Glorious wiki readers. We appreciate your patience as we process the vast amount of new and updated information from the release of Alpha-2 phase 1.

Encounters

Ashes of Creation community empowered Wiki
Jump to navigation Jump to search
Tumok the Wretched Alpha-2 world boss.[1]

Raid bosses are aware of the number of combatants within an area in proximity to them and that awareness is part of an indicator to which behaviors they're going to utilize as part of their behavior tree. So as it's assessing the types of combatants that are facing it, the number of those combatants, the position of those combatants, the abilities and totals of those combatants, it weighs certain actions in its behavior tree and then it acts on those actions; and in the scenario where you're bringing overwhelming odds to a particular fight, that might weigh heavier the AoE options that the boss has access to, where they're utilizing a lot more AoE abilities during an engagement due to that overage of players. So in that sense it's a bit adaptive. It's a bit dynamic based on the encounter scenario.[2] – Steven Sharif

The difficulty of PvE encounters in Ashes of Creation is anchored to the PvX design of the game, which takes into account the unpredictable nature of other players into the encounter design. Ashes of Creation is not trying to directly compete against purely PvE oriented games.[3][4][5][6][7][8]

Q: How do you intend to satisfy those who love difficult end-game PvE content, such as hard mode trials of ESO, ultimate raids of Final Fantasy 14, or Word of Warcraft mythic plus dungeons?
A: To be honest with you, I'm not sure that we're trying to compete with those games and the content that they provide in that arena, because we're a different game. We're a PvX game, which means the types of challenges that PvE players can expect from us will oftentimes revolve around the additional component that players- that you can't predict their actions- provide the encounter design. So that's something that's systemically built in a PvX approach.[3] – Steven Sharif
Q: Could you explain if there are mechanisms particularly during boss fights that protect players from PvP interactions, such as room locks, or are all raids intended to remain fully open to PvP?
A: Some dungeons do have instancing. Some boss rooms are instanced. In those locations, yes they will be serviced either through a room lock or some other mechanism that protects the engagement- the environment of that encounter to who is intended to be there, but the majority of our encounters can be interrupted. They are open-world; and in those events where you have two groups that are coming together that might be at war with one another, where open flagging is not necessary, they are just flagged combatants with one another. They're going to have to manage the battlefield between what they're achieving in the PvE encounter versus now what they are experiencing in the dynamic player versus player encounter.[4] – Steven Sharif
Q: How challenging will raid boss mechanics be given the given that players may need to simultaneously fight other players while also fighting the boss?
A: It depends. The great thing about our encounter system is that it has a wide scalability from encounters that some might consider easy given their composition to encounters that some might consider impossible until they get their gear level to a certain stage. The level of interaction with other players is really predicated on the encounter itself. We may have some encounters that are in instances although the predominant portion of those will be in the open world, in which case they do have the potential being contested; and these encounters, especially the big ones that might land in contention, are giving some of the best-in-slot gear you can get in the game. So it's important that they are contested because it is a significant victory point; and one of our core pillars is risk versus reward: and the higher that risk the higher that reward should be. So those two things seem fitting and then in addition we do have the concept of winners and losers. Not everybody in Ashes of Creation is going to be a winner; and that sucks if you're not I guess, but there is opportunity for you to continue to excel and become one. But it gives much more meaning to an achievement when not everybody gets the achievement. That's our philosophy.[6] – Steven Sharif
Q: So it's the sort of thing where it might be, we're going do a dungeon that's oops, all fire golems, so if everybody straps up with plate armor and fire resistance, you don't have to worry about the magic fire: you've got the fire resistance for. And when you start getting punched around, that's why everyone's come in with plate?
A: The encounters design team presents a particular type of challenge rating- for those you're familiar with playing DnD or whatever, challenge rating gets informed by a few different vertical power levels, but then there's also the horizontal perspective: That is, what tools does your party have to address the challenge rating of the situation and some of the horizontal progression exists within how you kit your equipment slots. Some of those can be enhancements or stones, as you're discussing with fire resistance. Some of those are base stats that exist on a particular item, such as physical damage mitigation versus magical damage mitigation and what subtype of damage is incoming based on that. These are the ways that we emphasize that more rock-paper-scissors type of interaction with balance to where it's okay to have asymmetric imbalance if there are horizontal methods by which you achieve the challenge rating.[10] – Steven Sharif
How does the state tree of the NPC respond to the actions of the players? Well, it weights certain actions and behaviors based off of what the players are doing and as it weights those things, it makes decisions that will be unique according to the encounter that's occurring in front of it. So, each time might be different as a result of that. That's one section. In addition, when we talk about the adaptive scaling- this isn't scaling in like power relation to the level of the player- this is scaling in the quantity of participants; and that means that it starts to weight the behaviors that include AoE actions higher than others as a result of the number of players who are present. This intrinsically increases the challenge rating of the encounter, because those AoE abilities are providing a higher return on DPS overall to the to the raid encounter for the monster.[14] – Steven Sharif
Attunements are a gatekeeping mechanism. They are a way to mitigate the potential PvX interaction that could interrupt your raid, because there is some level of effort that must be exerted by antagonists who would hope to interrupt your efforts. Now that was a specific narrative mechanic in A1. Is it possible that we will see those throughout the rest of the game? Absolutely, 100%. That is a valid design mechanic.[19] – Steven Sharif
  • There will be mobs who's level is above the player level cap.[11]
Both in Alpha-2 and when the game launches, there will be monsters whose technical level is above that of the cap; and the intent there is obviously again to provide some level of challenge that exceeds a comparable level challenge rating.[11] – Steven Sharif

Table of encounters

info-orange.pngThis section contains potentially outdated information from Alpha-1 testing.
Encounter Thumbnail Type Location
Befallen Forge Icon.POI.Dungeon.png Dungeon Castle Kallenmere
Breaker's Penitentiary Icon.POI.Dungeon.png Dungeon Edgepoint
Cerulean Grotto Icon.POI.Dungeon.png Dungeon Mistmire
Deepheart Cove Icon.POI.Dungeon.png Dungeon Traitor's Rock
Drythorne Gulch Icon.POI.Dungeon.png Dungeon Drythorne
Dünheim Pre-Alpha Dunir Dungeon by Michael Bacon(1612).png Dungeon Alpha-0
Dünzenkell Crypt E6vdJ7yXIAMkzFO.png Dungeon Alpha-1 starting area
Elder Dragon of Flame FvJJxfHaUAAWgAa.jpg Raid Alpha-1
Elder Dragon of the Tundra vlcsnap-2021-05-02-13h43m12s672.png Raid Alpha-1
Elder Dragon of the Wood a1stream.png Raid Alpha-1
Fallow's Hold ruins.png Dungeon Torall
Hungering Maw Icon.POI.Dungeon.png Dungeon Drythorne
Illwind Ruins Icon.POI.Dungeon.png Dungeon Illwind
Manaspring Hollow Icon.POI.Dungeon.png Dungeon Winstead
Negalith SSLivestream-2022-03-31-1:10:43.89.png Raid Alpha-2
Ruins of Restless Spirits Icon.POI.Dungeon.png Dungeon Winstead
Sporelight Caverns 2fb7d103-72f5-44cc-ac62-e8d9d5537b9b-5.png Dungeon Alpha-1 starting area
The Underroost Icon.POI.Dungeon.png Dungeon Moonhollow
Tower of Carphin Icon.POI.Dungeon.png Dungeon Riverlands
Underrealm Entrance Dungeon Mistmire
Volcano dungeon Icon.POI.Dungeon.png Dungeon Winstead

PvE difficulty

Ashes of Creation will be easy to understand yet hard to master.[20]

My stance on participation trophies is that things should be hard, people should fail, the bitter taste of defeat is what makes success that much more rewarding. Helping other players learn encounter strategy, and fine tuning their play style for high end content is an important part of eliminating participation trophy. Growing together is a good thing, and that include failing together as a means to drive for success together.[21] – Steven Sharif
Q: How important will knowledge and deduction be in the game, and will you avoid tedious data gathering methods?
A: Knowledge and deduction should be pretty important, both from an encounter design perspective with regards to enemy NPC behaviors, but also certain puzzles and questlines. The intent there is to create an interactive style of gameplay that requires problem solving, deduction across the board, especially as it relates to certain crafting results. I mean that's something that's riddled across [the] general design playing field for a lot of our systems. We don't want it to be tedious. If it's something that you're doing that doesn't feel fun, then from a relevant standpoint it's not what we want to incorporate in the gameplay loop.[22] – Steven Sharif
  • Nodes are expected to play an important role in onboarding new players by providing points of early social interaction with other players, as well as facilitating a range of services and content that they can explore.[23]
Q: How do you envision the new player experience for those entering Verra at launch?
A: One of the things that Ashes as a design has that speaks specifically to this new player acquisition statistic is that each of the realms is going to be different and that we onboard players to social experiences very quickly. And the reason for that is, in a lot of MMOs that we've played that are further down the road than their launch date, your new player experience is completely devoid of player-to-player interaction. And that's because you're going through all the early game content when the rest of the player population has moved on beyond that. So, what do nodes provide uniquely from a world building perspective with regards to those starting areas that players are being onboarded on? It allows them to immediately interface and visualize that social environment of the world, because these node locations that are generally going to be starting earlier in your leveling experience, because those will be the first that get traffic, are going to have reasons for other players to return to them, to engage with services in them; and to watch the points of interest around them dynamically change spawner sets that make them relevant hunting grounds intermixed with the low-level populations. So, in addition to that, there are going to be certain systems that ensure low level populations have a place within the world economy and have a place within the world development scene in how certain buildings get made, torn down, and made again to satisfy the interest of the traffic that's relevant to that particular node. So there's a level of complexity that exists in how new player onboarding is integrated across systemically the world design that I think nodes as an approach help facilitate significantly.[23] – Steven Sharif

Meta

A goal of Ashes of Creation is to emphasise micro metas that work for specific encounters, and de-emphasize macro metas that work for everything.[24]

What we're doing with this approach is we're de-emphasizing a macro meta and instead emphasizing a micro meta. And the difference between the macro/micro is that on the micro level you have metas that might form based on each individual type of encounter or experience. And in those senses, yes, there's going to be a most optimal: There's going to be a best in slot. There's going to be whatever that pertains to that particular challenge rating. But there won't we there will not be an overarching meta that says from a macro level, hey, if you got this shit, you're good to go for everything. That's boring, that's unfulfilling, that is not interesting; and it is just something that that dumbifies the experience.[24] – Steven Sharif
  • Increasing difficulty ratings inspire more of a traditional vertical power progression that is common in other MMOs.[10][25]
Oftentimes you just have a very vertical power scale and that determines chase, but when you have a variety of relevance across certain types of adversaries and that variety changes over time because of player activity- and then that affects the economy and the crafter system and who was producing what for what demand- and everything gets shaken up. That's a very fun environment to exist in. It presents a more dynamic situation rather than a quote-unquote cookie-cutter type selection.[25] – Steven Sharif
  • The intricacies of how nodes interact with predicates in the world means that it may be possible but difficult to achieve meta server builds.[26]
Q: Do you have any concerns on players eventually discovering a meta server build with nodes due to players heading to specific nodes and regions because they find that content more enjoyable; and if so how would you go about getting players to shift around the world to break up the meta?
A: I think it's interesting if players have a concerted effort across a server to interact with one another, learn from their actions, mistakes, successes, and effectuate that on the server. That's interesting, but I don't believe we'll see a meta form. I think that the intricacies are too great when it comes to how predicates are formed in order to elicit world state changes.[26] – Steven Sharif

Best-in-slot items

A design goal for Ashes of Creation is to not have overarching best-in-slot items (BiS) that are meta for all situations.[24]

There's still going to be customization within realms for your archetype that you will want to spec into, knowing you're going into a certain fight, or into a certain raid, or into a certain war, or whatever it may be: and you may want to spec specifically and gear specifically and have people set up in a way that makes the most sense for that.[28] – Margaret Krohn

Game balance

The way that the systems are being designed from a balancing standpoint we're taking into account how we would like the nodes to change per-se how often and we've designed attrition systems for certain cultures that may have more dominance over others. These are things that in Alpha and Beta we will be testing and watching and making sure that our objective is achieved from a gameplay standpoint and if it's not we'll come back and recalculate.[32] – Steven Sharif

Class balance

Game balance in Ashes of Creation is group focused not based on 1v1 combat.[33][34][35][36][37]

Q: As we start to see more talent trees and abilities I wonder how Ashes of Creation will handle unique playstyles and (maybe) "different" builds. For example, will we see (unique) Items and/or enchants which support a "Health instead of mana as resource" build? With class skill trees, augments, and weapon talent trees, won't there be too many playstyles to balance?
A: Will there be a variety? Yes, there will be many varieties. The the approach with regards to a player being able to customize how their archetype and how their weapon and choices and gear choices interact with the broader ecosystem of other players and the encounter designs is to provide maximum flexibility for the types of decisions you can make as a player. Those are the types of scenarios I find most intriguing from a balance perspective, where historically what we've talked about is we're not trying to balance everything. That is not the goal. This is definitely not a goal for it to be balanced in a 1v1 scenario. Our balance is definitely more focused around group composition. And when we say 'group composition', what we mean is having present a number of the archetypes; and those archetypes aren't going to stand on equal footing with each other. There is going to be a rock-paper-scissors design when it comes to innate advantages that certain archetypes have over each other; and giving or affording the customization options lets you flirt a bit with where your rock-paper-scissor lines live. Perhaps you are a little bit better against the rock, as a scissor would normally be; and that's because you've made certain selections in either your archetype skill tree, your passives, your weapon selection, your gear choices: Those are all pieces of a puzzle that interact with the overarching balance choices between these different rock-paper-scissor designs. So, I think modern MMO gameplay has has moved away from that. They want everyone to harness the same power from a 1v1 perspective and I don't find that interesting.[34] – Steven Sharif
There will be match ups in 1v1s where one class will be superior to another; and that application should be a rock-paper-scissors dynamic. We want there to be counter-play between the different classes... Instead it's going to be a group focused balance, where as long as you have the diversity of classes present, that's going to be an equal level playing field. It's going to be very dependent on skill and strategy.[37] – Steven Sharif
  • Several factors are taken into consideration holistically when balancing combat skills. Player feedback surrounding balancing will be validated against data and design goals to avoid excessive or unwarranted balance changes.[38][39]
Balance-wise, there's a number of different interactions mechanically that you have within an ability that you can adjust in order to balance its power. The most most common ones are: Cooldown, Mana consumption, Damage done, Effect status conferred, Promotion of that effect status, Range.[39] – Steven Sharif
Q: How will your team look to identify and adjust a skill or class when the rock is no longer beating scissors?
A: It's difficult to give an answer that's specific, because the use-case is a very broad one when we're talking about balancing design. But, I would say that it's done in a holistic environment and it is usually done in concert with some rubric we're using in order to anchor our design choices.[38] – Steven Sharif
When we move into Alpha 2 and we have a lot of data that's supporting the use of these particular abilities in combat settings, how often they're used, how often they result in death, what the average damage done by this archetype is comparatively to other damage done by different archetypes: All of that data gets logged and all of that data gets queried in order for us to refine the abilities so that they live in the environment we want them to. Now, that's not to mean that we're going to have a perfect balance across the board between the archetypes. Again, we're taking a rock-paper-scissor approach to balance, which means that some archetypes will do better against other archetypes and vice versa; and we're also not creating an environment where we want to have 1v1 balance. We are focused around group balance. Group composition is important.[35] – Steven Sharif
Even though augments do radically change the way your active skills provide you abilities, there's still a primary focus on the base archetype itself and not the 64 whole classes.[36] – Steven Sharif
Certain archetypes are capable of moving the gap between their counterpart per-se. If I am a Tank archetype and a Mage is my counter, I can take a Mage secondary and bridge the divide slightly; and then move my identity that direction ever so slightly.[50] – Steven Sharif

Dungeons

Alpha-2 upcoming Befallen Forge dungeon scheduled for Alpha-2 phase-2.[41]
Dünzenkell Crypt open-world Dünir dungeon in Alpha-1.[51]

Half the problem won't just be solving the dungeon, it will be solving other players too.[52] – Jeffrey Bard

Dungeons in Ashes of Creation will range in size and will be mostly open-world.[4][5][7][8]

  • Open world dungeons will be populated to facilitate multiple groups within the dungeon.[5][52]
    • 80% of dungeons will be open world.[53][54]
  • Instanced dungeons will also be present and will cater for solo and group questlines.[52]
    • 20% of dungeons will be instanced.[53][54]
    • Some boss rooms (within larger encounters) will be instanced.[4]
    • Instances will either be individual or party instances, and in rare cases raid instances.[5]
    • Instanced dungeons and raids will utilize room locks or other mechanisms that restricts the encounter to its target audience.[4]

Different tiers and types of dungeon content will be more or less relevant to specific groups or class compositions.[55][5][56]

Q: With most dungeons and POIs being non-instanced, how large and intricate can we expect dungeons to be in order to accommodate many groups and PvX potential? For example, how many players do you expect the Tower of Carphin to accommodate?
A: Let me break that up into two sections. First it's important to note that while the vast majority of our playable areas are within the open world, there are some that are contained obviously within instances. Those instances being either individual instances, party instances, or even, in some rare cases, raid instances. with that being said however, part of the dynamic that a PvX game wants to emphasize when it comes to open world dungeons and playable spaces is the natural friction that occurs when scarcity is a real thing; and scarcity means that not all hunting areas are going to be the same quality. There are going to be specific loot tables that are relevant to certain hunting areas. There's going to be certain spawn rates that is relative to experience values for those areas. And there's going to be different compositions of mobs that are relevant to the areas as well; and so because there are these tiers of quality of hunting grounds, that creates a rarity value essentially to those locations, of which then there is a level of scarcity because there's limited space. So we are going to be creating spaces that are very large, to answer the first part of the question, that will host many many many groups; and we're also going to have spaces that are relatively small and might only be able to cater to one or two groups.
Second part of your question as it relates to Carphin. Carphin is broken up as a hunting area into two primary sections: There is the tower itself and then there is the wreckage of the city in which Carphin existed beneath. Now, the beneath section is the wreckage itself, is generally catering towards groups of three to five players. So it's not so much a solo area, but it is an area where you might go with a few friends. But if you went with a full party then maybe your kill rate needs to be really high; and there's a few sections that are in the wreckage area that could support that, but not the entire wreckage. Okay, so that's an important distinction to keep in mind when thinking about the dungeon itself. The tower is intended for full parties and there are I believe five levels above the base level, so six total levels that are playable; and each of those levels will support anywhere from three to four groups essentially. So it is a relatively large structure: a vertical dungeon that we're expecting groups to spend a lot of time in. And it's not intended that the groups go between levels. It's intended that they find a level and they carve out a section of that level that they're going to be hunting in; and then another group's going to be near them and maybe there's going to be some friction because they keep pulling mob from your section and you're like, "Hey what the hell dude, get the hell out of my section", and they're like "No, you're gonna die now!"[5] – Steven Sharif
  • Dungeon difficulty will increase the further a player ventures into a dungeon.[57]
  • Mobs and mob mechanics will become more difficult.[57]
  • Terrain and environmental dangers will increase.[57]
Deeper darker types of interactions will be found deeper in the dungeon.[57] – Steven Sharif
Q: Will open-world dungeons have a negative feedback loop for those who are busing or carrying dungeons for lower level players?
A: There is a level disparity mechanic that prevents players who are outside of 9 to 10 levels of the highest level within the party from collecting experience through their adventuring. So, to some degree there is a safeguard with regards to that; and then obviously the way that we cater the encounter experience, depending on those locations, are going to require that a party is operating at at a high efficiency level in order for it to be efficient for that lower level player to participate and gain levels in a way that makes sense. So, I think there are some safeguards with regards to that. And the other thing is that, if you're paying other players to power level you, or you're engaging in any type of RMT, we have behavioral heat mapping which will help us identify those individuals and take action.[58] – Steven Sharif

There were 13 dungeons in Alpha-1.[59] Originally this was estimated to be 6 or 7.[60]

List of dungeon bosses

info-orange.pngThis section contains potentially outdated information from Alpha-1 testing.

List of notable dungeons

info-orange.pngThis section contains potentially outdated information from Alpha-1 testing.

Read more...

Raids

Alpha-1 Brood Queen raid boss.[61]
Entering an Alpha-1 open-world raid.[62]

Raids will either be based on triggered events or more traditional systems. Traditional world bosses will change based on node development.[63]

We want things to be more fluid and one of the ways that we make them more fluid is through our triggered event system. That is one of the methods by which we make these more spontaneous. We make them more accessible to a wider audience. You can be just in the city and not normally be a part of a raid team, but now get to participate in this organic event that's popped up around the city and if you are not participating then buildings are gonna get destroyed and NPCs are going to die... It's not just how fast can we do it, how will we get it done in its schedule, but oh my god this thing popped up if we don't kill it we're not going to access to our stables this week and we can't get our animal husbandry certificates... It's that risk versus reward that gives you a sense of adrenaline.[64] – Steven Sharif

List of raid bosses

info-orange.pngThis section contains potentially outdated information from Alpha-1 testing.

Raid strategies

Raids will have elements that can be pre-planned.[65]

Raids will also have dynamic elements that can change from session to session.[65]

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 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 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 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.[65]{{ndash|Steven Sharif}

Read more...

World bosses

Alpha-1 preview Sorrow's Hunger world boss in the Underrealm.[66]
The general philosophy is that respawns will be variable. We don't want to have set specific times in which respawns will occur, so that they can be camped and farmed. But there'll be variable location respawns as well as variable time respawns. And then that provides opportunities for different parties to engage at different times and locations.[68] – Steven Sharif
  • Some world bosses will have stages of progression, such as defeating acolytes, then lieutenants, then generals, then the world boss itself.[77]
    • At each stage there is increasing difficulty. This may be parsed out into different time periods and be behind a wall of development.[77]
  • A single digit percentage of the population will be capable of defeating certain content.[77]
  • There will be ancillary effects that happen as a result of downing certain world bosses.[78]
  • Around 80% of the content is open-world, where healthy competition is an instigator for player friction; for potential cooperation; for the ability to yield alliances; and the political theater that comes with it. This is an intended part of the PvX design of Ashes of Creation.[80][81][82][83][84]

Monster coins

Monster coin concept art.[85]

Let's say for example you have an event- that is the predicate for this event kicking off was that a raid boss was killed in a nearby dungeon; and it was killed for the 50th time, or it was killed by some particular storyline end or whatever the predicate system is in the world state to say "hey kick this event off". Well, when that event kicks off a number of spawners activate around the node and NPCs start moving towards a node. The node is notified, like "hey there's something happening here, you guys should put up your defenses focus on this thing"; and those with monster coins who are within the area and are not a citizen of the node or an affiliated node can choose to activate the monster coin to become one of the monster types that exist within that event; and that event has a number of targets; and let's say for this particular story arc the thing was we need to find artifacts and better weapons in order to defeat these bosses at the bottom of this dungeon; and a lot of players went through that process they found those weapons and whatnot. Well those things might be stored in three buildings that exist within the node. They might be stored within the armory; they might be stored within the barracks; and they might be stored at a workshop that has access to a workbench that they've chosen to build and that could also potentially serve as a predicate; and when you become the monster those are your three objectives; and you don't need to destroy all three. You potentially just need to destroy one, or you destroy as many as you can if it's a time selected event; and you might have targets that are NPC-related as well, such as the blacksmith that's at the workbench, or the captain of the guard who's at the barracks, or whatever who's at the armory; and you get to go in and you get to kill other players potentially during this who are helping to defend the city; and you can also make it to the objectives and potentially help in destroying the building, or killing the NPCs. That is the type of objectives that would exist within a monster coin system for an event.[86] – Steven Sharif

Pre-alpha monster coin system.[87]

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 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.[88]

Monster coins enable players to play as monsters within the monster coin event system. This ranges from playing as a horde of zombies, to becoming a massive dragon.[89][90][91]

During a Monster Coin Event, players will be able to activate Monster Coins, allowing them to become monsters and wreak havoc! These Events can be triggered in a variety of different ways, and in some cases they may even provide cosmetic rewards.[85]

Monster coin events are system spawned events that will occur even if players do not participate in controlling a monster.[92][90][93]

The events themselves occur regardless of if coins are at play. A coin allows players to control some of these creatures during the events.[92]
  • They are structured in a way to prevent groups from gaming the system.[93]
  • 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.[94]
  • Server messages appear for players in the vicinity of these dynamic events.[95]
  • The player will have a number of potential objectives they can choose to attack during the event. This may include node buildings, points-of-interest, dungeon, NPC, or other open-world objective.[86]
When you're playing as a as a monster from the monster coin use as part of an NPC event that might be targeting a node, or other some other open-world objective or POI, or dungeon, you get to participate as a monster and your focus is completing objectives that have already been prescribed as part of the event.[86] – Steven Sharif
info-orange.pngSome of the following information has not been recently confirmed by the developers and may not be on the current development roadmap.
Traditionally, the Ancients are not going to be part of the Monster Coin system. These are the primary antagonists of the story. From a lore perspective, and one of the reasons why they're not a part of the Monster Coin system, is because their souls have really developed almost to the point of perfection in manipulating the Essence for more corrupt uses. They haven't quite gotten there, and who knows if they ever will, but that attunes them out of the possibility: The reason why the monster coin system is possible with other creatures.[99] – Steven Sharif

Corrupted areas

Alpha-2 corrupted area in the Riverlands biome.[100]

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.[101] – Steven Sharif

Corrupted areas (zones/points of interest) can dynamically evolve with the progression of nodes and story arcs.[101][102][103][104][105][106][107]

  • These are sources of NPC events that players need to address before they grow out of hand.[101][109][106]
    • Players need to participate in these events to stop the spread of corruption and hold back the intrusion on the material plane.[101][108]
    • 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.[110]
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.[110] – Steven Sharif
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.[111] – Steven Sharif
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.[113] – Steven Sharif

Read more...

Adaptive content

Alpha-1 preview pirate themed dynamic point of interest.[117]

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.[117] – Jeffrey Bard

New points of interest (such as dungeons, world bosses, and corrupted areas) spawn as nodes develop.[107][118] This content adapts to the node progression of the zone it is in.[117][119]

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.[120]

Player driven narrative

One of the major goals I feel like we have is to allow player decisions to have consequences and to have meaningful results from the decisions that they make, so it seems like people can really create their own stories.[125] – Aimi Watanabe

The world of Verra will be the same on each server realm, but Nodes will develop differently. Different servers will have different narratives. Things that happen on one server may not happen on another.[126]

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.[128]

It 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'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, it's incumbent upon you to manifest that in the game.[129] – Steven Sharif

Artificial intelligence

Firebrand Flame Breath attack being launched in the direction of the most players is an example of Adaptive AI.[74]

This was something that we talked about with the Adaptive AI being able to respond to large quantities of players. If you try to mass this guy down, he's going to be selecting AoE's in the direction of those hordes.[74] – Steven Sharif

Ashes of Creation utilizes an adaptive artificial intelligence (AI), meaning different encounters with similar mobs and bosses will yield different player experiences.[130][131]

As you add more players to an open world encounter there are going to be certain behaviors and/or actions that might now be higher in frequency as a result of those additional players coming in; and some of those systems might be different AoE abilities or behaviors that the AI has available to it.[73] – Steven Sharif
  • Some NPC AI behaviors may be randomly selected at the time of initial engagement causing them to make decisions dynamically during an encounter.[130][15][132][133]
    • Higher frequency of AoE attacks depending on how many players are participating.[15]
    • Unlock rage, recovery effects and buffs.[134][15]
    • Supporting other monster types or classes nearby.[134]
    • Additional adds and add classes.[15]
    • Some NPCs may attempt to seek cover behind obstacles during encounters.[135]
  • NPCs performing "idle actions" to make the world seem more alive has been discussed by the developers but is not confirmed.[136]
Part of the NPC encounter design is not always going to be the same behavior tree. There will be purposefully behaviors that exist for the boss that are rolled at the time of the initial engagement; and so that is in an effort to keep things emergent, to keep things different, to try to not keep a static monotonous engagement idea.[130] – Steven Sharif

There are AI systems that don't relate to controlling NPCs.[137]

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 with regards to how nodes develop and the environment reacts to that development by spawning these triggered events of 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.[137] – Steven Sharif

Read more...

Gameplay videos

Visuals

See also

References

  1. ↑ Newsletter - June 2023.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Livestream, January 27, 2023 (1:34:06).
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Interview, October 16, 2024 (29:32).
  4. ↑ 4.00 4.01 4.02 4.03 4.04 4.05 4.06 4.07 4.08 4.09 4.10 4.11 Podcast, May 10, 2024 (46:50).
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5 5.6 5.7 5.8 Podcast, May 10, 2024 (10:16).
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 Livestream, May 27, 2022 (1:20:35).
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 Livestream, June 1, 2017 (39:21).
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 Livestream, May 22, 2017 (20:59).
  9. ↑ steven-instancing.png
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 Interview, July 9, 2023 (1:40:41).
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 Livestream, November 30, 2023 (1:53:50).
  12. ↑ [to https://twitter.com/AshesofCreation/status/1571960759894286336 Twitter - Creature resistances.]
  13. ↑ Livestream, June 25, 2021 (1:08:23).
  14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 Podcast, May 10, 2024 (48:54).
  15. ↑ 15.0 15.1 15.2 15.3 15.4 15.5 Interview, June 13, 2021 (22:20).
  16. ↑ 16.0 16.1 Livestream, November 30, 2020 (1:16:09).
  17. ↑ Interview, July 19, 2020 (17:12).
  18. ↑ 18.0 18.1 Interview, July 19, 2020 (14:51).
  19. ↑ 19.0 19.1 Podcast, October 12, 2024 (47:01).
  20. ↑ Podcast, May 11, 2018 (33:09).
  21. ↑ Ashes of Creation Forums - No participation trophy.
  22. ↑ Livestream, July 31, 2024 (2:28:04).
  23. ↑ 23.0 23.1 Interview, October 16, 2024 (48:29).
  24. ↑ 24.0 24.1 24.2 24.3 24.4 Interview, July 9, 2023 (1:43:38).
  25. ↑ 25.0 25.1 25.2 25.3 Podcast, April 11, 2021 (54:35).
  26. ↑ 26.0 26.1 Livestream, April 7, 2023 (1:15:02).
  27. ↑ Livestream, May 29, 2020 (1:33:11).
  28. ↑ Livestream, May 31, 2024 (7:09).
  29. ↑ Livestream, June 30, 2022 (1:18:55).
  30. ↑ Livestream, May 10, 2017 (14:45).
  31. ↑ Livestream, March 31, 2022 (1:19:41).
  32. ↑ Video, April 5, 2018 (49:36).
  33. ↑ 33.0 33.1 Interview, November 10, 2024 (32:15).
  34. ↑ 34.0 34.1 34.2 Livestream, May 31, 2024 (2:08).
  35. ↑ 35.0 35.1 35.2 35.3 Livestream, December 19, 2023 (1:25:16).
  36. ↑ 36.0 36.1 36.2 Livestream, October 30, 2020 (33:26).
  37. ↑ 37.0 37.1 37.2 Podcast, April 23, 2018 (59:28).
  38. ↑ 38.0 38.1 38.2 Interview, October 16, 2024 (23:16).
  39. ↑ 39.0 39.1 Livestream, December 19, 2023 (1:23:00).
  40. ↑ Livestream, May 28, 2021 (1:13:05).
  41. ↑ 41.0 41.1 2024-11-27 - Development Update with Alpha Two Giants and Demons.
  42. ↑ Livestream, December 2, 2022 (1:05:51).
  43. ↑ 43.0 43.1 Interview, October 20, 2018 (2:40:17).
  44. ↑ Podcast, September 29, 2021 (30:04).
  45. ↑ Livestream, June 25, 2021 (1:05:01).
  46. ↑ Interview, July 18, 2020 (1:05:04).
  47. ↑ Livestream, February 9, 2018 (41:56).
  48. ↑ Podcast, May 10, 2024 (16:09).
  49. ↑ Podcast, May 11, 2018 (25:58).
  50. ↑ 50.0 50.1 Podcast, April 23, 2018 (1:01:01).
  51. ↑ Twitter - The way is shut! Trapped in this dwarven crypt.
  52. ↑ 52.0 52.1 52.2 Livestream, September 27, 2018 (43:21).
  53. ↑ 53.0 53.1 openworldinstancedsplit.png
  54. ↑ 54.0 54.1 Livestream, March 28, 2020 (1:48:36).
  55. ↑ 55.0 55.1 steven-dungeon-tiers.png
  56. ↑ Livestream, April 28, 2023 (1:15:22).
  57. ↑ 57.0 57.1 57.2 57.3 Livestream, April 30, 2020 (1:32:06).
  58. ↑ Livestream, April 30, 2024 (1:08:20).
  59. ↑ Alpha-1 map.
  60. ↑ Livestream, March 26, 2021 (39:08).
  61. ↑ Video, May 31, 2020 (1:40:18).
  62. ↑ Video, May 31, 2020 (1:17:42).
  63. ↑ raid events.png
  64. ↑ Podcast, April 23, 2018 (27:14).
  65. ↑ 65.0 65.1 65.2 65.3 65.4 65.5 65.6 65.7 65.8 Podcast, July 9, 2018 (22:24).
  66. ↑ Video, May 31, 2020 (17:20).
  67. ↑ 67.0 67.1 67.2 Interview, September 10, 2023 (28:15).
  68. ↑ 68.0 68.1 Livestream, May 31, 2023 (41:16).
  69. ↑ 69.0 69.1 Livestream, March 31, 2023 (1:20:41).
  70. ↑ Livestream, March 26, 2021 (54:26).
  71. ↑ 71.0 71.1 71.2 Livestream, May 31, 2023 (43:55).
  72. ↑ 72.0 72.1 Livestream, July 25, 2020 (46:08).
  73. ↑ 73.0 73.1 73.2 Livestream, August 30, 2024 (1:01:40).
  74. ↑ 74.0 74.1 74.2 74.3 Video, August 30, 2024 (36:44).
  75. ↑ 75.0 75.1 Interview, June 13, 2021 (24:14).
  76. ↑ 76.0 76.1 Video, April 5, 2018 (40:08).
  77. ↑ 77.0 77.1 77.2 Podcast, August 4, 2018 (1:42:14).
  78. ↑ Livestream, November 19, 2021 (55:31).
  79. ↑ Livestream, May 31, 2023 (42:06).
  80. ↑ Livestream, May 31, 2023 (45:47).
  81. ↑ Livestream, April 7, 2023 (55:22).
  82. ↑ Livestream, March 31, 2023 (1:00:16).
  83. ↑ Livestream, October 28, 2022 (32:52).
  84. ↑ Livestream, June 1, 2017 (37:39).
  85. ↑ 85.0 85.1 Types of Events on Verra.
  86. ↑ 86.0 86.1 86.2 86.3 Livestream, July 29, 2022 (1:20:24).
  87. ↑ Video, May 25, 2017 (0:02).
  88. ↑ IGN: Ashes of Creation first look: An MMO that lets you be the boss.
  89. ↑ Livestream, June 30, 2023 (1:50:52).
  90. ↑ 90.0 90.1 Livestream, April 29, 2022 (39:00).
  91. ↑ kickstarter monster coins.png
  92. ↑ 92.0 92.1 steven-monster-coin-events.png
  93. ↑ 93.0 93.1 monster event spawned.png
  94. ↑ Livestream, May 26, 2017 (22:19).
  95. ↑ Livestream, May 3, 2017 (36:25).
  96. ↑ Livestream, May 3, 2017 (35:25).
  97. ↑ Livestream, June 25, 2021 (1:36:05).
  98. ↑ Podcast, November 15, 2020 (47:12).
  99. ↑ Podcast, November 15, 2020 (51:22).
  100. ↑ Video, November 30, 2023 (29:26).
  101. ↑ 101.0 101.1 101.2 101.3 101.4 101.5 Video, November 30, 2023 (32:36).
  102. ↑ 102.0 102.1 Interview, July 9, 2023 (47:05).
  103. ↑ skotty-story-arc-2.png
  104. ↑ Video, March 31, 2023 (1:22).
  105. ↑ Video, March 31, 2023 (3:32).
  106. ↑ 106.0 106.1 Livestream, March 26, 2021 (50:03).
  107. ↑ 107.0 107.1 Livestream, March 26, 2021 (22:53).
  108. ↑ 108.0 108.1 Livestream, November 8, 2020 (12:47).
  109. ↑ Livestream, June 25, 2021 (1:13:30).
  110. ↑ 110.0 110.1 Livestream, January 28, 2022 (1:17:12).
  111. ↑ 111.0 111.1 Livestream, March 31, 2023 (54:22).
  112. ↑ Livestream, June 25, 2021 (1:32:24).
  113. ↑ 113.0 113.1 Livestream, March 31, 2023 (58:27).
  114. ↑ Livestream, March 31, 2023 (59:10).
  115. ↑ Video, March 31, 2023 (16:42).
  116. ↑ skotty-story-arc-1.png
  117. ↑ 117.0 117.1 117.2 117.3 117.4 117.5 117.6 Livestream, March 26, 2021 (50:33).
  118. ↑ Livestream, November 17, 2017 (36:22).
  119. ↑ 119.0 119.1 119.2 119.3 119.4 Livestream, November 17, 2017 (18:29).
  120. ↑ 120.0 120.1 120.2 120.3 MMOGames interview, January 2017
  121. ↑ steven-pois.png
  122. ↑ steven-dungeons.png
  123. ↑ Livestream, April 29, 2022 (40:21).
  124. ↑ jindrack-pois.png
  125. ↑ Video, March 31, 2023 (28:11).
  126. ↑ Livestream, May 19, 2017 (37:03).
  127. ↑ Livestream, December 17, 2019 (1:10:30).
  128. ↑ Interview: Ashes of Creation on Building Their Virtual World, 2017-04-13.
  129. ↑ Livestream, May 22, 2017 (28:02).
  130. ↑ 130.0 130.1 130.2 Interview, September 10, 2023 (34:51).
  131. ↑ About Ashes of Creation.
  132. ↑ Livestream, July 28, 2017 (43:57).
  133. ↑ Livestream, May 5, 2017 (11:55).
  134. ↑ 134.0 134.1 Livestream, July 29, 2022 (1:23:56).
  135. ↑ Livestream, February 25, 2022 (1:03:32).
  136. ↑ Livestream, 2018-04-8 (PM) (3:56).
  137. ↑ 137.0 137.1 137.2 137.3 137.4 Podcast, May 11, 2018 (24:23).
Retrieved from "https://ashesofcreation.wiki/index.php?title=Encounters&oldid=126456"