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Letter to Steven from Star Wars Galaxies (PreCU) player(s)
Letter to Steven from Star Wars Galaxies (PreCU) player(s)
We have been waiting for you. Years and Years. The Ancients foretold that there would be another..MMORPG worthy.
We like everything so far for the most part.
Keep it hard and never cater to the casual player.
It’s all about economy. Make crafting hard. Make resources dynamic spawns (changing every 10-21 days randomly) Have resources have some sort of quality to them (random), so that over time, as better resources spawn, crafted items get even better. “Does anybody have 1000 units of that reindeer hide that spawned 5 months ago? Paying 10 CPU!” is a good thread to see in the trade forums.
Have creatures and the world spawn good items, and bad. Also have super rare ones drop with DOT’s, that cannot be duplicated by crafters. Because of decay and breakage, this will be ok. Back in SWG, half the server would meet in Theed to see some player, who got an uber drop, just to have him show it to you in the trade window, then accept the /duel, and die with pleasure to it. These weapons would be so powerful, that the player would RE-GRIND his character to a class that could use it, or sell it.
Don’t have the server drop too many weapons or armor or potions or weapons…let crafters make it most of it. There is nothing like watching the evolution of a server from launch, and armor and weapons slowly getting better over time because of resource shifts, or new looted schematics. Don’t forget the power of looted schematics. Don’t forget you can cap how many of this uber schematics product I can make if need be, to control rarity.
Take it from a former Master Armorsmith AND Chef in SWG….twice (ground 2 characters with same spec) Make it hard and painful, almost impossible, for those upper levels of whatever you have planned for us in the crafting world. I know what it’s like to click and break 2 mice from grinding Ubese Armor shirts 73,962 times 2 weeks straight……..cuz once you get to Master…everything changes.
The secret to a good economy is to not have server drops nullify crafters experience. The game gets ruined when a character has all his ‘purple tier 4 gear’ from drops.
Please don’t have static spawns for resources…nothing is worse, than knowing ‘there are always 3 cotton nodes over by Sunnybrook river’, only to find it camped eternally.
Don’t do it.
Dynamic spawns that move is key.
Don’t worry. Us die hards (and it doesn’t take too many) will find it.
We love you Steven for no or very rare flying mounts/ limited fast travel.
We love you for decay and no Pay to Win.
We love you for no bound items!
Keep the Flag and Temporary Enemy Flag (TEF) system for pvp and caravans..brilliant!
If two weeks into official game launch, I see or hear about there already being a level 80 (or whatever max is at launch) Tank or Mage, your game has failed, always remember this! Make those upper levels take OBSCENE amounts of experience to get….
Too many alt’s on one account ruins a server as well. I’ll just keep making characters to fill the void that supply and demand has left open. I’m fine with buying a second account and paying for 2 years’ worth of subs for 2 accounts.
Getting a city to Metropolis level needs to be fricking insanely hard, expensive, and time consuming. Casual players can always join the city later, but let the die hards, who are all 35 years old +with super PC’s, shape the world, and inspire newer players, who think WoW is a good game.
We are the ones who will take 1 week Paid Time Off to sync with launch day with our guild (after doing a dry run or 2 in Alpha and Beta) to execute our plan and get our node.
We are the ones who spent $100 + on kickstarter for a game 2 years away, because some guy on the internet (You Steven) has said ALL the right things in your videos.
Keep mentioning Evercrack 1 and 2 and SWG in all your press releases. (That’s what drew me and my friend’s attention to Ashes of Creation)
Allow us to drag and resize our GUI from launch..not some patch later.
Built in Discord..Great! You are already ahead of me.
Emotes with animations /dance of course!. Don’t forget /pizza or even advertising possibilities with /JimmyJohns. I’m too busy playing to eat sometimes, so If I type /JimmyJohns, my debit card is charged for a pre-arranged order I’ve set up ahead of time to be delivered…3 months later, you get another chain in on the deal.. I dunno.. the sky is the limit.
8 races..great! have 9 languages. (basic plus 8 races) Let me learn a language from another player, or maybe even quests. (Don’t forget Role-Players!)
10,000 concurrent players! ? really… this is epic. I sure hope no expense is spared on the servers that can handle that.
MY ONLY CONCERN really, is that room we see of Intrepid Studios in the background in all the Youtube and Twitch interviews seems… a little small. A game this huge seems like you’d have more staff.
We are beyond excited Steven.
No Pressure
-An SWG player since launch day until the NGE ruined everything- (Mastered 25 professions, no unlock )
We have been waiting for you. Years and Years. The Ancients foretold that there would be another..MMORPG worthy.
We like everything so far for the most part.
Keep it hard and never cater to the casual player.
It’s all about economy. Make crafting hard. Make resources dynamic spawns (changing every 10-21 days randomly) Have resources have some sort of quality to them (random), so that over time, as better resources spawn, crafted items get even better. “Does anybody have 1000 units of that reindeer hide that spawned 5 months ago? Paying 10 CPU!” is a good thread to see in the trade forums.
Have creatures and the world spawn good items, and bad. Also have super rare ones drop with DOT’s, that cannot be duplicated by crafters. Because of decay and breakage, this will be ok. Back in SWG, half the server would meet in Theed to see some player, who got an uber drop, just to have him show it to you in the trade window, then accept the /duel, and die with pleasure to it. These weapons would be so powerful, that the player would RE-GRIND his character to a class that could use it, or sell it.
Don’t have the server drop too many weapons or armor or potions or weapons…let crafters make it most of it. There is nothing like watching the evolution of a server from launch, and armor and weapons slowly getting better over time because of resource shifts, or new looted schematics. Don’t forget the power of looted schematics. Don’t forget you can cap how many of this uber schematics product I can make if need be, to control rarity.
Take it from a former Master Armorsmith AND Chef in SWG….twice (ground 2 characters with same spec) Make it hard and painful, almost impossible, for those upper levels of whatever you have planned for us in the crafting world. I know what it’s like to click and break 2 mice from grinding Ubese Armor shirts 73,962 times 2 weeks straight……..cuz once you get to Master…everything changes.
The secret to a good economy is to not have server drops nullify crafters experience. The game gets ruined when a character has all his ‘purple tier 4 gear’ from drops.
Please don’t have static spawns for resources…nothing is worse, than knowing ‘there are always 3 cotton nodes over by Sunnybrook river’, only to find it camped eternally.
Don’t do it.
Dynamic spawns that move is key.
Don’t worry. Us die hards (and it doesn’t take too many) will find it.
We love you Steven for no or very rare flying mounts/ limited fast travel.
We love you for decay and no Pay to Win.
We love you for no bound items!
Keep the Flag and Temporary Enemy Flag (TEF) system for pvp and caravans..brilliant!
If two weeks into official game launch, I see or hear about there already being a level 80 (or whatever max is at launch) Tank or Mage, your game has failed, always remember this! Make those upper levels take OBSCENE amounts of experience to get….
Too many alt’s on one account ruins a server as well. I’ll just keep making characters to fill the void that supply and demand has left open. I’m fine with buying a second account and paying for 2 years’ worth of subs for 2 accounts.
Getting a city to Metropolis level needs to be fricking insanely hard, expensive, and time consuming. Casual players can always join the city later, but let the die hards, who are all 35 years old +with super PC’s, shape the world, and inspire newer players, who think WoW is a good game.
We are the ones who will take 1 week Paid Time Off to sync with launch day with our guild (after doing a dry run or 2 in Alpha and Beta) to execute our plan and get our node.
We are the ones who spent $100 + on kickstarter for a game 2 years away, because some guy on the internet (You Steven) has said ALL the right things in your videos.
Keep mentioning Evercrack 1 and 2 and SWG in all your press releases. (That’s what drew me and my friend’s attention to Ashes of Creation)
Allow us to drag and resize our GUI from launch..not some patch later.
Built in Discord..Great! You are already ahead of me.
Emotes with animations /dance of course!. Don’t forget /pizza or even advertising possibilities with /JimmyJohns. I’m too busy playing to eat sometimes, so If I type /JimmyJohns, my debit card is charged for a pre-arranged order I’ve set up ahead of time to be delivered…3 months later, you get another chain in on the deal.. I dunno.. the sky is the limit.
8 races..great! have 9 languages. (basic plus 8 races) Let me learn a language from another player, or maybe even quests. (Don’t forget Role-Players!)
10,000 concurrent players! ? really… this is epic. I sure hope no expense is spared on the servers that can handle that.
MY ONLY CONCERN really, is that room we see of Intrepid Studios in the background in all the Youtube and Twitch interviews seems… a little small. A game this huge seems like you’d have more staff.
We are beyond excited Steven.
No Pressure
-An SWG player since launch day until the NGE ruined everything- (Mastered 25 professions, no unlock )
0
Comments
i agree that crafting should be hard and take forever to master
i agree that if someone hits max level 1 week into the game the game has failed, even though that player obviously hasnt actually played the game. this always makes me said when i hear someone has max leveled a game less than a week after release.
only thing i didnt really agree with is "Too many alt’s on one account ruins a server as well."
i am an alt-aholic and love playing all classes and having different toons for my different classes when i play. i even created shadow priest and holy priest as separate alts just cos i didnt want to have to change spec builds :)
if someone wants to spend the time leveling skills and alts which i assume would be just as hard as the first toons leveling then good on them. i mean thats some serious play time they are investing :)
or at least i hope it would be some serious play time they have to invest.
i agree that crafting should be hard and take forever to master
i agree that if someone hits max level 1 week into the game the game has failed, even though that player obviously hasnt actually played the game. this always makes me said when i hear someone has max leveled a game less than a week after release.
i loved the language learning from other races in EQ and hope it is included in this as well as other trainable skills such as swimming etc.
only thing i didnt really agree with is "Too many alt’s on one account ruins a server as well."
i am an alt-aholic and love playing all classes and having different toons for my different classes when i play. i even created shadow priest and holy priest as separate alts just cos i didnt want to have to change spec builds :)
if someone wants to spend the time leveling skills and alts which i assume would be just as hard as the first toons leveling then good on them. i mean thats some serious play time they are investing :)
or at least i hope it would be some serious play time they have to invest.
It's not hard to create a system that can handle loots of players... the hard part is getting lots of players... and a even harder part is keeping them...
Ashes of Creation is at the top of my watch list right now for MMORPGs. I hope it stays there. I also have been waiting for an MMORPG that pulled me in the way that hasn't happened since SWG nor has anything since. Here is to hoping that AoC is that game.
Glad to see I’m not alone. We’ll no doubt see a lot of SWG fans attracted to Ashes, as it aspires to many of the same features that made that game great. I agree with so much of your post, but there are a few points that we should maybe clarify or consider more carefully.
Of course, I don’t disagree with this in principle; however, I think as a design philosophy from which to begin building a crafting system, there is maybe a better approach. Before a designer begins thinking about how to make it arbitrarily harder or more arduous, I hope his or her first thought is instead, “How do I make this fun?”. Or “How do I make this more interesting? Engaging? Dynamic? Realistic? Iconic? Heroic? How can I tie this to lore? How can I prompt community engagement? How can I tie this to node development? How can I tie this to any number of quests or achievements? How do I make every moment of this player’s time relevant and meaningful? How do I narrate this path to mastery?” These are the principles I hope will guide them, and then in result, the level of challenge can be derived through the complexity of interaction between these diverse systems.
I’m sorry… that actually sounds kind of dreadful to me. It’s arguably even inhumane for a developer to intentionally subject a player though that. With all the wonderful aspects of SWG that I fondly recall, I would consider absurdly repetitive grinding to be something best left in the past. Monotony is not itself a virtue, not when we can certainly think of better ways to throttle down player progression rates. Ultimately, I just hope they accomplish difficulty by presenting challenges that are more creative than that.