Dungeons

אלפא-0 Dünir dungeon design by Michael Bacon.

אלפא-0 dungeon design by Javier Perez.

אלפא-0 dungeon design by Javier Perez.

אלפא-0 dungeon design by Javier Perez.

אלפא-0 dungeon design by Javier Perez.

אלפא-0 dungeon design by Javier Perez.

Dungeon scale

The intention is that dungeons are going to be "massive" in scale.

• Massive caverns and open world spaces.
• Places to suit larger and smaller commitments.
  • Where people with 30 minutes can participate.

Group sizes

Party witnessing the beginning of the An Ancient Violence Story arc in אלפא-2.

We're not creating a solo game, but it doesn't mean that we don't offer gameplay that is solo centric as well: It lives in addition to the social aspect of What MMOs provide; and so part of what we do in order to to give that element of gameplay is we have quest lines that are devoted towards solo players. We have hunting grounds. Obviously one of the benefits of being a solo player is you get to keep everything that drops. You don't have to share loot with a party or with friends; that's one benefit of being a solo player. But it's going to be more difficult to overcome challenges; and those individuals who are up to taking that additional level of of difficulty are going to excel perhaps in their character progression a bit faster than those who are more group-centric. It's going to be a little bit of a roll of the dice there because there are loot tables, there are reward tables that accompany that, but it's important to note that from a content perspective Ashes of Creation is looking to fulfill both that solo-oriented mind in gameplay as well as the group and social experience; and a lot of times those paths diverge: They move apart, they come back together; and that process is going to be seen throughout the leveling in Ashes of Creation where you'll have more opportunities for solo gameplay and some opportunities for group gameplay. – Steven Sharif

Ashes of Creation is designed for solo players as well as large and small groups.

• Parties have up to eight (8) players in a single group.

The idea behind an 8-person group is to allow us to really amplify party roles, and to create a need for each of the archetypes in every party.

• פשיטות will have 40 man groups.
• Content will be tailored for 40, 16 and 8 person group sizes.
• זירות will have 1 man, 3 man, 5 man and possibly 20 man Free-For-All (Deathmatch) group sizes.
  • There won't specifically be guild vs guild arenas but team-based matchmaking allows teams to face other teams.
• מצור על טירה are expected to have at minimum 250x250 players to be on a single battlefield, with the possibility of increasing this to 500x500 over time.

The minimum goal is 500 players on a single battlefield. I think we will be able to hit 500vs500 but we shall see. – Steven Sharif

עולם פתוח

אלפא-1 כניסה למבוך בעולם פתוח .

80% מהתוכן שיהיה בAsehs of Creation יהיה בעולם פתוח ויש לכך סיבה ספציפית. בגלל הדרך בה נוצרות חברויות או אויבים במשחק כך שלאנשים יש את האפשרות ליצור חברים או אויבים משלהם, אנחנו רוצים שזה יבוא לידי ביטוי גם מעמדה של תחרותיות. אז הרבה משטחי הציד או הבוסים הפשוטים שלאנשים תהיה ההזדמנות להרוג, יהוו למעשה מוקד תחרות בינך לבין האויבים שיתכן שיצרת במשחק או שתוכל לעבוד יחד כדי ליצור בריתות במטרה להגן על מוקדי התחרות הללו. – Steven Sharif

אפר היצירה יהיה חוויה של עולם פתוח רציף.

• אין זמן טעינה או מסכים נטענים במעבר בין סביבות.

תהיה חלוקה של בערך 80/20 בין עולם פתוח לעומת מופעים של התקלויות.

• יכולים להיות מופעים של מצור (Instances) בתוך מצור על טירה ומצור על צומת כך שקבוצות ספציפיות יוכלו להשתתף בקרבות קטנים, קצרים, ובעלי מטרה אובייקטיבית עבור נקודות ציון ספציפיות.

• יהיו מופעים כחלק מהעולם הפתוח וגם פשיטות. השאיפה היא לשמור על התחושה של עולם פתוח ובנוסף לנצל את היתרונות של מערכת המופעים.
  • מופעים יווצרו רק במבוכים מסויימים איפה שיש צורך יותר גדול בסיפור מסגרת. חוץ מזירות שכאלו לא יהיו יותר מידי מופעים במקומות אחרים.

יהיו כמה מבוכים פתוחים שיהיו בהם בוסים בקצה המבוך. יהיו כמה מבוכים פתוחים שיהיו בהם פשוט המון בוסים, לא בהכרח של פשיטות עולמיות או משהו; ויהיו הרבה חדרים שונים והם יהיו ממוקמים בצורה פרוגרסיביית במובן כזה שבחלקים המוקדמים יותר של המבוך הם יהיו ברמה נמוכה יותר ואז בחלקים המאוחרים יותר של המבוך, עמוק יותר למטה, הם יהיו ברמה גבוהה יותר ורמת הקושי תעלה; וזה יוצר שוב, לדעתי, מערכת אקולוגית שבה לשחקנים על פני מספר מגוון של רמות תהיה הזדמנות להתקיים ביחד באזורים מסוימים בעולם; וזה טוב לדינמיקה החברתית. זה טוב לדינמיקה של הגיוס. זה טוב רק מהמובן של החיות והרלוונטיות של אזורים מסוימים. ככה שלא נגיע למצב שמרגע שאתה עובר רמה מסויימת, המקומות האלה יהיו ריקים. – Steven Sharif

• לא היו שום מופעים באלפא-1.

אנחנו ככל הנראה הולכים ליצור מופעים רק במבוכים מסויימים ובזירות. ככל הנראה לא תוכל לראות יותר מידי מופעים בכל מקום אחר. מה שאתה רואה יהיה מה שתקבל. – Jeffrey Bard

מערכת סימון PVP תהווה הזדמנות לסכסוך פתוח.

ש: כשאתה מגיע לבוסים במבוך בעולם הפתוח, יכול להיות שהמשחק יקפיץ אותך? (למופע נפרד)

ת: לרוב אם יש בוסים בסוף של מבוך, אפשרי שתקפוץ. – Steven Sharif

Adaptive content

אלפא-1 preview pirate themed dynamic point of interest.

This is actually a dynamic POI. This one will evolve as players evolve the node that it's attached to. So this is its final state. – Jeffrey Bard

New points of interest (such as dungeons, world bosses, and corrupted areas) spawn as nodes develop. This content adapts to the node progression of the zone it is in.

• Additional buildings will spawn.
• Additional mobs will spawn.
  • Different antagonists/leaders with different story lines.
  • Populations will change.
• Content difficulty will change.
  • The content may be different altogether.
  • Additional quest hooks.
• מבוכים will be unlocked when certain nodes advance to certain stages.
  • Multiple nearby nodes may collectively influence larger POIs.
  • Larger dungeons will gain higher level content as nearby nodes advance.
  • Storyline objectives for players inside dungeons will depend on the story arc paths chosen through the node system.
• Drop tables in areas and dungeons will be tied into the progression of certain areas.
• POI events are events that relate to specific points-of-interest (POI).
• The location of points of interest will be the same on each server, but some servers may have limited or no access to them.

Certain dungeons and other points of interest across the map will all be affected by the server’s node development. Some dungeons will only be unlocked if nodes are developed to certain stages. The storyline objectives for players inside dungeons will also be dependent on the story arc paths chosen through the node system. The drop tables in area and dungeons will also be tied into the progression of certain areas. For example, let’s say that the humans have developed a node in Region A, and a storyline has opened up that leads players to inspect the ruins (dungeon) of a nearby area. And let’s say that this node was developed in a scientific (crafting) zone… Well before the node developed, this dungeon was accessible… But now the dungeon has propagated new monster assets that include a drop table catering to a crafting emphasis because of the development of that academic node. And perhaps, a new boss appears in different rooms of the dungeon that includes different adventure quest starts, like a mysterious item with a storyline that can only be progressed if a node develops to the metropolis stage in a certain region, across the world. Our system is so vast, when it comes to interconnectivity and how the world reacts to the players.

Zergs

For every play, there should be a counterplay. We often see Castle Sieges turn into zerg-fests, which really doesn’t capture the epic, back-and-forth battles we wish to see in Ashes of Creation. One of our key pillars is that Choice Matters, and that applies to tactics and strategy as well. A well-formulated battle plan should win out over stat sheets and bodies. Zergs will generally be difficult to pull off, and will be eminently counterable through siege weapons, traps, and other battlefield tricks.

Zergs are empowered by fast-travel. Meaningful travel times are intended to prevent zerg play from being so much of an influence.

התקלויות are designed to have meaning in terms of how boss skills and abilities relate to group compositions, tactics and strategies. Zerging is not experiencing content. There are different ways to make a fight more difficult for larger sized groups without relying solely on stat buffs or making the boss a "damage sponge".

• Raid and dungeon bosses have specific mechanics and abilities that players need to learn and react to. Zergs that are not aware of these mechanics or react to them appropriately will be wiped.
• There may be environmental hazards and AoE effects that cause more damage based on the number of players present.
• There is a give-and-take for guilds that want to see a larger number of members as opposed to a more focused group that may be a part of an alliance.

We're very cognizant of the fact that we don't want to see zerging be a mechanic that's utilized by guilds to accomplish content or just to steamroll over sieges... There are specific mechanics that we are working on that will be seen through the testing phases that relate to a degree of understanding of certain systems that can't just be overrun with numbers. – Steven Sharif

Mechanics that encourage political intrigue will play a role in destabilizing zergs.

The best way that I found in games I played previously to take down a zerg is to cause drama from within... It's that conflict inside of the politicking that happens in that big organization. If we provide opportunities for division to occur then it also provides stability to keep a server healthy away from that zerg mentality also... If we approach the castle siege and we've destroyed the walls and we're in the throne room and we're about to cast on the penultimate thing and I at this time am just so excited from what's happening that I'm like "screw it I'm gonna go for it". It's gonna be mine. I'm gonna take the taxes for the next month. I'm gonna take all the gear from the castle. I'm gonna take everything... We want that political intrigue to be present in the game. – Steven Sharif

Objective-based game play helps to balance the zerg mentality.

I always feel that if you balance based on groups that in your balance focus is to incorporate features that play well from a player versus player perspective as well as a player versus environment perspective: Having support classes, having DPS and tanks that can obstruct movement and/or create bottlenecks on the field and stuff like that. I think a well-rounded raid it will perform better against a non well-rounded raid, however then you incorporate the second aspect of numbers; and that's where again mobility, organization, leadership tactics. Having objectives in gameplay that make those important helps to balance the zerg mentality that a lot of guilds can tend to have. – Steven Sharif

מופעים doesn't play a major role in limiting zergs, due to 80% of content in Ashes of Creation being open-world.

• There may be instanced locations within castle and node sieges where specific groups can participate in certain objective-based waypoints.

Zerging is always a problem in a lot of these MMORPGs where you really can't control the number of participants in certain open-world systems; and in that sense instancing is a great tool that designers can sometimes use to curate a particular number of participants that you want. But the predominant amount of content within Ashes of Creation, over 80% of which is is open-world content, so instancing is very limited. – Steven Sharif

לוח מובילים

Players will be able to opt-in to track certain achievements on leaderboards, such as.

• מבוכים completed.
• פשיטות completed.
• PvP kills.
• קרוואנים raided.
• איסוף activity.

Leaderboards may be seasonal.

We have many dreams that we want to do with game-to-web and game-to-mobile in regards to showing stats and being making things shareable for you. We know how social media works; how sharing content with friends works. But those things will come in due time. – Margaret Krohn

חלק מהמידע הבא לא אושר לאחרונה על ידי המפתחים וייתכן שלא נמצא במפת הדרכים הנובחית של הפיתוח.

• Some leaderboards will be across all servers.

See also

• פשיטות
• זירות