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[Information] Nodes and sieges
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Nodes
Encompassing each server are carefully placed points of development called Nodes. Every node is given purview over a predefined zone of influence (ZOI). Player activity (questing, gathering, raiding, etc.) within this ZOI counts toward that particular Node’s advancement.
There are six stages of node advancement:
- Expedition (Few hours)
- Encampment (Many hours)
- Village (Few days)
- Town (Many days)
- City (Few weeks)
- Metropolis (Many weeks)
After every advancement, an increasing ring of neighboring nodes are locked out from progressing to the next stage. The advancement of a node unlocks its unique content, which comes at the cost of locking out unique content available in neighboring nodes.
Node government
A node's government and it's mayor are chosen depending on the node type.
- Divine node governments are chosen from citizens via service oriented quests that prove faith and dedication to the node.
- Economic node governments are able to be bought and sold by citizens with the most money.
- Military node governments are chosen from citizens through last man standing combat.
- Scientific node governments are elected democratically.
Node sieges
Node sieges allow players to delevel a node (reverse its advancement) and to ultimately destroy that node entirely. This paves the way for new development and access to the locked content in surrounding nodes. Due to this dynamic, political strife and intrigue play an important role in the structure of the world.
Declaring a node siege
Sieges are declared directly by any player who completes the prerequisites for the siege initiation. During the declaration period, individuals or guilds can also register to attack.Siege declaration is very tough and will scale with the type of node being sieged:
- Sieging will require a similar amount of resources and time to what it took to develop the node being sieged.
- Siege equipment will need to be crafted based on the stage of the defending node.
- Governments will be able to allocate resources, taxes, and quests to help develop the defenses of the node.
- Village (2 days)
- Town (3 days)
- City (4 days)
- Metropolis (5 days)
Node siege mechanics
- When a siege begins, temporary alliances will be formed among attackers and defenders.
- Citizens of the node being attacked are automatically registered as defenders.
- Sieges don't use the PvP flagging system.
- Certain siege mechanics may be gated for specific size groups during sieges.
- NPC's will serve as defense points for a node. Killing them will allow the attackers to gain advantages during the siege.
- NPC's are only killable during a siege and will respawn if the siege is unsuccessful.
- There will be objectives that can be captured that give advantages to attackers, such as increasing defender's respawn time and reducing attacker's casting time.
- Defenders can assault the outposts of the attackers to hinder them.
- A siege will occur over several phases. More will be revealed in an upcoming blog entry.
Completing a siege
A node siege will last for up to two hours. Defenders will be required to hold a central point in the node, removing the defender's flag and raising their own. If the node survives, there will be a cooldown before the node can be sieged again:- Village (20 days)
- Town (30 days)
- City (40 days)
- Metropolis (50 days)
A successful siege will delevel the node by one stage. There will be spoils from successfully sieging a node.
Sources: Ashes Of Creation About, A Reactive World, Node Series Part II, AoC Wiki, Aggelos Q&A, Livestream Q&A 7-18-2017
Comments
Do nodes have predefined names or will it be up to players to name regions?
Do villages / towns / cities have predefined names as well? Will players have any influence on what a towns name is at any stage?
A town won't develop if it wasn't thanks to players investing time into developing them. At the same time, I'm not sure how you would be able to choose who gets to name the town unless it monitored each individual players contributions to a region.
If this is the case if someone is gaining xp in the area of another node but falls under ZOI of the main node will the xp go to level the bigger node or will nothing happen with it? Do we know at what level of nodes the ZOI will increase?