Best Of

From a fighter perspective its Maim, i love the visuals, animation, the range component and how smooth this skill feels.

Teyloune wrote: »

Look, this is an alpha - a real alpha, not some polished marketing build. It's not about delivering tons of content yet; it's about testing systems, fixing bugs, and gathering feedback to build the foundation for the full game.

When you say, "Where’s all the content?" it’s like asking why a house under construction doesn’t have furniture yet. The devs are laying bricks and installing plumbing, not decorating. If content is your main draw, it’s okay to step back and wait for later stages when they’re further along.

But right now, the focus is progress, not perfection. The devs are putting in the work; they’re not holding back some magical vault of content. This is just the reality of game development.

which systems do you want to test? I barely see any system working or working as intended. They are either placeholders or not working properly. If they want some interest and keep players from dropping these alpha tests they need to implement new POI's frequently. This is not a hard part to do with assets and tools UE5 provide and it will keep us interested while they develop systems. Currently it seems like 180 degree different, we got nothing and they push systems to work while they clearly are not even close to being finished. The best example is newest freehold system which is barely working, player shops barely working (good luck finding something in decent price with 100+ pages of items and without option to search by item).

TTNLBTPD wrote: »

My two cents on this, and feedback I provided to Intrepid is vendors should not sell any item above crude level. It really hurts crafters of all type. From the perspective of a Scribe, the vendor sells scrolls much cheaper than I can make them.

Yeah Alchemist and Scribes get really screwed over by the vendors. The only thing really worth making with those professions if the guild creation scrolls. Everything else of worth can be bought from the vendors.

CROW3 wrote: »

Here's what I don't like: 99% of crafting professions (i.e. armorsmith, carpenter, etc) is sourcing. 1% is a button click to assemble components.

For me, I like managing the whole mats > item flow, so I distributed my skills accordingly to maximize involvement and minimize dependency. But if I only elected to be a crafter to create items - it's boring AF. I think the assembly needs to be more than a button click, maybe not a full minigame, but something closer to EQ2 territory where different abilities & passives can sway the probability of a highly valuable outcome.

I think crafted legendaries need the highest quality mats gathered by the most expert gatherers, processed perfectly by the most expert processors, and crafted perfectly by the highest skilled crafters. We're not even close to that yet.

Also, this.

If Ashes does not do something about this and relies on the Caravans thing for 'material specialization', TL will beat them out for most people in one move.

"Boonstones generate specialized materials for their occupying guilds which must then be delivered to a storage by mini-caravan which can be attacked like the Tax Delivery".

Done, instant 'loss' to a more engaging system with 90% of the pain removed. Obviously there should still be a game for those who 'enjoy the pain' and 'live for the thrill' and all that, but I'm mostly pointing out that if Ashes isn't properly delivering on even those points, there would be no difference after just this addition. TL would just immediately be a more solid experience when it comes to crafting content of this type.

Ashes needs to utilize the promised 'variation and types of outcome' at a level we haven't seen in years, tuned better than we have possibly ever seen it, because crafting-econ is one of the few places in games where 'no system of this type' is strictly better than 'a bad implementation', at least for me.

I will absolutely choose a game that 'knew they couldn't do this but did everything else they could properly' over a game that 'tries to do it and screws it up painfully every time' with bottlenecks, fiat monopolies, and lopsided outcomes.

Azherae wrote: »

No, Ashes does not currently achieve any of the goals of a crafting system at this time, at all, but it's not far enough along to be called a 'system', at this time.

We only just got the most basic change to the way mining works, and both gear and currency drop from mobs in amounts that match and even exceed some single player themepark games.

Building such systems takes long, though, so I'm not sure how to take the discussion any further without just 'babbling about how I personally think it should be done in Ashes given the base state'.

I'd then ask if we think even the base state is currently active, though? Sure, if it were me, I'd design the economic flows first and then use those to place the mobs, but even if that is what the econ team is doing, we wouldn't notice it until probably around April anyway, considering the number of iterations that would be required.

So uh... yes, crafting isn't good right now, but they've only just started, so...

You're right that the crafting system isn't fully fleshed out yet, but we have the foundations of it and those foundations already have issues, the biggest of which (in my opinion) is having a player's individual crafting proficiency directly tied to node progression. At the start of phase 2 if you tried to focus on gathering or crafting you were just wasting your time. Sure you could get to level 10 in certain professions but then you were stuck until the nodes were developed, whilst in the meantime players who did the power levelling very quickly outpaced you and didn't need anything you crafted anyway.

Even now with the nodes developed enough for journeymen crafting to be available, there's no point. Max level parties are farming the dungeons and flooding the market with drops that are usually far better than anything you can craft.

I personally don't like the fact that apprentice and journeyman crafting can only be done at specific apprentice or journeyman stations that not all nodes will have. It adds extra steps to the crafting that is already very long and tedious. Here's an example:

I am an Apprentice Tailor, Weaver and Tanner and I want to make a Bluebell Cloak (Apprentice-level piece). Let's assume I have all the base materials already (bluebells, river-otter carcass, weeping willow logs) and I'm a citizen of Winstead so we'll start there. To make this item I first need to go to all the way to Sunhaven to create the Tanned Otter Hide. Then I have to travel all the way back to Halcyon for the Weaving and Tailoring stations to to create the rest of the items. That is a huge amount of distance to cover just to craft a basic item.

I don't know, it just feels really off-putting to the point where I don't even want to bother, especially when I can just grind mobs in dungeons and get similar gear there for a fraction of the effort.

I like a lot the nodes system, weather, caravans systems and character customization; everything else is generic or bad, specially war stuff is very bad, the pve nests are horrendous..

Vhaeyne wrote: »

This is just wild speculation on your part.

Literally the only things I want for the game are things I have heard Steven himself advocate for. The only issue I have with Ashes design is how ugly characters are currently. Otherwise the game is doing incredibly well for myself and seemingly everyone I play with.

We are putting 12-18 hour days on average into an unfinished product an loving every minute. That sounds like a successful game to me.

In my experience PvX only fails when it goes P2W.

I would prefer we try a good attempt at hardcore PvX without P2W before we start changing the formula from Stevens vision.

I don't go into WOW or FFXIV forums and say: "These games need mandatorily open world PvP." even though it is want I enjoy. I would expect to be told "If I don't like it fuck off." if I went into those games forums and started asking for wild changes.

Best regards.

More Cult of ashes talk. Just because Steven wants something doesn't mean its good, nor does it mean it will work in the long run. Just because your friend group, who all think alike and like the same things, like the game doesn't mean the majority of people will like this game. Hell of the 2 million people registered on the AoC site most of them will probably leave the game in the first month.

Azherae wrote: »

Because the core gameplay of this game won't change, if it was going to change, it would no longer have a niche in this market long term.

No one is talking about core gameplay. No one said that. What I said was "This game is an MMORPG that is hard core, open world, sand box, OWPvP, guild focused." That's 6 niches; 1% of 1% of 1% of 1% of 1% of 1%. On the entire planet there might be 70,000 in total that are willing to play this game. The game isn't Niche it's hyper-niche and it focuses on the smallest categories, OWPvP and Raiding. I am 100% fine with people being hopeful and excited about getting a game that caters to them. What I am not okay with is delusions that this game is going to do anything other then crash and burn when 2-4 million people get the game and 99.99% of them leave in the first 3 months.

Vhaeyne wrote: »

Volgaris wrote: »

Problem: Communication and expectations.
Yes. There's a lack of communication from the testing team to the testers. I don't want to grind to test stuff. I think the grind has been tested enough. I've personally put the game on pause until the Rogue is out or there's something new to actually test. I don't want to "play" an alpha or beta. I want to play a game, but I am more than willing to test an alpha/beta and support the development with my time and money. I'm just finished testing for now.

I love the grind. I live for it, and I’m a little sad that my XP grind has come to an end and I’m now focusing on grinding for materials and gear.

I can’t speak for Intrepid, but my speculation is that the reason the grind is emphasized in the test environment is because we’re not just testing the game itself—we’re also testing the social dynamics within it.

If XP were boosted by, say, 50% to make the grind easier, players might care a lot less about competing for good grind spots. To me, it seems crucial for Intrepid to gather as much data as possible about how large open-world dungeons should be while the game is still in development.

It would be a shame for them to populate a massive world with points of interest that are either too big to foster player interaction or too small to support a server’s long-term population.

I hate hearing that someone is "finished for now," especially when I’m excitedly celebrating that the servers will be up later today when I get off work.

Good points. I like the grind too. I can't really see them needing more data for these areas, but that doesn't mean they don't need it. I cut my teeth on MUD/S, can't get more grindy than that. I just don't want to spend time for a grind test, or grind to test new stuff. They said they won't wipe again, which is good imo, but even if they didn't wipe I'd be at the end of what I can test anyways. Freehold would be cool, but that's locked behind a grind, if you could even get one. Crafting is locked behind a grind of resource roulette. Caravans are still broken. PvP is chaotic. Also I don't want 'solve' the game yet. Half the fun sometimes is figuring things out and discovery. I'll be back when there's more to test, and I'll be in to play when the game launches.

1970merlin wrote: »

Ashes has the problem that if you start late or can't' grind for the 1st 72 hours you feel like you are too far behind. That is not good for the grinders in the long run because people don't stay once they feel left behind.

While i completely get what you mean - and i am not even saying you are necessarily wrong,


-> that is not the Problem actually. In any MMO there will always be People who join the Competition and Adventure significantly later than others.


What is so hard, is the fact - that similar like in Planetside 2 - > you are "completely" fxxxed if you can not find any Group to efficiently work together with. Either sooner - or later.


Haaah. I don't wish to experience it again. At honestly "any" Point in time. The "fact" and Experience that You need to forge Bonds either "BEFORE" you play the Game at all,

or while Your Character is already created and falling behind for either Days, Weeks, or "MONTHS" or even half to full a Year -> only because You didn't already had a well-coordinated Group right at the Beginning.


Imagine a thing like "DISCORD" deciding over who is the most efficient Group in the Game. Oh wait. It is. This is the biggest Cockblock and Offturner imaginable.

( Yes i admit it. I like Teamspeak way more. Now stone me for it, lol. )