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Freehold gameplay & player experience (Worst Case Scenario)
MongiJones
Member
As I understand it, freeholds under a lost territory will be sort of a "free-for-all" for all players after the siege within a roughly 2 hour window.
A typical scenario in a healthy server:
So lets say I play a breeder (insert trade class) and build my base with my buddies. spend all weekend to set up everything. and then it gets burnt down by the following weekend. and then I somehow find another land deed in another territory that's not that ideal but whatever, its available (remember, 8k players=highly contested resources). So now, after a week of setting up everything, paying for logistics etc., two weeks or so later I get a war notice, war happens and then that node falls. Now me and my ten guild mates are defending against a 200 elite maxed-gear pvp-ers fresh out of battle, with an entire horde of vultures behind them, of which, we obviously 100% will fail to defend. so now we relocate again and rinse & repeat.
If you're a breeder, which falls under the gathering & refining category, your animals may be destroyed & looted too. (correct me if I'm wrong)
So what gameplay are we looking at?:
And yet I have to do this every three weeks or so, depending on the node tier CDs. In conclusion, In the event that my freehold gets destroyed every single time, will this be the gameplay that we will potentially experience?
Secondly, with the heavy cost-benefits, how much should I charge my potatoes for, >30g/pc?
Thirdly, will there be any sort of system to mitigate these losses? I mean, if city's fortifications cant withstand the attackers, what sort of fortifications/defense can a lowly farmer muster, (if any)?
Pros: Dormant freeholds can and will be raided and taken up by new owners, as it should!
Side note: Tavern owners are much more reliant on strategic locations within the trade route. is it worth it to build considering the cost-benefit of hassle & time (.. and gold)?
What are your thoughts, feel free to correct me where Im wrong, as I prefer to be wrong on every single one of this.
A typical scenario in a healthy server:
So lets say I play a breeder (insert trade class) and build my base with my buddies. spend all weekend to set up everything. and then it gets burnt down by the following weekend. and then I somehow find another land deed in another territory that's not that ideal but whatever, its available (remember, 8k players=highly contested resources). So now, after a week of setting up everything, paying for logistics etc., two weeks or so later I get a war notice, war happens and then that node falls. Now me and my ten guild mates are defending against a 200 elite maxed-gear pvp-ers fresh out of battle, with an entire horde of vultures behind them, of which, we obviously 100% will fail to defend. so now we relocate again and rinse & repeat.
If you're a breeder, which falls under the gathering & refining category, your animals may be destroyed & looted too. (correct me if I'm wrong)
So what gameplay are we looking at?:
- Once relocated, I have to refurnish/redecorate everything.
- Possibly paying for logistics to relocate
- Possibly paying players to defend my land
- Maybe cant participate in war because I have to prepare for all these
- or better yet, prepare for war, join it, lose, run back home, and prepare for all these just the same.
And yet I have to do this every three weeks or so, depending on the node tier CDs. In conclusion, In the event that my freehold gets destroyed every single time, will this be the gameplay that we will potentially experience?
Secondly, with the heavy cost-benefits, how much should I charge my potatoes for, >30g/pc?
Thirdly, will there be any sort of system to mitigate these losses? I mean, if city's fortifications cant withstand the attackers, what sort of fortifications/defense can a lowly farmer muster, (if any)?
Pros: Dormant freeholds can and will be raided and taken up by new owners, as it should!
Side note: Tavern owners are much more reliant on strategic locations within the trade route. is it worth it to build considering the cost-benefit of hassle & time (.. and gold)?
What are your thoughts, feel free to correct me where Im wrong, as I prefer to be wrong on every single one of this.
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Comments
If you are trying to set up in a node where it is just you and ten guild mates as the only defenders, then yeah, expect to lose.
I like to think it's probable that Defenders will have the advantage i.e maybe on an even playing field of skill and participants, it will be a 60/40 ratio from defender to attacker but i don't know the actual metrics.
It's like 3-5 days from siege declaration to siege - and siege scrolls are meant to be difficult to get.
Then it's around 20-50 days between a subsequent siege on the same node, the scaling period depends on the level of the node.
I guess we also need to think of reasons to siege. I would want to siege a node that is a thread to my node - so one thing you could do is pick a spot which won't attract such heat. Or like you say - band together.
I'm not sure your animals will be lootable if the freehold is destroyed - wiki seems to imply materials and I feel that it doesn't come under that threshold. Perhaps materials used in breeding might be collateral.
https://ashesofcreation.wiki/Node_sieges#Siege_balance
Gold is never lost so make sure you are selling your stuff and not creating a huge stockpile that would become vulnerable if your node is sieged.
I concur 100%. I put a scenario with only ten players as it is what I imagine I'll be able to realistically do, since I imagine every other guild/groups will be busy defending their own respective freeholds during that time. further taking into account with more than a hundred nodes, its entirely possible for 2-3 wars happening in the same time frame, limiting the number of players to defend every freehold in the area. Best case scenario (meta) that I could think of would be: defeated defenders hungry for revenge, banding up and following the attacking "main zerg" to whichever freehold they're attacking.
oh wow thankyou, my understanding may be distorted as I thought that only blueprints are retained but I have to place it all manually every time. that would save a good 2 hours at the very least!
- Many, if not most, players will be citizens of a node. If their node is attacked, they will be defending their own node, not attacking yours. Or they will be defending nodes of allies and friends.
- Quite a few players won't be into the PvP/sieges aspect of the game, so they won't be attacking your node.
- Most importantly, sieging a node takes a non-trivial effort, reportedly equivalent to the effort needed to raise a node to its current level, a huge investment of time! Work to make your node higher level, thus harder to siege.
But even if your node is attacked, frickin' defend it! Contribute to your node so it can build defenses. Make friends all over the server so they will come help you. Use diplomacy so non-sieged node players will come help you (and you help them when they are attacked).
Your node will occasionally be attacked and may even be lost from time to time. If that happens, get all your buddies to go defend your freehold. If your freehold is strongly defended compared to other ones, it is the other ones which will be looted, not yours.
Just because a Siege is declared, doesn't mean we will have the free time to participate in defense, but...
It's probably not going to be as disastrous as the OP initally feared.
When it comes to animal husbandry being an aspect of what is lootable from a freehold... We will have to stay tuned for more information! That might not be a bad question for our monthly Q&A which can be found here
If you put in some basic effort, I would assume that you can make the assumption that you will need to move once or twice a year due to losing a siege - once the servers stabilize after launch.
The first few months may be rough though, if you wanted to get an early freehold.
When relocating your homestead, your previous layout is saved so that you do not need to replace everything.
When a siege is finished, the intent is for the attackers to sort of spread out and look around for what can be gained. Since loot is per party, spreading out will be encouraged and you probably won't have 200 players rolling over your land. You may have a fighting chance. No guarantees.
Also, IS does not intend for Metropolis's to be turned into rubble after just one successful siege. While I have not seen a final decision on how it the destruction system will work, you probably can't end up in a situation where a combination of unfortunate timing and bad luck in sieges actually fulfills your vision of how fast you can repeatedly lose your homestead.
Pretty sure the Discord image you posted reflects a change in concept from what it originally was.
Now, it's full destruction after one Siege.