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Learn from mistakes/Avoid Issues/Provide Content
I feel I should voice a few of my thoughts and I hope Devs take away at least one thing from this.
First, learn from mistakes. Take recent launches of games and learn what the community dislikes and what they like. Know that streamers and content creators can make and break a game based on their reviews. I go to twitch and find out if the game is good before I buy now and it is a great utility for me.
-Don't be P2W (this will kill a game on its first day)
-Don't have expensive packs or content. I get that your looking for support but there are limitations. For example the shop currently has many items for far too much money. You will loose clients before they even watch a video of your game.
-Early access seems to be the new meta and it's unfortunate, but players think once a game is launched it should be near perfect. You will shoot yourself in the foot if you decide to go early access and you don't get the launch smooth. for example Bless Online. Do a massive open beta and learn from it...month later come in with the official launch. By doing this you get an idea of how many players to expect and what to do to prepare for that.
- Better to have more servers than too little and have players wait endlessly in a que.
- Players want PVP and PVE; provide plenty of both. Do not go with one or the other. Its like going to the store to grab chips, but not getting the dip. It's good but could be better with both.
- End game content. MASSIVE, HUGE, super important to get right. You want to have lots of content for players to do. Content that can be completed in a few days is not ideal. You need to have content for at least a month or more. A great plan to have is to be working on additional content releases and target them to come out as players come close to finishing content...you want to have a consistent flow and limited downtime.
-Social community. Some of the best times players can have in an mmorpg is hanging out with friends and players in city's/castles. At the same time you want them to have things to do such as great crafting system and alternatives to feel like they are progressing at the same time even if they don't leave the city.
-Professions and crafting. Bring unique yet valuable assets to these categories. For example as an apothecary I want to feel needed from guildies and friends by crafting potions that bring great value to them. Or as a herbalist; having to grow my herbs and harvesting resources to feel accomplished and not just dropping dims on the auction house. At the same time you dont want this to feel like a chore.
-Character customization. Have characters feel unique. Why have thousands of characters look a like with basic choices.
-Customization to the UI. Some players like the basic UI and others wont tolerate it. Have some options for players to organize to their play style.
- Skills/talents/builds. Have a good variety and have more that 10 slots on skill bar or whatever you call it. Simple is easy yes, but gets boring fast.
-Costumes and skins. I think there is a good amount of players that enjoy this stuff, but don't make in game armor/skins/weapons feel obsolete in comparison.
-Pets and Mounts. Players eat this up. have a fun and good system in place. Multiple rarities and difficulty to get. Have achievements and reward players for doing so.
- Optimization. This needs to be on lock for launch. players do not have the patients to deal with this when they are so incredibly hyped about a game. Not all gamers can afford SLI 1080 ti or higher rigs.
-Party system and grouping. Have a system in place for players to find others who want to accomplish the same goals. Whether they want to find a dungeon or world boss to down this needs to be efficient and easy.
- Give players something to look forward to like a special event or seasonal events. Have the environment react to events....rare thunderstorms bring a boss or a volcanic eruption spreads ashes across the territory alerting players to mount up and participate in a massive battle or item collections of some kind.
Will be adding more soon.
PS: I am a kickstarter supporter.
First, learn from mistakes. Take recent launches of games and learn what the community dislikes and what they like. Know that streamers and content creators can make and break a game based on their reviews. I go to twitch and find out if the game is good before I buy now and it is a great utility for me.
-Don't be P2W (this will kill a game on its first day)
-Don't have expensive packs or content. I get that your looking for support but there are limitations. For example the shop currently has many items for far too much money. You will loose clients before they even watch a video of your game.
-Early access seems to be the new meta and it's unfortunate, but players think once a game is launched it should be near perfect. You will shoot yourself in the foot if you decide to go early access and you don't get the launch smooth. for example Bless Online. Do a massive open beta and learn from it...month later come in with the official launch. By doing this you get an idea of how many players to expect and what to do to prepare for that.
- Better to have more servers than too little and have players wait endlessly in a que.
- Players want PVP and PVE; provide plenty of both. Do not go with one or the other. Its like going to the store to grab chips, but not getting the dip. It's good but could be better with both.
- End game content. MASSIVE, HUGE, super important to get right. You want to have lots of content for players to do. Content that can be completed in a few days is not ideal. You need to have content for at least a month or more. A great plan to have is to be working on additional content releases and target them to come out as players come close to finishing content...you want to have a consistent flow and limited downtime.
-Social community. Some of the best times players can have in an mmorpg is hanging out with friends and players in city's/castles. At the same time you want them to have things to do such as great crafting system and alternatives to feel like they are progressing at the same time even if they don't leave the city.
-Professions and crafting. Bring unique yet valuable assets to these categories. For example as an apothecary I want to feel needed from guildies and friends by crafting potions that bring great value to them. Or as a herbalist; having to grow my herbs and harvesting resources to feel accomplished and not just dropping dims on the auction house. At the same time you dont want this to feel like a chore.
-Character customization. Have characters feel unique. Why have thousands of characters look a like with basic choices.
-Customization to the UI. Some players like the basic UI and others wont tolerate it. Have some options for players to organize to their play style.
- Skills/talents/builds. Have a good variety and have more that 10 slots on skill bar or whatever you call it. Simple is easy yes, but gets boring fast.
-Costumes and skins. I think there is a good amount of players that enjoy this stuff, but don't make in game armor/skins/weapons feel obsolete in comparison.
-Pets and Mounts. Players eat this up. have a fun and good system in place. Multiple rarities and difficulty to get. Have achievements and reward players for doing so.
- Optimization. This needs to be on lock for launch. players do not have the patients to deal with this when they are so incredibly hyped about a game. Not all gamers can afford SLI 1080 ti or higher rigs.
-Party system and grouping. Have a system in place for players to find others who want to accomplish the same goals. Whether they want to find a dungeon or world boss to down this needs to be efficient and easy.
- Give players something to look forward to like a special event or seasonal events. Have the environment react to events....rare thunderstorms bring a boss or a volcanic eruption spreads ashes across the territory alerting players to mount up and participate in a massive battle or item collections of some kind.
Will be adding more soon.
PS: I am a kickstarter supporter.
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Comments
I disagree with end game content.
There will be no early access besides 1 or 2 day head start.
Costumes/skins/pets/mounts all included.
I'm not sure, based on op, how much you have looked/read into the game. Perhaps reviewing all of that information and then coming back to your concerns would be beneficial to this thread.
You posted a lot here, some of it has already been confirmed.
Also it's not always about endgame, a lot of us want to enjoy the journey, have a great meaningful leveling experience. Yes with end game but with a big focus on the whole game not just one aspect.
There is however one thing I completely agree with and that's a smooth launch, test the load on servers prior and get kinks worked out before live.
Now you post this huge wall and decide to put "I'm a Kickstarter Backer" at the end. I dont mean to be rude but if you are a backer one would think you would've kept tabs on development and be in the know about what direction and decisions the developmental team and Steven have made. Your post gives off the attitude of "I know best". Again not trying to be rude just how it all comes off.
Almost all games have an initial spike of players, and the population evens out within 6 weeks or so of launch.
If a game launches with enough servers to service this initial spike, when the population evens out, we will be left with servers with populations too low to maintain the full compliment of nodes on the server.
Early server mergers are also especially problematic in Ashes, as all node progress will be lost.
I would much rather a few weeks of queuing followed by years of appropriately populated servers than a few weeks of no queuing followed by years of server populations unable to maintain a single metropolis.
People that adverse to queues should simply opt to skip the first few months of new MMO's.
@Azathoth "I disagree with end game content." Big mistake in an mmorpg. Think you need to do some research on what mmorpg's are and how players play them.
@Noaani "you and I have the exact same view about number of servers, I'll take queues for a long term healthy population over no queue low pop excess server counts."
I would have to agree with this.
@Xschlemmx "Also it's not always about endgame, a lot of us want to enjoy the journey, have a great meaningful leveling experience. Yes with end game but with a big focus on the whole game not just one aspect."
I would have to disagree on this, end game is crucial for success. I'm not saying they should sacrifice a good story to do it. no reason they cant provide both. Also just because dev teams confirm things doesn't mean they cant change their minds or implement other ideas. This happens with many games and dev teams.
"Now you post this huge wall and decide to put "I'm a Kickstarter Backer" at the end. I don't mean to be rude but if you are a backer one would think you would've kept tabs on development and be in the know about what direction and decisions the developmental team and Steven have made. Your post gives off the attitude of "I know best". Again not trying to be rude just how it all comes off."
No i don't know best, far from it. Making a family can make you loose tabs on a lot. i read here and there. Above is just opinion and reinforcement not to sure why people have to get rude.
Alpha 0 is Early Access.
Alpha 1 is Early Access.
We already purchased Early Access packs with KS and the Summer Backer campaigns.
The Ashes game design has plenty of max level content - which is significantly different from endgame content... Ashes design does not really have endgame content.
Right, I'm wrong about end game content because that's what MMORPG's have been doing forever and anything different is wrong.
When you hit max level in Ashes you'll be the most effective at a Siege, Caravan Raid, and PvP/PvE content. That makes it good end-game content for you, sure. Why would you want to lock other players from content because they're not at max level?
Different is automatically bad/wrong appears to be a common thought on a forum dedicated to an MMORPG that's trying to separate itself from the others and change the way that MMORPG's work.
You're right though, let's just keep doing the same thing and playing the same thing and not wanting anything different. Your thread says learn from mistakes but you want the same thing other MMORPG's are doing.
In the end I think it comes down to opinion, I think we disagree.