Rogue Delayed, Open-Sea Piracy Teaser, and New Weapon Skill Trees | Ashes of Creation February Development Livestream & Weekly Newsletter
This livestream was jam-packed with both great, and unfortunate news
Welcome to another installment of the Ashes Moments Newsletter! Let’s get started
Discord in the Discord
While the Official Ashes of Creation Discord is a great resource for information, conversation with Intrepid employees, and shared bug reporting, it can also lead to players expressing frustration in ways that may not be as helpful.
One of the benefits of having such an open development is having access to high-level Intrepid Employees, and getting a first-hand account of exactly how things are progressing. Director of Communications Margaret Krohn responded directly to a tester questioning some things that they were uncertain on.
On the other hand, member of the Community team Roshen provides context regarding upcoming work on gatherable rarity, a hot-topic among testers, as it is known the current system is placeholder until a more in-depth system comes online.
Patch Notes Highlights - 02/27/2025
Check out the patch notes highlights below, or visit the forums for the full patch notes!
February Development Update Highlights
The stream started with Director of Communications Margaret Krohn & Creative Director Steven Sharif discussing the tumultuous February the Alpha environment has had, and discussing how excited they are to move into February. With multiple major bugs and exploits being found (and fixed), and an unexpected extended downtime, players can see why.
The duo then discussed the giant Stone Statue in the Sandsquall Desert, dubbed Aeterna, who is one of the Goddesses in Verra. Who built the statue, and for what reason, remains unseen.
Margaret also reminded players that this week’s playtesting time will be extended due to the unexpected major downtime, so rejoice in the extra time to roam and test throughout the land.
Testing Highlights
Steven discussed that next month’s livestream will feature a sneak peek as to what players can expect at the start of Phase III. More nodes, higher level nodes, as well as more node layouts will be featured in the next Phase, helping give a glimpse as to what the world will look like once it’s fully fleshed out.
Rogue gone Rogue
Coming up next was some PTR discussion, especially the Rogue testing that has been ongoing. Steven discussed that some iterations have been done from feedback in the PTR, but visual effects and audio work are still in progress, and will come near the end of the pipeline.
The current expectation is these features will be complete mid-March, with an expected Alpha 2 Live Server deployment coming at the end of March. While this is technically a delay from what Steven mentioned earlier in the year, Intrepid has been consistent in mentioning that all dates are subject to change, and I can promise this won’t be the last time a date mentioned by Steven turns out to come-and-go. It is best to expect that while all features promised will eventually come to fruition, actual dates are merely goals, and providing the overall experience for testers while still developing at a healthy pace will always be the number one priority.
Weapon Skill Trees Branch Out
While discussing the current work done on the Dual Dagger Weapon Tree and the progress on the Two-Handed Axe Weapon Skill tree, Steven and Margaret leaked plans for Dual One-Handed Axes and possibly other Dual Weapontypes that may come down the pipeline. With Ashes of Creation’s unique Weapon System allowing all Archetypes to use all weapons, this is an exciting development for all players who may have off-meta dreams. Sadly, dual shields are still a hard-no, but one can hope.
Node Sieges Under Fire
Node Siege testing has gone well, with multiple balance changes done around spawn locations, spawn times, TTK, destruction time, etc. Due to the complexity of this system, and having multiple subsystems that need to be altered and changed, and subsequently tested, Intrepid needs additional time in order to be comfortable moving onto the next stage. As Siege weapons come online, even more adjustments will be made to get it in a state for mass testing on Alpha 2 Live Servers. While Defenders should have an advantage in Sieges, the goal is for this advantage to be mild-to-moderate.
The expected timeline for release to production A2 Environment is end of March. However, the loss of a Node Siege will not result in Node Destruction. That will be one-two months after Node Sieges release, due to the destruction and ruin phase still being a work-in-progress.
Bug & Exploit Squashing
A brief discussion on the benefits of using the in-game /bug reporting function, as well as reiterating Intrepid’s commitment to integrity when punishing exploiters. However, Steven stressed the vast majority of testers are playing fairly, and offers his thanks & appreciation to those who are committed to helping make Ashes of Creation the best possible game it could be.
February Update Walkthrough
We then pivot to a live walkthrough of the latest update on the Lyneth server. Steven & Margaret are joined by several Intrepid Employees.
The team dives into one of the new PoIs, Apothecarium Dreadmire. This is a late-20s/early-30s level area, similar to a Breaking Bad style Laboratory from the Najash. A couple of Named Mobs exist in this area, with poison one of the main damage-types from this mob.
After another body pull from Steven who continues his undefeated streak of making Tanks all over the world physically cringe, the team explores other parts of the recent updates. The team discusses the goal of having region-specific gatherables for all tiers added to the Desert, as well as relevant recipes, to start making the Sandsquall Desert as self-sustaining as the Riverlands.
They also hinted at a Named Rogue from the Obsidian Jackals that could drop some special Dual Daggers in the near-future.
Upcoming Changes
One highly sought after upcoming change is the hotkey availability for Greed All, allowing players to Greed all the loot in a window with a press of the button. This feature was fast-tracked as a direct result of player feedback, and is in the UI refinement phase now.
Expansion to the Turqoise Sea as well as new narratives, adjustments to aquatic mounts, new commodities, new Lawless Zones, and more are planned in the next few months.
In particular, the Turqoise Sea will feature all the high-seas, pirates, and all the deep-sea adventures that players have been excited for, as this comes online with the expanded Sea area.
Revised Hunting mechanics are progressing nicely, with a complete rework to the placeholder Hunting mechanic testers are accustomed to currently. This should be a great change to the large number of Animal Husbandry players who have gotten a little tired of how one-dimensional Hunting has been and are excited to see a glimpse of the direction Intrepid have for this popular Artisan Profession.
Viewer Q&A
Following the February Update Walkthrough, the team took some viewer questions. Below are some of the highlight answers, but feel free to check out the full Q&A Sectoin on the Ashes of Creation Youtube Channel!
The biggest obstacle with Dynamic Gridding currently is just time, as members of that team have been reprioritized to network/server stability recently
TTK and stat changes are currently in testing, but due to the numerous amount of factors that come into play, will take time to come to live production servers
Phase 3 will have much more of a consistent stat tuning cadence come online as more systems that can affect it are incorporated
Wipes will need to happen in the future, and will be done as necessary
Freeholds will need to be wiped when the system undergoes it’s rework
Gatherables will soon have a variance on spawn times
Static rarity isn’t changed on server reset, but are on a 24-hour cycle
Static rarity during this cycle is partially intentional, meant to create some player friction around these spawns
Purely random rarity spawns can result in less player friction
Expanded clustering & spawn rules around gatherables, like rubies in caves & willows near river edge, and higher likelihood of clusters of gatherables
Upcoming Dev Discussion on Static Gatherable Spawns
Expanded Guild Progression including Relics coming up
Filtering options will be added to Player Marketplace in an upcoming release
Featured Community Content
Rounding out this week’s newsletter, we have our Featured Community Content section, highlighting some noteworthy and interesting Ashes of Creation content for a wide variety of players!
First up, we have have Zybak with a Fighter PvP Guide! While all Archetypes are a constant work-in-progress, having a basic guide to get new testers started on in Verra is always important. Combos, tips, and status effect breakdowns are all featured in this guide from one of Verra’s most fearsome Fighters!
Next up, we have have Burns from The Copium Clinic! This content creator is known for his extremely well-researched, deep topics, and in-depth conversations from around the Ashes of Creation content space. The topic he discusses below is one many players have interacted with, and that is the current Artisan/Gathering System. Where Intrepid is now, and where they’re possibly looking to go in the future! Burns is great at healing, as well as making players think more deeply about this open-development as a whole.
And lastly, we have No1, giving us a deep dive on the Economy of Ashes of Creation! With his Economics background, deep knowledge of long-term plan of Intrepid Studios, and thousands of hours covering this game, No1 provides a unique perspective on exactly how all the data we’ve been giving Intrepid over these past few months really helps build a better game. I promise you’ll leave this video typing /bug every few minutes, or your money back!
That’s it for this week! Don’t forget to check out the Ashes Moments Youtube Channel for all the top plays, highlights, bugs, exploits, and more throughout the world of Verra! Follow us on Twitter for Patch Notes Highlights, leaks, Guild Drama, and more. Submit your moment to be featured in an upcoming episode of Ashes Moments and leave your stamp on Ashes of Creation history.
I’m your Host Ily, take it easy!