Node Progression; gradual or instant?

I was wondering about the node progression system. We already know that nodes progress by doing activities within their ZOI. Do we know whether this progression will be gradual or instant? If not what do you think?

For instance, with gradual, it'd look like new buildings are being build during progression towards the next stage, or maybe NPC's soon to be available would first appear as children. As for instant, when a node has gathered enough exp to progress, buildings would just pop in to existence and NPC's appear out of nowhere (Although the latter isn't necessarily unrealistic, depending how the narrative is handled).

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grisu

This has been bugging me for a long time. The conclusion I came to for now is, it will be instant.
I wish it wasn't and I hope it's a mix, but one aspect of it is just too time consuming in my uneducated mind.

New buildings as you said could be made gradually, like over 2 days you can see different progress stages. That might be something that, if you start modeling it in the first place with that in mind, doesn't take exorbitant more time then outright only having the finished stage model.
The biggest problem I have found are already existing buildings that get upgraded. What about that city palisade that gets replaced with stonewalls further away, or in it's place. What about guildhalls and in-city houses that, as they said, will advance from simple houses to mansions. It would be weird to lose functionality and, at least in my mind, this takes a whole lot more effort to do then what I think is necessery and practical.

It would be really cool to see a caravan dispatched from the closes civilization point into the wild with schoolars/army convey or whatnot and over the course of an hour after arrival make a camp. It would be downright amazing, but I don't know if that added complexity is really worth it, it would be a wow moment for sure ifoyu happen to see it, but eehh I can live without it just as good. Maybe something for later when people have spare time? <wishful thinking>

Dygz

I think it’s a bit of both.
Pop from on Stage to the next is instant, I think.
But, the development of specific buildings chosen by the mayor/government is relatively gradual.

sivanna

I think they mentioned it was instant, but that was a while ago, ideas evolve. I would really just like a transition phase. If there is a timer until the upgrade is completed (like the siege prep timer) and during this period I saw scaffolds along buildings, carts full of supplies, walls being built, and some extra noise and activity I would be happy. I would give big Kudos if during this time extra NPCs and quests pop up for crafters and gatherers to possibly speed up the construction.

Wololo

As far we know now, and have seen in alpha 0 it will be instant. With the player being ported to the nearest possible location that has collision with a object. Imo if they refine this system it will feel really smooth

Jjampong

grisu wrote: »

This has been bugging me for a long time. The conclusion I came to for now is, it will be instant.
I wish it wasn't and I hope it's a mix, but one aspect of it is just too time consuming in my uneducated mind.

grisu New buildings as you said could be made gradually, like over 2 days you can see different progress stages. That might be something that, if you start modeling it in the first place with that in mind, doesn't take exorbitant more time then outright only having the finished stage model.
The biggest problem I have found are already existing buildings that get upgraded. What about that city palisade that gets replaced with stonewalls further away, or in it's place. What about guildhalls and in-city houses that, as they said, will advance from simple houses to mansions. It would be weird to lose functionality and, at least in my mind, this takes a whole lot more effort to do then what I think is necessery and practical.

It would be really cool to see a caravan dispatched from the closes civilization point into the wild with schoolars/army convey or whatnot and over the course of an hour after arrival make a camp. It would be downright amazing, but I don't know if that added complexity is really worth it, it would be a wow moment for sure ifoyu happen to see it, but eehh I can live without it just as good. Maybe something for later when people have spare time? <wishful thinking>

@grisu I have to say I didn't consider upgrading existing buildings for some reason

Yeah I agree that'd take a lot of time for an event that doesn't occur that often. I do hope it doesn't just plop into existence while you're in the middle of the city though, although I'm not sure how else it would work.

dygz wrote: »

I think it’s a bit of both.
Pop from on Stage to the next is instant, I think.
But, the development of specific buildings chosen by the mayor/government is relatively gradual.

@dygz Do these buildings come in over time while the node is progressing or do they all pop in when it's progress to the next stage?

Sivanna wrote: »

I think they mentioned it was instant, but that was a while ago, ideas evolve. I would really just like a transition phase. If there is a timer until the upgrade is completed (like the siege prep timer) and during this period I saw scaffolds along buildings, carts full of supplies, walls being built, and some extra noise and activity I would be happy. I would give big Kudos if during this time extra NPCs and quests pop up for crafters and gatherers to possibly speed up the construction.

@Sivanna Yeah same here. Any chance you'd happen to know when / where they mentioned it?

shkevi wrote: »

As far we know now, and have seen in alpha 0 it will be instant. With the player being ported to the nearest possible location that has collision with a object. Imo if they refine this system it will feel really smooth

@shkevi Yeah I think the same. It also takes away some of the fun of progression as it's, at least in my opinion, a lot more fun to actually see a node develop instead of it just being upgraded over night.

Damokles

It would be really cool, if node progression was instantaneous. Like maybe the visuals could change already depending on the progress to the next level (maybe some construction sites would start where new houses are built), while the actual services will only activate when the node progress is completed.

Dygz

Seems to me that the individual buildings we build have to appear between Stages, but we should try to get a dev quote.

Jjampong

Damokles wrote: »

It would be really cool, if node progression was instantaneous. Like maybe the visuals could change already depending on the progress to the next level (maybe some construction sites would start where new houses are built), while the actual services will only activate when the node progress is completed.

@Damokles Yep I was thinking the same thing, and it sure would look a lot better than waking up to an entire new city when you come back online

dygz wrote: »

Seems to me that the individual buildings we build have to appear between Stages, but we should try to get a dev quote.

@dygz Yeah, maybe something for today's livestream?

Dygz

Yeah, I already gave Toast a heads-up and she suggested we should try to ask during the livestream, so maybe she will help us get that clarification today.

Jjampong

dygz wrote: »

Yeah, I already gave Toast a heads-up and she suggested we should try to ask during the livestream, so maybe she will help us get that clarification today.

@dygz Decided not to ask the question, I heard from other people in my guild that this was mentioned the stream before and that it would be visually gradual.

Bloodless

They did ask the question in the live stream and they're still looking at an approach to make things gradual like over the course of 1 hour but as for right now, it boots anyone inside the city outside of the parameters in order for it to be expanded.

ilisfet

Specifically, it checks if anyone is in a bad place collision-wise and moves them, it doesn't boot everyone out of the city.

The expansion is instantaneous, but they hope to make it gradual by Alpha 2.

Bloodless

Ilisfet wrote: »

Specifically, it checks if anyone is in a bad place collision-wise and moves them, it doesn't boot everyone out of the city.

The expansion is instantaneous, but they hope to make it gradual by Alpha 2.

You're correct and thank you for making the statement more clear. I am at work and wasn't using my head when I wrote that.

Jjampong

So many mixed messages

Ilisfet wrote: »

Specifically, it checks if anyone is in a bad place collision-wise and moves them, it doesn't boot everyone out of the city.

The expansion is instantaneous, but they hope to make it gradual by Alpha 2.

@Ilisfet I'm aware of this mechanic, it's also documented in the wiki. Do you have any source that could verify progression is instantaneous (visually)?

ilisfet

Only the devs' word from the latest live stream.
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/418496030?t=01h02m26s

Jjampong

Ilisfet wrote: »

Only the devs' word from the latest live stream.
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/418496030?t=01h02m26s

@Ilisfet Just asking because I'm getting mixed messages, did not mean to offend in any way

Thanks for the source!

Rem_

I think right now it's pretty much instant, they said on the live stream it's causing 0 lag though. Hopefully they will have this be more gradual, I don't know how hard that could be but making it so workers come to the city to expand and stuff. I think it'll be really jarring and immersion breaking if the town you're in just *Poofs* into a city while you're inside it!

beardo

Instant wouldn’t be as bad as you guys think.. it takes days to weeks for some nodes to progress to the next level. Then there is a cap to cities unable to pop unless a metro gets taken out.. So I’m not to worried about instant popping up. Even if I do see it I’m usually not that focused on the game as hard while I’m in a city running around. I hope they have a node exp bar so people can avoid the town until it dings.

Dygz

Yeah, I had Toast get us an answer during the stream.
Currently, the dev designed buildings pop instantaneously when the Node progresses to the next Stage.
Mayor/government created buildings will develop gradually between Stages.
The devs are hoping they will later be able to implement adjustments that will make the transition from Stage to Stage a bit more gradual than instantaneous.

Azathoth

I thought that originally the nodes were going to 'pop' level so that they couldn't be 'camped' by players looking for housing or setting up freeholds.

I think it makes some sense to do a countdown timer of an hour. This prevents everyone from logging in and waiting but also allows citizens of the node currently logged in the chance to hang close for housing or free hold placement.

I would like to see a gradual increase, but would also like the pop factor to make free hold placement more random (first come first served and all).

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