Node siege declaration

Node sieges are declared directly by any player who completes the prerequisites for the siege initiation. 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.

• Siege scrolls are specific to the node that is named on the scroll.
  • The lifetime of the scroll begins when the node is named on the scroll.
    • 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.
  • The Mayor is notified when their node is named on a siege scroll.

  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 that scroll is valid for and then there is a lifetime on the scroll. – Steven Sharif

  • It was previously stated that siege scrolls were specific to a node stage.
• 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.
  • Village (3 days).
  • Town (4 days).
  • City (5 days).
  • Metropolis (6 days).
    • This was previously 2, 3, 4, 5 days.
• Once the countdown is complete, the siege begins.
  • Node citizens that renounce their citizenship during the declaration period may incur penalties.
• Siege scrolls are not able to be modified after they are obtained.

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.

Sieging will require a similar amount of resources and time to what it took to develop the node being sieged.

• Siege equipment will need to be crafted based on the stage of the defending node.
• Mayors/governments allocate resources, taxes, and quests to help develop node defenses.

A node siege may not be declared for 21 days following a node advancing to any stage.

• This was previously stated to apply only to nodes advancing to Village (stage 3), not higher stages.

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. – Steven Sharif

During the declaration period, individuals or guilds can register to attack or defend providing they meet the criteria.

• The player who originally declared the siege cannot exclude anyone from joining the attack.
• Citizens of the node or provincial nodes being attacked are automatically registered as defenders.
• 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.
• Citizens of allied nodes cannot register to attack.

Many services are shut down during the siege declaration period, and instead are replaced by preparation quests or services for the siege.

• Once a siege is declared, players are prohibited from moving goods out of depositories within the node.
  • This includes resources and materials that are stored in Warehouses, Chests within player housing, storage containers within guild halls, or within processing buildings on freeholds.

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. – Steven Sharif

• During the siege virtually all services are suspended.
  • Player stalls may still operate during node siege declaration. This is subject to testing.
• 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.

Completing a siege

A node siege will last for up to two hours.

• 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.
• 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.

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

• Village (30 days).
• Town (40 days).
• City (50 days).
• Metropolis (60 days).
  • This was previously 20, 30, 40, 50 days.

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

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 time. This is subject to testing.

• Guild wars and node wars can be declared at any time, but the objectives will only spawn during the prime-time window.

Siege defenses

Mayors will be able to allocate resources to bolster node siege defenses.

• Improving defensive structures, such as stronger walls and gates, traps, and siege equipment.
• Hiring mercenary NPCs to defend the node during sieges.
• Relics will offer area-of-effect buffs to damage, attack range or player health of the defenders.
• Race will not affect the defensive capability of a node.

Announcements/Notifications

Goblins attacking a Town (stage 4) node due to a triggered event.

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

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

• Castle sieges.
• Node sieges.
• Legendary world boss spawns.
• Mob attacks and Monster coin events.
• Dungeon opportunities.

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

• Local events
  • Local events (such as caravan PvP) may prompt players via the UI asking if they wish to participate or not.
  • Other local events may offer audible or visual cues without any UI notifications.
  • Local events that have not been addressed may start to expand regionally or even globally.

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. – Steven Sharif

• Node-based events
  • Certain node-based events will be broadcast to node citizens, others, such as caravans, will not be announced and will instead rely on player word-of-mouth.
  • Node advancement notifications will be broadcast depending on the node's stage.
    • Expedition (stage 1) and Encampment (stage 2) nodes will announce within proximity of the node.
    • Village (stage 3) nodes will have region-wide announcements.
    • Town (stage 4) and higher will likely broadcast world-wide.
  • New citizens of a node may be announced in a dedicated node citizen chat channel.
  • Election notices will be mailed to the accounts of citizens.

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. – Steven Sharif

• Regional or global events
  • Wider events may be broadcast regionally or even globally.

Siege participation

Non-registered combatants are not permitted on the siege field in castle or node sieges.

• Alpha-1 castle sieges are located in a separate zone that is accessible via a NPC teleporter.
  • Castle sieges (in the final game) may or may not be instanced.

• Players may choose to respawn at their HQ as long as they are registered.
  • Non-registered guilds are not granted the ability to take ownership of the castle if victorious.

• Players could potentially intercept stragglers with the guild war or flagging system en route to the siege field.

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.

Siege alliances

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

• For node sieges, citizens of the node or provincial nodes being attacked are automatically registered as defenders.
• There are many reasons to participate as an ally in the attack or defence of other nodes.
  • 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. – Steven Sharif

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

• Progression pathways within alliances.
• Guilds sharing common services with alliance members.
• Node alliances.

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. – Steven Sharif

Siege objectives

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

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

Defenders can assault the outposts of the attackers to hinder them.

• Destroying the headquarters of the attacking army is a victory condition for the defenders.

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.

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. – 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. – Margaret Krohn

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

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. – Steven Sharif

• Players lose their node citizenship after their node is destroyed without entering into a cooldown period.
• 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.
  • Which players get to loot the debris field during this period is currently under discussion by the developers. Previously it was stated that any player could loot the debris field. Before that it was stated that only attackers who participated in the siege will have exclusive looting rights.
  • Any loot remaining after this period will be open for anyone to loot.
  • 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.

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. – Steven Sharif

• Treasures in the debris field will take time and tools to uncover.
  • The warehouse debris will contain a portion of all Materials (crafting components) and Gatherables that were stored in the destroyed node.
  • The reliquary debris will contain a stockpile of shards of the relics that were stored there.
  • The town hall debris might contain tax-oriented certificates that were held within the vaults and in the treasury.
  • The stables debris might contain mount certificates that can be added to caravans in the future or sold on the auction house.
  • Gatherables and crafting materials that were stored in in-node housing and apartment storage chests become lootable. These are not lootable if the node survives the siege- even if the housing buildings are destroyed or damaged during the siege.

See also

• Node sieges
• Sieges
• Nodes