Ashes of Creation

Well they've flatly stated there will be no p2w, there will be a cosmetics item shop and thats it. If I was a millionaire you bet I'd P2W in Archeage too, that doesn't mean my dream MMO I'd design would have it. You can choose to believe that or remain skeptical and we'll see. They're also targeting a long levelling process (~45 days of 4-6hrs played to max level) which assuming they crack down on any RMT through their tracking metrics and the active GMs they've promised, will cut down gold selling a lot compared to other games out there. Again we'll have to wait and see.

Edit: phone is hard

Regardless of his background, it's his project. Does developing his own game promote him above his past? No. But spending that much of his money to create something he enjoys would at least make me want to try it. (and hope he doesnt trash his own game just for his ego)

Hadn't really look at this but man after watching that video, if they get half this shit half right this is going to be pretty awesome?


Curious as to why no box price? For a game this epic looking seems only fair. So glad to hear its sub based.

live stream of AMA

link to the transcript of the AMA https://ashespost.com/7-25-20-reddit-ama-transcript/

turbo said:

Hadn't really look at this but man after watching that video, if they get half this shit half right this is going to be pretty awesome?


Curious as to why no box price? For a game this epic looking seems only fair. So glad to hear its sub based.

Click to expand...

Actually a pretty well done video...I'm skeptical they can pull all that off he says in it, but if they do it could be something really amazing. Obviously it's a lot of broad strokes, but the non linear PvE endgame, and merging of PvP to achieve PvE goals sounds similar to Eve in some ways. There's a whole lot of "systems" details that are obviously nebulous as fuck and could turn out terrible, but if you imagined them actually pulling off what they want to do, it sounds really intriguing.

Q: I heard that the character creation is planned to be close to Black Desert.
A: I loved BDO’s character creation, I thought it was cool and provided a lot of customization to players. However as a developer I do believe in providing a little more confines to it due to different races. Yes there will be a specific type of slider.

Click to expand...

BOOB SLIDER CONFIRMED, GOTY EVERY YEAR

I dont know whats going on here, sure seems like theyre promising the world and a free blowjob to go with it and while any asshole can do that while running a massive PR blitz it feels like a bad idea if you're nowhere near delivering when you have a non-NDA'd alpha coming up?

The main question I have is why the main character sprite and combat look like they took Warhammer Online and updated it to around 2012 instead of 2020 (although sometimes the surrounding environment will be a bit closer to present day) and whether the actual game will run like the piece of shit it resembles. This feels especially odd when juxtaposed with that weird Battle Royale they did which doesnt look like complete trash?

All the planned systems sound cool, especially the node stuff, provided they pull it off. More likely it will be half-assed and the encounters haphazardly copy/pasted across the world when they run out of time and money, but they at least have my attention. Hope someone has the hookup and can sprinkle some keys around so we can find out for ourselves

tower said:

The main question I have is why the main character sprite and combat look like they took Warhammer Online and updated it to around 2012 instead of 2020 (although sometimes the surrounding environment will be a bit closer to present day) and whether the actual game will run like the piece of shit it resembles. This feels especially odd when juxtaposed with that weird Battle Royale they did which doesnt look like complete trash?

Click to expand...

I'm not saying that this guys background is just showering him with money, but dont be fooled into thinking this game doesnt have the funding to at least reach launch. As far as the comment on graphics, I dont think hes the kind of guy to skimp on software - the game is probably tested to be stable at at least 550+ players in an area, and still be able to compute the background scripts and objects that can be destroyed. Pertaining to the barren nature of the nodes, he has clearly stated that a lot of the land is generated - and the tailor-made content is centralized around the city nodes, dungeons, boss areas etc. (areas that players will actually be in). However, there is still a MSQ, Lore Quests, Crafting Quests etc. to let you explore. (I dont think its just some barren wasteland, but all I got from what he said in that interview with asmongold is that most of their concentration wasnt on some random locations that only a handful of players will ever see.)

As others have said, everything that hasnt been talked about are the parts that will probably be a make or break experience.

Who gives a fuck about graphics, give me a good goddamn game with some decent lore and innovative mechanics. Graphics is last on my wish list for MMO's now a days

Duskoy said:

Who gives a fuck about graphics, give me a good goddamn game with some decent lore and innovative mechanics. Graphics is last on my wish list for MMO's now a days

Click to expand...

I'd gladly play an MMO with EQ graphics that had modern game systems. All day.

TJT said:

What I gather from the past few days of info is this. The design they're shooting for is almost procedural in the way that Diablo is. You build up your node that causes X dungeon to spawn and build up along with the node or whatever.

This will be a point of contention and cause players to engage because it appears to not be instanced. So we can expect that the dungeons wont be nearly as polished as WOW ones. On its face this is fine because you don't need a polished instanced dungeon for the dungeon itself to be engaging.

It's all going to hinge on whether or not the player interaction they're designing around is actually interesting enough to keep playing. Will loot and items be interesting and desirable? Will players from the Mountain nodes seeking Herbs from the Jungle node in order to advance be enough of an interesting situation to keep people engaging over it? That kind of thing.

Click to expand...

I have low expectations for procedural dungeons. They're either one of a dozen templates or less with slight variations, which gives them a feeling of sameness. They usually end up being trash>boss>trash>boss or trash>collect shit>boss or some mix of all of the above. Which you could argue are most dungeons at their core, but you lose the handcrafted element that makes certain dungeons stand out in the players mind and make you overlook that. You're going to remember stuff like Lower Guk or Blackmountain depths or Amarout over generic_cave_dungeon00.

It'll all be something to keep an eye on, just feels like they really are trying SO many things/systems there's no way it can all be polished. I'll be interested to watch alpha streams of it, though.

As everyone in the thread seems to be echoing, we've seen this show before. Avid gamer with money to burn makes the 'Perfect' game, with no clue how to manage scope/features or what it takes to maintain and support a live game of this scale.

They are pitching YEARS worth of content updates recklessly as if the game will launch in that state. His complete undisciplined approach to how/what he talks about shows you everything you need to know about this title.

Calling it now, the Backpedal campaign will kick off at some point.

I think with New World seemingly having well designed systems but no content at large the AoC decided to put on a campaign of "WE WILL HAVE EVERYTHING!" I'm pretty sure they won't be able to deliver everything they're promising in a timely or stable manner, but if they get at least SOME of the aspects right they will have done better than any western MMO in about 6 years.