Glorious Alpha Two Testers!
Alpha Two Realms are now unlocked for Phase II testing!
For our initial launch, testing will begin on Friday, December 20, 2024, at 10 AM Pacific and continue uninterrupted until Monday, January 6, 2025, at 10 AM Pacific. After January 6th, we’ll transition to a schedule of five-day-per-week access for the remainder of Phase II.
You can download the game launcher here and we encourage you to join us on our for the most up to date testing news.
Alpha Two Realms are now unlocked for Phase II testing!
For our initial launch, testing will begin on Friday, December 20, 2024, at 10 AM Pacific and continue uninterrupted until Monday, January 6, 2025, at 10 AM Pacific. After January 6th, we’ll transition to a schedule of five-day-per-week access for the remainder of Phase II.
You can download the game launcher here and we encourage you to join us on our for the most up to date testing news.
Alright. Let's talk Roleplay.
I know with so many systems with immersion in mind, let's talk Roleplay!
What systems do you guys want to see in regards to it?
Here are my hopes:
<strong>Servers</strong>: The talks of mega-servers are PERFECTLY FINE for me. As long as they start that way. If there is global community hosting rather than separate servers which inevitably get locked for population get old fast. The one thing I'm -not- a fan of is Channel based games. Where there are either no servers, only tons of Channels for the same spaces, or server "Channels" which you can log into without locking a character to one. If megaservers are used from the beginning and still require community shards, allow cross-realm guilding, or even be able to set a preference realm or preference realm type if there are PvE / RP Oriented shards. Though with the game concept it doesn't sound like there will be a breakdown of server types unless it's Normal / PvP, PvP being all around rather than their flag system. Separate language / timezone servers preferably so time cycles make sense to those around.
TL;DR - Game type centric servers, such as RP servers, or Megaservers from the beginning. Stay away from Zone / Server Channels!
<strong>Chat</strong>: Character limits in chat! Make them at least paragraph or text size (255 I believe?) I've played some games which barely allow more than a sentence and a half. Definitely allow channels to be toggable. I adore General chat while question, but loathe it when RPing. CHAT BUBBLES. Mandatory. Maaaaandatory for me. To be able to enter a local space chat visually presented in game without requiring whisper or party chat to engage bubbles. Simple, effective. I feel this will be mandatory for not only RP but to talk to local caravans, or within trade hubs. Along with this - Custom channels. To be able to craft our own channels, usually used for space-RP while actually completing PvE content. Finally on this topic would be emotes. Quick commands to apply which actions which are hopefully very generic in flavor. Such as /wave "You wave to player X." they see: "Player Y waves at you." rather than the silly flair I see in games such as 'Player Y waves at you! Hello!!!!!' And the player does a super exaggerated wave animation. A simple animation is fine.
TL;DR - Decent character limit, simple emotes, custom chat channels.
Which brings me to
<strong>Animations</strong>: The phrase 'Keep it simple, stupid' rings so true for me here. I don't need super crazy animations. Just to have a -little- thought put in. No need for crazy jumping or bouncing, nothing exaggerated, just simple communications displayed visually and conveyed through animation rather than fully through text. Like my waving example above. If they want more extravagant emotes, do them like many FPS-MMOs do on consoles making cheap cash shop additions for personalized variants. Warframe actually does this really will even giving you the ability to outright change animation stance and walk styles between the frames you can use, or buy new emotes to allow crazier stuff beyond the simple 'Hello, Yes!, No! Goodbye!' ... But at least give us basic communication. Extra fluff which would be nice such as the ability to have animations extremity exclusive. What I mean by this is to have your character say... Sit. Your lags are now occupied and cannot be animated, if you use another emote which uses your legs, the newer animation takes over. However, while sitting, any arm-only emotes are still allowed. Games as long as stuff like WoW even have this. It surprises me simple stuff like this is outright neglected as it takes little to no addition except forethought in creation. Final thought would be to possibly even have interactive items. Since there will be player housing. Hopefully we'll be able to sit in chairs. Possibly when talking in /Say to have your mouth minorly animate? Always a feature I love but never see, like the disappearing /Say chat.
TL;DR - Little exaggeration. The ability to wave while sitting.
<strong>Cosmetics</strong>: Customization. Preferably separated armor pieces. Chest, legs, feet, hands, helm and back at minimum I believe. More is great! But make 'Extras' toggable. I don't mind rings, amulets, backpacks, ect... But don't force me to show them for stats. Now obviously the layers of customization require more and more time depending on what exists. I don't need to be a super unique butterfly, but I expect to be able to make my style when standing in a crowd of similar builds to be different enough that in a group of 10, someone can be like 'Oh yeah, that guy with the -blue- spikey shoulders' ... I'm not sure how loot is going to be, not sure if you'll ever be able to drop armor, if it will ever degrade or break, if you'll be constantly rebuilding armor ... Or what. If it's the type in which you can gain armor and use it indefinitely say at level cap without needing to swap until you get a really rare upgrade systems like WoW are fine. Give us variety! Model variety! The ability to stay unique in a crowd of similar classes. Alternatively would be the personally less liked - Dye channels. Having much less armor wise but the ability to add dye colors to specific channels. GW2 and ESO do this pretty well. GW2 doing the sheer variety of dyes and how different dyes affect different cloths and metals differently... To the point it's lovingly called Fashion Wars 2. I know I've personally spent more gold on special dye packs than I'd like to share. Warframe also does dying very well too with full palettes of colors to be purchased and 4 dye channels on every weapon, costume, and adornment. Even pets / companions are dyable in this way.
TL;DR - I don't need to be a bright sparkly unicorn. But I need to be at least a unicorn in a crowd of horses. Maybe some Zebras.
<strong>Costmetics</strong>: Do -not- paywall armor variation. Just don't. I'd be out right away. There should be enough variety in armor through the base game, especially in a sub game. At level cap, if I'm a plate wearer, even if there's a specific plate wearer (Say Int vs Str) there should be a few types of variety at -least- ... I have -no- problem just throwing money for costmetics. Again. I'm almost ashamed at the amount of cash shop skins I have in GW2. But the base game has almost 3, if not more, types of armor per type, per level tier. Thankfully in GW2 you could craft most items with any stat set. Most cash shop costumes or armor skins are additional, such as providing armors similar to main story characters. Don't get greedy.
TL;DR - Give us enough customization content through the base game without shoveling anything and everything into the cash shop to force real money transactions to be unique.
<strong>Character Creation</strong> : This one's simple for me. No gender locking. Very little race locking. I'm fine with class lore restrictions... But just don't lock them behind gender. If I want to be a Giant fairy fae-caster with wings and a bell. LET ME. Naming... I prefer games which allow first and last names. Some games have it so spaces are optional, so if you can get single word names, good on you! But if not you can simply space and add a last name. Even better if you can add two for names like 'X of X' or 'Y de Y' ect. Forcing last names is great and keeps name availability wide, but also gives a layer of depth really getting some to think of their name. Anything to add a bond to your character as your crafting them beyond just appearance, such as choosing a birthland, a birthday in the game calendar, even if it doesn't really matter.
<strong>In Game Locations</strong> : NPCs don't have to be everywhere to make the world feel alive. Have a generic tavern template? Great! Give us at least one empty, or near empty one nooked away in the town somewhere. Not sure if this will be a feature, but being able to build a communal building, or a 'Group' building... Possibly outside of building Guild buildings would be awesome. So RPers could fund their own locations without having to be in the same guild. Make spaces somewhat open, leave enough room for 5-10 players at a time to roam around and do things. I know with games focusing on exploration have no trouble with outside spaces which are uninhabited. Just realize - The RP community does NOT require mechanics of a space to do what we do. Many times we prefer it! If we can find spans of forest which we could RP without a constantly spawning wolf to annoy us, that's fine! Not -every- space has to be populated.
<strong>If only if only...</strong> : I feature I realize why it does not have make appearance in many games... An in game character sheet. Simple descriptors with maybe a paragraph limit for background or appearance or something. This can clearly be abused, advertising twitch channels, just putting strings of curses or bigotry.. But it could also allow interesting interactions in this game beyond RP. Such as 'I'm a dedicated Blacksmith. Max Rank Everything. Whisper me to setup trades and we'll work out the carvan.' Simple stuff like that. Obviously you can blacklist terms and phrases which will probably already be in the language filter.
<strong>Addons</strong> : The above pipe dream leads me to Addons. External API. A decently customizable and open UI which things like character sheets and custom channels can be modded in, allowing us to use at our own risk. Not a modder myself , but I can say my time with WoW and RPing in it was exemplified by a few simple addons : A character sheet of your choice (Thanks to the API, each of these sheets can even read the other sheet addons! Which is amazing!), Toggable EVERYTHING ( So many addons to quickly button / hotkey toggable helms, toggle all UI except chat, so many...).. Even some amazing addons like Gryphon Heart Items ( This addon, while not incredibly popular except upon the hardcore... It a 'Addon specific' bag to be added to the UI and allowed you to make custom items. Obviously not in game items. You'd choose an icon, add a name and text. You could create custom letters and such. You could even 'Give' these items to players with the addon, as the addon would talk through the API to load said item into their 'Inventory').
That being said. Roleplayers UNITE! Show our voice early! Let me know what you love to see within the realms of reality? Minimum features which make RP in the game bearable as this game has SO MUCH IMMERSION already. From Day/Night cycles, to seasons and weather... Can you imagine RPing your 'hometown' only to have it destroyed? The idea of a changing world is amazing and has so many opportunities for a vivid community.
What systems do you guys want to see in regards to it?
Here are my hopes:
<strong>Servers</strong>: The talks of mega-servers are PERFECTLY FINE for me. As long as they start that way. If there is global community hosting rather than separate servers which inevitably get locked for population get old fast. The one thing I'm -not- a fan of is Channel based games. Where there are either no servers, only tons of Channels for the same spaces, or server "Channels" which you can log into without locking a character to one. If megaservers are used from the beginning and still require community shards, allow cross-realm guilding, or even be able to set a preference realm or preference realm type if there are PvE / RP Oriented shards. Though with the game concept it doesn't sound like there will be a breakdown of server types unless it's Normal / PvP, PvP being all around rather than their flag system. Separate language / timezone servers preferably so time cycles make sense to those around.
TL;DR - Game type centric servers, such as RP servers, or Megaservers from the beginning. Stay away from Zone / Server Channels!
<strong>Chat</strong>: Character limits in chat! Make them at least paragraph or text size (255 I believe?) I've played some games which barely allow more than a sentence and a half. Definitely allow channels to be toggable. I adore General chat while question, but loathe it when RPing. CHAT BUBBLES. Mandatory. Maaaaandatory for me. To be able to enter a local space chat visually presented in game without requiring whisper or party chat to engage bubbles. Simple, effective. I feel this will be mandatory for not only RP but to talk to local caravans, or within trade hubs. Along with this - Custom channels. To be able to craft our own channels, usually used for space-RP while actually completing PvE content. Finally on this topic would be emotes. Quick commands to apply which actions which are hopefully very generic in flavor. Such as /wave "You wave to player X." they see: "Player Y waves at you." rather than the silly flair I see in games such as 'Player Y waves at you! Hello!!!!!' And the player does a super exaggerated wave animation. A simple animation is fine.
TL;DR - Decent character limit, simple emotes, custom chat channels.
Which brings me to
<strong>Animations</strong>: The phrase 'Keep it simple, stupid' rings so true for me here. I don't need super crazy animations. Just to have a -little- thought put in. No need for crazy jumping or bouncing, nothing exaggerated, just simple communications displayed visually and conveyed through animation rather than fully through text. Like my waving example above. If they want more extravagant emotes, do them like many FPS-MMOs do on consoles making cheap cash shop additions for personalized variants. Warframe actually does this really will even giving you the ability to outright change animation stance and walk styles between the frames you can use, or buy new emotes to allow crazier stuff beyond the simple 'Hello, Yes!, No! Goodbye!' ... But at least give us basic communication. Extra fluff which would be nice such as the ability to have animations extremity exclusive. What I mean by this is to have your character say... Sit. Your lags are now occupied and cannot be animated, if you use another emote which uses your legs, the newer animation takes over. However, while sitting, any arm-only emotes are still allowed. Games as long as stuff like WoW even have this. It surprises me simple stuff like this is outright neglected as it takes little to no addition except forethought in creation. Final thought would be to possibly even have interactive items. Since there will be player housing. Hopefully we'll be able to sit in chairs. Possibly when talking in /Say to have your mouth minorly animate? Always a feature I love but never see, like the disappearing /Say chat.
TL;DR - Little exaggeration. The ability to wave while sitting.
<strong>Cosmetics</strong>: Customization. Preferably separated armor pieces. Chest, legs, feet, hands, helm and back at minimum I believe. More is great! But make 'Extras' toggable. I don't mind rings, amulets, backpacks, ect... But don't force me to show them for stats. Now obviously the layers of customization require more and more time depending on what exists. I don't need to be a super unique butterfly, but I expect to be able to make my style when standing in a crowd of similar builds to be different enough that in a group of 10, someone can be like 'Oh yeah, that guy with the -blue- spikey shoulders' ... I'm not sure how loot is going to be, not sure if you'll ever be able to drop armor, if it will ever degrade or break, if you'll be constantly rebuilding armor ... Or what. If it's the type in which you can gain armor and use it indefinitely say at level cap without needing to swap until you get a really rare upgrade systems like WoW are fine. Give us variety! Model variety! The ability to stay unique in a crowd of similar classes. Alternatively would be the personally less liked - Dye channels. Having much less armor wise but the ability to add dye colors to specific channels. GW2 and ESO do this pretty well. GW2 doing the sheer variety of dyes and how different dyes affect different cloths and metals differently... To the point it's lovingly called Fashion Wars 2. I know I've personally spent more gold on special dye packs than I'd like to share. Warframe also does dying very well too with full palettes of colors to be purchased and 4 dye channels on every weapon, costume, and adornment. Even pets / companions are dyable in this way.
TL;DR - I don't need to be a bright sparkly unicorn. But I need to be at least a unicorn in a crowd of horses. Maybe some Zebras.
<strong>Costmetics</strong>: Do -not- paywall armor variation. Just don't. I'd be out right away. There should be enough variety in armor through the base game, especially in a sub game. At level cap, if I'm a plate wearer, even if there's a specific plate wearer (Say Int vs Str) there should be a few types of variety at -least- ... I have -no- problem just throwing money for costmetics. Again. I'm almost ashamed at the amount of cash shop skins I have in GW2. But the base game has almost 3, if not more, types of armor per type, per level tier. Thankfully in GW2 you could craft most items with any stat set. Most cash shop costumes or armor skins are additional, such as providing armors similar to main story characters. Don't get greedy.
TL;DR - Give us enough customization content through the base game without shoveling anything and everything into the cash shop to force real money transactions to be unique.
<strong>Character Creation</strong> : This one's simple for me. No gender locking. Very little race locking. I'm fine with class lore restrictions... But just don't lock them behind gender. If I want to be a Giant fairy fae-caster with wings and a bell. LET ME. Naming... I prefer games which allow first and last names. Some games have it so spaces are optional, so if you can get single word names, good on you! But if not you can simply space and add a last name. Even better if you can add two for names like 'X of X' or 'Y de Y' ect. Forcing last names is great and keeps name availability wide, but also gives a layer of depth really getting some to think of their name. Anything to add a bond to your character as your crafting them beyond just appearance, such as choosing a birthland, a birthday in the game calendar, even if it doesn't really matter.
<strong>In Game Locations</strong> : NPCs don't have to be everywhere to make the world feel alive. Have a generic tavern template? Great! Give us at least one empty, or near empty one nooked away in the town somewhere. Not sure if this will be a feature, but being able to build a communal building, or a 'Group' building... Possibly outside of building Guild buildings would be awesome. So RPers could fund their own locations without having to be in the same guild. Make spaces somewhat open, leave enough room for 5-10 players at a time to roam around and do things. I know with games focusing on exploration have no trouble with outside spaces which are uninhabited. Just realize - The RP community does NOT require mechanics of a space to do what we do. Many times we prefer it! If we can find spans of forest which we could RP without a constantly spawning wolf to annoy us, that's fine! Not -every- space has to be populated.
<strong>If only if only...</strong> : I feature I realize why it does not have make appearance in many games... An in game character sheet. Simple descriptors with maybe a paragraph limit for background or appearance or something. This can clearly be abused, advertising twitch channels, just putting strings of curses or bigotry.. But it could also allow interesting interactions in this game beyond RP. Such as 'I'm a dedicated Blacksmith. Max Rank Everything. Whisper me to setup trades and we'll work out the carvan.' Simple stuff like that. Obviously you can blacklist terms and phrases which will probably already be in the language filter.
<strong>Addons</strong> : The above pipe dream leads me to Addons. External API. A decently customizable and open UI which things like character sheets and custom channels can be modded in, allowing us to use at our own risk. Not a modder myself , but I can say my time with WoW and RPing in it was exemplified by a few simple addons : A character sheet of your choice (Thanks to the API, each of these sheets can even read the other sheet addons! Which is amazing!), Toggable EVERYTHING ( So many addons to quickly button / hotkey toggable helms, toggle all UI except chat, so many...).. Even some amazing addons like Gryphon Heart Items ( This addon, while not incredibly popular except upon the hardcore... It a 'Addon specific' bag to be added to the UI and allowed you to make custom items. Obviously not in game items. You'd choose an icon, add a name and text. You could create custom letters and such. You could even 'Give' these items to players with the addon, as the addon would talk through the API to load said item into their 'Inventory').
That being said. Roleplayers UNITE! Show our voice early! Let me know what you love to see within the realms of reality? Minimum features which make RP in the game bearable as this game has SO MUCH IMMERSION already. From Day/Night cycles, to seasons and weather... Can you imagine RPing your 'hometown' only to have it destroyed? The idea of a changing world is amazing and has so many opportunities for a vivid community.
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Comments
<strong>Addon/API:</strong>
I can't quite remember, but I think its been more or less confirmed that this won't be a thing. Or maybe it was just from a previous thread where people where strongly against it, either way I'm against it :( It's fine and dandy for love letters and such, but if you open this sorta thing up, then you will need: Auctioneer, combat, buff etc. - addons to properly compete in the game. Take WoW: You need something like "auctioneer" to be a merchant, you need that "damage meter" to do raids/PvP, and the list goes on. If you could somehow limit the uses of the API, then it's fine, otherwise big no-go for me...
<strong>The if only if only - part:</strong>
In another <a href="https://www.ashesofcreation.com/forums/topic/townnode-building-library/">thread about adding libraries</a> to cities, I suggested a drag and drop system for making some region lore and such (read the post for the full experience ;) ). Why not use that system for your character lore or a mix of free writing and drag/drop. You get certain phrases, topics, proffesions etc. to choose from. Some phrases are unlocked for everyone, some might only get unlocked once you reach a certain level in a proffesion. This way it's most likely much better written and you don't get all the crap, curses etc.
Example:
Introduction: [Hello]/[Regards]/[Goodday]
Person-addressed: [Sir]/[Peasant]/[Lord]
Profession-phrase: [I'm good at blacksmithing]/[I'm a master blacksmith]/[I have been under the service of Hammer-Hammy the great blacksmith]
I then make this sentence: <em>Regards Sir, I have been under the service of Hammer-Hammy the great blacksmith.</em>
Come to think of it, you could make it dynamic so you put in a tag if you want it to address someone properly. Like this:
&Tag:Negative which gives you a negative remark depending on their stature, e.g.: Lord = Rich bastard, Sir = Sir Miss-a-lot etc.
If you want your character to be a reble or something ;)
Might cover more things later, but it takes sometime to write all this :/
While addons are not necessity for RP, they can be great help, in a game such as WoW at least. That said if the developers of Ashes of Creation allow us to give full names (first name, second name, last name) and character sheets that you suggest, I think there would be very little need for additional RP addons.
The points about chat you bring are very, very important, I feel. I recall that in some other MMO game (The Old Republic, I think it was) had no chat bubbles. I recall discussing this with a friend of mine who RPed in the game at the time, and she did say it brought a level of difficulty to keeping track of the discussion that I cannot fully even fathom as I've only RPed in games with bubbles. While on the topic of chat, I'd like to bring up the emotes. You did mention them briefly with the example of typing /wave into the chat. But what I also would like to see is something there is at least in WoW, being able to type /e (or /emote) and then type some text and when you hit enter that text would appear in chat as emote. For example, typing "/e waves and smiles warmly." would bring a this message into the chat: "Player waves and smiles warmly." So where as one usually types what they say, emote would let them indicate what they do. Speech compared to action. It's very useful tool to have in RP when there are only so many animations that simple emotes like /wave can cover. Roleplayers will have to often use imagination that something is there in the game even though it actually isn't there (such as a simple scroll on the table) and we often want to interact with these imagined things in our roleplay. Thus we need very varied tools for RP, mainly how we can use chat.
Other topic I notice you brought up is gender locked classes... is that a thing? Has it been a thing in some game? I can't personally recall any example of locking classes behind gender (while race locking is nothing new, but I think they've said all classes will be available to all races in this case), so I'm curious where that comes from. Still, I very much agree. It really doesn't sound like something I'd want to see. In general, I think roleplayers want a lot of customization, the more the better, in any and every aspect of the game.
Now what I'd personally want to see is cohesive, interesting lore. If your story isn't engaging, it will not attract many roleplayers. All the more better if the said lore is available to discover within the game (be it by chatting with NPCs or reading a book) instead of reading some articles from some online website, outside the actual game (looking at you, Destiny).
Though, something I didn't see you touch in terms of roleplay are the pets/mounts in the game. I've made a <a href="http://441915497775" target="_blank">thread</a> regarding those, including a few game mechanics that could be aligned with them. May I ask your opinion on it?
Tldr: physical emotes/isles that create better immersion for RP scenes and a random number generator system