World size

1,200 km² (square kilometers) is the expected total world size of Verra at launch, including land (480 km²) and water/ocean (750 km²), but excluding the size of the העולם התחתון.

• This has increased from the previously stated total size of 480 km² including land and water/ocean; but excluding an additional ~100 km² of העולם התחתון.
  • The Underrealm did not increase "too much" in size.

• The reason given for expanding the map size was to better accommodate פעילות ימית content and to reduce the overall content density in the world.

The purpose of it becoming bigger is as I said to make sure that density isn't overwhelming: that it isn't everywhere I look there is immediately something. I have no opportunity to see areas of the world that are expansive and are just wanderlust adventure feeling. Everything was sitting on top of you, POIs and nodes and houses and everything. It was like an urban area everywhere. But we wanted to expand that because a large portion of the game is a sandbox element; it's coupled with a lot of curated content but it's that sandbox element. – Steven Sharif

• The shape of the continents has also changed and two new large islands have been introduced.

מסעות גילוי

מסעות גילוי in אלפא-1.

We want to put things in the world that are dynamic, so there are reasons to keep going out and keep exploring. – Akil Hooper

Riverlands biome concept art.

Players will be rewarded for exploring.

Exploration is a huge part of the game and there are a lot of systems that are dedicated to rewarding exploration.. – Steven Sharif

• Utility skills exist that can help players discover hidden paths and entrances and may lead to discovering hidden quests.
• Certain relics can only be discovered through exploration.
• Constellations may only be seen at certain times at specific locations.

It's widespread how exploration can affect many different progression paths within the game; and it's not just about visiting an area once and never coming back, because timing matters as well. – Steven Sharif

• Travel times are important in Verra, but it will be easy to get lost or distracted by threats and opportunities.
  • Threats can come in the form of monsters, events, and Open-world PvP.
  • Opportunities include resources (gathering, transporting, storing, and trading), points-of-interest, achievements, and treasures.

It'll be easy for you to get lost in AoC. That is our goal from an exploration standpoint. – Steven Sharif

Q: Since travel times are important, what is there to discover that will distract you from going straight to your initial destination? What makes traveling adventurous in Verra?

A: Aside from threat and opportunity, which are probably the two biggest distractions that you can encounter while traveling through Verra- those come in different forms: Threat. in the form of monsters and events. Opportunities, in the forms of resources and POIs. There's also achievements that are based around exploration. There's treasure maps that can be found. There's a lot of different things that intersect with travel: The movement of resources. The storage of those resources. In which locations, what are available to be sold and purchased at different locations. They might make you detour for. All of those things contribute to why I would go somewhere and instead change my direction. – Steven Sharif

Number of nodes

בהשקה יהיו 85 מקומות מיקומי צמתים בתוספת 15 צמתי טירה (חמש טירות כפול 3 צמתי טירה בכל טירה) כך שיהיו בסך הכל 100 צמתים.

• לפני כן, המפתחים העריכו כי יהיו 103 מיקומי צמתים רגילים עם עוד 15 צמתי טירה נוספים כך שבסך הכל היו אמורים להיות 118 צמתים.
  • ההפחתה במספר הצמתים לא תשנה את כמות הדיור לשחקנים או את קיבולת השרת המשוערכת.

עברנו מ103 צמתים ל85, ויש לכך כמה סיבות. אחת, כשעשינו את החישובים לאחור לאיך - באלפא 2 ובמשחק - אנחנו רוצים את שהצמתים הצמיתים יתקיימו, היו לנו יותר צמתים ממה שהרגיש משמעותי ורצינו לצמצם כמה מקווי העלילה שלנו לתוך הסביבה והתחומים שמסביב כך שיהיו יותר עשירים במספר מופחת של צמתים. מה שאומר שאנו מורידים את מספר הצמתים כך שנוכל להגדיל את העושר של כל אחד מהצמתים יותר ממה שהיו היה כשהיו 103 צמתים. – Steven Sharif

• היו 9 מיקומי צמתים ב אלפא-1.
• מיקומי הצמתים עשויים להשתנות לפני בטא-1.

מפת העולם

Updated Ashes of Creation map.

The new world map in all its 1,200 square kilometer glory. So you're gonna see some names here- a little bit of a reveal of some of these locations in these areas- and you're also of course seeing similar biomes that are present as well. But more importantly what you are seeing is the orientation of these continents and these islands that are facilitating specific types of inter-continental trade gameplay; and they support the relevance of these caravans moving across the land mass to locations that will now incorporate these harbor areas, which aren't identified on the map here... But the important part was providing a lot of coastal naval gameplay between these zones and trade routes between land base. – Steven Sharif

אלפא-2 work-in-progress map UI.

The world of Verra features an in-game viewable world map. This map is not randomly generated, and begins covered in a fog of war. Players will not be able to see the world until they have explored it or gathered information about it. The world is also full of imperfect information, which will require the player to act on it for verification.

For example, you may hear a rumor in a tavern that tells you the location of a cave full of weak Kobolds, but this was not accurate as the rumor was started by well-equipped bandits in order to waylay overconfident adventurers.

• Information about the world will be presented directly to players through the world map UI as it is gathered.
  • Node tax rates will be visible on the world map by hovering over a node location on the UI.
  • The map UI will potentially incorporate player created location markers that are visible by other party members.
  • Previously, detailed information about the world was only available through the Library unique node building.

• Not every server will share the same map, as player decisions will vary between servers.

• The map will have geographical choke points caused by non-traversable obstacles (such as Mountains).

Even though we're an open-world that doesn't mean that from a design perspective, especially with the way our economic systems work, that we will want to create Geographic choke points. – Steven Sharif

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

• Zones in Ashes of Creation will cater to all levels.

שרתים

The world will be the same on each server, but צמתים will develop differently. Different servers will have different narratives. Things that happen on one server may not happen on another.

To answer your question about "what stops all servers from from progressing the same nodes," the answer to that question is "other players." Certain content is locked behind different nodes that develop. If we assume that at some point all of the information regarding node progression is available, not all players on a server may agree on what content they want access to, or that they want other players to have access to. Even if a certain perks from node progression are considered "best value" to players trying to solve a node meta, that doesn't mean all players on a server benefit from that in the same way. Because of this, some players make act against your best interests, because it isn't their best interest. Nodes define (and redefine) the world around you, influence points of interest, world quest lines, story arcs, drop tables, resource pools, and even spawn tables for NPCs and bosses. The cycle of nodes leveling and triggering events is something we expect to see play out in a variety of different ways, across different servers, based on how players choose to play Ashes of Creation. – Ry Schueller

• שרתים will be named after the champions of the great battles that led up to the fall of Verra.

• There will be a multitude of servers located throughout the various regions of the world.
  • Server selection will show the region where the server is located and/or the ping to that server.

With regards to live launch when the server's go live, you'll be selecting a server to play on; and that will be your character's home; and that server you'll be aware of where that server is located usually by either a ping or a region that's notated on next to the server. – Steven Sharif

• The developers may occasionally release stats relating to server populations and archetype/class makeup, but there isn't going to be an official page that surfaces this information.
  • Stats are available on a per-guild basis, subject to a permissions structure.

• Server-firsts will be able to be captured and collected on memory fragments that players can collect in-game so they may relive their experiences.

Zones of influence

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.

See also

• מפת העולם
• מסעות גילוי
• צמתים
• אזורי השפעה
• סביבות