Group dynamics

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Group dynamics aim to bring players together.[2]

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.[3]
  • Ashes of Creation is in development. These systems could change through playtesting and player feedback.[2]

Group sizes

Party witnessing the beginning of the An Ancient Violence Story arc in Alpha-2.[4]

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.[5]Steven Sharif

Ashes of Creation is designed for solo players as well as large and small groups.[5][6][7]

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.[2]
  • Raids will have 40 man groups.[8]
  • Content will be tailored for 40, 16 and 8 person group sizes.[9]
  • Arenas will have 1 man, 3 man, 5 man and possibly 20 man Free-For-All (Deathmatch) group sizes.[10]
    • There won't specifically be guild vs guild arenas but team-based matchmaking allows teams to face other teams.[11]
  • 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.[12][13][14][15]
The minimum goal is 500 players on a single battlefield. I think we will be able to hit 500vs500 but we shall see.[15]Steven Sharif

Alpha-0 group size

The party size in Alpha-0 is six (6).[16]

Ashes of Creation Apocalypse group sizes

Group sizes in Ashes of Creation Apocalypse.[17]

There will be an option in the lobby where you are capable of joining a guild based match that you can link parties together up to a maximum of twenty individuals.[17]Steven Sharif

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.[20]Steven Sharif
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.[21]Steven Sharif
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.[18]Steven Sharif
info-orange.pngSome of the following information has not been recently confirmed by the developers and may not be on the current development roadmap.
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.[19]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.[29]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.[30]

Bulletin boards

info-orange.pngSome of the following information has not been recently confirmed by the developers and may not be on the current development roadmap.

Bulletin boards are available within nodes[30] and player taverns.[32]

Bulletin board jobs

info-orange.pngSome of the following information has not been recently confirmed by the developers and may not be on the current development roadmap.

Job types include.[30]

Looting rules

Alpha-2 looting UI preview.[38]

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.[38]Steven Sharif

Alpha-2 vote to change loot allocation method UI.[39]

Ashes of Creation intends to use traditional loot rules, selected by the party or raid leader.[40][41][2]

  • Group loot rules are defined on a per-rarity basis.[38]
  • A majority of party members must vote to approve any changes to group loot allocation changes.[39]
  • The developers are considering using a double-tap interaction to loot all containers within a close proximity radius.[42]
  • There won't be auto-looting pets.[43]
  • It will be possible to kick a player from a party prior to them acquiring loot.[44]
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.[44]Steven Sharif
Free-for-all.[2]
  • Whoever is first to loot gets the loot.[40]
Lootmaster.[38][2]
  • 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.[2]
Round-robin.[38][2]
Need or greed.[38][2]
info-orange.pngSome of the following information has not been recently confirmed by the developers and may not be on the current development roadmap.
Bidding system.[2]
  • Intrepid are investigating a potential bidding system, which allows players to bid on items instead of rolling for them.[2]
    • The highest bidder wins the item.[2]
    • The gold then goes into a pool that is split among the rest of the party members.[2]

Party roles

Ashes of Creation has the traditional trinity of Tank, DPS (damage dealers) and Support (healer or non-healer) roles.[46][2][47]

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.[48]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.[49]

Affiliations

An affiliation tree determines which entities can participate in attacks against other entities within its hierarchy.[50][51]

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.[50]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.[51]Steven Sharif

See also

References

  1. Video, February 29, 2024 (19:35).
  2. 2.00 2.01 2.02 2.03 2.04 2.05 2.06 2.07 2.08 2.09 2.10 2.11 2.12 2.13 2.14 2.15 2.16 2.17 2.18 2.19 Group dynamics blog.
  3. About Ashes of Creation.
  4. Video, February 29, 2024 (33:57).
  5. 5.0 5.1 Livestream, September 30, 2022 (2:40).
  6. Livestream, November 30, 2020 (1:20:25).
  7. solo2.png
  8. Livestream, May 9, 2017 (34:38).
  9. February 8, 2019 - Questions and Answers.
  10. partysize.png
  11. Livestream, May 26, 2017 (48:12).
  12. Livestream, September 24, 2021 (52:48).
  13. Interview, July 8, 2021 (57:19).
  14. Interview, July 19, 2020 (44:28).
  15. 15.0 15.1 castle-siege-scale.png
  16. Livestream, October 16, 2017 (49:28).
  17. 17.0 17.1 17.2 17.3 17.4 17.5 Interview, August 17, 2018 (18:53).
  18. 18.0 18.1 18.2 18.3 Livestream, December 19, 2023 (1:25:16).
  19. 19.0 19.1 19.2 Livestream, October 30, 2020 (33:26).
  20. 20.0 20.1 20.2 Podcast, April 23, 2018 (59:28).
  21. 21.0 21.1 Livestream, December 19, 2023 (1:23:00).
  22. Livestream, May 28, 2021 (1:13:05).
  23. Livestream, December 2, 2022 (1:05:51).
  24. 24.0 24.1 Interview, October 20, 2018 (2:40:17).
  25. Podcast, September 29, 2021 (30:04).
  26. Livestream, June 25, 2021 (1:05:01).
  27. Interview, July 18, 2020 (1:05:04).
  28. Livestream, February 9, 2018 (41:56).
  29. 29.0 29.1 Podcast, April 23, 2018 (1:01:01).
  30. 30.0 30.1 30.2 30.3 Livestream, October 31, 2017 (28:58).
  31. Livestream, May 19, 2017 (33:57).
  32. 32.0 32.1 The mighty beard!
  33. Livestream, May 12, 2017 (53:08).
  34. Livestream, May 10, 2017 (35:16).
  35. Livestream, July 31, 2020 (1:34:06).
  36. Livestream, May 10, 2017 (16:37).
  37. Livestream, October 31, 2017 (30:34).
  38. 38.0 38.1 38.2 38.3 38.4 38.5 Video, January 27, 2023 (16:44).
  39. 39.0 39.1 Video, January 27, 2023 (32:01).
  40. 40.0 40.1 Livestream, November 30, 2020 (1:01:40).
  41. Livestream, July 25, 2020 (1:24:56).
  42. Livestream, January 27, 2023 (1:08:06).
  43. Livestream, April 29, 2022 (1:04:52).
  44. 44.0 44.1 Livestream, May 31, 2023 (1:07:45).
  45. Livestream, November 30, 2020 (1:12:03).
  46. Podcast, April 11, 2021 (13:30).
  47. 47.0 47.1 47.2 47.3 Livestream, May 22, 2017 (46:04).
  48. 48.0 48.1 Interview, October 20, 2018 (2:40:16).
  49. Livestream, May 15, 2017 (29:30).
  50. 50.0 50.1 50.2 50.3 50.4 50.5 50.6 50.7 Livestream, March 29, 2019 (17:10).
  51. 51.0 51.1 51.2 51.3 51.4 51.5 51.6 51.7 51.8 Interview, May 11, 2018 (58:07).
  52. Livestream, July 29, 2022 (1:07:20).