Resources

Gatherable mushrooms found in an underground cave.

We want our players to have a reason to explore the wilderness, to travel with purpose, and much of that will be driven by our resource system. Transporting these goods might just be more difficult than gathering them. Our regional market system allows players to participate in creating pocket economies that will reinforce the stability of goods in particular regions.

Gatherable resources (also known as raw materials and harvestables) occur in locations where you would expect them to be organically.

• Some resources will be one-time gatherables, others will exist as clusters that will last until the vein is depleted.

We really want resources to be persistent and non-renewable. If there’s a mithril vein, that mithril vein will be there until it runs out. The server will manage these amounts on its own, and will repopulate things where and when it desires. You might find another mithril vein in that location sometime later, or somewhere nearby, or maybe never again!

• Players drop resources and other items upon death, based on their applicable death penalties.

• Raw materials (gatherable resources) are not to be confused with crafting materials (processed goods).

Resource locations

Alpha-1 mine shaft.

Players will be able to move resources and set up shop in other areas to take advantage of the varied markets. With resources spawning dynamically, certain regions will naturally become important trading hubs for the transportation of goods throughout the world.

Verra's map will not be procedurally generated, but starting resource points may be different on each server.

• Some resources will be one-time gatherables that will randomly respawn at a different location once collected.
• Other resources will exist as a cluster (also called vein gatherables). These will last until the full resource is depleted.

  Like a large mine that's present and has a vein of mithril ore in it, or a herd of some type of animal that you can collect fur or wool from. – Steven Sharif

  • There will be moving resources such as herds of animals that are constantly moving around the world.
  • Once a resource is depleted from one location it may respawn in the same location or somewhere else, depending on the type of resource.
  • Resources respawn on a cooldown basis.

• Resources won't be locked to the node system.
• Some unique resources may be monsters in disguise or have monsters defending them.

Resource types

• Crops
• Fish
• Herbs
• Livestock
• Lumber
• Mushrooms
• Ore
• Resource locations

Resource quality

Flanggler (Flower angler or Mimic flower).

Resources will have differing tiers of quality for the same resource type. This is somewhat similar to Star Wars Galaxies.

• Gatherers who are more advanced in their artisan tree will unlock higher level harvesting tools that have a greater chance of collecting higher quality resources or proccing a greater quantity.

You will have an opportunity to proc certain qualities based on your progression in the Artisan tree. So if you are a gatherer; and as you advance in your gathering, you'll have a higher opportunity to collect better resources. – Steven Sharif

In Alpha-1 testing there are 4 tiers of gatherable resources across all gathering professions:^{[ citation needed ]}

• Tier 1 (Common)
• Tier 2 (Uncommon)
• Tier 3 (Rare)
• Tier 4 (Epic)

Artisan tools

Alpha-1 tongs "prop" used by Blacksmith NPCs.

Gathering requires the creation and use of harvesting tools that enable the gathering of resources.

• Progression in the gathering artisan class unlocks higher level harvesting tools that enable gathering of higher level resources.
  • A gatherer at maximum proficiency will unlock Master toolsets that will grant them access to the highest quality gatherables.
• Tools will have durability and tool lifespans.
  • The amount of usages of a gathering tool increases as the gatherer becomes more proficient in the gathering artisan tree.
  • Tools may become non-repairable, requiring re crafting.
• Artisans will not need to rely on other trees in order to make their tools.

Tools do advance within the artisan tree, so your ability to either gather, process or craft will require the equivalent tools necessary at that stage of crafting in order to accomplish the task at hand. So, you could not mine copper and mithril with the same tool. – Steven Sharif

Gathering tools for Mining, Herbalism, Lumberjacking, and Fishing are associated with a resource tier. For example: A tier 2 axe can gather tier 1 and 2 lumber and no higher.

Tool rarity	Resource tiers	Vendor price	Vendor location
Common	1	10g	Alpha-1 starting area
Uncommon	1 - 2	100g	Expedition (stage 1) nodes
Rare	1 - 3	500g	Encampment (stage 2) nodes
Epic	1 - 4	2000g	Village (stage 3) nodes

Processing requires blueprints for the construction of buildings that are needed to process resources.

• Crafting requires the acquisition of recipes in order to craft items.

Surveying and land management

Additional gameplay layers such as surveying and land management are being considered for gathering in Alpha-2.

Ideas like land management- and as you draw resources from your surrounding area- what type of effect does that have on the land; and then also how effectively can you draw those resources without having such a deleterious effect on the land, which might impact future resource gathering for some period of time: And it makes relevant the movement of these players who are collecting these goods from the environment, that they actually cannot always just do so in one particular area, as the land management begins to degrade. So it actually encourages movement across the world to discover new areas that might not be as perturbed as the ones you're coming from. It's a very interesting idea. It's something that we're going to be prototyping in Alpha 2 and getting feedback on and testing. – Steven Sharif

Seasonal resources

Seasons affect the crops (resources) available for planting as well as how crop rotation is managed.

Underrealm resources

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.

Loot tables

Alpha-1 dungeon concept by Michael Bacon.

Loot 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.
• 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.

World manager

The World manager is an algorithm in Ashes of Creation that controls dynamic world elements. It acts as both a throttle and an incentive system for various activities to ensure certain parameters are within acceptable thresholds.

• Prices of hunting certificates.
• A heatmap of experience being gained to apply to node advancement.
  • The territory expansion algorithm takes into account the nearest coast, neighboring nodes, and the heatmap of players in surrounding areas over the last weeks or month.
  • Due to the way the progression algorithm calculates territorial (ZOI) expansion during node advancement, there is a small possibility that two nodes of the same stage end up being close to each other.
• Transit of resources and goods between regions to drive quest rewards for nodes.

For example if you know iron is being used as a raw resource for a specific crafting path that might drive up the price of mithril or silver; and that will incentivize the market to course correct a little bit. The idea is to provide soft incentives that help to alleviate the demand and also to prop up the supply that might not be present from the economic systems. – Steven Sharif

Resource extractors

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

Resource extractors are potential constructions that can collect resources over time.

• Available to node citizens who own a freehold near a "resource center".
• Requires several people to construct.
• Moving resources from the extractor will likely require a caravan.

Timeline

Artisan classes (Gathering, Processing, Crafting) will come online fully in Alpha-2 and the Betas.

• Approximately 10 percent of the artisan system were online in Alpha-1.

Crafting honestly will not come online in any sense of its true form until Alpha-2. Alpha-1 has essentially what are intended to be the core gameplay loop of crafting, meaning the collection of materials, the translation of those materials into processed goods, and the use of those processed goods into item acquisition. That's the core gameplay loop that is currently present in Alpha-1. But those are mostly facilitated kind of piggy backing the merchant systems right now and not actually using the real crafting system; and that's because crafting hasn't been completed in a form that can be implemented in Alpha-1, but will be for Alpha-2. What's present in Alpha-1 doesn't even really scratch the surface for crafting. – Steven Sharif

See also

• Gathering
• Processing
• Materials
• Artisan classes