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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
...worried a little that unless I pay real cash my character is going to be walking around looking like some filthy peasant due to non cash shop gear all having the worst skins.
Ashes of Creation Kickstarter Livestream May 26 mark 07:33
STEVEN: We had a little bit of a question about mounts specifically in regard to the Kickstarter rewards: So the mounts are actually mounts. They have unique abilities - like cosmetic abilities for example.
((Descriptions of the "mounts"))
The way we've done it is, we don't want to give you a single mount that's going to become obsolete through you breeding a new one through the animal husbandry system or coming across a better one later in the game. We want to be able to give you an item that we call a "skin" - although technically it's not really a skin - but it sort of is in the sense that...
You get to take that item, that Kickstarter reward, that Kickstarter mount, and you can apply the White Runic Steed item to a horse you earn in the game. And that will turn the appearance of that horse into the White Runic Steed with the abilities. And you keep the stats of "what that horse that you earned" had with just the appearance of the Kickstarter mount.
That sticks to our principals of no P2W and also allows that horse to stay with you throughout your progression of the game - if you want to apply it to different mounts.
JEFFREY: Right. Ten years down the line, it's still going to be relevant.
STEVEN: Exactly. And it's still going to be extremely unique.
The devs consider the KS mounts to be mounts. Some players consider them to be skins.
The label isn't as important as understanding the mechanics of those items.
Steven,
At this point there may be nothing to do but I can appreciate you coming on here and giving hyour opinion. Might I give a suggestion for you to ponder and it may encourage people to upgrade. Your original thought on giving all Summer exclusives to Lifetime subscription KS backers got many of us hopes up. At this point it seems the Summer exclusives are going to be more rare then KS ones. Maybe think about giving all the KS items from the packages to Summer backers with the lifetime subscription and give all the KS backers with lifetime subscription the Summer exclusives. Then after the Summer backer period ends come up with your packages that will be available up to launch. This would encourage people to upgrade to the $500 plus packages.
This is a way your core backers including those that did not get into KS because of credit card issues are all on equal footing. Just an idea, not sure if it is even a good one but something to think on maybe.
Thank you you for your time and consideration.
Thanks for your clarification, that's exactly what I thought it was. I would definitely call that a skin. The reason I pointed it out is because the way people use that term doesn't usually coincide with IS's definition of a mount.
Not only will the KS exclusives not actually be exclusive, but many of them will be less exclusive (rare) than the summer exclusives.
Fascinating!!!
Unless it's all just for kickstarter-backers, those getting a couple unique skins is fine with me as they finance the development of the game.
Basically, if I bought a 500 dollar kickstarter package, I can now, if I want to, buy an addon for almost the same prize again, to get all of the exclusive skins, mounts, etc that a person that buys a summer package would have to pay 500 for.
The packages above 500 dollars don't really contain any cosmetics in the list of summer exclusive cosmetics.
but Stephen the thing is that that 500 dollars that the summer backer shells out also contains stuff like a lifetime sub, a reserved guild name, access to beta etc, which I also already paid 500 dollars for.
I mean sure there's a lot of cool stuff in that package that I would like, but let's be honest here, I got a lot more for the 500 dollars at kickstarter, and someone who picks up the 500 dollar package in the summer store is likely to do so at least partially to get that lifetime sub.
And like you pointed out, a kickstarter backer that shelled out 25 in the kickstarter campaign can now buy all the exclusive visual stuff for all the tiers in the summer campaign.
basically the way I have understood i working now (am I wrong?):
A kickstarter backer pledged 25 dollars. He can now pick and choose any of the visual rewards for the summer backer tiers in the addon section in account. He can buy the 500 dollar summer exclusive royalty costume if he wants. He can now choose between upgrading his pledge to one where he gets more rewards such as game time, monster tokens etc, or to spend his money on in-game visuals from the summer exclusive add-ons.
The way I would have liked it to have worked:
The kickstarter backer from the last example pledged 25 dollars. He can, in "account", choose to pick up an addon for a symbolic sum, that gives him the visuals that a summer backer pledging 25 dollars would get. If he wants more stuff, he can upgrade his pledge, and then buy the summer addon for that pledge as well to access the summer visuals along with his additional game time, monster tokens etc.
Or in my case, I already pledged 500 dollars, and would see an option in "account" to buy "summer braver of worlds addon" which gives me all the visuals a summer backer would get from "braver of worlds", for a sum a LOT less than 500 dollars since I am not recieving a second lifetime sub etc. If I wanted additional things beyond the braver of worlds tier, I would have to first upgrade my pledge as well and gain access to a new summer addon.
It is important for me to state that I don't care about exclusivity. The fact that someone who paid 25 dollars on kickstarter can pick up costumes from the summer braver of worlds package doesn't bother me because he got access to something that was "supposed to be exclusive". I just think that 1) you lose revenue when people can pick and choose that way and 2) for someone who previously pledged high sums, the addons are not fairly priced, and making someone with a budget of 500 dollars choose between upgrading their pledge or buying summer exclusive visuals isn't very fair either.
Please also consider that there are people out there who have very strong completionist/collector aspects to their personalities, such as certain people on the autism spectrum, who will have an incomplete collection because they are now basically asked to pay around 1000 dollars (up from 500 during the kickstarter campaign) to have access to the majority of cosmetics from these two campaigns together.
I mean -> for NOW I understand it and the prices can be like that right now, because kickstarter etc is for people who want to support development of the game. They can't promise too much perks now, beause they focus on developing the game.
But when the game is out if there are prices like that Im gonna be dissapointed.
I mean, prices like that are in games that are NOT sub based. Then I can understand it, because they have to keep the game going with it. But in sub based game the prices should way lower. You're already paying 15$ a month.
But really 25-50$ for some skin? It's awfully lot in a country where average monthly sale is 600-700$. I understand that for some rich countries its an OK price, but come on...
If skins are cheaper more people will buy them. More people will want to play and will be happy.
They have numerous videos showing off different mechanics like the monster system, combat, and questing
I don't agree with the prices and I believe these prices are only for the second crowdfunding period. Hopefully when the game launches, they'll have reasonably priced items. Say, most things in the 5 and 10 dollar price range.
would rather not have crap ton of the addons running around. Would rather only see a few times so that it is something special. Easiest way is through it being expensive, the prices right now are reasonable for what they are giving in my opinion. A higher price would throw more people off buying it then there already is making the item all the more rare which I would like.
I think we will only know the true value of things once the game is released to the public.
Why? Well look at the price of the packs those add-ons are originally part of. Now consider that anyone, even a 25$ KS backer can purchase those add-ons. How would it be fair to have the price any lower to those who bought the complete package on summer funding?
Stop being greedy people and be happy that you even have the chance to buy the summer funding cosmetics separately like this.
If you dont like the prices, then dont buy it, its a cosmetic item, your gaming world is not gonna end just because you dont have it.
Boy they werent joking.
When you consider how much the box price of a complete off the shelf game is....
#shockedatgreed
People who can afford it can choose to buy the addons to support game development and show something for it. The rest of us can still enjoy AoC and support it through other means, such as spreading the word.
I'm one that doesn't mind supporting a game with cash shop related items (cosmetics). Knowing me I like to buy a lot of costumes, mounts, pets...etc. However if this will be compared to what the cash shop prices will be I think it is somewhat expensive. Remember we will be paying for a sub (the ones who couldn’t afford the Braver of Worlds pack) plus having to pay for example $37.50 for a racial costume, I think it's a bit too much. With that money I can buy like 2 shirts in real life LOL.
Some of the prices here are reasonable like the Hawk pet and some lower mount prices [$10-15], but there is a mount for $50 and a Freehold skin for $50
Personally don't like paying for cosmetic without having a look of it available. Then only having this available only for a few days...me no like
If this were to be available for a few weeks/months giving many the time to save up, then maybe, just maybe I wouldn't feel so unhappy about this.