Questions of a Newbie/returne

Hi everyone,
was seeing the first few infos about this game quit some time back, noted it as something to look at carefully when it is out or about to be released and stuffed it in a corner of my memory until today. I have looked around the wiki a bit (https://ashesofcreation.wiki/) and wondered about a few thinks.
Of course I understand that many thinks I'm asking here are subject to change or not even known at all. But even if there is not much too share I would be thankfull for every info.

1. Housing.
there seem to be three types of housing (apartments, static housing and freeholds) and I tried to discern which would be the closest to my needs.
I would like to craft quit a bit and somewhere in the wiki I've read that you can have crafting stations in your home, is that limited to Freeholds which seem to have entire crafting buildings or can I have a small smithy/workbench in an appartment or a static home?
If I wan't to have a small field for some cooking ingreadients or herb for alchemie will that be possible with the static housing or do I need a freehold for that? Are there maybe even thinks like planting pots that could work for an appartment planned?
It sounds as if freeholds are something a single player can use but from their size and the buildings you can put on them it sounds more like a guild activity. If I just want a small place for myself with some crafting utility do I NEED a freehold (I always want to call them homested.. no idea why) or can I downgrade to static housing/appartments without missing out to much?

Ideally I would like a small 2 story house with my private place being the second level while on the first there is a small shop where players can come in and browse crafted items (with npc clerks incase i'm absent). But I realize that is asking for to much^^.

2. Battle.
Just one question: If I play the apocalypse thing will the battlemechanics similiar to the finished game (besides the battle royal). If yes I would probably jump in there to see how it is like (even though I really don't like games in that style).

3. Cash shop.
I know that they are against pay to win in their cash shop but as they already want a monthly supscription I'm quit a bit less welcome of a cash shop no matter what they sell as I would be with a free to play cash shop. I know (or at least believe) that everything they sell in there is "just" a skin so nothing with stats (or even base values) no buffs or anything like that. Just "clothes" for characters, mounts, buildings,.... Did they mention anywhere how big the range of "clothes" outside of the cash shop is? I know this question is probably hard to answer. What I'm wondering about is how far they might go with driving people towards the cash shop (everything outside just grey and brown potatoe sacks and everything else in the shop,.... )
3.1. Buildings skins
I have seen a few of the skins for buildings in the wiki. Did they say how that works? Do the buildings need specific measures to fit the skin? Is the building changing when the skin is applied? Or is it just skin/texture?

4.Alpha
It seems the alphas have already started? (first phase I think in march?)
Does that mean that at some point this year one or two youtubers might have Videos of the game already to get an independent view on this?

Thanks everyonefor reading that much and of course thanks for every answer.
Let's hope this will be an awesome game,
Tam Hawkins

Find more posts tagged with

Comments

Jahlon

So here we go

1) Housing. https://www.ashes101.com/housing

For your needs, it sounds like a Freehold is what you need.
We do not know if this is like FFXI/FFXIV and you can have potted plants in apartments.

We also don't know how much customization you can do with in-node houses, but everything you've said you want to do, can be done at Freeholds.

2) APOC is currently closed. No testing need. APOC is/was all action combat so no it is not representative of the final combat. Its less than 50% of 50% of the combat since there are no skill augments.

3) The range of available cosmetics outside the cash shop is going to be at least to, if not surpassing the cash shop cosmetics. There will be variations of some of the cash shop cosmetics available in game.

Also, on this note, yes there is a subscription, but there is no box price. So the cosmetic cash shop is an optional way to support the game, instead of you being forced to shell out $39.99 / $49.99 / $59.99 for the expansion packs and/or DLC.

3.1 We are waiting for specific answers, but yes certain skins go on certain buildings.

4) Alpha 1 starts for PI in May, BOW in June/July and these tests are under NDA.
Alpha 1 will open for all people with A1 access in the fall, and the NDA will be lifted so yes people like me (official content creators) and anyone with an A1 pack will be making content.

Ravudha

Tam Hawkins wrote: »

Did they mention anywhere how big the range of "clothes" outside of the cash shop is? I know this question is probably hard to answer. What I'm wondering about is how far they might go with driving people towards the cash shop (everything outside just grey and brown potatoe sacks and everything else in the shop,.... )

Hey Tam - this is an excerpt of what the creative director said in the May 2019 live stream:

"...what I would say is from my experience as an MMORPG player in previous MMORPGs I've always been underwhelmed by the diversity of weapons that are available in those games and/or armors and I think originally the idea behind the creation of this game is that - the character team their kind of a mission statement was hey we want to be as diverse and as many items as possible so that players can create their own unique representation of themselves from an RPG standpoint..."

Note things they say can be subject to change, but this seems to be a fairly core philosophy with the game. So I wouldn't worry about being pressured to buy stuff just to look good.

If you want to watch the stream, around 44m 35s is the segment where they start talking about this -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P2-swmpaW8Y&t=2223s

Tam Hawkins

Thanks to both of you.
1. The housing does seem to lean towards freehold. Well just means I'll have more to do in game.

2. Apoc combat not beeing the same as the final game is kind of an relieve (I would hate to start a battle royal and it would probably paint my expectations negatively)

3. Cahs shop is just really a wound topic for me. If it was a shop to sell soundtracks, Worldmaps, statues and such thinks I would be 100% behind that but cash shops in a game you have to buy or/and subscribe too seem so.... to much..

Let's just hope that it sounds worse than t is.

Another question that comes to mind:
For crafting. The said that you can Master one of the three proffesions: Crafting, refinment and gathering and that if you decide for Crafting you can Master ALL Crafting proffesions or if you decide for gathering you can master All gathering Professions and this choice was made to create dependance between players that mastered different main proffesions(craftig, gathering, refinment)?
But what would stop a player from getting two alts that master the remaining main professions.
And is the only thing that stops you from mastering all crafting proffesions time?

Ravudha

Tam Hawkins wrote: »

But what would stop a player from getting two alts that master the remaining main professions.

Nothing can stop a player who wants to pay for 2 accounts and make multiple characters to master all the professions.

When it comes to alts on the same account, there is at least one 'roadblock' to having alts that help each other out: the warehouse/storage system within freeholds and nodes (towns) does not allow people to transfer resources and materials between characters. This would make it troublesome for people who make one character an alchemist and another a herb gatherer and have the gatherer give herbs to the alchemist; they'd need to involve a character/player on another account for the transaction. This is how I understand it; I could be wrong.

unknownsystemerror

The warehousing system will indeed allow you to transfer items and goods between alts. That is why they have it. There is no in game mailing of items confirmed to keep people from trying to get around weight limitations of moving resources around, bypassing the caravan system which is an integral design pillar. You would need to have your main crafter of type, and your alts all based out of the same node though. And as they outlined in the latest livestream, that presents its own risks.

Ravudha

unknownsystemerror wrote: »

The warehousing system will indeed allow you to transfer items and goods between alts.

Do you mean all goods or only some goods? It seems goods has 2 categories. Non-material goods can be transferred but not material goods (resources/materials - anything that would rely on the trade/caravan system).

unknownsystemerror

The answer I have is in context to gear. People were asking if they would be able to give gear to their alts that they craft or loot and the answer was "not directly but through the warehousing system" I don't have a quote or info that they had restricted say a stack of flowers being deposited into that node warehouse/bank by your main, not being able to be withdrawn from that same warehouse/bank by other characters on your account if located in the same node. Not saying it isn't out there. So if you have a citation, link it so I can add it to my information pool.

Ravudha

unknownsystemerror wrote: »

The answer I have is in context to gear. People were asking if they would be able to give gear to their alts that they craft or loot and the answer was "not directly but through the warehousing system" I don't have a quote or info that they had restricted say a stack of flowers being deposited into that node warehouse/bank by your main, not being able to be withdrawn from that same warehouse/bank by other characters on your account if located in the same node. Not saying it isn't out there. So if you have a citation, link it so I can add it to my information pool.

Sure, I was just going off this segment mentioned in the wiki starting at 23m 18s -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cY-JEV49xYY&feature=youtu.be&t=23m18s

Ravudha

Also, I kind of assumed you could transfer material goods to another player then back to an alt, but it's such an obvious workaround that I figure they might prevent that as well.

Child Item