Group dynamics

Alpha-2 Party invite UI.

Group dynamics aim to bring players together.

One of the main philosophical pillars behind our design was that PvE must be impactful and inclusive. We want solo players, small groups and large groups to all have a home within our system.

• A shorter TTK is expected to help solo players and smaller groups compete with larger groups or zergs.

Q: Are there ways to combat larger groups and not just let sheer numbers determine the victory? Are there going to be AoE that do more damage based on how many people are within this proximity?

A: If we're talking about smaller TTK numbers then the and the room for error being less that means that you can have a scenario where a larger group- and by definition a Zerg, which is less organized, less skilled players, but are numbers over skill- there is now a better opportunity for the smaller group to prevail against the larger group, if they are better organized and more skillful; which tends to be the case in smaller groups. So intrinsically those two philosophies are tied to one another. The shorter TTK and the how do you solve the zerg problem. Well, by definition, the zerg problem gets solved through skill. – Steven Sharif

• Ashes of Creation is in development. These systems could change through playtesting and player feedback.

Group sizes

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Solo players

Early Alpha-2 solo PvE ranger combat.

It is not that we don't intend to provide a valid solo experience. Things are easier in a group. Things are easier with friends. That is the intended experience. We are an MMO after all. So we are very conscientious to ensure that we are prioritizing group-based content, but we also want to provide a valid path for solo experience as well, because sometimes as a player I experience this: I just want to go grind or do something on my own for the hour of time that I have, and not eat up the 15 to 20 minutes it takes to integrate into a group or whatever. So that's something that's going to be bolstered as additional systems come online throughout phase two and three. – Steven Sharif

Ashes of Creation provides gameplay options for solo oriented players, but the developers encourage players to find other players to help with progression, especially during Alpha-2.

Ashes of Creation as we know is all about community, is all about creating these pseudo factions: That's the whole intent behind the citizenship system within nodes, [and] the religious and social systems, is to help find these pseudo factions that you can become a member of and that can help you throughout the gaming experience; and that is especially true in Alpha-2 as we continue to work on content and progression and scaling and tuning and all those things. – Steven Sharif

• Certain quest lines and hunting grounds are devoted towards solo players.

For those solo players who don't really care about finding a community to play with but they want to have one when they need it, there's going to be a lot of opportunities from a dialogue perspective, in-game chat options; you can join as part of citizenships: there's a lot of pseudo factions there- social organizations that give you an in to other players without the strong bonds that typically come with guild-oriented organizations; and I think that that's a comfortable medium between the two. – Steven Sharif

• Node citizenship and social organizations provide the ability to interact without the strong bonds that typically come with guild-oriented organizations.

• Mechanics exist within larger conflicts for small groups and solo players to impact the battle.
  • This includes systems that will likely focus on single group sized participants while the larger battle is occurring.

• A shorter TTK is expected to help solo players and smaller groups compete with larger groups or zergs.

Balancing

Game balance in Ashes of Creation is group focused not based on 1v1 combat.

Q: As we start to see more talent trees and abilities I wonder how Ashes of Creation will handle unique playstyles and (maybe) "different" builds. For example, will we see (unique) Items and/or enchants which support a "Health instead of mana as resource" build? With class skill trees, augments, and weapon talent trees, won't there be too many playstyles to balance?

A: Will there be a variety? Yes, there will be many varieties. The the approach with regards to a player being able to customize how their archetype and how their weapon and choices and gear choices interact with the broader ecosystem of other players and the encounter designs is to provide maximum flexibility for the types of decisions you can make as a player. Those are the types of scenarios I find most intriguing from a balance perspective, where historically what we've talked about is we're not trying to balance everything. That is not the goal. This is definitely not a goal for it to be balanced in a 1v1 scenario. Our balance is definitely more focused around group composition. And when we say 'group composition', what we mean is having present a number of the archetypes; and those archetypes aren't going to stand on equal footing with each other. There is going to be a rock-paper-scissors design when it comes to innate advantages that certain archetypes have over each other; and giving or affording the customization options lets you flirt a bit with where your rock-paper-scissor lines live. Perhaps you are a little bit better against the rock, as a scissor would normally be; and that's because you've made certain selections in either your archetype skill tree, your passives, your weapon selection, your gear choices: Those are all pieces of a puzzle that interact with the overarching balance choices between these different rock-paper-scissor designs. So, I think modern MMO gameplay has has moved away from that. They want everyone to harness the same power from a 1v1 perspective and I don't find that interesting. – Steven Sharif

• 1v1 matchups will have a rock-paper-scissors dynamic, where one build will be superior to another. Different skills, passives, weapon skills, and gear choice selections allows players to 'flirt' the line with rock-paper-scissors balancing.

There will be match ups in 1v1s where one class will be superior to another; and that application should be a rock-paper-scissors dynamic. We want there to be counter-play between the different classes... Instead it's going to be a group focused balance, where as long as you have the diversity of classes present, that's going to be an equal level playing field. It's going to be very dependent on skill and strategy. – Steven Sharif

• Several factors are taken into consideration holistically when balancing combat skills. Player feedback surrounding balancing will be validated against data and design goals to avoid excessive or unwarranted balance changes.

Balance-wise, there's a number of different interactions mechanically that you have within an ability that you can adjust in order to balance its power. The most most common ones are: Cooldown, Mana consumption, Damage done, Effect status conferred, Promotion of that effect status, Range. – Steven Sharif

Q: How will your team look to identify and adjust a skill or class when the rock is no longer beating scissors?

A: It's difficult to give an answer that's specific, because the use-case is a very broad one when we're talking about balancing design. But, I would say that it's done in a holistic environment and it is usually done in concert with some rubric we're using in order to anchor our design choices. – Steven Sharif

• Alpha-1 testing was focused on core functionality rather than combat balance. Balancing for Archetypes, Economy, Nodes, and Combat will be done in Alpha-2 phase-2.

When we move into Alpha 2 and we have a lot of data that's supporting the use of these particular abilities in combat settings, how often they're used, how often they result in death, what the average damage done by this archetype is comparatively to other damage done by different archetypes: All of that data gets logged and all of that data gets queried in order for us to refine the abilities so that they live in the environment we want them to. Now, that's not to mean that we're going to have a perfect balance across the board between the archetypes. Again, we're taking a rock-paper-scissor approach to balance, which means that some archetypes will do better against other archetypes and vice versa; and we're also not creating an environment where we want to have 1v1 balance. We are focused around group balance. Group composition is important. – Steven Sharif

• The sixty four (64) classes are partitioned into eight primary archetypes. Balancing of active skills only relates to these eight primary archetypes.
  • There are four primary groups of augments assigned to each base archetype. Balancing of augments relates to the four augment groups for each of the eight archetypes.

• Certain secondary archetypes are capable of "bridging the gap" between their counterpart.

Even though augments do radically change the way your active skills provide you abilities, there's still a primary focus on the base archetype itself and not the 64 whole classes. – Steven Sharif

Certain archetypes are capable of moving the gap between their counterpart per-se. If I am a Tank archetype and a Mage is my counter, I can take a Mage secondary and bridge the divide slightly; and then move my identity that direction ever so slightly. – Steven Sharif

Group finder

There will not be a generalized group finder in Ashes of Creation, instead Bulletin boards are used to encourage localized grouping.

Bulletin boards

Some of the following information has not been recently confirmed by the developers and may not be on the current development roadmap.

Bulletin board concept art by Michael Bacon..

Bulletin boards are available within nodes and player taverns.

• A market UI lists the current items available for sale in the node and in the same economic region.
  • This includes items for sale in player stalls and auction houses.
  • Players can't purchase directly from the market UI. Instead it gives the location of player stalls where the items may be purchased.
• Encourage localized grouping.
• Enable posting of jobs.
• Quest sponsorship.

Loot

Alpha-2 Looting UI.

It's anywhere from 2 to 4% chance on an individual mob kill that it might drop a completed item. But, the majority of those cases are going to be basic white low quality items that get dropped essentially and you don't have control over some of the stats that relate to that item. – Steven Sharif

• Mobs drop glint, items, and crafting materials in preference to gold.
  • Glint is not bound to a specific region and can be also dropped by players on death as stolen glint, based on applicable death penalties.
  • The rarity of glint increases with the mob's level.
  • Loot tables are disabled for player controlled monsters.
  • Experience debt decreases the drop rate percentages from monsters.

Q: Are Alpha-2 bosses dropping full items instead of recipes and mats placeholder?

A: The reward tables are very much in a functional state right now. So, I wouldn't look at these reward tables and say oh this is long-term intended. This is for A2 purposes. However, it is going to be a combination of both. You're going to have full loot drops that are going to occur with world bosses. That is an expectation that should be kept. But, in addition, you will have recipes, you will have unique material components that are used to create those items as well; and you'll also have the ability to deconstruct those items to recoup some of those more unique materials to potentially create more. – Steven Sharif

• Loot (loot tables) from mobs and bosses have about a 2-4% RNG chance of dropping gear (completed items).
  • There is also a chance that materials and unique recipes are dropped that can be used to craft items of equitable value.
  • Most completed item drops will be of low quality items, but there is a small RNG chance of looting rare and legendary items or crafting materials from mobs based on the level, status and type of mob. This also applies to harvesting resources with a gathering profession.
  • RNG drop chances will likely not be made public.
  • Stats on dropped items will vary based on the rarity of the item.

• The Luck waterfall stat influences potential drop rates. This stat accumulates when within a group.

• Party size does not directly affect loot drops, but since loot in Ashes of Creation encounters is finite (there is no individual loot system), it must be distributed between all party members. This essentially acts to balance the lowered risk in large numbers against lower chances of gaining rewards.

• The greater level disparity between a character (or average level of the party) and the mob being looted, the lower the drop percentages will be from that mob. The ideal range is within 5 levels of the mob. Any player or party member with greater than 9 levels difference will stop drops and experience gains.

You are most ideal if you're within I believe five levels of the monster that you're killing- party average. However, if anybody in your party is over 9 levels higher than the monster, then the drops and the experience do not occur. – Steven Sharif

• Loot tables will likely not be affected by weather conditions. This was previously listed as a possible effect.

• There won't be specific loot drops for artisans. Previously it was stated that master gatherers may have the ability to "spoil" a boss' loot.

Q: Can only one gathering artisan harvest resources from a single boss, or can multiple different artisans harvest different parts from a boss for different resources? For example, a lumberjack gets a special wood from Tumock's tree weapon, while a herbalist gathers the flowers from that same tree.

A: We don't have the concept of harvesting from bosses. NPCs follow a reward table format, where those reward tables are global. They're not unique to particular players. So, once the NPC is vanquished, you have access to the loot container that is its corpse; and it has a static value of either materials or items that get dropped; and whatever the party loot settings are that you might be a part of, or if you're a solo player you will be able to recover those things. – Steven Sharif

Loot tagging

Looting rights (also known as Loot tagging) is based on a blended tag and damage done system.

• The first raid/party to obtain a tag (on a mob or boss) will gain an approximately 5-10% edge over competing parties in terms of the total damage done when determining looting rights.
  • These numbers will be balanced based on testing.

We have a combination of a tag system that grants some bonus percentage to the first tag and then we cumulatively value the damage done on a raid/party basis; and then whichever party exceeds the 50% as a result of that has the loot rights for a period of time; and then after that period of time expires it becomes public. – Steven Sharif

• At the end of the fight, the party with the highest damage done, including first tagging bonus, will be granted looting rights for a period of time. If the looting rights are not exercised in the timeframe, the loot becomes public.

We have a blended approach of damage done and a tag benefit. So if you tag the boss first, or you tag the loot- whatever the loot target is first- you're gonna get a benefit in the damage overall determination. So if you need to have 51% of damage done in order to qualify your raid, or the plurality of damage done if there's even three or four raids, then tagging first might give you a five or ten percent edge. We'll play with that number- balance it based on testing, but generally that's our approach in competing loot rights – Steven Sharif

Q: If looting rights are based on a blended tag and damage done system, will there be any mechanics in place to ensure roles like tanks and healers have an equal shot even when they haven't dealt as much damage?

A: That's the reason for the blended approach. The reason that we're doing a hybrid system between tag and damage done is for the purposes of those classes who may not be as DPS oriented as other classes. The tag system- all classes are going to have a sprinkling of immediate effects- of instantaneous casts and they can use that to tag a target, and that'll give them a modifier on the looting rights: So plus 10 or plus 15 will balance that, but it'll give them plus 10 to 15 on overall damage done if they tag the target and then their damage will make up the remainder of that percentage completion. So if I do 50 damage to a target but someone else has the tag I'm not going to be able to claim that looting right. They'll have done the other 50 plus 10 or 15. – Steven Sharif

Loot rules

Alpha-2 looting UI preview.

In the group loot obviously there's a lot of functionality here that parties have the ability to customize. There can be loot master, there can be round-robin, there can be need/greed/pass that's applied on a per rarity basis depending on the party's choices. – Steven Sharif

Alpha-2 vote to change loot allocation method UI.

Ashes of Creation intends to use traditional loot rules, selected by the party or raid leader.

• Loot in Ashes of Creation encounters is finite and must be distributed between party or raid members who complete the encounter. There is no individual loot system that grants loot to all participants. This essentially acts to balance the lowered risk in large numbers against lower chances of gaining rewards.
• Group loot rules are defined on a per-rarity basis.
• A majority of party members must vote to approve any changes to group loot allocation changes.
• The winners of loot rolls must directly interact with loot containers to claim the items in order to encourage friction between players wanting to protect the loot container. If the loot isn't claimed within a period of time, it will become public. This design may change based on further testing. Previously, the developers were considering using a double-tap interaction to loot all containers within a close proximity radius.

Q: Why did need and greed change from going into your bag to now doing it where you have to go and pick up the item?

A: The intended design is twofold: One, on an engineering side there was some concern about preserving the rights currently based off of net relevancy and distance, so we tried to cut down the time that you could roll need or greed; and then we also introduced a pause to the public loot rights timer on the loot container. But more so on the design side of it, part of I think the PvX engagement of an environment is not just, let's say, killing the mini boss, or killing the boss, or killing the creatures, but it is controlling the space after that to the point where you can ensure when that rolling is complete that you have access to the loot container to claim your reward as well; and that other players could potentially kill you during that process and wait until the loot container goes to a public permission setting. And we were having situations where players could sit in a node, or sit in a town in a raid or in a party and be granted the reward being nowhere near the loot container. So as an interim solution we incorporated this needing to interact with the loot container after successfully passing the rolls. And we're going to test with that and see how that goes with certain PvX situations. – Steven Sharif

• There won't be auto-looting pets.
• It will be possible to kick a player from a party prior to them acquiring loot.

Yes, technically it would be possible for you to kick a player prior to acquiring loot. However, again because we are a game that relies on social interactions, there are reputations to be had; and if you acquire a reputation as a raid leader, or as a party leader, of doing something dirty like that, then it's unlikely you'll be able to Garner the support of future party members and/or raids to lead efforts against these raid bosses. – Steven Sharif

Free-for-all.

• Whoever is first to loot gets the loot.

Lootmaster.

• A master looter (or lootmaster) is a player designated by the party leader to decide how loot is distributed in a dungeon or raid party.

Round-robin.

• With round-robin looting, party members take turns looting.

Need or greed.

• This is a traditional need before greed system based on dice rolls.
• Since there is very little gear binding in Ashes of Creation, it's left to the party to deal with players who excessively roll Need on loot.

Some of the following information has likely been superceded by newer information. It is included here for archival reasons.

Bidding system.

• Intrepid are investigating a potential bidding system, which allows players to bid on items instead of rolling for them.
  • The highest bidder wins the item.
  • The gold then goes into a pool that is split among the rest of the party members.

Party roles

Ashes of Creation has the traditional trinity of Tank, DPS (damage dealers) and Support (healer or non-healer) roles.

We have our eight base archetypes; and the trinity is a pretty strong influence with regards to the eight base classes. However the area in which we actually begin to play with that line between the trinity is in the secondary classes that you can pick. That's where we begin to blend those spaces and allow people a little bit of influence over their role and whether or not they fit perfectly within a particular category within the trinity. – Steven Sharif

• Although traditional roles are present, players should not feel branded by their primary archetype.
• Skill augments available through the class system allow characters to be personalized outside of their primary role.
• Players can also double down on their archetype choice to strengthen their primary role.

There is a significant amount of flavor change as well as mechanics change that exists when adopting a secondary archetype as we implement that in the future. That is the intent behind the augment system that it very much changes the class fantasy and adopts one that's more representative of those of combinations. – Steven Sharif

Target markers

Alpha-2 Target marker user interface.

Players have the ability to set target marker symbols above players or mobs that are visible to other party members.

Alliances

Ashes of Creation may have specific content that revolves around Alliances.

• Progression pathways within alliances.
• Guilds sharing common services with alliance members.
• Node alliances.

Content that revolves around alliances specifically and progression within the development of that alliance; and the ability to share some common services between guilds that are part of that alliance. I think that additionally allowing alliances to toggle certain relationships with nodes as an interaction is beneficial. That's going to provide an interesting dynamic for players who are either members of the particular node that has the relationship established or members of the Alliance. So I think that obviously building systems is is about creating the channels by which these players can form bonds and the more layers you have around those channels of bonding between the different guilds or players, the more sustainable that relationship. – Steven Sharif

Guild alliances

Guild leaders can create an alliance at a later stage in guild progression by completing a quest. Once created, the leader can invite up to three other guilds to this alliance, but this is subject to change.

• A guild may only be a member of one alliance. There is no specific member cap in an alliance, only a maximum of four guilds.

Will the largest guilds segment off into different chapters of their guild that are part of small guilds? Absolutely that will happen; and the way that we combat the efficacy of doing that always is through how we design our encounters and our events to incorporate the use-case of where smaller guilds and their passive abilities are necessary to overcome certain challenge ratings. Will it always be most beneficial for larger guilds to do that? No, not always. It depends on what they're encountering, but you absolutely will see some guilds leveraging that for sure. – Steven Sharif

• Guilds and guild alliances are designed to instigate competition within their membership, providing opportunities for political betrayal that leads to interesting emergent gameplay.

There's a competition for the scarcity of resources and there's an opportunity for political betrayal. I can't tell you how many times in the games that I played, where that scarcity of benefit has caused rifts between my commanders or between different groups within the guild that then can potentially erupt in a civil war. And those are the types of player emergent behaviors that we want to encourage by introducing these systems of soft friction where people compete for things. – Steven Sharif

• There will be alliance specific quest lines.

• Guilds may enter into trade agreements with allied guilds.

• Due to the lack of fast travel, guilds will need to plan to have people in the right place at the right time. Alliances with other guilds will help enable that.

Some of the following information has not been recently confirmed by the developers and may not be on the current development roadmap.

• Guild leaders will be able to pool resources into a guild alliance bank.

You can only invite a number of guilds to the alliance before you must form a new alliance; and then those alliance can have a de facto friendship but they won't have any game component of connection. What the alliance system would allow is pooling of resources into by guild leaders into an alliance guild alliance bank. Will allow certain participation in different quest lines. It will allow common area chat for members and it will allow affiliations and gear that can be attained as well. – Steven Sharif

• Alliance members will share a common chat channel.

• Alliances will have affiliations and gear that can be attained.

Siege alliances

When a siege begins, temporary alliances are formed among attackers and defenders.

• For node sieges, citizens of the node or provincial nodes being attacked are automatically registered as defenders.
• There are many reasons to participate as an ally in the attack or defence of other nodes.
  • Titles.
  • Items.
  • Materials.
  • Money.
  • Social bonds.

Many incentives exist that can benefit your node and yourself personally by participating in the attack or defense of cities. These range from titles, to items, to materials, to money. Additionally, aiding others may help you strengthen bonds when your assets are threatened. – Steven Sharif

Affiliations

An affiliation tree determines how entities are flagged against other entities within its hierarchy.

• Corrupted players can be attacked (or killed) regardless of other affiliations. This is something that will be tested during Alpha-2.
• Node citizenship.
• Alliances.
• Guilds.
• Parties.
• Raids.
• Family.
• Religion.
• Society.

There's node citizenship. There's guild. There's alliance. There's party. There's raid. There's family. All of these types of affiliations have a hierarchy. The highest of which is your node affiliation: So your citizenship is your greatest superceding relationship, which means if you were a part of a guild and the guild has multiple nodes in which its members are citizens of, if there was a war between two of those nodes, the members of those nodes would be first and foremost citizens who defend that node, even against their own guild members. – Steven Sharif

All of these things have some hierarchy; and within that hierarchy there's the ability to participate within certain systems. So for example, if you have a node that has fallen under your vassal state and you're a citizen of the parent node, then you could participate in a siege against the vassal node but if you're a citizen of the vassal node you could not participate as an attacker against the parent node; so there's a hierarchy, unless you were to renounce your citizenship. – Steven Sharif

Intuitive grouping

There are systems such as quests, events and monster coins that lend themselves toward intuitive grouping, but no specific decision has been made to include this functionality.

See also

• Archetypes
• Classes
• Adaptive content
• Synergies