Greetings, glorious adventurers! If you're joining in our Alpha One spot testing, please follow the steps here to see all the latest test info on our forums and Discord!
Options
Castle Nodes In Relation To Other Node Types
Sengarden
Member
Hey all, I just had some questions about how guild nodes will relate to the other node types. Originally, I never thought about castles having their own nodes or ZOIs themselves, I always just pictured them being guild-ownable buildings within their given parent node's ZOI.
After looking on the wiki, it sounds in some parts like they exist entirely separate from the regular node system, with their own dedicated surrounding nodes, but then it later mentions that castles could theoretically exist right next to a castle, with these separate nodes and ZOIs overlapping. Castles and their surrounding nodes are said to have their own caravans designed to be defended in order to continuously strengthen the defenses and development of the castle and its surrounding nodes.
Overall, it sounds like there's a lot of interconnectivity here, and that sounds awesome, but I'm also left a bit confused as to how these nodes overlap.
So the castle has these three surrounding nodes over which it has its own "region" (separate form of ZOI) and which it must develop in order to maximize its defensive capabilities. Furthermore, it states that only guild members from the occupied castle can become citizens of these three surrounding nodes.
The wiki also states that these nodes can overlap. So one of these surrounding castle nodes could also be within the ZOI of a larger metropolis a couple nodes away. Does this mean the castle node benefits and metropolis node benefits stack on top of one another? Does this make it less beneficial for non-castle-residents to develop a node nearby a castle since one or more of their vassal nodes would end up being these special castle nodes that only the castle's guild members can occupy? Does the addition of a castle and it's castle nodes improve the quality of life for non-castle residents of the parent node family in a way that would make it beneficial for non-castle residents to develop a node nearby a castle?
Perhaps not all of this is ironed out yet, and if that's the case, how would you like to see these intersections handled?
After looking on the wiki, it sounds in some parts like they exist entirely separate from the regular node system, with their own dedicated surrounding nodes, but then it later mentions that castles could theoretically exist right next to a castle, with these separate nodes and ZOIs overlapping. Castles and their surrounding nodes are said to have their own caravans designed to be defended in order to continuously strengthen the defenses and development of the castle and its surrounding nodes.
Overall, it sounds like there's a lot of interconnectivity here, and that sounds awesome, but I'm also left a bit confused as to how these nodes overlap.
So the castle has these three surrounding nodes over which it has its own "region" (separate form of ZOI) and which it must develop in order to maximize its defensive capabilities. Furthermore, it states that only guild members from the occupied castle can become citizens of these three surrounding nodes.
The wiki also states that these nodes can overlap. So one of these surrounding castle nodes could also be within the ZOI of a larger metropolis a couple nodes away. Does this mean the castle node benefits and metropolis node benefits stack on top of one another? Does this make it less beneficial for non-castle-residents to develop a node nearby a castle since one or more of their vassal nodes would end up being these special castle nodes that only the castle's guild members can occupy? Does the addition of a castle and it's castle nodes improve the quality of life for non-castle residents of the parent node family in a way that would make it beneficial for non-castle residents to develop a node nearby a castle?
Perhaps not all of this is ironed out yet, and if that's the case, how would you like to see these intersections handled?
0
Comments
The purpose of castle nodes is to act as a catalyst for war activities.
The warrior guilds will focus their fight to own these small military castles rather than to destroy nodes for fun. Rebuilding them will be much cheaper than leveling up a normal node.
Therefore nodes will be sieged more for economic reasons and most citizens will have their homes relatively safe for longer time.
They work nothing like regular nodes, they exist completely outside the node system based on what we know
Yes. I've seen in wiki a statement Related to that I was saying that they do not loose their regular citizenship. Maybe they shouldn't have used the word "citizen" at all for this kind of node.
My understanding is that Castle Nodes will simply be small villages used only by the Castle owners and its allies to further improve their Castle's capabilities, most likely only related to combat. I imagine you won't have many, if any, services/buildings/NPCs available inside Castles. However most, if not all, of the services/buildings/NPCs/caravanserai/etc. will be available in the Castle Nodes. In a nutshell, Castle Nodes will be the or one of the ways to improve/upgrade their adjacent Castle. I imagine Castles will be more or less useless outside of Castle Sieges, so all of the work will be done in the Castle Nodes.
One concern I have is regarding the number of Castle Nodes: why three? If there's only one Castle Node per Castle, wouldn't it make it easier for enemies to disrupt that Castle but also easier for the Castle Owners to upgrade their Castle? I feel like three Castle Nodes might be too much, maybe there's a reason for that, but I wonder if having only 1 or 2 wouldn't be better.
Further, if I were Intrepid, I would place these triads in central locations, preventing a single Metropolis from dominating half a "Continent," and forcing larger Vassal Networks to be "stringier" and less compact.
You know that castles are above Nodes in Hierarchy, right?
The nodes dont control shit in regards to castles.
There is some kind of dependency.
The castles give benefits to the nodes, important enough to motivate the normal citizens to defend the caravans which go from the normal nodes to the castle nodes.
The "Kings and Queens" of the castles must be nice and use the taxes to create those benefits.
I think the castles can fall easily if they are not supported.
Unfortunately, Intrepid has a bad habit of using language poorly, often reusing the same word for different entities, and conflating terms.
For example, conflating Characters and Players.
Why would citizens be supposed to defend those? If they aren't in an Alliance with the castle owning guild, then they might very well attack the tax caravan and pock the money themselves. @Strevi
https://ashesofcreation.wiki/Castle_nodes @Warth
Interesting, i didn't know that and i think its an horrible mechanic tbh.
This was one of the ways Citizens were able to revolt against oppressive/bad castle owners. Why Intrepid would decide to artificially take away player agency is a mystery to me. After all, the entire game is designed around player agency as a key design principle. I think this goes right along with the (in my opinion horrible) decision to make vassals unable to participate in Node Sieges against their parent, when in fact they might be the ones most inclined to siege it in the first place to propel their own advancement.
I guess, then the tax caravan will merely not be defended by guilds within the empire as long as they are unhappy with the monarch. The time of the guilds there is much better spent stealing the tax money of other kingdoms anyway as those benefit them personally.
Regarding the topic above, wiki mentions also
Maybe nearby guilds have to explicitly declare war? To become better rulers for their region?
Those further away, who are not part of this 1/5 map, do they have reason to own the castle of another region? Maybe for taxes? I doubt they can hold the castle long time.
This dynamic is not clear to me, who will want to do what.
Said castles are initially held by NPCs and players must fight to take them over.
Those castles have essentially "royal" powers over the surrounding nodes, setting taxes and other options of the sort.
They may be close to an actual node, or within a node's ZOI. However the castles don't offer housing options. It's merely a prestige thing for PvP, granting the leader of the occupying guild access to a royal mount (flying one) and more money from taxes.
Other than that it's really just there for PvP purposes and doesn't otherwise impact the PvE aspect.
It impacts pve too. Castles give benefits to nodes, like unlocking buildings or boosting crop growth or activating quests... All these if that guild who occupied the castle has a nice leader and uses the tax money for citizens rather than taking it for the guild.