Node governments

Alpha-1 winner of Mayoral election.

Node governments are chosen from a node's citizenry when a node reaches stage 3 (Village).

Positions within a node's government are attained through titles that grant special access to NPCs in the node.

• Mayor.
• Priests, bishops or acolytes in certain temples.
• Patron guild leader.
• Chief bounty hunter.

There are a lot of things that you can strive for within [a node] that grant you that special treatment. – Steven Sharif

Node elections

Alpha-1 node election user interface.

Once a node has reached Village stage there will be a one week cooldown period before node elections begin.

• This cooldown period allows players to establish citizenship at the village; which may require them to relinquish previous citizenship at another node.
• Following the initial cooldown, there will be a one week election process, then from that point on, elections will follow a monthly cadence.
• Asedios de nodos may not be declared for 21 days following a node advancing to Village (stage 3). This does not apply to nodes at higher stages.

The village stage is a unique stage because that's when the government system comes online and all other stages past village there will have already been a cadence for the election system and it will follow that cadence, but after the initial village stage is completed there will be a one week period where players have an opportunity to establish citizenship at the village that also provides for the cooldown time that is- that would be present on players leaving another node to kind of participate in in this particular node leveling up. But that after that one week period then there will be a one-week election process and then from that point moving forward will be the one month cadence that the node experiences elections on. – Steven Sharif

Node elections occur on a monthly basis.

• Election notices will be mailed to the accounts of citizens.
• Only citizens of a node may participate in its elections.
• Only node citizens may be elected mayor.
  • Only one citizenship may be declared per account, per server.
• A king or queen can also become a mayor.

Node governments and mayors are chosen through different methods according to the node's type.

• Divine node governments are chosen from citizens via service oriented quests that prove faith and dedication to the node.
• Economic node governments are able to be bought and sold by citizens with the most money.
• Mayors of military nodes are chosen from citizens through last man standing (gladiatorial arena style) combat.
  • An idea currently under consideration is to have players build out a champion that they can then fight in the arena, rather then using their regular characters. These champions can be equipped with gear and skills via quests, along with materials and gold to make the champion stronger.
  • The reason for the champion idea is because the game isn't balanced for 1v1 Pvp. Utilizing champions makes arena combat more of a level playing ground.
  • Arena style combat is instanced but spectators may be possible through an interface.
• Scientific node governments are elected democratically. Records of who voted for who are not published.

City hall

Kaelar node buildings.

City hall is a government building within a node.

We want the City Hall to be the place where big decisions are made for each Node. It should be where the “ruling class” comes together and decides what to do (these decisions can quickly make them the “old ruling class” too).

Mayors and node governments use City hall to visualize and control activities within their node. These capabilities will also be available via mobile/web inteface.

• Status of the node's economy.
• Status of upcoming elections.
• Status of trade agreements.
• Status of caravans.

Players can interact with the node board to get a list of its citizens.

• Clicking on a citizen will reveal information about their guild, society, religion, and property ownership.

Mayors

Alpha-1 Empyrean city node information panel.

Mayors are leaders of a node's government who control the development of that node.

• Allocate resources, taxes, and quests to help develop node defenses.

• Coordinate the transfer of needed supplies with citizens operating caravans.
  • Mayors must communicate what resources are necessary for a particular node then motivate the citizens to fulfill those needs.

• Other leadership powers.

Only node citizens may be elected mayor.

• Only one citizenship may be declared per account, per server.
  • This may have changed to one citizenship per account.
• A king or queen can also become a mayor.

You may only ever be a citizen of a single node at a time. – Steven Sharif

Mayors gain new powers and responsibilities as their node advances.

• The mayoral title unlocks special abilities and stats during sieges or events.

Mayoral caravans

Quest to launch a mayoral caravan.

Mayoral caravans are launched by Mayors.

• Establishing trade routes with another node.
• Obtain resources by doing a caravan quest.

Leadership powers

Government officials have wide-ranging leadership powers.

• Mark foreign citizens of other nodes as enemies of the state.

• Declare war on another node and rally citizens to the cause.

• Enter into trade agreements.

• Directing assets.

• Building projects.

• Tax allocation.

• Mayors are able to allocate treasury funding to hire mercenary NPCs to defend their node during sieges.

• Mayors are able to initiate quest-driven systems that non-citizens can participate in. The mayor can use a portion of the node's treasury or goods as rewards for quest completion. Players will be able to interface with the node to view the quests that are available to them.
  • These quests can be used to bring in material components to help combat node atrophy.

• Governments may be able to choose a node name from a predetermined list.

The government has a lot of say in the direction of the nodes development. Directing assets, building projects, tax allocation, defensive ability etc. Players have the ability to not only create these cities, but they have the right of self-governance.

There are levers and dials that are present to both the owners of Castles as well as the elected officials of Nodes that during their administration they have the ability to impact and influence the region around them. – Steven Sharif

Gremios do not control nodes. Guild leaders (kings and queens) can become mayors of nodes.

• Guilds hold separate roles in the direction of the node than the roles held by private citizens.
• Only a certain number of guilds may participate in these roles.
• Separate guild roles are reserved for small, medium and large guilds.

Guild’s also hold separate roles in the direction of the node, than the roles held by private citizens, and only a certain number of guilds may participate in these roles. Separate guild roles are reserved for Small size guilds, medium size guilds and large size guilds.

Node layout and style

Alpha-1 - Layout de un nodo en etapa de Aldea.

Incluso en la etapa 3, la etapa de desarrollo de aldea, el layout de un nodo es considerable; y parte de este layout incluye hogares estáticos dentro del nodo disponibles para su compra. – Steven Sharif

Estilo de arquitectura racial en un nodo en etapa aldea durante el Alpha-0. Influencia Empyrean (arriba). Influencia Kaelar (abajo).

El layout y la arquitectura del área de desarrollo de un nodo es determinada por la raza más influyente del nodo. Por ejemplo, un nodo en etapa 3 donde la mayor contribución haya sido realizada por jugadores Py'Rai, desarrollará un estilo y arquitectura Py'Rai. La mayoría de los NPCs serán elfos Py’rai, y ofrecerán misiones dentro de la narrativa de su raza. – Margaret Krohn

La experiencia que cada jugador aporta a un nodo también toma en cuenta su raza y otros identificadores. Cuando un nodo avanza, la raza con la mayor contribución de experiencia determina el estilo y la cultura de ese nodo. Este cambio en estilo y cultura puede ocurrir en cualquier etapa del nodo. Por ejemplo, si un nodo avance a nivel 2 - la etapa de campamento, y 51% de toda la experiencia fue obtenida por jugadores Ren'Kai, ese nodo se convertirá en un nodo Ren'Kai de nivel 2. Si luego ese mismo nodo avanza a nivel 3 - la etapa de aldea, pero los Py'Rai contribuyeron con el 62% de toda la experiencia obtenida, el nodo se transformará en un nodo Py'Rai de nivel 3. Las influencias culturales traen más que sólo cambios en la narrativa y en la estética: también le dará beneficios a la cultura dominante de la zona de influencia de ese nodo. – Margaret Krohn

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

• La localización del nodo.
• El tipo de nodo.
• La raza con mayor contribución al avance del nodo.
  • Apariencia racial de los edificios y NPCs del nodo.
  • Esto aplica para todos los nodos, incluso los nodos de castillo.
• El resto es determinado por el alcalde del nodo.

Algunas partes son determinadas por el área en la que se encuentra, por su tipo y por la raza de mayor influencia; el resto es determinado por el alcalde. – Jeffrey Bard

Todos los nodos, ya sea que estén asociados a un castillo o no, poseen influencias culturales que se reflejan en los edificios y los NPCs presentes. – Steven Sharif

Existe una mecánica de desgaste que afecta a la experiencia y la influencia de un nodo, con el fin de evitar que una sola raza domine todo el mundo.

Existe el desgaste y ese desgaste en la experiencia y la influencia aumenta basado en el desempeño de la raza en el mundo. Así que si todos los nodos fuesen nodos orcos, su nivel de desgaste sería muy alto y se volvería muy difícil competir contra el establecimiento cultural de nuevos nodos, pues ellos tendrían más influencia sobre el mundo y la opinión popular estaría en su contra en aquellos nodos fuera de su control. – Steven Sharif

Cultural influences

Alpha-1 Village node layout.

What has kind of been unlocked is the ability to do things more dynamically and more procedurally so that when a node spawns there is the opportunity to have different layouts and have different buildings and have different architectures; and each node starts to feel like its own place, so it's not the same node over and over again. Now we've got a node that kind of evolves and changes depending on where it's at and what the environment is and what race has procced it. – Jeffrey Bard

Cultural influences bring more than just the aesthetic and storyline changes - benefits are granted to the dominant culture within that node's Zona de influencia.

• These benefits apply to citizens of the dominant culture but they also apply to mechanics of the node and can also be of benefit to members of other races.
• There is an attrition mechanic that affects experience and influence to curb a single race from dominating the entire world.

There is an attrition and that attrition on experience and influence is heightened based on the performance of the race in the world. So if all these nodes are Orc nodes then their attrition rate is very high to compete with the cultural establishment of new nodes because they have more influence in the world and a popular opinion is against them in their outlying regions that they do not have influence in. – Steven Sharif

Constructible node buildings

Alpha-1 mayoral node building user interface.

Alpha-1 node building construction early preview.

Node governments decide the location and types of constructible node buildings to be constructed within sectors of a node.

• Apartamentos
• Mercados
• Royal stables

These are buildings that the mayor has agency over determining whether or not they should be a constructed project. Constructible buildings can be selected at open plots that are gained as the node advances. If they elect to begin construction of one of these types of buildings- one of which is the marketplace- it'll grant certain trade benefits as well as some stalls that the citizens may participate in. – Steven Sharif

When the building types are determined, the community will then need to bring resources into the node (using caravans) and come together to construct the buildings (via quests and the like).

The government decides how to specialize their node. Once they choose certain things they won't be able to choose other things.

Different governments may change the buildings within a node.

And there could be regime change... If somebody doesn't like the fact that a market was built and they want to re-elect a new government next cycle, they can do so... and that market could be destroyed and a new building take its place.

Pre-defined parameters limit the number of buildings at in-node locations.

Asedios de nodos

Asedios de nodos (Pre-alpha footage).

As some areas in the world grow, others will fall. This is the foundation of the living, breathing world that is Ashes of Creation, where players will have the ability to make important decisions that matter in the longevity of an area becoming a city, or whether to siege a rival town. Rise above the ashes, create the world around you, and be a part of the story that unfolds because of your actions and decisions. – Margaret Krohn

Asedios de nodos enable players to destroy nodes. This paves the way for new development and access to the locked content in surrounding nodes. Due to this dynamic, political strife and intrigue play an important role in the structure of the world.

Sieging nodes will not be an easy task for the attackers. Cities and metropolises will have a considerable defensive advantage.

If you own a home in a node and you don't want to see that home destroyed, you need to defend that city! – Steven Sharif

Nodes can delevel based on node atrophy.

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

Node wars

Node governments may declare war on another node and rally citizens to the cause.

• This mutually flags the citizens of the warring nodes, including their allies, as combatants.
  • Organizaciones sociales quests will either be cooperative or adversarial based on the war status of their parent nodes.
• Vassal nodes cannot declare a node war on their parent node or any of their vassals.

We have conditions that you can set between nodes with regards to either nodes being friendly with each other and acting trade alliances, or they can declare war on nodes similar to how guild wars may function in different games, where those citizens become hostile to each other based on the player government that's elected in the particular node. So those systems all kind of cater to allowing a conflict that's meaningful and that also provides a non-imbalanced relationship between stronger guilds and not as strong guilds. – Steven Sharif

Node politics

There won't be a civil war mechanic within nodes but there will be scope for internal political conflicts; such as undermining the current leadership and disrupting trade.

• The only way to remove an elected mayor prior to the end of their term is by destroying the node.

We want consequences to matter and if that person got elected then you need to work within the means of the mechanics to get them unelected. – Steven Sharif

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 through the caravan system.
• An aspect of naval content.

Taxation

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.

When a node reaches stage 3 (Village) 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.

See also

• Nodos
• Asedios de nodos
• Economía
• Mayors