Transcript (by Youtube)


8s thank you
17s hello everyone and Welcome to our ashes
20s of creation September update we hope
24s that you all are excited I'm cozy I've
26s got my leg I know Autumn sweater on it's
31s this tis the season it is the season now
34s we are finally in the Autumn yes it's my
38s favorite season I love it so much but of
41s course we have a wonderful show for you
43s today we hope that you are excited
45s you've been waiting for a month we've
46s been waiting for a month we've got a lot
48s of stuff that we've been doing uh
50s internally and maybe we'll talk a little
52s bit more about that on the studio update
54s as well but of course
57s um today is itinerary agenda is we have
60s our reminders we have an event update
62s and if you've been following us on
64s social we've been letting folks know
65s that it's going to be a wave-based
67s combat so get excited for a little bit
69s of Combat Action I know folks are
71s excited for that I had a lot of fun
73s playing so yeah like
77s like a mofo
79s um and then we've got our studio update
82s art update and Q a as per usual so
87s jam-packed but hopefully today won't be
90s as long so you know just hopefully you
92s have a good amount of snacks some water
95s you don't need to Buckle in this time
97s we'll be we'll be a little shorter than
100s normal but of course at first we have
102s some quick updates and reminders the
104s first one here is that we do have a
107s comment
108s um so today's comment Spotlight from our
110s YouTube video from our last development
112s development update is the idea behind
115s all these nodes are awesome but I wonder
117s how it will actually play out in the
119s live version the problem is having
121s player run or the problem with having
123s player run towns is that people come and
126s go in video games so will towns die out
128s Etc and this is from name is two so I
131s think your name is for you know
133s subscribing to our YouTube channel and
134s leaving a wonderful comment
136s yeah that's a good this is a good
138s question and and fundamentally I do get
140s it a lot too
141s absolutely we do and it is it is
144s something that's at the Forefront of how
145s we you know Design Systems that are
148s intended to provide player interaction
150s and player agency and player direction
152s right
153s um one of the
154s uh I wouldn't say downsides but risks of
158s those types of mechanics and systems is
160s that you do have the potential for
162s either bad faith actors
164s um
167s excuse me or just people who come and go
171s as you said
172s um
173s and so you know we incorporate as part
176s of those designs certain fail-safes
178s certain protections certain automated uh
182s progression that takes over when some of
184s those decisions are lacking or are not
187s made and those decisions can be
189s defaulted now of course that would have
192s a deleterious effect on kind of the
194s direction that a particular node might
196s want to go because they're going to be
197s doing default behaviors or default
200s actions as opposed to something that
201s might be in line with the Strategic
203s objective of that particular node or the
206s specialization that the node has
207s previously been attempting to do but
209s that is why we have a regularly
211s recurring election period where players
214s can take the reins of power and can
217s elect someone else to come in and
219s participate and and re-write the ship so
222s to speak so it is absolutely a component
226s of having player driven mechanics that
228s there is an opportunity for things to be
230s less than ideal or less than
233s um strategic when certain bad faith
235s actors or people leave
238s um but there are safeguards in place
243s perfect
245s um hopefully that suffices for your name
247s is too I'm sure you'll let us know what
250s your thoughts are on it and of course if
252s you do have thoughts on any of these
253s things you can head on over to forums we
255s are very diligent about taking player
257s feedback the next thing speaking of
260s player feedback uh Segway
263s um we have some Dev discussions the one
265s that is currently out we have our Dream
268s nodes so if you if you have some
270s thoughts on what you would like your
272s dream node to be head on over and toss
275s us your feedback and up and coming we
277s also will have a Dev discussion about
279s basic attacks as well so definitely we
282s would love to hear your thoughts and
283s this is just this is a combination of
285s basic attacks and auto attacks as well
287s because I think in different games
289s people consider these different things
291s so we have a lot of questions from the
293s development team in regards to how you
295s would like to utilize those whether you
298s want to kind of stream them in between
300s your abilities or if you're not
303s interested in that at all so there will
305s be a lot of questions for you to answer
307s there and I do just want to emphasize
309s that these Dev discussions are of
312s critical importance to the development
313s team obviously the reason why and I have
316s I have um echoed this over the course of
319s many years and then these uh these
322s development updates but uh the reason
323s why it's so beneficial for us to partake
326s in a transparent development process is
328s because it affords us the opportunity to
330s collect that real-time feedback and
332s experiences and direction to a degree
335s from the uh the consumers that we are
339s creating this product for from you guys
340s The Gamers our community right
343s um so if you have the time to go and
345s kind of give your commentary on on the
348s things that you expect to see out of
349s these types of systems the experiences
350s that you've had in different games what
352s you've enjoyed about them what you'd
353s like to see done differently it is great
356s because our community team and and and
358s and Margaret helps to Shepherd kind of
360s all of these these comments into an
363s easily digestible format that the
365s developers then have an opportunity to
367s see what you guys are saying and that's
368s something that I think is super
370s important to make sure that those touch
371s points of communications between the
373s community and the development team is of
375s critical importance to the development
376s and I will say this as somebody who's
378s worked in this industry for a very long
380s time
381s um I love that Stephen affords us that
384s not every team gets you know 2q or two
388s Community managers to be able to help
389s with that but Roshan and bachner have
391s been doing an amazing job and getting
393s resounding love from our development
395s team in regards to their reports so they
398s do a very diligent job in reading
400s everything you guys Post in all those
402s spaces so we really appreciate it and of
404s course to play put a caveat on that as
407s well because I know there's the
408s counteractive that is that of course
410s we're not going to do everything that
412s players say you know we do have a vision
414s and direction of our product and so
417s we're going to try to make the best
418s decisions for us and what we want to
420s create but it is always nice to make
422s sure that we're all on the same page
423s because for the most part that is that
426s has been the case
427s um yeah so just keeping that in mind
429s yeah just to touch on that point real
431s quick the the Elegance of filtering out
434s the expression from our player base who
437s don't have of course in many cases the
440s experience of developing a product like
441s this but have the experience of playing
443s them and know what they like and dislike
446s that is where the community team comes
449s in and helps to filter out uh you know
451s kind of that feedback so that not only
453s is it digestible but that it's cohesive
455s and can make sense from a development
457s perspective yeah it's it's very well
460s done
462s um so thank you keep giving us your
463s feedback uh you know I think a lot of
465s the times when you're a player of a game
467s you're like why did they make this
468s decision well we're sharing the journey
470s with you we're telling you why we're
471s making those decisions and we're showing
473s you each little bit as we move forward
474s so be a part of it if it's something
476s that you really want and if you don't
478s step away it's okay you don't have to
479s either you know make a decision that's
481s best for you
483s um next up of course is
485s I'm sorry I just saw someone in chatted
489s that's put in a a a a picture of me that
493s ages over time into into Grace I haven't
497s seen that before no I haven't yet I've
499s never been using it on Discord that's
500s concerning and scary
502s there's a lot of Stephen uh memes out
506s there so some of them are pretty
508s intricate videos to Stevens oh my God
511s he's like I don't want to know
514s um next up this is just a reminder of
516s course that the Unseen order Cosmetics
518s uh they are going to be our last
521s pre-order packet set we have an FAQ on
524s our article or yeah an article you can
527s check that out at ashes of creation.com
528s news and you'll see the Unseen order
531s section
532s um this is the last pre-order Pack set
535s and it is going to end on January 17th
537s 2024 at 11 A.M Pacific this does not
541s mean that we're not going to ever do
542s Cosmetics ever again
544s um but or that you're not going to ever
546s have access to Alpha 2 or beta 1 or beta
549s 2 again but there will just be different
551s forms of how you get access to that
552s pending whether we think we can support
555s more players for those absolutely and
557s and I do encourage as Margaret has in
560s the past take a look at the FAQ section
562s of that
563s um you know I went through the FAQ and
565s provided as intricate as detailed
567s answers as I could regarding the
569s potential for future pack sales
570s obviously that's predicated on our
572s internal and external testing periods
575s that we will be incorporating over the
577s course of the coming time
579s um it's important to note the intent of
581s these packages is not to elicit a fear
585s of missing out response by our community
587s that is why this last pack will be
590s extended to to jam when is it January
593s January 17th 17th January 17th a lot of
595s time so there's a lot of time there in
598s addition Alpha 2 will be a a non-ndaid
603s um testing period that you will have an
605s opportunity to watch and and and and
607s partake in from a viewership perspective
609s even if you're not participating from a
611s playing perspective Alpha 2 you know I
614s can't reiterate this enough Alpha 2 is
616s not an intended game experience it is a
620s testing experience it is something that
622s that players who are participating in
624s Alpha 2 are assisting in the development
626s of it there there may be wipes there
629s will be periods of time where we're
630s taking it down and we're iterating upon
633s it it is not intended to be a fun
635s experience per se although I believe it
637s will be a fun experience I think it'll
639s be fun but um but it is intended to test
642s our core systems it is intended to to
644s test our our Network architectures it is
647s intended to prepare the game for an
649s official launch right so um or prepares
651s for Betas
653s um in our courses and our core systems
655s and to that end
656s um do not feel like if you are not
658s participating in Alpha 2 that you're
660s missing out you know on something this
663s is not integral to to the play
665s experience you will have when the game
667s launches
668s um and so that's that's something look
669s at the journey that we've had so far
671s right yes see where the game was before
673s and where it's come where it's at now or
675s if you saw the Alpha One footage which
677s is you know you can Google that because
679s that was also not undied
682s um you can see how far we've come from
684s that too so absolutely there's
685s definitely going to be a journey here
689s um and you can be part of that whether
691s you're in game or being able to watch
694s um and tell someone else what you want
695s them to do for sure maybe we can get the
699s programmers to do a chat
700s character or like you in chat try to
703s make the character do things would be
705s fun maybe not for Alpha two but that
708s could be a cool experience
710s um but yeah just wanted to remind people
711s that there is an FAQ make sure you check
713s that out that this will be the last pack
715s set for now
717s um and we are thinking about how we want
720s to move forward with other potential
722s shop stuff as well I know exclusivity
724s has been a problem that people
726s um are concerned about and I think in
728s future shop items we will kind of remove
730s some of that element so we can rotate in
733s things so if you missed it there will be
735s an opportunity for you to get it again
736s later rather than right now where
738s everything's very much exclusive but
740s that's kind of how we've had stuff set
742s up
744s um and with that I think we are on to
747s our events update if you're ready yes
750s I'm ready for it absolutely so
754s um I didn't do a lot of prefacing this
757s time in the video uh to my dismay after
760s the the recording was completed because
762s now of course that's a standalone on
764s YouTube and some people may not hear
765s that this is a work in progress but
767s hopefully I've said it enough prior to
768s that that it just carries forward I
771s don't know regardless I know but
774s regardless I do want to preface now that
776s what you guys are about to see is a bit
779s different than what you saw with our
782s story arc system
784s um and it is different from our
785s commissions system
787s um this is our event system and to be
791s clear what you're going to see is an
793s example of the event system that
795s showcases types of content that can be
798s popped up in the world around you based
802s on predicates of what's happening in the
804s world and this particular event that
807s you're going to see a pop-up of is with
809s regards to a a destructed Caravan that's
812s having some wave assault by some Bandits
816s excuse me and the reason for that event
819s kicking off is because
821s in the background there might be
823s negotiations there might be advancement
825s in relationship status between nodes
827s that cause uh the Thematic element of
831s this pop-up event being a automated
833s Caravan moving throughout the world or
835s whatever that hit the snag of the Bandit
838s encounter and players in the area around
840s it have an opportunity to participate
842s now there's a lot of different predicate
844s systems that are involved in the event
846s system and they correlate uh in some way
849s shape or form to some other types of
851s world states that are happening within
853s Vera at the time and that give players
856s an opportunity to interact with those
858s events and receive rewards and receive
860s experience and receive gold and receive
863s some loot tables off of that and these
865s pop up kind of around the world right so
867s you're going to be seeing an example of
869s that here uh in in the upcoming Alpha 2
873s and this is a video that Clayton and
875s Scott and ine and a lot of others have
877s have obviously helped to stand up the
880s event system so that it is a very
882s versatile way to deliver content to the
884s players so as a disclaimer of course
887s this is all a work in progress this is
889s in still an alpha State the UI is
892s pending additional development as is the
894s visual effects and some of the
896s performance indicators but this gives
899s you an idea of what you can expect
900s coming in Alpha two so we do have an
903s article of other events too so if you
906s want some more event action you can
908s check that out oh and real quick yeah
911s sorry one last thing I know some people
913s are are um are are constantly asking us
916s about Alpha two we are going to have a
918s little bit of an announcement here at
919s the end of the stream uh not too much
921s hype just giving a little bit of
923s direction with regards to expectations
924s for Alpha 2 but we will talk about that
927s after the event showcase
929s all right
931s see ya on the flip side
953s hello everyone and welcome to another
956s live stream from the Glorious world of
959s Vera and we have an exciting showcase to
962s give you all today we're going to be
964s talking about our event system and I am
968s actually joined by three of our
970s absolutely wonderful developers with
973s whom you've spoken with in the past on
975s some other live streams we have one of
978s our glorious Engineers Clayton Clayton
980s oh absolutely wonderful glorious what an
983s introduction I'm doing great I know
984s really somebody really so many words to
987s show off all of our hard work so
990s very excited to see it with you and
992s excited to chat with the community about
993s it I know you guys have been doing a lot
995s of hard work on this we also have two of
998s our wonderful designers uh Scott how you
1001s doing buddy excellent I'm very excited
1003s to be here
1004s yay and Amy Amy how are you doing hi I'm
1007s good last time I was here we took down
1009s two marks so I'm I'm ready today I'm
1011s playing cleric again so um yeah I got
1014s your back
1015s thank you I okay so you heard it here
1018s first folks if I die
1021s it's of course not my fault it would be
1025s the clerical no
1026s um but okay so where where are we we are
1029s in a familiar biome uh many of you guys
1032s should be expecting where we are we are
1034s in the wonderful riverlands
1036s yep we are a little bit
1038s east of the last live streaming location
1040s which was Winstead node
1043s um yeah I see Carfin in the distance
1044s Carfin is even further east from
1046s Winstead so we're kind of sandwiched
1048s between Winstead and Carfin right now
1050s um no big curse happening right now so
1053s it's a nice day out okay so it's a nice
1055s day out there's not like any type of
1057s blood curse or Undead roaming the area
1058s no not at the moment no
1060s okay very cool and what are we doing
1063s here in the riverlands talk to me a
1066s little bit about what has brought us out
1068s here and I'm going to jump off my my
1069s glorious Steed here while we talk about
1071s it absolutely so uh we're actually just
1074s out here to uh kill some mobs grind some
1076s experience get some get some resources
1078s maybe out of the land here and uh
1081s eventually
1082s um the world should react to that and we
1085s could potentially create an event here
1087s I see a a web weaver so okay so our
1091s objective right now is
1093s um we're going to be showing off
1095s obviously the event system and part of
1097s that event system is that it can take a
1101s whole host of different predicates to
1102s kind of kick off different types of
1104s events Clayton talk to me a little bit
1106s about what that oh he's on me he's on
1108s yeah as soon as I'm not dying but yeah
1112s so uh the event system uh it can query
1116s uh a lot of different aspects of the
1119s dynamic World state right now it's
1121s actually just tracking player activity
1122s in the world uh and uh you know for this
1125s event in particular and uh it's looking
1129s for us to kill some stuff so we're out
1130s here killing some stuff and eventually
1132s the event should trigger once uh it's
1134s detected enough player activity
1137s very cool and and these and these this
1140s type of predicate that is the
1141s essentially the activity map for killing
1145s yeah the activity Maps that's not the
1147s only way that these events can get
1148s kicked off there's a whole host of
1149s different ways that they can also yeah
1151s for sure yeah so we we have a really
1154s really awesome system that the designers
1155s have access to uh that lets them uh hook
1159s into really any Dynamic World State and
1162s use that to inform the instantiation or
1164s even just like the progression of uh any
1167s event
1171s very cool yeah these spiders are gross
1174s Scott what are what are some uh plans
1177s that you have for uh different
1179s predicates for uh instantiating some of
1182s these events yeah so obviously we just
1184s got this kind of generic sort of kill
1187s one here uh that we can use for all
1189s sorts of different things for tracking
1190s player activity
1191s um no Big Bear time uh we also are
1194s looking at the amount of resources that
1195s players can Harvest as a predicate we
1198s have
1199s uh story arcs that are going on so
1201s active stores could cause different
1203s events to start yeah um trade Caravans
1206s happening relationships between
1207s different nodes and also just the state
1209s of the nodes themselves I'll even let
1212s him beat me up here because it's kind of
1215s cool he's charging you yeah
1219s he will throw you around those Bears can
1222s can really catch you off guard if you
1224s let them
1225s okay
1227s so I see that a nearby event has started
1230s the predicate has been met
1232s yep oh and I see now on the mini map we
1235s have a little bit of a location for it
1237s yeah so just south of us here um
1240s we were just kind of uh the event has
1243s kind of kicked off because of the just
1245s us killing stuffer in the area here
1247s yeah and we might see some visual
1249s indicators over the hill here in a
1252s second
1253s and so when when one of these events
1255s kick off it's not just obviously
1257s notifying players based off of their
1258s proximity with uh the mini map and with
1261s the you know UI toast that pops up but
1263s also as you said Clayton we have a
1265s visual indicator in world that's also
1267s rooting the the event as well yeah for
1269s sure uh you know Scott can could
1271s probably touch on you know uh the
1273s diegetic nature of all of our narrative
1275s content and the the goals there but
1279s uh oh wait hold on before we get too
1282s close I'm seeing that there's some gray
1284s Shore archers and a Grace or Grace or
1287s swordsman
1289s okay all right oh should I join this
1292s event as a Defender team definitely yes
1294s that'll allow if some other players do
1298s come around while we're playing that'll
1300s allow them to uh join the event raid
1304s group with us so we've effectively taken
1306s the party that we had pre-formed and and
1308s merged that uh into uh a new raid group
1313s okay I slept a couple of these
1316s um of the highway captains there's some
1319s of them on the settlers right now okay
1322s and the settlers are an objective type
1325s that exists within this particular
1326s archery exactly what I mean yeah oh my
1331s God there's a lot yeah no they're
1332s sniping from up on top of the rocks
1335s thanks Amy oh I see
1338s I see I'm sorry I'm gonna go put the
1339s long spots down oh god oh no no no no
1342s okay the event difficulty didn't change
1344s though
1358s we're distracting the the bandits from
1360s the settlers right now so that's good
1362s none of them have died it's Caravan
1364s Integrity is good
1366s um
1368s okay I see the Caravan Integrity on the
1371s uh on the event note uh notification
1374s window it looks like they're mostly just
1376s going for the settlers right now
1378s oh no those poor settlers we've we've
1381s kept them up
1382s nope I just saw one die oh God two of
1384s them two of them went out at once
1390s I shouldn't have mentioned it they would
1392s have been fine
1393s so our objective here is to protect
1395s these settlers while we eliminate 20 of
1398s these hot women
1400s okay okay
1402s but there's probably another wave coming
1405s yes there's still some Shore there's
1407s still some gray short people around I
1409s see is some of them coming from uh
1411s Northeast there's an arsonist coming oh
1413s there we go there we go
1415s oh and some from uh downhill Northwest
1417s too Scott why are they coming from the
1420s north
1421s so we're actually pretty near one of our
1423s pois which is actually under Bandit
1426s control uh the apathy named Highwayman
1429s Hills is just over the corner just
1431s around the corner here
1432s um so they'll be attacking NPCs kind of
1435s in this area until such a time as uh
1437s players deal with it via story arc
1445s guys alive right
1447s okay all right we did it
1449s all right okay did you survive okay so
1452s it says prepare for the final assault so
1455s this is this is a stage based off of our
1457s kind of
1458s our our progress our activity our our
1460s success what is this yeah so we just we
1463s defeated the requisite number of of
1465s bandages which is going to progress the
1469s stage here and and during this stage
1471s here we can reset some of the traps that
1473s the bandits used to initially destroy
1476s the Convoy and we can use those against
1477s the bandits in the next phase which is
1479s actually more difficult so
1482s yeah we'll definitely need them uh
1485s whenever they they the bandits do come
1487s with reinforcements they're probably
1489s going to be bringing their best so
1491s especially because we have more players
1493s now so the difficulty of the event will
1495s be more when there are more players and
1496s of course like all things in ashes the
1499s more difficult to challenge the better
1500s the rewards and also uh you know our
1503s clerics can have some time to heal up
1506s the the settlers and uh you know
1509s hopefully set us up for Success whenever
1511s the next round does come in
1514s and how do we how do we leverage the
1516s reward system how are people you know
1518s getting calculated what rewards they
1520s should get uh so for events like this we
1523s have kind of a number of metrics that we
1526s can use I think we're going to be doing
1528s a lot of testing to figure out what the
1529s best metrics are because there are some
1530s ups and downs using like pure the amount
1533s of damage you've done you know in the in
1534s the raids and stuff like that um and
1536s we're also look like more relaxed things
1538s like how much time you spent you know
1539s participating in the event whether
1541s that's doing damage or healing allies
1543s and things like that as a as a
1545s percentage of the total time of the
1546s event
1547s um they all have their drawbacks and
1548s benefits some are
1549s uh you know we got to be careful about
1551s it yeah
1553s um but yeah we'll just count up the
1554s contribution however we end up balancing
1556s that and then we have different tiers of
1558s rewards that are given to each
1561s individual player based off of their uh
1563s contribution score in the event as it
1565s works right now it is just simply a
1567s matter of how much time you've
1568s participated in the event as a
1569s percentage of the total time of the
1571s event
1572s very nice and and so as that kind of as
1575s that winds down people will be you know
1577s granted a gold silver bronze tier kind
1580s of reward status and that will be the
1583s entitlement for the types of rewards
1584s they get from these events exactly and
1586s really that that's just going to
1587s determine the reward table that they're
1589s going to get and then each player is
1590s going to roll their own reward table uh
1592s independently
1594s very nice I hope I'm gonna get rewarded
1596s for all the healing I'm doing yeah yeah
1598s uh Amy you deserve it
1601s raid leader yep uh our timer is up and
1605s Corvin the crusher appears to be on the
1608s way
1608s oh God he's coming all right we're gonna
1611s need healing almost immediately
1616s oh my God there's a lot I'm
1618s I'll leave some of them
1621s oh never mind there's multiple balls of
1623s lightning
1624s see if I can line this up right
1628s he's gonna try and use the perhaps as
1630s best I can
1636s man this is really great I am on fire
1639s wait we have them in a choke point right
1640s now we definitely want to keep them away
1641s oh there's birds we want to keep them
1643s away from the Caravan and in this choke
1645s point
1646s I got him to trigger the Tripper here
1647s I'm hitting them with a lot of aoes
1649s right now
1651s and the only objective here as you can
1653s see from the tracker is to kill Corbin
1655s uh so until Corbin goes down yep uh I'm
1659s trying to prioritize their healing and
1661s DPS so that we can have a better chance
1664s here I think with with the uh
1667s The Raid group of eight we seem to be
1669s set up for Success here
1671s uh Corbin the crusher Amy uh Scott would
1675s either of you want to touch on uh the uh
1677s event difficulty tier and what we intend
1680s to do with that as more players join the
1682s event
1684s as soon as people join in I yep
1688s more difficult
1693s I don't know if you thought but we had a
1695s toast saying that the event has
1697s progressed from its original state as a
1701s group event to a rage level event that
1704s was a veteran
1705s that are level in the first that comes
1707s with them or challenges more optional
1710s objectives but also uh
1713s more rewards so it's never it's never
1715s going to be like a bother to have other
1718s people join you it's uh it's all part of
1721s uh part of being in a like multiplayer
1725s environment is you know the more friends
1727s join up with you the better
1731s yeah you know I think it's uh cool that
1734s you touched on the rewards because yeah
1735s the the designers have have the ability
1739s you know just from a technical
1740s perspective to use the difficulty tier
1742s however they like in the event they can
1744s modify any aspect of the event's
1746s difficulty or even you know the the
1748s reward that you're you're getting they
1749s can query that in the reward table data
1753s we're doing pretty good here this
1754s Caravan hasn't really been taking much
1755s damage at all yeah people hold them off
1757s pretty well yeah the tank was able to
1759s intercept them at that choke point so
1762s yeah that's going to be working too this
1764s Elite healer is rough
1767s yeah that should be very hard to kill
1769s some of the gray Shore Swordsmen and The
1772s Archers are still alive
1774s we can change that we have the
1776s technology
1778s ah there we go
1781s we win
1784s congratulations is there Rewards well
1787s you know there's also a grateful settler
1789s here presenting us the the reward uh
1791s maybe he has something to say let me
1793s talk to him
1795s greetings grateful settler
1798s praise aryak
1801s they might have killed us without your
1803s intervention please help yourself I will
1805s help myself thank you what type of
1807s supplies are we talking about oh you're
1809s one of those Heroes
1811s unbelievable this was a difficult a
1814s difficult uh task you know you you just
1818s head over to Highwayman Hills and join
1820s the bandits Stephen unbelievable claim
1822s unbelievable I'm a hero in this I'm a
1825s mayor of a local network oh my God
1827s a shame it came to violence we are
1830s hopeful we could leave that behind on
1832s Sanctus okay yeah I want you know I'm
1834s hopeful of that too but you know
1835s sometimes we can't just get what we hope
1837s for so Whoa We got some wool
1841s yep we got some more okay I got some
1846s wool you're also granted uh on the
1848s events completion you're granted like a
1849s little stipend of golden experience just
1851s right away uh but items that can be
1853s looted off your body they have to come
1854s from like reward chest so every event
1856s will have its own little reward cash at
1858s the end of it you'll grab your materials
1860s items from and I
1863s as my reward why'd you get Tim
1865s Ember uh well that it rolled I got that
1868s uh reward from my reward table maybe I I
1871s participated better than you so I got a
1872s better resource
1874s how dare he is
1875s I was out there doing a lot of work uh
1878s and uh Scott this this NPC he's also
1881s configured to actually uh interface with
1883s some of the story art content too right
1884s if the story arcs were online it's true
1886s yeah I think they it is online actually
1888s it's just not active check it out check
1890s it again Stephen
1892s oh okay where am I going uh talk to the
1893s guy again I think you might have missed
1894s a dialogue option okay here we go okay
1896s okay the tough one who are these people
1898s why were they who are these people let's
1900s see they're desperate folks who prowl
1904s the hills captain
1906s udoxia in lionhold is looking into the
1909s matter I should seek her out and find if
1911s there is a better way I could help
1912s around here you know what I will do oh
1914s okay here we go
1917s uh
1919s L I see
1921s a lot of different placeholder rewards A
1925s Bridge Too Far yeah they're the rewards
1927s for the for a lot of the quests are
1929s still not uh fully done yet uh
1933s the events do hook into all of our story
1935s art content so if there are store Works
1937s online we can like since our quests are
1939s non-linear events can help you kind of
1942s into those quests
1943s um if they're online this event can
1945s happen whether or not the historic is
1946s online but if it is you can pick up the
1949s like uh lead into that Quest from him um
1953s if you're not you know if you haven't
1954s been to line hold in a while since the
1955s story arc has started
1956s very cool and so obviously
1959s um you know people saw a little bit
1960s during this event that the Adaptive
1964s Difficulty was predicated on the number
1966s of participants that opt into uh to
1971s partake in this event right
1973s yes so as more players join
1976s um the the event does get more difficult
1978s with we went from the regular mobs to
1981s the elite mobs
1982s um in corvin's entourage some of them
1985s can be
1986s you know more uh more enemies to fight
1989s some can have completely different
1990s stages or mechanics depending on which
1993s what the event actually is and and what
1995s your objectives are for that event
1997s and these these events are based off of
2001s different predicates within the world
2002s state so for example this particular
2004s event was a caravan that was moving
2006s throughout the world and as you as we
2007s said in the beginning it was based off
2009s of the activity heat map of players
2010s within this area but this type of event
2013s this Caravan event that was transiting
2015s Goods uh popped up because nearby nodes
2018s may have either been advancing the
2020s relationship between each other or there
2022s might have been a trade Caravan that got
2024s kicked off in the past and we're
2026s representing kind of that
2028s um that theming within the World by
2030s these event types correct yes so events
2033s are predicated by things that players
2035s are doing whether that is no development
2037s uh you know trade agreements between
2038s nodes
2039s um
2040s all of it like relationship between
2042s nodes I mean um so it could be more than
2043s just that could be War States or
2046s anything like that as well so so cool I
2048s noticed that even though we succeeded in
2051s the event we're still in our event raid
2052s group Scott what's the thought behind
2054s that are we supposed to go and adventure
2055s with our new group right now
2057s if we so desire yeah the event ending
2061s doesn't dissolve the open party for the
2063s event the open parties have some sort of
2065s default
2067s uh like party configurations that can't
2069s be changed so they'll be stuck with a
2070s group Loot and stuff like that
2072s um but we do try to encourage people to
2074s continue to stick together and play
2075s together
2076s um the game the game is hard so uh
2079s it's good to play with friends yeah I
2082s just left the raid I don't want to play
2083s with you
2084s he's going to join the bandits I called
2087s it yes I'm looking for The Highwayman
2089s Hill band yeah
2091s very cool okay and then obviously we saw
2094s during the event um there are obviously
2096s multiple stages that exist each of those
2097s stages having Unique Mechanics
2099s associated with them
2100s um there are a lot of different types of
2102s events I me that you and the narrative
2105s team and Scott that you guys are working
2106s on creating each of those events types
2109s will have different similar stages like
2111s we saw there was a trap stage here that
2112s we can set up is it intended that these
2115s stages are going to provide players with
2116s kind of downtime to recuperate and also
2119s perhaps set up and strategize how they
2121s want to address the upcoming challenge
2124s well I I don't really know about you but
2126s I'm I'm my heart speeding right now I
2129s feel like we've been challenged and uh
2132s of course there's going to be moments
2133s where um there are uh like uh less less
2137s uh
2139s thing challenges which rely Less on your
2142s class kit than usual but I think that in
2144s general if you want to like really get
2146s down and understand the story and the
2148s appreciate the world and then probably
2151s uh you're gonna want to focus more in
2154s the story arcs where you can take things
2156s at your own pace
2158s we have we have some events that do
2160s other things like there could be some
2162s that are just puzzles
2163s we have an event in here that is
2166s actually just like you can attend a
2167s funeral for just an NPC that can pop up
2171s and there isn't actually any combat to
2173s do in that one rewards are adequately
2176s scaled but there are events in here that
2177s are just kind of for flavor and for
2179s fleshing out the world a little bit too
2180s that you can participate in and learn
2181s more about yeah I think there are going
2183s to be some moments where where um you
2185s might be like frustrated that an event
2187s is like obscuring something that you
2188s want to get to like a
2190s NPC that you need to talk to for your
2193s request or something so then then
2195s Gathering people to help you is going to
2197s be really useful
2199s awesome very cool and that that event
2201s there at the last stage had
2203s um kind of like a little mini boss dude
2205s um is that kind of a component of all
2208s events that you guys are intending to
2210s incorporate or just kind of some events
2211s will have those mini bosses some will
2213s have them uh there's gonna be a whole
2215s lot of these and they're going to be at
2218s different tiers of of Challenge and uh
2221s you know kind of I guess uh
2224s like power level tiers
2227s um you know they're not all going to be
2229s you know defeating the you know
2232s end-all Dragon being at the end um some
2235s are just you know about helping people
2236s there's some are about
2238s um
2239s uh just building up the world of error
2241s which is a very difficult and
2242s challenging place as people are trying
2243s to resettle it there's
2245s um there's all kinds of tiers for
2247s different levels of heroism
2248s um
2249s and helping the small time people to
2251s Downing giant foes and these are
2254s obviously a bit different than what
2256s people have seen previously with Carfin
2258s where we showed off kind of the story
2259s arc system that fundamentally changes a
2262s particular location or area for an
2265s extended period of time that exists
2266s within stages that are might be
2268s multi-days in length these are more
2271s bite-sized kind of digestible end-to-end
2274s 20-minute gameplay right right
2276s definitely a shorter than a story arc
2278s which yeah as you mentioned before is
2280s meant to be taken kind of at a slower
2281s Pace
2282s um can your individual path through the
2285s story arc is a little bit more measured
2287s like you're less reliant on
2290s like the pace of the actual story arc
2291s it's more about your own personal Paces
2293s through the quests and then as the story
2295s arc advances
2296s over time like over the course of days
2299s then you you know can dive back into it
2301s and get more involved in it again
2303s very cool and then if there are people
2306s who you know might be
2310s um problematic to a particular event
2312s like this gendrach guy oh okay
2316s I think it's triggering like this
2318s gingrac guy we could like you know
2321s attack them or something right oh sure
2323s we could yes
2324s you were aligned with the bandits Maybe
2327s uh and there are some events that do
2330s have you pick sides in PvP yeah uh you
2332s know whenever Stephen joined this event
2334s uh he had one option to just merge us
2336s into the event raid group this was a PVE
2338s event uh but there are going to be
2340s events with uh sanctioned PVP where
2344s there are multiple team options to join
2347s got it got it got it got it okay very
2350s cool well
2352s I'll let jindrak live this time guys
2354s that was a super exciting uh event
2356s showcase I know that the community love
2358s to kind of see this stuff obviously
2360s events are an integral component of
2361s making the world feel uh kind of dynamic
2364s and representative of what is happening
2366s around the area it gives people insight
2368s into particular locations and the type
2372s of activities that might be occurring
2373s but it also gives really interesting
2375s ways for us as players to interact with
2377s that environment and affect change as
2379s well and be rewarded for that uh
2381s activity I think it's super cool you
2383s guys done a great job with standing up
2385s the event system and populating the
2387s world of really compelling activities so
2389s thank you for showing us a little bit of
2391s the work you guys have been doing
2393s towards Alpha 2. I know that the
2395s community loves it and we'll be back on
2397s stream to talk a little bit more about
2399s this
2400s all right thanks guys for having me
2401s Stephen bye thanks Steven absolutely bye
2403s everybody
2406s foreign
2411s welcome back why'd you say whoops oh my
2415s light went out
2417s in the in the office it went out right
2419s at the end there oh no hopefully the
2421s internet's gonna be okay it's just yeah
2424s I will play the video in the background
2427s so yeah very cool uh watch that we do
2429s have some questions from chat
2431s um about some things so one of the
2433s things was
2435s um to kind of set expectations for
2437s parties
2438s um we did talk about how when you
2440s disband a party or when you uh end it
2444s you know we do encourage you to group up
2446s and stay together but people are
2448s wondering if they have to like fully
2450s reform their parties or what the plan is
2452s in regards to that
2454s yeah so um there is an option as we said
2457s at the end to kind of stick around in
2458s that raid and to go off and do some
2460s additional things with each other
2461s obviously we want to encourage players
2463s to kind of cooperate and work with one
2465s another that is an MMO after all and
2468s that is the name of the game
2469s um but at the same time if people want
2471s to convert back into a party or if they
2473s want to move from that raid they are
2474s more than welcome to do so all right and
2477s then what happens if someone joins the
2478s event and then like
2480s goes M.I.A
2483s goes to get a coffee goes to the
2484s bathroom leaves does that still keep the
2488s difficulty
2490s uh yeah so there there is a way that we
2493s kind of um heat map player activity
2495s during the event to help inform that
2497s difficulty it's not just going to be
2498s based purely off of the number of
2500s participants within the area within the
2502s raid that's something that is dynamic
2504s and scales accordingly but the idea here
2507s is that you know we can't necessarily
2509s predict the number of players that are
2511s going to be participating in these types
2513s of events of course because not only is
2515s it opt-in but it's also kind of
2517s situationally and locationally relevant
2520s to uh the player activity now those
2523s events kicked off based off of local
2525s player activity as you saw here were
2526s killing the Bears we're killing the
2528s spiders that was one of the predicates
2529s that kind of kicked this local event off
2531s the event Was Then thematically relevant
2533s to kind of activities that were
2535s happening around the The Zone and that
2537s was like relationship between nodes that
2539s was progressing that caused this theming
2541s to be about a
2543s um a caravan being assaulted by Bandits
2546s for supplies and so it kind of gives you
2548s a touch point to the rest of the world
2550s and what's happening there but we want
2553s to scale that difficulty to a degree
2555s right we're not talking about like
2556s scaling up the player's power scaling
2558s down the power of the NPCs but rather
2561s how many additional spawners start to
2563s activate what different types of NPCs
2565s start to join are they going to be
2567s Elites is there the boss right those
2569s types of those types of things are
2572s scalable as part of the event system
2575s Google and then uh are you able to heal
2579s the Caravan settlers and things like
2581s that I know that you were
2583s um but we want to clarify like that you
2586s do need to protect them to some extent
2588s are there implications for if you don't
2590s like if a bunch of people die that
2592s you're supposed to be guarding will you
2594s get less reward what's that for sure
2596s there is the ability to fail uh I know
2599s that that is a strange concept for a lot
2602s of us nowadays playing more modern games
2604s but there is absolutely a way to fail
2608s um and some of those ways include how
2610s you're going to expend resources not
2612s just for your fellow players but for
2615s some of the objectives that might be
2616s present within the event as well and
2619s those resources that mainly being your
2621s Mana in this circumstance with regards
2623s to Healing those
2624s um those NPCs is I think a relevant and
2628s interesting component that makes it a
2629s little bit more dynamic
2632s all right and then do the events have
2635s cooldowns or could players Force the
2637s event to spawn endlessly
2641s um events absolutely do have cooldowns
2643s that cannot be forced to spawn uh
2645s repeatedly over and over again
2647s um those cooldowns are not just
2649s something that's based on a timer
2650s they're also predicated on certain
2653s actions occurring within the world once
2655s more or at different times and so again
2658s the most important thing about this
2660s system is that when we're talking about
2663s you know being out in a hunting grounds
2665s or being out you know transiting across
2668s the world these events are constantly
2671s popping up around the zones right and
2674s they kind of follow player activity and
2676s movement and there's a whole host of
2679s different types of events from a Content
2681s standpoint that reflect to the state of
2683s the world
2684s um
2685s and so it's important that like as
2687s players are doing these things these are
2689s additional levels of experience grants
2692s and reward tables that can be accessible
2695s based off of cooperation with other
2697s players in the area
2699s all right and then
2702s um the last one here is what would have
2705s happened if the raid group failed the
2707s event I know that you talked a little
2708s bit about this before
2711s um but
2712s would something have happened sure if we
2714s wouldn't have said yeah so so events
2717s that get kicked off
2719s um if you would not have saved everybody
2721s if this event would have failed and
2722s actually it failed many times in testing
2724s but
2726s um if this event would have failed it
2728s would have contributed to a world State
2730s tracker right and and events kind of can
2734s roll
2736s the event outcome can inform other
2740s events as predicates as well right and
2743s when you get enough events that are
2744s being failed
2747s when you get enough events that are
2749s being failed that can trigger a bigger
2751s event and uh when a bigger event fails
2754s that can trigger potentially a story arc
2756s and that can trigger potentially
2760s um uh atrophy events like there's it's a
2763s cascading foundational system that
2766s serves to predicate how other instances
2770s of dynamic reactive world
2774s activities respond to player choices
2778s player efforts player successes and
2782s failures right what we're building is a
2784s very comprehensive responsive world and
2786s I know a lot of times in different games
2788s you hear the buzzwords of like Dynamic
2790s and responsive and reactive and you know
2793s whatever but we are building the
2796s mechanics to inform those systems from a
2799s very scaling foundational perspective
2802s which can culminate into big
2806s server changing things happening right
2810s and this is at the very ground level of
2813s that overarching system you guys saw a
2816s little bit of the story arc system with
2817s Carfin and how it fundamentally changed
2820s the visuals of that of that area
2823s but what can help inform carfin's story
2826s arc kicking off is how these smaller
2829s feeding events what the outcome of those
2832s are right so so that's that's how we get
2835s the world that feels
2838s respective of player action yeah there's
2841s things that happen that have a Domino's
2843s effect of other things happening and
2845s depending on how that thing happened it
2847s may change and it doesn't always have to
2849s be the same things that are always
2851s happening this is why when we said that
2853s every
2853s server will kind of pretty much be very
2857s very different from another server it
2859s would be very very unlikely that they
2861s will be exactly the same and in the same
2863s state because you'd have to take very
2866s specific actions at the same time to
2868s make those things uh line up that way of
2872s course the video that we have will be up
2874s in 4k so if you want to see that you can
2876s head on over to our YouTube channel
2878s after the stream it will be able to
2880s stand up and move around so I can get my
2881s life yeah because the motion lights
2882s someone should someone at the office
2885s come wave around
2892s that's funny you don't move fast enough
2894s you're like sloth mode
2896s and of course we also have a form of
2899s event update feedback thread as well so
2902s if you have any thoughts after watching
2904s this and of course after you look able
2906s to like kind of move things around on
2907s the live stream or watch it either on
2909s Twitch or YouTube
2911s um you can feel free to toss your
2912s feedback our way we of course will be
2915s compiling a report for development in
2917s order to ensure that they get all the
2919s information from what you guys what your
2921s thoughts are so share those with us
2924s and with that we shall move over to
2927s Studio update
2931s Studio update yes
2934s um it's funny actually I was watching in
2937s chat somebody said how can I become a
2939s developer for this yes
2943s that's a nice little segue
2946s um yeah uh Studio update things are
2948s going great at the studio We are
2949s continuing to grow we are ending our
2954s um our Milestone actually this week
2956s actually I think it ended the band of
2958s last week we are currently transitioning
2960s into our next Milestone right now 29th
2962s today 29th oh it ends today that's right
2965s um and next week we are having about 20
2969s room 20 of our remote employees are
2971s flying in for our Milestone 7
2973s preparation and kickoff uh in San Diego
2976s and we're gonna have some fun events uh
2978s with the team doing some bowling nights
2982s and some uh uh full day reviews of our
2985s Milestone and play testing and
2988s um it is an exciting time here at the
2990s studio and I want to take a moment to
2995s um
2997s I want to take a moment to talk a little
2999s bit about the state of our industry
3003s um and you know be respective of the
3005s fact that
3007s um you know not everywhere in the gaming
3009s industry in the tech industry in general
3011s right now the economy is obviously uh a
3014s point of concern there's a lot of
3015s layoffs that have been happening and and
3017s it is a it is a very unfortunate and
3019s terrible thing of course I made a little
3021s bit of a statement on Twitter yesterday
3023s and on LinkedIn
3024s um you know our hearts go out to those
3027s individuals and and it is and it is an
3030s incredible experience to be a part of
3032s teams that create the magic that games
3034s are because really they are magical I
3037s mean games are
3038s um games are a very important part of
3042s our lives right it is important to have
3044s a work-life balance and part of of
3046s everyone out there who are in this
3048s audience that that it get to have down
3050s time and experience games with their
3052s friends and their families and and and
3053s and kind of de-stress with that it takes
3056s a lot to make those things and it takes
3059s a lot of effort and dedication and
3062s commitment and when things outside of
3065s your control and outside of your power
3066s impact your ability to do that it's
3068s obviously a moment of pause and
3070s reflection and Intrepid in intends and
3074s strives to be one of those places that
3076s takes
3078s um that takes sustainable growth
3081s practices as part of building up our
3085s company and our team in the efforts to
3088s deliver this product now of course MMOs
3091s are the biggest game you can make our
3094s MMORPG is probably one of the more
3096s ambitious ones and from the get-go we
3100s knew and you guys knew from a community
3102s perspective that this was going to be a
3104s journey and it continues to be that but
3106s every time we onboard a new person to
3109s this company to our team to our Intrepid
3112s family and I know that's a hot button
3113s issue to even use that word sometimes in
3115s a work setting but I I that is the type
3118s of feeling we we try to achieve at
3121s Intrepid every time we onboard someone
3124s new
3125s we do so with the conscious effort to to
3129s to to know what the end goal is in our
3132s development journey and to treat that
3135s team member that family member
3137s um with the type of of respect for their
3141s work and
3144s um
3145s and participation in this project right
3147s and so if you know somebody that's been
3149s impacted uh by these layoffs recently if
3153s if you guys are are in the ecosphere of
3156s of Twitter and or LinkedIn of these
3158s developers who are some of your favorite
3159s developers that have worked on projects
3161s in the past and you've seen the the
3163s product of their toils
3165s um then make sure to send them a message
3167s and let them know that we exist that
3169s ashes of creation is a project and that
3171s we have a lot of positions that are open
3174s um and if they don't see a position
3176s that's open they can go to
3177s intrepidstudios.com to our careers page
3179s and they can submit their resume and
3181s their portfolio and experience and we
3183s will
3184s spend the time and effort in order to
3187s evaluate their potential on the team so
3190s um you know that is that is something
3192s that I think is important and it's a
3194s it's a rough time out there right now
3195s for sure and our hearts go out to the
3197s people that are impacted by some of
3199s these layoffs but
3200s um but things are looking good here at
3201s Intrepid Studios and we continue to move
3203s forward in their next milestone is going
3205s to be a big one and with that being said
3210s well I I would yeah I think that I have
3213s some notes here too from our HR team
3214s which I'm not going to share everything
3216s they gave me because some of that is
3217s like private information for us but I
3219s think one of the cool things is I'm a
3221s data junkie as someone who does a lot of
3223s marketing stuff
3225s um we have an insanely great attrition
3229s rate comparatively to the industry so I
3231s mean for us we're at like 3.4 people are
3234s going to come and go they're going to
3235s have reasons why they want to maybe
3236s they're going to get paid more at
3238s another company or they they want a
3240s different type of job and we don't have
3241s that available for them although we do
3243s accommodate quite greatly for people
3246s um or they want to be 3.4 though that's
3249s not bad what's the industry average the
3252s software development or the the global
3255s average is 38.9 and the software
3260s development specifically is 57.3 so we
3264s are we are extremely low because people
3267s really do enjoy working here and I know
3269s it is cliche when it sounds cliche when
3271s you say family but Stephen and John
3273s really treat us all like family like
3275s there is love and care there that I have
3278s not always had at other companies so
3279s thank you well absolutely we we love you
3283s and we love our team and
3285s um it is something special that I think
3287s we built here at this company and it
3289s definitely feels like that
3291s um I think it would be great for us to
3295s talk a little bit about a common
3297s discussion point that obviously you and
3300s the community end so we're gonna do that
3301s before the art oh before oh okay okay my
3304s bad I'm sorry we can do it no we can do
3306s it we can do it now okay okay yeah do it
3307s now
3309s so wild in you guys as you guys know we
3313s have reserved our
3316s um uh uh announcement for dates until we
3319s are certain that we can hit them we've
3321s we've been burned in the past with that
3323s we took our licking because we learned
3325s no more dates Stephen until correct this
3327s happened I've been a good boy I've been
3329s a very good
3331s I haven't said any dates
3334s um and what I would like to do is as I
3336s see often in the community with a lot of
3340s different
3341s um uh conversations with content
3343s creators you know when is Alpha 2 going
3345s to be is it this year is it next year is
3348s it you know 20 30 you know kind of uh
3352s wild speculation that I think
3355s um I have attempted to address by saying
3357s Alpha 2 is not years away but it's also
3360s not right around the corner
3362s um and so as we grow closer to Alpha 2
3366s we will give a definitive date the next
3370s time you hear from us about when Alpha 2
3372s is going to be it's probably going to be
3374s delegated to a particular quarter and
3376s then when we're probably a few months
3378s away we will have the date in mind but
3380s for now I can definitively tell you that
3384s Alpha 2 is going to be and Q
3389s the video
3404s oh
3406s we're back
3409s hey that wasn't too bad that was pretty
3411s good so guys we can say that from now on
3414s when people talk to you about what Alpha
3416s 2 is going to be it is no longer a
3419s question of if but when next year Alpha
3423s 2 will be rolled out for public testing
3425s we have a number of different testing
3427s events that are going to be
3428s participating uh over there
3430s clarifications absolutely and includes
3433s some of that so yes the exact date as
3435s Steven said will be provided in a future
3436s uh in the future and of course when we
3439s do provide that date we will also give
3442s you guys further information in regards
3443s to testing schedule what's included in
3446s Alpha 2 because I know that that's where
3447s this is going to go next
3449s um and uh also the NDA spot testing that
3453s will be before Alpha two we will we will
3456s have first one with our PI members then
3458s we'll have some with our Alpha One users
3461s and then our Alpha 2 users and of course
3463s Alpha 2 will not be NDA but that's spot
3467s testing will be NDA yes so keep that in
3469s mind and then note that Alpha 2 is only
3472s accessible for players who have Alpha to
3475s access so just because you had Alpha One
3476s axis does not mean that you will have
3478s Alpha 2 X's to make sure that you do
3480s have Alpha two axis in your inventory
3482s it'll say Alpha two if you do but you
3486s will be able to partake in pre-tests
3488s because that's technically still Alpha
3489s One yes absolutely and guys I want to
3493s talk to you
3494s a little bit about setting expectations
3496s right appropriately
3498s um
3499s anytime you're delivering a software as
3502s as big as even what Alpha 2 is there's
3505s going to be bumps there's going to be
3507s hiccups there's going to be things that
3509s we don't account for
3511s that's just the nature of the Beast
3514s um part of that is many communities
3517s don't have an opportunity to see those
3518s bumps and hiccups because projects keep
3521s things very tight to the chest we have
3523s since the get-go decided not to take
3525s that approach and instead take the good
3529s bad and ugly approach which is you guys
3531s get to see uh that stuff and so as we're
3535s moving towards Alpha 2 in 2024 you can
3539s expect to see part of our development
3541s updates we'll be showcasing of course
3542s continually these systems you know some
3544s of those systems will be very big some
3546s of those systems will be smaller but our
3548s intent is to get feedback on them and
3550s kind of get experiential feedback
3551s especially so that we can help inform
3553s the revisions and the iterations that we
3555s do to them that's why we do these
3557s development updates right it's not just
3559s Margaret and I love being here with you
3561s guys and being a part of this process
3563s but we don't do it because we love it we
3565s do it because it is an integral
3567s component of making a good product right
3570s um and and that is our our philosophy so
3573s with that being said
3575s um I can hopefully now put to rest some
3578s of the question marks that arise out of
3581s the when is Alpha 2 going to be we
3582s definitively they're still going to ask
3584s I know January 1st goes and be like so
3589s what day is it
3591s discussion out of the realm of years
3593s into the realm of months which month is
3595s it gonna be right yeah so so that is
3598s that is I think a positive out and like
3600s what Stephen said we will our next
3602s update will give you a quarter and then
3604s we will provide dates after that so just
3606s keep that in mind there is going to be a
3610s progression of that information
3612s absolutely absolutely yeah very cool
3615s what a time to be alive I know this has
3618s been it has been wild a wild uh time in
3622s general for all of us
3624s um but yeah do I miss anything else on
3625s the studio update uh yeah I think we got
3628s we got everything so art stuff look at
3631s pretty art stuff let's do it yeah let's
3633s do it let's look at Art
3635s um no I just got a message from our web
3636s team that the website is currently
3638s getting hit hard
3645s the packages are going to be available
3647s till January 17th so so it'll be okay
3652s um I probably shouldn't have said that
3653s on the Stream
3656s or the the career page people might have
3659s been going to that too so
3661s um first and foremost we've got the
3662s deepwood uh syrinx drinks I think is
3665s what it's called uh it's like an
3667s instrument of some sort
3669s um which is really cool and that now has
3671s has its model and you may have seen
3675s these little potion traps on the ground
3678s that were created
3680s um I love seeing the work in progress uh
3682s images so I always like sharing that
3684s stuff with you guys and so that's what
3686s access to this and this is what you saw
3688s in
3690s um in the game yeah very cool and then
3694s we've got the notice by the way notice
3697s the kind of styling of the magical
3700s fantasy the kind of magical realism not
3702s so much too far on the steampunk side
3705s not too much magic Tech side but you
3708s know still keeping Steven doesn't like
3709s it's a high fantasy you know it's not
3712s that I don't like it I think that
3713s there's a lot of really cool interesting
3715s kind of Steampunk
3717s um iteration that's done in these games
3719s it's just I'm a hat I'm a high fantasy
3722s guy yeah we had some like designers who
3725s were trying to like plot out uh
3727s steampunk I was like no that's not ashes
3729s of creation move on
3732s um but next up we've got the Legionnaire
3734s outfit which now has a model as well
3739s I think it should rotate it's great I
3741s believe I have a turntable for this as
3743s well
3745s very different type of armor I know some
3747s people weren't sure how they felt about
3749s this set but the lore4 is really cool
3752s and some of the other pieces that they
3754s have for this set are coming along
3756s really well so I'm excited to share
3759s those
3760s next up is we've been working out some
3763s options for VEC plate and this is kind
3765s of a little preview of one of oh I love
3768s the directions bottles and the plate
3770s looks so good
3773s yeah I think Jan has been working on
3776s this and killing it
3780s yeah that looks great and that was the
3783s face masks the helmetless the helmets
3787s we have the turntable for this
3791s people can kind of see how that looks
3792s and look yeah you can see the model
3794s looks great
3796s so this is the female model
3798s and then I will also show you it on the
3800s mail
3805s and remember guys as you guys are seeing
3807s these different armor sets um
3811s you know the armors that we work through
3814s of course gradually increase in tier
3817s right based off of kind of the level
3818s that we're provisioning the armors for
3821s um now is this a cosmetic set or was
3823s this this is not no so this is one of
3827s the plate achievables yeah and and I
3829s believe that this armor judging off of
3831s its silhouette is probably going to be
3833s about a tier two armor from a tier V
3836s system right
3837s um so this would probably be something
3839s that's a fact that you would have access
3841s to between levels like 15 to 25-ish
3844s roughly yeah Beyond knows he can DM me
3848s and I can update it but
3850s um yeah very very cool and then of
3853s course we've got the silk fur Dune
3855s hunter that jincey has made the model
3857s for and it looks so cute I mean they
3861s just make like the concept art look
3863s exactly like the character it's wild to
3865s me how amazing they are
3870s who else is excited to ride this like oh
3873s my gosh so cute
3876s um and with that we're ready to head on
3878s over to our q a
3881s so I'll play the video in the background
3884s just so you have something to watch
3886s whilst
3888s um we answer some of y'all's questions
3890s from the forums uh the first one here is
3892s from plastic lemons don't eat those uh
3897s ask about mayor history I once tried to
3900s eat a plastic grape when I was a little
3902s kid it did not go well I I did the same
3905s thing I didn't try to eat it though I
3906s just chewed on it yeah well I couldn't
3908s eat it so I spit it out but yeah I was
3911s chewing on it I thought it was a real I
3913s used to love those little plastic grapes
3914s I would just grab them and chew on them
3916s oh just like okay
3920s interesting you learned something new
3923s every day see somebody just said LOL
3925s same were you really
3927s yeah
3929s Breakers maker
3931s oh my gosh maybe you guys have a
3934s teething or something you're like a
3936s little chew toy somebody else said that
3938s explains a lot
3941s it's so good maybe there's too much
3944s TMI uh we have mayor history which is
3948s Will players have a way to see who past
3951s mayors of their node were like a little
3953s like a log that'd be cool yeah
3956s absolutely yeah so something about other
3958s actions
3959s well maybe not all their actions but
3963s we can dream guys
3965s it is something that we do intend to
3966s provide obviously historical references
3968s within the game of not just the mayors
3972s of nodes but also
3974s um you know server first downs of
3976s certain bosses and this first like Guild
3978s achievements and Guild Hall ownership
3980s like we wanna you know the Achievement
3985s System should record things of note so
3990s that people are able to etch their name
3992s or their Guild in the history in the in
3995s the
3996s um in the history of the server and
3998s mayorship would be one of those things
3999s very cool
4001s um
4003s it would be cool if Mayors could like
4005s leave a little note and then all the new
4007s mayors get to see all the past notes
4009s Margaret was here just like etched in
4011s the desk yeah or something
4015s some might be helpful some might not be
4017s it's like uh what's that game
4020s anyways moving on ezrae from uh node
4023s about node government wants to know are
4026s there plans for official game supported
4029s node positions other than the mayor like
4031s a stable master or a procurement officer
4034s that word's hard to say
4036s are there other node-based positions
4040s basically like yes there there are other
4042s node-based positions
4044s um some of the most of them relate to
4047s um social organizational structures uh
4049s like the temple and the um uh social
4052s organization a building that the node
4054s might construct
4056s um those are ladder systems of
4057s achievement that players can work
4059s through on a seasonal basis to achieve
4061s the highest level of that for the
4062s particular node and by doing so they
4065s will then have titles bestowed upon them
4067s which grants certain types of powers and
4068s benefits
4070s speaking of which I'm going to forward
4072s to one of the questions here from cadek
4073s in regards to social organizations will
4076s progression in Social organizations be
4078s permanent or must it be maintained like
4081s PVP there will be a portion of your
4085s Social progression that does remain uh
4088s static but then when you move into a
4091s section of the ladder system that's more
4094s competitive
4096s just that section of achievement will be
4099s ticking and seasonal and you'll have to
4101s repeat efforts there so so you can
4103s achieve a certain status rank that will
4105s be permanent unless you choose to leave
4107s the system and then there will be a
4108s section that's ladder based cool and
4111s then the next one here is about music uh
4115s Doug bug 27 wants to know cities in MMO
4118s parges tend MMORPGs tend to have iconic
4122s music to match the aesthetic of
4124s locations how do you expect ashes of
4126s creation and bear Mercury uh
4129s specifically to create music to fit
4131s nodes when they will be changing all the
4134s time and easy answer predicates well uh
4138s it's yeah it's a great question
4140s um so uh cat and a bear obviously we
4145s have a great um
4147s we have a great process by which
4150s there are different levels of associated
4153s soundtracks based off of
4156s um defining
4157s features in the game so if we're talking
4159s about nodes then we're talking about
4161s what's the cultural representation of
4162s that node uh soundtracks and theming
4164s music will then be accompanied based off
4166s of the culture that the node expresses
4167s if we're talking about biomes and we're
4170s talking about pois each of those will
4172s have distinctive themes that are
4174s associated with them so when you're out
4175s in the wilderness or you're out at a
4176s specific POI those will have soundtracks
4179s that will play as well each of those
4182s systems will Encompass a um a layered
4185s effect that can reflect the stage of
4189s certain types of events within an area
4190s so for example the POI that is carfen
4193s that will have a general theme for
4195s Carfin that will play as you move into
4197s the area but depending on the effects of
4201s a particular story arc we may weave in a
4204s layer of of of the soundtrack that
4207s reflects perhaps the voice of the raid
4210s boss when she's present right and if
4212s she's not that layer won't be weaved in
4215s um so so those soundtracks are
4217s constructed in such way obviously where
4218s you can get a lot of usage out of them
4221s and there are components and themings of
4223s those that can weave together and layer
4225s together and it's intended to be
4227s something that not just as pleasant but
4229s informative of the world as well
4231s in different states right like if you're
4233s in combat you might have that's correct
4235s yes there's combats absolutely there's
4237s combat States as well yes
4239s um
4241s speaking of Music our next uh question
4243s is from song roon and it's about bards
4245s what equipment slot does a Bard's
4248s instrument take up
4251s it takes up the
4253s um instrument slot
4255s yes so there there will be an instrument
4258s slot um that can be available uh as well
4261s and The Bard can equip uh something
4263s there but that is obviously subject to
4264s change it is something that has been of
4266s heavy discussion within the combat team
4268s and the player character team and how we
4271s want to facilitate instrumentation
4273s um and it's something that we haven't
4275s yet really delved into from development
4276s perspective
4277s it's a little bit later on a
4278s prioritization list but the intent is
4281s that there would be an instrument slot
4283s all right and killjoy from The Forum
4286s wants to know about no taxes since taxes
4288s are set by the mayor is there going to
4290s be a way to see the tax rates in
4294s different nodes from like a world map or
4296s something like that so you can decide
4297s like hmm where should I take my
4300s strawberries today yes absolutely yes if
4303s you want to take your strawberry
4304s somewhere where the the man isn't trying
4306s to pinch every dime out of you you can
4308s go into your world map and you can hover
4310s State over certain nodes and you'll be
4311s presented with some basic informations
4313s of which of course taxation will be a
4316s component and then as you arrive in that
4319s node you will also have additional uh UI
4322s interface that can present you with uh
4324s more granular data such as active items
4328s on the warehouse and or excuse active
4330s items on the auction house in that
4331s location and different types of services
4333s presented by the service buildings
4337s all right and then we've got from Grand
4340s serpent about active blocking has the
4343s team considered grapples or guard breaks
4346s to go along with the potential uh active
4348s blocking so kind of like what the player
4350s is looking for is and wondering is if
4353s there will be ways to interrupt or
4354s cancel another player's active blocking
4356s so I'm blocking you yeah
4360s for sure there there is intended to be
4362s uh an interaction between uh different
4366s types of reactive and predictive skill
4368s sets of which if a player is in a state
4370s such as an active block or an active
4373s tumble State
4374s um there will likely be some types of
4376s abilities that interact with
4378s um uh reacting to those types of states
4380s and will either overcome surpass or
4383s cancel out those States uh particularly
4385s as it relates to not just active
4387s blocking but also potentially passive
4389s blocking as well and that would be
4391s um you know something probably related
4393s to like physical penetration values as a
4395s stat
4396s um
4397s or even CC breaks that could be relevant
4400s as well for those types of things I
4402s think that's on the radar for the combat
4403s team uh but it's something they haven't
4405s or they actually are I think exploring
4408s exploring active blogging right like
4411s yeah I know you're not sure if the final
4413s answer is that we will have active
4414s blocks yeah I just well I just had a
4416s discussion with the combat team last
4418s week uh with Trad and with Brian about
4422s um how we're going to implement the
4424s active blocking into the Alpha 2 kits
4427s um and that is something we are moving
4429s forward with right now that's going to
4431s be tested with a stamina-based system
4433s which is universal energy of course
4434s across all the different classes
4436s um and yeah that'll be something we
4438s Showcase in the future in a future live
4440s stream I think right now it's very much
4441s in development so stay tuned everybody
4444s in regards to that I know that that's a
4445s hot like I was like we also probably
4447s should address active blocking as a
4450s whole because uh I know last time we
4452s talked about this we were like we're
4453s exploring it
4455s um yes and of course we're not only
4457s exploring it now we are actually
4458s actively developing for it and we'll be
4460s testing with it I believe the Sprint and
4462s things may change from alpha too I mean
4464s that's why we want you guys to get your
4465s hands on it test stuff give us your
4467s feedback and we'll be looking at data
4469s for that as well our next question here
4471s is from go we're asking about world map
4476s information will players be able to view
4479s their server's current vassal node
4481s networks on a world map through a
4484s general filter a special node building
4486s or other means like they filter and find
4488s things like if I'm looking for a
4490s specific building can I figure out which
4491s node has that so I know where to go yeah
4494s yeah the the only real question there is
4497s kind of how that how the user collects
4499s that information whether or not it's
4500s readily presented to the player just by
4504s being a player in the world or if they
4506s have to travel to locations and update
4507s that locations in the past we talked
4509s about having a library that was capable
4511s of facilitating players exchanging
4513s information for map data like that but
4515s we've moved a little bit more in a
4517s direction of just presenting that
4518s information up front to the player
4519s because travel is such a meaningful
4522s portion of the game and we don't have
4524s fast travel so I think that for Alpha 2
4528s what's planned is that we're going to be
4530s showcasing kind of the intricate details
4533s of services offered at these node
4534s locations from just a UI presentation
4538s standpoint within the map
4540s and that's going to uh to service
4543s players being able to kind of strategize
4544s about their about their travels
4548s all right and then emoxator wants to
4551s know about gear bonuses will there be
4553s equipment gear bonuses for either single
4555s pieces or entire gear sets uh that are
4558s that offer unique abilities that could
4560s change how a class is played
4563s um and I'm
4565s I think there's like two parts yeah from
4567s our end um so I guess the fundamental of
4571s that question is are there certain types
4573s of bonuses that could impact the way you
4575s play your class
4576s I think the answer to that is yes
4580s um because anybody can wear any armor so
4582s correct yes but but at the fundamental
4585s is like if I were to get a set bonus
4589s that gave me you know a 10 crit modifier
4593s on my waterfall stat and now I'm like
4595s you know quitting often with my weapon
4597s attacks or with my abilities like I
4599s might lean in more towards being a crit
4601s heavy focused class because of that
4604s particular bonus or as what I think what
4606s they're asking for is a is it am I going
4609s to get a item that gives me like a
4612s fundamental new ability chain rather
4615s than augmenting my existing ability sets
4618s right and I don't think the intent is to
4621s provide something new from an ability
4623s perspective with majority of our set
4625s bonuses right the intent is that we are
4627s augmenting existing waterfall all stats
4629s with set bonuses and there are going to
4632s be active skills that do get associated
4634s with certain types of pieces of armor
4637s and or weapons those will be much on the
4640s higher end if they're an active ability
4642s that comes with those things but I still
4644s don't think that the intended impact of
4646s those types of abilities is for us to
4648s radically redefine the way a particular
4650s archetype might
4652s play those those determinations are made
4655s within the archetype kit and within the
4658s secondary archetype kit as well
4661s all right and then lashing wants to know
4664s about experience apologies real quick
4666s one person asked what is a waterfall
4668s stat oh a waterfall stat is a derivative
4670s of an attribute right so if dexterity is
4673s your attribute stat and a waterfall from
4675s dexterity is critical rate that would be
4678s considered a waterfall stat the critical
4680s rate yeah of terminology I'm sorry
4683s usually I'm pretty good about catching
4684s that
4686s um uh the next question is about
4688s experience debt from lashing does
4690s experienced debt at max level interact
4692s with rested experience so let's say I
4695s have experienced at max level will I be
4697s able to use rest experience to gain the
4701s experience back yes yeah arrested
4704s experience is a modifier that occurs
4705s when you first receive the experience
4707s and then after that modifier happens
4709s where that experience goes to buy down
4712s the debt is what happens so if you have
4714s rested experience and you have
4715s experience debt and you go out to
4716s collect experience you will be working
4718s that debt off faster because of the
4720s arrested experience
4722s all right
4723s Google and with that we have answered
4726s the questions from the forums thank you
4727s all for submitting questions uh every
4729s development update we put out some new
4731s question or a new questions form post so
4734s if you would like to get yours uh chosen
4737s we do we pick 10 at random so make sure
4739s that you get your questions in and only
4742s ask one question follow the rules uh and
4745s we will be selecting those for the next
4748s time
4749s um but of course as we wrap up today's I
4752s can't believe I feel like we've done so
4754s many really long ones that this feels
4757s very weird to be ending this was this
4760s was a this was a breathing stream and
4763s then next stream is going to be an
4765s exhale stream
4768s um yeah I'm like what is our next one no
4772s I'm just kidding uh I think you'll just
4774s come and tune in we do tease stuff on
4776s our social and things like that so if
4778s you want to know in advance uh sometimes
4780s we do share that information earlier or
4782s on our Discord and forums and things
4784s like that so definitely follow us on all
4785s the places where ashes of creation were
4787s super easy to find our uh wonderful
4790s Peter who is our social media manager
4791s does an amazing job keeping that filled
4793s with content that you guys can all
4795s consume and interacting with you all
4797s um so please please go check those
4799s things out and of course we're going to
4800s upload uh the full development update
4802s video tomorrow pending the internet
4804s cooperates with us and of course the 4K
4807s video for the gameplay segment will be
4809s out today and you can find those over on
4811s our YouTube channel and of course on our
4813s next development update if you want to
4814s be spotlighted for a comment make sure
4816s that you leave a comment and uh
4819s subscribe to our channel that way we can
4821s select you
4823s a little a little hint there
4827s sorry they said give hint there's your
4830s hint
4831s um and of course please head on over to
4833s our forums forums ashesofcreation.com we
4836s have a whole bunch of feedback requests
4837s over there two development updates that
4839s will be or Dev discussions that are
4841s going to be there for you to fill out as
4843s well as the events update as well so
4846s event update uh form thread give us your
4849s feedback feedback the hint is that it's
4851s in the riverlands no I'm kidding
4855s that's too good
4858s I love it
4859s um and then we also have the Unseen
4861s order Cosmetics that will be ending on
4863s July or January January 17th 2024 at 11
4866s A.M Pacific there's an FAQ with all the
4868s details of that and of course as we
4871s noted here Alpha 2 is coming in 2024.
4874s um we are excited to have you all join
4876s us next year and it is going to be very
4878s fun our development team has been
4881s kicking butt and working hard and we are
4883s continuing to do so and it is very
4886s exciting of course thank you so much for
4888s tuning in today we hope that you'll come
4890s watch our next development update and
4892s thank you to Clayton Amy and Scott and
4895s all of the developers who have helped
4896s with the events um Event Event stream
4899s and just actually the creation as a
4902s whole and of course Steven for your time
4903s and we will see you all next month bye
4907s everyone bye
4914s thank you
4936s foreign
4985s thank you
5015s foreign

https://preview.redd.it/fc5ddb5d3erb1.png?width=1920&format=png&auto=webp&s=b3447f7e303cdb0d11ae832c7000614d83db8f72

⚔️ #IYCMI, we showed what an Event through the Event System can look like via wave-based combat, made some Alpha Two clarifications, and more! https://youtu.be/OmTNooWyZxU

🙌 Are you excited to see other Events?

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