World size

1,200 km² (square kilometers) is the expected total world size of Verra at launch, including land (480 km²) and water/ocean (750 km²), but excluding the size of the Underrealm.

• This has increased from the previously stated total size of 480 km² including land and water/ocean; but excluding an additional ~100 km² of Underrealm.
  • The Underrealm did not increase "too much" in size.

• The reason given for expanding the map size was to better accommodate Naval content and to reduce the overall content density in the world.

The purpose of it becoming bigger is as I said to make sure that density isn't overwhelming: that it isn't everywhere I look there is immediately something. I have no opportunity to see areas of the world that are expansive and are just wanderlust adventure feeling. Everything was sitting on top of you, POIs and nodes and houses and everything. It was like an urban area everywhere. But we wanted to expand that because a large portion of the game is a sandbox element; it's coupled with a lot of curated content but it's that sandbox element. – Steven Sharif

• The shape of the continents has also changed and two new large islands have been introduced.

Number of nodes

Deze vertaling is mogelijk verouderd

Er zullen bij de release 103 nodelocaties zijn.

World map

Updated Ashes of Creation map.

The new world map in all its 1,200 square kilometer glory. So you're gonna see some names here- a little bit of a reveal of some of these locations in these areas- and you're also of course seeing similar biomes that are present as well. But more importantly what you are seeing is the orientation of these continents and these islands that are facilitating specific types of inter-continental trade gameplay; and they support the relevance of these caravans moving across the land mass to locations that will now incorporate these harbor areas, which aren't identified on the map here... But the important part was providing a lot of coastal naval gameplay between these zones and trade routes between land base. – Steven Sharif

Alpha-2 work-in-progress map UI.

The world of Verra features an in-game viewable world map. This map is not randomly generated, and begins covered in a fog of war. Players will not be able to see the world until they have explored it or gathered information about it. The world is also full of imperfect information, which will require the player to act on it for verification.

For example, you may hear a rumor in a tavern that tells you the location of a cave full of weak Kobolds, but this was not accurate as the rumor was started by well-equipped bandits in order to waylay overconfident adventurers.

• Information about the world will be presented directly to players through the world map UI as it is gathered.
  • Node tax rates will be visible on the world map by hovering over a node location on the UI.
  • The map UI will potentially incorporate player created location markers that are visible by other party members.
  • Previously, detailed information about the world was only available through the Bibliotheek unique node building.

• Not every server will share the same map, as player decisions will vary between servers.

• The map will have geographical choke points caused by non-traversable obstacles (such as Mountains).

Even though we're an open-world that doesn't mean that from a design perspective, especially with the way our economic systems work, that we will want to create Geographic choke points. – Steven Sharif

Sommige van de volgende informatie is niet recentelijk bevestigd door de ontwikkelaars en staat mogelijk niet op de huidige ontwikkelingsroutekaart.

• Zones in Ashes of Creation will cater to all levels.

World shape

The world of Verra is not flat, but it cannot be circumnavigated.

The Verran planet is not flat. You may not see a curvature on the horizon in this, but from a lore perspective the universe in Verra does adhere to some basic physics and laws of physics that we experience in the real world, which means it is not flat. – Steven Sharif

There will not be world wrapping in Ashes of Creation. – Steven Sharif

Alpha testing zone

Map of Alpha-1 testing zone. Afbeelding tegoed: Axiom: Angelcry

The Alpha One map including nodes, dungeons, quest givers, POI, teleporters, and camps will be explorable! Note that this is only a small portion of the world of Verra.

Alpha-1 testing tropical zone featuring a war beast and a tribe of pigmy goblins.

This is a rather large tropical area; and what we use some of the creatures for is establishing character for different parts of this tropical place. So that even though it's the same biome, it feels different when you are going from place to place based on what's there and how those things are interacting with the environment. – Jeffrey Bard

Alpha-1 testing took place in a zone to the north west of the world map. This zone has many islands and a mainland area.

• The Alpha-1 starting area is set in the ruins of an Pyrian divine gateway.
• There are 12 different (sub)zones in the Alpha-1 testing location.
• The Alpha-1 map was approximately 70 km² of playable area.
  • This was previously estimated to be approximately 100 km² in size. This was about 17% of the total world size.
  • Previous estimates range between 20-25% of the map.
  • Traversing the width of the zone (10 km) on a mount would take about 30 minutes.
• Alpha island (also called Alpha-0 island) was the first open-world testing zone for Alpha-1 participants.
• There are approximately 4 biomes in Alpha-1: Flood plains, Desert (Desert), Snowy mountains, Forest.
  • A tropics biome was added for the December 2020 Alpha-1 preview tests.
• Temporary teleportation points will be present in early tests until ships are introduced later in the alpha testing.

Castle regions

Guild castles influence a castle region around them.

• A castle's region is 1/5th the game world.
• Castle regions, Economic regions, and Node ZOI (Zones of Influence) can overlap.
  • A castle could have a metropolis beside it.
• Castle region boundaries are static.
• Guild castles impose a tax on all revenue for the nodes within its region.

Economic regions

We want our players to have a reason to explore the wilderness, to travel with purpose, and much of that will be driven by our resource system. Transporting these goods might just be more difficult than gathering them. Our regional market system allows players to participate in creating pocket economies that will reinforce the stability of goods in particular regions. Players will be able to move resources and set up shop in other areas to take advantage of the varied markets. With resources spawning dynamically, certain regions will naturally become important trading hubs for the transportation of goods throughout the world.

Economic regions are static areas defined by geographic points of interest.

• Castle regions are larger and encompass multiple economic regions.
• Nodes are the glue that hold castle and economic regions together in potential synergy or chaos.
  • Node ZOIs are fluid and change their area based on the progression of the node and its neighbors.
• Castle regions, Economic regions, and Node ZOI (Zones of Influence) can overlap.

The whole map would be under the influence of 1 of 5 castle regions. However, castle regions aren't the only TYPE of region - there are also economic regions, among other things. – Sarah Flanagan

Zones of influence

Nodes are pre-set locations, wrapped in a zone of influence (ZOI).

Every Node is given purview over a predefined geographic area called a Zone of Influence (ZoI). No matter where you go in the world, whether you’re questing, gathering, or raiding, you’ll be helping determine which nodes will develop, and what Zones of Influence will expand. Any area that a Node controls is considered its Zone of Influence, including Vassal Nodes, and all Vassal Nodes exist within the Zone of Influence of their Parent Node. – Margaret Krohn

Every node is given purview over a predefined geographic area called a Zone of influence (ZOI). Player activity within the ZOI is weighted and counted toward a particular node’s advancement.

The main thing that differentiates us from other MMOs is that we have a living, breathing, reactive world... Our world is separated into zones, which are then separated into what we call nodes. Nodes are sort of invisible zones of influence that listen to everything that a player does; so as players gain experience from killing things, gain experience from doing quests, gain experience through crafting things, the node is also gaining that experience. Once a node gains enough experience it levels up and then starts to attract NPCs to it . – Jeffrey Bard

• By undertaking familiar activities, such as questing, gathering and raiding, players have agency in determining which nodes in the world will develop.

Each Node can form into towns, but are limited by their neighbors. The Nodes have different levels of advancement. There can only be so many of each level. Think of this as advanced settlements needing more elbow room. Nodes encompass more land as they grow and will require more effort to be sustained. This system is a main driver for change in the world because it creates scarcity. As Nodes advance in stages of growth they will lock out neighboring Nodes from progressing, and will absorb their zones of influence.

• Zones of influence connect fully across the world without any gaps.

There is not a space where you will move in to do something and no node will get that experience. – Steven Sharif

• Underrealm nodes and nodes directly above them are considered adjacent but do not exist in the same ZOI.
• Up to one fifth of the world will be encompassed within the ZOI of a Metropolis. The many vassal nodes within a ZOI's "border" could end up looking like a country or nation.

Server population

Population limits will be enforced on each server.

• Around 8-10k concurrent users per server is projected.
• Initially there will be a limited number of registered accounts (approximately 15,000) per server to help mitigate login queues.
  • This limit will increase over time to around 50,000 registered accounts per server.
• There may be queues to get into high population servers, but the aim is to avoid excessively long queues.
• The developers intend to carefully manage server populations via the use of character creation throttles to avoid the need to merge servers.
• The developers may occasionally release stats relating to server populations and archetype/class makeup, but there isn't going to be an official page that surfaces this information.

Exploration

Exploration in Alpha-1.

We want to put things in the world that are dynamic, so there are reasons to keep going out and keep exploring. – Akil Hooper

Riverlands biome concept art.

Players will be rewarded for exploring.

Exploration is a huge part of the game and there are a lot of systems that are dedicated to rewarding exploration.. – Steven Sharif

• Utility skills exist that can help players discover hidden paths and entrances and may lead to discovering hidden quests.
• Certain relics can only be discovered through exploration.
• Constellations may only be seen at certain times at specific locations.

It's widespread how exploration can affect many different progression paths within the game; and it's not just about visiting an area once and never coming back, because timing matters as well. – Steven Sharif

• Travel times are important in Verra, but it will be easy to get lost or distracted by threats and opportunities.
  • Threats can come in the form of monsters, events, and Open-world PvP.
  • Opportunities include resources (gathering, transporting, storing, and trading), points-of-interest, achievements, and treasures.

It'll be easy for you to get lost in AoC. That is our goal from an exploration standpoint. – Steven Sharif

Q: Since travel times are important, what is there to discover that will distract you from going straight to your initial destination? What makes traveling adventurous in Verra?

A: Aside from threat and opportunity, which are probably the two biggest distractions that you can encounter while traveling through Verra- those come in different forms: Threat. in the form of monsters and events. Opportunities, in the forms of resources and POIs. There's also achievements that are based around exploration. There's treasure maps that can be found. There's a lot of different things that intersect with travel: The movement of resources. The storage of those resources. In which locations, what are available to be sold and purchased at different locations. They might make you detour for. All of those things contribute to why I would go somewhere and instead change my direction. – Steven Sharif

Zie ook

• World map
• Exploration
• Nodes
• Zone of influence
• Environments