Underwater

Alpha-1 swimming.

Tidesnapper early Alpha-1 water animations.

Underwater content will be accessible, not cumbersome.

• Characters are able to utilize their abilities while in the water.
• Stamina does not limit swimming, however breath does.
• Navigational instruments are available to allow ships to detect movement under the water, such as aquatic mounts.

Treasures may be obtained through fishing and by exploring naval content.

Underwater breathing

Mechanics for breathing underwater:

• Items
• Potions
• Food
• Skills

Death by drowning is possible.

• Players that drown will respawn on shore.

Aquatic mounts

Tidesnapper aquatic mount early Alpha-1 screenshot.

Aquatic mounts early Alpha-1 gameplay.

Aquatic mounts are Tier A mounts that may be obtained from taming underwater creatures.

• Aquatic mounts are faster in water and slower on land.
• Aquatic mounts will be able to fully traverse naval areas and water areas.

An intrepid explorer could choose to traverse on his tide snapper alone. – Sarah Flanagan

• Aquatic mounts will have utility skills that are useful in fishing, such as fish finding.

Mounts will have skills that relate to fishing in some way shape or form, least the water mounts. Whether that be getting out to a particular area, whether it be like some type of fish finding or chumming the area. There could even be benefits while fishing in the water while mounted, like, you're on the back of your turtle out there just sitting in the water casting your rod, or your line. – Steven Sharif

• Animal husbandry will affect aquatic mounts.

Underwater dungeons

Underwater dungeon early Alpha-1 preview.

Underwater dungeons are part of Ashes of Creation naval content.

Underwater nodes

Underwater points of interest that have NPC structures may appear to be like cities, but they will not be nodes.

• There won't be nodes underwater or in the water.

Coastal/island nodes

Pre-alpha naval concept.

There will be healthy amounts of sea content within the coastlines of the continents that does not fall into the "open sea" area. – Steven Sharif

There will be nodes along the coast and on islands.

• These nodes will have specific water oriented influences, services, and questlines, that relate to the seas.
  • There is a healthy amount of sea content within the coastlines of the continents that does not fall into the open sea area.

• Coastal nodes change the spawn tables of the nearby water content and can also trigger specific events.

• Coastal nodes are not directly siegeable by sea. Instead, harbors offer objective-based naval gameplay during node sieges.

We've gone back and forth a little bit on whether or not the design intent for sieging of nodes is intended to include, for certain nodes, the naval component. The concern there was that it would be a difficult thing to balance around that particular node having accessibility from the water for those types of defenses. So what we've presented as an opportunity where harbors are the focal point of those naval interactions; and during sieges you are aware that nodes have certain objectives, which have ramifications and can influence the outcome and/or the ongoings of a particular against a node. And if one of those objectives is a naval objective, because that node might own a harbor, which is a point of interest that gets adopted by a node which advances far enough around it. So you might have one harbor and five nodes that can own that harbor. And the first to hit the village stage adopts the harbor. Then that can become an objective point during a siege that has naval interaction. So that's the direction we've moved towards, rather than allowing the naval component to interact directly with sieging the node itself as opposed to being a part of the objective-based gameplay that exists for a node siege. – Steven Sharif

• Island chains are part of Ashes of Creation naval content.

See also

• Mounts
• Artisan classes
• Naval