Ashes of Creation is a pretty ambitious MMO that has a lot to offer. Your actions will have consequences from developing a location into a new village to becoming corrupted through PvP. This is an MMO that has been in development since 2015.
Think of it live Civilization but an MMO.
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There will be 100+ locations called Nodes and players that gather materials, complete quests, and kill mobs and gain exp will also help to level the node up. As the node levels it opens up more stuff in that area. Nodes will have different stages of advancement being:
It will take longer and longer to move the node up the higher it gets and by developing the node it will lock out other nodes in the area from developing so in the end there will only be a hand full of fully developed nodes that players will be able to go to. The Nodes will also take on aesthetic aspects of the race that provided the most in leveling that node.
Nodes will also have four different types and they are predetermined so players will be able to target a specific node and work together to advance it hopefully before another group might advance the nearby node they are advancing. The four node types are:
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Each node will offer benefits at different stages of advancement from Divine nodes spawning mega catacomb dungeons beneath the Metropolis to Economic nodes generating a player wide auction house. Military nodes will enable Bounty Hunters which will be a title players can take to hunt down corrupted players and Scientific nodes will offer teleportation between the metropolis and vassal nodes for citizens.
Speaking of citizens, players will be able to purchase an apartment/house in the developed nodes and become a citizen to take part if further advancing the node, quest and benefits only given to citizens of that node, and be able to participate in mayoral elections.
Being the mayor comes with a lot of benefits. It will be one of EXTREMELY few ways to obtain a flying mount. The mayor will also be responsible for setting the taxes of the node and setting the upgrades to the town like generic things such as a blacksmith shop or alchemy shop and even node type specific upgrades. The mayor will be decided based on the kind of node, some will holds votes, others will be chosen based on how divine they are, or military node mayors will be decided by combat.
PvP is also a huge part of the system. Citizens of a node will be able to join a trade caravan to protect it from other players trying to loot it or attack another developed node to completely destroy that node and free up the area for new node development.
The game as it currently is will be open world PvP at all times with no opt in/opt out for players. Players will have 3 PvP designations:
Being a non-combatant does not make you safe. Players can still gank you at will but a PvP enabled player that does so becomes corrupted. If a PvP enabled player kills a PvP enabled player or a corrupt player there will be no change to their PvP flag. If a non-combatant kills a corrupt player there will be no change but if they kill a PvP enabled player they will be flagged for PvP.
The way the developers plan to stop ganking is through this corruption system. As corrupt players gain more corruption through killing non-combatants and other ways they become less and less effective in PvP. The bigger the level difference between a corrupt player and their non-combatant victim the more corruption they generate. Their proficiency with weapons and armor is reduce, their stats are reduced, and the chance to drop equipped gear increases as they become corrupt. These stat effects are only active in PvP so they can still do PvE but at some point they become useless in PvP. As mentioned Military nodes will have Bounty Hunters who hunt the corrupted players and corrupt player stat impacts will not be active against Bounty Hunters so they will be full powered.
The next big thing is the penalties on dying. When a players die they a percentage of their gathered materials, they get experience debt so that needs to be cleared before being able to get exp to progress to the next level, gear will be damaged which will need crafting materials to repair, and there will be a temporary stat reduction. The items dropped will be able to be picked up by anyone if they find it before you get back to it so it is possible to lose a good chunk of times worth of gathering because of one death.
This leads into the major downside in my personal opinion when PvP gets involved. The same penalties for dying will happen in PvP so gankers will be able to take the items you drop and you will still get that exp debt, stat reduction, and damaged gear.
The next big thing to cover is the class system. There will be 8 archtypes that players will be able to choose from when making their character.
Next come the classes. At a certain level players will choose a secondary archtype to create their class. So a Tank primary could take Mage and become a Spellshield and modify their skills. Instead of charging to a target they could teleport immediately to them. A Cleric could take Summoner and become a Necromancer. Or a Rogue could take Rogue again and become an Assassin.
The class system should allow for a lot of fun builds and allow for players to play in their preferred way and still be effective in all aspects of the game.
Part of the intention in PvP is fights will essentially be a Rock Paper Scissors situation.
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Right now the game is in early alpha 1 so there is a ton of time for things to change and develop and improve. There is currently a non-NDA month long alpha 1 test going on until August 13th and the price to get into the alpha 1 is real steep. The $500 package is what is needed to get into the alpha 1 now. It is very much an alpha game, it has things in place to play and it runs but right now everything is being tested so unless you REALLY want to support the game and test it the $500 price tag is absolutely not worth it. There are other bundles but none of them come with alpha 1 access.
There is also a setup to buy in-game cosmetics for bags, mounts, armor, boats (there will be naval combat), and housing. You have to have one of the packages to be able to purchase them and as of right now they are limited time availability so they have a set for 1 month and then it is gone forever after it ends which honestly is pretty lame. There also already being a cosmetic shop is also a pretty worrying sign but they do at least promise there is no P2W.
There is a lot more to the game and a ton of stuff to discuss and go over but it will be interesting to see how this develops. The game is apparently being created by a bunch of veteran MMO players/developers so who knows how this will go. There are also apparently people who were working on Everquest Next and it really shows since there are a lot of things in this game that are extremely reminiscent of Everquest Next plans.
This is a dragon a group of us killed last week during the alpha 1 test month.
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Think of it live Civilization but an MMO.
There will be 100+ locations called Nodes and players that gather materials, complete quests, and kill mobs and gain exp will also help to level the node up. As the node levels it opens up more stuff in that area. Nodes will have different stages of advancement being:
- Wilderness
- Crossroads
- Camp
- Village
- Town
- City
- Metropolis
It will take longer and longer to move the node up the higher it gets and by developing the node it will lock out other nodes in the area from developing so in the end there will only be a hand full of fully developed nodes that players will be able to go to. The Nodes will also take on aesthetic aspects of the race that provided the most in leveling that node.
Nodes will also have four different types and they are predetermined so players will be able to target a specific node and work together to advance it hopefully before another group might advance the nearby node they are advancing. The four node types are:
- Divine Nodes
- Economic Nodes
- Military Nodes
- Scientifc Nodes
Each node will offer benefits at different stages of advancement from Divine nodes spawning mega catacomb dungeons beneath the Metropolis to Economic nodes generating a player wide auction house. Military nodes will enable Bounty Hunters which will be a title players can take to hunt down corrupted players and Scientific nodes will offer teleportation between the metropolis and vassal nodes for citizens.
Speaking of citizens, players will be able to purchase an apartment/house in the developed nodes and become a citizen to take part if further advancing the node, quest and benefits only given to citizens of that node, and be able to participate in mayoral elections.
Being the mayor comes with a lot of benefits. It will be one of EXTREMELY few ways to obtain a flying mount. The mayor will also be responsible for setting the taxes of the node and setting the upgrades to the town like generic things such as a blacksmith shop or alchemy shop and even node type specific upgrades. The mayor will be decided based on the kind of node, some will holds votes, others will be chosen based on how divine they are, or military node mayors will be decided by combat.
PvP is also a huge part of the system. Citizens of a node will be able to join a trade caravan to protect it from other players trying to loot it or attack another developed node to completely destroy that node and free up the area for new node development.
The game as it currently is will be open world PvP at all times with no opt in/opt out for players. Players will have 3 PvP designations:
- Non-combatant
- PvP enabled
- Corrupted
Being a non-combatant does not make you safe. Players can still gank you at will but a PvP enabled player that does so becomes corrupted. If a PvP enabled player kills a PvP enabled player or a corrupt player there will be no change to their PvP flag. If a non-combatant kills a corrupt player there will be no change but if they kill a PvP enabled player they will be flagged for PvP.
The way the developers plan to stop ganking is through this corruption system. As corrupt players gain more corruption through killing non-combatants and other ways they become less and less effective in PvP. The bigger the level difference between a corrupt player and their non-combatant victim the more corruption they generate. Their proficiency with weapons and armor is reduce, their stats are reduced, and the chance to drop equipped gear increases as they become corrupt. These stat effects are only active in PvP so they can still do PvE but at some point they become useless in PvP. As mentioned Military nodes will have Bounty Hunters who hunt the corrupted players and corrupt player stat impacts will not be active against Bounty Hunters so they will be full powered.
The next big thing is the penalties on dying. When a players die they a percentage of their gathered materials, they get experience debt so that needs to be cleared before being able to get exp to progress to the next level, gear will be damaged which will need crafting materials to repair, and there will be a temporary stat reduction. The items dropped will be able to be picked up by anyone if they find it before you get back to it so it is possible to lose a good chunk of times worth of gathering because of one death.
This leads into the major downside in my personal opinion when PvP gets involved. The same penalties for dying will happen in PvP so gankers will be able to take the items you drop and you will still get that exp debt, stat reduction, and damaged gear.
The next big thing to cover is the class system. There will be 8 archtypes that players will be able to choose from when making their character.
- Fighter
- Tank
- Rogue
- Ranger
- Mage
- Summoner
- Cleric
- Bard
Next come the classes. At a certain level players will choose a secondary archtype to create their class. So a Tank primary could take Mage and become a Spellshield and modify their skills. Instead of charging to a target they could teleport immediately to them. A Cleric could take Summoner and become a Necromancer. Or a Rogue could take Rogue again and become an Assassin.
The class system should allow for a lot of fun builds and allow for players to play in their preferred way and still be effective in all aspects of the game.
Part of the intention in PvP is fights will essentially be a Rock Paper Scissors situation.
Right now the game is in early alpha 1 so there is a ton of time for things to change and develop and improve. There is currently a non-NDA month long alpha 1 test going on until August 13th and the price to get into the alpha 1 is real steep. The $500 package is what is needed to get into the alpha 1 now. It is very much an alpha game, it has things in place to play and it runs but right now everything is being tested so unless you REALLY want to support the game and test it the $500 price tag is absolutely not worth it. There are other bundles but none of them come with alpha 1 access.
There is also a setup to buy in-game cosmetics for bags, mounts, armor, boats (there will be naval combat), and housing. You have to have one of the packages to be able to purchase them and as of right now they are limited time availability so they have a set for 1 month and then it is gone forever after it ends which honestly is pretty lame. There also already being a cosmetic shop is also a pretty worrying sign but they do at least promise there is no P2W.
There is a lot more to the game and a ton of stuff to discuss and go over but it will be interesting to see how this develops. The game is apparently being created by a bunch of veteran MMO players/developers so who knows how this will go. There are also apparently people who were working on Everquest Next and it really shows since there are a lot of things in this game that are extremely reminiscent of Everquest Next plans.
This is a dragon a group of us killed last week during the alpha 1 test month.
