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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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I'm just hoping to draw attention to the fact that what is planned for (vertical) progression will lead to massive problems later on. Experience shows that this will be about 6 months after release.
Most of you seem to agree somehow, but you're not assuming this will be drastically changed.
I've been following this project since 2017 and all I heard and saw was that they want to bring back old MMORPG design concepts in a much bigger scaling with modern technologies. But since I've been paying more attention to progression in general the last few months, the more I see the opposite. At its core, this is exactly what has made the genre so bad -> endgame mentality, catch-up mechanics and FOMO. And that's exactly what Ashes will lead to. There's no argument how this combination of systems with such vertical power scaling won't lead to that. I don't understand how you guys can just accept this. You don't want Ashes to end up like so many Korean MMORPG's, do you?
Whatever. This discussion has shown me that nothing will change, if only because it is too deeply connected to many other systems and a major change would also mean many changes in other places.
Thanks for the discussion guys. I wish you all the best and lots of fun in Ashes. I might check out the beta again. Until then I'll keep playing Mortal Online 2
Now you know why we just "accept it" (we don't btw).
Always gotta remember that for a nontrivial number of PvP players, punching down is the point, like 'they aren't your audience if the game doesn't let them punch down'.
People who like MMOs like them for progression, and this includes PvP players a lot of the time. A big clamor around here for a while was 'PvP needs to be more rewarding so that I don't have to PvE but can progress through just PvP'.
Just the nature of the flow. Those Korean games are somewhat built for this audience a lot of the time, and they tend to attract western players with similar wishes. So remember that technically, those players don't want full loot either, I should have clarified that when I brought it up.
"X is the solution but only if your audience actually wanted to play that in the first place."
So yeah, sorry for that derail.
" I " like when i have an actual +50 Chance or above, to get for Example ONE Set Piece of Armor for my Class when i do a Raid/Instance once, together in a group.
And when i have to do for example the same Instance/Raid +10 to +15 Times until at least onetime a "Mount" drops which one of us (or me) would like to have -> or at least the Ashes of Creations Ingredients and/or Possibilities to "create" said Mount -> then i have no Problem with that either.
What is absolutely hated by me, is when it is absolutely random regarding if i never know if i will "EVER" be able to get what i want, for an insanely long Amount of time.
I started to "farm" for Example the "ASHES OF A'LAR" - from the Burning Crusade Expansion of World of Warcraft - for a long time since around 2013 -> when the Mists of Pandaria Expansion dropped,
and slowly my own, "casual Self" was getting powerful enough to Solo the Raid Instance with Kael'thas Sunstrider with my humble Skills.
It is a v~EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEERY beautiful Mount, wouldn't You all agree ?
Funny. It's a Phönix. And called "Ashes of A'lar".
And i mention it here
Guess when that Mount finally dropped for me, Guys. It was on the 23th of July, this Month.
That was FOUR - DAYS - AGO !!!
Okay,
in the meantime and over the Course of like the last +10 Years -> i levelled up so many Characters that i have like Fourteen now - which can all run the Raid Instance from back then and kill Kael'thas more or less easily,
AAAAANNNND i did a Pause of Worst of Warcraft between Middle of BfA to "End of Shadowlands" for Three Years and at least Eleven Months and so on,
but i lost count how many Times with how many Characters i farmed that accursed, DISGUSTING Raid Instance
I was thinking at times that i will - " NEVER " - see it drop, for the rest of my Life.
That is with no Exaggeration - " T.H.E. - M.O.S.T. - D.I.S.G.U.S.T.I.N.G. " - kind of Content, a Human Being or Group of Human Beings, could possibly program.
RANDOM
NUMBERS
GENERATOR
Dropchance - and on a ridiculously low Level as well. This Month in Worst of Warcraft - the DropChance was heightened for Mount Drops somewhat - and for some Pieces of Weaponry, Armor, etc.
Burning Crusade was the very first Expansion of WoW.
In the meantime -> there is HUNDREDS OF MOUNTS with superior Models and Textures in the Game by now, despite the glowing Phönix of Kael'thas Sunstrider still being very beautiful of Course.
I didn't even feel Joy. I felt ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... just weird.
I guess in a super-tiny, distant part in the back of my Head - i feel a little bit thankful and grateful.
It is finally over.
And i did not waste all these Hours of my Life for nothing. At least i got the beautiful Mount.
Not that will i ever get my lost and damaged Braincells back, which died through sheer frustration.
What i want to tell You all with this weird Comment of mine, is :
IMAGINE Content which You will never know -> if it will reward You in a few Weeks of strenuously and exhausting doing it,
or if it will maybe take "YEARS" -> even if you keep at it, somewhat regularly or regularly,
or if will reward You even AT ALL - instead of making You into a fool countless times for nothing with the word countless being the DOMINANT word here.
I will enjoy being able to use this beautiful, beaaaauuutiful Phönix, whenever i wish to use it.
But i will never - EEEEEEEEEEEEEVEEEEEEEEEER - WANT -> to hear something from/about that Raid Instance again. Nor about anything related to that Mount.
I have no Idea about my Soul. But my Mind is scarred. And not in a good way.
✓ Occasional Roleplayer
I am in the guildless Guild so to say, lol. But i won't give up. I will find my fitting Guild "one Day".
One of your complaints is essentially in regards to character progression, the amount of it that exists - lets look at that.
A western MMORPG needs character progression to survive. That is what keeps players logging in, keeps players paying their subscription. As soon as players stop having a means of progression, they play something else until a means of progression is opened up for them.
However, constant character progression in a PvP MMORPG is a bad thing. The greater the disparity between two given characters in regards to progression, the less of a contest any PvP would be between them. This applies to multiple people situations as well.
So, a game like Ashes literally needs character progression, but also can't have character progression. They can't just cut back the vertical progression down, because then everyone will leave the game when they hit that point, they can't just leave it in because then PvP becomes one sided very quickly.
But then you have how this ties in to another of your issues - the grind. Eventually, players are going to hit the progression cap - or at least the cap of where they are happy to progress to. When players hit this, if there is nothing interesting for them to do (there will be interesting things for a handful of guilds to do), they will go and play a different game. So, if there is a long grind to get to that point, more people are more likely to spend more time in the game before they eventually leave for what ever they move on to afterwards.
The reason we "accept" things is because there is no correct way to do this. The games foundation is already in conflict with itself.
Your issue there was with cosmetic items dropping from a raid.
This should never happen.
Edit to add; mounts are essentially cosmetics.
To be precise,
my Issue was -> that i - HONESTLY - wasn't even sure anymore at some Point after Years and Years,
if the Item (Mount) would EVER drop for me.
I am not joking. Promise.
I wasn't sure if i will throw away my Lifetime i will never get back in vain for the rest of how long i will play WoW in my Life,
or if i will even get rewarded for my countless, self-torturous Times i ran through that stupid Instance and countless Times i faced Kael'thas Sunstrider and his four Main Minions.
" I am tired, Boss ... ... "
Please don't think badly of me. But " THAT " Nerve-Damage, was insane.
✓ Occasional Roleplayer
I am in the guildless Guild so to say, lol. But i won't give up. I will find my fitting Guild "one Day".
Sure.
The thing is, the point of a raid zone is to get gear so you can take on the next raid zone. If the gear in the zone is no longer an upgrade to you, you should have no reason to run that raid ever again.
You had a reason, because there was a mount you wanted. That is the issue.
I'm not saying it didn't suck for you, I'm saying the issue was with the core design of the specific piece of content in question, not with the notion of RNG.