One node to rule them all?

Ok I dont know really how the node system works in this game but my understanding is that the more players do in a nodes area, the more the node grows. The more quests, the harder quests and the whole node area scales up with that node. In a video I saw the guy said that the node in the starting area will be populated for a long time after the game goes live, because it will be the most advanced node and high lvl players will be around doing quests in this node ,same as new players.

Now the question I have is, how do you make players go to new nodes in order to grow them? For example, Im new to the game and I just got to lvl 10. I want to go explore and lvl up more. But all the other nodes are less advanced and I will lvl slower or not at all at other nodes. Does it not seem that all these players will, in their rush to reach max lvl and get to endgame, they will all stay at the starter node because its the most advanced? Why should I as a player spend the time going to grow other nodes, if there is allready a node growing fast with thousands of people progressing it? It just seems to me that the starting area will be a shit show of everyone fighting to do content in the only node thats made real progress.

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bloodprophet

Different dungeons and quests will unlock at different points of the nodes level and ZOI(zone of influence)
Lots of good information here. Welcome to the community.

https://ashesofcreation.wiki/Nodes

neuroguy

Valid question

there are tons of reasons for people to branch out and check out other nodes but I think a relevant one to what you're saying is that as a node lvls up, it encompasses nearby nodes in its zone of influence (ZOI) which are then referred to as the big node's vassal nodes. Any node within the big node's ZOI can have higher lvl content + dungeons spawning within it. At the max lvl (metropolis), the ZOI of the metro will encompass ~1/5 of the whole world so there will be potentially high lvl content spawning anywhere within that fifth of the world.
So in summary, the metro itself will be a big player hub with a lot of players, but all of the surrounding nodes will have high lvl content to satisfy players that will come and go based on world events etc. You should read up on the node system on the wiki to learn more.

Nettume-Networks

To actually answer your question, nothing except there is multiple spawn points. So a few nodes will be levelled up Plus in order to harvest resources/useful terrain/dungeons/ enemies some nodes will be prioritized or people will migrate to those areas.
I just noticed this as a problem to the game, and I will try to get it properly addressed because if people play the game like other MMOs one quest to the next no breaks then the unique node system might become useless as all servers have the same nodes developed

Aerlana

as said, what content will be avaible will vary depending the node that grew or not.
And while with "vassal system" some nodes wont be able to reach higher tier (a vassal can not grow as big as his "master") there will be hard impact.

Then, to grow even bigger, people from the master node will have to help slower node to grow also (vassal gives part of XP to the master)

Also, there is 1 mayor slot. Some people will want to be "the boss" And will make people follow them to new nodes. And here is the social part. that can makes the world living again and again :
With enimity, rivalry. guilds in conflicts, some drama will makes people separate from each other. It can even make a metro get not enough people to stay this state and delevel to city... maybe even town.
And a good way to grow is making more people to come... one way to do it is destroying other nodes with node siege. But the result will be 3 kind of people. Those who goes to closest big node, those who stays or take a smaller around to rebuild a town. and also some that consider this region is dangerous and go far away to set in elsewhere.

So many things will make the people move ot other nodes. mostly simply human behaviour and social relationship

Buddymonkey

Aerlana wrote: »

as said, what content will be avaible will vary depending the node that grew or not.
And while with "vassal system" some nodes wont be able to reach higher tier (a vassal can not grow as big as his "master") there will be hard impact.

Then, to grow even bigger, people from the master node will have to help slower node to grow also (vassal gives part of XP to the master)

Also, there is 1 mayor slot. Some people will want to be "the boss" And will make people follow them to new nodes. And here is the social part. that can makes the world living again and again :
With enimity, rivalry. guilds in conflicts, some drama will makes people separate from each other. It can even make a metro get not enough people to stay this state and delevel to city... maybe even town.
And a good way to grow is making more people to come... one way to do it is destroying other nodes with node siege. But the result will be 3 kind of people. Those who goes to closest big node, those who stays or take a smaller around to rebuild a town. and also some that consider this region is dangerous and go far away to set in elsewhere.

So many things will make the people move ot other nodes. mostly simply human behaviour and social relationship

Well my point is that Human behavior is exactly why people will stay. Most people will not want to go to others nodes if they feel like they will lvl slower. They may branch out after reaching max lvl but most people will be scared of being left behind or falling behind the pack and will not move to a lesser node for that reason. This is just my impression from being in the MMO world my whole life, most people will stay in the same area and do the same quests over and over if they think its the fastest way to lvl.

Dygz

You make people go to different Nodes by destroying the Node they're at.

I dunno who said that the "starting Nodes" will be the most advanced Nodes.
Could be that the Node closest to a starting area will the most advanced Node, but that is unlikely to be the exact same Node on every server because it will actually depend on the Node type the players hope to be the master Node rather than a vassal Node.
So... for some servers it might be the closest Scientific Node while on other servers it's the closest Military Node.
Also, Alpha and Beta players may choose to focus on Nodes a bit farther away than closest to the starting areas - if they determine that the terrain is better for Siege Defense.

Starting areas will always exist. And there will be incentives for max level players to return there.
But, the starting areas are not tied to the Node system.

Aerlana

Buddymonkey wrote: »

Well my point is that Human behavior is exactly why people will stay.

Did you play end game in some living MMORPG.
If yes, you saw a lot of drama, even in the biggest guilds. Some guilds die, their player spread and guild grow, maybe even strongher that the previous stronghest one. Two guild could work together to make a node big, and strong, and finally come the time they are in conflict.
This is more than enough to make people spread. they won't help anyone they hate

A large group of roleplayer can also come one day with a project that could be good in a region which is for now only small nodes. So this region will have many people coming, helping to grow more. and while there is conflict elsewhere, this region will feel like a good place to settle in. so more people.

also about the fear to fall "behind the pack" yes in the first month, and time will pass, some will fall behind the pack... because a 30h weekly can't compete with a 40h weekly. And 30h is already more that what many people can do ! (3hours a day in week days + 7h30 on saturday + sunday. do this for months if you have children, study/work, etc)
and then, some people will just see the game in other way. Even more if the will of the devs to not be useless if low level becomes a reality in the game.

Noaani

@Buddymonkey

While a few have tried to answer your question here, and Bloodprophet and Neuroguy actually did a fairly good job and also pointed you to more information, I have also seen that you have been given some information here that is blatantly wrong, or is only relevant to situations you are not talking about.

I am working on the premise of a player new to the game once nodes are already developed.

As a new player to the game, the first thing you will want to do is find content that is level appropriate for you, and this is likely to be around lower level nodes.

While true that you will have to gravitate towards a higher level nodes Zone of Influence as you gain higher levels (as that is where the higher level content will be), this is by design.

Once at max level, however, and deciding what you wish to do from here, there are many reasons you may want to go to a smaller node. And remember, 90%+ of time spent in most MMO's is spent at the level cap.

It may well be that you would rather be a large fish in a small pond, as opposed to a small fish in a large pond. It may well be that you want to keep close to a specific resource - and as such you may move around to different nodes as that resource is used up and respawns. It may be that you want to be on a road between two major node clusters in order to offer specific services. You may be speculating that a major node is about to fall and so want to build up a node to a level to either contest being the next metropolis in the region, or simply offer a home to those displaced (this could also go hand in hand with property speculation). It may also simply be that you want to be as far away from others as possible, so as to not be attacked as frequently.

Different players will have different reasons for either wanting to live in a metropolis, a vassal of a metropolis, or a smaller node in the middle of nowhere.

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