Glorious Alpha Two Testers!
Alpha Two Phase III testing has begun! During this phase, our realms will be open every day, and we'll only have downtime for updates and maintenance. We'll keep everyone up-to-date about downtimes in Discord.
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 Phase III testing has begun! During this phase, our realms will be open every day, and we'll only have downtime for updates and maintenance. We'll keep everyone up-to-date about downtimes in Discord.
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.
Early Access Announcement & Trailer
ELRYNO
Member, Alpha One, Alpha Two, Early Alpha Two
Can I gather people's thoughts on going from the current state of alpha 2 testing to "early access" in a month's time? Will this have a detrimental impact on the public's perception of the game if seen in its current form with lack of content & systems compared to when it is titled as "alpha 2 development"?
Also, I was unimpressed with the cinematic. It felt to me like the art style was so disjointed from that of the game that I felt like I couldn't connect with it. Thoughts?
Edit: I was expecting the trailer to involve a lot more gritty scenes of factions fighting, highlighting the conflict people are going to encounter regularly in the world of Verra
Also, I was unimpressed with the cinematic. It felt to me like the art style was so disjointed from that of the game that I felt like I couldn't connect with it. Thoughts?
Edit: I was expecting the trailer to involve a lot more gritty scenes of factions fighting, highlighting the conflict people are going to encounter regularly in the world of Verra
2
Comments
But they're the ones with the metrics and/or the faith, to know why it isn't.
Fair, thoughts on the trailer and art style?
I am worried.
I really hope Intrepid is making the right move.
This is my personal feedback, shared to help the game thrive in its niche.
I actually liked the cinematic. Nothing to write home about, but it was decent, for me at least.
But yeah the first thing I noticed was basically no mention of pvp, or pvx. I was paying attention to that because that's what I expected, and so it was. I have my own theories as to why that is, but none of them are pleasant, or paint a good light so I'm just going to keep them to myself.
That said, the steam listing does have "pvx" and "online pvp" in a couple of different spots. But yeah.
Trailer was misrepresentative.
Art style wasn't appealing to me, but I don't like WoW, so you can adjust based on that.
Enough people have money and can buy the game here too if they are interested.
And so far we seen players leaving after playing a little bit.
If they would keep playing, then the word would spread and people would buy the access keys even if it would not be on Steam.
So going to Steam it makes it a bit more accessible and they also start selling cosmetics while in Early Access.
Can anyone give an example of an MMORPG which went through an Early Access phase and was popular when released?
The issue is not about being on Steam but about revealing the game slowly, step by step as they develop it.
I have no problem with the trailer. I don't care about it.
The trailer was purely for the Harbinger update, which means that they hope people will SOMEHOW level up enough in the game to actually witness it, AND that all the sweaties, who know the game like the back of their hand, will somehow NOT exploits/abuse/destroy anyone who even attempts interacting with the corruption zones.
It's gonna be a bloodbath in more ways than 10.
Steven repeated it, his team repeated it: “No wipe in November, don’t worry.”
And this is the fourth time they pull the same stunt. At this point, it’s no longer a mistake — they’re professionals at last-minute lies.
The game isn’t progressing.
They’ve launched a massive marketing campaign to sell something that simply doesn’t exist yet. They’re making mountains out of nothing.
I took part in P2, P2.5, and played until September, before understanding that yes, we were going to get another wipe in November.
They even delayed their livestream by two weeks just to make this “big announcement”.
And on top of that, their communication is terrible.
They say they’re going on Steam to “get more testers”, but come on… we’re customers first, not free QA staff.
How can they devalue us like that?
We pay for the game, some people pay hundreds of dollars, and we’re treated like volunteer testers.
And when I hear “We need more testers”, it’s pure nonsense.
No you want more customers.
But wanting more customers is not enough: you also need to keep them.
Right now, it’s obvious the goal is simply to sell $50 access packs to survive.
In-game you can feel the lack of resources and that the project was maybe too big for them.
One year of intensive alpha… for what?
Painful crafting, endless farming, mob bashing straight from the early 2000s.
And on the PTR, they’re still balancing level 1-10 after a full year of alpha. It’s absurd.
So yes: I no longer trust the project.
I see chaotic development, terrible priorities, and it’s not for lack of giving feedback.
Too many lies, too little respect, and treating paying customers like volunteers… it drives me crazy.
We know we’re buying an alpha. We know the game has to be developed. Intrepid, you’re not inventing anything new.
I play Star Citizen — I know long, painful development cycles.
But I have a hundred times more trust in CIG, bugs and all, than in you.
You need money?
Fine say it.
Say “We need more customers”, add skins, finish your gameplay loops, give us real progress.
Right now, it just looks like you’re trying to sell boxes at any cost.
Only your most blinded fans can’t see it.
Bringing in new players is good.
Losing your old ones is suicide.
New World is the perfect example: a million boxes sold, Amazon behind it… and the lack of respect killed the game in the end.
And once again: it’s not healthy for an MMO to nuke loot overnight.
It’s not healthy to ask players for dozens of hours of grinding for a level 20 item.
There’s a reason people call your game Ashes of Frustration.
This is an alpha: make it fun, enjoyable, and stop forcing your future customers to suffer the way we did.
And as long as you let a toxic minority ruin the game for the majority, you will have exactly the number of players you deserve.
I believed in you.
But I was wrong.
And going to Steam won’t bring you a stable playerbase until you seriously rethink the way you work.
Hope it will be uploaded on YouTube in a Day or Two or so.
✓ 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".
twitch.tv/videos/2618317216
- Shaiya circa 2007-2008 - Guild Wars 2 circa 2014-2016 - ArcheAge circa 2016-2018
- Black Desert 2019-2024 - ESO 2021-2024 - FFXIV(fake pvp)2021-2022
'Will be good in the long run' because....? I honestly don't have any ideas, feel free to leave some.
From my perspective it is easy to see how we got here. AoC spent years building up good will with transparency about the state of their game. Their 'open development' strategy was effective back in the day when they were actually being up front and responsive to their community. I think a vast majority of the devs Steven included got used to the relative understanding of how unpolished the game was and how things would take a long time to get to an acceptable place.
But then the studio has slowly eroded that trust over the past 2-3 years by being less and less transparent about the game and it's development as time has gone on. But that give and take stuck with them. They are used to that very line Blaspherian posted meaning something. I think they forgot that they bought kindness with transparency and when you put the game on the open market like this, that response is no longer an acceptable one. No matter how ea you are, if there are problems and unacceptable parts (that you claim are temporary) people are going to attack them because they have no relationship founded on the initial principle.
I know Intrepid said they basically need the money (at least that's what I have been told as I stopped watching the stream once the summoner bit was done.) However, I think this gambit might not be the right one. I think they might be hoping that either the capital gained from this will be enough to finish it off (unless it gets the studio 5-7 years I sincerely doubt it). However, it is very likely that they expect the benefits of that relationship they had (yes it is past tense on purpose) to help buffer some of this. It won't. They burned so much good faith especially in the past year. I think some of the developers don't understand just how much good faith has been burned.
I feel kind of bad for a lot of the devs at Intrepid. I think there are a ton of passionate, dedicated people, who had no say in this, who kind of bought into the environment IS originally developed with it's community. And now their work is going to get eviscerated with the cold uncaring stare of the general market far before the game is ready. This is, and has been for many years now, an act of poor leadership. The only way to save AoC at this point is if said leadership steps down and lets whatever competent people there are left at this studio to make drastically different decisions with a renewed community focused approach. The era of performative community engagement must end if they are going to weather the storm Steam release will cause.
I could be wrong, but honestly? My heart only has enough for an elegy for this company. They earned a song, even as my passion for the project has all been but rendered null and void by the current leadership and overarching design direction (and lack there of in many cases.)
But hey, I could be wrong too. I just don't think it's gonna be the train wreck people are painting it to be.
- Shaiya circa 2007-2008 - Guild Wars 2 circa 2014-2016 - ArcheAge circa 2016-2018
- Black Desert 2019-2024 - ESO 2021-2024 - FFXIV(fake pvp)2021-2022
NW took several years to get to a point where it could be considered a good game (even if different from the initial promise), but it wasn't enough to bring a ton of people back, because your average gamer has seen it on release and said "nah, this is shit" and completely forgot about it.
Ashes will have the same fate, because the game is NOT ready for this. And they 100% do not have the money to pull a NMS or a CP77.
Famous last words.
oh please that is if they went past the character creator or the lack of any direction in all the blurry mess that is the game then again they dont need that since downloading the game with the launcher alone gonna take hours and that counts for steam lol
maybe , you'll have to try your luck
Build anywhere, get invested and protect your build, except it's only for huge guilds and there's no hope to ever acquire one for 90% of the population. Crafting is important in in-depth, except those systems don't exist and dropped gear remains easier to get and better than crafted stuff and high end crafting requires other player's permission. The world is driven by node growth and conflict, except thus far it's static and PvP is meaningless or actively hindered even in places where it's THE core aspect (caravans and 'stolen' goods)
We still don't have all the base classes, much less any sign of combination classes being worked on. Early access should be a window into a game that's nearly ready and getting help with polish and population strain testing, not a game that's at best 5 years out.
All that aside, the trailer looks like clay dolls and doesn't look remotely like a group-focused mmo. It looked like a single player story game.
They're trying to appeal to pver/story type players. You can tell that much from that trailer. Grinding thousands upon thousands of red demon mobs has got to be one of the least appealing parts of the game though. Where's the settlements, the caravans, freeholds, the badass looking world bosses, the ship battles, deep sea fishing, pvx? Why isn't any of that in the trailer? Is it because most of that isn't fully implemented/very buggy? Or maybe it's because most of those things are heavily slanted towards mega guilds. Maybe work on fixing that. But ok. All of that would be fair reasoning.
Or maybe this is just the first of several trailers...and later ones will actually show off the game's biggest selling points? Because grinding red demon mobs ain't it. The hype for this game wasn't built on that, quite the opposite.
And so the trailer confuses me. I thought it was decent, but it really confuses me. Maybe it's just an initial, kinda set the stage trailer. I think Steven called it "introducing the main antagonists." That would make sense I guess. I dunno.
I can kill red demon mobs in this game. I can kill them in that game. And that one over there too. I can buy Diablo or POE and log in today and kill 10,000 of them in an hour.
My advice would be, if you want Ashes to succeed, SELL ASHES. EAT IT, BREATHE IT, LIVE IT, SELLLLLLL IT. SELL WHAT THE HYPE WAS BUILT ON. Just at some point...ya know. Maybe right now this was the exact trailer it needs. I dunno.
You can be 100% confident fighting Corruption-Incursions done by the Influence of the Ancients won't be the only type of Event in this Game.
It is simply the very first that is getting tested so it can be fully taken into the Game and brought up as (finished) online Content for the Game.
In my totally humble Opinion - > i also want this but with " UNDEADS(!!!) " instead of Ancients, too.
Monster-Coin Events ? Shall come online as well and too - > sometime in the Future.
Events on the Oceans/Sea ? Also someday in the Future.
And then there is the "promised"(???) Fifth Season -> the "magical Season" -> that is supposed to come into the Game someday in the Future ?? If my Memory serves correct.
Will all come.
But of Course -> the constant Threat throught the forces of the Ancients - is coming first. There was always a certain Chance it will get prioritized in the Alpha 2 as one of the first things of added Content.
✓ 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".
Am kinda worried given nowadays ppl will review-bomb you on Steam over the slightest thing they dislike, and many youtubers mass produce negative coverage clickbaits for views ...
Look at the relatively recent MH Wilds, look at Bloodlines 2, those games surely have their flaws, but definitely aren't as bad as their Steam reviews are indicating.
Is Ashes truly ready for the scrutiny it's going to receive?
There are two reasons for Steven to head to Steam right now. The first is that they need more money, the second being that they need more testers.
The second reason doesn't really hold up all that well, as Intrepid as a company do not have the open communication needed to make a Steam based test actually worth while. This worked for BG3, but only because they had crazy amounts of communication with the early access players, and had a game that was inherently exponentially better than Ashes to start with.
If it is testers they want from Steam, then the game is doomed. People that play MMO's as their primary game already know about Ashes and have either rejected it as something they want to participate in, or have tested it already. The population on Steam are essentially non-MMORPG players, and any feedback from them will be based on that.
I fail to see value of feedback from people that do not know a genre when the game in question is being squarely aimed at veterans of that genre.
This leaves money as the primary driving factor. This does make some sense, and Ludullu's comment above in relation to the first two hours of gameplay is a valid point towards that (I would not be surprised if there are improvements to the character creator before it launches on Steam).
If this is the reason, Steven is killing off the long term viability of the game in order to keep it in development a little longer - as there are very few games that have hit Steam in an actual testing state and done well long term. Most early access games are treated by both players and publishers as a preview of the game, not as a test.
I can't give you an example of an MMORPG that had a paid alpha testing and was successful.
The notion that this game will be successful from a players perspective is already past. There is no real road to that at this point - anything they can do to make the game more appealing is a tradeoff between trying to coax people back to this game that have already left, while trying to keep those that are still here.
The best move this game could make right now is to cut the world size down and make servers hold 2k concurrent players rather than 10k.
Oof MEGA DOOMER NOOANI.
KABLAM 9000 DAMAGE OF DOOM
They made a movie, GODZILLA vs NOAANI'S DOOM. NOAANI'S DOOM WON.
Ok ouch now that one hurt.
You might be right. I have my own doomer thoughts right now, but there's plenty of that going around. And it's just thoughts. There are still good outcomes possible in my mind. I truthfully don't know how it's going to turn out. But I definitely am nervous about the game for the first time in my 6 or so years following Ashes.
You might be wrong too though. I think you're selling Steam a little short. I get your point, Steam hasn't been the traditional place you go to for mmos. Historically most mmo's have used their own launcher. More and more mmo's are being put on Steam in recent years though. But all that aside, I'd venture to say most mmo players have a Steam account. So I think there's potential to draw in players, both non mmo players and mmo players. And you'll get a mix of mmo and non mmo player feedback. If Steven starts listening to dumb feedback like it's gospel, we've kinda been screwed all along. The Steam reviews could hurt though.
But the key is the price reduction. I don't think everyone who would try Ashes, has tried it. I mean I know that for a fact. I haven't been able to get a single person in my circle to buy into Ashes at any point so far. The main concern of theirs has been spending hundreds of dollars just to get New World'd (As in pvp gutted, and a buggy/exploity mess). As well as just general wariness of supporting games in development. So a 50 dollar price tag could draw in a sizeable amount of people willing to risk 50. Along with occasional sales lowering price even more.
It is in my mind, money or testers that they need, I agree. Barring some kind of explosion in sales I don't see how Steam money will save them. Unless it's purpose is to entice more private investment.
If it's testers they need, I don't know how else to put this, they could have just like...made the game more fun to increase retention. Always easier said than done but it just seems to me there's some very low hanging fruit where they could have just...did that, but inexplicably have chosen not to.
And that is the crux of it all. Everything rests on that pretty much. They have got to drop some of these unfun notions and make the game fun.(Oh yeah also cheating/exploits, games dead unless that's fixed, nobrainer.) Will it ever happen, will it happen soon enough. I don't know and my confidence is shaken. But I think there's still a chance.
And yes communication needs to be better.
Welcome back.
Let's give our best to turn all the miserable Drama into valuable Attention for the Game. Without mercy the endless whining and bitching of People on Reddit, YouTube and anywhere else shall be made into Energy to fuel the Game. (lol)
Thinking the same. Ashes might not be ready for the massive ShxXshow which will be starting next Month. But this is where i will - (and i hope others do it as well) - put my Body on the Line to shill for the Game with all of my Might.
When flabby Belular can do this for WoW - > then so can i for Ashes of Creation. And other than him, i have actually something to defend and look forward to. Instead of shilling for a dead corpse on a surgery-table which People constantly re-animate with Electro-Shocks and pushing and moving the chest to mimic breathing-movements.
I am not even kidding around here.
✓ 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".