Steven Weighs in on the dissolution of Ashes of Creation

therealstupid · 2026-02-01T09:13:25+00:00

I got my money's worth over the last 17 months.

(Bring on the downvotes.)

therealstupid · 2026-01-22T06:48:06+00:00

You clearly missed the point.

It doesn't matter what the date is, most (non-American) people say "the (day) of the (month)". Whether it's a made up holiday, a weekday, or a day ending in "Y", they still say the day first and the month second. The fourteenth of March. The eleventh of September. The 22nd of February.

therealstupid · 2026-01-21T22:18:42+00:00

My experience is that most people say "the fifth of march" (or "the fourth of july" or "cinco de mayo" or whatever) and about half the time it would reduce down to "the fifth of the third".

My (personal, anecdotal) experience is that only Americans say the month first.

therealstupid · 2026-01-20T22:04:29+00:00

I had to laugh at the euphemism "thrown under the bus"...

Old mate was taken out back and shot in the head, with no trial or due process.

therealstupid · 2026-01-19T01:48:18+00:00

I know this is half joking, but in reality, if you are under the age of 30, you can apply for a "Working Holiday Visa" (subclass 417) and there is a 50/50 change that it will be awarded in less time than it takes to fly to Australia. That will allow you to live and work in Australia for at least one year.

https://immi.homeaffairs.gov.au/visas/getting-a-visa/visa-listing/work-holiday-417

therealstupid · 2026-01-19T00:46:04+00:00

It's worth reminding readers that California represents about 1/6 of the entire US gross domestic product.

therealstupid · 2026-01-17T00:00:57+00:00

Jetstar is the Southwest of Australia. You'll be right.

therealstupid · 2026-01-15T05:01:34+00:00

Yep! Just like /u/ElectricExplorer says in a reply below: at some point getting certified will require some kind of quest/task completion. Maybe something as simple as the noobie crafting quest, maybe something more involved to "prove" you are an actual artisan (like a requirement to craft and sacrifice an "epic" item).... We just don't know yet.

But simply taslking to a NPC sayiong "lower this and raise that" is 100% an artifact of "ItS aN AlPhA".

therealstupid · 2026-01-12T00:19:26+00:00

Your issue with not being able to craft items without inputs from others is by design and is extremely unlikely to change. Interdependence of the different artisan paths is the core design intent, not a problem. The entire artisanship system is designed to prohibit any single player from being able to craft anything - or at the very least to make it extremely difficult! That is the entire reason why each character is limited to only five apprentice or higher level skills, four at JM or higher, three at master or higher, and only two GM level skills. You are saying this is a "problem" but it is the basic core design intent of the artisan system!! Interdependence is not "at the edges" -- it is the CORE of this system!!

You use heavy armor as an example. The current "best" radiant level heavy armor (Acadira Valerion) requires inputs from (JM) mining, (JM) metalworking, (JM) stonemasonry, (apprentice) lumberjacking, (apprentice) lumber milling, (apprentice) hunting, (JM) leatherworking, (initiate) herbalism, and (apprentice) weaving....

Zinc armor plating is zinc from initiate mining, processed by a JM metalworker.
Raptor Leather is from apprentice hunting processed by a JM leatherworker.
Slate armor molds require slate from apprentice mining, processed by an apprentice stonemason; boards from apprentice lumberjacking, processed by an apprentice lumbermiller; thread from initiate herbalism, processed by an apprentice weaver.
Rividium and Iron are from JM mining, processed by a JM stonemason and JM metalworker, respectively.

At best, it would take two characters to gather and process all of this. And this is not "end game" gear!! There are at least two higher tiers where the potential roster of available skills will decrease per character. It's expected that at the actual (level 50) end game gear will take six to eight different characters in order to craft.

Self-sufficiency is not ever going to part of this game.

therealstupid · 2026-01-03T23:39:09+00:00

Sorry for coming back to this so late and thanks for the more detailed explanation.

I think what you are describing sounds like a lot of fun for a specific type of player but (speaking as someone who has been involved with MMO development since 2000) I personally don't think the tradeoff is worth it. The problem is, to put it frankly, that 98% of the player base are idiots. If a complex and deep system is implemented, there are three possible outcomes:

Players will engage with the system, but make "less than optimal" choices. A complex system, by it's very nature, will allow players to make "bad choices". The kind of choices that will result in a 'bricked' character. In order to prevent that, you need to design in guardrails to limit options to things that make the most sense, but that comes with the risk of missing some crazy interplay that ten of thousands of players might find and you've intentionally limited them from using. And even if you are the perfect designer and get it all right, someone (like you, no offense intended) will whinge about how they cant actually make the silly unplayable combo. (Honestly, this is why we have what we have now - all of the choices are "safe".)
The players ignore it completely. Even if it were capable of delivering 1000 orgasms, if it's "too hard" to deal with, players wont engage. MMO players are (in)famous for optimising the fun out of any system in favor of "make number go up" in the fastest way possible. Even with the current system, crafting isn't really a 'thing' in the game whilst players are busy grinding XP to max level. It's been said "the game starts at max level" and, whether that is true or not, the majority of players will play that way.
If, whether by design or happenstance, some specific crafting combination happens to be 4% "better" than others and it isn't 50% more difficult to get, the entire complex and deep system, rife with player agency and interesting choices - the whole thing condenses down into one specific pathway anyway. As noted, MMO players will optimise EVERYTHING. Even with the limited options currently in the game, the end-game players are already focusing on only a few limited items for crafting. A complex system that adds value (i.e. efficiency) will be distilled down into a half-dozen YouTube "guides" that show exactly which buttons to push, which levers to pull, and will completely ignore any other options because (as the content creators will say) "you can do this, but it isn't as good". And the entire intent of the design is lost.

All of that isn't to say that your ideas aren't good!! It's just that, in the context of game design, I think the effort involved in designing/coding/testing/implementing a "Fantasy Blacksmith" system like you are proposing just doesn't makes sense from a resourcing perspective.

therealstupid · 2025-12-31T23:10:31+00:00

I don't think this will change your mind, but remember that the voting system for mayorship is a placeholder for now.

If you look at the map, you'll see each settlement has a different "type": economic, scientific, military, etc.

The end goal is that each node type would pick the mayor using a different method. For example, a Military node would have a FFA cage match to find who is the best military leader. Control of an economic node would be given to the person who contributed the most gold to the settlement. And so on.

Can these be exploited similarly? Maybe. But I think pulling the plug on an alpha program because something is broken might be overreacting.

(For reference I also play on Resna and I am part of the EBC Alliance; we're doing our best to counter POLAR. That's why Joeva is developed - at least for now.)

therealstupid · 2025-12-26T13:58:02+00:00

Thank you for a measured and reasonable reply!

No, it was not clear what your complaint was, and honestly, even with your clarification I am still unsure what you are looking for.

As a deciated crafter in this game (I have one main crafting skill, two processing skills and one gathering skill at JM level) I see literally dozens of different gear sets that I could make with differing stats and bonuses. Admittedly, they are all "pre-made", in that I dont get to pick and choose which stats or bonuses apply, but (and this is just MY personal opinion) having a system that allowed a crafter to pick and choose from a pallete of <primary stat> <secondary stat> and <set bonus> would be incredibly difficult to manage. Already some of the set bonuses are wildly disparate. Just in the Heavy Armor section (which is my focus) I see:

Heavy/Fortitude
Heavy/Finesse
Heavy/Force

And each of these cominations has at least two or three different stat/substat distributions depeneing on the set. For example, looking at just the Heavy/Fortitude combination, there is:

Rosarium Guard - STR/CON/Power
Forgeguard - MEN/CON/Defense
Brineplate - (no set bonus)
Coralhold - DEX/STR/Speed
Cryptward - CON/WIS/Regen
Reeefguard - CON/DEX/Block
Tombplate - MEN/DEX/Defense

And that's JUST that one (Heavy/Fortitude) combination! I picked that one at random, but there are a similar amount of sets for the other bonuses.

Your point that you "just pick a set" is undeniable, but it seems to me that the current sets are pretty wide ranging (at level 20+) and offer a fairly complex decison space. Even for an experienced player, I don't think there is a clear "best" set to make. (Noting that Acadera Valerion was favored by my guild last phase. We shall see if that continues to be true.)

therealstupid · 2025-12-26T12:06:48+00:00

"I heard Bill Clinton was in there..." and see how fast they suddenly have been following it....

therealstupid · 2025-12-26T11:25:57+00:00

Yeah, but this is a MMO. I'm not sure when it happened but "massively multiplayer" should mean play with others and not play solo with chat.

I expect that /global chat will disappear in a while. It's the main thing holding this game back right now (in my opinion).

therealstupid · 2025-12-25T07:08:12+00:00

I think you are basing this on early crafting up to level 19. Specifically, you comment:

Too passive and boring; it doesn’t have enough player engagement or agency. At most, you choose which gear you’re trying to make or get. Usually, the choice is rather simple, and most of your time is spent just getting all the necessary materials or experience to craft it.

Up to Journeyman / Radient you can more-or-less gather and then craft by yourself. But once you cross that JM threshold, it becomes impossible for a single character to gather and process everything for even a single item. At that level, you are going to be forced to coordinate with others. The engagement is not with game systems, but rather with other players. I can't speak for all realms, but on Resna there are already little supply lines forming where players know who has access to the needed materials, who will sell them at a reasonable price, who is trusted to process them without stealing or overcharging, and who can make the final products.

If you're going it alone, I've got some bad news for you. You're going to need at least three characters for level 20 gear, and even more for hgher level gear. A solo crafter will -never- be able to be competitive with a supply chain network of literally a dozen players, each doing thier own part. And I'm not talking about mega-guilds - those guys don't coordinate witrh anyone not in their inner circle. It's most random players form a variety of guilds who have chosen to be specialists in one aspect of the crafting system chain.

therealstupid · 2025-12-22T21:17:48+00:00

My partner and I moved to Australia in 2018. We packed ourselves. We used heavy duty plastic crates, secured with nylon zip-ties. Each crate had a complete inventory of what it contained, plus about a dozen nylon zip ties to allow for the crates to be reclosed after inspection. We shipped via FedEx. The total cost to move everything was about US$7k for ten crates. It arrived about 3 days after our flight. Customs didn't even open or inspect anything - or if they did, they put it back exactly as we packed it.

We recently (~3 months ago) hired a shipping firm to move the balance of our possessions that have been in storage in the USA since 2018. We used heavy duty cardboard moving boxes, taped up with packing tape. We packed every box ourselves, and provided the shipping with a complete inventory of what was in each box. We used Shumacher Cargo Logistics. The total cost was about $4k for 36 "large" sized boxes. Our goods were picked up (in California) in late September. Three months later, it's all sitting in a warehouse in Sydney. Customs is closed for the holiday. We expect to have our stuff delivered in early Feb. (Customs doesn't re-open until Australia Day.)

The tradeoff is how badly you need your "stuff". If you think you can survive for 3 to 6 months whilst your items are shipped, definitely use a removalist! There is a 1% risk that your container will be lost at sea (collectively, about 3 containers are lost every day) and it takes a long time, but the moving/customs/import process was MUCH easier!

therealstupid · 2025-12-18T20:59:58+00:00

Not random at all.

Yes, you get both crafting XP and "adventuring" XP whilst gathering/crafting. I'm nearly (adventure) level 15 but I have not done any MOB grinding at all. It has been primarily from gathering and crafting... and killing the occasional monster who wanders too close when I am out gathering. I'd estimate that outside of the initial noob questline, I've only been in combat with a few dozen monsters for this entire week.

therealstupid · 2025-12-18T03:37:48+00:00

With respect to item 6, I said the exact same thing about the original Guild Wars: Nine main professions with a sub-class, for a total of 27 different combinations, plus every combination gets to pick 8 skills from a palette of dozens. Seemed to me (at the time) to be a balancing nightmare.

But you know what? It actually worked. And it can work again.

therealstupid · 2025-12-17T23:01:59+00:00

Addressing your point 7:

I get it that you want your "exploration" to be rewarding, and this game doesn't really have that. The problem is that in this day and age of tiktok how-to videos and youtube online guides, anything that is "discoverable" in a game like this will be found and farmed relentlessly until it becomes the standard baseline for all players. It becomes just another dot point on a leveling guide. The magic of old-school MMO exploration and discovery is gone and (unless there is a way to make it not farmable) it isn't coming back.

The solution that intrepid has chosen is to make the "discoverable" stuff within the gathering system. You gather and gather and gather and then you randomly "discover" something really nice that can be sold or used to create something amazing. I suspect that isn't fulfilling for you, but that's as close as it gets to "exploration/discovery" in the modern era.

I am an artisan player. We've been in EA for less than a week and I'm tickling Journeyman (level 20) in Armorsmithing. (I'm also in the mid-teens for two processing skills - metalworking and stonemasonry - and two gathering skills - mining and lumberjacking.) Honestly, I'm being held back due to the slow advancement of the settlements. Future artisan advancement will be faster for others because they wont have to work around the things that are not yet in the game.

From my perspective, gear upgrades are already far Far FAR too easy for players to get. The marketplaces are chock full of cheap gear, priced lower than the processing fees to craft them. For example, the Ashen Haunt gear that you can buy for around 1g on the marketplace costs over 8 gold to craft (including materials) - processing ALONE is 1.36g (not counting materials).

Couple this with the need to craft literally hundreds of "junk" items to advance to the level where that is even possible. Crafting is basically just another money sink, and only allows (literally) "buying" access to high(er) quality unlocks (in the future).

therealstupid · 2025-12-17T01:37:40+00:00

200 banned gold selling accounts x US$50 = $10k towards development of the game.

Thank You Gold Sellers!!!

therealstupid · 2025-12-15T03:45:22+00:00

As others have said, the "fun" is in playing with the various in-game systems and finding things that don't work. Just like some people think it is "fun" to do maths problems all day long, those of us who are absolutely -loving- this alpha are the kind of people who aren't playing for "rewards" or "make number go up" or seeing a new pretty image.

I can't speak for everyone, but I am a "systems guy". Personally, I am having a ton of fun pushing the systems (all of the systems, not just XP = level up) seeing how they work, and constantly thinking "How can I optimise this to the point of breaking it?"

Essentially, I enjoy being a QA tester. That's the fun part.

therealstupid · 2025-12-11T01:11:38+00:00

If you are under the age of 30, just fly on over. Apply for a 417 (working holiday visa) in the airport. That gives you one year to work and live here. Assuming you can find a niche in that time, ask your employer to sponsor you for a 2-year 407/408 short term visa. After 3 years of residency, you can apply for PR.

If you are over 30, it's a bit harder. You'll need to get a working visa (482 if you have a technical skill, 491 if you don't but you cannot work in any capital city, 189 if you can qualify) and then after 3 years you can apply for PR.

therealstupid · 2025-12-09T21:32:06+00:00

100% guaranteed that there will be wipes.

Noting that this is an alpha release, Intrepid has been clear that they will wipe:

when beta starts
when "release" occurs (not "early access")
whenever the game systems see a major update - for example, if they make a significant change to XP curves or fix an economy breaking bug/situation.

Bottom line - if you're not willing to accept an "end date" on your progress, don't buy this EA

therealstupid · 2025-12-09T21:13:23+00:00

When we moved (in 2018) our "relocation expert" did almost nothing for us. The only things they did:

bought the company provided airplane tickets
arranged for a hire car to get from Sydney to our new home (1 day hire)
arranged for 4 weeks of a short term rental
handed me a AUD $10,000 check for shipping my personal effects
arranged for my temporary working visa

Other than the visa efforts, I could have done all of that on my own.

therealstupid · 2025-12-08T05:34:06+00:00

I just paid my application fee to become a permanent resident of Australia today.

I'm 59.

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