Polling Interest at: http://www.gaiscioch.com/social/ashes_of_creation/
Signup for Information at: http://gsch.info/play/aoc
Looking for thoughts and feedback on this one. Will likely pursue it for a Gaiscioch Magazine interview in the near future.
Game Announcement
Great things come from small beginnings. In games, it often starts with vision. From years of being involved in the MMO genre, playing games such as Lineage 2, World of Warcraft, and Final Fantasy 14 (among many others) there always seemed to be something lacking. Sometimes PvP was masterfully incorporated into the game, others had dungeons so fun you forgot what PvP even stood for, while a few had great new ideas that were like a breath of fresh air. The problem always seemed to come with the trade you made in order to enjoy a certain aspect. Our vision is to tie all of these elements together, to make a complete game that specializes not in one category listed above, but rather aims for the ultimate goal of perfection. We know, that’s a tall order.
So we wanted to take a step back, to check ourselves before we wrecked ourselves. To really dive into what makes MMOs so addictive, and why we kept coming back to them. The primary question is: What makes an MMO fun, at its core? Well, it’s got to be the thing that makes an MMO an MMO, right? What separates an MMO from all the fantastic Mass Effects and Dragon Ages and Witchers? It’s the MASSIVENESS. It’s the community and the forums and the competition and the people who you’d never meet in real life. It’s that Massively Multiplayer promise. It’s the people that make an MMO what it is. Not a hotbar or a raid boss or a fetch quest. Those are mechanics, those aren’t the genre.
And there was our answer, and there was our game. We decided to focus on mechanics that bring the idea of community to the forefront. To get people to interact with each other meaningfully – not just to conquer a raid boss, or to get some coin from a faceless auction house, but to maybe save a city. A city that all the local residents had a stake in. A city that the players had spent weeks or months developing. The defense of that city, the attack on that city! Or building a world together, as a community choosing our own fate with our friends. We believe that’s going to be a story far more memorable and far more meaningful to players than just about anything we can come up with..
So that’s our design philosophy in a nutshell. Give players reasons to interact, and make those interactions meaningful. And make both of those things feel cool and appropriately epic.
In enters our new MMO in development, Ashes of Creation. As you’ve probably guessed by now, we’re creating an MMO based on our core principles as designers; we believe in choice, organic events, player narratives and massive communities. All of these come together in what we call our “Living World.” Players will shape the world we create through dynamic quests, castle sieges, our settlement system, an economy that goes well beyond the auction house, and player housing (among many other systems). We’ll set up the initial state, you decide where it goes from there.
We are merely the music makers, you will be the dreamer of dreams.
Ashes of Creation begins with us and ends with you, but there are many steps in between. We’ve incorporated some investors, but primarily my own funding has begun the process and we’re well on our way. The team is dedicated, experienced and enthusiastic about what we will be delivering to you, the player. We’re focused on giving you the version of the game we know you’ll love, and to do so we want to keep this as investor-lite as possible (publishing or otherwise). With this in mind, we plan on starting a Kickstarter in the near future. We believe the crowdfunding platform to be perfect for making a game for the player you actually want to attract. Perhaps most importantly, is that it allows you to be involved with our process. Through both financial and creative transparency you’ll be able to be have input with design through the developer’s forums, letting you see what we’re working on and what’s on our mind.
You’ll see in the coming weeks exactly what we’ve done and what systems are in place. We’ll be regularly posting dev journals, releasing videos, showing off artwork and genuinely keeping a dialogue with the community. That dialogue is very important to us, we want our community to be constantly (and properly) informed. Make sure to register on the forums and become a part of our world!
The story only begins here, we’re excited to provide the pen and see what you write.
Details
Nodes
Ashes of Creations has built a unique take to the MMO experience. Our NPC structure is completely dynamic and is built based on the actions of the player base. Gone are the days of static NPC content. Our cities will rise and fall based on the actions of our players. Quests will be unlocked as our player base develops the surrounding areas.
As the world’s NPC structure is established in real time, players will have the ability to lay siege to the world’s infrastructure, paving the way for new development. Political strife and intrigue will play an actual role in the structure of your world.
Housing
Players will have the ability to survey and develop land anywhere in the world. Building the home of their dreams, and working the land around their homes to cultivate resources and supplies. Alternatively, players will be able to purchase homes, inside of cities and watch their home grow with the city.
Homeowners in our game will have the ability to develop specific crafting stations as add-ons to their structure. This will allow the player to specialize in crafting specific goods and services based on their neighboring node.
Questing
Questing in our world combines the best elements of traditional MMO’s as well as the introduction of our unique player driven experiences. Ashes of Creation offers area quests, public quests, and quest chains that change dynamically and in real time based on the player’s experiences and choices.
Players will have the ability to directly alter world events and change the landscape through their actions, as an individual and as a community. Server quests will allow political rivals to compete for the fate of the world.
Sieges
Throughout Ashes of Creation, the player has an opportunity to participate in massively multiplayer siege warfare. Since castles are likely the world’s most limited resource, it will be quite a task to secure and hold them. Involving hundreds of players on a single battlefield, our sieges will employ many moving parts and intricate design features.
Because of the difficult nature of taking and keeping a castle there are great rewards available to the players for their efforts. Castles will allow players to exert control over nearby lands and allow for the development of unique buildings in the nearby towns.
Player Vs Environment
The environment in Ashes of Creation is a visually stunning realm, with fantastical beasts and creations designed to both inspire awe and instill fear. The world is harsh and unforgiving, presenting a clear and present danger to the players. Dungeons, demons and dragons, oh MY!
Our unique and adaptive AI means that an encounter with similar creatures will yield a completely different experience to adapt to as a player. Keeping you on your toes for constantly changing responses from your adversary. The world awaits its heroes.
Player Vs Player
Player combat in Ashes of Creation is both vast and intimate. It spans many aspects of the game itself. From great political battles held on the fields of massive castles, to open world conflicts fought for the pride of Guild Leaders. A player can choose to participate in the fate of the world, by swaying the tide of battle with his or her combat prowess.
Our PvP mechanics follow a flagging system, as well as static PvP zones at certain points of interest. Defending cities, castles, caravans, hunting grounds or sieging them… Our PvP is designed to offer the players a well-balanced and fair world to shape through the pen, or sword should they choose.
Caravans
Our caravan system in Ashes of Creation revolves around opportunity and risk. Caravans facilitate the transfer of goods for players wishing to turn a profit. Initiating a caravan from one city to another will create a caravan that players will need to defend while it moves along its route to the selected destination.
These caravans create a static PvP zone around them, allowing players to engage in PvP with the defenders and attempt to destroy the caravans in order to loot the content. These caravans will be integral in city development.
Trade
We want our players to have a reason to explore the wilderness, to travel with purpose, and much of that will be driven by our resource system. Transporting these goods might just be more difficult than gathering them. Our regional market system allows players to participate in creating pocket economies that will reinforce the stability of goods in particular regions.
Players will be able to move resources and set up shop in other areas to take advantage of the varied markets. With resources spawning dynamically, certain regions will naturally become important trading hubs for the transportation of goods throughout the world.
Crafting and Gathering
Crafting and Gathering is a very important component of the economy that players will have direct control over. Whether you wish to build a sprawling plantation around your house, or wish to travel the vast wilderness in search of treasure and resources. There are many tools available to the crafters of our world.
Regardless of how you gather your resources, we believe that every item that exists in the world, should in some way reflect its creator. As such, there will be extreme versatility in our crafting system. Allowing many crafters, the ability to create unique items that represent their strengths and weaknesses.