Glorious Alpha Two Testers!
Alpha Two Phase III testing has begun! During this phase, our realms will be open every day, and we'll only have downtime for updates and maintenance. We'll keep everyone up-to-date about downtimes in Discord.
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 III testing has begun! During this phase, our realms will be open every day, and we'll only have downtime for updates and maintenance. We'll keep everyone up-to-date about downtimes in Discord.
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.
Casuel Feedback
nanfoodle
Member, Founder, Kickstarter, Alpha Two, Early Alpha Two
I'm a hard core gamer who has been PvPing, raiding, running raids and guilds who's real life responsiblies now have me playing at a casual pace.
I get to hop in for an hour here or two there. I have planed gaming nights where I get 2-4hrs of hardcore game time. So here is where casuel gamers live.
Spending 1/2 or all of my gaming time to find a team to get content done does not work. IS team has consistently made it harder to get a team with level gaps, drop reductions, exp reductions.
These need to be modified to make it a more relaxed for casuels. Adding things like level scaling and mentorship makes it so we can join our guilds, friends and partners. This is by far the most important area you can help casuels. It can be done it ways its restrictive and not totally encompassing. Let a team have no more then two mentored players for instance.
Next is options for crafting and gear. I get RNG stretches out the content but also makes a much larger time sync. I have about 25 maybe 30 recipes i have gotten in RNG drops by level 9.5. Not one is for my crating types I am working on. Have the recipies come in a chest with 5 options say that you can pick from with maybe some in game system that makes it somewhat a smart selection. I would rather 3 relevant drops over 30 i dont need and need to take my valuable time to try and find someone to trade with.
Rest machines or catch up mechanics as well. The hard core player will always beat catch up mechanics but adding them help the casuel player to have a fighting chance. My time off line should count to an in game boost. It should be impactful and could even be a catch up mechanics for crafting as well. To make this fare, it could be active for just one char at a time of our choosing.
When a cauel puts in 2hrs of game time in, we should feel like we have advanced more then 2 bubs of experience. My wife and I are on vacation this week and put in 9hrs of gaming in one day at level 6 and at the end of the day we crafted a weapon for each of us and got two levels. Our guildies are outside our level range. So we have to rely on pugs or playing duo. Its much slower and often surrounded by morons who like to take you into exp debt.
Every time sync needs to be looked at, how can this be modified to support casuel players. We get you need to slow down the hard core players but right now its 100% tuned just for that and time is the cauels players biggest road block.
Cauels and people who want to see the game succeed because about 80% of any MMO is made up by casual players. Ashes will not survive if they do not support the casual Gamer. Please add to the thread in ways that can help support casuals without breaking the game.
I get to hop in for an hour here or two there. I have planed gaming nights where I get 2-4hrs of hardcore game time. So here is where casuel gamers live.
Spending 1/2 or all of my gaming time to find a team to get content done does not work. IS team has consistently made it harder to get a team with level gaps, drop reductions, exp reductions.
These need to be modified to make it a more relaxed for casuels. Adding things like level scaling and mentorship makes it so we can join our guilds, friends and partners. This is by far the most important area you can help casuels. It can be done it ways its restrictive and not totally encompassing. Let a team have no more then two mentored players for instance.
Next is options for crafting and gear. I get RNG stretches out the content but also makes a much larger time sync. I have about 25 maybe 30 recipes i have gotten in RNG drops by level 9.5. Not one is for my crating types I am working on. Have the recipies come in a chest with 5 options say that you can pick from with maybe some in game system that makes it somewhat a smart selection. I would rather 3 relevant drops over 30 i dont need and need to take my valuable time to try and find someone to trade with.
Rest machines or catch up mechanics as well. The hard core player will always beat catch up mechanics but adding them help the casuel player to have a fighting chance. My time off line should count to an in game boost. It should be impactful and could even be a catch up mechanics for crafting as well. To make this fare, it could be active for just one char at a time of our choosing.
When a cauel puts in 2hrs of game time in, we should feel like we have advanced more then 2 bubs of experience. My wife and I are on vacation this week and put in 9hrs of gaming in one day at level 6 and at the end of the day we crafted a weapon for each of us and got two levels. Our guildies are outside our level range. So we have to rely on pugs or playing duo. Its much slower and often surrounded by morons who like to take you into exp debt.
Every time sync needs to be looked at, how can this be modified to support casuel players. We get you need to slow down the hard core players but right now its 100% tuned just for that and time is the cauels players biggest road block.
Cauels and people who want to see the game succeed because about 80% of any MMO is made up by casual players. Ashes will not survive if they do not support the casual Gamer. Please add to the thread in ways that can help support casuals without breaking the game.
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Comments
These need to be modified to make it a more relaxed for casuels
If there is no exp or drop reduction than you'll have power leveling happening. Even with mentorship there isn't much instance content anyways. Could a mentorship program work? maybe, but it'll be exploited by everyone. I think the leveling process should just be the leveling process.
There are other causals playing, I'm playing/testing causally right now. Just enjoying the exploration process and testing things I'm interested in. Causals will be important to the games success, but they'll never reach the achievements the hardcore players do, and they shouldn't. But you should be able to progress and enjoy it. Maybe join a causal guild, or make one.
LFG could be better, they should copy what Pantheon has. That's a great LFG system. That'd help find groups.
Also the towns are under developed so getting proper gear is rough. Trade chat helps but still hit and miss. And until player stores are up it'll be rougher solo/duo, but as a group it's fairly easy to gear out even crafting everything. I'd have assumed your guild would be passing you gear to help you advance faster. Getting some blues will have you dropping mobs fast.
Hard no on the catchup mechanics, this devalues the leveling processing. Just level up, don't rush, enjoy it.
If your guild is out pacing you because they are hardcore then join one that's more your speed. Big issue is not many people playing in alpha are looking for a causal playing experience. From those I've met they are either hardcore or just dipping their toes in to see what it's like. If this perspective is the truth then it's a problem, because they won't be getting causal players feedback. As you said causals normally make a large percentage of the population, will that be in Ashes? I don't know, but I think they need a healthy population for causals to be successful.
Your not getting this thread. IS asked for feedback on how to make Ashes casuel friendly. Don't like my suggestions, off others. Or how to adjust my feedback that fits with helping cauels and not break the game. Fact, most people left testing because the game became so harsh towards cauels, my wife and I were among them. My entire guild left the game. Loreforge is gone, some 300 players. Many gone for good.
What I do think is encouraging is that Steven and the team have already confirmed several systems aimed at helping people connect and not feel left behind:
Mentorship is on their roadmap, and while it has to be carefully balanced to avoid abuse, it could become a great bridge between different level ranges.
Player-driven economy and crafting means that as the world fills with more people, it will become easier to find the recipes, materials, or crafted gear you need without relying solely on RNG drops.
Guilds, family systems, and social tools will help casuals play with friends without always being gated out of content.
I think the main challenge right now is that in Alpha 2, the population is still small, towns and markets aren’t fully developed, and LFG tools are very basic. Once testing moves forward and systems like player shops, caravans, mentorship, and more polished LFG features are implemented, many of the concerns you raised will naturally feel less punishing.
At the end of the day, AoC is being built with the idea that community matters more than rushing. Hardcore players will always push ahead, but casual players will still have meaningful goals, social structures, and progression paths. I really believe the balance Intrepid is going for will give casuals a place without compromising the vision of the game.
I have guild members in other games you can call 'casuals' that sometimes can't/don't bother to log in at all for a whole week.
The quality of some things in the Alpha are currently below the level that would cause 'casuals' to stick/play more, but there's also a lot of stuff in Ashes that retains their interest without causing them to actually log in significantly more than that.
I'm sure they plan to improve the various economy and questing flows, so...
1. An important part of being casual-friendly is being solo-friendly. If only being able to login for an hour or two here or there, you want to be able to make meaningful progress even when it's not possible to join up with your guildmates and friends. Not to mention the fact that there is a huge population of people out there who prefer more solo-oriented play within an MMO world. Honestly, AoC is not horrible in this regard, but it's important to keep focus on ensuring the game offers a path for solo players.
2. Travel times. If you only have a couple hours to login, and you want to run a dungeon or even just farm with friends, it's tough to need to spend 30 minutes riding across the map. And once we have all 85 Settlements, this is going to be a serious issue.
Also, separate issues that I need to mention in every post moving forward. The grind is excessive, corruption is excessive and crafting isn't fun.
I think AoC has a bright future ahead, but this is going to require some compromise on "this games just not for you, and that's ok."