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.
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.
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
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'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.
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.
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
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
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.
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.
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.
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?
@@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.
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.
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.
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
The Alpha segment is really good. The current stage of the game is something consumers shouldn't even know about in real development cycles. This is just large scale friends and family access that is a privilege to test
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
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
Really appreciate you doing this interview, you did an excellent job asking very informed questions. Having played T&L lately I fully understand what Steven and the team are trying to achieve here and I can't wait to see more and hopefully play this game in the next few years!
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!
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 remember being single eating pizza and playing wow watching initial videos talking about AoC and being so hyped. Now I’m married with 2 kids and the game is approaching beta xd
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. ❤🎉
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.
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.
@@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.
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.
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.
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)
As a FFXIV player since ARR and never heard of Ashes of Creation. I agreed about alot of the things you guys talked about. Great interview. Im actually very interesting in learning more about the game
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.
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 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!
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.
Haven't cared about Ashes thus far but this has convinced me otherwise. Very skillful and thoughtful devs with a good moral compass speaking here is awesome to witness.
I swore off MMOs due to WoW burnout, but will have to give this one a try. The thoughtfulness and passion being put into this game have won me over. Really great interview!
In Alpha now and the game feels great in some aspects like combat, exploration and inmersion, music is very good and there is the feeling of danger all around you have to plan like if you grind mats you better watch out and deposit mats before you go and grind mobs because if you die you will lose some mats not all just a certain %, you lose xp when you die but is small amount from what I see, same with glint that you change for money ingame, you better go and change your glint for money after a long grind, zone is massive and having to fast travel feels amazing, grouping with other players feels so good after all we are playing a mmorpg, you can solo but depending on the class is gonna be eazyer or harder, questing for now gives low xp and is not that good since that comes later in alpha, game has a lot of potential we just need to see how they will respond to all the fedback and when new sistems are implemented.
I dont know if there is something planned for AOC like this idea however hear me out. Make the mobs more dynamic with the story of the game, like for example an area with goblins, if the number of goblins is not regulated by the players, they will grow more stronger (in numbers) and if they reach a certain number of them an event is started for that area that in 24 hours if the number of the mobs is not lowered to 1/3 the mobs will invade the closest populated area. The villages nearby, if invaded and not defended will get wrecked and the mayor will lose that area, and needs to be rebuilt to be used again. Also mobs vs mobs, if there are adjacent mobs they can be more dominant and expand their territory and again if there is no one regulating their numbers, a boss can be born in the dominant mob species. This can be randomized and will make the mobs and territories feel like they are really alive and the story is ever changing. For mob spawn placement if a mob species is extinct, they will respawn in a area that is suitable to that kind of specie to live in in small number and a bit isolated so not to bother any one until they become a problem later on. This way the goblins will be extinct for a season but may return in the next season since there wont be any quests to kill them for a season or two.
I love Steven and the rest of the team treat the community. They have fun, do interviews, spawn in boss mobs, do RP events. This is what Blizz used to do back in the day, when they cared about the community.
I'm getting such good Shadowbane feels! My forever favorite game. Crowfall tried to be the updated Shadowbane and we know what happened there. Let's hope this one is successful. I'm already playing =)
I swear I could see a halo appear over Sharif's head and a glow surround him getting brighter and brighter as he talked. 😇His words sounded like music on a harp with a background of pleasant chimes as if he was casting magical spells with every sentence. 🤣 Personally I'm going to cancel my other game sub(s) and focus exclusively on AoC only because, based on what Sharif is saying, I genuinely hope this game is successful; he's certainly catering to us players, and that's music to my ears. 🎶
@@Invus1 What is wrong with you? Can't you tell when someone is stating a sarcastic joke? The way Thor is swooning over Sharif is what I'm highlighting in my comment and you would have figured that out if you weren't so damn arrogant. No one cares what you think about us or other people. If you want to post a comment about the video, do so. Attacking people for their comment is childish, off topic, inappropriate, and not your job! Go away troll!
I would of added a fifth type of voting system for Mayor for nodes based off their profession who can created or gather the better item or who have higher mastery. You could also add a 6 type where the mayor is decided by fate with the luck of the draw.
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
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.
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
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 :)
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'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
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.
Thank you for doing this. I was just thinking I'd like to see an interview with you two today and bom
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
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
Damn. I would have taken an other 2 hours of this. Great convo!
stoked that this interview happened - props to gm steven for doing this and being so open about everything you asked
"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.
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.
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
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
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 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.
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 $15, idk where you heard 30 a month.
The best games ever - was subscription MMOs. UO, EQ, WoW, Daoc, etc etc
It says 15 on their website. Where did you hear 30?
When the dude said the best cosmetics shouldn't be in the marketplace he had my heart. I will do a month minimum just for that alone.
yeah, from a guy that sold keys for 100$ to play an Alpha and only the alpha
@@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
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.
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.
This project makes me so happy. I love the interview and am glad to see one of us gamers at the helm.
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
Cheers guys, great interview. Can't wait for the game to release. Very excited to join the guild.
The Alpha segment is really good. The current stage of the game is something consumers shouldn't even know about in real development cycles. This is just large scale friends and family access that is a privilege to test
Possibly the best gaming related interview generally. It's definitely the best AOC related interview. Period.
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
i looked for this video all day at work after seeing the asmon upload of it; fnially get to watch the full thing
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
Top tier interview, absolute legends man.
This is such a good interview, basically all my questions were answered. Thank you!!
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
I bought the alpha because of this interview. I support the hell out of this development team! They seem so solid.
Really appreciate you doing this interview, you did an excellent job asking very informed questions. Having played T&L lately I fully understand what Steven and the team are trying to achieve here and I can't wait to see more and hopefully play this game in the next few years!
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.
This was an incredibly interesting and entertaining conversation. Thank you!
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!
So happy there is a monthly subscription! The way it should be
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.
This was awsome! Good luck to Steven's team and gg for pirate
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.
I remember being single eating pizza and playing wow watching initial videos talking about AoC and being so hyped.
Now I’m married with 2 kids and the game is approaching beta xd
Thor, you are unique. Also Steven, thank you for share your thoughts with us. We're very excited to play. Much Love from Brazil!
As a software engineer I really appreciated him diving into the lingo to explain how his day was. Very informative
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. ❤🎉
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.
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.
Fantastic interview! Thank you Thor and Steven!
Really good questions and answers. The game gets more appealing to me as it goes on. Definitely gonna give it a go on release!
Hell yeah bro, great interview!
If anything, spawn camping Asmon was 'preferrential treatment' on the community side :P
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.
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.
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.
I like the guy, good interview. Straight up answers and good questions asked. GJ to both parties.
Such a nice and wholesome guy ❤
yay, someone that actually knows about game development getting an interview!
Was looking forward to this, such a great interview seeing more in-depth questions that the public wanted to hear. Awesome job Thor cheers
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)
thankyou for this Thor! alot of information that needs to be shared to all and thanks for the shoutout to aussies!
I got so invested in this interview I forgot to get off my train after work
Thank you Sunder! Your hard work is appreciated!
As a FFXIV player since ARR and never heard of Ashes of Creation. I agreed about alot of the things you guys talked about. Great interview. Im actually very interesting in learning more about the game
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 really like what im hearing. Alpha 2 has been fun so far.
Absolutely loved this interview Great Q and A
Steven's enthusiasm always gets me hyped for the game
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.
Thank you for doing what you do. Both of you and your teams.
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 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!
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.
Stoked to hear steven is adding something to akin to the sports fishing from ArcheAge cause that was my fav activity.
Just voted for you bro. Good luck 🎉
Such great questions and even greater answers.
Was on the fence, this interview convinced me to invest
That was quite a fun watch. Also, Underrealm mentioned! 😹
Haven't cared about Ashes thus far but this has convinced me otherwise. Very skillful and thoughtful devs with a good moral compass speaking here is awesome to witness.
Excellent interview. The questions were fantastic.
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
I swore off MMOs due to WoW burnout, but will have to give this one a try. The thoughtfulness and passion being put into this game have won me over. Really great interview!
In Alpha now and the game feels great in some aspects like combat, exploration and inmersion, music is very good and there is the feeling of danger all around you have to plan like if you grind mats you better watch out and deposit mats before you go and grind mobs because if you die you will lose some mats not all just a certain %, you lose xp when you die but is small amount from what I see, same with glint that you change for money ingame, you better go and change your glint for money after a long grind, zone is massive and having to fast travel feels amazing, grouping with other players feels so good after all we are playing a mmorpg, you can solo but depending on the class is gonna be eazyer or harder, questing for now gives low xp and is not that good since that comes later in alpha, game has a lot of potential we just need to see how they will respond to all the fedback and when new sistems are implemented.
I dont know if there is something planned for AOC like this idea however hear me out.
Make the mobs more dynamic with the story of the game, like for example an area with goblins, if the number of goblins is not regulated by the players, they will grow more stronger (in numbers) and if they reach a certain number of them an event is started for that area that in 24 hours if the number of the mobs is not lowered to 1/3 the mobs will invade the closest populated area. The villages nearby, if invaded and not defended will get wrecked and the mayor will lose that area, and needs to be rebuilt to be used again.
Also mobs vs mobs, if there are adjacent mobs they can be more dominant and expand their territory and again if there is no one regulating their numbers, a boss can be born in the dominant mob species.
This can be randomized and will make the mobs and territories feel like they are really alive and the story is ever changing. For mob spawn placement if a mob species is extinct, they will respawn in a area that is suitable to that kind of specie to live in in small number and a bit isolated so not to bother any one until they become a problem later on. This way the goblins will be extinct for a season but may return in the next season since there wont be any quests to kill them for a season or two.
I love Steven and the rest of the team treat the community. They have fun, do interviews, spawn in boss mobs, do RP events. This is what Blizz used to do back in the day, when they cared about the community.
I'm getting such good Shadowbane feels! My forever favorite game. Crowfall tried to be the updated Shadowbane and we know what happened there. Let's hope this one is successful. I'm already playing =)
Great interview!!
Fantastic conversation
awsome. getting more and more excited with Ashes of creation.
Amazing interview, I actually learned alot of game design from this!
I swear I could see a halo appear over Sharif's head and a glow surround him getting brighter and brighter as he talked. 😇His words sounded like music on a harp with a background of pleasant chimes as if he was casting magical spells with every sentence. 🤣 Personally I'm going to cancel my other game sub(s) and focus exclusively on AoC only because, based on what Sharif is saying, I genuinely hope this game is successful; he's certainly catering to us players, and that's music to my ears. 🎶
You do you, but this comment sounded like someone in a cult. I would be very careful if I was feeling feelings of fervor like this.
@@Invus1 What is wrong with you? Can't you tell when someone is stating a sarcastic joke? The way Thor is swooning over Sharif is what I'm highlighting in my comment and you would have figured that out if you weren't so damn arrogant. No one cares what you think about us or other people. If you want to post a comment about the video, do so. Attacking people for their comment is childish, off topic, inappropriate, and not your job! Go away troll!
Steven is saving the MMO genre with this game. I can't wait to lose myself in it.
I haven't played an MMORPG is over a decade, but this looks really good.
Great interview, you always ask the right questions.
THANK YOU for addressing the FONT SIZE (1h 4min). This has been driving me NUTS since starting the A2!
I would of added a fifth type of voting system for Mayor for nodes based off their profession who can created or gather the better item or who have higher mastery. You could also add a 6 type where the mayor is decided by fate with the luck of the draw.
Ok but aren't 4 types enough for now, this game has enough feature creep already dude :D
Like the top 3 or smth when they're close enough
I am excited for AoC. After seeing this few weeks of alpha and Sean talk I hope the. Vision is realized. May the light guide you !