Glorious Alpha Two Testers!
Alpha Two Realms are now unlocked for Phase II testing!
For our initial launch, testing will begin on Friday, December 20, 2024, at 10 AM Pacific and continue uninterrupted until Monday, January 6, 2025, at 10 AM Pacific. After January 6th, we’ll transition to a schedule of five-day-per-week access for the remainder of Phase II.
You can download the game launcher here and we encourage you to join us on our for the most up to date testing news.
Alpha Two Realms are now unlocked for Phase II testing!
For our initial launch, testing will begin on Friday, December 20, 2024, at 10 AM Pacific and continue uninterrupted until Monday, January 6, 2025, at 10 AM Pacific. After January 6th, we’ll transition to a schedule of five-day-per-week access for the remainder of Phase II.
You can download the game launcher here and we encourage you to join us on our for the most up to date testing news.
Guild alliances
From what I gathered from the developer blog about nodes, it seems as though it's possible to own a city/metropolis. I'm rather curious as to, if it will be possible for guilds to own towns, and maybe even group up/make alliances with other guilds, and "own" the city together.
Here are some thoughts I've had on the subject.
- If you were allianced with another guild that owns their own city, will it be possible to get x% of the taxes from the auctionhouse/marketplace?
- Would you as the allianced guild have any influence on the different buildings that would be placed around the city?
I think it's an interesting idea, and perhaps it woud make the game a bit more exciting in terms of sieges and protecting your city.
Here are some thoughts I've had on the subject.
- If you were allianced with another guild that owns their own city, will it be possible to get x% of the taxes from the auctionhouse/marketplace?
- Would you as the allianced guild have any influence on the different buildings that would be placed around the city?
I think it's an interesting idea, and perhaps it woud make the game a bit more exciting in terms of sieges and protecting your city.
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Comments
Here are some thoughts I’ve had on the subject.
– If you were allianced with another guild that owns their own city, will it be possible to get x% of the taxes from the auctionhouse/marketplace?
– Would you as the allianced guild have any influence on the different buildings that would be placed around the city?
I think it’s an interesting idea, and perhaps it woud make the game a bit more exciting in terms of sieges and protecting your city.
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I think it makes perfect sense to have different guilds own one town/metropolis. Realisticly speaking most large guild will probably consist of max 50 players, they can't hold an entire metropolis/large town alone, so you need some help.
Different ways of to reward your "helpers" could also be:
- Crafters guild helps supply you? Give them control of the crafting expansion of the city.
- Goons help you protect the town? Give them the best gear.
- A merchant group brings wealth to your city? Give them control over the auction house.
Since we are in dangerous lands/times, you need protection, but to get protection the people protecting you need gear. But the people making the gear need protection to make it and so on. Basicly what I'm getting at is that people are very much depending on eachother.
This is basicly what I think/hope is gonna happen.
"Realisticly speaking most large guild will probably consist of max 50 players, they can’t hold an entire metropolis/large town alone, so you need some help. "
Do you mean on average most guilds? Because I've played a large amount of MMOs and many of the server dominating guilds have hundreds worth of people at any given time. In fact, the last MMO I played we peaked around 250-300 players with 100 or so being online at almost all times during the afternoon, sometimes peaking to 150 people online. There were even larger "zerg" guilds that sometimes held 2-3 guilds that were simply "branches" of the original so they could manage that many people in one place.
So safe to say: I'm sure on the high end a guild COULD hold a metropolis or town by themselves, but it would certainly be difficult if multiple other guilds start trying to go against them. Which now brings us to the alliance topic: I feel certain they would have SOMETHING for this. Large scale MMORPG's have gotten to the point where they realize that MMO gaming requires the "seperate but cooperative" ability. I want a close knit guild with just my friends, but maybe I have another good friend who leads a massive 300 person guild. We share a metro, and as such we are all "citizens" of the same city. It would make sense to be friendly, because when the enemy comes knocking at your door, who are you going to have help you? Your neighbor or that other guild 4 towns over currently defending their land?
On the note of synergies between people, I theorize it will be setup similar to other large scale MMOs in at least one major overarching theme. The ability to choose how you want to play, and still be an effective member in your guild. In the past I've had guildmates who absolutely despise PvP, and sometimes both PvE and PvP. They instead like the idea of crafting, doing professions, and instead use the MMO as a social outlet while they make good relations with people they meet and have a great time. To this end I bet that many of the town areas will be relatively safe except during the siege times. Many times these non-combat personnel end up being the economic backbone to large scale sieges providing potions, buffs, equipment, and many times the raw gold to keep the war machine functional.
<strong><em>On the percent of taxes from an allianced guild</em></strong>
I doubt that an allianced guild will get a percent tax from another guild's controlled area. They may get a reduction for buying/trading at that area, but they will certainly not get a small % gain of what the allied guild controls. Think about taxes in the real world: When people pay their taxes in a country, the country recieves the tax. Those allied with the country do not give away their citizen's taxes to other countries, but instead provide reductions in tariffs along with export/import specials for their allies. This would provide another option for nearby villages/guilds.
Let's say two towns reach village status, but are unable to go past that due to each other being so close. Instead of the people in each village/guild hating each other and wanting to destroy the other to grow into a larger node they come to an agreement. The villages/guilds will now help each other out in case one gets attacked, and in return they give each other bonuses to trade or are taxed less when using their buildings.
To what extent this will go is unknown, but I agree with everyone else here there is a ton of great possibility here if the systems are expanded on.
<strong><em>Side note:</em></strong> When referring to towns and such we should probably realize that these towns are NOT guild specific. I bet that anyone can join a town so long as their guild is not at war with the guild/alliance of the current governor in the city/town. This would help prevent some spying (at least make it more difficult while still being a viable playstyle). While at the same time allowing people from small guilds the chance to join in the action and be part of the action. To become good friends with those around them. Even guildless people need a place to stay, and some of them will want to stay in a safe location with plenty of security for their assets. As such they would choose a large metro defended by several massive guilds to help guarantee their safety.
Hmm now that I think about it, it makes sense that some guild will have way more people than 50. But if thats the case, can we please for the love of god get a proper "roster" mechanic. So the guildmaster can make smaller groups with leaders, sub-leaders etc. It can be so annoying when the guild hits a certain size (remember I've only been in like 50-100 ones) to keep track of who does what.
On that note, maybe some sort of drag and drop "group editor", and then you assign people to groups afterwards, basicly like a mindmap :)
<strong><em>Freedom to roam the map:</em></strong>
I think you very much correct in the assumption that people can interact in any given city (minus ones you are in war with), otherwise you'd basicly get nothing to do... They say "player activity defines the land", if you can't interact with basicly everything you see, then theres isnt gonna be that much activity :( (even if you have a large guild in an area). Also if you wanna get really technical you could say that: If two nodes are fighting and the smaller one somehow destroy the large one, so they have room for expansion. They could "hire" people to come and play in their area, so they get more activity and therefor hopefully get the node level quicker (if thats how the activity thingy is to be interpreted).
On the things for hiring people to get into the area if it grows: that will most also have NPC helping factors. More quests/dungeons and etc will become better in those areas because people looking to quest will have more to do in towns that have the ability to expand imo.
I know AOC declared it won't be p2w and grind fest and the devs clearly said that they want to build a community focussed system, so I hope we can all join together and make MMO community great again! =)))
Siegeing coordination would be greatly improved and setting up raids for people to fill if you don't have someone available for the evening.
As for the town control that would be an interesting dynamic given guild occupation a cut or % of taxes and city income. I also think down the line it could provide some fun dynamics for a civil war against the guilds if the alliance is broken or fails (shop keeper A is more loyal to guild Z so provides assistance to that group if the alliance breaks and becomes hostile).
Loyalty of the citizens could be determined by the amount of income that business sees from the given guild and you would have a city influence screen for the nodes. Could be a great way to engage the guilds.
From my time on Lineage2 to Archeage to Aion...owning anything comes with repercussions. You need to forge alliances and keep them. You always will have to keep someone happy and you will always have people that are not satisfied with your actions, whether that be members of your own guild or allied guilds. Which brings a fair amount of diplomacy into context. Get ready to have to answer for the actions of any hot-headed members you might have and you better be ready to deal with any problems they might cause. From L2 times, castles would be on a rotation, because having said castles offered bonuses to the guild/clan that had them, in the form of taxes, income, availability to ports for pve/pvp reasons, raiding, clan instances would become available, cloaks with special bonuses and a slew of other benefits.
Can a single guild have a town to themselves? Sure. For as long as the rotation lasts if they are in an agreed alliance. But beware to any guild leaders that might consider to screw over their alliance. That usually did not fair well in other MMOs.
I want to safely assume that the sieging system in AoC and the rules for holding a town are going to be well thought thru and not allow for the occupying guild to take advantage of the citizens in someway. However, it is still too early to tell.
I wish the perspective guild leads and metropolis owners/mayors the best of luck. You will need it !