Ashes: Week 4 Dev status!

The news always good, and fits very well the quality that grows every new update.

1- New units are part of the Premium DLC? that will be bad for the community.

2- Are the new big maps part of the Premium DLC? it will be bad again.

3- New Scenarios and Side/Main stories will be awesome to see as Premium DLC.

I am wondering about this as well, wouldn't it just fragment the community more?

I am assuming when mods become available, that the game's network model would require everyone to have the same mod as well, and I am wondering if the game will auto download it for the players that don't have it?

The gamasutra article did shed some light on why things went down the way they went down, it was a good read.

I don't think Brad is saying that. He is only saying that the DLC is going to fund work on new units. The DLC is large maps and scenarios.

Personally, I think that the DLC should be the story missions.  Any multiplayer additions (maps/units and such) should be free so as to no fragment the player-base.  Big multi-player unit/map drops can be included in paid expansions every year/2 years and that would be acceptable IMO.

Honestly the refinery is the addition I am most excited for.  Hopefully this will allow us to focus more strongly on defending fewer territories and fortifying them if we see fit vs expanding continually in the quest for a bigger income.

just my .02 

Sarge

Didn't Brad mention that for multiplayer only one side has to own the DLC?

I think a map and Scenario DLC is fine. The units won't be in the DLC, the money from the DLC is going towards funding more units.

I think it has been said if you don't own the map DLC you can still join and play with someone who has created a MP game with one of the new maps, which is fine I think and the way to do it. It just means they won't be able to do SP skirmish on it and likely won't be able to create a lobby and choose one of the new maps for MP. At $3.99 it is very cheap and they are not holding you to ransom for new map content as you can in fact make your own maps. 

I'm perfectly happy to pay $3.99 for DLC. That's a reasonable price for a map pack and I want to support future development of the game.

While it is neat that you can play with a friend who owns the maps in skirmishes and such I also gather that paid DLC maps won't be added to the ranked play pool.  This is unfortunate because most multiplayer is played on the ladder and some potentially great maps won't see the playtime they deserve if they are relegated to skirmish mode only.  It's not a deal-breaker or anything I just don't agree with multiplayer maps being paid DLC in anything but full expansions as those are generally what the majority of the player-base migrates to.

If some of the maps are added to the ranked pool for everyone in order to diversify the ranked map pool and change it up from time to time I wouldn't mind the DLC it at all.  I just don't want what could be great maps kept out of rotation because they are optional micro-DLC.

In the Steam forums Frogboy has said ranked could use them as the server can hold the content even if the players don't have it. Though he has said the DLC is more focused on larger maps.

that's fine with me, I will keep supporting Stardock because I like the game, But Still Maps are free, and really easy to make.

so why Stardock is spending time making maps? The community can make them by the hundreds, I can easy make 5+ maps per day if I want to and many of us can even do more.

What I am trying to say is why not spend that time optimizing this Map Editor with more options for us, like giving more life to the maps, like lakes, and rivers things like that,  more map Height variations. those things that I will love to have in the Map editor.

Something that I did like in homeworld: deserts of kharak are the new DLC that they released. I will love to have something like that in AOTS.

and if its way to much for Stardock right now to do that, then what about just the look of the Units? give PHC or Substrate new looks same power but make them look different, that will be nice to pay for a small DLC's.

Just think about having a 3v3 game with 3 phc and 3 Substrate all of them looking different at the same time they are the same, at least its good to see something different.

 Any one can make maps ,but how many can make good maps with good quality ,good gameplay and good tatic field positions?

 And how many can make a map that make you enjoy and understand the game by the map.

 Be a MapMaker isnt to all, you go to faf and there is + 300 maps but there are only 6/8 maps that players keep play everydays !

There are 3 basic rules:

 1-You must know the game .

 2-You must understant what a good % players like .

 3-you must be a active team player.

I dont see how units look the same , personality maybe needs a bit work but they are very well done.

Will observer mode include watching 2 AIs duke it out?  No human element.  Example, in SupCom I loved watching the AI progress throughout the game.  I get a lot of tips and strategies from it.

No no, the units design are really fine, I was talking about maybe making some new skins for PHC and Substrate.

Correct.  Only the host has to have the DLC. Then everyone can play.

Substrate Eradicator.  This is a relatively slow moving but long ranged direct fire unit designed to deal with Artemis's and to a lesser degree, massed Archers.

So basically you are giving substrate a better and longer range version of nemesis that can even killl mass archers? It will be the same issue like with the bombers, on the side of phc we will have slow animations of indirect damage while substrate receives direct damage aoe sniper? 

What is the point? To make everyonr play sub in ladder?

Btw one mauler can kill a phc cruiser in two seconds, isnt that retarded?

Ah ok .

Custom skins are indeed very interesting in game and out game.

Hey Guys, been a while.

Was just passing by to say thank you. The game is shaping great.

With the last patches and balance tweaks, plenty of things are really improved.

First, the group management, the formations and the default behaviour of units when grouped in a Meta Unit or not : Could still use some tweaks, notably the general form of the big groups when they move across the map on long distances, or the way they stop and attack at max range or create a concave when an A-move order is given. To emphasize on the clarity of the frontlines. Pretty sure that some more improvements are coming our way, and you already achieved some really nice improvements on this point. 

Then, the general pace of the gameplay. you certainly reached one of your objectives on that. Now we can clearly feel that we have two different and very complementary layers of gameplay : 

- A general macro part with the economy and map occupation with the frigates. The pace is good, units have enough HP and the groups behaviour are satisfying to render this "Macro battlefield". We can feel when the engagements are balanced, or when the combat is turning at the advantage of someone in particular. Really nice.

- The secondary layer of gameplay which is more related to the micro part, with the plethora of choices we have to reinforce some points with strong units, fight with some air units, improve punctually our economy with specific buildings or orbital abilities, micro some techniques or counter moves on the field. Neat.

New regular balance patches or content such as new maps having a good variety, new features or units, the roadmap is clear and serious...

Just a little thing about ergonomy : Not a big deal, but queuing some orders with the shift button also "unlocks" the camera height and the max zoom-in or zoom out levels. so the camera goes very far or at the contrary fall literally in the ground, maybe because the Shift shortcut has several usages that are overlapping. hitting again the shift button once or twice locks the camera again. It happens regularly. Maybe i missed something, and as said this is not a big deal, but could you fix that please?

Also the sound samples are somewhat acting strangely. Don't know if it is related to stereo effects, the number of simultaneous samples playable at a time or something else, but the source of the sounds, in particular explosions, canon sounds and more generally combat effects and their localization are approximative. sound balance going from left to right or the opposite in an abrupt manner, sound localization kinda "desynched" from the action. Here again, pretty sure that some tweaks are in the tubes.

The game had some really nice improvements so far. Ashes turns out surprisingly singular. So thank you, keep up the good work and the efforts

Frogboy, if you are trying to play off the "how the sausage is made" idiom, you have to make the connection more explicit.  Otherwise, it sounds like you are talking about a homosexual male orgy.