Glorious Alpha Two Testers!
Phase I of Alpha Two testing will occur on weekends. Each weekend is scheduled to start on Fridays at 10 AM PT and end on Sundays at 10 PM PT. Find out more here.
Check out Alpha Two Announcements here to see the latest Alpha Two news and update notes.
Our quickest Alpha Two updates are in Discord. Testers with Alpha Two access can chat in Alpha Two channels by connecting your Discord and Intrepid accounts here.
Phase I of Alpha Two testing will occur on weekends. Each weekend is scheduled to start on Fridays at 10 AM PT and end on Sundays at 10 PM PT. Find out more here.
Check out Alpha Two Announcements here to see the latest Alpha Two news and update notes.
Our quickest Alpha Two updates are in Discord. Testers with Alpha Two access can chat in Alpha Two channels by connecting your Discord and Intrepid accounts here.
Comments
From what I understand, as a crafter grows in skill, they will be able to use a "dial system" to tune their works to their specific taste, or the taste of their client. This gives various craftsman, their own flavor, depending on how they spec their artisan tree, giving different flavors dependent on differing variables. Perhaps including racial, and regional factors. Few craft works will be the same, between craftsman. This will make certain items, from certain craftsman, highly sought after. This buffers trade/commere between local/regional nodes.
Personally, I like that idea WAY better than some sort of static RNG model, as an artificial gold sink. That works best for linear based games, with linear based items, based on end game content. This game is looking to break away from that trend.
The only RNG Steven has said would possibly be introduced in the game, for crafting, is enchanting.
Don't just listen to what Steven has to say, because I am 100% sure that he doesn't have 25 years of gaming experience in MMOs. Every MMORPG needs RNG, without an RNG, this is basically a MOBA, and neither I or many of the hard core players are here to play MOBA PvP in the end-game. If we wanted MOBA, we can go play League of Legends of DoTA2.
Let me just say - for me this is another Guild Wars 2 game, just with a cookie-cut features from here and there. This game will tank and will fail, mark my words. If you want to play the SAME thing you played in WoW, in GW2, in ESO, this is what Steven is giving us. Well I do not want this. Here is what I was looking for:
- A fully open world PvP, just like in Eve Online
- RNG on stat items so that everyone looks different in the end-game and skill is only a bonus in order to overcome unequal odds in wearing certain gear with less/more stats (that includes RNG).
- RNG on enchanting, breaking of items at high enchants or 0 durability.
- RNG re-roll on stats on every repair
- RNG on whether your craft would succeed or you would loose your materials and not get anything.
- Dark Souls-level difficulty
If you want an example, play MU online or Pristontale (yes those very old MMORPGs are perfect with no P2W, yet with RNG that you have no control over - everything is random). In the end-game, everyone's gear is different.
What you, or the OP, was suggesting sounded very much like what I heard was implemented in BDO. Granted, I personally never played the game, but I heard that it's RNG system was extremely punishing, and a motivation killer. That kind of idea may work for mmo's with and "end game" model.
It creates a system in which players looking to get optimal gear, must grind in order to get the materials they need for enhancement, roll the dice, and hope they get the stats they need. They could get stats useless to their build, or worse, the item is destroyed. Thus, giving the player an artificial time/money sink, to repeat the process over and over again. This creates the illusion of progression, while giving the player something to grind out, while new content is being developed.
If that sounds about right, I think I'll pass. I'd rather have an open customization mechanic, with a cornucopia of options available, to tailor to the users needs/wants. Of course, it shouldn't be easily attained, and Steven said that effort should equal reward, so that doesn't sound "care bear" to me.
But, to each his/her own. And, like Grizzly stated, I guess its all just academic, at this point.
While lvls, and gear, will be factors, I believe Steven said that he wants player skill to be a bigger factor when it comes to PvX.
Otherwise it's a perfect game for me, cuz i do not get discouraged by those systems. In the end of the day, with RNG, you will still get the items you want, with a lot or less work, you will get the items you need, but in the end, you will be satisfied, cuz you are DIFFERENT than everyone else....THIS is what im looking for.
The "meta" guides are going to make Ashes of Creation into a MOBA, the end game of this will tank. I won't waste my time on this. I played GW2, this was enough for me. I do not want to play it again. I am playing my old first MMORPG Pristontale. And I will focusing my project im currently doing in Lumberyard into an MMO with no friendly-handholding whatsoever, making sure i create a challenging learning curve and open world PvP with strong RNG on every single aspect of the game and Dark Souls/M&B-like combat. I am just gonna say F U to all casual players and only get the hard-core guys if I ever make this project into a game.