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Check out Alpha Two Announcements here to see the latest news on Alpha Two.
Check out general Announcements here to see the latest news on Ashes of Creation & Intrepid Studios.
To get the quickest updates regarding Alpha Two, connect your Discord and Intrepid accounts here.
Comments
I completely and totally disagree with this point.
Combat trackers are only ever used to exclude if the game that is being played makes it easy to exclude others.
First of all, combat trackers only work in situations where you are already running content with others - so the excluding that comes from combat trackers can literally only be in relation to people being kicked out of groups mid way through a content piece. While there is an argument to be made that people may be excluded due to class or build, this will happen regardless as people will exclude builds based on the games meta - which will exist regardless of combat trackers.
So, any excluding that can be attributed to combat trackers has to happen mid content.
If you are playing a game that allows you to kick a player from your group, and you are able to replace that player with someone from any server - and that player is able to be teleported directly to your content piece, then it is in many players best interest to exclude some players from their groups.
This is not the fault of combat trackers, this is the fault of the game in question being designed in a way where both the game and the people playing the game need maintain no respect for others at all.
Now, you take those same players and put them in a game where there is no autoamted group system, you can't form groups with players from other servers, and players will not be automatically teleported to your content, and all of a sudden it is in the best interest of all players to make the most of the players that are present
Suddenly, it is no longer an option to kick people out of the group mid way through a content piece, and so people do not do this.
All of this is not simply a theory, this is how things actually happen in games that treat players with respect. In games where you can't treat players as disposable, it should come as no surprise that people don't treat players as disposable.
Based on all of this, the single biggest "feature" Ashes may end up having that will contribute to players being excluded is not a combat tracker (which the game will have), but rather, will be the family summons.
The family summons will allow groups to summon replacement players directly to the content they are running - indeed this is what it is designed to do. This absolutely will see players in groups mid content deciding that a specific player is not up to their standard (which will happen with or without combat trackers), and knowing that they can summon in a family member of any player in the group, they may well decide to exclude that player they feel is underperforming.
It is also worth pointing out that the very existence of the family summons will see people forming groups knowing full well that a friend is going to log on in an hour or so, and building the group with the idea in mind that when their friend logs in, they will simply boot a player from the group and summon their friend in.
I mean, I agree with you that excluding players is bad - even more so if it happens mid way through content. Where I disagree with you - based on actual experience - is in what causes people to exclude others.
Well skills should have clear description of what they do and what stats scale them. And thats more than enough information. With addition to combat log you have all the tools to make and try new builds
Cool, you use the tooltip information.
Meanwhile, I'll use a combat tracker to ensure - both for myself and for you - that the information on those tool tips is accurate.
You will be surprised how often it is not.
Sound like a deal?
Not really, someone else has access to more indepth information, everyone has to use trackers to stay relevant.
The way that some skills/abilities/talents work may have unforeseen consequences on what they actually do. For example a talent may have description: It takes 30% longer for your rage to decay while outside of combat.
However the implementation was that your rage was increased by 1 every 3 seconds until it dropped to 0. Which means in combat you gained 20 extra rage per minute.
Or another example, talent gives a bleed on your enemy for 30% of your weapon damage if you critical strike him. However it was a bleed that ticked every 3seconds for 12seconds total. So when you crit second time inside the next 12seconds the old unfinished bleed was rewritten with the new one and thus you lost the damage from it. Not only that, if you got enough crit or got lucky enough to crit at least once inside 3 seconds then this talent never did any damage, because it was constantly rewriting itself.
Every game has these things and you cannot catch all unintentional interactions in beta. I believe that Intrepid will do exceptional job on preventing such things, but let's be real - even the best slip up from time to time.
― Plato
Why have more UI in the game?? Why do I want external tools in a role playing game?? Theres hundreds of ways to calculate your damage in the game itself. We don't need the perfect information instantly given to us. This is a fantasy RPG guys, let it be fun, inmersive and engaging.
We are negating ourselves from real game knowledge and a huge part of how the game works by putting some damage calculator UI. Thats disgusting.
It will be much better for the sanity and in-depth knowledge of the game from the comunity, to make them figure out things and really know the game from the inside. Instead of putting a dps meter and ignoring every step on how the game works.
Dude, WOW is bad example to say why AOC needs dps meters, wow's skill descriptions were vague as shit. And basically you're saying that players need dps meters to find bugs in the game? Because thats exactly what you described, its not players job to find bugs, if it was we would have access to source code, maybe we can find and help fix even more bugs?
Exactly! its a game, not a science project. add to many trackers, meters etc, and will play with numbers more than with your character...
― Plato
If we are to understand the game, if we are to have an in depth knowledge of the games combat system, a combat tracker is literally the only possible way.
If you look at games that either didn't have combat trackers or had rules in place so they couldn't be openly discussed, as soon as combat trackers were able to be openly discussed the general population had to go through a crash course in re-learning the game. GW2 is the best example here, but not the only one.
The generally accepted knowledge of the combat system was so far off it was embarassing to those that assisted in forming that general knowledge.
If you agree that knowledge of a game is good, then combat trackers are essential.
Now, I agree that they have issues, and some people see different issues as bigger or smaller than others see the same issue. This is why the suggestion that I have been making in this very thread for over a year now attempts to address those issues.
The suggestion that would address your UI issues is simply to implment a built in combat tracker in to the game client in a way that doesn't provide players with information until after the encounter has finished. You can't clutter up the UI with nothing...
The problem here is that there absolutely will be a working combat tracker for Ashes before it goes to beta 2. If we all assume that Mojottv is correct in that if one person has a combat tracker, all will have to use one to stay relevant, then we need to assume that we will all be using one by the time the game goes live.
That means that if we want to address issues we have with combat trackers, literally the only way to make that happen is if the combat tracker we use is one that is built in to the games client - which again is what I have been fighting for in this thread for a year now.
So you mean, if there are going to be bots for this game everyone will have to use them? Don't think so.
If the bot is implemented in game by developers, then for sure everyone will use it and will have to use it to stay relevant.
Would i be mistaken if I assumed that @Noaani and @Tragnar you are both WOW players?
― Plato
Yes, you would be mistaken.
That game is the antithesis of good MMO design. I am on record on these forums as having said that I think almost every single design decision Blizzard made with WoW - from raid size to the LFG/LFR system to the crafting system to the class system - was literally the worst direction they could have taken the game.
So on what MMO's you base your knowledge on? GW2?
You missing my point completely. Both things can provide advantage. If its implemented in game, and you're not using them, you are at disadvantage. I will always advocate for fair play.
I understand, you want to Iron man Ashes am I right?
In that case we should want to hide all displayed combat text, because it provides advantage. It makes no sense to show players numbers but to forbid them to measure those numbers.
As for your question if I play WoW - yes I play still to this day the first expansion - tbc - every xpac after that was eroding any sense of player interaction and counting on players using combat assist addons (which is dogshit). - wow now is terrible and has nothing it once had - except difficult raids
What I see overall from your posts, you want to increase the amount of any kind of grind and decrease the amount of any readable information.
― Plato
My knowledge is based on - in no specific order - WoW (I can't think it is shit if I don't know about it), EQ, EQ2, DDO, Aion, Flyff, PotBS, DCUO, CoH/CoV, WAR, STO, GW, GW2, Vanguard, Rift, Archeage, BDO, ESO, EvE, LotRO, Runescape, AoC the 1st and Allods.
The entire point here is misplaced.
If bots become a thing in Ashes, and if Intrepid make no moves to combat them, then yes, they will be required to reach the top.
Fortunately, bots are very easy to spot - the only games that have them in large numbers are the games that have developers/producers that allow them to exist.
WoW has them because Blizzard likes the money they bring in.
Some PvP games like L2 have them because they are the only way players have any chance of being able to fend for themselves.
This isn't really a good argument for you to be making though - it hurts your position in this thread and in the open world content thread.
Bots never get you on top, they only help you farm afk. Same same thing can be done without bots by investing time. They make playing easier, but that doesn't mean it can't be achieved without them. My point is if its implemented in game, thats not cheating. So everyone has to use them. If not, if bots are 3rd party, thats cheating and even if there's a lot of cheaters i the game i would not resort to that just to get competitive edge, but thats just me.
In l2 i was able to fend for myself without resorting to cheating, took me longer to get there, but still.
yes i want the game thats reasonably hard and challenging, as there are none of these mmos among modern mmos.
And yes, i dont like when there's too much information readily available, especially ingame trackers calculators etc anything thats lowers the bar
The topic has no place here. Feel free to start a thread about them if you wish.
It takes time - weeks - to get good information. That is not readily available.
I'm curious; when there is a combat tracker working for Ashes - which will happen during beta - will you then wish that the game had one built in so that Intrepid could control it and place restrictions on it as they see fit?
Will you then just download it and use it without issue?
Or will you then just fade in to irrelevance?
These seem to be the options you have made available to yourself.
No, I will laugh when they ban people for using them. Maybe see some streamer tears on youtube saysing i didnt know... i just though... i wasnt using anything ... boohoo... stuff like that makes me happy.
You kind of brought bots into this tread, saying l2 had bots and the bots were only way to reach the top in L2, no?
Second, they are unlikely to ever say this, because they know perfectly well that they will not be able to detect their usage.
I will be running a combat tracker. I have said this a number of times, and even given my justification as to why I will still do this even if they do specifically say they are against the EULA/ToS. I expect Intrepid to be watching my client both during beta and live, and I am in no way worried about them finding anything at all to justify banning me.
Again, I've been saying this for months in this thread now - one of the two combat trackers I am following the development of is able to be run on a computer other than the one running the game client - the computer running the tracker doesn't even need to be connected to the internet.
The other tracker I am following works on Android.
Even if I were streaming, the only way Intrepid would have any idea I was using a combat tracker was if I specifically said I was using one. If someone agrees to an EULA that says combat trackers are not permissible (which again, is not a given), and then says live on a stream that they are using one, I'll enjoy watching them get banned too. No.
This was the first mention of bots in this thread - or at least in the last 30 pages. I think you are getting threads mixed up - though I also didn't bring them up in the other thread - I was responding to another post by another poster that bought them up.
It happens, it's all good, I am just going to politely shut it down in this thread - or as politely as I get.
First of all idk why you laugh from streamers when clearly you tried to be one (having ttv in the end means only one thing)
Secondly I do not know where you found out that time investment is in any form a difficulty or even content. Time investment is only an act of commitment to the game. All you are asking for is making simple things take much longer with the only goal to make them take long time. Please stop promoting that any mindless investment of time should put you to the top in any area of the game. All I want for the game is making smart choices for time investment matter. Otherwise the game can be just a cookie clicker where the metric is how long you've been clicking one button
― Plato
All this text and you didn't say anything new... it was already clear that you would use anything possible to make game easier for you, even if it means 3rd party tools. And it was already clear that you don't care about following the rules.
Well i really hope they make using any kind of 3rd party tools a Banable offence.
First, why wouldn't I? If the **** gets banned because of cheating and starts crying on steam, i will laugh my ass off. As its top shelf entertainment, I just love when smart asses who think they're so clever and can cheat over others, get what they deserve. Me streaming has absolutely nothing to do with this.
Mindless investment of time will never put you on top. But people who spend their in game time smart, and invest more time, should be on top of people who invest less time. Its only fair. Otherwise, just have a game where you log in and you instantly get best shit.
So you want to ban people creating guides on the internet, you want to ban people organizing their guilds through discord, you want to ban people when trying to theorycraft in google sheets or even with pen and paper. You want to ban unofficial forums. You want to ban streamers trying to teach the game to their audience.
All of the above are 3rd party tools. This is not the early 2000s where these things almost didnt exist. However they did exist, but they were not mainstream as they are now. So tell me why do you want all of it gone?
― Plato
And no, I don't much care about following the rules of a company if the rule in question goes against the grain of the rest of the industry.
Wtf u talking about? This is pointless...
yes yes, thats what i mean, rules dont apply to you if you dont like the rules, ok. Gl.dont have anything more to talk to you about