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
Suggestions for the Marketplace/Player Stalls
First off, I think the latest update (March 27th) was great for the simple item filter that Intrepid introduced. This has definitely added a huge QOL change for the marketplace and has made it useful instead of going page by page to find what you need if it even exists. But this adds another problem, I see no reason to use the "main" search function and I understand its all still very early in development, but here are some minor suggestions to make player stalls feel more like little stores:
1. Add Favourites - If we had the option to add certain stalls to a favourites list, it would give those stalls a "reputation". Instead of searching by items, you would just visit the same stalls that you know have good deals or high quality items.
2. Add Marketplace "Districts" - If the market place could allow players to tag their stalls as "Mining Stall", or "Herbalist Stall" it would allow people to filter through stalls with a majority of those items. How to enforce this? Maybe make it a requirement that 50%+ of the items have to be from that gathering, processing, or crafting profession. Maybe add a delay or timer that will start if your stock drops below the required threshold. If you drop below this level, your stall will simply be returned to a "General Stall" section.
3. Add Stall Stock Levels - It would be cool if players could set their own stock levels. Lets say a miner has 100 ore as their baseline that they can mine per week. An interface could allow them to set their stock level to be max 100 tin ore. As people buy these resources, it would lower the stock level from lets say 100 - 75, 74 - 50, 49 - 25, and 24 - 0. This way players know if its a fresh batch or not and if it's a known stall, it will be fun to get there on a fresh restock of cheap or high quality items.
Anyways, thats just a few ideas I have on improvements.
1. Add Favourites - If we had the option to add certain stalls to a favourites list, it would give those stalls a "reputation". Instead of searching by items, you would just visit the same stalls that you know have good deals or high quality items.
2. Add Marketplace "Districts" - If the market place could allow players to tag their stalls as "Mining Stall", or "Herbalist Stall" it would allow people to filter through stalls with a majority of those items. How to enforce this? Maybe make it a requirement that 50%+ of the items have to be from that gathering, processing, or crafting profession. Maybe add a delay or timer that will start if your stock drops below the required threshold. If you drop below this level, your stall will simply be returned to a "General Stall" section.
3. Add Stall Stock Levels - It would be cool if players could set their own stock levels. Lets say a miner has 100 ore as their baseline that they can mine per week. An interface could allow them to set their stock level to be max 100 tin ore. As people buy these resources, it would lower the stock level from lets say 100 - 75, 74 - 50, 49 - 25, and 24 - 0. This way players know if its a fresh batch or not and if it's a known stall, it will be fun to get there on a fresh restock of cheap or high quality items.
Anyways, thats just a few ideas I have on improvements.
Tahiti02
2
My hopes/suggestion for the gathering update
Hi yall,
Been considering make this post for a minute since I started really playing the A2. as we all know static resource rarity is bad as they address in the gathering post. I have the mindset that no resource node should spawn above heroic. now hear me out here what is it was on a scale based with your gathering gear and the spawning rarity of the node. lets quickly set some variables for nodes real fast.
Common= 1-100 uncommon= 101-200 rare= 201-300 heroic=301-400 epic= 401-500 legendary=501-600
alright so now that we have a good range of variables for the nodes lets set an example.
so you're going around cutting down trees and you're in some decent gathering gear you got your rare Apprentice Lumberjack's Quick-Axe and the common gear from the vendor putting you at a Lumberjacking Rarity Rating of 57 and Lumberjacking Quantity Rating of 251 for now we are going to ignore the quantity rating. the next tree you are planning to cut down spawned in as an common with a value of 80. so with my idea the common you just cut down gets a boost from your gears rarity rating making its total 137 now y'all probably thinking ok so it got bumped up to an uncommon well it didnt the roll failed under the upgrade threshold 1 in 3 odds. this part only applies to upgrading if the tree spawned in at uncommon the lowest it returns is uncommon. but lets go onto the next tree it procced an uncommon of 200 , nice, so with your gathering gear it comes out to be 257 and look at that you made the odds and it upgraded to a rare, roughly 1 in 2 odds. for the odds i am just using an D100 with the idea that if it lands on a number within the range of the boosted rarity it checks and you get the upgrade.
I hope that made since. long example made short gathering gear should better influence the rarity the resource gathered with a touch of RNG to spice it up with a a slightly weighted curve on spawns to favor the lower end.
now I know a good amount of y'all are thinking "well if the highest spawn in heroic how are we supposed to get legendaries?", easy invest in good gathering gear if you took that same Apprentice Lumberjack's Quick-Axe and boosted it up to heroic and enchanted it up to 8 it would give a rarity rating of 88 on the low end add in the clothing at rare on the low end it gives 26 for both plus the baskets 40 you'll be sitting at an upgrade rarity rating of 176 with that set up it would put you well into the legendary range but in my opinion ledgendaries should always have a 1 in 4 or a 1 in 8 chance to proc depending on your rarity rating. now I know that i know I don't have all the information on the backend of this system but at the moment it feels almost worthless to invest into gathering gear when you can just find a legendary out in the wild, at least with a system like this you get out what you put in.
on to a different idea resource maps what if we had caravan like system for gathering. i know resource maps and caravan what do the 2 have in common ,nothing, but what if they added in carts pulled either by the player or by a BOB. this more or less would set up a NPC like for caravans where you could launch your cart from but instead of cargo you load up a resource map. now what is a resource map well its like a treasure map but it for resources and makes a pvp event zone like a caravan. so you would buy the map (either glint, gold, or resource) from resource randy (name WIP) and like the treasure maps a marks a zone out in the node you're in this marked area is visible to other players and spawns in resources one at a time so each time you gather a resource node it spawns another randomly in the zone. ok by why the cart? well the cart is where all the resources are collected so instead of filling your bags the point is to fill the cart. now for the pvp part of this since open world pvp. the cart can be claimed by another player with a channel like in siege capture points whether its caped by killing the player who spawned it or by being sneaky and stealing without them knowing with stolen carts being able to be turned in early. so what do you get from this event well you could get bulk resources or you could get a rare resource. making an alterative to my other suggest.
welp that's all from me. please let me know what yall think or if you need something clarified.
Been considering make this post for a minute since I started really playing the A2. as we all know static resource rarity is bad as they address in the gathering post. I have the mindset that no resource node should spawn above heroic. now hear me out here what is it was on a scale based with your gathering gear and the spawning rarity of the node. lets quickly set some variables for nodes real fast.
Common= 1-100 uncommon= 101-200 rare= 201-300 heroic=301-400 epic= 401-500 legendary=501-600
alright so now that we have a good range of variables for the nodes lets set an example.
so you're going around cutting down trees and you're in some decent gathering gear you got your rare Apprentice Lumberjack's Quick-Axe and the common gear from the vendor putting you at a Lumberjacking Rarity Rating of 57 and Lumberjacking Quantity Rating of 251 for now we are going to ignore the quantity rating. the next tree you are planning to cut down spawned in as an common with a value of 80. so with my idea the common you just cut down gets a boost from your gears rarity rating making its total 137 now y'all probably thinking ok so it got bumped up to an uncommon well it didnt the roll failed under the upgrade threshold 1 in 3 odds. this part only applies to upgrading if the tree spawned in at uncommon the lowest it returns is uncommon. but lets go onto the next tree it procced an uncommon of 200 , nice, so with your gathering gear it comes out to be 257 and look at that you made the odds and it upgraded to a rare, roughly 1 in 2 odds. for the odds i am just using an D100 with the idea that if it lands on a number within the range of the boosted rarity it checks and you get the upgrade.
I hope that made since. long example made short gathering gear should better influence the rarity the resource gathered with a touch of RNG to spice it up with a a slightly weighted curve on spawns to favor the lower end.
now I know a good amount of y'all are thinking "well if the highest spawn in heroic how are we supposed to get legendaries?", easy invest in good gathering gear if you took that same Apprentice Lumberjack's Quick-Axe and boosted it up to heroic and enchanted it up to 8 it would give a rarity rating of 88 on the low end add in the clothing at rare on the low end it gives 26 for both plus the baskets 40 you'll be sitting at an upgrade rarity rating of 176 with that set up it would put you well into the legendary range but in my opinion ledgendaries should always have a 1 in 4 or a 1 in 8 chance to proc depending on your rarity rating. now I know that i know I don't have all the information on the backend of this system but at the moment it feels almost worthless to invest into gathering gear when you can just find a legendary out in the wild, at least with a system like this you get out what you put in.
on to a different idea resource maps what if we had caravan like system for gathering. i know resource maps and caravan what do the 2 have in common ,nothing, but what if they added in carts pulled either by the player or by a BOB. this more or less would set up a NPC like for caravans where you could launch your cart from but instead of cargo you load up a resource map. now what is a resource map well its like a treasure map but it for resources and makes a pvp event zone like a caravan. so you would buy the map (either glint, gold, or resource) from resource randy (name WIP) and like the treasure maps a marks a zone out in the node you're in this marked area is visible to other players and spawns in resources one at a time so each time you gather a resource node it spawns another randomly in the zone. ok by why the cart? well the cart is where all the resources are collected so instead of filling your bags the point is to fill the cart. now for the pvp part of this since open world pvp. the cart can be claimed by another player with a channel like in siege capture points whether its caped by killing the player who spawned it or by being sneaky and stealing without them knowing with stolen carts being able to be turned in early. so what do you get from this event well you could get bulk resources or you could get a rare resource. making an alterative to my other suggest.
welp that's all from me. please let me know what yall think or if you need something clarified.
Re: Fast travel
Do you really think your vision is less inconsistent than the game's own design?
Alright, let me break down my arguments.
First, let’s consider the game’s universe. The game is designed to be largely sedentary, where the main objective is to develop a node, level it up, and establish a vassal network with lower-level nodes. This should naturally encourage citizens of these nodes to commit to increasing their influence and protecting themselves from other powerful regions.
Why would fast travel be detrimental and play directly into the hands of zerg guilds?
Let’s start with the obvious: caravans.
Imagine you’re part of a medium-sized guild, transporting goods or running a trade caravan to a neighboring node. In the current system, a zerg guild would have to be nearby to launch a massive attack. But with a fast travel system, one player can just sound the alarm, and within two minutes, you’ll have 400 people on you, leaving you no time to respond or organize a countermeasure.
The same problem applies to naval systems.
Example Scenario
You defeat a world boss, and fortune smiles upon you a valuable relic drops. But guess what? A zerg guild spots you, and within two minutes, 300 players arrive to steal it from you. These are people who, under normal circumstances, would’ve needed 40 minutes to reach you. But thanks to fast travel, they’re on you almost instantly, with zero effort.
If you played at the beginning of Alpha 2, you’ve seen how this plays out on a smaller map. All the routes were camped, caravans were destroyed on sight, and what I call "server killers" were running rampant. They weren’t interested in testing or providing feedback; they were just hell-bent on destroying every caravan for fun.
As a result, many guilds left the game, and ironically, the same zerg guilds later complained that there was nothing left to do. Of course, because they drove away three-quarters of the server’s population.
Moving on...
If a world boss spawns near your node, a normal guild or alliance would have a fair shot at engaging it. But with your proposed system, zerg guilds can rush any boss on the map with ease.
Now, consider the regions and their unique resources. This design encourages transportation of goods via caravans, enhancing the node’s progress and missions. With the old system, there was a real incentive to load your mule with resources and transport them from one region to another.
But with fast travel? Any player can just teleport wherever they want, whenever they want, making this unique gameplay feature useless.
The people who understand the negative consequences of fast travel don’t want it. The developers don’t want it. And frankly, the only ones who could possibly benefit from such a system are the large zerg guilds who would be able to mass-move wherever they please, with no penalties.
What’s the point of choosing and belonging to a node for resources if, with just a click, you can instantly be wherever you want to gather?
So, where’s the real inconsistency?
You can prefer a game where zergs rule the world, where a small minority of players can wreak havoc across two entire continents.
Or, you can support the game developers who have already anticipated these issues and are working to address these recurring problems.
In any case, you will have fast mounts, public transportation systems, and teleportation between scientific nodes and their vassals.
No need for anything else to maintain balance for everyone.
To wrap this up,
Ashes of Creation was designed with a clear, well-thought-out vision. The developers have said it, repeated it, and written it down for everyone to see (I'll share the link) — they don’t want fast travel. And it’s not just for one reason, but for many reasons I’ve already mentioned, and plenty of others.
But despite all that, there are still players who want everything right away. They’re willing to make the game feel dull just to be able to click on a point on the map and teleport instantly, even if it means throwing away six important features of the game.
But a real RPG is so much more than that. It’s about running into people on the road, stopping at an inn to chat, stumbling upon a group doing RP. It’s those random encounters that breathe life into the world and make the experience so much richer.
But no, some people would rather rush through everything like they do in real life, never taking the time to actually enjoy the journey. Traveling around, watching nodes grow and evolve, witnessing changes, living that constant exploration... That’s what makes the world feel alive.
I genuinely hope the developers have the financial means to see their vision through. Because a world that keeps evolving, that truly feels alive, perfectly matches their idea of travel based on exploration rather than just a magical click on the map.
Great writeup, but don't get your hopes up. People like OP aren't interested in changing their opinion.
Tahiti02
2
Re: guard system sucks
For what I hear the guard system seems promising, patrolling guards is very cool!
Over time the system will have adjustments here and there and be fine
I think it is worth having a guard system that lets people go into the enemy city and commando style just yoink some kills in their own place, this is thrilling!
Carebears who play like bots without communicating with their fellow citizens must coordinate their defense as a group or suffer the consequences for playing like a NPC.
Over time the system will have adjustments here and there and be fine
I think it is worth having a guard system that lets people go into the enemy city and commando style just yoink some kills in their own place, this is thrilling!
Carebears who play like bots without communicating with their fellow citizens must coordinate their defense as a group or suffer the consequences for playing like a NPC.
Re: guard system sucks
Arya_Yeshe wrote: »For what I hear the guard system seems promising, patrolling guards is very cool!
Over time the system will have adjustments here and there and be fine
I think it is worth having a guard system that lets people go into the enemy city and commando style just yoink some kills in their own place, this is thrilling!
OK, I can understand this aspect from the attacker's perspective, if the guards are actually legit AI cool and this is a difficult task. But it's different when the attackers are maxed out 1 shotters and the only punishment for death by guards is the walk back from the emberspring. Contrast that with the noob at the storage, just trying to catch up and get some better gear so they can actually compete in PVP, getting 1 shotted and losing 1/2 the mats they were transferring from/to storage.
The noob at the storage is risking WAY more, just to do a simple/fundamental task for progression in Ashes, while the person "commando styling the guards" doesnt even have to care about the guards because they can 1 shot the guy with mats before they die. Guy with mats loses 1/2 his shit, killer loses nothing. LULZ all the way back to storage. Guy with mats cant transfer or do anything.Arya_Yeshe wrote: »Carebears who play like bots without communicating with their fellow citizens must coordinate their defense as a group or suffer the consequences for playing like a NPC.
Treating this as an issue of "Carebears who play like bots" is completely missing the point. In a game where professions are REQUIRED to catch up to gear score, there is a huge imbalance between the 1 shotter who doesnt care about guards at all and the regular player just doing a fundamental task - interacting with storage.
This current setup only encourages anyone who is weaker than the 1 shotter to drop their node during node wars, or guild during guild wars, etc. Is this really the incentive we want to drive for players? Drop your affiliations because whoever is online and available is unable to defeat the other side?
If you cant even interact with storage, your options in this game are quite limited, especially when you are already behind on gear progression.
I stand by what I said, I fully get the struggle, and I’m saying it’s okay. If you’re weak, you’ve got to play the game, rely on someone stronger, and ask for help. If you end up dying because you’re weak, that’s your fault. Every group has its heavy hitters, they are the ones who step up as heroes, while you’re stuck playing the damsel in distress, just shouting for rescue.
Newbies don’t sway the tide in conflicts, noobs don't matter, they’re just dead weight the strong have to lug around. If the citizens don't work for the group, maybe it’s time to ditch the group. Talk to the locals and to the mayor, see if they’ll step up. If they don’t give a damn, walk away since these people are not worth your time.
Everything that happens to you and how you overcome everything is just content, it is your personal story.
Re: guard system sucks
Do we have a reason to assume that the change was intended to fix the complaint, though?
Generally I assume that MMO Devs fix things the way they 'want it to be' and 'hope/check that the players don't mind it that way'.
(I know you put solution in quotes, I'm just wondering if I missed something that indicated they were even trying to solve the 'death at storage' thing).
Generally I assume that MMO Devs fix things the way they 'want it to be' and 'hope/check that the players don't mind it that way'.
(I know you put solution in quotes, I'm just wondering if I missed something that indicated they were even trying to solve the 'death at storage' thing).
Azherae
1
Re: (Opinion) Rangers / Physical Classes Are Too Limiting
While I do not entirely disagree with the point of your post (that said, I do not entirely agree either), I believe I have the answer at least in Intrepid's case.
1. "bow-wielding physical damage dealer who is acrobatic and dexterous? A class that focuses on auto attacks, kiting, and empowered physical attacks." - remove "bow" and you got the description of rogue. Rogues are the pure physical, quick and dexterous archetype. There is no point having an archetype which is literally copy/paste rogue, but with a bow....
2. "using magic to cast many of its abilities (crazy effect visuals) and casting large-scale roots (like something a druid might do) - because we do not have druids, or any nature-themed magical casters in AoC. And looking at the classes (aka, archetypes + secondary archetypes) it does seem like ranger intends to be the one the secondary archetype for those who wish for a more magical nature-themed class. (Side note: I do firmly believe that druid will be the first additional archetype added in a expansion at a later date.)
1. "bow-wielding physical damage dealer who is acrobatic and dexterous? A class that focuses on auto attacks, kiting, and empowered physical attacks." - remove "bow" and you got the description of rogue. Rogues are the pure physical, quick and dexterous archetype. There is no point having an archetype which is literally copy/paste rogue, but with a bow....
2. "using magic to cast many of its abilities (crazy effect visuals) and casting large-scale roots (like something a druid might do) - because we do not have druids, or any nature-themed magical casters in AoC. And looking at the classes (aka, archetypes + secondary archetypes) it does seem like ranger intends to be the one the secondary archetype for those who wish for a more magical nature-themed class. (Side note: I do firmly believe that druid will be the first additional archetype added in a expansion at a later date.)
Dezemi
1
Re: Drop the node guards, but fix the problem.
None of this bullshit would've even been a thing did Intrepid NOT change their initial design direction of "pvp event death penalties only = gear decay".
This was one of the stupidiest changes they've done so far and now they're reaping "the rewards".
This was one of the stupidiest changes they've done so far and now they're reaping "the rewards".
Ludullu
3
Drop the node guards, but fix the problem.
There are a few things I have loved about what Intrepid has done with this game, so many systems are in place not to give players content but to give players a vehicle for content. One such system is the absolute fun and enjoyment of the urban warfare for guild wars within nodes.
The current guard system seems to be a reactive response to the issue of guilds/players abusing systems in place such as: Declaring guild wars on multiple guilds to abuse the rewards of these (early on in phase 2) or to war dec on others to target easy material gathering (shortly after the rewards were disabled). Both of these player actions could be seen as exploitative behavior while not being particular exploits.
Current iteration of the guards don't make sense at all. Why are guards attacking their own citizens when citizens defend themselves in their own node? Why are guards allowing a warring node player to simply enter the node in the first place?
The same guilds and people who abused systems earlier on you can find atop buildings in nodes using guard blind spots.
If a tank were to use terrain to avoid damage in pve. This would be seen as an exploit, yet it's being permitted for nodes with the guard system. Citizens in nodes are not only being griefed by the exploitative behavior of other players but also being griefed by the system implemented to curb the same players who are killing them in nodes.
Exploitative players will continue to do the same thing they have done with all these previous systems until they are corrected for their actions. They will continue to force people out of systems or out of the test entirely. Several people could not renounce citizenship in fear of losing materials in their tabs yet couldn't move materials out of their tabs due to perpetual wars. The amount of citizens in the node is so sparse because they are being forced out of the system. Be clear with players who continue to abuse systems for the purpose of harassment, that this is not acceptable. And take out these guards that inhibit player to respond to pvp of players who are using terrain to avoid npc agro.
The current guard system seems to be a reactive response to the issue of guilds/players abusing systems in place such as: Declaring guild wars on multiple guilds to abuse the rewards of these (early on in phase 2) or to war dec on others to target easy material gathering (shortly after the rewards were disabled). Both of these player actions could be seen as exploitative behavior while not being particular exploits.
Current iteration of the guards don't make sense at all. Why are guards attacking their own citizens when citizens defend themselves in their own node? Why are guards allowing a warring node player to simply enter the node in the first place?
The same guilds and people who abused systems earlier on you can find atop buildings in nodes using guard blind spots.
If a tank were to use terrain to avoid damage in pve. This would be seen as an exploit, yet it's being permitted for nodes with the guard system. Citizens in nodes are not only being griefed by the exploitative behavior of other players but also being griefed by the system implemented to curb the same players who are killing them in nodes.
Exploitative players will continue to do the same thing they have done with all these previous systems until they are corrected for their actions. They will continue to force people out of systems or out of the test entirely. Several people could not renounce citizenship in fear of losing materials in their tabs yet couldn't move materials out of their tabs due to perpetual wars. The amount of citizens in the node is so sparse because they are being forced out of the system. Be clear with players who continue to abuse systems for the purpose of harassment, that this is not acceptable. And take out these guards that inhibit player to respond to pvp of players who are using terrain to avoid npc agro.
Pawkets
4
Re: Transmog totally ruins immersion
I love transmog. It lets me look how I want to look, rather than have to sacrifice that for stats. There's always a Best In Slot, so when everybody has that, everybody looks boring and all the same. Transmogs give us some difference.
