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.
Affiliation Tree the solution to Zerg Guild FOMO (Freehold access, PVP, etc.?)
Xeeg
Member, Alpha Two
As an open world PVP game, one thing that has been on people's minds since the beginning is the idea of zerg guilds dominating servers. Alot of people don't really want to play in a zerg guild, or don't want to be required to have a guild prior to game launch just to gain access to specific late game systems like the Freeholds. Personally, I like the idea of just getting the game and playing it and finding people to meet and team up, trade, and play with in the game while you are playing it.
Part of this fear is that zerg guilds have faster access to resource based game rewards because they can pool together.
One way to counter this is with the Affiliation tree idea.
https://ashesofcreation.wiki/Alliances
Affiliations
An affiliation tree determines which entities can participate in attacks against other entities within its hierarchy.[12][13]
Corrupted players can be attacked regardless of other affiliations. This is something that will be tested during Alpha-2.
Node citizenship.
Alliances.
Guilds.
Parties.
Raids.
Family.
Religion.
Society.
While this list is meant for PVP priority, using it for overall character progression power would alleviate some of the concerns that people have. If any individuals progress and participation in the Node counts more towards gaining a Freehold than pure materials cost, then zerg guilds alone will not be able to gain large swaths of land unless each player who buys the land is also outplaying you in the node, which would be the case if they weren't in a zerg guild anyways.
This can be expanded on in other areas where the benefits of a zerg guild are obvious, and balanced such that people feel any size of guild can be a viable route to end game progression because actions between citizens is more important.
Let me know what you think!
Part of this fear is that zerg guilds have faster access to resource based game rewards because they can pool together.
One way to counter this is with the Affiliation tree idea.
https://ashesofcreation.wiki/Alliances
Affiliations
An affiliation tree determines which entities can participate in attacks against other entities within its hierarchy.[12][13]
Corrupted players can be attacked regardless of other affiliations. This is something that will be tested during Alpha-2.
Node citizenship.
Alliances.
Guilds.
Parties.
Raids.
Family.
Religion.
Society.
While this list is meant for PVP priority, using it for overall character progression power would alleviate some of the concerns that people have. If any individuals progress and participation in the Node counts more towards gaining a Freehold than pure materials cost, then zerg guilds alone will not be able to gain large swaths of land unless each player who buys the land is also outplaying you in the node, which would be the case if they weren't in a zerg guild anyways.
This can be expanded on in other areas where the benefits of a zerg guild are obvious, and balanced such that people feel any size of guild can be a viable route to end game progression because actions between citizens is more important.
Let me know what you think!
0
Comments
For example a guild miught level up they get the option of +50 guild cap or say +50% gain from patron system, this allows smaller guild to compete with larger ones if there focus on patron system.
or choose +50 guild size or a a buff that provides a bonus during guild wars (node can be some what similiar with choice of more appartments for more citizens or a power bonus building that provide buff during a war for example too
You aren't suggesting lower level nodes have players be stronger right?
no cause higher level node get more building slots its more a T5 node might have 3 appartment building to get more citizens and another T5 node might have 1 appartment build and 2 other building that provide a buff during a war like a barracks or something instead of the appartment buildings
there are ways to balance the game a bit better for smaller groups fighting larger groups well not balance but increase the odds they can win with various mechanics to combat zerging if they choose to go the route that gives them less players like for guild have to trade some power for more numbers in guild or nodes trading appartment (citizens slots) for extra str during wars or more crafting benches and things
I'm really confused by this statement. Are you saying that you will not be able to do this because of zerg guilds and freehold limits?
Also, if you think you're gonna run around without a guild in a heavily guild focused game, you can, but don't be surprised when you can't do any of the content that requires the sort of coordination a guild facilitates.
I’m really looking forward to how they manage the guild skill trees. Even though it’s been stated that 30-50 guild size will be able to unlock all available skill options, I do hope they dial it back slightly to still require skill tree choice.
What I would hope to see is no guild size lets you pick every skill option. Just spit balling but something like 5 leveling paths, 1 size, 1 combat, 1 for each artisan class.
Then when you look through the eyes of an alliance you could have 4 guilds each focused on being smaller to max out each passive skill tree, or only focus on 1-3 passive skill trees with 1-3 numbers guilds if you they want to be more focused on a particular area.
Within the scopes of the systems the max alliance number if all guilds involved go for max numbers is 1200.
Not saying it’s not possible to organize across multiple alliances but you would need to do that outside the bounds of the in place systems, and not gain the benefits that those systems provide.
Guild skill trees are another dial for them to mess with to have you make a meaningful choice.
Going off one example from a blurry picture on the wiki “gathering speed increased by x% for all guild members”. Another is “increase the health regeneration rate to all guild members by x%”.
If it’s always the best option to just have more players then they should adjust that dial up, if it’s always best to have less players then they can adjust that dial down. There should be a meaningful choice being made here.
I get the idea, but you’d need to elaborate way more beyond this.
Let me give you an example that was alluded to in the Stephen drop-in interview last weekend:
You have reached level 50 and have citizenship in a Divinity node that you have been mainly trying to level up. Because you have chosen Processing as your main artisan skill, you want to get a freehold to progress your artisan skill (which really should be the main reason for wanting a freehold). After you go to do the lord's quest and are ready to bid on the freehold plot, there could be a weighting component in the game that modifies your bid value based on the total XP that you have contributed, or total quests completed, or participation in citizenship activities at the node, etc. Perhaps for a Military node it could be total lifetime corruption gained, or some military metric, etc.
At any rate, the idea would be that even though zerg guilds can pool resources and cash to help with the bidding process, players that are more involved in the node where they are purchasing the freehold also have an advantage. Of course players that are part of guilds and are grinding the node will have the biggest advantage, but it might make the players that are less involved but still relying on guild banks to help them bid actually not able to outbid a dedicated player.
With this kind of system implementation, a dedicated node citizen will still be able to get the freehold faster than a less dedicated member of a larger guild who has cash to pool.
I think this will age badly. We will see.