Cities Empty?

waypoc

Just a thought, with the potential of cities, always being in a state of flux between stages, how will cities stay populated with players? Wouldn’t it be a bit of a put-off for players?

I guess a follow-up question would be, how long will a city stay at a particular stage so that it feels like a stable city that you want to be a part of?

I just don’t want cities to feel transient.

I hope that made some sense.

Thanks,
Waypoc

NiKr

Dunno what "flux" you're talking about. Unless no one already lives there or unless the node (or parent one) gets sieged, the state of the node won't change all of a sudden. We don't know how often sieges will happen so it'd be difficult to say how often the changes would happen.

And as for plain decay, work hard and it won't happen.

waypoc

Thanks, Nikr. Flux means how long the city will stay in its current stage.

Diamaht

Don't know how often cities get sieged. My understanding is that it's a process and an expense to raid a city. This probably mean not all cities are getting sieged all the time.

You will likely wind up with some areas that are volatile and some areas that are peaceful. However, it's all guessing at this point until it's put in front of players.

You would just need to find a relatively peaceful area to build in if you want more stability.

Asgerr

Diamaht wrote: »

Don't know how often cities get sieged.

If the node survives, there will be a cooldown before the node can be sieged again:

• Village (20 days)
• Town (30 days)
• City (40 days)
• Metropolis (50 days)

So assuming someone, for some reason, declares a siege at every end of the cooldown, sieges will happen around once a month or two.

With that said, and back on the more exact topic, if a Node gets "abandoned" by its players to flock to a different area, it won't remain as a barren city. Nodes have a decay mechanic which de-levels the node back to Town, then to village and to encampment. So if no one is around, because people migrate to different areas for content, those old cities will cease to exist in their current for after a while, until someone levels them up again.

More details here: https://ashesofcreation.wiki/Node_atrophy

Ironhope

Cities will stay populated because they provide benefits (economic, social, etc).

Those who don't won't survive long because other groups have interest in sieging and destroying them and if the defending cities have a low population, they will be wiped.

Decidendi

waypoc wrote: »

Just a thought, with the potential of cities, always being in a state of flux between stages, how will cities stay populated with players? Wouldn’t it be a bit of a put-off for players?

I guess a follow-up question would be, how long will a city stay at a particular stage so that it feels like a stable city that you want to be a part of?

I just don’t want cities to feel transient.

I hope that made some sense.

Thanks,
Waypoc

In any MMO, you have areas that are hyper populated and then areas hat are more empty. It's inevitable. However, remember that many people will choose to spawn in different areas on the map and choose to quest/grind around those areas, making the map as a whole feel alive.

I, for one, will be focusing on the mountainous region of the map and I hope to have Dünir as a whole contribute to developing a node there, so that we can have the aesthetic feel of a 'dwarven area' in those mountains.

Dygz

I'm not sure what "flux" or "in its current Stage" are meant to convey.
You still have to constrruct buildings and services. There will still be effects from Towns and Villages and the Metro...and even the Castle.

Why would a City stuggle to stay populated? I don't understand the premise.

Scarbeus

This goes back to a similar topic that was discussed about the value of certain nodes. Due to their location some with have greater value as their are closer to more nodes or are better for trading. Some might have a higher value due to their resources or dungeons that spawn.

But think about it like this: if a node seems a bit out of the way, you actually get a lot of bonuses from a high level settlement and it's less likely to get raided if you're out the way. If you want to buy a plot of land to farm then that sort of settlement is for you, giving it a high personal value.

tautau

The population of successful, growing nodes are likely to be quite loyal to the node and each other. They will be heavily invested in the survival and growth of the node.

Also, keep in mind that the effort required to attack a node is roughly equivalent to that of building the node to its current level. A Metro takes Months of effort of a Lot of players to build, so that much effort to attack a metro is going to be vast. The attack on a large node is going to be a huge event for the server.

waypoc

Thanks for all the responses. It does clear things up a bit.
However, I still have some concerns.
I just don't want to see mass migrations across the map based on resources, and content (on land or at sea), leaving a bit of scorched earth.

Noaani

waypoc wrote: »

Thanks for all the responses. It does clear things up a bit.
However, I still have some concerns.
I just don't want to see mass migrations across the map based on resources, and content (on land or at sea), leaving a bit of scorched earth.

That is kind of the point of the game though.

It's worth pointing out though, at least in Ashes, today's scorched earth is tomorrow's fertile soil.