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.
Why AoC
Hey guys,
I want to know why you chose AoC as your upcoming MMO?
Well, many people believe that MMO-games are dead. So many devs came up with new ideas for awesome mmos and making promises to become the best MMO we have ever seen with new stuff and.... you know the story. I grew up with MMOs but sadly the good mmos died or changed that much that I didnt want to play them anymore. I just want to know why you decided to stick to AoC and why you believe AoC will become the best MMO on the market? There are many MMOs in development at the momemt thats why I want to know why you chose AoC, what can this game offer you that other MMOs in development cant?
btw sry for my bad london
I want to know why you chose AoC as your upcoming MMO?
Well, many people believe that MMO-games are dead. So many devs came up with new ideas for awesome mmos and making promises to become the best MMO we have ever seen with new stuff and.... you know the story. I grew up with MMOs but sadly the good mmos died or changed that much that I didnt want to play them anymore. I just want to know why you decided to stick to AoC and why you believe AoC will become the best MMO on the market? There are many MMOs in development at the momemt thats why I want to know why you chose AoC, what can this game offer you that other MMOs in development cant?
btw sry for my bad london
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Comments
Seeing people working on this game who made eq1 is also a huge thing. Knowing that is enough for me.
I think this will be the MMO I enjoy the most for the longest amount of time due to the non-static nature of the landscape. I am most excited about the thought "if I were to ever get bored with this game, I should be able to make a pilgrimage to all of the other nodes. Those nodes should be different from the last time I was there, thus relieving my boredom."
My greatest fear is a stagnate world after so much effort into developing a living world. Hopefully, if for some unholy and unknown reason this were to happen, IS would shake things up from their end.
Another thing is the rewarding PvP. It's not just factions fighting eachother just for the sake of battle, but here you can actually profit from it. You can defend the node you spent so much time developping, you can siege another node with your guild and loot some wares, you can escort caravans or attack them...
And last but not least the mentallity of the devs. I think they are the kind that really listens to the community and try to improve non-stop. That is something that keeps an MMO on the right track.
First off, class homogenisation. Look at SW:TOR for example. Compare differences between Consular and Inquisitor.
Another huge reason is instant gratification. I can be raid ready in WoW in less than a week. Rewards and being able to do activities come so fast and easy. That means that the reward, access to a raid or getting a piece of gear is less special. It carries less significance.
Quality of life changes is another big one. Being able to have zero interaction with the world, and yet being able to be transported to a dungeon, or into a group. It's convenient, it removes a lot of the headache. It also removes a little bit of the social interactions. Whilst not enough in and of itself, it's a cog in the machinery.
Time investment. This is yet another one. And it's quite important, especially for crafters. If it takes you a lot of time to level up both character and profession. The chances of you making alternative characters, especially for different professions decrease. You'll still play alts. But no longer will you have access to all professions, because it's easy to level both that and a character. Thus, once again increasing social interactions. Why bother finding a crafter to craft my item, when I can just put the materials in a guild bank, or possibly mail them to an alt within the same node. The path of least resistance is one people naturally gravitate towards. (Look at mob skipping in WoW)
The ability to express oneself. Everyone, roleplayer or otherwise, has a visual idea of how they want their character to look in the course of the game. But, in modern games, where gear is stat heavy people often look the same. Except when there is transmog. Which is one of the best features of the last WoW expansions (Since Cata) so a lot of choice in this area is imperative. A cash shop for these cosmetic choices seems likely, which makes me sad. Because I'd argue, individuality, and the ability to express oneself is actually a big part of an MMO, and putting that behind a cashwall (in a subscription based game) is not the best decision. But it's not game breaking.
Freedom, one thing I really like about the alpha 0 we all saw, was not seeing the creatures remaining hit points. Or even it's level. It requires you to adapt, and develop survival skills, which will come in useful later in the game. It makes mobs more memorable. And creates tension during levelling. Which in turn makes gaining a level a better feeling (if it takes work to level)
There's also freedom to choose ones stats. This is a funny one. (you can be a armour and sword wielding mage if you want to) paraphrasing Mr. Shariff. This lends itself really well to stat allocation. You can really be what you want. Even if you know it's probably not going to be very viable. I've had characters in DnD sessions that weren't really combat viable. Didn't stop me from playing them for countless hours.
Strength
Agility
Dexterity
Intellect
Wisdom
Constitution
Charisma
Luck
When levelling, choosing where to allocate your stats to. And only giving ONE respec, every 10 levels, so you know what works for you and what doesn't.
Gear. Now I know I mentioned this briefly. But gear always has stats these days. Which creates the trap of becoming a gear grind. Oh, but that axe has two more strength (and that's a kind example) stat jumps between tiers of gear tend to be a lot higher. Which is why I'd prefer to see effects instead. Those shoes have exceptionally soft soles, it decreases your chance of being detected in stealth. Or what about, a cursed ring. Increases your damage output by x percent, but you're cursed, and you're luck has run out, and won't get crits or lucky dodges.
I know a few of these won't even be thought about. Which saddens me a little. But at least Ashes plans to check some of these boxes. I hope they succeed. Because I'm playing less and less these days. Mmo's that is.
Not many publishers have the faith in sandbox heavy MMOs as the community is the backbone and you need to provide huge amount of horizontal multi faceted progression systems and tools to allow the community to prosper. most big name publishers are not prepared to take the risk, the time or put in the work.
With Intrepid taking a hedge bet on both types within the genre they should pull enough of a playerbase from both preferences and hopefully get enough to stick and get invested with a hopefully a vast content scape before the next flavour of the month game swings by....
Personally this will be my last hope for MMOs, It's not so much the genre I just don't know if enough players can contribute enough or have the patience and dedication in modern times. I am not sure even if I want to myself.
My friends was looking into games for 2018s and we come across AoC. At first my friends was not intended as many games in the past they look forward/hpye but when came out let them down.. but I like the looks of AOC so my friends and I spends many hours looking at youtube videos in the end my friends and I would like to play a MMORPG game as I always wanted to .so we are all going to support Aoc and hope it will be a good game .. this will be my first mmorpg.
At first what caught my eye was the node system, I like the idea of a changing world. After all change breathes new life into any game. That’s why I like mods on games like Elder scrolls or Fallout. So I thought this has the potential to be a game I will not get easily bored of. So I watched further.
I learned that the game was a sandbox and had many of the mechanics I have been looking for in an MMO, stuff like being able to be an artisan of such a high caliber that he would be renowned throughout the server and people would travel hours just to get the stuff he makes. Stuff like :no fast travel, I loved this idea because games now are designed around fast travel which allows developers to get lazy with travel alternatives, a game designed around no fast travel will have a ton of traveling alternatives to make traversing their immense world and exploring it fun again, instead of making me want to skip it and get to my destination quickly.
Anti-zerg mechanics.
True no faction based open World, PvP that actually makes changes to the world. While at the same time implementing mechanics to prevent PK of people just looking to be passive.
Immersion Focus. So we won’t have immersion breaking cosmetics or mounts, true Fantasy I’m a fan of that.
No Universal Auction house forcing people to actually get out there with their craft and talk to people and promote it or get the materials necessary for it instead of sitting in front of an NPC refreshing to see if his bid is still active.
The game was not Free to Play, This weeds out a lot of the people that are in it just to make other people’s experience bad, people paying for a game will most likely want to have fun and not just make others unhappy (Ofc we will still get trolls but this weeds out a lot).
Player housing with very good no land grab mechanics in place.
So far these all sounded too good to be true, this is another no man’s sky i thought. But I decided to keep watching.
As I watched I was made aware that the guy at the helm of the company and the project is a gamer that, like me, has been sitting on the other end of the screen, has been ignored by developers, has been hurt by promises that were never delivered, that felt how the P2W hurt the community of games and how greed has changed the genre into something unrecognizable to what it should have become, and layed down a vow of no P2W and total transparency with the community. I liked that a lot, So i kept watching to see if he made true on his promise of transparency at least, since for the no P2W part we will have to wait for the game to launch first.
Then i learned that the Owner of the company used money from his own pocket to create a game he could be proud of, one that he could play on his retirement, one to show the industry how it’s done. And it was not just pocket change, He had put millions of dollars into this game, he had put (by then, April 2017) 2 million dollars of his own money into the project, and planned to spend around 35 million dollars on it’s creation by the time of release I found this impressive and thought, well this is a guy that has a clear idea of what he wants, he has been transparent so far. He has a dream game. He might not know a thing about making video games, but he has the money to hire guys that do know what they are doing. And as a gamer he will make sure that those guys are making the game of his dreams.
There was also this spark in their eyes, in their tone, their gestures, their body language showed they were honest, These were all unscripted livestreams, long enough to show if there was a hint of dishonesty, and it didn’t show. These guys he hired are not only experienced, they share his vision. I thought to myself as I watched them playfully hold back the information of the game.
As I saw them there, live, I saw them swallow the need to scream all this incredible things inside their heads. Things they are planning to make. This gave me confidence in the project. Enough to, the same as him, put money of my pocket into it, so I backed the kickstarter.
So far these are all promises and it’s all on faith, but even though I don’t like everything about the game so far. I like enough of it to think it will truly breathe life into the Genre, at least for me and give me thousands of hours of entertainment. They have been true to their word so far, to the letter and have given me very little reason to doubt them.