Nodes

This page is currently a draft.

Nodes are pre-set locations, wrapped in a zone of influence (ZOI).

Encompassing each server are carefully placed points of development called Nodes. Every node is given purview over a predefined zone of influence (ZOI).

Node advancement

Alpha-2 node leveling countdown.

Citizen and non-citizen player activity (questing, gathering, raiding, etc.) within a node's ZOI counts toward that particular node's advancement (progression) to a higher node stage.

The advancement of a node unlocks its unique content, which comes at the cost of locking out an increasing ring of neighboring nodes from progressing to the next stage.

• Nodes advance to the first stage quickly. This enables NPC services such as vending or banking items.
• The more advanced the node is, the larger its ZOI becomes.
• Less advanced nodes (referred to as vassal nodes) that fall within a more advanced node's ZOI can still gain XP, but must remain at a lower advancement stage than the dominant node.
  • The vassal system begins when a node hits Village (stage 3), but neighboring nodes starting from Expedition (stage 1) also block the growth of their immediate neighbors.
• Certain quests, such as story arcs, may not be able to be turned in after a node has advanced.
• 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.

The way that the algorithm expands the territories takes into account a few things: One it takes into account the coast like where's the closest coast. Two it takes into account the neighboring nodes so it can take over and essentially vassal state those nodes, but what's more important is essentially the initial population based on like how players choose their races. Because we have nine different races and four different starting points that branch out, each server's population density is going to dictate essentially the first few nodes that are highly populated and then that initial seed is what's going to determine the node structure as it moves inland into the into the world essentially; and based on the performance and successes of different sieges will determine which nodes that got locked out from the previous the initial advancements what nodes can now be available to advance further. So I really think that with so many variables that are present in the equation of how nodes advance and stay existing with the more variables you have, the higher likelihood there is for there to be a significant diversion in world progression. – Steven Sharif

Normally the algorithm that's applied to the node territorial expansion will prevent significant nodes from being in close proximity to each other... There could be a perfect storm where all of the algorithmic progression of territory leads to having these nodes very close to each other because there's certain requirements that should that need to be available to satisfy node vassal takeovers; and it's possible that two nodes would never take each other over as vassals and end up close together and spanning their territories in opposite directions: The Tale of Two Cities thing. – Steven Sharif

• A node does not receive XP from the nodes within its ZOI until these nodes have reached their cap.

• Citizens of one node can contribute to the advancement of other nodes.

• Node experience gain opportunities will be equitable across the four node types.
  • The exact percentage of advancement from obtaining items or killing monsters is not going to be explicitly known to avoid "gaming" the system.

Different people have different resources invested in nodes progressing and it would be a little "gamey" if you could know exactly what was necessary at that point because that would disincentivize people from participating. – Steven Sharif

Node advancement spawns a series of animations and visual effects (within the footprint of the node).

• Players within the node are teleported to a safe location, likely a respawn area near the node.
• Supplies will spawn around the node and system driven caravans are spawned to bring these supplies into the node. These caravans are not able to be attacked.
• NPCs will begin construction activities.
• Players outside the node will see the new facade of the node pop into existence as the node advances in stage.

The Development Area of a Node is where civilization will appear as the Node advances. As the Node Stage increases, different buildings, NPCs, and services will become available in the Development Area. The higher the Node Stage, the more complex and populated the Development Area becomes. Development Areas will also vary depending on the Node Type - Economic, Military, Scientific, or Divine. – Margaret Krohn

Node development

Racial architecture of the same Village (stage 3) node on different servers. Dünir Dwarven influence (top). Kaelar Human influence (bottom). Alpha-1 Non-NDA screenshot.

The layout and architecture within a Node’s development area are determined by influential race. For example, a stage 3 Node with the majority of player contribution being Py'rai would have a Py'rai village with Py'rai architecture. Most NPCs would be Py'rai elves, and offer questlines within the Py'rai narrative. – Margaret Krohn

Each player’s contributed experience is flagged with their character race and other identifiers. When a Node advances, the race with the highest experience contribution determines the Node’s style and culture. This style and culture change can happen at every Node Stage. For example, if a Node advances to Level 2 - Encampment Stage and 51% of all experience was earned by Ren’Kai players, the Node will be a Level 2 Ren’Kai Node. If that same Node advances to a Level 3 - Village Stage Node, but the Py'Rai contributed 62% of all the experience earned, then the Node will be a Level 3 Py'Rai Node. – Margaret Krohn

Node layout and style is determined by several factors:

The way that the node system is built is that they can exist across a spread of 18 biomes, but at the same time have to represent the cultural influence of these cultures that are intrinsically a part of a specific biome. – Steven Sharif

• Environment (biome) and location of the node.
  • Nodes will adjust the local topography to fit the aesthetic and mechanical requirements of the node.

Currently the way that the platform system is set up, is it's capable of adjusting the topography of the node's footprint, regardless of the surrounding terrain. So the reason for that is we want to have flexibility in the presentation of the node's layout and how it is essentially both from an aesthetic standpoint as well as a mechanical standpoint with node sieges- how it's constructed and that construction should have the ability to take on a variance of different types of topography. So it shouldn't be dependent on the surrounding area. Now that's not to say that the surrounding area isn't going to have some influence over. So for example... we're experimenting a little bit with the platform tech and putting up a node up against the side of a mountain or on the edge of a cliff or something that has a beautiful vista. Those are things that we're going to test out obviously as we continue to work on the node tool and how that platform system works, but the idea is to have the node independent of the surrounding terrain. – Steven Sharif

• Node type.

Some parts are determined by the area it's in. Some parts are determined by the type it is. Some parts are determined by the race it is; and then the rest of it is determined by the mayor. – Jeffrey Bard

• Race that contributed the highest percentage to the node's advancement will alter the racial appearance of its buildings, NPCs, and props.
  • Parent races do not combine their cultural influences. For example, Py'Rai and Empyrean count as different cultures. Their parent race, the Pyrian, no longer exists.
  • This style and culture change happens at every stage.
  • This applies to all nodes, including castle nodes.

All nodes, whether they're associated with a castle or associated with normal node structure, has cultural influences that replicate over to the buildings that are produced and the NPCs that are present. – Steven Sharif

• The rest is determined by the node's mayor.
  • It should be possible for a node to complete several building projects within a mayor's one month term in office.

Q: How long would you say it will take players on average to fill/build up a node completely from wilderness to metropolis?

A: It's one thing to get a node to a certain level: it's another thing to develop the node; and I can't really give you an on-average expectation, because there's a lot of variables at play. There's how many citizens does the node have attracted to it; what's the type of traffic that the node is attracting to it based on things like its tax rates, or the specialization that it chose to spec into, based on the building types it's chosen to build. All of those things are variables that can affect the quote-unquote "average build-out time" of a particular node. So it's difficult to give you an average when there's so many variables along those lines. But the idea is that if there is a particular project that players are interested in in developing based on the node stage, that they would have the ability to complete several of those projects as within a single term of a mayor; and a term of a mayor is one month. – Steven Sharif

Node government

Alpha-1 winner of Mayoral election.

There are a number of different seats that can exist within a node, and carry different responsibilities. – Steven Sharif

Positions within a node's government are attained through seasonal titles that grant special powers and benefits within the node.

There are other node-based positions. Most of them relate to social organizational structures like the temple and the social organization building that the node might construct. Those are ladder systems of achievement that players can work through on a seasonal basis to achieve the highest level of that for the particular node; and by doing so they will then have titles bestowed upon them, which grants certain types of powers and benefits. – Steven Sharif

• Mayors.
• Priests, bishops, or acolytes of temples.
• Social organization positions.
• Patron guild leaders.
• Chief bounty hunter.

Node housing

Purchasing in-node housing in an Alpha-1 village node.

Static housing provides non-instanced player accommodation within a node, also known as in-node housing.

• Players are able to purchase small one room houses (cottages) starting at the Village (stage 3).
  • There will be 8 cottages available for purchase at the village stage.
  • The amount of static housing increases as a normal part of node advancement.
• The architecture of static housing is predetermined by the racial influence of the node's layout and style.
• Taverns and Player shops are not tied to in-node housing.

Node apartments

Apartments provide instanced player housing functionality on a rental basis.

• Village (stage 3) apartment buildings offer 50 rental apartments. Additional apartments can be added at Town (stage 4) if the mayor chooses to construct them and if there is an available plot for the expansion. This includes different types of apartments, such as penthouses.
• The number and sizes of available apartments increases as a normal part of node advancement.
• It is estimated that the number of apartments available in a Metropolis (stage 6) node will be in the hundreds, if that node specs into all apartment expansion upgrades. This number is subject to change based on testing.
• Prices for apartments will fluctuate depending on the number of units already sold in the node.
• Different price points offer different apartment sizes and types, such as penthouses.
• It was previously stated that apartments would be available at Town (stage 4) or above.

The mayor may additionally construct apartment buildings when the node hits stage 4 at one of the building plots in the node, along with cities gaining additional static housing and apartments by default as a normal part of the leveling process. – Steven Sharif

Freeholds

Freehold in Alpha-1.

Three main purposes that freeholds provide are allowing players an opportunity to express themselves in a highly customizable fashion. So these are plots of lands that you have access to. You can build different types of buildings on. You can create housing and place furniture; and you can grow livestock and you can just own this piece of land. And one unique thing about allowing the players express themselves through this manner in Ashes of Creation is that it's in the open-world, so it's not an instance or a phase location that you are customizing. You're actually leaving a mark on the world that's representative of you as a player, as a character. Something you can you can roleplay. But importantly enough, when it comes to the economy, freeholds also provide the highest level of processing that's available; and processing is one of three primary branches that exist within the artisanship system. Processing is the intermediary step between what you gather in the wild and what you eventually craft via recipes. The the other primary purpose of freeholds is that they allow you to offer certain types of business services, because we don't just want to make freeholds delegated to the individual owner. We want it to have capabilities to interact with other players as they're walking past your freehold- as they're going to these hunting grounds and participating in quests or events that might be existing around; and that means that location matters for the freehold, because it's important to the business. – Steven Sharif

Alpha-2 freehold walkthrough.

We got some sheep; we got some cows and pigs; and we got some chickens back there; and we have a lot of space for different farmables. So we have a wheat here, corn, and then tomatoes over there as well. – John Collins

Freeholds are sizable player housing plots that can be situated in baronies within the Zone of influence (ZOI) of a Village (stage 3) or higher node, including the ZOI of any of its vassal nodes.

• Freehold estates may be purchased from other players, or can be obtained via deeds from completing a quest and winning an auction.
  • Freehold ownership, whether purchased from players or via a freehold auction, requires the purchaser to have completed a freehold quest, which has a level requirement of 50.
  • The seller decides if their freehold should be auctioned or sold directly to other players.
  • Some freehold auctions will require node-type-specific bound currencies, others will auction for gold. This is intended to cater to players with different playstyles, who are progressing through alternate systems.

The idea is that we're not reserving freeholds for the top 10 percent of levelers, we're reserving freeholds for the top 10 percent across the multiple different play paths that exist within the game; and this spreads out that ownership across different playstyles. – Steven Sharif

• Freehold ownership is limited to one per account.

Housing takes several forms in the world of Verra. However, Freeholds are the highest tier of player housing available. Acquiring a Freehold is a major accomplishment, and it will take a large amount of effort and strategy to get a Freehold of your own. Since there is a limited amount of space available to place Freeholds in each node’s region, these are symbols of prestige for those who are able to acquire and maintain their Freeholds.

• Freeholds are approximately 1.5 acres in size, or roughly 100m x 60m.
  • The footprint of a freehold does not change with node progression.
  • Previously it was stated that freeholds were half an acre in size.

• The developers are expecting the number of freehold plots on each server to be in "the low thousands" depending on world state.

The number of Freeholds on a server will vary on a number of factors, such as how player actions advance nodes. At the moment we are targeting the low thousands for Freeholds on a server, but as we continue to test these systems during Alpha Two, we anticipate making adjustments.

• Freeholds are subject to node taxes.
  • Freehold tax is calculated based on the number of permits issued for buildings on a freehold.
  • Freehold buildings that require permits will have additional upkeep costs.

• Blueprints are required for the construction of the freehold buildings that are used to process resources into crafting materials.
  • The best processing can only be carried out on freeholds, so obtaining a freehold will require a large amount of effort.

  If a player wants to achieve a freehold they can achieve the freehold, however the amount of effort resources and time that's required in order to achieve that freehold is a large amount. It is something that is a monumental achievement for you to to get that freehold; and the reason why is because freeholds tie in very heavily to the processing artisanship aspect. Some processing can be done in nodes, but the best processing is done on freeholds; and we want to make sure that there's a little bit of a throttle or gate on the amount of effort that's necessary to achieve that influence over the processing market. – Steven Sharif

  • Inns and other player housing options are available that are easier to obtain for players who do not need the benefits of a freehold.

  Just because the freehold is very difficult to attain doesn't mean that you don't have a space for housing and furniture that you can achieve through our apartment system or an inn or the static in-node housing. Those are alternate methods as well but they do not have that aspect of the best processing is done on the freehold. – Steven Sharif

• Freeholds are intended to work with the family system.

• Events do not target personal belongings such as freeholds.

• The spread of corruption in the world does not impact the freehold system.

• Players are not able to adjust the terrain of their freeholds. Sloped terrain will result in stilts beneath placeable structures (to keep them level).

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

• Expansions and upgrades become available as node progression allows.

Sharemarkets

Stock exchanges (also called Stock markets and Share markets) enable players to buy and sell shares in Nodes, Guilds and Social organizations.

• Stock exchanges were a Kickstarter stretch goal unlocked for reaching the $3 million dollar mark.
• This is a planned feature for the launch of Ashes of Creation.

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

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

• Sieges will halt trading of shares in a node. This opens up potential for economic sabotage.

• There is no regulatory commission to restrict the purchase and sale of stocks.