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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.
Comments
This is my sentiment too. People always use the argument, "Well don't be a casual and play more" or better yet "Why should we slow lvl progression for people playing a lot". Time spent in game should not directly reflect your level. Quality and contribution should. I can derp around killing/grinding for 5 hours to max out my XP to Time ratio or spend 2 hour questing, pvping, crafting, or raiding. People who find the max XP to grind ratio on a specific mob type should not be elevated. The players who are experiencing the game should be elevated.
This is how games get bots, coveted grind spots, and stagnate communities. Yes all MMOs have the chance of having these 3 things, but we shouldn't help them along.
My last 2c: A lot of people don't actually want to play the first month now-a-days. They are cautious with "the next best MMO" and will wait a month or two. When they decide to check out AOC (and they will) do we want them to see lvl 50s everywhere? That's pretty disheartening in my book.
I plan on Blitzing to 50, but I don't think we'll have to worry about "grind spots" as Devs have mentioned finite/mobile resource spawns. I would imagine mobs would be the same.
I honestly didn't expect the 1st two options to have so many votes tbh - I figured players would know this by now
- If you can max level in a day(extreme example,) the zones and content the developers put so much time and effort into get blown through faster than they can crank out new areas with meaningful content. So one path the developers could take would be that leveling speed could be a function of their ability to add new content.
- Will there be side progression(a.k.a. Guild Wars 2) when you hit max-level? You could take the road to max-level(1-2 months) as a training course where you now have the skills and experience to tackle the harder content. In this fashion, you can tier the end game gear with either I-level or dependencies in order to further progress (similar to FFXIV) through areas previously not possible with lower rated gear.
- The Asian model - grind grind and grind some more(you're not doing it right if you don't have a bot program grinding for you while you sleep!) I'm not particularly fond of this as it is nothing more than a time-gate. Time gates aren't necessarily bad, but this is the laziest approach I can think of.
Additionally, the experience gain portion of leveling could be a factor in time-to level.
Some examples:
- Bonus exp for chain killing. Still viable as a solo player
- Party bonus EXP. Biased towards grouping. However, if mobs are not efficient exp to solo and LFG tools work well, then you could in theory remove the bias.
- skill chains? (had to put this there as I miss them from ffxi)
I do agree that the first 10 levels should come quickly, within 1-2 days tops. It gives enough exposure to the class to know if it is right for you without having you feel like you wasted your time.
After that, it could be anyone's guess what may be implemented.
And you're thinking like a ThemePark MMO Player - GW2, FFXIV are both ThemePark MMOs
All Day All Night~~
All Day All Night~~
Viva la grind
Viva la noche
Viva los pk'ers
I agree, if you are not able to truly feel what level you are before leveling, you're leveling too quickly imo.
Even in D&D, I have played some games where the progression from 1-5 was so quick I was level 6 before I had a reason to use most of my abilities. There has to be a balance for those that want it to be slow and those that just want to be done with it.
I would prefer max level not being an accomplishment that occurs in 21-45 hours, but I understand that logic. For me personally if this was a AAA game worth $60 out of the box, I would want 60 hours required for max level. Since it's sub based, that calculation isn't as useful because I want there to be more content that 15 hours worth a month. Although to be honest there will be months where I might struggle to hit that mark.
I would say a Month to Max for a casual player, blitzing should take under a week.
I doubt many new players will be turned on by having to play for 3 months just to hit 50.....plus you have to think about future level increases. Suddenly that 2 months you spent on your main becomes 3 for an alt.
Anyways, I'd like to see less than a week to get to it. cap should take months of decent gameplay time.
Player A:
But then again, i guess its the Devs of those MMOs which is why its commonly portrayed as a (boring) grind - its not designed to be fun ... as such, thats why it's Player-Base view it the same way
Touche, but why not have both ?
40 hours, imo, is nice.
If all you do is game, then after a solid week of work you can reach max level.
If you are a part time gamer, then maybe two weeks?
A weekend gamer, 8 weeks?
Again, I would personally like the level cap to take what feels like a decent amount of time based on what my character is doing. In Ashes where we supposedly have lots of land to explore in a very open way, leveling should take longer. It should not be a linear tutorial to max level.
As much as I love being occupied, I also hope that some of the wilderness is calm so I can run about for a few minutes or more without finding a mob, city, castle, etc.
Rather, the focus should be on a steady progression of new, engaging content - with minimal "grind".
I'm definitely hoping for multiple avenues of progression.
People asking progression to take 3+ month with no real details on the progression of character or content are just of a different mindset than myself. Which is fine we can both agree on not wanting things to come easily. Some people feel a real sense of accomplishment from time spent systems. Vertical leveling systems are fine and to be build upon not reduced to nothing. I personally look elsewhere in games to carve out my story. A journey might begin with a single step, But one foot in front of the other doesn't make for a very interesting one. lol
No level cap is another beast entirely. I think we would all be ok with a game where progress was ever present. Getting our way there though might be a tough ask. lol
However, than main difference from you and I is that I prefer PvE content. Gear scaling in PvE isn't as big as an issue as for PvP, so I guess from a strictly PvP aspect I can see where you're coming from especially since every server is PvP. For skill based combat, arena fights will always be an option, but if PvP is your preference then I guess you'd prefer it be that way in open world as well. Its a difficult thing to balance, but I have faith the Ashes team will manage.
But each level could have more depth than that as opposed to seeing it as
" another boring grind "
I understand having some tutorials pop-up throughout the first 10 levels due to not having access to everything at level 1, but if I make it to level 10 before I can strike out on my own that might as well have just been 1 level.