TL;DR

• The entire team transitioned to Unreal Engine 5
• Economy will be tested out in Alpha 2
• Character creator is almost in presentable state
• Boats will be available early in the game
• Roads will play role in the caravan system
• Vek race concept art revealed

First development update of the year went back to its usual schedule of being livestreamed at the end of the month. January development update discussed game systems that are being prepared and iterated on for Alpha 2 testing phase, described road systems and their role, revealed Vek concept art, and updated us with some race reskins.

Introduction part of the livestram briefly mentioned that Intrepid kicked off the year with six new employees, set more agressive goals for the upcoming period, and confirmed that the entire studio moved over to Unreal Engine 5.

Ashes Of Creation Systems Prepared For Alpha 2

Alpha 1 testing phase gave a lot of insight and data points, which are being used to refine and update in-game systems in the preparaion for Alpha 2. One of the systems that will be watched closely in the upcoming testing phase is economy management. Economy plays crucial role in MMO games, and it will be critial to get this system to its correct state. One of the aspects that will be tested out is material markets from major’s perspective, which puts heavy emphasis on inter-node trade relationships. In regards to this, Alpha 2 will analyze where should the focus in the economy be? How much of it should be player to player compared to node to node.

We also got a brief mention of the combat system update, which is getting some animation, visual and sound effect work. Related to this point, the team is getting into more detail on how classes should be architectured, how should they fit in the level progression, and what systems should be available to the players in Alpha 2. How deep will augment system and roles (trinity system) go in Alpha 2 remains to be defined.

Going through this segment, Steven accidentally leaked that Alpha 2 will be capped at lvl 35, but quickly clarified that this is a target goal, and not set in stone yet.

AI Infrastructure Is Receiving Attention

Hate tables, behavior trees are supposed to introduce variables to foster this unpredictability and more “realistic” scenarios in different systems. For example, training a mount will not follow a predefined route, but will depend on different circuimstances. This system is being iterated on and will be tested out in Alpha 2. AIs will also be present in faction games. Players can interract with different NPC factions within a node, like doing some quests for them and gaining their favor, ultimately using it to sway the major election to their side.

Character Creator Is Almost Here...

Outside of Unreal Engine 5 migration, there’s a lot of work done on character customization, with the team is working on different parameters that are adjustable. Steven described it as a very in-depth tool, striving towards being “the most customizable character creator”. It still needs some UI design to be presentable, but technical side is very well underway. Character creator could potentially be showcased next month.

Other mentions...

The team is also working on network updates, which should result in performance boost for Alpha 2. Aside from that, work is done on narative tool and node tool.

So much intended content for Alpha 2 is there to give a much clearer picture of what Ashes of Creation ultimately will be. Alhpa 2 may be the first "real" testing phase that will give the players that feeling of an actual Ashes of Cretion MMO with some almost fleshed out systems.

Systems such as crafting, combat, node will be available in Alpha 2 and showcased in the next streams.

Will Zergs Ruin Open-World Content?

While open-world content can be one of the most fun types of content, with masses of players from accross the server involved in an activity, it can also quickly create negative experience in more competitive events, such as sieges. In a quite few scenarios larger masses of players can just overcome other groups by sheer numbers. Since 80% of Ashes of Creation’s content is open-world, this aspect of the gameplay will require a lot of attention. To tackle this issue Intrepid will use its instancing tool. To sort of alleviate the pressure and tackle zerging problem in an open-world content, in some types of events such as sieges, there will be instanced areas accessible to only some opposing parties. These will be objective-based points of interest, for example 10-minute long attacker vs defender intanced battles, which attackers and defenders will have to pay attention to. You can think of these events as a mixure of parallel open-world and instanced activities, which should balance that issue of “bigger number of players on one side automatically win.”

Roads Impact Caravan System

Players Will Have Boats Early

Vek Revealed, Ren'Kai, Niküa, Dünir, Kaelar Showcased

Ashes of Creation’s this year’s first livestream is available on Youtube.