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.
wow there is finally a races and classes page on here
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Compared to female models, there are somewhat decent. Females are just straight up furies.
Someone on Twitter once described AoC races as ''lacking testosterone'' and called out armor for being badly designed and way too simplistic. I tend to agree.
Never, ever would I imagine that I would lose interest in MMO because of artstyle, but here we are...
This (not a bad thing imo), but its poorly illustrated. At least DnD has good armor design.
Ty!
Elfs have this sunken elongated face that they are trying to pass as stylization, which just looks horrible.
Concept art looks better then 3d models.
I don't care if it's stylized. I just want quality, and for it to look cool.
I don't mind more realistic styles either, but they aren't a requirement.
I agree the elves are supposed to be a fair race and they’re not even pretty looking. The art style is bad for sure not something I’d expect from a game launching after 2025 maybe not even a 2026 release. I’ve got to be honest my favourite games are like Japanese style ones, such as monster hunter and final fantasy. I really think Arche Age Chronicles looks better than this it’s a bit of a let down. The quality is just not there looks really cartoonish I hate the weird looks of the 3D models I hope this is not what we’re going to get in-game. They need to find a balance between western and eastern art styles this is what I’ve been saying just looks super unrealistic.
I feel like some WoW fanboy has a hand in making these models and art it’s like we’ve gone back in time. Imagine a better version of WoW but still looks shitty and cartoonish. I’ve got to be honest like if anyone thinks it looks good you’re on hard copium!
Again I see no issue in promoting women or anything like that so before this thread descends into anarchy. Why is everything so cartoonish and way out of field, elves don’t even look like typical elves they’re a fair race. The human looks better than the elf who designed this needs sacking!
Dont mind stylized either, but I hate the way they do it.
What bothers me is that it seems like its done by someone who is not comfortable with changing art styles.
Hahahahahahaha. Perfect description.
I am going to give Intrepid the benefit of the doubt. But I hope this site has another pass and an actual experienced branding agency is working on this. It does look like it was put together internally for Alpha 2. Which is fine if this is supposed to be temporary until launch. There's boxes on boxes within the web modules and way too much drop shadow used. The copywriting could use some love.
Good examples:
Throne and Liberty weapon format that would work well showing classes: https://www.playthroneandliberty.com/en-us/game/gameplay
Elder Scrolls Online use of paralax to add movement as you scroll. Also like that they curate their images better with enough contrast so there's no need for boxes behind headline/subhead. https://www.elderscrollsonline.com/en-us/updates/chapter/necrom
Hogwarts Legacy's great use of their decorative border frames around images, similar to AoC.
https://www.hogwartslegacy.com/en-us
Dragon's Dogma 2 format for class showcase. Just don't like their use of outer glow on text. It's unnecessary and a poor design choice,
https://www.dragonsdogma.com/2/en-us/action/
It's on this site.
This is the page for the various races: https://ashesofcreation.com/races
Here's the page for the archetypes: https://ashesofcreation.com/archetypes
What would be very cool is a built in quasi-character creator to show the variety of racial or archetype options you can choose from. That or put the art in gif format (or equivalent) that cycles through those variants. But yeah, more effort into game development than marketing.
Perhaps a little lore about where in Verra that race and its variances came from and what’s changed since the Apocalypse. Frankly I don’t feel connected to these races without more meaningful information. It’s probably there in the lore, but not shared at the moment. I also see strong connections in real life with races to the land (or sea), as these environmental factors then to shape a race or culture.
As for connection of the “splash” art to the PC, I think there’s zero relevance and zero correlation. Players are going to play what characters are going to play. The character creator shown in the past showcase indicates it should be capable of capturing what most players desire. Some play characters that look similar to themselves whereas others play characters who look nothing like themselves because they play the game as an escape.
There are red flags some players will have with the embrace with modern trends.
Race Swap for established character. This is a common theme with modern media pushing their agenda. It can work if they attend to story and other things beyond just “praise my race”. This is not applicable to Ashes because there are no established characters to race swap.
Gender Swap for established character. Similar to race, but with gender. Also not applicable to Ashes for the same reasons.
“Soft” art versus edgy. I can see this criticism given that Steven has previously stated the game is intended for mature audiences. Therefore expectations would be for more edgy art rather than the kinder, gentler art of today’s modern style. But at the same time, it’s all subjective. People will be offended by art. However when some players see a softer art style, they wonder whether that will extend to the game itself. I personally think there is very little correlation to the splash art and the game itself. We’re talking about art that isn’t the in game art. It’s marketing. Just like cut scenes rarely match the in game content for most games, although that can change as Unreal goes through its upgrades to the point it’s rendering cinematic art for game play and not just cut scenes.
My criticism of the current media trends in diversity is they really aren’t doing justice to the medium. We see too many productions where they abuse both the IP and the characteristics they are attempting to diversify, and therefore they abuse the audience or customer. The characters need good, unique stories. Which is why any “swap” or remake is generally bad. It’s also lazy. Some can pull it off masterfully, but those are too few and far between. It’s also the result of promoting people before they’ve developed the tools and experiences to deliver their art as a master rather than an amateur. So quality is diminished. Perhaps a couple of decades of really bad media will result in something decent. Just seems like the tendency to want to destroy the old to make way for the new results in something less than taking the best of both to develop the skills and media to make something truly great. But then that doesn’t align with current definitions of “good” or the current cancel culture. I think comedy has been the hardest hit by these modern trends. I have seen no evidence of any of this happening at Intrepid. Steven has assembled a collection of people to attempt to develop something great, well at least compared to the latest offerings on the market (kind of a low bar, frankly). But I do get why some feel “sensitive” for the trends towards mediocrity.
Detailed but readable, realistic but fantastic, mature but colorful. Fit's the ingame style of the very well, that gave me the same traits
He has a Point, though.
But i think they made this nicely in Toril, the World of DnD. I heard/read(?) that People of all (human) ethnic Looks can live everywhere.
Boom ! Fixed.
But on Verra -> You have for Example the " Kae'lar Riverlands ". A Place fixed by Location. But Kae'lar can be completely white or completely black. Which is kinda confusing. I think all Vaelune look arabic ?? (o_O)
✓ Occasional Roleplayer
✓ Guild is " Balderag's Garde " for now. (German)
Verra hasn't been inhabited by any of these races for a long, long time. Whether the variation has always been there, or only occurred after the apocalypse that sent them running off to another world, doesn't really matter. It's still a mundane aspect that they have wide pigment variations.
I'd assume Vaelune will have just as much customization available in that regard, though I doubt you'll be able to make a human-toned Vek (lilac purple to navy blue is my assumption on color range til I can mess with it this weekend) maybe Renkai could get close just with the green tinge. Both elven races I'm sure will have the full human skintone range. Tulnar? Couldn't even begin to guess what sort of options for color those will have but I'm praying for no neon green fur or too-eyeburning lizards
Again, as far as we know right now, it's most likely that the genetic diversity for melanin-related phenotypes was establlished before leacing Verra for Sanctus. The split from Aela to Khalar and Vaelune is mostly cultural.
Pale or dark-skinned Vaelune will probably all have some essense markings on them -indicating their Jinn lineage.
In reality there are plenty of people who claim people are made by a god or gods. People still look different based on where they developed.
To say "they all look different because the gods made them that way" is just lazy writing. And it robs the lore of backstory and development for in depth description of each race.
Prime example are the difference between the ape tulnar, the wolf tulnar, and the lizard tulnar. Why are all tulnar vastly different? "Just because" and "gods made them like that" is boring as hell
Except unlike real life, gods within a fantasy setting actually exist in a demonstrable fashion in the universe. It doesn't rob the races of having cultural exposition in addition to their original creation being orchestrated by a deity.
For Tulnar specifically, there is lore for why there's so much variety in their forms. It's a short scroll on the wiki. Not exactly hidden.
So explanations are bad? Man, wait until Tolkien fans hear about how one of the most beloved fantasy worlds is trash for explaining things.
Except no one said that. Anywhere.
I disagree. There's nothing unusual about a variety of skin tones, whereas some things that are unusual is Vaelune djinn markings, or Py'Rai branchlers, dwarven height or elven magical longevity.
The lore comes in to explain the irregular and the fantastical elements, not mundanity.
It's doesn't need to be unusual to have details. Just shows a history. "It's always been like this" is also bad writing
I think you’ll find that Tolkien never explained the origin or source of magic in his writing, and he just related it to the creative powers of a supreme deity that created the world. Again it’s fantasy so you say you don’t want something as basic as the gods did this or that but that’s exactly what Tolkien did… do you even do research before you say anything?
Oh please, go read Letter 155 from Tolkien. He even expresses a regret not being more descriptive about magic and goes into some details about it's nature and use.
He still never gave a logical reason why magic existed in the first place or what it was, and I think you’ll find he even struggled with that concept himself. It also didn’t come across the way he wanted it to and was more akin to abilities befitting the beings he created. Again it’s all just divine intervention regardless of if it was a god or a writer at the hands of it. You are literally playing a fantasy game and want a scientific logical reason for everything… then you deflect and try to bring Tolkien into it? What does that have to do with someone’s skin colour you literally make no sense, but I give up there’s no point talking to someone who’s just going to make me lose brain cells.
You are either literally contradicting yourself or have no clue what you’re talking about period.
my dude...the point is even Tolkien himself believed his world would have benefited from explaining the magic of it better...
Origins and explanations with details makes for better stories and lore. Otherwise you could get away with literally everything in the world youre making be gray blobs fighting gray blobs, for gray blob reasons, and gray blob ideals, all while never distinguishing between which gray blobs are the good or bad gray blobs, and which gray blobs are allies or enemies.
Arguing for the sake of less story sounds like arguing for the sake of arguing and no real end goal.
This is going a bit OT; but do you know if/think that the Nikua might have options for lighter skin and hair?
"Quod mens laeva vetat suadendo animusque sinister / Hoc saltim cupiant implere timore coacti"