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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.
Temporary Legendary Items
Fairtale
Member
Currently, there are no plans to add temporary legendaries, as stated in this 2018 stream, but since legendaries are supposed to be limited/unique, I worry that they might disappear completely from the server if those accounts stop playing (or get banned). Or even worse: they might go back on that decision and we end up seeing multiple warriors all equipping the same legendary "unique" sword 
So I was wondering if there could be temporary legendaries, that disappear after a certain time. As rewards for things like:
So instead of giving every player a legendary item, it could be restricted as a reward for only a handful of best and/or lucky players. Then, after a set period of time the item disappears [insert eventual cooldown] and can drop again
This way legendary items are kept as rare, special rewards, and could even have higher stats without turning the whole server into an episode of Dragonball Z. At the same time, it would give more players/guilds/nodes the chance of having their time in the spotlight. Otherwise it could just become a race to be the first to get the item, and everyone that joins the game later is excluded permanently, making players want to abandon old servers and restart on new ones constantly.
As a bonus: this could even end up reducing account trading for real money, since an account with a temporary Scarab Lord Mount (WoW example) would not be worth as much. And I don't know about you, but seeing players running around with Legendary items that they didn't earn, just because they purchased them for real money... that really grinds my gears.
How do others feel about something like that? Do you think it would make the game more epic and more balanced (stronger Leg. items, but restricted to fewer players) or do you think it would ruin legendaries (if it is temporary, it makes no sense to even try to get it)?
Sources: Wiki: Legendary Items
So I was wondering if there could be temporary legendaries, that disappear after a certain time. As rewards for things like:
- Being the mayor or defender of a node and getting some special item that can be used only to defend the node. Like Anduin casting that epic heal (reward/city);
- Defeating a rare monster that spawns in a random cave in the world and drops some legendary item (luck/exploration);
- When forging a normal sword, having a chance of forging a legendary sword (luck/profession);
- being in the top PVPers of the server (reward/pvp) not sure about this one, since it would buff pvpers that are already winning;
- Guild that performs better than other guilds in some way (reward/pve);
So instead of giving every player a legendary item, it could be restricted as a reward for only a handful of best and/or lucky players. Then, after a set period of time the item disappears [insert eventual cooldown] and can drop again
This way legendary items are kept as rare, special rewards, and could even have higher stats without turning the whole server into an episode of Dragonball Z. At the same time, it would give more players/guilds/nodes the chance of having their time in the spotlight. Otherwise it could just become a race to be the first to get the item, and everyone that joins the game later is excluded permanently, making players want to abandon old servers and restart on new ones constantly.
As a bonus: this could even end up reducing account trading for real money, since an account with a temporary Scarab Lord Mount (WoW example) would not be worth as much. And I don't know about you, but seeing players running around with Legendary items that they didn't earn, just because they purchased them for real money... that really grinds my gears.
How do others feel about something like that? Do you think it would make the game more epic and more balanced (stronger Leg. items, but restricted to fewer players) or do you think it would ruin legendaries (if it is temporary, it makes no sense to even try to get it)?
Sources: Wiki: Legendary Items
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Comments
As to legendary items being temporary, I'm not sure it fits.
One of the things that should make a legendary items legendary is the amount of work that should be put in to it. If an item is to be temporary, there needs to be less work put in to it, making the item no longer actually legendary.
There are ways to make items rare without artificial limits on them per server, but it is also perfectly possible to make items that are restricted in this way disappear from a players account if that account is inactive and unsubscribed for 30 days.
Since your main concern seems to be items that are limited in quantity being abandoned, this seems to me to be a better way to both maintain the legendary status of items, while still ensuring they are made available should they be abandoned.
That said, there are time limited items (mounts, specifically) that are a part of a package for specific actions - becoming a mayor of a metropolis, for example. I could see there being other such temporary rewards for actions like this (perhaps a specific temporary item for a mayor of a city node, for example). I wouldn't call these legendary items though, as the item is a side benefit of your actions, not the primary motivation.
And I don't mean temporary as in "a week", it could be up to 6 months, but I like the idea of giving other players a chance at the throne.
Especially since there should be competition between guilds, and it would be pretty hard to compete with a guild that got most of the legendaries because they arrived first.
Otherwise, every time a new server opens, lots of hardcore gamers will abandon their current server and join the new one, just to rush it to be the firsts (since on their server there is no chance anymore) and again the items would be gone for any new players who don't know all the inns-and-outs of the game yet.
For example: once the game launches, the first group of legendaries are all going to streamers, since they got alpha licenses and already learned everything about the game.
Does that make sense or does it sound like I am trying to take things away from the hardcore players?
The first reason is that streamers are not usually very good at the games they play (most of them, at least). They exist for entertainment, and their streams need to reflect that.
I don't see an issue with legendary items going to the first guild to reach a piece of content and defeat it. I can't think of any other way to determine which guild is most deserving of it. It's not like they could just make it random, as that isn't really fair on anyone.
Keep in mind, content in Ashes is tied to nodes, and in order for top end content to exist, nodes need to be leveled to their cap.
This means that even spawning top end content is essentially a server wide achievement. Top end players will level faster than nodes will, and so are likely to be at the point where they are all but unable to progress on the current content each time a node is leveled up - at which point all top end players will have access to that new level of content at the same time.
Ehh I don't necessarily agree regarding streamers, depends a lot on what content they stream. All the top dota streamers play at the highest ratings (except bulldog lul), we've got summit, shroud etc who are gods at anything fps, and in general any popular streamer of a PvP game/mode is very good.
The PvE players typically aim to be entertaining unless you're specifically streaming top end PvE enviorments
You realize we are on a MMORPG forum, right?
It should go without saying that we are talking about MMORPG streamers.
If someone like Shroud came to an MMO and tried to do well, they would have a choice between trying to actually progress in the game, and trying to keep their audience/income.
in the interview I attached in the main post, they talk about this, and the dev's decision (at least back in 2018) was that if a legendary broke based on durability it would not feel very legendary. And if I think about a sword like Excalibur, that can cut through stone, to break during combat, I kind of understand their point of view on this.
But yes, I also like the idea of them not being permanently bound to one player. I think it would be healthier for the server if multiple people get a chance at those items. Not the casual players, of course, but to give each one of the top-guilds a chance to get those items from season to season would be pretty badass IMO. It would also keep content fresh and replayable since guilds would have to work to get those items every season again.
It would also allow players to enjoy the game and lvl up exploring and having fun, and not grinding "as fast as possible" to get max level.
And it would reduce the number of exiting players that create new alts on new servers "just to get a chance on getting the legendary this time", taking away the chance from new upcoming players that might join the game 1, 2, or even 5 years after release date.
And the biggest thing for me is that Legendaries in other games are super boring. They have a bit higher stats then other items, but that's about it. They cant be super overpowered to not break the game. In Ashes of Creation, this problem will become even bigger, since those items will be unique across the server. If the bonuses are too big, those players will get an unfair advantage in any caste siege or pvp match. It will also put pressure on guilds to accept players with those items, even if they are toxic. Imagine being the second-best guild on the server, and 80% of the unique legendaries being in the other guild.
However, if the items are temporary, they can be more powerful, since after a while a different group will have a chance at them.
Someone pointed out that some of the examples I gave were not epic enough to be called Legendaries. So maybe don't get too attached to that word and pay more attention to the system I am proposing: powerful items that stay for a limited time with one player. Call them legendaries, epic-temps or banana-boomsticks, I don't really care
If legendaries are implemented as is, they will pretty much end up being pay-to-win rewards for those that paid for the crowdfunding, since those players will be allowed to start playing 2 days before the rest of the server and will have a big head start. So expect those players to be against this idea since they want those items all for themselves, which I can accept if AoC wants to go down that path, but I am pretty sure they won't be as strong as their temporary counterparts could be. Another solution for that could be 2 groups of legendaries: the permanent ones and a separate group temporary items.
Stop being toxic, this is an adult conversation, act like it.
@Noaani , you give really good input when you arent being condescending to others. And your point comes across much better. Make an effort into keeping the conversation like this or it makes it hard for players to accept your opinions
@PigyPoggo I want to apologize on behalf of him, try to ignore it. Keep your opinions coming, most of us value your input.
Yet, it was said in reply to someone talking about non-MMO streamers in relation to an MMO. Clearly, they needed to be reminded that this is indeed an MMO.
While I will certainly agree that my comment wasn't polite, it also wasn't toxic. More to the point, it shouldn't have been necessary, as at it's core it was a reminder that people are still responsible for their own critical thinking. Two points with this.
First, in the grand scheme of things, two days isn't that much.
Second, the node system will be turned off for the entirety of the head start period, meaning people with that head start will only have access to content up to perhaps level 8 or 9 (perhaps lower).
With the way content in Ashes works, the fact that you need to unlock nodes in order to access higher level content, the fact that nodes will not be able to gain experience in that head start period, and the fact that nodes will take hundreds/thousands of people to level up, the head start period isn't even worth while other than for exploratory purposes.
While I agree with parts of what you are saying, this is not a reason to be concerned about it.
That is super useful information and makes sense. I did. It know about that. Thanks for explaining, I was super worried about legendareis being reserved to the lucky alpha testers.
Also, I should be more kind when complaining, will also make more of an effort on my side.
Same here. I could have been kinder to you last week. Apologies for being a dick.