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.
Comments
Let's be honest now, having group combat logs would pretty much give everything they need for their meter.
So you got what you wanted
Let's celebrate hardcore guilds that cannot figure things out with a meter
If it was up to me, I would prefer no combat logs but just the suggestion we had earlier for guild leaders/officers.
As a community I would like to see us reach out and help each instead of ghosting and ignoring people like the MMO cumminity has gone lately. Social skills need a comeback.
and are mutually exclusive, if we assume that the common understanding of combat logs holds true in this case.
I find it hard to believe that there would be a drastic 180° turn on this topic in less than a day.
I’m also uncertain if combat logs show what everyone did or just you. I assume the latter, in which case you can use the logs to judge your own performance but not to judge others.
I wonder if in a cooperative setting (like a guild doing content together) if it will be possible for everyone to send their combat logs voluntarily to a person to evaluate them so they can get help about how to improve.
Abuses of power should not be enabled. As a Bard I should be active and Buff all people in a Raid. We do not know how effective Bards will be, but, it could be Bard Buffs which will dictate DPS Output for a Raid and not simply min/maxed characters.
If there are combat logs as we understand them (even if those logs are self only) then it would take maybe 15 minutes for someone to write a plugin for Advanced Combat Tracker to work with Ashes - and that plugin can then be distributed freely.
This means there will be a fully functioning combat tracker the day we have access to these logs.
And yes, everyone connecting to a server absolutely will be a thing in raids.
This was a base assumption of what will be needed that both groups of people I know that were working on a combat tracker for Ashes had.
If the log is self only, then you make a piece of software that runs on a central "server" (the host computer) and everyone sends their logs (via the software automatically) to that host who then redistributes the compiled data back out.
The end result is more effort for both Intrepid (who has the data anyway and has to actively try to hide it) and those who are writing the tools for the community.
But since Steve said he wants to avoid 3rd party i assume then the data wont be output to a log FILE but just be a tab in the chat window (like how other games have it). That's fine too, but that data is in a memory buffer on your computer somewhere.. someone will find it. And encrypting that data will be a lot of effort to have the game decrypt it later for someone to crack the encryption and get the data anyway.
i am 100% fine if they want to make it a "my group / raid only" exportable detailed combat log that then other people can analyze as they see fit, but can't be used to shame others in game.
You talk about guilds shaming and excluding you but do you want to be in a guild that would do that anyway? if the people you are guilded with a meter shamers do you really want to be IN that guild?
If the data exists in chat text form, a combat tracker for it will also exist.
I "am" those hardcore guilds, but I don't judge, I attempt to help.
It's far more productive.
I heard a bird ♫
This is why you make it so that combat trackers can only be used on people in your guild.
Literally, problem solved.
If someone is using DPS numbers to harasser other players, they automatically go into my ignore list.
Imagine not being able to read. Oh wait, you don't have to imagine that.
I've literally never been in a guild where I've been benched for having low DPS. I've been bottom DPS while progressing through mythic content in WoW without fear of being benched.
The only time you get benched is if you're FAR below average. If everyone on average is pulling 80-40k DPS, and you're pulling 20k DPS. Yes, You will get benched, but honestly, you deserve to get benched.
Why do you expect 19 other players to carry you through content while you under perform? You're the toxic player in this situation not the 19 other people. You're the snowflake everyone is always complaining about. Practice, get better and contribute to the group instead of hold them back.
You should feel bad that you're the reason 19 other people can't down the boss, but the problem is, in your world, they can tell you're holding them back. That mindset is the reason every MMO fails.
Hopefully, the content in AoC will be classic Wow levels of easy, so the under performing players don't matter.
I would blame the raid as a whole, because, Raids aren't always about DPS. Do you refer to a point when a Boss has 60k Health left when the Boss wipes the raid, or just generally want to bad mouth low DPSers at any point. I do not see how a player with 20k Damage Done should be penalised in this manner. It would only mean 19 other players would need to do less than 4k extra DPS in total, but of course, the elitist Min/Maxers only want to top the charts, not actually perform to the benefit of all in a Raid Group.
Thanks for the behind the scenes look at a DPS Meter Challenge.
Put the effort. Yeah, what if you're bad? Some people are just bad.
What about content becoming too easy for people who use meters because they have min-maxed it to the extreme? And then demanding more challenging content.
And suddenly the other people who are not obsessed about it can't experience content because now min maxing is a requirement not something optional?
It's crazy to me that you walk into a raid and think to yourself, "I'm here, so now everyone else has to play better to carry me". "It's only 4k more on top of the already 20-60k they're doing more than me". "They got this, I CAN DOWN THIS BOSS"
I agree though if the content is easy enough that anyone can be carried through it, who cares if there is low dps.
It is not enough to simply have a DPS Meter and bench the lowest DPS. Raids should be complex affairs and as such blanket approaches can't be used. I could quibble and state 'I hate fools who stand in AoE and make me Heal through the damage instead of avoiding the damage which means I must heal and not DPS.' All because they want to stand there and continue DPS.
This is why I dislike DPS Meters and DPS Races to begin with. For a Player to maximise DPS other players have to maximise support. You either want the support or want to be face rolled because all you care for is DPS.
Do easier content. Life doesn't award people for being bad. If you want to see the content, practice. "I want this promotion at work, but I don't have a college degree like everyone else." You should probably get a college degree. "I can't get a college degree because I'm not smart enough." You probably shouldn't do that job then.
Obviously not every encounter is about DPS. No one thinks that. If you get kicked from a group because you have low DPS, and it isn't a DPS problem, I'm sorry. In the situation where the wrong players are getting kicked, they're still not going to down the boss. That same person is also going to kick you because your spec isnt following the boss guide. He will kick you because you made a suggestion on how to down the boss.
You're pointing out a player issue, not a DPS meter issue. Players are going to get kicked from groups unjustly, regardless if theres a dps meter or not.
In Ashes, I hope the Raids require movement, coordination and skill. Not a mindless approach to top charts and where any movement hinders 'The Best Deeps Rotations' and I want the Bosses to disrupt 'The Best Deeps Rotations' as much as physically possible. The good news is it seems unlikely Healers will be able to cover for stupidity due to Mana Constrictions and the fact Clerics aren't Heal Bots. I imagine we will see a shift in the balance of power away from Mindless Deeps, but, towards skilful players.
https://wow.gamepedia.com/Deathbringer_Saurfang
Note that it does say in the article that the raid is explicitly a “DPS race”. Maybe Ashes won’t have content like this. Who knows? But people aren’t making things up, in many MMOs if you want to do end game raids all it takes is one person screwing up and you fail.
Another fight we got stuck on was Sindragosa, the second-to-last in the Icecrown Citadel. In that case it wasn’t a DPS thing or anything a meter would tell you at all, but we had one player who consistently could not take cover in one part of the fight and died. Taking the time to resurrect that player hurt us and without them we couldn’t finish. We found out later he always used the keyboard for all movements (even turning!) so he just couldn’t move fast enough. We helped him get used to using the mouse and got through it.
Yes, there are raids where everyone needs to be at their best or you won’t make it, and others can’t make up the slack for one person because they are already doing as much as they can. It’s “elitist” in the sense that they are trying to complete the hardest content in the game. It’s not “elitist” because they are unforgiving snobs; it’s the content that is unforgiving.
Sometimes it is better to train people (Which I do in PUG Raids) than to kick and replace people all the time. It hasn't been a case that a DPS Meter has caused the kicks, or, the replacements, but because people have had time constraints or people just do not listen to the warnings and continue to stand in AoE.
I am not requesting no skill be required, I am requesting that skill be required. You can have skill without a DPS Meter, its old school in fact. If a Raid Encounter requires a DPS Meter to complete I do not think it is a good Raid Design. Why would IS give us a Raid based on a DPS Meter when IS aren't giving us a DPS Meter? I do also appreciate Enrage Timers, but, again, we never used DPS Meters to tackle an Enrage Timer, we just had four modes 'Switch Tank', 'Light DPS', 'Nuke' and 'Hate Increase'.
It depends on specific Raid setups though - It never works to cloud communications so simple instructions are often the best. It is difficult for me to say how I would deal with an Ashes Raid because I haven't seen all the Classes let alone any of the Raids (Besides a Dragon and the Brood Queen).
it's because some people claim that a game doesn't function without a meter.
That they can not be good at the game without one.
Some claim that it's the only way they can optimize their class.
and then you got your group that thinks that Dps meters improve the community in a game.
I suspect they're aiming for this, rendering DPS meters not that useful anyways.
I heard a bird ♫
So do I, I prefer fights where it is more about tactics, movement, etc. even full a DPS stop is fun once and a while. then just be about let's pull out our bows and swords and smack this dragon down in 2 min.