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: PvP arena in cities (like a colosseum)
I want a space where people can just properly pvp at all times with no restrictions and then the rest of the world to be at constant danger from anyone around you, because corruption system will only fuck them over if they didn't clear their PK count well enough.
I played with lawless zones - they're shit and boring.
Funny that, it already existed, were called lawless zones! And it looks like you are pretty much the only one on a constant complaining about it, like everywhere; while the majority of the pvpers seemed to have fun in there hence why they are asking for it back.
(what is also funny is that you keep contradicting yourself and changing your narrative gradually)
And once more what you want its evidently not what everyone wants... also honestly i couldnt care less about your reactions, as far as it goes to me you do not own a competitive mindset, been beyond obvious when you prioritize pve related stuff over pvp, plus you can say/post whatever you want it wont shake my certainty.
Surely we do not have a similar experience btw.
Oh the strike of irony, so as you did the others must not... gotchaI simply grew out of the weakest kind of pvp out there. I did all of that stuff in my earlier years, because I thought that killing weaklings was something cool and worth bragging about.
Kallysha
1
Re: How about adding an option for people LFG
Lots of games have had some LFG tools that worked well. I should be able to flag LFG and someone who's starting a group should be able to see my character on the list with some details. Like Level, Class, Guild, Node, Relgion, ect so they can know if they want to invite me or not. But there should be a button they can press that will invite me making it easier. I haven't seen the lfg system yet (waiting for p3), but that's a good place for it, but a window I can open while I craft/gather/bs would be better.
Last LFG tool I messed around with was off Pantheon. Limited to the zone, showed good info, made finding a party easier. I think something like that would work good with some polish and tweaks.
Last LFG tool I messed around with was off Pantheon. Limited to the zone, showed good info, made finding a party easier. I think something like that would work good with some polish and tweaks.
Volgaris
1
Re: Node buff ui on large map
Yeah, it was simply one of the "promises" back in the day. No real reason to protect the current stage from that stuff, cause I'd imagine that none of the current loot tables and/or quests will live through to the release.Well so far they haven't. So why would anyone do any of that if you can just go onto ashes codex? And if Ashes codex didnt exist, the dataminers and their guilds would have insanely massive advantages over everyone else.
As long as the information is available to hackers, it should be available to everyone. Otherwise you are simply punishing people who follow the rules/just play the game, which doesnt make sense to me.
But if we still have concurrent datamining, say, a year into A2P3 - yeah, we're royally fucked and there's no reason to not just have the full lists of literally everything on mobs, quests, puzzles, whateverthefuck.
Which would be a really sad state of affairs tbh, but dataminers couldn't give fewer shits about this stuff...
A possibly interesting point for you is that there is a psychological workaround for this being employed already.
Those all-encompassing databases aren't the thing that most players want to use, they're a thing that they use because the game doesn't give them the limited version, because they become the path of least resistance.
TL has the mob drops listed in-game, and it also has the reverse, where the item can be checked and you can see at least some of what mobs drop it. But this doesn't seem to get optimized that hard (based on World Chat, some info I have from guilds stronger than mine, and the behaviour of my own more-casual guildmates).
Because what they want is to know how to spend their time, but not necessarily true optimization. The same thing could apply to certain implementations of Node Buffs themselves, or to the presentation of the data about those Node Buffs in game.
Also, for this target concept, it doesn't actually apply, the source wouldn't be Datamining, it would be player reporting, possibly backed by an army of Alts. So, at least for Node Buffs, the only way to withhold information in a way that would matter to that immersion type, would be to change how the Buffs work.
Azherae
1
Re: Crafting
Thanks for the detailed feedback! We know artisanship isn’t in its final form yet, and your notes on resource scarcity and progression flow help spotlight where it's frustrating for you.
I'm happy to report that we wrote an article not long ago about the current state and plans for artisanship here: https://ashesofcreation.com/news/the-gatherable-spawning-system-is-evolving
Feel free to give that a read, and share your thoughts in this thread! These updates are ones we hope to get out soon
Like that you are addressing the foundational problem pretty extensively. Did we get surveying already and I missed it? Had 3 dates and they've all passed. Just curious. Now we just need to make sure the amounts are balanced correctly and also start focusing generally on crafting to help that mess. Thanks for the response though!
beretta7
1
Re: So how many still excited?
I'm still in the relative TA for this game, though it's becoming more and more obvious that the target is shifting way more towards ganker pvpers and away from all the other types of pvp, pve or pvx.
We pretty much haven't seen the game at all at this point, because none of the deep systems are in the game yet and games are defined by those. We've heard endless promises related to those systems, but w/o seeing them AT LEAST IN PLACEHOLDER STAGE - it's really hard to say if the final version of the game will be something for me.
We pretty much haven't seen the game at all at this point, because none of the deep systems are in the game yet and games are defined by those. We've heard endless promises related to those systems, but w/o seeing them AT LEAST IN PLACEHOLDER STAGE - it's really hard to say if the final version of the game will be something for me.
Ludullu
1
Re: Low tier nodes
Yeah, we've discussed this at length over the years and some of us DO want the ability to rise up against our patron nodes. We'll see if Steven ever considers our feedback on this as valuable enough to address. Not like any of his precious pvpers care about this shit.Ye this is this the bit I'm struggling to get my head round. When it's come up in the past people are saying it's more like a Vassal kingdom Vs Vassal Kingdom but I struggle to marry that with the idea that your Node is the most important thing to you. Node loyalty, Steven wants, to be more important than your guild. But if you can't really do anything to advance your Node when it's locked in a Vassal then ye we will have to see how it plays out I suppose but I envisioned more battling within the Vassal system to become the top Node and stay there.
Ludullu
2
Re: Low tier nodes
When the Node hits L4 those lower than it will become part of the L4 Vassal system and you won't be able to siege it. You'd have to siege other Vassal systems at that point if you want a Node war.
I admit this is the part I’m struggling to fully grasp because in the end, if a node automatically gets vassalized as soon as a neighboring one hits stage 4, then the fastest-growing zone will always stay ahead. The leading node will likely keep its advantage for a long time, especially since, judging by how far apart stage 5 and 6 nodes are, any real opportunity to contest a neighbor won’t come anytime soon.
I would’ve liked to see some kind of influence system maybe wars, direct confrontations, or even cultural pressure where vassalization happens over time. At least in the early stages, it’d be nice if a neighboring city could try to challenge a more advanced node.
So yeah, I’m really curious to see what the studio has planned to make node conflict more dynamic and interesting.
Ye this is this the bit I'm struggling to get my head round. When it's come up in the past people are saying it's more like a Vassal kingdom Vs Vassal Kingdom but I struggle to marry that with the idea that your Node is the most important thing to you. Node loyalty, Steven wants, to be more important than your guild. But if you can't really do anything to advance your Node when it's locked in a Vassal then ye we will have to see how it plays out I suppose but I envisioned more battling within the Vassal system to become the top Node and stay there.
Shabooey
1
Re: PvP arena in cities (like a colosseum)
As a Offlaner/Jungler and Fighting gamer, I can tell you that there are multiple reasons for why people think that way.
In general, most MMORPG combat falls below the threshold of higher level Offlane 1v1. And by 'higher level' I mean 'Silver Rank' in Pred at least because, as in most fighting games, 'top of Silver' is already 'top 10% of players' and at least 'top 30% of consistent players'.
Dune is a perfect example of how most MMORPG combat is weaksauce (whether you consider it one or not), but people imagine that solo play in an MMORPG will be strategic/better. Plus, one thing you do 'get' is that in an MMO, if you can beat up enough other people and get on a leaderboard, some other people might conclude you're skilled (this illusion doesn't seem to work as well these days).
So first you gotta imagine a bunch of people who think they are good at combat games because they can beat most of the people they know (totally accurate), and can call anyone who beats them constantly tryhards/sweats (debatable, but likely at least in comparison). You've met a person like this, you know who I mean.
Then give those people a game where they can blame gear or class balance when they lose, and yet tell their opponents that they got outskilled and need to git gud, when they win. I'm sure you've met those people too.
Then give them the prospect of a new MMO where their vast depths of unrecognized talent will surely finally propel them to greatness (basically Silver Rank).
The difference between an Arena and a Lawless zone is simply that an Arena almost always results in matchmaking-style behaviour or dodging bad matchups, whereas a Lawless Zone is more like queueing for matches in another game type, but with even less matching of skill.
Statistically, 10% or so of the people who want a new open world MMORPG will turn out to dominate at that game, really enjoy that feeling, and praise the game (until they lose consistently). You know the drill. But for those people, a new game is a chance to relive that opportunity. And I can't fault them for that because we all play games because we like some feeling the game gives, they just happen to often seek an experience that isn't related to the game itself, but in this case requires the game to do something specific to offer that experience.
In general, most MMORPG combat falls below the threshold of higher level Offlane 1v1. And by 'higher level' I mean 'Silver Rank' in Pred at least because, as in most fighting games, 'top of Silver' is already 'top 10% of players' and at least 'top 30% of consistent players'.
Dune is a perfect example of how most MMORPG combat is weaksauce (whether you consider it one or not), but people imagine that solo play in an MMORPG will be strategic/better. Plus, one thing you do 'get' is that in an MMO, if you can beat up enough other people and get on a leaderboard, some other people might conclude you're skilled (this illusion doesn't seem to work as well these days).
So first you gotta imagine a bunch of people who think they are good at combat games because they can beat most of the people they know (totally accurate), and can call anyone who beats them constantly tryhards/sweats (debatable, but likely at least in comparison). You've met a person like this, you know who I mean.
Then give those people a game where they can blame gear or class balance when they lose, and yet tell their opponents that they got outskilled and need to git gud, when they win. I'm sure you've met those people too.
Then give them the prospect of a new MMO where their vast depths of unrecognized talent will surely finally propel them to greatness (basically Silver Rank).
The difference between an Arena and a Lawless zone is simply that an Arena almost always results in matchmaking-style behaviour or dodging bad matchups, whereas a Lawless Zone is more like queueing for matches in another game type, but with even less matching of skill.
Statistically, 10% or so of the people who want a new open world MMORPG will turn out to dominate at that game, really enjoy that feeling, and praise the game (until they lose consistently). You know the drill. But for those people, a new game is a chance to relive that opportunity. And I can't fault them for that because we all play games because we like some feeling the game gives, they just happen to often seek an experience that isn't related to the game itself, but in this case requires the game to do something specific to offer that experience.
Azherae
1
Re: UI things I would like to have
I would like to have a fix to the Combat Log, so you can finally filter out things from it. It's painful to read the log as a bard, as stuff like Pensive Melody keeps filling the log up with useless data. The current filters (the last time I checked) do NOT work.
Re: Node buff ui on large map
Appreciate both perspectives here! being that there is a tradeoff between convenience and preserving the value of regional knowledge.
- Do you think having buffs visible on the map would make gameplay feel smoother, or would it diminish strategic depth?
- Do you think there could be a middle ground, and if so, how so?
Looking forward to seeing more discussion here!
I think having buffs visible on the map is the alternative to people having a community website that is used to track all buffs. Having them not be visible serves no purpose in my mind, that doesn't add depth to the player type who needs it added.
I sympathize with the subsection of the playerbase for whom Node Buffs specifically are part of their exploration loop, I'm sure they must exist, but I don't really think having Node Buffs visible on the map for them would hurt too much.
A middle ground would be making it 'easier' to see what Buildings are active in the normal flow of play, but that's not really very 'middle' or particularly 'different' than now.
As for Node Buffs themselves, I dislike them, but that's from the 'strategy game player' perspective. I am hoping that the team comes up with buffs and bonuses on both Node Buildings/Social Org things and Quest Reward gear, that is more niche/less meta, but presumably we are not going to see such things in this Phase, so while I'm against Node Buffs as they are now, I'm not necessarily opposed in general.
This post doesn't speak for my group today.
Azherae
1