Ashlands is an abject failure and it has single handedly killed my motivation for this game.

[Diomedes8381]

Aside from the common issues with every new biome, I've played through to Ashlands 3 times now and each and every time highlights that vast display of ineptitude on behalf of the dev team and what they thought was good gameplay. They've created the most frustrating experiences I've had in gaming in a very very long time. The systems implemented to the character do not facilitate what is required in this biome.

There isn't enough stamina to escape let alone fight. Everything hits way too hard and stuns too easily, conversely when you stun them it makes no difference because of your god awful attack speed. I've resorted to devcommands simply because the design is so god awful and poorly implemented. What they were thinking when designing this does not give me confidence for anything they produce after this. The critical success of this game came before the last two biomes. There has been a giant step back from a game play standpoint from Plaines and below to Mistlands, and then an even larger step back for Ashlands.

The biome is terrible and nothing about it is endearing or fun or worthy of playing through.

The game is finished for me. The Devs ruined any good will they've built into the game prior and they've utterly failed in implementation since the intro of Mistlands. It is only worth "playing" the game up to Yagluth. Just devcommand the rest of the way to save you time, annoyance, and the directed pains in the ass the devs thought would be fun. At least Mistlands was bareable before they nerfed how many dungeons there used to be.

All that and they are nerfing gear and adding more junk in the tiny amount of inventory you get. I'm not sure mods could fix the crap they've produced.

[HunApo]

So many words to describe skill issue ...
Ashlands was a blast before it got nerfed to the ground.
A proper warzone

[Hixks]

Originally posted by Stonehorn:

And I personally find that the stamina is fine - like someone pointed out earlier, the pace of combat in this game leans towards DS 1 & 2. Strafe and walk, conserve strength. Attack only when it's an opportune moment, or you're forced to. Don't run in combat, except for short bursts. It actually staggers me how many people complain about the stamina in this game - people try to play this game like it's a hack-and-slash, and get mad when that way of playing doesn't work.

I agree with you to some extend. The issue is that it's not always possible. The mobs are very fast to get in your face, and sometime you get 4 of them and then run into more as you manage the fight. If you'r unlucky it will be a Morgen or a Valkyrie. And even worse, one of them might be a 1 Star. Once you depleted you stamina game over. You can't even run your way out of it. I guess dying ain't too bad in itself, it's all that comes with it.

[Stonehorn]

Originally posted by Hixks:

I agree with you to some extend. The issue is that it's not always possible. The mobs are very fast to get in your face, and sometime you get 4 of them and then run into more as you manage the fight. If you'r unlucky it will be a Morgen or a Valkyrie. And even worse, one of them might be a 1 Star. Once you depleted you stamina game over. You can't even run your way out of it. I guess dying ain't too bad in itself, it's all that comes with it.

I agree with you on all of that. Multi-aggro situations can be incredibly dangerous - especially in hazardous terrain... I've had a lot of close calls and deaths so far in the Ashlands.

I think that Valheim asks a lot of environmental awareness and attentiveness from players. The game really expects you to use (and maybe occasionally abuse) positioning and terrain, especially while you're playing solo. By the point you make it to Ashlands, you really need to have a solid grasp on most of the game mechanics to understand what you're doing.

I think that a lot of people's frustrations with this game emerge from the fact that Valheim does not communicate the best solutions to any given problem, combat or otherwise. Early and midgame Valheim is easy enough that you can beat most of it without really learning how to play. And those misconceptions about game and combat mechanics along with other unlearned lessons can really compound with time - a dozen invisible little mistakes pave the way to repeated deaths. I think that the experience often ends up being more frustrating than intended.

I've made a habit of seeking high ground in the Ashlands in order to survey - it makes the experience much more manageable. You really, really want to choose your fights whenever possible. I also make liberal use of the meads in my singleplayer world - I'm not good enough to get by without, and they help quite the bit.

[{O|G} Erik the Red]

Originally posted by Hixks:

Originally posted by Stonehorn:

...
It actually staggers me how many people complain about the stamina in this game - people try to play this game like it's a hack-and-slash, and get mad when that way of playing doesn't work.

I agree with you to some extend. The issue is that it's not always possible.
....
I guess dying ain't too bad in itself, it's all that comes with it.

Dying is part of the game, in the lore. The player's character respawns when they do, Odin wills it. You have a job to do, death will not stop you.

Only the player will decide when to stop respawning. This is your will. This is also lore.

Blaming death on a bad tactical or strategic choices, or just plain misfortune, all boils down to the same thing... of what are you gonna do about it? Get smart, get lucky, try something new, do it again (the same thing again, nvm the insanity, it will work the next time ), beseech the gods and their favor.... Odin is expecting results, not excuses.

[Capybarasan]

Originally posted by {O|G} Erik the Red:

Originally posted by Hixks:

I agree with you to some extend. The issue is that it's not always possible.
....
I guess dying ain't too bad in itself, it's all that comes with it.

Dying is part of the game, in the lore. The player's character respawns when they do, Odin wills it. You have a job to do, death will not stop you.

Only the player will decide when to stop respawning. This is your will. This is also lore.

Blaming death on a bad tactical or strategic choices, or just plain misfortune, all boils down to the same thing... of what are you gonna do about it? Get smart, get lucky, try something new, do it again (the same thing again, nvm the insanity, it will work the next time :lunar2019madpig:), beseech the gods and their favor.... Odin is expecting results, not excuses.

This is an over reliance on difficulty in order to pad content. This isn't lore, my guy. It's cheap game design.

[lorifel]

Originally posted by Capybarasan:

Originally posted by {O|G} Erik the Red:

Dying is part of the game, in the lore. The player's character respawns when they do, Odin wills it. You have a job to do, death will not stop you.

Only the player will decide when to stop respawning. This is your will. This is also lore.

Blaming death on a bad tactical or strategic choices, or just plain misfortune, all boils down to the same thing... of what are you gonna do about it? Get smart, get lucky, try something new, do it again (the same thing again, nvm the insanity, it will work the next time :lunar2019madpig:), beseech the gods and their favor.... Odin is expecting results, not excuses.

This is an over reliance on difficulty in order to pad content. This isn't lore, my guy. It's cheap game design.

May I remind you that this "cheap" game design sold 5 million copies and made its creators into millionairs?

[Gal Kraft]

Stamina Regen potions.

[>< V ><]

Originally posted by lorifel:

Originally posted by Capybarasan:

This is an over reliance on difficulty in order to pad content. This isn't lore, my guy. It's cheap game design.

May I remind you that this "cheap" game design sold 5 million copies and made its creators into millionairs? :lunar2020thinkingtiger:

So did the fake diamond license plate cover that so many people put on their cars license plate. They made millions off selling people a cheap piece of plastic that looks like diamonds.

[Capybarasan]

Originally posted by >< V ><:

Originally posted by lorifel:

May I remind you that this "cheap" game design sold 5 million copies and made its creators into millionairs? :lunar2020thinkingtiger:

So did the fake diamond license plate cover that so many people put on their cars license plate. They made millions off selling people a cheap piece of plastic that looks like diamonds.

Exactly. That 5 million copies sold was most certainly prior to Mistlands.

[lorifel]

Originally posted by Capybarasan:

Originally posted by >< V ><:

So did the fake diamond license plate cover that so many people put on their cars license plate. They made millions off selling people a cheap piece of plastic that looks like diamonds.

Exactly. That 5 million copies sold was most certainly prior to Mistlands.

I am sorry to misinform you. Looks like it is 12 million copies already.
Gamers these days...

[FreeMe]

Yeah, I quit the game too after ashlands. The biome was not enjoyable in the slightest. It soured my experience so much that I changed my rating to "not recommended".

[Terminal Desolation]

having played Ashlands post-nerf...

it's legitimately fine now

the only issue I really had was that progression was awful because you could almost never end combat due to how quickly enemies respawned and how dense spawns were, which isn't an issue anymore

You should have plenty of stamina to fight, the only time I run out of stamina during a battle is if I'm also aggressively fighting a Morgrem since a 1v1 will take most of my stamina to parry-lock it... are you eating the best foods available from the Mistlands or are you still on like Plains food for some reason? the best Ashlands food is surprisingly accessible as well, so hopefully you can get some of that going since it's a bit more optimal, and the new Feasts are a benefit to your stamina as well if you opt for the 1:1:1 feast:health:stam ratio. If it continues to be an issue, you can look into the Lingering Stamina Meads which give +25% stam regen for 5 minutes, or Tasty Meads which give +100% stam regen for a few seconds with a short cooldown. There's also regular Stamina Potions for a big boost immediately.

The stuns last long enough for you to get a "critical" in, which is more than enough. Asksvin hold still long enough that if I'm using my spear I can literally 1-combo them after a parry, getting 3 crits off during their stun animation. Are you trying to use a spear on the skeletons or something? You should be using Blunt weaponry if you're not already... With a good mace you can consistently 2 shot the archers, 1 shot if you parry.

The tools to succeed exist. Just because you refuse to use them doesn't mean that they don't. Stamina management is like 2/3 of combat in this game, the other 1/3 being parry timing.

I'll agree with the complaint that our inventory is too small given how much it feels like we're expected to bring with us, but that's why I've installed Valheim+ and changed my inventory size. The sheer number of QoL features that mod provides makes it an auto-include in my load order and I can't imagine playing Valheim without it anymore.

[OndeTv]

Personally i find both mistlands and ashlands great on paper, but poorly executed.

This is most likely in tandem with older issues like combat and verticality (mistlands mainly here) and spawn distance (most noticeable in ashlands, where more enemies can literally spawn in almost right behind you).

Also, i agree with the comment about ashland forts. They are small, identical and pretty bland. Also, they seem to have see-through walls in regards to mob AI, so if you use one for a base, you pretty much have to line it with an extra set of walls to not constantly attract mobs around it.

Lastly, as content gets harder, it becomes more evident that the corpse run mechanic is flawed, or perhaps just flawed in some instances. Yesterday, while battling Fader and behind halfway done, i took a meteor to the face (my fault) and died. The resulting corpse run was much harder than any boss fight up to that point had been, and i repeatedly died near my tombstone, or while trying to loot it.

To add insult to injury, the game crashed afterwards and corrupted my cloud save, resulting in a rollback to a world state where the fader fight never happened, and there were no tombstones = gear loss (i fixed it by sifting through automatic save backups, but i really shouldn't have to).

I love the new magic additions, but the tamed creature AI sorely lacks fleshing out. This goes for both summoned skeletts (frightened??? hungry???) and especially asksvin, where you easily end up spending more time trying to box it in so it doesn't run away and gets itself killed (even 2 star) if you decide to actually use one.

So yeah... Overall i agree with the OP. Neither mistlands or ashlands are up to the standards of the previous biomes.

[Zatarra]

I know that everyone is committed to their philosophy of what Valheim "SHOULD BE", but I'll waste one more post on the subject.

I don't really want to give away spoilers but consider NOT killing everything you see. There are methods to achieve the goals and, for me at least, killing everything that moved was not the way.

There's more than one way to approach the problems presented in Ashland's so your solution could be different from mine, perhaps even superior!

If your only solution is endless stamina or long range machine guns, you're probably doomed to not be one of Odin's chosen.

[OhNoes]

Originally posted by Zatarra:

I know that everyone is committed to their philosophy of what Valheim "SHOULD BE", but I'll waste one more post on the subject.

I don't really want to give away spoilers but consider NOT killing everything you see. There are methods to achieve the goals and, for me at least, killing everything that moved was not the way.

There's more than one way to approach the problems presented in Ashland's so your solution could be different from mine, perhaps even superior!

If your only solution is endless stamina or long range machine guns, you're probably doomed to not be one of Odin's chosen.

great insight, thank you.
the problem here is about teaching players how to play the game in 5 biomes, and when you understand the logic you get thrown off to learn everything in a new one.
why not just rework entire game and make people play if from ground up.
changing playstyle on each new biome is tiresome let alone annoying.