The Combat Review will be out tomorrow where we'll deep dive the Difficulty, Combat and class design! I am trying to be live to react to all the A2 reviews but I'm finding myself a little overworked so going live is tentative, but follow the strim anyway: www.twitch.tv/Narciverse
yea ima need that video cuz hearing this combat is better than both NW & TL when all ive seen is mfs fighting trash mobs on repeat sounds like the fattest COPE ive ever heard, not saying the combat is bad but come on better than those two is wild statement but im willing to hold my judgment ttill the video.
8:00 THANK YOU for bringing up this environmental design issue. No one else has articulated it properly. And you pointed out the problem perfecttly. Needs more Fantasy/Magical environments, atmospheric weather effects(like fog), and skybox/lighting. This is something many MMO's don't get right, it's something WoW was GREAT at
I think it's mostly a matter of consistency. I think they were probably so focused on getting a 'workable' zone finished for the sake of implementing gameplay mechanics that they forgot about the world as its own character. Hopefully they'll be able to take a calmer, more focused approach with that mindset once this 'vertical slice' concept yields good results for them and they begin expanding the world more.
WoW was pretty fucking bad at it. You're in the red zone, take a few steps east and now you're in a blue zone which is in its own pocket dimension with it's own completely different sky, lighting, flora/fauna, etc. It's like taking a walk in a theme park and going from one IP's area and into another's.
I like It cause its very similar those mmo from early 2000. Grind, community, good impactfull progression, quests you have to explore and think, nothing like an endless work to clean the UI. Perfect.
Agreed on all points. Lots of promise and good work so far, but equally lots that still need large improvements. Looking forward to the combat specific video coming up soon!
It’s good to see you (seemingly) working on bringing the positive, more upbeat Narc back in your content. I’m glad the callout by Steven and the extensive feedback in the UA-cam comments about the negativity and cynicism seem to have struck a cord with you. Your content is great. Keep it up! ❤
Genuinely a good video. I had fell off cause of the direction of info in your recent videos but this was actually a good video and sounds like the narc I used to love to listen to. I’m also glad you commented on the 1 single layer in the last portion because I feel that’s what people are over looking when it comes to the networking issues currently.
The world in general definitely needs more atmosphere to certain areas. Like you said, changing the skybox in certain areas or changing up the lighting to something more moody in a graveyard would go a long way.
Can't believe we made it here boys. I've been following this channel for like 3 years at this point and finally we get actual content that is not made out of thin air
I have mixed feelings with questing, on quest driven MMOs nothing feels like a black box since you end up exploring all maps in a kind of theme park way, while on the other side on games like the original lineage 2, people didn’t really explore all areas of all maps since they mostly spent it grinding, which allowed for undiscovered incredible leveling spots such as the hidden caves above the queen ant nest with the transforming ants, creating a much richer experience for exploration falks, I feel like there should be a point in the middle so that lore is more readily available for users while still not feeling like a theme park
@ I agree, but simultaneously funny enough I see a split where some streamers are loving the grinding aspect of AoC which is essentially based on L2, I hope we end in a middle ground and not on a theme park
I can't stand quests, personally, but I get how the help bring players to otherwise unexplored points - but I feel like there's a better way to do that, but making sure there's stuff worth exploring for. You don't need a billboard that spams a bunch of text at you, that nobody reads anyway, that you then have to go out of your way to return to, breaking up any kind of flow, to make an area worth exploring. Less wow, more old school mmo.
Im not a fan of quest chains where everyone is the main character stopping the boss of the zone. Id rather have more dynamic events like if we dont hunt enough minotaurs then they overpopulate and start raiding the towns and the players band together to take them down.
nah uneeded stress on the players... everyone wants to do content they want at their own pace... imagine having to drop what youre doing to go kill some damn minotaurs like a chore... There is a reason why WoW has been king all these years.
This is an amazing video with great feedback, especially with the criticism towards style of the Aelan ruins and the distortion due to essence was a really good note I'd never realized before :). Quests do need work and to feel compelling even for a grinder like me.
Honestly it makes sense to trim back systems to focus on the systems you're trying to test. They did say that if what you're looking for is a more finished product it would be better to wait until it's closer to launch or until launch.
Say what you will about some thing about WoW but atmosphere was done really well in most places. Your mentioning Nagrand just reminded me of some of my favorite moments where I would just get up high and look around. That place is amazing.
Looking forward for the Early Impressions of the Third Wave in early June! Hopefully it's going to be polished/content-rich enough to make the jump and enjoy this supposedly over a year worth of gametime for that one hunna.
Quests are awesome, but they shouldn't replace working with others and gaining experience as the primary form of leveling. When you can nearly solo to max level from a ton of quest grinding with a few dungeons - there's a lot of social impact that is lost. Efficiency is important to gaining XP with others. Reminds me of grinding with friends in FFXI.
Fully agree with the quest state. I know that’s not thier focus for alpha 2, but I would like to hear from them about thier intentions for its finished state. “Sandpark” and sandbox are two different things, and they currently have sandbox down. If they could even get the lore hidden like in souls games, I would consider it sandpark. Quests don’t need to be necessarily the only way to uncover the world’s lore, but they need to do a lot to get them there. They had a very bad marking system for quests, but if they tried a different style, such as quests that are intentionally hidden in items descriptions, they will seize thier own style of questing if that is the goal
The questing you describe is exactly how quests were in Lineage 2. The only real quests you did were directly related to your character's class change quests, upgrading from Dark Fighter > Palus Knight > Shillen Knight. But like I told my friends, quest polish and reward balancing will come much later
You're the only AoC creator who doesn't seem to have to problem pointing out the flaws and gems of the game. Looking forward to full release / open beta in the future
what it is truly disheartening for me is that modern MMORPGs have abandoned the charm and depth of unique class and race quests, along with those memorable starting areas. Feels like they're missing the magic that once made the world so immersive. Everyone now starts in the same area and feel all the same, I know this is an alpha but ...I'm sure they could have done better to show people the love they are putting into creating a world that feels alive and unique.
Narc I think you should still do quests and specifically anything which may seem broken in concept/incomplete/bugged so you can report them, and they can be fixed or improved.
FULLY AGREE with buildings looking way to clean. HOWEVER! the map design for riverlands is devine in my book. (Maybe minus the north west portion) the center & east has a rolling jaggedy rolling hills that feels that makes each new valley unique.
I'm one of those guys who absolutely hates questing and I want it to be purely optional. Having said that, I really hope they flesh it out and make the commissions more interesting. Quests really breath life into the world and give it meaning, currently I have no idea why undead come out at night and what the goblins/minotaurs are trying to do. Even if I hate questing I can slap a 10m youtube video explaining the zone lore to be more immersed.
I could see how having NO compelling quests could be a mood killer. But coming from FFXI, there was literally zero quests you used to level. All leveling was grinding and I have tons of amazing memories from different level groups and camping spots. Having some quests that are interesting would definitely add to the pull of the world though!
I hope they keep quests limited in scope w/ major ones being compelling only (node expansion/world changing/etc); things like EQ epic quests. I grew tired of WoW's quest system a long time ago. It's always chasing the quest, never spending much time in one place. go go go go next quest next quest next quest go go go don't stop to read the quest just go to the marker
Lately I've stop watching you cuz your last content were quite futile and excessive, but with this video you got all your points back in my view. It's months that I'm trying to talk about the quest and NPC systems, and the lore/art/immersion of the world, along with class differentiation, as weak points that needs improving
@ For keeping track of all the people I group with, but also because I think A2 is going to lose steam fast if testers don’t have an easy way to connect with the other players they meet. Consider that the in-game friends list is the only means of social organization in an MMO for most players, other than being in Discord or a guild. I mean, it is pretty immersive and IRL-like to just remember people’s names/faces though, so maybe I could get behind leaving it out lol
Thing is. It’s only going to get better. By the time phase 3 starts, people will be clamoring to play. Intrepid knows this, and that’s why there will still be a chance to purchase into that phase. See you in Vera haters!!
You were lied about the 500 vs 500 pvp, only Throne and Liberty delivers that with 0 server desync. Keep paying 250 for 2 weeks of QA testing, Steven comes from Archeage, he knows how to scam the fresh start player base from first hand experience
Steven might dislike you, but this is the real "open development" that he loves to talk about. "hate" or "disliking" features or direction should be also heard. Thanks for also focusing on the important parts and not drama bait, now that you can make real content and not just clickbait since u had nothing to cover.
honestly it makes sense tthat dynamic gridding isn't turned on because regular gridding isn't even working properly right now. imagine if they were dynamically adding way more fucked up server boundaries to the game
I don't have "full" confidence that they can get those things right.. probably about 50% confidence, honestly. I would be content and even happy if they could just fix 3 things during alpha: 1. mob's not responding 2. extreme lag 3. disconnects If they could fix those 3 things I think it would already be a much more pleasant experience
I think theyll get it done in a couple weeks realistically. They genuinely listen to feedback and are aware of the problems and not wasting any time fixing things.
I really hope their questing isn't WoW based. I will instantly turn this game off the second I see exclamation points with uninteresting dialog behind it. Quests are supposed to be main elements of an area that create long term goals and reasons to explore it. If everything is explained to us by talking to random npcs creating a daisy chain of dialog boxes, then all the mystery and exploration is gone: "A lich is summoning the dead in all sorts of graveyards around our cities. We can't find his location." Party with the clerics to go on an adventure to cleanse those locations and triangulate the mysterious lich lair -> proceed to raid the lich dungeon, possibly alerting the area's adventurers for aid. "A dragon has been attacking caravans on our main roads which has been making us take detoured routes, which all have their own issues." The dragon has newborns and has been attacking caravans with food supplies. You have to set a trap by setting up a caravan loaded with food and bring the beast to you. If you miss your chance, you'll have to try again. That or if you have the means, can try to tail it back to its lair. "Stay away from the east wood. Settlements have gone dark and no traders that head out that way make it back. Rumors have it the forests are haunted." Although spooky, the areas don't like like undead or anything popped up. Traveling center to these abandoned towns, you are swarmed by goblins and have to fight your way out. Only way to end this all is to fight through all these locations and find where they're coming from to destroy their lair. All these are straight forward, they still require preparation. You can stumble into them and don't require some dude in town going "! Oi, dumby. Yeah you, with the mismatched attire and cat ears for some reason. I'm not saying it's goblins, eh... but it's goblins, yeah." Then slams some side bar on your screen with some purple pants and gold next to the accept button. It's lazy and braindead. Fetch quests should not exists. If you want to fetch stuff, it's because it's in your own personal interest to do so. "I'm going into the mountains where it's freezing... maybe I should hunt some wolves for pelts so I can properly bundle up...." Just... anything but the mindlessness of WoW.
Dann. Not sure why this doesn’t have more upvotes yet. I agree dear sir. Those sound awesome. I was watching a stream and someone was complaining there wasn’t a symbol above someone’s head on where to turn a quest into. Like. I kinda get wanting to know where to turn a quest in, if one ever needs to. But idk. They don’t have that crap on single player RPGs I don’t think?
I don't think I've ever really liked side quests in MMOS, they always just felt like padding/filler/time wasters till your level was high enough to unlock(if needed) the next MS Questline; which is what I always felt mattered more for establishing the world. I mean, if they were done in a way that felt more rewarding or worthwhile at exploring the area for pivotal points of interest, I'd be more inclined to take them, but most times they're just there for bland flavor text, in my opinion. I can't recall the last time I've played an MMO where a side quest really had me invested in the story it was trying to tell, maybe in FFXIV whenever you had to do those Job questlines for your new skill every 10 levels; but those were an concurrent with the growth of your character throughout your play time. You saw the NPC constantly because of it, and got to know more about the history of the job, that NPC's background because of the job, as well as how it fit into worldbuilding to a degree; as well as they had some fun, sad, and engaging moments from these cast of characters you interacted with. If AoC can't have side missions like that, then I wouldn't care much for going through them, even IF it was for establishing the world more. I'd expect that from the Story Missions then.
You mention that quests matter. I agree 100%. But that's not the way current MMO quests are. Where 95% are irrelevant, mindless, and boring. I absolutely hate killing 100 bears to collect 20 bear livers, only to be forced to return to the exact same damn bears to now collect bear paws. That's busy work and it's stupid. Don't confuse that with the actual good storylines told through quests. Quests should be for the big storylines. But not as filler. Not having 30 quests per sq ft just to give players a yellow exclamation mark to mindlessly follow.
Have you stopped to check out the trees? Every variety of tree has a unique look; some of the detail already in is quite amazing! Yes, lots of bugs, lots to improve
I was browsing through a lot of streamers during the weekend and my key takeaways are: 1. Combat is awesome. 2. Intrepid are very quick to correct game/test breaking issues. 3. Very few people understand the concept of a technical alpha. 4. WoW and gacha MMOs cause severe brainrot.
i'm gonna have to hard disagree about the combat. I do feel like it has room to grow but it does not IMO feel good, polished, or anything of the sort. It feels floaty and frankly, weird. I can agree that it has a decent enough foundation and considering this is alpha I mean there's hardly cause for concern. I was just expecting it to feel better than it does. Right now if I compare early game throne and liberty combat to early game ashes combat even TL has it beat by a mile.
I HOPE THEY KEEP it old school imagine retail wow graphics with old school mechanics oh man!!! what made everquest so special was basically everything req social interaction..: sell all out of Bag-no broker,-opens door to bartering you, travel on foot/mount- no teleport short asking a mage/druid,, death had meaning!!you didn't recover body you lose everything permanently- die anuff level backwards1 often req a necro to find body- cleric to rezz you to recover xp,, you wear what you earned!! no transmogging a trash bag to look like high end gear,, no one in a 1 man army we alll needed each other for one thing or another and at the end of the day all your hard work felt like it was worth it !!
BTW= grinding=work= feeling competition vs tossing crap at you for just existing !! adventure and grinding can co-exist i just DON'Twanna see this game turn into another friggin new world garbage.
Mostly agree. I do think though that stuffing (what will be an incredibly large world) full of 'interesting terrain' will actually make it less interesting. What makes interesting areas interesting... Is comparative rarity. If everywhere is just blue energy and floating terrain... Then blue energy and floating terrain becomes just as boreing as normal grasslands. Have cool things, points of interest, and fun environments. But keep it balanced with a higher overall percentage of more 'normal' terrain.
Saturday I woke up at 7am to hop in queue and didn't actually play until 7pm. I got 2 hours in before servers went down again. The first few days this is expected, but if I have this experience again this weekend I'm going to be very annoyed.
*All the Doomers look pretty stupid right now.* *Everything went better than we hoped for, we broke it, they fixed it, we broke it, they fixed it.* *People were having so much fun, it even drew a DDOS attack! That will help them even more!* *Bottom line: Ashes will be very, very good.*
Probably in the second weekend not this weekend but most likely the following weekend after the weekend after that, and the Networking seems to be up in the Air right now literally -Steven -
The game released in Alpha, many years before launch, and already has more content and feels 10x better than New Worlds official release. Base of the game is incredible, just gotta figure out the networking. Was awesome to see you running around in game, and you even came up and chatted to us a bit. Pleasure to be a citizen on Winstead.
there was a PTR test last night where we helped devs to figure out some bugs with the server boundaries and networking. those 2:50 human walls between server boundaries should be gone in a week or 2 since they figured out what causes them.
What? Most people were just grinding mob packs and for most of the weekend the mobs didn't even fight back. Quests might as well be placeholders. Most NPCs had 0 interactions with them. New World 1-60 was extremely enjoyable; its failure lied with lack of content after hitting max level. What content are you talking about in this alpha that New World didn't have at launch? FWIW - I enjoyed playing the alpha at 1:30am - 3:30am CST when the servers were extremely responsive and there weren't packs of players just grinding mobs.
@@bens4441you can’t tell these people anything because they just white knight for this garbage. Nothing about this “alpha” is defensible. 8 years for a 20 year old game. I’d fire everyone involved including myself if this is what I had to show for 8 years.
@@VictoryOrValhalla14 I don't think you fully understand what goes into a mmorpg. Plus features that haven't really been used before that need time to flesh out fully. But this is in a alpha state so expecting a sheep load of content in the alpha testing phase is just ridiculous....but that being said I do understand your point and respect it.
Agreed, I saw Vlhadus saying he doesn't think its a problem because Korean MMOs all look the same in his opinion. It needs a timeless artstyle, even OSRS has an artstyle and you can count the polygons on two hands for some facemodels.
8:00 i think we're forgetting something when it comes to the current world. These are spaces that are going to be filled with freeholds. There will be player run outposts and villages filling these spaces.
Thanks for the video, it seems like the game is like fastest 3-4 years away to even be able to deliver a "good game" and hopefully they fix the graphics for the character and stuff like that. Its like world 8/10 in graph but in char like 3/10 :P
The Combat Review will be out tomorrow where we'll deep dive the Difficulty, Combat and class design!
I am trying to be live to react to all the A2 reviews but I'm finding myself a little overworked so going live is tentative, but follow the strim anyway: www.twitch.tv/Narciverse
New world combat is best in mmo. there is actual skill needed for action combat not remembering spells in order
@@MrHappyStoner While that may be true, we just cant have it all. I wish ashes was action combat with healing specifically made tab target.
Am I retarded for being more interested in Pantheon than AoC lately?
@@MrHappyStoner yeah... Not Really 😅
yea ima need that video cuz hearing this combat is better than both NW & TL when all ive seen is mfs fighting trash mobs on repeat sounds like the fattest COPE ive ever heard, not saying the combat is bad but come on better than those two is wild statement but im willing to hold my judgment ttill the video.
man I'm so fucking glad you get to this point tho I'm kinda sad that there's no more content out of thin air
Itll be a much bttr future
No more outro's or intro's of: "talking about a game that quite literally doesn't exist."
It’s in testing so there won’t be much content right now
Hahaha
8:00 THANK YOU for bringing up this environmental design issue. No one else has articulated it properly. And you pointed out the problem perfecttly. Needs more Fantasy/Magical environments, atmospheric weather effects(like fog), and skybox/lighting. This is something many MMO's don't get right, it's something WoW was GREAT at
Yes, I want a modern MMO that nails fantasy like WoW does.
That POI named gemspring is hella fking good tho! Perfect environment imo
Even New World is something they could model from.
I think it's mostly a matter of consistency. I think they were probably so focused on getting a 'workable' zone finished for the sake of implementing gameplay mechanics that they forgot about the world as its own character. Hopefully they'll be able to take a calmer, more focused approach with that mindset once this 'vertical slice' concept yields good results for them and they begin expanding the world more.
WoW was pretty fucking bad at it. You're in the red zone, take a few steps east and now you're in a blue zone which is in its own pocket dimension with it's own completely different sky, lighting, flora/fauna, etc. It's like taking a walk in a theme park and going from one IP's area and into another's.
I like It cause its very similar those mmo from early 2000. Grind, community, good impactfull progression, quests you have to explore and think, nothing like an endless work to clean the UI.
Perfect.
Star citizen cope brother here wishing you guys best of luck
Only guy i trust with an honest AoC video. Everyone has never anything to say that's negative. Love it man
Go see lucky ghost feedback then
PirateSoftware has also a good point of view
Most of you just don't agree with them which is fine but saying stuff like ''an honest AoC'' video is honestly hilarious.
@@MartinaBabic-es6bz will do
@@Ghostplayer-nt7mo haven't checked out his AoC video yet. Will do
Agreed on all points. Lots of promise and good work so far, but equally lots that still need large improvements.
Looking forward to the combat specific video coming up soon!
I agree its like the garbage in your kitchen trashbin. Its garbage but it doesnt stink rotten like Pantheon
It’s good to see you (seemingly) working on bringing the positive, more upbeat Narc back in your content. I’m glad the callout by Steven and the extensive feedback in the UA-cam comments about the negativity and cynicism seem to have struck a cord with you. Your content is great. Keep it up! ❤
Genuinely a good video. I had fell off cause of the direction of info in your recent videos but this was actually a good video and sounds like the narc I used to love to listen to. I’m also glad you commented on the 1 single layer in the last portion because I feel that’s what people are over looking when it comes to the networking issues currently.
Glad to hear you mention how important quests were for MMO's. Felt like I was going insane when everyone i asked said that grinding was fine (:
The world in general definitely needs more atmosphere to certain areas. Like you said, changing the skybox in certain areas or changing up the lighting to something more moody in a graveyard would go a long way.
its ALPHA dude
It will. It’s an alpha not an early access. There will be a lot more
Love you narc continue onward to glory
Can't believe we made it here boys. I've been following this channel for like 3 years at this point and finally we get actual content that is not made out of thin air
I have mixed feelings with questing, on quest driven MMOs nothing feels like a black box since you end up exploring all maps in a kind of theme park way, while on the other side on games like the original lineage 2, people didn’t really explore all areas of all maps since they mostly spent it grinding, which allowed for undiscovered incredible leveling spots such as the hidden caves above the queen ant nest with the transforming ants, creating a much richer experience for exploration falks, I feel like there should be a point in the middle so that lore is more readily available for users while still not feeling like a theme park
L2 is the GOAT. Unfortunately, modern players couldn't handle a game like that.
@ I agree, but simultaneously funny enough I see a split where some streamers are loving the grinding aspect of AoC which is essentially based on L2, I hope we end in a middle ground and not on a theme park
I can't stand quests, personally, but I get how the help bring players to otherwise unexplored points - but I feel like there's a better way to do that, but making sure there's stuff worth exploring for. You don't need a billboard that spams a bunch of text at you, that nobody reads anyway, that you then have to go out of your way to return to, breaking up any kind of flow, to make an area worth exploring.
Less wow, more old school mmo.
Im not a fan of quest chains where everyone is the main character stopping the boss of the zone. Id rather have more dynamic events like if we dont hunt enough minotaurs then they overpopulate and start raiding the towns and the players band together to take them down.
nah uneeded stress on the players... everyone wants to do content they want at their own pace... imagine having to drop what youre doing to go kill some damn minotaurs like a chore... There is a reason why WoW has been king all these years.
This is an amazing video with great feedback, especially with the criticism towards style of the Aelan ruins and the distortion due to essence was a really good note I'd never realized before :). Quests do need work and to feel compelling even for a grinder like me.
Great video Narc. Keep it up and thank you.
Love this content 😍 Narc seems so much more balanced on fair critiques and positive vibes ❤️
the skybox point is an important one, hoping to see that evolve with future updates
Been waiting for your take!
I like that Narc gives his honest opinion about ashes. Because when he says positive things about it, because I know he's telling the truth
LET ME IN!!
Let me iiiiin
Honestly it makes sense to trim back systems to focus on the systems you're trying to test. They did say that if what you're looking for is a more finished product it would be better to wait until it's closer to launch or until launch.
Say what you will about some thing about WoW but atmosphere was done really well in most places. Your mentioning Nagrand just reminded me of some of my favorite moments where I would just get up high and look around. That place is amazing.
Looking forward for the Early Impressions of the Third Wave in early June! Hopefully it's going to be polished/content-rich enough to make the jump and enjoy this supposedly over a year worth of gametime for that one hunna.
it's wild how much nagrand is a staple for what fantasy games maps should model
Looking forward to your combat video.
Im fine with grinding, I hate wow questing
Quests are awesome, but they shouldn't replace working with others and gaining experience as the primary form of leveling.
When you can nearly solo to max level from a ton of quest grinding with a few dungeons - there's a lot of social impact that is lost.
Efficiency is important to gaining XP with others. Reminds me of grinding with friends in FFXI.
Fully agree with the quest state. I know that’s not thier focus for alpha 2, but I would like to hear from them about thier intentions for its finished state. “Sandpark” and sandbox are two different things, and they currently have sandbox down. If they could even get the lore hidden like in souls games, I would consider it sandpark. Quests don’t need to be necessarily the only way to uncover the world’s lore, but they need to do a lot to get them there.
They had a very bad marking system for quests, but if they tried a different style, such as quests that are intentionally hidden in items descriptions, they will seize thier own style of questing if that is the goal
I would recommend that the color palate is brightened or made more vivid
Excellent analysis mr narc ^^
The questing you describe is exactly how quests were in Lineage 2. The only real quests you did were directly related to your character's class change quests, upgrading from Dark Fighter > Palus Knight > Shillen Knight. But like I told my friends, quest polish and reward balancing will come much later
War is coming. Those guild may make an alliance, but it won't matter. Not allowed to say anything more.
yea ll it takes is the others to fade away a little bit in playtime and a mega guild will consolidate and form. Normal human behavior.
You're the only AoC creator who doesn't seem to have to problem pointing out the flaws and gems of the game. Looking forward to full release / open beta in the future
You obviously don't watch many others. I love Narc... But he isn't the 'only honest' creator talking about Ashes.
what ?
I have literally a whole list a creators that are the same LOL
@@jamesharoldsen1907Exactly! I see a lot of creators talking about ALL the flaws and good parts as well.
I rewind "shalllllll weeeeeeeeeeee" and listen to it like 15-20 times before the video.
to me and my guild, the memorable moments are fighting for grinding spots
Narc is back bois, glad to see it
People keep criticizing systems that aren’t even fully in, these first tests are about level progression and server stability
what it is truly disheartening for me is that modern MMORPGs have abandoned the charm and depth of unique class and race quests, along with those memorable starting areas. Feels like they're missing the magic that once made the world so immersive. Everyone now starts in the same area and feel all the same, I know this is an alpha but ...I'm sure they could have done better to show people the love they are putting into creating a world that feels alive and unique.
Welcome back ❤
I came, I saw, I concurred with Narc
This is the Narc I know and love 🥲 he's back (or has he never left?)
I still hope that the different races will have their own starting zone. This will help one zone being overwhelmed.
You're very intelligent Narc, I agree with everything and I'm a genius.
………
3:06 i have flashbacks to Asmongold giving pre raid motivational speeches
Narc I think you should still do quests and specifically anything which may seem broken in concept/incomplete/bugged so you can report them, and they can be fixed or improved.
❤ it was great watching you play
FULLY AGREE with buildings looking way to clean. HOWEVER! the map design for riverlands is devine in my book. (Maybe minus the north west portion) the center & east has a rolling jaggedy rolling hills that feels that makes each new valley unique.
I'm one of those guys who absolutely hates questing and I want it to be purely optional. Having said that, I really hope they flesh it out and make the commissions more interesting. Quests really breath life into the world and give it meaning, currently I have no idea why undead come out at night and what the goblins/minotaurs are trying to do. Even if I hate questing I can slap a 10m youtube video explaining the zone lore to be more immersed.
I could see how having NO compelling quests could be a mood killer. But coming from FFXI, there was literally zero quests you used to level. All leveling was grinding and I have tons of amazing memories from different level groups and camping spots.
Having some quests that are interesting would definitely add to the pull of the world though!
I hope they keep quests limited in scope w/ major ones being compelling only (node expansion/world changing/etc); things like EQ epic quests. I grew tired of WoW's quest system a long time ago. It's always chasing the quest, never spending much time in one place. go go go go next quest next quest next quest go go go don't stop to read the quest just go to the marker
Lately I've stop watching you cuz your last content were quite futile and excessive, but with this video you got all your points back in my view. It's months that I'm trying to talk about the quest and NPC systems, and the lore/art/immersion of the world, along with class differentiation, as weak points that needs improving
Narc I agree 1000% with the grind statement. Doing grinding for hundreds of hours I could've had 20 years ago in any dull Asia grinder.
Great work dented one
I hope everything goes well and we get a nice game to play in the future. Star citizen and AoC are games waiting
Cautiously optimistic 🙏🏻 PS we need a friends list in game before this weekend
What for? There is gonna be quite a few wipes till Phase 3 and it seems pointless at this stage..
@ For keeping track of all the people I group with, but also because I think A2 is going to lose steam fast if testers don’t have an easy way to connect with the other players they meet. Consider that the in-game friends list is the only means of social organization in an MMO for most players, other than being in Discord or a guild. I mean, it is pretty immersive and IRL-like to just remember people’s names/faces though, so maybe I could get behind leaving it out lol
The hovering line of players is just the border to the next node, proving that server mesh is working
Narc will finally have actual content
Star Citizen Player: First time?
Thing is. It’s only going to get better. By the time phase 3 starts, people will be clamoring to play. Intrepid knows this, and that’s why there will still be a chance to purchase into that phase. See you in Vera haters!!
This will never release.
@ healthy skepticism is appreciated.
You were lied about the 500 vs 500 pvp, only Throne and Liberty delivers that with 0 server desync.
Keep paying 250 for 2 weeks of QA testing, Steven comes from Archeage, he knows how to scam the fresh start player base from first hand experience
@@PeterPanbe i sure hope not, cause if it does itll shake the mmo genre
Steven might dislike you, but this is the real "open development" that he loves to talk about. "hate" or "disliking" features or direction should be also heard. Thanks for also focusing on the important parts and not drama bait, now that you can make real content and not just clickbait since u had nothing to cover.
Steven has a problem with Naarc??
honestly it makes sense tthat dynamic gridding isn't turned on because regular gridding isn't even working properly right now. imagine if they were dynamically adding way more fucked up server boundaries to the game
8:45 - I can see every mayor being a streamer lol
I don't have "full" confidence that they can get those things right.. probably about 50% confidence, honestly.
I would be content and even happy if they could just fix 3 things during alpha:
1. mob's not responding
2. extreme lag
3. disconnects
If they could fix those 3 things I think it would already be a much more pleasant experience
I think theyll get it done in a couple weeks realistically. They genuinely listen to feedback and are aware of the problems and not wasting any time fixing things.
LOOKS SOO GOOD
I really hope their questing isn't WoW based. I will instantly turn this game off the second I see exclamation points with uninteresting dialog behind it.
Quests are supposed to be main elements of an area that create long term goals and reasons to explore it. If everything is explained to us by talking to random npcs creating a daisy chain of dialog boxes, then all the mystery and exploration is gone:
"A lich is summoning the dead in all sorts of graveyards around our cities. We can't find his location."
Party with the clerics to go on an adventure to cleanse those locations and triangulate the mysterious lich lair -> proceed to raid the lich dungeon, possibly alerting the area's adventurers for aid.
"A dragon has been attacking caravans on our main roads which has been making us take detoured routes, which all have their own issues."
The dragon has newborns and has been attacking caravans with food supplies. You have to set a trap by setting up a caravan loaded with food and bring the beast to you. If you miss your chance, you'll have to try again. That or if you have the means, can try to tail it back to its lair.
"Stay away from the east wood. Settlements have gone dark and no traders that head out that way make it back. Rumors have it the forests are haunted."
Although spooky, the areas don't like like undead or anything popped up. Traveling center to these abandoned towns, you are swarmed by goblins and have to fight your way out. Only way to end this all is to fight through all these locations and find where they're coming from to destroy their lair.
All these are straight forward, they still require preparation. You can stumble into them and don't require some dude in town going "! Oi, dumby. Yeah you, with the mismatched attire and cat ears for some reason. I'm not saying it's goblins, eh... but it's goblins, yeah." Then slams some side bar on your screen with some purple pants and gold next to the accept button. It's lazy and braindead. Fetch quests should not exists. If you want to fetch stuff, it's because it's in your own personal interest to do so.
"I'm going into the mountains where it's freezing... maybe I should hunt some wolves for pelts so I can properly bundle up...."
Just... anything but the mindlessness of WoW.
Dann. Not sure why this doesn’t have more upvotes yet. I agree dear sir. Those sound awesome. I was watching a stream and someone was complaining there wasn’t a symbol above someone’s head on where to turn a quest into. Like. I kinda get wanting to know where to turn a quest in, if one ever needs to. But idk. They don’t have that crap on single player RPGs I don’t think?
SWTOR had good quests and story. Had class specific stories which were fantastic and a masterclass in how questing should be done.
im not so sure about the combat, several times looked like character was sliding around the target but maybe its just lacking animation refinement
I don't think I've ever really liked side quests in MMOS, they always just felt like padding/filler/time wasters till your level was high enough to unlock(if needed) the next MS Questline; which is what I always felt mattered more for establishing the world. I mean, if they were done in a way that felt more rewarding or worthwhile at exploring the area for pivotal points of interest, I'd be more inclined to take them, but most times they're just there for bland flavor text, in my opinion.
I can't recall the last time I've played an MMO where a side quest really had me invested in the story it was trying to tell, maybe in FFXIV whenever you had to do those Job questlines for your new skill every 10 levels; but those were an concurrent with the growth of your character throughout your play time. You saw the NPC constantly because of it, and got to know more about the history of the job, that NPC's background because of the job, as well as how it fit into worldbuilding to a degree; as well as they had some fun, sad, and engaging moments from these cast of characters you interacted with.
If AoC can't have side missions like that, then I wouldn't care much for going through them, even IF it was for establishing the world more. I'd expect that from the Story Missions then.
You mention that quests matter.
I agree 100%. But that's not the way current MMO quests are. Where 95% are irrelevant, mindless, and boring. I absolutely hate killing 100 bears to collect 20 bear livers, only to be forced to return to the exact same damn bears to now collect bear paws.
That's busy work and it's stupid. Don't confuse that with the actual good storylines told through quests.
Quests should be for the big storylines. But not as filler. Not having 30 quests per sq ft just to give players a yellow exclamation mark to mindlessly follow.
Have you stopped to check out the trees? Every variety of tree has a unique look; some of the detail already in is quite amazing! Yes, lots of bugs, lots to improve
It was dope watchin you do the politics to become mayor.
I want to like this game! But the combat just looks like spaming AOEs and blooms galore! Not my style but like the idea of open pvp
I was browsing through a lot of streamers during the weekend and my key takeaways are:
1. Combat is awesome.
2. Intrepid are very quick to correct game/test breaking issues.
3. Very few people understand the concept of a technical alpha.
4. WoW and gacha MMOs cause severe brainrot.
Intrepid needs to hire a few quest writers and designers it seems
We were the Miraleth guild woop woop lol Overlord!
i'm gonna have to hard disagree about the combat. I do feel like it has room to grow but it does not IMO feel good, polished, or anything of the sort. It feels floaty and frankly, weird. I can agree that it has a decent enough foundation and considering this is alpha I mean there's hardly cause for concern. I was just expecting it to feel better than it does. Right now if I compare early game throne and liberty combat to early game ashes combat even TL has it beat by a mile.
In all fairness im more or less surprised that questing was even released in alpha. I figured that would be added much later on.
Give me RuneScape Quest - Look into it if you haven't
Lol,
Became mayor.
Immediately forms a cartel
xD
I may be a weirdo but I like a more low fantasy world with more of a natural vibe. Use the magical elements sparingly and they will be more striking.
I HOPE THEY KEEP it old school imagine retail wow graphics with old school mechanics oh man!!! what made everquest so special was basically everything req social interaction..: sell all out of Bag-no broker,-opens door to bartering you, travel on foot/mount- no teleport short asking a mage/druid,, death had meaning!!you didn't recover body you lose everything permanently- die anuff level backwards1 often req a necro to find body- cleric to rezz you to recover xp,, you wear what you earned!! no transmogging a trash bag to look like high end gear,, no one in a 1 man army we alll needed each other for one thing or another and at the end of the day all your hard work felt like it was worth it !!
BTW= grinding=work= feeling competition vs tossing crap at you for just existing !! adventure and grinding can co-exist i just DON'Twanna see this game turn into another friggin new world garbage.
Im more interested in Pantheon than i am AoC lately....i gotta get off of FFXI Classic servers
Agreed on quests: lore through quests is what keeps me playing.
Good quests are a must. For sure.
Mostly agree.
I do think though that stuffing (what will be an incredibly large world) full of 'interesting terrain' will actually make it less interesting. What makes interesting areas interesting... Is comparative rarity. If everywhere is just blue energy and floating terrain... Then blue energy and floating terrain becomes just as boreing as normal grasslands.
Have cool things, points of interest, and fun environments. But keep it balanced with a higher overall percentage of more 'normal' terrain.
Completely agree about the excessive grind and extremely boring kill 10 of x in this circle.
I think the world looks great!
Saturday I woke up at 7am to hop in queue and didn't actually play until 7pm. I got 2 hours in before servers went down again. The first few days this is expected, but if I have this experience again this weekend I'm going to be very annoyed.
OG Runescape still has the best questing system I have ever experienced in a MMORPG. Change my mind!
steven said its next gen server meshing desgined by their engineers, where the hell is that?? i sure as shit didnt see it
*All the Doomers look pretty stupid right now.*
*Everything went better than we hoped for, we broke it, they fixed it, we broke it, they fixed it.*
*People were having so much fun, it even drew a DDOS attack! That will help them even more!*
*Bottom line: Ashes will be very, very good.*
Probably in the second weekend not this weekend but most likely the following weekend after the weekend after that, and the Networking seems to be up in the Air right now literally -Steven -
Makes me hopeful that phase 3 key was not a bad choice. Figured I would just be raging at an unfinished game...like it was some kind of alpha test.
The combat is very similar to GW2 and WoW very good.
Enjoyed the video gave it a like. From your friendly neighbor overlord!!
The game released in Alpha, many years before launch, and already has more content and feels 10x better than New Worlds official release. Base of the game is incredible, just gotta figure out the networking. Was awesome to see you running around in game, and you even came up and chatted to us a bit. Pleasure to be a citizen on Winstead.
there was a PTR test last night where we helped devs to figure out some bugs with the server boundaries and networking. those 2:50 human walls between server boundaries should be gone in a week or 2 since they figured out what causes them.
What? Most people were just grinding mob packs and for most of the weekend the mobs didn't even fight back. Quests might as well be placeholders. Most NPCs had 0 interactions with them. New World 1-60 was extremely enjoyable; its failure lied with lack of content after hitting max level. What content are you talking about in this alpha that New World didn't have at launch? FWIW - I enjoyed playing the alpha at 1:30am - 3:30am CST when the servers were extremely responsive and there weren't packs of players just grinding mobs.
@@bens4441you can’t tell these people anything because they just white knight for this garbage. Nothing about this “alpha” is defensible. 8 years for a 20 year old game. I’d fire everyone involved including myself if this is what I had to show for 8 years.
@@VictoryOrValhalla14 I don't think you fully understand what goes into a mmorpg. Plus features that haven't really been used before that need time to flesh out fully. But this is in a alpha state so expecting a sheep load of content in the alpha testing phase is just ridiculous....but that being said I do understand your point and respect it.
not even Narc who ruined his IRL Life for AoC is this level of delusional
my biggest worry is still the art style looking generic, I just hope they have plans to give the game a unique look once everything else is done
They won't. MMOs look either cartoony like WoW, Tarisland, Wildstar etc., anime, or realistic. AoC is realistic.
Agreed, I saw Vlhadus saying he doesn't think its a problem because Korean MMOs all look the same in his opinion.
It needs a timeless artstyle, even OSRS has an artstyle and you can count the polygons on two hands for some facemodels.
I like this look tbh. Each their own
@@Ranziel1 true
@@Ranziel1realistic? It looks worse than wizards 101. It’s only a notch better than UO, it’s terrible in every single way.
8:00 i think we're forgetting something when it comes to the current world. These are spaces that are going to be filled with freeholds. There will be player run outposts and villages filling these spaces.
Except for early expositional quests, all quests should be emergent.
Shout out to Narc revealing his love for black queens. They are so insanely thicc naturally!
Beastiality
ok oil drilling gooner
Cringe AF
Thanks for the video, it seems like the game is like fastest 3-4 years away to even be able to deliver a "good game" and hopefully they fix the graphics for the character and stuff like that. Its like world 8/10 in graph but in char like 3/10 :P