Race composition within nodes

Owren

Hello everyone,

First of all I'd like to say howdy to everybody... I'm relatively new here.. I backed in October, have been devouring content since, and I'm super stoked for AOC!

I was just wondering what people may be anticipating with regards to the composition of races within the nodes. Do you think that the population of a particular node will be a clear majority of a specific race, or do you think it'll be more of a melting pot with a relatively equal representation of every race? Or some of each depending on the node?

I think both would be cool.. but only time will tell what will actually happen..

I guess we can make this a 2 part question. What would you like to see, and what are you expecting to see realistically?

Cheers

Noaani

I don't think most people are going to give any thought at all to race when picking a node. That is what I expect.

Since I will be one of the people above that doesn't give race a second thought in relation to nodes, what I want to see is others that also don't give it a second thought.

Dygz

Steven has stated in both of his Ashen Forge interviews that it will be beneficial for players of a specific race to have a Metro with a majority of their race on the server.
It will be beneficial for a Pyrian player to have a Pyrian Metro on the server.

Each Node will have a majority NPC population that reflects the race that made the most contribution to the progression to the next Stage. That racial population will determine which quests are available and which services are available.
How much an individual player cares about that will depend on how much the individual player character cares about racial progression.

Noaani

Dygz wrote: »

How much an individual player cares about that will depend on how much the individual player character cares about racial progression.

Indeed.

Since I would assume that most of the racial progression would fall in to the RP catagory rather than the efficacy catagory, that is likely to make it so most players opt for other factors as the primary consideration with node choice.

The primary factor most players will look at is likely to be location - if their guild makes a node their home, that player is likely to make either that node or an adjacent node their home.

After that, the next two most likely factors will be either node level, or node type. Different people will have different priorities here - some will take a scientific node at level 4 over a military node at level 6, some would take the level 6 node regardless of the type.

The fourth and fifth factors are likely to be religion and social organization.

Race is likely to be the sixth factor for most players.

Now, this is obviously an assumption, but it is one we have no real reason to assume won't be accurate. It is also true that some players will focus more on RP than efficacy, and so will make decisions differently (though their RP inclination may still want them to seek out a level 6 node as their home in order to have as big a house as they can get).

Since leveling up a node to metropolis state is something that takes thousands of players, it is unlikely, based on the above, that any server will find the cooperation between enough people of one race to agree to level up a node based on race.

Generally speaking, due to sheer numbers required, the racial influence of nodes is something players are not going to be able to easily affect with any kind of reliability, which brings me back to my first point, as this notion supports the concept that racial influence is likely to be mostly RP related.

daveywavey

I guess it depends how strong the buffs are for being in your own race's node.

But, I just want a city by the tropical beach. I'll be quite happy there.

Behague

Race is very important to Elves of Tolkien. When I think of Middle Earth, I don't imagine Elves living with anyone but other Elves. I dont plan on role-playing, but I do like a certain amount of lore friendly immersion. Maybe the Elves of Verra won't be this way, we'll have to wait and see.

I'd like to see Cities that match their locations.
Realistically, I'm expecting to see Trolls.

Vhaeyne

I plan on playing Empyrean, for the aesthetic. I plan on having all of my stuff at my house looking empyrean, but ultimately once I join a guild they will determine my node.

Songcaller

If the starting regions are race specific, I will assume the starting nodes can't become Metropolises. If the starting nodes can become Metropolises then all the races will have the racial benefits of a cultural metro. I haven't heard you only get the cultural bonuses inside the node. I heard the nodes are server wide implications at Metro level.

McMackMuck

@neurath I'm a little confused by the map of Verra. Based on what we know so far I could construct an argument for saying that each divine gateway is for each of the four main races, which then follow the eight trails to a settlement in a location that matches what we know about the eight races. This means desert for Vaelune, riverlands for Kaeler, tropical islands for Nikua, flat top mountains for Dunir, etc.
.
But then there is the Tulnar.
.
Also we have been told that any race can use any divine gateway.
.
So there is the contradiction and associated confusion.

Songcaller

Yeah, I mean Tulnar in the underrealm will definately achieve a Tulnar Metro in my mind. Which means Tulnar will have the benefit of a Metro most likely. Other races might not be so fortunate.

McMackMuck

In answer to the original post.
Hi Owren,
I think some Empyrean and some Dunir players will band together for a node (I guess that I perceive these two as having an especially strong sense of racial identity) but the other races won't see the same level of commitment to their race. IMO.

The Tulnar seem to pick up a lot of fantasy racism comments on Discord, which is great for role-playing, but a little strange when you're used to judging people by their actions. This behaviour may encourage Tulnar to band together in a node.

What would I like to see? I'm not fussed enough to care if one race or another gets a metropolis. Respect to them if they manage it. I'm expecting to see the PvP heavy guilds on my server fight and negotiate their way towards "a degree of stability", whatever that phrase ends up meaning!
I hope that I see the bulk of the server (eventually) working towards exploring all the content, by tearing down and rebuilding metropolises as necessary.

daveywavey

Neurath wrote: »

Yeah, I mean Tulnar in the underrealm will definately achieve a Tulnar Metro in my mind. Which means Tulnar will have the benefit of a Metro most likely. Other races might not be so fortunate.

Well, the Tulnar cities should already be up, since they've been living there a few thousand years already. So, yeah, the underrealm should be the Tulnar aesthetic.

Dygz

McMackMuck wrote: »

@neurath I'm a little confused by the map of Verra. Based on what we know so far I could construct an argument for saying that each divine gateway is for each of the four main races, which then follow the eight trails to a settlement in a location that matches what we know about the eight races. This means desert for Vaelune, riverlands for Kaeler, tropical islands for Nikua, flat top mountains for Dunir, etc.
.
But then there is the Tulnar.
.
Also we have been told that any race can use any divine gateway.
.
So there is the contradiction and associated confusion.

Racial population (away from the Gateways) are based on which race contributes most to the progression to the next Stage of the Node; not by environment.