Upcoming MMO: Ashes of Creation

Edit: RIP pictures didn't work, at least you can right click and open the pictures...

http://i.imgur.com/NZJ5eys.png

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vut1tIsfoww

I stumbled across a Kickstarter for this game, Ashes of Creation, a week ago and decided to do some research on it. I haven't really played a MMO in a while mainly just being busy but it's far enough out that I won't be in school anymore haha. So I think I'll try to explain some of the key features I've grown to love about the game (concept based, though). The game is currently in Pre-Alpha still, so there is a lot of progress to be made, but I think the world and character and environment design all look amazing. When the game comes out, it will be subscription based. Their Kickstarter campaign reached a $750k goal in less than 12 hours and they are en route to becoming the most-funded MMO Kickstarter ever. As of writing this, they are at about 2.2 million with 12.5k backers. Of course there are various rewards for you if you choose to back the game and that long list of stuff is here. Most of the rewards give you subscription game time and various cosmetics only available through backing the Kickstarter.

If you like what you see, they will be streaming another Q&A today at 3 PM PST on Twitch.tv/ashesofcreation.

Ashes of Creation Kickstarter Campaign

Ashes of Creation Website

http://i.imgur.com/OzjiwZV.png

http://i.imgur.com/HJ1kbT8.mp4

They're designing Ashes of Creation as a world that lives and breathes and reacts, where player decisions matter. Each server is going to have its own story. To do this they're developing a "Node" system. A Node is basically a zone in the open world with its own zone of influence. And as player adventure and complete question and gathering in that area, the experience is being captured by these Nodes. As the players level up in an area, so does that Node - going from a an encampment all the way to a metropolis. These new population centers can provide citizenship, housing, and creating your own Freehold of land.

One of the coolest things, I think, are that the server progress in terms of what zones are developed are totally independent. There are maybe 40+ nodes to be created in total or something. Of those 40, only 5 of those can become a Metropolis. This created some meaningful conflict between players. As long as there are only 5 areas at the max level, you cannot level up other nodes to Metropolis. Here's where Siege PvP comes into play - players can conduct a siege on these high level nodes through a series of events, and if they win the Metropolis is destroyed to make room for a new one. Honestly just the thought of having to defend my home area in the game just excites me.

As far as classes and races are concerned, there will be the typical primary classes: Tank, Fighter, Rogue, Ranger, Mage, Cleric, Summoner, and Bard. From these classes, you can augment your primary class skills with a secondary class from any of the previously mentioned. You won't get new skills per se with this secondary class, instead your current skills will get augmented. They give one main example of this: if a Fighter chooses Mage as its secondary class, the Fighter's rush skill turns into a teleporting skill. I am sure there will be plenty more augmentations than that with the addition of a secondary class. But this gives a total of 64 unique classes to choose from because you can choose Tank/Tank if you really want to be a tanky tank to control Hate at bosses.

Spoiler

http://i.imgur.com/EVu7fTs.png

The races that are confirmed are Humans, Elves, Orcs, and Dwarves, with a possible Underreal race to be revealed if the Kickstarter reaches one of its additional goals. The developers have stated that certain races will give certain stat enhancements, but they have yet to reveal anything more specific than that.

Spoiler

http://i.imgur.com/CvHYjg7.jpg

Along with all of this, there will be various PvP types. The open world will be flagged as a PvP zone, but there are plenty of deterrants for zerging and ganking other players like exp debt, dropping items (if you are like a corrupt player that kills a non-combatant) etc. As well as areas to try out PvP in a controlled setting. One interesting thing is a caravan system. As you gather materials from a vein of mithril or wood or meat, you'll notice that there is a limit to what you can carry. This weight limit requires you to utilize a caravan system if you want to bring goods to other towns. However, this system is a PvP system and people can choose to defend or attack caravans to protect or steal goods.

I think that's all I can come up with right now, but there's all of this and a lot more on the Kickstarter page. I am entirely way too hyped for a game that's coming out years from now. But I'm hoping it'll be worth it! Alpha testing hopefully starts at Q4 of 2018.

Cheers

making a traditional MMO this day and age is an extremely large uphill battle to go through. they'll need all the support they can get

I fixed your image tags (I don't know if we have one that works with .mp4). Are they revealing skills or anything anytime soon?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Five Second Pose

I fixed your image tags (I don't know if we have one that works with .mp4). Are they revealing skills or anything anytime soon?

---

D'oh - thanks! Skills I am not sure about - they have some gameplay of a Predator (Rogue/Ranger) with a sneak ability and and some type of Mage class and gameplay/skills. But nothing concrete like this skill has this name and animation. I feel like they will have a good idea of skills when their 'Friends and Family' alpha goes live supposedly Q4 of this year.

>64 unique classes

dead on arrival, no one can maintain balance in something that big

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by xparasite9

>64 unique classes

dead on arrival, no one can maintain balance in something that big

---

Agreed at first glance it looks like a pretty hefty task. However, this class system does not exist as 64 classes all with entirely different skills. Only your primary class will have a basic skill tree while adding a secondary class gives new flavor to those skills. There are no new skills with the secondary class, just augmentations to fit what type of playstyle you want. Secondary classes add attributes akin to the primary class as well: Rogues are adept at finding and sensing traps in dungeons, with a Rogue secondary you would gain some part of that ability. Obviously we won't know much about balance until testing a ways down the line, but initially it seems this won't be something like LineStory where you cash grab to upgrade weapons and such. At least that's what they're promising. We'll see what happens in the testing phases in the future..