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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.
Open Questions for me ,Community can help ?
Patsold
Member, Alpha Two
I still have certain questions about certain mechanics.
I am very hyped on the game but try to switch off this hype in me in order to logically imagine this game.
maybe you can enlighten me community: D
1. If a Rogue finds a box in a dungeon that only he can find, does the loot in the box belong to the rogue or the group? is the loot high quality? or are there only simple materials in it?
2. When summoners work together to summon a golem in a siege battle. Does this golem have mechanics like a boss? will it trigger skills automatically? Or does it just replace some work for a battering ram. Have the Golem or the battering ram more dmg ?
3. in a 250 vs 250 (or 500vs500) battle, if one side reaches its player limit, will there be a queue? if you die you are thrown out to have space for others?
4. If there are unequal proportions of players in a siege battle (120vs250) does the side with the few players get a small buff such as a 10% buff on all values? shortened resuscitation? or nothing ?
5. in order to determine the server population, is an average value of the citizens of a node taken and that multiplied by the high? how many nodes and player have a server ?
6. Will overcrowded nodes have disadvantages to increase the player's expansion rate? that relates to whether there are disadvantages if you settle in a deserted area.
7. Will battle nodes have better and stronger NPC guardians? will the caravans be better guarded from there?
8. So the endgame consists of the nodes that create conflicts(or.. ?). Does that mean that for pve players who already have end equipment, only collecting gold is possible. ? won't that lead to inflation? or are there control mechanisms such as the system with the flyingmounts. (like a dragon that has a lifespan, so will endgear equipment also expire after a period of time in order to recover it again from a dungeon or the materials to repair it?)
These are some of the questions that burn on my tongue. I hope you can help me: D
I am very hyped on the game but try to switch off this hype in me in order to logically imagine this game.
maybe you can enlighten me community: D
1. If a Rogue finds a box in a dungeon that only he can find, does the loot in the box belong to the rogue or the group? is the loot high quality? or are there only simple materials in it?
2. When summoners work together to summon a golem in a siege battle. Does this golem have mechanics like a boss? will it trigger skills automatically? Or does it just replace some work for a battering ram. Have the Golem or the battering ram more dmg ?
3. in a 250 vs 250 (or 500vs500) battle, if one side reaches its player limit, will there be a queue? if you die you are thrown out to have space for others?
4. If there are unequal proportions of players in a siege battle (120vs250) does the side with the few players get a small buff such as a 10% buff on all values? shortened resuscitation? or nothing ?
5. in order to determine the server population, is an average value of the citizens of a node taken and that multiplied by the high? how many nodes and player have a server ?
6. Will overcrowded nodes have disadvantages to increase the player's expansion rate? that relates to whether there are disadvantages if you settle in a deserted area.
7. Will battle nodes have better and stronger NPC guardians? will the caravans be better guarded from there?
8. So the endgame consists of the nodes that create conflicts(or.. ?). Does that mean that for pve players who already have end equipment, only collecting gold is possible. ? won't that lead to inflation? or are there control mechanisms such as the system with the flyingmounts. (like a dragon that has a lifespan, so will endgear equipment also expire after a period of time in order to recover it again from a dungeon or the materials to repair it?)
These are some of the questions that burn on my tongue. I hope you can help me: D
0
Comments
I'm asking this because I haven't found it. so i ask the community maybe i skipped something or read it wrong. even if the answers are not yet available, the questions should be a kind of stimulus for thought. thank you though
1. This depends on the group. I would say the reason I brought the rogue into the dungeon is to unlock new areas. This would give all of us the chance at the loot. Anything that is clearly FOR a specific player should go to that player as long as it is an upgrade. Anything that is not an upgrade should be a simple greed roll by everyone. I would hate for the community to see class specific perks as a "me me me" style perk.
2. I don't know much about this mechanic but it sounds amazing. I am hoping that summoners working together to summon this would create an NPC that would move to the objective in that siege. If it were controlled by someone, it might not work as well. With the automated approach, summoners can time this ability to when it makes sense during a much needed push to an objective.
3. I don't think we know yet how this will work. Castles won by a guild will be sieged a month later. During this time, I am sure all of us will be waiting and signing up for the next siege as soon as we are able to. I would imagine there SHOULD be a queue system in place in case we have AFK's or people that have to leave.
4. With this scenario I really feel like there should be nothing given in the event of a disavantaged number. Think about it, a guild falls apart after taking a castle. They get rewarded to potentially keep the castle? IRL, those people would be outnumbered and slaughtered. Gotta hold the group together, create a positive community willing to work together and protect what is OURS. This would drive people to play more cohesively rather than just stop caring and expect a boost because people didn't sign up to help defend or attack IMO.
5. I cannot answer this one as I have not studied anything on nodes on purpose. I want to experience this in Alpha 2 first hand.
6. I would imagine the starting areas or right around those areas will absolutely be overcrowded at launch. I anticipate this. My guild will be going to a specific location and will be focusing on destroying whatever pops up right around the starting area we choose. I hope there is something in place to course correct zergs. Zergs can/will ruin this game if they aren't taken seriously from a balancing perspective. As for settling down in underpopulated areas, yes. They will be at a disadvantage. Working as a community is paramount.
7. I don't know what you mean by battle nodes. From what I understand, there are 103 nodes and they are all battle nodes.
"There will be 103 regular node locations at launch with 15 additional castle nodes (5 castles x 3 castle nodes each) for a total of 118 nodes"
"Mercenary NPCs
Mercenary NPCs can be hired to participate in objective-based situations.[7][8][9]
Mayors are able to allocate treasury funding to hire mercenary NPCs to defend their node during sieges.[8]
NPC mercanaries can also be hired to participate in castle sieges.[7]
Players will assign these NPCs, but won't micromanage them, in a similar manner to pets.[9]"
8. I feel your pain with this one. I don't want end game content to be stale and pointless. I am hoping that running raids and dungeons will not be TOO easy to where I can completely gear up my guild really early. It should take time to farm the materials and get everything organized to be gather/processed/made. I am very nervous that having 80% of the end game content be open world because I don't want straight zerg guilds to have the ability to run the server. Last Oasis died within 1 week because of this.
Timed flying mounts would make me cry but I wouldn't be against this idea. Bitter sweet indeed. Decayable end game gear would be a bad idea IMO. I think land consumption should play a big role in our end game focus. Not only organized raids but now organized counter raids can be a thing.
1. Yes, that's how I see it, I just know noting abaut the loot system, but that would be the right thing to do. it would be cool as a rogue to help the group get more loot.
4. My thought was in the case of too high a superiority (1.5x times), for example the defender has at least a small chance to defend it. In the starting area there is probably a lot of pulling around and to dampen that further, I would think a 10% buff on everything with a 1.5x superiority is possible.
6Yes, zergs scare me too. that's why I like to talk about it. depending on which skills aoe there are, you can defend yourself discreetly with aoe .. but I only assume that.
7 There should be 4 different nodes:
Divine nodes
Economic nodes
Military nodes
Scientific nodes
I just wanted to know if there are differences in strength from npc in diffrent nodes
.
I believe rogues can only find hidden doors, not chests...and once the door is discovered everybody will be able to cross it. That is not confirmed yet since we don't have the regular abilities for summoners in place yet, but I would bet the Golem will be controled by an AI and of course it will be Boss like
There is no confirmation yet, seems like a good question for the next Q&A
There is no information about that yet, personally I want every siege to be fun so Im always in favor of helping the losing side a little bit so it wont be a beat down Im not sure what are you asking here, server population is the total number of active accounts in the server... Not disadvantages, but yeah going from Town to City will be easier than going from City to Metropolis
I think you meant military nodes, there is noting set in stone yet, but I believe all nodes will have the same stats on their NPCs but worry not, there will be a lot of other differences between node types
Equipment will need maintenance also there are a lot of gold sinks in the economy, by example you will need to pay taxes to your node to keep your freehold, you will also need to spend money regularly when building caravans to transport good, or building ships to cross the sea and do water content, also the buffs provided by consumibles like food in taverns or potions will help mitigate the inflation. And of course death penalties and lost items from node sieges will help remove resources from the economy. .
1&2 wasn't answered yet.
3. the 250v250 / 500 v 500 are castle sieges. Castle Sieges are invite only buy the guild/alliance sieging the castle. So no, not really. Its up to the sieging guilds to determine who partcipates and who does not.
4.
5.103 standard nodes, 10k concurrent players, up to 50k accounts per server
6. Citizenship /Housing within a node costs increasing amount with more citizens being there already, so yes.
7. we don't know yet.
8. gear costs materials to repair yes, not just gold. That means that you will need higher quality repair materials if you have higher tier gear.
I try to analyze my start with strategy.
The idea that you can only lvling well in overcrowded nodes because the cities are being developed better is somehow stupid.
I would like to travel somewhere where there is less going on. In my opinion, this can also be a mistake because the lvle reaches its cap at some point. So if most of them have lived in a city for 1 week and better mobs spawn around the city, I'm probably still in a village with weaker ones. So is it better to stay at the starting point, try to lvl as well as possible and only then move into the remote parts of the country? or do you have your peace and quiet in a secluded part. I'm trying to find out.
my english is bad thats why i use the translator
"Summoner siege abilities
Summoners can collaborate to summon larger summons, such as Golems.[3]
A siege summon will have an incremental size based on the number of summoners participating in that summon activity, with a maximum of eight.[4]
The number of summoners participating in the summon will determine its overall size.[4]
All summoners must be in the same party and the party leader must be a summoner.[5]
The party leader initiates the summon and then takes control of it.
Once summoned, the party leader cannot be changed.
If the party disbands, the summon ends. There will be a grace period to handle disconnects.
The party may also contain non-Summoners."
define having "better" mobs, because I believe all nodes no matter the level will have appropriated mobs for leveling, now there are other advantages for exploring the world...sure the big cities will have bigger mob density but will also have more citizens trying to farm those mobs, that means more competition, also you wont get all the resources you might need in the same node, you might want to set your base far away and send caravans to that big city bringing rare resources and sell them for big profit. staying in the big city is not always the best option
As far as I understand it works something like this. The more a node is developed, the "better" mobs spawn in the area. That means that there are mobs with a better level only in areas where there are cities / metropolises. So in smaller settlements you won't be able to lvl so well, did I get that right?
and what important is: do you get exp from lowlvl mobs ? The question arises to me, is it even possible to lvl up in an area that has been at a low level state for a very long time(low lvl node)?
depending on how the exp system is set up, this could be bad. So you are mabe lvl 15 and the players in Citys can easy lvl up into .. like lvl 25 maby ?
So ... its better to lvl in a starting aeria ? its even possible that you cannot lvling above a lvl.... like lvl 15 and you need to push the node into a city ?
1. That's a tricky one, something only he can see? What about after it's found? I never have to share my pickpocket loot, for example. But unlocking chests in a dungeon for example? It's part of the utility you bring, it should therefore be shared in my opinion.
2. I do not know, I haven't heard too much about it other then Steven saying it would be a mechanic.
3. Considering it happens in the open world, I have my doubts about a queue. I would not mind to see a sort of attrition be part of it though. Supply lines which defenders can disrupt, it would also spread the battle out a bit more, which is good for PC's not melting. And gives smaller guilds a chance to do really well with small fireteams/battalions
4. I think a more prudent question would be, do defenders get a defender's advantage? I hope they do, how it would look, I do not know.
5. I am not sure I understand your question correctly. I reckon they are just listed, these things are tracked. I reckon in the tow-centre's census you'll be able to check the population in an in-game sort of way. Including those who haven't been online for a while whom might be flagged as MIA for example.
6. Overcrowding I would assume comes with the some problems as it does in real life. The resources surrounding the node will dwindle, fast, and they'll have to import with all the dangers that come with that. But that's wishful thinking. In truth. I do not know.
7. I think the mayor at least (but possibly guild leader and the sender of the caravan too) can pay gold for NPC guards. This would probably always be less useful then players, of course.
8. It's a little vague, Steven has cited influences of games. And gear will degrade over time, how this will take form is anyone's guess, though some people are convinced it's an almost direct copy of Lineage II. I still hope that gear isn't all that impactful on your strength and that the degradation is balanced, so that crafters for example can keep up with demand. But not so low that it barely factors in.
That´s why we are waiting for the nodes 3 video for 3 years now lol
A sandboxi civilization building system hosts many issues that are not easy to tackle at all.
The node system to our current knowledge host several bad dynamics, one of them you adressed with "So you are mabe lvl 15 and the players in Citys can easy lvl up into .. like lvl 25 maby ".
Nodes might snowball from day one, since players that put an emphasize on character progression might end up having to migrate to higher level nodes, or at leat grind mobs in that area, to be somewhat competitive in that regard. Players naturally gravitate to higher level nodes and end up contributing to them involuntarely ,which renders lower level nodes helpless.
Finding a solution where the interity of the playerbase is somewhat happy, is hard with such emerging power dynamics and poses a real challenge on the design team.
That´s why im an advocate for externalizing the world progression from the " content gates" that is the node system, to an system that the entirety of the server will have access to.
Similar to how SAO did it with their tower, where frontline players (progress raiders) slew bosses that opened up the access to the next layer.
Everyone could traverse that gate and progress their character in the new layer and have access to new rare ressources.
Yes, that's probably one of the most important factors in the game. the "snowball effect". depending on how big something turns out, it can be a fun killer.
And since I don't think that the developers will abolish the system with the nodes, I assume that something has already been considered. So I thought that maybe what was said in the stream and I just didn't notice it.
I mean there are many suggested solutions:
some gear/mats/items only drop at a certain nodelvl(more gold/item then exp ? ). Or that the mob density increases depending on how many people are citizens of a node and the exp number is only slightly increased (max + 20% based on a lowlvl node monster).Or all of it.
So you would of course be faster on the lvln but still not too fast. The dose makes the poison.
However, I believe that your SAO model mentioned could be bad for the game world. I think a lot of people want to get unique things in their respective regions. Various mounts, equipment, skins, ect.
By making everything accessible to the masses, the value is reduced. and we find ourselves in the lobby-based games we left behind. (How else can you get access to all the towers if you can't make a fast trip?)
I am convinced that there will definitely be differences, it is only how great these differences are that defines the gaming experience. as long as you can still play in pvp with lvl 10 against a lvl 12-13, everything is fine. But if you have the same gametime and don't have a chance with lvl 10 against a lvl 20 whit the same gametime, because of his lvl , I think it's wrong. we're talking about the first 6-8 weeks of playing, yes, but the beginning of a game not only attracts people, it also keeps them.
Pat sell himsold
i was like 11 and i want a mercenary name .. yea i keep it all this years