Greetings, glorious testers!
Check out Alpha Two Announcements here to see the latest news on Alpha Two.
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Check out Alpha Two Announcements here to see the latest news on Alpha Two.
Check out general Announcements here to see the latest news on Ashes of Creation & Intrepid Studios.
To get the quickest updates regarding Alpha Two, connect your Discord and Intrepid accounts here.
[Feedback] My Opinion on Making Ashes the Best Game (with current systems):
Lloyd
Member, Alpha One, Alpha Two, Early Alpha Two
This goes for basically everything I've tested for during the Non-NDA testing I've done in hopes of making this the best game for me to play. This is constructive feedback on how to make the game reach it's full potential given the core fundamental systems they've put in place for the Alpha. I'm aware a lot, if not all of it, is placeholder. This feedback is for further implementation of making the game fun in the future and to avoid certain situations that may occur with the current system:
First and foremost, this is the thing that makes MMOs, right? Ashes of Creation has an interesting approach to the world and how it interacts with itself and how players interact with quest NPCs. The current iteration is completely lore based and that's amazing. It's actually an open world that you've entered and you're not some hero or whatever. You're just another citizen/adventurer entering the world of Verra. As someone on the roleplay side, I think this is amazing. As for someone looking at the launch of the game, I'm worried that quests in the starter zone are going to force node development almost directly next to the starting portal location. Meaning, it gives too many advantages for starting at the starter location to going out and actually building the world where you want to build your civilization. For the future, I hope questing gets balanced or more NPCs show up as quest givers as you begin to develop nodes.
Honestly, I couldn't care less about the quest dialogue in alpha. The interface (which I'll talk about later), just straight up does not make me want to read it, nor care about--however! I quickly began to realize that my choices in dialogue actually mattered. Things that make me want to interact with quests:
- Voice acting. This honestly is one of the only things that held me doing quests in ESO. I had little desire to do the story, but the voice acting made me interested. I know this costs money, so it may not be available, but to make it the best game possible, I think voice acting is a necessary thing.
- NPC emotes. NPCs waving or shouting out to you as you walk by, or running in front of you and begging for help. A soldier walking up to you and starting dialogue, etc.
- An urgency to help or just being likeable (or dislikeable) characters. Such as Borkhai the Mad. I hated that guy. Without spoiling too much this character's actions in the quest made me like him.
I'll keep this one short, but I would like to see some progress as you level up nodes, indicators of resources gathered, etc. Not in a progress bar, but in things you would see in the world as you gather X stone, you can start to see a pile gathered up, people working on buildings the mayor is building, etc. I want to see people coming to the encampment after leaving to clear a dungeon with my pals in the area and come back to more people (who might thank me for my endeavors in clearing said dungeon: i.e. have an achievement system that interacts with NPC AI on dialogue). Little things like these might be a pain in the ass to develop when you have large over-arching goals, but it has a huge impact on player gameplay and immersion.
This is one of the first things that the player interacts with and I think is the most important. UI covers immersion, data referencing, and most of all, comfortability. It's been noted that most settings in UI will be customizable, so we won't touch too much on it because I know there's add-ons that exist in the world that programmers can build for Ashes so that players don't need to download an add-on and it's just accessible from the start. That settles most of this feedback, but I'll go a little in-depth:
- Quest UI: it's nice how it is currently. It gives direction, but doesn't lead you to the exact spot. It takes critical thinking. Obviously map transparency, re-sizing, etc. will probably come later. I'm just hoping the core idea doesn't get lost in the future.
- Nameplates: For all the rogues out there and people wishing to do recon missions, hopefully there's something in the future that hides your nameplate. Not only that, but hopefully for other archetypes as well. It's not often that your Knight in full shiny plate armor needs to sneak around, but there may be a time or two running away from a PvP encounter that his nameplate is shinier than his armor and falls to his death because of it.
- Stamina/CDs: Not sure where stamina is, but at the moment being able to know when I can dodge would be nice. The sprint UI is very rudimentary and I wish it was just gone to be blunt. Not sure how much all of this will be customizable, but being able to see CDs clearly (in all formats: seconds/minutes etc.)
- Gathering/Crafting: The current iteration is generally fine for the icon. However, for the trees/plants/minerals etc. little shiny dots saying which resource I can gather is unappealing. I personally would prefer it if you could have certain resources just harvestable. So all redwood lumber looks like a certain tree. All stone looks like stone. And you can just mine that. And as you gain crafting/gathering experience, it begins to highlight brighter or at longer distances.
- Combat Targets: This one has been hit a lot, but I'll just re-iterate it. I need to see the outline of my entire enemy. I know inking usually terrorizes frames in most games, but I think it's absolutely necessary to see my entire target. It would be really cool to see for action-combat as well, to know that you're actually healing/attacking the correct person. It would also be really nice PvP wise to be able to see some indication of level. Normally I agreed with not being able to see it, but when put in terms of a corruption system, if I can only see their HP value, then how is a mage with 487 HP able to decide if a tank with 800-1k HP is around the same level as them? You can't. So something needs to be put in place here.
The current crafting system is honestly great at its fundamental core level. I can see where it's going and I think it might be one of the best systems. It just needs balancing. The worry comes when it comes to artesian crafting and the leveling up system. This is TBD and I can't really give good feedback on it yet. My initial thought is that processing might be left in the dirt for master processors, but people will do it because it will make them the most money. Gatherers and Crafters should have no issue in being a master in their artesian occupation. Raiders will tend to be gatherers so they can gather more/better quality materials to sell when they get in from their raids. Crafters will be delivering gear and buying processed materials for the most part if they're not processing them, themselves. I imagine processors to just be the "buy low, sell high" type of merchants who buy gatherables, process it, and then sell it to crafters at a much higher rate.
However, this would only be for Epic/Legendary gear as I'm sure this really only applies to Master artesian occupations. As you might be able to process your goods up to a certain level as a crafter.
I'm also really looking forward into Master Artesians having to choose a more specified path: i.e. Weaponsmith, armorsmith, or blacksmith.
This leads us to gearing. For MMOs gear has always been the thing you must strive to get. While I think gearing is definitely important, I think it also limits the "casual" MMO gamer from having fun. Having the best gear is one way players have fun. The second way is having the coolest looking gear (looking at RPers). And not just buying cool looking gear. They want to accomplish getting gear sets. So I'll be looking at this from two sides: Optimization and Cosmetic:
- Cosmetic: We'll start with the cosmetic side. Generally people think RPers are less likely to be good at systems, but I've found that they're quite persistent in wanting to find gear that is best for them. And I think there is a fatal flaw with the current system and it's simply that if you have "cloth armor" your cloth armor is primarily indicative to your race's cosmetics. For the same reason Steven hates factions, I think race cosmetics should not be forced upon players cosmetic choices. I understand the difficulty in programming the different armors on each individual character, but this could make it or break it for a lot of players. Players will definitely want to go out into the world and do certain quests and get certain achievements for good cosmetics, but if their race's cosmetics are the only thing they can wear, it may prove fatal.
I will say, however, that I have noticed some of the equipment is universal and has been made that way in alpha and I think this path is the best path. Craftable armor and quest armor for examples of this. So far I have been extremely impressed with the cosmetic side and don't have much feedback on the way armor looks, but how it is implemented in the future.
- Optimization: Every player wants to be able to get gear and feel accomplished and strong. However, not all players are capable of spending that much time. And I'm a semi-hardcore, leaning hardcore player, so my usual answer is "Players who spend a lot of time trying to get something, should be rewarded for it." However, we're looking from a game-design perspective, so how can we make that achievable whilst making another player who joined a siege with lesser gear (possibly lesser level) feel like they can accomplish things without getting ran over?
Story time: I used to play a game called Tibia. And during a certain patch your weapon skill/defense skill could really change things. A level 13 player with 90 sword fighting and 90 shielding was able to best a level 30 player with 50 sword fighting and 45 shielding because of the way the math worked out. Gear almost certainly helped here as well, but wasn't the main component.
If we can have some sort of skill expression that can deter gear from being the only thing that makes you better than someone else, I think that's vastly important. How to implement that is going to be a very tough chore. But I'll try to cover it in my next section in the way I think is best.
This one you would normally think would be really long winded, but there's a very simple way to look at combat that should be looked at with the current system: it should be fluid, reactive, meaningful, and logical.
Fluidity meaning I just need my input to go off when I press the button. I need my movement and my opponents movement to feel solid. Currently people say it's "weightless" but I notice no difference in "weight" when it comes to Ashes or Final Fantasy XIV. There just is none. The Z coordinate is probably the only thing that really needs some work, but that's kind of whatever when it's compared to FFXIV imo. When it's compared to New World or Dark Souls, yeah, it's definitely weightless. But that's less of an issue to me. I think everyone wants to have a certain mobility and good openings to attack, which is where I will go next.
Reactive. I need to be able to see my opponent position or move somewhere and react to it. I need to see them attack or defend and be able to react to the situation. Combat should be a conversation. If my opponent goes on the defensive, I should be able to maneuver around to find an opening of attack or bide time for certain cooldowns.
Meaningful. This kind of piggybacks off the last one, if I'm a mage vs. tank I should know that if I get too close, I'm dead. As the tank I should be waiting for a misposition, or to barrel my way through in order to pin down the mage so they can't get away. In group scenarios this works the same. My frontline should protect my backline, and my backline should be aware of their surroundings. Meaningful can also mean "Balance" in this regard. If I have an ability that is OP on no CD, there isn't anything meaningful to that ability. It's just strong. Use it all the time. Win. Resources, cooldown timings, positioning, mobility are all meaningful things.
Logical. This is more based at the archetypes and the philosophy of them. There should be a clear philosophy with each archetype and the secondary archetype to fill a "weakness" but not to be all-encompassing.
Mage: DPS class. Low mobility (besides blink). Mana resource. Caster. Good with AoE. DoTs. Low HP. If caught out, not going to live long. Medium-High burst damage.
Bard: Support class. Medium mobility (dependent on 2nd archetype). Mana resource. Proximity based support. Melee or Ranged. Low HP. If caught out, not going to live long.
Fighter: Tank/DPS class. Medium mobility. Rage/Energy/Stamina resource. Melee primarily. Possibly ranged. Medium-High HP. Blocking or Extra damage.
Tank: Tank class. Low mobility. Rage/Energy/Stamina resource. Melee most likely. High HP. CC heavy. Blocking/Damage mitigation.
Ranger: DPS class. High mobility. Energy/Stamina resource. Item resource (arrows) possibly. Ranged. Low HP. High consistent single target damage over time with auto attack based damage. Skill dependent for staying out of range of melees and staying alive. If caught out, not going to live long.
Summoner: Tank/Support/DPS class. Depending on situation may use a different summon to help. Very versatile. Low mobility. Mana resource. Low-Medium HP. Uses summons correctly in order to stay alive and add what their party needs.
Rogue: DPS class. High mobility. Energy/stamina resource. Melee/Ranged. Fast attacks. High single target burst damage. Low HP. If caught out, not going to live long.
Cleric: Tank/Support class. Low mobility. Mana resource. Has healing for self and party members. High HP.
These are things we think of when it comes to the archetypes. I want a logical combat system where I know my positioning matters. I know what my archetype does and how to play versus other archetypes. A tank should not be able to grapple a ranger from a ranger's auto attack range. A tank should not be able to dash across the field at 100m to slam down his opponent. A fighter might be able to, though. A mage should not be able to walk up to a tank's face and kill him with no repercussion. A bard should not be able to out DPS a rogue.
Heavy emphasis on "should" in this case, as a level 50 is probably always going to do more damage than a level 1. But when it comes closer to a level 35 to a level 30 then I think these things should apply. Even with gear. This is what I mean by logical.
Open world PvP will have griefers. PKers. Red Players. Whatever you want to call them. People will build systems to combat players themselves in-game and I have no doubt about that. Obviously it will need balancing and I'm sure that will take place. My current flaw with the system is that at a certain corruption level the heavily corrupted person, AKA the red player, will lose combative stats towards other players. This makes "PK guilds" non-existent and actually takes away from the design philosophy in my opinion where the players create their own in-game friction. Yes, some players will be upset, but taking away this one mechanic I think can add some extremely interesting community reactions and guild wars of protecting the city from the PKers.
On a side note that may or may not be possible:
I also think there should be the availability to possibly corrupt a node with the corrupted players so that the guards will attack players that are NOT red. The downside to creating a society like this, would be to make their items droppable in the caravan system not protected by the instanced zone only on the side of the corrupted players. I think this could make for a very realistic/hardcore PvP world that a lot of PvPers would enjoy or players of the community would rise up against these "villains."
This just needs to be more polished and I'm sure it will as we continue further. The delay between movements and attacks should just be more precise. It's not the main focus and I won't harp on it too much. The one thing I noticed with the Son of the Tundra Dragon was that I could read it's movements, move out of its animations and dodge in and out and it made for a really interactive battle as a level 15 mage. Some of the hitboxes seemed off and what not, but I was really happy with how that interaction was. It made me feel like I was in a real battle with an epic creature that I could lose my life if I took one wrong step but make me a hero if I could outplay the monster. I think that one is really well done.
Don't touch them, they're perfect. Animal husbandry seems really cool to make this system better and seems like it's already got a good plan. Just keep doing what you're doing.
Basically just proximity voice chat. That shit is so cool. Idc if people just say you copied New World. That shit is dope.
That was a lot more feedback than I thought I would give, but overall, I think Ashes is on the right path. These are just a few little things and ways to keep philosophy in check for the future from my perspective that will make Ashes the best game of all time.
Quests:
:First and foremost, this is the thing that makes MMOs, right? Ashes of Creation has an interesting approach to the world and how it interacts with itself and how players interact with quest NPCs. The current iteration is completely lore based and that's amazing. It's actually an open world that you've entered and you're not some hero or whatever. You're just another citizen/adventurer entering the world of Verra. As someone on the roleplay side, I think this is amazing. As for someone looking at the launch of the game, I'm worried that quests in the starter zone are going to force node development almost directly next to the starting portal location. Meaning, it gives too many advantages for starting at the starter location to going out and actually building the world where you want to build your civilization. For the future, I hope questing gets balanced or more NPCs show up as quest givers as you begin to develop nodes.
Honestly, I couldn't care less about the quest dialogue in alpha. The interface (which I'll talk about later), just straight up does not make me want to read it, nor care about--however! I quickly began to realize that my choices in dialogue actually mattered. Things that make me want to interact with quests:
- Voice acting. This honestly is one of the only things that held me doing quests in ESO. I had little desire to do the story, but the voice acting made me interested. I know this costs money, so it may not be available, but to make it the best game possible, I think voice acting is a necessary thing.
- NPC emotes. NPCs waving or shouting out to you as you walk by, or running in front of you and begging for help. A soldier walking up to you and starting dialogue, etc.
- An urgency to help or just being likeable (or dislikeable) characters. Such as Borkhai the Mad. I hated that guy. Without spoiling too much this character's actions in the quest made me like him.
Nodes
:I'll keep this one short, but I would like to see some progress as you level up nodes, indicators of resources gathered, etc. Not in a progress bar, but in things you would see in the world as you gather X stone, you can start to see a pile gathered up, people working on buildings the mayor is building, etc. I want to see people coming to the encampment after leaving to clear a dungeon with my pals in the area and come back to more people (who might thank me for my endeavors in clearing said dungeon: i.e. have an achievement system that interacts with NPC AI on dialogue). Little things like these might be a pain in the ass to develop when you have large over-arching goals, but it has a huge impact on player gameplay and immersion.
User Interface (UI)
:This is one of the first things that the player interacts with and I think is the most important. UI covers immersion, data referencing, and most of all, comfortability. It's been noted that most settings in UI will be customizable, so we won't touch too much on it because I know there's add-ons that exist in the world that programmers can build for Ashes so that players don't need to download an add-on and it's just accessible from the start. That settles most of this feedback, but I'll go a little in-depth:
- Quest UI: it's nice how it is currently. It gives direction, but doesn't lead you to the exact spot. It takes critical thinking. Obviously map transparency, re-sizing, etc. will probably come later. I'm just hoping the core idea doesn't get lost in the future.
- Nameplates: For all the rogues out there and people wishing to do recon missions, hopefully there's something in the future that hides your nameplate. Not only that, but hopefully for other archetypes as well. It's not often that your Knight in full shiny plate armor needs to sneak around, but there may be a time or two running away from a PvP encounter that his nameplate is shinier than his armor and falls to his death because of it.
- Stamina/CDs: Not sure where stamina is, but at the moment being able to know when I can dodge would be nice. The sprint UI is very rudimentary and I wish it was just gone to be blunt. Not sure how much all of this will be customizable, but being able to see CDs clearly (in all formats: seconds/minutes etc.)
- Gathering/Crafting: The current iteration is generally fine for the icon. However, for the trees/plants/minerals etc. little shiny dots saying which resource I can gather is unappealing. I personally would prefer it if you could have certain resources just harvestable. So all redwood lumber looks like a certain tree. All stone looks like stone. And you can just mine that. And as you gain crafting/gathering experience, it begins to highlight brighter or at longer distances.
- Combat Targets: This one has been hit a lot, but I'll just re-iterate it. I need to see the outline of my entire enemy. I know inking usually terrorizes frames in most games, but I think it's absolutely necessary to see my entire target. It would be really cool to see for action-combat as well, to know that you're actually healing/attacking the correct person. It would also be really nice PvP wise to be able to see some indication of level. Normally I agreed with not being able to see it, but when put in terms of a corruption system, if I can only see their HP value, then how is a mage with 487 HP able to decide if a tank with 800-1k HP is around the same level as them? You can't. So something needs to be put in place here.
Crafting
:The current crafting system is honestly great at its fundamental core level. I can see where it's going and I think it might be one of the best systems. It just needs balancing. The worry comes when it comes to artesian crafting and the leveling up system. This is TBD and I can't really give good feedback on it yet. My initial thought is that processing might be left in the dirt for master processors, but people will do it because it will make them the most money. Gatherers and Crafters should have no issue in being a master in their artesian occupation. Raiders will tend to be gatherers so they can gather more/better quality materials to sell when they get in from their raids. Crafters will be delivering gear and buying processed materials for the most part if they're not processing them, themselves. I imagine processors to just be the "buy low, sell high" type of merchants who buy gatherables, process it, and then sell it to crafters at a much higher rate.
However, this would only be for Epic/Legendary gear as I'm sure this really only applies to Master artesian occupations. As you might be able to process your goods up to a certain level as a crafter.
I'm also really looking forward into Master Artesians having to choose a more specified path: i.e. Weaponsmith, armorsmith, or blacksmith.
Gear
:This leads us to gearing. For MMOs gear has always been the thing you must strive to get. While I think gearing is definitely important, I think it also limits the "casual" MMO gamer from having fun. Having the best gear is one way players have fun. The second way is having the coolest looking gear (looking at RPers). And not just buying cool looking gear. They want to accomplish getting gear sets. So I'll be looking at this from two sides: Optimization and Cosmetic:
- Cosmetic: We'll start with the cosmetic side. Generally people think RPers are less likely to be good at systems, but I've found that they're quite persistent in wanting to find gear that is best for them. And I think there is a fatal flaw with the current system and it's simply that if you have "cloth armor" your cloth armor is primarily indicative to your race's cosmetics. For the same reason Steven hates factions, I think race cosmetics should not be forced upon players cosmetic choices. I understand the difficulty in programming the different armors on each individual character, but this could make it or break it for a lot of players. Players will definitely want to go out into the world and do certain quests and get certain achievements for good cosmetics, but if their race's cosmetics are the only thing they can wear, it may prove fatal.
I will say, however, that I have noticed some of the equipment is universal and has been made that way in alpha and I think this path is the best path. Craftable armor and quest armor for examples of this. So far I have been extremely impressed with the cosmetic side and don't have much feedback on the way armor looks, but how it is implemented in the future.
- Optimization: Every player wants to be able to get gear and feel accomplished and strong. However, not all players are capable of spending that much time. And I'm a semi-hardcore, leaning hardcore player, so my usual answer is "Players who spend a lot of time trying to get something, should be rewarded for it." However, we're looking from a game-design perspective, so how can we make that achievable whilst making another player who joined a siege with lesser gear (possibly lesser level) feel like they can accomplish things without getting ran over?
Story time: I used to play a game called Tibia. And during a certain patch your weapon skill/defense skill could really change things. A level 13 player with 90 sword fighting and 90 shielding was able to best a level 30 player with 50 sword fighting and 45 shielding because of the way the math worked out. Gear almost certainly helped here as well, but wasn't the main component.
If we can have some sort of skill expression that can deter gear from being the only thing that makes you better than someone else, I think that's vastly important. How to implement that is going to be a very tough chore. But I'll try to cover it in my next section in the way I think is best.
Combat
:This one you would normally think would be really long winded, but there's a very simple way to look at combat that should be looked at with the current system: it should be fluid, reactive, meaningful, and logical.
Fluidity meaning I just need my input to go off when I press the button. I need my movement and my opponents movement to feel solid. Currently people say it's "weightless" but I notice no difference in "weight" when it comes to Ashes or Final Fantasy XIV. There just is none. The Z coordinate is probably the only thing that really needs some work, but that's kind of whatever when it's compared to FFXIV imo. When it's compared to New World or Dark Souls, yeah, it's definitely weightless. But that's less of an issue to me. I think everyone wants to have a certain mobility and good openings to attack, which is where I will go next.
Reactive. I need to be able to see my opponent position or move somewhere and react to it. I need to see them attack or defend and be able to react to the situation. Combat should be a conversation. If my opponent goes on the defensive, I should be able to maneuver around to find an opening of attack or bide time for certain cooldowns.
Meaningful. This kind of piggybacks off the last one, if I'm a mage vs. tank I should know that if I get too close, I'm dead. As the tank I should be waiting for a misposition, or to barrel my way through in order to pin down the mage so they can't get away. In group scenarios this works the same. My frontline should protect my backline, and my backline should be aware of their surroundings. Meaningful can also mean "Balance" in this regard. If I have an ability that is OP on no CD, there isn't anything meaningful to that ability. It's just strong. Use it all the time. Win. Resources, cooldown timings, positioning, mobility are all meaningful things.
Logical. This is more based at the archetypes and the philosophy of them. There should be a clear philosophy with each archetype and the secondary archetype to fill a "weakness" but not to be all-encompassing.
Mage: DPS class. Low mobility (besides blink). Mana resource. Caster. Good with AoE. DoTs. Low HP. If caught out, not going to live long. Medium-High burst damage.
Bard: Support class. Medium mobility (dependent on 2nd archetype). Mana resource. Proximity based support. Melee or Ranged. Low HP. If caught out, not going to live long.
Fighter: Tank/DPS class. Medium mobility. Rage/Energy/Stamina resource. Melee primarily. Possibly ranged. Medium-High HP. Blocking or Extra damage.
Tank: Tank class. Low mobility. Rage/Energy/Stamina resource. Melee most likely. High HP. CC heavy. Blocking/Damage mitigation.
Ranger: DPS class. High mobility. Energy/Stamina resource. Item resource (arrows) possibly. Ranged. Low HP. High consistent single target damage over time with auto attack based damage. Skill dependent for staying out of range of melees and staying alive. If caught out, not going to live long.
Summoner: Tank/Support/DPS class. Depending on situation may use a different summon to help. Very versatile. Low mobility. Mana resource. Low-Medium HP. Uses summons correctly in order to stay alive and add what their party needs.
Rogue: DPS class. High mobility. Energy/stamina resource. Melee/Ranged. Fast attacks. High single target burst damage. Low HP. If caught out, not going to live long.
Cleric: Tank/Support class. Low mobility. Mana resource. Has healing for self and party members. High HP.
These are things we think of when it comes to the archetypes. I want a logical combat system where I know my positioning matters. I know what my archetype does and how to play versus other archetypes. A tank should not be able to grapple a ranger from a ranger's auto attack range. A tank should not be able to dash across the field at 100m to slam down his opponent. A fighter might be able to, though. A mage should not be able to walk up to a tank's face and kill him with no repercussion. A bard should not be able to out DPS a rogue.
Heavy emphasis on "should" in this case, as a level 50 is probably always going to do more damage than a level 1. But when it comes closer to a level 35 to a level 30 then I think these things should apply. Even with gear. This is what I mean by logical.
Corruption/XP Debt
:Open world PvP will have griefers. PKers. Red Players. Whatever you want to call them. People will build systems to combat players themselves in-game and I have no doubt about that. Obviously it will need balancing and I'm sure that will take place. My current flaw with the system is that at a certain corruption level the heavily corrupted person, AKA the red player, will lose combative stats towards other players. This makes "PK guilds" non-existent and actually takes away from the design philosophy in my opinion where the players create their own in-game friction. Yes, some players will be upset, but taking away this one mechanic I think can add some extremely interesting community reactions and guild wars of protecting the city from the PKers.
On a side note that may or may not be possible:
I also think there should be the availability to possibly corrupt a node with the corrupted players so that the guards will attack players that are NOT red. The downside to creating a society like this, would be to make their items droppable in the caravan system not protected by the instanced zone only on the side of the corrupted players. I think this could make for a very realistic/hardcore PvP world that a lot of PvPers would enjoy or players of the community would rise up against these "villains."
Creature AI
This just needs to be more polished and I'm sure it will as we continue further. The delay between movements and attacks should just be more precise. It's not the main focus and I won't harp on it too much. The one thing I noticed with the Son of the Tundra Dragon was that I could read it's movements, move out of its animations and dodge in and out and it made for a really interactive battle as a level 15 mage. Some of the hitboxes seemed off and what not, but I was really happy with how that interaction was. It made me feel like I was in a real battle with an epic creature that I could lose my life if I took one wrong step but make me a hero if I could outplay the monster. I think that one is really well done.
Mounts
:Don't touch them, they're perfect. Animal husbandry seems really cool to make this system better and seems like it's already got a good plan. Just keep doing what you're doing.
Other features:
:Basically just proximity voice chat. That shit is so cool. Idc if people just say you copied New World. That shit is dope.
That was a lot more feedback than I thought I would give, but overall, I think Ashes is on the right path. These are just a few little things and ways to keep philosophy in check for the future from my perspective that will make Ashes the best game of all time.
_____________________________________________________________________________________
Current Member of the Gray Sentinels.
1
Comments
Think that is the point of their pvp system..if you want to attack someone you take the risk of them being more geared/higher level/tougher than you. To put indicators would really cheapen the system imo.
Yeah, on paper that sounds right, in actuality I don't know if that's going to be the case. Especially with things like cosmetics and what not. I'm just saying there has to be an identifier of some sort even if it's not levels. They did say they would have a gear icon with a certain color to display their gear level, so that might be somewhat of an indication. I'm just interested in how they want to do this.
This could also stifle the corruption system, because you might see someone with a really cool cosmetic and think they're high level, but they're 10 levels lower than you, you one-shot them, now you're heavily corrupted as an anti-grief mechanic. Or people purposefully under-gear and are much higher level so they bait people with lower tier gear. Idk.
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Current Member of the Gray Sentinels.