Осады узлов

Кадры осады узла из Pre-alpha.

По мере того, как одни районы мира будут развиваться, другие будут разрушаться. Это — основа живого, дышащего мира Ashes of Creation, где у игроков будет возможность принимать важные решения, развивать до города свой узел или осаждать конкурирующий посёлок. Восстаньте из пепла, создайте мир вокруг себя и станьте частью истории, которая разворачивается благодаря вашим действиям и решениям. – Margaret Krohn

Осады узлов позволяют игрокам уничтожать узлы, прокладывая путь для развития и доступа к заблокированному контенту в окружающих узлах. Благодаря этой динамике политические раздоры и интриги играют важную роль в устройстве мира.

Осада узлов не будет лёгкой задачей для нападающих. У городов и метрополисов будет значительное оборонительное преимущество.

Если у вас в узле есть дом, и вы не хотите, чтобы он был разрушен, вам необходимо будет защищать этот город! – Steven Sharif

Большая часть (~80%) контента в Ashes of Creation представляет собой открытый мир, но в рамках осад замков и узлов могут происходить битвы в инстансах, где определённые группы могут участвовать в небольших, коротких битвах за объекты, за захват определённых точек.

К событиям, основанным на захвате объектов (таким как караваны, войны гильдий и осады узлов) не применяются штрафы за смерть.

Siege defenses

Castle owners and Mayors will be able to purchase and allocate defense mechanisms to bolster siege defenses.

• Treasury funds can be invested into improving node defensive structures, such as stronger walls and gates, traps, and siege equipment.
• Реликвии will offer area-of-effect buffs to damage, attack range or player health of the defenders.
• Race will not affect the defensive capability of a node.

Siege balance

There are points of balance that we want to incorporate, such as the defense mechanisms that the defenders have, the types of buffs that are acquired through completing killing the bosses, or capturing control points, the stages before a siege when it comes to those node progressions in the preceding weeks: Those are all going to be balanced considering all things being equal between the two sides. But obviously we're not going to control the state of gear acquisition that one side might have as an advantage over the other. There might be a much better geared team over there. There might be a much better coordinated team. There might be a higher number of individuals who are part of the attacking or the defense. Those are components that we aren't necessarily going to put on railroads so-to-speak. But the aspects of design that we can talk about like the hit point health of a particular wall or door, or mercenaries that can be hired; what's their cost, what's their damage output: Those are things yes we're going to balance. But obviously anything that's player dependent or that has player interaction and activity and determination you can't always balance; and you don't want to balance. Those aspects you leave those to the players. – Steven Sharif

Declaring a node siege

Осады узлов are declared directly by any player who completes the prerequisites for the siege initiation. Sieges are started via a siege scroll, which is acquired through a quest that scales in difficulty with respect to the level of the node. A substantial investment is required to attain the siege scroll.

• Siege scrolls are specific to the node that is named on the scroll.
  • The lifetime of the scroll begins when the node is named on the scroll.
    • Currently, if the scroll's lifetime is less than the siege cooldown remaining on that node, the scroll will be wasted, but this may change in future.
  • The Mayor is notified when their node is named on a siege scroll.

  The method right now is when you complete a quest line and you're going to receive the scroll, you must stipulate the node that that scroll is valid for and then there is a lifetime on the scroll. – Steven Sharif

  • It was previously stated that siege scrolls were specific to a node stage.
• Once the siege scroll is brought to the node and is activated, the declaration period begins and a countdown is initiated for players in the region to see. This countdown runs for a number of days equal to the stage of the node being sieged.
  • Деревня (2 days)
  • Посёлок (3 days)
  • Город (4 days)
  • Метрополис (5 days)
• Once the countdown is complete, the siege begins.
  • Node citizens that renounce their citizenship during the declaration period may incur penalties.
• Siege scrolls are not able to be modified after they are obtained.

The questing that is incorporated as part of attaining that particular scroll is very particular to the type of scroll you're attempting to acquire and that is inclusive not just of the materials required as part of that questing but also the time associated with completing that quest, because we want there to be a reciprocal relationship between how much time it takes to stand up a node of the particular size and the types of quests that are required in order to attain the siege scroll. So there won't be a method by which you can first attain a scroll for a lower level node and then increase or augment or change that scroll after you've completed the quest. You'll have to go through a new quest again for the type of level of node you want.

Sieging will require a similar amount of resources and time to what it took to develop the node being sieged.

• Siege equipment will need to be crafted based on the stage of the defending node.
• Mayors/governments allocate resources, taxes, and quests to help develop node defenses.

A node siege may not be declared for 21 days following a node advancing to any stage.

• This was previously stated to apply only to nodes advancing to Деревня (стадия 3), not higher stages.

There are new functionalities and mechanisms that come online when a node advances and you want to provide both time for elected governments to take place, which then have direct consequences and choices to be made over defensive capabilities and also gives provides time for that node to collect and receive resources through taxation and/or quests for its citizens to participate in, so that it has available treasury funds and/or resources to allocate towards defensive structures and other types of defensive systems. So it would make sense that if there were to be an occurrence where node advances within that window, that window is reset again for the new stage because there are new correlating services and functions available. – Steven Sharif

During the declaration period, individuals or guilds can register to attack or defend providing they meet the criteria.

• The player who originally declared the siege cannot exclude anyone from joining the attack.
• Citizens of the node or provincial nodes being attacked are automatically registered as defenders.
• Players do not need to be citizens of the node in order to register as defenders, but they cannot be citizens of a node that is at war with the node they wish to defend.
• Citizens of allied nodes cannot register to attack.

Many services are shut down during the siege declaration period, and instead are replaced by preparation quests or services for the siege.

• Once a siege is declared, players are prohibited from moving goods out of depositories within the node.
  • This includes resources and materials that are stored in Warehouses, Chests within player housing, storage containers within guild halls, or within processing buildings on freeholds.

That incentivizes even further the necessity of players to contribute to the defense of a city. It also elevates the need for that city to politically gain allies among other nodes so that they can protect the collective goods of the citizens. – Steven Sharif

• During the siege virtually all services are suspended.
  • Киоски игроков may still operate during node siege declaration. This is subject to testing.
• If a node levels up during the declaration period, the level up will affect the node system for neighboring nodes, but the leveling wont occur until a short time after the siege.

Server prime-time

События, связанные с PvP с захватом целей, такие как осады узлов, осады замков, войны гильдий и войны между узлами, будут происходить в прайм-тайм, примерно между 3 часами дня и 9 часами вечера по серверному времени. Это ещё будет тестироваться.

Announcements/Notifications

Гоблины нападают на узел в рамках ивента в открытом мире.

Сила монстров скалируется в зависимости от развития узла, предоставляя опору для изгнаников или возможность для смены власти. – Steven Sharif

В игре будут локальные, региональные и глобальные (серверные) объявления/оповещения о важных событиях.

• Осады замков.
• Осады узлов.
• Появление легендарных мировых боссов.
• Нападения монстров и события монет монстров.
• Возможности для подземелий.

Уведомления о событиях будут распространяться разными методами в зависимости от события (его размера и уровня).

• Локальные события
  • Локальные события (такие как караваны) могут предлагать игрокам поучаствовать через пользовательский интерфейс.
  • Другие локальные события могут иметь слуховые или визуальные подсказки, позволяющие их обнаружить, при этом не используя пользовательский интерфейс.
  • Локальные события, которые не были соответствующим образом сдержаны, могут получить развиться до регионального, или даже глобального масштаба.

Важная вещь которую стоит отметить, говоря о событиях в целом, это уведомления которые будут отправляться игрокам. Игроки могут присоединиться к событиям так же, как они приняли бы квест. Вам будут показывать окошко "Хотели бы вы принять участие?", но это не всегда будет выглядеть именно так. Вы можете услышать как падают деревья в лесу, и это намекнет вам на то, что тут что-то происходит. Что-то не так. Обычно в этой области нет таких звуков, так что я пойду и проверю, что происходит. Так что события не всегда будут отражены в пользовательском интерфейсе. То, как игроки узнают о событии, может зависеть от его стадии. Например, пока событие разворачивается локально, оно может заявлять о себе только через видимые и слышимые проявления, и вам стоит принять участие уже на этом этапе; но когда событие будет прогрессировать (например, если вы не отреагировали вовремя), оно может перейти на региональный уровень, и тогда событие будет отправлять оповещения гражданам узла, с которым оно связано, или даже большему количеству игроков. События, находящиеся на глобальной стадии, тоже могут иметь видимые проявления - действительно большие, как, например, гигантская метель, которая влияет на некоторую область, т.к. событие не было вовремя сдержано; и это может повлиять на рост урожая, или изменить дороги и известные проходы, меняя маршруты караванов. Тут много моментов, в которых система условий информирует систему событий, а потом система событий реагирует на определенные условия. – Steven Sharif

• События узлов
  • О некоторых событиях узлов будет передано всем гражданам узла, другие события, такие как караваны, объявляться не будут. Информация о них будет передаваться из уст в уста самими игроками.
  • Уведомления о переходе узла на следующую стадию будут транслироваться в зависимости от стадии узла.
    • Об образовании Экспедиции (стадия 1) и Лагеря (стадия 2) будет объявлено в непосредственной близости от узла.
    • Улучшение узла до Деревни (стадия 3) будет иметь общерегиональное объявление.
    • О переходе узла на стадию Города (стадия 4) и выше, скорее всего, будет транслироваться по всему миру.

• О новых гражданах узла можно объявить в выделенном канале чата граждан узла.
• Уведомления о выборах будут рассылаться по почте на аккаунты граждан.

Будь это осадой или сработавшим событием против города или уникальной возможностью для подземелья... Такого типа вещи будут включать оповещения. Особенно граждан города; где вы и будете проинформированы о наступающем событии. В общем, это предоставит вам время. – Steven Sharif

• Региональные или глобальные события
  • О более масштабных событиях может быть объявлено всему региону, или даже всему миру.

Siege alliances

When a siege begins, temporary alliances are formed among attackers and defenders.

• For node sieges, citizens of the node or provincial nodes being attacked are automatically registered as defenders.
• There are many reasons to participate as an ally in the attack or defence of other nodes.
  • Titles.
  • Items.
  • Materials.
  • Money.
  • Social bonds.

Many incentives exist that can benefit your node and yourself personally by participating in the attack or defense of cities. These range from titles, to items, to materials, to money. Additionally, aiding others may help you strengthen bonds when your assets are threatened. – Steven Sharif

Ashes of Creation получит особенный контент, сфокусированный вокруг альянсов.

• Разные пути развития альянсов.
• Гильдии делят основные услуги с членами альянса.
• Альянсы смогут выставлять отношения с узлами.

Контент направленный конкретно на альянсы и их развитие; и способность делиться некоторыми общими сервисами между гильдиями которые являются частью этого альянса. Я думаю что выгодно будет дать альянсам дополнительную возможность выставлять определённые отноения с узлами в качестве взаимодействия. Это предоставит интересную динамику игрокам которые являются жителями конкретного узла с которым определены отношения или членами альянса. Так что я думаю что, очевидно, построение систем состоит из создания каналов благодаря которым игроки смогут формировать связи и чем больше слоев вокруг таких каналов построения связей между разными гильдиями и игроками, тем более сильно поддерживаются такие отношения. – Steven Sharif

Участие в осадах

Незарегистрированным игрокам не разрешено участвовать в осадах замков или узлов.

• Осады замков в Alpha-1 расположены в отдельной зоне, доступ к которой открывается через диалог с телепортирующим игрока НИПом.
  • Осады замков (в релизной версии игры) могут быть или не быть отделены от основной карты мира.

• Пока игрок зарегистрирован на битву, он может возрождаться в штабе своей стороны.
  • Незарегистрированные гильдии не смогут взять в собственность замок в случае победы.

• Игроки могут перехватывать направляющихся на осаду одиночек, пользуясь механиками войны гильдий или системы меток.

Персонажи низкого уровня смогут приносить пользу в крупных сражениях, выполняя действия, не зависящие от уровня, например, управление осадными орудиями, ремонт укреплений, размещение усилений, действующих по области, на ключевых позициях; они могут проводить разведку в скрытности или взбираться на стены. Всё это будет важным в ходе сражения и не потребует наличия у персонажа максимального уровня или высоких боевых характеристик.

Siege mechanics

A siege occurs over several phases.

• Certain siege mechanics may be gated for specific size groups during sieges.
• There will not be a deserter debuff for leaving a siege before it is complete.
• More will be revealed in an upcoming blog entry.

Siege weapons

Trebuchet siege weapon in Alpha-1 castle sieges preview.

It wouldn’t be a castle siege without siege weapons. These are massive machines of war that enable attackers to bring down the walls, and defenders to keep their keep safe. Crafters can bring their own powerful schematics to the battlefield, or you can order baseline siege weapons from your friendly neighborhood siege master NPC. The Castle’s defenders will be able to deploy their own defensive weapons and turrets based on how well they maintained and defended their own Nodes. The sky will be illuminated with fire and fury.

Ballista siege weapon in Alpha-1 castle sieges preview.

Siege weapons are able to be crafted or purchased from Неигровые персонажи.

• Siege equipment will require materials, recipes and craftsmanship.

Part of this endeavor of sieging a player-held location (or non-player-held location) is time to prepare; and that includes gathering and crafting these mega weapons or collecting the resources: Whether it be gold or specific quest items to purchase from NPCs. – Steven Sharif

Anything that you want to bring into existence in the world is going to be built by players: Whether that is Корабли, Siege engines, Weapons, Armor, etc. – Jeffrey Bard

There will be ways to repair destructible structures (such as walls and gates) and also repair (or re-craft) siege weapons that were damaged during sieges.

• This is a long term design goal that will not be present during Alpha-1.

Siege PvP

Sieges don't use the PvP flagging system.

Death penalties do not apply to objective-based events (such as caravans, guild wars, and node sieges).

Siege NPCs

Siege NPCs serve as defense points. Killing them allows the attackers to gain advantages during a siege. Неигровые персонажи are only killable during a siege and will respawn if the siege is unsuccessful.

NPC guards are intended to be a significant presence but not the main line of defense in a siege.

Mercenary NPCs

Mercenary NPCs can be hired to participate in objective-based situations.

• Varying tiers of mercenary NPCs may be unlocked based on the investment made in their progression. Highest tier NPC mercenaries are referred to as heros.
  • Mayors are able to allocate treasury funding to hire mercenary NPCs to defend their node during sieges.
  • Nodes can invest in upgrade paths that give a greater selection of roles and quality (gear level) of NPC mercenaries used for caravan defense.
  • NPC mercenaries can be hired to participate in castle sieges based on the allocation made by the governing castle and how successful they have been defending their castle nodes.
  • These mechanics are subject to change based on testing and priorities.
• Players can assign mercenary NPCs, but won't micromanage them, in a similar manner to pets.

There are mercenary NPCs that can be assigned to players. We've discussed about that before and those will follow generically... a kind of pet system even you know adopted majority of the pet system with the added bonus of kind of objective based points of interest that you can assign them to. But we don't want to inundate the field with these mercenaries they'll be kind of few and far between. They'll be assigned specifically like let's say for example you know as the mayor of a node during a siege you'll be able to assign these two specific players that are citizens within your node and then they'll have those they'll spawn during the during the node siege; or vice versa and the castle siege you know guild leaders can assign mercenaries that are available based on the progress of those subsidiary nodes around the castle siege whether or not you have those available to your defense or your attack. – Steven Sharif

Dragons

Dragons are epic flying mounts with strong battle abilities, such as AoE breath attacks, swooping flyby attacks, and others.

• Dragons have PvP capabilities relating to Осады замков and Осады узлов.

The dragon will have a lot of capability in PvP. It's primarily its purpose, because as it relates to Castles and the sieges they're in, or Nodes and the sieges they're in. We want dragons to have large scale ramifications against player raids. – Steven Sharif

Siege instances

There may be instanced locations within otherwise open-world castle and node sieges, where specific groups can participate in small, short duration objective-based battles that will affect the overall outcome of the siege.

What we were talking about was how during castle sieges or node sieges, you're going to have certain instanced locations where it's only going to be a group that's designated to participate versus another group while the siege is happening. And I know in the past we talked about well how do you plan to incorporate these more objective-based waypoints as part of these larger events; and say that not only is it going to be a complement of numbers or in the overall grand kind of battle perspective, but there's also going to be opportunities for smaller more niche groups to participate in more focused objective capturing. And a part of that is going to be small very short, kind of ten minute long instanced battles where groups can go and participate against other groups that are defender versus attacker; and the outcome of which will influence certain aspects of the overall battle while that's still occurring in the background. – Steven Sharif

Siege objectives

Each node has a number of districts, depending on its stage.

• Districts are taken by defeating a "raid boss" guard NPC in that district.
• If attackers take over a district, they gain that district as a respawn location.
• Attackers can kill the quartermasters to increase the respawn times of the defenders while reducing their own respawn times.

Defenders can assault the outposts of the attackers to hinder them.

• Destroying the headquarters of the attacking army is a victory condition for the defenders.

Attackers may not be capable of deleveling a node. Instead they may carry out precision attacks to disable specific service-oriented buildings within the node. These buildings can be targeted with siege weapons and bombs.

As the attackers are sieging a city you know they have obviously a win condition- a win objective- but additionally there can be casualties from a structural standpoint during that process. So let's say if the... attackers were to not succeed in completely destroying the node they could still affect damage across multiple types of buildings that are present within the node, which disables services for that those citizens and also will require some type of reconstruction effort on behalf of the citizens. – Steven Sharif

Completing a siege

A node siege will last for up to two hours.

• Defenders will be required to hold a central point in the node for the duration of the siege or they must destroy the hedquarters of the attacking army.
• Attackers will need to gain access to the node then reach a central point where they must channel a 5 minute cast on the defender's flag. This cast can not be interrupted by CC but can be interrupted through death of the caster.

If the node survives, there will be a cooldown before the node can be sieged again:

• Деревня (20 days)
• Посёлок (30 days)
• Город (40 days)
• Метрополис (50 days)

If the node still exists after the siege has ended, citizens will need to obtain the resources needed to rebuild any damaged infrastructure.

Node destruction

Nodes can be destroyed starting at Level 3 - Village Stage, and are destroyed through sieges. Sieges are started via an item which is acquired through a quest that scales in difficulty with respect to the level of the Node which is being targeted for the siege. Once the item is brought to the Node and is activated, the declaration period begins and a countdown is initiated for players in the region to see. This countdown runs for a number of days equal to the level of the Node being sieged. Once the countdown is complete, the siege begins. There is a cooldown between sieges, and players must wait a certain amount of time after an unsuccessful siege before a new siege can be declared. The higher the Node level, the longer the cooldown between sieges. If a siege is successful, then the Node is brought down to Level 0, and anyone who was a citizen of that Node is no longer a citizen. – Margaret Krohn

Nodes can be destroyed starting at Деревня (стадия 3) following a successful siege against that node.

• Destroyed nodes revert to stage 0 (wilderness) after a successful siege.
• Any modified terrain will revert back to its original state.
• Players lose their node citizenship after their node is destroyed.

After a node is destroyed there will be a debris field containing spoils that are lootable to the victors of the siege.

• The warehouse debris will contain a portion of all Materials (crafting components) and Gatherables that were stored in the destroyed node.

• The reliquary debris will contain a stockpile of material components of the relics that were once stored there.

• The town hall debris might contain tax-oriented certificates that were held within the vaults and in the treasury.

• The stables debris might contain mount certificates that can be added to caravans in the future or sold on the auction house.

What happens when the node gets destroyed is there will be stockpiles of spoils... A whole host of what is centralized within a regional economy like the node system becomes- a portion of that becomes available to the attackers who participated in the siege and they can go and interact with those with those debris fields and attempt to claim things. – Steven Sharif

• This includes gatherables and processed goods that were stored in in-node housing and apartment storage chests. These do not become lootable if the node survives the siege- even if the housing buildings are destroyed or damaged during the siege.

• Players are prohibited from moving goods out of depositories within the node following a siege declaration against that node.

• Attackers who participated in the siege will have exclusive looting rights for period of time following the node's destruction.
  • Any loot remaining after this period will be open for anyone to loot.

The looting rights have a period of time in which the attackers have loot rights essentially. So these are people who participated in the attack- they were flagged attackers during the siege and they have first dibs; and then if after that period of time... that looting right dissipates then it becomes open.. – Steven Sharif

Destructible environments

Destructible environments in Alpha-1 castle sieges.

Destructible environments is a core element of how players interact with the world, in Ashes of Creation.

We want destruction to be a very core element of how players make their way through the world. – Steven Sharif

There will be ways to repair destructible structures (such as walls and gates) and also repair (or re-craft) siege weapons that were damaged during sieges.

Node building destruction

Destructible castle.

You could be more precision oriented in the decision to attack a city. Let's say it's a rival node that's trying to reach you know a node stage five or something and you want to disable their ability for the religious system to progress so you target the temple during the attack, or you want to disable their scholars academy from reaching a higher level so that your nodes can; or you want to disable multiple buildings that allow for experience and quests to be undertaken by its citizenship, which prevents them from keeping up in pace of experience gained with your node. These can be more precision oriented and don't have to effectualize an actual takeover of the node. – Steven Sharif

Node buildings (including player housing) have hit points and can be damaged or destroyed by different systems.

• NPC-driven events that are a response to story arcs or node atrophy.
• Осады узлов and node wars.
  • Attackers may not be capable of destroying a node during a siege. Instead they may carry out precision attacks to disable specific service-oriented buildings within the node. These buildings can be targeted with siege weapons and bombs.
• Hazardous events such as tornadoes or hurricanes.

If buildings suffer more than approximately 25% damage, any Неигровые персонажи or services offered by that building will not be available until the building is repaired.

• Players must repair damaged buildings (or rebuild destroyed ones) in order to reactivate the services from those particular buildings.
  • Citizens will need to obtain the resources needed to repair and rebuild any damaged infrastructure.
  • Larger more advanced buildings will require more resources to repair them. In-node housing will likely require the least resources to repair.

Buildings that take significant damage are destroyed and appear as rubble on the plot they occupied.

• Node governments must clear any rubble on plots before any buildings can be reconstructed. Any prerequisites for the building reconstruction must be satisfied beforehand.

  Buildings also live within a prerequisite system. So in order to build down the tech tree of what these buildings provide, as the node grows larger to access stronger building types, you may get a kink in that chain if it's destroyed and you'll have to stand that back up in order to support the service again. – Steven Sharif

• If the node is destroyed by a node siege, the debris field will contain spoils that are lootable to the victors of the siege.
  • Дома игроков that is destroyed during a node siege can no longer be sold. Furnishing and decorations are retained and can be placed again later.

Impact on player housing

Дома игроков designs and decorations are retained and can be placed again later if the housing is destroyed during a node siege.

• Blueprints are mailed to the player to utilize for future placement.
• Destroyed freeholds are subject to material loss.
• Certificates will track major milestones (such as Furnaces and Homesteads, for example).
• A possible design idea is for items such as furnishings to be boxed in crates that are accessible inside the new home.

Impact on in-node housing

Некоторая из приведенной ниже информации не была подтверждена разработчиками и может не входить в текущую дорожную карту разработки.

Following a node siege, static housing will be scaled back or destroyed based on the advancement of the node.

• If the housing was purchased at a higher advancement than the node currently is then it will be destroyed, otherwise the housing will be scaled back.

Impact on apartments

Квартиры могут быть разрушены в следующих случаях:

• Если их здание было разрушено во время осада узла, даже если осада не была успешной.
• Если мэр построил дополнительные многоквартирные дома в городе (этап 4) или выше, а уровень узла упал ниже этой стадии.
• Если мэр решит снести многоквартирные дома, все предметы и планировки будут отправлены владельцу по почте.

Impact on freeholds

Наделы may be attacked by any player for a period of two hours following a successful siege against its parent node.

• Players and their allies may defend their freehold for this period of time.
• Structures and guards may be obtained to defend freeholds during this period.

After the two hour period of open combat following a successful node siege, any remaining freeholds will exist under a grace period for roughly 1 week where another node may take over the zone of influence of the freehold.

• The freehold owner will be required to undertake a quest process to have their freehold adopted by a new node if one exists.
• At the end of the grace period, if the freehold does not reside within the ZOI of a stage three (Деревня) node or above, it will be destroyed.
• Players who are registered as a defenders of their node cannot loot their own destroyed freeholds.

If a siege is successful, then the Node is brought down to Level 0, and anyone who was a citizen of that Node is no longer a citizen. Freeholds within the Zone of Influence are subject to a period of vulnerability. These Freeholds can be destroyed by other players during a period of roughly 2 hours after a successful siege. Destroyed Freeholds are subject to material loss, and blueprints for them are mailed to the player to utilize for future placement in order to allow the player to keep their Freehold’s layout and structure. Once the vulnerability period is complete, any remaining Freeholds will exist under a grace period for roughly 1 week where another Node may take over the Zone of Influence of the Freehold. – Margaret Krohn

Node redevelopment

A node that was successfully destroyed by a node siege may develop differently due to the following influences:

• Different races becoming primary contributors.
• Design elements determined by different governments.
• Reactions and interactions with other nodes in the world.

Node politics

There won't be a civil war mechanic within nodes but there will be scope for internal political conflicts; such as undermining the current leadership and disrupting trade.

• The only way to remove an elected mayor prior to the end of their term is by destroying the node.

We want consequences to matter and if that person got elected then you need to work within the means of the mechanics to get them unelected. – Steven Sharif

Impact of monsters and world bosses

Monster coin events (Bosses) cannot destroy or delevel nodes. They can disable certain buildings, services and Неигровые персонажи within a node. Осады узлов are the chief mechanic for destroying nodes.

• Monster coin events do not occur before sieges.
• Monster coin events do not occur during sieges.
• Destruction of certain buildings during a monster coin event could have local, regional, or even global economic impacts.

For example, if the service building that got disabled was a blacksmith's building that housed a workbench, which was the only workbench in the region capable of crafting a t5 (or tier 5), or high-tier quality equipment, then of course that would have ramifications economically, as those pieces of equipment that are already readily available would raise in prices; and because there would be a issue within the supply chain of those items being introduced into the economy, you would potentially have some supply and demand changes economically and that could span regions: that could be global even. – Steven Sharif

Impact on player stalls

Игрока нельзя атаковать или ограбить, пока он находится в своём киоске.

Киоски игроков нельзя обновлять во время объявления осады.

Node atrophy (deleveling)

Некоторая из приведенной ниже информации не была подтверждена разработчиками и может не входить в текущую дорожную карту разработки.

Узлы can delevel based on node atrophy.

• This is a preliminary design and may change based on testing. This may be changed to an atrophy points system, where accumulated points will progressively disable services within a node. The node may be destroyed (instead of deleveling) if a significant points threshold is reached.

There are intrinsic problems with reducing a nodes level as opposed to removing the node and it may be possible I'm just gonna say now that we don't actually atrophy nodes to delevel but rather accrue atrophy points that must be replenished over time; and if not it begins to disable services and further compound the atrophy problem; at which point when it reaches a certain atrophy point then the node would just disappear. – Steven Sharif

• Nodes accumulate an experience deficit each day based on the node's level. The deficit is subtracted from any experience earned that day. If any deficit remains, then this is subtracted from the node’s experience pool.

• Mayors are able to initiate quest-driven systems that non-citizens can participate in. The mayor can use a portion of the node's treasury or goods as rewards for quest completion. Players will be able to interface with the node to view the quests that are available to them.
  • These quests can be used to bring in material components to help combat node atrophy.

• Certain flags will appear to notify node citizens if their node has dropped below the required experience for its current stage. After a short period, if the atrophy is not addressed, the Node will then delevel.
• A node cannot delevel more than a single level at a time.
  • When a Node delevels it enters a safe period, during which the deficit is temporarily reduced to 0.
• It may be possible through node atrophy for two nodes of the same stage to be adjacent to each other.

Deleveled nodes return to their previous stage.

• Deleveled nodes may lose their vassal nodes.

If a Node delevels, it returns to the previous Stage, but keeps the racial style it had before deleveling. A Node cannot delevel more than a single level at a time. For example, a Level 2 Node would become a Level 1, or a Level 1 Node would become a Level 0. If deleveling would cause a Node to lose its Vassals, it does so. When a Node delevels it enters a “safe period,” during which the deficit is temporarily reduced to 0. Once the safe period expires, the Node can once again begin losing experience based on its deficit. – Margaret Krohn

Siege abilities

3D-визуализация War Beast за авторством Jessica Jennings.

Восемь игроков с одинаковым основным архетипом могут объединиться, чтобы создавать монументальные эффекты во время осады.

• Эти классы должны состоять в одной группе или рейде.

Мы хотим воплотить в жизнь тот тип системы, когда группа с одними и теми же основными архетипами может собраться вместе, чтобы создать эффекты, зависящие от отличительных особенностей этого архетипа. – Steven Sharif

Summoner

Summoners can collaborate to summon larger summons, such as Golems.

• A siege summon will have an incremental size based on the number of summoners participating in that summon activity, with a maximum of eight.
• The number of summoners participating in the summon will determine its overall size.
• All summoners must be in the same party and the party leader must be a summoner.
  • The party leader initiates the summon and then takes control of it.
  • Once summoned, the party leader cannot be changed.
  • If the party disbands, the summon ends. There will be a grace period to handle disconnects.
  • The party may also contain non-Summoners.

It doesn't have to be just summoners, but it has to be a party led by a summoner with other summoners in it. – Steven Sharif

Tank

Alpha-1 castle siege combat featuring a Tank siege ability.

If eight Tank archetypes each use one of their summon wall abilities it might construct a larger wall that can divide two raids in a moment; and would require damage and block skills and abilities for a momentary lapse of battle between those two raids. – Steven Sharif

Node wars

Node governments may declare war on another node and rally citizens to the cause.

• This mutually flags the citizens of the warring nodes, including their allies, as combatants.
  • Social organizations quests will either be cooperative or adversarial based on the war status of their parent nodes.
• Vassal nodes cannot declare a node war on their parent node or any of their vassals.
• Node wars can be declared at any time, but the objectives will only spawn during server prime-time.
  • Players can kill each other at any time during the war (not only during server prime-time).

We have conditions that you can set between nodes with regards to either nodes being friendly with each other and acting trade alliances, or they can declare war on nodes similar to how guild wars may function in different games, where those citizens become hostile to each other based on the player government that's elected in the particular node. So those systems all kind of cater to allowing a conflict that's meaningful and that also provides a non-imbalanced relationship between stronger guilds and not as strong guilds. – Steven Sharif

Зерги

На каждую игру должна быть контригра. Мы часто видим, как осады замков превращаются в фестивали зергов, что не отражает эпические сражения, которые мы хотели бы видеть в Ashes of Creation. Одним из наших основных принципов является то, что выбор имеет значение, и это также относится к тактике и стратегии. Хорошо сформулированный план битвы должен преобладать над статами и телами. Зергом, как правило, будет трудно выиграть, и ему можно будет противостоять с помощью осадных орудий, ловушек и другими приемами на поле боя»

Для формирования зергов в игре необходима возможность быстро передвигаться. Значимое время для передвижения предназначено для того, что бы зерги не оказывали сильное воздействие на игровой процесс.

Столкновние были спроектированы таким образом, чтобы во внимание принималось как навыки и способности босса sи состав грппы, так и стратегия и тактика. Zerging|Зерги не испытывают контент. Существует множество разных способов для того что бы усложнить бой для больших групп, не полагаясь на характеристики и не превращая босса в “ губку для урона”.

• Боссы из рейдов и подземелий бладают специальными механиками и способностями которые игроку нужно будет изучить и выполнять для успешного прохождения. Зерги которые не знают этих механик или не будут их выполнять будут уничтожены.

• Так же возможны опасности со стороны окружения и AoE эффекты которые будут влиять на бой, например наносить больше урона если рядом находиться большее количество игроков.
• Так что для гильдий которые хотят видеть большее количество игроков есть как плюсы так и минусы.

Мы прекрасно осознаем то, что не хотим видеть зерги в качестве механик которые используют гильдии для прохождения контента или легких побед в осадах… Существуют специальные механики которые мы разрабатываем, которые будут присутвовать в различных фазах тестирования. Эти механики связаны с пониманием того что некоторые системы не могут быть просто побеждены количеством. – Steven Sharif

Механики которые будут поощрять политические интриги будут играть роль в дестабилизации зергов.

Наилучщий способ, котрый я обнаружил в играх в которые я играл раньше, для уничтожения зергов это драма внутри зерга…Это политический конфликт который случается внутри этой большой организации. Если мы предоставим возможность для политического разделения, то это так же обеспечит стабильность чтобы сохранить сервер в дали от менталитета зерга, а так же…Если мы подходим к осаде замка и мы разрушили стены этого замка и я в тронной комнате и мы вот вот скастуем предпоследнюю вещь и в это время я на взводе от всего что происходит и я думаю “к черту, я сделаю это”. Это будет мое, я буду собирать налоги в следующем месяце . И я заберу всю экипировку с замка. Я заберу все… мы хотим подобную политическую интригу в игре. – Steven Sharif

Игровой процесс построенный на объектах помогать сбалансировать менталитет зергов.

Я считаю что если ты создаешь балланс опираясь на группы, то в стоит включить в этот балланс функции которые хорошо работают как с точки зрения игрок против игрока, так и с точки зрения игрок против окружающей среды. Наличие классов поддержки, наличие ДД и танков которые могут препятствовать движению и/или создавать узкие места в поле и тому подобное. Я думаю, что хорошо сбалансированный рейд будет работать лучше против не очень хорошо сбаллансированного рейда. И тут во внимание приходит аспект чисел и начинает играть роль мобильность, организованность и тактика руководства. Наличие целей в игровом процессе которые делают данные аспекты важными помогает сбаллансировать менталитет зергов который может присутствовать в гильдиях. – Steven Sharif

Инстансы не играют большой роли в ограничении зергов так как в Ashes of Creation 80% контента находится в открытом мире.

• Некоторые инсты могут находиться в замках и на территориях осад в узлах пределенные группы смогут учавствовать в них проходя через направляющие точки.

Зерги всегда являются проблемой во многих ММОРПГ где никак не контролируется количество участников в событиях в открытом мире. В данном случае инсты являются отличным решением которое дизайнеры могут иногда использовать для ограничения учавствующих игроков. Но основная часть контента в Ashes of Creation, больше 80%, находиться в открытом мире, так что количество инстов лимитированно – Steven Sharif

Иллюстрации

• 

  2018-04-01
• 

  2018-01-01
• 2017-10-24

Смотрите также

• Осады замков
• World PvP
• Siege weapons
• Боевая система
• Node wars
• Node simulation