Naval NPCs

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Naval NPCs exist in and around the oceans.[1]

There's an NPC structure that exists out in the oceans. These take the form of sailing NPCs, fortresses, whether that be large frigate or galleon based ships, and they take the form of raid bosses. They take the form of general sea-based NPCs. There's treasures that you can find on land and explore out at sea, as obviously one of the missions is why you would be going out to sea. There's escort missions that you can participate in... Some of those are straightforward and interact but with an NPC to receive a quest for; and some of those have to be discovered at sea. So these are all things that are make that type of area in an MMO exciting. You don't just want to have water for water's sake. You want to have water because it's a different experience from a content perspective than what's on land; and in order to be a different experience you have to have that content.[1]Steven Sharif

Coastal nodes

Pre-alpha naval concept.[2]

There will be healthy amounts of sea content within the coastlines of the continents that does not fall into the "open sea" area.[3]Steven Sharif

There will be nodes along the coast and on islands.[4]

  • These nodes will have specific water oriented influences, services, and questlines, that relate to the seas.[4]
    • There is a healthy amount of sea content within the coastlines of the continents that does not fall into the open sea area.[3]
  • Coastal nodes change the spawn tables of the nearby water content and can also trigger specific events.[5]
We've gone back and forth a little bit on whether or not the design intent for sieging of nodes is intended to include, for certain nodes, the naval component. The concern there was that it would be a difficult thing to balance around that particular node having accessibility from the water for those types of defenses. So what we've presented as an opportunity where harbors are the focal point of those naval interactions; and during sieges you are aware that nodes have certain objectives, which have ramifications and can influence the outcome and/or the ongoings of a particular against a node. And if one of those objectives is a naval objective, because that node might own a harbor, which is a point of interest that gets adopted by a node which advances far enough around it. So you might have one harbor and five nodes that can own that harbor. And the first to hit the village stage adopts the harbor. Then that can become an objective point during a siege that has naval interaction. So that's the direction we've moved towards, rather than allowing the naval component to interact directly with sieging the node itself as opposed to being a part of the objective-based gameplay that exists for a node siege.[6]Steven Sharif

Harbors

Alpha-1 harbor early preview concept.[11]

Harbors that are located in specific areas around the world along the coast and those are points of interest that get adopted by a node when they reach certain levels in proximity to that harbor, or if the node gets vasseled by a parent or sovereign node in relationship to their vassal owning that harbor.[12]Steven Sharif

Harbors are points of interest that appear in proximity to coastal nodes.[6][13][14] Harbors have a significant amount of influence over the waters.[1]

  • Harbors have a disembarkation zone that merchant ships can cross to be guided into the harbor.[12]
    • Merchant ships can only be launched and received at harbors in a similar way that land caravans can only be launched and received at a caravansary.[12]

Raft caravans

Alpha-2 raft caravan in the Riverlands biome.[17]

Caravans are capable of transitioning from land to raft caravans. So if you start out as a land-based Caravan and you move to the coast and you want to move into the water there's gonna be a little transition period there; it's gonna be a little construction site: You're not gonna have to do anything it's just gonna be a timer right so that you can't quickly move between land and water. It's gonna be probably in the matter of a minute to two minutes. There's a little bit of vulnerability in that regard.[18]Steven Sharif

Raft caravans (also referred to as Naval caravans) allow the transportation of cargo over the water.[19][20][21][22]

Naval content

Naval content refers to content above and below the sea.[1][9]

Enhanced naval content was unlocked as part of the $1,500,000 Kickstarter stretch goal.[10]

There will not initially be naval content (such as a Dark Lake) in the Underrealm, but this may be something that gets added in future expansions.[29]

There won't be class abilities that are specific to naval content, but some utility skills (such as underwater breathing) may be of some benefit.[30]

See also

References