Hunting grounds

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

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

• Hunting grounds refer to killing monsters or NPCs in the open-world.
• This also refers to contesting resources.

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. – 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. – 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.

Threat assessment

You decide to gank the player, but find out that you have been ambushed!

Players will have a buff on their nameplate that indicates the gear set they are wearing. Other players will be able to see this buff by targeting that player at a distance.

• This will indicate the type of armor (cloth, leather, plate) that they are predominantly wearing.

You can target a player. You're going to see what type of armor they have based on a buff they have available to them because obviously cosmetics can change appearance. You might have different silhouettes as a result of that. – Steven Sharif

• The border will indicate the level and quality of the tier set.
  • This also indicates if the gear is enchanted, along with visual effects associated with enchanted items.
• The developers believe that inspecting gear to obtain an exact equipment list or gear score may lead to "unwelcome behavior".

When you see a player approaching you and they're wearing a transmog you know you don't know if that person is a high damage mitigation against physical damage or against magical damage and essentially the way we overcome that is through you being able to target a player at a distance and they will have a buff that's present on them that you will see, which indicates that essentially the piece set that they are wearing. It is important for players to be able to ascertain from a threat assessment standpoint what they're going up against if they're actively checking that, and that will be available. – Steven Sharif

Player health

Health is a stat in Ashes of Creation.

• Players that are not in the same party, raid, alliance, or guild will not be able to see other player's health percentages or exact health bar values.
  • This is not currently implemented in Alpha-1.

• A player's name plate will deteriorate to give an indication of how much damage they have taken.

With regards to seeing another player's health: As you know their name plate will deteriorate or give you an indication of like hey they've taken damage they're significantly injured, but you're not going to get a percentage. You're not gonna get an exact bar value, unless you're in their party or in their raid. – Steven Sharif

PvX

We like to really refer to ourselves as a PvX game, because in those systems of PvP, PvE, crafting they're all intertwined: They're interdependent on each other... Our system of development really requires some interdependence there between those things. You're going to need a crafter to give you the best items. You're going to need PvPers to secure cities and castles. You're gonna need PvErs to take down those world bosses for those materials to craft. – Steven Sharif

Ashes is a comprehensive game. It is not a PvP focused or a PvE focused, it is a comprehensive PvX game and as a result these systems are all interconnected and have to coexist with one another with certain types of mechanisms that can provide that give and take, that push and shove. – Steven Sharif

Ashes of Creation is a PvX game. Players will naturally encounter both PvP and PvE elements. It is unlikely that a player could purely focus on just PvP or just PvE.

• There is a balance between PvP and PvE in Ashes of Creation. Around 80% of the content is open-world, where healthy competition is an instigator for player friction; for potential cooperation; for the ability to yield alliances; and the political theater that comes with it. This is an intended part of the PvX design of Ashes of Creation.

• All stats relate to a player's combat effectiveness in PvX.

• There won't be separate PvE and PvP servers but some servers may be more PvP focused than others.

• There will not be different PvP and PvE gear types.

• Progression in the game might require PvE elements.

We're very clear with our objective and philosophy on the game and we understand that they may not appeal to everybody. But you know it is an important reciprocal relationship between the content that's related to PvE and the content that's related to PvP and they feed off of each other. They're catalysts for change: Their progression, their development. It's things that people can value when they see something earned and they see something lost. That elicits an emotional response from the player: That they've invested time in to either succeed or fail; and PvP allows for that element to be introduced into gameplay. And we're very clear that is our objective: That risk versus reward relationship, that achievement-based mentality. Not everybody's going to be a winner and that's okay. – Steven Sharif

Loot tables

Alpha-2 Looting UI.

Loot tables (drop tables) of world bosses or dungeon bosses have a small RNG chance of dropping gear (completed items). Monsters drop hunting certificates, Items and crafting materials rather than gold.

• There is a much higher chance that materials and unique recipes are dropped that can be used to craft items of equitable value.
• There is a small RNG chance of looting rare and legendary items or crafting materials from mobs based on the level, status and type of mob. This also applies to harvesting resources with a gathering profession.
• Crafted gear is the best gear in Ashes of Creation.
• Legendary equipment is only dropped by Legendary world bosses.
• Stats on dropped items will vary based on the rarity of the item.
• Loot tables are disabled for player controlled monsters.
• Experience debt decreases the drop rate percentages from monsters.
• Loot tables will likely not be affected by weather conditions. This was previously listed as a possible effect.

Hunting certificates

Hunting certificates is a term that covers items, such as Pelts that house the value of a mob's death. These certificates are specific to an economic region. These are intended as an alternative mechanic to acquire gold.

A wolf is not going to be carrying a sack of gold. It may instead drop "pelts" that can be traded for gold.

• Hunting certificates will also drop on a character's death.
• Hunting certificates can be traded with hunter NPCs within nodes.
  • The level of the node and the distance of the node from the drop will determine the value of the certificate. Certificates redeemed from distant economic regions via the caravan system will provide higher returns (4 to 5 times greater in some cases) than certificates collected from the same region.
  • The value of the certificates are also calculated (by the world manager algorithm) based on the volume of certificates being redeemed in each region.
• Hunting certificates may also be used to pay housing taxes and citizen dues.
• Hunting certificates can also be stored within node warehouses.
• Hunting certificates are not intended as crafting materials.

Players drop hunting certificates and other items upon death, based on their applicable death penalties.

Player flagging

The open world PvP flagging system is designed to deter people from griefing other players without limiting opportunities for open conflict.

We do incentivize players to fight back, or to participate in PvP through the flagging system, but not to PK. Not to go corrupt. – Steven Sharif

• Players can participate in open world PvP with one another without having to resort to murder.
  • Players will gank other players, but the intention is for Ashes of Creation to not be a "gank box".
• The penalties are intended to be severe enough to deter any type of spawn camping.
• Summons follow the same PvP flagging rules as players and share the player's flag status.

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

• Non-combatant (green)
  • All players start as non-combatants.
  • Non-forced attacks, including AoE and status effects, will not hit non-combatant players.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • Non-combatants will not be flagged for looting bodies.
  • Players will be able to opt-in (via a checkbox) to allow their beneficial spells, or non-beneficial AoEs to hit combatants.

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. – 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.
    • This also applies to attacks made by combat pets, summons, or any other player-controlled entities.
  • 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.
  • Non-combatants who heal, buff, or otherwise (positively) interact with combatants or corrupted players will be flagged as combatants.
  • Players can kill combatants without repercussions, and are encouraged to do so, since dying while a combatant has reduced death penalties.
  • Players are not able to manually set their flagging status to combatant.
  • Players remain flagged for a period of 90 seconds following their most recent attack on a non-combatant or another combatant.
  • Players cannot log out while flagged as combatants.

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. – 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.
    • Corruption gained for killing controlled entities is a lower value than killing the players.
  • A character's PK value increases with each non-combatant player killed over the lifetime of that character.
  • The wider the level disparity between the players, and the higher the attacker's PK value, the more corruption score they gain.
  • A character's corruption score multiplies their death penalties and reveals a their location to bounty hunters.
  • If a non-combatant attacks a corrupt player, the non-combatant will not flag as a combatant.
  • Corrupted players may kill bounty hunters without acquiring additional corruption score.
  • There is a 60 second timer to logout while corrupt. Force-disconnecting the client during the cooldown will leave the character in-game.

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. – Steven Sharif

• Objective-based PvP events do not use the flagging system.
  • A player may not flag on members of the same party, raid, guild or alliance.

Player corruption

Corrupted player in the Alpha-1 preview.

When you gain that corruption you have the potential of losing your completed items, your weapon, your armor, stuff that is very difficult to achieve; and then the other aspect of that is, that in order to deter basically players taking alternate characters and saying this is my PK alt, the more players you kill, the more corruption you gain, the higher your combat efficacy in PVP diminishes. If you're out there and you killed you know 20 players... you will not be able to perform in PVP any longer. You will need to take that character and go work off that corruption. The other aspect of corruption is that if you kill another player, who is a non-combatant and the level disparity between you and that player is great, you will gain a higher amount of corruption from that single kill. To the point where you should not be killing a level one character. – Steven Sharif

If a combatant (purple) character, or their summon, kills a non-combatant (green) character, or any of their controlled entities, in Open-world PvP, they will be flagged as corrupted (red). Corruption gained for killing controlled entities is a lower value than killing players.

There is no incentive to go corrupt... There's zero incentive for a player to go red. It actually gives you negatives for doing that- very significant downsides. – Steven Sharif

• The goal of the corruption system is to keep risk alive while significantly curtailing or deterring the ability for players to grief other players.

It is my expectation that the system will perform very well in keeping risk alive, but significantly curtailing or deterring the ability for players to grief. – Steven Sharif

• A player's corruption score (corruption value) increases with each non-combatant player killed. Corruption score has a scaling impact on the efficacy of a character's skills in PvP combat. The higher the corruption score:
  • The more skill and stat dampening applies (lower health and mana, lower gear proficiency), until the corrupt player ultimately becomes ineffective at combat. This dampening only affects PvP combat.

  The more corruption you gain, the less effective you become in PvP and there's going to be a certain period at which point you have gained enough corruption that you're going to be gearless and you're also going to have a massive reduction in your PvP efficacy. – Steven Sharif

  • The higher chance of dropping of carried raw materials and gear (Weapons and Armor) when the corrupted player dies.

  If you go on a murder spree and you have 10 pks under your belt then you might start feeling a significant dampening to your skill effects against other players. I don't want to give necessarily a number or curve for players to extrapolate prior to us having the ability to actually test these ideas and where those numbers are going to lie; but I would say what is the intent behind that dampening: The intent isn't to limit the fun of the player, the intent is to provide a give-and-take or a risk-versus-reward; and the risk of continuing down the road of accruing corruption is not only the loss of your gear and amplified death effects but also your ability to perform in that activity. – Steven Sharif

  • Corruption penalties occur as the corruption is gained.

Reward without risk is meaningless... Corruption is just another word for risk. – Steven Sharif

• The wider the level disparity between the players, and the higher the attacker's PK value, the more corruption they gain.

Corruption value from PK'ing a non-combatant is based on level disparity along with the PKer's cumulative PK value. – Steven Sharif

• Corrupt players suffer death penalties at four times the rate of a non-combatant.

You can't necessarily time perfectly the damage or understand even the health of the player. Unless you were in their party you cannot see an opponent's health as well, so that's another component that adds risk.. – Steven Sharif

• Corrupted players can be attacked regardless of other affiliations. This is something that will be tested during Alpha-2.
  • If a non-combatant attacks a corrupt player, the non-combatant will not flag as a combatant.
  • Non-combatants who heal, buff, or otherwise assist combatants or corrupted players will be flagged as combatants.

• A corrupt player’s location is revealed to bounty hunters on their world map.

• Corrupted players may kill bounty hunters without acquiring additional corruption score.
  • Corrupted player's combat penalties do not apply when battling bounty hunters.

• Player to player trading, interacting with vendors or NPCs, and the ability to access storage is disabled for corrupted players.
  • Previously it was stated that corrupted players could not store items in public warehouses but could utilize private storage within their freehold.
  • Corrupted players will still be able to enter and leave their freehold buildings but may not deposit or withdraw items from storage.

• There is a 60 second timer to logout while corrupt. Force-disconnecting the client during the cooldown will leave the character in-game.

Q: Will there be any large-scale consequences when many players in a group guild region religion etc become corrupted frequently or for an extended period of time?

A: There are not group dynamics or mechanics that revolve around mass murdering people in the world. The corruption system is intended to deter mass murdering, not to provide incentives by which players can go out and gain corruption. – Steven Sharif

Q: If my guild has no one corrupted and your guild is like always killing people and always corrupted, will your guild have repercussions because they're corrupted versus my guild?

A: No I don't think so either. And the reason why is we want to deter it, but we don't want to make the system meaningless; and if the deterrent becomes too heavy-handed then it's a system without a purpose. And I think that the intent behind the corruption is that like during a rise in passion and like anger and whatever you want to make this decision and do something and you'll suffer the repercussions later. But if those repercussions are just overwhelmingly bad and even anti-social in the sense that like your guild is like hey man you went corrupted and this gives us like corruption points on the guild, and like you're out of here, then people just aren't going to choose to use it; and then at which point might as well just take it out. So I think there's a healthy balance between the type of deterrent used. – Steven Sharif

• Players do not lose gold upon death, no matter their corruption level.
• Player corruption is different to the corruption found in corrupted areas.

Some of the following information has not been recently confirmed by the developers and may not be on the current development roadmap.

• Corruption has a visible effect on a player’s appearance.

Removing corruption

Cemetery concept art by Tad Ehrlich.

The primary means to remove corruption is through death. Multiple deaths may be necessary to remove all corruption.

• Dying removes a significant portion of a player's corruption score.
• Gaining experience will also slowly reduce a player's corruption score.

  Any experience that's gained by the player, whether it be through achievements in crafting, or in adventuring, or through other types of achievements: All of that experience goes towards your adventuring class experience gained; and then some experience can dual purpose towards professions as well. So if I reach an achievement in my crafting profession and that grants me additional experience within that profession to rank up, it will also grant the same amount of experience over in my adventuring level; and to that point, anytime you gain adventuring experience you tick away at the corruption. – Steven Sharif

• A quest may be utilized to reduce the player kill (PK) count of a corrupt player in order for them to accumulate less corruption score in the future.
  • This is a design shift from a religious quest being used to directly reduce the corruption score.

Some of the following information has not been recently confirmed by the developers and may not be on the current development roadmap.

• Corruption duration is reduced in military nodes.

Player death

Player death in an open world dungeon in Alpha-1.

We don't have deleveling, instead what we have is experience debt. Now the more experience debt you accrue, the greater the detriment to your character; not to the point where you can not get out of the debt. There will always be a way forward to remove your debt. – Steven Sharif

When a player dies they disintegrate into ash. The ashes contain any items lost by the player due to applicable death penalties. These ash piles are immediately lootable by any player. Player flagging is not triggered by looting.

• A non-combatant (green player) who dies suffers normal penalties, which include:
  • Experience debt (negative experience).
    • Skill and stat dampening.
    • Lower health and mana.
    • Lower gear proficiency.
    • Reduction in drop rates from monsters.
  • Durability loss.

  When players die and they take durability loss, our durability loss isn't like other games where it's a gold sink so to speak. It's a combination of both a gold sink and a material sink. So in a sense, even if you only have completed items, when you take that durability loss you are losing out on materials. It's just a debt to the materials that you are losing instead of the active loss of that material in your inventory. So now you are accruing a material debt if you want to repair and increase again the performance of those particular items that take that durability loss. – Steven Sharif

  • Dropping a percentage of carried gatherables and materials that are used in the generation of something else.
    • Items made for final consumption are not dropped, such as consumable items created by the Cooking and Alchemy professions.
    • A percentage of the certificates a player is carrying are also dropped.
    • If a player dies there will be a period of time before their mule despawns. Other players must kill that player's mule to be able to loot it.
    • If a player's mule dies its corpse will contain the same percentage of lootable items as the player.

• A combatant (purple player) who dies suffers these same penalties, but at half the rate of a non-combatant.
• A corrupt (red player) suffers penalties at four times the rate of a non-combatant, and has a chance to drop any equipped items based on their current corruption score. This includes:
  • Dropping weapons and gear.

  Any amount of corruption allows a player to drop equipped gear upon death. The higher the corruption the greater the chances. – Steven Sharif

  • These dropped items may be looted by other players.
  • Corrupt players respawn at random locations in the vicinity of their death, not at regular spawn points.
    • Non-corrupt players always respawn at the closest active respawn point (to their death).
  • Corruption penalties occur as the corruption is gained (not just at death).

• Experience debt will scale to approximately 2 or 3 percent of the total XP for a max level player. These numbers are subject to change based on testing.

• Death penalties (mostly) do not apply to objective-based PvP (also called sanctioned events).

  There will not be death penalties applied to event-based deaths. The penalties are in the outcome of the event. So your number of deaths is likely going to impact your ability to win that particular event and that's going to be the penalty. This is it to encourage players to opt in to the events right because the more participation we have the more fun it can be; and we understand that the community at large- there's already a risk versus reward component to these events. We don't need to stack on additional risk versus reward to inhibit kind of- to increase the barrier to entry for players who may not be as interested. – Steven Sharif

  • Gear degradation applies on death during Caravan PvP.

• Death penalties do not differ between PvP and PvE, but this is subject to change.

Death by falling is possible.

• Fall damage that occurs while mounted will be first applied to the mount; and if the mount dies as a result, then the remaining damage may overflow onto the player, but this will be determined based on testing.

Death by drowning is possible.

• Players that drown will respawn on shore.

If a player dies there will be a period of time before their mule despawns. Other players must kill that player's mule to be able to loot it.

• If a player's mule dies its corpse will contain the same percentage of lootable items as the player.

Players do not lose gold upon death, no matter their corruption level.

At the moment, the plan is for players to not lose gold upon death, no matter their corruption level. – Cody Peterson

Solo players

Alpha-2 solo PvE ranger combat.

Ashes of Creation provides gameplay options for solo oriented players.

For those solo players who don't really care about finding a community to play with but they want to have one when they need it, there's going to be a lot of opportunities from a dialogue perspective, in-game chat options; you can join as part of citizenships: there's a lot of pseudo factions there- social organizations that give you an in to other players without the strong bonds that typically come with guild-oriented organizations; and I think that that's a comfortable medium between the two. – Steven Sharif

• Certain quest lines and hunting grounds are devoted towards solo players.
• Node citizenship and social organizations provide the ability to interact without the strong bonds that typically come with guild-oriented organizations.
• Mechanics exist within larger conflicts for small groups and solo players to impact the battle.
  • This includes systems that will likely focus on single group sized participants while the larger battle is occurring.

See also

• Battlegrounds
• PvP
• Combat
• Player death