Gameplay

We like to really refer to ourselves as a PvX game, because in those systems of PvP, PvE, crafting they're all intertwined: They're interdependent on each other... Our system of development really requires some interdependence there between those things. You're going to need a crafter to give you the best items. You're going to need PvPers to secure cities and castles. You're gonna need PvErs to take down those world bosses for those materials to craft.^[1] – Steven Sharif

Ashes is a comprehensive game. It is not a PvP focused or a PvE focused, it is a comprehensive PvX game and as a result these systems are all interconnected and have to coexist with one another with certain types of mechanisms that can provide that give and take, that push and shove.^[2] – Steven Sharif

Ashes of Creation is a PvX game. Players will naturally encounter both PvP and PvE elements.^[3]^[2]^[4]^[5] It is unlikely that a player could purely focus on just PvP or just PvE.^[2]^[1]^[4]^[5]

Ashes is a PvX game; and so in that regard, your ability to wholesale disconnect from the PvP elements of the game are likely not going to be entirely successful. Now, does that mean that you can reduce your exposure to PvP? A hundred percent; and there are multiple play paths and progression points that players can elect instead to be more PvE focused, but by the sheer nature of risk-versus-reward, and risk including not being able to predict how other players might impact your gameplay, that is an element of the innate risk that exists in the multiplayer environment of a PvX setting. So, not everybody is going to like that and we accept that; and we're not trying to build a game that everybody is going to like, because everybody it's doing that is not going to be successful, because there're just people with different interests; and you know we accept that and we're very on the nose about what we're trying to achieve. The idea is not to create a gank fest, is not to create a grief fest. That is not what PvX is; and so because of that we have certain mechanisms and systems that govern the way players engage in PvP and the majority of those are opt-in, but there is always that element of risk that's governed by the flagging system. And so, if you're interested in that I would take a look at the Wiki and look up what flagging is, and look up what corruption is. My experience tells me- and my expectations of the system are that they will signal significantly reduce a player's exposure to non-consensual PvP, but that risk is always going to be present to some degree.^[3] – Steven Sharif

A defining principle of Ashes of Creation as a PvX game is that PvE builds the world, and PvP changes the world.^[6]

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 game design.^[7]^[8]^[9]^[10]^[11]

There won't be separate PvE and PvP server realms but some servers may be more PvP focused than others.^[3]^[4]^[12]

All stats relate to a player's combat effectiveness in PvX.^[13]

We're very clear with our objective and philosophy on the game and we understand that they may not appeal to everybody. But it is an important reciprocal relationship between the content that's related to PvE and the content that's related to PvP and they feed off of each other. They're catalysts for change: Their progression, their development. It's things that people can value when they see something earned and they see something lost. That elicits an emotional response from the player: That they've invested time in to either succeed or fail; and PvP allows for that element to be introduced into gameplay. And we're very clear that is our objective: That risk versus reward relationship, that achievement-based mentality. Not everybody's going to be a winner and that's okay.^[11] – Steven Sharif

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

There will not be different PvP and PvE gear types.^[14]

PvP

PvP combat gameplay in Alpha-1 castle sieges.^[15]

Alpha-2 open world caravan PvP.^[16]

Player combat in Ashes of Creation is both vast and intimate. It spans many aspects of the game itself. From great political battles held on the fields of massive castles, to open world conflicts fought for the pride of Guild Leaders. A player can choose to participate in the fate of the world by swaying the tide of battle with his or her combat prowess. Our PvP mechanics follow a flagging system, as well as static PvP zones at certain points of interest; fight for control over cities, castles, caravans, or hunting grounds. Our PvP is designed to offer the players a well-balanced and fair world to shape through the pen, or sword should they choose.^[17]

PvP (Player versus player combat) is the catalyst for change in Ashes of Creation.^[18] Player combat is intended to be meaningful, ranging from Caravan battles to vast open world conflicts fought for the pride of Kings and Queens.^[19]

Because players are motivated by different things, because they want something from the game that other players don't want, that's going to cause people to butt heads. Different players are going to want different experiences and the conflict between the two of them will create a bigger and better thing. Out of strife comes rebirth and that's a core symbol, it's a core theme that occurs throughout the game.^[20] – Jeffrey Bard

The majority of players will experience PvP through opt-in objective-based battlegrounds. These are high risk and high reward encounters that do not utilize the corruption system.^[21]^[22]^[23]^[24]
- Sieges.^[22]^[25]^[24]^[26]^[24]
- Caravans.^[22]^[24]^[25]
- Guild wars.^[22]^[27]^[25]
- Naval PvP in the open sea.^[22]^[28]^[29]
Better things in more abundance can be found in the open-sea zone. And as a result, that is why there's an added level of risk associated with opting into those locations.^[21] – Steven Sharif
- Death penalties (mostly) do not apply to objective-based events (also called sanctioned events).^[30]^[31]^[32]^[33]^[34]
  - Gear degradation applies on death during Caravan PvP.^[32]^[33]
  - Materials (and resources) will still drop on death during sanctioned PvP events.^[30]

During sanctioned PVP events we turn off typical death penalties. You're not going to get res penalties. You're not going to get XP debt. You're not going to get durability damage. You will still drop the things you have in your inventory though: in your material inventory, specifically.^[32] – Chris Justo

There are also reasons to engage in open world PvP, which is subject to the player flagging and corruption system.^[22]^[25]
- Contesting open-world dungeons or raids.^[22]
- Contesting scarce resources and hunting grounds.^[25]
The risk of gaining corruption is expected to deter the vast majority of players from griefing other players but this doesn't mean that PvP won't occur in the open-world.^[35]^[25]

Just because our flagging system gives corruption to PKers, doesn't mean PvP won't happen. There is plenty of reason for PvP to occur open-world.^[25] – Steven Sharif

Lawless zones are open-world areas where the corruption system is disabled in Alpha-2 phase 1 and Alpha-2 phase 2. These are intended to be an Alpha-2-only feature to help test what will become open-sea content.^[36]^[37]^[38]

There are no plans currently to introduce policies or mechanics for players to designate specific areas as corruption-free or "high stakes" zones.^[39]^[40]

Q: Have you considered a high-stakes loot drop PvP zone/area in Verra?

A: We have not; and the reason for that is our current PvP systems already allow for material risk essentially that's either through the flagging system or through other event-based pvp opt-in systems as well.^[40] – Steven Sharif

Archetypes such as Tank and Bard are viable in PvP due to the rock-paper-scissors design philosophy, where each class is naturally strong against certain skill compositions.^[41]

Caravan PvP

Caravan PvP in Alpha-2.^[42]

One of the most important aspects of caravans is that there is no reward without significant risk in Ashes of Creation; and the caravan system is of particular risk, because it is how materials and commodities are transited within the world of Verra; and it's difficult to navigate the world of Verra: It's a large world and the terrain is not always kind, especially to large vehicles like a caravan.^[43] – Steven Sharif

Caravan PvP party icons
	Friendly defender
	Friendly attacker
	Enemy defender
	Enemy attacker

UI message when opting in to join the defenders of a caravan PvP event.^[44]

Caravans create an objective-based PvP event in the open-world that players can choose to attack, defend, or ignore via a UI window.^[44]^[45]^[46]^[47]

Only the caravan owner and those in the caravan's raid group will be able to see it on the world map.^[48]^[49]

You will only be able to see the caravan if you are a member of the caravan's raid or if you are the owner of the caravan on the map. If you are not one of those, then you will not see it on the map. If you come within proximity of the caravan you'll be prompted through an event UI to participate if you wish as a defender or an attacker.^[48] – Steven Sharif

Players that choose to attack or defend the caravan will be flagged as combatants.^[50]
- The UI notification will include the caravan owner's name and guild.^[51]
- The proximity that the UI window appears is determined by the player's performance as either a defender or an attacker in previous raids.^[45]
- Once registered as a defender, a player can't switch to attack the caravan.^[52]
- The proximity radius for notification of nearby caravan events can be increased or decreased based on the caravan's components or a player's progression in the highwayman system.^[53]

At a certain proximity to the caravan, any player will receive the event notification to participate either as an attacker or as a defender. That proximity radius can be augmented either through players advancement within the Highwaymen system, which is for defenders or attackers you can increase the radius, but also the components can increase and or decrease the radius of that event notification as well.^[53] – Steven Sharif

There will be visual hints relating to the cargo being transported on caravans, but players will not be able to see the exact contents of the caravan.^[54]^[55]^[56] Cargo is represented in this way even if a cosmetic caravan skin has been applied to the caravan.^[55]^[56]

Players can be registered participants in a caravan event involving multiple caravans.^[57]^[52] It is not possible for a player to participate in more than one caravan event at a time.^[58]

As a player you can participate in events that have as many caravans collocated as you want. So if you have 20 Caravans that you're trying to move all in a single caravan raid with all of your players you can join all 20 of those caravans into the same caravan defense group; and that is that is the intent of the system. The same is true for the attackers. The attackers can join against all of those caravans.^[57] – Steven Sharif

Caravan components can be individually destroyed by directional attacks against the caravan. All components are destroyed if the caravan is destroyed.^[59]

Some defensive abilities may be effective against blocking projectiles from hitting caravans.^[60]

Basic attacks will not slow caravans, but certain slowing abilities may be able to do so.^[61]

Players or mounts trying to block caravans will be pushed out of the way.^[61]^[62]

As it stands currently it would be difficult for players to be able to block the caravan. Now that's not to say that certain types of effects cannot be applied to the caravan through ability use, such as slowing effects, or pause effects, stun effects, against the caravan itself, not the rider. But right now we do have a collision priority system which means that vehicles move players and mounts. Mounts and players cannot stop vehicles from moving the vehicle. Its collision has priority; and then ships have the ultimate priority. Nothing can move ships or block ships.^[61] – Steven Sharif

If a caravan's driver is killed or otherwise removed from the caravan then any player will be able to drive the caravan for a period of 15 to 20 minutes before the caravan despawns and becomes a wreckage.^[63] A caravan will persist in the world for a period of 5 to 10 minutes from the time its owner logs out or is disconnected from the server realm.^[64]

There is no limit to the number of times caravans can be commandeered or the number of times caravans get destroyed and replaced.^[65]

Q: Will there be a limit on the number of times a caravan can change hands if successfully taken over during a journey from one node to another?

A: No. There is no limit a caravan can be destroyed. That caravan can be destroyed. The Caravan thereafter could be destroyed. The driver of the Caravan can be killed and commandeered; and done as many times as is permitted through the situation. That is player driven.^[65] – Steven Sharif

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

A group will be required to successfully attack a caravan.^[66]^[67]

Castle sieges

Alpha-1 castle siege gameplay.^[15]

Throughout Ashes of Creation, the player has an opportunity to participate in massively multiplayer siege warfare. Since castles are likely the world’s most limited resource, it will be a task to secure and hold them. Involving hundreds of players on a single battlefield, our sieges will employ many moving parts and intricate design features. Because of the difficult nature of taking and keeping a castle there are great rewards available to the players for their efforts. Castles will allow players to exert control over nearby lands and allow for the development of unique buildings in the nearby towns.^[17]

Guilds participate in Castle sieges in an effort to capture and occupy one of the five guild castles in Ashes of Creation.^[68]

Sieges occur once a month within a server prime-time window.^[69]^[68]^[70]^[71]

The minimum goal is for 250x250 players to be on a single battlefield. It is hoped that this can be increased to 500x500 over time.^[72]^[73]^[74]^[75]

There will be systems that mimic some of the mechanics of sieges, but there won't be practice sieges.^[76]

There may be instanced locations within otherwise open-world castle and node sieges, where specific groups can participate in small, short duration objective-based battles that will affect the overall outcome of the siege.^[77]
- It was previously stated that castle sieges may or may not be (entirely) instanced in the final game.^[26]
- Alpha-1 castle sieges occurred in an open-world zone that was accessible via a NPC teleporter.^[78]^[79]^[26]^[80]

I love castle-based gameplay. I love trophies. I like rewarding risk a lot; and for me it's very difficult to imagine a MMO that I would want to play where there is not competition of strategic prowess that determines the outcome of these types of events and there is not a meaningful reward both mechanically and from just a bragging rights perspective that players can aim for and try to achieve. I think that it brings a lot to the game when it comes to motivations, to excel, to level, to gain power, to engage those different progression loops when there is an ultimate goal or trophy that is not static and doesn't exist forever once you achieve it, but that you must constantly perform in order to maintain; and that's really the purpose of these castles.^[81] – Steven Sharif

A guild that captures a castle will own that castle for a month before it is sieged again.^[82]^[83]^[84]

Each week leading up to the siege week... is a week that's dedicated to one of the three castle dedicated nodes. So around the castle there are three nodes. They represent week, one, two, and three; and then the fourth week is the siege against the castle. Those can only be elevated up to stage three. We've discussed this in the past and there's definitely information out there on the community ran wiki.^[83] – Steven Sharif

In the first three weeks that a guild occupies a castle they will need to level up each of their castle nodes to Village stage through questing.^[83]^[84]
- Each of the three castle nodes have a siege against it at the end of each of these three weeks.^[84]^[85]
The fourth week is declaration week, where other guilds have the opportunity to lay down their declaration flag or to sign up as a defender of the castle.^[83]^[84]
Depending on how well the guild defends their castle nodes results in better defenses for the castle.^[84]^[85]
Different siege weaponry will grant the attackers the ability to destroy walls, doors and sections of the castle in order to gain access to the inner keep area.^[86]
When castles change hands (following a siege), some taxes stay with the castle and some stay with the guild.^[87]

There will be benefits to attracting people... even if they're not in your guild or alliance – a feudal like system, where you can attract other players who are just independent of this whole politic. They will have things to do there - benefits to receive - and there will be a reciprocal relationship between who you can attract, what they do for you; and how that benefits you and them.^[84] – Steven Sharif

Alpha-1 castle sieges

Alpha-1 preview castle.^[88]

Trebuchets in the Alpha-1 preview castle siege attackers headquarter camp.^[89]

Alpha-1 preview castle siege gameplay.^[90]

Alpha-1 castle sieges were based on Ashes of Creation Apocalypse castle sieges.^[91]^[80]

Players will be able to join guilds. These guilds can register for the siege events.^[89]
Castle siege events will be 100v100 battles that occur daily and will last for three hours.^[89]
Attackers will start on the opposite end of the map (from the defenders).^[89]
Attackers will be able to use trebuchets to drive to and assault the castle.^[89]
- Trebuchets have a single primary fire that does a small amount of damage to players and heavy damage to buildings.^[89]
- Trebuchets will be fully physical when they are being driven.^[89]
When the attackers have breached the castle they will be able to channel a cast on the relic in the throne room to try to capture the castle from the defenders.^[89]
The victors of castle sieges will receive benefits, such as cloaks, flying mounts for guild leaders and potentially also for guild officers.^[89]
Alpha-1 castle sieges are in a separate zone that is accessible via a NPC teleporter.^[78]^[79]^[26]
Currently the siege zone is actually in the open world, but separated by mountains and off in the sea a bit. There is actually no instancing in A1, although the siege zone will only be accessible in A1 through a registration NPC teleporter.^[78] – Steven Sharif
- This zone includes the following raid bosses.^[91]
- These bosses will also appear in the open-world (outside the siege zone) with slightly different mechanics.^[79]
The opposing team is notified when these raid bosses are being attacked.^[91]
Teams who get the last hit on these bosses will receive buffs that will help them in the siege battle.^[91]

Last year, I spoke of attempting to incorporate sieges into the Alpha One experience. This has obviously been a goal of mine because it provides considerable data and a consistent event within the world that players can participate in to help stress test the deployment. Well, I am happy to say that it is appearing more and more likely by the day! Initial implementation of the Apocalypse siege code has been migrated into the Alpha One client, and we should begin internal testing next month. I will caveat this expectation with the fact that we are cutting it a bit close from an internal QA standpoint, but I have some confidence that the system will be online and capable of inclusion for the Alpha One test in the month of June. The siege component will obviously not be representative of what the siege system will be at launch, or even in Alpha Two.^[80] – Steven Sharif

Destructible structures (such as walls and gates) are present in Alpha-1 castle sieges.^[92]
- The ability to repair structures (and siege weapons) is a long term design goal that will not be present during Alpha-1.^[92]

Node sieges

Node sieges (Pre-alpha footage).^[93]

As some areas in the world grow, others will fall. This is the foundation of the living, breathing world that is Ashes of Creation, where players will have the ability to make important decisions that matter in the longevity of an area becoming a city, or whether to siege a rival town. Rise above the ashes, create the world around you, and be a part of the story that unfolds because of your actions and decisions.^[94] – Margaret Krohn

Node sieges enable players to destroy nodes starting at Village (stage 3).^[94] This paves the way for new development and access to the locked content in surrounding nodes. Due to this dynamic, political strife and intrigue play an important role in the structure of the world.^[95]

Sieging nodes will not be an easy task for the attackers. Cities and metropolises will have a considerable defensive advantage.^[95]

There will be systems that mimic some of the mechanics of sieges, but there won't be practice sieges.^[76]

Death penalties do not apply to objective-based events such as node sieges.^[34]

If you own a home in a node and you don't want to see that home destroyed, you need to defend that city!^[20] – Steven Sharif

The majority (~80%) of content in Ashes of Creation is open-world but there may be instanced battles within castle and node sieges where specific groups can participate in small, short-duration objective-based battles for specific waypoints.^[77]

Guild wars

Guild wars are objective-based PvP events between guilds.^[96]^[97]

Guild wars can be declared at any time, but the objectives will only spawn during server prime-time.^[98]^[99]
- Players can kill each other at any time during the war (not only during server prime-time).^[98]

Guild war objectives are intended to dynamically spawn based on various conditions that exist within each guild.^[96]^[100]^[101]^[99]

Guild wars are not permanent. Definitive victory/surrender conditions exist that are based on the level of the warring guilds and the assets that those guilds have.^[100]^[102]

Guild wars operate outside the PvP flagging system.^[31]^[32]^[33]^[34]^[102]
- Death penalties (mostly) do not apply to objective-based events, such as guild wars.^[31]^[32]^[33]^[34]

Guild wars are considered a core system of Alpha-2.^[103]

Q: How do you plan on keeping wars fresh long term? Typically in other games wars become one dimensional in terms of strategy. Will intrepid be looking at map changes every few years, or will you give guilds / node mayors the ability to customize the layout or objectives of the battlefield?

A: Our guild wars have objective-based gameplay that spawn in the world based on several different factors and predicates that might exist. Some of those predicates might be where is your guild a patron guild of? Does your guild have a guild hall? What node is your guild leader and/or officers a citizen of? What was your last completed raid boss? All of those can serve as predicates to then spawn a certain objective within the world that players have to either engage with in a number of different manners. Either they can be kill objectives, they can be control objectives, they can be capture and move objectives. They could be a caravan caravan summons that need to take supplies from those objectives. The idea is to incorporate all of these other ancillary systems that exist within the game in some way shape or form- tie it into the guild war, because we've created those systems for a reason. We want players to engage with those systems, so why not hook those systems into the guild war format? And I think that that creates a very dynamic setting where it is not just about killing and logging out, but rather strategy in both your resource placement, how you respond, and when you respond, the composition of your raid/group teams. Those types of things play a role now in the outcome of those guild wars and I think they keep it fresh because it'll be different per war.^[96] – Steven Sharif

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

Guilds may war multiple guilds/alliances at a time.^[102]

Hunting grounds

You are on the prowl, and notice an unsuspecting player chopping trees. What would you do?^[104]

Hunting grounds are open-world PvP corruption-enabled areas that encompass most of the map.^[105]

Hunting grounds refer to killing monsters or NPCs in the open-world.^[105]^[106]
This also refers to contesting resources.^[107]

One of the interesting components of Ashes of Creation and our flagging system is that it presents the potential for two conflicting parties to have open conflict in the open world over pretty much anything that they may want or disagree with; and if that pertains to a hunting ground, not just the caravan or the castles or the nodes or whatever, it can exist in that area.^[108] – Steven Sharif

Outside of PvP for certain things like caravans, sieges of nodes and/or castles is that you're going to have those open-world hunting ground fights that may occur. You're going to have resources fights that may occur. You're going to have political fights that may occur between members of guilds; and we're taking the guild politics to a whole new direction in regards to playing those conflicts out.^[107] – Steven Sharif

Our PvP mechanics follow a flagging system, as well as static PvP zones at certain points of interest; fight for control over cities, castles, caravans, or hunting grounds. Our PvP is designed to offer the players a well-balanced and fair world to shape through the pen, or sword should they choose.^[109]

Naval PvP

Ships moving into an open sea naval PvP zone (open waters/deep ocean areas) will automatically flag players as Combatants (purple).^[22]^[28]^[29] Corrupted (red) players will remain red while in the open sea.^[110]^[111]^[112]

Another important change that has occurred is the open seas is now an automatic flagged location. So when you move off of land we have a flagging system that protects and the open seas are international waters where you need to be careful; and there is a lot of opportunity at Sea; and because there's a lot of opportunity that's unique to that content- that's unique to that sea: that's treasure finding; that's NPCs; that's a lot of different stuff there needs to be risk associated with opportunity.^[28] – Steven Sharif

Players entering an open seas area will be notified by the UI ahead of time.^[113]
Death penalties for corrupt players apply to every zone in the game, including naval PvP zones.^[110]
Non-corrupt players will suffer reduced death penalties in naval PvP zones.^[110]

If you are not corrupt and you enter the open seas you will be taking a mitigated form of the death penalties, which means you will have a debuff applied upon death and in addition you will still suffer the gear degradation or gear decay upon death as well. But you will essentially be either significantly reduced in the experience debt accrued through death in the open seas if you're not corrupt, or there won't be experience debt accrued in the open sees if you are not corrupt.^[110] – Steven Sharif

Open sea zones have better resources in more abundance to compensate for the added level of risk.^[21]

We have a very intuitive UI that as you approach the border between open sea and coastal area you are notified of that. You are warned ahead of time. There's a countdown when approaching. We interpolate the distance travel and speed you're moving and you get to see "I'm entering open waters"; and when you do you have this big trophy call out on screen that says "You have entered the open sea. Territory fraught."^[113] – Steven Sharif

Lawless zones will be present in Alpha-2 until open-sea content is implemented.^[36]

Operators of a ship's weapons platform can initiate naval PvP against another ship in the following cases.^[29]

The result of events (such as guild wars or node wars) between the parties.^[29]
As the result of open-world PvP, utilizing the flagging and corruption system.^[29]

Arenas

Pre-alpha arena combat footage from PAX West 2017.

Pre-alpha arenas.^[114]

Arenas are instanced PvP scenarios and are not part of open world PvP.^[115]^[116]

The arena system as we've spoken about before is going to have ladder systems where people can progress within certain seasons based on their win/loss ratios. The importance of arenas are obviously that players have an opportunity to participate [and] practice out certain builds from a PvP perspective and can compete with one another within the system.^[115] – Steven Sharif

Arenas will have 1 man, 3 man, 5 man, 8 man, and possibly 20 man Free-For-All (Deathmatch) group sizes.^[117]^[118]
- There won't specifically be guild vs guild arenas but team-based matchmaking allows teams to face other teams.^[119]
Arenas will have a minimum level requirement to participate.^[120]
There won't be bifurcated brackets with separate player pools.^[120]
There might be some form of an ELO system that gets flushed on a seasonal basis.^[120]
There will be an arena ladder system.^[115]^[118]
- Rewards for arena ladders will be revealed at a later time.^[121]
- Titles can be received from arena play.^[122]
- Arena points that can be used to buy gear are not currently in the design.^[122]
Mayors of military nodes are chosen from citizens through last man standing (gladiatorial arena style) combat.^[123]^[122]
The arena system may support cross-server combat.^[124]
Arena style combat is instanced but spectators may be possible through an interface.^[125]

PvE

Alpha-1 Elder Dragon of the Tundra raid boss.^[126]

The environment in Ashes of Creation is a visually stunning realm, with fantastical beasts and creations designed to both inspire awe and instill fear. The world is harsh and unforgiving, presenting a clear and present danger to the players. Dungeons, demons and dragons, oh MY! Our unique and adaptive AI means that an encounter with similar creatures will yield a completely different experience to adapt to as a player. Keeping you on your toes for constantly changing responses from your adversary. The world awaits its heroes.^[17]

Elder Dragon of the Wood raid boss gameplay.^[127]

Whenever you have a player versus environment setting you don't want a stagnant overly repetitive because its lackluster. It does not have that a component that engages.^[128] – Steven Sharif

The Node system facilitates the generation of new PvE content such as Quests, Dungeons, Raids and Monster coins.^[19]

There is going to be a lot of PvE content for all portions of the playerbase... Part of that risk versus reward: Your risk is your time you're putting in to having a chance at getting the reward and successfully completing; and that should feel good based on how much time you devote. Now I know that there's a spectrum of casual and hard-core players in the time there, what we can do, but that's why we have many different content paths that play towards how you affect the world around you.^[129] – Steven Sharif

PvE content adapts to the development of the world to avoid repetition.^[128]

Quests

Alpha-1 early quest user interface.^[130]

Questing in our world combines the best elements of traditional MMO’s as well as the introduction of our unique player driven experiences. Ashes of Creation offers area quests, public quests, and quest chains that change dynamically and in real time based on the player’s experiences and choices. Players will have the ability to directly alter world events and change the landscape through their actions, as an individual and as a community. Server quests will allow political rivals to compete for the fate of the world.^[17]

Alpha-2 quest journal user interface early preview.^[131]

We actually used the journal as one of our test cases for the style guide because it's a very complex screen. There's a lot of things that are going on, where we have different tiers of story arcs that might be available for players; and so we wanted to make sure the color denoted different information for them. We also have iconography to support that as well; and we have a little bit of a twist on what a traditional quest system would be like. With these story arcs we wanted to make sure that it was organized in a familiar way, but also something that supported all of the designs needs.^[132] – Colby Marchi

Quests in Ashes of Creation are divided into three main categories: Events, Commissions, and Story arc quests.^[133]^[134]^[135]^[136]

All three categories of quests will be available from a variety of local, hidden and discovered sources, such as commissions boards and NPC quest givers.^[133]^[137]

The various questing systems are intended to direct player activity toward content that affects the development of the world.^[138]

Nodes act as a hub; and one of the ways they direct player traffic is obviously through the commissions, the buy orders, things that essentially are supplying that demand of activity or action from the player; and then what the players choose to do is essentially the agency that's provided in helping to dictate how the world state will change.^[138] – Steven Sharif

Every type of quest can be shared with other players in the same party. This may be tuned based on Alpha-2 testing.^[139]^[140]
- Story arc quests and events can be shared within a raid group.^[141]
- Other types of quests, or commissions, if allowed within a raid group, may be selectively distributed with members of that raid.^[141] For example: kill objectives may be shared, but drop objectives may go to the first member looting the drop.^[142]

If we do allow progression within narrative systems like a quest or commission, I think that's going to be distributed based on the number of raid or party participants. So, killing a particular monster is not going to get everybody a check mark on their progress towards killing 20. It's going to be one person's going to get that progression; and then it'll continue to the next person and so on and so forth. If we're talking about some questlines, like story arcs or events that have phases, or that have overall participation by many members then that progress can be shared at a party raid level. So there's different settings depending on what objective there is within a quest. Some of them will share, some of them will be distributed.^[141] – Steven Sharif

Certain quests, such as story arc quests, may not be able to be turned in after a node has advanced or has been destroyed.^[143]

Dialog choices within the quest UI are intended to affect gameplay, such as unlocking side quests and storylines.^[144]

Q: Will dialogue choices have any impact on the quests in regards to how NPCs respond to you or the overall outcome of that quest, or is it more just a role-playing perspective without any major impact?

A: No. The dialogue choices are intended to provide an impact, both with the response of the NPC, it might also serve as predicates for other systems. If there are certain paths chosen within the dialogue tree it might unlock different side arcs and story lines that other players may not experience. The dialogue trees are not meaningless. They're meant to provide gameplay related context.^[144] – Steven Sharif

Questing is placeholder until Alpha-2.^[145]^[146]

Dungeons

Dünzenkell Crypt open-world Dünir dungeon in Alpha-1.^[147]

Half the problem won't just be solving the dungeon, it will be solving other players too.^[148] – Jeffrey Bard

Alpha-0 Dünir Dünheim dungeon design by Michael Bacon.^[149]^[150]

Dungeons in Ashes of Creation will range in size and will be mostly open-world.^[151]^[152]^[153]^[154]

Open world dungeons will be populated to facilitate multiple groups within the dungeon.^[152]^[148]
- 80% of dungeons will be open world.^[155]^[156]
Instanced dungeons will also be present and will cater for solo and group questlines.^[148]
- 20% of dungeons will be instanced.^[155]^[156]
- Some boss rooms (within larger encounters) will be instanced.^[151]
- Instances will either be individual or party instances, and in rare cases raid instances.^[152]
- Instanced dungeons and raids will utilize room locks or other mechanisms that restricts the encounter to its target audience.^[151]

Different tiers and types of dungeon content will be more or less relevant to specific groups or class compositions.^[157]^[152]^[158]

Grand dungeons are expected to have more playable space and unique creature types than pocket dungeons.^[157]

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!"^[152] – Steven Sharif

Dungeon difficulty will increase the further a player ventures into a dungeon.^[159]
Mobs and mob mechanics will become more difficult.^[159]
Terrain and environmental dangers will increase.^[159]

Deeper darker types of interactions will be found deeper in the dungeon.^[159] – 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.^[160] – Steven Sharif

There were 13 dungeons in Alpha-1.^[161] Originally this was estimated to be 6 or 7.^[162]

Raids

Alpha-1 Brood Queen raid boss.^[163]

Entering an Alpha-1 open-world raid.^[164]

Raids will either be based on triggered events or more traditional systems. Traditional world bosses will change based on node development.^[165]

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.^[166] – Steven Sharif

The majority of raids in Ashes of Creation are open-world.^[151]^[152]^[153]^[154] Only a minority of raids will be instanced.^[152]
- Some boss rooms (within larger encounters) will be instanced.^[151]
- Instanced dungeons and raids will utilize room locks or other mechanisms that restricts the encounter to its target audience.^[151]

World bosses

Alpha-1 preview Sorrow's Hunger world boss in the Underrealm.^[167]

World bosses will spawn at variable locations at variable times.^[168]^[169]^[170]
- Bosses may also spawn based on predicates that can be met at any time, such as when a story arc or an event begins somewhere in the world.^[168]^[170]
- Some world bosses and elite mobs will path/roam throughout the world.^[168]^[171]

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.^[169] – Steven Sharif

World and regional bosses will scale based on the types, locations, and progression of nodes.^[172]^[173]
- The level or stats of bosses will not scale due to player levels or numbers, however boss AI is able to adapt to player numbers through the selection of mechanics and behaviors.^[174]^[175]^[172]^[176]^[177]

Some world bosses will have stages of progression, such as defeating acolytes, then lieutenants, then generals, then the world boss itself.^[178]
- At each stage there is increasing difficulty. This may be parsed out into different time periods and be behind a wall of development.^[178]

A single digit percentage of the population will be capable of defeating certain content.^[178]
There will be ancillary effects that happen as a result of downing certain world bosses.^[179]
- This can positively impact the land management in that area.^[180]

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.^[7]^[8]^[9]^[10]^[11]