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Check out Alpha Two Announcements here to see the latest news on Alpha Two.
Check out general Announcements here to see the latest news on Ashes of Creation & Intrepid Studios.
To get the quickest updates regarding Alpha Two, connect your Discord and Intrepid accounts here.
Feedback From First Weekend
Cold 0ne FTB
Member, Alpha One, Adventurer, Alpha Two, Early Alpha Two
Hey Guys, wanted to put up a post with some feedback from the last few days of testing.
Gameplay/Combat: Fantastic. Give us more of what you have. I only really played the fighter archetype but everything about combat felt great. Very responsive and a very fluid. Lots of weight and you can see how certain elements of the kit synergize. I really like the risk and reward elements of this class. I really like the passive that enhances the execute skill that heals and restores mana. I think skills like this really fill out the class and help to give it a unique dynamic. I really like the idea of playing into skills that reward good plays. I really like the idea of having a skill that maybe lets a fighter drop to 1 hp and prevents them from dying for temporary period of time (maybe have the ability drain momentum and once the duration ends the fighter dies or becomes susceptible to death), something like Greater Cult Totem from Pathfinder for Barbarian. In fact taking inspiration from any of the pathfinder barbarian abilities would be awesome! Looking at the class as a whole I am a little concerned that it will have a difficult time competing with other DPS archetypes in raid settings. It doesn't really add many added group benefits and range dps tend to be safer due to their distance. I think in a game with really limited healing further balancing needs to be implemented to this affect. Whether it is giving mobs more range attacks or giving this class additional advantages/utilities in group settings.
Currently there is a strong bias towards range classes as due to the latency in the alpha and the strength of range CCs. A lot of lower level ranged classes can take on creatures they likely should not be able to and thus are able to grind faster and more efficiently than their melee counter parts. This is something that will likely need to be tweaked later on development. Like I said before given mobs more range abilities would help prevent players from cheesing the xp grind.
Visuals/World/Sound: Its a pretty strong foundation but I really feel like the world and visuals are missing something unique that sets Ashes apart from other MMOs. There are a ton of incredible locations, waterfalls, cool looking trees, etc that look great but we are missing that certain spark. I really like all of the music so far. The AI voice acting isn't horrible it's also not great. Honestly I just killed shit and didn't talk to anybody.
UIs/Controls: I think having automatic auto-attacks enable as a preset would be a nice quality of life. There is a lot customization but a lot of it feels overwhelming. I am not sure if a lot of these are just placeholders and will slowly wheened out but I think the phrase "less is more" would be good advice. I suspect a lot of them are not really necessary and will just confuse a lot of players.
Game Design/Flow/Questing: I suspect most of the quests are just placeholders for now. Most of them feel that way. As for world design, the starting area does not feel intuitive. This game isn't meant to hold our hands but I think designing the starting area in such a manner that encourages a natural develop of basic knowledge would be helpful. Creating gradual slops, funnels paths in such away that players naturally encounter the basic things they need to learn to survive the game would help to improve the new player experience. Once players have a working knowledge of the basics of the main systems release them into the wilds to learn from there.
Overall: I think this game will be fairly niche but I like a lot of elements. I really enjoy the resting mechanic. At first I found it really annoying but once I started doing it with people and you got used to using food to enhance it made for an interesting period respite while grinding. Lots of potential. Looks great guys. Keep grinding so that we can start grinding soon too. Add more risk/reward dynamics to the fighter.
Gameplay/Combat: Fantastic. Give us more of what you have. I only really played the fighter archetype but everything about combat felt great. Very responsive and a very fluid. Lots of weight and you can see how certain elements of the kit synergize. I really like the risk and reward elements of this class. I really like the passive that enhances the execute skill that heals and restores mana. I think skills like this really fill out the class and help to give it a unique dynamic. I really like the idea of playing into skills that reward good plays. I really like the idea of having a skill that maybe lets a fighter drop to 1 hp and prevents them from dying for temporary period of time (maybe have the ability drain momentum and once the duration ends the fighter dies or becomes susceptible to death), something like Greater Cult Totem from Pathfinder for Barbarian. In fact taking inspiration from any of the pathfinder barbarian abilities would be awesome! Looking at the class as a whole I am a little concerned that it will have a difficult time competing with other DPS archetypes in raid settings. It doesn't really add many added group benefits and range dps tend to be safer due to their distance. I think in a game with really limited healing further balancing needs to be implemented to this affect. Whether it is giving mobs more range attacks or giving this class additional advantages/utilities in group settings.
Currently there is a strong bias towards range classes as due to the latency in the alpha and the strength of range CCs. A lot of lower level ranged classes can take on creatures they likely should not be able to and thus are able to grind faster and more efficiently than their melee counter parts. This is something that will likely need to be tweaked later on development. Like I said before given mobs more range abilities would help prevent players from cheesing the xp grind.
Visuals/World/Sound: Its a pretty strong foundation but I really feel like the world and visuals are missing something unique that sets Ashes apart from other MMOs. There are a ton of incredible locations, waterfalls, cool looking trees, etc that look great but we are missing that certain spark. I really like all of the music so far. The AI voice acting isn't horrible it's also not great. Honestly I just killed shit and didn't talk to anybody.
UIs/Controls: I think having automatic auto-attacks enable as a preset would be a nice quality of life. There is a lot customization but a lot of it feels overwhelming. I am not sure if a lot of these are just placeholders and will slowly wheened out but I think the phrase "less is more" would be good advice. I suspect a lot of them are not really necessary and will just confuse a lot of players.
Game Design/Flow/Questing: I suspect most of the quests are just placeholders for now. Most of them feel that way. As for world design, the starting area does not feel intuitive. This game isn't meant to hold our hands but I think designing the starting area in such a manner that encourages a natural develop of basic knowledge would be helpful. Creating gradual slops, funnels paths in such away that players naturally encounter the basic things they need to learn to survive the game would help to improve the new player experience. Once players have a working knowledge of the basics of the main systems release them into the wilds to learn from there.
Overall: I think this game will be fairly niche but I like a lot of elements. I really enjoy the resting mechanic. At first I found it really annoying but once I started doing it with people and you got used to using food to enhance it made for an interesting period respite while grinding. Lots of potential. Looks great guys. Keep grinding so that we can start grinding soon too. Add more risk/reward dynamics to the fighter.
That is not dead which can eternal lie. And with strange aeons even death may die.
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