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An idea... the Ruins of a Tier 6 City?
Elgaroth
Member
Good evening, everyone. 
This post is as much for the Devs as it is for my fellow players. I had an idea that I wanted to share… and if it leads to fun discussion (or the developers going “Hmm…”) then so much the better. Either way, I hope it sounds fun… and if someone else has posted a similar idea, then I apologize for being repetitive.
I was watching the node siege videos the other day. I really can’t wait to participate in that! The grand scale of a Tier 6 city having a knock-down, drag-down fight to defend itself looks truly awesome!
Then I wondered, though… what happens to a Tier 6 city that that is razed to the ground? Yes, it’s all a part of the game, and I’ve no problem with that… but this city is something that many players devoted days/weeks/months of effort to build… and now it’s just gone? Nothing left?
Kind of an anti-climactic finish, I thought… and perhaps a waste of a good opportunity. I mean, if players make the proper preparations, could the city’s death lead to something even more interesting?
Concept: the “Fallen” City.
In this scenario, denizens of a particularly powerful and well-developed city can effectively “prepare” for their possible demise… by investing some of their space/resources into certain buildings or defensive options. As an example, let’s first consider an Economic Node.
1. Economic Nodes… the Order of the Red Dragon.
This is a social order within the city that builds up around idealizing greed and profit. The buildings are things like mints, treasure rooms, museums, etc. Eventually, this culture permeates the whole city.
Unbeknownst to the city’s populace, the Order of the Red Dragon was started by an actual Dragon’s minions/servants… who hope to gather enough wealth to draw the great Red Dragon himself to take the city as his own.
Then, when/if the city falls, it does not simply become a clean slate of land. Instead, the Dragon himself descends upon the ruins and claims the horde of coins as his own… dispatching or driving away the attackers and making the whole node into his lair.
Why would this be cool? Well, instead of completely losing a well-developed city, it now becomes yet a new opportunity for adventure, conquest, and more adventure!
For one thing, the city itself could become a Ruin… an open-world “Dungeon” zone filled with epic monsters… including the Great Dragon himself and all of his lizard minion hordes. In theory, this wouldn’t be too hard to develop, either, since the original city models could be used as a template and then just modified. Anything to help the devs, right? Either way, it’d be the only way to ever find or access this content.
Secondly, it may be a good opportunity for players to contribute, effectively, as NPCs for a while. Each player who contributed to the Order of the Red Dragon could “fall” under the dragon’s influence and agree to become a “bad guy” for a while. This would add a powerful PVP aspect to the Ruin itself… with a group of players trying to help defend, expand, and promote the reach/scope of the Dragon. Not a bad way to spend a month or two in-game, right?
This could provide a HUGE breadth of opportunity for the game. Unique resources could be spawned specifically for the event… perhaps “red gold” found in the bowels of the caves beneath the Lair, dug up by the Dragon’s kobald minions? Unique items could be made from this resource. Unique quests to fight for/against the Order as the Dragon gains power. Etc.
Essentially, I conceived of this becoming a truly World-Effecting event, if the players pull it off. As the Dragon’s influence spreads… his minions pop up in neighboring zones… perhaps leading to infestations of kobalds, lizardmen, etc. World markets are affected… weather patterns changed… you name it. In the end, it becomes in the whole world’s best interests to band together and take down this monstrosity once and for all… giving opportunity for another (or perhaps a series) of great battles to take down the beast and his “fallen” followers!
I think that’d be pretty cool.
After I thought about it for a while, I came up with some thoughts for the other kinds of nodes too.
2. Military Nodes… the Temple of the Fallen Warrior.
This is a warrior lodge that dedicates honors to the fallen warriors of old. Catacombs and grand temples and monuments to the greatest of generations past.
Unbeknownst to the city’s populace, a vile necromancer is using the collective homage of the people of the city to draw in the souls of the fallen warriors… the most mighty of which is ready to lead his legions of the undead back to conquer the world that has forgotten him!
Then, when/if the city falls, the Warrior rises from the burning ashes… the dead begin to stir… and an unstoppable hoard of skeletons/zombies/etc lay claim to the Ruin and begin to spread a reign of terror!
3. Religious Nodes… the Cult of the Dark God.
This is a church devoted to a long-forgotten pantheon... temples and artifices built to their names.
In this case… the Dark God returns… and the denizens of the city become his/her thralls!
The idea for this node’s unique resource was “Blood Wood”… the dark, sappy roots that spread through the forests as the Cult spreads its influence.
4. Scientific Nodes… the Circle of the Elements.
This is an academic fraternity, who’s members are obsessed with the mystic and technological potential of the Elements… and the portals their use creates.
In the end, this proves their undoing… as when the city falls, the Great Circle/Portal opens… loosing the innumerable plague of elementals upon the land!
Anyway… it’s just an idea. Essentially, I thought why waste a good opportunity for more great content?
This could be literally a next level of quests/gear/story to unlock above and beyond (after) the creation of an epic Tier 6 city… and a conflict that could draw in ALL the cities of the world, either for or against. Eventually, the Ruin and its denizens would have to be destroyed, lest the world be consumed. To motivate that, I figure the worldwide benefits/opportunities would slowly fade and the worldwide problems and plagues would slowly grow… so no Ruin would last forever.
But what fantastic stories would it lead to?
Either way, I hope you all like the idea anyway. If nothing else, I hope it was a fun read.
Take care, everyone!
-Elgaroth
This post is as much for the Devs as it is for my fellow players. I had an idea that I wanted to share… and if it leads to fun discussion (or the developers going “Hmm…”) then so much the better. Either way, I hope it sounds fun… and if someone else has posted a similar idea, then I apologize for being repetitive.
I was watching the node siege videos the other day. I really can’t wait to participate in that! The grand scale of a Tier 6 city having a knock-down, drag-down fight to defend itself looks truly awesome!
Then I wondered, though… what happens to a Tier 6 city that that is razed to the ground? Yes, it’s all a part of the game, and I’ve no problem with that… but this city is something that many players devoted days/weeks/months of effort to build… and now it’s just gone? Nothing left?
Kind of an anti-climactic finish, I thought… and perhaps a waste of a good opportunity. I mean, if players make the proper preparations, could the city’s death lead to something even more interesting?
Concept: the “Fallen” City.
In this scenario, denizens of a particularly powerful and well-developed city can effectively “prepare” for their possible demise… by investing some of their space/resources into certain buildings or defensive options. As an example, let’s first consider an Economic Node.
1. Economic Nodes… the Order of the Red Dragon.
This is a social order within the city that builds up around idealizing greed and profit. The buildings are things like mints, treasure rooms, museums, etc. Eventually, this culture permeates the whole city.
Unbeknownst to the city’s populace, the Order of the Red Dragon was started by an actual Dragon’s minions/servants… who hope to gather enough wealth to draw the great Red Dragon himself to take the city as his own.
Then, when/if the city falls, it does not simply become a clean slate of land. Instead, the Dragon himself descends upon the ruins and claims the horde of coins as his own… dispatching or driving away the attackers and making the whole node into his lair.
Why would this be cool? Well, instead of completely losing a well-developed city, it now becomes yet a new opportunity for adventure, conquest, and more adventure!
For one thing, the city itself could become a Ruin… an open-world “Dungeon” zone filled with epic monsters… including the Great Dragon himself and all of his lizard minion hordes. In theory, this wouldn’t be too hard to develop, either, since the original city models could be used as a template and then just modified. Anything to help the devs, right?
Either way, it’d be the only way to ever find or access this content.Secondly, it may be a good opportunity for players to contribute, effectively, as NPCs for a while. Each player who contributed to the Order of the Red Dragon could “fall” under the dragon’s influence and agree to become a “bad guy” for a while. This would add a powerful PVP aspect to the Ruin itself… with a group of players trying to help defend, expand, and promote the reach/scope of the Dragon. Not a bad way to spend a month or two in-game, right?
This could provide a HUGE breadth of opportunity for the game. Unique resources could be spawned specifically for the event… perhaps “red gold” found in the bowels of the caves beneath the Lair, dug up by the Dragon’s kobald minions? Unique items could be made from this resource. Unique quests to fight for/against the Order as the Dragon gains power. Etc.
Essentially, I conceived of this becoming a truly World-Effecting event, if the players pull it off. As the Dragon’s influence spreads… his minions pop up in neighboring zones… perhaps leading to infestations of kobalds, lizardmen, etc. World markets are affected… weather patterns changed… you name it. In the end, it becomes in the whole world’s best interests to band together and take down this monstrosity once and for all… giving opportunity for another (or perhaps a series) of great battles to take down the beast and his “fallen” followers!
I think that’d be pretty cool.
After I thought about it for a while, I came up with some thoughts for the other kinds of nodes too.
2. Military Nodes… the Temple of the Fallen Warrior.
This is a warrior lodge that dedicates honors to the fallen warriors of old. Catacombs and grand temples and monuments to the greatest of generations past.
Unbeknownst to the city’s populace, a vile necromancer is using the collective homage of the people of the city to draw in the souls of the fallen warriors… the most mighty of which is ready to lead his legions of the undead back to conquer the world that has forgotten him!
Then, when/if the city falls, the Warrior rises from the burning ashes… the dead begin to stir… and an unstoppable hoard of skeletons/zombies/etc lay claim to the Ruin and begin to spread a reign of terror!
3. Religious Nodes… the Cult of the Dark God.
This is a church devoted to a long-forgotten pantheon... temples and artifices built to their names.
In this case… the Dark God returns… and the denizens of the city become his/her thralls!
The idea for this node’s unique resource was “Blood Wood”… the dark, sappy roots that spread through the forests as the Cult spreads its influence.
4. Scientific Nodes… the Circle of the Elements.
This is an academic fraternity, who’s members are obsessed with the mystic and technological potential of the Elements… and the portals their use creates.
In the end, this proves their undoing… as when the city falls, the Great Circle/Portal opens… loosing the innumerable plague of elementals upon the land!
Anyway… it’s just an idea. Essentially, I thought why waste a good opportunity for more great content?
This could be literally a next level of quests/gear/story to unlock above and beyond (after) the creation of an epic Tier 6 city… and a conflict that could draw in ALL the cities of the world, either for or against. Eventually, the Ruin and its denizens would have to be destroyed, lest the world be consumed. To motivate that, I figure the worldwide benefits/opportunities would slowly fade and the worldwide problems and plagues would slowly grow… so no Ruin would last forever.
But what fantastic stories would it lead to?
Either way, I hope you all like the idea anyway. If nothing else, I hope it was a fun read.
Take care, everyone!
-Elgaroth
2
Comments
https://forums.ashesofcreation.com/discussion/37177/city-ruins
https://forums.ashesofcreation.com/discussion/4627/aftermath-of-nodedestruction
https://forums.ashesofcreation.com/discussion/comment/231385#Comment_231385
https://forums.ashesofcreation.com/discussion/47145/would-memorials-be-fitting-or-would-fresh-at-zero-be-best
Those are all old threads. And you can see that the idea of ruins being left behind was already ruled out by Intrepid years ago in a livestream. It’s not going to happen, sorry.
Master Assassin
(Yes same Tyrantor from Shadowbane)
Book suggestions:
Galaxy Outlaws books 1-16.5, Metagamer Chronicles, The Land litrpg series, Ready Player One, Zen in the Martial Arts
My thoughts on this is that I'd like to see a social organization that is akin to GoT's maesters.
An organization dedicated to keeping a written history of player events on the server could make for some interesting gameplay. Tie that in with a few other functions that they performed, and it could really make the game feel even more alive.
got to love search