Glorious Alpha Two Testers!
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.
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.
Ashes Boss Idea *Just for Fun*
Ripteye
Member, Alpha Two
I'm super bored and brainstorming an idea to entertain my simple mind. Brought up a similar topic up in TGFTavern's discord.This is for fun so I hope people will kindly keep their negativity to themselves, and the details in it are not final. Anyway wall of text incoming.
So there's this boss, that can only be summoned in the winter. To summon this boss you will need to craft The Frozen Summoning Rod of Strife. There can only be one of these rods per server. There can only be one of each of the components needed to craft the rod per server.
The components will need to be farmed through, PvE, PvP, Gathering Crafting, Fishing, Cooking you name it. This will require cooperation between guilds to complete before winter ends and either the rod or the uncrafted components melt until next winter.
There would need to be some sort of safeguard against griefing by hording one of the components maybe a server announcement stating who and where it was looted. (again brainstorming )
I think this could create all kinds of chaos, politics, in fighting, competition and ultimately cooperation.
I hope some of you find this intriguing and would help build upon the idea.
Just for fun.
So there's this boss, that can only be summoned in the winter. To summon this boss you will need to craft The Frozen Summoning Rod of Strife. There can only be one of these rods per server. There can only be one of each of the components needed to craft the rod per server.
The components will need to be farmed through, PvE, PvP, Gathering Crafting, Fishing, Cooking you name it. This will require cooperation between guilds to complete before winter ends and either the rod or the uncrafted components melt until next winter.
There would need to be some sort of safeguard against griefing by hording one of the components maybe a server announcement stating who and where it was looted. (again brainstorming )
I think this could create all kinds of chaos, politics, in fighting, competition and ultimately cooperation.
I hope some of you find this intriguing and would help build upon the idea.
Just for fun.
6
Comments
I don't see it working with Ashes proporsed 1 week seasons, however. That isn't long enough to work this kind of thing out. Not all that much infighting would happen in a week.
Making it a year long thing (so, 4 weeks), but that only happens every few years (3 years +/- 1 year) and I think you have an interesting idea.
Other than that, the only thing I would do is make sure the item has a guaranteed 100% drop rate in PvP, and give players a reason to want to not hold on to it (along with removing the ability to just store it on an alt).
This means you have a situation where players have a situation where they have a thing that they want to get rid of, but that their guild wants, but that their guild only wants if it can get all of them, but that every other guild wants, but only wants if they can get all of them.
There is indeed potential to create interesting situations.
Instead of person holding the components - it can be "the component cant be traded, and it will disappear from your inventory if held for more than 5 days, YOU MUST deposit the part to the node Bank where you are citizen for it to not disappear, and once deposited you cant withdraw the part until the item is fully fused with all parts". The info which node hold which part is public so others can siege it to get the item. If 2 parts are in same node bank they fuse together so you cant split them anymore.
In the end all parts will be in 1 node fused in the whole item. and you need to defend it till the boss spawn, and the boss can be INSTANCED, so others cant steal it ( i mean the pain of getting the item is big enough)
I see two problems with this.
The first and most important is that a metropolis node is immune to sieges for 60 days after successfully defending. This means the timeline of this event would need to be significantly longer than that - which would kind of take away an amount of the urgancy from the whole thing.
The other issue with it is if the obvious resolution to the above were put in place in that the item were able to be won in a node war rather than siege. The issue there is that node wars are the business of nodes, while content like this is the business of guilds. Implementing a system where a strong guild needs to have a stranglehold over a strong node in order to remain a strong guild means that nodes simply become extensions of guilds.
Sieges are at least an area in which guilds can take the helm rather than nodes, it's just the length of time between sieges that makes that aspect of it difficult to work. Even if the items stayed in the game for 3 months, it is probable that it would almost never get built due to there being components in two different metropolis nodes that are immunue to sieges for the majority of the duration.
If you are 1 month in to this event (that we assume now lasts 3 months), someone from your node has one of these items in storage and you win a siege, no node other than your own can possible get all the components this time around - and there is still two months to go on this event.
Feel free to disagree obviously, but this is how I see things.
Based on AOC Affiliations - node citizenship > guild membership. This means if you are citizen of node A, and your guild from node B declares war against node A - you will be on the defenders side against your guild.
So ye my idea indicates that its node based activity. This also means that the mayor will be the one that organizes the attack on the boss (and maybe the reward can be some node specific ) - something like the
Tear of Asha in Heroes of might and magic where you build it in the castle and its super strong.
And also the Relic in the node after you build it stays there until you lose node siege - where the relic is destroyed and all parts are scattered in the world. Until successful siege the parts wont respawn
I dont see issure with time being longer tbh. it doesnt need to be for 1 in game year period. Just even if you get the item in the summer you will need to defend it till the winter.
But ye a specific node war to that indicates stealing enemy node bank treasures can work also. But not all node war types.
Nodes do not exist to provide content for their citizens. Raid content isn't their perview. Their role is to provide services for economic growth, for crafting, for questing, for religion. It is not their role to organize raids for content like this. That is specifically the role of guilds.
If it turns out that Intrepid do place some of that content based role as being within the perview of nodes, then guilds will own nodes - simple as that.
In other words, the notion of taking content for players to run and putting it in the hands of nodes rather than guilds will deminish the role of nodes, making them simply a projection of guild influence.
This is why this kind of idea needs to remain something that is guild based, not node based. All content needs to remain guild based, not node based. Sure, nodes can benefit from it, but guilds are the ones that will organize their members to run it - ndoes don't have that role.
Again though, your idea is good for something that is node focused - somethings that results in that unique building that you are talking about. The thing is, that isn't this idea, this idea is about a raid encounter.
I think that perhaps you are having the start of a different idea, rather than something to be added to this idea.
Again though, that is just me. To put it simply - good raid encounters take months of developer time. That is simply bad economics if the mob only has a chance of spawning once a year.
The notion of the three month span for these items being in the game would result in the mob only being able to spawn once a year per server at the most, and even then that would usually not happen - the game would likely go several years before the mob spawns a first time - that is a lot of developer time that could have been better spent.
Making it so the event happens for 4 weeks, and has an average of 12 weeks before it happens again still means it can only spawn once every 4 months or so. However, not locking it to node sieges means the components will be bought together more often, meaning it will probably spawn 75%+ of those times. Most servers could expect to see this mob 2 times per year - which is still very low return for developer time, but not the worst I've seen.
I dont know how you imagine things will work. But guilds will be situated in nodes even now. There are guild halls inside of node ZOI. This means that most of the guild will be in the node to get the benefits of the guild hall.
Also dont imagine the mayor being some random dude. Guilds will fight over the mayor spot, and for this the guild will be situated in the node as citizens.
And also i dont see issure with giving nodes some Raid content. But its not just raid content - this makes everything in the game connected. From global pve.pvp. professions, to sieges, node wars, to Raid.
It just makes the whole ecosystem connected.
So idk why you talking that it will happen once or twice per year, when the Road to it is the important part. You looking just the end part which is the raid, but in reality the whole system gets all players involved.
And being 2 times a year will just the reward that much more desirable. And the feeling of great accomplishment will be even greater.
Thats why i mentioned after this that specific node wards can work also. not just sieges.
Guilds will not be in nodes. Guild halls will be in nodes. Some members of guilds will be citizens of some nodes, but most guilds will have members in various nodes - guilds will not be within one node.
You seem to be looking at things in a manner where people are in guilds, guilds are in nodes, and that is that. This is not how Ashes is. People are in guilds, and people are in nodes. As an individual player, you pick both. You do not pick one and it dictates the other.
This is why it is about player loyalty, not game systems.
If my node declares a war on a guild mates node, and that guild mate is a crafting and the object of the war is to destroy a building they require for crafting, I am not only not going to participate in that war, I am going to actively oppose that mayor in the next election.
My node does not come before my guild, my friends. If your node does come before your friends, all I can say is that I am glad you do not consider me a friend.
Look at everything to do with nodes in the game now, they do not exist to provide players with content. Even things like node sieges that would have been really easy (and obvious) to make as something that is initiated by nodes, against nodes - isn't. It is something that is initiated by players, likely with the backup of guilds (due to their high cost).
This is because guilds are where players will look to for content. That is where your friends are, that is who you make plans with.
Again though, your addition is a good idea for a node specific idea.
If you insist on it being about content, then I would say that your idea is a good idea for a different game - one that doesn't have guilds, but has nodes in their place.
I think it's a great idea
Speaking of which, why not have some legendary tier bosses spawn in the same manner that siege scrolls work? Gather a lot of materials, do a quest, and get a summoning scroll for a boss.
Also, why settle for just a boss? Imagine an epic arc featuring multiple battles between monsters versus players, culminating in a boss encounter during the final weekend
Maybe some sort of backstory. Also I just learned season's travel throughout the map. That idea came from TGFTavern's podcast. So lets say winter is ending in one part of the map and you have X amount of time to get to where winter is just beginning, you would need to utilize caravans, ships, or whatever to safely get the rod or unfinished components to the next zone before they melt, and have to be regather or created whichever.
Oh THAAAAATS a good one.
Like a Quest-Item in either a single Quest or Questchain. Sure. Why not luring the Bosses there with whatever gets their Attention ?
✓ Occasional Roleplayer
✓ Guild is " Balderag's Garde " for now. (German)
Because any activities that pool together the community for goals in short term, mid term and greater goals over the long term and then some unique goal/rewards for a large risk of time and effort with a bigger payout are a plus!
Yeah, quite a few games have boss spawn mechanics like this. I expect Ashes to have some.
It can be good if it is done well.
The idea in the OP is essentially an idea like this but with the twist that it requires cooperation between guilds. That's the unique part of it.