兴趣点

Alpha-1 preview pirate themed dynamic point of interest.

This is actually a dynamic POI. This one will evolve as players evolve the node that it's attached to. So this is its final state. – Jeffrey Bard

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

• Additional buildings will spawn.
• Additional mobs will spawn.
  • Different antagonists/leaders with different story lines.
  • Populations will change.
• Content difficulty will change.
  • The content may be different altogether.
  • Additional quest hooks.
• 地下城 will be unlocked when certain nodes advance to certain stages.
  • Multiple nearby nodes may collectively influence larger POIs.
  • Larger dungeons will gain higher level content as nearby nodes advance.
  • 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.
• POI events are events that relate to specific points-of-interest (POI).
• The location of points of interest will be the same on each server, but some servers may have limited or no access to them.

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 academic 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.

List of notable points of interest

本節包含來自 Alpha-1 測試的信息。當有新信息可用時，它將被更新。

• Aela
• Breaker's Penitentiary
• Cerulean Grotto
• Corrupted areas
• Deepheart Cove
• Drythorne Gulch
• Gemspring
• Hall of Judication
• Highwaymen Hills
• Hungering Maw
• Illwind Ruins
• Lonely Oak Creek
• Manaspring Hollow
• Rabbid's Den
• Remains of Oakenbane Keep
• Ruins of Restless Spirits
• The Ruins of Thanalas
• The Underroost
• The Wreckage of Carphin
• Titan's Ring
• Underrealm Entrance
• Volcano dungeon

Biomes

Volcano area concept art by Ricky Ho.

We are a high fantasy game... That means that outside of the traditional sorts of environments you're going to start seeing some pretty crazy and wild stuff that will also change based on seasons. – Jeffrey Bard

Verran environments video.

Alpha-1 Oasis environment preview.

This is a second one of two of the large water oasis areas that we incorporated into the tropics biome. – Michael Bacon

There are approximately 18 biomes (environments) in Ashes of Creation.

We just wanted to represent just about every biome type under the sun really and just have enough diversity over the world that like when you went from area to area , you really just got a contrast of different biome types. – Michael Bacon

List of biomes

Tropics biome concept art.

Node simulation with placeholder biomes and node locations.

• Badlands
• Corrupted areas
• Desert
• Flood plains
• Forest
• Jungle
• Riverlands
• Snowy mountains
• Tabletop mountains
• Tropics
• Tundra
• Underrealm
• Volcano area

起始地區

Alpha-1 early preview starting area.

There is no railroaded driven theme park experience here. You will have the opportunity to create your own destiny in that regard, which means you don't have to necessarily follow the quest line nor do you have to participate in events or experiences around the starting area. Now it may be more beneficial to do that; and in that regard I guess there could be a meta around doing that, but you could branch out proceed to other areas and do different content. – Steven Sharif

Alpha-0 Empyrean starting area concept art.

起始地區 (starting zones) are located in the ruined cities of the four ancient races of Verra.

• Starting areas are located near one of the four divine gateways where players spawn into the world.
  • The Tulnar have a starting area without a divine gateway. They have the same option of starting at any of the divine gateways as other races.
  • Starting areas have some distance between them.

• Each race has its own starting area.
  • Players may choose their starting gateway regardless of their choice of race.
  • 興趣點 exist that represent Tulnar NPC structures in a similar fashion to the starting areas around divine gateways.

• Starting areas include expeditionary NPC settlements that serve as initial quest origination points. 世界觀-wise, these settlements represent scouts that were sent ahead of the main expedition back to Verra.
  • These settlements are designed to acclimatize new players entering the world.
  • While it may be advantageous to do so, there is no requirement for players to play through any specific starter zone content.

• Starting areas are not tied to the node system.

A problem that a lot of MMOs have is that those starting areas become just vacant of players and it's so sad because the greatest aspect of an MMO is that community that you get to experience, so one of the great things about the node system is that it really works from new player acquisition standpoint, where these nodes tend to develop larger near the starting location areas around the world; and it brings these players back to those locations if they're citizens and want services within those cities. So, as new players enter the world they're going to actually be surrounded most likely by more population because people are coming back to those larger nodes. – Steven Sharif

Alpha-1 starting area

Alpha-1 alpha island starting area.

There's been some significant lighting changes here in this area. There's been some work on the foliage, on the trees that are available, toned down some of the ruins, rearranged some of the tents and it's starting to look pretty good. – Steven Sharif

The Alpha-1 starting area was set in the ruins of a Pyrian divine gateway to the south of alpha island.

Alpha-2 starting area

You'll be seeing more as we get closer to Alpha Two but this will give you a little bit of insight to the capital city of the Aelan empire prior to the Exodus. This is one of the starting areas that players enter into. This will be this one of the starting areas in alpha 2. – Steven Sharif

• The Riverlands biome houses the Aelan divine gateway in Alpha-2.

維拉

此翻譯可能已過時

阿爾法-1 早期預覽道路.

我們在遊戲中的道路系統基本上是由預先設置的路線驅動的，這些路線通向曾經是維拉古代公路系統的大動脈；從那裏開始，當節點前進時，有一些道路會顯現出來；我們稱這些為靜脈。它們來自於主幹道，然後隨着節點的推進，有一些興趣點，正如傑夫之前討論的那樣。這些存在於世界各地的興趣點，其中一些與多個節點共享覆蓋範圍，但取決於哪個節點推進到激活興趣點的階段，它將創建這些小路，可以說，然後從節點本身出發。因此，你從大動脈古道--那種貫穿不同區域的古道--分解成通向特定營地和村鎮的靜脈，然後從獨立的小路中衍生出來，通向這些地區的興趣點。 到這些地區的興趣點，是狩獵場。這些都是最初沒有顯現的，隨着玩家們在世界範圍內的推進，它們也會上線。. – Steven Sharif

在維拉中的道路既是預先生成的，也是玩家影響的。。

• 最大的道路被稱為動脈。這些都是曾經的維拉古代公路系統的遺蹟。。
• 隨着節點推進較小的道路，被稱為靜脈，連接動脈和節點。
  • 道路會隨着節點的推進而升級。
  • 道路將隨着節點的推進而升級。不同的道路將決定所需的大篷車速度和類型（非公路與公路）。。
• 根據節點推進的階段，小路會從節點上干出，連接到興趣點.。
• 道路或小路不會因為在同一地區的反覆交通而被磨損成普通的地面。。

不同的季節和事件可能會影響到各種道路的通行。。

• 夏季開放的路徑在冬季可能會關閉。。
• 季節性影響可能會對通過大篷車運輸貨物造成障礙或堵塞。
  • 一些事件可能會導致特定的道路被封鎖。
  • 障礙物可能會在道路上出現障礙，玩家必須清除這些障礙物以允許貨物過境。
• 水在冬天會變成冰，使玩家能夠在水面上行走，但卻阻擋了玩家進入水面下的東西。
  • 冰會使道路顛簸和濕滑。

地下世界 路線 將動態地打開或關閉 (基於節點狀態).

自由領地 不可以放在接近於 道路.

Dungeon locations

Dünzenkell Crypt open world dungeon near the Alpha-1 starting area. Alpha-1 截屏.

此翻譯可能已過時

圖片來源: User:Asenscient

地下城 and other points of interest are located throughout the map in-between the 85 node locations.

• As nodes advance and expand they will influence nearby points-of-interest such as dungeon bosses, regional bosses and Raid bosses.
  • Multiple nearby nodes may collectively influence larger POIs.

POIs of this size do not normally attach to just a single node. Usually there are multiple nodes that can potentially influence a large POI. The theming within the node occurs around storylines or NPC spawns and events. – Steven Sharif

• The difficulty level and loot tables of these encounters will change based on this influence.

List of notable dungeons

本節包含來自 Alpha-1 測試的信息。當有新信息可用時，它將被更新。

• Breaker's Penitentiary
• Cerulean Grotto
• Deepheart Cove
• Drythorne Gulch
• Dünheim
• Dünzenkell Crypt
• Fallow's Hold
• Hungering Maw
• Illwind Ruins
• Manaspring Hollow
• Ruins of Restless Spirits
• Sporelight Caverns
• The Tower of Carphin
• The Underroost
• Underrealm Entrance
• Volcano dungeon

Landmarks

200 foot tall Pyrian statues in Alpha-1.

Landmarks are scattered throughout the world, allowing players to judge their position on the map.

From a lore perspective these statues have been around for a long time; and they are representative of the civilizations that existed once on this world before. – Steven Sharif

Major visual landmarks. You can look all the way across the horizon have an idea where you're going or where to meet friends or where to meet just based on these huge landmarks in the world. – Mat Broome

Notable landmarks

• Aela
• Drythorne Gulch
• Gemspring
• Hall of Judication
• Highwaymen Hills
• Kyron'Dun
• Lonely Oak Creek
• Remains of Oakenbane Keep
• The Ruins of Thanalas
• The Wreckage of Carphin
• Titan's Ring

Corrupted areas

Alpha-2 corrupted area in the Riverlands biome.

We just saw a corrupt zone and that zone becomes corrupt after a period of time in which players are not addressing some issues that arise through certain events or through certain story arcs; and that corruption can spread and corruption changes the spawners for resources and for monsters; and that has a fundamental effect on the resource economy of the game. – Steven Sharif

Corrupted areas (zones/points of interest) can dynamically evolve with the progression of nodes and story arcs.

• Harbingers that exist on Verra as dungeons are where The Ancients are capable of pushing into the material plane. They can continue to do so under the guise of the effects of corruption as it spreads.

• These are sources of NPC events that players need to address before they grow out of hand.
  • Players need to participate in these events to stop the spread of corruption and hold back the intrusion on the material plane.
  • If players fail to address these corrupted areas, the frequency of NPC events against their node will increase. These can lead to node buildings and services being disabled, increasing the node's vulnerability to node sieges.

It can be a very detrimental thing if corruption is not addressed; and that's the intent of corruption, is to present a challenge to the players that if not addressed it becomes exacerbated and a problem over time. – Steven Sharif

• Corrupted areas do not confer corruption onto a player. Only PvP related activities lead to player corruption (in the flagging system).

To degree your mortal coil, as we call it, or what some might consider a soul from your character's perspective within this story- can be influenced and can be changed into a shape that's more in tune with corruption; and that's through doing PvP things you can accomplish that. – Steven Sharif

• Corrupted areas will likely be impacted less by seasons and weather.

When it enters the corruption state outside of weather, in that corrupt state, you will probably see a little bit less of the influence of the season because really it's adopting that corruption, which in-and-of-itself is a season. – Steven Sharif

• Corrupted areas will spawn variations of mobs and resources.
  • Corrupted resources are only available in corrupted areas or during certain story arcs.

海底節點

Underwater points of interest that have NPC structures may appear to be like cities, but they will not be nodes.

• There won't be nodes underwater or in the water.

Economic regions

We want our players to have a reason to explore the wilderness, to travel with purpose, and much of that will be driven by our resource system. Transporting these goods might just be more difficult than gathering them. Our regional market system allows players to participate in creating pocket economies that will reinforce the stability of goods in particular regions. Players will be able to move resources and set up shop in other areas to take advantage of the varied markets. With resources spawning dynamically, certain regions will naturally become important trading hubs for the transportation of goods throughout the world.

Economic regions are static areas defined by geographic points of interest.

• Castle regions are larger and encompass multiple economic regions.
• 節點 are the glue that hold castle and economic regions together in potential synergy or chaos.
  • Node ZOIs are fluid and change their area based on the progression of the node and its neighbors.
• Castle regions, Economic regions, and Node ZOI (Zones of Influence) can overlap.

The whole map would be under the influence of 1 of 5 castle regions. However, castle regions aren't the only TYPE of region - there are also economic regions, among other things. – Sarah Flanagan

Castle regions

公會城堡 influence a castle region around them.

• A castle's region is 1/5th the game world.
• Castle regions, Economic regions, and Node ZOI (Zones of Influence) can overlap.
  • A castle could have a metropolis beside it.
• Castle region boundaries are static.
• Guild castles impose a tax on all revenue for the nodes within its region.

區域與發展

地下城, 大型副本, 世界頭目, Mobs, 任務, Events, 資源, Narratives and other content within a node's ZOI will have a diverse level range; but will scale with the advancement of that node and its racial influence.

• Portions of the spawn tables (for mobs and resources) are static and other portions are dynamic and adapt to node development.

We don’t have a strictly level 25 zone. Instead, that zone might have some level 10 creatures near the road, some level 20 creatures deep in the forest, and some level 30 creatures up the mountain. These ratios will change based on the Nodes that inform them, becoming generally more dangerous as the Node grows. All this civilization attracts the attention of Things-That-Should-Not-Be. This does not mean that wilderness areas are safe, by any means. Some may be safe-er, but all will have dangers that even the most experienced traveler needs to watch out for. – Steven Sharif

Event levels

The level of a particular event can be based on the level of the content that triggers it, or it can be set to a higher level in order to drive traffic back to lower level zones.

For example, if the event takes place in a zone that has a base population of let's say average level 25, then one of the trigger conditions might be that 10 monsters of level 25 have been killed recently in that zone and the level 25 event will now spawn additional content designed for level 25 players. So these events aren't always going to be end-game they're going to be obviously appropriate based on the content in which the predicate system is informing, but they also could be something completely top level that is introduced at a lower-level area and brings population traffic of the players back to those types of things. – Steven Sharif

• The more players participating in an event the more challenging the event will become and the higher the rewards will be for completing the event.

Node simulation

Simulation of node interactions.

This representation does show 111 nodes as part of this particular simulation. I'm not sure what the tick frequency is on this video. It might be something on the magnitude of like every second is probably 12 to 24 hours. So over time you start seeing these larger node systems building up to eventually where you might see Cities and Metropolises after some period of time; and what this allows the design team to do from a tools perspective, as they simulate this idea of how the world is going to progress, is it gives an opportunity to see strange happenings or something that we couldn't necessarily predict but was a possible outcome based on the variables present. – Steven Sharif

The developers have created a simulation of node interactions in preparation for Alpha-2 deployment of the node system.

• This simulates how nodes advance and expand their zones of influence over surrounding nodes.

You can show the initial territories on the Verran map of what these particular nodes have governance over, or their Zones of Influence as we like to call them... As the simulation of this begins to advance and nodes begin to expand their territory and they begin to take over nearby nodes as a result of their of their growth, you start to see these power level ratings that are applied here on specific nodes that determines what type of takeover power it has and and what it pushes back against for other nodes that are looking to take over new territory as they advance. – Steven Sharif

• It also simulates events, such as NPCs attacking and disabling certain node buildings and services. Failure to successfully respond to these will reduce the node's "health ticker", which will slow down the XP gains from the node.

It also simulates events: So each of these nodes will have a health ticker: when that health ticker is impacted it'll stop gaining power or gaining or slow down in its gaining of experience; and that's because certain events can affect a node by disabling certain services, disabling buildings. Players don't respond to that horde of zombies that have come out of the nearby ravine then those zombies can attack stables, they can attack service buildings, and prevent particular types of quests or activities and services from happening until it's repaired. – Steven Sharif

• 節點戰 are simulated, with successful sieges destroying the nodes, and where unsuccessful sieges won't destroy the node but may result in disabled buildings or services, similar to events.

It simulates the sieges if a particular node has a certain frequency that's set where we want to see randomization of how nodes get affected by sieges. Sometimes they'll be destroyed in the simulation. Sometimes they'll have disabled services again, similar to an event, because they didn't succeed necessarily at sieging the node but they did succeed at disabling some of the buildings as part of that siege. – Steven Sharif

• It simulates what outcomes may happen in the live game as a result of player activity, such as splitting up a particular ZOI across a waterway, or having territories expand out to islands or across continents.

It simulates what players could potentially do as well when the game goes live; and that might include things like splitting up a particular Zone of Influence across a waterway, having your territory expand out to an island, or across continents. These are these are the types of things that we want to see players do eventually obviously but this tool provides the design team the opportunity to see it repetitively and over a fast period of time so they see these different types of outcomes. – Steven Sharif

Battlegrounds

此翻譯可能已過時

戰場是在開放世界進行的 PvP 戰鬥。 遊戲內有開放世界 PvP 區域，區域內的玩家會被標記成戰鬥員 (purple)。

• 商隊。
• 節點戰。
• 攻城戰 (未定)。
  • Alpha-1 攻城戰透過 NPC 傳送至專屬區域進行。
• 存在特定目標的公會戰。

非戰鬥員 (綠色)玩家進入開放世界戰場時，會自動被標記成戰鬥員。標記在離開戰場後仍會持續一定時間。

• 一般的 PvP 標記規則將適用於興趣點之外的地方。

死亡懲罰將不適用於存在特定目標的活動 (例如商隊、公會戰、節點戰)。

Our castle system, our sieges against nodes, the caravan system, battlegrounds that exist, guild wars: We want there to be a meaning to this conflict. We want players to actually have some skin in the game when it comes to participating in PvP. – Steven Sharif

視覺效果

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  2024-03-01
• 2024-01-23
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  2024-01-01
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  2024-01-01
• 

  2023-12-20
• 

  2023-04-28
• 

  2023-01-30
• 

  2023-01-30
• 

  2022-10-01
• 

  2021-07-18
• 

  2021-03-29
• 2021-03-29
• 

  2018-10-31
• 

  2018-08-08
• 

  2018-08-08
• 

  2018-05-05
• 

  2017-11-23

其他

• 世界地圖
• 節點發展
• 成長
• 地下城
• 任務