Glorious Alpha Two Testers!
Phase I of Alpha Two testing will occur on weekends. Each weekend is scheduled to start on Fridays at 10 AM PT and end on Sundays at 10 PM PT. Find out more here.
Check out Alpha Two Announcements here to see the latest Alpha Two news and update notes.
Our quickest Alpha Two updates are in Discord. Testers with Alpha Two access can chat in Alpha Two channels by connecting your Discord and Intrepid accounts here.
Phase I of Alpha Two testing will occur on weekends. Each weekend is scheduled to start on Fridays at 10 AM PT and end on Sundays at 10 PM PT. Find out more here.
Check out Alpha Two Announcements here to see the latest Alpha Two news and update notes.
Our quickest Alpha Two updates are in Discord. Testers with Alpha Two access can chat in Alpha Two channels by connecting your Discord and Intrepid accounts here.
Developer's Q & A Discussion
Hey guys,
We will be shooting a video of our designers at the round table, discussing some questions that our community has about Ashes of Creation.
We would like you to post any of those questions here, and we will then include some of these in our video!
Thank you!
-Steven
We will be shooting a video of our designers at the round table, discussing some questions that our community has about Ashes of Creation.
We would like you to post any of those questions here, and we will then include some of these in our video!
Thank you!
-Steven
0
Comments
What will large guilds have access to both politically and physically in the game?
Will there be a chance to hire mercenary groups in the game to hit logistical trade routes? By hire I mean a option in game to arrange payment for services rendered to smaller mercenary type guilds.
Also, I know that players can build their own homes, is it possible for a guild to take over a region, build homes, and buy guards to fortify their region or npc workers to gather materials?
Also will there be strategic assets such as mines, forests, mills and such that a guild needs to fight for to protect and invest into that provides a bonus to resource production?
I have a lot more but, these will give me a good feel for the game play.
- will Intrepid consider having a dedicated oceanic server?
- will you have ability queuing to help solve the latency issues?
I liked the glider aspect of AA and thought that it would be a good medium for those who don't have flying mounts. Doesn't have to be the same, but have you thought about something similar to that since not everyone will be privy for full flight?
I'm mainly a fisher in mmos so an in-depth system goes a long way for me. Will there be fishing and if so, would you consider going to great lengths to expand upon that so that my fishing brethren will have our duty to fulfill for guilds and the economy? (Fishing is life)
So my questions are:
- What are your plans for the combat system?
- Will there a definitive combat system, or will it try to balance both?
-Will there be Direct Player-to-player trading?
-Will there be a big market hub in every major city?
or/and
-Will there be a market hub in every town?
Also, with the node system in the back of my mind, if you choose to go for a marketplace method. Will these marketplaces keep a cut of the trade, and if so, will the town/city with the most trading going on get "Visibly" wealthier?
ps: I hope you repeat some of the Q&A that's been done in the discord channel for the video. :)
Point of interests, resources like mines or forests with rare wood/shrubs etc.
1) Discuss the revenue model. Have any decisions have been made yet as to how the game will generate revenue.
Monthly subscription model, Buy to Play or Free to play with a marketplace, or a hybrid model of Buy To Play and a low monthly sub, which is my preferred model. I sure hope it is not going to be Free to play.
2) Expand the discussion on "No End Game".
This is a big one for me as most MMO's fail in this area, which is why I leave after playing all of the "content" and play another game. What will keep players logging into the game after several months of play time.
3) Discuss Player character progression, how will a players skills and appearance change over time? Will there be a point where a player will know all the skills there is to know in the game?
4) Can the player develop there own custom skills or abilities? Part 2 of previous question.
5) No factions are in the game, this seems odd to me. How will the players know their motivations within the game world? Will the player guilds essentially be the different factions vying for dominance?
6) NPC factions, is this a thing or can it be? Will there be NPC factions competing/fighting in the game world where the players can decide to watch them fight it out or assist one side or another? Guess question 5 answers this one, haha.
7) It is possible to just be a crafter and not have to fight or complete storyline content to have a part to play in the game world? A merchant/trader player as it were.
The End
levels and the whole repopulate theme... since this is a game with levels and about repopulation/ rebuilding, how will monsters levels work? like since we have to rebuild the world are those of us that take out on exploring early to build a small village / outpost to turn into a city going to have to run from our shadows so to speak due to high level monsters around every corner in the zone? or will there be varying levels of monsters placed around the world? or maybe a level scaling similar to eso's one tamriel?
another semi important ?,
in every game i see towering cities in concept art with the average building being 5 or more stories high, will we be able to build up massive cities and towering sky scrapers? or will they be pretty much flat like other games, as far as building... is it modular or prefab?
if you can...
i see dwarves in the concept art, will we have guns? and do we have to live above ground? and epic beards? engineering in the form of class/ profession?
like say a warrior archtype chooses the priest as thier second, most mmos have different resources for theese and a scaling system that makes it almost irrelevant to stack more than one stat thus if you divide both your completely screwed, and if you choose one your secondary or primary then becomes useless
is it a system similar to rift? (rift was a huge letdown for me)
Character limit?
most games theese days have high amounts of alts you can make. personally i loved when games only let you have one character, it creates your identity in game and solidifies the role that your have to play, and your impact on the community is that character. it creates reliance on the community since you cant do everything for yourself and it makes major changes almost like a whole new game in itself since rerolling your more likely to play a different way with a new guild a new area and a different side of your local ig community. how many characters will one account be able to have?
ill stop editing/posting ?s now i tried to keep it to the ones that will most effect me and my brother, the role we will play and if it will be a semi permanent one or if its the stop until the next big thing without going into the area of "future more indepth dev blog"
Are you going for paypal backing on this website (kickstarter doesn't support it) too?
What are the plans on character progress and customization?
Probably spellforming/creating (fireball that deals frost damage and things like that)?
Are there plans for flying mounts (destroyed most of the current MMORPGs) ?
-How will PvP be handled here?
-Will there be any kind of events in the game?
-How will the leveling system work?
-Will there be a point in playing the game after you've reached a certain level?(Example being Destiny, when you hit 400 light theres not much to do anymore..)
-Why the name Ashes of Creation?
-Could you form a team and do group activities?
-Will there be something like raids? Or bosses?
Thank you!
-How in depth will the character customization be? Like will there be a lot of color choices for hair, eyes, ect. and will we be able to edit character height to some degree?
-Also how will clothing customization be? Will there be class based armor or will there be say costumes we can overly on top of them?
-I figure we can expect classic classes, but will y'all be re-imagining any? Will we see any maybe AoC unique creations?
-How many different environments can we expect on release? (forests, deserts, ect.) and if so will that affect build-able architecture in any way? (I saw one of y'alls sweet concept art with a desert feel to it and it got me wondering)
- Now some people will disagree with me (that's cool yo!) but will armor actually look functional on females or well... You know. If people want to wear that look that's chill, but for those who want to look functional could there maybe be a toggle or something for female armor? I want to look like I can slay monsters without my arm or legs getting chopped off ;P
- Will we be able to build and sail ships? (I'm a sucker for that, the first MMO I ever played had that mechanic)
-Okay last question! You mentioned pets and mounts in the FAQ... But will there be any flying mounts? ;p
Looking forward to seeing where this game goes! :D
- I've noticed that the game is inspired by many other MMORPG's like WoW, and BDO (two games I'm very fond of, but dislike in certain ways). I really like your take on the different aspects of the genre, and what makes a good MMORPG.
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- What type of combat system will we see coming into the game? I personally prefer action combat, and from what I could tell from some of your YT videos, it seems as though it's going to be tab targeting.
(- If tab targeting is what you have decided to stick with, is there any chance of you changing your mind towards action based combat?)
- Is there going to be a level cap?
- Will it be possible to quest to max level/softcap, or will you have to grind. This was a feature I really disliked about BDO, and I am hoping to see something different in this game.
- How will leveling plan out in terms of archetypes/classes? Will you get both right at the start, or is there a certain amount of content that you have to play through in order to get your class?
- Is the game open world?
- Will it be possible to costumize your character a lot or will you be limited in certain areas. I really hope that my character is not going to look like everyone else of the same class and race.
- Can we get a sneakpeak on the different archetypes and classes?
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That was a few of the questions I had in mind. I'm really looking forward to the developement of the game, and I can't wait to try it out myself! You guys have done a great job in such a short amount of time, keep it up! :)
<strong>Items:</strong>
* Will there be "one of a kind" items, crafting materials etc.? (or just incredibly rare ones)
<strong>Regarding crafting: </strong>
* Will you be able to mix and mash crafting materials as you please? (Say for instance that you wanna use the worst hilt material and the best blade material together. If you for some reason would want to try that).
(*Rephrase of question above: Will crafting be recipe locked or "mix/mashed" based?)
<strong>Lore, pets and mounts:</strong>
* Will there be lore, treasure maps etc. in the world? (Kinda like in ES games, maybe not to that extend though).
* Is pet- and mount- breeding available in the game? (e.g. breed for faster or stronger horse)
<strong>Last but not least: </strong>
* Will scythes be in the game?
Looking forward to seeing some of the questions in this thread answered :)
Is there any reason why your team doesn't have any female developers? ( basing off of your development team page)- Mostly based on curiosity, as I am a female gamer and believe that a woman could bring great insight to the game's development that would attune to more female gamer participation.
-I played the first Everquest when I was 12 years old, one of the most important aspects to a game that makes it or breaks it for me is the music and the environment. If the music does not align well with the environment's aesthetics then I am not enveloped enough into the world and probably won't play the game much.
So, who will be composing your in-game music?
If any kickstarters appear, what will be some benefits? - Only in-game stuff? - Concept art booklets?
How are you all going to avoid the end game problem that a lot of games face today?
-People playing a game too fast and reaching end game in a matter of days, then quitting.
First, I will start off with a general comment about the combat. From what I've seen and read it appears that you will focus on a hybrid system of action and tab targeting. I hope that instead of a dual type of combat you focus on one rather than the other. My preference would be action combat but I also enjoyed the combat system from Wildstar.
Onto my questions then:
Because combat is one of the most important pieces of a successful mmo will you ensure that the the various actions of each character is unique with visuals, sounds and impact?
Economics plays a large role in any mmo and can enhance the gaming experience but if done incorrectly it can break the game. How will you manage the game's economy and ensure that, if there are multiple currencies, the various types of currencies are available to the different types of players?
Exploration and environment are important aspects of the mmo experience, at least to me. Will players be rewarded for exploration? Random treasure or gold or materials that have slow res pawn timers or manifest under certain conditions come to mind as rewards. Is it possible to have new, possibly rare mobs appear at different times and in different weather in game? Having something like bandits raid player caravans at night or something like that would be cool.
Lastly, I will ask a question concerning PvP. Will there be opportunities for 1 vs. 1 pvp? Also, will there be a viewing system that allows players who are not participating in the match or siege to watch the battle? I think watching top guilds battle each other or top players whether 1vs1, 3vs3 or whatever could be a fun component to pvp.
Anyway, I look forward to learning more about the developers' vision for the game.
Question 2. Will you bring about a new change in mounts i.e. where mounts can actually attack? it would make a different dynamic to Large scale battles especially with flying mounts it would be a game changer (of course there would have to be defenses in place to combat this).
Question 3. Will there be player to player trading?
Question 4. how unique will character creation be? i'd like to see one that rivals or is better than BDO since it set the new standard on character creation.
Question 5. Will there be a mentor system to help lower leveled players or friends that just joined and need a guide to help them throughout the world until they can stand comfortably on their own 2 feet?
Question 6. Will there be penalties for leaving a guild and good rewards for joining one? similar to BDO (sorry to keep referencing them but they had some features i did like).
Question 7. Is there a plan to put out classes you guys may have in mind in the future but want community feedback so we can vote and choose to make that process appealing to both the devs and players?
Last Question: How will your group finder system compare to previous games? will it be something that will encourage players to use it vs constantly shouting in chat? it gets annoying in my opinion when group finder is almost pointless and people have to resort to shouting.
2). <strong><em>Skills variativity/originality</em></strong> . Will player realy could see many dif. types of skills from magic schools/close combat styles (HoT/procs heals/reactiv heals/dif. wards/shapeshift spells/deffencive styles/stances with duals/One -H//Quarterstaff etc./unarmored skill(ab. from TES: Morrowind) /illusion spells/Enhancements magic/temporal magic spells (Arcanum analogue) etc.) ? Personally, i don't like when my skillbars replace half monitor, but i think it's really nice -to have large assortment of abillities per class (good example GW2)
3). <strong><em>Deffensive parametres/armor penalty</em></strong>. There is some parry , avoidance, deflection and how they work?. Could players create a "light tank" characters? Will armor have some penalty stats (heavy -more DR/glance hit>>slower speed/spell cast/dodge chance etc.)?
4). <em>Old-school stat managment.</em><strong> .... . Could player manage his/her attributes per lvl (or a few)?
5). <strong><em>Unique enemies</em></strong> Will players be able to meet really unique enemies(incl. animation/atributes/behavior) ? exmp. if player fights against vampire,he/she should understand , what enemy ummune to phis./death/desease/poison damage: or if player fight against ogre, he/she should be very carefully,cuz
ogres can easily throw their opponents for some meters or knockback etc. + INPREDICTABLE routs-some strong monstres could spawn even in noobzone and attack players and other monsters.
I´m fan of your risk vs reward system and would love to see it flourish in other aspects than just PVP. Will there be a risk vs reward in how to gear yourself, for example: will I be able to swing my sword or axe faster and run faster thanks to my cloth/leather gear or will be the same even though plate is heavier (This will obviously come with HP and armor drop in your overall stats.). Will my warlock (If there is such a class) be able to put on plate gear that boosts your magical stats less than what cloth and leather just so I get more HP and armor.
In regards to your desires for large-scale PvP combat, how high of a priority is preventing lag and having optimal performance in those situations and how will you go about preventing "blobbing." ?
I've played just about every MMO with large-scale PvP/RvR, and in every one of these MMOs the performance is abysmal and the developers don't seem to care what-so-ever (the worst offender of this being Elder Scrolls Online.) Instead of fixing their poorly performing game they instead advertise the game mode even more saying "Look! We have 100vs100vs100 battles!" which is no longer impressive (Planetside 2 has it, ESO has it, Guild Wars 2 has it, Dark Age of Camelot had it 15 years ago...) What would be impressive is if we could get battles of that size (or slightly smaller) and not have the servers chugging or have the frame rate dip to ~5.
As for the "blobbing" part, a common mentality in large-scale pvp is for players to just all stack ontop of each other and mow everything down in their path, usually resulting in lag, atrocious frame rate, 100vs<10, and "ghostcapping" (capturing a node/base with no resistance because nobody wants to defend against the mega-zerg-ball-of-death.)
Apologies for the long post.
Example: Dual wielding tank specializing in AoE tanking with large damage, but the sword/board tank has more debuffs for the rest of his team rather than larger damage output. This would mean a sword/board would be good for larger raids on the main boss while the AoE (2handed or dual wield) tank focuses on smaller dungeons, or in larger raids acts as the tank that gathers up adds and keeps them away from other members. Will we see this kind of synergy and variation in tanking?
2.) How often do you expect to add new races or archetype classes? Do you prefer to hone in on the current 8x8 raceXarchetype, or will you strive to push out extra variations later on down the line?
3.) Many games have to start planning for balance from the very beginning. What steps are you taking to help ensure there's not hundreds of possible archetype builds, but only ever seeing the same 12 variations?
4.) Will certain skills require specific gear items like shields, axes, staves, and ETC? If so, how will you balance this to compensate for battle-mage style characters, or for healing rangers who want to use a bow and still heal?
TL;DR
- What are you going to do about casual players who won't play the game a lot?
- What about the players who like to play alone, will they have opportunities to do their own stuff?
Thanks.
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although its not a direct answer it kinda relates here's what was answered in another topic
[img]http://i.imgur.com/2XqvfaR.png[/img]
Do you consider making feature similar to the Grand Olympiad in Lineage2, a tournament that would determine the best player from each class/subclass. Of course it will have its perks, like skills, glow etc.... it was one of the best features in that game, yet nobody is providing something similar, i simply cant udnerstand why not.. :) Thank you.
Will there be ocean content with naval battles and perhaps exploring shipwrecks and such?
Going rogue---will there be large penalties put on people who decide to be criminals? Will it vary from town to town or city to city? Black Desert's karma system is penalizes the thief.
Will there be a first person and third person mode?
What inspired you to create AoC? As you know, there are tons of games with the mmorpg name attached to it.
2. How big of a world can we expect at launch, will there be different continents?
3. Will there be open world dungeons?
4. Will there be any hand to hand martial arts like classes
5. Will there be support classes? Please god say yes