Meta
A goal of Ashes of Creation is to emphasise micro metas that work for specific encounters, and de-emphasize macro metas that work for everything.[1]
- What we're doing with this approach is we're de-emphasizing a macro meta and instead emphasizing a micro meta. And the difference between the macro/micro is that on the micro level you have metas that might form based on each individual type of encounter or experience. And in those senses, yes, there's going to be a most optimal: There's going to be a best in slot. There's going to be whatever that pertains to that particular challenge rating. But there won't we there will not be an overarching meta that says from a macro level, hey, if you got this shit, you're good to go for everything. That's boring, that's unfulfilling, that is not interesting; and it is just something that that dumbifies the experience.[1] – Steven Sharif
- The effectiveness of classes, skills and gear is going to depend on the adversary or the encounter. There will be optimal builds for different challenges and difficulty ratings. This design aims to avoid any obvious meta or "cookie-cutter" builds in Ashes of Creation.[1][2]
- Different challenges are presented dynamically to players based on node progression and destruction. Situations that are based on a rock-paper-scissors design will inspire a horizontal gear chase. These dynamic challenges will change from month to month, causing a shift in demand in the economy as different builds are required by the new content.[2]
- Increasing difficulty ratings inspire more of a traditional vertical power progression that is common in other MMOs.[3][2]
- Oftentimes you just have a very vertical power scale and that determines chase, but when you have a variety of relevance across certain types of adversaries and that variety changes over time because of player activity- and then that affects the economy and the crafter system and who was producing what for what demand- and everything gets shaken up. That's a very fun environment to exist in. It presents a more dynamic situation rather than a quote-unquote cookie-cutter type selection.[2] – Steven Sharif
- The intricacies of how nodes interact with predicates in the world means that it may be possible but difficult to achieve meta server builds.[4]
- Q: Do you have any concerns on players eventually discovering a meta server build with nodes due to players heading to specific nodes and regions because they find that content more enjoyable; and if so how would you go about getting players to shift around the world to break up the meta?
- A: I think it's interesting if players have a concerted effort across a server to interact with one another, learn from their actions, mistakes, successes, and effectuate that on the server. That's interesting, but I don't believe we'll see a meta form. I think that the intricacies are too great when it comes to how predicates are formed in order to elicit world state changes.[4] – Steven Sharif
PvE difficulty
The difficulty of PvE content, such as raids and dungeons will adapt based on the performance of the raid or group against previous bosses in that encounter.[7]
- Higher performance in earlier phases will increase the difficulty of subsequent phases of the encounter.[7]
- Certain AI behaviors might activate based on progress within an encounter.[6][8]
- Боссы and mobs will not auto-scale based on group size, but AI behaviors may dynamically adapt to the number and types of combatants in proximity to the encounter.[6][9]
- Both in Alpha-2 and when the game launches, there will be monsters whose technical level is above that of the cap; and the intent there is obviously again to provide some level of challenge that exceeds a comparable level challenge rating.{livestream|2023-11-30|1h53m50|V9F_AJl9ozY}} – Steven Sharif
- The higher the difficulty, the better the loot tables will be.[7]
- Q: How challenging will raid boss mechanics be given the given that players may need to simultaneously fight other players while also fighting the boss?
- A: It depends. The great thing about our encounter system is that it has a wide scalability from encounters that some might consider easy given their composition to encounters that some might consider impossible until they get their gear level to a certain stage. The level of interaction with other players is really predicated on the encounter itself. We may have some encounters that are in instances although the predominant portion of those will be in the open world, in which case they do have the potential being contested; and these encounters, especially the big ones that might land in contention, are giving some of the best-in-slot gear you can get in the game. So it's important that they are contested because it is a significant victory point; and one of our core pillars is risk versus reward: and the higher that risk the higher that reward should be. So those two things seem fitting and then in addition we do have the concept of winners and losers. Not everybody in Ashes of Creation is going to be a winner; and that sucks if you're not I guess, but there is opportunity for you to continue to excel and become one. But it gives much more meaning to an achievement when not everybody gets the achievement. That's our philosophy.[11] – Steven Sharif
- Q: So it's the sort of thing where it might be, we're going do a dungeon that's oops, all fire golems, so if everybody straps up with plate armor and fire resistance, you don't have to worry about the magic fire: you've got the fire resistance for. And when you start getting punched around, that's why everyone's come in with plate?
- A: The encounters design team presents a particular type of challenge rating- for those you're familiar with playing DnD or whatever, challenge rating gets informed by a few different vertical power levels, but then there's also the horizontal perspective: That is, what tools does your party have to address the challenge rating of the situation and some of the horizontal progression exists within how you kit your equipment slots. Some of those can be enhancements or stones, as you're discussing with fire resistance. Some of those are base stats that exist on a particular item, such as physical damage mitigation versus magical damage mitigation and what subtype of damage is incoming based on that. These are the ways that we emphasize that more rock-paper-scissors type of interaction with balance to where it's okay to have asymmetric imbalance if there are horizontal methods by which you achieve the challenge rating.[3] – Steven Sharif
Gear progression
Weapons have their own progression paths.[14][15]
- Each type of weapon has its own skill tree that grants passive skills and proc effects and other status conditions.[16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][14][24][25]
- The weapon use combo system determines special effects that proc based on weapon progression.[14][25]
- Ancillary effects proc based on enchantment types.[25]
- Gear enhancements (power stones) can be applied to add elemental or energy types of damage.[25]
- Dual wielded weapons will have its own progression based on weapon type.[26]
- Weapon proficiency (based on length of use of a weapon) is not a planned feature.[24]
- Ashes of Creation is all about providing many progression paths... The reason why we don't like the term endgame is because with the amount of progression that's available with the amount of diversity and player agency that impacts the world... We want the weapon system [to] add an element of that as well... You can determine special effects that proc from currently the combo system; you can determine ancillary effects that proc based on enchantment types; you can power stone weapons to add different either elemental types of damage and/or energy that play rock-paper-scissor with player defenses ... and then you can skill tree out how those effects that are granted ... you can make them better you can branch them off into a different direction.[25] – Steven Sharif
Best-in-slot items
- Крафтовые предметы будут наравне с лучшими в слотах (BiS) предметами (издропов).[27]
- Что считается лучшим в слоте, зависит от роли персонажа и типа монстра, с которым он сталкивается.[28]
- Инстансовый контент будет содержать заскриптованные и сложные бои с боссами, в которых выпадает снаряжение, но это снаряжение не будет лучшим в слоте. Их можно будет найти только в открытом мире.[29]
Gear enhancement
На оружие могут накладываться усиления (в виде камней силы/рун), чтобы добавить элементальный или энергетический тип урона.[25][30]
- Усиления снаряжения не повышают требование к уровню у предмета.[31]
У нас, скорее всего, будет система рун, а ещё, помимо этого, будет возможность наложения усилений на оружие… Прогрессия при этом не всегда будет вертикальной… Иногда придётся менять что-то одно на другое, например, оружие начнёт наносить меньше физического урона и больше магического.[30] – Jeffrey Bard
- Прогрессия в различных PvP-системах разблокирует камни усиления, дающие снаряжению временные бонусы в PvP (посредством системы гнёзд для добавления камней в снаряжение).[32] PvP-сезоны составляют 6 месяцев, на протяжении которых измеряются результаты PvP-активности игрока.[33]
Не будет такого, что как только вы один раз их получили, вам больше нужно беспокоиться о PvP-усилениях, нет, вам месяц за месяцем нужно будет показывать хорошие результаты в PvP, чтобы у вас оставались эти усиления в гнёздах снаряжения.[32] – Steven Sharif
Enchanting
Enchanting is not an artisan profession in its own right. Scribes create scrolls that can be utilized by different professions to create enchantments relating to that profession.[34][35]
- Enchantment scrolls can be sold on the open market.[36][34][37]
- Enchanting does not increase an item's level requirement.[31]
- You don't really push a particular item's level requirement or the identity of that item. You can enhance it, you can add enchantments to it, but it's still the item it is.[31] – Steven Sharif
Баланс игры
То, как системы разрабатываются с точки зрения баланса, мы принимаем во внимание, как мы хотели бы, чтобы узлы менялись сами по себе и как часто, и мы разработали системы истощения для определенных культур, которые могут иметь большее доминирование над другими. Это вещи, которые в Alpha и Beta мы будем тестировать, наблюдать и следить за тем, чтобы наша цель была достигнута с точки зрения игрового процесса, и если это не так, мы вернемся и пересчитаем.[38] – Steven Sharif
Баланс классов
Шестьдесят четыре (64) класса разделены на восемь основных архетипов. Баланс активных навыков относится только к этим восьми основным архетипам.[39][40]
- Каждому базовому архетипу назначены четыре основные группы дополнений Баланс дополнений относится к четырем группам дополнений для каждого из восьми архетипов.[40]
Несмотря на то, что дополнения радикально меняют то, как ваши активные навыки предоставляют вам способности, основное внимание по-прежнему уделяется самому базовому архетипу, а не всем 64 классам.[39] – Steven Sharif
На самом деле мы не говорим о 64 настоящих классах, мы говорим о восьми классах с 64 вариантами... Между 64 классами не так много различий, как можно было бы ожидать. Дело не в том, что существует 64 разных версии... радикально разных классов.[39] – Jeffrey Bard
Балансировка в Ashes of Creation ориентирована на группу а не на бой 1 на 1.[39][41]
- Матчи 1 на 1 будут иметь динамику «камень-ножницы-бумага» где один класс будет превосходить другой.[41]
Будут матчи 1 на 1, где один класс будет превосходить другой; и это должно быть динамикой камня-ножниц-бумаги. Мы хотим, чтобы между разными классами была встречная игра... Вместо этого будет баланс, ориентированный на группу, где, пока у вас присутствует разнообразие классов, игровое поле будет равным. Это будет очень зависеть от навыков и стратегии.[41] – Steven Sharif
Некоторые вторичные архетипы способны «преодолеть разрыв» между своими аналогами. [42]
Определенные архетипы способны сами по себе преодолеть разрыв между своими аналогами. Если я являюсь архетипом танка, а маг — моим противником, я могу взять мага на второстепенное значение и немного сократить разрыв; а затем немного сдвинуть мою личность в этом направлении.[42] – Steven Sharif
Тестирование Alpha-1 изначально сосредоточено на основной функциональности, а не на боевом балансе.[43]
Siege balance
There are points of balance that we want to incorporate, such as the defense mechanisms that the defenders have, the types of buffs that are acquired through completing killing the bosses, or capturing control points, the stages before a siege when it comes to those node progressions in the preceding weeks: Those are all going to be balanced considering all things being equal between the two sides. But obviously we're not going to control the state of gear acquisition that one side might have as an advantage over the other. There might be a much better geared team over there. There might be a much better coordinated team. There might be a higher number of individuals who are part of the attacking or the defense. Those are components that we aren't necessarily going to put on railroads so-to-speak. But the aspects of design that we can talk about like the hit point health of a particular wall or door, or mercenaries that can be hired; what's their cost, what's their damage output: Those are things yes we're going to balance. But obviously anything that's player dependent or that has player interaction and activity and determination you can't always balance; and you don't want to balance. Those aspects you leave those to the players.[44] – Steven Sharif
Power creep
The developers intend to limit power creep via item sinks, the lack of gear binding, and the absence of pay-to-win or pay-to-convenience in Ashes of Creation.[13]
Смотрите также
Ссылки
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Интервью, 2023-07-09 (1:43:38).
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Подкаст, 2021-04-11 (54:35).
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Интервью, 2023-07-09 (1:40:41).
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Прямая трансляция, 2023-04-07 (1:15:02).
- ↑ Newsletter - June 2023.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 Прямая трансляция, 2023-01-27 (1:34:06).
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 Интервью, 2020-07-19 (14:51).
- ↑ Интервью, 2021-06-13 (22:20).
- ↑ Интервью, 2020-07-19 (17:12).
- ↑ Прямая трансляция, 2023-11-30 (1:53:50).
- ↑ Прямая трансляция, 2022-05-27 (1:20:35).
- ↑ Прямая трансляция, 2021-04-30 (53:08).
- ↑ 13.0 13.1 Интервью, 2018-10-20 (2:53:52).
- ↑ 14.0 14.1 14.2 Прямая трансляция, 2020-01-30 (1:28:40).
- ↑ Прямая трансляция, 2018-05-04 (45:37).
- ↑ Прямая трансляция, 2022-06-30 (1:12:38).
- ↑ Прямая трансляция, 2022-09-30 (53:15).
- ↑ Прямая трансляция, 2022-09-30 (43:45).
- ↑ Видео, 2022-09-30 (24:49).
- ↑ Подкаст, 2021-09-29 (47:57).
- ↑ Интервью, 2021-02-07 (49:18).
- ↑ Интервью, 2020-07-19 (53:59).
- ↑ Интервью, 2020-07-18 (1:07:51).
- ↑ 24.0 24.1 February 8, 2019 - Questions and Answers.
- ↑ 25.0 25.1 25.2 25.3 25.4 25.5 Прямая трансляция, 2018-06-04 (1:11:19).
- ↑ Прямая трансляция, 2021-06-25 (1:29:39).
- ↑ Прямая трансляция, 2017-05-10 (14:45).
- ↑ Прямая трансляция, 2020-05-29 (1:33:11).
- ↑ Прямая трансляция, 2022-03-31 (1:19:41).
- ↑ 30.0 30.1 Прямая трансляция, 2018-06-04 (21:37).
- ↑ 31.0 31.1 31.2 Прямая трансляция, 2021-03-26 (1:15:57).
- ↑ 32.0 32.1 32.2 32.3 32.4 Интервью, 2020-07-18 (14:22).
- ↑ Интервью, 2020-07-18 (16:34).
- ↑ 34.0 34.1 Прямая трансляция, 2022-05-27 (1:20:00).
- ↑ Прямая трансляция, 2017-05-26 (51:37).
- ↑ Прямая трансляция, 2023-11-30 (1:38:47).
- ↑ Прямая трансляция, 2017-05-17 (58:55).
- ↑ Видео, 5 Апреля 2018 (49:36).
- ↑ 39.0 39.1 39.2 39.3 Прямая трансляция, 2020-10-30 (33:26).
- ↑ 40.0 40.1 Интервью, 2018-10-20 (2:40:17).
- ↑ 41.0 41.1 41.2 Подкаст, 2018-04-23 (59:28).
- ↑ 42.0 42.1 Подкаст, 2018-04-23 (1:01:01).
- ↑ Прямая трансляция, 2021-05-28 (1:13:05).
- ↑ Прямая трансляция, 2021-06-25 (1:10:52).