What MMO world do you want? Does Ashes feel too serious

Minecraft, Fortnite, WoW, etc are some of the most popular games in their respective genres. These games are aesthetically similar in the sense they are colourful, light, fun, cheerful. The characters in WoW for example are so memorable and loveable. FF14 has this too. For Ashes to be successful does it need to have this essence too?

I know it's early, but it doesn't seem Ashes will go in a similar direction. Games like GW2, New World and most other MMOs/RPGs suffer from having boring characters and a lifeless boring world. Do you guys want Ashes to have characters that are funny or silly. Do you want it to be full of humour? Or do you want it to be toned down?

I know Ashes will look great with UE5 and all, but I'm kinda worried I won't enjoy the world or the NPCs in it. I've played many MMOs and the only worlds I truly loved were from WoW and Runescape. Intrepid might create an amazing game with top notch mechanics and gameplay, but will the world just be a generic one with generic characters, lore and environments.

What kind of MMO worlds do you guys love? What do you want in Ashes in terms of NPCs and environments?

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Lark Wyll

From what I understand is that the game is inspired by Dungeons and Dragons type storytelling adventures.

Steven seems quite humorous to me so I would imagine there will be healthy doses of humor in the storytelling and adventures if he has any say, which he does.

As to the overall mood it's hard to say, certain parts of the environments are very modern and others very fantastical and whimsical. I hope the game keeps going away from a cartoon direction that gives some prior mmo's their less than serious feel.

B_B_Z

I dont mind a bit of humor, but I think this MMO shouldnt have the cartoony asthetic that wow has. Its its own game and has its own identity and I rathet like the character designs.

As far as the world goes, Im not a huge fan of mounts cause I really enjoy travel in games and feel like it gives the world a sence of being big. Classic Ever Quest comes to mind, having to run 3 zones away to catch a boat that takes 30 minutes (if you just missed it) to get to the docks and having to ride it for another 15 minutes to get to the other continent, content like that was very impactful.

I want the world to feel big and punishing at times. In EQ if you died in a dungeon with your group you'd have to run from your bind spot which was often times atleast 10 minutes away if not more in some cases. Youd lose exp and all your armor and inventory would stay on youre corpse for 7 days before it rotted and disappeared forever. So youd have to loot your kwn corpse to get your gear back. Yes their was rez's eventually, but you didnt always have a cleric in your group. So it was critical not to make any big mistakes like pulling a room with 5 mobs in it all at once. Youd need to have somone split them, or lull them so you could pull them one at a time.

Idno im rambling at this point.

Basically serious = good
potty humor/cartoony stuff = bad
childish stuff = bad

George_Black

I had enough of games trying to be witty or funny. I'd prefer a world setting more like dragon age, witcher rdr2, where life is hard and not filled with lucky-go-happy characters full of punchlines and careless attitude.

I dont understand the need of people to want to be surrunded by comedy all the time. Plus, most of the times the result isnt a laugh. Just annoyance and breaking the illusion that you adventure.

And this is the 4th or so topic asking for a 'funny' world. Is life that hard?

paha

Wildstar was great game mechanically and gameplay wise. But it was detached and had too much comical humor. It's deeper and more serious story arch parts were what made it interesting for me to pay attention. Light hearted and so on works more easily on games with instanced matches and style. Gameplay, visuals, etc. alone are the things that stick out.

For RPG, Mmo or anything with an idea to exist as a world, should have themes that make you invested. If it's just laughter and nothing serious, then it won't be taken seriously. You won't have deeper emotions and investment in it. Final Fantasy being good example. It's got light topics and themes in some matters, but it's world is rather serious in the deeper story and that story made people cry. Won't spoil anything obviously.

I at least am hoping for seriously thought out world and themes. Serious and invested sense of what can be interpret to be "real" and have some attachments to characters, their stories and the world lore matters in my opinion. I want some grim themes. Either extreme of fun / sad pays off that much more when there is effort involved and counterbalance. Simple example is that without effort rewards won't have as much meaning and impact. Without hope pure despair and darkness will feel just depressing and off-putting. And so on forth.

Schwann36

I really enjoyed Runescape & Borderlands questlines. They were silly but light enough to let you know what you needed to without getting too bogged down.
Though I enjoyed it, it's not what I expect or what I want.

The game is going to be heavily player driven so I see NPC taking a backseat to some things but would occassionally like to see NPCs reference world events or player driven events.
eg. "Glad those goblins were dealt with." / "I hear there is a new mayor again."

I'd like to see something more serious like Dragon Age or Neverwinter where they do occasionally sway but is predominantly serious.
Most ridiculous that I wouldn't mind is closer to the League of Legends lore, where most things are deep in politics and traditions but every so often there is more of a trickster vibe rather than just jokes for the sake of jokes.

daveywavey

Dolyem wrote: »

Want it to be even more serious. tired of the disneyland aesthetic many MMO's promote. Down with the silly/cute cosmetics I say!

And while we're on the subject, let's bin off the That Fricking Corgi and Stuffertons.

AidanKD

If you're opening this topic by saying that all the successful games are all the same thematically at least in the shade of their art direction, then that tells me that games trying a different aesthetic approach need to just do better. I don't believe that art alone is indicative of success - if a game is good people will play it. How come "darker" themed fantasy single player RPGs can do very well but not MMOs? Because the single player RPGs are well designed games and sadly we have found modern MMOs aren't doing enough.

Jester71

I want an MMO World like the original Everquest. I want the challenge of the original Everquest. You feared moving through zones on your own.

ariatras

I kind of want a "next generation" of MMO world. I don't know how that would take shape just yet. But I have a few small things I'd like to see.

A world that continues, even if you're offline. This always gets spoken about, but just because a game continues, doesn't mean the world continues. I stopped WoW quite a few years ago. But I'm sure the NPCs are still all very much in the same place. There was a video on Elder Scrolls IV Oblivion I saw a while ago, it had certain things that I would absolutely love to see. I'll give a short synopsis.

Basically, all the traditionally "nameless" NPC's (City Guard) for example, but citizens too, and shopkeepers, thieves, etc. They were assigned, (some at random) certain stat values. A whole range of them. They wrote an AI that used these hidden attributes to determine what an NPC would do. They'd have hunger/energy bars like the sims (in the background) So they'd have to eat and work. What happened and made them cancel the idea, was certain NPCs with good stats were buying up all the food to sell at a huge profit, causing the most lawful of people to starve or leave town completely, the ones with less stats in lawfulness were okay with trying to steal food, which made them get arrested and or killed by the guards. The whole town died out. They had no time to fix it so they went with the more traditional. But I adore the basic idea and principle. Gives even the NPCs some personality, have goals, go to work etc etc. That is what makes the game feel alive to me. My ideal MMO world would have systems like this and have it work in MMO format of course.

daveywavey

One of the reasons I didn't play WoW was the cartoony drawn-by-a-3yr-old-with-a-crayon graphics. I want it to look more realistic. And Ashes is doing a fab job with it, so far. And they're not even finished with it. I'm drooling...

JamesSunderland

daveywavey wrote: »

One of the reasons I didn't play WoW was the cartoony drawn-by-a-3yr-old-with-a-crayon graphics. I want it to look more realistic. And Ashes is doing a fab job with it, so far. And they're not even finished with it. I'm drooling...

Not gonna lie, WoW cartoony graphic style was one of my major turn offs for the game aswell.

PenguinPaladin

Otr wrote: »

Q: What MMO world do you want?
A: I want a world where it rains a lot. Storms on oceans. Occasional thunderstorms.
And a peaceful giant walking arround, looking what players do.

Until one day the giants name turns red.....

Tyranthraxus

Am wanting to avoid anything in the realm of "too-magical" or "overly-magical". NWO is a good example; that game-setting is WAY too magical - to the point that going to a trainer puts you in-and-out a bubble-dimension with no apparent trouble at all.

Swapping dimensions, magical flying ships, magically-powered machines, etc should be rare and far-and-few between. It presently feels AoC is on-track for this level. If a server has two Scientific Metropolis Nodes, we'll get to see them connected by a flying machine - but that's about the rarity I'd hope for.

unknown

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Ludullu

Dolgrin wrote: »

AoC has a chance to be the next EQ for a lot of us older players, but we don't need open world pvp we don't need to be taxed like this is real life we don't need players being mayors of nodes having power over others on what gets built and what doesn't.

Except it's gonna be the next L2 and AA and we do need all of those things

unknown

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bloodprophet

Dolgrin wrote: »

NiKr wrote: »

Dolgrin wrote: »

AoC has a chance to be the next EQ for a lot of us older players, but we don't need open world pvp we don't need to be taxed like this is real life we don't need players being mayors of nodes having power over others on what gets built and what doesn't.

Except it's going to be the next L2 and AA and we do need all of those things

No, we don't and it's going to be the next, not gonna but that's OK.

You sure?
https://ashesofcreation.wiki/Design_pillars
Inspiration

Ashes of Creation has taken inspiration from various other MMORPG titles.[10]

In terms of what came before, we're trying to figure out who did what best and take inspiration from that: Move the genre forward; keep things updated and bring it into the 21st century.[10] – Jeffrey Bard

Eve Online with its regionalized economy and risk vs reward in transportation.[10]
ArcheAge with its building systems, transportation and naval combat.[10]
Star Wars Galaxies with its crafting systems.[10]
Lineage II with its risk vs reward, castle sieges, flagging, open world PvP and guild progression.[11][12][13][10]

novercalis

bloodprophet wrote: »

Dolgrin wrote: »

NiKr wrote: »

Dolgrin wrote: »

AoC has a chance to be the next EQ for a lot of us older players, but we don't need open world pvp we don't need to be taxed like this is real life we don't need players being mayors of nodes having power over others on what gets built and what doesn't.

Except it's going to be the next L2 and AA and we do need all of those things

No, we don't and it's going to be the next, not gonna but that's OK.

You sure?
https://ashesofcreation.wiki/Design_pillars
Inspiration

Ashes of Creation has taken inspiration from various other MMORPG titles.[10]

In terms of what came before, we're trying to figure out who did what best and take inspiration from that: Move the genre forward; keep things updated and bring it into the 21st century.[10] – Jeffrey Bard

Eve Online with its regionalized economy and risk vs reward in transportation.[10]
ArcheAge with its building systems, transportation and naval combat.[10]
Star Wars Galaxies with its crafting systems.[10]
Lineage II with its risk vs reward, castle sieges, flagging, open world PvP and guild progression.[11][12][13][10]

This game is taking inspiration from EQ, L2, AA

you literally quoted Jeffrey bard (aka EQ) but he left the company and we dont know how much impact he had with IS core design. But learning about L2 - seems both game were very alike, so we are good overall.

I feel icky - defending that dude... then again im laughing he mentioned EQ and complaining about being taxed in-game with timesinks and whatnot when he played EQ... during PoP nonetheless which killed EQ

Ragin

I really like the Art style that it has now. The video demonstrating some of the melee combat where they're fighting the rock monsters, I loved the colors and how everything looked.

It's also probably way too far along to start changing Art directions at this point. I don't see why you'd want anything different anyways. It takes a lot of time for the artist to create all those assets.

If WOW was made today, it probably wouldn't have the same style it does currently. Very stylized graphics can definitely stand the test of time though, and that's probably one of the reasons why they went that direction. Graphics then weren't exactly the best, so it was a good choice when that game was made.

Nerror

WoW was a nice break from the more serious games at the time, with all its RL pop-culture references and such. It was definitely part of the reason it became so popular. I hope Ashes stays away from RL pop-culture, but still incorporates some humor.

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