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
Dislike: No corruption on the ocean content. I think this will only allow for the creation of PK guilds in the coastal nodes. These will likely become PK controlled areas, and I don't believe that is what the developers are trying to encourage with this system.
Like: The lack of instances.
For me, it is a combination of the scope, ambition, design, and developer discipline.
The evolution the Nodes, the tightness of the markets as the best gear is crafted, and most drops, especially PvP, are materials.
The opportunity to be a meaningful trader and crafter. To make a name for oneself.
A dangerous world to explore, a sense of place, of being somewhere else. People to meet, befriend, or worse.
Returning to a challenging and satisfying MMO after almost two decades away from the genre.
Open Sea PvP, even though I have never embraced PvP before.
CONCERNS:
If the combat always requires constant movement and rapid button presses to be viable. My aging hands won't be able to keep that up for hours, and it's only going to get worse over the years.
If Hoards of Locusts descend upon the servers and make them into a living hell, just for the lols, and to prove they can.
If Big Guilds monopolize all the servers.
If Server mergers are poorly handled, throwing players together in an immersion breaking mess, rather than using weather and story events to cut servers into geographic chunks and recombine them into a single server in a way that makes shared history instead of breaking it.
If I suck so badly at PvP that I really don't enjoy the game.
I dislike tab targeting as a combat system, though I'll admit that's mostly for aesthetic reasons.
In a PvP MMO the fast travel MUST be limited otherwise all the PvP suffers.
Because I am everywhere.
Class Variation and choices from weapons/armor allowed to be used to the amount of class combination
Node Warfare
Node Development
Unique Events & Server Unique Developments
No player limit node warfare (Reminds me of Planetside)
Animal/Mount/Pet Gene Manipulation
Open seas and ships that actually have multiple usable function
Weather and Seasonal effects (Especially how ships will need to learn to traverse changes by sea.)
Extreme rare/server limited items/mounts
Mounted combat
Dislike:
The lack of actual individual variation between the 64 classes. Seems like pouring more water into your flavored kool-aid and calling it a mix of two classes when it's really just one. (Speculation for now)
PvP being allowed in cities when a siege/node war is inactive
A lack of explanation of how it won't just end up being a pvp game/lack of faith in corruption system doing much if anything
The choice of intrepid to disable siege of a coastal node by boat. I understand the issues but I'm sure it could be designed around.
Weapon choices are very generic not many choices like whips or flails... also have not seen a halberd
No crossbows but you made a skin for one -1
The choice to use skills to augment damage type instead of just allowing people to enchant/tinker or w/e to physically change the damage type or add the damage type effect. This seriously limits in the field use of being able to change before a fight, "Hold on bro, let me switch my damage type skills before we engage each other.." Instead of, "Let me just hotkey swap my weapon out for a certain type of damage type, Click, immediately engage."
The lack of any explained or described back-end for server stats so we can make a more valued choice in who or what type of server we are joining. Is this server extremely violent and dangerous? Has this server completed a certain unique event already? How many active guilds? How many guild wars have taken place? Average player level? *Basic server stat tracking*
Castle sieges being instanced and player limited instead of just incorporating it along into node warfare as a complete system
The choice to remove the ship builder profession for a choice to just collect things and put them together by unknown means
First and foremost, I love what Intrepid is doing. The openness of this journey, never done b4, I don't think. That Steven, and Intrepid themselves are gamers. They understand us better than some board of a corpo. Does everyone get everything they want in Ashes? Nah. But don't in sound and actually look promising? Sure does to me. I love the 64 Classes. Why? Wanna see all the ways augments are gonna augment. Simple. I love the fact that I can be a Pirate. Why? One Piece and Black Sails, the Showtimes series not Assassin's Creed. Oh and the dynamic world change. Why? Something spawned because I was taming all the bunnies and I killed a butterfly by accident, that's why. There's more but ill keep it short.
What I dislike is personal. Pretty much I won't be able to play as much as id like and definitely won't be n alpha 2 early, maybe later if it opens back up. The game thus far is still in active development and people are gonna judge regardless, but with the time and open development that Intrepid is displaying it feels nice. In a genre that gets misused so often, I
think not giving Intrepid a decent amout of kudos thus far isn't fair. But also postive crits too. There shall always exist the negative. With or without the positive lol. I'm glad Steven made this life changing decision. Can't wait for it to drop. Honestly no real dislike currently only bcus this has to be a hands-on experience for me to say that. I played new world around launch, didn't like it but I had to play to know. Haven't tried recently and im not piqued to go back. Vanilla WoW, played it, 5+ year addition lol. Same with Ashes. I may love what others hate and visa versa. I still want Anthem to reboot. Can't stand Fortnite. Im sure they'll be something i encounter that i dislike. Will that deter me from continuing? Nah.
He made me reply
Dislike = I guess we have to wait and see how this plays out, but I don't really like the idea of PVP in a major city. I'm strolling through town and all of a sudden this huge fight breaks out, where are the town guards? They just let them fight it out or will they stop the infraction? I do know if you're corrupted town guards will try to kill you on sight once you step into the city, but I guess I'm waiting to see how this tests out in Alpha2.
What drew me in was the individuals behind the creation of AOC, I saw people who seems to be as passionate as me creating a game that I want to play, that matches the times, and allows me to finally rediscover the feeling of a true online videogame, and hopefully create something more than my expectations. I just want to play as a Lizardman with my friends on some crazy adventure and have fun every once in a while.
I don't mind the PVP as long as there is a level of diplomacy, either in the game or developed by the players themselves. As I wish to start a Merchant guild that moves products across the lands and overseas, with my own Vehicle construction industry. Including PVE aspects of exploration and discovery when interacting with the environment and random events traveling through them.
Overall, I just want to have fun and experience a new world, not for money, but just to bring something alive where we can truly immerse ourselves in. Which is the things that I am seeing and want to see grow more in the future.
as for what I don't like with specific systems, I will reserve it for when I actually get to test them, so far I like the design overall,
my main concerns used to be how Intrepid would handle community feedback that goes against the core pillars of the game, but it seems they are doing a good job with that, I don't like that people who are not the target audience keep trying to change the game when they have a lot of other good games in the market to play tho,
All the core pillars of the game, the vastness and ambition of this project, the goal of moving this stagnant genre forward that desperately needs an overhaul from top to bottom.
Dislikes:
Tab target combat- This system is obsolete and a thing of the past. I grew up playing tab target MMOs because that's all there was and that's all MMOs were capable of having. But that's not the case anymore. Tab target is something I'd like to see phased out of next gen MMOs.
Cosmetic skin store - the problem with this is it incentivizes devs to make the store bought skins look better than the ones earned in game so they can make more money.
I have other concerns with corruption, zerg guilds and AI, but these are all things that are works in progress, some of which we haven't seen examples of in game. So we'll have to wait and see how they turn out.
I'm letting them cook up a hybrid, but tab target puts a damn damper on everything for sure.
strong MMO RPG elements
Dynamic content
novelty
PvX
I dislike:
I worry about fast, button mashing, rotation, gameplay.
The one thing I’m not keen on is instanced PvP (arena and battlegrounds)
The more people participating in these events, the less PvP we will see in the open world. If I want instanced PvP there’s 100’s of other places to look, but ashes looks to truly have some of the best open world PvP I've ever seen in the forms sieges, caravans etc. even as someone who has grinded battlegrounds and arenas for years, I think they should fully embrace the open world pvp and step away from instanced PvP to increase the amount of PvPers in the open world.
looking forward to hearing yours and no1's thoughts on this in the next voices of verra.
Like Most: In short, the risk Vs reward system/ideology. The fact that almost everything has meaning. Knowing that something as simple as gathering lumber in the open world can breed thrill or excitement and not just feel like a chore. The fact that even something perhaps first seen as tedious by some like the bag system, actually has somewhat of a pvp implication in that maybe if you die in battle someone may not have the bag type to fully loot your ash pile. The pvx, politics potential, and having to weigh pros and cons of even the most small decisions in Verra entices me.
Dislike: Was hard to choose one and this is temporary; but the lack of knowing PRECISELY what to expect with augments and secondary classes (as far as actually seeing this and skill trees) as of yet. But this will come in time ♥️
Concerns: big Guild monopoly. The game not motivating "life skillers" and pve:ers enough to keep them around. (Without casuals the game will feel quite empty.)
I should say that I feel more positive than negative; I really believe in AoC!
* Community driven sandbox elements
* unique takes on hybrid combat
* Archetype synergies and augment potentials
Dislikes:
* unclear how deep the gear gaps will be (that 50% quote is unclear)
* punishing death penalties even for consensual PvP in open world
Dislike : I don't know yet because, I will be PVP'ing everyone and I'm too hyped for the PVX aspect of this game to be concerned on mere dislikes !
Un-emotional random thoughts : Been playing ESO since launch, taking a break. But you guys do a damn good job on discussing AOC with critical thinking, I've listened to " I IS THERE NO ONE ELSE "! a few times on ESO podcast. Although I disagreed on a few occasions, I still like your thoughts. And ,Is there no one else! is there no one else ! oh plz .... stop crying and letting others carry you in pvp HAHAHAHA ..... LOVE YOU ALL ! see you in Ashes. muhahaha.
slaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyy
These were all amazing responses, but this one… this one made my day 🤣🤣🤣
i like animal husbandry, the wiki page makes it seem fun. tier 3 mounts should be related entirely to animal husbandry abilities and have nothing to do with “kings/losers/queens/slavers/mayors”
stupid opinions on this topic, presumably made by people who dont respect their players enough to not have them become in game slavers for personal benefits for the :1%:
I understand this is a controversial opinion and it may seem rude to point out the obvious, but I believe the idea that we should be forced to engage in ingame slavery to acquire personal benefits for ourselves is incredibly disrespectful to every player.
It's a video game. No one is being forced to help anyone to get a royal mount. They are limited because they are supposed to be special. To accuse someone of being inhumane because of your own greed is a little fucked.
your opinion seems a little bit inhumane to me, mister gatekeeper
it is very clear by comments made by developers they intend for us to engage in ingame slavery/fuedal combat to gain personal benefits for the .1%, explain clearly in your own words why you think the developers comments regarding tier 3 mount gatekeeping is not inhumane, if you can
btw 10-20 players per server means if there are 10000 players in a server literally means tier 3 mounts are gatekept for the .1% of “best” wage slavers on the server and another .1% of lucky droppers. only one of those methods is skill based and the skill involved is wage slavery
and another thing, whats the point of an animal husbandry skill if you dont even let players who focus on animal husbandry entirely have access to the top tier of mounts? in what kind of game world does that make logical sense?
“ohh you spend all your days on animal husbandry? sucks to suck should have spent your time becoming an in game fuedal lord with many vassals, because everyone knows thats how great mounts are bred/trained”
so if your guild voluntarily comes to a castle siege and helps you get the castle benefiting them as well, and because you got the castle you get a flying mount, thats somehow slavery? wtf
but somehow animal husbandry is ok, when you will probably need other people's help to get a flying mount as well.