Divine gateways

Ashes of Creation community empowered Wiki
Revision as of 20:30, 1 January 2020 by Lex (talk | contribs) (Add section)

Jump to navigation Jump to search
Empyrean divine gateway concept art.

When you play the MMORPG you're going to be stepping through what are called these divine gateways from a planet called Sanctus and Sanctus was really a safe haven that was forethought by the Goddess of Fate and Creation as a sanctuary to provide the people of Verra who could survive the fall, the apocalypse, the exodus essentially.[1]Steven Sharif

Divine gateways are portals located in the ruined cities of the four ancient races of Verra.[2]

Where players start, they enter this portal from another world called Sanctus. Sanctus is a place of no magic, low technology; and players are the first expeditioners that are coming through this portal into the world of Verra.[9]Jeffrey Bard

Starting areas

Alpha-1 early preview starting area.[10]

There is no railroaded driven theme park experience here. You will have the opportunity to create your own destiny in that regard, which means you don't have to necessarily follow the quest line nor do you have to participate in events or experiences around the starting area. Now it may be more beneficial to do that; and in that regard I guess there could be a meta around doing that, but you could branch out proceed to other areas and do different content.[11]Steven Sharif

Starting areas (starting zones) are located in the ruined cities of the four ancient races of Verra.[2]

  • Starting areas are located near one of the four divine gateways where players spawn into the world.[2][12]
    • The Tulnar have a starting area without a divine gateway.[5][7] They have the same option of starting at any of the divine gateways as other races.[6]
    • Starting areas have some distance between them.[5]
  • Starting areas include expeditionary NPC settlements that serve as initial quest origination points.[12] Lore-wise, these settlements represent scouts that were sent ahead of the main expedition back to Verra.[14]
    • These settlements are designed to acclimatize new players entering the world.[14]
    • While it may be advantageous to do so, there is no requirement for players to play through any specific starter zone content.[11]

A problem that a lot of MMOs have is that those starting areas become just vacant of players and it's so sad because the greatest aspect of an MMO is that community that you get to experience, so one of the great things about the node system is that it really works from new player acquisition standpoint, where these nodes tend to develop larger near the starting location areas around the world; and it brings these players back to those locations if they're citizens and want services within those cities. So, as new players enter the world they're going to actually be surrounded most likely by more population because people are coming back to those larger nodes.[15]Steven Sharif

Tulnar starting area

Points of interest will exist that represent Tulnar npc structures. In the similar fashion that the starting areas around divine gateways will include expeditionary npc settlements not tied to the node structures but serve as initial quest origination points.[12]Steven Sharif

Tulnar have a starting area that does not involve a divine gateway.[5]

  • Points of interest exist that represent Tulnar NPC structures in a similar fashion to the starting areas around divine gateways.[12]
Tulnar have the same option of starting at any of the divine gateways. Their civilization, though within the underrealm, has also begun to explore the surface.[6]Steven Sharif

Unlike the other races, the Tulnar won’t be returning to Verra. Instead they will be returning to the surface from the Underrealm for the first time in generations.[16]

World map

Updated Ashes of Creation map.[17][18]

The new world map in all its 1,200 square kilometer glory. So you're gonna see some names here- a little bit of a reveal of some of these locations in these areas- and you're also of course seeing similar biomes that are present as well. But more importantly what you are seeing is the orientation of these continents and these islands that are facilitating specific types of inter-continental trade gameplay; and they support the relevance of these caravans moving across the land mass to locations that will now incorporate these harbor areas, which aren't identified on the map here... But the important part was providing a lot of coastal naval gameplay between these zones and trade routes between land base.[18]Steven Sharif

Alpha-2 work-in-progress map UI.[19]

The world of Verra features an in-game viewable world map. This map is not randomly generated, and begins covered in a fog of war.[20] Players will not be able to see the world until they have explored it or gathered information about it. The world is also full of imperfect information, which will require the player to act on it for verification.[21]

For example, you may hear a rumor in a tavern that tells you the location of a cave full of weak Kobolds, but this was not accurate as the rumor was started by well-equipped bandits in order to waylay overconfident adventurers.[21]
  • Not every server will share the same map, as player decisions will vary between servers.[27][28][23]
Even though we're an open-world that doesn't mean that from a design perspective, especially with the way our economic systems work, that we will want to create Geographic choke points.[30]Steven Sharif
info-orange.pngSome of the following information has not been recently confirmed by the developers and may not be on the current development roadmap.

Lore

Template:A great calamity

Read more...

Artwork

See also

References