Exploration

Exploration in Alpha-1.

We want to put things in the world that are dynamic, so there are reasons to keep going out and keep exploring. – Akil Hooper

Riverlands biome concept art.

Players will be rewarded for exploring.

Exploration is a huge part of the game and there are a lot of systems that are dedicated to rewarding exploration.. – Steven Sharif

• Utility skills exist that can help players discover hidden paths and entrances and may lead to discovering hidden quests.
• Certain relics can only be discovered through exploration.
• Constellations may only be seen at certain times at specific locations.

It's widespread how exploration can affect many different progression paths within the game; and it's not just about visiting an area once and never coming back, because timing matters as well. – Steven Sharif

• Travel times are important in Verra, but it will be easy to get lost or distracted by threats and opportunities.
  • Threats can come in the form of monsters, events, and Open-world PvP.
  • Opportunities include resources (gathering, transporting, storing, and trading), points-of-interest, achievements, and treasures.

It'll be easy for you to get lost in AoC. That is our goal from an exploration standpoint. – Steven Sharif

Q: Since travel times are important, what is there to discover that will distract you from going straight to your initial destination? What makes traveling adventurous in Verra?

A: Aside from threat and opportunity, which are probably the two biggest distractions that you can encounter while traveling through Verra- those come in different forms: Threat. in the form of monsters and events. Opportunities, in the forms of resources and POIs. There's also achievements that are based around exploration. There's treasure maps that can be found. There's a lot of different things that intersect with travel: The movement of resources. The storage of those resources. In which locations, what are available to be sold and purchased at different locations. They might make you detour for. All of those things contribute to why I would go somewhere and instead change my direction. – Steven Sharif

Treasure hunting

Pre-alpha Mage finding hidden treasure.

Treasure hunting is not exactly "cartography", but it does involve maps that help to pinpoint the location of hidden treasures throughout the world.

• Treasures (and treasure maps) will enable players to reap economic gains from exploration.
• The more treasure a player finds the better maps they can create.
• Hints are given through rumor mills, interaction with different NPCs, and gaining access to potential dig sites.
• Treasure hunting will be a "way of life" rather than a profession.

Treasures may also be obtained through fishing and by exploring naval content.

Verra

Verran map scroll.

Verra was created to house four separate... divine races and they're called divine races because the remaining seven gods imbued their characteristics within each of these different races. They didn't put all of them into one and make the same mistake. They had focuses really that these races took essentially. – Steven Sharif

The name of the Ashes of Creation world is Verra.

• Verra exists in the material plane.
• There are constellations and multiple moons in the night sky of Verra.
• Players start in Verra a few short months after the very first expeditionaries were sent through the divine gateways when they opened from Sanctus.

Verran continents and locations:

• Sujoma.
• Vandagar (Western continent).
  • The Dünzenkell Mountains.
  • The Kaela Riverlands.
  • The Jundark.
  • The Sandsquall Desert.
• Draakath Bohr.
• Elyrium (Eastern continent).
  • The Frostgrave Fells.
• Peligora.

Verran oceans:

• The Fortunic Ocean.
• The Umbral Sea.
• Tradewind Sea.
• The Avaric Ocean.

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

Travel times

So why is travel important? We've talked about this in the past, the reasons why. We've all existed in games where teleportation is very easy to use and sometimes that can be a detriment because you may have activities like a caravan run that's happening and one person sees you from a certain guild and they do the raid callout to their guild "everyone open your portals and come here within a split second and we're going to just mob this group". No, well instead that opportunity doesn't exist. If you want to provoke or to gank an operation of another guild, you need to have foreknowledge. You need to prepare. You need to place your forces around that area; and that is an important aspect. In addition, it makes that travel meaningful. If you are having to spend time to move to a location, you're going to think about what can I do along the way? Why am I moving to that location? How is it more beneficial for me to be in that location versus where I am now? This is also in association with the fact that you are a citizen of a particular node and that node needs your assistance within its vicinity; and if you want to move outside of that vicinity there should be a really good reason for that and there's lots of great reasons for it. – Steven Sharif

Travel objective	Running.	Mounted.
From one end of a Metropolis (stage 6) node to the other	2.83 minutes	1.67 minutes
From the center of a node to the center of its direct neighbor	5 minutes	3.5 minutes
From the northernmost to southernmost points of a continent	75 minutes	50 minutes

Server history

Map concept art.

Some of the following information has not been recently confirmed by the developers and may not be on the current development roadmap.

The history of each server will be tracked and visible to players in a node's library.

• This design may have changed.

We're gonna keep track of the history of the world so that we can tell people the story up to the current day. A player who's brand new, who's come in at the six-month mark can take a look at each server, what each server has done, how each server has tackled the storyline; and they can decide for themselves what community they want to join; what version of the world that they want to take part in. – Jeffrey Bard

• Scribes may be able to collect and record information about the events of the world as they see it from their point of view.

Libraries

Scientific node building.

At Village (stage 3) the scientific node's unique building is the Library.

• Information about the world will be presented directly to players through the world map UI. Previously the Library was used to access information about the world, such as the history of significant narrative events, locations of gatherable resources, dungeons, and POIs.

In the past we talked about having a library that was capable of facilitating players exchanging information for map data like that, but we've moved a little bit more in a direction of just presenting that information up front to the player, because travel is such a meaningful portion of the game and we don't have fast travel. So, I think that for Alpha-2 what's planned is that we're going to be showcasing the intricate details of services offered at these node locations from just a UI presentation standpoint within the map. – Steven Sharif

Some of the following information has not been recently confirmed by the developers and may not be on the current development roadmap.

Players can use the Library to access information, including (but not limited to) the following:

• Runic power stones for armor.
• Common armor and weapon recipes (level 25 and under).

Easter eggs

Alpha-2 easter eggs

Sandal easter egg.

• Creative director Steven Sharif's sandal is present on a statue at the entrance to the Tower of Carphin dungeon.
• Creative director Steven Sharif's sandals are present as a painting in a freehold homestead.
• A missing poster featuring Trystan Snodgrass is present in the Alpha-2 Winstead node.

Alpha-1 easter eggs

Easter eggs in Alpha-1.

• Creative director Steven Sharif's portrait is present as a painting in-game.

• Creative director Steven Sharif's sandals are present as a painting in-game.

• The Alpha island map is present as an in-game map prop.

• The Alpha island starting area quest giver Sergeant Landry is referred to as an "easter egg throwback to the original".

Alpha-0 easter eggs

There may or may not be a pair of sandals; if found will grant you some major boon or benefit... You might need a utility skill to find them.

Ashes of Creation Apocalypse easter eggs

There is a sandal out there. We will also have prizes and achievements for finding the sandal. – Steven Sharif

Visuals

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  2022-07-14
• 2022-06-08
• 2020-05-17
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  2018-07-11
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  2018-07-11
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  2018-07-08
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  2018-02-14
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  2018-02-14
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  2017-11-18
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  2017-11-18
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  2017-11-18
• 2017-10-24
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  2017-10-12

See also

• Treasure hunting
• Environments
• World map
• Animal husbandry