Eliminate these reason to quit

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.

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cyragreatbeard

The game appears to be designed for group play. Encouraging community. Teamwork making the dreamwork. If you cant pop a "Hey, im lfg!" In global to grind out some levels, it sounds like grinding bears it is.

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.

smokedu

The problem is not that there is a penalty. The problem is there are too many diff penalties upon death. Some games you have exp loss. Some games you have long run back to body...ect...ect. This game you have huge exp penalty that just keeps stacking, you have long runs, you have the fact that by time you get back to your body someone has looted half your stuff, you have the fact that you take a huge durability hit to all equipment which cost even more money and resources to repair. Not to mention the fact that it's not just normal environment that can kill you. High levels can kill you, some idiot that's mad you have their spot can train your group again ect...ect.. Too much risk vs very little reward. When you have this much setback on progress it will discourage people to continue to play.

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.

smokedu

Games have a hard enough time keeping a player base. Don't give them more reasons to leave then to stay.

dallsheep

I agree. I am fairly new and I play pretty much only when my friends are on. I almost never play on my own because I just get frustrated. I spend most of my time traveling huge distances to recover my stuff. Not to mention that I can't seem to make enough glint to fix stuff so I generally run around with two thirds of my gear broken and currently have a 17 percent xp debt from trying to gather stuff to sell. I realize it has a lot of development to go so I am not counting game out but I feel this is for the sweaty grinders that are able to put hours a day into it.

Caww

Try fishing for small coin to cover repairs - it's almost always safe and is semi-AFK friendly, so load up the toon and then go about whatever other computer work/surfing you need to do

burrnasty

Just wanted to add. These issues don't truly affect me. I have plenty of gold and no problem making a group.

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.

nanfoodle

burrnasty wrote: »

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.

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.

lukedawuke

dont let the door hit you on the way out noob

Gizban

lukedawuke wrote: »

dont let the door hit you on the way out noob

You're a real winner, aren't you?

Must be a rough place to find fulfillment in weak, pissy comments.

Rumplez

these penalties are the reason i play the game. you must not be the target audience.

burrnasty

I believe Concord handled criticism with the same room temperature IQ responses as a few of the ones above. SMH

RonDog98

burrnasty wrote: »

Just wanted to add. These issues don't truly affect me. I have plenty of gold and no problem making a group.

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.

100% encourage don’t force or people will leave before the even get a chance to see the fun that can be had.

RonDog98

A game should strive to cast as wide a net as possible while sticking with its core game pillars.

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.

nanfoodle

lukedawuke wrote: »

dont let the door hit you on the way out noob

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.

JaceGrimblade

I have solo'd every class to at least 15 since phase 1 and there is no issue with soloing. Is it slower than grouping yes it is but it is not impossible. Which is the way it should be, the game and systems are designed around group play and if your playing solo it should be more difficult.

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."

Mahes

I have a strong feeling that a couple of the game dynamics that exist now will not exist in a couple of years(Or less). There will need to be changes that allow a greater variety of players to play the game. As the dynamic is, 95% of the MMO market will nope out of this game. What things will change?

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.

Noaani

Mahes wrote: »

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.

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.

Noaani

burrnasty wrote: »

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.

***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***

The fact is the penalties have no real affect on the player. Never had either truly hinder the gaming experience.

But if you can't look at these penalties objectively and can't see that the psychological affect of them is a person demotivated and feeling their time is wasted.. idk what to tell you. It is purely an unneeded compound of negative results (Loss of materials, XP dept, repair cost, and run back).

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. Even if they don't truly hurt them. The perception of what they are will.

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.

Otr

Noaani wrote: »

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.

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 am really curious if such a thing will happen given that AoC will have a very long open Alpha 2 phase.
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.

Volgaris

You can solo level.. it's just slower. The game is designed to encourage you to group.

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.

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