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Long Term Player Engagement
LittleRegicide
Member
At some point your char is maxed out, you've done enough end game that you feel like you have already beaten the game and you walk away. What if your XP had an expiration date though? Like XP you gain today is good for a year and then it falls off? If you want to stay relevant, you have to keep playing
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Part of the whole experience with nodes is that there is no real end-game, in that the world is constantly shifting every day. Month one is going to be really different from month two; and that's for the level 50s and level 1s. – Jeffrey Bard
https://ashesofcreation.wiki/End_game
https://ashesofcreation.wiki/Nodes
As Elder mentioned Nodes will be a source of endless end-game in a fun, and unique way. Nodes will be tied to player housing, as such people will defend it with their all. So let's hope a key balance is struck. Ideally you would want sieges to happen relatively often. For those who will play from launch forward it will be the most chaotic and fun. I just fear that eventually things will settle down.
That being said, borrowed experience, as you've laid out wouldn't be my first choice. Instead, I would have an upkeep for various city related things. Materials needed. Things like rent for housing, varying types of food for general npc citizens/guards etc. And perhaps, like in city-building games a bigger variety is needed to keep people happy (a happy, well supplied city could even get buffs during city sieges. But also things like metals guards need equipment and repairs. As a city would most likely be unable to produce all items it itself needs for growth, trade will be a major part of the game, and supply lines will form naturally and dynamically based on city layouts, but they might also change (if we are given that option and it won't just be a set path between nodes) etc. Alliances might form. Say your city at the moment is the only one producing pineapples. A resource others need. If you're under siege, nobody is getting a supply of them, hell, there could even be councils of players/guilds forming to make sure trade continues unabated.
All this is to say, if the systems allow for a great degree of player freedom, and will be easy to change/tweak on the development (just in case rapid changes are needed for an oversight) you will have an endless amount of end-game content.
PS: It's okay for a character to be maxed out. There is only a problem when the systems in place are but tools to get you there. Rather then just be the most fun they can be, progression being just a bonus.