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Diura's Notes on Ashes of Creation Stream : 15SEP2017
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Stream: Ashes of Creation 15SEP2017
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/175028745
A developer play-through of the PAX PvE demo was shown. Steven, Jeffery, Akil and Joshua took part. The camp at the beginning of the demo ( Morrow’s Mead ) is a Stage 2 Node.
Diura Notes: http://aocwiki.net/Nodes#Development_Stages
Stage 2 Node : Encampment (Takes Many hours to develop)
Jeffrey points out that the Node development can go either way - They may pack up and leave or it can develop further into Stage 3.
Diura notes: This implies that PRIOR to STAGE 3 when nodes delevel NODES at STAGE 2 delevel back to STAGE 1 slowly with inactivity.
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*Developers pick up Landry's quest which is to escort a decoy Caravan because previous Caravans trading between nodes keep going missing*
Developers go on to discuss the UI and state that it is the first iteration. The UI seen is there for function and to simply allow players to play the game. Jeffery says it will be a while before we see what final UI will look like.
*Developers need to go find some mushrooms*
Steven highlights that mushrooms don’t leave clues to being gatherable. You will need to know what can and what can’t be gatherable through learning visuals of resources. Intrepid want the environment to be organic and give players a strong sense of place and they do that by making resources feel natural. Resources will be in location where you would expect them to be.
*SPED UP FOR PAX*
Gathering mushrooms contributed to the Nodes development growth.
Morrow’s Mead becomes a Stage 3 Node : Village (Few Days to develop)
Diura Notes : At Stage 3 Player Run governments are unlocked http://aocwiki.net/Nodes#Node_Leadership , new quests are available, new merchant services, upgraded crafting stations, static node housing, freeholds can be placed in the ZOI and Nodes can be sieged.
*Developers begin their journey with the decoy caravan*
*Steven accidentally flips a caravan*
Steven shows us the flipped Caravan and reminds us that this is a pre-alpha build and physics happen. He says it's part of the fun of game development. Things get noticed and it will be fixed.
*Developers and Caravan ambushed by Sladeborne*
SLADEBORNE: Used to be a really beautiful race “some time ago” but something caused their beauty to be inverted and turn into something else. They had a beautiful civilisation up in the clouds but came back down to “Verra” and can barely fly any more. They also may be responsible for the Caravans disappearing o.o…
Steven continues by adding that the environment and story is being blended in with each classes utility skills. They will help you to find clues or to fight hazard in the environment.
Diura Notes :
Cleric Utility: Cleanse - Use this skill to cleanse an area of harmful environmental effects.
Mage Utility: Mage Detection - Reveal secret passages and magically hidden terrain around you.
Ranger Utility: Track - Use this skill to show nearby tracks, leading to unknown adventures.
Tank Utility: Perception - Use this skill to detect threats within range of your perception.
*Ranger uses TRACK from developers to see which path to take*
Jeffrey points out that if your party doesn't have the necessary class present then trial and error is required to find an alternative/same route.
Steven reminds us that the PAX demo is a slice of what is to come. They plan on making skills a mixture of Action Oriented and Tab Targeting (Players will be able to blend these into a comfortable style). The player will be able to dictate what skills they choose in terms of playstyle from a greater skill tree. Skills will also react in “combination” with other players skills.
*Ranger Utility to see where Sladeborne direction*
*Mage Utility to find hidden pathway*
*Cleric Utility to Cleanse area under the waterfall*
Tank could have seen the oncoming attack if he had used his Utility but he didn’t and so the developers were “caught on surprise”. (He just forgot to demonstrate the utility luckily the developers knew what was coming ^^)
Steven goes to talk about the comboing system on the Mage - “Keystroke skill/Weapon ability” which is tied to your weapon. He explains that it will be going through UI changes that the UI is in its first iteration. They want to have it so that it feels comfortable and accentuates skill. This skill will feed your focus. Not all skills will be mana and energy based, some will be focused based. You can choose to spec into these as you progress your skill tree. This will be in place of an auto attack.
The weapon ability itself will have an in depth progress system. Not only will each weapon have its own individual attributes that you can plug and play into your combos but are also going to relate to your overall skill tree in general - for example perhaps mage will be able to lower resistances or apply condition effects.
*Boss Fight begins*
Steven tells us that Ashes (including for bosses) won't have floor templates on the ground all the time warning you of incoming attacks. You will need to watch animations and learn through trial and error to overcome the challenge.
*Boss defeated* yeay \o/
*DEMO ENDS*
Jumps straight into talking about PAX. They had a great time and once they got back they jumped “straight out of the frying pan and into the fire” - taking on board the feedback they received at PAX from the community.
They are now working towards ALPHA 0 which starts on December 15th:
About 800ish people scheduled for Alpha 0
It will be ONE ZONE. They are taking from PAX and expanding what we know.
There will be THREE NODES
Only one of those three nodes will be able to reach the village stage (Stage 3)
This will determine what quests we can encounter and what Open world dungeons and events can happen
Early look of the Empyrean Divine Gateway/ starting zone
4kmx4km slice of the world
Each environment is 2kmx2km
Forest area on one side, river/floodplain area and a desert area (which is similar to the one seen at PAX)
Throughout the areas there is going to be a large river to separate these areas
Nodes will encompass ⅓ each of the zone.
Start at level 1 - can level up to about level 10
You can choose between different skills / some skill progression
Different equipments
Find different drops
Experience a little bit of crafting
Able to gather some things
Choose between male and female preset characters
Ranger, Mage, Cleric and Tank
Choose Kaelar and Empyrean Race
Three distinct Open World dungeons
Different monster spawn tables which correlate with different node activity and progression
Steven goes on to talk a bit about the Skill Tree progression
The skill tree will allow you to tweak your role to your playstyle.
It will follow a points based system where you can begin to unlock different tiers of skills as you progress and select certain skills and you can delve deeper into individual skills ability.
Example : Tank
Shield Might - Swing your shield in a forward arc, dealing damage and knocking down all enemies in a melee range.
^ You can focus to put points into this skill which may allow additional bonus such as extra damage, a secondary effect such as a bleed. This will be fun things to differentiate yourself as a player
Developers talk about that all feedback is great and want to carry on open development and having the community involved as much as they can.
*CONCEPT ARTS*
Diura Notes : https://forums.ashesofcreation.com/discussion/36006/concept-art-alpha-0/p1?new=1
Developers go onto Question and Answers from the Forums and Discord.
Q: Do you plan on finishing all the skills on the first four classes and polishing them, before starting on the next four?
A: No, would be impossible. Will look at lumps of each class and see how they balance with each other. Working on all classes together and progressively build them together. Reason there are four demo classes atm is for animation purposes etc. All the concepts you would expect from a wider range of classes are there which allow for testing on a small scale - healer, melee, ranger, castor.
Q: When will the Racial Buttons and clothing merchandise become purchasable in your Store?
A : Soon as Shipment and fulfillment becomes available which is hopefully next week
Q: Will we be able to sheath weapons/instruments or will they always be in the character's hand?
A: Yes
Q: Are you going to get rid of the sweet spot bar from combat and look for another way to accomplish the same effect?
A: Discussed during the steam already, but yes, the plan is to keep developing it and move that system forward. It was never intended to debut the bar as the final product its a first iteration.
Q: Can I explicitly focus on trade skills in-game and become just as powerful or influential as I would by gear grinding pve/pvp?
A: It is really up to the player. If you want to become powerful and influential then that is kind of up to you. You can make a trade empire if you want but you have to put the work into it. Intrepid aim to ensure that players have enough “dials” to choose what they want to do to influence the world. Also want to make sure that those dials are balanced so no matter what you want to focus on you can get the best (and be the best) out of that system
Q: In terms of character customisation and RP, will I be able to "hide" the armour in the head slot? And will there be a option for cosmetic armour slots that offer no stats - they are just purely cosmetic.
A: Yes 
Q: Will there be nodes for resource quality as in will certain areas have better quality wood than others?
A: Not forever, nodes spawn randomly across the world and for the time it's “live” it might be known/discovered to have high quality materials, and will be available until its depleted. It may never reappear in that area.
Q: Will there be open world PvP objectives that are always contested? A node with a very minor reward that groups will constantly fight over without a lockout window?
A: No plans for that at the moment. Lots of plans for various type of spontaneous battleground and systems that come and go that plays can contest over. Having a static system doesn’t allow the world to evolve.
Q:Will Tulnar be able to dig tunnels? For instance, I can put up a freehold where ever but can I dig a tunnel and live in it where ever? Can I dig an underground system of tunnels and call that my home if I am a Tulnar?
A: No, but perhaps Tulnar will have Freeholds that resemble mounds of dirt?
Q: When will you release Node Part 3 video?
A: Soon
Q: Will we be able to toggle hide character names and guild names etc?
A: From the player perspective, absolutely
Q: Can we change the class names e.g Tank to Guardian?
A: Archetypes have role based names on purpose to avoid confusion on what each role does Combing archetypes will give a full class name (64 class types) which will be released soon. Titles will represent the flavour of the cross archetypes. E.g Tank+Cleric = Paladin
Q: Have you decided on visiting other conventions yet?
A: Yes and once those places have been confirmed then details will be released.
I had fun learning as I was writing it out and got a bit carried away 
Comments
Thanks @diura
I will catch up later.
Can you make a topic/sheet of "Alpha 0 Content" so that you can update it regularly also and will be easier for Alpha 0 attendees keep track of stuff?
Nice updates!!!!!