Greetings, glorious testers!
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.
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.
Comments
Mob tagging / role balance
As it stands right now being a tank outside of a group is a deeply frustrating experience for several reasons:
1. People can and will drag mobs on top of me to get rid of them, especially considering how dangerous evenly matched mobs are in comparison to most other games. This is fine in any other game where I then receive a share of the kill (XP, loot), but when my best case scenario is that I can live what they dragged on top of me and my worst case is that I die to the mobs and then loose some mats that is just not acceptable for me.
2. I realise talking about class tuning in an early alpha is mostly mute, but since it is a point of improvement I'll mention it. Early level tanks feel woefully under-tuned. To my mind, and I understand I bring bias from other games into it, as a tank in general I should be able to pull and survive higher level mobs than a DPS of the same level as me. I would also expect me to take longer than a DPS to kill a mob of the same level. This is not the case right now, at least in early levels. This went so far that I eventually abandoned my tank in favour of a mage which will happily pull and kill mobs with a higher level than its own.
Atmosphere / World
I think ashes needs a more defined "look". What I mean is if I see a screenshot from world of warcraft I immediately know what game it is, even if I've never been to the location. Ashes doesn't have that for me yet.
As for world atmosphere I am not getting the "it's thousands of years old" vibe from the ruins, while partially crumbled the remaining walls just look like fresh laid stonework and my lore understanding is that that's not the intended age of the ruins.
To give some context I played tank throughout my play sessions and got to level 8
The combat feels fun overall, the moving around in combat feels great. Switching between action mode and tab targeting is really something awesome, and the transitions felt very smooth. My attacks felt like they had weight and I had tonnes of fun taking on packs of low level goblins and synergising my abilities to do that efficiently.
Although I enjoyed my time doing melee combat. I feel like the tank archetype needs some work to truly feel unique as a class. Blocking with my shield on the action camera felt pointless and I'm not sure it was even doing anything. Some of the skills synergised well but they didn't really feel unique, some skills felt very similar, like AOE stomps and shouts.
I enjoyed the weapon talent tree, but I feel like your shield should be focused on this tree also. Its hard to express in words but It felt like my skills were just picked randomly out of a pot of skills instead of actually combining together to make a unique tank feeling. There was to much choice early on with the skill tree when it came to picking actual abilities. The courage system is a great idea but only a few skills actually utilise this mechanic. One of those skills Devastate is completely pointless it might as well be an extra damage passive skill, I'm not sure if that will change but I've heard it doesn't. For me Courage should be your main resource and not mana, I'm not saying mana should go away but if Tank is your main archetype then it should all be focused around Courage. The skill which turns your courage into extra mitigation is awesome and a great example of a unique ability using the cool resource mechanic of courage
Ideas for unique abilities to implement
Cooldown ability which increases courage gained from heavy attacks or blocks for a duration
Single target shield slam which does weapon damage + threat = to a percentage of your current courage, costs mana
Aoe Taunt on like 44 second cool down, costs 100% courage
Cooldown which turns mana pool into courage points.
make devastate feel impactful
Ok that's enough about tank. Lets talk about quests
I know the quests in game are mostly bugged and have not been implemented properly yet. However I really enjoy not know where to get quests from. I feel like this makes me explore and seek out quests by speaking to NPC's in the world. Its really good for immersion and I like having to figure these quests out. I also think that quests should not give xp but instead gold and gear. Commissions should give exp but zero gold and items. Please tie quests into the beautiful POI's, there were tonnes of really cool POI's to go to which had no quests related to them.
That's all I have for now, thanks
Top three loves;
1. Ggearing can be done through just grinding mobs for drops. I'm so used to early gear progression being tied to just blowing through quests.
2. You can just level by grinding
3. The game forces you towards being social and forming parties to get things done
Top three likes;
1. The crafting system in general seems pretty robust
2. The wand weapon skill tree provides extremely satisfying progression
3. Combat for ranged DPS is in a good place
Top three dislikes;
1. Corpse looting needs some risk attached
2. The "game" as it is only really starts at level 10 when you can join a node. Doesn't seem like a big deal but keep in mind the level 10 grind is real and someone who is new is both unlikely to have a grinding group that they play with regularly and also isn't going to come to full grips with the game. 1-10 should be quick and relatively easy, basically tutorialising the player, with 10 being the end of the tutorial as they're introduced to all the node citizen mechanics.
3. Some areas in the Riverlands (particularly around the node hubs) are very environmentally dead. I understand this is likely because the areas are going to be overwritten with the node hubs as they level/expand or with freeholds, but it looks unnatural as it is.
Top three hates;
1. Gathering. The process is actually quite fun but the current distribution of gatherable materials is just very very bad and makes the process unfun. Ruby, copper and zinc are gold dust. Mining nodes in general should be larger and more distinct. The issue is how this will feed into the crafting system - low tier mats being rare crafts means that the biggest hurdle for starting early crafting is gathering those rare mats. You'll be stuck in Novice crafting for far far longer than you are stuck in Novice gathering, so progressing your gathering past Novice seems practically pointless.
2. Mob aggro and damage. Mobs move too fast at the moment - there's no reason they should be able to keep up with any mount that is using speedboost off cooldown, honestly. Their leash range is also way too long. The rate of damage is also simply too high for some of them - Ravens and Wolves in particular are still my biggest causes of death.
3. Processing costs for crafting are just too high, making the activity a money sink that you just accept in order to get XP, rather than a self-sustaining activity.
In terms of other observations, I think at this point gearing is rather rigid - Heavy Armour is for melee DPS only, for example, due to the Strength stats on it. There should be a variety of stats that can get rolled on the different armour classes - for example, extra Mentality or Constitution instead of Strength for Mages that want to trade that damage for survivability or sustain.
The A2 has been really good so far. Despite its content-sparse and buggy state, I've had more fun in it than in any other MMO in many years.
1. Concern about exploits in the flagging system. bad actors can instigate pvp, then somehow force the defender to be flagged as corrupted.
2. artisan professions might be outdated... by the time i can craft gear, that gear is no longer relevant to my current level.
Over all I am enjoying the experience. Bug reporting and leveling.
Also, what is the 4th weapon in phase 2, as scepter is already in phase 1?
I think the base of the game is fantasic and think future systems will reduce any current frustrations with the game.
A few things that I think would help the testing experience:
1. Balancing lack of handholding with player frustrations needs to strike a better cord. Even if it's Alpha.
For example: My mining pick broke and I went to the nearest town and I couldn't craft a new basic one. Because copper isn't easily available, I couldn't get a mining tool at all. Basic tools should be available at every node, just to reduce the frustrations. Buying the lowest level of tool doesn't seem to take away from the difficulty of progression in gathering, but would take away from a bit frustrations in those situations.
2. Questing: I prefer the lack of handholding in the questing, but I think basic kill quests should be removed with something more rewarding than busy work. If you're not going to do indicators for quests, adding more detailed descriptions to help guide us through the quest log would go a long way. Quest updates, summaries and extra guidance throughout quest lines would be wonderful.
3. I get hyped everytime I look at the roadmap for phase II and phase III. A lot of things that are lead to any current frustrations appear to be due to a lack of systems that are already slated to be added at a later date. But with questing and just about everything else, I'd love to be able to feel the way's we can impact the world, nodes, etc.
I know it's not meant to be themepark, but having the world tell a story will go a long way. I know guilds and nodes tell a story as well, but not everyone will participate.
The entire draw of AOC for me personally was that the world would be unique and dynamic based on how servers progress. Just a little more taste of that would look like would keep me playing, testing, bug reporting.
4. I've had no trouble with PVP. But saw the Asmongold stream. Oops. Although there's consquences, which includes bans for greifing, when looking towards the future realize that if certain gamers can ruin an expeirence they will do so for others without question. Making sure there are in game systems to address this as much as possible while keeping to your roots will be imperative.
But once again, how much value does having PVP in the starting area add to the game? Verse how much frustration is that going to cause in certain situations. If you wanna leave it open to PVP, the game should thematically be able to punish the griefers. Corrupt the crap out of them, strike them with a lightning bolt so they drop that gear and then put them in GM jail so they cannot continue.
I'll just toss this in.
I don't know if anyone remembers Wish, which never made it out of development, but AOC reminds me of this game but more polished and a decade or two later. I feel like the concepts in that game were very similar.
Wish had a newspaper system in the game that summarized the events that had happened in the world and help to tell the story of what major questlines and changes were going on around the world. Everything from who killed a boss, to letting people know that something (Like an NPC taking over an entire city), which lead people to the area that would start the story arc for that specific quest.
It would be awesome to see a server summary like this in the future even if it's "Guild kill XYZ mob and were able to upgrade Z node."
Obviously just looking forward to the future.
you are making fast progress on fixing important bugs and getting everyone in so they can test. Ive watched a lot of content and share the general sentiment of: what? Why isnt it friday already!
ive reached lvl 12 on my highest character (tank) and i could see lots of your visions already shining through the world that i stumbled in.
I will now list some things that catched my attention, where i would like to see improvement. But! For this phase 1 in my opinion the most important focus should stay on servers, performance and getting dynamic gridding in! A solid foundation is so important for all the systems to build upon it.
Wishlist in no order of priority:
dueling aka a way to test skills/pvp/dmg where we dont occur any death effects would be great.
guild storage in a general form would be really nice. Later having the option to assign parts of it to different players wher only them can take out stuff but everyone can put it in would be perfect. Imo that is convenience that doesnt take away too much from the social aspect that i really like and see already.
A friendlist and friend/guild invites from that ui element would be great.
action camera ui improvement. inventory loot automatic switch from action to tab and back aswell as target aquisition/switch to be faster/more sensitive.
The structures like bridges walls etc that are supposed to be thousands of years old look a bit too static and intact to be immersive.
corrupted players should be allowed to defend themselves. they are already weaker (25% less dmg/health/mana/mitigation on corruption 1) aka easy targets and have no selfhealing except cleric. Its not possible to work off the corruption when u cant defend against players while you are trying to do so. difficult topic so idk how to improve it without breaking the systems intend.
There was 2 months ago the feedback month for aoe and visibility. Afaik there are no indicators in game yet that tell me if that magma field is friendly or if that divine flare will heal or silence me. Would be great to see that
concerns with the little knowledge i have:
as of my testing it seems to me that every class can solo mobs on their lvl way more efficient than a tank. Clerics and bards can heal themselves, while fighter ranger and mage have the high dmg. Fighter can heal aswell with the consuming lethal blow pretty early on. I dont think that tanks should be as fast as dps on killing mobs solo but they shouldnt be 3 times as slow while loosing more hp. I tested fighter lvl 8 killing lvl 9 minotaur in about 7 seconds with little to no dmg taken vs tank lvl 12 killing lvl 10 minotaur in roughly 18 seconds while taking 20-30% health lost. Maybe im bad at playing a tank but tanks should in my opinion either loose less hp due to selfhealing or mitigation, or get a little more dmg so that they are still noticably slower but also take less dmg because they kill faster. Bard lvl 6 took roughly 10sec for similar mobs while loosing almost no hp.
I would be interested to hear some takes on this matter from other players and see you devs check some data on this topic later down the road.
Power creep is my second concern. It seems like gear is really strong and lvl dependend. If i understand the games intend right, everyone should be able to use all game systems pretty early on like caravans, node wars, guild wars, pve events. With the current iteration it seems that a lvl 10 with common gear vs a lvl 20 with common gear is already at a disatvantage that fighting for a caravan, grind spot etc becomes obsolete. No matter the rock paper scissor they have the lvl 10 will loose. Since the game goes up to lvl 50 and gear up to legendary i imagine that everyone below lvl 40 rare gear cant partake in those systems when the game is realeased for 6months and forth.
Thats why i just wanted to point out my concern that the power curve doesnt become to intense. Otherwise we will have a rush to lvl 50 and iirc thats not the game design.
Ccu (concurrent users online) is at 3k atm with only the riverlands beeing fleshed out. On my weekend the world felt alive. I saw groups of players roaming the land to their next objective (not a solso game, yeah!) and it was great. With the planned ccu of 8-10k on launch and with 18 more biomes to go i fear the world could be too big for the planned ccu. Also in this case i just want you devs to keep an eye on it going forth so we reach a healthy player population.
And thats it. Thx again for this great game in development! Cant wait for friday
I do not care about people escaping with resources and avoiding risk if the alternative is literal hours of travel time to meet up for a dungeon.
2) XP debt is terrible. The steep XP curve already wastes enough of my time. I'm a strong believer in death being the punishment for death, when you compound that with losing xp it feels like the game is literally stealing my time instead of myself offering it up freely as is with most video games I play. Imagine raiding in WoW and every time someone fucked up you also lost 4% of your xp. People would not and will not play.
3) Quests are lacking in XP and rewards, there also are too few.
4) NPCs are either way too easy to kill or their abilities are not telegraphed well enough to avoid, like zombie throwup aoe for example, tends to be invisible when standing in grass.
5) There is almost 0 incentive to contribute to erecting a building in a node if you expect other people to do it for you. There needs to be more rewards than just mayor capes and they need to be more expensive than the capes. I would recommend gating crafting recipes behind node contribution in much the same way WoW does with reputation grinds.
6) Processing taking time is stupid, and very mobile-game like. Processing flax into linen for example, should take literally 1 second, not 1 minute each. These weird pointless timers when I already spent the time to collect the raw material are very korean and waste my time.
Action Combat
The action combat system is pretty good, and I really appreciate how intuitive it feels to mouse over and tab target an enemy. The action skills are engaging—especially those that require precise timing, like jumping to hit an enemy mid-attack. These mechanics make combat feel dynamic and skill-based.
That said, there are a few areas for potential improvement:
Targeting System: At times, the targeting system can feel unresponsive, occasionally failing to select the enemy I'm directly looking at. Refining this to improve accuracy would be great.
Menu Access: It would be helpful if we could access menus without needing to switch to tab targeting, even though I’m aware there are hotkeys in place.
Dodge Roll Fluidity: Adding more consistent i-frames to the dodge roll would make dodging feel more fluid and effective, enhancing the active, responsive nature of combat.
Enemy Action Skills: It would be exciting if mobs also used action skills rather than having every projectile home in on the player. This change would encourage players to prioritize positioning and engage more strategically in fights.
XP System
Currently, the experience system can unintentionally divide the community, as higher-level players are often limited to grouping with players at similar levels. Adjusting the XP scaling so that there’s a larger range before XP starts to drop off—and then making the drop-off more gradual—could help promote more inclusive, multi-level parties.
Final Thoughts
Overall, I’m really impressed by the work so far. The game feels polished and enjoyable, and I’m looking forward to testing further and contributing however I can. Great job, and keep up the awesome work!
I think the game starts off strong. When I first entered the world, accepted my first quest, defeated some goblins, and headed to Lionhold, the early gameplay felt engaging and fun. However, once I reached Lionhold, I was quickly given a large number of quests in rapid succession, which felt overwhelming. I think it would be helpful in the future to provide more guidance or a slower pace to prevent players, like myself, from feeling so overloaded that they want to quit.
Additionally, the tasks in Lionhold, like the crafting system, felt like busywork. I found it frustrating to simply stand there and watch the crafting bar as the seconds ticked by, especially when I just wanted to continue with the quest I was already struggling to enjoy. This kind of pause in gameplay disrupted the flow, and I would have preferred to learn about these mechanics more gradually - when I actually reached a node where those systems became relevant. Introducing crafting and other systems later, when I’m more invested in the world and my progression, might allow for a more natural integration.
By the time I reached a node and wanted to dive into those systems, I had already forgotten the basics that were pushed onto me at the start and felt lost once again.
At first, I thought the AI voices were a neat idea to bring more life to the NPCs. However, I quickly found that the voices sounded uncanny and jarring, which kept me from feeling truly engaged in the world. Instead of making me feel like I was really there, they made me more aware that I was listening to something artificial. After a while, the voices even started giving me a headache and made me feel nauseous, to the point where I almost threw up and had to take a break - definitely not the experience I was hoping for.
I would honestly prefer no voices over voices that sound this uncanny; however, I think that good voice acting could really enhance the experience compared to having no voices at all. In this case, I found the voices severely lacking in emotional depth, which made interactions with NPCs feel hollow and uncomfortable. This led me to start clicking through the dialogue just to avoid listening to the voices as much as possible. If the voices were significantly improved to sound more natural and expressive, I think they would genuinely enhance the storytelling and make it feel much more engaging overall.
Perhaps it would be worth considering holding off on implementing voices for NPCs until there are sufficient resources or funding to ensure high-quality voice acting. This way, when voices are added, they can truly enhance the experience rather than detract from it.
In terms of Archetypes, I’ve mostly played with the Fighter and Mage. While they seemed alright and kept me from getting bored, I felt a strange detachment from my character, which kept me from fully enjoying the experience. I didn’t notice any specific issues with the combat itself; it felt functional, but it didn’t quite pull me in either.
Additionally, I noticed that when I died, there wasn’t any notification to inform me how much of my materials I’d dropped. Right now, I only realize items are missing by checking my inventory and noticing that "stuff’s gone" - but without any clear idea of how much I’ve lost. It might be helpful to have a notification pop up with "You’ve lost X of Y upon your death" to inform players about what has been dropped. This would improve clarity and make the death mechanics feel more transparent.
As for performance, the game ran mostly stable. However, I experienced noticeable performance issues when looking into the rays of the rising sun in the bottom left node area, especially closer to the town. Outside of that, I had a fairly smooth experience and only lost connection to the server once or twice, which wasn’t too bad.
Overall, I think Alpha Two is shaping up to be alright so far. Many systems feel very unexplained and obscure, which, as a tester, can be a bit frustrating. However, I’m hopeful that with continued effort and refinement, we could eventually end up with a really fun game.
I had this happen a couple times while farming with a group in Highwaymen Hills area. We would be farming groups of mobs, 3-4 at a time, then another group would drag a ton of extras on top of what we already had then when we died they would take all our loot. Please find a fix for this bad behavior. At the VERY LEAST you could make it so that you gain extra corruption from looting other players corpses. If we would try to kill the people that were griefing us, we would gain corruption, so there was nothing we could do to stop them.
I also had a solo experience where I was grinding mobs and a bard would come by and stun me mid fight with these purple chains (not sure what the spell was) and then the mobs would kill me and then the bard would take my gear. Bard would be flagged for pvp, but only purple, and wasn't actually doing any damage to me.
Lots of gray area here with the corruption system. I think that a quick fix is to add corruption for looting a body that isn't yours. First you would have to make it MUCH more clear about what body is yours in the first place, and make it clear that you would gain corruption by looting that players body.
As a Ranger, I liked my leveling experience. I very much enjoy how each skill pick matters a lot to how you'll play. In WoW you don't choose what you get as you level, but you did get to pick meaningful talents (didn't they get rid of that in retail?). But here you get to pick from a pool of skills at a level checkpoints. I was surprised to see I Also learned skills that I interpret as a bonus, the ones given to you for hitting a certain level. The fact I got the movement speed buff that reminds me of Spirit of the Wolf from EQ, and then getting another impactful ability from the skill tree is great. It makes me think how New World you only get six buttons to press from two different weapons in their system, meanwhile here in AoC at only level 9 I already have many different buttons to consider in a fight, which leads to what I see is a high ceiling for skill expression. It'll be interesting to see interactions with players what they do with the general pool with sprinting and dodging. Sprinting for distance and then jumping into an ability like Headshot.
I do kind of wish I could earn a special attack sooner with a secondary weapon, such as using a mace with my Ranger. Mind you, Longbow combat has felt great, using abilities for applying stagger (in the longbow tree) and snared from Ranger abilities to kite enemies 2-3 levels higher than me. And I can already see abilities for applying dazed into Silenced (iirc) that will be instrumental in PvP.
I wonder for a system of material nodes being able to decay, at least with materials like the different flowers/herbs. Going around from long stretches of land to see like 90% basalt when you're looking for granite. Such a system would help with players who will travel around mounted up (like me of course) cherry picking certain materials, leaving the less desirable ones taking up all the 'spawn slots' whatever they may be called, or when it seems all there is around me are tier 2 materials. One thing that was a peeve to me, but I'm sure is going to be a factor for the game as a whole, was how I found Flax>Linen, but never found a spot for Cotton in New Aela. I was able to make a set of the starter heavy armor with Zinc, but couldn't make leather armor for my Ranger lol.
The character creator is showing a lot of promise to me already, using the sculpting feature. It appears at least with the Vek, the entire body options for sculpting aren't there yet but I'm sure it's being worked on. Getting to have a bit of cake even with the slimmer builds of the Vek, will always be an important feature to me. If this game can surpass the options I saw in Dragon's Dogma 2 for character creation, it'll be great.
Overall I'm really impressed with what I'm seeing. Yeah New World has bounty boards, but knowing the experience I'm gaining is also contributing to the node gives it more weight. One thing I hope is tracked is the contributions you had as you leveled in the area on your way to 10. Sure it was my choice to do a majority of my leveling in New Aela, about 4-9, but it'd be nice if there was systems recognition along the way to 10, as opposed to it starting only when I hit level 10 and join. Both ways make sense though, a village not caring about you until hitting 10, or the village seeing your contributions over time and having that first milestone at 10. I'm sure you guys will figure out the best way.
Appreciate anyone taking the time to read down this far. Long story short, game good even tho early, plz make more game
You guys are doing a fantastic job but i do have one worry. my worry is that by asking for player feedback you are hearing complaints from the players that are unhappy, but not getting too much feedback from those that love the systems. this will lead you to question your game systems and potentially change them thinking its what your player base wants. i have a great example for you:
Most comments i see on here are players upset with how punishing the solo play is, asking for the tag system to be reworked. You and your team have stated from the start that you plan to promote group play. i feel safe saying that the MASS majority of players are fine with the tag system as it does encourage group play as intended.
You're hearing from a small portion of players who don't understand how the game is suppose to play, or simply don't agree with it because they're too use to other MMOs.
This is not what your vision was, and its not what the majority of players wants. please stay true to your word.
If you change the tag system to make solo play easier you're going against what you promised and what makes this game REALLY stand out and feel great. you would be giving no one a reason to search out players to communicate with and make friendships. I've made more friends on AoC in the few weeks of testing who i can trust in a party setting than i have in the last 5 years of playing other MMOs fulltime.
My feedback is stay true to your word, and ask your player base what systems they love and make the game feel good. search out the positive reviews as well as the negative so you don't get a false sense of what the player base wants. AoC is shaping up to be hands-down the best MMO on the market!
Keep up the good work!
I agree the system needed to be changed to stop powerleveling, but i would like to see it a bit less punishing.
Currently it seems like you lose a % of your intended XP per kill, per level you are behind from the highest level in the party. An example is i was getting around 4k per kill in my group, but someone was replaced with a player who was 5 levels higher than me. my XP dropped to roughly 1k per kill, making it absolutely pointless for me to be in a party at that location.
Its very hard to find a full 8 man party of different classes, that are all the same level
Purposed Change
Give a 3 to 4 level discrepancy before the XP dampening system takes place.
like so:
Same level = 100% intended XP Gain
-1 level = 100% intended XP Gain
-2 levels = 100% intended XP Gain
-3 levels = 100% intended XP Gain
-4 levels = 90% intended XP Gain
-5 levels = 80% intended XP Gain
-6 levels = 70% intended XP Gain
-7 levels = 60% intended XP Gain
Then go as strict as you want, could even drop it by 15% per level after 3/4 levels right down to 0% xp if you want
I play a TANK (INeedHealing), and my friend plays a CLERIC healer (Medic). Unfortunately, as a tank, I have to burn through my mana far quicker than seems reasonable. On average, I’m not dealing enough damage to maintain aggro, even when using my taunt against enemies that hit harder, which puts my healer buddy in constant danger. I addressed this issue by dropping the sword and shield and instead opting for a pure damage build with a two-handed weapon. However, that feels like it defeats the purpose of being a tank.
I very much enjoy tanking; it has been my main class for almost two decades.
*Having tanks be able to maintain aggro a bit better than they currently do would be a great improvement.
Shared experience is another area where I feel the game would benefit; however, more importantly, I believe the game needs shared loot for quest items/credit for killing a mob. For quests, as long as you do 5% of the damage or are in a party, everyone should receive credit. Competing with others in the area for the same mob or quest item drops can be incredibly frustrating. even in a party, you still have to kill the same mob multiple times to get each party member the item it drops for the quest. bad enough I'm competing with other players... why am I competing with my own party members?
someone else said this, so I'm going to repeat it because I agree with it so hard.
- Having your corpse be lootable via PVE death by other players is BAD. Corpse lootable by PVP death I am all for, again making it lootable by flagged PVP players only.
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Finally,
I cannot emphasize enough how much I dislike the current taming/hunting system. For capturing mobs like wolves, bears, and horses, there should be a skill or items available that allow you to snare any tamable mob, with the success rate depending on your skill level. Additionally, all mobs that provide leather or corpses should be skin-able upon death.
I sincerely hope that the current state, where random mobs in the world just stand there while you pet them "to death", is merely a placeholder.
death in AoC needs to be punishing, i dont believe they need to remove the materials being drops on death. i lost over 3k glint last weekend in about 10 minutes from poor group choices/making bad calls, as well as one bug issue lol; oh well, lesson learned and we'll focus more next time
i do agree with one thing you said tho, and its mobs getting pulled onto you. im agreeing because right now the mobs seem to act chaotic. what i mean by this is another player will pull them and run away. those aggroed mobs will run past me but not actually get hit with any ability from my group and decide to switch targets to us. id like to see this situation fixed. if we hit the mobs i understand that we are pulling aggro from another player and thats fine. but it feels bad having your party wiped because a random pack of mobs decided to swap their own target, unprovoked
this is also being used as a Griefing method by some less desirable people, who just want to be jerks but don't want to be flagged as PVP.
Short version
Combat: Feels good in general. Continual polish until launch and it'll be solid.
Systems:
Tutorials: there needs to be some for the new player experience that covers crafting, and other systems as you reach them.
I know this is considered low quality feedback, however the OP asked for first impressions and general feedback.
- GAMEPLAY
I loved the gameplay, Ashes's combat definitely shines compared to other mmos, specifically bard and mage are incredibly well made. I also liked to play around different artisan skills.
The things that imho need to be considered:
- amount required to build specific buildings (like the cookhouse);
- also honestly I did not expect that you need to be very careful on which server you end up on, otherwise your artisan skill of choice may not even be leveled up after the novice level. Imho I should still be able to craft the tool to proceed with my skill - otherwise I'm completely at the mercy of the mayors decisions on what to do or not. Maybe making it much more difficult because there is not a specific building set for it, but make it still possible to do it - I guess freeholds will be a solution to that but considering the really few limited ones that can be earned and the level requirements I don't think it can be the only tool I can have at my disposal.
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- experience gained from PvE activities: grinding your artisan skill is a long process, as much as grinding mobs. I would increase the exp I get towards my next level to make it possible to level up doing mainly PvE content. At the end grinding mobs or grinding an artisan skill takes a huge amount of time and both should be rewarded. Currently I need to both grind mobs to level my character and grind for my artisan skill as well - as much as I love to fight there are days where I just want to chill and chop woods all day, but that would mean I will be punished to do so, remaining behind on my leveling compared to someone that grind mobs for the same amount of time.
- PERFORMANCE / STABILITY
For me it was really good, I got disconnected 3 times during the weekend and I was always able to reconnect fast. Did not experience huge lags or any issues on that. There was a huge work on server stability during the last 2 weeks and the results show a lot.
- EU SERVERS AND GM RESPONSE
I don't feel any presence of any GM in EU servers compared to my shorter experience in the US ones. As it was told many times that various GMs will be present in game that's something that should be looked on. I understand they can't be on 24h/24h but having 0 presence it's an issue.
Also the support US servers receive is much faster than EU, we had an issue with a node war bug in Arioch that is still unresolved.
- LOOT
While grinding mobs I've noticed two things that Imho need a look on 1) the effect when there is some drop to loot is barely visible 2) the loot is atrociously bad, there were entire sessions of grinding where I got only glint and nothing else. I still did not receive any blue/green gear (dropped some commons though). For a game that pushes you a lot to group up for grinding sessions I'm left with a conandrum between playing with my guildies and friends but receiving barely any loot vs grinding alone to hope to drop something better. Luckily for me my guild is just amazing and many people exchange equipment among ourselves, otherwise I would still be left with common equipment.
- CARAVANS
Caravans are really dangerous right now, but not because we are getting attacked by other players, it's because they are really buggy. There are many people in my guild that got their caravan destroyed while entering a node area. Caravans are a super beautiful event to do with my guild but I don't want to see my guildies left with a burning caravan and losing all their gold while I'm still be able to earn regularly just because I was lucky and I did not encounter this bug. It's a miserable experience.
Focusing my feedback on the artisan system as that's what I'm most interested in:
- the complex interdependent system is fantastic, can see a lot of potential there
- can also see a lot of potential having to gather and transport specific resources from all over the world
Current problems
- the time/effort to craft items is much higher than simply buying items from a vendor or grinding mobs for gear
- no way to bulk craft items, current UI is very tedious crafting them one by one
- no way to keep track of friends/guildmates professions progression and what recipes they have - we currently have to do this in discord
- crafting xp is incredibly low - you have to make many many useless items to get to apprentice level
- some buy orders require a huge amount of work to fulfill, especially the ones where you need to collect droppings
- bank - would be nice to have small bags we could automatically assign resources, e.g. "oak wood" to automatically go into
- managing different quality resources in inventory is fiddly and takes up a lot of space
- It's very annoying at the moment to try and collect 10 items of a single quality to craft something. Perhaps the ability to process lower quality items into higher quality? e.g. at the lumber mill station you could combine 3 common oak wood logs to create 1 uncommon oak wood log.
(I understand it's alpha and you're working on things so ignore any my comments on mechanics/features you're still working)
The Good:
1. The game is in a great state for alpha.
2. The world looks amazing.
3. Being able to use all weapons is awesome.
5. The mobs look good and behavior mostly good.
6. The Events are worth while and interesting to do a few times.
7. The crafting seems to be robust and have depth.
8. The node development seems while and interesting.
9. Combat feels good.
10. The game is fun. I've enjoyed my time so far.
The Bad:
1. The mob pathing is wacked in buildings.
2. The lag in places like Highwaymans Hill is almost unplayable.
3. The water movement on rafts is rubber bandy.
4. The Class abilities are minimal and lack choices, they seem incomplete and predetermind or linear in their progression.
5. Hunting is weird. Fishing is boring.
6. UI lacks direction on how to do some things which leads to googling too much.
7. Respawns on resources are broken, where's the copper at?
8. I don't like getting EXP from quests or Commission those should only give you money or supplies or gear or something like that and those need to be worth doing beyond just the reward.
9. Taunt is broken or laggy. The first hit on a mob generates so much threat it can be impossible to pull threat off.
10. overall i'm not a fan of the skills for the classes or weapons. the stamina tree is pretty pointless to. most of these don't offer much of a choice and are very linear. You can basically auto select them.
11. the lack of attributes selection is disability on lvl up.
12. I don't see enough player agency over of the character for the it's core. I feel it's more D3 than D2. All mages will be the same all fighters will be the same ect. Maybe this will change more with archtypes.. maybe.
The Ugly:
4. PvP is going to be ganky. Getting ganked while crafting in town is dumb. Corruption should be tied to the amount you lost as well as the level difference and the party that ganked you should each get that corruption to deter mass ganking groups. If a party (party or not an actual party) of 5 murders a player they should all get 100% of the corruption for the kill. Guards should be in towns and killing in town should make you wanted so guards will agro on sight. And there's only one way to get rid of that and it's to pay your fine which is 10x the value of what was stolen. It has to be harsh or it'll be abused by to many. Some are going to abuse it anyways.
5. Picking up corpse loot should cause corruption. That's grave robbing, that's a pretty dark thing to do.
6. MEGA Guilds are going to break the games economy. No other way to put it, a Guild with 2000+ people will be able to lock down an area and stop others from doing content in that area. More so than a guild of 200. I assume there was a guild player limit for a reason, but with out of game corridnation this limit is pointless. Sure it's 10 or 20 "guilds" but they're really just one guild. The Zerg will be real and it won't be fun for anyone.
7. The lack of gear progression will kill the replayability for current players and for new players joining big guilds who just get gear handed to them will feel no value in it. Finding drops is one of the greatest things in mmos. If I just get stuff handed to me when I start playing 5 months after launch, It'll feel like I'm join my friends on an Ark server and I get twinked out with awesome gear with no work. No time working through crafting or from drops. At least BoE should be a thing. Maybe that Bind breaks on death if you drop that gear, but that could be exploited.
Overall you have idea of what you want and you should continue to make it. You'll never please everyone and trying to will only making everyone unhappy. I do worry about the 4 items in the Ugly. Alpha is the time the dev team gets it mettle tested. I hope for nothing but success! Beware of toxic positivity.
The introduction zone needs to clarify what it is you are getting into. Because even though it is an Alpha, Ashes is going to be quite different from other MMOs on the market today. This needs to be established early and it is something that is usually lost in other MMOs. The expectation is that things are going to require you to block, dodge, and use your skills tactically, and all of these things should be established early on as there was a general "drop you into the game" type of vibe.
This works great once you have learned the basics of the grind, but until then you are just kinda going "Well, what am I supposed to do next" - a lot of quests were unclear on where to go, which later on is fine, but if you use quests as a tutorial they should be more clear in your directions. Not necessarily putting markers on a map but have a camera span in the direction of a tutorial area, guard that points, or it clearly establish another way in which area you are supposed to roughly be heading in.
These issues that I experienced maybe because it was an alpha or because I'm used to themepark MMOs, but I still feel like there's a good reason to put a strong general direction as to what you are supposed to do to progress your character. To just be told "goblins in the north" when kill participation is also not confirmed and you can get lost as to what counts as a kill and what doesn't, where's the "frontlines" when no borders have been established? General stuff to introduce people to think about the world in terms of nodes with borders and use those as a general way to guide people at the absolute start would be helpful.
Ultimately my experience was great! ... once I realized what I was supposed to be doing, and I got that experience by being part of a community (yay for 'piracy'). But until then I was entirely lost as there just wasn't any clear direction of where you are supposed to go because with quests you have areas that you are supposed to go - regardless of it being a sandbox MMO or not. But as I said, the experience was good - the grind was fun when part of a group since our abilities combined well, you are simultaneously both a quite powerful but quite weak character so skill and skillful expression (even at lower levels) is massively rewarded. I was playing as a Bard and our farming group was farming a bunch of bears towards the yellow borders, and by playing well I could maintain our group's mana, as well as healing, shielding, and temporarily CC:ing the bears. This might indicate that bards are powerful, but it does show that you can do a lot if you utilize your skills as best as you can!
So I'm excited to test the game more during the upcoming Alphas and I can't wait for the day Ashes of Creation is released fully! ^^
All they have to do is scale the xp accordingly to each player level. That way if no one is playing around my level I could still group up with someone instead of being a solo healer. Example just put a cap on xp to 3 levels, if we have a lv10, 3x15, 2x16, 2x17 and that group is killing lv20 mobs then each of them would get only 3x mob xp and nothing higher. Just sucks not being able to group up and this game isn’t really setup for solo play.
PVE:
I played a bard and it has fluctuated over the past few weekends, so I'll stick to this past one where heals didn't land 3k+.
Itemization felt weird to say the least. It may be that it's because the game is in alpha, but outside of upgrading the weapon, gear wasn't really needed. Having other armor was useful for mitigation and the extra mana & other stats was helpful, but really having the weapons was all that was required. Rolling against all the casters also felt weird (I come from playing an EQ bard for many years), but that may be because you are trying to make the gear less specialized for classes. Weapons also don't seem to matter. A spell bow, spell book, spell sword, spell 2h, basically throw spell power on anything and the class can use it?
Mobs felt good overall. Some probably hit too far for their area (looking at you eruption casters in upper Carphin) and it seems like you put AOEs on as many mobs as you could. It keeps things interesting though since it's a grind game.
I like the exp penalty over exp loss like we had in EQ. Huge fan of this setup!
Mob corpses go away too soon and the fact that loot becomes FFA instead of roles pretty quickly needs to be fixed.
Player corpses being lootable when killed by mobs being able to be looted by other players doesn't seem right. The other player didn't "earn" it like in PVP.
Songs felt ok.
Pensive is essentially the only melody a bard will use unless there is another bard or you're using counterpoint. On the topic of counterpoint, it is currently miss-timed where the melody's cast time is not calculated in the extended duration. So, there's always a gap, which I don't think is intended. The other melodies are fine, I didn't play with cathartic, but it reads ok, but I don't see a specific time when I would run it unless we had 3 other bards.
It seems like you're trying to force us to take Dance Mastery: Power based on how small the range on the dances is vs. how many mobs have a cleave that is a quick/no cast. The dances seem decent, though I'm not quite sure if I think shielding has enough heals and I'm not quite sure how to interpret the Nimble buff.
Hymn of the Mind (AOE) is horrible from what we had to work with these weekends. The fact that the group members have to be in front of you instead of a true AOE around the player hinders the skill. I'm sure this is because you want us to tactically position and make "meaningful bla bla bla". However, everyone is hitting this skill every time it's up basically, while also having to move around for many mobs.
Discordance bounces waaaay too far. it's an ok song I suppose and pairs well with fighters who will need to interrupt something. However, I've had it bounce a to a mob that looks like it is a very safe distance away more than once.
I can't ever decide if I think get off the stage is useful. The knockback is big, which is sometimes really helpful for positioning, other times it makes the skill unusable for the purpose of a disarm/stagger because it hits a mob so far.
I'll group the DoTs together and just say they're junk. I hear they're getting nerfed too. You should re-evaluate these if so (or regardless?) What's the point of having three weak dots except for maybe the short-lived status effect? We aren't DPS, but our songs should have purpose.
Lovely Serenade, Clever Retort, Maddening Dance, Anthem of Alacrity, Quick Wit, Flourish, Fierce Wit, Marionette, Monologue, and both Song Masteries all get a thumbs up. I didn't test Gambit.
The builders for the sagas were pretty good. Triumph seems weak, Joy was junk. The Apocalypse didn't land half the time and The Silent Pantheon doesn't feel like it's implemented.
Resonant weapon seems like filler. Its not bad (though I hear you're nerfing it too...), but since it procs on a finisher you prevent it from happening by using abilities.
PVP
Again, not bad. It was good to see the corruption system in place at a better rate. Rez stones could use guards at them and probably a few seconds of invulnerability while a person loads to prevent griefing.
Streamers
Steven, you seem to love the streamers in and out of the game, but don't forget the regular players of which there are many more of.
If I was a spectator
In my opinion, games like this are meant to be played and are boring to spectate except for a per-boss basis on raids. The game looks great and plays pretty smooth for an alpha and that would impress many people.
Kill credit
As others have pointed out, I think we need a better credit system. I am not liking the idea that credit is based on who does the most DPS, when you're fighting among others who you're not partied with. It should be based on who pulls the mob first.
Boss commissions
This kind of coincides with the feedback for kill credit. I think we need more spawn points for bosses. Or perhaps reduce the spawn time. It's not fun having to wait 10 minutes only for a chance to get credit for a boss kill. If the people there don't invite you to their party, you're out of luck. I would also make raids share credit, similar to standard parties. I noticed when you're in a raid, you don't get quest credit for killing bosses.
Immersion
This may seem silly, but in order to foster a more immersive experience, can we change the class name "Tank" to something else? Like Knight or Guardian, or some other title? "Tank" is literally a generic term.
This is pretty much the only feedback I currently have at this time. But I am sure more will come.
Let's get the elphant in the room out of the way. And as we all know that is that the Druid Archetype is some how missing in the game. This is heinous oversight and must be redeemed immediately! Joking aside, I'm also quite serious. One of my favorite class types is missing from the game. In my opinion it should be a primary archetype and it isn't even a secondary one. I know, I know the Ranger archetype and 2nd archetypes it helps create fill in some of the gaps from the missing Druid but it doesn't seem like it'll hit all the points and is not the same. I feel that Ranger should be switch to Marksman or Archer and Ranger should be a secondary archetype with Archer/Druid. To me the Druid has always been a very dynamic class. It can be a jack of all trades, a melee dps, magic range dps, a healer, range/melee tank, and a nature summoner- plants, animals, elements, spirits. There are too many missed opportunities for it NOT being a main archetype. I also feel that the current range physical damage archetype being a Ranger and having its secondary archetypes filling both the roles of the marksman fantasy AND the Nature fantasy split it too much. If the Druid was added as a main archetype and Ranger switched to Archer I feel it'd offer up so many good opportunities for both the Nature specialist fantasy and the physical range fantasy. The current secondary archetype work for Ranger would mostly stick with Archer but some things like Beastmaster may be switched to Druid instead.
About Me
In 30s and been gaming since kid. Favorite games Survival/Craft/Building, RPGs, and MMOs.
Select A Realm
Worked. Can be improved by showing population of servers. Average level ranges. Number of guilds and such information. It should display the nodes, if they are owned or not and who currently owns them.
Realm selected on start up should default to last server played on. It seems to be selected at random currently.
Character Customization/Archetype & Race Selection
Decent start but could use more options for avatar customization especially for the Empyrian Elves. More hair styles, face types, etc. I'd like to see a deeper explanation of Archetype and Races. Lore and mechanicwise.
Settings
Graphics, Display, and Sound TweakingKeybinds Remapping & Gameplay Adjustments
UI Configuration
Accessibility Options
In Game Text Customization
Chat Customization
Overall Graphics and Animations
Servicable for Alpha. I like the more realistic, Western, high fantasy style. I watched some streams and there were people who complained that the graphics were generic. At first I completely disagreed with them but now I think I realize what they were trying to say. The current graphics are like (and I hope) a WIP. A rough draft by the artist. More variety and details needs to be filled in everywhere to really make the game feel more alive and believable. This is for almost everything from the landscape to character models, etc. That being said there were some things that were really well done and others that were not well done. The horse animations by and large are amazing and going in the right direction on how a horse should move. That beign said it seems almost removed from the ground and floaty. The anatomical movement is very well done though. The book that the Bard uses stood out to me as out of place and the floating poorly animated. The book was too large to be a starting book. Comically so. I think such a thing could have a place in the game but more as a subset and appear later in the power tiers of books. Rain looked bad.
Overall Sound
Lacking but servicable for an alpha. Envornmental sounds largely seemed to be absent. Some ablities like the first lightning spell sounded amazing while other spells like the finisher procs for the wand sounded awful.
Performance
Decent performance for an alpha but there were definietly pain points especially around the center of the map. There were spots where mob spawns were messed up due to it. Large groups of monsters spawning and dying over and over again. Desync of mobs, etc.
Stability
Was rough at the start with constant disconnets and unaccessible characters and was pretty solid towards the end of the test. Great improvements were made.
Combat
Overall I enjoyed it. It needs more depth and customization though which I feel will be coming later with secondary archetypes. There are competitor MMOs coming out around the same time this one might be that are more tab target focused and because of that and my personal preference I do think Ashes should strive to flesh out their action combat more. It felt ok but not the best.
Quests
For the most part Quest board ones were fine. There were 3 in the starting town that were busted though and I wasted a lot of time on. I know some people were complaining about lack of direction. I don't think this needs to be fixed by adding quest question markers, etc. like WoW but I do think fixing the bugs especially for the initial quests (or disabling them until fixed), adding better explanations and directions will go a long way. I hope to see more variety and intracy in future quests. I liked how there were quest boards but you could also talk to NPCs in the world or find items to get quests (though not everything worked).
Mechanic and World On-boarding/New Player Experience
Terrible. Really bad. I get it is an alpha but especially since it has so many eyes on it (it can be streamed) it is important to have a solid new player experience. Terms, Mechanics, and Things specific to this world and game need to be explained. There was some of that but not enough leaving gaps that caused needles frustration. An example is the Node system, Caravans, and such things aren't really explained anywhere. Unless you spent a lot of trial and error and exploration you might never figure even a fraction of them out. You get quests in the starting town for both but not really enough explanation or direction in going about things. The faster and more complete you can onboared players into the critical mechanics of the game the faster you can release them into the wild. I get not wanting to hand hold but giving basic directions is a must.
Basic Social Systems
Nonexistant as far as I could see. No friends list. No clubs or linkshells or anthing like that. No way to invite people to a party unless you were right next to each other.
Economy
Revist Later
Crafting/Gathering
Potential but needs less menues and more interactivity and actual gameplay.
Solo/Small Group/Large Group Content
Good balance from what I played. You could solo but it was less efficient and harder and in that way you were encouraged to group. You were reward for grouping by being able to survive easier and tackle on harder and more rewarding mobs. I'd like to see this continue throughout the game.
Exploring
Lacking. The first levels you are super concentrated in the center of the map. It feels costrophobic. Even when you do venture out and explore the world is missing diversity throughout the map and interesting things to discover whether lore, unique geography, etc. There is some but there needs to be a lot more.
World Building
Almost non existant. I don't really no anything about the world at all. There were a few bits of lore here and there but not enough to really make me understand anything about the world I'm living in. I know this is a sandbox and often times lore is not a priority but I'd like to argue that lore and world building are even a bigger priority for sandboxes so that the world becomes a living and breathing place to inhabit. Also you don't have a strong main quest narrative with cutscenes and such like FFXIV to hit things home. The world has to be the story.
Inventory And Storage Solutions and Management
Ok. A quick explanation about how banks, inventory, and bags work could save people a lot of hassel. I like the tetris of the crafting bags and how things that aren't items drop on death.
I'll revist to add more.
Gear and Equipment
Fill in later.
Power Progression
Fill in later
Mobs
Mob Drops
Mob Spawning
Mob Behavior/Intelligence
Mob Tactics Individual/Group
Mob Territory
Mob Roaming
Mob Leashing
Mob Agro And Change of Agro
Mob Variations/Diversity
Elite Mobs
Caravans
I like the concept. Will add more thoughts later.
Node System
I like the concept but needs more diversity and explanation of the system. Also I couldn't find out if a town even had a mayor yet or not (pre level 10)
Durability/Repair/Replace
Talk more about it later. Really important to economy.
Atmosphere
Some good but still lacking overall.
Archetypes
Mage
Too auto attack focused it seems. Finisher take too many hits to proc. Might make it feel better. Kit too reliant on the first lightning spell it feels like. Should be able to start going into build right away Ice/electricty, fire/ice, fire/electricity at the start of the tree instead of starggered between unlocking them beginning, middle, and end of talent tree. Finisher beam animation is just weird and should fit each element instead of being a generic but different colored beam. A sever lack of arcane options. No earth/sand, water, or wind spells. Spells need more customization and ways to expand them linearly and horizontally powerwise. More spells and options needed. The spells should be more impactful and situational and less spammy or rotation reliant. I want to have to think what spell is best for the situation, not play with my brain off. Skill cap needed. Utility spell is good. Each archetype needs more of those and also non combat spells. Stuff just for fun or things to bring to the party. Things to make them special and cool. Think EQ enchanter illusion spells, druid teleportation spells, or necromancery corpse locator and summon. Staff needed as a weapon option. I only reached level 7 or 8 so I'll give more feedback this next test once I'm able to level my wand higher and get mor e skills. Maybe it'll feel better. It was enjoyable but it seemed lacking.
Ranger
Some cool concepts with arrow imbues, marks, etc. I didn't get it high enough to fully test it out. I already said I think Ranger should be switched to a secondary archetype and Archer should replace it as the main archetype so it can be properly focused and also allow druid in the game as a main archetype. Besides that the graphics and animations for a lot of the abilities are just way too much. They are bright green and seem like something that should be in a Korean or Chinese MMO that is super flashy. I'd like to see the arrows more grounded in reality and more subtle. If this was an arcane archer the the arrows were purple it might make sense but it seems out of place for a Ranger. Try and make effects that line with the feel of the cloack/hide spell where they disappear and have leaves blowing around them.
Bard
Why is my weapon a book?! Bards should be able to use instruments as their weapon. At the very least there instrument should appear in more skills. Bards start out super rough and need access to more abilities and damage potential at the start. I feel the bard probably takes the longest of the classes to feel good to play. I like some of the themes you are exploring with the bard skills but feel like some are too 21st century. I also think there are multiple bard types. This one seems more tongue and cheek but I'd at the very least like to see some of the archytpes be more elegant or sophisticated with their antics.
Lore
Non existant pretty much.
Guild System
When I finally traveled to node towns I found the person to talk to to start the process of creating one. More direction needed from starting town on the process.
ultimately i loved the game, I'm sure you all know about all the technical issues and the fact that there are ton of bugs but that's expected as the game isn't even out, those inconveniences aside the main part of this game, the node system, feels like a HUGE HIT. the node system really gave me a feeling that i was a part of something larger then myself, part of a team. doubling down on mechanics that would elevate this feeling would be welcome by someone like me.
the combat system was also a HUGE highlight for me. it feels so good the visuals are great and i only played bard but the mechanics of all classes also seem very satisfying to unearth. combat is quite easy to pick up. the standard mmo combat of having "cycles" is super intuitive to get into and feels rewarding when you "figure out" a cycle and execute it.
Movement logistics was another huge hit for me. the world is big and traversing this world "takes effort" it feels like venturing out has a weight to it. if I want to be efficient with my time i must carefully consider my route and prepare accordingly so I waste less time. this fact also elevates exploration where each place far away from the center feels like undiscovered hidden gem which makes finding them that much more rewarding.
But ill be honest it wasn't all rainbows and sunshine. the game felt like it was forcing me to grind exp and exp only. there was less incentive for me to gather and level up my artesian skills. even with grinding the options are quite limited, even without crunching the numbers its super obvious that questing is not worth it and its easy to find a hyper efficient spot to farm like crazy which gets repetitive quite fast.
UI at stations made me want to never go to another station ever. UI in general was a big pain for me except the HUD.
the long term direction of my playing experience was somewhat limited. work for a node, yeah. level up to join more exciting pvp and pve content, yeah that's step 2. but mostly that was it. now i know that a big part of mmo's that helps with "perspective" is soon to come (player driven economy) but i would've appreciated a glimpse to my "end game" early on to chose what i want to double down on and "play with a goal".
now there was this one feeling that i quite often got but i buttressed it entirely since i already know the reasons why i had these feelings and i know that they were natural. this feeling is irritation and the main culprit was lag, bugs and technical stuff that is all natural for a game that is not even out yet.
lastly big part of my play experience was confusion. mainly mobs caused this confusion. at every step of the game i was surprised by which mobs i aggroed by walking next to them and which ones i didn't. i don't mean that types of mobs surprised me but rather specific instances of mobs. some wolves would start attacking from a mile away, others would do nothing until i collided with them. i must admit lag also probably played a big part with this confusion since many mobs from my perspective would just instantly spawn at my location attacking me from seemingly out of nowhere. (before you think that i just have trash internet my internet speed is 400 mb/s *weird flex*).
P.S at the end i just want to wish something in the game if you'll allow me. i would love to see a tiered social system that will incorporate feelings of having a tight group of friends and being a part of a larger team. imagine if 1 to 10 players could register a "party" or a "team" and a coalition of 2 to 5 "parties" register an "alliance" or a "crew" and 2 to 10 "crews" register a guild. along each step the system of governance could be different with it getting steadily more complex until the last step. such system could harbor the feeling of both close relationships and being part of something larger.
P.P.S this is a long shot but how about we enable players to make tax codes instead of just setting one tax rate
P.P.P.S Love you guys this game is going to go wild!
First of all the game is fantastic so far. Great job intrepid. I truly adore this game. I was sold on Stevens vision of a true open world PvX MMORPG that makes risk vs reward a core pillar of game play. All of this is here in Alpha 2.
Without going into specific bugs I have reported I will give feed back on a few things I would like to see improved:
1. I know its technically "place holder", but the faces in this game are the worst things in the game visually. The faces are ugly and I don't think people are going to pay a lot for cosmetics to play dress up for ugly characters. I truly hate the faces in this game right now. The Asmongold gag from years ago looked fantastic. What happened?
2. I am a little worried about loot drops. Personally I would like to see mobs drop white and green items and like 1 in 1000 chance of a blue. Anything higher than that should be crafted. Right now everyone is focused on raid grinding mobs for xp and drops. Crafting is in a bad place. I leveled it to test it out and learn the systems, but I always think the games economy will be better when crafting is a focus and not an after thought. Please don't let raid boss and mob grinding be a viable gearing method like it currently is. IT WOULD BE BETTER IF RAIDBOSSES DROPED ONLY RECIPES AND MATS. I truly believe that for every MMORPG. Not just ashes.
3. Mob density and placement. This might be the second worst thing in the game. At any given level it can be a real chore to find reasonable on level mobs. This is especially an issue for small groups, but I have seen it be an issue with large groups and raids. There is a lot of empty room on the map for camps of mobs.
4: XP in groups. I just want fair XP for effort. Pre nerfs did not feel right week one. Week three also felt wrong. I don't know what the solution is, but I would like to see a decent range where you can fight mobs 5ish levels above or below you and get reasonable experience. Levels are going to take a long time to gain so the party range should be a little more relaxed. A level 12 should be able to party with a level 18 and fight level 14-17 mobs. Everyone is going to level at different paces and people will get left behind. The formula needs to be reworked. I trust you guys to improve this.
Overall that is it for major issues I want to give feedback on.
I have been literally sleeping a combined total of 6-10 hours on average from Friday to Sunday night. I sleep mostly when the server sleeps +/- a few hours as needed. If that is not a good review I don't know what is.
I love this game. I love it every time Steven talks about not changing the game to appeal to a wider audience. Keep on track for the vision.
Keep up the Incredible work!
This is my personal feedback, shared to help the game thrive in its niche.