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 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.
Re: Iron Aura reduced from 10% reduced damage to 2% ?
Terrible skill.. could be removed and nobody would notice or care.
I certainly don't notice when it's randomly off and I don't remember clicking it off at all.
Fippy
2
[NA] Fungi Fellowship | Vyra | PVX-ROLEPLAY | PST | Semi-Casual | ESL Friendly!
🍄 About Us 🍄
A collection of gamers from around the globe, Fungi Fellowship is a guild of life-long video game and story telling enthusiasts. Whether it's a hilarious bout of improv during a Dungeons and Dragons session, or a coordinated group effort to bring down a raid boss, gaming is one of the pleasantries we can enjoy as a community all in the effort of having Fun. We don't have to be the best, the brightest, the meta, or even be online 40+ hours a week, but we will play with integrity and honor, and we will try our best to have a good time in the realm of Verra!
We have 4 primary divisions: PvE, PvX, Artisan, and Roleplay. Our roleplay division has a committed DM who hosts roleplay events.
🍄 Goals 🍄
Alpha II, Waves 1-3
Playtest Everything
Create Content
Make Friends
Give Good, Constructive feedback to the developers
Plan and strategize for Live Release
Help make this the MMO we all want to spend our time in
Beta->Live
Establish our presence on our selected server
Maintain a Mayorship of Node
Complete/Experience all PvE Content the game has to offer
Compete in Node v Node war, Lawless PvP content and more
Grow a community that will last for years to come within the realm of Verra
Join PorcinisMushRoom Discord to get involved!
https://discord.gg/dJEJe6GHRa
Send us a direct message in the Discord server if you have questions!
Guild Leader - @PorcinisMushRoom
Guild Video Introduction
https://youtube.com/watch?v=0ot0mTzfCdg&ab_channel=PorcinisMushRoom
A collection of gamers from around the globe, Fungi Fellowship is a guild of life-long video game and story telling enthusiasts. Whether it's a hilarious bout of improv during a Dungeons and Dragons session, or a coordinated group effort to bring down a raid boss, gaming is one of the pleasantries we can enjoy as a community all in the effort of having Fun. We don't have to be the best, the brightest, the meta, or even be online 40+ hours a week, but we will play with integrity and honor, and we will try our best to have a good time in the realm of Verra!
We have 4 primary divisions: PvE, PvX, Artisan, and Roleplay. Our roleplay division has a committed DM who hosts roleplay events.
🍄 Goals 🍄
Alpha II, Waves 1-3
Playtest Everything
Create Content
Make Friends
Give Good, Constructive feedback to the developers
Plan and strategize for Live Release
Help make this the MMO we all want to spend our time in
Beta->Live
Establish our presence on our selected server
Maintain a Mayorship of Node
Complete/Experience all PvE Content the game has to offer
Compete in Node v Node war, Lawless PvP content and more
Grow a community that will last for years to come within the realm of Verra
Join PorcinisMushRoom Discord to get involved!
https://discord.gg/dJEJe6GHRa
Send us a direct message in the Discord server if you have questions!
Guild Leader - @PorcinisMushRoom
Guild Video Introduction
https://youtube.com/watch?v=0ot0mTzfCdg&ab_channel=PorcinisMushRoom
Re: Exploitation Action Promises
Keep in mind, you aren't supposed to be playing or feeling like you are playing Ashes. You kind of aren't supposed to be enjoying it.
Intrepid are getting valuable data from players right now, and their staff are all working on things. Rather than fixing bugs that are a result of systems only being partially implemented, the developers are working on finishing those systems.
Re-tasking developers to perform a short term fix for something that has a long term fix planned is not a good idea in a testing environment. It may be a good idea if the game were live, but not during a test.
That is what you and I should want them to be working on, even if it means there are bugs in the test that go unattended for a while.
Our goal here is to get the game as good as it can be for launch, not to make the game better tomorrow.
As I have stated before, you seem to post just to get your numbers up and appear to be dead set focused on hitting that 16k number, even with unproductive posts. 🤦♀️
Where at in my post did I suggest that this is about 'having fun playing ashes' or even begin to give off that impression?
I specifically stated that this is about believing in a developer and trusting them to keep promises they have made to the community and following through on issues that greatly impact the game we have invested money in and are spending time to help test and develop.
I have repeatedly stated in many posts that we as tester are not simply here to play a game or treat this as a finished product, we are here to test so I find your entire reply a bit strange.
I look at testing in games more like an unpaid employee than a gamer. I need to have belief in and respect for, a company I work for and I expect a healthy environment where all us unpaid employees are all treated fair and equal. If one of my job requirements is to refrain from a specific action that my employer has stated they will take action against and I watch my coworking doing it and the action having a negative impact on those around them and the product I am also working on, I trust in good faith that my employer will act. This is what many of us have had for several weeks now, faith in the devs to follow through with their promises and not ignore, condone, excuse or brush off exploitation in this alpha. (Please understand this is an analogy, I am not suggesting that testing is a job. )😉
Your attempted lecture with the odd statement that I should not be re-tasking developers to perform a short term fix for something that has a long term fix and reference to fixing a bug is just that, odd.
Did you read my post before responding? If not, at least read the last sentence where I am simply asking for open communication and for Steven to handle the promises he made on Dec 25 and again on Jan 8.
Congrats on your 15,864 post. 🤦♀️
Its_Me
4
Re: What are your thoughts on the Classes so far?
Weapons and the passive skills added to them are the same for every class...
- Proc Duration,
- Keen Edge, etc.
A ranger short bow has the same weapon passives as a mage. The little difference being your class passive adding a Proc on Finisher (if you can get to a Proc I>E> BARD or CLERIC CAST starting your from hit no.1) ... However, I find these on Proc Finishers add very little to class play overall, as they are not class defining enough in my view.
Look at GW2 weapons for example (and in my view on of the best MMO implementations of such), where for each class the weapon provided a VERY differenct and unique skill set or skills, for which you then had specific class passive trees that would enhance how your character played. Full Bleed trees, Full Defense trees, Full Regen trees, Bull Buffing trees etc. This also allowed your weapons and weapon sub-skills to be effectively used with your preferred builds and specs.
Right now, I could run my Ranger, Bard and Cleric all on the same "short bow", doing the same rinse and repeat generic auto attacks and throwing in a class skill when not on CD... there does not feel like much of a difference in how the weapon use actually plays out for each and every fight. The generic weapon sub-skill tree for all classes needs to be modified such that each class has its own abilities/skills that generate through the different weapon sets. If these games launched and every single class had the same 'weapon' passives - it would be a very boring and flat use of mechanics.
- Proc Duration,
- Keen Edge, etc.
A ranger short bow has the same weapon passives as a mage. The little difference being your class passive adding a Proc on Finisher (if you can get to a Proc I>E> BARD or CLERIC CAST starting your from hit no.1) ... However, I find these on Proc Finishers add very little to class play overall, as they are not class defining enough in my view.
Look at GW2 weapons for example (and in my view on of the best MMO implementations of such), where for each class the weapon provided a VERY differenct and unique skill set or skills, for which you then had specific class passive trees that would enhance how your character played. Full Bleed trees, Full Defense trees, Full Regen trees, Bull Buffing trees etc. This also allowed your weapons and weapon sub-skills to be effectively used with your preferred builds and specs.
Right now, I could run my Ranger, Bard and Cleric all on the same "short bow", doing the same rinse and repeat generic auto attacks and throwing in a class skill when not on CD... there does not feel like much of a difference in how the weapon use actually plays out for each and every fight. The generic weapon sub-skill tree for all classes needs to be modified such that each class has its own abilities/skills that generate through the different weapon sets. If these games launched and every single class had the same 'weapon' passives - it would be a very boring and flat use of mechanics.
Flie
2
Re: What are your thoughts on the Classes so far?
I don't get the lack of identity. This game is doing that better then any game made in the past 10+ years. Who Tanks better then the tank? Who heals better then a Cleric? Right, only dedicated healer. Who does ranged DPS and also buffs the team then the ranger? What classes is a pure support role, right just the Bard. Who can flip flop the type of damage they do so you never know what kind of resist you need to deal with it? Right only the Mage. Nm
Poor verbiage. A better description is that their abilities / spec paths etc are very generic. Not a lot of room for playstyle choices. It in its current iteration boils down to a difference between a couple abilities and that’s the extent of it.
Obviously it’s very early. Just hoping there is more available to choose from even before we get the option to to spec a class. No issues with them filling their roles. I completely agree it’s a solid and a good direction. Just looking for more diverse ways to perform that role.
zintair
2