Guild fortresses

Niektóre z poniższych informacji nie zostały ostatnio potwierdzone przez programistów i mogą nie znajdować się na aktualnym planie rozwoju.

Guild fortresses are siegable guild halls within Ashes of Creation. These are different from nodes and castles.

• Guild fortresses are objectives in guild wars. These are contested on a regular basis.
• The developers will decide if guild fortresses will be implemented in the game or shelved.

The fortress design is also something that might be on the shelf. We haven't decided yet. We're going to look into it, but the idea behind the fortress is that this is a competitive guild hall so to speak where you have to contend for it on a regular basis so to speak; or can be taken from you necessarily. Whereas the guild hall is a structure similar to freehold structure can only be taken through successful sieges against a node per-se are not taken but destroyed. – Steven Sharif

Guild wars

Guild wars are objective-based PvP events between guilds.

• Guild wars can be declared at any time, but the objectives will only spawn during server prime-time.
  • Players can kill each other at any time during the war (not only during server prime-time).

• Guild war objectives are intended to dynamically spawn based on various conditions that exist within each guild.

• Guild wars are not permanent. Definitive victory/surrender conditions exist that are based on the level of the warring guilds and the assets that those guilds have.

• Guild wars operate outside the PvP flagging system.
  • Death penalties (mostly) do not apply to objective-based events, such as guild wars.

• Guild wars are considered a core system of Alpha-2.

Q: How do you plan on keeping wars fresh long term? Typically in other games wars become one dimensional in terms of strategy. Will intrepid be looking at map changes every few years, or will you give guilds / node mayors the ability to customize the layout or objectives of the battlefield?

A: Our guild wars have objective-based gameplay that spawn in the world based on several different factors and predicates that might exist. Some of those predicates might be where is your guild a patron guild of? Does your guild have a guild hall? What node is your guild leader and/or officers a citizen of? What was your last completed raid boss? All of those can serve as predicates to then spawn a certain objective within the world that players have to either engage with in a number of different manners. Either they can be kill objectives, they can be control objectives, they can be capture and move objectives. They could be a caravan caravan summons that need to take supplies from those objectives. The idea is to incorporate all of these other ancillary systems that exist within the game in some way shape or form- tie it into the guild war, because we've created those systems for a reason. We want players to engage with those systems, so why not hook those systems into the guild war format? And I think that that creates a very dynamic setting where it is not just about killing and logging out, but rather strategy in both your resource placement, how you respond, and when you respond, the composition of your raid/group teams. Those types of things play a role now in the outcome of those guild wars and I think they keep it fresh because it'll be different per war. – Steven Sharif

Niektóre z poniższych informacji nie zostały ostatnio potwierdzone przez programistów i mogą nie znajdować się na aktualnym planie rozwoju.

• Guilds may war multiple guilds/alliances at a time.

Guild war objectives

There will be default guild war objectives as well as objectives that dynamically spawn in the world based on the assets guilds own, the activities guilds have participated in, and other conditions.

• If the guild owns a guild hall, objectives might be related to capturing a quest item in or around the guild hall that is only visible to the warring guild. Capturing this objective may require channeling time.

If you have a guild hall and a certain type of guild war is declared that is maybe a higher stakes war, some of those objectives will be centralized either at your guild hall, at the opponent's guild hall; could be a progression step towards the guild hall. It might be a specific a period of time that accumulates into into a central battle at the guild hall for an objective. – Steven Sharif

• If the guild has recently completed a raid, objectives might include stealing one of the quest items that the guild received from killing that raid boss.

• Objectives may be based on whether a guild is a patron guild of a node.

• Objectives may spawn based on the home node of the guild leader and/or officers.

• Guild wars can be declared at any time, but the objectives will only spawn during server prime-time.

Niektóre z poniższych informacji nie zostały ostatnio potwierdzone przez programistów i mogą nie znajdować się na aktualnym planie rozwoju.

• There may be bounty objectives to kill a particular guild member. The target may have increased damage mitigation and/or health against the warring guild and can call for help.

• Guild war objectives are intended to be more fluid than castle siege objectives.

Guild war mechanics

• Guild wars can be declared at any time, but the objectives will only spawn during server prime-time.
  • Players can kill each other at any time during the war (not only during server prime-time).

• Guild war objectives are intended to dynamically spawn based on various conditions that exist within each guild.

• Guild wars are not permanent. Definitive victory/surrender conditions exist that are based on the level of the warring guilds and the assets that those guilds have.

• Guild wars operate outside the PvP flagging system.
  • Death penalties (mostly) do not apply to objective-based events, such as guild wars.

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Guild housing

The term "guild housing" refers to guild buildings and not guild owned player housing.

• Guild halls
• Guild fortresses
• Guild castles

Guild halls

Summer guildhall appearance cosmetic concept art.

Guildhalls are the ultimate expression of a guild's power! In Ashes these structures will serve as focal points for a guild, offering any guilds who construct them a whole host of benefits as well as customization options.

Guild halls serve as a focal point for a guild, offering a host of benefits and customization options.

• When a guild reaches a certain level, its guild master is granted a certificate to enable placement of a guild hall.

• Guild halls may be placed within Baronies within the ZOI of a node.
  • A barony can only have a single guild hall.
  • The number of baronies that can have an active guild hall is determined by the node's stage.

Only a limited subset of the guild halls available around the node are available concurrently... So you might only have two that might be available at fifth level and then three at sixth level of a node; and the guilds have an opportunity to select from the six available which three are going to be active. – Steven Sharif

• Patron guilds may also place their guild hall within (the footprint of) their patron node. These guild halls have different perks and benefits to halls placed within Baronies.
  • Patron guild halls placed within Baronies may have the ability to confer benefits to surrounding estates within that node by speccing into passives in their guild skill tree and carrying out a lengthy quest line.

• The design of guild-halls is currently subject to active iteration by the developers.

Niektóre z poniższych informacji nie zostały ostatnio potwierdzone przez programistów i mogą nie znajdować się na aktualnym planie rozwoju.

• Guild halls can only be destroyed by a successful node siege. This contrasts with guild fortresses, which can be sieged in a guild war.
• Guild halls are objectives in guild wars.
• A guild hall only houses a single guild.

Benefits

Niektóre z poniższych informacji nie zostały ostatnio potwierdzone przez programistów i mogą nie znajdować się na aktualnym planie rozwoju.

Guild halls unlock actions a guild can perform within a node.

• Allow guilds to participate in the shareholder system.

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.

Benefits

Guild castle concept art.

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. – Steven Sharif

Guild castles provide benefits and trophies for guilds that capture and control them.

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

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. – Steven Sharif

Guild castles exert a King or Queen's presence over nodes within their region.

• Levy taxes for the purposes of defense (additional to taxes already imposed by node governments).
• Activate events and abilities that benefit node citizens under their rule.
• Establish special relationships with Mayors to help build up the three dedicated castle nodes.
• Unlock additional types of buildings in nodes.
• Exert control and pressure over one of the five economic regions.

See also

• Guild castles
• Guild halls
• Castle sieges