Buildings

Kaelar node building concept art.

Alpha-1 Aela (human) housing concepts by Michael Bacon.

Buildings within Ashes of Creation offer goods and services as well as player housing, either within nodes or on freeholds.

• Node buildings are either default buildings that come with the node, or they are constructed buildings that are initiated by the mayor and built by players.

• Freehold buildings that are placed on freehold plots function as homesteads, artisan and businesses buildings.

Node buildings

Node development

Racial architecture of the same Village ( ﺡﺮﺴﻤﻟﺍ 3) node on different servers. Dünir Dwarven influence (top). Kaelar Human influence (bottom). Alpha-1 NDA ﺮﻴﻏ ﺔﺷﺎﺷ ﺔﻄﻘﻟ.

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. – Margaret Krohn

Node layout and style is determined by several factors:

The way that the node system is built is that they can exist across a spread of 18 biomes, but at the same time have to represent the cultural influence of these cultures that are intrinsically a part of a specific biome. – Steven Sharif

• Environment (biome) and location of the node.
  • Nodes will adjust the local topography to fit the aesthetic and mechanical requirements of the node.

Currently the way that the platform system is set up, is it's capable of adjusting the topography of the node's footprint, regardless of the surrounding terrain. So the reason for that is we want to have flexibility in the presentation of the node's layout and how it is essentially both from an aesthetic standpoint as well as a mechanical standpoint with node sieges- how it's constructed and that construction should have the ability to take on a variance of different types of topography. So it shouldn't be dependent on the surrounding area. Now that's not to say that the surrounding area isn't going to have some influence over. So for example... we're experimenting a little bit with the platform tech and putting up a node up against the side of a mountain or on the edge of a cliff or something that has a beautiful vista. Those are things that we're going to test out obviously as we continue to work on the node tool and how that platform system works, but the idea is to have the node independent of the surrounding terrain. – Steven Sharif

• Node type.

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

• Race that contributed the highest percentage to the node's advancement will alter the racial appearance of its buildings, NPCs, and props.
  • Parent races do not combine their cultural influences. For example, Py'Rai and Empyrean count as different cultures. Their parent race, the Pyrian, no longer exists.
  • This style and culture change happens at every stage.
  • This applies to all nodes, including castle nodes.

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

• The rest is determined by the node's mayor.
  • It should be possible for a node to complete several building projects within a mayor's one month term in office.

Q: How long would you say it will take players on average to fill/build up a node completely from wilderness to metropolis?

A: It's one thing to get a node to a certain level: it's another thing to develop the node; and I can't really give you an on-average expectation, because there's a lot of variables at play. There's how many citizens does the node have attracted to it; what's the type of traffic that the node is attracting to it based on things like its tax rates, or the specialization that it chose to spec into, based on the building types it's chosen to build. All of those things are variables that can affect the quote-unquote "average build-out time" of a particular node. So it's difficult to give you an average when there's so many variables along those lines. But the idea is that if there is a particular project that players are interested in in developing based on the node stage, that they would have the ability to complete several of those projects as within a single term of a mayor; and a term of a mayor is one month. – Steven Sharif

Unique node buildings

Alpha-1 Node buildings.

Each node type has a unique service building associated with it that can be activated at Village ( ﺡﺮﺴﻤﻟﺍ 3) of node advancement. The unique building plays a central role in the progress of civilization for a server.

City hall

Winstead Village ( ﺡﺮﺴﻤﻟﺍ 3) node town hall in Alpha-2.

We want the City Hall to be the place where big decisions are made for each Node. It should be where the “ruling class” comes together and decides what to do (these decisions can quickly make them the “old ruling class” too).

Town hall (also called City hall) is a default service building that comes pre-built with nodes.

• Players can interact with the node board to get a list of its citizens. Clicking on a citizen will reveal information about their guild, society, religion, and property ownership.

.ﺔﻴﻟﺎﺤﻟﺍ ﺮﻳﻮﻄﺘﻟﺍ ﻖﻳﺮﻃ ﺔﻃﺭﺎﺧ ﻲﻓ ﺓﺩﻮﺟﻮﻣ ﻥﻮﻜﺗ ﻻ ﺪﻗﻭ ﻦﻳﺭﻮﻄﻤﻟﺍ ﻞﺒﻗ ﻦﻣ ﺍﺮًﺧﺆﻣ ﺔﻴﻟﺎﺘﻟﺍ ﺕﺎﻣﻮﻠﻌﻤﻟﺍ ﺾﻌﺑ ﺪﻴﻛﺄﺗ ﻢﺘﻳ ﻢﻟ

• Mayors and node governments use city hall to visualize and control activities within their node. These capabilities will also be available via mobile/web interface.

• Status of the node's economy.
• Status of upcoming elections.
• Status of trade agreements.
• Status of caravans.

Freehold buildings

Freehold building types.

After you build your house, you can build other buildings on your Freehold. Each building needs the blueprint to start the process. If you have a cosmetic skin you want to use on a building, this is used after placing the blueprint. Once this has been placed, the building will be shown in a non-functional, construction state. Players will need to provide the required materials needed to complete the building construction, for each building on their Freehold. No Freehold has room for every possible option, so players will need to choose how to develop their Freehold by choosing to build specific artisan buildings, business buildings, and creating room for livestock and crops.

Freehold buildings that can be placed on a freehold plot serve three main purposes.

• Homesteads.
• Artisan buildings.
• Business buildings.

Freehold buildings require blueprints and materials to construct.

• Sheds are present on empty freehold plots to provide storage for materials needed to construct freehold buildings.
• Some freehold buildings have multiple tiers, with different footprint sizes.
• Upgrading a tier will not change the size of the building in terms of footprint, but may increase in height.
• Basements in freehold buildings are to be decided.

Freehold taxes are calculated based on the number of permits issued for buildings on a freehold.

• Buildings that require permits will have additional upkeep costs.

Freehold building architecture is based on the blueprint for the building.

• Freehold skins are applied to blueprints matching the type of building: housing, artisanship, and business.
  • The vast majority of cosmetic freehold skins are used for the homestead.
• The freehold building blueprints must be obtained in-game first before the cosmetic can be applied.
• Players are not locked to the racial appearance of a freehold building blueprint.

The way we look at it is the freehold is your space so we want you to be able to make it look the way you want it to. – Jeffrey Bard

Freehold building placement

Alpha-2 freehold concept.

On the left we have some farmable animals- some livestock here in pens; and then we have in the middle there's a bunch of crop rows of farmable crops the players can have; and then there's a couple different examples of different freehold buildings you could have on your freehold: one of which is the house on the right and then some other freehold buildings as well, like it looks like there's a mill in the back there as well. – Kory Rice

Freehold buildings and other items/props can be placed on freehold plots (by the land owner).

• The homestead is the first building that must be constructed on a freehold.

• Freehold building permits to allow for a specific number and type of buildings to be placed on the freehold plot must be acquired from the node where the freehold deed was obtained.
  • Freehold taxes are calculated based on the number of permits issued for buildings on a freehold.

• Currently freeholds have a combined maximum total of six artisan and business buildings that can be placed in addition to a homestead.
  • The number and type of buildings that can be placed on the freehold and the way these buildings get placed are subject to change based on testing and iteration during Alpha-2.

On a Freehold you can have your house, and up to six additional buildings. The additional buildings can be artisan and/or business buildings. Larger buildings may take up more room, reducing the total number of buildings that can be built on a single Freehold.

• Space that is not used for freehold buildings can be utilized for other purposes, such as livestock and crop placements.

• Players can manipulate the orientation of freehold buildings and items being placed on their freehold plot.

• There may be a grid-based system that freehold owners can use to place items/props and buildings on their freehold plot.

• Targeting dummies are planned as placeable props with functional mechanics.

• Players are not able to adjust the terrain of their freeholds. Sloped terrain will result in stilts beneath placeable structures (to keep them level).

Destructible environments

Alpha-2 Destructible props at the Remains of Oakenbane Keep.

Destructible environments is a core element of how players interact with the world, in Ashes of Creation.

• Buildings, siege weapons and other structures (such as walls and gates) during events, such as sieges that have been damaged or destroyed will be able to be repaired or re-crafted.
• Destructible props in the open-world will typically respawn after 10 minutes.
• The terrain itself is not destructible.

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See also

• Taverns
• Temples
• City hall