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To get the quickest updates regarding Alpha Two, connect your Discord and Intrepid accounts here.
We need the option to disable cosmetics.
ClintHardwood
Member, Alpha Two
I understand AoC intends to cater to RP'ers, but for the sake of gameplay in an open PvP world, we need to see what gear people are wearing before a fight breaks out. I don't think it's viable to have to inspect each person we come across. Please add the option to disable cosmetics.
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Comments
Having to click a person to see their gear buffs is no less obstructive than clicking to inspect them. Every second matters in a pvp game. I don't want to have to click each person to read about what gear they're wearing as they're killing me.
Who said you had to click on them to see it? It could float next to their name.
Yep, gotta sell those skins at the expense of gameplay.
It just needs to be 1 icon next to their name. It would be easier tell by this icon then if you looked at the gear.
All you need is 3 different icons, one for each gear type and change the icon color based off rarity/power. If you are not familiar, please look at AAs gear icons.
Cosmetics are a way for people to customize your character and in an MMO, a big reason to customize your character is to show it off. Having a button that turns that off goes against that.
The skins are sold to fund more gameplay so no.
The Ashes game design alreay address that issue without disabling cosmetics.
We should test that first before complaining as if it's actually a problem.
https://ashesofcreation.wiki/Nameplate
A buff icon indicates the character's gear and grade.
Most of my modern MMO pvp is from WoW and GW2. GW2 is a wash because of the pvp gear normalization. In WoW I never used gear visuals to evaluate an opponent's power because xmog made it irrelevant. I only looked at HP, buffs, and debuffs (+ whatever my addons & UX I config'd to display).
You see a party running up to your farming location? You immediately saw their support healer/buffers, you'd see their tank and which tank it was so you knew their skillset. You'd know their general resistances and you'd know their rough build. And of course they knew the same about you.
You'd know their rough power lvl because of how gear tiers worked (can only fully utilize a tier after you've reached a certain lvl) so you could at least assume what skills they might have just by looking at them. Though depending on the progress stage of the server you might've seen a dude who should've been wearing t4-5 wearing t3 just because t4 was still super rare, so on the early stages of the server there'd still be some mystery when it came to the strength of your opponent, but you still knew which class they were at a glance (give or take a few rare off-builds).
Here's a vid going through all sets up to t4 on just one character model.
However, that icon which shows "gearscore" might be enough in Ashes because the gear mainly (or fully) just boosts player power and therefore, it does not necessarily need to be readable. In Albion gear includes abilities which is why it is important to read / know what abilities the enemy has in use.
If... IF gear in Ashes will have some extra which would be good to be readable, then I would suggest to add disable option for skins and cosmetics. Otherwise it might not be needed.
Pretty much this.
You can tell a lot about the player by their PvP rank, class, HP, buffs, and other stats (not by their appearance) ... at least in the competetive MMOs that I've played.
Cosmetics are a way of showing off game achievements (or supporting the game in development). If other players can't see that achievement, why even offer them?
Although didn't they say something about cosmetics may be disabled during sieges or something?
Hopefully other things, like the weapons someone has equipped, will be telltale signs of what the rest of their gear likely is.
I also play Albion, which is part of the reason I made this post. It's not only gear that cosmetics can hide but mounts as well. Knowing how fast a mount goes, its hp and armor is very useful for catching players. The game would suffer as a whole if you could not disable mount cosmetics because each mount requires its own strategy to dismount.
I fear the same will be true for ashes. Some mounts will presumably be slower but sturdier. Others will have abilities. The complexity will be insane already considering the depth of the animal husbandry system, and cosmetics will only make deciding what strategy to take murkier.
Do we really have to go through this because some people want us to see which skins they bought? Just let people disable cosmetics at their discretion. Those who wish to enjoy them can do so at their leisure, but give the rest of us the choice.
Illusions are part of the risk of OWPvP in Ashes.
exactly why I don't share gear in pvp games lmao.
The enjoyment comes from other players seeing your achievement cosmetics ... not you seeing your own cosmetics.
Surely, you understand that distinction, @ClintHardwood?
That might sound vain to some ... but as mentioned in my other post it's not an issue/problem in the MMOs I currently play.
If such an option was available the value of the cosmetics would go down, since the people buying them want to show off and they wouldnt be able to.
No studio would bring the value of their cosmetics down.
My first thought is that Bard must have some rough gigs. 🙀
Sounds like a good time to me. But then I do like......more aggressive music.
What it would mean depends greatly on the games combat system.
If armor gave a flat damage reduction to physical damage, someone in plate armor would tell you that you shouldn't use smaller physical attacks - stick to bigger attacks, even if they are slower.
The two handed sword would tell me the attacks are slow, meaning I probably have time between swings to get my attacks in, if I manage to not get hit by his.
The thing with gear being agnostic though, is that each item type is still probably going to have inherent bonuses/effects to it. Daggers are likely going to have faster attacks, and two handed swords will likely be slower - I expect there to be an inherent effect on the weapons that translates this to abilities (it could be an outright boost/reduction to cast speed of abilities, or it could be that ability cast speed is a function of weapon speed - either way, I expect something along these lines).
There will almost definitely also be weapons that have inherent bonus effects to spells and to healing. Sure, you may be able to adjust stats, but inherent bonuses are, well, inherent.
The other thing that a person in plate armor with a two handed sword tells me is that they probably have average defense against magic - at best.
So, I would summarize that this two handed sword wielding, plate armor wearing person coming at me is either a melee character that is well defended against melee (probably someone that is planning on going after a rogue) but expects to deal out some damage (no shield), but is probably not a caster or healer. If they are a caster or healer, or if they are melee but expect to defend, I will then know that they are probably not going to do all that good of a job.
Or we could have it Ashes way, where that person is actually a bear on a unicycle, but just wearing a plate armor cosmetic.