Player businesses

Shop sign concept art.

Our business owner system... grants players a meaningful existence in the world and rewards them for their persistence, dedication and survivability. – Steven Sharif

Player stalls, personal shops, and auction houses enable buying from and selling to other players.

	Player stalls	Personal shops	Auction houses
Cost	Rental fee.	Placement certificate purchase.	Listing fee.
Location	Can be rented at locations near the unique building in an economic node or in Marketplaces.	Certificates from non-metropolis nodes, allow placement near the node's unique building or on a freehold. Certificates from economic node metropolises allow placement anywhere in the world.	At Markets in Village economic nodes allow raw resources and processed goods to be posted. At Exchanges in Town nodes allow all goods/items to be posted. Metropolis stage Economic nodes enable remote bidding from linked economic nodes. Auctioneer NPC emissaries present in Vassal nodes allow some access to the parent node's auction house.
Player presence	An attendant NPC is assigned to the stall. Character does not need to be online or at the stall.	Player must be online and present at the shop.	N/A
Storage	Linked to character's warehouse.	Linked to character's inventory.	Raw materials and gatherables are automatically deposited within the listing node's local warehouse. Anything other than raw materials and gatherables will be mailed to the purchaser.
Advertising	Items and services are listed on Bulletin boards in the same region. There may or may not also be listings at auction houses.	Custom billboard appears above the character. Items are not listed in the parent node or auction houses.	Items listed are visible in community boards (bulletin boards). Metropolis level economic nodes enable worldwide sale prices for auction houses across Verra.
PvP	Players are not able to be attacked or robbed while occupying their player stall inside the limits of a node. Material losses may occur if the node's warehouse is destroyed during a node siege.	Players may be killed while occupying their personal shop and are subject to material loss due to normal death penalties.	N/A

Player stalls

Niküan player stall concept art.

If there were ever a cornerstone serving as the bedrock of Niküan trade, then this modest stall would be it. Stacked from floor to thatched roof with all manner of catch, it is prepped for a full day of commerce and trade. Here, haggling is not merely a suggestion, but a requirement.

Alpha-1 player stall 3D renders. Modelled by Adam Will.

Player stalls (also called Kiosks and rental stalls) are rentable locations near the unique building in an Economic node or in Marketplaces (the constructible building available for placement by mayors of any Town (stage 4) node or higher).

All nodes do have the ability to spawn player stalls. If you're not an economic node and you don't have a market- that's essentially your unique building- then you can construct essentially what is I guess would be called a... marketplace; and that marketplace will then come with certain services and it will come with a certain number of stalls. The economic node as I recall has the ability to construct an auction house and the auction house serves through the economic means the ability to list and sell items and that comes with additional stalls as well for the players. – Steven Sharif

Renting a player stall enables players to sell items as well as provide repair and enchanting services, even when they are not online.

• Player stalls are rentable by node citizens.
  • Player stalls may be utilized for a period of time based on the price paid to rent the stall.
• Player stalls are linked to a player's warehouse.
• Players are not able to be attacked or robbed while occupying their player stall inside the limits of a node.
• Player stalls do not require the attendance of the character or for that character to be online.
  • An attendant NPC is assigned to the stall. This may be an "image" of the player.
• Bulletin boards that list the items available in player stalls can be accessed from anywhere in the region.
  • These give the location of the stall so players can travel there and purchase the items.
• Stall sales are also listed in auction houses.
  • This may no longer be accurate.
• Players are able to input required items for repair and also purchase required materials for that repair.
• Player stalls may still operate during node siege declaration. This is subject to testing.

Personal shops

Confectioner’s Delight pre-order pack cosmetic building skin for the cooking profession.

Certificates to place Personal shops (player-owned shops) may be purchased by citizens and non-citizens from Economic nodes.

• These certificates allow the placement of a personal shop near the unique building in an economic node or on a freehold.
  • Once the economic node has reached metropolis stage, personal shops may be placed anywhere in the world.

• When a character creates a personal shop, a billboard pops up above them with a custom advertisement message for items or services available on that character's person. Purchasers can interact directly with the character to purchase these items or services.

A player shop is where you have a certificate to essentially create a shop with your character and a little billboard will pop up above you as you sit down for that shop and advertise a custom message that you want say that has to sell things and/or services that are on your person. So players can then come up to you and they can interact with you. So you reside yourself to that shop. – Steven Sharif

Auction house

Alpha-1 Auctioneer NPC.

If a Node is the Vassal Node of an Economic Node, an Auctioneer NPC appears in that Vassal Node. The Auctioneer allows players to list non-resource/processed materials in the Parent Node’s Auction House, but players cannot bid on items from this Auctioneer. These resources and processed materials must be stored within an Economic Node in order to be listed in that Node’s Auction House. In order to bid, they must still travel to the Auction House in the Parent Node.

Auction houses enable players to list items at the Economic node in which the auction house is located.

• A listing fee will be charged to list items in the auction house.
• Vassal nodes of the auction house node will be able to view items that are listed on that auction house, regardless of node type of the vassal node.
  • This will be possible through an auctioneer emissary NPC in that node.
  • Items cannot be listed in non-economic vassal nodes.
• Items listed are also visible in community boards (bulletin boards).

• Integrated auction houses allow players to purchase items directly from remote auction houses.
  • Purchases of materials and gatherables will be automatically deposited within the listing node's local warehouse. Players will need to travel to that warehouse to retrieve them. Players wishing to move these items elsewhere will need to utilize the caravan system or other type of transportation.
  • Purchases of anything other than materials and gatherables will be mailed to the purchaser.

• There may be a taxation difference between auction houses versus other player businesses.

Data relating to auction houses, such as price history, volumes, average prices, may be available to players via a mayor-constructed service building in their node.

That's probably how it's going to be surfaced... Your your mayor is going to have to build it for you. – Jeffrey Bard

Auction house locations

Ashes of Creation concept art.

Auction houses accompany unique node buildings in Economic nodes.

• Markets in Village level economic nodes have auction houses that allow raw resources and processed goods to be posted.
• Exchanges in Town nodes have expanded auction houses that allow all goods/items to be posted.
• Economic nodes that have reached the metropolis stage unlock the linked economy superpower.
  • Up to two economic metropolises may be linked in this manner.
  • Metropolis level economic nodes enable worldwide sale prices for auction houses across Verra.
  • Items listed in one linked economic node can be bid on from any other linked economic node.
  • Linked economies also connect an economic metropolis and its vassal economic nodes.

Share market

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

As nodes develop, player governments may open a Stock exchange (also called Stock markets and Sharemarkets) where players can buy and sell shares in Nodes, Guilds and Social organizations.

• The value of stocks is influenced by world events and the performance of nodes, Social organizations or guilds.
  • Hard metrics, such as quest lines, nearby resources, citizen progression, and purchases of local real estate, will determine the value of purchasable shares.

• Sieges will halt trading of shares in a node. This opens up potential for economic sabotage.

• There is no regulatory commission to restrict the purchase and sale of stocks.

Real estate

Players buy the deeds for housing from the node itself. Players can also buy and sell properties from other players.

• Housing will have a base price that scales with the number of citizens in the node.
  • In-node housing will be at a premium, and is expected to be hotly contested.
  • The more apartments that have been purchased in a node, the higher the price scales.
• The developers are considering an auction-based method for listing new properties that become available for purchase when a node advances.
  • A grace period will occur before the housing becomes available for auction.
  • Bids will then be accepted starting at a minimum reserve value that is based on the number of citizens in that node.
  • At the end of the auction, the highest bidder will win the house.
• Static housing and apartments can be listed and sold to other players.
  • There is no cap on the price of player-originated housing sales.
  • Player housing that is destroyed during a node siege can no longer be sold.
  • Freeholds may not be sold to other players. This is subject to change based on testing.

There's no cap essentially in player originated sales. Those are determined essentially by supply and demand as it is within the game and there's no artificial barrier to how high that demand can go. – Steven Sharif

• Housing ownership can default back to the node if the owner fails to pay their property taxes. A balance and penalties will be charged to the new purchaser of the home in the manner of a "foreclosure process".
• Players will not be able to exceed their allotment of housing in the game.

This will allow players to transfer real property goods. This includes ... static housing, this includes apartments that they may own; and they can sell those because those will have a limited and finite quantity. – Steven Sharif

Rental and leasing concepts are currently under consideration.

Some concepts that we have is going to be rental or leases that could be had allowing players to kind of lease a property for a period of time where they will have control rights over utilizing storage based on the area, controlling the furniture or access point; all that kind of stuff. – Steven Sharif

Bulletin boards

Bulletin board concept art by Michael Bacon..

Bulletin boards are available within nodes and player taverns.

• A market UI lists the current items available for sale in the node and in the same economic region.
  • This includes items for sale in player stalls and auction houses.
  • Players can't purchase directly from the market UI. Instead it gives the location of player stalls where the items may be purchased.
• Encourage localized grouping.
• Enable posting of jobs.
• Quest sponsorship.

Taverns

Taverns provide tiered services.

• Quests that might only be gathered from the player-owned taverns.
• Meals that grant buffs for a period of time after a player leaves.
• Recipes that could potentially be sold to cooking professions, that may only be obtained from a player-owned business in a certain area.

The longer the tavern is in business and the more patrons served, the faster the tavern will level up.

Q: What benefits do players receive for taking on the role of a tavern owner?

A: You will get noticeability with regards to your creations because that will be displayed to the characters that consume those things; but, in addition, you can get certain types of itemization rewards depending on the number of patrons that you serve. You can also reap economic rewards, such as gold from the inn that you are selling your goods at. And then you can unlock access to certain types of recipes and or vendors based on the level of reputation you build up in that particular node. – Steven Sharif

Business chains

There's no reason why you couldn't license your name to somebody else who also has a freehold and who also has an Inn and work together. – Jeffrey Bard

Player to player trading

Ashes of Creation concept art.

There will be player to player trading in Ashes of Creation.

• Player to player trading, interacting with vendors or NPCs, and the ability to access storage is disabled for corrupted players.

Q: Will Ashes of Creation have player-to-player trading? Will there be anything stopping me from gifting a friend that's fresh to the game a bunch of in-game money to help them get on their feet quickly?

A: There won't be anything to stop you from doing that. – Steven Sharif

Escrow system

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

An escrow system is planned to prevent griefing in the crafting system.

We're going to have a UI... you're gonna put the resources in or they're gonna put the resources in. It'll be like an escrow system and then once [the job] is complete you'll get the item they'll get the money.

Artisan classes

Artisan classes and their professions.

Gathering professions	Processing professions	Crafting professions
Fishing Herbalism Hunting Lumberjacking Mining	Alchemy Animal husbandry Cooking Farming Lumber Milling Metalworking Stonemasonry Tanning Weaving	Arcane Engineering Armor smithing Carpentry Jewel cutting Leatherworking Scribing Tailoring Weapon smithing

Artisan classes allow a player to specialize in one or more of the three artisan skill trees: Gathering, Processing, and Crafting.

Within each of the three artisan classes lies different professions.

• Characters within a single account (Alts) may have different professions.
• There are profession-specific quests.
• Professions will be balanced based on testing.

A character may only master one of the three parent artisan classes.

• It is possible to master up to two professions within this mastered artisan class per character (subject to testing).
• A character will be able to achieve up to tier 3 or tier 4 proficiency in professions that are not mastered.

When it comes to balancing a system that's something that we do during testing phases. When it comes to architecting the system itself and identifying the areas in which certain certain professions excel, where they interact with ancillary systems, their interconnectivity across the artisanship system as a whole, the important part there is to identify how that the interconnectivity lives with the other professions in the artisanship system. And what type of reliance you have on particular professions to complete the path of crafting or introduction of new items into the economy. – Steven Sharif

Artisan classes and their professions are not affected by a character's religion, or class.

• Race likely won't affect the artisan system. Instead, certain influences may instead be housed in a background selection that isn't intrinsically tied to race.

One thing we've talked about in the past is replacing the racial abilities with more of a background style, where you get to select your background regardless of race; and so those two aren't tied intrinsically. – Steven Sharif

• Choice of profession does not affect a player's stats.

• Artisan progression does not directly relate to progression in a character's adventuring class, but there are requirements that take into account dangers, locations, toolsets, and surveying options that are level dependent.

Gathering professions

• Fishing
• Herbalism
• Hunting
• Lumberjacking
• Mining

Processing professions

• Alchemy
• Animal husbandry
• Cooking
• Farming
• Lumber Milling
• Metalworking
• Stonemasonry
• Tanning
• Weaving

Crafting professions

• Arcane Engineering
• Armor smithing
• Carpentry
• Jewel cutting
• Leatherworking
• Scribing
• Tailoring
• Weapon smithing

Artisan supply chain

Artisans within Ashes of Creation must choose a path in their artisan skill tree. This inter-dependency establishes a supply chain from raw materials to finished product. Each stage of the chain may require caravans to transport goods from one artisan to another.

1. Obtaining raw materials:
   • Using the Gathering profession.
   • By killing mobs and bosses.
   • From deconstructing weapons or armor.
   • By purchasing them from other players.
2. Refining the raw materials with the Processing profession.
3. Crafting the finished product using its crafting recipe.
   • Recipes are also obtainable from boss drops.

As a crafter you're going to want to know where certain recipes can be fulfilled; which nodes have the capability of creating what you've processed material that you've gathered for; and then you're going to want to plan out your route to either transit the goods there or make sure that you're situated in the area so that you can go out collect and build in that area as well. So there's a lot of planning that's going to be necessary. – Steven Sharif

Taxes

Node taxes

Alpha-1 mayoral user interface.

Mayors are able to set tax rates for their node.

• This includes setting tax rates that apply to tavern games.

Mayors/Node governments allocate resources, taxes, and quests to help develop node defenses.

• Tax money only goes toward funding node development. This gold cannot be withdrawn by the mayor or any other player.
• Taxation rates scale based on when a player joined a node as a citizen. The goal is to exert financial pressure on node populations by making taxes increasingly expensive as nodes advance, rather than putting in place hard population caps.

Parent (Sovereign) nodes take a cut of all taxes from the housing and any services that occur within their vassal node structure.

• This tax doesn't necessarily impact the individual citizen, because citizen's tax levels are determined by their node, but the node's finances are affected by the taxation levied by its parent nodes.

Housing taxes

When a node reaches stage 3 (Village) and a player run government has formed, all player housing will pay taxes.

• A player's tax charge will be determined by the number of structures built on their plot.

See also

• Economy
• Artisan classes
• Nodes