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: Not looking forward to node destruction...
🔥 The Philosophy Behind Node Destruction
The idea isn't to grief or make players miserable—it's to create a world where nothing is permanent, and every victory or loss has weight. The alternative would be a static world where once a node reaches max level, it can never be challenged, leading to a stale and predictable experience.
Political & Strategic Play 🏰 –
The destruction of a node isn’t just a random act of cruelty. It’s usually part of larger conflicts over resources, trade routes, and alliances. The best guilds and nations will protect their territories, forming diplomacy, coalitions, and defensive strategies.
Risk vs Reward ⚖️ – A world where cities can't fall would create unshakable monopolies. Ashes forces players to stay active, always engaged in politics, economics, and war.
Player-Driven Narrative 📜 – Every major siege shapes the history of the server. If a metropolis falls, a new civilization can rise. That’s the core of Ashes—it’s about stories written by players, not scripted content that repeats endlessly.
You might not want to destroy someone’s hard work, and that’s fair. But in a player-driven world, there will always be groups with different motivations:
Conquerors & Warmongers – Those who want to rule and expand their influence.
Defenders & Guardians – Players who form alliances to protect key locations.
Economists & Traders – Who will thrive in times of war, managing supply chains.
Nomads & Survivors – Who adapt and rebuild when change comes.
I really like this response!
Still going to feel bad about destroying people's hard work though... =(
But, I guess I like to PVP and PVX and mob train etc. Not because I want to make people mad or feel bad, but because I consider it a fun competition. Sometimes we win, sometimes we lose. I suppose I can think of node destruction in the same way. Not sure how many others will view it like that, people get mad from just simple fights over grind spots, or caravan ganks.
Xeeg
1
Re: Not looking forward to node destruction...
🔥 The Philosophy Behind Node Destruction
The idea isn't to grief or make players miserable—it's to create a world where nothing is permanent, and every victory or loss has weight. The alternative would be a static world where once a node reaches max level, it can never be challenged, leading to a stale and predictable experience.
Political & Strategic Play 🏰 –
The destruction of a node isn’t just a random act of cruelty. It’s usually part of larger conflicts over resources, trade routes, and alliances. The best guilds and nations will protect their territories, forming diplomacy, coalitions, and defensive strategies.
Risk vs Reward ⚖️ – A world where cities can't fall would create unshakable monopolies. Ashes forces players to stay active, always engaged in politics, economics, and war.
Player-Driven Narrative 📜 – Every major siege shapes the history of the server. If a metropolis falls, a new civilization can rise. That’s the core of Ashes—it’s about stories written by players, not scripted content that repeats endlessly.
You might not want to destroy someone’s hard work, and that’s fair. But in a player-driven world, there will always be groups with different motivations:
Conquerors & Warmongers – Those who want to rule and expand their influence.
Defenders & Guardians – Players who form alliances to protect key locations.
Economists & Traders – Who will thrive in times of war, managing supply chains.
Nomads & Survivors – Who adapt and rebuild when change comes.
The idea isn't to grief or make players miserable—it's to create a world where nothing is permanent, and every victory or loss has weight. The alternative would be a static world where once a node reaches max level, it can never be challenged, leading to a stale and predictable experience.
Political & Strategic Play 🏰 –
The destruction of a node isn’t just a random act of cruelty. It’s usually part of larger conflicts over resources, trade routes, and alliances. The best guilds and nations will protect their territories, forming diplomacy, coalitions, and defensive strategies.
Risk vs Reward ⚖️ – A world where cities can't fall would create unshakable monopolies. Ashes forces players to stay active, always engaged in politics, economics, and war.
Player-Driven Narrative 📜 – Every major siege shapes the history of the server. If a metropolis falls, a new civilization can rise. That’s the core of Ashes—it’s about stories written by players, not scripted content that repeats endlessly.
You might not want to destroy someone’s hard work, and that’s fair. But in a player-driven world, there will always be groups with different motivations:
Conquerors & Warmongers – Those who want to rule and expand their influence.
Defenders & Guardians – Players who form alliances to protect key locations.
Economists & Traders – Who will thrive in times of war, managing supply chains.
Nomads & Survivors – Who adapt and rebuild when change comes.
REHOC
2
Re: PLEASE Don't make AoC subscription mandatory
I know it sucks not being able to pay a sub fee I was there too growing up, but regardless this game was sold on a sub fee, and one thing I've noticed is that the community is a lot different when it comes to sub vs f2p games.
A f2p community isn't what people paid for and I don't think changing that would be a good idea. This is along the lines of flying mounts and fast travel, no point in really arguing it.
A f2p community isn't what people paid for and I don't think changing that would be a good idea. This is along the lines of flying mounts and fast travel, no point in really arguing it.
Apok
1
Re: PLEASE Don't make AoC subscription mandatory
Ashe's doesn't needs to appeal to F2P players, nor do they deserve it. There are plenty of players that will sub. If they move to a F2P model, sure you'd get a lot of players for a little bit, but after the 5 minute enthusiast quit, the game would be left with less players than if they just went with the sub model, and less money, and more bots.
Wow Classic launch doubled or tripled the subs for WoW. Players want a return to that system. The status quo of the current gaming industry (as a whole, with a few exceptions) is moving more and more towards a mobile gaming structure to cash in. But the games themselves are just reskins of previous successful game and blown out IPs like Hope Solos chocolate star fish. This attracts the crowd that needs instant gratification and rewards to stay focused and engaged. Leading to players plowing through content and devaluing any meaningful achievement. And the first step towards this is F2P, then cash shops, then P2W, then ads, then pay for no ads, then non skippable ads, then a kidney donation requirement.. All because people didn't want to spend 15 dollars a month to play a game.
If a MMORPG isn't worth 15 dollars a month to play than it's not worth playing at all.
Wow Classic launch doubled or tripled the subs for WoW. Players want a return to that system. The status quo of the current gaming industry (as a whole, with a few exceptions) is moving more and more towards a mobile gaming structure to cash in. But the games themselves are just reskins of previous successful game and blown out IPs like Hope Solos chocolate star fish. This attracts the crowd that needs instant gratification and rewards to stay focused and engaged. Leading to players plowing through content and devaluing any meaningful achievement. And the first step towards this is F2P, then cash shops, then P2W, then ads, then pay for no ads, then non skippable ads, then a kidney donation requirement.. All because people didn't want to spend 15 dollars a month to play a game.
If a MMORPG isn't worth 15 dollars a month to play than it's not worth playing at all.
Volgaris
1
Re: corruption system needs a rework
Nah, this particular system gotta be black and white. If you murdered someone - you're a PKer anad you deserve what's coming to you.
That is the plan for the design. I think the current implementation is simply a way to punish PKers easier/more.Hutchy1989 wrote: »That said I think corruption should be a bounty hunter only thing. As in if you kill someone, you only show up corrupted to players who have the bounty hunter profession (idk how these secondary jobs work but lets assume you can only have one)
Ludullu
1
Re: Not looking forward to node destruction...
But this works the other way as well. The more time you need to build up a node - the more time/resources the attackers would need to declare a siege on it.Honestly, if nodes can be built fast then it wont be so bad.... but if it takes months to build a node up, thats going to be a devastating loss for many players.
And considering how long and how many people it takes to level up nodes higher and higher, I'd imagine that the only siegable ones will be the lvl3s and maaaybe 4s. This would mean that people will keep their more valuable stuff in the 5s and 6s, which means mat transfers and potentially a huuuuuge payoff if you do decide to siege a Metro.
But overall it's really difficult to guess how exactly it'll all go down. Especially for casuals who'll be coming to citizenship and home-owning way later than the hardcore players, which will most likely mean that all the casuals will be in those 3s and 4s. We'll have to see.
Ludullu
3
Re: PLEASE Don't make AoC subscription mandatory
I totally understand that f2p users deserve to be appealed to. Your perspective on this matter is missing what I believe is honestly the entire point of AoC. Progression in the game is entirely tied to the player's action in-game. Not just there's, but the ENTIRE player base is what drives progression is every aspect of the game. It's weird to imagine when you are not use to playing a game with this sort play style, but if you played WoW Classic, you would come closer to understanding this.
There are other reasons too, but I believe this is the most important and it DOES factor into how the game feels when you're playing it, whether you are cognizant of it or not. I could elaborate how but I don't want to bog you down with text.
Since progression is entirely player-driven though, the game does need to cost money. We're not allowed to spend money for in-game progression, so we HAVE to spend money just to enter the game. It's the style of the game, so there's really no choice the way I see it.
There are other reasons too, but I believe this is the most important and it DOES factor into how the game feels when you're playing it, whether you are cognizant of it or not. I could elaborate how but I don't want to bog you down with text.
Since progression is entirely player-driven though, the game does need to cost money. We're not allowed to spend money for in-game progression, so we HAVE to spend money just to enter the game. It's the style of the game, so there's really no choice the way I see it.
Alacrite
1
Re: PLEASE Don't make AoC subscription mandatory
They may not be p2w in those games (they still are btw, otherwise they wouldn't be selling them), but they definitely would be in Ashes.Actually the ideas (from another game) I posted is not P2W at all. You're not paying for power, bonus XP or anything like that. You're simply paying for things like extra stash space, access to DLC instead of full priced DLC, craft bag for resources... How is that P2W?
Additional storage is a huge thing in Ashes. People have to literally spend in-game gold to get it and then spend time to upkeep it (citizenship tax). Even more so, if you have a freehold.
The ability to have more storage for irl money would be literally you spending irl money instead of in-game money. That's one of the most direct p2w situations.
There's already no additional cost for DLCs/expansions. If you put those behind a wall (you literally can't in Ashes btw) - you're creating p2w. And even if they COULD sell DLCs for extra money - they'd be called a scam, because they'd be going back on their monetization promises.
The game is built around specialized bags and limitations related to them. If you can get some powerful generalized bags for irl money - that's, once again, direct p2w. Gatherers can carry more on each run, so their gameplay output per hour is more profitable. This would also, at the same time, fuck them over way more, because they'd lose way more on death, which means that paying customers are getting royally fucked over by the product itself. And that's a horrible way to do business.
Right now it's fine, because everyone will pay the same price a month, so the rules apply to everyone in the same way. But in a f2p game, people that pay will have a worse game because of it, while some people (like zerg guilds or super hardcore ones) will win out even more.
So, once again, this does not work in Ashes. It cannot work.
Ludullu
1
How to make crafters MVPs and stop the endgame rush mentality
Issues
1. There are currently only incentives to rush to the max level. No reason to engage with any other systems in the game before it, especially pvp since levels matter a lot.
2. At launch, if the trend continues, there will also be no reason to craft any gear other than max-level gear. Crafting will be useless for 50 levels.
3. The power gap between casual players and tryhards will be huge, as leveling is long and max-level gear will severely outperform lower-level gear.
This game already has everything set up to create a very interesting professions system that promotes economic gameplay as a key role, while discouraging the endgame rush mentality. All it needs to do now is to choose to do so.
I say this confidently as I saw this achieved recently in an MMORPG called Ravendawn. In the game, crafters were the only ones providing completed items to players. Mobs and quests/events did not drop gear, but materials to craft that gear. The catch here is, as it happens in ashes, the tier of gear crafted was way behind the sweaty players' speed pacing. The ones playing 16-20h a day rushing to max level were using the same tier gear as the casual player grinding for 2~4h, even though they had like 15~20 levels of difference. I took my time exploring the game, finding mysteries, going to new places, grinded for a few hours, and did some tradepack runs and some pvp, all while in the leveling phase. When my guild of laid-back players faced the tryhard guild that was 10~20 levels ahead, we would still be very competitive. So I had no problem with taking my sweet time playing the game and not rushing. This is not true in ashes
If you're unfamiliar with such a system, you would probably ask: "Well, what were the sweaties grinding for then, wouldn't they get bored and leave?" and the answer would be no. Inside every tier of gear, there is still min/maxing of power to be done. Increased rarity, enchanting, gems. Progression, even when soft-locked by crafting, was meaningful and enough to keep the tryhard min/maxers engaged with the game. All the soft locking did was keep the possible power gap between sweaties and casuals way smaller for that period. The power curve for that game looked something like this:
When crafters reached the necessary level to craft the next tier of crafted gear, casuals would naturally be reaching the adventuring level to be using that tier, so they would skip the min/maxing and quickly close the gap between them and the sweaties (not entirely, as min/maxed gear was still slightly better than starter gear from that tier, so sweaties also didn't feel like they wasted their time), making the rush to max level not necessary at all and sometimes even inefficient (as you'd be grinding higher level mobs with lower level gear)
To me, this is the best crafting/gearing system I have ever experienced for this type of game, as it:
1. Values the crafting profession at all times and makes all tiers of gear valid.
2. Effectively mitigates the rush to endgame mentality, allowing players to take their time and enjoy the game, and for players that don't have as much time to keep up decently with the power progression and not be stomped in PVP.
3. Allows for rewarding progression for the players who have a lot of time to spend on the game.
Suggestions
To replicate this, only a couple of steps are necessary:
1. Crafting must be the only reliable way of acquiring gear
2. Crafting progression must be a lot slower than adventuring level progression.
Luckily, in Ashes, we already have the tools for soft-locking progression. Currently, we kind of already have this system, but if it keeps going this way on launch, we would have players choosing to rush to max level with green/blue gear drops only and only then stopping to engage with crafter gear. Therefore, to make crafting relevant early game and stop the rush to endgame, completed gear from mobs must not exist. The only exception to this rule would be some very rare drops, epic+ gear drops. Something so rare that players couldn't really count on and would be a true achievement to acquire such a thing. There is nothing legendary about a level 20 sword. Epic+ gear drops should be the only drops, and reserved for the last tiers of gear.
Would this make grinding mobs not as rewarding, as the dopamine of gear drops won't be present? Sadly, yes. This is mitigated by adding valuable crafting materials dropped from mobs and other interesting drops, but this is certainly a drawback of this system. But with big contributions such as allowing casual players to keep up with tryhards while keeping progression paths for them, killing the rush to endgame mentality, and making crafting valuable at all tiers and periods in the game, it's a drawback worth having. Hopefully, the devs can find other ways to reward players on the grind to supplement this weakness.
We could take this system even further and do the same for crafters. Since nodes are the true soft-lock in progression, we have sweaty crafting mains that gather-craft for 20h a day and crafter mains that play at a much lower frequency. So node crafting stations soft-lock the crafters, who in turn soft-lock the power progression. Does this mean crafters won't differentiate from each other? No. Crafters will stand out by working on min/maxing their crafting power. Crafting gear and their ability to craft superior items.
I'll turn again to Ravendawn, as they had a pretty good crafting system that rewarded players for investing in crafting. The game had a minigame, in which your crafting progression (gear, buffs, food, etc) and mats used would determine your item quality ceiling (how high of a quality you could actually get) and a mix of your decisions and a bit of luck would decide where that quality would land. I'll leave a tutorial here so you can see for yourself:
https://youtu.be/a6Lj3Q4yxOI?t=110
I could see a similar minigame system for ashes. You could have a fragility status that determines how easy it is to make a mistake and how far can you push the quality before the item breaks. This status would be relative to the quality of materials used and the difficulty tier of the craft. Better gear could also make it less costful on the craft's durability and less chance of making a fatal mistake. A stamina status would determine how long you can do the minigame before you succeed/fail. This status would be relative to your crafting level, gear, food buffs, and maybe an experience status (how much you crafted said item for instance). The goal of the minigame would be to push your stamina and durability of materials to the limit while trying to increase the quality of the item without breaking it and failing in the process. Each time you fill the quality bar you'd increase the roll of the item, and filling the quality bar X amount of times could even cause you to increase the rarity of the crafted item.
Now, I know what some players will say: "Oh no, minigames suck, it's fun for the first time but then it's just annoying" and I kinda agree. That's why you can create ways to make it less cumbersome and not necessary if you are crafting items for leveling. In the system above, if all you wanted was to craft bulk items to level, you could use a mass craft option and create 50~100 items at the same time while only going through the minigame once. On top of that, since you don't care about the quality of the crafted item, the minigame is severely expedited and you would be able to quickly spam it as you're only caring about the progress part of the minigame. You could even take the Star Wars Galaxies route and make a mode where you're only crafting minimum rarity and roll items in bulk without going through the minigame at all. Therefore minigames like this would only matter and take the player's time and attention when crafting items for use, when you care about quality. In my experience, these factors make the crafting minigame really not cumbersome and actually meaningful when it matters.
A system like this could make the crafting gameplay very interesting even when nodes soft-lock your progression, as you'd be investing in gear and better materials, and acquiring experience from multiple crafts while trying to push the limit of quality you can achieve in the craft. Meanwhile, casual crafters wouldn't be able to craft masterpieces like tryhard players, but they would be able to craft regular gear that would still be valuable and participate in the economy, without always being behind on the tier of crafting.
TLDR:
1. Removing gear drops from mobs and soft-locking gear progression through crafting progression makes crafting valuable at all tiers, and decreases the power gap between casuals and hardcore players while allowing these hardcore players to keep progressing
2. Soft-locking artisan progression through node progression can do the same for crafters, and a crafting minigame can help crafters stand out from each other while being soft-locked
1. There are currently only incentives to rush to the max level. No reason to engage with any other systems in the game before it, especially pvp since levels matter a lot.
2. At launch, if the trend continues, there will also be no reason to craft any gear other than max-level gear. Crafting will be useless for 50 levels.
3. The power gap between casual players and tryhards will be huge, as leveling is long and max-level gear will severely outperform lower-level gear.
This game already has everything set up to create a very interesting professions system that promotes economic gameplay as a key role, while discouraging the endgame rush mentality. All it needs to do now is to choose to do so.
I say this confidently as I saw this achieved recently in an MMORPG called Ravendawn. In the game, crafters were the only ones providing completed items to players. Mobs and quests/events did not drop gear, but materials to craft that gear. The catch here is, as it happens in ashes, the tier of gear crafted was way behind the sweaty players' speed pacing. The ones playing 16-20h a day rushing to max level were using the same tier gear as the casual player grinding for 2~4h, even though they had like 15~20 levels of difference. I took my time exploring the game, finding mysteries, going to new places, grinded for a few hours, and did some tradepack runs and some pvp, all while in the leveling phase. When my guild of laid-back players faced the tryhard guild that was 10~20 levels ahead, we would still be very competitive. So I had no problem with taking my sweet time playing the game and not rushing. This is not true in ashes
If you're unfamiliar with such a system, you would probably ask: "Well, what were the sweaties grinding for then, wouldn't they get bored and leave?" and the answer would be no. Inside every tier of gear, there is still min/maxing of power to be done. Increased rarity, enchanting, gems. Progression, even when soft-locked by crafting, was meaningful and enough to keep the tryhard min/maxers engaged with the game. All the soft locking did was keep the possible power gap between sweaties and casuals way smaller for that period. The power curve for that game looked something like this:
When crafters reached the necessary level to craft the next tier of crafted gear, casuals would naturally be reaching the adventuring level to be using that tier, so they would skip the min/maxing and quickly close the gap between them and the sweaties (not entirely, as min/maxed gear was still slightly better than starter gear from that tier, so sweaties also didn't feel like they wasted their time), making the rush to max level not necessary at all and sometimes even inefficient (as you'd be grinding higher level mobs with lower level gear)
To me, this is the best crafting/gearing system I have ever experienced for this type of game, as it:
1. Values the crafting profession at all times and makes all tiers of gear valid.
2. Effectively mitigates the rush to endgame mentality, allowing players to take their time and enjoy the game, and for players that don't have as much time to keep up decently with the power progression and not be stomped in PVP.
3. Allows for rewarding progression for the players who have a lot of time to spend on the game.
Suggestions
To replicate this, only a couple of steps are necessary:
1. Crafting must be the only reliable way of acquiring gear
2. Crafting progression must be a lot slower than adventuring level progression.
Luckily, in Ashes, we already have the tools for soft-locking progression. Currently, we kind of already have this system, but if it keeps going this way on launch, we would have players choosing to rush to max level with green/blue gear drops only and only then stopping to engage with crafter gear. Therefore, to make crafting relevant early game and stop the rush to endgame, completed gear from mobs must not exist. The only exception to this rule would be some very rare drops, epic+ gear drops. Something so rare that players couldn't really count on and would be a true achievement to acquire such a thing. There is nothing legendary about a level 20 sword. Epic+ gear drops should be the only drops, and reserved for the last tiers of gear.
Would this make grinding mobs not as rewarding, as the dopamine of gear drops won't be present? Sadly, yes. This is mitigated by adding valuable crafting materials dropped from mobs and other interesting drops, but this is certainly a drawback of this system. But with big contributions such as allowing casual players to keep up with tryhards while keeping progression paths for them, killing the rush to endgame mentality, and making crafting valuable at all tiers and periods in the game, it's a drawback worth having. Hopefully, the devs can find other ways to reward players on the grind to supplement this weakness.
We could take this system even further and do the same for crafters. Since nodes are the true soft-lock in progression, we have sweaty crafting mains that gather-craft for 20h a day and crafter mains that play at a much lower frequency. So node crafting stations soft-lock the crafters, who in turn soft-lock the power progression. Does this mean crafters won't differentiate from each other? No. Crafters will stand out by working on min/maxing their crafting power. Crafting gear and their ability to craft superior items.
I'll turn again to Ravendawn, as they had a pretty good crafting system that rewarded players for investing in crafting. The game had a minigame, in which your crafting progression (gear, buffs, food, etc) and mats used would determine your item quality ceiling (how high of a quality you could actually get) and a mix of your decisions and a bit of luck would decide where that quality would land. I'll leave a tutorial here so you can see for yourself:
https://youtu.be/a6Lj3Q4yxOI?t=110
I could see a similar minigame system for ashes. You could have a fragility status that determines how easy it is to make a mistake and how far can you push the quality before the item breaks. This status would be relative to the quality of materials used and the difficulty tier of the craft. Better gear could also make it less costful on the craft's durability and less chance of making a fatal mistake. A stamina status would determine how long you can do the minigame before you succeed/fail. This status would be relative to your crafting level, gear, food buffs, and maybe an experience status (how much you crafted said item for instance). The goal of the minigame would be to push your stamina and durability of materials to the limit while trying to increase the quality of the item without breaking it and failing in the process. Each time you fill the quality bar you'd increase the roll of the item, and filling the quality bar X amount of times could even cause you to increase the rarity of the crafted item.
Now, I know what some players will say: "Oh no, minigames suck, it's fun for the first time but then it's just annoying" and I kinda agree. That's why you can create ways to make it less cumbersome and not necessary if you are crafting items for leveling. In the system above, if all you wanted was to craft bulk items to level, you could use a mass craft option and create 50~100 items at the same time while only going through the minigame once. On top of that, since you don't care about the quality of the crafted item, the minigame is severely expedited and you would be able to quickly spam it as you're only caring about the progress part of the minigame. You could even take the Star Wars Galaxies route and make a mode where you're only crafting minimum rarity and roll items in bulk without going through the minigame at all. Therefore minigames like this would only matter and take the player's time and attention when crafting items for use, when you care about quality. In my experience, these factors make the crafting minigame really not cumbersome and actually meaningful when it matters.
A system like this could make the crafting gameplay very interesting even when nodes soft-lock your progression, as you'd be investing in gear and better materials, and acquiring experience from multiple crafts while trying to push the limit of quality you can achieve in the craft. Meanwhile, casual crafters wouldn't be able to craft masterpieces like tryhard players, but they would be able to craft regular gear that would still be valuable and participate in the economy, without always being behind on the tier of crafting.
TLDR:
1. Removing gear drops from mobs and soft-locking gear progression through crafting progression makes crafting valuable at all tiers, and decreases the power gap between casuals and hardcore players while allowing these hardcore players to keep progressing
2. Soft-locking artisan progression through node progression can do the same for crafters, and a crafting minigame can help crafters stand out from each other while being soft-locked
Imnotkio
1