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.
Suggestions and impressions! :)
V4u
Member, Alpha Two
Hello everyone,
i wanted to use the downtime to bring some of my thoughts to "paper" in order to bring the most benefits to this Project!
a quick summary to my backround! i am a highly dedicated MMO Player for almost 25 years and a Hobby Dev in UE5 as well (with one Product, almost ready to ship)
_____________________________________________________________
NOTE: These are some ideas, assumtions, and opinions! if you see things different, let us know, cause the more input, the better the game can be! BUT there is most of the time no right or wrong! (depends on the case) So everthing should be repectful and in a constructive manor!
Also, i am not 100% catched up with all information, so if something was already mentioned else where ignore my points
I am also prertty aware that it´s an Alpha, so this should partly just reflect on some things like they are feeling curently
With that said:
Early Game Expierence:
- Early game, feels very good for a while, but some quest leading you to believe you have to stick to that part and area! Unexpierenced Players got lost and could comprehend how to continue, mostly ending up in some area where to much high level mobs are around!
----> i would suggest, creating some kind of Colour Code for only the starting zones, to give an general Overview about the strengh of the average mobs level in this territory! (i am also not so happy personaly with the way the mobs with one and 2 star are spreaded, i would prefere to have less mixup with certain level mobs for questing (or in general low level mobs).
it just feels off, when you are grinding and some 2 Star charges at you over the hill, with you having =% chance of getting away
-this brings me to point two: The way mobs spawn,
at the moment mobs spawn, and immediately attack people in range, that is a very unfortunate setting, cause most of the time you are not able to flee this encounter, or you have to run several hundred meters to get out of range!
----> i wouldprefer to have, lets say about 3-5 seconds to move out of the Attacking range of a spawning mob, before he can attack you AFTER spawning (only)
- in regard to that, i also think that the aggro range and the distance they trace you while fleeing are to far set! sometimes you have to run so far, that you add several more mobs, cause the respawn times are very fast (of the mobs)
- Further, still regarding to the low level expierence, i got the feeling that there is not enough things dropping to get a certain amount of currency to provide for the necessary expense you got! (repair for example)
----> not sure if it was just me, but i didn´t got much things i could sell early on, what gave me a relevant amount of currency to progress properly! (level range 1-10), i would love to see some items like in World of Warcraft of the gray rareity (where you could easily say that this is only for selling), cause item drops are fairly rare and also do not give a proper amount of currency
- i would also like to mention, that the overall experience could profit from more homogeneous areas of mobs! so you can decide to grind certain areas without stumbling into mobs 5-10 levels above you or with 3-5k live on level 10!
Having those mobs between is ok, but having them all over the place, gives you the feeling you are in the wrong spot, and you get easliy frustrated, when a player runs through with a mount and you get attacked by all the high level mobs he is pulling behind him! or you run over a hill of your grinding spot and run into a 3 star 5 levels above! i know you have thought about these things carefully and probably have a deper plan with that! so i just want to metion it, cause it gave me not the feeling of a dangerous world, it gave me the feeling of beeing at the wrong spots all the time! i ended up looking for a spot, where are only 4-5 spawn points very remote and grindet super slowly cause i was sick of getting killed by a spawning 2 star instantly attacking me, without the chance to react or get away somehow
Artisan:
- My thoughts to the professions, are overwhelming possitive, i like to gather materials all around the map! the system feels nice and the progress is made reasonable!
----> but i would prefere to not pay for every step to progress the materials, or at least not as much! it hurts the progress for low level players and players with less time intense! Also i got the feeling that i got punished for trying to craft my own weapons instead of just buy them from a verndor or another player! by the time i got my skills high enough to craft T2 gear i was already to high with the level again! (i know this is related to the level 25 cap, but i wanted to point this out badly, cause it feelt very of for me)
----> Another thing i wanted to mention is that i would like to see a certain value legendary and heroic low level materials! so that even a low level can get to some currency if he gets a lucky ruby for example! so that verndors for example pay twice as much for these more rare items!
> Another thing i realized is that there are no informations at the moment how level Up your skills, for example if you want to buy the journeyman Certification, it could say "you have to reach level 10, to upgrae your skill" or something like that! this would help, to understand the progression a bit more for players, not used to this kind of crafting and job progression system!
- For Hunting (i know it´s just a placeholder ) i would love to see a differentiation of cost between the training of the mounts!
> for example a Wolf, a Bear and the cat should cost much less then the faster and more highlevel mounts! how much it should finaly cost, probably does not make much sense at this point in development
For Trading:
With the Backround of mine playing Silkroad Online and other games like that, Trading is one of my favorite features in this Project! You proably sold you game to me with only this feature! And it´s Awesome!!!!
Even though i got a few things on my mind to that one!
----> for some reason you guys changed the slot capacity for uncommon goods to two slot, what sicnificantly reduced the outcome of the Trades! for example if you move over 50% of the current map, what takes about 30-45 minutes depending of your route, you will recieve 1g,06S! what is kind of low! Regarding to the point that you have to pay 10 Silver to start the caravan and also spend glimmer worth about 13-15 Silver! Grinding brings so much more, and the risk is sicnificantly lower!
> I would like to recommend to think about a System like Silkroad did it all this years ago! In case you don´t know (i can´t imagine
) i would describe it quickly
You buy goods as much as you want more or less, but the more you have, you get a Rating from 1 to 5 Stars!
a 1 Star trade can´t be attacked by anyone
a 2 Star Trade can be attacked by anyone (i think this should come with 3 star, but it was different with Silkroad then)
a 3-5 Star Tade can also be attacked by anyone
the cache is, that you spawn NPC Thiefs attacking you Trading Vehicle, over and over!
They scale to the Level of the Trader, and get more and stronger the higher your Star Rating of your Trade!
That way even low level and Beginners can trade in areas where they can handle the monsters in the world! but with just a basic outcome!
for example doing a 4 or 5 Star Trade you need to join up with people who where using the Hunter-Job (in Silkroad) to support your trade, cause the NPC Thiefs would simply kill you otherwise, but the outcome is way more lucrative!
With this System you give the Players more freedom over the Risk vs. Reward Mechanic and do not lock low level players out of it! (i heared often when i went trading with lvl 14, things like " you are dumb to do that" " thats brave" and so on)
- Another thing i would like to see worked on a bit more would be the way you get hit when you are sitting on you caravan! in my opinion, if i sit on a armored Caravan, i would think that i save from people attaking me or at least get just 5-10% of damage! (i know it´s reduced at the moment but a lvl 25 just shoots you down instantly), it feels bad for someone of low level to have no way to hinde inside the caravan and wait for help or what ever, even if you caravan is a Castle with wheels!
- a small idea to this topic would be also to have other people sit on your caravan! we realized how cool this would be if someone supports you and has no own Caravan, that he can sit on yours! Maybe also a "Trace" function would be cool, that someone on the Trade can stick his Caravan to someone of the Party to go to the toilette or something!
(i can think of some people using this funcionality for otherstuff, but in my opinion there should be some sort of mechanic like that, maybe you think about that)
- i also missed somehow a Progression for the Trader Skill, there could be so much potential in having a Trader Skill, like the other Artisan Proffesions, for example getting more storage, better mounts, less commisions, or even unique skills for trading (in SIlkroad you had to wear certain flags (Job Item) to be flaged as a Trader otherwise you couldn´t summon the Trading Mounts nor buy the goods) --->An Awesome Idea would be for example to get one of 3 Unique Skills when you maxed out your traders Skill (Buffs, Instant Transfer to Water or whatever)
Regarding to the Trading, there could also be a simial system like Silkroad Online with Hunter and Trader Jobs for Job related PVP Content´, just as an Idea!
Overall the system is great, but there should be a way to Trade somehow without the fear of getting killed by High Level Player or even PVP Focused Players (cause a Healer for example should at least have the possibility to do trades, even if he can´t do PVP on his own) even if the outcome is just a bit of currency!
Overall impressions
Overall i am super hyped about the game and you did an awesome job with it up to now! thank you already for bringing this to live!
here a few more things i wanted to mention but not go to deep on it:
-Wolfes are to fast and chasing you to far
-If you have a debuff, for example a poision debuff from the small mushroom guys, you kill them, but then you can´t sit down to eat until the debuff runs out!
----> this is super unfair for players without a heal skill, cause you litteraly have to wait and watch you character die, even if you won the fight with about 10-15% of your life left, cause you can´t sit down and eat (to heal) until the debuff is finished!
i think this is not intentional so just as a note
- another refrence to Silkroad Online, but they had some good stuff, that also got picked up from Archage for example (or the other way around maybe ^^)
----> There was a System for items what was called Seal of Star, Seal of Moon, Seal of Sun:
- These where items with a Epic Glow and much better stats! these items where super rare and gave the game and every mob a small chance of getting you lucky! there was nothing more epic and exciting then getting one of those items and try to push them with the enchantment to +5 or even above for even mor glow! similar how it works in Ashes)
i would LOVE to see something similar here in Ashes!
With all that said, and if you came that far, thank you for your time and attention! Please let me know what you think of some of my points mentioned here!
and sorry for my english, i am no Native Speaker, so this is often a bit challenging also i want to thank you all of the development Team, aswell as Steven himself for realizing these project, i couldn´t be more hyped about this project! and with this first Part of my review i hope i can fullfill my dream to be noted somehow in an Epic World like this!
Best Regard
Vale
i wanted to use the downtime to bring some of my thoughts to "paper" in order to bring the most benefits to this Project!
a quick summary to my backround! i am a highly dedicated MMO Player for almost 25 years and a Hobby Dev in UE5 as well (with one Product, almost ready to ship)
_____________________________________________________________
NOTE: These are some ideas, assumtions, and opinions! if you see things different, let us know, cause the more input, the better the game can be! BUT there is most of the time no right or wrong! (depends on the case) So everthing should be repectful and in a constructive manor!
Also, i am not 100% catched up with all information, so if something was already mentioned else where ignore my points
I am also prertty aware that it´s an Alpha, so this should partly just reflect on some things like they are feeling curently
With that said:
Early Game Expierence:
- Early game, feels very good for a while, but some quest leading you to believe you have to stick to that part and area! Unexpierenced Players got lost and could comprehend how to continue, mostly ending up in some area where to much high level mobs are around!
----> i would suggest, creating some kind of Colour Code for only the starting zones, to give an general Overview about the strengh of the average mobs level in this territory! (i am also not so happy personaly with the way the mobs with one and 2 star are spreaded, i would prefere to have less mixup with certain level mobs for questing (or in general low level mobs).
it just feels off, when you are grinding and some 2 Star charges at you over the hill, with you having =% chance of getting away
-this brings me to point two: The way mobs spawn,
at the moment mobs spawn, and immediately attack people in range, that is a very unfortunate setting, cause most of the time you are not able to flee this encounter, or you have to run several hundred meters to get out of range!
----> i wouldprefer to have, lets say about 3-5 seconds to move out of the Attacking range of a spawning mob, before he can attack you AFTER spawning (only)
- in regard to that, i also think that the aggro range and the distance they trace you while fleeing are to far set! sometimes you have to run so far, that you add several more mobs, cause the respawn times are very fast (of the mobs)
- Further, still regarding to the low level expierence, i got the feeling that there is not enough things dropping to get a certain amount of currency to provide for the necessary expense you got! (repair for example)
----> not sure if it was just me, but i didn´t got much things i could sell early on, what gave me a relevant amount of currency to progress properly! (level range 1-10), i would love to see some items like in World of Warcraft of the gray rareity (where you could easily say that this is only for selling), cause item drops are fairly rare and also do not give a proper amount of currency
- i would also like to mention, that the overall experience could profit from more homogeneous areas of mobs! so you can decide to grind certain areas without stumbling into mobs 5-10 levels above you or with 3-5k live on level 10!
Having those mobs between is ok, but having them all over the place, gives you the feeling you are in the wrong spot, and you get easliy frustrated, when a player runs through with a mount and you get attacked by all the high level mobs he is pulling behind him! or you run over a hill of your grinding spot and run into a 3 star 5 levels above! i know you have thought about these things carefully and probably have a deper plan with that! so i just want to metion it, cause it gave me not the feeling of a dangerous world, it gave me the feeling of beeing at the wrong spots all the time! i ended up looking for a spot, where are only 4-5 spawn points very remote and grindet super slowly cause i was sick of getting killed by a spawning 2 star instantly attacking me, without the chance to react or get away somehow
Artisan:
- My thoughts to the professions, are overwhelming possitive, i like to gather materials all around the map! the system feels nice and the progress is made reasonable!
----> but i would prefere to not pay for every step to progress the materials, or at least not as much! it hurts the progress for low level players and players with less time intense! Also i got the feeling that i got punished for trying to craft my own weapons instead of just buy them from a verndor or another player! by the time i got my skills high enough to craft T2 gear i was already to high with the level again! (i know this is related to the level 25 cap, but i wanted to point this out badly, cause it feelt very of for me)
----> Another thing i wanted to mention is that i would like to see a certain value legendary and heroic low level materials! so that even a low level can get to some currency if he gets a lucky ruby for example! so that verndors for example pay twice as much for these more rare items!
> Another thing i realized is that there are no informations at the moment how level Up your skills, for example if you want to buy the journeyman Certification, it could say "you have to reach level 10, to upgrae your skill" or something like that! this would help, to understand the progression a bit more for players, not used to this kind of crafting and job progression system!
- For Hunting (i know it´s just a placeholder
) i would love to see a differentiation of cost between the training of the mounts!
> for example a Wolf, a Bear and the cat should cost much less then the faster and more highlevel mounts! how much it should finaly cost, probably does not make much sense at this point in development
For Trading:
With the Backround of mine playing Silkroad Online and other games like that, Trading is one of my favorite features in this Project! You proably sold you game to me with only this feature! And it´s Awesome!!!!
Even though i got a few things on my mind to that one!
----> for some reason you guys changed the slot capacity for uncommon goods to two slot, what sicnificantly reduced the outcome of the Trades! for example if you move over 50% of the current map, what takes about 30-45 minutes depending of your route, you will recieve 1g,06S! what is kind of low! Regarding to the point that you have to pay 10 Silver to start the caravan and also spend glimmer worth about 13-15 Silver! Grinding brings so much more, and the risk is sicnificantly lower!
> I would like to recommend to think about a System like Silkroad did it all this years ago! In case you don´t know (i can´t imagine
) i would describe it quicklyYou buy goods as much as you want more or less, but the more you have, you get a Rating from 1 to 5 Stars!
a 1 Star trade can´t be attacked by anyone
a 2 Star Trade can be attacked by anyone (i think this should come with 3 star, but it was different with Silkroad then)
a 3-5 Star Tade can also be attacked by anyone
the cache is, that you spawn NPC Thiefs attacking you Trading Vehicle, over and over!
They scale to the Level of the Trader, and get more and stronger the higher your Star Rating of your Trade!
That way even low level and Beginners can trade in areas where they can handle the monsters in the world! but with just a basic outcome!
for example doing a 4 or 5 Star Trade you need to join up with people who where using the Hunter-Job (in Silkroad) to support your trade, cause the NPC Thiefs would simply kill you otherwise, but the outcome is way more lucrative!
With this System you give the Players more freedom over the Risk vs. Reward Mechanic and do not lock low level players out of it! (i heared often when i went trading with lvl 14, things like " you are dumb to do that" " thats brave" and so on)
- Another thing i would like to see worked on a bit more would be the way you get hit when you are sitting on you caravan! in my opinion, if i sit on a armored Caravan, i would think that i save from people attaking me or at least get just 5-10% of damage! (i know it´s reduced at the moment but a lvl 25 just shoots you down instantly), it feels bad for someone of low level to have no way to hinde inside the caravan and wait for help or what ever, even if you caravan is a Castle with wheels!
- a small idea to this topic would be also to have other people sit on your caravan! we realized how cool this would be if someone supports you and has no own Caravan, that he can sit on yours! Maybe also a "Trace" function would be cool, that someone on the Trade can stick his Caravan to someone of the Party to go to the toilette or something!
(i can think of some people using this funcionality for otherstuff, but in my opinion there should be some sort of mechanic like that, maybe you think about that)
- i also missed somehow a Progression for the Trader Skill, there could be so much potential in having a Trader Skill, like the other Artisan Proffesions, for example getting more storage, better mounts, less commisions, or even unique skills for trading (in SIlkroad you had to wear certain flags (Job Item) to be flaged as a Trader otherwise you couldn´t summon the Trading Mounts nor buy the goods) --->An Awesome Idea would be for example to get one of 3 Unique Skills when you maxed out your traders Skill (Buffs, Instant Transfer to Water or whatever)
Regarding to the Trading, there could also be a simial system like Silkroad Online with Hunter and Trader Jobs for Job related PVP Content´, just as an Idea!
Overall the system is great, but there should be a way to Trade somehow without the fear of getting killed by High Level Player or even PVP Focused Players (cause a Healer for example should at least have the possibility to do trades, even if he can´t do PVP on his own) even if the outcome is just a bit of currency!
Overall impressions
Overall i am super hyped about the game and you did an awesome job with it up to now! thank you already for bringing this to live!
here a few more things i wanted to mention but not go to deep on it:
-Wolfes are to fast and chasing you to far
-If you have a debuff, for example a poision debuff from the small mushroom guys, you kill them, but then you can´t sit down to eat until the debuff runs out!
----> this is super unfair for players without a heal skill, cause you litteraly have to wait and watch you character die, even if you won the fight with about 10-15% of your life left, cause you can´t sit down and eat (to heal) until the debuff is finished!
i think this is not intentional so just as a note
- another refrence to Silkroad Online, but they had some good stuff, that also got picked up from Archage for example (or the other way around maybe ^^)
----> There was a System for items what was called Seal of Star, Seal of Moon, Seal of Sun:
- These where items with a Epic Glow and much better stats! these items where super rare and gave the game and every mob a small chance of getting you lucky! there was nothing more epic and exciting then getting one of those items and try to push them with the enchantment to +5 or even above for even mor glow! similar how it works in Ashes)
i would LOVE to see something similar here in Ashes!
With all that said, and if you came that far, thank you for your time and attention! Please let me know what you think of some of my points mentioned here!
and sorry for my english, i am no Native Speaker, so this is often a bit challenging
also i want to thank you all of the development Team, aswell as Steven himself for realizing these project, i couldn´t be more hyped about this project! and with this first Part of my review i hope i can fullfill my dream to be noted somehow in an Epic World like this!Best Regard
Vale
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