Ashes of Creation

Vinjin said:

Can you expand on this for those of us not in the Alpha? Are you saying the gameplay is more group focused and not solo? And what is it about the game that makes you think folks will need to be in a 'large' guild? Would a guild of 15 not be able to survive for some reason?

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On Lyoneth or w/e - there was already two big major zerg guilds. They wouldnt let you group with them if you wasnt in their guild. You had to pick off scraps to finish quests in those areas if you stayed around, which takes way way more time than it should. I dont think a guild of 15 will necessarily have a problem playing most of the game though. I just dont think you're going to compete with the zerg guilds in owning a profitable city, or owning one at all.

Following that, though - I think territories, guilds and alliances will work themselves out fast enough that a guild of 15 could vassal to a much larger guild and enjoy everything the bigger guild does without being directly in the guild. Or in other words, I wouldnt put any stock in that concern.

Yeah, I think I am in one of those two guilds(HEROES). Hardly even got to play this past weekend mainly due to server/login issues. They were able to vote in the Mayor. Hopefully this coming up weekend fairs better.

Vinjin said:

Can you expand on this for those of us not in the Alpha? Are you saying the gameplay is more group focused and not solo? And what is it about the game that makes you think folks will need to be in a 'large' guild? Would a guild of 15 not be able to survive for some reason?

Click to expand...

Daidraco kind of got at it, and I dont know how much of this will carry over to the real game as things are subject to change (they have very few quests implemented atm and only a couple are worth doing xp/rewards wise) but it seems a pretty consistent situation across all the servers currently

Yes, it is a group focused game. Group size is 8, which has many pluses and some minuses, although I will say it does seem XP curves seem well adjusted at all group size levels. You just get more synergies and require less focus as the group size expands. The map is big, you are 9 times out of 10 better off staying in one spot and grinding even if it's only like 80% optimal rather than searching around for a 100% optimal spot. At least as of right now, levelling is much more old school (you even have Hell Levels at 9, 19, etc) so there is a fairly large difference between, i.e. Lv13 and Lv7 right now. I dont view any of this as a bad thing per se, I prefer encouraging a MMO to actually be MM.

I think in an ideal world, you find a like minded group of people to party with as you are levelling and then as you continue to progress towards end game with them you filter yourself into a like minded guild.

Right now in Ashes, you just kind of hit a wall at lv10ish where you have to make those decisions right away rather than letting them evolve naturally.

I also didnt think the small guilds were doing all that well. I saw them running around with their one group of people (remember, 8 man parties) where you'd have higher levels carrying their lower level stragglers with them looking for a mediocre spot to farm, presumably because they got bullied out of all the good ones. I would expect this to translate in most game scenarios where youre just about always better off playing with 200 than 20, except in maybe some cases like Caravan running where you'd bring all 20 to that and the big guild might only have a smaller portion interested in attacking your small fry guild

If you had a poopsocker 8man group of prealpha players in a small guild would they also have been pumping like the top guild groups were? Yeah probably, but I dont think it's a coincidence theyve all already been absorbed into the big guilds