Alpha 1 Early Preview Feedback - Please share your thoughts. Below is mine.

Hello glorious Ashes Forums people!

First I must say, for an early look at the Alpha, the game looked amazing - I could really see how the devs put their heart and soul into it so keep up the good work Intrepid! 🧡 Here's my humble feedback which I hope, combined with the views of people who comment below this thread, can help a little.

Positives:

1 - Stunning environment and graphics in general (the fact that this is just Alpha is mind-blowing...hard to imagine how awesome it'll look at launch). Bacon's (and other environment devs' ofc) work speak for itself.

2 - Dwarves! It was great to see a race other than humans. Looking forward to elves and orcs. They didn't look like short humans either so extra points for that

3 - Quest log is nice and hidden unless you click on it + if a member of a party takes the quest, others are automatically included - no needless effort which usually ruins immersion.

4 - As promised, quests felt like actual adventures with almost no hand holding. It wasn't a ''running simulator'' nor meaningless 'work' aka just a way to level up. Each action had let to the other and the players did not seem much 'guided' overall. The path quests took them wasn't just a casual journey from 'point A to point B' and it was filled with lots of things to do like the random encounter with the fisherman and gatherables along the way.

5 - Functioning shops/vendors, mayor election/use of his/her powers, basic gathering and fishing, building systems, node leveling + many more! Lots of functioning fundamental MMO systems and some unique to Ashes.

'Negatives' - constructive criticism:

1 - More visceral combat. From what I saw, Steven and Jeffrey had a few action abilities including the Crimson Blast (APOC staff ability) but as we watched from Margaret's perspective (cleric), all of the abilities were tab targeting except one AoE. Jeffrey said we'd be seeing ''Hybrid combat 2.0'' - this may be true for the melee attacks which seemed action however, ranged attacks were all tab (I think the spear throw was a missed opportunity - could have been great if it was aimed with a reticle appearing on the screen when the ability was selected)

2 - More challenging PvE & PvP. Having to focus and do things like counter and move and dodge during PvE/PvP would be a great update from 'stand and rotate the skill bar combat' of 99% of MMOs. When I say challenging, I don't only mean higher stats but mobs/classes that forces a player to react in time

3 - Smoother animations - The characters should feel like actual living beings rather than some avatar in game and animations play a huge part in achieving that - some of the walking animations were spot on in 2017 footages like ''It's dangerous to go alone'' (

https://youtu.be/6iNpeHv7l1Y?t=1)

(take these with a grain of salt as it's early alpha and a lot of these will most likely improve - I just mention them as part of my feedback)

Extra - Neutral

I would like to have seen the 'action stance' Steven talked about which ties your reticle to the mouse movement. I'm a fan of closer camera angle - like those in singleplayer RPGs (Witcher, dark souls etc) and in APOC, tho could be adjusted a little higher for the MMO. (also that way I don't use the 'A' and 'D' keys much) - So I'm hopeful that A1, if not, A2 will have that.

Although I like doing quests when I get the feeling that I'm contributing to something or/and am experiencing a great story, I love sandbox environments and the freedom they give to players. - It'd be great if we saw what players can do without taking quests or any kind of direction from the game; random encounter with creatures, finding oneself in an event while exploring, just grinding mobs for fun, reaching high places with a jumping mount and gliding down with a gliding mount and then perhaps landing on a new area with new people...perhaps enemies 😋. Basically imo, the player should have the freedom to ask ''What do I want to do today" and get on with it without being left behind by players who play to rush to the max level and get the best gear before anyone else by doing what the game wants him/her to do. I believe this balance can be achieved by rewarding such sandbox game style as long as they contribute to the node(s).

So, what did you guys think about the alpha 1 early preview - share your thoughts/feedback below ❤️

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Comments

DrEpoch

I said it in discord and I'll say it again. I would of been blown away if the camera was also involved with a cross hair and whenever you aimed over friend or enemy they'd glow green or red, pressing tab to lock onto them. Pressing esc to unlock, or tab to switch lock, left alt to release mouse (incase you need to be selective with party member.

While in the same hand being able to click a stance option and going into click / tab targeting . For healers.

Other than that, thought it was great myself. The dragon had a progressive frontal cone AOE, adding more mechanics like falling rocks, or AOE spots in the ground that'll anger the boss if you stand in it. but nonetheless, it was progress, and look forward to seeing the brotherhood of countless iteration once again.

This'll get cleaned up and improved on in due time. Bigpogs

Magic Man

Fooshyy wrote: »

I said it in discord and I'll say it again. I would of been blown away if the camera was also involved with a cross hair and whenever you aimed over friend or enemy they'd glow green or red, pressing tab to lock onto them. Pressing esc to unlock, or tab to switch lock, left alt to release mouse (incase you need to be selective with party member.

While in the same hand being able to click a stance option and going into click / tab targeting . For healers.

Other than that, thought it was great myself. The dragon had a progressive frontal cone AOE, adding more mechanics like falling rocks, or AOE spots in the ground that'll anger the boss if you stand in it. but nonetheless, it was progress, and look forward to seeing the brotherhood of countless iteration once again.

This'll get cleaned up and improved on in due time. Bigpogs

Fully agreed. Bigpogs indeed! 🤩

darthaden

I'm saving most of my feedback (other than on a fishing system I'd like to see) for when I get to try the game in alpha 1. Watching a stream in pre alpha theres 100's of things I could give a opinion on but I feel 99% of those things Intrepid is already planning on working on.

Magic Man

darthaden wrote: »

I'm saving most of my feedback (other than on a fishing system I'd like to see) for when I get to try the game in alpha 1. Watching a stream in pre alpha theres 100's of things I could give a opinion on but I feel 99% of those things Intrepid is already planning on working on.

Fair fair. Tho you could say a thing or two just for the sake of feedback 👻 @darthaden

Damokles

Virtek

Finally seeing some of the core systems in action....gives me great hope for the future!
I, too, hope for more hybrid capability to be highlighted, though I'm sure it's not going to immediately reach an ideal balance....probably not until Beta. Actually...probably not ever, depending on who you ask, lol.

Something you said, @Magic Man , makes me think of something I want to see someone try (maybe even myself...):
Go through the entire game (yes yes, I know, there is no ending!!) without doing a single quest that is not required to unlock a key region, skill, ability, or other key component. Think crafting skills, secondary archetype, gliding mount skills, ability to enter a dangerous region, etc...

@darthaden
The only bad part of that is if Intrepid decides to leave something alone because not enough people think it an issue. It could be put on a back burner in comparison to other things, based on how many people speak up about it

Magic Man

Virtek wrote: »

Finally seeing some of the core systems in action....gives me great hope for the future!
I, too, hope for more hybrid capability to be highlighted, though I'm sure it's not going to immediately reach an ideal balance....probably not until Beta. Actually...probably not ever, depending on who you ask, lol.

Something you said, @Magic Man , makes me think of something I want to see someone try (maybe even myself...):
Go through the entire game (yes yes, I know, there is no ending!!) without doing a single quest that is not required to unlock a key region, skill, ability, or other key component. Think crafting skills, secondary archetype, gliding mount skills, ability to enter a dangerous region, etc...

Ah yes that'd be interesting @Virtek . Living a nomad's life with no attachment to a state (node) but perhaps a citizen of one village or something..Just wandering around like a bard, telling stories from distant lands and just minding his own business - sometimes participating in events just for fun but otherwise a 'free' man. I'd be thrilled to hear that it will be a possible in game without the extreme feeling of being left behind by other players. All that rush and grind may not be for everyone, especially for those who prefer to live peacefully in the glorious land of Verra but having the means to participate in events if he/she wishes to (that is, he/she isn't a 'complete failure' in terms of gear, XP and gold as the activities he/she prefers are rewarded by the game - and they should be imo) It's an RPG; having one style of gaming and punishing those who don't follow that by leaving them behind is a bit of a weird mentality imo but that may be just me 🙂

AntVictus

Only concern right now is the overall height we saw of the dwarves. Dwarves are not hobbits/halflings, the dwarf Margaret was playing was definitely not a dwarf height wise. I don't doubt that there will be some sort of height slider in the CC and that's fine, but at least allow dwarves to go up to a height of about 4'6". That's literally around the middle of a persons chest that is 5'6". Not quite human height, but definitely not "their taking the hobbits to Isengard" height. If i wanted to play a hobbit, i'd go back to lotro.

Balrog21

I was very happy with the stream and preview for the Alpha. I can tell the devs have been hard at work and the game looks great at this stage. I was extremely happy with the node system and all it's bells and whistles they showed.The dungeon looked great as well, I'm just hoping there is more animations for the dragon and different mechanics involved in the fight.

Magic Man

Balrog21 wrote: »

I was very happy with the stream and preview for the Alpha. I can tell the devs have been hard at work and the game looks great at this stage. I was extremely happy with the node system and all it's bells and whistles they showed.The dungeon looked great as well, I'm just hoping there is more animations for the dragon and different mechanics involved in the fight.

mhm yes I'm sure the mobs, including the bosses will have more mechanics and animations. I was very glad to see no obvious telegraphed templates on the ground as promised.

Ishka

We saw in the livestream that to complete the recently added building. You need to do a task to retrieve ressources and after reaching the max-progression the building is finalised. What I wonder is, will those ressources be free to be picked up by anyone that comes across it ? Just like the regular ressources gathering we all know, so that "building ressources" could be a good that player can trade/sell.

Or it requires the building to be under construction, then it allows you to pick those resources, but only with the task being active ? Those ressources being some untradable quest items.

What do you guys think ?

Magic Man

Ishka wrote: »

We saw in the livestream that to complete the recently added building. You need to do a task to retrieve ressources and after reaching the max-progression the building is finalised. What I wonder is, will those ressources be free to be picked up by anyone that comes across it ? Just like the regular ressources gathering we all know, so that "building ressources" could be a good that player can trade/sell.

Or it requires the building to be under construction, then it allows you to pick those resources, but only with the task being active ? Those ressources being some untradable quest items.

What do you guys think ?

Yes, resources will be a big part of the world. They will be gathered by gatherers, refined by processors and crafted into finished products by the crafters (players will have to interact with one another) . Everything made/built/crafted in the world requires resources and they will have to be transported - that's where caravans come in.

Yes, resources can be gathered from anywhere, but may need to be processed before used in a building for instance. Anyone can contribute to the construction of the building.

poisonz

you're breathtaking and yes I agree needs more harder content in open world PVE not just button smash till it dies, i want to DIE if i fudge up!

ChaosDeda

The alpha one preview was looking pretty dope in terms of visuals thats for sure, although i would've wanted to see more of the exploration aspect of 'sandboxyness' since i haven't seen anything groundbreakingly different than what the whole mmorpg genre been doing for the past decade. I had the urge to point it out since i'm not a patient person and i pretty much want to see what we've been promised to achieve with AOC.
(fyi i'm aware of the wiki and stuff they promised, but its all just promises yet to be achieved. i'm just adressing the fact that the sandboxyness of the game still remains somewhat a mystery to me nothing else)

Nagash

to be honest it was just nice to see alpha 0 and a bit of the MMO. my soul really needed that

halbarz

Personally I thought the stream was great, gave plenty of info and actually gave me more confidence in the game and it's development. I loved the UI especially for the quests.

It is pre-alpha so pretty much a big "Work in progress" sign is to be added, while I am still waiting to see more (alpha) I do wonder one thing and maybe I am just seeing it the wrong way.

Action combat vs tab target: both are to be in the game, balancing these seems very difficult to me.
This because I picture action combat as Black desert combat and tab target as in Guild wars 2 (for example)
the two seem rather difficult to mix & match --> then to balance seems almost impossible.

Maybe I am just not visualizing it wrong in my mind

On a personal note, I do like the gw2 combat for me it is one of the things the game did a really good job.

Magic Man

halbarz wrote: »

Action combat vs tab target: both are to be in the game, balancing these seems very difficult to me.
This because I picture action combat as Black desert combat and tab target as in Guild wars 2 (for example)
the two seem rather difficult to mix & match --> then to balance seems almost impossible.

Maybe I am just not visualizing it wrong in my mind

On a personal note, I do like the gw2 combat for me it is one of the things the game did a really good job.

Ah yes @halbarz , that's a common misconception. Action combat ≠ BDO combat. Steven Sharif (CEO/Creative Director) has said, in Ashes, action are all the abilities that do not require a target to be utilized, while tab abilities are those that do. Therefore, according to his definition, Guild Wars 2, as well as most other MMORPGs technically have 'hybrid combat'. What they want to do is to take it further and add things like actual aim-able abilities - what they call ''true action combat'', co-existing with tab targeting. Players will be able to choose up to 75% of either tab or action abilities.

In terms of balance, hard CCs are planned to be action (aimed, placeable AoEs and every ability that does not require a target) while soft CCs will be tab targeting. Furthermore, tab abilities will deal less damage and will be RNG based (since, that's what tab target is: sort of like auto-aim missiles that hit or miss, based on a mathematical formula i.e. math rules of accuracy vs evasion) while action abilities, you will need to actually land, hence the justification for more damage.

Now if this does not work or/and proves to be not fun, they will go with tab targeting with AoEs (like what we've watched in the Alpha 1 Early Preview). Tho, I and many other people hope that it won't come to that and devs will actually nail it and make the combat complex, engaging and fun, which is extremely important for a dynamic PvX oriented game like Ashes. So we are all waiting patiently for them to show us progress on the hybrid combat and how it shapes, along with other key features of the game 🙂.

halbarz

@Magic Man Thank you first of all for providing all these details.

To be honest the combat sounds great and actually sounds like it could make combat more meaningful, challenging but also fun. I do look forward to seeing this in action, as it sounds like the perfect blend.

Thank you once again.

Magic Man

halbarz wrote: »

@Magic Man Thank you first of all for providing all these details.

To be honest the combat sounds great and actually sounds like it could make combat more meaningful, challenging but also fun. I do look forward to seeing this in action, as it sounds like the perfect blend.

Thank you once again.

My pleasure 😊

Magic Man

We saw more early A1 footage! The ''action stance'' was there so one from my "neutral" list is already done! My other points are still relevant but i can emphasize the ''stunning environment and graphics'' more from the "positives". So what did you guys think about the footage? Share your thoughts below

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