Glorious Alpha Two Testers!
Alpha Two testing is currently taking place five days each week. More information about Phase II and Phase III 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 testing is currently taking place five days each week. More information about Phase II and Phase III 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.
Reason I currently do NOT want to play the game
Kiwi_
Member, Alpha Two
With the most recent wipe and patches I was actually quite curious and considering to join the testing again
However... the current testing environment really keeps me from doing so, since I simply don't enjoy how things are, they have been similar when p2 started and got worse now especially with only one server so let me explain...
The sheer amount of people in the world and the locations are great to stress test the servers, I understand that, but having to spawn camp normal monsters with dozens of other players isn't really what I would call playing or playtesting the gameplay and how it should be when the game releases
Afaik it also does not represent how the player density is supposed to be on release as the world will be much bigger with a (previously in streams stated) concurrent player count being aimed at ~10k iirc.
But now it's around the same numbers on like a quarter or less of the final world map?
And even though player density is at such an extreme, adjustments to systems and environments, scaling, spawns etc etc are already being made as a reaction to how things are going with the current numbers of players, this doesn't make sense in my eyes
Unless it's because you want to push the server capacity to actually have a similar player density for the final game, which would honestly be a reason for me not to play at all, because this right now is not fun. It doesn't feel like a large world, it doesn't feel immersive, it just feels like an overcrowded main station where it's just too many people and you don't really wanna be there because it's nothing but stressful and exhausting
I do understand that extremes are needed to improve and work on server performance, I do know this is an alpha and it's for testing and not playing, I have been following the game for many years now and I don't mind waiting many more
But imo the alpha should be treated like an alpha, a little more like it's partly being done on the PTR that I have access to as well, where I honestly expected more testing to be happening than it is
Right now I personally feel like it's neither half nor whole
Like if you wanna test server performance - have people test server performance by doing things like you did with the siege testing. If you wanna have people test the economy, create a space and player density similar to the finished game. If you want people to test the gameplay how it's supposed to be then treat it like that for that test. This goes for basically everything
But with how things are right now I feel like a lot of things are not really testable in a way that actually makes sense - again, unless plans have actually changed and this kind of extreme player density is what you're aiming for - which I really hope is not true
edit/addition:
just to clarify - I don’t mind contesting for spots, POIs etc, that’s part of the game and should be. That’s not what this is about
However... the current testing environment really keeps me from doing so, since I simply don't enjoy how things are, they have been similar when p2 started and got worse now especially with only one server so let me explain...
The sheer amount of people in the world and the locations are great to stress test the servers, I understand that, but having to spawn camp normal monsters with dozens of other players isn't really what I would call playing or playtesting the gameplay and how it should be when the game releases
Afaik it also does not represent how the player density is supposed to be on release as the world will be much bigger with a (previously in streams stated) concurrent player count being aimed at ~10k iirc.
But now it's around the same numbers on like a quarter or less of the final world map?
And even though player density is at such an extreme, adjustments to systems and environments, scaling, spawns etc etc are already being made as a reaction to how things are going with the current numbers of players, this doesn't make sense in my eyes
Unless it's because you want to push the server capacity to actually have a similar player density for the final game, which would honestly be a reason for me not to play at all, because this right now is not fun. It doesn't feel like a large world, it doesn't feel immersive, it just feels like an overcrowded main station where it's just too many people and you don't really wanna be there because it's nothing but stressful and exhausting
I do understand that extremes are needed to improve and work on server performance, I do know this is an alpha and it's for testing and not playing, I have been following the game for many years now and I don't mind waiting many more
But imo the alpha should be treated like an alpha, a little more like it's partly being done on the PTR that I have access to as well, where I honestly expected more testing to be happening than it is
Right now I personally feel like it's neither half nor whole
Like if you wanna test server performance - have people test server performance by doing things like you did with the siege testing. If you wanna have people test the economy, create a space and player density similar to the finished game. If you want people to test the gameplay how it's supposed to be then treat it like that for that test. This goes for basically everything
But with how things are right now I feel like a lot of things are not really testable in a way that actually makes sense - again, unless plans have actually changed and this kind of extreme player density is what you're aiming for - which I really hope is not true
edit/addition:
just to clarify - I don’t mind contesting for spots, POIs etc, that’s part of the game and should be. That’s not what this is about
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Comments
Nodes with the most people will grow in lvls. Those higher lvl nodes will have bigger dungeons and higher lvl mobs. People who want to keep leveling will go to those location, because they'll be the optimal spots for progress. This will naturally create player funnels, which in turn creates player friction, resource scarcity and risk/reward decision-making.
If you don't like contesting farming spots with other people, Ashes might, in fact, not be a game for you.
it’s a pvx game and contesting is part of that and should be
but if they want people to play test the game the way it’s supposed to be like on release, gameplay loops, economy etc imo the player density etc should reflect on that VS when they wanna stress test the servers for stuff like starting areas or large pvp events then it should be a dedicated stress test
We'll have 5 spawn points on release. That's, on average, 2k people per spot. There'll be some basic quest lines that will take people through the gameplay loops. All of those will be overflowing with people. Any of the commissions that people take will be overflowing with people. Any resource that's present in the relative vicinity to the spawn gate will be contested to all hell, because 2k people will descend on them like locusts.
And supposedly most people on release will also be casuals/newbies, so they won't know all the proper leveling paths and optimized routes. Which means that things will be even worse than now, cause right now we have a fair bit of hardcore players who've gone through 2 phase starts already, who optimized the leveling routes as much as possible and who're also immediately playing in near-full groups - all of which allows them to shoot through the lvls and location waaay faster than some random dude who's reading the quests and trying to understand what do they even do in this game.
In other words, I really believe that what we're testing right now is exactly what will be happening on full release. Which means that the data Intrepid are getting from our testing will be quite useful to them. They'll know which types of quests to boost with an alternative path (i.e. alchemy bottles for Purification Powder in the Alean ruins) or which mob respawn timers to decrease because the player heatmap shows that it's the most frequented mob for anyone between lvl3 and 5.
Blown past falling sands…
In the end it will all depend on how good the combat will be at higher lvls, i am still < lvl 10 so.. Cant really say much heh
Edit: Spawn rates in general are really bad.. at least for quest spots like griffins etc.
Yeah, it's not a great feel, right now. There's still plenty to test, though, but I understand if you want your first taste of Ashes to have a less disappointing flavour.
I know this is going to be pvp focus, but crafting nodes should just be spawn shared like how its done in GW2, ESO, & modern WoW. They want to create reasons for fighting but, they can easily create crafting focus mini spots in zones; ie) mines, garden & etc. Have these mini area nodes be capturable that will spawn guards to guard it from other factions. With the benefit of increasing the quality & amount of gathering outside of the mini area nodes, and have tons of nodes to gather from inside those mini area nodes (mines, garden, etc). While it also affects the build-up speed & other benefits for town/city nodes in the area under the groups' control.
There's also no real factions in the game, because no matter whether you choose for guards to defend vs guilds or nodes - there's simply too many enemies to choose from, so you can't defend against everyone. Not like guards would even be able to do that, unless you made them as OP as the ember spring ones are (which would be an even bigger boon to zerg).
And I'd imagine this kind of design would impact economy in all kinds of ways. Recipe requirements would shoot through the roof even more (while majority of people don't have the mats for it), node building requirements would be just crazy which will mean even slower progress of crafting and by lvl 50 the base lvl of the crafting pyramid will get to thousands of mats per single item, simply because it'll all stack up together.