NPCs

Pre-alpha Sladeborne NPC race. This was a once-beautiful race of cloud-dwelling bird people who were struck by a calamity long ago.

Elite monster 3D turntable.

It's a really big dude and the idea behind him is you're gonna see big monsters- I think that the character comes up to like his elbow maybe, or just beneath the elbow I'm not sure- but you're going to see these big elites just roaming and wandering through the world. They're not assigned any to to any particular hunting ground, they just roam; and I think that component is pretty cool especially when you have an open world where you can see something unique that's not matching the monsters you're hunting in a certain area but just strolls by. – Steven Sharif

Goblin 3D render. 3D model by Chris Atkins.

There are going to be different types of "Goblinesque" creatures; and this one has not skipped out on his leg or arm day, which is a good thing for him because he's probably going to be in a lot of fights. – Steven Sharif

There will be a mix of different monsters and difficulty levels throughout the world that are tied to the development of nearby nodes. As nodes advance, mobs will present new and increasing dangers that players can participate in.

In the world naturally there will be locations that are going to have a mix of different levels of monsters and difficulty levels; and then those spawn tables relate to the development of nearby nodes. So as nodes develop they'll be changing the spawn tables around them to reflect their further development in the world, presenting new and more difficult dangers that the players can participate in. – Steven Sharif

• Not all creatures are immediately hostile to players. Some creatures may hunt other creatures.

We've talked about this a little bit in the past when talking about taming and/or certain types of like creature gatherable resources there are herds that exist out there. There are big game that exist out there, where they're not going to aggro and attack you per-se. Also lower level monsters and certain type of like social monsters may not attack you off the bat. – Steven Sharif

• There will be flying mobs, but not in terms of requiring a flying mount to engage them.

We will have flying monsters but essentially what that means is there's going to be rotations either in the behavior tree that might make them inaccessible to targets, or they might do some like swooping attacks; they might come and land on the ground and fight you. But generally monsters are going to be accessible from on the ground, so we're not creating content for the limited number of individuals who are going to have access to a flying mount. – Steven Sharif

• Certain world bosses and elite monsters will path/roam throughout the world. Other mobs will have leashes that will cause the mob to reset if it moves too far from its point of origin.

Leashes are relevant. There's other gameplay implications that happen when you're able to actually move populations around. We don't want to really give that to the players perspective. – Steven Sharif

• Named mobs will usually have a unique character appearance.

• In general, mobs will not leave footprints or cause screen-shake; but larger monsters and bosses may do. Screen shake will be customizable in user interface settings.

There is something to be had there about those types of screen-shake effects. We want them to be present when we're emphasizing certain things, but we don't want them to be a nuisance, or annoying, or too plentiful; and having screen-shake apply to every step would probably be too abundant. Will players have control over those on-screen type effects? Yeah I think so. I think that's something we want to provision as a customizable option for players to be able to turn off, because it can be somewhat nauseating for certain groups of people and a distraction from what's happening in the world. – Steven Sharif

• Average non-elite mob time-to-kill for a solo player is intended to be around 6 seconds.

• Certain bosses and creatures will have voice lines along with other audio cues.

Reputation

NPCs react differently to players based on their contributions to a node.

NPCs will add a player to their hate list if that player heals, buffs or otherwise assists any player on their hate list.

NPC perception

Alpha-1 preview Seer of the Infinite 3D render.

NPC perception is intended to have different sensory types, ranges, and angles.

• NPCs will have varying fields of view. Some will have the ability to perceive sounds.

We are talking about things like unique abilities played by characters that extend the perception radius, or sounds and different types of walking that are angular from the mob's perception perspective to be unique, different types of creatures that might be of three-dimensional in space, whether it is in water or birds in the sky that have a downward cone angle type perception as well. Those are things we want to do, but we haven't yet spent the time on the AI behaviors there. – Steven Sharif

• Social aggro will vary based on NPC types and NPC factions.

Q: How far away from hostile targets will be before they act aggressively towards us? More specifically, will creatures watch us murder their friends in the open world with no reaction, will they try to kill us in retaliation, or will they run away in sheer terror?

A: Obviously as MMO Gamers we're accustomed to the concept of social aggro. When I hit a target out in the field, they're going to aggro other creatures nearby. We have similar functionality. Obviously however we also have this concept of a more puzzle-oriented level design, where you have different patrollers that might be moving around the world. So that dynamic is always changing the creatures that are near each other might be something that you need to be cognizant of as you begin to navigate those areas. And there might even be certain faction types, where you may have dedicated aggro social tags between certain creature types; and that might be like goblins with their goblin dogs. They could be far away but they send off an alert to those nearby enemies when you aggro another target. And then you also have these perception radiuses; and there's a number of different perception radius types that we incorporate as part of our AI. Those things might be a forward-looking perception cone that represents sight-based perception; and then you might also have a rear perception radius that might represent kind of sound; and those perception types might even interact with unique stats. So, as a Rogue you might have a stealth ability, or as a Ranger you might have camouflage ability: Those are going to dampen those stats which are checked by those perception radiuses; and then you might even have different creature types that fly above the battlefield, or beneath the battlefield, and they may have downward cone type angles. The whole idea is that that navigating the world should be like a puzzle as you move throughout. – Steven Sharif

• Habilidades such as Stealth and Camouflage can dampen NPC perception.

• NPCs in certain encounters may be aware of their local environment and can seek cover behind obstacles, for example; but this will not be prevalent in general AI designs.

Node development

Racial architecture of the same Aldea (fase 3) node on different servers. Dünir Dwarven influence (top). Kaelar Human influence (bottom). Alpha-1 No NDA captura de pantalla.

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

El diseño de un nodo y su estilo es determinado por varios factores:

• La localización y el entorno (bioma) del nodo.

  Nodes will adjust the local topography to fit the aesthetic and mechanical requirements of the node. – Steven Sharif

  • Los nodos ajustarán la topografía local para adaptarse a los requisitos estéticos y mecánicos del nodo.

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

• El tipo de nodo.

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

• La raza que contribuya con el porcentaje más alto al avance del nodo modificará la apariencia racial de sus edificios, NPCs y objetos.
  • Las razas relacionadas entre ellas no combinan sus influencias culturales. Por ejemplo, los Py'Rai y los Empyrean cuentan como culturas diferentes. Su raza madre, los Pyrian, ya no existen.
  • Este cambio de estilo y cultura ocurre en cada etapa del nodo.
  • Esto aplica para todos los nodos, incluso los nodos de castillo.

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

• El resto es determinado por el alcalde del nodo.
  • Debería ser posible completar varios proyectos de construcción en un nodo durante el mes en el que el alcalde ostenta su cargo.

Q: How long would you say it will take players on average to fill slash 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

Puestos de jugador

Niküan player stall concept art.

If there were ever a cornerstone serving as the bedrock of Niküan trade, then this modest stall would be it. Stacked from floor to thatched roof with all manner of catch, it is prepped for a full day of commerce and trade. Here, haggling is not merely a suggestion, but a requirement.

Alpha-1 player stall 3D renders. 3D model by Adam Will.

Puestos de jugador (also called Kiosks and rental stalls) are rentable locations near the unique building in an Economic node, in Mercado (the constructible building available for placement by mayors of any Pueblo (fase 4) node or higher), or as business buildings on freehold plots.

All nodes do have the ability to spawn player stalls. If you're not an economic node and you don't have a market- that's essentially your unique building- then you can construct essentially what is I guess would be called a... marketplace; and that marketplace will then come with certain services and it will come with a certain number of stalls. The economic node as I recall has the ability to construct an auction house and the auction house serves through the economic means the ability to list and sell items and that comes with additional stalls as well for the players. – Steven Sharif

Renting a player stall enables players to sell items as well as provide repair and enchanting services, even when they are not online.

• Player stalls are rentable by node citizens.
  • Player stalls may be utilized for a period of time based on the price paid to rent the stall.
• Player stalls are linked to a player's warehouse.
• Player stalls do not require the attendance of the character or for that character to be online.
  • An attendant NPC is assigned to the stall. This may be an "image" of the player.
• Players are able to input required items for repair and also purchase required materials for that repair.
• Player stalls may still operate during node siege declaration. This is subject to testing.

Parte de la siguiente información no ha sido confirmada recientemente por los desarrolladores y es posible que no esté en la hoja de ruta de desarrollo actual.

• Players are not able to be attacked or robbed while occupying their player stall inside the limits of a node.
• Bulletin boards that list the items available in player stalls can be accessed from anywhere in the region.
  • These give the location of the stall so players can travel there and purchase the items.
• Stall sales are also listed in auction houses.
  • This may no longer be accurate.

Siege NPCs

Siege NPCs, NPC guards, and mercenary NPCs serve as defense points during sieges and other events.

• Only combat NPCs are killable during a siege. Non-combat NPCs, such as merchants, will despawn and will respawn if the siege is unsuccessful.

• Upgrades to the node's Barracones may allow a garrison of siege NPCs to be spawned in the event of an attack.

• PNJs mercenarios can be hired in advance. They are intended to be a significant presence but not the main line of defense in a siege.

Siege objectives

Parte de la siguiente información no ha sido confirmada recientemente por los desarrolladores y es posible que no esté en la hoja de ruta de desarrollo actual.

Each node has a number of districts, depending on its stage.

• Districts are taken by defeating a "raid boss" guard NPC in that district.
• If attackers take over a district, they gain that district as a respawn location.
• Attackers can kill the quartermasters to increase the respawn times of the defenders while reducing their own respawn times.

Defenders can assault the outposts of the attackers to hinder them.

• Destroying the headquarters of the attacking army is a victory condition for the defenders.

Attackers may not be capable of deleveling a node. 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.

As the attackers are sieging a city they have obviously a win condition- a win objective- but additionally there can be casualties from a structural standpoint during that process. So let's say if the... attackers were to not succeed in completely destroying the node they could still affect damage across multiple types of buildings that are present within the node, which disables services for that those citizens and also will require some type of reconstruction effort on behalf of the citizens. – Steven Sharif

Farmhands and NPC assistance

Based on node type and progression, players will be able to hire NPCs to work as farmhands on their freehold farms. Players will be able to command these farmhands in-game as well as potentially offline via an application (mobile app) or web interface.

• Crop rotation management.
• Plant or harvest specific crops.

Tavern NPCs

The way that the tavern NPCs are going to work is you'll have patrons of either in-node taverns that will have the ability to list items as part of that NPC's merchant store and those items will mainly be around food and drink; and those types of craftable things that are relevant to these taverns; and those items will grant buffs based on proximity. And then additionally players can build taverns on their freeholds- we've discussed this in the past- they will list their craftable foods and drinks and whatnot with their NPC at that tavern as well; and players who interact with that can purchase them- have a drink at the tavern, eat some food at the tavern; and that'll give them a buff for a period of time as long as they remain proximity of that freehold. – Steven Sharif

Tavern NPCs ("bartenders") are merchants that are present in Taberna in nodes and on freeholds.

• Tavern NPCs sell food, drinks, and other crafted items that have been made for that tavern. Consuming these items will grant buffs for a period of time, providing the character remains in proximity to the tavern.

You're going to probably want to sell items to other players more than necessarily tavern merchants but they'll be there as well. – Jeffrey Bard

Transportation of goods

Esta traducción puede estar desactualizada.

Alpha-2 inventory user interface early preview.

Los límites del inventario personal están viculados a una mochila. Los materiales y objetos recolectables están sujetos a la cantidad de objetos en lugar de límite de peso. Las caravanas y mulas sirven para ser el modo principal de transporte de mercancías más allá de estos límites.

• Las mulas pueden transportar aproximadamente 10 veces más que las mochilas. Las caravanas pueden transportar aproximadamente 10 veces más que las mulas.

• Las caravanas tendrán límite de capacidad de carga y estadísticas personalizables, como puntos defensivos, velocidad y número de guardias NPC contratados.
  • Además de aumentar la capacidad de inventario, las caravanas también aportan beneficios adicionales por completar con éxito rutas comerciales y otras misiones.
  • Los objetos transportados en caravanas deben ser almacenados en cajas.

In my opinion, and this is of course subjective, but weight management is not a compelling mechanic for players to have to deal with in an MMO setting. – Steven Sharif

La capacidad del inventario tiene límites de cantidad (stacking) basados en el tipo de artículo. Por ejemplo: El límite de acumulación de pociones puede ser de cien. El límite de acumulación de objetos de comida puede ser de 999 o 1000.

• El inventario de un jugador tiene secciones para diferentes tipos de objetos. Los objetos de misión, por ejemplo, no llenarán la capacidad normal del inventario de un jugador.

• La capacidad del inventario será relativamente limitada para los personajes nuevos.
  • Se podrá obtener capacidad adicional en el juego comprando mochilas de mayor calidad de los artesanos (crafters).

• Los jugadores tendrán la posibilidad de buscar objetos que tengan almacenados en varias localizaciones (como el almacén personal y los almacenes de los nodos).

We want you to know where the things are; and then the meaningful aspect of that thing is traveling to those locations to access some of those things, particularly as it relates to materials and raw gatherables. – Steven Sharif

Parte de la siguiente información no ha sido confirmada recientemente por los desarrolladores y es posible que no esté en la hoja de ruta de desarrollo actual.

• Inventario expansion and weight management training certificates are available in the Galería comercial at Ciudad stage economic nodes.

Artificial intelligence

Jermaine Torment of Illwind boss mob.

You can see how we utilize some of the different armor pieces- you've probably seen some of these pieces on different outfits like that toast Corvid Castigator cloak is on him. – Margaret Krohn

Ashes of Creation utilizes an adaptive artificial intelligence (AI), meaning different encounters with similar mobs and bosses will yield different player experiences.

• Some NPC AI behaviors may be randomly selected at the time of initial engagement causing them to make decisions dynamically during an encounter.
  • Higher frequency of AoE attacks depending on how many players are participating.
  • Unlock rage, recovery effects and buffs.
  • Supporting other monster types or classes nearby.
  • Additional adds and add classes.
  • Some NPCs may attempt to seek cover behind obstacles during encounters.
• NPCs performing "idle actions" to make the world seem more alive has been discussed by the developers but is not confirmed.

Part of the NPC encounter design is not always going to be the same behavior tree. There will be purposefully behaviors that exist for the boss that are rolled at the time of the initial engagement; and so that is in an effort to keep things emergent, to keep things different, to try to not keep a static monotonous engagement idea. – Steven Sharif

There are AI systems that don't relate to controlling NPCs.

• Avance del nodo.
• Stock market.
• Triggered events.

There are some additional AI parameters that are set that don't relate necessarily to controlling NPCs. There are AIs with regards to the development of the borders for nodes in the direction and also the decisions that are made of which lower nodes to enslave as vassal states. There's AI that relates to a little bit of the stock market that's going to be present in the economy. There's some AI systems that are going to be announced also that are pretty innovative I think with regards to the MMORPG genre and that's going to make the triggered event system very interesting I think; and that's with regards to how nodes develop and the environment reacts to that development by spawning these triggered events of a horde of zombies attacking a city or a legendary raid boss coming out of the mountain. I think there's a lot of opportunity for some of the innovations that's been in the AI sector of game development too to come out in Ashes. – Steven Sharif

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Ver además

• Mobs
• Jefes de mundo
• Monster Coins
• Encounters
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