Guild castles

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Guild castle Alpha-1 early preview.[1]

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.[2]

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Five guild castles exist in Ashes of Creation.[3][2][4]

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.[3]Steven Sharif
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.[2]

Benefits of guild castles

Guild castle concept art.[2]

It's a reciprocal relationship between the castle and its nodes essentially. There are benefits granted to citizens of the castle; and the longer that the castle remains in the hands of its incumbent guild, the stronger the benefits become overall. But at the same time that represents a greater incentive to attack the castle because the rewards will get greater over time also.[1]Steven Sharif

Guild castles provide benefits and trophies for guilds that capture and control them.[1][18]

  • These benefits increase the longer a guild holds its castle.[1]

There are levers and dials that are present to both the owners of Castles as well as the elected officials of Nodes that during their administration they have the ability to impact and influence the region around them.[19]Steven Sharif

Guild castles exert a King or Queen's presence over nodes within their region.[1][19][20]

Castle nodes

Guild castles have three adjacent nodes in close proximity.[21]

  • These castle nodes exist outside of the node system.
  • Castle nodes cannot exceed stage 4 (Town) and are always military node types.
  • Being a member of the guild will automatically make you a garrison of the castle nodes and castle itself.
  • Only the guild who occupies the castle can participate in the development of these nodes.
    • The guild must develop those nodes to enhance the defenses of the castle.
  • Only members of the occupying guild are citizens of these nodes.[22]

Castle sieges

Alpha-1 castle siege gameplay.[23]

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.[24]

Guilds participate in Castle sieges in an effort to capture and occupy one of the five guild castles in Ashes of Creation.[4]

  • 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.[28][29][30][31]
  • There will be systems that mimic some of the mechanics of sieges, but there won't be practice sieges.[32]
  • 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.[33]
    • It was previously stated that castle sieges may or may not be (entirely) instanced in the final game.[8]
    • Alpha-1 castle sieges occurred in an open-world zone that was accessible via a NPC teleporter.[9][10][8][11]
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.[34]Steven Sharif

A guild that captures a castle will own that castle for a month before it is sieged again.[35][15]

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.[35]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.[35][15]
    • Each of the three castle nodes have a siege against it at the end of each of these three weeks.[15][36]
  • 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.[35][15]
  • Depending on how well the guild defends their castle nodes results in better defenses for the castle.[15][36]
  • 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.[37]
  • When castles change hands (following a siege), some taxes stay with the castle and some stay with the guild.[38]
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.[15]Steven Sharif

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See also

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 Livestream, August 28, 2020 (1:39:02).
  2. 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Blog: 10 facts about castle sieges in the MMORPG.
  3. 3.0 3.1 3.2 Interview, September 10, 2023 (22:29).
  4. 4.0 4.1 4.2 castle nodes.png
  5. Livestream, April 29, 2022 (27:42).
  6. Livestream, July 25, 2020 (1:22:40).
  7. Livestream, June 26, 2020 (1:33:10).
  8. 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 Podcast, April 11, 2021 (49:40).
  9. 9.0 9.1 steven-siege-zone.png
  10. 10.0 10.1 Livestream, April 30, 2021 (41:18).
  11. 11.0 11.1 Blog: Creative Director's Letter, April 14 2021
  12. Livestream, October 14, 2022 (58:46).
  13. steven-island-castle.png
  14. 14.0 14.1 Interview, September 10, 2023 (24:15).
  15. 15.0 15.1 15.2 15.3 15.4 15.5 15.6 15.7 Podcast, April 23, 2018 (21:55).
  16. Livestream, January 18, 2018 (37:05).
  17. Livestream, August 28, 2020 (1:31:11).
  18. Livestream, November 17, 2017 (49:30).
  19. 19.0 19.1 Interview, May 11, 2018 (47:27).
  20. 20.0 20.1 20.2 20.3 Podcast, May 5, 2017 (52:32).
  21. castle nodes.png
  22. Livestream, 23 August 2017 (23:00).
  23. Video, May 28, 2021 (25:44).
  24. About Ashes of Creation.
  25. Livestream, July 29, 2022 (1:12:14).
  26. Interview, July 29, 2020 (31:05).
  27. Interview, July 18, 2020 (13:13).
  28. Livestream, September 24, 2021 (52:48).
  29. Interview, July 8, 2021 (57:19).
  30. Interview, July 19, 2020 (44:28).
  31. castle-siege-scale.png
  32. Twitch Bustin - Practice Sieges?
  33. Livestream, January 28, 2022 (17:50).
  34. Interview, September 10, 2023 (25:14).
  35. 35.0 35.1 35.2 35.3 Livestream, August 28, 2020 (1:43:03).
  36. 36.0 36.1 Livestream, August 23, 2017 (23:00).
  37. Podcast, April 23, 2018 (15:14).
  38. castle-taxes5.png