Glorious Alpha Two Testers!
Alpha Two Phase II testing is currently taking place five 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.
Alpha Two Phase II testing is currently taking place five 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.
Eliminate these reason to quit
burrnasty
Member, Alpha Two
Solo leveling.
Ashes is in desperate need of mobs that can be grinded by solo players. Currently the only way to level efficiently is by getting a party and attacking 1-3 star mobs. As a solo player there is no option. Maybe killing thousands of bears but even then its mind numbing.
Death penalty.
Please chose either losing the materials or the xp penalty. The combination is enough to make anyone quit. Especially if it happens more than once and that can be common as dying is easy. To make things worse when you can only level with a group, that means at any moment you are without a healer you can be killed by 1-3 star mobs in seconds. And killed again trying to get back to your body.
The current players have payed $100+ to be here and its been enough for some to quit. Imagine a person with no cost to join.. they dont have to justify staying when something like that happens. They just say adios.
It is purely an unneeded compound of negative results (Loss of materials, XP dept, repair cost, and run back).
A REGULAR person is going to be instantly demotivated by these systems. Even if they don't truly hurt them. The perception of what they are will.
Ashes is in desperate need of mobs that can be grinded by solo players. Currently the only way to level efficiently is by getting a party and attacking 1-3 star mobs. As a solo player there is no option. Maybe killing thousands of bears but even then its mind numbing.
Death penalty.
Please chose either losing the materials or the xp penalty. The combination is enough to make anyone quit. Especially if it happens more than once and that can be common as dying is easy. To make things worse when you can only level with a group, that means at any moment you are without a healer you can be killed by 1-3 star mobs in seconds. And killed again trying to get back to your body.
The current players have payed $100+ to be here and its been enough for some to quit. Imagine a person with no cost to join.. they dont have to justify staying when something like that happens. They just say adios.
It is purely an unneeded compound of negative results (Loss of materials, XP dept, repair cost, and run back).
A REGULAR person is going to be instantly demotivated by these systems. Even if they don't truly hurt them. The perception of what they are will.
4
Comments
And although the loot and exp loss sucks. Its good to have consequences for death other than the inconvenience of walking back to your body. I know its taught me to be careful about my positioning and knowing what i can and cant do.
Also, not everyone wants to group. I love to solo level in games. some people are anti social or shy or whatever. They shouldn't be punished for wanting to solo up and just level on their own.
But I know, any of my friends who aren't as dedicated as me would quit because of these two thing.
It is good to encourage group play but it shouldn't be the only option, ever.
Death penalty makes every moment the edge of the seat feeling. It's not for everyone. My only problem is sanctioned PvP should have no death penalties.
Solo play is in the game. Find some nice one star light blue mobs and kill 1-3 at a time. Or take a field of non star mobs and grind away. More content is coming and more ways to play solo but that is also not this games focus.
They have also paid $100 to test a game not play a game. People who can't hack it can come back later in Phase 2 or some time I phase 3 when it becomes closer to a real game.
IMO if you want this game to be the best it can be. Keep testing and keep giving feedback. Just know there is a vision here that is solid. If death penalties are something you never want to deal with, you maybe in the wrong game.
You're a real winner, aren't you?
Must be a rough place to find fulfillment in weak, pissy comments.
100% encourage don’t force or people will leave before the even get a chance to see the fun that can be had.
At the end of the day, MMOs are only fun with people to play them. Ash’s needs to be somewhat casual friendly or else these aspirations for giant servers with giant meaningful battles will just be a pipe dream.
You don’t want ash’s to too punishing right out the gate, because then players won’t invest the time to find out the game can be fun and worth the punishment.
I really worry that most of the people in these forums are missing the forest for the trees.
I don't agree with this line of thinking. I didn't know I liked PvP till I was in a situation and had time to digest, we all can change as gamers. My hope is he stays for the other things that brought him to Ashes.
The death penalty I agree can be a little too harsh. I already had a friend quit because of the death penalty and his frustration with being killed so easily and he won his key in a giveaway so he wasn't monetarily invested in the game.
Also just a little side note, if you want your suggestions to be taken seriously, refrain from the subtle jabs at Steven personally, it is not necessary.
"***Please remove your pride as a "real gamer". These problems are not something that hinder me but I am looking from the perspective of a newcomer with no monetary investment to make them stay***"
"And if you truly want the success of this game you would put your weird flex aside and acknowledge that a REGULAR person is going to be instantly demotivated by these systems."
1. The ability to solo. It is fine for group content to revolve around loot. This game is a PvX based game. No player is going to PvP until they are Max level. It makes no sense to penalize solo players for XP around a system that encourages PvP at the highest level. Add server maturity to this equation. If a new player logs onto a server and plays, they are likely to find a group initially. If a player waits 2-3 weeks, they are much less likely to be able to find a group. Said player then just quits if there is no alternate path that does not revolve around killing the same mobs hundreds of times. Please remember that a game is supposed to be fun. I imagine it is in groups and would be for PvP.
2. The corruption system. In its current incarnation, is a waste of programming resources that could be better used for....the rest of the game. Now it is a part of the game, but I saw one corrupted person during the time I played. It is not a heavily used system and the penalties are so strong that it might as well not exist. The only players who will use it, are players that find ways around the system.
Why is it important that this game gets more players? I see people on the forums all the time telling others that the door is over there. The game will shut down if it does not have enough income coming in. Yes Steven has money. He could leverage the difference for a few years. Is that really what he is wanting to do? I do not think so. So the game is actually going to need to draw players in. Those two systems are what will undoubtedly keep most players away in the current incarnation.
To be fair, if someone is obviously not the right fit for Ashes, making then aware of thst before launch is the best thing thwt can happen for the game.
Every MMORPG post WoW has an initial population at launch, and then loses a portion of that over the next 3 months. Losing 50% of that initial population is normal.
However, the game needs to essentially rebalance (server capacity, server numbers in different regions, staff numbers retained for CS and game development etc) for the sustained population it now has. The larger the loss is, the harder it is to rebalance, and the more likely that initial loss is to pull people away thst otherwise would have stayed. The two main reasons for this are friends they made in game leaving, or PvP targets becoming less frequent.
Ashes is likely to have a 65% loss over the first 3 months.
So, preventing someone from playing the game at launch that is definately going to leave in the first few months is absolutely a good thing for the game long term.
I like the statement made when EQ2 all but removed their death penalty almost 20 years ago now. They basically said " if you are a gamer and you don't feel bad for dying in game, no penalty we would give you for that death will change that".
Death in itself is the penalty most gamers feel. They tried a thing and failed at it, and that feels bad. Losing experience (or gaining debt), and dropping materials is nothing more than rubbing salt in to that existing wound.
Basically, a game developer that feels an actual need to have a harsh death penalty is not a gamer themselves.
This tracks with Steven. He doesn't play games to go out and run content and have fun, he plays games to control people - control his guild.
Those who quit early will probably quit already during Alpha or Beta with little reason to be on fresh servers at release, for only 3 months.
I think the EXP penalty should be removed if you're flagged purple. Other than that I'd have to disagree. Risk vs risk system Steven talks about a lot. I doubt this will change much if at all.
They're trying to make something new, and people may not like it. What it's going to be though is still a mystery. But I'm strongly against another solo grind game to endgame with no consequences for death, the same easy stuff we've seen in just about all MMO type games the last decade.
The problem with this is that you aren't taking in to account the bulk of players that aren't planning on being in alpha or beta.
Separate gamers in to two groups - those thst would pay to support and test a game like Ashes, and those who would only pick it up once the game is live.
With those two groups, which group do you think - using purely your own logic and intuition - would be more likely to stick around in this game?
If people that have paid to support this game because they thought it was exactly what they wanted are already turning away, how much more likely is it for people to turn away that didn't think this game is exactly what they wanted, but would give it a go anyway?
Most figures I give on these forums have reasoning, data or precident behind them. However, I have nothing at all in this regard.
All I can say is that if people that opted in to Alpha and beta testing are turning away (and many didnt even bother waiting until Alpha to drop interest in the game) expect that to grow once the game goes live.
I have contacts who say they are interested in AoC but they are busy playing something else and say they supported other games and they are now more cautious to invest.
They also told me that it seems to be too much hype around AoC.
My opinion is that there are players who cannot resist to not try the game now and players who have no problem waiting 2 more years.
Those who can wait, will see all the mechanics in streams and videos and might never get hyped enough to try the game at server start. Or will even have enough knowledge about it to know that the game is not for them.
Will be easier to predict as Alpha advances, especially after start of Phase 3 - the final wipe.
If people will stop playing even though features are gradually added, I doubt there will be a big hype at release.