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Check out Alpha Two Announcements here to see the latest news on Alpha Two.
Check out general Announcements here to see the latest news on Ashes of Creation & Intrepid Studios.
To get the quickest updates regarding Alpha Two, connect your Discord and Intrepid accounts here.
Event System Follow-up Discussion!
Hello glorious community,
Let’s start up another discussion on the Event System! If you haven’t heard of it yet, feel free to read more about the mechanics we’ve shared so far here: https://ashesofcreation.wiki/Events and from our past development update livestream covering the Event System here:
The Event System consists of a multitude of… you guessed it, events! They’re a result of developments in the world of Verra. You may see them in the form of quests, pop-up triggered events, or other narrative elements that may happen throughout the world. Events are designed to fit local, regional, and global scales!
With all that said, below are some follow-up questions from our design team for the community after reading through your glorious feedback!
Follow-up Questions For You:
Mayor-Run Events: What are some events that you can think of that you’d want a node’s mayor to be capable of running?
Consequences: What are some of the consequences of failing an event that you can imagine happening to the node you call home? Feel free to share your ideas!
Participation Rewards: Do you feel that events should require players to be online and/or onsite in order to receive rewards for participation? If so, why? If not, why not?
The team here at Intrepid Studios cannot wait to read through your feedback, and we look forward to seeing what you have to say! ^_^
Let’s start up another discussion on the Event System! If you haven’t heard of it yet, feel free to read more about the mechanics we’ve shared so far here: https://ashesofcreation.wiki/Events and from our past development update livestream covering the Event System here:
https://youtu.be/qYuL-GrMmRM?t=1986The Event System consists of a multitude of… you guessed it, events! They’re a result of developments in the world of Verra. You may see them in the form of quests, pop-up triggered events, or other narrative elements that may happen throughout the world. Events are designed to fit local, regional, and global scales!
With all that said, below are some follow-up questions from our design team for the community after reading through your glorious feedback!
Follow-up Questions For You:
Mayor-Run Events: What are some events that you can think of that you’d want a node’s mayor to be capable of running?
Consequences: What are some of the consequences of failing an event that you can imagine happening to the node you call home? Feel free to share your ideas!
Participation Rewards: Do you feel that events should require players to be online and/or onsite in order to receive rewards for participation? If so, why? If not, why not?
The team here at Intrepid Studios cannot wait to read through your feedback, and we look forward to seeing what you have to say! ^_^
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Comments
Two things regarding these types of events (as well as the unlocked area/content events due to player activity).
Be careful with the rewards as to not flood the market with goods which would devalue crafted gear or other items (boat equipment, homestead stuff and what not).
One would say "if the rewards are underwhelming, why participate?"
I believe the aim of the events should be to make players feel that the world is on fire and that you need to answer the call before things get ruined.
Some players will try to prevent the destruction, some will be evil and harass, some will be selfish and keep lving up ignoring what's happening, just like businesses do today, seeking profit even as the world goes to shit.
In other words, the events should be about protecting Verra and our properties (homesteads, nodes, leveling/resource areas) from evil and destruction.
Plainly, the rewards shouldnt be the focus. Prevention of loss and achievent progress should be the drive to get players involved with a few rewards that impact the market and a few cosmetic rewards for the collectors.
I am against silly events where some clownish npc appears and we do fetch for them, and as a result we have "double xp for 1 week", or "do these activities, collect 10 feathers and get this exclusive mount".
This boarders daily rewards gameplay, but instead it's every time this stupid npc shows up.
A healthy mmo has no need for such gimmicks.
Mayor run events should be strictly about the type of node. Not sure it is a good idea to give mayors more things that only they have a say in.
"Do you feel that events should require players to be online and/or onsite in order to receive rewards for participation? If so, why? If not, why not?"
Absolutely not. Players' life schedules should not revolve around picking up a reward for an in game event they already have completed. There should be a way to retrieve the reward from an NPC in the node. If it were required to be logged in to catch a timed reward drop, not only would it restrain players from 'being somewhere else' even though they already put in the work, it'd also possibly cause a strain on the server depending on how popular the event was. Give people a week time window to pick up their reward from the NPC if you must, but needing to be logged in for it to 'be yours to claim' causes more problems than it solves in my opinion.
What are some events that you can think of that you’d want a node’s mayor to be capable of running?
I perceive nodes have three categories of meaningful gameplay loops.
There is Security, which deals with both surrounding monster build ups, activity by corrupted actors, and actual defense in the form of structures that help in sieges.
There is Infrastructure (this can also be seen as Economic), which deals with Node facilities, road quality, the effects of excessive demand and production, and over all things that can make or break economic activity.
And lastly there is Happiness, which largely relates to the amount of questing being performed both for NPC's, guilds in the area, and the mayors ability to enact policies in a node. This might also have an effect on recruit-able NPC's or Flying mounts.
I think a Mayor should have an active role in initiating events for all three of these categories. I percieve there are two broad categories of events a Mayor can inact: Investment and Response
Investment quests are largely about opening up requests to the community to achieve a goal in either infrastructure that effects Security, Economics, or Happiness. These have an upfront cost for initiating by the Mayor but the reward for success is a longer term positive effect on one of the three stability stats.
For Security Investment quests this can be something like requesting donations of gear for better npc guards to be available for caravans, better weapons or defenses for a siege.
For Economic/Infrastructure Investment quests this can be something like requesting materials for building a node facility beyond the current budget of the Node, helping build the roads for faster caravans and mounted travel, issuing a large order of cheap materials to have an artisan guild facility a temporary bonuses to crafting
For Happiness Investment quests this can be something like 'special social org quests designed to presuade a social org npc in the area or a nearby node to act or come to the node'. Donations for food and drink to host a festival or gladiatorial tournament. Get a bunch of blue prints and materials to help fund a node policy. Generally these should be indirectly economic and more about the Nodes political relations relative to it's vassal's or it's parent nodes and internal node policies. These can possibly also effect racial quest availability
Response quests are largely about opening up requests to the community to address a current or growing problem. There should not be a cost for opening these types of quests up front. There is a negative consequence that is about to happen to the node as a result of something outside the nodes control that needs to be responded to. There should be different approaches to solving each general category of problem depending on what the Nodes 'type' is (religious, military, scientific, or economic) and they should probably have one or two different responses depending on the communities preferred gameplay style.
Security Response quests are about a growing monster population, npc bandit populations on the rise, or the frequency of Red actors in the area.
Infrastructure Response quests are about things like repairing or PREpairing for a weather event, seasonal change causing supply difficulties for artisans, repairing from a siege, or shortages of a certain material vital to the player economy in the area.
Happiness Response quests are about things like the effects of a disease outbreak, famine, or refugees from a neighboring node that was sieged. This can also be relative to social orgs. Maybe there is some high class NPC in the thieves guild that needs appeasing or they will leave to a different node. This can probably also effect the availability of racial quests.
I feel like node type should have an effect on what type of events can happen and how they can be responded to.
For example a Religous node might care a lot more about corruption build up in an area or the effects of Reds on the surrounding population. They might therefore focus more on resolving it by killing 'evil' mobs if the Mayor thinks their player base is more PvE mob fighting oriented or requesting alchemical items that can help purify the surrounding area of corruption if the Mayor thinks their player base is more crafting oriented, or maybe they'll issue higher bounties for Reds if they think their player base is more PvP oriented.
Meanwhile an Economic node probably doesn't actually care about corruption that much but they DO care about Caravan safety a lot more. So events for dealing with Reds come up, but more so in the context of caravans or bolstering their NPC guards, or maybe even having an increased investment in the social orgs that support the kinds of players that are capable of dealing with Reds.
The core point I'm trying to get across here is Node type shouldn't determine how the Node's player base solves a problem, but it should have a strong effect on what types of problems the Node cares about. The mayor should be the one to decide this because an algorithm would be less responsive relative to what it's citizens might be more interested in terms of solving problems than an official that is intended to be rotated out based on performance.
"What are some of the consequences of failing an event that you can imagine happening to the node you call home? Feel free to share your ideas!"
I feel like failure should create even MORE content rather than less, in most cases. When things are stable and people are happy, there is probably less need for a Mayor to need to inact policies. The prosperity from expansion should open up new content and challenges that will take up more of the player base of that node's time. I percieve that if a Node is unstable or doesn't meet a certain facet of the maintenance cost of the node, that it should effect other facets. If you have failed events in Infrastructure Investment, for example, maybe it causes a Happiness Response event to become necessary to avoid some sort of possible consequence to the nodes reputation with social org or racial NPC's. Failure in managing a Security Response to stifle bandits? You should probably be worried about the ability to defend your caravans and keep up the quality of your roads sparking an Infrastructure Response quest to become issue-able by the Mayor.
Node events have an ability to be a core part of the political rivalry in game that isn't necessarily all 'direct combat' and 'war'. I would therefore like to see a failed node event result take two forms:
Form 1. Failed Investment: This type of event failure would require a refactoring of the nodes infrastructure in some way. Either due to a deterioration in a structure that is prerequisite for other facilities, or due to some lack of flexibility in funding due to the resources that were required to invest in the event in the first place. Functionally failure in an Investment type event wouldn't have a direct impact on how citizens interact with the node other than maybe a small reduction in some amenities. It is an obstacle that can be overcome with more effort from the community. This type of failure probably does not need additional events to chain after it due to the lack of negative impact other than the loss of resources invested to trigger the event in the first place.
Form 2. Mismanaged Response: This type of event failure would have a direct economic impact on sectors of the nodes economy or infrastructure in some way. In a sense there is some risk to infrastructure that could have been prevented with more community help and the nodes enemies have some ability to counter this. For example a typhoon happens. The citizens can throw down sandbags to prevent the roads from decaying, but they can be killed and these structures destroyed. The key here is that these events have a default negative that the node is experiencing but it can be completely mitigated with enough community engagement. If this failure state occurs, Mayor's should be able to create high priority quests with slightly higher rewards to fix the infrastructure issue that occurred due to the degradation of infrastructure.
These are two very broad categories of failure and consequence but they can occur as a result of a failure in Security, Infrastructure, or Happiness quests.
Over all I think structuring failure in this way is the best way to both give the local community the power to positively influence their success while still giving plenty of opportunity for political rivals to try and influence things at the cost of that persons productivity not being put to use constructively in their own node. Ideally the effect of community input would be slightly stronger than the negative impact caused by players hostile to the node to keep content from getting stale due to a lack of morale in the player base in achieving anything.
Consequences: Definitely conveniences should be down for a period of time if the event is failed. Like the merchants and trainers. There have to be consequences for sure. It gives the game stakes.
Participation Rewards: At least XP should be given. We can go up from there, but that should be the baseline. If you’re not online, you lose! You get nothing! Good day, sir!
It gives me a cool idea if there were certain events if you were to do it had certain effects on other nodes or areas that might help add to more friction between nodes. (Ie example making winter last longer in certain areas reducing the kind of resources that they can gather in a area). Some guilds like to be static and never fight each other, and I feel adding little bits like that might be able to start some more friction based on the consequences events can have on other nodes.
fundraiser events, events focused on progressing a certain node feature, events for crafting, events for gathering, events for establishing diplomatic relations with vassal nodes, events for disrupting neighboring nodes or even the node they are a vassal of.
Consequences: What are some of the consequences of failing an event that you can imagine happening to the node you call home? Feel free to share your ideas!
Damage/destruction of structures, extended completion times on improvements, extended resource respawn times, Hostile NPC occupation increase, loss of tax funds, negative affects on crafting efficiency.
Participation Rewards: Do you feel that events should require players to be online and/or onsite in order to receive rewards for participation? If so, why? If not, why not?[/b]
Yes, a player should have to participate in events to recieve any award in order to add incentive to help make the event a success, and to keep bots or even just players from just joining the biggest node and never participating while just getting rewarded for the work of the rest of the node.
Also I mentioned this in another post which I believe fits in this discussion
In general I think we should see a variety of options that grant certain seasonal buffs within a nodes full ZoI as well as among vassals.
Events should be bring the community together for fun and activity in a given node. The difficulty should scale with the node as well. eg a t3 festival is significantly easier than a t6 one but the boon is also equally diminished.
ideally each event should have a given number of artisan tasks, general pve tasks and pvp tasks in order for the event to take place
example.
Harvest festival in spring, artisan requirements Gatherers (donate animals, fish, wood etc.) processors convert some resources into materials for crafters to create harvest decorations/feast items etc.
PVE, perhaps when a harvest festival is announced poachers spawn in the woods or quests go out to kill wolves in the area/patrol to keep the roads safe.
PVP increase caravan traffic delivering supplies allowing for increased opportunity to pvp.
depending on tier the boon is Increased node progression for x period of time, or doubled tax revenue (ie if tax is set to 10% it remains at 10% but starts paying into the node as though tax we 20%
another example.
for militaristic factions,
a grand melee, where x number of citizens need to participate (it's also open to outsiders) there could be tiered system where if a non citizen wins the melee there could be less of a boon than if a citizen wins to encourage rooting for your node in the melee. to that end depending on the number of citizens in attendance citizens could get a slight home field advantage buff making them more formidable in the contest. giving out of town people more incentive to try and win as the underdog,
in this case the pve build up determines the reward at the end as well as the size of the boon.
I'll share more ideas as I think of em. ideally id like to see events that provide different blessings/boons on the nodes zoi as well as special events that align with a nodes government style and racial aesthetic.
The Wolves of Verra
are recruiting: https://discord.gg/Rt8G3sNYac
I need to preface before talking about my suggestion:
In every MMORPG, players need to find a spot to be the "dueling" spot in the city, usually, it's just outside city, and this is usually where the PvPers gather around to socialize, talk about their builds, stats, nerd out and of course... practice Dueling with their friends and with random people!
I feel like this is SO important an MMORPG and in Ashes it should exist a place, like an Open World Building Arena in every node type after level 3! and I'm not talking about the instanced arenas for military nodes (even tho I think instanced arena access should be in all node types so it's not empty) but I'm only talking about an open world building inside the nodes for people to socialize similar to Taverns, a place with Proximity Voice Chat to talk, and practice duels! This is not a competitive and toxic environment, Every PvPer knows that people are friendly in the "dueling spot" and help each other out and practice! and every node should have this after all, every race and every city has guards.... so it fits in with lore
The arena building that I'm talking about doesn't need to have any special function and doesn't need to have access to the instanced arena matches even tho that would be Awesome - like having a wooden board on a wall that also have access to instanced arenas, but if you don't want to thot that it's fine... I'm mainly talking about an open world place so people can gather around socialize and practice PvP inside the Node with Guards around like standing in the corners of the arena so people don't flag and PK during duels.
Please, just put a building asset like The Theater of Blades arena somewhere in in all the node types - or allow a mayor in every node the possibility to build this building, this is a BIG win for the social aspect, roleplay, and PvP of the game... please don't make us Have to use military nodes for DUELS or have to use instanced arenas or having to find a random spot outside the node, instanced arenas are completely different from this since it's competitive, and there we can't gather around and talk about stuff and duel random people - and don't try to make the instanced arenas in military nodes only be this social "spot" that I'm talking about because it ain't it...
With that said, here is my suggestion for the Event:
The mayor could use this Arena building that should be in every node type, and create a monthly Node PvP Tournament that the mayor can set the rules (1v1, 3v3 or 8v8) !
This would be awesome, the mayor could set a fee that all the players need to pay to participate (something like from 50 to 200 gold or something that should be accessible, ofc the money don't go to the mayor's pocket, it should go to the node and regional castle
and the winners for 1st, 2nd and 3rd place should get a cut in gold, the rest of the money should all go to the node and the Castle, same as for Taxes, so they can be used appropriately
this makes for a really fun monthly event outside of instanced arenas that makes for a gold sink, people can look forward to be recognized in their node with maybe a title and a gold reward for the winners!
In regards to important open world events such as world bosses and NPC invasions - If there is no actual Relevant consequences, people won't bother participating in the event. Players don't like to waste time, If you want to make someone leave the Arena, the grind spot, fishing, or whatever they are dedicating time to do - It SHOULD matter, the consequence should affect All the players living in that node in a serious manner - disabling Storage, disabling marketplaces, caravans, consequences should affect the players necessities for a period of time that makes everyone Want to engage and win the event, both PvPers, PvErs, Roleplayers or Crafters
100%! no one that is not online and Onsite for the event should get Any participation rewards at all! why? because they are called participation rewards, if you don't participate, you should not get a reward... otherwise it is beneficial to have a bunch of Alts or second accounts to farm multiple rewards from events that you had little to no participation in - and Ashes should do everything possible to prevent the benefits of having alts/multi-account otherwise it will become a necessity...
certain global events could be tied to religious factions where every 3rd/4th winter there is a winter solstice which has every character contribute to the esteem of their religion and perhaps for the seasons between solstices people of the prevailing religion get a slight divine boon. (temporary aug?)
I also think there should be a mix of mandatory/compulsory node events along with mayor triggered events, when these compulsory node events take place it should have large consequences.
I also realized I missed the other two questions.
Participation I think you should be required to contribute in some way shape or form in order to get the boon however to ensure there is no pressure I think events ought to be several day type events with the big day taking place on a preannounced date, eg. the mayor announces that preparations for the spring festival have begun which will take place in x (7-10+) ideally days time on x date and to get the rewards you can contribute in the buildup or participate in the event itself that way the community isn't punished for setting up the event but being unable to attend, and those who can only attend still get to engage in the fun.
if you neither contribute nor participate then no boon for you imo.
Consequences failing a festival should have an inverse effect to the boon you would have gotten had it succeeded not to mention a loss of all resources. + Citizen unrest, there should be increased cost for node advancement for a period of time, it should be harder to succeed in future festivals and/or the benefits should be somewhat undercut for the next event,
I also think 2-3 failed festivals should result in special events like a peasant uprising or something to that effect. Or the mayor being deposed.
If possible imagine failing a spring festival means your node gets locked into an extra week of winter where you need to appease the gods to return to the normal seasons. failing a harvest festival could result in a pestilence taking over affecting crops being grown in freeholds within the ZoI.
I also think there should be ways to sabotage events being held by rival factions through quests like poaching quests or pvp quests like raiding caravans etc.
The Wolves of Verra
are recruiting: https://discord.gg/Rt8G3sNYac
Mayor-Run Events: Tournaments, with conditions specified by the mayor to directly help the node.
Ex: Who can [collect] the most [stone]? Who can [craft] the best [cannon]?
The mayor sets the conditions from a simple list of some [verbs] and [nouns]. This way, the mayor can aim resource collection in a specific direction they need to help the node. Winner gets a prize. Music and fan-fare in the streets.
Consequences: Disappearance of resources in the surrounding land. Non-combative animals leave the area for a period of time. Town resources destroyed.
Participation Rewards: it depends on the type of event. If there is a local event involving the node i am a citizen of, and we earn some victory, i would want ALL of my fellow citizens to benefit (in some way), even if they did not participate. Maybe the reward is less than a participant, but still gifted.
If the event is world-wide or unrelated to the node you are a citizen of, i think the rewards should only go to participants.
Some experimentation with brighter points and edges of objects and more "light absorbent/ eliminating" textures & concaves would be nice.
I think it would be cool if there were several areas of the world with dense, organized communities of hostile enemy races that contained rare resources not easily found elsewhere in Verra. At a certain level, a node mayor could pay a sum of money (for resources, theoretically) to launch a semi-siege-type assault on the occupying force's stronghold, attempt to flush them out, and take control over that gathering location for a few days. Perhaps part of the cost the mayor pays includes money for guards and an outpost-type setup that would allow the area to be more realistically controlled by the city who cleared it out (in a visual sense, to justify gathering lock-outs to non-citizens). Only players who're residents of that node and its family nodes can access it, even if they didn't themselves take part in the siege. It's a group effort for overall territory strength. Eventually, the enemy forces regroup, reorganize, and attempt to retake their territory (maybe after three days or so). If the node's citizenry are able to successfully defend the area, they get to keep it for another two days. The enemy comes back each day a fair bit stronger, until eventually they're practically unstoppable and it makes more sense logistically for the mayor to surrender the territory. If the mayor refuses to surrender the territory back to its native hosts and their citizens lose the battle to keep the territory, the mayor loses to ability to recoup some of the city's expenses by losing whatever they sent out to maintain the event. If the mayor makes an accurate assessment of their citizens' abilities and surrenders at the right time, they can recoup some of those expenses and get a bit of money back.
I think group-gathering efforts sponsored by the mayor could be easily manufactured in several places around the world without needing enemy NPCs or structures to exist all the time. The mayor pays some money to build a quarry, organize a logging camp, stock a large lake with juvenile fish that grow over the next week, things of that nature. If terrain, set dressing, or NPCs need to be added / changed, it can be done dynamically. For the next week, a group effort can be made to gather resources for the city, and players get points for everything they turn in, keeping a portion of what they gather. Resources spawn at much higher rates. If players find rare resources that the event wasn't organized for, they can choose to keep them for themselves or turn them in for extra points. At the end of the event, the top [x]% of point-earners get some special bonuses. Maybe they can either choose bulk resources or gold.
It would be cool if Mayors had a few exclusive rare questlines that have a chance of occurring during their tenure. Maybe there's a humanoid enemy race that has some spies who infiltrate the government and are siphoning resources out of the city. Maybe they get a quest from a warehouse worker noting that stock has been lessening at a rapid rate and they don't know why, and you have to follow a trail of whodunnit clues until you catch the person responsible and get the information about who sent them and where they are. You can then choose to launch an assault on that particular group. Successful, and you get a bunch of resources. Fail, and the enemy takes advantage and makes a move on your city. Fail that, and your streets get looted / buildings damaged. Just some events that require a bit of instigation from the mayor.
Consequences
Jumping off my last idea, I think it's fine for failure of major city attack events to end with streets and vendors being looted, buildings being damaged. Local NPC vendors all have a limited amount of money to buy goods from players with and a limited amount of goods to sell (maybe an individual cap per player per day if possible rather than a total amount for the whole city) for a certain period of time after the event. If players had market stalls out by the time the siege ended and the players failed, those stalls have a percent chance of their goods being stolen or destroyed. Buildings for processing are damaged and take significant amounts of tax money to repair. Having the node de-leveled to a PvE event sounds a bit harsh, but if it's something major like an enormous dragon or an army of giants, I could imagine that being believable. Maybe the node is de-leveled and whatever buildings remain are damaged. I don't think individual players' home-storage should be affected by failed PvE events. Those should be safe.
Rewards
It depends on the event. If the mayor hosts a tourney or a point-based event based on participation, obviously that solves that. If the citizens of a node launch a successful assault on an enemy fortress that yields resource gain, then participants should be rewarded directly and non-participants of the node can indirectly benefit by the city getting more money for purchasing building upgrades or establishing more policies. You shouldn't get mailed an envelope of money or a package of resources a week after a successful siege if you've been on vacation. Rewards for non-participants should be evident through rewards for the city's development. Hey, the city got a huge tax pool bonus after successfully dismantling an enemy fortress, here's two weeks of lowered taxes, or a new policy, or a new processing building upgrade, etc.
Opinion
I think that the whole point of playing an mmo with other players to begin with, is to have a way of comparing yourself to other people and seeing where you fall in that social pecking order. Because of this I think in one way or another, some form of pvp is the most important aspect of long lasting fun gameplay. It doesn't always have to involve killing other players or even combat at all. Even a lot of PvE players enjoy pvp through competing to be the best among other players at pve content.
Idea
Based on that, I think that creating a suite of player competitions that can be managed, could be one the most impactful efforts for achieving the devs' vision and creating the most "sticky" mmo out there.
This could be used for adding a new type of event to the event system. I think investing time into focusing on this type of gameplay, while leveraging the unique combinations of gameplay systems Ashes has to offer would be well worth the time and effort. Yes the players could "create these in-game competitions themselves"- but the whole idea is that these could be really fun in-and-of themselves and worth having that extra encouragement from the game itself to get players to engage with the different competitions that could be made available.
I think the idea should be to take the most fun gameplay aspects of Ashes, that best reflect the core design pillars and turn them into competitive events that can take place.
Example 1
The first step would be looking at how the "reactive world" design pillar is best represented in the gameplay
-the competition could involve having to interact with different parts of the world that are constantly changing to create a dynamic experience
- An example of something like this could be a player race that involves racing acrossed different biomes in an "iron man" triathelon that tests players in running, swimming, mount riding, and maybe combat scenarios, acrossed the game world. This could make for an epic race that is competitive, dynamic, and full of story each time.
-also, different places may have different versions of that competition, which by allowing the mayor to manage different rulesets it could help accomplish this, by creating different cultures for that competition in different areas.
From there you could follow the other design pillars and fine tune the race to add to the player experience, risk/reward aspects, etc.
Example 2
- you could start with any of the pillars and think of the most fun representation of that in the game to get inspiration for different competitions that could be used for encouraging players to engage with.
What is a big example of risk/reward? I can think of hidden treasure protected by dangerous obstacles. Maybe there is a treasure that respawns every in-game annual cycle or even a mechanic that allows players to hide a treasure themselves, and players assemble to see who can be the first to locate that treasure, overcome the obstacles, and bring it back before anyone else.
I think this approach could potentially be used to create the most fun, community-driven competitions that could keep players coming back.
Example 3
There are endless ideas that could be generated following this format for fresh and long-lasting content.
A couple other ideas are
A) How about the ability to host a murder mystery inside a "social space" like a mansion/tavern, where each player has a hidden role like "among us" or something- and there could be different trap doors/hidden passages, light switches, and other tools around the tavern to find and utilize to take people out or catch the killer. Maybe there is an entire area under the building within the underrealm that could be used as the playspace for the event to take place
B)Maybe you could host an escape room inside a similar "social space" building, with a similar concept that there are hidden puzzles around the tavern and people have to work together to figure out how to get out (or try to sabotage to prevent others from figuring it out)
Closing statement
One last thing- I really think it there should be colleseums that maybe the mayor could host tournaments in, with the ability for spectators and vendors to gather, socialize, and watch the tournament, and also have a wagering system to bet on the fights.
no. I say increase it, looks good
I'd love to see an event before holidays begin where mayors must get the townsfolk to prepare for the coming celebration.
Having citizens stockpile raw food for feasts, clean the town, prepare road infrastructure for more traffic, set up decorations, have crafters cook set meals and blacksmiths/carpenters provide parts for maintenance. Have people in animal husbandry provide animals for circus entertainment or parades
Event Consequences:
Consequences for a successful holiday mayor event could include having the holiday "patron" NPC visit the town to offer access to extra holiday rewards patron specific themed food, a limited gift cosmetic/trophy/blueprint, town buff, extra themed decorations for the town to reflect the extra festive atmosphere due to player effort.
consequence for a failed holiday event means the patron doesnt visit your town meaning you need to travel to where one is to access the additional goodies if you desire them. And your town is less festive lacking in the holidays buffs, however the regular holiday content and npcs are still available.
Participation Reward
as above, all players
do not need to participate in a successful mayoral holiday event for a success condition, and all players in the server can come and access this patron NPC in towns that meet the requirement. but if they want to ensure access to the patron NPC and their rewards then it would be better for them to engage in the event at their home node so they don't inconvenience themselves. but also because their town may now get more foot traffic and an economy boost from having players from other nodes who didn't meet the win condition.
Consequences: Carnival/festival is cancelled
Participation Rewards: Small rewards (carnival masks, fireworks or something) for doing the activation work for active/online players, then festival participation for those that couldn't make it during the build up.
Mayor-Run Events: What are some events that you can think of that you’d want a node’s mayor to be capable of running?
Festivals: maybe have a selection of plots in the festival grounds. Similar to what I'm guessing a freehold will be like but bigger. Allow the mayor to customize what events are in the festival whether it is a pvp tournament, religious focused, themed vendors etc.
Consequences: What are some of the consequences of failing an event that you can imagine happening to the node you call home? Feel free to share your ideas!
Broken defences or buildings. Stolen resources etc if it's an attack by mobs or environment.
Participation Rewards: Do you feel that events should require players to be online and/or onsite in order to receive rewards for participation? If so, why? If not, why not?
All rewards should require participation in some way. Not just being online but actual participation in the event.
I think stuff like node wars is probably enough of an event for a mayor. Could always do some RP things like making official "Holiday" events that are shown beforehand to players in that node. Like "tavern game day next Saturday"
Consequences: What are some of the consequences of failing an event that you can imagine happening to the node you call home? Feel free to share your ideas!
Reduced resources of a specific type. Say there is a swarm of plant eating animals in the area that really like a specific plant resource. If they are not culled that plant would be less available in that area for a period (The rest of the season).
Participation Rewards: Do you feel that events should require players to be online and/or onsite in order to receive rewards for participation? If so, why? If not, why not?
Yes if there is a direct reward for an event (Exp, materials, gold), The intrinsic reward of removing a potential downside (Endless winter) is good enough for the people that were not directly participating. I would like to add I think that event rewards should come into effect in a logical way. Like mobs you kill giving bonus exp and loot or the node issuing you rewards when you go talk to an NPC that distributes contribution compensation. I am not a fan of things just popping into your bags and if you put the rewards directly on the mobs there is no extra complex system to try to calculate participation. It would just happen instantly during the event and maybe after if there is a generic reward from the NPC. Could do things like you can turn in an event reward for reputation at a node or just keep it (How would a node know about a small scale event right away unless you bring proof).
The main thing I would try to avoid for participation rewards is avoid people grouping up and just running from event to event as soon as they spawn and just instantly taking it out. Putting the rewards on the mobs would prevent this behavior somewhat because it would use the usual mob tagging/sharing rules making it less rewarding for large groups. Putting a delayed reward via returning to the node could also be used to curb this behavior.
TLDR: Put event (exp and loot) rewards directly on monsters whenever possible to instantly reward participation.
On the subject of rewards, for these kind of events (node scale), the real reward should primarily be collective one instead of individual. Depending on the event, failure could go from no progression (on what the event was about) and the "wasted" time in the attempt to attracting a bigger threat in the area. A success could be a temporary boost in a domain to the specific type of node you're in (lower costs for some processing of material or guards upgrade). It could be opening a shortcut for caravans by clearing a pass, or killing the sea monster that threaten naval route.
Individual rewards should be cosmetic or for boasting. A medal with no stats or bonus you can "wear" (from a ribbon others can see to a temporary tittle), a trophy or other item to display in your house...
Resources should have a rock paper scissor relationship which the mayor should balance, taking also into account player needs and economic value.
Related to these, he can create events and quests:
- Declare harvesting season for certain resources. Reward: bonus to harvest time, quantity, quality etc.
- Declare protected resources. Consequence if harvested: lower reputation vs node
- Create quest to change resources. Example: lake has some type of fish. Collect all fish and bring new fish from other places. Reward: share benefits when those future resources are collected or traded.
- Initiate quest to protect certain endangered resources. Players would escort NPC guards to resource locations and instruct them to guard area, possibly cooperating with mobs which typically live nearby and protect resources as well
- Create quest to explore and find new resources on the map
- Teraforming quests (if possible) with impact on resources. Reward: increased benefits when those future resources are collected or traded.
Defensive and offensive events:
- initiate preemptive attack events against corruption: citizens should go and eliminate corruption in an area. Consequence if failed: Corruption spreads at increased rate with stronger enemies
- Initiate build fortification tasks. Reward: increased reputation vs node
Auction events:
- sell unique items obtained after node wars or fights against corruption
Maybe it would be possible to develop aspect of the game and build in a system of automatic generation of villages/camps of goblins, bandits, deserters, pirates or others. Low-level players would not be able to attack such a village and would have to bypass it, but an organised group of 50 lvl characters / or guild would be able to defeat the village and get paid for it. Let's say that when such a village was defeated by players 50 times, it would be destroyed completely. As you suggested, also the mayor of NODE can order a mission to get rid of the camp and offer a reward for it. It is in his best interest in making the sinister encampment disappear because it would stand in close proximity to the road making it difficult to transport the caravans - which has a negative impact on the city's development.
- For example, BANDIT VILAGES would be generated automatically in places where system records a high number of attacks on players (pvp),
- A PIRATE VILLAGE on some small island where ships have recently been destroyed, or there has been some big naval battle,
- GHULS CAMP, where players kill a large number of monsters, which attracts Ghouls that feed on carrion,
- GOBLIN CAMP etc....
If encampment is not destroyed within a certain time, it is promoted to a higher level.
It would also make players constantly have to change areas in which we are lvling, change ship routes, caravan routs. There would be work for both low and high lvls in such areas (in close proximity to node).
In addition, inhabitants of a neighbouring NODE could counter-act the destruction of encampment by defending it or financing its faster advancement. Thus, they would sabotage competing city in order to advance their.
Beside players, the map could be inhabited by NPC clans of up to 30 characters each.
These clans would settle in a node and provide specific benefits (production, farming, hunting, support in war etc).
The mayor should try to attract them to the city and keep them happy.
The process of bringing them to the city would start by sending them gifts. These would be quest events initiated by the mayor. Gifts would be transported by caravans.
If a clan decides to move to the city spontaneously or when their node is destroyed, their happiness should be maintained by different events. Dwarves might want public celebrations with free ale for them. Each race and profession would have their own set of preferences and needs.
Players who participate in these events would also increase their personal standing vs the NPC clan. The standing would decrease over time if not maintained or if the player gets too friendly with other clans. Player-clan personal relationships would also count when clans choose a new home.
Consequences: road and building deterioration, increased npc-sold item costs, certain convenience vendors going down for a set period of time.
Participation Rewards: Players should be rewarded for participating, not punished for not participating (unless the event fails). I think a good reward would be for non-max level characters should be a nice chunk of xp, enough to offset the time required to participate which could've been spent grinding, plus some. For max level characters rewards should be in the form of some gold, or uncommon crafting materials.
Market Day: Using funds from the node, payout to the market to cause a 10% discount to buyers of goods (Sellers still receive a full price).
Consequences: What are some of the consequences of failing an event that you can imagine happening to the node you call home? Feel free to share your ideas!
They should be severe enough that people should want shift their focus and prevent it from happening.
Denial of node services for an appropriate amount of time to make people thing "I really wish we cleared that event."
Participation Rewards: Do you feel that events should require players to be online and/or onsite in order to receive rewards for participation? If so, why? If not, why not?
Yes, for any special or unique rewards, there shouldn't be handouts IMO. But small things like some currency or materials is okay.
ShoddySlayer
I would like to see a more active role of the major. It shouldnt be just about defining taxes for example.
These events could be something that is improving the citizens relation to the node/city itself and create a community feeling.
So events that doesnt need NPCs, just the community itself. Like some fishing contest, or a PVP 1vs1 Tournament. Potential rewards for the winner could be payed by taxes.
On the other side events that show a goal or animate the citizens to participate. That its not just "the major decides and then it happens".
For example fundraising for building X or maybe some strategic artifact for benefits for the node.
Consequences: What are some of the consequences of failing an event that you can imagine happening to the node you call home? Feel free to share your ideas!
In general events versus mobs should definelty cause some negative effects like more expensive vendors, not available quest givers, destroyed buildings, potentially forced higher taxes etc.
There should be a reason to do finish an event, not just to ignore it.
Participation Rewards: Do you feel that events should require players to be online and/or onsite in order to receive rewards for participation? If so, why? If not, why not?
I think there should be both. Like in guild wars 2 when you participate on an open world event you get some ressources for example - of course why shouldnt you?
On the other hand there could be a benefit for everyone like new areas, higher drop chances, some artifact for the city - something that affects everyone.
Mayor-Run Events:
1. Anything for securing resources, or resource nodes around that nodes influence. Civilization vs civilazation/wild is a battle of resources. People expand beyond their resources and search out new ones to continue to expand. Not just PVP, PVE too.
2. Protecting gains, or defending against losses.
3. Gathering / Crafting events to build buildings or equip npc guards, or whatever the city needs to survive.
4. Competitions. Mayor held duels, battles, crafting competitions, races on mounts, treasure hunts! anything you'd see any activities director do.
Consequences:
1. Event failure. Should be gauged in a degree. How much did you fail? Complete? Well did you fail to defend your resource cave from goblins completely? then you've lost the resource cave, mobs now spawn there and the resources are more scarce.
2. Did you fail to defend a defensive town? Now you're down loses that tower or FOW sight? Or loses an advantage if NPCs invade the town.
3. Did you're how town hero lose in the competition you're city is known for? The city loses some prestige and is more easily influenced by neighboring nodes. (loses exp for leveling up the node, in type of culture war with you're neighbors)
Particiation rewards:
1. In general I'm against Quest EXP. Gain EXP should be from killing mobs, maybe crafting and gathering. Completing quests should give your reputation or prestige. The same as failing quests should take away from that reputation. Failure should matter... Getting EXP from completion is just cheese. Make me want to do something because the reward is worth it and the consequence are dire. Completing quests/events for a node/mayor should increase my reputation/prestige with that node (Perminate, even if the node is destroyed then remade, the reputation/prestige remains.) Which lowers my taxes, give me citizenship, and GIVE ME MORE REASONS TO CARE ABOUT THE NODE.
2. Players need to be online and onsite to receive rewards for participation. IF they're force to be and it's given to just anyone, then it means nothing and less will participate in it in hopes others will 'waste' their time with it as they rush to the end game.
After watching the stream I have a questions for the design.
1. Assuming "an event is a way to introduce content in a more fluid progression type of way via player activity". paraphrasing steven. Are events quests? Will there be quest hubs? Or will the story and 'questing' be driven by events? I ask because if I can just avoid events and quest to progress then events less value and the system will be ignored because there's a faster route. If questing is events then now players are forced to play within the nodes that are of their level to continue to progress. This will lead to players migrating to higher level nodes. So what incentive does a level 45 have at a level 3 node? Own a house? be a mayor? does that matter if they can't progress (level up to max level)?
2. Another problem is balancing the importance of events while leveling (both the character and the node), and when they are at max. If you rely on Quest EXP to motivate players while they are leveling, then you'll have an issue when they are max level getting them participate in the events.
3. Event check boxes need to be satified before a store ark can happen. Will these event be different per node, per level? Will any repeat? How many unique ones per node? Will players move their node to chase another servers event? This is ambitious to say the least. I love the idea that father time is always ticking, and you might miss an opportunity, or you miss the subtle ques and you miss the kick off of the event.
4. Node attacks. Could this be NPC attacks of the node or player attacks of the node? Both would awesome.
5. Steven called a battle ground, 'a small skirmish that might lead to a seige'. Will these battle grounds be subject to corruptions? Since sea battles have no corruption, we're not sure what to think. How many "battle ground" won't be subject to corrpution?
6. If events are driven by a "inprogress / active / inactive / cool down / disable" state machine. How often can be expect events to repeat? Will they start to feel like daily quests?
7. How many "node" level events can spawn per node at a time? If players trigger a volcano, dragon, and blizzard (This is the Volcano dragon blizzard scenario) can they over come it? Did they have any control over how much they triggered? Could outside node players trigger these events to hinder the node without actual pvp? Better expect people to meta the game hell out of the events if they can affect other nodes. If it stops them from getting lvl 6 before my node does I'll sure as hell try.
8. Risk vs reward vs consequence. You used an example of ignore the goblins at your own risk. Will if the goblins are level 25, and I'm level 50 what point do I have to attack the goblins even if I notice their initial ques? Or even when they start to attack the city? Assume a handle full of level 50s could fight off an army of level 25 goblins... As the population all reaches 50 what happens to those 25 goblins, they'll be ignored probably.
9. Will events scale with the level of the node? Will a level 3 node never get the same level mobs attacking it as a level 4,5, or 6?
I could spit ball these ideas all day long, but beer and steak are calling to me.
4
- An ignored rampaging world boss spawn could severely damage/block roads/pathways and thus disrupt movement until dealt with directly/indirectly. Such a boss may come from a nearby dungeon, thus opening up a passage to a dungeon... Or out of some corruption portal(?)... Or just out of the ground they happened to sleep under for so long that moss and stuff grew on top of it before awakening, with one eye oddly open and slightly moving to creep out any passer-by who might have happened to randomly notice it out in the world a few days before it wakes up and goes on a rampage. Might just go back to sleep wherever eventually if absolutely nobody gives a damn... Or/and animals (resources) migrate away from the zone where the rampaging boss is, etc. Or the boss is some elemental type and eats all the ore in the region if not dealt with, gets stronger over time as it eats, to a point where no1 can deal with this boss and need to wait it out while it roams around until... Got carried away. I got carried away, not the boss.
- Decrease crop growth
- Permanent migration of certain species of animals to another node
- Less mob spawns
- More out of ordinary mob spawns
- More aggressive mobs
- Wither away herbs and such
- Make an NPC die/disappear
- Turn the sky depressingly dark
- Forest fire (landscape, trees become... burnt, until it grows back)
- NPCs become corrupted and take over the node city, basically civil war event, total mayhem
- Occasionally, a certain high-value artifact needs to be brought from far away using caravans in order to fix a consequence after the fact
- Acid rain - every1 and everything will suffer damage when not sheltered, non-crafters are more likely to leave or stay away from the area for the duration and the node will clearly suffer immensely because of it.
Reward for participation regardless if online or offline by the end of it. The reward should be collectable either at onsite or at a certain intuitive other place. Also, the reward itself should vary based on performance/time participated/etc. Main reason: disconnections can happen.I hope I didn't get too carried away.
- Thinking in a more technical way for the growth of the node I would like the Mayor to have the ability to make events related to the improvement of the node, for example:
1.-Gathering events
2.-Construction events
3.-Node quest completion events
4.-Positive sales events
5.- spy hunting events
6.-Enemy Node Head Collection Events
etc
Any type of event that positively encourages citizens to improve and defend the node.
Consequences: What are some of the consequences of failing an event that you can imagine happening to the node you call home? Feel free to share your ideas!
- The negative consequences would be indirectly proportional to the failure of the mission, if it is failed with a lower % then the greater the negative consequence to the node, therefore these missions should be a priority for the citizens of the node ,
- for example, if the farm mission is failed then the farm inputs around the node will have a lower % of quality or quantity or output time , this would affect not only the node but also the citizens, therefore the citizens would be attentive to complete these missions.
Participation Rewards: Do you feel that events should require players to be online and/or onsite in order to receive rewards for participation? If so, why? If not, why not?
-No, definitely not.
I would not want to participate in one of the weekly events (if they are weekly or monthly) and then miss the reward for not being there at the time the mayor wants to give the rewards.
It would be preferable that these rewards can be collected with a few days of waiting.
I would like to add something, some time ago I posted a topic about the "cleaning of the nodes", could this fall into this category as missions that the mayor could propose for the improvement of the node?
https://forums.ashesofcreation.com/discussion/51645/dirt-in-aoc/p1
Dirt in cities or houses can be a concept that will have many possibilities for various content.
It could be 1 to 2 times a month with the reward of obtaining some monthly buff (either for the house / guild / city) or if it is not cleaned in a long time a monthly debuff.
Dirt: State that affects some objects in cities or houses. This state can gradually deteriorate objects due to disuse.
If in a house or city there are objects of value, be they economic, military, religious, beauty, etc. These objects could deteriorate due to disuse in a certain time, therefore the player (house) or players (city / guilds) should take into account that from time to time they should clean / care / repair those objects.
possible advantages of having dirt:
1.-A great tool for Role Play
2.-Encourage the economy : Buy supplies to clean / repair / rebuild objects.
3.-Encourage trade : sale of supplies, tools, utensils, materials dedicated to that content.
4.-Encourage sociability : Groups of people must come together to do missions of reconstruction, strengthening of some parts of the city.
5.-Encourage missions on this content : missions of cleaning, care, reinforcement, maintenance, search for materials for these cases, etc.
6.-Encourage the use of things that are not used normally.
7.-Encourage the care of objects for their later use : instruments of war, instruments of missions, instruments of guilds, maintenance of caravanns, maintenance of ships, maintenance of trading posts, maintenance of homes, etc.
8.-Etc
This would entail a good administration on the part of the leaders of the city or houses, in this way the difference between cities/houses would be seen where some would look better than others simply because of the organization of their citizens.
Depending on the state of dirt or cleanliness of the objects, these objects can give both positive (clean) and negative (very dirty) benefits to the player (house) or players (city / guild).