Center of Power (regarding nodes)

ArchivedUser

I want to discuss about the types of nodes that people are going to be flocking towards when playing AOC. The different dynamics and options that the nodes will present once it reaches metropolis level (military,scientific,religious,economic). Assuming that the type of nodes on each server is pre-determined and the only choice as a guild or players have is to decide where to develop.

Say we have a religious node that is undeveloped, we will have the option to either start developing in location A , B or C etc.. This will insure some sense of balance where the types of nodes are evenly distributed across the World ( 60 religious, 60 military etc..)Then the question will be what will one server look like compared to another? 

Will you have a server that looks like economic nodes prevail over religious nodes? What will the center of power of the World look like and based onwhat works? Personally, I was leaning more and more towards an economic type since this might generate the most income which will just buy off everything else. But then I thought, if you look at the other types more closely there is an argument to be made that people can go for... for example..

1. Military = I see this option for mostly for PVP players/guilds who like to control the world through might or like sell swords / mercenary type game play.
2. Religious = This once is for the PVE'ers out there that want to tackle the most challenging content via quests/raids that will make them feel like they earned the best gear.
3. Scientific = I feel as though this one are for the inventor types like crafters that love to make the most quality gear out here and are able to move between nodes with fast travel to find the best places to harvest materials.
4. Economic = It will be a bit of like jack of all trades, it will attract all kinds of players and especially guilds who like to control the World like a Capitalist view, maybe even recruit guilds who belong to a military node for protection.

So which of these do you believe is going to be the most popular? So far the weakest one I see is the Religious node since we don't know yet the details of it's benefits yet. To be fair, we don't know the details of the benefits of the other types too but the Religious one is the least we know of other than quest oriented. For example, people who don't like to PVE can just sit back and buy the gear from different economic nodes through marketplaces if there a member of that might give them perks?

ArchivedUser

We need Nodes 3 badly...

But to answer your question I think science nodes will be the most popular because of the limited fast travel abilities it's supposed to offer.

In a game with almost no fast travel, look for it to be a highly prized commodity

ArchivedUser

I would of thought to make Religious node more competitive is to allow the node to progress 1 level beyond metropolis to Heaven or something just so they can have access to a rare raid to vanquish a false God that no one else can access and that you have to be a citizen of the node to do it.

ArchivedUser

I always thought that religious nodes is where like the grand cathedrals for every religion like HAS ot be built, so there's incentive to go find a religious metropolis to provide benefits for your religion. But that's just my thoughts

ArchivedUser

Karthos said:

But to answer your question I think science nodes will be the most popular because of the limited fast travel abilities it's supposed to offer.

But yeah karthos is probably right on that. A lot of people will probably just be attracted by the convenience of the science node, which will probably override the desire for religious nodes

ArchivedUser

Scientific will be popular for sure, we really just dont know enough about the different types of nodes to really say anything (give us nodes 3 T_T)

ArchivedUser

One of the reasons why I think the economic nodes could be very popular is because people like to play the markets, say your not a citizen of an economic node you might not have access to a discount or the markets within that economic node. Depending on how node citizenship will grant benefits towards a specific type of node.

ArchivedUser

I don't think any node should be able to progress pass Metropolis.
I think the Religious and Military nodes will be most popular.
In the military nodes being the biggest BA gets you power.
In the religious nodes being the most devout gets you power.

I see lots of religious quest and lore-focused players seeking out religious nodes to make sure their god has one dedicated to them.

I see PvP and fight-oriented PvE players flocking to military nodes.

As for diplomacy and the scientific node, I see diplomacy being a hard pull together. If you help a node get to level 2 and then the powers that be make you mad why not go form another (similar to why a lot of large guilds splinter almost infinitely like a fractal).

The economic nodes granting power to the rich seems like a good idea, and potentially easy place to gain and keep power. In the end you will have to sit on your hard earned coins to stay in power long.

In all honesty, the most beautiful and convenient locations will likely be the Metros regardless of their orientation.

ArchivedUser

@Azathoth
You mentioned that the religious nodes being the most devout gets you power. ? What you mean by that? Is it something like bragging right?

I was thinking more along the lines of having access to unique quests/raids/stories that grant you unique gear after completion or abilities that no other metropolis has.

This will attract PVE oriented players or treasure hunters.

ArchivedUser

I am not sure if I ever paid attention to what all the special Metropolis powers grant. That information is out there, likely on the wiki, if you want to know.

I am not sure if "most devout" was ever clarified, but it might have to do with number/frequency of quest and total % of your quest that are religious based. Level will likely help. Being devout has been confirmed to offer augments to your class, maybe it depends on how many you take.

There are many things we don't know about nodes yet, and on top of that even less we know about lore, so this is about all the info I have.

ArchivedUser

Karthos said:

We need Nodes 3 badly...

But to answer your question I think science nodes will be the most popular because of the limited fast travel abilities it's supposed to offer.

In a game with almost no fast travel, look for it to be a highly prized commodity

Nodes 3 is coming TM

ArchivedUser

nagash said:

Karthos said:

We need Nodes 3 badly...

But to answer your question I think science nodes will be the most popular because of the limited fast travel abilities it's supposed to offer.

In a game with almost no fast travel, look for it to be a highly prized commodity

Nodes 3 is coming TM

It's sitting next to Halflife 3 and the FF7 remake.

ArchivedUser

Just based on the nature of how players tend to start games and what kind of activities contribute to what kind of nodes, I would think that economic and military nodes would be the most common in the early days. Especially the nodes closest to the entrance portals.

Depending on the requirements for City and Metropolis level nodes, that early start may remain and take the place of the first 5 Metropolis. I feel that religious nodes and scientific nodes would require a lot of individuals and guilds to group together, focus, and spend a significant amount more effort into building their cities verses plays who are "just playing the game".

I also feel that quite some time after the launch of the game, there would need to be deus vult or exterminatus against the existing economic metropolis for religious or scientific metropolis to even form. I kind of like the idea of metropolis being finite is a real cause to initiate a siege.

ArchivedUser

Steven confirmed we'll have at least 100 nodes for our taking, I can imagine some nodes are going to be PUG nodes that are left ignored from major guilds. Nodes that are far away from major Metropolis, maybe can be developed as neutral/guildless towns?

ArchivedUser

The only thing that requires a node to advance is player activity, and not be locked out by higher level nodes. The process to get to level 3 has been said to take less than a day if enough activity is concentrated there. So I think we will see a huge range of 3-4 level nodes. Once they reach level 5-6 is when a major concerted effort spanning a long period of time would be needed to reduce their influence. Think Rome in the ancient period leading through medieval vs what is now Germany and Poland during the same time period.

ArchivedUser

UnknownSystemError said:

The only thing that requires a node to advance is player activity, and not be locked out by higher level nodes. The process to get to level 3 has been said to take less than a day if enough activity is concentrated there. So I think we will see a huge range of 3-4 level nodes. Once they reach level 5-6 is when a major concerted effort spanning a long period of time would be needed to reduce their influence. Think Rome in the ancient period leading through medieval vs what is now Germany and Poland during the same time period.

Yup this.

Also wanted to inject that nodes advancing can also de level if stagnation occurs and advancing nodes can trigger really big world events that can also halt node progression. Or at least slow it down