Node footprints

Node cork viewed from above by Steven Sharif.

That node cork is actually what allows us to change terrain in real time and it's necessary for the node. We actually will use this tech across a lot of different portions of the world in order to dynamically adjust content that we want to see. – Steven Sharif

River template node cork viewed from above.

This type of node is what's called a 'River template', which means that anytime we have rivers within the node infrastructure that might be utilized for certain types of activities, such as caravan completion via the river routes- because you can just sail straight on in. There are many different node cork types. – Steven Sharif

A node's footprint is the development area where a node's buildings are located. This is referred to by the developers as a plug, a platform, or a cork.

• The size of a node's footprint is fixed at ~1 km². This area does not change throughout all stages of a node's advancement. The node's layout is centered on the footprint, but additional components can spawn outside of this area, including outposts and NPC havens. The footprint area did not change as a result of the decreased node count.

The node system functions on a part of the world terrain that we essentially utilize that's a "plug" and the reason why it's a plug in the terrain is because that we change aspects of that terrain as the node advances; and so that plug has a defined size; and it's essentially a 1 kilometer by 1 kilometer space. So, anything that's going to progress within the node proper is going to exist within that plug. Now, that's talking about city layout. There are obviously components of a Metropolis or of a City, for that matter, that can spawn off of the plug. Those can be small outposts. Those can be little NPC havens. Those can be hooks within narrative systems that live surrounding the node as well. So, not everything has to live on the plug per-se, but that space is not going to get larger for the node proper than that 1k by 1k space. – Steven Sharif

• Nodes adjust the local topography around the node's footprint to fit the aesthetic and mechanical requirements of the node.

Currently the way that the platform system is set up, is it's capable of adjusting the topography of the node's footprint, regardless of the surrounding terrain. So the reason for that is we want to have flexibility in the presentation of the node's layout and how it is essentially both from an aesthetic standpoint as well as a mechanical standpoint with node sieges- how it's constructed and that construction should have the ability to take on a variance of different types of topography. So it shouldn't be dependent on the surrounding area. Now that's not to say that the surrounding area isn't going to have some influence over. So for example... we're experimenting a little bit with the platform tech and putting up a node up against the side of a mountain or on the edge of a cliff or something that has a beautiful vista. Those are things that we're going to test out obviously as we continue to work on the node tool and how that platform system works, but the idea is to have the node independent of the surrounding terrain. – Steven Sharif

• There will be multiple node footprint templates.
  • In Alpha-2 phase-2 there are currently two node footprint layouts, as of early March 2025: The Winstead node layout and the Miraleth node layout. Over time additional layouts will be added to encompass a wide variety of visual representations.

Q: Six years ago you posted a dev diary talking about the node system tool that allows for modular procedural cities that feel unique. Now there's only two or three different node layouts in the game up to stage three, in total. If the intention is for no two identical nodes, then Ashes of Creation would need 510 different node layouts across all node levels and that's not even considering the racial building variances. Can you talk about how you can achieve this level of node variation and is the procedural nodes tool still being developed? If so, what phase of development can we start to see it being tested in game?

A: We had this approach for the node tool and we had to rewrite that approach for that node tool; and the reason for that was because there are certain siege constraints and considerations that unfortunately were not being adhered to with a highly proceduralized tool within the node proper, creating an inequitable amount of siege tactic considerations for that tool's implementation. So, as a result we've redirected the tool to a more cell-based approach, which will take into account these node layouts as you describe them. Now we have two that are implemented in game. We have what we call the Winstead node node layout and we have the Miraleth node layout; and the node tool facilitates the design team and the environment team to populate many different types of node layouts. We define spaces where buildings exist within the node layout tool, but we maintain the basic siege constraints and requirements, even within each of those node layouts; and that exists on a node template; and the template relates to the cork. This is a cork that could live on the side of a peninsula, on the edge of a cliff with a river running through the middle of it, whatever type of geographical feature is part of the cork design that's the template in which the layout exists upon. So, right now our focus has not been diversity- visual diversity for these nodes, it has been more around the fundamental core mechanics of the node structure. We're okay with living with "samey samey" node structures within the world because really the node game is focused around specialization, building types that you construct, and services that get offered as a result of those specialization choices. And as the relics come online and as our policies come online for Mayors to interact with and players to vote on, those types of systems, the guts of the systems development is what makes the game very interesting. And complementary to that are the visuals: the layouts and designs. So we have the tool from a production standpoint in place and ready to facilitate lots of different layouts and lots of designs, but our focus has been to continue node progression. Right now we're working on node stage 4, which is a Town stage and that's all about developing the building sets for the town and it's all about developing the unique building types that can be constructed to facilitate those specialization of services; and then we'll get around to making sure to author additional node layouts so that we have a wide variety of visual representation of these nodes. The other thing to keep in mind is that the layout is one one thing of it. The other side of that coin is also the building sets that are used meant to reflect the culture. So right now we only have the Kaelar culture being represented within the game, which again contributes to that samey samey look; but once we've established the node progression to higher levels, that's when the environment team goes back and likely will outsource some additional prop development and building set developments to represent those different cultures that will sell a more distinct visual identity for these spaces. – Steven Sharif

Node layout

Racial architecture of the same Village (stage 3) node on different server realms. Dünir Dwarven influence (top). Kaelar Human influence (bottom). Alpha-1 Non-NDA screenshot.

The layout and architecture within a Node’s development area are determined by influential race. For example, a stage 3 Node with the majority of player contribution being Py'rai would have a Py'rai village with Py'rai architecture. Most NPCs would be Py'rai elves, and offer questlines within the Py'rai narrative. – Margaret Krohn

Each player’s contributed experience is flagged with their character race and other identifiers. When a Node advances, the race with the highest experience contribution determines the Node’s style and culture. This style and culture change can happen at every Node Stage. For example, if a Node advances to Level 2 - Encampment Stage and 51% of all experience was earned by Ren’Kai players, the Node will be a Level 2 Ren’Kai Node. If that same Node advances to a Level 3 - Village Stage Node, but the Py'Rai contributed 62% of all the experience earned, then the Node will be a Level 3 Py'Rai Node. – Margaret Krohn

Node layout and style is determined by several factors:

The way that the node system is built is that they can exist across a spread of 18 biomes, but at the same time have to represent the cultural influence of these cultures that are intrinsically a part of a specific biome. – Steven Sharif

• Environment (biome) and location of the node.
  • A node's footprint is a 1 km² development area where a node's buildings are located. Nodes can adjust the local topography of their footprint to fit the aesthetic and mechanical requirements of the node.

• Node type.

Some parts are determined by the area it's in. Some parts are determined by the type it is. Some parts are determined by the race it is; and then the rest of it is determined by the mayor. – Jeffrey Bard

• Race that contributed the highest percentage to the node's advancement will alter the racial appearance of its buildings, NPCs, props, and narrative systems.
  • Parent races do not combine their cultural influences. For example, Py'Rai and Empyrean count as different cultures. Their parent race, the Pyrian, no longer exists.
  • This style and culture change happens at every stage.
  • This applies to all nodes, including castle nodes.

All nodes, whether they're associated with a castle or associated with normal node structure, has cultural influences that replicate over to the buildings that are produced and the NPCs that are present. – Steven Sharif

• The rest is determined by the node's mayor.
  • It should be possible for a node to complete several building projects within a mayor's one month term in office.

Node buildings

Alpha-2 Service buildings.

The important thing with the service building system for us is that it's a way to shape your node like a character; and to give you an exclusive niche that you can carve out in the world; or a niche that you fight over. If you go down this weaponsmithing path and you build your node to be this mecca of weaponsmithing and the node three doors down builds it, there's reason for you to conflict over it. They're taking your business. Or maybe you are in a zone and there isn't a weaponsmithing thing anywhere near you, and you do want to start to carve that path for yourself to make your node a place people visit and come to. – Chris Justo

Service buildings within a node are either default buildings that come with the node, or they are constructed buildings, which are initiated by the mayor and built by players. Service buildings are further broken down into two main types:

• Active service buildings are service buildings that players directly interact with. These are further broken down into Artisanship, Business, Magic, Player housing, and Political categories.
• Passive service buildings provide passive benefits to the node or its zone of influence. These buildings are broken down into Civic, Cultural, Fabrication, Scholarly, and Vocational.

Constructed service buildings are available to every type of node in every location. Where the uniqueness comes in is in some of the default buildings like your node-type building. – Chris Justo

Service buildings are upgraded by expansions, which are unlocked through the placement of passive service buildings.

• Building expansions unlock higher tier workstations at the cost of dedicating service building plots.

• Node service building expansions specialize the building through a tech tree based on the stage of the node.

Service buildings incur a regular maintenance cost of node commodities and gold from the node treasury in order to continue operations.

Node count

There will be 85 regular node locations at launch with 15 additional castle nodes (5 castles x 3 castle nodes each) for a total of 100 nodes.

• Previously the developers estimated 103 regular node locations with 15 additional castle nodes for a total of 118 nodes.
  • This decrease in node count does not affect the amount of available player housing, or the estimated server capacity.
  • Node footprints have not changed as a result of the decreased node count.

We have moved from a 103 nodes to 85 nodes; and there's a few reasons for that. One, when we were doing the calculations behind how- in Alpha 2 and in the game- we want these vassal structures to exist, we had more nodes than what felt meaningful and we wanted to condense some of that those curated story arcs and hooks into the environment and realm around the areas to be more bountiful at a lesser node value: meaning bringing down the node count so that we can increase the richness of each of those nodes more than what was at 103. – Steven Sharif

• There were 9 node locations in Alpha-1.
• Node locations are subject to change prior to Beta-1.

Visuals

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  2025-01-14
• 2025-01-04

See also

• Node buildings
• Node advancement
• Nodes