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
I understand that but it still isn't the same and nor does that stop the constant grind you'd be creating for mounts, over and over again. That causes MMO burnout and it doesn't respect player time, causing players to choose between animal husbandry or actually playing other content, especially consumers who have limited play time. There needs to be a medium.
If Intrepid released the game with non-permanent mounts that took the resources to acquire that permanent mounts in other games do, that would obviously be bad.
On the other hand, if they made the effort to get a mount commensurate with the fact that it has a limited life span, then obviously this wouldn't be an issue.
Also, since the life span of a mount should be based on time used (as has been discussed at length in this thread), the amount of time you have to play the game is a non0factor. if you are not using your mount, it is not aging.
Down time between patches is not going to be a thing in Ashes. the way the game is designed it could potentially be fun forever with no patches. There is so much to fight over in Ashes that you and your guild will constantly be struggling to make, and keep your place in the world. Collecting mounts is something on the side that you can do, but most likely will not have time or resources to do. You will be too busy helping yourself or your guild to worry about how many different looking mounts you have. You are never going to pick and choose what mount you want to ride today based only on appearance. It will always be the one with the stats suited to your goals. It is highly unlikely that anyone will ever manage to obtain the best version of every possible mount. Most people are just going to maintain a breed of mount they like and use cosmetic skins to change its appearance on their whim. The cosmetic skins are the thing you would worry about collecting, and the only thing close to the WOW mount collecting you desire. The mount itself can be seen more like another piece of gear to be used than a collectable.
Something else to consider is that Intrepid knows Ashes is not for everyone. They have said it multiple times in interviews. So alienating a potentially large portion of MMO players is something they expect. When you try to satisfy everyone, you satisfy no one. I have zero doubt in my mind that a potentially large amount of people who are excited about Ashes now, will find it to be a bitter cup of tea when they taste it. Some might acquire a taste for it, others will spit it out and never try it again.
This page lists all of the flavors they are using to brew Ashes. If you dislike any of the games under Inspirations, Ashes might not be for you.
https://ashesofcreation.wiki/Design_pillars#Inspiration
I just encourage you to look at the reality of the game as a whole, before deciding that the collect-a-thon mindset has a place in the game. I mean, unless you bought every mount skin so far. You already failed at being a collector.
This is my personal feedback, shared to help the game thrive in its niche.
This will keep the money circulating and even the most novice or traders should be able to sell his animals. I don't want to see a system where time, materials, and effort are all underminded and your animal is pretty much worthless and you're taking a loss on it.
Somekind of animal feeding system could be interesting also, their could be guild stables where someone is in charge of feeding the animals.
Actually, you CAN choose between animal husbandry and "playing the game", after all if you only care about doing raids and fighting monsters you can always use your hard earned gold from those raids to buy a new mount when the old one dies. Remember in this game you wont be able to "do everything" you can't be a master fisher and a master alchemist like in other games, so you will unavoidably have to rely on others for some stuffs, so if you feel it will be a pain to train a new mount every time your mount dies you can always focus on the branches of the artisan tree that makes you happy and let other people focus on breeding your mounts.
I would honestly prefer it if animal husbandry skill was more focused on creating new skins by breading the mounts, or creating buffs for the mounts, Rather than producing limited life span animals. You can still monetize cool looking mount skins in game without the need to remove existing mounts from players. It just seems like a tedious and unnecessarily painful experience in a game that is supposed to be a form of entertainment.
And as other people have stated, True end game content is about fashion wars.
The life and death of a living creature can be very cruel.
When I was in junior high school, I couldn't keep a pet for myself after I took care of the end of my dog who had shared my pain and suffering.
Even after that experience, it was a complete shame that I couldn't be considerate of the fact that some people might not feel good about it, even if it was in a game.
In my opinion, why not introduce a concept like reincarnation?
Animal husbandry is the process of creating the vessel of their soul, and the parameters related to combat, speed, etc. depend on it.
And then there are other parameters like "friendliness" that can be passed on from one generation to the next!
That's the thing, animal husbandry isn't about mount skins.
Most of what mount collectors actually collect are mount looks. That would still be a thing in Ashes via the cash shop, as well as in fame mount skins.
This is why I dont understand the point in regards to mount collectors. I mean,I get that some people like having mount collections, and I get that they like to show them off. The thing is, showing off 20 different horses all with different stats isn't a great mount collection.
While animal husbandry isn't just going to be horses, by the very nature if it being a tradeakill, there aren't going to be that many rare/unique looks from it.
Rare/unique looks for mounts, the things most collectors collect, wouldn't at all be affected by this - and even if you wanted a collection of bred mounts, you can still have that by simply not using them.
Well, I can't say that I don't understand the desire for a cool look for the ...... mount.
At any rate, let's try to come up with a system that can coexist without competing with each other's needs.
I know it baffles you that not everyone is keen on an idea that you support, but I'm not satisfied with the idea of having my collection sitting in some pin as a way to show it off. That defeats the entire purpose of mounts. Oh, look at my awesome mounts! Better not take them out and use them though, or they'll die. No thanks.
What baffles my mind is people that dont pay attention.
If you have a collection of mounts you want to show off, they will be mount skins, not mounts. You are unlikely going to be keen to show off your collection of player bred horses that are all a slightly different shade of brindle.
While horses wont be the only thing that players breed, there is no reason to assume that mounts bred by players will be unique looking.
Your feedback is appreciated, Im sure we can work around this issues, but I need to know a few things.
What do you consider a collection of mounts? because in AOC the idea seems to be that most non humanoid creatures will be tamable and can become mounts. So you plan on collecting most creatures in Verra? or only having a collection of mounts you like?
What do you like to show off from your mounts? the stats or the looks?
Your concept of collection of mounts applies to cash store skins?
Do you want a collection for the feeling of having a complete set? or you simply want to be able to switch to most themes when you feel like? (by example "Tonight we are going to explore the desert so I will use a camel today, but tomorrow we will explore an icy cave so I will bring my polar bear mount")
What are your thoughts on variations of the same mount? by example, there is a bear, but there is also a fire bear, would you want all variations in your collection?
there won't be a need for fashion wars if the economy fails to function. If that fails, the game fails. With all the competition of players doing animal husbandry the market would dry up so fast if mounts were unable to die and it would be relagated to a certain few who were able to get special breeds.
I enjoy the games stated in their pillars of creation but I also enjoyed that during the last video of the dev's showing some of the new mount designs that they stated and I quote "people enjoy collecting mounts" so they are fully aware that this is a fun part of MMOs, people can collect all sorts of things, pets, achievements, etc. Some people do them all, some do a portion. I prefer to stick to achievements and mount collecting versus pets but that also depends on the game I am playing and you absolutely can be a collector without giving into to in game shops so I'm not quite sure where you are coming from there nor do I understand that thought process. It doesn't have to be one or the other in collecting, especially when you want to feel like you earned it and didn't just simply buy it. I am very much looking forward to feeling like I earned my collection of mounts when I physically have to put the time into breeding them, having to RNG stats, etc. That especially will be what is going to draw the attention like collectors like me. I don't care if the stock horse comes in 4 variations of black and white, I would like to eventually work to get them all. That's just me, it's fun for me.
Edit: What I don't want to do, like some people have suggested, is collect my mounts but decide if I want to use them or not so their life doesn't start ticking down and thus have them sit in a pen at my in-game house as a way to show them off, especially so when that house will only exist when that node is up. In all honestly, I probably wont be taking part in the house decorating or creation component at all. I just want to raid, pvp and collect. But that's just me and how I would rather spend my time. I completely understand where people are coming from with this idea so that animal husbandry doesn't become a dead profession but there could be many, many other ways to go about this and I simply gave my opinion on why I don't want them to just up and die. Also, I have to deal with my pets dying in real life and I don't want to deal with pets and mounts dying in a fantasy game that I purposely use as a fun way to escape or take a break from the mental and emotional drain of real life.
Yea I think this is a better method. Instead of forcing players to lose their mounts (which honestly sounds like a pain in the ass), putting the balance elsewhere in the system makes a lot more sense. If you have a better mount with better stats, or that goes faster, or just is a unique, cool looking creature people will want it. That demand is always going to be there - hell even in regular MMO's like WoW, people spend tons of time going to sometimes crazy lengths just to get unique mounts. Some people love collecting mounts and then there's just the people that need to have the newest, best thing so they'll always upgrade as well. But if I have a boring low level horse that is fast enough for me and I don't have a boatload of gold, I should be able to keep it as long as I want until I want something more.
I agree.
BDO isn't a good example, because that game is having to add a new tier of mount essentially every year. This is the reason mount prices remain steady - the ONLY reason
As was discussed in this thread earlier, if Intrepid wanted to do this, that would be fine, but they would need to add a new tier of mounts every year (and thus mounts would suffer from power creep).
The only other suggestion that anyone has made in terms of how to keep animal husbandry relevant in terms of mounts is to have mounts expire.
Basically,in order to keep the profession alive, players need to be replacing mountain often. This can be through obsolescence via adding better mounts, or via expiration.
I don't think it's a bad thing that new kinds of mounts are added periodically.
but, "Why do we need new kinds of mounts? Please think about it.
This is my own theory, but it seems to me that they are just listening to the requests of people who say "it's too much trouble to change mounts regularly", and responding symptomatically to the impact on the in-game economy caused by gaining a large number of players.
In other words, if the in-game economy can be maintained without adding new mounts on a regular basis, that seems like a superior system.
It seems to me that if you run out of inspiration and want a new mount, you can just change your skin.👍