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.
One thing (besides P2W) that you absolutely do NOT want in AoC
What is one thing you don't want at all to be in AoC?
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Comments
Say no to fast travel.
-any ui elements that aren't perfectly robust implemented
-bad animations
-fast travel and other implementations of cheap game mechanics that could be done in a more expanded way
Not just one, but a few things I wouldn't like:
- full loot on death
- mages and rangers being OP as in every other game, fix ranged dps
- slow combat
Thats totaly normal. Games are never balanced, and i can already see the complains because of the1v1 Arena Ranking
Maybe range classes could only fight other range classes in 1v1 arena and same for melees?
That way range classes could be designed a little weaker to be balanced in mass pvp.
Example of a common unbalanced risk versus reward is brought about by legacy looting systems. Guilds or premade ninja looting groups can dominate need before greed, master looter and bidding loot systems with very little effort. Since anyone can wear any item of gear in Ashes, and since there is minimal bind on pickup loot, there really is no counter to "why did you all need that item?"
This is classically unbalanced risk versus reward, the ninja looters have a disproportionate share of the reward for the same amount of risk as everyone else.
Unbalanced risk and reward leads to toxicity and ultimately players loosing faith in the game systems. Aside from P2W, this is the next biggest reason why I abandon MMORPGs.
PS there are ways to fix unbalanced looting systems without creating additional loot or negatively impacting the economy.
- no small arenas, so ranged classes aren't disadvantaged due to lack of space
- too harsh corruption that removes "conflict" out of conflict based MMO
- gambling and lottery in character and gear progression
- too big focus on PvE and too low focus on PvP (should be balanced, PvP activities should help you progress also)
- bots and gold sellers (hoping Ashes will have strong mechanics to fight this)
- GMs "forgiving" hackers and exploiters that should remain perma banned
The last game i played even managed it to launch patches with game breaking bugs and mechanics in them. While they were warned about it being in the patch by players on the test realm!
Also support that leaves tickets open for days sometimes even weeks with out any answer. Only to be answered with "we can't help you" with out any further reason why! Its fine if you can't assist people with a certain kind of problem, but at least have the decency to explain why!
customer support as well as a good mod team are key for a good game to operate! Since AoC is sub based ill take it we will not see any kind of neglect of the team that is working on it!
No pants
and then you have to press it at the correct time or else its GG
.......... ohh wait
(please remove it and #MakeCombatGreatAgain )
but real talk, no matter how great the game is and how much is promised
if the combat is total Ass then noone will want to play
1. Time consuming content made to be time consuming for the sake of being time consuming, aka grind.
2. Attempts at trying to balance all classes and all augments perfectly, you can just as well remove all classes and let everyone have the same skills at that point, as well as it ruining the unique flavors of classes.
3. DPS meter, let people use their own head for once in calculating their damage.
4. Quest arrows or anything handholding...
5. RNG in crafting
6. Easy content
7. Common Fast Travel
8. Not so secret secrets (give us mind challenges for once too!)
9. No variety
Quests and quest mechanics such as markers that lead you by the nose.
Development that loses it's originally intended plans and goes down a different path from what they promised.
I don't want developers to cater to just a small group of people who cry the loudest and make threats of quitting if things don't go their way but instead listen to constructive input from the majority that desire a good game for all.
DPS meters. Let people learn to be individuals instead of clones.
People who feed trolls and help to create a toxic community.
As @lexmax stated above, a looting system that is fair to all and can't be taken advantage of by ninja looters.
Actually people that really use DPS meters for themselves, and craft their own builds and improve them with help of meters are individuals.
People that don't use DPS meters, but just copy builds from those individuals that designed them are clones.
Define what classes do well, and just as importantly what they are weak at.
Don't give into the temptation of designing out class weaknesses as you add more content into the game. Don't add a nonstop influx of new classes (not to say don't ever add new class). Be sure the new class does not steal from the core/role/fantasy of another, or if it does ensure it is in a drastically mechanically different way.
I second Fast Travel.
Don't trivialize travel in the game. Part of the adventure is the journey. The fear that the next crossroads can be an ambush, the meeting of a new people along the way, the bumping into a rare mob, or seeing something new.
If you do have some limited form of fast travel make sure it makes sense, not just some muguffin that opens from thin air, and unexplained that brings you exactly to where you want to be. It needs to make contextual sense, example a boat that links two large port cities.
Too many PvP bracket sizes.
1v1, 2v2, 3v3, 5v5, 8v8, 20v20
You'll never be able to balance across all these sizes. Pick 2 structured formats that best inform the challenges in other unstructured formats (sieges, world pvp) so that balancing in that environment helps (or at least doesn't break) overall game balance. Personally I favor 8v8 as it matches the standard dungeon group, while being large enough to help inform to the challenges of larger World PvP.