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.
I haven't played since APOC...
Salutations
Member, Alpha Two
Well done Intrepid. I haven't launched Ashes since the original APOC testing map and today confirmed for me that a solid foundation has been laid for this game. It needs a while to bake, but the recipe seems good. Once they get all the systems online, and dialed in together, I think it is going to be a lot of fun. Fine tune that PVX and keep cranking out some beautiful environments.
The scale and also difficulty of the game world is great, and the pacing of combat I really enjoyed! It blends some action combat features like active dodge roll (high stamina cost), active blocking and toggled sprint, with a classic feel. I tried a fighter and a ranger and the Z keybind to switch between action and tab was surprisingly smooth. I found myself using action cam for combat on the ranger, while switching to tab periodically when entering town or doing processing/crafting. For me it worked at first test, but I feel that I need more time to play around with it to know for sure.
Right down to watching your different skill xp go up in the chat box, you can feel the influence of more old-school mmos but with more modern character control and feedback. There also seems to be good customization between the archetype, weapon, and stamina skill trees for your character. The different tabs for the adventure equipment pane, and the artisan equipment pane is what I was hoping for.
The game design encourages you to group with other players for open world content, and rely on your fellow artisans for the different processing and crafting needs. Personally this is huge and I hope they keep this aspect of the game. If they can nail the trading, and the feeling of interacting with the economy, then I'll be hooked.
When I first entered I immediately remembered the blue portal, it made me interested in the lore. Weren't we meant to be the early scouts back to Verra in Apoc, or am I mistaken? Also that sandal motif in the character creator got my conspiracy brain going.
I ended the test having enjoyed the feeling of being in Verra. Some game worlds just don't draw me in even when I like their systems, but this one did.
All that said, the game does need a good amount of time before a full launch, as the most recent expectation was set. If I am able to keep testing the game here and there along the way, that will definitely keep me engaged with the project more than monthly livestreams on their own. I appreciate the hard work from the dev team bringing the vision to life, don't burn out!
*cough* nodes part 3...
The scale and also difficulty of the game world is great, and the pacing of combat I really enjoyed! It blends some action combat features like active dodge roll (high stamina cost), active blocking and toggled sprint, with a classic feel. I tried a fighter and a ranger and the Z keybind to switch between action and tab was surprisingly smooth. I found myself using action cam for combat on the ranger, while switching to tab periodically when entering town or doing processing/crafting. For me it worked at first test, but I feel that I need more time to play around with it to know for sure.
Right down to watching your different skill xp go up in the chat box, you can feel the influence of more old-school mmos but with more modern character control and feedback. There also seems to be good customization between the archetype, weapon, and stamina skill trees for your character. The different tabs for the adventure equipment pane, and the artisan equipment pane is what I was hoping for.
The game design encourages you to group with other players for open world content, and rely on your fellow artisans for the different processing and crafting needs. Personally this is huge and I hope they keep this aspect of the game. If they can nail the trading, and the feeling of interacting with the economy, then I'll be hooked.
When I first entered I immediately remembered the blue portal, it made me interested in the lore. Weren't we meant to be the early scouts back to Verra in Apoc, or am I mistaken? Also that sandal motif in the character creator got my conspiracy brain going.
I ended the test having enjoyed the feeling of being in Verra. Some game worlds just don't draw me in even when I like their systems, but this one did.
All that said, the game does need a good amount of time before a full launch, as the most recent expectation was set. If I am able to keep testing the game here and there along the way, that will definitely keep me engaged with the project more than monthly livestreams on their own. I appreciate the hard work from the dev team bringing the vision to life, don't burn out!
*cough* nodes part 3...
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