How to make Ashes of Creation great (for me)
Below is what I would like to see. Is there something you do or do not agree with? Is there something missing? I am interested to see what you think!
Do not have a group finder
Instead, have specific locations where players can find others to play with, alternativ recruiting boards. Group finders promote the "afk-gameplay" and kills open the open world feel.
Make leveling impactful and fun
Leveling should be meaningful and fun. To do this you need serious story and content even during leveling. A great way to make leveling amazing is to offer different choices and paths during leveling. Both in the form of different ways to level up but also different story paths and zones you get to choose from. Also, challenging content Before max level is not bad, it is very important and good.
Make crafting truly meaningful
The best weapons and armors should not always be dropped from a boss directly. Instead, make the fang of a dragon craftable into a powerful sword instead. This sword, should always be as powerful or more powerful than a directly looted weapon. Note that a boss that is directly using a piece of gear could and should drop that specific gear too which makes a lot more sense then a random yeti dropping a pair of pants. Crafting with the use of "boss material" should be considered endgame for crafters. Crafting also needs to always be relevant. This will make crafters vital to the game and make them feel important.
Do not make flying mounts the norm
This was one of the main pillars that destroyed World of Warcraft. This feature kills world pvp, a ton of content and makes the world feel dead.
Make travel feel right
Do not go overdo it with portals and instant teleportation fast travel. Make use of pay-to-use caravan transport, wagons, boats or anything. This makes the world feel grand and living. It may also create a market for player driven taxi service which is amazing. Teleports can be a thing, just make it special and keep it at a minimum.
Class uniqueness is more important than total balance
Balance has never been achived in any game where there is some form of player choice. Striving for balance only leads to all classes having almost identical toolkits and playstyles. This is horrible for a game that is meant to last. No matter how hard you try, you will never be able to balance a ranger, warrior and mage. It just will not work based on math. Instead, focus on making classes more unique and focused on specific types of gameplay. Supportive, AOE focused, burst focused, survivial focused, utility focused are a few examples. Make classes a bit more Rock-paper-schissors instead of do-it-alls.
Do not make PVE/PVP all about stats
Doing this will make people tunnel the tank with the highest defences and the dps/healers with the highest numbers. Instead, design bosses in ways that forces groups to use different kinds of characters. Some bosses may need distruptive builds, some supportive builds, some mobility based builds.
Stay away from too much forced time-gating
Forcing players to wait certain time frames to progress is not necessary. Instead, make a true Learning curve and gear progression curve. Offer a true journery, where the hardest bosses on the hardest difficulties truly are unbeliebly hard. Also grinding is honestly a lot more preferable than time-gating.
Stay away from too much RNG
Please, do not do like WOW have been doing the last expantions where gear you loot/craft has random upgrades. Make us work for it instead. Make us upgrade, refine, enchant and gem our gear until it become powerful instead of making it completly random. Make hard work feel rewarding.
Do not fall down the reward trap hole
Giving direct rewards from activities is sometimes necessary and good. But do it too much and you will have a game where nobody lifts a finger if there is no direct reward involved. And this also leads to people completly abandoning said content/activity when the rewards have been hoarded. Instead, try to make content naturaly repetable. A overarching reputation system is a good idea for this. This reputation system should be relevant for both PVE/PVP.
