PvE Server

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Yes, imo it's better to have a one design direction that represents the best form of devs' vision, even if it brings in less players, rather than having 2 subpar versions that not only split the playerbase but also split the dev time for each and increase the costs of upkeep of both.

Imo it's better to have theoretical 200-300k players of the Ashes Steven wants to make, who will stick with the game for as long as its alive because those 200-300k people are the precise target audience of Steven's vision, rather than having 1-2kk players with 100k (if even that) on pvp servers and the rest on pve, most of whom will just leave for other more pve-centered games because Ashes' systems would still push them away.

If you keep caravans, guild wars, node wars and node sieges in the game - all those pve players won't be able to play for too long, because all the pvpers who migrated from the pvp servers (because it's better to play on fuller servers) will dominate each and every one of those pvp events. And all the pvers will be losing their mats in caravans, their freeholds in node sieges and will be constantly killed during guild/node wars, because the hardcore pvpers will just overtake any and all mayoral positions.

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That's because PvE is always more popular because the masses dislike conflict. All the most popular mmos show that.

But Ashes is not being designed as "the best pve mmo out there", it's being designed as a "pvx mmo, like in the old days". So they either have to completely change their design direction or they will literally repeat NW's fate. Make a game with a design that doesn't fit the pure pvers' preferences and lose >90% of their playerbase within a month or two. And Intrepid wouldn't have the money to come back from that kind of loss.

But if they keep with their current design, while yes they'll still have a big playerbase loss (because people are dumb, fall into hype and don't research what they pay for), but the core target audience that Intrepid is aiming at would stick around and play it for years to come.

Now there's a question of whether there's enough of that TA to keep the development coming, but that's on Steven and Intrepid to know.

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Have you heard of a super small super niche super underground little unknown game called World of fucking Warcraft? And all its pvp servers that literally died and pretty much became just 1 fully populated server, while DOZENS of pve servers thrived? Cause that's what we're talking about and giving examples of.

There's also NW's toggle mechanic, where barely anyone has it on, relatively speaking.

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They are not restricted from it. They can go to literally several other shops that are right around the corner who'd be more than glad to remove the bacon. But here at the "Papa Bacon's" we're proud MURRICAN'S that never remove a wholeass letter from a sandwich.

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Where exactly is the "vision comptonization"? Steven doesn't consider cosmetics a win-state and he loves limited/collectible stuff, so both of those things are "within vision" for him.