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
It's easy to be "very successful" with no competition.
As soon as PvE servers became an option, those became to most popular servers for MMORPGs.
Well it depends who you ask. PvP oriented players typically claims that Trammel ruined the game but that is not quite the truth. It might ruin the game from their point of view, however, if you ask this from PvE oriented players the answer is totally opposite. On top of that, Trammel actually became very popular very fast because there was not non-consensual PvP available. This is not a surprise because hardcore PvP is a really niche genre anyway. It is of course understandable that the changes did not make PvP players happy because they lost a good amount of prey. There was demand for PvE world and therefore, the game evolved more on that direction.
The worst possible thing the devs can do is abandoning their vision. Amazon did it to please the WoW and FF14 crowd only for them to abandon the game after 2 months. Believe it or not NW's alpha version was pretty cool. The good thing is AoC's monetization model allows the player base to keep the game alive easier, I think the team picked the monthly sub knowing this.
There is definitely a demand for a PvE focused game, that's why WoW and FF14 are doing so well. Does this mean we need to turn AoC into the same thing? Hell no. Steven is very well aware that his PvX dream is going to be a niche thing, and that he can't please everyone. It's impossible to please everyone, and luckily the monthly sub gives them some breathing room.
Even with PvP being so important in the game, there are still safety nets for people who wish to not participate that much in PvP, so there's that. AoC is a sandbox game, if someone wishes to participate as little as possible they can do that. You can go full gatherer/merchant, make boatloads of money, hire other people to help you, buy their gear, etc etc. There are guilds recruiting where their main profile is being mercenaries, protecting caravans (merchants moving their items) and such. These guilds often have reserved spots for merchants/gatherers/crafters. Also let's add the corruption system on top of that.
There are so many ways to make PvX work. PvP and PvE doesn't have to be 2 completely separate games.
Same thing was in Lineage 2, if you didn't join a guild that was in conflict chances are you barely PvP'd, it will be similar in AoC. You can keep a low profile and there will be barely any problems I'm sure.
I would not say that changing the vision is the worst thing to do because sometimes it might be necessary or actually make the game better. However, sometimes those changes will cause new problems so it can be risky as well.
Alpha New World can be considered good from hardcore PvP players pov but the harsh open world PvP rules divided opinions. On top of that there was not enough intrest around the game and therefore, It could been died even before the launch without these changes.
WoW had open world PvP but it was removed and put on specific PvP servers. Yeah they tried but the problems were severe enough to take actions.
We do not know yet where Ashes rules will eventually settle but part of their vision has been from the beginning that "AoC won't be a gankbox". Will see what that eventually means and which direction the corrupt system will move after testing, but I have noticed that some members have perhaps too high expectations how much there will be open world PvP. Will see.
Sometimes people just need to accept they might not be the target audience for a game. There is already a set vision and direction for the game. If you think this game should be more like WoW there is a chance this applies to you, however WoW and FF14 should be right up your alley.
It's fine if Blizzard thought they need to do this. That doesn't mean this is the right call in every single MMO from this point moving forward. This is a different team with different vision and different priorities.
The only reason why New World's rules "divided opinions" was because again, the WoW and FF community has this weird thing where they want to turn every game into the same thing. They go to a new MMO, demand to remove everything that makes the game unique, leave the game after 2 months, go back to their old MMO, repeat.
WoW and FF14 mains can't handle sandbox MMOs. If there is no streamlined themepark content they just freak out. This game however is way more on the sandbox side, with tons of player agency.
Expectations regarding open world PvP goes both ways: I see WoW mains pre-emptively complaining about something they haven't even experienced.
WoW and FF14 mains don't enjoy sandbox games.
Ashes is a themebox game.
There are just as many people complaining that Corruption is too harsh as there are people complaining that Corruption is insufficient.
The vast majority of Ashes fans are content to withold judgment until Alpha 2 opens for testing.
In Bless Online, I encountered non-consensual PvP less than once per week - and I'm a hardcore time player.
Didn't bother me because it took up less than 2 minutes of my playtime and I quickly returned to what I really wanted to be doing in the game.
During Alpha 2, the devs will tweak Corruption and respawning until it reaches a balance Steven is comfortable with.
This is so ridiculous blame WoW or FF players that Amazon changed the direction of their design. Moreover, it is not like players could not like themepark and sandbox games. LMAO
Ooooo, I enjoy this take on the corruption system. Makes sense and plenty of potential for risk vs reward on both fronts. I hope Steven sees this!
Edit: it can also be directly related to node levels, types, and their range of influence.
Not if you maintain a large corruption penalty for killing players with much lower power than yourself.
exploring new places should be dangerous in many ways in my opinion. Not like you should just be able to fly around in creative mode minecraft without a care in the world. Its only natural that a timid player should feel a bit of unease going out into a new place they know nothing about. But for all they know it is either a lovely community where people constantly help each other, or its a pvp wonderland where nobody is safe, or even just a zone far beyond their level of power, and that is sort of beautiful when you consider a game that is supposed to be a living world.
1. It forces people who enjoy 'griefing' others to actually level that high every time they make a 'Griefing Alt'.
2. It prevents players that understand how to exploit mechanics or leverage skills at lower levels from doing so before other players necessarily have the skills or understanding to counter.
3. It prevents the phase of the game where many people are looking for allies and friends, from becoming too unpredictable.
I mention this simply to remind that it is sometimes not 'I am higher level than you so I can kill you'. It is 'you don't know how to counter this/don't understand what I'm doing yet/don't have tools for managing this problem.
Any changes to the system that alters Corruption penalties in either direction, particularly if one can hide the connection between one's Alt and Main, will need to factor for this.
In Ashes, exploring new places includes the possiblity of PvP combat. Nonconsensual PvP will be penalized with Corruption.
In the world I live in, I have never been mugged.
Not when I lived in NYC.
Not when I walked around DC at night.
Not when I walked through Compton in the middle of the night.
Not when I lived in Tokyo.
Not when I lived in Moscow.
Because the penalties for attacking people minding their own business are a strong enough deterrent that people almost never encounter it. It certainly doesn't happen to the average person several times per week.
I dunno what is meant by "timid player".
Has nothing to do with timidity and everything to do with preventing a player from forcing an unwanted activity on another player. In Ashes, removing player agency in that fashion is penalized with Corruption.
As someone who has made many level 19-39 twinks in WoW I kind of get where you're coming from, but if the corruption system is applied at all levels it will still be prevented. And on top of that, its much easier to go and destroy a toxic twink character with a main than it is to just fight somebody elses geared main. And I can also say that twinked character platers mostly only want to fight other twinked character players. It less "I am dominating" and more "I enjoy this more limited skillset" or "Thank god there arent mounts in this level bracket" and even "I want to duel higher level players with this low level one just because". Its mostly for fun, not malice. Although there are obviously some toxic ones. As an example, in WoW I had a level 19 fully twinked gnome rogue that I would take to hillsbrad foothills and either challenge level 28+ horde, or wait for them to try to "gank" me. What result was usually some pretty even fights, it was just funny to both parties involved because I was just a level 19. Made a name for myself and even befriended quite a few enemy players that way.
All of that being said, this isn't as big of a concern as you believe it to be.
All of the datasets I have indicate that this is a serious issue.
Multiple games have needed to explicitly take action against it.
I'm glad that your experience has been different from the players of those games. WoW really is an interesting game to use for an example.
Lucky you! I have been held at gunpoint 4 times, and have dealt with several instances of people attempting to rob me. I guess we live in different worlds seeing as all of my occurrences didn't happen in any of the places you mentioned either. However, all but 1 of the instances involving getting held at gunpoint ended with me giving up my wallet. And most of the other robbery attempts ended in me either beating down my assailant or getting the crap kicked out of me. Luckily I am a pretty sturdy dude so I have been able to bounce back from the rough incidents.
A timid player is simply that. A player with a timid personality who is unsure of themselves and their decisions, usually based on fear of the outcome of their decisions. Corruption isnt there to prevent unwanted activities being forced onto other players, it is simply there to limit how often it occurs.
followed by...
Bruh...
What datasets do you have? I am genuinely curious.
Yes I realize many games have dealt with this sort of problem in their own ways but I feel that corruption is ashes of creations way of dealing with this problem.
It was indeed and awesome experience, but to extend an olive branch I will give you an interesting example of the toxic side. And that was the dreaded level 10 night elf rogue twink! If you acquired the appropriate gear, your character would have over 100% dodge rating making you untouchable even to level 60 players! You werent exactly able to kill anyone else, but once you picked up the flag in capture the flag, it was a simple as running it back unhindered to your base to either capture it, or simply wait until the other carrier died, all while being swarmed by the enemy team. Ironically you arent killing anyone in this way but it was pure trolling to do this. We strongly denounced this sort of playing style in the twinking community.
Yes? is there some correlation here?
And they will be.
Corruption is designed to deter non-consensual PvP such that it is a rare occurence.
Then you Will get another new world , where they killed the pvp, then the game didn t make sence because was build around PvP and territory conquest...
Guilds coulld try that. If it's common... expect the devs to adjust the Corruption penalty accordingly to deter that.
As much of a fair point that is you are thinking an a extreme. First off if a guild attacks you and kills you turning red. You can attack them for free unless they want to gain more corruption to the point they eventually drop gear. By them attacking you BH will show up, or you can actually just say there is a group of reds with high corruption and everyone will come because they want their gear.
As well you would have to piss a guild off if that many of their members come out to do that even knowing the risk if they keep killing you. What is more likely and if you are a solo player with no guild they can't dec you so they are at a loss except for all gaining corruption.
This isn't a likely scenario as a hardcore pvper myself that kills people for no reason. I won't just gain corruption without a clear reason just because some guildy has a issue with a random. If that random is weak and a low level they would be on their own.