Ashes of Creation

Leibowitz said:

now that verbal NDA has been lifted, yes I am a tester. One of the things I tested was playing in the windowed made as that is what i prefer. The first time I tested, the windowed mode was VERY wonky. the windows size, shape and location changed constantly. I reported it, By the time of the second test a lot of the wonky was GONE. not all of it, but most of it. By the time of the third test, the wonky was ALL gone. I was VERY happy when voice acting was added. I got a giggle from the NPC that stated he wanted to be killed by the goblins so he did not have to go home to his parents HAHA! The graphics are fabulous. It does need more work, but in the past 2 weeks there has been a LOT of improvement. Even with the lowest level mobs you need to be cautious.. and watch your health bar. I played as a mage, as thats my preferred class . If you own a system over 3 years old I recommend you get an upgrade.

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I figured there would be a pile of updates before its released to the new group of us this week. Xerge is the one that gave me faith that the team here was actually skilled. Now Im just wondering if there is going to be some massive ass queue on release, much less.. when the Download is going to be available.

I will retry it when it opens. I would indeed expect login issues on the first day.

I had a lot of bugs about 2 months ago that ranged from mob pathing to walking through what should have been solid structures. I hope they change the questing a bit as to not use the "Lines through the text" method. The combat is done well enough. At least you know more and more updates will come out as time progresses.

Leibowitz said:

If you own a system over 3 years old I recommend you get an upgrade.

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But not right now. Wait until Release and THEN upgrade your system. I think we're expecting at least a couple more years before it's ready, so no sense having a two-year ( or more ) computer when we get there if you don't HAVE to upgrade now.

In 5 years your new systems today will be old when Steven releases it if he is still around.

I'll write up my honest thoughts in the next couple days

Leibowitz said:

now that verbal NDA has been lifted, yes I am a tester. One of the things I tested was playing in the windowed made as that is what i prefer. The first time I tested, the windowed mode was VERY wonky. the windows size, shape and location changed constantly. I reported it, By the time of the second test a lot of the wonky was GONE. not all of it, but most of it. By the time of the third test, the wonky was ALL gone. I was VERY happy when voice acting was added. I got a giggle from the NPC that stated he wanted to be killed by the goblins so he did not have to go home to his parents HAHA! The graphics are fabulous. It does need more work, but in the past 2 weeks there has been a LOT of improvement. Even with the lowest level mobs you need to be cautious.. and watch your health bar. I played as a mage, as thats my preferred class . If you own a system over 3 years old I recommend you get an upgrade.

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This sounds in line with the summary I was given by a friend who is in, he stresses its very much an Alpha right now but good to his expectations where he felt A1 was a disaster, and frankly this was looking like a disaster not long ago but they are VERY receptive to feedback and very quickly improving the game. Do expect wonky Alpha shit like borked mob pathing, bugs, crashes etc but game is fun when working and combat receptive, button presses feel immediate and so on - Combat "not a finished product, but on the right track"

Map is big, it takes time to get anywhere, if you die without a rez you go to a bind point and they are spread out...leveling is not fast (at least right now w/o many quests or any story quests) and youll want to do other things as you level like crafting, which is also slow and interdependent on other players. It's a party game, only 1-2 classes can really solo efficiently, and you basically just gather some things to do then go out in the world with your group and come across an Event to do or a grind spot etc. This is probably not the build to play if you are a theme park guy

Sounds like Fighter is the best class both in terms of strength and how rewarding it is to play at the moment but nothing is super out of whack and all subject to change + low level stuff of course.

Still needs a lot of work, many systems not in the game or in the game but only at a base level atm but it does sound like the people playing are actually positive and not just damage controlling like they were this time last year. He's heard a fair amount of people have VRAM memory leaks but hes on a 3000 series card (cant remember which) and hasnt had many problems

tower said:

This sounds in line with the summary I was given by a friend who is in, he stresses its very much an Alpha right now but good to his expectations where he felt A1 was a disaster, and frankly this was looking like a disaster not long ago but they are VERY receptive to feedback and very quickly improving the game. Do expect wonky Alpha shit like borked mob pathing, bugs, crashes etc but game is fun when working and combat receptive, button presses feel immediate and so on - Combat "not a finished product, but on the right track"

Map is big, it takes time to get anywhere, if you die without a rez you go to a bind point and they are spread out...leveling is not fast (at least right now w/o many quests or any story quests) and youll want to do other things as you level like crafting, which is also slow and interdependent on other players. It's a party game, only 1-2 classes can really solo efficiently, and you basically just gather some things to do then go out in the world with your group and come across an Event to do or a grind spot etc. This is probably not the build to play if you are a theme park guy

Sounds like Fighter is the best class both in terms of strength and how rewarding it is to play at the moment but nothing is super out of whack and all subject to change + low level stuff of course.

Still needs a lot of work, many systems not in the game or in the game but only at a base level atm but it does sound like the people playing are actually positive and not just damage controlling like they were this time last year. He's heard a fair amount of people have VRAM memory leaks but hes on a 3000 series card (cant remember which) and hasnt had many problems

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I keep seeing similar stories from the different forums Im on, or to summarize "It sucks right now, but its getting better with every update."

Which, hell - the game doesnt have a release date afaik, and most people theorize by the dates on the testing phases that we're at least 2 years out. From the proverbial napkin paper in 2016 to a 2026 release is a fucking long ass time, but the game looks nothing like it did two years ago. Never mind the engine swap - just the general combat and look of the game look completely different. So I dont feel like Im making an excuse for it, but more that it just seems logical that a new studios very first game is taking longer than a AAA game to come out.

I mean I guess we'll figure out in a couple days exactly how bad it is but I wasnt expecting much when they rolled out the "Phased A2" shit a few months ago. Remember years ago Steven sold A2 as essentially a playable persistent beta and now that is delayed to Spring of next year...at least until it gets delayed again

From what I've heard they basically started over with the UE5 switch and obviously the "it'll make stuff go faster" talk ended up bullshit, what I've heard is the issue there is the new engine really fucked with their networking and/or they never had networking working to begin with

But will it be as good as the current Camelot tests?

Rabbit_Games said:

But not right now. Wait until Release and THEN upgrade your system. I think we're expecting at least a couple more years before it's ready, so no sense having a two-year ( or more ) computer when we get there if you don't HAVE to upgrade now.

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i tend to upgrade just about every four years. I just ordered a new one as i ve been getting "you need a new graphics card" message from this trial. so i contacted the manufacturer. my current system is so old that the only graphics card upgrade .. is no longer being produced, even the manufacturer does not have any. So upgrade was my only option. I will start saving up for my next upgrade.. due in about 4 years.

Leibowitz said:

i tend to upgrade just about every four years. I just ordered a new one as i ve been getting "you need a new graphics card" message from this trial. so i contacted the manufacturer. my current system is so old that the only graphics card upgrade .. is no longer being produced, even the manufacturer does not have any. So upgrade was my only option. I will start saving up for my next upgrade.. due in about 4 years.

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If you live in a pretty populated area, you can just sell your processor and video cards every new generation. I plan to sell my Strix 4090 when the 5090 releases here in the next 3-6 months. I sold my 13900 CPU shortly after the 14900 was released and I lost just over 100 bucks for the transition. A lot better than just keeping the hardware and letting it fade into obscurity. As is, with video proof it works, on a service that cant issue refunds w/o your permission. Friends and Family, or w/e option it is on whatever epayment service you use. I save the box to those components and keep them in good condition because people .. like the boxes, idk.

I think Ill lose a bit more money selling the 14900 because all the horse shit with that range of the intel chips - but we'll see. Theyre due to get replaced sometime soon, too - but I think the next tier is going to be a motherboard upgrade (I havent looked into it at all because of said Intel drama). I dont try to hard to sell my old Mobo's just because I dont buy the Mobo's with 200 NVME slots, Wifi, and some marketing BS about networking - so theyre already pretty cheap.

In other news - I havent really seen shit other than the teases for the Summoner and the Rogue? Are those teases saying that they are going to go live this Friday? Or that they are "coming soon."

Xerge - Are you playing this weekend? Which server your clique doing?

Daidraco said:

Xerge - Are you playing this weekend? Which server your clique doing?

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I usually hang out on Resna - I'll be on Sunday for sure, its UFC weekend so wouldn't be gaming to much Saturday night. The clique/discord is heavily into Escape from Tarkov PVE mode atm so i'll probably be the only one playing out of them.

So my take so far; maneuvering their engine cost them short term, so hopefully the gains are there long term on the inside. In A1 the netcode was passable and worked, meanwhile all of the testing on the pre-A2 build I did was riddled with network weirdness. I wish I had clipped it but I had mobs spinning in donuts around me like they were coked up. Mobs did a lot of weird shit in general to the point I had difficulties testing. It got better each weekend but im going to be honest, watching the open world dragon raid made me go wtf how was that even possible with the current builds; figured it had to be internal servers.

The game world is beautiful and fun to explore in, it has the feeling of being grand in size as everything is big compared to the player. The audio is very enjoyable as to be expected however doesnt take the crown for me personally. The combat is tab target at its core and is fun however I played in the action cam mostly; this really saved it for me as it makes the hotbar mmo a lot more comfortable and tolerable with things like exploring. Surprised WoW hasn't moved forward with doing one. As far as hotbar mmo combat goes overall AoC feels more grounded and impactful, compared to WoW's warrior swinging surfboards or ESO's floaty mess.

I wouldn't be going into this believing it'll be your daily game as I'll echo and say its very much an alpha, however they've cooked up something good here. Im not going to comment much on the current systems as its an MMO that hasn't released and has little to not much data to work with. Hopefully the flood of ppl this weekend finally gives the feedback they need, both in numbers and voice.

Overall im glad the game is finally entering A2 and I think by spring of next year the game will see a massive jump in progress.

I'll be on Vyra. Think a few of my Guildmates will be playing, too. They're not sure if they want to just because they kinda want to be surprised at Release. lol

Also, this is the new "Unofficial" website for finding a Guild. The link is directly to our page that I just put up, but you can click Guilds up top to see all the options.

If you can play Friday, theyre making it available to everyone in that group to test the servers and get it downloaded. (Visual NDA only.)

Game is still 4+ years out from release. Ouch. It will not see the light of day as a full point release unless they start charging by the minute.

Fucker said:

Game is still 4+ years out from release. Ouch. It will not see the light of day as a full point release unless they start charging by the minute.

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I just played it for several hours. If thats four years away from release, I dont believe it'll take another 4 years. Theres plenty of things that I think are substandard. The questing is straight out of 2010. The AI voice generation on some characters is "ok" and at other times stand out terrible. The character and the Horse ... float? sorta? I personally didnt experience any massive bugs that would stop my progress and hell, even wow has some of those right now. The class and weapon talent trees leave a lot to be desired and I was on the fighter class. I felt like my character was constantly low health, though. Rations, potions, whatever - that stuff just isnt very powerful, at least tier 1 isnt.. and fuck.. I'd rather get to an easy spot to get back to, die, come back and get my shit at full health - rather than sit down and wait 5 minutes or some shit.

Combat itself, honestly.. not bad. Some shit obviously needs work though. Im not sure if its related to the fact that theyre stressing the network code, which I'll touch on. But some stuff just doesnt seem to have an appropriate cast range set. For instance, it wont let you cast charge from too far out. But if you cast it at the very edge of that range, your charge will only go half way instead of all the way to the NPC. The NPC still takes the damage, though - and the distance isnt really all that bad. Outside of obvious shit like that, though - very visceral feeling. Just needs to tighten up A LOT but its salvageable. Far better than the whiffle ball shit I saw in the Alpha 1 videos that came out.

As far as networking - if you have a major quest it can tell you the amount of players in that range/area that.. I guess are participating? The noobie area of that quest had 640 or so players in it at one point.. and I thought that was pretty impressive. There were people everywhere, and I dont think I've ever seen that many in one spot in an MMO before. BUT - even though your own character doesnt rubber band - you see other players rubber banding or frozen in place running, etc. But.. this is a test to figure out the best balance load for their fancy server handshaking.

I can really feel the influence from New World when it comes to crafting visuals. The crafting itself is pretty substandard and nothing to write home about. BUT - I learned today.. in what took me the better part of the time I was online - was that the first people to get out into the crafting areas can harvest up all the T1 mats like a hoover vacuum cause no one else is around - and by extension - they make full sets of gear ... and off they go, smashing any PVE content thats presented to them.

But the biggest flashback feeling I got.. was actually when we were all playing Rift. It was the Alpha for Rift as well, but thats not what Im referring to. Something about the feel, the combat, and the visuals... Its all very on brand for what Rift was like. Yes, this looks way better than Rift - but the "style" of the art in some areas is almost the exact same tone. The bare bones questing and you having to hunt down NPC's in a huge bubble of an area instead of just seeing their exact location is just like Rift as well. Hell, you gotta find these "splinters of the world tree" on one quest, and it gives you 4 markers over on the south side of Lion Hold. Theyre slow respawn and they can be found anywhere around those markers. How far out? No one knows. But there they are, get to huntin - and the reward for all that ... some glint.

Which Im not even sure what to do with Glint atm. I didnt care tonight and just sold it, because theyre doing a wipe. But bag space, and the extra bags you can get dont make any sense. At least not right now. It appears as though its coded that you can put material in any bag - even though its for lumber or something. But you'd be silly not to do a lumber and mining bag in the current iteration. On that same note - I do not understand the rhyme or reason behind what drops in your bags when you die. Equipment doesnt appear to be included in that, but it may .. maybe? when gear is all you have left.

TL/DR - Game has a bunch of minor problems but its overall functionally competent. ~2 years release time, and if I was a betting man - I'd say theyre going to backtrack on their world size. Just this area we're in.. is fucking large. Better yet, it has POI's in it that are actually interesting. So it seems really outlandish to believe that. If anything, they'll release the right hand side of the map, and naval combat as a free expansion or something 6 months into release.