Node experience

Nodes gain experience each day from citizen and non-citizen player activity, such as questing, gathering resources, raiding and interacting with services within their ZOI.

• Node experience gained leads to advancement the node to the next node stage, which unlocks unique content, and locks out an increasing ring of neighboring nodes from advancing.

• Node atrophy is subtracted from experience gains each day. Any deficit remaining can lead to services within the node being progressively diminished or disabled.

• Vassal nodes first apply any experience (from themselves or their own vassals) to their own atrophy deficit. Any excess experience beyond the cap is then applied to their parent node.

When the vassal reaches its cap it overflows experience up to the parent; and so it can be very good early on for parents to get vassal nodes that are very productive- that have a lot of traffic. – Steven Sharif

• Node experience gains will be equitable across the four node types.

Node advancement

Alpha-2 node leveling countdown.

Experience gained by each node counts toward that node's advancement (progression) to a higher node stage. Node advancement unlocks unique content, and locks out an increasing ring of neighboring nodes from progressing to the next stage.

• Nodes advance to the first stage quickly. This enables NPC services such as vending or banking items.
• The more advanced the node is, the larger its ZOI becomes.

• Vassal nodes must remain capped at least one node stage below their regent/parent node.
  • Neighboring/Adjacent nodes from Expedition (stage 1) upward block the growth of their immediate neighbors. This was intended to be tested in Alpha-1.
  • If the regent node advances, the vassal is once again able to advance.
  • The vassal system begins when a node hits Village (stage 3), but neighboring nodes starting from Expedition (stage 1) also block the growth of their immediate neighbors.

• Certain quests, such as story arcs, may not be able to be turned in after a node has advanced.
• The territory expansion algorithm takes into account the nearest coast, neighboring nodes, and the heatmap of players in surrounding areas over the last weeks or month.
  • Due to the way the progression algorithm calculates territorial (ZOI) expansion during node advancement, there is a small possibility that two nodes of the same stage end up being close to each other.

The way that the algorithm expands the territories takes into account a few things: One it takes into account the coast like where's the closest coast. Two it takes into account the neighboring nodes so it can take over and essentially vassal state those nodes, but what's more important is essentially the initial population based on like how players choose their races. Because we have nine different races and four different starting points that branch out, each server's population density is going to dictate essentially the first few nodes that are highly populated and then that initial seed is what's going to determine the node structure as it moves inland into the into the world essentially; and based on the performance and successes of different sieges will determine which nodes that got locked out from the previous the initial advancements what nodes can now be available to advance further. So I really think that with so many variables that are present in the equation of how nodes advance and stay existing with the more variables you have, the higher likelihood there is for there to be a significant diversion in world progression. – Steven Sharif

Normally the algorithm that's applied to the node territorial expansion will prevent significant nodes from being in close proximity to each other... There could be a perfect storm where all of the algorithmic progression of territory leads to having these nodes very close to each other because there's certain requirements that should that need to be available to satisfy node vassal takeovers; and it's possible that two nodes would never take each other over as vassals and end up close together and spanning their territories in opposite directions: The Tale of Two Cities thing. – Steven Sharif

• Citizens of one node can contribute to the advancement of other nodes.

• The exact percentage of advancement from obtaining items or killing monsters is not going to be explicitly known to avoid "gaming" the system.

Different people have different resources invested in nodes progressing and it would be a little "gamey" if you could know exactly what was necessary at that point because that would disincentivize people from participating. – Steven Sharif

• Node advancement spawns a series of animations and visual effects (within the footprint of the node).
  • Players within the node are teleported to a safe location, likely a respawn area near the node.
  • Supplies will spawn around the node and system driven caravans are spawned to bring these supplies into the node. These caravans are not able to be attacked.
  • NPCs will begin construction activities.
  • Players outside the node will see the new facade of the node pop into existence as the node advances in stage.

The Development Area of a Node is where civilization will appear as the Node advances. As the Node Stage increases, different buildings, NPCs, and services will become available in the Development Area. The higher the Node Stage, the more complex and populated the Development Area becomes. Development Areas will also vary depending on the Node Type - Economic, Military, Scientific, or Divine. – Margaret Krohn

Node atrophy

Node atrophy (based on the stage of a node) is subtracted from the total experience nodes gain each day. Any deficit remaining can lead to services within the node being progressively diminished or disabled.

Q: What are the systems for node atrophy and will materials be required for upkeep?

A: Node atrophy again is another system that we quite haven't yet implemented. However, what's intended for that system is: as players participate in doing things that build up a node, whether that be participating in experience gain, or fights around the city, acquiring resources, interacting with the services of the city, whatever it is: If players do less and less of that over time the experience of the node will start to degrade. Services within the node may start to become inactive. You may start to get certain buildings that become inaccessible as a result of that atrophy type system, which again will just continue to perpetuate the already existing problem, which is player traffic and activity within the node, making it weaker and more susceptible to potential siege, which is the way by which we remove nodes from the world. – Steven Sharif

• Node atrophy does not delevel or destroy nodes, but it makes them more vulnerable to player initiated node sieges. Previous design concepts were that nodes could delevel or even disappear based on accumulated atrophy.

See also

• Node progression
• Service buildings
• Node sieges