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.
No white knights here .
MybroViajero
Member, Alpha Two
I would really like to know your honest , real and LOGICAL opinion , on these two issues :
1 .- What things do you think AoC will fail in ? . and why ?
You can talk about anything , either PvP , PvE , optimization , monetization , Lore , music , art , systems , community , anything that encompasses the development of AoC.
2 .- What things do you think are the greatest potential that AoC could have if properly developed?. and why ?
You can talk about things that you have seen in the updates or things that you know about AoC or even things that you have seen in other MMORPGS/videogames and from which AoC could have a greater potential.
Regards and lots of positive vibes 😈
1 .- What things do you think AoC will fail in ? . and why ?
You can talk about anything , either PvP , PvE , optimization , monetization , Lore , music , art , systems , community , anything that encompasses the development of AoC.
2 .- What things do you think are the greatest potential that AoC could have if properly developed?. and why ?
You can talk about things that you have seen in the updates or things that you know about AoC or even things that you have seen in other MMORPGS/videogames and from which AoC could have a greater potential.
Regards and lots of positive vibes 😈
1
Comments
1. Getting people to enjoy the pvxness of the game.
2. Nodes creating small local communities on the server
Tulnars like to mix with everyone.
Then there's a bunch of stuff that isn't explained fully, so I guess maybe those things, but one can't say 'I think Caravans won't work right' when talking about the release version. I trust that if they realize Caravans aren't working right in Alpha, they will... just make them work right.
It might have some rough parts that players avoid or disregard, but I don't know if to consider that failing, people just take that sort of thing out of the game.
But I don't see too much potential beyond the upcoming 'new standard' either. Its potential is that it is possibly going to match ALL of them at once.
Go team go.
I've not played an MMO with seasons before.
2. Being an actual MMO. A game to make enemies and friends.
2- this one is obvious for me, player driven story arce and the node system. If it gets developed to it's full potential then an endless amount of story arce could keep the player base involved deeply in the game and the complexity and fragility of a well designed nodes system could be something that no one has ever seen before. New world pulled off a very basic/bland version of what ashes territory control will look like imo.
An example would be regular content updates for PvP Arenas and PvE raiding.
2. With potentially 64 different classes, Ashes could have the most variety in character builds of any MMO by a country mile … IF combat is properly balanced.
I know that the devs have said secondary archetypes merely add “flavor” at this point in the game’s development.
But, the potential is certainly there.
How cool would it be if military nodes could build an arena for 2v2s, 4v4s, or whatever other format was wanted.
2. The player stories that will come from a successful game will be unlike any others you find in mmorpgs except for Eve.
People will either like Ashes or they won't, I do not think Intrepid will develop a poor game.
Community, Combat, Conflict, Cohesion.
A PvXers dream.
Not sure how many viable classes we will get from the promised variety of 64, with satisfying animations for people to find the class identity they need.
Not sure that weapons, the literal agents of action should be treated as passive procs. I hope they have embeded weapon requirements in the archetypes' abilities.
2. Open world pvp without pay to win is all that Ashes needs to shine, and I think the raw material scarcity will fuel exploration and guild conflict gameplay.
I think they're may be a struggle to get and maintain new players on developed servers. I also worry about server balance and queue times with some of the more popular servers becoming too overcrowded and other servers feeling dead. Depending on when a person joins the game I worry that they may feel far behind or out of luck in certain aspects of the game, especially if servers maintain the same people of power, and they may not stick with the game leaving gaps in players of a certain level causing some....discomfort(?) for new/developing players.
I also worry about stagnation on that point, with powerful guilds settling into their positions of power with the only real battles happening on smaller nodes. I hope there is some real competition and fights, but I'm worried the big names will hunker down and everything will just stay the same. I don't know if there is enough reason/motivation to put 500+ people on your enemy list for messing with their home and becoming a PVP target in the overworld. I feel like people are just going to try to win the mayorship/node control for whatever nodes are already developed instead of trying to remove and rebuild another one. I'm hoping castles will fill any void left from the nodes, but I don't know at this point.
I'm really looking forward to the prospect of true exploration. The idea that if you see it you can actually reach it is something I thought was so cool.
I'm also mildly hopeful about the gathering/crafting portion as it seems like it could put players down niche paths (which I think is neat). I just hope the process to perform the tasks aren't standard and boring.
I'm worried about travel. I understand travel being meaningful but if it comes down to you have to walk for 2 hours to get to a high competition area then that's going to hurt the game, hell people complained about 10 minute travel times in new world.
I think that ashes has the best chance at realizing all of their goals and adjusting their goals to match roadblocks that come along the way, Steven is pretty good at giving answers to hard questions or letting us know he'll provide us one when he gets detail, that shows a lot of competence.
I think the most potential the game has is that it's a PvX game that involves EVERYONE in the world to function and not just a specific group. The core of the game relies on this functionality, we don't quite fully understand what that will look like, but from what we've heard so far, it sounds like they're on track with this goal, that being said, I'm looking forward to actually seeing it and not just hearing about it.
The reason for this is because Ashes is just another PvP game.
That doesn't mean the game will fail, it just means that it will be percieved as a PvP game, despite Steven not wanting that perception.
In terms of what will bring in the most players to Ashes if properly developed, I would also say PvP. This is why the above failing isn't going to make the game as a whole fail . There absolutely are many people out there that want a solid PvP MMORPG - at least for a while.
If Ashes PvP is properly developed, it will bring in every PvP MMORPG player around for at least a few months.
I do worry a little that as it tries to settle further into its niche that it may not attract enough playerbase to fill the worlds. But, that's probably just me hoping to see the game succeed rather than an actual issue.
2 .- What things do you think are the greatest potential that AoC could have if properly developed?. and why ?
I think if they put as much effort into their artisan system as they have into everything else, that this could be a flagship system for them as much as their node system.
2. A globe for a world not a flat surface.
2. Hopefully changing MMOs questing with dynamic changing quests. Also demonstrating why PvX is the way forward for MMOs.
2. I'll join others and say the artisan system. They have to do nodes well, because that's the entire core of the game, and combat has to not suck, but after nodes and combat, a really deep and well thought-out artisan system will bring the game to the next level.
- Release in this decade.
- Deep combat system with wide selection of party setups without necessity in alts.
- 250x250 sieges in >60 fps and <30 ping.
That #1 is how I feel too. These are two different crowds.
Some weapons are too fancy and more like luxuries than refined weapon sometimes reminds me mobile games made in China 10 or 20 years ago.
Especially bows, for example almost every strings are not at right place. Intrepid you make so detailed 3D model so please figure out the bow works before you do the 3D models.
The sim nature of node development and the complications of crafting, especially the husbandry aspect, are ripe for a fail/dissatisfying deployment.
Greatest Potential Items:
Large-scale sieges for castles and possibly additional wars/venues
The only idea I have would be to make megaservers for PvE just like in Guild Wars 2 with different IP's instances that anybody can join and then create a PvP megaserver that every PvE server can join. So for server side, it would look like this
1. An account must choose a server in PvE (Example : Grenlaw)
2. Another account choose a server of its choice (Example : Denaris)
3. Both accounts can play together in the PvE megaserver
4. Megaserver would have different IP's instances (So they both players aren't necessarily in the same world, but they can join each other)
5. If they want to PvP, they must enter the PvP server
6. When both players enter the PvP server, they will be against each other, because they aren't in the same server from #1 and #2.
7. We build within PvE megaserver and we destroy in PvP server.
8. The progress of the nodes from the PvE megaserver would always follow in PvP server.
9. What about PvX server instead of just PvP ? More reward for more risk.
I know Steven said it won't change, but I still think this is how people will keep being interested in the game : PvE and PvP separated.
This was a kind of example of how Guild Wars 2's Open World PvE and World vs World PvP functions.
Or they just remove flagging PvP and enable it only in the ocean.
Democratizing node growth because they miscalculate the proportion of bad v. good faith actors.
Calibrating 80% of the systems to cater to 10% of the population. For instance, focusing the node update too much on the impact of mayors (1 player) instead of how non-mayoral characters contribute to the node - and what’s in it for them (hundreds / thousands of players).
2 .- What things do you think are the greatest potential that AoC could have if properly developed and why?
Actual next gen PvX. I don’t want to play UO again, but I want to feel some elements of UO in the next version of a living, breathing world - where players & monsters are both part of what make it feel dangerous and worth playing.
There has currently been a lull in the amount of new MMORPG's for a few years that retain players or with any potential to become the next "WoW." However i would argue the times have moved on from MMORPG's. Alot of the people who play them now are older then when i started. In fact alot of the same age group from my time is the majority still. The times then were different with connectivity online still a kinda hype thing even as late as the early 2000's from IM's from the mid to late 90's to the social media monsters of the 00's. The amount of marketing and money that went into WoW as well before and after it's original release was tremendous. From tons of big names vouching it to news casts beguiling normal people who had never touched a MMO or even a video game to try it. Also the world economy is much weaker now for most people and as such less time to dedicate to a MMO if at all... especially with a monthly cost. I do not see Ashes doing anything in of itself as "Potential" other then on a more macro scale filling a void for those of us who want a decent designed game that has many newer game development features as well as a well rounded feel when it comes to game-play option/design.
No white knight or black knight here.. we try to keep things level.
A more or less expected " Endgame " that will never feel stagnant and like an "Endgame" where You are stuck doing nothing.
It sounds a L~OT like it will feel alive Twenty-Four-Seven and that all Year around. Plus we get Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter Seasons ingame,
which will make the Game look and feel even cooler. It is something that not even the former(?) King of MMO's, a.k.a. World of Warcraft had - and which it's Developers are to lazy to develop since Years and Years by now. (lol)
The Fact that it seems, like COUNTLESS (hopefully many, MANY Players) can choose to be either Part of a Community,
of one Town (Node) or several -> wage War against other Towns - even have something like political(?) Strife similar like in the Story of Game of Thrones or other Fantasy-Universes which feel somewhat realistic,
the Fact that there will most likely be "ALWAYS" something to do - because there will always be Players who need something,
and of Course Team-Work is stronger as when People do things completely alone - that alone is what would feel nice for once.
You can play for Example about 95% to 98% of World of Warcraft alone.
You can even "Solo" Dungeons and Raids from former Expansions alone, if you are just strong enough and if you can dodge the FEW Boss Mechanics that negate pure, raw Strength Advantages.
I have nothing against an MMO - that " feels " like an MMO for once. I can live with the fact, that i am not unlikely easy Prey for others if i choose to play the Game completely alone.
This Game is not a single Player, right ? I love the Thought that the Developers will also make it feel that way.
✓ Occasional Roleplayer
✓ Currently no guild !! (o_o)
2. Probably the node systems and the player politics that surround it.