[Feedback Request] Area of Carphin Shown in March Livestream

Looks great. The visual and sound change was great. A bit low on mobs, but that's obviously alpha stage related.

As for concerns, any potential push spells could fuck people over on that bridge.

That mimic mob was nice and I definitely want way more mechanics similar to him. All kinds of traps, fakeouts and stuff like that.

Some of my favorite tower dungeons were Cruma Tower and Tower of Insolence from Lineage 2 and they had dead ends with dangerous mobs, big rooms that would lock up if you woke up a boss there, and just maze-like internal room structure. We obviously didn't see higher lvls of Carphin, or even a few more rooms on the first floor - but I'd definitely love that kind of layout for it.

I had no particular positives toward this area.

I really appreciate the effort put in by the environment team, and I wouldn't say it was 'lacking something' really, but it also didn't make me feel anything much. I think it's just a visual style issue, everything is large, but it's large in a way that doesn't feel like people ever actually did anything reasonable there.

So it gives me the same feeling as Alpha-1, where I don't quite feel connected to my character consistently, and feel more like I'm controlling a miniature on a game board.

I don't think this is a particularly bad presentation to use, so I don't really want it changed, but it seems to limit my ability to enjoy the areas, because I feel like in this case, I'd prefer a different view. A 3D game relies on characters moving around and changing the direction they are facing, with only an arc in front of them visible.

The design style used in Ashes is too 'panoramic' for my tastes here, the environments are the type that I would fall in love with in a top-down or isometric 'sprite' game where I am constantly looking at them and seeing them from the same perspective and can really appreciate their coolness in that way.

But as an example, when 90% of my screen is filled with just 'stairs' and then just flat ground with a big door at the end, I'm not as likely to pay attention to the statues or the cool cracks in the ground, I'll pay attention to the door which is taking up 10% of my FOV and move closer to it, causing it to take up more of said FOV.

I feel like the design principles being used are failing my personal preference in terms of trading 'visual immersion' for 'scale' so I don't hate it, but I don't think it would ever trigger that weird nostalgia I get for certain other games where I just 'get the urge to feel like I'm in that space' and it makes me want to log in (even to games I don't much like).

I could rant about this a lot (I've built up very precise understandings of the way this affects me over time) but I think going too deep into it before I can play it wouldn't be helpful. I can only verify that Ashes usually gives me this feeling and only 2-3 environments in Alpha-1 did not. (Cave near Moonhollow Beach, area where Jermaine spawns, and the path between Winstead and the nearby dungeon).