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
massively MULTIPLAYER online game.
So you ARE able to discern the answer, you just arbitrarily choose not to. That tells me all I need to know. Have fun looking for a solo experience in an group based MMO
You asked me for a list of MMORPG's I was talking about in relation to not seeing masses of solo players.
I provided you with that list.
Please explain to me either where I am not seeing those solo players, or where you were very incorrect with your assertion that 50%+ of MMORPG players play solo.
The thing with making up obvious lies like this is that even if you fool some of us posters (you didn't), MMORPG developers and producers have actual hard data. They know how many people are grouping up, how many are running a given type of content, how many are in guilds etc. In some cases, they publish that data for their players to look over - this data that some developers have published in the past is how I know that you basically added an extra 0 to your claim of solo player percentage.
I disagree that a 100% solo player will have worse gear. you might not be able to farm the gear yourself, but you can always farm something else and buy the gear, even if it takes a little while. gear isn't bound here.
No I wasn't able to till AFTER you said I gave you a clear anwser
I also asked you another question which you ignored, because you know it would prove you wrong.
Plenty of people are in a guild, but are mostly playing solo when they are logged in.
Maybe my definition of solo is different, idk.
Haven't really read much for the past few pages, but my opinion is that this game looks to heavily favor groups, which is kind of fine. But it also seems to heavily punish solo players, based on what we've seen so far (which is a key point). Maybe we just haven't seen enough of the game yet to judge it, but on what we've seen so far, it's all group content that cannot be dole solo. This is why it appears that solo players will have NOTHING meaningful to do in this game, which not only puts them behind groups, but also heavily punishes them for their choice.
If I get to have meaningful group content, that I might do once or twice a day, whether it's caravans, world bosses, dungeons, events, while still being able to do my own thing in between, whether it's just farming mobs, farming crops on my plot of land (that I won't have since, well.. freeholds are very limited), gathering, exploring, etc. - I'm going to be happy, as long it feels like I'm progressing, rather than doing something just for the sake of it.
As always I'm going to compare Ashes to my favorite MMO, Archeage.
- Freeholds are going to probably be limited to groups, guild leaders, or other more rich and powerful people, not really to solo players. (In Archeage you could get land as a solo player relatively easily. Ofc if you wanted many plots, it would be more difficult, but very possible).
- Farming mobs, we know there are going to be solo hunting grounds so that's something at least. (In Archeage, you could realistically do it in PvP areas, you'd get ganked sometimes, if not often, but it's not big of a deal, you can respawn and go agane)
- Trade runs/caravans, realistically the way they work and how "slow" they are to spawn and to move, I don't think solo players will be realistically able to complete any, without getting ganked by groups. (In Archeage, solo is doable in risky areas, and there were also safe zones where you could also do trade runs - they would take 20-30min with a farm cart, rewards are ok - but if you want better rewards, there's more risk by going out to the sea...risk vs reward, you know). In Ashes, this seems to heavily lean into risk, as there's a high chance for no reward.
- Gathering, could potentially be contested, depending on rarity of materials you are trying to gather. (In Archeage, it's mostly done on your plot of land, other than mining which was at different spots on the map, sometimes in the PvP zones, not much risk)
The rest of the stuff is group content, which will be the key part of the game, something that will make you more powerful, etc. which is how it should be. The above content I mentioned, should be more open to solo players, because you need to do something during that "downtime" when you are not in a group, competing vs other groups.
- Caravans' risk/reward should be there, we should be able to choose how risky we want something to be, and therefore be rewarded accordingly. At the moment, it just looks like high risk, without any options to choose lower risk (well the option is, you make a group every time you want to transport something, but it will only draw more attention, so it ends up being the same).
- Gathering, more rare materials, more risk, regular materials, low risk.
- Farming mobs, those that drop better xp, and loot, more risk, regular farming spots, low risk.
- Freeholds, in reality you cannot really put the risk & reward here, unless we are talking about where you place your freehold, meaning how dangerous the area is, depending on player activity. In reality, solo players should have some housing options, where they can have a plot of land to farm stuff on it. Maybe that plot will be a lot smaller, meaning you can farm less stuff on it, which is fine, you need to work for a bigger plot.
Overall at the moment, based on what we know, this game feels like risk vs reward, but there's only high risk. In most areas of the game, this means solo players are at a very high risk to get no reward.
On top of that, there are several systems that are going to be limited to select few people, or rather to most rich/powerful people/groups on the server, further leaving "solo" or just regular players with not that much.
Cool I must have missed it. Feel free to point me to it like I pointed you to the question you didn't answer.
Unlike you though, if you point me to the question you think I didn't answer, I'll answer it for you instead of dodging it.
In other words do you think in 9.5 years you would get another 5 million people playing the game and if so that would be 50% of the player base being solo players for most if not all of their leveling experience.
When you basically type "assumption, assumption, assumption, question", you kind of can't expect the question to be taken seriously.
My actual answer to your question is that I do not expect Ashes to be live for 10 years, so your question isn't something that I can answer. If you rephrase it in a way where you aren't making layered assumptions leading in to a question, I could attempt to answer it. However, in the above form, it is not a question that can be answered.
I will also point out that your rephrasing of the question in your post above is actually a different question. In that post, you are only talking about people playing during their leveling up process. MMORPG's that have published play time statistics all have around 90% of all online time in their game being on characters at the current level cap, so the leveling process only makes up 10% of total play time - meaning even if 50% of players leveling up were unguilded, that only makes on 5% of total play time for the game as a whole.
Now it's your turn to tell me the games you were talking about where 50%+ players play the game unguilded.
Not start the game unguilded, where 50%+ are unguilded.
Why wont the game last that long? EverQuest is still running and its been 25 years since that game launched.
With a quick skim, it's way too long with too many unrelated details, making it hard to follow the main point. Further posts also seem to diverge from what I expected based on the title.
Is there a problem for solo players or is there some other problem?
A tldr: Solo players are not the intended audience for Ashes and as such will be disadvantaged in PvE and PvP. True statement.
Then they claimed half of the entire MMO population is solo players and that Ashes would fail due to a lack of solo-rewarding content.
EQ is, sure. But then, EQ is a PvE focused MMORPG.
PvP focused MMORPG's have a long history of, well, not lasting as long.
If you look at the numbers required to maintain a single server in Ashes with it's current design (as far as we understand it), it would need to be in the top three most popular PvP focused MMORPG's in order to maintain a single server. A game can't maintain that for a prolonged period of time.
Either way, you have a question to rephrase if you want an answer, and an answer to a question to provide.
I expect the vast majority of Ashes players will belong to a Guild.
People in Guilds still Adventure Solo, at least sometimes, rather than only Adventuring in a Group.
I'm not expecting Ashes to have better numbers than Albion.
The longer Ashes takes to release, the fewer people will play it. Because there will be plenty of other games to play. Especially for PvEers and Casual-Challenge players and Casual-Time players... and Soloers (people who mostly Adventure without joining a Group).
Technically no, the OP just points out all the different systems that screw solo players which is basically all of them. Then comes to conclusions about how this game will end up going in the long run. Which is nothing new for Hardcore PvP games.
If you think solo/casual players shouldn't have a (not all, not most, not some, not very little) game play loop to engage with at end game no problem. If you think that is a bad idea then that is a problem.
I am undecided. Is that a problem or not?
Since I have never stated anything like 50+% of players were unguilded in any game there's no reason for me to answer that.
What I have said is Solo players. So if you want to know how many games I have played like that literally all of them with the exception of EQ (the original not PJ 99).
Because the people coming into the game 6+ months after launch will have a much harder time finding a group. Which means they will spend most if not all of their time leveling solo. Which I would define as something that would make them a solo player even if temporarily.
And it's interesting you chose Albion since its a prime example of what I'm talking about. Launch number 1300, 1 year in 233, add a bunch of casual friendly stuff go free to play. The casual players are carrying that game.
I don't care it's your prerogative.
6 months after launch, players will be able to choose whether the want to Solo or Group.
If they want to Group, they can find players who play at the same time they do in open world housing.
They can form a Guild or join a Guild and participate in the Weekly Castle Village Sieges. They can participate in Caravan defense/attacks (even if they don't mecanically accept an invite to join a Group). They can participate in Node Sieges or Node Wars.
They can jump into Dungeons and fight alongside other players (even if they don't mecanically accept an invite to join a Group).
They can hang around near the Portals and find other people to Adventure with - if they want to Adventure with other players.
They can hang out in Taverns and find other people to Adventure with - if they want to Adventure with other players.
Or... they can Adventure Solo if they want to.
Also... Ashes does not have an Endgame. It is a dynamic game rather than a static game.
I dunno that Solo inherently equates with Casual.
Most MMORPG players are some form of Casual. Currently, Casual and Solo are not Ashes' target audience.
We will have to see whether Intrepid tweaks their philosophy regarding Risk v Reward and "PvX" years after launch.
Yes he d~ooees ... ... ...
If you want to play an MMO where You can "SOLO" +90% of the Open World, like in Worst of Warcraft,
then Ashes of Creation might not be the Game for You, Airborne.
You can get jumped and ganked by People " EVERYWHERE " - > by People who probably aim specifically for Lone Wolf-like Players who always run around solo.
Or run around most of their time solo. Do you really wish to be that easy an Target ?
I am more than willing than You being resentful at People -> if it means People will be "FORCED" to play a huge and i truly mean, "HUGE" Communities and Teams in this coming Game,
so that it actually " feels* " like we are indeed a mighty Node. A strong Village. An even stronger, ambitious Town. A veeery strong City. Or even a mighty Metropolis who entirely DOMINATES the surrounding Lands for Glory and Greatness.
Don't resent the Player. Resent the Game. (lol)
✓ Occasional Roleplayer
✓ Currently no guild !! (o_o)
Here is a refresher for you. Now, if st most 50% of players are in guilds, and a game only has two states in terms of guilds (in a guild, not in a guild) that means basic math demands thst you are saying that 50%+ people are not in guilds.
So, you did in fact say it. That is why I am waiting for your answer as to which games you are talking about.
Ok, then my statement is that solo / casual players should get a game play loop only in early stage of leveling. Groups should have higher chance of success by working together.
But the game should not favor large guilds.
Basically I agree with the way Steven decided to make the game from his money and t supporters money.
There will be solo content too:
"Social organizations cater for solo players who don't wish to engage in guild-oriented organizations.[7][8]"
We don't know much about them because in the Q&A sessions players don't seem to be interested enough to ask.
But they asked about group finder features which means they expect to be able to group spontaneously with other people. That will happen within the nodes as you will share the citizenship with other people, if you decide to be a citizen.
Citizenship will bring advantages. If you intend to become a citizen that means you join a group of players.
You are not quite solo anymore.
If you don't want to help your fellow citizens who also play outside of guilds, then you are very selfish and if there are many like you, your node will fall.
What we're creating is a PvX game; and what that means is our target audience is the PvX player; and that is our golden cohort. – Steven Sharif
The game is about nodes.
https://ashesofcreation.com/news/node-series-part-one
Nodes are About Community
PvX means PvP.
PvP means advantage to groups, especially those who protect or attack the caravans which move between the nodes.
Do you want to help your citizens or not?
I'm not that invested in this conversation. I don't play albion but i had a successful branch of my guild that was playing it and it was very group oriented.
https://massivelyop.com/2024/05/14/albion-online-has-broken-its-population-records-again-with-358k-concurrent-players/
tldr;
But the focus for Ashes is massive PvP battles.
And a typical encounter is balanced for an 8-person Group with one of each Primary Archetype.
Steven is not intending to cater to Solo players.
That would be the purvue of some other game.
This type of class system, where is designed for group content, will always have a few classes by the role they fill in a team, that will solo better then others. That being said, you will need to be selective as to what you try and solo. It will be a fact. If some solo play is your thing, make sure you pick the right class. Done!
Yeah, and how casual friendly is Albion online now? Somewhere between very and extremely. Solo dungeons, Blue Zones which prevent any PvP, easily acquired gear for PvP, among other features.