Roleplaying

Backpack sockets (slots).

A big component of the MMORPG that - half of that you know acronym is RPG role-playing game. And in order to role-play you need to be able to represent kind of what your character is doing in that world and you know part of what animation is doing is creating these sockets on the let's say the belt or the back that you know can plug in certain types of props or items that are created by the character team, like Carson, you know might be a scroll tube, it might be a potion, it might be whatever: Those players will have the ability as we've discussed in the past will have the ability to select what they want to be represented in those sockets and then animation will make sure that jibe well in movement. – Steven Sharif

There are different systems that allow stories to be told in Ashes of Creation.

• Musical instruments.
• Dance.
• Easter eggs out in the world.
• Social buildings provide spaces for players to gather and tell/share stories, while also affecting the game and interacting with the world.
  • The node government system builds into this.
• Parlor games.
• Players can run a business based on role playing.

A MMO lives and breathes on its community and we don't really want to give short shrift to any one of those types. All of them are important: the RPers are important, the people who just want to hang out in the Inn and talk are important, they all add to the game and so we want to make sure that we take care of all of them... You can run a business based on RPing. – Jeffrey Bard

Character naming

Characters will have a first-name and an optional surname (family name).

• There is a minimum length of three for a character name.

Character names will appear on the character sheet and optionally on the character website page.

• In-game a character's name is displayed above their head. This can be the first or last name.

Housing decoration

Alpha-1 housing decorations.

Pre-alpha furniture and decor concept art.

Players may decorate their player housing and other types of buildings.

• Houses will be empty when purchased.
  • Players may be able to upgrade to pre-furnished sets when they purchase their home.
  • Pre-furnished sets will be almost entirely visual and aesthetic. Only items crafted by the Carpentry profession will have in-game functionality.
• Players may place Furniture, artwork/paintings and other decor items in their player housing.
  • Items may only be placed in locations that are suitable for that item. For example: Statues, may only be placed in exterior locations (of Freeholds and Static housing).
  • Each size of player-owned housing determines how many decor items can be placed in it.
• Prized items such as achievements and trophies may be displayed.
• Characters will be able to interact with furniture items such as sit in chairs and lay in beds.
• Players will not be able to alter structural aspects such as windows and walls.

Quality furniture can be crafted in-game based on the skill of the craftsperson.

• Furnishing items with in-game functionality will be restricted entirely to those created by the Carpentry profession.

Your ability to craft more luxurious furniture comes with how much of a master craftsman you've become in the furnishing profession... This isn't like you know, I want my house to look good, I got to fork over 50 bucks in cosmetics... Players can craft in-game based on their dedication and focus in that aspect the artisan tree. – Steven Sharif

Social organizations

Mage tower concept art by Jon Arellano.

Social organizations are ways for players to interact with the world around them in a different manner. They are about creating micro communities within the game.

The whole idea of these societies is that they are a mechanism for progression that do not have to rely on your level progression. These are different progression paths that players can participate in. If you don't want to leave a node in your gameplay experience and you want to find as much as you can do within that city, these offer those things. Now, some quests might take you outside of the city to you know hunt and pursue things, but you could also perfectly be a person that is a merchant and purchases them from other travelers instead of having to go do it yourself. We want to offer players a diverse method of progression; and these systems house those benefits. – Steven Sharif

Social organizations function a little bit like factions, but without flagging mechanics.

Sometimes two organization's goals might not align with each other and there'll be conflict there, but it's not going to be like everybody in the Traders Guild is at war with everybody in the Thieves Guild. – Jeffrey Bard

Social organizations are run by NPCs, however there will be ranks that certain members can attain that will grant some influence over the organization.

Social animations

Pre-alpha social animations.

Pre-alpha war dance animation.

There are interactive social animations and emotes.

• Sitting.
• Leaning.

Some animations will be agreed-upon emotes that you can initiate with other characters.

• Dancing.
• Hugging.

Emoji

Emoji adds additional flare either for chat or character representation. Emoji packs were available in the Kickstarter and Summer crowdfunding campaigns at the Explorer level and above.

• Race emoji.
• Class emoji.

There will be role-playing emoji such as dice rolling.

Music

Ashes of Creation's Lead Composer is Bear McCreary. His music will be unveiled in Beta-1.

The Bard archetype is intended to have musical abilities.

• Bards may be able to play musical instruments, such as Flutes and Bagpipes.

Tavern music

Music within taverns can be set by players.

Parlor games

Parlor games are games that are played in player-built taverns or in-node taverns.. Some will be dice games, others will be card games; and some will be less savory.

• These games will involve aspects of both chance and skill.
• They must be played between 2 or more people.
• Players will be able to wager in-game currency against other players.
• A portion of the income from the game goes to the tavern owner or node.
• Parlor games will vary based on the predominant race of a node.

Parlor games were a Kickstarter stretch goal.

Mobile interface

There may be a mobile application that allows players to interact with parlor games (tavern games).

Character appearance

Vaelune character appearance options.

There is a great variation that's going to be available from a character standpoint when creating your character, especially around the face. Whether it be the shape of the jawline, the cheeks, the ears, the nose, the lips. You know we want to provide a lot of options and an agency to the player to customize their character appearance. – Steven Sharif

Vaelune beard appearance options.

We want there to be a lot of room for people to manifest their own identity, to role play how they want to from an appearance standpoint. There's going to be parameters within which you will be able to customize a character. We want the culture and the identity of the races to exist in a range that makes them easily identifiable from other players and other cultures. So, because of that, we have to have a spectrum you can exist on. There will be a lot of hair variants you can do, body art tattoos that you can apply. You'll be able to play with the scales of the facial structure, the bones, the height, width, the body fat percentage. You'll be able to add body hair on different parts of the body. If you want to have hair on your feet, you can dial that up. – Steven Sharif

Character appearance can be customized in the character creator (CC) and via in-game salons/barbershops.

• Character models are focused on realism.
• A player will see a generic character before customization.
• Player can adjust their character to be overweight, skinny, muscular.
• Character designs will have influences from a wide range of cultures, such as European, African and Asian.
• Lolis will not be in the game.

Sliders will offer flexibility in customization.

• There will be limits to the amount of deformation possible for a character based on their race.
  • Players are able to select different body types within these limits.
• Hair variants.
  • Can add hair on different parts of the body.
• Body art.
  • Tattoos
• Facial structure.
  • Shape of the jawline, cheeks, ears, nose, lips.
• Bone structure.
• Height.
  • You can't have a one inch tall character.
• Width.
• Body fat percentage.

Adjustments will allow a character to appear more feminine or masculine.

• Brow height.
• Chin.
• Hair.
• Facial hair.
  • Female Dwarven beards will not match that of the male. It will be more of a braided option that is not as voluminous.
  • Facial hair is characteristic of the Dünir, not the Niküa.
• Body type.
• There will be "boobie sliders".
  • These are relative to the character's race.
  • The scale is not going to be ridiculous.

Character appearance is able to be saved to hard disc.

A "default player appearance" may be automatically applied during sieges or other large scale battles to improve client-side performance.

Character creator

Alpha-1 launcher/character selection.

Ren'Kai character creator target concept art.

The character creator (or character customization screen) allows players to define the look of their character in Ashes of Creation.

We're gonna have a wide array of character customization out of the box.

The goal is to have a character creator that is on par with if not much better than what BDO provided.

If I had to give a comparison, I would use BDO as an example of what our Character Creation is going for. – Steven Sharif

A character's voice may be able to be selected from preset options.

There is a chance that the character creator will be released early.

Character sheet

A character web page (character sheet) will be available closer to live launch that shows the following:

• What a character looks like.
• Achievements and server firsts.
• Info on a player's class.
• Character's back story via journal entries (that are shared publicly by the player).
• Traits can be applied that describe a character's history.

You will have a unique homepage for each character and that homepage will be able to be customized by the user to display unique information. It will have a small out-of-game RPG component where you can construct background and traits and stuff like that. – Steven Sharif

The character page will be accessible in game by opening a browser through the UI.

That's part of the character sheet desire for us which hopefully will be accessible in game as well by opening a browser through our UI where you can get back history of a character that that character has input themselves into journal entries that they may choose to share with others... For role play perspective we want people to be in depth with their characters. – Steven Sharif

The player can manage what info is shown on the character page.

Marriage

Harmony Attire pre-order pack cosmetic costume.

There is a marriage mechanic in Ashes of Creation, including same-sex marriages.

Marriage may unlock different activities that are not available to characters who are not married.

• Interaction with the freehold system.
• Unlocking certain node quests.
• Impacts on social organizations.
• Other mechanics will be discussed in the future.

There are not plans for gender neutral neutral pronouns. However our marriage system which will be present does not take into account gender. So two individuals of any sex will be able to utilize the marriage system and we feel that that's pretty important to really reflect the nature the cultures in Ashes of Creation: That it does not have that conflict present in this fantasy world that we may have experienced in the past in our real world; and that's a good place both from a sanctuary standpoint through people who are maybe experiencing that in the real world to kind of get away from it in the fantasy world: We wanted to provide that type of outlet. – Steven Sharif

Story arcs

Story arcs drive one or more quest lines in Ashes of Creation.

• Personal quest lines.
• Cultural quest lines.
• Regional quest lines.

All of the events are based around storytelling. All of the the narrative quests are based around storytelling. All the organizational quests are based around storytelling. You know the game is built from a story basically, so we want to make sure that there's context and relevancy for all of the actions that you're doing in the game. – Jeffrey Bard

The overarching narrative is that players are the returning children of Verra. They will not be characterized individually as "saviors".

Even player driven mechanics will still have story components. There will be a reason why the player driven mechanic is available or required of the player; so you know every system that's created touches a story. – Steven Sharif

Every stage a node develops it's unlocking narratives, storylines, it's changing the spawn population of the area around it, changing what bosses exist, it's triggering events where you may have legendary dragons attack the city. It's basically writing the story of the server based on the actions and determination of the players. So, you may experience a dungeon one month earlier and have a completely different story that relates to this location the next month, because something has changed either geopolitically or from the node standpoint. – Steven Sharif

Certain story arcs can be unlocked through the bulletin board system. Certain requirements would need to be met in order to access story arc quests.

• Mayors require certain resources.
• Buildings are required within a node.
• Social organization tasks need to be completed.

Server types

• There won't be separate roleplaying (RP) servers.
• There won't be separate PvE and PvP servers.

NPC languages

There are language-specific lexicons in the game from a lore and immersion standpoint. These do not have real player-to-player implications.

See also

• Lore
• Cosmetics
• Taverns
• Marriage
• Social organizations