Are there Protectors of Neutrality?

ArchivedUser

I watched the YouTube Gamescom video in Germany. Steven brought up pledging allegiance to a city or node. What if I don’t give a ‘huck’ about politics and want to be neutral.  Did intrepid think about consequences of a node or node aligned player(s) attacking a neutral player freehold? Either it pushes a player to subvert or become more independent, right?  Hence, my question is, should there be a penalty for node aligned groups ‘zerking’ non-aligned territory like Sherman’s march to the sea? In other words, rebellion (and asking for help from) that may aid another node?  Like flagging in a global sense? OR will the gods intercede? All the best ...

ArchivedUser

Seems to be a reasonable concern. Personally, think we'll have to wait till we're a bit more into testing to actually find out.

ArchivedUser

I’m sure there is no protection for those who go it alone.  If you decide to not ally with anyone you’re forgoing the benefits you’d receive from such an alliance.  There’s a robust system being created and they’d certainly want to encourage people to take part.  One way to do so is to not provide support for those who don’t.

ArchivedUser

I'm thinking that if you want to avoid the political and national conflict that you'll have plenty of room to go out into deep wilderness and become a member of a small secluded node. Pledge your citizenship there and build your freehold. You'll likely still be under the zone of control of a major power in the region, but if your location isn't strategic, your best protection from politics is simply inconvenience. Being unaligned to any major power in the region doesn't make your node and freehold any more or less of a target I think.

If a powerful warlord is marching to his enemy's capital, and your unaligned neutral territory is in his warpath, you may not have much choice but to pledge your allegiance to him. If you attempt to stay neutral, you may just end up being an OSP farm and watch your node and freehold get razed to the ground as a "moral boost" to the warlord's army. If your neutral territory is far away from his warpath, great, you'll be top inconvenient to siege. 

ArchivedUser

Nodes are not guilds in the first place, you won't be forced to take sides unless your node is attacked (which makes sense that you would want to protect your home when someone is there to fuck it up) it's just a place to settle down. The housing requires you to be a citizen which kind of makes sense too

ArchivedUser

AutumnLeaf said:

The housing requires you to be a citizen which kind of makes sense too

It's the other way around though. At the moment you need housing to claim citizenship

https://ashesofcreation.wiki/Citizenship

ArchivedUser

hmm .
i do not think thyr wil be any secluded nodes in the game .
dont thy pair 2 or 3 nodes together so that thy have to compeat against eachother to grow ?

ArchivedUser

midgard said:

hmm .
i do not think thyr wil be any secluded nodes in the game .
dont thy pair 2 or 3 nodes together so that thy have to compeat against eachother to grow ?

Nodes compete for growth with the nodes surrounding them, yes. Whether there will be a node that is completely by itself that isn't inhibited by other nodes we don't know yet. I imagine if they do put something like that in the game it would be like and island in the middle of the ocean or something.

ArchivedUser

if there is too few people active in a node it will decay and dissapear. I don't think you can be a hermit and have land in Ashes.

Active meaning questing and feeding resources to the node not just loging for a couple minutes to pay taxes.

ArchivedUser

Santy182 said:

if there is too few people active in a node it will decay and dissapear. I don't think you can be a hermit and have land in Ashes.

Active meaning questing and feeding resources to the node not just loging for a couple minutes to pay taxes.

Also if a node decays back down to level 2, your freehold will be packed up and the contents mailed to you. You keep the template of your layout, but people are not going to have freeholds in once populous before but now abandoned areas. At least under the current system.

ArchivedUser

Bring on ghost towns ^^

ArchivedUser

If a node/city decays back down.. there should be rubble and junk piles for a week or so.. that crafters can pick thru for recycled raw materials.

ArchivedUser

nagash said:

Bring on ghost towns ^^

I agree its always nice to deus vult few undead towns.

ArchivedUser

Zastro said:

midgard said:

[snip]

[snip] Whether there will be a node that is completely by itself that isn't inhibited by other nodes we don't know yet. I imagine if they do put something like that in the game it would be like and island in the middle of the ocean or something.

What we do know is the official world map will be gigantic and that a single server has a maximum of 10000 accounts. A significant portion of that population is going to live in the 5 metropolis or surrounding nodes. I believe it's entirely possible a small, neutral guild of maybe 100 members can found their own nation-state in a remote–but not an island–area with a T4/5 node as a small but functional capital. Players who don't wish to be involved in global politics or large-scale warfare can choose to take up refuge in these lesser nodes that fall on the very edges of or beyond the ZOI of major nodes.

At least that's what makes sense in my head. 

Shoklen said:

If a node/city decays back down.. there should be rubble and junk piles for a week or so.. that crafters can pick thru for recycled raw materials.

I like that idea. Just for basic supplies, though. All of the expensive items and storage chests going untouched but with some percentage of the required materials should be left behind as salvage. It's a ruined building, after-all. Even the floorboards could be valuable. 

ArchivedUser

Shoklen said:

If a node/city decays back down.. there should be rubble and junk piles for a week or so.. that crafters can pick thru for recycled raw materials.

I like that idea. Just for basic supplies, though. All of the expensive items and storage chests going untouched but with some percentage of the required materials should be left behind as salvage. It's a ruined building, after-all. Even the floorboards could be valuable. 

I like the idea too. Would be cool if there maybe sometimes would be scavengers or bandits made it their home.

ArchivedUser

When a node devolves will we see evidence of it at one time being greater?

• Jeffrey: That would be harder to do. I don’t know that we would do that. Obviously that would be rad, but it would be tough to make happen.
• Steven: It’s not in the script at the moment. That could be an issue.

Post-Siege, will we be seeing rubble or will it be neat and tidy?

• Jeffrey: You’ll probably see rubble for a while, but it can’t be persistent in that sense.
• Steven: It’ll probably be at the end of the first week where they have time to get the node progressed.
• Jeffrey: At some point we have to clean it up or it will get really messy, really fast. There will just be disaster everywhere.
• Steven: There will likely be a period of time at which you will likely see rubble following a siege, and that period of time will likely end once the first weeks task is complete for the guild who owns the new castle or the existing incumbent guild, to develop that Node A in the triad node.
• Jeffrey: I think they were talking about all the nodes
• Steven: Oh I was thinking castles, I’m sorry
• Jeffrey: Timing of that, not quite sure, but we do want people after a big event like that has happened to see the aftereffects of something like that. We’ll persist it for some unknown amount of time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6lTS8FuwF7k

ArchivedUser

Sonicfani said:

nagash said:

Bring on ghost towns ^^

I agree its always nice to deus vult few undead towns.

bring it mortal crusader 

ArchivedUser

c0ug4r said:

AutumnLeaf said:

The housing requires you to be a citizen which kind of makes sense too

It's the other way around though. At the moment you need housing to claim citizenship

https://ashesofcreation.wiki/Citizenship

Ah my bad thought you need citizenship from the parent node to place a freehold

ArchivedUser

I think at the end of the day its supposed to be the wild out there.

If you cant take care of yourself then you need others to help.

As said, there is no way one player can evolve any kind of node let alone destroy one.

If you remain neutral you cant have citizenship.

Citizenship gives you perks you dont get if you freelance/neutralise....which undoubtedly includes protection as a perk of civilisation.

If you are a citizen of a node, then no other member of that node can flag on you.

If your node makes alliances, none of those alliance members can flag on you.

Being a survivalist living out on your own, should be rough.

But if you are surrounded on all sides by friendly nodes in an alliance, will you really be under threat ?

Surely deciding on a safe place to lay down roots is on the freelance player and no one else ?

ArchivedUser

Rune_Relic said:

If you are a citizen of a node, then no other member of that node can flag on you.

If your node makes alliances, none of those alliance members can flag on you.

Is that so? I thought it was bound to parties, raids, guilds and their corresponding alliances.

I mean I'd love to be safe around friendlies, it's just I can't remember it was stated that someone of the same node (and node alliance) can't attack you. That would take away a large amount of PvP potential.

ArchivedUser

Yes my understanding of it is that the only friendlies out there are guildies and guild alliances if that is stipulated in the alliance.  You need to declare for the defence of a node if it is being attacked to be considered a friendly of other like flagged toons.  the same applies for caravans/raids etc.