Nodes.

WHIT3ROS3

With so much deserved focus on Combat, Archetypes and Abilities I have found myself having fun thinking about Nodes. 85 Node "plugs" and their surrounding ZOI (Along with 5 Castle Nodes and their associated 3 Sub-Castle Nodes) makes for a total of 100 Nodes and their ZOI making up Verra.

I understand that certain Node's ZOI will encompass ports/harbors. International Waters are outside Node's ZOI, but will XP gained by players in Costal Waters contribute towards a Node's ZOI? Will any Node's ZOI extend out into the waters? What about lakes, rivers etc? Many moons ago when we saw the simulation of Nodes collecting XP, it showed some of the plugs in coastal locations. Will there be settlements on coastlines or incorporating rivers and/or lakes?

85 Regular Nodes, each of which will be predetermined from 1 of 4 types. Divine, Economic, Militaristic and Scientfic.

I had assumed that there would be an equal number of Node types, but if you divide 85 by 4, at least 1 type comes out on top. Will they be roughly equal in quantity or will there be fewer Scientific zones than Military Nodes for example?

9 Different player racial influences. Kaelar, Vaelune, Dunir, Nikua, Empyrean, Py'Rai, Vek, Ren'Kai, Tulnar

I appreciate that the devs are buzzing away behind the scenes, but it would be really cool to have a "Node" section on future streams. Similar to how Intrepid has approached combat, I think it is better to show off smaller chunks and gather feedback as you go rather than hold out for a grand reveal. It's such an integral and defining system it would be nice to hear from the team on how they are even approaching it, never mind actually seeing some of it in action.

12+ different Biomes with the potential of multiple different seasons.

I'm very curious how the system will take into consideration Nodes being developed by races who might not generally "belong" to that biome. What will a Nikua Town look like in the Snowy Mountains? A Py'rai city in the Sandsquall Dessert? How will the architectural and cultural influences of the races be smoothly integrated into their surrounding environments?

Options for player customizability and construction.

We have heard and seen bits and pieces about this, but again, it would be really nice to see/hear more. Will there be the incorporation of some procedural generation when it comes to settlements? Watching various Unreal 5 tech demos the PG in built environments is amazing. Essentially add the ingredients, define the area (incorporating topography and natural elements) specify the density/orientation and boom! instant town/city. Do you think we can expect to see something like this?

7 Different stages of Node development. Wilderness, Expedition, Encampment, Villiage, Town, City, Metropolis.

This is an area I'm really excited to learn more about. I'd love to see it even in a rudimentary grey box version. Will the settlement's layout "blueprint" essentially be the same for each stage? Will the layout be a result of the Node's type, location, or racial influence?


I personally hope that we can also see some development sprawl out past city walls and that the layout and aesthetics take queues from real medieval urban planning. This could really make the places feel more real and grounded. High fantasy is great, but having that grounded element really brings a fantasy world to life IMO.

Playing about on the excellent free map generator "Watabou" It would be so cool to have larger City/Metropolis type settlements have a layout similar to the one below.



What are the forums thougths/hopes when it comes to Nodes? How would you like to see them manifest?

Kilion

Agreed, I am also quite excited learn about these systems and I think there is a good chance that we will see those soon (imo), since I suspect that the "missing" archetypes will need some more polish before they will be released ooor are intentionally held back to be presented alongside the caravan and the dungeon system.

With that being said: I think the whole naval content will have to wait, I have the suspicion that it is far more complicated to design and will therefore take some more time. Along the augmentation system, I think the naval system will be one of the last aspects to be revealed - that is IF it is revealed prior to A2 at all.

WHIT3ROS3

Whilst I agree that an advanced naval system may come later in development, I do think it is important for testing to have at least one type of ship available. Testing density, travel time, coastal/international water flagging, caravans and node development all seem too important and intrinsic to the game not to be a part of Alpha 2 testing pretty early on.

Kilion

100% agreed, the thing for me is that I suspect that the A2 will be ready for launch before everything can be shown on stream. And I'm not sure whether or not it would make sense to delay that for a showcase when they could make a specialized testrun in the Alpha where testers are instructed to directly engage with the naval content and give feedback. If they do that fairly early in the testing process, it should be possible to update the systems if they lack too much in some regard.

It all comes down to these factors: Willingness to expand the showcases to introduce everything that is done, willingness to delay the A2 launch, amount of content that is planned to be available on A2 launch day and duration of Alpha 2.

We know that regions are supposed to be ~70% done but we don't know if all core systems will be immediately online at launch - or are even supposed to as focus tests might be something more useful in the beginning before testing the interaction into the other systems.

But I'm just speculating here. My expectation is that we will see Alpha 2 start late summer of 2024 which gives us around... 12-14 livestreams? And topics that we would hope to cover until then are:

1. crafting (this could be 2 parts with the amount of crafting jobs available)
2. processing classes
3. gathering systems + in depth influence on the environment
4. dungeons
5. Rouge
6. Summoner
7. Bard
8. Augments
9. Nodes (Progression, housing, ZoI, types, citizenship, politics)
10. Guilds & Factions
11. Caravans
12. PvP events & monster coin events
13. Naval content

I would argue there is a chance that not everything will fit into the schedule as it has been until now and since livestreams take away from the production time, I wouldn't be surprised if "extra streams" like the Q&A recently will remain the exception.

WHIT3ROS3

This is why I mentioned in my OP that I think it is a better approach to have smaller reveals rather than a big splash and then nothing for a considerable amount of time. It's subjective at the end of the day and there are pros and cons to each way of doing it. I'd personally like to see a more "Segment Based" live stream format. Opening with a 5/10 min intro/reminders/studio update. Followed up with defined segments for Combat, Character, Environment and Systems. I'd prefer several smaller updates on a system over multiple months than one big update in 6 months.

Not all systems need this though, but I do think that Nodes would really benefit from a more transparent approach. To put it into perspective, we haven't seen a single building or house or architectural concept image post UE5 announcement 18 months ago. Maybe they don't think it's worth showing off? Maybe they are happy with what they have and don't feel like they are at the point the need much feedback, or maybe they just want to keep it close to their chest.

bloodprophet

#1 Yes. Some of the cities will be on the shore and provide access to harbors and boat building.

https://ashesofcreation.wiki/Harbors

#2 Is a good question. One I have asked myself but figured they would figure it out.

#3 Naval combat will be interesting for sure but I think they need to show/implement the archetypes and class system first. They might have people working on it in the background. Good question for the next Q&A.

#4 Races in their non natural biomes was touched on by Steven in a Q&A couple of years ago with no solid answer other then was it will be possible. How it will look is another question.

#4.1 Have you seen this?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYFKi4j-Zaw

Starting around 55:00 they are developing a node. They talk about empty plots and how the players will be able to decide what to build where in the empty spots.
https://ashesofcreation.wiki/Buildings

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fkwaYLOuw2s