Glorious Ashes of Creation community! Thank you for joining us again for another dev update! We hope that you are enjoying seeing more of our caravan systems! Reminder that the world of Verra is still being developed, so much of what you are seeing is work-in-progress, we still have so much more to do when it comes to art and performance, specifically around character models, VFX and UI, as we head towards our Alpha Two. Please let us know your thoughts as your feedback is paramount - what did you think of the caravan system, PvP, and water transition from what you've seen? We'd love for you to join the forums and leave your thoughts. Thank you from everyone here at Intrepid Studios! 🥰💕
🌟Hey AOC 🌟 One problem that old MMO's face is where the player's eyes are focused. I can explain: In games such as wow, if you're a healer, your eyes are focused on the top left corner of your screen. If you are a DPS, most of the time your eyes are focused on the bottom center of your screen... Infact the only class where the player focuses on what's infront of them in the game is the tank because they only need to use certain spells to avoid something incoming from the monster or reposition (Also the reason why I always main tanks)...The player is missing most of the game by just being hyper focused. Are there any plans to have the player's eyes focused on the target they are attacking, rather than at the health bars on the top left or the spells in the bottom... Or do you plan on sticking to the current formula? Thanks =)
You were super quiet the whole time, could barely hear you, Steven was quiet also, but you could hear him, at the start you were both mute, seems there were audio issues right from the start of the stream, i find it strange no one in the chat let you know...
The ability to gain knowledge for Monsters and NPCs as you fight them or read books or talk to an NC about them to learn their HP and weaknesses and strengths would be amazing. It would build a whole new social dynamic around mentorships and incentivize exploration to find those books or talking to NPCs.
5:16 thanks for answering my previous question! i am very excited to see how the skill and archetype systems will be in the A2 and afterwards ❤ as always, a fantastic dev update. keep it up! 😊
I understand the pvp teams were unbalanced on purpose to show to whole caravan system, so can’t wait to see some balanced pvp soon for fun or I’ll just have to play it for myself in alpha 2 Q3 🎉
Wonderful stream, my question is. If you destroy the raft and the crates fall into the water. With the current do, the crates slowly float down the river?
A few things I would love to see in the game is that you can acquire bonus and skill that you could share with your Allies, Friends, Spouse, Mounts or pets with in the game. If two guilds or nations became allies then you can get share bonus or buffs that stacks from being in those guilds or nations.
No; why would we want the strongest groups aligning together for thee sole purpose of gaining an unfair advantage over the entire game? Or several weaker groups coming together for an unfair advantage to take down the strongest group who worked hard for months or years. This will break the balance of power and make the game unplayable to the average person whom is not a part of any of these groups.
This is actually giving me flashbacks of moments from my time playing SWG. Love that that kind of player interaction, trade and PvP is coming back in the form of AoC. Thank you Intrepid for all the hardwork you are doing! Now question - When the guy says some unpacking will take DAYS, does he mean IRL days or in game days?
I think he addressed this a while ago in another stream. His coughing is chronic. Probably a mild form of TB once you get it, it never really goes away, but it's not fatal. I'm just guessing based on my own chronic coughing. lol He's fine ... hopefully. I say the same thing every time he coughs, though ... don't want him to end up like the Pantheon guy ... that was sad. :(
I actually love how caravan opens up several different roles for both sides. Like, instead of having just defenders and raiders that just randomly brawl over material, you can also (presumably) have scouts scout up ahead and also check for flanks. So if you have people in your party who are good at stealth and/or mobility, that is a huge benefit. Otherwise, you'd just want whoever has the meta class that is the best at dps, tanking, and support.
Hey Intrepid, your favorite Bingo master here! I got a lore question. What year is it in Verra? If each 28 Earth days is 1 Verran year, then there are roughly 13 Verran years per Earth year. Ashes of Creation was announced December 2016. If the calendar started in 2016, is it currently year 93 since the races returned to Verra? Also what is the calendar designation? Post-Sanctus? Post-Return? Post-Deliverance? Keep up the good work!
All the best to you Margaret! The responsibility of having children can surely be scary, but they are also a source of purpose and happiness I wouldn't want to miss in my life! Regarding the update: I am, again, impressed by the systems. Not necessarily by every detail of course, but by the fact that every mechanic serves a purpose, is well thought out and improves on other elements. The enemy health obfuscation for example is simply a good idea. Its baffling that this is the first time I see such a system the more I think of it. That not every city will have a black market gives player agency regarding the question weither they want to be a bandit refuge with all the advantages and drawbacks this might bring. The way you have to decide weither you would rather loot scraps quickly or take the risk of recovering all of it instead. Those are the decisions that make it interesting. The entire raft mechanic also automatically makes the caravans more dynamic, because it makes it more difficult, and therefore more fun, to track them in a very natural way. Then there is the unloading timer in the node. Steven is of course absolutely right that this opens up the possibility for cities to act towards becoming trading friendly. If trading is equally easy everywhere, then we all know what happens. The first large city you can enter after starting a game will become the trade hub of said game. Stevens foresight of what the node system needs to function properly really shows here. Long story short, of course things aren't perfect yet. But every conscious decision the dev team makes is very clearly a decision made to achieve a better game. Those things add up and contribute to the overall feeling that you guys have a strong vision that works very well. Time to kill also looks absolutely fine. The longer the time to kill is the harder it is for an outnumbered party to compensate through skill. If the TTK is too short then you can't properly react to anything, which also limits the impact of skill. For me this looks like its not far away from the optimal range. Just a really strong update overall.
i keep very updated on this game and your studios progress and i cant help but notice steven is ALWAYS coughing! steven you better stay healthy this game NEEDS you and by proxy i need you Q.Q
Great development update once again !! I really like this little adrenaline rush at the time of an ambush. Could we set traps to slow down the caravans, or roadblocks that the caravan escort would have to destroy to get through, it would be so much fun. About water, are you going to change the normal swimming speed? because I saw that the characters could swim just as fast as the raft? maybe thanks to a potion or water breathing spell? Thank you
Such an amazing start to the year! So keen to see that amazing new water get more and more touched up over time (splash effects for other players too, LOD popping in really hard in reflections) but omggg what an amazing improvement!
I would love to see skills or potions that make you tall as a giant or the size of ant. It will be useful in battle or sneaking into some places or it can be used to build things from the smallest gadgets or biggest of buildings.
I've been following your progress for a while and not once have you ceased to amazed me ❤❤❤, I love what you guys at Intrepid studios are doing.... Just curious though can we get a sneak peak on what the rock-paper-scissors relationship of the architypes look like. Even if it's subject to change, please 🥺🥺🥺.
I've noticed in your development streams, combat seems to predominantly feature Tab-Targeting rather than the action mode. I'm curious about the design decision behind this choice. Could you share some insights into why Tab-Targeting is showcased more often, and what benefits it brings to the overall gaming experience? Additionally, I'm eager to see more of the action mode in action and would love to know if there are plans to showcase its features and dynamics in upcoming streams. I'm excited about the potential it brings to the gameplay!
Spotlight Question: Hello Intrepid team! My question is about the enemy's "field of vision" in the open world. How far away from hostile targets will be before they act aggressively towards us? More specifically, will creatures watch us murder their friends in the open world with no reaction, will they try to kill us in retaliation, or will they run away in sheer terror? Thank you!
Question: How do you divide the loot after a successful caravan heist? Are the members of the group going to have to trust the raid leader, especially if they're pugs and not part of the leader's guild, that he will divide the loot in a fair manner, or are there some systems in place to avoid having to depend on a player who may not be on the level? What if it's all a pug raid and the leader just vanishes with all the money?
I would love it if players that own land in the game could change the land a little bit like putting in a pond, a waterfall, or plant some trees or able to build a hidden hideout they could relax in.
Hello, Completely understanding that the game is still in a 'work in progress' stage I would still like to ask/clarify a few things: 1) Some character animations appear stiff - are there plans to revise and re-work/improve various character animations in the later development stages? 2) Some character and armor/equipment textures and models seem to be a bit 'rough around the edges'. Are there any plans to revise and re-work/improve character appearance, as well as equipment (models)? Keep up the good work Intrepid!
Best Dev team ever… I have never once thought “they just want my money”… I have always really appreciated the passion they put into the development of the best mmo in ages!
@Steven, when you said your getting ready for next sprint, I would love to know more about how Intrepid Studios practices Agile. Normally for the company I work our big preparation is an Increment (6 sprints, each sprint = 2 weeks). I always love hearing how others approach it.
I cannot wait for the day that someone besides a dev is able to make a video and talk about the gameplay. It feels like a circle jerk every video whether it's a livestream or the gameplay only video where everyone congratulates everyone on the success so far. I want to hear what's not working, how it's not working, what's got to be fixed, a finer timeline of the work being done. I know it's a bigass game and I'm super looking forward to it but we're coming up on Alpha 2 and I feel like there's just not enough information.
Looks phenomenal , great job devs ! The PvP looks so meaningful and has an emotional intensity and dedication I haven't seen since DaoC ❤. I have a minor quibble; the 'machine gun' bow skills look ridiculous, especially when wearing plate armour...Would prefer bow skills to be more realistic, despite the magic setting, with increased draw time and skills that revolve around versatile arrow tips (Broadhead, barbed, acid, electric, explosive etc)
PVP Health - I think its a great idea for open world pvp and even in the larger battleground games but if there is a large Arena focused population then I don't think the lack of specific values would be very well received. Very cool idea and I think you are spot on with it giving another level of protection and excitement for those open world engagements. I suppose it would depend on how many spells you have that function at X percent hp remaining or if there is going to be an "execute" type spells to be cast.
First off congratulations, Margaret on your wedding and the little one! Are there any plans to implement a proximity chat VOIP system? I know most people use Discord or TeamSpeak in 2024, however I think the echo of your raid leader's voice in a cave or the muffled voices of people on the surface while your character is underwater would be incredible for immersion. Of course a whisper, talk, and yell function would need to be added, but I think it would be a great addition for the game. Keep up the great work Intrepid!
this is really cool, I think it would be nice to have some things like the more ppl u have in party while building caravan/raft the less time takes (cause ppl would be helping to build). Also, we will have boats that can carry goods or only rafts? We will be able to have our own boats like in archeage?
I know we are only at alpha 2. but it already looks so good for an alpha game. I can't wait to get my hands on a good MMO again! I will probably be 30 when it finally comes around but i know it will be worth it
What is the desired strategy in PvP? Is it going to be just who can do the most damage or is there going to be some kind of back and forth trying to stun your opponent for some time to allow you to get a combo off on them and how would a larger scale fight look with the desired mechanics where some classes passive/buffs/playstyle may become quite underperforming? I feel like in other tab target MMOs the combat is lackluster in the realm of interesting interactions in PvP where it essentially boils down to forcing them to use their big CD mitigation abilities and then being able to out DPS them.
Ashes of Creation is getting me excited for the next era of gaming When public testing comes out I'll for sure be there to help give feedback. I wish I had more than that at the moment, but you're doing too good for me to give criticism.
9:35 eSports for sure. We already know that AoC is gonna have arena battles, I think they were 1v1, 3v3, 5v5 etc. I think those can easily be turned into eSports with some push and encouragement by intrepid studios. There can be casual PvP arena and then a ranking system. And let's say every 3 or so months there will a championship tournament for each arena battle types. To qualify in them the teams will have to go through a primer league system. For 1v1 or 2v2 let it 1st be a 50% culling open survival battle untill a certain number of survival players reached, then doing rounds of knock out leading to a final 1v1 battle and 2v2 battle at the end to determine the champion(I am suggesting to have the same system as above explained for both 1v1 and 2v2). And for 3v3, 5v5 or highers, they will be team based and the team must accumulate points throughout the duration of 2 and half months and attain certain points to qualify and have a seat amongst the contesting teams of let's say 16 or 20. Then like any championship out there it will be bracket system and finally a team v team final. This whole thing can be different categories of eSports for the game. With good support from the developers I can totally see this happening and succeeding. Of course there are other nuances and systems need to be placed accordingly. Oh oh and these tournaments and championships will be surver based. And after the champions of each catagory of each server is decided. There will be a year end all server championship for each catagory. And this will be the world cup or like Olympic of AoC. Like dota 2 The International. ***But all these can only work, only and only if the tournaments are fair. Only the customisation of class skills, weapons skills, items etc(those which are universal for all) will effect the stats of a player in the tournaments. The players must be max leveled to participate. So whether you can win or not will depend on your skill of mixing, matching your weapon and class skills, items, your skill of game mechanics and skill use, knowledge of the skills and how you manage your luck. I would pay money to watch this awesome shit. Take inspiration from different manga and webnovels out there based on games and eSports. They have some interesting well described ones that are not impossible to be done. Like Kings Avatar. I have been thinking in mind how I would love to have a real eSports mmo. I strongly believe AoC can do it. I have thought a lot how it would go. I can literally see it all in my head. I swear if i was a game developer at AoC I would definitely push it hard. My age would no longer a allow me to run after this dream😅 but I would love to see someone do it and succeed. I would help anyway I could for that. Even if it's just as small as giving feedback. I pray that you succeed. If i someday get filthy rich(Inshallah), I would definitely try to go at it.
I can see having the fisherman profession will come in handy. When there is loot in the water you can fish them out. You could also use the fishing pole as a grappling hook to swing to other people's raft or ship. You could also use it to steal things while sitting on somebody's roof or a cliff.
A few ideas came to mind while watching the video. A summoner could act like a Trojan horse and summon a portal that allows their guilds members or party members to come to their side to attack the enemy. They could also summon a merchant to sell their loot or get more supplies if needed outside of combat.
The vague healthbar reminds me of Baldurs Gate 2. Minor Damage through to Near Death. Be awesome if it comes along with visual damage, blood spatters, broken torn armor, etc.
Please add a way for merchants to pay hired hands to help protect their trade route. A ton of games try to implement cool trade routes like this but never help the merchant recruit hired guards or keep ppl honest. It would be so cool to have a system to help pay the raid all at the same time or guarantee they will get some kind of cut.
Hiding exact HP value is very good. To be honest, a lot more could be hidden (class, name, guild...) and only/partially visible if you have a high enough score in a spying/perception/information gathering skill.
Seeing the Caravan battle, I have some thoughts. Instead of allowing them to hit the horses. you can only attack the Caravan and in low health, they run away. It would be cool if, for example, the wheels had health so you could destroy those, its more like certain parts have health instead of the whole thing. let me know if this is lame or if you have your thoughts comment down below.
I wonder if these caracan pvp events are timegated. I can imagine that with 2 groups that are somewhat close in strength it might happen that the crates that are transported change ownership several times and could end dragging on for several hours even.
Release more Alpha keys! A friend I work with told me about AoC the keys were taken off your site for sale. I love everything I've seen so far about AoC and would love to get my hands on one!
I have a bit of hope for the augmented classes. I hope that they really give us a different experience and perspective to each class and how it feels to play each class. I hope a tank/cleric plays completely different from a Tank/Wizard. I had hoped for extra spells and attacks built off the two but just having a high amount of difference between a class with 8 augmentations all being left feeling a little different and a bit of additional play. DAOC had the most classes and diversity of classes I have ever seen, 48 I think. But it was 3 realms with a full set of classes for each realm and this was fantastic. But it had classes that focused on tanking and healing, dps, spells and melee that was different, then you had classes that focused more on shields. But these shields where unique like blade turns and point blank Aoe shields, but these shields pulsed or were cast by unique classes but at the same time you had weapon skills. These skills would were based off your class weapons you could choose from. So depending on maces vs swords or sword and shield changed your character. Hope to see this in some level in ashes.
They should make it so that if an enemy player steals your caravan the original owner has a set amount of time (i.e. 30 minutes) to get back into the driver seat before “ownership” of the caravan is transferred to the person who stole it. That would create me decision making. Do you want to risk protecting the caravan so you can get a valuable asset in the process? Do you just destroy it and bring your own caravan, exposing the loot to others in the process? Could be interesting.
Caravan that just appeared in last stream after they summoned it: I think that it should be brought from the city beforehand and hid somewhere/or with specific resources and pretty long time you can build it beforehand in the wild. Have a class like the dwarves in lineage 2 that can be caravans and such. Maybe a raiders caravan will just be lower quality/ level than one that brought from the city. Tanks should be able to pull caravans, stopping it for a bit So are mages with worsening the conditions of the road, maybe even blow wind in sails/freeze water. Caravan should have a system that forces more than one person to push it/row it, this way if it will be either run away or stand and fight. That's my take
Will there be a feature that allows the defending party of the Caravan to enter the Caravan? When the attacking party walked towards the Caravan on top of the hill, they were able to see all the numbers of the defenders. I feel like allowing defenders to enter the Caravan would allow for the defending party to be deceitful towards people who are deciding to attack the Caravan, and allow for a counter-attack on the ambushers to occur.
am very curius how scouting possible ships and caravans gonna work, in archeage one could see how many crates are in the slots, but in this game the caravans dont change how they look based on cargo
Could the developers integrate the quest complexity and types with the sympathetic NPC characters from BG3 into Ashes of Creation? Is it possible for the NPC characters to interact through an AI interface for natural communication in terms of questions and answers?
1. Will there be enemy creatures in rivers, sea or ocean? 2. Will there be a movement penalty if character wearing armor soaked in water? 3. Is there a bonus damage for players in advantageous terrain? 4. Will there be a destructible terrain that can help party change the tide of battle?
Ich liebe den Umbau von Land zu Wasser. Dieses System ist gut überdacht und wird richtig reinhauen. Schön das nicht jeder ein Schiff nebendran bauen kann um das Floß abzufangen. Love it❣
It seems like Cleric is the only dedicated healing class. Is there another? Will there be more? Like a shaman or Druid healer or will the bard also act as a healer? Having only one dedicated healer or healer class fantasy might be problematic down the track. Same would be true for tanks.
The cleric is an 'archetype'. There is only 1 healer archetype, though I think bard has a few options here and there. One's 'class' is the combination of a primary and secondary archetype. Those combinations are where your class fantasies come from (thematic and mechanic). Beyond that, there are a bazillian ways to uniquely build your own class. Seeing one high priest (cleric+cleric) doesn't mean you'll know what to expect when seeing a second.
Could there be an AOE spell that reveals enemy HP in pvp for a few seconds that could be cast by a support type character? I feel like that would be interesting during fights
I really like the numbers, its not 1000s of damage, or millions, or more like Diablo game. 22, 100, 58, i like that the number are small and simlified. As more games want you to feel powerful so they inflate the numbers drastically. however, what will the numbers look like at max level, buffed, with top tier gear? Will is be 100s, or 1000s? What will a "big hit" be considered? And will I be able to customize the numbers depending on damge type? Fire, Slash, Blunt, Ice, Arcane, and so on?
Can you take over the caravan and drive it, rather than destroy it at the location and have to summon a caravan? Similar to archeage boat, where you can use the enemy boat, but need to destroy to loot.
If a caravan is attacked and destroyed at sea, will some of the loot be lost as derelict and others to surface like flotsam? Can you summon a caravan or ship on the water or would it have to start on land?
god , i love how they actually encurage stuff like planting spies and backstabbers into guilds, meaning leadership is gonna be very secretive about what they plan for the week, like transfeering mats and other activities.even tho ashes of creation is basicly a forever project like star citizen, ashes seems like a game beeing developed by players who love mmo´s
Steven, please, I would like to see more action skills for ranged classes, not just AoE skills. Fireballs, arrows or light beams moving forward at speed.
And I'm not talking about the camera. I'm talking entirely about skills. In addition to offensive skills, it's also important to have action healing and support skills. Straight line healing and big cone healing (Ex.: Rushed Ceremony - Templar - Elder Scrolls Online).
Question about the PvP caravan: If the defender loses their caravan and plans to take their loot back, and they succeed, will they receive a penalty of corruption for attacking the attacker?
It seems easier to steal caravans than to complete one. A single guy standing at the exit to a town could tell multiple guilds a caravan is starting and then multiple guilds go after the caravan at different points. Seems like only way a caravan would work is with a full raid team or 2. Not because of the balance of teams but sheer numbers of guilds that will constantly attack a caravan. Im uncertain there is any way a caravan wont just get swarmed over and over. Hopefully in Alpha 2 its shown to be workable but for now it seems without the consequence of permanent death humans will be even more prone to piracy.
The PVP is cool and all but what I was mostly interested to see was how well the performance would hold up with over 40 players on screen. I didn't see any issues at all so grats.
1:32:55 Please fix the outro music! You are playing 2 pieces of music in different incompatible keys on top of each other and every month it makes me want to set myself on fire! The piano piece is in A Major / F# minor and the orchestral piece that takes over is in A minor / C Major. I know this is pedantic - I could never argue that it's not. But I know y'all care about attention to detail - it shows constantly in your work. So I hope this can help you maintain that on the musical side of things. Ask any musician in your studio how they feel about this - I'm certain you'd find a few among the ~150. The gameplay loop is coming among nicely - no notes from me there this month. Be well, all!
Thanks for another intriguing and exciting update! I have a few questions that I BELIEVE weren't covered but forgive me if they were. 1. Am I the only one who finds it too immersion breaking (at least in the footage we've seen so far) for one's own caravan to just appear after a wait time? Of course it'll have clearer animations and perhaps an overlay pop up or something, that's not what I'm talking about. I just mean on the one hand, we have a caravan that has to travel in the manner we saw in a previous video, while on the other, we have one that just pops up. Of course they then have to travel in a similar fashion, but it strikes me as odd/arbitrary. To me, the obvious question is, why the bloody hell do we have to destroy the original caravan??!?!?!?!?!?! just to put the same items (well not even, but that's a different question) onto a new caravan?!?!?!?!?! Just hijack the bloody caravan people! You'll save a lot of time and resources lol. I'm sure there has to be some sort of built in condition that needs to be met to functionally 'transfer' the caravan goods into a 'stealable' status or something, but that doesn't seem to be too difficult a workaround from the outside looking in. So anyway, main point here is that as a spectator it all feels arbitrarily determined. 2. How do the original caravan.... loaders... know which items will show up as 'commodity certificates' and which will show up as materials? Is that just what they are for the thieves? Can the defenders choose which are which before hand or is it the type of item being transported that inherently determines the resulting loot? 'Commodity' just doesn't sound different enough from 'materials' for me to understand which is which or if there is a consistent criterion distinguishing one from the other. 3. I asked this during the stream and somebody replied but I just want to make sure. So as far as I can recall, you have to opt into a caravan defense/caravan attack, correct? Like a castle siege? It's been a while so maybe that's changed or maybe I'm misremembering. Anyway, obviously a lot of questions follow from this.... Is it in some way instanced? Are you observable by players who are not a part of the event? If so, are you invulnerable to attacks (or buffs/healing) from a third party who did not opt into the event? When a player dies, are they 'forced' out of the event? or can they just continuously attack the caravan? 4. During this showcase, the battles were pretty darn straightforward from what I could tell. The only interesting things that I could witness in the chaos were A) ambushing a single target to guarantee a one shot (genuinely very cool, even though when it switched to the other perspective that group could CLEARLY see the attackers so there is room for doubt as to how feasible that strategy is... I'm sure it's fine. You probably just had to script it a little to show off specific things you wanted to show... I'm just being too critical with this one perhaps) and B) of course the terrain mattering, whether it's elevation or water vs land (one of the developers mentioned a shift in focus toward group combat and what sort of utility a particular archetype and/or class could bring to a raid party, but then the subject was just dropped cuz there were some bear corpses on the ground....). Genuinely two variables that are exciting on their own, but I wonder, are there ways to set traps on the ground (perhaps the traps from december's live stream)? Are there ways to create a rock slide or fallen tree on a path or flooding, etc (even if temporary)? Could we perhaps destroy bridges to forces nautical transportation? Basically, is it reliably going to be this chaotic mess of spell animations during caravan attacks or are there other incentivized or otherwise built in approaches people can take that are obvious enough to reliably be executed? Having asked all of this I want to be clear that I'm quite excited for the system/game. I think that's precisely why I'm being as particular as I am. Very much looking forward to alpha 2!!!!
