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
you can, just be a citizen of a freehold
Our English teachers weep and Dygz poses triumphantly above the desiccated corpse of Ravicus' posts.
But seriously you didn't need to post that, We have been talking about freehold this and that for what feels like weeks now.
Yep, alt tabbing between baldurs gate and this haha, Ya I made a huge mistake that I will surely suffer for!
"There is an outstanding question on whether or not we should provide permissions to members who are not a part of a social structure. And what I mean by a social structure is not just that, Hey, you know, I found Joe Blow on the side of the street, and he needs access to this thing, I'm just going to open the permissions to public. Personally, I don't think that achieves the goal of the system. I don't think that's a desired quality. I think that we need to have a more formalized structure in place which is given through the family system and/or through guild systems." - Steven Sherif
Steven goes on to say that this is likely the way that the testing version will be rolled out, and they'll take feedback on it, but I don't need to tell you that they'll have their way (and their reasons) in the end.
As always, there's a sliding scale here between entirely player driven content with no scripted systems, and a totally on-rails system where there's no player agency. Having scripted systems that try to curb certain types of behavior, if done well, should be done in order to prevent behavior which is antithetical to the wholistic systems which support the overall gameplay experience.
Yes, you can still trade someone gold for a place in their family or a place in their guild to get FH access, but what if IS then makes it so you need to be a member of the family or the guild for two weeks before you can use another member's freehold equipment because too many players are getting rich off selling FH access to other players several times a day instead of the more time-gated (seemingly intentional) design of only making money off your freehold via the products you produce on it? Are we going to turn FH owners into full-time equipment rental agencies because they have to compete with each other in order to not be left behind in this new and exciting equipment rental market game?
If IS makes design decisions that gate certain behaviors, I would hope they've done it intelligently in such a way that prevents gameplay trends which players feel aren't necessarily fun or even an intended feature of the game just so that they aren't being left behind.
tl;dr
I assume I touched a nerve, given the wall of texted you responded with. What a whiner.
I am not against restrictions. Many times I have said that they are necessary for people to learn to hear "no" once in a while and give up on their sense of entitlement.
Nor have I said anything about selling FH access on the fly. When the monthly update revealed the progress to FHs one of the first things I said was that we need high cooldown for inviting family members and /leavefamily.
Players will sell family membership, just not on the fly. You can't prevent people from joining your family, unless you want to turn this game in yet another solo/vendor currency questing/daily mmo, in which player /trade doesn't exist and gold can only buy you healing potions from NPCs.
If FH access can be given to guild members, zerg guils will rule.
FH access should be capped at family members only. Not sure what you found wrong with my post and you decided to link me a bit of Steven, about something irrelevant, even though it seemed to you relevant at a quick glance.
you know, some of us had success in life and have now a lot of free time, others like steven retired very early on, others work from home and can play during work
not all of us have 5 jobs, 16 wifes, 20 kids and 19 dogs
And so Dygz has changed his core tenant of not playing "games with non consensual pvp". or whatever
This is a bait and switch, car saleman move... or so some will say. Dygz will say it is consistent with his stance all along.
Where have I heard this story before?
LOL, if you only gave Intrepid a fraction of the leeway you give yourself.
it seems silly to argue, but that has not been my take on your stance... and I pay pretty close attention.
but, you be you boo. (I think you said that once.)
So you sit at home all day and do nothing, just say that. Kek
I don't think being a citizen of a node would help me, If In order to plant T5 T6 seeds I need a freehold, I don't see how to being a citizen of a node will help me because I wont be able to plant those anyways unless I can outbid all the big guilds in the node, which is virtually impossible. (btw Im assuming farming is processing, if that's not the case bear with me and assume Im talking about ingots or something).
btw Im talking as a dedicated artisan, I know I can sell 100000000 T3 tomatoes and buy all the gear I want, but part of the enjoyment of being a dedicated artisan is the progression path and I don't want to be robbed of the experience of improving my farm because some nerds really need all the freeholds in the node to compete in an economic war against other nerds in the other side of the planet.
And again, Im not saying I should have a freehold, no, I don't mind that aspect being exclusive to dedicated players, but I simply don't see why there is the need to cap the progression of some artisan professions exclusively for those nerds.
,
If I want to, yes, because I can afford to do that,
why are you worried about what other people do with their free time tho? lmao
>Worried
Kek, why are you getting so defensive? Good thing you sit at home all day man, this game is made for people like you.
Couldn't you sell those '100000000' T3 tomatoes, And use the money to try and get a freehold?
And from that point on try to maintain it by planting higher tier seeds?
Fortune's Wrath
Well the only way other than becoming a citizen and wanting to have a great big tomatoe garden is to own your own node then. And to do that you will need to be able to pay for it, and to defend it. There is no way that you will be able to be a peaceful tomato farmer playing solo. So unless you group and get a node, or join a group with a node, then you probably are going to have a hard time in this game. Its not going to change.
Basically this.
Keeping players limited to two max skills and making leveling difficult and time consuming still creates scarcity and the need for interdependence.
And there are other ways to further introduce scarcity that does not involve limiting character and player growth.
For example you could:
yea it's awesome to finally have an MMO to look forward to
Don't let people shame you for your success.
That goes for everyone on this forum.
Not really because by the time I get to sell those 100000000 T3 tomatoes someone with way more free time probably already sold 3 times that amount and is sitting on a bigger heap of gold to outbid me for the fh.
That's why Im suggesting keep higher tier processing out of the freeholds! I don't really want a freehold!, I just want a T6 tomato farm
Well thats not gonna happen. Keep banging your head on the wall to see if it helps though.
I'm dying
I mean first of its kinda wild to assume that only a tiny percentage will have access to to freeholds. Most players will be in a guild or family and will have access to one some way ot another. Also it can change every month so maybe you dont have one today but u can have one next month.
If you want to persue crafting is pretty subjective.
I probably wont that much because im a pvp player. Ill maybe do some animal husbandry cuz its cool but not planning on being a master crafter.
If you enjoy crafting you should obviously focus on this because its for sure gonna be a good way to earn money and also give you extra social credit. Lets say your the only T6 Master crafter in this city. No one will ever harass you because then theyre basically locked out of t6 gear or its way harder for them to get.
Theres definitly reasons but it depends what you enjoy i would say.
I wouldn't be so sure, I mean we are still in alpha and Steven said everything is subject to change, especially considering that "blocking high level processing behind freeholds" is not part of the core design pillars of the game. So I will push my feedback in order to present a compelling argument in favor to changing that limitation.
with the current system only the biggest guilds will be able to own a freehold since they can outbid everybody else, also don't you think it would be pretty convoluted to have a member of the guild swaping family members with every other guild member in order to le them process their goods? I don't think you can add and remove family members so easily, so what would probabbly happen is that the owner of the freehold will be used as crafting bot to process things for every guild member. which in theory sounds nice if you happen to be a pvper who only cares about the gear, but if you are an artisan you don't want someone to process your shit in your place, you want to do it yourself. It wouldn't be different to "simply sell your materials and buy the finished product" like most people who aren't engaged in the artisan path will do.
I'm going to be super blunt here.
As someone that has been trying to advocate for Ashes to be a game that is at least accepting of more casual players on terms that said casual players would agree with, I have to say that anyone that would avoid processing due only to it's exclusivity based on the need for a freehold should probably simply avoind the game.
Not just processing. The game.
That is because the way the game is looking right now, processing isn't the only thing that will have that exclusivity to it, or will place players in direct competition with large guilds in order to simply function.
Being an absolute realist (something few on these forums ever try to be), if you are unable to get a freehold (or acceptable access to one), then you are likely to be unable to have access to other fairly major parts of the game.
It will simply be a case of your time is likely to be better spent in another game, or on another entertainment activity all together.
If FHs are completely controlled by guilds - you won't be able to buy gear. You probably won't even be able to buy mats. Because those guilds would have no reason to give out their gear to randos outside of their guild.
Well, as long as bosses and quests don't just bombard you with loot for no damn reason.
Top lvl gathering might still be available to solos/casuals, if resource respawns are even a bit random rather than completely predetermined. And if there is enough non-guild players in the game, those resources will go onto the market. Obviously guilds will probably buy out most of those purely because they'll have more time/opportunity to do so, but solo processors could still get some and get some profit by processing and selling them.
In the current system any and all solo/casuals cannot get a FH, they cannot get top lvl mats (crafters probably not at all and processors miiight be able to get some), and they'll probably need months and months of grinding low-mid tier artisanry to level up higher (cause leveling artisanry will already be difficult and slow).
Not every skill. Just their chosen path. We'll be limited in our choices, so we already give up the ability to do other stuff. So I'd prefer if people could at least reach the end of their professions within somewhat reasonable time. And by reasonable I mean "1-2 weeks before that profession's end gets pushed further by an update". So the "treadmill" is still there, but there's a bait of "see, you can do it if you try". It keeps the people running and paying.
Except I played L2 at C3 as a solo player and did quests and even finished them. And all of that was back when I was still a super noob. And AoC's corruption system will be even harsher, so people won't just be PKing you endlessly (not like they were in L2 to begin with).
I am not contradicting myself. I want a better L2, not the same fucking shit. I want a game that can live for 20+ years with a good amount of players instead of it going p2w within just a few years of release.
Ok, but wouldn't your guild just buy up any and all EJ they can if they could? Cause that's exactly what guilds will be able to do with FHs. Unless the bidding process lasts weeks or months, the guilds that get to lvl50 first will buy up as many FHs as they can. Even if they lose majority of those - they would've still made their money back through high lvl processing, selling services, etc.
And I definitely hope and want this to happen. That drama is awesome and will put at least some limits on huge guilds. It still won't stop them from profiting from those FHs and won't stop them buying them all back with the money they made.