My Impression of Ashes currently.
AshesoftheSingularity ForumsInitial Impression: I bought Ashes when it first came out on Steam under early access and have played it since then a good deal. There are some things I do like and some things that I don't like. Now, I have played a wide array of strategy games over the years so I will base my impression upon those games.
I know there are two factions planned currently, which I don't necessarily believe to be a good fit in a strategy game. I think for any strategy game a good strong number is 3 factions starting out in a vanilla game; it provides a good starting base and a lot of variety in strategy and replayability. Starcraft, Warcraft, Supcom, Sins, etc..all have at least three starting races. So, I do hope for a third faction to be added into the game after release, and not two years after it's release. A games initial release really sets the tone for its success in the future, it doesn't matter if you release great DLC down the line - because you have already missed the crowd. That being said, I am enjoying the current faction and am looking forward to the second one being added in next month in beta.
I've read the forums and am aware that the Devs are aware that the current state of the game lacks variety ( it's all who can pump out the most units). I am not sure how I feel about the "lanes" connecting nodes. It really feels like you are putting a player in a box and removing that sandbox feel. Possibly removing the lanes would help ease it up somewhat, and maybe not have as many nodes - but, make the nodes more important in resource income. If you plan on adding in larger maps, which I hope you add in Massive maps, having so many nodes on the map is just going to make it feel clustered. Having fewer nodes, but making them more important would help to make it more manageable.
The latest patch separated the cruiser/frigate building into two - which is great and I like that much better. Makes me put a little more thought into what I want to build earlier on. I feel that there needs to be more buildings introduced, definitely more defensive/offensive buildings. Allowing players to fortify positions to free up units to attack other positions on the map would be a plus. It is not turtling, it is defense. The way the current economy system is basically means that any player that turtles will lose, because he'll get killed economically - so, I don't see any validation in an argument against allowing player's to have more defense shield type buildings and artillery type offensive buildings...defenses seem very weak currently as well.
Unit Variety: Its good to hear that you have extra units planned, and I encourage that. There is currently a severe lack of unit variety, I honestly don't see the difference between having archers and brutes. I just mash a queue up for them and don't even care - because I feel it is all about numbers. Maybe once the game actually get's larger maps and I am dealing with multiple fronts it will be better, but in the current game the lack of strategy involved with units is severely hampering. The dreadnaughts can be fun, but they do not offer that "Wow" factor that units that they are suppose to represent provide in other games. Maybe offering in an actual ''Experimental" or T4 unit would help introduce that wow factor in this game - a unit that a player would have to invest a lot of resources in that he would use to break a powerful enemy force.
I am not saying to copy Supreme Commander or Sins or whatever, but I do encourage looking at those games and seeing what really draws players to them..I was playing FA yesterday and thought to myself, " This game offers so much more currently than Ashes." - Then again, Ashes is in Alpha, but I did play Supcom when it first came out and it's basic vanilla game will still offer more than Ashes will when it launches unless the Unit roster is flushed out even more.
Resource Accumulation: The way we gather resources to me is very similar to other games I've played, such as COH or Dawn of War - both which I think suit those games perfectly, but in a large strategy game that is suppose to represent massive battles..I think it doesn't necessarily fit. I mentioned in part in some of my first paragraphs - but, I am still on the fence how I feel about it. I don't mind taking nodes necessarily, but the lane feature bothers me. I believe player's should create their own objectives in a strategy game and have the ultimate amount of freedom in how a game is played out. The more options - the more replayability. Having lanes connecting points of interest works great in a game like Sins ( MAY THERE BE A SECOND ONE MADE, PLEASE), but for a ground war game it doesn't fit so well for me. I can learn to live with it though.
I do like the additional building we can place on top of resource nodes to increase resource intake, maybe it would be a good idea to give this 2 or 3 levels of "upgrades" to even further increase it's resource intake?
Unit upgrades: Now here..I have to be completely honest. I absolutely hate the infinite upgrade system on units. I feel that it is a cop-out, a way to make players feel that they are still "doing" something because there really isn't much to do in the game - with the introduction of the quanta abilities though that has and will change even more. It would be more beneficial for there to be maybe..5 tiers of upgrades for units health/weapons, but to make it extremely expensive. So expensive that it would take a while and a lot of quanta to get to level 5 tech, but would have huge improvements upon units instead of these infinite "increments". Because I can already tell you that players will just Spam tech labs to get quanta points - they will just build infinite amounts of them through out the game. So, by the end of the game you will have tons of these structures everywhere, which to me is game breaking. It's better to say Limit the amount of those that a player can build, maybe a max of 7-10 ( which they can be upgraded to increase the production of). That way a player really has to weigh his decisions when he is spending quanta because everybody will receive the same amount if they have the same amount of buildings.
"Do, I spend quanta on this incursion force or on a tier 2 upgrade for my units? But..If my incursion fails then he will get his tier 2 instead" You see, instead of giving players infinite upgrades, just make the upgrades more substantial and the quanta as well.
Final Thoughts: I see a great deal of potential for Ashes, especially with the amazing engine that you all have created and continue to improve upon and the massive maps to follow (I hope). I believe once the game is more flushed out, this game will become a foundation for several expansion to follow and will make an amazing game legacy.
Sins Forums
Reality (budgets) is a cruel mistress.