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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.
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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.
My biggest concern about AoC
raylegh
Member
So here is the thing.
It's possible that Intrepid is actually doing a good job on that, I just want to express my feeling about my role in a vast mmo world.
I have to admit it. I am not a great player, rather I'm a normal one and I know I will never be one of the bests at least in combat way.
And you know what? I'm ok with that.
I don't want to become the best. But what I want is to be able to have fun at the game anyway. I don't want to be tied to my performance at combat to enjoy the game.
I think it's important that people can enjoy the game even if they are not a top players or combat oriented. And probably this is solved by offering other ways. Like Gathering, Artisan systems, etc.
- So, maybe I want to become a Master Gatherer or something like that who has enough time to explore the world and gather a lot of rare resources. Although I am not great at combat I can still be useful by doing this kind of things. (Here is why is so important to create an entertaining and enjoyable profession systems)
- I also think that by logic, is important to have a strong pyramidal system based on personal skills/achievements and I wanna feel it when I play. I'm totally ok with top players having better sets than mine one. Because if I can "easily" get the same top sets as they, then a hundreds of people can too, and the value of the set goes down. Then there is no meaning to play the game at all. Only the bests must have the best things. There can be a lots of good armors or weapons but is important to keep limited. Where for example only 10 people (like true legends) have the best gear (as we also saw with flying mounts). And so following the pyramid.
- In conclusion I want to be able to be a random man in a vast world and still enjoy that way. I will be satisfied beeing a second-rate soldier. I want to feel that only a few are the bests (not the majority) in their path.
Progression systems seem quite interesting until now so I hope that my player profile could be matched for.
How do you feel and what is Intrepid doing about it? What do you want to be in Verra?
It's possible that Intrepid is actually doing a good job on that, I just want to express my feeling about my role in a vast mmo world.
I have to admit it. I am not a great player, rather I'm a normal one and I know I will never be one of the bests at least in combat way.
And you know what? I'm ok with that.
I don't want to become the best. But what I want is to be able to have fun at the game anyway. I don't want to be tied to my performance at combat to enjoy the game.
I think it's important that people can enjoy the game even if they are not a top players or combat oriented. And probably this is solved by offering other ways. Like Gathering, Artisan systems, etc.
- So, maybe I want to become a Master Gatherer or something like that who has enough time to explore the world and gather a lot of rare resources. Although I am not great at combat I can still be useful by doing this kind of things. (Here is why is so important to create an entertaining and enjoyable profession systems)
- I also think that by logic, is important to have a strong pyramidal system based on personal skills/achievements and I wanna feel it when I play. I'm totally ok with top players having better sets than mine one. Because if I can "easily" get the same top sets as they, then a hundreds of people can too, and the value of the set goes down. Then there is no meaning to play the game at all. Only the bests must have the best things. There can be a lots of good armors or weapons but is important to keep limited. Where for example only 10 people (like true legends) have the best gear (as we also saw with flying mounts). And so following the pyramid.
- In conclusion I want to be able to be a random man in a vast world and still enjoy that way. I will be satisfied beeing a second-rate soldier. I want to feel that only a few are the bests (not the majority) in their path.
Progression systems seem quite interesting until now so I hope that my player profile could be matched for.
How do you feel and what is Intrepid doing about it? What do you want to be in Verra?
2
Comments
This is my personal feedback, shared to help the game thrive in its niche.
You can still kill high lv mobs if you find friends to carry you
Guilds are the key to this game. Bad players in a good guild will be way ahead of a great player solo.
I think you can have a lot of fun in Ashes, even if you play it casually, you just need to find other players who want the play like you will do and enjoy the game together.
Could be that what you excel at is sneaking past combat to disable siege engines.
Could be that what you excel at is Summoning powerful Golems.
Could be that what you excel at is having enough diplomacy to be voted as the Mayor of a Scientific Node for several months or years.
Could be that you are the best breeder of combat mounts.
Or you could be mediocre at all of that if you choose to be.
You be you!
But some people will have great taverns, not only because they got all the mini-games and a wonderful name, but they may also have discovered some recipes that give nice buffs and have learned to gather and farm high quality ingredients to improve the buffs on the meals.
There will be some people who are great at taming wild animals because they have the patience and knack to figure out how to do it. There there will be a subset of those, perhaps who had a good genetics professor in college, who reverse engineer the breeding mechanics and only they can breed and sell the best mounts on the server.
A few Bounty Hunters will become masters of their profession. Someone else will figure out the best way to route and guard caravans. Others will be great at working the stock markets linked to different nodes and figure out when to buy and sell shares and end up obscenely wealthy. Others will specialize is real estate, buying and selling apartments in different cities. Perhaps someone else will have a skill in interior decorating to the point that everyone wants their advice.
There are so many possibilities, and we don't even know much of what will be in the game yet!
I personally plan on being a master gatherer for my guild, but even if I was a solo player I could be doing the same thing just maybe taking a longer time to do so.
I think the big thing with being the random man in a vast world is unless you want to invest a crazy amount of time in alts, you'll still probably need to communicate or look for other players that perform certain tasks.
While a solo experience will be possible, and you could still have fun, I think nearly all players will form some sort of social bond with random players in one fashion or another. And I think that's going to be the key here.
You might be just a random man to your server, but to your friends, you're player "xXLegolas987Xx"
And even if no one knows "xXLegolas987Xx" as long as you're enjoying your time that's all that matters anyways.
(But also if you're worried that being bad will equal not having fun, don't be. I'm terrible and I think I'll still have fun)
I can almost guarantee that the majority of players fall in your category. Unless you plan on going solo, you'll be just fine. There is strength and solace in numbers, so finding a good guild for you is key.
If you make some kind of build with plenty of snares/roots/cc and ways to get away you can probably escape almost anything or at least make yourself not worth the offending player's time.
-Not in the alpha, just a take away from knowledge of other MMORPGs
I know even in classic WoW if your a druid you take the instant cast entangle talent "nature's grasp" if your on a pvp server. The second you feel pvp is incoming you click it and when you get attacked they get rooted and you run away... and usually that's that.
A stealthy class like a Rogue might be a good option too (if stealth works how I'm imagining it at least). Hard to kill what you can't find.
Risk Vs rewards hasn't been set yet.
Once number are put in the system we will know on witch side the game will be . The PK or the bad PvPer gatherers
Ashes will be different as a lot of the stuff you do and can access can be determined be many actors in the game. Your enemies will try to prevent you from farming x and y and your node advancement for example does determine when you can access the next system.
But as the current design of ashes is layed out there is a need for a huge diversity of players! As long as you dont care about getting everything immediately you can find your spot in a eco system that thrives on players having specific demands and there are many nieches you can put your self into, no matter how far you have advanced vertically.
I´ll link an article of Raph Koster, who wrote a lot of stuff about virtual worlds and also designed the Star wars galaxy economic system that ashes draws inspirations from acording to Steven. He does a better job at explaining such concepts
https://www.playableworlds.com/news/riffs-by-raph:-player-driven-economies/
Having said that, I'm totally fine with having a lots of PvP, I like it. I'm not that good at combat but I'm not scared of it. I like to feel the risk and if I am not able to escape I will enjoy defending myself even if I lose. I'm not the worst player either.
My concern is not the combat itself but having other things to be good at, but "difficult" enough to not be able to do all of them. Maybe is important to reward somehow those who don't want to be fighters to dedicate their time in the economy. In the world of fantasy is common that those who aren't fighters are better in other scopes. So I don't want it to sound selfish, but I think it would be nice if a player who dedicates his life to combat has to rely on non-fighting players.
Having read you all, it seems that there is not much to worry about.
I agree that it is too early to know FOR SURE but I can guarantee you that if you don't enjoy pvping, you better be damn fast at typing or learn how to escape a gank. Getting my hands on A1 has taught me that their focus is absolutely on world pvp. As a tank (as of right now) I am able to pull you (with a knockdown), charge into you (with a knockdown), ground slam (with a knockdown), and if you happen to get out of range, I will already be mounted up and chasing. It would be foolish to think that this game will be viable for non pvp players (especially considering I have met whole guilds who plan to murder everyone in sight and stay red already).
@raylegh Find a good community that is willing to work with you and make sure you aren't using "bad" specs or abilities. It's absolutely OK to not be the best. Teamwork is what will ensure success in this game. At the end of the day, you will have a ton of fun. It will just be more fun when 15 guild members show up to murder the scumbag who just ganked you.
It has worked fairly well in other games and I'm pretty sure it will work out here as well.
The economy definitely needs people like you.
As the system has been describe so far.
Player that get ganked need to at least think of the possibility to die without fighting back , because if they fight back there are no red player , no red = no one to be hunt down by Bunty Hunter.
On the other hand the system must not be too punishing or less the only red to be there to be hunt down will be crazy guys like this guild ( that I think , I already heard of.)
Personally I think that the system will be well balanced when guys like raylegh have a better chance of surviving a purple gank by not fighting back than fighting back.
Of course Vs red players running and fighting back are the only option ^^"
PvP will heavily influence this game and anyone who chooses not to pvp will most certainly be delayed (by A LOT) in what they are ultimately trying to accomplish.
In the test you had 50% drop of you gatherable , and ofc with such a lose you don't look your attacker in the eyes and wait to die.
At launch, I personally think that it will be max 25% for green , because red have four time the penalties of them. And if we agree that more than 100% will not be a think ofc.
It may even be lower that 25% because 100% is a bit hard on red.
Now if you do agree with those numbers.
You will agree that the difference between fighting back or not , is 12,5% of your gatherables at most ?
Can you not imagine your self in a situation where you'll be ready to sacrifice those 12,5% to see if your opponent is really willing to be corrupted for them ?
Being red is not planning to be easy to get rid of. It may have been in the test , but shouldn't be at launch.
You say :"If I am roaming with a group and we are killing everyone, we will be purple and will have to grind for longer to remove the purple....but we will still be protected."
But it doesn't make sense to me ...
Where did you heard that being in a group protect you of being red ??? If no one fight you back , your whole group will be corrected ...
And it the first time that I heard that the purple stat must be grind out. To me it a stat that you get out after not being in PvP for a certain time.
https://www.ashes101.com/pvp#corruption
Good post @raylegh , a lot of what you said resonated with me and others. I have zero concerns for you in Ashes. You can communicate well, so maintaining a level of association with a Guild and other in-game social groups, at a distance that you feel comfortable with, won't be an issue for you.
The players who I expect will struggle with Ashes are those that normally rely on a p2w credit card to back up their Ego problems.
I do think the penalties for fighting back or not fighting back should be the same, but I understand why they are not.
I think the courteous thing would be for players who like to PVP to turn on the PVP flag even while they are farming. But I guess part of that equation is how big the advantage is for someone to have a jump on you in combat. I would hope that the combat system involves more player skill, which can offset such disadvantages.
You are not going to turn red defending yourself. If someone attack you (and you are green) he will turn purple. If you fight back you will turn purple too. A purple who kill another purple doesn't turn red.
You turn red when you kill a green player and a green player is the one who does not fight back.
What?
Ah my bad, I misunderstood the flagging a bit xD