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.
Should most players simply avoid all processing artisan paths?
Kionashi
Member
I mean if freeholds are an exclusive feature that only will be accessible for a tiny percentage of the player base, I think it would be pointless for a casual player or a player who simply has little game time to even attempt to begin on the processing artisan paths at all.... I mean why even bother if you are going to hit a dead end eventually? Is not like crafting because if you need T-5 ingredients you can simply save up money to eventually buy it, or organizing with a group to attempt the World boss that drops that item...that's something everyone can do...of course hardcore players would have it easier but a casual players with time a patience will get there eventually too.
But again because the Freeholds are such an exclusive commodity is fair to assume all freeholds will be owned at all times by the sweatiest nerds on the server who can afford to play 12h a day which allows them to outbid anyone who dares to attempt to get a freehold, basically keeping everybody else literally unable to access T5-6 processing stations.
No amount of time or dedication will allow a gamer dad with 5 wives and 10 dogs to outbid someone who simply has more play time than him.
So considering the system as we can see it right now, if you know you only will be able to play on weekends, or a couple hours per day, is there even a point on starting on the processing artisan paths at all?
I mean sure, you can get T1 to T4 items which is nice, but eventually you will hit max level and will need T5, T6 gear to play endgame content so being able to make those low tier items wont get you any further on your artisan path. Not to mention all those feelbad moments of "hey I got this ultra rare drop from this endgame boss...but I don't have a freehold so I can't make anything with it even though I decided to dedicate myself to an artisan path that uses this kind of items, I guess I'll sell it or whatever". At this point you are no longer an artisan because the content you will do won't give you anything to progress on your artisan path.
But yeah, unless something changes I think the best strategy for most players would be to avoid all processing paths and focus on crafting/ gathering since those would allow you to reach the endgame without being limited for not being part of the 10% of the population that can get a freehold.
But again because the Freeholds are such an exclusive commodity is fair to assume all freeholds will be owned at all times by the sweatiest nerds on the server who can afford to play 12h a day which allows them to outbid anyone who dares to attempt to get a freehold, basically keeping everybody else literally unable to access T5-6 processing stations.
No amount of time or dedication will allow a gamer dad with 5 wives and 10 dogs to outbid someone who simply has more play time than him.
So considering the system as we can see it right now, if you know you only will be able to play on weekends, or a couple hours per day, is there even a point on starting on the processing artisan paths at all?
I mean sure, you can get T1 to T4 items which is nice, but eventually you will hit max level and will need T5, T6 gear to play endgame content so being able to make those low tier items wont get you any further on your artisan path. Not to mention all those feelbad moments of "hey I got this ultra rare drop from this endgame boss...but I don't have a freehold so I can't make anything with it even though I decided to dedicate myself to an artisan path that uses this kind of items, I guess I'll sell it or whatever". At this point you are no longer an artisan because the content you will do won't give you anything to progress on your artisan path.
But yeah, unless something changes I think the best strategy for most players would be to avoid all processing paths and focus on crafting/ gathering since those would allow you to reach the endgame without being limited for not being part of the 10% of the population that can get a freehold.
4
Comments
Also, once we learn more about mastering top-tier Gathering and Crafting, I wouldn't be surprised if those are initially designed with similarly exclusive systems and gating mechanisms. Wait for it.
oh you didnt know you wont be able to gather everything because you will have to beat people in pvp to gather rare spawns?
This has been the case since the very start, purely due to the nature of owpvp games. Even if we didn't need a FH or a science metro to do those things - top lvl gathering will be blocked off by hardcore people, so you wouldn't even have the mats to do processing or crafting.
But unless that casual's ambitions are so damn high that they believe they can participate in a farm of the top lvl dragon and that they can then even get any loot from it - that casual should still play the game.
Hardcore people will be preoccupied with their pvp, hard pve and constant threats to their infrastructure that will come from other hardcore players. They would probably not have the time to gather or process or craft the thousands of low tier resources that you'll need to use in the top lvl crating chain.
Casuals can still enjoy the process itself and gain the profits relative to the work they put into their artisanry. If you desire anything more than that while being a casual - well, you're fucked.
But now that FHs are something difficult to achieve at the end of the adventure, directly tied to owpvp xp, fighting, looting to see who will reach the top faster, now that FHs are going to be a family/group based objective, something the will make people work together in a building as as opposed to just RPing I will become a crafter instead of a gatherer
Translation: I don’t have a full time job, a significant other, nor a higher education I’m pursuing. I sit at home all day and do nothing.
I think we can make assumptions but we really don't know yet.
If processing and by extension crafting is done well then you will most certainly still want to be a processor because it should still be able to turn a good profit even at a tier 3 level.
If processing and crafting offer nothing to the game world unless they are grandmaster level in my opinion that is a terrible design.
That was kind of my thought process before the freehold video. Now I'm even more inclined to just go gathering instead of processing or crafting.
But I still have questions and want to see how some things shake out... Will animal husbandry be available in a meaningful way to players without a freehold? Or will it be useless. Are there still plans to have it tie into the summoner class in any way? If so it's going to be a huge shame that a class isn't able access a portion of their power because they aren't a no lifer.
There needs to be more information, but regardless of if they are better at it, you will still have demand for those materials and the freeholds alone will not be able to keep up with that demand due to material cost on repair.
Why do all of these things get tied together anytime someone is defending exclusivity? Nobody said anything about the other stuff you listed- just freeholds. The only reason anybody cares about freeholds is because of the multitude of game features tied behind them.
With 9 processing professions and, at least, 2 buildings per profession, you'd need at least 3 FHs to maximize your output of mats (probably more). And that's just for a single line of said output. Any strong guild would want to maximize their output, because they wouldn't want to be bottlenecked in their crafting.
So no strong guild would want to limit themselves to just one FH per family. As long as they have the money they'll buy up as many FHs as possible.
I can use other term. Just let me know how to call players who loves to login and get 10 rewards, then they are doing daily quests, exploring and chatting, but then do not understand why that guy near them owns a land but they are not, and rushes to the forums and fills it with their fantasies.
Dont worry about this guy.
He has a thing for weird definitions. Ignore him.
Is it possible for 1 Guild to defend dozens FHs in several nodes? If so, then you are right.
Let you know how to call players who play the game they are given to play? You are describing many modern mmorpgs, so yeah, people play that way because that is the design given to them. That is not Ashes, and that is not how Ashes will be played. So I am not sure what you are looking for in terms of an answer.
It sounds like you are looking for a better term to call some one that you perceive as beneath you?
Also from my understanding if im not mistaken is that freeholds can be opened up to be used by guild members along with the family so there is possibility thats a guild might own 5 or so freehold to cover there processing needs but then use those family spots for players outside the guild for either added defence for node to protect the freehold or to rent out family spots to players to get access to the processing that they need.
We honostly need to see how the system plays out in game before anyoen can make judgement on the system, i think on paper its good for the game overall.
All of this hostility because some of us feel that crafting should be available to everyone? Again, you're adding things to your rebuttal that were never mentioned thinking it strengthens your argument. It isn't helping you.
Does a casual that wants to open a tavern and play parlor games with travelers really interrupt your gameplay that much?
Guild will tend to wanna live around 1 node not all over the place so all the freehold they own will most likly be tied to that one node or possibly the neighbouring node however if a single guild takes all freeholds they reduce the amount of players invested in the node which in term leads to less defenders for that node if it gets attacked. You wil most likly see a couple guilds try allying up to claim a node and surrounding freeholds more than anything tbh.
Whilst the usual suspects will keep bloating the threads with shitty semantics, as well as "mmos need casuals". What a waste of time to read their posts, and what a waste of time for anyone trully responsibilty of compiling info for the devs, trying to find something relevant. I wonder if the moderators shake their head as they are about to type a polite post to defuse the arguments. I wonder what they really think.
No shit, mmos have lots of casuals... But not every mmo is designed for them. Only the ones that care to just milk them witj eshops. Lineage 2 and others being the proof that you dont have to consider people complaining about all the dust they bite.
Focus on what matters. AoC is a competitive, guild gameplay based mmo.
Solve the problems around independant giulds and zerg guilds. Not people that cant put the effort to compete.
Guild halls can give bonuses to surrounding freeholds too, effectively setting this up to be a guild monopolizing at least part of nodes.
Similar to the tension on the EQNext Forums with the gamers who typically play on the PvP servers and the players who typically play on the PvE-Only servers.
"You are trying to ruin our game!!"
Flames not so high yet that people are getting banned.
That says something great about the Ashes Forums community.
Also, there'd be a few dozen of freeholds per node at most. How would that put even a dent in the overall amount of citizens of a node (which will be up to hundreds, if not thousands even)?
Also also, with majority of FHs getting bought up by guilds (just in general) the casuals would have nowhere to go, so in the end they wouldn't care that FHs are a guild thing. Intrepid would have to design proper benefits for all players in a node to keep them living in that node and care about its safety.
L2's casuals could still max out their crafters/spoilers and provide their services to others. And this is what's people are complaining about.
Obviously even in L2 it was super hard to even get your hands on mats and recipes at the top lvls, but you could ultimately do it because they were, in theory, unlimited in their amount (given time). And iirc even back in Interlude there were ways for solos to get those recipes and mats.
FHs and metro citizenship will be limited to only guild members and most likely only members of the strong guilds. So in that way Ashes is even more restricted than L2 was.