Ashes of Creation A2 LIVE stream by new player on now

Slapshot1188

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

Slapshot1188

They are saying the full NDA is down now and they can stream.  So we should be able to see for ourselves.

Slapshot1188

My initial take after 30 minutes:


Graphics look... different.  Part of this is obviously due to the streaming.  It also seems to be perspective.   I think the game initially most resembles the graphics of BG3. At least the way this streamer has it setup.

First group to tap a mob gets credit

Lag is a vicious beast.  Everyone is warping.  Some actions are taking minutes to trigger.
This was one of the 2 bigger concerns I saw raised prior to the A2 test being opened.  It seems to be legit.

No ability to see how much of the world is actually developed as everyone is just at the killing spiders and goblins stage.  This was the other major concern I saw raised so it will take a while to confirm.  I will say that these guys are currently in a big empty area with no mobs.  There are some resources.  Maybe it's set aside for something in the future.

There are horses everywhere.   Unclear if these are mounts people left behind, wild spawns, or glitches but they are everywhere, and you cannot seem to see which is "yours".

My fast take:  Overall not worse or better than expected.  I personally like this art style better than what I saw in demos.  Others may differ.  It's really rough right now.  I think the lag/rubberbanding is absolutely the critical issue.  even more so than content. It needs a massive improvement.   Will I join Alpha2 at a later stage?   Maybe.  I'm probably a bit more inclined to do so now than I was yesterday.  But there is no rush... we will see how these streams progress.


Again-  If you are in the Alpha2 give us your feedback!
 

lotrlore

Slapshot1188 said:

They are saying the full NDA is down now and they can stream.  So we should be able to see for ourselves.

As far as we know, the visual NDA is still in place. So while we have a few people in the Alpha 2 test, we won't be able to pull video or screens from it for any coverage we have planned.

Slapshot1188

lotrlore said:

Slapshot1188 said:

They are saying the full NDA is down now and they can stream.  So we should be able to see for ourselves.

As far as we know, the visual NDA is still in place. So while we have a few people in the Alpha 2 test, we won't be able to pull video or screens from it for any coverage we have planned.

Interesting.  Someone asked that in the chat and the streamer said it was fully dropped as of today.

WBadger

lotrlore said:

Slapshot1188 said:

They are saying the full NDA is down now and they can stream.  So we should be able to see for ourselves.

As far as we know, the visual NDA is still in place. So while we have a few people in the Alpha 2 test, we won't be able to pull video or screens from it for any coverage we have planned.

The visual NDA was in place for the pre-alpha 2 tests and the A2 PTR.  The live Alpha 2 servers/tests aren't under NDA.

https://ashesofcreation.com/news/preparing-for-alpha-two

(They actually labeled what servers are under NDA on the Ashes of Creation discord as well.  It's credible because the Ashes of Creation discord owner is Steven Sharif himself.)

Slapshot1188

Confirmed from that link:

Phase I of the Ashes of Creation Alpha Two will begin on October 25, 2024, at 1 PM Pacific Time (PT). This testing phase will last until the start of Phase II, which is scheduled to begin on December 20, 2024. This test will not have an NDA, meaning players are allowed to stream and share their gameplay. 


@lotrlore let’s get those videos and screenshots!

Babuinix

Performance and connection issues are expected even at normal releases so having them at the first public launch seems to be expected.

Is there a way to know how many players per server there are?

Nanfoodle

Slapshot1188 said:

My initial take after 30 minutes:


Graphics look... different.  Part of this is obviously due to the streaming.  It also seems to be perspective.   I think the game initially most resembles the graphics of BG3. At least the way this streamer has it setup.

First group to tap a mob gets credit

Lag is a vicious beast.  Everyone is warping.  Some actions are taking minutes to trigger.
This was one of the 2 bigger concerns I saw raised prior to the A2 test being opened.  It seems to be legit.

No ability to see how much of the world is actually developed as everyone is just at the killing spiders and goblins stage.  This was the other major concern I saw raised so it will take a while to confirm.  I will say that these guys are currently in a big empty area with no mobs.  There are some resources.  Maybe it's set aside for something in the future.

There are horses everywhere.   Unclear if these are mounts people left behind, wild spawns, or glitches but they are everywhere, and you cannot seem to see which is "yours".

My fast take:  Overall not worse or better than expected.  I personally like this art style better than what I saw in demos.  Others may differ.  It's really rough right now.  I think the lag/rubberbanding is absolutely the critical issue.  even more so than content. It needs a massive improvement.   Will I join Alpha2 at a later stage?   Maybe.  I'm probably a bit more inclined to do so now than I was yesterday.  But there is no rush... we will see how these streams progress.


Again-  If you are in the Alpha2 give us your feedback!
 

First to tag mob gets a boost on credit but if you out DPS them you can steal mobs but it hard to do. 

Rubber banding and lag in the main area was really bad. The server meshing was turned off, they are having a hard time getting it to work with UE5, apparently UE4 they had it working. Not a good sign.

I explored the boundaries of the map. They have a big red wall you can't cross. They other end was a wall of level 29 mobs that had huge aggro. They have blocked us from seeing the rest of the world.

The spot test on Thu was under a visual NDA everything is fair game now. 

Horses and wolves that are not aggro can be tamed for mounts. But there is a process with aminal husbandry. 

I'm having a blast. It's a real game but it is rough and ready. Love my Bard. Classes I have teamed with are just fun to group and synergize with. 

Nanfoodle

P. S. I have not been ganked in two days of gaming lol

Scot

"as everyone is just at the killing spiders and goblins stage"

And players may expect more but as I pointed out in another post, if you start in a zone where there are monsters in the forest don't you think it would be odd that your first quest sent you on a Machiavellian journey? If such obvious threats are there would you not be directed to them? The alternative to this would be a developer deciding to leave all the "monsters" out of the starter zones which would be rather inefficient.

Good to see we have someone in game, keen to hear more.

Nanfoodle

Scot said:

"as everyone is just at the killing spiders and goblins stage"

And players may expect more but as I pointed out in another post, if you start in a zone where there are monsters in the forest don't you think it would be odd that your first quest sent you on a Machiavellian journey? If such obvious threats are there would you not be directed to them? The alternative to this would be a developer deciding to leave all the "monsters" out of the starter zones which would be rather inefficient.

Good to see we have someone in game, keen to hear more.

They have done the old school EQ map. Starting area is scrawny goblins, wolves and the like. As I explored around level 16 mobs weeds impressive looking sized bears, griffin's and things that looked more impressive. Mixed in was mobs to hard to solo and a few levels higher. So you would need to keep an eye on them. Like EQ killing trash mobs of your level or under is ok solo. Better then I thought it would be. But even con and higher starts to get harder. Like EQ people will be soloing blue mobs to level. Pick up teams happened as you entered camps. People are organically teaming together and boy is it fun. 

Vrika

It looks like it's in a rough shape, but if they just have enough money it's nothing they couldn't fix with 2 years more development time.

But everything I was able to see in the stream has been better done by horde of Korean MMOs.

It doesn't look like a catastrophe. But Crowfall looked like it would have much better success chance.

Babuinix

Nanfoodle said:

P. S. I have not been ganked in two days of gaming lol

Usualy ramps up when boredom sets in so give it time  

Wargfoot

Nanfoodle said:

P. S. I have not been ganked in two days of gaming lol

Nanfoodle in three weeks:

"I cannot even exit the lobby without getting ganked.  I hate this stupid murder hobo parade - how the hell can the developers release this crap and call it a game when it is little more than an execution simulation for people who live in their parents' basement? I hate this game, the developers, and everyone on this forum."

Nanfoodle

Wargfoot said:

Nanfoodle said:

P. S. I have not been ganked in two days of gaming lol

Nanfoodle in three weeks:

"I cannot even exit the lobby without getting ganked.  I hate this stupid murder hobo parade - how the hell can the developers release this crap and call it a game when it is little more than an execution simulation for people who live in their parents' basement? I hate this game, the developers, and everyone on this fo

I promis to post the first time I have none consensual PvP. I will also tell you how I trounced them

Theocritus

I watched a little bit of a stream....I must say that is the most impressive looking water I have seen in a game.....As for the rest of the game?...The streamer just pretty much ran around...Never saw him fight anything or anyone.....Hard to draw much of a conclusion from what he presented.

Babuinix

Theocritus said:

I watched a little bit of a stream....I must say that is the most impressive looking water I have seen in a game.....As for the rest of the game?...The streamer just pretty much ran around...Never saw him fight anything or anyone.....Hard to draw much of a conclusion from what he presented.

Better than Sea of Thieves?

MaxBacon

honestly idk, this MMO feels mid, even using UE5 to boost visuals... Maybe it's for the oldschool MMO crowd because how could something like this trump an MMO say like BDO both visually and mechanically?

Nanfoodle

Babuinix said:

Theocritus said:

I watched a little bit of a stream....I must say that is the most impressive looking water I have seen in a game.....As for the rest of the game?...The streamer just pretty much ran around...Never saw him fight anything or anyone.....Hard to draw much of a conclusion from what he presented.

Better than Sea of Thieves?

I dont think they will get the navel content at launch. Took 4 years to make SoT. From what I have seen Ashes has done very little with the Navel content, unless they planing on a shadow drop. We barely have any concept art for it. 

Slapshot1188

Nanfoodle said:

P. S. I have not been ganked in two days of gaming lol

The REAL gankers:

1. Are not in this part of the test yet. They will come with the cheaper packages
2. Are focused on reaching level cap ASAP so they can get the best gear and have a nice fair fight against lowbies

Real gankers don't want to do lowbie vs lowbie ganking.  They want to dominate and destroy.

The guys I was watching did not get attacked either but they were in a big guild and travelled in a pack.  They did see some PvP as they rode by.

Slapshot1188

MaxBacon said:

honestly idk, this MMO feels mid, even using UE5 to boost visuals... Maybe it's for the oldschool MMO crowd because how could something like this trump an MMO say like BDO both visually and mechanically?

The demos I had seen made it look much more like BDO than I saw in the stream yesterday.  To ME personally, that is a plus as I don't really like the BDO art style.

Neoyoshi

I watched a little bit earlier this morning on Wolf's stream and it.... looks, well, i didn't watch a lot.

Nanfoodle

Slapshot1188 said:

Nanfoodle said:

P. S. I have not been ganked in two days of gaming lol

The REAL gankers:

1. Are not in this part of the test yet. They will come with the cheaper packages
2. Are focused on reaching level cap ASAP so they can get the best gear and have a nice fair fight against lowbies

Real gankers don't want to do lowbie vs lowbie ganking.  They want to dominate and destroy.

The guys I was watching did not get attacked either but they were in a big guild and travelled in a pack.  They did see some PvP as they rode by.

You did see the lol? I know there will be gankers. I look forward to seeing their little red dot on the map. I will almost always drop what I'm doing to get some of their gear and 4 x the loot drop off them  

Nanfoodle

Slapshot1188 said:

MaxBacon said:

honestly idk, this MMO feels mid, even using UE5 to boost visuals... Maybe it's for the oldschool MMO crowd because how could something like this trump an MMO say like BDO both visually and mechanically?

The demos I had seen made it look much more like BDO than I saw in the stream yesterday.  To ME personally, that is a plus as I don't really like the BDO art style.

The day cycle and the weather cycles are very long in Ashes. Games like BDO make screens with their zones. Ashes has a real dusk and dawn. Night that's very dark. It's a game design. Different resources as different times of the day and seasons. The show cases Steven always set the day and weather for optimal visuals. 

Theocritus

Babuinix said:

Theocritus said:

I watched a little bit of a stream....I must say that is the most impressive looking water I have seen in a game.....As for the rest of the game?...The streamer just pretty much ran around...Never saw him fight anything or anyone.....Hard to draw much of a conclusion from what he presented.

Better than Sea of Thieves?

I never did play that one...the shot I saw in AoC was a river but actually had a small current and could see the rocks on the bottom very clearly.....Another odd thing was when he went to tame a horse....He walked up to it, and it said you have to have a bow to tame a horse (which is odd to say the least), so he pulls out his bow and equips it and still has cant tame it to ride it....of course, right then another player went riding by on a horse.....