Node-to-node reputation

Example Ren'Kai node policy affecting node-to-node reputation.

• Node-to-node reputation can be affected by trade agreements and completing mayoral commissions.

• Mayors are able to declare a node war on a node with a sufficiently low Node-to-node reputation score.

• Mayors may attempt to utilize node mandates to perform actions that degrade reputation with another node, but these require buy-in from the node's citizenry.

Q: If two nodes are friendly towards each other but a new mayor wants to unilaterally start a war, how many mayoral cycles would it take for the new mayor to degrade node relations to the point that a war commission would become available?

A: That's a very very good question. So, that includes a system that hasn't yet fully been implemented, which is our mandate power system; and mandates are essentially powers that the mayor will have available to them in order to enact certain policies; and some policies might make it possible for the mayor to degrade node relationships faster than would normally be available, but cost him more mandate power in order to enact those policies. Now this requires some level of buy-in from the citizenship: Not just the fact that he got elected, but these policies that get enabled will require some opt-in participation from the broader citizenship. And if then he is granted some of those emergency power acts that the policies provide. he could skip the standard degradation period or time in order to enact either a war event or some other type of adverse relationship type action with the node.

• Node policies can be enacted by Mayors to increase node-to-node reputation gains.

• At the beginning of Alpha-2 node diplomacy will primarily be conducted informally. More systems will be introduced throughout Alpha-2 that enable diplomatic relationships between nodes, such as trade agreements and routes between nodes.

Q: There seems to be many ways nodes can hurt each other through PvP means. Are there ways to hurt rival nodes without a direct PvP system or component?

A: There are less straightforward ways to affect a node than PvP. Some of those ways can be through commissions that might help to degrade the reputation between nodes that have alliances or trade partnerships with each other. Some means might be through [the] land management system, where you can sap the resources of the surrounding area for the node, driving population away from that. [Some] might be through policy choices that certain nodes can take, which help to isolate some of the actions that your neighboring nodes can take. It can be through vassalship- There's a lot of different systems that are secondary and not necessarily PvP Centric that we intend to provide nodes the ability to interact with. – Steven Sharif

Trade agreements

Trade agreements are established by Mayors to trade node commodities between nodes via mayoral caravans.

• There are a limited number of trade agreements that a node can have.
• Mayoral caravans may only be initiated between nodes with trade agreements or alliances.
• Trade agreements affect reputation between the nodes.

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

• Guilds may enter into trade agreements within a guild alliance.

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.

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

Trade routes in Ashes of Creation refer to.

• Economic relationships between nodes established by Mayors.
  • Trade agreements are established to trade node commodities between nodes via mayoral 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

• Roads for the transit goods via the caravan system.

You might have a mountain pass and during winter that mountain pass is always closed and so the trade routes on land change with caravans and that's something that can not only exist on a cyclical level but also dynamically based on player activity.

• Naval trade conducted by merchant ships.

Node wars

Miraleth channelling the Godspike in an Alpha-2 Territory control node war.

God Spike Scholar PvE objective during the Harness the Godspike node war event.

Scholars are going to spawn across the POI. They'll be marked on our map and they're going to increase the time it's required for the enemy to channel; and drop a hefty amount of the materials we need to turn in to be able to channel ourselves. – Chris Justo

Node war map icons

	Friendly node
	Enemy node
	Node war objective
	Controlled POI

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

• Different node war types can be declared by the Mayor.

• It costs resources to declare a node war. These are able to be gathered through special mayoral commissions relating to war preparations. Additionally, Mayors may only declare war on nodes with sufficiently low Node-to-node reputation scores. This requirement may be disabled or reduced for Alpha-2 testing. Accordingly the frequency of node wars in Alpha-2 will likely be higher than in the final game.

We don't want mayors running around in Ashes of Creation just perma flagging the whole world into a state of PvP, well it's going to cost you some resources to do that. – Chris Justo

• Node wars can be declared at any time, but node war events will only spawn during server prime-time.
  • Node wars mutually flags the citizens of the warring nodes, including their allies (in the case of certain war types), as combatants.
  • Players can kill each other at any time during the war (not only during server prime-time).

• Node wars are structured into phases, and each phase consists of events. Winning phases and events offer long-term and short-term rewards.

A war contains phases and phases contain events. So, there are conditions to win a phase and then there are conditions to win a war. Winning a phase gets you some amount of in-the-moment rewards and some more long-term rewards. Winning events gets you some amount of in-the-moment rewards and long-term rewards. And then the war is the massive objective that you're competing to towards. – Chris Justo

• Node wars affect reputation between the warring nodes.

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

Q: Are there any plans to have upkeep cost to war in addition to the initiation costs? It would be incredibly compelling to know that crafters and gatherers would have to work double time to ensure that the war can go on, or even stop supporting the war if they find it unnecessary.

A: Not necessarily within the war context, however I think the crux of that question is, how do we include material resource requirements, active artisanship, engagement, all of these other gameplay systems: How are they interconnected with a political event like war? And the way we achieve that is obviously there are things that can enhance your war preparedness or your war efficacy through the use of unique weapons during war. Unique upgrades to your guards by supplying resources to the barracks so that you have stronger guards at your headquarters, or weapons and shields and armors that can be utilized through the barracks system. In addition, vehicle support for sieges. There's a lot of different ways where crafting and artisanship plays a role as enhancing, not necessarily maintaining, a particular war or feature. – Steven Sharif

• Node war participants who die can select to respawn at the War Camp, their Home shrine or their nearest Attuned shrine.

• Killing the Mayor and other special positions within the opposing node, such as heads of religious or social organizations, will accrue more victory points during the war. These positions may also have powerful abilities that can be used during war and sieges, such as Mayoral skills.

Q: Will there be a scoreboard detailing the most active participants achievements during the node war. Things like: players KDA, damage, healing done, objectives, etc.

A: You'll be able to see yours for sure and you may be able to see others if they opt-in. – Steven Sharif

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

• Social organizations quests will either be cooperative or adversarial based on the war status of their parent nodes.

See also

• Nodes
• Mayors
• Node policies
• Node mandates