording. "Without first traveling" is the potentially confusing part.

AUDIO:
- The adaptative combat music is great but it keeps going ham for too long after the combat has ended.
- I'm okay with AI voiceovers. A bit worried about they sounding stupid in another languages. It's pretty common that non-english AI voices sound way worse.

CC against players is not fun. Losing control of my character is not fun. Being stunned for 1 second is not fun. Interrupts are fine, so long as I don't lose complete control of my character.

Choosing between CC and damage is not really fun. As a dps class, your focus is on damage, but not having CC when you need it can also be bad, and t hus not fun.

CC vs mobs is great and adds a layer of strategy without making a player feel bad by having no control.

If CC exists, every class should have a way to break it, because (repeating myself) being stuck in a crowd-controlled state is absolutely not fun. The break should also apply a very short immunity.