Latest Ashes Rambling

Nanfoodle

Did a caravan raid tonight. Taking your good from one area to one further away that does not have the same resources. Makes your goods and glint worth more. It a large part of the economy. Risk your goods. Make them open to PvP raids. Can earn you large rewards. 

Our guild took four caravans to an area about 60 min away from our launch point. Ended up in an area that had level 30 mobs. Most of us were an average level of about level 12. Trash mods at level 30 had raid level mechanics. Engage and other phases. 32 of us once we delivered the caravans. We raiding trash mobs. It ended badly but we had a hell of fun 

Take away. As you level trash mobs are complex and well designed. Was very impressed.

Also we went from the river lands to the tropics. Other biomes are in the game. Outside the A2 test area. More of the game is done then most testers are seeing. And it was stunning. Will post this video if our guild posts it. 

Kyleran

Was the caravan testing limited to just your guild?  Why were there no other players in the delivery area?

Slapshot1188

So... I played for the first time today.  I also join a Caravan.  This was just a pickup as we rode past it and it gave us the option to Defend or Attack.   We defended.  Guy drove the Caravan to the water and it became a raft...  Eventually got out of the water and turned it back into a wagon.  Nobody attacked us.  Passed another caravan headed the other way on the road.  Got a popup to attack/defend..  Didnt even notice the other caravan so selected Defend again.  From that point on I constantly had popups for 2 caravans asking if I wanted to defend or attack.  Kept clicking Defend and Defend.. but 10 seconds later it would pop up again. Was no way to tell which was "our caravan" and which was the one that passed.

Anyhow.. after a longish ride.. we got to the destination.  Nobody attacked.   The leader runs off.  There as no reward for "Defending".  No XP.  No anything.  Saw the guy who was driving it and he gave us 20 silver for our time.  


Was not my account.  But I got just a hair under level 6.  Cleric definitely OP at lower levels as I was soloing named group mobs 3 levels higher than me (dropped a sweet Blue chest piece). 

Game has some fun elements and I like a lot of the mechanics but it's hella buggy right now.  Has issues with mobs not spawning (including entire quest areas), some warping, some lag, but It's 18+ months from launch so those are the kinds of things I expect they will work out.

PS: The quest icons need to change based on me accepting a quest and finishing a quest.  And yeah the whole "find a white mobs with a special symbol and click on it to harvest it" needs to get dumped for the real skinning/harvesting systems pretty quickly because that's just ass.

Nanfoodle

Kyleran said:

Was the caravan testing limited to just your guild?  Why were there no other players in the delivery area?

You can take a caravan as far as you wish to. The farther away you go the more money you can earn. Not everyone had the raid support to take a caravan into an area like we did. Slap is right there is allot of bugs. As far as rewards for defending. Many people are giving feedback on this. I plan on posting about it myself. Defenders need some type of reward.

As for no one attacking. I have seen more then one wrecked caravan. That part of the fun of PvX. No two runs will be the same. There is things about caravans that still need to be added. Like events spawning during the ride. Like NPC goblins hords attacking, or a giant spawns. Or the like. 

Nanfoodle

Slapshot1188 said:

So... I played for the first time today.  I also join a Caravan.  This was just a pickup as we rode past it and it gave us the option to Defend or Attack.   We defended.  Guy drove the Caravan to the water and it became a raft...  Eventually got out of the water and turned it back into a wagon.  Nobody attacked us.  Passed another caravan headed the other way on the road.  Got a popup to attack/defend..  Didnt even notice the other caravan so selected Defend again.  From that point on I constantly had popups for 2 caravans asking if I wanted to defend or attack.  Kept clicking Defend and Defend.. but 10 seconds later it would pop up again. Was no way to tell which was "our caravan" and which was the one that passed.

Anyhow.. after a longish ride.. we got to the destination.  Nobody attacked.   The leader runs off.  There as no reward for "Defending".  No XP.  No anything.  Saw the guy who was driving it and he gave us 20 silver for our time.  


Was not my account.  But I got just a hair under level 6.  Cleric definitely OP at lower levels as I was soloing named group mobs 3 levels higher than me (dropped a sweet Blue chest piece). 

Game has some fun elements and I like a lot of the mechanics but it's hella buggy right now.  Has issues with mobs not spawning (including entire quest areas), some warping, some lag, but It's 18+ months from launch so those are the kinds of things I expect they will work out.

PS: The quest icons need to change based on me accepting a quest and finishing a quest.  And yeah the whole "find a white mobs with a special symbol and click on it to harvest it" needs to get dumped for the real skinning/harvesting systems pretty quickly because that's just ass.

Game is rough for sure but there is some fun stuff. Combat is really good IMO and that is key to an MMOs success. Clerics and Rangers are the best solo classes right now. Fighter is close as well. 

Slapshot1188

Sounds like wipe is coming Dec 20th is that correct?

Babuinix

The more wipes the merrier as it represents progress

Nanfoodle

Slapshot1188 said:

Sounds like wipe is coming Dec 20th is that correct?

Yes that wanted to do no wipes over the 3 phases but they said it needs to be done to get the testing they need. Allot has been adjusted. 

Nanfoodle

Found out the real reason for the wipe on Dec 20th. Someone found a duping bug and the market is flooded with gold and items. Money is now worthless. 

Wargfoot

Nanfoodle said:

Found out the real reason for the wipe on Dec 20th. Someone found a duping bug and the market is flooded with gold and items. Money is now worthless. 

I found a game destroying duplication bug in FO.
That's pretty standard for these games in early access.

Granted, for testing purposes the influx of money might be a good thing.  If it allows players to test stuff they normally wouldn't.

Dattelis

Its sad that Ashes will probably be a better Archeage successor than Archeage 2

Slapshot1188

Nanfoodle said:

Slapshot1188 said:

Sounds like wipe is coming Dec 20th is that correct?

Yes that wanted to do no wipes over the 3 phases but they said it needs to be done to get the testing they need. Allot has been adjusted. 

I figured it was so that all the max level players didn't sit and destroy all the new ones coming in on Dec 20th with Wave 2 or whatever Stephen calls it.

Nanfoodle

Slapshot1188 said:

Nanfoodle said:

Slapshot1188 said:

Sounds like wipe is coming Dec 20th is that correct?

Yes that wanted to do no wipes over the 3 phases but they said it needs to be done to get the testing they need. Allot has been adjusted. 

I figured it was so that all the max level players didn't sit and destroy all the new ones coming in on Dec 20th with Wave 2 or whatever Stephen calls it.

Its really messed up PvP, people that dupped gear hit like a truck as allot of legendary loot was dupped. Us lower level peeps did not even have access to loot that was even close to that. I think the loot came from Carfin Dungeon. Level 20ish is where you need to be to get access to a team.

Kyleran

Better they find the dups now than after go live.

Nanfoodle

So here is the news in a short min. 

Ashes has been talking about their back end data tracking. It a tech unlike any MMO has had. They cant track an items back to its maker, where the resources came from and who farmed them. Down to where the crafting nodes were farmed. Ever copper in the game has the same tracking, NPC kills and so on. IS is using heat maps to find things they need to look closer at. 

That being said, all the people duping or connected to it have had their chars deleted. It takes a long time to level in this game. Entire guilds dup items to have an edge in PvE and PvP. There buildings and node advancements were always deleted. Unlike games like New World that just ignored these types of problems. Integrity of the game seems to be something IS is taking very seriously. 

More details info on their tracking systems this video will help

HUGE IMPLICATIONS for the future of MMOs because of THIS from Ashes of Creation

Babuinix

Alpha testing is the place to find these things AND establish a way to deal with it. That way there's no excuse next time players are already warned of consequences. Good move by Intrepid.

Wargfoot

AoC destroyed gaming.

Babuinix

Wargfoot said:

AoC destroyed gaming.

Nah, Chris Roberts did. 

Slapshot1188

Nanfoodle said:

So here is the news in a short min. 

Ashes has been talking about their back end data tracking. It a tech unlike any MMO has had. They cant track an items back to its maker, where the resources came from and who farmed them. Down to where the crafting nodes were farmed. Ever copper in the game has the same tracking, NPC kills and so on. IS is using heat maps to find things they need to look closer at. 

That being said, all the people duping or connected to it have had their chars deleted. It takes a long time to level in this game. Entire guilds dup items to have an edge in PvE and PvP. There buildings and node advancements were always deleted. Unlike games like New World that just ignored these types of problems. Integrity of the game seems to be something IS is taking very seriously. 

More details info on their tracking systems this video will help

HUGE IMPLICATIONS for the future of MMOs because of THIS from Ashes of Creation

The deleting characters is really no big deal since theres a full wipe less than a month away...

But now that they have had a warning Stephen needs to be clear that the next time they abuse a bug like that their accounts will be banned with no refunds given.  Permanently banned.

Kyleran

Nanfoodle said:

So here is the news in a short min. 

Ashes has been talking about their back end data tracking. It a tech unlike any MMO has had. They cant track an items back to its maker, where the resources came from and who farmed them. Down to where the crafting nodes were farmed. Ever copper in the game has the same tracking, NPC kills and so on. IS is using heat maps to find things they need to look closer at. 

That being said, all the people duping or connected to it have had their chars deleted. It takes a long time to level in this game. Entire guilds dup items to have an edge in PvE and PvP. There buildings and node advancements were always deleted. Unlike games like New World that just ignored these types of problems. Integrity of the game seems to be something IS is taking very seriously. 

More details info on their tracking systems this video will help

HUGE IMPLICATIONS for the future of MMOs because of THIS from Ashes of Creation

Despite this tracking system which isn't as new an idea as you think it is, some players are claiming they got a ban letter while never duping anything, while others said they did dup but received no ban letter.

No system is perfect and most anti-cheat efforts only catch the most blatant offenders.

Really smart exploiters usually save their best exploits for post go live, keeping such to themselves until that time.  This one must have been an easy one observed by many so words spread quickly.

We'll see how good they are at catching exploits during the next 3 years of development / testing, with the big test being after go live.

Slapshot1188

Kyleran said:

Nanfoodle said:

So here is the news in a short min. 

Ashes has been talking about their back end data tracking. It a tech unlike any MMO has had. They cant track an items back to its maker, where the resources came from and who farmed them. Down to where the crafting nodes were farmed. Ever copper in the game has the same tracking, NPC kills and so on. IS is using heat maps to find things they need to look closer at. 

That being said, all the people duping or connected to it have had their chars deleted. It takes a long time to level in this game. Entire guilds dup items to have an edge in PvE and PvP. There buildings and node advancements were always deleted. Unlike games like New World that just ignored these types of problems. Integrity of the game seems to be something IS is taking very seriously. 

More details info on their tracking systems this video will help

HUGE IMPLICATIONS for the future of MMOs because of THIS from Ashes of Creation

Despite this tracking system which isn't as new an idea as you think it is, some players are claiming they got a ban letter while never duping anything, while others said they did dup but received no ban letter.

No system is perfect and most anti-cheat efforts only catch the most blatant offenders.

Really smart exploiters usually save their best exploits for post go live, keeping such to themselves until that time.  This one must have been an easy one observed by many so words spread quickly.

We'll see how good they are at catching exploits during the next 3 years of development / testing, with the big test being after go live.

The challenge is usually in the money laundering phase where the duped stuff is circulated over and over again.  Who gets banned beyond the first person?  What happens to all the money/items that changed hands between 1st and last transaction?

ValdemarJ

Kyleran said:

Nanfoodle said:

So here is the news in a short min. 

Ashes has been talking about their back end data tracking. It a tech unlike any MMO has had. They cant track an items back to its maker, where the resources came from and who farmed them. Down to where the crafting nodes were farmed. Ever copper in the game has the same tracking, NPC kills and so on. IS is using heat maps to find things they need to look closer at. 

That being said, all the people duping or connected to it have had their chars deleted. It takes a long time to level in this game. Entire guilds dup items to have an edge in PvE and PvP. There buildings and node advancements were always deleted. Unlike games like New World that just ignored these types of problems. Integrity of the game seems to be something IS is taking very seriously. 

More details info on their tracking systems this video will help

HUGE IMPLICATIONS for the future of MMOs because of THIS from Ashes of Creation

Despite this tracking system which isn't as new an idea as you think it is, some players are claiming they got a ban letter while never duping anything, while others said they did dup but received no ban letter.

No system is perfect and most anti-cheat efforts only catch the most blatant offenders.

Really smart exploiters usually save their best exploits for post go live, keeping such to themselves until that time.  This one must have been an easy one observed by many so words spread quickly.

We'll see how good they are at catching exploits during the next 3 years of development / testing, with the big test being after go live.

Tracking and recording billions or trillions of transactions doesn't come for free, let alone querying it. Let's see how well it holds up to scale after hundreds of millions of mobs are looted and trillions of crafting nodes are harvested and items are crafted.

Slapshot1188

PS:  Server opening delayed 5 hours

Nanfoodle

Kyleran said:

Nanfoodle said:

So here is the news in a short min. 

Ashes has been talking about their back end data tracking. It a tech unlike any MMO has had. They cant track an items back to its maker, where the resources came from and who farmed them. Down to where the crafting nodes were farmed. Ever copper in the game has the same tracking, NPC kills and so on. IS is using heat maps to find things they need to look closer at. 

That being said, all the people duping or connected to it have had their chars deleted. It takes a long time to level in this game. Entire guilds dup items to have an edge in PvE and PvP. There buildings and node advancements were always deleted. Unlike games like New World that just ignored these types of problems. Integrity of the game seems to be something IS is taking very seriously. 

More details info on their tracking systems this video will help

HUGE IMPLICATIONS for the future of MMOs because of THIS from Ashes of Creation

Despite this tracking system which isn't as new an idea as you think it is, some players are claiming they got a ban letter while never duping anything, while others said they did dup but received no ban letter.

No system is perfect and most anti-cheat efforts only catch the most blatant offenders.

Really smart exploiters usually save their best exploits for post go live, keeping such to themselves until that time.  This one must have been an easy one observed by many so words spread quickly.

We'll see how good they are at catching exploits during the next 3 years of development / testing, with the big test being after go live.

Yes and that was said, the action was taken on the level of the duping. Dup an item and just one and reported. No action. Interact with the dup on many levels, the more action was taken. Reporting is not new. Two things that are different. 1. AAA games like WoW did not even have a data base to deal with things like duping till 6 years in. Games like NW dont even care. 2. IS can track every part of an item. Who sold it, the money that was used can be tracked. You break down a dupped item into crafting resources where that went can all be tracked. Even resources used to advance the nod, just the advancement that were used with dupped gold were rolled back. 

I also think allot of people will lie about them selves being innocent when they were not. I am also sure, they dont have their data reporting 100% nailed down. So I am sure some good players were effected as well.  

Nanfoodle

Slapshot1188 said:

PS:  Server opening delayed 5 hours

Ya they have done that a few weekends ago. A2 is 100% rough in every way!

Vrika

Nanfoodle said:

Kyleran said:

Nanfoodle said:

So here is the news in a short min. 

Ashes has been talking about their back end data tracking. It a tech unlike any MMO has had. They cant track an items back to its maker, where the resources came from and who farmed them. Down to where the crafting nodes were farmed. Ever copper in the game has the same tracking, NPC kills and so on. IS is using heat maps to find things they need to look closer at. 

That being said, all the people duping or connected to it have had their chars deleted. It takes a long time to level in this game. Entire guilds dup items to have an edge in PvE and PvP. There buildings and node advancements were always deleted. Unlike games like New World that just ignored these types of problems. Integrity of the game seems to be something IS is taking very seriously. 

More details info on their tracking systems this video will help

HUGE IMPLICATIONS for the future of MMOs because of THIS from Ashes of Creation

Despite this tracking system which isn't as new an idea as you think it is, some players are claiming they got a ban letter while never duping anything, while others said they did dup but received no ban letter.

No system is perfect and most anti-cheat efforts only catch the most blatant offenders.

Really smart exploiters usually save their best exploits for post go live, keeping such to themselves until that time.  This one must have been an easy one observed by many so words spread quickly.

We'll see how good they are at catching exploits during the next 3 years of development / testing, with the big test being after go live.

Yes and that was said, the action was taken on the level of the duping. Dup an item and just one and reported. No action. Interact with the dup on many levels, the more action was taken. Reporting is not new. Two things that are different. 1. AAA games like WoW did not even have a data base to deal with things like duping till 6 years in. Games like NW dont even care. 2. IS can track every part of an item. Who sold it, the money that was used can be tracked. You break down a dupped item into crafting resources where that went can all be tracked. Even resources used to advance the nod, just the advancement that were used with dupped gold were rolled back. 

I also think allot of people will lie about them selves being innocent when they were not. I am also sure, they dont have their data reporting 100% nailed down. So I am sure some good players were effected as well.  

You have to remember that WoW launched 20 years ago. Back then software and hardware required to do the kind of database tracking that is nowadays norm would have been so expensive that using it in a game would have been impractical.

It's good if Ashes is doing good job tracking stuff, but for an MMO that launches maybe around 2027, it's not really that unique or special.