Gameplay

Nous préférons grandement nous qualifier de jeu JcX, car dans ce systèmes JcJ, JcE et artisanat sont tous interconnectés: ils sont co-dépendants l'un avec l'autre... Notre système nécessite réellement quelques co-dépendances entre ces éléments. Vous aurez besoin d'un artisan pour vous fournir les meilleurs objets. Vous aurez besoin de JcJ pour sécuriser les villes et châteaux. vous aurez besoin de JcE pour vaincre les world bosses pour les ressources d'artisanat.^[1] – Steven Sharif

Ashes of Creation est un jeu JcX.^[2] Les joueurs seront naturellement confrontés au éléments JcJ et JcE.^[3]^[4] Il est très peu probable qu'un joueur puisse se concentrer uniquement sur le JcJ ou le JcE.^[4]

Il y aura un équilibre entre le JcJ et JcE dans Ashes of Creation.^[4]
Certains serveurs pourront être plus orientés JcJ que d'autres.^[3]
Il n'y aura pas de différence entre les types d'équipements JcJ et JcE .^[5]
La progression en jeu pourra nécessiter des éléments JcE.^[4]
Toutes les stats seront en rapport avec l'efficacité au combat du joueur en JcX.^[6]

Nous sommes très clair sur notre objectif et philosophie sur le jeu et nous comprenons que ça ne plaira peut être pas à tout le monde. Mais vous savez que c'est une relation réciproque importante entre le contenu qui est orienté JcE et celui orienté JcJ et qu'ils s'alimentent l'un l'autre. Ils sont les catalyseurs pour un changement: leur progression, leur développement. Ce sont des choses que les gens apprécient quand ils voient quelque chose de gagné et quelque chose de perdu. Cela entraine une réponse émotionnelle des joueurs: le fait qu'ils aient investis du temps pour réussir ou échouer; et le JcJ permet à cet élément d'être introduit dans la partie. Et nous sommes très clair que c'est notre objectif: cette relation entre le risque et la récompense, cette mentalité basée sur les succès. tout le monde ne sera pas un gagnant et c'est normal.^[7] – Steven Sharif

JcJ

JcJ combat gameplay in Alpha-1 castle sieges.^[8]

Alpha-1 open world caravan JcJ.^[9]

Player combat in Ashes of Creation is both vast and intimate. It spans many aspects of the game itself. From great political battles held on the fields of massive castles, to open world conflicts fought for the pride of Guild Leaders. A player can choose to participate in the fate of the world by swaying the tide of battle with his or her combat prowess. Our PvP mechanics follow a flagging system, as well as static PvP zones at certain points of interest; fight for control over cities, castles, caravans, or hunting grounds. Our PvP is designed to offer the players a well-balanced and fair world to shape through the pen, or sword should they choose.^[10]

JcJ (Player versus player combat) is the catalyst for change in Ashes of Creation.^[11] Player combat is intended to be meaningful, ranging from Caravan battles to vast open world conflicts fought for the pride of Rois et Reines.^[12]

Because players are motivated by different things, because they want something from the game that other players don't want, that's going to cause people to butt heads. Different players are going to want different experiences and the conflict between the two of them will create a bigger and better thing. Out of strife comes rebirth and that's a core symbol, it's a core theme that occurs throughout the game.^[13] – Jeffrey Bard

The majority of players will experience JcJ through opt-in objective-based battlegrounds. These are high risk and high reward encounters that do not utilize the corruption system.^[14]^[15]^[16]^[17]
- Sieges.^[15]^[18]^[17]^[19]^[17]
- Caravanes.^[15]^[17]^[18]
- Guerres de guilde.^[15]^[20]^[18]
- Naval PvP in the open sea.^[15]^[21]^[22]
Better things in more abundance can be found in the open-sea zone. And as a result, that is why there's an added level of risk associated with opting into those locations.^[14] – Steven Sharif
- Death penalties (mostly) do not apply to objective-based events.^[23]^[24]^[25]
  - Gear degradation applies on death during Caravane JcJ.^[23]^[24]

There are also reasons to engage in open world PvP, which is subject to the player flagging and corruption system.^[15]^[18]
- Contesting open-world dungeons or raids.^[15]
- Contesting scarce resources and hunting grounds.^[18]^[18]
The risk of gaining corruption is expected to deter the vast majority of players from griefing other players but this doesn't mean that PvP won't occur in the open-world.^[26]^[18]

Just because our flagging system gives corruption to PKers, doesn't mean PvP won't happen. There is plenty of reason for PvP to occur open-world.^[18] – Steven Sharif

Q: Have you considered a high-stakes loot drop PvP zone/area in Verra?

A: We have not; and the reason for that is our current PvP systems already allow for material risk essentially that's either through the flagging system or through other event-based pvp opt-in systems as well.^[27] – Steven Sharif

Archétypes such as Tank and Bard are viable in JcJ due to the rock-paper-scissors design philosophy, where each class is naturally strong against certain skill compositions.^[28]

Caravane JcJ

Caravane JcJ pendant l'Alpha-1.^[29]

Les Caravanes créent une zone de JcJ ouverte qui marque les joueurs pour le combat (violet).^[30]

Les joueurs auront la possibilité de déclarer leurs intentions d'attaquer, défendre ou d'ignorer grâce à une Interface utilisateur.^[31]^[32]
Un groupe devra attaquer une caravane avec succès.^[33]^[34]
Une caravane persistera dans le monde pendant une période de 5 à 10 minutes si son propriétaire se déconnecte ou s'il est déconnecté du serveur.^[35]

Siège de Château

Alpha-1 castle siege gameplay.^[8]

Throughout Ashes of Creation, the player has an opportunity to participate in massively multiplayer siege warfare. Since castles are likely the world’s most limited resource, it will be a task to secure and hold them. Involving hundreds of players on a single battlefield, our sieges will employ many moving parts and intricate design features. Because of the difficult nature of taking and keeping a castle there are great rewards available to the players for their efforts. Castles will allow players to exert control over nearby lands and allow for the development of unique buildings in the nearby towns.^[10]

Guildes participate in Siège de Château in an effort to capture and occupy one of the five guild castles in Ashes of Creation.^[36]

Sieges occur once a month within a server prime-time window.^[37]^[36]^[38]^[39]

The minimum goal is for 250x250 players to be on a single battlefield. It is hoped that this can be increased to 500x500 over time.^[40]

There will be systems that mimic some of the mechanics of sieges, but there won't be practice sieges.^[41]

There may be instanced locations within otherwise open-world castle and node sieges, where specific groups can participate in small, short duration objective-based battles that will affect the overall outcome of the siege.^[42]
- It was previously stated that castle sieges may or may not be (entirely) instanced in the final game.^[19]
- Alpha-1 castle sieges occurred in an open-world zone that was accessible via a NPC teleporter.^[43]^[44]^[19]^[45]

A guild that captures a castle will own that castle for a month before it is sieged again.^[46]^[47]

Each week leading up to the siege week... is a week that's dedicated to one of the three castle dedicated nodes. So around the castle there are three nodes. They represent week, one, two, and three; and then the fourth week is the siege against the castle. Those can only be elevated up to stage three. We've discussed this in the past and there's definitely information out there on the community ran wiki.^[46] – Steven Sharif

In the first three weeks that a guild occupies a castle they will need to level up each of their castle nodes to Village stage through questing.^[46]^[47]
- Each of the three castle nodes have a siege against it at the end of each of these three weeks.^[47]^[48]
The fourth week is declaration week, where other guilds have the opportunity to lay down their declaration flag or to sign up as a defender of the castle.^[46]^[47]
Depending on how well the guild defends their castle nodes results in better defenses for the castle.^[47]^[48]
Different siege weaponry will grant the attackers the ability to destroy walls, doors and sections of the castle in order to gain access to the inner keep area.^[49]
When castles change hands (following a siege), some taxes stay with the castle and some stay with the guild.^[50]

There will be benefits to attracting people... even if they're not in your guild or alliance – kind of a feudal like system, where you can attract other players who are just independent of this whole politic. They will have things to do there - benefits to receive - and there will be a reciprocal relationship between who you can attract, what they do for you; and how that benefits you and them.^[47] – Steven Sharif

Alpha-1 castle sieges

Alpha-1 preview castle.^[51]

Trebuchets in the Alpha-1 preview castle siege attackers headquarter camp.^[52]

Alpha-1 preview castle siege gameplay.^[53]

Alpha-1 castle sieges are based on Ashes of Creation Apocalypse castle sieges.^[54]^[45]

Players will be able to join guilds. These guilds can register for the siege events.^[52]
Castle siege events will be 100v100 battles that occur daily and will last for three hours.^[52]
Attackers will start on the opposite end of the map (from the defenders).^[52]
Attackers will be able to use trebuchets to drive to and assault the castle.^[52]
- Trebuchets have a single primary fire that does a small amount of damage to players and heavy damage to buildings.^[52]
- Trebuchets will be fully physical when they are being driven.^[52]
When the attackers have breached the castle they will be able to channel a cast on the relic in the throne room to try to capture the castle from the defenders.^[52]
The victors of castle sieges will receive benefits, such as cloaks, flying mounts for guild leaders and potentially also for guild officers.^[52]
Alpha-1 castle sieges are in a separate zone that is accessible via a NPC teleporter.^[43]^[44]^[19]
Currently the siege zone is actually in the open world, but separated by mountains and off in the sea a bit. There is actually no instancing in A1, although the siege zone will only be accessible in A1 through a registration NPC teleporter.^[43] – Steven Sharif
- This zone includes the following raid bosses.^[54]
- These bosses will also appear in the open-world (outside the siege zone) with slightly different mechanics.^[44]
The opposing team is notified when these raid bosses are being attacked.^[54]
Teams who get the last hit on these bosses will receive buffs that will help them in the siege battle.^[54]

Last year, I spoke of attempting to incorporate sieges into the Alpha One experience. This has obviously been a goal of mine because it provides considerable data and a consistent event within the world that players can participate in to help stress test the deployment. Well, I am happy to say that it is appearing more and more likely by the day! Initial implementation of the Apocalypse siege code has been migrated into the Alpha One client, and we should begin internal testing next month. I will caveat this expectation with the fact that we are cutting it a bit close from an internal QA standpoint, but I have some confidence that the system will be online and capable of inclusion for the Alpha One test in the month of June. The siege component will obviously not be representative of what the siege system will be at launch, or even in Alpha Two.^[45] – Steven Sharif

Destructible structures (such as walls and gates) are present in Alpha-1 castle sieges.^[55]
- The ability to repair structures (and siege weapons) is a long term design goal that will not be present during Alpha-1.^[55]

Sièges de Nœuds

Sièges de Nœuds (Extraits de la Pre-alpha).^[56]

Tandis que certaines zones dans le monde vont grandir, d'autres vont tomber. C'est la fondation du monde vivant, respirant qu'est Ashes of Creation, où les joueurs auront la possibilité de prendre des décisions importantes qui impacteront la longévité d'une zone qui se développera en ville, ou au contraire assiéger une ville rivale. Relevez-vous des cendres, créez le monde qui vous entoure, et faites partis de l'histoire qui se déroulera grâce à vos actions et vos décisions.^[57] – Margaret Krohn

Les Sièges de Nœuds permettent aux joueurs de détruire des nœuds.^[57] Cela pavera le chemin pour de nouveaux développements et accéder au contenu verrouillé dans les nœuds alentours. Grâce à cette dynamique, les conflits politiques et les intrigues jouent un rôle important dans la structure du monde.^[58]

Assiéger les nœuds ne sera pas une tâche facile pour les attaquants. Les Cités et Métropoles auront un avantage défensif considérable.^[58]

Si vous possédez une maison dans un nœud et que vous ne souhaitez pas la voire détruite, vous devriez défendre la ville !^[13] – Steven Sharif

Les nœuds peuvent régresser en niveau basé sur l'Atrophie de Nœud.^[57]

Guerres de guilde

Guild war features are currently still in the design stage, but the overall goal is for guild wars to be objective-based with great risk for each side.^[59]

Guild war objectives are designed to be more fluid than castle siege objectives.^[60]
Guild wars can be declared at any time, but the objectives will only spawn during server prime-time.^[61]
- Players can kill each other at any time during the war (not only during server prime-time).^[61]
Guild wars will not be permanent. Definitive victory conditions exist that are based on the level of the warring guilds and the assets that those guilds have.^[62]

I can't really define exactly what those features are yet because that design stage is still up in the air from a discussion standpoint. There's a lot of different ideas that relates to how those two can come into play, but I will say that in every MMO I've ever played guild wars are very binary. They're very like 'Okay you've declared, you have a number of kills to deaths and the guild war's over, thank you...' My objective to kind of change that dynamic is to include greater risk for the sides to initiate the war and also to make it more objective-based than just a binary kill death ratio; and the fortresses and guild halls come into that type of facilitating that change.^[59] – Steven Sharif

Terrain de chasse

You are on the prowl, and notice an unsuspecting player chopping trees. What would you do?^[63]

Terrain de chasse are open-world JcJ corruption-enabled areas that encompass most of the map.^[64]

Hunting grounds refer to killing monsters or PNJs in the open-world.^[64]^[65]
This also refers to contesting resources.^[66]

One of the interesting components of Ashes of Creation and our flagging system is that it presents the potential for two conflicting parties to have open conflict in the open world over pretty much anything that they may want or disagree with; and if that pertains to a hunting ground, not just the caravan or the castles or the nodes or whatever, it can exist in that area.^[67] – Steven Sharif

Outside of PvP for certain things like caravans, sieges of nodes and/or castles is that you're going to have those open-world hunting ground fights that may occur. You're going to have resources fights that may occur. You're going to have political fights that may occur between members of guilds; and we're taking the guild politics to a whole new direction in regards to playing those conflicts out.^[66] – Steven Sharif

Our PvP mechanics follow a flagging system, as well as static PvP zones at certain points of interest; fight for control over cities, castles, caravans, or hunting grounds. Our PvP is designed to offer the players a well-balanced and fair world to shape through the pen, or sword should they choose.^[68]

Naval PvP

Operators of a ship's weapons platform can initiate naval PvP against another ship in the following three cases.^[22]

Another important change that has occurred is the open seas is now an automatic flagged location. So when you move off of land we have a flagging system that protects and the open seas are international waters where you need to be careful; and there is a lot of opportunity at Sea; and because there's a lot of opportunity that's unique to that content- that's unique to that sea: that's treasure finding; that's NPCs; that's a lot of different stuff there needs to be risk associated with opportunity.^[21] – Steven Sharif

When the ships move into an open sea (open waters/deep ocean) area. This will automatically flag players as Combatants (purple).^[15]^[21]^[22]
- Players entering an open seas area will be notified by the UI ahead of time.^[69]
- Open sea zones have better resources in more abundance to compensate for the added level of risk.^[14]

We have a very intuitive UI that that as you approach the border between open sea and coastal area you are notified of that. You are warned ahead of time. There's a countdown when approaching. We interpolate the distance travel and speed you're moving and you get to see "I'm entering open waters"; and when you do you have this big trophy call out on screen that says "You have entered the open sea. Territory fraught."^[69] – Steven Sharif

The result of events (such as guild wars or node wars) between the parties.^[22]
As the result of open-world PvP, utilizing the flagging and corruption system.^[22]

Arènes

Pre-alpha arena combat footage from PAX West 2017.

Pre-alpha arenas.^[70]

Arènes are instanced JcJ scenarios and are not part of open world PvP.^[71]^[72]

The arena system as we've spoken about before is going to have ladder systems where people can progress within certain seasons based on their win/loss ratios. The importance of arenas are obviously that players have an opportunity to participate [and] practice out certain builds from a PvP perspective and can compete with one another within the system.^[71] – Steven Sharif

Arènes will have 1 man, 3 man, 5 man and possibly 20 man Free-For-All (Deathmatch) group sizes.^[73]
- There won't specifically be guild vs guild arenas but team-based matchmaking allows teams to face other teams.^[74]
Arenas will have a minimum level requirement to participate.^[75]
There won't be bifurcated brackets with separate player pools.^[75]
There might be some form of an ELO system that gets flushed on a seasonal basis.^[75]
There will be an arena ladder system.^[71]^[73]
- Rewards for arena ladders will be revealed at a later time.^[76]
- Titles can be received from arena play.^[77]
- Arena points that can be used to buy gear are not currently in the design.^[77]
Maires of military nodes are chosen from citizens through last man standing (gladiatorial arena style) combat.^[78]^[77]
The arena system may support cross-server combat.^[79]
Arena style combat is instanced but spectators may be possible through an interface.^[80]

JcE

Alpha-1 Elder Dragon of the Tundra raid boss.^[81]

The environment in Ashes of Creation is a visually stunning realm, with fantastical beasts and creations designed to both inspire awe and instill fear. The world is harsh and unforgiving, presenting a clear and present danger to the players. Dungeons, demons and dragons, oh MY! Our unique and adaptive AI means that an encounter with similar creatures will yield a completely different experience to adapt to as a player. Keeping you on your toes for constantly changing responses from your adversary. The world awaits its heroes.^[10]

Elder Dragon of the Wood raid boss gameplay.^[82]

Whenever you have a player versus environment setting you don't want a stagnant kind of overly repetitive because its lackluster. It does not have that a component that engages.^[83] – Steven Sharif

The Node system facilitates the generation of new JcE content such as Quêtes, Donjons, Raids and Pièces de Monstres.^[12]

There is going to be a lot of PvE content for all portions of the playerbase... Part of that risk versus reward: Your risk is your time you're putting in to having a chance at getting the reward and successfully completing; and that should feel good based on how much time you devote. Now I know that there's a spectrum of casual and hard-core players in the time there, what we can do, but that's why we have many different content paths that play towards how you affect the world around you.^[84] – Steven Sharif

JcE content adapts to the development of the world to avoid repetition.^[83]

Alpha-1 PvE content

JcE content in Alpha-1:

There are over 200 quests in Alpha-1.^[44]
- Questing will be placeholder until Alpha-2.^[85]^[86]
Approximately 10 percent of the artisan system will be online in Alpha-1.^[87]^[88]
There are approximately 49 unique gear sets obtainable in Alpha-1.^[44]
- These are unique sets with different stats, but some may be similar in appearance.^[44]
There is no instancing in Alpha-1.^[43]
Approximately 6 or 7 dungeons with one almost raid-level difficulty.^[89]
Two world bosses requiring party-sized groups.^[89]
One true 40 person raid boss.^[89]
Alpha-1 castle sieges occur in a zone that is accessible via a NPC teleporter.^[43]^[44]^[19]^[45]
- This zone includes three Elder dragon raid bosses.^[44]^[54]
- These bosses will also appear in the open world outside the siege zone with slightly different mechanics.^[44]

There's over 200 quests in the game right now. There's a bunch of dungeons. We've retooled all of the boss fights. Those dragons that you see in the siege are also in the world- part of the open-world too. There will be a slightly different- there are some extra mechanics in the siege versions versus the ones that are in the world, but there's plenty of cool things to get on both of them, so make sure you check them out and hunt them down.^[44] – Jeffrey Bard

Quêtes

Alpha-1 early quest user interface.^[90]

Questing in our world combines the best elements of traditional MMO’s as well as the introduction of our unique player driven experiences. Ashes of Creation offers area quests, public quests, and quest chains that change dynamically and in real time based on the player’s experiences and choices. Players will have the ability to directly alter world events and change the landscape through their actions, as an individual and as a community. Server quests will allow political rivals to compete for the fate of the world.^[10]

Les Quêtes dans Ashes of Creation sont divisées en trois catégories : Événements, Tâches et quêtes narratives.^[91]^[92]^[93]

Nous allons diviser ce qui est traditionnellement appelé « quêtes » en trois différentes catégories : les quêtes narratives, événements, et tâches. Nous voulons éviter d'aller dans une direction qui tente de forcer la part narrative dans le système de jeu là où cela n'est pas vraiment adapté (i.e. du contenu de remplissage qui n'a pas réellement de lien avec ce qui se passe dans le monde).^[93]

Donjons

Alpha-0 Dünir Dünheim dungeon design by Michael Bacon.^[94]^[95]

Alpha-0 dungeon design by Javier Perez.^[96]

Les donjons dans Ashes of Creation seront de tailles variées et seront principalement en monde ouvert.^[97]^[98]

Les donjons en monde ouvert seront peuplés en fonction des groupes présents dans le donjon.^[99]
Des donjons instanciés seront également présents et serviront aux quêtes solitaires et de groupe.^[99]

l y aura des donjons linéaires plus petits, plus simples. Il y aura des donjons non linéaires plus grands, plus complexes. Donc, c'est un peu des deux. Nous voulons que l'environnement soit un personnage. Pour que l’environnement soit un personnage, il faut que ces lieux soient intéressants et dynamiques.^[97] – Jeffrey Bard

La moitié du problème ne sera pas seulement de résoudre le donjon, mais il faudra s'occuper des autres joueurs également.^[99] – Jeffrey Bard

Raids

Alpha-1 Brood Queen raid boss.^[100]

Entering an Alpha-1 open-world raid.^[101]

Raids will either be based on triggered events or more traditional systems. Traditional world bosses will change based on node development.^[102]

We want things to be more fluid and one of the ways that we make them more fluid is through our triggered event system. That is one of the methods by which we make these more spontaneous. We make them more accessible to a wider audience. You can be just in the city and not normally be a part of a raid team, but now get to participate in this organic event that's kind of popped up around the city and if you are not participating then buildings are gonna get destroyed and NPCs are going to die... It's not just how fast can we do it, how will we get it done in its schedule, but oh my god this thing popped up if we don't kill it we're not going to access to our stables this week and we can't get our animal husbandry certificates... It's that risk versus reward that gives you a sense of adrenaline.^[103] – Steven Sharif

There is one true 40 person raid boss and an almost raid-level dungeon in Alpha-1.^[89]

Bosses d'extérieur

Alpha-1 preview Sorrow's Hunger world boss in the Underrealm.^[104]

There will be ancillary effects that happen as a result of downing certain world bosses.^[105]

When a server downs a legendary boss, I want it to cost time, resources, dedication; and when you do that I want everyone to benefit from it.^[106] – Steven Sharif