Ashes of Creation | First Impressions

00:00 Ashes of Creation Review
01:26 Is Ashes Alpha Access Worth Buying?
04:02 My Experience
08:15 Ashes of Creation Combat
10:55 Live Streams VS Reality
11:42 Graphics
14:26 The Map
16:19 Questing
19:01 Group Content
21:28 PVP
25:01 Is this the next Star Citizen?
26:48 Crafting
28:10 The Biggest Problems
31:37 User Interface
33:17 Skill Tree
36:03 Node System
36:35 Final Thoughts

Feel free to watch the video with your live audience, but I'd rather you didn't reupload the video to your youtube channel as a "react" video - Thanks for understanding!

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[CHEFPKR]

Sounds weird...
I LOVE that it is this slow. It's that old EQ vibe to me and it makes the journey worthwhile IF the world is good.

I've spent 26 hours on my druid and she is only level 24, with a max of 60.

Im so, so glad this is a slower leveling game.

[kennethferland]

What you gain with removing fast travel is that you KNOW YOUR NEIBHORS, that group your with is going to be based in a location and your going to playing with them regularly.

[CossuttaDario]

Hey! As an engineer I wanted to add a thought: when you want to test a sub-system or a part of it, you often turn off all the bells and whistles from other unfinished sub-systems (would introduce noise) and add tons of logging (which does introduce load). It's common practice and I guess many things have been turned off here.
The real kicker is that mmorpg gamers are so deprived of a really good game, that will pay to be alpha testing (instead of being paid for it or at least doing it for free).
Great review, Subscribed!

[zizikavla]

The first night of A2, we made a group of randoms, and as the group grew, we started wanting to find better challenges than the undead ruins. We found more group members and started heading west, killing stronger mobs, two and three times our level. The group bonded, everyone called each other with their actual character names, and a fellowship was born. We ended up being some of the first players reaching level 10, we explored the whole western map and we leveled up the first node in our server! I don't think a single one of us cared about reaching level 25 as fast as possible. The game is about grouping. The fun in MMOs is about grouping. F$*k the "endgame" Make some friends and play MMO's as they were always supposed to be played.

[tyisamess]

I’ve had more fun playing this unfinished alpha mmo than I have in the last few years of other MMOs. I’m glad Ashes is giving us something different than the tired played out formula most MMOs have been giving us for the past several of years. I think if they add to this foundation and polish it. It will turn out great!

[geraltgrey-mane]

The combat looks fun, but as a mainly solo player. I like being able to do my own thing, when/where ever I want. Tho I do enjoy grouping up, for content for etc hard quest or bosses like classic wow elites. Likewise to team up, and tackling a dungeon etc. From what I have seen & heard, they dont want me. I could be wrong ofc, so lets see where this game goes. But as soon I heard they didnt want to be solo friendly, made me less intressted.

[Adrogans]

The lack of fast travel is one of the most important parts of the design of this game. I know it "feels" wrong at the surface but consider it in context of the endgame vision:
1. Caravans are (one of) the only ways to move mass amounts of materials around the world
2. When a node is sieged and loses, (some of) the resources there will be up for grabs for the victors; landowners will lose (some of) their stockpiled resources
3. Because of this, the politics around node warfare will have serious consequences
4. If we could fast travel, we could slowly move small amounts of resources from one place to another over time, thereby negating the need for caravans and circumventing one of the core mechanics of the open world PVP system

There is NO WAY this game would work with fast travel, and that's a big part of the appeal. Your location MATTERS and isn't just an abstract annoyance en route to the real content. Getting around the world will be part of the adventure and doing so safely will require membership in a community.

These are my 2 cents based on my current understanding of the vision.

[Phrame]

I strongly agree they need to limit the scope for the initial launch of this game. The core gameplay is feeling solid, especially once they optimize the server performance and polish the graphics and character models a bit more. But if they insist on launching with every promised feature they might never make it to launch. The size of the Riverlands alone is already about the size of Throne & Liberty... it would definitely be feasible to launch with just the Riverlands, Tropics and Desert, maybe Jungle, then expand later.

Also, I made a cameo in this video! I was the other Bard in the 8 man group :) Was fun playing with you!

[freemanlee]

There are few things to make high level go back to lower zones, 1. collectable rare drops fun items, like pets cosmetic drops from trash mobs. Make them only drop if they roll back their level like FF14 when they group with lower levels. So the only way they get rare fun items is to grp with lower levels. 2. higher tier materials need lower level mats to make

[diamond_hus]

The ease of grouping you’re describing at minute 20:00 is something Throne and Liberty has in my experience with it so far. Super easy to find groups in the open world dungeons, which as a concept is pretty smart.

[gregruppert]

It looks like this is a game for only really devoted players. I can appreciate that, but there is no way I can make that kind of commitment anymore.

[barrywhite]

I had a ton of fun. Similar experience to you. Made a bard. Found groups and discord with them. Laggy/queues on NA server. I switched to EU server and there were no queues or lag. Best decision I made.
This is exactly the kind of game I would like to invest time into.

[Aciel_Yu]

I'm not defending its pricing nor trying to justify its price tag for them but what you did not cover is that the 120$ access key includes access to Alpha 2 (Phase 1, 2, 3), Beta 1, Beta 2, 1-month of subscription when the game releases, and some Ashes's Ember currency for its cosmetic shop. That's like 1-2 year worth of playing time, albeit the quality of the playing time is not there compared to most published games. But I can see the value there, plus you get to pitch in your ideas on how certain systems can be improved, and they have a good track record of listening to players' feedback so take that as you will.

[Deadlychuck]

I saw someone point out that given you have full access and the game itself will be releasing as a subscription game. The price is basically just an upfront year of game time. When you consider that, it becomes less a question of if it's worth $120 and more a question of if in the next year (or more depending on how long the alphas actually end up taking) you will have gotten $120 worth out of it. Even if that means only coming back and playing every month or two.

[ZimpotchiTV]

The bones are dope. Needs a lot of work. Good vid, I think it will finish.

[Willimann]

i think ur missing a critical piece here. Distance is *very* important for the node system to work. Fast travel would break it completly. AoC has that aspect in common with Eve Online. Nodes that are maxed out hinder nearby nodes from growth at a certain point. So players, in order to continue growing their nearby node, need to get rid of the maxed out node. They probably cant do it on their own because the maxed node is controlled by a large guild. So they need support. Who has to gain something from the fall of that note? A different maxed note further away. So thats where the support could come from. But if the note falls, all the players in the current max node could lose their home and revenue. So conflict naturally arises. Having fast travel, and in that case fast item transportation, completly throws the balance from defending and attacking out the window, and no one would be able to hold a node for a long time. Remember, peoples livelyhood is tied to a note, so not only large guilds have something to lose. Everyone in that node could lose all their shit or need to get it to another node, which is dangerous without protection.
All this means that we need a world as large as planned in order for AoC to have the social sandbox experience come to life. If they can meet their set deadlines for content and fixes, this game has a great future. It all hinges on it.

[a_angry_bunny]

My biggest concern with this game has always been the lack of solo player experience. I understand why Steven wants to encourage groups, but I think it would be better if they forced players to group for stuff like bosses, caravan events, or other world events while letting solo players be able to grind on trash mobs and explore without feeling like they are wasting their time because they aren't in a group. Maybe I just don't want to find a group some days. Maybe I just want to go mine some rock in the wilderness somewhere.

[enriquecabalsanchez]

I agree with you the best they coild do is to get ready the nodes and his dungeons and quest, then with expansions start to implement things as naval combat and extras. Get the basica done!!

[alfredgreybeard]

Being forced to group or suffer punishment because you don’t, will kill the game. While I don’t mind grouping, some days I just want to do things alone. I know people are going to comment below “MMOs are for grouping”, “get friends”…. Blah blah blah. I’m sorry to say majority of players also want the same. Not everyone will want to spend time trying to find groups, and listen to the 1 random group member that won’t shut up. Sometimes you just want to chill while you solo some mobs and watching your 2nd monitor.

[CABWrites]

Most levelheaded critique I’ve seen yet. This is why I watch your channel. I also find it hard to believe that a PVP centric game made in this current era that has essentially force grouping has any chance of mainstream or even long-term success. But that’s just my two cents.