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
I think they will expand upon this in the coming months, this was just the melee basic ability preview.
I'm confident that the ranged classes, mainly healers, will focus more on tab targeting. I just want them to stay clear off GW2s way of handling support and healing, as its just awful. Everyone is just stacking in the same spot.
Yeah, i guess that is a problem, in korea they all 5ms ping, so its easier.
Most western companies arent really doing anything to improve the issue, not only for MMOs but other games.
The only one I know of doing something to improve networking is Riot Games, with their Riot Direct system, I dont really understand the specifics, but im usually at 60ms for most central european servers, including riot's before the implementation of Riot Direct, but after it im now at 40ms. Plus there are other advantages, not just improved ping.
Really curious how this can improve the action combat for the MMO they are making.
Huge amount of players are voicing their feedback on the forums and you could see the spamming in the twitch chat in the video. People like this direction, where is the huge amount of people that are saying other wise, i haven't seen that many.
People just want good combat that is fun to play, there isn't really a huge out cry they are doing something wrong.
And that is why i dont like fast paced action combat. 60 year old Henry will have no chance keeping up with 20 year old Steven.
The wast majority of players are 40+
They dont want to train 10 hours a day to hone their skills to be competative in PvP and never beeing able to be as good as a 20 year old due to natural circumstances.
Tab Target combat is way better for balance than a twitchy high APM combat style.
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If the vast majority of players are 40+ then there is a fair skill curve for them and you won't see that many 20 year olds to worry about.
Honestly i don't get this argument or the stats either, plenty of people younger then 40 play mmorpgs, and even if it was mainly only 40+. There is a huge market of people that are younger than 40 to tap into.
All i see with these is im old and i want a tab target mmo without a skill curve and I can just use gear to kill people and not have to aim a single skill.
As such, its target audience is those older MMO players.
If Ashes doesn't attract an audience of people that were playing MMOs before WoW, it is not likely to attract an audience of people that started playing them after - not without changing what the core goal of the game is.
@Noaani AoC's target audience isn't any one demographic. To think otherwise could potentially be the result of a narrow mindset.
Anyone can appreciate well designed and implemented mechanics without being a MMO veteran.
..... what? Most my guild are under 40 lmao.
... The vast majority of people arent 40+ boomers, at best the vast majority of people here on the forums and people closely following the game's development might be boomers.
A lot of us here are hopium infused boomers wanting to relive "the golden age" of MMORPGs, when the game launches the majority of the player base will be people that havent even heard about the game yet at this time.
Big part of them wont even have played an MMORPG before.
That is why Intrepid can't simply rely on "forum majority", even if most of the people here want tab-target combat and slower paced combat, that doesnt represent the actual playerbase the game will have.
Having a target audience doesnt mean others are suddenly unwelcome.
If you are making a game based on the notion that modern MMO's aren't as good as older MMO's (which is what Ashes is), then your target audience is others that also think modern MMO's aren't as good as older MMO's.
You dont make that game for people that really enjoy current MMO's, and want more of the same, or want the genre to continue moving in that same direction.
That doesnt surprise me.
You have clearly not had enough people in your life that will tell you to shut up because you dont know what you are talking about.
This tells me a lot about the kind of people you spend time with.
not only 40+ veterans. I think this will open the MMO genre for many newcommer too.
I dont even know where this nonsense is coming from.
No one said people that are outside of the target audience won't play it.
The idea that this was said or suggested is the only nonsense here - and like you, I have no idea where it is coming from.
I think you're misunderstanding my point of view. I'll clarify some of my points. AoC's target audience isn't any one selection of the MMO demographic, It purposely and thoughtfully designed to appeal to a wide range of the MMO demographic.
IS has taken inspiration from older MMO's, yes, but has also taken inspiration from more modern MMO's and strides to iterate on their mechanics, polish and fidelity.
This game may possibly not appeal to the majority of players still dedicated to WoW or one of it's various clones. But there are plenty of popular and relatively modern/current MMO's out there with comparable systems, mechanics and gameplay.
I believe you're assuming that because someone may have only played more modern MMO's or were too young to appreciate older MMO's that this game isn't being purposely designed by IS to target their interest. This I find ridiculous considering how many specific design decisions are comparable to some modern/current MMO's, how responsive to feedback IS has been, and lastly, how inclusive and expansive the plans for content and the world are.
I mean, if you want to argue that Ashes doesnt have one at all, that's something you can attempt. But what you are trying to say here is that Ashes has a target audience, but it isn't actually a target audience.
By definition, a target audience is a specific demographic. You cant say that a products target audience is t a specific demographic, because no specific demographic means no target audience.
Fact is, Ashes is a niche game. It isn't aiming to appeal to all MMO players - that has never been Steven's goal.
It's not uncommon for businesses to have more than one target audience or ideal customer.
AoC has more than one target audience. I would have thought that was quite obviously my point. But it seems like you're interested in arguing about semantics so I'll be excusing myself.
So. Keep that in mind. When content creators are relaying this information to audiences who are not as familiar with the project, let them know this is just to focus on the basic weapons attacks.
It is focusing on that aspect of combat.
We will unveil additional aspects of combat being ability systems, class rotations, we'll talk about the VFX pipeline and how that advances with te ability system as well...
Those are going to be additional beats that we hit leading up to next the few months."
---Steven
My argument was that you want to make a system that most are ok with and can compete with.
You can be very skilled in a tab target game aswell.
Im perfectly aware that actionbased combat has a much higher skill ceiling, but that is not always a good thing when it comes to making a game for the broader audiance.
You can make an "easier" combatsystem but still make it much more involved than action combat by using tactics, timing your skills etc rather than pushing the most buttons per second while zooming all over the battlefield.
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If that was the case they wouldn't be including modern aspects of mmorpgs. Younger people prefer action over gameplay like pantheon that is very much true, and when a lot of people are watching the stream or giving feedback, those younger people can very much influence the game. If it was the case against people under 40 their influence wouldn't be able to be as great and the combat could lean heavy on tab rather then doing action forms of combat. They wouldn't have been stressing over combat and the feel of the action elements for so long.
If you think their target audience is 40+ you are only trying to use that as a crutch to say combat needs to be slow and more tab target based. $40+ combat is like pantheon as something a younger audience would have no interest in playing and it will show through their sales. Which I hate using the term younger just because you aren't god damn 40 years old that is such a small skewed target. Plenty of people that are 40+ from older mmorpgs have stopped playing them, WoW use to have 12m subs.....
If im going to assume target audience I'm not going based of age, I'd say not a wow theme park. Its target audience is people that enjoy a world with soft friction and pvp as it can great influence the effects of the world and drama. People that like more of a sandbox experience, and enjoy some pve elements as well.
Though I'd say target audience is for everyone that enjoys a good sand box mmorpg hence the price point is slow to entry. Assuming things and that the game is MADE for 40+ is wild without actually giving any from of proof. People that are 40+ will love the systems is different than saying this game is only made for older boomers.
I know how you fell its all semantics. Some people are so blind on the tab vrs action they think of anything to try to understand why the game has to be more tab focused. This kind of point makes no sense from a business model. I could simply use the other way around and say there is way more people that will be willing to pay that are less than 40 years old. Now if we are talking about whales that is def a 40+ market
I'm not too keen on commenting on the action vs combat argument/discussion as I don't find it particularly constructive and I have no strong opinions either way. I may be wrong but I think it's probably obvious that Steven as creative director/lead game designer has a specific vision for combat and a relatively experienced and confident team supporting that vision.
I have no disagreement with everyone stating their opinions and preferences or offering feedback. I'd just prefer to personally withhold my judgment and bias until Stevens vision for combat becomes more clear.
But yes, I can see how some people can jump through hoops to support their particular opinion on the subject. Be it a preference for either Action Combat or Tab Target.
That pretty clearly says animation canceling will not be a part of combat
https://forums.ashesofcreation.com/discussion/52913/animation-canceling-dodging-weaving#latest
You are the one that is contorting things to try and back up your opinion, not people that say tab is better suited to top end PvE. In fact, many of us (myself included) have even said that action is better for many combat situations.
It is the fact that we are able to say "action is better here, but tab is better over there" that prove that we are the ones that are not contorting things to back up our opinion. People that think either action combat or tab combat are always better are very clearly the ones that are blind to various aspects.
Those that make up blatant lies are the worst offenders in this regard. And yes, that is specifically you.
I'm not saying that can't be the case, I am saying that it's first target audience is the gamer that thinks MMO's went to shit at some point after WoW.
Quite specifically, the target audience of this game is Steven. He has said this blatantly in the past. He is making a game he wants to play, and if the rest of us enjoy it, great.
The second this game stops being the game that Steven wants to play, it stops being Ashes and becomes something else (even if the name doesn't change).
Not everyone does read the forum yet neither comment on social medias.
You better not consider for granted the positive reactions as a whole regarding the action-combat like : ”people like this direction because they commented on the forum or YouTube”.
Just like someone stated here or in another topic : don’t be deceived. A huge amount of players prefer to stick on tab-targeting as the main genre and not willing to import fps mechanism in a rpg.
If you want to have a real idea about how people feel about the combat system, and what they really prefer : they need to make a poll on YouTube.
People will rather answer a poll then comment on a video or in a forum that requires registration. Less effort worth it better.
And you’ll be surprised regarding the results.
This is why the hybrid system is a good idea.
We received update about the action combat system, now we are also expecting a video regarding the tab-targeting combat system.
Finally personal opinion here : if you don’t want to start a riot, better focus the ranged classes, especially the cleric, mainly on tab targeting.
You are only deceiving yourself if you think more people prefer tab target and they are choosing not to comment on the direction or complain on twitch or the forums. Equal opportunity to do so, yet we can see the direction and desires moving much more clearly in one way than the other.
Now imagine all the other people that hasn't said anything on the action side included that also don't comment on forums and such or know about the game. Things always go both ways.
Its funny as the direction for combat has always sought to improve and be more immersive, its only now I'm surprised some people are working against improvements to combat and wanting things to be like older times which is a step backwards over forward. The older times have always tried to step forward and include for fake elements of action type combat to create a better experience.
The original premise of this game is basically "new MMO's are shit, so we are making one that plays like an older MMO but uses modern graphics and such, come join us if you want that".
The odd thing to do, based on that, would be for someone to say that Ashes needs to do a thing because all modern MMO's do it and older ones never did.
Any argument in relation to gameplay that has anything akin to "new games do this" is literally what this game is trying to reverse. That argument in isolation is an argument for why Intrepid should NOT do that thing, not why they should do it.
Maybe that thing makes sense for another game, but not for a game that is trying to reverse the general direction MMO's havr taken over the last decade and a half.