I actually prefer item/weapon decay/degradation because it rewards players for picking their battles and can punish impatient players for lack of preparation.
While at the same time, lending itself to invite players to improvise on the fly if a battle extends to beyond the point of their weapon's total integrity or take time to make a coordinated plan with their gear and load-out. Love the possibilities!
Really it just makes them need on 2 full sets of gear so they have backups. In other words makes everyone more greedy
The simple lack of an automated system for forming groups means that most of the issues that arise in pickup groups will be significantly less of an issue in Ashes.
.
The lack of a system for forming groups means tons of group lfm chat spam and finding that last person to fill your group being a pain. Taking out QoL items is not always a positive. Sometimes it is but many games added the QoL items for a reason.
Yes friend runs and guild runs are great but when you need 1 more than whose on thats not cool to have to spam chat for a random.
I've played games without this for many years. Many many years.
The first few months of a game sees people doing this, but after that time, people tend to just stick to grouping up with people they know. People have guilds, families and friends lists that have more than enough people on to run group content. And that is without even tapping in to alliance guilds.
Another thing to keep in mind is that in most games, the tank and healer are the hardest thing to fill in groups. In a game like WoW, you get a tank and healer and they can take 3 others on group content with them.
In Ashes, you get that tank and healer and they can take 6 others with them, due to groups being 8 people rather than 5.
The other thing this means is that if you have your tank and healer, but can only find 5 others to go, you can just go one player short and you are only losing 16.6% of your groups DPS, rather than 33% as is the case in WoW. Groups made up of guild members and friends won't even think twice about running group content with one empty slot.
If you do see people in chat looking for that one last player to fill out a group, you know full well that this is a group that doesn't feel they are good enough to do the content being short thatn 16.6%, and so is probably a good group to stay well away from.
Again, there are so many things like this that are different from WoW that you can't just assume the issues in that game will also be in this game.
Yeah, I doubt people will have issues filling a full group. Levelling will be faster in groups. For the first time I will most likely not solo grind. I often solo grind to max level except for dungeon runs.
I'm worried about it too, OP. It sounds like an unnecessary grind to take away from the fun part of the game. Here's the quote for anyone who is hopping in here not knowing what it is -
There is durability in the game... It's not going to be a trivial durability. There is a potential to destroy gear (weapons and armor), but there is also an ability to reforge that destroyed gear using a portion of the materials necessary as well as finding an item creator who can reforge it.
Yea, it's not for everyone but for some, it adds to the fun. Different strokes for different folks.
One thing i'd say, if you haven't played a system like this, i'd try it first. If you haven't played it then you probably are applying what you know from systems that don't have to compensate for this aspect. It's not going to be as bad as you think. There also might be aspects and/or consequences of it that you enjoy.
Between this system and the enchanting system I already know what's going to happen. Tons of games have already done both of these things, so history is pretty clear. People are going to have to grind tons of gold and mats nonstop and most average players tend to hate that. So either they quit (after whining a lot), or they bot and/or buy gold. That's what we're going to get whether you like it or not, unless these systems are changed or deleted entirely.
I don't find "change the game to how I want it, or the game will die" very constructive. If it isn't for you, move on.
Because the best most useful part of every mmo is when people say go away play something else just because they disagree
Because I'm in lock-down and because you've taken the time to accuse me of telling people to 'go away because we disagree' I have plenty of time to respond to you.
I did not say go away play something else just because we disagree. You're not making suggestions as much as you are making demands. If you have an opinion and we disagree that is fine, but if you make demands then there's not really anything constructive I can offer you except, suggesting other titles/projects that align with what you want. We know basically nothing about decay or enchanting and you've already demanded it be removed (before it's even been added) or the game will DIE.
You also use language like
1. "I already know what's going to happen."
2. "History is pretty clear"
3. "Most average players hate that"
4. "That's what we're going to get whether you like it or not."
5. "... unless these systems are changed or deleted entirely."
6. "... unnecessary grind to take away from the fun part of the game."
There's a powerful failure to separate your opinion from stated fact there.
1. No you don't.
2. No. It isn't.
3. You have data that proves most "average" players hate 2 systems that don't even exist yet? I'd like to see it.
4. Another absolutely confident prediction based on nothing.
5. The ultimatum.
6. Your opinion on what you find fun is different to what others find fun.
I don't want you to leave. I want you to stay. I want as many people as possible to stay, if they believe the project is something they want to be a part of, but if I told you to go look elsewhere it's because I've gone through all your strongly worded opinions/demands and came to the belief that you might genuinely be happier and less frequently upset by a project that does agree with you.
The facts are we don't know yet. We have no idea how the systems will work or how they will be balanced.
Please continue to voice opinions, suggestions and feedback (as we all should), but there is a constructive way to go about it.
Comments
I've played games without this for many years. Many many years.
The first few months of a game sees people doing this, but after that time, people tend to just stick to grouping up with people they know. People have guilds, families and friends lists that have more than enough people on to run group content. And that is without even tapping in to alliance guilds.
Another thing to keep in mind is that in most games, the tank and healer are the hardest thing to fill in groups. In a game like WoW, you get a tank and healer and they can take 3 others on group content with them.
In Ashes, you get that tank and healer and they can take 6 others with them, due to groups being 8 people rather than 5.
The other thing this means is that if you have your tank and healer, but can only find 5 others to go, you can just go one player short and you are only losing 16.6% of your groups DPS, rather than 33% as is the case in WoW. Groups made up of guild members and friends won't even think twice about running group content with one empty slot.
If you do see people in chat looking for that one last player to fill out a group, you know full well that this is a group that doesn't feel they are good enough to do the content being short thatn 16.6%, and so is probably a good group to stay well away from.
Again, there are so many things like this that are different from WoW that you can't just assume the issues in that game will also be in this game.
I was thinking old wow ironforge where the lfg group was so strong you couldn't even read it as fast as it was scrolling by
Because I'm in lock-down and because you've taken the time to accuse me of telling people to 'go away because we disagree' I have plenty of time to respond to you.
I did not say go away play something else just because we disagree. You're not making suggestions as much as you are making demands. If you have an opinion and we disagree that is fine, but if you make demands then there's not really anything constructive I can offer you except, suggesting other titles/projects that align with what you want. We know basically nothing about decay or enchanting and you've already demanded it be removed (before it's even been added) or the game will DIE.
You also use language like
1. "I already know what's going to happen."
2. "History is pretty clear"
3. "Most average players hate that"
4. "That's what we're going to get whether you like it or not."
5. "... unless these systems are changed or deleted entirely."
6. "... unnecessary grind to take away from the fun part of the game."
There's a powerful failure to separate your opinion from stated fact there.
1. No you don't.
2. No. It isn't.
3. You have data that proves most "average" players hate 2 systems that don't even exist yet? I'd like to see it.
4. Another absolutely confident prediction based on nothing.
5. The ultimatum.
6. Your opinion on what you find fun is different to what others find fun.
I don't want you to leave. I want you to stay. I want as many people as possible to stay, if they believe the project is something they want to be a part of, but if I told you to go look elsewhere it's because I've gone through all your strongly worded opinions/demands and came to the belief that you might genuinely be happier and less frequently upset by a project that does agree with you.
The facts are we don't know yet. We have no idea how the systems will work or how they will be balanced.
Please continue to voice opinions, suggestions and feedback (as we all should), but there is a constructive way to go about it.
Good luck.