Alpha Zero Gameplay

Kumapon

Just some live gameplay of Ashes Alpha Zero. I have to admit, even though this is bear bones, it actually looks half-decent. 

Slapshot1188

Will have to look through it some more...I will say they seem to be further along than expected.

Do not like all the spell/attack effects.  Think they need to be toned down. 

Overall though.. it looks like a lot of progress has been made.  

Kyleran

Slapshot1188 said:

Will have to look through it some more...I will say they seem to be further along than expected.

Do not like all the spell/attack effects.  Think they need to be toned down. 

Overall though.. it looks like a lot of progress has been made.  

And only 6 months after close of their kickstarter.

Shaigh

The environment looks good. Everything else looks like generic mmorpg stuff. I hope they don't stick to the run and gun spell-casting style and it exists only because its early in the development cycle.

Its time to change my hype meter on this game since I probably wrote it off a bit early. Its still a long way from release, we'll see how it goes.

ConstantineMerus

There should be an award for best progression of crowdfunded MMOs. And this should fucking win it. 

MightyUnclean

Has anyone here participated in the alpha?  Can backers play it at this point?  I read about the game on the official website, and it's promising a lot.  I'm interested to see how much they can actually deliver.

Kajidourden

The environments look pretty but that combat is the worst of both worlds with tab target/freeform use abilities.

Also, this footage is basically worthless because it shows zero proof of concept for any of the features they keep talking about.  Even if they do provide good combat if they fail to deliver on all their promises of working systems then it doesn't matter.

Their whole schtick for crowdfunding has been their "revolution" of mmos....so far I see nothing.

Wellspring

Kajidourden said:

The environments look pretty but that combat is the worst of both worlds with tab target/freeform use abilities.

Also, this footage is basically worthless because it shows zero proof of concept for any of the features they keep talking about.  Even if they do provide good combat if they fail to deliver on all their promises of working systems then it doesn't matter.

Their whole schtick for crowdfunding has been their "revolution" of mmos....so far I see nothing.

You have to build the base MMO gameplay before you can add in the more advance features. 

Kajidourden

Wellspring said:

Kajidourden said:

The environments look pretty but that combat is the worst of both worlds with tab target/freeform use abilities.

Also, this footage is basically worthless because it shows zero proof of concept for any of the features they keep talking about.  Even if they do provide good combat if they fail to deliver on all their promises of working systems then it doesn't matter.

Their whole schtick for crowdfunding has been their "revolution" of mmos....so far I see nothing.

You have to build the base MMO gameplay before you can add in the more advance features. 

Sure, but when your entire basis for making a game isn't even present.....why bother?  

Hell, even crowfall had some basic systems unique to the game in their alpha.  There is literally nothing in this alpha gameplay that is unique to ashes.

Curt2013

Combat looks to ez / fast, especially in a group open world. Really don't care to see a bunch of peeps jumping all over the place every 10 steps either, very annoying, maybe make it use stamina or put on a cool down. Only just started looking at this game so some of my complaints could be off base. Nice looking game world and animations so far tho.

Nilden

I'm waiting for one of these games to call it pre-pre-pre-alpha negative one at this point.

Akulas

Looks to be progressing nicely. Can it hold more than 20 people on the server? Combat looks like a work in progress. Cool looking mushroom at the start. Better an alpha zero than a pre alpha zero.

Wizardry

IDK if i would call that Alpha that looks a LONG way away from being a good game.

First of all standing still npc waiting to hand out a quest....sigh


GIANT name plates on mobs ...sigh  there should be NO nameplates unless you click the mob to see the name of.

SPAM arrow looks unrealistic.I really don't think these guys "get it"i do not see a game coming out that i want to play.

I don't think there is anything in the video worth seeing at this point,maybe later when the game is in a better actual Alpha state.

Timeline??I figure this needs a minimum 2 years,so yeah like i said,too early to see anything useful.

Galadourn

although i realize that at this early point they are testing core systems (log on, db persistence, etc.) I hope they give some love to movement and combat down the road.

Galadourn

Kajidourden said:

Wellspring said:

Kajidourden said:

The environments look pretty but that combat is the worst of both worlds with tab target/freeform use abilities.

Also, this footage is basically worthless because it shows zero proof of concept for any of the features they keep talking about.  Even if they do provide good combat if they fail to deliver on all their promises of working systems then it doesn't matter.

Their whole schtick for crowdfunding has been their "revolution" of mmos....so far I see nothing.

You have to build the base MMO gameplay before you can add in the more advance features. 

Sure, but when your entire basis for making a game isn't even present.....why bother?  

Hell, even crowfall had some basic systems unique to the game in their alpha.  There is literally nothing in this alpha gameplay that is unique to ashes.

There is. The node system levels up based on global xp accumulated.

Kajidourden

Galadourn said:

Kajidourden said:

Wellspring said:

Kajidourden said:

The environments look pretty but that combat is the worst of both worlds with tab target/freeform use abilities.

Also, this footage is basically worthless because it shows zero proof of concept for any of the features they keep talking about.  Even if they do provide good combat if they fail to deliver on all their promises of working systems then it doesn't matter.

Their whole schtick for crowdfunding has been their "revolution" of mmos....so far I see nothing.

You have to build the base MMO gameplay before you can add in the more advance features. 

Sure, but when your entire basis for making a game isn't even present.....why bother?  

Hell, even crowfall had some basic systems unique to the game in their alpha.  There is literally nothing in this alpha gameplay that is unique to ashes.

There is. The node system levels up based on global xp accumulated.

Which is not present in this gameplay video.  There's absolutely no proof of concept there.  They say during the stream that it will happen but don't show it soooooo

Tiamat64

ConstantineMerus said:

There should be an award for best progression of crowdfunded MMOs. And this should fucking win it. 

6 months is a bit too early to gauge such a thing for a genre where it'll take multiple years to finish the game.  They're only like, 10-20% of the way there.  Slapping together the basics of a battle system and the root gameplay mechanics is probably one of the easiest parts about MMO development (unless your name is Chris Roberts, I suppose).

As mentioned by Kaji, they've yet to even begin to touch upon the aspects that make their game their game, so it's rather early to be handing out awards, I think.

Wizardry

Is that the kind of immersion you people want ,FAKE immersion run by a system running in the background?

If i encounter a certain mob,i want to identify with that mob.This so called ever changing "node" loot table should not even exist,mobs should drop what you see them using/wearing with a chance the items are damaged from the encounter.
Then if they are simple items,perhaps a couple simple crafts can repair them but if they are magical items,you may need to discover a way to repair them.This is how you create an immersive game and world,not by running code in the background that runs loot rng loot tables.

Then "levels up with player xp",each player should have THEIR OWN favor within a realm,it should not be a global endeavor.Example Joe Blow can just sit there doing nothing and the entire loot table changes for him?NPC's should treat each player differently,perhaps will sell YOU a bear skin for 50 gold but to me the NPC wants 150 gold etc etc.

I will again give an example on HOW to do it.Mobs win battle,steal your loot,now their loot table might include what they wear/use PLUS what they stole from a player/s.Each individual person should feel separate from one another and not connected by phantom code.

Maybe some...many people like this system,i don't,guess that is why we are all different,no two people are the same.I seek "immersion" and "makes sense" two areas devs seem to struggle with.

Wizardry

To be FAIR,i know the devs THOUGHT this node idea was good added a layer of depth behind the scenes,similar to BDO.
I do commend at least some effort,however i feel their thought process was rushed and not thought out entirely or simply streamlined to make it easy to build/work with.My feeling is do it right,REALLY well or not at all.Yes i understand that game design cannot take forever and is costly,but ANYTHING i mention has already been done in a game or two out there,so i am not asking for miracles.

Tiamat64

IPlayedIt said:

Kaji has no idea what he is talking about.

I was part of the 1200 players in Alpha Zero.  The node system was active and collecting experience from players based on their location.

there was 3 nodes, and they leveled either as elven or human depending on the majority of players it collected exp from.

when they leveled the mobs in the area changed, and drops changed.  there was also questlines that changed with the nodes, and events that spawned to attack the city when it reached the village stage.

please know what ur talking about before posting.

The experience was amazing for a first friends and family.  better than most released games honestly

I think we have struck gold.

Hmm... does the game world reset every once in a while?  If not, I have to wonder how sustainable such a system is given how impossible it is for a developer to produce content faster than players can go through it (or in this case, in the long term, it will likely be impossible for the developer to produce new mobs and drops faster than the players will outlevel it.  ...unless they make levelling SUPER SLOW which will come with its own host of problems)

I suppose I'm delving into another topic when I say this, but... I honestly don't think grinding until the mobs around you become different mobs with higher levels and new quests appear is significantly different from grinding until you're high enough level to move on to a new map with different mobs with higher levels and new quests.   If anything, there's more player agency in the latter since the former relies on multiple players levelling up one area as opposed to you being able to go whereever your own personal pace of levelling dictates.  And seems like it'll lead to a much smaller world because now the devs need to program multiple phases of everything (mobs, questlines, maybe scenery too?) for each section of the world, possibly with branching paths if a world changes depending on whether it got levelled up by humans or by elves or by dwarves or whatever.

Slapshot1188

IPlayedIt said:

Kaji has no idea what he is talking about.

I was part of the 1200 players in Alpha Zero.  The node system was active and collecting experience from players based on their location.

there was 3 nodes, and they leveled either as elven or human depending on the majority of players it collected exp from.

when they leveled the mobs in the area changed, and drops changed.  there was also questlines that changed with the nodes, and events that spawned to attack the city when it reached the village stage.

please know what ur talking about before posting.

The experience was amazing for a first friends and family.  better than most released games honestly

I think we have struck gold.

Interesting.   Is there a link to the 1200 players?  Any video showing performance?  It's early, but if they had 1200 players online together already that's a good sign.

Shaigh

Slapshot1188 said:

IPlayedIt said:

Kaji has no idea what he is talking about.

I was part of the 1200 players in Alpha Zero.  The node system was active and collecting experience from players based on their location.

there was 3 nodes, and they leveled either as elven or human depending on the majority of players it collected exp from.

when they leveled the mobs in the area changed, and drops changed.  there was also questlines that changed with the nodes, and events that spawned to attack the city when it reached the village stage.

please know what ur talking about before posting.

The experience was amazing for a first friends and family.  better than most released games honestly

I think we have struck gold.

Interesting.   Is there a link to the 1200 players?  Any video showing performance?  It's early, but if they had 1200 players online together already that's a good sign.

You would be amazed how often someone shows up with a hyperbolic impression of some game that's far from beta. Trust your own eyes on things you see instead of someone else's impression. That goes double for game writers after their EQN hype job.

Kajidourden

IPlayedIt said:

Kaji has no idea what he is talking about.

I was part of the 1200 players in Alpha Zero.  The node system was active and collecting experience from players based on their location.

there was 3 nodes, and they leveled either as elven or human depending on the majority of players it collected exp from.

when they leveled the mobs in the area changed, and drops changed.  there was also questlines that changed with the nodes, and events that spawned to attack the city when it reached the village stage.

please know what ur talking about before posting.

The experience was amazing for a first friends and family.  better than most released games honestly

I think we have struck gold.

Talk is cheap.

Edit:  Even if it DOES function flawlessly there's still a lot to be answered for in terms of the big picture.  

Will any of those changes actually matter?  Anet said the same thing.....*yawn*

Kyleran

Slapshot1188 said:

IPlayedIt said:

Kaji has no idea what he is talking about.

I was part of the 1200 players in Alpha Zero.  The node system was active and collecting experience from players based on their location.

there was 3 nodes, and they leveled either as elven or human depending on the majority of players it collected exp from.

when they leveled the mobs in the area changed, and drops changed.  there was also questlines that changed with the nodes, and events that spawned to attack the city when it reached the village stage.

please know what ur talking about before posting.

The experience was amazing for a first friends and family.  better than most released games honestly

I think we have struck gold.

Interesting.   Is there a link to the 1200 players?  Any video showing performance?  It's early, but if they had 1200 players online together already that's a good sign.

Agreed, but I'm going to have to see some evidence of this in action, both the number of players and the node system.

Galadourn

Kajidourden said:

Galadourn said:

Kajidourden said:

Wellspring said:

Kajidourden said:

The environments look pretty but that combat is the worst of both worlds with tab target/freeform use abilities.

Also, this footage is basically worthless because it shows zero proof of concept for any of the features they keep talking about.  Even if they do provide good combat if they fail to deliver on all their promises of working systems then it doesn't matter.

Their whole schtick for crowdfunding has been their "revolution" of mmos....so far I see nothing.

You have to build the base MMO gameplay before you can add in the more advance features. 

Sure, but when your entire basis for making a game isn't even present.....why bother?  

Hell, even crowfall had some basic systems unique to the game in their alpha.  There is literally nothing in this alpha gameplay that is unique to ashes.

There is. The node system levels up based on global xp accumulated.

Which is not present in this gameplay video.  There's absolutely no proof of concept there.  They say during the stream that it will happen but don't show it soooooo

actually, they did spawn it. that's why they crashed.

Canibaloler

its too early from what I can see but at least looks very promising. I will keep an eye on this one and see how its going.