Dungeons

Alpha-0 Dünir Dünheim dungeon design by Michael Bacon.

Alpha-0 dungeon design by Javier Perez.

Alpha-0 dungeon design by Javier Perez.

Alpha-0 dungeon design by Javier Perez.

Alpha-0 dungeon design by Javier Perez.

Alpha-0 dungeon design by Javier Perez.

There are going to be smaller, simpler, linear dungeons. There's going to be bigger, more complex, nonlinear dungeons. So, It's a little bit of both. We want the environment to be a character. In order for the environment to be a character, these places need to be interesting and there needs to be a dynamicism to them. – Jeffrey Bard

Open world

Alpha-1 open world dungeon entrance.

80% of the content that will exist in Ashes of Creation is open-world and there's a specific reason for that. So because of the way that friendships and or enemies are forged in the game and people have the opportunity to create their own friends or foes. We want that to play out from a contesting standpoint as well. So a lot of these hunting grounds or raid bosses that people are going to have opportunities to kill, they're going to be essentially contested potentially by your your enemies that you've created in the game or you can work together to create alliances in order to defend those contested zones. – Steven Sharif

Ashes of Creation will be a seamless open-world experience.

• No loading time or loading screens between regions.

There will be an approximately 80/20 split between open world vs instanced encounters.

• Around 80% of the content is open-world, where healthy competition is an instigator for player friction; for potential cooperation; for the ability to yield alliances; and the political theater that comes with it. This is an intended part of the PvX design of Ashes of Creation.

In situations where we want to contain a particular type of raid, we will utilize instancing; and that can protect certain engagements with certain bosses. But that's really more on the 20% of the scenarios will have instancing protection like that. Around 80% of the content is open-world, where competition is- healthy competition is an instigator for soft player friction; for potential cooperation; for the ability to yield alliances; and the political theater that comes with it. So that's an intended part of the PvX design of Ashes. It's a core philosophical point. And just to be clear, that is not for everyone. We are not trying to make a product that appeals to every MMO gamer. That's impossible; and so we've been very upfront and forthright with what we are trying to accomplish and what our core pillars of philosophical design are. – Steven Sharif

• Castle and node sieges may contain instanced locations where specific groups can participate in certain objective-based waypoints.
• تانازنزلا and raids will maintain an open world feel while also capitalizing on the benefits of instanced mechanics. Instancing is only going to happen in certain dungeons where the desire is to have greater narrative appeal. Outside of these and arenas there will not be too much instancing anywhere else.

There will be some open dungeons that have bosses at the end of the dungeons. There will be some open dungeons that just have a multitude of dungeon bosses, not necessarily world raids or something; and there will be lots of different rooms and they'll be progressive in the sense that in the earlier parts of the dungeon they'll be lower level and then at the later parts of the dungeons deeper down they'll be higher level and more difficult; and that creates again I think an ecosystem of where players across a multitude of levels have an opportunity to coexist within certain areas of the world; and that's good from a social dynamic. It's good from a recruitment dynamic. It's good from just a liveliness and relevance of particular areas. So that you don't end up with these locations that once you pass a certain level like it's empty. – Steven Sharif

• There was no instancing in Alpha-1.

We're probably going to do instancing only in certain dungeons and in arenas. You probably won't see instancing too much anywhere else. What you see is gonna be what you get. – Jeffrey Bard

The PvP flagging and corruption system is in place to safeguard against griefing without limiting opportunities for open conflict.

• Healthy competition is seen as an instigator for player friction; for potential cooperation; for the ability to yield alliances; and the political theater that comes with it. This is an intended part of the PvX design of Ashes of Creation.
• This friction presents an opportunity to engage in the political aspects of the game, which is the lifeblood of what keeps players interested and invested in the game.

Q: When you reach the bosses in [open world] dungeons can you be jumped?

A: For the most part if there are bosses at the end of dungeons, it is possible for you to get jumped. – Steven Sharif

Q: In an open world dungeon, what prevents others from just waiting until you're at the boss and then killing you and taking your boss's loot? What prevents mega guilds from just owning an area and preventing you from accessing or enjoying it?

A: In a majority of cases, we do not want to prevent another group from engaging potentially in PvP. We disincentivize it by creating safeguards within the flagging system that make that decision very concerning for the people that might go corrupt; and if you're in the large enough group of numbers I doubt you're going to experience that unless there's some rivalry between guilds. In which case there's apparatuses like Guild Wars that are more opt-in. You can drop guild tag if you want. But anyways, the competitive nature of this environment is a PvX element. – Steven Sharif

Dungeon scale

The intention is that dungeons are going to be "massive" in scale.

• Massive caverns and open world spaces.
• Places to suit larger and smaller commitments.
  • Where people with 30 minutes can participate.
• Dungeons are vast and have room for multiple groups.

Group sizes

Party witnessing the beginning of the An Ancient Violence Story arc in Alpha-2.

We're not creating a solo game, but it doesn't mean that we don't offer gameplay that is solo centric as well: It lives in addition to the social aspect of What MMOs provide; and so part of what we do in order to to give that element of gameplay is we have quest lines that are devoted towards solo players. We have hunting grounds. Obviously one of the benefits of being a solo player is you get to keep everything that drops. You don't have to share loot with a party or with friends; that's one benefit of being a solo player. But it's going to be more difficult to overcome challenges; and those individuals who are up to taking that additional level of of difficulty are going to excel perhaps in their character progression a bit faster than those who are more group-centric. It's going to be a little bit of a roll of the dice there because there are loot tables, there are reward tables that accompany that, but it's important to note that from a content perspective Ashes of Creation is looking to fulfill both that solo-oriented mind in gameplay as well as the group and social experience; and a lot of times those paths diverge: They move apart, they come back together; and that process is going to be seen throughout the leveling in Ashes of Creation where you'll have more opportunities for solo gameplay and some opportunities for group gameplay. – Steven Sharif

Ashes of Creation is designed for solo players as well as large and small groups.

• Parties have up to eight (8) players in a single group.

The idea behind an 8-person group is to allow us to really amplify party roles, and to create a need for each of the archetypes in every party.

• تاراغلا will have 40 man groups.
• Content will be tailored for 40, 16 and 8 person group sizes.
• تاحاسلا will have 1 man, 3 man, 5 man and possibly 20 man Free-For-All (Deathmatch) group sizes.
  • There won't specifically be guild vs guild arenas but team-based matchmaking allows teams to face other teams.
• راصحلا هعلق are expected to have at minimum 250x250 players to be on a single battlefield, with the possibility of increasing this to 500x500 over time.

The minimum goal is 500 players on a single battlefield. I think we will be able to hit 500vs500 but we shall see. – Steven Sharif

Adaptive content

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              ﺔﻤﻳﺪﻗ ﺔﻤﺟﺮﺘﻟﺍ ﻩﺬﻫ ﻥﻮﻜﺗ ﺪﻗ

نقطة إهتمام  جديدة (مثل  الدهاليز  و زعماء العالم) تظهر  بعقد(بشكل) متطور. هذا المحتوي  يتكيف مع  تطور  المناطق الموجودة به.

• سوف تتغير الكثافة.
• صعوبة المحتوي سوف تتغير.
• قد يتغير المحتوي بلكامل , إعتمادا علي ما يتطور وكيف يتطور .
• أنواع جديدة من الوحوش وإختلاف القصة (المهمات).
• فقط بعض الدهاليز سوف تصبح متاحة في حالة أن العقد تطور لمراحل معينة .
• القصة(المهات) داخل الدهليز سوف تعتمد علي قوس المهمة التي تتكون من الطرق المختارة عن طريق نظام العقد.
• الجوائز في المناطق و الدهاليز سوف تكون مقيدة بتقدم المنقطة الموجودة بها.

الدهاليز المحيطة و النقط الاخري حول الخريطة سوف تتأثر بتطور العقد. فقط بعض الدهاليز سوف تصبح متاحة إذا طورنا العقد إلي مستوي معين. القصة(المهات) داخل الدهليز سوف تعتمد علي قوس المهمة التي تتكون من الطرق المختارة عن طريق نظام العقد الجوائزفي المناطق و الدهاليز سوف تكون مقيدة بتقدم المنقطة الموجودة بها . علي سبيل المثال لنفترض أن البشر طورو عقد في المنقطة ج, و أصبحت مجموعة من المهمات متاحة مما يقود اللاعبين إلي أكتشاف دهاليز المناطق المجاورة .ولنفترض أن هذا العقد تم تطويره في منقطة صناعية… قبل تطور العقد , كان هذا الدهليز متاح… ولكن الأن نفس الدهليز أصبح يمتلك وحوش جديدة و تغيرت جوائزه لتصبح جوائز تستعمل للصناعة بسبب تطور العقد . وربما , قد يظهر زعيم جديد في غرف مختلفة من الدهليز التي سوف تحتوي علي مغامرة مختلفة و مهمات مختلفة , مثل شئ غامض مع مهمة للحصول عليه والمهمة يمكن فقط قبولها إذا تطور العقد إلي نقطة معينة في منطقة معينة , حول العالم . نظامنا واسع جدا, بما يتعلق ب الترابط و كيف يتأثر العالم بللاعبين.

Zergs

For every play, there should be a counterplay. We often see Castle Sieges turn into zerg-fests, which really doesn’t capture the epic, back-and-forth battles we wish to see in Ashes of Creation. One of our key pillars is that Choice Matters, and that applies to tactics and strategy as well. A well-formulated battle plan should win out over stat sheets and bodies. Zergs will generally be difficult to pull off, and will be eminently counterable through siege weapons, traps, and other battlefield tricks.

Zergs are empowered by fast-travel. Meaningful travel times are intended to prevent zerg play from being so much of an influence.

Encounters are designed to have meaning in terms of how boss skills and abilities relate to group compositions, tactics and strategies. Zerging is not experiencing content. There are different ways to make a fight more difficult for larger sized groups without relying solely on stat buffs or making the boss a "damage sponge".

• Raid and dungeon bosses have specific mechanics and abilities that players need to learn and react to. Zergs that are not aware of these mechanics or react to them appropriately will be wiped.
• There may be environmental hazards and AoE effects that cause more damage based on the number of players present.
• There is a give-and-take for guilds that want to see a larger number of members as opposed to a more focused group that may be a part of an alliance.

We're very cognizant of the fact that we don't want to see zerging be a mechanic that's utilized by guilds to accomplish content or just to steamroll over sieges... There are specific mechanics that we are working on that will be seen through the testing phases that relate to a degree of understanding of certain systems that can't just be overrun with numbers. – Steven Sharif

Mechanics that encourage political intrigue will play a role in destabilizing zergs.

The best way that I found in games I played previously to take down a zerg is to cause drama from within... It's that conflict inside of the politicking that happens in that big organization. If we provide opportunities for division to occur then it also provides stability to keep a server healthy away from that zerg mentality also... If we approach the castle siege and we've destroyed the walls and we're in the throne room and we're about to cast on the penultimate thing and I at this time am just so excited from what's happening that I'm like "screw it I'm gonna go for it". It's gonna be mine. I'm gonna take the taxes for the next month. I'm gonna take all the gear from the castle. I'm gonna take everything... We want that political intrigue to be present in the game. – Steven Sharif

Objective-based game play helps to balance the zerg mentality.

I always feel that if you balance based on groups that in your balance focus is to incorporate features that play well from a player versus player perspective as well as a player versus environment perspective: Having support classes, having DPS and tanks that can obstruct movement and/or create bottlenecks on the field and stuff like that. I think a well-rounded raid it will perform better against a non well-rounded raid, however then you incorporate the second aspect of numbers; and that's where again mobility, organization, leadership tactics. Having objectives in gameplay that make those important helps to balance the zerg mentality that a lot of guilds can tend to have. – Steven Sharif

Instancing doesn't play a major role in limiting zergs, due to 80% of content in Ashes of Creation being open-world.

• There may be instanced locations within castle and node sieges where specific groups can participate in certain objective-based waypoints.

Zerging is always a problem in a lot of these MMORPGs where you really can't control the number of participants in certain open-world systems; and in that sense instancing is a great tool that designers can sometimes use to curate a particular number of participants that you want. But the predominant amount of content within Ashes of Creation, over 80% of which is is open-world content, so instancing is very limited. – Steven Sharif

Leader boards

Players will be able to opt-in to track certain achievements on leaderboards, such as.

• تانازنزلا completed.
• تاراغلا completed.
• pvP kills.
• لفاوقلا raided.
• عمج activity.

Leaderboards may be seasonal.

We have many dreams that we want to do with game-to-web and game-to-mobile in regards to showing stats and being making things shareable for you. We know how social media works; how sharing content with friends works. But those things will come in due time. – Margaret Krohn

.ﺔﻴﻟﺎﺤﻟﺍ ﺮﻳﻮﻄﺘﻟﺍ ﻖﻳﺮﻃ ﺔﻃﺭﺎﺧ ﻲﻓ ﺓﺩﻮﺟﻮﻣ ﻥﻮﻜﺗ ﻻ ﺪﻗﻭ ﻦﻳﺭﻮﻄﻤﻟﺍ ﻞﺒﻗ ﻦﻣ ﺍﺮًﺧﺆﻣ ﺔﻴﻟﺎﺘﻟﺍ ﺕﺎﻣﻮﻠﻌﻤﻟﺍ ﺾﻌﺑ ﺪﻴﻛﺄﺗ ﻢﺘﻳ ﻢﻟ

• Some leaderboards will be across all servers.

Jumping mechanics

Jumping puzzle in early Alpha-1 dungeon entrance.

Jumping puzzles will occasionally feature in the world.

• Jumping puzzles were shown in the Alpha-2 Tower of Carphin preview.
• Jumping puzzles were present in early Alpha-1 dungeon gameplay footage.
• Jumping puzzles were present in the Alpha-0 Dünheim dungeon.

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See also

• Bosses
• تاراغلا
• تاحاسلا