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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 would be awesome to get some feedback on the feedback. This is clearly a topic that invokes a lot of emotions and opinions, given so many hopes and dreams are directly tied into the ownership of Freeholds.
I only say one thing. Freehold cannot be an exclusive privilege as it is against the MMO concept. The only way it works is to be instantiated so that it is accessible to all players as "end game", with or without family, with or without guild. And it cannot be instantiated with a look or design that cannot be changed at will. The ArcheAge model of limiting player space and asset accessibility has already proven to be a failure. It makes no sense to make the same mistake.
- I like how the current inventory looks, the ability to add bag space and the interface. I'm not a fan of having to Tetris in different items to fit a certain space in one of my bags. It just seems like a unnecessary complication. A positive is maybe adds to the "realism" because you have to organize your bags for things to fit IRL. That just isn't fun to me personally.
How do you feel about the systems shown thus far for planting crops on your Freehold? Does anything in particular concern or excite you regarding this?
- Looks great. Keep cooking. It looks sort of Archeage-ish and that is one of the few things that game did really well. Maybe even revolutionary? Man the wasted potential on that game...don't get me started.
How do you feel about raising livestock and collecting resources from them? Does anything in particular concern or excite you regarding this?
-Same as above. AA-ish, good. Go to sleep pig.
What kind of customization do you want with your Freehold, or buildings on your Freehold?
- This is where I start to have some questions/concerns with the current iteration of the Freehold system. I think that you could make the overall size of the Freehold smaller like 1 acre instead of 1.5 (I believe you were measuring in acres?). But yea they were too small before but too big now. Go for a Goldilocks situation and more can participate in the system while still keeping it meaningfully challenging to obtain. I liked the way you can SimCity the plot of land when you are doing your initial layout.
Is there anything in particular you’re excited about regarding what was shown with the Freehold Preview?
- What was shown outside of how housing in general is going to work looks great. Art team is killin it.
Is there anything in particular you’re concerned about regarding what was shown with the Freehold Preview?
- I believe that housing should be available to more people than what is currently planned. I think you can reduce the size of Freeholds (see above) and/or as a node levels up have dedicated housing zones (Like AA) open up for houses and maybe room for one station only. Suburbs style with property lines, Community Associations etc. Every city has suburbs, right? That way now you have apartments, housing (but on a greater scale) as a mid situation and then finally the coveted Freehold that will be the hardest to get. You need the semi-casuals to stick around for the ecosystem to work. If you put in the work and play a lot only to be left out of *non-instanced* housing then the drive to stick with the game long term goes down quickly. Everyone wants to see their house.
The farming aspects and how the farming ties into cooking and alchemy. I feel you should be able to farm and perform cooking or alchemy on the sane freehold because you can master two skills within processing. I feel cooking and alchemy processing units shouldn't take up more than one slot on a freehold or even better should be done on apparatus which can go inside houses either node based or freehold based.
I agree that that will be a offputting for lots of players (not being able to get your own place) but they supposedly want to offset it by rental space, so you can get a "habitat" freehold as a guild and use one of the parcels for rooms that individuals members can decorate.
How do you feel about the size-and-shape inventory management system?
I know it was only a preview, but the inventory management system was very lack-luster. I like the idea of a tetris style inventory system for gatherables, but I think you need to think outside the bag, heh heh heh.
What we were shown
Different sized rectangled items are cool, it reminds me a lot of Diablo 2 inventory management, but I think gamers can play with something a little more complicated. A tetris style system would be a lot more fun to play around with. Tetris shapes:
These shaped items would be pretty unique and fun to play around with in the inventory. OR... OR... when I was younger we use to have to do tangram puzzles:
Or even things like this:
Bag shapes dont have to be rectangles either, they can be triangular, octagonal, rhombus, or other shapes. But when yall said tetris style inventory management, this is immediately where my mind went. And I know that this is very different from what people are use to seeing, but it could provide a fun shakeup to the current inventory management meta in games. It would fall inline with the immersion of the game that items arent always rectangles. Different mineral ores will form or break-off differently then other minerals ores. Some might be long and skinny, some triangular, "L" shaped minerals or those perfect squared gems.
It feels like it will be more limiting than the weight system but easier to understand. If size and shape are used then there should be item specific tabs for items that take up a lot of space over time (i.e. the issue with gems in Diablo 4).
The system looked pretty standard for planting crops which is acceptable especially for A2 gameplay. I would like to see how the seasons impact the type of plants that can be planted and the yield.
Raising livestock is great and I would also like to see environmental impacts on this process.
I would like the ability to create custom signs (TOS filtered) for buildings and plots, add lighting like lamps and outdoor lighting and the ability to paint buildings.
I'm excited to learn more about how crafting/processing is impacted by progression of the freehold/node system. I like the freehold system being limited to an extent because it makes them more meaningful and prestigious to own.
Limiting freeholds to max lvl characters makes it feel like there will be a rat race to get to max lvl as soon as possible to get the limited slots. I am curious to see how the Tetris inventory management will work out during testing.
Lastly, I loved the slideshow format for announcing and going over this system. It was extremely informative and made even better with a video walk-through. My hope is there will be at least 50% of the max concurrent players allowed to have a freehold. If the number is less then it will feel a bit too exclusive and a turnoff for folks that wanted to get into processing and maybe don't want to join a family.
Have an item drop or crafted that is a dimension door or something like that, that can be placed/equiped to an appartment, What this does is allows you to convert appartments into freehold type dimensions however you cant do any of the freehold activity on it aka farming/processing this would diminish the value of open world freeholds however these will just act as a alternative to appartments encase somone want to build up a freehold as a home instead of an appartment room, itsd like a cosmetic change to appartment for a more outside landscape. Might help with some of the tears of players hoping to have a freehold to decorate if they wanna play the housing game without affecting value of freeholds.
This is also a low risk venture since appartments just get blueprinted and items returned to you if node is destroyed so people can safely have there instanced freehold without destroying the freehold economy/value
as they stand right now there perfect imo they are the key to high end resource and require high investment to get that return. they are literaly the high risk, high reward housing options. if you want low risk housing then thats the appartments for you since there basicly no risk with them.
Freeholds are a cornerstone for a healthy node economy and missuse of them will be determental to the defence of the node if there miss used. you have no idea how important these are.
If you make them too resource intensive no one will be able to upgrade them enough between sieges. I realise how important they are and they are so important they shouldn't be made redundant.
The resource collection from livestock was interesting. Slaughtering the pig was funny and all, mostly because of the shock value, but I don’t know if I can take hearing that pig squeal like that 1000 times. Milking the cow was really cool, it looked nice and seemed pleasant. I feel like I could milk cows for hours with the current animation. The chickens were fine, nothing special, but cool dance! Harvesting the wheat was nothing special either but it worked. Harvesting the tomatoes seemed a little off. Why did that 1 tomato splatter on the ground? Was that a failed attempt because your gathering skill was too low? If that’s the case, then I have no problem with that. Maybe there could be items that add +vegetable gather skills. We didn’t get to see you feed any of the animals. There was a big pile of hay laying around the chickens, it would be more immersive if I had to go to the pile of hay, gather some of it, and then place it by the cow pen so they can eat it. Same thing with crops, it would be neat to have to water and fertilize each individual crop and then down the line with more upgrades eventually get an irrigation system that feeds and waters for you.
I think gatekeeping professions behind the freehold system is an issue. You have a really fantastic idea in animal husbandry, one that no other game has done/are doing, like you're doing it and a profession many players are keen to do. Making it so you can't max this profession unless you get a freehold seems off. Very few people will get a freehold and therefore very very few people will be able to max that profession, a profession which is a great addition for your game, so don't lock it away, open it back up to nodes as well.
Bidding for freeholds may cause issues that others have already discussed in more detail than I am able to. However, If you're intent on a bidding process, maybe allow people to see what the top 3 bids were or at the very least the winning bid so people can see what it might take to actually win. It might also create some interesting decisions during the next bidding process on the freehold.
You could also put a recommended price for the freehold, obviously people will still bid more/community will dictate what they are worth. But this will also let see people that X are paying 5x more and it's not worth it, possibly bringing down prices to make them more attainable. I realise this is unlikely given how sought after they will be but thought I'd share the idea.
How do you feel about the size-and-shape inventory management system?
-Please no. I hate playing Tetris in games that aren't actually Tetris. I plan on mastering a few gathering professions, and this will hurt my soul. I'm playing either way, but if you're taking yays and nays I'm a nay.
How do you feel about the systems shown thus far for planting crops on your Freehold? Does anything in particular concern or excite you regarding this?
-Everything here seemed on par with what I was already thinking. Looks good.
How do you feel about raising livestock and collecting resources from them? Does anything in particular concern or excite you regarding this?
-What I saw was fine, and expected. A little more detail would be fine with me
Is there anything in particular you’re concerned about regarding what was shown with the Freehold Preview?
-SO this is a two-parter for me.
-1.) I think you should break the mold when it comes to how the bidding system works for gaining a freehold initially from the node. I think there should be a non refundable fee, (xx gold) to buy a ticket (think raffle) Then weight the drawing by how much a person has contributed to the node itself (mobs killed, resourced donated, quests completed). On top of that make it so your failed bid counts towards your next bid in the same node. This would give everyone that's truly working for the node a chance at a FH each time and not just favor a group or guild of people just funneling money to 1 bidder.
-2.) I think there should be a way for a FH owner to open up the FH to others without having to be in the Family. Even if it's just to other same node residents. Seems weird to me that I'd have to say sorry, I know you can see and touch that workbench right there, but my family is full so you can't use it. I'm the type that if I have that type stuff, I'd want as many friends, guildies, and node members using it as possible to help our area out.
"Come join us as you wont like the taste of the Grapefruits we're throwing at our enemies."
"Never settle for what you think you know" - C. Krauthammer
Like many people have said already, an option to upload custom images as a picture in a picture frame or a poster type object would be cool. Of course, we want the hard to craft and rare sculptures/art pieces/unique furniture. Gargoyles, scarecrows, garden sculptures, swings, fountains, bird baths, slip n slides, hammocks, gorgeous beautiful non-gatherable trees and bushes, different grasses (ie; zoysia, st. augustine, blue, bermuda) Stone pathing with different type of stone patterns, dog houses, bird houses, lounge chairs. I want to be able to build a green house and grow exotic flowers and orchids. Unique looking cactus. I want to be able to install french doors in my house. Open windows, leave doors open, half doors, dog doors, I need my freehold to have a farm dog that runs around and does farm dog stuff, tinted windows, stings of lights to hang from trees, change the color of doors and shutters. I want to be able to customize who can do what with the stuff on my freehold. I can say who can plant and harvest on my property, Humans can eat from my table for free but Tulnar have to pay. Thats all i can think of for now!
This is my concern as well. The freeholds are the only way to level some artisan classes such as animal husbandry. Buildings such as stables can ONLY be built in a freehold so how are we going to pursue animal husbandry if you have to own a freehold? A freehold that will likely only be owned by the most powerful, wealthy, and connected players. Guilds in particular. For realism this doesn't make sense that you have to be a powerful connected player to be a simple dirt farmer. Some solutions are to add public processing buildings like public stables that can be built in nodes. Expand node housing to have larger space for farming crops or a stable. Or finally to have smaller instanced freeholds that can lead to a small area in the Underrealm where you can set up a smaller freehold although this would still have disadvantages because since it is instanced no one would be able to see a tavern/inn making those pointless to build.
Freehold acquisition:
The world should be packed with as many parcels as possible, as long as they aren't literally blocking roads/dungeon entrances/entire POI. Make them smaller and more densely packed if necessary. I know there are other considerations to keep the game functional, but it's critically important that there is enough slots for more than 10% of the playerbase to get a freehold. I'd rather have more parcels than is necessary than too little (some parcels empty, only the best real estate has fierce competition). Also, I heard that there is supposed to be a minimum buffer between freeholds so players can't put their freeholds right next to each other. Why?
Assuming there still won't be enough freeholds for everyone, the restrictions for getting a freehold (namely, being level 50 and outbidding everyone else) only serve to reward a two types of player - those who no-life grind to level 50 on release to beat the land rush, or those with the most access to capital (long-term gold grinders, or people with economic-focused guilds). This system depends far too much on how many man-hours you (and your friends) can devote to making money over the entire lifetime of the game. Looking ahead, imagine how bad the bidding wars will be after 2 years of typical MMO wealth inflation.
Ideally there would be different ways to win freeholds in different areas. Like via reputation or duels. Different acquisition systems that make freeholds accessible to different player types. And I'm not saying everyone needs/deserves a freehold... But even a pure lottery system for some freeholds would be better than elite economists owning literally everything.
Really though, the important part is making sure that every player can access the core systems that they bought the game for. Whether that's through freeholds, instanced apartments, public processing stations/farms, or whatever.
Placement system:
The placement system for building/decorating should aim to be as powerful and flexible as Wildstar's. Fine-grained placement/rotation. Anything should be able to stick to almost any surface (no designated "table/shelf" objects and "tabletop only" objects.) Resizing should be possible to a reasonable extent. Full control over color isn't necessary, but there should be plenty of options, whether that's from skin variants or dyes or whatever.
Bag systems:
"Inventory bag Tetris" should only be a thing if it's supported as a fleshed-out minigame. 2x2 or 3x1 inventory items are not interesting. A 5% bonus to gathering certain materials is not interesting or worth any extra effort managing bags. If bags are going to go down that route, give me a reason to actually care about it (large bonuses to efficiency, small combat effects, or unique conveniences.) And make it an interesting problem to solve to maximize those bonuses: Where the item is in the bag should matter; shapes should be more varied and weird; the relation of those items to each other (adjacent or not, which side, etc.) should matter; maybe even add special empowering items that exist solely to interact with that grid and buff items around it or the whole bag.
If the design isn't deep enough to require thought or meaningful decisions, then there's no reason to have different item shapes at all. A 2x2 item just takes up 4 times as much space. But you could get the same effect by increasing it's weight or decreasing it's stack limit.
Processing building perks
The perk trees looked enticing, but again I hope there's enough depth to make it worthwhile. Players should be making trade-offs between efficiency, convenience, quality, and throughput. There should be some major perks (not all) that go beyond % bonuses and actually change how your "assembly line" works. Single-step processes that get broken into two to provide extra quality or throughput. New materials salvaged from scrap (round-about efficiency). Automation or larger batches to cut down on the time you need to physically interact with the stations (convenience).
And there should be some level of synergy between different processing stations, and between other systems (bags, crafting gear/stats), to allow more holistic builds to develop, tailored to available inputs or desired outputs. Maybe materials are scarce in the area so you stack Resourcefulness (example stat taken from WoW) and you do a lot of the processing without automation to cut down on waste. Maybe you just want the best top-tier crafting possible, so you stack whatever-the-crafting-equivalent-of-Critical-Strike-is and you pick perks with random proc effects that boost quality.
Farming
I don't have a lot of experience with farming gameplay, and this post is already too long, so I'll defer to others on this. All I will say is that I think the "feel" of the mechanics is probably more important than the depth for this system. It's a lot nicer to gather 50 plants one at a time, or feed the animals for the 50th day in a row, if the action has a nice flow to it and some good audio/visual feedback. (And please treat the animals nicely. I appreciate the little animation soothing the pig before it was time to serve his purpose...)
Dont forget there not designed for solo players either so resource cost reflects that.
And your suppose to defend you node and if you do succeed there a CD before they can seige again, they are the high risk hgh reward housing
They are no more high risk than static houses. In fact, they are less risk because you can transfer a freehold to a new zoi after a siege if a t3 zoi covers the plot.
Just because the devs claim something is a privilege doesn't make the aspect the highest risk.
Also, I’m wondering if you’ve considered the interplay between the Tetris storage system and the gathering artisan class. It seems to me that the gathering Artisan class is already the least appealing to master, as the rewards are less immediate than mastering processing or crafting. And gatherers would have to be constantly dealing with this somewhat tricky storage system that other mmos do not have. Maybe as you master gathering, lower level items that you gather become stackable squares instead of shapes. And for master gatherers even journeyman level items become simple stackable squares.
I like the idea of having to change material bags to the activity that I'm doing at the time. As long as there's one free material bag, that has all slots allocated, incase you come across something you didn't plan on doing so.
Also, with the system where bags/pouches/items/etc. Will show on your person, I think it'll be a refreshing visual experience everytime you decide to go out adventuring.
How do you feel about the systems shown thus far for planting crops on your Freehold? Does anything in particular concern or excite you regarding this?
I like the idea of being able to allocate more space to the things you choose.
I am concerned about while out and adventuring, your crops dying. Will there be a notice that you need to water or fertilize the land?
Will I not be able to stray too far away from my freehold?
In rainy weather do I still have to water my crops?
In different biomes will certain crops prosper more than others?
How do you feel about raising livestock and collecting resources from them? Does anything in particular concern or excite you regarding this?
The showcase of livestock and the collection of resources was perfectly fine.
I'm hoping like crops, I can allocate more space to livestock.
It did look like barely any resources was collected though, will the time be worth the value?
Same things, can I not stray too far away from my freehold because they have to be fed and watered.
Could I grow crops and then feed my livestock with crops?
What kind of customization do you want with your Freehold, or buildings on your Freehold?
Ability to set a price to use facilities (specifically processing stations) for anyone.
Public, guildies, friends and family.
Other than that, I think I need to see more or get my hands on it.
Is there anything in particular you’re excited about regarding what was shown with the Freehold Preview?
Is there anything in particular you’re concerned about regarding what was shown with the Freehold?
The whole idea of freehold is exciting, it sounds like there can be alot of perks for players. I'm looking forward to what perks other housing will have.
I do have some concerns.
1. Does the node still have to be tier 3 (village) before being able to buy the plot of land for the freehold?
3. It seems the only restrictions to aquire a plot of land is a quest and money. I thought it was going to be difficult to aquire a freehold? Do you think making it easier will tempt players or groups of people to aquire these plots of land, then re sell them or other nefarious ideas?
3. There was a skill tree shown with one of the skills showing feather beds, first thing, great idea. Second, I dont think it's a good idea to have a general level or adventuring level linked to these skills trees. I feel it's gate keeping someone that wants to focus on their freehold(horizontal progression). If I chose to solely work on my freehold, my upgrades should be based on how well I run said building or system on the freehold. Like weapons, the better I'm with a weapon, the more skills I should aquire. I think it will give players more of a reward for taking the risk of putting their time into these systems. Now, I do agree with a base level to complete the quest or certain goals you have to achieve first, but it shouldn't be gate keeper behind your adventuring level. The other skill shown with the helpers in the processing tree and you have to be a grand master in the profession FIRST, before you can gain that skill, I think is PERFECT. All skills requirements should be focused around said system, building, etc.
4. It was said guild halls on freehold plots will be coming at a later date. I think this is where we will see more light shown on the family system, guilds and freeholds.
5. The family system needs to be explained. As a player I should be able to delegate to guilds, public, friends and family how my freehold charges them or what they can interact with. All systems should go through the player.
6. I'm okay with only a certain amount of freeholds, but it has to be difficult to attain. If someone at launch chooses to be a processor and focus on being the best processor, that means adventuring level is going to be placed on the back burner. (Horizontal progression vs vertical progression)
That's the way the player is deciding to play and it SHOULD come easier to them if that's what they are focusing on.
7. In this freehold system and family system. What happens to players that join the game a year after launch and no freeholds are available? What if they want to go processing and no freehold are available, immediately the game becomes harder for new players to break the barrier, or they have to buy their plot or their spot into a family at a premium.
Maybe some things need to be explained more.
I'm looking forward to more information.
Thats appartments that you can transfer to new nodes which is the low risk houisng. Freeholds can be destroyed if not defended within 2 hours after a node it associated looses poofing all investment into it (i think u keep furniture however but building and materials are gone.
Same deal with in node housing but there less resources invested into them only gold it seems so it less risk than freeholds
You can transfer the same blueprints of a freehold though. The resources are a sink, not a risk. A siege would be the risk.
blueprint transfer means nothing it just saves your layout so u can dump resources into them again.
Resources are a time investment so its a risk every risk is just a time investment
As for the tradeskill/profession stuff, I REALLY hope we can choose the shape/size of the crop fields. Would love to see a dynamic builder for fields where we pick the edges/corners and everything inside it is counted as whatever kind of thing we were building (i.e. crop field, grazing pasture, training field, breeding pin, lake/pond for fish, whatever the profession calls for that isn't a station to build)
-The Tetris idea around inventory management is ok to me. I know there are folks with strong opinions on not having to manage inventory and I mostly agree, but as long as I'm not spending 15 minutes organizing.
-Intuitive and easy to organize
-Quick/fast management of items (this really should take seconds)
-Include an auto organize feature that allows for different methods to organize (like largest 4 block items to the left on down to 1 block items to the right). Reminds of organizing my cereal boxes largest to smallest on the fridge.
-Stacks of items still implemented in the design
-Large expansion capability over time to increase space
How do you feel about the systems shown thus far for planting crops on your Freehold? Does anything in particular concern or excite you regarding this?
-I liked this system thus far. Animations for alpha seemed just fine for now. The tomato dropping a splatting on the ground was a nice fun touch and I liked the wheat plant breaking apart. More of this please for immersion!
-I would like to see these in the system for sure:
-Abilities/fertilizing/cultivating methods and the ability to acquire advanced tools to increase yield
-Capability to increase plot area within the freehold
-Capability to increase density of crops since there is limited space
-Ability to harvest the crop without destroying it to speed up gathering (not a large yield immediately but faster over time kinda thing)
How do you feel about raising livestock and collecting resources from them? Does anything in particular concern or excite you regarding this?
-No concerns here really but a couple questions:
-How would one get started raising livestock or crops? Do you capture animals/plants in the wild first, put them on the freehold then start breeding/growing?
-Also, I am curious though how long these things like plants and animals actually take to grow or raise. Are we talking a week, a month? I assume depending on the plant/animal it may vary but what is a general expectation here on length of time?
-I really liked that you have the option with plants and animals to extract in different ways various resources from them. Very nice touch and great use of the system for diversity in materials to mimic real life. I assume various animations will be implemented here to detail these gathering methods. The stool for milking the cow was great! These are the immersive aspects that make it look fun and engaging for me.
-I hope that you keep the semi realistic slaughter of the pig and other animals. Let's not sugar coat what actually happens. It doesn't need to be extreme like blood everywhere but what was shown was just fine.
What kind of customization do you want with your Freehold, or buildings on your Freehold?
-Aesthetic (building looks, placement of buildings and assets, lighting, custom fencing/gates/signage etc)
-Functional capability (building types, specializations, semi-automation that make sense in this world)
-Storage and expansion
-Workers (limited in number, can be assigned a task but are also limited on what they can do. Such as 3 workers that can milk your cows)
-Mount stalls (at least to hold maybe like 5 of your most prized mounts for display)
-Pet pen (similar to mount stalls, but maybe an open pen for pets to run around in)
-Fountains, statues, rocks, trees, campfire or other decorative outdoor things (Rift did this and it was pretty cool)
-Intuitive interfacing with stations
-Access privileges (family, friends, guild, etc)
-Complete control over business (goods sold to include freehold made or brought from outside, pricing etc)
Is there anything in particular you’re excited about regarding what was shown with the Freehold Preview?
-Yes, a freehold out in the world and the potential of having one of these to customize both aesthetically and developing it functionally is a great thing to look forward to doing. I love the idea of specializing in various ways, and very much the business aspect of it too. It would great to have a freehold as a way to make money in the game and provide services to people. It would be so awesome to be that person that people look to for things. I look forward to trying the system out to see what all I can do with it.
Is there anything in particular you’re concerned about regarding what was shown with the Freehold Preview?
-My biggest concern at this point, is that it is sounding like it will be very hard to actually get a freehold. I totally understand the design here and it makes sense in theory that they will be limited in number, competitive and that over time things will change and opportunity may come its way, however I work full time and it feels/sounds like I may not be able to really participate. I definitely want the opportunity to do this content in the game. It seems up in the air, whether or not I will really be able to.