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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.
What types of dragons will we see?
ArchivedUser
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I'll elaborate a bit here, mostly because the question can be a little misleading. All the dragons I've seen in MMOs have fallen into one category in terms of body design, European style dragons. Also, their elemental variations have been lacking, being mostly fire breathing type with occasional ice or lightning breathing. Point is when all the dragons have the same basic body type, and they always seem to have wings for some reason (even when they are expressed to live environments where wings would be a hindrance more than an aid), it can ruin the lore immersion in playing the game. So, the question is basically asking what different body types dragons have (with some explanation why they're that way) and different variations in kinds of dragons there are (elemental breath types, those with no special breath type but other adaptations). Also, what sort of impact could this have on the lore of the game.
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That just helps prove my point
Although, I don't understand how chinese dragons could possibly fly? Sure, they are magical fantasy beeings, but they wouldn't be able to fly without wings or any other force holding them off the ground.
In the Dragon Ball world, Shenron doesn't actually fly, he comes out of a beam out of 7 gathered Dragon Balls, so due to his size he could actually be standing.
I recommend reading The Flight of Dragons by Peter Dickinson, in it, he gives a scientific breakdown of how different dragons flew. If you want to say Chinese, Japanese and Korean dragons flew via magic that's fine, but if you want a more objective means that is mostly devoid of magic you could say they had sacks similar to ballasts on an airship under their dermal layers and filled them with lighter gasses like Helium.
I will admit, they do make a nice template to off of, but those are the cliched European style that only belch out fire. Having more variety in the dragons makes things more fun because that means you know you need a different tactic for each. For example, you would approach an ice spitting wyvern differently than a standard four legged dragon that breaths ice or five headed cryo-hydra (I'm including hydra as a dragon because in most bestiaries they are listed as being members of the dragon family). Although I would love to see a dragon that spits tar or some sort of viscous goo as an opponent, I've never seen that kind of dragon in any MMO.
I would like to see a poop dragon. Instead of breathing fire it does something else.
I want this little guy =D!
Another good example I liked.
Alduin from Skyrim (and that's me fighting him!)
That would be cool. Ashes is already inspiring my ideas in a big way, with more than a bit of irony. But culturally diverse monsters, that is to say monsters inspired by cultures across the globe is something that has very little use in the MMO genre, to my knowledge. Much like my bringing up the lack of dragon diversity in games of this type there's another monster that's been pigeonholed into a single archetype in MMOs, and by that I'm talking about Vampires. While occasionally we see vampire dragons, which can be very frightening when done right, all vampires in MMOs, and most board games and classic tabletop RPGs, fall into the same pitfall of having one kind of vampire. That vampire being the European/Western vampire, known by some as Nosferatu. Which is a vampire that drinks blood for sustenance. But by just using this one vampire model, over and over well past the point of cliche because of very little deviation, they unintentionally hurt themselves with the limits of this one monster.
In Chinese lore there are tales of a different kind of vampire called the Kyounshi (hope I spelled that right), whose name literally translates to "soul drinker", a vampire that feeds doesn't feed blood but the life energies of its victims. This one vampire actually has a number of variants throughout Asia, including the Resnshi of Japanese lore (which were used as the basis for the henchmen of Power Rangers Jungle Fury), and are very different in relation to their created minions than those of European vampires. When a European makes a new vampire they're a "thrall" and have little to no will of their own in regards to their mast but remain mostly themselves in many rendetions one can find these days, Kyounshi are very different. When a Kyounshi is newly minted they are the Chinese version of a zombie for extended periods of time, only if one's natural will is strong enough will they actually be reborn as a Kyousnshi. Chinese vampires are mostly ignored in games in general, even many of the newer ones that have no real excuse as to why they were ignored at all.
That might be true, but who says the vampire can't be both. The comedic element to their movement could lead foolish players to interpret them as a low threat, only for them to know the true terror of the monster after engaging in combat. The the hopping part is only in their early zombie-like state, the more matured ones can move about more akin to a normal human. The reason for their hopping is because they're still under the effects of rigor mortis. Point is, some monsters are ignored as being potential opponents because someone thought they would be too silly or weird in some way. Can you imagine a Christmas event where you have to go up an in-game version of Krampus? Probably not, because nobody thought a monster that is designed to scare kids into being good for the Christmas season would fit with the "holly jolly" nature of a Christmas event, they think that's more suited for Halloween. Never mind that Halloween gets its name from All Hallows Eve, which was the Christianized version of the Celtic Sahamin. Sahamin was the Celtic New Year celebration, it was event that traditions that inspired the iconography of we see on Halloween. During Sahamin there were three big things done, all of which had great significance in relation to the roots of practices we use today. There was a great feast set out, for both the living and the dead. To keep malicious spirits and mischievous fey away from the feast several people would dress up as faeries and goblins and dance about to distract them from the rest of the celebration; several attendees not involved in the dance would go around with scary masks to frighten away the fey and ill intentioned spirits; during said feast those attending would pass around the meals they had chosen, sometimes with gifts for children in attendance. Jack o' Lanterns started as a tradition in Ireland where giant beats were carved into lanterns, and the story about how they got their name is called Jack of the Lantern. Sadly I only know the Christanized version of the story, assuming it goes back to a time in pre-Christian Ireland. When the practice spread to Europe the lack of giant turnips lead them to adopt the practice as carving gourds, such as pumpkins, into lanterns instead. Sadly, none of this has ever gotten any sort of representation in games, to my knowledge. Can you imagine what Christmas and Halloween celebrations in-game would be like if these were used as inspiration for in-game holiday events and images?