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
Ofc there are, let me introduce you to the amazing world of mobile MMOs
This is the absolute most dogshit garbage thing I ever experienced, last game I endured with this was Tower of Fantasy, complete Dogshit because once you got to the cap there's absolutely nothing to do besides waiting for the reset because you don't want to waste XP, I never spoke to anyone that likes this even people that are used to mobile gaming.
During levelling I have an reward expectation on each level. Ability to equip new armor/sword. Ability to start questline in higher level location. Ability to beat that mob which kicked my ass yesterday.
But once I reached level cap, what will support the dopamine? Do the f*ing hard questline for rare sword? Maybe. Improve gearscore to manage next dungeon? Also maybe... What else?
I would imagine there is some truth to this, new players down the road will have the advantage of developed nodes, higher level players willing to help them and , along with gear upgrades and or some financial help from friends to speed up the process. Which I have no problem with at all.
This approach would work well if you could spend multiple points to level up your abilities. You could just put 1 point into each to unlock your full kit by 25, then go back and start pumping abilities you want to focus on in your build to get stronger. If this is the case, I'd like each additional point in an ability to add additional effects, not just increase damage or whatever, as that's kind of boring and doesn't make you feel as good spending ability points. Things such as - Larger radius for fireball, increasing the number of arrows fired in a Spread Shot, additional stored charges for a teleport/dash.
Do they plan on having abilities with multiple levels or do you just unlock abilities, followed by the augment?
5 hours to get to lvl 5 o.O.
Can't say i agree the starting experience should be slow like that. Shouldn't be taking 5 hour to get levels 1-5. That should be part of the learning experience where they are getting some points and getting to know the game and getting familiar with character progression.
We also have end game as well, reaching max level shouldn't be the end of content but the gate that opens even more content and getting to do higher tier content.
I prefer what the goal already being set is tbh.
*edit this includes people saying it should take half a year or a year to get max level.
Unless they take the BDO approach and have levels that give very minimal bouses but are the hard cap and extremely slow to gain levels with.
This won't work, you are only affecting the casuals. Level as people know is a system to protect them but there needs to be a balance.
The more time you put as a gate for leveling the more ahead hardcore players will be with casuals having a longer time before they can even catch up to them.
No hardcore player is going to be like that is so much time I'm not going to level, they will grind and book all the time they need off and play for 15-18 hours a day and refuse to sleep.
As far as for new players entering the game. CREATE MEANINGFUL CONTENT that rewards the experienced players for helping the new players. Create content that does not feel like a boring chore for the one helping the ones in need of help. I hope as a level 30 I am still excited to jump in and help level 5 Guild members to clear content beyond just having the feeling of " This is necessary in growing the guild and being able to attack higher end content in a few months." If they can do this, the leveling to 50 or whatever ceiling they decide will be much more enjoyable!
If high level nodes will effect new player's leveling speed because of high level nodes provide more activities and resources etc for new player to gain XP and leveling, I think it's a good thing like 5%~20% faster than players join on day 1 is ok to me.
The acknowledge about the game is the true gap for new player to catch up IMO, how good does the game(and the community IMO) teach and guide new player to learn those things is more important to me.
Most gamers will play something else or go back to their previous mmo where it's less effort to enjoy a mmo.
With a game like Ashes that has a lot of horizontal avenues for advancement, getting people through the 'tutorial' quickly is important. In order for PvP and PvX to have a good play loop you generally need a certain threshold of abilities and customization in order to actually have a good time. Once you get past this tutorial, feeling a sharp increase in vertical power and a clear correlation between 'effort in and reward in your build/gear out' is a good way to keep new players hooked.
But you eventually must slow down the closer you get to max level in order to nudge players to eventually find the horizontal goals that appeal to them most. Players that don't find horizontal goals, especially in a game with a much smaller emphasis on the themepark, will tend to leave the game. Without that feeling of slower inertia towards the end, most players will just 'assume you MUST be max level for the REAL game to start' and that just simply doesn't sound like the game Ashes has described itself as for so long. So for those compounding reasons I feel like max level itself should take quite long but the journey to that last 10-20% should be in the way described to maximize retention and the over all pleasantness of the leveling experience.
Exactly why im against people saying it should take half a year or a year to get max level than plus end on top of it.
Edit* I only mean if people that are playing like 10 hours a day + in time frame so 1800+ hours to reach max lvl.
But some want to know the meta and leave the game fast anyway. Because the game is not their main mmo.