Kickstarter

Ashes of Creation Kickstarter goals.^[1]

This project is primarily self funded, and we’re dedicated to staying true to our vision and not being compromised. The core product can be delivered with our current capital and the crowdfunding goal. Going forward, we are dedicated to keeping our vision consistent with our philosophies and adding features whenever possible.^[2]

Ashes of Creation Kickstarter packages.^[1]

Kickstarter packages:

Stretch goals

Parlor games

Parlor games are games that are played in player-built taverns or in-node taverns.^[3] They will vary based on the racial influences of a node. Some will be dice games, others will be card games; and some will be less savory.^[4]

These games will involve aspects of both chance and skill.^[4]
They must be played between 2 or more people.^[4]
Players will be able to wager in-game currency against other players.^[4]
A portion of the income from the game goes to the tavern owner or node.^[3]^[4]
Parlor games may reflect the predominant race of a node.^[5]

Parlor games were a Kickstarter stretch goal.^[6]

Cute small pets

Hydraswan pre-order pack cosmetic pet.

Cosmetic pets are available for purchase from the cosmetic store.^[7]

Cute small pets were a Kickstarter stretch goal.^[8]

Group mounts

Multi-passenger group mounts were unlocked during the Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign.^[9]^[10]

Backer only weapon skins

Kickstarter backers will receive a unique weapon skin.^[11]

Usable on all types of weapons.
Include subtle and tasteful glow/particle effects.

Enhanced naval combat

Snapchat Sneakpeak, 9 November 2017.^[12]

Naval content refers to content above and below the sea.^[13]

Naval content was unlocked as part of the $1,500,000 Kickstarter stretch goal.^[15]

Backer only armor skin

All Kickstarter backers receive a unique armor skin set.^[1]

The Underrealm

Alpha-0 Underrealm environment.^[16]

Underrealm Cat.^[16]

The Underrealm is a rich environment where bio-luminescence abounds in the fauna and flora that exist here. These deep caverns and underground valleys provide new destinations for civilization to develop. Bringing the node system into the depths of the world may awaken darker creatures than the surface.^[17]

The expansiveness of the Underrealm itself is quite large. It does persist across across a lot of the playable game area that's above ground. So there are alternatives in the Underrealm for passages and traversal throughout the world.^[18] – Steven Sharif

One of the aspects of the Lore behind the Tulnar was that in the pantheon of gods that exist- having foretold the future through the Goddess of Fate to the Goddess of Creation- these areas in the Underrealm were created in to allow for refuge for which the gods knew would be left behind that couldn't make it to Sanctus. So that was a pre-thought there in the creation of the Underrealm to facilitate that realm where refugees could seek.^[19] – Steven Sharif

We plan to have the Underrealm really pervasive throughout the game itself, a part of the open world. It will introduce some unique elements such as the type of monsters you see, the type of crops you can grow and houses you can have.^[20] – Steven Sharif

Backer only aquatic mount

Tidesnapper aquatic mount concept art.^[21]

Tidesnapper was a Kickstarter reward for passing 9,500 backers goal. The Tidesnapper is an underwater mount that has the ability to glide through the water.^[21]

Social organizations

Mage tower concept art by Jon Arellano.^[22]

Social organizations are ways for players to interact with the world around them in a different manner. They are about creating micro communities within the game.^[23]

The whole idea of these societies is that they are a mechanism for progression that do not have to rely on your level progression. These are different progression paths that players can participate in. If you don't want to leave a node in your gameplay experience and you want to find as much as you can do within that city, these offer those things. Now, some quests might take you outside of the city to you know hunt and pursue things, but you could also perfectly be a person that is a merchant and purchases them from other travelers instead of having to go do it yourself. We want to offer players a diverse method of progression; and these systems house those benefits.^[24] – Steven Sharif

Social organizations function a little bit like factions, but without flagging mechanics.^[25]

Sometimes two organization's goals might not align with each other and there'll be conflict there, but it's not going to be like everybody in the Traders Guild is at war with everybody in the Thieves Guild.^[25] – Jeffrey Bard

Social organizations are run by NPCs, however there will be ranks that certain members can attain that will grant some influence over the organization.^[26]

Backer only dye set

Dyes are normally one time use items that apply a cosmetic color change on certain items/gear.^[27]

The Kickstarter and Summer crowdfunding dyes are sets of unique colors that are not obtainable by players who did not participate in Crowdfunding. These dyes are not usable as normal dyes are. Instead they are used to override the color of another dye obtained in game.^[28]

They are assigned to a character from a user's account management page.
They do not expire, so they may be used to continually override dye colors.
Once a dye has been overridden it becomes a bound dye to that character, so the colors cannot be sold for in-game benefit.
When an item is sold or transferred, color changes are reverted.

New Underrealm race

Underrealm concept art.^[17]

Tulnar is a playable race in Ashes of Creation.^[29]^[30] The Tulnar fled to the Underrealm to escape the Corruption that befell Verra.^[31]

The Tulnar is a combination of four different races that were left behind on Verra.^[32]^[30]
- This was previously stated to be three different races.^[33]
Tulnar stands for "the forgotten".^[30]
Tulnar are not restricted to the Underrealm (there are no factions).^[34]

The Tulnar society has more of a caste like system, where based on what physical features you show, based on where your ancestry and lineage lie between the races that came together to make the Tulnar, kind of determines your order in that caste system to a degree. So when players get to create their characters and determine whether they are going to have heavy influences of reptilian, mammalian, humanoid; that's going to kind of determine their reception from NPCs as well when they interact with those Tulnar PCs.^[35] – Steven Sharif

The Tulnar race will be in place before Alpha-2. Concepts and early works are expected at that time.^[36]

Backer only mount barding

Mount barding cosmetic reward for backing at the Leader of Men level.^[37]

Mount barding is a cosmetic for mounts in Ashes of Creation.^[38]

Backer only skill FX

All Kickstarter backers will receive a skill effects (FX) set.^[39]

Includes unique colors and additional effects for certain skills. For example: A mage with her fireball skill may fire off a ball of searing white flames as opposed to the traditional colors of that skill.

Stock exchange

As nodes develop, player governments may open a Stock exchange (also called Stock markets and Sharemarkets) where players can buy and sell shares in Nodes, Guilds and Social organizations.^[40]^[41]

The value of stocks is influenced by world events and the performance of nodes, Social organizations or guilds.^[42]
- Hard metrics, such as quest lines, nearby resources, citizen progression, and purchases of local real estate, will determine the value of purchasable shares.^[41]

Sieges will halt trading of shares in a node. This opens up potential for economic sabotage.^[40]

There is no regulatory commission to restrict the purchase and sale of stocks.^[42]

Crowdfunding guild rewards

Guild themed character cloaks were cosmetic rewards for backing at the Leader of Men level or higher in the Kickstarter and Summer crowdfunding campaigns.^[43]

Kickstarter/Summer crowdfunding guild rewards^[44] are assigned to a guild by the owner of the reward.^[45]

Once assigned, the reward becomes an asset of that guild.
Guild members that leave the guild no longer have access to the unique items of that guild.

Crowdfunding mounts

Kickstarter/Summer crowdfunding mount rewards are obtained and utilized by applicable backers in the following way:^[46]

Basic mounts are obtained through an early quest that is available to all players in starting areas.
Players assign cosmetic skins to a character on their account from the account management page.
The skin can then be applied the appearance of the mount that was earned in game.
- This does not remove the skin itself. It can be applied again to any other applicable mount in the future.
- Players may remove the skin from a character and assign it to another character on their account.
- Skins can only ever be active on one character and one mount.

The Dawnbreaker mount skin is used in a similar fashion as described, but is only applicable to a certain class of mounts. Aquatic mount skins, like the Tidesnapper, are also used in a similar fashion, but are only applicable to the aquatic class of mounts.^[46]

Ashes of Creation Apocalypse cosmetic rewards

Progression and experience tracking for participation in Ashes of Creation Apocalypse testing will entitle players to achieve unique cosmetic rewards. These earned rewards will carry over in player's accounts to live launch.^[47]^[48]

One of the ways we want to give back to the Community in participating in this testing is allowing for progress, quests, achievements rewards to be gained in Apocalypse... You will have rewards and quests and achievements that you and your participation and your performance in that game, whether it be the Castle Siege, the Horde Mode or the Battle Royale will earn you cosmetics. There will be costumes. There will be mounts to earn. There will be housing and furniture. There will be emotes. There will be weapon variants. A lot of these are what we have in production for our project Ashes of Creation, we apply some variants and skins for and make them only available through participating in helping us test these different game modes. And they will carry over to your account on the MMORPG.^[47] – Steven Sharif

The account used for Apocalypse is the same account used for the MMORPG. Unique skins earned in Apocalypse will be added to the MMORPG as rewards for helping to prepare for the Alpha and Beta stages of Ashes of Creation.^[52]

Cosmetic skins are only be able to be applied to things that have already been earned, crafted or found within the Ashes of Creation MMORPG.^[53]
Skins earned in Apocalypse will be available to apply at certain tiers, levels and/or access points within the MMORPG.^[53]

So it's not that you'll be able to equip necessarily an item at level one. These are all cosmetic skins. Again we are not about the pay-to-win or pay-to-convenience life. What we want to do instead is as you earn, craft, or find equipment in the MMORPG, these skins that you've earned in Apocalypse will be available at certain tiers, levels and/or access points. So for example, we have different grades of mounts right. We have the base one land mounts. We have the the Royal mounts. We have the flying mounts if you're a mayor or King or Queen. We have legendary mounts. These classes of mounts will have available skins associated with those particular classes... If you have the Ramstider skin that you've earned from Apocalypse, you'll be able to apply that to your first land mount, which will probably be earned within the first five levels you'll earn a land mount. However if you have let's say for example the Griffin, which will be a glideable mount. I'm sorry what's the name of the what's the name of the night one. The midnight- is the midnight bird or something like? The Night Hunter. I think that's it. If you have that skin you'll only be able to apply that skin to a Royal mount so you'll still have to earn these things. Remember our position is that of: You need to earn these things in Ashes first. They're not purchasable or earned outside in Apocalypse and you're granted that immediately. These are skins that you apply to the things you earn in Ashes.^[53] – Steven Sharif

These cosmetics reflect the lore of Ashes of Creation Apocalypse, which is set before the fall.^[48]

Armor appearances will reflect the ancient cultures of Verra.^[48]

One thing that we announced to our alpha one backers that I know they love clarity on is that we'll also be including progression and experience tracking for participation and testing that will entitle them to some unique cosmetics as well that reflect on the lore of this setting, which is before the fall. So you'll be able to acquire some armors that reflect some of the ancient cultures of Verra that you will earn and hold for live launch.^[48] – Steven Sharif