Talk:2023-12-19 Livestream

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Intro

• 00:00

Welcome to the Ash's of Creation December development update.

• 00:24

We hope that you've been having...

• 00:25

Oh my god.

• 00:26

I know.

• 00:27

development update for the year.

• 00:30

That's crazy to say.

• 00:31

For 2023, that is crazy to say.

• 00:34

Yeah, the book is closing on 2023,

• 00:37

but 2024 is going to be a very exciting one for us.

• 00:42

If you haven't been following along,

• 00:44

Alpha 2 is happening in 2024,

• 00:47

but we'll be, you know, stick around to the end.

• 00:48

We might have some other little announcements for you.

• 00:51

Yeah.

• 00:52

But of course we hope that you all have been staying safe

• 00:55

and, you know, there's a lot going on in the world right now.

• 00:57

So we wish you all happiness and safety,

• 01:00

especially coming into this holiday season.

• 01:03

But we've got some, a lot of good things to talk about.

• 01:06

As you can see from below, we have our reminders today.

• 01:11

There's some good ones in there.

• 01:13

Ranger update.

• 01:14

So those of you who are ranger folks out there,

• 01:17

definitely get your bows prepared, knock those arrows,

• 01:21

because we are, we are gonna be shooting

• 01:23

all kinds of things today.

• 01:25

Yes.

• 01:26

So yeah.

• 01:26

And it's been a while since we've had a,

• 01:28

since we've had an archetype showcase.

• 01:30

The last one was the cleric, which was several months ago.

• 01:33

That's true.

• 01:34

And we have shown a preview of the ranger.

• 01:36

So if you have been following us for a while,

• 01:38

you've seen a little bit of it,

• 01:39

but it has changed quite a bit.

• 01:40

And there are a lot of,

• 01:42

a lot more abilities to showcase for you all.

• 01:44

And there's still more to come.

• 01:45

So this is just still even, even just the cusp of it.

• 01:49

So stick around with us.

• 01:51

We got, we got a journey.

• 01:52

We'll do a little studio update.

• 01:54

And of course we have some cool art from our art team

• 01:56

that they love to share with you guys.

• 01:57

And then we'll do a Q and A,

• 01:59

and then we might have something else at the end.

• 02:01

So stick around.

• 02:03

So with that, I'll go through the updates.

• 02:07

Also, Steven's background looks like it's fake,

• 02:10

but I know it's real.

• 02:11

Like I know that's what your office looks like.

• 02:14

And every single time I see it,

• 02:16

it looks like one of those fake backgrounds.

• 02:20

It's very festive.

• 02:21

I thought, you know, it's December Christmas.

• 02:23

Maybe we'll do a little bit of the Christmas background.

• 02:26

By the way, I love your tree in the background,

• 02:28

that Phoenix tree, holy smokes.

• 02:30

Thanks.

• 02:31

How cool is that?

• 02:32

So at the end of Christmas, does it just burn away?

• 02:34

Like it burns into ash and then it reignites next season.

• 02:38

I got the flocked tree specifically

• 02:40

because I was like, it gives the ashes vibe.

• 02:42

Yes.

• 02:43

Yeah.

• 02:44

Oh, it totally does.

• 02:45

I think it looks great.

• 02:46

I love it.

• 02:47

I put this together in 20 minutes while baking broccoli.

• 02:51

We both have an element of fire in the background.

• 02:53

I got the fireplace.

• 02:54

You've got the Phoenix fire tree.

• 02:56

That's kind of cool.

• 02:57

I put a festive sweater on.

• 02:59

Well, it's actually a dress, but you can't see it.

• 03:01

John said, I can't wear the Intrepid shirt.

• 03:06

I have to do something that's like wintery look.

• 03:07

So he wanted me to wear the jacket.

• 03:10

I don't know if I've ever seen you wear

• 03:11

like a white sweater before.

• 03:13

It looks good.

• 03:13

It looks good.

• 03:15

But we are all festive.

• 03:16

It is, I think even our PI folks,

• 03:18

because we have like a PM meeting that we do every month.

• 03:21

They were like, you guys are so chill.

• 03:22

You're calm.

• 03:23

I think it's the calm before the storm

• 03:25

at the end of the year. It's the storm.

• 03:26

Yeah, I was about to say, it's just everyone's bracing,

• 03:29

breathing in, hold tight, hold.

• 03:33

That's what's happening.

• 03:34

The team has been working really hard

• 03:35

and we'll talk a little bit more about that

• 03:37

in our studio update.

• 03:38

But of course, let's get into our reminders.

• 03:41

Thank you all for joining us.

• 03:43

We hope that you are just as excited as us

• 03:46

for the end of this year.

• 03:48

And of course, our first one here

• 03:49

is our YouTube subscribers comment spotlight.

• 03:52

Don't forget that if you subscribe to our YouTube channel,

• 03:55

make sure you have that public

• 03:57

and then also leave a comment on our next dev update.

• 04:00

So this update when it goes live

• 04:03

and you too could be spotlighted.

• 04:05

This week's spotlight or this month's spotlight

• 04:08

is infinitely random and they wanna know any plans

• 04:11

to add AI voices to speechless text NPCs.

• 04:16

And I thought we've talked a little bit about this topic

• 04:19

before so those of you who have been with us

• 04:21

for a long time may have heard an answer.

• 04:23

But I thought maybe this could be a cool way

• 04:24

for us to also talk about AI in general

• 04:26

and where our sense is on that

• 04:28

because obviously it's a big thing in this industry

• 04:30

of this last year especially.

• 04:33

Yeah, I think that some of the technology

• 04:37

and the advancements that we've seen,

• 04:40

not just within the gaming industry,

• 04:41

but a broad scope of AI influence,

• 04:47

is something that we are keeping a close eye on

• 04:50

and we have some plans to investigate

• 04:52

and inspect a few of the designs

• 04:54

and approaches that we've taken,

• 04:57

particularly as it relates I think to this question

• 05:00

and AI voice over potential to influence our narrative loops

• 05:05

and how players interact with general AI dialogue

• 05:10

and there is an opportunity there.

• 05:14

But it's not one that we have fully explored yet,

• 05:17

although it is on the docket

• 05:18

for the first part of next year,

• 05:20

for us to analyze what potential exists

• 05:23

from a leveraging standpoint for this new tech.

• 05:27

And I would say stay tuned.

• 05:29

Stay tuned next year as we give updates.

• 05:32

You'll likely see some things perhaps even in Alpha 2

• 05:36

that could relate to that, we'll see.

• 05:38

But it is something we are aware of

• 05:40

and we are keeping close tabs on how to integrate

• 05:43

and leverage as part of Ashes.

Reminders

• 05:48

All right, hopefully that gives you enough fuel

• 05:52

for your answer there, Infinitely Random,

• 05:54

and we appreciate you subscribing to our channel

• 05:57

and showing us some love.

• 06:00

Reminder also that, hold on a second,

• 06:03

I need to turn off these notifications.

• 06:05

If you're hearing that, I apologize.

• 06:07

It was my Slack notification going off.

• 06:11

We also have our dev discussions up right now.

• 06:16

We have one and we had teased this last time

• 06:19

about drop rarity.

• 06:21

How do you feel when it comes to rare loot?

• 06:23

Do you prefer when rare mobs and bosses

• 06:27

drop something interesting often or less?

• 06:29

Let us know what your thoughts are.

• 06:31

I mean, I know most of you are out there

• 06:32

hunting for gear progression

• 06:34

and you definitely have thoughts on this.

• 06:37

So please, please head on over to our forums

• 06:40

and give us your thoughts on it

• 06:41

so that we can wrap that report up

• 06:43

and send it over to our development team.

• 06:45

And our next one is gonna be utility skills.

• 06:48

So if you're interested in, you know,

• 06:51

and I think even someone put in a question

• 06:52

that was specifically about like different types of abilities

• 06:55

and things like that.

• 06:56

So if you have thoughts,

• 06:57

make sure that you are sharing them with us

• 07:00

because the development team is pretty adamant

• 07:03

about checking out our reports.

• 07:04

Yeah, and that's a big question.

• 07:07

That's a big question too.

• 07:08

I mean, I remember some of the games

• 07:10

that I have played, some MMOs in the past

• 07:12

where this was long before the standardized modernization

• 07:17

of like every participant gets a bound item

• 07:20

when the raid ends.

• 07:21

This was like, no, the raid boss was a loot pinata

• 07:24

and maybe it took a hundred people to kill it

• 07:27

but it only dropped like six or seven complete items.

• 07:30

And you had to orchestrate like alliances

• 07:33

who would orchestrate their own like itemization owner

• 07:36

who would like keep a list of the participants

• 07:40

that were attending.

• 07:41

Yeah, absolutely.

• 07:42

And you would have to assign that out.

• 07:44

I mean, that was the old school way of approaching it.

• 07:47

So when you guys go in, I like it too personally.

• 07:50

And when you go and-

• 07:51

It makes it more challenging.

• 07:52

It makes it, the replayability of it is there

• 07:55

cause you need it.

• 07:56

Absolutely.

• 07:57

And then also, you know, you extend it to all,

• 07:58

so if there's drops that like, you know,

• 08:00

are too common or whatever.

• 08:03

This is a great topic for you guys to go and comment on

• 08:06

on the forums and kind of give your experiences

• 08:09

and expectations because it helps to validate our approach

• 08:13

or give us considerations that perhaps we hadn't thought of.

• 08:16

Yeah.

• 08:17

Oftentimes I will say that when we're going

• 08:20

through these reports, it's always like the dev team's like,

• 08:22

yep, yep, yep, yep.

• 08:23

They're already, they're like on the same page as you guys

• 08:25

which I think for the most part is pretty awesome.

• 08:28

There are some cases where obviously we're gonna follow

• 08:30

our design passion and love cause we're like,

• 08:34

you don't think you want this, but you do.

• 08:36

And we'll test those out.

• 08:38

And like Steven always says in our alpha and beta phases,

• 08:41

even when we launch, you know, if there's a drastic feedback,

• 08:45

we're gonna analyze that feedback.

• 08:47

We're gonna analyze the data.

• 08:48

We're gonna make sure that we're making good decisions

• 08:50

as we move forward.

• 08:51

Cause I think that sometimes when, I mean,

• 08:53

all of us have played many MMOs or just games in general.

• 08:57

And when developers aren't willing to like see

• 09:00

the side of the player, then that's the problem.

• 09:02

But fortunately we are all players.

• 09:04

So that is the beauty of it.

• 09:06

And we are playing our game every day.

• 09:08

It is mandatory.

• 09:10

Exciting.

• 09:13

And of course we did do a holiday delicious dev discussion

• 09:17

that we had posted up on the forums.

• 09:20

And it looks like the tool nor theme recipes

• 09:22

for the delicious dev discussions,

• 09:25

as well as the bonus doonier recipes are up on the forums.

• 09:29

So congratulations to the tool nor they won.

• 09:33

I loved working with Cody did an amazing job,

• 09:37

AKA Vacknar did an amazing job putting these together

• 09:40

and coming up with the recipes.

• 09:42

I think I have like a little asset here.

• 09:45

That's cute.

• 09:46

There we go.

• 09:47

Thank you, Mike, for that.

• 09:50

This isn't all of the recipes, but it's kind of cute.

• 09:53

And of course we'll also post them not in an image like this

• 09:56

with just the text.

• 09:57

Vacknar has been really conscious of that

• 09:59

because obviously some of you guys are on a copy pasted

• 10:01

or translate it for your localization.

• 10:05

So yeah, enjoy that.

• 10:06

We're excited.

• 10:07

We hope that you'll make some of these

• 10:08

delicious meals as well.

• 10:10

So send them to us over on our Twitter, Facebook,

• 10:12

or anywhere, all of our social channels.

• 10:15

If you do end up making these over the holiday break,

• 10:17

we would love to see them.

• 10:19

But yeah, we're excited.

• 10:22

I'm really excited for the glow in the dark noodles,

• 10:24

the under realm noodles.

• 10:26

Oh my God, that'd be cool.

• 10:28

How'd you get them glow in the dark?

• 10:30

There's like a thing in there if you look.

• 10:33

I can't remember what the piece is.

• 10:35

I can't read it with the tiny text that I'm looking at.

• 10:37

Sounds like some significant carcinogens probably.

• 10:40

I did say that too.

• 10:44

I was like, I don't know if that's healthy.

• 10:47

Yeah, exactly.

• 10:49

It was funny, but we are.

• 10:53

Just to be clear, these recipes are not evaluated

• 10:55

by the FDA in any way, shape, or form.

• 10:59

That's fair.

• 10:59

That's fair.

• 11:03

Create them at your own will.

• 11:04

You don't have to eat them.

• 11:06

You can just create it.

• 11:08

And of course, don't forget to share your creations with us.

• 11:11

We do want to see them if you do end up doing it.

• 11:14

And if you enjoyed that, definitely give us feedback

• 11:16

on the forums over there that you enjoyed seeing the recipes

• 11:19

or doing that type of thing and getting

• 11:21

kind of an insight into some of the recipes for the different races.

• 11:26

Next up, we just have a reminder that our Unseen Order Cosmetics

• 11:30

will be ending on January 17, 2024 at 11 AM Pacific.

• 11:34

So if you would like a preorder pack,

• 11:37

now is the time to grab a preorder pack.

• 11:39

We will be assessing our server capacity and things of that sort

• 11:45

and where we're at in regards to that as we go into Alpha 2.

• 11:48

So we may expand the ability to get access to Alpha 2 in other ways.

• 11:53

But this is the last preorder pack that will be available.

• 11:57

So if you are interested in that, it is a great deal.

• 11:59

You get a lot of goodies in it for a price

• 12:03

that is less than the worth of the whole value of the package.

• 12:07

It is happening.

• 12:08

Yes, because there is time, too, that's incorporated in that game time.

• 12:12

And game time is expensive.

• 12:14

Very true.

• 12:15

And there's also an FAQ up.

• 12:17

So if you have questions in regards to anything,

• 12:21

there's answers for you over there.

• 12:23

And like I said, there will be other opportunities potentially

• 12:26

to get access to Alpha 2.

• 12:27

It's just that we are trying to close things down

• 12:29

to make sure that we're in a good space and we're ready

• 12:32

and we know what our concurrency is going to be when we go into that.

• 12:35

As many of you have played many MMOs,

• 12:37

we want to make sure that the server experience is in a good place.

• 12:42

And next up, we have just a reminder of the Content Creator program.

• 12:48

It is still up for application phase.

• 12:50

We will probably be closing the application phase

• 12:52

for a little bit of time as we are going through those.

• 12:56

We're going to be hiring on some content creator relations folks

• 12:59

and powering through that soon.

• 13:01

So if you're interested or if you're already on it,

• 13:03

then you're good to go.

• 13:04

Or if you're already on it and you need to edit it,

• 13:06

you should be able to go to that form and edit it and update anything

• 13:10

that you want as well.

• 13:12

We will do our best to get back to everybody.

• 13:14

Stephen wants us to get back to everyone, even if you're not in the program.

• 13:17

So you have a confirmation of whether you are or aren't.

• 13:20

And then also, we are working out an academic program, too,

• 13:24

for people who maybe aren't quite ready for the program,

• 13:27

but we think with a little training, they could be.

• 13:31

Yeah, give them some advice.

• 13:32

So it's going to be a lot of staffing that we need to do on our end.

• 13:35

But I think that in the long run,

• 13:37

we're going to have a really, really cool content creator program.

• 13:41

Like, I haven't seen any other company before.

• 13:43

Agreed.

• 13:43

I've worked for.

• 13:44

Yeah.

• 13:45

Yeah, and it's an important part, right?

• 13:47

Content creators are a big portion of how the company is able to communicate

• 13:52

with its audience.

• 13:54

And it's important not only to foster the relationships,

• 13:56

but also to hone the techniques.

• 13:58

And I think that this particular program is going to be very useful

• 14:03

for a lot of people to hone those techniques to make sure they're doing it.

• 14:07

And for us to work with folks.

• 14:08

And I do want to make it clear,

• 14:09

we're not looking for people who are only big creators, right?

• 14:13

Just because we have 200 subscribers, that's not a big deal to us.

• 14:16

We're still going to be working with you just as much as we would work

• 14:19

with somebody who has 200,000.

• 14:22

So it's really a matter of, you know, you're obviously going to get less codes

• 14:26

than that person because you have less followers.

• 14:28

But like, we're going to make sure that you're engaged with us,

• 14:31

that you get the information that you need.

• 14:33

But it's also still fair to our other users.

• 14:35

I think that's also important.

• 14:36

I think a lot of us have played in games where like content creators get benefits

• 14:39

that are like better than everybody else.

• 14:41

You're like, what?

• 14:42

It really is more about relationship beyond that.

• 14:44

We, you know, I've been chatting with Vaknar and Roshan as well.

• 14:48

There are other programs that will come into play down the line, like guilds,

• 14:52

artisans, those type of things.

• 14:53

So if there's other things, you're going to be doing stuff.

• 14:56

So as you as you're as we get closer to launch,

• 14:58

you'll see some of those programs come online or, you know, programs like that

• 15:02

come online based on what our users are doing and and how we can engage

• 15:07

with you guys in order to make sure that there's cool stuff that you can be doing

• 15:10

in our community and whatever our community is gravitating towards.

• 15:13

That's where we're going to we're going to try to help uplift you guys.

• 15:17

It's definitely a mutual thing.

• 15:19

So we really want to be engaged with our audience.

• 15:21

Unlike some other games that we've been part of.

• 15:25

I'm not going to call out names.

Ranger Update

• 15:28

And with that, I think I have covered all of our reminders.

• 15:32

So do you want to preface anything with the ranger?

• 15:35

I do. I do want to preface something.

• 15:37

So first of all, I do want to say that we have heard our community

• 15:45

with the way that we present the live stream showcases.

• 15:49

And I've asked Margaret to prepare the YouTube video

• 15:53

to launch simultaneously with the

• 15:58

presentation on Twitch.

• 16:00

So for those of you, here's what I would ask who want to go watch it in 4K

• 16:04

while the stream is still continuing.

• 16:06

You can do so on YouTube.

• 16:08

It'll be up in just a few moments right when we started here.

• 16:11

But make sure that you're still offering your comments and Twitch,

• 16:14

because I do read those.

• 16:15

Margaret reads them. The team reads them.

• 16:18

It's very important.

• 16:20

And come and join us afterwards for the discussion as well.

• 16:23

So you're not allowed to leave necessarily.

• 16:24

You can't just go watch the YouTube video and then sign off.

• 16:27

You have to still watch the stream.

• 16:29

If you haven't noticed, I grab questions from channel from the channel.

• 16:32

Yes, Roshan and Bekner both pop questions over here

• 16:35

in the different various places that they're at.

• 16:37

So we are if you want if you have questions along the way

• 16:40

while you're watching, making sure that you posted in like our Twitch channel

• 16:44

is very important so that we can get your answers for you.

• 16:48

Absolutely. 100 percent.

• 16:49

Now about the showcase.

• 16:51

So as Margaret said, and as you guys have been anticipating,

• 16:55

we are going to be looking at the Ranger archetype.

• 16:58

And again, this is a work in progress.

• 17:01

The UI is still very much a functional UI.

• 17:05

The VFX still have multiple rounds of passes that need to be done on them.

• 17:09

But this gives you an understanding kind of of the direction

• 17:12

that the archetype progression and development has gone

• 17:15

as it relates specifically to the Ranger.

• 17:17

And of course, you can derive from that insights for other classes

• 17:21

and other archetypes and how they will interact.

• 17:24

This is a very fun showcase, obviously, with the combat team.

• 17:28

Trad, Brian and Keenan joined me. They've been regulars on the show in the past.

• 17:32

The last time we've discussed the Ranger was actually in 2022.

• 17:37

And it was a very brief discussion about ranged basic weapon combat

• 17:42

with a few maybe two or three Ranger abilities sliced in.

• 17:46

Today, you're going to be watching near one hour presentation

• 17:49

that talks about upwards of 18, 19 different abilities

• 17:53

with some 20 odd passives and weapon progression trees.

• 17:57

When you analyze this, I did turn off cooldowns, of course,

• 18:02

at the beginning to kind of demonstrate each of the abilities.

• 18:05

I turned them back on afterwards.

• 18:07

Very two important things to keep in mind when you're thinking about feedback

• 18:12

and you're thinking about essentially what you want to share about your thoughts

• 18:17

for the presentation is on the abilities, the status conditions that get applied

• 18:23

and how they promote the role of the archetype as well,

• 18:29

being a Ranger and not seeing potentially a lot of melee abilities, but a lot of range.

• 18:34

So focus on those two aspects, the interconnectivity with the other classes

• 18:38

from a group perspective and each of the individual abilities.

• 18:42

And that's not to say that you could not spec more melee oriented.

• 18:45

Absolutely.

• 18:46

Right. I just want to be clear to people.

• 18:48

And very clear to remember, this is base archetype.

• 18:51

So this is not class.

• 18:53

This is not the combination of your secondary, which will fundamentally change

• 18:56

to the augment system some of those basic abilities.

• 18:58

So without further ado, enjoy the presentation.

• 19:02

We'll see you on the flip side.

• 19:26

Hello, everyone, and welcome to another day in Vera.

• 19:29

We have a very exciting stream for you today.

• 19:32

It has been some time since we have showed off a bit of the ranged combat.

• 19:36

And today we are going to be talking about the Ranger archetype with some 17, 18, 19 skills.

• 19:44

I can't remember what we're going to be showcasing today in the base archetype,

• 19:47

but it is a whole lot of Ranger.

• 19:50

And I have joining us today three of our glorious developers,

• 19:53

two of our senior designers, Tratt and Brian.

• 19:57

How are you guys doing?

• 19:59

Doing good. Glad to be here.

• 20:01

I think it's been a couple since we did our last combat showcase.

• 20:04

I know.

• 20:06

I'm doing great. Happy to show off the Ranger.

• 20:09

Yeah, you've been putting in a lot of work on this, Brian.

• 20:12

Not just me, the whole team.

• 20:14

Absolutely, the whole team.

• 20:15

But Rangers are near and dear to your heart, right?

• 20:17

Aren't you a Ranger player? Don't you play some Rangers?

• 20:19

Yes. Yeah, it's definitely one of my favorite classes.

• 20:23

They're often not done justice in games.

• 20:25

So getting the opportunity to do right by Ranger mains makes me happy.

• 20:29

Yes. And then, of course, the man behind the magic,

• 20:33

the senior engineer and the owner for the PC core team, Keenan.

• 20:38

How you doing, Keenan?

• 20:41

I'm alive. Happy to be here, though.

• 20:44

Yeah. By the way, this is a really cool environment.

• 20:49

I see Carven in the background. We're here in winter.

• 20:52

It's definitely giving me the Christmas vibes.

• 20:56

And it is beautiful.

• 20:58

I mean, the environment team, holy smokes, what an amazing job.

• 21:04

I love the snow. Everything. It feels so cozy.

• 21:08

It does.

• 21:10

Now, we have, let's see, I'm in your party.

• 21:14

We have established from some feedback from the community on the showcasing

• 21:19

that little one by one of each ability before we get into any combat situations

• 21:27

with some mobs or NPCs is desired.

• 21:30

It's a nice clean way for us to kind of showcase obviously all the hard work

• 21:35

that's gone into the creation of this.

• 21:37

Excuse me, into the creation of this archetype.

• 21:40

I apologize for coughing, guys.

• 21:41

I've recently recently got sick and I'm still recovering a little bit.

• 21:47

But I am doing much better now.

• 21:49

So I think this is a great place.

• 21:52

What is like some dried up riverbed or something?

• 21:54

It looks pretty cool.

• 21:56

It's a nice colors in here.

• 21:57

Now, obviously, as a disclaimer before we begin, I do want to say that UI VFX,

• 22:04

100% a work in progress.

• 22:06

Oh, my God. There's a bird up there.

• 22:09

I got it. Thank you. Good.

• 22:10

The scary little bird.

• 22:12

The UI is a work in progress.

• 22:15

The VFX are work in progress.

• 22:16

Everything here is subject to change through testing.

• 22:19

Obviously, Alpha 2 coming up is going to be a big opportunity for us to test a lot of this stuff.

• 22:24

So please keep that in mind, especially you content creators out there

• 22:27

who are going to do some review videos.

• 22:28

Make sure you mention that at the start of your videos.

• 22:32

Keenan, how do you feel about being a targeting dummy for the showcase of these abilities?

• 22:39

I'll take it. All right.

• 22:41

Let's do that.

• 22:42

And do you have a healer?

• 22:43

Tread? Tread's got me.

• 22:45

All right. Tread's got you.

• 22:46

It's all on me here.

• 22:47

All right. There we go.

• 22:48

All right. So I am now no longer in your party so that I can murder you.

• 22:53

But I have set my cooldowns to 0.1, I believe,

• 22:58

so that I can show each of these abilities off multiple times as we're talking about it.

• 23:03

So please keep in mind, guys, as you're out there watching this display,

• 23:07

the cooldowns here are set to practically nothing.

• 23:12

Now, we're going to do some combat afterwards.

• 23:14

I'll set cooldowns back.

• 23:16

But during this display, they're set to nothing.

• 23:18

Let us showcase our first ability.

• 23:21

I see we have Snipe.

• 23:23

And we showed Snipe off last year when we did our last ranged basic weapon combo update.

• 23:30

And people got to see a little preview of it last month as well during our artisanship review.

• 23:36

But talk to me about some of the changes that Snipe has gone through

• 23:39

and what this ability serves as a purpose. Brian.

• 23:42

Yeah, so with Snipe, we've been leaning into it being an alpha strike ability.

• 23:47

So it's what you want to open with to deal massive damage.

• 23:50

And since it's got that charge up time,

• 23:53

it's not as good to do when you're needing to kite something.

• 23:57

But whenever you're just opening on something, that's an unsuspecting target,

• 24:02

it's the perfect ability for it.

• 24:04

And if you have spec choices, there's other things that lean into it.

• 24:07

For instance, you've got that proc on you right now that's giving you 20% bonus attack speed on a successful Snipe.

• 24:13

Oh, very cool. Okay, let me take a look at that.

• 24:15

Fire it again. Fire it again. You'll see it.

• 24:17

Okay, let me see.

• 24:21

Yeah, Tread helped with this. He added this into the skill tree.

• 24:24

Yeah, it just proc'd on you there.

• 24:26

Oh, there it is.

• 24:27

Yeah, so your follow-up shots will come out even quicker.

• 24:32

Cool. So that proc is happening because I have spec'd into a passive.

• 24:35

And let's take a look. This is the first time that people have actually seen the progression tree for a particular archetype in quite a while, actually, probably since our Alpha 1.

• 24:46

But there has been a lot of work that's gone into this from you guys, of course.

• 24:50

Talk to me a little bit about the different types of abilities we're seeing here.

• 24:56

Tread, do you want to take this one? Because you put a lot of work into this.

• 24:59

Sure. I mean, we're going to go through all these as we go through and show them off one by one.

• 25:05

But what you're seeing at a high level here is just what you'd pretty much expect of a traditional skill tree.

• 25:11

We're doing something a little more advanced than just like a bottom-up structure because we're being a little bit more freeform in this iteration.

• 25:19

This will obviously see more UI iterations in the future.

• 25:22

But you'll see like a mix of active and passive abilities here.

• 25:26

The active abilities are indicated by their square shape while the circular ones are representing passives.

• 25:32

And one thing to note as well is that these passives are aiming to be a little more interesting than just like, you know, this ability does more damage now or this, you know, has a lower cooldown.

• 25:45

Like we do have some of those, too.

• 25:47

But the goal with a lot of these passives in addition to that is to allow people to lean into unique play style. So you'll notice that some of them are changing your gameplay in meaningful ways.

• 25:58

And that's the direction we want to take player and character customization as a whole.

• 26:03

Very cool. Yeah, I love it.

• 26:05

Obviously, you know, this is all subject to intense feedback from the testers who will be participating as part of Alpha 2.

• 26:12

All of this stuff is subject to change, as I said.

• 26:15

But it gives you guys a very good idea direction wise and your feedback is, of course, why we do these development updates.

• 26:20

So please make sure that you give us your thoughts back on this type of progression tree.

• 26:24

In addition to the archetype progression tree, we also have something that interacts with each of the archetypes, and that is a weapon progression tree as well.

• 26:34

Now, obviously, the format of this particular weapon skill tree that you're seeing here is a relatively simplistic one.

• 26:41

But talk to me a little bit about the intent and purpose behind the weapon skill tree.

• 26:47

Yeah, so the intent here is to give you choices. Either I want to extend and improve my combo, or I want just passive benefits that increase my attack speed or crit chance in this case with the short bow.

• 27:01

And yeah, as you can see, the tree is a lot more simple, kind of like a stage one tree work in progress. But it'll get fancier over time.

• 27:10

And I see on the far right hand side, Brian, that there are additional combo steps.

• 27:15

So let me actually unspec these additional combo steps so that we can talk first about the basic weapon combo.

• 27:27

And I'm just going to demonstrate that here. I'm going to use the short bow. Now, this is a short bow we are using.

• 27:32

You guys remember from last year when we showcased ranged weapons that we had obviously a number of them, some of them arcane, some of them physical.

• 27:38

But the two bow types that we have are longbow and shortbow. I'm using the short bow as you can see, it is a copper short bow.

• 27:46

And let's see what this looks like without the combo upgrade.

• 27:53

That's four hits.

• 27:56

Very cool. So it's relatively rapid pace, especially compared to that of the longbow that you guys got to see a little while ago.

• 28:04

Let's talk about speccing now into these additional combo steps and what does that do?

• 28:12

Oh, you don't know?

• 28:13

Yes. So we've done a lot of experimentation over the past couple of months to find out what's the shortest and what's the longest combo that's acceptable.

• 28:24

Because we had this goal where we wanted to have a combo length progression available to players.

• 28:31

So that certain builds could have longer weapon combos and other builds can have shorter weapon combos with more passive effects.

• 28:38

And this has been the result of our exploration.

• 28:41

So when you start out, you've got a pretty quick four hit combo.

• 28:44

But whenever you unlock the additional hits, you get the fifth and sixth hits, which add approximately 50 percent to the overall combo length.

• 28:53

But we found that that gave a pretty satisfying floor and ceiling to how long the combo can be.

• 29:01

It definitely I can feel absolutely the change, obviously, in the pace between not having specced into the to the combo and getting those additional fifth and sixth steps.

• 29:13

So in addition to the later hits in the combo doing additional damage, you also unlock proc effects.

• 29:20

So on your fifth hit, you unlock the special fifth hit, which gives you 10 percent bonus critical strike chance, which you just proc there.

• 29:28

And the sixth hit, you unlock the special six hit, which gives you arrow storm, which causes your next, I believe, 10 attacks to fire an additional arrow at the target.

• 29:39

Very cool. So that combos really well with rapid fire abilities such as the next ability we're going to be looking at.

• 29:45

All right. Let's take a look at Barrage.

• 29:48

So Barrage is as far as a continual barrage of arrows at your target for one and a half seconds, dealing 12 percent physical damage per arrow.

• 29:56

OK, let's take a look at this.

• 29:58

I mean, that seemed like a lot per arrow, but it fires a lot of arrows.

• 30:02

Now that's a char. Is this is this a charged ability to have multiple charges of this?

• 30:07

Right now, you only have one charge. And we did some iterations with this and a lot a lot of play testing.

• 30:15

And yeah, we changed this back to only having one charge. And you can reduce the cooldown of this by completing a weapon combo.

• 30:22

OK, all right. Let me see this. So if I complete a weapon combo, it would reduce the cooldown.

• 30:27

Right now I'm set to zero cooldown, so we can show that off a little bit later.

• 30:31

Talk to me a little bit about headshot.

• 30:36

Yeah, headshot. It starts off so there's ways that you can specialize this, that turn it into the execute.

• 30:44

It was born as originally it does pretty high damage, but if you spec it appropriately, it does bonus damage when the targets below 50 percent health.

• 30:54

And if the target is marked, it has 50 percent reduced cooldown, I believe, with the spec that you have.

• 31:02

OK, so if I have a mark on the target, then I get a 50 percent cooldown.

• 31:08

Yeah, you get 50 percent reduced cooldown on headshot.

• 31:11

Nice. Now, we haven't talked about marks before.

• 31:15

You want to talk to me a little bit about the intent behind marks.

• 31:21

Yep. The intent behind marks is to provide a burst window on the target.

• 31:28

Often in other games, it's just bonus damage. This is much more significant on the impact that this will have on the target.

• 31:35

It's basically marking the target for death has a pretty huge effect.

• 31:39

For instance, mark of the tiger, it grants 50 percent bonus critical chance to all attacks striking the target.

• 31:46

Mark of the bear is minus 25 percent armor.

• 31:49

And mark of the raven is a bonus hit that occurs every time the target is struck and it scales up in damage based on how low on health the target is.

• 31:58

OK, so let me try mark of the bear.

• 32:01

So this reduces their mitigation by 25 percent.

• 32:04

So when I use an ability first, like headshot, I just did 76 damage.

• 32:09

If I were to start headshot and then I can use the mark of the bear while I'm channeling the or casting the headshot,

• 32:18

it'll it will apply to the target while while I'm essentially using headshot. Is that correct?

• 32:25

Yeah, correct. Keenan and the engineers made us some awesome off.

• 32:29

You might know it in other games as off global cooldown tech. We call it simultaneous casting.

• 32:35

And yeah, that allows you to cast your marks at the same time as other abilities, allowing for a very efficient use of time.

• 32:43

Awesome. OK, so now it's gone from 76. Wow, that's a significant bump.

• 32:50

Yeah. Mark of the bear is really good against tanky targets.

• 32:53

Yeah, that's awesome. Mark of the raven. Let's take a look at this.

• 32:58

I love the effects. Scott has done such a great job with these.

• 33:04

Yeah, I I love that he decided to join the VFX team and come over and help us with combat.

• 33:09

He's doing a great job so far. Absolutely. Let's see. Oh, they look great. Very cool.

• 33:16

That's awesome. Now, in addition to marks, talk to me, try out a little bit about hunts.

• 33:22

What are the hunts intended to do for sure? So unlike marks, which are debuffs on the target, hunts are different buffs you can put on yourself.

• 33:32

They're both themed pretty similarly. At first, we had started with linking these two concepts directly, like you would put the hunt on yourself and then shoot that hunt out as a mark and infuse the target with that.

• 33:45

But we ended up kind of separating them just to make them a little bit more independently and freely usable.

• 33:52

But the theme you can see is the same. We've chosen the tiger, bear and raven animals, but they're, you know, stay tuned for more.

• 34:01

And yeah, like like you guys are talking about, the visuals for these are really cool.

• 34:07

But yeah, you'll these are basically like like different buffs that you will put on yourself and they do tend to have some synergy with their respective thematic creatures.

• 34:19

So I used Mark of the Raven this time, I was doing 96 damage, but that's because I had Hunt of the Raven, which is giving me additional physical penetration.

• 34:27

Let me use let me use Mark of the Bear on the target while having that hunt active. And now instead of doing 117, I'm doing 179.

• 34:37

Wow. That's significant. I'm doing 117 again, but that's because.

• 34:44

Let's see, I'll try this. Hold on, Mark of the Tiger.

• 34:49

Oh, that's increasing critical chance. Mark of the Bear is magic. Let's try that. OK.

• 34:57

Maybe Kenan doesn't have enough armor for the extra help. Oh, poor Kenan. Not enough armor. Gray armor.

• 35:05

He's in kind of some newbie gear down there. Oh, no. OK.

• 35:09

But that is the thing about the armor pen is that will scale more and more effectively the more armored your target is. So you can think of it as like a counter stat for people who build that up.

• 35:21

That looks awesome. All right. So now we also have scattershot. And this is one of our first AOE abilities. Talk to me a little bit about scattershot.

• 35:30

Yes. Like you said, it's a AOE ability. It fires out in a cone in front of you about about 20 meters ahead.

• 35:37

And we've got some pretty cool tech with this. The first is where we're drawing a targeting decal that only the caster can see to help like align the cast as you're firing it.

• 35:50

The second cool thing that we're doing here is you can actually charge the ability into a beam, which is better for a lower amount of targets.

• 35:59

So if you just want to hit a wide field of targets, you would just quick cast it. But if you were interested in a wing, a specific smaller pack, it'd be more efficient for you to do the charge cast.

• 36:13

Very cool. So if I have to I have to hold the charge to completion to get the additional damage value, essentially.

• 36:21

Yes. Very cool. Now, this is obviously a big point of feedback.

• 36:27

That I think people can provide. Obviously, there's a lot of interesting thoughts around subjective, of course, around UI and decal elements that help to communicate kind of these A.O.E.s.

• 36:41

As Brian said, this is obviously going to be a decal that is only shown to the caster, not, you know, shown across to multiple players.

• 36:52

But what is the desire of our community when it comes to showcasing and demonstrating kind of the area of effect for certain types of spells?

• 37:00

Do you want something? Obviously, this is done very elegantly. I think Scott did this one as well.

• 37:06

I think it looks great. But this is something that is a point of feedback that we want to collect from players as you guys get to kind of play through Alpha 2.

• 37:14

And as you're seeing these updates, what do you enjoy most about conveying these area of effects? And this isn't the only area of effects we have.

• 37:22

We also have Airstrike and we've seen Airstrike in the past as well. But this one's received a little bit of TLC. Talk to me a little bit about that.

• 37:31

Yeah. And just real quick, the reason why you hear my voice a lot is I'm the owner of the ragers.

• 37:37

So I'm in charge of this class. So that's why you hear my voice a lot.

• 37:45

Anyways, Airstrike. We gave this an update. We replaced the particle effects because they were way too laggy.

• 37:53

So, yeah, Scott, again, did a pass on these. They look amazing.

• 37:57

We also let you have air control with this so you can steer it while you're in the air.

• 38:02

And we fine tuned the animation. I believe Alex put in some time to make sure that it's holding you only for the right amount.

• 38:11

It's not grabbing you and locking you in place weirdly on landing. We really polished up how it feels whenever you use it.

• 38:18

So it's just really seamless and nice to use.

• 38:21

Oh, and the effect that it's providing if you actually hit a target with it, it does pretty big damage and also roots the target.

• 38:28

So this is a really good skill whenever your tank pulls in a big pack of monsters, you just airstrike over top of it, lock it all down in place, and then you and your mages blow up the pack.

• 38:38

I think it looks great. The animation changes that Alex did look awesome.

• 38:42

The additional functionality that you guys incorporated as part of controlling the air movement, I think is something that people are going to love.

• 38:51

Obviously, airstrike also is a significant mechanical benefit for the Ranger because it's in addition to damage is also a CC effect.

• 39:05

Talk to me a little bit about the CC that airstrike conveys and what's its intended purpose like in combat.

• 39:13

I mean, there's mobility associated with it. There's damage associated with it. There's CC. It's kind of a has a broad spectrum of effect conveyed.

• 39:20

Yeah, it's a pretty powerful ability and has a long cooldown because it's providing that wide spectrum of effect.

• 39:27

The ranger is one of the most mobile classes. It's second to the rogue only. So this is part of how we're providing that mobility benefit.

• 39:35

And yeah, whenever you hit targets, they're rooted in place. They cannot move.

• 39:39

So it's very effective as an escape tool, but also the hard engage tool that kind of puts you at risk. But if you got the tank and the cleric at your back, maybe that's the right calculus for your play.

• 39:50

Absolutely. All right, cool. Let us try thundering shot. Talk to me a little bit about thundering shot.

• 40:00

Yeah, this is definitely a favorite ability on the team by a lot of people.

• 40:06

It shoots a lightning arrow at the target. And if you're far enough away, I believe the conversion range is 10 meters.

• 40:12

It does an additional explosion around the target.

• 40:16

OK, so that did 96. Let's see if I'm closer.

• 40:21

Oh, OK, so this variable amount of damage and also changes it to.

• 40:29

Yeah, we around the target. Yeah. So you see it more damage. We wanted to have some abilities in the kit, at least with the showcase that we're showing right now, where it's range focus, where there's there is some advantage for staying at range.

• 40:43

And also there's some advantage for closing on a ranger. Yeah, absolutely. Very cool.

• 40:49

Next up, we have another lightning ability, but this one's called lightning reload. Talk to me a little bit about lightning reload trap.

• 40:57

Sure. This one's more of a self buff effect. When you put it on yourself, it will allow you to use one of a few abilities without spending its cool down.

• 41:10

So I believe a couple of them are like snipe headshot thundering shot ones we've already been through.

• 41:15

If you pop that first, you get about a five second window. And if you use one of those abilities within that window, it will not trigger the CD, meaning you could use it twice back to back.

• 41:25

You can also even use something that's already on cool down by popping that first. So it's not like you have to already have it available.

• 41:32

So you can use it in a lot of pinches. So this is another concurrent channel effect that I can that I can use. Brian, what are some of the cool combos with this?

• 41:40

Yeah, one of my one of my favorite ones is a triple headshot combo.

• 41:45

So if a target is marked headshot on them has 50 percent reduced cool down if you're spec'd for it. So what you can do is you can mark someone you can headshot.

• 41:56

And as as you're charging up the first headshot, throw a mark. And then whenever the headshot hits you, lightning reload and then you get two more headshots right after that.

• 42:04

And it makes a really nasty combo for finishing off a target that's already below 50 percent health because you're getting that bonus damage on headshot to at that point,

• 42:13

which makes its efficiency per second higher than snipe. OK, so with Mark of the Raven.

• 42:22

OK, which one gives the. Mark, I think we're talking about for headshot.

• 42:29

Oh, any of the marks will do it. Any of the marks will provide a 50 percent reduced cool down on headshot.

• 42:35

All right. And I currently have hunt physical penetration, but we've already determined. That you don't have enough physical mitigation.

• 42:47

So let us do. Hunt of the Tiger. And let us apply Mark of the Bear on you.

• 42:59

While we're casting three, so it's going to be three shift four. And then you said lightning reload and three twice more.

• 43:08

Yes. Should I start with snipe first? Yeah, you can do that. OK, so snipe to three while doing Mark of the Bear.

• 43:17

All right. Let's try it. I'm going to need some heels, Dred. Really?

• 43:31

Oh, but you know what? I did that with the cooldown set to. Yeah. Set to nothing.

• 43:37

Oh, no. Hold on. Let me set that back to one. OK, so this is the normal cool down frequency.

• 43:43

OK, representative of real gameplay. Correct. Yes, yes, yes. All right. Let's try that again.

• 43:49

I'm going to do the Mark of the Bear. All right. Here we go.

• 44:02

Oh, OK, very cool. That was awesome. Yeah, it feels pretty crisp.

• 44:07

And yeah, if Keenan was below half health there, he would have taken I mean, he might have died. Oh, my God. Keenan.

• 44:13

Not with me as his healer. I know. All right. Let me set cooldowns back.

• 44:20

Let me max my mana. OK, we've showed off lightning reload.

• 44:27

Next up, I have bear trap. Talk to me a little bit about bear trap. Yes, bear trap.

• 44:33

So we went through a couple of iterations on this. We want we wanted a very solid trap ability.

• 44:38

It's right in the name. But often in games, they're either too small, they activate too short.

• 44:43

They're just not or they don't last long enough. There's there's lots of ways for a trap to suck.

• 44:47

And we think we got bear trap in a decent spot where it's pretty usable.

• 44:51

You can preplace them on the ground. They last for, I believe, 30 seconds after you place them.

• 44:56

So it's a very strategic ability, allowing for zone control.

• 45:02

You can place these in between you and a hostile target and kite them into it.

• 45:06

You can make like a little trap wall in front of you so that if people are closing on you or rather you're setting up a gank and you want to set that up beforehand.

• 45:16

So whenever there's a counterattack, you're already prepared for it.

• 45:19

It definitely benefits that strategically minded player. Very nice.

• 45:23

That looks that feels great. Can I hit my own bear trap?

• 45:27

No, no, actually, I hope not. But if I did, I'd have called the wild.

• 45:32

Yes. Yeah. Maybe we should just show that one. Yeah.

• 45:37

Maybe what is called Wild Dew? It is a CC break and a movement buff.

• 45:43

So if you get hit with a nasty stone or something, you can just break out of it and run away.

• 45:51

Oh, that was cool. I love the effects. That looked awesome.

• 45:57

Let's try that one more time. So I'm running along. Give me a stun.

• 46:01

I got to wait for this cooldown. Try with the trap or something.

• 46:08

Yeah, but the ranger is a fairly fragile class overall, so if they get a stun on them and it doesn't get cleansed and here I'll do it again.

• 46:16

They'd be very nasty. That was good. That's great.

• 46:25

Yeah, all of our archetypes will have their own versions of CC breaks, just because, you know, that is one of the things where players want answers to those kinds of situations.

• 46:36

That'll be part of your spec choice, right? How much do you want to build into your ability to resist and break CC versus just be like a raw glass cannon and accepting those risks?

• 46:49

That all factors into the decision making when it comes to specs.

• 46:54

Yeah, one of the pillars that we're trying to build combat on top of is giving players the true feeling of agency, like they're really in control of their character and what happens to their character rather than just watching stuff happen to their character.

• 47:05

They have no impact on.

• 47:10

Oh, it feels so good. Keenan, come over here. Let me try this next ability, Reigning Death.

• 47:20

I love the name of that, by the way. Feels like a perfect band name for a heavy metal group.

• 47:30

Yeah, like a Slayer song.

• 47:36

Yes. So Reigning Death is also using a caster side targeting decal. So again, only the caster is seeing that targeting decal.

• 47:45

I mean, that allows them to line it up a little bit better and make sure they're hitting the targets that they want to hit.

• 47:50

And another thing to note is we are making the spread of projectiles a little more even and dense. So as you notice, there's some spots in the decal that don't look like they're getting hit.

• 48:02

They are actually getting hit because of this homing arrow tech.

• 48:06

There's actually a hitbox that's being drawn there and every target within that hitbox is getting a homing arrow fired at it.

• 48:13

Actually, two homing arrows fired at it. So it is hitting stuff, even though it might not look like it right now. We're going to improve that a little bit more.

• 48:24

And Scattershot has a little bit of the same thing going on where the spread's not really perfect.

• 48:29

But yeah, that's currently in progress with our VFX artists to make a little bit better.

• 48:33

It's a good representation of where we've been trying to find a balance between making these abilities feel organic and not super like templated to use.

• 48:45

But at the same time, at the end of the day, like gameplay is the name of the game and we want these things to be reliable and consistent, both from the users and...

• 48:58

Oh my god, you're taking advantage of the fact that I'm talking.

• 49:03

He just turned into ash.

• 49:06

I should have expected that from you.

• 49:08

He just turned into ash.

• 49:10

It's okay, I raised him.

• 49:12

Oh, that was so good. That was so good.

• 49:14

That was a little ash loot house on the ground.

• 49:16

I forgot what I was saying.

• 49:18

I forgot what I was saying too.

• 49:20

That was a great effect. I think SIVA worked on...

• 49:23

Excuse me. I think SIVA worked on that as well as the Snipe reauthor as well.

• 49:31

But yeah, Reining Death is an example where we iterate on these abilities multiple times and sometimes it requires a complete rebuild.

• 49:40

This is, I think, the third complete rebuild of that ability because the previous versions just weren't good enough for our players.

• 49:47

They were more direct fire projectile based, which is pretty cool because you see there's a direct connection between the projectile and dealing damage.

• 49:56

But we found a solution where we can simulate the appearance of all the projectiles hitting and then we can also have a homing volume underneath that.

• 50:07

So it's very reliable while also looking super...

• 50:10

Out of mana, sorry Keenan.

• 50:12

Oh no, Keenan!

• 50:14

Oh no!

• 50:16

Oh, he's corrupted. Look at that.

• 50:18

Oh, did I turn corrupt?

• 50:20

Oh, I gotta take advantage of it.

• 50:22

Oh no, no, no.

• 50:24

Wait a minute. I have no cooldown.

• 50:26

You pissed off the cleric.

• 50:28

How did I go corrupt?

• 50:30

By killing an innocent player.

• 50:38

Oh, we did it!

• 50:40

Okay, wait. Don't kill me. Don't kill me.

• 50:43

Let me get back to what I was doing.

• 50:46

Alright, sorry.

• 50:48

See? Steven's a good player, guys.

• 50:50

Yay! How dare you?

• 50:52

Just because I show at a lower APM so everyone can see the fidelity of the effects and the gameplay around the environment and the NPCs doesn't mean I don't have a little bit of...

• 51:05

What is it called? Juice?

• 51:07

What is it called? A juice box? I can't remember.

• 51:11

Alright, so we showed off a little bit of the Bear Trap, the Call of the Wild, we went through Lightning Reload, Thundering Shot, we talked about the marks and the different hunts that exist.

• 51:27

We have Disengage to show.

• 51:30

Yes. Disengage. Whenever you only have the ability and you haven't unlocked any of the passives involved with Disengage, it'll shoot you right back whenever you press it.

• 51:42

So it's really good for creating space between you and some targets that are charging at you.

• 51:47

You can just hit Disengage and you'll flip back.

• 51:50

Alright, let me try that now.

• 51:52

There we go.

• 51:54

And yeah, like Steven's demonstrating, you can also use it for traversal.

• 51:59

Something that we learned with Disengage though is people have different preferences for how they want this ability to activate.

• 52:08

There's some people who've played a lot of Ranger who are just like, you know what, I don't want to have to spin my camera around to press Disengage to be able to go forward.

• 52:19

I just want it to go forward when I press the button.

• 52:22

So we made this omnidirectional Disengage option which costs zero skill points.

• 52:27

Yeah, that's awesome. But in the future that'll be kind of an ability option that you can choose, right?

• 52:33

Not necessarily through a passive effect.

• 52:36

Right.

• 52:37

That's the intent.

• 52:38

Correct.

• 52:39

Yes, that is the intent.

• 52:40

We still need to do some work on how we're going to display that to the player to make sure it's as apparent as a spec option, right?

• 52:46

Because that's very apparent that you have that choice.

• 52:49

It can often be lame in games whenever Hadamid Max is all in the options menu, but we're going to make sure that that's nice and clean for our players and it's very apparent, the options that they have available to them.

• 53:00

But yeah, whenever you have the omnidirectional option engaged, now whenever you're pressing a movement key, Disengage will send you in that direction instead of straight back.

• 53:09

Very cool. Very cool.

• 53:11

All right. And then last but not least, and then we'll go up to the environment and just kind of play together a little bit,

• 53:18

is the imbue ammo. Talk to me about imbue ammo.

• 53:23

Yep. So imbue ammo, whenever you cast it, it'll imbue your next...

• 53:28

Currently they're set up to imbue your next 10 shots, and this will probably go through another iteration, but currently it imbues your next 10 shots with a special effect.

• 53:36

So we've got weighted ammo, concussive ammo, and barbed ammo right now.

• 53:40

We're probably going to add more in the future.

• 53:41

These are ammo imbues, so you're imbuing your next 10 shots with this effect.

• 53:46

Weighted ammunition is a snaring effect, barbed is a bleed effect, and concussive is a stagger effect.

• 53:55

Stagger reduces accuracy and evasion.

• 53:58

Nice. Okay.

• 53:59

And it also increases trick duration.

• 54:01

Very cool. Keenan, try just kind of running down this path, and let me do some weighted shots.

• 54:08

Another element of detail that I really like that you were down for going for, Stephen, was it actually changing the appearance of the ammunition whenever you're firing it.

• 54:22

Absolutely.

• 54:23

So when you load up weighted shot, it will actually swap your arrows that you're firing to look the part.

• 54:33

And it currently swaps over both basic attacks and barrage.

• 54:40

Nice. Very cool.

• 54:42

Yeah, if you want to cast your ammo and then cast barrage, you can show that off.

• 54:46

Let's do it. Let me do, probably, let's do weighted as you're running again.

• 55:04

That's so cool. Very cool.

• 55:06

All right. Let me set my cooldowns to something that's representative of real gameplay, although I have far more abilities than I should at level seven, but that's okay.

• 55:15

And I will join your party now.

• 55:17

Oh, no.

• 55:18

If we can even invite you.

• 55:20

No, you can. You can. I'm only corrupted. I mean, I'm not like a monster. Come on.

• 55:24

It's true. It's true.

• 55:25

Now you might, however, flag when you heal me, but that's okay.

• 55:30

We'll see.

• 55:32

What do we got over here?

• 55:35

Oh, I love that. That's awesome.

• 55:37

My, my, oops.

• 55:45

Oh, wow.

• 55:49

The, the snipe followed the target. That was crazy.

• 55:56

Oh yeah, there's a little bit of aim offset there and animation that we did.

• 56:00

Yeah, that looks great.

• 56:03

Quite a few of the bow abilities do it actually. It's just a lot more obvious with snipe.

• 56:09

Yeah, headshots another one. As long as it's within a certain angle, it will try to maintain tracking of the target.

• 56:19

And yeah, the way that we pulled it off, it's not like affecting your control rotation at all. It's just an appearance thing.

• 56:31

It feels good. It feels very good.

• 56:39

Yeah, it did not feel this good a while ago. I really want to give credit to our play testing process.

• 56:46

This was in a much rougher state a couple of months ago.

• 56:49

Absolutely.

• 56:51

But yeah, we get in the game, we play test it the same way that the players will be play testing it to make sure that it's going to be awesome.

• 56:58

Absolutely. I think one of the great things that your team has done is you've really defined your iterative loop.

• 57:07

Right. And obviously the most important aspect of that loop is going to be the play testing aspect, which you guys play test.

• 57:15

I mean, I think every day, right, with the NPC team and the world team in helping to define, obviously, not just the player character and the abilities you guys are authoring,

• 57:26

but also the playable space and the playable enemies that you're encountering as part of this whole thing.

• 57:35

Yeah, I mean, it's important to note, even when we're not in official play tests, like when we're building these things,

• 57:40

we make it a key point to be playing this stuff as we're building it.

• 57:46

Like the designers aren't just making stuff on paper and handing it off.

• 57:49

Like we're in the tools, we're building these things and we're in a game environment.

• 57:53

And it's I think part of the reason that these things come together so nicely is we can we can like build them in real time and play them in real time as we do so.

• 58:04

Yeah, I mean, it will help guys.

• 58:07

Oh, wait, hold on. I'm just taking in the view a little bit over here because it is a beautiful view.

• 58:13

It is definitely beautiful.

• 58:16

And I love all the verticality on our maps, but it has definitely forced us to make abilities in a better way.

• 58:24

If we just had flat arenas like every other game, it would it would be way easier to make all this stuff.

• 58:30

But that's why we were forced to make the the cool homing hitbox tech that both Scattershot and Raining Death are using because we're play testing in the environment.

• 58:39

We're figuring out what works or what doesn't and then we're adjusting and building new stuff to fit.

• 58:48

Oh, it feels so good. Love the combat with this.

• 58:54

And obviously we have a big showcase next month with regards to PvP and more raid format.

• 59:01

And you guys are going to be seeing some changes that are done to the mage effects as well. Yeah.

• 59:09

Scott's working on that now. Oh, my God.

• 59:11

Scott and Siva, I believe, are both working on the mage next.

• 59:15

So that'll be very exciting to see that get another pass because the mage can really throw down the particle effects.

• 59:23

Absolutely. Wow, that was a big pull actually.

• 59:28

Shredded. I love this area.

• 59:36

And the mixture of creatures here is kind of interesting.

• 59:40

Yeah, I actually like the raven has gone through a bunch of iterations, but I do like the current iteration of it.

• 59:47

It could be a little bit more deadly, but I think it's fulfilling its role of like that popcorn mob.

• 59:52

It's super annoying, but you can you can kill it really fast if you focus it down, then it will give you as many issues.

• 1:00:00

Oh, man, you just one shot that raven.

• 1:00:05

By the way, Stephen, isn't that isn't that chart over there more relevant?

• 1:00:09

Which one? Oh, good call. Yeah, we should talk a little bit about this zone.

• 1:00:14

So this is a small point of interest within the Riverlands area.

• 1:00:18

Obviously, we're in the Riverlands. It is winter. And this particular location called the Gem Spring is a remnant,

• 1:00:28

a shard remnant of one of the Harbingers that broke off and actually has begun some interesting interaction with essence within this area.

• 1:00:40

So those of you guys who are going to be participating in Alpha 2, this will be a location where you're going to have some related quests.

• 1:00:46

And this gives you an idea about gem springs.

• 1:00:50

Oh, we're here. Jim Spring. What do you say?

• 1:00:54

We should just we just do like a massive area. Oh, gosh.

• 1:00:59

Do you want to pull them? Yeah. Get it all.

• 1:01:04

People mentioned that I got nearly done pulling back in as many as you can.

• 1:01:10

Oh, my God. Happy Chuggas pull. I'm going to go all the way around.

• 1:01:25

Oh, here they come. OK, OK, where are you at?

• 1:01:30

Where are you at? They're right here. I'll be least.

• 1:01:39

OK, we got some of them. That wasn't bad.

• 1:01:44

That wasn't too bad. Fortunately, these guys are just kind of slow.

• 1:01:50

Mycelium. Let's take a look at their heart. Not the Ravens, though.

• 1:01:55

The Ravens are quick. Oh, they push you out of the way.

• 1:02:27

Oh, that was awesome. We cleaned up this place.

• 1:02:32

That was very cool. And I really need to get some better gear.

• 1:02:35

My damage is terrible. I wonder if there is something for us to discover up at the top.

• 1:02:43

Should we go check it out? Yes.

• 1:02:53

These poor spiders. Wait, that's a named mom. Oh, no.

• 1:03:01

Oh, no. Is it really? Yeah.

• 1:03:07

That's got like two point five K health. All right. It's just a bigger spider.

• 1:03:12

It's like three times the normal spiders. See?

• 1:03:24

No. It is it has a lot of hit points here.

• 1:03:30

It really does. I'm trying. My damage is just so bad.

• 1:03:43

You don't need a tank for it.

• 1:03:48

Oh, there he goes. I think we leashed him.

• 1:03:56

Oh, no. Kill him. Kill him. Kill him. Snare him. Oh, no.

• 1:04:03

Oh, no. That's a classic moment right there. All right. Let's let's take him down.

• 1:04:09

Let's take it back. Come on now. All right. All these.

• 1:04:25

Come on now.

• 1:04:31

So since he doesn't hit that hard, sir.

• 1:04:42

Got him. We did it.

• 1:04:47

Yeah, we have done it. We've done the thing. Look at this view. Good God, man.

• 1:04:56

It looks so good. We climb up here. Where are you going?

• 1:05:02

I'm just getting a better view. OK. This is nice.

• 1:05:07

Yeah, this is the car fins in the distance. So familiar.

• 1:05:12

Point of interest. It looks beautiful.

• 1:05:17

Hold something over here. Where? Over yonder from the rock.

• 1:05:22

Coming on my way. Oh, what is that?

• 1:05:28

What is that? It's a little sandal surprise left to us from our lovely environment artists.

• 1:05:35

It probably belongs to that spider back there. No, we found its nest.

• 1:05:40

It's sad. The nest. We killed it and had a sandal nest in an adoration to the.

• 1:05:47

To the sandal wisdom. This looks amazing.

• 1:05:52

I love it. Tristan and the environment team must have done a.

• 1:05:57

An awesome job here. Some of these I've never seen the sandal tree before.

• 1:06:01

That's new. That's different. I wonder if the wind speed affects it.

• 1:06:05

I see the sand. It does. Does it really? Yeah, it does. Yeah. Oh, that's so good.

• 1:06:10

That is so awesome. Oh, is there like a little jump puzzle? Can you get up there?

• 1:06:14

You can. I don't know if you can get on the big tree. That looks awesome.

• 1:06:18

Well, guys, thank you for joining me and show and showcasing all the hard work that you and the many members of the team have devoted to.

• 1:06:27

To obviously upgrading our basic weapon attacks, the ranged weapons, the Ranger archetype.

• 1:06:35

You know, the zone is beautiful. The monsters are cool. Everything is shaping up very nicely as a great showcase for the end of the year.

• 1:06:42

And guys, you're watching out there in the community. Obviously, we do these so that we can get your feedback.

• 1:06:47

Oh, no. OK, we did it so we can get your feedback on things that you saw today.

• 1:06:53

What did you think looked great? What what things would you change?

• 1:06:58

This is look at that beautiful creek down there. My God, what a great winter wonderland.

• 1:07:05

So please make sure to participate in our forums on the social media, YouTube video, everything.

• 1:07:11

Talk to us about what you enjoyed today and how you like the direction of the archetypes in the class of the combat, how everything is going.

• 1:07:17

I know it means a lot to Brian, Tradd, Keenan, everybody else on the combat team for you guys to give your feedback.

• 1:07:24

Tradd, Brian, Keenan, thank you for joining me and showcasing all your guys' hard work. This was great.

• 1:07:31

Thanks for having me. Thank you. Absolutely. Guys, we'll see you back on stream to close out 2023.

• 1:07:38

Bye, everybody. Cheers. Bye. Welcome back, everybody.

• 1:07:52

It's really enjoyed it. So while we are answering your questions, Stephen's got that glare going.

• 1:08:01

He does really love when the sun comes in. I'm sorry. Maybe I can fix that. Those giant windows you have.

• 1:08:08

How about now? That's ruined your composition. Oh, of course.

• 1:08:17

We love seeing all. Oh, sorry about the title here. We love seeing all of the wonderful comments and chat.

• 1:08:24

Yes. We're very, very happy. So that makes us really happy. Our combat team has been killing it. And I know that some of them are very nervous.

• 1:08:33

Well, it's always a nervous thing to share your passion and your, you know, the work that the team has been putting into this.

• 1:08:41

Right. We're doing this because we want to hit a bar that is acceptable and will make our community proud and make us proud.

• 1:08:50

Right. As developers, the reason we do this is because we want to make people happy in their choice of entertainment.

• 1:08:56

And we're all MMO gamers. But it's been very validating and positive to see you guys give us the response that, hey, you're going in the right direction.

• 1:09:06

Right. It may it may not be final. It may not be fully polished. There's still outstanding work to do, obviously.

• 1:09:13

Right. But like, hey, each showcase after each showcase is an improvement, is a positive direction that we get to yield from the the the feedback that you guys give us.

• 1:09:25

Because, you know, as this is playing, Margaret and I are like watching the chat.

• 1:09:30

We're we're collecting the questions where we're evaluating what the commentary is.

• 1:09:36

And a lot of the stuff you guys say, it's like, hey, this is already planned. That's great. That's perfect. We're validating our approach. It's a very it's a very positive interaction.

• 1:09:45

It's one that I'm glad to see has been adopted a bit more so over the recent years in the industry for game development as a whole, which is to engage with the community at an earlier phase.

• 1:09:56

And this is the produce of that interaction. Right. This is the this is what comes from that.

• 1:10:02

And so we're very happy to share it with you and we're glad to see you guys as a response to it.

• 1:10:06

We're also really thankful. There's been a lot of content creators who have been rating us today or watching simultaneously. So this is for you guys. Thank you all. We really appreciate it.

• 1:10:15

I know in the moment we don't always have time to like divert and say thank you there.

• 1:10:20

We are trying to power through to ensure that we don't take up people's time too much.

• 1:10:25

I was I was on on Aspen bulbs stream watch I mean as an as an gold stream watching the, their community over there, and their commentary and it seemed very positive as well I loved it.

• 1:10:38

It was, it was great to see a broader audience than just our golden cohort here on the stream with some positive reception.

• 1:10:46

That was, it was very very good to see. Yeah.

• 1:10:49

Of course, like Stephen said, Vackner and erosion have been collecting questions as well as we've been adding some.

• 1:10:57

So we're gonna try to get through some of that we won't get through a ton of questions because we will be here all day if we answer everything but we'll try to power through as many as we can.

• 1:11:06

I do want to reiterate at the beginning Stephen did mention that he didn't have the cooldowns active, so that he could show the abilities more frequently.

• 1:11:14

So just again reminder of that first question here is what kind of utility abilities will Rangers have because that's something that we didn't really showcase there for sure.

• 1:11:25

And before I get to the utility question I just want to say, as you guys watch these demonstrations, particularly prior to our alpha two, and even during alpha two, like balance is not something we really dive into at all during this phase, right, we obviously

• 1:11:42

do a finger in the wind pass on balance, but balance requires a lot of logging and data from play testing. That is the goal of alpha two.

• 1:11:54

But if you see things like cooldowns like damage numbers.

• 1:11:58

You know, those things are very subject to change they're very easy things like that. Absolutely.

• 1:12:05

And it's very easy to tune those things so just keep that in mind as we move into alpha two, the difference between data and, you know, creating a whole content or a whole, you know, the effects and stuff like that, they're just trying to get the look and feel down, and then the data side of it is something that they'll be seeing.

• 1:12:24

And you'll be seeing a lot of those changes in beta as we get into that phase where we're really polishing and really fixing bugs and making sure that we're in a state where we're like hey now we're balancing, and we'll make that clear to you all like hey we want balance feedback right now we're not asking for that.

• 1:12:38

Absolutely. Some of the some of the utility skills that we think about when we design the archetypes.

• 1:12:44

You know are how they counter and react to other archetypes. So for example, you know, a ranger is is we think about that class fantasy of perception, right, a ranger is kind of in the outskirts they're they're keeping their range they're watching what's happening.

• 1:13:00

They may have good perception so we think about utilities, some of the examples of those utilities might be a rogue has invincibility, or excuse me invisibility. How do you address invisibility, while a ranger might have utility ability that spawns a hound that trails

• 1:13:16

multiple targets within an AoE radius of the ranger, and you get that location whereas a mage might have an arcane eye that actually reveals them to the party or the raid, like those are the types of utility skills that we want to create, they offer counters

• 1:13:32

to the opponent's arcane eye, and they're able to counter that with the use of the arcane eye, and that's how you create that kind of like a funnel progression against the other archetype abilities that give them certain types of benefits, and that's how you create that rock paper

• 1:13:52

scissors, and that's how you create those chances to situational interactions. What about, I think in the past we had shown like where Rangers could track people. Yeah, this would be a form of that tracking, absolutely.

• 1:14:07

The next one was, can you stack your marks.

• 1:14:12

So, this is not intended to be stacked right now marks will over, I believe marks will, if this is still the case marks will override the previously applied mark. And the benefit of that is like, we're not outscaling the mark efficacy too much by allowing

• 1:14:27

them to stack it gives us more power to place on each individual mark.

• 1:14:31

And we know that they'll be replaced if you use them so they're very, they're very unique to kind of the situation that you need the mark for, but you can quickly kind of swap between them.

• 1:14:42

The next one is a tank has resolved cleric has divine power, what does Ranger have.

• 1:14:48

That's a very good question. It is the interaction between the hunts and the marks.

• 1:14:53

And we're going to be focusing in on a little bit more. Right now that is still something that the combat team is working on for the Ranger class.

• 1:15:02

And then we have good one of the skill tree selections allow for a targeting radical to be used.

• 1:15:10

Yes, as a matter of fact, there was a slight bug with the action camera mode for this particular display and we didn't have time to fix it in time.

• 1:15:23

I know, I know and I tried using action in the first attempt at this recording and it bugged out for us and and I, we didn't have time to fix it so we went ahead without that but to answer your question, will these abilities that the question

• 1:15:38

will these work with action cameras that the question. Yeah.

• 1:15:42

No, it's, well it's.

• 1:15:45

Would one of the skill tree selections allow for a targeting radical to be used.

• 1:15:51

So targeting radical is applied when you swap to the action camera mode.

• 1:15:56

That would be a part of the skill tree selection it would just be an option that you can switch to by pressing Z currently that that that uses a soft lock system for the targeting radical think the follow up here would be, especially for folks who really like ranged stuff is being able to customize your radical.

• 1:16:13

Oh sure yeah absolutely from a UI perspective just customizing the radical shape. Absolutely. There will be a number of different radical types that you can use get on it Colby and co.

• 1:16:22

I already have a few actually they have.

• 1:16:26

Next up we've got what's the counterplay that a melee archetype has against a ranger How can you avoid being controlled by the targeted shots. Yeah, it depends on the melee right if we're talking about fighter they're going to have a lot of heavy gap closers,

• 1:16:40

they can probably be a little bit more liberal in the use of their gap closers because they have so many of them, versus let's say a ranger that needs to choose when to use their escape abilities because they have fewer of them.

• 1:16:55

The same would be true for a melee character like a rogue their approach vector is going to be more stealth driven than it would be perhaps let's say from a gap closer perspective.

• 1:17:03

So they're going to stealth into position. And then that's where you're tracking your ability use for your getaway abilities.

• 1:17:12

And then, is there, and then the and then real quick the other thing is lockdowns as well, right, melee users are likely going to have a number of different CCS to choose from, whether that be slowing the target routing the target stunning the target, and then

• 1:17:25

allowing them to get off their combos. And yes Rangers can do it like once but what you saw from the reason why it looked like Stephen could do it unlimited was because he didn't have cooldowns but there is a cooldown on it so yeah you might be able to get away from one of them,

• 1:17:39

but let's say you put another one on them, then you know you're there kind of so.

• 1:17:46

The next straight out of luck. And then we've got, is there going to be spell push back when being hit. And if so, will the fast shooting short bow punish cast bar more.

• 1:18:01

So if you're shooting really fast will it push back casters. No, there is not just a native pushback that exists for ranged attacks some attacks do have pushback effects.

• 1:18:14

And also casters can experience a delay in their cast time due to concentration failures. So concentration is a stat that's associated with one of our primary attributes being

• 1:18:28

a derivative waterfall for concentration checks when concentration fails due to damage that's done.

• 1:18:35

So it is, it is going to increase that casting time slightly. I won't interrupt it completely but it will increase the casting time, but pushback is not a native effect that lives on any particular type of attack.

• 1:18:46

It is something that is accompanying a specific ability.

• 1:18:50

Right. And then, why did you move away from arrows being projectiles.

• 1:18:57

I'm not sure where they are. I think maybe what they're referring to is more on the action side.

• 1:19:05

So when we when we refer to projectiles we're talking about, you know, hits can verse projectiles, we are still using projectiles.

• 1:19:14

But we're using a locking mechanism in tab targeting for those projectiles to home to the target. Should you have a valid angle in that perspective, the action side of that is that you can blindfire projectiles and should a target move within the

• 1:19:31

range of attack that the projectiles moving in a great example of this is the orb ball that is lightning, which is kind of moving forward you don't necessarily have to have a target to aim that at you just move that slowly as it moves through the path,

• 1:19:44

if another target moves and you're leading that target.

• 1:19:47

It will strike the target so we have blindfire currently.

• 1:19:50

We're still going to be doing some, some touching up with the action combat side prior to alpha two.

• 1:19:57

Right now, when you have your reticle over a target, it has a soft lock on the target and you can, you know, rapidly move between that in action mode with the reticle.

• 1:20:07

If you wish.

• 1:20:08

And then I think kind of a follow up to this is, if I'm a tank and I get in the way of a shot of a ranger. Yes, I might Google. So you are able to like kind of, there are certain, and there are certain battlefield abilities that you can use.

• 1:20:22

You won't be able to just body block it right not all projectiles can be body blocks some, some potentially can.

• 1:20:29

But there will be certain abilities and effects like a shield wall that can that can be brought up, and that will obscure line of sight to the target as well and it will restrict some of those attacks from occurring.

• 1:20:41

Fabulous.

• 1:20:43

Our next one here is, if I use ones or swords as a ranger, am I locked out of half of my kit, because of the range abilities that are connected to a short bow or a long bow.

• 1:20:57

So right now we are still kind of approaching how we want the character paper doll between ranged weapons bows or otherwise to exist. Our thought processes is currently that one. Yes, absolutely.

• 1:21:13

A lot of new people who are with us. And so like Rangers can't use ones, the way that we have been building our product is that anybody can use any weapon, any armor. Yes, may not always be viable in every situation but that is the case, and then go ahead, Stephen I just wanted to correct and just

• 1:21:29

for those of you, those of you who are new last month we did do a little showcase on crafting which talks a little bit about itemization, and how you can through certain recipes and material uses augment the types of stats that live on certain itemizations

• 1:21:44

to be relevant across all the different archetypes right so there is a bit of choice when it comes to players that craft these items on whether or not they, they want to have physical damage values versus magical damage values, and that leads to a very competitive

• 1:21:59

game in the open market, which is something that is integral to Ashes of Creation, but as it relates to to Rangers being able to use certain abilities with bows equipped some abilities will require bows to be equipped, and those abilities can be used with a bow

• 1:22:17

and not without those.

• 1:22:19

And for those of you who are newer to how we have our classes set up is that you have a primary archetype and a secondary archetype, and that secondary archetype can really dive into other things like maybe you're a Ranger but you're a summoner secondary or you're a Ranger and you're a mage secondary and that might be more

• 1:22:37

important than just having a bow or carrying a wand versus having a bow. So I'm just trying to give perspective on that. Yeah, there's a lot of a lot of customization options right your primary archetype is the delivery vehicle for your active abilities, your secondary

• 1:22:51

archetype augments those active abilities into something else but doesn't give you new active abilities. Right. And so that's something to keep in mind.

• 1:22:58

Correct.

• 1:23:00

People did see this in there but I think reiterating to make it clear, they were wondering, can you move while casting all of the Ranger abilities.

• 1:23:09

Not all of them some of them route the target. For example snipe is one that does restrict your ability to move.

• 1:23:16

But the vast majority Yes, you can move. Now there is a slight movement penalty that's applied for a lot of those abilities, the ones that can move. But for the most part, yes, this is a very mobile archetype approach.

• 1:23:30

And of course, you know, the, the locking down of making you not be able to move while you're casting certain abilities is a balancing factor right so that's something that the development and design team can work on to be like, oh okay, this is very powerful so maybe

• 1:23:47

it isn't something you can do while you're moving so kind of keep that in mind, we'll balance it to make sure that it makes sense for the type of ability and kind of what type of damage or whatever its effects are.

• 1:23:58

Sure. So, just to just to dial in a little bit there. Abilities are vehicles for conferring effects onto a target, right. And as you were describing balance wise, there's a number of different interactions mechanically that you have within an ability that you can adjust

• 1:24:15

in order to balance its power. The most, most common ones are cool down mana consumption damage done effect status conferred promotion of that effect status range.

• 1:24:28

You know those are those are the kind of primary methods by which you adjust.

• 1:24:33

Correct. Yes, yes, that's a lot of.

• 1:24:37

There's a lot of different things that play into that but those are the primary mechanical constructs of a particular ability right. And so for example you were looking we were talking about airstrike how it confers, a lot of different effects onto a target,

• 1:24:50

being that it does damage being that it's used for mobility being that it also applies a CC effect. And so in order to balance that, you know, not talking about specific numbers that it does or the length of the CC effect or the, or the post that check

• 1:25:03

for that particular CC effect, and the mana consumption it's also the the cool down it's a very big ability with a large cool down effects you want to use it and manage your resources and those of you who are MMO players you know all this.

• 1:25:15

You want to manage your resources effectively.

• 1:25:19

And I think you're already talking about balancing and maybe more specifically towards Ranger, I think that generally the overwhelming everyone was really excited for the Ranger they were they were seeing they thought it was cool, but there was definitely a mix of what people

• 1:25:35

felt was not balanced. So, I don't know if you're, if you can go in, we already discussed that we're not in the balancing phase right now, but perhaps you can talk a little bit about what our balancing process is for archetypes as an overall.

• 1:25:51

Yeah, I mean, when we when we move into the balance phase, right I just talked about the primary components that we use in order to, to get that initial balance pass. But when we move into alpha two and we have a lot of data that's kind of supporting the use

• 1:26:08

of these particular abilities in combat settings, how often they're used how often they result in death what the average damage done by this archetype is comparatively to other damage done by different archetypes, all of that data gets logged right and all of that

• 1:26:22

data gets queried in order for us to refine the abilities, so that they live in the environment we want them to now, that's not to mean that we're going to have, you know, perfect balance across the board between the archetypes again we're taking a rock

• 1:26:40

paper scissor approach to balance which means that some archetypes will do better against other archetypes and vice versa. And we're also not creating a an environment where we want to have one v one balance we are focused around group balance group

• 1:26:54

composition group composition is important, right, we're not creating a highly competitive game that might be a valorant or League of Legends right this is an MMORPG, which means that there are going to be certain classes that perform better than other

• 1:27:07

classes in certain situations, and that's part of the grand strategy right that is, that is something we want people to think about compositionally when they arrange their groups and their raids for the particular content that they're facing.

• 1:27:20

Now, we have not done a balance pass yet. Right, and we haven't used the metrics we need in order to create that that more acceptable balance for hitting the target we want to hit for these particular archetypes.

• 1:27:32

So when you're looking at this, you should be looking at it with the lens of does this look fun. Does this look like something I want to play, not. Is that damage number too high, is that attack speed too high is that cool down too low, you know, that is something

• 1:27:49

that we will address but not now. And when we do address it we will get that feedback. Correct. Exactly. Yes, when we do have people play testing and involved in the alpha two and beta does.

• 1:28:02

That is when we will ask those questions and accompany it with data.

• 1:28:08

Exactly.

• 1:28:09

All right, now that we got that out of the way, reminder that, like Stephen said as you're watching this as you're as you're looking at it really think about the look and feel.

• 1:28:19

Think about the things that you liked the things that you don't like things that you'd like to see that the Ranger might have in the future and head on over to our forums and give us some feedback over there.

• 1:28:29

I believe that already has the forum thread up so please please please implore you if you have thoughts if you're a range lover, or if you fight Rangers often in PVP and you have thoughts in regards to that go over there and tosses your feedback will be compiling

• 1:28:44

that and head and handing that over to the devs in the new year so please please please head on over there we would love for your feedback our team is very adamant about reviewing feedback and looking over it and making sure that we're all headed in the

• 1:28:56

right direction, but definitely from looking at the chat I think everybody is really enjoying it so that's a good feeling. There's going on in chat in our in our internal slack right now.

• 1:29:07

Yeah, one thing one thing I want to say is that, look, we have this isn't the.

• 1:29:13

Let me say like this from a while ago, we have known that we needed to improve our approach on combat, and if you think about what we just talked about about those testing scenarios and the information we need to improve combat and balance.

• 1:29:29

That's true in alpha one, and we got a lot of great feedback from alpha one, and it was that feedback that has led us to this approach you see now as the result of that feedback and our hard work, particularly on the combat team iterating over time to improve

• 1:29:47

combat loop. Now when we see the response from the community. Initially to this combat, we are seeing hey, this looks good. Right. And so that that helps us validate. Okay, we took the feedback from the testing.

• 1:30:03

We changed our approach we iterated upon it, and now we're delivering something that visually looks compelling to our audience, right, that is a perfect loop of iteration, incorporating the, the community as part of their responsibility to provide us feedback,

• 1:30:20

right, and nobody wants to see a game get launched. That hasn't had the opportunity to collect feedback from the players we've seen those games before. Right, and that's what this interaction right now our monthly development update is intended to safeguard

• 1:30:34

and so I just want to give kudos to the combat team because, in my opinion, having played this and watch this and seeing the community's response to it. They've done a great job, they have done a great job in in moving away from what was our direction prior to alpha one to now

• 1:30:50

we've developed for alpha two, a significantly revamped combat experience and I think it feels good and it plays well and it's fun. Even just internally. I mean we don't talk about this all the time but it kind of goes right into moving into our studio update which is what we're going to talk about next.

Studio Update

• 1:31:06

And so, you know, we are continually iterating our internal processes and they've been really finding a good, like you said, rotation in regards to the process internally of how they create abilities and how they create archetypes and weapons and things of that sort.

• 1:31:22

And like Brian said in the stream, it is a team effort, you know, there may be one person whose head is on the line for one thing or the other, but the single wrinkled neck. But in the end, everyone has it's a collaborative effort to make these things come to bed to come together and our development

• 1:31:40

team is, oh my gosh, wonderful passionate people, and that goes to show in our, when we're looking at attrition rate over the years, you know, industry standard is like over 20 30% right and we're at 2.3 point three, three percent or something like that.

• 1:31:59

So people who come here really enjoy working here. And you know sometimes things change in people's lives and they come and go and that is pretty normal. Yes, we're under the. Just to just to comment a little bit about that as we go into the studio update.

• 1:32:12

For those of you who are watching, who may not be as actively engaged in development process of ashes.

• 1:32:19

What I will say is that where we were prior to alpha one and where we are today are two very different positions right.

• 1:32:29

We are now at over 170 people full time on the team developers who are creating ashes of creation.

• 1:32:36

And we have seen over the course of this last year significant progress from a development perspective for ashes of creation and it's, it's, I mean, as you guys can see through these updates.

• 1:32:49

It is starting to, to look and feel pretty good and there is still a long road to go.

• 1:32:54

And what I will say is that those of you who are finding it hard to be patient for the, for the games release. That's understandable 100%, but we have a very clear objective, we have a very clear goal, and that is to create something special.

• 1:33:09

And, you know, the timeline for something special is is hard to define. You can't put a time box around finding fun. Right. And sometimes when games or publishers try to do that.

• 1:33:22

It doesn't end well. And so we want to make sure because we have spent the better part of the last seven years, developing ashes of creation that we execute on it well and that takes some time and it takes some passion to I think people think like oh you've been in development for seven years but keep in mind the team was very small those first few years.

• 1:33:43

You have five or 10 people working on your staff, you're not going to be able to accomplish as much as you are with 170. So I just want to make that clear that only within the last couple years have we really grown our team.

• 1:33:54

A lot of the previous was getting the foundation to design making sure we're in to be fair that wasn't that's intentional right like when john and I started this studio, having not had a background in gaming and and something's happening.

• 1:34:09

My friends die. Can you hear me okay no you're good. I think it's okay to do with Twitch Twitch. All right. How about how about now, it's clearing up.

• 1:34:19

Now we're okay. Now. So, what we're talking about. What I was gonna say is that having a struggle.

• 1:34:25

When john and I started this company back in, you know, 2016, we had just a couple of people on the team. I think Keith was our was one of our senior character artists was the first was the first hired and.

• 1:34:39

By 2017 you know we got up to maybe 20 people we aren't a blizzard or Microsoft or, you know, a riot that has hundreds of people and, you know, billions of dollars to spend on development right this is, this is out of our pockets and out of the, the,

• 1:34:59

the pre order packs that we've done combined are creating this game and so we built the studio in a very sustainable fashion. Right and exactly yes and Kickstarter, we've been.

• 1:35:09

Yes, we built the, this, the studio in a very sustainable fashion, with a very clear goal and vision that we have stuck to over the years. And, you know, as we're wrapping up 2023 and in December and we look back on those things and obviously, you know,

• 1:35:24

wrapping up is always a very introspective time.

• 1:35:29

I'm very proud of what this team has accomplished and what the company has grown to become because we've kept our identity in that time being very passionate MMORPG gamers, creating something that we've always wanted to see in a game and one that upholds

• 1:35:42

the philosophy, who believes in the integrity of the player in the community that's participating in Ashes of Creation. So, you know, there is something special there I think that is unique about Intrepid, and you guys are seeing that shine through as we give you

• 1:35:56

these development updates.

• 1:35:58

I understand that everything is going to move super quickly but we will, we will make good on everything that we're doing so just making sure that you have patience with us. I think we've all seen games that have been pushed out quickly and we're like wow they really should have taken more time, but a lot of companies have a lot of pressure to push things.

• 1:36:16

Yes, we are fortunate, Stephen. Stephen is the only one who can pressure us so if he's like, get it done we're like all right man, I get pressure. I get pressure, but just just to comment on that what I would say is that, you know, shit, I lost my thought there.

• 1:36:35

I'm sorry I lost my thought. Yeah, so you distracted me on the pressure. Sorry, sorry in regards to taking our time and making sure that we have quality products.

• 1:36:43

Yeah, no, absolutely. I mean, that is very true. I know here's what I'm here's what I was gonna say is that, look, what we are trying to do, which is to create a community focused feedback loop for our development process in creating a non pay to win game that that

• 1:37:01

that represents the integrity of the player, and with the intricate detailed systems and interconnectivity that ashes provides in a very sandbox environment where you can actually see not just hear buzzwords of the environment reacting to the actions of the players.

• 1:37:16

That should be something that everyone roots for everyone in this industry and in this in the community of MMORPG gamers should be rooting for the success of projects like ours, because innovation only occurs when risk

• 1:37:30

takers move forward to achieve something that is important. And and whenever you see a community that comes back and is negative about the outlook or the or the prospects of a particular project, it's fair to give criticism.

• 1:37:46

It's fair to talk about things that should change. We want that. That's why we engage with the community.

• 1:37:52

But at the end of the day, we should be rooting for the success of people who dare to take risks, because risks are how things change, and how we get a better environment for the MMORPGs that we love.

• 1:38:06

And, you know, I get a lot of messages like, Are you worried about this or that product and it's like, No, there's room for everybody. There's room for life. There's lots of people. There's lots of games.

• 1:38:15

So we are friends with a lot of the people who make other games. So I think that from our perspective, it's a it's a community. We are all a community creating games and creating wonderful memories for people and places for people to grow and have have their own sub communities.

• 1:38:33

So 100 percent we are here for that. And there's no hard feelings in regards to that.

• 1:38:40

No, no, no, no. Anything else you want to talk about in the studio side? I know there's been a lot going on. And obviously this is the end of the year to recap the year.

• 1:38:49

You know, obviously, you know, we just Yeah, you know, we've been we've been having some great luck on the hiring front.

• 1:38:56

Obviously, you know, my heart goes out to the industry right now. It's difficult time within within the gaming industry.

• 1:39:02

And it's kind of like right before Christmas, too. It's terrible to see. And and it and it literally tears apart my heart to watch some of these very talented developers through no fault of their own have to suffer a layoff, particularly at this time of year.

• 1:39:16

And and I know that the industry will bounce back. But we have had some we've had some great success in bringing on some amazing talent to the team over the course of these last few months.

• 1:39:26

We just celebrated the end of this milestone. We're going on break starting on Friday and we'll be returning on January 2nd. We watched we got together and rented out the theater here and watched Willy Wonka with our families and the and the developers.

• 1:39:42

That was a lot of fun. I did not. I did not know it was a musical. I'm not necessarily a fan of musicals, but I thought it was great.

• 1:39:49

You know, I enjoyed it. It was fun. I looked across the room when the first song started and I said, oh, I didn't know that. But regardless, we had a lot of fun.

• 1:39:58

And, you know, we're just kind of winding down the year. It's a lot of a lot of head fires right now with getting some of our playable builds over the over the week that we want to have available.

• 1:40:08

But the team has been has been just killing it. So kudos to the team. Everyone at Intrepid that's watching. Great job this year. I mean, if we could get some if you're watching us live here in Twitch, giving us some hearts and chat for our wonderful development team.

• 1:40:22

I'm sure absolutely appreciate that. And then, of course, if you're watching us over on YouTube, you can toss some hearts in there as well in the comments. We would love that.

• 1:40:29

And, you know, we just appreciate you guys. We hope that you appreciate us. We try to give as much love and and knowledge to you also, you know, the community team's going to kill me because I just made you guys spam.

• 1:40:40

So in advance, but whilst we're getting all those hearts and chat, we can continue them for the love of the art. If you don't mind us moving on to that. Yeah, absolutely.

Art Update

• 1:40:52

So first and foremost, we have a whole slew of weapons that we're going to be showing off for you guys, including books, wands, focuses, scepters, daggers, spears, bows, shields, swords.

• 1:41:07

So I'll kind of let this loop through so you can see all of the cool things. There's a whole set of novice items that they've been working towards, as well as I believe the Sons of Fortune set and a few other little bits and pieces here.

• 1:41:21

But really, we're working on making sure that when you're leveling up from level one through fifteen that you have a lot of cool things that you can craft as well as things that you can attain through, you know, defeating creatures and stuff like that.

• 1:41:33

So they're really honing in on that level one through fifteen experience when it comes to loot drops and crafting items. I don't know if you have anything else to add on that front, Steven.

• 1:41:43

No, it's just, you know, we've been very heads down for the better part of this year focusing on the feature development of a lot of the gameplay systems and over the course of the last few months we've been gearing up obviously towards Alpha 2, which you'll be getting a little bit of an announcement here in a second.

• 1:42:00

And focusing on the progression path, you know, from level one all the way up to level thirty, I believe we're targeting for Alpha 2. So it's been nice to kind of see some of the lower level stuff, getting some TLC, but also the character progression as well.

• 1:42:18

And I think the artists have done a great job with a lot of these weapons.

• 1:42:22

Yeah, and obviously as you level up further there will be more crazy cool looking stuff. So, just kind of, you know, showing you little tidbits we don't like to we don't want to show you everything but give you a little bit.

• 1:42:35

And I also have that mace in a little turntable as well.

• 1:42:39

For those of you mace lovers out there, I'm a big mace fan. That's like a cleric slash paladin so it's pretty cool.

• 1:42:52

Yeah, I love that mace, looks great. The next one we have is the, this is a work in progress but you know we like to share some work in progress stuff.

• 1:42:59

And then the next one is the remnant sympathizer outfit. This is the part of the last pack. Like I said it's work in progress there will be particle effects and things of that sort they're still finalizing things but you can kind of see where it's headed.

• 1:43:14

It's cool for me because I designed this set so seeing it in a 3D space always gets me excited.

• 1:43:21

Yeah, looks great. Danny, Danny's been doing a good job, making it come to 3D life and then I think we have a turntable of this as well. So you can see that.

• 1:43:34

Looks very good. Looking cool.

• 1:43:38

I love the little head in me. That's where this came from. Very dark. I know a lot of people are like how did this come out of her? It's the same place that the snores came out of, the wisp was out of this weird mind of mine.

• 1:43:52

Next we have the goblin shaman that Jinsey's been working on, which is very very cool.

• 1:44:00

I've only seen this bad boy in Alpha 2, 3D model. Oh, look at him. He's just ready to flay some humans.

• 1:44:11

It's fine. But I love the mask. I really hope that the mask and the staff are droppable items because I think people would love Rock. Let me know in chat if you would rock that mask.

• 1:44:24

Yes, I would rock it. I would rock the mask. In real life too, if we can get some cosplay. We need that as a mask item. And that staff too, it's so cool.

• 1:44:35

I'd like to walk into a conference room with that mask on.

• 1:44:39

I'm here for it.

• 1:44:41

Oh, you know how like they have the speaking sticks or something like that? You just have a speaking mask everywhere.

• 1:44:46

Yes.

• 1:44:48

We used to do that at my Pathfinder table when we were younger in high school because otherwise everyone would talk over each other.

• 1:44:54

So we had funny hats. So if you're wearing funny hat, that meant you were in character.

• 1:44:59

So you knew who was trying to get stuff happening versus not. Because we had 13 people. So it was a lot.

• 1:45:06

You had 13 people in your high school?

• 1:45:08

Yeah. Well, 13 people in our high school D&D game.

• 1:45:12

Oh, in D&D game. Okay. I was like, wait a minute.

• 1:45:15

Because we played on Sundays after church. It was fun.

• 1:45:18

As you do after church. Very nice.

• 1:45:23

The devil's work. I know. That's what they said to us. We're doing that.

• 1:45:27

Oh, no.

• 1:45:28

Back in the 90s when people thought we were doing bad things.

• 1:45:32

But yeah. Great job, Chris, Danny, Gincy, Manny and Priscilla. Killing it.

• 1:45:37

We always love seeing yourself. So thank you for sharing it.

• 1:45:39

I know sometimes they're working on stuff and they're like, I don't want to share it yet.

• 1:45:43

But we get to see a lot of amazing artwork from these guys and gals.

• 1:45:47

So I'm glad we get to share a little bit of it. You'll see tons more in Alpha.

• 1:45:52

So moving on to Q&A.

Outro, Q&A, and Special Announcement

• 1:45:56

All right.

• 1:45:57

We'll play some more videos. We'll play the ranger stuff while we're doing Q&A.

• 1:46:01

And maybe we just do Q&A for the next 10 minutes.

• 1:46:04

All right.

• 1:46:05

Does that sound good?

• 1:46:06

Yep.

• 1:46:07

And then we can do the announce?

• 1:46:08

Yep. We'll do the announce.

• 1:46:09

All right. Let's do it.

• 1:46:10

The thing that everyone's been waiting for.

• 1:46:11

Oh, my goodness.

• 1:46:12

Chrono Stormwater wants to know about general respecking.

• 1:46:15

I know we've talked about this topic before, but they're being very particular.

• 1:46:18

We've talked about when it comes to artisanship, but now they're asking,

• 1:46:21

what are your plans for the wider respecking landscape of Ashes of Creation?

• 1:46:24

Will it be easy or difficult?

• 1:46:26

And will there be a cost involved with general respecking?

• 1:46:30

So I think this is more in archetype specific.

• 1:46:32

I know we've talked about it in other aspects before.

• 1:46:35

Yeah, it's going to be more difficult in artisanship.

• 1:46:39

From an archetype perspective as it relates to skills, it will be a bit easier.

• 1:46:43

I am still conflicted on whether or not I want to allow respecks on the fly.

• 1:46:48

I don't believe we should.

• 1:46:49

I believe that respecking should be done at a particular location.

• 1:46:52

That requires a bit of transit and some strategy,

• 1:46:56

strategic thinking ahead of time about the encounters that you're expecting.

• 1:46:59

But respecking your class should be relatively easier,

• 1:47:04

obviously with that constraint of being at a particular location.

• 1:47:08

All right.

• 1:47:10

And then we've got Sweaty Cup, that's his name, wants to know about artifacts.

• 1:47:15

If a player collects a one per server item, but stops paying their subscription

• 1:47:22

or quits playing the game, will they get to keep the item until they return?

• 1:47:27

It depends.

• 1:47:30

It depends on the item.

• 1:47:31

If we're talking about artifacts, those will likely be timed.

• 1:47:37

There are some ideas that we have around whether or not artifacts get to stay

• 1:47:44

with the character, get downgraded from an artifact status if they were to,

• 1:47:51

let's say, not log in after a period of time or if that time period goes away.

• 1:47:54

But it's something we're going to be testing as part of the end of Alpha 2,

• 1:47:59

excuse me, near the later stages of Alpha 2.

• 1:48:01

But right now, artifacts are timed.

• 1:48:04

Yeah, and for those of you who are new, artifacts are really,

• 1:48:08

really rare items that you can obtain.

• 1:48:10

Single items, yes.

• 1:48:11

Yeah, and there's only one of them on the server.

• 1:48:15

At a time, correct, yeah.

• 1:48:17

Yeah, very, very, very cool.

• 1:48:18

The next one is VR Dynasty, I believe, or VR Dynasty.

• 1:48:23

They want to know about crafting recipes.

• 1:48:25

With the map being as large as it is and recipes being potentially earned anywhere,

• 1:48:30

are there region-specific recipes that would be very hard to find,

• 1:48:34

if not impossible to earn on the other side of Vera?

• 1:48:37

So will there be rare recipes?

• 1:48:39

Yes, absolutely.

• 1:48:40

There are absolutely extremely rare recipes.

• 1:48:42

And not just having rare recipes, but also there are rare unlocks that exist

• 1:48:46

within the recipe as well, as we talked about last month, that you can discover.

• 1:48:51

Recipes get delivered in a number of different ways, through vendors,

• 1:48:56

through social organizations, through religions, through drops, through bosses,

• 1:49:01

and it kind of, through treasures as well, and a lot of those can be

• 1:49:07

locationally dependent.

• 1:49:09

So yes, there are recipes in certain areas that you can find that you will not

• 1:49:13

find in other areas as well.

• 1:49:15

Look, I tried to get a wolf mount the other day, and that thing is complicated too.

• 1:49:19

So whatever, there's many things that will be, at the end of it,

• 1:49:23

you will feel very satisfied that you did put the effort in to get it.

• 1:49:27

The next one is Raven016, who wants to know about crafting.

• 1:49:31

How many Grandmaster level crafting stations can a node stage 5,

• 1:49:36

aka city node, have?

• 1:49:38

Right now, I believe, so Grandmaster station at stage 5.

• 1:49:44

I believe that there can be one Grandmaster station at stage 5,

• 1:49:49

and that there can be two at stage 6.

• 1:49:51

Okay, yeah, I thought it was two at the Metropolis, but I'm not sure.

• 1:49:55

Yeah.

• 1:49:56

Tyrol wants to know about universal skills.

• 1:49:59

Will each archetype be equally efficient with universal skills,

• 1:50:04

like dodging and active blocking, or will each of them kind of have their own

• 1:50:08

versions and flavors, or will some people be more powerful than others?

• 1:50:12

Yeah, right now we have a host of different universal skills.

• 1:50:15

That is rolling, active block, and what we want to do is we want to provide

• 1:50:25

a progression path that's shared for those universal skills across all the

• 1:50:29

archetypes.

• 1:50:30

So when you spend skill points, you can choose to spend them within the

• 1:50:34

universal skill set and unlock particular ability types for the universal

• 1:50:39

skills as well, but you will be spending them from the skill points that you

• 1:50:43

would normally spend within your class-specific skill tree.

• 1:50:46

And this offers, again, a different wheel of customization that I think is

• 1:50:50

interesting.

• 1:50:51

Then Liniker wants to know about node artisanship benefits.

• 1:50:55

We know that the best processing is done in freeholds and the best crafting is

• 1:50:59

done in nodes, but is that restricted to academic nodes only?

• 1:51:03

What benefits or restrictions do node types have in regards to crafting?

• 1:51:07

There are no restrictions as it relates to the best crafting, meaning access to

• 1:51:12

those crafting stations.

• 1:51:13

However, the academic or scientific nodes, those provide bonuses and

• 1:51:20

strengths towards crafting within the node.

• 1:51:23

So it's not a hard lockout.

• 1:51:25

It's a soft bonus system.

• 1:51:27

Okay.

• 1:51:28

And then Gaal wants to know about world building.

• 1:51:31

Is it correct that Intrepid Studios is building the western continent first

• 1:51:34

and then the eastern continent is coming afterwards, or is that not the right

• 1:51:38

way to think about the game's direction of development?

• 1:51:41

No, that is accurate.

• 1:51:43

We are focused on the western continent first.

• 1:51:45

And I don't know how you got that information.

• 1:51:49

I'm just kidding.

• 1:51:50

I mean, they've seen the map.

• 1:51:51

Yes, we're focused.

• 1:51:52

And then we're talking about the areas.

• 1:51:54

I think they can...

• 1:51:55

I know.

• 1:51:56

Anybody can remap.

• 1:51:57

Yes, we are focused on the western continent right now.

• 1:51:59

That is accurate.

• 1:52:00

Yes.

• 1:52:01

Top wants to know about AOE abilities.

• 1:52:03

Is the impact of an area effect, offensive or defensive, limited to a

• 1:52:09

number of targets or by an area?

• 1:52:13

Currently, our diminishing return approach is not to restrict the number

• 1:52:20

of targets that can be affected by a particular thing.

• 1:52:25

We do have player collision.

• 1:52:27

So in and of itself, that provides a limited quantity of individuals who can

• 1:52:31

be affected by area of effect spells.

• 1:52:34

We're going to be play testing and experimenting with a few different

• 1:52:39

diminishing return approaches as it relates to AOE abilities as well as

• 1:52:43

status conditions.

• 1:52:44

All right.

• 1:52:45

And as I wrap up these last two questions, I think we're going to be able to

• 1:52:48

answer them in time.

• 1:52:49

I don't know if Vagner or Roshan want to get a poll in chat.

• 1:52:53

I'm just curious what quarter everyone thinks next year we'll go into Alpha

• 1:52:57

2 and we'll see if it matches up against what the announce is.

• 1:53:01

So the next question here is from Kadek and they want to know about gathering.

• 1:53:05

If another player is gathering a tree and I come in for the final trap, do I

• 1:53:10

get the tree?

• 1:53:11

Yes.

• 1:53:12

If you come in and so it depends on who completes the gathering interaction

• 1:53:17

first.

• 1:53:18

So if they've begun and you come in and you have a faster gathering time

• 1:53:27

because of either your profession, experience, the tool you're using, the

• 1:53:31

upgrades you've chosen or the outfit you're wearing, you could conceivably

• 1:53:35

complete it before then.

• 1:53:37

But again, it is awarded to the first player to complete.

• 1:53:41

All right.

• 1:53:42

And then our last question here is from Cash Quest and they want to know

• 1:53:45

about range attacks.

• 1:53:46

Can Steven elaborate further on why the minimum distance required was removed

• 1:53:50

for the ranger's range attacks?

• 1:53:53

This came from a conversation I had with you on Discord.

• 1:53:56

Sure.

• 1:53:57

So to give greater context there, originally when I was thinking about the

• 1:54:02

ranger, I had thought about introducing a minimum range requirement in order to

• 1:54:09

offset its flexibility in combat and having them think a little bit more

• 1:54:15

strategically about positioning on the battlefield.

• 1:54:17

That became an unfun experience when we play tested it.

• 1:54:21

And so we decided to remove it.

• 1:54:23

Instead, we may choose to play around with things like range, too close of

• 1:54:29

range affecting something maybe like accuracy.

• 1:54:32

We haven't play tested with that.

• 1:54:34

Or we just might not incorporate it and instead let it live within the

• 1:54:37

abilities.

• 1:54:38

You saw an example of that with regards to the lightning ability having

• 1:54:43

variable effects conferred at different ranges.

• 1:54:47

That right now is the approach that we're taking.

• 1:54:51

And with that, are we ready for our little announce?

• 1:54:55

Should I just play it?

• 1:54:56

I think, well, before we play it, let me, I mean, maybe we, yeah, maybe we

• 1:55:01

can play it.

• 1:55:02

No, let me talk about this for a second.

• 1:55:04

I know we're going to have some thoughts afterwards that we need to.

• 1:55:07

Okay.

• 1:55:08

I want everyone in the audience to breathe with me.

• 1:55:11

We're just going to breathe in.

• 1:55:13

Wait.

• 1:55:14

Hold on.

• 1:55:15

That was out.

• 1:55:16

Okay.

• 1:55:17

Breathe out.

• 1:55:18

And then breathe out.

• 1:55:19

And then breathe in.

• 1:55:21

I want you to understand.

• 1:55:23

Those of you who are watching those of you who might not be watching and

• 1:55:26

following the project as much as, as, as others in our community.

• 1:55:31

This is a long time coming.

• 1:55:33

Alpha two is a major testing period for the product for the game.

• 1:55:38

And it is intended to be.

• 1:55:42

It is something that provides us with a great amount of wealth of information

• 1:55:49

and iterative processing that we can then go back and touch on certain

• 1:55:53

systems, combat, everything.

• 1:55:55

Right.

• 1:55:56

Now.

• 1:55:58

There we are going to give you our projection according to our schedule

• 1:56:02

that we believe that we are going to hit alpha two.

• 1:56:05

But we are going to be, we have already begun testing.

• 1:56:08

The remainder of December, January, February, March, we are going to be

• 1:56:12

testing a lot over the course of the next several months.

• 1:56:16

Sometimes that testing can prove to set us back a little bit.

• 1:56:20

Hopefully that is not the case.

• 1:56:22

We are still, we are very far ahead of a lot of the more nebulous questions

• 1:56:26

from a development perspective.

• 1:56:28

So we feel really good about it.

• 1:56:31

But I want you to take.

• 1:56:33

Obviously what we're announced with alpha two with a grain of salt, right?

• 1:56:37

This is not a game that we are launching in alpha two.

• 1:56:40

This is truly a testing environment.

• 1:56:43

This is something that if you are considering purchasing alpha two, that

• 1:56:48

you should make sure you understand this is not a game experience.

• 1:56:52

This is a testing platform.

• 1:56:55

Those of you who are in PI and who were previous alpha one testers, it is

• 1:57:01

going to be a lot of spot testing.

• 1:57:03

It is going to be a lot of preparation for alpha two.

• 1:57:06

And it is going to be a lot of work essentially, right?

• 1:57:09

To want to log in and play through wipes multiple times potentially before

• 1:57:13

we get to alpha two.

• 1:57:15

There may be wipes in alpha two.

• 1:57:17

We can't accurately predict that.

• 1:57:19

So we are very excited about alpha two at the studio.

• 1:57:22

Very excited about alpha two because it is a large segment of the game and

• 1:57:27

in a pretty sizable portion of the world.

• 1:57:30

And it is going to be a major test bed for us to validate the interactions of

• 1:57:35

all of these systems that we have built.

• 1:57:37

And it is going to be an exciting time and we are going to have a lot of fun

• 1:57:41

doing it.

• 1:57:43

And so with that, I think that we can show when we expect alpha two to land

• 1:57:48

which quarter in 2024.

• 1:57:51

We will see you all in the next quarter.

• 1:58:09

All right.

• 1:58:11

There you have it.

• 1:58:13

Quarter three.

• 1:58:15

We are going to see you all on Vera.

• 1:58:17

We are very excited.

• 1:58:19

We are going to be doing a lot of testing.

• 1:58:21

We are already spot testing.

• 1:58:23

I got some people riled up because they are like, I'm not there.

• 1:58:27

To reiterate, right now we are doing internal testing.

• 1:58:30

We are going to be expanding that to PI.

• 1:58:32

They are the first people who get in.

• 1:58:34

And then we will be expanding that further and further as we get further

• 1:58:37

along.

• 1:58:39

As we get closer to that quarter three mark.

• 1:58:41

All of the testing prior to that quarter three mark will be under NDA

• 1:58:44

unless we say otherwise.

• 1:58:46

We will be doing that.

• 1:58:49

We will be doing that.

• 1:58:51

People who are testing should not be talking about it.

• 1:58:54

It is not in a state we are ready to share.

• 1:58:56

Once we are in quarter three.

• 1:58:58

Once we are ready to announce the date.

• 1:59:00

We will probably announce it before.

• 1:59:02

You will know the date so you can plan.

• 1:59:04

Of course we will be reaching out to those of you who have alpha two

• 1:59:07

access in advance as well.

• 1:59:09

You will get messaging.

• 1:59:11

You will be notified.

• 1:59:13

You will get a notification.

• 1:59:16

If you are an alpha two access person.

• 1:59:18

Stay tuned.

• 1:59:20

We will be reaching out to you later as we get closer to quarter three.

• 1:59:23

Just want to make sure that is clear.

• 1:59:25

We got a lot of CS tickets.

• 1:59:27

I don't have access yet.

• 1:59:29

I was like, not yet.

• 1:59:31

It confused people a little bit.

• 1:59:33

We will be very proactive.

• 1:59:35

Exactly.

• 1:59:37

Proactive with the messaging.

• 1:59:39

As Margaret said.

• 1:59:41

Keep an eye out on emails.

• 1:59:43

We will be sending out information as those testing dates are drawn here.

• 1:59:46

Yeah.

• 1:59:48

I think there were some questions that people had.

• 1:59:50

I think we clarified the first bit of it.

• 1:59:52

The second bit of it was the persistency of alpha two and what that looks like.

• 1:59:57

I think some people think persistence means 24 seven up forever.

• 2:00:01

There will absolutely be down times.

• 2:00:04

100%.

• 2:00:06

Again, this is a testing bed.

• 2:00:08

When those down times need to happen or those wipes need to occur, we are going to do what is best for the product, not for the experience in alpha two.

• 2:00:16

That is a very clear distinguish between what to expect when we launch the game, which is all about the player experience, versus the development process that is alpha two.

• 2:00:25

It is very important to understand that dichotomy.

• 2:00:29

The goal is to eventually have our alpha two, that stream to end up being our test down the line.

• 2:00:41

It will run simultaneously through the other ones.

• 2:00:44

Of course, still down time.

• 2:00:46

There will be down time.

• 2:00:48

It is not going to be 24 seven always.

• 2:00:50

I wanted to make sure that was clear to folks.

• 2:00:52

I have been seeing a lot of discussion going around about that.

• 2:00:55

Once we are in alpha two, that will no longer have an NDA.

• 2:00:59

Then you will be able to stream and share and screenshot and talk about it.

• 2:01:03

Prior to that, remember, keep it safe.

• 2:01:07

Keep it safe.

• 2:01:08

I like that.

• 2:01:11

Anything else you want to add on that, friends?

• 2:01:14

No.

• 2:01:15

Just excited and happy to be here with you guys.

• 2:01:17

Excited for the end of the year.

• 2:01:18

Excited for next year.

• 2:01:19

It is going to be a fun time.

• 2:01:21

Things are moving fast.

• 2:01:23

We hope that you all are able to stay safe and you can spend time with those you love during this holiday season.

• 2:01:31

I know not everybody has that opportunity.

• 2:01:33

We do have community space over here.

• 2:01:35

You can come hang out with us for the holidays.

• 2:01:37

We are ashes of creation all the places.

• 2:01:39

The YouTube video for the 4K version is up.

• 2:01:41

The full development update video will go up tomorrow pending YouTube wants to cooperate and Twitch wants to cooperate.

• 2:01:47

Please head on over to our forums.

• 2:01:50

We are always engaging you with feedback or asking you for feedback.

• 2:01:54

You can head on to forums.ashesofcreation.com.

• 2:01:57

We have several things.

• 2:01:58

Drop rarities up right now.

• 2:02:00

Give us your feedback on that.

• 2:02:01

Of course, the ranger archetype.

• 2:02:03

We would love to hear your thoughts on that.

• 2:02:05

Reminder that the unseen order cosmetics are going to be ending January 17th.

• 2:02:10

That is your last chance to get a preorder pack or your friends do.

• 2:02:13

We may extend other opportunities to purchase into Alpha 2 access but there will no longer be preorder packs available.

• 2:02:21

So just keeping that in mind.

• 2:02:23

That is a big point.

• 2:02:25

I want to make sure.

• 2:02:26

And we'll send messaging out as well.

• 2:02:28

But we have given multiple months now of notice that we'll be ending the preorder packages come January 17th.

• 2:02:35

This is not intended to be a FOMO.

• 2:02:37

Like I said, we get multiple months of notice.

• 2:02:39

We may be opening up Alpha 2 access in a different form at some point in the future closer to Alpha 2.

• 2:02:45

If we can service those users.

• 2:02:47

Correct.

• 2:02:48

That's dependent on internal testing.

• 2:02:50

It's dependent on the external testing that we're doing as well.

• 2:02:53

That is going to help inform that decision.

• 2:02:55

But as it stands now, we will be ending preorder packages January 17th across everything whether it be Beta or Alpha.

• 2:03:04

And then of course we would love to thank you all for tuning in.

• 2:03:07

Thank you so much for all the raids and people who are watching from their other channels.

• 2:03:11

We really appreciate that you're sharing the world of Vera with other people and sharing the love for Ashes of Creation.

• 2:03:17

We really, really appreciate that.

• 2:03:19

And of course thank you to all of you who are watching and joining us and sticking with us throughout this entire very long live stream.

• 2:03:27

And of course.

• 2:03:28

Is this another two hour live stream?

• 2:03:30

Yeah.

• 2:03:31

Oh no.

• 2:03:32

Me and you also had a lot of side conversations.

• 2:03:34

That's true.

• 2:03:35

But the beginning of the year, we don't want to rush it.

• 2:03:38

Right?

• 2:03:39

Absolutely.

• 2:03:40

Thank you to Trad and Brian and Keenan for your work and joining us for a showcase and showcasing the Ranger in a great way.

• 2:03:46

And of course Steven for your time.

• 2:03:48

And we hope that you all are going to be just as excited as us in the new year because we'll see you then.

• 2:03:54

I'm going to be married next time.

• 2:03:56

Oh my goodness.

• 2:03:57

I am so excited.

• 2:03:58

I cannot wait.

• 2:04:00

John and I are ready to go.

• 2:04:02

We've got our flight ready and everything.

• 2:04:04

I'm so excited.

• 2:04:05

So yeah, not only have we been wrapping up the year, I've also been planning a wedding.

• 2:04:09

So it's been crazy time for me.

• 2:04:11

But we'll see you all next month for another development update.

• 2:04:15

Merry Christmas.

• 2:04:16

Happy New Year.

• 2:04:17

Bye guys.

• 00:00

Welcome to the Ash's of Creation December development update.

• 00:24

We hope that you've been having...

• 00:25

Oh my god.

• 00:26

I know.

• 00:27

development update for the year.

• 00:30

That's crazy to say.

• 00:31

For 2023, that is crazy to say.

• 00:34

Yeah, the book is closing on 2023,

• 00:37

but 2024 is going to be a very exciting one for us.

• 00:42

If you haven't been following along,

• 00:44

Alpha 2 is happening in 2024,

• 00:47

but we'll be, you know, stick around to the end.

• 00:48

We might have some other little announcements for you.

• 00:51

Yeah.

• 00:52

But of course we hope that you all have been staying safe

• 00:55

and, you know, there's a lot going on in the world right now.

• 00:57

So we wish you all happiness and safety,

• 01:00

especially coming into this holiday season.

• 01:03

But we've got some, a lot of good things to talk about.

• 01:06

As you can see from below, we have our reminders today.

• 01:11

There's some good ones in there.

• 01:13

Ranger update.

• 01:14

So those of you who are ranger folks out there,

• 01:17

definitely get your bows prepared, knock those arrows,

• 01:21

because we are, we are gonna be shooting

• 01:23

all kinds of things today.

• 01:25

Yes.

• 01:26

So yeah.

• 01:26

And it's been a while since we've had a,

• 01:28

since we've had an archetype showcase.

• 01:30

The last one was the cleric, which was several months ago.

• 01:33

That's true.

• 01:34

And we have shown a preview of the ranger.

• 01:36

So if you have been following us for a while,

• 01:38

you've seen a little bit of it,

• 01:39

but it has changed quite a bit.

• 01:40

And there are a lot of,

• 01:42

a lot more abilities to showcase for you all.

• 01:44

And there's still more to come.

• 01:45

So this is just still even, even just the cusp of it.

• 01:49

So stick around with us.

• 01:51

We got, we got a journey.

• 01:52

We'll do a little studio update.

• 01:54

And of course we have some cool art from our art team

• 01:56

that they love to share with you guys.

• 01:57

And then we'll do a Q and A,

• 01:59

and then we might have something else at the end.

• 02:01

So stick around.

• 02:03

So with that, I'll go through the updates.

• 02:07

Also, Steven's background looks like it's fake,

• 02:10

but I know it's real.

• 02:11

Like I know that's what your office looks like.

• 02:14

And every single time I see it,

• 02:16

it looks like one of those fake backgrounds.

• 02:20

It's very festive.

• 02:21

I thought, you know, it's December Christmas.

• 02:23

Maybe we'll do a little bit of the Christmas background.

• 02:26

By the way, I love your tree in the background,

• 02:28

that Phoenix tree, holy smokes.

• 02:30

Thanks.

• 02:31

How cool is that?

• 02:32

So at the end of Christmas, does it just burn away?

• 02:34

Like it burns into ash and then it reignites next season.

• 02:38

I got the flocked tree specifically

• 02:40

because I was like, it gives the ashes vibe.

• 02:42

Yes.

• 02:43

Yeah.

• 02:44

Oh, it totally does.

• 02:45

I think it looks great.

• 02:46

I love it.

• 02:47

I put this together in 20 minutes while baking broccoli.

• 02:51

We both have an element of fire in the background.

• 02:53

I got the fireplace.

• 02:54

You've got the Phoenix fire tree.

• 02:56

That's kind of cool.

• 02:57

I put a festive sweater on.

• 02:59

Well, it's actually a dress, but you can't see it.

• 03:01

John said, I can't wear the Intrepid shirt.

• 03:06

I have to do something that's like wintery look.

• 03:07

So he wanted me to wear the jacket.

• 03:10

I don't know if I've ever seen you wear

• 03:11

like a white sweater before.

• 03:13

It looks good.

• 03:13

It looks good.

• 03:15

But we are all festive.

• 03:16

It is, I think even our PI folks,

• 03:18

because we have like a PM meeting that we do every month.

• 03:21

They were like, you guys are so chill.

• 03:22

You're calm.

• 03:23

I think it's the calm before the storm

• 03:25

at the end of the year. It's the storm.

• 03:26

Yeah, I was about to say, it's just everyone's bracing,

• 03:29

breathing in, hold tight, hold.

• 03:33

That's what's happening.

• 03:34

The team has been working really hard

• 03:35

and we'll talk a little bit more about that

• 03:37

in our studio update.

• 03:38

But of course, let's get into our reminders.

• 03:41

Thank you all for joining us.

• 03:43

We hope that you are just as excited as us

• 03:46

for the end of this year.

• 03:48

And of course, our first one here

• 03:49

is our YouTube subscribers comment spotlight.

• 03:52

Don't forget that if you subscribe to our YouTube channel,

• 03:55

make sure you have that public

• 03:57

and then also leave a comment on our next dev update.

• 04:00

So this update when it goes live

• 04:03

and you too could be spotlighted.

• 04:05

This week's spotlight or this month's spotlight

• 04:08

is infinitely random and they wanna know any plans

• 04:11

to add AI voices to speechless text NPCs.

• 04:16

And I thought we've talked a little bit about this topic

• 04:19

before so those of you who have been with us

• 04:21

for a long time may have heard an answer.

• 04:23

But I thought maybe this could be a cool way

• 04:24

for us to also talk about AI in general

• 04:26

and where our sense is on that

• 04:28

because obviously it's a big thing in this industry

• 04:30

of this last year especially.

• 04:33

Yeah, I think that some of the technology

• 04:37

and the advancements that we've seen,

• 04:40

not just within the gaming industry,

• 04:41

but a broad scope of AI influence,

• 04:47

is something that we are keeping a close eye on

• 04:50

and we have some plans to investigate

• 04:52

and inspect a few of the designs

• 04:54

and approaches that we've taken,

• 04:57

particularly as it relates I think to this question

• 05:00

and AI voice over potential to influence our narrative loops

• 05:05

and how players interact with general AI dialogue

• 05:10

and there is an opportunity there.

• 05:14

But it's not one that we have fully explored yet,

• 05:17

although it is on the docket

• 05:18

for the first part of next year,

• 05:20

for us to analyze what potential exists

• 05:23

from a leveraging standpoint for this new tech.

• 05:27

And I would say stay tuned.

• 05:29

Stay tuned next year as we give updates.

• 05:32

You'll likely see some things perhaps even in Alpha 2

• 05:36

that could relate to that, we'll see.

• 05:38

But it is something we are aware of

• 05:40

and we are keeping close tabs on how to integrate

• 05:43

and leverage as part of Ashes.

• 05:48

All right, hopefully that gives you enough fuel

• 05:52

for your answer there, Infinitely Random,

• 05:54

and we appreciate you subscribing to our channel

• 05:57

and showing us some love.

• 06:00

Reminder also that, hold on a second,

• 06:03

I need to turn off these notifications.

• 06:05

If you're hearing that, I apologize.

• 06:07

It was my Slack notification going off.

• 06:11

We also have our dev discussions up right now.

• 06:16

We have one and we had teased this last time

• 06:19

about drop rarity.

• 06:21

How do you feel when it comes to rare loot?

• 06:23

Do you prefer when rare mobs and bosses

• 06:27

drop something interesting often or less?

• 06:29

Let us know what your thoughts are.

• 06:31

I mean, I know most of you are out there

• 06:32

hunting for gear progression

• 06:34

and you definitely have thoughts on this.

• 06:37

So please, please head on over to our forums

• 06:40

and give us your thoughts on it

• 06:41

so that we can wrap that report up

• 06:43

and send it over to our development team.

• 06:45

And our next one is gonna be utility skills.

• 06:48

So if you're interested in, you know,

• 06:51

and I think even someone put in a question

• 06:52

that was specifically about like different types of abilities

• 06:55

and things like that.

• 06:56

So if you have thoughts,

• 06:57

make sure that you are sharing them with us

• 07:00

because the development team is pretty adamant

• 07:03

about checking out our reports.

• 07:04

Yeah, and that's a big question.

• 07:07

That's a big question too.

• 07:08

I mean, I remember some of the games

• 07:10

that I have played, some MMOs in the past

• 07:12

where this was long before the standardized modernization

• 07:17

of like every participant gets a bound item

• 07:20

when the raid ends.

• 07:21

This was like, no, the raid boss was a loot pinata

• 07:24

and maybe it took a hundred people to kill it

• 07:27

but it only dropped like six or seven complete items.

• 07:30

And you had to orchestrate like alliances

• 07:33

who would orchestrate their own like itemization owner

• 07:36

who would like keep a list of the participants

• 07:40

that were attending.

• 07:41

Yeah, absolutely.

• 07:42

And you would have to assign that out.

• 07:44

I mean, that was the old school way of approaching it.

• 07:47

So when you guys go in, I like it too personally.

• 07:50

And when you go and-

• 07:51

It makes it more challenging.

• 07:52

It makes it, the replayability of it is there

• 07:55

cause you need it.

• 07:56

Absolutely.

• 07:57

And then also, you know, you extend it to all,

• 07:58

so if there's drops that like, you know,

• 08:00

are too common or whatever.

• 08:03

This is a great topic for you guys to go and comment on

• 08:06

on the forums and kind of give your experiences

• 08:09

and expectations because it helps to validate our approach

• 08:13

or give us considerations that perhaps we hadn't thought of.

• 08:16

Yeah.

• 08:17

Oftentimes I will say that when we're going

• 08:20

through these reports, it's always like the dev team's like,

• 08:22

yep, yep, yep, yep.

• 08:23

They're already, they're like on the same page as you guys

• 08:25

which I think for the most part is pretty awesome.

• 08:28

There are some cases where obviously we're gonna follow

• 08:30

our design passion and love cause we're like,

• 08:34

you don't think you want this, but you do.

• 08:36

And we'll test those out.

• 08:38

And like Steven always says in our alpha and beta phases,

• 08:41

even when we launch, you know, if there's a drastic feedback,

• 08:45

we're gonna analyze that feedback.

• 08:47

We're gonna analyze the data.

• 08:48

We're gonna make sure that we're making good decisions

• 08:50

as we move forward.

• 08:51

Cause I think that sometimes when, I mean,

• 08:53

all of us have played many MMOs or just games in general.

• 08:57

And when developers aren't willing to like see

• 09:00

the side of the player, then that's the problem.

• 09:02

But fortunately we are all players.

• 09:04

So that is the beauty of it.

• 09:06

And we are playing our game every day.

• 09:08

It is mandatory.

• 09:10

Exciting.

• 09:13

And of course we did do a holiday delicious dev discussion

• 09:17

that we had posted up on the forums.

• 09:20

And it looks like the tool nor theme recipes

• 09:22

for the delicious dev discussions,

• 09:25

as well as the bonus doonier recipes are up on the forums.

• 09:29

So congratulations to the tool nor they won.

• 09:33

I loved working with Cody did an amazing job,

• 09:37

AKA Vacknar did an amazing job putting these together

• 09:40

and coming up with the recipes.

• 09:42

I think I have like a little asset here.

• 09:45

That's cute.

• 09:46

There we go.

• 09:47

Thank you, Mike, for that.

• 09:50

This isn't all of the recipes, but it's kind of cute.

• 09:53

And of course we'll also post them not in an image like this

• 09:56

with just the text.

• 09:57

Vacknar has been really conscious of that

• 09:59

because obviously some of you guys are on a copy pasted

• 10:01

or translate it for your localization.

• 10:05

So yeah, enjoy that.

• 10:06

We're excited.

• 10:07

We hope that you'll make some of these

• 10:08

delicious meals as well.

• 10:10

So send them to us over on our Twitter, Facebook,

• 10:12

or anywhere, all of our social channels.

• 10:15

If you do end up making these over the holiday break,

• 10:17

we would love to see them.

• 10:19

But yeah, we're excited.

• 10:22

I'm really excited for the glow in the dark noodles,

• 10:24

the under realm noodles.

• 10:26

Oh my God, that'd be cool.

• 10:28

How'd you get them glow in the dark?

• 10:30

There's like a thing in there if you look.

• 10:33

I can't remember what the piece is.

• 10:35

I can't read it with the tiny text that I'm looking at.

• 10:37

Sounds like some significant carcinogens probably.

• 10:40

I did say that too.

• 10:44

I was like, I don't know if that's healthy.

• 10:47

Yeah, exactly.

• 10:49

It was funny, but we are.

• 10:53

Just to be clear, these recipes are not evaluated

• 10:55

by the FDA in any way, shape, or form.

• 10:59

That's fair.

• 10:59

That's fair.

• 11:03

Create them at your own will.

• 11:04

You don't have to eat them.

• 11:06

You can just create it.

• 11:08

And of course, don't forget to share your creations with us.

• 11:11

We do want to see them if you do end up doing it.

• 11:14

And if you enjoyed that, definitely give us feedback

• 11:16

on the forums over there that you enjoyed seeing the recipes

• 11:19

or doing that type of thing and getting

• 11:21

kind of an insight into some of the recipes for the different races.

• 11:26

Next up, we just have a reminder that our Unseen Order Cosmetics

• 11:30

will be ending on January 17, 2024 at 11 AM Pacific.

• 11:34

So if you would like a preorder pack,

• 11:37

now is the time to grab a preorder pack.

• 11:39

We will be assessing our server capacity and things of that sort

• 11:45

and where we're at in regards to that as we go into Alpha 2.

• 11:48

So we may expand the ability to get access to Alpha 2 in other ways.

• 11:53

But this is the last preorder pack that will be available.

• 11:57

So if you are interested in that, it is a great deal.

• 11:59

You get a lot of goodies in it for a price

• 12:03

that is less than the worth of the whole value of the package.

• 12:07

It is happening.

• 12:08

Yes, because there is time, too, that's incorporated in that game time.

• 12:12

And game time is expensive.

• 12:14

Very true.

• 12:15

And there's also an FAQ up.

• 12:17

So if you have questions in regards to anything,

• 12:21

there's answers for you over there.

• 12:23

And like I said, there will be other opportunities potentially

• 12:26

to get access to Alpha 2.

• 12:27

It's just that we are trying to close things down

• 12:29

to make sure that we're in a good space and we're ready

• 12:32

and we know what our concurrency is going to be when we go into that.

• 12:35

As many of you have played many MMOs,

• 12:37

we want to make sure that the server experience is in a good place.

• 12:42

And next up, we have just a reminder of the Content Creator program.

• 12:48

It is still up for application phase.

• 12:50

We will probably be closing the application phase

• 12:52

for a little bit of time as we are going through those.

• 12:56

We're going to be hiring on some content creator relations folks

• 12:59

and powering through that soon.

• 13:01

So if you're interested or if you're already on it,

• 13:03

then you're good to go.

• 13:04

Or if you're already on it and you need to edit it,

• 13:06

you should be able to go to that form and edit it and update anything

• 13:10

that you want as well.

• 13:12

We will do our best to get back to everybody.

• 13:14

Stephen wants us to get back to everyone, even if you're not in the program.

• 13:17

So you have a confirmation of whether you are or aren't.

• 13:20

And then also, we are working out an academic program, too,

• 13:24

for people who maybe aren't quite ready for the program,

• 13:27

but we think with a little training, they could be.

• 13:31

Yeah, give them some advice.

• 13:32

So it's going to be a lot of staffing that we need to do on our end.

• 13:35

But I think that in the long run,

• 13:37

we're going to have a really, really cool content creator program.

• 13:41

Like, I haven't seen any other company before.

• 13:43

Agreed.

• 13:43

I've worked for.

• 13:44

Yeah.

• 13:45

Yeah, and it's an important part, right?

• 13:47

Content creators are a big portion of how the company is able to communicate

• 13:52

with its audience.

• 13:54

And it's important not only to foster the relationships,

• 13:56

but also to hone the techniques.

• 13:58

And I think that this particular program is going to be very useful

• 14:03

for a lot of people to hone those techniques to make sure they're doing it.

• 14:07

And for us to work with folks.

• 14:08

And I do want to make it clear,

• 14:09

we're not looking for people who are only big creators, right?

• 14:13

Just because we have 200 subscribers, that's not a big deal to us.

• 14:16

We're still going to be working with you just as much as we would work

• 14:19

with somebody who has 200,000.

• 14:22

So it's really a matter of, you know, you're obviously going to get less codes

• 14:26

than that person because you have less followers.

• 14:28

But like, we're going to make sure that you're engaged with us,

• 14:31

that you get the information that you need.

• 14:33

But it's also still fair to our other users.

• 14:35

I think that's also important.

• 14:36

I think a lot of us have played in games where like content creators get benefits

• 14:39

that are like better than everybody else.

• 14:41

You're like, what?

• 14:42

It really is more about relationship beyond that.

• 14:44

We, you know, I've been chatting with Vaknar and Roshan as well.

• 14:48

There are other programs that will come into play down the line, like guilds,

• 14:52

artisans, those type of things.

• 14:53

So if there's other things, you're going to be doing stuff.

• 14:56

So as you as you're as we get closer to launch,

• 14:58

you'll see some of those programs come online or, you know, programs like that

• 15:02

come online based on what our users are doing and and how we can engage

• 15:07

with you guys in order to make sure that there's cool stuff that you can be doing

• 15:10

in our community and whatever our community is gravitating towards.

• 15:13

That's where we're going to we're going to try to help uplift you guys.

• 15:17

It's definitely a mutual thing.

• 15:19

So we really want to be engaged with our audience.

• 15:21

Unlike some other games that we've been part of.

• 15:25

I'm not going to call out names.

• 15:28

And with that, I think I have covered all of our reminders.

• 15:32

So do you want to preface anything with the ranger?

• 15:35

I do. I do want to preface something.

• 15:37

So first of all, I do want to say that we have heard our community

• 15:45

with the way that we present the live stream showcases.

• 15:49

And I've asked Margaret to prepare the YouTube video

• 15:53

to launch simultaneously with the

• 15:58

presentation on Twitch.

• 16:00

So for those of you, here's what I would ask who want to go watch it in 4K

• 16:04

while the stream is still continuing.

• 16:06

You can do so on YouTube.

• 16:08

It'll be up in just a few moments right when we started here.

• 16:11

But make sure that you're still offering your comments and Twitch,

• 16:14

because I do read those.

• 16:15

Margaret reads them. The team reads them.

• 16:18

It's very important.

• 16:20

And come and join us afterwards for the discussion as well.

• 16:23

So you're not allowed to leave necessarily.

• 16:24

You can't just go watch the YouTube video and then sign off.

• 16:27

You have to still watch the stream.

• 16:29

If you haven't noticed, I grab questions from channel from the channel.

• 16:32

Yes, Roshan and Bekner both pop questions over here

• 16:35

in the different various places that they're at.

• 16:37

So we are if you want if you have questions along the way

• 16:40

while you're watching, making sure that you posted in like our Twitch channel

• 16:44

is very important so that we can get your answers for you.

• 16:48

Absolutely. 100 percent.

• 16:49

Now about the showcase.

• 16:51

So as Margaret said, and as you guys have been anticipating,

• 16:55

we are going to be looking at the Ranger archetype.

• 16:58

And again, this is a work in progress.

• 17:01

The UI is still very much a functional UI.

• 17:05

The VFX still have multiple rounds of passes that need to be done on them.

• 17:09

But this gives you an understanding kind of of the direction

• 17:12

that the archetype progression and development has gone

• 17:15

as it relates specifically to the Ranger.

• 17:17

And of course, you can derive from that insights for other classes

• 17:21

and other archetypes and how they will interact.

• 17:24

This is a very fun showcase, obviously, with the combat team.

• 17:28

Trad, Brian and Keenan joined me. They've been regulars on the show in the past.

• 17:32

The last time we've discussed the Ranger was actually in 2022.

• 17:37

And it was a very brief discussion about ranged basic weapon combat

• 17:42

with a few maybe two or three Ranger abilities sliced in.

• 17:46

Today, you're going to be watching near one hour presentation

• 17:49

that talks about upwards of 18, 19 different abilities

• 17:53

with some 20 odd passives and weapon progression trees.

• 17:57

When you analyze this, I did turn off cooldowns, of course,

• 18:02

at the beginning to kind of demonstrate each of the abilities.

• 18:05

I turned them back on afterwards.

• 18:07

Very two important things to keep in mind when you're thinking about feedback

• 18:12

and you're thinking about essentially what you want to share about your thoughts

• 18:17

for the presentation is on the abilities, the status conditions that get applied

• 18:23

and how they promote the role of the archetype as well,

• 18:29

being a Ranger and not seeing potentially a lot of melee abilities, but a lot of range.

• 18:34

So focus on those two aspects, the interconnectivity with the other classes

• 18:38

from a group perspective and each of the individual abilities.

• 18:42

And that's not to say that you could not spec more melee oriented.

• 18:45

Absolutely.

• 18:46

Right. I just want to be clear to people.

• 18:48

And very clear to remember, this is base archetype.

• 18:51

So this is not class.

• 18:53

This is not the combination of your secondary, which will fundamentally change

• 18:56

to the augment system some of those basic abilities.

• 18:58

So without further ado, enjoy the presentation.

• 19:02

We'll see you on the flip side.

• 19:26

Hello, everyone, and welcome to another day in Vera.

• 19:29

We have a very exciting stream for you today.

• 19:32

It has been some time since we have showed off a bit of the ranged combat.

• 19:36

And today we are going to be talking about the Ranger archetype with some 17, 18, 19 skills.

• 19:44

I can't remember what we're going to be showcasing today in the base archetype,

• 19:47

but it is a whole lot of Ranger.

• 19:50

And I have joining us today three of our glorious developers,

• 19:53

two of our senior designers, Tratt and Brian.

• 19:57

How are you guys doing?

• 19:59

Doing good. Glad to be here.

• 20:01

I think it's been a couple since we did our last combat showcase.

• 20:04

I know.

• 20:06

I'm doing great. Happy to show off the Ranger.

• 20:09

Yeah, you've been putting in a lot of work on this, Brian.

• 20:12

Not just me, the whole team.

• 20:14

Absolutely, the whole team.

• 20:15

But Rangers are near and dear to your heart, right?

• 20:17

Aren't you a Ranger player? Don't you play some Rangers?

• 20:19

Yes. Yeah, it's definitely one of my favorite classes.

• 20:23

They're often not done justice in games.

• 20:25

So getting the opportunity to do right by Ranger mains makes me happy.

• 20:29

Yes. And then, of course, the man behind the magic,

• 20:33

the senior engineer and the owner for the PC core team, Keenan.

• 20:38

How you doing, Keenan?

• 20:41

I'm alive. Happy to be here, though.

• 20:44

Yeah. By the way, this is a really cool environment.

• 20:49

I see Carven in the background. We're here in winter.

• 20:52

It's definitely giving me the Christmas vibes.

• 20:56

And it is beautiful.

• 20:58

I mean, the environment team, holy smokes, what an amazing job.

• 21:04

I love the snow. Everything. It feels so cozy.

• 21:08

It does.

• 21:10

Now, we have, let's see, I'm in your party.

• 21:14

We have established from some feedback from the community on the showcasing

• 21:19

that little one by one of each ability before we get into any combat situations

• 21:27

with some mobs or NPCs is desired.

• 21:30

It's a nice clean way for us to kind of showcase obviously all the hard work

• 21:35

that's gone into the creation of this.

• 21:37

Excuse me, into the creation of this archetype.

• 21:40

I apologize for coughing, guys.

• 21:41

I've recently recently got sick and I'm still recovering a little bit.

• 21:47

But I am doing much better now.

• 21:49

So I think this is a great place.

• 21:52

What is like some dried up riverbed or something?

• 21:54

It looks pretty cool.

• 21:56

It's a nice colors in here.

• 21:57

Now, obviously, as a disclaimer before we begin, I do want to say that UI VFX,

• 22:04

100% a work in progress.

• 22:06

Oh, my God. There's a bird up there.

• 22:09

I got it. Thank you. Good.

• 22:10

The scary little bird.

• 22:12

The UI is a work in progress.

• 22:15

The VFX are work in progress.

• 22:16

Everything here is subject to change through testing.

• 22:19

Obviously, Alpha 2 coming up is going to be a big opportunity for us to test a lot of this stuff.

• 22:24

So please keep that in mind, especially you content creators out there

• 22:27

who are going to do some review videos.

• 22:28

Make sure you mention that at the start of your videos.

• 22:32

Keenan, how do you feel about being a targeting dummy for the showcase of these abilities?

• 22:39

I'll take it. All right.

• 22:41

Let's do that.

• 22:42

And do you have a healer?

• 22:43

Tread? Tread's got me.

• 22:45

All right. Tread's got you.

• 22:46

It's all on me here.

• 22:47

All right. There we go.

• 22:48

All right. So I am now no longer in your party so that I can murder you.

• 22:53

But I have set my cooldowns to 0.1, I believe,

• 22:58

so that I can show each of these abilities off multiple times as we're talking about it.

• 23:03

So please keep in mind, guys, as you're out there watching this display,

• 23:07

the cooldowns here are set to practically nothing.

• 23:12

Now, we're going to do some combat afterwards.

• 23:14

I'll set cooldowns back.

• 23:16

But during this display, they're set to nothing.

• 23:18

Let us showcase our first ability.

• 23:21

I see we have Snipe.

• 23:23

And we showed Snipe off last year when we did our last ranged basic weapon combo update.

• 23:30

And people got to see a little preview of it last month as well during our artisanship review.

• 23:36

But talk to me about some of the changes that Snipe has gone through

• 23:39

and what this ability serves as a purpose. Brian.

• 23:42

Yeah, so with Snipe, we've been leaning into it being an alpha strike ability.

• 23:47

So it's what you want to open with to deal massive damage.

• 23:50

And since it's got that charge up time,

• 23:53

it's not as good to do when you're needing to kite something.

• 23:57

But whenever you're just opening on something, that's an unsuspecting target,

• 24:02

it's the perfect ability for it.

• 24:04

And if you have spec choices, there's other things that lean into it.

• 24:07

For instance, you've got that proc on you right now that's giving you 20% bonus attack speed on a successful Snipe.

• 24:13

Oh, very cool. Okay, let me take a look at that.

• 24:15

Fire it again. Fire it again. You'll see it.

• 24:17

Okay, let me see.

• 24:21

Yeah, Tread helped with this. He added this into the skill tree.

• 24:24

Yeah, it just proc'd on you there.

• 24:26

Oh, there it is.

• 24:27

Yeah, so your follow-up shots will come out even quicker.

• 24:32

Cool. So that proc is happening because I have spec'd into a passive.

• 24:35

And let's take a look. This is the first time that people have actually seen the progression tree for a particular archetype in quite a while, actually, probably since our Alpha 1.

• 24:46

But there has been a lot of work that's gone into this from you guys, of course.

• 24:50

Talk to me a little bit about the different types of abilities we're seeing here.

• 24:56

Tread, do you want to take this one? Because you put a lot of work into this.

• 24:59

Sure. I mean, we're going to go through all these as we go through and show them off one by one.

• 25:05

But what you're seeing at a high level here is just what you'd pretty much expect of a traditional skill tree.

• 25:11

We're doing something a little more advanced than just like a bottom-up structure because we're being a little bit more freeform in this iteration.

• 25:19

This will obviously see more UI iterations in the future.

• 25:22

But you'll see like a mix of active and passive abilities here.

• 25:26

The active abilities are indicated by their square shape while the circular ones are representing passives.

• 25:32

And one thing to note as well is that these passives are aiming to be a little more interesting than just like, you know, this ability does more damage now or this, you know, has a lower cooldown.

• 25:45

Like we do have some of those, too.

• 25:47

But the goal with a lot of these passives in addition to that is to allow people to lean into unique play style. So you'll notice that some of them are changing your gameplay in meaningful ways.

• 25:58

And that's the direction we want to take player and character customization as a whole.

• 26:03

Very cool. Yeah, I love it.

• 26:05

Obviously, you know, this is all subject to intense feedback from the testers who will be participating as part of Alpha 2.

• 26:12

All of this stuff is subject to change, as I said.

• 26:15

But it gives you guys a very good idea direction wise and your feedback is, of course, why we do these development updates.

• 26:20

So please make sure that you give us your thoughts back on this type of progression tree.

• 26:24

In addition to the archetype progression tree, we also have something that interacts with each of the archetypes, and that is a weapon progression tree as well.

• 26:34

Now, obviously, the format of this particular weapon skill tree that you're seeing here is a relatively simplistic one.

• 26:41

But talk to me a little bit about the intent and purpose behind the weapon skill tree.

• 26:47

Yeah, so the intent here is to give you choices. Either I want to extend and improve my combo, or I want just passive benefits that increase my attack speed or crit chance in this case with the short bow.

• 27:01

And yeah, as you can see, the tree is a lot more simple, kind of like a stage one tree work in progress. But it'll get fancier over time.

• 27:10

And I see on the far right hand side, Brian, that there are additional combo steps.

• 27:15

So let me actually unspec these additional combo steps so that we can talk first about the basic weapon combo.

• 27:27

And I'm just going to demonstrate that here. I'm going to use the short bow. Now, this is a short bow we are using.

• 27:32

You guys remember from last year when we showcased ranged weapons that we had obviously a number of them, some of them arcane, some of them physical.

• 27:38

But the two bow types that we have are longbow and shortbow. I'm using the short bow as you can see, it is a copper short bow.

• 27:46

And let's see what this looks like without the combo upgrade.

• 27:53

That's four hits.

• 27:56

Very cool. So it's relatively rapid pace, especially compared to that of the longbow that you guys got to see a little while ago.

• 28:04

Let's talk about speccing now into these additional combo steps and what does that do?

• 28:12

Oh, you don't know?

• 28:13

Yes. So we've done a lot of experimentation over the past couple of months to find out what's the shortest and what's the longest combo that's acceptable.

• 28:24

Because we had this goal where we wanted to have a combo length progression available to players.

• 28:31

So that certain builds could have longer weapon combos and other builds can have shorter weapon combos with more passive effects.

• 28:38

And this has been the result of our exploration.

• 28:41

So when you start out, you've got a pretty quick four hit combo.

• 28:44

But whenever you unlock the additional hits, you get the fifth and sixth hits, which add approximately 50 percent to the overall combo length.

• 28:53

But we found that that gave a pretty satisfying floor and ceiling to how long the combo can be.

• 29:01

It definitely I can feel absolutely the change, obviously, in the pace between not having specced into the to the combo and getting those additional fifth and sixth steps.

• 29:13

So in addition to the later hits in the combo doing additional damage, you also unlock proc effects.

• 29:20

So on your fifth hit, you unlock the special fifth hit, which gives you 10 percent bonus critical strike chance, which you just proc there.

• 29:28

And the sixth hit, you unlock the special six hit, which gives you arrow storm, which causes your next, I believe, 10 attacks to fire an additional arrow at the target.

• 29:39

Very cool. So that combos really well with rapid fire abilities such as the next ability we're going to be looking at.

• 29:45

All right. Let's take a look at Barrage.

• 29:48

So Barrage is as far as a continual barrage of arrows at your target for one and a half seconds, dealing 12 percent physical damage per arrow.

• 29:56

OK, let's take a look at this.

• 29:58

I mean, that seemed like a lot per arrow, but it fires a lot of arrows.

• 30:02

Now that's a char. Is this is this a charged ability to have multiple charges of this?

• 30:07

Right now, you only have one charge. And we did some iterations with this and a lot a lot of play testing.

• 30:15

And yeah, we changed this back to only having one charge. And you can reduce the cooldown of this by completing a weapon combo.

• 30:22

OK, all right. Let me see this. So if I complete a weapon combo, it would reduce the cooldown.

• 30:27

Right now I'm set to zero cooldown, so we can show that off a little bit later.

• 30:31

Talk to me a little bit about headshot.

• 30:36

Yeah, headshot. It starts off so there's ways that you can specialize this, that turn it into the execute.

• 30:44

It was born as originally it does pretty high damage, but if you spec it appropriately, it does bonus damage when the targets below 50 percent health.

• 30:54

And if the target is marked, it has 50 percent reduced cooldown, I believe, with the spec that you have.

• 31:02

OK, so if I have a mark on the target, then I get a 50 percent cooldown.

• 31:08

Yeah, you get 50 percent reduced cooldown on headshot.

• 31:11

Nice. Now, we haven't talked about marks before.

• 31:15

You want to talk to me a little bit about the intent behind marks.

• 31:21

Yep. The intent behind marks is to provide a burst window on the target.

• 31:28

Often in other games, it's just bonus damage. This is much more significant on the impact that this will have on the target.

• 31:35

It's basically marking the target for death has a pretty huge effect.

• 31:39

For instance, mark of the tiger, it grants 50 percent bonus critical chance to all attacks striking the target.

• 31:46

Mark of the bear is minus 25 percent armor.

• 31:49

And mark of the raven is a bonus hit that occurs every time the target is struck and it scales up in damage based on how low on health the target is.

• 31:58

OK, so let me try mark of the bear.

• 32:01

So this reduces their mitigation by 25 percent.

• 32:04

So when I use an ability first, like headshot, I just did 76 damage.

• 32:09

If I were to start headshot and then I can use the mark of the bear while I'm channeling the or casting the headshot,

• 32:18

it'll it will apply to the target while while I'm essentially using headshot. Is that correct?

• 32:25

Yeah, correct. Keenan and the engineers made us some awesome off.

• 32:29

You might know it in other games as off global cooldown tech. We call it simultaneous casting.

• 32:35

And yeah, that allows you to cast your marks at the same time as other abilities, allowing for a very efficient use of time.

• 32:43

Awesome. OK, so now it's gone from 76. Wow, that's a significant bump.

• 32:50

Yeah. Mark of the bear is really good against tanky targets.

• 32:53

Yeah, that's awesome. Mark of the raven. Let's take a look at this.

• 32:58

I love the effects. Scott has done such a great job with these.

• 33:04

Yeah, I I love that he decided to join the VFX team and come over and help us with combat.

• 33:09

He's doing a great job so far. Absolutely. Let's see. Oh, they look great. Very cool.

• 33:16

That's awesome. Now, in addition to marks, talk to me, try out a little bit about hunts.

• 33:22

What are the hunts intended to do for sure? So unlike marks, which are debuffs on the target, hunts are different buffs you can put on yourself.

• 33:32

They're both themed pretty similarly. At first, we had started with linking these two concepts directly, like you would put the hunt on yourself and then shoot that hunt out as a mark and infuse the target with that.

• 33:45

But we ended up kind of separating them just to make them a little bit more independently and freely usable.

• 33:52

But the theme you can see is the same. We've chosen the tiger, bear and raven animals, but they're, you know, stay tuned for more.

• 34:01

And yeah, like like you guys are talking about, the visuals for these are really cool.

• 34:07

But yeah, you'll these are basically like like different buffs that you will put on yourself and they do tend to have some synergy with their respective thematic creatures.

• 34:19

So I used Mark of the Raven this time, I was doing 96 damage, but that's because I had Hunt of the Raven, which is giving me additional physical penetration.

• 34:27

Let me use let me use Mark of the Bear on the target while having that hunt active. And now instead of doing 117, I'm doing 179.

• 34:37

Wow. That's significant. I'm doing 117 again, but that's because.

• 34:44

Let's see, I'll try this. Hold on, Mark of the Tiger.

• 34:49

Oh, that's increasing critical chance. Mark of the Bear is magic. Let's try that. OK.

• 34:57

Maybe Kenan doesn't have enough armor for the extra help. Oh, poor Kenan. Not enough armor. Gray armor.

• 35:05

He's in kind of some newbie gear down there. Oh, no. OK.

• 35:09

But that is the thing about the armor pen is that will scale more and more effectively the more armored your target is. So you can think of it as like a counter stat for people who build that up.

• 35:21

That looks awesome. All right. So now we also have scattershot. And this is one of our first AOE abilities. Talk to me a little bit about scattershot.

• 35:30

Yes. Like you said, it's a AOE ability. It fires out in a cone in front of you about about 20 meters ahead.

• 35:37

And we've got some pretty cool tech with this. The first is where we're drawing a targeting decal that only the caster can see to help like align the cast as you're firing it.

• 35:50

The second cool thing that we're doing here is you can actually charge the ability into a beam, which is better for a lower amount of targets.

• 35:59

So if you just want to hit a wide field of targets, you would just quick cast it. But if you were interested in a wing, a specific smaller pack, it'd be more efficient for you to do the charge cast.

• 36:13

Very cool. So if I have to I have to hold the charge to completion to get the additional damage value, essentially.

• 36:21

Yes. Very cool. Now, this is obviously a big point of feedback.

• 36:27

That I think people can provide. Obviously, there's a lot of interesting thoughts around subjective, of course, around UI and decal elements that help to communicate kind of these A.O.E.s.

• 36:41

As Brian said, this is obviously going to be a decal that is only shown to the caster, not, you know, shown across to multiple players.

• 36:52

But what is the desire of our community when it comes to showcasing and demonstrating kind of the area of effect for certain types of spells?

• 37:00

Do you want something? Obviously, this is done very elegantly. I think Scott did this one as well.

• 37:06

I think it looks great. But this is something that is a point of feedback that we want to collect from players as you guys get to kind of play through Alpha 2.

• 37:14

And as you're seeing these updates, what do you enjoy most about conveying these area of effects? And this isn't the only area of effects we have.

• 37:22

We also have Airstrike and we've seen Airstrike in the past as well. But this one's received a little bit of TLC. Talk to me a little bit about that.

• 37:31

Yeah. And just real quick, the reason why you hear my voice a lot is I'm the owner of the ragers.

• 37:37

So I'm in charge of this class. So that's why you hear my voice a lot.

• 37:45

Anyways, Airstrike. We gave this an update. We replaced the particle effects because they were way too laggy.

• 37:53

So, yeah, Scott, again, did a pass on these. They look amazing.

• 37:57

We also let you have air control with this so you can steer it while you're in the air.

• 38:02

And we fine tuned the animation. I believe Alex put in some time to make sure that it's holding you only for the right amount.

• 38:11

It's not grabbing you and locking you in place weirdly on landing. We really polished up how it feels whenever you use it.

• 38:18

So it's just really seamless and nice to use.

• 38:21

Oh, and the effect that it's providing if you actually hit a target with it, it does pretty big damage and also roots the target.

• 38:28

So this is a really good skill whenever your tank pulls in a big pack of monsters, you just airstrike over top of it, lock it all down in place, and then you and your mages blow up the pack.

• 38:38

I think it looks great. The animation changes that Alex did look awesome.

• 38:42

The additional functionality that you guys incorporated as part of controlling the air movement, I think is something that people are going to love.

• 38:51

Obviously, airstrike also is a significant mechanical benefit for the Ranger because it's in addition to damage is also a CC effect.

• 39:05

Talk to me a little bit about the CC that airstrike conveys and what's its intended purpose like in combat.

• 39:13

I mean, there's mobility associated with it. There's damage associated with it. There's CC. It's kind of a has a broad spectrum of effect conveyed.

• 39:20

Yeah, it's a pretty powerful ability and has a long cooldown because it's providing that wide spectrum of effect.

• 39:27

The ranger is one of the most mobile classes. It's second to the rogue only. So this is part of how we're providing that mobility benefit.

• 39:35

And yeah, whenever you hit targets, they're rooted in place. They cannot move.

• 39:39

So it's very effective as an escape tool, but also the hard engage tool that kind of puts you at risk. But if you got the tank and the cleric at your back, maybe that's the right calculus for your play.

• 39:50

Absolutely. All right, cool. Let us try thundering shot. Talk to me a little bit about thundering shot.

• 40:00

Yeah, this is definitely a favorite ability on the team by a lot of people.

• 40:06

It shoots a lightning arrow at the target. And if you're far enough away, I believe the conversion range is 10 meters.

• 40:12

It does an additional explosion around the target.

• 40:16

OK, so that did 96. Let's see if I'm closer.

• 40:21

Oh, OK, so this variable amount of damage and also changes it to.

• 40:29

Yeah, we around the target. Yeah. So you see it more damage. We wanted to have some abilities in the kit, at least with the showcase that we're showing right now, where it's range focus, where there's there is some advantage for staying at range.

• 40:43

And also there's some advantage for closing on a ranger. Yeah, absolutely. Very cool.

• 40:49

Next up, we have another lightning ability, but this one's called lightning reload. Talk to me a little bit about lightning reload trap.

• 40:57

Sure. This one's more of a self buff effect. When you put it on yourself, it will allow you to use one of a few abilities without spending its cool down.

• 41:10

So I believe a couple of them are like snipe headshot thundering shot ones we've already been through.

• 41:15

If you pop that first, you get about a five second window. And if you use one of those abilities within that window, it will not trigger the CD, meaning you could use it twice back to back.

• 41:25

You can also even use something that's already on cool down by popping that first. So it's not like you have to already have it available.

• 41:32

So you can use it in a lot of pinches. So this is another concurrent channel effect that I can that I can use. Brian, what are some of the cool combos with this?

• 41:40

Yeah, one of my one of my favorite ones is a triple headshot combo.

• 41:45

So if a target is marked headshot on them has 50 percent reduced cool down if you're spec'd for it. So what you can do is you can mark someone you can headshot.

• 41:56

And as as you're charging up the first headshot, throw a mark. And then whenever the headshot hits you, lightning reload and then you get two more headshots right after that.

• 42:04

And it makes a really nasty combo for finishing off a target that's already below 50 percent health because you're getting that bonus damage on headshot to at that point,

• 42:13

which makes its efficiency per second higher than snipe. OK, so with Mark of the Raven.

• 42:22

OK, which one gives the. Mark, I think we're talking about for headshot.

• 42:29

Oh, any of the marks will do it. Any of the marks will provide a 50 percent reduced cool down on headshot.

• 42:35

All right. And I currently have hunt physical penetration, but we've already determined. That you don't have enough physical mitigation.

• 42:47

So let us do. Hunt of the Tiger. And let us apply Mark of the Bear on you.

• 42:59

While we're casting three, so it's going to be three shift four. And then you said lightning reload and three twice more.

• 43:08

Yes. Should I start with snipe first? Yeah, you can do that. OK, so snipe to three while doing Mark of the Bear.

• 43:17

All right. Let's try it. I'm going to need some heels, Dred. Really?

• 43:31

Oh, but you know what? I did that with the cooldown set to. Yeah. Set to nothing.

• 43:37

Oh, no. Hold on. Let me set that back to one. OK, so this is the normal cool down frequency.

• 43:43

OK, representative of real gameplay. Correct. Yes, yes, yes. All right. Let's try that again.

• 43:49

I'm going to do the Mark of the Bear. All right. Here we go.

• 44:02

Oh, OK, very cool. That was awesome. Yeah, it feels pretty crisp.

• 44:07

And yeah, if Keenan was below half health there, he would have taken I mean, he might have died. Oh, my God. Keenan.

• 44:13

Not with me as his healer. I know. All right. Let me set cooldowns back.

• 44:20

Let me max my mana. OK, we've showed off lightning reload.

• 44:27

Next up, I have bear trap. Talk to me a little bit about bear trap. Yes, bear trap.

• 44:33

So we went through a couple of iterations on this. We want we wanted a very solid trap ability.

• 44:38

It's right in the name. But often in games, they're either too small, they activate too short.

• 44:43

They're just not or they don't last long enough. There's there's lots of ways for a trap to suck.

• 44:47

And we think we got bear trap in a decent spot where it's pretty usable.

• 44:51

You can preplace them on the ground. They last for, I believe, 30 seconds after you place them.

• 44:56

So it's a very strategic ability, allowing for zone control.

• 45:02

You can place these in between you and a hostile target and kite them into it.

• 45:06

You can make like a little trap wall in front of you so that if people are closing on you or rather you're setting up a gank and you want to set that up beforehand.

• 45:16

So whenever there's a counterattack, you're already prepared for it.

• 45:19

It definitely benefits that strategically minded player. Very nice.

• 45:23

That looks that feels great. Can I hit my own bear trap?

• 45:27

No, no, actually, I hope not. But if I did, I'd have called the wild.

• 45:32

Yes. Yeah. Maybe we should just show that one. Yeah.

• 45:37

Maybe what is called Wild Dew? It is a CC break and a movement buff.

• 45:43

So if you get hit with a nasty stone or something, you can just break out of it and run away.

• 45:51

Oh, that was cool. I love the effects. That looked awesome.

• 45:57

Let's try that one more time. So I'm running along. Give me a stun.

• 46:01

I got to wait for this cooldown. Try with the trap or something.

• 46:08

Yeah, but the ranger is a fairly fragile class overall, so if they get a stun on them and it doesn't get cleansed and here I'll do it again.

• 46:16

They'd be very nasty. That was good. That's great.

• 46:25

Yeah, all of our archetypes will have their own versions of CC breaks, just because, you know, that is one of the things where players want answers to those kinds of situations.

• 46:36

That'll be part of your spec choice, right? How much do you want to build into your ability to resist and break CC versus just be like a raw glass cannon and accepting those risks?

• 46:49

That all factors into the decision making when it comes to specs.

• 46:54

Yeah, one of the pillars that we're trying to build combat on top of is giving players the true feeling of agency, like they're really in control of their character and what happens to their character rather than just watching stuff happen to their character.

• 47:05

They have no impact on.

• 47:10

Oh, it feels so good. Keenan, come over here. Let me try this next ability, Reigning Death.

• 47:20

I love the name of that, by the way. Feels like a perfect band name for a heavy metal group.

• 47:30

Yeah, like a Slayer song.

• 47:36

Yes. So Reigning Death is also using a caster side targeting decal. So again, only the caster is seeing that targeting decal.

• 47:45

I mean, that allows them to line it up a little bit better and make sure they're hitting the targets that they want to hit.

• 47:50

And another thing to note is we are making the spread of projectiles a little more even and dense. So as you notice, there's some spots in the decal that don't look like they're getting hit.

• 48:02

They are actually getting hit because of this homing arrow tech.

• 48:06

There's actually a hitbox that's being drawn there and every target within that hitbox is getting a homing arrow fired at it.

• 48:13

Actually, two homing arrows fired at it. So it is hitting stuff, even though it might not look like it right now. We're going to improve that a little bit more.

• 48:24

And Scattershot has a little bit of the same thing going on where the spread's not really perfect.

• 48:29

But yeah, that's currently in progress with our VFX artists to make a little bit better.

• 48:33

It's a good representation of where we've been trying to find a balance between making these abilities feel organic and not super like templated to use.

• 48:45

But at the same time, at the end of the day, like gameplay is the name of the game and we want these things to be reliable and consistent, both from the users and...

• 48:58

Oh my god, you're taking advantage of the fact that I'm talking.

• 49:03

He just turned into ash.

• 49:06

I should have expected that from you.

• 49:08

He just turned into ash.

• 49:10

It's okay, I raised him.

• 49:12

Oh, that was so good. That was so good.

• 49:14

That was a little ash loot house on the ground.

• 49:16

I forgot what I was saying.

• 49:18

I forgot what I was saying too.

• 49:20

That was a great effect. I think SIVA worked on...

• 49:23

Excuse me. I think SIVA worked on that as well as the Snipe reauthor as well.

• 49:31

But yeah, Reining Death is an example where we iterate on these abilities multiple times and sometimes it requires a complete rebuild.

• 49:40

This is, I think, the third complete rebuild of that ability because the previous versions just weren't good enough for our players.

• 49:47

They were more direct fire projectile based, which is pretty cool because you see there's a direct connection between the projectile and dealing damage.

• 49:56

But we found a solution where we can simulate the appearance of all the projectiles hitting and then we can also have a homing volume underneath that.

• 50:07

So it's very reliable while also looking super...

• 50:10

Out of mana, sorry Keenan.

• 50:12

Oh no, Keenan!

• 50:14

Oh no!

• 50:16

Oh, he's corrupted. Look at that.

• 50:18

Oh, did I turn corrupt?

• 50:20

Oh, I gotta take advantage of it.

• 50:22

Oh no, no, no.

• 50:24

Wait a minute. I have no cooldown.

• 50:26

You pissed off the cleric.

• 50:28

How did I go corrupt?

• 50:30

By killing an innocent player.

• 50:38

Oh, we did it!

• 50:40

Okay, wait. Don't kill me. Don't kill me.

• 50:43

Let me get back to what I was doing.

• 50:46

Alright, sorry.

• 50:48

See? Steven's a good player, guys.

• 50:50

Yay! How dare you?

• 50:52

Just because I show at a lower APM so everyone can see the fidelity of the effects and the gameplay around the environment and the NPCs doesn't mean I don't have a little bit of...

• 51:05

What is it called? Juice?

• 51:07

What is it called? A juice box? I can't remember.

• 51:11

Alright, so we showed off a little bit of the Bear Trap, the Call of the Wild, we went through Lightning Reload, Thundering Shot, we talked about the marks and the different hunts that exist.

• 51:27

We have Disengage to show.

• 51:30

Yes. Disengage. Whenever you only have the ability and you haven't unlocked any of the passives involved with Disengage, it'll shoot you right back whenever you press it.

• 51:42

So it's really good for creating space between you and some targets that are charging at you.

• 51:47

You can just hit Disengage and you'll flip back.

• 51:50

Alright, let me try that now.

• 51:52

There we go.

• 51:54

And yeah, like Steven's demonstrating, you can also use it for traversal.

• 51:59

Something that we learned with Disengage though is people have different preferences for how they want this ability to activate.

• 52:08

There's some people who've played a lot of Ranger who are just like, you know what, I don't want to have to spin my camera around to press Disengage to be able to go forward.

• 52:19

I just want it to go forward when I press the button.

• 52:22

So we made this omnidirectional Disengage option which costs zero skill points.

• 52:27

Yeah, that's awesome. But in the future that'll be kind of an ability option that you can choose, right?

• 52:33

Not necessarily through a passive effect.

• 52:36

Right.

• 52:37

That's the intent.

• 52:38

Correct.

• 52:39

Yes, that is the intent.

• 52:40

We still need to do some work on how we're going to display that to the player to make sure it's as apparent as a spec option, right?

• 52:46

Because that's very apparent that you have that choice.

• 52:49

It can often be lame in games whenever Hadamid Max is all in the options menu, but we're going to make sure that that's nice and clean for our players and it's very apparent, the options that they have available to them.

• 53:00

But yeah, whenever you have the omnidirectional option engaged, now whenever you're pressing a movement key, Disengage will send you in that direction instead of straight back.

• 53:09

Very cool. Very cool.

• 53:11

All right. And then last but not least, and then we'll go up to the environment and just kind of play together a little bit,

• 53:18

is the imbue ammo. Talk to me about imbue ammo.

• 53:23

Yep. So imbue ammo, whenever you cast it, it'll imbue your next...

• 53:28

Currently they're set up to imbue your next 10 shots, and this will probably go through another iteration, but currently it imbues your next 10 shots with a special effect.

• 53:36

So we've got weighted ammo, concussive ammo, and barbed ammo right now.

• 53:40

We're probably going to add more in the future.

• 53:41

These are ammo imbues, so you're imbuing your next 10 shots with this effect.

• 53:46

Weighted ammunition is a snaring effect, barbed is a bleed effect, and concussive is a stagger effect.

• 53:55

Stagger reduces accuracy and evasion.

• 53:58

Nice. Okay.

• 53:59

And it also increases trick duration.

• 54:01

Very cool. Keenan, try just kind of running down this path, and let me do some weighted shots.

• 54:08

Another element of detail that I really like that you were down for going for, Stephen, was it actually changing the appearance of the ammunition whenever you're firing it.

• 54:22

Absolutely.

• 54:23

So when you load up weighted shot, it will actually swap your arrows that you're firing to look the part.

• 54:33

And it currently swaps over both basic attacks and barrage.

• 54:40

Nice. Very cool.

• 54:42

Yeah, if you want to cast your ammo and then cast barrage, you can show that off.

• 54:46

Let's do it. Let me do, probably, let's do weighted as you're running again.

• 55:04

That's so cool. Very cool.

• 55:06

All right. Let me set my cooldowns to something that's representative of real gameplay, although I have far more abilities than I should at level seven, but that's okay.

• 55:15

And I will join your party now.

• 55:17

Oh, no.

• 55:18

If we can even invite you.

• 55:20

No, you can. You can. I'm only corrupted. I mean, I'm not like a monster. Come on.

• 55:24

It's true. It's true.

• 55:25

Now you might, however, flag when you heal me, but that's okay.

• 55:30

We'll see.

• 55:32

What do we got over here?

• 55:35

Oh, I love that. That's awesome.

• 55:37

My, my, oops.

• 55:45

Oh, wow.

• 55:49

The, the snipe followed the target. That was crazy.

• 55:56

Oh yeah, there's a little bit of aim offset there and animation that we did.

• 56:00

Yeah, that looks great.

• 56:03

Quite a few of the bow abilities do it actually. It's just a lot more obvious with snipe.

• 56:09

Yeah, headshots another one. As long as it's within a certain angle, it will try to maintain tracking of the target.

• 56:19

And yeah, the way that we pulled it off, it's not like affecting your control rotation at all. It's just an appearance thing.

• 56:31

It feels good. It feels very good.

• 56:39

Yeah, it did not feel this good a while ago. I really want to give credit to our play testing process.

• 56:46

This was in a much rougher state a couple of months ago.

• 56:49

Absolutely.

• 56:51

But yeah, we get in the game, we play test it the same way that the players will be play testing it to make sure that it's going to be awesome.

• 56:58

Absolutely. I think one of the great things that your team has done is you've really defined your iterative loop.

• 57:07

Right. And obviously the most important aspect of that loop is going to be the play testing aspect, which you guys play test.

• 57:15

I mean, I think every day, right, with the NPC team and the world team in helping to define, obviously, not just the player character and the abilities you guys are authoring,

• 57:26

but also the playable space and the playable enemies that you're encountering as part of this whole thing.

• 57:35

Yeah, I mean, it's important to note, even when we're not in official play tests, like when we're building these things,

• 57:40

we make it a key point to be playing this stuff as we're building it.

• 57:46

Like the designers aren't just making stuff on paper and handing it off.

• 57:49

Like we're in the tools, we're building these things and we're in a game environment.

• 57:53

And it's I think part of the reason that these things come together so nicely is we can we can like build them in real time and play them in real time as we do so.

• 58:04

Yeah, I mean, it will help guys.

• 58:07

Oh, wait, hold on. I'm just taking in the view a little bit over here because it is a beautiful view.

• 58:13

It is definitely beautiful.

• 58:16

And I love all the verticality on our maps, but it has definitely forced us to make abilities in a better way.

• 58:24

If we just had flat arenas like every other game, it would it would be way easier to make all this stuff.

• 58:30

But that's why we were forced to make the the cool homing hitbox tech that both Scattershot and Raining Death are using because we're play testing in the environment.

• 58:39

We're figuring out what works or what doesn't and then we're adjusting and building new stuff to fit.

• 58:48

Oh, it feels so good. Love the combat with this.

• 58:54

And obviously we have a big showcase next month with regards to PvP and more raid format.

• 59:01

And you guys are going to be seeing some changes that are done to the mage effects as well. Yeah.

• 59:09

Scott's working on that now. Oh, my God.

• 59:11

Scott and Siva, I believe, are both working on the mage next.

• 59:15

So that'll be very exciting to see that get another pass because the mage can really throw down the particle effects.

• 59:23

Absolutely. Wow, that was a big pull actually.

• 59:28

Shredded. I love this area.

• 59:36

And the mixture of creatures here is kind of interesting.

• 59:40

Yeah, I actually like the raven has gone through a bunch of iterations, but I do like the current iteration of it.

• 59:47

It could be a little bit more deadly, but I think it's fulfilling its role of like that popcorn mob.

• 59:52

It's super annoying, but you can you can kill it really fast if you focus it down, then it will give you as many issues.

• 1:00:00

Oh, man, you just one shot that raven.

• 1:00:05

By the way, Stephen, isn't that isn't that chart over there more relevant?

• 1:00:09

Which one? Oh, good call. Yeah, we should talk a little bit about this zone.

• 1:00:14

So this is a small point of interest within the Riverlands area.

• 1:00:18

Obviously, we're in the Riverlands. It is winter. And this particular location called the Gem Spring is a remnant,

• 1:00:28

a shard remnant of one of the Harbingers that broke off and actually has begun some interesting interaction with essence within this area.

• 1:00:40

So those of you guys who are going to be participating in Alpha 2, this will be a location where you're going to have some related quests.

• 1:00:46

And this gives you an idea about gem springs.

• 1:00:50

Oh, we're here. Jim Spring. What do you say?

• 1:00:54

We should just we just do like a massive area. Oh, gosh.

• 1:00:59

Do you want to pull them? Yeah. Get it all.

• 1:01:04

People mentioned that I got nearly done pulling back in as many as you can.

• 1:01:10

Oh, my God. Happy Chuggas pull. I'm going to go all the way around.

• 1:01:25

Oh, here they come. OK, OK, where are you at?

• 1:01:30

Where are you at? They're right here. I'll be least.

• 1:01:39

OK, we got some of them. That wasn't bad.

• 1:01:44

That wasn't too bad. Fortunately, these guys are just kind of slow.

• 1:01:50

Mycelium. Let's take a look at their heart. Not the Ravens, though.

• 1:01:55

The Ravens are quick. Oh, they push you out of the way.

• 1:02:27

Oh, that was awesome. We cleaned up this place.

• 1:02:32

That was very cool. And I really need to get some better gear.

• 1:02:35

My damage is terrible. I wonder if there is something for us to discover up at the top.

• 1:02:43

Should we go check it out? Yes.

• 1:02:53

These poor spiders. Wait, that's a named mom. Oh, no.

• 1:03:01

Oh, no. Is it really? Yeah.

• 1:03:07

That's got like two point five K health. All right. It's just a bigger spider.

• 1:03:12

It's like three times the normal spiders. See?

• 1:03:24

No. It is it has a lot of hit points here.

• 1:03:30

It really does. I'm trying. My damage is just so bad.

• 1:03:43

You don't need a tank for it.

• 1:03:48

Oh, there he goes. I think we leashed him.

• 1:03:56

Oh, no. Kill him. Kill him. Kill him. Snare him. Oh, no.

• 1:04:03

Oh, no. That's a classic moment right there. All right. Let's let's take him down.

• 1:04:09

Let's take it back. Come on now. All right. All these.

• 1:04:25

Come on now.

• 1:04:31

So since he doesn't hit that hard, sir.

• 1:04:42

Got him. We did it.

• 1:04:47

Yeah, we have done it. We've done the thing. Look at this view. Good God, man.

• 1:04:56

It looks so good. We climb up here. Where are you going?

• 1:05:02

I'm just getting a better view. OK. This is nice.

• 1:05:07

Yeah, this is the car fins in the distance. So familiar.

• 1:05:12

Point of interest. It looks beautiful.

• 1:05:17

Hold something over here. Where? Over yonder from the rock.

• 1:05:22

Coming on my way. Oh, what is that?

• 1:05:28

What is that? It's a little sandal surprise left to us from our lovely environment artists.

• 1:05:35

It probably belongs to that spider back there. No, we found its nest.

• 1:05:40

It's sad. The nest. We killed it and had a sandal nest in an adoration to the.

• 1:05:47

To the sandal wisdom. This looks amazing.

• 1:05:52

I love it. Tristan and the environment team must have done a.

• 1:05:57

An awesome job here. Some of these I've never seen the sandal tree before.

• 1:06:01

That's new. That's different. I wonder if the wind speed affects it.

• 1:06:05

I see the sand. It does. Does it really? Yeah, it does. Yeah. Oh, that's so good.

• 1:06:10

That is so awesome. Oh, is there like a little jump puzzle? Can you get up there?

• 1:06:14

You can. I don't know if you can get on the big tree. That looks awesome.

• 1:06:18

Well, guys, thank you for joining me and show and showcasing all the hard work that you and the many members of the team have devoted to.

• 1:06:27

To obviously upgrading our basic weapon attacks, the ranged weapons, the Ranger archetype.

• 1:06:35

You know, the zone is beautiful. The monsters are cool. Everything is shaping up very nicely as a great showcase for the end of the year.

• 1:06:42

And guys, you're watching out there in the community. Obviously, we do these so that we can get your feedback.

• 1:06:47

Oh, no. OK, we did it so we can get your feedback on things that you saw today.

• 1:06:53

What did you think looked great? What what things would you change?

• 1:06:58

This is look at that beautiful creek down there. My God, what a great winter wonderland.

• 1:07:05

So please make sure to participate in our forums on the social media, YouTube video, everything.

• 1:07:11

Talk to us about what you enjoyed today and how you like the direction of the archetypes in the class of the combat, how everything is going.

• 1:07:17

I know it means a lot to Brian, Tradd, Keenan, everybody else on the combat team for you guys to give your feedback.

• 1:07:24

Tradd, Brian, Keenan, thank you for joining me and showcasing all your guys' hard work. This was great.

• 1:07:31

Thanks for having me. Thank you. Absolutely. Guys, we'll see you back on stream to close out 2023.

• 1:07:38

Bye, everybody. Cheers. Bye. Welcome back, everybody.

• 1:07:52

It's really enjoyed it. So while we are answering your questions, Stephen's got that glare going.

• 1:08:01

He does really love when the sun comes in. I'm sorry. Maybe I can fix that. Those giant windows you have.

• 1:08:08

How about now? That's ruined your composition. Oh, of course.

• 1:08:17

We love seeing all. Oh, sorry about the title here. We love seeing all of the wonderful comments and chat.

• 1:08:24

Yes. We're very, very happy. So that makes us really happy. Our combat team has been killing it. And I know that some of them are very nervous.

• 1:08:33

Well, it's always a nervous thing to share your passion and your, you know, the work that the team has been putting into this.

• 1:08:41

Right. We're doing this because we want to hit a bar that is acceptable and will make our community proud and make us proud.

• 1:08:50

Right. As developers, the reason we do this is because we want to make people happy in their choice of entertainment.

• 1:08:56

And we're all MMO gamers. But it's been very validating and positive to see you guys give us the response that, hey, you're going in the right direction.

• 1:09:06

Right. It may it may not be final. It may not be fully polished. There's still outstanding work to do, obviously.

• 1:09:13

Right. But like, hey, each showcase after each showcase is an improvement, is a positive direction that we get to yield from the the the feedback that you guys give us.

• 1:09:25

Because, you know, as this is playing, Margaret and I are like watching the chat.

• 1:09:30

We're we're collecting the questions where we're evaluating what the commentary is.

• 1:09:36

And a lot of the stuff you guys say, it's like, hey, this is already planned. That's great. That's perfect. We're validating our approach. It's a very it's a very positive interaction.

• 1:09:45

It's one that I'm glad to see has been adopted a bit more so over the recent years in the industry for game development as a whole, which is to engage with the community at an earlier phase.

• 1:09:56

And this is the produce of that interaction. Right. This is the this is what comes from that.

• 1:10:02

And so we're very happy to share it with you and we're glad to see you guys as a response to it.

• 1:10:06

We're also really thankful. There's been a lot of content creators who have been rating us today or watching simultaneously. So this is for you guys. Thank you all. We really appreciate it.

• 1:10:15

I know in the moment we don't always have time to like divert and say thank you there.

• 1:10:20

We are trying to power through to ensure that we don't take up people's time too much.

• 1:10:25

I was I was on on Aspen bulbs stream watch I mean as an as an gold stream watching the, their community over there, and their commentary and it seemed very positive as well I loved it.

• 1:10:38

It was, it was great to see a broader audience than just our golden cohort here on the stream with some positive reception.

• 1:10:46

That was, it was very very good to see. Yeah.

• 1:10:49

Of course, like Stephen said, Vackner and erosion have been collecting questions as well as we've been adding some.

• 1:10:57

So we're gonna try to get through some of that we won't get through a ton of questions because we will be here all day if we answer everything but we'll try to power through as many as we can.

• 1:11:06

I do want to reiterate at the beginning Stephen did mention that he didn't have the cooldowns active, so that he could show the abilities more frequently.

• 1:11:14

So just again reminder of that first question here is what kind of utility abilities will Rangers have because that's something that we didn't really showcase there for sure.

• 1:11:25

And before I get to the utility question I just want to say, as you guys watch these demonstrations, particularly prior to our alpha two, and even during alpha two, like balance is not something we really dive into at all during this phase, right, we obviously

• 1:11:42

do a finger in the wind pass on balance, but balance requires a lot of logging and data from play testing. That is the goal of alpha two.

• 1:11:54

But if you see things like cooldowns like damage numbers.

• 1:11:58

You know, those things are very subject to change they're very easy things like that. Absolutely.

• 1:12:05

And it's very easy to tune those things so just keep that in mind as we move into alpha two, the difference between data and, you know, creating a whole content or a whole, you know, the effects and stuff like that, they're just trying to get the look and feel down, and then the data side of it is something that they'll be seeing.

• 1:12:24

And you'll be seeing a lot of those changes in beta as we get into that phase where we're really polishing and really fixing bugs and making sure that we're in a state where we're like hey now we're balancing, and we'll make that clear to you all like hey we want balance feedback right now we're not asking for that.

• 1:12:38

Absolutely. Some of the some of the utility skills that we think about when we design the archetypes.

• 1:12:44

You know are how they counter and react to other archetypes. So for example, you know, a ranger is is we think about that class fantasy of perception, right, a ranger is kind of in the outskirts they're they're keeping their range they're watching what's happening.

• 1:13:00

They may have good perception so we think about utilities, some of the examples of those utilities might be a rogue has invincibility, or excuse me invisibility. How do you address invisibility, while a ranger might have utility ability that spawns a hound that trails

• 1:13:16

multiple targets within an AoE radius of the ranger, and you get that location whereas a mage might have an arcane eye that actually reveals them to the party or the raid, like those are the types of utility skills that we want to create, they offer counters

• 1:13:32

to the opponent's arcane eye, and they're able to counter that with the use of the arcane eye, and that's how you create that kind of like a funnel progression against the other archetype abilities that give them certain types of benefits, and that's how you create that rock paper

• 1:13:52

scissors, and that's how you create those chances to situational interactions. What about, I think in the past we had shown like where Rangers could track people. Yeah, this would be a form of that tracking, absolutely.

• 1:14:07

The next one was, can you stack your marks.

• 1:14:12

So, this is not intended to be stacked right now marks will over, I believe marks will, if this is still the case marks will override the previously applied mark. And the benefit of that is like, we're not outscaling the mark efficacy too much by allowing

• 1:14:27

them to stack it gives us more power to place on each individual mark.

• 1:14:31

And we know that they'll be replaced if you use them so they're very, they're very unique to kind of the situation that you need the mark for, but you can quickly kind of swap between them.

• 1:14:42

The next one is a tank has resolved cleric has divine power, what does Ranger have.

• 1:14:48

That's a very good question. It is the interaction between the hunts and the marks.

• 1:14:53

And we're going to be focusing in on a little bit more. Right now that is still something that the combat team is working on for the Ranger class.

• 1:15:02

And then we have good one of the skill tree selections allow for a targeting radical to be used.

• 1:15:10

Yes, as a matter of fact, there was a slight bug with the action camera mode for this particular display and we didn't have time to fix it in time.

• 1:15:23

I know, I know and I tried using action in the first attempt at this recording and it bugged out for us and and I, we didn't have time to fix it so we went ahead without that but to answer your question, will these abilities that the question

• 1:15:38

will these work with action cameras that the question. Yeah.

• 1:15:42

No, it's, well it's.

• 1:15:45

Would one of the skill tree selections allow for a targeting radical to be used.

• 1:15:51

So targeting radical is applied when you swap to the action camera mode.

• 1:15:56

That would be a part of the skill tree selection it would just be an option that you can switch to by pressing Z currently that that that uses a soft lock system for the targeting radical think the follow up here would be, especially for folks who really like ranged stuff is being able to customize your radical.

• 1:16:13

Oh sure yeah absolutely from a UI perspective just customizing the radical shape. Absolutely. There will be a number of different radical types that you can use get on it Colby and co.

• 1:16:22

I already have a few actually they have.

• 1:16:26

Next up we've got what's the counterplay that a melee archetype has against a ranger How can you avoid being controlled by the targeted shots. Yeah, it depends on the melee right if we're talking about fighter they're going to have a lot of heavy gap closers,

• 1:16:40

they can probably be a little bit more liberal in the use of their gap closers because they have so many of them, versus let's say a ranger that needs to choose when to use their escape abilities because they have fewer of them.

• 1:16:55

The same would be true for a melee character like a rogue their approach vector is going to be more stealth driven than it would be perhaps let's say from a gap closer perspective.

• 1:17:03

So they're going to stealth into position. And then that's where you're tracking your ability use for your getaway abilities.

• 1:17:12

And then, is there, and then the and then real quick the other thing is lockdowns as well, right, melee users are likely going to have a number of different CCS to choose from, whether that be slowing the target routing the target stunning the target, and then

• 1:17:25

allowing them to get off their combos. And yes Rangers can do it like once but what you saw from the reason why it looked like Stephen could do it unlimited was because he didn't have cooldowns but there is a cooldown on it so yeah you might be able to get away from one of them,

• 1:17:39

but let's say you put another one on them, then you know you're there kind of so.

• 1:17:46

The next straight out of luck. And then we've got, is there going to be spell push back when being hit. And if so, will the fast shooting short bow punish cast bar more.

• 1:18:01

So if you're shooting really fast will it push back casters. No, there is not just a native pushback that exists for ranged attacks some attacks do have pushback effects.

• 1:18:14

And also casters can experience a delay in their cast time due to concentration failures. So concentration is a stat that's associated with one of our primary attributes being

• 1:18:28

a derivative waterfall for concentration checks when concentration fails due to damage that's done.

• 1:18:35

So it is, it is going to increase that casting time slightly. I won't interrupt it completely but it will increase the casting time, but pushback is not a native effect that lives on any particular type of attack.

• 1:18:46

It is something that is accompanying a specific ability.

• 1:18:50

Right. And then, why did you move away from arrows being projectiles.

• 1:18:57

I'm not sure where they are. I think maybe what they're referring to is more on the action side.

• 1:19:05

So when we when we refer to projectiles we're talking about, you know, hits can verse projectiles, we are still using projectiles.

• 1:19:14

But we're using a locking mechanism in tab targeting for those projectiles to home to the target. Should you have a valid angle in that perspective, the action side of that is that you can blindfire projectiles and should a target move within the

• 1:19:31

range of attack that the projectiles moving in a great example of this is the orb ball that is lightning, which is kind of moving forward you don't necessarily have to have a target to aim that at you just move that slowly as it moves through the path,

• 1:19:44

if another target moves and you're leading that target.

• 1:19:47

It will strike the target so we have blindfire currently.

• 1:19:50

We're still going to be doing some, some touching up with the action combat side prior to alpha two.

• 1:19:57

Right now, when you have your reticle over a target, it has a soft lock on the target and you can, you know, rapidly move between that in action mode with the reticle.

• 1:20:07

If you wish.

• 1:20:08

And then I think kind of a follow up to this is, if I'm a tank and I get in the way of a shot of a ranger. Yes, I might Google. So you are able to like kind of, there are certain, and there are certain battlefield abilities that you can use.

• 1:20:22

You won't be able to just body block it right not all projectiles can be body blocks some, some potentially can.

• 1:20:29

But there will be certain abilities and effects like a shield wall that can that can be brought up, and that will obscure line of sight to the target as well and it will restrict some of those attacks from occurring.

• 1:20:41

Fabulous.

• 1:20:43

Our next one here is, if I use ones or swords as a ranger, am I locked out of half of my kit, because of the range abilities that are connected to a short bow or a long bow.

• 1:20:57

So right now we are still kind of approaching how we want the character paper doll between ranged weapons bows or otherwise to exist. Our thought processes is currently that one. Yes, absolutely.

• 1:21:13

A lot of new people who are with us. And so like Rangers can't use ones, the way that we have been building our product is that anybody can use any weapon, any armor. Yes, may not always be viable in every situation but that is the case, and then go ahead, Stephen I just wanted to correct and just

• 1:21:29

for those of you, those of you who are new last month we did do a little showcase on crafting which talks a little bit about itemization, and how you can through certain recipes and material uses augment the types of stats that live on certain itemizations

• 1:21:44

to be relevant across all the different archetypes right so there is a bit of choice when it comes to players that craft these items on whether or not they, they want to have physical damage values versus magical damage values, and that leads to a very competitive

• 1:21:59

game in the open market, which is something that is integral to Ashes of Creation, but as it relates to to Rangers being able to use certain abilities with bows equipped some abilities will require bows to be equipped, and those abilities can be used with a bow

• 1:22:17

and not without those.

• 1:22:19

And for those of you who are newer to how we have our classes set up is that you have a primary archetype and a secondary archetype, and that secondary archetype can really dive into other things like maybe you're a Ranger but you're a summoner secondary or you're a Ranger and you're a mage secondary and that might be more

• 1:22:37

important than just having a bow or carrying a wand versus having a bow. So I'm just trying to give perspective on that. Yeah, there's a lot of a lot of customization options right your primary archetype is the delivery vehicle for your active abilities, your secondary

• 1:22:51

archetype augments those active abilities into something else but doesn't give you new active abilities. Right. And so that's something to keep in mind.

• 1:22:58

Correct.

• 1:23:00

People did see this in there but I think reiterating to make it clear, they were wondering, can you move while casting all of the Ranger abilities.

• 1:23:09

Not all of them some of them route the target. For example snipe is one that does restrict your ability to move.

• 1:23:16

But the vast majority Yes, you can move. Now there is a slight movement penalty that's applied for a lot of those abilities, the ones that can move. But for the most part, yes, this is a very mobile archetype approach.

• 1:23:30

And of course, you know, the, the locking down of making you not be able to move while you're casting certain abilities is a balancing factor right so that's something that the development and design team can work on to be like, oh okay, this is very powerful so maybe

• 1:23:47

it isn't something you can do while you're moving so kind of keep that in mind, we'll balance it to make sure that it makes sense for the type of ability and kind of what type of damage or whatever its effects are.

• 1:23:58

Sure. So, just to just to dial in a little bit there. Abilities are vehicles for conferring effects onto a target, right. And as you were describing balance wise, there's a number of different interactions mechanically that you have within an ability that you can adjust

• 1:24:15

in order to balance its power. The most, most common ones are cool down mana consumption damage done effect status conferred promotion of that effect status range.

• 1:24:28

You know those are those are the kind of primary methods by which you adjust.

• 1:24:33

Correct. Yes, yes, that's a lot of.

• 1:24:37

There's a lot of different things that play into that but those are the primary mechanical constructs of a particular ability right. And so for example you were looking we were talking about airstrike how it confers, a lot of different effects onto a target,

• 1:24:50

being that it does damage being that it's used for mobility being that it also applies a CC effect. And so in order to balance that, you know, not talking about specific numbers that it does or the length of the CC effect or the, or the post that check

• 1:25:03

for that particular CC effect, and the mana consumption it's also the the cool down it's a very big ability with a large cool down effects you want to use it and manage your resources and those of you who are MMO players you know all this.

• 1:25:15

You want to manage your resources effectively.

• 1:25:19

And I think you're already talking about balancing and maybe more specifically towards Ranger, I think that generally the overwhelming everyone was really excited for the Ranger they were they were seeing they thought it was cool, but there was definitely a mix of what people

• 1:25:35

felt was not balanced. So, I don't know if you're, if you can go in, we already discussed that we're not in the balancing phase right now, but perhaps you can talk a little bit about what our balancing process is for archetypes as an overall.

• 1:25:51

Yeah, I mean, when we when we move into the balance phase, right I just talked about the primary components that we use in order to, to get that initial balance pass. But when we move into alpha two and we have a lot of data that's kind of supporting the use

• 1:26:08

of these particular abilities in combat settings, how often they're used how often they result in death what the average damage done by this archetype is comparatively to other damage done by different archetypes, all of that data gets logged right and all of that

• 1:26:22

data gets queried in order for us to refine the abilities, so that they live in the environment we want them to now, that's not to mean that we're going to have, you know, perfect balance across the board between the archetypes again we're taking a rock

• 1:26:40

paper scissor approach to balance which means that some archetypes will do better against other archetypes and vice versa. And we're also not creating a an environment where we want to have one v one balance we are focused around group balance group

• 1:26:54

composition group composition is important, right, we're not creating a highly competitive game that might be a valorant or League of Legends right this is an MMORPG, which means that there are going to be certain classes that perform better than other

• 1:27:07

classes in certain situations, and that's part of the grand strategy right that is, that is something we want people to think about compositionally when they arrange their groups and their raids for the particular content that they're facing.

• 1:27:20

Now, we have not done a balance pass yet. Right, and we haven't used the metrics we need in order to create that that more acceptable balance for hitting the target we want to hit for these particular archetypes.

• 1:27:32

So when you're looking at this, you should be looking at it with the lens of does this look fun. Does this look like something I want to play, not. Is that damage number too high, is that attack speed too high is that cool down too low, you know, that is something

• 1:27:49

that we will address but not now. And when we do address it we will get that feedback. Correct. Exactly. Yes, when we do have people play testing and involved in the alpha two and beta does.

• 1:28:02

That is when we will ask those questions and accompany it with data.

• 1:28:08

Exactly.

• 1:28:09

All right, now that we got that out of the way, reminder that, like Stephen said as you're watching this as you're as you're looking at it really think about the look and feel.

• 1:28:19

Think about the things that you liked the things that you don't like things that you'd like to see that the Ranger might have in the future and head on over to our forums and give us some feedback over there.

• 1:28:29

I believe that already has the forum thread up so please please please implore you if you have thoughts if you're a range lover, or if you fight Rangers often in PVP and you have thoughts in regards to that go over there and tosses your feedback will be compiling

• 1:28:44

that and head and handing that over to the devs in the new year so please please please head on over there we would love for your feedback our team is very adamant about reviewing feedback and looking over it and making sure that we're all headed in the

• 1:28:56

right direction, but definitely from looking at the chat I think everybody is really enjoying it so that's a good feeling. There's going on in chat in our in our internal slack right now.

• 1:29:07

Yeah, one thing one thing I want to say is that, look, we have this isn't the.

• 1:29:13

Let me say like this from a while ago, we have known that we needed to improve our approach on combat, and if you think about what we just talked about about those testing scenarios and the information we need to improve combat and balance.

• 1:29:29

That's true in alpha one, and we got a lot of great feedback from alpha one, and it was that feedback that has led us to this approach you see now as the result of that feedback and our hard work, particularly on the combat team iterating over time to improve

• 1:29:47

combat loop. Now when we see the response from the community. Initially to this combat, we are seeing hey, this looks good. Right. And so that that helps us validate. Okay, we took the feedback from the testing.

• 1:30:03

We changed our approach we iterated upon it, and now we're delivering something that visually looks compelling to our audience, right, that is a perfect loop of iteration, incorporating the, the community as part of their responsibility to provide us feedback,

• 1:30:20

right, and nobody wants to see a game get launched. That hasn't had the opportunity to collect feedback from the players we've seen those games before. Right, and that's what this interaction right now our monthly development update is intended to safeguard

• 1:30:34

and so I just want to give kudos to the combat team because, in my opinion, having played this and watch this and seeing the community's response to it. They've done a great job, they have done a great job in in moving away from what was our direction prior to alpha one to now

• 1:30:50

we've developed for alpha two, a significantly revamped combat experience and I think it feels good and it plays well and it's fun. Even just internally. I mean we don't talk about this all the time but it kind of goes right into moving into our studio update which is what we're going to talk about next.

• 1:31:06

And so, you know, we are continually iterating our internal processes and they've been really finding a good, like you said, rotation in regards to the process internally of how they create abilities and how they create archetypes and weapons and things of that sort.

• 1:31:22

And like Brian said in the stream, it is a team effort, you know, there may be one person whose head is on the line for one thing or the other, but the single wrinkled neck. But in the end, everyone has it's a collaborative effort to make these things come to bed to come together and our development

• 1:31:40

team is, oh my gosh, wonderful passionate people, and that goes to show in our, when we're looking at attrition rate over the years, you know, industry standard is like over 20 30% right and we're at 2.3 point three, three percent or something like that.

• 1:31:59

So people who come here really enjoy working here. And you know sometimes things change in people's lives and they come and go and that is pretty normal. Yes, we're under the. Just to just to comment a little bit about that as we go into the studio update.

• 1:32:12

For those of you who are watching, who may not be as actively engaged in development process of ashes.

• 1:32:19

What I will say is that where we were prior to alpha one and where we are today are two very different positions right.

• 1:32:29

We are now at over 170 people full time on the team developers who are creating ashes of creation.

• 1:32:36

And we have seen over the course of this last year significant progress from a development perspective for ashes of creation and it's, it's, I mean, as you guys can see through these updates.

• 1:32:49

It is starting to, to look and feel pretty good and there is still a long road to go.

• 1:32:54

And what I will say is that those of you who are finding it hard to be patient for the, for the games release. That's understandable 100%, but we have a very clear objective, we have a very clear goal, and that is to create something special.

• 1:33:09

And, you know, the timeline for something special is is hard to define. You can't put a time box around finding fun. Right. And sometimes when games or publishers try to do that.

• 1:33:22

It doesn't end well. And so we want to make sure because we have spent the better part of the last seven years, developing ashes of creation that we execute on it well and that takes some time and it takes some passion to I think people think like oh you've been in development for seven years but keep in mind the team was very small those first few years.

• 1:33:43

You have five or 10 people working on your staff, you're not going to be able to accomplish as much as you are with 170. So I just want to make that clear that only within the last couple years have we really grown our team.

• 1:33:54

A lot of the previous was getting the foundation to design making sure we're in to be fair that wasn't that's intentional right like when john and I started this studio, having not had a background in gaming and and something's happening.

• 1:34:09

My friends die. Can you hear me okay no you're good. I think it's okay to do with Twitch Twitch. All right. How about how about now, it's clearing up.

• 1:34:19

Now we're okay. Now. So, what we're talking about. What I was gonna say is that having a struggle.

• 1:34:25

When john and I started this company back in, you know, 2016, we had just a couple of people on the team. I think Keith was our was one of our senior character artists was the first was the first hired and.

• 1:34:39

By 2017 you know we got up to maybe 20 people we aren't a blizzard or Microsoft or, you know, a riot that has hundreds of people and, you know, billions of dollars to spend on development right this is, this is out of our pockets and out of the, the,

• 1:34:59

the pre order packs that we've done combined are creating this game and so we built the studio in a very sustainable fashion. Right and exactly yes and Kickstarter, we've been.

• 1:35:09

Yes, we built the, this, the studio in a very sustainable fashion, with a very clear goal and vision that we have stuck to over the years. And, you know, as we're wrapping up 2023 and in December and we look back on those things and obviously, you know,

• 1:35:24

wrapping up is always a very introspective time.

• 1:35:29

I'm very proud of what this team has accomplished and what the company has grown to become because we've kept our identity in that time being very passionate MMORPG gamers, creating something that we've always wanted to see in a game and one that upholds

• 1:35:42

the philosophy, who believes in the integrity of the player in the community that's participating in Ashes of Creation. So, you know, there is something special there I think that is unique about Intrepid, and you guys are seeing that shine through as we give you

• 1:35:56

these development updates.

• 1:35:58

I understand that everything is going to move super quickly but we will, we will make good on everything that we're doing so just making sure that you have patience with us. I think we've all seen games that have been pushed out quickly and we're like wow they really should have taken more time, but a lot of companies have a lot of pressure to push things.

• 1:36:16

Yes, we are fortunate, Stephen. Stephen is the only one who can pressure us so if he's like, get it done we're like all right man, I get pressure. I get pressure, but just just to comment on that what I would say is that, you know, shit, I lost my thought there.

• 1:36:35

I'm sorry I lost my thought. Yeah, so you distracted me on the pressure. Sorry, sorry in regards to taking our time and making sure that we have quality products.

• 1:36:43

Yeah, no, absolutely. I mean, that is very true. I know here's what I'm here's what I was gonna say is that, look, what we are trying to do, which is to create a community focused feedback loop for our development process in creating a non pay to win game that that

• 1:37:01

that represents the integrity of the player, and with the intricate detailed systems and interconnectivity that ashes provides in a very sandbox environment where you can actually see not just hear buzzwords of the environment reacting to the actions of the players.

• 1:37:16

That should be something that everyone roots for everyone in this industry and in this in the community of MMORPG gamers should be rooting for the success of projects like ours, because innovation only occurs when risk

• 1:37:30

takers move forward to achieve something that is important. And and whenever you see a community that comes back and is negative about the outlook or the or the prospects of a particular project, it's fair to give criticism.

• 1:37:46

It's fair to talk about things that should change. We want that. That's why we engage with the community.

• 1:37:52

But at the end of the day, we should be rooting for the success of people who dare to take risks, because risks are how things change, and how we get a better environment for the MMORPGs that we love.

• 1:38:06

And, you know, I get a lot of messages like, Are you worried about this or that product and it's like, No, there's room for everybody. There's room for life. There's lots of people. There's lots of games.

• 1:38:15

So we are friends with a lot of the people who make other games. So I think that from our perspective, it's a it's a community. We are all a community creating games and creating wonderful memories for people and places for people to grow and have have their own sub communities.

• 1:38:33

So 100 percent we are here for that. And there's no hard feelings in regards to that.

• 1:38:40

No, no, no, no. Anything else you want to talk about in the studio side? I know there's been a lot going on. And obviously this is the end of the year to recap the year.

• 1:38:49

You know, obviously, you know, we just Yeah, you know, we've been we've been having some great luck on the hiring front.

• 1:38:56

Obviously, you know, my heart goes out to the industry right now. It's difficult time within within the gaming industry.

• 1:39:02

And it's kind of like right before Christmas, too. It's terrible to see. And and it and it literally tears apart my heart to watch some of these very talented developers through no fault of their own have to suffer a layoff, particularly at this time of year.

• 1:39:16

And and I know that the industry will bounce back. But we have had some we've had some great success in bringing on some amazing talent to the team over the course of these last few months.

• 1:39:26

We just celebrated the end of this milestone. We're going on break starting on Friday and we'll be returning on January 2nd. We watched we got together and rented out the theater here and watched Willy Wonka with our families and the and the developers.

• 1:39:42

That was a lot of fun. I did not. I did not know it was a musical. I'm not necessarily a fan of musicals, but I thought it was great.

• 1:39:49

You know, I enjoyed it. It was fun. I looked across the room when the first song started and I said, oh, I didn't know that. But regardless, we had a lot of fun.

• 1:39:58

And, you know, we're just kind of winding down the year. It's a lot of a lot of head fires right now with getting some of our playable builds over the over the week that we want to have available.

• 1:40:08

But the team has been has been just killing it. So kudos to the team. Everyone at Intrepid that's watching. Great job this year. I mean, if we could get some if you're watching us live here in Twitch, giving us some hearts and chat for our wonderful development team.

• 1:40:22

I'm sure absolutely appreciate that. And then, of course, if you're watching us over on YouTube, you can toss some hearts in there as well in the comments. We would love that.

• 1:40:29

And, you know, we just appreciate you guys. We hope that you appreciate us. We try to give as much love and and knowledge to you also, you know, the community team's going to kill me because I just made you guys spam.

• 1:40:40

So in advance, but whilst we're getting all those hearts and chat, we can continue them for the love of the art. If you don't mind us moving on to that. Yeah, absolutely.

• 1:40:52

So first and foremost, we have a whole slew of weapons that we're going to be showing off for you guys, including books, wands, focuses, scepters, daggers, spears, bows, shields, swords.

• 1:41:07

So I'll kind of let this loop through so you can see all of the cool things. There's a whole set of novice items that they've been working towards, as well as I believe the Sons of Fortune set and a few other little bits and pieces here.

• 1:41:21

But really, we're working on making sure that when you're leveling up from level one through fifteen that you have a lot of cool things that you can craft as well as things that you can attain through, you know, defeating creatures and stuff like that.

• 1:41:33

So they're really honing in on that level one through fifteen experience when it comes to loot drops and crafting items. I don't know if you have anything else to add on that front, Steven.

• 1:41:43

No, it's just, you know, we've been very heads down for the better part of this year focusing on the feature development of a lot of the gameplay systems and over the course of the last few months we've been gearing up obviously towards Alpha 2, which you'll be getting a little bit of an announcement here in a second.

• 1:42:00

And focusing on the progression path, you know, from level one all the way up to level thirty, I believe we're targeting for Alpha 2. So it's been nice to kind of see some of the lower level stuff, getting some TLC, but also the character progression as well.

• 1:42:18

And I think the artists have done a great job with a lot of these weapons.

• 1:42:22

Yeah, and obviously as you level up further there will be more crazy cool looking stuff. So, just kind of, you know, showing you little tidbits we don't like to we don't want to show you everything but give you a little bit.

• 1:42:35

And I also have that mace in a little turntable as well.

• 1:42:39

For those of you mace lovers out there, I'm a big mace fan. That's like a cleric slash paladin so it's pretty cool.

• 1:42:52

Yeah, I love that mace, looks great. The next one we have is the, this is a work in progress but you know we like to share some work in progress stuff.

• 1:42:59

And then the next one is the remnant sympathizer outfit. This is the part of the last pack. Like I said it's work in progress there will be particle effects and things of that sort they're still finalizing things but you can kind of see where it's headed.

• 1:43:14

It's cool for me because I designed this set so seeing it in a 3D space always gets me excited.

• 1:43:21

Yeah, looks great. Danny, Danny's been doing a good job, making it come to 3D life and then I think we have a turntable of this as well. So you can see that.

• 1:43:34

Looks very good. Looking cool.

• 1:43:38

I love the little head in me. That's where this came from. Very dark. I know a lot of people are like how did this come out of her? It's the same place that the snores came out of, the wisp was out of this weird mind of mine.

• 1:43:52

Next we have the goblin shaman that Jinsey's been working on, which is very very cool.

• 1:44:00

I've only seen this bad boy in Alpha 2, 3D model. Oh, look at him. He's just ready to flay some humans.

• 1:44:11

It's fine. But I love the mask. I really hope that the mask and the staff are droppable items because I think people would love Rock. Let me know in chat if you would rock that mask.

• 1:44:24

Yes, I would rock it. I would rock the mask. In real life too, if we can get some cosplay. We need that as a mask item. And that staff too, it's so cool.

• 1:44:35

I'd like to walk into a conference room with that mask on.

• 1:44:39

I'm here for it.

• 1:44:41

Oh, you know how like they have the speaking sticks or something like that? You just have a speaking mask everywhere.

• 1:44:46

Yes.

• 1:44:48

We used to do that at my Pathfinder table when we were younger in high school because otherwise everyone would talk over each other.

• 1:44:54

So we had funny hats. So if you're wearing funny hat, that meant you were in character.

• 1:44:59

So you knew who was trying to get stuff happening versus not. Because we had 13 people. So it was a lot.

• 1:45:06

You had 13 people in your high school?

• 1:45:08

Yeah. Well, 13 people in our high school D&D game.

• 1:45:12

Oh, in D&D game. Okay. I was like, wait a minute.

• 1:45:15

Because we played on Sundays after church. It was fun.

• 1:45:18

As you do after church. Very nice.

• 1:45:23

The devil's work. I know. That's what they said to us. We're doing that.

• 1:45:27

Oh, no.

• 1:45:28

Back in the 90s when people thought we were doing bad things.

• 1:45:32

But yeah. Great job, Chris, Danny, Gincy, Manny and Priscilla. Killing it.

• 1:45:37

We always love seeing yourself. So thank you for sharing it.

• 1:45:39

I know sometimes they're working on stuff and they're like, I don't want to share it yet.

• 1:45:43

But we get to see a lot of amazing artwork from these guys and gals.

• 1:45:47

So I'm glad we get to share a little bit of it. You'll see tons more in Alpha.

• 1:45:52

So moving on to Q&A.

• 1:45:56

All right.

• 1:45:57

We'll play some more videos. We'll play the ranger stuff while we're doing Q&A.

• 1:46:01

And maybe we just do Q&A for the next 10 minutes.

• 1:46:04

All right.

• 1:46:05

Does that sound good?

• 1:46:06

Yep.

• 1:46:07

And then we can do the announce?

• 1:46:08

Yep. We'll do the announce.

• 1:46:09

All right. Let's do it.

• 1:46:10

The thing that everyone's been waiting for.

• 1:46:11

Oh, my goodness.

• 1:46:12

Chrono Stormwater wants to know about general respecking.

• 1:46:15

I know we've talked about this topic before, but they're being very particular.

• 1:46:18

We've talked about when it comes to artisanship, but now they're asking,

• 1:46:21

what are your plans for the wider respecking landscape of Ashes of Creation?

• 1:46:24

Will it be easy or difficult?

• 1:46:26

And will there be a cost involved with general respecking?

• 1:46:30

So I think this is more in archetype specific.

• 1:46:32

I know we've talked about it in other aspects before.

• 1:46:35

Yeah, it's going to be more difficult in artisanship.

• 1:46:39

From an archetype perspective as it relates to skills, it will be a bit easier.

• 1:46:43

I am still conflicted on whether or not I want to allow respecks on the fly.

• 1:46:48

I don't believe we should.

• 1:46:49

I believe that respecking should be done at a particular location.

• 1:46:52

That requires a bit of transit and some strategy,

• 1:46:56

strategic thinking ahead of time about the encounters that you're expecting.

• 1:46:59

But respecking your class should be relatively easier,

• 1:47:04

obviously with that constraint of being at a particular location.

• 1:47:08

All right.

• 1:47:10

And then we've got Sweaty Cup, that's his name, wants to know about artifacts.

• 1:47:15

If a player collects a one per server item, but stops paying their subscription

• 1:47:22

or quits playing the game, will they get to keep the item until they return?

• 1:47:27

It depends.

• 1:47:30

It depends on the item.

• 1:47:31

If we're talking about artifacts, those will likely be timed.

• 1:47:37

There are some ideas that we have around whether or not artifacts get to stay

• 1:47:44

with the character, get downgraded from an artifact status if they were to,

• 1:47:51

let's say, not log in after a period of time or if that time period goes away.

• 1:47:54

But it's something we're going to be testing as part of the end of Alpha 2,

• 1:47:59

excuse me, near the later stages of Alpha 2.

• 1:48:01

But right now, artifacts are timed.

• 1:48:04

Yeah, and for those of you who are new, artifacts are really,

• 1:48:08

really rare items that you can obtain.

• 1:48:10

Single items, yes.

• 1:48:11

Yeah, and there's only one of them on the server.

• 1:48:15

At a time, correct, yeah.

• 1:48:17

Yeah, very, very, very cool.

• 1:48:18

The next one is VR Dynasty, I believe, or VR Dynasty.

• 1:48:23

They want to know about crafting recipes.

• 1:48:25

With the map being as large as it is and recipes being potentially earned anywhere,

• 1:48:30

are there region-specific recipes that would be very hard to find,

• 1:48:34

if not impossible to earn on the other side of Vera?

• 1:48:37

So will there be rare recipes?

• 1:48:39

Yes, absolutely.

• 1:48:40

There are absolutely extremely rare recipes.

• 1:48:42

And not just having rare recipes, but also there are rare unlocks that exist

• 1:48:46

within the recipe as well, as we talked about last month, that you can discover.

• 1:48:51

Recipes get delivered in a number of different ways, through vendors,

• 1:48:56

through social organizations, through religions, through drops, through bosses,

• 1:49:01

and it kind of, through treasures as well, and a lot of those can be

• 1:49:07

locationally dependent.

• 1:49:09

So yes, there are recipes in certain areas that you can find that you will not

• 1:49:13

find in other areas as well.

• 1:49:15

Look, I tried to get a wolf mount the other day, and that thing is complicated too.

• 1:49:19

So whatever, there's many things that will be, at the end of it,

• 1:49:23

you will feel very satisfied that you did put the effort in to get it.

• 1:49:27

The next one is Raven016, who wants to know about crafting.

• 1:49:31

How many Grandmaster level crafting stations can a node stage 5,

• 1:49:36

aka city node, have?

• 1:49:38

Right now, I believe, so Grandmaster station at stage 5.

• 1:49:44

I believe that there can be one Grandmaster station at stage 5,

• 1:49:49

and that there can be two at stage 6.

• 1:49:51

Okay, yeah, I thought it was two at the Metropolis, but I'm not sure.

• 1:49:55

Yeah.

• 1:49:56

Tyrol wants to know about universal skills.

• 1:49:59

Will each archetype be equally efficient with universal skills,

• 1:50:04

like dodging and active blocking, or will each of them kind of have their own

• 1:50:08

versions and flavors, or will some people be more powerful than others?

• 1:50:12

Yeah, right now we have a host of different universal skills.

• 1:50:15

That is rolling, active block, and what we want to do is we want to provide

• 1:50:25

a progression path that's shared for those universal skills across all the

• 1:50:29

archetypes.

• 1:50:30

So when you spend skill points, you can choose to spend them within the

• 1:50:34

universal skill set and unlock particular ability types for the universal

• 1:50:39

skills as well, but you will be spending them from the skill points that you

• 1:50:43

would normally spend within your class-specific skill tree.

• 1:50:46

And this offers, again, a different wheel of customization that I think is

• 1:50:50

interesting.

• 1:50:51

Then Liniker wants to know about node artisanship benefits.

• 1:50:55

We know that the best processing is done in freeholds and the best crafting is

• 1:50:59

done in nodes, but is that restricted to academic nodes only?

• 1:51:03

What benefits or restrictions do node types have in regards to crafting?

• 1:51:07

There are no restrictions as it relates to the best crafting, meaning access to

• 1:51:12

those crafting stations.

• 1:51:13

However, the academic or scientific nodes, those provide bonuses and

• 1:51:20

strengths towards crafting within the node.

• 1:51:23

So it's not a hard lockout.

• 1:51:25

It's a soft bonus system.

• 1:51:27

Okay.

• 1:51:28

And then Gaal wants to know about world building.

• 1:51:31

Is it correct that Intrepid Studios is building the western continent first

• 1:51:34

and then the eastern continent is coming afterwards, or is that not the right

• 1:51:38

way to think about the game's direction of development?

• 1:51:41

No, that is accurate.

• 1:51:43

We are focused on the western continent first.

• 1:51:45

And I don't know how you got that information.

• 1:51:49

I'm just kidding.

• 1:51:50

I mean, they've seen the map.

• 1:51:51

Yes, we're focused.

• 1:51:52

And then we're talking about the areas.

• 1:51:54

I think they can...

• 1:51:55

I know.

• 1:51:56

Anybody can remap.

• 1:51:57

Yes, we are focused on the western continent right now.

• 1:51:59

That is accurate.

• 1:52:00

Yes.

• 1:52:01

Top wants to know about AOE abilities.

• 1:52:03

Is the impact of an area effect, offensive or defensive, limited to a

• 1:52:09

number of targets or by an area?

• 1:52:13

Currently, our diminishing return approach is not to restrict the number

• 1:52:20

of targets that can be affected by a particular thing.

• 1:52:25

We do have player collision.

• 1:52:27

So in and of itself, that provides a limited quantity of individuals who can

• 1:52:31

be affected by area of effect spells.

• 1:52:34

We're going to be play testing and experimenting with a few different

• 1:52:39

diminishing return approaches as it relates to AOE abilities as well as

• 1:52:43

status conditions.

• 1:52:44

All right.

• 1:52:45

And as I wrap up these last two questions, I think we're going to be able to

• 1:52:48

answer them in time.

• 1:52:49

I don't know if Vagner or Roshan want to get a poll in chat.

• 1:52:53

I'm just curious what quarter everyone thinks next year we'll go into Alpha

• 1:52:57

2 and we'll see if it matches up against what the announce is.

• 1:53:01

So the next question here is from Kadek and they want to know about gathering.

• 1:53:05

If another player is gathering a tree and I come in for the final trap, do I

• 1:53:10

get the tree?

• 1:53:11

Yes.

• 1:53:12

If you come in and so it depends on who completes the gathering interaction

• 1:53:17

first.

• 1:53:18

So if they've begun and you come in and you have a faster gathering time

• 1:53:27

because of either your profession, experience, the tool you're using, the

• 1:53:31

upgrades you've chosen or the outfit you're wearing, you could conceivably

• 1:53:35

complete it before then.

• 1:53:37

But again, it is awarded to the first player to complete.

• 1:53:41

All right.

• 1:53:42

And then our last question here is from Cash Quest and they want to know

• 1:53:45

about range attacks.

• 1:53:46

Can Steven elaborate further on why the minimum distance required was removed

• 1:53:50

for the ranger's range attacks?

• 1:53:53

This came from a conversation I had with you on Discord.

• 1:53:56

Sure.

• 1:53:57

So to give greater context there, originally when I was thinking about the

• 1:54:02

ranger, I had thought about introducing a minimum range requirement in order to

• 1:54:09

offset its flexibility in combat and having them think a little bit more

• 1:54:15

strategically about positioning on the battlefield.

• 1:54:17

That became an unfun experience when we play tested it.

• 1:54:21

And so we decided to remove it.

• 1:54:23

Instead, we may choose to play around with things like range, too close of

• 1:54:29

range affecting something maybe like accuracy.

• 1:54:32

We haven't play tested with that.

• 1:54:34

Or we just might not incorporate it and instead let it live within the

• 1:54:37

abilities.

• 1:54:38

You saw an example of that with regards to the lightning ability having

• 1:54:43

variable effects conferred at different ranges.

• 1:54:47

That right now is the approach that we're taking.

• 1:54:51

And with that, are we ready for our little announce?

• 1:54:55

Should I just play it?

• 1:54:56

I think, well, before we play it, let me, I mean, maybe we, yeah, maybe we

• 1:55:01

can play it.

• 1:55:02

No, let me talk about this for a second.

• 1:55:04

I know we're going to have some thoughts afterwards that we need to.

• 1:55:07

Okay.

• 1:55:08

I want everyone in the audience to breathe with me.

• 1:55:11

We're just going to breathe in.

• 1:55:13

Wait.

• 1:55:14

Hold on.

• 1:55:15

That was out.

• 1:55:16

Okay.

• 1:55:17

Breathe out.

• 1:55:18

And then breathe out.

• 1:55:19

And then breathe in.

• 1:55:21

I want you to understand.

• 1:55:23

Those of you who are watching those of you who might not be watching and

• 1:55:26

following the project as much as, as, as others in our community.

• 1:55:31

This is a long time coming.

• 1:55:33

Alpha two is a major testing period for the product for the game.

• 1:55:38

And it is intended to be.

• 1:55:42

It is something that provides us with a great amount of wealth of information

• 1:55:49

and iterative processing that we can then go back and touch on certain

• 1:55:53

systems, combat, everything.

• 1:55:55

Right.

• 1:55:56

Now.

• 1:55:58

There we are going to give you our projection according to our schedule

• 1:56:02

that we believe that we are going to hit alpha two.

• 1:56:05

But we are going to be, we have already begun testing.

• 1:56:08

The remainder of December, January, February, March, we are going to be

• 1:56:12

testing a lot over the course of the next several months.

• 1:56:16

Sometimes that testing can prove to set us back a little bit.

• 1:56:20

Hopefully that is not the case.

• 1:56:22

We are still, we are very far ahead of a lot of the more nebulous questions

• 1:56:26

from a development perspective.

• 1:56:28

So we feel really good about it.

• 1:56:31

But I want you to take.

• 1:56:33

Obviously what we're announced with alpha two with a grain of salt, right?

• 1:56:37

This is not a game that we are launching in alpha two.

• 1:56:40

This is truly a testing environment.

• 1:56:43

This is something that if you are considering purchasing alpha two, that

• 1:56:48

you should make sure you understand this is not a game experience.

• 1:56:52

This is a testing platform.

• 1:56:55

Those of you who are in PI and who were previous alpha one testers, it is

• 1:57:01

going to be a lot of spot testing.

• 1:57:03

It is going to be a lot of preparation for alpha two.

• 1:57:06

And it is going to be a lot of work essentially, right?

• 1:57:09

To want to log in and play through wipes multiple times potentially before

• 1:57:13

we get to alpha two.

• 1:57:15

There may be wipes in alpha two.

• 1:57:17

We can't accurately predict that.

• 1:57:19

So we are very excited about alpha two at the studio.

• 1:57:22

Very excited about alpha two because it is a large segment of the game and

• 1:57:27

in a pretty sizable portion of the world.

• 1:57:30

And it is going to be a major test bed for us to validate the interactions of

• 1:57:35

all of these systems that we have built.

• 1:57:37

And it is going to be an exciting time and we are going to have a lot of fun

• 1:57:41

doing it.

• 1:57:43

And so with that, I think that we can show when we expect alpha two to land

• 1:57:48

which quarter in 2024.

• 1:57:51

We will see you all in the next quarter.

• 1:58:09

All right.

• 1:58:11

There you have it.

• 1:58:13

Quarter three.

• 1:58:15

We are going to see you all on Vera.

• 1:58:17

We are very excited.

• 1:58:19

We are going to be doing a lot of testing.

• 1:58:21

We are already spot testing.

• 1:58:23

I got some people riled up because they are like, I'm not there.

• 1:58:27

To reiterate, right now we are doing internal testing.

• 1:58:30

We are going to be expanding that to PI.

• 1:58:32

They are the first people who get in.

• 1:58:34

And then we will be expanding that further and further as we get further

• 1:58:37

along.

• 1:58:39

As we get closer to that quarter three mark.

• 1:58:41

All of the testing prior to that quarter three mark will be under NDA

• 1:58:44

unless we say otherwise.

• 1:58:46

We will be doing that.

• 1:58:49

We will be doing that.

• 1:58:51

People who are testing should not be talking about it.

• 1:58:54

It is not in a state we are ready to share.

• 1:58:56

Once we are in quarter three.

• 1:58:58

Once we are ready to announce the date.

• 1:59:00

We will probably announce it before.

• 1:59:02

You will know the date so you can plan.

• 1:59:04

Of course we will be reaching out to those of you who have alpha two

• 1:59:07

access in advance as well.

• 1:59:09

You will get messaging.

• 1:59:11

You will be notified.

• 1:59:13

You will get a notification.

• 1:59:16

If you are an alpha two access person.

• 1:59:18

Stay tuned.

• 1:59:20

We will be reaching out to you later as we get closer to quarter three.

• 1:59:23

Just want to make sure that is clear.

• 1:59:25

We got a lot of CS tickets.

• 1:59:27

I don't have access yet.

• 1:59:29

I was like, not yet.

• 1:59:31

It confused people a little bit.

• 1:59:33

We will be very proactive.

• 1:59:35

Exactly.

• 1:59:37

Proactive with the messaging.

• 1:59:39

As Margaret said.

• 1:59:41

Keep an eye out on emails.

• 1:59:43

We will be sending out information as those testing dates are drawn here.

• 1:59:46

Yeah.

• 1:59:48

I think there were some questions that people had.

• 1:59:50

I think we clarified the first bit of it.

• 1:59:52

The second bit of it was the persistency of alpha two and what that looks like.

• 1:59:57

I think some people think persistence means 24 seven up forever.

• 2:00:01

There will absolutely be down times.

• 2:00:04

100%.

• 2:00:06

Again, this is a testing bed.

• 2:00:08

When those down times need to happen or those wipes need to occur, we are going to do what is best for the product, not for the experience in alpha two.

• 2:00:16

That is a very clear distinguish between what to expect when we launch the game, which is all about the player experience, versus the development process that is alpha two.

• 2:00:25

It is very important to understand that dichotomy.

• 2:00:29

The goal is to eventually have our alpha two, that stream to end up being our test down the line.

• 2:00:41

It will run simultaneously through the other ones.

• 2:00:44

Of course, still down time.

• 2:00:46

There will be down time.

• 2:00:48

It is not going to be 24 seven always.

• 2:00:50

I wanted to make sure that was clear to folks.

• 2:00:52

I have been seeing a lot of discussion going around about that.

• 2:00:55

Once we are in alpha two, that will no longer have an NDA.

• 2:00:59

Then you will be able to stream and share and screenshot and talk about it.

• 2:01:03

Prior to that, remember, keep it safe.

• 2:01:07

Keep it safe.

• 2:01:08

I like that.

• 2:01:11

Anything else you want to add on that, friends?

• 2:01:14

No.

• 2:01:15

Just excited and happy to be here with you guys.

• 2:01:17

Excited for the end of the year.

• 2:01:18

Excited for next year.

• 2:01:19

It is going to be a fun time.

• 2:01:21

Things are moving fast.

• 2:01:23

We hope that you all are able to stay safe and you can spend time with those you love during this holiday season.

• 2:01:31

I know not everybody has that opportunity.

• 2:01:33

We do have community space over here.

• 2:01:35

You can come hang out with us for the holidays.

• 2:01:37

We are ashes of creation all the places.

• 2:01:39

The YouTube video for the 4K version is up.

• 2:01:41

The full development update video will go up tomorrow pending YouTube wants to cooperate and Twitch wants to cooperate.

• 2:01:47

Please head on over to our forums.

• 2:01:50

We are always engaging you with feedback or asking you for feedback.

• 2:01:54

You can head on to forums.ashesofcreation.com.

• 2:01:57

We have several things.

• 2:01:58

Drop rarities up right now.

• 2:02:00

Give us your feedback on that.

• 2:02:01

Of course, the ranger archetype.

• 2:02:03

We would love to hear your thoughts on that.

• 2:02:05

Reminder that the unseen order cosmetics are going to be ending January 17th.

• 2:02:10

That is your last chance to get a preorder pack or your friends do.

• 2:02:13

We may extend other opportunities to purchase into Alpha 2 access but there will no longer be preorder packs available.

• 2:02:21

So just keeping that in mind.

• 2:02:23

That is a big point.

• 2:02:25

I want to make sure.

• 2:02:26

And we'll send messaging out as well.

• 2:02:28

But we have given multiple months now of notice that we'll be ending the preorder packages come January 17th.

• 2:02:35

This is not intended to be a FOMO.

• 2:02:37

Like I said, we get multiple months of notice.

• 2:02:39

We may be opening up Alpha 2 access in a different form at some point in the future closer to Alpha 2.

• 2:02:45

If we can service those users.

• 2:02:47

Correct.

• 2:02:48

That's dependent on internal testing.

• 2:02:50

It's dependent on the external testing that we're doing as well.

• 2:02:53

That is going to help inform that decision.

• 2:02:55

But as it stands now, we will be ending preorder packages January 17th across everything whether it be Beta or Alpha.

• 2:03:04

And then of course we would love to thank you all for tuning in.

• 2:03:07

Thank you so much for all the raids and people who are watching from their other channels.

• 2:03:11

We really appreciate that you're sharing the world of Vera with other people and sharing the love for Ashes of Creation.

• 2:03:17

We really, really appreciate that.

• 2:03:19

And of course thank you to all of you who are watching and joining us and sticking with us throughout this entire very long live stream.

• 2:03:27

And of course.

• 2:03:28

Is this another two hour live stream?

• 2:03:30

Yeah.

• 2:03:31

Oh no.

• 2:03:32

Me and you also had a lot of side conversations.

• 2:03:34

That's true.

• 2:03:35

But the beginning of the year, we don't want to rush it.

• 2:03:38

Right?

• 2:03:39

Absolutely.

• 2:03:40

Thank you to Trad and Brian and Keenan for your work and joining us for a showcase and showcasing the Ranger in a great way.

• 2:03:46

And of course Steven for your time.

• 2:03:48

And we hope that you all are going to be just as excited as us in the new year because we'll see you then.

• 2:03:54

I'm going to be married next time.

• 2:03:56

Oh my goodness.

• 2:03:57

I am so excited.

• 2:03:58

I cannot wait.

• 2:04:00

John and I are ready to go.

• 2:04:02

We've got our flight ready and everything.

• 2:04:04

I'm so excited.

• 2:04:05

So yeah, not only have we been wrapping up the year, I've also been planning a wedding.

• 2:04:09

So it's been crazy time for me.

• 2:04:11

But we'll see you all next month for another development update.

• 2:04:15

Merry Christmas.

• 2:04:16

Happy New Year.

• 2:04:17

Bye guys.