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.
What I've learned from New World, and you should too
Marzzo
Member, Leader of Men, Kickstarter, Alpha One, Alpha Two, Early Alpha Two
New World brings a bunch of good stuff we should learn from, and even more horrible stuff we absolutly need to learn from. I will do my best to compile what New World does great, and what we could use in our beloved project, and what we absolutly need to avoid.
The Good
Gathering
It's quite an amazing feeling when you walk out of a settlement into a large forest full of trees, bushes, rocks and rivers that are all gatharable. Every single tree you see can be chopped down. Every single rock can be mined. All flint nearby a river can be picked up. You can fish from anywhere there is water. When your done chopping down a tree, it falls down and stays there a little while. Sometimes you stumble upon a mature tree, requiring higher skill to gather, pushing you to keep chopping down trees and refining your skill. And the higher your skill, the more effective your skills become. You feel the progress with every single act. This is amazing. The feeling after coming back to a cozy settlement after a grinding session with bags full of material is great. And processing it, crafting it feels great.
Ashes needs to update the 2005 system of only being able to chop specific predefined trees, rocks, bushes etc. Ashes promises to be dynamic. And New World has proven it is possible to have a dynamic gathering system. And in all honesty, thanks to New World, this is non-debatable. We really cant come out with Ashes with a clear copy of the old school gathering system. We need the world to feel dynamic, and if we need to choose one direction to go with when it comes to gathering, New Worlds way is the best, by far.
To go even further than New World there are multiple things you can do. For example, make the gathering tools deeper. Let us modify them and progress our tools. Also, tie our gathering progression to certain abilities that we can choose from.
Fishing
This was actually quite something. Try the game out and try to fish. Please, do not go with the system we have in the alpha currently.
The Bad
*Playing with friends
The most r*tarded playing with friends experience I ever had. Probably ever, and always, even in the future. I jumped in with two other friends. We all randomly spawned in different zones on the map (there are 4). To counter this, we just decided to walk to one of us and start from there. You could not. YOU LITERALLY could not start progressing from a different zone. Only the player who naturally spawned in that zone could take the quests. To counter this, we remade our characters multiple times, going through the horrible tutorial until two of us made it to the same place.
A bit later, we learned that all tasks and stuff is personal, so we could not do activities togheter. All in all, the playing with friends experience sucked. Please, don't make it complicated to play with friends in Ashes.
*The faction system
To everyones suprise, one faction was bigger than the other, which led to them always winning and taking more territory. This led to everyone switching to that faction and all new players also picked it. Every battle for every node got dominated by the leading faction, with 5 times the numbers of the other factions. And you, the special snowflake with your 30 man guild that will beat the odds and defeat the mainstream faction? Sorry mate, you got burried alive under a pile of 500 zerg rushing players.
This would not be a problem, if stuff was not locked behind being in the winning faction. The dominating faction had many advantages, making it just stupid to not be in that faction. Better crafting, more quest options etc. When you got to a zone where a lot of players where doing quests, you would see the dominating faction, 10... 20 players just hunting one single player from a different faction. It was a mess.
*Repetitive enemies and quests
There were a few animals like pigs, cows, wolves, lynx and turkeys. And there were a few enemies like zombie pirates, zombies, and abberations. Thats it. Now kill 15 of these x300 quests. Also, many, many tasks made you go to the exact same location you had been before. You could pick up a quest to gather a squash in a zombie infested farm. Complete it and turn it in. And then directly after get the exact same quest.
In the end, I do understand this is @StevenSharif game. But, it is a tried and tested strategy, to learn from others. Both from their succeses and their mistakes. I hope intrepid monitors New World, and learn from them. What to do more of, what to do less of, and what to avoid.
The Good
Gathering
It's quite an amazing feeling when you walk out of a settlement into a large forest full of trees, bushes, rocks and rivers that are all gatharable. Every single tree you see can be chopped down. Every single rock can be mined. All flint nearby a river can be picked up. You can fish from anywhere there is water. When your done chopping down a tree, it falls down and stays there a little while. Sometimes you stumble upon a mature tree, requiring higher skill to gather, pushing you to keep chopping down trees and refining your skill. And the higher your skill, the more effective your skills become. You feel the progress with every single act. This is amazing. The feeling after coming back to a cozy settlement after a grinding session with bags full of material is great. And processing it, crafting it feels great.
Ashes needs to update the 2005 system of only being able to chop specific predefined trees, rocks, bushes etc. Ashes promises to be dynamic. And New World has proven it is possible to have a dynamic gathering system. And in all honesty, thanks to New World, this is non-debatable. We really cant come out with Ashes with a clear copy of the old school gathering system. We need the world to feel dynamic, and if we need to choose one direction to go with when it comes to gathering, New Worlds way is the best, by far.
To go even further than New World there are multiple things you can do. For example, make the gathering tools deeper. Let us modify them and progress our tools. Also, tie our gathering progression to certain abilities that we can choose from.
Fishing
This was actually quite something. Try the game out and try to fish. Please, do not go with the system we have in the alpha currently.
The Bad
*Playing with friends
The most r*tarded playing with friends experience I ever had. Probably ever, and always, even in the future. I jumped in with two other friends. We all randomly spawned in different zones on the map (there are 4). To counter this, we just decided to walk to one of us and start from there. You could not. YOU LITERALLY could not start progressing from a different zone. Only the player who naturally spawned in that zone could take the quests. To counter this, we remade our characters multiple times, going through the horrible tutorial until two of us made it to the same place.
A bit later, we learned that all tasks and stuff is personal, so we could not do activities togheter. All in all, the playing with friends experience sucked. Please, don't make it complicated to play with friends in Ashes.
*The faction system
To everyones suprise, one faction was bigger than the other, which led to them always winning and taking more territory. This led to everyone switching to that faction and all new players also picked it. Every battle for every node got dominated by the leading faction, with 5 times the numbers of the other factions. And you, the special snowflake with your 30 man guild that will beat the odds and defeat the mainstream faction? Sorry mate, you got burried alive under a pile of 500 zerg rushing players.
This would not be a problem, if stuff was not locked behind being in the winning faction. The dominating faction had many advantages, making it just stupid to not be in that faction. Better crafting, more quest options etc. When you got to a zone where a lot of players where doing quests, you would see the dominating faction, 10... 20 players just hunting one single player from a different faction. It was a mess.
*Repetitive enemies and quests
There were a few animals like pigs, cows, wolves, lynx and turkeys. And there were a few enemies like zombie pirates, zombies, and abberations. Thats it. Now kill 15 of these x300 quests. Also, many, many tasks made you go to the exact same location you had been before. You could pick up a quest to gather a squash in a zombie infested farm. Complete it and turn it in. And then directly after get the exact same quest.
In the end, I do understand this is @StevenSharif game. But, it is a tried and tested strategy, to learn from others. Both from their succeses and their mistakes. I hope intrepid monitors New World, and learn from them. What to do more of, what to do less of, and what to avoid.
14
Comments
There will be 5 gate to chose your spawn (and i said CHOSE) + 1 starting area for tulnar (so tulnar got 6 choices) The starting area is just a common place to wellcome new player than a "real" starting area. So no problem to come with quest.
And for faction ? we don't have
At that point gathering is just a chore and no longer a profession, and it will be left to Chinese gold farmers.
there is different way to limit the flow in the economy
1) already the case for gathering spot right now in AoC alpha-1 : when anyone gather a ressource, it can't be gathered again until a certain time.
What does new world if "every tree is a gathering node" but it doesn't forbid a cooldown for all
2) Mind the craft more in "time to gather what is needed" : so craft will just need more component, because in the same amount of time you will collect more
3) not 100% effectivness of gathering. not the best idea but could work.
So if they could add in more bait types or fishing locations that narrow down on fish you want I would be happy.
I say all that with the Hope's that it is used in ashes fishing as well.
To end my fishy rant, I am enjoying the game for its gathering crafting refining and the sound work. From a distant tree being cut down to the lever action rifle I love to go out hunting with. It feels so good.
You are 1000% right.
This is my personal feedback, shared to help the game thrive in its niche.
It is 4 divine starting gates and one Tulnar camp as of right now that anyone can start at. Even the Tulnar camp. There is a rumor that the Tulnar camp may be scrapped to mini-camps attached to the portal gates, but nothing is confirmed as to a change so far.
Combat and movement looked a little clunky and I wasn't impressed by the mob AI.
@Marzzo I agree with you completely. I truly hope that Steven is the type of person to stay transparent in the games development but also whole heartedly take in the advice from the players who have, are and will devote themselves to this game in its entirety. The crafting has got to evolve with the times and the combat must give players the freedom of movement and be more engaging than what we currently have. There is a beautiful gem covered in stone with AoC. How clean it gets depends on Intrepid.
That just translates to players influencing the economy and the economy influencing the players. So at times prices may be relatively high and other times prices may be relatively low. The meaningfulness of any economic activity would be based on player actions with respect to control mechanisms (or realistically a reactionary economy).
It’s apparent that Intrepid has opted to control the economy via the supply side of the equation. That represents a controlled economy versus free market economies. Very common with respect to game design where the desire is to have a more balanced and consistent economy. Or just FUD in allowing free markets to do their thing, which is ultimately FUD on what players will do. If Intrepid is wrong on their supply side assumptions, you start getting into issues of scarcity that players have no agency. Without agency, some players will become discouraged or feel cheated. Overestimating supply will lead to frustration of some player activity being less meaningful or not worth their time commitment.
I'm torn on this idea. I despise mindless time sinks and when given the opportunity to farm everything in sight, it just makes crafting an item cost more resources or forces a crafting system that has a chance to "fail" crafting an item. In real life when you craft a sword, you have a chance for impurities or it can break after the work you put in but I disagree that something like this should ever be in a game as this isn't fun and actually is just another built in way to keep you playing longer without any real value. Sword failed, go make another one.
The current crafting and gathering system in AoC feels dated and boring. It needs a lot of work and even more love.
I feel the economy of the game should not be influenced by Intrepid. A local auction house + taverns having an npc that holds and sells your product for a better price/lower fee than the cities auction house would be perfect. The auction houses can be linked together so all 5 metropolises can be connected with items from around the world. Tavern auctioneer *could* have rarer guild items for players trying to keep items for their citizens and locals. This would create a fun system that would get you the item you need at a cost or encourage/force travel to get items from a guild you know is clearing content.
I would disagree since like ashes you need the low tier materials to craft the high tier ones and the higher the tier the less abundant the resources are. Basically its a funnel that tears away at your resources until you have a few high quality materials for crafting left once you have hit a high enough level.
I really love the Gathering and Crafting in Valheim.
It's easy enough to recognize the nodes by sight rather than with Sparkles - which is what most people are asking for in this thread, I think.
Also, the higher tier Crafting is funneled through higher tier crafting stations, but it feels very organic and natural. The Ashes crafting system might be similar, but the UI for the recipes suck: It's more of a challenge to remember all the items needed for the final product than it is to actually craft the final product.
But, it's Alpha One, so hopefully... it gets better.
Tulnar can pick from all 6 as well
I was going to come on here and make my own comparisons between New World and what Ashes should or shouldn't do. I'll add to it.
Gathering
I agree with the idea of having lots to gather. I like the way New World does this. What I didn't like at all was the hitbox for gathering. It was so small and hard to find. I felt like I was battling to find the point at which i could chop, skin or gather.
When you have to be up a wolf's backside to skin him then there's a problem.
The World
The world is beautiful, full of things to look at and obviously a thing of passion by the artists. I felt immersed in the world.
Combat
Combat in New World is awful. The ashes devs should play the game and learn not what to do.
For me, MMOs have been moving from tab target to action progressively for years now. New World is the culmination of tab target being gone and action combat being akin to solo games. It's not MMO anymore. MMOs were never about being single player game combat. They were about being with a group of friends exploring a world together.
Add in to that that the combat is not really all that good. It feels clunky, switching weapons was cumbesome and skills are awful. I'll come on to that.
Skills
In 2021 what game developer worth their salt makes a 10 sec animated skill that can't be cancelled? My mage is there firing off my meteors and the mob is wailing on me while i stand their twirling.
Ridiculous. Don't do this @StevenSharif and @LieutenantToast, please
The mage skills, and being a mage in general in New World is an awful experience. I got to level 8. By that point in an MMO a player really should have a general basis of the skills of that class/archetype. I should certainly have some ability to snare, stun or slow a mob. But in New World I hit the stationary enemy with my first skill and the fireball before auto attacking as it charges me. At that point I'm nuking a mob in my face with no way to get it from my face. I am forced to change weapons to combat effectively.
I haven't even mentioned the awful mana drain. Those two skills and auto attacking litterally drains my mana at 8. If I continue with staff the mobs can drain my health to half before I kill it.
The game doesn't want you to mage it.
I hope to god the combat in Ashes is nothing like New World. I know we're headed towards more action combat in MMOs, and somehow I have to live with that. Let's try and keep that MMO feel in Ashes though.
I dunno what tab v action has to do with group v solo.
Though all that goes out the window when there's bad latency lel.
Also, the argument that New World is not an MMO is ridiculous, it's more of an MMO than retail WoW. Whereas retail WoW is just a lobby game now, New World has players running around in the open for 90% of the game. Players are only in cities for short amounts of times. And half of the game requires massive cooperation with other players when capturing zones.
The Good:
1) The crafting system of New World has a degree of randomization to it. Items have variable stats and special effects on production, meaning even if you create 100 items, there's a good chance they'll all be unique in terms of gear score and viability in certain situations. For example, if I craft a steel pickaxe, it rolls a gear score between 250 and 300. In addition, there are perks. One perk on a pickaxe might be to have 50% greater durability, while another provides a 5.5% chance to get rare gatherable resources like raw gemstones while harvesting an ore node. This provides a fun source of good and bad luck, making crafting exciting. Also provides a good reason to keep rolling gear, either to improve stats or to fill a niche need with a combination of specific perks.
2) A chance to receive "Rare" items while gathering. If I'm mining, I may receive a rare item like a raw gemstone. This breaks the monotony and allows for fun dopamine hits despite an otherwise mundane activity.
3) The sounds are excellent. I love hearing people chopping trees, or the echoes of a pickaxe hitting ores from fifty meters away. They give the game life and a sense of immersion, while also allowing a potential PvPer to follow the trail of sound effects to a gankable target.
4) The action-based combat is superior to tab-targeting. It allows for more skill rather than just a rote memorization of skill rotations. One has to position themselves and react to enemy attacks with more than just skill spam. There are some issues with stagger in New World, but they are small and can be fixed swiftly.
5) The setting is not just rehashed fantasy trash. Instead, the music and the world makes one feel like they're colonizing a land in the 1600s. Muskets are awesome.
6) The fishing is great. The addition of a minigame provides entertainment and the chance to 'catch' random loot chests is just hellah fun.
The bad:
1) The overwhelming armor and weapon drops from mobs, loot chests, and dungeons will eventually kill New World's economy. AoC should not award gear, and if it does, it should follow a system like Albion's where all gear drops from mobs are crafted by players and added to mob loot tables by selling them on the 'black market'. That way, gathering and crafting always stay relevant.
2) Gear never breaks nor is it used in crafting better gear. Players quickly outgrow gear, leading to a dirge of dead content consisting of low level armor and weapons. A month down the road, New World will not have a use for low-level items. People will stick to one or two sets of high-tier gear that never break or are lost in PvP. Related to the previous 'bad' bullet point, this will cause eventual economic problems.
3) PvP is neutered. At some point, Amazon got scared that PvP will push players away, causing them to shift to PvE. One can now flag PvP on or off. The ability to opt out of PvP leads to a whole plethora of problems. There is no longer a reason to hold or capture territory when everywhere is safe if you want it to be. The separate marketplaces in each settlement are now pointless because one can easily transfer goods without the risk of losing anything. The long distances between towns are now just a meaningless time-wasting walks instead of the perilous and adrenaline-filled 'I hope I don't die with my goods' treks across lawless lands.
4) There is no incentive or reward for PvP. It is fun the first few times, but as most players strive for efficiency, people soon learn that it's just a waste of time, flagging it off whenever possible.
5) The PvE is bland. Most mobs feel the same, and although people say it gets better past level 30, not only is the claim doubtful, it's a little too late. First impressions are vital for keeping new players.
I'll add more to this if I think of something else.
Oh my god that is such a cool idea.
I'd love to kill a zombie and a spear drops that says, "Made by ClintHardwood"
It really is a genius system. The folks that developed Albion are commendable in my mind in many respects. They did their due diligence.
I rly hope the combat will be more fun than in New World.
I just refunded it bec. the combat is rly rly bad for me and i don t like it at all. I prefere the tab-target combat system 10000x more
Also the problem of the starting: Tried to play with a friend? No chance, he spawned EVERY TIME we tried (5x restart) at another spawnpoint than me and then we cannot begin at the same town..that suckz totally.
Crafting was ok, but questing were super boring. Slay 15 wolfs, mine/collect stones/wood e.g. nothing intresting. Also without a minimap it feels uncomfortable.
After i refunded New World im rly hoping Ashes will be more my cup of tea.
Yea, that is my one big complaint. Playing with friends is actually very hard to do in New World. You can't even accept the same faction quests without good RNG
https://youtube.com/watch?v=hyxZjMOOtdc
Played way more hours than intended.
Environments
Are very natural, organic and planned.
You get a strong sense of design for each of the terrain typologies
PVE
Ok, a little ordinary, not sure how to define the reason.
Questing
Nice idea but way too repetitive
Life Skills
Gathering in all fields have a great progression
All materials are inter-related to crafts of various kinds.
Nearly everything you gather matters
Crafting
Thoroughly enjoyed
PVP
Only tried a little so no real comment but refer others vid link at top.
Lifespan
Unless they build more content, it will too easy to get to max level and get highly monotonous quickly
Raids
Ok, not so challenging
Bosses
Way too camped and have to re-do quest bosses multiple times as they are camped and killed within split seconds of spawning. Great later game when fought as intended with small group but if larger a bit of a waste
Gear
Visually beautiful
Many build options
Great to be able to craft but faction gear trumps all at various levels so really no need to craft unless you enjoy it
Fun game, nothing to be taken too seriously and perhaps that is their market. I wish them luck and hope they succeed
I hope that some of the Dev team do put some serious time in and have a play, there are lots of elements to take home. Good and areas that need work.
It is an RPG for most people. Why is not an RPG for you? (Note that RPG has become a subjective term lol)
Also could add the fact the character get different way to grow and evolve, and different way to stuff itself.
New world is a RPG. i don't see what is missing to not call it "RPG"
But, sure, there are places where a Pepsi and Fanta can be a coke.