Node layout and style

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 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 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.

Unique node buildings

Alpha-1 Node buildings.

Each node type has a unique service building associated with it that can be activated at Village (stage 3) of node advancement. The unique building plays a central role in the progress of civilization for a server realm.

Node building destruction

Destructible castle.

You could be more precision oriented in the decision to attack a city. Let's say it's a rival node that's trying to reach a node stage five or something and you want to disable their ability for the religious system to progress so you target the temple during the attack, or you want to disable their scholars academy from reaching a higher level so that your nodes can; or you want to disable multiple buildings that allow for experience and quests to be undertaken by its citizenship, which prevents them from keeping up in pace of experience gained with your node. These can be more precision oriented and don't have to effectualize an actual takeover of the node. – Steven Sharif

Node buildings (including player housing) have hit points and can be damaged or destroyed by different systems.

• NPC-driven events that are a response to story arcs or node atrophy.
• Node sieges and node wars.
  • Attackers may not be capable of destroying a node during a siege. Instead they may carry out precision attacks to disable specific service-oriented buildings within the node. These buildings can be targeted with siege weapons and bombs.
• Hazardous events such as tornadoes or hurricanes.
• Mayors have the ability to demolish constructed node buildings. This will have a node mandate cost and will require player buy-in via a vote.

Mayors will also have the ability, if they want, to demolish constructed buildings. So if they if they so choose they can destroy a building if they don't think it's needed anymore. But this will have mandate cost and a player buy-in votes. So we want to make sure that [the] mayor can't just go and blow up the whole node if they're trying to grief or something. So this is very important and impactful decision. – John Collins

If building maintenance is not paid, or a building is damaged as the result of an event or siege, the building will enter a state of disarray. Any NPCs or services offered by that building will not be available until the building is repaired.

• Players must contribute materials to repair disarrayed buildings and restore them to an operational state.

If a node siege is successful, or if buildings otherwise take significant damage, they are destroyed and appear as rubble on the plot they occupied.

• Node leadership must clear any rubble on plots before any buildings can be reconstructed. Any prerequisites for the building reconstruction must be satisfied beforehand.

  Buildings also live within a prerequisite system. So in order to build down the tech tree of what these buildings provide, as the node grows larger to access stronger building types, you may get a kink in that chain if it's destroyed and you'll have to stand that back up in order to support the service again. – Steven Sharif

• If the node is destroyed by a node siege, the debris field will contain spoils that are lootable by attackers or defenders.
  • Player housing that is destroyed during a node siege can no longer be sold. Furnishing and decorations are retained and can be placed again later.

Node progression

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.

Q: How long would you say it will take players on average to fill/build up a node completely from wilderness to metropolis?

A: It's one thing to get a node to a certain level: it's another thing to develop the node; and I can't really give you an on-average expectation, because there's a lot of variables at play. There's how many citizens does the node have attracted to it; what's the type of traffic that the node is attracting to it based on things like its tax rates, or the specialization that it chose to spec into, based on the building types it's chosen to build. All of those things are variables that can affect the quote-unquote "average build-out time" of a particular node. So it's difficult to give you an average when there's so many variables along those lines. But the idea is that if there is a particular project that players are interested in in developing based on the node stage, that they would have the ability to complete several of those projects as within a single term of a mayor; and a term of a mayor is one month. – Steven Sharif

• 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.

• Nodes will have an XP counter starting in Alpha-2 phase-3. 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 redevelopment

A node that was successfully destroyed by a node siege may develop differently due to the following influences:

• Different races becoming primary contributors.
• Design elements determined by different governments.
• Reactions and interactions with other nodes in the world.

Artistic style

Jungle biome concept art.

I want to make sure that we distinguish between what style is and what graphical fidelity is, because they're two different things. Ashes goes more towards a realistic style. We're not a highly stylized game. We don't have a lot of heavy saturated colors and whimsical designs that are just exaggerated. We try to be more on the realistic side. Not ultra realism, but a bit more on the realistic side. – Steven Sharif

Ashes of Creation is a high-fantasy game with a high graphical fidelity. It will not be too stylized or "cartoony".

When we talk about the art style of Ashes, our focus is more on the realism side than it is on heavily saturated colors or highly exaggerated shapes. So, we're not going to be a World of Warcraft environment when it comes to the visuals of the game. That won't change. But, if we're talking about signature fantasy theming, if we're talking about iconic style that we could point to and say, "That's Ashes of Creation, I recognize that." Those elements will be coming online as we continue down the content creation path towards prop sets that are uniquely identifying of different player factions and NPC factions in the world. We may introduce elements of high fantasy type characters as assistant NPC races within nodes, within playable environments. Obviously we have a wide range of mounts that exist within the world as well that are signature style. As well with- we get into different biomes and we see unique foliage types, or in the desert you have unique pink trees that are in the desert location, or the large crystals that are incorporated into the rock faces. Those types of fantasy elements are going to be more pronounced as we continue to refine the world and grow them. – Steven Sharif

• More signature fantasy elements are intended to be introduced into the game over time.

I'm not a big fan of highly stylized art. – Steven Sharif

• The game will not have steampunk elements.

It's not to say that people can't do steampunk well. I've enjoyed some steampunk stuff. I'm a very high fantasy oriented type of storyteller; and the inspiration for Ashes obviously comes from my pathfinder campaigns that I ran long ago; and those are always set in a high fantasy world. So it just compromises what I believe is the perspective of the storytelling in the environment. – Steven Sharif

• Intrepid Studios does not use AI for art production.

We do not use AI for production, except in unique internal cases when communicating fast reference material. – Steven Sharif

Artistic influences

Asian influenced Ren'Kai architecture.

Character races are super important. These are the choices that we make at the onset of our adventure in an MMORPG: what race- not just mechanically aligns with our decisions, if those races have game mechanics behind them from a stat perspective, but visually and culturally and historically: What are these? What do these races represent? So it's important that visually they're distinct. And everyone's seen fantasy games do Elves, so everyone's seen them do Humans, everyone's seen them do Orcs: There's an established expectation almost behind what these traditional fantasy races represent; and there's a risk, because whenever you're creating a new IP or a new story or a new world- a new Universe; a realm in which things don't have to always be the norm, you can take a little bit of creative liberty to redefine some of the aspects of a particular race; and that can be a good thing, because it's something that is new to players. It's something that is unique to the realm that we're building- the surroundings that you have. So what we wanted to do was push a little bit more on the unique side of what the Py'rai would look like from a visual perspective. – Steven Sharif

• Aelan architecture has a French medieval influence. Lion iconography is a core feature of Aelan history.
• Dünir have a Nordic cultural influence.
• Empyreans have a Greco-Roman imperialistic feeling.
• The Kaelar have a European influence.
• The Niküa have a Polynesian influence.
• The Py'Rai have a Navajo Native American influence. Py'Rai architecture has a woodland inspiration.
• Pyrian architecture has a Greco-Roman influence.
• Ren'Kai architecture has an Asian influence.
• The Vaelune have a Middle Eastern influence.
• The Vek have a Mesoamerican influence.

You will see in the different races that are available from a player character standpoint a lot of different influences that reflect many cultures in the world: Not just European, not just Africa, not Mesoamerican. These cultures are going to be present in many of the races. – Steven Sharif

The idea is just to find a base component in the real world as a starting point and then to begin to fantasize. – Steven Sharif

Visuals

• 2025-01-04
• 

  2021-07-09

See also

• Architecture
• Node advancement
• Node destruction
• Progression
• Racial influences