With just over a week before Ashes of Creation kicks off its Alpha 2 playtest, creative director Steven Sharif has held an interview with MMORPG livestreamer Vlhadus that goes over the test, the game’s development, and its overall gameplay beats.
A couple of the more interesting questions asked by Vlhadus are in regards to AOC’s PvE offerings and its PvX design. The first such question asks about creating safe zones for new players, which Sharif confirmed is being done for the starting area of Lionhold, though whether that will be through PvP suppression or a level gate isn’t tied down yet. As for nodes, Sharif says that guards will be strong enough to defend against corrupt player characters.
Next, the two talked about the MMORPG’s death penalty, which currently incurs a stat-dampening debuff that lasts between five to 10 minutes, XP debt, and an unexplained percentage of dropped inventory, all of which is lessened for those who are flagged for PvP. This information prompted Vlhadus to outright ask why Sharif hates PvE players, which saw Sharif explain that AOC’s PvX model is meant to make failure hurt and admits that design isn’t for everyone.
“The death penalty is equitable. […] Mistakes deserve a failure response. Failure shouldn’t always be fun; it’s the bite of failure that makes you motivated to improve, that makes you motivated to want to achieve a thing. […] The PvE players that don’t want to exhibit this bite of failure, we might not be the game for you. The same is true for the PvP players: If you [want to] just continually respawn and go back to battle as a result of failure, then we might not be the game for you.”
Several questions understandably asked about Alpha 2, including the desire for players to describe problems they run into rather than trying to fix them, confirmation that every zone will be tested before Alpha 2 ends, word of the game using contracted professional QA teams, confirmation that the Rogue archetype will arrive at some point during phase two, information about nodes like metropolis benefits, and an explanation for how the augment system will bring more than just flavor.
Other tidbits of note from the interview:
- There will be repeatable PvE content pieces and events, but those will be in the open world and therefore “subject to PvX.”
- Religion gameplay is essentially “a different flavor of social organization” intended to create combative friction between player groups but will also open up unique vendors.
- It should take roughly 100 hours to get to the current level cap. Sharif further admits that he likes things more on the grindy side and believes that a long leveling path plays into risk versus reward.
- Sharif reveals the team is in crunch mode right now; he didn’t appear to be pleased by that.
The interview is an hour’s worth of some honest answers to strong questions sprinkled in with some unfortunate chatscroll live feed (“I drink PvE tears” and “Don’t die” were some of the sparkling thoughts vomited by chatters), but it’s still an hour well spent for those who are curious about this MMO.
