Merchants

Alpha-2 Vendor NPC work-in-progress UI.^[1]

Merchant NPCs (also called Vendors) are present from the first stage of node development (Expedition).^[2]

Merchant NPCs are identified by a golden shimmer on their nameplates.^[3]
Merchant NPCs will in general be able to buy items from players.^[4]

Player merchants

Giocatore bancarelle, personal shops, and auction houses enable buying from and selling to other players.^[5]

Player merchants will not be able to be placed on ships.^[6]

	Giocatore bancarelle	Personal shops	Auction houses
Cost	Rental fee.^[7]^[8]	Placement certificate purchase.^[9]^[10]^[11]	Listing fee.^[12]
Location	Can be rented at locations near the unique building in an economic node^[12] or in Mercati.^[13]	Certificates from non-metropolis nodes, allow placement near the node's unique building or on a freehold.^[9]^[10]^[11] Certificates from economic node metropolises allow placement anywhere in the world.^[9]^[11]	At Mercati in Village economic nodes allow raw resources and crafting materials to be posted.^[14] At Exchanges in Town nodes allow all goods/items to be posted.^[14] Metropolis stage Economic nodes enable remote bidding from linked economic nodes.^[14] Auctioneer NPC emissaries present in Vassal nodes allow some access to the parent node's auction house.^[12]
Player presence	An attendant NPC is assigned to the stall. Character does not need to be online or at the stall.^[15]^[7]^[8]	Player must be online and present at the shop.^[15]^[8]	N/A
Storage	Linked to character's warehouse.^[16]	Linked to character's inventory.^[16]	Raw materials and gatherables are automatically deposited within the listing node's local warehouse.^[17]^[12] Anything other than raw materials and gatherables will be mailed to the purchaser.^[17]
Advertising	Items and services are listed on Bulletin boards in the same region.^[18] There may or may not^[9] also be listings at auction houses.^[5]	Custom billboard appears above the character.^[15] Items are not listed in the parent node or auction houses.^[5]	Items listed are visible in community boards (bulletin boards).^[9] Metropolis level economic nodes enable worldwide sale prices for auction houses across Verra.^[14]
Pvp	Players are not able to be attacked or robbed while occupying their player stall inside the limits of a node.^[10] Material losses may occur if the node's warehouse is destroyed during a node siege.^[19]^[20]^[21]^[16]	Players may be killed while occupying their personal shop and are subject to material loss due to normal death penalties.^[16]	N/A

Node types

Pre-alpha Metropolis node.^[22]

Nodes exist all throughout the world and the location of said node will determine its type; but this type will be... seen at the first stage of development when the first stage when a node propagates real-time assets in the world; is basically these NPCs, these merchants that come into an area and they offer services and/or of stores or whatever the deal may be. You will see the flavor of the node from those merchants. So if it's a military node you'll see military people. If it's... an economic node you'll see merchants. If it's a scientific one you'll see scholars; and if it's a divine one you'll see priests and clerics. So players will have a very firm understanding of which node is which type in order to know how they want to progress.^[23] – Steven Sharif

Nodi are assigned one of four (4) node types, each of which contain unique specializations.^[2]

Players will be able to identify the type of a node at its first stage of development (Expedition) based on its NPC population.^[23]

Node type.^[2]	Specialization.^[2]	NPCs.^[2]	Currency.^[24]^[25]
Divine nodes	Faith and skill/equipment augment focuses	Priests	Favor
Economic nodes	Trade and merchant focuses	Merchants	-
Military nodes	Combattimento and class training focuses	Guards	Honor
Academic nodes	Artisan and construction focuses	Scholars	-

Ashes of Creation allows you, the player, to decide the fate of the world around you. With each Node Type, you can change the flow of resources and goods in the world. Will you grow the largest Economic Metropolis and help guide the riches of Verra, or will you choose another path unlocking new stories filled with allies and enemies?^[14]

Node types are predetermined and are the same across all servers.^[2]

A node’s type is static. It does not change based on the node’s advancement or destruction.^[2]

For example, if a level 4 Scientific Node is destroyed, it will become a Level 0 Scientific Node. It will never be any other Node Type other than a Scientific Node. The location of these Types relates to the influences of the area around the Node.^[2] – Margaret Krohn

Node types affect various services and systems at each level of node advancement.^[2]

Node types will be definitive during the Beta testing stages.^[26]

Beta testing will require that the node types be definitive; and that's because of how node types are integrated into the relating and corresponding neighboring points of interest and those quest lines. So it's not something we can swap very easily.^[26] – Steven Sharif

Mercati

Market within a node (Pre-alpha).^[27]

A market is a type of unique node building in Ashes of Creation that unlocks at Village (fase 3) of an Economic node.^[28] Markets serve as a center for the transaction of goods and services within the area. Players can use the Market to access features including (but not limited to) some of the following:^[14]

Auction house where raw resources and crafting materials may be posted.^[14]
Trade hauling stables for Tier 1 mule training.^[14]
Player shop areas for personal shop deployment and rental stalls.^[14]
Private property sale certificates.^[14]
Hunter’s Post (higher redemption for Tier 1 creature bounties).^[14]
Black markets are upgrade paths for markets where stolen glint can be redeemed.^[29]

Mercati are distinct from Mercati, which are constructible node buildings that are available for placement by mayors of any Town (fase 4) node or higher.^[13]

Giocatore bancarelle

Niküan player stall concept art.^[30]

If there were ever a cornerstone serving as the bedrock of Niküan trade, then this modest stall would be it. Stacked from floor to thatched roof with all manner of catch, it is prepped for a full day of commerce and trade. Here, haggling is not merely a suggestion, but a requirement.^[30]

Alpha-1 player stall 3D renders. 3D model by Adam Will.^[31]

Giocatore bancarelle (also called Kiosks and rental stalls) are rentable locations near the unique building in an Economic node^[12], in Mercati (the constructible building available for placement by mayors of any Town (fase 4) node or higher), or as business buildings on freehold plots.^[32]^[13]

All nodes do have the ability to spawn player stalls. If you're not an economic node and you don't have a market- that's essentially your unique building- then you can construct essentially what is I guess would be called a... marketplace; and that marketplace will then come with certain services and it will come with a certain number of stalls. The economic node as I recall has the ability to construct an auction house and the auction house serves through the economic means the ability to list and sell items and that comes with additional stalls as well for the players.^[13] – Steven Sharif

Renting a player stall enables players to sell items as well as provide repair and enchanting services, even when they are not online.^[7]

Player stalls are rentable by node citizens.^[8]
- Player stalls may be utilized for a period of time based on the price paid to rent the stall.^[7]
Player stalls are linked to a player's warehouse.^[16]
Player stalls do not require the attendance of the character or for that character to be online.^[8]
- An attendant NPC is assigned to the stall.^[16]^[7] This may be an "image" of the player.^[18]
Players are able to input required items for repair and also purchase required materials for that repair.^[33]
Player stalls may still operate during node siege declaration. This is subject to testing.^[34]

Alcune delle seguenti informazioni non sono state confermate di recente dagli sviluppatori e potrebbero non essere nell'attuale roadmap di sviluppo.

Players are not able to be attacked or robbed while occupying their player stall inside the limits of a node.^[10]
Bulletin boards that list the items available in player stalls can be accessed from anywhere in the region.^[18]
- These give the location of the stall so players can travel there and purchase the items.^[18]
Stall sales are also listed in auction houses.^[5]
- This may no longer be accurate.^[9]