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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.
Whats with players joining later
nad0w
Member, Alpha Two
The game is so heavily focussed about group content:
Whats with players joining later when all the first starters moved on to other zones?
Do I have so grind slow af the mobs alone?
What are they doing about this problem?
Whats with players joining later when all the first starters moved on to other zones?
Do I have so grind slow af the mobs alone?
What are they doing about this problem?
0
Comments
The leveling is slow af. I dont think ppl will crate many alts.
Read my text.
In every game in every expension theres the release hype.
If you start a month after you get dead zones (esp. in slow grinding games)
Im worrying if they will not speed up the leveling progress you will be grinding alone if you start to late.
They will definitely do for processing/crafting mastery. Need to level them up to 10 only for citizenship (this is fast)
I have a 11 and a 15. My alt was way faster to grind once I had developed a strategy.
I grinded was able to grind my alt mostly solo because I wanted the wealth not the experience.
I don't think starting late will be an issue. The game is fun right now and it's only up from here.
This is my personal feedback, shared to help the game thrive in its niche.
As others have said, this is no different than many other games out there. Do you have a catch-up game mechanic in mind from another game you have played?
1. As people have said there are going to be people levelling for a long time. Particularly if the game is a hit!
2. The game is a lot more solo friendly than people are making out. It isn't the fastest way to level, particularly when there are a lot of people levelling and competing for levelling space, but it is very possible.
3. There are an awful lot of potential sources for XP not fully implemented, story arcs and treasure maps being big ones.
4. Levelling after nodes are somewhat developed will also have some advantages. People will be crafting and selling gear to levellers, and facilities for crafting will be more readily available, for example.
5. Levelling your class/adventuring level is just one levelling track. It is the focus right now, but that might not be the optimal holistic levelling strategy.
6. The ranger seems very solo friendly, but the two other classes that seem like they are solo-friendly, rogue and summoner are not in the game yet, nor are secondary classes that promote Hybrid abilities (by definition), that in turn promote the ability to solo.
7. A lot of the PvP&PvE content is very friendly to finding a group quickly. Node membership is primary to guild membership so you are automatically part of node PvP, including economic PvP like caravans. And I think story-arcs will be similarly node inclusive. It is going to be important to node success, to leverage the talents of ALL citizens, and exclude no one.
The only thing we have to fear is fear itself! It is good to bring-up concerns, but I wouldn't be too worried. Many people have said that AoC is a niche game, I don't believe that is true when it comes to playstyle. It is a niche game in the sense that the objectives, prestige and rewards are all founded on large group success (node). However, the scope for contributing and benefiting to/from that success is very broad, even if you are not a member of the sponsoring guild(s).
As @RedLeader1 said the fear is the problem.
If they're tweaking and implementing other ways to level efficiently there should be no problem, so new players will stick to the game even after joining (late)
its not even a problem.
That said, I really do not see people coming in waves as a bad thing. Ashes in its current A2 design is extremely difficult to play when you start alongside many other players. All resources get hoarded, mobs get tagged and killed instantly, important quest mobs (.... like the bandit leader) takes ages to respawn etc... Often those who start later (or play at non-peak hours) end up catching up very fast because they do not get bottleneck:ed in the same way that all of the launch-zergers do.
As I see it, there is a bunch of positive things from having A2 players start in waves:
* Less characters on one location mean less strain on the hardware components on the users computers (this is more difficult to handle for some than others).
* Less conflicts about nearby resources (be it mobs or gatherable materials).
* It also allows IPS to make a slight check on the reality of the people joining in late (as there will be plenty of those post-real launch). What struggles might these people face, and what can IPS do to potentially make the journey for those arriving later easier? This is necessary data for them to attempt to collect.
... Finally, I really don't think you have to worry about dead zones during A2 phase launches... I am fairly certain there will be enough people joining each wave (and people starting new characters to play with their newly arrived friends).
Older Nodes get destroyed and New Nodes appear - constantly. By design.
I'm not afraid there will be a lack of content to progress past the wee levels, but I think some of you are downplaying the impact of being past the main wave of players can be. Some content will be nigh impossible for people to do, unless being power-levelled through it by friends / guild. That's fine for people rolling alts or with per-established connections, but can be a downer for players coming on their own, true untainted noobs.
Levelling any crafting when there's almost zero demand for the beginning items is a money sink, and true new players don't have the financial backing a of higher level main character.
It's not game breaking, but it can dissuade new players to stay, stunting growth or hasting the player base decline. But again, I'm not that concerned about it, but I still think we should be cautious about big group dependency in the early levels, even if there are other types of content to get past them.
* In WoW, I out-levelled almost all the group and dungeon quests because I couldn't find a group for them. They became grey and I drop them from my quest list.
With how alt-unfriendly the game is?
Doubt it.
2. Skill your artisan classes while levelling will provide the overall economy with much needed base crafts and if a guild wants to secure supply from you as you progress - they will let you join.
3. Areas always seem very much used by a mix of players. Lv 50s will not just be completely absent from 90% of the world map because they can only do stuff in a few high level biomes. That is not how the world build is structured, which means you could join a group of higher level players to get a quest done and leave while they press on deeper into the area. Also with up to 8 group slots, they might just be willing to let you join as they might not be farming at the highest limit their level allows them to.