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
Sorry for my far from perfect english.
One of the biggest things that got me to even start following the game was someone telling me about 64 classes with no weapon or armor restrictions. This is obliviously a dream scenario for me. I can’t wait to see how you do it and it’s what I’m most excited to get to take advantage of in game.
Hopefully if you do release the companion app it contains skill calculators
That feeds into everything else where I’m excited to work towards and test those builds and ideas while playing the game.
I look forward to adventuring out into a new world. I’m very very excited to do that as a summoner with what is hopefully a well done companion. I’ll begrudgingly play something else but I’m really really really hoping that you will do this class right.
Im excited to see how the nodes will work in practice. My hope is that it creates little communities themselves. I never know how I’ll play an mmo. Sometimes I’m more solo oriented, some times I’m in an organized guild and everything in between. Nodes seem like a great way to really bridge the gap between committed guild play and solo play and I can’t wait to see how it turns out.
And 4th on this list I’m super excited for gliding mounts. I did not expect them to have the distance they did and it looks like wonderful fun and will make for wonderful times exploring the world.
The religon system will be really cool to progress through, no doubt i am going to play a cleric when this releases or goes into beta.
For me please do not forget to add "DPS done meter".
The mechanical fantasy is the full on MEOW, recognizing that NPCs themselves should be a major source of the critical content in their dealings, interactions, migrations, etc. We would need to have a stable of living/multiplying/dying (in battles against a monster token boss, to beasts in nature, poisoned by political rivals, etc) NPCs on each server, which could slowly be filled and populated based on how many of what player race are chosen in the early days, then becomes driven by who owns what as the game goes on. This was exactly what my "Jim the Bowyer" example was all about, and I liked the idea that maybe his cousin appears in the next town over and offers something similar but slightly and meaningfully different (which is what Steven hinted at in the livestream where this was answered a couple years ago) but I would still like the ability to have defended Jim, his family, and his tools, to help them evacuate with other refugees when the drums of war are encroaching on the borders, and to continue working with him as a mentor--and eventually as a peer. I don't think it is completely off the table to explore more systems like this, but I can understand how it would probably need to start with maybe a few hundred to a couple thousand and stay kinda stable until more systems can be built for this post-launch.
What I reasonably hope and expect to do? Find a coastal guild that focuses on hunting corruption inland and on coastal waters, as well as developing top-tier weapons for battling corrupted entities. I'm planning to make bows, personally. When it comes to hunting, this would be more about taking down the orange crystal emplacements and nearby world bosses, but the bolder sorts would probably seek out bounties in the area if players end up being a problem. There would probably be campaigns to go inland and areas further across the world, and the hope is that we could potentially use coastal routes and look tough enough on open waters that we can avoid encounters with other players and use ships to get from one point to the other. With all that going on, I'd be helping however I can to contribute to the development of the freeholds where we make the materials and the weapons themselves, which I would expect would be part of an internal commissioning system where I'm handed resources to produce bows for use and sale. Neuro's Legendary Ancient Killing Bows, or whatever the merchant marketing department comes up with.
And I'm looking at Rogue-Ranger or Ranger-Rogue for my archetypes. I'm sure every archetype can do cool stuff, but personal and/or group mobility is the sort of thing I love for a game like this. That's just as much for exploration as gaining tactical advantages, though I'd admit it does dampen the fun when enemies go invulnerable and run away just because I'm somewhere they can't reach. But I have a sorta feeling that I'll regret and bemoan not being able to chuck a grappling hook when I could have picked an archetype that can. You'd think I'm an explorer type player, but in reality I love mobility. I go for double jump over attack power in platformers. I'll use the short-range claws in exchange for gaining a NES Batman style wall grab and jump. Extrapolate that to 3D, I want to toss the hooks and climb the ropes.
Oh and, above all else. to enjoy the game. I've been on-and-off burnt out on MMOS since days before the first expansion to WoW, and as much as I've enjoyed some time in a lot of them since then--Landmark, early PlanetSide 2, Defiance, Trove, a little bit of some wonky forgettable betas, some Star Citizen and Elite: Dangerous, a lil Realm of the Mad God and Steambirds Alliance, original H1Z1 survival, I'm probably forgetting a few--I'm still waiting for the MMO that doesn't feel like a shared world of doing what could mostly be done in a solo to 4-player co-op game. Sandboxes try to do that but the end up lacking the curation and direction that a quest and narrative heavy game provides. I was amped for Hero's Song because I loved that the world starts with its own unique history of what cultures and factions migrated where, conquered whom, etc, so you are coming into a world with a unique and rich history. Circling back to the top of this paragraph, I'm eager to see if the delivery of gameplay mechanics, content and narratives, player agency, NPC agency, and the meaningful results of how that agency plays out in collaboration and conflict. This may not get to the whole full-on MEOW or StoryBricks implementation as envisioned many years back, but I hope that it will move the whole of MMO designs in the correct direction going forward by proving that something far beyond a standard theme park is extremely viable.
I want to run dungeons, raids, and pvp with my friends in the open world. As opposed to queing into battle grounds or a raid where we are taken out of the world and everything being instanced. This adds a feeling that the world itself is the content and important.
Am hoping for a mini-game for each of the 8 archetypes, as well as class-specific missions/mission-lines. Maybe the Bard could collect rare pieces over the course of months to assemble a legendary/near-legendary musical instrument - or try to track down NPCs that randomly generate day-from-day in different taverns, from which to learn songs and dances. Summoners might try to track down summoned-creature names or blood-samples or relics that will allow a special type of summon. Fighters try to win a match against such-and-such level of NPC in all 5 of the "Node-Kingdoms", and their character will now have extra combat animations, such as really cool "finishing-move" animations.
For UNIVERSAL CONTENT?
Was greatly pleased to see the planned Constellations-collections system. Was thinking there might be a separate, "pseudo-class" of Sailor, and you gain levels/advancement in it by both sea-borne adventures and exploration, but also in serving/sailing aboard so many different types/weights of ships. Also, wouldn't mind "leader-boards" for tavern-games. Especially since it feels like a lot of us are hoping for card-games in the taverns akin to the fan-made TCG, or The Witcher's card game.
For CRAFTING?
There should probably be schematics, blueprints, or (blech) "recipies" for items that are unlocked through collections.
For RELIGION?
SS has been very tight-lipped about this area of the game, since it is to tie heavily into the game's overall story. We don't know much about what to ask for here, since it's one of the last things we'll get to experience, in testing - as it is meant to be fully experienced for the first time in-game. Would like to see "pilgrimages" to different, ancient "holy sites", relevant to each of the to-be gods. Religion-specific personal relics and/or cosmetic adornments would make both nice rewards AND serve as status-symbols, to those in-the-know. Also, maybe each god had a sybolic "anti-god" animal that each god dislikes, and will bestow their followers with rewards, should they kill so many of this animal, over time.
Overall, I favor any in-game content that is un-related to the normal missions in the game, and encourages wide-spread travel; I want a *REASON* to travel outside of the 1 of they 5 to-be "Node-Kingdoms" we'll all call home, asides from just exploration.
The other thing that I am most looking forward to is the summoner. I may be playing it as a main and I haven't played an MMO with a good pet system before. Ashes goals looks like it may pull this off and I can't wait to see what will be done.
My wife is generally a player who gets her thrills from professions and explorations. Combat is always alittle so-so for her, but we always play MMORPGs in the same 3-man-stack, so a big one for us will be looking forward to seeing how good group questing and node-development will be and truly dip into the whole fantasy of a healer, a tank and a DPS (weirdly enough; my wife is the DPS - not the healer lol
So in alignment of her love for profession and exploration she has high expectations for gathering and processesing - ESCPECIALLY animal husbandry! She really hopes to have a very elaborate way of mixing animals, elementals, making objects come to life and being able to create her own mounts and pets. Also the prospect of using a.h to make pets/skins for the Summoner is big one for her aswell!
She, as a seasoned WoW hunter who prob. have tamed just about everything Azeroth has got to offer on the wildlife side, hopes to have a similar taming ability to create combat pets or even have it as an option for animal husbandry ie. you see a rare green lion with lightning for mane and you tame it and use it for breeding an awesome lightning-lion-esc animal - or just keep it for yourself as an awesome combat pet
Now, something we both really look forward to is giving the game our own personal touch with all the gear customization and housing options in the game! We've played everything from the Sims to Animal Crossing and Stardew Valley together, so having the option to emerge one self in the more "domestic" side of Verra is really awesome and something huge to look forward to!
Now for myself.. the biggest thing I look forward to is really seeing sub-archtypes being implemented. To see how much it changes a class and giving it aspects of something else - and to perhabs have the option to "respec" the sub-type to keep things fresh and alive! I really enjoy the take of the more DnD dual-class aspect (even though I know that's not exactly what sub-archtypes are, I still feel a resemblence there).
And then just seeing Verra in all it's glory.. seing how the world changes around node-progression as all the players venture out to take on whatever you guys throw at us will be magical!
1. Being able to plant seeds and tree saplings anywhere in the world to make a secret farm.
2. Having gliders that aren't mounts so I can jump off cliffs enjoyably.
3. Every monster in the game having a 0.01% rare drop, specifically unique to that monster, even if it's junk.
4. Crafting using an ability system.
5. Some monsters having insanely long leashes for two reasons.
a) The open world actually feels threatening.
b) You can round a ton of monsters up and AOE them down.
6. Some monsters having zone wide respawns. If you spend too much time in one area of the map, it becomes empty. Then you get the good feeling of finding all the monsters somewhere else.
A carefully developed raiding scene, that cannot be farmed, adds to make AoC are more diverse game that attracts a wider community. Instanced PvE isn't at odds with PvP or open world PvE, it in fact complements it and will improve server communities as these players are historically very active in the economy.
What I'm looking for when in game is opportunity to engage in PvP with my friends or my family for "small scale pvp" over simple things that seem meaningless (like small world bosses, caravans, defending mobs grinding area,...) but fill up our days with skirmishes. I'm looking forward to run around and easily find spontaneous PvP, so I hope that it won't be too hard to find it.
PvX game for me is meaningless if the PvP happens only around big events
With content that involves raid level in terms of difficulty and amount of players It would be interesting different approaches that may lean more towards pve and pvp in different elements of scales.
For one more pvx based
Having the large creature meant to be killed by multiple raid groups with only one of them getting the reward and causing friction between each other to blend in their desire to PvP while being very mindful of PvE objectives.
There goal would be to do as much damage to the main boss as possible but within their area there are a bunch of secondary objectives. Ones that will allow them to deal more damage to the boss, protect their team from being swarmed by adds, objectives to cause difficulties to other teams fighting the boss (giving them additional aggro from the boss, adds, environmental effects, debuffs, etc).
There would be enough pressure for them to need to defend if they want to gain loot over fully attacking another side (or perhaps some kind of limitation that doesn't allow them to forgo loot to fully pvp another group.) A quick example would be akin to the pvpve mode in destiny that allows you to invade another team to pvp them and effect their objective based gameplay.
It be a style of in-game content im looking for with meaningful pvx gameplay that involves team work, strategy and competition. Allowing things to be mixed up than a zerg all whaling on the boss at the same time trying to do high dmg and getting loot that way.
One more PvE based in essence.
Older post of mine as an idea but it is a style I think is cool, and things can be swapped out wit corruption to other debuffs and such that will kill players. The main idea is it is high cooperative gameplay not allowing a feel random players to be able to effectively stop a group from completing content. Do to the ojbective and time based elements random stragglers wouldn't get that far in the dungeon, as well as taking time to get towards the end of it not allowing people to just show up and attack during the final boss without progressing though the other parts of it. Being a longer dungeon and having the difficulty of dying reducing the chance the group has to finish the dungeon adding a bit of a hardcore element.
The deep you go the more corruption you gain from lingering in the area going up towards 1-5 levels making the tick increase grow as you go into more dangerous areas. Though upon entering from the entrance you gain a bubble that gives you a large buffer from actually being corrupted. As well you can only gain so much corruption from the area before you reach max stacks (to prevent max corruption gain) Once you reach the max, it lowers you maximum hp at a smaller amount and it will continue until you die.
Death to mobs or to corruption stack ticks make you drop all the items in your inventory and destroying it on the spot so it can not be reclaimed. If someone pks you though and takes the corruption hit the items are available to be picked up but each item take adds more corruption to your character
Upon adventuring in the area taking items also add corruption to your character drop wise you you are unable to take everything without also risk. But like the self protective bubble you get on entering there can be some drops the replenish those drops, as well as finding rare random spawn things throughout the dungeon that also replenish the buff by a certain percent.
So it becomes a very hard dungeon the deeper you go the better the loot but the higher chance you have of also losing what you gained from within it. If you make it to the deepest part of the dungeon you will be able to make it to the boss dealing with its mechanics and trying to ensure you keep your protective barrier up to not end up dying and losing everything.
Upon defeating the boss you simply need to escape back where you came from for whoever is left being a survivor and trying to not die to the corruption or the monsters that have respawned.
PvP based one
Not a complicated one but I'm looking forward to general guild wars between different guilds with open world pvp. I'm looking forward to it being objective or simply just warring between guilds fighting over areas and the stories of the wars that will be created between them. I am hoping with the guild system there can be a lot of quest that can further ignite friction between guilds and have that sense of pvp and social status in the world.
Beyond that all I have ever wanted to do in game was run a farm. So that is what I look most forward to doing in game. Exploring and pushing artistry as far as I can.
Making a guild, spending time with friends, progressing a node with other players, meeting your 'neighbours' during events, taking part in sieges, politics and drama between nodes and guilds, all the PvP that comes with it. The economy, gathering and crafting. Fighting over a farming spot or the loot of a boss.
Everything that makes a MMO an interactive experience with other players, with cooperation and conflicts. A world where players can build their reputations, and make allies and enemies, and have impact on the world.
DEV should try look the early builds of RAGNAROK ONLINE.
1. No OP Character
2. No OP Items
3. No AFK grinding or leveling. (Let us make the game worthwhile rather than rushing to the endgame.)
4. Truly support classes do exist.
- Priest/cleric instead than only healing and buffing stats, the priest can also teleport players to certain areas.
- Merchant can vend items or Blacksmith can craft or forge weapons.
- Alchemist can create potions.
5. Encourage party leveling. (or at least create maps that is favorable for solo leveling type characters and vice versa)
6. Make Character advancement system. Other than just leveling and stats for instance.
7. PVP rooms to test your stats builds, skills and weapons. with no loss of exp or items.
8. PK Rule like CONQUER ONLINE.
9. NO TO PAY2WIN. Items that increase your character's strength should only be obtained through in-game boss hunts or crafting, for example. (Item multipliers like for exp or drop % maybe bearable.)
10. And please make the skills graphics or lightings simple.
second
I am mostly looking forward to exploring the character advancement options, preferably as an exploratory journey, seeing what unlocks when, and how these new tools alter gameplay.
Honorable mentions; the character creator, node advancement, artisan skill progression, and the world in general.
So, the game? I know, a somewhat broad answer. But in fairness, it was a somewhat vague question.
I am hoping though that any businesses that you own or run you can charge for those services without having to be present at the station during use. For instance, if I have a super advanced wood working station at my freehold and I allow use to anyone, but run it as a business, I should be able to make the option to charge people (that arent in my family) a certain price for use, kind of like a tax. This would obviously be applicable to all stations that could be placed on a free hold or maybe the option to toggle your free hold from business mode to personal mode. Personal mode wouldnt allow you to charge and would lock everything down, where as business mode is just that, open for business while charging customers and making money. Maybe be able to change the amount charged based on how good the players reputation is, if its a really bad play maybe I can charge them 15% more and if its an outstanding player I can charge them 15% less.
If my freehold has dues, due. What will happen when I am not on? Will those automatically get paid out of the money that is in my possession, or do I have to pay it manually? Will I be able to expand my freehold or will it always just remain 1 size (this may have already of been answered in a livestream or on here)?
Any RP systems that are in place I think needs to have an option for VOIP for just general open world RP scenarios. Im loving the idea of being able to interact with others at will and not just in a certain scenario. I think there should also be a reward system that devs can give out to in-world interactions, like if they randomly stumble across an amazing RP scenario and watch the whole interaction. If it was excellent to both parties maybe they can reward them with a 5% XP boost for an hour or something similar like, gold, a blueprint, a crop, herbs, things like that to encourage the good RP interactions to happen more. Hopefully something like this would prevent RDM situations from happening all the time.
What I mean by that is items actually having value so anything I want to do gains gold and progress, good example games are Runescape and Albion.
I put a ton of hours in Archage and what really sold me on it was being able to spend time on my land planting crops to sale if I'm feeling antisocial or hiding large tree farms behind some hill. Then running trade packs for a few hours. When I wanted my time to earn more gold/hour doing things in pvp zones like fishing and having the risk of someone taking my hard work making it feel more worthwhile.
I'm not someone who normally starts a pvp fight but I love the risk vs reward of doing something risky but there 100% needs to be risk on both sides if there's no hope of doing something in a pvp area without dyeing its just not fun and that's hard to pull off.
The 2 things I ask above all else relating to this is number 1) do not force a task on players it ruins the sandbox nature of the game(this is what killed Archage unchained for me even above the pay to 2 win, you HAVE to do the daily tasks on top of doing daily go kill X with half the server) 2) have a safe thing I can do earn gold when I don't feel like risking pvp in Archage I was single planting barley for hours on my land, I don't expect this game to do that as the farming system doesn't seem to support a full time playstyle but give me something interactive to kill time.
The nodes and cities that we spend time in are going to be different types, that are in various biomes, that have varying architecture based on the race contributes the most experience, with different buildings based on a mayor’s choices. This is all happening while being in a world that is going to develop completely different to every other server, with unique story lines, history and content to explore.
The ashes of creation character creation that we looked at over a year ago already looked like one of the best we have seen so far. It looked on par if not better than games such as BDO or ESO, and that is just the aesthetics. The characters themselves are going to have one of the primary archetypes, which can be further altered by one of the secondary archetypes. This only gives us 64 distinctive classes to pick from, but even these can be changed to emphasize our personal type styles by a bunch of racial augments, religious augments, and even social organization augments. The possibilities really do seem endless, and I can’t wait to see everyone’s unique characters running around.
Even the Artisan system in Ashes is going to result in unique experiences. Rather than being able to master everything with enough grinding which would result in no need for social interactions, in ashes you can only master one of the three artisan skill trees: gathering, processing, and crafting. Inside of each of these parent trees, you can only master two of many professions. This is going to result in a player base that all has varying skills, that would constantly be changing in response to the demand of what is needed and desired in the world.
These are just a few points, but Ashes of Creation genuinely seems like a game where no players will have the same story, with everyone working towards their own unique skills, goals, and titles. It seems like the diversity will truly be on another level and will make for an incredibly immersive experience.