Static Rarity, “Render Bugs,” and Player Frustration: Why Ashes of Creation Testers Are Fed Up with Gatherable Spawns

TL;DR: Testers say static high-rarity spawns are still in Alpha Two Phase 3 despite earlier messaging that they’d be removed. Players report camped legendary nodes, predictable timers, and visual tells/overlays that reveal rarity, producing massive stockpiles of legendary mats for a small group while others struggle. Intrepid briefly shipped a variable-rarity (per-hit %) system, then rolled it back after it broke balance; staff say the intent is still to remove static rarity. In the meantime, the community wants clearer comms, server-side rarity decisions, and temporary safeguards.

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What Players Are Reporting

• Static rarity feels back (or never fully gone).
  Testers say “known” locations still produce higher-tier mats on predictable windows. As one put it:

  “I watched someone log in as a node spawned, mine it, and log out. High-quality materials feel much more fixed than they should be.”

• Camping and alt parking.
  Players describe alts sitting on premium spawns and logging in precisely at the window to scoop legendary resources.

• Legendary floods vs. droughts.
  Several claim individuals are selling 200–300+ legendary logs/flowers, while others gather for hours with almost nothing:

  “I chopped for 5 hours and got 5 legendaries. Others have 300—how?”

• Visual cues and UI behavior that telegraph rarity.
  Reports include:

  • “Circle” indicator appearing on some T1/Novice nodes that correlates with higher rarity.
  • Subtle color/brightness differences (e.g., flowers like daffodils/snowdrops, trees like oak/ash, rocks with rust) visible at higher graphics settings.
  • A so-called “render distance” tell: if a tree pops into view at max render, it’s allegedly guaranteed to be high tier (players call this “game-breaking”).
  • Claims of overlay/injection tools that read a client-side **HarvestManager** value to expose rarity before harvesting* (disputed, but several testers say it’s circulating and should be bannable).

  *Some testers argue this is effectively client-side leakage: the client appears to “know” rarity prior to gather completion, enabling overlays to surface it.

• Knock-on economic effects.
  Testers link static rarity + tells to:

  • Hoarding and price distortion.
  • Demoralized gatherers/crafters (people log off rather than compete).
  • Testing data skew (alpha economy “cooked” by concentrated legendaries).

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What the Developers Said

• Mepps (Community):

  “Static rarity was removed briefly in an update that had to be rolled back. It is still our intent to remove static rarity.”

  Players say the temporary change made heroic+ drops explode everywhere, triggering a rollback “to the last stable build,” which still had static rarity.

• Communication gap called out.
  Several testers say this would have landed better if patch notes or a pinned message explicitly said:
  “We rolled back the rarity change; static values are back while we stabilize the variable system.”
  Without that, many assumed static was “fixed” and felt misled when they saw it live again.

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Why Static Rarity Feels Bad in Practice

1. Predictable Scarcity → Unfair Advantage.
   If high-rarity nodes are static in place and timer, whoever “owns” the timing/channel wins repeatedly.
2. Encourages Non-play Patterns.
   Parking alts on timers, relogging to scoop spawns, route-camping over playing the game.
3. Amplifies Knowledge Gaps.
   Visual tells (color shifts, “circles,” spawn “outliers” like a lone tree in the wrong biome) let informed players cherry-pick legendaries while others grind whites.
4. Skews the Economy.
   A few players dump legendary stock while most can’t access a baseline of rare mats, undermining crafting progression, pricing, and testing goals.

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Reported Exploits/Edge Cases (Player Claims)

⚠️ These are community claims during an Alpha—some may be bugs, some intended behavior, and some misunderstandings. They should be triaged by the devs.

• “Render-spawn tell”: at max render distance, nodes that “pop in” are allegedly guaranteed high tier.
• Overlay/injection reading HarvestManager to display rarity pre-harvest.
• Horse/“pylon” clues (vague references that certain movement/vision states help reveal rarity).
• “Circle”/icon for T1 nodes that correlates with higher rarity.
• Biome outliers: e.g., a single tree type amid others is “often high-rarity.”

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Timeline Snapshot (as reconstructed from chat)

• Earlier update: Intrepid removed static rarity and trialed a per-hit variable chance.
• Immediate fallout: Rarity rates were off the charts, heroic+ everywhere → rollback to previous stable (static returns).
• Mepps update: Intent remains to remove static rarity; solution needs stability + balance before re-release.
• Now: Players continue to see static patterns and visual tells; frustration grows.

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Community Proposals & Design Ideas

1. Return to variable rarity with sane tuning.
   • Baseline chance to upgrade (e.g., 1% base, +0.1% per tool/skill breakpoint) that does not rely on location.
   • Keep conflict in logistics (hauling bulk mats) rather than in camping fixed rares.
2. Server-side rarity decision.
   • Make final rarity roll on harvest completion (server), not on spawn, and do not send rarity to client beforehand.
   • If a visual indicator must exist, randomize or decouple it from true rarity until the server confirms.
3. Remove or obfuscate visual tells.
   • Normalize plant color/brightness; avoid “circle”/dot indicators that correlate with rarity (especially on low tiers).
   • If “player skill recognition” is desired, use subtle, randomized signals that aren’t trivially automatable or read by overlays.
4. Dynamic clusters with PvP windows.
   • Randomly spawn short-lived rare clusters that flag a local PvP zone for X minutes (suggestion from players).
   • Reduces timer camping and turns conflict into on-demand skirmishes, not AFK alt parking.
5. Temporary safeguards (if variable rarity isn’t ready):
   • Disable high-rarity tiers on static nodes until the system is stable.
   • Audit & wipe obviously inflated legendary stacks (with communication).
   • Harden anti-cheat; detect overlays/injections; ban obvious offenders.
   • Daily transparency pings: “What’s live, what’s rolled back, what’s next.”
6. Clearer patch notes & “State of Rarity” banner.
   • When rolling back, explicitly state what’s being restored and why.
   • Pin a “State of Rarity” message: Static (temporary) → Variable ETA → Known issues (visual tells, dots, color shifts).

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Sentiment & Stakes

• Many gatherers/crafters report burnout:

  “The little dopamine from a sale vanishes when I see trees still camped. I log off.”

• Others acknowledge dev intent but want action:

  “They tried to fix it and broke spawns—fine. But communicate and ship a guarded version rather than leave static for weeks.”

• Some advocate hard stops:

  “Disable gathering until static is fixed. It’s alpha; protect the data.”

Why it matters: Alpha data on drop rates, progression, pricing, and logistics is only useful if the acquisition model is fair and representative. Static rarity + visual tells create edge-case economies that don’t reflect the intended design—and that drives players away during a crucial testing window.

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Our Take

• Design goal is right: foster conflict through movement/logistics risk, not spawn camping.
• Implementation must change: variable rarity with server-side rolls, client-safe signaling, and tuned rates will better align with that goal.
• Comms are critical: when a rollback re-enables static, say so clearly. Pin it. Repeat it.
• Protect the test: short-term caps, audits, and anti-overlay enforcement can stabilize the economy while the proper solution bakes.

Until the variable system returns in a stable form, static rarity will keep rewarding timers, alts, and UI tells rather than genuine gameplay. Testers don’t want to “win the lottery”; they want meaningful gathering progression that feels fair, skillful, and worth their time.

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