Node Stage level reached now what? (between stages)

ArchivedUser

I have been looking everywhere for this question. What happens between stages? Will there be a mass amount of npcs around the town clearing out the trees, plotting new houses, and destroying the walls to extend them? Will players have the ability to help speed up (to an extent) the development of the new stage construction? What kind of animations and mechanics are you hoping to see during these between phases in node stages.

I would love to see a day by day progression of a city and have an input into the construction. Even if it is a set template that the devs have set for the game. It would be a very great sense of accomplishment not only saying "I contributed to reaching the new node stage but also help construct the new stage."

During a node rank up, their should be the ability for hostile nodes to affect the pace of the node construction phase. Allowing for a competitive environment if the rare chance of two nodes hitting the metro stage at the same time. (Or is there already a set mechanic in place to not allow to nodes hit the metro stage at the same time?)

[If any of this information exist please direct me to the correct form and or move this thread to it.]

ArchivedUser

The livestreams on their Twitch channel answers all of these questions.  :-)  The rate of progression and how much each action contributes to the leveling up within the zone of influence is kept from us, so no one will know exactly when the next level will be reached.  When a node levels, it is complete, but the higher level nodes will have a few incomplete buildings that the node officials will decide what to build there.  Lots more info on the livestreams.  When a node levels, all of a sudden new NPCs and new quests pop into the world in the zone of influence.

ArchivedUser

ashlynmae said:

The livestreams on their Twitch channel answers all of these questions.  :-)

WAhh I totally forgot to go through the twitch streams!

ArchivedUser

Good luck. There are around 30 hours of livestreams and interviews for you to seek out and find. As @ashlynmae said, when a node will "pop" will not be something that is known to players. They have said it will happen instantly, but will not be "jarring." Things like people and npcs being stuck inside structures and walls in town have been thought of already. (In before the next round of questions about the process.) While initial node leveling is pretty fast, it slows waaaay down in the higher levels, with the first metros planned months after launch. This provides a natural gating of content. Put more people in an area it will come quicker, just not fast. Those that think they are going to speedrun to "vertical level cap" in under a week are going to be in for a shock.

ArchivedUser

You can pretty much count on that newly developed node levels will need resources to build, and this is where caravans and artisans will come into play, big time.  The harvesting and conveyance of resources will encourage all kinds of game play and scheming. 

ArchivedUser

UnknownSystemError said:

As @ashlynmae said, when a node will "pop" will not be something that is known to players. They have said it will happen instantly, but will not be "jarring." Things like people and npcs being stuck inside structures and walls in town have been thought of already. (In before the next round of questions about the process.) 

That is a bummer, I was hoping for some sort of transitional phase with npc animations and players helping building walls for the newly developing stage. As long as they are able to make it not "jarring" I will settle for that. 

ArchivedUser

Tarros said:

That is a bummer, I was hoping for some sort of transitional phase with npc animations and players helping building walls for the newly developing stage. As long as they are able to make it not "jarring" I will settle for that. 

<Speculation> I think the intention is to block people from being able to influence which nodes "pop" in what order. If you know that the node you have been working on is about to go to level 4, but everyone in the area agrees that the other level 3 would be a better choice, and everyone abandons progress to run to the other node because they know when it is going to pop might be something they are trying to avoid. They very well could add animation to the process over a couple hours or days once the node has been committed to the next level, all depends on what plan they come up with. Most likely would not be before because they also want to avoid people camping out to "landgrab" in city housing. If you knew the node was about to pop, you would find the mechanic by how housing is bought or bid on flooded.

ArchivedUser

Forums are only for @UnknownSystemError to answer your questions, the mods and devs only reply on discord (sarcasm but 98% true)

ArchivedUser

UnknownSystemError said:

Tarros said:

That is a bummer, I was hoping for some sort of transitional phase with npc animations and players helping building walls for the newly developing stage. As long as they are able to make it not "jarring" I will settle for that. 

<Speculation> I think the intention is to block people from being able to influence which nodes "pop" in what order. If you know that the node you have been working on is about to go to level 4, but everyone in the area agrees that the other level 3 would be a better choice, and everyone abandons progress to run to the other node because they know when it is going to pop might be something they are trying to avoid. They very well could add animation to the process over a couple hours or days once the node has been committed to the next level, all depends on what plan they come up with. Most likely would not be before because they also want to avoid people camping out to "landgrab" in city housing. If you knew the node was about to pop, you would find the mechanic by how housing is bought or bid on flooded.

@UnknownSystemError So from my understanding there will be no timer on how long a node will take to "pop". Example, two nodes are staging up to town. One node could take 3 days to "pop" and the other node could take 5 days to "pop". Even though both of these nodes hit the required experience to stage up at the same time. Is this thinking correct? If this is not correct than it defeats the purpose on the intention of blocking people from being able to influence which nodes "pop" in what order.

ArchivedUser

I think a period after a node upgrade in which the npcs are clearing out the area and expanding the node would be really cool. It'd also make a good resource sink for the game. Having to dump a ton of lumber, metal, cloth, leather, medicine, and food/drink to build certain structures would be great. 

I really don't know how they will handle land squatters though. Maybe have the people that donated the most resources get the houses. It'd be kinda difficult to coordinate it though because of how they are handling caravans, pack mules, personal inventory, etc. Meaning.. you can't send all your mats to your guild leader to make sure he gets one of the first houses unless you literally drop off resources at their freehold or somehow changing ownership to them during shipment. Maybe have resourced donations towards nodes by guild.... then the guilds themselves could designate who gets the nicer houses.

IDK... too many possibilities and I'm really curious how they want to handle it.

ArchivedUser

Tarros said:

@UnknownSystemError So from my understanding there will be no timer on how long a node will take to "pop". Example, two nodes are staging up to town. One node could take 3 days to "pop" and the other node could take 5 days to "pop". Even though both of these nodes hit the required experience to stage up at the same time. Is this thinking correct? If this is not correct than it defeats the purpose on the intention of blocking people from being able to influence which nodes "pop" in what order.

That there is no set timer is correct. Nodes will level based on the amount of activity that is being "fed" to them. Think of it like your classic experience bar. Everything done in the node, gathering, pvp, pve, crafting, all contributed towards this. Once the bar is full, the node "pops" to the next level. What you won't see is how much progress there is on that "bar." More people in a node feeding it, the faster it will go. The amount of "exp" needed from stage to stage will be tweaked over testing to hit the timeline targets they want from an "ideal" situation. Will people try to break those models once live? Of course. But they have the ability to adjust those sliders in real time, so if progress is going faster than they want, they can always slow it down. You will never know, because it is all being done in the background and is not information a normal player will have. Once they achieve what they envision optimal settings to be I don't see them messing with it.

ArchivedUser

Awh man! That just bums me out that once you hit a stage for a node it is a "pop" instead of a light fuse and wait for the "pop". Would allow for an additional dynamic to the pvp world. Only issue with it is that larger guilds/nodes could make it that smaller nodes never advanced.

ArchivedUser

Tarros said:

Awh man! That just bums me out that once you hit a stage for a node it is a "pop" instead of a light fuse and wait for the "pop". 

I just figured that this would be more polishing after they establish other things first
So i wouldn't worry about it too much tbh xD