Talk:2022-09-30 Livestream

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Intro

• 0:01

[Music] foreign

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[Music]

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salutations to our glorious Ashes of Creation Community Welcome to our September development update we hope

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everyone is well and safe um thank you for holding off with us for those of you who have been hanging out

• 0:33

watching live we had a little delay as you can see um Stephen is coming to us from his phone

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I'm so sorry about this guys I was not

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expecting to be in Vegas and I had something last minute as an emergency

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pop-up and I had to come here um late last night I didn't get in till

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like 1 30 in the morning and uh I was supposed to have the computer all set up

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and then the ethernet cable was broken I sent to Runner to grab another ethernet cable and then the connection Port

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wasn't working and lo and behold the computer doesn't have a built-in Network adap a wireless network adapter and it

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was just like a perfect storm of of terribleness and I am so sorry for the

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delay I appreciate you guys understanding and we're gonna have a fun stream regardless hopefully you can hear

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me okay and it's not too bad I'm connecting with my iPad so I am doing

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the stream from an iPad um but you know 30 minutes of the stream is going to be a pre-recorded video so

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you know it's not going to be too terrible yeah we'll be okay and as you can see we're gonna uh you can see our

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topics right there for how we're going to be doing things so today we're going to be doing our quick reminders we'll do our basic range attack update I do have

• 1:53

more reminders than normal today and then also we have our character art update and Studio update and then of

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course we have a lovely q a from the questions that we pulled from our Forum so if you submitted form questions we

• 2:05

have got some of those prepared um so with that we will quickly get

Reminders

• 2:11

through the updates first and foremost we have our question from YouTube so how

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we do this is if you are a YouTube subscriber um you have the ability to leave a

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comment everyone does but as a YouTube subscriber we may randomly pull your comment and Spotlight it so all you have

• 2:29

to do is subscribe to a server on our YouTube channel if you're watching the September development update when we put

• 2:34

this up on YouTube and leave a comment you could have your comments selected as well for the next one

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um so this one was from our lovely friend mindful K9 which said I love MMORPGs for their size and and World

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building the social aspect is cool but I prefer random adventures coming together

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because we all need to work together to get through this event or area we are

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all happening to stumble across but I don't really like groups or guilds outside of that so what will be or what

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will be any benefits for those who want a little more solo gameplay as well so

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they're kind of asking will there be options for people who want a solo as well as you know they'll do the game

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event stuff but sure you know that that's it's a good question

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um I mean the MMO landscape is of course filled with players who want to engage

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excuse me with finding new friends um at the same time a lot of people come

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into MMOs with a group of friends that are already existing um and so you want to be able to provide

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Avenues to both socially connect other players by creating challenges that

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require group efforts in over to overcome and that's always going to be a

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part of the MMO landscape whether you're a solo player or not MMOs by definition are massively multiplayer so that means

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it's not a solo game we're not creating a solo game but it doesn't mean that we

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don't offer game play that is solo Centric as well

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it lives in addition to the social aspect of What MMOs provide

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um and so part of what we do in order to to give that element of gameplay is we have quest lines that are devoted

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towards solo uh players we have uh hunting grounds um obviously one of the benefits of

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being a solo player is you get to keep everything that drops right you don't have to share a loop with a party or with friends that's one benefit of being

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a solo player um but you know it's going to be more difficult to overcome challenges and those individuals who are up to taking

• 4:41

that additional level of of difficulty are going to excel perhaps in their

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character progression a bit faster than those who are more group Centric it's going to be a little bit of a roll of

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the dice there because there are loot tables there are reward tables that accompany that but it's important to

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note that from a Content perspective Ashes of Creation is looking to fulfill both that solo oriented mind in gameplay

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as well as the group and social experience and a lot of times those paths diverge they they move apart they

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come back together uh and and that kind of process is going to be seen throughout the leveling in ashes of

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creation where you'll have more opportunities for solo gameplay and some opportunities for group gameplay

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um and for those solo players who don't really care about finding a community to play with but they want to have one when

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they need it there's going to be a lot of opportunities from a dialogue perspective in-game chat options you can

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join as part of citizenships there's a lot of pseudo factions there social organizations that give you an end to

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other players without the the strong bonds that typically come with guild-oriented organizations right

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um and I think that that's a comfortable medium between the two all right and one of the other reminders

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is that Stephen will be doing an AMA uh in October so stay tuned for that we

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will have some stuff up on our social so if you follow us on all of our social channels we will let you know whenever that is happening and of course we have

• 6:14

our monthly cosmetic swap over that will be happening uh that is for this set

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which is the order of the giant Slayers that will be scheduled for October 12

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2022 at 11 A.M Pacific so if you'd like these head on over we always let you know when they're going to swap over on

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our articles as well and a reminder that all these variants May or all the variants made from these sets you'll see

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in game is NPCs creatures buildings and things of that sort so that's the exciting part you're coming along with

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us on the Journey of development and I am really excited to do the AMA for those of you guys who aren't aware

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that's an ask me anything um it is typically done on Reddit but we also take questions

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um our top voted questions will probably take from forums as well so it's going to be a combination of our Reddit and

• 6:59

forms and Margaret and the community team are going to be putting out more information about that in the coming weeks leading up to the the

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exactly and if you aren't if you aren't already on our forums or on our Reddit make sure to go there um to get prep making accounts so that

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you can ask your questions that you want to ask yep yep and then we also have our Dev

• 7:20

discussion that is up and I know a lot of people have been leaving feedback this one is for our gathering and PVP

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and specifically we asked you Artisan gatherers will be prime targets for combatant players or you know they

• 7:31

sometimes will be with that said what tools or activities would gatherers like to see to help protect their well-earned

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materials while out in the field so definitely go give us your feedback on that and we will have another Dev

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discussion coming up about materials so if that is something that you're interested in definitely do so and of

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course we have an event system follow-up so a lot of you gave us feedback on the event system and now we have a follow-up

• 7:56

question for you over there just head on over to our forums and you can answer some of the questions that we had on

• 8:01

that front and of course last but not least if you are a content creator we always get these questions in regards to

• 8:09

um when we're going to have a content creator program or how we're allowing content creators to join us you can head

• 8:15

on over to um our content creator program and fill out the application and we are currently

• 8:22

in application Phase once we switch over to invitation phase we will let you all know and we will be closing the

• 8:27

application Phase for a short bit of time while we reach out to everybody it's a lot of people so

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um we appreciate all of you guys and again this is not a Creator program that is based on you know numbers Network

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we're not just being like only people with 1 million followers can join us we

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want small creators big creators creators who do all kinds of different types of things whether you're a video creator or a cosplayer or whatever it is

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so if you are somebody who is interested in doing those things or is currently doing those things it's more going to be

• 8:57

about quality and consistency in your content and with that we will move on to

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our basic ranged attack update so I'm going to pass it over to Steven to give some preemptive details before we play

Basic Ranged Attack Update

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our video absolutely thank you um so I want to preface this

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um video and ironically enough I did not actually prep I didn't I know in the

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past I've double preface I Preface on stream and then you hear the same preface in the video so I didn't preface it in the video either which I guess I

• 9:28

probably should have just done it in the video but we recorded this yesterday um it is it is an update to our range

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excuse me combat excuse me and

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as is always remember in context that this is the uh work up towards our Alpha

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two um so with that in mind it is not finished uh there is still much more

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that needs to be done uh both from a visual effects perspective from

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targeting an UI um from the just general look and feel of movement and impact however

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um this will give you a good indication of direction that we have taken since uh our Alpha One test

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um last year and you know something that's that's really important is you guys and I've said this

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in the past many many many times is feedback is important but making sure you contextualize the feedback in the

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things that you enjoy about what you saw as well as the things that you would look to see improvements from based on

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experiences and things you've enjoyed in the past from other games in their ranged combat

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um so in this video we take a look just to set expectations we look at two different types of ranged weapons we

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look at a longbow and we look at a short bow and both of them have very unique

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um of of feel of style one is less

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impactful on movement uh the short bow the other one is more impactful but but it packs a harder hit on the Longbow

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side um it's also a first look that you guys have had at the ranger archetype and of

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course we don't reveal and show everything of the Ranger we don't want to do that and and spoil what's to come

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with Alpha 2 but we pick some abilities that emphasize the role of a ranger right that is mobility and survivability

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um it is heavy damage from a distance um it is the ability to ensnare and root

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um so you get to see some of those things you also get to see an element of

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enemy faction NPC enemy faction um that we fight against and you guys saw some of the concepts uh over the

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past few months Margaret and the community team have shown you guys leading up to this uh the minotaurs you

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get to see some of the Minotaur faction um their their trusty side hounds as

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well that accompany them and you get to see it in an environment that you guys haven't seen before

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um which is uh this foresty area in the riverlands that lead up to a major point

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of Interest called the wreckage of Carphin or carfen Tower um and that is a big uh uh vertical

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dungeon that exists within Alpha two um and it has some significant story I

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also want to point out that you're going to see a little bit of updates to the UI

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um Colby Jeff Nate uh excuse me Natalie um have been doing an incredible job

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um and Drew in in helping to create our new style guide for uh what the UI is

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going to look like in Alpha 2. um you get to see a little sneak peek of the peak of that with some of the HUD and

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some of the journal systems um but remember it's important to give feedback here in twitch on the forums on

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Reddit everywhere possible uh tell us two points right what you liked about what you saw and what you would look to

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improve based on experiences you have in the past and with that let us take a look all right we'll see

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you when we return [Music]

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hello everyone and welcome to another live stream day with an awesome

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Showcase of our basic ranged combat revamp

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excited to be here again showing you guys Ashes of Creation and its current

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progress towards Alpha 2. I have joining me today to Stellar senior designers on

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our team seniors designer Trad and Jeremy how are you guys doing

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I'm doing well I'm just looking forward to showing some of the stuff we've been working on here oh I know it's always

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exciting Jeremy how you doing buddy doing really good really excited to be here really excited to show the stuff

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we've got this time yes and I my first I first saw

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is of course the world just the unbelievably beautiful environments that

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uh the environment team and the design team have just come up with with these

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ruins and this Forest I mean where where are we at right now Jeremy we are in the riverlands and which was

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the former heart of the island Empire so we're among their ruins from a long time

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ago after the fall yeah people saw some of these things um in the weather and Seasons

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um showcase uh so you guys might recognize this stuff but the alien Empire that was one of the largest if

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not the largest Empire at the Town the time of the Apocalypse right right it was at the height of their golden age

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when the uh the fall happened so we are just standing in their ruins now and it is it

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is so cool I always love environments where you have these ancient

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almost artifacts and and just locations that you get to explore

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um it's really compelling yeah is to to make a living breathing world that's an

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actual character of our game Vera should very much feel like a character that has so much history and story behind it uh

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they're like great fantasy worlds of the past and other franchises bearish should

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very much feel like one of those that just hearing the name invokes all kinds of history and character and and living

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breathing and and actually a world that's been in trouble for a long time now and the players are coming back to

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help rescue and recover that I love it and I also love the fact that Chris

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Atkins threw in some slits for this elf's ears to come through oh my gosh

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it's so awesome I feel a lot comfortable they're adorable they are adorable this

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is such a great outfit um I'm loving the cape cloth as well it's very cool so you were mentioning we

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are in an area that is uh relatively dangerous right this is um these aren't

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Elite monsters right but they are still deadly these are looks like a Minotaur

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uh Hunting Party war party that are investigating this area for some reason it looks like some Shaman have have come

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down to this Riverland area and they're checking things out and they

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have some like guard dogs with them they've got some drudgers with them um kind of like reptilian dog kind of

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things that are acting as Lookouts and guards while they're looking around for things oh no oh I'm walking oh God

• 17:22

hold on one second Chad what should I do what should I what what what items or abilities

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uh spam two on one of them take that guy down all right that was a quick shot right

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there um so quick shot is an ability that has three charges

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um and each shot does more damage than the last to the Target that you're attacking you kind of use it as an

• 17:46

opener Alpha strike kind of ability just drop somebody so I have that two back

• 17:52

again the quick shot yep yeah we haven't done like you know all cooldown pass on this or anything so

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you could pretty much just span right now but you've got that oh that guy oh God I have 16 health no no no no

• 18:06

the shaman are not something to mess with there they've got that chart how did we draw so how did I grab so many

• 18:13

they're paying attention Okay the ranged player you have to be aware of your

• 18:20

surrounding I did not I was not aware of my surroundings okay you guys may notice

• 18:26

that I'm not dying right now and I would just like to comment that the stream would not be good if I died

• 18:34

trying to fight these things what am I using here dread uh that would be sniper

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um so unlike quick shot that is an ability that you can press and hold and it kind of roots you in place so it's

• 18:46

you gotta you gotta like use that at the right time but you gotta you do get a lot of payoff if you can pull off the

• 18:52

whole thing um so the longer that you charge it uh the more damage it does I need to get my

• 18:58

some of my health back I I apologize stream I let me just say that whenever

• 19:03

we do these recordings and I am piloting right I have this very well thought out

• 19:11

outline and plan about how things are going to go and somehow something happens and it just

• 19:18

doesn't it doesn't work I don't know why I think when Mike Tyson says everyone has a plan until they're punched in the

• 19:23

face right yeah every now no no plan survives contact with the Enemy um but uh so I didn't I turned on this

• 19:32

cheat code which doesn't let me die if I fall below one hit point so every time you see me dropped one hit point know

• 19:37

that I would have normally just died there and you guys can um you know take a shot of water or

• 19:42

something point for the Minotaur yeah point for the Minotaur okay so uh by the way you

• 19:49

guys are seeing this is early morning here on the the Varan riverlands

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um and you'll see that there's a lot of weather effects that are happening right here there's some there's some pollen

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because we're are in the middle of spring but it's also early morning so we have this fog layer that's rolling

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through of course the Aesthetics of Ashes of creation are very important we've always said that

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game systems makes games fun and the game environment and the

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Aesthetics make it uh make it beautiful and make it immersive so we double down

• 20:25

on both of those but Jeremy talk to me a little bit about these minotaurs who are these minotaurs why are they here so

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these Minotaur well prior to the fall they were kind of uh just a nomadic chaotic race they're a race that really

• 20:39

benefited when the player races left saying are left percentage so they in

• 20:46

the intervening time they've gotten stronger they've kind of found some techniques some help in some ways from

• 20:53

other entities that aren't friendly so they've they've really got organized got

• 20:59

equipped and they're kind of actually excited to see the players come back

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because they want some Revenge so they are looking for ways to uh they

• 21:09

have oral histories and things that tell of these people that um held them down and and hunted them and they're uh

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they're brutally wanting to exact that Revenge could I um I'm gonna cheat here again because I just want to get go up

• 21:23

to them and give people a look at what these minotaurs look like in the game so

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so the terrigora is one of those Clan clans or tribes uh this one's the the

• 21:36

rain caller who uh has uh Essence that kind of evokes water he has water

• 21:43

abilities throws water attacks and makes Shields of of water bubbles around them

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this guy is amazing I love the model work

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Eli's done an amazing job on these and these are just a shaman these are kind

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of the ones that are Divine and have a little bit of a

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connection there there's much bigger ones much more even scarier ones like the Marauders and the Berserkers and

• 22:14

even the Khan oh wow look at that I'm sorry I'm just looking over in the distance and I see

• 22:21

this this giant like Tower structure yeah that's the the Tower of Carphin

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under a curse that is causing a lot of problems for the area too oh you're

• 22:33

right actually I think if we approach up here we actually cross over into the boundary

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of carfen the wreckage of Carphin right it's like sorry and Carphin was a one of the great cities

• 22:47

of the island Empire and it's now and and there we go yes

• 22:53

I see it that my friends that you're seeing off in the distance is gonna is in Alpha two

• 23:00

obviously um and Jeremy tell us a little bit about the tower and it's and what you know

• 23:08

just a little bit not nothing give away too much but just a little bit about the tower what is it what is the tower it

• 23:13

was a focus of the the Mages and study of the alien Empire Carphin was a city that that kind of had

• 23:22

a great Mage population so it had a university there um

• 23:27

and things went bad there during during the last days of the Fall

• 23:32

um they made some desperate measures in a really awesome uh Quest series that um that Scott's

• 23:39

written up and and implementing things awesome so it's it's going to be a

• 23:44

pretty fun tower that was intended for many groups to exist within and fight

• 23:50

now track question what type of weapon am I guess thank you

• 23:57

what type of weapon am I using here this would be the Longbow

• 24:02

um so you can kind of tell like when you're when you're shooting your basic attack that the shots are a little bit

• 24:08

slower but have more power behind them um yeah I really like the model that Atkins threw together for this oh it

• 24:15

looks so good the smoking something Imperium design so what is this bow

• 24:20

makers of the past maybe someone's remembered the techniques to make it it looks so good

• 24:29

like go ahead and uh and hold the button down one thing that we're playing around with this that we haven't done with our

• 24:36

melee weapons is has a contextual Behavior based on if you're tapping the

• 24:41

um just you know pressing the the button versus holding it um so it kind of like snipe you know you

• 24:47

can actually hold these attacks and instead of doing just a rapid fire sorry just Chad one second something happened

• 24:53

these like these little birds just spawned right near me and they're like

• 24:58

eating on the ground if I move will they move I hope so

• 25:06

okay let's see let's find out Birds

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how are you just gonna sit here and let me run around you

• 25:18

what what are they doing they're just kind of they're eating I guess oh no okay wait what do you want me to do this

• 25:24

weapon um hold your Q button and charge up an

• 25:30

attack uh Houston we might have a problem all right ladies and gentlemen get your shots of water ready

• 25:36

we may be uh been a little early I'm so sorry let me see if I can don't worry I've got it perfect I know it's true I

• 25:44

just don't want to give the minute oh yeah what was that did he charge me he

• 25:51

got him continue with those water bolts oh

• 25:57

that's kind of cool so I can jump while shooting this

• 26:05

now just imagine that I have a lot more Health nobody look at the house don't look at my house

• 26:11

what are they shooting at Us Jeremy uh those are from their their casting

• 26:17

this water bowl this really hardened water that's just slamming into you for force damage that hits yeah that's kind

• 26:25

of cool all right Chad I apologize I am now going to appropriately engage from

• 26:31

the correct get the jump on them Physicians okay so something cool about

• 26:37

the Longbow oh now they fly away look at that the birds are flying something cool about the Longbow is that

• 26:44

as opposed to the short bow you are able to actually hold and charge each of the

• 26:49

basic attacks is that correct yep and doing so what does that do for

• 26:55

the weapon user uh currently it's just a damage increase but you know some we can do all sorts of

• 27:01

things with this later like you know charging it up longer than you can set

• 27:07

up some kind of status effect combo there's all kinds of things that we can do with it but yeah right now

• 27:13

um it just increases the damage so for example one thing you could do is you could do two basic shots and then charge

• 27:18

the final shot and that will give you like a big spike of damage there at the end so oh that's cool be charged

• 27:25

individually wow that's pretty cool and now we have some abilities that we

• 27:30

talked about these are from the ranger archetype of course we're not going to show everything that the ranger has but

• 27:35

we are going to give you guys some ideas of the abilities in its kit um what is this first ability called

• 27:43

This is snipe yeah this is snipe um this is the one I was talking about earlier where it's

• 27:49

kind of like the basic attack but a lot more powerful you can hold this and when you see that little flash there at the

• 27:56

end that indicates that it's fully charged that's a strong ability yeah you can keep holding it in case you

• 28:02

want to like you know wait for the Target to get low before you you know bring them down if they're getting healed all kinds of things I can do but

• 28:08

at a certain point it stops um getting charged oh that's cool

• 28:20

now the what happens let's get into that environment where I'm getting chased by

• 28:26

a few creatures see if I can find a couple more because

• 28:31

I know there's another ability we have called airstrike which is kind of cool

• 28:37

see really cool so now let's say for example as the

• 28:43

ranger I have these creatures and this melee guy is on me and I want to reposition

• 28:50

tell me a little bit about what airstrike does airstrike turns a lot of things

• 28:58

moving character and the direction that you're facing and it brings three projectiles down in the path that you're

• 29:04

going um and each of those projectiles does damage

• 29:12

foreign but it's it's definitely up there

• 29:19

yeah that ability is so rad I love using

• 29:25

it you can see it's generally nature Essence to cause roots to come up and

• 29:30

bind to grab the minute timer and now this quick shot ability by the

• 29:37

way that um I see it has a debuff that looks like the quick shot icon on the target what's

• 29:45

that doing uh that so basically each shot of quick shot will increase the damage of the

• 29:51

next application of that specific attack against the against the target so it

• 29:57

kind of encourages to unload all three of your charges for a big spike of burst damage but that does come at the cost of

• 30:03

each charge comes back individually so you either have to wait a longer period of time to get that burst or you can

• 30:10

just kind of weave them in here and there if you want more readily available damage got it that's super cool

• 30:16

so I have here now a reticle on my screen so we've

• 30:21

switched from tab Target mode which is a point and click with the cursor or using tab to cycle targets

• 30:28

based on proximity priority right and into this reticle-based mode

• 30:35

which now you can see the targeting plate in the top is slightly grayed out

• 30:42

and we do that to demonstrate that that is a soft lock Target versus a hard lock

• 30:47

Target and what a soft flock Target is Chad you want to explain a little bit about that

• 30:54

sure yeah so if you if you are in action mode and you don't have a Target actually selected like you would in a

• 31:00

tab Target game um then it'll just smartly choose whatever Target it thinks is the most

• 31:06

appropriate for where your camera is and attack that Target but if you were to actually select a Target I think is it

• 31:14

right Mouse button in action mode right right now it's of course all this stuff is customizable by the user but if you

• 31:21

press the the right Mouse button in action mode it will hard lock the

• 31:27

target which means you can take your reticle off the Target and it won't change correct Chad right

• 31:33

that's awesome now we have another type of ranged weapon

• 31:40

show oh and I can still while in action mode I can still tap to cycle Target as well

• 31:51

yeah we really wanted to um a more tab based combat here because we

• 31:57

in the last live stream all of our melee attacks were there were more hitboxes right they didn't acquire a hard target

• 32:04

and so we wanted to show a little bit more of that in the Stream and so you know right right here for example Target

• 32:11

you're not having amulettical or anything like that it's more what you are online

• 32:19

but at the same time we still have abilities like airstrike and you know other things that were we haven't even

• 32:25

shown yet that are going to be more action oriented so hopefully we hit The Sweet Spot of having a nice combination

• 32:31

with all that and it's more fun I've played Rangers in EQ eq2 the great

• 32:37

Archer types and Guild Wars and hunters and wow and went into this mode with the

• 32:42

reticle and stuff it's just fun running around shooting these guys oh it is super fun and I've switched over to the short bow now so let me see if I can

• 32:49

show off that short bow into a good light one second

• 32:57

um I'll exit this Moon there we go so now I have a short bow

• 33:03

equipped versus the excuse me versus the longbow

• 33:08

and talk to me a little bit about the difference in the short bow tread sure yeah the direction that we went

• 33:15

with the short bow was a lot more I almost want to say acrobatic like you can use this a lot

• 33:23

more freely movement it doesn't slow you as much it's a higher rate of fire

• 33:28

basically this is this is the more mobile feeling lightweight uh version of

• 33:34

the longbow um so it's not quite as powerful um because you are trade you're you're

• 33:39

making some trade-offs here um with range and attack speed and I do

• 33:45

think right now we're actually putting a higher current rate on this one so it's got the first potential but these are

• 33:51

just the kinds of decisions [Music] who do I value

• 33:59

I love the the movement of that yeah I think I mean it is a very different feeling right

• 34:05

um one I'm much more mobile being able to shoot and not have to sacrifice a lot of my movement speed like I had to but

• 34:13

long ago so just from that aspect alone it feels like a very different weapon I'm also not able to charge I'm just

• 34:20

kind of I'm holding down the attack and it's just firing a bunch you'll see that I can blindfire because I'm in action

• 34:25

mode um that's why I'm like fire an extra there but it is it feels very different

• 34:33

um and of course it doesn't change the way you have access to your abilities your abilities are there regardless of

• 34:38

the the type of range weapon necessarily you're using um short bow or longbow

• 34:45

and then I don't have to have a hard target lock also now for the abilities either either tie off of the reticle

• 34:55

and I know there's some feedback that we wanted to collect from players with regards to this demonstration you want

• 35:00

to talk a little bit about that trend yeah um as always every time we make an

• 35:07

ability we're pretty much always thinking about what is what is the right balance between

• 35:14

um restricting player movement for the sake of weight um you know getting getting the feeling

• 35:19

of the weight in that day being able to animate the full body all the good things that come along with you know

• 35:27

um restricting movement but at the same time we definitely don't want to be a

• 35:32

game that makes it frustrating to you know attack and at the same time and a

• 35:37

lot of people you know what I think a lot a lot of people love the MMOs is the

• 35:42

feeling those changes in Freedom in combat and we want to retain that so uh

• 35:48

just as you see these abilities go off and get used in this environment like I

• 35:55

guess we appreciate any feedback on how that direction is going absolutely yeah

• 36:03

so from the enemy side yes and asking on behalf of like Doug's encounter group

• 36:08

it's how fast is the combat playing um is it too slow is it too fast does it

• 36:16

feel good um the time to kill or what you're seeing right now are is it

• 36:22

uh what what players are liking do people like and and keep in mind these are our

• 36:28

solo ones right now these are uh tuned more for solo fighting um these aren't Elite group mobs but

• 36:35

one-on-one type of fights yeah I like um in the solo areas you

• 36:43

know this for me this speed feels pretty good uh given that I'm a you know DPS class and these guys are particularly

• 36:51

susceptible to Rangers because they are um they are uh Mage class NPCs but you

• 36:59

know getting your guys's opinion on those things also the differences between the weapon types right we talked

• 37:05

a little bit about the Longbow we talked a little bit about the short bow um you know being able to kind of uh

• 37:10

give us feedback on how you feel the direction uh has gone now uh is this the type of ranged combat you're looking for

• 37:17

those of you out there especially who are bow users and enjoy these classes you know what is it about the games that

• 37:24

you have played that you felt had good uh range combat uh in it and are you

• 37:29

seeing elements of that demonstrated in this type of combat as well I can tell you that obviously seeing it is one

• 37:36

thing in Alpha two the those of you who have access will be able to give us kind of your feel feedback and you know of

• 37:44

course that's not under NDA so all of us get to watch and participate in Alpha 2 um through through watching others play

• 37:52

it and and getting their feedback and experiences as well um another thing that I think is is

• 37:58

pretty cool that I wanted to talk about actually was these weapons and the types of skill

• 38:08

trees that they have associated with them Trey do you want to talk to us a little bit about you know how these skill trees interact with the weapon

• 38:16

for sure yeah um part of the plan with each of these weapons is they'll each have a unique

• 38:21

skill tree associated with them to differentiate them not only in terms of

• 38:27

feel but also in terms of mechanics and an important thing that we really want

• 38:33

to capture in ashes is is the important ability um basically consider the player can

• 38:39

build their character you know how they want and that it's been beyond just their classrooms right

• 38:44

so for example if I'm the ranger I can spec into my short bow or I can inspect

• 38:50

into my Longbow and those will be two different very different builds for example maybe Specialized or have have a part of

• 38:58

its stream that specializes and leads might synergize with specific Ranger

• 39:03

abilities that you know the Longbow um might not necessarily synthetize with their weapon choice will play into like

• 39:11

what abilities

• 39:16

that is starting to scratch the surfaces up and you would also want to take into account

• 39:23

the enemies you're going up against what areas you're going into what enemies you're hunting and is it a player versus

• 39:29

uh a monster players very differently and there's a longbow

• 39:35

getting the drop on them important are you respect for short bow for being

• 39:41

dodgy and moving around them you got all those things to keep in mind absolutely

• 39:46

well guys appreciate you joining us today to talk about this stuff it is amazing that the the world you guys are

• 39:53

building the the mechanics here I hope everyone in the audience has enjoyed the demonstration uh talk to us give us your

• 39:59

feedback tell us what you liked about it uh what you would like to see changed uh make sure you do so on the YouTube video

• 40:05

and twitch on Reddit on our forums everywhere you possibly can it means so much to us to be able to kind of reflect

• 40:11

on what the community has to say about the works in progress we're showing you towards Alpha 2.

• 40:17

um Jeremy Trad thank you very much for joining it is always appreciated hearts in chat these guys are awesome yes you

• 40:27

guys are doing awesome uh awesome work and I'm loving the progress and I'm loving sharing with you guys I know you

• 40:33

and everyone else on the team who make these streams possible enjoys it and with that said everyone we will see

• 40:41

you back on stream thanks everyone

• 40:46

a good one

• 40:54

well we hope you all enjoyed it seems like there's a lot of mostly hearts and chat mostly happy I know there are some

• 41:00

questions and concerns that you all had and I'm going to try to address some of them we can't be here all day so we

• 41:06

can't answer every question but it seemed like there was a little bit of confusion in regards to our hybrid

• 41:12

combat system and how that's going to work basically what are the advantages and disadvantages of using tab or action

• 41:18

when it comes to being arranged or I mean we showcased a little bit of that in the melee as well but if you want to

• 41:24

kind of address that I think our hardcore fans probably know but I think there's a lot of new viewers who are watching today

• 41:30

absolutely so you know part of what we're exploring with this approach of our hybrid combat

• 41:37

is offering the player the functionality um to utilize either tab targeting or a

• 41:43

reticle-based action camera mode um and you know there are benefits to to each um and both of them are kind of

• 41:51

providing the player what they feel most comfortable with playing ads

• 41:57

um you know all of our attacks are going to be stat opposed unless they're a templated attack right in which case

• 42:04

there will be certain bonuses and or uh Stronger applied chances uh for certain

• 42:10

types of CC effects to be applied um or potential excuse me

• 42:17

um or potentially evasion and accuracy aspects of it these are all things that we plan to to test throughout Alpha two

• 42:24

um to kind of see where the player base lives in those two options of their of their action or or tap Target based

• 42:31

attack modes um you know the the important part here is that like this is this is still a

• 42:37

work in progress right this is meant to give you kind of a look at where our approach has has now been living over

• 42:43

the past several months when it comes to combat based off of what we learned in

• 42:48

Alpha One what player feedback has been along the way and how we can

• 42:54

um uh create a compelling system of of combat between these very different

• 43:00

classes and weapon types um and and that is that is something that I think as you guys see now our

• 43:06

progress towards range combat to me it's feeling really good I I'm enjoying playing it I like the feeling of of

• 43:12

getting in and um and taking these shots with these bows I love the sound I'm loving the environment I'm loving the

• 43:19

impact hits on the creatures there's a lot of work still to be done on visual effects on on more sound and and kind of

• 43:27

on um you know these abilities and how they flow but things are feeling fluid they're not cumbersome you're not having

• 43:33

to stand still and be rooted in place and you know you still keep a lot of the agency even between tab Target or action

• 43:40

combat mode both of them are letting the player move freely throughout uh their

• 43:45

attacks all right and then um I think from the video perspective

• 43:51

you did try to explain a little bit of this but uh kind of a clear understanding of how the auto attack Works versus like the abilities and how

• 43:59

you see those things intertwining how you see people using the auto attacks versus the abilities obviously the ones

• 44:06

here didn't have cooldowns as Trad said but um in the future they will yeah absolutely so it's important to note

• 44:13

that auto attacks in previous MMOs that many of us have played kind of serve as

• 44:19

a filler between rotations um and as your rotation's gone cool down

• 44:25

you go to your fellow filler Auto attacks that's not the intent in Ashes of Creation Ashes of Creation has

• 44:32

separate and bespoke um weapons skill trees that you develop

• 44:38

over time when you gain experience uh in using these particular weapon types these weapon groups and those skill

• 44:46

trees provide a lot of of Versatility both horizontal and vertical power

• 44:52

progression sorry do you hear the doorbell in the background yeah we all do everyone in chat's like pizza's here

• 44:59

I'm so sorry guys this is unintended and unexpected for me to be here

• 45:05

um uh for the stream yes come on in I'm sorry

• 45:11

I'm so sorry guys um but anyways the weapon skill trees are intended to provide a lot of synergy

• 45:18

between your rotational abilities and the weapon type that you've chosen

• 45:24

um and as you progress you're going to be able to influence things like number of attacks speed of those attacks procs

• 45:31

that occur on those attacks status conditions that can be applied to the Target based on these basic attacks and

• 45:37

then when you see those things proc and happen on the target that's when you use

• 45:43

certain rotational abilities in your class kit to complement those proc

• 45:48

effects right so you're you're watching out you might get a telegraph through animation maybe your character does an

• 45:54

odd type of release on the on the weapon uh animation Attack and that tells you

• 46:00

oh I'm procking on this attack let me now go use this ability that has a 30 upswing on power or damage because

• 46:07

they're under under a certain status effect that's granted by my my weapon ability

• 46:14

all right and then we had a question from yoga who is asking will Rangers be uh

• 46:22

required to carry arrows and I saw a lot of other people asking about uh will we have arrows or will Crafters have to

• 46:28

craft arrows things of that sort just um you so we are not tracking ammunition

• 46:34

in the game um I'm not sure how much that brings um to gameplay uh not much usually it's

• 46:42

just a cumbersome tracking that you have to do I I kind of attribute it to

• 46:48

similarly in tabletop RPGs when I have to have my players track their bolts or

• 46:54

their arrows you know how many they've used and I used to be a real Stiffler on the uh the DM side of it where you know

• 47:01

especially at low levels where they would fire an attack release an arrow in D and D or in Pathfinder or something

• 47:06

and if they miss they would roll a 50 chance of whether they could recover the ammunition I know Stephen I've been

• 47:13

there I was one of those people you did this to me sometimes that's fun

• 47:18

if the party's low but no I'm sorry an MMO gameplay it just doesn't make sense it's not that interesting we are however

• 47:25

with that being said we are thinking about unique

• 47:30

um Buffs that can be applied to your uh weapons uh that are on a per instance

• 47:36

basis of the attack so for example you might have a quiver that you can activate on a cooldown

• 47:43

and that quiver might apply some type of Rider effect on the basic weapon attack

• 47:49

that you have equipped or you might have some type of alchemical consumable that

• 47:57

applies it to your melee weapon those I think are interesting because they add an element of horizontal gameplay

• 48:04

um depending on the adversary you're facing or the challenge you're up against all right and the next question here is

• 48:11

our Bose hit scan or projectile based they are projectile based and then we

• 48:17

have oh go ahead you'll notice that in the video uh when I switch to the action

• 48:24

combat uh reticle mode I was able to fire the bow uh as a blind fire

• 48:31

um and I didn't need to have a Target in order to do that that's one of the differences between Tab and action

• 48:37

combat mode is that you can launch projectiles in the action combat mode as

• 48:42

a blindfire option and if a Target or if something moves in the way between time

• 48:50

um between the time of that projectile launching and impacting uh uh it's either max distance or a piece of

• 48:56

terrain or another Target it's possible that players might move into that um uh into their projectile range yeah

• 49:03

and you saw like the projectile sitting on like whatever it landed on for a little drop it there too which is really

• 49:09

cool um I forwarded it to the to show the case that as you were talking about it so hopefully that lined up with what he

• 49:16

was saying um and then we have from Valiant salad which is just a hilarious name to begin with I love it

• 49:22

um they asked if a ranger doesn't have a bow equipped can they still use their air strike like would they still be able

• 49:28

to use certain abilities even if they didn't have their bow equipped some abilities will require that certain pieces of equipment are equipped

• 49:36

um that's true for melee abilities like a shield bash requiring a shield to be equipped or certain ranged abilities

• 49:41

requiring a ranged weapon to be equipped as well um it's important to note that as part of the Ashes of Creation paper doll you

• 49:48

have a melee main hand an offhand slot and then you have a ranged slot as well

• 49:54

so you don't have to switch between weapons per se if you execute an ability that requires a ranged weapon but you

• 50:01

have your melee weapon out it will automatically swap to the range rep and use the Ability and then back to your

• 50:07

melee weapon for your basic attack should you choose and then you can select which weapon you want to have

• 50:12

available your melee or your range for the basic attack and you can swap between those two even in combat um but

• 50:18

they're they're still equipped one other thing I want to point out about ranged combat and projectile based Action

• 50:24

Target mode is take for example a situation in a Siege where you might be

• 50:29

on top of a wall um and you might acquire a Target through tab that you see and by the way

• 50:36

when you're in reticle mode you can still use tab to cycle through hard targets you have this differential

• 50:42

between soft target lock and hard target lock Hard Target tracks the target when even if you're in reticle mode it tracks

• 50:49

that Target you can use abilities against that Target as if you were in tab mode and if you have let's say

• 50:56

you're on that wall and you're shooting down at enemies who are just out of range you can fire those projectile

• 51:02

miles off at the ground and if they move within range and in that area they'll be impacted by the projectile

• 51:09

all right and then it's no me wants to know can you swap the bow in between your combos uh like if you're doing

• 51:16

quick shot and swap to a different uh bow to maximize mobility and DPS

• 51:21

yeah so you can always hot weapon swap um even in combat but you can't swap your armor and gear

• 51:28

um nothing that's in a hand or range slot um if you're in combat all right and then another e98 wants to

• 51:35

know how is a melee supposed to catch up to a ranger running away from them if they're full speed so like if a Rangers

• 51:41

lost my super mobile what are the melees options in order to catch them it

• 51:46

depends on the melee user right um obviously different class kits will provide different Gap closers they'll

• 51:53

provide different Mobility skills they'll have lockdowns they'll have chains to pull back they'll have a lot

• 51:58

of different things in the rotation right um you know that's part of what an MMORPG

• 52:04

experience is you're not just restricted to three or six skills you know you have a rotational suite and depending on the

• 52:12

type of challenges you face is going to help determine which of those rotations you spec into from your skill tree if

• 52:19

you're having problems against Rangers because they're constantly getting away then it's probably a good idea for you

• 52:24

to spec into abilities that lock the Target down that give you Mobility or that allow you to have a Zone control

• 52:33

within the battlefield all right um and then folks were wondering do I

• 52:39

have to have a Target in my Crosshair to use snipe or quick shot

• 52:44

um for for abilities it depends on the ability

• 52:49

if the ability requires a Target yes you will be required to have a Target even in the action mode if the ability

• 52:56

however is a templated attack such as a line attack or AOE attack a cone attack

• 53:03

those will not require you to have a Target you can fire those anticipating movement of an individual or Target

• 53:09

within the zone of of effect and then um

• 53:15

I think there was questions in regards to um the bow and the or the Longbow versus

• 53:21

the short bow are there different ranges damages like what's the difference between the two of them yeah I mean the

• 53:29

cool thing about our approach for weapons within Ashes of Creation is that

• 53:35

weapons don't ju they're not just stat sticks right they have different feels as was demonstrated both in the melee

• 53:44

examples with the Great Sword and the daggers as well as now with the Longbow and the short bow these changes can be

• 53:52

pacing they could be speed they can be critical rates they can be critical

• 53:57

damage they can be base damage values they can be um separate effects like the Longbow has

• 54:04

a charge up on its basic attack whereas the short Pro doesn't um there's more Motion in the great

• 54:10

sword and then there is necessarily in the daggers you know the idea is because

• 54:16

each weapon type has an Associated weapon tree for progression we almost

• 54:23

want each of these weapon groups to feel distinct in the way they play and because of that it touches a lot of

• 54:29

different aspects of a combat for them

• 54:35

um and I think the last one is kind of I see a lot of conversation in regards to this is um what and I know you talked about a

• 54:41

little earlier about what the benefits are for Tab versus um action I feel like a lot of people

• 54:48

feel like tab is just easier so why would I use you know uh action so I don't know if

• 54:54

you want to kind of go into a little bit more detail about the benefits of one over the other so we talked a little bit

• 54:59

about the ability to Blind fire not requiring a Target in order to shoot right that's one of the benefits um and

• 55:07

the differences you know what do you mean by that too is that you can shoot without having to have a Target in

• 55:12

regard for Action combat but that doesn't mean it's gonna like help Beacon honing go find the target so keep that

• 55:20

in mind folks right so that that is a component um the the other thing is you know a lot

• 55:25

of it can be playstyle as well um you know different players prefer different modes of combat

• 55:32

um and for a lot of action players having that reticle having the camera tied um to the movement of the curse or the

• 55:38

movement of the of the mouse that is an element that they want to incorporate if

• 55:44

you were to ask me do we lean more towards tab or more towards action in the past I've always said we lean more

• 55:50

towards tap targeting but that doesn't mean there is not a playstyle of action

• 55:55

that provides the user um some benefits to it now there are

• 56:00

some downsides to it as well um and those downsides might be that if you're in a massive brawl the ability to

• 56:06

pick and choose targets that are far in the back line that might might be more advantageous towards tab Target users

• 56:13

because they're able to click but the reaction time to acquire a target for a cursor versus acquiring a target for a

• 56:20

reticle is much faster and less cumbersome because it doesn't require as many actions on behalf of the user such

• 56:26

as finding the nameplate clicking on it to acquire the target then activating the ability whereas with a reticle

• 56:32

option all you need to do is Orient your camera towards that Target and fire off the missile or fire off the attack

• 56:39

um you know that is a component as well I think we'd be here all day if we

• 56:44

answered all the questions but we do have a forum thread over on our forums uh if you go to

• 56:50

forms.ashesofcreation.com we do have a basic range attack updates uh thread over there please head on over there

• 56:56

give us our feedback Steven specifically is asking for things that you liked so from looking at this video what are the

• 57:02

things that you like from it and then also telling us your experience from other games or or experiences in regards

• 57:08

to arranger classes that you would like to see and experience in Ashes of Creation and both of those pieces we

• 57:14

will be putting together a report and sending that over to our development team so that they can take that into

• 57:19

consideration as they move forward obviously they will make the decisions they want for the game that they're making but we always like to hear your

• 57:25

guys's feedback and take that into account when we're creating things and making sure that we're all on the same page in regards to what we're wanting to

• 57:33

do um so with that I think we're gonna move on to the character art stuff unless you have anything else you want to add

• 57:39

Stephen no just everything you said right providing that feedback is very

• 57:44

important um give us your thoughts analyze the video talk about the things you like and the things you dislike

• 57:50

um talk about you know make sure to include both it's very important that we understand um where the strengths lie and where the

• 57:57

feedback is important right um so make sure you guys are doing that on we're going to be uploading this to

• 58:03

YouTube shortly after the stream you I think you guys already did that uh Margaret yeah I'm prepared and that'll

• 58:09

go live that'll be in 4k so you get to see the full glory of the map and the environment and and you can um you can

• 58:16

just see I mean really it is it is awe-inspiring the the the talent of artistry that we have on this team and

• 58:23

and um it's always fun to see oh my gosh are we just give you the cacophony of

• 58:29

noises from your from here hotel room um we'll move on to our character update

Character Art Update

• 58:36

then uh some of which you've seen some of the things in game but we will switch over there so first yeah first and

• 58:44

foremost we have the these lovely um snake folk this is a najash tribe

• 58:51

which is pretty cool definitely check them out I'm excited for you guys to see these when they

• 58:56

animate it's going to be really cool they're in a t-pose obviously we show a lot of our models in these states

• 59:03

um but yes very very cool this is something that

• 59:08

Danny worked on which looks awesome I'm excited to fight them you guys will have

• 59:14

to tell us what kind of abilities you'd like to see them having next up we have our living statue night

• 59:22

and I have a couple different versions of this so you can see them but this is from Eli you can kind of see them falling apart too the pieces of them

• 59:28

which is really cool and then also when they're all combined into one piece

• 59:34

but very neat welcome back we're looking at the living

• 59:39

statue we just finished looking at the Josh tribe uh loving These Guys these

• 59:45

will be a lot of fun um did you talk about the placement and and kind of Origins

• 59:52

I have not for this or or these guys if you want to go over that stuff so these

• 59:58

are where the living statues we're talking about uh well we went over the snake folks and then uh also

• 1:00:03

so um obviously as you guys know the the world is is Rich with um

• 1:00:11

um with history and lore and and part of this is enemy factions and you're seeing with the najash

• 1:00:18

um these there's some there's some stories behind this that you'll experience in Alpha 2 um with these creatures and

• 1:00:24

understanding kind of their origin where they came from where they inhabit now um there's a deep city that has been

• 1:00:32

um um destroyed but also preserved under a significant amount of magma

• 1:00:39

um and it's it's really it is a really fun um fun idea but these are examples of a

• 1:00:46

of an NPC faction right so you're not just gonna see we talked about this in the past you're seeing the models now they're not always going to be cobras

• 1:00:52

some are going to be um rattlesnakes some are going to be uh you know mambas they're going to be

• 1:00:57

different variants that are represented as part of these serpent races um and then lastly it's working on this

• 1:01:04

one oh perfect okay and then lastly you see that um

• 1:01:09

the living statue that has um uh essentially these are were once

• 1:01:17

protectors that got turned into um adversaries uh and you'll be facing

• 1:01:23

them as you kind of progress throughout the ruins of the of the Ancient World um that once inhabited uh uh Vera uh and

• 1:01:30

they're they're gonna have some unique and interesting animations um that that almost look you know my my

• 1:01:37

desire for these is that they almost feel a bit cumbersome in their movement a bit stop-motiony kind of

• 1:01:45

um I think that's going to look pretty cool so we'll see how animation deals with that I love it they look pretty sick so I'm

• 1:01:51

excited to see that come to fruition Eli did a great job oh yeah and then we've got our zombie

• 1:01:58

shambler you know moving ourselves into the October realm of things uh this is

• 1:02:04

by gin C which looks awesome I believe I have a turntable for them I

• 1:02:09

do I do if you don't like creepy stuff I'm sorry but look at her tummies

• 1:02:17

yes you can't you can't have a good fantasy

• 1:02:23

without some good on debt and these guys are definitely compelling

• 1:02:28

especially if you consider the atmospherics and the zone that they'll be placed and the the you know creepy

• 1:02:36

nature of their surroundings also as many of you guys know we like to play a

• 1:02:42

lot with ground uh based NPCs having them kind of unseeable and if you walk

• 1:02:48

past maybe a grave or something their hand comes out and grabs you like you

• 1:02:54

know those are those are fun yeah a little surprise a little you know shocker for you and we have these

• 1:03:02

ghostly um armor Folk

• 1:03:07

which I think I have uh images of the armors too but

• 1:03:13

very very neat yeah these guys look good I think did

• 1:03:19

Keith do these I believe Keith did them yep yeah these guys are pretty cool

• 1:03:25

um you don't see it here but there are bodies that are spectral uh or

• 1:03:31

ethereal in nature um they will have some effects that kind of pulsate glow and move

• 1:03:39

um to kind of show that more ethereal aspect of them um I think they'll uh they're going to

• 1:03:44

look pretty good yeah they already look pretty awesome and then we Priscilla one

• 1:03:49

of our newer artists created the Sable tooth which is the Little Cub from one

• 1:03:55

of our previous sets they're cute oh I love these guys

• 1:04:04

those are great so if you got that you'll this is a little pet that you'll get and you'll see these in the world

• 1:04:10

too sorry it looks like it looks like a mix between a quarter weird lion

• 1:04:17

you've got that longer body or maybe it's like a liger it yeah it was kind of like going with the Corgi butt like

• 1:04:23

short legs but like the tiger body that was kind of what I think this is one I designed before with the witherings

• 1:04:31

yeah I like them and then of course we had the shaman that you saw in games

• 1:04:36

Steven kind of like showed you a close-up but like you saw the concepts last month the concerts were pretty sick

• 1:04:43

but then you see how good they look like the models are just badass and then you

• 1:04:48

get to see them in game with the lighting too and our artist Stephen always says and I think we've reiterated

• 1:04:53

a million times just from concept to fruition just like I mean it's stunning

• 1:04:58

so absolutely

• 1:05:04

but I know sometimes it's fun to see the full 3d because it's hard to see it when you're in game sometimes because we're

• 1:05:10

running around doing things I know I tried to give a nice little close-up shot for it yeah in the level I

• 1:05:17

cheated a little bit there too I turned myself friendly with the monsters you switch sides how dare you

• 1:05:25

and then of course this is uh one of the Shields and I think there's a staff as

• 1:05:30

well that Chris made yeah spear not a staff

• 1:05:38

and then I think we have an image of I don't have it in here then we're going

• 1:05:44

to show you we've shown you the empyrean concepts and I believe last time we

• 1:05:49

showed you just the head model for them but um now you're seeing the model the

• 1:05:55

full we're going to show you the full model for the Imperium so this is

• 1:06:02

the female this is the male and obviously you'll have customization options with your characters these are

• 1:06:09

just kind of like the starting point for where we're going with them the vibe yeah there'll be of course you

• 1:06:15

guys have seen their character creator and it's a work in progress altitude State

• 1:06:21

um but there will be lots of customization options um many of which are very specific uh

• 1:06:26

like the types of tattoos and hairstyles right um but there's a lot there's a lot there

• 1:06:32

these are the base base models um Chris did I think it was Atkins right

• 1:06:37

did it yeah I think this is Chris yeah yeah did a great job revamping these with Manny doing some of

• 1:06:44

the concept and helping bring a little bit of stylization to the models which he's done a great job with that which

• 1:06:50

you all saw before and give us tons of feedback on so we'll we've definitely been incorporating some of that next up

• 1:06:56

we have the klar speaking of Manny these are Concepts so keep that in mind these

• 1:07:01

are Concepts that we're showing for the next two so this is kind of the direction we're going for the klar last

• 1:07:07

time you got to see the velune which was kind of our first reveal of the new Valiant look and renkai and some of

• 1:07:12

those things so if you didn't watch that definitely go check out our previous updates we always kind of share a little

• 1:07:18

progression as we go forward but um this is the kind of the direction for the Kayla which is very different from

• 1:07:25

the velune yes absolutely I mean this is

• 1:07:30

more traditional humans right uh that's present in the games we come to love and

• 1:07:36

expect um and the velune we talked a little bit about in the past is having a more gen ancestry that's going to be more

• 1:07:43

pronounced in their models when you guys get to see that in the future um a little bit more Arcane elements to

• 1:07:49

them um so it's like a mixture of gin and human which I think would be interesting

• 1:07:54

which they look beautiful they're stunning if you didn't see that highly recommend going back and watching our

• 1:08:00

update from last month and then of course we have the nikuen and

• 1:08:06

um this is their male and female Concepts you've seen a couple different Renditions of them

• 1:08:11

um I know Steven has continually gone back and forth with the artist in regards to the new direction for some of

• 1:08:17

these races so I don't know if you want to talk a little bit about this because this is a little a little different than what they've seen in the past again

• 1:08:24

concept um yeah absolutely I mean

• 1:08:30

um you know we've talked about it in the past we wanted to take a little bit of a different approach

• 1:08:35

um Manny's been doing a great job in adding some stylization elements into these into these uh player character

• 1:08:40

races um and you know this these are the types of of differences we want to have

• 1:08:47

between our two different Dwarven influenced um uh player character races uh and

• 1:08:54

there's a lot here that's inspired from Polynesian culture um which I think has been captured very

• 1:08:59

well as part of the uh uh the concepts that mayonnaise revamped and it's going

• 1:09:05

to be awesome to see these come into model form yeah they're looking really cool

• 1:09:10

so we have a lot of different varieties um between all of our races so we hope that you all have been enjoying seeing

• 1:09:18

the progression of them you're getting to kind of follow along the Journey of creating these races I don't think you

• 1:09:24

know most games you're not you don't get to see the progression and have feedback along the way and see all the different

• 1:09:30

iterations of the races that they take whereas like here you're actually getting to see that it's a lot more work than you think and then on top of that

• 1:09:36

you don't even want to know how many animations per every single one has to go and the teams have to do so much work

• 1:09:43

in regards to that when it comes to combat because you have to think about the transition from when you're standing to when you go into combat and then all

• 1:09:50

the different moves that you're doing and the transitions between those it gets a little crazy but we appreciate

• 1:09:55

you all being patient with us and following our journey and we're really just trying to make a game that we're all going to love and play and enjoy for

• 1:10:02

years to come absolutely and it's and it's been as you said such a a great experience having

• 1:10:09

you guys along um this journey with us um it isn't something as Margaret said

• 1:10:14

that a lot of people have an opportunity to watch the development of um in real time and you guys can go back you know

• 1:10:20

part of the the luxury of having this transparent development process is you get to go back and look at what they

• 1:10:26

were uh back in the day versus what they are today and how they progressed and that's always a fun experience it'll be

• 1:10:33

cool when we do each of the races when we do videos for each of them we show like the first rendition of them back in

• 1:10:39

like when you first started to now it's gonna be so cool to see the the changes from them

• 1:10:44

I can't I'm I'm you know every now and then I I think of and I kind of

• 1:10:49

storyboard in my mind out the journey from there to here you know yeah

• 1:10:56

create that kind of experience as a video and boy is that gonna be one crazy

• 1:11:01

undertaking to make that and show everyone who hasn't been part of this journey with us but will come when the

• 1:11:08

game launches that they get to look back and say wow you know this is where they came from this is this is the iteration

• 1:11:16

time this is how things changed over time and just to see that is uh is

• 1:11:21

really is really interesting I think is really it's fun yeah and of course uh

• 1:11:28

we're gonna talk a little bit of our studio update so I'll kind of hand it over to you Stephen if you want to talk a little bit about that and then we'll

Studio Update

• 1:11:34

get into our final q a from the forums and we'll be wrapping up today's stream so we appreciate you all bearing with us

• 1:11:40

because it's a long one yeah the the studio update's pretty short and sweet um you know we we are

• 1:11:46

we're keeping our heads down right now working towards Alpha two um there's been a lot of great progress on the design engineering and art teams

• 1:11:54

um towards that end um a lot of

• 1:11:59

we picked up some good hires this month um We are continuing to have open positions on our website which the

• 1:12:05

community team has posts updates for um uh every now and then across our socials uh make sure to help us spread

• 1:12:12

that word um and you know I think come the end of the year and the beginning of next year

• 1:12:18

we're going to have another significant hiring push uh again to bring on a lot of more talented uh artists engineers

• 1:12:25

and designers on the team um and you know I couldn't be more happy with with the state of of development

• 1:12:33

right now for the game things are in a in the best place they've been uh since

• 1:12:39

we started this journey yeah you've been on a long journey at the same time it's like you blink in

• 1:12:46

and spend I'm like I've almost been here for four years it's crazy I know I'm still I and I love it obviously I'm

• 1:12:52

still here so if that's a good education um but yeah we have our q a so if you

Outro and Q&A

• 1:12:59

submitted form questions your answer might be answered but if it doesn't get answered here we also do answer a lot of

• 1:13:05

our questions um over on the forums or we direct you to where you can get the answers from

• 1:13:11

um my team is amazing Brian Cody do a fantastic job Cody goes through every

• 1:13:17

single question that you submit so probs to vacnar and give him some love if you haven't

• 1:13:23

yet because he reads every single comment in that thread so first up we has jesber uh from uh talking about

• 1:13:31

weapon animations and the question is how will animations work while dual wielding weapons of a a different type

• 1:13:38

for example an ax and a dagger or B different weapon speeds

• 1:13:43

yeah so um dual weapons will have their own animation sets

• 1:13:49

um and most of those will be based there will be a limited selection of which weapons can be dual weapons right

• 1:13:56

players will make that selection they'll create those dual weapons as as bespoke single items that when equipped will

• 1:14:03

occupy both the main and offhand um and then how we handle the tax feeds is

• 1:14:10

we offer animations at a particular speed and then we adjust that with a modifier based on uh whatever is

• 1:14:16

influencing that either increase or slow down in speed all right and then our next question is

• 1:14:22

from leoloni from this uh from the forums as well and wanting to know about Summoner and archetypes so Summoner has

• 1:14:29

been said to fill in the gaps in a party's role composition what exactly does that mean in practice are they

• 1:14:34

capable of specking to be peer DPS pure heels or pure tank or instead are they

• 1:14:40

supposed to be doing all three at a lesser level as needed it depends on the summon that they

• 1:14:48

bring out um they will have a variety down

• 1:14:53

of summon options and they will have supporting uh abilities

• 1:14:59

that enhance the role of that particular summon or

• 1:15:05

that can hybridize the role of that Summit based on the ability they cast on the summit or support by attacking by

• 1:15:12

casting on the target either so it is it is something that is

• 1:15:17

flexible based on the Summoner and then when you choose a secondary archetype as your um as your

• 1:15:25

total class that as a as a primary seminar that will influence which

• 1:15:30

category your summons perform best as a role so if you go with a secondary

• 1:15:37

archetype for your class selection that's more DPS oriented this summons uh from a role category

• 1:15:44

perspective will be DPS summons you'll still have the flexibility but it won't be as strong as if you had chosen a

• 1:15:51

support or a tank roll uh and the summon benefits you would have as a result of

• 1:15:56

those secondary choices all right and then karthos from the

• 1:16:01

forums would like to know about ships in the weather showcase stream which if you haven't watched you should go watch it

• 1:16:07

it our weather system so far is amazing and it's even crazier now the stuff that they're doing like please go watch it

• 1:16:14

um uh you hinted at weather impacting ships could this also indicate that

• 1:16:20

ships can have status effects such as being on fire oh yeah ships ships absolutely can have

• 1:16:26

status effects a majority of the time those status effects will be conferred based on weapon types that are being

• 1:16:32

used against the ship um or encounters that the ships are facing those can be weather-based or they can be NPC based

• 1:16:38

um and then in addition uh weather can absolutely affect wind patterns at Sea as well and when patterns provide

• 1:16:47

um the Ship Sails or the ship's movement speed certain advantages in certain directions so that kind of keeps the

• 1:16:55

playing field uh Dynamic right they're not going to be in a certain area of the

• 1:17:00

sea and always expect that when I turn you know horizontally in the world I'm going to move faster

• 1:17:06

um uh because based on the weather pattern and the wind that's present that might change moment to moment

• 1:17:13

all right and then zoos wants to know about Caravans what is the reason for

• 1:17:19

requiring the destruction of a caravan by the attackers as opposed to the attackers gaining possession of the

• 1:17:24

Caravan so

• 1:17:30

it needs to be well to answer that question it needs to be a bit of an even playing field

• 1:17:37

um I've experienced games where you can take control of that particular vehicle and while you can with ships with

• 1:17:44

Caravans we really want to emphasize this idea of not necessarily stealing

• 1:17:50

the vehicle but being forced to achieve Victory through destruction and when you

• 1:17:56

do you then have the logistical issue of how you're going to transport those

• 1:18:02

goods on your own rather than servicing the transport of that by just hijacking

• 1:18:08

the opponents um there's also some gamification that can occur if you can just steal those

• 1:18:14

things and take that that Caravan to a certain location we need these to become

• 1:18:21

stolen good so to speak for a certain system and as a result of that you need to be able to loot the container and not

• 1:18:28

necessarily turn it in we also don't have a means by which players would turn in another another player's Caravan at a

• 1:18:37

caravansary as a pit stop or as a final destination because that would be a stolen Caravan also so we want to

• 1:18:44

provide some Level Playing Field for the Caravan users who are transiting around

• 1:18:49

the world a requirement on the attacker's end to actually succeed at

• 1:18:55

destroying it rather than Ninja Caravan per se that's again not to say

• 1:19:01

that that's not possible with ships ships are a different vehicle type uh and and have different rule sets as a

• 1:19:07

result all right well when it comes to Caravans you wake up and you choose violence

• 1:19:13

um

• 1:19:20

across the world you don't have to kill people but if you want the loot no uh next up

• 1:19:27

we have superheroes 67.85 uh who wants to know about shipbuilding will we be

• 1:19:32

able to furnish our ships similar to housing [Music] um will you be able to furnish your

• 1:19:39

ships similar to housing yeah they're absolutely attachments that can

• 1:19:45

that can apply to the um to the ship and some of those are decorative in nature

• 1:19:52

there are also slots that have um uh utility aspects to them as well

• 1:19:59

but are also decorative all right interesting I'm excited to

• 1:20:06

hear about that um because I think there's gonna be a follow-up question to that would be basically would you have like a Captain's Quarter and you can put like

• 1:20:12

chairs and stuff in there or is this more of like a figurehead that you can swap out and like Weaponry that you can

• 1:20:17

swap out the look figurehead right we are trying to stay away from internal compartments within the ships because

• 1:20:23

that presents a whole different type of user interface and um uh flow that can

• 1:20:29

be a bit cumbersome and problematic especially in combat and in closed spaces

• 1:20:35

um so we're trying to stay away from that under deck aspect and keep things all on Deck

• 1:20:41

um for better readability on the player side okay I just wanted to clarify hopefully that helps you guys out on the

• 1:20:46

community side and then we have Oz Jack who wants to know about character progression is there going to be any

• 1:20:52

form of dual specialization allowing us to switch between two setups of skills talents augments Etc

• 1:21:00

foreign two setups of skills and yeah let's say I'm a ranger and I want to be

• 1:21:05

more respect towards one thing and then later I'm decided I want to be specked a different way save the top yeah yeah

• 1:21:12

that's that that is a uh convenience uh component right

• 1:21:18

um you know we're giving you the ability to respect so why not also give you the ability to save specs

• 1:21:24

um so that you when you do respect you're not having to uh go through the monotony of finding the the skills that

• 1:21:31

you're trying to spec into yeah that's going to be uh um a convenience

• 1:21:36

um uh option that will be available to players now will this be something that is easily done because I know in the

• 1:21:43

past we've said like we don't want you to be able to just change on the Fly immediately to be you'll need to be in

• 1:21:48

town for the respect right uh and that's we're talking about secondary um excuse me I'm talking about secondary but also

• 1:21:56

your primary abilities that you respect into um those will need to be in town as well so either way you won't be able to do it

• 1:22:02

on the Fly you're not going to be out in the open and at a raid and I need to be this spec now and be able to change it's

• 1:22:08

going to be have to be something that you strategically have chosen due to what you know is ahead of you out in

• 1:22:13

adventuring and you're respecting for that reason but when you do you'll have safe specs that you can spec into when

• 1:22:19

you're at that NPC okay I just wanted to clarify because it was a little different than what we said in the past

• 1:22:24

all right and then drunk ninja uh wants to know about Coastal nodes well nodes located on Islands be easily accessible

• 1:22:31

at the start of the game or will it be racist races like players running for

• 1:22:37

players to gain access to ships to explore potential uh Island node locations

• 1:22:43

well you are able to swim so you don't necessarily need it no running underwater you'll swim you can actually

• 1:22:51

swim um to answer that question um it's the same with all notes right

• 1:22:56

there are nodes that are going to be located uh at Great distances from the starting locations some of those

• 1:23:03

distances will be separated by water um and if it is a goal of some

• 1:23:09

individuals to help seed those that node's progression earlier than what

• 1:23:15

might be located closer to the starting areas then they'll have to incorporate

• 1:23:20

strategies to direct player movement and heat into those areas so that they get a

• 1:23:28

faster start than the nodes that might be located closer to the starting area okay and then anarchs wants to know

• 1:23:35

about Stealth mechanics will it be possible for any player to hide their character's name and Guild plate through

• 1:23:41

the use of non-pay to win means and just to reiterate to you guys we have no plans of doing any pay to win things

• 1:23:47

anything that is in our shop will all be cosmetic and not things that give you

• 1:23:52

power or any benefit of that sort no no pay to win no pay to convenience um yeah so

• 1:23:59

to answer that question there are some ideas that we have about

• 1:24:05

um disguises for characters that incorporate name plates and guilds

• 1:24:12

um there's also the same thing we or disguises of

• 1:24:17

um of uh Caravans and ships whether or not they're holding a full Hall of goods

• 1:24:23

uh whether they can mitigate the distance between the notification area of a caravan moving past you or not

• 1:24:31

um there there are some ideas that we have about that but I'm not ready to expand on that quite yet

• 1:24:37

um because we haven't vetted those those designs yeah so stay tuned for Alpha 2

• 1:24:43

as we give updates on that and of course add new new things to the builds when we

• 1:24:49

when we have that live um and give us your feedback that's per usual next up we have schwann36 wanting

• 1:24:56

to know about Mariner classes this is specifically ships by leveling a piloting uh Mariner class will two

• 1:25:04

identical ships have different speeds needs and turning abilities based on their Pilot's level

• 1:25:11

so the benefits of having Mariner expertise

• 1:25:17

is not just related to activities you can do on the

• 1:25:23

ships but will also incorporate skills that become available when you're piloting ships as well so these there's

• 1:25:30

a few things that Mariner classes provide interaction with attachments on the ship

• 1:25:35

driving the ship itself utilizing the ship's components like furling the sails or not uh is also and

• 1:25:43

as well as repairing ships when damage is taken the speed at which you can do it the health you regenerate when you do

• 1:25:50

it those things all get influenced by your Mariner class skill um and the more you interact with it the

• 1:25:56

more experience you gain the better you'll become all right and our last question is from

• 1:26:01

lashing about seasons are ocean and underwater areas going to have seasonal

• 1:26:06

changes oceans ocean and underwater areas will not have seasonal changes no oh okay

• 1:26:14

all right well with that that is our final question from the forums if you

• 1:26:19

did not get your question answered here it might be one that we already answered in the past so definitely check out our

• 1:26:25

Forum post vachner is always great about tagging folks and letting them know where they can find the answer in some cases giving you the answer they put a

• 1:26:33

lot of work into that so please please check it out and of course uh you know as um reminders of things that we have

• 1:26:39

going on we do have quite a few things that we'd like your feedback on so if you go to forums.Ashes of Creation.com

• 1:26:45

you can check it out and give us all your feedback we have basic range attack feedback that we're looking for we have

• 1:26:50

Gathering and PVP feedback we have a follow-up question we have quite a few follow-up questions in regards to the

• 1:26:56

event system so if you have not gone over and posted in those threads please do because we will be compiling those

• 1:27:01

shortly so we'd love to get your feedback as quickly as possible and of course if you would like to help us

• 1:27:07

build the world of Vera you can head on over and purchase the order of the Giants Slayer cosmetics and annual those

• 1:27:15

will be swapping over October 12 2022 at 11AM to the new set and with that don't

• 1:27:21

forget that we will be uploading this video as well as we'll have the 4K video today and then tomorrow we'll have like

• 1:27:26

the full Dev update video that will go up um but if you leave us a comment on the full Dev update video uh and you're

• 1:27:34

subscribed to our Channel you could possibly get your comment spotlighted for our next live stream so definitely

• 1:27:40

do so because it's going to be a live stream and quite Spooktacular so you'll

• 1:27:45

want to do so that that's right it's October yeah what you got to think of your costume Stephen oh can I just be

• 1:27:53

the same thing I was last year you can be whatever you want to be and of course follow us over on Twitter

• 1:27:59

Facebook Instagram Snapchat all the places we post almost daily a ton of

• 1:28:04

great content so if you would like to follow us interact with us over there we'd love to hang out with you and chat

• 1:28:10

with you guys over on the forums and Discord we're on there daily as well so come chat with us give us your feedback

• 1:28:16

and of course uh we'll see you next month right here twitch.tv Ashes of Creation on our twitch channel for

• 1:28:23

another Dev update and we have a lot of things coming up next month and you know announcements you know I know people are

• 1:28:29

excited about Extra Life and um interviews and stuff so stay tuned we

• 1:28:35

will definitely be having some good goodies up on our social channels so um

• 1:28:41

keep an eye out for those with that once again just wanted to say one last time I

• 1:28:47

apologize for the delay did not expect to be in Vegas for today's stream um but I'm glad that uh the iPad camera

• 1:28:55

worked it did you're a little yeah we only see you in a smaller slim box but

• 1:29:04

I appreciate your patience and of course tuning in and remember feedback is so important

• 1:29:10

um please after the stream is is finished look out on YouTube we'll host that to 4K version of the video that you

• 1:29:16

guys saw today leave your comments there and and give us your feedback remember what you saw that was positive and what

• 1:29:22

you saw that you'd like to see differently um those are two very good points of feedback all right thank you all for

• 1:29:29

joining us we super duper appreciate it there's a lot of you today and a lot of new uh Chatters so we appreciate you

• 1:29:34

coming in and joining us and of course thank you Stephen for your time and joining us even though your schedule's

• 1:29:40

crazy and also I don't even know how many people rang the doorbell I'm sure someone's gonna make a counter for that

• 1:29:46

how many pizzas did he order no I'm just kidding uh perfect

• 1:29:52

stay safe and healthy and we will see you next month for a live stream that

• 1:29:57

you will not want to miss toodles one [Music]

• 1:30:24

thank you [Music]