The Gatherable Spawning System is Evolving

Glorious Alpha Two Gatherers,

The data and feedback you’ve provided has been invaluable throughout our Alpha Two testing phase, helping us shape the future of Ashes of Creation! Many of you have shared thoughts on gatherables with fixed locations and predictable timers, and we recognize the desire to enhance Artisanship in a more dynamic and rewarding way. Instead of quick fixes, we have decided to accelerate the development of some of our outstanding key Surveying and Gatherable Spawning System features that not only improves the Alpha Two experience, but also aligns with our long-term vision for the game's launch. Our goal is to create an immersive, competitive, and ever-evolving world that continues growing through your feedback and collaboration.

Gathering Updates

With that said, we are planning to introduce updates to the Gatherable Spawning System in our 0.8 (April 10, 2025 ), 0.9 (April 24, 2025), and 0.10 (May 8, 2025) build updates of Alpha Two. These changes will be designed to make gathering more engaging and rewarding. Gatherable Spawn Clustering (by rarity) introduces variability in spawn times, amounts, and locations, making rare gatherables require continued exploration to acquire. Instead of static spawn locations, gatherables will dynamically respawn at new locations within larger spawning areas, meaning that when a gatherable resource is acquired, it won’t return to the same location. Our goal is to maintain the excitement of discovering a high-rarity gatherable area. However, this knowledge should come with the understanding that others will also discover and act on it. The days of logging back in at the exact spot to find that legendary copper two hours later are over.

Surveying Updates

Surveying will be an essential tool in adapting to these exciting changes. In our current iteration, some testers have mastered ways to optimize gathering spawn times, which presents an opportunity to make the system more engaging for everyone. With these changes, testers will be able to utilize a new Surveying item to discover the general location of specific gatherables and find rarer instances of them. Testers will also be able to gain information about gatherables that are waiting to respawn, giving them the opportunity to contest these respawn areas. This evolution of the system strives to encourage continued exploration with Surveying, increasing friction in highly sought after areas over time.

Additional Artisanship Updates 

On top of that, Artisanship Service Multi-Tagging will ensure that gatherables will appear in logical, immersive locations, such as weeping willows near riverbanks, and minerals like copper in caves, while still maintaining randomness and rewarding exploration. Gatherable Spawn Clusters use a weighted system to inform their chance to spawn at their viable tagged locations. This means that players can learn the locations in which certain gatherables have a higher or lower chance to spawn, but it will still allow encountering eureka moments!

In addition to all of these gathering system improvements, Processing Stations will give players the flexibility to choose the size of the job they want to process, rather than being restricted to set batch sizes. Processing recipes will also allow mixing and matching different rarity gatherables, similar to Crafting. Gathering Tools will be converted into equipable items, like bags and artisanship gear. We are also refining how gatherable rarity impacts crafted item stats, ensuring gatherable rarity feels more meaningful. All of these features, along with other system refinements based on community feedback, will be introduced in the 0.8 (April 10, 2025 ), 0.9 (April 24, 2025), and 0.10 (May 8, 2025) build updates. While we work to implement these changes, we appreciate your patience.

Your Feedback

Your perspective remains invaluable in shaping Ashes of Creation into the best MMORPG it can be. We've posted a Dev Discussion regarding the Gatherable Spawning System, and would love your input as we move forward! Now is the time to gather your thoughts to assist us in crafting a great system. We can't wait to hear all of your glorious feedback, and we appreciate your continued support during our development journey. If you haven't already, please make sure to follow us on your social media platform of choice for the latest updates and news.