Keeping the ore of the mineable rocks obscured is almost certainly a design decision so that rare metals aren't always mined instantly by the first person to pass by the area (also most veins aren't visible on the surface of the rock they're in – I think that's kinda what they were going for). Seems intended to force the use of their survey/prospecting skills if you only want a specific resource. Probably for the best, your guild would require someone with the proper survey skills & equipment on scene at a forest to monopolize a specific resource you're looking for, rather than anyone seeing it and immediately dropping it's position in the group chat. Fantasy MMOs(this one especially) tend to emphasize having a guild/party and wanting those specialized character builds in your direct contact list, whereas star citizen will let you move from activity to activity assuming you have the equipment for it. In this instance, not everyone is supposed to be able to start mining on a whim. Steven has really hammered home how their goal is to emphasize class identity and the most hardcore example I've heard from him is the fact that raid bosses will not drop top tier gear, they will only drop materials – therefore your guild literally must have a weaponsmith, Armor smith, etc. I feel a lot of the design choices that most people consider strange or annoying tend to be a direct result of the games number 1 design goal: a social economy where you have no choice but to interact and organize with other players.
On the subject of the gathering looking like what other MMOs are doing, It certainly has the same walk up and click gameplay loop for gathering, but the difference ashes focuses on is the dynamic economy and ecology of it's resources and mobs, not necessarily making the actual gathering / grinding less of a slog – although I hope they work on that too. They talk a bit in this video about these dynamic systems they want to implement from around 23:25 – 28:35 until you seem to get tired of hearing about it. I get the feeling they aren't conveying it very well, or maybe it seems like they're just saying shit to pad time, but that's the part of the game people are interested in. Cut down trees in an area for long enough and they stop growing back in the biome for some time, hunt enough wolf mobs, and the rabbit mob spawn rate increases. The overall world system doesn't have prebuilt cities with NPCs running shop s or handing out the same questlines to every level 12, everything is supposed to be player made and dynamic – all the potions and equipment are crafted by players vying for resources in areas with shifting spawns – every herb in a biome dies? – alchemy players can't set up shop and you can therefore no longer buy health potions without traveling 10+ minutes to the nearest developed node. Even star citizen just has ships and equipment that an NPC shop can spawn infinitely out of thin air if you give them credits – ashes unique aspect is that a player needs to mine the iron, then give it to a player who leveled smelting, then they give it to a player who leveled weaponsmith, and then there's a sword on the market. Towns are entirely player run, and grown, the proposed node system is wildly ambitious. All that being said, little of this is currently functioning in the alpha.
If you want to understand a bit more, I recommend thelazypeons videos, since he paints the unique aspects in a clearer picture (he made 2 videos I believe, 1 of which is more recent). I think the issue here is probably that you watched this first without greater context.
Just a little backstory… Ashes was completely funded prior to the kickstarter, and kickstarter was used to verify interest before moving forward. So the game will be released since it is already paid for.
This was not the best video to react to, there was not alot going on. Watch any of the recent videos on your own time for a better understanding of the game. They always have a video once a month, usually the last Thurs or Fri of the month.
Many of the videos mainly cover the systems, with some applications. The application will change with time and testing. They had mini games for crafting and gathering but was postponed till they were further along with development.
One thing about this game is that it has seasons. Minables that you must do some work to find out what is in are nice because you don't have bots mining all the rarest nodes in the game. The nodes are dynamically spawned, so they don’t show up in the same spot all the time. Star Citizen does not have a verity of mobs that you can kill yet. As for mining in star citizen it is more indepth but considering the AoC game has only really been actively worked on since late 2017 and with Covid it has made some incredible progress for only putting in about $35 – $45 million into production. The Alpha A test with the Castle siege that had over 200 players fighting with all the spell effects was running at about 75 FPS on my computer. Star Citizen runs between 20-55 depending on where I am and how many people are in the area. When I fought the dragon raid boss in Alpha with about 90+ players it had mechanics and was not some NPC that stands on chairs or just sits there. I truly hope Star Citizen server messing fixes the major issues on the server side. After 500+ million and 10 years it sure is taking Star Citizen a long time to get the game to the point where it has all the game loops done and NPCs/AI working. At the rate AoC is be going since Alpha A testing. This game will be done before Star Citizen gets us to Pyro and all the major game loops completed. I love Star Citizen but it is to the point where they better start adding content and fix the game latancy and 30K errors in the next 2 years or games like AoC will pass it by soon.
You are comparing a non-game (Star Citizen) to a game (Ashes of Creation). Star Citizen is not a game, it is "Monetized Scope Creep". Star Citizen has monetized scope creep to the tune of over 500 million $$$$$$ with no real game in sight but new monetized scope creep coming out weekly.
I'm not really into fantasy games but the game is pretty good looking
yeah I agree with you the thing about the rocks is a weird choice
the MMO genre is so dry RN I'm actually sorta interested in this game
Keeping the ore of the mineable rocks obscured is almost certainly a design decision so that rare metals aren't always mined instantly by the first person to pass by the area (also most veins aren't visible on the surface of the rock they're in – I think that's kinda what they were going for). Seems intended to force the use of their survey/prospecting skills if you only want a specific resource. Probably for the best, your guild would require someone with the proper survey skills & equipment on scene at a forest to monopolize a specific resource you're looking for, rather than anyone seeing it and immediately dropping it's position in the group chat. Fantasy MMOs(this one especially) tend to emphasize having a guild/party and wanting those specialized character builds in your direct contact list, whereas star citizen will let you move from activity to activity assuming you have the equipment for it. In this instance, not everyone is supposed to be able to start mining on a whim.
Steven has really hammered home how their goal is to emphasize class identity and the most hardcore example I've heard from him is the fact that raid bosses will not drop top tier gear, they will only drop materials – therefore your guild literally must have a weaponsmith, Armor smith, etc. I feel a lot of the design choices that most people consider strange or annoying tend to be a direct result of the games number 1 design goal: a social economy where you have no choice but to interact and organize with other players.
On the subject of the gathering looking like what other MMOs are doing, It certainly has the same walk up and click gameplay loop for gathering, but the difference ashes focuses on is the dynamic economy and ecology of it's resources and mobs, not necessarily making the actual gathering / grinding less of a slog – although I hope they work on that too. They talk a bit in this video about these dynamic systems they want to implement from around 23:25 – 28:35 until you seem to get tired of hearing about it. I get the feeling they aren't conveying it very well, or maybe it seems like they're just saying shit to pad time, but that's the part of the game people are interested in. Cut down trees in an area for long enough and they stop growing back in the biome for some time, hunt enough wolf mobs, and the rabbit mob spawn rate increases. The overall world system doesn't have prebuilt cities with NPCs running shop s or handing out the same questlines to every level 12, everything is supposed to be player made and dynamic – all the potions and equipment are crafted by players vying for resources in areas with shifting spawns – every herb in a biome dies? – alchemy players can't set up shop and you can therefore no longer buy health potions without traveling 10+ minutes to the nearest developed node. Even star citizen just has ships and equipment that an NPC shop can spawn infinitely out of thin air if you give them credits – ashes unique aspect is that a player needs to mine the iron, then give it to a player who leveled smelting, then they give it to a player who leveled weaponsmith, and then there's a sword on the market. Towns are entirely player run, and grown, the proposed node system is wildly ambitious. All that being said, little of this is currently functioning in the alpha.
If you want to understand a bit more, I recommend thelazypeons videos, since he paints the unique aspects in a clearer picture (he made 2 videos I believe, 1 of which is more recent). I think the issue here is probably that you watched this first without greater context.
Just a little backstory… Ashes was completely funded prior to the kickstarter, and kickstarter was used to verify interest before moving forward. So the game will be released since it is already paid for.
This was not the best video to react to, there was not alot going on. Watch any of the recent videos on your own time for a better understanding of the game. They always have a video once a month, usually the last Thurs or Fri of the month.
Many of the videos mainly cover the systems, with some applications. The application will change with time and testing. They had mini games for crafting and gathering but was postponed till they were further along with development.
One thing about this game is that it has seasons. Minables that you must do some work to find out what is in are nice because you don't have bots mining all the rarest nodes in the game. The nodes are dynamically spawned, so they don’t show up in the same spot all the time. Star Citizen does not have a verity of mobs that you can kill yet. As for mining in star citizen it is more indepth but considering the AoC game has only really been actively worked on since late 2017 and with Covid it has made some incredible progress for only putting in about $35 – $45 million into production. The Alpha A test with the Castle siege that had over 200 players fighting with all the spell effects was running at about 75 FPS on my computer. Star Citizen runs between 20-55 depending on where I am and how many people are in the area. When I fought the dragon raid boss in Alpha with about 90+ players it had mechanics and was not some NPC that stands on chairs or just sits there. I truly hope Star Citizen server messing fixes the major issues on the server side. After 500+ million and 10 years it sure is taking Star Citizen a long time to get the game to the point where it has all the game loops done and NPCs/AI working. At the rate AoC is be going since Alpha A testing. This game will be done before Star Citizen gets us to Pyro and all the major game loops completed. I love Star Citizen but it is to the point where they better start adding content and fix the game latancy and 30K errors in the next 2 years or games like AoC will pass it by soon.
You are comparing a non-game (Star Citizen) to a game (Ashes of Creation). Star Citizen is not a game, it is "Monetized Scope Creep". Star Citizen has monetized scope creep to the tune of over 500 million $$$$$$ with no real game in sight but new monetized scope creep coming out weekly.