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
Having some way to gamble, an example would be combining materials, with a very low chance of getting an extremely valuable material used for crafting the best gear. Obviously there should be other, more time consuming and consistent methods of getting that material though through grinding (life skill or killing or a combination thereof) but just having the chance to skip all that by being hard carried by RNG is already getting me excited.
Abilities and skills being client sided
As an aussie who connects to NA servers (as I like to play with my OG guild) having abilities not be client sided is incredibly rough and sometimes unplayable. An extreme example would be Endless Arrows in Archeage, I'll link an example here https://youtube.com/watch?v=jgCBXvcFpwo , and that's only with a difference 125 ping and he does near half the DPS, imagine how bad it is with 250 ping. A MMORPG where it has been done well is Black Desert Online, I could cast any of my skills without any delay but just the damage, cc's etc were all delayed. Therefore, I wasn't locked out of any classes, unlike Archeage due to a ping difference. There is a massive difference between normal ping frustration and literally being unplayable.
But that is all, if you're any reader who read through this comment, thank you :^]
OWPVP
Nodes
Player politics
I would still like a crafting system like in Albion Online. Every pvp clothes break, and when you are killed, the clothes are partially destroyed, and part is taken by the killer, so that the market is not overflowing with clothes and everything else. Albion Online has a very good market system, there the market is floating, there is no regulation and people are constantly working to extract stone, wood, weapons and clothes.
Oh, I forgot - looking forward to professions and seeing how the craft systems work.
And the religion system. The idea of leveling a religion is very new and I can't wait to try it out.
-Exploring the world.
-PvP, especially sieges.
-Animal husbandry.
-Story Arcs.
Fantasies:
1. Martial arts master-
I want to feel like a martial arts master, or like im in avatar the last airbender
I want players to have to manually land/evade attacks. I want there to be a high emphasis on spacial control and positioning, and also a big emphasis on mobility. There should also be a lot of options and abilities. It needs to also be balanced from the 1v1 experience all the way to huge groups in siege content. It would also be nice if there is enough strategic depth with builds and the class system, that it could pretty much consitute a game on its own, rather than being pretty straightforward "metagaming" where the meta is pretty easy to figure out and static, making character progression and build optimization more of a chore than actually interesting gameplay.
2. Ninja/assasin
I want to feel like I am able to sneak around, fluidly traverse the environment, spy and gather intel, and ambush key targets like in Hitman or Assasins Creed. To me this means:
A- Having opportunities to be stealthy
B- Having non-combat traversal tools.
Something like Assasins Creed, Sekiro, or other ninja/Wuxia style games that do traversal and parkour really well.
3. Racer
4. Detective
5. Philosopher
6. Pirate/captain
7. Adventurer
8. Societal Niche
9. bounty hunter/fugitive
10. Military Tactician/strategist
11. Elite squad member
12. Lone wolf
13. Convoy runner/bushwacker
14. looking forward to the fantasies relating to the different artisan classes as well
"Clashing against the balancing precision of the universe is a spark of life and death. Chaos is surprising, unpredictable, breathing, decaying, and always changing. Neither good nor evil, the only constant of chaos is the assurance that there will be change. You have bound yourself to the ever-changing havoc. Wielding chaos as a tool requires flexibility and open-mindedness to stay attuned to the shifting flow. Lose yourself in the never-ending twists and turns and you may never find yourself again. Then again, the concept of the self may just be a pathetic excuse to rationalize the pandemonium that is life."
(5E: Age of Antiquity Adventure and Intrigue in the Ancient World)
As a fan of the DeckOfManyThings,Bag of Tricks (for summoner), wand of wonder from Dungeon and Dragon.
A TheFool and funny Vek Grandma protected by fate and extraordinarily good luck. Or she could see and twist the intertwined wheels of fate causing very bad unlucky chain of events to her opponents and luck to her friends. a mix of Gaal Dornick(Foundation adaptation), Mat Cauthon from (wheel of time) and Domino (Marvel).
or accidental Hero
Maybe with some Cat Pet
I love Astrology and Astronomy aesthetic, tarot Arcana, Maya calendar, etc.
For gameplay i wish to play a mix of Arcana (Lost ark) proc based class with control over rng comboing your proc effects, Astrologian because RNG is accepted by players if it's for supporting them (FF14), Dancer for the cascade triggers(FF14), wild , the most fun class i ever played(BG2), Wild sorcerer and BarbarianWildMagic(BG3) and every class from D&D/pathfinder paper with a wild magic touch(like wellspring mage), Cascade and Storm decks from MTG. (i could add rng based character from other class, i searched them a lot ^^). in aoc this could be Chaos magic and an embodiment of Risk vs Reward
(i could add Corsair FFXI)
LadyLuck from FFX-2
i imagine many wheels of fate intertwined, each symbol on them being being a special effect
About luck WondrousWisdomball is my favorite quest reward (with yogg saron wheel), having kadgar helping you sometimes and making comments his very funny, i would love to have something like that in game, could be a pet, a summon or an intelligent item
I'm a fan of Pierre Richard unlucky movie characters but domino is more popular this days i guess.
a class without rotation and a good rng system is the only way i could play a game without being bored by doing the same things again and again and again.
So make Chaos Theory a class mechanics (maybe like a roguelite run).
ps: this game really miss a dual wield ranged weapon (throwing knives/dagger/axes/wand)
AoC class wish: https://forums.ashesofcreation.com/discussion/comment/422108#Comment_422108
I’m generally a primary gatherer/crafter in most MMO’s so I’m excited to delve into the gathering system. Finding out that certain harvestables will only be found during certain scenarios was super exciting. I can’t wait to create conditional resource maps. I’m hoping the gathering process is somewhat more interactive than simply click and collect because that’s usually the most boring system. It doesn’t need to be a full-on mini game like Palia fishing but could be something as basic as Fiesta Online where you can just click and collect if you want but you can also hit a “success” bar to instantly collect the resource. Basically, looking forward to seeing the intricacy of the gathering system
Raiding
Boss battles and dungeon raiding are always something that’s super fun. I mean, being surrounded by 20-100 people all with the same purpose as you with some attempt to coordinate efforts in killing an extremely difficult mob? Yes please. Plus collecting rare loot from it is fun too.
Housing
It’s more of an end game experience for me, but I love decorating houses or doing “fashion”. It’s going to be an interesting balancing job this time around because I’d want to get some primo-housing spots so that if the node got to metropolis, I’d have some of the best housing options. That and of course be one of those who can have a freehold location. But I think it’d be something that I wouldn’t necessarily be crazy mad at if I didn’t manage to snag one. I mean it’s been like 4+ years in FFXIV and still haven’t got a housing plot.
But I mean. All of this is dependent on the social aspect. There’s plenty of single player games, or dead MMOs, where I can perform the above things…but they’re just not fun long term without others to talk to/share with.
So I guess the real top content I’m looking forward to in-game is playing a game with others who love it as much as I do.
Create a special skill tree, which when activated, cannot be available on any other alt the player may have, basically making that character "the main". Players should not be able to unlearn that skill tree.
EXAMPLE: the player is walking down a road in Verra, they see an odd looking tree in the distance. they walk up to the tree and notice these symbols on the tree (generic fire symbol)-(generic water symbol), the answer being the player must get another character to join with magical capabilities, while one casts a fire spell, the other casts a water spell. the tree then "opens" up, its a hidden dungeon, filled with other puzzles, and boss level creatures the player must defeat for a special reward. when it is claimed, the tree spawns in another random location around verra.
fill Verra with quests & discoveries like that, for endless hours, days, years of fun.
maybe we uncover a secret cult dedicated to one of the god of old in Verra, that take us into the sea to find an underwater society no one ever thought to look for...
Hope im not the only one that likes these kinds of mechanics in games.
I like fishing, all crafting, trading, playing the economy and ocean content(BDO). I hate being forced into brainless grinding (be that mobs, dungeons, quests or whatever).
I don't need a system to be the best that was ever made, but it should be enjoyable, polished and satisfying to a degree. They should also be a good compromise between being easy to access and being as deep and complex as possible (no complexity for the sake of complexity though).
But.......what I really want from AoC is for it to be a community focused game in a way that encourages community building and constructive, positive interaction. I think you know exactly what I mean and the node update makes me think, that you're going in that direction. From freehold to corruption to node management it always shines through, that negative, abusive, toxic actions and behaviours are possible and may even be profitable and rewarding, but in the long run and the bigger picture it will harm your progression and standing.
I don't want any specific content from you. What I want is that group play and social interaction is more rewarding and effective than solo grinding or toxic meta gaming. I want AoC to be a social experience and not the realization of a power fantasy. It might seem paradoxical to expect that from a mmorpg, but my first experiences in mmos where exactly that. But it feels like I'm preaching to the choir, so....just keep doing, what you're doing.
One that'll allow me to have a meaningful imput on my story, yet won't hesitate to interfere, stick a stick into the spokes of my wheels, and let me attempt to solve a problem that no one else had nor will have - to tell my own tale.
My yearnings are for a world full of problems with no single correct answers, a world where change rules supreme.
I'm mostly excited to create my character and start adventuring, questing, running them dungeons, exploring a huge new world and growing my character. Treasure hunting, seeking the star constellations collecting snazzy outfits for my Vek cleric and gathering gathering gathering.
I'm looking forwards to watching the world change around me. The dynamic story arcs is the feature that has impressed me the most so far, I will definitely be drawn towards finding and completing these.
I enjoy objective based PvP so I expect caravan raiding (both attacking and defending) will become a common (and hopefully profitable) pastime for me. I'm interested in the monster coin events but don't know much about them.
Node development, sieges, warfare, navel battles that kind of stuff sounds fun. There really is a lot of things i'm looking forwards to.
Crafting: Making the best armor/equipment in game should require BoP materials from high end content, such as raiding and high tier PVP. Nothing sucks the fun out the game for me more than feeling that I have to play the rat race on the auction house in order to keep up with gear. The funnest parts of the game should be how you obtain the best gear in the game, not via gold and just buying BiS off the auction house when you've never sat foot in a raid or high end pvp battle.
Raids: Please don't make raids any larger than 20 mans and make them so hard that the most difficult versions of the bosses take at least 100+ attempts. Trying to maintain a guild of 40+ raiders is extremely stressful and usually just leads to the content being made easier. In order to fill 40 people, you are by default going to have to carry a lot of bad players just to fill those 40 slots and you will have to have 5-10 people on the bench for when people are absent. People being able to multi-spec to flex into the role that is needed helps tremendously for these situations where people are absent for a few days.
PVP: Make sure that fights for nodes are something that players from all skill ranges can participate in and enjoy within a level playing field. Make it so that a guild and all of its guild members are account bound to a certain range of nodes that they can participate in based on their PVP rating. BDO had an issue where the top players in the game could participate in a very low level node fight and just crush them. They did this as payment to lower skilled guilds by letting them win the war (despite being "enemies" in the battle"). In exchange, the weaker guild would participate as cannon fodder in higher skilled guild's wars since there was no cap on the number of people that could participate. There should be reasonable caps on these wars to prevent this "more numbers good" battle, rather than the battle being focused on the coordination and skill of the players. Nothing was more demoralizing than starting a war and finding out that the best guild on the server was in it too, despite how low value the area was. It also really sucked when they would win based entirely on the number of people they had on their side.
SWTOR does a really good job in having something going on all the time. Weekly rotation of questing events, monthly rotation of holiday events, and seasonal PVP or Conquest events that happen for three months on/three months off.
Also, if there are weekly events, should these events not be timed with seasonal cycle, then for players doing the same event questlines will have different feels depending on the seasons; spring, summer, autumn, winter. That would help keep the feel of playing the game fresh.
Mini-games inside if Inn's and taverns are a must! I should be able to sit down at a tavern and order a drink, or maybe play some sort of mini-board game with another player, or even an NPC. Little details like this do wonders for immersion and I would argue are essential to a game like this.
-open world harvesting as chill time
-small group dungeons, challenging content with mandatory comms and coordination
-structured PvP (wars, battlegrounds).
Features that I find undermine ingame content:
-quest systems where all objectives are shown on map. I'd rather use my brain and be present in the world rather than robot following bread crumbs.
-zergs. Please kill the zerg, if content is tuned to 8 or 20 players put a system in place where it's in players best interest to play as designed
-3rd party apps, websites, timers. Please design content in a way where the best / efficient choice is to play the game (random spawn location, timing), not follow farming /optimal leveling paths. If 3rd party features are good ideas, include those features in the game design eg on noticeboards (key world timers) or interactive NPCs and make it harder for 3rd party to add value, let alone be a 'must have' to be competitive.
AoC class wish: https://forums.ashesofcreation.com/discussion/comment/422108#Comment_422108
Having mobs/critters/creeps idk the term in this game, not drop loot or armour or something even gold. Makes no sense.
Maybe if you skin them or take a tusk something like that,
u can sell it for gold or coin.
Think most/best items, should be crafted by players and maybe blueprints from a merchant's node or schientific node.
Higher levels should not become immune to DMG I guess, a couple of organized low levels, with hard enough tactics or skills.
Should be able to take down a higher level player.
In ESO elder scrolls online.
The scalling makes no sense, and either the dungeons are too easy not getting any dmg from mobs or mind bosses.
But the last boss of the area does 0% dmg
And 100% dmg. I don't find it fun.
People rushing true dungeons just to get there daily as fast as possible, leaving newer players behind
(from group making ststem)
Going true the content solo and ruining the experience for the rest of the group.
They should be punished by simple MOBS of enemy's. But they do 0% dmg so it's usseles.
There is a open world PvP area with 3 army's, where they zerg-swarm or have a ball groups. And they feel good about themself.
Always taking the path of least resistance.
Fighting the weaker army.
(Is possible to beat a zerg or have some tactics, the zerg army can only be at one place at a time)
Maybe some in-game mechanics to make it more tedious or difficult or just not worth it. To have 200 men charge the gate all at once.
I think it's a good thing to not have a 24/7 Node sieging system.
One group could have fought hard or grinded a lot.
Goes offline for a couple of hours (sleep)
To find out the night shift took over the world map because there was no resistance left. No players online.
(Maybe the attacker could choose from a pre-determind time table, then the players can try to be there or just miss the war/deffence)
I think that's already in the game.
Wow started out good, with crafting and sorcery teleport be know I to players.
If every body can do every thing.
There is no reason to play together.
What if my guild ruines a server with foul play, sleazy mechanics, pointless wars.
Beating down on already lost guilds etc.
I don't think they should be able to server jump to another server.
Guess they should create a new character and start over in the new server.
No immortals, taking 0% dmg.
Idk if 5 archers shoot one player and he's not taking any dmg at all.
I think its just a bad game.
I don't see the logics or fun in this.
The Community should make the tavern or other locations, prime places to recruit members for grouping up.
Or should you just wait in front of the dungeon you wanna do and wait for a group to pass by and invite you.
Daily moves/skills
Idk if you maxed out your priest, Maybe u can cast mass ressurection once a day. (Out of battle)
And maybe all the classes have some unis daily skills, or special items to give moves/skills like that.
(Idk the mage can get a mass teleport item from some insane story quest boss)
Love the system where there are only a couple of (flying mounths)
Where not everybody can do everything, making each other obsolete.
(Most MMO's start like this, but eventually they give in (sell out) there game.
To cater certain players or Idk what the reasons are.)
Changing there game mechanics,
I don't have many examples but I think u know what I mean. I'm not even talking about pay to win.
I'm talking about something like,
WoW sorcerer class mage and warlock.
The sorcerer had mass teleportation (epic) it comes from the Warcraft 3 story.
And it made the game and the characters uniek. But a bit later they scrap that and now every one can teleport. There goes the hardcore team play mechanic.
Warlock had ressurection skills, he could even gift to a player but they changed that.
They remove epic team play, or uniek skills.
To have every one be able to do those skills.
Crafting same story.
It ruins the RPG aspect of the game, the team play, the economy etc etc etc.
(Sorry to make my opinions sound factual)
Couse it ain't, there just opinions or the way I see it.
To start, I look forward to the immersion focused gameplay. Having that escape is a long lost feeling since good MMORPGs are hard to come by. The classes are so well thought of and the customization within them is amazing. I have like 10 builds that I think are my playstyle or that just sound amazing to play.
Another, would be the simple attention to detail in the world and the story arc. Not only will player decisions matter but so do events and things of that nature. I think this will create such a great fresh new feelings logging on every day. Or just that since of pride in things going on in the world and wanting to join in defending, attacking etc.
Lastly, Id say the one thing cannot wait for the most is just some good PvP. Everything I’ve seen so far looks amazing. Castle sieges are a beautiful thing and see and hear about summoning huge monsters that are player controlled, scaling walls as a certain class, siege engines, destructible walls and doors, open field battles, and that last big battle with a mini boss fighting with the defenders. It has me so excited to get going in the PvP scene.
My only worry is in the PvP scene. I noticed in the open field battle footage there was not really a frontline. By frontline I mean a solid groups of tanks and warriors holding their own in the fight. I feel like everyone was at casting distance and just spamming abilities on a larger group to see big numbers pop up on the screen. So I’m wondering will it be hard but doable for those frontline players to have a good open field battle & siege battle PvP experience. Or will they just die immediately due to 85% of the player base going with a ranged based build? I don’t want AoC to turn into that PvP scene where there’s one tank standing in the middle of the battlefield holding his shield trying to push and then dying after a few seconds because there’s so many ranged players and the battle literally goes no where.
Outside of my one worry, I believe the game is amazing! All that’s left now is to get my hands on it!!!