Full loot

There will not be a full loot (full drop) system in Ashes of Creation.

There will not be a full drop and the reason for that is because our intention when it comes to progression within the world is we want it to be meaningful and take some investment on behalf of the player; and if even if from a design standpoint we're like yeah but they have to choose to go to the area; we don't want a choice that a player can make where they delete their character so to speak. – Steven Sharif

Player death

Alpha-2 Player death and resurrection during the Beneath the Stone Shadows event.

Alpha-2 Player death UI showing XP debt penalty.

When a player dies they disintegrate into ash. The ashes contain any items lost by the player due to applicable death penalties.

• These ash piles are immediately lootable by any player.

• Player flagging can be triggered by looting a non-corrupted character who is not in the same raid, party, or guild within a certain timeframe.

We have the concept of introducing flagging as a part of looting a body that is not a member of your raid, party, or guild; and if you do loot that body successfully after the required time you will be flagged and then can become a valid target in PvP.

• The developers intend to have a visual callout and a minimap indicator to identify a player's own loot pile.

• Certain bags may have reduced PvP looting times.

It might even be the case that their particular bag space doesn't have available location for a three-by-one log; and you're a lumberjack and they see you just chopping down these trees and you're like, there's no point in me engaging with this person, because I have nothing to gain due to my capacity. – Steven Sharif

• There will be a period of time following a player's death before their mule despawns. Other players must kill that player's mule to be able to loot it.
  • If the mule dies its corpse will contain the same percentage of lootable items according to the player's death penalties.

• Players do not lose gold upon death, no matter their corruption level.

• Glint looted from a dead character by any other player, regardless of affiliation, becomes stolen glint. Character's who loot their own bodies will recover their glint in its non-stolen state.

• Death by falling is possible.
  • Fall damage that occurs while mounted will be first applied to the mount; and if the mount dies as a result, then the remaining damage may overflow onto the player, but this will be determined based on testing.

• Death by drowning is possible.
  • Players that drown will respawn on shore. Players on destroyed ships may respawn at the nearest harbor.

Death penalties

Player death in an open world dungeon in Alpha-1.

There are three primary consequences for dying; and obviously the way you die can influence the balance of those three consequences. First and foremost is you have a death debuff that lasts for you know anywhere from 5 to 10 minutes depend depending on how often you've died. That death debuff is going to have some stat and dampening effects. It's going to influence you negatively. The second thing that you have that happens to you is you acquire experience debt. Experience debt is something that lives on your progression tracker. This is experience debt that you need to go and gain experience in order to recover. Okay, now experience debt- the more you accumulate, the more impact it has stat dampening on your efficacy in battle and this is efficacy in battle with PvP or PvE. It doesn't matter. Now, the ceiling for that is, if you accrue 100% experience debt within a level, you're going to have to work off that 100% experience debt; and you will have roughly 20% max ceiling on how much your efficacy is curbed. The third thing that happens on death is that you drop parts of your material inventory: a percentage of your material inventory. Now, you could drop potentially completed items if you're corrupt when you die, so it depends the state in which you're dying. If you're when you die: if you're participating in PvP, you will suffer less consequences across the board for those three things. – Steven Sharif

• Non-combatant (green players) suffer normal death penalties, which include:
  • A death debuff that lasts between 5 and 10 minutes depending on how often the character has died.
  • Experience debt (negative experience). Experience debt scales to approximately 3 to 4 percent of the total XP for that level (subject to change based on testing).
  • Dropping roughly 20-30% of carried gatherables, materials, and glint. The percentage values are subject to change based on Alpha-2 testing. Glint drops as stolen glint on death. Items made for final consumption are not dropped, such as consumable items created by the Cooking and Alchemy professions.
  • Skill and stat dampening, such as Lower health and mana.
  • Reduction in loot drop rates from mobs.
  • Durability loss.

  When players die and they take durability loss, our durability loss isn't like other games where it's a gold sink so to speak. It's a combination of both a gold sink and a material sink. So in a sense, even if you only have completed items, when you take that durability loss you are losing out on materials. It's just a debt to the materials that you are losing instead of the active loss of that material in your inventory. So now you are accruing a material debt if you want to repair and increase again the performance of those particular items that take that durability loss. – Steven Sharif

• Combatants (purple players) suffer death penalties at half the rate of non-combatants.

• Corrupt players (red players) suffer death penalties at four times the rate of non-combatants.
  • Corrupt players also have a chance to drop any equipped items based on their current corruption score, including dropping weapons and armor.

  Any amount of corruption allows a player to drop equipped gear upon death. The higher the corruption the greater the chances. – Steven Sharif

  • Corrupt players respawn at random locations in the vicinity of their death, not at regular spawn points. Non-corrupt players always respawn at the closest active respawn point (to their death).
  • Corruption penalties occur as the corruption is gained (not just at death).
  • Death penalties for corrupt players apply in every location, including naval PvP zones.

Objective-based PvP events accumulate lesser amounts of experience debt on death, but other penalties remain. Previously it was stated that death penalties are not applied to event-based deaths.

• Gear degradation applies on death during Caravan PvP.
• Materials (and resources) will still drop on death during sanctioned PvP events.
• Previously it was stated that death penalties do not differ between PvP and PvE.

Non-corrupt players suffer reduced death penalties in naval PvP (open seas) zones.

• These penalties will be less than those for a green player.

Q: We know that the normal death penalty incurs a myriad of penalties for the player, but we don't know the numbers behind this penalty. For instance, what percentage of materials do players drop? What percentage of glint is dropped? How severe is the skill and stat dampening? What is the average time it will take a player to work off XP debt from one death?

A: You're asking about percentile values. You're asking about time that it takes to recoup the percentage and whatnot. Any time that we're at a stage we're in now, and that in Alpha-2 we're going to be testing this, those values are the most subject to change. So to be clear, we're going to do [a] best-guess balance pass for Alpha-2 with the full expectation and understanding that the purpose is- and take into consideration player interaction with those numbers, and what feels best. So just off the bat, those values are not what we should be focusing on at this stage; but, to give you an idea where we are: First of all, when we're talking about dropping items that are in your material inventory, whether that be glint or that be other material types, we're talking roughly between anywhere from 20 to 30% of a stack is going to be lootable on a per-death basis. Now, that is a value that can change based off of the types of bags that you are using to carry those materials. In addition, there's other progression that can allow you, and some stats I believe, that can allow you to mitigate that value also. When we are talking about the percentage that's lost, or excuse me, not lost, the percentage of your level that is accrued as experience debt from death, generally you can expect that that's going to live around three to four percent of the level in accrued experience debt per death. However, additionally, there is a way to mitigate that percentage debt; and that is through the resurrection ability that's provided to Clerics. So, Clerics have the ability to resurrect their allies, and that resurrection will return a percentage that would have been accrued as experience debt. And that return percentage is predicated on the investment into the resability [sic], as well as the stat of the Cleric that is tied to the resurrection effect as well. So those can return percentages, so you can mitigate that to a degree. How long will it take you to recover that, and what stat dampening occurs? Anywhere within a level, if you acquire 100% experience debt for that level, you max out the experience debt, essentially, you don't ever buy that down, you're probably looking around a 20% stat efficacy dampener. So on average, if you're at 100% debt for a level, and you got to work all that off before you can start progressing at the level again, you're at around 20% overall stat dampening. Time it takes you to regain that debt is predicated on the level you're at and how you exp. So, that's a highly variable value. – Steven Sharif

See also

• PvP
• Player flagging
• Player corruption
• Looting