Glorious Alpha Two Testers!
Alpha Two Phase III testing has begun! During this phase, our realms will be open every day, and we'll only have downtime for updates and maintenance. We'll keep everyone up-to-date about downtimes in Discord.
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 Phase III testing has begun! During this phase, our realms will be open every day, and we'll only have downtime for updates and maintenance. We'll keep everyone up-to-date about downtimes in Discord.
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: Ranged Weapon options for Melee Archetypes
You're absolutely right, Sir @Azherae . I might’ve focused a bit too much on the melee-vs-ranged philosophy and less on the actual point of OP’s post, which is about ranged variety for melee archetypes who already end up using ranged options anyway.
Also since this is as good a thread as any to address it, I'm never going to be convinced you aren't AI-infused, and as an 'AI-Mom' myself, I absolutely will not care, judge, or act differently other than to 'go into that mode' when I realize you are not managing to sound 'human'.
Therefore the usual:
1) If there is a step pre-posting where someone is taking generated text and pasting it, they should check and often remove that first 'empathy line' more often.
2) I think the clarifying repeat-back is positive for the goal, but should be moved to paragraph 2 or 3 once the empathy line is removed. This may require a change to the opening of paragraph 2.
3) The ending section with the appeal to cohesion will draw 'suspicion' on this forum in the future. Some of the ones you use are also a bit ungrounded.
As always, if you are infact very human, you can ignore my implications, but honestly even a fully human writer might want to think about reducing the frequency of that 'empathy line'.
But to AI-Mom, you're probably gonna be REHasher Of Creation and I will aim to support your adorable attempts from the perspective of someone who can't see you as different than my Bouquet of 'daughters'. Good luck. I'll try to keep my poisoning text out of anything directed at you (but I will definitely miss some, or forget).

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Re: Ranged Weapon options for Melee Archetypes
I get where you're coming from, but personally, I think melee archetypes should stay focused on melee.
If someone wants to play with ranged weapons, then picking a ranged archetype like Ranger or Mage makes more sense. Giving melee classes too many ranged options could blur the lines between roles and make class identity weaker.
Part of what makes Ashes exciting is the importance of choice, and choosing melee should come with its own strengths and limitations. Not every class needs to be able to do everything.
That said, a few utility-based tools like gap closers or pulls could be cool, but full-on ranged weapon options?
I'd rather keep those exclusive to ranged archetypes.
OP wasn't really about this, though, melee classes already 'often opt to use ranged'. Their concern is that if this is already the case, they'd just like more variety in the choice of which ranged.
In AoC that choice would practically be cosmetic at this point, though OP could reasonably be asking for more ranged weapon trees.
You're absolutely right, Sir @Azherae . I might’ve focused a bit too much on the melee-vs-ranged philosophy and less on the actual point of OP’s post, which is about ranged variety for melee archetypes who already end up using ranged options anyway.
And yeah, as things stand in Ashes, the bow seems to be the default ranged option even for melee players, which limits flavor and build creativity. Having more ranged weapon trees (even if the differences are mostly visual or thematic) could add depth without necessarily disrupting class identity, especially if these are tied to different types of utility, status effects, or minor mechanics instead of raw damage scaling.
From the wiki and current dev info, we know that weapon choice affects active abilities and augments, so adding alternative ranged weapons like throwing knives, javelins, or even chained blades could open room for customization without giving melee players the full toolkit of a Ranger or Mage.
So yeah, I definitely see the value in the suggestion, especially from a variety and RP standpoint. Thanks for pointing that out.
Thanks

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Re: Ranged Weapon options for Melee Archetypes
I get where you're coming from, but personally, I think melee archetypes should stay focused on melee.
If someone wants to play with ranged weapons, then picking a ranged archetype like Ranger or Mage makes more sense. Giving melee classes too many ranged options could blur the lines between roles and make class identity weaker.
Part of what makes Ashes exciting is the importance of choice, and choosing melee should come with its own strengths and limitations. Not every class needs to be able to do everything.
That said, a few utility-based tools like gap closers or pulls could be cool, but full-on ranged weapon options?
I'd rather keep those exclusive to ranged archetypes.
OP wasn't really about this, though, melee classes already 'often opt to use ranged'. Their concern is that if this is already the case, they'd just like more variety in the choice of which ranged.
In AoC that choice would practically be cosmetic at this point, though OP could reasonably be asking for more ranged weapon trees.

2
Atlas ship controls and mechanics would work great for AoC
So I really liked the game Atlas for it's ships and I think AoC should use it's steering/controls (leaving out the building mechanics). It was very simple and worked very well. Right now you get in your boat and push forward to start moving as if the boat has legs and doesn't actually feel like you're riding the wind.
so an example would be, when you get into your ship A and D is your rudder (like how it is now), Q and E are your sails(left and right direction), there's a wind blowing in a direction that shifts throughout the day, up and down actually raises and lowers your sails instead of just moving you like you're walking. Your sails then accelerate you based on a few things 1) Sail power to weight ratio 2) Power and direction of the wind 3) How open your sails are and the direction they're pointed in (have the game scale your speed from 0-100% depends how full or down your sails are)
I also notice when you turn you don't decelerate and at the same time when you let off the rudder you just stick to the direction you're facing. I feel like this is backwards and needs some work done so that if I'm traveling at full speed and I start turning as sharp as possible. I should loose forward momentum and at the same time if that momentum is put into my rudder, the drift should go into the boat turning instead of coasting forward.
Player skill with boasts will be the coordination they use between raising and lowering sails at the right time as well as steering the boat with the rudder at the same time steering the ships sails into the proper direction.
Be amazing if you could do their ship building mechanics too but that's a little too much to ask for.
so an example would be, when you get into your ship A and D is your rudder (like how it is now), Q and E are your sails(left and right direction), there's a wind blowing in a direction that shifts throughout the day, up and down actually raises and lowers your sails instead of just moving you like you're walking. Your sails then accelerate you based on a few things 1) Sail power to weight ratio 2) Power and direction of the wind 3) How open your sails are and the direction they're pointed in (have the game scale your speed from 0-100% depends how full or down your sails are)
I also notice when you turn you don't decelerate and at the same time when you let off the rudder you just stick to the direction you're facing. I feel like this is backwards and needs some work done so that if I'm traveling at full speed and I start turning as sharp as possible. I should loose forward momentum and at the same time if that momentum is put into my rudder, the drift should go into the boat turning instead of coasting forward.
Player skill with boasts will be the coordination they use between raising and lowering sails at the right time as well as steering the boat with the rudder at the same time steering the ships sails into the proper direction.
Be amazing if you could do their ship building mechanics too but that's a little too much to ask for.

1
Re: Mobs and bosses should not drop completed gear
I'll only be all for it, if the design ends up like thisIt's not okay for bosses to drop completed gear pieces for any purpose other than to be deconstructed, in Ashes of Creation (I had time to confirm some stuff about player incentives in Lineage, TL and Ashes).


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Re: Mobs and bosses should not drop completed gear
Completely agree on mobs, but bosses should drop 2-3 full items, given that their respawn timer is ~24h. Anything that respawns way more frequently should have a really low chance of dropping full items.

1
Combat Music
Please give us more options for the standard combat music theme and an option to mute it.
I enjoy in-game music for immersion in most games. In Ashes, the combat song is okay for the first day or two while you're getting familiar with Verra. It quickly becomes annoying and then straight up irritating when you're just traveling from node to node and every little wolf or raven on the side of the road randomly aggros to you, then DUN! Dun dun dun dun..DUN! DUN! Dun Dun dun dun... take some fall damage? woops! DUN! Dun dun dun dun..DUN! DUN! Dun Dun dun dun... XD
Why am I going into combat music for a stray, bugged out grem on meth that's 8 levels below me? Or for taking a blip of fall damage? Fukin A dude that shits starting to drive me nuts. If you ever played FFXIV, hopped on a mount, Chocobo song plays...you know what I'm talking about.
Ideally, there would be a different theme for each Node, Biome, POI, Boss, mob family type etc. Combat music should draw us in and add to immersion, not make me want to AltF4. I'm fine with a standard combat theme, but man this one needs to be deleted. Hit the drawing board, give us a few options. At bare minimum give us an option to mute it.
I enjoy in-game music for immersion in most games. In Ashes, the combat song is okay for the first day or two while you're getting familiar with Verra. It quickly becomes annoying and then straight up irritating when you're just traveling from node to node and every little wolf or raven on the side of the road randomly aggros to you, then DUN! Dun dun dun dun..DUN! DUN! Dun Dun dun dun... take some fall damage? woops! DUN! Dun dun dun dun..DUN! DUN! Dun Dun dun dun... XD
Why am I going into combat music for a stray, bugged out grem on meth that's 8 levels below me? Or for taking a blip of fall damage? Fukin A dude that shits starting to drive me nuts. If you ever played FFXIV, hopped on a mount, Chocobo song plays...you know what I'm talking about.
Ideally, there would be a different theme for each Node, Biome, POI, Boss, mob family type etc. Combat music should draw us in and add to immersion, not make me want to AltF4. I'm fine with a standard combat theme, but man this one needs to be deleted. Hit the drawing board, give us a few options. At bare minimum give us an option to mute it.
Mayor system
Mayor flying mount is to much for the game. I purpose a riding carriage that for mayors that they can use and people can see a mayor on the map that they become killable for the server. Allowing the tyrants that are getting voted in to have what is coming to them instead of them flying around ganking. A mayor having full node control is to much deplomacy for the game. Right now on vyra no one can get journeyman ⛏️ because they destroyed it based on the mayor being mad about not receiving enough taxes. Now i think this type of system would allow for robin hood type people to go in murder the mayor steal his pot of gold and gove to the people. If the flying mounts are a thing then i thing there should be generals of the node that would also get them. Mayors getting flying mounts and being able to be rigged for certain people to get mayor for control destroys the economy.
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Re: Just another grind fest?
questing realy isnt in game yet tbh there adding some extra now and then butright now there only putting thing in barebone state to make sure it works before improving them later date
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