ALBION ONLINE SHOWS OFF A QUARTET OF NEW SKILLS

One of the fun parts of being involved in a game’s development cycle is seeing what the team comes up with next. For example, Albion Online has quite a few lethal tools brewing for players’ arsenals, and the team showed off four new spells and abilities this week that are currently in development.

Flame staff users will soon be able to cast flame orb, a miniature sun that will barrel through enemies in a straight line. If you have a quarterstaff, you’ll be able to whip up a small tornado that also strikes out in a single direction. As for melee fighters, the tackle and charge abilities will give hammer and claymore users, respectively, the option to dash right into an opponent’s face and deliver painful justice.

The preview of these skills is more of a tease than an in-depth look (don’t expect stat crunching here), but it’s interesting even so!

Make Gathering a Small Group Activity

My post did not get any attention on the feedback forums, but I think this would help improve the game and activity out in the world as well as open world fights tremendously…

So here’s my suggestion…

Vanguard: Saga of Heroes, which had an open world FFA PVP server ran this system and I think it could work in Albion. I would like harvesting to become a small group activity, because the social aspect will help make harvesting a little bit more fun and this idea will also help the Devs reduce the amount of balancing they will have to do to help gatherers because you can do it in a small group.

• Say we have Player 1 who we will call Sickle6
  • Because he can harvest T6 fiber
• We also have Player who we will call Sickle2
  • Because he can only harvest T2 fiber
• Lastly we have Player 3 who we will call Lumberjack6
  • Because he can harvest T6 wood but can’t harvest past T1 fiber by himself.

In this suggested system, if Sickle6, Sickle2, and Lumberjack6 are in the same group they can harvest the highest resource that each individual can harvest BUT they all have to be on the same node and carry the right tools.

So when Sickle6, Sickle2, and Lumberjack6 all start harvesting that T6 fiber, they all get a little bit of T6 fiber but Sickle6 gets more because he’s specialized in it. (I would also consider limiting the rares to ONLY people who are spec’d in that specific tree.) So if Sickle6, Sickle2, and Lumberjack6 are harvesting a T6.3 fiber Sickle2 and Lumberjack6 will only get a small amount of T6 fiber and Sickle6 will get the rare and maybe a bonus rare for doing it with a group instead of solo. This also means that the same group of people could harvest T6 Trees IF they all had T6 wood axes because Lumbderjack6 can harvest T6 trees.

Yes this idea will put more resources into the market, but it will also increase the amount of small groups out roaming the world which is great for open world PVP and with more fights, people will trash more gear to make up for the new resources.

Some things to consider:

• Should Sickle2 and Lumberjack6 get fame for harvesting it?
  • I think yes, what is your opinion?
• Should their be a cap on the amount of people that can be on the node/in group?
  • I think 3 would be a good number, my guildy suggested that you put a cap on how much can be gathered from the node so it doesn’t matter how many people you have, but I think this may encourage zerging.
• Should Sickle2 and Lumberjack6 get rares?
  • I don’t think so, I think the biggest reward should be for the person who can actually harvest that resource alone
• Should each person be required to carry the appropriate tool/tier?
  • I think they absolutely should, even if you can’t use it by yourself, you should be able to use it if you’re grouped with someone and on the same node as someone that CAN use it

My reasoning behind this change is to encourage smaller groups to be out doing things together, this would provide an incentive to have people roaming in smaller groups and be out looking for resources. This would also make gathering a group activity instead of a lone solo one, while soloing will still be possible, it will bring more people out of the city and into the world. I don’t like gathering very much myself because I don’t get to do it with my guild, I think if a system like this were implemented it would get me to go out and harvest more with my friends and the rewards would actually encourage it. Harvesting is SO boring and I think this would add just enough to make it fun with the social aspect and the risk/reward of running into another small group of 3~ would get me out in the world doing it more while bringing me closer to my guildies.

What do you guys think?

How did we get to this point?

The one thing Albion Online has consistently done right throughout the tests was providing interesting overworld PVP. Despite how uninviting GVG is for the average player, there was always the option to grab some gear and run around looking for trouble. Unfortunately, that has been systematically dismantled by the major changes we saw this beta.

Problem #1.
Maps are so large that the only way to find other people to interact with is to camp gates.

I would like to point out important 2 facts:
1.Waiting for someone to walk into a camp is not fun.
2.Walking into a camp is not fun.

This is probably the single biggest problem. There is no practical way to salvage the increased map sizes without implementing entirely new mechanics. We are way too close to launch to rely on scouting items or some whole new system to make the bigger maps not a disaster.

Problem #2.
LP changes, while super convenient, have removed the incentive to actually go out and kill things. People aren’t leaving town. People are not doing dungeons. The upcoming hellgate changes aren’t going to fix this because whatever reward can be found by the average player in mediocre gear is going to be controlled by big guilds in the best gear.

Devs. Read that line again. Print it out. Start every meeting by reciting it like a prayer.
whatever reward can be found by the average player in mediocre gear is going to be controlled by big guilds in the best gear.

Problem #3.
The rep system was too restrictive at the start of beta and now it is too slack to accomplish anything.

-The people who play the game to PVP view the system as a minor inconvenience.
-The people who don’t PVP much are further discouraged from PVP because they don’t want to be “punished”, but still aren’t protected from ganks in any way by the rep system.

Who is benefiting from the current rep system? Nobody. It is just an ignored system, much like laborers, that makes the game look bad.

I’ve poured countless hours into just about every play test of this game, and I’ve had a lot of fun doing it. Even if the game never launches, I will honestly feel like my buy-in was worth the fun I’ve already had. Things are not looking good right now though.

Someone convince me/us launch is going to be awesome and the problems will have solutions.

The great post

Thanks for the great post.

• The main reason for the flagging system is it’s signalling power. If you are flagged blue, other blue players know that you cannot attack them without some up-front notice. This allows people to cooperate and not be overly scared of each other even in yellow and red zones.
• Of course, just reputation, without flagging, has signalling power too. However, we do not think it’s enough. Even if you are glorious, if you find the right victim with rare gear, you’d still kill him on sight to take his stuff
• For the same reason, we reset reputation to 0 if you flag red. Flagging red means that you are looking for kills, it’s essentially “contemplating murder” in real life. If somebody told you he was looking to kill somebody, he’d lose all “reputation” for being a good guy, too

The above factors make our system harsher than the “standard” way of doing it that you describe in the OP. Essentially, it strongly encourges players to pick whether they want to be a) a full blown player killer b) a neutral, who can do the occassional opportunistic kill c) a good guy, possibly hunting down PKs

Here is the pros and cons:
1) Criminal: Can make a lot of kills. But is also in constant danger as he is perma-red.
2) Neutral/slight criminal: Can make some kills while still being able to flag blue. Is a nice target for criminals, as he can be killed without reputation loss.
3) Good Guy: Can’t kill blue players at all, unless he wants to turn neutral. Has best protection from neutrals and criminals as killing him costs a lot of reputation.

Now, why do we think we need a “harsher” criminal system? It has to do with the PvP eco-system. Our goal is to have a sustainable balance between blue and red players in the red zones.

To achieve that, we essentially need to manage the average risk that a blue players faces. If, for example, red players can kill 5 blue players per hour, this is not sustainable. 1 hour of fun for the red players has been bought with tons of hours of grind destroyed for the 5 blue players, the result being that blue players will stop using the red zones, the result being that PKers do not find victims any more and ultimately quit too -> ecosystem has collapsed, and this effect has destroyed many hardcore PvP games.

To balance the system, we need to make sure that the risk vs reward for the red players and the risk vs reward for the blue player in in line with each other.

For the red players, this means that on average, he would suffer a little less than one death for each kill. For the blue player, it woulud mean that the benefits of being in the red zone (better resources, etc) somewhat outweigh the risk of being killed. At the moment, I do not think we are there yet.

All the best

Gathering vs Paying to Transmute

3 of our guild members are out gathering 18+ hours a day and yet there is still no possible way we could gather the 6.4 mats necessary to compete in our GvG’s.

This leaves us with absolutely no CHOICE but to have collectively spent nearly 2000 dollars buying gold just to have enough silver to transmute mats into 6.4 in order to field the team, even with many people over a mil gathering fame…

Please someone explain to me IN DETAIL how this is NOT pay to win. We have to pay to even field a team in equal gear.

Every node of t6 you come across at this point is pancaked nearly 24 hours a day on an absurd 20 hour cooldown, It is completely unfeasible to attempt to gather the resources necessary to field the gvg team, leaving 0 options outside of paying real life money for gold and then using the gold to get silver to transmute into 6.4

The scarcity is a problem, but not for the zergs, becuase they have enough people gathering. It’s a problem for solo gatherers or solo players or small groups.

1. Go on the AH and look and try to buy even some t6.3 mats, theres none available, the zergs gather it all and sell NONE of it. NONE. Because they need it for GVG.
2. Now go out as group of 5to10 and try to GATHER the resources to field a team in even basic 6.3! It’s NEVER going to happen, the nodes are all flat and you risk being zerged, it could take weeks to craft even ONE set for each of your players.

The current game is completely impossible for a small group to compete in anyway without paying real money to transmutate resources.

I’m not complaining because im suffering here, im complaining on behalf of EVERYONE ELSE, TECHNICALLY IM BENEFITING FROM THE CURRENT SITUATION. BUT I CAN SEE THAT IT MAKES IT IMPOSSIBLE FOR ANYONE who is not in a zerg or an incredibly hardcore guild!

EVEN if they can’t see it yet, I SEE IT, AND THEY WILL SEE IT SOON ENOUGH!!!! And trust me when i say they are GONE when they realize it, gone gone gone wave goodbye now!

SOLUTION: ALL that has to be done to fix the problem is make the resrouces easier to GATHER than to CREDIT CARD. It’s currently the opposite, the resources aren’t even remotely obtainable by a small guild or group of players, so they have 1 option, credit card.

I’m not saying take the credit card option away entirely, im saying [b]MAKE GATHERING ALSO A VIABLE WAY FOR A SMALL GROUP TO GEAR THEMSELVES. Currently it is COMPLETELY IMPOSSIBLE for a small group to gather what they would need to field a team! HELL they CAN”T EVEN BUY THE RESOURCES ON THE AH BECAUSE THE BIG STRONG GUILDS ARE HORDING IT ALL!

Albion Online: Queensmarket and Smoky Bay

Granted I’m pretty new; but it would seem, as a trader, that 90% (or a very high percentage) of trade happens in Queensmarket and Smoky Bay, Queens for west continent and Smoky Bay for east continent.

However, I think that makes for a good market system because traders always will always want a central place to conduct Cheap Albion Online Silver. (Look at gold standard eve online with Jita, Dodixie, etc.) Fast travel is only viable for trading at T4 or below where high volumes of buy low/sell high happen. Fast travel with T5+ is so much more expensive that your profit margin pretty much disappears. To me, this is a preference of market pvp-style: while I would, as a trader, prefer to sit in one city and station-trade; perhaps other traders/merchants enjoy hauling from one city to another?

Even with the high fast travel transport cost it can be still worth trading between places … atleast that my experience. Previously alpha tests i usually did a few merchant mission highly profitable and successfull on horses between pvp cities (no ox)

Now one can use the t8 Direbear+ flee boots+ medium helm + whatever runspeed weapons with AO Silver… even give the merchant ox like carrying capacity plus almost 95+% chance to escape in small scale ambrush…asuming evenly geared merchant and ambrusher

What else do you need, besides the harder the trading & logistic obstacles and the risk… the higher the possible reward…There were a few travel faction fame quest in the starting zone, maybe one could expand on that….thought i dont really think its needed for a sandbox game, plus if profit is worthwhile from the quest it uusally gets abused.

I would like courier contracts to be implemented just for convenience (goods would move from player to player vs from player to alt); I don’t think it would significantly increase the existing hauling that happens already.

The auction house UI seems to have improved a lot from what I’ve read, but I think it could be better. There’s a lot of tab and window switching that happens, which makes it difficult to understand how profitable an item might be by not showing the buy and sell orders at the same time. Because of that, the current UI favors people who simply buy from sell orders and sell to buy orders in best albion online silver store. And traders who want to buy low/sell high to flip their silver have to make an extra effort to make sure they aren’t making a clerical error.

How to play Albion Online better.

Killmails being added is disappointing. I’ll admit, when I play games other than Eve, I get jonesing for a nice killmail after awhile, but…

I have a really nice looking killboard for Eve, and that gets in the way of my enjoyment of the game. My play is limited by the fact that I don’t want to ruin that good killboard.

Gear loss on death is an adequate penalty for dying. It’s perfect.

Killmails suck. Where killmails exist, killboards will be created.

Look at Eve where there is so much aversion to risk in some groups, where people get kicked out of corps and alliances over killmails. Where douchebags use Cheap Albion Online Gold to help them act like douchebags and humiliate newer or non-pvp players. Where people in some of the better pvp groups have more obligation to the alliance killboard than to their own enjoyment of the game.

Plus, killmails are an artificial source of intel.

Don’t bring all that to Albion. Make a game with brutal pvp, where your corpse is 100% lootable, but with no killmails. That will be the perfect game.
edit: also, look at Eve and how much time is spent by players out of game trying to keep their killboards up to date. API’s have improved that a ton, but still, it feels like an obligation to do mountains of paperwork. It’s not even fun, but you have to do it if you’re a pvper, or corp or alliance leader.

From what I can tell the particle effects on a weapon do not change with tier. So they could play with that and Capes, because if you’re sizing your opponent up by the size of their cape you’re probably doing something wrong.

I believe that Albion is a great game

It’s very good if you like a sandbox game that won’t hold your hand and in which you will have to set up your own goals.

While playing this game you have to remember that it’s not a race to the “endgame”, and you should approach any level/gear advancements calmly and patiently.

Especially in Albion, advancement is a GRIND, you will spend hours to get to another tier of items, and if you’re a harvester it’s even more ridiculous because resources are scattered all over the huge world, they’re very limited, there’s a lot of other players looking for it, and you get overweight easily, so you’ll have to run back to bank a lot. If you’re a crafter then after hitting T3 you’ll see that you have to choose what you want to craft, because exp gained from crafting will count only towards this item – as in I can only craft T4 leather hoods, and thats’ it, can’t craft the chest (seperate exp bar) or boots

Nonetheless, I believe that Albion is a GREAT game for old school sandbox MMORPG fans, however it is not a story-driven themepark MMO that we’ve been getting for the past ~13 years.

To be honest, Albion Online Gold is important in the game, if you want to be strong and powerful, then you may need a huge amount of golds.

Also playing in a guild (and a party at 90% of the time) is HIGHLY recommended.
but also I have to agree with /u/a99980 that founder packs are never worth it, if you’re patient wait for release, if you just want to play something now, and you’re fine with your characters being wiped and with what I mentioned above – go for it.

Scouts in Albion Online

Briefly, yes scouts are frustrating. But if there is incentive for a player to make an offshore account strictly to help their guild, then that is an indication to me that there is an underlying problem with the current build of the game. Zone-based games will always have scouts. With larger zones and more entrance points, scouts became way less of a necessity and more of a burden. We have to understand that like the real world, players will always be one step ahead of the developers when it comes to balancing.

Take away zone counters all together also. That is just silly. Also, take away zone entry bubbles that last for more than 5 seconds in full-PvP lands and hardcore lands. Enter at your own Albion Online Items. You wont find me gate camping, ever, because that is boring and requires zero skill. Again, with larger zones and more entry points, this is less of an issue.

No arenas or anything that takes away from the MMO feel
I am entirely against having any other PvP system that outside open world PvP, and guild vs. guild PvP. Even the idea of creating other systems for players who want to PvP, only point to the fact that obviously there is a current flaw within the game. What is needed is to create more incentive for players to engage themselves in open world PvP. This is Albion Online, not Path of Exile. Continue reading…

Guild Territories and Castles (like in Darkfall Online)
What made Darkfall Online successful in its own right, and is why it is still my most favorite title of all time, is because of the fact that guilds could thrive and prosper together. The guild castle system was incredible. They were constant hotspots for PvP and could be attacked at anytime, and sieged at anytime with advanced notice. When a guild castle was sieged, an extremely large PvP battle followed that sometimes lasted hours.

Guilds worked so hard for their castles, that they defended them at all costs. Mostly by creating mega alliances that inevitably brought in-game politics to a whole new light. If the hardcore lands in the new continents are actually implemented, such a scenario is possible. Even if the zones aren’t larger, it is still feasible. Each zone would have one guild castle that would require resources to build and upgrade. It would be large enough to have every refining and crafting station built. The walls and towers can be built and upgraded and yes, ultimately destroyed at a tremendous cost.

I was quite disappointed in AO that my guildmates and I could not just venture on to a guild’s territory and create havoc. There was absolutely no incentive for this either. Having six or eight guild territories in one zone is pointless. There isn’t any room to add points of interests like raid bosses and dungeons with the help of Albion Online Power Leveling. Adding points of interest encourage guilds to move in, which encourage other guilds to siege it so they can have it instead.

Addictive PvP is about warfare and conflict. Not trolling around the lands looking for people to gank. If I want to fight, I am either going to look for a fight or create one. I would really like to see this implemented, although I do understand it may not be in the direction of SI. The current castle system is currently interesting. But time will tell. It is certainly going to take more than a one month alpha to find the right fit.

Welcome to the (quick and dirty) Albion Online

You log in with your character for the first time ever. You are in the starting zone. You have nothing but your undies.

Do not unpack your founder’s gear or mounts! You do not need them now! Depending on where you start, you may want to take a boat to meet up with your friends. But then it might be too expensive if you unpacked any founders gear!
Your first goal is: Unlock the T2 trees of the destiny board.

look at your “destiny board quests” (bottom of the screen)
(important!) do those quests step by step now until destiny board branches out!
(best area to do this is the starter zone)
don’t leave the zone yet
those quests are:
gather 3 ‘Rough Logs’ (T1), but let’s actually gather 25 logs total because you need them for other quests later!
gather 3 ‘Rough Stone’ (T1), but let’s actually gather 21 stone total, because you need them for other quests later!
walk to the Workbench and prepare to craft stuff
Before you craft anything, TURN OFF CRAFTING FOCUS (click the workbench and turn off the orange hammer & saw icon next to the red ‘Craft’ icon). This returns materials on crafting, and you want to save this focus for higher tier things with enough Albion Online Silver. If you do not turn it off, you will burn through all your crafting focus on Tier 1 items!
craft 1 ‘Beginners Skinning Knife’ with the Stone & Lumber you gathered earlier (needs 3 each).
Kill 1 Rabbit
Gather 8 Rabbit Hide, but let’s actually gather 18 hide total, because you need them later!
walk back to the Workbench and:
craft 1 Medium Beginners Leather Armor (Chestpiece) (pick move speed passive)
craft 1 Beginners Broadsword with the Stone & Lumber you gathered earlier (needs 6 each)
craft 1 Beginner’s Pickaxe with the Stone & Lumber you gathered earlier (needs 3 each)

DING DING DING, you unlocked the T2 nodes of the destiny board, but wait – let’s prepare the rest of the stuff we need before we leave!

craft 1 ‘Beginners Shield’ with the Lumber you gathered earlier (4 logs).
craft 1 ‘Medium Beginners Leather Hood’ with the Hide you gathered earlier. (4 hide) (pick move speed).
craft 1 ‘Medium Beginner’s Leather Shoes’ with the Hide you gathered earlier. (4 hide) (pick move speed).
craft 1 ‘Beginners Axe’ with the Stone & Lumber you gathered earlier (needs 3 each).
craft 1 ‘Beginners Stone Hammer’ with the Stone & Lumber you gathered earlier (needs 3 each).
craft 1 ‘Beginner’s Sickle’ with the Stone & Lumber you gathered earlier (needs 3 each).

You are ready to leave the starter zone now!
Quick checklist of the things you should have in your inventory before you move to the next zone:
T1 sword
T1 shield
T1 leather armor (head,chest,boots)
T1 pickaxe
T1 wood axe
T1 skinning knife
T1 stone hammer
T1 sickle

make sure your destiny board quests (from above) are completed!

Go to the next zone nao!