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
awkward. So all in all not too bad of a review from someone who usually doesn't pull any punches in his critique.
The video gets a 4/10. Also the comments in his video from some of our community members are a bit embarrassing, if you don't agree with his video then just dislike and move on, don't engage with trolls.
Much love citizens.
Now, I'm not suggesting we all grab our pitchforks and burn down whatever they give us. I am beyond thankful that we are getting these early looks. Because the time for this feedback is now. People have already made suggestions in regards to the combo bar. Give the spell an effect, rather than have it be a UI element. Why are these thoughts shut down by the phrase. "It's not even alpha, it'll change." Yea, it changing is the point. That's why we say what doesn't really work, and what might be used to make it work, and if they have other plans, fine, we can provide feedback on that as time comes. This is the basic version of the combat they are aiming for after all. Twenty percent I think it was. So what we saw, will be in the game, it'll get fleshed out, reiterated, and changed. But not without the feedback we as players provide.
You can critique all you want.
What it should shut down is any expectation that the combat represents any kind of final design.
The devs rushed through a playable demo 90 days after their Kickstarter. They threw together some combat that gives an idea of the direction they hope to go. But they made the demo playable rather than scripted like the 2013 EQNext demo.
It's a very, very, very rough draft.
I don't know what 20% can possibly mean.
Combat design was nowhere close to 20%.
Half the classes automatically puts it at 50%.
There were only 4 weapons and those four weapons only had one ability... which knocks it below 25%. Significantly below 25%.
And there were no augments. Which at best, knocks it down below13%. And that's just accounting for secondary class augments, let alone racial and religious augments.
The combat that was shown was thrown together for PAX. Heck, Mage didn't even have all the abilities we saw during Kickstarter.
We got a very tiny taste of where the devs hope to go with combat. That combat would be getting a massive overhaul - even without any feedback from PAX.
They got the main feedback they wanted from PAX - the combat wasn't so horrible that people only played the combat once.
Several people stood in the massive line often enough to play through the PvP demo 12 times - and also play through the PvE demo a few times.
I hate PvP, but I played through the PvP demo 5 times.
Is the PAX combat what we'd want for launch? Not even close.
But, it was decent for a first pass.
Several people on the forums have expressed concerns about the pace of combat due to age or injuries slowing down hand reflexes. Would the action elements be so fast they can't manage the combat controls effectively?
I spoke with Berros quite a bit at PAX.. You can see Steve talking to him at mark 5:40 in the Fevir vid and a few more times in the background. He told me he has some nerve damage in his hand(s) that can make combat controls challenging for him, but he was able to work the key presses he needed in a comfortable manner. He said it all felt fairly smooth for him.
He agrees that the combat isn't perfect, but was jazzed that he's be able to comfortably participate.
We got a feel of what the devs mean by hybrid tab-target/action combat.
We also got a feel of the pacing - Jeff B is shooting for not as slow as WoW and not as fast as BDO.
And we got a small taste of how combos might work.
I think the major win for the devs is that we don't hear people complaining about the pacing or the hybrid combat.
And, the devs were expecting to have to massively tweak the combo mechanics.
The thing is if you listen to the PAX panel, nearly like a side comment just because someone actually asked you get a kinda very important fact:
Every class will have a huge skill pool you can choose from and there, it will be possible to craft your kit to your play style. Do you want more tab target style? You can do that. You want more action combat? You can pick skills for that.
How did they fail to mention that? It put's the whole experience into perspective and truly hammers in that this is just a tiny experience of what's to come.
In my opinion this should have been in the tutorial video.
If you take only skills that focus on tab-targeting, because that's what your most familiar with. Fine, your choice, I'm glad they plan to give us such choices. But the skills, like say a fireball. Are not real entities within the world. Meaning you can't really block them once they are cast. Like hide behind a piece of the world. (Positioning will be important, they said that a lot during kickstarter) Or even erect a wall to stop such a spell. These are ideas put forth. They are saying, okay, the combat system as it is, would be a lot more fun, engaging, and dare I say unique if you add these things.
And you're right, maybe it won't work with the things they have planned. But the problem is, we don't know what they have planned. What we know is what we saw, and what we can piece together from interviews and podcasts. And generally, the sooner you give feedback on how things might be made better on these things, the better.
His voice also reminds me of my asshole of an ex friend who steals money from everyone to buy meth so maybe I'm also bias....
From podcasts, interviews and hands-on experience.
Some of us have more info than others, sure.
The point remains that the combat was going to have a major overhaul regardless of player feedback from the PAX demos - especially the QTE combo bar.
The main thing the devs wanted to showcase was the hybrid tab-target/action combat and that the pace of combat is intended to be somewhere in between WoW and BDO.
Easier to show that rather than merely tell.
In addition, the devs wanted to give a little taste of how weapon combos will work leading up to an ultimate. As well as a little taste of utility skills in PvE.
The combat was "meh" - Fevir is correct. It's pre-alpha - 90 days after KS.
No one thought that Intrepid could have a playable combat demo ready that quickly - especially not a PvP demo.
The main feedback the devs were hoping for was - that hybrid system doesn't suck - the pace of combat feels pretty good. Overall, it's pretty fun.
As opposed to the reactions Fevir mentioned in his vid - abandoning combat after 5 minutes because it sucks (Crowfall) or dismissing a game immediately due to the laughable attempt at appealing combat just from watching a demo... as with Pantheon combat.
The win is that Ashes combat was fun enough that people played through 12+ times - some people 20+ times. And were willing to stand in long lines multiple times to do so.
So far, we've got cocoa powder and sugar in our cake recipe.
Everybody knows that we got considerably more to come to make a cake.
You can critique a cake based on just cocoa powder and sugar if you want to... but it's not going to change the plans of the baker much.
And, yeah, cocoa powder and sugar is pretty much just going to be "meh".
D'uh!!!