Node layout concern

When looking through various pre alpha footage, i found it kinda odd that all stage 3 nodes have a perfectly square boundary and the internal base layout between different node locations seems pretty much the same as long as the node represents the same race.
So i have been wondering if this is intended for the final game or just alpha testing purposes?
I understand that creating a total of 816 unique nodes (8 races, ~102 nodes?) just for the stage 3 design (and then additionaly the same amount for each other stage) would be a HUGE effort.

But one needs to consider that in the end, one of the races is guaranteed to be slightly(or even significantly) more popular than the others
and exept for some outlier communitys, the given popularity of the races will be more or less equaly distributed among the nodes of a server which means that in most nodes, the same race will have the biggest population leading to the biggest contribution for node experience.
Since the world will be more or less void of civilization exept for the nodes, the game would likely turn out really bad if all villages are sqare shaped and to 80+% exact copies of each other with the other ~20% exact copies of the second most popular race layout.

Including the other node stages and maybe visual differences based on node type(economic, scientific etc.) the problem loosens up a bit, but i dont think its going to be enough to avoid the copy paste feeling when traveling through the world, especialy because outer city borders are all square shaped, based on the human and elven races shown so far.

Note that freehold properties also all have a square shape..

Has anyone heared some clarification about that topic? do you think races and node types alone will provide enough variety?
What do you think about the square shape layouts?

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Comments

Maezriel

I would say that this would be a conversation best had during the Alpha 2 stage.

Right now it's all just to test the validity and stability of the base systems.

Asura

I stated the same concern once in Discord, someone told me that there will be differences for example between a node in a valley and a node on a cliff. So it kinda hints that there are designs in place that wont make look every node the same at least to a degree. Would really be a shame when I live in a node and travel to a far distant node, and they both would look the same.

Noaani

uao wrote: »

just alpha testing purposes

This.

Warth

Asura wrote: »

I stated the same concern once in Discord, someone told me that there will be differences for example between a node in a valley and a node on a cliff. So it kinda hints that there are designs in place that wont make look every node the same at least to a degree. Would really be a shame when I live in a node and travel to a far distant node, and they both would look the same.

seems logical, harbor nodes, nodes on a slope, flatland nodes, underground nodes ... can't look the same.

Yoanna

I see your point. Would it not be possible design wise to create the node layouts in smaller tiles, like 3*3 in a square node layout and just shuffle these tiles around a bit? This would create at least some form of variance for the layouts.

NelsonRebel

Everything elven will be all you see (rightly so)

winner909098

NelsonRebel wrote: »

Everything elven will be all you see (rightly so)

Hopefully Py'rai forest nodes will have structures built in trees

bloodprophet

You talking nodes or cities?

FuryBladeborne

The different cities will not look the same on the inside because the mayor will place many of the buildings and not all buildings will necessarily be placed.

uao

NelsonRebel wrote: »

Everything elven will be all you see (rightly so)

Lets be real, either the race with most op stats or the one that lets female characters choose the biggest boobs will have the most players..

bloodprophet wrote: »

You talking nodes or cities?

Cities.

FuryBladeborne wrote: »

The different cities will not look the same on the inside because the mayor will place many of the buildings and not all buildings will necessarily be placed.

Based on the footage only a few buildings will be placed by player choice, it really dosent make any difference whatsoever to the base layout of the cities. Also because the building locations are predefined by the game.

The big dwarfen fortress leaked some hours ago on discord also seems to be quadratic or rectangular :')

But oh well, at this point in time it could really be just for testing, so lets see what they will do in further alpha/beta phases!

Noaani

uao wrote: »

Based on the footage

That is pre-alpha footage.

Keep in mind, they haven't started work on (or at least - haven't shown us any work done on) the actual game map.

Literally nothing we have seen at this point should be assumed to be in the game when it launches.

Varkun

Go take a look at this developer diary from 18 months ago you may well find some answers to your questions.

https://ashesofcreation.com/news/2019-03-27-developer-diaries-node-tool

uao

Varkun wrote: »

Go take a look at this developer diary from 18 months ago you may well find some answers to your questions.

https://ashesofcreation.com/news/2019-03-27-developer-diaries-node-tool

Thanks for sharing this, it solves most of my concerns!

TheGoodzilla

Asura wrote: »

Would really be a shame when I live in a node and travel to a far distant node, and they both would look the same.

This is kind of veering off topic so I used the above quote to segue.

The idea of variety (my opinion) is definitely enhanced by not only having visual differences in buildings and settings but also functional. For example one town is completely ground based while another is up in the trees with inter connecting rope bridges and lifts.

I feel like another variety killer is also monster variety. Because I can think of several games where essentially no matter where you go or how high your level is, the mobs are essentially just a slightly visually different version of the same thing (it's a wolf, it's an artic wolf, a desert wolf, but all behave the same).

I know it would require more development, but I think it would be very good for game longevity if the mobs vary in appearance and behavior both in location and in level.

This means you won't see, for example evil mushrooms in a low level are and then bigger mushrooms that do the same things in a higher level area. But instead maybe professions of further and further corrupted variants of the same thing (evil mushroom>mushroom man>giant golem with small evil mushrooms growing from its body).

And as a final/sum up note, because nodes will change in type and size, this enemy variety could pote tially be directly tied to the specifics of the current node.

Or am I just too picky?

Rayteku

Varkun wrote: »

Go take a look at this developer diary from 18 months ago you may well find some answers to your questions.

https://ashesofcreation.com/news/2019-03-27-developer-diaries-node-tool

Also when combined with the building tool it shows that the cities really should look quite different from each other at launch.

https://ashesofcreation.com/news/2019-04-30-developer-diaries-building-tool

Kneczhevo

Okay... I admit the layout is blocky, and simple. And prone to cookie cutter layouts.

But, when you concider the choices mayors have, with the various buildings (eg, choose between an apartment, market, or a wishing well.) I doubt there will be to much cookie cutter nodes.

Throw in racial, and you get more variety.

Freeholds are racial and cosmetic. More variety.

Now then. We are still in testing. We have only seen a couple of nodes and one with progression. It's still to early to critique. But I do share your concerns.

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