Feedback on the latest Video

smee86

HELLO EVERYBODY!!

I woul like to open this Discussion, because i barely ever get to join the livestream and have to rewatch it on Youtube.
This way I sadly never get to give my feedback and get an answer to it.
Maybe this is something the community allready has a solution for, but I feel like it is important, that this solution is on the homepage of AOC.
This way we can be certain to get some visibility to our concerns, feedback and constructive criticism.

THE KEYWORD IS CONSTRUCTIVE!

I hope I'm not missing something important, so lets just jump into it.

Whenever there is a new video on AOC (be it a future gameplay video from some youtuber or contentupdate from Intrepid Studios), this Discussion is meant to give feedback.

Please allways put a link in your Post to the video you want to talk about, so answers to your statements can be accurate.

I guess I don't have to point out the general rules of forums, so behave, be nice and be constructive.

Much love!


The first video I would like to talk about is the Stream of 11AM PT Friday, March 27, 2020
Here is the link to the Youtube video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Trk0Tik18j8

Please feel free to comment nicely:

-First of all, it's very beautiful!
I'm really looking forward to finally starting my venture in vera!
But I think maybe the scalings are a bit off... I would like to be closer to my character or to what is happening,so I can see the beautiful animations. But then it seems everything is so big compared to the characters.
The grass is super tall and the Gibbler is as big as the dwarf. maybe tone down the scalings a little?
But even if u stay at this scaling, very beautiful.

-Will there be elemental influences, like increased shock damage when the target is wet (coming out of the water) or similar?

-Will there be visual elemental influences, like being actually wet when coming out the water, or running through rain?

-Will the conversations with NPC matter? I like the idea of getting quests only when being liked, because you chose the correct answers beforehand.

-Will there be collision with grass, or some other visual indicator of you physically moving through grass?

-The node-progression was a bit abrupt. Will there be a visual progression phase, like when buildings are getting built and walls are put up?

-Will the NPCs have a life? Maybe a day and night cycle and different locations where they can do their idle stuff?

-If there is playercollision you should install some sort of anti door block zones, so you cant stand in doors and block people from passing through. There are way too many trolls out there. And make sure NPCs dont get blocked by trolls. Imagine the "Land for sale" sign gets blocked by trolls so they can get the property for a low price.

-OH MY GOD THE FIGHT WAS AWESOME! The corpses are all different. Will there be ragdolling? The animations looked clean and not too flashy. Nice mix of flashy and subtle. Maybe ad a little bit more visibility to players with some outlines or similar indicating who is participating on which side.

-When mounting the horse should come from offscreen, and when dismounting run either away or stand still until you walk offscreen.

-The building is beautiful, but i think a little too big for a village state. Looks more like a city state... I mean 3 stories armory in a village? ^^

-Will there be stats like intelligence, strength, agility and charisma and similar, which you can influence by distributing points or through gear?

-The bears need more bear like animation, like standing up and roaring for a debuff (maybe terrifying), or overrunning someone and mount him to bite him. Ever seen a bear fight? It's not standing on all fourth and claws in front. It's mostly grabbling and biting.

-Bodyheight should affect movementspeed and where u can crawl through. Imagine secrets only dwarfs and small people can get to, but they are slower in running or not as good in jumping gaps,or dungeon gates that can be opened by a dwarf or a small person crawling through a small hole, or by a big guy jumping over a gap using a lever on the other side.

-A dragon would never just sit there! Make it fly and only land if you are hidden, or when u destroy its wings. The target should also be more tracked by the head and the body language of the dragon. The fire and the area is dope tho. But the lava doesnt dmg Maggie ... thats a bummer
When the dragon wins he should roar in victory and fly away, or start eating its victims.
Or what would you guys imagine a dragon does when it fends of a bunch of attackers.

Anyways, great work so far and keep up the pace. You are really making me hope to have found the next big MMO, which I finally can enjoy again.
It's really boring out there currently.

Plateau

@smee86

Before I start, just so ya know, some of of these answers can be found at https://ashesofcreation.wiki/
Several very nice people vigilantly update that wiki when we get new information from streams, dev diaries, and other sources. Give it a look if you ever have specific questions. (Although there's still a lot we don't know about the future of the game, so the wiki is definitely not a complete source of info.)

-First of all, it's very beautiful!
I'm really looking forward to finally starting my venture in vera!
But I think maybe the scalings are a bit off... I would like to be closer to my character or to what is happening,so I can see the beautiful animations. But then it seems everything is so big compared to the characters.
The grass is super tall and the Gibbler is as big as the dwarf. maybe tone down the scalings a little?
But even if u stay at this scaling, very beautiful.
I think the scaling is meant to be realistic in most cases. But yes, the world is VERY big. You can zoom in when you want though.

-Will there be elemental influences, like increased shock damage when the target is wet (coming out of the water) or similar?
Probably not to that level of detail? I believe there will be different elemental damage types, and some attacks/armor/buffs/debuffs will probably interact with those elemental types. And there might be some environmental hazards (particularly in dungeons) which deal elemental damage. Beyond that, we don't know.

-Will there be visual elemental influences, like being actually wet when coming out the water, or running through rain?
Maybe. It would look nice and it's definitely possible in Unreal Engine 4 (which AoC uses). It's probably not at the top of the to-do list, though.

-Will the conversations with NPC matter? I like the idea of getting quests only when being liked, because you chose the correct answers beforehand.
I don't think we've heard much about dialogue choices. That's a good question to ask in the next Q&A. I'd like to know the answer.

Certainly there will be plenty of other choices you can make that affect the world. Simply picking which node you want to support and which quests you do make a lot of difference. But I don't know if smaller decisions, like dialogue choices, will make much difference.

-Will there be collision with grass, or some other visual indicator of you physically moving through grass?
This is in the same category as graphics effects for rain and wetness. It's possible, and I imagine that it will get put in the game eventually, but it probably won't be a priority for a long while.

-The node-progression was a bit abrupt. Will there be a visual progression phase, like when buildings are getting built and walls are put up?
Almost certainly. Node progression is possibly the single most important feature of the game, and I expect Intrepid will make sure that it's visual progression is as smooth and magnificent as it should be.

-Will the NPCs have a life? Maybe a day and night cycle and different locations where they can do their idle stuff?
I think so? Someone else might know more, but this sounds like a thing that should exist Ashes of Creation. Intrepid wants AoC to be pretty immersive, especially when it comes to human/social interactions.

-If there is playercollision you should install some sort of anti door block zones, so you cant stand in doors and block people from passing through. There are way too many trolls out there. And make sure NPCs dont get blocked by trolls. Imagine the "Land for sale" sign gets blocked by trolls so they can get the property for a low price.
Yes, Intrepid is very aware of these issues, and they are working on solutions. But of course, we don't know what those solutions will be yet, nor if such solutions are possible. So good question.

-OH MY GOD THE FIGHT WAS AWESOME! The corpses are all different. Will there be ragdolling? The animations looked clean and not too flashy. Nice mix of flashy and subtle. Maybe ad a little bit more visibility to players with some outlines or similar indicating who is participating on which side.
Good feedback.

-When mounting the horse should come from offscreen, and when dismounting run either away or stand still until you walk offscreen.
They are still working on the horse summoning/mounting and the reverse. It'll look better in the future.

-The building is beautiful, but i think a little too big for a village state. Looks more like a city state... I mean 3 stories armory in a village? ^^
Lol true. The jump from stage 2 (encampment) to stage 3 (village) is supposed to be quite significant. But I agree that 3 stories is a little much. Especially since there are still 3 more stages that should be even bigger.

-Will there be stats like intelligence, strength, agility and charisma and similar, which you can influence by distributing points or through gear?
Yes they'll be affected by gear and (somewhat) by your race.

-The bears need more bear like animation, like standing up and roaring for a debuff (maybe terrifying), or overrunning someone and mount him to bite him. Ever seen a bear fight? It's not standing on all fourth and claws in front. It's mostly grabbling and biting.
Good point. A lot of their animations are still being built (like the mounting animation from before). Remember that was a pre-alpha sneak peek; there's still a lot of development needed in the next 2-3 years.

-Bodyheight should affect movementspeed and where u can crawl through. Imagine secrets only dwarfs and small people can get to, but they are slower in running or not as good in jumping gaps,or dungeon gates that can be opened by a dwarf or a small person crawling through a small hole, or by a big guy jumping over a gap using a lever on the other side.
Probably not going to happen. But it's possible. Intrepid has yet to nail down exactly how much they want Races to affect gameplay. Some people don't think anything should be restricted by race. Other people think ideas like this are immersive and cool. Personally I just think it's a lot of extra work for a feature that isn't very significant.

However there already exists something similar called "utility skills", which are different for each class. These skills can give access to different zones. The Ranger could Track down secrets or the Cleric could clear out miasma clouds, for example. Although, Intrepid has been adamant that there are always multiple paths forward, so that you don't necessarily need to be a certain class to access anything (it just makes it a bit easier if you are).

-A dragon would never just sit there! Make it fly and only land if you are hidden, or when u destroy its wings. The target should also be more tracked by the head and the body language of the dragon. The fire and the area is dope tho. But the lava doesnt dmg Maggie ... thats a bummer
When the dragon wins he should roar in victory and fly away, or start eating its victims.
Or what would you guys imagine a dragon does when it fends of a bunch of attackers.
I feel kinda like broken record here, but again, this was a suuuper early look at some of the gameplay, so a lot of it is not complete yet. Good ideas, though.

Personally I'm a fan of when dragon bosses have a phase where they soar off into the sky and rain down hell, and you gotta dodge like crazy.

smee86

@leonerdo

Thank you for your constructive answer here.
To clearify, I know, taht this is suuper early in development and there will be a lot of changes in animations and other mechanics.

I would love to have an official statement from an Intrepid Studios employee, though.
1. The world doesn't need to be scaled down, but it would help immersion.
2. Elemental influences on encounters would also help immersion, and its totally doable (look at ESO)
3. Elemental visual effects also just immersion. But with seasons it just makes sense to have snow on the shoulders when it is snowy for example.
4. Conversation as a factor of individuality is also just helping immersion and not totally necessary. I can see this being not too easy to realize. Would be nice, though.
5. Grass moving when passing through? Immersion... again not necessary.
6. Nodeprogression: i thought so. Since this is the core of the game. I love the imagination of being an individual unit in an RTS
7. NPC life: kind of a must have, since the nodes are changing too. NPCs need their own homes and freetime activities. No official or administration works at night... immersion-breaking.
8. Playercollision: Probably just a matter of time, if not implemented from beginning. There would be an outrage
9. Mount-animation: I know there will be animations, it was just a suggestion, what would help immersion best. The only problem I see is how to make it immersive for all players. I like the Idea of BDO, where the mount is permanently visible. But I don't like the idea of losing the mount, so maybe collective points where the mounts are "parked" and then come if called? (Entrances of dungeons or stables in towns? Waiting in wildernes for the masters call?)
10. Building too big: Yes, just too big for a village-state.
11. Statpoints: so no free point distribution? *sadface*
12. Bears: I'm just concerned, that the bears are "done" and are just like any other bear in any other MMO. They are so unimmersive.
13. Bodyfeatures: I guess you are right, and it's just not possible to satisfy everybody in this point. I would like it, though. And it's not a matter of class, but more of bodyfeatures. Fat people should take less damage, but are slower in every movement, small people can crawl certain holes, tall people can climb certain walls or can jump certain gaps, but be easier to get hit. I love that idea
14. If you were a dragon and are attacked by a group of magical people, would you ever land if you are not forced to? I mean its a mythical creature, but its just unnatural behavior, like the bear not standing up or making use of its heavy body. It's also some sort of making the combat more immersive.

So Intrepid, your move
Please answer.

Much love!

Plateau

Sadly, Intrepid doesn't really reply on the forums. They have the dev discussions where they ask for feedback and the CMs read through it and summarize it to give back to the devs. And they have the monthly Q&A (maximum of one question per person) which they pick questions from to answer on-stream. And I've heard that Steven does rare impromptu Q&As on the discord, but I wouldn't expect to catch one.

So basically, if you're lucky, you'll get one question answered directly by Intrepid per month... It kinda sucks, but they have so many other things to do and talk about that they can't sit on the forums and respond to everyone. We just have to talk amongst ourselves for the most part.

Nagash

leonerdo wrote: »

Sadly, Intrepid doesn't really reply on the forums. They have the dev discussions where they ask for feedback and the CMs read through it and summarize it to give back to the devs. And they have the monthly Q&A (maximum of one question per person) which they pick questions from to answer on-stream. And I've heard that Steven does rare impromptu Q&As on the discord, but I wouldn't expect to catch one.

So basically, if you're lucky, you'll get one question answered directly by Intrepid per month... It kinda sucks, but they have so many other things to do and talk about that they can't sit on the forums and respond to everyone. We just have to talk amongst ourselves for the most part.

isn't that the dam truth

smee86

That is indeed very sad.
So how do we get the Questions to the Q&A if I have no time to watch the livestreams?
Maybe you guys can take the questions, which are asked here to the Q&A and summarize the answers in this post.

Plateau

They make a post on these forums asking for questions a few days before the stream. This is the one from February, for example. (March didn't have one because of the special Alpha preview.)

Nagash

It is rare to see mods interact on the forums most of the time they just make a thread and fix problems. if you want to talk to the devs or the mods you are best to go on discord

smee86

leonerdo wrote: »

They make a post on these forums asking for questions a few days before the stream. This is the one from February, for example. (March didn't have one because of the special Alpha preview.)

Thanks leonerdo!
That helps.

Nagash wrote: »

It is rare to see mods interact on the forums most of the time they just make a thread and fix problems. if you want to talk to the devs or the mods you are best to go on discord

Thanks Nagash!
That helps as well.

Let's still keep this discussion open and tell me your thoughts on the game, and what you want to see.

Much love!

smee86

By the way, what is the discord link?