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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
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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: CRITICAL FEEDBACK: Intrepid Please fix PvP - TTK test video demonstration
I'm going to repeat what I've been saying here, about TTK:
Their intended design is:
"If I were to say average TTK between same level characters and average gear score, I would say that we're probably talking anywhere from 10 to 15 seconds upwards of 30 seconds, depending on the archetype." – Steven Sharif
So while they are iterating on TTK, I still think they are sticking with their design of trying to balance it around 10~15 seconds for a same level same gear DPS duel. So while It's going to get better, the issue with it will not be solved.
Short TTK (even with equal gear) creates a very gank box environment in which whoever jumps first, unless there is a massive skill and/or gear disparity, wins. In the majority of fights, I have seen and experienced, whoever engages first wins. In the open world, It is terrible being ganked with almost no chance of fighting back and winning, and taking death penalties like XP debt and material loss.
Additionally, a lot of the combat's complexity gets made irrelevant with the current short TTK. The game has a 3 attacks basic attack combos that add procs like wounds (anti-heal) and chill that further stack turn into freeze. It has soft and hard CCs like roots and stuns. The fighter has momentum that builds over time. We have damage over time, and debuffs that decrease damage mitigation. None of that matters in fights bigger than 1v1s because players die with 2~3 skills. While you are trying to stack wound debuffs on the target, reducing their armor, and doing proc combos, the enemy is just doing damage and is going to kill you before you can take advantage of any of those mechanics. You don't even have time to properly do 1 basic attack combo to add procs to the enemy, because it is more efficient to just use all your big damage skills and kill the enemy.
Build diversity? Different playstyles? Forget it. The most important thing is getting your attack power as high as you can, and the rest is way less important. Damage over time builds? Non-existent. Everything becomes extremely streamlined and meta becomes boring as hell.
A shorter TTK design becomes even shorter when level and gear disparity are introduced. A TTK of 10~15 seconds for the same level and the same gear 1v1 means an instant kill TTK for an unbalanced encounter. A guy that has reached max level and has started working on BiS gear will instantly kill a level 40. And healers and defensive won't do anything here, a guy that can be killed by a couple of abilities from a single person will be totally destroyed in large-scale pvp regardless of healers and support from other archetypes.
How long will a new player take to reach level 40? A couple of weeks if he rushes like crazy? More likely the general audience will take a couple to a few months. So the question would be, how long before a new player can participate in PVP content with the older player base? How long til he can engage with the other pvp systems and content? Can he even catch up? Will he stick around for that long before he can enjoy that content?
Will the player base grow if no new player can participate in PVP content with the established players before putting in 200~300 hours just rushing leveling? I seriously doubt it. And this is not a game with instanced content. Node wars happen whether you like it or not and you're fighting against higher level more geared players. Guild wars are also a player-driven event and you don't choose where and who to fight. Most important of all, open-world PVP is supposed to be an important feature of the game. There is no matchmaking, there is no auto-balanced ranking system to put you in the same category as your enemies. You'll spend 90% of your time fighting ppl either stronger or weaker than you. If that power difference means you kill or die in a split second, without a chance of playing the game, no one will participate.
Steven said in a recent interview that: "intrinsically those two philosophies are tied to one another. The shorter TTK and the how do you solve the Zerg problem.". While that is not entirely false, it is not true either. The reason smaller groups have a chance against Zergs on shorter TTK is that smaller groups have a chance to kill a big part of the Zerg by engaging first. But that is also true for the Zergs. If Zergs engage first, they win, regardless of the skill of the smallest group. In short TTK, smaller groups have a better chance against Zergs because of the initiation advantage, and not skill. In fact, short TTK requires less group coordination and skill, as the only thing groups need to do is focus damage (which is incredibly easy since we have marks on the target and target of defensive target key binds).
The good news is that you can also give small groups advantages against big groups with long TTK. The better news is the advantage of small groups over big groups in long TTK actually has to do with skill, team play, and coordination. Having to coordinate the use of all those complex mechanics that you already designed into the game (damage mitigation reduction, anti-healing, CCs, procs, and combos) to effectively eliminate your enemies is a huge advantage for small groups.
In long TTK, a small coordinated group can kill a target in 5~10 seconds, while a big uncoordinated group can kill the same target in a minute. That's a big skill gap, and in the time the Zerg killed one target, the small coordinated group killed 10~20 targets (the same goes for AoE scenarios). In short TTK, a small coordinated group can kill a target in 2 seconds and a big uncoordinated group can kill the same target in what? 5 seconds? the room for improvement is not there.
Longer TTK also gives players the chance to react and fight back against ganks, giving them a better chance of winning and not giving the players that feeling of unfairness in the encounter.
Finally, long TTK means players with power disparity can actually survive long enough to use CCs, apply procs, and participate in damage and healing dealt in PvP content. They won't of course be on parity with geared higher-level players, but they can contribute without being one-shotted.
People argue that in group pvp the TTK is going to be longer than in 1v1 pvp. While that is true for small groups (8v8), it becomes the contrary when the numbers keep increasing. In Ashes and in any game, DPSs are ~4x more prevalent than tank/healers. A party is consisted of 1 tank, 1 healer, 1 bard, let's say for shits and giggles 1 summoner which is not a DPS, and 4 DPSs. So in a 40v40, you will have 5 tanks, 5 healers, 5 bards, 5 summoners, and 20 DPS and it only gets worse from there. Damage will severely out-scale defensives. A 10~15sec TTK will mean an instant fight in large-scale content. If you're under-leveled or under geared, forget even trying to participate in content, you're just gonna die over and over without doing anything.
So the cope that group pvp is going to have increased TTK is not exactly true, especially as you go above raid vs raid sizes. And one of the main appeals of this game, a true MMOrpg, is the open world with no limitation on sizes. Node wars, guild wars, nodes and castle sieges, world bosses, open world PVP, and caravans are the main PvP content in the game and they are more often than not bigger than 40v40s. Designing the game with a TTK that completely destroys any skill, coordination, and strategy on large-scale is a terrible
People also argue that in long TTK design, fights are never ending and it only ends when a cleric runs out of mana. That's also not true. Even for small-scale pvp, The most consistent duel times are in high TTK games and they generally don't go over the designed TTK. The reverse is actually true, when you have a low TTK design, you need to overtune healing and defensives to make support classes playable, and it creates those 45 minute duels that never due to mandatory overtuning in a low TTK environment. In high TTK design, healing is properly tuned and you have anti-healing debuffs and CCs as tools to deal with healers, creating a fight that usually stays inside a reasonable duration.
People also say a fight lasting an entire minute is too long. I think that's crazy. Maybe people haven't played a game with 60 sec fights or misremember it, but 60 seconds is not a long fight at all, especially with your skewed perception of time when you are playing and the adrenaline of PVP kicks and you're having fun. This is a 45 second duel:
https://youtube.com/watch?v=CdM1rBr0dNc&t=3s
Regardless of how you feel about the combat in the video, that 45 second fight is far from too long. When you're playing and having fun and enticed, those 45 seconds fly by. 60 second fights are completely fine.
I'm not talking here about completely destroying the feeling of progression or even giving a level 40 a chance to win in a 1v1 duel against a level 50 player. I want players to be able to play, press their buttons, and feel like they have a chance to escape or contribute to the fight before dying. You can still have fun participating in large battles and group pvp if you have a chance to use your abilities and contribute to the fight, even if you are contributing way less than the other more progressed players. This can't happen if the TTK is 10 seconds for a balanced 1v1.
If you increase TTK back to the original design of 30~60 seconds, when you introduce gear and level unbalances an under-geared and under-leveled player can still survive long enough to play, have fun in the fight, press their buttons, and feel like they're a part of the conflict.
Intrepid claims to be very open and acting on feedback, but the majority of feedback I've seen on TTK both here and in-game is that people prefer longer TTK. Examples: (based on the number of likes and comments supporting high TTK)
https://forums.ashesofcreation.com/discussion/63918/current-pvp-ttk-design-is-bad-for-the-game/p1
https://forums.ashesofcreation.com/discussion/66616/i-dont-see-myself-subscribing-if-the-current-trend-of-grind-and-character-power-continues
https://forums.ashesofcreation.com/discussion/66307/adressing-the-combat-system-ttk-and-comparison-with-tera
https://forums.ashesofcreation.com/discussion/66307/adressing-the-combat-system-ttk-and-comparison-with-tera
https://forums.ashesofcreation.com/discussion/66422/a-simple-fix-for-the-ttk-time-to-kill-problem
https://forums.ashesofcreation.com/discussion/59292/reasons-to-have-high-ttk
https://forums.ashesofcreation.com/discussion/64434/gear-adjustements-are-much-better-now-but-still-not-enough/p1
https://forums.ashesofcreation.com/discussion/59422/10-15-seconds-ttk/p1
And much more. We had short TTK (beginning and middle of phases), and we had super short TTK (now). The community rejected both. None of those make sense with the overall game design and conflict with your own combat features like basic attack combos and debuff procs. So why are we sticking with it if its failed a few times now, it is disliked by the community and intrepid hears our feedback? It's not like TTK is a core philosophy of the game like risk vs reward.
My last argument for long TTK over short TTK (more subjective and personal): IT IS NOT FUN. Fights that don't last long enough for you to play your class, use your abilities multiple times, and perform your role properly ARE UNFUN
Examples of games with Long TTK for devs to take a look at and grab inspiration: Tibia, Lineage 2 (at least classic version), TERA (debatable? Just heard it was long), Warhammer Online, Perfect World, and most recently Ravendawn (Highly recommend as they have some great ideas for combat and power progression). Feel free to mention others I don't know about.
I beg you intrepid, do not design the power curve and TTK in the game like you would for a game with instanced matchmaking ranked battles. Don't make the same mistake as all modern pvp MMOs that end up failing miserably.
AI summary:
My main concern is that most players (especially the younger ones) have never experienced a proper long PvP TTK MMO before and the general audience will stop giving feedback about it when TTK is less bad and not when it's good, and since Intrepid is set on a short TTK design, we will be stuck with a mediocre TTK and the game will fall short of what it could be. With a mediocre TTK we will end up with the same old same old large-scale pvp formula of following the blob and jumping in and simply doing damage when the shot caller says so. We're going to end up along other modern mmos that alienated the more casual player and failed to entice the general audience to this type of content, inevitably cannibalizing its own player base and ending up in a death spiral.
At least give us one proper iteration of the game with a long TTK for the player base to decide which they like the best.
Their intended design is:
"If I were to say average TTK between same level characters and average gear score, I would say that we're probably talking anywhere from 10 to 15 seconds upwards of 30 seconds, depending on the archetype." – Steven Sharif
So while they are iterating on TTK, I still think they are sticking with their design of trying to balance it around 10~15 seconds for a same level same gear DPS duel. So while It's going to get better, the issue with it will not be solved.
Short TTK (even with equal gear) creates a very gank box environment in which whoever jumps first, unless there is a massive skill and/or gear disparity, wins. In the majority of fights, I have seen and experienced, whoever engages first wins. In the open world, It is terrible being ganked with almost no chance of fighting back and winning, and taking death penalties like XP debt and material loss.
Additionally, a lot of the combat's complexity gets made irrelevant with the current short TTK. The game has a 3 attacks basic attack combos that add procs like wounds (anti-heal) and chill that further stack turn into freeze. It has soft and hard CCs like roots and stuns. The fighter has momentum that builds over time. We have damage over time, and debuffs that decrease damage mitigation. None of that matters in fights bigger than 1v1s because players die with 2~3 skills. While you are trying to stack wound debuffs on the target, reducing their armor, and doing proc combos, the enemy is just doing damage and is going to kill you before you can take advantage of any of those mechanics. You don't even have time to properly do 1 basic attack combo to add procs to the enemy, because it is more efficient to just use all your big damage skills and kill the enemy.
Build diversity? Different playstyles? Forget it. The most important thing is getting your attack power as high as you can, and the rest is way less important. Damage over time builds? Non-existent. Everything becomes extremely streamlined and meta becomes boring as hell.
A shorter TTK design becomes even shorter when level and gear disparity are introduced. A TTK of 10~15 seconds for the same level and the same gear 1v1 means an instant kill TTK for an unbalanced encounter. A guy that has reached max level and has started working on BiS gear will instantly kill a level 40. And healers and defensive won't do anything here, a guy that can be killed by a couple of abilities from a single person will be totally destroyed in large-scale pvp regardless of healers and support from other archetypes.
How long will a new player take to reach level 40? A couple of weeks if he rushes like crazy? More likely the general audience will take a couple to a few months. So the question would be, how long before a new player can participate in PVP content with the older player base? How long til he can engage with the other pvp systems and content? Can he even catch up? Will he stick around for that long before he can enjoy that content?
Will the player base grow if no new player can participate in PVP content with the established players before putting in 200~300 hours just rushing leveling? I seriously doubt it. And this is not a game with instanced content. Node wars happen whether you like it or not and you're fighting against higher level more geared players. Guild wars are also a player-driven event and you don't choose where and who to fight. Most important of all, open-world PVP is supposed to be an important feature of the game. There is no matchmaking, there is no auto-balanced ranking system to put you in the same category as your enemies. You'll spend 90% of your time fighting ppl either stronger or weaker than you. If that power difference means you kill or die in a split second, without a chance of playing the game, no one will participate.
Steven said in a recent interview that: "intrinsically those two philosophies are tied to one another. The shorter TTK and the how do you solve the Zerg problem.". While that is not entirely false, it is not true either. The reason smaller groups have a chance against Zergs on shorter TTK is that smaller groups have a chance to kill a big part of the Zerg by engaging first. But that is also true for the Zergs. If Zergs engage first, they win, regardless of the skill of the smallest group. In short TTK, smaller groups have a better chance against Zergs because of the initiation advantage, and not skill. In fact, short TTK requires less group coordination and skill, as the only thing groups need to do is focus damage (which is incredibly easy since we have marks on the target and target of defensive target key binds).
The good news is that you can also give small groups advantages against big groups with long TTK. The better news is the advantage of small groups over big groups in long TTK actually has to do with skill, team play, and coordination. Having to coordinate the use of all those complex mechanics that you already designed into the game (damage mitigation reduction, anti-healing, CCs, procs, and combos) to effectively eliminate your enemies is a huge advantage for small groups.
In long TTK, a small coordinated group can kill a target in 5~10 seconds, while a big uncoordinated group can kill the same target in a minute. That's a big skill gap, and in the time the Zerg killed one target, the small coordinated group killed 10~20 targets (the same goes for AoE scenarios). In short TTK, a small coordinated group can kill a target in 2 seconds and a big uncoordinated group can kill the same target in what? 5 seconds? the room for improvement is not there.
Longer TTK also gives players the chance to react and fight back against ganks, giving them a better chance of winning and not giving the players that feeling of unfairness in the encounter.
Finally, long TTK means players with power disparity can actually survive long enough to use CCs, apply procs, and participate in damage and healing dealt in PvP content. They won't of course be on parity with geared higher-level players, but they can contribute without being one-shotted.
People argue that in group pvp the TTK is going to be longer than in 1v1 pvp. While that is true for small groups (8v8), it becomes the contrary when the numbers keep increasing. In Ashes and in any game, DPSs are ~4x more prevalent than tank/healers. A party is consisted of 1 tank, 1 healer, 1 bard, let's say for shits and giggles 1 summoner which is not a DPS, and 4 DPSs. So in a 40v40, you will have 5 tanks, 5 healers, 5 bards, 5 summoners, and 20 DPS and it only gets worse from there. Damage will severely out-scale defensives. A 10~15sec TTK will mean an instant fight in large-scale content. If you're under-leveled or under geared, forget even trying to participate in content, you're just gonna die over and over without doing anything.
So the cope that group pvp is going to have increased TTK is not exactly true, especially as you go above raid vs raid sizes. And one of the main appeals of this game, a true MMOrpg, is the open world with no limitation on sizes. Node wars, guild wars, nodes and castle sieges, world bosses, open world PVP, and caravans are the main PvP content in the game and they are more often than not bigger than 40v40s. Designing the game with a TTK that completely destroys any skill, coordination, and strategy on large-scale is a terrible
People also argue that in long TTK design, fights are never ending and it only ends when a cleric runs out of mana. That's also not true. Even for small-scale pvp, The most consistent duel times are in high TTK games and they generally don't go over the designed TTK. The reverse is actually true, when you have a low TTK design, you need to overtune healing and defensives to make support classes playable, and it creates those 45 minute duels that never due to mandatory overtuning in a low TTK environment. In high TTK design, healing is properly tuned and you have anti-healing debuffs and CCs as tools to deal with healers, creating a fight that usually stays inside a reasonable duration.
People also say a fight lasting an entire minute is too long. I think that's crazy. Maybe people haven't played a game with 60 sec fights or misremember it, but 60 seconds is not a long fight at all, especially with your skewed perception of time when you are playing and the adrenaline of PVP kicks and you're having fun. This is a 45 second duel:
https://youtube.com/watch?v=CdM1rBr0dNc&t=3s
Regardless of how you feel about the combat in the video, that 45 second fight is far from too long. When you're playing and having fun and enticed, those 45 seconds fly by. 60 second fights are completely fine.
I'm not talking here about completely destroying the feeling of progression or even giving a level 40 a chance to win in a 1v1 duel against a level 50 player. I want players to be able to play, press their buttons, and feel like they have a chance to escape or contribute to the fight before dying. You can still have fun participating in large battles and group pvp if you have a chance to use your abilities and contribute to the fight, even if you are contributing way less than the other more progressed players. This can't happen if the TTK is 10 seconds for a balanced 1v1.
If you increase TTK back to the original design of 30~60 seconds, when you introduce gear and level unbalances an under-geared and under-leveled player can still survive long enough to play, have fun in the fight, press their buttons, and feel like they're a part of the conflict.
Intrepid claims to be very open and acting on feedback, but the majority of feedback I've seen on TTK both here and in-game is that people prefer longer TTK. Examples: (based on the number of likes and comments supporting high TTK)
https://forums.ashesofcreation.com/discussion/63918/current-pvp-ttk-design-is-bad-for-the-game/p1
https://forums.ashesofcreation.com/discussion/66616/i-dont-see-myself-subscribing-if-the-current-trend-of-grind-and-character-power-continues
https://forums.ashesofcreation.com/discussion/66307/adressing-the-combat-system-ttk-and-comparison-with-tera
https://forums.ashesofcreation.com/discussion/66307/adressing-the-combat-system-ttk-and-comparison-with-tera
https://forums.ashesofcreation.com/discussion/66422/a-simple-fix-for-the-ttk-time-to-kill-problem
https://forums.ashesofcreation.com/discussion/59292/reasons-to-have-high-ttk
https://forums.ashesofcreation.com/discussion/64434/gear-adjustements-are-much-better-now-but-still-not-enough/p1
https://forums.ashesofcreation.com/discussion/59422/10-15-seconds-ttk/p1
And much more. We had short TTK (beginning and middle of phases), and we had super short TTK (now). The community rejected both. None of those make sense with the overall game design and conflict with your own combat features like basic attack combos and debuff procs. So why are we sticking with it if its failed a few times now, it is disliked by the community and intrepid hears our feedback? It's not like TTK is a core philosophy of the game like risk vs reward.
My last argument for long TTK over short TTK (more subjective and personal): IT IS NOT FUN. Fights that don't last long enough for you to play your class, use your abilities multiple times, and perform your role properly ARE UNFUN
Examples of games with Long TTK for devs to take a look at and grab inspiration: Tibia, Lineage 2 (at least classic version), TERA (debatable? Just heard it was long), Warhammer Online, Perfect World, and most recently Ravendawn (Highly recommend as they have some great ideas for combat and power progression). Feel free to mention others I don't know about.
I beg you intrepid, do not design the power curve and TTK in the game like you would for a game with instanced matchmaking ranked battles. Don't make the same mistake as all modern pvp MMOs that end up failing miserably.
AI summary:
- Current TTK Design: The game's intended TTK for balanced 1v1 fights is around 10-15 seconds, but this creates issues where the first attacker often wins, leading to a "gank box" environment, with a frustrating experience for players who are ganked with little chance to react or fight back. This is problematic in open-world PvP where players can be attacked without warning.
- Impact on Combat Mechanics: Short TTK makes many combat mechanics, including various debuffs, CCs, and combos, irrelevant, as players die too quickly to utilize complex strategies or abilities. This reduces the depth and skill required in fights.
- Lack of Build Diversity: The focus shifts to maximizing damage output, reducing the viability of diverse builds and playstyles.
- Level and Gear Disparity: A short TTK exacerbates the power difference between high-level, well-geared players and newer players, making it difficult for new players to participate in PvP content. This could hinder player retention and growth.
- Player Retention: New players may struggle to catch up and engage with PvP content, potentially leading to a stagnant player base.
- Zerg vs. Small Groups: While short TTK can give small groups an advantage through initiation, it also benefits Zergs (large groups) when they engage first, reducing the importance of skill and coordination.
In longer TTK, small groups can leverage complex game mechanics like damage mitigation, anti-healing, and combos to outperform larger groups. - Large-Scale PvP: In larger battles, the short TTK favors damage output over strategy and coordination. This is detrimental to the game's open-world PvP focus, where large-scale conflicts are a key feature.
- Community Feedback: The majority of player feedback supports a longer TTK, arguing that it allows for more engaging and strategic gameplay. The author urges the developers to consider this feedback and iterate on the TTK design.
- Suggested Changes: The author proposes increasing the TTK to 30-60 seconds to allow players more time to react and use their abilities, allowing for more strategic and skill-based gameplay, making fights more engaging and fair, especially for new or under-geared players, enabling these new players to participate more meaningfully in PvP content and aligning better with the game's open-world PvP focus.
- The text emphasizes the importance of balancing TTK to enhance player experience and ensure the game's longevity and appeal to both new and veteran players. The text also mentions examples of games with successful longer TTK designs. The author urges the developers to consider these points to avoid common pitfalls in modern PvP MMOs.
My main concern is that most players (especially the younger ones) have never experienced a proper long PvP TTK MMO before and the general audience will stop giving feedback about it when TTK is less bad and not when it's good, and since Intrepid is set on a short TTK design, we will be stuck with a mediocre TTK and the game will fall short of what it could be. With a mediocre TTK we will end up with the same old same old large-scale pvp formula of following the blob and jumping in and simply doing damage when the shot caller says so. We're going to end up along other modern mmos that alienated the more casual player and failed to entice the general audience to this type of content, inevitably cannibalizing its own player base and ending up in a death spiral.
At least give us one proper iteration of the game with a long TTK for the player base to decide which they like the best.
Imnotkio
11
Blurry Graphics
I realise this is Alpha, however the current settings using a 4080super card the graphics look extremely blurry, I have tried every setting and nothing seems to change at all?
adrazz
4
CRITICAL FEEDBACK: Intrepid Please fix PvP - TTK test video demonstration
I made this video to use every time I see a more casual player in green gear, or when I see devs showcasing combat on lvl 20 gear without min-maxing the stats, enchanting and rarity - and they say its not "that bad".
It is VERY BAD.
Linking a 2 minute clip that shows why:
https://youtu.be/ly3dElck-xQ
Its currently very frustrating for testers to enjoy the alpha environment when PvP is the main point of the game currently that brings longevity after we are done with progression, I think its extremely important to focus on a deep balancing pass before Phase 3.
It is VERY BAD.
Linking a 2 minute clip that shows why:
https://youtu.be/ly3dElck-xQIts currently very frustrating for testers to enjoy the alpha environment when PvP is the main point of the game currently that brings longevity after we are done with progression, I think its extremely important to focus on a deep balancing pass before Phase 3.
Liniker
25
Re: Why The Game Needs Fast Travel
If content doesn't go away/change - time doesn't matter, when it comes to you experiencing said content.
Time always matters.
If it takes me 2 hours to travel to a 2 hour piece of content, and 2 hours to travel back, that is a 6 hour piece of content.
If the rewards for it are that of a 2 hour piece of content, everyone that had to travel 2 hours each way will inherently be disappointed by it. Players will go in to this content knowing it is a 2 hour piece of content, but will still be disappointed - and this disappointment only drives them to not bother traveling for such content again.
So, what players will be left with - in terms of what 90% of players would consider reasonable access - is a small amount of content that will only ever have minor, insignificant changes to it.
Noaani
1
Re: Tab Targeting Feature Request
Bigger fights no not so much. As someone has already said it's muscle memory.
The game was RF-Online.
The game was RF-Online.
TenTegn
1
Re: How to fix node wars
Issue
Node war was supposed to be a gameplay for citizens, but the way it currently works it is a system for guilds and random citizens only hinder instead of aiding
Adding some extra points on this, currently there is no Node affiliation at all, because we don't win and we don't lose anything by dropping our citizenship - this makes it so people simply do not care and it makes it very frustrating for those that do care.
Suggestions
We need node-bound currency that gets deleted once you drop your citizenship, and we need and relevant things that can ONLY be purchased with the node currency - capes and enchant scrolls but ALL the enchant scrolls from T1 to T3 is a good starting point, however those should not be able to be sold in the marketplace for gold, it should be character bound. That way people care about farming node currency and if they drop the citizenship they lose the currency they were farming.
I know once religion/social org progression is in place and if those are related to node progression that can also fix the issue, but using currency I think its the quick fix for this.
I'd also like to extend this feedback to Guild affiliation, because people also do not care about guilds and drop tags for no reason all the time,
Heres my suggestion for those I gave in another post:
Guild affiliation is non-existing in AoC, its just a tag over your head it means nothing and carries no weight. A band-aid solution was implemented with the cooldown after you leave a guild but this is not it. People drop guilds if they are at war, or for any reasons with no second thought.
Recently a guild skill tree was implemented, and even tho the idea is interesting, I would like to suggest a way to improve this system:
Make the shared guild skill tree to be only the middle guild slot tree, and let the other skill trees the ones that give power and artisan stats to be something leveled individually by players something that requires a long time to level up - and if they drop guilds the progress will be reset, this will make Guild affiliation to matter and people wont be dropping tags for no reason,
leaving the guild to focus on slots only will further improve one of the most annoying issues atm which is not being able to have all your members in one guild which is extremely bad design and very annoying for an MMO - every single GM I spoke to completely hates not having the freedom to push those slots up with the amount of effort it currently takes to lvl up a guild
Going back at the OP post
Issue
Players who are not interested in participating in the war, for whatever reason, just log out and wait for the war to end.
With every War system in the game, guild wars included if its just a race for kill points people will continue to log out, we need objectives that are meaningful so that we can finish the wars - the godspike event right now is bugged, we cant deliver the gatherables, that makes have no option if the citizens from the other node log out and we cant get the kill score.
We also need REASONS for players to want to defend their Node/Guild, losing a war should feel like losing a war. Working with debuffs for the losing side is the way to go IMO, debuffs that can stack up to a limited amount but that can really make the citizens rally against their mayors if they do not defend the node, stat-dampening and artisan debuffs are some good examples. This combined with objectives during the wars, both to guild and node wars could incentivize players to fight instead of simply not caring about the wars and logging out.
Liniker
10
Artisan testers being tortured
Can we please get a SLIDER for processing quantity instead of fixed stack numbers?
Its completely insane that if we have 99 mats, we need to do NINE separate processing steps split in 50 + 25 + 10 + 5 + 5 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 and you are REQUIRED to stay in the station for 5 hours because you cant simply set a slider to 99 and let it process
Who came up with this idea intrepid why torture your testers
Its completely insane that if we have 99 mats, we need to do NINE separate processing steps split in 50 + 25 + 10 + 5 + 5 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 and you are REQUIRED to stay in the station for 5 hours because you cant simply set a slider to 99 and let it process
Who came up with this idea intrepid why torture your testers
Liniker
7
Re: Why make everything so punishing??
My take on the punishing things is this:
- Loosing XP for dying, it's generally annoying
- No fast travel at all, except if you die ......
.. to expand on the fast travel, I'd be happy with a one-hour CD type hearth.. It helps if you need to log off suddenly and is generally a nice way to round out a session of gaming.. ie hearth, repair, park- Loosing goods from inventory if you die
... eg so you've finally found copper .. then u loose it- No way to lvl up except grind mobs
- Resources required for levelling Professions in early levels need to be plentiful.. otherwise.. why both trying?
- Repetitive grinding Elite mobs at higher levels ,, I just can't do this type of thing, groups speed pulling.. over and over and over the same thing.. ><
- Unattractive face options for female characters
- Vibe is generally just too serious
- I have heard finding things on the market is difficult too ..
- Probably more things but I quit a few weeks ago .. so can't remember them all
I'd love to come back. Once I hear people are actually HAVING FUN and my personal time seems worth spending, I'll come back.
Until then, I'll be lurking in Discord and here on the forums.
Thanks for clarifications, I hope it helps the team.
Hopefully someone will let you know when they think you will start to have fun, based on your list above.
Azherae
1