Castle sieges

Alpha-1 castle siege gameplay.

Throughout Ashes of Creation, the player has an opportunity to participate in massively multiplayer siege warfare. Since castles are likely the world’s most limited resource, it will be a task to secure and hold them. Involving hundreds of players on a single battlefield, our sieges will employ many moving parts and intricate design features. Because of the difficult nature of taking and keeping a castle there are great rewards available to the players for their efforts. Castles will allow players to exert control over nearby lands and allow for the development of unique buildings in the nearby towns.

Guilds participate in Castle sieges in an effort to capture and occupy one of the five guild castles in Ashes of Creation.

• Sieges occur once a month within a server prime-time window.

• The minimum goal is for 250x250 players to be on a single battlefield. It is hoped that this can be increased to 500x500 over time.

• There will be systems that mimic some of the mechanics of sieges, but there won't be practice sieges.

• There may be instanced locations within otherwise open-world castle and node sieges, where specific groups can participate in small, short duration objective-based battles that will affect the overall outcome of the siege.
  • It was previously stated that castle sieges may or may not be (entirely) instanced in the final game.
  • Alpha-1 castle sieges occurred in an open-world zone that was accessible via a NPC teleporter.

I love castle-based gameplay. I love trophies. I like rewarding risk a lot; and for me it's very difficult to imagine a MMO that I would want to play where there is not competition of strategic prowess that determines the outcome of these types of events and there is not a meaningful reward both mechanically and from just a bragging rights perspective that players can aim for and try to achieve. I think that it brings a lot to the game when it comes to motivations, to excel, to level, to gain power, to engage those different progression loops when there is an ultimate goal or trophy that is not static and doesn't exist forever once you achieve it, but that you must constantly perform in order to maintain; and that's really the purpose of these castles. – Steven Sharif

A guild that captures a castle will own that castle for a month before it is sieged again.

Each week leading up to the siege week... is a week that's dedicated to one of the three castle dedicated nodes. So around the castle there are three nodes. They represent week, one, two, and three; and then the fourth week is the siege against the castle. Those can only be elevated up to stage three. We've discussed this in the past and there's definitely information out there on the community ran wiki. – Steven Sharif

• In the first three weeks that a guild occupies a castle they will need to level up each of their castle nodes to Village stage through questing.
  • Each of the three castle nodes have a siege against it at the end of each of these three weeks.
• The fourth week is declaration week, where other guilds have the opportunity to lay down their declaration flag or to sign up as a defender of the castle.
• Depending on how well the guild defends their castle nodes results in better defenses for the castle.
• Different siege weaponry will grant the attackers the ability to destroy walls, doors and sections of the castle in order to gain access to the inner keep area.
• When castles change hands (following a siege), some taxes stay with the castle and some stay with the guild.

There will be benefits to attracting people... even if they're not in your guild or alliance – a feudal like system, where you can attract other players who are just independent of this whole politic. They will have things to do there - benefits to receive - and there will be a reciprocal relationship between who you can attract, what they do for you; and how that benefits you and them. – Steven Sharif

Guild castles

Guild castle Alpha-1 early preview.

With five Castles in the world, and each having been owned by different civilizations from the far-flung past of Verra, you can expect that each Castle has its own character. Different terrains and different layouts will result in each Castle having its own advantages and disadvantages. Just because you have managed to take one Castle will not mean that your strategies will pan out in the next. Commanders will have to take into consideration the lay of the land, time of day, weather, and even seasons into account when forming their battle plans.

Five guild castles exist in Ashes of Creation.

• Each of the five castles has its own static layout. Castle siege defenses include deploying traps and blockades within the castle, as well as hiring mercenary NPCs to defend specific locations.

While the hard structural environment is static and not able to be- you're not building a castle if you own a castle, you're inheriting a historic ruined castle that is representative of the past because it has some tie-in to specific types of powers that we haven't gotten into from a lore perspective yet but we haven't expressed to the community. That's something that we're going to leave for the community to find out when they play. But when you place mercenaries and you place those blockades and you place those traps, that affects the level design of the castle according to the strategy you might use to defend it. – Steven Sharif

• Castle sieges occur in the open world but may become instanced based on testing.
  • Alpha-1 castle sieges occurred in a zone that is accessible via a NPC teleporter.
• There is one castle located on an island that is able to be affected by naval combat.

• Castles will initially be occupied by an NPC adversary. These are the primary antagonists in the storyline. Guilds have a period of time to level up in order to siege these castles.
  • There will not be a relic to capture, instead whichever guild had highest contributing DPS against the raid boss will capture the castle.
  • Castle nodes around NPC run castles will not be present.

These Castles are occupied when players arrive on Verra, and their current inhabitants will have to be removed before any player can claim them. Castles will be dangerous and high-level raid zones until they can be cleared, and the first group of players to do so will gain the Castle as their reward.

Castle nodes

One of the 5 guild castles is located on an island, depicted with its 3 adjacent castle nodes.

Should you be deft enough to take a Castle, you’ll now be responsible for managing it. Castles will have their own Nodes associated with them, and developing and defending those Nodes will determine the state of your Castle during the next siege. If you’ve done a good job managing your kingdom, then you’ll have more and better options available for deployment during the next siege. If you let your populace fall to ruin, you may have to rely solely on your own devices.

Guild castles have three adjacent castle nodes in close proximity. The guild must develop those nodes to enhance the defenses of the castle. It will be possible, but very difficult for a single guild to fully develop these nodes. They will likely need assistance from the broader community.

• Castle nodes exist outside of the node system. They are independent of anything that's happening outside in the world with other nodes shutting off certain nodes from progressing.
• Castle nodes are excluded from the normal Citizenship, Zones of Influence, Freeholds, Node governments, and Social organizations systems.
• Castle nodes cannot exceed stage 3 (Village).
• Castle nodes are always military node types.
• Each of the dedicated castle nodes is barren at the start of the castle ownership period.
• Mercenary NPCs of different types and strengths can also be hired to participate in castle sieges and defend caravans during these events based on the allocation made by the governing castle and how successful they have been defending their castle nodes.

Once the castle is owned by a guild that's when the supporting castle nodes start to come online and spawn each week prior to the fourth week castle siege. They'll have to form alliances, they'll have to get support, they'll have to get resources, they'll be able to allocate funds that have been collected through taxation in order to strengthen the defenses as well as hiring additional NPC mercenaries. – Steven Sharif

Castle nodes are leveled through questing by the owning guild or alliance guilds.

• Levelling castle nodes is a hastened process compared to regular nodes.
• At the end of each week leading up to a castle siege there is a period of time in the weekend where NPC generated caravans start moving toward one of the castle nodes carrying castle taxes from the nodes that fall under the castle's purview.
  • During this time it is incumbent upon the owning guild, its allies, and citizens of the nodes to escort these caravans to the castle node.
  • The enemies of the guild have incentive to attack these caravans to reap the rewards from the caravan and to sabotage the tax collection, which will reduce the defensive capability of the castle nodes and hence the castle itself.
  • Citizens of nodes that fall under the purview of the castle are automatically registered as defenders of these caravans and may not participate in attacks against them.
• Completing these quests unlocks services and functions that are useful to the occupying guild and its allies as well as boosting the defenses the castle.

If they fail to to level up those nodes or complete those quests within the three prior weeks before the declaration week, then the castle will be at a disadvantage. – Steven Sharif

Being a member of the occupying guild automatically makes you a garrison of the castle nodes and castle itself.

• Only members of the occupying guild are citizens of these nodes.
• This citizenship is different to normal node citizenship. Castle nodes don't operate like normal nodes.

Declaring a castle siege

Guilds will be able to sign up to either siege or defend a castle.

• Players don't need to be in the guild that owns a castle in order to sign up for the defense of the castle.
• The guild leader that owns the castle is able to approve guilds that have applied to defend at the castle.
• Guilds that wish to siege the castle will be required utilize masters of each artisan class: Gathering, Processing and Crafting in order to create a declaration flag.
• Following declaration, the defender has a week grace period to approve defenders, hire mercenary NPCs and set up defensible positions.

Castle siege objectives

• Attackers capture waypoints in the castle's architecture to diminish their respawn timer and increase the respawn timer of the defenders.
• Defenders can counter-play by attacking the siege headquarters of the attackers to diminish their declaration flags and increase their respawn timers.
• Legendary NPCs will be present as commanders that act mini raid boss within the defending and attacking armies. Killing these provides added benefits, such as certain types of drops that grant battlefield benefits to either side.
• The ultimate objective for the defenders is to survive during the timed period of the siege, which is approximately 90 minutes in its first iteration.
• If the attackers reach the inner keep of the castle, the guild leader (or one other delegated officer) must cast a 3 to 5 minute cast to seal ownership of the castle.
  • Casting time is diminished based on on the number of waypoints captured during the siege.

Siege alliances

When a siege begins, temporary alliances are formed among attackers and defenders.

• For node sieges, citizens of the node or provincial nodes being attacked are automatically registered as defenders.
• There are many reasons to participate as an ally in the attack or defence of other nodes.
  • Titles.
  • Items.
  • Materials.
  • Money.
  • Social bonds.

Many incentives exist that can benefit your node and yourself personally by participating in the attack or defense of cities. These range from titles, to items, to materials, to money. Additionally, aiding others may help you strengthen bonds when your assets are threatened. – Steven Sharif

Siege mechanics

Some of the following information has not been recently confirmed by the developers and may not be on the current development roadmap.

A siege occurs over several phases.

• Certain siege mechanics may be gated for specific size groups during sieges.
• There will not be a deserter debuff for leaving a siege before it is complete.
• More will be revealed in an upcoming blog entry.

Siege weapons

Trebuchet siege weapon in Alpha-1 castle sieges preview.

It wouldn’t be a castle siege without siege weapons. These are massive machines of war that enable attackers to bring down the walls, and defenders to keep their keep safe. Crafters can bring their own powerful schematics to the battlefield, or you can order baseline siege weapons from your friendly neighborhood siege master NPC. The Castle’s defenders will be able to deploy their own defensive weapons and turrets based on how well they maintained and defended their own Nodes. The sky will be illuminated with fire and fury.

Ballista siege weapon in Alpha-1 castle sieges preview.

Siege weapons and siege vehicles are able to be utilized during sieges.

• Siege equipment is able to be crafted or purchased from NPCs. Crafting will require materials, recipes and craftsmanship.

Part of this endeavor of sieging a player-held location (or non-player-held location) is time to prepare; and that includes gathering and crafting these mega weapons or collecting the resources: Whether it be gold or specific quest items to purchase from NPCs. – Steven Sharif

• There will be ways to repair destructible structures (such as walls and gates) and also repair (or re-craft) siege weapons that were damaged during sieges.
  • This is a long term design goal that will not be present during Alpha-1.

Anything that you want to bring into existence in the world is going to be built by players: Whether that is Ships, Siege engines, Weapons, Armor, etc. – Jeffrey Bard

PvP

Sieges don't use the PvP flagging system.

Death penalties do not apply to objective-based events (such as caravans, guild wars, and node sieges).

NPCs

Siege NPCs, NPC guards, and mercenary NPCs serve as defense points during sieges and other events.

• Only combat NPCs are killable during a siege. Non-combat NPCs, such as merchants, will despawn and will respawn if the siege is unsuccessful.

• Upgrades to the node's Barracks may allow a garrison of siege NPCs to be spawned in the event of an attack.

• Mercenary NPCs can be hired in advance. They are intended to be a significant presence but not the main line of defense in a siege.

See also

• Node sieges
• World PvP