TL;DR

• Season duration will be tested in Alpha 2
• Melee combat revealed
• Monster-environment syngergy
• Next steps

June development update was all about melee combat and the direction it’s taking.

Season Duration Impact On The Game

With the introduction of seasonal changes into the game, the players became intrested into its impact on the world. So, question about season duration came from one community member. As briefly covered in this stream, seasonal changes will be tested in Alpha 2. The things that are going to be tracked in order to land on that sweet spot of season duration are: rotation of resources and movement of goods. “Seasonal changes should feel comfortable, visually appealing, and should also have the impact on the economy.”

Heavy And Light Melee Combat Showcased

Since MMO combat can be a very touchy subject, detering players from a game completely if done wrong, this section of the livestream was clearly prefixex with “this is work in progress” and “this is the direction we’re thinking of.” Initial plan was to wait for the entire system to be complete before showcasing it to the public, but there was a change of approach as the team wanted to get the feedback early. Therefore, combat updates will be segmented across multiple streams, so that the team can take the feedback and iterate on it.

To further reiterate how sensitive of a topic this is, Steven urged all content creators covering this update to give some context to their audiences before jumping to conclusions. Obviously, the team wants to avoid swift conclusions of “unengaged audiences” that could write the game off based on pre-Alpha combat showcase.

The combat presented on the livestream covered directional movement, animation, visual effects, and audio on a base weapon level. As stated, it will be available in Alhpa 2. The video presentation was used to convey the feeling of weapon combo attack, and to show how much progress they made in combat from Alpha 1 to pre-Alpha 2.

Combat looked much more “free” compared to the previous iteration (Alpha 1), almost action-combat like, stepping away from rooted and restrictive one. However, not completely ditching restrictions, as heavy weapons demonstrated it.

Two-handed Sword And Dagger Weapons Mechanic

There were two weapons shown. Two-handed sword, which is supposed to convey the feeling of heavy weapon type and its behavior, and daggers, which is supposed to show how a lighter weapon type imapcts character movement and animation. The design of the two weapons did not strike as anything special, but it would be safe to assume those were pretty much placeholders for the presentation purposes.

Two-handed sword (heavy weapon category)

This weapon category showed quite some weight to it. Slower animation, the impact of the weapon, the ground effect, and character posturing clearly showcased how much more restrictive this weapon type is compared to the light one. There were a couple of skills and attacks demonstrated:

• Basic attack - basic sword swing that hits multiple monsters (AOE)
• Spin attack (ability) - pretty much "Whirlwind" attack that hits all monsters around (AOE)
• Slam attack (ability) - a huge hammer of light appears and hits monsters in front of you (AOE)
• Dodge (ability) - a straightforward ability that quickly moves the character

Daggers (light weapon category)

Right away we could notice how the character moved quicker and lighter. The attacks were faster, and it seemed as if the gameplay sped up just from switching the weapon. Daggers (light weapons) never slow the character down, no matter what type of attack is being performed. Additionally, it does not look like there’s any restriction on character strafing while equiped with this weapon type.

Floating Text (Damage Numbers) UI Customization

Damage, experience, healing numbers play quite an important role in make the combat picture complete. Floating text seen in the video fits the theme of Ashes of Creation quite nicely. The text did not look too intrusive, Critical hits were highlighted by larger font and darker shade of text color. There is clear separation between damage taken, which floats to the left side, and damage dealt, which floats to the right side. In addition to all of this, the developers expressed how important UI customization is, therefore allowing changes in size, color (different color for different number types), damage icons and experience numbers inclusion.

Hidden Monsters Spawn Mechanic

During the combat demonstration, we had the opportunity to see interesting monster spawning mechanic. The player character was in some sort of a grass-rocky environment, which looked quite ordinary - No monsters, or any sign of danger. However, after walking around some tall grass, monsters started spawning - assembling rock by rock. Monsters in question were some sort of stone golems of different sizes. This was a compeling way of making mosters actually be part of the environment, rather than them just standing at random locations, and having specifically programmed walk patterns.

The Future Of Ashes Of Creation Combat

To close the combat presentation off, the developers explained that the nex step would be to set the baseline for agency vs weight vs impact. From that point on, it would be a matter of tweaking this parameters from weapon type to weapon type to land on that perfect spot where the combar feels good, and not limiting.

The developers went on to say that heavy weapon group is almost done when it comes to this balance, and that light weapon and ranged attacks still require further analysis. The studio is also building a tool that will be used to build abilities (sound effects, visual effects, animation, design, etc.) grounded in animation. We have something similar in Landform tool reveal in this update.

At the end, we got insight into future updates, which will include class kits, abilities, archetypes, toolkits for Alpha 2. It is also noted that class abilities used in Alpha 2 may not make it to the launch. Additional aspects of combat, such as ability systemns and class rotations, are said to be revealed in the upcoming livestreams.