Climate

Alpha-2 dynamic weather change caused by the Beneath the Stone Shadows event.

Since you instigated this event, which changed the weather, that will also now influence spawns nearby. You could potentially be spawning- well you are spawning side quests that relate to the rain, changes in enemies that relate to the rain, and that's driven on player action. So it is like a feedback loop. – Skott B

Some environments (Biomes) have fixed climates and others are variable. Dynamic weather of varying intensity can triggered by certain events.

During those weather events, the area of effect that the event is occurring in will likely have its climate descriptor overridden by whatever the event is specifically. So tornadoes might be windy, blizzards might be cold. And if an arctic dragon comes into a temperate climate it brings the cold weather with it; and that can be interacting with skills and abilities or other functions like farms. – Steven Sharif

• Certain abilities and also professions (such as Farming) may be enhanced or hindered during certain climates and seasonal weather events. For example: lightning might be stronger in the rain.

There are climate effects that occur from a buff standpoint. They can also affect skills like, let's say you're using a frost bolt in a winter climate. There's the ability for those effects to be enhanced and/or stronger in those climates. – Steven Sharif

• Weather conditions affect mob spawning, side quests, gatherables, vehicles, mounts, ships, resistances, targeting, and boss mechanics.
  • Access to dungeons and raids may also be hindered or blocked by changes in climate.
  • It was later stated that loot tables will likely not be affected by weather conditions.

They affect crops and gatherables, vehicles, and mounts, ships, creatures; and loot tables change: their behaviors might change. Resistances and weaknesses or synergies might be relevant in certain seasons or weather systems. Targeting might change the AoE radius might grow for a fire effect if you're in the middle of summer, or it might shrink if you're in the middle of a storm. – Steven Sharif

• Some weather conditions can be hazardous to mobs and players.

Weather events and encounters themselves can include hazards that can appear and shake things up. They can also help too, if you can kite enemies into the lightning strikes or whatever. – Skott B

Seasons

Ashes of Creation Seasons in the Riverlands.

Part of the triggers that can create seasonal change is not just time related for each of our biomes, but they are also indicated by events that occur on the server. Whether that be certain raid bosses forming, or a relic being acquired by a particular node and being activated to change potentially the weather out of a winter state into a spring state: and the reason why a node might have interest in doing that of course is because weather and the seasons also affect skills and abilities. – Steven Sharif

Seasonal change teaser.

Seasons affect different zones (environments/biomes) based on their location in the world.

• A majority of environments will experience either two or four seasons, excluding corrupted areas, which is considered a "season" itself.
• Some biomes will have seasons that are less (or more) temperate. For example: Northern, Southern and Tropical regions. Other biomes will have fixed climates.
  • Biomes that are affected by seasonal cycles may experience drastic visual differences between seasons.
• Events may radically change the current season a zone is in, or elongate it. This includes weather changes.
• There will also be magical seasons where you might be in a tropical zone and suddenly it's snowing.
• Items, crop cycles, buildings, and crafting mechanics might gain certain buffs or debuffs in certain seasons.
• Ocean and underwater areas will not have seasonal changes.

Winter might have a spawner that activates on a road that spawns at large fallen tree and players who see that will have an opportunity to go up and exert some type of one-time action that helps in removing that tree and it might require X number of people to do that before the tree gets removed; and that as an example is not beneficial for the transit of goods because as caravans require- well they don't require but they move better on roads and if that tree were present let's say blocking a road that led to a bridge per-se that they would have to off-road. – Steven Sharif

• Different seasons may affect access to various roads.
  • Pathways that are open during summer may be closed during winter.
  • Seasonal affects may cause obstacles or blockages to the transit of goods via caravan.
  • Water turning to ice in winter, enabling players to walk over the water but blocking access to what is underneath.
    • Ice will make roads bumpy and slippery.
  • Seasonal flooding is something the developers are talking about internally, but will not be present in Alpha-2.

Elements

There are elements (such as Air, Earth, Fire, Water, Electrical) in Ashes of Creation each with their own resistances.

• Other elemental influences may include Darkness, Light and Planar. The Air Strike ability has a nature based root.

• The Mage archetype offers four elemental schools as augments to a character's primary skills.

• Elements may have more influence in certain seasons and weather conditions. For example, frost abilities may be stronger in winter and lightning might be stronger in the rain. This affects both PvE and PvP.

• There may be ley lines and strong magical places in the world that change or alter the way spells work.

We've discussed a little bit about how the seasons and biomes will react with different types of skills. Like if you have a fireball and it's summer it might be a little bit different. If it's winter and you have a frost ability it might be different. – Steven Sharif

Elemental skills

The idea behind magic is you're manipulating the elements. They don't just have to be fire, ice, water and air. They can be darkness, they can be light, they can be planar; a lot of different types of "elemental influences". – Steven Sharif

Skill	Icon	Origin	Description
Ball Lightning		Mage	Creates a large ball of highly charged electricity that travels slowly forward, dealing rapid periodic lightning damage to enemies it overlaps with and applying 1 Electrified stack to targets with each hit.
Blizzard		Mage	Channel a massive blizzard around you, raining a barrage of hail shards upon your enemies while channeling. Each shard impact deals ice damage in a small area around it. All enemies in the blizzard also acquire 1 stack of Chilled periodically. Activate the ability again to end the channel early.
Chain Lightning		Mage	Release a powerful streak of lightning that hits your primary target and then chains outward to all nearby enemies from that target, dealing lightning damage and applying 3 stacks of Electrified to each target hit.
Cone of Cold		Mage	Blasts a cone of cold in front of the caster, dealing ice damage and applying 1 stack of Chilled to each enemy hit.
Elemental Empowerment		Mage	Whenever you cast an elemental spell, your weapon attacks deal additional damage of that spell's element and apply a stack of the corresponding elemental status effects to targets hit. Casting a spell of a different element switches this effect to the new element.
Fireball		Mage	Instantly hurl a ball of fire toward your target, dealing fire damage and applying 1 stack of Burning to target on impact. Burning deals periodic fire damage over time for each stack applied. When the target reaches 5 stacks, they become Conflagrated, dealing extreme fire damage over time. Hitting a conflagrating enemy with a lightning spell causes Fusion, dealing significant damage and removing the Conflagrated effect.
Fissure		Mage	Call forth a line of jagged earth spikes in front of the[sic] you, dealing earth damage and applying 10 stacks of Stagger to each enemy hit along its path while launching them upwards.
Frostbolt		Mage	Launch a bolt of frost towards your target, dealing ice damage and applying 2 Chilled stacks to the target on impact. Chilled reduces movement speed of the target for each stack applied. When the target reaches 5 stacks, they become Frozen, rooting them in place for the duration. Hitting a frozen enemy with a lightning spell causes them to Shatter, dealing significant damage and removing the Frozen effect.
Lightning Strike		Mage	Held ability: Charge up a bolt of lightning to unleash upon your target, dealing lightning damage and applying 2 stacks of Electrified to the target. This deals additional damage based on how long it was charged. Electrified reduces the target's magical mitigation for each stack applied. When the target reaches 10 stacks, all Electrified stacks are consumed and they become temporarily Shocked. Whenever a Shocked enemy takes damage, they take additional damage and 1 stack of Shocked is consumed. Shocked is initially applied with 20 stacks.
Magma Field		Mage	Erupts the earth at target location, forming a boiling pool of lava that deals fire damage to enemies per tick while periodically applying a stack of Burning to enemies within the area.
Meteor		Mage	Conjures a massive flaming rock before sending it hurling toward target location. Upon impact, it deals major fire damage while knocking foes flying, and then continues to roll forward for its remaining distance, dealing additional fire damage while applying stacks of Burning to enemies along its path.
Quake		Mage	Held ability: Cast a powerful earthquake that deals more damage the longer it was charged and applies 10 stacks of Staggered to all enemies around the caster. If the spell was fully charged, this applies Tripped instead of Staggered.
Thundering Shot		Ranger	Fires a lightning-infused projectile at your target, dealing 200% of your physical power as Lightning damage.

Darkness

Alpha-2 Winstead node at night.

You guys will probably notice that the nighttime is significantly darker than when you guys last saw our nighttime update. We saw feedback from the community that bringing in the field of vision through the lighting in the environment was something you guys wanted to see; and that's what we have adjusted a bit. – Steven Sharif

Darkness as an environmental obstacle is being considered as part of the game mechanics.

• The developers are requesting feedback on the intensity of illumination and darkness that will be present in Alpha-2.

In more survival oriented games you're expected to have really dark night times because you utilize instruments like torches and lights that can be present, but when you think about an MMORPG and you think about the types of player numbers and player count you're expected to have in certain locations and dungeons, you need to be able to accommodate those types of visibility lines and those mechanics around that large multiplayer environment. So when you guys are giving feedback think about whether or not you want the outside night time to really be very dark, or if you want that to be reserved for specific locations in game, like certain dungeons and towers where we can utilize mechanics like different types of lighting mechanisms in order to facilitate that more dark feel. – Steven Sharif

See also

• Environments