Corrupted areas

Alpha-2 corrupted area in the Riverlands biome.^[1]

We just saw a corrupt zone and that zone becomes corrupt after a period of time in which players are not addressing some issues that arise through certain events or through certain story arcs; and that corruption can spread and corruption changes the spawners for resources and for monsters; and that has a fundamental effect on the resource economy of the game.^[2] – Steven Sharif

Corrupted areas (zones/points of interest) can dynamically evolve with the progression of nodes and story arcs.^[2]^[3]^[4]^[5]^[6]^[7]^[8]

Harbingers that exist on Verra as dungeons are where The Ancients are capable of pushing into the material plane. They can continue to do so under the guise of the effects of corruption as it spreads.^[9]

These are sources of NPC events that players need to address before they grow out of hand.^[2]^[10]^[7]
- Players need to participate in these events to stop the spread of corruption and hold back the intrusion on the material plane.^[2]^[9]
- If players fail to address these corrupted areas, the frequency of NPC events against their node will increase. These can lead to node buildings and services being disabled, increasing the node's vulnerability to node sieges.^[11]

It can be a very detrimental thing if corruption is not addressed; and that's the intent of corruption, is to present a challenge to the players that if not addressed it becomes exacerbated and a problem over time.^[11] – Steven Sharif

Corrupted areas do not confer corruption onto a player. Only JcJ related activities lead to player corruption (in the flagging system).^[12]^[13]

To degree your mortal coil, as we call it, or what some might consider a soul from your character's perspective within this story- can be influenced and can be changed into a shape that's more in tune with corruption; and that's through doing PvP things you can accomplish that.^[12] – Steven Sharif

Corrupted areas will likely be impacted less by seasons and weather.^[14]

When it enters the corruption state outside of weather, in that corrupt state, you will probably see a little bit less of the influence of the season because really it's adopting that corruption, which in-and-of-itself is a season.^[14] – Steven Sharif

Corrupted areas will spawn variations of mobs and resources.^[2]
- Corrupted resources are only available in corrupted areas or during certain story arcs.^[2]^[3]^[15]^[16]^[17]

Blood magic

Effects of Blood magic near the Tower of Carphin.^[18]

Blood magic is a school of magic that creates a certain amount of corruption in the caster. This corruption can bleed over into the environment and other things that the caster draw Essence from in order to cast these spells.^[19]^[20]

The curse of Carphin was born from blood magic.^[21] This began with the blood sacrifice of Veric Pulsifer by Laria Lemonte, which started a ritual that led to the mass killing of the residents of Carphin, turning them undead.^[22]

The ability to wield blood magic might be considered "illegal" by certain lawful citizens and nations of Verra. There may be ramifications when players discover and experience blood magic in the world.^[19]

When we say that blood magic is "illegal", we're talking about in the context of a normal everyday player who's a citizen of Verra having come from Sanctus. You are adhering to the local laws and guidance from nation governments and/or node governments to be a good upstanding citizen of Verra. You adhere to these laws. The ability to wield blood magic might be seen in some storylines we'll see. That is left to the players to experience and discover. Those types of choices might have ramifications on your character and or ramifications within story lines... Whether players will be able to wield blood magic is up to the different story lines you all explore.^[19] – Steven Sharif

The developers adhere to a style guide for blood magic, along with other schools of magic.^[19]

When we talk about how do we create a blood corruption setting, well what is the associated colors, what's the shape language of blood magic. This flowing river- you saw some of them in the VFX of the zone and Carphin- you saw the mist in the deep red saturation. Each of the environments and the magics and what we create has an associated style guide that includes color wheels and palettes across different influences.^[19] – Steven Sharif

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Des nouveaux points d'intérêt (tel que des donjons et des Bosses d'extérieur) apparaissent à mesure que les Nœuds avancent.^[23] Le contenu s'adapte au développement de la zone dans lequel il se trouve.^[24]

Les Populations changeront.^[24]
La difficulté du contenu changera.^[24]
Le contenu lui-même peut être complètement différent, selon ce qui est développé et comment.^[24]
Différents types d'adversaires avec différentes histoires.^[24]
Certains donjons ne se déverrouilleront que si les nœuds sont développés jusqu'à certaines étapes.^[25]
Les objectifs d'histoires pour les joueurs à l'intérieur d'un donjon dépendront des chemins narratifs choisis à travers le système de nœud.^[25]
Les Tables de butins dans les zones et dans les donjons seront liées à la progression dans certaines zones.^[25]

Certains donjons et autres points d'intérêt sur la carte vont être affectés par le développement des nœuds sur le serveur. Certains donjons ne seront déverrouillés que si les nœuds sont développés jusqu'à certaines étapes. Les objectifs d'histoires pour les joueurs à l'intérieur d'un donjon dépendront des chemins narratifs choisis à travers le système de nœud. Les Tables de butins dans les zones et dans les donjons seront liées à la progression dans certaines zones. Par exemple, admettons que les humains aient développé un nœud dans la Région A, et une histoire s'est ouverte et dirige les joueurs pour qu'ils inspectent les ruines (donjon) d'une zone proche. Et admettons que ce nœud se soit développé en tant que nœud scientifique (artisanat)… Eh bien avant que ce nœud ait été développé, ce donjon était accessible… Mais maintenant le donjon a propagé des nouveaux objets et monstres qui incluent des tables de butin qui répondront à des besoins d'artisanat grâce au développement de ce nœud scientifique. Et peut être qu'un nouveau boss apparaîtra dans différentes pièces du donjon qui inclura des différents départs de quêtes et d'aventures, comme un objet mystérieux avec une histoire propre qui ne peut être avancée que si un nœud s'est développé jusqu'au statut de métropole dans certaines régions, à travers la planète. Notre système est tellement vaste, quand il s'agit d'interconnectivité et de la manière dont le monde réagit aux joueurs.^[25]

Event levels

The level of a particular event can be based on the level of the content that triggers it, or it can be set to a higher level in order to drive traffic back to lower level zones.^[26]

For example, if the event takes place in a zone that has a base population of let's say average level 25, then one of the trigger conditions might be that 10 monsters of level 25 have been killed recently in that zone and the level 25 event will now spawn additional content designed for level 25 players. So these events aren't always going to be end-game they're going to be obviously appropriate based on the content in which the predicate system is informing, but they also could be something completely top level that is introduced at a lower-level area and brings population traffic of the players back to those types of things.^[26] – Steven Sharif

The more players participating in an event the more challenging the event will become and the higher the rewards will be for completing the event.^[27]^[28]^[29]

Roads

Road blocked by an environmental hazard due to a caravan event in Alpha-2.^[30]

Our road system in-game is essentially driven by pre-placed routes that lead to this main artery of what was once the ancient highway system of Verra; and from there there are roads that become exposed when nodes advance; and we call those veins. They come off the main artery and then as nodes advance there are points of interest as Jeff was discussing earlier. These POIs that exist around the world and some of them share coverage with multiple nodes, but depending on which node advances to the stage that activates the point of interest it'll create these capillary roads so to speak that then stem off of the node itself. So you go from the main artery ancient road that's large- that runs through different zones and whatnot- and that breaks down into the veins that lead to the specific encampments and villages and towns that then spawn off separate capillaries that lead to the points of interest in these areas that are hunting grounds. Those are not exposed initially and they come online as players advance the world.^[31] – Steven Sharif

Roads adjusting to adjacent node progression.^[32]

As nodes advance, these pre-laid road spots that exist connecting every possible route between certain node structures is going to adjust and adapt, both its material presentation, the type of roadwork that's present: It'll move from dirt road type, to perhaps a brick road, to perhaps some super ornate beautiful metropolis style road that will adjust around the world according to how these node structures begin to populate and advance.^[32] – Steven Sharif

Roads in Verra are both pre-generated and player influenced.^[31]

The largest roads are referred to as arteries. These are remnants of what was once the ancient highway system of Verra.^[31]
As nodes advance smaller roads, referred to as veins, connect the arteries to the nodes.^[31]
Depending on the stages of node advancement, capillary roads will stem off the node to connect to points of interest.^[31]
Roads or pathways are not worn into the landscape by repeated traffic over the same area.^[31]
The quality, safety, and maximum transportation speed of roads is influenced by node building upgrades, policies, relics, and the level of nearby nodes.^[33]^[34]^[35]

Q: Could you upgrade roads in the node to upgrade the roads and speeds of caravans?

A: Absolutely. So that buff that you saw is a buff that can be changed in the world based on the world state. Some of those world state interactions include certain types of relics that the nodes which govern your area might have access to and might be actively employing. Some of it might have to do with policies: You might be able to extend the guard influences across the road radius further out for certain nodes if you have certain policies. You might be able to enhance and empower those guards through itemization choices that are granted by building upgrades that the node selects to build.^[33] – Steven Sharif

Different seasons and events may affect access to various roads.^[36]^[37]^[38]^[39]

Pathways that are open during summer may be closed during winter.^[36]^[39]
Seasonal affects may cause obstacles or blockages to the transit of goods via caravan.^[36]^[37]^[38]^[40]
Caravan events can cause roadways to be blocked off or hostile mobs to spawn to attack the caravan.^[30]^[37]
- Obstacles may present barriers on roads that players must remove or bypass to allow transit of goods.^[30]^[36]^[39]
Water turning to ice in winter, enabling players to walk over the water but blocking access to what is underneath.^[39]
- Ice will make roads bumpy and slippery.^[41]

Underrealm routes will open or close dynamically (based on node states).^[42]

The location of Underrealm entrances throughout the world is focused around natural geographic choke-points that exist above ground. This provides alternate subterranean routes that can be used by caravans, raids, and other player activities.^[43]^[42]

Not all entrances to the Underrealm will be open at the same time. This can shift dynamically (based on node states) that cause different routes to open up, which may be more or less advantageous than other routes.^[42]

Caravan components can be utilized to improve on-road or off-road speeds of caravans.^[44]

You will travel faster over roads, but that obviously comes with the increased risk of running into other players or monsters that are blocking the road.^[44] – Chris Justo

Propriété privée may not be placed in close proximity to roads.^[45]

Dungeon locations

Dünzenkell Crypt open world dungeon near the Alpha-1 starting area. Alpha-1 capture d'écran. Crédit image: User:Asenscient

Donjons and other points of interest are located throughout the map in-between the 85 node locations.^[46]

As nodes advance and expand they will influence nearby points-of-interest such as dungeon bosses, regional bosses and Raid bosses.^[46]
- Multiple nearby nodes may collectively influence larger POIs.^[47]

POIs of this size do not normally attach to just a single node. Usually there are multiple nodes that can potentially influence a large POI. The theming within the node occurs around storylines or NPC spawns and events.^[47] – Steven Sharif