One of the fundamental (and exciting!) aspects of Ashes is that we can build up our own little town by settling on and improving a node through questing/harvesting, etc.
So the sooner the better, we should start thinking about what kind of node we want to settle in!
Do we want to be high up in the mountains, with good ore available but somewhat hidden away from the rest of the world?
Do we want a coastal node where we’d become a trade center and have good access to overland and oversea shipping?
Do we want to setup in the forest, with copious building materials available and tons of woods all around?
What about an island nation? The devs have already confirmed there will be island nodes!
With hundreds of nodes available in the world, there will be a lot of options for where we want to plant our flag.
So what do you all think, what sounds like “home” to you?
Do we have a feeling for how the community in AoC is shaping up? Peaceful so a trade center would be attractive…or hostile where we might want instead to build defensive positions in mountains.
It looks like a fairly competitive (PvP) bunch so far Cefwyn. Time will tell though as to how many want to still fight on down the road once trade caravans and ships are going.
Hiya I am not a pvp’er either, but during the alpha phase I will try this !! I am excited to try to break the game and help with finding bugs Not sure where to build the ''home base "
I get the impression the game is going to be a lot like a Shadowbane / Archeage hybrid - with added incentive for power guilds to progressively build and destroy node cities to trigger World Events in order to spawn bosses and open dungeons to get at phat loot. Going into the game expecting to create a ‘forever home’ will likely lead to great frustration and tears as Uber-guild alliances shift the playfield.
Likely the longest lasting and least contested starter cities will be the ones furthest from the Best In Slot gear drop locations - so non-power guilds will likely be best off putting down roots far from the hubs of activity. That or embracing a nomadic mercenary strategy putting down temporary roots in the wake behind the World Event of the Month onslaught as it moves on to the next target node city location. Always expecting to move on when the World Event / phat loot circle-jerk comes back around.
I think this will depend on how much power OTG will posses on our server. If we’re one of the top guilds a high resource node would be good for trade income. If we end up being weaker a higher traffic area might be better…this is a question to keep in mind during the alpha and beta tests for sure though
Might even be a good idea to split between 2-3 nodes so we can keep gathering and crafting in house…maybe the pvpers could make home base in the mountains and pvers could make home in a central location for crafting or something
If the community is leaning towards a heavy PvP slant at launch then we must consider OTG’s history with these types of games. We are typically not a “power” guild at launch simply due to our laid back nature. We can’t compete with guilds that require members to contribute X number of resources daily or to be available 24x7 to PvP at the drop of a hat.
What we do have is organization, diplomacy and PATIENCE. We take a long-term view.
Each game is different, however, and we trust the leaders we put in place for each chapter to make decisions on how best to proceed.
Bambi has been through this shit before so you are all in good hands.
As previously mentioned, OTG takes a while to establish itself. So no, initially we won’t be trying to win King of the Hill on the choice spots. Our opponents will not realize our wily craftiness though, as we manipulate things from the shadows, working from out of the way places until it’s time to step in and take OVER THE WORLD!
Muhahahahah!
coughcough
Seriously though, we won’t be trying to keep up with the “Firsts”. You all know the types. First to do this, do that, win this, blah blah blah. Instead we’ll enjoy the game, work with Tenacious Gamers on larger scope events and end up being a concern to reckon with after most of the twitch kiddies have left for another, newer, shinier game.
It will be business as usual, we will be following Wheaton’s First Law (Don’t be a dick) and we’ll establish ourselves as a guild that won’t roll over and play dead but also a guild that isn’t out to destroy everyone else by next Tuesday. Obviously this title not only allows but demands PvP, caravan robbery, high seas piracy, etc so we’ll have to temper the chapter rules to fit the new world we find ourselves in. As in past games, we won’t be running amok, attacking everyone willy nilly but instead carefully choosing our targets so as to keep an impression of NOT being ganking jerks.
I feel fairly certain that we’ll have our hands full in PvP just chasing after the disreputable guilds on our server. Reacting to those that try to take advantage of us. Going after Bounties on those that have no self control and helping improve our in-game community, guarding ourselves and others from the toxic elements that are sure to show up!
This title should be a long term game where Reputation becomes a very important factor. It will be important to keep that in mind with everything we do. If we cultivate a Reputation as being fair, trustworthy and not willing to give in, then we’ll be in a perfect spot IMHO. With a Rep established like that, other players will think twice about ganking some OTG harvesters because they’ll know that if they do, the rest of our fighters will hound them to the ends of the earth until they apologize sufficiently and make enough reparations. With a good enough Rep, others will turn to us for help when they’re being taken advantage of. It’s always great to have a lot of friends outside of our own guild.
Yeha, I was thinking that should be of more a concern than the environment. At least, it is for me… I don’t care if we’re on a mountain or under the earth, but I’d really like to be on a commerce node.
I have to agree with Myth. I don’t think it matters where we end up. Those of us who have been around for a long time probably know already how this will go…especially if this is more PvP centric than not. At the start of every new game one always hopes for the best and we have fun every minute we’re running with OTG. My biggest hope is we’re nowhere near the Goons
Interestingly enough, I have not seen the Goonsquad in evidence in the official forums. I’m sure some of them will show up but since this is not a Free 2 Play game, we’ll miss out on a lot of those types of players.
I honestly don’t care where we chose to focus our node but the node’s benefits is an interesting concept. I heard the scientific node lets you teleport within the node, and the commerce node lets you trade easier? not too sure.
The commerce node will open up an auction house available to everywhere within its sphere of influence. Science will allow fast travel within its sphere of influence. Military nodes allow bounty hunters. Divine node benefits are still unannounced.
I am not a pvp’er either, but during the alpha phase I will try this !! I am excited to try to break the game and help with finding bugs 
Not sure where to build the ''home base "
