Node policies
Jump to navigation
Jump to search
Node policies.[1][2]
Nodes have a number of slots that they get to employ as Government policies that are enacted and chosen by the mayor and voted on by the people; and certain policies get unlocked by certain happiness states of the factions within the node; and those happiness states are predicated across different achievements that can happen in the world story arcs that get finished; bosses that get killed around you; new buildings that get constructed: Lots of different things can contribute to that happiness value: Number of citizens; number of citizens you've had leave; number of houses that might have been foreclosed upon. There's lots of different things that influence it, but when the happiness is met at a certain point- and even without that happiness you can still have policies that you get to enact regardless. You may choose policies that do certain things for the node; and this is a big strategic decision that the node has to almost agree on because it's voted on by the citizens within a short time period, but elected by the outstanding mayor; and when you deploy a policy it confers benefits to the citizens, or to the area, or to specific buildings, or to the mayor.[3] – Steven Sharif
Node policies affect a variety of node functions, such as taxes and fees, building and zone buffs, and node-to-node reputation activities, such as trade agreements, and node wars.[4][1][2]
- The intent is that there are varying degrees of influence that are very powerful depending on the policy that we're talking about, depending on the mandates that the Mayors exert in order to utilize those policies.[4] – Steven Sharif
- Mayors propose node policies that are voted on by citizens within a 24-hour or shorter time period.[1][2][3][5]
- Policies are voted in if the majority of voters approve of them.[6]
- Mayors can utilize their available mandates to bypass policy votes.[1][2][7]
- Mayors may also be able to take emergency actions depending on certain predicates that get met. This might allow them to reduce the voting threshold or voting time for policies.[6][3]
- There are a limited number of policy slots available to be proposed.[1][2] Some policies occupy multiple slots.[3]
- Node policies that are deployed will provide benefits to various aspects of the node, its citizens, its ZOI, its vassals (in some cases), specific buildings, and to its mayor.[6][3]
- Certain policies may affect the visual appearance of the node.[8]
- Some of the benefits you can receive by being a vassal of a certain parent is access to a policy that your node not might not normally have access to; and in fact you can also unlock an additional policy slot based on certain conditions that the parent or Sovereign node may have access to in their reliquary, or in their achievement systems, or in policies that they've elected. Some policies occupy multiple slots and it's almost like a card structure. You have each of these policies that live on a card and you get to select that card- throw it into the slot it goes out to the citizens to vote on within the 24-hour or sometimes shorter period. The mayor has emergency actions they can take right depending on certain predicates that get met and if an emergency action occurs they may be able to spend their influence as mayor within their term to set up a policy for a vote within an hour's period of time; and citizens in that way they can sneak it through a bit.[3] – Steven Sharif
Policies are unlocked by various conditions within a node.[1][2][3][5]
- Node level.[1][2]
- Node type.[1][2]
- Dominant node race.[1][2][3]
- Building choices.[1][2][3]
- Location of the node.[1][2]
- Events, such as node wars and node sieges.[6][1][2]
- Node happiness.[1][2][9][10]
- Achievements based on the completion of story arcs.[3]
- World bosses that are defeated.[3]
- Node citizens gained (or lost).[3]
- Node housing foreclosed upon.[3]
- There's a lot of different things that policies can influence; and policies exist within certain denominations. You have some policies that might be reflective of the culture that the node is representing; and you get access to those cultural policies. You have some policies that might become available because you've constructed a certain building type and now you've attracted a guild of NPCs that are weapons smiths. You might have some policies that are social organizations representative- you only get to build one social organization or Temple: which religion does the node follow. All of these are customization points that the city gets to choose and now you as a citizen get to identify the city that best aligns with your progression within the game and your game style and gameplay.[3] – Steven Sharif
Mayors
Depiction of a mayor.[11]
Mayors have a unique ability to elicit change within the node proper, either through the destruction of certain buildings that have been constructed previously, because there's a limited number of slots that buildings can be constructed within, or the kickoff of additional projects, or the certain types of policies that can be enacted, like... the changing of a tax rate. They all have a unified source of energy requirement and the energy requirement is a mandate.[7] – Steven Sharif
Mayors are chosen through different election methods according to the node's type.[12][13][14]
- Only node citizens may be elected mayor.[15]
- Only one citizenship may be declared per account, per server realm.[15][16]
- Mayoral leadership powers are granted via the use of mandates. These are designed to limit the ability for Mayors to grief their node.[17][7][18]
- Mayors won't be able to delegate their powers, but there are other node leadership roles with different duties, responsibilities, and privileges.[19][20][21]
- Previous mayors won't have any special system driven bonuses to help them get reelected.[22]
- Kings and Queens can also become a mayors.[15]
- Q: What stops a player from renouncing their node citizenship of an enemy node then bidding on your economic node mayoral election just to grief it after they get elected?
- A: That sounds like a strategy! There are obviously going to be certain mechanics that when a mayor engages with its node, requires buy-in from the citizenship. So, the mayor is going to have a certain amount of mandate energy and that mandate energy can be spent on promoting certain policies, electing certain buildings to be constructed, choosing, certain trade agreements and alliances; and many of those things require the citizenship to buy in, through either voting or engaging with those systems to determine whether or not the mayor can successfully do those things. So there's a bit of a relationship between what the citizenship wants and what the mayor wants.[17] – Steven Sharif
- Players will be able to view a historical listing of mayors of a node.[23]
Mayoral leadership powers
Alpha-2 Mayoral node UI Alpha-2 screenshot. Image credit: PirateSoftware.
The government has a lot of say in the direction of the node's development. Directing assets, building projects, tax allocation, defensive ability etc. Players have the ability to not only create these cities, but they have the right of self-governance.[24]
Alpha-2 Mayoral node UI Smithy building upgrade notification.Alpha-2 screenshot. Image credit: User:Sol
Mayoral leadership powers are granted to mayors via the use of mandates.[7][18] Mayors are not able to delegate these powers to other players.[19]
- Initiate buy orders using gold from the node treasury.[1][25][26][27]
- Initiate mayoral commissions to aid node development.[1][28][26][7][5][24]
- Adjust node taxes.[1][7][29] This includes setting tax rates that apply to tavern games.[30][31]
- Tax money may only be used to fund node development.[32]
- Initiate service building construction and expansions.[1][7]
- Improving node defensive structures, such as stronger walls and gates, traps, and siege equipment.[5][33][34][35][24]
- Hiring mercenary NPCs to defend the node during sieges.[36][24]
- Declaring war on another node and rallying citizens to the cause.[37][5][38]
- Resources are required to declare a node war. These are able to be gathered through special mayoral commissions relating to war preparations.[37]
- We don't want mayors running around in Ashes of Creation just perma flagging the whole world into a state of PvP, well it's going to cost you some resources to do that.[37] – Chris Justo
- Node relics can be activated or deactivated by Mayors via a Relic management UI.[39]
- Set a message-of-the-day for the node.[40]
- Proposing node policies that are voted on by citizens.[2][3][5]
- Mayors won't have formal systems to carry out surveys/polls of node citizens, but they will be able to utilize node citizen chat or message-of-the-day services.[40]
- Mayors may have special color names in node chat channels.[40]
- Entering into trade agreements and defining routes between nodes.[41][1][2][38]
- Initiating Mayoral caravans to trade node commodities with other nodes in exchange for service building upgrades and bespoke buffs.[42][43][44][45][27]
- Mayors cannot denote players as enemies of the state.[47][48] Previously this was a potential option.[38][49]
- Nodes aren't meant to gatekeep other players who are not citizens of your node from interfacing with your node. Traffic to your node, fees that are associated with utilizing the node services that get applied to non-citizens are directly contributing and helping your node advance by filling your coffers.[47] – Steven Sharif
- Mayors are notified when their node is named on a siege declaration scroll.[50]
- The mayoral title unlocks special high-effect abilities and stats during sieges, wars, and events.[51][52][53]
- Mayors and lords of castles have spells they can use on the battlefield with high effect and long cooldowns for their teams.[52]
- Mayors gain new powers and responsibilities as their node advances.[14]
- Some leadership powers are specific to node type, biome, or dominant race, others are universal.[55]
- There definitely are differences... Some of the things that mayors can do are more universal, but then some systems have very specific if your node has a certain dominant race, or your node is a certain type, or it's in a certain biome. So there's even differences between where it is too.[55] – Chris Justo
- If a mayor does not make certain decisions within a set period of time then the system will make a decision for them.[57][58]
- Q: The idea behind all these nodes are awesome, but I wonder how it will actually play out in the live version. The problem is having player run or the problem with having player run towns is that people come and go in video games. So, will towns die out etc?
- A: We incorporate as part of those designs certain fail-safes, certain protections, certain automated progression that takes over when some of those decisions are lacking or are not made; and those decisions can be defaulted. Now, of course, that would have a deleterious effect on the direction that a particular node might want to go, because they're going to be doing default behaviors, or default actions, as opposed to something that might be in line with the strategic objective of that particular node, or the specialization that the node has previously been attempting to do. But that is why we have a regularly recurring election period where players can take the reins of power and can elect someone else to come in and participate and re-right the ship, so to speak. So it is absolutely a component of having player-driven mechanics that there is an opportunity for things to be less than ideal, or less than strategic when certain bad-faith actors or people leave, but there are safeguards in place.[57] – Steven Sharif
Some of the following information has not been recently confirmed by the developers and may not be on the current development roadmap.
- Mayors and node governments use city hall to visualize and control activities within their node. These capabilities will also be available via mobile/web interface.[18]
Node-to-node reputation
- Node-to-node reputation can be affected by trade agreements and completing mayoral commissions.[64][1][28]
- Mayors are able to declare a node war on a node with a sufficiently low Node-to-node reputation score.[65]
- Mayors may attempt to utilize node mandates to perform actions that degrade reputation with another node, but these require buy-in from the node's citizenry.[66]
- Q: If two nodes are friendly towards each other but a new mayor wants to unilaterally start a war, how many mayoral cycles would it take for the new mayor to degrade node relations to the point that a war commission would become available?
- A: That's a very very good question. So, that includes a system that hasn't yet fully been implemented, which is our mandate power system; and mandates are essentially powers that the mayor will have available to them in order to enact certain policies; and some policies might make it possible for the mayor to degrade node relationships faster than would normally be available, but cost him more mandate power in order to enact those policies. Now this requires some level of buy-in from the citizenship: Not just the fact that he got elected, but these policies that get enabled will require some opt-in participation from the broader citizenship. And if then he is granted some of those emergency power acts that the policies provide. he could skip the standard degradation period or time in order to enact either a war event or some other type of adverse relationship type action with the node.[66]
- Node policies can be enacted by Mayors to increase node-to-node reputation gains.[3]
- At the beginning of Alpha-2 node diplomacy will primarily be conducted informally. More systems will be introduced throughout Alpha-2 that enable diplomatic relationships between nodes, such as trade agreements and routes between nodes.[41][1][2][38]
- Q: There seems to be many ways nodes can hurt each other through PvP means. Are there ways to hurt rival nodes without a direct PvP system or component?
- A: There are less straightforward ways to affect a node than PvP. Some of those ways can be through commissions that might help to degrade the reputation between nodes that have alliances or trade partnerships with each other. Some means might be through [the] land management system, where you can sap the resources of the surrounding area for the node, driving population away from that. [Some] might be through policy choices that certain nodes can take, which help to isolate some of the actions that your neighboring nodes can take. It can be through vassalship- There's a lot of different systems that are secondary and not necessarily PvP Centric that we intend to provide nodes the ability to interact with.[64] – Steven Sharif
Trade agreements
Trade agreements are established by Mayors to trade node commodities between nodes via mayoral caravans.[42][43][44][67][45][27][38]
- There are a limited number of trade agreements that a node can have.[44]
- Mayoral caravans may only be initiated between nodes with trade agreements or alliances.[44][45]
- Trade agreements affect reputation between the nodes.[1][2]
Some of the following information has not been recently confirmed by the developers and may not be on the current development roadmap.
- Guilds may enter into trade agreements within a guild alliance.[68]
- Mercenary guilds will be a viable way forward for different organizations. I think there will be a lot of business to be had with that; and one of the systems in our trade agreements is creating an escrow for those particular type of arrangements that we're looking into.[69] – Steven Sharif
Node wars
God Spike Scholar PvE objective during the Harness the Godspike node war event.[70]
Scholars are going to spawn across the POI. They'll be marked on our map and they're going to increase the time it's required for the enemy to channel; and drop a hefty amount of the materials we need to turn in to be able to channel ourselves.[71] – Chris Justo
|
Friendly node |
|---|---|
|
Enemy node |
|
Node war objective |
|
Controlled POI |
Mayors may declare war on another node and rally citizens to the cause.[37][5][38]
- Different node war types can be declared by the Mayor.[72][73]
- It costs resources to declare a node war. These are able to be gathered through special mayoral commissions relating to war preparations.[37] Additionally, Mayors may only declare war on nodes with sufficiently low Node-to-node reputation scores. This requirement may be disabled or reduced for Alpha-2 testing. Accordingly the frequency of node wars in Alpha-2 will likely be higher than in the final game.[74][65]
- We don't want mayors running around in Ashes of Creation just perma flagging the whole world into a state of PvP, well it's going to cost you some resources to do that.[37] – Chris Justo
- Node wars can be declared at any time, but node war events will only spawn during server prime-time.[75][76]
- Node wars are structured into phases, and each phase consists of events. Winning phases and events offer long-term and short-term rewards.[80]
- A war contains phases and phases contain events. So, there are conditions to win a phase and then there are conditions to win a war. Winning a phase gets you some amount of in-the-moment rewards and some more long-term rewards. Winning events gets you some amount of in-the-moment rewards and long-term rewards. And then the war is the massive objective that you're competing to towards.[80] – Chris Justo
- Node wars affect reputation between the warring nodes.[1][2]
- We have conditions that you can set between nodes with regards to either nodes being friendly with each other and acting trade alliances, or they can declare war on nodes similar to how guild wars may function in different games, where those citizens become hostile to each other based on the player government that's elected in the particular node. So those systems all cater to allowing a conflict that's meaningful and that also provides a non-imbalanced relationship between stronger guilds and not as strong guilds.[81] – Steven Sharif
- Q: Are there any plans to have upkeep cost to war in addition to the initiation costs? It would be incredibly compelling to know that crafters and gatherers would have to work double time to ensure that the war can go on, or even stop supporting the war if they find it unnecessary.
- A: Not necessarily within the war context, however I think the crux of that question is, how do we include material resource requirements, active artisanship, engagement, all of these other gameplay systems: How are they interconnected with a political event like war? And the way we achieve that is obviously there are things that can enhance your war preparedness or your war efficacy through the use of unique weapons during war. Unique upgrades to your guards by supplying resources to the barracks so that you have stronger guards at your headquarters, or weapons and shields and armors that can be utilized through the barracks system. In addition, vehicle support for sieges. There's a lot of different ways where crafting and artisanship plays a role as enhancing, not necessarily maintaining, a particular war or feature.[82] – Steven Sharif
- Node war participants who die can select to respawn at the War Camp, their Home shrine or their nearest Attuned shrine.[39]
- Killing the Mayor and other special positions within the opposing node, such as heads of religious or social organizations, will accrue more victory points during the war. These positions may also have powerful abilities that can be used during war and sieges, such as Mayoral skills.[20]
- Q: Will there be a scoreboard detailing the most active participants achievements during the node war. Things like: players KDA, damage, healing done, objectives, etc.
- A: You'll be able to see yours for sure and you may be able to see others if they opt-in.[83] – Steven Sharif
Some of the following information has not been recently confirmed by the developers and may not be on the current development roadmap.
- Social organizations quests will either be cooperative or adversarial based on the war status of their parent nodes.[79]
Visuals
2023-09-02 
2022-08-28 
2022-08-28 
2022-08-28 
2022-08-28
![[11]](#cite_note-mayor-tweet.png-11){kind=link}
![[15]](#cite_note-steven-kings-and-mayors.png-15){kind=link}
![[30]](#cite_note-steven-tavern-games-1.png-30){kind=link}
![[31]](#cite_note-steven-tavern-games-2.png-31){kind=link}
![[32]](#cite_note-Tax_spending.png-32){kind=link}
![[35]](#cite_note-siege_equipment.png-35){kind=link}
![[49]](#cite_note-assassination.jpg-49){kind=link}
![[52]](#cite_note-steven-godspikes.png-52){kind=link}
![[56]](#cite_note-Steven_Quote_3.png-56){kind=link}
![[60]](#cite_note-node_naming.png-60){kind=link}
![[63]](#cite_note-steven_guild_leader_mayor.JPG-63){kind=link}
![[76]](#cite_note-steven-wars-prime-time.png-76){kind=link}
See also
References
- ↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 1.11 1.12 1.13 1.14 1.15 1.16 1.17 1.18 1.19 1.20 1.21 Blog: Development Update with Village Node.
- ↑ 2.00 2.01 2.02 2.03 2.04 2.05 2.06 2.07 2.08 2.09 2.10 2.11 2.12 2.13 2.14 2.15 2.16 2.17 Livestream, August 31, 2023 (44:21).
- ↑ 3.00 3.01 3.02 3.03 3.04 3.05 3.06 3.07 3.08 3.09 3.10 3.11 3.12 3.13 3.14 3.15 3.16 3.17 Livestream, August 26, 2022 (1:12:40).
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Podcast, October 12, 2024 (19:59).
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5 5.6 Livestream, April 29, 2022 (27:42).
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 Livestream, August 31, 2023 (47:43).
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 7.4 7.5 7.6 Livestream, August 31, 2023 (31:44).
- ↑ Livestream, August 31, 2023 (49:13).
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 Livestream, April 7, 2023 (1:19:41).
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 Livestream, August 26, 2022 (1:17:04).
- ↑
- ↑ Interview, November 10, 2024 (29:18).
- ↑ Node series part II – the Metropolis.
- ↑ 14.0 14.1 Blog - Know Your Nodes - The Basics.
- ↑ 15.0 15.1 15.2
- ↑ Interview, May 11, 2018 (50:05).
- ↑ 17.0 17.1 Livestream, April 30, 2024 (1:06:36).
- ↑ 18.0 18.1 18.2 18.3 18.4 18.5 18.6 Livestream, November 17, 2017 (9:49).
- ↑ 19.0 19.1 Interview, January 19, 2025 (1:17:48).
- ↑ 20.0 20.1 Livestream, May 31, 2024 (1:50:04).
- ↑ Livestream, September 29, 2023 (1:07:01).
- ↑ Livestream, August 31, 2023 (37:35).
- ↑ Livestream, September 29, 2023 (1:05:44).
- ↑ 24.0 24.1 24.2 24.3 24.4 24.5 24.6 MMOGames interview, January 2017
- ↑ Livestream, August 31, 2023 (59:43).
- ↑ 26.0 26.1 Interview, July 8, 2020 (1:04:05).
- ↑ 27.0 27.1 27.2 Livestream, June 30, 2017 (53:57).
- ↑ 28.0 28.1 Livestream, August 31, 2023 (39:17).
- ↑ Livestream, March 28, 2020 (1:03:38).
- ↑
- ↑
- ↑
- ↑ Livestream, July 25, 2020 (1:22:40).
- ↑ Livestream, January 18, 2018 (37:05).
- ↑
- ↑ Livestream, June 26, 2020 (59:11).
- ↑ 37.0 37.1 37.2 37.3 37.4 37.5 Video, May 31, 2024 (4:24).
- ↑ 38.0 38.1 38.2 38.3 38.4 38.5 City hall.
- ↑ 39.0 39.1 2025-03-27 Alpha-2 Update Notes.
- ↑ 40.0 40.1 40.2 Livestream, August 31, 2023 (35:23).
- ↑ 41.0 41.1 Livestream, May 31, 2024 (2:20:34).
- ↑ 42.0 42.1 Interview, January 19, 2025 (43:43).
- ↑ 43.0 43.1 Video, September 29, 2023 (2:59).
- ↑ 44.0 44.1 44.2 44.3 Livestream, August 31, 2023 (2:10:23).
- ↑ 45.0 45.1 45.2 Video, July 15, 2019 (2:12).
- ↑ Livestream, August 31, 2023 (29:04).
- ↑ 47.0 47.1 Interview, October 14, 2024 (12:25).
- ↑ Livestream, August 31, 2023 (30:41).
- ↑
- ↑ Livestream, December 23, 2021 (1:30:34).
- ↑ 51.0 51.1 Video, May 31, 2024 (57:56).
- ↑ 52.0 52.1
- ↑ Livestream, July 25, 2020 (1:52:45).
- ↑ Livestream, August 31, 2023 (41:15).
- ↑ 55.0 55.1 Livestream, August 31, 2023 (28:30).
- ↑
- ↑ 57.0 57.1 Video, September 29, 2023 (1:52).
- ↑ Livestream, August 31, 2023 (29:33).
- ↑ Livestream, May 31, 2024 (2:09:43).
- ↑
- ↑ Livestream, May 19, 2017 (36:05).
- ↑ Livestream, May 19, 2017 (36:09).
- ↑
- ↑ 64.0 64.1 Livestream, August 30, 2024 (1:14:52).
- ↑ 65.0 65.1 Livestream, May 31, 2024 (1:40:25).
- ↑ 66.0 66.1 Livestream, September 27, 2024 (1:58:16).
- ↑ Podcast, September 29, 2021 (8:38).
- ↑ Livestream, January 11, 2019 (1:04:32).
- ↑ Livestream, 2018-04-8 (AM) (18:59).
- ↑ Video, May 31, 2024 (53:55).
- ↑ Video, May 31, 2024 (50:16).
- ↑ Video, May 31, 2024 (21:14).
- ↑ 73.0 73.1 Video, May 31, 2024 (17:03).
- ↑ Livestream, May 31, 2024 (2:19:06).
- ↑ 75.0 75.1 Livestream, May 31, 2024 (1:48:21).
- ↑ 76.0 76.1
- ↑ Livestream, May 31, 2024 (2:10:48).
- ↑ Livestream, May 31, 2024 (1:52:02).
- ↑ 79.0 79.1 Interview, July 19, 2020 (24:34).
- ↑ 80.0 80.1 Video, May 31, 2024 (1:04:30).
- ↑ Video, April 5, 2018 (41:48).
- ↑ Livestream, May 31, 2024 (1:44:55).
- ↑ Livestream, May 31, 2024 (2:12:38).