12 months ago - Ashes of Creation - Direct link

Transcript (by Youtube)


7s [Music]
8s thank you
17s hello everyone and welcome to a bonus
21s stream in April we have a really cool
24s show today you know for those of you
26s who've been a part of the community for
27s a while now you know that on a yearly
29s basis we kind of interact with different
31s content creators who have been with the
34s ashes equation Community for a while now
36s and I am joined by three of our very
40s amazing
41s um content creators and and they also
43s you know manage their own communities
45s who are very excited for actions of
46s creation and they've compiled a really
48s cool list of questions that I'm excited
51s to to answer with them today I have not
53s previewed these questions
55s um so I heard that some of them might be
57s uh might be fun some of them might be uh
61s a little spicy we'll see but
63s um I would love to go around uh with
65s each of you and have you guys introduce
67s yourselves and your channels and your
69s community and just kind of give a little
71s introduction why don't we start with you
73s samerg
75s oh yeah so uh yeah so my name's samorga
77s and I am uh the host of the ashes
80s Pathfinders podcast and from the
83s community site asheshq.com
86s um so that's pretty much where you can
87s find us doing our thing pretty regularly
88s we're pretty stoked about ashes yeah I
90s jump on and I listen to your guys's um
93s podcast every now and then that you have
95s with some of the guests and also when
97s you do the reviews
99s um of the live streams and stuff you
100s have a very active community and I love
102s to see the questions in the banter and
104s the kind of go back and forth and
105s whatnot we also have with us uh Mr
109s Richie sh how you doing buddy doing good
112s how are you very good tell us a little
114s bit about yourself and your channel uh I
116s my channel is Richie sh over on YouTube
118s I cover all sorts of Ashes of creation
122s news I cover
124s tweets Discord chat all sorts of things
127s to get you know every bit of information
129s we possibly can
131s every little piece of morsel possible
135s and then we also have a regular uh our
140s amazing our one and only uh TB how you
142s doing
143s I'm doing pretty well thank you so much
145s I hope you're doing well also you know I
149s was getting sick last week during the
152s live stream I was actually I got sick
154s that Thursday uh and I am almost out the
158s other side this one was a doozy
161s um it definitely it was definitely a
164s rough one but I'm feeling much better
165s today and I'm excited to be here with
167s you tell us a little bit about uh your
168s channel and and
170s um what you do with ashes
173s um so I am a co-host of the Golden
176s Feather which is a community-based uh
179s kind of interview and Opinion podcast uh
182s where we usually get to know our guest
184s and also get to know the community's
186s opinions on topics that the community is
188s generally talking about
190s um so I have some of my questions are
193s kind of in that style very cool well I
196s love
197s um the opportunity to kind of sit down
199s with members of the community especially
201s you guys who have been following ashes
203s for such a long time and obviously there
207s are different tiers of content creators
208s who kind of follow ashes on and off kind
211s of bring updates to their communities
213s but you guys have been following for a
214s very long time you're very core Central
216s members of the community and you
218s represent I think a cross-section of
220s followers and and fans who have been
223s relatively up to date with what the game
226s is intending to be the philosophy of our
228s designs and you know been here from the
231s very beginning
232s so it's always good because when we do
236s live streams or you know other types of
240s um you know quote-unquote marketing
241s events where I might do interviews with
243s content creators whatnot sometimes those
245s are done within the context of the new
247s audience right who might we be speaking
249s to
250s um that has never heard of Ashes before
252s but today I think we're going to be a
255s little bit different there we're going
256s to be speaking to more of our core
258s audience uh with the types of questions
260s that you guys want to ask
262s um and those of you who have been
264s following the project for a long time
265s and have been through uh the journey
267s with us of what it's come to to be to to
270s make this game so
272s that's always exciting for me and I
273s apologize I have a um I have a cough
276s drop so I don't cough too much
279s um
280s well that's what might be why I'm
281s sounding a little bit strange
283s um but
285s that being said how have you guys been
287s doing how did you guys enjoy the last
288s update
290s I loved it I thought it was great seeing
293s the story are starting to come together
294s it's pretty cool
295s um yeah it was something that we haven't
297s really shown before obviously we've
299s talked a lot about since the beginning
300s of um
302s of time for ashes back in 2017 about a
304s changing world and whatnot but I don't
306s think people really had the opportunity
309s um to have seen what systems are
312s associated with that they got a little
313s bit of a touch on it with the weathers
315s and seasons and now they get to see that
316s both from a story arc perspective as
319s well as how we intend to facilitate
321s those story arcs across the world
324s um I thought it was cool I I love seeing
327s the transition to that zone over into uh
330s over into the blood is due story arc I
333s thought it was super cool and Carfin is
335s such a giant Tower one of one of my
337s favorite things that I enjoyed in
339s previous MMOs was these tall vertical
342s dungeons
344s um in lineage they had a really cool one
346s called kruma tower that you got when you
348s were like level 40ish and Tower of
350s insulence that you got when you were
351s like a little bit end game
353s um
354s and I really always enjoyed you know
356s going through those Towers in the
357s different rooms uh of that dungeon
360s competing and fighting for uh for where
363s I could hunt or where I might get
365s picayed or get trained a bunch of mobs
367s on I don't know if you guys ever had
368s that experience in your MMO play
372s yeah definitely watch do you have that a
374s lot on the live stream yeah
378s it was super cool well let us get to
381s some of your questions I am super
385s excited to just and just for you guys
388s who are tuning in this is going to be a
389s q a uh primarily we're gonna just
392s um shoot the shoot the poop so to speak
395s um and talk a little bit about ashes and
399s uh some of the questions that the
400s communities have have expressed to these
402s guys so what do you guys got for me
406s so uh my first question and as I
409s mentioned these are gonna reflect kind
410s of our TGF Tavern podcast uh theme so my
415s first question is a little bit of an
416s icebreaker what are the most challenging
419s and most enjoyable things you have found
420s about running the studio
422s um with these in mind what is your
423s biggest lesson learned throughout the
425s process
426s what have been the most challenging and
429s exciting things I've experienced in
431s running the studio well that is a big
433s question
435s um for those of you who don't know my
437s history
438s um you know I started Intrepid with my
440s husband John back in
442s 2016 really it was when we fired our
445s fire hired our first our first employees
449s I think was John aralano and Keith Kovac
453s um it was December of 2016
456s 15 actually sorry December of 2015. and
462s you know it really came from a point of
466s me as a player uh I was kind of kind of
469s upset with the state of MMOs and I've
472s been a huge MMO fan for a very long time
474s I've played a lot of MMOs
476s um and um
478s we had an opportunity with uh you know
480s some of the talent here in in San Diego
482s from you know formerly Sony Online
485s Entertainment and some great MMO
487s franchises that were built
489s um to attract a an audience of of
492s developers who were going to be
494s interested in building next best MMO
496s possible
497s and I didn't know much about development
501s at the time I know a lot about designs
504s and systems because I had I had run my
507s own campaigns and d d and Pathfinder and
510s that's what ashes of creation has
511s predicated on with what it's built off
513s of is
514s um of off of that campaign in Pathfinder
517s and so I had a very kind of uh
520s understanding design wise of these
522s systems that I've experienced and were
524s inspired from in other MMOs that I've
526s that I have uh have played in and I
528s thought how cool it would be to
529s integrate those systems into a
531s comprehensive and cohesive design theory
533s around risk versus reward and you know
536s not everybody's a winner and a little
539s bit more of a throwback to more old
541s school design feel and and whatnot so
544s for me
546s I started in studio was a fire hose of
549s information of learning
551s um you know the first couple of years
553s just sitting very closely with each of
556s my lead developers and digesting as much
559s as possible from their experiences in
561s previous
563s companies and previous uh projects and
567s that was that was a very difficult task
570s to learn as much as I did in such a
572s short period of time and still to
574s continue learning that what I would say
576s the most fun aspect
579s of having LED an MMO studio now for the
583s last over six years
585s has been to watch the team grow and
588s change you know it's a very different
591s feeling when you're a group of uh you
593s know half dozen to a dozen people
595s growing to a couple dozen people growing
599s to dozens of people growing to 150 plus
602s people like you know that that
604s experience these do different thresholds
608s of Studio size
610s um
612s while maintaining the culture of what
614s Intrepid is which is a place for gamers
616s to build games that they love
619s um
620s you know that that has been that has
622s been a really rewarding experience to
624s see the connections to see the
626s friendships form to see the bonds
627s created to see the camaraderie the uh
631s Collective desire and motivation to
634s create something that stands the test of
636s time that makes your audience proud that
638s makes you yourself want to play the game
640s like you know it is that is something
643s that is a sight to behold
646s um the second most exciting thing I
647s think for me has always been the
649s opportunity to interface and talk to
652s other Gamers people who are excited
655s um you know I get a taste of this on a
656s Reddit I get a taste of this on the
658s forums or through different YouTube
660s channels and Twitter and what you know
662s Discord a large portion of my initial
665s environment and how I talk to players
667s was through Discord but
669s um I think that the the Pinnacle of that
672s experience was going to pax's and having
674s an opportunity to sit down and hear
677s directly from the player what's so
679s Inspire what's what's in inspirational
680s about ashes what is the core philosophy
683s that speaks to you as a gamer and it's
685s you know each person's different what
687s speaks to them right because we're all
688s eclectic and have our own backgrounds
690s and pasts and experiences that we want
691s to relive and the Nostalgia that we want
694s to experience again so
696s um
697s okay
698s just kind of finding what that common
700s ground is between us as Gamers
703s um that was fun to experience and see
707s people
708s with with a just literal excitement an
711s opportunity to kind of chat with them
713s play Magic with them play board games
715s and hang out after the events that was a
717s super fun thing for me what has been the
719s most challenging
722s um obviously the most challenging thing
725s for me was learning everything I needed
726s to learn in a very short period of time
728s and then continuing to learn and evolve
730s from there if I were to give another
731s answer on the challenging aspect from a
733s development perspective
735s it's integrating I feel
738s this transparent process with the
742s creative and development side of a
744s project typically what people's people
748s don't see what it takes to build these
750s types of games it's ugly it's hard it's
754s iterative it is
757s um it takes so much imagination to look
760s at what you're seeing in a functional
762s setting and imagine it in a
765s testable and then eventually polished
768s and shippable setting right that that is
770s a logical leap of creativity that it
773s takes to get from this has no VFX this
775s has no sound design this has no polished
777s animation this has nothing and I'm not
779s talking about what you guys see because
780s we take that up to close to a uh a a
785s shippable
787s quality but when you see it in a very
791s bare bone setting
793s um it it can be uh it can be difficult
796s it can be challenging to imagine it in
799s its next step of iteration and work
802s um and then have to make decisions based
805s off of that
806s um you know it's very there's a
808s challenge it's a challenging thing to do
810s but very rewarding as well sorry that
813s was a long-winded answer to your
814s question
817s all right my first question is which
820s zones can we expect to see in Alpha 2
822s and how many of them are in a comparable
824s state to the riverlands and how far
826s along in development they are oh that's
829s a that's a big question
831s um we have a lot of zones that are
833s planned for Alpha 2. not all of them
836s will be online by the time Alpha 2
839s launches
840s um but they will be continuously
843s integrated and launched as part of Alpha
846s 2 continuing forward
849s um you know the big areas obviously are
851s the riverlands the Badlands the the
854s sansqual desert uh the tropics the
859s forest areas
860s some of the tabletop Mountains and the
863s tundra and Ice areas
866s um you know and then we want to
868s obviously have
870s the loops around our navel
873s zones partly represented I apologize for
876s coughing guys
878s um or some called our last week's
880s preview the Tower of coffin uh that's
884s good but um yeah so you know there's a
887s lot of there's a lot of areas that are
889s planned when we talk about like level of
890s completion what goes into really making
893s a particular Zone
895s um obviously there's the terrain there's
898s the foliage they're setting up small
900s points of interest medium points of
902s interest large points of interest
903s there's connecting the quest hubs into
906s those points of interest they're setting
907s up the nodes within those localities
909s there's the Overland population the
911s spawner work that needs to be kind of
913s set up
914s um narrative and story lines and how
915s they connect outside of that particular
917s Zone
918s um there's the resource tables and
921s materials
923s um you know there's a lot that really
924s kind of goes into that so as we kind of
927s accomplish setting up each of these
929s zones
930s um incrementally uh you know different
932s parts of the team come and touch the
934s zones at different points in the type in
936s the in the pipeline so first you
938s environment kind of gets in there and
940s they set up the terrain and kind of the
942s block out for all of the level design
944s across that particular Zone uh in
946s conjunction with the design level design
947s team
949s um who's Ben and Jason and Jeremy kind
952s of you know work with them on that front
954s and then once those kind of areas are
956s are set up and the pois get blocked out
959s that's when you know narrative teams
961s start
962s assigning quest locations Quest markers
965s and setting those up while nodes is kind
968s of setting up the the base node node
970s areas as well so you know
973s it depends on the Zone uh where it's at
976s from a level of completion standpoint
977s and and who's kind of touched it
980s um you know it would be a long list kind
982s of run down and go through each of those
983s but I would say I would say generally
985s when we talk about in preparation for
987s Alpha two
988s we bring the zones that are intended to
990s launch with somewhere between like a 60
993s to 70 percent completion perspective
995s before it's ready for an alpha two and
998s then that's where you would expect
999s players to kind of participate in those
1000s zones during Alpha 2.
1004s cool so this one's going to be related
1006s to lore could you elaborate on how the
1009s soul as a conduit May tie into other
1012s Realms or planes again assuming those
1014s are actually different things or
1016s possibly even the avatars of the Gods
1017s which you've previously mentioned oh I
1020s need to be maybe I need to be careful on
1022s this one
1024s um
1025s and I don't know how much I've gone into
1026s this in the past and how much is
1029s revealing maybe too much uh right now
1032s um but okay so
1036s so to understand what the
1039s mortal coil is what we call the Mortal
1042s coil
1044s there is some base metaphysical
1047s understanding that's required of kind of
1049s the universe of Ashes of creation or you
1052s know quote unquote universes I suppose
1055s and at the Crux of of each is this
1059s concept of the flow of essence the river
1062s of essence we might call it right in
1064s essence is is really all that can come
1067s to be comes from in some way shape or
1070s form the essence
1073s um and you know in the original kind of
1076s Ashes of creation Pathfinder campaign
1078s that I had built long ago
1080s I'll just kind of talk a little bit to
1082s that and let you guys discover what may
1084s have changed in nationalism creation but
1087s in that sense there's very much this
1090s concept of of playing our locations or
1093s different planes that existed within the
1096s universe some things existed on the
1098s material plane some things existed on
1100s the Ethereal plane on the celestial
1103s plane you know there are a number of
1104s planes that kind of exist
1106s and
1107s Essence flows like a river through each
1110s of the planes and the higher up you go
1113s in these planes the closer to the source
1116s of the essence you really are and that's
1119s where you can see stronger
1120s manifestations of you know the magical
1123s aspects of the essence
1126s um
1128s now
1131s I'm sorry let me make sure I'm touching
1134s on the right point in the question can
1135s you re-ask the question just one more
1136s time for me sure yes oh I see it
1138s actually on the screen okay sorry no
1139s elaborate more of how the salt okay okay
1141s got it so when the Divine races were
1144s created uh by uh the pantheon of Gods
1150s they were created for a particular
1152s purpose and the purpose they were
1154s created for was to observe how these
1158s mortal beings would interface with a
1161s substance like the essence
1163s and obviously one of the great
1165s differentiators between Mortal Divine
1167s races and the gods is that aspect of
1171s mortality and one of the ways that the
1174s Divine races were created in order to
1176s interact with the essence was through
1178s the use of a mortal coil and that mortal
1182s coil was malleable your soul was
1184s malleable it could change to adopt a
1188s greater
1189s um a greater connection with the essence
1193s around one particular School of magic
1195s perhaps or one type of magic that you
1197s might use Essence for and the more you
1199s experienced that the more Adept you
1202s became with utilizing that magic and
1204s that's because your coil would start to
1207s mold itself to best facilitate that flow
1211s of essence whatever School of magic you
1214s were manipulating with it right
1216s and so
1218s in that sense when you have the story of
1220s the original ancients the the
1223s predecessor raced to the Divine races
1226s their coil began to warp and change to
1231s best facilitate Essence through the use
1233s of corruption and corrupt magic because
1236s it was in their in their story in their
1238s history that they learned the most
1239s powerful user at least what they
1241s believed was the most powerful use of
1244s essence was through corrupt magic and
1247s that's what allured them towards it
1249s um so to give you you know better
1252s context about why that conduit is so
1254s important is as your base character as
1258s your core archetype continually learns
1261s and manifests things in the world of era
1263s through the use of the essence it will
1266s continue to shape and change its conduit
1268s towards that purpose now
1273s how does the soul act as a as a as a
1275s conduit to the other races to the other
1277s Realms remember that Essence is like a
1280s river that flows through the Plains and
1282s when it touches mortal coils that use it
1285s in a certain way it has reverberations
1287s throughout the river that is felt across
1291s the Plains and that's how important the
1293s Divine races are when it comes to the
1295s the war over their soul so to speak
1299s um is is what impact it has Across the
1301s Universe so to speak so hopefully that
1303s answers some of your questions uh and
1305s then I see it's a possible avatars of
1307s the Gods which have previously been
1309s mentioned we've talked a little bit
1311s about them I don't want to give them
1312s away
1313s um too much because they are core
1316s characters within some of the story
1317s lines but obviously you know the Phoenix
1319s is an avatar
1321s um and so that kind of gives you an
1323s example of the types of Mythos and
1327s mythological creatures that we lean into
1329s to kind of represent
1331s um uh the avatars of the Gods
1337s all right my next question is will the
1340s Alpha 2 map include any portion of the
1343s Eastern continent
1346s um that's eventually it will yes
1349s um at launch it might not uh it depends
1351s depends on how much progress we make
1352s towards that end
1354s um it is not required for us to begin
1356s testing let's just say that
1359s um and so if it if it makes it by the
1361s time we want to launch Alpha two
1363s um then we will include it otherwise it
1364s will be released at a later time during
1366s the Alpha 2 test
1369s all right
1370s um did the under realm size increase
1373s when you expanded the size of the world
1375s map or is it still expected to be about
1377s 100 square kilometers it didn't increase
1379s too much
1381s um you know there is going to be some
1383s level of of
1384s additional scope that's necessary on the
1387s Underground again to reiterate the
1389s intent of the under realm in areas where
1392s you have over land Transit and movement
1396s between zones the under realm is meant
1399s to provide an alternate path so that
1402s you're not creating these kind of
1404s congested environments where it is just
1407s too easy to gank you know someone who's
1410s moving material Goods like through a
1413s caravan in a particular choke point
1416s um it's kind of all offering alternative
1418s paths that can exist for players to
1422s utilize as necessary and so in that
1425s sense even though the size of the map
1426s grew those choke points remained
1429s relatively similar right they're
1430s designed for a particular player count
1432s as a conjunction between different zones
1435s and so the underground in order to
1438s facilitate take that alternate path
1441s idea did not have to increase in size
1445s too much
1450s cool so the next question uh for the
1452s Pathfinders is that you've mentioned
1454s Milestones a lot is there any chance you
1456s could elaborate on what these different
1459s Milestones or goal posts are in order to
1461s provide some added transparency without
1463s promising dates
1465s and elaborate on these different
1467s Milestones or goal pose
1469s well
1471s when
1472s I mean there's a there is a lot that
1474s gets done in a particular Milestone to
1476s give you to give you kind of um
1479s understanding from from our internal
1481s kind of production schedule perspective
1484s um Milestones consist of multiple
1488s Sprints worth of work right and these
1491s Sprints are kind of small
1494s increments of time that a particular
1497s development team might work towards a
1499s goal completing a feature
1502s or content pass that's necessary in a
1505s particular area and so when we set up
1509s our milestones and
1511s um we are kind of identifying what those
1513s particular Milestone goals are they span
1515s across the entirety of development from
1518s platform and Engineering to design and
1522s concept to combat iteration and counter
1526s design
1527s through model creation and VFX and our
1531s tools adjustments and iteration and
1535s environment build outs and you know
1536s everything that goes into making a game
1538s everyone is kind of involved in this
1542s concentrated and Cooperative effort to
1545s achieve a particular Milestone now
1549s you know we talk about these Milestones
1551s every month that we do a live stream you
1554s see the fruit of these Milestones
1557s whether it be in the assets that get
1559s created that we talk about
1561s um or a particular feature that we want
1563s to show off you know its development as
1565s it's been kind of fleshed out further so
1568s each month you guys uh in the community
1571s get insight into what was a part of this
1574s particular Milestone and when we talk
1576s about upcoming presentations and
1578s upcoming
1580s um live streams you're getting inside I
1582s think into you know what's part of our
1584s of our internal scope now obviously we
1587s don't share our internal Milestones
1589s because they're very fluid and subject
1592s to change we're an Agile development
1595s team which means that between Sprints it
1599s becomes necessary for us to make pivots
1601s for us to make you know priority changes
1604s as it exists within our backlog
1606s um and you know a lot of that is driven
1609s driven by desired testing we need to get
1612s done internally or you know when we
1616s discover
1616s undiscovered work or we develop Tech
1619s debt like there are reasons why those
1622s Milestones change excuse me the scope
1625s and or objectives of a particular
1627s Milestone might change from Sprint to
1629s Sprint ever so slightly but the goals
1632s are always what we are aiming to achieve
1634s and stay consistent so we don't share
1637s those because it is a very agile fluid
1640s environment where particular objectives
1643s of a milestone might be relatively fluid
1650s and uh going back to the under realm
1653s will there be larger bodies of water
1656s like oceans lakes or rivers in the
1658s underrealm and if so will we be able to
1660s use boats or ships to navigate them
1663s there will absolutely be under under
1665s realm lakes and rivers
1668s those will be locations and very
1671s important ones for Unique material Goods
1674s like certain types of fish that players
1677s will be able to go down and fish with
1679s but there will not be the use of boats
1681s and vehicles within the water water
1684s vehicles of the underwhelm at least not
1688s for lunch
1692s all right if everything goes relatively
1695s smoothly how long are you anticipating
1696s Alpha 2 to run for and if it goes longer
1699s than anticipated how do you continue to
1701s keep players and the viewers interested
1703s for that long without feeling the
1705s burnout of seeing all the content
1708s well Alpha 2 will not be content
1710s complete that's the first thing
1712s um the other thing is you know when
1715s talking about kind of a burnout
1717s um I think that's something that we
1719s adapt to during the testing period we
1721s kind of observe how players are buying
1723s on to
1725s um this the particular testing that's
1726s available if we need to consolidate that
1729s testing we need to wipe that testing
1730s we'll talk about the length of alpha two
1732s alpha 2 is intended to exist up until
1734s launch there's going to be different
1736s testing periods that we will be
1739s um releasing either new content
1741s locations or zones or systems that we
1745s want to have players kind of focus in on
1747s in those situations if we're having you
1750s know participation drought because of
1752s the length of Alpha 2 we can we can set
1755s them up in a more focused uh setting we
1758s can even incentivize that we can offer
1760s unique testing to potentially
1764s um
1765s new testers as well
1768s um you know it's important to note that
1771s Alpha 2 and our Alphas are not what
1775s traditional Alphas have been that many
1776s players have experienced
1778s which are usually
1782s completed games that are being ported
1784s over or moved over into a new region for
1787s publishing purposes
1789s um and they're selling access to Alpha
1791s as at a higher price point of exclusion
1795s you know exclusivity in order to to
1799s start off that product launch with a
1800s bang in the new territory that's what
1803s traditionally players in Western
1805s audiences are accustomed to are these
1807s Eastern ported over MMOs and their quote
1810s unquote Alphas which are really just
1812s stress tests environments for a
1814s completed game in a server ours are very
1817s much traditional alphas and what that
1820s means is the game is not complete
1823s um the game is in a very uh core
1827s functionality perspective Alpha 2 will
1830s be a bit more than that obviously than
1831s Alpha One was those of you participated
1833s in Alpha One saw just the basics and
1835s core functionality of the game you know
1837s seeing nodes get stood up seeing nodes
1840s collect experience and threshold and
1841s having some service buildings you could
1843s build and character progression and
1845s skills and abilities and Dungeons and
1847s you know bosses and monsters and some
1850s basic crafting and questing like that
1851s was that was alpha one now that was a
1853s large environment it was 64 plus square
1855s kilometers I think of space
1858s um but Alpha 2 is a much more fleshed
1860s out version of what ashes of creation is
1864s and so in that sense it's still
1866s important to keep in mind it is not a
1868s finished product
1869s and there's still a lot of stuff to be
1871s done but this is an opportunity for us
1873s again to touch point with the community
1875s and say okay on these particular systems
1878s on these particular content passes on
1881s these particular
1882s um
1882s gameplay features and and Loops like
1885s combat and whatnot how do you want to
1887s see changes and then we validate what
1889s those chain desires are against what our
1892s intended list of deliverables already
1893s are ensure that there's one-to-one
1895s parallelism there and then if there are
1897s things that we didn't see we evaluate
1899s based off of feedback from players if we
1901s should incorporate them or iterate upon
1903s the existing designs
1907s hopefully it'll answer your question
1911s all right so this one's about the
1913s Cosmetics store in freeholds uh when are
1916s we going to get answers on the point
1918s regarding what the Cosmetic skins
1920s correlate to on freeholds as it's been
1923s it's been quite some time now since
1924s people have been waiting for an answer
1926s on that yeah um so the majority of of
1929s cosmetic Freehold skins the vast
1933s majority of them are used for the home
1936s and to give you an example kind of an
1940s idea of how the Freehold is partitioned
1943s Freehold serves kind of three main
1946s purposes the first and foremost is as a
1948s location for your home and so because of
1951s that a part a portion of the Freehold is
1953s dedicated to a home building
1956s and you cannot fill that space with
1960s workshops and or processing stations
1962s other than to place a home there the
1965s home offers a lot of things and the
1967s reasons why it's a core element of
1970s freeholds is because of storage
1973s capability
1976s excuse me storage capability Furniture
1979s allotment and placement Furniture
1981s interacts very closely with processing
1984s as well as
1987s the crop rotations that exist around the
1990s particular
1991s um uh housing building
1995s the other portion of the Freehold is
1998s dedicated to workshops in these
2000s processing stations essentially and
2003s processing stations are of course a
2005s necessary component of taking
2006s gatherables into usable crafted Goods
2010s essentially to fulfill what recipes
2012s require in order to make
2015s items and so the majority of Cosmetics
2019s that um are out there from our pre-order
2022s packages are dedicated to that Freehold
2025s housing slot now some are used for the
2029s workstations and it is the intent that
2032s our designs uh facilitate multiple
2036s applicable Cosmetics skins to those
2039s workstations as well as to the house so
2041s you'll see freeholds that have the house
2043s applied cosmetic and some with the with
2045s the workstations applied
2048s um why is it taking so long for
2049s interpreted verification so
2053s the unique thing about the Freehold
2055s approach in design is that there's a lot
2059s of testing that needs to be done around
2061s that and in Alpha 2 we will have
2064s we will have our freeholds available to
2067s test
2068s and while we have the designs in place
2071s for how processing interacts for
2073s Gathering and how processing feeds the
2077s um the crafting stations
2079s um some of that stuff might change the
2081s allotment of buildings that can be
2083s placed on the Freehold the way that the
2085s buildings get placed on the Freehold
2086s whether or not we even scrap the idea of
2088s dedicating a portion of the Freehold
2089s towards the house
2090s and because of that because of the
2093s design limbo that's still pending our
2096s testing environment in Alpha 2
2099s we've not wanted to kind of give
2102s definitive
2104s um definition around how those Cosmetics
2106s will be applied to the Freehold
2108s buildings in the event that that might
2110s change based on iteration but to give
2112s you perspective there
2115s um
2115s it's mainly going to be focused around
2117s the Freehold house and then also having
2120s the ability to apply the Skins to some
2122s of the workstations as well there is
2124s going to be a limited allotment of how
2126s many workstations you could have stood
2127s up at any given time there's a limited
2129s allotment of licenses that can be
2131s applied to a freehold in order to make
2132s some of those stations reach level two
2134s tier tier 2 and tier three
2136s um what those particularly are we have
2139s some designs for them now but that most
2141s likely will not survive testing and will
2143s need to be changed and adapted and
2145s iterated upon based off what the testing
2147s results provide
2149s um
2150s one other thing
2151s is that um you know we don't we don't
2154s really Market our pre-order packages we
2156s don't Market our Cosmetics we don't
2158s spend any marketing dollars towards that
2159s end
2161s um and I want to reiterate something
2162s that I've always said in the past and
2164s we'll continue to say
2166s um going forward
2168s um it is not necessary to pre-order
2170s ashes of creation
2172s we do
2173s non-ndaid uh testing periods this is an
2176s opportunity where all of the community
2178s gets to see what some of the testers are
2181s experiencing in Alpha One and in Alpha
2183s two and to be perfectly honest our
2185s testing environments are not catered or
2187s made for the enjoyment of players it is
2190s not a game that you are purchasing when
2192s you make a pre-order into Alpha and beta
2194s for ashes of creation you are actually
2196s committing yourself to dedicating a
2199s portion of your time in testing specific
2202s Loops that might not be fun in order to
2205s accurately provide us the team with
2208s information from a player invested
2210s perspective and so in that sense
2213s um you know it is perfectly acceptable
2215s and desired that players who are
2218s cautious or questioning whether or not
2220s this is the game for them some of the
2222s designs might speak to them or not sit
2224s back and wait you have an opportunity to
2226s watch development to continue to opine
2228s and give your thoughts and feelings on
2230s something and if the monetizations
2232s structure of selling Cosmetics is not
2234s your cup of tea then by all means do not
2236s participate that there are plenty of
2238s games that are out there that that do
2239s things differently we're very upfront
2241s about how we want to operate with
2243s regards to no pay to win no pay to
2245s convenience
2247s um you know our Cosmetics are are
2249s available if players want to participate
2251s they like collecting those things that's
2252s fine and they do they are part of
2254s building the world right these Cosmetics
2256s get used as part of NPCs they get used
2258s as part of unique buildings around
2260s different points of interest you know
2262s they're already in line of production in
2264s order to build the world of Ashes
2266s they're just also available as part of
2268s the Cosmetic
2270s purchases as well so hopefully that
2273s answers your question
2275s yeah
2277s I'm gonna actually go ahead and
2278s elaborate on the Freehold
2280s um what happens if you have a freehold
2281s and a world event happens in the area we
2284s know that some events can affect
2286s buildings can it also affect your
2287s Freehold
2289s um no so the way that events
2292s um work is there's a certain number of
2296s world
2297s conditions that can serve as predicates
2300s for whether or not an event is the event
2303s manager and the event system which
2304s Clayton has done a great amount of work
2306s on on whether or not these predicates
2309s satisfy the requirements in order to
2311s initiate an event
2313s and those events have objectives
2316s some of those objectives might be
2318s centralized at points of interest some
2321s of the objectives might be centralized
2322s at a particular node some of those
2326s events might be predicated on a
2328s particular objective that's just
2329s randomly spawns out in the world in
2331s order to kind of create player activity
2333s and engagement and soft friction between
2336s players right
2338s the events do not Target personal
2341s belongings
2343s um which means that your Freehold is
2345s essentially a personal belonging right
2347s it is a certificate a deed in which you
2350s own in which you have constructed the
2353s necessary requirements in order to stand
2355s up any particular building on that
2357s Freehold so in that sense we don't want
2360s to create an event that targets you we
2363s want we want to create events
2365s that Target engage and incentivize your
2369s community and there are a lot of
2371s different communities in the aspect of
2372s Ashes of equation remember we're a
2374s non-faction based game which means we
2376s have to create a lot of micro
2377s communities we have to create create a
2379s lot of quote-unquote pseudo factions and
2382s the reason we create those pseudo
2384s factions and they're opt-in like I
2386s choose which node I'm a part of I choose
2388s what social organization I'm a part of I
2389s choose which religion I'm a part of I
2391s choose which dungeon I choose to go in
2393s you know to XP at
2395s the reason why we allow that amount of
2398s player agency
2400s is because we create complementary
2403s systems that incentivize soft friction
2405s between those communities right and
2407s events is one of those systems that
2410s helps to facilitate the soft friction
2411s between communities
2413s um so we don't want to focus them on an
2415s individual player we want to focus them
2416s on the micro communities or the pseudo
2418s factions that that player has chosen to
2420s be a part of
2424s all right
2426s um how do you go about designing some of
2428s the more old-school systems such as XP
2430s debt minimal fast travel and open world
2432s rating that have really gone away for
2434s the most part in modern MMOs and how do
2437s you design them to be accepted Again by
2439s a new generation of Gamers and what made
2441s you bring what made you decide to bring
2443s these back for Ashes to begin with God
2445s that is such a a
2450s that is such a
2453s question with a deeper root system than
2456s it appears to have meaning that there's
2458s a lot that goes into that question
2461s um how do you design some of the more
2463s old school systems well
2466s when looking at the reasoning behind why
2472s some of those old systems existed
2475s a lot of it was centralized around the
2478s idea of risk versus reward I mean let's
2482s take a look at the three that you name
2484s XP debt minimal fast travel and open
2487s world rating
2488s experience debt is a cost of failure
2492s experience debt is the bite of not
2495s achieving success
2497s if I die to a monster because my
2501s strategy was bad because my performance
2503s was bad because my planning was bad all
2506s of that means that debt is the cost I
2509s pay for the bad choice
2512s right and if you and I think
2516s to skip well let me just go through the
2517s two minimum fast travel
2519s my location matters and the time it
2523s travels there is the cost I pay
2525s right open world rating I'm not the only
2529s person interested in completing this
2531s objective I have competition that
2535s competition represents pressure that
2538s pressure represents a desire to succeed
2540s and perform right all of those are touch
2543s points on player emotional connectivity
2546s there is a reason why I want to succeed
2549s part of that reason can be
2551s incentivization through reward part of
2554s that reason can be distance it can be
2555s incentivization through failure
2558s um so that's I think at one of the core
2560s fundamental philosophies as to how you
2563s design some of the more old school
2565s systems to answer the second part of the
2566s question
2568s we have moved away from that modern MMOs
2571s modern MMOs have had a difficult time
2576s modern MMOs have had a difficult time
2578s because
2579s of really three main probably issues
2584s the first and foremost
2587s is that
2588s the existing primary franchises of MMOs
2592s today the big ones out there the Wows
2595s and the final fantasies and the Guild
2597s Wars and the pdos
2599s they've had a lot of time to create
2603s a social gravity well
2606s which means that MMOs are very social
2609s environments That's What MMOs do best
2612s from a business perspective that's why
2615s MMOs have long lifetime value for
2617s customers because of the retention
2619s ability for that particular MMO
2622s to keep a customer returning and it's
2624s because of these social environments The
2627s Guild structures The Cooperative
2629s questing environments
2631s content completion that incentivizes
2633s people to work with one another to
2634s create friends online friendships and
2637s environments
2638s um that's that is not the typical genre
2641s that is not the you know FIFA sporting
2644s genre that's not the
2647s um the first person shooter genre as
2649s much it is not the you know you can jump
2651s into those session based games as a solo
2653s player real easy and just kind of dip
2655s out when you're done and see your
2656s individual performance
2658s from a from a
2660s um MMO perspective those existing
2663s franchises have a strong social gravity
2665s well and so games when they launched to
2669s compete with those existing franchises
2673s they have wanted to remove friction
2677s they they their approach philosophically
2681s to game design theory has been
2683s every time a player experiences friction
2686s that is an opportunity for us to lose
2689s the player
2690s right and that can be a scary thought
2693s not that we place the emphasis or the
2696s reasoning behind why should a player
2699s emphasize the reward of success because
2703s the taste of defeat can be bitter right
2706s and so that creates an investment for
2709s the player that's more long-term but
2710s some of the perspective of the new
2712s modern MMOs that have launched is we
2713s need to make our money back right and we
2716s need to retain the user for as long as
2717s possible let's reduce the friction for
2720s that player and the opportunity for them
2721s to disassociate with the game at the
2724s taste of failure and so that's been a
2727s lot of the reasoning behind why modern
2728s MMOs go more towards the realm of
2731s everyone's a winner you get a trophy and
2734s you get a trophy doesn't this trophy
2735s feel great big hoopla and rewards and
2739s nah the screen is shaking and shining
2741s and you've killed a trash monster now
2744s the whole world is jumping up in joy for
2746s you you know like that is how I feel
2748s every time I jump into a new MMO and to
2751s be honest it sucks ass excuse me um it
2754s sucks right it is it is a it is a bad
2757s experience oh my gosh we have set
2760s ourselves to uh uh
2762s Margaret's gonna kill me okay regardless
2765s it is a trash experience it does not
2768s feel good to be a winner every time no
2771s matter what you do that sucks
2774s um it feels good to lose sometimes it is
2779s the duality of that experience that
2781s makes the feel-good moments actually
2783s feel good
2785s so some more Grumps those are
2790s um so anyways that's a little bit of
2792s your throat back to why that uh I gotta
2796s sometimes I get a little bit uh a little
2798s bit
2799s um animated
2801s I apologize if there's any uh anybody
2806s who's not accustomed to that language
2808s but regardless
2809s um that is that is one of the reasons
2811s why I think modern MMOs moved away
2814s um a couple other reasons of course why
2816s is there's a lot of content that those
2817s older MMOs had had the opportunity to
2819s kind of release over the Cadence of 10
2821s years of like regular drops for new
2823s content
2824s um that is uh
2827s that is that is another reason
2830s um I think it's important that a new
2833s generation of MMO Gamers have not had
2835s the opportunity to experience it before
2836s there's look there is a
2840s a wall of willingness to try a game
2844s based on the graphics I'm just gonna say
2846s it out loud Graphics don't make a game
2850s however Graphics can help attract an
2854s audience
2855s and for younger new players who have not
2859s seen and I think this is standard third
2862s reason of why older MMOs don't see a lot
2865s of new player acquisition from younger
2866s Generations jumping in
2868s is because their Graphics just aren't up
2871s to par with some of the other games that
2873s are now being made in genres that it's
2875s much easier and faster to make new games
2877s in
2878s okay an MMO lifespan to develop a
2881s product is a long time
2883s and not a lot of studios are willing to
2886s commit to that amount of time or that
2888s money
2889s but the reward can be oh so sweet for
2891s those Studios and I'm glad we're seeing
2893s now in in today's age a little bit more
2895s of an Embrace for new MMORPG development
2898s thank goodness we get some new life
2900s there I think that there is going to be
2902s a golden opportunity
2904s for us as developers to Define what the
2908s new golden cohort of MMO players are
2912s and I'm going to tell you we have not
2914s seen that largest cohort yet
2917s we have seen the golden cohort continue
2919s to to age
2922s um you know now we're in our mid 30s to
2924s near 40s some of us right I think we're
2927s the golden cohort of that MMORPG genre
2930s and I think that there is going to be an
2933s opportunity for an entirely New
2935s Generation over the course of these next
2937s five years or so with some of the new
2939s projects that are on the horizon ashes
2941s of creation
2943s for us to come along and say hey
2946s you didn't know what a wow launch looked
2948s like you didn't know what a final
2949s fantasy launch looked like you didn't
2951s know what other these giant you know
2954s franchises that their big launch felt
2956s like and it was a really cool and
2959s interesting time to be at the ground
2960s floor opportunity of a new MMORPG
2964s um especially one with Next Generation
2966s graphics and some intense player agency
2967s driven systems I think that's super cool
2970s and I think that's going to be something
2972s that's going to be a sight to behold
2973s apologize for the language
2980s to uh whatever mature
2984s yeah I only laugh because uh it
2986s resonated Stephen but uh moving on for
2990s this one I wanted to address some
2992s concerns around combat becoming more
2994s action focused or Builder spender
2996s um you know maybe less of a hybrid
2998s combat system what's the current scope
3000s for the combat system that uh and has
3003s Intrepid deviated away from its original
3005s goals with it if so how
3009s I wouldn't say that we've deviated
3013s I would say that we've iterated
3016s um I would say that
3020s okay so to reiterate what the current
3021s scope for our combat system is is a
3024s hybrid between Tab and action and what
3027s that means is at its Essence what is the
3031s difference between Tab and action
3033s action contains a lot of player
3037s driven skill shots right these are me
3042s reacting to the situation I'm seeing
3046s um they're Landing a name shot or timing
3051s and predictive Behavior
3053s it's a lot of fluidity right and
3057s Mobility
3058s that's associated there
3060s obviously one of the staple you know
3062s components of action combat is a reticle
3066s um to differentiate between the camera
3067s modes of course
3069s um
3070s some of us have played tab targeted
3073s games
3073s that emphasize those elements as well
3078s through templated aoes templated
3081s targeted aoes right uh line attacks
3085s um
3086s um you know those those types of of
3090s abilities
3091s exist in tab Target games as well
3095s what we're trying to do with ashes of
3097s creation is create a system that blends
3100s the Two Worlds together to a degree
3102s and offers players the opportunity to
3105s spec into more heavily skill oriented
3108s abilities
3110s or tap Target have that Duality that's
3113s that's that's represented
3115s um so we've changed a little bit about
3118s how we approach that over the course of
3120s the last several years based off of
3121s player feedback you know we did some
3123s apoc testing around like really
3126s core uh
3130s um action combat and we did some testing
3134s around alpha one we did some split body
3138s iteration we saw
3141s um kind of player feedback there with
3144s regards to root motion attacks and
3145s whatnot
3147s um so you know right now we have a
3149s really talented Strike Team on the
3151s combat side that end on the encounter
3153s side
3155s um that are making significant progress
3157s I think in moving forward the combat
3159s designs around ashes of creation you've
3162s seen a little bit of this in the tank
3164s demonstration and while it's not quite
3166s there yet it is getting closer to there
3171s um and this is probably one of the most
3175s subtle driven components of development
3178s is combat because it's the most tactile
3180s because it's the most interfaced with
3182s because it is something you're
3184s constantly experiencing
3186s um and it's also something that a lot of
3189s different people have a lot of different
3190s thoughts on because there's a lot of
3191s different games out there that do combat
3193s differently and that's okay and that's
3196s normal and let's take the best parts of
3198s those and incorporate them into what we
3200s want to make ashes as combat identified
3203s around
3204s the simple truth of the matter is this
3206s and what people should walk away from
3208s this question thinking
3211s we will continue to iterate on combat
3215s until it is in a place that collectively
3218s we as a community can say this may not
3221s be my particular combat but this combat
3225s is good
3226s that is the driving force and Factor
3229s behind the development of combat and
3231s that is how we are going to continue to
3233s iterate upon it utilizing of course the
3236s player feedback from our community but
3238s also keeping you guys informed and up to
3240s date as we continually iterate on combat
3248s all right my next question is on the
3251s Character Creator when might we expect
3253s to see a new iteration of the character
3255s creator has the team been concentrating
3257s more on polishing the new faces in that
3261s we have already seen or integrating more
3263s races with a similar degree of Polish
3267s the character creator
3269s is um currently scheduled in milestone
3272s in this Milestone Milestone five
3275s um to get brought up to speed with the
3278s most recent editions of our
3281s um
3282s of our races
3284s um the additional features
3287s uh that we're talking about with like
3289s different hairstyles and decals that can
3292s be used those might not be worked on
3295s this Milestone they might be might not
3297s be worked until next Milestone but I
3299s would say in anticipation for Alpha 2
3301s you will expect to see that the
3304s Character Creator is in a usable
3306s functional and testable playable format
3309s uh for Alpha two it may not have all the
3312s bells and whistles of course that we
3313s want to launch with but it is going to
3316s be a part of the alpha to client that
3317s players will get to interface with
3322s all right how far are you willing to go
3325s in response to player feedback on core
3327s systems for example if there's a huge
3329s outcry at launch to have more instance
3331s Dungeons and raids is that something you
3333s would address Are you standing firm on
3335s the mo more open world aspect of it
3340s um well let's see here so
3345s to first answer that question
3348s player feedback is important however the
3351s identity and the vision of the game is
3354s not up for discussion
3357s and so when we talk about the core
3359s systems and tenets and philosophies
3361s behind what the game that we're trying
3364s to make is
3365s we believe that the game we are trying
3369s to make resonates with a large enough
3371s section of the MMORPG player base that
3374s it is a sustainable and profitable
3377s Venture for us to create that core game
3381s now the ancillary systems that live
3384s around the core philosophy of Ashes of
3386s creation or the subtleties and what we
3389s need to do in order to make a particular
3391s system or feature better right that is
3394s why we interface with that is the reason
3397s that we want to collect player feedback
3399s um the identity of the game when you
3402s leave that up to console design so to
3406s speak right that's when you start
3408s running into an identity crisis
3411s and I think that if the objective of a
3414s particular team is to answer the call of
3416s every player that 10 times out of 10
3419s they're going to fail
3420s and I do not believe that that is the
3422s way that you go about creating a product
3424s I think that you identify your golden
3426s cohort you identify your core audience
3429s and you say
3431s hopefully with this sense I am a member
3433s of that core audience I know what that
3435s core audience desires from a 10 000 foot
3438s perspective I am going to build that
3440s right and you stick with it and the
3444s moment you have voices that come from a
3446s board or that come from a you know
3449s an executive or that come from a
3452s monetization guy and they say hey this
3455s made a lot of money over here let's make
3457s some money over here right that is when
3459s you start running into the problems that
3462s is when you start running into the
3465s identity crisis
3467s um and that is not up for discussion so
3470s to speak
3472s um but
3473s as I said the subtlety the subtleties of
3476s implementation the iterative portions of
3479s a particular feature or system those are
3482s where player feedback matter and I'm
3484s going to tell you it's a difficult job
3486s parsing through
3488s feedback it is a very difficult one
3491s Roshan
3492s [Music]
3494s um and and vacnar and Margaret and Peter
3498s you know they do great jobs on the
3501s community side and not a lot of teams
3503s invest money into Community teams this
3507s early on and as early as ashes did
3510s but it's necessary in order to distill
3514s the feedback into actionable items
3518s um otherwise it would be a you know very
3520s difficult thing
3524s so with server requests that can only be
3527s done once and that began certain events
3530s in the game how will this affect future
3532s expansions if two servers don't follow
3534s the same major Quest paths
3537s that's a good question so
3541s obviously
3543s um you know when when our story arcs
3546s have branches
3548s and it depends kind of on the story arc
3550s itself right we have these major story
3553s arcs we have minor story arcs we have
3555s personal story arcs stuff like that they
3558s all tie into a meta-narrative
3562s and when we are releasing expansions
3567s we throw back to more
3571s gross generalized ideas of a particular
3574s story arc so for example if little Timmy
3578s dies
3579s at the end of one particular story arc
3581s there might be five or six different
3583s ways he could die depending on which
3586s story arc maybe gets interfaced with or
3588s Which chapter how a particular chapter
3590s might end
3592s um but when we refer back to little
3595s Timmy dying versus living in a future
3598s expansion we don't need to get granular
3601s in how little Timmy died right out of
3604s the six possible scenarios we just need
3606s to say poor little Timmy died
3608s isn't that sad right
3611s um so in that sense we keep it as binary
3613s as as as
3616s restricted in the number of ways that it
3618s can occur but in addition the reality is
3621s we're going to be creating new story
3623s lines with um the future expansions and
3626s we're going to do our best to kind of
3627s call back into what a particular story
3630s might have been with on a server
3632s but the core the core aspect of these
3635s story arcs is to kind of create that
3638s unique aspect of player driven
3640s storylines within a particular expansion
3644s or launch and then do our best to call
3647s back to them as we release future
3648s expansions and redefine particularly
3650s those areas
3655s my question is in regards to character
3657s level and Artisan level we know that
3660s currently there are two separate things
3661s that being said what prevents a player
3664s from staying level one and parting up
3666s with a level 50 player to then gather
3668s level 50 resources in the high zones
3670s that way anyone who wants to take those
3673s resources will have to kill the gatherer
3675s who's level one and get a large amount
3677s of corruption for killing a level one as
3679s a level 50.
3681s well there's a lot that goes with it
3683s first of all
3684s um Gathering higher level
3687s resources requires significant
3690s advancement within a particular
3692s profession for that gatherable resource
3695s so if I'm a minor and I want to access
3697s the highest possible mineral I need to
3701s be a master Miner and in order to
3704s achieve the master minor status I am
3706s going to be one gaining adventuring
3709s level experience through that process
3711s because many of those quest lines many
3714s of those achievements are facilitated
3717s through quest lines some of those quest
3719s lines interface with adventuring
3722s difficulties that are out in the wild at
3725s certain levels so that's going to
3727s predicate me that's going to be a
3730s predicate for me to achieve a certain
3731s level in order to complete some of these
3734s quest lines and Achieve that Master
3736s status so you will you will likely not
3739s see the ability of a level one alt
3741s character having the access to high
3746s level mineral mining or any other type
3748s of gatherable out there
3750s um that's one thing to to prevent it
3753s and then um the other thing is let's see
3757s here again the higher two so that's
3759s that's the primary method really in
3761s which we prevent that anyone who wants
3763s to take these resources who kills gather
3765s will get a large amount of corruption
3766s but the truth of the matter is if you're
3768s killing a gatherer right it is going to
3771s be entirely possible that a level 30 or
3774s 35 person might achieve the rank of
3776s masterminder and be out in the level 50
3779s areas mining that that uh that
3781s gatherable
3783s um and to a degree uh whoever wants to
3786s kill them is going to suffer the
3788s consequences of a larger amount of
3789s corruption gained because of the
3791s disparity and level between that
3792s character's adventuring level and the
3793s character who killed them and that's
3795s part of the disincentivization of the
3798s corruption system and that's part of the
3801s novelty of player agency within a
3803s particular system like
3805s um like the artisanship one where maybe
3808s my first Focus as a player is to level
3811s up my masterminding profession as
3814s quickly as possible and that exceeds
3816s what would naturally have been my
3818s character level or adventuring level
3819s advancing alongside it that's I think
3822s unique that's I think interesting that
3824s is I think what players want to have the
3827s choice to be able to do if they want to
3838s oh and yes it is
3840s you guys can't hear this but we just
3842s heard a very lovely Margaret talking to
3844s us so we were like awkwardly silent
3846s there for a second Mark was talking to
3848s us
3848s um it's it's noon but I I'm fine with
3851s you know continuing kind of this uh
3853s questions if you guys want to keep going
3855s a little bit yeah
3857s no yeah I'm down I'm enjoying it
3860s all right will there be any perks to
3863s leveling and ALT once you have a
3865s character max level to make the
3866s experience more convenient such as a
3868s count-wide rep Mount leveling gear or
3870s will each character start from absolute
3872s scratch when you start a new one
3874s um
3875s each character will start from scratch
3877s however
3878s with that being said there are
3882s certain account based considerations
3885s that we're making such as the ability to
3888s you know
3890s share Warehouse
3892s War Horse warehouse space
3896s um between alternate characters on the
3898s same account right uh the ability to
3901s utilize housing and furniture that might
3904s be in the housing and or workstations
3906s that might be on a freehold across
3908s characters on a particular account so in
3911s that sense there is a bit of a leg up
3913s for players who have achieved things on
3915s their primary character
3918s um however at the same time
3921s um
3922s there should not be like experience
3925s boosters and you know things that kind
3928s of haste in the development of that
3929s particular they could share you know we
3931s are an open economy system so if they
3933s wanted to give them the best gear set
3935s for each particular level grade
3938s um they you know players could do that
3940s but that's that I think is normal that's
3942s what most all creating characters want
3944s to kind of experience but they'll have
3946s to go through and complete all the same
3947s quest lines they'll have to complete the
3948s same leveling process you know they will
3950s they will have to do what it takes to
3953s level up that particular Alt
3958s all right so uh
3961s the next question that we've got is
3964s going to be
3966s um
3967s regarding the class composition
3972s and design revolving around the Holy
3975s Trinity
3976s okay yeah if that is the case where does
3980s a non-healing
3982s uh support fall into that concept of
3985s design and how will players who choose
3987s that path remain relevant throughout the
3989s gameplay loops
3991s well
3992s um
3993s this is a bit of a throwback again
3995s Design This is a more old school idea of
3998s the Holy Trinity and where non-healing
4000s Support classes fall into that mix
4003s generally you see in my experience most
4008s non-healing Support classes fall into
4010s between the hybrid of support to tank or
4013s support to DPS right so they tend to
4015s fill a hybrid role
4018s um
4019s The Bard has an opportunity uh to fill
4023s that space and is a very integral
4026s component to maximizing a particular
4029s group or archetypes ability to perform
4032s through the use of their supportive and
4036s buff oriented abilities
4039s um as we've talked in the past many of
4040s these are support based on proximity
4043s some of them are support based on
4045s targeted Buffs
4047s we're going to be following the format
4050s of abilities that adhere to dances songs
4053s and stories when it relates to The Bard
4055s and the scope of their particular
4057s ability sets each of those provide a
4060s certain type of benefit to to other
4064s characters within proximity
4067s um
4068s the idea here again pointing back to a
4071s more old school Trinity design
4073s is that no party is complete without the
4078s non-healing support class which is the
4080s barded ashes of creation
4082s so you know that is I I think
4087s a role that a lot of players out there
4090s enjoy and you'll be able to perform as
4093s that class in either a DPS or or tank
4096s oriented and perhaps even depending on
4098s your archetype selection healing
4100s oriented as well obviously not to the
4103s degree that a primary archetype cleric
4104s would but uh yeah
4110s my next question goes back into the
4113s alpha 2. do you plan on introducing it
4116s all in a steadily compounding way only
4119s adding new features or content or in a
4122s cyclical manner so certain systems are
4125s turned on and off to test While others
4128s are iterated upon and alternately cycled
4130s out
4132s uh probably a little of both
4135s um
4135s I would say it's going to depend on the
4138s particular system
4140s um
4141s so you know you'll see
4144s drops where
4146s we update Alpha 2 and want a lot of
4148s focus around one particular system
4151s and in order to make sure that we are
4155s seeing that level of interaction we
4157s might disable certain systems or take
4159s them down to be iterated upon the
4161s benefit of being in a in a you know
4163s production environment is that we make
4166s uh we make releases and that the Cadence
4170s of our release candidate
4172s um is predicated on an amount of work
4175s done within some number of Sprints gets
4178s tested internally QA wise
4181s um and then gets promoted out to a
4183s production environment those will tend
4186s to be larger drops for Alpha two and so
4190s you may see whole systems come online at
4193s some different points throughout the
4194s Alpha 2 testing entirely new different
4196s areas entirely you know new packages of
4199s of narrative content and pois that is
4203s going to adhere to kind of
4206s um you know what our development
4207s schedule and release Cadence will look
4209s like
4212s all right uh will dialogue choices have
4216s any impact on the quests in regards to
4218s how NPCs respond to you or is the
4221s overall outcome of it or sorry will they
4223s have any impact on the quests or regards
4226s how they respond to you or the overall
4227s outcome of that Quest or is it more of
4229s just a role-playing perspective without
4230s any Major Impact
4232s no the dialogue choices are intended to
4235s provide an impact
4238s um
4239s both with the response of the NPC it
4243s might also serve as predicates for other
4245s systems if there are certain paths
4248s chosen within the dialogue tree
4251s um it might unlock
4253s um
4254s you know
4255s different side arcs and story lines
4259s that other players may not experience
4263s um the the dialogue trees are not
4266s meaningless they're they're meant to
4268s provide gameplay related context
4274s so in the last developer live stream you
4278s had mentioned blood magic is an illegal
4280s magic which has us curious so we've seen
4283s Elemental and Arcane forms of magic but
4285s will players be able to wield blood
4287s magic what are the different schools of
4289s magic you are considering for the game
4292s um there's well
4295s um so first when we say that blood magic
4297s is illegal right we're talking about in
4300s the context of a normal everyday player
4303s who's a citizen of Vera having come from
4305s Sanctus you are you are adhering to the
4309s local laws and uh guidance from Nation
4314s governments and or node governments
4317s right to be to be a good upstanding
4319s citizen of Vera you adhere to these laws
4325s um
4326s the
4327s the ability to wield blood magic might
4331s be seen in some storylines we'll see
4336s um that is left to the players to
4338s experience and discover
4341s um those types of choices might have
4343s ramifications on your character and or
4347s ramifications within story lines
4351s um there are a lot of different schools
4353s of magic
4355s um in fact
4356s you know if we haven't released our
4358s style guide for like VFX and whatnot but
4360s when we talk about you know how do we
4363s create a blood corruption setting well
4367s what is the associated colors what's the
4370s shape language of blood magic you know
4374s this flowing river you saw some of them
4377s in the VFX of the zone and and Carfin
4380s you saw the Mist in the Deep Red you
4383s know saturation
4385s um you know each of the environments and
4388s the Magics and the you know what we
4390s create has an Associated style guide
4393s that includes color wheels and palettes
4396s across different influences whether it
4398s be you know
4400s trans
4402s transformation summoning magic Arcane
4406s magic Elemental Magic blood corruption
4408s regular corruption
4411s um chaos you know uh electricity there's
4414s a whole bunch of influences that exist
4416s across the player abilities but also
4419s across the environments and the pois
4422s um and unique to each of the cultures
4424s that require defined Style file guides
4427s associated with them
4429s so that's kind of we have a lot of
4432s different schools of magic that we have
4434s in the game
4437s and you know whether players whether
4440s players will be able to wield blood
4441s magic is kind of up to the different
4442s story lines you all explore
4445s uh going back to Alpha two uh do you
4449s plan on introducing all of the primary
4450s archetypes before adding the secondary
4452s archetype systems into the test
4455s additionally once the secondary
4457s archetype system is added will you want
4459s to test it with only a few classes at a
4462s time or release all classes available at
4464s the point in development
4467s um so we may release some limited scope
4470s of the secondary archetype selection in
4472s the augmentation system without having
4475s all of the base archetypes released in
4478s order to test some things in addition
4480s it's more than likely that we'll be
4483s releasing secondary selections one at a
4486s time or a few at a time as opposed to
4488s waiting until all are kind of ready to
4491s be released for testing so that we can
4495s collect appropriate information from
4498s play testers uh in as fast a
4503s setting as possible
4507s do you have any concerns on players
4509s eventually discovering a meta server
4512s build with nodes due to players heading
4513s to specific nodes and regions because
4515s they find that content more enjoyable
4516s and if so how would you go about getting
4519s players to shift around the world to
4520s break up the meta
4522s yeah I'm not I'm not too concerned about
4524s that to be honest because
4527s um
4528s the way that we
4530s facilitate the world kind of
4535s um taking into account player activity
4537s to manifest different story arcs and or
4540s World States
4543s is based off of population start
4547s location
4548s heat mapping of player movement and
4550s activity
4551s a lot of that stuff is built in a way
4555s that almost ensures
4558s very different outcomes from a world
4561s State perspective across different
4563s servers
4565s now if players had a concerted effort
4570s in order to elicit similar World
4574s building achievements
4576s it might be possible for them to do so
4579s in very bespoke areas like standing up a
4582s node in a particular Zone but
4585s that's the first level of interaction
4587s when it comes to deciding what content
4591s trickles out of these pois
4593s what supporting structures in the world
4597s change the zones it's not just one level
4601s deep when that node gets manifest it has
4605s a relationship based
4607s with other nodes some of those
4609s relationships get told through the
4610s vassal system some get told through
4612s reputation some get told through you
4615s know particular
4616s initiatives that a node might undertake
4619s and not everything that happens in the
4622s world is predicated on a node reaching a
4625s certain level that's one predicate
4627s system there's a whole bunch of
4629s predicates that are sprinkled throughout
4632s different layers of content uh and that
4635s need to be achieved in order to elicit a
4639s response from the server or from the
4641s server World manager so so I'm not too
4644s concerned with reaching a quote-unquote
4647s meta across servers I think it's going
4651s to be possible and expected that players
4653s in certain areas will yield similar
4656s outcomes to things and that's okay
4658s that's cool I think it's interesting if
4660s players have a concerted effort across
4662s server to interact with one another
4663s learn from their actions mistakes
4665s successes and effectuate that on the
4668s server they're on that's interesting
4671s um but I don't believe we'll see a
4672s metaform
4673s I think that the intricacies are too
4675s great when it comes to how predicates
4677s are formed in order to elicit World
4679s State changes
4682s so we haven't talked about the tone
4684s sorry tolnar recently yeah the toner
4688s who do you consider to be the true
4691s natives or traditional people of Vera
4693s could we be seen as foreigners trying to
4696s colonize Vera or would the toner view US
4699s differently than that
4703s um how do I want to say this so I think
4708s when we when we talk about the taller
4712s and we're talking about
4715s um how will the tonar perceive
4720s their ancestors the children's
4723s children's children of their ancestors
4726s returning
4728s back to Vera I think majority of the
4733s disposition is going to be
4735s these are the descendants of those
4738s responsible for the tragedy that befell
4741s our world
4744s and so that is that is one way to look
4747s at it
4748s um and
4750s I think that that you will see a
4752s disparity between the younger telnar and
4755s the older talnar
4757s and their reception to those who are
4761s coming new
4763s um I think that's normal
4765s I think that's expected I think that
4767s creates an interesting tension
4770s um and I think that is a is a is a nice
4773s contextualization to some of the stories
4775s that might be told in interfacing
4777s between the tulnar cultures and those of
4780s the returning descendants
4786s how advanced is it going to be uh how
4789s advanced is going to be the system of
4791s hiring and customizing laborers on your
4794s Freehold
4796s um relatively Advanced um I think
4798s there's a few paths that you can take
4800s when it comes to training up those types
4803s of of NPC AIDS what what things that
4808s they can do I think there's going to be
4810s different tiers
4812s um and costs associated uh with higher
4815s level uh assistance on the on the
4818s Freehold
4820s um
4821s but the same is true for Mercenaries
4823s that that nodes can hire or castles can
4825s place with regards to sieges and or Wars
4829s and or events
4830s um
4831s like you have a very base functioning
4833s level of mercenaries with set of
4835s equipment and skill rotations and
4838s behavior trees that are possible at a
4840s fundamental level
4841s and then as you upgrade the nodes
4844s Barracks as you might upgrade
4848s excuse me you might achieve
4850s um uh certain relics that you gain or
4853s enact certain policies that allow you to
4856s dial up the stats of those mercenaries
4857s the same thing is true for the uh NPCs
4861s that can exist on freeholds except those
4863s might be more predicated to service
4866s buildings that relate to artisanship
4868s and that might be one of the reasons why
4871s it's beneficial to own a freehold in one
4873s particular node versus another is based
4877s off of what amenities are now available
4880s to your Freehold as a result of that of
4882s that node selection
4885s hopefully that answers the question I
4887s think we have time Let's do let's do one
4889s more question from each of you
4893s all right
4895s nice
4896s uh you spoke in the last stream about
4899s how eventually Intrepid would hold off
4901s on Unreal Engine updates put Intel post
4903s launch but didn't state if you're
4906s considering to upgrade to 5.2 is that
4908s something you're planning on doing and
4910s if so what features from it are you
4911s planning on utilizing yeah absolutely
4914s um you know we're nowhere near close to
4916s stopping our
4918s um our continued updates with with epic
4921s with unreal
4922s um so
4924s 5.2 is on the radar we might even skip
4927s we might wait to do you know based off
4930s of the next iteration 5.21 or 5.3 but
4934s just kind of depends we have a technical
4936s team that
4938s evaluates what's on the horizon with
4940s updates from epic uh on unreal and we
4944s kind of make that decision based off of
4946s the team's needs for particular features
4948s that might be being released in the
4950s future but usually we want to give epic
4953s the opportunity to release the first
4955s version of a particular major update and
4959s then go with the 0.1 version of that
4961s just from a safe keeping perspective
4966s all right so are there any mechanics or
4969s systems that you wanted to add to the
4971s game but haven't because you wanted to
4972s ensure that your development schedule uh
4975s stays on track and if so what are they
4977s oh yeah why what are they there's a lot
4981s um we you know generally when we're
4983s doing our uh internal meetings and
4986s reviews and a great idea comes up you
4989s know we've throw it in the backlog post
4992s launch you know that's good that's kind
4995s of our uh uh generally our our Mo when
4998s it comes to great ideas I mean because
5000s you know the reality is as we continue
5002s to go through features we develop those
5005s features we test those features and
5007s iterate on those features a lot of new
5009s ideas and opportunities come about for
5011s the team to think about well wouldn't it
5014s be great if this feature actually did
5015s this and interacted with another feature
5017s over here it did this and in some
5020s situations we'll evaluate and determine
5022s whether or not you know that type of
5024s interaction is really necessary to
5026s demonstrate what the core Loop of a
5028s particular system might be trying to
5029s demonstrate and we'll make the changes
5031s necessary but in the majority of cases
5034s we State we try to stay cognizant of hey
5038s here is our MVP necessary list of core
5042s Integrated Systems in order to achieve
5044s the identity of the game that we're
5045s looking for in the core gameplay Loops
5047s that we want players to experience
5050s um and we we work towards that end from
5052s a launch perspective and anything that's
5054s that's added that sounds good or we want
5056s to incorporate we throw it into the
5058s expansion bucket right
5060s um there's an opportunity for us to to
5061s you know we need stuff obviously for us
5063s to expand upon and for us to continue
5065s development post launch
5067s um so that's generally our Mo with
5069s regards to new ideas and stuff
5079s given that you you said that these story
5082s arcs are kind of like a module that get
5086s placed into the world uh do you plan to
5088s sell or release your ashes of creation
5090s theme ttrpg module for other DMS to use
5095s you know
5097s there's a lot of things I want to do
5099s when we launch ashes
5102s um
5103s one is of course a module that's set in
5106s the world of Ashes of creation yes I
5108s would love to release uh throwback to
5111s the original campaign
5113s it's very different from where ashes of
5116s creation is today
5118s um but I think it's a it's there's a lot
5121s of overlap between Gamers who enjoy
5124s tabletop RPGs and MMOs and
5128s um you know
5130s one of the benefits of telling a story
5132s through different venues mediums and
5135s and systems is that you reach a broader
5138s audience because not all of us like the
5140s same things
5142s um
5142s and I think the story of Ashes is a rich
5145s one
5146s and because of that telling it through
5149s through multiple mediums is definitely a
5151s desire from a board game perspective I'm
5154s a huge Board Game Nerd I love playing
5157s board games a lot of us at the office do
5160s I would love to tell the story of Ashes
5163s through a board game as well I would
5164s love to tell the story of Ashes through
5166s a RTS I would love to tell it through
5169s film and television there's a lot of
5172s ways I think that the story can be told
5174s it doesn't all have to be focused around
5176s the return to Vera there's a lot of
5178s different opportunities across the many
5180s thousands of years of timeline that
5182s Vera's existed that we can tell the
5185s story and even other other aspects of
5187s that so
5189s um
5191s yeah yeah to answer your question the
5193s desire is a yes post our Flagship
5196s product launch which is the MMO
5201s all right
5202s uh how exactly does the constellation
5205s system work you've stated that it'll be
5207s very relevant to the system such as
5208s narrative empowering abilities and items
5210s and Gathering relics but how do they tie
5212s into these systems exactly
5216s so the the constellation system is
5219s another predicate system
5222s and when I say it's a predicate system
5224s it means that um
5227s certain conditions
5230s will yield certain constellations being
5233s available to pursue discover and achieve
5238s um and they span the realm of
5240s interfacing across adventuring level
5244s artisanship
5245s node relics
5248s um policies like there's there's a lot
5251s of different things
5252s that constellations can touch because at
5255s its Essence it is a predicate system
5258s um now once players have achieved
5262s uh identifying a certain location that
5265s yields a constellation
5267s and they've checked off that box okay I
5270s have achieved this thing
5272s it can serve its purpose for kicking off
5274s a new storyline for that individual
5276s kicking off a new storyline for that
5278s individual's micro communities or
5280s pseudo-factions if necessary right it
5283s can serve as a broader kickoff one
5285s person discovers it
5287s three four five hundred people get to
5289s participate now in it that's an
5291s opportunity it can yield the location of
5295s an achievable World Relic that can be
5297s brought back home to a particular node
5301s um
5301s you know there's there's a lot of
5303s different things that are possible in
5306s order to see the constellation and to to
5309s actually achieve that
5311s it could be just as simple as looking at
5314s your character's viewport into the night
5316s sky at a certain location at a certain
5318s time it could be far more in depth which
5321s is killing a certain raid boss for a
5324s particular number of times until it
5326s drops a particular item that yields a
5328s map that sends you to a location that
5330s Sands is like there's a lot of
5332s different layers that can get added on
5335s how do we manifest a particular
5337s constellation
5339s the intent here is to provide an
5341s immersive system that keeps the player
5344s in the world and allows their in-world
5348s movement and interactions and
5351s immersiveness to yield a result that's
5354s unique
5355s and that I think is a fun and compelling
5359s interaction
5361s especially as it relates to adventuring
5366s I was that our last question
5370s oh we have one more we have one final
5372s question
5377s what do we got
5383s I apologize uh I'm a technical issue
5385s there
5386s um so as it stands final question what
5388s is the biggest obstacle preventing
5390s intrepo Studios for being ready to begin
5392s Alpha 2 testing
5394s the biggest obstacle
5397s um
5399s I think right now it's content
5401s production
5402s I think I think our obstacle is
5405s um the sheer size and complexity of our
5408s systems of course the necessary time for
5411s our teams to complete the content to
5415s fill those systems so that the data that
5418s we collect uh from play testing those
5421s particular Loops is compelling and
5424s indicative of accurate player responses
5427s and player activity
5430s um so there is a certain level to which
5433s the Alpha 2 client and world and
5435s experience must be brought in order for
5438s us to facilitate the accurate collection
5441s of data that we can then inform
5442s decisions based off of
5445s um and and you know that is a that is a
5448s moving point we're going right now we
5451s have we have on paper and our production
5453s schedule of what that needs to be but as
5456s we approach the end of milestones and or
5458s Sprints and we do our inspect review
5461s reflect process
5464s um we get to
5466s re-articulate where that point lives uh
5469s because each of those is a touch point
5470s so
5472s um
5472s look we're building a massive MMO
5476s massive
5478s um
5479s to the likes of which I'm not sure have
5482s been done in a fantasy setting before at
5484s launch
5486s um now we've we have we have we have
5489s brought a board a phenomenal team
5492s incredibly talented
5495s we are doing it in a way that I think is
5498s right with the transparency and
5500s connectivity to the community and the
5502s opportunity for people to watch the
5504s development of it
5506s and the truth of the matter is is that
5509s all of us want to play the game
5511s I almost want to play ashes
5513s even if it's even if it's just Alpha two
5518s um
5519s so
5521s you know our focus is to continue down
5524s the path of production and completing
5527s what's necessary for us to have a
5530s successful altitude test
5532s and nothing
5534s can be said or done
5537s to hasten that process in a manner that
5540s is not already conducive to how we are
5543s approaching production towards Alpha 2
5545s already
5547s um
5548s so with that in mind you know patience
5550s is key
5552s um spending the time necessary is always
5555s going to be a good yield on investment
5559s um
5559s and I think that being a part of the
5562s journey is beneficial both to the
5564s project and to you guys as players but
5567s ultimately our Focus will remain on the
5570s Obstacle of producing the necessary
5573s content for us to achieve a meaningful
5575s test period with Alpha 2.
5581s yay we did it
5584s thank you and content plug
5587s I like the typing
5591s um guys that is that Margaret in the
5593s back I like that that's cool
5596s guys I want to thank each of you
5598s um for
5599s joining me today obviously uh you guys
5603s represent a very core audience section
5605s of the ashes of creation Community
5607s people have been following the project
5609s for a long time hopefully
5612s excuse me I apologize for the coughing
5614s hopefully uh the questions that you
5616s asked today I think
5618s um uh successfully scratched some of the
5621s outstanding itches that the community
5623s has with regards to systems design and
5626s the project and development as a whole
5629s um I always enjoy chatting with fellow
5631s or MMO lovers and and members of our
5634s community of course about sometimes I
5636s can get a little overly passionate
5637s apologize about that as well but
5639s um you know I always enjoyed having
5641s these conversations
5643s um but I love each of you guys to just
5645s kind of give a quick uh reminder to to
5648s our audience of where they can find you
5650s guys and and your communities and uh
5652s yeah
5656s I'm chibi Bree I'm from the Golden
5659s Feather Tavern and you can find us
5661s anywhere slash TGF Tavern
5663s so twitch YouTube Etc
5667s and you can find me over on YouTube at
5670s youtube.com richesh
5674s yeah and uh to catch up with uh with
5677s myself or any of the Pathfinders just uh
5679s go to asheshq.com or uh the
5682s corresponding YouTube or the Pathfinder
5684s podcast is that or you can catch me on
5685s my my own channel on YouTube uh on
5687s YouTube but twitch uh just some work so
5691s awesome well from everybody here that
5695s joined me today and all of you out in
5697s the audience thank you very much for
5699s coming and being a part of this we love
5701s and appreciate our community at ashes of
5703s creation and your guys's participation
5704s makes this game a better game so with
5708s that being said we will see you again at
5711s the end of this month when we showcase
5713s the new Mage update and until then I
5716s wish you guys the most amazing April and
5718s we will chat with you all soon
5721s bye everyone bye
5723s y'all
5726s [Music]
5735s foreign
5738s [Music]
5815s foreign
5826s [Music]
5853s [Applause]
5855s [Music]
5895s foreign foreign
12 months ago - /u/IntrepidStudios - Direct link

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👀 #ICYMI, Steven Sharif answered a ton of Ashes of Creation questions from our awesome community members Simurgh, Ritchie SH, and ChibiBree! https://youtu.be/faeK_vQnnm0

💬 What piece of information did you find to be the most interesting?

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