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Phase I of Alpha Two testing will occur on weekends. Each weekend is scheduled to start on Fridays at 10 AM PT and end on Sundays at 10 PM PT. Find out more here.
Check out Alpha Two Announcements here to see the latest Alpha Two news and update notes.
Our quickest Alpha Two updates are in Discord. Testers with Alpha Two access can chat in Alpha Two channels by connecting your Discord and Intrepid accounts here.
Story locking, progression and permanence
So we know the world will be dynamic, but how permanent will it be?
A common concept most games these days strive for is "meaningful choices". For choices to be meaningful, on the scale of individuals or servers, there needs to be fluidity of choice and dynamically different experiences as a result of them, but there also needs to be some permanent consequence or impact as well. We have heard a lot about how dynamic the world will be, but not much about how permanent it will be.
How we develop the nodes around the world will determine what dungeons may be available, what world events may occur, and even what world bosses and villains will be revealed/available. We are also told that we may need to tear down the world and rebuild it if we want to experience content that another server may have experienced that we find cool.
Can we ever "complete" story archs? When we defeat the big bad dragon (once? 100 times?) Does the dragon ever go away if the node and world conditions stay the same? We also know we can "fail" scenarios and events, does that mean we don't ever get a second chance? Can a server face the dragon again, regardless of failure or success the first time around, if the node is burnt to the ground and rebuilt? Can we "re-boot" content and events? Or is the content "locked-in" when the conditions are met and thus needs to be dealt with even if the initial conditions no longer hold true.
1. Is there any mutual exclusivity when it comes to story lines for a server? Are all of the villains and stories separate and compatible with one another? Can the server's choices lock us out of some content and commit us to others? I can see some cool adversarial factions springing up pushing their own agenda of what they want the server to investigate and racing to open some gate of Ahn'Qiraj vs summoning something or another.
2. If a node experiences some event or content, can that content be reset? I can imagine a guild that feels like they won't be able to get a world first kill "re-setting" a world boss by trying to siege down a key node that the whole encounter is contingent on, would be a fun siege.
3. Is there a "save point" where we have disturbed the dragon and it won't go away even if the node that incurred it's wrath initially is destroyed? Or "check points" along the story line towards some villain where if the node is destroyed and rebuilt again we can pick up where we left off? Or will we be met with new NPCs having the same issues and quests as if we never dealt with the threat to begin with?
I would be honestly fine either way on all 3 of those points, just curious. Anyone have insights, speculations or preferences on how things may go?
A common concept most games these days strive for is "meaningful choices". For choices to be meaningful, on the scale of individuals or servers, there needs to be fluidity of choice and dynamically different experiences as a result of them, but there also needs to be some permanent consequence or impact as well. We have heard a lot about how dynamic the world will be, but not much about how permanent it will be.
How we develop the nodes around the world will determine what dungeons may be available, what world events may occur, and even what world bosses and villains will be revealed/available. We are also told that we may need to tear down the world and rebuild it if we want to experience content that another server may have experienced that we find cool.
Can we ever "complete" story archs? When we defeat the big bad dragon (once? 100 times?) Does the dragon ever go away if the node and world conditions stay the same? We also know we can "fail" scenarios and events, does that mean we don't ever get a second chance? Can a server face the dragon again, regardless of failure or success the first time around, if the node is burnt to the ground and rebuilt? Can we "re-boot" content and events? Or is the content "locked-in" when the conditions are met and thus needs to be dealt with even if the initial conditions no longer hold true.
1. Is there any mutual exclusivity when it comes to story lines for a server? Are all of the villains and stories separate and compatible with one another? Can the server's choices lock us out of some content and commit us to others? I can see some cool adversarial factions springing up pushing their own agenda of what they want the server to investigate and racing to open some gate of Ahn'Qiraj vs summoning something or another.
2. If a node experiences some event or content, can that content be reset? I can imagine a guild that feels like they won't be able to get a world first kill "re-setting" a world boss by trying to siege down a key node that the whole encounter is contingent on, would be a fun siege.
3. Is there a "save point" where we have disturbed the dragon and it won't go away even if the node that incurred it's wrath initially is destroyed? Or "check points" along the story line towards some villain where if the node is destroyed and rebuilt again we can pick up where we left off? Or will we be met with new NPCs having the same issues and quests as if we never dealt with the threat to begin with?
I would be honestly fine either way on all 3 of those points, just curious. Anyone have insights, speculations or preferences on how things may go?
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Comments
I took that to mean that no 2 servers will be the same at any given point in time. But that does not mean they are locked out of experiencing similar things. In fact, I took their statement that you can look at what another server experiences and decide to arrange your node levels such that you can experience it too directly contracts your conclusion.
But alas, upon further research you are right!
"Unlocking a part of the story in a certain way locks out progression of the story in a different way – you’ll see different antagonists, different NPCs, and different calls to action depending on what’s happening with the server at that time. "
https://www.mmogames.com/gamearticles/interview-ashes-of-creation-on-building-their-virtual-world/
But depending on the answer to Q2 & 3 though, this could potentially be not really permanent.
But simultaneously I think on a larger scale, different stories don't seem to conflict/lock each other out.
"if they want to experience a storyline that's been seen on another server ... If you want to meta it or because you just want that under your belt... and you have yet to develop the node there, you know it's incumbent upon you to manifest that in the game"
So TL;DR I think within a story arch, decisions can lock out content but between archs they should be safe.
if what you said about being able to rearrange your server's nodes to be like that of another server's nodes to be true, then i couldnt imagine why content would get locked out because that would directly inhibit that feature.
However being able to reset a storyline by destroying the appropriate nodes sounds like it would be a cheap(and largely ineffective) way to reproduce materials that would otherwise be unique to the world, pausing a storyline might be more realistic if they include an extra quest or simply few different lines of dialogue. this is all to say that world/big events and storylines will only happen once, which is something that i dont know and is just what im assuming.
Hmm I'm not sure if you saw my newer comment but that might clarify a bit. And I actually would hope more people would comment on assumptions without knowing, I like speculation
So I don't really think people would be intentionally destroying nodes to reset storylines much (maybe with few exceptions like the jealous guild haha). But I do imagine that as a function of PvP and world politics certain nodes will be destroyed that may have had some story line attached to them. So I'm curious how much would I be invested in that siege for example, if I belonged to neither warring node but wanted to make sure I would still be able to see the story I started there to the end.
Will I just have to re-do my progress if the node is rebuilt (which is a big if and also annoying). Or will I be able to pick up where I left off in the story if it is rebuilt (still a big if).
i did not see the newer comment. i would somewhat agree on the commenting on assumptions, just as long as they are willing to change their stance if their assumption is proven wrong, not a lot of that is happening now a days.
But to the point! it doesnt seem like you'll be able to experience the same overall story as another server, because nodes might like that content out and you'll pass it by within the storyline(unless you can repeat the main story which is something that i still havent seen addressed), but you'll be able to experience events that other servers have done. this will then become apart of your servers history, but not necessarily apart of the main narrative story.
Killing Fippy Darkpaw over and over and over again is the easiest way to ruin immersion, but...
If player characters can respawn, I suppose NPCs can respawn, too.
Hopefully, if so, they weave it into the lore well.
But that kind of stuff works in a single player game, not an MMO where he probably gets killed a dozen times each hour.
Also the example with the winterdragon laying eternal winter upon surrounding land. Would be kind of weird if everyone put effort in it to end the winter and after slaying the dragon he simply respawns.
Maybe like a siege on a metropolis worldbosses could be really rare like only once in a month. And like a siege the world boss will be a really massive event.
For this worldboss to respawn i guess the same conditions have to be met again. Or there is simply some timer like: "if the conditions are still present a week after slaying this worldboss, then he respawns"
(everything above is my opinion on point 2.)
As for point 3.:
I believe that if we didn´t manage to kill the dragon there will be consequences. But not forever, Like if the winterdragon world boss fight fails then maybe the eternal winter lasts for another week until you can try to fight him again.
It could also be possible that the worldboss simply destroys the node and reappears when the node is leveled up again.
And NPC respawn:
I would be really sad if Cecil the Banker wouldn´t respawn after the node is destroyed.
But it would also be nice if Node A is destroyed and Cecil the Banker is nowhere to be found. But if Node K levels up then this node has Cecil the Banker. So you roam the lands really sad that Cecil the Banker is dead. But one day you find him in a distant city and you are glad that he didn´t die during the destruction of Node A. He survived and moved on to another city.
So I like the comparison between world bosses and sieges but one important difference between the two is that only 40 people will be able to take part in a raid of a world boss with potentially some PvP around it to get a shot at even doing so. But a siege can have many more people participate. The main issue I have with making world bosses which, as you said, are likely to be rare and of epic proportions is that they will be experienced by so few people that <10% of the server population doesn't even get close.
As for point 3, I was more asking about the progression in a particular story line consisting of several quests that are done sequentially, will there be "amnesia" if there is some disruption partly through the story (via the changing and dynamic world)? So the dragon event would not be a good example here as it essentially just has a trigger but doesn't necessarily have prerequisite quests. I mean this is indeed based on some assumptions but that is the gist of what I'm asking
Ok now i understand point 3.
Making a lot of assumptions i would guess there could be two (or more) types of story missions.
Type1: Story based on the Node itself
Type2: Story based on the level of the node (or level of multiple nodes)
Type1 Story would be more about something in the enviroment like "Unravel the mysteries of ancient ruins". At some point in this storyline you might need to have a certain level node to access certain areas. But overall your story wouldn´t be "reset" when the node loses a level because you can "unravel the mysteries" later.
In a "type 2" Story something happens to the node due to the level of the node. Could be a lot of different quests. And i would assume that these quests may be reset("amnesia") once the node levels up or down.
And i don´t think that would be bad because you haven´t seen those other node-level-quests in a while:
Lets assume you have done all city-stage-quests (of one node) and the node is now a metropolis. As far as we know the metropolis will be at least a metropolis for approx. a month because the preparation time for a siege of a metropolis is said to be as time consuming as the leveling to a metropolis. So you´re going to see those city-stage quests again (of this node) at the earliest after one month.
And in my opinion: If you quested for a month in one node it is probably time to move to another node beacuse there are over 100 nodes.
And if i´m done with all 100 nodes i probably don´t remember the city-stage quests of my first node.
I think that is a really really good point. The amount of time it would take to get to a place again where you are doing the same content for a node that was destroyed or deleveled even, 1, the inhabitants of that node will not be the same and 2. even the old inhabitants may need a refresher and probably would not mind re-doing the quests even if that were the case. And inhabitants could just be people who participate in that node's on-ongoings, not necessarily citizens.
Based on what you said, I now have an opinion on point 3: no save points or check points. I should still be invested in the siege of a node I am doing story progression in because it took so long to get the node to that level and it will take at least just as long to get it back up again so if I want to finish the story there, I should help defend it. Perfect