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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.
[ECONOMY] Ideas for fixing some of its problems
CoioTe
Member, Alpha Two
Major problems right now:
- Economy pace:
Its no mistery that the lvl up pace is much more faster than the economy / gear pace, what makes the lvl of items way of the reality. On P2, everyone were using lvl 10 itens, despite of being lvl 25 (current max lvl). On P2, everyone completely skipped lvl 10 itens and went directly to lvl 20 farming gear.
One way to solve that is greatly increase the lvl grind, but that is far from popular.
Another option is better balance the mobs and gear, so you NEED lvl 10 stuff in order to kill lvl 20+ mobs. Like in other MMO´s, like Lineage and many others, you just CANT go kill a higher level mob using an initial gear. On Ashes is not just possible, but the most eficient way to far: you skip a whole tier of equipment (tier 1) and farm directly the endgame (at least for now) stuff (lvl 20). This needs to be adressed. But it must come alongside with many eco changes that are needed that are going to be discussed.
Another thing that greatly affects economy pace is its link with NODE progression. And a really bad design make this even worse: resources from different grades sharing the same respawn (like iron node and copper / Weping Willow and Braidwood and etc). I think that the certification for that particular profession SHOULD BE ENOUGH for allowing you to gather that resourse. But, if you need more quantity and rarity, you should craft better tools.
So the grade of the tool should have a HUGE impact on the quantity and rarity of the resource you are getting, but you can still mine a iron node using a novice pickaxe, but you will NEVER get anything better than white or green.
With that, we can fix this resource spawn problem and avoid mostly of the delay that NODES causes to the economy.
- Not clear ressource progression:
Even on P2, after JM gathering and crafting were unlocked, was easier to find iron than copper, at some point. There is no clear progression over resources.
The game is going to be capped at lvl 50, so we are expecting items lvl 0, 10, 20, 30, 40 and 50 (5 tier, since i will exclude lvl 0, since they are like tutorial items). It should have a clear progression:
Over that, you still need to set the rarity. The rarity should be much closer to the hunting rarity right now. A lvl 10 white resource should be abundant. Nobody should have any problem to craft a white copper longsword. But a legendary one, should REALLY feel legendary.
And the rarity rate of the resources should get lowered the higher is the resource lvl:
Common lvl 0: 60% chance
Uncommon lvl 0: 20% chance
Rare lvl 0: 10% chance
Heroic lvl 0: 5% chance
Epic lvl 0: 3% chance
Legendary lvl 0: 2% chance
Common lvl 10: 70% chance
Uncommon lvl 10: 15% chance
Rare lvl 10: 7,5% chance
Heroic lvl 10: 4% chance
Epic lvl 10: 2,5% chance
Legendary lvl 10: 1,0 % chance
And so on...a legendary lvl 50 resource should be extremely rare, while a legendary lvl 0 resource should be rare, but yet not very hard to find.
Chances to get higher rarities should be linked to rarity bonuses from tools / artisan clothes.
- Craft is not an option
The meta on P2 was: lets craft leg lvl 10 stuff and overenchant it.
The meta on P2.5 is: lets get the best named drop while we wait for economy update and, maybe, we can craft stuff.
What it should be:
I NEED to craft lvl 0 stuff, in order to be efficient while farming from my lvl 0 to 10. Then, i need to lvl up my artisan and gathering skill cause i NEED to craft lvl 10 stuff in order to be efficient while farming from lvl 0 to 10. And so on.
But, for that to work like this, we need to solve the pace problem and the progression problem.
b]- Bad progression of items between tiers/b]
Overall, items should have this progression:
Drops full are up to green. Very low chance of dropping rare. 0 chance to drop anything above rare.
A higher tier item should be equivalent to a item from the previous tier that is 3 rarity above it. Example:
A Leg lvl 0 stuff should be equivalent to a Heroic lvl 10 stuff.
A Leg lvl 10 stuff should be equivalent to a Heroic lvl 20 stuff, but better than a Rare lvl 20 stuff.
A Heroic lvl 0 stuff should be equivalent to a Common lvl 10 stuff.
A Heroic lvl 10 stuff should be equivalent to a Common lvl 20 stuff.
And so on.
You CANT be able to drop something that will be better than the best item you can craft from the previous tier. If thats is true, you will COMPLETELY avoid that tier.
About named drops:
They should drop NO FULL ITEM. Only the special material necessary for crafting it. Those items should be slightly better than its equivalent on the same tier (a "regular" legendary lvl 20 GS should be slightly worse than a legendary named lvl 20 GS). Also, named drops should be more focused on giving different build options for players, not necessary the best build options. More set bonuses should be implemented to help on that.
- - Economy pace is different from lvl up pace
- - Not clear ressource progression
- - Crafting is not an option
- - Bad progression of items betweens tiers
- Economy pace:
Its no mistery that the lvl up pace is much more faster than the economy / gear pace, what makes the lvl of items way of the reality. On P2, everyone were using lvl 10 itens, despite of being lvl 25 (current max lvl). On P2, everyone completely skipped lvl 10 itens and went directly to lvl 20 farming gear.
One way to solve that is greatly increase the lvl grind, but that is far from popular.
Another option is better balance the mobs and gear, so you NEED lvl 10 stuff in order to kill lvl 20+ mobs. Like in other MMO´s, like Lineage and many others, you just CANT go kill a higher level mob using an initial gear. On Ashes is not just possible, but the most eficient way to far: you skip a whole tier of equipment (tier 1) and farm directly the endgame (at least for now) stuff (lvl 20). This needs to be adressed. But it must come alongside with many eco changes that are needed that are going to be discussed.
Another thing that greatly affects economy pace is its link with NODE progression. And a really bad design make this even worse: resources from different grades sharing the same respawn (like iron node and copper / Weping Willow and Braidwood and etc). I think that the certification for that particular profession SHOULD BE ENOUGH for allowing you to gather that resourse. But, if you need more quantity and rarity, you should craft better tools.
So the grade of the tool should have a HUGE impact on the quantity and rarity of the resource you are getting, but you can still mine a iron node using a novice pickaxe, but you will NEVER get anything better than white or green.
With that, we can fix this resource spawn problem and avoid mostly of the delay that NODES causes to the economy.
- Not clear ressource progression:
Even on P2, after JM gathering and crafting were unlocked, was easier to find iron than copper, at some point. There is no clear progression over resources.
The game is going to be capped at lvl 50, so we are expecting items lvl 0, 10, 20, 30, 40 and 50 (5 tier, since i will exclude lvl 0, since they are like tutorial items). It should have a clear progression:
- Resources for lvl 10 stuff: very abudant - noone should have no problem acquiring them, even on larger quantities (like 10 copper nodes on a cluster, with a very quick respawn time)
- Resources for lvl 20 stuff: easily found - they should be very abundant, but with some spots with better efficiency, to create a dispute between larger groups that needs it (like 4 or 5 iron nodes on a cluster, with a respawn time of like 5 min; but with some areas where they respawn on larger quantities)
- Resources for lvl 30 stuff: somewhat rare to be found - they still should be found almost anywhere, but with low efficiency (you can find 1 or 2 nodes, but they start to have bigger respawn times, like 10 + min)
- Resources for lvl 40 stuff: rare - they can be found on specific places, with low quantities and high respawn time)
- Resources for lvl 50 stuff: much rare - they can spawn on certain areas, under certains condiditons, very few quantity and very high respawn time
Over that, you still need to set the rarity. The rarity should be much closer to the hunting rarity right now. A lvl 10 white resource should be abundant. Nobody should have any problem to craft a white copper longsword. But a legendary one, should REALLY feel legendary.
And the rarity rate of the resources should get lowered the higher is the resource lvl:
Common lvl 0: 60% chance
Uncommon lvl 0: 20% chance
Rare lvl 0: 10% chance
Heroic lvl 0: 5% chance
Epic lvl 0: 3% chance
Legendary lvl 0: 2% chance
Common lvl 10: 70% chance
Uncommon lvl 10: 15% chance
Rare lvl 10: 7,5% chance
Heroic lvl 10: 4% chance
Epic lvl 10: 2,5% chance
Legendary lvl 10: 1,0 % chance
And so on...a legendary lvl 50 resource should be extremely rare, while a legendary lvl 0 resource should be rare, but yet not very hard to find.
Chances to get higher rarities should be linked to rarity bonuses from tools / artisan clothes.
- Craft is not an option
The meta on P2 was: lets craft leg lvl 10 stuff and overenchant it.
The meta on P2.5 is: lets get the best named drop while we wait for economy update and, maybe, we can craft stuff.
What it should be:
I NEED to craft lvl 0 stuff, in order to be efficient while farming from my lvl 0 to 10. Then, i need to lvl up my artisan and gathering skill cause i NEED to craft lvl 10 stuff in order to be efficient while farming from lvl 0 to 10. And so on.
But, for that to work like this, we need to solve the pace problem and the progression problem.
b]- Bad progression of items between tiers/b]
Overall, items should have this progression:
Drops full are up to green. Very low chance of dropping rare. 0 chance to drop anything above rare.
A higher tier item should be equivalent to a item from the previous tier that is 3 rarity above it. Example:
A Leg lvl 0 stuff should be equivalent to a Heroic lvl 10 stuff.
A Leg lvl 10 stuff should be equivalent to a Heroic lvl 20 stuff, but better than a Rare lvl 20 stuff.
A Heroic lvl 0 stuff should be equivalent to a Common lvl 10 stuff.
A Heroic lvl 10 stuff should be equivalent to a Common lvl 20 stuff.
And so on.
You CANT be able to drop something that will be better than the best item you can craft from the previous tier. If thats is true, you will COMPLETELY avoid that tier.
About named drops:
They should drop NO FULL ITEM. Only the special material necessary for crafting it. Those items should be slightly better than its equivalent on the same tier (a "regular" legendary lvl 20 GS should be slightly worse than a legendary named lvl 20 GS). Also, named drops should be more focused on giving different build options for players, not necessary the best build options. More set bonuses should be implemented to help on that.
1
Comments
Every node could be a viable leveling zone at every stage, making the game world truly dynamic.
But it feels like Intrepid might be taking the lazy, half-assed route of assigning static level ranges to nodes. (This was hinted at during the second most recent live stream.)
That kind of decision kills the original vision Steven laid out for me all those years ago.
This is my personal feedback, shared to help the game thrive in its niche.
I wish we could get clarification on this.
I have a feedback thread. Everyone who has commented in it wants clarification as well.
Intrepid has not commented on it.
I miss the days when the Devs where more active on here.
This is my personal feedback, shared to help the game thrive in its niche.