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.
[Feedback Request] Alpha Two Citadel of the Steel Bloom & Firebrand Preview | August Livestream
Hello glorious community,
We’d like your feedback on the Citadel of the Steel Bloom & Firebrand Preview shown during the August 2024 Development Update Livestream.
To help guide this conversation, here are a few thought starters you can choose from:
We’ll be compiling a report for the design team on Friday, September 13, 2024, so please try to get your feedback into this thread by then!
Everyone here at Intrepid Studios looks forward to reading all the feedback you have to share!
🐉 🤺 Our glorious adventurers defeated the legendary raid boss Firebrand in this gameplay video!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T1gJiGXStHA
We’d like your feedback on the Citadel of the Steel Bloom & Firebrand Preview shown during the August 2024 Development Update Livestream.
To help guide this conversation, here are a few thought starters you can choose from:
- How do you feel about the Citadel of the Steel Bloom & Firebrand Preview?
- What excites you about playing and interacting within the Citadel, its enemies, and Firebrand?
- Is there anything in particular you’re excited or concerned about regarding what was shown with the Citadel of the Steel Bloom & Firebrand Preview?
- Are there similar areas or enemies you’ve seen in other games that you like or dislike? If so, please explain!
We’ll be compiling a report for the design team on Friday, September 13, 2024, so please try to get your feedback into this thread by then!
Everyone here at Intrepid Studios looks forward to reading all the feedback you have to share!
🐉 🤺 Our glorious adventurers defeated the legendary raid boss Firebrand in this gameplay video!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T1gJiGXStHA 
7
Comments
Some dragon animations didn't feel like the dragon has any weight, especially the landing animations... legs should bend, etc. The dust going up in the air during the rest of the fight was amazing.
Please show UI customization next, it popped up a bit in the video.
4 loot items for 40 people seems very very skimpy. Please give bosses, raids, etc. also personal loot. Only a few items on a need/greed is not up to modern standards.
In regards to necromancer archetype for summoners (and other classes/archetypes in general if applicable) will we be able to interact with some of the cool environment IE, the bones everywhere, when we animate a skeleton will it pull from those? Will it require corpses? It would be neat to see the tie in lore wise for necromancer with the lore about the king that created the undead enemies we have seen showcased prior
For the dungeon: I would say overall, decent. I like the slow, intentional pulls, and the overall feel of it. But the ending looked too easy for what it is.
Firebrand felt good. I'd like to see it polished and tweaked, maybe add some more mobs to manage for the OT? I'd also like to see knockbacks on some of his attacks, adds some stakes into where a player is standing.
Additionally, you could introduce a phase where the boss shields itself (fir shield), reflecting a percentage of damage back to the players as a fire, until the shield is broken by a specific mechanic or coordinated group effort. And I love the idea with environmental hazards AoE zones that force players to reposition quickly or suffer significant damage.
2. FOV very obscured when looking toward the sun, there was alot of dust/smoke in the air. Idk if it was intended.
3. Party merge/invite party would be nice
4. Visual indicator of party/raid members. When a couple people were missing I wouldn't visually see who would need to get invited.
5. Flamebrands flying line of breathe attack left a cindering graphical effect but didn't dmg players if they stepped on it. Idk if it was intended.
6. Steven took direct flame and took no dmg
7. Steven walked through fire circle and took no dmg
8. Assuming 5-7 was Steven on God Mode.
9. Target of target, when it was flamebrand the avatar png was missing, his cool dragon skull would be cool.
10. Would using ice/lightning based skills on the target while its in water have advantageous effects?
11. I was going to comment about the devouring flame text playing into the fight, I saw he absorbed essesence streams from the adds but what was the effect of it?
12. Idk if its intended to not have physics interactions on the water surface when the dragon is thrashing about.
13. Emberblade 100% should be renamed or used in a recipe for a Fire Brand
14. The dragons death throw animation, when it falls to the ground should damage who is under it
15. World 1st groups screenshots should be auto collected for use in announcements/PR
I also do have some concerns with open world pvp in these types of zones. I assume that means these fights will even be more strenuous, so to succeed in fending off pvp, and beating the dragon, to still get nothing, would make it just feel worthless
Edit: I've given this even more thought. I think something interesting/fun/motivating that could happen is that as you participate in these world bosses you could get tokens/credits something every time you defeat one or participate in the battle. Then maybe you could use them to buy certain cosmetics or little items to work for. Even if you dont want everyone getting big drops, this could be a great alternative to farming up some type of currency to get some cool cosmetics for those that dont get any of the real loot, something like the trading post in wow perhaps?
The mobs encountered throughout the event are disappointingly easy. Initially, I was uncertain about the star-based ranking system for mobs showcased in the last livestream, but it has grown on me. However, the mobs in Ashes of Creation seem too simplistic and lackluster. If 1-2 star mobs are meant to resemble elites, then 3-4 star mobs should behave like mini-bosses, with 5-star mobs serving as true Bosses. Players should feel genuinely threatened when pulling a group of 1-2 star mobs, but that sense of danger just isn’t there. Content of this nature should encourage players to group up, yet currently, it doesn’t feel necessary. The mobs need a lot more development; the AI and mechanics are underwhelming, with only the occasional interesting mechanic appearing here and there.
The Lady of the Rose desperately needs a walking animation—right now, she looks like a static image gliding across the screen, reminiscent of an old-school RPG. This, along with the overly scripted nature of her movements, diminishes the experience. Adding more emotes and animations would enhance the encounter, making it feel less mechanical. Even if players choose to skip much of the story, gameplay during significant events should still feel cinematic and engaging.
The Citadel of the Steel Bloom section in the preview feels rushed, incomplete (understandable for pre-Alpha 2), and almost like an afterthought. It doesn't seem as polished or loved as other POIs like Carphin, which at least feels more finished and cohesive.
The Dragon encounter at the end raises several concerns. While I understand that the cultists were using the Dragon’s egg as a focus for their ritual, slaying the Dragon rather than returning its egg makes me feel like the villain. What happens to the egg afterward? Do we get to keep it and raise it as a mount? The rest of the quest has little to do with dragons, which makes this conclusion feel disjointed. A more cohesive narrative might involve fighting an Ancient at the end, or having the Dragon itself send players on a quest to retrieve its egg. Perhaps the Lady of the Rose’s spirit could guide players through the event from the beginning, explaining the cultists' plans to corrupt her Citadel.
The Dragon fight itself, while relatively simple, is actually enjoyable as an introduction to open-world bosses. Had this been presented a few months ago in the Tumok livestream, I would have been much more satisfied. I was vocal about my dislike for Tumok, so seeing the improvements here is promising. The music, while decent, feels a bit generic, like stock epic fight music, but the animations and sound effects are excellent. However, I do find myself wanting more. I envision something akin to the T-Rex in Jurassic Park—a more intense, memorable encounter. And if dragons in this world possess intelligence, as in D&D, it would be incredible if the Dragon could speak to the players in the Draconic language of Verra during the fight.
the only thing I would change about this fight is that the Dragon has two distinct pulse attacks: one of fire and the other a force-based wave. Currently, these pulses don’t pose much of a threat; they can be face-tanked with little consequence. To make these mechanics more impactful, I would like to see these pulses inflict significantly more damage, requiring players to take them seriously. Additionally, it would be interesting if players could jump over these pulses to avoid damage entirely. As of now jumping over the pulses didn’t seem to have any effect, which undermines the potential skill expression here.
The fog, dust, bloom, and sunrays were far too rampant and too extreme. They need to be dialed back as it makes it impossible to see anything.
Is there anything in particular you’re excited or concerned about regarding what was shown with the Citadel of the Steel Bloom & Firebrand Preview?
I'm concerned about the lack of contesting parties being shown, since this is a PvX game. What happens if another group comes and fights you during the event? I think this is an important part of the game that needs to be represented in the streams.
I thought the part where the NPC was walking to the altar was a bit undercooked. You want this to be a memorable character, not just a moving jpg. I think in general, the Citadel was not showcased in a very flattering way. I think it would have been a good idea for Steven to hop on a flying mount for a couple seconds to give an aerial view of the dungeon.
I also think Firebrand shouldnt just be sitting idle after spawning in and flying down, but I guess that was likely just for the stream. He should have playful idle animations, sleeping animations, nesting animations, etc.
Firebrand Mechanics:
I thought the first phase of Firebrand was a little lacking mechanics wise, but I think it picked up a lot during the second phase. I really liked the flame devouring mechanic that buffs his damage, but also saw someone mention a mechanic where Firebrand could trap someone in a ball of flame and devour them if the group doesnt perform an action (maybe a DPS check or some other thing).
I also think that a prevalent problem with the mobs and bosses in ashes is they don't do anything EXCEPT damage or applying debuffs. I would expect things like the tail swipe to launch players out of position if they are hit. I would expect slam moves to knock people down. I would expect roaring attacks to silence people.
Are there similar areas or enemies you’ve seen in other games that you like or dislike? If so, please explain!
Placidusax from Elden Ring:
Bayle from the Elden Ring DLC:
Not as much to say directly for this showcase compared to an archetype preview, but I wanted to chime in a bit. The environment looks amazing, and I can see a lot of work has gone into setting the theme for the area and the
Overall, the player-side combat feels like it's progressing well, and once we have fully fleshed out skill trees, weapons, secondary archetypes, etc., then things will start to look awesome and more fluid, and we can make more formulated opinions.
However, from an NPC side, monsters need perhaps (very slightly) less HP and more big telegraphed or forced reaction mechanics. I think most people appreciate if fights are busy, fast, and full of stuff to react to rather than stagnant HP Piñata style periods. Especially in raids.
During the Citadel, it felt that Steven being relatively inactive due to focusing on showcasing, asking questions, etc. had no real impact on the weight of the fight. In an ideal scenario with him using all his tools and being in melee range to do weapon DMG, the fight, in my opinion, would have looked even easier. It was worded as hard and expecting some deaths, so I do feel it needs amping up so that a 7/8 situation like that should be noticeable. Or the bard was just so good that the other cleric was able to pull twice the weight. I think a good method is considering the above point, more frequently mechanics to make the players react so that if you're just idling around, you'll get punished.
The dragon raid boss seemed A LOT cooler. I really appreciated seeing the add phase and the environmental damage. Perhaps to make it even more epic, consider making the environmental damage flames linger longer to bottleneck players and create a chokepoint. Since the dragon was said to specifically try to aim its breath attack at the most dense player bunch, it will tie together cohesively if the mechanics also try to force that.
As always, thank you for all the hard work!
As far as criticism, the only big issue I saw is the fog and lighting effects are a bit out of control when facing the sun. For example:
Positives:
To work on:
Also a bit concerned about PVP ganking in these non-instanced zones. Does this mean smaller groups will never be able to do this content? Not sure if this was already adressed.
The folks in our guild voice channel think that it'd be good if those types of abilities could interrupt or knockback spell cast progression.
For me personally I don't want raiding to equate to a full-time job and participating in a 1-4 hour raid or longer (to compensate for wipes) and then not even get an item out of it; has always felt bad in any mmo. Just leaving this feedback here as I think players should be rewarded for participating in major raid content and for succeeding/completing that content.
My biggest concern so far really has to be the loot system though. No one should be walking away from a fight they contributed to with nothing to show for it.
to note from Simpetar, it'd be cool if you could color hue enemy/friendly attacks similar to ESO in a way at least for friendlies so that you can easily differenciate between aoe's.
Generally speaking I'm very curious as to the limits to how many custom keybinds we can set, by the video its looking to be around 18-20 but would love some confirmation.
For us, at least the presentation of this content was absolutely terrible.
Not negative on everything, obviously, but there's so much of it that we're briefly 'assigning each person their subsection' to prevent too much repetition and limit the 'dogpile'.
@SongRune will be in charge of praising Bucky and questioning the immersion/lore of the Citadel (including some issues of the fights going into it)
@JustVine will probably be mentioning the good parts about the story arc, but also the parts that really mess with the open world feelings and disruption
@GrandSerpent will be alternately praising and complaining about visuals and visual design
@GrilledCheeseMojito will at some point talk about the dragon fight itself, tanking, tactics, etc
@SunScript will question all the various things related to the potential PvP around this boss
@SpaceWolf will probably give the perspectives of someone who doesn't actually track much outside of being told when to watch these streams.
As for me, I should probably stay out of it this time. I didn't like anything about this, but I don't know how to properly convey it while being positive about it from a development perspective, I'd end up over-comparing it to stuff I like a lot more.
I can say that this fight does not interest me in any form, I would almost certainly only engage with this to support Firebrand. And I hope that's what the designers wish, with their design. If you want 'dragon disciple' Players to show up and help Firebrand out, then it's looking decent, because my thoughts turn to actual tactics of how to synergize with Firebrand, and actually have a meaningful experience.
Keep working hard as best you can, team. I'm still working on figuring out if the issue with these is presentation or the base gameplay, but for me, this ain't it...
As for feedback, I want to offer thoughts on bad luck protection on farming these bosses.
As we know, it's entirely possible, no, it is highly likely for people to go months on end before they get a specific item they want. Not only are they hoping for their item to drop by RNG, but also when it does drop, you have to get luckier than a bunch of other people who want the same exact item. It happens very often that over time people give up entirely.
My solution is simple, add a special item that everyone is guaranteed to loot from the boss, after you kill the boss a few items (3-5-7-10 times) you can go to a special vendor OR to a crafter and use those special items to craft or buy the specific item you want.
On another note, I want to add UI related feedback.
Many people are switching over to OLED displays, which are getting cheaper and cheaper now, and are frankly the best displays on the market for everything not work related. OLEDs do suffer from permanent burn in after thousands of hours of static content though.
My suggestion is simple: Add a simple, UI wide alpha slider, so we can turn the UI transparent. That's all. Ideally we'd have two sliders, out of combat and in combat UI alpha. This would help tremendously and should be super simple to implement hopefully.
1. Wing attacks. In general, I would like to see more action with those wings. I think it would make the fight look better.
2. I think it would be nice if the dragon glares at you if you get close enough, but far enough not to combat agro. So it tracks characters that get close enough until it combat agros. (See Elswyr dragons from ESO)
3. More tail whips, please. Make people actively have to time a block. Punish them for trying to perma block. I like that players have to watch out for AOEs. Dances peons! Dance!
4. Fire in water. I would love to see the water have a boiling animation. Bubbles!
5. Fire animation in the braisers needs to be slowed down.
Overall, the stream looked good!
Loved the adds, needs more of those throughout the fight, as it added a really interesting dynamic. The Fire breaths are awesome and they really feel impactful from watching how fast they killed people. However the fire AoEs he does throughout the fight might need to be more impactful/long? I saw people running through them or just ignoring them so it didn't seem as if those were being respected from a viewer perspective and more were there for aethetics. It seemed like they happened but not much came from them. I would also like to see more charges of the fire breaths happen as he gets lower health. He does 2 fly bys of fire at the start, maybe increase that to 3 toward the end? Could also make his fire breath sweeping ability wider toward the end. Or just have an overall second phase of the boss that would cause like terrain change to become molten lava or whatever terrain type the dragon is. Just something else to add to the fight as what we saw in my opinion felt like a first phase of a world boss.
Overall this is a lovely direction to take this fight from the previous times that we have seen it. I hope you continue down this path of improving these fights like this. Main takeaway from all of this is more mobs/adds should be spawned by the dragon, the AoEs should maybe feel more impactful, but that might have just been viewer bias. I saw someone else mention there needs to be more stuff to react to, which I fully agree with. Don't be afraid to make the fights busy, as having more stuff to react to is always fun, worst case you just scale back, but you should go all out on the fights when making them.
However the mob damage inside the citadel was trivial. You could leave mobs unattended and nothing happened. The encounters looked nice, but not impactful or dangerous.
Battle ressing during combat really needs to be fixed. The firebrand encounter looked nice, but Steven continiously ressing people sort of ruined the whole encounter. 10+ min cooldown on ress on combat minimum.
Firebrands swirly ring animation looked nice, but didint really seem to do anything. The tailswipe animation also needs some work, it looked clunky.
Sound work and music was nice
The adds and siphoning in the firebrand encounter looked cool
The Dragon encounter was enjoyable, and no doubt would have gone differently if the players were forced to fight in more cramped areas. Making some parts of the encounter area provide a slowing effect due to the mud and muck- or having more above ground protrusions would provide more substance to the 'arena' that you would fight the dragon within.
Resurrect is currently a spammable ability that is too easy to use. It was said that combat rez'ing is risky due to high mana cost, long cast time, resurrecting on death location and so forth.. but having it tied to the divine power or some other form of 'cost' beyond just mana.. or having a larger cooldown period, would balance it into being less of a get out of jail free card that it currently acts as.
The Dragon itself should have more dynamic uses for it's abilities- tail swipes that knockback, short range firebreath attacks for hitting melee fighters at it's feet, interrupt based long cast AOE attacks such as that shockwave attack, to make the fight more dangerous and tactical. Right now, it was a spam attack and heal boss fight. It required very little tactics to handle, much to the point that a random group not using comms was able to tackle it without issue. If the design of this boss is to be handled by multiple groups of separate teams, then instead it should focus on more telegraphed slow casted abilities that can be seen by everyone, that deal a dangerous effect or heightened amount of damage.
The ability to summon that Lady of the Rose should be based around finding items of attachment within the citadel, promoting exploration and a proper amount of investigation to make the entirety of the citadel put to use. Currently, only the entrance, courtyard and elite fight room are being used for this event. Put the entire Citadel to use to truly immerse the players within this specific POI.
Naming schemes need actual fantasy names. NOT 'Orb of Ultimate Essence'. 'Orb of Virulent Essence' or 'Vessel of Malignance'.. something similar to that. More fantasy! More creativity!
AMNESTY
PvX OCE/SEA Guild
Discord https://discord.gg/Amnesty
https://amnestyguild.net/jointheguild