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
I would love, love, love for the crafting aspect to be practically like it's own game. Because lets be real, there are some players that are going to happily immerse themselves entirely into the economic and political portion of this game. This isn't going to be a fantasy fighting MMO; it's going to be a lifestyle MMO in a fantasy setting. The action, hunting, raiding, guilds... all of that is part of the living organism that is an MMO community. Sure, fighting will be necessary to level up your skills for combat — perhaps that might even be a necessary requirement to even begin harvesting the resources necessary for crafting — but... to be completely sold on this new world, I feel like this can't be thrown aside and use a boilerplate crafting system.
It's rewarding to collect all sorts of precious resources, but the actual steps of the creations process in MMO's is really underwhelming. I want to slave over obtaining difficult resources, travelling to markets in different towns to put up a purchase order for rare resources. Then hire caravans to bring it back to my city and take it to my plot of land and slave over the creation process for hours.
Right now, in almost any crafting process in these games, you lose 99.99% of your time to collecting resources. Creation itself always boils down to clicking the "craft" button. Sure, you could add a "quicktime" event to increase the odds of producing a better item, but that isn't nearly at the same level of depth to gameplay as there is when you are fighting on the battlefield. The way I see it, an archer only needs to nock an arrow. Who to shoot, how the battle is playing out, whether to flank a group and pick off the healers... there's a lot of depth to the strategy of actually battling when all they are doing is just nocking an arrow and firing.
But what about the crafting side? Where's that level of excitement and decision making and that ultimate payoff? All crafters get to do is just press a button after running around with hatchets and pickaxes for hours, all to sell it for a small profit.
Consider the actual crafting of a bow in reality. You need to choose a good wood. Something that's flexible but with good resistance. Hardwood would snap if you tried to string the bow and draw it. Greenwood is too flexible and won't provide any power. So you have to hunt for that right type of species of wood, not too old because it will be brittle, and not wet and soaked or ruined from the elements. And it has to be the right length or it will feel awkward or you might squander potential strength. Then you have to start carving away, which means constantly needing to resharpen your blade if you want precision, otherwise the quality drops. It may still be functional but from an artisan's perspective, the value would plummet. Then there's choosing the shape of the grip and where the arrows nock. How the bow curves. Is it a recurve bow? Then there's the option of layering wood to reinforce it. You could use flame to harden the wood where it needs to be sturdier. Then you have to make the grip. Will it be a clump of string or leather? Will it be a ridged grip designed for fingers? What will the string be made of? How is it woven? What's the material? Is it treated with anything?
There's so much detail along the way, yet crafting in its greatest complexity is: craft these parts of the formula then use the whole schematic and press the craft button.
There's so much more room for making this part of the game actually FUN. All along the way you can consider enchantments, embedded gems, different properties to boost, oils to use, the types of knives to cut which woods. The different types of metals smelted together. What if the weapon could progress along with you? The longer you keep using the same weapon, the stats will gradually increase - resulting in faster draw speed or bonus to distance. The entire potential of such a weapon would be determined by the quality of its parts. What if the same weapon has different stats for each person depending on how they spent their skill points? What if I can ask about their skill point distribution, in which classes, and how their skills are modified by their subclass so I can craft a weapon completely unique to that kind of build. Something that requires me to get their measurements, test their strength. The more details I can acquire about the person, which have to be done in person, could let me enable a weak rogue with poor balance to send him to the top of his guild.
And I also would like to not have an endless scrolling list of "recipes" for crafting. It should be interactive. I should be able to see it. A completely new window pops up or I can actually see the animation of it happening as I craft. I make choices during the process. If I'm interrupted during the actual process of crafting, I'd risk losing my materials and creating something unsalvageable. What if I wanted to craft the most powerful sword using mithril, but I forgot to mute my chat and an incoming message from the guild actually interfered with my crafting, turning my precious mineral to slag?
I'm not great at combat. I can fill the role of a small party, but when large style battles happen, I feel completely inept and disinterested because I'm an ant in an ant farm. But! If you give me a complex crafting system with incredible depth in choice that provides me with excitement, interest, and a flood of dopamine at the final reveal of the products, you'll bet your ass I'll be one of the hardest working crafters your eyes have ever seen.
I really like the idea to go back to the community aspect of the game, while improving on the rest of the content like PvE, PvP, crafting, trading, exploring.
As I read that tavern-blog... I told myself: "Good that you gave money to THIS project and these guys!"
I remember from my first MMORPG-days having people in the guild that just crafted all day long... And sat down... And talked. About anything ingame, guild-regarding and about private rl stuff... totally freakin' relaxed! Because there wasn't so much to do that you couldn't keep up. No questbook filled to the max, etc... So im really looking forward to Ashes of Creation. They put everything in the hands of the players!
Want to be a craftsman? Be it! Want to build a city? Do it! Want to fight for caravans? Do so! Want to sit in the tavern and actually talk to people and play minigames? Do so, resting will be rewarded with a buff! - Wtf! Thats great! No more "Uhhh I should do that, or that, or else I wont be making progress!"
Well you can just sit there and talk in any MMORPG but in AoC I get the first time the feeling that it will be actually rewarded by the mechanics and thats a really huge difference to all other MMORPGs. And thats what the MMORPG of my dreams (for a long long time now) has to do.
+city building, gathering, trading, a whole lot of classes to try out, a changing world (depending on what the players do), open pvp, an underworld... naval systems... different races...
I already know that I will love this game. Because I wanted it before it was even in production.
What I really want to see being dealt with well is the class system, even though we got 64 different classes all of them are going to be similar to each other (all mage classes are going to rely on magic the most and the second class is more like an addon). This is great I mean it would be praiseworthy if they managed to make 64 diverse classes but that would be too much work, that's why I'm hoping that at the very least each class will 'feel' different e.g. a summoner and necromancer won't differ mostly based on the monsters they can 'employ' or use but will have their own unique feel.
2) Challenging solo content for the times I’m feeling antisocial.
3) No daily repeatable quests... zero, zilch, nada
4) Make questing the best way to level, not mind numbingly grinding the £#€¥ out of an area because it’s the fastest way to level up.
5) Rich character customization.
6) Hidden places to explore, like caves behind waterfalls, or an open plain that is only accessible by mountain climbing.
Random Dungeon Generator.. you dont know where its gonna be what awaits you inside you just found a couple clues to tell you to go look for it!
For a 3d game to make a randomly generated dungeon would be hard considering that many places (dungeons included) will not be instanced but open world
I liked farming / constucting and being rich
Too many games that claim to have grouping are really just 5+ players soloing in the vicinity of each other. I want to see combat in AoC be designed such that a group of 8 players working together is MUCH more powerful than 8 players soloing near each other.
Whether that is accomplished by chaining combos off each other, the tank/heal/dps triumvirate, class synergies, or some other mechanic I'm not creative enough to envision, I don't care.
There's going to be intelligent humanoid types. I am sure their is. Their camps are usually places to attack and such but an event, where they are gearing up to assault someone. Either another camp or a player town.
When setting up for such things you would usually be on high alert, weapons and armor honed and forged for it. A player or players entertaining running amok would head for the camp. Spotters in the camp would see them if they were approaching openly. Then the camp is on alert and a sizable force sent out to deal with the intruders.
Someone goes in solo, sneaking and easing past the sentries. Inside the camp, heading for the boss while trying to not get seen. Soon as he goes for the boss, if the boss isn't taken down in one shot or something done to maintain silence the Leader's cries will alert the entire base to what is happening and the poor fellow inside will get bumrushed.
I'd like to see stuff like this. Instead of a group fighting enemies 10 feet away from another group and get completely ignored even with the clashing sounds of Metal weapons... it's like an itch I could not scratch.
I play games for fun and recreation. I want to have fun. I understand people wanting a "challenge" but if things are too challenging they become frustrating and not fun. Also, people have different phsical and gaming skills. What you might find "easy" I find "challenging" (thus challenging for you means I can't play).
I would like for there to be multiple ways to get to the same goal. For instance, if there's an "uber +1000 sword of I win" make it obtainable through a raid but also through crafting or exploring or even a random drop so that even a casual player is not precluded from getting it.
I dislike gated content such that say I don't have the time or 12+ close friends to raid there's stuff I can't do or see. I would like scalable content such that say a dungeon could be run by a large group, small group, duo or solo.
Also would like a persistent "alternate world" where not everything has to be about combat.
All fighting is just pew-pew until the mob dies.
Their little PvP display involved everyone switching to ranged weapons and then pew-pewing each other down.
I am looking forward to seeing them develop the class interdependence aspect of combat, and to start implementing more strategic elements than pew-pew while running around.
- Strategic combat play-style with beautifully designed and unique-looking abilities.
- The ability to explore freely and not have to follow a specific line of quests.
- A welcoming community of players that makes you WANT to be involved in events.
- Re-playability.
- A realistic and well-crafted economic system.
- For players to feel like they have a sense of purpose and play a role within the game.
Добрый день.
Вот что бы я хотел видеть:
1) Гильдии
Общий склад гильдии. Этот склад пополняют члены гильдии получая за это очки гильдии. Вещи на складе гильдии помечаются как вещ принадлежащая гильдии. Вещи со склада могут брать только члены гильдии, которые накопили достаточно очков гильдии на вещь что они хотят взять.
Для расчета количества очков гильдии за вещь можно взять формулу: Рыночная стоимость вещи, умноженная на «X», где «Х» указывает основатель гильдии.
Пример: Меч стоит 25 монет, основатель гильдии решил, что одно очко гильдии равно 10 монетам («Х»). Чтобы игроку взять меч со склада ему нужно отдать 250 очков гильдии. Которые он может накопить путем внесения других предметов или внесением монет.
Если игрок хочет покинуть гильдию, ему необходимо вернуть взятые в гильдии вещи или компенсировать их стоимость.
Очки гильдии могут быть получены путем внесения вещей на склад, внесением средств (денег) в казну гильдии, участием в заданиях от гильдии и раздачей от основателя гильдии и его помощников (при наличии у них прав).
Казна гильдии позволит основателю гильдии или его помощникам (при наличии прав) покупать расходные материалы, оружие, броню и т.д. для пополнения склада гильдии, выплачивать зарплату членам гильдии или компенсации.
Задания от гильдии, думаю тут описывать не нужно.
Разделение участников на группы. Основатель гильдии. Помощник основателя гильдии (Может быть несколько). Специальная группа гильдии (Может быть несколько) Простые члены гильдии.
С членами гильдии могут быть заключены контракты, которые позволят этим игрокам получать зарплату и бонусы от гильдии и могут быть добавлены в специальную группу. (О бонусах ниже)
Контракты могут быть с компенсацией и без. Пример: 1) Для расторжения контракта игрок должен будет выплатить определенную сумму (игровую). 2) Перед тем как покинуть гильдию игроку необходимо сдать предметы что были взяты из склада гильдии.
Так же в контракте будет описано, будет ли игрок получать зарплату и сколько, и будет ли он получать бонусы.
Такие контракты заключаются с игроками что бы привязать их к гильдии. Пример: Есть хороший игрок и гильдии не выгодно что бы он ушел к другой гильдии, для этого заключается с ним контракт.
Бонусы могут быть разными, например, такие как получение дополнительных очков гильдии и скидка при получении вещей со склада гильдии.
Как вариант, плюсом могут стать бонусы при вступлении в гильдию, например, увеличенный процент к получению опыта.
Хотелось, чтобы вступление в гильдию было выгодным и привлекательным для игроков.
2) Репутация и торговля
За выполнения заданий получать репутацию. И чем выше у игрока репутация в ноде, тем больше он может опустить стоимость предмета. Но не все торговцы позволят снижать цену, это будет решаться случайно (Назовем это настроением торговца) Репутация в одной ноде не будет передаваться в другую ноду. Если нода будет разрушена, то игрокам в другой ноде придется поднимать репутацию снова.
Так же игрок может поднимать репутацию у конкретного торговца путем частой продажи вещей или продажей по завышенной стоимости.
Как опускать стоимость? При покупке предмета, если у игрока достаточно репутации, есть 2 варианта. Первый – купить и второй – торговаться. При выборе второго варианте дается возможность указать стоимость ниже и после подтверждения продавец будет соглашаться или нет случайным образом. (опять настроение продовца)
Можно сделать интереснее. Игрок не видит на сколько он может снизить стоимость предмета, а решает сам, если игрок угадал и попал в разрешенный диапазон, то сделка проходит успешно. Если не угадал 2-3 раза, то репутация с этим торговцем портится и вещ он может купить только по изначальной цене.
Так же было бы интереснее если было несколько продавцов с одинаковыми вещами, но разной стоимостью и приходилось искать у кого дешевле и цены менялись, например, раз в день. Как мне кажется, это бы сделало ноду чуть более живой.
Что это даст? Это будет дополнительным стимулом для игроков что бы защищать ноды, иначе они потеряют способность купить вещи подешевле.
П.С. Я не могу перевести все правильно на английский.
P.S. I can not translate everything correctly into English.
I hope that machine translation has helped a little.
So while you may very well see some guilds attempt to charge their members for access, or institute some DKP system for gear and such, do not expect there to be official mechanics in game to facilitate that. One of the main reasons some mega guilds exist is that it is real world profitable for the controlling members to run said guilds. They generate enough virtual income, that they are able to sell it via RMT to turn their virtual gaming exercise into an actual profit. Games that allow this blatant exercise in basically turning players into workers for certain guilds never last long (cough, cough, Albion). "Hey Dmitri, you want that epic sword out of the guild bank? Just Paypal me $20 bucks and I will get it out for you." may be something some people are willing to put up with, just don't expect Intrepid to make it easier for them to do.
Besides that i think open world without instances is the next important thing for me and after that PvP and economy. Believe it or not but the economy and gear farming are decisive factors for a game. Games that had economy interact with pvp were the most exciting for me (like archeage). PvP not just for the sake of pvp, but to get some economic advantage is fun. It makes farming and grinding gold fun with a group instead of it being a solo grind for hours (like BDO). In archeage i felt like i could see the player's true natures. Some would choose the legal path making alliances with other people like them and others would steal everything and murder anyone in their path.
Next i think there should be a distinction between pvp and pve but they shouldn't be completely unrelated with each other. I mean you shouldn't be able to completely avoid any of the two but at the same time not being forced to extensively play both if you don't want to.
The last thing i would like to mention is the amount of things you have to do at the end game. I have seen games where your daily chores take about an hour and then you got nothing to do and games when you need to play day and night and still you have a million things to do. There should be a fine line between these two. The best solution is somewhere in the middle.
P.S. All pvers are noobz ^^
1. Functionality/Balance. Plain and simple, a game is nothing without it. By functionality, I mean a lack of bugs, exploits, pay-to-win, and impossible/lackluster encounters(balance).
2. Diversity. If a game is not diverse, it promises to have you tiring of it real fast. Most importantly, ways to develop your character for different types of playstyles(with different visuals, and actions to go with it). After this comes a diversity of goals to reach for, and content to focus on.
3. Content quality, and an intelligent/interesting story. This is not always such a high priority, but going by the way they are portraying this game as a serious story, it is. If it held to a much looser atmosphere like angry birds, it becomes irrelevant. Story can either draw you in, or put you off. If you decide to work with a real story however, you pretty much have to make it decent(avoiding cheese and plotholes as much as possible. Divinity 2 ignored this point somewhat, and that is the only reason it is considered 1/10 as good as DA: O).
4. Content quantity. Now you might say this is more important than quality or diversity for an mmo. But I heavily disagree, what is really important for an MMO, is not to start off with endless amounts of content, it is to allow for a quick(yet well paced) and steady stream of content. However, there must still ofc be a decent amount of content, or people will leave before they release anything(however, I don't think you need to have 1/3 of what most mmo's start with. Most never even get to it before giving up, if it's not of a decent quality. And even if it is, most still don't get through even 1/3rd overall). So make sure the product has quality first, and a stable base - Content can come later(look at Skyrim for an example).
5. Influence. The players ability to influence the world they are playing in, to give the sense of not only achievement - but also that the world is alive. This does have to heavily signify consequence, but rather just change. If something has changed, the freedom to change it back, or twist it into something else is not an issue. The problem comes when you simply can't affect the state of affairs(it is true that some want heavy duty consequences, but most just want the ability to change the status quo. And even those that advocate consequences are ultimately/or eventually satisfied either way, as some things can't be changed).