Glorious Alpha Two Testers!
Alpha Two Realms are now unlocked for Phase II testing!
For our initial launch, testing will begin on Friday, December 20, 2024, at 10 AM Pacific and continue uninterrupted until Monday, January 6, 2025, at 10 AM Pacific. After January 6th, we’ll transition to a schedule of five-day-per-week access for the remainder of Phase II.
You can download the game launcher here and we encourage you to join us on our for the most up to date testing news.
Alpha Two Realms are now unlocked for Phase II testing!
For our initial launch, testing will begin on Friday, December 20, 2024, at 10 AM Pacific and continue uninterrupted until Monday, January 6, 2025, at 10 AM Pacific. After January 6th, we’ll transition to a schedule of five-day-per-week access for the remainder of Phase II.
You can download the game launcher here and we encourage you to join us on our for the most up to date testing news.
Add-Ons
Contrarion
Member, Alpha One, Alpha Two, Early Alpha Two
I do not want any accommodation or encouragement for add-ons in the game.
Use of add-on in WoW resulted in my account getting hacked. I do not want to have to compromise the security of my system because I feel pressured to get an add on.
I did not feel comfortable using add-ons, as some of them seemed closer to exploits than convenience enhancements.
Succeeding in the game in the many ways that one can define that should mean within the rules framework established by the game.
Use of add-on in WoW resulted in my account getting hacked. I do not want to have to compromise the security of my system because I feel pressured to get an add on.
I did not feel comfortable using add-ons, as some of them seemed closer to exploits than convenience enhancements.
Succeeding in the game in the many ways that one can define that should mean within the rules framework established by the game.
3
Comments
https://ashesofcreation.wiki/Addons
I never used add-ons ever,
What you say it's exploits and its just cheating,
Takes away the skills of the game-play.
Same as having pre determined pre-made builds, by some online tutorial ..
like the other builds are not good.
Takes away the things that wil make our charters different.
(Never mind that's a different subject)
Will AoC release their own addons? Nope
Will there be addons anyway? (This one is rhetorical)
They've already said you'll be able to move everything, change the size, and the color of text on the UI. If you have a specific thing you want to see and don't see it during the Alpha 2 testing give your feedback on what you'd like to see.
That's the great part of open development. There's no excuse for Intrepid to not know what players want. Now weather they actually implement the specific changes people ask for will I'm sure depend on how many people ask and how expensive those changes will be to implement
The number one reason an addon exists is because players want something that isnt there and the devs dont feel like making it.
Nice wiki link drop! \o/
Blind DPS game,
Focus only on doing damage, to get on the chart.
Leaving away all the other aspects on working together to take the target down.
Or using different skills, or even stepping in and doing some croud control or diverse your roll. You can't couse your to bizzy focusing on getting that high dps score.
Fixated on that one build that potentially does the most dmg, leaving away all the creativity u can put in your own character making them uniek and different from each other.
The misguided judgment on who's doing good and who's doing bad.
At that point in time.
On that certain creep or mob.
I love elemtal dmg, and elemtal resistance.
So a ice mage or a fire mage
Can't do the dmg u wanna see couse they need to fight other mobs to get those high dmg scores.
But the creator says, the dmg meters and stuff like that bring in a lot of toxicity along with it.
Of course u would love to see how much you have been healing or if you healed more then you college, but if u pay attention to your heals, and every one is still alive.
I think u did a good job.
It's not a must have, it's the least important thing.
"Did you take him down? Yes? Okay"
And every one what's to have that finishing blow.
Sucks being a boss at low HP.
Absolutely not needed. It's not that difficult to figured out if someone is slacking without a DPS meter. Standing in the fire or not switching to the right target are pretty good indicators.
Don't concern yourself too much, this already exists.
Important note for those existing though, they aren't add-ons. In the same way there is a difference between a DPS meter and a combat tracker, there is a difference between an add-on and a discrete application - all combat trackers that I know for Ashes are discrete applications, not add-ons.
The problem with WoW is that they were actual add-ons. They were able to interact with the game client itself - which is almost never a good idea.
Depending on type and sometimes more specifically their purpose turn out to be cheats such as telling a player when to dodge, when to interrupt, when a boss/npc is about to cast something. Becoming dependant on these third party software to hold your hand while gaming is a complete embarrassment and turn off.
Players should never have access to the API in my opinion regardless of security issues it imposes.
If Damage per second & heals per second meters is what people want, just imagine designing a game based off more active skill rather than maintaining a linear mathematical rotation from abilities.
Designing a more engaging game is far more rewarding for the player and studio. If you want to be a meter monkey.... then I do not know what else to tell you...
Add-on andy's, meter monkeys, macro monkeys... mainstream gaming is a disease.
It is important to note that all of these kids of things will either work totally outside of the game client as a separate application, or work within the game client only and have zero effect on what the server knows about what's happening in that game client. Game hacks are different, they impact what information is sent to the server, and result in things like movement/teleport hacks, invincibility style things, item duping and so on. These should be relatively easy for the server to detect and even issue automated time-out until a GM can review the case to issue a ban. (Automated bans are scary for lots of reasons)
The best thing devs can do, regarding the full no addon policy they want to take, is provide us with all of the things that drive us to make addons in the first place. Which are generally quality of life things.
A lot of things I look for specifically have already been addressed on the wiki for example. But in some cases, I still want more customization or information that what is there.
On the RP side of things for addons, I want ability to save a completely different UI setup (that I can change back to normal at the push of a button if pvp starts to happen to interrupt my RP session btw, thats another addon) This UI setup will be very minimal and focused on a clear view of the scene, chat, and some emotes. I want to be able to assign each player an individual chat color as well, that exists only during the RP session.
On day to day gameplay side of things, I will want market history info, so I can determine trends.
I may want more customization and control of my social friends list so I can order them in to groups.
I may want a better way to cycle through enemy targets than what is provided.
I may want a better way to select allies to heal them than the party list (mouse over function)
Maybe I want a better map layout than what is given.
Maybe I want a better way to sort through all of my transmog items, by theme, or by color, or by some other metric.
On the PvE side, I will want the full damage log. Its a controversial topic with a 200 page thread, so I will focus only on the quality of life part that will lead to an addon being made. Wiki shows us getting a personal report of numbers. That is great if I am playing all by myself, but if I am a job like a bard, where I do things that amplify party member damage, then only getting my own numbers is insufficient. Just as a single example because there are dozens more, I cannot know what my full value is as a bard without seeing the total dps impact I have in a group, and will have no idea how best to adjust my build, gear, or playstyle to give enough value as a bard, rather than going to play some other pure damage job where I can see all of my input from the personal log.
So, I will want an addon that allows me to download the log to a txt file for me to parse and sort the information.
I will want an addon that delivers the full combat report and not just personal logs.
You can see, all of the things I wrote above I said "I want", none of these things are needed, and will not exist in the early part of the games life either more than likely. If the game does as well as I hope it will and maintains a large and stable population, these "wants" will turn into reality as players create these quality of life addons to make their gaming experience better from day to day. It would be nice if IS is constantly asking for feedback from us even long after release and works towards giving us a lot of the customization and functionality tools we want, but I have never seen that happen with any game company, which leads to third party developers to provide these 'wants'
This is not ideal from a game company side of things, because they have no control over the safety of these programs, and once the harmless quality of life things start to show up, the more cheaty things follow very shortly after.
These things sound like dependencies that mainstream games are built around to appeal for the mindless muppets that need them in order to play their game. Essentially, your target audience becomes these muppets and the amazing game that it was founded on will become a soulless husk for these people which will continue down a path of incompetent appeals and demands for continued muppet support.
Sure, some things can be added in for UI/UX but they will snowball and gradually ruin the game. You're probably used to mainstream games instead of games that encourage integrity instead of short cuts for skill issues.
Or if I have no integrity because I play mainstream games? Unsure what your trying to say here, but I do play mainstream games, thats for sure, I like having people to talk to so I tend to go to bigger games.
I did say how once the addons start appearing, even the harmless ones, the cheaty ones show up very shortly after. Would be better for us if Intrepid instead engages with us frequently asking for feedback on how we interact with the game.
As for souless muppets that just follow what the weakauras/DBM/cactbot addons tell them to do and dont actually know how to play the game itself, that will happen in any game if the population is big enough for long enough, its an inevitability for large games sadly. (Maybe thats what you meant by mainstream games with no integrity?)
that's expecting failure for the sake of it. The source of why those games continue to fail and cater to certain demographics just for subscription numbers to show their game is "financially" successful each quarter/monthly player count. They turned their games into mainstream games to get anyone to play their game for the sake of money and not integrity.
The reason those games are like that is because the devs essentially failed maintaining what made the game great in the first place. The only people left willing to play them are essentially dependant on those third part features and if they got rid of them no one would play anymore. It's too late for them.
I could go on but why waste my time on their mobile game design for dopamine hits through themepark tactics and rewards systems for participation to stimulate a feeling of success that in reality... isn't justified. They've become souless mount and dress up collecting games for the main players now.
I fully expect ashes to become a mainstream game in the sense I think you are taking it. There is so much hype out there, and often times people I meet will sometimes bring up this as a thing they look forward to A high quality sandbox is lacking right now and Ashes will fill that. Probably why I feel its a matter of time before the things I've seen happen in large games happen here.
if it becomes a mainstream game....they have literally failed at what they're trying to create and lied to everyone for several years.
Even though many games are considered niche and that word is thrown around a lot. it is what the game is trying to be. Watering down something great for the sole purpose of success isn't true success.
Are they trying to appeal to many people? sure but that doesn't mean they have to make it a mainstream game. If they make a great game, the players will come. There will always be a fluctuation in active players from launch date to relevant significance such as promotions/expansion.
Yes it has hype, it means a lot of people will try it, it will be a game hat is not designed to be casual friendly and easy main stream kind of game. Because it is unique, it will have the chance to create a new main stream kind of trend if the game was so good and fun to retain players AND drawl casual players regardless of their difficulties. Though i doubt it will happen impossibilities sometimes still have that 5% chance, elden ring as an example. When the second elden ring game drops everyone will buy it.
Hardcore WoW pve instanced raiders, sure let them leave they would leave anyway for wow expansion and because of pvp.
Real hardcore players will be playing AoC though.
This is perhaps more true than most people realize.
Hardcore players (not a term I'd use, but we all know who we are talking about) for the most part value knowledge above all else.
Combat trackers provide this.
It doesn't matter if you are PvE, PvP, buying, selling, crafting or gathering. If it uses numbers within the games systems, knowledge literally is power, and combat trackers provide that knowledge (yes, even with crafting).