Nodes

Pre-alpha Metropolis Knotenpunkte.

Knotenpunkte concept art.

Alpha-0 Empyrischer Dorf Knotenpunkt.

Um jeden Server herum befinden sich sorgfältig platzierte Entwicklungspunkte, die Knotenpunkte genannt werden.

• Beim Start wird es über 100 Knotenpunkt Standorte geben.

Knotenpunkte sind ein voreingestellter Standort, eingehüllt in eine Einflusszone, in unserer Welt, die sich zu Städten unterschiedlicher Größe formen können. Diese Größen reichen von einem kleinen Lager bis hin zu einer weitläufigen Metropole. Die Größe der Städte hängt vom Beitrag der Spieler ab und davon, wie weit sie den Knotenpunkt entwickelt haben. Spieler erstellen nicht den Fußabdruck eines Knotenpunkts, aber innerhalb dieses Fußabdrucks haben sie die Möglichkeit, Land zu besitzen. Spieler, die Teil der Regierung für einen bestimmten Knotenpunkt sind, werden die Möglichkeit haben, Gebäudetypen und Dienstleistungen weiter zu modifizieren, aber in den meisten Fällen wird ein Knotenpunkt auf seinem eigenen spezifischen Weg wachsen (stellt es euch eher vor, dass NSCs diese Städte bauen, als dass PCs einzeln Gebäude und Mauern aufstellen). Der Mitwirkungsbereich eines Knotenpunkts ist größer als die eigentliche Stadt selbst, so dass die Spieler Abenteuer erleben können, während sie die Stadt weiter aufbauen. Wir nennen den Mitwirkungsbereich die " Einflusszone " des Knotenpunkts, und es ist der Bereich in dem Spieler helfen, den Knotenpunkt in dem sie sich befinden, voranzubringen.

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. – Steven Sharif

Nodes are assigned one of four (4) node types, each of which contain unique specializations.

• Players will be able to identify the type of a node at its first stage of development (Expedition) based on its NPC population.

Node type.	Specialization.	NPCs.
Divine nodes	Faith and skill/equipment augment focuses	Priests
Economic nodes	Trade and merchant focuses	Merchants
Military nodes	Kampf and class training focuses	Guards
Scientific nodes	Artisan and construction focuses	Scholars

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?

Node types are predetermined and are the same across all servers.

• A node’s type is static. It does not change based on the node’s advancement or destruction.

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. – Margaret Krohn

Node types affect various services and systems at each level of node advancement.

• Node governments
• Narrative
• NPCs
• Knotenpunkt-Bauwerke and amenities

Node benefits

Kaelar node concept art.

Each node type has a superpower (ultimate ability) that becomes unlocked when the node reaches Level 6 (Metropolis stage).

Divine node benefits

Divine node benefits are not known at this time.

Vorteile eines Wirtschafts-Kontenpunktes

Economic nodes that have reached the metropolis stage unlock the linked economy superpower. Economic nodes with this superpower share their Auction house listings with all others.

• Up to two economic metropolises may be linked in this manner.
• Metropolis level economic nodes enable worldwide sale prices for auction houses across Verra.
• Items listed in one linked economic node can be bid on from any other linked economic node.
• Linked economies also connect the economic metropolis and its vassal economic nodes.

Economic Nodes that have reached the Metropolis Stage unlock the Superpower “Linked Economy”. Any Economic Node with this Superpower unlocked shares Auction House listings with all the others, meaning that the items listed in one Linked Economy Node can be bid on from any other Linked Economy Node. Linked Economies also connect a Metropolis and any Vassal Economic Nodes belonging to that Metropolis.

The Linked Economy Superpower has the potential to create a massive market that spans the world. This will allow players to attain and sell goods with ease, providing those who have access to these Economic Nodes a faster path to fortune in the lands of Ashes of Creation.

Military node benefits

Military nodes enable Kopfgeldjäger and reduced duration of corruption.

Scientific node benefits

Scientific nodes that have reached the metropolis stage unlock the Teleportation superpower.

• Citizens of metropolis scientific nodes may teleport between the metropolis and any of its vassal nodes, regardless of the stage of the vassal node, so long as the vassal node is not at war.

• Citizens of vassal nodes may teleport to their metropolis node and back.

• If there are multiple scientific metropolises, then an airship will provide faster travel between those scientific metropolises for citizens of those nodes and their vassal nodes, so long as the metropolises are not at war.

This will allow Citizens and Vassals of Scientific Metropolises to do things more quickly than others, as fast travel is limited in the world of Ashes of Creation. They’ll be able to exchange goods and information with ease and get to locations in the world at a quicker speed in order to gather crafting materials to create recipes, as well as participate in limited-time events.

Einflussbereich

Nodes are pre-set locations, wrapped in a zone of influence (ZOI).

Every Node is given purview over a predefined geographic area called a Zone of Influence (ZoI). No matter where you go in the world, whether you’re questing, gathering, or raiding, you’ll be helping determine which nodes will develop, and what Zones of Influence will expand. Any area that a Node controls is considered its Zone of Influence, including Vassal Nodes, and all Vassal Nodes exist within the Zone of Influence of their Parent Node. – Margaret Krohn

Every node is given purview over a predefined geographic area called a Einflussbereich (ZOI). Player activity within the ZOI is weighted and counted toward a particular node’s advancement.

Each Node can form into towns, but are limited by their neighbors. The Nodes have different levels of advancement. There can only be so many of each level. Think of this as advanced settlements needing more elbow room. Nodes encompass more land as they grow and will require more effort to be sustained. This system is a main driver for change in the world because it creates scarcity. As Nodes advance in stages of growth they will lock out neighboring Nodes from progressing, and will absorb their zones of influence.

By undertaking familiar activities, such as questing, gathering and raiding, players have agency in determining which nodes in the world will develop.

The main thing that differentiates us from other MMOs is that we have a living, breathing, reactive world... Our world is separated into zones, which are then separated into what we call nodes. Nodes are sort of invisible zones of influence that listen to everything that a player does; so as players gain experience from killing things, gain experience from doing quests, gain experience through crafting things, the node is also gaining that experience. Once a node gains enough experience it levels up and then starts to attract NPCs to it . – Jeffrey Bard

Up to one fifth of the world will be encompassed within the ZOI of a Metropolis. The many vassal nodes within a ZOI's "border" could end up looking like a country or nation.

Zones of influence connect fully across the world without any gaps.

There is not a space where you will move in to do something and no node will get that experience. – Steven Sharif

Weiterentwicklung des Knotenpunkts

Illustration der Knotenfortschritt von Expedition (Stufe 1) zur Metropole (Stufe 6).

Die Staatsbürgerschaft sowie Aktivitäten von Nicht-Staatsangehörigen Spielern (Abenteuer, Sammeln, Raiding, etc.) innerhalb der Einflusszone eines Knotenpunkts zählt zu dieser speziellen Weiterentwicklung des Knotenpunkts (Fortschritt). Es gibt sechs Stufen der Weiterentwicklung des Knotenpunkts.

1. Expedition (Wenige Stunden)
2. Lager (Viele Stunden)
3. Dorf (Ein paar Tage)
4. Stadt (Viele Tage)
5. Großstadt (Wenige Wochen)
6. Metropole (Viele Wochen)

Konzeptionelle Illustration. Ein Knotenpunkt der sich im Einflussbereich eines fortgeschritteneren Knotenpunkts befinden, wird durch den fortgeschritteneren Knotenpunkt in seiner Entwicklung begrenzt.

Die Weiterentwicklung eines Knotenpunkts gibt seinen einzigartigen Inhalt frei, was einen wachsenden Ring an benachbarten Knotenpunkten vom Fortschritt auf die nächste Stufe ausschließt.

• Die Knotenpunkte gelangen schnell auf die erste Stufe. Dies ermöglicht Dienstleistungen von NSCs wie Verkauf oder Banknutzung zum Lagern von Gegenständen.
• Je weiter der Knotenpunkt fortgeschritten ist, desto größer wird seine Einflusszone.
• Weniger fortgeschrittene Knotenpunkte (genannt Vassalen Knotenpunkt), die in den Einflussbereich eines fortgeschritteneren Knotenpunkts fallen, können immer noch XP gewinnen, müssen aber in einem niedrigeren Fortschrittsstadium bleiben als das des dominanten Knotenpunkts.
• Ein Knotenpunkt erhält XP von den Knotenpunkten innerhalb seines Einflussbereichs erst, wenn diese Knotenpunkte ihre Obergrenze erreicht haben.
• Spieler werden in Sicherheit gebracht, wenn sie sich während des Ausbaus der Knotenpunkte mit neu angelegten Objekten überschneiden.
• Bürger eines Knotenpunkts können zur Weiterentwicklung anderer Knotenpunkte beitragen.
• Der genaue Prozentsatz des Fortschritts durch den Erhalt von Gegenständen oder das Töten von Monstern wird nicht explizit bekannt sein, um ein "Ausspielen" des Systems zu vermeiden.

Different people have different resources invested in nodes progressing and it would be a little "gamey" if you could know exactly what was necessary at that point because that would disincentivize people from participating. – Steven Sharif

Vasallenknotenpunkte

Village (stage 3) or higher nodes enslave nearby nodes, converting them into vassal nodes.

• Vassal nodes must remain at least one node stage below their parent node.
  • Neighboring nodes lower than stage 3 also block the growth of their immediate neighbors. This is intended to be tested in Alpha-1.
  • Vassal nodes first apply any experience earned to their own deficit (see Atrophie des Knotenpunkts). It then applies excess experience earned to its parent node.
  • If the parent node advances, the vassal is once again able to advance.
• Vassal nodes give excess experience to their parent node and may have their own vassals; so long as they fall within the parent node’s zone of influence.
  • If a node is capped and is both a vassal and has its own vassals, any experience earned from itself or its Vassals is first applied to its own deficit. Experience beyond that is then sent to its parent node.
• Vassals are subject to the government, alliances, wars, taxes, and trade of their parent node, and are able to receive federal aid from them.
• Vassal nodes cannot declare war on their parent node or any of their vassals.
• Citizens of vassals are bound by the diplomatic states of the parent node.

If a Node is a Vassal Node and is capped from advancing further, it first applies any experience earned to its own deficit (see Node Atrophy section), and then applies excess experience earned to its Parent Node. If the Parent Node advances and the Vassal is able to grow, it becomes uncapped. If a Node is capped and is both a Vassal and has its own Vassals, any experience earned from itself or its Vassals is first applied to their own deficit. Any experience beyond that is then sent to its Parent Node. – Margaret Krohn

Zonen und Entwicklung

Dungeons, Schlachtzüge, Weltbosse, Mobs, Abenteuer, Events, Ressourcen, Narratives and other content within a node's ZOI will have a diverse level range; but will scale with the advancement of that node and its racial influence.

We don’t have a strictly level 25 zone. Instead, that zone might have some level 10 creatures near the road, some level 20 creatures deep in the forest, and some level 30 creatures up the mountain. These ratios will change based on the Nodes that inform them, becoming generally more dangerous as the Node grows. All this civilization attracts the attention of Things-That-Should-Not-Be. This does not mean that wilderness areas are safe, by any means. Some may be safe-er, but all will have dangers that even the most experienced traveler needs to watch out for. – Steven Sharif

World manager

The World manager is an algorithm in Ashes of Creation that controls dynamic world elements. It acts as both a throttle and an incentive system for various activities to ensure certain parameters are within acceptable thresholds.

• Prices of hunting certificates.
• A heatmap of experience being gained to apply to node advancement.
• Transit of resources and goods between regions to drive quest rewards for nodes.

For example if you know iron is being used as a raw resource for a specific crafting path that might drive up the price of mithril or silver; and that will incentivize the market to course correct a little bit. The idea is to provide soft incentives that help to alleviate the demand and also to prop up the supply that might not be present from the economic systems. – Steven Sharif

Atrophie des Knotenpunkts

Nodes can delevel based on node atrophy.

• This is a preliminary design and may change based on testing. This may be changed to an atrophy points system, where accumulated points will progressively disable services within a node. The node may be destroyed (instead of deleveling) if a significant points threshold is reached.

There are intrinsic problems with reducing a nodes level as opposed to removing the node and it may be possible I'm just gonna say now that we don't actually atrophy nodes to delevel but rather accrue atrophy points that must be replenished over time; and if not it begins to disable services and further compound the atrophy problem; at which point when it reaches a certain atrophy point then the node would just disappear. – Steven Sharif

• Nodes accumulate an experience deficit each day based on the node's level. The deficit is subtracted from any experience earned that day. If any deficit remains, then this is subtracted from the node’s experience pool.

• Bürgermeister are able to initiate quest-driven systems that non-citizens can participate in. The mayor can use a portion of the node's treasury or goods as rewards for quest completion. Players will be able to interface with the node to view the quests that are available to them.
  • These quests can be used to bring in material components to help combat node atrophy.

• Certain flags will appear to notify node citizens if their node has dropped below the required experience for its current stage. After a short period, if the atrophy is not addressed, the Node will then delevel.
• A node cannot delevel more than a single level at a time.
  • When a Node delevels it enters a safe period, during which the deficit is temporarily reduced to 0.
• It may be possible through node atrophy for two nodes of the same stage to be adjacent to each other.

Deleveled nodes return to their previous stage.

• Deleveled nodes may lose their vassal nodes.

If a Node delevels, it returns to the previous Stage, but keeps the racial style it had before deleveling. A Node cannot delevel more than a single level at a time. For example, a Level 2 Node would become a Level 1, or a Level 1 Node would become a Level 0. If deleveling would cause a Node to lose its Vassals, it does so. When a Node delevels it enters a “safe period,” during which the deficit is temporarily reduced to 0. Once the safe period expires, the Node can once again begin losing experience based on its deficit. – Margaret Krohn

Storyline quests

Storyline quests can have multiple stages. These quest stages can actually be failed.

• The ability to retry a failed quest depends on Node progression.
• Abenteuer involving citizens from multiple nodes are unlocked based on the alliances and other relationships between the nodes and their progression.

There will be many different quests that actually have stages of the storyline; and these stages can actually be failed. You can actually fail a storyline; which sucks when you think about it, but at the same time that risk makes your investment that much more important. – Steven Sharif

Trophäen-Park

Trophäen-Park is an area within Stadt, City or Metropolis nodes that has available spots for trophies. These trophies show the character names of players who are the first to complete world bosses and dungeon bosses that were spawned as the result of the development of that particular node.

• Server announcements and achievements are designed to encourage groups to experience new content.

Reliquary

Kontenpunkt-Relikt. Dies ist ein schützendes Relikt, das vor einem Angriff schützt. Einmal gestohlen, ermöglicht es eine Belagerung der Metropole.

Relikte sind Errungenschaften für einen Knotenpunkt, die im Laufe der Zeit freigeschaltet werden. Sie ermöglichen es den Bürgern des Knotenpunkts, bestimmte legendäre Gegenstände herzustellen und Fortschritte in bestimmten legendären Questreihen zu erzielen.

Entwicklung von Knotenpunkten

Alpha-1 Village node layout.

Even at the stage 3 development as a village, it's a fairly sizable layout; and part of these layouts include essentially static in-node housing for players to be able to purchase. – Steven Sharif

Racial architecture styles in an Alpha-0 village node. Empyrean Elven influence (top). Kaelar Human influence (bottom).

The layout and architecture within a Node’s development area are determined by influential race. For example, a stage 3 Node with the majority of player contribution being Py’rai would have a Py’rai village with Py’rai architecture. Most NPCs would be Py’rai elves, and offer questlines within the Py’rai narrative. – Margaret Krohn

Each player’s contributed experience is flagged with their character race and other identifiers. When a Node advances, the race with the highest experience contribution determines the Node’s style and culture. This style and culture change can happen at every Node Stage. For example, if a Node advances to Level 2 - Encampment Stage and 51% of all experience was earned by Ren’Kai players, the Node will be a Level 2 Ren’Kai Node. If that same Node advances to a Level 3 - Village Stage Node, but the Py’Rai contributed 62% of all the experience earned, then the Node will be a Level 3 Py’Rai Node. Cultural influences bring more than just the aesthetic and storyline changes - benefits are granted to the dominant culture within that Node’s Zone of Influence. – Margaret Krohn

Node layout and style is determined by several factors:

• Location of the node.
• Node type.
• Race that contributed most to the node's advancement.
  • Erscheinungsbild der Rassen of a node's buildings and NPCs.
  • This applies to all nodes, including castle nodes.
• The rest is determined by the node's mayor.

Some parts are determined by the area it's in. Some parts are determined by the type it is. Some parts are determined by the race it is; and then the rest of it is determined by the mayor. – Jeffrey Bard

All nodes whether they're associated with a castle or associated with normal node structure has cultural influences that replicate over to the buildings that are produced and the NPCs that are present. – Steven Sharif

There is an attrition mechanic that affects experience and influence to curb a single race from dominating the entire world.

There is an attrition and that attrition on experience and influence is heightened based on the performance of the race in the world. So if all these nodes are Orc nodes then their attrition rate is very high to compete with the cultural establishment of new nodes because they have more influence in the world and a popular opinion is against them in their outlying regions that they do not have influence in. – Steven Sharif

Knotenpunkt-Bauwerke

• Akademie
• Wohnungen
• Rüstkammer
• Auction house
• Kasernen
• Schmiede
• Rathaus
• College
• Emporium
• Exchange
• Galleria
• Gildenhallen
• Inns
• Library
• Lumber yards
• Marktplätze
• Marktplätze
• Personal shops
• Royal stables
• Scholar's academy
• Statische Behausungen
• Tavernen
• Tempel
• Thieves' guild
• Trader's company
• University
• Lagerhäuser

Constructible node buildings

Alpha-1 mayoral node building user interface.

Alpha-1 node building construction early preview.

Node governments decide the location and types of constructible node buildings to be constructed within sectors of a node.

• Wohnungen
• Marktplätze
• Royal stables

These are buildings that the mayor has agency over determining whether or not they should be a constructed project. Constructible buildings can be selected at open plots that are gained as the node advances. If they elect to begin construction of one of these types of buildings- one of which is the marketplace- it'll grant certain trade benefits as well as some stalls that the citizens may participate in. – Steven Sharif

When the building types are determined, the community will then need to bring resources into the node (using caravans) and come together to construct the buildings (via quests and the like).

The government decides how to specialize their node. Once they choose certain things they won't be able to choose other things.

Different governments may change the buildings within a node.

And there could be regime change... If somebody doesn't like the fact that a market was built and they want to re-elect a new government next cycle, they can do so... and that market could be destroyed and a new building take its place.

Pre-defined parameters limit the number of buildings at in-node locations.

Unique node buildings

Alpha-1 Knotenpunkt-Bauwerke.

Each node type has a unique node building associated with it that can be activated at the Village stage of node advancement. The unique building plays a central role in the progress of civilization for a server.

• Divine nodes
  1. Tempel
• Economic nodes
  1. Marktplätze
  2. Exchange
  3. Galleria
  4. Emporium
• Military nodes
  1. Kasernen
• Scientific nodes
  1. Library
  2. College
  3. University
  4. Akademie

Rassenspezifische Quests

Abenteuer may be based on a character's race.

Different quests may relate to who the primary cultural contributor is to a node. This won't lock out content, but will add flavor to the quests.

There might even be different directories of the quest that exist for specific races, and even though you're sharing a quest to kill a boss, if you're human and I'm an elf, I will have a different arc potentially that leads in a different direction than you, even though we took the same quest; and this can relate to who the primary cultural contributor is to a node unlocking different arcs for cultures that share the primary culture of a node - not that locks out content but it gives a flavor in a different direction so that not everything is so cookie cutter. – Steven Sharif

Race matters because narratives have paths that also are influenced based on the primary contributing culture to the node... If you're a Niküa and you have you're in a Niküa node that's predominantly Niküa, you're going to have certain services and/or abilities as a member of the Niküa race that other races may not have access to... They may have alternative quest lines, but they won't have specific ones. Now those specific Niküa quests will then relate to the meta-narrative that's present in the world and they'll start to direct some of that meta-narrative; and that'll be beneficial for your kind because it will unlock certain content for your race that other races haven't unlocked yet. So there is an incentive there to see progression along that line now in order to curb the progress of a dominant race. – Steven Sharif

Abenteuer that are race specific, title specific, or guild specific will likely be less than 10% of the total number of quests. 90% of quests should be able to be shared by everybody.

Spielerbehausungen

Pre-alpha Empyrean freehold homestead.

Players will have the ability to survey and develop land anywhere in the world. Be a pioneer deep in the wilderness, build the home of your dreams, and work the land to cultivate resources and supplies. Alternatively, stick with civilization and safety in numbers – purchase a home within the confines of a village and watch your investment grow as that village turns into a city. Homeowners in our game will have the ability to develop their plot of land as they see fit. Focus on farming, animal husbandry, or own your very own smithy. You’ll be able to specialize your land to maximize your profits or your comfort – be sure to choose wisely.

Pre-alpha Aela (human) housing by Michael Bacon.

Spielerbehausungen comes in the form of Statische Behausungen, Wohnungen and Grundbesitz.

A player may own up to 1 of each type of housing simultaneously. Statische Behausungen and Wohnungen are one per server; Grundbesitz are one per account.

Spielerbehausungen	Type.	Availability.	Limit.
Wohnungen	Instanced.	Village stage and higher.	One per server.
Grundbesitz	Open world.	Village stage and higher.	One per account.
Statische Behausungen	In-node.	Village stage and higher.	One per server.

Statische Behausungen

Purchasing in-node housing in an Alpha-1 village node.

Statische Behausungen provides non-instanced player accommodation within a node, also known as in-node housing.

• Players are able to purchase small one room houses (cottages) starting at the Village stage (Node stage 3).
  • There will be 8 cottages available for purchase at the village stage.
  • The amount of static housing increases as a normal part of node advancement.
• The architecture of static housing is predetermined by the racial influence of the Entwicklung von Knotenpunkten.
• Tavernen and Player shops are not tied to in-node housing.

Wohnungen

Pre-alpha apartment complex in a metropolis node.

Wohnungen are internal only (instanced) spaces within a node that offer some housing functionality. There will be 50 apartments available for purchase at the Village (stage 3) of a node if the mayor chooses to construct apartment buildings and if there is an available plot to do so.

• The number of available apartments increases as a normal part of node advancement.
• It was previously stated that apartments would be available at Stadt (stage 4) or above.

The mayor may additionally construct apartment buildings when the node hits stage 4 at one of the building plots in the node, along with cities gaining additional static housing and apartments by default as a normal part of the leveling process. – Steven Sharif

Grundbesitz

Grundbesitz in Alpha-1.

The whole goal of the freehold system is to give everything a purpose and not just have it be like "oh this is my pretty design", but it's a design towards something for your character- towards something for the world. – Jeffrey Bard

Alpha-1 freehold early preview.

Grundbesitz are sizable player housing plots that can be situated within the Einflussbereich (ZOI) of a Village (stage 3 node) or higher.

• Freeholds are limited to one per account.
• Freeholds are approximately half an acre in size.
  • The footprint of a freehold does not change with node progression.
• Expansions and upgrades become available as node progression allows.
• Freeholds may not be sold to other players.

The freehold system interacts with multiple other systems in-game.

• Node progression.
• Handwerksklassen.
• Spawn actors.
• Abenteuer.
• Taxation.

An- und Verkauf (Immobilien)

Players buy the deeds for housing from the node itself. Players can also buy and sell properties from other players.

• Housing will have a base price that scales with the number of citizens in the node.
  • In-node housing will be at a premium, and is expected to be hotly contested.
  • The more apartments that have been purchased in a node, the higher the price scales.
• The developers are considering an auction-based method for listing new properties that become available for purchase when a node advances.
  • A grace period will occur before the housing becomes available for auction.
  • Bids will then be accepted starting at a minimum reserve value that is based on the number of citizens in that node.
  • At the end of the auction, the highest bidder will win the house.
• Statische Behausungen and apartments can be listed and sold to other players.
  • There is no cap on the price of player-originated housing sales.
  • Spielerbehausungen that is destroyed during a node siege can no longer be sold.
  • Grundbesitz may not be sold to other players. This is subject to change based on testing.

There's no cap essentially in player originated sales. Those are determined essentially by supply and demand as it is within the game and there's no artificial barrier to how high that demand can go. – Steven Sharif

• Housing ownership can default back to the node if the owner fails to pay their property taxes. A balance and penalties will be charged to the new purchaser of the home in the manner of a "foreclosure process".
• Players will not be able to exceed their allotment of housing in the game.

This will allow players to transfer real property goods. This includes ... static housing, this includes apartments that they may own; and they can sell those because those will have a limited and finite quantity. – Steven Sharif

Rental and leasing concepts are currently under consideration.

Some concepts that we have is going to be rental or leases that could be had allowing players to kind of lease a property for a period of time where they will have control rights over utilizing storage based on the area, controlling the furniture or access point; all that kind of stuff. – Steven Sharif

Bürgerschaft des Knotenpunktes

Alpha-1 node citizenship registration.

Spielerbehausungen grants the ability to claim citizenship of a node.

• Citizenship tickets may also grant citizenship to certain node stages. This mechanic will be decided based on testing.

We want these places to be populated and people to be attracted to them and so right now we think housing is enough for that. But we don't want to design ourselves into a corner where we don't have any other options, so the hope is that yes citizenship will be only gained through housing; with our caveat that if that doesn't work well we'll change it. – Jeffrey Bard

Bürgerschaft can be claimed for Village (level 3) nodes or higher.

• A player can only claim citizenship to one node at a time.
• Only one citizenship may be declared per account, per server.
  • This may have changed to one citizenship per account.
• Citizenship is lost if the node is destroyed. A player can then become citizen of another node.
• Node citizenship is not tied to membership of a guild. Guilds don't "own" nodes.

Your account is bound to one declared citizenship per server, which means that if you have two alts and your main character on one server you may only be a citizen of one node between those three... If you have an alt on a different server, it could be a citizen of a node as well. – Steven Sharif

Changing citizenship has a cooldown of two weeks.

• This applies to players who renounce their citizenship in a node.

• Spielerbehausungen ownership is not affected by citizenship changes.

You can declare citizenship to only one node and when you declare that citizenship. Let's say for example, one guild perhaps wanting to kind of take all their members and have them all declare the same citizenship to a location. The longer a node exists the higher the prize it is to take and some systems with regards to crafting progression and/or rewards and bonuses or the reliquary that we haven't really touched on a lot, those systems are going to be so enticing that from an incentive standpoint it will compel other groups to either potentially break alliances or siege the city in order to take the goods that are potentially in it. So, from an incentive standpoint we have that at play. Additionally, we don't have a cap per-se that we've announced yet on the citizenship aspect of being in a node, but we do have soft caps. It becomes costlier the higher number of citizens each time one new person wants to join to be part of a node. So, there is sort of a soft cap on how many citizens one node can have and it might be that not all in the guild can participate in that area. So, there's kind of a natural divide: A pseudo faction, so to speak between who is a part of that node and who is not. – Steven Sharif

A player does not need to declare citizenship of any node. These players won't need to pay taxes but will miss out on benefits of citizenship.

Knotenpunkt-Belagerungen

Knotenpunkt-Belagerungen (Pre-alpha Aufnahmen).

Knotenpunkt-Belagerungen ermöglichen es Spielern, einen Knotenpunkt zurück zu setzen, seine Knotenpunkt-Entwicklung umzukehren und ihn letztendlich vollständig zu zerstören. Dies ebnet den Weg für die Neuentwicklung und den Zugriff auf die gesperrten Inhalte in den umliegenden Knotenpunkten. Aufgrund dieser Dynamik spielen politische Konflikte und Intrigen eine wichtige Rolle in der Struktur der Welt.

Belagerte Knotenpunkte werden für die Angreifer keine leichte Herausforderung darstellen. Städte und Metropolen werden einen erheblichen Abwehrvorteil haben. Automatische PvE Belagerungen können gegen Knoten eingeleitet werden, die aber nicht kontinuierlich aktiv sind.

If you own a home in a node and you don't want to see that home destroyed, you need to defend that city! – Steven Sharif

Read more...

Node destruction

Nodes can be destroyed starting at level 3 (Village), and are destroyed through sieges.

• A successful siege will destroy the node.
• A portion of all Materials (crafting components) and Gatherables that were stored in the destroyed node will become lootable to the victors of the siege as spoils of war.
  • This includes gatherables and processed goods that were stored in in-node housing and apartment storage chests. These do not become lootable if the node survives the siege- even if the housing buildings are destroyed or damaged during the siege.
  • Players are prohibited from moving goods out of depositories within the node following a siege declaration against that node.
• Nodes revert to stage 0 (wilderness) after a successful siege.
  • Any modified terrain will revert back to its original state.

Nodes can be destroyed starting at Level 3 - Village Stage, and are destroyed through sieges. Sieges are started via an item which is acquired through a quest that scales in difficulty with respect to the level of the Node which is being targeted for the siege. Once the item is brought to the Node and is activated, the declaration period begins and a countdown is initiated for players in the region to see. This countdown runs for a number of days equal to the level of the Node being sieged. Once the countdown is complete, the siege begins. There is a cooldown between sieges, and players must wait a certain amount of time after an unsuccessful siege before a new siege can be declared. The higher the Node level, the longer the cooldown between sieges. If a siege is successful, then the Node is brought down to Level 0, and anyone who was a citizen of that Node is no longer a citizen. – Margaret Krohn

Siege aftermath

We’re working on a destruction engine that should help us to make a Castle Siege that feels cinematic and visceral. Having shards of the walls tumble to the ground after a trebuchet scores a hit will feel satisfying in a way no other Castle Siege has been able to offer in an MMORPG like this. Maybe you don’t need to take down the whole wall, maybe if you blow open a big enough hole, that’ll be enough to turn the tides.

Rubble will be visible for a period of time following a successful castle siege. This will likely persist until the incumbent guild develops the first defensive node.

Destructible environments

Destructible environments in Ashes of Creation Apocalypse.

Destruction in 45 seconds with Garett Fern.

Destructible environments will be a core element of how players interact with the world, in both Ashes of Creation Apocalypse and Ashes of Creation the MMORPG.

We want destruction to be a very core element of how players make their way through the world. – Steven Sharif

• Attackers may not be capable of destroying a node during a siege. Instead they may carry out precision attacks to disable specific service-oriented buildings within the node. These buildings can be targeted with siege weapons and bombs.
• Knotenpunkt-Bauwerke (including player housing) have hit points and can be damaged during sieges. If buildings suffer more than approximately 25% damage, any NPCs or services offered by that building will not be available until the building is repaired.
• If the node still exists after the siege has ended, citizens will need to obtain the resources needed to repair and rebuild any damaged infrastructure.
  • Larger more advanced buildings will require more resources to repair them. In-node housing will likely require the least resources to repair.
• Spielerbehausungen that is destroyed during a node siege can no longer be sold.
  • Furnishing and decorations are retained and can be placed again later.

You could be more precision oriented in the decision to attack a city. Let's say it's a rival node that's trying to reach you know a node stage five or something and you want to disable their ability for the religious system to progress so you target the temple during the attack, or you want to disable their scholars academy from reaching a higher level so that your nodes can; or you want to disable multiple buildings that allow for experience and quests to be undertaken by its citizenship, which prevents them from keeping up in pace of experience gained with your node. These can be more precision oriented and don't have to effectualize an actual takeover of the node. – Steven Sharif

Impact on player housing

Spielerbehausungen designs and decorations are retained and can be placed again later if the housing is destroyed during a node siege.

• Blueprints are mailed to the player to utilize for future placement.
• Destroyed freeholds are subject to material loss.
• Certificates will track major milestones (such as Furnaces and Homesteads, for example).
• A possible design idea is for items such as furnishings to be boxed in crates that are accessible inside the new home.

Impact on in-node housing

Following a node siege, static housing will be scaled back or destroyed based on the advancement of the node.

• If the housing was purchased at a higher advancement than the node currently is then it will be destroyed, otherwise the housing will be scaled back.

Impact on apartments

Wohnungen können unter den folgenden Umständen zerstört werden:

• Falls das Gebäude während einer Belagerung zerstört wurde, selbst wenn die Belagerung nicht erfolgreich war.
• Falls die Node durch die Belagerung unter Stufe 4 (Dorf) fällt.

Impact on freeholds

Grundbesitz may be attacked by any player for a period of two hours following a successful siege against its parent node.

• Players and their allies may defend their freehold for this period of time.
• Structures and guards may be obtained to defend freeholds during this period.

After the two hour period of open combat following a successful node siege, any remaining freeholds will exist under a grace period for roughly 1 week where another node may take over the zone of influence of the freehold.

• The freehold owner will be required to undertake a quest process to have their freehold adopted by a new node if one exists.
• At the end of the grace period, if the freehold does not reside within the ZOI of a stage three (Village) node or above, it will be destroyed.

If a siege is successful, then the Node is brought down to Level 0, and anyone who was a citizen of that Node is no longer a citizen. Freeholds within the Zone of Influence are subject to a period of vulnerability. These Freeholds can be destroyed by other players during a period of roughly 2 hours after a successful siege. Destroyed Freeholds are subject to material loss, and blueprints for them are mailed to the player to utilize for future placement in order to allow the player to keep their Freehold’s layout and structure. Once the vulnerability period is complete, any remaining Freeholds will exist under a grace period for roughly 1 week where another Node may take over the Zone of Influence of the Freehold. – Margaret Krohn

Node redevelopment

A node that was successfully sieged may develop differently due to the following influences:

• Different races becoming primary contributors.
• Design elements determined by different governments.
• Reactions and interactions with other nodes in the world.

Knotenpunkt-Regierung

Alpha-1 winner of Mayoral election.

Node governments are chosen from a node's citizenry when a node reaches stage 3 (Village).

Positions within a node's government are attained through titles that grant special access to NPCs in the node.

• Mayor.
• Priests, bishops or acolytes in certain temples.
• Patron guild leader.
• Chief bounty hunter.

There are a lot of things that you can strive for within [a node] that grant you that special treatment. – Steven Sharif

Bürgermeister

Alpha-1 Empyrean city node information panel.

Bürgermeister are leaders of a node's government who control the development of that node.

• Allocate resources, taxes, and quests to help develop node defenses.

• Coordinate the transfer of needed supplies with citizens operating caravans.
  • Mayors must communicate what resources are necessary for a particular node then motivate the citizens to fulfill those needs.

• Other leadership powers.

Only node citizens may be elected mayor.

• Only one citizenship may be declared per account, per server.
  • This may have changed to one citizenship per account.
• A king or queen can also become a mayor.

You may only ever be a citizen of a single node at a time. – Steven Sharif

Bürgermeister gain new powers and responsibilities as their node advances.

• The mayoral title unlocks special abilities and stats during sieges or events.

Node elections

Alpha-1 node election user interface.

Once a node has reached Village stage there will be a one week cooldown period before node elections begin.

• This cooldown period allows players to establish citizenship at the village; which may require them to relinquish previous citizenship at another node.
• Following the initial cooldown, there will be a one week election process, then from that point on, elections will follow a monthly cadence.
• Knotenpunkt-Belagerungen may not be declared for 21 days following a node advancing to Village (stage 3). This does not apply to nodes at higher stages.

The village stage is a unique stage because that's when the government system comes online and all other stages past village there will have already been a cadence for the election system and it will follow that cadence, but after the initial village stage is completed there will be a one week period where players have an opportunity to establish citizenship at the village that also provides for the cooldown time that is- that would be present on players leaving another node to kind of participate in in this particular node leveling up. But that after that one week period then there will be a one-week election process and then from that point moving forward will be the one month cadence that the node experiences elections on. – Steven Sharif

Node elections occur on a monthly basis.

• Only citizens of a node may participate in its elections.
• Only node citizens may be elected mayor.
  • Only one citizenship may be declared per account, per server.
• A king or queen can also become a mayor.

Node governments and mayors are chosen through different methods according to the node's type.

• Divine node governments are chosen from citizens via service oriented quests that prove faith and dedication to the node.
• Economic node governments are able to be bought and sold by citizens with the most money.
• Bürgermeister of military nodes are chosen from citizens through last man standing (gladiatorial arena style) combat.
  • An idea currently under consideration is to have players build out a champion that they can then fight in the arena, rather then using their regular characters. These champions can be equipped with gear and skills via quests, along with materials and gold to make the champion stronger.
  • The reason for the champion idea is because the game isn't balanced for 1v1 PvP. Utilizing champions makes arena combat more of a level playing ground.
  • Arena style combat is instanced but spectators may be possible through an interface.
• Scientific node governments are elected democratically.

Mayoral quests

Bürgermeister are able to initiate quest-driven systems that non-citizens can participate in. The mayor can use a portion of their node's treasury or goods as rewards for quest completion. Players will be able to interface with the node to view the quests that are available to them.

• These quests can be used to bring in material components to help combat node atrophy.

Führungsbefugnisse

Government officials have wide-ranging leadership powers.

• Mark foreign citizens of other nodes as enemies of the state.

• Declare war on another node and rally citizens to the cause.

• Enter into trade agreements.

• Directing assets.

• Building projects.

• Tax allocation.

• Bürgermeister are able to allocate treasury funding to hire mercenary NPCs to defend their node during sieges.

• Bürgermeister are able to initiate quest-driven systems that non-citizens can participate in. The mayor can use a portion of the node's treasury or goods as rewards for quest completion. Players will be able to interface with the node to view the quests that are available to them.
  • These quests can be used to bring in material components to help combat node atrophy.

• Governments may be able to choose a node name from a predetermined list.

The government has a lot of say in the direction of the nodes development. Directing assets, building projects, tax allocation, defensive ability etc. Players have the ability to not only create these cities, but they have the right of self-governance.

There are levers and dials that are present to both the owners of Castles as well as the elected officials of Nodes that during their administration they have the ability to impact and influence the region around them. – Steven Sharif

Gilden do not control nodes. Guild leaders (kings and queens) can become mayors of nodes.

• Guilds hold separate roles in the direction of the node than the roles held by private citizens.
• Only a certain number of guilds may participate in these roles.
• Separate guild roles are reserved for small, medium and large guilds.

Guild’s also hold separate roles in the direction of the node, than the roles held by private citizens, and only a certain number of guilds may participate in these roles. Separate guild roles are reserved for Small size guilds, medium size guilds and large size guilds.

Knotenpunkt-Steuern

Alpha-1 mayoral user interface.

Bürgermeister/Node governments allocate resources, taxes, and quests to help develop node defenses.

• Tax money only goes toward funding node development.
• Taxation rates scale based on when a player joined a node as a citizen. The goal is to exert financial pressure on node populations by making taxes increasingly expensive as nodes advance, rather than putting in place hard population caps.

Parent nodes take a cut of all taxes from the housing and any services that occur within their ZOI.

• This tax doesn't necessarily impact the individual citizen, because citizen's tax levels are determined by their node, but the node's finances are affected by the taxation levied by its parent nodes.

Node wars

Node governments may declare war on another node and rally citizens to the cause.

• This mutually flags the citizens of the warring nodes, including their allies, as combatants.
  • Soziale Organisationen quests will either be cooperative or adversarial based on the war status of their parent nodes.
• Vasallenknotenpunkte cannot declare a node war on their parent node or any of their vassals.

We have conditions that you can set between nodes with regards to either nodes being friendly with each other and acting trade alliances, or they can declare war on nodes similar to how guild wars may function in different games, where those citizens become hostile to each other based on the player government that's elected in the particular node. So those systems all kind of cater to allowing a conflict that's meaningful and that also provides a non-imbalanced relationship between stronger guilds and not as strong guilds. – Steven Sharif

Allianzen

Ashes of Creation bietet diverse Inhalte, die sich um Allianzen drehen.

• Entwicklungspfade innerhalb Allianzen.
• Gilden die gemeinsame Dienstleistungen mit Allianzmitgliedern teilen.
• Allianzen können Verbindungen zu Knotenpunkten erstellen.

Content that revolves around alliances specifically and progression within the development of that alliance; and the ability to share some common services between guilds that are part of that alliance. I think that additionally allowing alliances to toggle certain relationships with nodes as an interaction is beneficial. That's going to provide an interesting dynamic for players who are either members of the particular node that has the relationship established or members of the Alliance. So I think that obviously building systems is is about creating the channels by which these players can form bonds and the more layers you have around those you know channels of bonding between the different guilds or players, the more sustainable that relationship. – Steven Sharif

Karawanen

Alpha-1 caravan 3D render by Adam Will.

Karawanen facilitate the transfer of goods for players wishing to turn a profit.

Mayoral Caravan system - Work in Progress.

Das Karawanen-System ist ein PvP-System in der offenen Welt, das sich um Chancen und Risiken dreht. Karawanen erleichtern den Warentransfer für Spieler, die mit Gütern Gewinn erzielen möchten.

• Die Karawanen sind für den Transport von persönlichen Gütern und Abenteuer, sowie von Vorräten für Gildenburgen und Knotenpunkten bestimmt.

• Karawanen können nur von Knotenpunkten mit (mindestens) Dorf-Stufe versandt, und in Empfang genommen werden.

• Karawanen können Güter von mehreren Spielern transportieren.

• Das PvP-Markierungssystem gilt nicht für Karawanen.

Karawanen-Typen

Ramstone Hauler pre-order pack cosmetic caravan skin.

Es gibt verschiedene Arten von Karawanen in Ashes of Creation.

• Bürgermeister-Karawanen.
• Questbasierte Karawanen.
• Persönliche Karawanen.

Das Karawanen-System ist ein weiter, sehr großer Teil des Kontenpunkt-Systems. Sie haben den größten Einfluss auf die Aktivität der Wirtschaft und es gibt eine Reihe an verschiedene Arten von Karawanen. – Jeffrey Bard

Karawanen-PvP

Karawanen-PvP in Alpha-1.

Karawanen erzeugen eine offene PvP-Zone, welche Spieler für den Kampf markiert (lila).

• Durch eine Benutzeroberfläche können Spieler auswählen, ob sie die Karawane angreifen, verteidigen oder ignorieren möchten.
• Um eine Karawane erfolgreich anzugreifen, wird eine Gruppe benötigt.
• Die Karawane bleibt für einen Zeitraum von 5 bis 10 Minuten in der Welt, sollte sich ihr Besitzer abmelden oder die Verbindung zum Server trennen.

Caravan destruction

If a caravan is destroyed (becomes a wreckage) it will drop a portion of the goods it was transporting.

• Komponenten für Karawanen may also drop when a caravan is destroyed. These components may be salvageable by the caravan owner or by other players, in the case of high grade components.
• Caravans drop certificates for heavy goods that are redeemable at the origin node for a portion of the goods.

The caravan becomes a wreckage upon destruction and that wreckage is an interfaceable item that players can come up to and they can receive certificates for a portion of the goods inside the caravan. Now the idea with that certificate is that it must be taken back to the point of origin, or at least a region within that point of origin. We'll see about that last part because there's a few things I want to test in the Alpha from a gameability standpoint. The reason why for this is because what might happen is you may have some type of collaboration within a guild to kind of game that system. Hey I'm gonna reach this caravan just to the border of the region and then we're all destroy it, collect the goods and take it to you know that region's warehouse; and have to skip out on the last half of the way. So it must successfully reach its destination before the goods can be considered a part of that region. – Steven Sharif

Unterreich-Knotenpunkte

Unterreich-Knotenpunkte and nodes directly above them are related but do not exist in the same ZOI.

• Caravan routes will go underground.
• Knotenpunkt-Belagerungen occur in the usual manner.
• There will be underrealm Metropolen.

Küsten-/Inselknotenpunkte

Alpha-1 coastal node.

Es wird Nodes entlang der Küste und auf Inseln geben.

• Diese Nodes werden wasserorientierte Einflüsse haben. Zudem stehen Fähigkeiten, Dienstleistungen, und Questlinien zur Verfügung, welche in Verbindung mit der See stehen.
• Küsten-Nodes verändern die Spawntabellen des umliegenden Wasser-Contents und können auch bestimmte Events auslösen.
• Häfen in Küsten-Nodes werden Questlinien haben, welche sich auf den Ozean und nahe gelegenen Inseln beziehen.
• Es könnte möglich sein, eine Küstenstadt über den Seeweg zu belagern.

Inselketten sind ein Teil des Ashes of Creation See-Inhalts.

Unterwasser-Knotenpunkte

Unterwasser-Sehenswürdigkeiten mit NPC Strukturen können wie Städte aussehen, werden aber keine Knotenpunkte sein.

• Es wird keine Knotenpunkte unter Wasser, oder im Wasser geben.

Beschützergilde

Eine Gilde wird zum Beschützer ihres Knotenpunktes, wenn sie die grösste Menge an Arbeit (von den Mitgliedern) zum Wachstum des Knotenpunktes beiträgt.

Beschützergilde schalten die Folgenden Vorteile für ihre Mitglieder frei:

• Embleme können an Gilden Rüstungen angebracht werden, die in den Knotenpunkten gekauft werden können.
• Teilnahme an der Börse des Knotenpunktes.
• Teilnahme an speziellen Gildenmissionen, welche die Stufe und Entwicklung der Gilde fördern.
• Verteilen von Gildenpunkten um Knotenpunktspezifische Abilities für Gildenmitglieder freizuschalten.
• Gildenhallen im Knotenpunkt. Diese haben andere Vorteile als Hallen auf Eigenheim Parzellen.

Eine beliebige Anzahl Gilden kann sich in einem Knotenpunkt aufhalten, aber die Anzahl an Beschützergilden ist limitiert. Knotenpunktstufen bestimmen, wieviele Beschützergilden in einem Knotenpunkt gleichzeitig existieren können.

• Dörfer und tiefer haben keine Beschützergilden.
• Städte haben bis zu einer Beschützergilde.
• Grossstädte haben bis zu zweiBeschützergilden.
• Metropolen haben bis zu drei Beschützergilden.

Relikte

Kontenpunkt-Relikt. Dies ist ein schützendes Relikt, das vor einem Angriff schützt. Einmal gestohlen, ermöglicht es eine Belagerung der Metropole.

Relikte sind Errungenschaften für einen Knotenpunkt, die im Laufe der Zeit freigeschaltet werden. Sie ermöglichen es den Bürgern des Knotenpunkts, bestimmte legendäre Gegenstände herzustellen und Fortschritte in bestimmten legendären Questreihen zu erzielen.

Aktienmärkte

As nodes develop, player governments may open a Stock exchange (also called Stock markets and Sharemarkets) where players can buy and sell shares in Nodes, Gilden and Soziale Organisationen.

• The value of stocks is influenced by world events and the performance of nodes, Soziale Organisationen or guilds.
  • Hard metrics, such as quest lines, nearby resources, citizen progression, and purchases of local real estate, will determine the value of purchasable shares.

• Sieges will halt trading of shares in a node. This opens up potential for economic sabotage.

• There is no regulatory commission to restrict the purchase and sale of stocks.

Interne Konflikte

There won't be a civil war mechanic within nodes but there will be scope for internal political conflicts; such as undermining the current leadership and disrupting trade.

• The only way to remove an elected mayor prior to the end of their term is by destroying the node.

We want consequences to matter and if that person got elected then you need to work within the means of the mechanics to get them unelected. – Steven Sharif

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Community guides

• Ashes101 - Nodes.

Siehe auch

• Knotenpunkt-Belagerungen
• Spielerbehausungen
• Wirtschaft
• Soziale Organisationen