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Post by Azherae on 2021-06-06 09:14:47
Invisibility is a weird thing, and any commitment to making it 'not perfect' or 'always have a tell' can drastically decrease a Rogue's effectiveness, because in a first person game, stealth can be about 'being out of line of sight. In a third person game, the player can 'see behind them'. This is a reasonable approximation of 'hearing something behind you', but assassins have gear and training to avoid making noise, and while I don't want to bring in 'real life' examples, generally their methods lead to near-instant kills. So the 'problem' is 'being limited in your invisibility in ...
Post by Azherae on 2021-06-06 09:24:13
In a 2v2, all characters have one Global Cleanse each. But both sides have at least two CC abilities each, with separate Global Cooldowns since they are different characters. The more CC available across classes, the more you have to twist your balance to prevent the rapid defeat of any single character because there is more CC on one side than there are responses on the other. Adding 'more situations to put the opponent into' to all classes in a GvG game forces you to add more 'answers' to those situations to individual characters. The point is that Intrepid ...
Post by Azherae on 2021-06-06 09:49:54
No, I don't, hence the quote marks. The Wiki seems to draw its information from this old Livestream , which may be out of date. While doing the Rogue Compilation, I found a lot of relatively heated discussion over whether or not fully invisible Rogues are a 'good' gameplay design, and therefore expect feedback around this to be contentious either way. My hope is that the above could help solve this even if the implied stance of Intrepid stands, and full invisibility is impossible due to being seen as a poor gameplay/balance decision. I would like opinions on the ...
Post by Azherae on 2021-06-06 10:48:49
Sorry, I'll clarify. And no I did not listen in detail to what was in the link, I admit that. I took what was on the wiki, and a bunch of compiled data from posts with posters who either somehow, like me, assumed that there would be a tell, or were adamantly ready to argue against any full invisibility. So my 'implied' was not based on that link, but on what information I had available, i.e. lots of strong hearsay and 'whatever prompted that precise wiki data'. If Full stealth invisibility is currently 'known' to be not an issue, ...
Post by Azherae on 2021-06-06 11:03:26
Can you elaborate on that? I don't know of any connection between corruption and invisibility. (for clarity, I'm thinking in terms of Rogue 'ganking' within PvP instances, or for example, rapidly eliminating guards of a caravan, which is the primary 'interest' here)
Post by Azherae on 2021-06-06 15:05:04
Here's the breakdown. Right now there is not much 'game' to play. This is testing. If you fork over $500 you get to help test now and next month, you get 11 months of subscription prepaid at launch, and somewhere over $150 in currency for cosmetics. If you choose $375, the difference is that you don't test now or next month, but test later in the year. You get less subscription and less cosmetics. As you go down, your 'schedule' for joining testing moves further, closer to actual launch. At launch, you pay nothing but your subscription, so if ...
Post by Azherae on 2021-06-07 09:48:07
Hi, it looks like you're on the same page as the current majority of feedback. I don't think anyone has expressed any complaints about the concept of dodge rolling, especially to help get out of specific situations. Right now, the game doesn't have any Animation Canceling, but you can definitely roll between two swings of your auto-attack combo. But the characters also don't have any hitstop or 'launched' mechanics. If the enemy doesn't stagger when they get hit by your attacks, do you have any other suggestion about how to do the thing you're talking about?
Post by Azherae on 2021-06-07 11:23:56
Before I do a full assessment of that @Littlekenny21 , do you think you could also clarify some examples of 'which ability to use' in terms of importance? Should this be 'obvious but involve some prediction of the opponent' or 'not so obvious because it relies on your own plans'? Here's an example, this does not use any abilities currently in the game, so just take these at face value, you don't need to look anything up. Let's assume Fighter has 6 abilities: 1. A Leap that closes onto an opponent in front of them with an area knockdown, ...
Post by Azherae on 2021-06-07 11:45:15
My concerns are about longevity and population, because the way I expect the problem of toxicity to be solved is by targeting their niche audience, building around that and waiting for others to come in and for the early 'toxic people' to leave. Ashes seems to aim to walk a fine line between 'play the game how you want' and 'other people can hurt you, if they accept the penalty', which is hard to do while maintaining a population, since players without a community can be frustrated easily. Subscription Model will also 'weed out' some people over time, but ...
Post by Azherae on 2021-06-07 12:58:55
There are no current indicators that GvG balance will be terribly difficult, or fail. Balance normally fails because 'not every option is playing the same game', and those that are 'capable of' or 'best at' playing the 'optimal version of the game', win. When balancing for rock-paper-scissors, and across multiple groupings, this can be caused to go away. Using less resource types or 'time based bonuses' helps as well. Simple example: If one class has a meter that they build up over time and then use to do really big damage, but every other class is balanced around doing ...
Post by Azherae on 2021-06-08 09:23:30
(the first four parts of this were drafted before any response to the prior post involving hypothetical fighter abilities) @Littlekenny21 1. You would prefer that full invisibility not be combined with burst damage that makes the defender have to 'play catch-up' 2. You prefer a TTK of about 30 seconds in a duel, but are fine with being able to defeat an afk player in 10 seconds or so (implies evasion, defense or mobility to avoid damage can result in 66% less damage on both sides) 3. Would prefer more mobility and positioning to complement abilities, but don't need ...
Post by Azherae on 2021-06-08 09:37:38
Care to clarify on this last part? In my field, I haven't noticed. Servers, bandwidth, pay for top industry developers, build tools... Are you like, hosting your Server Authenticated PvP instances on AWS? How many website designers and community managers are you paying? Because if you've got numbers where 15 million a month after taxes pays for everything including payroll, office space in Cali, advertising, travel expenses, and licensing fees, I want in on this, I'll have been waiting way too long for no reason, on one of my own projects.
Post by Azherae on 2021-06-08 09:52:14
Got it, thank you. I have another thread somewhere within the first two pages (as of this posting) that goes into Rogue stuff, but there might be some clarification eventually required there, since I've been told that the wiki entry for Rogue may be inaccurate currently. Balancing for more abilities overall has two issues. The first is that it's 'harder', the second is that it's homogenous/stale. As always, unrelated example. I've dabbled in Trading Card Game design a while back, and found that depending on the structure of the game, there are only so many things a player can ...
Post by Azherae on 2021-06-08 10:14:16
Can I basically take this thread to be 'a lot of people agreeing that jumping should have a stamina cost'? Asking for a friend-thread.
Post by Azherae on 2021-06-08 10:18:08
In-node newspapers, libel laws, bulletin boards, guardpost bounties... Mwa-hahahaha.
Post by Azherae on 2021-06-08 12:43:48
It's easily possible to build Cleric as a pure healer as they are now within the Alpha. I don't mean design, I mean 'as you play'. The current system in the Alpha-1 may change, but right now, I can skip both the Judgement ability and Castigate (the whip) if I want to, while leveling. I have 'reverse engineered' a lot of the probable augments based on the class names in another thread, as mentioned (somewhere on page 4 of tanking). In short, don't worry about Cleric too much, I'm on the 'I like to do damage too sometimes' side ...
Post by Azherae on 2021-06-08 13:29:08
Serial killers, kidnappers, and sometimes really rude customer service (depending on your other access to the product you want) can't be blocked irl.
Post by Azherae on 2021-06-08 19:06:38
That seems unlikely based on the design concepts. Assuming that every ability is just held as the equivalent of (or directly as) JSON or YAML entry with the correct attributes set, and the modularity of attributes can be read by the underlying parser to convert (this is the way my team has recently built all these), it will just be a matter of which Augment is tied to the ability by the player in some UI. I can check what the performant options would be for this (the issue is moreso transmission of the data for the attacks of ...
Post by Azherae on 2021-06-08 19:34:04
Ok, I actually hadn't seen notes one way or the other on that, and didn't want to jump to any conclusions. I figured it was possible to go to a specific organization to get an Augment on your Weapon Ability. Some sort of 'Lancer's Barracks' to get a small additional effect on your Spear Weapon Ability, for example. News from other thread is that the 'jumping using stamina' debate has resurfaced, but we're past that, so anyone can go jump on there, either to clarify the situation relative to jumping, or join the debate. So far, the consensus appears ...
Post by Azherae on 2021-06-08 21:59:09
I wouldn't turn off Jumping once weapon was drawn as an overall option since Ashes has both collision and small terrain shifts that let you gain advantage even in the Alpha open world, especially once we get to Castles and within node sieges I expect this to be an issue.
Post by Azherae on 2021-06-08 22:29:16
We have very few examples of 'themes and styles of augments' from those, unfortunately, so it makes more sense to consider combat from the perspective of them being very similar to each other, simply because there are not sufficient balanced mechanics that can be put into what is currently known. In general we have not received enough information, to the point where I know people that wouldn't want to join at the moment because they can't be assured of anything regarding even simple Class/Archetypal things that they are used to. In some cases it is literally 'hey, tell me ...
Post by Azherae on 2021-06-09 00:52:01
Edit: Removed due to pointlessness.
Post by Azherae on 2021-06-09 09:39:37
I believe that part of the reason we do not have enough information is that the Devs not only want to try new things or multiple things (they have said this directly, repeatedly) but also because they want exactly this type of feedback. My hope is to give them something clear to work with, from all the people who feel strongly enough about it and have a clear idea of what they want. The faster they get into the 'iteration' stage, the better. Having to tear down the whole thing and start again, repeatedly, is, I feel, a 'dangerous' ...
Post by Azherae on 2021-06-09 16:04:19
Added the 9th point, the jumping one, to the Compilation further up the page, based on the discussion . Currently see no specific need to put Time To Kill stuff into the compilation, since it is already in Intrepid's plans and so far, no one has shown any concern about the 10s for afk, 30s for duel, parameters for TTK. Most other threads currently active seem to be philosophical, but if I missed anything, please let me know, as always.
Post by Azherae on 2021-06-09 20:27:20
I'm the worst person to ask if that way of doing things is too specific, because I've already done it. I do it for the tabletop game I design, and I've already done it for the Ashes Augment system, just as you have. To me, it just 'happens in my head' on its own. Since you already did it too, I believe you can see what I meant about the number of skills that can exist for a class. Just multiply by two, your lists of Archetype Mechanics, and that's approximately the number of unique skills an archetype has. ...
Post by Azherae on 2021-06-10 00:50:51
As an idealist, I feel like your worry, while valid, is the opposite of how you should be thinking about it. The sort of person who has some sort of advantage due to their ability to understand systems, or overall intellect, will figure that sort of thing out, in a modern MMO, so quickly, that it's irrelevant to 90% of the playerbase. If you were thinking of yourself as one of those people, your concern is very altruistic and commendable, but if not (or even so, honestly) your better bet would be to find any imbalances faster so that ...
Post by Azherae on 2021-06-10 06:45:13
Agreed. I was only counting things in the [Climax/Transition/End] category at the time I was discussing with Littlekenny21 though, because that's where the general perception of 'dynamism' comes from, as I understand it for most people. So my previous statements should be taken to mean only 'attack' skills. I can see how to get up to 8 on non-Mages (mages being easier because people will accept 'each element' as separate) without too much overlap, but it starts to overlap a lot at 12 or more. The test case I'm using, for reference, is 'making more than 12 Fighter abilities ...
Post by Azherae on 2021-06-10 12:20:38
Not everyone can learn just by watching videos of someone else doing something, but so far, there isn't a single system, nor any indicators of a system, that would imply this can happen (ruining of surprises). If you just 'need a ragtag bunch of crazy people who don't value efficiency above all else', those exist. I find it's best not to worry about it too much, you only need to find one stable group like that, and after that, you don't have to care. As for the Alpha Island thing, the current build is 9 nodes within a space ...
Post by Azherae on 2021-06-10 20:00:29
Aside from the myriad of things Ashes has already completely confirmed to have planned, the following greatly help with my immersion and feeling of realism (somewhat in order of difficulty): 1. The correct footstep sounds, especially if scuffing sounds on dirt change to mud squelch in the rain. 2. The aforementioned rain, wind, snow, and other weather patterns, particularly if they can appear to at least some extent in settlements and aren't automatically excluded there (day/night cycles and related mob spawn behaviours are already planned) 3. Relatively higher respawn times on enemies, and group behaviours for certain enemy types. ...
Post by Azherae on 2021-06-11 02:38:18
From today's spot test I've confirmed that you get an 'Outside Ability Arc' message when trying to use certain attack skills, but at the moment it's a full 90 degree cone (45 degrees to either side of the character's front body line). I can't say I specifically expect, or don't expect, a change, here, but it's probably worth discussion since it's a really direct measurement of what people consider to be 'the correct requirement of skill for this type of game'. For Action Combat fans, If you have tab targeted an opponent and want to hit them with Javelin ...