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.
"Armour will be part of the silhouette and threat assesment"
Rageclaw
Member, Alpha One, Alpha Two, Early Alpha Two
So I watched the Jan stream and it was all nice and groovie until we got to that point
"Armour will be part of the silhouette and threat assesment"
I mean that sounds amazing and it is as it should be ... except ... its bullshit
Cosmetics will fuck this up
Last time I voiced my concerns I have been told we will get some sort of indicator what armour type our enemy is wearing under his wedding dress cosmetic (yea I know, dogshit and unimmersive). Did this change? I would love if it did, but I can imagine cosmetic Andy's going mental if it did
"Armour will be part of the silhouette and threat assesment"
I mean that sounds amazing and it is as it should be ... except ... its bullshit
Cosmetics will fuck this up
Last time I voiced my concerns I have been told we will get some sort of indicator what armour type our enemy is wearing under his wedding dress cosmetic (yea I know, dogshit and unimmersive). Did this change? I would love if it did, but I can imagine cosmetic Andy's going mental if it did
5
Comments
Firstly, there are costumes which are full body suits. I don't know if these inhabit a slot to *act* as a skin, or if they occupy armour slots so would potentially be in essence stat-less.
Then there are skins. Skins require owning an existing piece in the game and this will be a mod to it. If this is how it will work going by everything I know thus far, then it will be known that x skin corresponds to y gear, it shouldn't apply to any piece of hear. Perhaps it will have some visual similarities?
I am not certain on everything but perhaps a more clear question to submit on the next screen.
But this is just my interpretation.
I don't think anything has changed for the indicators. I believe he was just trying to talk up the armor .
The weapon? Sure - especially in FPS games, it's handy to know what an enemy is shooting at you with. Otherwise? Never a single instance of usefulness.
I've just always imagined the thought process of trying to identify an attacker's gear and the associated bonuses in the heat-of-the-moment goes something like this:
"Okay, he's wearing the CHESTPLATE OF CHEMICAL RESISTANCE, which gives a slight resistance to any Acid-based spells/weapons that I might use against him. His gloves are the GLOVES OF THE FALCON - which gives a slight bonus against any Air-based familiars/combat pets that I might be using in the combat. His boots are the BOOTS OF THE DOGWALKER, which grants a Terrain-Navigation bonus in areas with more than a 15-degree slant. Next, his bracers are.... Oh. Oh, I've been dead for 2 minutes."
TL;DR = In the argument between no-appearance-gear versus appearance gear in combat, it's a moot point to begin with, since combat happens lightning quick.
I don't suppose you would know where to find the quote for that? Last response I got when I asked was 'look in the apoc streams' lol.
Like @Tyranthraxus is saying, I also think people are overthinking the importance of silhouettes a little. It's not completely unimportant for sure, but what really matters is recognizing the skills of the enemy. Much less so armor types.
We don't know for sure if this is applicable to Ashes, but I would wager that it is.
I think what happened in the livestream is that Steven finally realized that cosmetics can be pay to win.
If you are charging at me with a group of three or four other friends, and I need to quickly ascertain which of you is wearing light armor so that my arrows will deal maximum damage, I should just be able to look at your armor and see. With cosmetics, I need to mouse over you each individually, wasting seconds of my time in the threat assessment process.
That is literally the definition of pay-to-win, you are using something you bought off the store to slow down my assessment of the thread you pose, thus gaining an advantage. These items being available in game does not make it less pay to win any more than it wouldn't be pay to win to add an experience boost to the store, but that can also be crafted.
I've been saying this for years. We need to have full threat assessment made available without the need to mouse over or target a character. This doesn't have to mean any changes to cosmetics, there are other ways to do it - but it does need to be done.
Eww... I hope not.
Not sure what you are imagining but i don't think it would be that hard to make something small, simple, and recognizable.
I think that's the plan actually? A recognizable icon on the nameplate you also can hover the mouse over.
From an information perspective, this is the only acceptable option.
It's shit, I don't like it one bit, but if the game is going to allow any cosmetic to be worn, this is the only way to communicate the information players should have, in the time they should have it.
I bet Steven would love that!
I like it!
Gear score is the second worst thing WoW bought to the MMO scene, after LFG.
Go and read tautau's post again. Have a real good read. I'll wait.
The game is focused on risk, not luck.
If you have no idea what gear an opponent has in a game with a RPS system, you are operating on luck.
Risk is the chance of suffering some sort of negative impact. Chance is based around probability. There's always going to be an element of luck involved in risk.
Risk can be managed, luck can not.
If they really made it a significant piece of information available at a glance then it would add some "cautious" element to the PvP aspect, or maybe even the NPCs for PvE.
Managed, yes. But not controlled.
Managed: They're Level 50, using a cosmetic and so are likely to be pretty heavily invested in the game, and they're using a melee weapon.
Controlled: They're Level 50, part of this religion and so will have these augments, they're using a cosmetic but I can see that they're using these two armour sets which give them these specific buffs, and they're using a melee weapon, but it does a very specific damage type that I can specifically build for since I know exactly what it is, and their Mining skill is 3 points higher than when they left the city an hour or two ago so chances are they're carrying something tasty.
Managed:
Controlled: