Glorious Alpha Two Testers!
Alpha Two testing is currently taking place five days each week. More information about Phase II and Phase III testing schedule can be found here
If you have Alpha Two, you can download the game launcher here, and we encourage you to join us on our Official Discord Server for the most up to date testing news.
Alpha Two testing is currently taking place five days each week. More information about Phase II and Phase III testing schedule can be found here
If you have Alpha Two, you can download the game launcher here, and we encourage you to join us on our Official Discord Server for the most up to date testing news.
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5 - Overpowered. The starter quest that picks up stuff from the road gets you 3 solid greens. You can get sanctus weapons and fill other slots in a few hours of gameplay. Compare that to the crafting/mob grinding route and the quests are extremely overpowered. The necklace quest is very strong, but I think adequate for the difficulty.
I havent done all of the quests or timed everything, but I think they are strong. I would just want the devs to time the optimal route for reward value with quests and balance it with mob grinding or professions. There shouldnt be an obvious "golden path", even if the players havent figured it out yet and assume one path is better than another. I might be guilty of this.
Perhaps the rewards could be things like recipes, materials, consumables. That way they arent interfering too much with the crafting economy, and are complementing the professions. I like quests that introduce new players to the game systems, acting like a tutorial. Skippable for experienced players.
Node tickets also need some ideas like this for rewards. Epic mats or something could be cool.
I'm fine with 0% from questing. I prefer the combat and looking for cool spots to grind or farm. If i never feel obligated to do a quest in this game I will still have lots of fun. However, I can understand that the new player experience will likely be looking for guidance on what can be done in the game and how to do it. Perhaps 35% quest experience if they do every quest in the game, but I would hope they still have to engage in some combat to level.
Personally, I would love to see something like AshesCodex integrated into the game UI. It is basically required at this point, and I couldnt imagine playing the game without it. I don't like that players who have database editors have a massive advantage over regular players. A UI provided by intrepid would balance it for everyone, so we all have equal knowledge.
The more I know about the game, the more I can find direction in what I want to do and plan my next stages. Sure "exploration" is fun for a little bit, but nothing is more frustrating than mob grinding a spot for hours on end and not knowing if anything is expected to drop, or what can drop, or if the player levels are interfering with drops, or why nothing is dropping. It gets really hard for inexperienced players who get told "just go grind with a group" and end up leveling but never gearing, because they have no idea which monsters drop gear for them.
I often use caravan downtime and things like that to plan my gear, or think about where I want to go next and what to do.
Maybe this UI idea could be integrated with exploration, such that if you kill a new monster, it gets tagged in your database and you can see things about it, such as drops, %s, etc.
This being said, I am currently advocating against monsters dropping items at all, which would solve some of this issue. Probably not a popular opinion though.
- On a scale of 1–5, how would you rate the current quest rewards in Alpha Two? (1 = Very poor, 5 = Excellent)
- How would you describe the current quest rewards in Alpha Two? What’s working well, and what could be improved?
- In your opinion, what makes for engaging and fair quest rewards in a game like Ashes of Creation that features an economy-driven PvX system?
- Roughly what percentage of your leveling experience do you feel should come from questing compared to other activities (e.g., grinding, gathering, events)?
- What helps you feel connected to a game world, and what could Ashes of Creation do to feel more immersive and dynamic?
I like the idea or your event questing system though I hope it gets more revisions and improvements. I like the idea that stuff happens and we need to respond. I hope more of that is added that kind of dynamic questing really gets me into the world. I also like big story quests that take you deep into the lore of something and tells a story, not just a task to do.I'd probably give it around a 2 or 3 only cause I just remember getting some glint for the most part which isn't supper exciting or memorable other than the new token system.
Well for one there just are not a lot of quest to be had to have an opinion on yet. But I think the newer ones that offered the tokens that let you make choices about what you were getting were nice. I think having an option on rewards, gives the player some agency and for those who like doing questing that maybe is bellow level you can still choose a reward that is useful for you now.
I haven't played seriously that many of the MMOs that work on a completely player driven economy other than Eve. I would say just giving Glint/Gold cause of that is going to make the entire system super boring so we better think of some good ideas now. Depending on the quest complexity I hope there are still occasionally items as rewards. Also given the crafting systems rewarding appropriate high quality resources the player could have used in the creation of something is certainly an option. Enchants and useful consumables in this kind of game would also be good rewards. Finally of course token systems work for providing options for rewards, also reputation for doing the quest would be worthy rewards.
- Less than 25%
- 25–49%
- 50–74%
- 75% or more
I actually hope this is 0% if you don't want to, and 100% if you love questing!- Why did you choose that percentage?
I love questing, I love lore and having goals to complete things. I had done every quest pretty much in WoW before they had ever put in an achievement system, I got them all on launch. I would love to spend more time questing, I'd say at least 50% and earn the rest doing other things. The current EQ grinding method of leveling is not super exciting to me for sure.My general thoughts:
I'm hoping for a lot of improvement in how quests work, I know you are working on the big systems now. I find even just whether someone has a quest for me is unclear in Ashes. I think we need a more clear marker when interacting with an NPC a quest is available/turnin. The UI obviously needs improvement in general but its functional right now.
I find the quest tracking system very cumbersome trying to figure out what is my area whats not make it visible to watch. I loved the WoW mods I used that basically tracked the quests for the areas I was in. I think it would nice if it just did that, show the quests I could be doing for where I am.
I don't think I've heard what Steven thinks of quests. I don't like systems that are super hand holdy, but systems like vanilla WoW were you had to deduce what they wanted you to do to complete the quest is also bad. I'd like something in the middle that gives me a clear indication of the goals, and at least generally where I should be completing them.
Hoping for it all to be voice. I know you guys are working on things, It would be awesome if it could be done with AI and universal and could then applied to every language. Don't make another MMO asking everyone to read little boxes of text.
Hopefully more options for types of quests, the board quests of go kill 20 wolves or whatever are the kind of quests I'd expect from 20 years ago. Lean in to the dynamic world and have quests that you do night, or are only available in winter and that kind of stuff as well. Have more stuff tied to the node creation that gets you connect with the city your living in and trying to grow.
The crafting recipes can be single-use recipes for good equipment, so artisanship is still front and center in the game.
On a scale of 1–5, how would you rate the current quest rewards in Alpha Two? (1 = Very poor, 5 = Excellent) How would you describe the current quest rewards in Alpha Two? What’s working well, and what could be improved?
(2?) I fumbled through phase 1 of alpha II with quests so i am sure improvements have been made but the inconsistencies were so vast then. I am hoping that when i go to a POI that today there are indicators or more consistent mob presence. if the intent is for it not to be this way i think the clunkiness needs to be made less confusing by adding npc's or ui tips to indicate hey it's morning come back at night or hey it's clear and the road is being used by caravans so the goblins aren't here right now. it just feel odd to show up and wonder do i have to wait 20 minutes or is the respawn rate down.. why can't i do the quest that says go here to do it?
In your opinion, what makes for engaging and fair quest rewards in a game like Ashes of Creation that features an economy-driven PvX system?
I really would prefer for less gear to drop from quests and more reagents that can be used for crafting or commodities to move around the world or something valuable that pushes me into a new gameplay loop instead of just ending the loop there. I got something from the quest now what do i do with it and when i am done doing that thing i should look for another quest to give me another thing to start a new loop. .
Roughly what percentage of your leveling experience do you feel should come from questing compared to other activities (e.g., grinding, gathering, events)?
Less than 25%
25–49%
Why did you choose that percentage?
I think questing should give XP but I should get the same or equivalent XP by engaging with various systems and have engaging and fun gameplay loops that i should not feel forced into leveling by questing only. All those efforts should have balanced xp associated with them that i feel i have options on how i level that respect my time. If questing would have taken X hours the same time commitment should be expressed in X hours doing any other activity,
What helps you feel connected to a game world, and what could Ashes of Creation do to feel more immersive and dynamic?
I truly believe feeling small in the big world is important. I think the large colorful abilities and cool mounts make me love my character, but I shouldn't feel so strong that i can take on the whole world alone.
ALSO MOST IMPORTANTLY!!! Class Quests. I had such a blast playing through wow legion and vanilla wow for 1 reason. I felt connected to my class. Why because my class had unique quests that were milestones for my character and brought me into the fold of the class fantasy for my class. Archetypes and subclasses should have similar if not much better iterations on this expressed through quest systems.
2.5: some quests give amazing rewards based on the effort it takes you, some very little, and often it's not clear that it's part of a chain that gets worth it at the end. There's very little consitency risk vs reward vs effort at the moment.
How would you describe the current quest rewards in Alpha Two? What’s working well, and what could be improved?
The major thing that i want to see improve is that being in a party should never be to your detriment. In the quest for magic collar there are a couple of stages that you can't complete in a party because you don't get kill credit. In general i don't like it if quests become contested, example multiple parties trying to kill a boss. There's already enough contesting in the game, let questing be an all together social experience.
In your opinion, what makes for engaging and fair quest rewards in a game like Ashes of Creation that features an economy-driven PvX system?
If you want to have en economy driven system, then quests shouldn't give completed BIS items like the magical necklace
.
Roughly what percentage of your leveling experience do you feel should come from questing compared to other activities (e.g., grinding, gathering, events)?
Less than 25%
25–49%
50–74%
75% or more
33%
Why did you choose that percentage?
As it's a pvx game i think people should be able to get 33% of their xp by going all in into the aspect of the game they like the most. People function well when 33% of their time goes to things they like to do, 33% to things they don't like to do but it's necessary and 33% kinda in the middle.
What helps you feel connected to a game world, and what could Ashes of Creation do to feel more immersive and dynamic?
. I came to ashes primarily for the story. Isekaid into this broken world by the goddess of creation, to help defend it against the invasions of the Ancients, clear out bandits, rebuild civilisation.... Having orher players be the biggest threat at all times just feels totally contradictory to all that. It's one of the big reason why I can't get into pvp in this game. We're all supposed to on the same side, lorewise. I can get that it's like civil war, or different factions and strategies thinking they know best and fighting over rss, but I would love it if lore and stuff clarifies this.
75% or more.
That's considering you also kill mobs and gather things while you are questing, so I don't really care what the distribution between those things are, but in combination I'd like it to be around 80%.
The other 20% would be doing dungeons or other group activities with friends. And dungeons would be start to finish experiences, doing all bosses, not grinding the same 3 packs for hours.
Ideally, some quests would also be dungeon quests, so they incentivate me to group and make friends.
What I really really don't like is reaching a point where I don't have quests or stories to follow and my only alternative is grinding. I only like grinding if it's my decision (farming some rare drop, to reach certain power spike that allows me to overcome some challenge later, etc). If I have to grind mobs for EXP just because that's the only way for me to keep leveling, or because it's exorbitantly more efficient to the point you feel stupid doing anything else that's a terrible experience for me.
So to respond to you question, dear AOC devs :
For quest above lvl 10, it's completely lacking, 1 is already to high of a rating ...
As a player who loves to play solo, loves a good story telling and loves quests in general, i was very desapointed seing that i couldn't lvlup at all througt quests, the xp reward is too low, and you only get a little bit of glint, but not even a tenth of what you can get througt hard grinding on POI and 2/3 stars monsters
Second, depending on the type of quest, there should be rewards associating to the quest :
- for jobs quests, there should be either related jobs rewards, for exemples xp scrolls, even 1% ones, or for the most difficult quest, why not rewarding high tiers ressources, even if it's only one or 2 ?
- for POI quest, why not rewards them with some items link to that POI, and again, the harder the quest, the higher the rewards. (For exemple, if you take a quest telling you to kill 50 3* bandits from HH, you guet reward with a green or blue forsaken item of your choice, (by choice i mean either physique or magic stats), thus, those who didn't get chance on rolls during a grinding session still get a chance to get a rewards, i think of that exemple, because of the 5 levels i grind on 3* bandit in HH, i only get to loot 1 green bow and it was very frustating to saw many blue items i couldn't get cause they weren't for my class... )
- Less than 25%
- 25–49%
- 50–74%
- 75% or more
- Why did you choose that percentage?
- i think that if you make to make everyone happy, there should be a possibility to get at least 75% of your xp through quest, of course i count in these 75%, the xp you get through the rewards, and the xp you get through the grinding of the quest- Like i said up there, i would like to be capable of leveling up solo mostly via quest, even if it means repetting some commissions to fully lvl up, but it would mean that i could enjoy going through the game, even without hard farming the same mobs for hours on the same spot (i'm not Korean enough to loves that type of gameplay
- For me, i would like to know more about the story of the world i go through, even if it's only regions by regions, but i want to understant more of the religions, why so many bandits for exemple, or why is there a dragon roaming in the riverlands ?
Quests related to differents race could be cool to, not quest you can only do if you are from the race, but quest who tell you more about the race traditions and history
Even if th world is "young", there is so many POI, i would like to understant why ruins of Aela where before, and not just being tell that goblins are attacking (i can see that
and the list goes on
Don’t feel limited to the thought-starters above. Feel free to drop whatever feedback you have regarding your experiences with quests below 👇
Of course, it's only an Alpha version, so of course quests are not the most developed aspect of the game,
but, there is already somes goods one (for exemple, lionhold curse quest, thought bugged, still a good one)
one thing i find rather annoying on long quest already in game is that if you don't get help from someone who already done them (from youtube or forum for exemple) you can easely miss a huge part of the quest, and for a simple reason : most of the time, once you finished a part of the quest (i'm thinking of the quests to get the first green gears and gears token from samia's hope) the quest just end here, and if you don't go back to the last npc you saw before, you don't get a new quest ....
in my opinion, there should a least get a quest message telling us to go back to the said npc so we don't miss other missions he could give us,
i encouter this case for many quest, where if you'r not attentiv enough, you could miss a lots of quest parts, cause if was just said during the dialogues with the npc, but you can't see what they said before once you close the dialogue window.
there should be a possibility to re read what was said while tchatting with the npc, through the quest codex for exemple.
Same goes for the finished quests i think, we should be able to see what quest we already finished, and what where the stepps of the quest, then we can for exemple, go with friends and tell if we already had done a quest or not, to help them.
Barely above 1. Maybe a little higher for the lowest levels.
How would you describe the current quest rewards in Alpha Two? What’s working well, and what could be improved?
Quest rewards currently offer little of value. I’d like to have rewards that stay useful and relevant for as long as possible.
In your opinion, what makes for engaging and fair quest rewards in a game like Ashes of Creation that features an economy-driven PvX system?
For me, the MMO questing gold standard is (Oldschool) RuneScape. I love how each completed quest reward feels like a permanent enhancement of my character; I’ve unlocked a shortcut, a new area, some new item that makes me harvest herbs more efficiently, etc., etc...
If the quest involves the use of skills, like mining or woodworking, I would like to be rewarded with some XP in those skills upon completion.
Roughly what percentage of your levelling experience do you feel should come from questing compared to other activities (e.g., grinding, gathering, events)?
25-49%
Why did you choose that percentage?
I don’t want XP-chunks from quests to be what primarily takes me to lvl 50, but I would like the rewards from the quests to play a big role in how I get there. I.e. Unlocked access to grind spots, buffs, items/gizmos/gadgets/utilities that can aid with mob grinding, etc.
What helps you feel connected to a game world, and what could Ashes of Creation do to feel more immersive and dynamic?
I feel connected to a game world when I, through quests, help set the world in order.
If quest rewards and the way quests tie into character progression are modelled after RS, then I’m confident they’ll provide a solid contribution to our experiences adventuring through Verra.
Thanks.
-> 1
How would you describe the current quest rewards in Alpha Two? What’s working well, and what could be improved?
-> not enough xp and money, both should be increased by a lot. Please also add some items or resources as rewards
In your opinion, what makes for engaging and fair quest rewards in a game like Ashes of Creation that features an economy-driven PvX system?
-> Quest rewards should be an amount of xp, money and items/mats big enough to make questing important besides only grinding killing mobs
Roughly what percentage of your leveling experience do you feel should come from questing compared to other activities (e.g., grinding, gathering, events)?
-> 30–40%
Why did you choose that percentage?
-> i hate killing mobs as the only possibility to level up and would prefer it to be an equal amount of 1/3 questing, 1/3 gathering/processing/crafting and 1/3 killing mobs
What helps you feel connected to a game world, and what could Ashes of Creation do to feel more immersive and dynamic?
-> The quests should be far more than just a wall of text to read. They should be an important part of the story they game tells you and shape the world and make you explore the world
I think it is unfair for the developers to ask about questing without giving us story arcs or even finished events.
Prime Example: Titan's Ring is a minotaur event that is SUPPOSED to have a 2nd phase which allows the Stormcaller Minotaurs to summon lightning. . . .
However, this is not the case. We miss out on half of that hunting commission board event due to lack of implementation by the developers.
This is not the only instance where the team has displayed a lack of foresight and understanding.
2.5
I don't think the problem is with quest rewards atm for low levels (1-10), it's bugged quest markers, ambiguous directions, and a drop in quests past lvl 10 difficulty that provides optimum rewards. Beyond level 10 the rewards (xp or gear) is not good enough that will take players away from grinding. Or there's not enough quests to be worth it.
Reward description might entice players to explore the quests. Better quest markers that are closer to location and less bugged.
For Ashes economy-driven PvX, it depends on the level: 1-10 it should give you gear compatible to mob drops from common to uncommon. This includes crafting materials that helps those levels gear up. 10-20 it should be a mix of crafting drops for better crafting gear and uncommon to rare. 20 and beyond, same as 10-20 but up the rarity and focus more on crafting mats that you could get from boss drops. It could also be a choice between a lower rarity gear drop OR a crafting mat that allows a crafter to make a higher rarity gear.
Quest rewards should help give a small boost to the next gear level in order to aid the player hunt for better gear/drops.
50–74% because of the PvX system.
If Delve diving becomes less of a repetitive grind: close to the 50% but if grinding hours the same mob then closer to 75%. It also brings a lot of lore into the game, rewarding exploration with players going to areas that usually wouldn't if all you did was grind "min/max" spots. No point of a large world if all you do is grind the same spots to level.
Engaging Quests that take you to different locations on the world, including Delves, that introduces interesting lore and characters.
Unique Boss Mechanics that are challenging for group play, both roaming world, events, or in Delves. Those Bosses should reward players with crafting loot drops.
Scaling of challenge quest lines where the reward is worth doing the quests, or grouping with people to do it.
just make a standard MMO-like quests, the whole having to read, having to search for stuff, having to solve puzzles design doesnt work, its a good Roleplay concenpt but in a competitive MMO like Ashes this is trash because it adds TIME to leveling, and players want the min-max XP per hour time to level, is that simple.
That would actually be fantastic. Only mmo where I genuinely got invested in the questing.
I believe Azherae summed it up pretty well when she made this point in another thread about quests as RP content:
That being said, depending on how you guys finalize your design in this final stretch, its gonna determine which audiences you attract, specifically in terms of where you choose to sit on the pvx spectrum, in terms of being:
A- "more about large guilds dominating small scale pve/rp content"
vs.
B- "providing smaller scale narrative/rp content outlets, as refuge and respite for smaller player groups, minimizing constant and intrusive content control from large guilds, but while still providing those larger groups with influencable content at a larger scale"
As discussed here, if that summary isn't very clear:
https://forums.ashesofcreation.com/discussion/67736/splinter-topic-narrative-design-hell-is-other-people/p1
I believe there are a lot of people in AOC's potential target audience who could be captured with option B, of whom would enjoy questing as viable progression paths with baked in RP expression and narrative influence, as a content outlet for smaller player groups who cannot constantly rely on guild pvp control for access to desired content and RP/narrative expression.
An example of what this might look like to appeal to this group of questers/RPers, could be something like the following example I posted in a related thread:
As opposed to going the route of "option A" from earlier, and attracting only a hardcore guild pvp focused audience, who are able to consistently deny small groups of enough meaningful content/influence- and of whom don't care about content like quests/story arcs anyway and see it as a "barrier to the real fun", and try to get them removed through posts like the initially quoted one.
Option B has methods for keeping "all" parties happy.
So there is my input on this topic, coming from a hardcore pvper/combat specialist, so no bias here. I just want the game to be successful and not dilute itself to the point that nobody is happy, but also not turn into a mega guild circle jerk that dies in 3 months. A happy medium exists.