Factions

Ashes of Creation community empowered Wiki
Jump to navigation Jump to search

There are no predefined factions in Ashes of Creation.[1][2]

It's important to note that Ashes of Creation is a non-faction-based game. What that means is you're not told who your enemy and your friend is. You are not restricted with the players that you can participate in content with. Instead that choice is left to you, the players, and that is an element of the sandbox environment that we're trying to create with Ashes of Creation.[1]Steven Sharif
Because we are non-faction-based, you want to grant the user the ability to either do things that are "evil" or "good", so there has to be a plethora of choice on the evil side for them to participate in.[3]Steven Sharif
We present the player with these soft friction events and then that determines who your friends and your foes are.[4]Steven Sharif

PvP

Alpha-1 open world caravan PvP.[6]

Player combat in Ashes of Creation is both vast and intimate. It spans many aspects of the game itself. From great political battles held on the fields of massive castles, to open world conflicts fought for the pride of Guild Leaders. A player can choose to participate in the fate of the world by swaying the tide of battle with his or her combat prowess. Our PvP mechanics follow a flagging system, as well as static PvP zones at certain points of interest; fight for control over cities, castles, caravans, or hunting grounds. Our PvP is designed to offer the players a well-balanced and fair world to shape through the pen, or sword should they choose.[7]

PvP (Player versus player combat) is the catalyst for change in Ashes of Creation.[8] Player combat is intended to be meaningful, ranging from Caravan battles to vast open world conflicts fought for the pride of Kings and Queens.[9]

Because players are motivated by different things, because they want something from the game that other players don't want, that's going to cause people to butt heads. Different players are going to want different experiences and the conflict between the two of them will create a bigger and better thing. Out of strife comes rebirth and that's a core symbol, it's a core theme that occurs throughout the game.[10]Jeffrey Bard
Just because our flagging system gives corruption to PKers, doesn't mean PvP won't happen. There is plenty of reason for PvP to occur open-world.[15]Steven Sharif
Q: Have you considered a high-stakes loot drop PvP zone/area in Verra?
A: We have not; and the reason for that is our current PvP systems already allow for material risk essentially that's either through the flagging system or through other event-based pvp opt-in systems as well.[25]Steven Sharif

Open world battlegrounds

The Event system will also create a variety of PvP situations in the open world. From small skirmishes that lead into sieges to battles over capture points during a node or castle siege, PvP objectives will play a crucial role in determining the tide of battle.[27]

The majority of Ashes of Creation players will experience PvP through opt-in objective-based battlegrounds (also called sanctioned PvP events).[28][20][12][21] These are high risk and high reward encounters that do not utilize the corruption system.[12][13][14]

The majority of PvP that players will encounter- the vast majority- will be through consensual systems, meaning opt-in systems like sieges, like caravans, like wars, or going out into the open sea. These are conscious decisions that players will make knowing the risk profile- assessing that- and they will opt-in to those things..[12]Steven Sharif
  • Sanctioned PvP events allow players to join different teams during the event.[28][20][12]
There are going to be events with sanctioned PvP, where there are multiple team options to join.[28]Clayton Stamper
In a sanctioned event- sanctioned meaning that this is something you have the option to opt-out of. That's a castle siege, that's a node siege, that's a caravan, that's a guild war, that's a node war. You can drop your citizenship. You can drop your guild tag. You can drop participating in one of those things. In any of those types of opt-in and opt-out events, the death penalties do not exist. These are sanctioned. They're intended to allow people to engage in PvP. Now if I die to an NPC while I'm out hunting, or if I die to another player through the flagging system, those are where death penalties come into play; and that's where debt experience can be earned; and that's where corruption can be had. So it's important to separate those two realms.[20]Steven Sharif
During PvP events such as caravans, guild wars, and sieges, the death penalties are disabled between participating characters on opposing sides. Attacking and killing players on the opposing side doesn't trigger the purple and red flags, nor does dying drop any resources or loot. However, you can't hide in this state as a Red corrupted player either. If you are Red, you'll still be Red in the siege or caravan and open to anyone to kill you and drop your loot, regardless of the side you are on. Being Red trumps everything.[31]
We will have limited functionality where players can spectate from either ghost camera from fixed positions at certain battlefields; some of which might include castles.[32]Steven Sharif
We will have certain systems that won't lend well to streaming, because certain systems have a requirement of secrecy and/or at least some level of strategic ambiguity. So players need to be conscientious of that fact when they're intending to both stream and play Ashes of Creation. Those are things that we cannot solve because intrigue is an intrinsic part of the game.[33]Steven Sharif
Our castle system, our sieges against nodes, the caravan system, battlegrounds that exist, guild wars: We want there to be a meaning to this conflict. We want players to actually have some skin in the game when it comes to participating in PvP.[10]Steven Sharif

Hunting grounds

You are on the prowl, and notice an unsuspecting player chopping trees. What would you do?[34]

Hunting grounds are open-world PvP corruption-enabled areas that encompass most of the map.[35]

One of the interesting components of Ashes of Creation and our flagging system is that it presents the potential for two conflicting parties to have open conflict in the open world over pretty much anything that they may want or disagree with; and if that pertains to a hunting ground, not just the caravan or the castles or the nodes or whatever, it can exist in that area.[38]Steven Sharif

Outside of PvP for certain things like caravans, sieges of nodes and/or castles is that you're going to have those open-world hunting ground fights that may occur. You're going to have resources fights that may occur. You're going to have political fights that may occur between members of guilds; and we're taking the guild politics to a whole new direction in regards to playing those conflicts out.[37]Steven Sharif

Our PvP mechanics follow a flagging system, as well as static PvP zones at certain points of interest; fight for control over cities, castles, caravans, or hunting grounds. Our PvP is designed to offer the players a well-balanced and fair world to shape through the pen, or sword should they choose.[39]

Read more...

Player flagging

The open world PvP flagging system is designed to deter people from griefing other players without limiting opportunities for open conflict.[40][41][42][43]

We do incentivize players to fight back, or to participate in PvP through the flagging system, but not to PK. Not to go corrupt.[42]Steven Sharif
  • Players can participate in open world PvP with one another without having to resort to murder.[44]
  • The penalties are intended to be severe enough to deter any type of spawn camping.[45]
  • Summons follow the same PvP flagging rules as players and share the player's flag status.[46][47]
  • Items are not provided to players until crafting or gathering interactions are complete. Players interrupted before completion will not lose these items or resources.[48]

pvp flagging diagram.png

There are three levels of flagging for world PvP in Ashes of Creation.[30]

  • Non-combatant (green)
    • All players start as non-combatants.[49]
    • Non-forced attacks, including AoE and status effects, will not hit non-combatant players.[50][51]
    • Green players killed by mobs (the mob deals the killing blow) do not flag attacking players as corrupt, but since the exact health of another player is not known (outside of the same party, raid, alliance, or guild), attackers run the risk of killing the player and becoming corrupt.[52]
    • Player abilities with CC effects do not apply to non-combatants. The target of a CC ability must be flagged in order to suffer the CC effects. This prevents players from opening attacks that stun non-combatant players during a pull for example.[53]
    • Non-combatants will not be flagged for looting bodies.[54]
    • Players will be able to opt-in (via a checkbox) to allow their beneficial spells, or non-beneficial AoEs to hit combatants.[55][56]
If you have that check-box for flagging with your AOEs and heals available then you will flag. If you do not have that box checked then on completion of the skill it will not flag you because the check was made at the start that there was a flagged party member; and then he will not he or she will not receive the beneficial effect as a result or the damage, if it's an offensive spell.[56]Steven Sharif
  • Combatant (purple)
    • Players are flagged as combatants if they attack another (non-corrupted) player when carrying out a forced attack. If the attacked player fights back, they are also flagged as combatants, otherwise the attacked player will remain flagged as a non-combatant.[55][57][49]
    • Non-combatants entering an open world battleground (PvP event) are automatically flagged as combatants and remain flagged for a period of time after leaving that battleground.[30]
    • Non-combatants who heal, buff, or otherwise interact with combatants or corrupted players will be flagged as combatants.[59][60][61][62]
    • Players can kill combatants without repercussions, and are encouraged to do so, since dying while a combatant has reduced death penalties.[49]
    • Players are not able to manually set their flagging status to combatant.[57]
    • Players remain flagged for a period of 90 seconds following their most recent attack on a non-combatant or another combatant.[63]
    • Players cannot log out while flagged as combatants.[64]
You're not going to see griefing in the game very often; and that's because our flagging system. The corruption mechanics are based around disincentivizing a griefer or PKer but still offering the opportunity, should the occasion arise, where the benefits outweigh the risk, you have the ability to do so. If you gain corruption, which is killing a non-combatant - a player who is not fighting back basically - if you gain that corruption, your world has changed. It is not going to be a very beneficial place to be and you have the potential of losing your gear. Your combat efficacy decreases based on the amount of corruption you accrue. It is a comfortable balance between player agency and grief and basically removing player agency for other players.[65]Steven Sharif
  • Corrupted (red)
    • If a combatant player, or their summon, kills a non-combatant player, including any of their controlled entities, such as their battle pet, mount, or summon, the player's character will be flagged as corrupted.[66][46][43]
      • Corruption gained for killing controlled entities is a lower value than killing the players.[66]
    • A character's PK value increases with each non-combatant player killed over the lifetime of that character.[12][53][67][68][30]
    • The wider the level disparity between the players, and the higher the attacker's PK value, the more corruption score they gain.[12][53][67][68][30]
    • A character's corruption score multiplies their death penalties and reveals a their location to bounty hunters.[43]
    • If a non-combatant attacks a corrupt player, the non-combatant will not flag as a combatant.[49]
    • Corrupted players may kill bounty hunters without acquiring additional corruption score.[69]
    • There is a 60 second timer to logout while corrupt. Force-disconnecting the client during the cooldown will leave the character in-game.[59][64]
It's important to note that the idea is going to be that, unless a player is in your party, alliance, guild, or raid that you will not have definitive knowledge of their exact hit point values. So when you do something that's sketchy like that, where you want to bring them close to death and let a monster finish him off, you are taking the risk of overhitting and actually gaining the corruption.[52]Steven Sharif

Read more...

Affiliations

An affiliation tree determines which entities can participate in attacks against other entities within its hierarchy.[72][73]

There's node citizenship. There's guild. There's alliance. There's party. There's raid. There's family. All of these types of affiliations have a hierarchy. The highest of which is your node affiliation: So your citizenship is your greatest superceding relationship, which means if you were a part of a guild and the guild has multiple nodes in which its members are citizens of, if there was a war between two of those nodes, the members of those nodes would be first and foremost citizens who defend that node, even against their own guild members.[72]Steven Sharif

All of these things have some hierarchy; and within that hierarchy there's the ability to participate within certain systems. So for example, if you have a node that has fallen under your vassal state and you're a citizen of the parent node, then you could participate in a siege against the vassal node but if you're a citizen of the vassal node you could not participate as an attacker against the parent node; so there's a hierarchy, unless you were to renounce your citizenship.[73]Steven Sharif

Read more...

Bounty hunters

Players can acquire the bounty hunter title through a quest available to citizens of Military Stage 4 (Town) nodes and potentially their vassals or affiliated nodes.[75][30]

  • Bounty hunters can activate their Pathfinding ability to reveal corrupted player locations on their map.[76][77]
    • This will flag the bounty hunter for combat only to corrupted players for a period of one hour from the time of activation.[76]
    • The pathfinding ability can be toggled on or off.[76][78]
    • It is possible that bounty hunters will be permanently flagged versus corrupted players with the pathfinding ability toggled off. This design change will be decided based on testing.[79]
  • The accuracy of bounty hunter maps is determined by a player's progression in the bounty hunter system.[80]
  • Corrupted players may kill bounty hunters without acquiring additional corruption score.[81][69]
    • Corrupted player's combat penalties do not apply when battling bounty hunters.[81]
  • Chief bounty hunter is a node government title that grants special access to NPCs in a node.[82]
  • Credit for killing a corrupted player goes to the bounty hunter who lands the last hit (killing blow). This may be changed to damage contribution in future.[83]

Bounty hunter maps

Corrupted players with a high enough corruption score will be visible on the world and mini maps. These players will have markers posted on the map by an NPC from a Military node of at least stage 4 (Town), and will only be granted to players who have the Bounty hunter title.[76][84] The accuracy of bounty hunter maps is determined by a player's progression in the bounty hunter system.[80]

Taverns are one of the locations that bounties will be posted. As players gain corruption, taverns may offer bounties to eliminate those players; or have a specific area cleared of problem players, thus giving a POI (point of interest) on the world map.[85]

Bounty hunter Pathfinding ability

Skill Icon Base skill
Pathfinding Reveals corrupted player locations on the bounty hunter's map.[76][86] Activating this ability will flag the bounty hunter for combat only to corrupted players for a period of one hour from the time of activation.[76] The pathfinding ability can be toggled on or off.[76][78]

Corrupt players killing bounty hunters

Corrupted players potentially gain rewards for killing bounty hunters.[87]

See also

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 Livestream, May 31, 2023 (45:53).
  2. Livestream, May 26, 2017 (39:36).
  3. Livestream, 2018-04-8 (PM) (11:27).
  4. 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 Interview, July 18, 2020 (22:26).
  5. Video, May 28, 2021 (25:44).
  6. Video, May 31, 2020 (1:09:50).
  7. About Ashes of Creation.
  8. pvp catalyst.png
  9. Ashes of Creation FAQ.
  10. 10.0 10.1 Video, April 30, 2017 (5:31).
  11. 11.0 11.1 Livestream, October 28, 2022 (1:41:55).
  12. 12.00 12.01 12.02 12.03 12.04 12.05 12.06 12.07 12.08 12.09 12.10 12.11 12.12 12.13 12.14 12.15 12.16 12.17 12.18 12.19 Livestream, October 28, 2022 (24:28).
  13. 13.0 13.1 13.2 13.3 Livestream, April 29, 2022 (41:27).
  14. 14.0 14.1 14.2 14.3 14.4 14.5 14.6 14.7 14.8 Livestream, May 5, 2017 (14:26).
  15. 15.00 15.01 15.02 15.03 15.04 15.05 15.06 15.07 15.08 15.09 15.10 pvp meaningful.png
  16. 16.0 16.1 Podcast, April 11, 2021 (49:40).
  17. 17.0 17.1 Livestream, November 17, 2017 (45:19).
  18. 18.0 18.1 Livestream, August 26, 2022 (1:00:14).
  19. 19.0 19.1 Livestream, April 30, 2021 (1:06:41).
  20. 20.0 20.1 20.2 20.3 20.4 20.5 Livestream, February 24, 2023 (1:29:45).
  21. 21.0 21.1 21.2 21.3 21.4 Livestream, June 30, 2022 (1:14:52).
  22. 22.0 22.1 22.2 22.3 Livestream, August 27, 2021 (1:22:56).
  23. 23.0 23.1 Livestream, December 22, 2020 (1:13:51).
  24. Livestream, October 28, 2022 (13:53).
  25. Livestream, March 31, 2022 (1:12:27).
  26. Livestream, October 14, 2022 (51:25).
  27. 27.0 27.1 Types of Events on Verra.
  28. 28.0 28.1 28.2 Video, September 29, 2023 (2:59).
  29. Livestream, May 19, 2017 (45:14).
  30. 30.0 30.1 30.2 30.3 30.4 30.5 MMOGames interview, January 2017
  31. 31.0 31.1 jindrack-pvp-events.png
  32. 32.0 32.1 Twitch Bustin - PvP Spectating.
  33. 33.0 33.1 Livestream, October 31, 2023 (1:14:00).
  34. Twitter - What a glorious day for ganking!
  35. 35.0 35.1 Livestream, July 9, 2018 (44:56).
  36. Livestream, November 17, 2017 (45:17).
  37. 37.0 37.1 Livestream, June 1, 2017 (35:42).
  38. Livestream, May 19, 2017 (24:17).
  39. pvp about.png
  40. Livestream, April 28, 2023 (2:06).
  41. Livestream, March 31, 2023 (1:00:16).
  42. 42.0 42.1 Livestream, June 25, 2021 (23:08).
  43. 43.0 43.1 43.2 pvp flagging.png
  44. 44.0 44.1 Livestream, May 12, 2017 (24:52).
  45. pvp camping.png
  46. 46.0 46.1 46.2 steven-summons-pvp-1.png
  47. steven-summons-pvp-2.png
  48. Livestream, July 28, 2023 (3:58).
  49. 49.0 49.1 49.2 49.3 Interview, April 27, 2017 (0:17).
  50. Livestream, October 28, 2022 (1:34:52).
  51. PvP.jpg
  52. 52.0 52.1 Livestream, July 30, 2021 (1:10:34).
  53. 53.0 53.1 53.2 CC effects do notapply to non-combatants.png
  54. Podcast, April 11, 2021 (34:41).
  55. 55.0 55.1 Livestream, December 2, 2022 (2:41).
  56. 56.0 56.1 Interview, July 8, 2020 (1:05:27).
  57. 57.0 57.1 Livestream, November 30, 2020 (1:09:06).
  58. Livestream, October 31, 2018 (44:12).
  59. 59.0 59.1 Livestream, October 28, 2022 (26:48).
  60. steven-healing-corrupt.png
  61. Interview, April 22, 2019 (54:40).
  62. Livestream, November 17, 2017 (29:45).
  63. steven-flagging-duration.png
  64. 64.0 64.1 steven-flagging-logout.png
  65. Podcast, April 23, 2018 (49:21).
  66. 66.0 66.1 Livestream, October 28, 2022 (1:35:36).
  67. 67.0 67.1 steven-corruption-value.png
  68. 68.0 68.1 Interview, July 18, 2020 (41:54).
  69. 69.0 69.1 Interview, April 27, 2017 (1:18).
  70. flagging.jpg
  71. pvp flagging lockouts.png
  72. 72.0 72.1 72.2 72.3 72.4 72.5 72.6 72.7 Livestream, March 29, 2019 (17:10).
  73. 73.0 73.1 73.2 73.3 73.4 73.5 73.6 73.7 73.8 Interview, May 11, 2018 (58:07).
  74. Livestream, July 29, 2022 (1:07:20).
  75. Livestream, June 26, 2020 (1:50:24).
  76. 76.0 76.1 76.2 76.3 76.4 76.5 76.6 steven-bounty-hunters-2.png
  77. Interview, April 27, 2017 (9:28).
  78. 78.0 78.1 corruption toggle.png
  79. steven-bounty-hunters-3.png
  80. 80.0 80.1 Livestream, May 24, 2017 (48:00).
  81. 81.0 81.1 steven-bounty-hunters-1.png
  82. Livestream, July 26, 2019 (1:20:48).
  83. Livestream, June 25, 2021 (1:06:22).
  84. Interview, January 20, 2017 (06:12).
  85. The mighty beard!
  86. Interview, April 27, 2017 (9:28).
  87. Interview, October 20, 2018 (15:51).