Early Head Start

It was paid for and has its some pretty hefty advantages over other players? How is it not pay for a edge on other players aka p2w? Can they not race to max claim the best "nodes" ?

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VmanGman

Nodes will not be active during the head start period. Nodes will become active once everyone is in (launch day). The headstart is there mainly to give the developers pre-launch metrics to fix any last minute issues and to lighten the load on the servers by spreading people out a bit.

Also, not all servers will have head start options. You will be able to play on a server where no one had access to a head start.

mrwaffles

Some users here are going to say "not this again" but honestly I think it's an important question to keep reassuring new community members that this problem has been address for the good.

On top of what @vmangman stated the persistent beta will also be on a different server so you can just choose to not be on that one. Most people who have access to different alphas, betas, and head start have all shared they want to start with everyone else. Now this is on an AoC promise, like you may want, but more of a community shared sentiment.

If it's any consolation most people getting a head start are already a part of the alphas and soon betas so they already have a head start with knowledge. Now before you get FOMO the main advantage people are getting with the Head Start is the lay of the land. If you look at the current alpha videos they are located on "Alpha Island" which is not the main game so even then they are not getting a knowledge boost.

I've chosen to think of the head start as another form of testing for IS. I am the only one of my friends with it so i'm not going to be doing much with out them and will for sure be level 1 in the starting village with them day 1.

Anyway @Tridarose welcome to the community.

George_Black

You can start on a different server like most of us
/thread

Warth

Tridarose wrote: »

It was paid for and has its some pretty hefty advantages over other players? How is it not pay for a edge on other players aka p2w? Can they not race to max claim the best "nodes" ?

First of all, welcome to the community.

What vmangman said was the bandaid fix Intrepid developed to make it less advantagous, but it is advantagous non-the less. There is lots of advantages you can utilize during the headstart time, whether its a monetary, experience or organizational advantage. Will they be able to utilize that time at 100% efficienty? Certainly not, probably not even at 80% as they will sooner or later hit a softcap, that will indeed grind their progression to a halt, but the advantages are there nontheless. I guess that most important advantage they have is the fact, that they can skip login queues and the initial bloat of new players by being further in their personal progression and out of the starting zones.

However, the most important thing, that you might like to know is, that Headstart can be utilized on 2-3 servers upon launch. These are the so-called headstart servers. On non-headstart servers, everybody starts on an even footing, void of any "headstart p2w".

I understand, that you probably aren't a fan of headstarts, good thing Intrepid offers the chance to avoid them completely by starting on one of the plentiful non-headstart servers. Many people think the same as there really isn't any advantage to starting on a head-start server if you do not have headstart.

Asgerr

I'd say getting a head start isn't pay to win. It's pay to play early.

You getting a headstart, doesn't mean you'll 100% be winning anything vs other later players. You'll just have maybe a 5 or 10 level head start, and that only matters for certain things, and not others.

And once we all reach max level within a few days of world/server first, their headstart will have zero impact.

Also yeah, as they said, Nodes don't develop until full launch, so not like you'll go around and all the towns will be metropolises and have mayors assigned to them.

At worst, some of those people with a head start might try ganking lower level players.
Good luck to them dealing with the corruption that will just slow them down to where the rest of the playerbase will catch up even sooner.

Warth

Asgerr wrote: »

I'd say getting a head start isn't pay to win. It's pay to play early.

You getting a headstart, doesn't mean you'll 100% be winning anything vs other later players. You'll just have maybe a 5 or 10 level head start, and that only matters for certain things, and not others.

And once we all reach max level within a few days of world/server first, their headstart will have zero impact.

Also yeah, as they said, Nodes don't develop until full launch, so not like you'll go around and all the towns will be metropolises and have mayors assigned to them.

At worst, some of those people with a head start might try ganking lower level players.
Good luck to them dealing with the corruption that will just slow them down to where the rest of the playerbase will catch up even sooner.

I can't agree with this. Going with this stance, things like EXP Boosts, Teleporting Scrolls, Reputations Bonuses, added gold dropped buffs etc. would be fair game as well. These things don't have any place in Ashes by definition of the great Sandal Overlord himself. He defined all real money purchasables, that offer advantages within the game to be a no-go, whether you call them p2w or not doesn't matter.

Noaani

As have been said already in this thread, the main reason head start aren't pay to win is because the node system is disabled until full launch - and the actual level of content in the game is tied to node level.

Most players putting in an effort to level up fast after release will find that the thing that slows them down is the node system, it's hard to level up to level 30 when all the content on the server is capped at level 20. This means players will need nodes to be able to level up, and leveling nodes will require many, many players. This has the effect of keeping people roughly equal in terms of leveling speed, so the "advantage" of being able to get in to the game early but where the node system is turned off is t really an advantage at all.

Asgerr

Warth wrote: »

I can't agree with this. Going with this stance, things like EXP Boosts, Teleporting Scrolls, Reputations Bonuses, added gold dropped buffs etc. would be fair game as well. These things don't have any place in Ashes by definition of the great Sandal Overlord himself. He defined all real money purchasables, that offer advantages within the game to be a no-go, whether you call them p2w or not doesn't matter.

I see what you mean. However I must disagree on the premise that an early start and things like EXP boosts etc, are equal.

I could play 5 days early and not make much progress depending on what I'm doing in-game. And even if I were to decide to grind, that is still an activity that I as a player must invest time and resources on. I didn't "cheat" my way up the levels, I merely started the process sooner.

Most games where players have backed the game early, get an early access. I've yet to see any of them where the game was ruined as the players who got an early start completely destroyed everybody else so hard, as to impede their progress.

I am 100% in agreement about the idea of EXP boosts and teleport scrolls etc, to be off the table, and we know that will be the case. But with the Node system offline before the full launch, I still believe that an early start is just a player working his way legitimately up the levels. And with systems like corruption in place, we have some contingencies to possible abuses.

Heruwolf

Asgerr wrote: »

I'd say getting a head start isn't pay to win. It's pay to play early.
And once we all reach max level within a few days of world/server first, their headstart will have zero impact.

First off, I think your expectation of levelling speed is wildly skewed.

https://ashesofcreation.wiki/Leveling

The developers anticipate max level should be attainable in approximately 45 days if you play roughly 4-6 hours per day.

Assuming that during the head start they grind levels non-stop, as many other have said, they will hit a wall because the "levels" of the wildlife is based on the nodes near them. Otherwise, I don't see a need to repeat all the above that everyone has already said, but either way, OP, welcome to the community.

BobzUrUncle

Just because it is expected: Not this again.

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