Node policies

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Node policies.[1][2]

Nodes have a number of slots that they get to employ as Government policies that are enacted and chosen by the mayor and voted on by the people; and certain policies get unlocked by certain happiness states of the factions within the node; and those happiness states are predicated across different achievements that can happen in the world story arcs that get finished; bosses that get killed around you; new buildings that get constructed: Lots of different things can contribute to that happiness value: Number of citizens; number of citizens you've had leave; number of houses that might have been foreclosed upon. There's lots of different things that influence it, but when the happiness is met at a certain point- and even without that happiness you can still have policies that you get to enact regardless. You may choose policies that do certain things for the node; and this is a big strategic decision that the node has to almost agree on because it's voted on by the citizens within a short time period, but elected by the outstanding mayor; and when you deploy a policy it confers benefits to the citizens, or to the area, or to specific buildings, or to the mayor.[3]Steven Sharif

Node policies affect a variety of node functions, such as taxes and fees, building and zone buffs, and node-to-node reputation activities, such as trade agreements, and node wars.[1][2]

  • Mayors propose node policies that are voted on by citizens within a 24-hour or shorter time period.[1][2][3][4]
    • Policies are voted in if the majority of voters approve of them.[5]
    • Mayors can utilize their available mandates to bypass policy votes.[1][2][6]
    • Mayors may also be able to take emergency actions depending on certain predicates that get met. This might allow them to reduce the voting threshold or voting time for policies.[5][3]
  • There are a limited number of policy slots available to be proposed.[1][2] Some policies occupy multiple slots.[3]
  • Node policies that are deployed will provide benefits to various aspects of the node, its citizens, its ZOI, its vassals (in some cases), specific buildings, and to its mayor.[5][3]
    • Certain policies may affect the visual appearance of the node.[7]
Some of the benefits you can receive by being a vassal of a certain parent is access to a policy that your node not might not normally have access to; and in fact you can also unlock an additional policy slot based on certain conditions that the parent or Sovereign node may have access to in their reliquary, or in their achievement systems, or in policies that they've elected. Some policies occupy multiple slots and it's almost like a card structure. You have each of these policies that live on a card and you get to select that card- throw it into the slot it goes out to the citizens to vote on within the 24-hour or sometimes shorter period. The mayor has emergency actions they can take right depending on certain predicates that get met and if an emergency action occurs they may be able to spend their influence as mayor within their term to set up a policy for a vote within an hour's period of time; and citizens in that way they can sneak it through a bit.[3]Steven Sharif

Policies are unlocked by various conditions within a node.[1][2][3][4]

There's a lot of different things that policies can influence; and policies exist within certain denominations. You have some policies that might be reflective of the culture that the node is representing; and you get access to those cultural policies. You have some policies that might become available because you've constructed a certain building type and now you've attracted a guild of NPCs that are weapons smiths. You might have some policies that are social organizations representative- you only get to build one social organization or Temple: which religion does the node follow. All of these are customization points that the city gets to choose and now you as a citizen get to identify the city that best aligns with your progression within the game and your game style and gameplay.[3]Steven Sharif

Mayors

Depiction of a mayor.[10]

Mayors have a unique ability to elicit change within the node proper, either through the destruction of certain buildings that have been constructed previously, because there's a limited number of slots that buildings can be constructed within, or the kickoff of additional projects, or the certain types of policies that can be enacted, like... the changing of a tax rate. They all have a unified source of energy requirement and the energy requirement is a mandate.[6]Steven Sharif

Mayors are chosen through different election methods according to the node's type.[11][12]

  • Previous mayors won't have any special system driven bonuses to help them get reelected.[15]
  • Players will be able to view a historical listing of mayors of a node.[17]

Mayoral leadership powers

Alpha-1 Empyrean city node information panel.[18]

The government has a lot of say in the direction of the node's 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.[19]

Mayoral leadership powers are granted to mayors via the use of mandates.[6][16]

  • Declaring war on another node and rallying citizens to the cause.[4][33]
  • Mayors will have an emblem generation suite that allows them to create their node flag.[39]
There definitely are differences... Some of the things that mayors can do are more universal, but then some systems have very specific if your node has a certain dominant race, or your node is a certain type, or it's in a certain biome. So there's even differences between where it is too.[40]Chris Justo
  • Some decisions require the mayor to be present in the ZOI of the node. Most do not.[41]
  • If a mayor does not make certain decisions within a set period of time then the system will make a decision for them.[42][43]
Q: The idea behind all these nodes are awesome, but I wonder how it will actually play out in the live version. The problem is having player run or the problem with having player run towns is that people come and go in video games. So, will towns die out etc?
A: We incorporate as part of those designs certain fail-safes, certain protections, certain automated progression that takes over when some of those decisions are lacking or are not made; and those decisions can be defaulted. Now, of course, that would have a deleterious effect on the direction that a particular node might want to go, because they're going to be doing default behaviors, or default actions, as opposed to something that might be in line with the strategic objective of that particular node, or the specialization that the node has previously been attempting to do. But that is why we have a regularly recurring election period where players can take the reins of power and can elect someone else to come in and participate and and re-right the ship, so to speak. So it is absolutely a component of having player-driven mechanics that there is an opportunity for things to be less than ideal, or less than strategic when certain bad-faith actors or people leave, but there are safeguards in place.[42]Steven Sharif
info-orange.pngSome of the following information has not been recently confirmed by the developers and may not be on the current development roadmap.
  • Choosing a node name from a predetermined list.[44][45]
  • Guilds do not control nodes.[46][47]
    • Guilds hold separate roles in the direction of the node than the roles held by private citizens.[19]
    • Only a certain number of guilds may participate in these roles.[19]
    • Separate guild roles are reserved for small, medium and large guilds.[19]

Node-to-node reputation

Node-to-node reputation activities include trade agreements and wars between nodes.[1][2]

Trade agreements

Mayors can enter into trade agreements with other nodes to facilitate trade between the nodes.[48][49][33]

  • There are a limited number of trade agreements that a node can have.[48]
info-orange.pngSome of the following information has not been recently confirmed by the developers and may not be on the current development roadmap.
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.[50]Steven Sharif

Node wars

Node governments may declare war on another node and rally citizens to the cause.[33]

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.[53]Steven Sharif

Visuals

See also

References

  1. 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 1.11 1.12 1.13 1.14 1.15 1.16 1.17 1.18 1.19 1.20 1.21 Blog: Development Update with Village Node.
  2. 2.00 2.01 2.02 2.03 2.04 2.05 2.06 2.07 2.08 2.09 2.10 2.11 2.12 2.13 2.14 2.15 2.16 2.17 Livestream, August 31, 2023 (44:21).
  3. 3.00 3.01 3.02 3.03 3.04 3.05 3.06 3.07 3.08 3.09 3.10 3.11 3.12 3.13 3.14 3.15 3.16 Livestream, August 26, 2022 (1:12:40).
  4. 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 Livestream, April 29, 2022 (27:42).
  5. 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 Livestream, August 31, 2023 (47:43).
  6. 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 6.5 6.6 Livestream, August 31, 2023 (31:44).
  7. Livestream, August 31, 2023 (49:13).
  8. 8.0 8.1 Livestream, April 7, 2023 (1:19:41).
  9. 9.0 9.1 Livestream, August 26, 2022 (1:17:04).
  10. mayor-tweet.png
  11. Node series part II – the Metropolis.
  12. 12.0 12.1 12.2 Blog - Know Your Nodes - The Basics.
  13. 13.0 13.1 13.2 steven-kings-and-mayors.png
  14. Interview, May 11, 2018 (50:05).
  15. Livestream, August 31, 2023 (37:35).
  16. 16.0 16.1 Livestream, November 17, 2017 (9:49).
  17. Livestream, September 29, 2023 (1:05:44).
  18. Livestream, December 12, 2018 (14:48).
  19. 19.0 19.1 19.2 19.3 19.4 19.5 19.6 MMOGames interview, January 2017
  20. Livestream, August 31, 2023 (59:43).
  21. 21.0 21.1 Interview, July 8, 2020 (1:04:05).
  22. 22.0 22.1 Livestream, June 30, 2017 (53:57).
  23. 23.0 23.1 Livestream, August 31, 2023 (39:17).
  24. Livestream, March 28, 2020 (1:03:38).
  25. steven-tavern-games-1.png
  26. steven-tavern-games-2.png
  27. Tax spending.png
  28. Livestream, July 25, 2020 (1:22:40).
  29. Livestream, January 18, 2018 (37:05).
  30. siege equipment.png
  31. Livestream, June 26, 2020 (59:11).
  32. 32.0 32.1 32.2 Livestream, August 31, 2023 (35:23).
  33. 33.0 33.1 33.2 33.3 33.4 City hall.
  34. Livestream, August 31, 2023 (29:04).
  35. Livestream, August 31, 2023 (30:41).
  36. assassination.jpg
  37. Livestream, December 23, 2021 (1:30:34).
  38. Livestream, July 25, 2020 (1:52:45).
  39. Livestream, August 31, 2023 (41:15).
  40. 40.0 40.1 Livestream, August 31, 2023 (28:30).
  41. Steven Quote 3.png
  42. 42.0 42.1 Video, September 29, 2023 (1:52).
  43. Livestream, August 31, 2023 (29:33).
  44. node naming.png
  45. Livestream, May 19, 2017 (36:05).
  46. Livestream, May 19, 2017 (36:09).
  47. steven guild leader mayor.JPG
  48. 48.0 48.1 48.2 Livestream, August 31, 2023 (2:10:23).
  49. 49.0 49.1 Video, July 15, 2019 (2:12).
  50. Livestream, 2018-04-8 (AM) (18:59).
  51. 51.0 51.1 Interview, July 19, 2020 (24:34).
  52. 52.0 52.1 steven-wars-prime-time.png
  53. Video, April 5, 2018 (41:48).