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
1. The weight of a two-handed sword.
2. A kind of two-handed sword movement when attacking.
3. The attack speed of a character with a two-handed sword.
4. Attack speed of a character with daggers.
5. Animation of heavy breathing of a character holding a two-handed sword
6. Active block in two-handed sword stance
7. Monster death animation (flying away from the character)
8. The severity of the "skill" of the hammer (how the character raises it before hitting the ground)
9. Impact of attacks and skills on the environment (traces from a two-handed sword, traces from a hammer skill, dust rising from the ground during rotation)
10. Variation in the types of dagger strikes when moving in different directions (especially forward and backward)
11. Animation of the line when "fast moving" (teleportation).
12. Pop-up damage indicators.
13. Animation of getting a two-handed sword. (Switch to combat mode).
What I saw but would change:
1. Animation color for swinging a two-handed sword.
2. The thickness or location of the animation line of the swing of the first blow of a two-handed sword (it completely obscures the character).
3. Animation of a character hitting monsters with daggers (too big circles).
4. Animation of the starting point during "fast movement" (teleportation).
5. Animations of "skills" of rotation and hammer did not look believable.
6. The thickness of the attack animation by a character with daggers. (radius too large).
What I didn't see but would like:
1. Animation of a character with a weapon jumping from the ground and from a stone.
2. Animation of the character's reaction to damage from monsters (in block / without block / evasion). Preferably from different types of weapons. And the same thing from damage to monsters from the character.
3. Animation of getting daggers.
4. Invitation to Alpha 2 in my email.
P.S.: I want to thank you for the work done. Looking forward to the game of our shared dream.
I started playing GW2 in Beta. Just Google ‘what MMO has the best PVP combat?’ It will always come back to GW2. Probably the best PVP combat yet. I’m not talking about animations, I mean the mechanics and core gameplay. I play PVP/PVE 50/50. I played WOW, ESO, BDO, FF and tons more. The only game I go back to is GW2 and it’s for the PVP combat.
Very clear there is an extremely talented team working on this game. My confidence in AOC grows more and more. Keep up the great work guys
The thing that worries me however is that it seems, judging from these basic attacks, that in the video was able to hit up to around 5 mobs at the same time, that it will be viable to aoe farm mobs, both in solo and group content. This is something that I am very sceptical towards, even if it is very satisfying to do these big pulls and aoe everything down, it does not feel as fulfilling. You just turn off your brain, pull a bunch of mobs, aoe them down, rince and repeat. It is a lot more engaging to have to be careful when being out adventuring, making sure that you only pull one or two mobs at the time etc.
The same when doing group content, instead of pulling a pack and just grouping them together to be able to hit as many as possible with aoe, its a lot more fun if you have to cc some mobs, and hard focus others that might be more dangerous than others. When the swings are able to hit so many mobs at the same time, it feels like the meta will just become aoe as much as possible, while doing occational single target attacks against the high priority targets.
I do know that it will be a hybrid systems and i'd assume that there will be a lot of single target skills and abilities aswell, but if the basic attacks of the combat will be aoe, then it feels like it wont require much more from the abilities to make the aoe farming playstyle viable.
Rather than having the bright dazzling golden colored particle trail, it should be more of a silver/grey (or similar color to the material the weapon is made of) and be a little more transparent.
It's just a bit too flashy looking.
My suggestions:
- Blocking: I really like having active blocking mechanic in Ashes because it feels like you have to pay attention to the enemies and react. I also hope that it will not be blocking 100% of damage by default. Instead it makes a lot of sense if there is a blocking stat that applies only when you are active blocking. This way you can totally mix an action/tab mechanics for blocking.
- I would add a jumping animation too.
- Many people talk about the color for swings. I would just make it dependent on the final archetypes choice but it's not a big deal. If ends up being less flashy just as people seem to want it's ok to me too. Maybe it's better because when a lot of people fight at the same spot it can be too flashy.
- Make sure to balance. If a melee player can hit multiple targets you also need to make sure that confronting many enemies at once will be dangerous (so make sure that tab target players aren't disadvantaged).
- I know roll or dash displayed are examples, and those will be tied to the classes I suppose with a certain cooldown to avoid spamming (and obviously without i-frames). I just wanted to remind it.
- Animation reminder (for casters and magic only): When more grandiose an animation is, more it seems to be important. That's because the first fireball animation was so hated, it was just a normal spell. So keep in mind that sometimes less is more, people don't like to see 10 of 10 mages spinning all the time. It doesn't mean a normal spell can't be classy, but in a more subtle way. Just look at the first pre-alpha footage Mage from 2017, there were a lot of good animations you could inspire on.
That being said, melee classes are always flashy when fighting, so there is no problem in having impressive animations even for the filler attacks. xD
I would to feel more heaviness with the weapons, 2H-S is greatly done, the animations could be more precise.
I don't feel like the "masses" of the weapon and the character body are applying the strength or the speed at the right exact times or the expected force, same goes to daggers.
Blocking could be made more complicated, sophisticated and complex in depth.
Great work as expected )
Other than that I have all faith the team will continue to dial it in to a great system.
Blocking.
Intrepid just made every tank action combat.
How is blocking going to work? Only blocks from the front? If so, how do they expect off-tanks to run around and grab up Adds?
Not only that, every single player can block now.
How does that fit in with tanks?
The combo is great for monster hunter, not an mmorpg.
How do you expect us to comment on a system we haven't actually felt in our hands?
It LOOKS great, but that's a small portion of what the greater picture of what was promised.
Combat looks extremely fast paced, looks like it's going to be more of a cluster, than a game of chess.
As a player we shouldn't have to left click spam, it should be meaningful.
I have so many questions now and concerns.
A basic weapon attack should be that, a basic weapon attack.
Classify every weapon type as light, medium or heavy.
Add a global cooldown to the basic weapon attack.
Light quicker, heavy slower.
Put different weapons under a classification.
2 handed claymore? Heavy.
Longsword(VERSATILE condition)? Medium with a slightly added GCD as a one hander, still faster than heavy. Heavy when used as a 2hander, but slightly faster and less damage than a normal heavy weapon.
Legendary named 2 handed sword? Heavy with an addiontal GCD because it's top end damage is more.
Daggers? Light
Short sword? Medium, but you can stat into it to make it light.
Add haste into the build to make cooldown/GCD lower, now anyone can play their character how they see fit.
How are "on hit" procs going to play into this cluster of left click spams?
I did enjoy the freedom of movement and I do think it's a step in the right direction, but there's alot to be concerned about.
2. Animations (details people have already mentioned)
3. I like fast paced combat but i would say it could be turned down a bit. In a solo environment its not an issue, but in a group or raid/pvp situation i wonder if it just would end up being a clusterfuck. Just a thought.
Question/Idea
The big golems did a forward cone splash animation, is this going to be a knock back mechanic not yet implemented?
Who said that every character can Block??
You comment on the small part of combat that ws demoed. Precisely as you did.
Precisely as people did last year with Alpha 1 combat previews.
Combat is faster than typical Tab Target.
That should be expected for a game that is a Tab Target/Action Combat hybrid.
Appears there will be time for strategic synergies with group members.
The demo also showcased some Fighter Active Skills; not just the basic weapon attacks.
So...it's not all just left-click spam.
Hammer Strike is a Fighter Active Skill - has nothing to do with the weapon being wielded.
Same for the Tank's Javelin spear and the Cleric's Castigation whip.
I would be interested to see a variation of the active skill attack with dual wielding (sword/dagger rotation) for tanks. To gain parry and dodge instead of damaging the enemy.
I was inspired by what Stephen said about the variety of tanks. Which will not necessarily carry a shield. And it gave me hope to see my character tank built on agility and evasion when wielding dual swords.
Not sure about the colour trail of the weapons, I think this will become confusing or misleading as damage types usually have a colour representation.
I’m confused about the swords abilities - we saw the spinning ability and giant hammer ability. We’re they specific to the great sword? I don’t understand why a great sword would have a great hammer ability? I’m also unsure why those abilities were the same yellow colour as the swords basic attacks? For example, if I wanted to be a spell sword I probably wouldn’t want my sword abilities to be yellow. If I wanted to be a dreadnaught I wouldn’t want my sword abilities to be yellow. Yellow usually represents holy damage in MMO’s. Clarity on that aspect would be good. Personally I think there should be no colour on the basic weapon attacks like the daggers.
I liked the basic spinning ability, it’s like the bread and butter. I didn’t like the summoned giant hammer - didn’t match the weapon and the colour will always be an issue for role players. I don’t think there should be any magical or summoning abilities as basic weapon abilities. Keep them about the weapon itself just like the spinning ability. An example: a rolling sweeping slash. The character rolls forward quickly, exits the roll with a sweeping slash, applying a cripple effect and AOE dmg. During the roll I-Frames are granted. This could be used as a gap closer or to kite if the ability was made direction with action combat targeting, rolling away from enemies and slashing as they follow.
I loved how the golems crumbled when defeated and assembled when agro’d. I didn’t like how the sword and daggers were just slashing rock golems.
Would like to see enemies being resistant and weak to certain weapon types that make sense. It would incentivise the players to interact with the economy and use different equipment to fight or farm specific mobs. This also increases the value or all weapons and so increases profit for the artisans crafting them.
I felt like the dashes were a bit too much for a warrior however suited the daggers more. Because of god mode, couldn’t really see if there were I-Frames. Couldn’t tell if it was a dodge or a dash - there is a difference.
As I said though, the combat looked drastically better and hyped me to play. Looking forward to the Beta testing when my regions servers go live (AUS)
Thanks for reading 😊
High player agency and the fast combat looks like a lot of fun. I'm very glad we are still sticking to keeping movement inhibitors to a minimum.
With the tools and dials the team has made, I think the potential in keeping the weapons balanced is gonna be very high! Don't be afraid of setting the upper bound of rooted motion higher if necessary!
I'm gonna be a ranger main, so I'm still nervous for upcoming reveals, but I believe in the team! I personally hope you all make rangers feel rewarded with a high skill ceiling. But I understand "fun" is the priority.
More than anything, I really hope the network will be able to make the gameplay feel responsive and sharp. Please reveal the network details prior to release, or better yet, test different settings during Alpha 2 and measure the responses!
I liked the damage numbers and the options to customize them. The sound was very good and the visuals of the 2 handed sword and generally the art style is insane.
The swings were pretty good but a bit fast and chopy.
I would like less visual colours from hits and more blur and wind and good sound from swinging the blades.
I don't know, maby im ignorand and asking too much but i would like the blades stoping on the target when they land a succesfull hit.
Overall it was a great update and progress! Keep up the good work Itrepids!!!
combos and the weapons look good and a lot of the graphics effects and i guess the floaty customization is ok, but not a huge deal to me. biomes and character looks great.
what i don't like: is the fighting 4-6 mobs at one time and basically walk away from it. yes i know he was in god mode for the video. the impression comes off like you can solo all the PVE stuff in game other than boss mobs.there's almost no mention of content you would need to group for other than sieges. i'll see you all in alpha 2 and hopefully my fears will be allayed. have a good 4th of July all!
One aspect of basic melee attacks that is important to me is that it needs to be "satisfying". I need to feel like my character is actually hitting the desired target through well designed audio and visual cues. I like what I saw in the demo video and am sure that the cues will be even more improved with future iterations.
Another aspect that is important to me is that the attacks need to have some weight to them. It shouldn't feel like I am swinging a piece of paper around... and again, this will also help the attacks to feel satisfying.
I also liked that basic attacks in the demo didn't hinder your character's mobility too much so the attacking whilst moving looked fluid but also seemed to have some weight to it.
Concerns:
At times it seems like Steven's character is floating just above the ground. Not sure if it has to do with the shadows or what but when I see this it does make the movement appear... floaty.
Another thing I am concerned about is how taxing this action combat will be on players. I really enjoy farming mobs in MMOs as I could do it for hours in World of Warcraft because I find it relaxing... But will the action combat in AoC cause players to fatigue quicker? I like tab targeting in MMOs but if Intrepid Studios think action combat is the direction they want to go, I support it.
Extra Random Feedback: The rock golems that were showcased are wonderful. I love their overall aesthetic and various animations (rolling, death, etc.). Awesome job.
Overall, I enjoyed the recent demo on basic melee attacks and look forward to seeing how the combat system progresses. Keep up the great work!
Some suggestions I think would help refine/improve what we've seen:
Some sort of mini/very light stagger on both enemies/players to add impact when hitting/getting hit - not screenshake for basic attacks (maybe some massive ability). Maybe the stagger can be more pronounced with bigger damage/less frequent abilities to really sell their oomph factor, but some sort of additional visualization of hitting/getting hit. I see there is a getting hit reaction and this is good - maybe just some improvements to that.
Keep refining the footwork/weapon swings to make them even more fluid (i feel like they are almost there).
Other than that i feel its pretty much where it needs to be for the basic weapon attacks. I don't feel like the particle trails are overdone, i think they are just right (maybe have options to tone it down if people wanted).
I think from the past videos of spells an abilities, the direction for visuals should be more towards understated in general (except for maybe longer CD or ultimate abilities) and the animations too should follow a visual progression based on how powerful the spell is.
One thing that I wasn't completely sold on was the way the character is holding the greatsword when standing still and when running. It may have just been hard to tell because he was wearing a huge cloak that blocked us from seeing his posture, but for me, if the character looks goofy when running with their weapon or their "ready" stance - it completely ruins it for me.
So still allow us to equip a wand, so we don't hurt the economy - but I want to be able to plug my equipped Wand damage, directly into the Spell damage of my 2 handed staff spell damage. No wand filler attacks, and no basic melee attack fillers either. Just casting.
Less unnecessary clicking for my arthritis, and bigger Booms!
-For your basic Melee attack presentation, I think it looks really fun you're definitely on the right track!
Like every active blocking situation, to block, you have to be facing the direction in which the damage is coming from.
Did you watch the video? They showed the blocking in it.
If you have to actively block, where does mitigation fall on the block?
Parry, block chance, dodge, crit reduction.
If primary stats help with blocking, aka strength, how does that work?
There's more to it than does this look good, because as we saw in alpha 1, in the middle of it, they reiterated combat.
They've come out and said that the player can choose to be upwards of 80% tab or 80% action. How is a tank going to be 80% tab if you have to actively block.
6+ years into production and we've seen a lot action combat reiterating.
Don't get me wrong, it doesn't look bad, but which direction are they going with this, because, like I said, if blocking is active combat, than every tank is action combat.
The big hammer ability wasn't that cool while using a 2handed sword, if I was using a hammer or mace, that'd be cool. That's my opinion though.
Both abilities were AoE, which again is in issue because melee is already aoe, where as ranged is single target.
So are they pushing melee to be PvE?
There's so many questions and concerns than yeah this looks great.
People need to get their hands on it and there needs to be information about the direction they're going, because it seems like they're leaning towards mostly action combat.
Action combat should be played like a game of chess, everything you do is meaningful.
Having it be fast paced and spamming left click is going to be a mess.
New worlds combat was slowed down and it was still a mess.
I was actually fine with the pace of new worlds combat, they just couldn't figure out frames,desync or their own systems to make it good.
I'm confused how you think having to button spam is going to make things strategic, especially if the majority of your damage is coming from "basic attacks" . if the majority of your damage isn't coming from basic attack, then why is it a basic attack combo?
small idea: make the weapons and abilities benefit the other through passives.
The option to tone the visual effects down in case they impede clarity.
Possibly jump attacks. Could be weapon specific where it makes more sense. If so, should be significantly weaker DPS to avoid jump spamming. Just situational bonus to fluidity dependent on the situation.
In other MMO's I've played? None that apply to this system.
I'm just concerned about the network performance and how lag will affect combat. Basic weapon attacks looking great so far
If you design AOE grind game where you can pull more mobs and kill them, it will lead players to playing game more impatient and with rushy zoomer feelings, which is not wise emotion at all. That is core reason why gamers see more and more toxic behavior over the years, it is because we are modern therefore we are more positive, and being positive leads to us being arrogant in situations that can occur, in old age people weren't arrogant, they were more loftiness in a peculiar way because they weren't as positive as we are, they had more emotions that are ''black'' therefore they regret things more and have more ''negative'' (I don't mean it literally because some didn't feel negative) but they had those ''black'' emotions more often then any modern men or women.
Arrogance and being more ''open'' leads players to free action, speaking or as we see in games chatting more freely and because we are on internet they are more free then we usually are.
Not everyone is hard working human (self work), we have to know that and in some extent tolerate that.
I just wanted to share my point of view because I saw good times of World of Warcraft and bad times, I saw community shift in mentality from people being cozy and patient into becoming zoomer ''kids'' in their 30s.
Please work on that hard and fix it, because many that are leaning toward being like that what I mention will just build more and more emotions such as those and impatience is not wise at all and leads to many problems. Trust me if MMORPG games become like that and if that becomes normal, many won't be able to work on themselves, which is not ''our'' problem, but surely word can get out there, it also adds to immersion, because imagine you pull 5 wolves in real life, how will that go. Especially if you pull 2 bears, I mean what could go wrong.
Please design mobs to not have same HP pool and armor, design some special attacks that are not ground circles indicators but animations that are immersive. Design bears similar to New World bears, I literally mean to design a mob that cannot be killed easily if you are solo, New World bears are special because it would take like 3 mins to kill one because you must dodge and avoid special attacks that he pounds upon ground and deal a lot of dmg and stagger you, they also had big HP pool like elites in that game and they hit hard, so you had to either avoid attack or block it. I literally mean to design some mobs to be as hard as New World bears, because it adds so much to immersion.
Please don't turn out to be like modern WoW because it would be downfall to MMORPG games if it becomes normal for MMO games to be like that. I have no respect for games that design mobs to be as easy as World of Warcraft mobs in open world, there you literally can pull 10-15mobs and kill them in AOE without any problems. You can do an aura on mob when you pull 2 or more to buff dmg and armor of that beast because they get primal berserk emotions and go wild on you, same with humanoids, why not? It is realistic, or simply buff their HP and DMG but then again I think it will be hard to design things like that because you are aiming on fast paced combat, which I like very much because it adds so much to the game.
I understand if that cannot be done, but I would very much like AOE grind fiesta to change.
Thanks and good bye.
Any class can use any weapon, so, yes, if a Fighter has active Block that means Fighter can active Block with every weapon. Just as Fighter can Hammer Strike and Whirwind with every weapon.
In NWO, Rogues do not have Block; instead Rogues have Roll. Clerics do not have Block; instead Clerics have Rush.
You are assuming that Block comes from weapons rather than from the Primary Archetype.
Who says that we must actively Block? What we saw is that it's possible for a Weaponmaster to actively Block if they choose to.
Who says that a Tank must actively Block?
That's like saying we all must Hammer Strike and Whirlwind simply because we saw that in the demo.
Why would the majority of damage be coming from a basic attack, rather than from Active Skills??
Meaning, some classes will be forced into action combat and others will not.
I really don't think that's the route Intrepid is taking and a content creator has already come out and said that Steven has said that there would be "active blocking".
Exactly. Why would a majority of your damage be coming from a basic attack?
It shouldn't be and if it's not, then why is it a weapon combo that's spammed?
A basic weapon attack, should be just that, a basic weapon attack. NO combo, no spamming and not the majority of your damage. A filler attack.
Also, what's this whole thing about ultimates?
No ultimates, please.
And, just because a Primary Archetype has access to an ability, that does not mean everyone who plays that Archetype will be forced to use it.
Steven said there would be active Block. He did not say that every character would have access to active Block. He also did not say that everyone who has access to active Block must use it.
Who said a weapon combo must be spammed?
The purpose of the June 2022 Combat Demo was to demo what the basic weapon attack looks like. So, that is what we primarily saw.
We also saw some of the Weaponmaster Class Kit, including some Active Skills.
Ashes will have weapon combos.
Ashes will also have ultimates.
I think forcing an 8th of the classes to have an "active block skill" is pretty insane.
That being said, I agree that you don't HAVE to use it, but if you're not going to use it, then why is it there. It wouldn't be meaningful and Intrepid has preached just that; meaningful.
Imagine being a DPS and having a useless right click to defend while a rogue gets a dodge.
Ashes shouldn't have weapon combos, it takes away from the ability to have class identification, unless you actually believe you can classify yourself through just skills and not primary stats, secondary stats, effects, procs, etc.
Ultimates shouldn't be a thing because players will just time them how they see fit at a perfect opportunity and thats what you should be doing already with your skills.
Ultimates are just better skills.
Now if Ultimates are just another word for longer than normal cooldowns that usually involve survival or burst windows. I'm fine with that, it's just a really awkward way to say "popping CDs".
I know that alot of this is speculation.
I'm just saying, I saw with my own two eyes active blocking and I want more information on that.