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
I am sorry, I do not want further discussion with you.
whats even better is I have both of those items ^^
Lets be clear here, the original person that asked the question said they don't like content locked behind storylines. Not main quests. Not "the main quest".
Storylines.
You said In response to a question about content locked behind story lines.
That amounts to you saying that you do not think that progressing regions and Nodes and Religious and Social organizations will involve stories.
All I am saying is that each of those things WILL have a story, a story that is likely interconnected in some way, and that there may or may not be content locked behind those stories.
You seem to disagree with that, somehow.
In vanilla EQ, IIRC, even figuring out the keywords to trigger the quest givers to give you a quest rather than lore was tedious. And then the quests were typically epic quests for some legendary item.
EQ2 quests were more like WoW quests. I don't find those quests to be tedious because they just reward significantly more xp than what I would receive via grinding.
Grinding is going to be slow because progression in RPG is supposed to be relatively slow. It's not really supposed to be that we reach max level in a 3-6 weeks.
For me, I would rather be gathering up NPC related stories in the region where I'm adventuring. I like helping people, so, if I can get a significant amount of xp as a reward for helping an NPC collect resources that I'm going to be grinding in any case, that's great.
In Wizard101, players do have to complete main storyline quests in order to gain access to new worlds. Technically, it's possible to ignore the main storyline and still progress, but I don't know why anyone would want to do so in that game.
In Wow, I've played the carebear challenge (no killing) by only gathering resources. You basically have to ignore the main storyline to successfully completer the carebear challenge -- reaching max level with no kills.
Ashes is a themebox. There will be plenty of progression that is tied to quests and plenty of progression that is not tied to quests. We can progress our characters via exploration or via Caravan runs or Sieges or by erecting specific buildings in towns and cities and metros without those activities being tied to quests. There will likely also be some quests available for those activities.
But, Ashes isn't really about an individual player character being required to pursue a specific set of quests in order to progress. If you don't want to participate in a quest to kill the Winter Dragon, you won't have to. Other players will likely kill the Winter Dragon for you.
On the other hand, you might want to kill the Winter Dragon - quest or no quest - in order to quickly put an end to the perpetual winter plaguing your town. When Winter Drakelings attack your city, you won't have to go grab a quest to defend your city. And the result of that attack will progress the narrative whether you win that battle or lose.
If you win that battle, you will gain significant rewards despite it not being a quest.
The complete sentence in the first quote states: "What I’m responding to is the notion of “doing the main storyline to unlock something” in a game where the primary focuses are Node progression, Religious progression, Social Org progression, Caravan runs and Sieges."
Notice that I include Caravans runs and Sieges as primary focuses for Ashes gameplay.
That is not the same thing as stating that one type of progression has a greater focus than any other type of progression.
Where you say, "Nobody said that the religious and social org progression is a primary focus..."
No devs have talked about things locked behind a main storyline, as far as I know. I'm not aware of the devs mentioning anything about a main storyline.
The devs have talked about how Node progression and Religious progression and Social progression and Caravan runs and Sieges impact gameplay. These are the features the devs primarily focus on when discussing Ashes gameplay that impacts the world, rather than talking about a "main storyline".
"Content or ability to progress that is locked behind hours of story mode. I really hated it when I had to suffer for so many days in some games doing the main storyline just to be able to progress/unlock something as it was the only way to obtain that specific thing. I think there should be some alternative to that. Not everyone likes to do storyline (so-called main quests) in games."
Lets be clear that main quests is mentioned and main quests is presented to be synonymous with main storyline.
Nope. That, again, is your poor reading comprehension.
The terms used were "main storyline" and "main quests". The key points there being main.
Progressing regions and Nodes and Religious and Social organizations are modular components than can be completed in many different orders and configurations - resulting in different servers having significantly different narratives.
So, I don't understand how there can be a "main storyline" or a "main quest line".
It's not like we will all (every server) be systematically progressing through one main storyline, like Wrath Of The Lich King.
That is not at all the same thing as saying that those modular pieces -progressing regions and Nodes and Religious and Social organizations- won't be connected to stories or quests.
Seems that way to you because of your poor reading comprehension, but I agree with that.
What I said is that I'm not sure what is meant by "main storyline" when we have these modular components that can be completed in a different order and in different configurations, resulting in significantly different worlds and significantly different narratives.
Later, I said that no one said there were primary progression focuses.
That quote does not say, "No one said there are no primary focuses."
Two different topics.
I contrasted a list of gameplay features the devs have said players will be focused on against the concept of a "main storyline": a speculative feature I've heard nothing about, AFAIK.
You then made an argument contrasting Religious and Social Org progression v Node progression.
And I replied that that argument is beside the point... it's really a separate topic.
Yes he clearly misunderstood nvm that
First, the poster doesn't want content locked behind long quest based story telling. This is the gist of what was being said.
I doubt someone that dislikes having to unlock content by doing a quest actually gives a shit if that quest is a part of the main story of the game, or part of a secondary story of the game.
The second reason I totally disagree with what you have said is because there are many RPG's that have multiple quest lines that players refer to as "main quest lines".
Look at Skyrim as an example. You have the main quest line, but people also refer to the mages guild quest line as the "main quest line" for the mages guild. Same can be said for most factions in the game (and most factions in other Elder Scrolls games as well).
This will hopefully hold true in Ashes as well. While there should be a story based quest line for each social organization, religion etc, if there are also other, smaller quests then it is perfectly reasonable (and expected, tbh) for players to refer to the story based quest line of those factions as the "main quest line" of the faction.
I'm willing to agree that this isn't a term you've head much - but all that means is that you are more of a solo gamer than a social one. With this info in mind though go back and read the post in question asking yourself if it makes more sense that the poster is ONLY talking about a single main quest line for the whole game (the post makes almost no sense in that context) or if it makes more sense that he is talking about main quest lines of individual groups or areas etc.
The OP can clarify what was meant by "main storyline" and "storyline (main quest)".
What you've written, of course, does not clarify what was meant.
Also, your conclusion about me being a "solo gamer rather than a social one" is false...as usual.
It is likely that there will be plenty of quests that provide extra rewards for most activities. And it is likely that completing quests will be the most efficient way of gaining xp - that's what quests are for.
But, Castle sieges, Node sieges and defending/attacking Caravan runs are forms of PvP combat that should provide a reasonable amount of xp even without being associated with quests.
I think the issue isn't so much about whether non-quest activities provide xp that is comparable to quest activities, but whether non-quest activities give so little xp that leveling without quests feels like a grind.
I think the devs will tell you that there is plenty to do to gain xp at a reasonable pace even without focusing on quests. But, it's great to get clarification directly from the devs.
Even if your assumption does turn out to be true (which I doubt - and I doubt the poster in question will ever clear it up) you were wrong in assuming you were right.
Personally Im fine with having content locked behind quests as long as they make sense.
An ogre city too dangerous to be explored, but after a questline you make friends with ogres and they allow you to visit their city and trade with them.
This type of quest isnt forced on everyone, but say youre a merchant and ogre city has unique reagents. Youd probably like to complete the quest to make profit.
I also hope there wont be too many quests, because in WoW, completing hundreds of tedious quests creates an atmosphere where even the ones that could be interesting are tedious.
Having less quests makes them more meaningful.
I dislike main storylines because theyre usually too rewarding or in other ways forced down on u. The stories can sometimes be enjoyable but they could be enjoyable as regular questlines.
I would really love to have a feeling of freedom in AoC.
You're bleeding for salvation, but you can't see that you are the damnation itself." -Norther
Some quests can be tedious, absolutely.
My hope for any major quest line in Ashes (or any MMORPG) is that there is someone that QC's the quest line as a whole - not just for bugs, but also to make sure it is generally enjoyable.
That is an invitation for the OP to clarify what they mean.
You are the one who consistently makes absurd, false assumptions, like this one: "That amounts to you saying that you do not think that progressing regions and Nodes and Religious and Social organizations will involve stories."
And... I'm done discussing this with you. You can have the last word if you wish.
This is an MMORPG not a facebook game. Don't add mission tables or other objects/rewards behind pure waiting time. Hard work should allow you to achieve something faster or to a greater reward.
Endgame is fine to have, but what's not is when any level that's not max level is treated as a gate to the game.
Make the leveling memorable, fun, and feel like it's a true journey. Also expand the game not only vertically but laterally.
Group finder
Cute costumes, its not a damn fashion show like bdo has become.
-Infinite Progression. There needs to be a point at which I am at the peak of my character and the only progression you can achieve after that is sideways, (At least until the next expansion hits.) a clear goal which can be reached, if not loot and power progression becomes less exciting "I got my chest piece.. but it's got the wrong enchantment.. alright, see you next week for the raid..."
Summon mounts in combat.
Auto party finders.
any typ of incentive to do something while afk (most regeneration, afk fishing etc.)
the game simple being too easy
extensive dailies (1-3 is fine, but if you have to spend the first 2 hours of each day completing dailies, then it gets annoying)
I also want easy content for those who don't have that hardcore desire or don't have the time. Still they feel like their is stuff for them that gets their toon where they want to be. In it's simplest form I prefer an upper,lower,and medium "class" in games.
2) Dailies to the point they are just time sinks to keep me in the game. I don't want to have to do 15 dailies for 2 months to reach some goal that is needed. I am not opposed to this if it is something that has nothing to do with making the game easier. If this system is implemented and it is linked to stuff like cosmetic items then I really can care less. If it is linked to something along the lines of me needing to do this to enter another zone or access a certain part of the dungeon, then I don't want it.
3) I dislike gear that translates to pvp and pve. I prefer them two different types. The player who clears the best dungeons/raids/world bosses I don't think should also have the best gear in pvp. That should be tied to those who do the best and grinded out what they had to for PVP gear that is the better suited for pvp. I have no issue with the best PVE gear being viable in PVP and vice versus. I just don't think it should be universal.
Heroes Fade but Legends last forever
When getting the max enchant becomes a months-long game of rng-fail-rinse-repeat for one item instead of a process where the player can feel tangible progress at each step.