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.
Comments
Shows the state that the mmo genre is in. Meaningless gameplay designs
concepts like "wizard hat" or "frozen armor" or the ghost ship we saw in previous support packs or the rabbit mount we saw in February
I can understand that, and the solution would be to stop putting exclusive cosmetics from now on...even if is too late to bring older cosmetics back form the exlcusivity hell we can stop any more cosmetics from becoming unaccessible to 95% of the proyected playerbase...
This sounds like a person who has to stand completely still when chewing bubble gum.
This sounds to me like a made up scenario inside your head that makes you look like you are winning.
Are you winning tho, son?
Looking cool is important in RPG setting. Different people value it less than others but it's still important.
Also not everyone has access to alpha and this is something they can critique, whereas combat they can't since they don't have hands on experience.
Also you could say they same thing about Intrepid. Why are they pumping out sets already if there are more important things.
What happened to looking cool by leveling up, crafting high end armor and winning against enemy guilds?
And yes, I agree that we have too many sets. But then again, if the sales from the monthlies bring more employees in then it's alright aint it?
People can care about cosmetics and combat at the same time. If you can't no hard feelings. I just don't understand why you set yourself up like this all the time when attempting to bully others for not being like you. Seems like a stressful life.
Ahh... how about you stick to my posts instead of trying to figure out what's going on on the other side of the screen?
You seem desparate for validation unlike me.
Let's stick to the discussion then:
I find completionists concerns unimportant.
I find peoples demands that limited cosmetics be available to them, even though they didnt SUPPORT the studio on it's grassroots when it needed to see that people believed in the vision, PETTY.
Having the same mentality about a game that is supposed to last for months and months is missing the point. I can't speak about WoW crowd, but I have seen them around the forums complain about something or other usually something like "But WoW did it this way, why aren't you?" and the answer, obviously, is "AoC isn't WoW"
It doesn't want to be, and it shouldn't be. We had 10 years of WoW clones and "WoW killers" (until WoW killed itself). AoC wants to be something different. I am optimistic now about the game and will say that if (MAJOR IF) the team can make all systems and fix the combat and have the content and the social systems and everything else, it will be the best MMO for me. And I do mean it when i say "for me".
I want a living world where i can lose myself, and unique and rare cosmetics are part of that. When i see a skin that was given before the game, yea i can be jealous a bit, but that's fine, i will probably have stuff that person docent, that's how the game works.
But tbh, if this is such a big problem for you, what about flight? 10 people out of 10.000 will be able to fly on a server. Content will be locked behind node progression, so unless you convince a few hundred people to take down a metropolis that is well defended, you will never experience that content.
A lot of the game is "time limited" or "location limited" or "server limited". There will be unique weapons, 1 per server. And i love all this. And, I don't want to be rude, but if you don't, maybe this game isn't for you? Consider what it wants to be (can't say "is" yet) and then see if you really want to play that game.
Risk v reward
Open world instead of instanced content
Community economy and world build.
If you can't find joy and good times in that then go elsewhere and collect all the mounts. ffs
We both agree on this point.
They are not making the art pieces available again, that means nothing for the concept of the individual pieces.
To be fair, all of the people who got the earlier skins are going to feel cool as heck. And allowing everyone to suddenly use them would drastically reduce the cool factor
-Steven Sharif
https://ashesofcreation.wiki/Cosmetics
Exclusion is one of the main features in Ashes. There are a number of systems in game that are exclusive in their nature. Some examples of exclusion other than cosmetics are, developing a node in one area locks out other nodes (and the related rewards). Only a relatively small number of people in a node will be able have in-node housing that is visible in the world. The number of flying mounts will be be so limited that only about 0.0004% of a server will have them. I'm sure that I could come up with more, but I think the point has been made. Nobody will be able to collect everything.
On the other hand, variants of store bought cosmetics will be obtainable in the game without RMT.
I explained earlier in the thread that is what would need to happen.
It is important to keep in mind that the monthly supporter packages are marketed as "Pre-order packs". It stands to reason that once the game goes live, they would discontinue the program. I think they have even explained that before, but I could not find a source.
I think what many people in the thread should be calling for is for the program to be discontinued early and for the normal cash shop to be rolled out early in its place. I am not certain if I agree with that, but it would be the more reasonable ask. Especially if/when they have the website ready to handle a larger cash shop.
It may also be possible somewhere that they publically stated that the program would last until launch. If that is the case, then I would not expect/want them to change anything until launch.
This is my personal feedback, shared to help the game thrive in its niche.
I think I agree with the general idea of your post as it applies to MMORPGs. When people run out of content, they start collecting mounts, pets, achievements and items to have something to do until the next patch. I would call it "the post content phase". Until now, you would normally see Asmongold in this phase. Instead of committing to mythic raids or other challenges, he instead farms mounts and items between patches to have something to do in game.
I don't know that a phase like that will ever happen to people in Ashes. The world will constantly be a competitive PvP sandbox at end-game. That phase never applied to games like Lineage 2 or Eve online. I have said before, it's going to be hard to collect many things when it is a struggle to get anything.
This is my personal feedback, shared to help the game thrive in its niche.
What I think would be better is to keep the preorder packs as is. Just stop rotating the cosmetics. Pick a cosmetic set and leave the preorder packs static.
Not enough people are talking about this. I’ve been a backer since Kickstarter and I’ve bought many items since then, and yet I agree with this and have posed these same points multiple times in the past but to no avail.
The frost armor example you gave was a great one. I like the idea of exclusive *variants* but locking several dozen (by release it will be what 60+ exclusive sets?) *entire concepts* behind this permanently exclusive wall is a terrible idea and will limit the options they have after launch. Like what is intrepid going to do? Are they going to release an entirely *different* frost armor or just never put another frost themed armor in the game?
EDIT: and by the way, since I know some people are going to foolishly assume I’m coming from a place of “I want 100% of everything in the game”, that’s not true at all. I’ve purposely skipped cosmetics I didn’t like. I also don’t plan to try getting everything in the full release. I just can’t get behind the idea of burning the candle at both ends with this monthly exclusive x60+ months idea unless intrepid is willing to use themes again but with entirely different and new sets that they’ve otherwise burned in these exclusive sets.
I feel like, at this point, they should do something slightly different.
Exclusivity is great, but for specific ones, they should probably just 'rotate them back in' alongside new ones, starting after Alpha-One, until Beta probably.
If they kept to the same original release timing, it might be good too. You would 'know' when the Sep 2018 was coming back (for example Sep 2018 returns alongside new Sep 2020 and you have to pick one).
But at the end of the day, promises are promises, and it's not like they can get 'unanimous consent from everyone who bought it thinking they would get exclusives'.
I'm moreso just counting on them to live up to their promise that ingame ones will be just as good or better, and I believe they can do this enough that I also don't understand why people generally care about these cosmetics.
It's either "I'm a collector" or "this thematic is really great for me" or 'I want to be exclusive'.
Unfortunately I have no sympathy for collectors. Nothing against them, just can't feel it. When you know the neurological reasons why collectors feel good about collecting things, you either ;know that the true ones aren't upset' or at least 'know that the upset ones have something akin to a problem'.
I feel sorry for the thematic people but if the game has a lot of 'slightly less flashy or different colored' duplicates, meh. I get 'But I wanted the glow on mine to be green!' but that's basically 'luck' so...
The 'I want an exclusive thing' crowd are the only ones who 'technically gave money for something that is tangible to them', and therefore the 'protected class' in this scenario, so things stand as they are.
I’m sure there will be another frost armor in game just with different pieces. I’m sure you’ll see that helmet or shoulders on some other set, maybe with a different effect, maybe with no effect.
None of the purchasable sets include the weapons shown but I’m sure you’ll see the base models in game for them.
I don't consider New World to be an MMORPG, but...
Their Achievement system is ubiquitous, starting from Level 1, and highly addictive.
Seems like every 15 or 20 minutes, I'm earning some Achievement that I didn't even know I was working on.
I hooked 10 Fish. I let 10 Fish get away. I caught 50 Fish.
And every time I earn an Achievement, I see a notification for the next two and realize I only have to Mine 10 more Iron or complete 2 more quests to earn them. So, I play just a little bit longer.
I think the New World rewards are Titles. Lots of silly titles.
I'm not using a title as of Level 24, but the rewards aren't what's motivating me. What's motivating me is that they're for stuff I'm already doing, so it doesn't hurt anything for me to do a little bit more to top off the Achievement.
Achievers don't need a lot of incentive to collect Achievements.
Just as completists don't need a lot of incentive to complete stuff.
I'm already collecting mounts and pets and freeholds and caravans - because they are cool.
And they help with RP. Collecting stuff is not just because of reaching endgame.
Completists are gonna want to complete stuff.
But, in Ashes, we can't do everything and we can't collect everything and we can't complete everything.
We also can't only PvP 24/7 or only PvE 24/7.
We also can't fast travel everywhere anytime we want to.
Games tend to have some restrictions.
@Kionashi
As I said earlier in this thread The individual items are exclusive here, not the entire contept behind them.
There will be other wizards hats made for the game. The one they have released will never be offered again, but that doesnt mean they cant make other wizards hats.
Same with frozen armor, same with every other item.
Also, you tagged the wrong Cypher. Not a big deal just letting you know.
On top of the post above, Steven had clarified that there will be other, similar items to those that have been released. While we wont get another raptor exactly the same as the one that has been sold, we may well end up with a raptor as a pet option to raise ourself, or as an option in the store in the future.
Steven specifically said that while they wont guarantee any specific item, they have not ruled out creating items similar to any already released.
And no, I do not have a quote, because do your own research.