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.
Small random events
Fast travel won't be an option (halleujah) in ashes, we get that. BUT now that we can take the time to explore the environment, there should be many things that we can stumble upon (like in Skyrim) that grab our attention. I would prefer puzzles or small side quests, like: you meet a woman on the path who says "Please go up ahead and find my necklace."
Now, I know that I.S is planning something in this direction, but the key is that these small events that can occur should always be random. While walking to a node, a few players might encounter a passing band of wolves, they kill the wolves and move on, in the next 20 minutes a man is walking along the path, and he's looking for someone that can deliver something/give him something, so a player helps him, 10 minutes later there's a coach on a wagon and the wheel is broken, he needs a player of certain skill level in construction to help him.. etc. If the events are randomized (sometimes being easy, sometimes difficult) it'll help in immersion experience of the game.
Now, I know that I.S is planning something in this direction, but the key is that these small events that can occur should always be random. While walking to a node, a few players might encounter a passing band of wolves, they kill the wolves and move on, in the next 20 minutes a man is walking along the path, and he's looking for someone that can deliver something/give him something, so a player helps him, 10 minutes later there's a coach on a wagon and the wheel is broken, he needs a player of certain skill level in construction to help him.. etc. If the events are randomized (sometimes being easy, sometimes difficult) it'll help in immersion experience of the game.
0
Comments
They described them in an early stream as being your filler quests between events and narrative quests but are not quite dailies.
Basically it will be like mini events in which "something has happened in the world and I need to do something about it or something negative will happen". They won’t be the same every day.
I guess we won't know how diverse they will be until the testing phases begin ^^ I like a range of puzzles, gathering and combat quests etc. They already mentioned that grinding won't be a thing so I sure hope the Task quests are varied ^^
Ashes will have encounters similar to what is asked for in the OP.
I'm not sure that random is quite the right word though.
Seems like it will be a mix of procedural and "scripted".
Beyond random, the results of our encounters should affect the world in some way.
We return the necklace - how does that affect the narrative of the world?
Where does the woman go and what does she do once she has the necklace?
Killing only 20 wolves in the ZOI may not make that much of a visible impact, initially.
But, 1,000 wolf deaths within a relatively short span of time might cause a larger event.
Or it may be that the 20 wolves you kill is the last of the pre-requisite for triggering an event.
I think the different encounters are not going to be reset in the span of 10 or 20 minutes. Sounds way too soon.
And I think the encounters are not going to be triggered by people walking along the path.
But, for instance, the encounters on along a caravan route will change each time a caravan runs along the path. The number of escorts will change, the type of escorts will change, the types of environmental hazards that might occur will change, the availability of flora and fauna will change, the weather will change.
All of those parameters will interact in a procedural manner to affect how players experience traveling along the caravan route.
Caravans may not run every 10 or 20 minutes. But the impact of what occurred during a caravan run can affect the ZOI significantly for longer than 10 or 20 minutes.