Intrepid Studios have released this first video (above) of pre-alpha game play footage to their fans and the extended video game community. The dev team have been working hard behind the scenes and are now ready to share a small part of their vision for Ashes of Creation.
As MMORPG fans for decades now, the teams philosophy is to bring back everything that is fantastic about online games. So many elements of MMORPGs now appear in other games across several genres. It is time to bring what everything they have learned back into the fold and rise up to create a game for everyone to play.
This first video of gameplay footage is from the pre-alpha stage and is only meant as a taste of what the team have in store, as they continue to polish and build every day. This clip is of the Mage class as she heads out for an early morning adventure among some undiscovered ruins with her knightly companions.
The current UI is a placeholder, but enjoy the scenery, and all the powers that the mage can conjure from her spell book while overcoming obstacles, exploring the caves, and battling epic foes in the depths.
Current game features:
- Nodes – The world structure is dynamic and built to react to the actions of players. Cities will rise and fall, their populations based on the history of the world as the players create it. Quests will unlock as these nodes are developed, their needs grow, and secrets are unlocked. As the world’s NPC structure is established in real time, players will have the ability to destroy what they’ve created, paving the way for new development, new populations, and real change. Political strife and intrigue will play a very real role in the structure of your world.
- Caravans – The caravan system 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.
- An Ever Changing World – The world will change on a regular basis. Zones will progress in a seasonal cycle, which will alter the very nature of the environment around you both visually and mechanically. Snow may block pathways that are accessible in warmer months, spring may encourage creatures otherwise unseen to come to the surface, and fall might be the only time that certain crops thrive. This cycle can then take in the state of the world’s Nodes and shift depending on their progression. What happens if there’s an unexpectedly long summer and a far too short autumn? We’re not entirely sure ourselves, but we do know there will be plenty of stories that begin with “I remember when…” I want these cycles to affect a wide array of mechanics, including; NPC generation, boss content, dungeons, drop tables, Node progression, combat, skill use, gatherables, trade routes, NPC appearances, and weather. How you approach the world will depend on the world’s mood at that time. Certainly you might re-consider your approach to that dungeon if it’s fall rather than spring.
There are a lot of very big ideas at play in Ashes of Creation and if the team can develop them we might just have something special. Fingers crossed this one turn out well!
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