Ashlands Review

[Bravely Bold Sir Robin]

Ashlands is a good biome.

That being said, there are some serious flaws with it, so here goes:

Pros. The design of the ashlands is very good. The boiling water is interesting, the new serpents are a welcome addition to the monotony of sailing. Their meat needs its own version of serpent stew though, because a stack weighs 120 lbs. The vultures (sorry, VOLtures) are a threat to a new team entering the biome, but ultimately are a minor nuisance once you're settled in. Flammetal being found in lava you can fall into and die is a neat mechanic, and the bombs you need to get at flammetal deep in lava ponds is a decently creative way to play the biome. What I especially like, is that the devs added gems to enhance weapons. It's something I suggested years ago in a forum post so I'm gonna go ahead and claim credit even though there's no way they read that forum post lol. A new type of wood to enhance fashion is always welcome, and the design of the ashwood doors is quite appealing. The return of troll cave-style mini dungeons is also a nice touch. Lord Reto hiding a secret and powerful weapon (that is useless in this biome lol) is also a neat successor to Hildir. The armour sets are also well designed, and having multiple viable capes that you have to choose between is good. Forcing choice between playstyles is quite welcome in a game where the first few biomes could easily be cheesed by just a bow and some kiting. Same thing with the rarity of gems. There shouldn't be enough gems for everyone to get every weapon custom. it should force prioritization, and based on the spawn rate on my world, it did. I also liked the heat mechanic where you can burst into flames, or take damage. And the fireballs falling from the sky. Those were good.

The cons. There are a lot. Starting with the landing, the sheer volume of enemies spawning takes up so much time and for a solo player, setting up even a workbench is nearly impossible, because it's made of wood and gets attacked, set on fire, or otherwise destroyed very quickly. The number of spawns is a common complaint so I won't go on. The gems I praised earlier have one major flaw. They're rare. Where I landed in the ashlands, none of the nearby fortresses had any bloodstones, so I was soft-locked out of black forge updates, and left wondering what on earth I was missing and why I couldn't upgrade my forge. Key upgrades that you must build shouldn't be hidden behind an RNG drop. Double the flammetal cost for all I care, but the gemcutter shouldn't force you to potentially scour the entire biome to find a rare item.

Sieges are also a neat, but extremely poorly executed idea. Siege engines are antithetical to the theme of the game. Dungeon exploration was fantastic, sieges are mass combat, and valheim is not a war game, it is an exploration game. A solo player dragging a battering ram across the ashlands, or wasting 3 inv slots for the build materials is a slog, and a waste of time. I'm not entirely opposed to explosives, but the siege mechanics seem quite geared around slowing down progression, rather than finding a fun way to give a combat encounter with rewards at the end. Maybe just let bombs break down the doors so people don't have to carry catapults past 300 twitchers 50 birds, two morgens, and a valkyrie just to get a bit of flammetal and a gem? Dunno, the siege engines seem like an awful idea to me. Also they took away any incentive I had to mine flammetal from dangerous lava pools when I can get more than enough from sieges. Whoops.

The boss is also an awful design. The chief complaint about the queen was that the seekers that spawn during her fight took more time than the queen herself. It's kind of unbelievable the devs didn't learn from that feedback, and gave the next boss spawns too. They also gave the boss an aoe DoT field that is so big it takes your stamina bar to get out of it, at which point you have no stamina to damage the boss. The boss also spins so if you try to melee it you get pushed away, and if you try to use ranged, it will take forever because it's resistant and will shower you with meteors so you have to waste your stamina repositioning. Again, the boss mechanics were not forcing you to strategize and use skill, they were forcing you to kite and dodge for 5 minutes, and then take a tiny window to hit a few times before going back to kiting. It also seemed to me like the lower its HP got, the more frequently it spawned minions, and used its zoning attacks, which is a nice mechanic if it weren't spamming abilities that just slow you down.

Crossing the biome takes forever. Mining flammetal takes forever because the nodes disappear. Harvesting berries takes forever because once you have the vines, the berry spawn rate is once every four years. Foraging takes forever, and that's if morgens don't roll through the fiddlehead spawns and destroy them. Going from one side of the biome and back again to find Reto takes forever. Everything about this biome seems like it was designed to slow you down, rather than to challenge you or force you to strategize. Blocking a charge-attack from an asksvin and being knocked 100 yards back into lava and dying instantly (and making some bombs to traverse the lava and get your gear back) is just another thing slowing you down.

I enjoyed parts of this biome, but mostly it just felt like a drag. Like I was wasting my time, rather than enjoying it. Please let the next boss fight be one where you can damage the boss more than 2% of the time. I will try to enjoy farming the remaining items I haven't built yet for my castle's armoury, but this big of a time-suck this late in the game is not what I was hoping for.

[Pernicus84]

I have been hugely bummed by this release. My wife used to love playing with me but all we do is get slammed by enemies that seem to spawn every minute. We're not having fun anymore and I've played Valheim for almost 1000 hours.

[mithras]

Originally posted by Pernicus84:

I have been hugely bummed by this release. My wife used to love playing with me but all we do is get slammed by enemies that seem to spawn every minute. We're not having fun anymore and I've played Valheim for almost 1000 hours.

Same! And we are playing on an easier mode.

[Z3r0Th3H3r0]

My son said it best: I like it to be challenging but not a complete slog misery simulator

I find it nearly impossible to solo. You build a ram, bust open the doors...only to be mobbed by 50 enemies. At least 4 of which are difficult to slay 1v1, let alone in a crew.

[Nerevar]

Originally posted by Z3r0Th3H3r0:

My son said it best: I like it to be challenging but not a complete slog misery simulator

I find it nearly impossible to solo. You build a ram, bust open the doors...only to be mobbed by 50 enemies. At least 4 of which are difficult to slay 1v1, let alone in a crew.

you are in a gameworld where you can alter the terrian and build ♥♥♥♥ nearly anywhere. make use of that instead of trying the head on method. be creative in your approach instead of head on fighting. valheim rewards beeing creative. most of these types of games do in fact.

[Mineralwasser]

Originally posted by Z3r0Th3H3r0:

My son said it best: I like it to be challenging but not a complete slog misery simulator

I find it nearly impossible to solo. You build a ram, bust open the doors...only to be mobbed by 50 enemies. At least 4 of which are difficult to slay 1v1, let alone in a crew.

Demolisher can be used with it´s AOE-Slam through the door. The mobs can´t touch you. Hohoho
The mobs can´t touch you.
After that -> break it down -> STOP -> Hammertime

Even if you dont want to Slam through the door and soften them up, you could do another approach with it. HODOR! XD

Hold the door and push them back. Nice chokepoint.

[Hyruleanate]

Originally posted by Nerevar:

Originally posted by Z3r0Th3H3r0:

My son said it best: I like it to be challenging but not a complete slog misery simulator

I find it nearly impossible to solo. You build a ram, bust open the doors...only to be mobbed by 50 enemies. At least 4 of which are difficult to slay 1v1, let alone in a crew.

you are in a gameworld where you can alter the terrian and build ♥♥♥♥ nearly anywhere. make use of that instead of trying the head on method. be creative in your approach instead of head on fighting. valheim rewards beeing creative. most of these types of games do in fact.

I'm convinced you don't actually play this game because you comment on every single post about a negative experience in the ashlands and just suck the ♥♥♥♥ of the devs at every turn. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely adore this game, probably my favorite game to date. but dude, people play this game to have fun, and when a biome doesnt feel fun because of how painful it is to progress in it, it makes people not want to play. Stop backseat gaming and let people share their experiences without immediately ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ on them for it. the devs need to hear both sides, not just yours.

[saurce]

Originally posted by Hyruleanate:

Originally posted by Nerevar:

you are in a gameworld where you can alter the terrian and build ♥♥♥♥ nearly anywhere. make use of that instead of trying the head on method. be creative in your approach instead of head on fighting. valheim rewards beeing creative. most of these types of games do in fact.

I'm convinced you don't actually play this game because you comment on every single post about a negative experience in the ashlands and just suck the ♥♥♥♥ of the devs at every turn. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely adore this game, probably my favorite game to date. but dude, people play this game to have fun, and when a biome doesnt feel fun because of how painful it is to progress in it, it makes people not want to play. Stop backseat gaming and let people share their experiences without immediately ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ on them for it. the devs need to hear both sides, not just yours.

You're right, its insufferable, blocked it ages ago for being a broken record.

Anyways, yeah, the Ashlands biome is better than Mistlands but it just seems like the devs are running out of ideas. Sure. Just spam more and more enemies for each biome. I bet the Deep North wont even have a landmass. It'll just be one giant blob of enemies.

[Nerevar]

Originally posted by Hyruleanate:

Originally posted by Nerevar:

you are in a gameworld where you can alter the terrian and build ♥♥♥♥ nearly anywhere. make use of that instead of trying the head on method. be creative in your approach instead of head on fighting. valheim rewards beeing creative. most of these types of games do in fact.

I'm convinced you don't actually play this game because you comment on every single post about a negative experience in the ashlands and just suck the ♥♥♥♥ of the devs at every turn. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely adore this game, probably my favorite game to date. but dude, people play this game to have fun, and when a biome doesnt feel fun because of how painful it is to progress in it, it makes people not want to play. Stop backseat gaming and let people share their experiences without immediately ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ on them for it. the devs need to hear both sides, not just yours.

everyone plays for fun. shocking reveleation i know. but fun is subjective. they might not have fun because of thier mindset or method of play which they can change freely. i have fun right now. and if they nerf it my fun is just gone and i wont be able to get it back.
what you thinkof me personally is fully irrelevant to the topic.

[Toxxie]

100% agree. The Ashlands experience for me and my friends was miserable the moment we landed on the shoreline. Something being difficult is fine, but this is just a long slog and isn't fun in the slightest.

If you're ever torturing yourself by replaying Ashlands, I recommend switching on x3 loot multipier.

[Exodite-Dragon]

Originally posted by Z3r0Th3H3r0:

My son said it best: I like it to be challenging but not a complete slog misery simulator

I find it nearly impossible to solo. You build a ram, bust open the doors...only to be mobbed by 50 enemies. At least 4 of which are difficult to slay 1v1, let alone in a crew.

You may not be aware, but enemy strength is increased when you have more people logged into a world. I stand by the notion that Ashlands is easier solo, overall, as opposed to group play.

Nerevar is right, however, that your creativity in approaching the beach landing and fortress sieges alike is an important element of the game. The hoe, the pick, and your hammer remain the most powerful tools in your arsenal; something the game starts trying to point out from the get-go, but especially when you first reach the swamps.

There's a lot that can be done to mitigate the problems you seem to be having, but that also requires heeding the advice people who did find success are trying to offer, instead of assuming that success is impossible just because your first-time foray into a new biome went poorly.

Everyone's first-time foray into a new biome, going all the way back to the Black Forest, goes poorly. Some of us even got gored by boars in the Meadows, but we stuck with it.

[mjt1447]

Everyone's first-time foray into a new biome, going all the way back to the Black Forest, goes poorly. Some of us even got gored by boars in the Meadows, but we stuck with it.

Then they Nerfed the bio and everyone had more fun. ;)

[Lorska]

Maybe don't advertise slowly getting a ram through endlessly respawning enemies to a fortress in your release trailer if you're not supposed to do this?

[Exodite-Dragon]

Originally posted by mjt1447:

Everyone's first-time foray into a new biome, going all the way back to the Black Forest, goes poorly. Some of us even got gored by boars in the Meadows, but we stuck with it.

Then they Nerfed the bio and everyone had more fun. ;)

Yes, I often imagine incompetents feel better when challenges are eliminated to suit them.

[vandalism]

Great points. They will ignore all of it, of course. See you in 3 years for deep north.

[Loki]

The lag is really an issue.