TL;DR

• Combat update will be there within next 2-3 streams
• Character creator showcase delayed because it needs a bit more time
• Py'Rei race concept art revealed
• Animal husbandry system is one of the most complex gathering systems

The big reveal of this month’s update, character creator, was delayed to March development update, because it still needs some work until it’s presentable. The second Ashes of Creation update of the year did not show any gameplay, but rather focused on one of the most in-depth gathering systems in the game - animal husbandry. We were already familiar with the system and its purpose to generate different mounts in the game, but this update expanded on that explaining the entire process. Other than animal husbandry, the update covered some studio updates, highlighting Intrepid hired 11 to 12 people, and gave us a rundown of what prodction department does in Ashes of Creation development process.

Ususal cast of Steven Sharif and Margaret Krohn was accompanied by executive producer Bryan Langford, who worked at Blizzard Entertainment, NCSOFT, and now at Intrepid on Ashes of Creation, to give some perspective of game development from production standpoint.

Also not to miss, it was teased that combat update should be presented within the next 2-3 development updates.

What Does Production Do In MMO Development?

Production executive and production department was mentioned quite a few times during the development updates, but not that many livestream audience members are actually familiar with the role this department plays in an MMO development process. In order to shed some light on more technical side of MMO development, Bryan Langford briefly introduces us to challenges his team faces. As Mr. Langford explained, main role of production team is to support the development team in the process of filming. Additionally, the team also identifies obstacles in development process, manages different dependencies, and proposes solutions with its pros and cons. Steven Sharif higlighted the importance of this team with well they give an overview on the project milestone progression, and really serves as an orientation point in the whole process.

What Does Ashes' Animal Husbadry System Do?

Animal husbandry was the big topic of the stream, as it’s one of the systems that’s undergoing iterations for its preparation for Alpha 2 testing phase. According to the information we got from the livestram, this system is not going to be just a surface-level system of spawning monsters and mounts, but an in-depth one with a lot of variables. To further underline how deep Intrepid is going with the system, the team did a thorough research of real-life applications of husbandry system coupled with animal genetic research.

Taming, one of the gathering professions, is major component of animal husbandry and it can be divided into multiple steps…

Locating - because creature spawning will be location-specific, meaning different creatures will spawn in different biomes, locating will require players to roam around the map and find all kinds of different creatures that can be used in later steps of animal husbandry. To furthermore emphasize this step, geographics location will play a big part in breeding a high-quality creature because players will want to mix speed attributes of desert horses, or size and strength attribures from Riverlands creatures.

Caputring is the second step of this profession. After a player finds the creature of interest, capturing it will be the next challenge to overcome. Apparently, it will not be as simple as clicking on the creature, but the result of this step will depend on the mastery level of the profession.

Training is perhaps the most interesting part of animal husbandry. After a player goes through all the previous steps, or in some other way acquires taimed creatures, they will then train, breed and refine these creatures with husbandry professions to get the highest quality that they can use or sell.

Creatures will have characteristics determined by their genetics (think of attribute points such as speed, strength, etc.). Additionally creatures or animals will have traits related to appearance, performance, combat, which will impact the ulimate quality of the mount or pet or beast a player is trying to get. It is also said that different abilities can be applied to cretures during certain periods of their training. So, these animals “need to be raised from birth to adulthood” and trained for a specific purpose - mount, pet, beast and so on. Possible activities include cleaning, feeding, taking creatures out for practice rides, training them to fight monsters, etc. The training period is very important as it will have the direct impact on the result of quality of the creature. In order to achieve maximum quality in some attribute, players can specialize focus on these types of creatures.

An interesting commuinity question related to this topic - are there going to be recipes for creatures? Short answer, no. Instead, the idea is to have a UI panel that gives a record of success and failed breeding attempts, and this information can be shared with others.

Steven mentioned that it is still up to debate if this is where all of these professions are going, but admits that animal husbandry is one of the most detailed gathering systems in the game. One question stands: what if people find some of these professions boring, and they don’t want to do them? If the output of the profession is critical for other segments of gameplay, there could be some friction that needs to be mitigated. Possible NPCs that do these services for a hefty fee?

Py'Rai Race Reveal And Other Art Updates

One of the bigger points of this stream was also Py’Rai race reveal. We got to see the concept art of a female character, and some initial model state. The antlers that are unique to this race are mandatory, but adjustable, and will react to different seasons and weather.

Ashes of Creation’s official livestream VOD can be found on their Youtube channel.