Glorious Alpha Two Testers!
Alpha Two testing is currently taking place five days each week. More information about Phase II and Phase III testing schedule can be found here
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 testing is currently taking place five days each week. More information about Phase II and Phase III testing schedule can be found here
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: What drew You to Ashes?
Originally ran across a stream from LoreForged late last year which got my interest.
Looking for something similar to the older MMOs plus more. I've played MMO's for the last 25+ years, and I'm looking forward to several things.
1. No fast travel. Everything seems like a D&D adventure as just going out gathering or exploring feels like a D&D campaign. When I'm out gathering, I see familiar characters often, and feels like I'm in a community of sorts, even though I don't group up.
2. Difficulty. I mainly solo (99%+), and I like the difficulty. I have to be aware of my surroundings and evaluate how to take on an encounter. I know there are some things I can never do while soloing, and I'm good with that.
3. PvX. I don't PvP, but once they fix the exploits, I believe "most" people that want to PvP will be taking part in the parts of the game that are specifically setup for PvP (Caravans, Guild Wars, Node Wars, etc.). I know there will some that will risk corruption, but I'm good with that. I'll just have to be more careful. Maybe eventually I'll take part in PvP...
I know I'm not the typical player. I have no desire to rush to max level, to gain lots of gold, to obtain the best items, or anything like that. I just explore, gather, process items, help others out when I run across them, and enjoy the game. There are a lot of things to fix (which I send a lot of bug reports), but I'm having a great time as it is now.
In a way, it's sort of the solo D&D type campaign I've wanted for a long time, and yet, still be able to interface with others when I want.
Looking for something similar to the older MMOs plus more. I've played MMO's for the last 25+ years, and I'm looking forward to several things.
1. No fast travel. Everything seems like a D&D adventure as just going out gathering or exploring feels like a D&D campaign. When I'm out gathering, I see familiar characters often, and feels like I'm in a community of sorts, even though I don't group up.
2. Difficulty. I mainly solo (99%+), and I like the difficulty. I have to be aware of my surroundings and evaluate how to take on an encounter. I know there are some things I can never do while soloing, and I'm good with that.
3. PvX. I don't PvP, but once they fix the exploits, I believe "most" people that want to PvP will be taking part in the parts of the game that are specifically setup for PvP (Caravans, Guild Wars, Node Wars, etc.). I know there will some that will risk corruption, but I'm good with that. I'll just have to be more careful. Maybe eventually I'll take part in PvP...
I know I'm not the typical player. I have no desire to rush to max level, to gain lots of gold, to obtain the best items, or anything like that. I just explore, gather, process items, help others out when I run across them, and enjoy the game. There are a lot of things to fix (which I send a lot of bug reports), but I'm having a great time as it is now.
In a way, it's sort of the solo D&D type campaign I've wanted for a long time, and yet, still be able to interface with others when I want.
Re: Marketplace
Guys please remember it has been stated this is a very bare bones system at the moment, much much more will follow. It was important to get some form of player markets up to see help the economy, I personally am thankful to have something and will be patient for more implementation.
Grinding Spots
Greetings Citizens, The current state of AoC when it comes to grinding locations like RoS, Steelbloom, Carphin and many more usually go like this. Your group finds a spot, and start farming. Another group tries to love in and ensues a DPS and Tag battle for dominance.
Now if the outcome doesn't please the losing group they for now( Soon to be fixed per Steven) resort to leashing mobs and trying to kill the other party.
The only other option is to flagged up, and show you would like to fight for the spot, however the current system dictates others will often not fight back in the hopes you go red and then attack.
I find this very annoying, and takes the fun out of what is supposed to be conflict. Going red is not the answer.
Do you believe these hot spot grinding areas should be flagged when you enter them allowing groups to fight for their spots or are you happy with the current system?
I know most would worry if part of these grind spots were flagged, then large guilds would enter and try to take over, this is a very real possibility and one I really don't have a solution for.
another possible solution would be to have a scribe create a scroll that would flag a area in a certain radius for a short period of time, anyone who came in that area to try and contest the grind spot would receive a warning that this spot is under contestation and will be flagged if they stay.
Just shooting idea's out here, but let me hear your thoughts about the current system, do you like it? if not how would you like to see it?
Thanks for reading!
Now if the outcome doesn't please the losing group they for now( Soon to be fixed per Steven) resort to leashing mobs and trying to kill the other party.
The only other option is to flagged up, and show you would like to fight for the spot, however the current system dictates others will often not fight back in the hopes you go red and then attack.
I find this very annoying, and takes the fun out of what is supposed to be conflict. Going red is not the answer.
Do you believe these hot spot grinding areas should be flagged when you enter them allowing groups to fight for their spots or are you happy with the current system?
I know most would worry if part of these grind spots were flagged, then large guilds would enter and try to take over, this is a very real possibility and one I really don't have a solution for.
another possible solution would be to have a scribe create a scroll that would flag a area in a certain radius for a short period of time, anyone who came in that area to try and contest the grind spot would receive a warning that this spot is under contestation and will be flagged if they stay.
Just shooting idea's out here, but let me hear your thoughts about the current system, do you like it? if not how would you like to see it?
Thanks for reading!
Re: The respawn is too high
It really does feel extremely fast, making it difficult to work your way in as a group of 8 to camp spots. I'm specifically thinking of Oakenbane keep, where mob density often means either pulling 2-3 mobs at once, or pulling 6, because if you're pulling to clear to an area, the mobs just respawn fast enough that you can't do any kind of pull/mob placement, you need to move up and fight on location, which means putting you near other mobs that might be pulled by proximity.
I've tanked level 1-21 phase 1, and 1-16 so far phase 2, lots of time spent in oakenbane, highwayman hills, sephillion, and steelbloom, and it often boils down to cramming 8 people into a corner, and then a worst, shooting a mob with a bow to drag it in. There's just enough mobs to keep people entertained, while not needing a puller.
I don't think this would be such an issue if mob density and placement was a bit more streamlined.
And fwiw I'm comparing this directly to Everquest. Everquest also had camps which often boiled down to sitting in your corner and killing things, the same as Ashes, but in Everquest, the role of a puller was integral, and keeping constant mobs on location was a skill. It was something to achieve, not something just happening by default.
I've tanked level 1-21 phase 1, and 1-16 so far phase 2, lots of time spent in oakenbane, highwayman hills, sephillion, and steelbloom, and it often boils down to cramming 8 people into a corner, and then a worst, shooting a mob with a bow to drag it in. There's just enough mobs to keep people entertained, while not needing a puller.
I don't think this would be such an issue if mob density and placement was a bit more streamlined.
And fwiw I'm comparing this directly to Everquest. Everquest also had camps which often boiled down to sitting in your corner and killing things, the same as Ashes, but in Everquest, the role of a puller was integral, and keeping constant mobs on location was a skill. It was something to achieve, not something just happening by default.
Fippy
1
Re: The respawn is too high
I've only been to oakenbane keep once so far, but during my first experience I had the same feeling. There seemed to be no reason to actually explore the place, since we could just sit right near the entrance and have constant mobs to kill. I think if the respawn was a little longer, it would encourage groups to go deeper into the keep to maintain the mob up time.
On the flip side, when I was leveling at the cursed ruins near lionhold, I felt much more inclined to explore the whole place. This was probably due to multiple factors such as quests, events, quicker kill time (0-1 star mobs instead of 3 star), more players in general.
On the flip side, when I was leveling at the cursed ruins near lionhold, I felt much more inclined to explore the whole place. This was probably due to multiple factors such as quests, events, quicker kill time (0-1 star mobs instead of 3 star), more players in general.
Re: What are we testing now?
Taleof2Cities wrote: »MY first suggestion is to upgrade the xp and cash we earn with a kill massively. Why you want to bore alpha 2 players who help testing with endless grinding is pointless.
Grinding levels is playing the game … not testing game systems.
If you paid for an Alpha Key or Pre-order Pack just to grind to the level cap (and then claim there’s nothing to do) … you probably wasted your money.
That's the problem though, if you want to test the other systems you HAVE to grind levels first. Want to test your class abilities for bugs? You have to level up. Want to test the crafting system? You have to grind for mats and gold which is the same grind you do to level up. Want to test things like node wars or caravans? You have to level up the nodes which involves grinding.
As it stands, everything in the game revolves around grinding mobs, either to level up your character, level up the node or get materials to test the other parts of the game.
Marketplace
Yesterday I tried the marketplace the first time.
Friends warned me not to do it…but I did. And it was shocking.
We have these type of games now for round 25 years…this game is in dev for years and they shown this to the testers.
I know…I know…it’s not the real thing for sure…but then it’s even worse….give us the thing you want tested…and please remove this.
What we could have in my opinion should be something like this….
1) Player markets in each town…starting in Lion. Don’t let players drive for 20 minutes to reach one.
2) Each player should be able to add and take stuff to the market at the marketplace they visit.
Now for the fun….
Taking stuff off the market in a town you are not citizen off for at least 48 hours, means you pay a tax of 10% that goes to the town and player if the players is living in that town. Town gets 4% player 6%.
Taking stuff of the market the market in a town other then the one where the players who placed it on it lives gives another 10% extra tax…same way off splitting unless you do it from your own town the. The full 10% goes to the player.
This way people don’t have to drive in the little time they have to get stuff…and players who do want to travel get a discount.
Placing items on the market in your own time cost nothing when you are a citizen for at least 5 days.
Before that it cost 5% going to that town.
People with own house get to put stuff on the market always for free.
Put items on the market and let people search by item name, how rare it is or price range or so.
I know some hate it….but many people don’t have the play time to search the market for hours because search options don’t work. They want to play…fight mobs and players…not the marketmanager.
So….
Ashes of creation take down this market system fast and replace it with one that’s equal or better then we seen in the last 25 years.
Not one that’s the worst ever seen in a alpha or live game.
Friends warned me not to do it…but I did. And it was shocking.
We have these type of games now for round 25 years…this game is in dev for years and they shown this to the testers.
I know…I know…it’s not the real thing for sure…but then it’s even worse….give us the thing you want tested…and please remove this.
What we could have in my opinion should be something like this….
1) Player markets in each town…starting in Lion. Don’t let players drive for 20 minutes to reach one.
2) Each player should be able to add and take stuff to the market at the marketplace they visit.
Now for the fun….
Taking stuff off the market in a town you are not citizen off for at least 48 hours, means you pay a tax of 10% that goes to the town and player if the players is living in that town. Town gets 4% player 6%.
Taking stuff of the market the market in a town other then the one where the players who placed it on it lives gives another 10% extra tax…same way off splitting unless you do it from your own town the. The full 10% goes to the player.
This way people don’t have to drive in the little time they have to get stuff…and players who do want to travel get a discount.
Placing items on the market in your own time cost nothing when you are a citizen for at least 5 days.
Before that it cost 5% going to that town.
People with own house get to put stuff on the market always for free.
Put items on the market and let people search by item name, how rare it is or price range or so.
I know some hate it….but many people don’t have the play time to search the market for hours because search options don’t work. They want to play…fight mobs and players…not the marketmanager.
So….
Ashes of creation take down this market system fast and replace it with one that’s equal or better then we seen in the last 25 years.
Not one that’s the worst ever seen in a alpha or live game.
Roanator
1
Re: Economy in Ashes (Solving MMORPG Inflation)
Arya_Yeshe wrote: »deflation is terrible in games
In what way?, please elaborate. I'm trying to think this idea through and wonder if I have a logic error somewhere.
Alright, here’s the deal: people are working hard, farming and building up stuff, putting in loads of time in this, and then the prices will simply drop, making all their effort pointless. It messes up their whole way of making a living in the game.
In AoC, deflation would be way worse because it’s not a full loot game, so most people never lose gear. You really don’t want deflation in AoC.
Plus, a lot of farmers running RMT schemes would push the market down since they’re trying to grab as much gold as they can, as fast as they can. If you create an environment where deflation has to happen, the market would always be flattened at the bottom.
In another game, I do market stuff and it is only worth my time because the prices spike up.
Bard feedback and suggestions
Played bard throughout phase 1 and 2, just gonna drop some feedback.
Ill start by saying that right now, bards damage is too high. Its very fun to have healing, cc, mobility AND a lot of damage, but its obviously very unballanced. An overall nerf of damage on some of the abilities, especially resonant weapon menacing melody proc is very needed.
Melodies:
One aspect of bard that i really like is the idea of switching melodies based on what the group needs at the time. Sadly this is never a viable playstyle right now in my opinion, as you simply cannot justify to spend more than at MAX 2 skillpoints into melodies (i understand this is subjective). All the other abilities are simply way way more important to take compared to more melodies. This, and the fact that if you get as much as breathed on the melody gets cancelled, make them not very good to spec. I think this is a shame. I wish the melodies were more integrated into the base kit of the bard. There are like 2 more skills/mechanics that interface with what melody you are playing, those being resonant weapon and song mastery. Neither of these will ever be used to their full potential if youre locked into just having 1 or at most 2 melodies, you just spec them to only have that 1 proc or buff, instead of actually using the multiple different synergies.
I understand that there should be specialization and I fully agree with that, i just dont think it should be within the melodies.
Theres 1 skill i really wish was added to the bard. A skill called something like "Amplify", that will (significantly) boost the effect of your active melodies x % for x amount of time. I think this would be a fun skill that requires timing and a good overview of the fight to use. Its basically turning crescendo from a passive into an active.
I know that some of the themes have the effect that your melody is boosted, but this doesnt work for all of them and doesnt feel the same.
I think adding a skill like this, removing crescendo as a spec option and making counterpoint default behavior would be more fun.
Sagas:
Next up sagas. Currently i dont even have tier 1 sagas specced. They feel pretty underwhelming for them being the bard "utlimate ability" type of deal. The gravity and pantheon sagas have some use in PvE (and pvp if you are good enough to time your engage with picking up pantheon buffs), but its just not worth investing 3 skillpoints into it for you to have it specced at all times. Its just a spec into it real quick and back out untill you need it again, this goes for all sagas.
Others have already posted this, but il reiterate that in combination with the sagas themselves being underwhelming, its just not worth spending your themes on them. Its much better to keep the themes for their invididual buffs. And once again, its hard to justify having more than 1 theme specced with how good all other abilities are.
Another factor contributing to sagas feeling underwhelming is that fights will never last 1.5 minutes. I hope this changes in the future, but right now best u can do is just build up a saga before a fight, but by the time you would be in a position to press it (you have to press other better abilities first), the fight is over and its just useless.
The same issue that melodies have also applies to sagas. You have this interesting mechanic that has different outcomes based on the actions you take, but at the moment i cant justify to take 1 of each theme, as its just a waste, resulting in the saga ability becomming quite static, instead of dynamic which i think its meant to be.
Im not entirely sure how to fix this in the case of the sagas.
Resonant weapon:
Im a bit torn on resonant weapon. Its one of the main contributers to bards damage beeing ridiculous right now, so the menacing melody proc needs to get nerfed 100%. It feels good to proc the stacks regardless of which melody is active, but as ive stated above, youre only ever really gonna have 1 or at MOST 2 melodies available to you, so most of the time youre only utilizing 20% of the mechanic at once and theres no real room for decision making. If you could justify having all melodies speced at all times (or if they were just integrated into the base kit) i think resonant weapon would be more fun.
General bard abilities
I absolutely love all the other bard abilities and passives. They all feel great to press and use, can have huge impact on fights and really allow bard to be a super fun support class. Im excited to see what additional skills and passives we will get further down the line, and how the augments will change them!
Main takeaways:
Ill start by saying that right now, bards damage is too high. Its very fun to have healing, cc, mobility AND a lot of damage, but its obviously very unballanced. An overall nerf of damage on some of the abilities, especially resonant weapon menacing melody proc is very needed.
Melodies:
One aspect of bard that i really like is the idea of switching melodies based on what the group needs at the time. Sadly this is never a viable playstyle right now in my opinion, as you simply cannot justify to spend more than at MAX 2 skillpoints into melodies (i understand this is subjective). All the other abilities are simply way way more important to take compared to more melodies. This, and the fact that if you get as much as breathed on the melody gets cancelled, make them not very good to spec. I think this is a shame. I wish the melodies were more integrated into the base kit of the bard. There are like 2 more skills/mechanics that interface with what melody you are playing, those being resonant weapon and song mastery. Neither of these will ever be used to their full potential if youre locked into just having 1 or at most 2 melodies, you just spec them to only have that 1 proc or buff, instead of actually using the multiple different synergies.
I understand that there should be specialization and I fully agree with that, i just dont think it should be within the melodies.
Theres 1 skill i really wish was added to the bard. A skill called something like "Amplify", that will (significantly) boost the effect of your active melodies x % for x amount of time. I think this would be a fun skill that requires timing and a good overview of the fight to use. Its basically turning crescendo from a passive into an active.
I know that some of the themes have the effect that your melody is boosted, but this doesnt work for all of them and doesnt feel the same.
I think adding a skill like this, removing crescendo as a spec option and making counterpoint default behavior would be more fun.
Sagas:
Next up sagas. Currently i dont even have tier 1 sagas specced. They feel pretty underwhelming for them being the bard "utlimate ability" type of deal. The gravity and pantheon sagas have some use in PvE (and pvp if you are good enough to time your engage with picking up pantheon buffs), but its just not worth investing 3 skillpoints into it for you to have it specced at all times. Its just a spec into it real quick and back out untill you need it again, this goes for all sagas.
Others have already posted this, but il reiterate that in combination with the sagas themselves being underwhelming, its just not worth spending your themes on them. Its much better to keep the themes for their invididual buffs. And once again, its hard to justify having more than 1 theme specced with how good all other abilities are.
Another factor contributing to sagas feeling underwhelming is that fights will never last 1.5 minutes. I hope this changes in the future, but right now best u can do is just build up a saga before a fight, but by the time you would be in a position to press it (you have to press other better abilities first), the fight is over and its just useless.
The same issue that melodies have also applies to sagas. You have this interesting mechanic that has different outcomes based on the actions you take, but at the moment i cant justify to take 1 of each theme, as its just a waste, resulting in the saga ability becomming quite static, instead of dynamic which i think its meant to be.
Im not entirely sure how to fix this in the case of the sagas.
Resonant weapon:
Im a bit torn on resonant weapon. Its one of the main contributers to bards damage beeing ridiculous right now, so the menacing melody proc needs to get nerfed 100%. It feels good to proc the stacks regardless of which melody is active, but as ive stated above, youre only ever really gonna have 1 or at MOST 2 melodies available to you, so most of the time youre only utilizing 20% of the mechanic at once and theres no real room for decision making. If you could justify having all melodies speced at all times (or if they were just integrated into the base kit) i think resonant weapon would be more fun.
General bard abilities
I absolutely love all the other bard abilities and passives. They all feel great to press and use, can have huge impact on fights and really allow bard to be a super fun support class. Im excited to see what additional skills and passives we will get further down the line, and how the augments will change them!
Main takeaways:
- Overall im super happy with the bards kit, most abilities are great and im having a lot of fun playing the class!
- I dont find it fun that im being forced to specialize into melodies. There are many mechanics and abilities that interface with your active melody, and if youre pretty much locked into only having 1 or 2 specced at a time, youre turning these very fun and interesting abilities and mechanics that should allow you to make choices WITHIN the mechanic, into a static skillpoint spec that does 1 thing only for you, instead of letting you make use of the dynamic nature of the mechanic.
Give access to all melodies in the base kit without having to spend skillpoints - I think specialization within the kit should be moved away from themes and (especially) melodies, to other things like cc, healing, mobility etc by adding a couple more abilities and passives, and integrating melodies and themes into the base kit more.
MilosAoC
1
Hunting a thought experiment
Hunting should have 2 basic skills that can be used on all animals.
The tranquilizer shot:
To tame an animal I have to tranquilize it.
You fight the animal and then use the tranquilizer shot. The less life the animal has, the higher the probability that it will be tranquilized. Then I can capture it as a process.
The hunting shot:
To get a carcass I have to use the hunting shot.
You fight the animal and then use the hunting shot. The less life the animal has, the higher the probability that it will be killed. Then I can collect the carcass.
The tranquilizer shot:
To tame an animal I have to tranquilize it.
You fight the animal and then use the tranquilizer shot. The less life the animal has, the higher the probability that it will be tranquilized. Then I can capture it as a process.
The hunting shot:
To get a carcass I have to use the hunting shot.
You fight the animal and then use the hunting shot. The less life the animal has, the higher the probability that it will be killed. Then I can collect the carcass.
