How much does the quality of the game drop

Many players came to this game remembering the old WOW, RF online, Linage.
What we have in fact, you can win in PVP can only Zerg. Only Zerg can participate in any game event (Either get killed or do much more damage). Only a Zerg member can wear something (They just won't let you into a dungeon without PVP without letting anyone take damage). Only Zerg members can level up (all spots are taken by them). A good example would be the Soul Deus guild, which was able to destroy the entire server from which a large number of players left.
Cities are not even 1\5 unlocked.
The stability of the server is falling step by step. Play is no longer possible freezes for more than 3 seconds.

Now the big question is why?

Assuming maybe because there are a lot of players on the servers. I think so.
What are the developers doing? Reduce the number of servers (Yay))))
Which is why I've lost over 50 friends from this game. No desire to enter this project. There are no players in the game and there are only testers.
None of the developers do not think about the players, do not even call such you say “testers” and consider it normal that people bought your not cheap game in which you only mock them.

+ Constant cheating with deadlines under the pretext of gifts for testers, etc.

I made 50 friends in this game, lost 50 friends and lost a lot of time without getting the fun I paid for.
So far the game is made for 2 / 10
I do not recommend it to anyone

Translated with DeepL.com (free version)

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Ludullu

If Steven is to be believed, we've got 8k people on Shol concurrently. That's an insane number, considering that the og plan for the FULL RELEASE was to have 10k concurrent players. And even despite that huge number the game as a whole is getting more stable. Yes, super popular places are really fucked by lag/rubberbanding/broken spawns, but that's also the point of stress testing the server and it gives Intrepid a ton of data for player activity heatmaps and overall behavior.

As for zergs - we have no proper tools to deal with them yet. No properly balanced guild wars or node wars, no fully designed corruption and bounty hunting, no proper PvE AI that would react to a zerg in the best way possible. So of course zergs would dominate right now.

Though, none of this is to say that on the full release zerg still won't win most of the time. That's simply the nature of these kinds of games. It's impossible to completely stop a zerg from winning in an open world mmo. And with Steven's love for that kind of gameplay, it was kind of obvious that the game would inevitably have the design that appeals to zergs. So the best thing we can do is just keep reminding Steven to implement at least a few tools that help players deal with zergs.

As for your friends. If they left because they completely dislike the game - that's a shame, but they wouldn't have stuck around either way. But if they left because the game is unfinished, then just keep their information and then contact them when the game does release.

Vadim199

I understand and realize that the game is not ready and needs to be load tested
But if you look at the total number of players that were there when there were a lot of servers and after they started to be cut, you can see that players are leaving.

Servers in their regions have been removed and they are trying to increase the number of players on the server without taking into account the fact that the choice of servers was due to the geolocation of players

And the Zerg problem is obvious and I realize that there is nothing that can be done about it directly.
It should be solved by adding points of interest for solo players or small groups in PVP zones or adding such points of interest in general.
Right now there are 6 such points of interest and all of them are places to get ingredients.

It just results in players being taken away from the nearest servers.
And there's no challenge for small groups.

Let me explain about 50 people
2 Guilds completely decided to leave as the servers are being cleaned up and there is no possibility to play without delay.
Also there is no competition for groups of even 8 people as the spots are occupied by groups of 16 players.

No doubt there are problems that I voiced to solutions in game design.
But we all understand that we will change 100 times and it is silly to take offense at that.

But what's happening with the servers is very bad.
Because the quality of the game is falling (delay, overpopulation, few points of interest).

Vadim199

Once again, until the problem with the servers is solved.
That is, adding servers for all regions, which would eliminate the delay
And until the problem with the monsters that teleport for 2-3 chunks from the game will not be solved
The game is not suitable for playing

(this is still a discussion and I'm curious what others think about it)

Ludullu

Vadim199 wrote: »

Once again, until the problem with the servers is solved.
That is, adding servers for all regions, which would eliminate the delay

P3 will have EU servers.

Vadim199 wrote: »

And until the problem with the monsters that teleport for 2-3 chunks from the game will not be solved
The game is not suitable for playing

This is not a game yet, hence why it's not suitable for playing. It's very suitable for testing though. And our testing directly helps Intrepid solve their issues. The most direct example of this I can give is the Proper Burial quest. 2 days ago the location near the cemetary was lagging so damn much that you couldn't even kill a mob properly. Yesterday it was completely fine.

And Intrepid keep saying every day that they're working on more and more such locations. And they would only know which locations to work on if we overload the servers in a semi-natural way.

Vadim199

Maybe in the third wave they'll add servers, but right now the game is crashing and I'm rating it now.
And this is a problem that is now getting worse for a long period of time.

Try to play conditionally with a VPN from the region KZH CH RU.
And you will realize that you can not kill a single mob.
Their models do not move, and you get damage.
At any time.

When there were EU servers, there were pretty bad lags, and everyone put up with them because it's testing, but now you can see a static picture and that's it.

This is also called alpha testing of the game.
But now we only have the word “games” in the title.
And players now leave with negative emotions, which means they are very likely not to come back.

So the company thinks they can sell early access to the game (to testing) and then have no liability.
Legally they are right, but no one will express trust, and even more so no one will express warm feelings in support of the company, because they have abandoned most of the players.

The way it all looks and feels is that people are being paid to work for them, not to play an unfinished game and provide information for analytics.

There is no problem with removing progress
The problem is that you can't get it anymore.

Ludullu

Vadim199 wrote: »

And players now leave with negative emotions, which means they are very likely not to come back.

If players don't come back because they think the game will not change until release - that's on them. If they thought they'd be able to play normally 100% of the time - that's on them.

We'll still have several cases of very bad lag or bad connection or bad gameplay. All because this is still an alpha. Anyone who thinks this is a game is delluding themselves.

Vadim199

But they provide it as a game
And they claim it's available for gameplay.

When neither of those things exist.
They may not come back not because the game won't change, but because the company's attitude won't change.

Try to look at the hell divers story as an example.
And what happened to their stock and their attitude towards Sony.

Noaani

Vadim199 wrote: »

I understand and realize that the game is not ready and needs to be load tested
But if you look at the total number of players that were there when there were a lot of servers and after they started to be cut, you can see that players are leaving.

Servers in their regions have been removed and they are trying to increase the number of players on the server without taking into account the fact that the choice of servers was due to the geolocation of players

The thing you are forgetting is that right now, only testing matters.

Intrepid could have 100k players spread out over 50 servers, but that would be useless if they are needing to stress test servers. One server of 8k players is of more value to them for a stress test than any number of total players if those players are spread out over many servers.

Intrepid only provide access to Ashes as a test right now.

If you go to the alpha sign up right now, you get comments like this

Are you ready to make your mark in the gaming world? By joining our Alpha Two testing phase, you’ll have a unique opportunity to help shape the most glorious MMORPG!

Or this

What to Expect

Alpha Two is a work in progress, and things may not be perfect.
Your feedback is crucial as we continue developing and improving core elements of the game.

If you came in to Ashes now expecting a game rather than a test, it is because you didn't read.

Vadim199

I don't think you're understanding my posts

The problem isn't that we're testing, it's that they forget that we're primarily players anyway
So if we were employees it would look like you live in Florida but from this day forward you have to work in the NewYork office come as you please it's not the company's problem or leave in general.

So it's easier for them to offend and chase away 60% of all players in order to increase online on one server by 10%.
They don't think about their users (maybe only at this stage but it's a fact:)).

There's nothing stopping them from keeping those servers and doing a sale promotion in the right region.

Vadim199

Personally, I don't care how many times I go under.
How many times the mobs are on the ceiling
How many times items go missing
How many times there will be tech work on weekdays

As long as it is possible to play with normal lag and without severe freezes.

Since the first described problems they are normal at the testing stage
And the rest are critical and only the rest they aggravate.

SmileGurney

Judging from the OP's name I would guess they are Russian, so latency on a US based server can be pretty brutal. The artificially increased player population also adds its own issues with server stability.

We have seen issues with server stability in the previous phases , some POIs such as Steelbloom, HH, Ursine Caves and Carphin were pretty broken under heavy player presence. I cannot say I have seen ANY improvement in those locations due to patches. It was all mainly service restarts and dropping player population which made them perform at an acceptable level.

I would imagine a lot of people semi-understand what alpha testing involves, but everyone has a breaking point, nor peoples free time is actually free. Phase 2.5 limitations are clearly too much for many. Player population is unlikely to recover any time soon, until we hit the next major content drop.

One can only hope this data helps with dev of the dynamic gridding. The one system which is supposedly going to improve the server performance in locations with a lot of players.

Ludullu

SmileGurney wrote: »

I would imagine a lot of people semi-understand what alpha testing involves, but everyone has a breaking point, nor peoples free time is actually free.

Yes, that's definitely true, which is why Steven REPEATEDLY said "do not buy this if you're not ready to test". Just wait till release or at least betas. Hell, even the P3 delay came exactly because Intrepid weren't ready for what they promised previously . That is, "P3 will be way closer to a gaming experience than a testing one".

Vadim199

In this interview

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oYeyhn6MP6Q&t=3712s starting at 1:41:18.
Stephen stated about the availability of the servers
And indicated that there will be a server in Europe.
And everyone accepted that it was not 6 but 3 because the pooling system had to be tested.
But now there's only one left and the situation I described above.

And about what you said
He adds in his own way at the end and talks about bugs, not about availability.

Noaani

Vadim199 wrote: »

They don't think about their users (maybe only at this stage but it's a fact:)).

They are thinking about their users, you are thinking about yourself.

This is an alpha test. Sometimes that means you have things to test, sometimes you don't.

Everything Intrepid are doing is in service of the final product. You are literally here arguing for a worse final product.

Sure, they may have said there will be EU servers, and there has been EU servers. However, they have also said many, many times that everything is subject to change based on the needs of testing. That is what you are here for - testing. If what Intrepid need to test right now isn't of interest to you, skip this one.

More importantly, stop whining.

Caww

The fact that the 24/7 access was delayed until August implies just how difficult the job for AoC really is and why server stability is such a key metric.

Vadim199

Why are you using every word in your favor?
It was promised that Bandit would be out by New Year's Eve.
It didn't.

There was a promise that we would meet dynamic map quests in phase two?
Nothing was updated for phase two.

The thing is, everything Steve says is a 99% probability lie (what will appear may not be a lie, but when it's a lie it's always a lie).

The thing is, I and none of you are hired to work for them.
We are users anyway, and buying a product, putting yourself in the shoes of a tester with the fact that it will be taken away from you when they want it, is nonsense.

It's not a startup, it's not a voluntary fundraiser.
They don't have a lot of money and they need those sales.
So all the posts are aimed at getting people to buy the “product”, and the ads from bloggers are aimed at the same thing.
But there's no product, and they want to continue development with the logic that we're sponsoring them and they'll give us work for it, because they can't afford offline load testing.
Because there's no money to get those servers up.

That is, they have no money and decide to start selling by adding waves of access constantly increasing the time of possible sale
But at the same time they try to absolve themselves of any responsibility to the users and the buyer, even in the posts calling everyone employees (testers).

That we get all the responsibilities of employees and all the responsibilities of players
If it's testing why is anyone getting banned and access taken away?
For RMT for grifting it's testing as you say which allows you to debug these processes and catch.

But no we get penalized as players (progress deletions, constant removal of servers without normal warning, unstable or deleted servers, no support, administrators in communities are volunteers from the community).

We get penalties as testers (Bans players on the background of personal sorrows, bans on the background of RMT, bans on the background of finding bugs that give an advantage (example eternal chests)).

And after all that, you say I'm whining)
Think about why these people think that we just carry their money and they do not owe them anything.
Because what guy on YouTube said they don't?
So, yeah, you need therapy.

I apologize in advance to everyone reading this.
My native language is not English, but I tried to correct the text.

Noaani

Vadim199 wrote: »

That we get all the responsibilities of employees

No we don't. What the fuck are you even talking about?

You are participating in a test. All of the things you are complaining about are things that are inherent to a test. If you didn't want to deal with them, why did you purchase access to a test?

SzaboHarvester

2 out of 10 seems fair, perhaps by Aug. it'll be a 4 out of 10, right now it is just a chat room for desperate external validation seekers

Vadim199

Noaani wrote: »

Vadim199 wrote: »

That we get all the responsibilities of employees

No we don't. What the fuck are you even talking about?

You are participating in a test. All of the things you are complaining about are things that are inherent to a test. If you didn't want to deal with them, why did you purchase access to a test?

I've been involved in a lot of testing
Almost all of them from different companies, but this is the first time I've been treated with such disregard.

When buying I agree to testing, I agree to a substandard product or constantly changing, not to have it taken away from me at any time.

Vadim199

SzaboHarvester wrote: »

2 out of 10 seems fair, perhaps by Aug. it'll be a 4 out of 10, right now it is just a chat room for desperate external validation seekers

THX BRO
You got me)

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