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Phase I of Alpha Two testing will occur on weekends. Each weekend is scheduled to start on Fridays at 10 AM PT and end on Sundays at 10 PM PT. Find out more here.
Check out Alpha Two Announcements here to see the latest Alpha Two news and update notes.
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Phase I of Alpha Two testing will occur on weekends. Each weekend is scheduled to start on Fridays at 10 AM PT and end on Sundays at 10 PM PT. Find out more here.
Check out Alpha Two Announcements here to see the latest Alpha Two news and update notes.
Our quickest Alpha Two updates are in Discord. Testers with Alpha Two access can chat in Alpha Two channels by connecting your Discord and Intrepid accounts here.
Nodes, Guilds and Local Communities
ExiledByrd
Member, Alpha Two, Early Alpha Two
Good evening all! I had a theory and some questions for the leaders among us. First my theory; World sprawling guilds like what we know in other MMOs will be rare. Instead successful guilds both large and small will be tied to regions and possibly races.
My first piece of evidence: Travel will not be easy, especially at launch.
People will be tied to the areas near the portal they selected. Not firmly tied but I expect most people to hang around for 10-20 levels after character creation. I believe Intrepid has stated that they expect it to take 45-60 days at 4-6 hours a day to hit max level. Even if most of that is towards the end, people will spend plenty of time around their starter nodes. This may also cause a "sunken cost" node building mentality, where people decide to stay at a node since they have already invested so much into it. Some people will leave to explore. Others to meet up with friends, and some will invest in building up other nearby nodes. Travel to other portal areas and across continents seem very unlikely to me for at least the first month of gameplay.
My second piece of evidence: Node citizenship determines "faction".
While this isn't true for all modes of gameplay, the node system is the key component of the game. Guilds are going to want to defend and attack together. This is true for PvP guilds attacking nodes, and PvE guilds determining when/what dungeons to unlock. I can see guilds migrating to and from nodes, but I expect they will stick mostly together.
My third piece of evidence: Node aesthetics are determined by race.
This one is the weakest evidence in my opinion. Some people strongly care about building aesthetics. If you want to create a dwarven node somewhere, a lot of dwarves will need to work together. The easiest way to coordinate will probably be guilds.
Some exceptions I see:
Bounty Hunter guilds may be spread out as there will be targets in all zones and they will probably work in small teams.
Mercantile guilds may actually want to spread out so they have access to a greater number of resources. Their members are also less likely to engage in offensive node wars.
My questions for our leaders. Do you think that starting in the same area is going to be important for your guild? If not, how soon do you expect your members to start interacting with each other? Will you make people travel for an hour or two for guild events or will those be optional? Do you think I am completely off? Please let me know what you think!
TL;DR - The world is big, will guilds be regional as opposed to global?
My first piece of evidence: Travel will not be easy, especially at launch.
People will be tied to the areas near the portal they selected. Not firmly tied but I expect most people to hang around for 10-20 levels after character creation. I believe Intrepid has stated that they expect it to take 45-60 days at 4-6 hours a day to hit max level. Even if most of that is towards the end, people will spend plenty of time around their starter nodes. This may also cause a "sunken cost" node building mentality, where people decide to stay at a node since they have already invested so much into it. Some people will leave to explore. Others to meet up with friends, and some will invest in building up other nearby nodes. Travel to other portal areas and across continents seem very unlikely to me for at least the first month of gameplay.
My second piece of evidence: Node citizenship determines "faction".
While this isn't true for all modes of gameplay, the node system is the key component of the game. Guilds are going to want to defend and attack together. This is true for PvP guilds attacking nodes, and PvE guilds determining when/what dungeons to unlock. I can see guilds migrating to and from nodes, but I expect they will stick mostly together.
My third piece of evidence: Node aesthetics are determined by race.
This one is the weakest evidence in my opinion. Some people strongly care about building aesthetics. If you want to create a dwarven node somewhere, a lot of dwarves will need to work together. The easiest way to coordinate will probably be guilds.
Some exceptions I see:
Bounty Hunter guilds may be spread out as there will be targets in all zones and they will probably work in small teams.
Mercantile guilds may actually want to spread out so they have access to a greater number of resources. Their members are also less likely to engage in offensive node wars.
My questions for our leaders. Do you think that starting in the same area is going to be important for your guild? If not, how soon do you expect your members to start interacting with each other? Will you make people travel for an hour or two for guild events or will those be optional? Do you think I am completely off? Please let me know what you think!
TL;DR - The world is big, will guilds be regional as opposed to global?
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