As every month Intrepid Studios offers us a live update on the progress of the game’s development over the last month.
First of all, it should be noted that the timetable for the deployment of the much-anticipated Alpha One is still on track and no delay is to be expected at the moment.
In addition, no information has been mentioned that would lead to the possible resale of the Access Packs to this Alpha.
The day of February 26th was also the occasion for Intrepid Studios to launch the brand new website : https://ashesofcreation.com/ !
The latter received a mixed reception, in particular because of the « Special Offer » section, which appears in first place, even before the news or other information about the game.
As usual, this development point gave us a big thirty minutes of pre-recorded gameplay. With notably PvP gameplay of level 1-10.
In particular, we learn that :
- The animation of the Mage class spell « Fireball » has been modified and is now much less rigid. (Example of the new animation around 30min00)
- The underwater view has been improved in order to eliminate the blurring effect that has been experienced until now. (Example of the new underwater view at 2min10)
- NPC names will be coloured according to the type of NPC they are.
- Guild names may be up to 32 characters long (subject to confirmation).
- Concerning the marriage and family systems, it appears that only characters declared as « Head of Family » will be able to be married.
These marriage and family systems include the possibility of summoning each other between members of the same family (up to 8 persons) or as a married couple. This is why it is important to know how these two systems will interact with each other.. C’est pourquoi il est important de savoir comment ces deux systèmes interagiront entre eux.
Studio and Recruitment Update
Of the 35 new positions that we opened up, we have filled in around 9 of them. We’re hoping to move into the new studio around July, however it depends on the situation with the pandemic.
Steven Shariff (Game Director & Founder)
Update of the design & art team
We’ve been working on some world bosses, two party-sized bosses and a True raid boss with true raid mechanics that is slated for this alpha. We’re working on putting the new iterative changes in quick so we can test them immediately to have them ready for the upcoming tests.
Question – Answer session
Q: For the packs on the shop that include game time, when do they start counting down?
A: The account will have applicable subscription time and you will choose when to activate it.
Q: Planned character limit for guild names?
A: 32 characters? Not too sure, I need to double check.
Q: Can a family only increase by 1 by marriage or can a family essentially double in size if everyone ties the knot?
A: No, the marriage has specific costs/slots. So only the head of the family can increase the size by 1 when they get married.
Q: If the node your freehold is in, is successfully sieged, can you loot/pillage your own freehold?
A: No. If you are registered as a defender (Some are registered as defenders as default if you are a citizen for example) that will prevent you from participating in the looting rights.
Q: Will cities be influenced by the topography around them?
A: The way it currently works is that it’s capable of adjusting the topography of the node’s footprint regardless of the surrounding terrain. The reason for that is to have flexibility, both from an aesthetic standpoint and mechanical standpoint. That’s not to say that the surrounding area is not going to have some influence, because putting a node on the side of a mountain or the edge of a cliff, we do want it to have some influence but that needs some further testing.
Q: Do you plan to have any environment specific skills such as indoor/outdoor specific skills?
A: Probably not. We’re still playing with skill interactions with certain elements or environments, but that needs further testing.
Q: Will you need to have early access to pre-make your character before launch?
A: We have not currently decided on that yet and will let you know once we decide.
Q: What is the overarching name for the universe that has verra + sanctus?
A: We cannot share that right now.
Q: Have you considered a system where you can hide your identity for the purpose of guild spying?
A: We’ve talked about it, but we do not have an explicit system for this.
Q: How do you plan to make the potential rewards for defending a caravan appealing to people when picking a side for PvP?
A: In the same vein that we make any participation rewarded. The caravan defender role will have its own progression, questing and rewards associated with it. Same way, we’ll have incentives for the more caravan raider-esque players. Obviously these types of systems need to have more robust and consequential rewards as they should not be one sided. Social incentive between players is also a factor.
If you would like to know more about Ashes of Creation or to follow its development directly, don’t hesitate to consult the complete replay of this live!