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.
Mount Availability Discussion
GreatThodric
Member, Alpha Two, Early Alpha Two
I heard you can get a mount quite early on in the game and I feel like that isn't a good idea. As early as the starting zone according to the Wiki. I got the feeling that the developers want us to enjoy the feeling of hard-earned rewards and giving us each a mount early is contradictory to that philosophy. I personally would like mounts to either be available much later on or be available early but difficult to farm and use.
What are your thoughts on this?
https://ashesofcreation.wiki/Mounts
And since there seems to be a few differing ideas here, I'd like to see what you guys answer in a poll.
You can select more than one but please only select one of the options in levels and gold sinks each.
https://www.strawpoll.me/20652621
What are your thoughts on this?
https://ashesofcreation.wiki/Mounts
And since there seems to be a few differing ideas here, I'd like to see what you guys answer in a poll.
You can select more than one but please only select one of the options in levels and gold sinks each.
https://www.strawpoll.me/20652621
Taming and Animal Husbandry are two different things. Hopefully it doesn't create confusion in the poll.
Taming is for gatherers, not just taming mains, the word "exclusive" is strong; and Husbandry is for crafters.
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Comments
Im okay with it because they give you a horse with no advantages. If you didn't get mounts, it would be impossible to go through the world. They want to encourage spreading out.
https://knightsofember.com/forums/members/winner909098.54
I really like that rarity. Flying mounts were the very thing that destroyed WoW. But no, I'd like ground mounts to not be so freely given to each new player. It's another thing you have to work for.
You're already spreading out a lot due to the spawning zones. But I get what you mean. I just want ground mounts to have a bit more to them. Something to work for. Giving us a quest in the starting zone feels a little too easy.
Probably streaming EverQuest...
I know it would be a bit too much but, damn. I'd love mount taming to be exclusive to that one profession. And that you'd have to earn enough money or something to buy a horse from mount tamers. Business for simple horses would be boomin'.
I get you, but still. You'll mostly be contained to the areas for your level anyway. The least I want is a level 8-10 requirement. It doesn't have to be crazy difficult. I get that people are lazy. Just something to distinguish the new characters from the older. It would be an easy early goal for all players to simply want to get to level 10 and get your first mount instead of being given it on a silver platter.
But if there are going to be flight paths I think it is important for new players to take the time to explore and take in the world without a mount. I feel that giving mounts to low level players will promote rushed play and cause players to neglect vital learning experiences.
I feel like mounts should be a goal that we all should strive for and work towards. The mount should also cost a fair amount of gold and require the player to be a required level (ex. 18-25).
I have played other MMOs where you are given a mount right off the bat and everything just feels so rushed.. I really feel it would be beneficial to the players if the mounts were items to be worked towards instead of items that are just freely given to everyone.
Probably streaming EverQuest...
yeah, that makes sense. I feel like if the quest line teaches you how to breed at a breeding area, it would be more effective.
https://knightsofember.com/forums/members/winner909098.54
You can select more than one option.
https://www.strawpoll.me/20652621
I remember being able to target vehicles in Star Wars Galaxies. Shoot a rebel in the head and kill him, he just comes back from a cloning chamber angry and wanting revenge. Blow up his speeder, and now you’ve really hurt him.
Good point. My bad. I'll add your comment to my main post.
You're right about that. I never played L2 so I can't say. All I know is that fast travel will be kept to a minimum in Ashes. Basically only the highest tier nodes (Metropolis) and guild castles (which there's only 5 of on each server) will have some form of fast travel if I understood it correctly. I'll only get to start playing in Alpha 2 so until then it's hard to say.
As far as we know, royalty mounts will be the only ones with a lifespan. Ground mounts can be summoned and desummoned at will.
Oh no way. I thought all mounts had a lifespan. I feel like that would be important to keep tamers/breeders profession in demand.
I thought mounts through husbandry had lifespan too?
There's no mention of that anywhere on the wiki page. I could be wrong, but I am quite certain that the only mounts with a lifespan are those that come from boss drops.
In animal husbandry you'll be able to breed mounts with a variety of different abilities and appearances.
https://imgur.com/a/YgDLEP3
Future Crafting Plans: Herbalism > Alchemy & Scribe or Mining > Metalworking > Jewel cutting (Pending)
I think it would be more valuable if they bred mount skins instead so you could get the perfect look from them and stick it on the mount you want. The odds of the perfect mount stats landing on the perfect looks ...might as well buy a powerball ticket.
I would assume as you level up in Husbandry you gain more control over things like stats and looks so it won't be complete RNG by any means but still somewhat RNG but to a lesser degree. If the crafter is at mastery level then they can probably customize out every detail or darn near close to it.
I feel like skins would make less sense as you have two actual mounts your breeding together for them to produce a skin and not an actual mount seems weird. I'd rather just have the two mounts than a skin and the one. Just wait until they get the stats/look you want and buy that mount.
Future Crafting Plans: Herbalism > Alchemy & Scribe or Mining > Metalworking > Jewel cutting (Pending)
Players need to spread out before nodes really get going, and the best way to do that is to give them mounts.
With the scale of the world i think having them early is actually beneficial.
It allows players to quickly spread out from spawn rather than struggling to say hunt monsters early due to overcrowding
We also cant expect much from the first mounts. Perhaps just a 10% boost to movespeed compared to base. If that.
I did link a source, the Wiki, which itself has its sources linked to the Kickstarter.
I hear that "spreading out" is the most common argument for this and I don't know if I fully agree. Knowing players, the closest towns will eventually get the most players early on, but how Ashes balances this is through the brilliant use of differing nodes.
In essence; no matter how close a node is to the spawn areas, they simply might not be the best nodes to level up and therefore people will spread out to find the better one, regardless of travel speed.
So even if the closest node is the one to get leveled up first, an adjacent node with a more dedicated player population (due to better resources) would eventually siege the town and take over.
According to me, looking at the node system, spreading out without the use of early undeserved mounts doesn't seem like a problem at all.