ashes-of-creation-story-arc-mechanics

The livestream revealed the dynamism of the Ashes of Creation story as well as when we can expect Alpha 2.

Intrepid have released their latest livestream. This time, a group of devs dove into the Ashes of Creation story arc system with the Tower of Carphin taking center stage. This is the largest dungeon of the Riverlands, and an area that the team have been building up to for a while. Plus, early on, Steven Sharif himself shed a little light on when we can finally expect to see Alpha 2.

In this livestream, Sharif was joined by one of AoC's senior designers, Scott, who was the mastermind behind the Tower of Carphin setting. Off the bat, Scott explained how Ashes of Creation story arcs will take shape, stating "It's helpful to think of story arcs as a pre-packaged tabletop campaign." Which should be a particularly exciting prospect for D&D fans.

This means that aspects such as locations and monsters will comprise the building blocks of a narrative yet player choice will directly influence the order in which they are stacked.

For instance, the Tower of Carphin arc, including aesthetics, will morph depending on how players have interacted with the surrounding environment. Such as which race controls surround nodes and how developed these nodes are. Ashes of Creation story arcs are intended to represent change, and will summarily alter the environment around them to illustrate this.

In this particular demonstration, the Tower of Carphin was subjected to some kind of explosion before the surrounding landscape became clouded in a red mist, and a corruption-wrapped bridge rose from a chasm. Though it was pointed out that there are other ways to unveil this bridge, such as by developing the nearby module further.

As the team went about having fun in the dungeon, they fleshed out the history of the Tower of Carphin, including how blood magic has given way to the corruption we see on screen. The same kind of corruption that antagonistic players will also suffer as a result of their bloodlust.

The most important takeaways, however, included how Ashes of Creation story arcs won't be dependent on such things as dailies and weeklies. Instead, players will have days to help push the narrative in a certain direction before the landscape changes once more. Highlighting one of AoC's most unique features as an MMO.

Later on, however, Sharif was keen to stress how the game won't be for everyone. Competitive mechanics will mean that there will always be some risk of players being targeted and robbed by unscrupulous adventurers. Though certain portions of the game will be subject to instances to prevent a totally free-for-all environment.

Finally, one of the biggest reveals came when Steven was presented with a community question that asked whether we can expect Alpha 2 in a matter of months or years.

Despite AoC adopting an incredibly transparent release schedule early on in the development, Intrepid has recently resolved that keeping to these deadlines is not conducive to developing an MMO as ambitious as theirs. Sharif's response, therefore, was slightly vague, though assured us that we won't have to wait years for Alpha 2.

Our interpretation of his response was that we can, therefore, expect to see Alpha 2 within the next 12 months. From there, specifics on a final release is anyone's guess. But, as usual, we're always happy to wait as the development team leaves no stone unturned.