The Ashen Forge 100th episode with Steven - You have any questions?

As you might have heard Steven will be joining us on Sunday, July 9th at 12pm pacific time, for our 100th episode!

We are super excited. This will be our third time getting to chat with Steven and usually we can pull out some pretty good information

While we only have an hour and can't promise to get to every curiosity and question I wanted to make a thread for any of you that might have questions you would like to see us get to.

We will probably be spending quite a bit of time on questions about today's stream but any question is up for consideration.

We are gonna have some fun with this one!

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Comments

Azherae

Is the Celestial Dragon God Tatzelwyrm part of the Seven?

Ludullu

Yall already have my question, so just congrats on the interview!

qurion

Will the ability augments granted from religions have aesthetic effects? For example, can you identify an "evil" tank or a "good" necromancer based on augmented abilities?

CROW3

I’m sending mine to Dygz - nice work, @Fantmx.

Chicago

timeline on spot testing

akabear

Perhaps a less commital question
>
What percentage do they believe they have completed sufficiently for alpha 2?

Ace1234

Design/"Player experience" questions:

1. Will there be a system to orient players into their preferred content early on, so they can set personal goals (such as asking the player questions then having recommendations for them) or will they just kind of stumble upon the content they are interested in as they play?

2. How you would describe your vision in terms of the player's actual experience? Such as the emotional responses, or feelings/fantasies you are trying to deliver?

3. How would you describe your "core gameplay loop"?

4. For area/encounter design, did you take the approach of designing the art around the mechanics, or designing the mechanics around the art/theme for a given enemy/area?

5. Will all classes be able to deal with enemy encounters using non-combat strategies (similar to a rogue using stealth), if so, will you be able to adaptively switch between these strategies on the fly?

6.
A- Will exchanging dialogue be a viable playstyle when engaging with content

B- will dialogue-based gameplay be fun, by requiring players to gather information about the world, lore, character traits, and make morality based decisions when choosing dialogue options?

7. How much freedom will players have in how they approach quests? Will quests have specific "solutions", or will there be many viable playstyles/approaches for clearing them?

8. are you planning on drawing inpiration using feedback and data from recently released or upcoming mmos to improve ashes?

9. Are you okay with data mining, if not, are there planned measures to help prevent it?

10. Will there be any modified pvp experiences, such as different "game modes" the players can participate in, with asymetrical player roles?

Naval questions:

1. Will players need to move cannons around on the ships? I know there were balance concerns about having lower decks on ships, but have you considered using dynamic destruction to help balance line of sight concerns, to allow for cannoneers on lower decks?

2. can you shoot yourself out of ship cannon?

Crafting questions:

1. Will there be any kind of gameplay revolving around physical orientation/positioning of materials in relation to each other, such as in crafting/ship building? (kind of like in Zelda Tears of the Kingdom)

Movement/traversal questions:

1. The wiki says there will be class specific traversal abilities
A- what are some examples of these traversal methods
B- will physics and environmental design factor into making this traversal fun and interesting?

2. how free-form will climbing be, and how do you intend on making it fun and interesting gameplay?

World/exploration/story questions:

1. Is there an element of mystery to the lore, that you can't understand through the main quest line, but have to do further investigation into the world/lore to uncover the truth?

2. Will certain story arcs require piecing clues together and investigation in order to trigger them, or will all story arcs naturally play out through other means?

3. Is there a type of treasure in the world where you have to collect several different pieces/solve several different inter-connected puzzles, that are dispersed throughout the world?

4. Will treasures respawn to reward everyone who explores, or are they for the select few who find them first? If so, what is the incentive to explore as a newcomer on a server that has been already explored and looted for the most part?

5. How relevant will verticality be, such as fighting over strategic high ground or towers/buildings during sieges?

6. what is the intended navigation experience? are players going to have to get info organically within the world to get there bearings, or will most navigational info (such as locations and routes) be handed to the player through the UI/mini-map?

7. Can most NPCs interact/fight each other?

8. Will secondary classes provide additional utility skills?

"Social interaction" questions:

1. Will there be an element of "moral conflict" between players from different religions?

2. Will there be assassination quests where one player needs to plan how to locate and sneak in to take down a high priority target (such as another real player), and the other player has to try to survive the attempt, in order to clear the quest?

3. Can you make wagers on mini games/duels?

4. Will there be a system that recaps "highlights" and important moments during battles?

5. How would you want the competitve scene to work within the game- such as in arenas/dueling, will there be a "standardized" way of playing or will there by customizable settings for the competitors?

6. Will there ever be a "kill-cam" of any kind, to see the perspective of the player who killed you?

7. will there be real-time battle commands for leadership/tactics purposes?

8. Can you always distiniguish between npc and player, or are there opportunities to blend in as an npc?

9. Is friendly-fire possible when grouped up?

10. will there ever be forced game chat to encourage social interaction?

Combat questions:

1. can you climb on and attack limbs of enemies?

2. Is the goal for all classes to have the same skill ceiling, or will some be harder to use and thus more rewarding/stronger than others?

3. will there be universal aerial attacks during jumps?

4. Will there be contextual abilities outside of the basic class kits (such as "finishing moves" or "ambushing moves" from above or behind)?

5. We know there are minimum and maximum ranges for skills- will there be "sweet spot" ranges or "perfect timings" or "charged versions" of skills, as a way of changing effects of combat skills?

6. how will underwater combat compare/contrast to land combat?

7. Has it been decided whether the "champion" balanced for 1v1's idea will be used for 1v1 arena combat? If not, how do you intend for 1v1s to be fair and fun experiences, regardless of the fact Ashes prioritizes balancing group combat?

8. In a more fluid and mobile combat system, what is your intended situational use of the slow and predictable melee comboes?

9. since there is dynamic difficulty, how will you know what level of difficulty you are facing in an encounter?

10. Will node siege defenses be set up in predetermined positions or will the defenses be more customizable in how they are set up and used?

11. will there be an arena/battlefield layout editor of any kind in the future?

12. Is it ever possible to be put in a "downed" state instead of dying when your health depletes?

13. For npcs that help players, can they be controlled or commanded to an extent or do they act completely independently?

14. Are there traps of any kind that can be set up during seiges or caravan routes?

Fantmx

Don't forget to post your questions

Barab

Ask how far along naval development is and how soon we can see anything naval in a dev stream as well as if we expect naval to be in at the start of alpha 2.

Also when can we expect to see Dünir in a dev stream ?

thanks

Raven016

Fantmx wrote: »

Don't forget to post your questions

My question is:

If the game faces competition and Steven will have to chose, what will the choice be?
1) to let the development team shrink (because some go to other better payed jobs)
2) to change the game store to sell freehold spots too and hire more developers, increasing the rate of updates? This 2nd option would also put a cap on the freehold price on RMT sites...

Diura

Are guild Freeholds still a thing? Will they function similarly to regular Freeholds e.g some space for farming/business/hall? If so will having a Guild Freehold allow all members to utilise the buildings to an extent with permissions?

TY! ^^

Noaani

"At what point would you say there is enough player competition - will you ever let players just play your game without having to compete against someone else just to do the most basic of activities?".

Arunteli

1. Which one of the 3 remaining archetypes can we expect to see next? How far along in development are the bard, summoner & rogue?
2. The monthly livestreams have for a long time taken place in game in the Riverlands. Is there plans to have showcases in other biomes before Alpha 2 or is this a design choice to keep them secret and let us experience the biomes ourselves?
3. In the previous community Q&A it was stated the character creator was receiving an update with the remaining races. Does this include the Tulnar? Are all races planned to be playable at the start of Alpha 2?

Top

Hello everyone,

1)

It was stated that the time for a node to achieve level 3 was a few days.

It was also stated that the time for a player to hit level 50 was 45 days (if playing 4-6 hour / day)

As you need to be level 50 to unlock the freehold quest,
can you explain the philosophy why the gameplay surrounding freehold will be delayed at launch?

2)

As I understand, freeholds are a place that generates business and are a corner stone of the economy.

Can you explain the philosophy why an artisan or a processor of materials can not offer the service (like a business building can offer services) of renting for a fee the use of his stations.

I personnaly don't estimate that the familly system is robust/developped enough to achieve that goal (in a large scale).

Happy Birthday to Steven and Ashen Forge !!

iznebula

I want to preface this by saying that I love the design graphically and aesthetically of Freeholds as a whole. Also happy belated birthday to Steven and Congrats on your 100th Episode Ashen Forge!

First off, I understand why the availability of Freeholds is limited. However, I feel attainability of a Freehold is just as important when you consider limiting their availability.

My question is: Is there a reason why you went the direction of bidding being the ONLY option and have you considered including other options such as adapting the node leadership system? Do you have any concerns with guilds monopolizing the bidding, buying and selling of Freeholds with this direction you have taken?

I fear the vast majority of players will never get to own one throughout the life cycle of the game with this direction in mind. Wanting a freehold and not getting one because the available space is gone VS Wanting a freehold and never getting it because no matter what you do, you simply don't have the means to out bid larger groups of players are 2 vastly different views.

Laetitian

=== Sieges/Capturing points of interest ===
"Whenever sieging comes up, you always highlight that the game is not a PvP game (nor a PvE game.) I take this as a warning for PvP enthusiasts, meaning: 'You won't be sieging for the majority of your time in game, so better get that idea out of your head. Go look for another caravan to fight instead!' - in the most loving phrasing a Creative Director of a game in Alpha could deliver.
I am okay with this; the game doesn't need to be for PvP purists, and I can enjoy the PvE and exploration and character or wealth growth of it.

With this in mind, what are the chances that we will see PvP territory-related content like defensive buildings that minor fort skirmishes can be spontaneously fought over - perhaps as a preparation that might help the successful fort attackers or defenders once the next official siege comes around? If something like that would ever be introduced, would it mostly have corruption disabled for the area?"

=== General question ===
"What is a day in the life of Steven Sharif like - to the degree you're willing to share with the public? How much time do you spend having revelations or second-guessing your design decisions? What have been your favourite or most effective measures for attaining confidence in the decisions you make?"

Kionashi

considering how exclusive owning a freehold would be, how will players level their farming/animal husbandry skills in their nodes if they don't have a freehold?

Ludullu

Kionashi wrote: »

considering how exclusive owning a freehold would be, how will players level their farming/animal husbandry skills in their nodes if they don't have a freehold?

Fantmx

NiKr wrote: »

Kionashi wrote: »

considering how exclusive owning a freehold would be, how will players level their farming/animal husbandry skills in their nodes if they don't have a freehold?

To be picky he does say "to a large degree." I hope to find out how that applies to farming and animal husbandry.

Ludullu

Fantmx wrote: »

To be picky he does say "to a large degree." I hope to find out how that applies to farming and animal husbandry.

Yeah, that's what I'm curious about too. I'd assume some kind of instanced thing, cause there's definitely not enough space in any node for potentially hundreds of mini-farms. Mb there's gonna be a small greenhouse that's an instance? Could be cute if designed accordingly.

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