צמתים

אלפא-0 Empyrean village node.

Encompassing each server are carefully placed points of development called צמתים.

צמתים 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 אזורי השפעה (ZOI). Player activity within the ZOI is weighted and counted toward a particular node’s advancement.

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

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

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.

• 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

• Underrealm nodes and nodes directly above them are considered adjacent but do not exist in the same אזור השפעה.
• Up to one fifth of the world will be encompassed within the אזור השפעה of a מטרופולין. The many vassal nodes within a ZOI's "border" could end up looking like a country or nation.

פיתוח צומת

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              ןשוימ תויהל יושע הז םוגרת

פעילות של שחקנים אזרחים ושחקנים לא אזרחים (משימות, איסוף, פשיטות וכו.) בתוך אזור השפעה של צמתים נוספת לפיתוח אותו הצומת (התפתחות).

איזור ההתפתחות של הצומת הוא היכן שציביליזציה תופיע כאשר צומת מתפתח. ככל שהצומת עולה שלבים, בניינים שונים, דמויות ללא שחקן (NPCs), ושירותים יהפכו לזמינים באיזור ההתפתחות. ככל שרמת הצומת גבוהה יותר, כך איזור ההתפתחות יהיה מורכב ומאוכלס יותר. אזור ההתפתחות ישתנה גם בהתאם לסוג הצומת - כלכלי, צבאי, מדעי, או שמימי; נרחיב יותר על כל אחד מהסוגים בפוסטים עתידיים בסדרה הזו. – Margaret Krohn

התפתחות של צומת חושפת את התוכן הייחודי שלו, שבאה במחיר של נעילת טבעת הולכת וגדלה של צמתים שכנים מלהתפתח לשלב הבא.

• צמתים מתפתחים לשלב הראשון במהירות. זה מאפשר שירותים של דמויות ללא שחקן כמו מכר או בנקאות של חפצים.
• ככל שצומת מתקדם כך אזור השפעה שלו גדל.
• צמתים פחות מתקדמים (מכונים צמתים צמיתים) שנמצאים בתוך איזור השפעה של צומת מתקדם יותר יכולים עדיין לצבור XP, אבל חייבים להשאר בשלב התפתחות נמוך יותר מהצומת הדומיננטי.
  • מערכת הצמיתים מתחילה כאשר צומת מגיע לשלב 3 (כפר), אבל צמתים שכנים החל משלב משלחת (שלב 1) יכולים גם לחסום את הגדילה של השכנים הקרובים שלהם.
• אלגוריתם הרחבת הטריטוריה לוקח בחשבון את החוף הקרוב ביותר, צמתים שכנים, ואת מפת החום של שחקנים באזורים הסמוכים במהלך השבועות או החודש האחרון.
  • בגלל האופן בו אלגוריתם ההתרחבות מחשב את ההתרחבות הטריטוריאלית (אזור השפעה) במהלך פיתוח צומת, קיימת אפשרות קטנה ששני צמתים באותו שלב יהיו בסופו של דבר קרובים זה לזה.

הדרך שבה האלגוריתם מרחיב שטחים לוקחת בחשבון כמה דברים: דבר ראשון היא לוקחת בחשבון את החוף לדוגמה היכן החוף הכי קרוב. דבר שני היא לוקחת בחשבון את הצמתים הסמוכים כך שהוא יוכל להשתלט עליהם ולהפוך אותם לצמיתים שלו, אבל מה שחשוב יותר זה בעצם האוכלוסייה הראשונית שנקבעת על ידי בחירת השחקנים את הגזעים שלהם. מכיוון שיש לנו תשעה גזעים שונים וארבע נקודות התחלה שונות שמתפצלות, צפיפות האוכלוסייה של כל שרת הולכת להכתיב למעשה את הצמתים הראשונים שיהיו מאוכלסים מאוד ואז הגרעין הראשוני הזה הוא זה שהולך לקבוע את מבנה כל צומת תוך כדי שהוא נע בתוך היבשה בעצם אל תוך העולם; ובהתבסס על הביצועים וההצלחות של מצורים שונים יקבע אילו צמתים שננעלו ממקודם בהתקדמות הראשונית יוכלו להיות זמינים כעת כדי להתקדם הלאה. אז אני באמת חושב שעם כל כך הרבה משתנים שנמצאים במשוואה של איך צמתים מתקדמים ונשארים קיימים ככל שיש לך יותר משתנים, ככה תהיה הסבירות שתהיה התפצלות משמעותית בהתקדמות עולם גבוהה יותר . – Steven Sharif

בדרך כלל האלגוריתם שפועל על הרחבת הטריטוריה של צמתים ימנע מצמתים משמעותיים להיות קרובים זה לזה ... יכולה להיות סערה מושלמת בה כל הרחבה של אלגוריתם הטריטוריה תגרום לכך שצמתים יתקרבו זה לזה מאוד מכיוון שקיימות דרישות מסוימות שצריכות להתקיים בכדי לספק את האפשרות של השתלטות על צמתים צמיתים; וייתכן ששני צמתים לעולם לא יהפכו אחד את השני לצמית ובסופו של דבר יהיו צמודים זה לזה וימשיכו להרחיב את הטריטוריה שלהם בכיוונים מנוגדים: בערך כמו בספר "בין שתי ערים". – Steven Sharif

• צומת לא מקבל XP מהצמתים האחרים שתחת אזור ההשפעה שלו עד שאותם הצמתים מתפתחים לרמה הכי גבוהה שהם יכולים.
• שחקנים יועברו למקום בטוח אם הם נמצאים במקום של נכסים חדשים שצריכים להווצר במהלך התרחבות של צומת.
• אזרחים של צומת אחד יכולים לתרום להתקדמות של צמתים אחרים

ההזדמנויות להשיג ניסיון עבור צומת יהיו שוות עבור כל ארבעת סוגי הצמתים

• האחוז המדויק של התקדמות מהשגת חפצים או מהריגה של מפלצות לא יהיה ידוע במפורש כדי להימנע מ"לשחק" את המערכת.

לאנשים שונים יש משאבים שונים שהושקעו בהתקדמות של צמתים וזה יהיה קצת "משחקי" (gamey) אם היית יכול לדעת בדיוק מה נחוץ באותה נקודה מכיוון שזה יבלום את התמריץ של אנשים להשתתף. – Steven Sharif

Zones and progression

מבוכים, פשיטות, בוסים עולמיים, Mobs, משימות, אירועים, משאבים, Narratives and other content within a node's אזור השפעה will have a diverse level range; but will scale with the advancement of that node and its racial influence.

• Portions of the spawn tables (for mobs and resources) are static and other portions are dynamic and adapt to node development.

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

התנוונות של צומת

חלק מהמידע הבא לא אושר לאחרונה על ידי המפתחים וייתכן שלא נמצא במפת הדרכים הנובחית של הפיתוח.

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

• An atrophy system may be implemented, where accumulated atrophy points will progressively disable services within a node. The node may be destroyed if a significant points threshold is reached.

• A previous design concept was that nodes could delevel based on accumulated atrophy.

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

Node development

Racial architecture of the same כפר (שלב 3) node on different servers. Dünir Dwarven influence (top). Kaelar Human influence (bottom). אלפא-1 ללא NDA צילום מסך.

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. – Margaret Krohn

Node layout and style is determined by several factors:

The way that the node system is built is that they can exist across a spread of 18 biomes, but at the same time have to represent the cultural influence of these cultures that are intrinsically a part of a specific biome. – Steven Sharif

• Environment (biome) and location of the node.
  • Nodes will adjust the local topography to fit the aesthetic and mechanical requirements of the node.

Currently the way that the platform system is set up, is it's capable of adjusting the topography of the node's footprint, regardless of the surrounding terrain. So the reason for that is we want to have flexibility in the presentation of the node's layout and how it is essentially both from an aesthetic standpoint as well as a mechanical standpoint with node sieges- how it's constructed and that construction should have the ability to take on a variance of different types of topography. So it shouldn't be dependent on the surrounding area. Now that's not to say that the surrounding area isn't going to have some influence over. So for example... we're experimenting a little bit with the platform tech and putting up a node up against the side of a mountain or on the edge of a cliff or something that has a beautiful vista. Those are things that we're going to test out obviously as we continue to work on the node tool and how that platform system works, but the idea is to have the node independent of the surrounding terrain. – Steven Sharif

• Node type.

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

• Race that contributed the highest percentage to the node's advancement will alter the racial appearance of its buildings, דמויות ללא שחקן, and props.
  • Parent races do not combine their cultural influences. For example, Py'Rai and Empyrean count as different cultures. Their parent race, the Pyrian, no longer exists.
  • This style and culture change happens at every stage.
  • This applies to all nodes, including castle nodes.

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

• The rest is determined by the node's mayor.
  • It should be possible for a node to complete several building projects within a mayor's one month term in office.

Q: How long would you say it will take players on average to fill/build up a node completely from wilderness to metropolis?

A: It's one thing to get a node to a certain level: it's another thing to develop the node; and I can't really give you an on-average expectation, because there's a lot of variables at play. There's how many citizens does the node have attracted to it; what's the type of traffic that the node is attracting to it based on things like its tax rates, or the specialization that it chose to spec into, based on the building types it's chosen to build. All of those things are variables that can affect the quote-unquote "average build-out time" of a particular node. So it's difficult to give you an average when there's so many variables along those lines. But the idea is that if there is a particular project that players are interested in in developing based on the node stage, that they would have the ability to complete several of those projects as within a single term of a mayor; and a term of a mayor is one month. – Steven Sharif

Racial quests

משימות 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

משימות 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.

Node benefits

Kaelar node concept art.

Each node type has a superpower (ultimate ability) that becomes unlocked when the node reaches מטרופולין (שלב 6).

מצור על צומת

מצור על צומת (תרום-אלפא footage).

ברגע שאיזורים בעולם מתפתחים, איזורים אחרים נופלים. זהו הבסיס של העולם החי והנושם של Ashes of Creation, בו לשחקנים תהיה היכולת לקבל החלטות משמעותיות החשובות לאריכות החיים של אזור שהופך לעיר, או האם לצור על עיר מתחרה. קום מתוך האפר, צור את העולם סביבך והיה חלק מסיפור המתעצב ממעשיך והחלטותיך. – Margaret Krohn

מצור על צומת מאפשר לשחקנים להרוס צמתים. דבר הסולל את הדרך להתפתחות וגישה חדשה לתוכן הנעול בצמתים שמסביב. התוצאה של דינמיקה כזו היא שסכסוכים ויריבויות פוליטיות משחקים תפקיד חשוב במבנה העולם.

• הטלת מצור על צמתים לא תהיה משימה קלה עבור התוקפים.יהיה לערים ו- מטרופולינים יתרון הגנתי משמעותי.

• יהיו מערכות שיחקו את הפעילות של מצורים, אבל לא יהיו מצורים לתרגול.

• עונשי מוות לא חלים על אירועים אובייקטיביים כמו מצורים על צמתים.

אם יש לך בית בצומת ואתה לא רוצה לראות את הבית שלך נהרס, אתה צריך להגן על העיר! – Steven Sharif

• רוב (80%~) התוכן בAshes of Creation מתרחש בעולם פתוח אבל יכולים להיות מופעים של מצור (Instances) בתוך מצור על טירה ומצור על צומת כך שקבוצות ספציפיות יוכלו להשתתף בקרבות קטנים, קצרים, ובעלי מטרה אובייקטיבית עבור נקודות ציון ספציפיות.

Read more...

Node government

אלפא-1 winner of Mayoral election.

There are a number of different seats that can exist within a node, and carry different responsibilities. – Steven Sharif

Positions within a node's government are attained through seasonal titles that grant special powers and benefits within the node.

There are other node-based positions. Most of them relate to social organizational structures like the temple and the social organization building that the node might construct. Those are ladder systems of achievement that players can work through on a seasonal basis to achieve the highest level of that for the particular node; and by doing so they will then have titles bestowed upon them, which grants certain types of powers and benefits. – Steven Sharif

• Mayors.
• כהנים, bishops, or acolytes of temples.
• Social organization positions.
• Patron guild leaders.
• Chief bounty hunter.

Leadership powers

Leadership powers may refer to.

• Node leadership powers
• Guild leadership powers

Node taxes

אלפא-2 Node treasury work-in-progress advanced node taxes UI.

As the node levels up, you're gonna get access to deeper controls on the taxes, so that you as a Mayor can incentivize players to come to your node to do certain things. If you're a node that loves smithing, you're probably going to want to lower your taxes on artisanship to incentivize players to be here. But then you might want to drive up taxes on other avenues that players aren't necessarily coming to your node for, but are using out of convenience. – Chris Justo

אלפא-2 Citizenship dues and node taxes work-in-progress UI.

Mayors are able to set a generalized node tax rate as well as overrides for different activities within their node. Mayors gain additional taxation controls as their node advances.

• Amenities tax override.
• Artisanship tax override.
• Commerce tax override.
  • This may include taxes that apply to tavern games.
• Property tax override.
  • Freehold property taxes scale according to the number of freehold building permits issued for that freehold.
• Citizenship dues and property taxes scale based on the stage of the node when a player became 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.
• Node tax rates will be visible on the world map by hovering over a node location.
• Tax revenue only goes toward funding node development. This cannot be withdrawn by the mayor or any other player.

Regent nodes take a cut of taxes from various activities that occur within their vassal node structure.

• 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.

בריתות

Ashes of Creation may have specific content that revolves around בריתות.

• התפתחות pathways within alliances.
• גילדות sharing common services with alliance members.
• Node alliances.

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 channels of bonding between the different guilds or players, the more sustainable that relationship. – Steven Sharif

דיור בצמתים

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

Static housing 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 כפר (שלב 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 node's layout and style.
• Taverns and Player shops are not tied to in-node housing.

Static housing development

Static housing furnishings and home decorations in an אלפא-1 village node.

If the node advances players can essentially select an option on their house as they own it that they want it to upgrade to the next stage if the node advances or they can select an option not to upgrade it. So you as the node levels and larger homes become available, the town stage introduces additional medium types housing, the city stage introduces large sized homes, and in the metropolis stage introduces my mansion size houses each of which contain specific... allowances and allotments for different types of furnishings that have gameplay implications. – Steven Sharif

In-node housing can scale in size with the advancement of its parent node. This may be toggled on or off by the player.

• The כפר stage offers small housing types.
• The עיירה stage introduces medium housing types.
• The עיר stage introduces large sized homes.
• The מטרופולין stage introduces mansion size houses.

If you choose to keep the same size then the next stage will have an occupied small home. So for instance if at stage three there are 8 small home and you own 1, then at stage 4 there are 10 new small homes of which x are owned by previous owners, and 10 new medium homes of which x are owned by upgraded small home owners. – Steven Sharif

New property becomes available at each stage of advancement, but it will be more akin to what was available at the previous stage.

• Only the houses that existed at the כפר stage will become main street mansions at the מטרופולין stage.

Static housing destructibility

חלק מהמידע הבא לא אושר לאחרונה על ידי המפתחים וייתכן שלא נמצא במפת הדרכים הנובחית של הפיתוח.

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.

Node apartments

דירות provide instanced player housing functionality on a rental basis.

• כפר (שלב 3) apartment buildings offer 50 rental apartments. Additional apartments can be added at עיירה (שלב 4) if the mayor chooses to construct them and if there is an available plot for the expansion. This includes different types of apartments, such as penthouses.
• The number and sizes of available apartments increases as a normal part of node advancement.
• It is estimated that the number of apartments available in a מטרופולין (שלב 6) node will be in the hundreds, if that node specs into all apartment expansion upgrades. This number is subject to change based on testing.
• Prices for apartments will fluctuate depending on the number of units already sold in the node.
• Different price points offer different apartment sizes and types, such as penthouses.
• It was previously stated that apartments would be available at עיירה (שלב 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

Apartment destructibility

דירות may be destroyed in the following circumstances:

• If their building was destroyed during a node siege, even if the siege was not successful.

• If the mayor decides to destroy apartment buildings all items and layouts will be mailed to the owner.

חלק מהמידע הבא לא אושר לאחרונה על ידי המפתחים וייתכן שלא נמצא במפת הדרכים הנובחית של הפיתוח.

• If a mayor built extra apartment buildings at עיירה (שלב 4) or higher and the Node deleveled below that stage.

דיור חופשי

Freehold in אלפא-1.

Three main purposes that freeholds provide are allowing players an opportunity to express themselves in a highly customizable fashion. So these are plots of lands that you have access to. You can build different types of buildings on. You can create housing and place furniture; and you can grow livestock and you can just own this piece of land. And one unique thing about allowing the players express themselves through this manner in Ashes of Creation is that it's in the open-world, so it's not an instance or a phase location that you are customizing. You're actually leaving a mark on the world that's representative of you as a player, as a character. Something you can you can roleplay. But importantly enough, when it comes to the economy, freeholds also provide the highest level of processing that's available; and processing is one of three primary branches that exist within the artisanship system. Processing is the intermediary step between what you gather in the wild and what you eventually craft via recipes. The the other primary purpose of freeholds is that they allow you to offer certain types of business services, because we don't just want to make freeholds delegated to the individual owner. We want it to have capabilities to interact with other players as they're walking past your freehold- as they're going to these hunting grounds and participating in quests or events that might be existing around; and that means that location matters for the freehold, because it's important to the business. – Steven Sharif

אלפא-2 freehold walkthrough.

We got some sheep; we got some cows and pigs; and we got some chickens back there; and we have a lot of space for different farmables. So we have a wheat here, corn, and then tomatoes over there as well. – John Collins

דיור חופשי are sizable player housing plots that can be situated in baronies within the אזורי השפעה (ZOI) of a כפר (שלב 3) or higher node, including the ZOI of any of its vassal nodes.

• Freehold estates may be purchased from other players, or can be obtained via deeds from completing a quest and winning an auction.
  • Freehold ownership, whether purchased from players or via a freehold auction, requires the purchaser to have completed a freehold quest, which has a level requirement of 50.
  • The seller decides if their freehold should be auctioned or sold directly to other players.
  • Some freehold auctions will require node-type-specific bound currencies, others will auction for gold. This is intended to cater to players with different playstyles, who are progressing through alternate systems.

The idea is that we're not reserving freeholds for the top 10 percent of levelers, we're reserving freeholds for the top 10 percent across the multiple different play paths that exist within the game; and this spreads out that ownership across different playstyles. – Steven Sharif

• Freehold ownership is limited to one per account.

Housing takes several forms in the world of Verra. However, Freeholds are the highest tier of player housing available. Acquiring a Freehold is a major accomplishment, and it will take a large amount of effort and strategy to get a Freehold of your own. Since there is a limited amount of space available to place Freeholds in each node’s region, these are symbols of prestige for those who are able to acquire and maintain their Freeholds.

• Freeholds are approximately 1.5 acres in size, or roughly 100m x 60m.
  • The footprint of a freehold does not change with node progression.
  • Previously it was stated that freeholds were half an acre in size.

• The developers are expecting the number of freehold plots on each server to be in "the low thousands" depending on world state.

The number of Freeholds on a server will vary on a number of factors, such as how player actions advance nodes. At the moment we are targeting the low thousands for Freeholds on a server, but as we continue to test these systems during Alpha Two, we anticipate making adjustments.

• Freeholds are subject to node taxes.
  • Freehold tax is calculated based on the number of permits issued for buildings on a freehold.
  • Freehold buildings that require permits will have additional upkeep costs.

• Blueprints are required for the construction of the freehold buildings that are used to process resources into crafting materials.
  • The best processing can only be carried out on freeholds, so obtaining a freehold will require a large amount of effort.

  If a player wants to achieve a freehold they can achieve the freehold, however the amount of effort resources and time that's required in order to achieve that freehold is a large amount. It is something that is a monumental achievement for you to to get that freehold; and the reason why is because freeholds tie in very heavily to the processing artisanship aspect. Some processing can be done in nodes, but the best processing is done on freeholds; and we want to make sure that there's a little bit of a throttle or gate on the amount of effort that's necessary to achieve that influence over the processing market. – Steven Sharif

  • Inns and other player housing options are available that are easier to obtain for players who do not need the benefits of a freehold.

  Just because the freehold is very difficult to attain doesn't mean that you don't have a space for housing and furniture that you can achieve through our apartment system or an inn or the static in-node housing. Those are alternate methods as well but they do not have that aspect of the best processing is done on the freehold. – Steven Sharif

• Freeholds are intended to work with the family system.

• אירועים do not target personal belongings such as freeholds.

• The spread of corruption in the world does not impact the freehold system.

• Players are not able to adjust the terrain of their freeholds. Sloped terrain will result in stilts beneath placeable structures (to keep them level).

חלק מהמידע הבא לא אושר לאחרונה על ידי המפתחים וייתכן שלא נמצא במפת הדרכים הנובחית של הפיתוח.

• Expansions and upgrades become available as node progression allows.

Freehold placement

אלפא-2 freehold placement.

There'll be a variety of predetermined parcels of land in each node's zone of influence; and once players acquire their freehold permit they'll be able to lay claim to any available parcel in the issuing node's region so- and by region we mean... the total combined territory of a node and all of its vassal nodes. So, if you acquire a freehold permit in the metropolis of a huge region, almost 20% of the map, you'll be able to lay a claim to an available parcel anywhere within that region. So it gives you a lot of freedom if you're able to acquire the permit from a metropolis. – John Collins

Freehold plots require a bound deed (permit/certificate) from the parent כפר (שלב 3) or higher node in order to place the plot.

• Freehold deeds are obtained through completion of a Lord's quest to ascertain worthiness for lordship over an estate.
  • The freehold quest's level requirement is 50. The level requirement is subject to change based on testing.
  • There will be more deeds than estates.

That was for a time a lively debate on our design team about whether or not there should be a level gate essentially from even preventing the potential for ownership. The reason why I chose to keep it at level 50 for now is because there are alternate systems that provide access at lower levels through permission setting. So it's one thing to own the home, it's is another thing to access the contents and to continue progression. Let's say, in the processing profession, you might want to gain mastery in: that mastery process leaves the nodes at around level 30 in the leveling experience for a processing profession; and so one of the debates on the design team was whether or not we should reduce the level requirement down to level 30 so that there's a seamless transition from node-based processing progression and the Freehold capability of progression. – Steven Sharif

• Deeds may only be used to place a freehold if the deed holder successfully wins a freehold auction for an estate.
  • אזרחים and non-citizens can bid on estates.
  • Bidding for estates within predetermined baronies was not mentioned previously.

You're going to see a little bit of change and this is one of the first ones: that these are predetermined locations that exist around the node or under its vassal structure that you will have the ability to bid on; and to give you a sense there, this allows us to customize a bit of those predetermined parcels, like a Sherwood Forest type of example. – Steven Sharif

• A deed holder who has won an estate auction may then claim the estate from within a barony in that node's אזור השפעה, including the ZOI of any of its vassal nodes. Placement of the plot is enabled by using the deed item in a player's inventory to get a top-down view of the estate, then selecting the desired location for the plot.
  • Players can manipulate the orientation of their freehold plot.
  • Successful placement of a deed gives the player access to their empty freehold plot and shed.

It'll basically be an item in your bag; and once you get to your parcel, you claim that piece of land and then once it's claimed you'll be able to use the item to go into top-down view and layout actually exactly where your freehold will go on that parcel of land. You'll have a lot of freedom, so a lot that will be going through looking at your whole area of land you now own claim to and then deciding where the best spot to put your freehold in there would be. – Kory Rice

• Freehold plots must not be placed in close proximity to any of the following:
  • Pathing routes (Roadways).
  • מבוכים and other points of interest (POIs) regardless of advancement.
  • Event spawn areas.
  • At least ~100m from other freehold plots.
    • Previously this was stated to be ~150m from other freehold plots.
  • Hard terrain features, such as mountainsides or cliffs.

• The more advanced a node is, the more freeholds can be built within its אזור השפעה.
  • Ample space will be available to place freeholds in the אזור השפעה of a village node.

• Collections of freeholds placed in close proximity are still considered part of their parent node and do not become a separate node, other than via roleplay.

• Adjacent freeholds do not share any bonuses with their neighbors, but guild halls owned by partron guilds may confer benefits to surrounding freeholds.

Freehold buildings

Freehold building types.

After you build your house, you can build other buildings on your Freehold. Each building needs the blueprint to start the process. If you have a cosmetic skin you want to use on a building, this is used after placing the blueprint. Once this has been placed, the building will be shown in a non-functional, construction state. Players will need to provide the required materials needed to complete the building construction, for each building on their Freehold. No Freehold has room for every possible option, so players will need to choose how to develop their Freehold by choosing to build specific artisan buildings, business buildings, and creating room for livestock and crops.

Freehold buildings that can be placed on a freehold plot serve three main purposes.

• Homesteads.
• Artisan buildings.
• Business buildings.

Freehold buildings require blueprints and materials to construct.

• Sheds are present on empty freehold plots to provide storage for materials needed to construct freehold buildings.
• Some freehold buildings have multiple tiers, with different footprint sizes.
• Upgrading a tier will not change the size of the building in terms of footprint, but may increase in height.
• Basements in freehold buildings are to be decided.

Freehold taxes are calculated based on the number of permits issued for buildings on a freehold.

• Buildings that require permits will have additional upkeep costs.

Freehold building architecture is based on the blueprint for the building.

• Freehold skins are applied to blueprints matching the type of building: housing, artisanship, and business.
  • The vast majority of cosmetic freehold skins are used for the homestead.
• The freehold building blueprints must be obtained in-game first before the cosmetic can be applied.
• Players are not locked to the racial appearance of a freehold building blueprint.

The way we look at it is the freehold is your space so we want you to be able to make it look the way you want it to. – Jeffrey Bard

Freehold benefits

Homestead size dictates how much furniture can be placed on a freehold.

דיור חופשי offer the following benefits in addition to other player housing benefits.

• The larger the homestead, the more floors it will have and the more furniture can be placed on the freehold.
  • Certain furniture may only be able to be placed outside.
• Freehold businesses allow the freehold owner (and authorized individuals) to sell items, consumables and services to players.
• Freeholds are the only place that master and grandmaster processing is available.
• Players can craft up to journeyman level on freeholds.
• Lower tier gathering can be done on freehold plots.

Freehold security

Freehold owners are able to set permissions that grant access to their artisan and business buildings' services.

Freehold ownership is designated by one account only and then the family system is the system that facilitates multiple accounts having permission basis within that freehold. – Steven Sharif

• Freehold permissions are intended to work with the family and guild systems.
  • It is still not determined if freehold permissions will be able to be granted to individuals outside those social structures.
  • Freehold permissions may only apply to battalions/micro-structures within a guild.
  • Interaction with the guild system will be tested in אלפא-2.

• This includes permission to enter the homestead, interact with furniture, access storage, interact with crafting or processing stations, and harvest resources.

Permissions to help manage your home are handled through affiliations like your Guild and family system. When setting permissions for your Freehold to do things like enter the house, interact with furniture, access Freehold storage, interact with crafting and processing stations, and harvesting gatherables on a Freehold, you can set if your Guild or family members should be able to do these things.

• Permission to decorate a freehold is restricted to the owner of the freehold. Previously it was stated that permission to decorate but not take anything from the house would be able to be assigned to other players.
  • Family members may be granted permission to apply their cosmetic skins to freehold buildings.

Players cannot steal from a freehold under normal circumstances.

• Items stored in a freehold become lootable after a successful siege against their parent node. It has not been decided which players get to loot the debris field during this period.

Only players given permission to do so will be able to do things like access your Freehold storage, and harvest crops and animals on your Freehold. These permissions are capable of being individually assigned per interaction. Note that if the node associated with your Freehold is successfully destroyed during a siege event, attackers will be able to assault Freeholds, and have a chance to pillage them for their resources.

Players cannot PvP while inside the footprint of a freehold homestead even if the doors are unlocked. This does not apply for a period of two hours following a successful siege against its parent node.

Your home building is safe from PvP. While on the footprint of your home, you can not be harmed by damage from other players.

• NPC guards may be available for hire to defend freeholds after a successful node siege. NPC guards that permanently exist on a freehold are not a planned feature.

• Duels may be initiated within a freehold or node as they are considered self-contained events that are opt-in by all parties, and do not fall under the player flagging system.

Buying and selling (Real estate)

Players buy the deeds for housing from the node itself, or may buy and sell properties from other players.

• The developers are considering an auction-based method for listing new properties that become available for purchase when a node advances. Currently freeholds may be acquired via auction.
  • 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.

• Housing will have a base price that scales with the number of citizens in the node.
  • There is no cap on the price of player-originated housing sales.
  • 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.

• דיור לשחקנים that is destroyed during a node siege can no longer be sold.

• Freehold plots may be purchased from and sold to other players, or can be obtained via deeds issued by a כפר (שלב 3) or higher node.
  • The seller may decide if their freehold should be auctioned or sold directly to other players.
  • Previously it was stated that freeholds may not be sold to other players.
  • Players cannot be denied from buying a freehold.

We're establishing a real estate market that players can invest in and then sell within the in-game economy, but also they are a resource that's subject to removal through the sieging system as well, so there's a bit of risk implied there but the idea is that this is something for players to strive for. – 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.

חלק מהמידע הבא לא אושר לאחרונה על ידי המפתחים וייתכן שלא נמצא במפת הדרכים הנובחית של הפיתוח.

• Rental and leasing concepts are under consideration.

Node citizenship

Node citizenship.

Citizenship is, aside from nodes existing, one of the most important parts. So you as a player will get to become a citizen of these nodes: you're going to need to acquire some form of housing to be able to do that within that node's jurisdiction, it's zone of influence. – Chris Justo

דיור לשחקנים grants the ability to claim citizenship of a כפר (שלב 3) node or higher. Gaining citizenship through player housing is not automatic. It must be claimed.

• There is not a hard cap to node citizenship, but there is a soft cap. Citizens pay dues and property taxes based on the stage of the node when the player became a citizen.

When you become a citizen you enter in at a certain citizenship due structure; and citizens pay taxes to their node in the form of both property taxes based on what type housing as well as citizenship dues, which are necessary. And as you enter later into the stage of a node's development, you will pay a higher value on the citizenship dues or vice-versa: if you own a property later, you will be entered into a property tax that is higher based on where you enter that property ownership within the node's history. So those help to form a soft cap. Now, if payers are willing to pay more to be a citizen of a particular node, they have that option, but at some point it becomes restrictive.

• A player can only claim citizenship to one node at a time.

You can declare citizenship to only one node and when you declare that citizenship. Let's say for example, one guild perhaps wanting to 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 a natural divide: A pseudo faction, so to speak between who is a part of that node and who is not. – Steven Sharif

• Only one citizenship may be declared per account, per server.

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

• Players lose their node citizenship after their node is destroyed in a node siege without entering into a cooldown period.
  • Apart from node destruction, there is no player driven system that can strip another player of their node citizenship.
• Node citizenship is not tied to membership of a guild. Guilds don't "own" nodes.
• Players can interact with the node board to get a list of citizens of the node. Clicking on a citizen will reveal information about their guild, society, religion, and property ownership.

חלק מהמידע הבא לא אושר לאחרונה על ידי המפתחים וייתכן שלא נמצא במפת הדרכים הנובחית של הפיתוח.

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

Sharemarkets

Stock exchanges (also called Stock markets and Share markets) enable players to buy and sell shares in צמתים, גילדות and ארגונים חברתיים.

• Stock exchanges were a קיקסטארטר stretch goal unlocked for reaching the $3 million dollar mark.
• This is a planned feature for the launch of Ashes of Creation.

חלק מהמידע הבא לא אושר לאחרונה על ידי המפתחים וייתכן שלא נמצא במפת הדרכים הנובחית של הפיתוח.

• The value of stocks is influenced by world events and the performance of nodes, ארגונים חברתיים 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.

Underrealm nodes

Underrealm nodes and nodes directly above them are considered adjacent but do not exist in the same אזור השפעה.

• There will be "bleed over" between underrealm nodes and surface nodes in terms of influence and interaction.
  • There may be visual cues above ground that indicate influence from underrealm nodes in that area.

That might be a little bit of a departure from our design in the past. I know originally like two-plus years ago we were discussing how those would be independent of each other, but I think as we further defined the layout of the world map itself it made more sense for those to have some interaction and influence that's combined. – Steven Sharif

• Caravan routes will go underground.
• מצור על צומת occur in the usual manner.
• There will be underrealm מטרופולינים.

Coastal/island nodes

Pre-alpha naval concept.

There will be healthy amounts of sea content within the coastlines of the continents that does not fall into the "open sea" area. – Steven Sharif

There will be nodes along the coast and on islands.

• These nodes will have specific water oriented influences, services, and questlines, that relate to the seas.
  • There is a healthy amount of sea content within the coastlines of the continents that does not fall into the open sea area.

• The open sea does not contribute to the advancement of coastal nodes, even if it falls within the אזור השפעה of the node. This is subject to change during אלפא-2 testing.

• Coastal nodes change the spawn tables of the nearby water content and can also trigger specific events.

• Coastal nodes are not directly siegeable by sea. Instead, harbors offer objective-based naval gameplay during node sieges.

We've gone back and forth a little bit on whether or not the design intent for sieging of nodes is intended to include, for certain nodes, the naval component. The concern there was that it would be a difficult thing to balance around that particular node having accessibility from the water for those types of defenses. So what we've presented as an opportunity where harbors are the focal point of those naval interactions; and during sieges you are aware that nodes have certain objectives, which have ramifications and can influence the outcome and/or the ongoings of a particular against a node. And if one of those objectives is a naval objective, because that node might own a harbor, which is a point of interest that gets adopted by a node which advances far enough around it. So you might have one harbor and five nodes that can own that harbor. And the first to hit the village stage adopts the harbor. Then that can become an objective point during a siege that has naval interaction. So that's the direction we've moved towards, rather than allowing the naval component to interact directly with sieging the node itself as opposed to being a part of the objective-based gameplay that exists for a node siege. – Steven Sharif

• Island chains are part of Ashes of Creation naval content.

Underwater nodes

תת-מימי points of interest that have NPC structures may appear to be like cities, but they will not be nodes.

• There won't be nodes underwater or in the water.

Relics

Reliquary concept art.

Each city has what's called a reliquary and the reliquary begins to spawn unique items for the citizens to take advantage of based on the performance, progression and achievements that those citizens have within the world. So if your citizens are part of downing a world boss or completing a dungeon in a record time or crafting a legendary item or whatever: all of these different types of progression paths for the cities could result in the production of a relic that exists within the reliquary. – Steven Sharif

Relics are achievements for a node that unlock over time. They allow node citizens to craft certain legendary items and progress in certain legendary quest lines.

Relics are embodiments of certain types of achievements. You may have the scale of a dragon that's been defeated- the all-scale aspect of it- and from that every week a citizen might be able to derive one scale material component that can be used across a plethora of high-end types of crafting. – Steven Sharif

• Relics automatically manifest in the node's reliquary when specific conditions are met by that node. For example, it may require a certain number of citizens to accomplish a particular achievement a number of times before the relic is granted to the node.

Let's say for example there is a dragon nearby and this dragon is a large raid boss; and the number of citizens that the node has that participates in that raid the first time- if you have 30 citizens present you may not achieve the relic. And it's not a matter of capturing it at that location taking back to the city. It'll automatically manifest within the reliquary if a number of citizens accomplish a particular achievement a number of times necessary to create the relic. So if you only have 30 citizens present at that raid boss you may need to do that raid boss four or five six times in order to unlock the achievement which grants the relic in the reliquary. So it's essentially incentivizing the citizens to participate in the world events around the node. – Steven Sharif

• Relics can also be awarded for accomplishments that span many different progression paths, such the number of citizens achieving advanced stages of their artisan classes.

The other component of relics that's important to note is that it's not just adventuring relics, these are accomplishments that span a lot of the different progression paths. So you could have accomplishments get unlocked by how many number of citizens achieve the creation of a particular type of item. You may have now an alchemical genius that is a citizen of your node and as a result there is an alchemical relic that's been granted to your reliquary in a similar fashion to the dragon. – Steven Sharif

• Relics stored in a node's reliquary grant passive and active benefits to node citizens and vassal states.
  • Area-of-effect buffs to damage, attack range or the health of the defenders.

• Limited access to the relics stored in a node's reliquary are granted to players after a node is destroyed by a node siege. Benefits are also conferred to those who capture, steal, or sabotage relics held the reliquary.
  • Looting a relic from a node will create a shard of the relic, which can be used in recipes for certain crafted items and enchantments; or it can be consumed for a single-use buff that reflects the original relic's purpose. These shards can be traded.

• Relics include the four Ancient artifacts of Verra that were originally discovered by King Atrax in his pursuit of the power of The Essence.
  • These artifacts were in close alignment to The Essence on Verra due to their proximity to the ley lines of Essence spread across the world.
  • These artifacts were originally housed in the vault of Fallow's Hold, which is one of the great dungeons of Ashes of Creation, located near the capital city of the ancient Toren empire, Torall.

• Constellations enable the acquisition of certain relics.

• Certain relics can only be discovered through exploration.

Internal conflict

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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See also

• מצור על צומת
• דיור לשחקנים
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