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in this Short video I try my best to explain the vassal node system in Ashes of Creation in a way that makes it a bit easier to understand (hopefully) I also talk about how the map increasing in size is important to the success of the node system
source
Here is how I understand it.
Nodes have Levels, and Node territories don't increase in size as they level. Lower level Node's territories are emptier because their Node is smaller (a village is smaller than a town), and they can't have Freeholds.
Nodes whose territories border on each other are adjacent. Once a Node reaches Level 3, adjacent Nodes that are lower level must remain lower level.
A level 3 or 4 Node can have one lower level neighboring node as a direct vassal. A Level 5 or 6 Node can have two lower level neighbors as direct vassals. The vassals of a Node's direct vassals are their indirect vassals. A level 5 Node can have no more than one direct vassal of level 4.
When a Node is destroyed, it loses its direct and indirect vassals. When a Level 3 Node is destroyed, so is its vassal.
I am not sure what happens to the direct vassals of higher level Nodes when they are destroyed.
The open nodes are nodes that are not direct or indirect vassals of a Level 6 Node. By design, there will always be at twenty nodes that are not and cannot be the direct or indirect vassals of a level 6 Node. Depending on the neighbors, there can be open nodes of levels 3 to 5, possibly with their own vassals.
That is how I understand it.
The Node stuff was difficult to understand for me too. I feel like this explanation wasn't bad, and I liked the drawing to help people visualize what you were saying.
Side note, I am glad we got node information. One of the things I said last video was I don't see alpha 2 getting near until we start hearing about nodes and we did start hearing about them 😄 the only other thing they said will be in alpha 2 is all the classes and I believe the archetypes? Maybe just the main 8 but it could be all 64 🤷🏽♂️ I'm hyped for next update. This one I want that hyped about after I saw it, but I think it was technical information we needed to know about. I am still curious what the internal goals intrepid had for this year though 🤔 a studio size goal? A development goal? A system goal? A community goal? Alpha 2 register goal?