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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.
Comments
Have you played MMOs? Loot drama, guild hopping, group kicks, etc all create drama and may or may not be in the best interest of the group or individual. People aren't reasonable, nodes governed by those individuals or guilds will likely fall. You chose to make a house in a place governed by assholes, play stupid games win stupid prizes.
Isn't that the point of the system?
The point of the system is to create a dynamic of change through pvp. However, right now most people are quite pvp adverse - we see that in the corruption system, the outcries about life skilling and the outcries about open sea pvp. There is little incentive to defend a node right now, little incentive to assist a node right now and little incentive to become a citizen right now.
The node update this month will hopefully shed more light on these dynamics.
The people here may be more adverse to pvp, but the half a million plus joining in the next 2+ years are not. The forums now are not representative in any way of the community that will eventually form.
Creation and access to an AH, a central location for meetups, instant travel, religious buildings, better tax rate, protection, etc will all be reasons to join a node.
The goal for Ashes, from my understanding, is to make a more regional game than something like wow due to travel times and the node system incentivizing staying in your home region. Only time will tell if it works and if it's fun.
I'm not sure about the fast travel, the auction house, tax at all, and religions to be honest.
The best scenario is to be in a guild, have the guild fulfil the gathering, processing and crafting requirements, also have the guild take a castle and also raid with the guild are more than enough reasons to shun the node system.
Sure, by all means join a node and find a larger pool of 'protection' but I'd rather fight alongside the known than the unknown. a node is little more than a massive pickup group. Some guilds will be focussed around nodes for sure but some guilds will be spread between various nodes. I feel I can get by with no citizenship at all unless I'm forced to get citizenship by my guild.
In SWG player owned shops often held the best items and we can have player stalls in Ashes. Of course, you might have to be a citizen to have a player stall but again, if the guild can supply everything what's the need?
On the contrary, those are incentives to NOT fight. I can potentially make more gold by letting the node be destroyed.
Casual players will seldom get access to Freeholds or static housing. That's prime real estate, a rando won't get it.
Static housing is also very limited. I am asking why more than half the population of a node would defend such node. If I own no property, why defend it? And "I" in this case, it's like 50% of the server.
Agree 100%.
If you don't have ownership of anything in the node, why care? I'll go skin rabbits while the city is razed.
The problem is a lack of ownership for the majority of players.
If all nodes were basically Guild Halls, then we would be talking about serious motivations.
Other than that, its just a random 'town'. Let the tryhards fight over it.
The amount of alliances-and by association guilds-with access to everything will be miniscule compared to those who must rely on others. My guess would be under 30 guilds total per server which will equate to 20-35% of the server pop. That group will be playing a completely different game than the other bucket of player populations.
Seeing how Crowfall developed (or didn't) made me see how important it is to have a game progression loop for folks outside the super organized guild. You may just not be the intended audience for aspects of this feature.
Owning property is only one aspect. Do you like the place you live? Is the social power structure fair?
Part of the metagame for nodes will be attracting and keeping citizens. If the people in charge of a node fail to do this because they're ineffective, assholes or both, they will reap what they sow.
I don't think you grasp the situation at all. The only stumbling block is processing right now. The rest are simple to master. The contestation is what matters most which is where I thrive.
There is nothing the nodes have to offer. I can sell access to my wares and my skills. So can the guild. We can make alliances and we can make non Aggression pacts. We can also undertake total war.
Most of the pvp is sanctioned pvp where death duties won't apply. The other facets are dungeons, raids and bosses which can be overcome with dedication, discipline and dominance. You can't fast travel with resources and can only use AH in economic lands.
To be fair, family summons is also fast travel though. You only need one freehold to maintain fighting effectiveness. You would need two freeholds to ensure fighting dominance.
It's not clear if Steven will change the concepts but right now the concepts are perfect for guild application. You don't even need to worry about a node because node wars can't be declared against guilds. Guilds however can join node sieges if wanted.
Yes organized guilds don't need to worry. That player base is completely different both in content needs and population numbers than those who the node system will attract/appeal too. Both groups (in addition to others) need content loops with a variety of progression systems.
A group would need longer than 20mins, for sure.
If a node has an auction house or market, it is available to everyone. If it has fast travel, that is available to everyone. Everyone is able to go in to any node and meet up with people.
No, none of that makes any sense at all in this discussion.
Also, none of them are issues I deal with at all. They are all issues for - no offense - players that are a tier or two lower than myself.
Yes but not if a new t3 zoi overtakes the land. You do a quest then to keep freehold.
Yes that's the whole idea. I also have troubles with identity. Guilds give identity, you fight for your guild. What nodes give? It's like saying I care about people in my city. Unless the city is really small, if you have 500 citizen you won't care about them. Without emotional attachment, why would you care about a node if you don't own property?
Maybe node wars and such it's really for casuals, while freeholds and guild castles it's for really hardcore people.
It may be available to everyone but there are also taxes, inflation sinks, and privileges associated with those. AH fees, fast travel fees, various checks to give access to religious buildings for blessings, abilities, stat enhancements, etc.
The players that are a lower tier than you need content loops and some handholding to get them into the game. Nodes are the equivalent of high security in eve.