Glorious Alpha Two Testers!
Phase I of Alpha Two testing will occur on weekends. Each weekend is scheduled to start on Fridays at 10 AM PT and end on Sundays at 10 PM PT. Find out more here.
Check out Alpha Two Announcements here to see the latest Alpha Two news and update notes.
Our quickest Alpha Two updates are in Discord. Testers with Alpha Two access can chat in Alpha Two channels by connecting your Discord and Intrepid accounts here.
Phase I of Alpha Two testing will occur on weekends. Each weekend is scheduled to start on Fridays at 10 AM PT and end on Sundays at 10 PM PT. Find out more here.
Check out Alpha Two Announcements here to see the latest Alpha Two news and update notes.
Our quickest Alpha Two updates are in Discord. Testers with Alpha Two access can chat in Alpha Two channels by connecting your Discord and Intrepid accounts here.
Comments
It's fun like this now for playing with builds. I have tried like six builds so far. Each time thinking about what I would like to spend my time on when it takes real time to get a character online.
I don't think it's going to be too bad to become PvP viable with the game goes live.
This is my personal feedback, shared to help the game thrive in its niche.
Oh sure, but the main part is that the game will require a ton of time to get anything done. That was what I was gettin at lol. Everything in the game has a huge time sync and I can definitely see that as a reason why someone wouldn't want to play an otherwise "good" game.
I was posting about nameplates and stuff from WOW and just experienced the exact opposite game design. A lot of what makes this game work is the first person mode, so you that your opponent takes up your full screen when attacking. Took a bit getting used to but I enjoy it. Not very good at it yet. Spells are simple enough and not a lot of cluttered UI or screen information. Very slick.
Actually not a lot of information at all. Game is designed to be an obtuse discovery puzzle. There were many points in the game play that I felt like quitting, but was interested enough in discovering the game systems that I persevered.
One major thing that I didn't like:
Holding shift to run, but no auto run (only auto walk)
Didn't like this because there is a lot of running over empty space in this game. Usually I use that kind of downtime to chat in the local chat, but if I have to hold shift then I can't do that. Or maybe navigating the game UI to see how stats work etc. Holding shift is boring AF. Either give us something fun to do or let us do something else. It is a GAME after all.
Maybe Ashes could implement an "auto run" feature on the main roads where your character just locks to a road path and runs until u stop it, so you can grab a smoke or something and just listen with your headphones on if someone engages on you. If you want to take the shortcut offroad you will be much faster but then you have to jump up cliffs and stuff like that.
This whole "running" dynamic is actually a huge turnoff. I know Ashes is going for the same thing with their huge world. Sure, WoW has the same thing. Getting lost, turning around, forgetting an item or material, is a HUGE time sink where you have to repeat gameplay that just isn't enjoyable. I'd rather watch a movie, or play tetris, or anything! Holding shift while steering a character for a 5 minute run back to town just feels like such a waste of time. A Roblox obby is more fun than this!
I timed how long it took to do the first 2 "quests" (kill x zombies/boards) from Morin Khur and it was about 20m from the quest giver and back. 17 of those minutes were straight running, 3 minutes of fighting. Not fun.
I am 3 days in and already at a point in the game where there doesn't appear to be anything fun or worth doing solo anymore so I joined a guild. Great decision. Game is much more fun with a guild. They have objectives and things they want to accomplish, they have crafters and are all set up, and I am happy to come along for the ride. We were just training duels with the guild at our main base location when I decided to write this. I am looking forward to some group PVP once I get better at combat and have my character built out a bit more.
The downside of this is that if I log on and no one from the guild is on, I don't really have much that I want to do. I just changed my build to fit with guild fight PVP and my character is only strong enough to fight zombies, scoundrels, and wolves. Just those 3 mobs. Anything else has killed me so far. I could go pick some gatherables or mine some ore or hit some trees. Sure, that would be helpful to the guild. But I don't really want to do that, I'd rather go play something else. Don't really feel like killing the zombies and scoundrels anymore.
@Nagash
Does anybody also play Dark and Darker? Different game, but to me it seems like it might be similar in... intensity, lol.
I sunk about 20 hours into it already. Worth a play to see what they did that is really cool, and what they did that results in a 700 person userbase. I don't see myself playing it past the first free month.
Any time you find yourself thinking "is this fun?" or "I don't want to do this anymore" you have an idea for where Ashes needs answers. Big thing for me is the wasted time running across land, which Ashes is going to replicate. Either make it fun, or make it easy for us to do other things. Requiring our complete attention with little to no input for 10m straight just sucks.
I payd it a bit a while back, I hated it. so boring ugh >_>
to me, it wasn't a PVP game, it was a pve game...10 hours of pve per 10 mins of PVP
That's the surprising issue with these hardcore full loot "PVP" games. It's a disincentive to PVP, NOT an incentive.
You have to sink a hundred hours in the game before you can even hope to PVP in anything approaching a fun, fair fight. If that is something even possible.
GW2 you can whip up a character and immediately play that mode.