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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.
What’s wrong with the world?
Javionn
Member, Alpha Two
I don’t see a problem with the world. I feel like the world looks nice, but then again it is an alpha map so it probably isn’t all what it should look like but either way I like it, what’s the problem with it? That it’s just too big?
I just recently watched skylent games video on ashes of creation and it’s test, he completely bashed the game but I’m not understanding why he hates it. He claims it just doesn’t seem immersive and that the characters seem floaty but to me, I don’t have a problem. Now the character shadows I feel like makes it look like the characters sliding but other than that it’s good. It does remind me of elder scrolls online and I hated that game but i liked the environment here than I did in that game. What are y’all’s thoughts im curious because obviously the community is split because of this.
I just recently watched skylent games video on ashes of creation and it’s test, he completely bashed the game but I’m not understanding why he hates it. He claims it just doesn’t seem immersive and that the characters seem floaty but to me, I don’t have a problem. Now the character shadows I feel like makes it look like the characters sliding but other than that it’s good. It does remind me of elder scrolls online and I hated that game but i liked the environment here than I did in that game. What are y’all’s thoughts im curious because obviously the community is split because of this.
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Comments
The vast majority think what we have now is great for an Alpha One.
People who are expecting a close-to-finished game might feel otherwise.
Very true. I’ve seen mixed emotions through most content creators but, that one seemed to just not like the game entirely.
True I guess you could say that then.
as for the world i can only speak for my self but i think i share the same thoughts as the people you are referring to
i think as a whole the world looks incredible, the team are absolutely doing an incredible job and to top it off they are designing all the art them selves so massive props
but i can definitely see what people are referring to also,
the world seems a bit big and over scaled, a bit generic and is missing that certain immersive feel, it feels more like you are out in the country side than on a new planet/world. i feel like the view distance could be scaled back a bit to add a bit more mystique and adventure to the player experience,
the character models could be scaled up a bit and the world scaled down, not in world total size but for example the rocks and flowers all seem over scaled, obviously there are parts of the world that should have these additions but to have the same flower every 5 meters on a different scale feels a bit dull.
as it is atm there is no draw/pull to make the adventurer want to explore, nothing pulling them off the path, you look into the distance and see the same generic 3 tree models with a few rocks scattered in between and there is no reason to go off the path, resulting in the players just going generically from quest to quest.
I obviously know this is an alpha and things will change over time, i think once intrepid add weathering affects/ and make your character a bit more grounded ie footsteps left in the mud, less of a walking over ice feel, it will change dramatically and they are definitely on the right track to doing this, but to sum it all up i think players are extremley excited to play a new game, part of the new game feel is exploring the world. when you can see the entire map from the top of a mountain it almost ruins the experience ( in my eyes anyway), theres something magical about going into a new area that you know is a high leveled area and exploring for the first time not knowing what to expect
just my thoughts anyway
Many games you goes in alpha and it is a beta. or at worst what we will have in alpha 2 (already most main features in the game). Not a back-end alpha that test the core of the systems, the netcode, the servers.
So lot of people will compare this alpha1 with alpha they saw elsewhere.
Second problem : many streamers are just brainless players that can't even understand anything outside their own vision of "what a good game is". No curiosity. They are unable to understand "why this game is so popular" when it come to exotic game design they don't understand. and they don't try even ... just "people now are dumb"
Community split ? read the forum... the most splitted debate now are "parser in the game : yes or no ?" and "tank as name of archetype" . . . And while on both this topics i defend my opinion, i am far to be angry or anything of this kind with those on the "opposite" side... and i feel the same from them.
The community now is not streamers, it is not the "silence majority". Those are just people who comes, watch the state of the game to maybe get more interested and finally play it when release.
The "community" right now is on forum, the game is in development and the forum is where people who have many hopes in this game comes to say what they like and dislike, what they hope, how they want things to change. They care about what the game can be in the end.
when we will go in beta 2 (last step before release) yes, the community will be outside of the forum. But again, a guy who will watch and say "but, why the fuck is there not a on/off on PvP?!" won't be from AoC community. because simply the game is not for them. People saying "game is shit" because they will dislike from this are just unmature people who consider their opinion and taste better than the others
Oh wow! I never heard of skylent, and just watched his video on AoC. He comes off as a severely entitled individual who think the world owes him a favor on a silver platter. AT the very beginning of the video he gives himself away, he's entirely jaded by the fact that he didn't get selected for the content creator program and wasn't given a free pass to play the game, so he instead decides to bash on it taking every petty route he can find.
I would not sub to him nor value his opinions as any sort of authority.
I think part of what I felt is that the characters are slightly more cartoony than the environments.
Gw2 suffered from the floating criticism but it's barely noticeable at all bc of the work they did to improve it.
I can only guess this streamer was ill-informed and should have stayed out of a testing environment.
Just pointing out...In Alpha 1, you play on about 17% of the total world size.
https://ashesofcreation.wiki/World_size
I'm blown away by
1) how good the world looks
2) how long it takes to travel around even this small chunk of Verra
3) how much actual (mostly working) content there is for the testers to engage with
4) the quality of several of the placeholder animations
Before the NDA drop I placed my expectations somewhere between the most pessimistic and most optimistic opinions. The reality that streamers are showing me is much, much better.
That said, there is still a ton of systems to implement, test, rework (rinse repeat) so I still think 2+ years until release.