The TRUTH About Alpha 2, Part 1: Server Performance, Optimization and Graphics

The verbal NDA has been lifted for Ashes of Creations upcoming Alpha 2 Test. Let's discuss how the servers are performing, how optimized the game is, and what the graphics look like.

[@Xillin]

Follow me over on Twitch for Livestreams everyday this week! www.twitch.tv/xillin

[@TerriblePlaz]

Ya Im about due for a PC upgrade. Currently running GPU: 5700XT CPU: 3700x. Its still a solid rig but from what it sounds like i will be barley in the acceptable performance range. Just need to wait for the new 9000X3D chips and either the 50 or 8000 series GPUs.

[@Mr.Nubtastic]

Steven says "it'll be lifted sometime tomorrow", then proceeds to drop it 30 minutes later. I think he just wanted to watch all the streams like he does on the weekends so he got the drama started before Momma Margaret came back tomorrow and stopped him 🤣🤣🤣 5 hours of stream watching later and here I am watching replays of ones that I haven't got to yet lol. From everything I have been hearing from the A1 tester crowd, it's as good, or better actually, then what I expect it to be. I am going in fully expect Phase 1 to be damn near unplayable more often than not since it's entire reason for existence is to be a server load test. I know it will actually be better than that, but that's my bar so I can be pleasantly surprised. I need all you Oct. 5 people to go ahead and get more of those server issues handled so us Nov 8 folks can do some exploring after our 18 hour queue boss raid :) I don't care about all of the progressing of my toon stuff in Phase 1. I want to explore the map, get some weapon playing in. I can get to the real testing come Phase 2. I'm so glad he lifted the verbal on a weekend!!!

[@IdhalarAlBaiesh]

Agree on all counts. Running a 5800x, 6800xt, playing at 1440, 49" screen. As you said the game is running like a charm (80-100fps) with everything set to ultra and the game, specially the world, looks beautiful! Joined in the last group of testers and just in this short time the improvements are insane. The team is doing an incredible work.

[@somefrankenstein7925]

I hope that they keep healers being able to heal enemy mobs.

[@Malicus]

One of the best parts of Lineage 2

[@Hat_Uncle]

yup, I used that twice, when people tried to pull the mob I was fighting. LOL

[@joaofernandes9458]

😳

[@squatchbigfoot8577]

whaaaaaat? oh man this cant possibly be abused...lol

[@Malicus]

@squatchbigfoot8577 in L2 one of the healers had a % based heal so we'd use it on field raid bosses to set them back to 75% life lol

[@TearlStoneheart]

I hope the 3 day testing cycles work out more like the pre-A2 cycles where they just leave the servers up unless there's a massive break point.

[@Xillin]

Don't get my hopes up!

[@malismo]

Thanks for sharing this and your analysis, much appreciated

[@Hat_Uncle]

Totally agree Xillin, they have a plan and are meeting target goals. People forget, the showcases had 10 or less people for the most part. So adding more people, you have to limit the world's object to balance the load. IMHO, that's why things were "sparce" comparatively. Once they have a stable build for the number of players, THEN they can add the objects back in slowly. To me that's what the Phase 1 and Phase 2 tests are for in the first place. I've been hopeful but skeptical up to this point. Seeing the progress has made me excited for the first time.

[@Xillin]

It's the progress over time that really has me sold. The state of the game right this second is rather "meh", but the rate they are improving it's gonna be crazy fun by Christmas.

[@cmdr_thrudd]

I love hearing the stories from the trenches. I've done a fair few proper MMO alphas under NDA going back as far as 2003. It's always a wild ride, lots of funny stories

[@PyraiSage]

Yesterday was so much fun!! Obviously there were stability issues but they were pretty easy to overcome and spend that majority of 12 hours playing.. it was so much fun, very pretty and fluid, movement feels amazing, responsive.. can’t wait for blink to be more stable but even in wow 20 years later it still gets wasted on flat terrain sometimes 😂 can’t wait to play again and see the progress compared to day 1

[@CidoraX]

Let’s go! We back baby!

[@Xillin]

We back!

[@DoubleDrastik]

i love your humbleness you didnt like to throw in ppl faces what kind of rig your running but i am kinda curious for comparison reason me myself also got a beefier system but im rlly intrested in how it stacks up prolly not able to run it on my rog ally xD.. and is de game frame capped at 60 or is it unlocked?

[@Xillin]

CPU: AMD 7800 X3D GPU: AMD 7900 XTX Ram: 64 Gigs DDR5 (don't remember speed, it's nice but not top of the line) Motherboard: No idea, again, not top tier but a pretty good one.

[@Imogenus]

Optimization.... the sexyest thing about vigeo games.

[@Penumbra-AoC]

Open the flood gates! Release the hounds! It's about to go down!

[@Xillin]

Yessir!

[@Texinga]

Did you ever run a HW monitor? I'd be interested to see what the CPU/GPU utilization was and how much stuttering. I have a sneaking suspicion that people will be upgrading GPUs when their CPUs are the real chokepoint.

[@squatchbigfoot8577]

Good info!

[@vexillian]

I think the most important question to answer is, even though it's still a test, Has it been fun? Lol.

[@Xillin]

Definitely gonna a video on the fun factor coming up.

[@vexillian]

@Xillin Good to hear! I truly don't expect it to be a blast just yet, considering it being the earliest stages of mechanic implementation, but I do hope that despite it all, it's been fun testing what's there and then extrapolating from it what's to come.

[@JohnAPrescott]

I've been having a fn blast!

[@krispykrreme]

Definitely need things to do, once you are done looking at everything their isn't anything to really do but that's to be expected since its an alpha. My biggest concern is that the improvement from alpha 1 is big but not as far along as I had hoped, I hope these next few months are bangers.

[@uznugaris]

Oh how much of ia voiceed NPC's did you noticeed? And how is it?

[@Xillin]

Noticed it here and there. It's not too bad, and of course they have plenty of time to improve in that area. Definitely helps to make the world feel more alive.

[@krispykrreme]

It was surprising better than I expected but you can definitely tell its AI.

[@EisenEgon]

Everyone says nobody uses action combat systems. Targeting is the only thing that really works. Can u give us some information about it?

[@Ragecon87]

Action combat works well and there are some settings you can change that makes it better, only downside is when menus pop up you have to hit a to get out of it, but I’m sure that will get fixed

[@IdhalarAlBaiesh]

@@EisenEgon using action, specially in melee builds and it feels great. It's fluid, helps a lot to control what you are hitting with your weapon attacks, targeting a specific mob is easy (just press q with the reticle over it) you can tab cycle if you need to, you can use F1 to target yourself, F2+ to target party members fast. Templated aoes like mage's magma zone are cast at the point your reticle is targeting, other directional attacks like ball lightning or the cleric's wave work as expected too. The only problem I've encountered is ranged weapons auto targeting random enemies when your target dies and the fact that bow attacks go to your target (tab) instead of your reticle, so there is no free aim for those attacks.

[@JohnAPrescott]

Intrepid Team = Best Team!

[@MrKevlarkent]

i think that basically, 90% of what were seeing now was done since they switched to UE5. basically, besides some backend stuff, this game hasnt been in development for 7 years, its been in development for 3 years, at least thats how i see it.

[@DonJoe-n2d]

what bro, we readin no text on a pvp mmo beside world chat for taunt hahaha wdym read quest and see how to press stuff ?

[@Skorn_AoC]

What video card are you running?

[@Xillin]

I have a 7900 XTX and get 60 FPS near constantly

[@noahzdddd]

Break out your purple shirts this is not a drill!!!

[@mrBok]

Third!

[@The_Tankologist]

First!

[@Xillin]

You cheated. I'm on to you!

[@The_Tankologist]

@@Xillin "whistling" while casually walking away!

[@moritz164]

How to make a 10 minutes video without saying anything:

[@Xillin]

How to make a completely brain dead comment.

[@moritz164]

@@Xillin you should take it as feedback and not cry about it.

[@ivandamyanov]

Then provide actual feedback? We all know that is not feedback it's just a meme comment. You didn't want him to improve, who are you kidding? Btw the video was talking about exactly what the title said, did you try to watch it at all?