Greetings my friends. I hope you enjoyed the update for freeholds. What did you enjoy the most? And what are your thoughts on areas for improvement. Please remember we are actively in development towards Alpha Two, and as always designs are subject to change/ iteration. We will inform those changes best after testing with our glorious players in A2. ❤️🙏💪

The wind sounds, trees moving in the wind, birds and farm sounds it’s so dam immersive.

This was my favorite live stream of the year, can't wait to get immersed in this world and have my own land, especially when it looks this cozy!

The landscape itself is enough to want me to play this asap ❤

I bought this in the Kickstarter. I am hoping to play before I die of old age. I was 56 when I bought it, am 62 now. Ok, I may not die, but I do feel senility coming on (my wife says so). I hope it has crafting along the lines of Vanguard, Saga of Heroes.

This game needs to release so I can pour my whole entire life into it

would be great to see mini game stations you can set up in your freehold to pass time with other players or friends. poker table, horse shoe, corn hole, card games idk what ever you guys think would be fun. maybe add a betting system so you can bet coin in these games. looks great though keep up the great work!

Please keep the pigs immersive, adds to the atmosphere of the game in so many ways! Loving the game concept and art too, can't wait to play it! Alpha 2 is shaping up to be a banger!!

Just being able to have my own animals in an MMO sounds so awesome. the inventory is a bit tedious tho. also, anything that helps with immersion is awesome. the more the better, i want to get lost

The livestock slaughtering mechanic really reminded me of Red Dead Redemption 2. Very immersive! Great job! Can't wait to play this game for myself!

There are a few systems that I'm not too big a fan of but I feel like I need to experience them to know for sure. Also, that pig dying was perfect lmao.

Nice progress, but please listen to community feedback on the bags. No one finds inventory management fun. Be careful trying to re-invent the wheel, sometimes simpler is better (inventory).

Wait, how is Ashes going to deal with the same problem Archeage had with terrain plots not being enough for everyone? Having a plot of land was pretty much essential to allow players to experience many gameplay loops, and it sucked not being able to buy one because there just wasnt enough space. In Archeage , people from guilds would even block plots for their guild mates to buy from them later.

The strategic part where to start your own place reminds me on those cool old games of RTS :)

Love the design of the Freeholds! I think it's really cool how cohesive the visuals are inside of the house, *massive* props to your design team! One thing that I would maybe like to see is maybe a separate weapon storage location on the character's back. It's really more of a roleplaying thing, I just thought that it kinda looks weird for the character to always be holding their weapon regardless of the situation. Having a system that automatically puts away weapons after a certain amount of time away from combat would be cool, but even being able to hotkey your weapons to a storage slot (on your back/on a belt, etc) would be really useful in my opinion

So beautiful, really well done so far. A labor of love and it shows. Looking forward to its release.

The attention to detail in this game is a work of art I cant wait!

Best update of the year so far! Keep it up!

Love it. The slow animation on the hare mount is very odd though

steven acting oblivious to the things his developers have made is the best part

Great update AoC team! Loved: * Graphic quality and world immersion. The wind, trees moving in the wind, birds and farm sounds * The idea of farming crops and livestock * The open space style of freeholds * The immersive style of ... meat and hide extraction * The idea of adding buildings that give you access to stations * The idea that you can build your freehold ANYWHERE * UI & bag systems are functional Questions/comments: * I guess I love the idea of going by my animals and crops and "working" a bit on the farm. The gamification of harvesting is amazing and sometimes it would be a super relaxing experience. Is there a mechanic in which I could auto-harvest crops and animal products in case I want to do mass production? Thinking of something with reduced benefits as I am not using my harvesting skills. * Why not put the artisan stations inside the buildings? Thinking that since the buildings occupy the space anyways,maybe their stations could be inside the building to save space. * Have you thought/calculated if the open world space would be enough for all players freeholds? * How would I fast travel to my freehold? Is there a mechanic for that? * Would caravan system work between cities and freeholds and between freehold and other freeholds? * Please do not allow for too much customisation on the OUTSIDE of the buildings in order to not break immersion. * I saw you were drag & dropping items in your bags. I guess/hope you can auto transfer auto-sort * I loved the shadows but they seemed ... icky at times. Is there a reason for this? I guess it.s work in progress of course! * It feels like some work needs to be done in the interaction system. Either Steven sucks at interacting - sorry Steven - or the interaction "boxes" need to grow?

I'm getting such Archeage vibes and it brings me such joy, i truly miss that game and i hope this gives me that feeling again but with no P2W.

Very well done to the team on this one. The world really looks and feels dynamic, from the sounds of birds, wind etc. to the wind blowing on trees. The way the resource rock broke looks very realistic. Very excited for this!

My grandchildren will thank me for investing in this game so their grandchildren might get to play it.

Looks fantastic for your "I don't feel like raiding today" moments :) Amazing immersion guys!

I don’t mind the item’s being different sizes, but it also takes a lot of brain power as a potentially OCD Min/Max’er I don’t know if this relates to others but in games like Skyrim, I would collect carrots along the trail in order to sell for 1 gold coin because I can carry it.

14:35 I would love if after NoAliving the Pig you would have an animation of butchering/Skinning it. Or you could have the pig show in your inventory then you take it to a “Butchering Table” where you process the pig.

This looks so awesome! The world is so beautiful! Please take your time & continue to make Verra epically awesome!

This looks so incredible. Please continue to show us every little bit of progress.. we’re all itching to play.

Regarding the animal death maybe you can tie in with gore function in the options? but I think it should stay immersive in my opinion.

I can't wait to play your game. You're doing a great job.

I wonder, how hard would it be to randomly generate different features for a mount when a player acquires one? It could be super simple like some different colors, hair lengths? That way it feels like everyone is unique just like IRL. I just noticed the bunny mounts are identical, it just is something that could be unique IMO!

I like the immersion. Don't soften the blow of reality especially on a game that looks this nice.

Would love to see the option of actually breaking down the carcasses, maybe the higher skill you have in butchery the farther you go with it. At the very least, please don’t make whatever you are skinning just look like it laid down to take a nap after you skin and harvest it.

Could be cool to have like a massive dwarven smelter freehold, filled to the brim with smelting cauldrons. Was thinking of making a tavern on my freehold then just fill the property with brewing casks filled with beer and whiskey.

Game looks gorgeous, i like casual things like farming also... already can imagine myself relaxing and making my own farm! Without all the time doing dungeons and pvp, gvg stuffs... More interesting things to do - better!

I like the free hold idea a lot, but I'm afraid it's going to look like the ones in Archeage where it's all cramped purely to get the most out of the grid and those look so out of place

This stream was SOO EXCITING! Love what is being done with the game.

Loved the stream today! Thank you for all the latest on the Freeholds.

Feedback on two things showcased here: 1. Inventory management is not fun, and only becomes a tedious extra thing to worry about. In a game full of intricate mechanics, inventory management should not be one of them. 2. Gathering speed seems a bit slow when placed in front of a farm full of corn or wheat or whatever to harvest. Slow gathering speed may work in the open world, but if it takes that long to harvest my own crops in a farm full of gatherables, I can see that becoming rather time consuming especially depending on how often crops grow back.

it sounds like there will be a very limited amount of space for these freeholds. how will you account for the high population your sure to get?

You guys could add a Galloping button for mounts, slowing down or increasing the speed/posture that the mount walk/gallop, or even adding adding a brand new way of interaction with you companion. That way you can interact iin differents ways depending where you are or how you want to your mount to act at certain time. Horses could have the overall walk/3timed galop, bunnys and frogs like mount could have a charge jump that can acess higher parts of the environment, the snail mount could use its slime to climb walls, horned mounts could do a charge that could break ore or knock down certains targets, feline mounts could walk/run in zig zag evading projectiles or difficulting things to target you, theres a million ways of giving more personality for mounts in games. The mounts in Ashes of creations are looking awesome and i would love to see you guys adding more fantastic creatures and news ways of interact with then. I cant wait to play and full experience this game, it reallys keeps our love for mmorpgs burning and not sucumbing froms the ashes of the past. Cheers from Brazil, sorry for any misspelling and keep doing that awesome work, Ashes its already a piece of art.

This looks sooooo majestic

Can't wait for this game to release,ill be a lifeskiller and a healer/tank main,i will make stonks

I still don't like the fact that not every player will be able to have a freehold, even if they want one and play enough to be able to obtain one. Just doesn't sit right with me.

I have a ton of questions: 1. Will there be enough space for every player on the server to have a Freehold? 2. Can I challenge players for their location? 3. What maintenance costs are anticipated? 4. With so much production, what will prevent market saturation? 5. Which node policies will affect my Freehold? 6. Are Freeholds for individual players or for guilds? 7. Will seasons and climate affect possible crop/animal production?

This game is in Alpha and it already looks similar to some games that have been fully released. This makes me sad that a lot of games are unfinished, but that just shows the dedication this team really has to making Ashes great. Can't wait for the A2 playtest!

This is looking more and more like a game that will require far more time and effort to put into than I'm willing or able to give. Looks amazing though.

SO excited to play now. This is by far my favorite reason to play mmos; the lifestyle part of the game. Little feedback that i'll also bring to the forums, but I'm not the biggest fan of the inventory management system. This is very similar to the game Mabinogi how items are different shapes (maybe Diablo is similar as well) but the slots are just quite annoying and maybe just a bit archaic. I personally found weight to be a better system. Say what you will about New World but there's something about the bag weight progression and chest storage progression.

I personally feel you should go for immersion over convenience. As realistic as possible in this fantasy setting

I honestly CANNOT wait anymore!

I hate inventory tetris. IMO, if you want to limit inventory space do it with a weight limit or lower available slots. Tetris style inventory is just an unnecessary headache for me.

i hate how the inventory works.

Steven, I always admired your leadership and the way that you guide your teammates to explaining things about the game. You never take the full center of the spotlight and act as a host for your team. Its also great to see some new footage of other game play features like the freehold. This looked amazing!

What a beautiful zone! This looks just spectacular. Great job Ashes Team. Stephen I look forward to being the world and covering the content! :)

Looking good!

Blown away, again. As a long time Everquest, Archeage, and Eve Online player (ex player for all three now) I can't wait to delve back into MMOs again for this project. Absolute Dream

I just hope we get to play this before we all turn into ashes

Everything you showed looks cozy and inviting. Thumbs up.

The bag system is really cool! I'd imagine they'd have ti have a durability on it to make sense? This is a great incentive to learn crafting or whatever skill these are related too

Absolutely beyond excited. Cannot wait to see nodes next month, this is great. Thanks guys.

This is insane! You guys are amazing . Keep it up!

Looks awesome! I like the immersion on the higher end, but not too graphic or tedious. And nice job to the rabbit mount creator 👏

UI and Spell Icons Gifs are looking great. I like the detail on the trees and rocks. Trees have twisting trunks etc. Not looking cookie-cutter. The blue rocks look interesting, but the color blue is kind of over the top considering the landscape color however it is Fall so in winter they might look just right. Freeholds are looking great. The lot size is perfect. I am also thrilled that you have to build variants and verity. I would love to come up on a Rapunzel wizard tower where you refine potions and enchanting ingredients. I absolutely love the tree housing that is integrated within the tree. Talk about high fantasy. Those are going to be epic. The farming, crafting, gathering, and refining interactions and dependencies are spot on. I like the fuel and upgrade tree paths for buildings crafting tables etc. I would love to see trees for farming. Putting fuel into the soil to create rare magical herbs and regents for potions would be great. Have the crops be seasonal so you can grow winter ones etc. The bag system is a great idea. Talk about making gathering and crafting buildouts impactful and important. It is so cool to have actual crafting and gathering buildouts for what you are planning to gather and craft as meaningful as Raid gear buildouts. Having homestead-building paths is epic. I love the fact that homesteads can be wiped out by what happens to the node. That way it is not a one-time land rush at the beginning of the game, and no one ever gets the ability later on in the game to ever expect to own one. I really like the details of the gathering. The corn drops Kernals, and tomatoes falling on the ground were great. I feel the skinning of animals like New World was great but the pig petting before you slit its neck was a bit over the top. I could see some crazy animal activists boycotting the game and up in arms about petting it before you kill it. All in all, a great job so far. Great work guys.

There is a real artisan work in the lights that is a masterwork, the devs are doing a really good job.

This reminds me so much of the Archeage housing system, and Im so excited! Cant wait for the alpha two! 😍

I’m so excited it all looks so good!

the large organized guild level conflict is what Steven likes. That is this game.

Wow, just wow - you can make the entire MMO community more than happy for a long long time. I can not wait!!!! This looks absolutely awesome!

Love the freeholds. looking amazing, i cant wait for Alpha2 :D since youre aiming a lot for immersion wouldnt it be a good idea for the ressource gathering to have animation stages? like the crystals crumbling a bit or cracks appearing with each hit. And if you really want to appeal to everybody having an option for graphic or "kid friendly" slaughter in the settings would be amazing. if that is something thats easily implemented.

The game is looking beautiful so far! I am really enjoying the sound effects and the animations, looks very lively. Speaking of animations it would be great to see the chickens move around in their pen or when it's night time some animals have different night cycle such as sleeping in their coup.

That was F AMAZING guys! and this ambient sounds Cows and Chickens even before you enter Freehold. Wow

Can't wait to play, looks amazing!. I'll tease you a little though.. My favorite part was when he went to bed at the end and his legs were sticking through the wood at the baseboard. ;) Haha

I'm really excited to play this game! Really amazed by the dev team, all the update streams and showcase. All the best and love from India

Definitely brings back the feel of what I loved about ArcheAge setting/housing/husbandry, but even better. I continue to be excited for Ashes of Creation.

looking forward to it

This is sick! You guys are an inspiration, keep up the good work : )

I was bought when you showed the Milking a cow mechanic... Amazing details!

I’d love to see some more darker fantasy note in the game or zones that look like it’s corrupted/evil as well

getting heavy star wars galaxies vibes in a fantasy setting, great work!

I feel like the Tetris style resources storage can have a lot of interesting implications. We will have to see how you guys develop the system first off, of course. My intuition is that its a high risk, high reward development path. Most likely it will be frustrating for players, who just want to farm resources and not think about bag space. But if it changes how you farm in a non-annoying manner this could be cool. I think as long as you can re-orient longer resources (similar to Tetris) to fit around in your bags, the system might work nicely and be a fun puzzle to solve. So looking at the inventory at 9:43 , if I got another 1x2 resource, I could reorient it to be 2x1 and slot it in the top right, horizontally. Maybe rare and powerful materials could be sloped and non-pleasant shapes and cause you to farm/value certain items that can fit those 1x1 slots and such. I think this might be an interesting implication because in New World, the weight restrictions meant that you would often offload lower valuable resources if you capped out on a gathering run; but a Tetris style system might favor those resources during a gathering run to make efficient use of your bags.

Looking great every time

Excellent stream! Was very pleased with this showcase-Raz

Another fantastic stream! I think I speak for everyone when I say we need to see Stuffertons ingame next :)

Fantastic! Keep the good work up!

This looks amazing. Especially seeing the mounts standing is so immersive. I have a few questions for these systems: - Can other players take/steal/destroy your stuff? Are there certain antigrieve mechanics or will people who wont be able to play the game 24/7 be unable to have one basically? - How many people are able to get one of those freeholds? Will the whole map be full of those with the exceptions of the poi etc.? - Will there be an artist profession in the future where you can paint pictures of people and vistas? I would love to search for interesting places in the world that i could paint and sell the pictures to other players

Man, this freaking game....I can't wait! Edit: do not change the animal slaughter. If people don't like it, make a setting for the screen to go black or something lol.

good job guys you are doing an amazing work , just keep in mind going forward we dont want it to be outdated when it comes out :)

I've only been waiting intensely for Ashes of Creation for 2 years. It looks amazing, I need it soon. Good Job Guys!

Looks amazing! Cant wait for alpha two

Damn this is starting to look good! The development of the UI has been a joy to follow and it is looking great! I'd really like some kind of mass-harvesting option for bigger plots of crops so that I woudln't have to harvest each plant individually. Maybe some kind of semi-afk/afk option where you start harvesting and it would then take something like a few minutes etc to receive the yield.

Movement animations are getting really good! (Jumping still looks odd). Can we climb fences etc? Are the trees protected within the freehold, or can anyone just cut them down?

I love the aesthetics, armor design and the atmosphere. Probably gathering crops will be my favorite thing to do after work. I love the attention to detail of immersion. Free hold system sounds sooo good from multiplayer perspective. Amazing.

Farming and animal husbandry has always been my jam in MMO’s and survival games. I’ll happily invest everything into this activity as often as possible so the more in depth you can make this the better. I wish I could afford to drop $250 on a voyager package but I just can’t. The wait for Beta 2 is loooong!!!

This game is absolutely beautiful. I've been following for at least a year now, and I can't wait for the release. Already saving up to buy a brand new PC for when this game drops. Will be worth every penny!

shaping up pretty well

I have never been so Hyped for a game. keep up the great work ashes team

Greetings! First of all, great stream!.. An entertaining and exciting peek into the numerous creative, recreative, and productive opportunities within the Freehold. I noticed something in the little sequence of Halcyonite mining before the adorable bunny-up to Bucky’s freehold which spun a string of ideas. When Steven was gathering from the second Halcyonite, he swung 4 times, then stutter-moved and interrupted his mining for a second which reset the gathering process. The full sequence seems to have to be completed in one go and then you receive the entire haul at the end. In short, here’s my idea: It would be cool if resources were yielding in increments as you process them (in general but with potential exceptions such as picking a flower). Additionally I would love to see lumberjacking having 2 concrete steps instead of just the one currently, namely #1 down the tree, and #2 chop it up to receive its loot incrementally. I know it’s a bunch of work, but I would absolutely love to see the step sequence represented graphically wherever appropriate - this would make gathering even more stimulating, and perhaps also sound queues unique to some of the progression levels, i.e. rocks giving a special groan at 50%, 80% and 100%. A slightly more defined impression of the idea: - The resource has a state/condition, i.e. tree is rooted and 50% cut through the trunk, or tree has been downed like a baws and now is 1/3 chopped into pieces to carry, or vein is 80% mined. As implied, these ”states” would be inherent to the resource, thus if only partly gathered, they would remain so until they would otherwise respawn - then they would mend (reset). If also reflected graphically, then of course you could with a keen gander spot if someone had swung a couple of times at a vein and then moved on, or chopped into a tree and then fled from the unrelenting attacks of this crazy mean bird living in that tree - which you know because you experienced the same thing earlier that morning, and now the tree is creaking ominously and swaying threateningly as you tiptoe on your way underneath not to attract the attention of the glooming bird above. - Whenever meaningful, the resource would yield with the increments that you process it, for instance, a vein would yield 1/6 of its contents at every swing (perhaps with a small bonus at the final blow), or a tree could begin yielding after being taken down - with the carcass at its side of an unfortunate bird that had known this tree its entire life and refused to settle for a lesser one - you bloody murderer. This would have some cool implications in my opinion. Here are some: #1 It would add more meaning to the very process, the tiny adventure of every swing, since you would be rewarded as you work, not only at the end. #2 It would feel better, in my opinion, increasing realism and immersion. #3 It would make the world even more dynamic, deep, and living as you inhabit and traverse it. #4 It could facilitate more social interactions, and maybe group-based gathering on big mother-jumbo stones or trees. This could even become a mechanic intertwined with combatting, or unlocking/discovery on some very special occasions. For instance, a secret dungeon behind a high tier mineral, or an elemental boss shedding living rocks that need be tricked and mined with Halcyonite picks rather than clonked by regular weaponry - and the mats be Ranger-snap delivered to the backlines where the greatest smiths smelt it into a spear of oblivion power necessary to be hurled with heroic force, exceptional precision, and jesterly timing at the titanic monster right as it towers one last time, revealing its weak spot for the critical moment where the one Sorlax propels and strikes with this weapon made from the very abomination that it now congratulates with death!… Ahm sorry I couldn’t resist the tangent :} - I imagine that most (normal) ”single-player” resources would be ”locked” to the player who initiates the gathering - for as long as they are gathering - preventing others from harvesting the tree that you have just cut down, or playing a game of sync-swing tally on the other side of the vein that you initiated - (perhaps unless in your party) - thus they would have to attack and interrupt you if they really wanted a piece of that tantalizing Halcyonite vein. Schools of fish would probably always be open game until it’s fished out, but these schools of fish I guess will be less defined in their extent, thus requiring more skill (player and/or fishing skill) to both assess and pull. #5 Being interrupted while gathering by attacks or other means would not net you zero, but the fraction that you had successfully processed, making the elemental boss a bit less frus and a bit more fiero. #6 Receiving randomly occurring additions of the resource, possibly some rare component would feel pretty exciting while you are in the process of gathering, because you might be lucky again on the next swing. (Honestly I feel a little uneasy about this particular idea since it bears arms for other games’ abusive implementation of these highly dopaminergic mechanisms BUT it’s not like you don’t know this, and I know that within your frame there is not really any danger, since you have the passion and sincerity to make an honourable, and in this case innocent game - not sure if that pig agrees though). ;) Thank you for your time. Thank you for listening to the community. And thank you for living the dream and making a fantastic game that me and my friends cannot wait to explore! Cheers!

Waouh i want to play ! can't wait more :p but looks like i'll have to... wonderfull work guys, it looks pretty beautifull...

Looks so rad!