Node stages
Nodes advance by collecting experience from the actions of players nearby. As players complete content inside of a Node’s Zone of Influence (the area around the node), they contribute that experience toward the Node’s development. The experience given to the Node may then be modified based on certain Events and Accomplishments. When a Node reaches the experience required, it undergoes the process of advancing to the next stage. There are a few exceptions where a Node cannot advance even though it has the required experience - most commonly, a Node can not advance if a Node is a Vassal of another Node and would advance to the same stage as its Parent Node.[1] – Margaret Krohn
Nodes have seven (7) stages of advancement, with experience thresholds for each stage. When a Node reaches the experience required for its current stage, it advances to the next stage.[2]
Node stage.[3] | Symbol | Alternate name.[4] | Estimated time to advance | Player housing.[5] | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
0. | Wilderness | ![]() |
- | ||
1. | Expedition | ![]() |
Crossroads | Few hours.[3] | - |
2. | Encampment | ![]() |
Camp | Many hours.[3] | - |
3. | Village | ![]() |
- | Few days.[6][3] | Small houses |
4. | Town | - | Many days.[3] | Medium houses | |
5. | City | - | Few weeks.[3] | Large houses | |
6. | Metropolis | Metro | Many weeks.[3] | Mansions |
- Q: How long does it take to get to stage three of a node?
- A: That's something that is still being fine-tuned as well, but generally you can expect that within a day or two of the server opening there's going to be a stage three node somewhere.[6] – Steven Sharif
Node advancement
Experience gained by each node counts toward that node's advancement (progression) to a higher node stage.[1][3] Node advancement unlocks unique content, and locks out an increasing ring of neighboring nodes from progressing to the next stage.[8]
- Nodes advance to the first stage quickly. This enables NPC services such as vending or banking items.[9]
- The more advanced the node is, the larger its ZOI becomes.[10]
- Vassal nodes must remain capped at least one node stage below their regent/parent node.[2]
- Neighboring/Adjacent nodes from Expedition (stage 1) upward block the growth of their immediate neighbors. This was intended to be tested in Alpha-1.[11][12]
- If the regent node advances, the vassal is once again able to advance.[2]
- The vassal system begins when a node hits Village (stage 3), but neighboring nodes starting from Expedition (stage 1) also block the growth of their immediate neighbors.[11][12]
- Certain quests, such as story arcs, may not be able to be turned in after a node has advanced.[13]
- The territory expansion algorithm takes into account the nearest coast, neighboring nodes, and the heatmap of players in surrounding areas over the last weeks or month.[14]
- Due to the way the progression algorithm calculates territorial (ZOI) expansion during node advancement, there is a small possibility that two nodes of the same stage end up being close to each other.[15]
- The way that the algorithm expands the territories takes into account a few things: One it takes into account the coast like where's the closest coast. Two it takes into account the neighboring nodes so it can take over and essentially vassal state those nodes, but what's more important is essentially the initial population based on like how players choose their races. Because we have nine different races and four different starting points that branch out, each server's population density is going to dictate essentially the first few nodes that are highly populated and then that initial seed is what's going to determine the node structure as it moves inland into the into the world essentially; and based on the performance and successes of different sieges will determine which nodes that got locked out from the previous the initial advancements what nodes can now be available to advance further. So I really think that with so many variables that are present in the equation of how nodes advance and stay existing with the more variables you have, the higher likelihood there is for there to be a significant diversion in world progression.[14] – Steven Sharif
- Normally the algorithm that's applied to the node territorial expansion will prevent significant nodes from being in close proximity to each other... There could be a perfect storm where all of the algorithmic progression of territory leads to having these nodes very close to each other because there's certain requirements that should that need to be available to satisfy node vassal takeovers; and it's possible that two nodes would never take each other over as vassals and end up close together and spanning their territories in opposite directions: The Tale of Two Cities thing.[15] – Steven Sharif
- Nodes will have an XP counter starting in Alpha-2 phase-3.[17] The exact percentage of advancement from obtaining items or killing monsters is not going to be explicitly known to avoid "gaming" the system.[18]
- Different people have different resources invested in nodes progressing and it would be a little "gamey" if you could know exactly what was necessary at that point because that would disincentivize people from participating.[18] – Steven Sharif
- Node advancement spawns a series of animations and visual effects (within the footprint of the node).[19][1]
- Players within the node are teleported to a safe location, likely a respawn area near the node.[19][20]
- Supplies will spawn around the node and system driven caravans are spawned to bring these supplies into the node. These caravans are not able to be attacked.[19]
- NPCs will begin construction activities.[19]
- Players outside the node will see the new facade of the node pop into existence as the node advances in stage.[19]
- The Development Area of a Node is where civilization will appear as the Node advances. As the Node Stage increases, different buildings, NPCs, and services will become available in the Development Area. The higher the Node Stage, the more complex and populated the Development Area becomes. Development Areas will also vary depending on the Node Type - Economic, Military, Scientific, or Divine.[1] – Margaret Krohn
Vassal nodes

This vassal mode structure tells you what it looks like for a sovereign at a level six metropolis stage; and what it can control at a maximum vassal network is two level five nodes, of which a level five node can control one level four and one level three as direct vassals; and then the four can control a three; and every three can control a one or a two. Now if the three gets removed through siege, the one or the two is removed as well. So that's an important distinction between the three's vassals, which technically isn't really a vassal relationship because there's no citizenships possible. Those vassals don't exist between three and X, but they do exist between four and three, five and four, and six and five. And what this also allows is that because there are 85 nodes that are within the world, we have a buffer zone of about 20 nodes that lives in a max server state. So if you had maximum five metropolises form in a world, you will have a number about 20 nodes that can live alongside those metropolis networks; and when or if a metropolis falls, that extra cushion of nodes around the five metropolis structures allows for the map to be redistricted in a way that is unique. It doesn't mean that one of the fives is just going to pick up where the last six left off and form the same exact metropolis structure. From a territory perspective it has ancillary nodes to play with and expand towards that redistricts the map, so that if a metropolis falls there's a significant difference in the layout of the world and the layout of these almost nation-like territories.[21] – Steven Sharif
Village (stage 3) or higher nodes lock out nearby nodes, converting them into vassal nodes.[22][2][12]
- What vassalship is meant to provide is a way to lock out other nodes from continuing to progress so that the world state isn't always 100% active. Now there are many methods by which you could do this to achieve that end, but vassalship seemed the most appropriate, because it comes along with some other strings and relationships that get created between parent nodes and vassel nodes; and as we know, nodes exist within different type categories between Economic, Divine, Military and Scientific- or Academic: we've been interchanging in those- and so you might have these nation states that arrive, where the capital is the parent node and the major cities are the vassel nodes; and then you'll have these hamlets or camps or whatever that would be the X's, that are stages ones and twos; and they are required to stay as ones and twos unless a spot opens up in that vassalship structure. And the way that spots open is meant to interconnect with our node siege system, which is how you recycle nodes and then allow the way for other nodes to advance, which will service certain different predicates that make the world state reflect that and feel different as a result. So, it's all this interconnected gear shifting of how dynamic world state is meant to feed off of these multiple progression layers that are relevant to different groups of player types within the population of the game, so that everybody has a way that they get to manipulate and change the world in some way shape or form.[22] – Steven Sharif
- A Metropolis (stage 6) can control up to two City (stage 5) nodes. A City (stage 5) can control one Town (stage 4) and one Village (stage 3) node. A Village (stage 3) can control an Encampment (stage 2) or an Expedition (stage 1). If the Village (stage 3) gets destroyed through a siege, its dependant Encampment (stage 2) and Expedition (stage 1) nodes are also destroyed.[21]
- There is a layer of intricacy between how the neighboring nodes advance and what potential parent structure they have in the vassalship tree.[23] – Steven Sharif
- Vassal nodes gain benefits from their regent node (also referred to as sovereign node or parent node) even if the node type of the parent is different to the vassal.[22][24][25]
- Node policies, building choices, and relics owned by the regent node may confer benefits to its vassals.[22]
- Metropolis (stage 6) node superpowers apply to the vassal nodes of that metropolis.[26]
- Vassalship is really meant to confer certain types of benefits that might come from the nodes' choices in policies, or the nodes choices in building types, or relics that they may own. Those give effects that are really only achievable at higher level nodes down to the vassal nodes that might be lower level. So even if they're locked out, they get benefits for being a part of that structure.[22] – Steven Sharif
- Vassal nodes must remain capped at least one node stage below their regent node.[2]
- Neighboring/Adjacent nodes from Expedition (stage 1) upward block the growth of their immediate neighbors. This was intended to be tested in Alpha-1.[11][12]
- If the regent node advances, the vassal is once again able to advance.[2]
- Vassal nodes may have their own vassals; so long as the vassals fall within the parent node's zone of influence.[27][2]
- Nodes do not receive experience from their vassals until the vassals have reached their cap.[1][28]
- Vassal nodes first apply any experience (from themselves or their own vassals) to their own atrophy deficit. Any excess experience beyond the cap is then applied to their parent node.[1][27][2]
- Regent nodes collect taxes from their vassal nodes. These taxes cannot be taken by the mayor or other players.[27]
- Vassals are subject to the government, alliances, wars, taxes, and trade of their parent node, and are able to receive federal aid from them.[2]
- Vassal nodes cannot declare war on their parent node or any of their vassals.[30][2]
- Q: During phase two testing you are hoping to test vassals. Would you be open to test the game implications of vassal sieging their parent node?
- A: I don't think that that's something we necessarily need to test at this stage. I think what we what in testing the vassaling system- what we are getting feedback on is: what is the relationship between the parent node and the vassal node, and the benefits that they provide the citizens of each, and how is that looked upon by the player base through this testing. Is it being looked at as a negative relationship, and if so then probably we need to talk about the intent: what is the intent? The intent is that it should be reflected upon positively, so then how do we start tuning the knobs and levers in order to make that relationship feel better for the players. So that's where we would start, is if we get negative feedback from that relationship of the parent to vassal node then we would start by tuning the levers and the knobs around how to increase the benefit for that reciprocal relationship between those two, before we thought about, 'oh okay well players don't seem to like being vassals of a parent node, let's just let them kill the parent node', because that has much wider architectural design concerns; and we wouldn't go to that step unless we just come to some determination that like, no matter what knob and lever we turn, players just don't like being a vassal. Okay then, let's talk about how players can stop being a citizen of one node and go become the citizen of another node if it's just not their cup of tea to be a vassal citizen, regardless of the benefits that we offer.[30] – Steven Sharif
- If a Node is a Vassal Node and is capped from advancing further, it first applies any experience earned to its own deficit (see Node Atrophy section), and then applies excess experience earned to its Parent Node. If the Parent Node advances and the Vassal is able to grow, it becomes uncapped. If a Node is capped and is both a Vassal and has its own Vassals, any experience earned from itself or its Vassals is first applied to their own deficit. Any experience beyond that is then sent to its Parent Node.[1] – Margaret Krohn
Adjacent/Neighboring nodes
Adjacent nodes (Neighboring nodes) starting from Expedition (stage 1) may block (lockout) the growth of their immediate neighbors.[11][12]
- Vassal nodes must remain at least one node stage below their parent node.[2]
- Encampment (stage 2) and Expedition (stage 1) nodes are technically not vassal nodes as they do not support citizenships. If their parent Village (stage 3) node is destroyed by a node siege, these nodes are also destroyed.[21]
Node layout and style

The layout and architecture within a Node’s development area are determined by influential race. For example, a stage 3 Node with the majority of player contribution being Py'rai would have a Py'rai village with Py'rai architecture. Most NPCs would be Py'rai elves, and offer questlines within the Py'rai narrative.[2] – Margaret Krohn
Each player’s contributed experience is flagged with their character race and other identifiers. When a Node advances, the race with the highest experience contribution determines the Node’s style and culture. This style and culture change can happen at every Node Stage. For example, if a Node advances to Level 2 - Encampment Stage and 51% of all experience was earned by Ren’Kai players, the Node will be a Level 2 Ren’Kai Node. If that same Node advances to a Level 3 - Village Stage Node, but the Py'Rai contributed 62% of all the experience earned, then the Node will be a Level 3 Py'Rai Node.[1] – Margaret Krohn
Node layout and style is determined by several factors:[31][32]
- The way that the node system is built is that they can exist across a spread of 18 biomes, but at the same time have to represent the cultural influence of these cultures that are intrinsically a part of a specific biome.[33] – Steven Sharif
- Environment (biome) and location of the node.[33][31][32]
- A node's footprint is a 1 km2 development area where a node's buildings are located.[34] Nodes can adjust the local topography of their footprint to fit the aesthetic and mechanical requirements of the node.[35][36][34][37]
- Some parts are determined by the area it's in. Some parts are determined by the type it is. Some parts are determined by the race it is; and then the rest of it is determined by the mayor.[32] – Jeffrey Bard
- Race that contributed the highest percentage to the node's advancement will alter the racial appearance of its buildings, NPCs, props, and narrative systems.[38][39][40][31][1][32][41][42]
- All nodes, whether they're associated with a castle or associated with normal node structure, has cultural influences that replicate over to the buildings that are produced and the NPCs that are present.[44] – Steven Sharif
- The rest is determined by the node's mayor.[32]
- It should be possible for a node to complete several building projects within a mayor's one month term in office.[45]
- Q: How long would you say it will take players on average to fill/build up a node completely from wilderness to metropolis?
- A: It's one thing to get a node to a certain level: it's another thing to develop the node; and I can't really give you an on-average expectation, because there's a lot of variables at play. There's how many citizens does the node have attracted to it; what's the type of traffic that the node is attracting to it based on things like its tax rates, or the specialization that it chose to spec into, based on the building types it's chosen to build. All of those things are variables that can affect the quote-unquote "average build-out time" of a particular node. So it's difficult to give you an average when there's so many variables along those lines. But the idea is that if there is a particular project that players are interested in in developing based on the node stage, that they would have the ability to complete several of those projects as within a single term of a mayor; and a term of a mayor is one month.[45] – Steven Sharif
See also
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 1.9 Blog - Know Your Nodes - Advance and Destroy.
- ↑ 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 Blog - Know Your Nodes - The Basics.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 3.7 A reactive world - Nodes.
- ↑ Livestream, December 12, 2018 (14:48).
- ↑ Interview, July 20, 2020 (3:45).
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Interview, October 14, 2024 (8:12).
- ↑ Video, February 29, 2024 (33:57).
- ↑ Video, April 20, 2017 (0:02).
- ↑
- ↑ Node series part II – the Metropolis.
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 11.3
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 12.2 12.3 12.4
- ↑ Livestream, February 29, 2024 (53:58).
- ↑ 14.0 14.1 Interview, July 18, 2020 (10:04).
- ↑ 15.0 15.1 Interview, July 8, 2020 (1:00:15).
- ↑
- ↑
- ↑ 18.0 18.1 Livestream, May 26, 2017 (28:16).
- ↑ 19.0 19.1 19.2 19.3 19.4 Livestream, October 14, 2022 (55:13).
- ↑ Livestream, November 17, 2017 (55:27).
- ↑ 21.0 21.1 21.2 21.3 Livestream, August 26, 2022 (1:07:34).
- ↑ 22.0 22.1 22.2 22.3 22.4 Interview, January 19, 2025 (57:36).
- ↑
- ↑ Livestream, August 31, 2023 (52:56).
- ↑ Livestream, August 26, 2022 (1:04:35).
- ↑ Podcast, October 12, 2024 (19:59).
- ↑ 27.0 27.1 27.2 Livestream, August 26, 2022 (1:10:16).
- ↑ Livestream, October 16, 2017 (50:20).
- ↑
- ↑ 30.0 30.1 Livestream, August 30, 2024 (1:24:21).
- ↑ 31.0 31.1 31.2 Livestream, October 30, 2020 (39:17).
- ↑ 32.0 32.1 32.2 32.3 32.4 32.5 Livestream, September 27, 2018 (53:06).
- ↑ 33.0 33.1 Livestream, February 25, 2022 (41:00).
- ↑ 34.0 34.1 Livestream, October 14, 2022 (52:31).
- ↑ Livestream, January 2, 2025 (39:26).
- ↑ Podcast, October 12, 2024 (16:48).
- ↑ Livestream, February 26, 2021 (1:12:18).
- ↑ Interview, October 20, 2024 (1:10:00).
- ↑ Livestream, March 31, 2022 (4:57).
- ↑ Podcast, April 11, 2021 (29:47).
- ↑ Interview, May 11, 2018 (54:34).
- ↑ Livestream, May 26, 2017 (21:23).
- ↑ Podcast, April 11, 2021 (23:36).
- ↑ 44.0 44.1 Interview, May 11, 2018 (47:27).
- ↑ 45.0 45.1 Livestream, July 29, 2022 (1:13:09).