Quests

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Alpha-1 early quest user interface.[1]

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.[2]

Alpha-2 quest journal user interface early preview.[3]

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.[4]Colby Marchi

Quests in Ashes of Creation are divided into three main categories: Events, Commissions, and Story arc quests.[5][6][7][8]

  • The various questing systems are intended to direct player activity toward content that affects the development of the world.[10]
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.[10]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.[11][12]
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.[14]Steven Sharif

List of quests

info-orange.pngThis section contains information from Alpha-1 testing. It will be updated when new information is made available.
Quest Type Location Quest giver Steps XP Currency
A Feast of Flowers Quest Agricultural supplies Master Forager 1 0
A Mountain Hike Quest Winstead Sir Jansen 7 5,200
A New World Quest Alpha-1 starting area Given by default 1 10
A Place Like No Other Quest Alpha-1 starting area Sergeant Landry 2 1,700
A Sodden Scholar Side quest Titan's Ring Luna, Alchemist of the Academy
Aiding the Order Quest Alpha-1 starting area Jhal 2 350
Arrows to the Corporal Quest Alpha-1 starting area Lieutenant Griori 3 10
Banned of Brother Side quest Near Miraleth Meni, Exiled Berserker 1 300 5
Becoming Skilled Quest Alpha-1 starting area Lieutenant Griori 2 10
Breach Bark And Bite Commission Miraleth
Cave Survey Quest Alpha-1 starting area Corporal Cuhlum 4 4,000
Crafting a Sword Quest Alpha-1 starting area Blacksmith 8 3,000
Crafting a Wand Quest Alpha-1 starting area Blacksmith 8 3,000
Finding a Foothold Quest Alpha-1 starting area Given by default 3 65
Gather Nightbloom Quest Alpha-1 starting area Eswyn 6 4,000
Hidden Inferno Quest Alpha-1 starting area Lieutenant Griori 10 18,600
Honoring Ancestors Quest Alpha-1 starting area Attendant Wynden 3 3,000
Lesson One: Zoology Quest Alpha-1 starting area Scholar Rhea 7 2,400
Lesson Two: Botany Quest Alpha-1 starting area Scholar Rhea 5 2,400
Lord's quest Quest Village (stage 3) or higher node
Magical Ice Quest Alpha-1 starting area Olexia Fobrasna 4 18,600
Meet the Headmaster Quest Alpha-1 starting area Lieutenant Griori 1 1,700
Narrative: A Burden to Bear, part I Quest Winstead Mysterious Corpse 2 7,700
Narrative: A Burden to Bear, part II Quest Na'ala Changeling Girl 4 7,700
Poison Parasols Quest Titan's Ring Luna, Alchemist of the Academy 1 300 5
Ponder Spire Pond Commission Miraleth
Prepare to Craft Quest Alpha-1 starting area Blacksmith 2 10
Recover Stolen Supplies Commission Miraleth
Rest Well, Furry Friend Commission Miraleth
Rubblemaking Commission Miraleth
Scatter the Horde Commission Miraleth 800 15
Seeping Poison Quest Alpha-1 starting area Headmaster Varus 3 18,600
Snuff the Ritual Fires Commission Miraleth
Tale of a Totem Story arc quest The Tower of Carphin 8 4000
Talking Shop Quest Alpha-1 starting area Merchant 2 10
Task: Perimeter Patrols Quest Alpha-1 starting area Lieutenant Griori 4 1,700
Task: Predator or Prey? Quest Alpha-1 starting area Lieutenant Griori 2 1,700
The Apparition Quest Alpha-1 starting area Location based 10 18,600
The Final Lesson Quest Alpha-1 starting area Scholar Lodi 9 3,000
The Laws of Blood and Kith Side quest Titan's Ring Maho, Streamweaver 1 300 5
The Oakenbane Overlook Commission Miraleth 1,500 50
The Ruins of Thanalas Quest Story arc quest The Ruins of Thanalas Splint 4
The Warrior's Prayer Quest Alpha-1 starting area Attendant Wynden 5 3,000
They Deserved Better Story arc quest Remains of Oakenbane Keep 3 225 10508
We Rise after Felling Artisan certification quest Woodshops Master Woodcutter 1 0

Quest givers

Maho, Streamweaver quest giver outside of the Miraleth node in Alpha-2.[17]

As opposed to what we may be used to in other MMOs where you see giant question marks or exclamation points, we've gone a little bit more subtle with the way that certain NPCs reflect their dialogue or quest availability. There's a slight shimmer that exists over the name and their color: Green represents quest logs- quest paths and then the gold represents the shops.[6]Steven Sharif

  • Quest giver NPCs in Ashes of Creation have subtle indicators rather than obvious question marks or exclamation marks. Quest givers are identified by a green shimmer on their nameplates.[6]
  • Not every quest/quest-giver will originate from within a node.[18]
  • Quest giver NPCs cannot be killed by players.[19][20]
When there is an ability to kill a NPC, there should be a good reason for killing that NPC; and denying content to other players is not necessarily a good reason. So, the quest givers themselves are not killable.[19]Steven Sharif

Quest markers

There are not going to be obvious quest markers, such as question marks and exclamation marks telling players where to turn.[21]

  • There will be subtle ways that players will acquire knowledge that something is to be done in an area.[21]

List of quest givers

info-orange.pngThis section contains information from Alpha-1 testing. It will be updated when new information is made available.
Alpha-2 work-in-progress quest dialog designed by Colby Marchi.[22]

When you're servicing multiple dialogue trees that have many different options, this approach is really conducive to keeping those options front-and-center to the player: letting them see that and navigating through the dialogue tree with a very easy to interact with quest window.[22]Steven Sharif

List of quest rewards

Quest rewards are intended to be commensurate with the difficulty of the quest.[23]

Scarcity is obviously what can drive the excitement or the dopamine response when that success is had. If something is easily attained then the importance of attaining it is obviously diminished... There will be very rare drop-table items; and we want to ensure that that scarcity is preserved so the importance of attaining the thing feels good.[23]Steven Sharif
info-orange.pngThis section contains information from Alpha-1 testing. It will be updated when new information is made available.
Item Icon Item type Rarity Level requirement Set
Crude Sickle Blade CrudeHerbalismSickleIcon.png Reagent
Crude Sickle Handle CrudeHerbalismSickleIcon.png Reagent
Frayed Cloth Gloves b58531bc-dfc5-4ffe-b945-57106ce799ba-0.png Gloves Common 7 Frayed
Iron Longsword GreatswordIcon.png Sword Common 1 Iron
Iron Wand 45180dea-dd3e-497e-94ae-93af57b2e6b7-0.png Wand Common 1 Iron
Lava Forged One-Handed Sword d8097cb1-34c8-4312-933f-3040305645b6-0.png Sword Rare 12 Lava Forged
Lava Forged Wand d36dda14-5a9e-4744-8715-9f7c471b0105-0.png Wand Rare 8 Lava Forged
Minotaur Pigment Minotaur Pigment Icon.png Pigment Rare
Refurbished Plate Gauntlets f6bab455-aaf6-43c2-8de3-298312e484b1-0.png Gloves Common 7 Refurbished
Sharpened One-Handed Sword 77226313-9678-43f1-8fd8-e298344dfcaa-0.png Sword Uncommon 5
Tiller 7a088b0d-ff65-40ad-9ce3-2d0e6eaa77ff-0.png Tool Uncommon 1
Tome Of The Tundra SpellbookIcon.png Spellbook Epic 15

Story arcs

Alpha-2 early preview of the story arc UI.[24]

Story arcs are like a pre-packaged tabletop campaign. They contain all of the NPCs and quests and monsters- all the things you need to make a cool fantasy story. They're not procedurally generated... We write all the dialogue and we construct all the narrative beats and everything like that, but they will enter the world dynamically depending on the state that the world is currently in; how players have built up specific nodes, what races control various nodes. We have plans to include lots of different things on top of that, but we don't have any quest hubs or anything like that in this game, because players build up all the cities. So we had to get a system that looks at what players are doing and can inject content into the world that makes sense for what they're doing.[25]Skott B

The Blood Still Due story arc unlocking at The Tower of Carphin.[26]

When story arcs come online, they change a lot the environment. They update what monsters are in the world. They create quest NPCs... and then new Pathways can open up through the environment.[27]Skott B

Story arcs are unlocked by multiple types of player activity within each server.[28][26][25][29]

Every stage a node develops it's unlocking narratives, storylines, it's changing the spawn population of the area around it, changing what bosses exist, it's triggering events where you may have legendary dragons attack the city. It's basically writing the story of the server based on the actions and determination of the players. So, you may experience a dungeon one month earlier and have a completely different story that relates to this location the next month, because something has changed either geopolitically or from the node standpoint.[29]Steven Sharif
Even player driven mechanics will still have story components. There will be a reason why the player driven mechanic is available or required of the player; so every system that's created touches a story.[37]Steven Sharif
  • If there are too many other major arcs happening at the same time in the same zone, a story arc may need to wait its turn, even if conditions are right for it to be unlocked.[28]
  • Story arcs drive one or more storyline quests within the game.[39][40][41][42][32]
    • Story arcs can branch into different stories with multiple possible endings depending on the quest objectives that players complete during each chapter.[39][40]
    • The developers will try to ensure that story arcs in future expansions flow on from existing story arcs, regardless of the different possible outcomes.[39]
  • There will be a variety of different types of story arc content at different scales, with different cooldowns to suit different types of players in the game.[44]
We must provide enough of this content at varying scales such that it isn't worthwhile or economical to control every single story arc in the world. Some will be smaller in scale and production value, and thus, will move faster and have shorter cooldowns before they're reintroduced.[44]Skott B
info-orange.pngSome of the following information has not been recently confirmed by the developers and may not be on the current development roadmap.

Certain story arcs can be unlocked through the bulletin board system. Certain requirements would need to be met in order to access story arc quests.[48]

Story arc chapters

Quest journal showing story arc chapters.[3]

Within the context of these story arcs, there are specific points that they can pivot to tell a different story. That different story can be based on predicates that are in the world: from a player decision standpoint, from a cultural representation standpoint, from situational to which node gets developed. There's a lot of different components that interact with the way the dialogue and narratives play out on a particular server; and what that means is- and I've said this from the beginning many sandbox MMORPGS, they do not create as much curated content as theme-park MMORPGS; and their excuse for doing that is because they incorporate player-driven mechanics. But that's a bit of a cop-out and it's the opposite approach that we've taken with Ashes of Creation; and the reason for that is, if you give the player a door and there's nothing behind that door then opening the door is meaningless. So what we have to do is we have to create a very functional story arc system that provides content in many different ways, but is behind a door of world progress or world development that is then executed by the player population. And that's how we construct our narrative systems.[31]Steven Sharif

Each chapter (phase) in a story arc can cause changes across the entire server, such as environments, monsters, NPCs, Quests, and pathways.[41][27][30][31][32]

  • Players can progress a chapter by completing story arc quests within the timeframe that each chapter is active.[41]
    • Phase timers are shown (in the quest UI) to indicate how much real-world time is available to complete the quests in each phase.[40]
    • If the player completes all quests in a particular chapter, they will need to wait until the next chapter to obtain further quests.[49]
    • Story arcs can branch into different stories with multiple possible endings depending on the quest objectives that players complete during each chapter.[39][40]
It's not just a matter of completing the laundry list of things that the NPC has you do, but you pick from a whole bunch of objectives, many of them optional. Some of them, if not most of them, hidden when you first undertake the quest. So go dig up a guide, or blaze your own trail, or whatever; but depending on which objectives you complete, those are the things that help the server aggregate what is going to happen in later phases of the story arc. And that's across all of the players participating during that time frame: what objectives they decide to complete.[40]Skott B
  • Story arcs can last for days, which reduces pressure to log in daily to remain competitive.[50]
Story arcs normally progress according to the passage of real-time, which is clearly indicated in your quest journals. Even if a zerg guild throws all their resources at a story arc, they can't lock anyone out of participating by doing all the participation on their own. You'll have the time indicated in your quest journal to finish the content available in that chapter.[44]Skott B
  • Most story arcs will repeat with a cooldown, but major story arcs will only occur one-time: These can be replayed, but in a non-interactive way where any choices made do not impact the world.[50][51]
The cooldowns between arcs repeating will also be quite long- proportional to the length of the chapters, but we're still in pursuit of the right numbers there. You can't do the individual quests again until the entire arc restarts.[49]Skott B
  • Some events will only be available while story arcs are in certain chapters.[49]

Story arc quests

Story arc quests (Storyline quests/Narrative quests) contain objectives for each chapter of a story arc.[39][40][41][42][32][8]

  • Players can progress each chapter by completing story arc quests within the timeframe that each chapter is active.[41]
    • Phase timers are shown (in the quest UI) to indicate how much real-world time is available to complete the quests in each phase.[40]
    • If the player completes all quests in a particular chapter, they will need to wait until the next chapter to obtain further quests.[49]
  • Story arcs can branch into different stories with multiple possible endings depending on the quest objectives that players complete during each chapter.[39][40][42]
You can't really farm the quests in any meaningful way, because once you've done the quests in a chapter, that's it until the next chapter. Whether 1000 people participate or 10, the chapters will stay active for the same length of time, and as long as you participate in the clearly-marked time frame in your quest journal, you're good. The only thing that a concentrated effort can help with is influencing the narrative paths through the arcs.[49]Skott B
  • These quests stages can be failed. The ability to retry a failed quest depends on Node progression.[42]
There will be many different quests that actually have stages of the storyline; and these stages can actually be failed. You can actually fail a storyline; which sucks when you think about it, but at the same time that risk makes your investment that much more important.[42]Steven Sharif

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Events

The world of Verra is a dynamic and ever-changing landscape filled with wonder, adventure, and danger. One of the many mechanics that allow us to achieve this adaptability is Events. Events are one of the primary ways that players will experience content. Events focus on delivering a reactive world that keeps players on their toes while changing up gameplay in a fun and unique way, providing challenges, and shaping the world around them. Players will encounter events throughout their entire time on Verra - from early progression to high-level dungeons and raids.[54]Peter Bisulca

Corrupted area in Alpha-1, design by Mia DelCasino.[55]

I think Ashes' whole premise is to incorporate events and changes and evolution that not only represents player activity but also incorporates random story driven interruptions to the normal flow of the world; and whether that be through blocking off specific roadways that are the lifeblood of a particular node's incoming resources, or having random raid boss appear in a zone that never traditionally they did before; and as a result it incurs a complete change of climate that's now affecting crop rotations; and only specific crop can come from that zone; and now the whole economy of the world has been thrown into chaos because no one's been able to down this boss yet, we can't get the corn we need in order to build the reagents on the alchemical side to create this craft- That's the type of domino effect system or event you want that appears in a natural non-injunction way, but it presents a problem to the players to that they have to accomplish something at least if they want to change it back to the status quo. Those I think are compelling events and those I think are ways that the world can introduce an element of randomness that reflects what we experience in the real world.[56]Steven Sharif

Events are things that happen in Ashes of Creation as the result of development in the world.[56][57] There are several different types of events that are triggered due to certain conditions (predicates) being met.[43][58][54][59] Events are scaled to fit local, regional, and global needs.[60][8]

Events... can be local, regional or global, and consist of boons or banes. They’re triggered based on a lot of different variables, and some may be one-off Events that occur once, and never again. If an Event is handled successfully, then something good happens to the local, regional, or global area. If it fails, then something bad befalls the local, regional or global area. They’ll relate to the overall Narrative, but don’t fall into its overall structure (for the most part). These are the things that will be written into history, and we imagine that as time grows, each server’s history will diverge more and more.[61]
  • Some events incorporate random story-driven interruptions to the normal flow of the world, such as blocking off specific roadways, having a random raid boss or mobs appear unexpectedly in a zone. Some may lead to wider consequences, such as climate change, plagues, volcanic eruptions, forest fires, or other natural disasters.[62][56][63][64][65]
    • There are events that lead to the spreading of corruption that players will have to fight back against. When these events occur players will need to participate to keep the intrusion on the material plane back.[66][67][68]
  • Events that are taken care of successfully have positive consequences and provide rewards based on the contribution of players during the event.[69][8]
There are certain effects that can happen in a world that does not have a proper response from the player population and that's the whole idea behind these events that can happen; that feel like these are natural world progression events if corruption starts to show itself as a response- as a push back to the player's development of nodes in the world itself.[66]Steven Sharif
There is the ability to fail. I know that is a strange concept for a lot of us nowadays playing more modern games, but there is absolutely a way to fail.[70]Steven Sharif
  • Events have cooldowns in addition to the predicates that are required to trigger them.[70]
Events absolutely do have cooldowns that cannot be forced to spawn repeatedly over and over again. Those cooldowns are not just something that's based on a timer, they're also predicated on certain actions occurring within the world.[71]Steven Sharif
  • If events are not triggered within a certain time period, they could occur randomly.[57]
  • There may be one-off events.[61]

Event types

There are a variety of different types of events that are triggered due to certain conditions (predicates) being met.[43][58][54][59]

Monster coin events

Monster coin concept art.[54]

Let's say for example you have an event- that is the predicate for this event kicking off was that a raid boss was killed in a nearby dungeon; and it was killed for the 50th time, or it was killed by some particular storyline end or whatever the predicate system is in the world state to say "hey kick this event off". Well, when that event kicks off a number of spawners activate around the node and NPCs start moving towards a node. The node is notified, like "hey there's something happening here, you guys should put up your defenses focus on this thing"; and those with monster coins who are within the area and are not a citizen of the node or an affiliated node can choose to activate the monster coin to become one of the monster types that exist within that event; and that event has a number of targets; and let's say for this particular story arc the thing was we need to find artifacts and better weapons in order to defeat these bosses at the bottom of this dungeon; and a lot of players went through that process they found those weapons and whatnot. Well those things might be stored in three buildings that exist within the node. They might be stored within the armory; they might be stored within the barracks; and they might be stored at a workshop that has access to a workbench that they've chosen to build and that could also potentially serve as a predicate; and when you become the monster those are your three objectives; and you don't need to destroy all three. You potentially just need to destroy one, or you destroy as many as you can if it's a time selected event; and you might have targets that are NPC-related as well, such as the blacksmith that's at the workbench, or the captain of the guard who's at the barracks, or whatever who's at the armory; and you get to go in and you get to kill other players potentially during this who are helping to defend the city; and you can also make it to the objectives and potentially help in destroying the building, or killing the NPCs. That is the type of objectives that would exist within a monster coin system for an event.[81]Steven Sharif

Pre-alpha monster coin system.[82]

Sometimes the disturbed beings could take the form of packs of dire wolves, hordes of zombies roused from their graveyard, or even, rarely, an epic-tier dragon flying out of a volcano once a node reaches its maximum level. In any case, the disturbed monsters have to tackle a series of destructive objectives, which can either be handled by the AI or, more interestingly, by a player. The player in turn would attempt to complete all those actions much as in a multi-objective quest, hopefully before other players brought him or her down.[83]

Monster coins enable players to play as monsters within the monster coin event system. This ranges from playing as a horde of zombies, to becoming a massive dragon.[84][77][78]

During a Monster Coin Event, players will be able to activate Monster Coins, allowing them to become monsters and wreak havoc! These Events can be triggered in a variety of different ways, and in some cases they may even provide cosmetic rewards.[54]

Monster coin events are system spawned events.[77][85]

  • They are structured in a way to prevent groups from gaming the system.[85]
  • Monster coin events are triggered by activity in the world, such as node advancement, defeating a boss or constructing certain types of buildings within a node.[86]
  • Server messages appear for players in the vicinity of these dynamic events.[87]
  • The player will have a number of potential objectives they can choose to attack during the event. This may include node buildings, points-of-interest, dungeon, NPC, or other open-world objective.[81]
When you're playing as a as a monster from the monster coin use as part of an NPC event that might be targeting a node, or other some other open-world objective or POI, or dungeon, you get to participate as a monster and your focus is completing objectives that have already been prescribed as part of the event.[81]Steven Sharif

The Ancients are not going to be part of the monster coin system.[90]

Traditionally, the Ancients are not going to be part of the Monster Coin system. These are the primary antagonists of the story. From a lore perspective, and one of the reasons why they're not a part of the Monster Coin system, is because their souls have really developed almost to the point of perfection in manipulating the Essence for more corrupt uses. They haven't quite gotten there, and who knows if they ever will, but that attunes them out of the possibility: The reason why the monster coin system is possible with other creatures.[91]Steven Sharif

Side quests

Side quests are quests with a variety of objectives that can pop-up while adventuring in the world.[93][92]

  • Side quests give a variety of rewards and can lead into larger quest chains.[94][92]
  • Some side quests can be hidden.[92]
Side quests- these are a variety of quests with a variety of objectives that exist in the actual world itself: so they can be hidden in various ways; and so during your adventures, you want to pay attention around you cuz one might pop up on your map and if you're lucky you might notice it and be able to obtain it and it might lead into a really big quest chain.[92]Tony Garcia
  • Side quests will spawn based on player activity and world states in a similar manner to commissions.[93][94]
Just like any of our spawning systems, like with what Tyler is getting at with the commission board, they all are reading world states to determine what is allowed to spawn and where it should spawn and things like that. So, different side quests can appear depending on the world state.[94]Skott B

Commissions

Alpha-2 commissions board user interface at the Miraleth node.[5]

This is a commission board. Every mode has many different commission boards depending on what service buildings are installed there; and commissions are basically these teeny tiny little single objective quests that are like appetizers or quick little digestible things to help you get out into the world and start progressing both your character and your node contribution.[5]Skott B

Commissions (previously called Tasks) are simple types of system-generated quests with singular objectives that enable characters and nodes to gain XP.[93][5][97][98][99][100][101][102]

  • Commissions are posted on commission boards in nodes, which refresh approximately every 30 minutes (subject to change based on Alpha-2 testing). Everybody in the node can see and access the commissions relevant to their level and node reputation.[103][93][10][104][5]
Everyone sees the same commissions relevant to their level range. Some commissions you see are more rare than others and will require sufficient reputation within the node in order to accept.[103]Steven Sharif
Node commissions have dedicated commission slots that are categorized by such things as; node type, buildings constructed, social org, religion and policy.[105]Steven Sharif
  • Commissions are assigned rarities, which scale the rewards for their completion. More developed nodes will offer rarer commissions that are available to players with sufficient node reputation.[103][93][5]
The rewards basically grow quite a lot depending on the rarity of the commission that gets dealt; and these get dealt for everybody... You can improve your chances of getting rare commissions for your node depending on how you develop your node.[5]Skott B
  • Commissions respond to (and can influence) different conditions in the world, such as weather, time of day, story arcs, and events. Commissions (along with other Node systems) attempt to lead players into areas where relevant content can be found.[10][104]
Every 30 minutes or so the board will refresh. The server will query a bunch of different information about the world; and this is from ranging from story arcs that are active, story arcs that have been completed, weather, time of day- a whole bunch of different range of factors. The board will attempt to deliver commissions that are relevant to these areas and they will try to lead you into areas where more content can be found.[104]Tyler Carroll
  • Player characters may only have 20 active commissions at one time (subject to change based on Alpha-2 testing). This does not include other quest types, such as side quests, or story arc quests.[106]
Q: Will commissions include tasks or quests that are reflective of the node type that they are issued in, or the nodes affiliation with a specific social organizations?
A: Yes. The answer is yes. Nodes will reflect the theming that the node has and that theming can be influenced by things such as the identity of the node from a node type perspective, what social organizations, what religious organizations, even what policies the node has chosen to enact. Those will all be represented in the types of commissions that the node has to pull from; and so in that way you are solidifying the identity of that node; and again the dynamic state of the world that gets represented.[107]Steven Sharif
  • Commissions can be completed without returning to the commissions board.[106][95]
Mayoral commissions are specifically chosen by the mayor, which is similar to the regular commission system, but that system is more system generated.[99]Chris Justo

Mayoral commissions

Alpha-2 Mayoral commissions.[108][109]

Mayoral commissions serve as a strategic decision base for the mayor. What issues am I facing? What issues do I believe I will face? How is this aligning with my strategy? And then how will my citizens help me help participate in accomplishing these goals so that I'm best set strategically for what I intend to do with those commissions?[110]Steven Sharif

Mayoral commissions are simple types of quests with singular objectives that are able to be initiated by mayors.[108][109][111]

  • There will be a cap to the number of commissions that can be accepted by a single player.[99]
  • Mayoral commissions can be conducted by both citizens and non-citizens, but only citizen contribution will generate mandates for the node.[99][109]
Q: Is participation always going to be greater for larger nodes by default, or can a small node with close to 100 participation still greatly benefit from them?
A: That's gonna come down to what commissions the mayor is initiating. Level three nodes aren't going to be initiating mayoral commissions that require thousands of players to participate, because they don't have access to those; where Metropolises that have a huge citizenship base will get access to those kinds of commissions. So the rewards will be proportionate to the node level and the expected amount of citizens.[112]Chris Justo

List of commissions

info-orange.pngThis section contains information from Alpha-1 testing. It will be updated when new information is made available.
Quest Rarity Location Quest giver XP Currency
Breach Bark And Bite Common Miraleth
Ponder Spire Pond Common Miraleth
Recover Stolen Supplies Rare Miraleth
Rest Well, Furry Friend Common Miraleth
Rubblemaking Common Miraleth
Scatter the Horde Uncommon Miraleth 800 15
Snuff the Ritual Fires Uncommon Miraleth
Task: Perimeter Patrols Alpha-1 starting area Lieutenant Griori 1,700
Task: Predator or Prey? Alpha-1 starting area Lieutenant Griori 1,700
The Oakenbane Overlook Common Miraleth 1,500 50

PvP quests

There will be PvP quests in Ashes of Creation.[113]

There are quests that interact with PvP. PvP is not a secondary component of the game. PvP is an equitable component of the game. Remember we are a PvX game, which means that we emphasize both PvE quest lines and story modes and content as well as PvP. It is an intended design theory for Ashes of Creation that the world is not filled with just your friends. The world is also filled with adversaries; and because of that we will provide opportunities to encourage social friction; and that may be in the form of these PvP oriented questlines.[113]Steven Sharif

Daily quests

Daily quests will not be prevalent in Ashes of Creation.[114][115]

We don't really have dailies.[114]Steven Sharif
I don't think those will be RNG based. Those will be probably- you will see the reward structure for those types of quests. Will they be dailies? No they won't be in the sense of what we've experienced dailies in the past where you feel so obligated to log in and like you'll miss these things. It's more gonna be focused around like how the world is changing and how the changes in the world relate to your opportunities; and then if your location's gonna matter because fast travel is not a thing, where you're located at is going to determine your the risk versus reward opportunities that are present; and then depending on the time that those occur.[115]Steven Sharif

Grinding

Repetition will not be part of progression in Ashes of Creation.[117]

  • There will be no "grindy" quests.[117]
  • There will not be repetitive quest lines through a single dungeon to obtain gear.[118]
  • The aspiration is to have more things to do in the game than a player has time to do.[117]

Racial quests

Quests may be based on a character's race.[119]

Different quests may relate to who the primary cultural contributor is to a node. This won't lock out content, but will add flavor to the quests.[119]

There might even be different directories of the quest that exist for specific races, and even though you're sharing a quest to kill a boss, if you're human and I'm an elf, I will have a different arc potentially that leads in a different direction than you, even though we took the same quest; and this can relate to who the primary cultural contributor is to a node unlocking different arcs for cultures that share the primary culture of a node - not that locks out content but it gives a flavor in a different direction so that not everything is so cookie cutter.[119]Steven Sharif

Race matters because narratives have paths that also are influenced based on the primary contributing culture to the node... If you're a Niküa and you have you're in a Niküa node that's predominantly Niküa, you're going to have certain services and/or abilities as a member of the Niküa race that other races may not have access to... They may have alternative quest lines, but they won't have specific ones. Now those specific Niküa quests will then relate to the meta-narrative that's present in the world and they'll start to direct some of that meta-narrative; and that'll be beneficial for your kind because it will unlock certain content for your race that other races haven't unlocked yet. So there is an incentive there to see progression along that line now in order to curb the progress of a dominant race.[120]Steven Sharif

Quests that are race specific, title specific, or guild specific will likely be less than 10% of the total number of quests. 90% of quests should be able to be shared by everybody.[121]

NPC races

Depending on the cultural influence of the node activates certain types of quest lines and/or sponsors. Some of those are shared, some of those are general. Some of those relate to a progression path that is a first time user experience. Those will be constant across all culture types. Some of them, however, are predicates that spawn when certain story arcs and/or events, or commissions or buy orders become present within the node; and those might change based on the cultural influence of the node. So there is a separation between those populations.[123]Steven Sharif

Class-specific quests

There will be class-specific quests in Ashes of Creation.[124]

There's going to be a lot of shared quests but there's also going to be class-specific quests; and the reason for that is that some classes are better at others than doing certain things and that'll play itself out through the general community quests. That's fine, but there are certain periods from a designer's perspective where you want to make an encounter be the antithesis of what a player is good at. It also gives them perspective because we have a more fluid class combination system where you can play the line in your traditional role by adding a secondary class that's different from your primary classes role. The benefit of having these class-specific quests early on especially in an archetype is that you can come to a determination and have greater experience for the things you're not good at. So you know how to progress your class in the future with the things you have access to that are different from what you're good at.'[124]Steven Sharif

So you want to give them storyline that's relevant and make sense for them to their class progression. If I'm a fighter I should be going to a barracks and learning from this dude early on. Later on if I want to take on that mage secondary and I'm more arcane in the things I do, or more based in the essence, then yeah it makes sense for my also again for a catered quest to me that lets me focus on that route in the narrative.[125]Steven Sharif

Solo quests

Ashes of Creation provides gameplay options for solo oriented players.[127]

For those solo players who don't really care about finding a community to play with but they want to have one when they need it, there's going to be a lot of opportunities from a dialogue perspective, in-game chat options; you can join as part of citizenships: there's a lot of pseudo factions there- social organizations that give you an in to other players without the strong bonds that typically come with guild-oriented organizations; and I think that that's a comfortable medium between the two.[127]Steven Sharif

Epic/legendary quests

Epic and Legendary quests affect the narrative of the game.[7] These quests will unlock gated content.[130]

Server history

info-orange.pngSome of the following information has not been recently confirmed by the developers and may not be on the current development roadmap.

The history of each server will be tracked and visible to players in a node's library.[132][133]

  • This design may have changed.[134]
We're gonna keep track of the history of the world so that we can tell people the story up to the current day. A player who's brand new, who's come in at the six-month mark can take a look at each server, what each server has done, how each server has tackled the storyline; and they can decide for themselves what community they want to join; what version of the world that they want to take part in.[133]Jeffrey Bard
  • Scribes may be able to collect and record information about the events of the world as they see it from their point of view.[135]

Voice acting

  • Narrated quest lines are not currently planned for launch.[136] It has been stated that adding voice acting into the game at a later point will be a fairly cosmetic change.[136]
Is it difficult to add voice acting later? No, it's definitely not... It's a fairly cosmetic change.[136]Steven Sharif
  • The use of AI voice acting is under consideration.[139][140]
I think that some of the technology and the advancements that we've seen, not just within the gaming industry but a broad scope of AI influence, is something that we are keeping a close eye on and we have some plans to investigate and inspect a few of the designs and approaches that we've taken, particularly as it relates I think to this question and AI voiceover potential to influence our narrative loops and how players interact with general AI dialogue; and there is an opportunity there, but it's not one that we have fully explored yet, although it is on the docket for the first part of next year for us to analyze what potential exists from a leveraging standpoint for this new tech; and I would say, stay tuned next year as we give updates. You'll likely see some things, perhaps even in Alpha-2 that could relate to that, we'll see. But, it is something we are aware of and we are keeping close tabs on how to integrate and leverage as part of Ashes.[139]Steven Sharif

System driven caravans

System driven caravans (also referred to as Quest driven caravans) are system spawned caravans that are used for trade routes between nodes.[141][142][143]

info-orange.pngSome of the following information has not been recently confirmed by the developers and may not be on the current development roadmap.
  • These are initiated by players with a diverse choice of routes and launch windows, making them difficult to zerg.[144]
  • Initiating a caravan from one node to another will create a PvP objective that players will need to defend while it moves along its chosen route to the selected destination.[2]
  • Roads will upgrade as nodes advance. Different roads will dictate the speed and type of caravan required (off road vs on road).[145]
The caravan system is designed to be initiated by the player. Which means, information of the caravans launch time and route, should be a closely guarded secret. Routes will also be diverse, and the world is large, so it might behoove you to scout the route ahead before a launch. Fast travel in our game is also limited, which means unless the guild had knowledge of your plans before hand, it is likely that they will be unable to organize and travel to a location. As far as mass guilds securing trade routes, there is always a bigger fish in the pond. Also caravans will have limitations on carrying capacity and launch windows that will segment mulitiple caravans by several minutes, which would space out the caravans, making it difficult to "zerg" a defense.[144]Steven Sharif

Mayoral caravans

Mayoral caravans (also referred to as Trade caravans) are launched by Mayors to obtain needed resources from other nodes.[43][141][142]

  • Players can participate in helping to defend the caravan if they wish.[141]
Mayors who need certain resources that either they don't have enough of, or that they're prospectively investing in: they will initiate a mayor request, and any node that sees that request on the mayoral caravan drop-down menu will have an opportunity to attempt to fulfill the trade request. In order to fulfill a trade request, a node must have a certain level of relationship with that requesting node. At a minimum it has to be a trade agreement relationship; and then there's a limited number of those trade relationships that you can have; and that scales up to eventually alliance perspective. And then, once the node requesting mayor accepts a potential fill order, then a system spawned caravan is generated and the transit is completed. Players can participate in helping to defend that or not.[141]Steven Sharif

Escort quests

Escort quests will require different movement speeds based on the challenges being faced.[147]

There are going to be different speeds that are going to be utilized. So you might be walking through one area and then they might start running and you might have to keep up and that might be time for certain ambushes that are intended along the design path. If you don't address that ambush in a quick manner your escortee has already started running off to the next thing and now he's getting ambushed by the next thing.[147]Steven Sharif

Quests and reputation

Good actions, such as completing buy orders, commissions, and caravan trips, can cause a character to gain positive node reputation. Bad actions taken, such as failing certain quests, may result in gaining negative reputation. This reputation is gained or lost on a per-node basis.[93][148][147]

Whether you're a citizen or not, you can establish reputation within a node; and the way you establish that reputation is by completing buy orders, completing commissions and quests, and even completing caravan trips there or out of there. Different interactions that you would do with the node can yield you reputation within that particular node.[93]Steven Sharif
  • Negative reputation may open up certain quest lines that the darker, seedier side of the world are interested in.[147]
The more good aligned or civilization building aligned tasks that you complete, you get higher positive reputation. But if you get low or bad reputation you could be deemed enemy of the state of a node. You could be deemed a bad actor and it might raise prices for you, but it also might open up certain quest lines that the darker, seedier side of the world are interested in.[147]Steven Sharif

Certain NPCs and node vendors will react differently to player characters based on their reputation within the node or with "factions" within the node (such as social organizations).[149][150][147][151]

Node reputation is a separate mechanic that also deals as a predicate for the vendors that you have access to as a player. And so you can establish that node reputation by doing certain activities within the node, by progressing within certain social organizations, or certain religions within the node; and then that predicate serves as your access either to items granularly within a vendor's access table, or to just vendors as a whole. It just depends; and there's different thresholds you have to meet across different vendors.[148]Steven Sharif
info-orange.pngSome of the following information has not been recently confirmed by the developers and may not be on the current development roadmap.
  • NPCs will add a player to their hate list if that player heals, buffs or otherwise assists any player on their hate list.[153]

Collection quests

There will be collection quests.[154]

Quest sponsorship

info-orange.pngSome of the following information has not been recently confirmed by the developers and may not be on the current development roadmap.

Players can sponsor quests on a bulletin board.[155]

Removing player corruption

The primary means to remove corruption is through death. Multiple deaths may be necessary to remove all corruption.[157][158]

  • Dying removes a significant portion of a player's corruption score.[159]
  • Gaining experience will also slowly reduce a player's corruption score.[160][161][157]
    Any experience that's gained by the player, whether it be through achievements in crafting, or in adventuring, or through other types of achievements: All of that experience goes towards your adventuring class experience gained; and then some experience can dual purpose towards professions as well. So if I reach an achievement in my crafting profession and that grants me additional experience within that profession to rank up, it will also grant the same amount of experience over in my adventuring level; and to that point, anytime you gain adventuring experience you tick away at the corruption.[160]Steven Sharif
  • A quest may be utilized to reduce the player kill (PK) count of a corrupt player in order for them to accumulate less corruption score in the future.[162][159]
    • This is a design shift from a religious quest being used to directly reduce the corruption score.[163]
info-orange.pngSome of the following information has not been recently confirmed by the developers and may not be on the current development roadmap.

Screenshots

See also

References

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