New Playable Races, Phase 2 Update, and Player Stall Marketplace | Ashes of Creation November Development Update Preview

First Development Livestream post-A2 set expectations moving forward!

Today’s livestream provides players a sneak peek at what’s upcoming for Phase 2, as well as an in-depth look at the upcoming Monster Coin event, featuring several Community Content Creators!

Phase 2 Preview

We start with updates to the two Lawless Zones, the Vandagar Tropics & Sandsqual Desert, and their Biomes. Work on these Biomes will continue throughout Phase 2 and 3 as they gradually become as detailed an in-depth as the Riverlands Biome is currently.

• Adding new gatherables, trees, and updated terrain to Tropics

• Will remain Lawless Zone until new Biomes enter testing

• Desert has more development than Tropics due to more assets

• Adding new gatherables, expanded terrain, and more content

• Will remain Lawless Zone until new Biomes enter testing

• Dunir Race added

  • All armor sets will work with the new playable race

• New Dungeon Added - Befallen Forge

  • Fallen Dwarf resting ground

  • Largely horizontal, underground, massive in scope

• Node Sieges

  • In a functional form only, will continue to iterate and expand

  • Destructable environments, capture points, safe houses

• Player Stalls added

  • Will be in by December 20th

  • Largely functional state

  • NPC in Marketplace that you can list your goods at

  • Can click through players “storefronts” and see what each player is listing, instead of scrolling through items like an actual AH (schedulde for Phase 3)

• Treasure Hunts added

  • Different rarities of treasure maps can be crafted - Scribing Profession

  • Take you to a dirt mound, need specific tools

  • Will receive a treasure chest with a wide variety of loot table options

  • Some treasure maps will need multiple locations and may be timed

  • Can give a variety of material components, including Copper

• Archetype Balancing Beginning

  • Combat team is watching player feedback and gathering player data

  • Ongoing throughout Alpha 2 - expect larger Archetype balance patch notes

• Combat Balance Beginning

  • Monster/mob balance, interactions, etc.

  • Some NPC placement currently is boring, will improve pathing, patrolling, and wander behaviour

• Economy Balancing Beginning

  • Will watch vendor purchases, player looting, player trading, and will make significant changes based on this data

• Node Balance

  • Costs for building, node reputation certificates, Buy Order quantities, Citizenship Dues

  • Based on data during current playtesting and will balance throughout Phase 2

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Phase 2 - Stretch Goals

The following are updates that are expected to land sometime in Phase 2, but may not make it on launch

• Freeholds

  • Getting deployable systems (like Caravans) needed a lot of work

  • Blueprint recipes that need to be acquiried in order to construct Freeholds

• Vaelune Playable Race added

  • Including all armor sets

  • Also improves Samia’s Hope/Sandsquall Desert path

Rogue Update

Unfortunately, Rogue won’t be available on December 20th, but will most likely land sometime in January. PI (Phoenix Initiative) members may begin testing late December in the PTR (Public Test Realm).

Monster Coin Event

The stream continued with a 36-minute Event Preview of the Monster Coin Event!

• Events where Monsters Spawn

• Your spirit inhabits a monster during the event

  • Play against other players

  • Can acheive a cosmetic reward

• Content Creators joined in on the event are: NyceGaming, Roarrior, TheoryForge, GrappLr, Narc, Crix, PirateSoftware, and more!

Full video can be found on the Ashes of Creation Youtube Channel!

Question & Answers

The following are the highlight answers from the Q&A Section

• Friendslist coming shortly after the start of Phase 2

• No max level increase but possible adjustments to leveling curve

• For Node Sieges, there will be an approval process for Mayors for those registered, and those not approved in the Node Siege vicinity will be automatically killed after a countdown

• Goal after Phase 2 wipe is to NOT WIPE - may spawn new servers to test certain changes

• Solutions in progress to persist characters after a logout - currently used to avoid PvP battles by instantly disconnecting

• Will share player numbers in December update

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