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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.
Levelling Chaos
kanoacl
Member, Alpha Two
I tried partying at Oakenbane Keep last night and it was complete and utter chaos. During peak hours there were maybe three groups there including my own which meant like 15-20 players on the screen, some of them are AoE farming multiple mobs at a time, a million spell effects everywhere, some people were pulling too many mobs, running away, running out, linking those mobs onto other players/parties, the mobs were teleporting all over the screen due to the pathing problems, and it was just way way too chaotic.
Honestly don't know how you fix this, but if this is what it's like at higher levels the player experience is not going to be very good. Hell having this kind of experience at the lower levels is really not good because it leaves a bad first impression (if the starting zone impression wasn't bad enough).
I think the problem is multiple factors like group sizes, cramped leveling zones, and the systems dictating aggro and aggro-transfer. It's probably too late in the design phase to change group sizes or environmental factors so i think Devs need to redesign monster aggro/aggro transfer.
I don't know the design philosophy behind allowing any and all groups/players to fight mobs but i really dislike it. I think if a player/group tags a monster other groups/players outside of the group that tagged it shouldn't be able to interact with/attack that monster.
I also think monster leashing needs a major adjustment. As it stands monsters will travel way too far from their spawn points. And monster aggro-transfer needs to be fixed as well. Last night while partying at Oakenbane Keep some random player/party ran up on my group while we were fighting a mob and they trained like 5 mobs that had been chasing them onto our group and as a result we ended up getting aggro (not sure if it was from our AOE abilities or if they died) but it ended up wiping our whole party. Another terrible terrible experience. If something isn't done about this MPKing will be a thing - guarantee you that. I mean what's going to stop a high level player from grabbing a bunch of low-level mobs and training them onto a party camp? Sure you might ban a player intentionally doing this for griefing but what about accidents? A low level players pulls a mob, links a few others on accident, and tries to run a way to survive and the mobs transfer onto another nearby party. Not fun if it happens too often.
Honestly don't know how you fix this, but if this is what it's like at higher levels the player experience is not going to be very good. Hell having this kind of experience at the lower levels is really not good because it leaves a bad first impression (if the starting zone impression wasn't bad enough).
I think the problem is multiple factors like group sizes, cramped leveling zones, and the systems dictating aggro and aggro-transfer. It's probably too late in the design phase to change group sizes or environmental factors so i think Devs need to redesign monster aggro/aggro transfer.
I don't know the design philosophy behind allowing any and all groups/players to fight mobs but i really dislike it. I think if a player/group tags a monster other groups/players outside of the group that tagged it shouldn't be able to interact with/attack that monster.
I also think monster leashing needs a major adjustment. As it stands monsters will travel way too far from their spawn points. And monster aggro-transfer needs to be fixed as well. Last night while partying at Oakenbane Keep some random player/party ran up on my group while we were fighting a mob and they trained like 5 mobs that had been chasing them onto our group and as a result we ended up getting aggro (not sure if it was from our AOE abilities or if they died) but it ended up wiping our whole party. Another terrible terrible experience. If something isn't done about this MPKing will be a thing - guarantee you that. I mean what's going to stop a high level player from grabbing a bunch of low-level mobs and training them onto a party camp? Sure you might ban a player intentionally doing this for griefing but what about accidents? A low level players pulls a mob, links a few others on accident, and tries to run a way to survive and the mobs transfer onto another nearby party. Not fun if it happens too often.
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Comments
I like the long leash it keeps things interesting and the world dangerous.
https://ashesofcreation.wiki/Loot_tagging
Yeah, it’s going to be chaotic.
No … that’s not the problem.
The game map with just this Riverlands zone is enormous. Sharing an XP spot with other groups doesn’t instantly shrink the game map. Nor does it mean changing the game design to suit your need for optimal XP gain.
Detach yourself from the grind for XP. Spread out, level normally, test the game, and provide feedback.
Alpha-2 first phase is about performance and stability … not about who gets to level 25 first.
Ashes currently has a PvE design that doesn't match it's placeholder/unfinished Class/Archetype design, since the design is currently focusing on making combat (particularly the feel of playing one's character in that combat) look and feel good and responsive.
Whereas mob AI and server performance relative to those mobs is either being fixed or not yet done. Ashes is a game where the mobs have to be 'the thing that changes how player groups behave' and there are some places that hasn't been fleshed out yet.
I'd say not to worry about it for now, when they get around to upgrading that experience, this type of feedback will probably be invaluable. As it stands now, nothing's ready, so it will feel janky like this sometimes.
If Intrepid do this, players like me will see to it that servers have more downtime than uptime.
So... i only just got level 10. I'm not exactly racing to level 25... I am levelling pretty slowly as far as i can tell and i think i'm doing it normally, at least the way i believe it was designed to be played. And what i'm saying is i found it very very chaotic when i did. In fact it was basically impossible to play. That is me testing the game and this is my feedback.
And as far as i know when the game releases there will be a lot more players than there currently is so it will probably only be worse.
So yeah i don't know what they have planned for the future but at my current level, two of the main "popular" levelling places where groups go, HH and Oakenbane Keep, are so chaotic because of the amount of players there (which is a function of the party size), and because of the mob density (which is a function of the design of the area, the size and scale of environmental features, and placement of creatures), that trying to level there is so chaotic that the experience is really not great imho. At least it wasn't for me.
But i also realize that it is highly unlikely Ashes will reduce maximum party sizes, or significantly alter the environmental design of these areas to accommodate more players and more parties at once, which is why i am providing this feedback so that they can maybe think of other ways to improve the experience, otherwise (again just my opinion) but i think it will be a problem especially when there are even more players on the server, because it already appears to be.
Also, levelling in MMORPGs doesn't have to be chaotic. That's my point. The chaos is because of their game design. The amount of players in a party, the mob density, and other gameplay elements. Not all MMORPGs play like this, at least not all the ones i've played. The fact that you think this is to be expected is concerning. The reality is the chaos is a result of decisions made by the Devs. The chaos of the starting zone isn't something that should be accepted or expected. The Devs can redesign that area so it's a much better starting experience for new players than it currently is - and they should because it's not a very good first impression as is. That's my point. And some of these other areas that i've experienced are really just as chaotic as the starting zone. But i'm sure they are aware of that, at least, i hope so.
Will you though? Are you saying that some of the other unreleased biomes are going to be low-level starter zones like the current biomes?? If so, how many? Because it's going to need to be at least 3x as much as they currently have if they increase concurrent player count to 10,000, or else the current zones will only become even more crowded.
Then why are you here if you have this view?