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 may or may not, but I won't know until the game releases. Plus, isn't the whole point of the forums and discussions to receive player feedback from multiple different perspectives? It's perfectly fine if I don't like the game or certain aspects of it, Steven and the team can do what they want with Ashes. But, I enjoy discussing certain topics like these with other people. It's interesting to see the different viewpoints.
I never told you to not voice your opinion. I am simply showing you the intended design of this game.
Yes, I understand. However, whether or not I will enjoy this game has no bearing on the discussion.
Just stating my assumption based on what you're advocating for in this discussion in comparison to what Intrepid is stating as their intent for design of their game.
I already said I'm not sure OPs idea belongs in ashes...
That being said I feel like for something like a instanced leader board the bragging rights would mean more if it was skill-based as opposed to someone who's had more free time...
If it's going to be instanced either way they could make two different leagues, one where it's bring your own gear and one where gear is issued of an equalizing tier set. Have two different leader boards.
to me thats no different than PVE and PVP servers honestly. No need to separate the player base
If you have a stat advantage, it is because you earned that stat advantage.
You claim to be an athlete of some description. Do you feel bad when you beat someone knowing full well you have chosen to spend more time training than they have? Because that is the same thing. In an MMO, players have the choice to go out and get that stat advantage. Anyone that doesn't have it made the choice to not go out and get it.
That is on them, not you.
If you go in to a fight in an MMO with a stat advantage, it is because you are playing that MMO as a whole better than they are. An MMO isnt about just one fight, which seems to me to be what a few of you want. An MMO is about the whole game - how well you play the whole game should matter, and how well you play the whole game is directly reflected in your gear.
Most people in L2's arenas fought in cross-class battles instead of inner-class ones. People had different lvls of gear and different rps matchups in pretty much every single fight. At the start of the ladder season you'd get a certain amount of points and would then get matched up against people with roughly the same amount (as long as there was enough of players to do that).
If you fell too low due to your shitty gear, you still had chances against weaker rps matchups, and if you were at the top - you could still get brought down by a stronger rps enemy (if player skill was equal).
But L2's arenas gave a ton of tangible rewards for people who performed well, so most players understood that they had to properly level up and equip their character if they wanted to compete. And in order to do that they had to both pve and pvp in the open world (cause, you know, it was a pvx game).
And you know what people did to have a fun casual pvp in "equal" gear? Just went to a local open world arena location and fought each other there. Guilds practiced there when they wanted and trained their weaker players in pvp too. And quite often it'd be a fun and social event. This type of stuff
p.s. for the love of fucking god, remove my ping from your messages. I've gotten 21 fucking pings from yall.
As an example, the comparison would be having a 220 lb varsity athlete competing against a 130 lb varsity athlete. The stat advantage of weight (or gear in games) makes a huge difference. Also, proven skill in the form of win ratio or mmr also makes a big difference. That is why there is a distinction between varsity and jv as well as the division (D1 to D3) of school you compete for. Similarly, a varsity athlete vs. a jv athlete is also not a fair match. I'm not saying that stat advantages aren't part of competitions or games, but if they are, then the appropriate separation measures must be made otherwise it's not a fair or competitive environment. Your performance in one gamemode shouldn't have a direct correlation to how you perform in another. There may be some overlap, but I wouldn't expect to be excel at PvE simply because I am good at PvP and vice versa. This may be a difference in philosophies.
The game doesnt have "modes", it just has "the game".
I would agree that if we were playing something like an FPS with a CTF mode, a FFA mode and what ever other modes games like that have, then sure, being better at one mode shouldnt give you an advantage over players in another mode.
In Ashes, if there is some way to go back to the game menu, pick a different game mode other than persistent world MMO, and play in that, then sure, I would agree with your argument. However, logging in to the persistent world game, going to an arena and beginning a match is all taking place in that persistent world game mode, and as such, should be subject to benefits from other aspects of that game mode.
As I said earlier in this thread, a few people are trying to turn a persistent world game in to a lobby game.
The best way for people that play lobby games to look at an MMO is that the entire live game - from launch to shutdown - is a single match in one game mode. Achieving this is *literally* the point of spending tens of millions of dollars on creating a persistent world and acquiring the hardware to run it on.
If you aren't interested in a persistent world, why are you even here?
Your arguments are akin to me going to Epic and saying that Fortnite should have a "world" between matches, where players can go off an do things, and get gear and new abilities and then bring those abilities back to the matches.
That would be trying to turn a lobby game in to a persistent world game. As an argument, it makes no sense. Persistent world games are a thing,and lobby games are a different thing. Rather than trying to turn games from one to the other, you just decide which it is of the two you like, and you play those games.
Edit, also, your weight class argument is flawed. That would be like fighting someone of a different level in an MMORPG. Most games - Ashes included - discourage this.
Gear is much more akin to training, as within reason, effort in = results out. That is why I ignored the entire weight class argument and instead mentioned training.
I mentioned this in another thread, but there are 8 primary archetypes in AoC and 64 total combinations of primary and secondary archetypes. In games, I generally have a main that I spend the most time on, but I learn really quickly and get bored fast, so I tend to play every single spec that is available. Other multiclassers may have other reasons for spreading themselves out, but that's mine. Personally, I feel like I would get burnt out leveling and gearing all 64 combinations along with whatever different builds that would be possible to make. It goes without saying that this likely isn't a widespread concern, but offering methods to progress that are unique to each gamemode along with equalizing gear in instanced arenas are a way to allow people to:
By the sounds of it, you get bored because you are playing boring games.
Also, you would only need to level 8 characters in Ashes, not 64.
What constitutes a game as boring is subjective. Personally, I have the most fun when I am learning new things. No matter how good I am at something, I recognize that there is always something I could've done better. However, if I feel like the situation is not productive or is repetitive, I get bored.
And yes, but I would have to gear all 64 assuming they aren't pigeonholed into a single build per archetype combination or if gear isn't account-bound.
I would rather we not derail the thread though, my personal view on these topics have no bearing on the discussion.
And you stated that you get bored in games.
Ergo, from your subjective perspective, you play boring games.
Also, gear isnt account bound. The ability to buy and sell gear in the open economy is kind of one of the cornerstones of the game.
I don't think that's entirely accurate. There are going to be a few instanced scenarios in Ashes according to the wiki. For example, arenas fall into this category (https://ashesofcreation.wiki/Arenas) as well as castle and node sieges, and certain dungeons (https://ashesofcreation.wiki/Instancing). So yes, arenas are a different gamemode that is separate from the rest of the persistent open world.
Notice how I don't care whether gear affects the PvP in the persistent open world, but I care about whether it affects it in the separate, instanced PvP content that has the potential to have esports and is likely to have a rating system.
From the wiki:
Instances are still a part of the same game mode.
Again, if you can access those instances from the games menu, rather than by having to log in to the persistent world (and probably physically going to the entrance to the arena), then you have a point worth making.
However, as long as you have to log in to the persistent game world, you are in persistent game world mode.
It is maybe worth mentioning that I am all for an MMO setting up a competition server that hosts events every few months, akin to what PoE used to do. Set up events with different rules, players create characters for those events on those servers, and then they compete.
This is how you do a different game mode in an MMO. Not instances.
I don't know if I agree with that. From what I understand, a persistent world means it continues to exist independently of user interaction. Instanced content in the context of PvP generates a copy of a specific location for a specific group of players. Those are two very different things. I would assume that arenas would be accessed through a menu. The wiki says:
I would speculate that the interface in question is probably the same one that would be used to enter the instanced content. And, Steven himself said that being able to practice certain builds from a PvP perspective is important. This, in combination with the progression system being horizontal after reaching max level, leads me to believe that gear is going to be equalized.
Why must I spend thousands of hours to get the chance to fight the epic end game boss (which includes pvping another guild for it), while you can just make a character spend 5 minutes on it and immediately go pvp in the best possible gear? How is that fair exactly?
I'm completely fine with arenas having a gear ceiling which is lower than the open world's one (literally what L2 did), but if you want to participate in an mmo's high end content - go play the mmo. I'm glad that GW2 provides a game where you can just play pvp w/o playing the mmo, but Ashes is not trying to take that particular design choice as its inspiration, so GW can be for lobby pvpers as what Ashes is trying to be for the open world pvpers - a game that others can send you to when you ask for that gameplay in a game that's not built for it.
Well the gear wouldn't transfer outside of the instanced arena content. So, it wouldn't have any impact on the rest of the game. If I wanted to fight the 'epic end game boss' or do open world PvP, I would still need the levels and gear for it. Does that answer your question?
A game that is open to esports cannot limit its participants to those who have hundreds or thousands of hours to spare to even achieve a level where they can begin competing. The barrier to entry would be too high and the idea of potential esports is DOA if that's the case.
And as the same wiki page points out, there's currently no intention to provide gear as a pvp reward, which means that "purely pvp gameplay" is also not an intended way to play the game. But what you're suggesting is exactly that - a purely pvp gameplay. Which brings us back to the good ol' meme of "this game might not be for you".
Those players with the skill and putting in the work would be fighting eachother in their bracket, while players who dont put in the work would be facing eachother in their own rated bracket due to not being able to compete as well. Want to fight with the players who put in the most work and have the most skill? Then put in the work as well. No need to have everything handed to you. Just play the game to progress. And the focus for Ashes of Creation isnt Esports. The focus is to be a good MMORPG.
Are you saying that if you create a character in a persistent MMO, and log in to said persistent world, then move your now persistent character in that persistent world in that persistent MMO to an instance and zone in to that instance, you now dont consider that to be a part of that persistent world game, even though you are still very obviously in that persistent world, and others in that persistent world (and ONLY in that persistent world) can still interact with you?
Being in an instance within a persistent world does not mean you are in a different game mode - it is just a different content type within that same game mode.
This is both counterintuitively incorrect AND not relevant to Ashes.
Since gear can be traded in Ashes, any eSports org would simply have more players from whom they could source gear for their mainline members.
And, similarly, since Ashes 'as an eSport' would probably be both 'bracketed' and 'team based', it is unlikely that they would NOT have a hundred/thousand hour requirement, as that is what many games require to enter the skill bracket where you are part of the 'competitive tier'.
That said, you would still be able to compete in related brackets.
So if there is a 'level 30 bracket' all you would need is 'enough other people to give you good level 30 gear' and your skill and you have the 'standard outcome'.
There is no expectation that Ashes will be an esports title.
The only comments ever made by Intrepid in relation to esport makes it clear that they dont actually care/want the game to be considered an esport title, and that would only ever be a thing if the esport community made it happen (at which point they would consider supporting the idea).
I did not say that esports was the focus. I reiterated what Steven said that the game is open to it and will naturally move in that direction if they make the gameplay compelling, competitive, and fun. Their focus is the 'compelling, competitive, and fun' part. If they succeed, then Ashes has the potential to have esports. If they do not succeed, then Ashes is less likely to have esports. Me saying that Ashes is admittedly open to or has potential for esports is not the same as saying that I believe esports is their focus.
By definition, instanced content is separate from the persistent world. That is why it is called 'instanced.'
According to the wiki: Arenas are instanced PvP scenarios and are not part of open world PvP.(https://ashesofcreation.wiki/Instancing)
Key words here being "not part of (persistent)/open world."
Once again, you have to literally travel through the open world to get to the arena. Thus, it is a part of that game mode.
If it were a different game mode, there would be a game mode selection in the game menu.
Okay and neither of us know who will be correct by your logic until we figure out whether the arenas can be accessed from the interface mentioned in the wiki or if you have to walk to it. Moot point.
It's just perpetuating the same thing you were mentioning before.
It typically takes 3 hours to un-train muscle memory after a small patch for my character.
Another 8 to retrain any new muscle memory.
Another 6-10 to retrain any tactical change.
My ships in another game where I have complete control of them, require me to train separately for flying them with 'cargo hold full' and 'cargo hold empty'. 10-15% accuracy loss on railguns if the wrong amount of items are in the cargo hold and I don't do a 3-step thing to 'reset the flight curve' on literally every merge/joust/whatever.
If any form of gear equalization adds even 1s of Cooldown to a single ability, or loses one point of health regen per tick... things have shifted.
I don't doubt that for many people this would still be a good eSport, after all, MOBAs exist, but those are built around players practicing counterplay BUILDING and strategies, and progressions through matches.
Ashes Arenas would not be very similar to this for most people, being 'based on' the main game world, and therefore equalization of gear would be such a monumental task (if they wished to avoid the problem) as to be pointless.
Surely, it would have the potential to create a subset of players who learn how to play 'within the equalized gear mode' well, but the skill type represented by that subset of players might not be at all representative of the main game's skilled players. And I suspect that Intrepid would not want THAT.
I cannot name a single mmo or gear-based game that takes hundreds or thousands of hours to farm for that has a successful and thriving esports scene. You need a large number of players to fuel the competition and to make it profitable enough for gaming orgs to invest resources in the players they pick up. Artificially increasing the barrier to entry for whatever gamemode has the potential to be esports is going to hurt that potential. I have a lot of experience with orgs and the players on them due to my gaming history, I also know firsthand how quickly orgs can pull out of games and drop their members when the numbers don't support their efforts. My coach that scouted me for Apex was signed to one of the biggest orgs in the game as a professional player, my teammate was picked up to one of the top 3 orgs as a pro, I have other friends in the scene as well that still compete. Even in Apex, a massive game, both of those first 2 orgs pulled out and dropped their rosters (along with several other orgs) when the competition was struggling for a brief period of time. Many of them ended up recruiting in Valorant where the money was.
I may be wrong, but from my experience, I highly doubt an esports org will have a team of players farming gear for the main roster unless they were able to pull in hundreds of thousands of dollars at a minimum from Ashes esports. Content creation is a much safer alternative which is why you see a lot of pro players transition from high risk, high stress esports careers into safer, lower stress content creation contracts when given the opportunity.