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Overabundance of in-game activities.

Hey, first post here.  SUPER excited for AoC! I plan on bringing my whole guild over.  We've literally just been playing the current king-pin MMO while we hope for something to come out that will bring the fun back.

HOWEVER, I do have a few concerns with the amount of content I see intrepid wanting to put out.  I'm not saying its bad, but I could see it being extremely overwhelming. 

Let's say you are big into lore and backstory.  All your friend have been playing MMO-X for a decade so you cave and finally decide to give it a shot.  MMO-X is on its 3rd or 4th expansion.  Along with the basics of learning a class, you now have all the additional features released each expansion to catch up on.  You have reputations to grind, old content to clear to learn the lore, professions to level up in old-content areas...  It can be a pain, and a tad overwhelming.

I love the amount of content Intrepid intends to release.  The expansive underground and sea-based areas, the different mounts and husbandry systems, and of course the world-pvp!  I'm just worried that if they release it all in one drop it will either be overwhelming for a lot, who will opt to just not participate in those areas and making it much harder for other players who are progressing there.  This would be the case if (playing on little information here) lets say you had 2 crafting professions and no gathering.  It would be very expensive anyways, but now with the high demand for gathering profs, it got more expensive.

The alternative is that people would become so overwhelmed they would just stop playing altogether.  Boooo, not cool.

And then there is my last big concern.

If you release a massive amount of content in one huge drop, you leave us hanging with a dry spell of fresh content for an extended period of time.  This ruins games.

My suggestion.  Release the game with enough content to keep us busy.  Let the majority get their feet wet in end-game crafting, raiding, pvp, trade, etc while you polish and PTR the next patch. 

What do you guys think?  Could you handle all the economic, raiding, pvp, crafting/professions, sub-profs like fishing, husbandry, etc...?

Comments

  • Welcome @DTen! :)

    I think your suggestion is a valid one indeed. It's well documented in these forums, never mind elsewhere, that Intrepid is being ambitious and you don't have to look far to find scepticism.

    Like you said, the scope and scale of this project is impressive and whilst I believe that the release of any new MMO can be overwhelming, I think the depth on offer is truly exciting. I'm also hoping that there'll be enough innovations in this game so that even the most seasoned MMO'er (since 1999 myself) can have his or breath taken away by this world.

    It's a lot to get your head around, but there's also plenty of people working very hard, like Death's Proxy, Itziz and others on youtube to make sure there's opportunities for people to learn as much about the game before they enter the world.

    I'm excited and my pledge reflects that. I'm glad you are too and I hope that you and your guild enjoy riding the hype train with the rest of us.     

  • I am on the other side it seems with your concerns. I think it fits the whole narrative of the game perfectly to "overwhelm" us.
    Look at it from a lore perspective, we are new people coming back into our old, new world. There is "nothing" but wild untamed land and you can choose how you will make it your own from a myriad of different approaches.
    Your past life behind the portal (aka other games), your information, your upbringing, your preferences all lead you down your own path you can choose.
    You have been a gatherer all your life? Well you can do so.
    You are a gloryhunter wanting the biggest, baddest(intentional), meanest beast you can find and put it's head on a spike? You can do so.
    You simply dream of a quiet life on your own farm somewhere a little off the side? Here, make one for yourself and your spouse.
    ... and so on.
    Besides, they plan on having major releases every 3 months as stated in the stream, just to adress your "dry run" concern. If everything works just remotely as they want, there will never be a dry run for any period of time.

    I certainly can handle all of it, always had. I certainly won't participate in all of it depending on the time commitments involved, but there will be other people close to me that will, and I will enjoy their storys that they will get to tell.

  • I like the idea of too much. Sure, deep down I think it also makes me anxious--being a completionist, I love to dabble in a bit of everything. But what I've really wanted in an MMO is a niche market. I love the idea that not everyone mines. Not everyone smiths. Not everyone cooks. Instead, everyone takes on a role they love to play and those services/items find their way onto the market. It means that leveling skills or items made have weight and meaning.

    I love the thought of each world having crafting celebrities--people who have sunk a lot of time and effort into their trade and are known throughout the server by name. It's that kind of cool crafting mentality that has been lost in new games were essentially crafting produces an item you'll use for a quest then discard.

    I can't wait to see what AoC has in store for us!  :D
  • In my experience... playing MMO's since the late 90's, when a game company says they have  just enough content, more times than not, the  players feel its  not enough. If they have to little, players rage... Then should the same response as to little, be for  overwhelming or to much?

    I love the idea that there will be so much content that you actually have to pick and  choose what you feel like doing, and the next day, do something entirely different, and the next day, yet again! It breaks up the monotony of the current styles  of  MMO's, and  hopefully the result is something we all can love to play.
  • Won't be able to do everything in this game from what I gather. With dynamic shifts and junk you might just never come across something someone else did anyways. That's not to say you couldn't but it'd be hard to do all the things.
  • ArchivedUserArchivedUser Guest
    edited June 2017
    I can't really imagine how the game will expand in updates - not until we get more information anyway about the lore- 
    I keep saying this but I really believe AoC is more than just the game content and as @Grisu has already mentioned,we are entering the world of ashes as refugees really and it's up to us to learn and explore and create our new world.
    The thing that's attracted me to Ashes is the idea that the world is not about the world per say but about us, the player. 
    Aslong as we keep exploring, crafting, pvping etc we will be changing the world around us so it's always changing. The ashes world won't be static. What we do causes the world to react to us so in theory there will not be a dry period imo.

    also welcome aboard the hype train @DTen :3
  • In my opinion intrepid does not want any one person to even attempt to do everything its like real life one person might be a musician enjoying the fun of concerts and popularity while their friend is a tech wiz sitting in his basement and another who explores the world. when the three come together they have more fun telling each other their stories partly because they each know that they could never do what the others are and at the same time they get to see what the world has outside their realm of experience.  
  • I think it is only appropriate to introduce content to players gradually. Call it a mastery system, crawl, walk, walk briskly, slow jog, jog, run, sprint. You get the point. Too much to soon causes too many thing to be overlooked and under used. To me good game design allows progression to all content, crafting. lore, dungeons, pvp etc.. at a pace.  Here we have the opportunity to pace progression to the nodes. The nodes development can determine the rate of progression. Slapping down a tent in the forest and making 300 fold Damascus steel swords and Naganata's the next business day would be stupid. Gaining experience and skill should be required for progression to Mastery no thank you to the give it to me now entitlement theology.  Of course we always have to keep the scale of progression relevant to the amount of time an average filthy casual can progress at to use leet speak lol
  • I think it's kindness of pick and choose. There is a ton of content, I admit, but not all of it ties together. You may just be a gatherer, grabbing all the materials you need in order to make some money. You could be an crafter, an adventurer, a pvper, a guard, whatever you wanna be. But you won't necessarily need to know how to craft or gather if you're a dungeon wee or a pvper. It just depends what you want to pursue ^~^
  • With the knowledge I've been gathering I think we don't have to worry about things developing too fast.  This game isn't made for progression and racing to the top.  It's going to be an ever changing world according to the Dev's plans.  Like in the real world no one knows everything.  It's all about community effort.  No one person can master all professions etc., The best thing is we will all have a choice from A-Z.  Too much? Then slow down. There is no hurry.  There is no end.

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