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
Can be true. But for me it's mainly an économical issue (between other potential issues) I don't to grind just for grinding. I alway liked crating and doing business in game (in real life too). In MMO's I like when you can find, craft, sell items a good price, whatever you are level 10 or 50.
What i don't like about big MMOs is the HUGE gap between hardcore/long term players and casuals/new players in levels. Mainly because if the server is 4 years old and it takes 300-400h of playtime to achieve lvl 50, new players will feel like they have a too long journey to achieve the same levels as hardcore players. And this is not to say if Intrepids doesn't increase the level cap. Gw2 does this well because at a certain point in the game, we all have the same power, so it's only a matter of knowledge and build varieties.
I would love it if it took 6 to 12 months for the majority of the players to get max level.
So far I have been agreeing with Intrepid's approach to levelling. ~250 hrs to max level seems like a solid amount of time that it is a meaningful achievement to hit 50. Plus, at launch we will all be in similar stages so if we lag behind by a few weeks or so its not a big deal.
But people joining later in the game might feel like it is just 250 hours before they can "play with everyone else".
It might just be one of those issues that Ashes has to tackle as it comes. What makes great MMOs is the dev team watching the player base and responding to what is working well and what isn't. The game at launch doesn't have to be the same game 1 year later or 4 years later. They are getting a subscription fee for a reason.
Another thing to think about are exponential tiers of character power (as opposed to character level). If it takes 50 hours to get 50% of max, 250 hours to 75% of max (at level 50), and 1000 hours to 100% of max, then there is a huge time overlap where the majority of players are in the same ballpark when it comes to raw character power.
This method could allow characters to have all these different sources of character power, including levels, while still keeping the game mostly skill based. 2 level 40s could still gank a decked out 50, possibly.
They have already talked about how they aren't going to have artificial level scaling, ie; combat modifiers based on level difference, like miss +5%/level or something. So that can play into this as well.
I didn't really appreciate any one saying stop thinking or stop taking about this its a very closed mind set that really sets how people see you, so i felt the conversation with you was done how ever a really good video come out from ashes of relation and i think people should watch it. in the early part of the vid
also predictive text made my last Question to you come out wrong and i was asking of something positive about level speed (not scaling).
You are not understanding half the points I'm talking about so im just sounding like a broken record. There are a lot of points ive already brought up.
At the core i dont' agree with you say there is 25% end game and in that 25% you are including pvp lol. So you are pretty much saying there is nothing for people to do at max level but a few pieces of content..
Please make things hard for us so they are meaningful!
✓ Occasional Roleplayer
✓ Guild is " Balderag's Garde " for now. (German)
There is no benefit to drawing out leveling beyond its use as a teaching system, and it ends up necessarily segregating players into players who can comfortably no-life the game and those that can't.
Ashes is already imo catering too much to the no-lifer play style. No need for it to infect leveling too.
Sir Steven said People will be able to hire NPC Troops as Mercenaries, right ?
So i assume it will be "heavily" influenced and/or depending if a Node is destroyed somewhat quickly or might stand tall and proud for several RealLife Years from how much Players are willing and able to invest into defending it.
It would be nice if People could make a Node super-hard to destroy if they just don't shy from high Expensives for a good while. It would reward high Effort and financial Sacrifice - and would secure People's Feeling of Safety regarding their Nodes.
✓ Occasional Roleplayer
✓ Guild is " Balderag's Garde " for now. (German)
This doesn't mean it's catering to no-life playstile, in my humble opinion. There will always be plenty of people around your level to do things with. A longer, more meaningful leveling experience just makes it all the more rewarding.
There's psychological tricks that might make you personally place higher value on the max level, but it's not actually more rewarding to extended the leveling processing.
Edit: Be mindful that leveling is more than anything else, an enforced time sink, during which systems are gradually introduced with the intention that you'll learn your class and the game systems over the duration of that time sink.
It does depend on how long Nodes stand.
And we don't have enough data to support assumptions about how easy it will or won't be for newbie player characters to Level 6+ months after Launch.
Depends...
Super-stable Metros make for stagnant content in Ashes...
We'll have to play to know how nice that might be.
Margaret probably agreees with you. Streven probably agrees with you.
That is, of course, more of a Hardcore playstyle thing.
This is true but many other elements become less meaningful if the leveling is fast. It's all a question of balance.
225 hours over 45-60 days is plenty of time to make use of gear. Progression through levels is vertical, so you'll never be losing power by holding onto gear for an extra level or 5.
There are no other systems that are hardwired in leveling speed.
Help Players to defend the Nodes against Attackers ?
Wasn't there like a Statement or several that Nodes need to conquer and subdue other Nodes to grow into LvL 6 Metropolisses ?
I don't think it will be that easy. But not like we are going to test that anytime soon. That is at least still a good Year from here on.
Oh geez. You might be right. Maybe a super-stable Metro would be horrible for many People who would love some change in the World of Verra and might never get it - as long as a certain few Locations are always with a Metropolis.
But when the Metropolis CAN. NOT. otherwise than fall someday
✓ Occasional Roleplayer
✓ Guild is " Balderag's Garde " for now. (German)
sure but whats more important then? that's the question.
slow leveling can be very meaningful in an open world PVP game if every level matters, kind of like in l2 where if you are a skill level ahead of your opponent, they have almost no chance, or mobs suddenly become much easier because your increased invisible stats, making you use less SS and saving you money, etc. but there isn't a lot to do in l2 pve beside killing mobs for exp/loot/money, aside from a few quests here and there and bosses
i find 2 months reasonable in ashes, considering that there will be a lot of stuff to do besides killing mobs.
While others want to get to the “fun” content without having to grind. Which is why there is a market for level boosts in other RPGs.
Since AoC is a PVX sandbox, the rate of leveling may not really matter and is perhaps arbitrary. Trying to provide a sense of the old school level grind without the old school level grind.
So looks like they’re going after a 2 month period to get to “end game”, although it’s not really end game. Some might say level 50 is where the game begins.
I’d prefer a slower leveling experience at the rate of 5 levels per in game year (1 or 2 months real time). Meaning 10 months to reach level 50 at minimum. Node progression needs to be at least 2-5 times as slow, or exponential as the node progresses higher. So a Metropolis ought to feel like a Titan in Eve Online.
That would quickly and immediately turn a lot of potential players away. Nearly 5 months just to unlock your secondary class? Absolutely not.
Nodes are meant to rise and fall with decent speed, because that's how content is enabled or disabled within the world. It shouldn't take 10months before we see a metro-based dungeon.
I find reasonable the time announced of 45 days (4-6) hours per day ONLY if it's calculted on the XP time only. Otherwise it's way to short if it included side activities of the game.
I also prefer a slower leveling experience. I don't want to rush to get max level. It should be a marathon not a sprint.
Whether it is a marathon or a sprint that dis your choice. No one says you have to power level to 50 and bypass everything else till your max level.I have taken 3 months to get to max level when others have done it in 7 days in other games. I spent the first 9 days 12 hours per days in New World chopping trees and got to max level almost entirely on crafting /gathering.
So in that regard my view is this isn't about people wanting to actually level slower it is actually about certain people forcing other people to level slower because they don't like people to level faster than them! Comes off as petty and not everyone gets a ribbon!
I am never in a rush to get to max level. I just enjoy the ride it takes to get there. I am always wanting the experience to last longer and like it when it means something to gain a level. i don't care who beats me to the finish line. It's just my personal preference.