After a very successful kickstarter campaign, Ashes of Creation definitely introduced a bunch of promising features that made the fans more and more excited. Today, we would love to talk a little more on what we know so fat about the world of Ashes of Creation and the nodes system.
Player Housing
Player Housing in Ashes of Creation is divided into three types namely:
- Static Housing
- Instanced Housing / Apartments
- Freeholds / Open World Land Ownership
Static Housing:
In-node housing or static housing refers to purchasing of houses only inside the node. But the node need to reach a village level, before you can purchase any house. As the level of your node increases, the number of houses you can purchases also increases with it. Houses that are built on the early stages of the node will provide more benefits as the node progresses to the later stages. But there are certain areas referred as “no-build” zones like roads, swamps, hard terrains like mountains and cliffs etc.
Instanced Housing / Apartments:
These are basically government and political housing within that particular node. You cannot buy housing for activities other than for government and political reasons. These are instanced form of housing and apartment complexes that are built within that node can be sold to other players.
Freeholds / Open World Land Ownership:
These are pieces of land that lies outside your node in the open world and you can lay claim to it. On Freeholds, you can build all kinds of housing including a home, farm, workstations. One can even construct social building like Inns and taverns to sell consumables grown in their land and with the returns can enhance their player abilities easily. These freeholds can be placed only in area that comes under the purview of a Zone 3 influence of a stage 3 level node or higher than that.
Nodes
Nodes are part of the world and will grow along with the player and the players cannot determine the type of the node they can own as it is entirely predetermined. But a player can understand what type of node he’s owning during the early stages of a node with the help of the NPC’s that appear within the node. Traders and merchants represent the Economic Node, Scholars represent the Scientific node, Soldiers represent the Military Node and Priests represent the Divine node.
The progress of the node is determined by the actions of the player and if you are active and perform a lot of activities, then your node will grow fast. And if you are inactive and don’t perform any actions within the node, then your node is susceptible to PvP sieges, PvE sieges and other calamities like PvE Events. There are 8 different types of architecture representing different races and one can determine the architecture of the node based on the major contributors to the progress and development of the node. When a node is attacked and falls, you can retain only your personal designs and décor and after you lay claim to a new node, you can use those designs and décor in your new node.
Nodes are basically classified into:
- Military
- Economic
- Divine
- Scientific
A Zone of Influence or ZOI is basically the territory around the node from the node collects everything for the progress of the node. The size of the Zone of Influence or ZOI largely depends on the level your node is and when you reach level 6, your ZOI may consists of even smaller nodes within itself.
Basically, nodes are divided into various levels or stages including:
Expedition – First level of the node and can be reached in a few hours based on the player activity
Encampment – the second level and you can progress only after playing for many hours in the game
Village – Only when a player reaches the village level can they use the housing feature and use caravans. But to reach this level one has to do a few days of player activity in the node.
Town – When you progress to the town level, the houses from the village level gets bigger and you can also purchase additional static houses. But to reach this level you need to play for many days.
City – This is the fifth level of the node and may require a few weeks of constant activity in the node area and will receive a bigger house than the static houses in the town level and you can also purchase additional static houses.
Metropolis – The sixth level of a node and can be reached after displaying player activity for many weeks in the node area. Similar to village and town levels, you will receive a bigger house and be able to purchase additional static houses.
Metropolis Perks
Most of it is still under development including the Military node and the divine node. But in the scientific node, air travel is possible within the ZOI of the metropolis.
The World
According the game developers, the flying ability will be limited as they want the players to enjoy the world out there by exploring on their own. Only the dragon mount can fly largely within the world. Ashes of Creation is an open world and people who explore the world to a great extent and find new things will be rewarded with huge benefits. The map won’t show about the undiscovered nodes and regions, but needs to explored and discovered by the players.
Dynamic World
A dynamic world is also being planned to be added in to the game and according the game development team, it may sport a more of a medieval look like the Lord of Rings including a lot of mythological and mysterious environments. Since that world has not been used by humans for many years, it has within a lot of hidden treasures and artefacts to be discovered.
The Dynamic world also brings along with it a lot of consequential events. Say for example, if a player disturbs a dragon’s nest, eventually it may lead to the awakening of the brood mother and making it angry. It may even lead to destroy the local countryside, but the player will be notified about the coming danger and if he takes the necessary steps to destroy the dragon, it creates a lot of morale boost to the node and he may even find the hidden treasures inside the nest. But if the dragon wins, it can be a devastating effect to the local area.
This summer Intrepid Studios have listened to their fans and launched a Summer Exclusive Crowdfunding Campaign! This project will benefit new backers as well as those who joined them on Kickstarter. There are set of new backer goals which will be rewarded to both Summer and Kickstarter backers.
