Bosses

Alpha-1 dungeon boss.

Pre-alpha Brood Queen raid boss.

Pre-alpha PvE gameplay from PAX 2017.

Bosses fall into the following types, with increasing levels of difficulty and loot tables, requiring greater numbers of players to kill.

• Dungeon bosses.
• Raid bosses.
• Regional bosses.
• Legendary world bosses.

Alpha-0 Sorrow's hunger world boss attacking a Village node.

When a server downs a legendary boss, I want it to cost time, resources, dedication; and when you do that I want everyone to benefit from it. – Steven Sharif

PvE difficulty

The difficulty of PvE content, such as raids and dungeons will adapt based on the performance of the raid or group against previous bosses in that encounter.

• Higher performance in earlier phases will increase the difficulty of subsequent phases of the encounter.
• The higher the difficulty, the better the loot tables will be.
• Bosses and mobs will not auto-scale based on group size.

Raid bosses

There will be between 12 to 15 raid bosses in the world.

• Legendary equipment is only dropped by Legendary world bosses.

Particular world bosses have stages of progression, such as defeating acolytes, then lieutenants, then generals, then the world boss itself.

• At each stage there is increasing difficulty.
• This may be parsed out into different time periods and be behind a wall of development.
• A single digit percentage of the population will be capable of defeating certain content.

There will be some in-depth raiding that has multiple stages that will be extremely difficult and... It would definitely be in the single digits of population that will be capable of defeating certain content... It doesn't mean that there won't be content available for the larger percentages as well... There should be a tiered level of content that players can constantly strive to accomplish. If there is no ladder of progression and everything is flat and all content can be experienced, then there is no drive to excel. – Steven Sharif

Raid tiers

Tiers of raid difficulty are in accordance with the world's node structure.

The more developed a zone the more challenging the content; and we feel that's a good progression when it comes to actual adventuring class, because it will match both world development and it will also continue to allow for participation for new players, if they may go into a zone that's recently been reset by either a siege or some other event. – Steven Sharif

Raid strategies

Raids will have elements that can be pre-planned.

• Required composition of DPS, healers and support.
• Key positioning.

Raids will also have dynamic elements that can change from session to session.

• The types and numbers of bosses and mobs present in the raid and their skill repertoire.
• Variables are manifested based on node progression.
  • The number of metropolis nodes developed.
  • The types of metropolis nodes developed.

One of the design elements that we're implementing into our raids is that the raid will not be exactly the same every single time. You're going to have variables that can't necessarily be pre-planned out for. You can pre-plan out for a lot of the raid like how many DPS do you need and healers and support; where the key position and all that kind of stuff; but I think the compelling aspect of Ashes raiding will be the difficulty in achieving this content and having that content change from session to session as well. We want there to be variables that get manifested by you know what type of node got developed elsewhere. Is he going to have acolytes or cultists? What will the acolytes have skills [available] to them? What kit is the boss gonna have? What available skill repertoire will the boss be able to [wield]? ... A lot of those systems are influenced obviously by world development. So the raid kind of takes into account at what stage has the world developed: Are there two metropolises now available in the world? Okay well let's activate this skill in this skill. Now you have five metropolises, well now all these skills have been activated. Are there are they all economic nodes? Are they all military nodes? That we can change things based on that stuff. And it really is a threat assessment from the environment against the players. – Steven Sharif

Raid mechanics

Raids contain intricate combat mechanics.

• Multiple phase boss fights.
• Adds.
• Random oriented skill usage.
• Telegraphed animations, but no obvious telegraphed templates on the ground.
• Fights will require location, mobility and strategy.

Combat itself will be pretty intricate mechanics-wise. We're going to have different phases of the bosses, there's going to be a lot of adds stuff, there's going to be random oriented skill usage. We're not going to have telegraphed templates on the ground, but we will have telegraphed animations, so it's going to be location, mobility, strategic. It will be something that can not be repeatable in the exact same way from raid to raid, but has a variance between the combat, so raiders are going to have to be fluid in thinking on their feet. – Steven Sharif

Telegraphs

In specific circumstances there will be telegraphs (tells) to communicate something that's happening.

• Animation tells.
• Templates.

Regional bosses

Regional bosses will change based on the types and locations of nodes.

Mobs

Goblin 3D render by Chris Atkins.

There are going to be different types of "Goblinesque" creatures; and this one has not skipped out on his leg or arm day, which is a good thing for him because he's probably going to be in a lot of fights. – Steven Sharif

Corrupt troll concept.

Alpha-0 cat mob from the flood plains environment.

In the world naturally there will be locations that are going to have a mix of different levels of monsters and difficulty levels; and then those spawn tables relate to the development of nearby nodes. So as nodes develop they'll be changing the spawn tables around them to reflect their further development in the world, presenting new and more difficult dangers that the players can participate in. – Steven Sharif

Announcements/Notifications

Будут проводиться глобальные (серверные) объявления/оповещения о важных событиях.

• Осады замков|.
• Осады узлов.
• Появление легендарных мировых боссов.
• События из-за монет монстров.
• Возможности для подземелий.

Локальные события узлов, такие как караваны объявляться не будут. Они должна будут передаваться из уст в уста самими игроками.

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

Artificial intelligence

Ashes of Creation utilizes an adaptive artificial intelligence (AI), which means that different encounters with similar creatures will yield different player experiences.

• Utilizing new AI technology that hasn't been seen in other MMORPG projects.
• Bosses are scripted and make decisions dynamically during boss fights.
• NPCs performing "idle actions" to make the world seem more alive has been discussed by the developers but is not confirmed.

There are AI systems that don't relate to controlling NPCs.

• Прогресс узлов.
• Stock market.
• Triggered events.

There are some additional AI parameters that are set that don't relate necessarily to controlling NPCs. There are AIs with regards to the development of the borders for nodes in the direction and also the decisions that are made of which lower nodes to enslave as vassal states. There's AI that relates to a little bit of the stock market that's going to be present in the economy. There's some AI systems that are going to be announced also that are pretty innovative I think with regards to the MMORPG genre and that's going to make the triggered event system very interesting I think; and that's you know with regards to how nodes kind of develop and the environment reacts to that development by you know spawning these triggered events of you know a horde of zombies attacking a city or a legendary raid boss coming out of the mountain. I think there's a lot of opportunity for some of the innovations that's been in the AI sector of game development too to come out in Ashes. – Steven Sharif

Looting

Ashes of Creation intends to use traditional loot rules, selected by the party leader.

Lootmaster

A master looter (or lootmaster) is a player designated by the party leader to decide how loot is distributed in a dungeon or raid party.

Round-robin

With round-robin looting, party members take turns looting.

Need before greed

This is a traditional need before greed system based on dice rolls.

Bidding system

Intrepid are investigating a potential bidding system, which allows players to bid on items instead of rolling for them.

• The highest bidder wins the item.
• The gold then goes into a pool that is split among the rest of the party members.

Loot tables

Alpha-1 dungeon concept by Michael Bacon.

Monsters drop hunting certificates, Items and crafting materials rather than gold.

• Hunting certificates is a term that covers items, such as Pelts that house the value of a mob's death. These certificates are specific to an economic region.

A wolf is not going to be carrying a sack of gold. It may instead drop "pelts" that can be traded for gold.

• Hunting certificates will also drop on a character's death.
• Hunting certificates can be traded with hunter NPCs within nodes.
  • The level of the node and the distance of the node from the drop will determine the value of the certificate. Certificates redeemed from distant economic regions via the caravan system will provide higher returns (4 to 5 times greater in some cases) than certificates collected from the same region.
  • The value of the certificates are also calculated (by the world manager algorithm) based on the volume of certificates being redeemed in each region.
• Hunting certificates can also be stored within node warehouses.

Loot tables of world bosses or dungeon bosses have a small RNG chance of dropping gear (completed items).

• There is a much higher chance that materials and unique recipes are dropped that can be used to craft items of equitable value.
• There is a small RNG chance of looting rare and legendary items or crafting materials from mobs based on the level, status and type of mob. This also applies to harvesting resources with a gathering profession.
• Legendary equipment is only dropped by Legendary world bosses.

Loot tables are disabled for player controlled monsters.

Experience debt decreases the drop rate percentages from monsters.

Loot tagging

Looting rights is based on a tag and DPS (damage) system.

• The first party to obtain a tag (on a mob or boss) will require approximately 40% or more of the total DPS to be granted looting rights.
• Parties who do not have the first tag will be required to do more than approximately 60% of the total DPS to quality for looting rights.

Gatherers may have the ability to "spoil" a boss' loot.

If you want to be able to get those mats from the boss, they're just not going to drop for anybody. They will only drop for a master gatherer who is capable of extracting those resources from the creature itself... The reason why we say there's a lot of interdependencies between the crafters of the world and the raiders of the world and our PvPers of the world is because we don't want to house the capability to attain these things all within the adventuring class. We want there to be an influence necessary from the craftsmen's guild to come in to either come and participate and spoil the boss and gather the goods or something along those lines. – Steven Sharif

Crafted items

Создаваемые предметы будут наравне с лучшими в своем типе предметами.

• Высший ранг предметов будет комбинацией крафтовых и дропа с боссов.
• Редкость предметов будет соотноситься со сложностью цепи поставок, сбора, обработки и производства предмета.
• Вероятно, будет возможность определить для ремесленника как будет выглядеть готовый предмет.
• На произведенном предмете будет обозначено имя мастера.

Мы считаем, что каждый предмет, который существует в мире, должен каким-то образом отражать его создателя. Таким образом, наша система производства будет очень многогранна - мы хотим дать ремесленникам возможность создавать уникальные предметы, которые представляют их сильные и слабые стороны.

Mount and pet drops

Mounts and pets are dropped by world bosses on a very rare basis.

Temporary mounts

Temporary mounts that drop from bosses will age and eventually die.

Adaptive content

New points of interest (such as dungeons and world bosses) spawn as nodes develop. This content adapts to the development of the zone it is in.

• Populations will change.
• Content difficulty will change.
• The content may be different altogether, depending on what is developed and how.
• Different types of antagonists with different story lines.
• Some dungeons will only be unlocked if nodes are developed to certain stages.
• Storyline objectives for players inside dungeons will depend on the story arc paths chosen through the node system.
• Drop tables in areas and dungeons will be tied into the progression of certain areas.

Certain dungeons and other points of interest across the map will all be affected by the server’s node development. Some dungeons will only be unlocked if nodes are developed to certain stages. The storyline objectives for players inside dungeons will also be dependent on the story arc paths chosen through the node system. The drop tables in area and dungeons will also be tied into the progression of certain areas. For example, let’s say that the humans have developed a node in Region A, and a storyline has opened up that leads players to inspect the ruins (dungeon) of a nearby area. And let’s say that this node was developed in a scientific (crafting) zone… Well before the node developed, this dungeon was accessible… But now the dungeon has propagated new monster assets that include a drop table catering to a crafting emphasis because of the development of that scientific node. And perhaps, a new boss appears in different rooms of the dungeon that includes different adventure quest starts, like a mysterious item with a storyline that can only be progressed if a node develops to the metropolis stage in a certain region, across the world. Our system is so vast, when it comes to interconnectivity and how the world reacts to the players.

Player driven narrative

The world of Верра will be the same on each server, but Узлы will develop differently. Different servers will have different narratives. Things that happen on one server may not happen on another.

We want as many people as possible to experience the main server Narrative. These will branch at different scales, but largely at the personal level. Where things change is at the Node level – different parts of the story will be unlocked based on where and when Nodes grow. Unlocking a part of the story in a certain way locks out progression of the story in a different way. You’ll see different antagonists, different NPCs, and different calls to action depending on what’s happening with the server at that time.

It kind of redefines what the players will experience in an MMORPG to come into a wilderness that is devoid of really any structure outside of what the community creates themselves; and then what can be created can be changed, if they want to experience a storyline that's been seen on another server, but you know you're fighting a dragon because you're near a mountain and the other server's fighting a Kraken because they're near the coast and you want to fight that Kraken because of its drop table. If you want to meta it or because you just want that under your belt: to be the server first to take out that Kraken and you have yet to develop the node there, you know it's incumbent upon you to manifest that in the game. – Steven Sharif

Legendary items

There is a small RNG chance of looting rare and legendary items or crafting materials from mobs based on the level, status and type of mob. This also applies to harvesting resources with a gathering profession.

• There is a much higher chance that materials and unique recipes are dropped that can be used to craft items of equitable value.
• Legendary equipment is only dropped by Legendary world bosses.

At each stage from Gatherer to Processor to Crafter you are required to have certain prerequisites before those elite types of materials can be essentially gathered, processed, or crafted. – Steven Sharif

• Gatherers must have high quality tools to gather rare resources.
• Processors must have high tier processing buildings on their freehold to produce rare materials.
• Crafters must also satisfy certain prerequisites to craft legendary equipment.

The amount of effort needed and interdependencies across the different types of players – between raiders and PvPers and crafters and even role players and the taverns and businesses: the processors and gatherers – all of those systems will likely have a component that lends toward creating or crafting that legendary item... We want to stay away from the highly RNGd system, and instead take our multiple progression paths that we are offering the players and put the construction components for achieving these legendary items within them so it encourages communities to work together because it's going to be difficult for just one person by themselves to gather everything. Not to say that they couldn't in an economic sense, by buying those components, that's possible. But achieving them from a time investment standpoint we want it to be considerably less RNG focussed. – Steven Sharif

Discovery of legendary items will unlock further chapters of the Лор.

There are absolutely legendary items and they're not items that are attained easily nor are they granted out in a volume. There might even be items that are single items that will exist on the server at any given time.

A legendary weapon is easily distinguished by its visual appearance.

It will be a very ornate and detailed weapon, more so than any other weapon or piece of equipment in the game. It will also include some awesome looking effects that won't too gaudy, you know they won't be too bright and shiny so that it doesn't look good, but they will be subtle and people will notice it and know wow that guy has this weapon. – Steven Sharif

Legendary items are not intended to be temporary.

• A notable exception to this is Royal mounts.

The fact there is only one of them... or very very few of them depending on what it is. I think that in and of itself is a balance component right and you need to make sure that the players who are striving for those legendary things and who are devoting the time energy, resources in order to achieve them are accurately rewarded... We do not intend on having legendary items that are temporary. – Steven Sharif

Monster coins

Pre-alpha monster coin system.

Monster coins enable players to play as monsters within the event system. This ranges from playing friends as a horde of zombies, to becoming a massive dragon.

Sometimes the disturbed beings could take the form of packs of dire wolves, hordes of zombies roused from their graveyard, or even, rarely, an epic-tier dragon flying out of a volcano once a node reaches its maximum level. In any case, the disturbed monsters have to tackle a series of destructive objectives, which can either be handled by the the AI or, more interestingly, by a player. The player in turn would attempt to complete all those actions much as in a multi-objective quest, hopefully before other players brought him or her down.

Monster coin events are system spawned events.

• They are structured in a way to prevent groups from gaming the system.
• Monster coin events are triggered by activity in the world, such as node advancement, defeating a boss or constructing certain types of buildings within a node.
• Server messages appear for players in the vicinity of these dynamic events.
• Drop tables are disabled for player controlled monsters.

Impact on nodes

Monster coin events (Bosses) cannot destroy or delevel nodes. They can disable certain buildings, services and NPCs within a node.

• Monster coin events do not occur before sieges.
• Monster coin events do not occur during sieges.

Осады узлов are the chief mechanic for destroying or deleveling nodes.

Day and night cycle

Node concept art.

There is a day/night cycle in Ashes of Creation.

• Different monsters will spawn at different times.
• NPCs and mobs may be awake at different times of the day.
• Different emissive effects may be more prevalent on night creatures.

Fifteen minutes may be one hour in game time.

Ashes of Creation Apocalypse horde mode

Ashes of Creation Apocalypse horde mode is an Ashes of Creation Apocalypse testing mode where 50 players defend a city against waves of incoming NPCs and player controlled monsters.

• Each wave is more difficult than the last.
• Between waves, players collect experience, money and weapons to take back to their hold to defend against the next wave.
• Monster coins enable players to join the game as part of the horde.

Horde mode will include adaptive AI boss mechanics. Rewards are obtained dependent on progress against these NPCs.

• Coins for character upgrades.
• Cosmetics.
• Pet versions of the defeated NPCs.

Horde mode will absolutely include boss mechanics, so some of the ideas behind that is going to have a wave mode of a variety of NPCs will likely include some achievable cosmetics as well in that mode depending on how far you can get and those cosmetics will include pets of the NPCs that you face, so like a little miniature version of the NPC's and we'll update those as well, that you'll have in the MMO. – Steven Sharif

Horde mode is specifically for testing.

• Testing the blackboard for the AI.
• NPCs with different adaptive AI focuses:
  • Sniper
  • Ranged
  • Melee
  • Boss

It's a way that we thought it would be kind of fun to implement AI mechanics that we're looking to implement. Testing the you know the blackboard for the AI. Being able to have variable types of NPCs that have roles whether it be like a sniper, ranged, melee, boss, heroic you know kind of different AI focuses for those monsters during interesting situations. – Steven Sharif

Иллюстрации

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Смотрите также

• Dungeons
• Raids
• NPCs
• Mobs
• PvE