Glorious Alpha Two Testers!
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.
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.
Comments
If a player is constantly being beaten in PvP because they can't be bothered getting gear upgrades, you do not punish the rest of the population for that - and yes, what you are talking about is indeed a punishment to the rest of the population.
If you think that what I’m saying is a punishment to the rest of the population, you must have completely misunderstood me.
By making the gear power maximum be between 20-30% you don’t make gear any more readily available than if the gear power maximum was 500%. Or vice versa. I’m not asking to change anything about gear acquisition. I’m just asking that the difference between the worst and best gear be about 20-30%. Casuals have just as much help from 20-30% gear power maximums as they do from 500% gear power maximums.
I'm not sure if it matters if it's time or skill, there will most likely be players that won't have good gear and if scaling is too high, they wont be able to reasonably participate in pvp until they improve their gear. As i see it, the goal is to still allow top tier gear to give benefits, just not to such an extreme that people can only compete with others that are in their tier. The more people who can have a competitive fight, the better.
Everything would be balanced around gear's scaling so unless you see lower tier gear being more relevant as a punishment, then I don't see how it is.
If we assume gear is 20% of what ever we are talking about, and we know we have 16 gear slots, that means each slot is responsible for 1.25% of a characters over all power.
Now, since I expect AT LEAST 6 item upgrades at the level cap (realistically, twice that many), that means the average item upgrade sees a character gain about 0.2%.
This means a full upgrade of every item would only see a 3.2% increase in over all power. This is not enough of a difference to notice.
What this then means is that the developers can't develop content around specific levels of gear, because there isn't enough distinction between each level. this puts an end to the notion of tiered content - as you can't create tiered content without having noticeable gaps in gear at each tier.
So, while you may not consider the complete and total absence of tiered PvE content due to this to be a punishment, many others would.
With how the node system open and closes dungeons/raids, how many raid tiers would be feasible? Do you really think they should further divide by player item level?
Is it that bad of thing for dungeons to be more about mechanics and group coordination over stats?
High gear levels can also unlock more horizontal progression options to allow for better optimization and more freedom in build creation. They could unlock item abilities that help create hybrid builds and other unique playstyles.
Gear is going to account for approx. 50% of total combat power, as per Steven’s goal. Basic unenchanted gear at level 1 might be 1% of that 50. Just level increases might take you up to 10% at lvl50. Upgrades to higher armor tiers might be another 5-10% each, enchanting might be the last 5% of the 50.
It seems a safe bet that the majority of players will be at 2 or 3/5 for tiers and have mid rating enchants at their level, which would put them about 20-30% of the combat power, about half+ of the total combat power they could get from gear. That seems perfectly reasonable to me for the average, non hardcore player, and it’s most certainly competitive for large scale PvP events.
If content were just based on player skill and not gear at all, then players can just go straight to the hardest encounter and beat it.
Skill based difficulty in PvE content isn't a linear thing. You don't learn skills and build upon them - you learn the skill for one encounter and it is only ever really of use on that encounter.
If players do not need gear from the third tier in order to be able to run the fourth tier, if they don't need gear from the second tier to run the third, if they don't need gear from the first tier to run the second - then to pend players will all skip the first three tiers.
This is a fairly big deal.
No idea why you’re expecting at least 6 tiers…
Because that is an incredibly low number.
Lets assume there is a base level of total crap gear. Then there is a tier of solo obtainable gear on top of that. Then there are two tiers of group obtainable gear, and two tiers of raid obtainable gear.
That is already 6 tiers of gear.
I would have to question basically every single thing you have to say if you think that few gear tiers is adequate. Realistically, there should be 6 tiers of group obtainable gear - let alone solo or raid.
That still doesn’t explain why there need to be 6 tiers. Here’s another one… solo/quest tier, group tier, raid tier. That is plenty of progression.
It just sounds like you want minimal progression to cater to casuals at this point.
For you maybe. Definitely not for most.
Progression is a whole other conversation that is obviously very important. There is much more to a game like AoC than gear progression. Three tiers like I described can provided lots of progression and content in a PvX MMORPG like AoC.
Really? You know for a fact that most people want more than three tiers?
I never made such a claim. You did.
Yes, I have. Multiple. MMOs do not need 2 tiers per game mode.
Which MMO's?
Because yes, they do.
This is cute. I've played Ragnarok Online, WoW (all iterations of it), Lord of the Rings Online, Guild Wars 2, Archeage, Black Desert Online, and Albion Online. I've dabbled in some other ones, but not enough to warrant mentioning them.
According to who do MMOs need multiple tiers per game mode?
According to literally every MMO ever made. Every game in your list had multiple tiers of gear (well, I can't speak for Albion, the game is shit and I don't care what happens there).
Archeage is the most similar of your list to Ashes.
Imagine what would happen in Archeage if most players got to a point where there were no more item upgrades to be had. There would be no need to run trade routes, no need to farm land, no need to do Mistmerrow or Halcyona. Basically, people would have no real need to log in, because the entire game (as is the case of all MMO's) is based around the idea of there always being an upgrade to be had to your gear.
Take away the ability to upgrade gear in a reasonable manner, and you take away the point of playing. Even having 6 tiers of gear in an MMO is an unreasonably low number (Archeage had around 20 at the level cap, as did WoW).
Then we need to talk about Archeages regrading, which will be basically what Ashes enchanting is based on. There will be RNG based around it, and it will cost a lot of money. The regrading system in Archeage was able to double the power of an item if taken from crude to mythical, and there was still one more step past that with eternal.
This system in itself allowed for five times more power through gear than your entire suggestion allows for, and your suggestion needs to not only encompass Ashes version of this system, but also all gear upgrades as well.
If your system went ahead (it won't), it would kill Ashes by killing the economy and giving players nothing personal in game to work towards. Look no further than New World to see how happy MMO players are when there are no viable gear upgrade paths available to them - and it would take players a matter of weeks to get to the point where it is only raid items that are left as upgrades.
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So, just to recap, you want to make gear less of a thing in combat so that skill matters more in order to assist the group of players with the lowest over all skill. In doing this, you also want to cut off the bulk of potential item upgrade paths in the game for all players, which would kill off any chance those casual players have of ever getting any item upgrades, would damage the enchanting path, and also remove any practical crafting progression where the crafter can make better items (there is simply no room left for it). Since players are upgrading items far less frequently, the economy will be slower, meaning less of a need to harvest, fewer caravans, and thus less open world PvP.
The above is what you are asking for here - what you are fighting for.
Good luck with that.
Assuming 5 tiers of gear, for simplicity. Does each individual tier, 1-5, give roughly equal amounts of 10% more power? Or does going from tier 1 gear to tier 2 give a massive 25% (of the total potential 50%), and then the remaining 25% is gotten from tiers 3-5? Or vice versa, is the first tier change small and then the power differences get proportionally bigger as you get into the later tiers?
And how long does it take. For the average casual player, does going from tier 1 to tier 2 take a few days? Tier 2 to tier 3, a couple weeks. Tier 3 to tier 4 a couple months. Or does it take a couple months just to go from tier 1 to tier 2, and then it scales based on that higher starting point?
We don't know the answer to any of that as far as I know. Even if Intrepid's estimated power from gear was 100%, if going from tier 1 to tier 2 takes 3 days and instantly gives 50% of that 100%, then 100% isn't nearly as big as it seems. Extreme example just to illustrate the point. This is where Intrepid can fine tune the system.
I personally don't want to see casuals and new players have to spend months before they can even get in a somewhat competitive range, not in a game like this. But there should be gear gaps and things for people to work on as well. There are many variables to the system overall that Intrepid will test in alphas and betas.
Yeah. I want more than 3 tiers.
I'd like more than 6.. like 10 or 12 tiers. That way if there's a 4+ tier difference in gear, you don't get to compete at all. No contest. Not sorry. Can't put more time in to get better gear? Too bad. You lose. I don't care about you having a level playing field, or the ability to "stand a chance" in a fight.
There should always be a disparity in gear. Period. If some asshole that puts in 6 hours a week can compete with someone that puts twice that, that's poor design. If you want a casual game, go play WoW.
What I believe will happen? Probable hardcore players will demand gold/mats for protection during farming, or caravans. Hardcore players will sell their services.
You forget casuals farming it's in the interest of the node, and if you both belong to the same node, just randomly killing a casual might not be the best interested.
On the other hand, casuals not being able to fight back because of gear, well, that will mean that casuals need to adapt. How? Instead of being efficient and farming 1000 mats, you would farm 100 and go back to town. Why? If you get ganked, not fight back, you lose 50%, so well, it's not that much. You could also fight back, lose less mats, but open to be ganked again.
Personally I believe the world being so large might help casuals, also no fast travel helps as well. If we consider time = better gear, then Hardcore players will also have an advantage. The will have access to faster mounts, so again will have the upper hand on casuals.
This is also what I keep wondering. Why would a hardcore player need a casual. Farming mats? They can do it themselves. Farming special mats only certain classes can do? Can level alt, or other hardcore will do it.
I still find no place where they would need a casual.
“Ashes is not a game for everyone”
Not all games should cater to the hour-a-day type of player. Someone who can’t put in time to learn the game will also not have time to:
- take part in node seiges or defenses
- participate in mayor elections/contests
- arrange caravan attacks or defenses
- hone a trade craft on pace with other players
These are genuinely time-impacted areas of core gameplay aspects that casuals simply cannot interact with reliably because they cannot or will not invest time into Ashes. Which is entirely fair, it’s a game, but that doesn’t mean all of those aspects should be rebalanced around those causal players at the detriment of players who do invest their time and effort.
i understand the concern but i also have to say Casual means a gametime of around 8 hours a week
and the game is playerdriven so in the end i must say the game aint designed for casuals with all the mechanics in place shure they will reach max level at some point in time but by then hardcore players may be allredy top geared. but that opens oportunitys because items continue to drop and crafters wont stop crafting and the later arriveing casuals do not need to switching gear in the same way than the first arivals had to to get better geared and switching around everytime they drop soemthing. the market will support them the good stuff for a price so they can save their money and directly buy the best instead of going thru the steps like the others had to and dont need to endure the frustration that you may get the wanted drop from a monster after beating the dungeon for the 100th time just to be the one to finaly get the item.
limitation in the gear is the wrong way shure it needs to be balanced but the game has a subscription and the player want to get something for their money.
but to lower your concern you also have to think about where players getting skills from gear and weapon is only one side. level guild level church level and many more are also important and those things wont be high at the start so late comers have the opportunity to enter a allredy high leveled guild and nodes are leveled up so they have access to more content and stuff then the first commers.
Primaly i would say yes Hardcore players play with those that are mostly online when they are online and since they follow a goal and invest time to achive that goal they group up with those that share that goal and so often tend to play with other hardcore players rather than casuals.
in open world pvp is it diffrent there it matter where in the world you life cuase asians tend to only pvp those that are interested in pvp, in eu however pvp players love to attack pve players or players that are in mobgrind or questing and dont have the focus on other players. these pvp players enjoy simply to cause harm to inocent players or love to do pvp if they know they have the gear advantage or have a bigger groupe. cant tell how many times i died while doing some ressgrind or questing solo just to get keilled by a groupe or a assassing that was sneaking upon me. so in pvp its realy diffrent eu hardcores pvps prefer to attack casual pve the most. sad but true
If you don't have the ability to be open minded and impartial then you limit yourself to just trying to push a point indiscriminately.
I've seen plenty of evidence given in this thread of existing games with a practically horizontal gear progression (GW2 for example) - and examples of a strong vertical progression in gear (Archeage). The fact that Ashes will be pretty snug in the middle should be reassurance for you but it doesn't seem to be enough. Unless this magic number of 20-30% can be achieved which I am sure you have determined that it is the mathematically perfect solution to all gearing in MMORPGs - you won't be happy.
Sometimes if you can't agree with someone on something, then you have to just agree to disagree at that point. It's perfectly fine to have a difference of opinion (this applies to some of the commenters as well) - but can't you see the sheer volume of people that just don't agree?
For my personal take on this, I am a casual player. I am also pretty crap at PvP though I do enjoy it but it stresses me out because I suck at it. The general concensus says that I am not really going to be the strongest demograph in this game, however I accept that I will just be lower down in the food chain, same as any other MMOs I play/have played. And that's fine. This is an RPG isn't it? Isn't the whole appeal of these games to level up and get stronger in the game and have something to show for it?
And what time frame and commitment are you expecting to be required from a player upon hitting "max level" and achieving essentially their Best gear available which will result in 30% additional power? Is it going to take weeks, months, a few months, half a year? Longer? Gear is going to be a fundamental part of keeping the economy booming and it's been said in this thread but who is going to bother doing content towards getting better gear if it's negligible? We as humans are simple we like bigger numbers it sets off endorphins and you can't program or quantify that with maths. Fun is fun and satisfaction is satisfying.
Let the corruption system balance the griefing, we will have bounty hunters to help here these systems will be iteratively balanced (hopefully) so that we can keep the fun parts of the game without too many minorities ruining it for the mass.
One more simple fact for these "casual players" you are talking about. Play genres other then MMO cuz if you don't have time this genre isn't for them. Never mind AoC, MMO itself isn't for everyone.
Not to mention you have contradicted yourself so many times. You say make it skill based for casuals to have a chance and then keep on saying that casuals don't have skill as well. I really don't understand the point of this thread anymore.
You have made zero logically sound argument about why it should be how you want it other than "10% is a lot".
How do you know that? The game hasnt even been released yet.
Where are you getting these numbers and conclusion from? All the archtypes arent even fleshed out yet.
I even showed you using gear power based percentages that the difference between someone who put in some time into the game and an hardcore wont be much gear-wise and then you moved on to how "1% is a lot". NO IT IS NOT.
I can only conclude that you are more intent on arguing than debating at this point and would request others to not comment on this thread anymore.
It is not particularly true for casual-challenge/hardcore-time players.
It is also not true for hardcore-challenge/casual-time players.
Most MMORPG players are some form of casual.
I have hardcore-time, but I am a casual challenge player and I am not elitist.
Which means I have plenty of time to help players with casual time and still achieve my other goals.
This is typical of casual players because even hardcore-challenge/casual-time players appreciate the help from others to be as hardcore-challenge as their short time allows and will reciprocate that type of help. Especially when it comes to gear acquisition.
There will be plenty of guilds that are some form of casual who will help their casual-time members acquire competitive gear. And, there will be plenty of citizens of a Node who have hardcore-time but casual goals, like helping and/or mentoring other players.
Remember that Ashes has a Mentoring system. And that is not going to primarily be limited to elitist hardcore-challenge/hardcore-time players.
When it comes to the PvP battles that Ashes is designed for - caravans and sieges - all types of players will be playing together. Who plays with whom will have little, if anything, to do with who is casual and who hardcore.
Also, who you help acquire armor really has nothing to do with playstyle - other than, perhaps, the very niche playstyle of elitist hardcore-challenge/hardcore-time players.
I have no clue what game(s) you're referring to but it sounds like they didn't have a Karma/Corruption mechanic to deter ganking. People who have played games with Karma report that it works very well to minimize occurrences of ganking. Corruption is designed to be even harsher than Karma.
If Corruption does not work as promised to deter ganking, gear is not going to matter for "casuals" who want quit.
When I'm not in the mood for PvP combat, I don't care whether I win or lose the battle. I care that I've been forced to PvP when I want to be doing something else in the game. If that happens too many times, I'm going to quit in any case. Gear is irrelevant. And that is true for tons of people who don't love PvP combat.
So...again... the devs are going to balance gear during Alpha 2 and the Betas.
And what kind of gear casuals have will not be a factor for winning and losing caravan battles and sieges because those will be a mix of players - hardcore v casual will be irrelevant when it comes to who wins and loses.
What causes someone to quit from being killed over and over again by stronger players will have little to do with gear disparities and everything to do with Corruption not working as promised. And if Corruption does not work as promised, Ashes is doomed in any case.