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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.
Am I the only one who really likes the idea of Apocalypse a lot?
iliya
Member
I can see that a lot of people are only for MMO and don't really care about or are frustrated with Apocalypse though I understand since the MMO is not released yet.
However, I've been thinking about Apocalypse especially castle siege as a standoff lately and realized it's actually a pretty good unique idea. Has there been any game even remotely similar to this? A huge team-based and objective based fantasy battle game? The only thing I can think of is Battlefront 2 but that is an FPS and tbh kinda lame after I played it.
I'm really excited about the castle siege and I hope Intrepid puts actual focus into it as an MMO and come up with more modes for Apocalypse. Something like Battlefront II but conquest based in an RPG setting would be damn awesome. You can choose classes for the battle and then maybe become heroes or special classes or vehicles such as chariots, sieges tanks or maybe monsters like dragons.
Potential is limitless with this and there hasn't been anything like it that I know of. It shouldn't be too hard either since you got the infrastructure for it. Some might be mad at me right now saying this will eat off the MMO's player base but that is not true at all. A lot of people like me or especially my friends who don't have the patience or the time for MMO anymore and play games like Overwatch and Battlefield to get right into the action and kill other players will never play an MMO regardless of how it is. However, people like me playing APOC can make Ashes more popular to attract players and it can even financially support the MMO till it gets off.
Who knows might inspire me to try the MMO as well just like Warcraft 3 did with WoW though I could never really get into WoW.
TLDR I'm saying APOC especially castle siege can be great, don't just make it an ALPHA for the MMO. It has the potential to be far more than that.
However, I've been thinking about Apocalypse especially castle siege as a standoff lately and realized it's actually a pretty good unique idea. Has there been any game even remotely similar to this? A huge team-based and objective based fantasy battle game? The only thing I can think of is Battlefront 2 but that is an FPS and tbh kinda lame after I played it.
I'm really excited about the castle siege and I hope Intrepid puts actual focus into it as an MMO and come up with more modes for Apocalypse. Something like Battlefront II but conquest based in an RPG setting would be damn awesome. You can choose classes for the battle and then maybe become heroes or special classes or vehicles such as chariots, sieges tanks or maybe monsters like dragons.
Potential is limitless with this and there hasn't been anything like it that I know of. It shouldn't be too hard either since you got the infrastructure for it. Some might be mad at me right now saying this will eat off the MMO's player base but that is not true at all. A lot of people like me or especially my friends who don't have the patience or the time for MMO anymore and play games like Overwatch and Battlefield to get right into the action and kill other players will never play an MMO regardless of how it is. However, people like me playing APOC can make Ashes more popular to attract players and it can even financially support the MMO till it gets off.
Who knows might inspire me to try the MMO as well just like Warcraft 3 did with WoW though I could never really get into WoW.
TLDR I'm saying APOC especially castle siege can be great, don't just make it an ALPHA for the MMO. It has the potential to be far more than that.
3
Comments
Personally I backed what looked like it was going to be an amazing MMO, I accepted using BR, Castle Siege, and horde mode as testing phases. I don't accept APOC as a standalone project.
I'm just saying it is beneficial to the MMO if APOC succeeds as a stand-alone as APOC can fund and publicize the MMO. How did WOW got funded to success? It was on the back of the success of Warcraft 3. The same thing can happen to Ashes. Majority of studios with successful MMOs had other games in other genres backing them as Blizzard did. Chances of success are reduced heavily if the MMO is the only game you have.
The MMO will have its own testing phases anyways so using APOC as just a testing phase seems like a massive waste of resources to me. You significantly reduce the chances of the MMO succeeding if APOC doesn't become standalone. Standalone APOC is not a drain on the MMO, its a massive improvement on it and I don't understand why people are not getting this.
Comparing APOC to Warcraft III is a false equivalency, Warcraft as a brand had a decade to grow a fan base before WoW came out, APOC was an afterthought that is widely disliked by the MMO playerbase.
Heck, I could see a world where the MMO suffers massive delays, Intrepid decides to just focus all their energy on making APOC good as a stand-alone game. That way they can monetize it and fund the MMO further. (Of course, I hope they don't have to do that, but I could see it being a possibility.)
But yeah, what we've seen so far isn't just a BR or a testing-phase. It's more like a testing-phase (AKA shitty alpha) for a simple BR. So it's no wonder that people dislike it. It's not even half of a game... yet. Castle sieges will be more polished, hopefully. And the combat system, which will continue to improve, can be used across all the gamemodes and (supposedly) the MMO.
But yeah, I'm more and more convinced that we're going to have to wait a long time for anything really good to play from Intrepid (APOC or MMO). Expecting a good game to materialize in 2-3 years was a mistake.
If it becomes clear that they are focusing on APOC too much the MMO community will throw a fit...not that they haven't already done that a couple times.
Hey, I'm hyped for the MMO just as much as anyone, but I don't expect it to just materialize out of the good intentions of Steven (and his wallet). I'm ready for a ton of delays and re-funding efforts. If that means APOC needs to take an even bigger role than it already is, then it would be better for the MMO community to try and embrace it, rather than throwing fits about broken promises.
Don't get me wrong, every time Intrepid makes and then breaks a promise, I lose a little bit of faith. But everyone here should have realized that the general expectations of AoC were maybe a little overblown, and should have been ready for some disappointment. No one should be surprised when making an MMO from nothing ends up being as hard and grueling as it's supposed to be.
....
....Wow I don't know where that rant came from. I guess I've been mulling over that for a while. Sorry about that, but I think it's exactly what I wanted to express at some point, and this seems like an okay spot to say it. I'll go back to being hopeful in other threads now...
Doing that seems like a stupid idea business-wise. The MMO is a far more expensive and valuable project than APOC. Hence why they'd do anything in their power to ensure the MMO succeeds more than anything.
APOC can actually be a great tank for the MMO too. Though the gameplay is different; assets, animations and most importantly back-end of servers are quite similar. Hence why also having a working APOC filled with actual players will help reduce server-side lag.
APOC also will take barely anytime off from the MMO. Nearly all the assets such as the which take the most time are copied from the MMO. You just need a few gameplay designers to balance the copied abilities and that's it.
So should not be to0 critical. Just responding to some of the posts not original question. One of the Devs said that APOC would still be around after release most likely a much better version of it.
a. At PAX the team already showcased a couple of arena maps. Those could've easily been used to test combat with a large proximity of players in a small area. Alongside that, they could've used the A0 map which at a later date would also be tested by players. I find BR's to be really hard to test (other than stress testing) due to the fact that you are in most cases unable to stand still, writing a bug report or recreating the bugs due to the zone and other players pushing you to playing instead of testing. The A0 map in conjunction with the arena maps could've solved this issue whilst still helping stress test so many players in one area.
b. Monetizing a "test" makes it a finished product able to be judged imo, also just monetizing it in general and using it as an excuse to test made me feel kind of icky about the entire situation. It would've been much better for the team to just come out and say that they needed additional funding if that was the case, but it made it seem so cashgrabby.
The overall idea of APOC is not too bad imo and seems reasonable to an extent, but I (as a consumer and not a developer) just found it quite odd that they didn't make use of assets the team already were in possession of instead of spending time a resources on developing the battle royale and then having to spend even more time on it when there ended up being server issues and the likes thereof.
While you are technically correct that initially Apoc was a test-bed for the MMO, it was re-launched and re-branded as a Standalone Product (Apocalypse) with its own in-game cash-shop.
A standalone product comes with certain expectations, such as polish and a well-designed game-loop. If Intrepid can add an interesting Castle-Siege mode and a Horde-Mode to the already existing BR, they might have a decent product to sell.
Castle sieges are large 250 v 250(maybe more) battles
Horde mode is a PvE node defense scenario where we defend against waves of enemies.
Part one is a battle royale. part two is siege and part three is a horde mode
The game by itself will certainly draw in new people, but having a BR and other PVP game modes will draw even more people in. Lots of people will just contend with "If they're only here from or for the BR I don't want them here anyway." I find that quite silly, seeing as they just grow the community and make the game stronger. I think APOC has a lot of benefits, personally I just see it as an upside. We're going to have to wait longer for the MMORPG anyway, why not have a product that brings them more money, brings in new people who would have otherwise not touched MMORPG games and also serve as a testing grounds.
Just my thoughts though
I think that's what turned a lot of people off apoc. if it was a 100% testing mode like the devs said then you would have no need to pay for it but instead they plan to release it as a stand-alone game.
The problem for me is not that it was stand-alone, The problem was it was a bad stand-alone. Like not really a good game by even BR standards.
If they want to release APOC as a stand-alone it needs to be worthy of one. They can't just copy assets of the MMO, modify it a little and call it a new game. Lots of studios with decent MMOs also have other genres of games using the franchise of their MMO but you can tell they actually made something new.
If APOC is standalone with its own cash-shop. It's fine but then it now has to be a decent well-balanced game similar to other games like it such as Mordhau and not be lacking original content. Oh, it's bad game cause it's just testing for MMO excuse can no longer apply to it.