Talk:2018-12-06 Livestream
Transcripción
Steven: Hello everybody. Welcome to our little bit of a late stream. A little bit just it's just a few minutes. We had a couple of things we wanted to grab before we went live that we had to get. You might have seen accidentally an axe appear. But we have we have a great stream lined up for today. Actually we have a video and a pretty good announcement: A big big announcement. Absolutely I'm excited. So why don't we start- where are we starting out off?
Jeffrey: We should be starting with the December cosmetics I do believe.
Steven: Oh we just want to jump into that? Why don't we talk a little bit about how things have been going here at the studio first you know with regards to some new hires that we've gotten and growing.
Jeffrey: Yeah we continue to do that. It's been a you know aggressive push for us. Everybody knows you know we've kind of gone into full production mode and that means staffing up and that means working hard. It's been kind of crazy I think. We are full to the brim with people. Really frenetic, really crazy, really good pace.
Steven: Yeah we put up we put up a bunch of new positions about two months ago and we've hired a bunch of new positions and as a matter of fact I think we'll be sending out a newsletter probably next week just before Christmas with those people and their names and their-
Jeffrey: Their background and their history and where they come from.
Steven: Exactly. Some very good experience. Yeah we're pretty excited about that.
Jeffrey: It's always been good hiring here in San Diego. There's a lot of talent around and it's been kind of really nice.
Steven: And we'll be announcing new hiring positions- hiring for new positions starting just after the first of the year.
Jeffrey: Again we're going to continue to be aggressive in acquiring people. You know our interview process takes a little while. We always want to always make sure that we get the right people for the right position. But it always results in really good quality work. We've been super stoked with kind of where we're at right.
Steven: Oh yeah absolutely. As a matter of fact we're gonna have a bunch of new space to hire right after the first of the new year as well.
Jeffrey: Which we need badly. We're putting people in closets over here.
Steven: But looking at the new server room and how how great that was that at the new place.
Jeffrey: It's gonna be really nice I think we get a little bit more elbow room.
Steven: All the desks can go up and down- standing desks- those are cool. There's a bunch of breakout rooms.
Jeffrey: Yeah everybody can meet and not bother everybody on the other floor- Kevin McPherson- so yeah it's gonna be good it's it's really appropriate for a studio right now and yeah it'll give us the room to kind of hire the next phase of people again. We're trying to get it to about a hundred by the summer- midsummer.
Steven: I'd say around about June we'd have 100.
Jeffrey: Yeah so right now we're right around fifty.
Steven: That are here at the studio here in San Diego yeah absolutely; and the other thing about- as soon as we are in the new place we're going to do a little tour. A little tour video. That'd be interesting; but also we've been doing a lot of testing over the past- well we started testing on Apocalypse as we called it alpha one phase one but now it's Apocalypse. We did that we started back in September right after PAX right?
Peter: We got a lot of data.
Steven: Yeah an unbelievable amount of good data that goes towards perfecting the server infrastructure for the different alphas and betas that we intend to go into. It allows us to get our account management and new website getting up it allows our fulfillment and account services on the backend to get up. A lot of the optimization for having hundreds of players in the same area together. We've been able to collect a lot of good information on that and perfect that. We're getting to a really good spot on a lot of the testing that we're doing.
Jeffrey: Oh yeah it's feeling really good and it's great. I mean I'm sure a bunch of people who are watching right now have participated and again like we really honestly couldn't do without you. You know we need people like actual people. There's a lot of automation we can do on our side to kind of kind of vet a lot of the stuff that we're doing but when it comes to real-world data we can't do it without people; and so you know it comes in fits and starts in terms of like with the progress that some of our testers may be seeing but getting really close to the finish line here. It's- we've almost got everything in place we can see the finish line and I think we're getting rise to something really exciting.
Steven: And I know we've said it in the past but honestly you know these the Alpha-1 and Alpha-2 backers who are participating currently in testing: They are troopers because you know there are times where we'll take few steps forward and fixing certain issues but there's an old kind of wake coding kind of works is you know you're 99 bugs on the wall you take one down pass it around now you have 127 bugs on the wall. But sometimes you take a few steps forward take a step back. Few steps forward take a step back. But that's the great thing about you know active development: A lot of people don't get to see this side of game making right; and you know for good reason: Because there are bugs and it's not the most fluid experience; but the great thing about being able to see this and participate in this is not only will you get to at the end of the day look back and have a really clear picture on where we came from and to where we're going to end up but also you've had a voice in that process right and you got to interact with that; and you know one of the great things that I've experienced personally and having started the studios and being a gamer from the outside and now getting to see the behind the curtain and be a part of that development process is: It is a it's a wild ride. It's a wild ride and it's a lot of fun; and there can be some long nights.
Jeffrey: It's all in in spirit of getting things done right. It's a product that we are creating. It's not just you know art on a wall- not that that means anything. But you know it's [laughter] there's a lot of work that goes into it and everybody kind of has to do their part; and we know we've set goals for ourselves and that means that we need to you know fulfill those goals; and so everybody in the studio is like you know what this is gonna be a late night but at the end of the day we're going to hit that goal and we're going to do what we want to be doing.
Steven: Absolutely. So before we get into showing you guys the video and having a little bit more of in-depth discussion discussion about Apocalypse and the announcement that we have, why don't we go ahead and actually show some of those December- we'll show you guys the December cosmetics. So these will be released I believe they get released tomorrow or is it today? No tomorrow it's tomorrow. These will be up tomorrow. What are we what's our first one what do we got?
Jeffrey: So the first thing up is the Frostguard Cloak.
Steven: I love the the fullness of the fur around the- no animals were harmed in the production of this cosmetic piece- it's all faux fur. Tell us a little bit about this cloak.
Jeffrey: So yeah these cloaks are designated for the frost guard expeditionary team that is a group of elite veterans that are tasked with mapping and gathering intelligence from the northern reaches of Verra.
Steven: I love it. Yeah that's very cool so now what would a great effect for this if you were wearing this would be like wherever you walk, there's always a little bit of snow just above you [cross-talk]. Alright what's our next one? Oh is this Elsa's castle?
Jeffrey: So this is actually a building skin for one of our social buildings. The kind of text behind this is that it's forged from ice and magic. It's considered a Great Hall that has excellent acoustics and even better lighting. It's loved by bards the world over performers often make special pilgrimages to these places. They can elevate even the most awful shows into something magical.
Steven: Nice and this is the Prism of the frozen Glade.
Jeffrey: That is correct.
Steven: Nice. Looks good. Can this also have snow over it?
Jeffrey: We'll just put snow over everything.
Steven: Snow over everything. All snow everywhere [cross-talk]. What's this next one? I love the polar bears.
Jeffrey: So this is Urlor's Expedition this is a skin for a caravan and as you can see this Caravan is set to go somewhere frosty. Erlor was a kind of a famous Dwarven caravan leader and he did some pretty special things and you'll hear about that later; but this is named after him and his exploits in the north.
Steven: Nice now instead of snow falling on this one can we just have snow on the ground always wherever it goes?
Jeffrey: Always snowy. Anybody who attacks the caravans slips.
Steven: Slips! Yeah. That's pay-to-win. We can't do that. We could dream. Oh and is there any Coca Cola bottles inside of that Caravan? [cross-talk] I'm just joking. I'm just joking. Okay what have we got here? Oh that's a dead fox on his shoulder. No on his shoulder. Sorry Fooshyy. Okay go ahead.
Jeffrey: So this is the Frigid Hunter costume for those who decide to put down roots in the frigid north warm wear is always recommended. This particular style was adapted from the style of barbarians of Sanctus incorporating local furs and leathers for an exceptionally insulated ensemble.
Steven: Oh, looks good I like that one.
Peter: Your description reading is very like reminds me of Price is Right.
Jeffrey: I'm channeling Bob Barker. [cross-talk]
Jeffrey: And look at this magical beast. We call this the Arctic Prowler. It is an owl and a bear and a little bit of a owlbear. This is another one of Verra's at chimeric creatures. The Arctic Prowler is a terrifying foe but a surprisingly staid mount. One of the more intelligent of the animal species found on this planet. It learns commands readily and can form lasting bonds with humanoids who treat them well.
Steven: That's pretty cool.
Peter: I love the wings on that one.
Steven: Yeah the wings are great. I think this is my favorite. I just love goats.
Jeffrey: This is the winter Nyth. It's often mistaken for baby unicorn by those who are newly arrived on Verra. Nyths are actually their own unique species though. They have a very long life span but breed very rarely. Seeing one is considered to be auspicious and poaching one is inadvisable. Not only do they seem to have command of various unusual mystic energies making them a formidable foe, but their death can invoke a curse on those responsible, whether it be through trap or by boat.
Steven: That guy is cool.
Jeffrey: But yeah he's gonna be a pet, which you can bring along with you on your travels.
Steven: Now can we have this particular pet instead of like any effects or anything but- no no not snow but perhaps like when it is running around and whatnot [goat bleating sound]. Can we just do that?
Jeffrey: Yes we can do that on loop.
Steven: Just have it scream a little bit.
Jeffrey: Yeah. How about for everybody who doesn't own the pet?
Peter: Right. That's the curse.
Jeffrey: That's the curse. Thank you goat. Thank you goat.
Steven: Oh no I'm sorry guys, I had to do that. I had to do that. That would be great. no that's look good. I love the wintry- So I think there was a discussion inside the community that it should be named Winter Nymph or Unigoat or Goat-a-corn. Very cool I like those. Those are awesome. So those are the December cosmetic store update, which will be available tomorrow guys. Okay let's move into. Well let's show, well hold on. Let me think what we do next: Let's do the video then the announcement. What do you think?
Jeffrey: I think that's about right.
Steven: That sounds like a good idea? Okay guys, so here's what we're gonna do: We are going to show you an updated video that contains footage from the current internal testing of Castle Sieges as well as shows off some of the latest footage of the Battle Royale; and there is going to be a announcement at the end of this video and we're really excited about this announcement because there's an opportunity for everyone to get their hands on Ashes of Creation and into the world right of Ashes of Creation. So let's go ahead and we'll roll the video and then we'll come back and chat with you guys exactly what this means.
Steven: Sorry guys. I was watching with you guys. There was a little bit of a delay. So as you guys saw there at the end, by the way, okay what you're seeing in that trailer is our latest and greatest from- actually that was footage was yesterday and day before that we're recording most of it- but it has updates to our hit registration. It's showing some differences in the melee combat and how stamina is used. It had some footage from the Castle Sieges and we are [lost audio].
Steve: Players and for CIS and Russian players and you may now visit the apocalypse.ashesofcreation.com to register for the- oh and the video's playing again. Okay sound our sound cut off for a second so let me reiterate that. The registration is now open at apocalypse.ashesofcreation.com. We're excited that our partners might my.com and mail.ru also have their website open as well for registration. You'll be seeing some news announcements coming out in the next couple days. We're going to be actually as well if you are a beta 1 backer for Ashes of Creation you will be getting an invite to this weekend's test.
Jeffrey: Yep. We're in the final phases. We basically gotten to the finish line. We are going to be releasing this project its own kind of stand-alone thing that everybody can kind of get into and play right now; and we'll basically continue on towards the final product, which is Ashes of Creation the MMO.
Steven: Absolutely.
Jeffrey: So one of the great things about this is that we get to really kind of see what we can do in the big boys space. We will treat this like its own product.
Steven: We'll get as many players as possible to hit our back-end, to hit our servers, to touch our Castle Siege designs. We want to push the amount of players that are going to be present in the Battle Royale maps or in the Castle Sieges to the hundreds of players in preparation for what we expect to have in Ashes of Creation. We want to perfect that player replication. We want to perfect the server performance on frame rate. We want to perfect pretty much anything that goes into- you know what are the interesting things about being an MMO player for so long is that you know I've never really come across an MMO that's had a good quote unquote launch right. There's always been either you know major problems- I know it's definitely rough out there and you know bless their hearts, but there is a there's you know either- I remember there's a couple of MMOs where I had to sit in queue just to log into the server for like ten hours; and then at the end of that 10 hour queue everything crashed. I got into the character creation and then I got kicked out and had to sit in the 10 hour queue again; and that lasted for like weeks. But you know one of the one of our primary goals here is to get as much of that testing done as possible and Apocalypse offers a way for us to literally hit our servers potentially with hundreds of thousands of players.
Jeffrey. Yep. And do it over and over again right.
Steven: That's what we want to see because as we move into Alpha 1 and Alpha 2 and the Beta periods of Ashes of Creation and we're continuing this development forward, we don't want to see those types of problems, at least to that degree that many of us have experienced over the years and playing MMOs.
Jeffrey: And especially that launch day right. Like you don't often get a chance to redo your launch right. That launch day is what everybody remembers and it sticks with you throughout the rest of your MMOs career right; and we want to make sure that that first day for us is amazing. This is kind of on the path toward that so that's it's something that is gonna be really great for the studio I think long term.
Steven: Yes absolutely; and the other thing about the difference between you know Apocalypse and being a standalone that's going to be released out into the public versus our Alpha 1 and Beta 2- excuse me- our Alpha 1, Alpha 2 and Beta periods is that the Alpha 1 and the Beta periods those exist for a period of time and they are brought down [cross-talk] for the development right. Apocalypse will persist and it will be a live game that will last throughout.
Jeffrey: And the great thing about it is that we've got so much stuff to update it with right. Like as we continue to make progress on the MMO, some of that stuff will find its way into Apocalypse and kind of vice versa as we test out systems that we're not quite sure about in Apocalypse they'll make their way in to the MMO, so it's a great great way to keep things public keep things in players and to kind of iterate sort of publicly almost.
Steven: Now let's talk a little bit about for now I know that you know a lot of people out there we've talked about how you can earn cosmetic rewards right; and part of the incentive for players to participate in Apocalypse is some of these cosmetic rewards. So maybe we'll start to let's take a look at some of the art assets and let's describe a little bit about how players go about earning these rewards and and what exactly the questing system entails in Apocalypse. So do we have-
Jeffrey: We do. We have an Axe right they. They may have seen that.
Steven. They've seen- they saw that. But this isn't a cosmetic. This is your standard Axe correct?
Jeffrey: Bulk standard. This is what you start out with.
Steven: So this is your starting weapon and right now in the Battle Royale. Let's take a look at the variant of this and we'll talk a little bit about- there we go okay. So here's some examples about of how the Axe can kind of have these variants. I'm not sure which one this is. This is the Hallowed variant axe and this is something that the way that Apocalypse is going to work is you're going to have an adventure path; and actually we're going to turn on those systems in today's stress test that we have at four o'clock for alpha-1 and alpha-2 backers I believe perhaps maybe. We're gonna try to, but what's going to happen is you're going to have an adventuring path and that adventuring path is going to come with weekly quests and daily quests that you can participate in that will be available for the Castle sieges for the Horde and for the Battle Royale; and as you complete these quests you're going to gain experience; and right now you have up to 50 levels, which matches the intended cap for Ashes of Creation. Fifty levels of the adventure path that you can advance in; and as you advance in each of these levels you're going to be unlocking certain assets, such as these weapon skins. Now the great thing about players progress in apocalypse is that you will share the same account from apocalypse to Ashes of Creation the MMORPG and anything that you earn in apocalypse will be in Ashes of Creation the MMORPG write a unique as a skin exactly a skins that you will have access to for helping us test write apocalypse and preparing these different Alpha and beta stages for Ashes of Creation.
Steven: So here's an example of some of the weapon skins. Let's keep going. What do we have next? So here's an another variant.
Jeffrey: This is the Arcanic skin.
Steven: The Arcanic skin. We have the-
Jeffrey: Pyroclastic skin.
Steven: Pyroclastic. I like the pyroclastic stuff.
Jeffrey: And this is the eldritch. I mean most of this you see that it's kind of glowy it actually does glow in games. It's really pretty. It's really cool like system in play.
Steven: Base Morningstar or mace.
Jeffrey: Yeah that's a thundering mace.
Steven: And some of the variants again. S So just taking a look at how those variants gets a plot of variants gets a get applied.
Jeffrey: So again that was the Hallowed, this is the Arcanic-
Steven: Sorry go ahead. Pyroclastic. Yeah now the interesting thing about- you can just keep scrolling through these as we talk. The interesting thing about the questing in Ashes of Creation Apocalypse is that it will contain lore through these quests that you give you insight to the happenings of Verra during the fall.
Jeffrey: So it's gonna be split up into chapters. Each chapter is gonna run about 10 weeks. Chapter 1 it's called the Exodus and it's gonna kind of walk you through a little bit of what happened in the initial fall and get things sort of set up for then the coming chapters. Now we're not giving away all the lore but we're gonna give you enough hints and enough insight into what's going on to sort of prepare you for what happens when we launch the MMO.
Steven: Right. So just to give you an understanding of the setting, like what happened before you came back? What did your ancestors have to go through, right? What did these civilizations endure? And then to kind of set the scene for- we described this before- but you know initially when you're playing the Battle Royale you're a part of the last group of survivors to try to leave Verra. And as you're leaving you get cut off. The slipstream ends and you start falling back to the planet. Now the activities that occur and the fighting amongst yourselves is a result of the influence of corruption: Corrupting your soul basically; and as we move into the Castle Siege modes that's where you see the survivors now trying to seek refuge in some of the last defendable bastions of of society. So you're kind of fighting over those for your families and your friends to get into that keep to try to ride out the storm so to say; and that's what the castle siege is predicated on. Then moving into the hordes: This is now the final showdown. How long can you last? And that's kind of the narrative behind Apocalypse as a whole. You get to play throughout each of these stages. You get to experience the world of Ashes of Creation. You get to take a peek under the hood of the art assets and the style that that art will be when you play the game; and at the same time while you're doing all of that and we're hitting the servers with as many people as possible, you know, we are continuing production and implementing new art and we are updating those those chapters of this story; and that's what each season so speak is called for us is a chapter. In fact the first chapter of Apocalypse will be titled the Exodus. So chapter one is the Exodus; and players will have an opportunity to earn unique rewards in each chapter. So that chapter's period of time is roughly ten weeks- between eight and twelve, we'll see how those go- but right now it's set for ten weeks and every ten weeks you're going to see an introduction of new content.
Steven: So kind of shows you know the content that we're creating for Ashes of Creation, a portion of that will be present in Apocalypse that players can earn. So this might be you know the halberd that a guardsman would use at a stage five node, or this could be you know legendary ancient antique armors and weapons that you find out in the world in Ashes of Creation that you may have found previously these skins for. So you know we're really excited to actually- you know the interesting thing about MMORPGs is that it has such a long lifespan of development and usually nobody gets to touch or see these assets that have been in production for years until launch day right, or until the alpha or beta right; and what we're doing here is you know we're literally taking this stuff hot off of the production.
Jeffrey: We're doing it in real time!
Steven: And we're throwing it into Apocalypse; and the other great thing about that from a testing perspective is that this goes in the real hands of players and we get to see you know the little animation bugs or the skinning and waiting bugs or you know-
Jeffrey: Just the weird stuff that players do.
Steven: Absolutely and we and we get to optimize those assets as well right in real time without having to wait for you know different alpha and beta periods that we have to get up to. So that means that when those alpha and beta periods happen a lot of these things will already had testing on a hard stuff right.
Jeffrey: A lot of the hard stuff will have been gotten out of the way and really be able to focus on the content and building out this world and making it something beautiful.
Steven: Absolutely so we're pretty excited about that. These are some great weapons. I love the weapons. I think we have a armor at the end of the railroad here don't we. Oh wow nice. So now which one is this- is the Obsidian yeah? So this is an example of the Obsidian set of armor.
Steven: So now we have some announcements. Now obviously running Apocalypse is not free. We have to host servers and we're going to be hosting these servers. So there will be a shop that's present and there will be the chapter will have a legendary path that can be purchased as well. However there are how many assets are there on the earnable rewards that do not need to be purchased or you do not need to have a legendary path with? Do we have that number? I think Josh might have sent us that in the Slack. I think he sent to you perhaps. I'm sorry. We should know that number offhand.
Jeffrey: We are not prepared. I know the legendary path.
Steven: I know there's a total of 71 rewards, but the earnable ones I believe there is every 10 weeks there's a total of around I think it's 15 to 20. So these includes mounts, these include costumes, they include the weapon skins, hairstyles, emotes specific emotes that are present. Those are all earnable. Now should players choose to do the legendary path I believe that is that is a purchase of $10 for 10 weeks, however we are announcing that all Alpha one backers will receive a lifetime membership to the legendary path of the adventure path. So for as long as Apocalypse exists all alpha 1 backers will have a lifetime membership. You will not need to purchase that for the additional 60 plus rewards I think that are offered in that path. In addition as recognition for the amount of hard work that our Alpha 2 backers have put into the game- and we're inviting Beta 1 backers this weekend and Beta 2 backers next week- we will be giving the first chapter the Exodus for free to all of our Alpha 2 and Beta 1 and 2 backers as well.
Steven: So that isn't really- you know from us to you guys it is not possible for us to be able to make the progress in the speed that we have made it without the participation of you guys as testers; and it is really exciting you know for us to be able to release a game that is a precursor to Ashes of Creation and get players involved and have something to work towards.
Jeffrey: I mean it's just one of- I think it's a really cool project right because number one like you guys get to play in Ashes of Creation before it's actually done. I mean it's it's this perpetual thing that kind of gets it in everybody's hands long long before you know the actual MMO is complete. So it's something that we're pretty excited about. And then it's also a really good thing for the studio. A lot of us are are pretty hardened veterans but we've never all launched a game together and this sort of gives us a practice run- a dress rehearsal if you will- as a studio as, as a team to get this thing done; and again launching something is a very different process than working on something. There's a lot that's involved in that; and a lot of stuff to learn a lot of kinks to work out and a lot of sort of team building in order to get everybody on the same page for what kind of a big event like this. It's really good for the team. Morale's been high here and we're all pretty excited to see this come out the door.
Steven: Very excited absolutely. Okay let us discuss a little bit about- I'm sorry what was the next topic?
Jeffrey: We're doing pretty good. We're actually right about there.
Steven: Oh okay. Very good. So- oh okay- so in addition to all of this information, which is a lot you know but we are going to be having another live stream next week; and that is going to be all about the continued production that we have been in for the MMORPG; and we are going to have a game developers playthrough which should be roughly probably about 20 to 30 minutes long showing questing, fighting with monsters, a couple of raid bosses which you may have seen before; but showing all of the MMO progress that we have made over the past several months since we last saw you guys at PaX East or West? West. But that will be next week. Probably will be on Thursday but we'll make an announcement and send out a newsletter for that once we're ready for that; and this is to show you guys really just how transferable between Apocalypse and the MMO-
Jeffrey: How the stuff all integrates [cross-talk] and fits together.
Steven: How it integrates, exactly. Yes so we're excited to show you guys that and it will be next week that we do that. Okay let's open it up to some Q & A. If one of the moderators on Discord unless I'm missing something. Did we forget anything? Okay let's open up to QA. If one of you guys one of the moderators can open up a channel in Discord well also- if one of you guys wants to jump on the forums I think there is a thread there for QA. Did I miss something? I don't know what exactly we missed from that. Right some regional stuff. December 18th all people will be able to play Ashes of Creation apocalypse. You can go now to register if you have not already registered on Ashes of Creation website. You can go now to apocalypse.ashesofcreation.com and you can register there; and we're pretty excited about that. I think that was pretty much what I mentioned. Yeah okay let me open up Discord. We have Discord live. We should be able to put up livestream Q&A. There we go I got it. Okay. I have gotten that. Oh I am so sorry I don't remember if we mentioned this. We did mention that everything in Apocalypse will be transferred on your account to the MMORPG. Okay very good.
Steven: Okay question from Guildhart. First question: Gauntlets as in with fighting fists. Will it be in the game? If you can't answer that cartography: Thoughts on that being an artisan class. So with regards to cartography we do plan to have- it's not exactly cartography, but it does involve maps and pinpointing the location of treasures throughout the world; and as you are able to find these treasures you will create better maps and hinting the location through either rumor mills or your interaction with different NPCs and having access to the potential dig sites that might be present for a treasure finding. Gauntlets we do have fisted or fists weapons don't we? We're talking about it?
Jeffrey: It's on the roadmap as sort of a stretch goal, but it's not something that's confirmed yet.
Steven: Got it. Okay question from Peon: Question you mentioned that we can use the cosmetics earned from the BR in the MMORPG. It's not just the BR it's the BR, the castle sieges and the horde mode: They'll all have unique cosmetics and they'll all be transferred into the MMORPG with your account. Will there be any restrictions on this? Aren't you worried that being able to equip this stuff at level one? Okay perfect. That's a great question. So it's not that you'll be able to equip necessarily an item at level one. These are all cosmetic skins. Again we are not about the pay-to-win or pay-to-convenience life. What we what we want to do instead is as you earn, craft, or find equipment in the MMORPG, these skins that you've earned in Apocalypse will be available at certain tiers levels and/or access points. So for example, we have different grades of mounts right. We have the base one land mounts. We have the the Royal mounts. We have the flying mounts if you're a mayor or King or Queen. We have legendary mounts. These classes of mounts will have available skins associated with those particular classes. So for example if you're if it's just a land mount and we have let's say the- what was the name of that one that we were just doing with the ram?
Jeffrey: The Ramstrider.
Steven: The Ramstider. If you have the Ramstider skin that you've earned from Apocalypse you'll be able to apply that to your first land mount, which will probably be earned within the first five levels you'll earn a land mount. However if you have let's say for example the Gryphon, which will be a glideable mount. I'm sorry what's the name of the what's the name of the night one. The midnight- is the midnight bird or something like? The Night hunter. I think that's it. If you have that skin you'll only be able to apply that skin to a Royal mount so you'll still have to earn these things. Remember our position is that of: You need to earn these things in Ashes first. They're not purchasable or earned outside in Apocalypse and you're granted that immediately. These are skins that you apply to the things you earn in Ashes. We still want to keep that that economic principle of Risk versus Reward and not being able to pay to win or pay to convenience. These are things that you still have to earn. That's a great question Peon. Thank you very much.
Jeffrey: I've got one: What does Stephen want for Christmas?
Steven: What I want for Christmas is to find the for our next hiring phase to make sure we get the absolute most veteran and best possible hires from each of these positions. What I want for Christmas is I want you guys to have fun and I want you to enjoy and have a clean send-off for Apocalypse so that you guys can enjoy the world of Vera early and that our Castle Sieges come to you and our fun to play and we move on to Horde as well. That's my Christmas; and other than that, yeah I don't really know what I want for Christmas. What's another one?
Jeffrey: Karthos: Any plans for aquatic freeholds such as a coastal river freehold that you can use to farm fish or maybe have a dock to launch ships from? So there's kind of two answers to this. One is that I probably can't say it, so I'm not gonna say it. But we have some plans in the future for something that's it's extremely aquatic, but in terms of what you're asking specifically that it is part of the what we're talking about for the Freehold system, where depending on where your place you're freehold, you're gonna have different environmental tiles available to you and those will kind of enable or buff existing structures that you place in your Freehold. So while it's not exactly that, I don't know that we would put like fish farming just for a freehold that's on a river. What we would probably do is give you a buff to fishing in that area. That kind of a thing. So there'll be more buffs for existing things rather than necessarily a special buildings just for that area, but again we're not fully baked in on that system yet, so it's very possible though we end up going down that direction.
Steven: Okay very good. Somebody says Nyth horn crafting mats? That's spicy.
Steven: Okay question from Hicks: How do Alpha one backers get their packs on my.com for Apocalypse? So the way that works is if you own a package or a Kickstarter account or summer backer, that is an Intrepid account; and we will potentially have an answer for transferring over to my.com or mail.ru; and we'll detail that out in the in the coming future very soon. Before obviously we have those testing periods. Do alpha backers need to register for Apoc a well? As long as you own an account on AshesofCreation.com already there will be a migration process that you will receive information about in the coming week probably and probably next week I would imagine, before obviously December 18th, that you will be able to login and migrate that account over. So you don't need to re-register.
Steven: Will we get real greatswords? Yes you will get real greatswords. The greatest the greatest of swords. Yes I know we know a lot of great swords. The experts say we have the greatest swords.
Steven: Oh my goodness. Jahlon asks: Are we still on time for Castle Siege mode at the end of December? So again Castle siege and horde mode. Those will be first tested by alpha one backers for roughly a month maybe a little bit longer but the end of December is when we first plan to have some external testing with our Alpha one backers logging into the castle siege map and doing some things. All the features will not necessarily- may not necessarily be there- although we hope to and it's still on schedule for that- but end of December is when we plan to have alpha one backers logging into the castle siege map.
Steven: Will there be a purchasable sound track? Potentially. Maybe.
Jeffrey: We hope so. It helps the soundtrack is good enough that people can purchase it.
Steven: Bear is a great composer and you'll be seeing music from Bear soon trademark. You cannot rush art.
Jeffrey: You can't.
Steven: You can.
Jeffrey: But it usually ends up not so good.
Steven: Right Pendragon asks: Will you guys be going to PAX South? We will not be going to PAX South, however we did recently reserve our space on the floor for PAX East, but we will let you know as soon as that is final about PAX East.
Steven: Okay question from
Jeffrey: From every hole is a goal: How much of an effect will RNG have on PvP? RNG in PvP can be frustrating especially when you can outplay your opponent [laughter]. Talking about golf. How much of an effect will RNG have on PvP. RNG in PvP can be frustrating especially when you can outplay your opponent but RNG mechanics for example CC resistance chance or hit damage chance get in the way and you lose because of it. PS I'm fine with crit chance. So the way that our game is structured with the hybrid action tab targeted sort of hybrid you will- RNG is always going to play a role in Ashes of Creation whether that be in PvP or PvE, but one way to mitigate that is through the action system. The action system is going to be far less sort of dependent on those you know dice rolls and there'll be far more in your own hands. They won't ever completely eliminate that but it's a way for us to sort of reward skilled play versus sort of tactical strategies type play.
Peter: I mean the way the stats are set up now you can mitigate that by raising stats, lowering stats you know it's not a flat like this works exactly [inaudible].
Steven: Question from Seluna: Could you please add an option that we change our profile picture on the Ashes website? Yes. That's in the new one. We're going to be running by the way we're gonna be running testing with alpha 1 alpha 2 beta 1 and beta 2 backers for a lot of the new site functions over the next week roughly as we prepare for the new website launch so be prepared if you're a backer to receive emails with instructions on how you can help us stress test the website the new website as we launch it; and you'll be able to see some of those new features when we begin that testing. We did open the new what site's registration and the landing page for apocalypse. That's part of the new site structure but we'll be launching the whole new site in its account registration process before the 18th and testing will probably begin this weekend I think. If it hasn't already today.
Steven: Shaze asks: Will there be a free version of the path available for registered users within the Apocalypse? Yes all players, everyone has a free adventuring path in Apocalypse; and that free path includes the questing: You can still level up to 50. You will gain rewards and cosmetics. I think there's about 15 to 20 cosmetics you can gain; and then if you choose to you may purchase the Legendary path which contains like another 50 plus rewards I believe for cosmetics as well as a shop for like one-off cosmetics I think too.
Steven: What do Kickstarter's get? So all backers, that includes Kickstarter summer backers and anyone who's pre-ordered a package will receive the first chapter the legendary path for free that's the first 70 days you will have 71 different cosmetic or rewards that you can earn over the next from December 18th until whenever 70 days is past that. Yeah I don't know; and then additionally alpha-1 backers will have a lifetime membership- all alpha-1 backers including Intrepid pack owners- all alpha-1 backers will have a lifetime membership to the legendary path for apocalypse.
Steven: Okay here we go. Next one. Question. Nice. HP Lovecraft style enemies are confirmed. There's some. Smiley face. Okay question from DaddyIssues. Wow okay. Question is nodes three when? So funny that you ask. We were just talking about that. One of the key components that we want to hit from a development standpoint before we release nodes three really has to do with an overall picture of the MMORPG map which is what we are right now completing that in the game world itself and getting to see the spread between all available nodes so that you guys get an actual in-game view of this broad open area map. When that is complete that's one of the last puzzle pieces before we feel comfortable with nodes 3 and that is currently in the pipe in the pipe.
Jeffrey: Five by five.
Steven: What?
Jeffrey: Nothing.
Steven: Okay Versace asks: Do you plan on speeding up the combat, such as Black Desert Online how it is fast-paced, or is the comment you have now [inaudible]? So it's important to note Apocalypse is a pure action combat arena, so it does not contain our hybrid system. Although Castle sieges and horde mode will have the class kits available, they are still going to be all action based. So the the the combat you're seeing now in Apocalypse is our action side of things that we are testing.
Jeffrey: And it's probably gonna be about as fast as it could possibly get. It's not going to get too much more frenetic than it is already. If anything it'll be slowed down more to give people you know space and time. It's really the time to kill will be quite a bit longer in the MMO. Steven we can't hear you.
Steven: Oh no I can't hear me. I'm pairing. I'm a pear. Wasn't there a book about a pear? Somebody who lived in a pear and rode on the ocean. I read that one as a child. Was it a pear or was it an apple I can't remember. Peach. James and the Giant Peach. [inaudible] Oh how weird. Peter why'd you do that? Peaches and pears. Okay uh I'm sorry did we end up not answering that question. Oh I'm sorry uh okay Bacon asks, Michael bacon has put a question- Right Oh are we switching. Let's shuffle. [lost audio]. Okay sorry sorry about that guys. Apologize it wouldn't be a stream without audio issues. Am I good to go now? Yes okay.
Steven: For many people who could not test join for the most recent test. Not being able to log into the launcher because of random rejections, will these accounts will be fixed before Apocalypse? Yes okay Hero a great question. So some of the issues that these tests that we've been conducting recently have been addressing is our installer and patching process. We have completely redone that to address some of the issues that we were seeing; and we'll be rolling out that new launcher I think on Saturday's test. And that is an advanced installer that actually is gonna gonna be top notch. So that's that's one of the major issues that we saw. Another thing that we saw-
Jeffrey: Keep trying please. I'd be very curious to know- who is this?
Steven: It's Hero. Not only when you fail to connect we receive logs from that, even you know as you as you as you disconnect from our back-end and you're failing to authenticate we're seeing who that is, why they drop, the timeout time, you know location, what was their packet loss, what was the latency they were experiencing, you know where did they see the hiccup in their in their installation side and the patching process. So it's important that even if you fail you do that a couple of times so we can see what that is and that's where we're collecting our information on. Oh and another thing part of this week and this weekend's test is also nailing down some of the few replications as you may have seen this yesterday that players were running sideways in the test; and that was that had to do between when players would land on their Gryphon and they would send an update to nearby players "hey I've switched States from riding to falling to now my idle state my combat idle state, they get stuck on one of those and it doesn't replicate correctly to the other players. That's something we've addressed yesterday and will be hopefully having either fixed today for it or you'll see that fix on Saturday session. So we're getting some of those fix that- you'll see also that we did a few hundred player matches yesterday that was good we got a lot of great metrics on that. We saw a good performance on the back end from that. But there were some interesting latency issues with hit registration. We've addressed those as well.
Steven: Okay let's see next questions. We have any more questions from the website? Punk tea asks: How sure you are you that the development of the Apocalypse game will not interfere with the time under the original base MMO? So the way that we're certain in that and you'll see this next week as we show you the MMO development and where that is in relation to alpha one is because everything that is done in Apocalypse is done for the MMORPG as well, including all of the weapons and how they cast certain spells. Those are all spells that will be found within the skill trees. Including all the art that you see. The server architecture. The backend. The way that we authenticate accounts. The way that we have account account services fulfill rewards and quest advancement. All of those things are the MMORPG. They're just done in a different mode to accommodate a fun atmosphere that can be persistent until our launch of the MMORPG.
Jeffrey: And it doesn't require a lot of content on our part because we still have so much content to build. This kind of gives things- you know it's a good place to do this kind of a test. It kind of checks all the checkboxes for the information that we need right now. You know as we go forward, you know, the castle siege, while it's going to be a really fun mode it's also going to be testing really specific things. Same thing with the Horde mode. Those will be very specific tests that happen to be fun game modes and they will give us the kind of data that we need at that time so.
Steven: Oh important note! Actually apologize. If you have embers from pre-order packages, you'll be able to use those if you wish in Apocalypse to either purchase unique cosmetics or to purchase the legendary adventure path. Additionally the adventure path, even on the free track, contains ember rewards where you can earn embers just for playing; and those embers will carry over with you into the MMORPG for you to purchase, if you choose, MMORPG cosmetics when the MMORPG launches. Yeah that was something. That was that point. What other questions did we have from the forums?
Jeffrey: We're actually getting close to saying goodbye.
Steven: Uh oh, but no, not like this. Defense asks: When will you be releasing the MOBA version of the game? We won't be releasing a MOBA version of the game. A MOBA version. Yes there won't be- there will not be a MOBA version of the game. We do not have a MOBA version. It was a long time ago but decided not to do that as part of the Ashes of Creation universe. Or probably ever. Never say never. Tulnar reveal. When? When ready.
Steven: Is Apocalypse going to be solely PvP or will it also be PvE and world questing? Penny, great question. The Horde mode is purely PvE. So when the horde mode releases it will be a cooperative defense with up to 50 other players and you will be defending against waves of NPCs and bosses and we'd be able to test all those things. It'll be great.
Steven: Can we make custom emotes? Oh my gosh I think that was something that we talked about a long time ago. I really wanted to do where you know I experienced - I played a game where you can create custom songs right. It would be awesome if we had; and we talked about this; and you're giving me that face, but if we had blend states between available animations for custom dances.
Jeffrey: It would be amazing.
Steven: It would be amazing. All right you heard it from Jeff's lips himself. We're going for it.
Jeffrey: I didn't say-
Steven: You just said it. It's on record. I'm just kidding.
Steven: Okay question from Valthas: Will there be an active block in game or will range be king? So Valthas there currently is in Apocalypse an active block. This sword and shield weapon has a stance that deploys a shield in front of you; and that shield is an actual hitbox that blocks projectiles: An active blocking stance; and we're playing you know that's just the first- that's literally the first rollout of that. We want to play more with that and see how how that happens.
Steven: AlexPG says please tell me that AoC will not be a laggy mess like so many other MMOs. It will not be a laggy mess like so many other memos and that reason for that is because we are especially with the deployment of Apocalypse we are leveraging cloud computing and the cloud infrastructure to provide servers close to locations throughout the world so that latency wherever you might be and those servers will be tagged with their location and latency for you, so that when you pick your server it will be in an appropriate location not subject to the location of a particular company's data server right.
Jeffrey: And also it's you know all the optimizations that we're doing on our back end. It's all super cool customizable stuff that we're doing on our own that we're building out that will be able to support sort of this like gigantic amount of people without actually you know really hurting your performance.
Steven: Yes absolutely. Question from Dexter: How reckless are you planning to be versus bots and gold sellers and versus hackers cheaters and exploiters? We're going to kick their butts. Yes not physically, we've never harmed a person or bot. Well bot would be okay. Yeah but anyways we will be banning those individuals and it's important to note that we are players and you know a lot of games have had their deaths because of rampant botting.
Jeffrey: When there are more bots than there are people on server, there's problem.
Steven: There's a problem when there's yeah; and we our goal is to have zero bots on the servers. So we have already very good partnerships with a couple of security resources that either track packet information and/or behavioral metrics within the game and we will be very vigilant against those particular
Steven: The emote question you didn't really answer. Oh that's not my custom text. Okay yeah last one. Okay let me find a good last one. Okay last one. Last one. Last one. I'm sorry real quick when somebody asked about European servers. We will have european servers up and running. The second - so the next one. Bierly funny: Can you confirm that indeed the current animations are placeholders and not the final version they? Yes we can confirm that animations, art in general, will continue to develop and get better. You know part of being able to see a game in the state that Ashes of Creation is in development is that you get to see those things as they continue to improve. So if I were you what I would do is I would take a look at the videos on our YouTube from a year ago or even you know slightly beyond a year ago and I would see where they were then and then I would take a look at videos now and I would see how much they've improved; and then I would project that out you know six eight ten months and see where you think we might end up. The great thing about art is you know regardless of whatever code and design are doing arts always it's always moving; and it's and it's always getting better; and Unreal Engine is such a great engine from a graphical fidelity standpoint and from the tools that the artists have to work with out of the box and also custom tools that we've created that interact even with a different art software out there that we can do amazing things and we keep on doing new things as well as we develop/
Steven: Okay so I think that's the last of the questions. Guys we are really excited to be able to launch the open beta for Apocalypse come December 18th. Along with our partners at my.com mail.ur we intend to offer you the best possible service; and also to see you guys have fun on our servers playing Apocalypse, getting immersed in the world of Ashes of Creation. Looking forward to the castle sieges and the Horde mode that are going to come out. Being able to earn rewards and have a hands-on experience with Ashes of Creation in perpetuity. Something that will continue forward as a 24/7 gaming experience; and everyone at the team here has been has been working an unbelievable amount in order to to get this in a state that we feel comfortable handing it off to you guys to test for open beta. We cannot thank enough the absolute persistence, dedication and commitment that our alpha 1 and alpha 2 backers have endured so far in helping us to get to a good state; and we still have a little ways to go before the 18th; and we appreciate that assistance as much as possible; and we we look forward to inviting you guys into the game and seeing you guys having a lot of fun there. It is going to be an awesome experience for everyone here at the Studios to to hand something off to the community.
Jeffrey: It's also scary as heck. It's also really exciting too.
Steven: It's exciting, it's scary. There's a lot of emotions. We honestly are very happy to have such a great community like you guys. Oh one other quick thing, I'm sorry real quick, we did hire a new Community Marketing Lead/Community Manager who will be announced soon. Very soon.
Jeffrey: We're really excited.
Steven: Very excited she is a tremendous individual with a true gamer at heart; and she has had experience running some major MMOs that many of you have likely played. So sorry that was a quick interruption. It is a big deal. We love it. So we'll see you guys next week with an update from the MMORPG and a playthrough that's going to be roughly 30 minutes long. We can't wait to show you guys that and testers will see you tonight and we'll see you over the weekend and everybody have a great week we will see you all soon.
Jeffrey: See you guys.
Peter: See you next week.