Freeholds

Freeholds 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.

Freeholds are sizable player housing plots that can be situated within the Zone of influence (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.
• Artisan classes.
• Spawn actors.
• Quests.
• Taxation.

Freehold placement

Kaelar and Empyrean freeholds (Pre-alpha).

Freeholds may be placed anywhere within the ZOI of a stage 3 node (or higher) so long as they are not in close proximity to any of the following:

• Pathing routes (Roadways).
• Dungeons and other points of interest (POIs) regardless of advancement.
• Spawn areas.
• Other freehold plots.
• Hard terrain features, such as mountainsides or cliffs.

Freehold plots will require a certificate from the parent node in order to place the plot.

The more advanced a node is, the more freeholds can be built within its ZOI.

• Ample space will be available to place freeholds in the ZOI of a village node.

Collections of freeholds placed together are considered part of their parent node and do not become a separate node, other than via roleplay.

Freehold buildings

Velkor's Eye pre-order pack cosmetic Vek freehold skin.

Freehold buildings can be placed on a freehold plot.

• Blacksmiths
• Forges
• Freehold farms
• Guild halls
• Homesteads
• Inns
• Lumber yards
• Mills
• Personal shops
• Shrines
• Smelters
• Stables
• Taverns

Buildings will require blueprints and materials.

• Basements in freehold buildings are to be decided.

Freehold buildings will not change in terms of footprint (within a specific tier of that building) but may increase in height.

• Certain buildings will have multiple tiers, with different footprint sizes. For example: Small, medium, large, to mansion-sized homes.
  • A mansion sized home may occupy up to 50% of a freehold plot.

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

• Cosmetics can also be applied to a blueprint based on the type of building.
• Players are not locked into any particular race for freehold blueprints.

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 building placement

There may be a grid-based system that freehold owners can use to place items/props and buildings on their freehold plot.

• Players will need to manage how these are arranged to maximize adjacency bonuses.

Depending on where your place you're freehold, you're gonna have different environmental tiles available to you and those will kind of enable or buff existing structures that you place in your Freehold... I don't know that we would put like fish farming just for a freehold that's on a river. What we would probably do is give you a buff to fishing in that area. That kind of a thing. So there'll be more buffs for existing things rather than necessarily a special buildings just for that area. But again we're not fully baked in on that system yet, so it's very possible though we end up going down that direction. – Jeffrey Bard

Naming buildings

Ships and Buildings will be able to be named. The custom name will appear as floating text when it is targeted.

Housing decorations

Alpha-1 housing decorations.

Pre-alpha furniture and decor concept art.

Players may decorate their player housing and other types of buildings.

• Houses will be empty when purchased.
  • Players may be able to upgrade to pre-furnished sets when they purchase their home.
  • Pre-furnished sets will be almost entirely visual and aesthetic. Only items crafted by the Carpentry profession will have in-game functionality.
• Players may place Furniture, artwork/paintings and other decor items in their player housing.
  • Items may only be placed in locations that are suitable for that item. For example: Statues, may only be placed in exterior locations (of Freeholds and Static housing).
  • Each size of player-owned housing determines how many decor items can be placed in it.
• Prized items such as achievements and trophies may be displayed.
• Characters will be able to interact with furniture items such as sit in chairs and lay in beds.
• Players will not be able to alter structural aspects such as windows and walls.

Quality furniture can be crafted in-game based on the skill of the craftsperson.

• Furnishing items with in-game functionality will be restricted entirely to those created by the Carpentry profession.

Your ability to craft more luxurious furniture comes with how much of a master craftsman you've become in the furnishing profession... This isn't like you know, I want my house to look good, I got to fork over 50 bucks in cosmetics... Players can craft in-game based on their dedication and focus in that aspect the artisan tree. – Steven Sharif

Freehold professions

• Animal husbandry.
• Crafting stations can be located on freeholds or within nodes.
• Farming.
• Player-owned Taverns on freehold plots.

Freehold progression

Freehold buildings are able to be levelled up based on the length of time and productivity of the freehold.

• Freehold progression unlocks new bonuses, abilities and capabilities.

We want there to be progression in many systems and part of the freehold progression is that when you establish these base buildings the longer and more productive you are and exist with that freehold, the more opportunity those buildings will have to both level up: offering new bonuses, new abilities, new capabilities; and just surviving in this world is a feat in and of itself, so it's rewarded by allowing progression with those things. – Steven Sharif

Business chains

There's no reason why you couldn't license your name to somebody else who also has a freehold and who also has an Inn and work together. – Jeffrey Bard

Taverns

Taverns provide tiered services.

• Quests that might only be gathered from the player-owned taverns.
• Meals that grant buffs for a period of time after a player leaves.
• Recipes that could potentially be sold to cooking professions, that may only be obtained from a player-owned business in a certain area.

The longer the tavern is in business and the more patrons served, the faster the tavern will level up.

Freehold farms

Alpha-1 freehold farm.

Crops are intended in Ashes to be a rotational profession that is dependent on having the appropriate seedlings and/or any of the necessary tools. – Steven Sharif

Freehold expansions and upgrades are available as node progression allows. Some of these improvements affects the size of freehold farm plots available for crop planting.

• Artisan freehold features are also affected by adjacent terrain features. For example: building next to a river provides a nearby source of clean freshwater, and will have a positive effect on crops.

Fisheries

Alpha-1 Fishery on a freehold plot.

You actually see there a small pond, which is actually another type of farmable area that we're going to have available on the freehold system, which is essentially a fishery so to speak. So you know fish play an important role from a raw gatherables a standpoint, but also again because a lot of the components of the freehold system are intended to be processing of raw materials, you know the fishery allows for a focus on specific type of fish gatherables that may only be gathered through the fishery blueprint. – Steven Sharif

A fishery is a farmable area that can be placed on a freehold plot. A fishery allows gathering of fish that are unique to the fishery blueprint.

Underrealm freeholds

Resources will be different in the Underrealm.

• This will affect Farming and Animal husbandry professions.
• Since players may only have one Freehold, they must choose their Artisan specializations accordingly if they wish to place it in the Underrealm.

Freehold building skins

Themed freehold skins were offered as Kickstarter and Summer crowdfunding rewards and are sold through the cosmetic store.

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  Altar of Silence

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  Altar of the Venerated

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  Confectioner’s Delight

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  Death's Bastion

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  Dünthol’s Forge

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  Fishery of the Waves

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  Freehold appearance (Kickstarter - tier 1)

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  Freehold appearance (Kickstarter - tier 2)

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  Freehold appearance (Kickstarter - tier 3)

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  Freehold appearance (Summer - tier 1)

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  Freehold appearance (Summer - tier 2)

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  Freehold appearance (Summer - tier 3)

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  Gateway of the Visionary

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  Homehearth Cabin

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  Hunter's Dwelling

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  Mausoleum Morti

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  Odeon of Sorcerous Awe

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  Plague lab

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  Prism of the Frozen Glade

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  Protector's Sanctuary

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  Py'len's Greenery

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  Refuge of Tranquil Waters

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  Scintillarium

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  Shadeless Tree Tavern

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  Shoreside Shack

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  Stables of the Oasis

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  Starweaver's Workshop

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  Stillstone Reliquary

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  The Blazing Gate

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  The Shadowed Spire

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  Velkor's Eye

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  Vermilion Menagerie

Freehold benefits

Player housing offers a number of benefits:

• Ability to claim citizenship to a node.
• Each different type of housing offers different benefits.
  • Additional benefits are granted to home owners who are also citizens of that node.
• Ability to place furniture and other decor items.
  • Houses will be empty when purchased. Players will need to place furnishings and decorations in them.
  • Each size of player-owned housing determines how many decor items can be placed in it.
• Storage containers.
  • Players must build and place these in their housing. There are restrictions on the grades of storage containers available in different types of houses.
  • Different grades of storage containers have different inventory capacities.
• Crafting benches to craft furniture and other items.
• Prized items can be displayed within a house.
• Achievements and trophies may be displayed.
• Social activities.
• May provide proximity based bonuses.

Freeholds offer the following additional benefits.

• Freeholds allow the owner to sell consumables that are only purchasable for specific buildings.

Freehold security

A permissions system will enable an owner to grant access to specific parts of their housing.

• Ability to open the door and enter the home.
• Access to crops.
• Ability to deposit or withdraw items from storage containers.
• Permission to decorate but not take anything from the house.
• A property has a single owner.
  • Access lists can be used to mimic co-ownership.
  • Payment of taxes may be via a "gentleman's agreement".
• Mayors are able to allocate treasury funding to hire mercenary NPCs to defend their node during sieges.

It'll be a single owner based system for those types of properties- for properties in general, but it doesn't prevent players obviously from you know collaborating and pooling resources in order to achieve certain achievements in the game. – Steven Sharif

Players cannot steal from a freehold under normal circumstances.

• Items stored in a Freehold may become lootable after a successful siege against their parent Node.

Players cannot be killed by other players while inside (the footprint of) their freehold.

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

Q: We were discussing in chat earlier about freeholds and whether or not a person would be safe in their home or within the entirety of their freehold from getting player killed?

A: I think our initial testing is going to revolve around the footprint of their freehold and then we'll take into consideration the metrics gleaned from that testing. – Steven Sharif

Shared access

Players may grant shared access to certain freehold services to a limited number of other players, such as access to their processing centers.

Freehold destructibility

Freeholds 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

Housing designs

Player housing 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.

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.
• Node buildings (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.
• Player housing 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

Guild freeholds

When a guild reaches a certain level, its guild master is granted a guild freehold certificate to enable placement of a guild hall.

Housing types

Player housing	Type.	Availability.	Limit.
Apartments	Instanced.	Village stage and higher.	One per server.
Freeholds	Open world.	Village stage and higher.	One per account.
Static housing	In-node.	Village stage and higher.	One per server.

Real estate

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.
• Static housing and apartments can be listed and sold to other players.
  • There is no cap on the price of player-originated housing sales.
  • Player housing that is destroyed during a node siege can no longer be sold.
  • Freeholds 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

Artwork

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See also

• Artisan classes
• Nodes
• Underrealm