Hunting for treasure isn’t the exclusive domain of marauding pirates, whip-cracking archaeologists, or tomb raiders; it’s now part of Ashes of Creation alpha two and a focus of the January development livestream from Intrepid Studios.
The actual treasure hunting mechanic doesn’t really try to reinvent the wheel: Players right-click on a treasure map to activate a quest, then head to a location to uncover a curious cache, fighting threats along the way. The live playthrough mostly focused on the MMORPG’s desert biome, which has seen some visual improvement along the way, as well as some discussion about how treasure maps impact the wider economy and gameplay loops.
The stream also answered some general questions from players touching on refining enemy creature stats to logical values (making wolves sneaky and fast was a given example), improvements to Intrepid Studios’ work flow that the devs claim will make worldbuilding faster, and the promise of more soloable content while still making sure grouping up is the more optimal way to play. The full stream can be seen below.
