Node siege declaration

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Node siege declaration platform Alpha-2 screenshot.

You then take that node siege declaration banner and you are going to place it on the platform in the node you want to siege. A village level three node can only be sieged... and this can only happen once every 3 days... per node. The siege will be queued up for the next available prime-time slot which is 8pm realm time.[1]Margaret Krohn

Node sieges are declared directly by any player who completes the prerequisites for the siege initiation.[2][3][4]

  • In the final game node sieges are started via a siege scroll, which is acquired through a quest that scales in difficulty with respect to the level of the node. A substantial investment is required to attain the siege scroll.[7][8][9]
    There's a lot that goes into acquiring the siege scroll; and so natively, as part of that, you're going to want to interact with a lot of other people to pool resources so that you can acquire the siege scroll, right? And if you're doing that in too open of a way, and people catch wind of that, and they know who your target might be before that declaration occurs, some people might be moving resources out of that target. So you got to be a little bit sneaky about it from the player intrigue perspective.[10]Steven Sharif
    • Siege scrolls are specific to the node that is named on the scroll.[12]
      • The lifetime of the scroll begins when the node is named on the scroll.[12]
        • Currently, if the scroll's lifetime is less than the siege cooldown remaining on that node, the scroll will be wasted, but this may change in future.[13]
      • The Mayor is notified when their node is named on a siege scroll.[12]
      The method right now is when you complete a quest line and you're going to receive the scroll, you must stipulate the node that scroll is valid for and then there is a lifetime on the scroll.[12]Steven Sharif
    • It was previously stated that siege scrolls were specific to a node stage.[14]
    • Once the siege scroll is brought to the node and is activated, the declaration period begins and a countdown is initiated for players in the region to see. This countdown runs for a number of days equal to the stage of the node being sieged.
    • Once the countdown is complete, the siege begins.[8]
      • Node citizens that renounce their citizenship during the declaration period may incur penalties.[17]
    • Siege scrolls are not able to be modified after they are obtained.[18]
    The questing that is incorporated as part of attaining that particular scroll is very particular to the type of scroll you're attempting to acquire and that is inclusive not just of the materials required as part of that questing but also the time associated with completing that quest, because we want there to be a reciprocal relationship between how much time it takes to stand up a node of the particular size and the types of quests that are required in order to attain the siege scroll. So there won't be a method by which you can first attain a scroll for a lower level node and then increase or augment or change that scroll after you've completed the quest. You'll have to go through a new quest again for the type of level of node you want.[18]
    There are new functionalities and mechanisms that come online when a node advances and you want to provide both time for elected governments to take place, which then have direct consequences and choices to be made over defensive capabilities and also gives provides time for that node to collect and receive resources through taxation and/or quests for its citizens to participate in, so that it has available treasury funds and/or resources to allocate towards defensive structures and other types of defensive systems. So it would make sense that if there were to be an occurrence where node advances within that window, that window is reset again for the new stage because there are new correlating services and functions available.[20]Steven Sharif
  • During the declaration period, individuals or guilds can register to attack or defend providing they meet the criteria.[7][9]
    • The player who originally declared the siege cannot exclude anyone from joining the attack.[7]
  • Citizens of the node or provincial nodes being attacked are automatically registered as defenders.[22]
    • Players do not need to be citizens of the node in order to register as defenders, but they cannot be citizens of a node that is at war with the node they wish to defend.[23]
    • Citizens of allied nodes cannot register to attack.[24]
Whenever the siege is declared, all resources at the node will become locked.[10]Brian Ferguson
That incentivizes even further the necessity of players to contribute to the defense of a city. It also elevates the need for that city to politically gain allies among other nodes so that they can protect the collective goods of the citizens.[28]Steven Sharif
  • Player stalls may still operate during node siege declaration. This is subject to testing.[30]
  • If a node levels up during the declaration period, the level up will affect the node system for neighboring nodes, but the leveling wont occur until a short time after the siege.[31][32]
info-orange.png
Some of the following information has not been recently confirmed by the developers and may not be on the current development roadmap.

List of siege declaration items

Item Icon Type Set Rarity Level requirement Source Cost
Siege Declaration Banner - Aithanahr Icon.Siege Declaration Banner - Aithanahr.png Consumable CommonLegendary 15 Crafted items 72
Siege Declaration Banner - Azmaran Icon.Siege Declaration Banner - Azmaran.png Consumable CommonLegendary 15 Crafted items 72
Siege Declaration Banner - Djinna Icon.Siege Declaration Banner - Djinna.png Consumable CommonLegendary 15 72
Siege Declaration Banner - Halcyon Icon.Siege Declaration Banner - Halcyon.png Consumable CommonLegendary 15 Crafted items 72
Siege Declaration Banner - Joeva Icon.Siege Declaration Banner - Joeva.png Consumable CommonLegendary 15 Crafted items 72
Siege Declaration Banner - Miraleth Icon.Siege Declaration Banner - Miraleth.png Consumable CommonLegendary 15 Crafted items 72
Siege Declaration Banner - New Aela Icon.Siege Declaration Banner - New Aela.png Consumable CommonLegendary 15 Crafted items 72
Siege Declaration Banner - Seahook Icon.Siege Declaration Banner - Seahook.png Consumable CommonLegendary 15 72
Siege Declaration Banner - Shorefoot Icon.Siege Declaration Banner - Shorefoot.png Consumable CommonLegendary 15 72
Siege Declaration Banner - Squall's End Icon.Siege Declaration Banner - Squall's End.png Consumable CommonLegendary 15 72
Siege Declaration Banner - Sunhaven Icon.Siege Declaration Banner - Sunhaven.png Consumable CommonLegendary 15 Crafted items 72
Siege Declaration Banner - Winstead Icon.Siege Declaration Banner - Winstead.png Consumable CommonLegendary 15 Crafted items 72

Completing a siege

A node siege will last for up to two hours.[34]

  • Defenders will be required to hold a central point in the node for the duration of the siege or they must destroy the hedquarters of the attacking army.[35][29]
  • Attackers will need to gain access to the node then reach a central point where they must channel a 5 minute cast on the defender's flag. This cast can not be interrupted by CC but can be interrupted through death of the caster.[35][29]

If the node survives, there will be a cooldown before the node can be sieged again:

If the node still exists after the siege has ended, citizens will need to obtain the resources needed to rebuild any damaged infrastructure.[36]

Server prime-time

Objective-based PvP events such as node sieges, castle sieges, guild wars, and node wars will occur within a prime-time window somewhere between 3PM and 9PM server realm time. This is subject to testing.[37][38][39]

The key about the server prime time is that events cater to prime time. So, these inflection points where our expectation from a gameplay design is to allow or afford players an opportunity to participate in highly impactful events within the game: Those get delegated to prime time.[40]Steven Sharif

Siege defenses

Mayors will be able to allocate resources to bolster node siege defenses.[42][43][44]

Announcements/Notifications

Goblins attacking a Town (stage 4) node due to a triggered event.[48][49]

Enemies can only really grow stronger as the node grows, becoming outposts essentially for exiled or rivals of the existing order.[50]Steven Sharif

There will be local, regional, or global (server-wide) announcements/notifications of important events.[50][51]

Event notifications will utilize different methods depending on the stage (scope and level) of the event.[50]

  • Local events
    • Local events (such as caravan PvP)[55][56][57] may prompt players via the UI asking if they wish to participate or not.[50]
    • Other local events may offer audible or visual cues without any UI notifications.[50]
    • Local events that have not been addressed may start to expand regionally or even globally.[50]
One important thing to note about events in general is notifications are sent to the players. Players can opt into these events in a similar way that you would into a quest. You're going to be presented with a 'would you like to participate' but they might not always be that way. You might hear trees falling in the forest and that may be an audio cue to tell you something's happening over there. It's out of the ordinary. This is not normally an audio cue that I hear in this area and i'm gonna go investigate that thing. So it might not just be always that UI window represented with a 'participate or not' but I'm going to go investigate and in that sense it could be stage driven. So you might have the more local stage where it is just the visual or audio cues and you get to go participate in that stage; and then when it advances, or if you don't answer the problem in time, then it starts to expand regionally and then it might send out particular notifications to either citizens of the node from which it falls under its purview or even broader than that. It could be global driven events and then it could have things that are are visual cues that are really big like a giant blizzard that's affecting the zone, because the event hasn't been addressed; and that can affect the crop rotations or it can affect passages and roads and how caravans move. There's a lot that the predicate system informs to the event system and then the event system reacts to those types of predicates.[50]Steven Sharif
Whether it be like a siege or a triggered event against a city or like a unique dungeon opportunity... those types of things are going to involve notifications. Especially to the citizens of the city; where you'll be informed of an impending event. Basically it will give you time.[54]Steven Sharif
  • Regional or global events
    • Wider events may be broadcast regionally or even globally.[50][51]

Siege participation

  • PvE-oriented players will have alternative ways to participate in sieges, such as fulfilling buy orders to fund the siege and constructing siege weapons to support either the attackers or defenders.[68]
If non-PvP players wish to participate, there will be buy orders that get stood up during the Declaration phase. There will be certain types of commissions that will be available during the declaration phase that will require the efforts of many people, all of whom do not perhaps need to participate within the PvP event. And so those are ways that you can contribute to the defense of your node, or the attackers: if you want to help construct vehicles, if you want to bring in resources, to acquire the seed scroll. Those are all possible things.[68]Steven Sharif
  • Lower level characters will have usefulness in mass combat that does not depend on their level, such as manning siege weapons, helping repair fortifications, bringing proximity-based buffs to key positions, using stealth or scaling walls. These types of things are relevant to the tide of battle and do not require the player to be max-level or have high combat stats.[69]
  • Players may choose to respawn at their HQ as long as they are registered.[65][70]
    • Non-registered guilds are not granted the ability to take ownership of the castle if victorious.[65]

Siege alliances

When a siege begins, temporary alliances are formed among attackers and defenders.[72]

  • For node sieges, citizens of the node or provincial nodes being attacked are automatically registered as defenders.[22]
  • There are many reasons to participate as an ally in the attack or defence of other nodes.[73]
    • Titles.
    • Items.
    • Materials.
    • Money.
    • Social bonds.

Many incentives exist that can benefit your node and yourself personally by participating in the attack or defense of cities. These range from titles, to items, to materials, to money. Additionally, aiding others may help you strengthen bonds when your assets are threatened.[73]Steven Sharif

Ashes of Creation may have specific content that revolves around Alliances.[74]

Content that revolves around alliances specifically and progression within the development of that alliance; and the ability to share some common services between guilds that are part of that alliance. I think that additionally allowing alliances to toggle certain relationships with nodes as an interaction is beneficial. That's going to provide an interesting dynamic for players who are either members of the particular node that has the relationship established or members of the Alliance. So I think that obviously building systems is is about creating the channels by which these players can form bonds and the more layers you have around those channels of bonding between the different guilds or players, the more sustainable that relationship.[74]Steven Sharif

Siege objectives

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

Each node has a number of districts, depending on its stage.[34]

  • Districts are taken by defeating a "raid boss" guard NPC in that district.[34]
  • If attackers take over a district, they gain that district as a respawn location.[34]
  • Attackers can kill the quartermasters to increase the respawn times of the defenders while reducing their own respawn times.[35][34]

Defenders can assault the outposts of the attackers to hinder them.[34]

  • Destroying the headquarters of the attacking army is a victory condition for the defenders.[35][76]

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.[36]

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.[77]Steven Sharif

Node destruction

Nodes can be destroyed starting at Level 3 - Village Stage, and are destroyed through sieges. Sieges are started via an item which is acquired through a quest that scales in difficulty with respect to the level of the Node which is being targeted for the siege. Once the item is brought to the Node and is activated, the declaration period begins and a countdown is initiated for players in the region to see. This countdown runs for a number of days equal to the level of the Node being sieged. Once the countdown is complete, the siege begins. There is a cooldown between sieges, and players must wait a certain amount of time after an unsuccessful siege before a new siege can be declared. The higher the Node level, the longer the cooldown between sieges. If a siege is successful, then the Node is brought down to Level 0, and anyone who was a citizen of that Node is no longer a citizen.[8]Margaret Krohn

Nodes can be destroyed starting at Village (stage 3) following a successful siege against that node.[2][8]

It is a normal process of the world to see PvP be a catalyst for change. That is one of the defining elements of our world building approach and being a PvX game is that PvE builds the world and PvP changes the world; and as these nodes get destructed this should be a normal habit that players are accustomed to seeing that landscape changing over time, because it is the breath of renewal that then is allowed as a result of that action.[79]Steven Sharif
  • Players lose their node citizenship after their node is destroyed without entering into a cooldown period.[79][80][8]
  • Node destruction may prevent some quests from being completed.[81]
  • After a node is destroyed, the footprint of the node will enter a ruined state and will become an open PvP zone for a number of days equal to the node's level. These ruins consist of a debris field of treasures that are lootable by certain players.[82][83][84][85][28][86]
    • Which players get to loot the debris field during this period is currently under discussion by the developers.[87] Previously it was stated that any player could loot the debris field.[83] Before that it was stated that only attackers who participated in the siege will have exclusive looting rights.[88]
    • Any loot remaining after this period will be open for anyone to loot.[88]
    • After a number of days equal to the destroyed node's level, the node will revert back to stage 0 (wilderness) and any modified terrain will revert back to its original state.[83][89][90]
Those are like open-world battlegrounds that spawn on the footprint of the node after a successful siege. And these are opportunities that previous defenders have to salvage certain materials and/or equipment from the destroyed node, or that attackers have to do the same. And there's interact points that live within that environment that take time in order to interact with, which makes those individuals susceptible to potential ganking or fighting. And you can control those areas; and that exists for some period of time. It's like an open-world arena system.[82]Steven Sharif

See also

References

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  3. siege declaration.png
  4. siege prerequisites.png
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  8. 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 8.4 8.5 Blog - Know Your Nodes - Advance and Destroy.
  9. 9.0 9.1 siege registration.png
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  11. siege resources.png
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  13. Livestream, January 28, 2022 (1:07:45).
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  15. 15.0 15.1 15.2 15.3 15.4 15.5 15.6 15.7 steven-siege-immunity.png
  16. siege notice.png
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  19. steven-siege-lockouts.png
  20. 20.0 20.1 Livestream, March 26, 2021 (1:04:46).
  21. steven-mayoral-siege-cooldown.png
  22. 22.0 22.1 siege auto defenders.png
  23. Livestream, July 26, 2019 (1:16:03).
  24. Interview, August 7, 2018 (14:35).
  25. siege-declaration-services.png
  26. Livestream, October 30, 2020 (1:03:52).
  27. 27.0 27.1 Interview, July 19, 2020 (41:32).
  28. 28.0 28.1 28.2 28.3 Livestream, April 30, 2020 (1:14:44).
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  31. steven-declaration-node-leveling.png
  32. steven-declaration-node-leveling2.png
  33. 33.0 33.1 33.2 siege equipment.png
  34. 34.0 34.1 34.2 34.3 34.4 34.5 34.6 siege more info.png
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  56. caravan UI.png
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  67. siege-barrier.png
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  70. siege-respawn.png
  71. siege-stragglers.png
  72. siege alliances.png
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  86. 86.0 86.1 siege spoils.png
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