NPCs

Pre-alpha Sladeborne NPC race. This was a once-beautiful race of cloud-dwelling bird people who were struck by a calamity long ago.

Elite monster 3D turntable.

It's a really big dude and the idea behind him is you're gonna see big monsters- I think that the character comes up to like his elbow maybe, or just beneath the elbow I'm not sure- but you're going to see these big elites just roaming and wandering through the world. They're not assigned any to to any particular hunting ground, they just roam; and I think that component is pretty cool especially when you have an open world where you can see something unique that's not matching the monsters you're hunting in a certain area but just strolls by. – Steven Sharif

Goblin 3D render. 3D model by Chris Atkins.

There are going to be different types of "Goblinesque" creatures; and this one has not skipped out on his leg or arm day, which is a good thing for him because he's probably going to be in a lot of fights. – Steven Sharif

There will be a mix of different monsters and difficulty levels throughout the world that are tied to the development of nearby nodes. As nodes advance, mobs will present new and increasing dangers that players can participate in.

In the world naturally there will be locations that are going to have a mix of different levels of monsters and difficulty levels; and then those spawn tables relate to the development of nearby nodes. So as nodes develop they'll be changing the spawn tables around them to reflect their further development in the world, presenting new and more difficult dangers that the players can participate in. – Steven Sharif

• Not all creatures are immediately hostile to players. Some creatures may hunt other creatures.

We've talked about this a little bit in the past when talking about taming and/or certain types of like creature gatherable resources there are herds that exist out there. There are big game that exist out there, where they're not going to aggro and attack you per-se. Also lower level monsters and certain type of like social monsters may not attack you off the bat. – Steven Sharif

• There will be flying mobs, but not in terms of requiring a flying mount to engage them.

We will have flying monsters but essentially what that means is there's going to be rotations either in the behavior tree that might make them inaccessible to targets, or they might do some like swooping attacks; they might come and land on the ground and fight you. But generally monsters are going to be accessible from on the ground, so we're not creating content for the limited number of individuals who are going to have access to a flying mount. – Steven Sharif

• Certain world bosses and elite monsters will path/roam throughout the world. Other mobs will have leashes that will cause the mob to reset if it moves too far from its point of origin.

Leashes are relevant. There's other gameplay implications that happen when you're able to actually move populations around. We don't want to really give that to the players perspective. – Steven Sharif

• Named mobs will usually have a unique character appearance.

• In general, mobs will not leave footprints or cause screen-shake; but larger monsters and bosses may do. Screen shake will be customizable in user interface settings.

There is something to be had there about those types of screen-shake effects. We want them to be present when we're emphasizing certain things, but we don't want them to be a nuisance, or annoying, or too plentiful; and having screen-shake apply to every step would probably be too abundant. Will players have control over those on-screen type effects? Yeah I think so. I think that's something we want to provision as a customizable option for players to be able to turn off, because it can be somewhat nauseating for certain groups of people and a distraction from what's happening in the world. – Steven Sharif

• Average non-elite mob time-to-kill for a solo player is intended to be around 6 seconds.

• Certain bosses and creatures will have voice lines along with other audio cues.

Reputation

NPCs react differently to players based on their contributions to a node.

NPCs will add a player to their hate list if that player heals, buffs or otherwise assists any player on their hate list.

NPC perception

Alpha-1 preview Seer of the Infinite 3D render.

NPC perception is intended to have different sensory types, ranges, and angles.

• NPCs will have varying fields of view. Some will have the ability to perceive sounds.

We are talking about things like unique abilities played by characters that extend the perception radius, or sounds and different types of walking that are angular from the mob's perception perspective to be unique, different types of creatures that might be of three-dimensional in space, whether it is in water or birds in the sky that have a downward cone angle type perception as well. Those are things we want to do, but we haven't yet spent the time on the AI behaviors there. – Steven Sharif

• Social aggro will vary based on NPC types and NPC factions.

Q: How far away from hostile targets will be before they act aggressively towards us? More specifically, will creatures watch us murder their friends in the open world with no reaction, will they try to kill us in retaliation, or will they run away in sheer terror?

A: Obviously as MMO Gamers we're accustomed to the concept of social aggro. When I hit a target out in the field, they're going to aggro other creatures nearby. We have similar functionality. Obviously however we also have this concept of a more puzzle-oriented level design, where you have different patrollers that might be moving around the world. So that dynamic is always changing the creatures that are near each other might be something that you need to be cognizant of as you begin to navigate those areas. And there might even be certain faction types, where you may have dedicated aggro social tags between certain creature types; and that might be like goblins with their goblin dogs. They could be far away but they send off an alert to those nearby enemies when you aggro another target. And then you also have these perception radiuses; and there's a number of different perception radius types that we incorporate as part of our AI. Those things might be a forward-looking perception cone that represents sight-based perception; and then you might also have a rear perception radius that might represent kind of sound; and those perception types might even interact with unique stats. So, as a Rogue you might have a stealth ability, or as a Ranger you might have camouflage ability: Those are going to dampen those stats which are checked by those perception radiuses; and then you might even have different creature types that fly above the battlefield, or beneath the battlefield, and they may have downward cone type angles. The whole idea is that that navigating the world should be like a puzzle as you move throughout. – Steven Sharif

• Habilidades such as Stealth and Camouflage can dampen NPC perception.

• NPCs in certain encounters may be aware of their local environment and can seek cover behind obstacles, for example; but this will not be prevalent in general AI designs.

Desenvolvimento de Base

Esta tradução pode estar desatualizada

Layout de Base de um Vilarejo no Alpha-1.

Já no terceiro estágio de evolução, como uma vila, é um layout razoavelmente grande; e parte desses layouts inclui domicílos essencialmente estáticos, dentro da base, que os jogadores podem comprar. – Steven Sharif

Estilos de arquitetura Racial em uma vila no Alpha-0. Influência de Elfos Empíreos (acima). Influência de Humanos Kaelar (abaixo).

O layout e a arquitetura dentro da área de desenvolvimento de uma Base são determinados pela raça com mais influência. Por exemplo, uma Base em estágio 3 onde a maioria dos jogadores contribuíntes é Py'Rai terá uma vila Py'Rai com arquitetura Py'Rai. A maioria dos PNJs seriam elfos Py'Rai, e ofereceriam missões com narrativa Py'Rai. – Margaret Krohn

A experiência contribuída por cada jogador é marcada com sua raça e outros identificadores. Quando uma Base evolui, a raça com a maior contribuição de experiência determina o estilo e cultura da Base. Essa mudança de estilo e cultura pode ocorrer em todo Estágio de Base. Por exemplo, se uma Base avança para o Estágio 2 - Acampamento e 51% de toda a experiência veio de jogadores Ren'Kai, a Base será uma Base Ren'Kai Estágio 2. Se essa mesma Base avançar para o Estágio 3 - Vilarejo, mas dessa vez os Py'rai tiverem contribuído 62% de tpda a experiência obtida, a Base se tornará uma Base Py'Rai Estágio 3. Influências culturais trazem mudanças além da estética e das missões - benefícios são dados àqueles da cultura dominante dentro da Zona de Influência daquela Base. – Margaret Krohn

O layout e o estilo de uma Base são determinados por diversos fatores:

• Localização da base.
• Tipo de Base.
• Raça que mais contribuiu para a evolução da Base.
  • Aparências raciais dos prédios e dos PNJs de uma Base.
  • Isso se aplica a todas as bases, incluindo bases de castelo.
• O resto é determinado pelo prefeito da base.

Algumas partes são determinadas pela área onde a base está. Outras, pelo tipo da base; certas partes são determinadas pela raça, e o resto é determinado pelo prefeito. – Jeffrey Bard

Todas as bases, sejam elas relacionadas aos castelos ou não, têm influências culturais que são replicadas nas aparências dos prédios e dos PNJs presentes na Base. – Steven Sharif

Existe uma mecânica de atrito que afeta a experiência e influência para impedir que uma única raça domine o mundo inteiro.

Existe um atrito e esse atrito na experiência e influência aumenta de acordo com a performance da raça no mundo. Então se todas as bases forem de Orc, o nível de atrito deles será muito alto para competir com outras raças na hora de estabelecer a cultura de novas bases. Isso acontece pois já são muito influentes e existe uma opinião popular contra eles nas regiões que não influenciam. – Steven Sharif

Quiósques de jogador

Esta tradução pode estar desatualizada

Renderização 3D de um quiosque de jogador no Alpha-1, por Adam Will.

Arte conceito de quiosques de jogador em um empório.

Quiosques de jogadores (também chamados de vendas e tendas de aluguel) são áreas locáveis próximas à edificação única em uma base mercantil ou em Mercados (a edificação "construível" que prefeitos podem instalar em qualquer base

Esta tradução pode estar desatualizada

[[{{{2}}}]] (estágio 4) ou maior.

Todas as bases tem a habilidade de criar quiosques de jogadores. Se você não é de uma base mercantil e não tem um empório - sua edificação única - então você pode construir um o que eu chamaria de um mercado; e esse mercado virá com um certo número de serviços e um certo número de quiosques. Se bem me lembro, uma base mercantil tem a habilidade de construir uma casa de leilão, que oferece a possibilidade de listar e vender itens, e esse tipo de base também inclui mais espaço para quiosques de jogadores. – Steven Sharif

Alugar um quiosque de jogador permite que os jogadores vendam itens e disponibilizem serviços de reparo e encantamento, mesmo que não estejam online.

• Quiosques de jogadores poderão ser utilizados por um período de tempo, dependendo do preço pago ao alugar o quiosque.
• Um atendente será responsável pelo quiosque.
  • Esse PNJ poderá ter a "imagem" do jogador.
• Quadros de mensagens que listam os itens disponíveis em quiosques de jogadores podem ser acessados de qualquer lugar na região.
  • Eles oferecem a localização do quiosque para que os jogadores possam viajar até lá e comprar os itens.
• Itens de quiosques também serão listados em casas de leilão.
• Os jogadores poderão colocar os itens que precisam de reparo e também comprar os materiais necessários para o mesmo se o quiosque estiver vendendo.
• Os jogadores não podem ser atacados enquanto ocupam um quiosque.
• Quiosques de jogadores podem ser alugados por cidadãos de uma base.

Quiosques de jogadores são diferentes de lojas pessoais e casas de leilão.

Siege NPCs

Siege NPCs, NPC guards, and mercenary NPCs serve as defense points during sieges and other events.

• Only combat NPCs are killable during a siege. Non-combat NPCs, such as merchants, will despawn and will respawn if the siege is unsuccessful.

• Upgrades to the node's Barracks may allow a garrison of siege NPCs to be spawned in the event of an attack.

• Mercenary NPCs can be hired in advance. They are intended to be a significant presence but not the main line of defense in a siege.

Siege objectives

Algumas das informações a seguir não foram confirmadas recentemente pelos desenvolvedores e podem não estar no roteiro de desenvolvimento atual.

Each node has a number of districts, depending on its stage.

• Districts are taken by defeating a "raid boss" guard NPC in that district.
• If attackers take over a district, they gain that district as a respawn location.
• Attackers can kill the quartermasters to increase the respawn times of the defenders while reducing their own respawn times.

Defenders can assault the outposts of the attackers to hinder them.

• Destroying the headquarters of the attacking army is a victory condition for the defenders.

Attackers may not be capable of deleveling 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.

As the attackers are sieging a city they have obviously a win condition- a win objective- but additionally there can be casualties from a structural standpoint during that process. So let's say if the... attackers were to not succeed in completely destroying the node they could still affect damage across multiple types of buildings that are present within the node, which disables services for that those citizens and also will require some type of reconstruction effort on behalf of the citizens. – Steven Sharif

Farmhands and NPC assistance

Based on node type and progression, players will be able to hire NPCs to work as farmhands on their freehold farms. Players will be able to command these farmhands in-game as well as potentially offline via an application (mobile app) or web interface.

• Crop rotation management.
• Plant or harvest specific crops.

Tavern NPCs

The way that the tavern NPCs are going to work is you'll have patrons of either in-node taverns that will have the ability to list items as part of that NPC's merchant store and those items will mainly be around food and drink; and those types of craftable things that are relevant to these taverns; and those items will grant buffs based on proximity. And then additionally players can build taverns on their freeholds- we've discussed this in the past- they will list their craftable foods and drinks and whatnot with their NPC at that tavern as well; and players who interact with that can purchase them- have a drink at the tavern, eat some food at the tavern; and that'll give them a buff for a period of time as long as they remain proximity of that freehold. – Steven Sharif

Tavern NPCs ("bartenders") are merchants that are present in Tavernas in nodes and on freeholds.

• Tavern NPCs sell food, drinks, and other crafted items that have been made for that tavern. Consuming these items will grant buffs for a period of time, providing the character remains in proximity to the tavern.

You're going to probably want to sell items to other players more than necessarily tavern merchants but they'll be there as well. – Jeffrey Bard

Transportation of goods

Alpha-2 materials inventory user interface.

Inventory for A2 will exist in two categories, spatial and non-spatial. The spatial inventory system will only exist for materials and gatherables. The non-spatial system will be the normal single slot inventory that is used for all completed items IE gear, consumables etc.. The spatial system is intended to provide limitation and progression when everything in the open world is gatherable, requiring players to strategize which things they choose to gather or not. These spatial inventories will be shaped in various ways that make the bag types more conducive for certain types of gatherables allowing players to specialize their capacity. Auto sort is a feature – Steven Sharif

Inventário capacity has quantity (stacking) limits based on the type of item. Backpacks offer varying stack sizes and/or spatial inventory shapes that are optimized for carrying different items.

• A player's inventory has sections for different types of items. Quest items for example will not fill a player's regular inventory capacity.
  • Materials and resource bags have spatial ("Tetris" style) slots for items with different shapes and sizes.
  • The spatial inventory system is intended to mitigate the potential for players to diminish land management scores by stripping resources from particular zones as well as provide a challenging gameplay layer for players.

Inventory is split into two separate management systems. The first is your non-material, non-gatherable slots. Those are your standard single slot, not-space-constrained system that's a standard inventory: you just have a single slot, and you can pull completed items and/or consumables and quest items or whatever into that slot. And then, when you're talking about materials, specifically processed goods and gatherables: those exist within the Tetris type uh inventory system. – Steven Sharif

• Itens are placed into the most suitable inventory slots by default.

All those materials actually sorted nicely in the appropriate bags based on your stack sizes. – Alex Khudoliy

• There will be a healthy number of slots for gear in a player's inventory.
  • Completed item inventory slots are not space constrained (by the tetris system).
  • Completed items, such as gear are also not subject to weight limits.
  • Gear loadouts can be swapped using a hotkey when out of combat.

• Inventory capacity will be relatively limited for new characters. Additional capacity may be increased by obtaining higher quality backpacks from crafters.

We want to have very unique progression when it comes to the construction of resource bags; and those resource bags will have certain benefits, like increasing stack size count of particular types of resources; or of having a additional delay time necessary to interface with with your corpse, should a player try to take the resources you might have dropped in PvP; or having passive benefits and unique structures of spacing that makes it more a better bag for wood gathering because woods are three-by-one; or a better bag for mining because mining is always two-by-two. The idea is to make your intent as a gatherer when you go out into the wild specific right not just that you're going out into the wild and gathering everything you can because it's there; and that's what we don't have like a labor system that limits it. We have a space constraint system so when you leave your node and you go out into the wild you need to be conscientious of what you're choosing to interact with and take resources for, because you have a limited space constraint to that degree. – Steven Sharif

• Inventory capacity is subject to quantity rather than weight limits.

In my opinion, and this is of course subjective, but weight management is not a compelling mechanic for players to have to deal with in an MMO setting. – Steven Sharif

• Players will have the ability to search for items they have stored in various locations (such as personal storage and node warehouses).

We want you to know where the things are; and then the meaningful aspect of that thing is traveling to those locations to access some of those things, particularly as it relates to materials and raw gatherables. – Steven Sharif

• Inventories will be able to be sorted.

Q: Why did you go for a spatial inventory system for resources?

A: There's a number of different methods that we can use in an effort to mitigate, or again throttle, the amount of success that players can have in any one trip out in the world. Now, we're using a combination of three things: We are using progression gating through your profession level; so you need to have a certain level to access certain resources. We are utilizing the spatial inventory space as a limitation on how much things you can gather before you need to go back to town. And then lastly we have a tool predicate where you need to have a tool that is relevant for the resource you're gathering; and those tools have a decay value after each use. Weight is obviously an approach that we could take if we wanted to limit. However, the spatial system works in concert with a number of other types of systems. For example, we want to have itemization drop on death specifically as it relates to material items; and we want there to be an additional layer above just weight that introduces complexity; and where there is complexity there is choice and there is strategy and there is planning required on behalf of the player in order to set themselves up for the best possible success in certain situations. – Steven Sharif

Algumas das informações a seguir não foram confirmadas recentemente pelos desenvolvedores e podem não estar no roteiro de desenvolvimento atual.

• Mulas can carry roughly 10 times more than backpacks. Caravans can carry roughly 10 times more than mules.

• Inventário expansion and weight management training certificates are available in the Galleria at Cidade stage economic nodes.

Artificial intelligence

Jermaine Torment of Illwind boss mob.

You can see how we utilize some of the different armor pieces- you've probably seen some of these pieces on different outfits like that toast Corvid Castigator cloak is on him. – Margaret Krohn

Ashes of Creation utilizes an adaptive artificial intelligence (AI), meaning different encounters with similar mobs and bosses will yield different player experiences.

• Some NPC AI behaviors may be randomly selected at the time of initial engagement causing them to make decisions dynamically during an encounter.
  • Higher frequency of AoE attacks depending on how many players are participating.
  • Unlock rage, recovery effects and buffs.
  • Supporting other monster types or classes nearby.
  • Additional adds and add classes.
  • Some NPCs may attempt to seek cover behind obstacles during encounters.
• NPCs performing "idle actions" to make the world seem more alive has been discussed by the developers but is not confirmed.

Part of the NPC encounter design is not always going to be the same behavior tree. There will be purposefully behaviors that exist for the boss that are rolled at the time of the initial engagement; and so that is in an effort to keep things emergent, to keep things different, to try to not keep a static monotonous engagement idea. – Steven Sharif

There are AI systems that don't relate to controlling NPCs.

• Evolução de Base.
• Stock market.
• Triggered events.

There are some additional AI parameters that are set that don't relate necessarily to controlling NPCs. There are AIs with regards to the development of the borders for nodes in the direction and also the decisions that are made of which lower nodes to enslave as vassal states. There's AI that relates to a little bit of the stock market that's going to be present in the economy. There's some AI systems that are going to be announced also that are pretty innovative I think with regards to the MMORPG genre and that's going to make the triggered event system very interesting I think; and that's with regards to how nodes develop and the environment reacts to that development by spawning these triggered events of a horde of zombies attacking a city or a legendary raid boss coming out of the mountain. I think there's a lot of opportunity for some of the innovations that's been in the AI sector of game development too to come out in Ashes. – Steven Sharif

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Ver também

• Mobs
• Chefes mundiais
• Moedas do monstro
• Encounters
• Nodes