The new town "Sieges" are not really sieges, sorry they are just another encounter.

They are nothing more than a new twist to a roving encounter.

((( Edited after the move - as I stated below I would really like a real town siege, something that is worked into the actual town map. This is what I was under the impression these sieges where going to be but. If there is some future work that will actually include the towns great but these, and not. It is ok if the development team wishes to stick to their guns in the names but, in the end they are exactly as I see it and so did a lot of the replies in the following post)))

Please just call them what they are - sadly they are simple another intermediate scene that will occasionally turn on for almost every Town (NPC, POT, prob not PRT but ..) These are going to be exactly like the Roving Encounters we have now, and the old encounters we had before. Some will work thru them others will just run to the exit like I am sure 90% do now.

Of course you will sell siege stuff to work with but why do we not just scrap this and work on actual siege Mobs that can actually work in the Towns we have now.

Smaller Scouts in the perimeter of the towns entrances, and at choke points they can set up "check Points"

A robust QRF to move to elements that attack these scouts and actually are catered to the size of the Town. Metropolis = Elite level, a poor old Holdfast Plain old elves.

Now get into the town, after the sieges has been in place for a while the actual cabalist move in the longer in place the more robust and difficult he will be to remove. Again scale these to town size population . . . . .

This will be a Siege - what is being peddled now is nothing more than a twist to the roving encounters we have now and will be treated in the same way by the players.


Make a Siege an Actual Siege of the Town, take our development money and work on the mechanics to make it a true siege. Not just another twist to what we already have

Sorry again but.

 

Have they even released details on how they are doing the sieges? or is this all speculation?

 

Yeah, this. Unfortunately, unfortunately, unfortunately, it comes down to housing and static vs. dynamic areas. I think this was mentioned in @Lord_Darkmoon 's housing thread because it prevents good storytelling with consequences just as we can't have the Obsidians terrorizing folks and burning and looting in towns and villages. That's why we will have this "workaround".

 

https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/?p=65688

 

All up front Just another intermediate Scene all there all simple to read all simple to see not a "Siege" of anything . just run thru it to the actual town entrance

https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/?p=65688

Ty Selene I forgot the link

 

Neat.
Bypassing all the other comments and concerns as i both agree and disagree with several .
These zones better actually be impossible or damn near , to do solo if your *barreling through the center and pulling out the siege commander * ... i better not walk in and be able to 3 shot everything.. and then 4 shot the commander.

 

I don't understand why housing in NPC towns prevents the spawning mobs to actually siege the city. I thought being non-dynamic just meant it couldn't exist in more than one state at once. Can't we have siege state for everyone and then non-siege state for everyone?

 

But they have to be since they can Siege POTs if they could not be walked around (avoided) you would be closed out of the town.

I agree the actual Fight needs to be very difficult and scaled to the player but more to the Town itself.

But even more to the point these are NOT sieges they are just another intermediate Scene not actually related to the actual town at all just . . . . .

 

If the fight is in the town that means the siege is over because the enemy would already storm the town.

What they have right now is more like siege because they would be surrounding the town and prevent people from getting in and out.

 

I would love to see periodic enemy attacks in towns... spawns of groups of enemies at the outskirts of scenes that move inward. We've all seen the devs spawn enemies at Firelotus parties. (And a troll or dragon just here and there) As long as they don't destroy people's homes(which wouldn't happen) and are temporary, what is the harm?

 

Just like the UO battles like in Trinsic. I agree this would be easy to just place a spawner and no damage to homes.

 

Agree with the OP. I always had hoped that the town sieges would be hordes of creatures invading the actual town itself. Npcs and avatars would be fighting side by side to repel the invading enemy together. It would have made for really exciting gameplay, I think.

This "siege scene" isn't at all what I expected. Better than nothing, I suppose.

 

I suppose my perspective is different because I live in Spite. We have some nice walls that would be great to defend. But yeah, it would be cool for them to overpower an under populated town and run rampant through the streets.

 

If they already got into the town and started pillaging, we would be talking about town being "raided" or "assaulted", not "sieged" at this point.

 

When they tried to duplicate scenes to change states, if it has dynamic housing and decorations the items get bugged out and duplicated. The only way to do it is remove dynamic items from the scene, it works in Solace Bridge. That means stuffing housing into instances just like the basements are to break out the consequential areas from decorative.

Now why they cannot just add fire to the same scene since it is the same for everyone, isn't fire just another dynamic 'decoration' that would get deleted? They would never need different instances of the same scene at the same time to implement a siege in town. Unless everyone that comes to save the town, some fail some succeed? It should be a group effort voted across all instances did majority rally to lift the siege.

They can absolutely spawn NPCs, SolTown has the thief that stole the necklace, and all the furry critters to harvest.

Hmm, maybe it has nothing to do with housing (like disabling story NPC is) and everything to do with effort? They are using the same cloned scene. If they had to do it in towns then every single one would need a different level redesign. If that is the case then start with the PaxLair PRT clones and work your way to unique towns last. Doesn't it make more sense that the outlying towns get raided first anyways?

 

I so agree. The way I am hearing sieges which imo should be 'town invasions' set up are not even town sieges/invasions as mentioned. I am really sad about this. This is a missed opportunity for the game. Time is being spent on creating a special scene and making it as wonderful as they can, which is double sad. We know we have a talented team, but this wastes the man power or not I could be so wrong . We have towns that are just sitting there empty and devoid of any actual game-play feeling, disconnected, disjointed and when the opportunity comes along to have a mutual goal, it is missed by so many points. My ideas as follows:

1)Benefit of invasions:gives the opportunity to let towns/players cooperate with each other for a common goal

2)the opportunity to see all the game, yes see all those towns

3)the opportunity for exciting game play, having people having to help each other against difficult creature invasions without being forced to be involved (for example a big note spashes accross the screen 'TOWN SIEGE IN WIZARDS REST, HELP". And also the catapult shows on the map if someone is walking by, they say yay a siege.

4)Encourages players to play giving the game a boost of adrenaline.

5)Sieges town invasions are opportunities to show off the game. We've seen a little taste of it at events where devs cast dragons, the phoenix, or trolls in the middle of the event and everyone jumps in to kill them.

6)Rewards could be scaled by time it takes to clear the town and other created criteria, most kills, etc and a chest appears, for all to loot.

7)It could happen suddenly and while it could be inconvenient if there are events going on, still what's the alternative? and sometimes why do we have events? In some cases to have something to do Wala.

8)Also the town invasion are randomized throughout all the cities of the game, so towns wouldn't see an invasion all that often and the rewards would be worth it of course.

9)Pvp invasions/wars could work a differently and involve guilds and a call to arms for pvpers from near and far, and perhaps there are already some plans for that in the works. Lots of opportunity there as well

10)The invasion must include difficult creatures that are challenging to clear, failure to clear could result in creatures wandering the streets for a while before resetting and moving on.

This is in no way a criticism of what is being created by our wonderful development team. I do not know what is being created for sure but these are a few of my own ideas for things I can imagine and could wish for.

***edit*** could be a promoter for multi-player mode, almost forgot that

 

I was hoping for something with more of a "big feature feel" also, involving the actual town layout such that placement of walls and fortifications actually matter, along with town guards and such. Might be wanting too much for this feature admittedly, but I'd rather have more go into it and delay its completion that put something in that feels like selling the whole idea short. I would like the idea expanding to include armies marching over the map, stopping to attack towns, with elements (i.e., not the whole army!) possibly chasing down player characters that get to close. I imagine something grand likely beyond scope of initial release, perhaps what we are getting is just a taste that will lead to something bigger and better... But I'm feeling a bit like the OP, like a feature that sounded reaaaaallly interesting is being sold short into a minor encounter that will not develop into more.

 

A town under siege :
- is targeted by firing siege gear like catapults, so we should see rocks falling on us.
- is in fire due to inflamed projectiles.
- is subject to rationing (goods are scarce and more expensive).
- is sometimes invaded by surprise raids as the enemy finds a small flaw that would allow him to take the control of a door.
- is in danger when necromancers are at its doors and find a cemetary within.
- dragons don't bother with walls.

That said, the actual system don't prevent this to exist.

 

Rocks should destroy houses, as should fire do. NPCs could die. Or at least they could react to the siege.
Will this really happen?

 

NPC reacting to the siege would probably happen with some tweak in their schedule, I guess.

Permanent destruction on the other hand, no, probably not.