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.
Do you guys think Ashes will be just another MMORPG or will it be something entirely different?
Magic Man
Member
I believe it will be somewhere between however much I hope it to be something entirely different (mainly because I despise the MMORPG genre as it comprises of one or two unique games that don't 'feel' like a game from 2005). Despite the promising features they've told us, in my opinion, if the core gameplay mechanics is just like any other MMORPG (uninteresting combat, lack of deep exploration, being non-immersive, unexciting story and quests and in general the 'artificial' feel that most MMOs have - in which case you just click stuff to do something rather than putting an effort that emphasize the 'RPG' element), it would still be a decent game and even perhaps the best MMORPG out there but wouldn't be able to impress most of the gamers around the world and would cease to exist when a better MMORPG comes to the market and change the genre for good but this time for real.
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Invincible Tank
Unrivalled Dps
Queen of Growlgate
Kraken Tamer
Super Cutie
H8 me cuz u ain't me
I can be a life devouring nightmare. - Grisu#1819
Agreed. Hopefully every moment of it will be fun for all kinds of gamers
The best advice so far is for a studio to choose a demographic and tailor their product to them. Do it so well that the servers can keep running, updates happen on time, and payroll/bills paid. If you can do all that then the game is a success no matter how small (relatively) the player base is.
IS has chosen their demographic and there seems to be enough hype to suggest AoC will have some success.
@Morashtak I agree. It's hard to predict the demographics for Ashes tho as it tries to appeal to as many people as possible. One could say they appeal to the WoW crowd who are so sick of the same old thing and fond of the PvE elements or the ESO crowd who like the 'hybrid' combat and wants something similar and even the BDO crowd who love mass PvPs and sandbox elements. Whether Ashes can provide something for all these players is yet to be seen.
From videos and apoc, it's probably the most beautiful MMO I've seen/played so far. The art style is very easy on the eyes, colors are well done and tasteful, and the environmental graphics are incredible. I'm excited to see what the UE4 engine can do.
The active combat is a lot of fun via Apoc (I'll hold my opinion on hybrid until alpha 1). There is a lot of new innovation and additional skill required which makes combat (which is definitely one of MMO's weakest areas) very refreshing and fun. If you can create a fun combat system, grinding will become a fun activity. A little unrelated, but Sekiro probably has the best combat system of any game and every fight feels very fun, intuitive, and rewarding. I could farm low levels all day in that game because it's so stimulating. If AoC's combat is just a slight upgrade to the norm, it will have a ton of lasting power.
The fact that they are operating on kickstarter funds rather than a publishing company means that they will not have to answer to the whims of corporate overlords. This became the death of many great games (SWG, EQ, WoW). The devs having full creative ownership of their product is what's keeping me hopeful. I believe Intrepid will keep their creative integrity and will listen to their player-base. Other kickstarter games also have this advantage, however a ton of them seem to be stuck in development limbo (*cough* camelot) or still have a ways to go (Pantheon). The amount of progress they have made to AoC is the span of 1 year is incredible. It seems like they have most of their core systems finished as well, and alpha 1 is only months away.
With hiring increases, I think the team is more than 100+ now? I think 2019 is going to show off what an amazing product this will be.
― Frank Herbert
@supqtpie Well said, I fully agree. Gotta wait till Alpha 1 to see the hybrid combat. One point tho: Ashes is fully funded by the CEO\Creative Director Steven Sharif himself ($30 million+). The kickstarter was used to raise more funds ($3,271,809) to add more features to the game.
Whenever i dropped an MMO its not because it was the core systems that werent fun but something else was flawed.
If AoC is going to be a fundamentally good MMO with some interesting twists i am fine.
I see. Well, there sure are many people who think that way. Although I disagree, I respect your opinion.