Cities n Nodes

ArchivedUser

After I saw the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mMvubbX-SHg" target="_blank">First Part on Nodes video</a> I was wondering a bit about the <strong> Cities</strong> along the map:

- Let's say we're at Day 1 of AoC: because there is no node developed to stage 1 yet, what about cities or places where to buy or sell stuffs - or just places where to begin to settle? Or I can just chop around, gather resources and then start my house in the middle of a forest?

- Is it possible for players to know at which stage a node is and its zone of influence? In the video it was stated that nodes under level 1 are hidden, so I was wondering about those higher "level" nodes.

This question leads to another one: how I know there is a more convenient node nearby if they are hidden?

- How much are those nodes/cities customisable exactly? Can I join forces together with people to build monuments or other specific buildings?
So for example if I play like a smither Lone Wolf that lives inside a city with my little shop, I don't want to have a guild but I like the "project" shared by chat (or even introducing a wall where to put "advertisements / announcements" about these stuffs) - that came from a local guild - can I contribute to the development of the project, even if I'm not part of their guild?

- What about the "spy" role inside these nodes, is it a thing? For example let's take this Lone Wolf to the opposite pattern: I don't like the guild that started building within the node and it's impossible for me to make them go away because I'm outnumbered. After weeks of arguing and stuffs I then decide to betray my node, sharing informations about locations of weapons or other related stuffs with a guild of a nearby node that wants to destroy the city I'm currently living - together with these unwanted neighborhoods.


Thank you for your attention, can't wait to have more news about this game, looks amazing!

ArchivedUser

Hi, I hope you liked the node video! Glad to see so many new faces around, even though we have already met on discord ;)

1 - At the launch of ashes there will be no cities but there will still be ZOI* (zones of influence) around the world which will gradually start evolving into cities as the players progress and gather experience within these ZOI.

2 - Yes it will be possible to see what level a node is in but we dont know how, I can imagine there will be some kind of calling board of such where you can find information on the node else you can look at the state it is in and how developed it is (visually).

3 - You will not be able to know about nodes before they're developed.

4 - I cant specifically give you an answer on that but I can tell you about "local gameplay" and "global gameplay"
There is going to be a lot of focus on the “local gameplay” and “global gameplay”. Guilds will fight guilds; some guilds might recruit other guilds to help them fight.

It will also be possible for single players to participate in events that are just as influential and as fun as these large guilds participating in these world events.

Guilds will have levels and skills, the guilds participation in the world will help level the guild. Guilds will be able to have guild halls in nodes. There will be guild specific buildings and guild specific quests inside a node.

5 - It will be possible to buy or make alliances with neighbouring guilds and get them to help you with siegeing nodes.

ArchivedUser

Ill just add a bit to what ducky said.

I would imagine our starting zone will have an outpost, I dimly remember reading about it in one of the blogs?
The first stage will happen rather quickly so I imagine you wont have to backtrack to the starting zone every time you need something repaired (it's the leveling phase, jsut going very basic I would assume we switch out our items faster than we break them)

Visual representation would be my best guess? I don't think it will be totaly cut and dry anyway and all of a sudden the node has 20 more buildings. I speculate we will see some "filler" buildings popping up during the nodeleveling and when it hits stage 2 it will unlock specific servieces.

NPCs are building the outposts and cities, we don't have direct influence over them. We seem to have some agency about the direction the city takes if you go into the political side of a node but I don't think it will extend as far as placing walls and buildings. More to what servieces will be available first, how much money will be directed to defense and such. (jsut speculation on my part, it just makes more sense with the stage development)
Noone owns the node, no guild, no group of players, that's something for sure and has been stated, that's why I think the way I said it.

ArchivedUser

HELLO NIRABLADE
1.You can only build buildings on a certain area of the node you want to be in (Area of influence)

2.Yes it will be displayed somewhere in the middle of the node

3.for the moment we know that it is 40% customizable

4. Yes it is possible

ArchivedUser

Yeah, my understanding is that we'll have some options we can influence for which types of buildings are built in a city, but not at the level of the wall of a building.
A job board would most likely be a part of a Tavern. So, we'd probably be "voting" to have a(nother) tavern built. And the job board would just be a basic amenity of having a tavern. It may also be that taverns have options for modules, like a job board, which are included or not included in the final construct.

ArchivedUser

I want to try to discuss possible game play mechanics around nodes. Is the incentive of building up a node always going to be to reach the highest civilization level? What I mean by this is that will every level of civilization give unique advantages based on like minded players or classes?

For example, say I'm adventuring alone and I stumble on an unclaimed node. And I see a few players around me and I invite them to make a "pug" group and decide to level up the node only to encampment level and raid a nearby village or caravan acting like bandits or camping other nodes so that other players don't overtake mine at least for a limited time or maybe for days.

Will the encampment give us bonuses or perks to my raiding party or provide cover? Also, will I as a leader of my "pug" group be able to own/control the encampment and have direct control over the growth? Will the speed of the growth of the node depend on how many players effecting that node?

Say a node can reach encampment faster with a group of 20 players working on it than a group of 10 working on another node nearby? And will we able to decide who can effect the node within an influence zone or any player indirectly adventuring solo can contribute?

ArchivedUser

Can I control the amount of people controlling a node within an influence zone? Say I stumble on an unclaimed node and I decide to make a spontaneous "pug" group and level a node only to encampment and not any further.

And my encampment will serve my newly found friends to act like bandits and go out and attack caravans or other nearby nodes and make sure they don'y level them. Will I be the owner of my mini encampment and stop it from growing it further? Will my encampment give my group perks and bonuses for not growing it further?

Will the speed of the growth of a node depend on the amount of players within the zone of influence?

ArchivedUser

Each Zone proper from what i can tell only has one node. You likely will not 'stumble' into a node. The Zone surrounding a node is MASSIVE. However the ZOI of the node will be smaller at first and grow throughout the Zone proper as the node grows. To make the node accessible in starting zones i have to imagine the node's location will be somewhat near the starting location of new characters, but doesnt have to be. From my interpretations of interviews thus far, the distance between one node and the next is not a trivial distance, and will take a significant amount of time to travel without a mount and will probably be perilous for characters too low of a level.

ArchivedUser

I guess what I'm trying to get at is this idea of alliances, where you have a major guild allied with smaller guilds. So imagine that a major guild gets a hold of a metropolis allied with smaller guilds that have the objective to make sure the surrounding nodes stay at a certain under-competitive level from other rival guilds.

In other words, expanding your territory with strategic PVP objectives in mind. So, the other nodes surrounding the metropolis will stay at a village level, like a contract of some sorts agreed between the major guild and the minor guilds. Will this type of game play be possible? Or will people only PVP to unlock PVE content and the only way to do it is to achieve metropolis level at all times.

Also, if a major guild wants to be lucrative and popular, and they own a metropolis with specific contents that only they want to own for recruitment purposes, won't that be in their advantage to own 1 metropolis per 5 zones? In another thing that came to mind, are we going to be aloud to join multiple guilds like Elder scrolls online does? Which can lead to motives and anticipation from rival guilds.

ArchivedUser

What I'm actually thinking is the formation of alliances, where 1 major guild can ally with 2 minor guilds to control the nodes. Minor guilds make sure the surrounding Metropolis nodes owned by the major guild doesn't reach Metropolis levels like it did. Wouldn't that be a good strategy for the major guild to be the only Metropolis in the vicinity of say 3-4 zones?

That way it can claim that their the only guild that has unlocked a specific content which can help with their recruitment. That reminds me, will we able to join multiple guilds like Elder scrolls online does? Which can lead to motives and anticipations from other guilds.

How much control will we have on nodes and civilization levels anyway. Like can we strictly ban anyone from entering a metropolis and lock them from content or can anyone enter a metropolis regardless of which guild he/she represents and browse the stores and participate in the unlocked contents within that zone?

ArchivedUser

I'm excited for assassinations/spying, especially with that predator class, you could get  a ton of information as a spy. But I'm also worried that the implementation of Discord in the game will stop anyone from listening in to conversations, it would be confusing. 

ArchivedUser

1: Citizenship begins at Stage 3 Village. I think that's when government comes into play. I don't think individual players have much control at the NPC and Camp stages.

2: Just having a city or Metropolis limits the growth of nearby nodes. I don't think alliance have to do much to tamp down the growth of those nodes.

3: The whole server can only have 5 metropolises. I don't think we'll have to worry about them being too close together - unless a mega-guild wants to get two metropolises as close to each other as possible for an alliance.

4: One guild per character. Citizenship limited to one city per character.

5: You could try to limit the growth from camp to village by not feeding the required resources to the node. you might get a few perks from a Stage 2 node, but not many.
Probably no perks just for preventing the growth of the node.
The encounters the node generates may reflect the progression paths you pursue.

6: Speed of node growth will be somewhat dependent upon the xp and the resources used to build-up the node. I think there's probably going to be a hard-coded limit to how fast a node can grow, but no real hard-coded limit for how slowly a node can grow.