NPCs
NPCs come and go as required by game mechanics, such as node progression.[3]
- Some NPC movements and behaviors are dictated by time of day or other rotational cycle, others will be static.[4]
- Where we place the NPC rotations that are relevant- those would be kind of rotations that exist perhaps within an hour, not so much within a day so-to-speak. So there might be five minutes of some changing of an organization's acolytes in a temple or something; and that might be because obviously there's a quest related to that rotation.[4] – Steven Sharif
It's a really big dude and the idea behind him is you're gonna see big monsters- I think that the character comes up to like his elbow maybe, or just beneath the elbow I'm not sure- but you're going to see these big elites kind of just roaming and wandering through the world. They're not assigned any to to any particular hunting ground, they just kind of roam; and I think that component is pretty cool especially when you have an open world where you can see something unique that's not matching the monsters you're hunting in a certain area but just strolls by.[5] – Steven Sharif

There are going to be different types of "Goblinesque" creatures; and this one has not skipped out on his leg or arm day, which is a good thing for him because he's probably going to be in a lot of fights.[7] – Steven Sharif
There will be a mix of different monsters and difficulty levels throughout the world that are tied to the development of nearby nodes. As nodes advance, mobs will present new and increasing dangers that players can participate in.[8]
- In the world naturally there will be locations that are going to have a mix of different levels of monsters and difficulty levels; and then those spawn tables relate to the development of nearby nodes. So as nodes develop they'll be changing the spawn tables around them to reflect their further development in the world, presenting new and more difficult dangers that the players can participate in.[8] – Steven Sharif
- Not all creatures are immediately hostile to players.[9][10] Some creatures may hunt other creatures.[11]
- We've talked about this a little bit in the past when talking about taming and/or certain types of like creature gatherable resources there are herds that exist out there. There are big game that exist out there, where they're not going to aggro and attack you per-se. Also lower level monsters and certain type of like social monsters may not attack you off the bat.[10] – Steven Sharif
- There will be flying mobs, but not in terms of requiring a flying mount to engage them.[12]
- We will have flying monsters but essentially what that means is there's going to be rotations either in the behavior tree that might make them inaccessible to targets, or they might do some like swooping attacks; they might come and land on the ground and fight you. But generally monsters are going to be accessible from on the ground, so we're not creating content for the limited number of individuals who are going to have access to a flying mount.[12] – Steven Sharif
- Certain elite monsters that are not assigned any to any particular hunting ground will roam throughout the world.[5] Other mobs will have leashes that will cause the mob to reset if it moves too far from its point of origin.[13]
- Leashes are relevant. There's other gameplay implications that happen when you're able to actually move populations around. We don't want to really give that to the players perspective.[13] – Steven Sharif
NPC types
- Animated Armor Mobs
- Arachnids
- Beetles
- Bosse
- Cyclops
- Demons
- Drachen
- Elder dragons
- Landarbeiter und NSC-Hilfe
- Haunted Armor
- Hired NPCs
- Living statues
- Mercenary NPCs
- Händler
- Minotaurs
- Mobs
- Mushrooms
- NPC-Wachen
- Najash
- Naval NPCs
- Player stall NPCs
- Priester
- Quest givers
- Raptors
- Gelehrte
- Scorpions
- Siege NPCs
- Tavernen-NPCs
- Tumok the Wretched
- Undead
- War Beast
- Zombies
NPC races
NPC racial interaction
NPCs werden unterschiedlich auf verschiedene Tags eines Charakters reagieren.[17]
NPC languages
The race of a NPC influences its language and nomenclature in terms of its dialogue tree.[18]
NPC variants
Es wird Varianten der Monatlichen Kosmetik für NPCs und Mobs geben.[20][21]
Wir haben es bereits erwähnt, was die Kosmetik angeht, aber all diese vorbestellbaren Gegenstände erlauben es uns, die Welt zu erschaffen. Sie sind die NPCs in der Welt. Ihr helft uns, NPC-Varianten zu erstellen. Die Kleidung und Kostüme sind Kostüme, die wir NPCs anziehen werden. Du hilfst uns tatsächlich dabei, die Welt zu erschaffen.[22] – Margaret Krohn
Ruf
NPCs reagieren - je nach ihren Beiträgen zu der Node - unterschiedlich auf Spieler.[23]
Steht ein Spieler auf der Hassliste eines NPCs, wird jeder Spieler, der diesen Spieler heilt, bufft oder anderweitig unterstützt, ebenfalls der Hassliste des NPCs hinzugefügt.[24]
NPC perception
There are different perception modes for different NPCs.[25]
- NPCs in certain encounters may be aware of their local environment and can seek cover behind obstacles, for example; but this will not be prevalent in general AI designs.[26]
The best was Final Fantasy 11 back in the day where you had scent, you had sight, you had magic. Like there's all sorts of different things that you had to like protect yourself against so that certain mobs couldn't see you; and you could maintain that ability to like kind of sneak past easily... It made those monsters unique and gave them character outside of just how much damage they did to me.[25] – Jeffrey Bard
Voice acting
NPCs will have voice acted audio greetings.[27][28]
- Narrated quest lines are not currently planned.[27]
- Adding voice acting into the game at a later point is a fairly cosmetic change.[27]
Is it difficult to add voice acting later? No, it's definitely not... It's a fairly cosmetic change.[27] – Steven Sharif
Voice acting is a fun luxury to have, but it is not only a costly one, but it is also one that takes a lot of logistics.[29] – Steven Sharif
Arten von Nodes

Nodes exist all throughout the world and the location of said node will determine its type; but this type will be... seen at the first stage of development when the first stage when a node propagates real-time assets in the world; is basically these NPCs, these merchants that come into an area and they offer services and/or you know of stores or whatever the deal may be. You will see the flavor of the node from those merchants. So if it's a military node you'll see military people. If it's... an economic node you'll see merchants. If it's a scientific one you'll see scholars; and if it's a divine one you'll see priests and clerics. So players will have a very firm understanding of which node is which type in order to know how they want to progress.[30] – Steven Sharif
Nodes gehören einer von vier (4) Node-Arten an, von denen jede über einzigartige Spezialisierungen verfügt.[31]
- Spieler können den Typ der Node ab der ersten Entwicklungsstufe (Expedition), anhand den dort anwesenden NPCs feststellen.[30]
Node type.[31] | Specialization.[31] | NPCs.[31] |
---|---|---|
Göttliche Nodes | Fokus auf Glauben und Fähigkeiten/Veränderung der Ausrüstung | Priester |
Wirtschaftliche Nodes | Fokus auf Handel and Kaufleute | Händler |
Military nodes | Fokus auf Kampf und das Training von Klassen | Wachen |
Wissenschaftliche Nodes | Fokus auf Handwerk und Bau | Gelehrte |
Ashes of Creation allows you, the player, to decide the fate of the world around you. With each Node Type, you can change the flow of resources and goods in the world. Will you grow the largest Economic Metropolis and help guide the riches of Verra, or will you choose another path unlocking new stories filled with allies and enemies?[32]
Die Arten von Nodes sind vordefiniert und auf allen Servern gleich.[31]
- Der Typ einer Node ist statisch. Er ändert sich nicht durch die Entwicklung der Node oder die Zerstörung.[31]
For example, if a level 4 Scientific Node is destroyed, it will become a Level 0 Scientific Node. It will never be any other Node Type other than a Scientific Node. The location of these Types relates to the influences of the area around the Node.[31] – Margaret Krohn
Node-Typen beeinflussen verschiedene Dienste und Systeme auf jeder Stufe der Node.[31]
- Node-Regierungen
- Geschichte
- NPCs
- Node-Gebäude und Annehmlichkeiten
Node-Typen werden während den Beta-Testphasen endgültig festgelegt.[33]
Beta testing will require that the node types be definitive; and that's because of how node types are integrated into the relating and corresponding neighboring points of interest and those quest lines. So it's not something we can swap very easily.[33] – Steven Sharif
Spieler-Stände

If there were ever a cornerstone serving as the bedrock of Niküan trade, then this modest stall would be it. Stacked from floor to thatched roof with all manner of catch, it is prepped for a full day of commerce and trade. Here, haggling is not merely a suggestion, but a requirement.[34]
Spieler-Stände (also called Kiosks and rental stalls) are rentable locations near the unique building in an Economic node[36] or in Marktplätze (the constructible building available for placement by mayors of any Stadt (Stufe 4) node or higher).[37]
All nodes do have the ability to spawn player stalls. If you're not an economic node and you don't have a market- that's essentially your unique building- then you can construct essentially what is I guess would be called a... marketplace; and that marketplace will then come with certain services and it will come with a certain number of stalls. The economic node as I recall has the ability to construct an auction house and the auction house serves through the economic means the ability to list and sell items and that comes with additional stalls as well for the players.[37] – Steven Sharif
Renting a player stall enables players to sell items as well as provide repair and enchanting services, even when they are not online.[38]
- Player stalls are rentable by node citizens.[39]
- Player stalls may be utilized for a period of time based on the price paid to rent the stall.[38]
- Player stalls are linked to a player's warehouse.[40]
- Players are not able to be attacked or robbed while occupying their player stall inside the limits of a node.[41]
- Player stalls do not require the attendance of the character or for that character to be online.[39]
- Anschlagbretter that list the items available in player stalls can be accessed from anywhere in the region.[42]
- These give the location of the stall so players can travel there and purchase the items.
- Stall sales are also listed in auction houses.[43]
- This may no longer be accurate.[44]
- Players are able to input required items for repair and also purchase required materials for that repair.[45]
- Player stalls may still operate during node siege declaration. This is subject to testing.[46]
Bankwesen
Nodes entwickeln sich schnell auf die erste Stufe. Dies ermöglicht NPC-Dienstleistungen, wie den Verkauf von Waren oder die Lagerung von Gegenständen.[47]
- Banktransfer zwischen Charakteren wird wahrscheinlich auf Möbel und fertiggestellte Gegenstände beschränkt sein.[48]
- Eine Fähigkeit des Lagerhauses kann es Spielern ermöglichen, nicht-materielle Güter zwischen alternativen Charakteren zu transferieren. Alle Ressourcen, Materialien oder Güter, die für den Transport auf das Karawanen-System angewiesen sind, sind hiervon ausgeschlossen.[49]
Tag-/Nacht-Zyklus
Es gibt einen Tag/Nacht-Zyklus in Ashes of Creation.[51]
- Verschiedene Monster werden zu unterschiedlichen Zeiten spawnen.[52]
- NPCs und Mobs können zu verschiedenen Tageszeiten wach sein.[51]
- Verschiedene Strahlungseffekte (Leuchteffekte) können bei Nachtlebewesen stärker verbreitet sein.[51]
Fünfzehn Minuten können im Spiel eine Stunde sein.[53]
Transportation of goods
Personal inventory limits[55][56] are tied to a backpack.[57] Material and gatherable items are subject to quantity rather than weight limits.[58] Karawanen and Maultiere are intended to be the primary mode of transportation of goods beyond these limits.[59][60]
- Maultiere can carry roughly 10 times more than backpacks. Caravans can carry roughly 10 times more than mules.[61]
- Karawanen will have carrying capacity limits and customizable stats, such as defensive points, speed and number of hired NPC-Wachen.[62]
- In my opinion, and this is of course subjective, but weight management is not a compelling mechanic for players to have to deal with in an MMO setting.[58] – Steven Sharif
Inventar capacity has quantity (stacking) limits based on the type of item.[58][59] For example: The stacking limit of potions might be one hundred. The stacking limit of food items might be 999 or 1000.[59]
- A player's inventory has sections for different types of items.[65] Quest items for example will not fill a player's regular inventory capacity.[63]
- Inventory capacity will be relatively limited for new characters.[63]
- Players will have the ability to search for items they have stored in various locations (such as personal storage and node warehouses).[66]
- We want you to know where the things are; and then the meaningful aspect of that thing is traveling to those locations to access some of those things, particularly as it relates to materials and raw gatherables.[66] – Steven Sharif
- Inventar expansion and weight management training certificates are available in the Galleria at Großstadt stage economic nodes.[63][32]
Hired NPCs
Hired NPCs are able to be customized via the character creator.[68]
- Higher tier NPCs may be available when certain node buildings are upgraded, or when the node achieves certain relics, or specific node policies are enacted.
- NPCs that exist on freeholds may be available when certain freehold buildings are upgraded relating to artisan progression.[69]
- There will be different costs associated with hiring higher tier NPC assistants.[69]
- Q: How advanced is it going to be? How advanced is going to be the system of hiring and customizing?
- A: Relatively advanced. I think there's a few paths that you can take when it comes to training up those types of NPC aids. What things that they can do. I think there's going to be different tiers and costs associated with higher level assistance on the freehold. But the same is true for mercenaries that nodes can hire, or castles can place with regards to sieges and/or wars and/or events. Like you have a very base functioning level of mercenaries with set of equipment and skill rotations and behavior trees that are possible at a fundamental level. And then as you upgrade the node's barracks, as you might upgrade- you might achieve certain Relics that you gain or enact certain policies that allow you to dial up the stats of those mercenaries. The same thing is true for the NPCs that can exist on freeholds, except those might be more predicated to service buildings that relate to artisanship. And that might be one of the reasons why it's beneficial to own a freehold in one particular node versus another- is based off of what amenities are now available to your freehold as a result of that node selection.[69] – Steven Sharif
List of hired NPCs
Farmhand NPCs
Based on node type and progression, players will be able to hire NPCs to work as farmhands on their freehold farms. Players will be able to command these farmhands online in-game as well as offline via an application (mobile app) or web interface.[70][71]
Mercenary NPCs
Mercenary NPCs can be hired to participate in objective-based situations.[72][73][74]
- Varying tiers of mercenary NPCs may be unlocked based on the investment made in their progression. Highest tier NPC mercenaries are referred to as heros.[75][76][72][73]
- Bürgermeister are able to allocate treasury funding to hire mercenary NPCs to defend their node during sieges.[73][74]
- Nodes can invest in upgrade paths that give a greater selection of roles and quality (gear level) of NPC mercenaries used for caravan defense.[75]
- NPC mercenaries can be hired to participate in castle sieges based on the allocation made by the governing castle and how successful they have been defending their castle nodes.[76][72]
- These mechanics are subject to change based on testing and priorities.[75][76]
- Players can assign mercenary NPCs, but won't micromanage them, in a similar manner to pets.[74]
- There are mercenary NPCs that can be assigned to players. We've discussed about that before and those will follow generically... a kind of pet system even you know adopted majority of the pet system with the added bonus of kind of objective based points of interest that you can assign them to. But we don't want to inundate the field with these mercenaries they'll be kind of few and far between. They'll be assigned specifically like let's say for example you know as the mayor of a node during a siege you'll be able to assign these two specific players that are citizens within your node and then they'll have those they'll spawn during the during the node siege; or vice versa and the castle siege you know guild leaders can assign mercenaries that are available based on the progress of those subsidiary nodes around the castle siege whether or not you have those available to your defense or your attack.[74] – Steven Sharif
Tavernen-NPCs
Tavernen von Spielern auf Grundbesitz können NPC-Barkeeper einsetzen, um Drinks zu verteilen, die für diese Taverne hergestellt wurden.[77]
Player stall NPCs
Attendant NPCs may assigned to occupy a player stall while that player is not online.[40][38][39]
- Player stall NPCs may be an "image" of the player.[42]
Künstliche Intelligenz

You can see how we utilize some of the different armor pieces- you've probably seen some of these pieces on different outfits like that toast Corvid Castigator cloak is on him.[78] – Margaret Krohn
Ashes of Creation utilizes an adaptive artificial intelligence (AI), which means that different encounters with similar creatures will yield different player experiences.[79]
- Utilizing new AI technology that hasn't been seen in other MMORPG projects.[80]
- Bosse are scripted and make decisions dynamically during boss fights.[81]
- NPCs performing "idle actions" to make the world seem more alive has been discussed by the developers but is not confirmed.[82]
- Certain AI behaviors might activate based on progress within an encounter.[83]
- NPCs in certain encounters may be aware of their local environment and can seek cover behind obstacles, for example; but this will not be prevalent in general AI designs.[26]
There are AI systems that don't relate to controlling NPCs.[85]
- There are some additional AI parameters that are set that don't relate necessarily to controlling NPCs. There are AIs with regards to the development of the borders for nodes in the direction and also the decisions that are made of which lower nodes to enslave as vassal states. There's AI that relates to a little bit of the stock market that's going to be present in the economy. There's some AI systems that are going to be announced also that are pretty innovative I think with regards to the MMORPG genre and that's going to make the triggered event system very interesting I think; and that's you know with regards to how nodes kind of develop and the environment reacts to that development by you know spawning these triggered events of you know a horde of zombies attacking a city or a legendary raid boss coming out of the mountain. I think there's a lot of opportunity for some of the innovations that's been in the AI sector of game development too to come out in Ashes.[85] – Steven Sharif
Bevölkerungsbasierte Skalierung
The prices that NPCs sell items for will scale based on the economic activity on a server. Prices will rise to combat inflation and fall as a population diminishes.[86]
The node system allows the developers to scale the experience needed to level a node and the attrition that affects a node based on activity.[86]
Things that NPCs buy and sell kind of scale based on the economic activity that exists on that server... As inflation rises, prices rise and everything kind of ends up being equal, even though there might be a couple of extra zeros. So that can go up and it can also go down so as a population leaves, things become less expensive and players don't have to do as much to earn that. On the other side of things we look at the node system and the node system is set up in this really flexible way that allows us to scale the experience needed to level a node and the attrition that delevels a node to scale based on activity too. So you know it's just a matter of adjusting a couple of constants and that goes up and down and the server can watch it and change those on the fly as it needs to.[86] – Jeffrey Bard
Visuals
2020-11-09 2020-08-01 2020-08-01 2018-04-29
Siehe auch
Einzelnachweise
- ↑ Liveübertragung, 2020-02-28 (47:45).
- ↑ Liveübertragung, 2020-07-31 (1:54:45).
- ↑ Interview, 2021-02-07 (31:37).
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Podcast, 2021-04-11 (15:55).
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 Liveübertragung, 2021-03-26 (54:26).
- ↑ Liveübertragung, 2020-07-31 (1:45:40).
- ↑ Liveübertragung, 2020-06-26 (1:14:42).
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 Liveübertragung, 2017-05-26 (24:33).
- ↑ Video, 2023-05-31 (4:17).
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 Liveübertragung, 2023-02-24 (1:22:04).
- ↑ Video, 2023-05-31 (5:01).
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 Liveübertragung, 2021-06-25 (1:28:02).
- ↑ 13.0 13.1 Liveübertragung, 2022-05-27 (1:00:23).
- ↑ Liveübertragung, 2023-01-27 (1:10:12).
- ↑ Liveübertragung, 2023-05-31 (40:52).
- ↑ Types of Events on Verra.
- ↑ Podcast, 2018-04-23 (29:56).
- ↑ Liveübertragung, 2022-03-31 (4:57).
- ↑ 19.0 19.1 Liveübertragung, 2021-05-28 (1:49:24).
- ↑
- ↑
- ↑ Liveübertragung, 2021-04-30 (6:46).
- ↑
- ↑ Liveübertragung, 2017-11-17 (29:45).
- ↑ 25.0 25.1 Liveübertragung, 2018-06-04 (29:28).
- ↑ 26.0 26.1 Liveübertragung, 2022-02-25 (1:03:32).
- ↑ 27.0 27.1 27.2 27.3 Interview, 2018-10-20 (2:22:09).
- ↑ Liveübertragung, 2018-04-8 (AM) (25:12).
- ↑ Liveübertragung, 2018-04-8 (AM) (24:14).
- ↑ 30.0 30.1 Liveübertragung, 2017-05-04 (15:15).
- ↑ 31.0 31.1 31.2 31.3 31.4 31.5 31.6 31.7 Blog - Know Your Nodes - The Basics.
- ↑ 32.0 32.1 Know Your Nodes: Economic Node Type.
- ↑ 33.0 33.1 Liveübertragung, 2021-08-27 (1:19:43).
- ↑ 34.0 34.1 Ashes of Creation Instagram, 2020-08-19.
- ↑ Liveübertragung, 2020-05-29 (1:00:57).
- ↑ Liveübertragung, 2019-05-30 (1:26:16).
- ↑ 37.0 37.1 Interview, 2020-07-08 (55:05).
- ↑ 38.0 38.1 38.2 38.3 Liveübertragung, 2017-05-10 (16:36).
- ↑ 39.0 39.1 39.2
- ↑ 40.0 40.1 40.2 Liveübertragung, 2020-10-30 (1:04:59).
- ↑ Liveübertragung, 2017-10-16 (59:39).
- ↑ 42.0 42.1 42.2 Liveübertragung, 2017-05-10 (35:16).
- ↑
- ↑ Liveübertragung, 2020-07-31 (1:34:06).
- ↑
- ↑ Liveübertragung, 2020-10-30 (1:06:09).
- ↑
- ↑ Liveübertragung, 2019-06-28 (1:23:31).
- ↑ Liveübertragung, 2018-04-8 (AM) (23:18).
- ↑ Ashes of Creation - Screenshots.
- ↑ 51.0 51.1 51.2 Liveübertragung, 2017-05-12 (57:41).
- ↑
- ↑
- ↑ Video, 2023-01-27 (9:43).
- ↑ Liveübertragung, 2017-05-15 (45:19).
- ↑ Liveübertragung, 2017-04-27 (6:11).
- ↑
- ↑ 58.0 58.1 58.2 58.3 Liveübertragung, 2023-02-24 (54:55).
- ↑ 59.0 59.1 59.2 Liveübertragung, 2020-05-29 (1:27:18).
- ↑
- ↑ Liveübertragung, 2017-07-18 (44:57).
- ↑ Liveübertragung, 2017-05-22 (40:41).
- ↑ 63.0 63.1 63.2 63.3 Liveübertragung, 2020-07-25 (1:14:13).
- ↑ Liveübertragung, 2022-02-25 (1:10:00).
- ↑ Liveübertragung, 2023-02-24 (22:57).
- ↑ 66.0 66.1 Liveübertragung, 2022-07-29 (1:17:33).
- ↑ Liveübertragung, 2020-02-28 (47:45).
- ↑ Video, 2022-03-31 (18:47).
- ↑ 69.0 69.1 69.2 Liveübertragung, 2023-04-07 (1:19:41).
- ↑ Liveübertragung, 2017-05-09 (28:57).
- ↑ Liveübertragung, 2017-11-17 (11:00).
- ↑ 72.0 72.1 72.2 Liveübertragung, 2020-08-28 (1:41:24).
- ↑ 73.0 73.1 73.2 Liveübertragung, 2020-06-26 (59:11).
- ↑ 74.0 74.1 74.2 74.3 Liveübertragung, 2019-11-22 (1:14:23).
- ↑ 75.0 75.1 75.2 Liveübertragung, 2022-05-27 (1:18:09).
- ↑ 76.0 76.1 76.2 Liveübertragung, 2021-04-30 (1:01:10).
- ↑ Liveübertragung, 2018-06-04 (14:13).
- ↑ 78.0 78.1 Liveübertragung, 2021-06-25 (21:24).
- ↑ About Ashes of Creation.
- ↑ Liveübertragung, 2017-05-05 (11:55).
- ↑ Liveübertragung, 2017-07-28 (43:57).
- ↑ Liveübertragung, 2018-04-8 (PM) (3:56).
- ↑ 83.0 83.1 83.2 83.3 Interview, 2021-06-13 (22:20).
- ↑ 84.0 84.1 Liveübertragung, 2022-07-29 (1:23:56).
- ↑ 85.0 85.1 85.2 85.3 85.4 Podcast, 2018-05-11 (24:23).
- ↑ 86.0 86.1 86.2 Liveübertragung, 2018-06-04 (39:15).