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Alpha Two Phase II testing is currently taking place 5+ days each week. More information about testing schedule can be found here
If you have Alpha Two, you can download the game launcher here, and we encourage you to join us on our Official Discord Server for the most up to date testing news.
Can Gathering have a "fun" option in Phase 2?
Xeeg
Member, Alpha Two
One element of the game that is not satisfying enough to me right now is gathering. Sure, sometimes its nice to have a relaxed time going around gathering stuff and not have to concentrate intensely. However, sometimes you want to be gathering things but just find the activity boring. It would be nice to have the option for some kind of fun gameplay rather than just click and wait.
Gathering Options:
1. Click and auto-gather (exactly as it is right now)
- Allows for head swivel to check horizons while farming.
- Allows for small text chats while farming.
- Allows for less concentration (chatting with friends, listening to music/etc.)
- Cons - Takes longer to farm, boring if you have nothing else to do.
2. Action-Combat style gathering (skill shot, minigames, etc.)
- Requires more concentration
- Can utilize various degrees of complexity for additional flavour
- Increased farm speed/quality/quantity bonus
- Makes gathering a "fun" activity, rather than just a "useful" activity.
We are spending a lot of hours "playing" this aspect of the game, can it at least be fun to do? As an option?
Gathering Options:
1. Click and auto-gather (exactly as it is right now)
- Allows for head swivel to check horizons while farming.
- Allows for small text chats while farming.
- Allows for less concentration (chatting with friends, listening to music/etc.)
- Cons - Takes longer to farm, boring if you have nothing else to do.
2. Action-Combat style gathering (skill shot, minigames, etc.)
- Requires more concentration
- Can utilize various degrees of complexity for additional flavour
- Increased farm speed/quality/quantity bonus
- Makes gathering a "fun" activity, rather than just a "useful" activity.
We are spending a lot of hours "playing" this aspect of the game, can it at least be fun to do? As an option?
2
Comments
I want to be a gatherer. In fact, I think the game actually pushes MOST players to be gatherers because they are the base of the entire professions and node systems.
Think about what it means if you actively decide to NEVER gather in this game. You cant buy node tokens, you can't help the node get any buildings, you cant power your own processing or crafting. You basically miss out on most of the game systems beyond combat.
What, are you going to trade gold for mats and grind out processing or crafting? The only other way to do it is in an organized guild that funnels you materials from their gatherers. This is just not reasonable for the average player, and cant be good for the health of the game in the long term.
Right now I find it very difficult to justify gathering for hours on end. I'd rather go play roblox with my kid. In fact, my 10 year old saw me chopping trees and was like "Dad, that looks boring, come play this jump obby with me, its more fun!" Sad part is, she was right.
This is a problem. I haven't seen any indication that they are making this VITAL part of the entire game systems more fun for phase 2. The skill trees and pylon systems aren't really exciting or interesting at all. More/Better/Faster mats... yay... Gameplay still the same.
And faster does not mean better. Why does everyone want everything fast? There are a lot of other games if you want things fast.
I find gathering quite relaxing. It gives me a few seconds to just look around and admire the scenery. I don't want to have to spend every second in game concentrating. I get enough of that when I am at work.
I guess we can agree to disagree on how gathering feels.
I never said I want it fast. Hell, make it even slower for all I care. I plan on sinking alot of hours into this game, that's not the problem. I just want it to be fun and engaging.
OK look at the scenery for a few seconds, great. Now look at it for 20 hours... not so great. Plan on putting 1000 hours into this game? ok, now look at the scenery for 200 hours of that and tell me how great of a "game" this is.
When the developer said "Ashes isn't for everyone" I'm sure they didn't mean because it was supposed to be so boring that people quit to go play roblox.
Well then why are the gathering skill trees "Faster chopping/more mats/better quality mats"?
As you progress in the system, you get to "enjoy" it less?
I'm absolutely not against time investment, I just prefer some fun and engagement mixed in.
Fishing is the one exception to gathering where I would like a more intricate "mini game" compareable to RDR2 or Sea of Thieves. Also Spear fishing in Sons of The Forest if there will be such things in Ashes. The trade off for this would be you don't have to move around so much in between casts searching, you can post up for a while once you find a good spot and enjoy it as long as you're at a large body of water.
I don't know if we're getting that 'Sap extraction' and what it falls under if we get it, but I bet it would be something related to me personally and I absolutely do not want any minigame for it, even if it doesn't end up being used as an excuse for poor Econ, I still don't want the experience.
Secondary gatherers would not ask for it, but would also maybe not hate it depending on the interaction. Minigame for Fishing: Yes please.
Minigame for Hunting: Not really a minigame if it were perfect but it also wouldn't be a single shot or petting thing, moreso a capturing/picking up younglings thing.
And as always, reiterating that we hate the current skilltrees and Artisan Gear effects.
What about just some activated abilities? Would they really hate to have some gatherer specific activated abilities? One would think MMO players would like those kinds of things.
The way I see it, gathering is already a minigame... Just a very simple one with very little strategic and tactical decision making and extremely low actions per minute. I have yet to have anyone say anything good about it other than its "relaxing" and they like "the scenery". Both of which they can enjoy without gathering at all.
OK I just want to make one more point.
The gathering system is one of the CORE gameplay loops in Ashes of creation. There are only a couple ways to gain power;
1. Levels
2. Materials
Gathering leads to all the other professions, and to empowering the Nodes, and to stockpiling for wars, and everything else you can think of.
Combat, yeah you get levels until you are maxed. Then its all materials and PVP baby. =D
This is why I want to be a gatherer. It's just so useful for the game. It's a core "thing to do" that leads to everything else being possible. Is it asking too much to make it more of a "game" than it currently is? Again, it doesn't have to be a "mini-game" it can just be a game.
Let us use our characters in interesting and fun ways in order to "gather" with some strategy and tactics involved while interacting with the system, other than just "finding" it. Which actually frustrates alot of players. Imagine if people failed to gather the material and got locked out for some time, allowing other players to interract? People would see alot more copper nodes, maybe it would be a challenge to capture them! They would feel much more pride in beating a "game" to capture the node, than in just "finding" it because its being farmed on timers.
Think about how many hours we could spend gathering if more of us enjoyed it as an actual game. It's good for Intrepid's player retention, and it's good for us to have something interesting driving players to this open world/gathering system.
Yes, you've reminded me to add the caveat.
If Gathering is so important that nearly everyone is supposed to want to do it, and also so heavy on the sheer numbers that you foresee 'the part of gathering where you are actually hitting the tree/vein' to be even 25% of the gathering time, then our input can be ignored.
The related enjoyment of the experience would be too low to be concerned about any further reduction of it.
Have you and your friends ever tried a game that has that type of gathering like Valheim, Enshrouded, or Sons of the Forest? Or are you just assuming you wouldnt like it from watching someone else do it or by how we describe it? There's more sense of accomplishment, it's satisfying, and yeah it does still get tedious but so does anything you do 1000 times. That's just the nature of repetition or routines that we all have. Still, it's far more enjoyable and a better experience.
I have played them.
I don't feel any sense of accomplishment or satisfaction from those things.
It's just physical execution barriers.
But if our enjoyment must be sacrificed because the game will contain so much gathering time at the actual nodes that it must be made more interesting, then so be it. I don't have any clear idea of how big the demographic of 'people who want to hit rocks differently' is.
I don't want to press buttons to extract sap from a tree in Ashes of Creation, but if other people want it, then I'll just enjoy it less.
Hmm, that's a good caveat. I suppose the other 75% would be traveling to each gatherable?
Actually, I hadn't even thought about this aspect. Really, they could make the gathering activity like a 30second ordeal where you combat the tree or something. Basically reducing the travel time ratio for gathering.
There are more than enough reasons to travel already in this game. And with people traveling hours just to find a couple copper, maybe this kind of change would be welcome.
At that point I'd prefer to fight a mob that drops the item I want to use. If they make the actual activity of gathering complex enough that my mind won't just zone out and automatically do it correctly, then I don't think a lot of other people are going to want to do it.
And if they don't, then I'll just zone out while doing it, and it will be slightly less fun (because if I am spending 50% of my time autopiloting the gathering minigame, as opposed to 10% of my time 'thinking about something or handling inventory or saying something to someone while my character gathers, then I'm having less fun).
Well I dunno what to say. Like at max level what is there left to do? Gather and PVP? Can't always count on PVP being content, but you can for gathering.
And they can always leave the option to just click and wait for those in the mood.
I might be misunderstanding you, max level of what, gathering?