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I Just Keep Moving Forward. Until the Tulnars Are Destroyed

I disagree. Solo players haven't kept genre alive, the success of games like WoW and FFXIV have kept publishers trend chasing trying to grab a market share. I won't say solo players have no affect, but I'd say little affect. If a game is good I'll play it. Pre OG WoW I was playing mmos, Pre EQ I was too. Post WoW we started to see cash shops, RMT, mass exploits, casino style reward systems, ect... All those things had much more impact on the health of MMOs than solo players. Then we players were hit with scam after scam and trash game after trash game. We became jaded. There were some good ones. Asherons, FFXI, DAoC, and so on, to be fair. But it only takes being burned once to make someone hesitant to try another.

I'm confused to on what you're actually asking for. It all reads as platitudes. There's no details. You're just asking for more, or "widen the doors a little". But what do you want actually? A questing system with ? and ! and quest hubs that power level you to 50 in 2 days? Access to all content with auto queues to dungeons/raids ect? You said you want to explore, gather, craft, and engage in the economy, and you can even as a pure soloist. But will you be as good as a blacksmith that's in a guild that spends just as much time in the game as you do? Probably not. I'll feed my blacksmith materials and patterns just like everyone else in the guild. There's no way you can keep up with that pure solo. You could get lucky and find a rare pattern that others don't have, but then do you sell it or use it? What materials does it take to make it, can you get them all? Crafting is going to be interwoven, so armor smithing might rely on tailoring for some recipes. This will be a big focus in P3 (I think). A lot of these "accessibility" things like quest hub power leveling, or auto queue dungeons and raids, people are actively against. I think about the success of WoW classic. Blizzard kept telling players they didn't want vanilla wow, but they were dead wrong. Classic was massively successful, and I still think WoW is carebear difficulty. No perma death, no corpse run, no full loot drops, quest hubs and quest markers, fast travel?!? Easy easy easy.

In the end, no (pure) solo players didn't save the genre, it would be fine without them. The genre has always been in trouble with the exception of peak WoW era. This is just my thoughts on it. But if you actually got something to add, ideas, mechanics, ect for solo activities make a post about those. They might in the queue and if it adds value to the game without sacrificing other aspects of the game maybe they'll add it. They're always looking for ideas. But make sure you know the core pillars the game stands on. Check out the wiki for what their take on PvX is, the balance of instance vs open world content and so on. No game is for everyone, it's not a bad thing to say, 'this game might not be for you", it might not be for me either. Can't please everyone.

Depraved wrote: »

ill elaborate more later, but basically, since there is a limited space of players per server, the more you make the game solo friendly, the more solo players will join, and the less space will be for group oriented players. that's not to say the game should be 100% party/guild oriented though.

If Ashes shall be Nodes versus Nodes though - then the Game can't be "too Solo Player friendly". The MOMENT you do make it too well appealing to play Solo - you have the same Situation like in Worst of Warcraft and incompetent Bunglers are in every Node except probably a single One -> which will "magically" dominate the whole Server. .

TheDarkSorcerer wrote: »

Nah, I don’t agree. Games like GW2 and ESO prove you can be solo-friendly and still be a real MMO. GW2 is one of the most active MMOs in 2025, super chill for solo play but still full of group content and community.

We have differing opinions of what "a real mmo" is. To me, if you can clear the game and majority of its content w/o uttering a single word in chat - that's a single player game. Afaik both ESO and GW2 are exactly that. Hell, i'm pretty sure this video itself said so about ESO.

This is why I said that mmos are just single player games with chat-spam npcs in them. There's an illusions of something going on, but you don't need to interact with that illusion to experience the game.

And my biggest example of this kinda being true is Genshin's release. A shiiiitton of people thought Genshin was an mmo, because it had a multiplayer component, even though it was a completely solo game. If that's not an indication of "people think that mmos are just soloable games with other people in them" - I dunno what is.

Ludullu wrote: »

Noaani wrote: »

Even back in 2004, if you were in a guild that was organized, you didn't need to use in game chat at all. You could complete quests, dungeons, raids, everything that is the core of an MMORPG, all without needing to use chat at all.

True, I should've been clearer in that statement. By "single word in chat" I meant "no interaction with any other player in any way, including the forums, social media, audio apps, etc". You literally only log into the game, say nothing, but still clear the game just fine.

This is what it took what you said to mean. I understand thst from a certain perspdcrive this is just a rewording of the same notion, but to me, the difference is quite major.

I agree with Jundark I dont think the dev team should be afraid to supersize trees for this region. Go crazy, it's a fantasy world. Giant fantasy trees are a good look for a jungle and spacing out giant trees instead of adding 20 little ones is better for performance.

World of warcraft Feralas--- this zone hit the nail on the head. Ashenvale as well but Feralas is the Jundark equivalent. Giant moss covered trees with swinging vines and stretched out branches.


Now the riverlands... ehh riverlands can get away with being kinda boring. Wide open fields and running rivers and some rocks/thickets. Pretty on brand.

They outdid themselves with the Desert! The ridges and foliage... perfection.

The tropics.... could also use some giant vine covered trees and maybe some nikua architecture... hutts and bridges.

Noaani wrote: »

ieldan wrote: »

I'm Brazilian, and the price of the game for us is half the minimum wage here, it is very expensive in our currency. I'm not asking for a price reduction, just to make this option possible.

Thank you very much!

The game is not live yet.

Currently, the game is still in what is essentisllt a supporter mode - sure people get access to alpha and beta for supporting, but that isn't the game.

While I don't want to speak for Steven, I imagine he would not want financial support from people if they are having to pay via installments - he would simply suggest you hold on to that money and put it to better use.

When the game is released, not only will there not be a purchase price at all, but the subscription will be regionalized to match your local economy.

Oh, I understand. Thank you very much.

Well, if you haven't had a chance to experience it in the Alpha, Ashes is fitting well for me. Basically, the guards and NPC defenders in Ashes are much closer to what I described I normally experience, than your description of what you normally see.

Casters and melee, to be clear. If you get into trouble outside a town or outpost, the best option is to run toward it, or sometimes to run toward the last place you saw a defense patrol. I think that last time I tested seriously, you could even get some exp if it was just 'you got into trouble and had to flee without finishing off a mostly-beaten enemy'.

You still got some of the exp if the guards finished off the Goblin or whatever it was.

TheDarkSorcerer wrote: »

Azherae wrote: »

But what is 'keep up' and why do solos/casuals care about it?

Sure, some of us know, but others don't know what you're talking about.

When I say “keep up,” I’m talking about not getting left so far behind in gear, progression, or access that you can’t meaningfully join in on the fun stuff. It’s not about matching the top guilds, it’s about still having a path to stay relevant without living in the game 24/7. If that path isn’t there, most casuals and solos just peace out.

They'll likely handle it like do with players you join in a year or two after launch. I mean there's no way 10 hour a week players are going to keep up with 40+ hour a week players. And they shouldn't. I think you'd need to explain what staying relevant is to you. If you're solo, than you're only relevant to yourself. If you want to be relevant to your friends or you guild you'll need to figure out how fast and far they're going to progress, gota join the right guild. This is a problem in any mmo, granted more so in Ashes because the competitive nature of the game. They have talked about ways to bridge the gap between the hardcore and causal players. I'd feed any ideas you have to the dev discussions, because this could be a issue, but it's like they are unaware, I think they are painfully aware in some cases.