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 #17 - Non-Progression Content
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 #17 - Non-Progression Content
What are some of your favorite things to do in online games that aren’t progression-related?
Keep an eye out for our next Dev Discussion topic regarding class demarcation!
9
Comments
Honestly going to go with decorating a freehold, petting some pets, changing up my color pallet on cosmetics, dueling other players and gaining nothing but skill?
Didn't record the full thing unfortunately =(
Shoutout to @Drakehiro for this beauty and the sports commentary beforehand.
As to how it relates to design - can make some sort of simple tournament bracket system. You get a popup, you accept and your name is pooled in with everyone, the system randomizes the bracket and tracks duel wins. BO3 per duel. Would be cool.
Maybe entry fee - 1st, 2d, 3d, get the winnings. Betting system. Etc.
Imperium Discord
Find a group of roleplayers, have wonderful stories and evenings with them, combine this with pve and pvp activity and end it in a tavern. So I need roleplaying stuff and support in this game
I also love to explore environments that are particularly gorgeous. My favorite areas are ones with amazing sunshine or weather effects.
I also like to fly around randomly, but I know that's not entirely going to be relevant. The gliding will be fun I'm sure too.
If there was a way to sweep around town or house/inn/tavern for cleaning up the place, I would probably be the OCD person that would love to walk around with a broom, especially if it changed the way something looked.
Lastly, I enjoy herbalism and gathering. If I could pick flowers specifically for show in a tavern or house that would be excellent. Or maybe fishing up fish that I can then have in a fish tank. If that makes sense. Particularly noteworthy fish for size or type or flowers for rarity or something.
Having seen the landscape in APOC I know the environment is going to be something I dig into during alpha and beta.
I love gathering professions in most MMOs simply for the pleasure of getting to wander across the countryside and explore at my leisure. The best games are the ones that reward behavior like that by including bits and pieces of lore out in the wilds to delight enterprising explorers.
For evenings that I just want to de-stress after work, housing based crafting like gardening or farming really hits the spot and is also a favorite lazy evening activity.
In fact, games that let you enjoy most of the side features, like professions and mini games, without having to necessarily progress to end game are the ones that keep me going longest.
Mini games are always good. Card games or something linked to professions are always great. Maybe festivals that the player base contributes too, such as night markets and faires.
Some of the most memorable moments though are the huge group events, be it people dragging huge bosses into towns in WoW, finding a large group of people trying to do a pvp air raid on unsuspecting towns from above, giant circles of people dancing/playing music, a random duel circle in the middle of nowhere, or things like 20 harpoon clippers in Archage flipping around inside a town. The most memorable things often come from moments that were created by the freedom that allows the players to use the many various features of a game in unexpected combination.
No matter the danger, death only gives the whole experience some spice, I will always try to find the next mountain peak or deep cavern.
Another thing is the arena fights. While it can be a progression for some in the PvP spectrum, for other people it's just the fun of fighting 1v1 with a number of different players randomly that was nice. Tags 3v3 were also fun. Also the 6v6 non arena battles with a few objectives. All these offer what i mentioned, a fun PvP spectrum for both progression and just fun.
Also I would like to add:
Things such as unexpected events that could happen randomly and possibly rarely, such as fireflies or butterflies invading a city something like that could be awesome too. Maybe sometimes the night sky could show special events too, like a comet, or shooting stars.
Please don't forget moon phases if possible xD Having a static full moon blooming every night is pretty, but makes it a bit less appreciative sometimes.
3rd edit cause so many ideas hehe
I remember Lineage 2 had arena horse races be a thing at some point in the game, where people could bid on the fastest horse they thought would win, it got underappreciated after a while because it never offered anything back other than some gold. But, i think it can be a good addition to let people build those sorts of games outside cities calling for such events. To make it appreciative and fun you could make it so that the players choose a horse and ride it, while other players bid on the fastest player, and add that rng to it. Many fun times can come from that, and many cringe too xD
When just hanging out with friends, we almost always found ourselves doing some kind of parkour around the towns or in our housing areas. Everyone loves jumping around so it'd be awesome if there were some little challenges to hop on while talking to friends or maybe to get to that special point of interest?
Otherwise fashion and house design to a smaller extent as well!
Hanging around party search areas and chilling. If there's no world chat / global party search chat / god forbid an LFG menu - people naturally pick some spots in the actual game world to gather, group and trade, which creates potential for actually meeting people during their downtime. Unfortunately technology killed the porches, nobody sits on them anymore.
Always fun to pick a direction and start traveling with no goal in mind. Back in vanilla WoW, i spent a decent amount of time trying to get into places i wasn't supposed to like Mount Hyjal and the caverns of time.
I find myself spending a decent amount of time playing around with my appearance. I like thinking about how i can combine different items and/or dyes to create interesting looks. If the game requires it, this causing me to spend a lot of time trying to farm for the items i need to create a look.
There has been several games i have played where i participated in and/or ran community pvp tournements. Always liked getting people together for a tourney and hanging out. Got to know a lot of people this way.
Hanging out has become something i do less in MMOs. Hoping Tavern games are interesting enough to justify hanging out in game. It would be fun it led to meeting more people in game or pulling more people into the game.
I also love exploring, but it requires an interesting world worth exploring.
And of course Fishing