I don’t know how Nyce is EQ’ing his voice, but I just want to curl up next to it with a mug of coffee and a fire

Another excellent Bespoke Ep, thanks Doc. My predictions: A2 concurrent players/testers online will be ~150k (that's a lot of people to envy 😢) Launch will see ~2M people at least and then they're going to increase very fast. (I believe the pre-launch content on social media will get people excited and then those that decide to hold out until launch will come flocking to AoC's banners). Testing: I agree with another comment here (@SuperBlackatude) that not everything CAN be tested as there will inevitably be unique predicate-combination locked scenarios that won't trigger in A2/B1/B2 and if they do trigger in Release, they might have a minor bug or two. Small price to pay for such unique content, imho.

Great video; I loved hearing other creators take on a question and the diverse answers they gave. really gives food for thought.

End game is standing around in a major town showing off your fashion/other stuff while talking to people lol (My experience in Ragnarok and GW2)

The core systems should be tested in Alpha 2, and phase in features during Alpha to see how the systems work.

i really hope most of the map stay for full release if we looking for 2years+ before release we will just discover everything there is to the game

I think you can test ever system without testing every quest, dungeon, biome, etc. As long as every system is tested, any bugs in subsequent areas should be fairly minor.

Really hope we get to see the MMO playerbase really shocked when Alpha 2 comes... Really hope it blows everyone's expectations out of the water

I look forward to Bespoke each week nice work. I honestly purchased the pack I did way back in kick starter for the lifetime subscription, the alpha 1 and 2 access never came into consideration it is more like a bonus to me. A2 is going to be there for all to see and IMO while many systems will not be there initially to the eyes of many it will look like a good quality functioning game. People need to remember this will be Intrepid introducing AOC to the world and there will be many more eyes drawn to it through all of the content creators streaming it and those new eyes despite being told it is not complete will assume it is a finished product. Thus IMO it needs to appear to be in a quite polished state.

The only way everything ashes has to offer gets tested is if alpha 2 and the betas go for years and the servers coordinate heavily. Building and destroying every single node to metropolis with a maxed out zone of influence of developed city to expedition nodes. Thats also assuming Intrepid dont have easter egg or secret node combinations that have to be discovered example and im making this up with copium: There are 5 volcanos across the map in different biomes and the nodes themselves dont seem very valuable or located well, but once each node at a volcano hits lvl 6 all during the same time, a major 1 time world event starts. 5 legendary sleeping ancient dragons, or monsters related to The Ancients world bosses awaken and the volcanos that have only shown minor signs of activity erupt changing how the nodes play until the event is complete never to be done again on that server.. Scarcity lol

Mr Sharif, stomp the debate and let the real numbers out please and thank you ;)

BG3 is a great example of a game that didn't fully have everything single thing tested and had massive success. Only 30% of act 1 was ever tested, acts 2 and 3 were never touched and act 2 is regarded as the best act in the game. Act 3 needed a bit more polish for sure but due to the sheer scope of the game and how much it did right people were very willing to forgive it and you also see it with Helldivers 2. If the game is extremely fun people are willing to overlook some issues as they wait for patches.

I do not want to test a beta. I want to play the full game when it releases.

Can't imagine them doing everything at once. Stuff like naval warfare is going to be like a standalone game in itself.

Good day my copiuz friends

They just keep getting better and better! Hyped for the next one!

As someone who played in a similar development Alpha (Guild Wars 1) where we legitimately dod everything we could to break as many of the abilitilies as we could... ..we still missed things that got abused during the open beta weekend.

Great Video Dr. Burns! Appreciate the effort you clearly put into your work here.

Happy we are acknowledging China can be a bit of a volatile market to try and work with.

I personally know 50+ people who bought it last second. I’m guessing 350K minimum.

Love seeing you with all those guys and girls! Ashes creators unite. I personally they will try to test most things before launch, however I don't think we will see end game levels during alpha to and some content other than core systems will be kept from us. I don't think we see more in beta, I think it will be less , especially beta 2 as I would consider it more of a stress test.

One of the things I find to be quite interesting is that throughout my experience engaging players in other MMOs, not many people seem to be aware that Ashes of Creation is a thing. From whispers in WoW, to guild chat in ESO, to talking to folks in Draynor Village in OSRS; not many people are even aware of AoC. So I think the answer to your second question of how many players at launch comes down to how well Intrepid and Content Creators like yourself are able to expand awareness / marketing of the game during Alpha 2 and Beta 1/2 Because as it stands right now, not many people know about Ashes of Creation. Just my two cents

I think there is an almost zero percent chance that A2 includes stage 6 metropolis at any point, I fully expect they do not implement stage 6 nodes until after launch

Yeah, this guy Dr. Burns is going to spoil the game 100% during Alpha 2. Stay away from him.

They stopped selling A1 because they spent more money then what was invested meaning they would have to pay millions of dollars in taxes. I suggested that they stop sales to drive up demand and to evade an audit. Considering they took this suggestion seriously tells me that have no idea what they are doing. I'm just enjoying the show and doing what I always do... betting against myself so that If I'm right I'm right and if I'm wrong I win.

I think because the game at launch will cost only 15$ to play for a month A lot of people will try the flavor of the month And a lot will maybe realize it is not for them

OG here supporting the game since 2017 original kick starter.

How many players at launch? Nobody mentioned *no box cost*. That alone should increases predicted players at launch for the risk reduction alone.

Wow I thought this game died in alpha. I remember what seems like forever ago putting like 50 bucks in the kickstarter. I remember seeing the game go into a fortnight playstyle and I deleted and moved on to ESO and now awaiting Throne and Liberty. I will be impressed if I see an Ashes of Creation game in the future.

i gonna say on release close to 3 milion players,alpha 2 close to 250k players!

I think we see a lot but not everything. End game raiding will probably something they hold close to the chest so maybe a few bosses but not all of them.

Is the ocean content going to be available for A2? I forget.

If Intrepid are smart they will put as little as needed into the Alpha and Betas. The hype around this game makes this alpha almost sound like the launch of the official game itself, that isn't good imo. I hope it's truly a testing environment like an alpha should be as opposed to a Korean MMOs version of an Alpha which is just early access.

Nyce!

Asmongold and his army of locusts will descend on this game and zerg every living inhabitant then leave it barren just like they did with new world. I'd like to be wrong tho

I hate im very late to this game and can't prepurchase. That's because I swore off MMO's. Though im very interested now. Can't wait to see if it lives up.

I wish the video was more about the actual thumbnail then what was talked about.

We are STILL missing Narc in this series 😢

I might try it at launch, but watching every other game release, It's best to save my money until after a few months. Unfortunately I don't think this game is going to be what people want when it comes out. Now 6+ years ago when this was announced, gaming was different. Now the same people who once had lots of time to play, now have limited and the new generation just want a casual game to play. I hope I'm wrong, but I can't help but think gaming is going more casual and games need to cater for that. Saying all this, its not even in its beta phase, so the game has a long way to go. How much is gaming and most importantly players going to change until the game gets fully released? Nobody knows, this is why I have not spent a cent on this game and have doubts over its success. I believe that the only people who will play the game are the ones who've already paid for it. Sure you will see a spike on every "release", but I don't think its gonna be as big as players want it to be. I hope I'm wrong and this becomes the next best thing in gaming and everyone jumps on

New subscriber here. Do you think they will open up buying alpha 2 packages again before alpha 2 or do they enough people currently to test alpha 2?

Wow you are all very optimistic about how many people sign in for A2. It’ll maybe be 30k. I mean, did any of you do NW alpha? I did. It was tiny af. It was also much better and much different than the actually launched game.

So stoked to play this game lol

No physics?!?!? I’m disappointed… in all seriousness, I believe Ashes alpha will test all core systems, and some minor ones. More specifically, the core pillars, nodes, caravans, naval, generic gameplay loops, COMBAT, classes, and the balances between all of those. From there I expect to see wipes where we will come back as “max” level characters for a node siege/war. Nailing the core systems, and combat with class balancing will be key. If it feels clunky at all then the game will turn into a NW meme.

A2 = 200-250K players at launch (sure some people are only backing it and don't want to test it, but most people who spent this level of money will play and test) Release = 1.25m players at launch (sure some people will drop off, this game isn't for everyone, but at launch EVERYONE will play Ashes of Creation. EVERYONE. Release might even be 1.5m to 2m players if A2 goes well and we don't have the SHIT launch that was New World. #StillCantSwim A2 will surely test the core systems, but B1 is the ENTIRE MAP and A2 is NOT the Entire Map. Hard to test EVERYTHING in A2 when the map isn't done yet. 100% the CCP is BEYOND the Devil my friend... PURE EVIL... Organ harvesting of prisoners of conscience enroute to the hospital, can schedule the date of transplant. My end game loop is fighting for the destruction of lvl 6 nodes, while dropping hints to the Lvl 5 nodes that they COULD be level 6 :)

Love your videos and interviews. Thank you for effort. I am VERY curious to see how hard it will be to log into A2 on launch day. 😂