Sneak Peek at Upcoming Ashes of Creation AMA ft. Steven Sharif

With an AMA announced for May 10th, and the Community Content Creators chosen, we decided to do a deep-dive into the type of questions they might ask!

Apr 29, 2024

Introduction

Another AMA has been just announced with Steven Sharif, Creative Director at Intrepid Studios. This time, featuring 4 brand-new Content Creators with various degrees of history creating content for Ashes of Creation. All of these Creators have very different opinions on what they want to see, so we’ve done some research into some past questions they have asked on the Monthly Q&A Forum posts to give you guys an idea of what they might lean towards come May 10th.

As this is only speculation, and to give you a sense as to what topics these Creators are more curious about, I encourage you all to visit their channels and social media to give them your thoughts on what questions they could ask.

Vlhadus

Starting off with Vlhadus, who is one of the most general purpose Content Creators we have here, we see his latest question was June 2023, where he asked a Freehold question, a topic many people have been divided on ever since the Freehold Update aired:

Unfortunately, it looks like it had already been answered by Steven previously, as the Community Moderator answered the question himself using existing knowledge.

He had also asked about the 64 class system, a topic that has had constant debate, with a lot of discussion over the viability of balancing 64 classes:

Again, it looks like it wasn’t up to the level of being proposed to answer by Steven.

Going back to 2022, Vlhadus has asked several questions, including one about the Empyrean Elf models:

As well as the principles of being a “hardcore” game, and how that can ostracize the casual crowd:

And even proposing more frequent dev updates as a way of getting the community more involved in the development process:

NyceGaming

Next up, we have NyceGaming, who has had a couple questions answered live on stream. We see he tends to focus more on combat & PvP, which is likely due to his history as a New World PvPer. As a melee-focused player, he also has a greater focus on melee classes like Tank and more recently Fighter

For this months livestream, Nyce asked about the viability of bounty hunters given how some people think corruption will very heavily disincentivize non-consensual PvP. We’ll see if this gets chosen to answer for the upcoming livestream on April 30th:

We follow that up with a question about races, asking when we can see more about the dwarf race. This might be of interest to those who have been waiting for more about the Dunir, but no real insight into any design philosophy to speak of, as this was given a generic response by the Community Moderator

In January, Nyce asked about the Summoner class, one of the few classes we’ve had almost no information on:

As expected, this was also given a generic response, as any news about class reveals are usually limited to Discord leaks from Steven himself.

This question about the hybrid targeting/action camera being utilized more often is mildly prophetic, as the Community Moderator mentioned that had indeed been the goal. We have also seen much more hybrid combat since, so this must have been on Intrepid’s mind just as much as Nyce’s:

Here we have a question about the Tutorial experience for new players, dubbed the First Player Experience internally. This was answered live on stream, where Steven discussed how this will be focused more in the Betas and not at all a focus for Alpha 2. It is widely understood that a poor First Player Experience can result in many new players quickly getting lost in a game that doesn’t introduce them to all the proper systems in an enjoyable manner:

This wasn’t the only question Nyce had answered on stream, however. He also asked about PvP viability of Tanks, giving examples of how Tanks might be important in large-scape PvP combat. Given how we tend to either see Tanks be next to useless as immobile sponges, or be extremely overpowered as a higher-damage, higher-health version of a Warrior/Fighter archetype, this is very relevant as to how Steven intends to design supportive classes to maintain a high class share compared to damage-classes (an issue that has plagued many trinity-based MMOs):

JamieKaos

Coming up, we have Jamie Kaos, one half Kaos and Lace over at Tangents of Creation. Jamie, along with Anie Lace, have done numerous long-form podcasts discussing all sorts of topics, from class viability to RP. They also have a strong community, so he’ll most likely be seriously considering submitted questions from fans and community members, so be sure to check them out and get your voices heard.

Earlier this year, Jamie had a very niche question that not many casual players would think about, having friends/guild members game the corruption system:

Unfortunately, it didn’t seem like his question was answered, or even really understood by the Community Moderator, as the question was about a guild member gaming the system.

Jamie’s next question was answered in the January 2023 stream, asking for more clarification around how raid boss difficulty scales with player numbers/raid clears in an open-world dungeon environment:

Steven mentioned in his answer how the Raid AI has access to several metrics concerning the players in the area, and can scale dynamically. They also mentioned how we haven’t seen this large-scale AI encounter yet, so keep an eye out come Alpha 2 for more on this topic:

LoreForgedHQ

Last but not least, we have LoreForgedHQ, a podcast channel operated by three individuals: Sunny Ravencourt, Jibbs, and Kash. Their channel is dedicated to doing deep dives in Ashes of Creation lore, both factual and speculative. If you have an interest in learning more about Ashes of Creation’s history and lore, then they are definitely your champion to have your voice heard.

As a great example of their lore-focused content, here we have Sunny asking about books and other materials that populate the world, and even inquiring about in-game lore-related activities:

Unfortunately, due to poor formatting resulting in multiple questions being asked, Sunny’s question wasn’t given a response.

We also have Kash asking a question related to a change in the Ranger’s intended playstyle, and the reasoning behind it:

This was answered on stream by Steven, where he went into detail on how the initial goal of inducing a malus when in close-range to a Ranger resulted in an unenjoyable experience. Instead, the focus is more an giving Rangers a benefit for being further range when engaging with an enemy, a much better feeling playstyle. However, Steven is still open to the idea if necessary:

Lastly, we have Jibbs with a question about the audio direction of the game, a topic that is very rarely discussed but just as important as the visual aspect for many players:

This was also answered on stream, where Steven gave a thorough answer on his thoughts on the audio element of Ashes of Creation:

Conclusion

There you have it. A small glimpse at a bit of the thought processes behind each of the Content Creators invited to speak to Steven. As many months have passed since some of these questions, I’m sure they have many more questions to throw at him, and are welcoming the community to pitch their questions. Give their channels a visit and make your voice heard!

Leave your comments below if you think this type of content is useful as we get closer to the soft-launch our website - Ashes Moments - and becoming the premier place to show off your Ashes of Creation Moments and Highlights!

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