The TRUTH About Alpha 2, Part 4: Nodes

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Now that Ashes of Creation has dropped the Verbal Portion of the NDA, what can you look forward to with the Nodes system?

[@Splincir]

After enough hours playing, i can say intrepid has something special on their hands. With a lot of love, they can forge this uncut stone into a shining jewel. It has me inviting people at random to group up, and is creating some organic social experiences. All the systems need a lot of work, but when this thing is polished, if they can keep that social aspect, this can really be something worth dumping your time into again.

[@Xillin]

Preach!

[@WolfheartFPS]

LETS GET IT

[@Xillin]

2 more days!

[@Steast]

The node system is what I’ve been looking forward to the most. Im a gatherer/crafter who dabbles in the combat. It’s gonna be interesting seeing how far they’ve progressed in the node system

[@That_Guy_You_Know]

It almost sounds like a node ends up acting partly like a guild where the guild leader is the mayor. Though I thought I heard there is actually a guild system also. Very interesting dynamics will be created out of this system. Though after a while I could see primary nodes ending up being dominant and things not changes as much unless they introduce reasons for primary nodes to change.

[@Xillin]

They already have reasons to siege and de-level nodes. Early in A2 a lot of that stuff won't be online, but as we get deeper into A2 testing I'm sure it will be there.

[@That_Guy_You_Know]

@@Xillin That's awesome. Alright cool I'm excited to get started next month.

[@barrywhite1770]

Are you telling me I wasn’t subscribed this WHOLE time?!?!? Thanks for the reminder!

[@Krieghandt]

"you have to buy seeds" oh boy, Monsantos is in the game

[@JohnAPrescott]

I love New Aela! Its landscape is very nice. Love the western part of the Riverlands.

[@Xillin]

Can't wait for them to finish developing the area and put some stuff in there.

[@JohnAPrescott]

@@Xillin hell, I still haven't even seen all of the Riverlands yet...

[@JohnAPrescott]

@Xillin and ive been in at the start.

[@empire5235]

Yes I have a preference for the western riverlands myself just more open. But it has changed a great deal a few weeks ago it was quite flat in places but now it has really changed and is much more interesting just need some POI in there now.

[@JohnAPrescott]

@@empire5235 agreed!

[@Imogenus]

This seems interesting. I wonder how many people can belong to those small nodes.

[@joshuacarr1720]

Aa cool as some of these aspects in AoC seem to be I believe that it leaves to much room for toxicity. I would rather grinde to the bone on pve world exploring than work my tail off focused in a particular isolated spot of the game trying to get a node built right or protected.

[@higguma]

You're missing the clear issue with having content creators basically control the game just like guilds in throne and liberty. Popularity contest for nodes is terrible idea.

[@TwistedKodiax]

Great video! Just subbed!! Keep em' coming man! Your making good content!

[@Rayndoun]

Good info. Thanks Xillin.

[@makkura9245]

Once the Riverlands are content complete, this will be a decent alpha to experience. Also I kinda hope they add VOIP. Social MMOs are just much better with VOIP.

[@Xillin]

Steven has said many times proximity chat (voip) will only be inside of taverns.

[@kylebrett4125]

Great video bro!

[@Azhrei776]

All hail mayor firebrand. Best mayor ever.

[@Auld17]

Good video, Xillin. Would love a video about the Lawless zones. Are they worth going to for the resources there?

[@Xillin]

I can't speak on that topic. I actually haven't gone to the lawless zones. They've only been present in the testing relatively recently.

[@Da_Bomb_]

I can weigh in a bit on the topic but haven't explored extensively. The desert is more worth going to than the tropics. Tropics has next to nothing in it except for a weird version of Tumoc. Desert has some other mobs and supposedly a scorpion boss but have not found it yet. I don't know how worth either one is to go to until you're high level and just want to explore.

[@higguma]

3:07 popularity contest where the content creators get to have their little power fantasy, nothing more.

[@Texinga]

Mayors don't actually have that much power. They mostly ask players to support projects and node upkeep via a mission board. If players don't do it, there's not much a mayor can actually do. Nodes and buildings will start to decay over time if maintenance and XP costs aren't paid. They kind of just organize the node more than rule over it.

[@Ludullu]

I'm planning on just booking it right as the servers go live, so hopefully I manage to avoid all the strong mobs and get to New Aela on lvl 1. I got no clue what I'll be doing from there, but that's a problem for the future me.

[@Xillin]

I have a very similar plan. Good luck out there!

[@AssesinsToast]

Get this message out in the world! A2 mayors NEED to coordinate their building! Otherwise we can't test all the crafting stuff!

[@Xillin]

Yep, spread the word!

[@Penumbra-AoC]

TWO more sleeps :(

[@Xillin]

ONE more sleep now!

[@OsirisTheWeary]

I gotta get my ass to oaken keep when they bring the surveys back up. That sounds cool af

[@JohnAPrescott]

That place ain't no joke!

[@darkscholar7]

great video

[@BackPacMan10]

Is the alpha2 just weekend tests?

[@Xillin]

Right now, yes. Until Dec 20, at which point it will go to 5 day tests. In May the servers go live full time.

[@davidsumpter4933]

When will the different Node Bonuses be revealed.

[@Xillin]

No clue

[@henrythegreatamerican8136]

The node system is the heart of this game. If it fails, the game will fail. Nobody who is interested in this game is playing it for the PvE, so using most of the dev resources to attract that playerbase will doom the game like many games before. I'm not saying PvE focused games are bad. They need to be built from the ground up with PvE in mind. AoC is not that type of game even though it has some PvE in it. I hope the decision makers realize this and don't fall into the New World and Crow Fall trap. Focus on the games strength (the node system) and success will come as long as it works properly.

[@laggmonstret]

I seem to be in a minority to not like the node system at all, so much I choosed not to buy in to the Alpha/Beta and will follow the progress as a viewer instead :) But there is other major things i dislike aswell, freeholds, taxes, freeholds (and how it is needed to reach end game crafting), mayors being the only ones to get a flying mount, mana for all classes... the list goes on so basilcy Stevens vision of what a MMO is seems very far from mine :P

[@henrythegreatamerican8136]

@@laggmonstret I agree with most of what you said, but you need to look at the node system as one of the first attempts by a major MMORPG to let players have an impact on what happens in the world. Yes, other games let players build things, but none of that had a serious impact on the overall world and story. And AoC is doing it in a way that doesn't give players too much power to do so. Players won't be able to destroy everything while having a major impact. It's a first major step for the genre. If it succeeds, future MMORPGs will take the idea much further.

[@eldiablosatanis]

New world gave to much PvP change and lost its pve player base and that leads to it failing so it conflicts your point not agrees with it

[@henrythegreatamerican8136]

​@@eldiablosatanis Wrong. New World was never meant to be PvE focused but heard all the people complaining it lacked PvE. So the game was delayed until more PvE content was added, but the PvE was very generic and stale because the game was not built that way from the start. And as the New World progressed, it completely lost focus of what it was supposed to be. Stop trying to get PvE content into games that are not focused on it from the ground up. Game development doesn't work that way. And if AoC decides to focus on adding tons of PvE to cater to that audience it will suffer the same fate.

[@eldiablosatanis]

@@henrythegreatamerican8136 you can say what you want but if they wanted PvP game they should have left it in the rust like format and not an RPG format, also it's popularity surged with the pve RPG elements being added and started dying when that didn't deliver and the pve players left.. following your theory the ove players leaving should have left the PvP to thrive and yet to floundered instead

[@Mibarri]

The voting takes place in an hour. but the results might take a week or so to count the later votes that happen to apea... I mean show up late do to caravans being attacked.

[@Xillin]

Big facts

[@petemisc4291]

Oh, so what’s insane about it?

[@Xillin]

The fact that leveling and de-leveling nodes actually changes the game world, makes POIs harder and changes their drop tables? The fact that the citizens get a say so in how the node is developed and each node will be different from the other nodes?

[@ProodiansWoodshop]

For the algorithm.

[@SwapwareGames]

HUGE disadvantage to alpha 2 keyholders starting November 8.. all the nodes will be fully leveled up by then, and we miss out on building of a node experience, very disappointed in this

[@fr33py]

It's alpha bro..... plenty of wipes ahead.....

[@mrBok]

First!

[@Xillin]

You stepped your game up from last time!

[@mrBok]

@@Xillin thanks that mean a lot for me :)