Glorious Alpha Two Testers!
Alpha Two Realms are now unlocked for Phase II testing!
For our initial launch, testing will begin on Friday, December 20, 2024, at 10 AM Pacific and continue uninterrupted until Monday, January 6, 2025, at 10 AM Pacific. After January 6th, we’ll transition to a schedule of five-day-per-week access for the remainder of Phase II.
You can download the game launcher here and we encourage you to join us on our for the most up to date testing news.
Alpha Two Realms are now unlocked for Phase II testing!
For our initial launch, testing will begin on Friday, December 20, 2024, at 10 AM Pacific and continue uninterrupted until Monday, January 6, 2025, at 10 AM Pacific. After January 6th, we’ll transition to a schedule of five-day-per-week access for the remainder of Phase II.
You can download the game launcher here and we encourage you to join us on our for the most up to date testing news.
Comments
Non-combatant is your baseline exp loss
Combatant is x1/2
Corrupted is x4
I really haven't been on the forum long, I haven't had the time to consume all the news of this game. Many of you have probably been here since the start so you understand the game better than I do. I was attracted to the fact that this was supposed to be a game that brought back that old school feeling of MMOs. It should be noted up front that this IS a PVP oriented game, that way people like myself do not have to waste our time.
I hope the game succeeds and you guys have years of fun playing it. I'll continue to wait for the next great old school MMO.
Steven has frequently touted this AoC will be casual/RP/PvE friendly and players won't be forced into PvP if they don't wish to. So we'll watch this space.
I would watch and see how this game balances to get the best of PvP and PvE without alienating players from it's subscription base.
Ultimately @ Loosid, AoC will have PvP that can happen whenever, but it has to be WORTH the risk for corruption. Generally most players won't take this risk. Also, with a game focused on community, all you need to do is call out to others about a corrupted player making your life hell and the community will fix the issue. Griefing and Ganking is a bane on any community, but this mechanic deters it, and players within a community will always step up to take care of an issue where someone is griefing. Having a system like this tho, ALLOWs meaningful PvP if it's worth it. Honestly I think it's a good system to be based from, but needs further tuning that we'll see in later testing phases (probably beta).
With that said, that type of game-play is in every MMO right now so if they could make end game enjoyable but different then I would be game. I guess we need to know just how much attention we're going to need to put towards node development even at later levels, what all the rewards will be for putting in that attention, how all the professions are going to be implemented as far as their importance, etc. I don't want the leet gear I'm going to craft to be just for looks, I want to blow-up some high level mobs.
If for no other reason than you believe "combat" to be the default first-class activity, ignoring politics, economy, etc. I don't think games can thrive like that anymore.
Take the dungeon we saw on the stream the other day... are you really asking for more of that - more of running around a room killing mobs and their buddy doesn't react standing 20 feet away? That gameplay is old and tired and needs to die. Why would we want more of it when as you stated we've played it for... 20 years already?
I don't mean to come off too harsh, so apologies if I sound that way. I just don't want players to keep asking for the same game, devs to keep giving them the same game, and people keep leaving for the same reasons.
@Zastro @Greek
I believe that many people, who like MMORPG, are tired of static and
I hope to meet you in the game, peace!
@Zastro @Greek
I believe that many people, who like MMORPG, are tired of static and
Guys i hope to meet in the game, peace.
I also hope to meet you all in game, war.
People by nature are competitive and the political aspect won't cater to many as only one person can "lead" a node or castle that leaves 9 (maybe) slots on a *monthly* rotation. Yes that will draw the attention of group but in the end either your going to a) play more than anyone else b) be better at pvp than anyone else c) have more money than anyone else or d) be a leader of a pvp capable guild and that will get you the spot.
I'm not saying raiding should be the only "end game" or we should even think about raiding in the conventional way. With the node system for a few weeks we can see 1 boss in this node, 2 in that node and none in node 3 we can pick and choose what we want to do with what's available. But we still need challenging content that we can be competitive with.
Also random thought. I hope the dungeons are expansive, non linear and take a long time to fully explore.
That's part of the problem, players think they're entitled to do 100% of the content. Most of the time with the thought that they can remain a mediocre player and the content should scale down to their personal skill level to allow them to complete it. Players thinking that 95% of the player base should be able to access 100% of the content a game has to offer.
If there is something that pushes me to improve either my character or my player skills then I continue to play until I reach that goal. And that was always the case with earlier games, hardcore raiders had content they wanted to get locked down, they improved themselves, their teams, their characters, until they locked that content down which pushed the release of new content. Those raiders pushed and drove the economy, they were there as a measuring stick for the next group of players who wanted to be raiders. This second group tried to improve themselves to reach that mark, they spent time in the game to do so. Those top two groups don't make up the largest portion of the player base, but they are a keystone.
When you dumb them down where the only thing that matters is the level you reach or the gear score you acquire then there is no drive. When the top level of players quit because it's too easy, and then the second layer quits because they have no goals to reach. You're left with casuals who think they're the best thing ever because the game has dumbed itself down to their level, OR you have a game built solely around PvP. PvP games are short lived.
No one wants the same end game content from 20 years ago, but they need more than the end game content (or lack of) from the past 10 years.
I would like to see more of a SWG/UO mind set where you kill tough monsters with friends that drop crafting enhancements that can make your crafted gear a ton better. This can be put in an open world dungeon, or a world boss. You can even put it in an instanced dungeon that requires teamwork and skill to complete. I think the raiding to gear is just model that needs to go. A 8 man group dungeon is one thing because you can put all kinds of stuff in dungeons because its not hard to get 8 people together. Getting 40 or more is, this requires the carrot and stick model.
So instead you need progression to drive people into niches and become unique while also remaining a valuable asset at all times. This means the original build is just as potent as all builds that come after. aka balance enables parity between new and old players, but that doesnt suit power crazed veterans who feel they are entitled to slay noobs because they have been here longer (hence levelling and gear grind). Not many games exist that are truly hybrid friendly and are instead flooded with FoTM or Meta builds instead. They destroy the viability of 'the many' to enable the viability of 'the few'. Not by skill but by privilege (entitlement). Then play people off against each other which suits the 'competitive' types fine. Because they become winners and winning means the losers leave until they have no one left to compete with. Great. You won the game. Enjoy the loneliness.
Secondly saying everyone is competitive is a propaganda and prejudice used to drive an agenda. Many people would rather collaborate than compete, which is the direct opposite. Neither is being competitive the same thing as liking a challenge. So you would do well to keep them apart. Just because I like to test and improve my own abilities does not mean I desire to be better than everyone else.
The idea of an MMO is for people to play together. If you put up a wall and say only X can do that content then you deny people the option to play together and turn what was full collaboration into smaller and smaller puddles of community. You go from community to cliques. You end up with what we have now. A gluttony of MMO games that are solo or small group play where those groups get ever smaller and isolated from each other until they are literally playing 'their own' isolated game within the game instead of the same game.
Dungeon difficulty is also subjective. For people who have bad memories, they will not be able to recall what tumblers have to be put in the right place at what time to undo the puzzle box that is the modern dungeon. That is not testing a players understanding of their own build or maximising its ability. Nor is it understanding the capabilities of their team mates to work in harmony with their skills and optimise their teamwork. Its is merely testing a players ability to defeat the puzzle box. Once its script is known, any player can beat the content. All you are in effect doing, is memorising and acting out a play, not testing your combat skill in any really meaningful way.
For dungeons to get permanently challenging and reusable. They must not become knowable. They must instead collate and test the skills that each group member possesses both individually or as a collection. The boss must tune itself to the strengths and weaknesses of each group it faces. That boss can get more difficult in two ways. 1. increasing the anti-group skill set it deploys to make it more unpredictable. 2. Constantly evaluate the TTK of the group and the boss to keep the contest on a knife edge but not overwhelming nor underwhelming. Its this latter tuning ability that can be used to determine how hard the content actually was according to the energy expended and reward should come in accordance with that. But not awards that deny content.
Role playing games demand you can play any role. Not just the roles that are viable.
Some people will NOT want to PVP, and be involved in PVE. Some will want to PVP exclusively and you will have others who are fine with both.
The outcome here is that the game will have to have elements of both. The "End Game PVE" content will be dungeons and encounters that will help gear players to become involved in PVP. I highly doubt there will be the raiding mentality that is prevalent in WoW, and it will more likely be what you see in a game like ArcheAge--PVE raiding to shore up PVP activities.
It's also quite likely there will be a matching amount of content that could be PVPed over--world dragons, bosses that groups could take down, but could be contested by others as well.