Mayors

Alpha-1 Empyrean city node information panel.

Mayors are leaders of a node's government who control the development of that node.

• Allocate resources, taxes, and quests to help develop node defenses.

• Coordinate the transfer of needed supplies with citizens operating caravans.
  • Mayors must communicate what resources are necessary for a particular node then motivate the citizens to fulfill those needs.

• Other leadership powers.

Only node citizens may be elected mayor.

• Only one citizenship may be declared per account, per server.
  • This may have changed to one citizenship per account.
• A king or queen can also become a mayor.

You may only ever be a citizen of a single node at a time. – Steven Sharif

Mayors gain new powers and responsibilities as their node advances.

Node governments

Alpha-1 winner of Mayoral election.

Node governments are chosen from a node's citizenry when a node reaches stage 3 (Village).

Positions within a node's government are attained through titles that grant special access to NPCs in the node.

• Mayor.
• Priests or acolytes in certain temples.
• Patron guild leader.
• Chief bounty hunter.

There are a lot of things that you can strive for within [a node] that grant you that special treatment. – Steven Sharif

Node elections

Alpha-1 node election user interface.

Once a node has reached Village stage there will be a one week cooldown period before node elections begin.

• This cooldown period allows players to establish citizenship at the village; which may require them to relinquish previous citizenship at another node.
• Following the initial cooldown, there will be a one week election process, then from that point on, elections will follow a monthly cadence.

The village stage is a unique stage because that's when the government system comes online and all other stages past village there will have already been a cadence for the election system and it will follow that cadence, but after the initial village stage is completed there will be a one week period where players have an opportunity to establish citizenship at the village that also provides for the cooldown time that is- that would be present on players leaving another node to kind of participate in in this particular node leveling up. But that after that one week period then there will be a one-week election process and then from that point moving forward will be the one month cadence that the node experiences elections on. – Steven Sharif

Node elections occur on a monthly basis.

• Only citizens of a node may participate in its elections.
• Only node citizens may be elected mayor.
  • Only one citizenship may be declared per account, per server.
• A king or queen can also become a mayor.

Node governments and mayors are chosen through different methods according to the node's type.

• Divine node governments are chosen from citizens via service oriented quests that prove faith and dedication to the node.
• Economic node governments are able to be bought and sold by citizens with the most money.
• Mayors of military nodes are chosen from citizens through last man standing (gladiatorial arena style) combat.
  • An idea currently under consideration is to have players build out a champion that they can then fight in the arena, rather then using their regular characters. These champions can be equipped with gear and skills via quests, along with materials and gold to make the champion stronger.
  • The reason for the champion idea is because the game isn't balanced for 1v1 Pvp. Utilizing champions makes arena combat more of a level playing ground.
  • Arena style combat is instanced but spectators may be possible through an interface.
• Scientific node governments are elected democratically.

Leadership powers

Government officials have wide-ranging leadership powers.

• Mark foreign citizens of other nodes as enemies of the state.

• Declare war on another node and rally citizens to the cause.

• Enter into trade agreements.

• Directing assets.

• Building projects.

• Tax allocation.

• Mayors are able to allocate treasury funding to hire mercenary NPCs to defend their node during sieges.

• Governments may be able to choose a node name from a predetermined list.

The government has a lot of say in the direction of the nodes development. Directing assets, building projects, tax allocation, defensive ability etc. Players have the ability to not only create these cities, but they have the right of self-governance.

There are levers and dials that are present to both the owners of Castles as well as the elected officials of Nodes that during their administration they have the ability to impact and influence the region around them. – Steven Sharif

Céhek do not control nodes. Guild leaders (kings and queens) can become mayors of nodes.

• Guilds hold separate roles in the direction of the node than the roles held by private citizens.
• Only a certain number of guilds may participate in these roles.
• Separate guild roles are reserved for small, medium and large guilds.

Guild’s also hold separate roles in the direction of the node, than the roles held by private citizens, and only a certain number of guilds may participate in these roles. Separate guild roles are reserved for Small size guilds, medium size guilds and large size guilds.

Mayoral caravans

Quest to launch a mayoral caravan.

Mayoral caravans are launched by Mayors.

• Establishing trade routes with another node.
• Obtain resources by doing a caravan quest.

City hall

Kaelar node buildings.

City hall is a government building within a node.

We want the City Hall to be the place where big decisions are made for each Node. It should be where the “ruling class” comes together and decides what to do (these decisions can quickly make them the “old ruling class” too).

Mayors and node governments use City hall to visualize and control activities within their node. These capabilities will also be available via mobile/web inteface.

• Status of the node's economy.
• Status of upcoming elections.
• Status of trade agreements.
• Status of caravans.

Taxes

Alpha-1 mayoral user interface.

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

• Tax money only goes toward funding node development.
• 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 nodes take a cut of all taxes from the housing and any services that occur within their ZOI.

• 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.

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.

Node development

Alpha-1 Village node layout.

Even at the stage 3 development as a village, it's a fairly sizable layout; and part of these layouts include essentially static in-node housing for players to be able to purchase. – Steven Sharif

Racial architecture styles in an Alpha-0 village node. Empyrean Elven influence (top). Kaelar Human influence (bottom).

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. – 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. Cultural influences bring more than just the aesthetic and storyline changes - benefits are granted to the dominant culture within that Node’s Zone of Influence. – Margaret Krohn

Node layout and style is determined by several factors:

• Location of the node.
• Node type.
• Race that contributed most to the node's advancement.
  • Racial appearance of a node's buildings and NPCs.
  • This applies to all nodes, including castle nodes.
• The rest is determined by the node's mayor.

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. – Jeffrey Bard

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. – Steven Sharif

There is an attrition mechanic that affects experience and influence to curb a single race from dominating the entire world.

There is an attrition and that attrition on experience and influence is heightened based on the performance of the race in the world. So if all these nodes are Orc nodes then their attrition rate is very high to compete with the cultural establishment of new nodes because they have more influence in the world and a popular opinion is against them in their outlying regions that they do not have influence in. – Steven Sharif

Node buildings

Alpha-1 mayoral node building user interface.

Alpha-1 node building construction early preview.

Node governments decide the location and types of node buildings to be constructed within sectors of a node.

• Academy
• Apartmanok
• Armory
• Auction house
• Barracks
• Blacksmiths
• City hall
• College
• Emporium
• Exchange
• Galleria
• Guild termek
• Inns
• Library
• Lumber yards
• Piacokon
• Personal shops
• Royal stables
• Scholar's academy
• Static housing
• Storage
• Taverns
• Temples
• Thieves' guild
• Trader's company
• University

When the building types are determined, the community will then need to bring resources into the node (using caravans) and come together to construct the buildings (via quests and the like).

The government decides how to specialize their node. Once they choose certain things they won't be able to choose other things.

Different governments may change the buildings within a node.

And there could be regime change... If somebody doesn't like the fact that a market was built and they want to re-elect a new government next cycle, they can do so... and that market could be destroyed and a new building take its place.

Pre-defined parameters limit the number of buildings at in-node locations.

Node politics

There won't be a civil war mechanic within nodes but there will be scope for internal political conflicts; such as undermining the current leadership and disrupting trade.

• The only way to remove an elected mayor prior to the end of their term is by destroying the node.

We want consequences to matter and if that person got elected then you need to work within the means of the mechanics to get them unelected. – Steven Sharif

Node ostromok

Node ostromok (Pre-alpha footage).

As some areas in the world grow, others will fall. This is the foundation of the living, breathing world that is Ashes of Creation, where players will have the ability to make important decisions that matter in the longevity of an area becoming a city, or whether to siege a rival town. Rise above the ashes, create the world around you, and be a part of the story that unfolds because of your actions and decisions. – Margaret Krohn

Node ostromok enable players to destroy nodes. This paves the way for new development and access to the locked content in surrounding nodes. Due to this dynamic, political strife and intrigue play an important role in the structure of the world.

• Attackers may not be capable of destroying 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.
• If the node still exists after the siege has ended, citizens will need to obtain the resources needed to rebuild any damaged infrastructure.

You could be more precision oriented in the decision to attack a city. Let's say it's a rival node that's trying to reach you know a node stage five or something and you want to disable their ability for the religious system to progress so you target the temple during the attack, or you want to disable their scholars academy from reaching a higher level so that your nodes can; or you want to disable multiple buildings that allow for experience and quests to be undertaken by its citizenship, which prevents them from keeping up in pace of experience gained with your node. These can be more precision oriented and don't have to effectualize an actual takeover of the node. – Steven Sharif

Sieging nodes will not be an easy task for the attackers. Cities and metropolises will have a considerable defensive advantage.

If you own a home in a node and you don't want to see that home destroyed, you need to defend that city! – Steven Sharif

Nodes can delevel based on node atrophy.

Node wars

Node governments may declare war on another node and rally citizens to the cause.

• Vassal nodes cannot declare a node war on their parent node or any of their vassals.

We have conditions that you can set between nodes with regards to either nodes being friendly with each other and acting trade alliances, or they can declare war on nodes similar to how guild wars may function in different games, where those citizens become hostile to each other based on the player government that's elected in the particular node. So those systems all kind of cater to allowing a conflict that's meaningful and that also provides a non-imbalanced relationship between stronger guilds and not as strong guilds. – Steven Sharif

Sárkányok

Dragon depicted on Ashes of Creation MMORPG official Gamescom 2019 teaser trailer.

Dragon 3D render by Jincy.

Sárkányok (sometimes referred to as Wyrmlings) are able to be used as mounts, others will serve as NPCs: Some will be bosses or monsters that players can fight.

• Dragon mounts are classed as royal mounts (tier 3) that are capable of true flight when utilized by Mayors of metropolis nodes or Kings and Queens of Guild várak.
  • Royal mounts are 3 or 4 times larger than gliding mounts (tier 2 mounts).
  • Certain tier 2 mount skins can be upgraded to tier 3 skins to accommodate the size difference.

• Dragon eggs can also drop from epic and world bosses. These will be temporary mounts that exist for a limited duration.

We reserved it to very very few people per server, which is also going to make it a lot more meaningful when those flying dragons come into play for certain events. – Steven Sharif

See also

• Node governments
• Tartók