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
Will that happen within alpha 2 or will there be a development phase in between alpha and beta where things like that and are completed?
99% of the people on these forums rallying against an API, from what I can tell, dont really know what it is or does, and theyre attributing it to how WoW used it which is a terribly poor example of API.
I'd be more than willing to talk about it, as I work with them on a daily basis and build/develop multiple things in and around an API. (Also, API does not mean Addons. I am 100% with Steven on no Addons)
1. Can we expect more dynamic behavior from a world boss if PvP ensues during the fight? A small example could be the boss putting a ring of fire around opposing players, forcing them to a fight to the death.
2. While they may be 'possible', will atypical builds be viable? Such as a mage/ranger with a sword, or a fighter with a bow. I can understand them not being the best spec, but having them be completely inefficient seems like a waste of space, of sorts.
At what phase of A2 is armor and it’s various impacts on combat and gameplay expected to appear, as armor is not mentioned in the A2 roadmap?
In particular, there are at least two competing paradigms concerning armor:
* First is the RPS thing (rock-paper-scissors): Light and heavy armor types superior vs magic and physical damage, respectively, with medium falling somewhere in the middle;
* Second is the impact of armor weight on Universal Skills, like block, dodge and sprint, plus similar effects in general;
* Next comes uniformity bonuses, as yet unspecified, from equipping all pieces of same weight;
* Finally, anything impactful flying under the radar - eg: specific damage subtypes, like lightning or piercing.
Can we expect a first pass at a complete picture in A2 phase 1? Phase 2?
Personally I’m curious how the main paradigms will find harmony.
I’m hoping the exclusion of “armor types vs gameplay” from the roadmap was just an oversight and we might get some information.
xoxo
LFG: Open World, tight knit coordination, multiple roles, will travel.
How many augments are expected to be in a 'school' and how are they organized and selected? How many augmentation options would a typical ability have within a single secondary archetype, both with and without consideration for limitations in opening access to individual augments.
How much and in what ways do augments resemble and differ from the passive nodes of the primary archetype skill tree as we have told they used similar code base to augments in the fighter showcases. Is any similarity in design style, degree of impact on skills able to be drawn from what we see in thouse passives. Are augments only buffs and additions to an ability, as seems the case with passives or can they remove/replace major aspects of an ability. How will Augments on an ability interact with passives that also modify the ability.
"Very Transformative" changes being possible with augments was recently mentioned. Dose that extend to changing the entire purpose of an ability. Fighter/Mage having its gapcloser (Blitz) become a Blink directly to enemy has been mentioned many times but this is still a gapcloser. Would something like a Mage/Tank (Spellstone) having its Blink ability stop being a self movement ability and become a traditional tank pull ability which Blinks the enemy to you be the kind of 'very transformative' change we could expect?
On a somewhat related note, is there any update on when name reservations will be available for Kickstarter backers?
I'm bringing several friends who are new to sandbox MMOs and MMOs in general, and they're particularly interested in Ashes. Have you started developing a new player experience for newcomers like them?
Explanation-
We all know someones first few hours a game matter, but with a game like Ashes where the most enjoyment will come with long term play, how do you plan on grabbing newer players and keeping them interested and active in the game within their first 3 or 4 hours of playtime?
Any special starting zones planned? Maybe a mini or mock node war to get them started on that? Almost like a bootcamp of sorts? A low level Dungeon? This needs to be skippable of course but it should be an option to people that have never played an MMO or even a Sandbox MMO before.
Almost all MMOs suck at this but sometimes they do small things well, but they tend to bait and switch you by leaving out end game systems that just can't be packed into a tutorial but the game revolves around.
Some examples of early game experiences-
Runescape has Tutorial Island
WoW has Exile's Reach and before that every starting zone was basically a tutorial.
Age of Conan had a decent Tutorial
New Worlds apparently was not bad (didn't play it)
Tera's pre-2016 Island of Dawn let you try higher level versions of the classes
Ragnarok had a fun little quiz to see what class you might enjoy, great for new players
Good question, How will the game differ for people that don't participate with guild wars and castle sieges? I'd like to see the ability to queue for a battleground once a week for castle sieges to participate with the content even tho my guild will never be in the running for a castle.
Is there plans to travel through planes of existence later in development?
Ashenforge from Clan FÖRGE! Just want to say great work getting the game this far! My question is more related to the Alpha 2 testing side of the game.
Will there be a in game built reporting system?
Recently Forge has had the pleasure of testing Pax Dei's Early Release. They have a built-in reporting system in-game and screenshot option to help with describing the events leading up to the bug report. It is a very easy to approach system that is user friendly to make even the newest MMO tester a master at identifying bugs.
FOR THE FORGE!
What time will the servers go up and down on the weekends and will there be different times depending on the region or does every server open and close at the same time?