Economía

Currency concept art.

The economy is usually something that happens in the background of other games. From day one we knew that the economy was going to be something really important to us. – Jeffrey Bard

Mercados in Ashes of Creation are regional, which means that each market has its own character. Because resources will shift locations as they’re exhausted, this will keep people moving about the world, seeking out the best resources for their crafting builds, and the best markets for their goods.

• There will be no central auction house or warehouse.
  • Auction houses in up to two economic metropolises (including their vassal nodes) can be linked with the linked economy superpower.
• There will be item decay (material sinks), deconstruction mechanics and other gold sinks to combat inflation.
  • The developers are considering the use of adaptive price points in merchant shops based on the amount of gold being generated or sunk in the economy.
• There will be player to player trading.

One major feature in our economy that differs from most fantasy style MMOs is that we're not approaching it from a global scale. Rather, we're trying to carve the world up into regions and make each one focus independently, while of course at the same time working together. – Peter Pilone

The economy present in Alpha-1 is not reflective of the final state of the game.

Economic regions

We want our players to have a reason to explore the wilderness, to travel with purpose, and much of that will be driven by our resource system. Transporting these goods might just be more difficult than gathering them. Our regional market system allows players to participate in creating pocket economies that will reinforce the stability of goods in particular regions. Players will be able to move resources and set up shop in other areas to take advantage of the varied markets. With resources spawning dynamically, certain regions will naturally become important trading hubs for the transportation of goods throughout the world.

Economic regions are static areas defined by geographic points of interest.

• Castle regions are larger and encompass multiple economic regions.
• Nodos are the glue that hold castle and economic regions together in potential synergy or chaos.
  • Node ZOIs are fluid and change their area based on the progression of the node and its neighbors.
• Castle regions, Economic regions, and Node ZOI (Zones of Influence) can overlap.

The whole map would be under the influence of 1 of 5 castle regions. However, castle regions aren't the only TYPE of region - there are also economic regions, among other things. – Sarah Flanagan

Buying and selling

Personal shops, player stalls, and auction houses have different properties.

	Puestos de jugador	Personal shops	Auction houses
Cost	Rental fee.	Placement certificate purchase.	Listing fee.
Location	Can be rented at locations near the unique building in an economic node or in Mercados.	Certificates from non-metropolis nodes, allow placement near the node's unique building or on a freehold. Certificates from economic node metropolises allow placement anywhere in the world.	At Mercados in Aldea economic nodes allow raw resources and processed goods to be posted. At Exchanges in Pueblo nodes allow all goods/items to be posted. Metropolis stage Economic nodes enable remote bidding from linked economic nodes. Auctioneer NPC emissaries present in Vassal nodes allow some access to the parent node's auction house.
Player presence	An attendant NPC is assigned to the stall. Character does not need to be online or at the stall.	Player must be online and present at the shop.	N/A
Storage	Linked to character's warehouse.	Linked to character's inventory.	Raw materials and gatherables are automatically deposited within the listing node's local warehouse. Anything other than raw materials and gatherables will be mailed to the purchaser.
Advertising	Items and services are listed on Bulletin boards in the same region. There may or may not also be listings at auction houses.	Custom billboard appears above the character. Items are not listed in the parent node or auction houses.	Items listed are visible in community boards (bulletin boards). Metropolis level economic nodes enable worldwide sale prices for auction houses across Verra.
Pvp	Players are not able to be attacked or robbed while occupying their player stall inside the limits of a node. Material losses may occur if the node's warehouse is destroyed during a node siege.	Players may be killed while occupying their personal shop and are subject to material loss due to normal death penalties.	N/A

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 by Adam Will.

Puestos de jugador (also called Kiosks and rental stalls) are rentable locations near the unique building in an Economic node or in Mercados (the constructible building available for placement by mayors of any Pueblo (stage 4) node or higher).

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.
• Players are not able to be attacked or robbed while occupying their player stall inside the limits of a node.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.

Personal shops

Confectioner’s Delight pre-order pack cosmetic building skin for the cooking profession.

Certificates to place Personal shops (player-owned shops) may be purchased by citizens and non-citizens from Economic nodes.

• These certificates allow the placement of a personal shop near the unique building in an economic node or on a freehold.
  • Once the economic node has reached metropolis stage, personal shops may be placed anywhere in the world.

• When a character creates a personal shop, a billboard pops up above them with a custom advertisement message for items or services available on that character's person. Purchasers can interact directly with the character to purchase these items or services.

A player shop is where you have a certificate to essentially create a shop with your character and a little billboard will pop up above you as you sit down for that shop and advertise a custom message that you want say that has to sell things and/or services that are on your person. So players can then come up to you and they can interact with you. So you reside yourself to that shop. – Steven Sharif

Auction house

Alpha-1 Auctioneer NPC.

If a Node is the Vassal Node of an Economic Node, an Auctioneer NPC appears in that Vassal Node. The Auctioneer allows players to list non-resource/processed materials in the Parent Node’s Auction House, but players cannot bid on items from this Auctioneer. These resources and processed materials must be stored within an Economic Node in order to be listed in that Node’s Auction House. In order to bid, they must still travel to the Auction House in the Parent Node.

Ashes of Creation concept art.

Auction houses accompany unique node buildings in Economic nodes.

• Mercados in Aldea level economic nodes have auction houses that allow raw resources and processed goods to be posted.
• Exchanges in Pueblo nodes have expanded auction houses that allow all goods/items to be posted.
• Economic nodes that have reached the metropolis stage unlock the linked economy superpower.
  • Up to two economic metropolises may be linked in this manner.
  • Metropolis level economic nodes enable worldwide sale prices for auction houses across Verra.
  • Items listed in one linked economic node can be bid on from any other linked economic node.
  • Linked economies also connect an economic metropolis and its vassal economic nodes.

Auction houses enable players to list items at the Economic node in which the auction house is located.

• A listing fee will be charged to list items in the auction house.
• Vassal nodes of the auction house node will be able to view items that are listed on that auction house, regardless of node type of the vassal node.
  • This will be possible through an auctioneer emissary NPC in that node.
  • Items cannot be listed in non-economic vassal nodes.
• Items listed are also visible in community boards (bulletin boards).

• Integrated auction houses allow players to purchase items directly from remote auction houses.
  • Purchases of materials and gatherables will be automatically deposited within the listing node's local warehouse. Players will need to travel to that warehouse to retrieve them. Players wishing to move these items elsewhere will need to utilize the caravan system or other type of transportation.
  • Purchases of anything other than materials and gatherables will be mailed to the purchaser.

• There may be a taxation difference between auction houses versus other player businesses.

Data relating to auction houses, such as price history, volumes, average prices, may be available to players via a mayor-constructed service building in their node.

That's probably how it's going to be surfaced... Your your mayor is going to have to build it for you. – Jeffrey Bard

Bulletin boards

Bulletin board concept art by Michael Bacon..

Bulletin boards are available within nodes and player taverns.

• A market UI lists the current items available for sale in the node and in the same economic region.
  • This includes items for sale in player stalls and auction houses.
  • Players can't purchase directly from the market UI. Instead it gives the location of player stalls where the items may be purchased.
• Encourage localized grouping.
• Enable posting of jobs.
• Quest sponsorship.

Merchant NPCs

Blacksmith merchant NPC UI in an Alpha-1 Expedición node.

Merchant NPCs (also called Vendors) are present from the first stage of node development (Expedición).

• Merchant NPCs are identified by a golden shimmer on their nameplates.
• Merchant NPCs will in general be able to buy items from players.

Player to player trading

Ashes of Creation concept art.

There will be player to player trading in Ashes of Creation.

Q: Will Ashes of Creation have player-to-player trading? Will there be anything stopping me from gifting a friend that's fresh to the game a bunch of in-game money to help them get on their feet quickly?

A: There won't be anything to stop you from doing that. – Steven Sharif

Escrow system

An escrow system is planned to prevent griefing in the crafting system.

We're going to have a UI... you're gonna put the resources in or they're gonna put the resources in. It'll be like an escrow system and then once [the job] is complete you'll get the item they'll get the money.

Mailing items

Social messages sent via mail will be received instantly.

• Raw gatherables and materials are not able to be mailed by players.
• It hasn't been decided whether crafted items such as gear will be able to be sent via mail.

From an item standpoint obviously we can't allow mailing to include any type of resource material or raw gatherable because those are central to the gameplay and transiting through the caravan system and economic regions. But it may be possible to send completed crafted items like you know gear, equipment, stuff like that. But it's something we're still discussing. – Steven Sharif

Purchases of anything other than materials and gatherables from integrated auction houses will be mailed to the purchaser.

Gear binding

There may be some gear binding (BoE or BoP) but it will be an exception rather than the rule, as this doesn't facilitate the objectives for the economy.

• Very little gear will be account bound or soulbound in Ashes of Creation.
  • The game economy is based around crafting and degradation of items.
• Gear is obtained via crafting, gathering and processing along with raid and dungeon bosses.

A lot of what we experienced in games that usually come before us is that many things are account bound and they're soulbound to your character... Instead very little here is character bound. Very very little. The vast majority of gear- yes you will get quest related gear as rewards- but it won't be let's say one set in one dungeon and you must run the dungeon over and over. Instead we want to really emphasize the reliance on the economy and crafters and gatherers and processors to support a majority of the gear structure in-game, combined with that of world raid bosses and dungeon bosses; not a repetitive quest line through a single dungeon. – Steven Sharif

Theft

There will not be a theft (stealing/pickpocketing) mechanic in Ashes of Creation in regards to living players.

• There may be quest related actions that involve some form of stealing, but not of actual items from a player's inventory, where the player is identified as the quest's target via a title or some other means.

That kind of emergent gameplay is obviously the objective behind how can we accommodate a non-static quest-line; and the way you do that is you can apply a flag to a title and whoever holds that title becomes the target of that quest segment. And this can change too because that title can change- you know different people might rise up in the ranks of different societies and organizations. – Steven Sharif

• Players are not able to be robbed while occupying their player stall inside the limits of a node.

There is not a theft mechanic for you to walk up to a player that's alive and steal something. – Steven Sharif

Storage

Storage chest in an Alpha-1 freehold.

Storage points exist at warehouses within nodes and in chests (storage containers) that can be placed in freeholds and static in-node housing.

Warehouses

Warehouses are storage points within a node.

• Warehouses may enable a player to transfer non-material goods between alts. This excludes resources, materials or anything that relies on the caravan system.
• Players are prohibited from moving goods out of depositories within a node following a siege declaration against that node.
• Puestos de jugador are linked to that player's warehouse.
• A portion of all Materials (crafting components) and Gatherables that were stored in successfully sieged nodes become lootable to the victors of the siege as spoils of war.
  • Whole items (crafted items) are not vulnerable to loss during node sieges.
• Personal caravans may launched from any point of storage (including warehouses).
• Corrupt players may not store items in public warehouses.

Player housing storage

Alpha-1 chest concept art.

Alpha-1 chest 3D renders.

Chests are a type of furniture that provides localized storage within a specific house.

• Players must obtain and place storage containers in their player-owned housing.
• Different grades of storage containers have different inventory capacities.
  • There are restrictions on the grades of storage containers available in different types of houses.
• Access permissions can be set to allow others to access a player's personal storage devices.
  • Personal storage chests may be set to permit access by family or guild members.
  • Transfer of resources and materials to alts will only be possible via player housing storage, as this is local to the specific house.
• Players are prohibited from moving goods out of depositories within a node following a siege declaration against that node.
  • Gatherables and processed goods that were stored in in-node housing and apartment storage chests become lootable upon a successful siege against the parent node. These do not become lootable if the node survives the siege- even if the housing buildings are destroyed or damaged during the siege.
• Personal caravans may be launched from any point of storage (including chests).
• Corrupt players are able to utilize private storage in their Arrendamientos.

Banking

Los nodos avanzan a la primera etapa rápidamente. Esto habilita los servicios de NPC como la venta o almacenamiento de articulos.

• El almacenamiento de objetos entre personajes probablemente estará restringida a muebles y artículos terminados.
• Un almacén puede permitir a un jugador transferir bienes no materiales entre personajes alternativos. Esto excluye recursos, materiales o cualquier cosa que dependa del sistema de caravanas.

Caravanas

Alpha-1 caravan 3D render by Adam Will.

Caravanas facilitate the transfer of goods for players wishing to turn a profit.

Mayoral Caravan system - Work in Progress.

The caravan system is an open world PvP system that revolves around opportunity and risk. Caravanas facilitate the transfer of goods for players wishing to turn a profit.

• Caravans are for transfer of personal goods and quests as well as supplies for castles and nodes.

• Caravans may only be sent from or arrive at village nodes or above.

• Caravans can transport goods for more than one player.

• The Pvp flagging system does not apply to caravans.

Death penalties do not apply to objective-based events (such as caravans, guild wars, and node sieges).

Caravan types

Ramstone Hauler pre-order pack cosmetic caravan skin.

There are different types of Caravanas in Ashes of Creation.

• Mayoral caravans.
• Quest driven caravans.
• Personal caravans.

The caravan system is another very big part of the node system. They are the main driver of economic activity and there is a bunch of different types of caravan. – Jeffrey Bard

Naval caravans

Alpha-1 Niküa naval caravan 3D render.

Caravans are capable of transitioning from land to naval caravans. So if you start out as a land-based Caravan and you move to the coast and you want to move into the water there's gonna be a little transition period there; it's gonna be a little construction kind of site: You're not gonna have to do anything it's just gonna be a timer right so that you can't quickly move between land and water. It's gonna be probably in the matter of you know a minute to two minutes. There's a little bit of vulnerability in that regard. – Steven Sharif

Naval caravans (Trade ships) are part of Ashes of Creation naval content. Naval caravans allow the transportation of trading goods.

• Naval caravans are capable of transitioning to and from land caravans at the point of intersection of land and ocean.
• These caravans will come in varying sizes and capacities.
• By default naval caravans have a racial appearance. Players will be able to apply caravan skins to change this appearance.

 

Clases de artesanos

Clases de artesanos allow a player to specialize in one or more of the following skill trees.

• Recolección
• Procesamiento
• Elaboración

Within each of these three artisan classes lies different professions.

• Characters within a single account (Alts) may have different professions.
• There are profession-specific quests.

A character may only master one of the three parent artisan classes.

• It is possible to master multiple professions (but not all) within this mastered artisan class.

Clases de artesanos and their professions are not affected by a character's race, religion, or class.

• Progresión within artisan classes does not relate to a player's progression in their adventuring class.
• Choice of profession does not affect a player's stats.

Crafting and gathering is a very important component of the economy that players will have direct control over. Whether you wish to build a sprawling plantation around your house, or wish to travel the vast wilderness in search of treasure and resources.

The crafting systems and artisanship in general is pretty complex. – Steven Sharif

Gathering professions

• Farming
• Pesca
• Herbología
• Tala
• Minería
• Domesticación

Processing professions

• Animal husbandry
• Smelting

Crafting professions

Pre-alpha crafting.

• Alchemy
• Armor smithing
• Blacksmithing
• Carpentry
• Cooking
• Jewel crafting
• Scribes
• Ship building
• Siege weapons
• Weapon smithing

Artisan supply chain

Artisans within Ashes of Creation must choose a path in their artisan skill tree. This inter-dependency establishes a supply chain from raw materials to finished product. Each stage of the chain may require caravans to transport goods from one artisan to another.

1. Obtaining raw materials:
   • Using the Recolección profession.
   • By killing mobs and bosses.
   • From deconstructing weapons or armor.
   • By purchasing them from other players.
2. Refining the raw materials with the Procesamiento profession.
3. Elaboración the finished product using its crafting recipe.
   • Recipes are also obtainable from boss drops.

As a crafter you're going to want to know where certain recipes can be fulfilled; which nodes have the capability of creating what you've processed material that you've gathered for; and then you're going to want to plan out your route to either transit the goods there or make sure that you're situated in the area so that you can go out collect and build in that area as well. So there's a lot of planning that's going to be necessary. – Steven Sharif

Player owned businesses

Shop sign concept art.

Our business owner system... grants players a meaningful existence in the world and rewards them for their persistence, dedication and survivability. – Steven Sharif

Taverns

Taverns provide tiered services.

• Misiones that might only be gathered from the player-owned taverns.
• Meals that grant buffs for a period of time after a player leaves.
• Recipes that could potentially be sold to cooking professions, that may only be obtained from a player-owned business in a certain area.

The longer the tavern is in business and the more patrons served, the faster the tavern will level up.

Business chains

There's no reason why you couldn't license your name to somebody else who also has a freehold and who also has an Inn and work together. – Jeffrey Bard

Taxes

Node taxes

Alpha-1 mayoral user interface.

Mayors/Node governments allocate resources, taxes, and quests to help develop node defenses.

• Tax money only goes toward funding node development.
• Taxation rates scale based on when a player joined a node as a citizen. The goal is to exert financial pressure on node populations by making taxes increasingly expensive as nodes advance, rather than putting in place hard population caps.

Parent nodes take a cut of all taxes from the housing and any services that occur within their ZOI.

• This tax doesn't necessarily impact the individual citizen, because citizen's tax levels are determined by their node, but the node's finances are affected by the taxation levied by its parent nodes.

Housing taxes

When a node reaches stage 3 (Aldea) and a player run government has formed, all player housing will pay taxes.

• A player's tax charge will be determined by the number of structures built on their plot.

Castle taxes

Castles have direct power over the Nodes that belong to it, but also have soft power across the entire region it belongs to. All Nodes belonging to that region pay fealty to the Castle in the form of taxes paid directly to the Castle. The Monarch sets the rate, and can use those proceeds to upgrade defenses, maintain the Castle’s direct Nodes, or provide buffs and benefits to the citizens of that region, as the magnanimous ruler that you are.

Castillos del gremio influence a castle region around them.

• A castle's region is 1/5th the game world.
• Castle regions, Economic regions, and Node ZOI (Zones of Influence) can overlap.
  • A castle could have a metropolis beside it.
• Castle region boundaries are static.

Castillos del gremio impose a tax on all revenue for the nodes within its region.

• Castle taxes are carried via NPC generated caravans from the nodes that fall under the castle's purview to one of the castle nodes at the end of each week leading up to a castle siege.
• In addition to taxes, Castles also influence crop yields, resources and events within its region.
• Part of the tax and resources gathered are applied to the castle for improvements.
• The remainder of tax income can be used by the guild for whatever they want.
• When castles change hands (following a siege), some taxes stay with the castle and some stay with the guild.

Castles have the ability to allocate taxes collected from nodes under them toward certain benefits that go back to the node. Or they can be more selfishly governed that treasury more towards the guild that owns it and that obviously is going to have some political implications, because it could- if you're not using it for the benefit of the people in the region they might rise up and help take you out from that that position of owning that castle. – Steven Sharif

Item sinks

It's important for a healthy economy to have item sinks, so that anything that can be crafted can also be destroyed:

1. Over-enchanting carries the risk of destroying that item, rendering it useless for use temporarily.
2. Players gain craftable items and recipes from deconstructing (salvaging) completed items.
3. A portion of resources and materials are lost when caravans or nodes are destroyed.
4. Corrupted players who die can lose gear.
5. Item durability (item decay) does not destroy items, but it acts as a materials sink. Zero percent durability will unequip an item, increasing its repair costs.

An important aspect of a healthy economy is having some item sinks available... There are three kinds of item sinks: You can gain craftable items from deconstructing completed items; You can have decay... and if you want to over-enchant that item there will be a potential to destroy it as well. It's important for an economy to experience those types of emphasis on what can be crafted as well as seeing those items that are crafted be destroyed as well..

The concept there is this is part of the engine that is supply and demand. So the server is constantly generating these materials on tick as they kind of propagate throughout the world and get repopulated, players are going out there and collecting these things. We want to make sure that there is a driving force and factor behind what crafters and gatherers are out there doing: There's constantly going to be a demand for them to supply these things. Whether that death is from PvP or from PvE these are going to be necessities for players to constantly provide. – Steven Sharif

Item durability

There is item durability (item decay) in Ashes of Creation.

• Item durability loss occurs on death.
  • Gear stored in a player's inventory (that is not equipped) does not lose durability when that player dies.

• Materials are required in order to restore the performance of decayed items.

• Item decay does not destroy items, but it acts as an materials sink.
  • Zero percent durability will unequip an item, significantly increasing its repair costs.

If you allow it to get to certain stages, or to get to a destructed stage then it requires a lot of material components in order to return back to its former glory. – Steven Sharif

• Over enchanting an item comes with the risk of durability loss if a safety margin is exceeded.

The decay system is not going to be some worthless "Oh I'm just going to throw some gold into this and it's a simple gold sink". It's actually going to require some base materials in order to repair decayed items; and decay occurs from death and also the destruction and disable system. For the weapons over the over-enchanting will require those materials as well. So creating that dependency I think is healthy for the crafting economy. – Steven Sharif

There is durability in the game... It's not going to be a trivial durability. There is a potential to destroy gear (weapons and armor), but there is also an ability to reforge that destroyed gear using a portion of the materials necessary as well as finding an item creator who can reforge it. – Steven Sharif

Item deconstruction

Players gain craftable items and recipes from deconstructing (salvaging, dismantling, disenchanting) completed items.

• Specific and necessary crafting materials for higher tier items can only be obtained through the deconstruction of lower-tier items. The is designed to keep lower tier crafted gear relevant through progression and across expansions.

There's salvaging where you can deconstruct an item to get components only capable of retrieving from salvaging an item that can be used in crafting other types of items. – Steven Sharif

Power creep

Power creep is a balance issue... When it comes to gear progression specifically, the idea is to create an open market that is not heavily dependent on soulbound items; and having many item sinks and gold sinks within that economy that allows for the potential degradation and loss of assets within that closed economy; and not introduce items from the market that companies put in from a pay-to-win perspective or from a pay-to-convenience perspective that undermines the economy that players have built. That is a huge mistake that companies have made in the past and that lends to the imbalancing of what designers maybe have actually balanced well. – Steven Sharif

Security systems

Security systems will be in place to combat cheating, exploiting, botting, gold selling, item duplication and other things that affect the economy starting from Alpha-0.

• These systems collect user data and flag abnormal activities for inspection. This combined with player reporting functions generates a live "heat map" that draws attention to unusual behavior.

• Players caught cheating will be banned.

Game masters

Game masters (GMs) will be present and active on Ashes of Creation servers.

• There will be a standard escalation system, where different actions are taken based on the seriousness of each infraction. Actions could range anywhere from being stripped (of the illegitimate items or currency) to being banned for a period of time, or being permanently banned.

The direction that I'm taking Intrepid as a company in is that a significant portion of the revenue created by the game goes into not only creating additional content and updates for the game but also goes into I think caretaking, as I like to call it; and that caretaking is multiple things: It's having active and present GM's on servers. It's having a an interacting community team that is always present and on-call for participating in forum discussions and streams and updates. – Steven Sharif

Following a standard approach to an escalation system where certain infractions are immediate and automatic bans and some infractions provide a path forward where action is taken that might ban the account or strip the account or provide some chat bans or the ability to play over a week or so... If you buy gold and depending on the the seriousness of the infraction you could go anywhere from being stripped and to being banned for a period of time to being permanently banned. – Steven Sharif

Two-factor authentication

Some of the following information has not been recently confirmed by the developers and may not be on the current development roadmap.

Token-based two-factor authentication (2FA) may be in place for Alpha-1.

World manager

The World manager is an algorithm in Ashes of Creation that controls dynamic world elements. It acts as both a throttle and an incentive system for various activities to ensure certain parameters are within acceptable thresholds.

• Prices of hunting certificates.
• A heatmap of experience being gained to apply to node advancement.
  • The territory expansion algorithm takes into account the nearest coast, neighboring nodes, and the heatmap of players in surrounding areas over the last weeks or month.
  • Due to the way the progression algorithm calculates territorial (ZOI) expansion during node advancement, there is a small possibility that two nodes of the same stage end up being close to each other.
• Transit of resources and goods between regions to drive quest rewards for nodes.

For example if you know iron is being used as a raw resource for a specific crafting path that might drive up the price of mithril or silver; and that will incentivize the market to course correct a little bit. The idea is to provide soft incentives that help to alleviate the demand and also to prop up the supply that might not be present from the economic systems. – Steven Sharif

Loot tables

Alpha-1 dungeon concept by Michael Bacon.

Monsters drop hunting certificates, Artículos and crafting materials rather than gold.

• Hunting certificates is a term that covers items, such as Pelts that house the value of a mob's death. These certificates are specific to an economic region.

A wolf is not going to be carrying a sack of gold. It may instead drop "pelts" that can be traded for gold.

• Hunting certificates will also drop on a character's death.
• Hunting certificates can be traded with hunter NPCs within nodes.
  • The level of the node and the distance of the node from the drop will determine the value of the certificate. Certificates redeemed from distant economic regions via the caravan system will provide higher returns (4 to 5 times greater in some cases) than certificates collected from the same region.
  • The value of the certificates are also calculated (by the world manager algorithm) based on the volume of certificates being redeemed in each region.
• Hunting certificates can also be stored within node warehouses.

Loot tables of world bosses or dungeon bosses have a small RNG chance of dropping gear (completed items).

• There is a much higher chance that materials and unique recipes are dropped that can be used to craft items of equitable value.
• There is a small RNG chance of looting rare and legendary items or crafting materials from mobs based on the level, status and type of mob. This also applies to harvesting resources with a gathering profession.
• Legendary equipment is only dropped by Legendary world bosses.
• Stats on dropped items will vary based on the rarity of the item.

Loot tables are disabled for player controlled monsters.

Experience debt decreases the drop rate percentages from monsters.

Players drop hunting certificates and other items upon death, based on their applicable death penalties.

Population based scaling

The prices that NPCs sell items for will scale based on the economic activity on a server. Prices will rise to combat inflation and fall as a population diminishes.

The node system allows the developers to scale the experience needed to level a node and the attrition that delevels a node based on activity.

Things that NPCs buy and sell kind of scale based on the economic activity that exists on that server... As inflation rises, prices rise and everything kind of ends up being equal, even though there might be a couple of extra zeros. So that can go up and it can also go down so as a population leaves, things become less expensive and players don't have to do as much to earn that. On the other side of things we look at the node system and the node system is set up in this really flexible way that allows us to scale the experience needed to level a node and the attrition that delevels a node to scale based on activity too. So you know it's just a matter of adjusting a couple of constants and that goes up and down and the server can watch it and change those on the fly as it needs to. – Jeffrey Bard

Trade agreements

Node governments can enter into trade agreements with other nodes. Each node entering into the agreement can designate caravans with materials to be sent to the other; improving the economy of both nodes. This gives experience to all involved, contributes to the node’s growth and helps to construct buildings.

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. – Steven Sharif

Trade routes

Mayoral caravan launched by a mayor to establish a trade route with another node.

Trade routes in Ashes of Creation refer to.

• Economic relationships between nodes established by Mayors or node citizens.
  • Agreements are established to trade commodities that are unique to particular nodes or node types via NPC-driven caravans.

From a diplomatic standpoint the ability for the mayor or citizens to set up NPC routed trade routes between nodes as a trade agreement or as a diplomatic process. – Steven Sharif

For example: this node over here might have access to cotton as a resource and when that node processes that cotton it might be some very nice type of linen that only that node, or very rarely nodes would have access to. So when you initiate a trade route, you're bringing its supplies that the mayor has requested because they're trying to build, let's say a specific type of service building, or they're trying to unlock a blueprint that they have access to now to build up their node. – Steven Sharif

• An aspect of naval content.

Sharemarket

As nodes develop, player governments may open a Stock exchange (also called Stock markets and Sharemarkets) where players can buy and sell shares in Nodos, Gremios and Organizaciones sociales.

• The value of stocks is influenced by world events and the performance of nodes, Organizaciones sociales or guilds.
  • Hard metrics, such as quest lines, nearby resources, citizen progression, and purchases of local real estate, will determine the value of purchasable shares.

• Sieges will halt trading of shares in a node. This opens up potential for economic sabotage.

• There is no regulatory commission to restrict the purchase and sale of stocks.

Real estate

Players buy the deeds for housing from the node itself. Players can also buy and sell properties from other players.

• Housing will have a base price that scales with the number of citizens in the node.
  • In-node housing will be at a premium, and is expected to be hotly contested.
  • The more apartments that have been purchased in a node, the higher the price scales.
• The developers are considering an auction-based method for listing new properties that become available for purchase when a node advances.
  • A grace period will occur before the housing becomes available for auction.
  • Bids will then be accepted starting at a minimum reserve value that is based on the number of citizens in that node.
  • At the end of the auction, the highest bidder will win the house.
• Static housing and apartments can be listed and sold to other players.
  • There is no cap on the price of player-originated housing sales.
  • Player housing that is destroyed during a node siege can no longer be sold.
  • Arrendamientos may not be sold to other players. This is subject to change based on testing.

There's no cap essentially in player originated sales. Those are determined essentially by supply and demand as it is within the game and there's no artificial barrier to how high that demand can go. – Steven Sharif

• Housing ownership can default back to the node if the owner fails to pay their property taxes. A balance and penalties will be charged to the new purchaser of the home in the manner of a "foreclosure process".
• Players will not be able to exceed their allotment of housing in the game.

This will allow players to transfer real property goods. This includes ... static housing, this includes apartments that they may own; and they can sell those because those will have a limited and finite quantity. – Steven Sharif

Rental and leasing concepts are currently under consideration.

Some concepts that we have is going to be rental or leases that could be had allowing players to kind of lease a property for a period of time where they will have control rights over utilizing storage based on the area, controlling the furniture or access point; all that kind of stuff. – Steven Sharif

Artwork

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  2019-11-27
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  2019-07-19
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  2019-05-23
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  2019-05-23
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  2019-05-23
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  2019-05-23
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  2018-08-17
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  2018-04-30
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  2018-04-30
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  2018-04-30
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  2018-04-30
• 2018-04-01
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  2018-02-15
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  2017-10-19
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  2017-10-19
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  2017-10-14
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  2017-10-14
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  2017-10-10

See also

• Elaboración
• Mercados
• Caravanas
• Puestos de jugador
• Artisan supply chain
• Currency