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.
Dev Discussion #5 - Content Types
LieutenantToast
Member, Alpha One, Alpha Two, Early Alpha Two
Glorious Ashes community - it's time for another Dev Discussion! Dev Discussion topics are kind of like a "reverse Q&A" - rather than you asking us questions about Ashes of Creation, we want to ask YOU what your thoughts are.
Our design team has compiled a list of burning questions we'd love to get your feedback on regarding gameplay, your past MMO experiences, and more. Join in on the Dev Discussion and share what makes gaming special to you!
Dev Discussion #5 - Content Types
What are your favorite types of content? Do you prefer solo, group, raid, or emergent gameplay?
Keep an eye out for our next Dev Discussion topic featuring your favorite PvP stories!
8
Comments
For PvP I generally avoid world PvP whenever possible, and when it comes to instanced battlegrounds I would rather enter as a group instead of random match ups.
For what types of content i really enjoy:
- complex crafting (learned recipes from profession teachers are okay but i want to create my own recipes, i want to experiment with different ingredients, kinda like a mix of GW2 experimentation and skyrim alchemy tbh)
- dungeons (creepy crawlies and sunken temples, sign me up!)
- raids (i am a hardcore raiding fanatic and will probably try to find or make one, please make it what it used to be, something for those people that really want to challenge themselves)
- solo exploration (give someone a reward when they explore somewhere really hard to find, maybe a special title or something cosmetic for your armour)
1) It's not boring. Being on the same space as others that are not in yoyr team (unless you invite them ) it means that every day is a new scenario even if it is the same location a player was yesterday
2) You dont have to form a standard group ( 1 healer, 1 tank, x dd). Any number of people can group up and farm/xp in the area
3) PvP while PvE = PvWorld =mmorpg.
4) Exploring a new zone is soooooo much better than running a new dungeon.
5) Rewards. Leveling up on a zone feels like a real adventure. Alone or with friends, a players checks the consumables and sets out to Lv up or farm materials for gear
6) Raid Bosses. There will be raid bosses thay drop more mats or even whole items. Where are they? Are they on the top of the tower? Is it a vampire? Are they at the bottom of a castle dungeon? A werewolf? Deep inside a cave? A dragon? Can we kill it? Is there another groyp or players killing it? PvP?
I like non instanced content because I can solo while I am low but Ill have a reason to join a guild once I get higher lv. Like minded people with a purpose to grow stronger. They will farm for me and I for them while we will defeat anyone who tries to attack us.
With instanced content people will just hit Group Finder from a city, run a dungeon isolated, pick up the random rewards at the end and f off. This is not an mmorpg.
An open world mmorpg will have quests for group or solo activities all of them meaningful. There will be a time I want to do something for myself only and there will be a time that if I need something I will have to contribute as well.
One special kind of content, caravans, is one of my favorite group adventures, alongside dungeons!
I do wonder if there will be some kind of 'infinite' dungeons, or procedurally generated ones. That would be one of the things I'd try asap.
Come take a look at ashesofcreation.wiki!
Then emergent > group > raid >> solo
I hate playing solo
Invincible Tank
Unrivalled Dps
Queen of Growlgate
Kraken Tamer
Super Cutie
H8 me cuz u ain't me
What I hate most is scaling difficulty dungeons where the difficulty scales on the number of members in the group. I think that this is disgusting design and, as mainly randomly generated level design games for instance, I think it affects the general quality of the games. If a dungeon is intended for 3 Lvl 20 characters, it should only be accessible to those in a certain level range and shouldn't be available or feasable for a solo tank. Balance is nice, perfect balance is essential. It it what kept me and my friends banging our heads over and over to finish different dungeons in LoTRO, back when we played it in 2010.
I love difficult bosses and I think groups should need to ping or speak to survive and strategize to beat them.
I don't like instance finders where you can just get a match in a group you won't speak to, as was the case in WoW. This is bullshit, I would find a group that wouldn't wait for me, would kill everyone before I could catch up, and i would end up doing it just to have a chance for items at the end.
Finally, i really don't like PvP, i hope never to see forced PvP in the game, it should always be a choice IMO.
Can't wait to play PvE content in your game, Intrepid.
totally jumping through the portal shield in hand and bracing for impact for glorious visual sprites
I enjoy grouping for most other activities, but I'd rather the other group members would be on the same page, like taking time to read or check items out along the way; not a slam-bam, we're done. Make quests that require a group reward the whole group, not just one person.
As far as raiding...with a guild, maybe, but if it's too difficult and one wrong move will wipe the group then, I'm out. I don't mind hard, but it has to be forgiving.
I would like to see more use of PQs where anyone can join in, and most likely come away with experience and some loot.
I don't like open world PvP, I'd rather do that when I'm in the mood, like caravans, sieges, that sort of activity that you can decide to join or not. I really enjoy PvE and role play.
Over the years, I've found I like instances less and less. I would like to see progressive dungeons where the deeper you go the higher tier it gets, with lots of branching to accommodate lots of groups at the same levels, and yet, you/group can progress as you grow stronger; with little safe areas for regrouping. Generally speaking, I like PUGS and unconventional group make up, not having to have the trinity all the time.
Formerly T-Elf
Formerly T-Elf
Slightly below that comes guild run high end raids.
I also love making money in games with good economy.
I still play runescape just because the economy is so great.
You're bleeding for salvation, but you can't see that you are the damnation itself." -Norther
Great, now you've angered the portal, and several tentacles emerge looking for more snacks.
Oh great, now he have tentacles....what could possibly go wrong.
I do not play MMOs for their solo content. Once in a while it can be fun to discover something by myself, but it would be even more fun, if it led to some kind of group experience.
- Content reserved for when you hit max level, especially discovering all the crafting recipes. That's where I will be spending 95% of my character's time. Why cram time-sinking extra content into the 5% of a player's time spent leveling?
I like- A nice quiet dungeon to conquer with my buddies - without loud pvp gank parties storming around and ruining what should be a PvE experience
I don't like- Having to interrupt leveling to grind something else, ie my horse riding skill or my ability to pick flowers or cook food....
I hate- Having a dozen quests in my log and that being below normal. It's hard, dare I say stressful, to keep track of and to navigate. Fewer but larger or even multistep, quests are preferable to walking around with what feels like a 'honey-do list'
I would like to see¯\_(ツ)_/¯
My preference in MMORPGs is to feel like I have the freedom to work on things on my own or aid others according to my whims. I don't enjoy feeling locked in a party/raid for an extended period of time once my mood as shifted to go do something else.
Solo, group, raid, or emergent gameplay seems like the wrong question, to me.
I care about the story. What's happening and how is that affecting the region in a manner that would pique my interest in any of the above.
(Which may mean my answer is emergent gameplay?)
Solo exploration for chasing lore and emergent game play are my favorites. A lot of times in group content you don't have time to slow down and really explore to get the story of the area so I like to use solo time to find the lore. Emergent game play just offers unexpected surprises to the game world and helps to make the world feel more alive.
Group/Raid is my next favorite. Getting together with friends or guild to tackle more challenging content is great fun whether that challenge is PvP or PvE.
I don't want directions, I don't want my hand held, I want to explore! I don't want an area to even tell me what level I should be for that area. I want to watch, observe, and then engage with the creature or environment and figure out the danger levels. If there is a minimum level area, I’d maybe want a role-play-like pop-up to tell me something similar in Nexus TK that reads: “Nightmarish visions of your own death repel you.” That being said, I would still want to be able to wander in that area at my own risk.
After I’ve explored an area, then “maybe” I want the map to fill in for me. But I think the map should be a personal exploration. Though, I’d be okay with a mage learning about an area through Scrying, or a character having a cartography skill, or having bought a map of the area beforehand from another player (not as detailed as having visited there or visually seen it – so there’s possibly no markers or details, since there’s no personal reference.)
In the same way, I don't even want to know what level my enemy is. (Strangely okay if there's one specific class that can figure out his/her/its stats casting a certain spell or ability.)
I also like the discovery of unique weapons, armor, drops, ingredients, etc.
For example: A rare sword, or rare recipe, that only drops from a specific boss if the character meets certain conditions. Such as a specific dagger recipe that basically guarantees a critical hit only drops if a rogue below level 10 manages to solo kill the boss or manages to kill it with a specific trap and the environment (like standing in a cave-in while stuck in a trap.) Or even managing to fish up a rare sword if you fish a long period of time in a certain river outside of a dragon’s cave.
I even like discovering certain gimmicks, like a seemingly unkillable creature at a low level can be nearly 1-shot by shooting a boulder loose. Or perhaps somehow attacking an even stronger creature nearby and blame it on the other creature (like a misdirect)… or be so sneaky that you can throw a rock at it and hide behind a tree, but the only thing it sees is the boss holding some rocks.
There is not much in the way of content that I do not enjoy solo, small group, raid content, pvp both large and small scale. I enjoy good story content and yet at times, I like nothing more than finding my own way in the world with simple exploring and developing crafting skills. I really enjoy gathering materials and leveling crafting skills as I level just love being able to craft my own gear as I level. Gathering a huge hoard of materials and becoming fabulously wealthy and being that crafter the guild goes to when they need something, though that may be much harder with the way crafting will be set up in AOC.
Because of the above problem, there is some appeal to solo play for me: stability. Not having to rely on others meeting you, having done the necessary prep, matching schedules etc is nice. I think crafting and gathering are also well suited for solo play thus I really hope there is lots of content and progression to engage in with crafting solo. I do like the idea of rare materials and blueprints being group efforts but there should still be a high volume of soloable crafting content to go through.
My favorite type of content however is interdependency between progression systems. To give an easy example, I recall some experiences in runescape that went a little like this: to start this quest to unlock that new zone (for some more grand reason), I need to be a part of the crafting guild which means I need to level my crafting, which is expensive if I buy all the ore required so I may need to level up my mining to collect all/some of the ore myself. I hope to see similar interdependencies between players AND for individuals as well. If such interdependencies are ALWAYS contingent on group play/others, it would make me feel TOO dependent, I hope AoC strikes a nice balance of making my progression dependent on my community but also dependent on my other, parallel, streams of progression as well.
Tangential thought: in WoW I have often found a cool place or a named mob to kill and decided not to explore/engage because "surely I'll have a quest for this stuff later and doing it twice will kill the enjoyment". I have passed up on and cut short magical moments of "oooh I wonder what this is" because I knew I'd likely have to return for some quest maybe much later. In vanilla this was less of an issue because maybe it was a quest for the opposite faction or another class so I would be more likely to just explore anyways. In general, I hope AoC doesn't give me the feeling that I shouldn't explore on my own schedule because I'll have to repeat content. I don't know if this is feasible or how it would work but it would be nice to retroactively credit me for already doing something a future quest asks me to do, at least for certain quests like killing named mobs.
But for PvE i prefer: solo lore-driven content. Just farming anything alone with some youtube video on the background. Enjoying the story of the game and not having to deal with anyone in PvE is what i like. What exactly i am farming doesnt matter to me xd as long there is vertical progression and hours put into it directly relates to stats in pvp. Just minor gains are a motivation to farm. Maybe a bit to oldskool XD
But if I have to choose, I would join with my guildies. This is an MMO afterall. There are enough solo portals to step into in Witcher