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Dynamic corruption?

I was thinking about this corruption mechanic, and how most people say that the trick is in finding a "sweet spot" where corruption offers deterrence against griefing / ganking, but that it is not to punishing for occasional thefts so they still do happen, that we have danger in the world.

How about if specific areas in the game had varied strictness of corruption?

For example, main cities, being protected by guards, law, and being centers of civilization having the most strict corruption level. If you killed someone in the city you would be hit with higher instant corruption then if you killed someone in the forest.

Outside of the cities but still in zones close to them, corruption could be on medium level, while further from cities corruption could be mild.

Perhaps some small areas, extra dangerous parts of the forest and some passages could be perma PvP areas, and traversing through them could be risky. There could be signs in place to go around as areas are deemed too unsafe for travel. Then people could risk to either take a shorter route, but risky or go around (more safe).

TLDR: Corruption could be dynamic, cities could have hardest hitting corruption, areas around cities medium corruption, further areas from cities lower corruption, and some outstandingly dangerous areas perhaps no corruption.

What do you think?

Comments

  • Whilst I'm not sure what I want at this point, It's certainly an interesting idea you've got there @Gothix. Having higher penalty in the cities would make sense and I can see why, in the more rural areas, life could get more risky. Corruption is certainly going to be an interesting aspect of Ashes but they're going to have to get it right pretty quickly or it could undermine the more positive aspects of the game. The games' testers have a lot of work to do in helping to get it right.
  • ArchivedUserArchivedUser Guest
    edited October 2017
    Tbh, I don't see how that would work. If killing in a town yields higher corruption, why does it do so? Is it the people who fled the world originaly that corrupted everything to begin with, seeing how they have this power to give extra corruption? 
    Since the 'Corruption' is a central lore and plot point, it would have to make sense lore/setting wise why people get more corrupted when killing in certain places, imo.
  • I think it would be interesting to see in action. It kind of reminds me of how in Runescape the normal world didn't have open pvp (unless you were on a pvp server), but jumping over into the Wilderness flagged everyone for pvp.
  • Just nah. Murder is a murder. And anyway - you get more risk killing near the cities because of density of players.


  • This either applies to all Military nodes (and scales with the node level) or it may just apply to Military Metropolises. Either way, the effects of corruption can vary around the map.
  • lexmax said:


    This either applies to all Military nodes (and scales with the node level) or it may just apply to Military Metropolises. Either way, the effects of corruption can vary around the map.
    That makes sense tho. Miltary nodes are "Strongest Rule" :P 
  • ArchivedUserArchivedUser Guest
    edited October 2017

    @lexmax

    However, the issue of "corrupt debuff duration" in military node is not inter dependant with the question presented in this poll.

    Time in which corrupted debuff expires is a separate issue from how fast corruption level stacks up (debuff becomes more punishing).

    Regardless of time how much debuff lasts, the debuff itself can be more or less punishing.

    ** So if you kill someone in military metropolis and in science metropolis, debuffs would be equally punishing, with the difference that in military node this punishment (debuff) would last shorter.

    ** On the other hand, killing someone in forest just outside of science metropolis would give you less punishing debuff than killing someone in military metropolis, but the debuff gained in "science node forest" would last longer.



    Btw. could someone explain this with military node debuff duration? I though corruption debuff is only removed on death?

    So if you kill someone in zone of influence of military node debuff does not expire only with death, but rather it has a timer attached and will expire even if you don't die? At which point corruption level will be lost?


  • Gothix said:

    Btw. could someone explain this with military node debuff duration? I though corruption debuff is only removed on death?

    So if you kill someone in zone of influence of military node debuff does not expire only with death, but rather it has a timer attached and will expire even if you don't die? At which point corruption level will be lost?


    Most likely that means that 'Corrupt' state is a timed state. Duration of state probably depending on what level of corruption, most likely something like a few hours on low corruption to days for high corruption
    If the statement about miltary node Corrption State duration decrease is true, which it might be. 

    Besides, there will probably be other ways to get rid of corruption.
    Like say, kill 1000 monsters to get Corruption down a level or something. 
  • ESO has their bounty system that expires over time, or you can pay gold to reduce it. 

    If corruption is timed, and I kind of assumed it always was, they might have a way of paying off that corruption (donating to a temple? ).
  • Direct quote from Steven.

    "Now this corruption value stays with you until you die. If you die while corrupt, the death penalties that you will receive will be tripled from what it would have been had you died while a noncombatant. So those death penalties include a negative experience that you gain an experience debt. It doesn't necessarily de-level your character, but that experience debt, as it accrues, will cause skill penalties, will cause stat penalties, and if you just go on a PKing rage where you are just killing a bunch of noncombatants, that death penalty, that experience debt is just going to rack up and it’s going to adversely affect your ability to participate in combat. So this prevents PK alts from being made. So that’s corruption. If you die, you’ll lose a value of corruption equal to your level in game and how much experience loss you accrue from death."

  • Killing someone in a city is the exact same offense as killing someone in a forest. The corruption or "infamy" should stay the same, but additional disadvantages could occur if you kill someone in a city. For instance, your fame within that city decreases.

    The ability to kill someone in a city is also controversial and shouldn't be possible.
  • As someone who has played necromancers before, I can tell you, laws in different regions can vastly differ. While in a strongly regulated metropolis, they probably won't let you enter if you smell just a little like rot, in a small village people will most likely just let you pass, either because of fear or just because they don't care. I don't see why this wouldn't work for corruption as well, being the 'evil' mechanic in Ashes
  • I think this is a cool idea. The chances of getting caught IRL are also lower when you commit a crime in the middle of nowhere because there are less potential witnesses.
  • I don't think the corruption will go like 
    "Oh, no one saw him kill that guy so I will not corrupt him" 
  • The corruption could be based on how many people are around to see it. This is a very interesting idea and would be a very cool rogue mechanic.(as well as for everyone else)
  • Gothix said:

    Btw. could someone explain this with military node debuff duration? I though corruption debuff is only removed on death?

    So if you kill someone in zone of influence of military node debuff does not expire only with death, but rather it has a timer attached and will expire even if you don't die? At which point corruption level will be lost?
    I can't find any more detail on this, so these are both excellent questions for the next livestream :smile:
  • You know Goth, while I have been on the opposite side of you on a lot of this argument. I have to admit this particular idea has potential. Kinda reminds me of a lighter version of "Eve's" High Sec, Low Sec, and Null space.

    I would probably still be playing eve if I could actually do a star base / home in high sec.

    For me it would depend on how much stuff you could only do in the more dangerous areas. Material collection, no problem.  Owning property no way.

    One thing I look for in a game is that where ever I decide to call home is in a safe location. I don't mind rolling the dice when out in the world as much. But don't want to roll those dice getting out of bed.
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