Talk:2020-07-25 Live AMA with Steven Sharif

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36:39
Hello everybody! Welcome to my first, and the Ashes of Creations first, ask me anything stream. I'm happy to have you guys all present and watching it's pretty exciting over the past week to see what's been going on and and watch the excitement from our community, our existing community and the new eyes that we have on the project it's been a good long time that we've been working on Ashes and now that we're finally getting into some some alpha footage it's great to see feedback it's great to see feedback from the community it's great to see the the interest that people are having in Ashes now and it's it's actually it's it's really good to know that there's a lot of people out there that share some of the core philosophies that I have with Ashes, that we have as a team so I apologize if the sound is not as as good as it could be I don't have a headset I thought it'd be more comfortable to use the Yeti, and just kind of sit here and have a chill stream chat with you guys go over some of the questions those of you didn't have an opportunity to check out the reddit thread on our Ashes of Creation subreddit feel free to head over there. There's a lot of questions for sure and I'm going to try my best to get through it. I told the community team Margaret and Sarah, who are, and our volunteer moderators from discord who are helping with the stream that we may go over and I'm okay with that they're okay with that so bear with us. What I'm gonna do is I'm gonna go through the Reddit thread, and I'm gonna filter based off of a sorting of the top scored kind of questions so if you guys. There's no way we're going to be able to get through all the questions but, Sarah and Margaret are going to go through the ones that have been answered previously and they're going to try to get through linking answers to some of those questionsand you guys can check that out as well but if you have questions that you see that you also want answered feel free to go and vote and that will filter the the questions up on the top filter before I start I do want to thank you guys for for tuning in I do want to thank you guys for, you know, coming and being a part of this project it's so incredibly important that the community uses their voice and not just in Ashes just in gaming in general because, you know, companies they they sometimes lose sight of listening to their consumer. And, you know, the best way that you can create a product is by listening to the the feedback that your community gives you and that's just not on a design front that's also on a product front as well, a business front also- so, you know, there's a lot of things that I have the luxury of doing with intrepid as a company because I am the sole share owner in the company I don't have to answer to a board and I have that luxury not a lot of companies have that luxury and that's why it's important for consumers to speak out and give their their feedback because the board does see that and the success of other companies that try new things that take risks like intrepid is taking or that Ashes of Creation is taking it's important for those risk takers to get the love and the support so that it it shows other businesses really the direction that the genre should go in. So I want to thank you all for tuning in and for coming and showing your support for Ashes., you know, there's a there's still a long road ahead of us but with your feedback during this process we can make sure that we have the best quality product available for for an MMORPG and that's really what, you know, all of us want we all want, you know, that nostalgic kind of first feeling we had with an MMO and it's very difficult to get there but I think that what we're doing with Ashes kind of answers that call I mean one of the one of the favorite things I've always remembered about you know new MMOs that I used to play back in the day whether it was, you know, Lineage 2 or, you know, Archeage or many of the other MMOs I've played is getting up I was reading a comment this morning it's getting up each morning and, you know, I hate to say it but it was it was almost like just no lifeing the game and knowing that you need to get in there and go play with your friends and, you know, progress and and participate in this lively community and and that's a feeling that I think we're trying to get with Ashes so without further ado I'm gonna start answering some questions now I'm gonna try to be quick because I want to get through as many questions as possible and then additionally for those of you in the community who have been a part of Ashes now for a while you may hear some repeat questions and you may hear repeat answers but you may also hear some design changes I think I got permission from Margaret to leak a little bit today so you may hear me giving you may hear me giving some answers that that either has changed some designs that have previously been mentioned and or you may hear some new things as well also I am human so and there's a lot of bit there's been a lot of iteration so there might be some, you know, mistakes but I'll try mitigate that as much as possible.

42:41
Okay so starting with the first question that I have on the reddit thread so this one's from cold one ftb he asks:

Question: When discussing the breakdown of rogue archetypes you said all classes are capable adventurers but only rogues will excel at delving the deepest dungeons and finding the most hidden treasures how literal is this will there be rooms or partial floors that only this archetype can get to what else can you tell us about this archetype?

Answer: So to answer this question yes so we have what are called utility skills and a lot of MMORPGs really only focus on active combat skills, but some of the favorite things that I've had as a gamer is tabletop RPGs like Pathfinder or Dungeons and Dragons. And there are skills in those games that are relevant to either your environment or the quest line and they're a little bit, you know, sometimes story mode. The way we're implementing these utility skills specifically as it as it relates to rogues is. Rogues will be able to essentially discover hidden doors, or they'll be able to track find, the ranger will be able to track find sorry, they'll be able to discover traps, they'll be able to discover additional treasures. So if you're in a party and you have a rogue that's available they'll be able to use that that utility skill to discover these random doors that might exist in a dungeon now the way we make it so that it's not, you know, essentially the same door every time and it's just, you know, a first time thing and every time thereafter, you know, where that door's at. Is these locations are randomly spawned throughout different times of the day so they'll change essentially as you go into a dungeon at different times. So it'll be important and relevant for for parties to make sure that they have a diversity of archetypes available to them and in particular for the rogues case because they can find those hidden type doors, and then have access to different types of loot tables based off of that.

44:45
Next question from chaos miter or mieter he says:

Question: How will XP be affected by grouping for killing, questing and farming?

Answer: So for killing quests if you're a part of a group and you kill a monster or a raid boss, that experience is going to be divisible by the number of party members. Additionally in order to kind of compensate or scale the experience granted from the death of the monster, there is a multiplier that's applied to the incoming experience for the party. And that multiplier increases as you add additional members to the party that way the group effect has an ability to stay relevant to the solo experience gain that's possible as well. Now that's not going to be too significant I believe at its height it has like a 1.3 multiplier, maybe it's a 1.4 multiple I'm not sure. On the questing side, the questing experience is not divisible. So even if you're part of a group and your guys are collectively kind of doing solo quests those will maintain the experience value per individual who's completed the quest. Same with regards to farming pretty much. The only divisible nature of experience gained is applied to monsters and raid bosses that are killed.

46:07
Next question from, boy this going to be, there's a lot of questions. Next question from fdf86. And I haven't previewed these questions I believe we just opened the the thread an hour ago so bear with me.

Question: Considering the number of nodes that are in the world how many different dungeons and world bosses will there be. Is it going to be one dungeon per node, or will node share dungeons that will unlock when either of the associated nodes level to the appropriate tier?

So I'll there's a lot of questions from this individual but I'll answer that top one.

Answer: So considering that, there's over 103, there's around 103 nodes that are present in the world. There's a significant portion of dungeons, they will however share locality becausethe initial zone of influence at a zero stage node is relatively small. So nodes or dungeons are considered essentially these points of interest that exist between multiple nodes. And as nodes advance and expand they're going to take over nearby nodes as well through our vassal system locking them out from progressing further than the parent node, and that node is going to then have influence over that dungeon point of interest. The number of raid bosses that are present in the world at start obviously we have a lot of expansions and additional content that's planned for post launch. But initially there's going to be between probably I would say 12 and 15 world raid bosses that are present and that does not obviously include the dungeon bosses that will be present and the regional bosses that will be present too the difference between dungeon bosses and regional bosses and raid bosses legendary raid bosses is essentially the amount of players that are necessary in order to complete that content the difficulty level as well as the drop tables that come along with those so legendary equipment is only going to be droppable from legendary world bosses the regional bosses those can change based off of and also legendary bosses are static the regional bosses can change based off the progression of certain types of nodes and the location of those nodes as well.

48:26
Okay question from frozen, frozen asks:

Question: Many people believe that multi-boxing is a pay-to-win feature. Why is it being allowed in Ashes of Creation and will there be any restrictions put on it?

Answer: That's a very good question. So I've been torn, you know, I see both sides of the coin on the multi-boxing argument as a pay-to-win feature. So first and foremost let me clarify that there will be absolutely no pay to win in the game from an an advantage standpoint that can be purchased by an individual character. And what that means and what I've been just absolutely livid about in the previous games I've played and just let me give you example as players are directed to form an in-game economy. Companies in the past that I have played MMOs with have introduced game mechanic influencing items so I'll just give you an example, I'm not going to name the game, but I will say very early on in one gamethat I played, there was a particular resource that could be farmed either in illegal farms or on your player farms and this resource had an opportunity to proc into a higher rarity resource if it was struck by lightning. Probably give you some idea of what game it is. But if it was struck by lightning and that that particular resource was a gateway to certain types of items such as tractors that allowed you to move resources in the world and collect additional gold from doing so. Or other resources and it had a very high value because it was such a rarity, the game creators decided that they would introduce in the pay shop a a seedling that had a greater chance of procking into this specific tree type and that completely destabilized the market for what players spent a large time creating infrastructure around in order to generate their their income and it flooded the market with that particular resource. That is a huge example of a terrible, terrible idea when it comes to implementing pay to win mechanics into a game. Additionally I am also against pay to convenience. I consider pay to convenience when it comes to let's say inventory items or slot spaces I think that those are also an advantage that the character receives based on their their paying money for with regards to multiple accounts and multi-boxing that's a little bit difficult for me because is it could be conceived as pay to win because you can progress on a second character and you can then gift that progression to your primary character in that scenario yes I can see the argument however if the character progresses with the same amount of effort and time needed by the person who's playing and they maintain that progression on that character then I don't consider it pay to win I consider it a second account. So initially what I'm going to say is having multi-boxing capability will be allowed within Ashes of Creation there are a few safety nets that I put in place that kind of restrict the ability for abuses that we've seen in other games happens for example the freehold system which is a primary arc in the processing artisanship tree can only have one freehold per account so it's not going to be like other games where, you know, your character can have three or four or five properties that each character can then have which creates a very exacerbates that the land issue significantly and then additionally one other concern before I'll move on to the next subject one other concern on multi-boxing is it's very difficult to implement restrictions and enforcement around multi-boxing because there are I mean you can have IP restrictions however there are families and accounts that play together there are there are roommates that play together and there's a wide net that can be cast there which can prove false positives in enforcing the multi-boxing rule so it's a little bit difficult in that regard as well so that's my multi-boxing answer.


53:09
Okay frozen asks, again sorry, again from frozen:

Question: There are concerns that costumes bought from the cash shop will hide someone's real gear, making it difficult to tell how powerful their character is in PvP. will there be an option to turn off other people's cosmetics in the game?

Answer: So that's a two-point question. One, When it comes to player threat assessment, you will be able to target a player and very quickly, at a glance, you will be able to see a buff on the character that represents the type of gear they're predominantly wearing, whether it be plate, leather or cloth and then you will also see a border around that gear that gives you an idea of the tier and quality. So you won't have to hover over and see, you'll be able to, at a glance, tell that this person is going to be effective against physical damage mitigation and that the level of gear they're having is, you know, tier, whatever, and it is enchanted or something based off just a very quick glance. So that's the first thing. With regards to turning off cosmetics. Previously I had mentioned that there is going to be what we call a default player appearance and the primary reason for having default player appearanceis not to turn off cosmetics. It is to help the player client render multiple targets in siege scenarios or high group content scenarios. So with having that functionality present, what I've decided is, that we're going to enable that option when there is a certain number of rendered clients within range, or at specific events and the reason for that is. Because cosmetics, whether purchased from the shop or earned in game, are an important component of MMORPGs, you know, I have, I personally enjoy and there's a lot of collectors out there who spend a great deal of time either, in game achieving these things, or spend money purchasing them from the cosmetic only marketplace. And we don't want to demean or reduce that achievement, or that expenditure. So there's going to be, it's going to be situational, where the default appearance will be applied and can be activated.

55:31
okay next question is from Sent Null so Sent Null says:

Question: Have you decided what happens to a player caravan. Oh, actually I'll refresh after this so I can make sure that the top votes are counted. can you,[Coughs] excuse me. Have you decided yet what happens to a player caravan if they are in the middle of a trip and have to log off or get DC'd? Can I try to make it halfway to my destination one night, find a safe area and log out and then log in the next day to finish delivery?

Answer: No, so there will be a time delay that starts ticking when the caravan logs off and that time delay is probably going to be between 5 and 10 minutes so essentially what's going to happen is: First of all your well, I'm sorry hold on that's that's a different point, that's for the mule thing. For the caravan specifically: if you are disconnected or log off the caravan will persist in the world, so that's what's going to happen with the caravan that'll that will persist and exist still in the world.

Yeah okay let me refresh real quick. I'm sorry let's see, I am refreshing and we will see if there have been different votes applied. Okay, okay ft86 we answered that one, we answered that one when discussing, the breakdown answered that one.

57:03
Question: Okay TaylorWK what are the benefits to choosing a religion to follow? Can you only follow one at a time and how hard is it to going to be to change your religion? I would love to be able to role play as a religious fanatic converting people to my deity.

Answer: That's that is awesome I would love for you to role play that as well. so first of all yes you may only choose one religion at a time to follow. religions are unique in the sense that they have progression based off of quests that are uniquely offered to followers of that religion. depending on your both performance in those quests as well as your number of quests completed, you will advance in rank within the religion. when you advance in rank within the religion, you will gain access to unique titles, you will gain access to unique shop items and you will gain access to discounts as well as roles that will happen during either events for the node or sieges for the nodes that you're a citizen of as long as it has a temple dedicated to the deity. You can change your religion as well, if you do change you'll lose your progression within the religion. Also the top tier achievement within religions is going to be gaining access to unique augments that can be stacked on top of your secondary archetype augments. And those have to do with more of a give and take type system based off of the choices that you have.

58:37
Okay next question from Red Seven Silence.

Question: Will base class clerics be the only players who have a direct healing spell for other players ? If so will there be any way to have other classes heal such as a staff that has a healing skill tree?

Answer: That's a very good question. So on the base class of clerics they are they as well as bards will have direct healing effects. Bards will be much, much less and the bards will have will be proximity based as opposed to direct target or otherwise. The clerics will also be able to heal base. We, okay we tested this a little bit where did we test it I think we tested it in our castle siege testing that we did with phoenix initiative. so in the castle siege testing that we did with phoenix initiative we had action-based weapon skills that you could target, and I'm not sure which weapon it was, I think it was a scepter, that you could fire off heals in a direction and that would hit your allies, if you were grouped with them. we have not decided yet to implement that type of feature within the MMORPG it was more on the action side testing, action-based healing skills. But to answer your question. The base archetype cleric will be the predominant healing force class, with some supplemental healing that would be more over time healing or proc based healing. based on the action of players that's assigned to the bard role. Okay, oh, and one other component there is through the secondary class augment features it will be possible for some, arc, base archetypes to augment their active skills that will grant either, themselves the potential to heal or will have very mitigated healing for other party members also. And just to give context there again the purpose of secondary archetypes and the augment system is to blur the line a little bit with the class roles so while we're following a traditional trinity type system in class roles. We are utilizing the secondary augment system to allow players to move the dial a little bit in one direction with the augments.

1:01:08
Okay okay Frog P asks:

Question: How will food consumption work in this game? As in, will they act as long-term buffs or something else? super excited for the project. God speed and trouble

Thank you Frog P appreciate that buddy

Answer: So food consumption. Foods consumption will act in certain ways so first of all, the higher quality of the food based on the cooking profession that a player excels in the greater potential for the buffs duration. In addition you can increase the buff that food gives through the through the furniture system that can be placed in home. So for example if you have a completed dish and you process that dish inside of let's say an oven that has to be constructed and placed within a certain grade home. You can increase the effects as well. Another thing is buffs from food can be proximity based also. So for example if a player chooses to construct a tavern or a business on their freehold they can offer food through that tavern, [Coughs] excuse me, through that tavern and players who are visiting the area doing hunting quests, can visit the tavern eat food if it's available and they will receive a proxy a greater buff that is proximity based essentially if they hunt around that person's business they will receive the benefit of the buff additionally that business can be upgraded through the access of additional blueprints as well as resources that need to be then poured into the to the building and if they do so that proximity radius expands. So it kind of like it makes your business, you know, more popular and more known and have have greater abilities. Good question I love I love the professions and the cooking stuff.

1:03:03
Okay Adversary GG holy moly there's a lot of question there. So let's see starting experience artisan gameplay and guild related let's go with one of these questions [Laughs] I'll try, oh, okay I'll tell you what I'll answer two because one's easy.

Question: Will players be required to play through the starting zone after coming out of the divine portal or will they be allowed to branch out and proceed to other areas and content immediately?

Answer: Yes, there is no railroaded driven, theme park experience here. You will have the opportunity to create your own destiny in that regard which means you don't have to necessarily follow the quest line nor do you have to participate in events or experiences around the starting area. Now it may be more beneficial to do that and in that regard I guess there could be a meta around doing that. But you could branch out proceed to other areas and do different content, it really comes down to I had a question. I remember one live stream where players said: Listen day one, what's my objective? Well because we have so many progression paths, that objective is really determined by your goals. And, you know, if you want to be the best guild around then probably, well I guess that's that's too broad question. If you want to go with your guild and try to establish an area as a crossroad or an encampment far away from the starting area you could do that. If you want to, you know, get your adventuring class as fastly leveled as possiblem, you can do that as well. If you want to get a grab on the gatherables that are in the world and develop tools so that you get access to, you know, higher end gatherables first, you can do that as well. It's really kind of your choice here.

Let me answer one from the artisan gameplay question section.

1:03:53
Question: What is the team's vision on the scarcity of resources for gatherers? Will these be one-time use resource nodes that are only tapped by the first player there, or will they be shared cooldowns on resource nodes?

Answer: So the idea behind the resource system is a few different applications here. First of all, yes, there will be some resources that are one-time gatherables and then we'll randomly spawn at a different location. However there are also large vein gatherables. And this essentially is a system where a resource node will have multiple access to gathering from it. It will have a finite number and this this will likely attract a lot of players to kind of come and access that resource node so like a large mine that's present and has a vein of mithral ore in it. Or a herd of, you know, some type of animal that you can collect fur or wool from. Those will be then depleted, and they will randomly spawn elsewhere. On the scarcity side, obviously there are going to be different tiers of gatherable resources that are higher end and will be more scarce, And will require higher end tools in order to harvest also you can based off of your advancement within the gathering tree will provide you a greater opportunity to proc more rare types of resources.

Okay from the guild related questions and by the way I apologize I can't see chat [Laughs] because it's a little bit of a distance away so I know that Margaret and Sarah can ping me if they need to tell me something. Okay guild related, here we go. So let's answer the second question here. One of the, because I answered the first question on the other two and the second question.

1:06:53
Question: One of the issues a guild of our size has experienced during various launches has been server lockouts, where a server population reaches critical and a decision is made to lock the server essentially forcing a separation of the guild, [Phone buzz] sorry ,of the guild, let's see, decision made lock server essentially forcing a separation of the guild. While we understand the overwhelming loads that launches place on server infrastructure can't be predicted at the very least if there is a contingency plan to separate the population. Will this be communicated well in advance so guilds can plan ahead. And will there be a server transfer system in place to help address this issue?

Answer: So first of all, you know, I was a guild leader of a very large guild, very very large guild and, you know, I built that community up over a period of, gosh, 14 years 15 years we've I we had like I think we had like 14 000 members or something on our mailing list at one point and I did step. Just to be clarified so there's no conflict and interest as a result of starting Intrepid and the Ashes project, I stepped down as leader and exited the guild so there would be no conflicts. But to answer your question a hundred percent I understand the the absolute travesty that occurs sometimes on new MMO launches when those types of decisions get made from the company. One of the things that I would like to introduce, that is going to be rolled out probably during the beta phases. Is allowing server reservations, and essentially this provides an opportunity for players who are parts of guilds to reserve their spots on the server. I think that will help to mitigate the the differences be because. Let me just back up a second it's almost impossible to really stop the problem that occurs when a server becomes overpopulated at launch and character registration and character creation goes too high there's really only one recourse that can be utilized and that is the the temporary closure of new of new character creation. However I believe we can mitigate that issue by allowing what´is, you know, essentially character slot reservations. Now this would likely be utilized more so by guilds than that would be by solo or unaffiliated players. And I believe that, you know, the solo player they may have friends that they want to play with, that's fine they can also still with those friends do the reservation system but the the player who is just joining the game fresh and doesn't have a community that they're part of I don't think they really, you know, mind in that regard and will not utilize that system. So hopefully that mitigates some of the stuff. But let me tell you this, obviously, you know, as we go through testing alphas and betas and whatnot you know the importance of player feedback and ideas that come from the community. I can't stress enough why it is so important, to spread the word for Ashes and get people who have experiences in other MMOs coming and talking to us coming on the forums, getting on our discord getting on social media and giving feedback it is important. And I'm not talking about, you know, pre-ordering the game I don't I do not care if people pre-order the game, it doesn't affect the, essentially, it doesn't affect our our project from a budget standpoint, you know, like I said: I'm personally funding the project to completion, so that's not the issue. The issue is having people engaged and discussing their experiences and also giving feedback on our design principles, that's what'simportant, you know, yeah I can't stress that enough.

Okay and and to be fair by the way I get a lot of messages, I get a lot of I read a lot of the discord and I go on discord often and talk with people I jump in voice chat sometime I watch almost every content creator who creates content around the game when I'm like getting in bed and holding my phone up and watching and I fall asleep and my phone hits my face sometimes but, you know, it's my job to make sure I have a very clear and understanding of the community sentiment as well as the community's feedback so please go and talk about your experiences and give us feedback it's very important.

Okay next question from Sent Null question: Have you decided yet what happens to, oh sorry, I already asked that.[Bab bab babaaaa]

1:11:51
Okay here we go Draco is the king. Is Draco the king? are you going to capture one of the castles Draco hopefully, we'll see.

Question: I heard that the character creation should be on the level of BDO character creation.

Answer: I really did love BDO's character creator I thought it was really cool and I thought that they did a great job in providing a lot of versatility to the player to customize the character appearance I think the one thing I would as a as a player and as a now a developer kind of focus on is maybe providing a little bit more confines to the racial appearances, that could be done. But I thought that they provided really cool character creator.

Question: Will it have all of that or more options such as sliders?

Answer: [Laughs] I'm assuming you're referring to a specific type of slider, and I would say that, yes, there will be a slider in that regard.[Laughs] And additionally, there will be, the goal is to have a character creator on par if not much better than what BDO provided I really give a hats off to their to their developers in making that character creator they did they did a great job with that. Oh, one other thing about that. I really would love to give out early, our character creator and some games have done this as well. Get the character creator out early so that players can spend time making and customizing their character and then saving that character profile so that they're ready to go on day one and they don't have to spend time creating their character and they can jump into the game very quickly. That, you know I can't tell you how many times my guild and I would be sitting in, you know, teamspeak or discord or whatever, or as far as I go back, ventrilo, and we would be just waiting for the server to go live. "It's live, it's live, it's live". And people would joke and they would, you know, they'd say it's live and everybody would freak out and obviously they're trolling us. But the goal I know there is to get into game as quickly as possible, and having that function I think is an important one with the character creator.

1:14:12
Question: Okay a question from Efren and Verde about the inventory system: How limited will it be and will there be ways to enhance the capacity? Also what advantages does sending a caravan get over just coordinating a bunch of people to fill their inventories with materials and run to the goal?

Answer: Well okay let's answer the first one. The initial capacity will be relatively limited, however there will be specific items that can be achieved within the game. Based off of the progression of the node system as well as certain quest lines that can be utilized to grant inventory slot expansions. It's important to note that because the inventory does include sections that are relevant both to quest items. The quest items will not fill your non-quest item capacity. That's onething I freaking hate about some games, is where you'll have quest items that fill your inventory capacity that's non-quest item so. That is that is one thing I will say. And then the second thing is it's important to note, that you will have, so the capacity, that a person, that a character can have of raw gatherables or processed materials can also be expanded up to a point. Additionally you will have a certain type of mule that can be utilized to carry additional goods that you can summon if you're going to, excuse me,the gatherables, if you can, you can summon that and take that back to the warehouse depository. But essentially to answer your question with regards to caravans. Caravans have multiple applications. It's not just about transiting your goods per se. You could potentially transfer out raw resources and gatherables and try to maximize a number of friends kind of moving goods to the world. But at that point you have to realize there's going to be certain risks associated with that. And the capacity to do so you would need a looooot of friends to match the capacity that the caravan has. Also caravans provide an ancillary benefit to just the transit of goods. There are quest systems related to successfully completing trade routes, there are non-player driven caravans that can be that can be utilized by the towns to establish trade relations with other nodes that require escort duties. There is potential returns on transiting the goods you have to a node that has initiated a quest or a public works project for raw gatherables in order to complete certain infrastructures, and you may want to do that in exchange for a different type of resources. So there's a lot of unique benefits that are housed within the caravan system that require its usage, not just the benefit of the carrying capacity, which far exceeds that of a collection of friends, yes.

1:17:23
Okay, next question from JakutaTV. Good Afternoon Stephen. Good afternoon Jakuta, I hope you're having a great day my friend.

Question: As we come closer to alpha one, and eventually alpha two. We will start to see. Will we start to see more about the archetypes and the augment schools for each second archetype?

Answer: Absolutely, you know, part. So there's two components to this. Question one is, we want to vet a lot of the design ideas, right, behind player feedback, that's what's so important, and on the flip side. We want to do so in a way that's structured as a rollout as we get into alphas and betas it's important that, you know, that information gets distributed to the players but it's also important that we don't ruin the discovery feeling that happens with the new MMORPG. As I've said in the past transparency is a double-edged sword. On one side of that sword at least when it comes to vetting our designs and and being transparent with the development of the game one of the sides of that is: We ruined the discovery experience, you know. I saw a former designer from from Blizzard he did a review of Peon's video which big shout out to Peon to Lex and to Unknown for, hoping, for helping with that video. But the designer said, you know, at the end he's like "I'm very excited for this", and, he, I believe he was one of the original designers for for World of Warcraft. It was great to hear him say he was excited for this. But he also said: "I almost don't want to watch any more of the development because I don't want to ruin the launch for myself" And, you know, we have to be cognizant of that. It is an important point while, on one side of the sword we want to vet our ideas, on the other side of the sword we also don't want to ruin the experience for players. Now alphas and betas because we're not putting NDAs behind them, you know. Yes that does speak with regards to confidence in the product I do have a great amount of confidence and part of that confidence is actually given from you guys. As a community essentially, you know, seeing how our philosophies resonate with you, it does give us more confidence and that is great. But at the same time, you know. One thing we're doing from a lore perspective is not really revealing any of that lore, especially in the alpha phases. Now as we get into the beta you know it's going to be necessary that those quest lines are implemented and they're going to have, you know, the actual stories behind it. But in the alphas, you know, some of that stuff is going to be sort of placeholder, and we're okay with that so yeah, sorry.

1:20:15
I'm very long-winded, in case you couldn't tell and I apologize for that [Laughs] there's just a lot of thoughts, you know, that are up here about the, you know, the games' [Laughs] designs so bear with me. Yeah, Margaret reminds me often that I need to move quickly through the questions [Laughs]. Okay question from, oh let me, refresh maybe should I refresh. Yeah I should probably refresh here. It was on Wembley maybe it will be on Wembley still let's take a look. Oh, nope, oh there I am as Thanos and a meme. Yay, I don't want to kill anybody, unless they have something I need. No, sorry okay. Wembley let's see I don't know where you are Wembley. I apologize

1:21:04
Okay here we go question from the Clow Khloe the Clow.

Hey Steve, whoops, I probably shouldn't put that in front of the mic. Hey Steve, how is it going? It's going well Khloe. Thank you for asking. My question is:

Question: Is there a chance that the monthly subscription fee will be adjusted to other countries? I am from Brazil. Hello from Brazil, or actually I'm from the united states. Hello from the united states. WoW costs USD 14.99 and that would cost the brazilian currency 77 dollar exchange for us but for us the price is adjusted and we pay a 28 which is a five dollar fee.

Answer: So yes that's called price harmonization. That's pretty standard in the industry when it comes to essentially a part of the localization process and distribution process in foreign territories. And I say foreign with regards to the United States, to harmonize the price for those territories. That is something that we will be doing with Ashes of Creation with regards to the subscription fee specifically. However it's important to note that price harmonization will only occur when the servers are segregated from different territory servers. So for example a Brazilian player, if they were a subscription based they would have to pay that harmony price for these the Brazilian servers. Same with regards to other potential territories.

1:22:40
Okay question from gunman dude two

Question: Will the defensive capabilities of settlements, for sieges, differ depending on the race? For example the Dünir look to have more fortified locations (Absolutely ,they do) than the Niküa. You know the Niküa really need to get on top of that. So would it be harder to assault a Dünir city rather than a Niküa city?

Answer: So the defensive capabilities of cities, from a design perspective, cannot really take into account the race. That would be an unbalanced feature and would create likely, an imbalanced population skew for the servers with regards to race. What that means is essentially, settlements have a standardized siege process and their defensive capabilities are almost wholly determined by the direction that that those citizens take with the election or,[Cough] excuse me, with the election process of the mayor, who has the ability to direct treasury funds generated through taxation and or completed quests that are initiated by the by the town, to direct those resources into defensive capabilities or growth capabilities. Essentially that's a direction that has to be determined by the community itself. now if you're going to elect to spend those those treasury funds on defensive things you're going to lose out on the growth things but you'll be a stronger city to with withstand assault if necessary. And if you elect to grow your city more, you will likely lose out on the ability to direct funds towards the defensive structure such as strengthening the walls, or the gates, or having defensive traps available, having defensive siege equipment upon, the barricades, the ramparts having essentially. Oh, another, one other big thing is the reliquary. The reliquary is essentially a status symbol of achievements that the citizens have. Some of those can be utilized as area of effect buffs that are granted when deployed during sieges as well. So that's another important aspect of defensive posture.

1:24:54
Okie dokie. Corrupt Cactus, How does a cactus get corrupt? That's a good question. Okay so hey guys super excited to see this project develop and I wish you the best of luck. Thank you. I do have a few questions, but I would also like to give my opinion on some topics. Okay well let's do the question. Okay.

Question: Who gets the drop from world bosses?

Answer: So essentially when a raid is formed, the leader of the raid that is in charge or formed the raid, has the opportunity to set loot distribution settings. And that can be a wide variety of available options including a specific loot master and essentially they're going to determine how that works. Now if you have two competing raids, that's going to be done essentially off of a tag and DPS system. So tagging the target will grant a slight benefit to DPS done and then a DPS against the target is going to determine the looting rights so to speak. So for example if you tag the target you may only need to do 40 percent of the damage done or, you know, some plurality thereof, to achieve looting rights if you don't tag the target you may need to do 60 percent of the damage done in order to do that. Now it's always difficult to come up with a good loot system that is, you know, is fair and and addresses all kind of situations, so that's a particular topic that I love to get feedback from from other MMO players and, you know, get your guys ideas on those things as well that's a great topic to get to get ideas from.


Okay I'm just going to stop at that question because I see it's a very long post.

1:27:04
Okay here we go next question The Pie Face hey I have four questions all right well let's take the first one.

Question: Anytime I look up the combat in this game I end up with footage of the battle royale Apocalypse mode. Is the combat in Apocalypse the same as the action combat in the MMO?

Answer: Okay. So to give some clarity on the battle royale mode, for those of you who are new and want to kind of understand what was the reason for the direction of the battle royale. Essentially what we're trying to create in Ashes of Creation is a hybrid system of action and tab targeting. Now obviously they have very different tempos and speed and it is difficult to mirror what feels like a comfortable pace for those two different, very different types of combat early, early on and I'm talking like 2017 we got a lot of feedback from the community when it comes to combat and rightfully so. I mean combat is the most tactile component of an MMORPG. It's what you really, you know, aside from the systems and mechanics combat is what you must get right. It must feel good, it must be fluid it must be mobile, you know, that is a very important component of a successful MMORPG experience. And there it's a very iterative process one of the most iterative processes when it comes to developing a game. And the feedback we got very early on in the project was that: "Hey this combat is not fluid", "Hey this combat,you know, doesn't feel good". And we want, you know, we needed to really test how to implement action combat and get metrics on essentially projectile data, you know, hit scan data, hit boxes, you know, area of effects, templated types attacks. Those are all, you know, components that we wanted to collect data on in addition to vetting the backend systems that we had developed. From the matchmaker, to the to the concurrencies, to the net relevancy, and number of players that the server can manage, to the, you know, culling and rendering algorithms, you know, the optimization of our environment and terrain, the optimization of our character appearances. All of those are pretty fundamental that really we wanted to vet early on so a battle royale is a very easy mode to create, it doesn't really take a lot of design in order to implement. But it does provide a testing ground to kind of fill out those things. And, you know, we went down that road to test those things and luckily we did. Because we found a lot of systems and, excuse me, a lot of back-end stuff that we needed to rework and, you know, it would have been far more difficult, had we waited until the alpha phase of the MMO to rebuild some of those fundamental back-end tech. So the reason why you're seeing the combat in Apocalypse and how that will differ significantly from the combat within Ashes of Creation is because it is an a purely action oriented. Those that was the system we wanted to test in its purity so it is going to be representative of a pure action type system which is not going to be wholly representative of the hybrid type combat that we want to have in the MMORPG. Now alpha 1 will contain that hybrid type system a very bare bones and early iteration of it and through the data we collect by our players participating and giving feedback and watching the design metrics and the backlogs, we will utilize that to to change now one thing I'm going to say and I'll actually reiterate this at the end of the at the end as well. Game development is very difficult it's especially difficult for an MMORPG and it's especially difficult for an MMORPG that is trying to be as ambitious as Ashes of Creation is. Now the more difficult the development process, the more patience necessary on the side of the fans and the community. You know we're doing this in an open atmosphere and a transparent development process, but part of that is an expectation on behalf of the players, not only to give feedback but also to have patience in that regard. What I will say is as a commitment from the development side, we're not going to go down the path of scope creep. We, I have a very very very clear vision of all of the systems, designs and mechanics that are present within the game. And we're sticking to that vision and we're not adding additional features and prolonging the development due to that scope creep, you know, as we have may have seen with other, you know, other developments. No not trying to dig at anybody else I'm just saying, you know, that is something we're very aware of, or very cognizant of, and that is a commitment we make so in exchange for that patience, we promise not to incorporate that scope creep.

1:32:26
Okay, MikeEG says: Hey Steven thanks for doing this AMA. Thank you, for participating, friend. As well as doing the interviews with Summit and Asmondgold recently. I really enjoyed those interviews. They were very they were impromptu, I actually had no idea that they were going to review the awesome video done by Peon, and. I'm a very kind of action-oriented individual I believe, in in seizing the day the "carpe diem" idea and, you know, I am unabashed in[Laughs] reaching out to people and letting them know "Hey, if you're interested I would love to discuss things", you know, it's, Ashes of Creation is my life at the moment so, you know, who doesn't love talking about their passion in life. So with that being said, I did enjoy those interviews and I appreciated very much the time that those streamers and other streamers, who have a very large audience that have the capability of giving feedback, have to say.

Question: They really have increased my excitement for the game and I've been following for a long time (cool) regarding open world PvP. Will a player's health and level be a mystery to me before I engage in a fight? Follow-up.

Answer: So first of all the level will not be a mystery. The level will be known by targeting the player. The health pool however, unless you are in a party, or a raid, or a guild, you will not be able to see the health pool of the target. Instead that will be somewhat obfuscated. When you target the character their nameplate will have a quality, and based on the loss of health percentage wise, that name plate will start to degrade and you will get an idea of the damage and or status condition of the target, but you will not get granular data that tells you exactly what their health pool is. I think that's a very important component when it comes to obscuring somewhat the threat assessment and or status condition of players. I think that makes things more interesting and I think that it is going to be a very fun component when it comes to PvP.

1:34:57
Yeah second part of that question. I heard leveling will take some time, I like this a lot. I do too I think, that it's important to have systems in place that have varying degrees of progression difficulty and with the adventuring class I feel comfortable that a time investment should reap an equitable reward, and that time investment should be relatively significant. the question asked:

Question: What power difference can we expect to see with a small level gap say two to four levels? particularly for PvP will power difference be more reliant on gear or levels as we level up?

Answer: I would say that the power difference is going to be somewhat equal between gear and levels. One thing I cannot stand about MMOs is that they apply a dampener to damage done or abilities if a target is outside of a certain level range. And that includes both PvE and PvP. I don't. If I have a skill that does a thousand damage to a target of equal level I don't want my skill to do zero damage to a target that's five levels above me. I like the idea of batting outside of my weight class. I think that's a cool achievement factor. It gives me motivation to try more difficult things. When I play, you know, single player RPGs, I love iron mode. I think iron mode is awesome and I think it's awesome because there's real consequence to trying something and real reward if you succeed. The same I guess principle can be applied to essentially your experience as an MMO player, within a world that is you know fraught with danger and mysterious in what lies behind this corner. And if you're going to take that risk you should be able to perform at the right capacity and reap a reward, that is cool.

1:37:07
Okay, next question. Artheann you want to make travel matter. Or sorry you want travel to matter? Sorry I was making sure that I wasn't being told something on slack, let me just make sure that everything's fine with the stream, okay looks good, okay.[Babababa]

Question: You want travel to matter but you also mentioned that you'll have a family fast travel system. Doesn't 'traveling matter' go out the window when players set up family links with their guild?

Answer: So again families are, I'm sorry, let me read the last part of that. Question continued: What system will be in place to prevent this? Yes, so it's important to note that there's a cooldown period between a person leaving a family and joining another family and that period is in a matter of days. That's the first thing. Second of all. The summon system is contained wholly within the family unit. So for example if I have a family size that's possible of eight members, the same as a party size, and I want to summon one of them and they summon the others right my party can, you know, make it to dungeons and PvE content relatively quickly but I won't be able to then summon someone else in the guild who's a part of another family, right? So they'll have to they'll have to either have a representative that's present there as well. The idea behind fast travel not being prevalent in Ashes is: It's a mitigating factor to the zerg mentality. So essentially in games I've played where you can open a portal and everybody can jump through the portal together it becomes very difficult for players through the use of subterfuge to avoid zergs. And that's because if they get wind of something, or they, somebody sees it or they have an alt logged out or whatever, they can very quickly open a portal and get everybody, you know, together and then pour it out and, you know, stomp on your fun. Now that's not to say that political intrigue will not play an important role, if I have a spy in a guild and I know that guild is running at a essentially a trade run through the caravan system, and I know the time place and and numbers then I could set up a trap. I could set up my people to move to that location, it'll take some time. We want it to take some time. We don't want the ability of a zerg to quickly port places. The family summon feature addresses the concern of players being able to log on and go with their party to complete PvE content, but also provides a mitigating factor to the mobility of large groups of people. So that's that's my reasoning on that's my reasoning on that. And again feedback is very important, tear my systems apart, please, give me reasons, and post on our forums or reddit, it's, I enjoy reading that stuff.

1:40:11
Okay, question, from AdversaryGG

Question: Because of the cooldown after a successful siege defense, false flagging could become a viable strategy.

Answer: Okay. So real quick with regards tothe sieges of nodes. Anyone may participate in that siege which means. excuse me, as long as you're not a citizen of the node or an alliance member citizen of an allied node. Anybody can come and participate. The idea behind a false flag is. Let's say, I want to undertake the quest process which is substantial. So from a resource standpoint you will have to invest significantly in attaining the siege scroll, and then if you lay down that declaration with the intent, of not having an organized group of people. I'm not sure you're really mitigating the false flag there. Because let's say there were a group of people who wanted to siege, and you beat them to laying the declaration down. You can't exclude them, they can still come and participate in the siege. So it's not really going to be capable. And if there wasn't a group of people who wanted to siege, then you're not really false flagging anything, and you're actually opening the door for people who may not have been interested prior after having done most of the leg work[Laughs]. So I don't think that is going to be a false flag type situation.

1:41:43
Okay ,let us do Geist 1337. you know, I used to live in I I lived I grew up a little bit in indiana and I lived in a place called geist. It was very interesting outside of Indianapolis, and then I moved back to California. Born in San Diego came back to California after that. Little side not.

Question: So to give context to the question and what I pray the answer will be I want to preface it by saying I'm a huge fan of necromancy.I think necromancy is cool as well, you know not in like a undead way but like a, well I guess mostly in an undead way. Specifically the raising of fallen enemies as your personal undead. Because of that I've played the class in every MMO. okay you really weren't kidding. And the raising of fallen enemies[Bababababa] It has been available with the pinnacles of this style of necromancy being those from Diablo 2 and Path of Exile. This given, that minions in these games are relatively strong, albeit balanced when comparing to the classes. numerous within reason and most importantly permanent, until the player's defeat or their destruction. And so the question is: does the philosophy behind necromancy class match this going into Ashes of Creation? More importantly than anything else, are the zombies, skeletons, etc, going to be permanent?

Answer: Okay so first of all, the way that summoning works is: Players have active abilities as a summoner to summon a particular type of summon. And those types of summons, that you can summon will be adherent to the trinity class system. So you'll have a more tank oriented type summon available to you, as well as a more support oriented type summon, and a DPS type summon. So you kind of want to choose which one you're going to use at any given you know encounter based on the necessity of the encounter. As you apply the cleric secondary class and have available to your summon class active skills the augment of life or death you're going to radically change the type of summon that you can have for each of those roles. And that's going to take on, obviously, the subtype undead; so skeletons, zombies and a more different horror type undead. Are the summons permanent? So when you make the summon it is not timed it will exist until it dies or you log off or you summon a different creature. And then, your abilities as a summoner are really going to go to either, you can kind of choose this based off of your skill point allocation, either to augment through buffing and healing your summons specifically and granting it certain types of abilities that are temporary based off the skill cast or you will have more complementary type active skills that you can cast on the target and will synergize with the summons abilities as well. And your decision as a summoner to allocate skill points will be,you know, obviously your choice but that's to give more information on the necromancer's side.

1:45:11
Okay,[Babababa] Let us do, oh wow, it's 1.10, okay. I think we'll do another wow this, went by quickly. I think we'll do, I hope you guys are enjoying this I don't normally do solo streams. I think this my first one. I apologize if I'm boring you to death.[Laughs] I do much more enjoy the banter and interaction with having either a co-host or an interviewer but yeah. Okay radianspark asks:

Question: The augment system is a key component of character progression and the driving force behind the selection of one secondary archetype. (yes that is true) though some examples have been given notably the fighter's, charge ability many in the community are still confused as to the significance of this choice. Interpretations range from each of the 64 classes entirely unique to augments and therefore secondary architect as a whole, impacting only the flavor well.

Answer: I wouldn't say that's true. Let's take for example. Let me finish I guess the question: Could you clarify the impact of the secondary archetype on the player experience and the distinction it offers between the players and characters. Okay so, let's take the fighter example, as an example: So if you were to apply, I guess I was talking, what did I say about the fighter was it rush? Oh yeah the rush and the teleport or element or whatever. Let's say you take the teleportation augment and you apply to the rush skill. Normally the fighter skill would take X time to travel X distance, all right? So you would be dependent on your speed and during that time, with the speed of reaching your target, and just to clarify, I'm sorry so sorry ,let me rephrase I'm gonna recount what the what the example was you the fighter has a rush active skill that allows them to charge X distance over time upon reaching the opponent deal X damage and some condition modifier. Okay. And to be clear, by the way, active skills have different stages of skill allocation. So that initial rush skill may only require, you know, 10 skill points to have that available, and then you can continue to feed it skill points to unlocka second and third stage, that either can increase damage done, can increase the speed traveled, whatever. So with that example if you, apply a teleport augment to the fighter's rush skill. Instead of charging X distance over time, you immediately teleport to the target and you deal the X damage and condition modifier. So to clarify: This question it says it changes the flavor. That's not entirely accurate. So the design behind augments is to not just change the flavor so that it reflects the secondary archetype but it also fundamentally changes the core components of a skill. So when you're charging towards a target there's a lot of things that can happen during that time. You can be interrupted through a CC effectm there can be a battlefield wall that's deployed, the target can go invisible the, target could teleport away, you could be charging him for a period of time as he runs away from you leading you into other opponents. You know that's a very susceptible state to be in a rush situation. Now if you apply the teleport, that's just not flavor, You have completely removed all of those potential effects from occurring during the charge, and you instantly teleport to the target. That's a significant vertical power increase on zthe skill so, you know, the idea behind the secondary augment system is to provide that ability to move the dial between what your classic archetype's role is in the trinity system. And it does so by radically changing the core components of an ability.


Okay. next question. Okay we answered that one. Next question

1:49:27 Okay so question from T2XS. Good afternoon Steven. Good afternoon t2xs. First off I would like to say that it is refreshing to see how much excitement and dedication you have had for Ashes since I have started following it. Thank you I appreciate that. I'm very excited for the project and I'm incredibly dedicated, not to mention that I am pouring a small fortune into the development of the game and that definitely has the ability to make someone dedicated. But in addition[Laughs] I'm just an enthusiastic MMORPG player and I'm really driven to see something that I think reflects the sentiment of the community when it comes to creating a game. Yes I can't help but look forward to the alpha in the next few months. Thank you, we cannot help either.

Question: For my question I'd like to know a little more about the questing. Will there be a cross node quest? Will there be cross node quests?

Answer: Yes, there will be cross node quests. Those cross node quests will become, will come online more so when relationships get developed between different nodes. So, one of the benefits to establishing alliances or relationships between nodes is that it activates quest lines that only the citizens of those two nodes can participate in. So that's and it has benefits in that regard. Okay

Question: Will they depend on the levels and types of both multiple nodes?

Answer: Yes, so quest lines are gated by the, not only advancement of the node from a stage standpointm, but also by the types of buildings that get constructed by the citizens through the allocation of resources and treasury funds.[Babababa]

Question: Are all quests available to those that meet the requirements? Are all quests available to those who meet the requirements?

Answer: Yes, by the definition of requirements I believe those quests would be available If the requirements are met.

Question: Or in something like a hidden questline, will only the first person be able to reach a certain stage, be able to complete the rest of the questline?

Answer: I see what you mean now, okay. So on the society and organization side. So essentially, if nodes determine that they want to build a scholars academy or something else. That will provide certain quest lines, and within those organizations there will be unique quest lines that the first to achieve a rank. Okay, so let me just give an example. So let's say for a certain temple in a node the highest title that can be achieved is, you know, bishop or cardinal or, you know, some other term based on the type of temple it is and the deity it reflects. The first person to climb the ladder in that system will be able to attain that title and there can only be one who holds that title at a given time. So in that regard yes there are quests that exist where only one person, and the first to get there can achieve it. And then there will be maintenance, there will be opportunities for others to potentially take it. Now the benefit of that type of title is: During node sieges or node events, certain titles will have special abilities they'll be able to do special things during a siege or an event. So as a bishop you maybe have access, when these events or sieges come online, a secondary hot bar that provides you with those abilities, you may get additional hit points, you may have additional damage mitigation, You're sort of like, you know, a leader amongst your citizens in that regard. And that, you know, that would be true for the mayor as well and other positions.

Okay, boy, I put water next to me and I also put some tea but I didn't drink any and now I, I'm finding it difficult to talk. Okay, so okay. Next question

1:53:47 Question: What is the philosophy behind the cash shop? And how will it not destroy a pillar of MMO's visual progression?

Answer: That's a good question. So let me talk about this for a little bit. When it comes to monetization and business model, I believe that the quality of a product should speak for itself and in that regard. That is why I'm confident in the subscription system. It's also why I'm confident in not providing a box cost for the game, there's two reasons for that one. From a. And I'll talk about the cosmetic shop in just a second, I need to lay the foundation for [Laughs] the reasoning. So a box cost is a high barrier of entry, sometimes too high, and I believe in some cases too greedy, as well. That's why I don't want to have a box cost. One, because population of MMORPGs is an important thing to have high, okay? A high population is a lot of fun, especially when there's interconnected systems that provide interdependencies between different demographics of players whether they be PvP oriented, role-play-oriented, PvE oriented, crafting oriented, right? There's many different sub-communities within the MMORPG demographic so you want to have a large influx of players. I think a sub cost provides both the barrier of entry to prevent some, not all, but mitigate some gold selling bots, whatnotm because there's a cost associated with playing the game. But it's also not too high that it gets on the greedy side or prevents a lot of players from participating and trying the game. And then if the game is good, then people will continue to subscribe. And that subscription provides funding and revenue for the developers to continue a significant content creation and expansion rollout for the game, because content is king and content needs to be developed and that requires money.[Laughs] Okay so that's the first thing about subscription. Second thing about. So the cosmetic marketplace. There is a differential. Okay so first of all, let me say this: We are not, I god I hate calling out games, but I will call out BDO. BDO does great things I love BDO it's a very good, well done game. But one thing I couldn't stand about BDO I'm unfortunate to say this is that: "You look like trash unless you spent money in the cosmetic shop". That sucks, to be fair and take that feedback obviously with a grain of salt. However what I would say is in Ashes of Creation there is going to be legendary cosmetics that can be earned and achieved in the game. In the game through the game systems but that's going to take a significant amount of effort and work, okay? And that is going. Those cosmetics are going to be on par with the cosmetics offered in the marketplace, okay? Now with that being said there are different types of players that exist within MMOs there are casuals and there are hardcores. As unfortunate as this to say we as a demographic as an MMORPG community, we are an aging group of people and as long as the cosmetic doesn't present an in-game advantage, some people love collecting cool looking cosmetics and they may not have the time that the in-game provides as a gate to that progression so. [Laughing] The key is to provide both the in-game means to look, you know, what's the word: fabulous[Laughs], for some flair as well as a cosmetic shop in place as well now what that does is it provides additional revenue to the company so that we can continue to fund the development of content as well. And bridge the divide that not having a box cost would have and not having any pay to win mechanics whatsoever. And I will say this a lot of developers and companies have come along in the past and I've been hit by this too and they've said: "We're not going to have pay to win" and then boom they roll out some pay to win. We have consistently said we won't be pay to win and in the pre-orders that we provide and even in the kickstarter there were absolutely zero pay-to-win components whatsoever. So not only will we talk the talk but we will walk the walk as well. And that will maintain its case. So to sum that up real quick: subscription pay subscription good, cosmetic cash shop without pay to win components that has a complementary achievement system in game for different types of cosmetics good, and all of that goes to provide content expansions good, yes. Okay.


[Laughs]Next one 1:59:06
Question: Will ship building be available for coastal freeholds?

Answer: No, not for freeholds.So, Ship building is a part of the craft branch of the artisan ship, which means that the ability to ship build as a profession is housed within the development of nodes, right? So those crafting stations come online the higher you go. Now nodes that are coastal will have a hook to harbor systems that exist on the coast so the node may not be on the coast but it's going to be near the coast and when it advances it's going to spawn assets along the coast that's the harbor crafting areas and also have, you know, hooks for quests and whatnot that harbor station will have the craftable stations for shipbuilders to go and utilize blueprints to construct different classes of ships. Now the higher the node becomes the access they have to construct specific types of ship building stations and players will then (grant be given access to the) shipbuilding crafters will then be given access to construct higher type class of ships. And to be clear you will not need to be a ship builder profession to construct ships. The shipbuilder profession, particularly, they have the ability to craft components of the ships which, increases the ship's capabilities; defenses, speeds, turn rate, offense and defense, you know, all those types of things. And then they can sell those to other players, just as you would any profession.

2:00:55
[Babababa] Okay I think what we'll do is I'll take one more question. And then I will, because we're 25 minutes over, that's okay though. Let me see if I can find a really good one. Okay, a very good one let me see this, of course subjective but.[Bababab] I'm so sorry, okay here we, go let's just try this one I don't know if that's a good one.

2:01:39
Question: Considering other MMORPGs have a content droug at endgame that takes months for the developers to add additional raids or zones only for it to be cleared and farmed in a few weeks. How is Ash is going to create enough Content for 103 nodes at differing levels in the next two years? Answer: I don't even think WoW has that many raid zones, and it's been in actability for 17 years. So, okay that's a that's a very good question so there's a few things there. First of all the way that nodes are constructed in relation to the points of interest that exist within the world, multiple nodes (will) they all won't advance together, right? The node structure locks out other nodes, okay. Nodes influence the surrounding points of interest, they change spawn tables of the types of monsters, they change loot tables, they open access to certain content, and this this just talking about curated content. I'm not even talking about the player driven content. Keep that aside for a second. So on the curated front, we're not creating 103 different zones per se. What we are doing is, we are creating modular systems that affect the content you experience based on the way the world is built by the players and the catalyst for change is PvP related systems that destroy those player constructed nodes (and change) and allow other nodes to advance which replaces that content with different content that you haven't experienced before. So that's one thing about the node system. However I have always said that the sandbox element of MMORPGs has often been used as an excuse not to create a lot of curated content. To cut down the production time necessary for MMORPGs and to lay the responsibility on the player driven mechanics to be the end game content, and that gets boring very quickly. My favorite books that I used to read as a kid, right? Were those, you know, the choose your own adventure books the, goosebumps had them and they're all different types I thought those were the best books because it involved you in the story. The nodes essentially are intended to do that. They involve you in the story, you are choosing your adventure when as a community you build the world. So that's that's the important aspect of really in order for a sandbox to work it must have equitable or more, in some cases, curated content than a theme park style game does. Now that does create a significant responsibility on the content creation side for developing the game. We feel pretty confident that we're going to create a substantive and meaningful content experience from that regard. so, yes, that's to answer that question.

2:05:13
Guys, I'm again really appreciative of you guys tuning in I'm so so happy to see the the feedback and the just the sheer excitement from the MMORPG community at large I know we've had our fair share of criticism and it's not unwarranted I gave the analogy of MMO players being like a beat dog. And I love my dogs and I love my fellow MMO players. So I understand the the, you know, in the skepticism that comes with new games. But we are dedicated to creating a quality experience in the form of player driven feedback and sentiment in our community and you being a part of this journey means every ounce of motivation to us as developers to creating this game to, to making sure that it answers the call that the MMORPG community has demanded over the past decade and it's high time that this happens. So if there's one thing I would give to you as a call to action it's: Don't tell people to buy the game they don't have to pre-order the game sit back, watch but tell them to get involved, spread the word for Ashes of Creation go out there and tell your friends that you're excited about this or you like the ideas if you do. And tell them to come join the discord, (join) follow our social media come and be a part of the forums get out there and help make Ashes a reality and a good reality that takes into account that feedback that I'm talking about. It's so incredibly important that consumers use their voice and the way you do that is by engaging. And that is what matters. I know that people love my passion I am a very passionate MMO player I've been playing for a long time. But honestly it comes from the heart, you know. I want us to succeed. And I want the community to have a game that is going to make you proud and is going to make us proud. So again I appreciate you guys jumping in. I hope that this was fun for you and gave you guys some more information. Tune in to our live streams we do them every month I believe we have it next week on the 31st as well. We show constant updates and constant development progress. We've done it every month for the past three years and you can see this game grow and become a reality Guys I thank you for tuning in and we love you from the studios and we appreciate your support. Have an awesome weekend.