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Castle/node siege layouts and 250v250 or 500v500 battles.
Nerror
Member, Alpha One, Adventurer
I sincerely hope Intrepid is already way ahead of me on this one, but here goes.
I worry about the implications of them going from 250v250 to 500v500 battles, and their castle design. Even if they stay at 250v250, the castle we saw in Alpha 1 was not a good design for that. It's too small and cramped, and the objective was a single point at the throne in the throne room that had to be channeled at for a few minutes.
Go to around the 1 hour 8 minute mark in their latest dev stream to get a feel for the layout:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HB7gWTpeB08&t=4087s
Or check a pic I took in A1 for a better sense of the overall layout perhaps:
In A1 the defenders all respawn up behind the throne room. The attackers respawn at their base camp, and can portal out to various control points on the map, if the attackers control them. Or they can ride all the way.
Now, it's quite possible the castle in A1 was designed for 100v100. I think it was big enough for that. But it's way too small for 250v250, or worse 500v500, unless they change how the castle siege is won or lost.
If the attackers were strong enough to enter the throne room, basically everyone congregated in that single area. First the pitched chokepoint fight to get inside through the open gateway, then the fights around the pillars in there, and finally the attackers trying to hold the defenders back through the two chokepoints inside the throne room. 200 people fighting in that room is doable, but that's about the limit I think.
The two control points in the castle yard were not important enough to really fight over by either side once the throne room was open. They weren't unimportant, but it made more sense to almost all fight inside.
For 250v250 or 500v500, the castle layout has to be different. It should not be about only channeling one point for 5 minutes to win. I think they need to spread it out to 2 or 3 points at the very least. It's not enough to make the throne room bigger I think, although that would help of course. I think we need more important control points on the entire map to spread people out, and also more final objectives to win, so all 1000 people don't try to squeeze into a single room to fight.
As for node sieges, there is much we don't know yet of course, but where I can definitely see a Metropolis siege having space enough to accommodate 1000 people fighting over it, a lvl 3 node isn't much bigger than that castle, so the same issues may arise.
I worry about the implications of them going from 250v250 to 500v500 battles, and their castle design. Even if they stay at 250v250, the castle we saw in Alpha 1 was not a good design for that. It's too small and cramped, and the objective was a single point at the throne in the throne room that had to be channeled at for a few minutes.
Go to around the 1 hour 8 minute mark in their latest dev stream to get a feel for the layout:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HB7gWTpeB08&t=4087sOr check a pic I took in A1 for a better sense of the overall layout perhaps:
In A1 the defenders all respawn up behind the throne room. The attackers respawn at their base camp, and can portal out to various control points on the map, if the attackers control them. Or they can ride all the way.
Now, it's quite possible the castle in A1 was designed for 100v100. I think it was big enough for that. But it's way too small for 250v250, or worse 500v500, unless they change how the castle siege is won or lost.
If the attackers were strong enough to enter the throne room, basically everyone congregated in that single area. First the pitched chokepoint fight to get inside through the open gateway, then the fights around the pillars in there, and finally the attackers trying to hold the defenders back through the two chokepoints inside the throne room. 200 people fighting in that room is doable, but that's about the limit I think.
The two control points in the castle yard were not important enough to really fight over by either side once the throne room was open. They weren't unimportant, but it made more sense to almost all fight inside.
For 250v250 or 500v500, the castle layout has to be different. It should not be about only channeling one point for 5 minutes to win. I think they need to spread it out to 2 or 3 points at the very least. It's not enough to make the throne room bigger I think, although that would help of course. I think we need more important control points on the entire map to spread people out, and also more final objectives to win, so all 1000 people don't try to squeeze into a single room to fight.
As for node sieges, there is much we don't know yet of course, but where I can definitely see a Metropolis siege having space enough to accommodate 1000 people fighting over it, a lvl 3 node isn't much bigger than that castle, so the same issues may arise.
2
Comments
Ofc the castle needs to be bigger for 250vs250 or 500vs500. I think one of the ways to spread the crowd would be to have multiple objectives at different locations of the castle. Lets say, at the four corners of the castle there are security checkpoints/rooms which need to be captured/defended as well aside from throne room. This way there would be less campers at each chokepoint and more skilled players would be able to breakthrough.
This is just the base idea which can be built upon quite a bit, like if order of capture for objectives, holding the objectives for a specified time or once captured cannot be captured back by defenders, etc etc
Again at the end of the day, the crowd needs to be spread to make the encounter more fun and viable.
How many players per siege in L2? Max.
First of all the siege starts on the outside, before the walls are breached.
Ranged classes have the upper hand.
If the attackers get to the throne room, melee classes have the upper hand, big time.
It's fair.
I fixed that for you.
And also for much more 3 dimensionality than current with upper\lower\side vantage points, hides and all manner of cover.
Heh, that'd be interesting, depending on how much could be changed. Or maybe some kind of internal barricade that a Tank has to channel to break down. I wonder if we'll be able to set up siege weapons wherever we like, so we can have thirty of them staring down the main gateway.
Much love 😘
-heavy breathing in no AoE cap for zergbusting-
I would absolutely love if defenders could place some walls or just change the layout even a little. Great idea, even if for an expansion type thing
Stronger clans, more choices of blue prints.