Pirate guy loves good mmos He wants this game to succeed like the rest of us, I hope he spends his personal time to help AOC become great, I have no stocks in the company and I don’t mind shilling it to Increase the anticipation forcing developers to work harder for a greater game
@@pipz420 come on man, it’s just no way to go through life having narrow “edgy” takes like that. The man is enjoying himself, a lot of us are, and if you actually spent the time to watch the interview you’d see Ashes is run by the right type of people trying to do this game correctly.
Not that the PirateSoftware team needs more work but it would be cool to have a playlist of all the Dev interviews Thor has done. Its a very intriguing topic in general. I love hearing the devs go through some of their process.
I'm really not an MMO guy, but this was fascinating. MMOs as a product are so large and complex, and its really interesting watching this, and also watching you play the alpha on stream and comment on on the progress
yes watch him play a test phase of a game that he got in for free but all his fans payed $100 usd for. He is giving the company making Ashes of Creation sooo much more money then the would have gotten. Him and Asmongold too, they are both getting so many people to pay $100 per test phase just to play an over hyped game with them.
bruh, i've been following the birth of ashes for a long time, and seeing Steven talking so passionately about this project and listening how truly into it he is, made me want to buy the game. I've been hoping to start from point 0 in an MMO for a long time, and this is my chance to be part of something greater. Help make Ashes not just an amazing game, but also a space for finding future friends, foes and trolls.
Watched it live, watched it during the playback of the VOD, will watch this as well. Great interview overall. It's awesome to see someone with a passion for video games be involved in something like Ashes. Can't wait to see how this all goes. (Also can't wait for Friday so I can play!) Appreciate that the Goblins were part of the interview as well
15 minutes in and Steven is already giving GREAT answers to GREAT questions. I hope other content creators come across this interview and react to it, really excited to see where AoC goes 🤞
I don't like the pvp focus as they always tend to just be about gigantic zerg guilds and crappy online behavior - but the sheer size of the world makes me wonder if you can settle an area that gets you away from that crap. I appreciate the landscape, at least.
@@hadoken95 Steven has indeed stated that because of the scale of the world, you could quite possible have scenarios where a group of dwarves go and settle a node in the mountains where nobody cares to be, and create a whole dwarven city there. Player density will depend on the greater ecosystem of guild interactions. You don't need to be near everyone else.
@@hadoken95just don’t toggle your PvP on and your encounters will drop to almost nothing. I’ve played every day of the alpha, a lot, and I’ve gotten attacked only one time. I’m not big into PvP either and was concerned it was going to be an issue as far as moving about the world. It is virtually nonexistent, and I’ve been rolling solo most of the time. Granted my guild is one of the Pirate variety so that may have something to do with it, but I haven’t seen anyone else randomly getting jumped on.
@@cyberdemon1702 This could be subject to change MASSIVELY on release though. The playercount being many many times higher during the first months of the game and probably brings more bad actors into play. Although if the map is going to be as massive as promised on release, you might be able to escape this griefing behaviour. I think most people in the Alpha 2 are not as interested in trolling and griefing as the general MMO playerbase would be if given the chance. Although this is pure speculation and Intrepid might even change their stance on PvP altogether. Who knows really
So well spoken.... It doesn't seem like he's just surface-level reacting to questions, but rather that every topic is purposely and meticulously thought out at a base level. Super cool to see from a dev.
Love how obviously passionate about the game he is. He seems like he could talk about ashes all day and love every second of it. Very optimistic about aoc now.
The fact I made it through this whole thing, and easily, shows how invested I am in the game and how good of an interview this was. Well done all around.
00:00 Intro 0:45 What is like to work in that big of a project 2:58 About being in touch with the community as the developer + Steven background 5:12 Vision about monetization, pay to win, etc 7:30 How does cosmetic mounts work 8:15 Regional Pricing and Harmonization 9:36 There is no soul-bound items, is this intended? + Open Economy 10:50 How to fight Real Money Trading without Soul-bound items? 13:48 How Ashes is going to handle massive guilds/zergs influence on servers 17:10 About very large scale PvP environment + Guild progression + War Intelligence strats 22:11 Interaction between Guild and Node/Mayor systems 25:40 Ways to counterplay Spycrafting in Ashes 29:15 Currently there is democratic elections for choosing a Mayor. What other ways will be available to choose/become the Mayor? 31:05 Can you choose the type of the node you are in? 32:15 PvP balance on the game, for 1v1 and group vs group 33:18 Corruption features that are currently working 36:00 Corruption Baiting with AoE 37:15 People griefing Asmongold, griefing consequences and differences from intended PvP 46:15 Why higher level enemies have reduced item drop chance (its a bug) 47:50 Exp being reduced a lot for the group because of 1 higher lv player 49:30 Does Steven wear wigs (?) 50:35 Austria not being an available country on making accounts 51:12 When will wipes (char reset) be happening (20th december) 52:55 What are the intentions for equipments types on different classes 56:25 Are there plans for transmogging 59:40 Can non-pvp-flagged players loot bags (player drops) for the PKers, avoiding the corruption/flag 1:03:50 Will font-sizes/UI be scalable/adjustable 1:04:50 Color-blind support, being able to re-color everything on the UI 1:06:42 Alpha access cost 1:13:38 Intended player "feeling" for leveling/progression being hard-earned/time consuming 1:20:10 Is the crafting/gathering system intended to be relevant along all levels/progression? 1:22:45 About region locking for servers 1:24:35 What content are available for solo players 1:26:37 How to retain character names in between wipes 1:29:06 Why do you need to pickup loot from ground after winning the "need/greed" - PvX potential on loots 1:37:58 What are other planned activities that bring PvP spontaneously to the world, like caravans 1:40:30 About transparent development 1:44:06 About Naval Warfare, sea content and server population handling 1:47:25 How deep the fishing system is gonna be + a bit more about seas 1:50:52 How big the world is going to be + how many players are expected per server 1:52:26 About Sharding/Phasing/Layers/Dynamic server meshing 1:54:12 Steven, what is the system you are the most excited about? 1:55:04 About the Underground/Underrealm World 1:56:30 About Ferrets Wish on the tower riddle + ending
Great interview and I love the transparency from Steve and ashes. I have plastered this video everywhere I can as it answers so many questions for those of us joining in on the Alpha or those interested in the launch. You did a great job and I appreciate it.
@@markuss4133 As someone that did just decide to purchase alpha access for the upcoming wave, I will also note that this is $100 for access to the alpha and beta up until the actual release PLUS a month of the game after release. Given that there are still many months ahead before the game releases and many other games have $15+ monthly subscriptions, I think I am getting what I paid for given what I have seen. I actually do think I will enjoy being part of the alpha. However, I will warn others that you shouldn't ever buy a product that you wouldn't be happy with in its current state. As it stands, I find it to be fascinating, and I think the upcoming content would be the cherry on top. The only think I am really not sure about is if they will stick to their no P2W commitment. That is a big deal for me, and the main reason I bought in. I am really just going based on his word that P2W is something they never want, even for convenience items. It really sucks that I have to pay such a large up front cost without knowing if they will go back on their word, but I feel like they have made enough of a commitment that the backlash would be too great now for them to make a mistake like that.
Thank you for covering this game! I wasn't sold on it as I'm not a fan of pvp, but liked everything else that it was doing and I'm glad that it sounds like a game that I could play and enjoy while not being forced into that kind of gameplay. Im waiting to see how the summoner class is like and how the rest of the class systems get fleshed out a bit more before I look into getting into it (I don't like making alts lol), but it does look like a solid game to try!
only 15 min in and I'm really enjoying the interview, Steven gives great responses to the questions, he's thought out a lot of known problems with MMO's and has worked out player focused solutions to them which for us the players is obviously a great thing. I hope that this game becomes a great success and in so doing shows the game industry how a good MMO can be created. Also shows players what a good MMO can look like and that they don't have to settle for something subpar because that's all there is.
Its also very vibe based. Nothing was really defined. "If we see you griefing lowbies, we'll ban you," but griefing and how to define it was very vague. Worth noting that he did not directly support making starting areas sanctuaries from pvp.
Played under Steven's leadership while playing Archeage. It was the craziest time in any mmo I've played. Thank you Steven for your passion, your time, and your dedication.
The only problem here are the players. Idk what the price will be, but its around $30 that's expensive. How worth would it be to pay $30 a month as a casual gamer?
Been working my way thru this for a few weeks, as I remember it. Great watch so far. It's refreshing to see a Dev-On-Dev convo about AoC. Steven knows he can Nerd Out and use the actual Dev Terms w Thor, and I think it makes for a much better interview than if it was with a Streamer that didn't have Thors background.
Incredible interview! I was interested in the game, but now I feel like it is my whole existence that will be dedicated to this (seemingly) incoming masterpiece. Love it!
@@BazaloniaNS As a GM myself it’s why he’s very easy to just listen to. I speak like this about my game worlds. It’s hard not to be passionate like this about stuff you’ve worked tirelessly on.
I LOOOOVE how in-depth Steven goes into how systems affect player interaction and how thoughtful they've been about this from a "we've played MMOs before and know how these things tend to go" POV. In another note the game feels so well designed that my biggest concern with the game right now is its visual identity. I feel like the UE5 graphics are already quite generic and I would love to see an overhaul for the UI because right now the minimap, the name plates and especially the text font feel awfully generic as well. I would like to see some unique flavor being applied to these elements, especially giving some good stylization to that minimap that looks quite boring, and using a font with a bit more weight to help legibility and give the game some more identity. These are very small things but I feel like there's a much smaller incentive to stick around in a game that requires so much time investment if it looks BLAND. "Ugly" is OK, "Old" is OK, but "BLAND" is what I feel puts people off the most.
I agree when it comes to the artstyle and UI, but the UI, especially things like nameplates, are pretty low priority in this stage, they will get an overhaul at some point. But I have to say, despite the "generic artstyle" Ashes managed to create an atmosphere I've never seen in another realistic MMO before. With my settings on "high" (there's still Ultra and Cinematic) the environment effects look stunning. It feels more like a singleplayer RPG than an MMO in regards to that. And we don't even have real weather effects yet. The character models definitely need more work though.
Don't worry about UI elements, those will probably get 5 iterations of rework until the game releases. Alpha's usually look completely different to final launches in terms of UI/UX components
God damn, every time I listen to Steven I just see his passion for this game and this community and is incredible breadth of knowledge for his beautiful design he has created. He is 1 of 1 in today’s gaming landscape.
I feel like he's naive. I suspect there will be a lot of bad stuff that slips through or gets reinforced, because things havent been thought through very well. Very passionate and inspired guy though.
If you ask him deeper questions, you can see that the developers have thought out stuff very hard. Havent seen anything like this in any other mmo dev team
@@Nervotsafter playing the game, it's been 7 or more years or thought and not much to show for it. Yes, the game is in alpha, but it feels like this game boils down to whether or not you'll like the node system and currently, nobody can explain its appeal or how it works and maybe only 20% of the player base understands it. The game is pretty scuffed imo.
@@marloncebo242 what do you mean nobody can explain. If you cant understand nodes and why they exist and why they are so nice for economy and politics its your own fault. And ofc they dont have much to show yet. But in time they will
Ive been following ashes since 2019, and started seeing your shorts maby six months ago, then thinking “this guy needs to work for Intrepid”. And now here you are. Iam so excited to see all resent exposure, it just puts me in such a good mood. Great video. ❤🎉
oh im SO glad that we can still buy a sub for other regions. this whole talk has had me at the edge of my seat, im loving everything im hearing. I was so worried i couldnt play with my friends, because im a EU person but i only have friends in NA regions, so it wouldve been a complete dealbreaker to me. even if my friends wouldnt play, i feel 10000% more comfortable playing on NA regions than the ones for my country because ive lived in online spaces with NA folks for all of my adult life, i honestly dont relate to a lot of players from my region and the vibes can be quite different surprisingly! anyway, i adore this whole back and forth and im loving how clearly knowledgable and authentic the director is its clear that hes speaking from years of personal gaming experience and know how. & hes not acared to say “well have to see how it plays out” about more what-if scenarios. which is a HUGE deal, to not just pretend you have the absolute answer to a hypothetical or possible scenario. makes you feel like youre in good hnds!
Its faster to put bunch of people on a big vehicle than have them travel by themselves. In cities for example, see motorcycle vs train. In the game, I think ships will play big role in moving your forces
This interview has actually gotten me interested in the game for the castle sieges and the open ocean stuff. Player driven is what almost got me to get into eve a while ago I am confident I will at minimum be trying this game with friends if not going in as a main game.
A setting for enabling/disabling transmog items, so in PvP if you wish you go to settings and click "revert to default item skin" switch, which will return all transmogged items to their original state, as long as the setting is enabled, and when you go back to normal gameplay, you can turn it back off to make everyone look pretty again.
A lot of great answers here, seems he has learned from his experiences and is aware of the major problems facing PvP oriented MMOs. Hope it translates well into the game.
Steven talking about archage, reminded me of a moment that I'd almost forgotten. I remember. A guy had a tractor. With goods on it and he forgot to lock the door of his tractor , and my buddy and I hopped in and drove his tractor for over an hour to our zone so we could turn his supplies in. Slowest grand theft tractor ever.
My laptop can't run the game but I wholeheartedly support this man and his team. I'm buying alpha access to support them during this time because I want them to succeed. I just hope I get an upgrade soon enough to help them test.
Two things that would help inhibit RMT are: finite item lifespan (i.e. cumulatively increasing repair costs which would help cap the price willing to be paid in RMT) and cap item drop rates below the farm rate (i.e. with a drop rate of 0.1 and a farm rate of 1 creature/min = 1 drop/10min, then just cap the drop rate at 1 drop/30min)
The exponential repair costs would be all that really helps against RMTs. Because people are less willing to spend real money on something that's eventually going to break or be too expensive to fix. The second one would only serve to make items even more rare, take longer to farm, etc all things that drastically increase the amount of money people are willing to pay(bc why spend 15 hours grinding for one weapon when i could just pay something $50) and how much someone is willing to sell the item for(for the same reason, I spent 15 hours grinding for this so I'm not taking anything less than $40-$50) So in theory it sounds like it would help but in practice it would only make getting those rarer drops harder for casual players and make it so the players with all the time in the world have a monopoly selling said items to whales.
Seeing the genuine care and passion from the development team after being burned time and time again by things like Dauntless, ArcheAge, and other MMO styled experiences that seem to have a clear and stark disconnect with what makes a game enjoyable and fun is so refreshing. I bought a support pack, even went with the more pricy one despite the window for Alpha Phase 1 being almost done. These guys are doing an ambitious bit of work, but I believe we need to support what we want to see in games. I mean they've already put more work in a weekend than I've seen from Star Citizen in the 12 years I've been waiting for that.
I'm really curious how the shift between different methods of Agile approach changed during the different phases and what Steven learned in terms of when a shift was needed. It seems there's hints of Agile, SaFE and Scrum in all of this and I wish there was more conversations on this. I know this is for the players mostly, but from a professional level this is next level interesting due to the size and scope of the game.
Awesome interview, I’m completely on board with the vision that is Ashes. It’s filling a major void in the mmo community that has been around for a long time. Looking forward to continue testing and watching the development process. I’m having a blast playing a true alpha that has passionate developers behind it. It’s about damn time!
Ill be honest, I am not the biggest fan of social focused MMORPGs (been more of an "Online RPG" kind of gamer), but honestly from one Pathfinder Goblin fan to the next, I really do hope this game succeeds.
Same, at most i prefer MMOs in small groups with friends (Like running 5 mans in WoW). But i experienced the Archeage fresh launch (in 2014 i think?) and that was one of the greatest time in MMOs for me. I have a feeling that AoC is going to feel very similar, after all a lot of the systems and design choices are influenced by early Archeage
Back then was good 20 yrs ago. Today no one have patience for another player, today doesn't work, for example if in a party you tell someone who did wrong their feelings get affected, so they leave or kick you. No patience to learn and do mechanics right, example DPS will no move from.damage assuming healer will.get them but they will have great damage numbers
@@demianpelos Depends. WoW Classic also was wildly successful and it brought back a lot of the players, that don't mind taking it easier. Admittedly, i am a "min-maxer" myself, i reckon there are A LOT of casual, social players that just need the right game for it to have fun
@Dangerous1939 since blizzard never reports anything is hard to know how many players are really doing classic vs retail. Also classic has change a lot from the true game it was when it launched ( I am that old that I played with Leroy)
Good interview, thank you. I hope we get some UI love more quickly though. UI is so critical to a great gameplay experience and can make or break a game. Having said that, it's a beautiful world that has a tonne of potential when things start to come together. I'm very excited for this game.
Watching the alpha, i finally searched for my kickstarter key from back then and had to notice that my country was not there for registration. Funny to hear it mentioned here too. There was a time where i thought this game will never come out, but i am so glad to be proven wrong!
1:42:40 what he said arround here remains me of helldivers lol. their director said something similar, but when they found waaay more players that they expected their reaction was to stick to their guns and be "hardcore" but when the players they found demanded they revert some of the changes they at the end caved in and did so because its not just about your initial vision for the game is about what the players you found in the end and what they want too
SORRY BRO!!! I was super busy the past few days and just getting to see this... Oh Man.. what a BANGER of an interview! This was so sick! THANK YOU for getting with Steven and hashing out this incredible future MMORPG! If anyone can appreciate what he's doing, what THEY'RE doing at Intrepid, it's you! You're background lends itself to a deeper appreciation and understanding of what's happening on the day to day, even if at a greater scale. Being here in San Diego myself, I sometimes feel like I'm "Spoiled Stupid" being able to drive a few miles and be at their front door with questions and bags of donuts on hand! lol Anyways, this was AMAZING! You have to TOTALLY do more of these with Steven as the game further develops and goes into different phases towards the release! Okay.. back onto Lyneth for more testing... PEACE!
By far one of the best interviews I've seen for Ashes of Creation.
Shilling
@@pipz420 Shitting
@@sklank291 sitting.
Pirate guy loves good mmos He wants this game to succeed like the rest of us, I hope he spends his personal time to help AOC become great,
I have no stocks in the company and I don’t mind shilling it to Increase the anticipation forcing developers to work harder for a greater game
@@pipz420 come on man, it’s just no way to go through life having narrow “edgy” takes like that. The man is enjoying himself, a lot of us are, and if you actually spent the time to watch the interview you’d see Ashes is run by the right type of people trying to do this game correctly.
Thanks for posting this as a separate video
Agreed. Praise Be.
Based thor being based as per usual
Not that the PirateSoftware team needs more work but it would be cool to have a playlist of all the Dev interviews Thor has done. Its a very intriguing topic in general. I love hearing the devs go through some of their process.
Fully agreed
A great idea indeed
here to also request this. I love dev interviews. especially from PS
I love that he has a Pathfinder goblin. That game is my jam. :)
This whole interview has now got me seriously thinking about this game.
Ashes story started as a Pathfinder campaign that steven used to run. Just a fun fact :)
I'm really not an MMO guy, but this was fascinating. MMOs as a product are so large and complex, and its really interesting watching this, and also watching you play the alpha on stream and comment on on the progress
yes watch him play a test phase of a game that he got in for free but all his fans payed $100 usd for. He is giving the company making Ashes of Creation sooo much more money then the would have gotten. Him and Asmongold too, they are both getting so many people to pay $100 per test phase just to play an over hyped game with them.
@@MrWhateverfits mate, just watch something else then
bruh, i've been following the birth of ashes for a long time, and seeing Steven talking so passionately about this project and listening how truly into it he is, made me want to buy the game.
I've been hoping to start from point 0 in an MMO for a long time, and this is my chance to be part of something greater.
Help make Ashes not just an amazing game, but also a space for finding future friends, foes and trolls.
see you in 4 years at launch mate :)
Log Horison LETS GOOO!
Idk if youve bought it yet, but if you havent, do it. Even in alpha its SO addicting
@@3182levidunton I'm good, I dont really have much interest in playing half finished games.
Watched it live, watched it during the playback of the VOD, will watch this as well. Great interview overall. It's awesome to see someone with a passion for video games be involved in something like Ashes. Can't wait to see how this all goes. (Also can't wait for Friday so I can play!) Appreciate that the Goblins were part of the interview as well
Thank you for doing this. I was just thinking I'd like to see an interview with you two today and bom
15 minutes in and Steven is already giving GREAT answers to GREAT questions. I hope other content creators come across this interview and react to it, really excited to see where AoC goes 🤞
Really well spoken, knowledgable man. Might not be a game for me but ill give it a try.
I don't like the pvp focus as they always tend to just be about gigantic zerg guilds and crappy online behavior - but the sheer size of the world makes me wonder if you can settle an area that gets you away from that crap. I appreciate the landscape, at least.
@@hadoken95 Steven has indeed stated that because of the scale of the world, you could quite possible have scenarios where a group of dwarves go and settle a node in the mountains where nobody cares to be, and create a whole dwarven city there. Player density will depend on the greater ecosystem of guild interactions. You don't need to be near everyone else.
Yeah it won't have a box cost when it comes out.. Just a sub. Can try it for a month and then decide.
@@hadoken95just don’t toggle your PvP on and your encounters will drop to almost nothing. I’ve played every day of the alpha, a lot, and I’ve gotten attacked only one time. I’m not big into PvP either and was concerned it was going to be an issue as far as moving about the world. It is virtually nonexistent, and I’ve been rolling solo most of the time. Granted my guild is one of the Pirate variety so that may have something to do with it, but I haven’t seen anyone else randomly getting jumped on.
@@cyberdemon1702 This could be subject to change MASSIVELY on release though. The playercount being many many times higher during the first months of the game and probably brings more bad actors into play. Although if the map is going to be as massive as promised on release, you might be able to escape this griefing behaviour. I think most people in the Alpha 2 are not as interested in trolling and griefing as the general MMO playerbase would be if given the chance.
Although this is pure speculation and Intrepid might even change their stance on PvP altogether. Who knows really
stoked that this interview happened - props to gm steven for doing this and being so open about everything you asked
So well spoken.... It doesn't seem like he's just surface-level reacting to questions, but rather that every topic is purposely and meticulously thought out at a base level. Super cool to see from a dev.
This project makes me so happy. I love the interview and am glad to see one of us gamers at the helm.
Love how obviously passionate about the game he is. He seems like he could talk about ashes all day and love every second of it. Very optimistic about aoc now.
Best Game Director Interview ever , i enjoyed all 2 hours of it , direct questions and no BS answers . Awesome job ~!
I'd like to see Thor interview Jonathan Rogers.
Great interview, all the player first talk pulled me in. Def joining for the wave in May.
The fact I made it through this whole thing, and easily, shows how invested I am in the game and how good of an interview this was. Well done all around.
00:00 Intro
0:45 What is like to work in that big of a project
2:58 About being in touch with the community as the developer + Steven background
5:12 Vision about monetization, pay to win, etc
7:30 How does cosmetic mounts work
8:15 Regional Pricing and Harmonization
9:36 There is no soul-bound items, is this intended? + Open Economy
10:50 How to fight Real Money Trading without Soul-bound items?
13:48 How Ashes is going to handle massive guilds/zergs influence on servers
17:10 About very large scale PvP environment + Guild progression + War Intelligence strats
22:11 Interaction between Guild and Node/Mayor systems
25:40 Ways to counterplay Spycrafting in Ashes
29:15 Currently there is democratic elections for choosing a Mayor. What other ways will be available to choose/become the Mayor?
31:05 Can you choose the type of the node you are in?
32:15 PvP balance on the game, for 1v1 and group vs group
33:18 Corruption features that are currently working
36:00 Corruption Baiting with AoE
37:15 People griefing Asmongold, griefing consequences and differences from intended PvP
46:15 Why higher level enemies have reduced item drop chance (its a bug)
47:50 Exp being reduced a lot for the group because of 1 higher lv player
49:30 Does Steven wear wigs (?)
50:35 Austria not being an available country on making accounts
51:12 When will wipes (char reset) be happening (20th december)
52:55 What are the intentions for equipments types on different classes
56:25 Are there plans for transmogging
59:40 Can non-pvp-flagged players loot bags (player drops) for the PKers, avoiding the corruption/flag
1:03:50 Will font-sizes/UI be scalable/adjustable
1:04:50 Color-blind support, being able to re-color everything on the UI
1:06:42 Alpha access cost
1:13:38 Intended player "feeling" for leveling/progression being hard-earned/time consuming
1:20:10 Is the crafting/gathering system intended to be relevant along all levels/progression?
1:22:45 About region locking for servers
1:24:35 What content are available for solo players
1:26:37 How to retain character names in between wipes
1:29:06 Why do you need to pickup loot from ground after winning the "need/greed" - PvX potential on loots
1:37:58 What are other planned activities that bring PvP spontaneously to the world, like caravans
1:40:30 About transparent development
1:44:06 About Naval Warfare, sea content and server population handling
1:47:25 How deep the fishing system is gonna be + a bit more about seas
1:50:52 How big the world is going to be + how many players are expected per server
1:52:26 About Sharding/Phasing/Layers/Dynamic server meshing
1:54:12 Steven, what is the system you are the most excited about?
1:55:04 About the Underground/Underrealm World
1:56:30 About Ferrets Wish on the tower riddle + ending
This needs to go up!
@@iopy12 we're almost nick brothers
Big Man Ting👌
At 50:35 it's Austria (the European country), not Australia
@@Varpie oops sorry
Damn. I would have taken an other 2 hours of this. Great convo!
Great interview and I love the transparency from Steve and ashes. I have plastered this video everywhere I can as it answers so many questions for those of us joining in on the Alpha or those interested in the launch. You did a great job and I appreciate it.
When the dude said the best cosmetics shouldn't be in the marketplace he had my heart. I will do a month minimum just for that alone.
@@markuss4133 As someone that did just decide to purchase alpha access for the upcoming wave, I will also note that this is $100 for access to the alpha and beta up until the actual release PLUS a month of the game after release. Given that there are still many months ahead before the game releases and many other games have $15+ monthly subscriptions, I think I am getting what I paid for given what I have seen. I actually do think I will enjoy being part of the alpha. However, I will warn others that you shouldn't ever buy a product that you wouldn't be happy with in its current state. As it stands, I find it to be fascinating, and I think the upcoming content would be the cherry on top. The only think I am really not sure about is if they will stick to their no P2W commitment. That is a big deal for me, and the main reason I bought in. I am really just going based on his word that P2W is something they never want, even for convenience items. It really sucks that I have to pay such a large up front cost without knowing if they will go back on their word, but I feel like they have made enough of a commitment that the backlash would be too great now for them to make a mistake like that.
@@markuss4133 did we miss the part where it included beta and the first month of the game as well?
I bought the 120 package, zero regrets. Even alpha is stupid addicting. Worth every dollar
@@3182levidunton would you recommend purchasing it at this time? I'm on the fence but super tempted. Just a lot of $
I might buy an alpha key, super good value and the game is actually playable
Thank you for covering this game! I wasn't sold on it as I'm not a fan of pvp, but liked everything else that it was doing and I'm glad that it sounds like a game that I could play and enjoy while not being forced into that kind of gameplay. Im waiting to see how the summoner class is like and how the rest of the class systems get fleshed out a bit more before I look into getting into it (I don't like making alts lol), but it does look like a solid game to try!
only 15 min in and I'm really enjoying the interview, Steven gives great responses to the questions, he's thought out a lot of known problems with MMO's and has worked out player focused solutions to them which for us the players is obviously a great thing.
I hope that this game becomes a great success and in so doing shows the game industry how a good MMO can be created. Also shows players what a good MMO can look like and that they don't have to settle for something subpar because that's all there is.
After backing the original kickstarter, it's amazing to see where the game is.
I might be heading into Alpha after this interview...
Didnt knew you were into MMO RPG's XD
"I don't trust people who have a christmas tree up in November" -someone in chat
That is a respectable stance.
I like that person
Same
screw them, its called the "holiday season" for a reason
Christmas is a great holiday, i see no problem with trying to be helpful and giving for 2 months out of the year instead of just 1.
I love Steven's take on griefing. Much respect. Great interview. Also, I need a herd of ferrets running around behind me in game.
Its also very vibe based. Nothing was really defined. "If we see you griefing lowbies, we'll ban you," but griefing and how to define it was very vague. Worth noting that he did not directly support making starting areas sanctuaries from pvp.
Played under Steven's leadership while playing Archeage. It was the craziest time in any mmo I've played. Thank you Steven for your passion, your time, and your dedication.
A fellow archeage fan! Im really hoping he takes the best from AA and impliments it into AoC. 3 weeks into my alpha experience and im already addicted
Cheers guys, great interview. Can't wait for the game to release. Very excited to join the guild.
Love the 'Dev interviews a Dev' video. I appreciate how you're so invested into this game. Thank you for making this.
i looked for this video all day at work after seeing the asmon upload of it; fnially get to watch the full thing
I 100% agree with the subscription model... no f2p.. no p2w
The only problem here are the players. Idk what the price will be, but its around $30 that's expensive. How worth would it be to pay $30 a month as a casual gamer?
@@reeeeeeee-e2g last time i heard a number it was $15
@@reeeeeeee-e2g its $15, idk where you heard 30 a month.
The best games ever - was subscription MMOs. UO, EQ, WoW, Daoc, etc etc
It says 15 on their website. Where did you hear 30?
This is such a good interview, basically all my questions were answered. Thank you!!
Top tier interview, absolute legends man.
Been working my way thru this for a few weeks, as I remember it. Great watch so far.
It's refreshing to see a Dev-On-Dev convo about AoC. Steven knows he can Nerd Out and use the actual Dev Terms w Thor, and I think it makes for a much better interview than if it was with a Streamer that didn't have Thors background.
So happy there is a monthly subscription! The way it should be
This was an incredibly interesting and entertaining conversation. Thank you!
Incredible interview! I was interested in the game, but now I feel like it is my whole existence that will be dedicated to this (seemingly) incoming masterpiece. Love it!
Steven totally gives a the vibes of an amazing DM, especially as an evil DM.
Lol
@@BazaloniaNS As a GM myself it’s why he’s very easy to just listen to. I speak like this about my game worlds. It’s hard not to be passionate like this about stuff you’ve worked tirelessly on.
This was awsome! Good luck to Steven's team and gg for pirate
I LOOOOVE how in-depth Steven goes into how systems affect player interaction and how thoughtful they've been about this from a "we've played MMOs before and know how these things tend to go" POV.
In another note the game feels so well designed that my biggest concern with the game right now is its visual identity. I feel like the UE5 graphics are already quite generic and I would love to see an overhaul for the UI because right now the minimap, the name plates and especially the text font feel awfully generic as well. I would like to see some unique flavor being applied to these elements, especially giving some good stylization to that minimap that looks quite boring, and using a font with a bit more weight to help legibility and give the game some more identity.
These are very small things but I feel like there's a much smaller incentive to stick around in a game that requires so much time investment if it looks BLAND. "Ugly" is OK, "Old" is OK, but "BLAND" is what I feel puts people off the most.
I agree when it comes to the artstyle and UI, but the UI, especially things like nameplates, are pretty low priority in this stage, they will get an overhaul at some point.
But I have to say, despite the "generic artstyle" Ashes managed to create an atmosphere I've never seen in another realistic MMO before. With my settings on "high" (there's still Ultra and Cinematic) the environment effects look stunning. It feels more like a singleplayer RPG than an MMO in regards to that. And we don't even have real weather effects yet. The character models definitely need more work though.
@Au_Ra804 yeah, I'm glad that my biggest concern is so low priority and that the graphics look gorgeous even when they have a generic feel to them.
Don't worry about UI elements, those will probably get 5 iterations of rework until the game releases. Alpha's usually look completely different to final launches in terms of UI/UX components
God damn, every time I listen to Steven I just see his passion for this game and this community and is incredible breadth of knowledge for his beautiful design he has created. He is 1 of 1 in today’s gaming landscape.
Or just another good actor
I feel like he's naive. I suspect there will be a lot of bad stuff that slips through or gets reinforced, because things havent been thought through very well. Very passionate and inspired guy though.
If you ask him deeper questions, you can see that the developers have thought out stuff very hard. Havent seen anything like this in any other mmo dev team
@@Nervotsafter playing the game, it's been 7 or more years or thought and not much to show for it. Yes, the game is in alpha, but it feels like this game boils down to whether or not you'll like the node system and currently, nobody can explain its appeal or how it works and maybe only 20% of the player base understands it. The game is pretty scuffed imo.
@@marloncebo242 what do you mean nobody can explain. If you cant understand nodes and why they exist and why they are so nice for economy and politics its your own fault. And ofc they dont have much to show yet. But in time they will
Ive been following ashes since 2019, and started seeing your shorts maby six months ago, then thinking “this guy needs to work for Intrepid”. And now here you are. Iam so excited to see all resent exposure, it just puts me in such a good mood. Great video. ❤🎉
Hell yeah bro, great interview!
Really good questions and answers. The game gets more appealing to me as it goes on. Definitely gonna give it a go on release!
I’m so glad that the Game Head is hands on and isn’t clueless about the process. This game will be huge.
Fantastic interview! Thank you Thor and Steven!
oh im SO glad that we can still buy a sub for other regions. this whole talk has had me at the edge of my seat, im loving everything im hearing. I was so worried i couldnt play with my friends, because im a EU person but i only have friends in NA regions, so it wouldve been a complete dealbreaker to me. even if my friends wouldnt play, i feel 10000% more comfortable playing on NA regions than the ones for my country because ive lived in online spaces with NA folks for all of my adult life, i honestly dont relate to a lot of players from my region and the vibes can be quite different surprisingly!
anyway, i adore this whole back and forth and im loving how clearly knowledgable and authentic the director is
its clear that hes speaking from years of personal gaming experience and know how. & hes not acared to say “well have to see how it plays out” about more what-if scenarios. which is a HUGE deal, to not just pretend you have the absolute answer to a hypothetical or possible scenario.
makes you feel like youre in good hnds!
Was looking forward to this, such a great interview seeing more in-depth questions that the public wanted to hear. Awesome job Thor cheers
I've interviewed for a position at Intrepid and while I didn't get the job, I respect how transparent they were about the process.
My idea for fast travel is getting a faster mount
And compact, content dense level design
@@rattlehead999 "level design" will change depending on the node level , as nodes lv up roads form and you get speed boost when you're moving on road
@@mastazenkei cool
I agree but i question what is the fastest a mount can actually go?
Its faster to put bunch of people on a big vehicle than have them travel by themselves. In cities for example, see motorcycle vs train. In the game, I think ships will play big role in moving your forces
thankyou for this Thor! alot of information that needs to be shared to all and thanks for the shoutout to aussies!
I've never played an MMO and this may be the interview that gets me to start...
Do it. MMOs get very addicting and its a very different experience than normal games
This interview has actually gotten me interested in the game for the castle sieges and the open ocean stuff. Player driven is what almost got me to get into eve a while ago I am confident I will at minimum be trying this game with friends if not going in as a main game.
Thor, you are unique. Also Steven, thank you for share your thoughts with us. We're very excited to play. Much Love from Brazil!
I like the guy, good interview. Straight up answers and good questions asked. GJ to both parties.
A setting for enabling/disabling transmog items, so in PvP if you wish you go to settings and click "revert to default item skin" switch, which will return all transmogged items to their original state, as long as the setting is enabled, and when you go back to normal gameplay, you can turn it back off to make everyone look pretty again.
Great interview!!
A lot of great answers here, seems he has learned from his experiences and is aware of the major problems facing PvP oriented MMOs. Hope it translates well into the game.
Absolutely loved this interview Great Q and A
This interview has done more in 2 hrs to sell me on the game than almost everything I've seen in the last year combined.
Steven talking about archage, reminded me of a moment that I'd almost forgotten.
I remember.
A guy had a tractor. With goods on it and he forgot to lock the door of his tractor , and my buddy and I hopped in and drove his tractor for over an hour to our zone so we could turn his supplies in. Slowest grand theft tractor ever.
Great interview. Looking forward for more epic adventures.
High quality interview. Convinced me to go buy a key. Looking forward to the download!!! Also, liked and subbed.
I bought the alpha because of this interview. I support the hell out of this development team! They seem so solid.
This game wasn't on my radar at all, now I am excited to check it out!
Thank you for doing what you do. Both of you and your teams.
My laptop can't run the game but I wholeheartedly support this man and his team. I'm buying alpha access to support them during this time because I want them to succeed.
I just hope I get an upgrade soon enough to help them test.
I look forward to phase three, which i bought already. I hope the game is still good then.
Two things that would help inhibit RMT are: finite item lifespan (i.e. cumulatively increasing repair costs which would help cap the price willing to be paid in RMT) and cap item drop rates below the farm rate (i.e. with a drop rate of 0.1 and a farm rate of 1 creature/min = 1 drop/10min, then just cap the drop rate at 1 drop/30min)
The exponential repair costs would be all that really helps against RMTs. Because people are less willing to spend real money on something that's eventually going to break or be too expensive to fix.
The second one would only serve to make items even more rare, take longer to farm, etc all things that drastically increase the amount of money people are willing to pay(bc why spend 15 hours grinding for one weapon when i could just pay something $50) and how much someone is willing to sell the item for(for the same reason, I spent 15 hours grinding for this so I'm not taking anything less than $40-$50)
So in theory it sounds like it would help but in practice it would only make getting those rarer drops harder for casual players and make it so the players with all the time in the world have a monopoly selling said items to whales.
Such a nice and wholesome guy ❤
I got so invested in this interview I forgot to get off my train after work
Fantastic conversation
Steven's enthusiasm always gets me hyped for the game
Seeing the genuine care and passion from the development team after being burned time and time again by things like Dauntless, ArcheAge, and other MMO styled experiences that seem to have a clear and stark disconnect with what makes a game enjoyable and fun is so refreshing. I bought a support pack, even went with the more pricy one despite the window for Alpha Phase 1 being almost done. These guys are doing an ambitious bit of work, but I believe we need to support what we want to see in games.
I mean they've already put more work in a weekend than I've seen from Star Citizen in the 12 years I've been waiting for that.
Thank you Sunder! Your hard work is appreciated!
Such great questions and even greater answers.
As a software engineer I really appreciated him diving into the lingo to explain how his day was. Very informative
Possibly the best gaming related interview generally. It's definitely the best AOC related interview. Period.
must be amazing beeing part of a dev team that works during the week. And in the weekend you play the alpha and fix minor issues :D
Excellent interview. The questions were fantastic.
That was quite a fun watch. Also, Underrealm mentioned! 😹
Great interview, you always ask the right questions.
I'm really curious how the shift between different methods of Agile approach changed during the different phases and what Steven learned in terms of when a shift was needed. It seems there's hints of Agile, SaFE and Scrum in all of this and I wish there was more conversations on this. I know this is for the players mostly, but from a professional level this is next level interesting due to the size and scope of the game.
Stoked to hear steven is adding something to akin to the sports fishing from ArcheAge cause that was my fav activity.
yay, someone that actually knows about game development getting an interview!
Awesome interview, I’m completely on board with the vision that is Ashes. It’s filling a major void in the mmo community that has been around for a long time. Looking forward to continue testing and watching the development process. I’m having a blast playing a true alpha that has passionate developers behind it. It’s about damn time!
Ill be honest, I am not the biggest fan of social focused MMORPGs (been more of an "Online RPG" kind of gamer), but honestly from one Pathfinder Goblin fan to the next, I really do hope this game succeeds.
Same, at most i prefer MMOs in small groups with friends (Like running 5 mans in WoW). But i experienced the Archeage fresh launch (in 2014 i think?) and that was one of the greatest time in MMOs for me. I have a feeling that AoC is going to feel very similar, after all a lot of the systems and design choices are influenced by early Archeage
Back then was good 20 yrs ago. Today no one have patience for another player, today doesn't work, for example if in a party you tell someone who did wrong their feelings get affected, so they leave or kick you. No patience to learn and do mechanics right, example DPS will no move from.damage assuming healer will.get them but they will have great damage numbers
@@demianpelos Depends. WoW Classic also was wildly successful and it brought back a lot of the players, that don't mind taking it easier.
Admittedly, i am a "min-maxer" myself, i reckon there are A LOT of casual, social players that just need the right game for it to have fun
@Dangerous1939 since blizzard never reports anything is hard to know how many players are really doing classic vs retail. Also classic has change a lot from the true game it was when it launched ( I am that old that I played with Leroy)
Good interview, thank you. I hope we get some UI love more quickly though. UI is so critical to a great gameplay experience and can make or break a game. Having said that, it's a beautiful world that has a tonne of potential when things start to come together. I'm very excited for this game.
Amazing interview, I actually learned alot of game design from this!
Awesome interview 🤙🏽🤙🏽🤘🏽
great interview! thank you
Watching the alpha, i finally searched for my kickstarter key from back then and had to notice that my country was not there for registration. Funny to hear it mentioned here too.
There was a time where i thought this game will never come out, but i am so glad to be proven wrong!
Awesome video AOC HYPE!
I'm actually glad about this video.
1:42:40 what he said arround here remains me of helldivers lol. their director said something similar, but when they found waaay more players that they expected their reaction was to stick to their guns and be "hardcore" but when the players they found demanded they revert some of the changes they at the end caved in and did so because its not just about your initial vision for the game is about what the players you found in the end and what they want too
SORRY BRO!!! I was super busy the past few days and just getting to see this... Oh Man.. what a BANGER of an interview! This was so sick! THANK YOU for getting with Steven and hashing out this incredible future MMORPG! If anyone can appreciate what he's doing, what THEY'RE doing at Intrepid, it's you! You're background lends itself to a deeper appreciation and understanding of what's happening on the day to day, even if at a greater scale. Being here in San Diego myself, I sometimes feel like I'm "Spoiled Stupid" being able to drive a few miles and be at their front door with questions and bags of donuts on hand! lol Anyways, this was AMAZING! You have to TOTALLY do more of these with Steven as the game further develops and goes into different phases towards the release! Okay.. back onto Lyneth for more testing... PEACE!
I really like what im hearing. Alpha 2 has been fun so far.
I'm sooooooooo excited for Ashes!
Same for years.
awsome. getting more and more excited with Ashes of creation.
If anything, spawn camping Asmon was 'preferrential treatment' on the community side :P