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⚔️ December 2025 Development Update Livestream Discussion Thread ⚔️

MeppsMepps Member, Staff
in General Discussion
Greetings, glorious community!

Our latest Development Update Livestream was a deep dive into Sport Fishing, Harbinger events, and the big Steam Early Access move on December 11.

We explored the intricacies of Saltwater vs. Freshwater Sport Fishing, including a look a rowboats and corsairs, then took the fight to the Ancients in a Harbinger event ending in a Narthex!

Now we’d love to hear from you! 👇
  • What did you think of Freshwater Sport Fishing and the Rowboat?
  • What did you think of Saltwater Sport Fishing and the Corsair?
  • Did you understand how the Harbinger event progressed?
  • Were you intrigued by the bosses and loot drops in the Harbinger event?

Your feedback helps us shape this round of testing and beyond.
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Comments

  • LudulluLudullu Member, Alpha Two
    Fishing seemed nice, though it definitely seems like a "you pay for others" kinda deal. Cause, at most, you'd be able to get 6 fish out of the 1h of chumming the waters (and that's IF the turn-in point is close enough), while the chum is supposedly so damn expensive that solo players won't profit from fishing at all.

    So I guess solo sport fishing is a "catch and release" type of deal, and acts as a pure money sink.

    Difficult to say anything about the Harbinger part of the showcase, because I haven't been able to test the PTR and what was shown on stream definitely did not seem like challenging content for a raid+ group (let alone a zerg). Mobs were dropping like flies even to a single party, so unless the entire party had their dps boosted to all hell - pve doesn't seem all that difficult. Though Margaret did say that people haven't been able to kill some bosses, so I hope I'm wrong here.

    But even outside of that, w/o all the other parts of the event, so far this just seems like a lawless zone with crazy rewards. I highly doubt that pvers will ever touch these locations, so I suuuure hope this system will shut up all the "pvp" complainers. They now got their crazy rewards in a lawless zone. I'm truly happy for them.

    The 1h pvp flag debuff seems like a very abusable thing, cause a zerg of people could easily just permaflag themselves for an hour and go farm some harder pve with halved death penalties. And zerg won't care about the player danger, so it'll just be a boon to them.
  • Arya_YesheArya_Yeshe Member
    What did you think of Freshwater Sport Fishing and the Rowboat?
    Everything is great here, every step in the process is great.

    The chumming works great, and it’s smart design to have only one player handle it.


    What did you think of Saltwater Sport Fishing and the Corsair?
    Corsair looks great and its role is important, it is a tackler. There's a crow's nest and a radar, awesome.

    The anchoring mechanic is clever design, because it allows fishermen to stay put while they fish, which also creates a window of opportunity for attackers.

    Letting people jack ships is important for keeping the game healthy

    Overall 10/10
    PvE means: A handful of coins and a bag of boredom.
  • LashLash Member, Alpha Two, Early Alpha Two
    edited 1:44AM
    I am not a fan of AFK fishing and I don't think it really adds anything to the gameplay. Because it is not really gameplay. Edit: Thought I would link a thread I made a while back. This is what I would rather see as a version of AFK fishing. Bottom fishing is rather AFK in real life so it would translate well into the game. https://forums.ashesofcreation.com/discussion/63341/feedback-on-fishing-real-life-methods-and-their-potential-gameplay-implication

    That being said I really think the rod needs to reel in the fish. Jumping in the water after the fish dies or is stunned is just strange. If you want to give others an opportunity to steal let people cut the line. Give the rod a reel in time based on its stats and your skill. I know if you do well on the mini game the fish is right next to you and you get it right away. This would fix the weirdness and allow you to tune the minigame to be much harder because people could always fall back on their stats. The game does not need to be a direct copy of AA
  • lamina5432lamina5432 Member, Alpha Two
    What did you think of Freshwater Sport Fishing and the Rowboat?
    seems neat, Not a fan of sports fishing only being a straight gold making system.

    What did you think of Saltwater Sport Fishing and the Corsair?
    The jumping in the water is weird and also the way sports fishing works in the see should probably differ from the fresh water experience. But its fine for the first stab, I'd look ar trolling deep sea fishing and then Flounder or Sea bass fishing irl for a different Sea fishing experience.

    Did you understand how the Harbinger event progressed?
    Generally, but specifics are pretty unclear. Seems fine other then some concerns.

    Were you intrigued by the bosses and loot drops in the Harbinger event?
    So the Harbringer event is supposed to be in a lawless zone itself. I think this is a maor concern for the health of the event. You will probably have groups go in an sit in themselves chasing everyone else out.
    Why not create more dynamic reason for PvP like using the new loot marking which will require someone to be flagged for an hour anyway. Have boss drops for the same reason. Also according to previous Dev streams caravans are also required to interact with the harbringer event another separate PvP type system. So why the lawless zone when you can create less abusable fluid conflicts using these other ways.
    My other concern is the corrupted materials, Two main points are about combined with the lawless zone it could lead to a very large disparety between groups from these events, especially with mobs drpping mats. I do think mob drops need to tie into crafting but not to directly compete with gathering. It should be a different type of general material type. Like worn cloth, or rusty armor from bandits that need to be reprocessed. not any gathering material for a little cost being dropped.

    Secnd issue is why is it only corrupoted materials with separted rarity, honestly a lot of storage issues could be solved if all mats got this treatment. We could just proc the separate rarity material as you are regularly gathering. Had a feedback thread in the disord where someone suggested a similar idea.


    Final note about the Stream. Live Q&A's are not a good consitant communication option. While a lot of intervoiews have been happening I still would like a communication option between the general player base and Intrepid. And not every conversation point gets immediatly debated hard enough that someone on the team responds like the guild war timer change. So I would still like some form of preprepared Q&A similar to two dev streams ago.
  • RonDog98RonDog98 Member, Alpha Two
    I loved fishing aside from the fish not coming into the boat. Seems immersion breaking and unfun. Is the only reason so that people can come in and steal fish from a player?
    That seems like opposition to fun. If it must, PvP can happen once the player has the fish no need to make it a less enjoyable a mechanic.
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