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Phase I of Alpha Two testing will occur on weekends. Each weekend is scheduled to start on Fridays at 10 AM PT and end on Sundays at 10 PM PT. Find out more here.
Check out Alpha Two Announcements here to see the latest Alpha Two news and update notes.
Our quickest Alpha Two updates are in Discord. Testers with Alpha Two access can chat in Alpha Two channels by connecting your Discord and Intrepid accounts here.
Comments
@daveywavey I'd say the point is that your race will already have a lot of other impactul repercussions on the world. Architecture, benefits in certain nodes, armor and weapon design etc.
You don't need to create what would end up being a must-pick race-archetype combo. Because it would end up being that. At best you get two options depending on playstyle (tanky tank vs evasion tank for example)
And even if there were no benefits to one race over another, the point would be that every player gets to pick what they like best and allow their skill and dedication to being better than the others. Whereas giving specific perks to certain races, influencing combat, then you're likely to be forced into playing a race you didn't want to, just to be competitive.
Imagine seeing a leaderboard, where all the top mages are X race, all the top rangers are Y race and the top tanks Z race. Where is the point in that then ? We're all the same characters with different bits for different archetypes.
Architecture and armour/weapon design is pretty much purely cosmetic. It'll have no positive or negative impact on anything. I'll suggest that's no more "impactful" than the colour of the hair that you choose on your character.
Carrying on using the Tank as the example, the wiki shows there are three types: Evasion, Control, and Shield.
https://ashesofcreation.wiki/Tank
The chances of the same race being the best at all of them is pretty low.
Regarding the leaderboards, we're going to find that certain classes always top it. That doesn't mean we should only have one class. Similarly with races.
Race will just act as the baseline stat seed. Which is the same across all classes.
The archetypes will determine the stat growth.
There won't be 1vs1 Balance in Ashes. I did consider the fact that same Class/same Race would have 1vs1 balance and I still believe it will. If there are soft caps and hard caps on stats, then base stats won't really matter, it will just be a case of reaching soft cap/hard cap faster for some class/race synergies.
Yeah, I understand the primary classes only boost the base stats but I was trying to explain why classes will be gimped by some suggestions. Attack speed for Elven Fighter would benefit all Classes with Attack Speed if they are Elven. Strength for a Dwarven Fighter will not be useful to Dwarven Mages or Dwarven Rangers.
The point I tried to explain is that the base stats must synergise for all classes, not be limited by specific classes per race. If you pigeon hole Racial Attributes, you also limit what weapons/armour can be used by some class/race combos if you want to min/max. The goal is to limit cookie cutters, not create cookie cutters.
It is too bad the current tests are under NDA, because, we can go over the ground repeatedly but the answers are out there. In the wiki the classes have Armour Passives, which, guides the Armour choices. You could run a different set of armour but you won't get passives from the base archetype if you do. I don't know if these passives are still relevant but the whole 'Build what you want, build how you want' seems to be under threat.
Actually in an interview Steven had like a day or two ago, he mentions that certain races controlling certain nodes will give specific benefits to players of that race and will allow the spawning of specific NPCs where another race would have a different one entirely.
So I would say that to a more global extent, it has a bigger impact than what one might need or require from combat benefits.
I would certainly hope so. I'm interested in seeing the balance between those three types of tanks, and whether certain races will dominate certain types of archetypes. Or if a certain type of tank is straight up better.
But yeah making it so certain races are blatantly better at certain things, takes away the real choice from the players. Because at some point it's no longer a matter of risk-reward, but pick-this-or-you're-dumb type choices.
Edit: seems it is on youtube youtu.be/RS3e0vuj5lA
To stick with the tank example, they could go with different resist-augments, depending on race, so dwarves do better against cold and elves better against fire. Or whatever is applicable.
Basically, I'd prefer if the racial differences are geared more towards the secondary attributes, rather than the main ones, in a way that the different races are best in different situations, rather than one being objectively better overall.
The reality of the player base is that if there is an objectively better race overall for any class, all other races of that class will be discriminated against and not be included in groups. Also, we'll se MUCH less variety of race/class combos in the game, which I find boring. I'll just be a bunch of cookiecutter characters everywhere, with the occasional odd one out playing a sub-optimal combo.
For AOC the lack of meters should help with this. In my experience these things are nothing if the player is competent enough to not stand in fire and do the basic mechanics.
I stopped playing WoW right after getting Ahead of the Curve acheivement on G'huun . The try hards in my guild thought everyone needed to run mythic plus all the time when not raiding. The ally guild I played with for a time also got AotC at about the same time. Looking at the combat logs for both groups they ally raid did it with a lot less DPS just by focusing on the mechanics. Our raid brute forced a couple fights.
Point is why try to force people into if this class then you HAVE to be this race?
Have the courage to be your own person and experiment. Play the way you want to.
At 9:30 Kevin talks about how after 15 years the meta in classic WoW is still changing. I encourage the whole video.
Words to live by!
I don't mind any kind of racial abilities as long as they will not be a subject to patch to patch balancing - what racials you get on the launch of the game are the same racials a few years later - yes the game will evolve around them, but races should be the immovable objects - no race changes - that should be a rule for the players and devs alike
― Plato
Small size means more difficult to hit. Master of Illusions also means more difficult to hit. If the secondary archetype is Bard, we should expect that Gnome Tank to also be a Master of Taunts.
A Nikua Tank or even a Pyrian Tank should be an excellent Tank. We should not expect them to use the same methodology to Tank as a Vek Tank or a Human Tank.
A Pyrian probably would not be a great Knight or Guardian, but should be able to be a great Warden or Argent.
― Plato
My son asked me the other day what race will I play, my response was whatever race passives is best suited for a healer. I'm hoping not the blue skinned bug eyed orc because that's a face only a mother could love.
So, I'm going to nerd-out into stats here, so only read on if you are into that. Regression analysis studies the interactions between different characteristics, such as base stats. But the influence of each spell, your second class, your character's religious augments, your weapons, your jewelry, perhaps even your non-fighting skills....these interactions can have much more influence than just your bast stats. Multi-variate analysis reveals wonders.
For example, the best healer might not be the one with the base stats best for a healer. The interaction between augments, skills, cast speed, weapon characters and other variables might result in what appears to be a sub-par build being really great. The same with different types of DD, Tanks, or anything else in the game.
Of course, the personal characteristics and skill of the player makes HUGE difference as well. A great player on a decent character can do far better than an idiot on a great character, as most of us have observed.