Ashes of Creation – MMORPG OF THE DECADE

It’s a long road ahead of us before the actual public release of Ashes of Creation but one thing is for sure, they are keeping us in the loop with how things are going. Intrepid Studios, which is under the leadership of Steven Sharif, set a high standard of how one company should interact with its community. Thanks to them we have an abundance of information about the game which we will go over today.

What We Know About Ashes of Creation

The storyline of the game is set in the vast medieval fantasy world named Verra. This world features a diverse range of biomes, both based on the real world, such as snow, jungles, plains, and biomes created by game designers, such as corrupted areas(which spread based on the player’s activity) and the Underrealm. 

At the start of the game, you are gonna be given a choice to pick between 8 base classes aka your primary archetype. Now bear in mind once you pick your primary archetype, there is no going back, whatever you picked, there is no way of changing.

Now when you reach level 25, you’ll be given the option to pick your second archetype. A combination of your primary and secondary archetypes makes a Class. There are a total 64 of classes, so good luck choosing.

Gearing up is also a big part of most of the MMORPGs and Ashes are no exception. Now as you level up you’ll get some gear through quests, killing some mobs and bosses but the best kind of equipment is going to be crafted. For which you’ll need to do a bunch of dungeons and kill a lot of different bosses. 

As you level up and progress through the game you’ll need to upgrade equipment by collecting new materials and destroying previously crafted ones. It’s worth noting that gear is not class bound so I’m looking forward to seeing what sort of combinations people come up with.

PVE

PVE is the major thing in most games and the difficulty of it in Ashes of Creation is going to be based on a simple system. The better your party/raid performs the harder it gets but with it drops rarity gets better. Before you go “Oh nice, I’ll get all those juicy mats in no time”, take a moment to relax. Drops get better with difficulty but that doesn’t mean everybody gets it. Looting will be a big part of the game. 

There will be four different kinds of looting options:

1. Free for all – Basically, whoever gets first to loot, gets it.
2. Lootmaster – A player who is chosen to distribute loot. 
3. Round-robin – With this option players take turns looting.
4. Need or Greed – This is a traditional need before greed system based on dice rolls.

Before changing the looting option, the majority of party/raid members need to vote to approve any changes. It’s also worth noting that you can get kicked before even getting a chance to get any loot. So be careful who you raid with and also don’t be that obnoxious demanding person, which also can get you kicked. You don’t need or deserve ALL loot. 

Now let us move on to the Nodes. What even are Nodes? 

They are pre-set locations in the world that can be formed into towns of different sizes. The size of those towns can range from small villages to huge cities which will be determined by how much players contribute to it. 

If I understood correctly, all of the towns will have their own mayor who will be elected by popular vote of players aka the citizens of the town in question.

There are 4 types of nodes which will be predetermined and are the same across all servers. Those 4 are: 

1. Divine nodes – Faith and skill/equipment augment focused nodes
2. Economic nodes – Trade and merchant focused nodes
3. Military nodes – Combat and class training-focused nodes
4. Scientific nodes – Artisan and construction-focused nodes

Each type of node has its own ultimate ability that unlocks when it reaches stage 6.

Housing is also part of the game and its player-owned accommodation in the form of Apartments, Freeholds, Inns, and Static housing. Players can own up to one of each type of housing simultaneously. Besides being able to place furniture and decoration in them, they offer some other benefits that differ from each type. 

One of them is you can place them in the towns and claim citizenship in that town. Also, some offer places to put your business, artisan buildings, garden sections, and crafting benches. Additionally, you’re able to give permission to certain players who can open doors, enter your house, help you with crops, etc. Also worth mentioning is that your house serves as a safe zone, so there is no PVP there.

Guild Content In Ashes of Creation

Let us move on to the guild. Firstly, for guild creation, you’re going to need to be a certain level, gather required resources, and have at least five players willing to join. The guild size cap is 300 members. They also claim that the more members you have the fewer guild skills are available. And if you want to have all guild skills, the maximum you can have is 50 players in the guild. I doubt that those skills make such a difference that can justify capping a guild at 50 players.

Guild wars are PVP events, usually guild vs guild (DUH). Oh dear, I’m placing too much hope into this one, I really hope it lives up to my fantasy. The thought of having one of those massive PVPs gets my blood pumping. There will be some objectives to complete but I’ll be waiting on the ”MAIN EVENT”. I think they said somewhere that guild wars are the main thing to focus on in ALPHA-2, so I guess we’ll have way more information then. 

It’s safe to say that this game is one of those that I have high hopes for. Whether my expectations are met or not is yet to be determined. But for now, all I can say is: SEE YOU IN ALPHA-2.