Progression

Progression occurs through a variety of pathways.

• The objective is to provide both vertical and horizontal progression.
• Repetition will not be part of progression in Ashes of Creation.

Multiple playstyles should be relevant and viable. Additionally, you have a spread between casual players and hard-core players; and most of us exist somewhere on that spectrum. The progression path in a society or religion is more conducive to the time we have to play. Whereas, someone else may be playing several hours a day, and they have a better opportunity for the raid/level progression that might require some more dedication. So we want to have these different progression paths available to accommodate the different times in our lives that we have to play the game. And all of those types of progressions will make us relevant in some way shape or form to the general world. – Steven Sharif

Having the ability to gain power at a sacrifice... That's a way to kind of reach a horizontal type of progression. It may not be entirely, because there could potentially be a meta if balancing isn't done correctly; but the objective there is to make sure we have both vertical and horizontal progression in the game. – Steven Sharif

Nivellement

Nivellement won't follow a traditional linear path, although classic mechanics for leveling exist. Experience (XP) is gained through a variety of activities:

• Pvp.
• PvE.
• Exploration.
• Collecte/Traitement/Artisanat.
• Events/Quêtes.

End game

There is not going to be a typical end-game in Ashes of Creation.

Part of the whole experience with nodes is that there is no real end-game, in that the world is constantly shifting every day. Month one is going to be really different from month two; and that's for the level 50s and level 1s. – Jeffrey Bard

We want the game to be a living game, which means that all content should be relevant at all times. I’d say that we try to make as little distinction between the leveling up experience and the end game experience as possible. The whole journey is important to us, in order to maximize the fun people have during different stages of the game. – Sarah Flanagan

Level cap

The level cap at launch is expected to be around level 50.

The developers anticipate max level should be attainable in approximately 45 days.

Grinding

Repetition will not be part of progression in Ashes of Creation.

• There will be no "grindy" quests.
• There will not be repetitive quest lines through a single dungeon to obtain gear.
• The aspiration is to have more things to do in the game than a player has time to do.

AFK leveling

Il n'y aura pas d'AFK leveling dans Ashes of Creation.

Nous voulons que ce jeu soit joué. S'il y a des choses que vous pouvez faire pour ne pas jouer au jeu et continuer à progresser, nous avons mal fait quelque chose. – Jeffrey Bard

Mentor program/ level scaling

There will be a mentorship program where upper-level players are able to benefit from partying and/or helping lower level players; and getting them situated in the game.

• Levels or skills will not be adjusted to allow low level players to participate in dungeons with higher level players.

There will be activities that are present for higher level players to mentor lower level players. Let's say you have a friend who joins later on and you still want to do things with them, there will be things to do. Will you he be able to enter a dungeon of your level and participate? No, because we don't want to inflate or deflate characters and manipulate that type of skill or power. We want that to be something that makes sense for them in a progression standpoint. – Steven Sharif

Class progression

As a player progresses with their primary archetype (primary class), they will have the opportunity to choose a secondary archetype to augment their primary skills with effects from their secondary archetype (secondary class). The combination of primary and secondary archetypes is referred to as a Class.

If a Fighter were to choose Mage as a secondary archetype, the fighter would become a Spellsword. This combination opens up augments that can be applied to skills in their primary skill tree. Fighters have a Rush skill that allows them to rush towards a target; and upon reaching the target, deal an amount damage with a chance to knock the target down. A Mage's escape augment could be applied to the rush skill, which would now teleport the player to the target; thus eliminating the charge time on the skill.

Each skill in the primary tree will have several augment options from the secondary tree. This is an example of horizontal progression.

• Augments to primary skills will fundamentally change the way the ability works - adapting what the ability once did to incorporate the identity of the secondary archetype/class.

• A secondary class does not provide additional skills.

Players receive skill points as they level. These can be used to level up skills within their skill tree.

• It will not be possible to max all skills in a skill tree.

Classes by archetype combination

With 8 Archétypes to combine, players may choose from 64 total combinations to create their class.

Secondary
		Bard	Cleric	Fighter	Mage	Ranger	Rogue	Summoner	Tank
Primary	Bard	Minstrel	Soul Weaver	Tellsword	Magician	Song Warden	Trickster	Songcaller	Siren
	Cleric	Scryer	High Priest	Templar	Oracle	Protector	Shadow Disciple	Shaman	Apostle
	Fighter	Bladedancer	Highsword	Weapon Master	Spellsword	Hunter	Shadowblade	Bladecaller	Dreadnought
	Mage	Sorcerer	Acolyte	Battle Mage	Archwizard	Spellhunter	Shadow Caster	Warlock	Spellstone
	Ranger	Bowsinger	Soulbow	Strider	Scion	Hawkeye	Scout	Falconer	Sentinel
	Rogue	Charlatan	Cultist	Duelist	Nightspell	Predator	Assassin	Shadow Lord	Shadow Guardian
	Summoner	Enchanter	Necromancer	Wild Blade	Spellmancer	Beastmaster	Shadowmancer	Conjurer	Brood Warden
	Tank	Argent	Paladin	Knight	Spellshield	Warden	Nightshield	Keeper	Guardian

Class abilities

Alpha-1 placeholder skills UI.

Pre-alpha footage of a Mage using offensive and Utility skills, such as Mage's escape and Mage's detection.

Primary skills (class abilities) are based on a player's archetype. Players can personalize their primary skills with augmentation from a secondary archetype (secondary class).

• Augments to primary skills will fundamentally change the way the ability works - adapting what the ability once did to incorporate the identity of the secondary class.
  • The progression system for augments is very similar to the class progression system.
• Each secondary class offers a different school of augments. Each augment school affects a primary class' skills in different ways.
  • For example: A Mage offers Teleportation and Elemental schools of augments. These augments will affect a Fighter's primary skills differently than a Cleric's.
• Choosing the same primary and secondary archetype increases focus on that archetype.
• Each skill in the primary tree has a minimum of four augment choices from the secondary tree.
• Players receive skill points as they level. These can be used to level up skills within their skill tree.
  • It will not be possible to max all skills in a skill tree.
• In terms of skill progression, players can choose to go "wide" and get a number of different abilities, or go "deep" into a few specific abilities.
• Changing the augmentations on your skills will require you to go to a NPC in a Village node or higher.
• Some spell colors and general FX change based on augments.
  • Active skills could look totally different after an augment gets applied.

You only get active skills from your primary class and that active skill could look totally different after an augment gets applied. It really depends on what the augment is. – Steven Sharif

Key for the augment system is that these augments are meant to demonstrate a core identity of the secondary class type you've chosen. So if from the eight archetypes whatever you choose as your secondary, you're going to receive a choice of augments that relate to some core ideal of that class. You know like a tank is about controlling the battlefield, is about surviving. The mage is about dealing damage and elements and ability in AoEs. The rogue is going to be about stealth and critical damage. So those augments are going to to play towards those identities. – Steven Sharif

The idea behind the system is that you're kind of skirting the line through these augmentations of your role, right. We have the traditional holy trinity that's present in class designs for MMOs and it's often that those either are not deviated at all or completely deviated from entirely. The augment is to kind of offer a balance between that where you still maintain the semblance of that trinity system while offering the opportunity to customize your play experience towards one of the other angles in the triangle. – Steven Sharif

Gear progression

Scimitar 3D render.

Armes will have their own progression paths and their own applicable types of skills.

• The weapon use combo system determines special effects that proc based on weapon progression.
  • Players can spec into weapon abilities that change what combinations are available, based on the type of weapon.
• Ancillary effects proc based on enchantment types.
• Gear enhancements (power stones) can be applied to add elemental or energy types of damage.
• A skill tree is used to grant effects: making them better or branching off into different directions.
• Passive skills will enable players to work toward mastery of a weapon.
• Weapon proficiency (based on length of use of a weapon) is not a planned feature.

Q: Are weapons balanced towards a proficiency system (i.e. the longer I use a sword, the better my damage will be), or will it be a normal RPG stat system with no long-term scaling?

A: We will not be using a proficiency system as described, but players will have passives available in their skill tree that will increase effectiveness of certain weapons. Becoming a master of swords will be something that is possible, just not in that particular manner. – Sarah Flanagan

Ashes of Creation is all about providing many progression paths... The reason why we don't like the term endgame is because with the amount of progression that's available with the amount of diversity and player agency that that impacts the world... We kind of want the the weapon system and add an element of that as well... You can determine special effects that proc from currently the combo system right; you can determine ancillary effects that proc based on enchantment types; you can power stone weapons to add different either elemental types of damage and/or energy that kind of play rock paper scissor with player defenses ... and then you can skill tree out how those effects that are granted ... you can make them better you can branch them off into a different direction. – Steven Sharif

Gear enhancement

Gear enhancements (power stones/runes) can be applied to weapons to add elemental or energy types of damage.

We are very likely going to have a rune system and then we'll have the ability to sort of enchant weapons outside of that too... That's not always going to be like a vertical progression... Some of it's going to be giving up something to get something else; so maybe I do less physical damage but more magical damage, that kind of thing. – Jeffrey Bard

Enchanting

Enchanting services are sold at player stalls.

• There isn't RNG in crafting but there may be a small amount of RNG in enchanting.
• Over-enchanting items may come with a potential risk that the item is destroyed.

There are two types of enchantments for items: Vertical and horizontal.

• Vertical enchantments are a power progression for a crafted item. More damage or mitigations, added effects or bonuses.
  • Vertical enchantments include risks.
• Horizontal enchantments are more situational. For example: I'd like my sword to do force damage instead of holy damage because the monsters I tend to fight are incorporeal.
  • This doesn't make the item more powerful, but instead more applicable to different situations, and less so to others.
  • This type of enchanting assumes no risk, just time and effort.

Power creep

Power creep is a balance issue... When it comes to gear progression specifically, the idea is to create an open market that is not heavily dependent on soulbound items; and having many item sinks and gold sinks within that economy that allows for the potential degradation and loss of assets within that closed economy; and not introduce items from the market that companies put in from a pay-to-win perspective or from a pay-to-convenience perspective that undermines the economy that players have built. That is a huge mistake that companies have made in the past and that lends to the imbalancing of what designers maybe have actually balanced well. – Steven Sharif

Pet progression

Some pets will be levelable and will have gear available to them.

• Combat pets will incorporate some of their owner's power in a way that keeps the power progression horizontal.

Artisan progression

Les joueurs doivent choisir un chemin dans l'arbre de compétences d'artisan pour chaque personnage. Pour chaque chemin d'artisan (Collecte, Traitement et Artisanat) il y a plusieurs professions. Un personnage ne pourra suivre qu'un seul chemin entièrement.

• Les joueurs peuvent s'essayer à chaque profession en tant que "débutants" avant de décider quel chemin ils suivront.
• Choisir un chemin particulier dans l'arbre de compétences donne l'opportunité aux joueurs de se spécialiser dans un certain domaine. Cela crée inter-dépendance entre les joueurs, améliorant l'expérience en tant qu'artisan.
• Il est possible de maîtriser chaque profession du chemin d'artisan choisi, mais cela sera une épreuve longue et laborieuse, coûteuse en ressources.
  • Les joueurs ne pourront maîtriser une profession que lorsqu'ils auront achevé la maîtrise de leur chemin d'artisan.
  • Après des tests, il pourrait être décidé d'utiliser une valeur fixe pour certifier la maîtrise d'une profession.
• La maîtrise n'est pas qu'une question de création d'item. Elle donne accès à beaucoup de choses, même des titres, accès à des items, des négociations, et des quêtes.
• Choisir une profession n'affecte pas les stats des joueurs.
• Les personnages d'un même compte (Alts) pourront avoir différentes professions.

Les joueurs auront l'opportunité de tâter chaque profession à un niveau très bas celà leur donne un avant-goût de chaque profession et leur permet de savoir vers laquelle il préfère s'orienter et quelle profession ils veulent maîtriser. – Steven Sharif

Quand on dit que vous ne pourrez pas tout maîtriser nous ne disons pas que vous ne serez pas maître au sein de votre propre arbre d'artisan, qui sont l'artisanat, la collecte et le traitement. Vous serez un maître d'un des trois, mais vous ne serez pas un maître des deux autres. – Steven Sharif

Artisan tools

Alpha-1 tongs artisan tool.

Collecte artisan classes require the creation and use of harvesting tools that enable the gathering of resources.

• Progression in the gathering artisan class unlocks higher level harvesting tools that enable gathering of higher level resources.
• Tools will have durability and tool lifespans.
  • Tools may become non-repairable, requiring re crafting.
• Artisans will not need to rely on other trees in order to make their tools.

Tools do advance within the artisan tree, so your ability to either gather, process or craft will require the equivalent tools necessary at that stage of crafting in order to accomplish the task at hand. So, you could not mine copper and mithril with the same tool. – Steven Sharif

Traitement requires blueprints for the construction of buildings that are needed to process resources.

• Artisanat requires the acquisition of recipes in order to craft items.

Legendary items

Discovery of legendary items will unlock further chapters of the Lore.

There are absolutely legendary items and they're not items that are attained easily nor are they granted out in a volume. There might even be items that are single items that will exist on the server at any given time.

A legendary weapon is easily distinguished by its visual appearance.

It will be a very ornate and detailed weapon, more so than any other weapon or piece of equipment in the game. It will also include some awesome looking effects that won't too gaudy, you know they won't be too bright and shiny so that it doesn't look good, but they will be subtle and people will notice it and know wow that guy has this weapon. – Steven Sharif

Obtaining a legendary item will not be RNG based. It will entail obtaining construction components from various progression pathways.

The amount of effort needed and interdependencies across the different types of players – between raiders and PvPers and crafters and even role players and the taverns and businesses: the processors and gatherers – all of those systems will likely have a component that lends toward creating or crafting that legendary item... We want to stay away from the highly RNGd system, and instead take our multiple progression paths that we are offering the players and put the construction components for achieving these legendary items within them so it encourages communities to work together because it's going to be difficult for just one person by themselves to gather everything. Not to say that they couldn't in an economic sense, by buying those components, that's possible. But achieving them from a time investment standpoint we want it to be considerably less RNG focussed. – Steven Sharif

Legendary items are not intended to be temporary.

• A notable exception to this is Royal mounts.

The fact there is only one of them... or very very few of them depending on what it is. I think that in and of itself is a balance component right and you need to make sure that the players who are striving for those legendary things and who are devoting the time energy, resources in order to achieve them are accurately rewarded... We do not intend on having legendary items that are temporary. – Steven Sharif

Religion progression

There are player progression paths within a religion.

• Players may follow only one religion at a time.
• Religions will have a ranking system.
• Changing religion will cause loss of progress in a player's previous religion.

It depends on their dedication to the religion itself; their performance when it comes to certain religion's religious objectives; their contribution to the development of that religion within the world. There's a lot of different markers that we use at each stage to determine how they progress within the religion. – Steven Sharif

Mariner classes (Naval progression)

Mariner classes (also referred to as boatsmanship classes, boatsman skills or seamanship) contain different skill trees arranged in a similar manner to Classes artisanales. As a player gains experience in these different skills they become more adept at using them.

• Gunnery
• Piloting
• Navigation
• Boat repair
• Ship components
• Defensive skills
• Utility based skills

You can spec into and kind of create your own class based on what things you're doing on the boat... It's gonna be very similar to in structure to like the artisanship trees, so you'll you'll have your mariner class: You'll have different trees in that class. – Jeffrey Bard

Node progression

Illustration of node advancement from Wilderness (stage 0) to Metropolis (stage 6).

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. – Margaret Krohn

Citizen and non-citizen player activity (questing, gathering, raiding, etc.) within a node's ZOI counts toward that particular node’s advancement (progression). 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.

	Node stage.	Alternate name.	Timeframe to advance.	Player housing.
0.	Wilderness			-
1.	Expedition	Crossroads	Few hours	-
2.	Encampment	Camp	Many hours	-
3.	Village	-	Few days	Baux, Static housing
4.	Town	-	Many days	Baux, Static housing, Appartements
5.	City	-	Few weeks	Baux, Static housing, Appartements
6.	Metropolis	Metro	Many weeks	Baux, Static housing, Appartements

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; we’ll go into further details on each of those Node Types in future posts in this series. – Margaret Krohn

Conceptual illustration. Nœuds that are in the ZOI of more advanced nodes have their progression capped by the more advanced node.

Beginning at Node Stage 3, when a Node advances, it enslaves nearby Nodes and makes them into its Vassals. Vassal Nodes are owned by a Parent Node and must always be at least one Node Stage below the Parent Node. This means that the Vassal Node cannot grow until the Parent Node advances in stage. Vassal Nodes give excess experience to their Parent Node, and are able to have their own Vassals, as long as they fit within the Parent Node’s Zone of Influence. They are subject to the government, alliances, wars, taxes, and trade of their Parent Node, and are able to receive federal aid from them. A Vassal Node cannot declare war on their Parent Node or any of its Vassals. Citizens of Vassals are bound by the diplomatic states of the Parent Node. – Margaret Krohn

The advancement of a node unlocks its unique content, which comes at the cost of locking out an increasing ring of neighboring nodes from progressing to the next stage.

• Nodes advance to the first stage quickly. This enables NPC services such as vending or banking items.
• The more advanced the node is, the larger its ZOI becomes.
• Less advanced nodes (referred to as vassal nodes) that fall within a more advanced node's ZOI can still gain XP, but must remain at a lower advancement stage than the dominant node.
  • The vassal system begins when a node hits stage 3 (village), but neighboring nodes lower than stage 3 also block the growth of their immediate neighbors.
• A node does not receive XP from the nodes within its ZOI until these nodes have reached their cap.
• Players are moved to safety if they intersect with newly spawned assets during node advancement.
• Citizens of one node can contribute to the advancement of other nodes.
• The exact percentage of advancement from obtaining items or killing monsters is not going to be explicitly known to avoid "gaming" the system.

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. – Steven Sharif

Vassal nodes

Nœuds greater than stage 3 (Village) enslave nearby nodes, converting them into vassal nodes.

• Vassal nodes must remain one node stage below their parent node.
  • Neighboring nodes lower than stage 3 also block the growth of their immediate neighbors. This is intended to be tested in Alpha-1.
  • Vassal nodes first apply any experience earned to their own deficit (see Node atrophy). It then applies excess experience earned to its parent node.
  • If the parent node advances, the vassal is once again able to advance.
• Vassal nodes give excess experience to their parent node and may have their own vassals; so long as they fall within the parent node’s zone of influence.
  • 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 its own deficit. Experience beyond that is then sent to its parent node.
• Vassals are subject to the government, alliances, wars, taxes, and trade of their parent node, and are able to receive federal aid from them.
• Vassal nodes cannot declare war on their parent node or any of their vassals.
• Citizens of vassals are bound by the diplomatic states of the parent node.

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. – Margaret Krohn

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

Zones and progression

Donjons, Raids, Patrons du monde, Mobs, Quêtes, Events, Resources, Narratives and other content within a node's ZOI will have a diverse level range; but will scale with the advancement of that node and its racial influence.

We don’t have a strictly level 25 zone. Instead, that zone might have some level 10 creatures near the road, some level 20 creatures deep in the forest, and some level 30 creatures up the mountain. These ratios will change based on the Nodes that inform them, becoming generally more dangerous as the Node grows. All this civilization attracts the attention of Things-That-Should-Not-Be. This does not mean that wilderness areas are safe, by any means. Some may be safe-er, but all will have dangers that even the most experienced traveler needs to watch out for. – Steven Sharif

Guild progression

Guild progression occurs through participation in different systems.

• Quêtes.
• Nœuds.
• Organisations sociales.
• Artisanat certain items.
• Events.

Passive skills and augments are unlocked by guild progression.

• Passive abilities increase certain stats relating to a guild member's ability to perform in combat or in other aspects of the guild, such as the economy.
• Augmente may apply at the upper tiers of guild progression.
  • This applies to guilds that have opted for the non-expansive member route.
  • It benefits guild members with a classification of officer or knight.
• Guild members do not need to be citizens of the same node in order to benefit from passive skills and augments.

Guild size can be traded off for guild progression.

• The higher the guild's member cap, the fewer available skill options will be available to that guild.
• Guild alliances may be a key part in creating a larger "guild".

As you're leveling up the guild and you're getting these points to either allocate towards expanding the guilds member count or allocate towards adding certain passive abilities that your guild members can gain by being guild members. You're also going to see as you're leveling up the guild through different type of quest-based, participation-based, node-based, organization-based systems and ways that those quests hook into the world. You're also going to see perhaps some augment abilities at the upper tiers of the guild levels become unlocked for certain members that have a classification of officer or knight, will have access to those different types of augment abilities that might get unlocked should you go down the non expansive member lane; and the idea there is to offer these benefits to smaller groups. – Steven Sharif

It's not always going to be combat. You could have an economic focus guild. You could have a trade oriented guild; and there's all sorts of things that you can kind of put together and kind of give your guild its own identity. – Jeffrey Bard

Social organization progression

A player progresses through a social organization by accomplishing tasks or quests. There are hierarchical paths pertaining to specific questlines for the organization's thematic.

• Sabotage.
• Espionage.
• Intrigue.

- For example, a Thieves' guild may have objectives and quests toward securing a particular item to enable players to advance within the organization.

Social organizations are going to have questlines that players participate in which some will include sabotage, espionage, intrigue... While it's not necessarily player versus player in the combat sense, it is player versus player in pitting communities in those organizations kind of against each other in a competitive atmosphere, where only some things can be accomplished by certain communities; and not everybody can succeed at a particular task. So, I think that that's a unique way to involve meaningful conflict that doesn't necessarily have to relate to PvP, because obviously we have a lot of PvP systems in the game and and there are many ways for players to participate in player versus player combat; but we also want to make sure that from a progression standpoint, from a system standpoint there are going to be abilities of individuals to follow these questlines, these tasks that will pit organizations against each other, specifically from an organizational standpoint. – Steven Sharif

• Social organizations unlock augments.

You're gonna see arguments being used a lot throughout a lot of our systems. When we're talking about the guild system, when we're talking about social organizations, when we're talking about religions. A lot of those things are going to affect how and what you have available to augment your skills with. – Jeffrey Bard

Alliance progression

Ashes of Creation aura du contenu original centré sur les alliances.

• Les alliances offriront des chemins de progression en plus.
• Les guildes pourront partager des services entre membres d'une même alliance.
• Les alliances peuvent nouer des relations avec les nodes.

Il y aura du contenu centré sur les alliances spécifiquement et la progression du développement des ces alliances; et la possibilité de partager des services entre guildes d'une même alliance. Je pense qu'il est bénéfique de laisser les alliances nouer des relations avec les nodes. Cela va générer une dynamique intéressante pour les joueurs membres du node et ceux membres de l'alliance. Pour moi, il est certain que constuire des systèmes c'est aussi créer des canaux par lesquels les joueurs pourront créer des liens, et plus il y a de couches autour de ces canaux, plus les relations seront durables. – Steven Sharif

Freehold progression

Freehold buildings are able to be levelled up based on the length of time and productivity of the freehold.

• Freehold progression unlocks new bonuses, abilities and capabilities.

We want there to be progression in many systems and part of the freehold progression is that when you establish these base buildings the longer and more productive you are and exist with that freehold, the more opportunity those buildings will have to both level up: offering new bonuses, new abilities, new capabilities; and just surviving in this world is a feat in and of itself, so it's rewarded by allowing progression with those things. – Steven Sharif

Freehold professions

• Animal husbandry.
• Crafting stations can be located on freeholds or within nodes.
• Farming.
• Player-owned Taverns on freehold plots.

Player owned 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

Taverns

Taverns provide tiered services.

• Quêtes 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.

Monster coin progression

There is a progression system that levels a player's monster skills based on how often they participate in monster events.

In Ashes of Creation a large portion of world events revolve around the environment reacting to the player. This means that as players are exploring the world and developing civilization around them the environment is responding to this encroachment by spawning dynamic events and creatures to attack those developing cities. These events occur in 3 different types: the Legion level the Elite level and the Epic level.

As nodes advance, so does the scale of the monsters. There are tiers of events denoting the caliber of the monsters being spawned.

• The tier of the monster coin dictates how powerful the monster is.

Ashes of Creation Apocalypse progression

Ashes of Creation Apocalypse environment.

The first chapter of Apocalypse is The Exodus. It takes part in the initial stages of the fall and sets the scene for upcoming chapters.

• Between 15 and 20 cosmetic rewards are earnable in every chapter.
• Daily and weekly quests will allow players to gain up to 50 levels (matching the intended level cap for the Ashes of Creation MMORPG).
• Advancing through these levels allows players to unlock unique cosmetic rewards, such as weapon skins.

You're going to have an adventuring path and that adventuring path is going to come with weekly quests and daily quests that you can participate in that will be available for the Castle sieges for the Horde and for the Battle Royale; and as you complete these quests you're going to gain experience; and right now you have up to 50 levels, which matches the intended cap for Ashes of Creation. Fifty levels of the adventure path that you can advance in; and as you advance in each of these levels you're going to be unlocking certain assets, such as these weapon skins. Now the great thing about player's progress in Apocalypse is that you will share the same account from Apocalypse to Ashes of Creation the MMORPG and anything that you earn in Apocalypse will be in Ashes of Creation the MMORPG- a unique as a skin exactly: A skin that you will have access to for helping us test write Apocalypse and preparing these different Alpha and Beta stages for Ashes of Creation. – Steven Sharif

Ashes of Creation Apocalypse adventure paths

Ashes of Creation Apocalypse adventure paths.

There are adventure paths (also known as Compendiums) in Ashes of Creation Apocalypse (Battle royale, Castle sieges, Horde mode).

• The first chapter of Apocalypse is The Exodus. Between 15 and 20 cosmetic rewards are earnable in every chapter.
• There will be an optional Legendary Path that players can purchase for USD $10 per 10 weeks.
• The Legendary Path offers over 50 cosmetic rewards.
  • Alpha-1 backers and Intrepid pre-order pack owners will be granted a lifetime compendium (battle pass) to the Legendary path.
  • Alpha-2, Beta-1 and Beta-2 backers will have access to the first chapter's Legendary path, with over 50 cosmetics available to earn.
  • Other Kickstarter, summer backers and pre-order pack owners will receive the first chapter of the legendary path for free for 70 days. 71 different cosmetic rewards can be earned starting from December 18th.
  • The Legendary path will also have a shop for one-off cosmetics.
• Embers can be used in Ashes of Creation Apocalypse to purchase unique cosmetics or to purchase the Legendary adventure path.
• All Adventure paths in Ashes of Creation Apocalypse allow players to earn embers just for playing. Those embers will carry over into the MMORPG.

Ashes of Creation Apocalypse cosmetic rewards

All of the skins attained in Ashes of Creation Apocalypse will be usable in the Ashes of Creation MMORPG.

Progression and experience tracking for participation in Ashes of Creation Apocalypse testing will entitle players to earn unique cosmetic rewards. These earned rewards will carry over in player's accounts to live launch of the MMORPG.

• Armor appearances.
• Costumes.
• Emotes.
• Freehold building skins.
• Furniture.
• Hairstyles.
• Supports.
• Pets.
• Weapon skins.

One of the ways we want to give back to the Community in participating in this testing is allowing for progress, quests, achievements rewards to be gained in Apocalypse... You will have rewards and quests and achievements that you and your participation and your performance in that game, whether it be the Castle Siege, the Horde Mode or the Battle Royale will earn you cosmetics. There will be costumes. There will be mounts to earn. There will be housing and furniture. There will be emotes. There will be weapon variants. A lot of these are what we have in production for our project Ashes of Creation, we apply some variants and skins for and make them only available through participating in helping us test these different game modes. And they will carry over to your account on the MMORPG. – Steven Sharif

• 

  Armor of the Autumn Knight

• 

  Emberstorm Dragon

• 

  Nighthunter Gryphon

• 

  Ramstrider

• 

  Swordbrand Cloak

• 

  Woodgarde Cloak

The account used for Apocalypse is the same account used for the MMORPG. Unique skins earned in Apocalypse will be added to the MMORPG as rewards for helping to prepare for the Alpha and Beta stages of Ashes of Creation.

• Cosmetic skins are only be able to be applied to things that have already been earned, crafted or found within the Ashes of Creation MMORPG.
• Skins earned in Apocalypse will be available to apply at certain tiers, levels and/or access points within the MMORPG.

So it's not that you'll be able to equip necessarily an item at level one. These are all cosmetic skins. Again we are not about the pay-to-win or pay-to-convenience life. What we want to do instead is as you earn, craft, or find equipment in the MMORPG, these skins that you've earned in Apocalypse will be available at certain tiers, levels and/or access points. So for example, we have different grades of mounts right. We have the base one land mounts. We have the the Royal mounts. We have the flying mounts if you're a mayor or King or Queen. We have legendary mounts. These classes of mounts will have available skins associated with those particular classes... If you have the Ramstider skin that you've earned from Apocalypse, you'll be able to apply that to your first land mount, which will probably be earned within the first five levels you'll earn a land mount. However if you have let's say for example the Gryphon, which will be a glideable mount. I'm sorry what's the name of the what's the name of the night one. The midnight- is the midnight bird or something like? The Nighthunter Gryphon. I think that's it. If you have that skin you'll only be able to apply that skin to a Royal mount so you'll still have to earn these things. Remember our position is that of: You need to earn these things in Ashes first. They're not purchasable or earned outside in Apocalypse and you're granted that immediately. These are skins that you apply to the things you earn in Ashes. – Steven Sharif

These cosmetics reflect the lore of Ashes of Creation Apocalypse, which is set before the fall.

• Armor appearances will reflect the ancient cultures of Verra.

One thing that we announced to our alpha one backers that I know they love clarity on is that we'll also be including progression and experience tracking for participation and testing that will entitle them to some unique cosmetics as well that reflect on the lore of this setting, which is before the fall. So you'll be able to acquire some armors that reflect some of the ancient cultures of Verra that you will earn and hold for live launch. – Steven Sharif

It would be like your ancestors kept these curios for you. – Jeffrey Bard

Examples of some Kickstarter rewards will be included in Ashes of Creation Apocalypse.

Basic axe.	Hallowed Bronze Axe.	Arcanic Bronze Axe.	Pyroclastic Bronze Axe.	Eldritch Bronze Axe.

Thundering Mace.	Hallowed Mace.	Arcanic Mace.	Pyroclastic Mace.	Eldritch Mace.

See also

• Nivellement
• Archétypes
• Combat