A castle that each medieval lord would be proud of - are you ready to possess a one? Get ready for intense fights over the Skergard Castle – the very first guild-controlled location placed on top of a breathtaking mountain!
Let the battle begin!
Changelog v.0.7.4.0
Guild-based Territory Control:
This update adds the guild-based territory control. During the first iteration we want to test the system as precisely as possible, it includes only the most essential features. For now it introduces 1 territory which can be claimed by guild – Skergard castle with its’ surroundings. Since Skergard is considered as a haunted place, usual boundaries with your faction have no power in here – each guild can demand the rights to own it, regardless of the nation. In future there will also be more “friendly” territories, as well as locations of different wealth. Since the amount of territories a guild would be able to control at the same time, so one guild won’t be able to dominate entire server, the strongest guilds would preferably focus on the wealthiest territories, leaving poorer lands to smaller guilds.
Skergard is placed on top and slopes of a new mountain – amount and wealth of the resources in this area are comparable, or slightly better, to what can be found around the Lord Wrath’s Abbey, also most of them appear inside a palisade. In future resources in farms, mines and lumbermills in guild-controlled territories will be generated over time and stored in warehouses – you will be able to attack and plunder these warehouses all the time, disregarding the State of War – except for “night riding”.
A guild controlling a territory controls the gates (right to open and close them) and siege equipment such as boiling oil. There are no NPC guards on a guild-controlled territory but the guild owning it has its’ own, private respawn point. Our plans for expanding the guild’s benefits include ability to select which workshop will be built, possibility to regulate the taxes on each workshop and a chest for collected taxes. We can’t promise it yet but we also consider adding some form of free building system in future so the guilds could design and build their own kingdoms.
In order to protect a guild from losing its’ territory out of the server’s prime time and to allow entire guild to mobilize and prepare for defence, a guild’s territory can only be conquered during a time frame. This time frame, called State of War – 3 hours from the 7AM-10PM range (server time) – tells when a siege can be started and is selected by a guild leader. Time-frame of the State of War can be changed at any time but it will come to life next day.
During the State of War, PVP and looting is allowed on the territory’s area, disregarding the enemy’s nation and reputation. Any guild of any nation can take down a flag, even if an ally guild controls a territory at the moment. Anyway, cooperation is recommended here, since taking down a flag isn’t the end of a battle! Once the flag is down, it becomes locked for 2 minutes. This is the time when all guilds should go to the top floor of the castle keep and wait for the final fight for control over Skergard. This solution prevents from flag-stealing by quick players who weren’t involved into combat but took the opportunity to capture the flag, with harm for organized guilds making actual effort to conquer a territory.
We are aware that 1 territory dedicated for guilds is not enough. As stated before, we want to gather as much feedback as possible before adding more guild territories. Of course, feedback from guilds who own and fight for Skergard is really important, however we’re also looking for feedback from lone wolf and smaller guilds – though Skergard may not be the place for you, it greatly depends on the owners’ approach.Let us know what you don’t like but also – what do you like! Positive feedback is as important as negative one, since only combined they’ll allow us to create uniquely great experience!
Gameplay:
– Temporarily disabled “The Forsaken Patch” event taking place in the dungeon complex in the middle of Stoneholm – it will be restored as soon as possible, once the location is adjusted to changes done to terrain in this area caused by introduction of the guild-controlled territory; in meantime we will improve the event mechanics to make it more fair for each nation
– Improved the Azebian quests – since the player retention data has shown that players of the Azebian Empire have the lowest retention so we rethought and reworked all of the Azebian quests. Although the changes are not significant alone, amount of them and the work required in improving the quests flow forced us to wipe out progress of the Azebian quests. Experience and other rewards are saved though so Azebian and Sangmarian characters have an opportunity to level up faster; which should help to increase their population.
– Added new minor locations in the Azebian Empire starting areas: an oasis near Sangmarian farm, additional minor bandit camps for the first Sangmarian quest, and a guards camp between the stone pit and lighthouse
– Improved the system responsible for detecting terrain under a character – issues with falling under objects in specific places should be fixed
– Improved the sliding mechanics – character and camera shouldn’t rotate when sliding down
– Improved movement on steep slopes
– Added separate animations for stun and stagger states
– Reduced the pauses between playing pieces of music
– Added optional possibility to attach a screenshot to bug reports
Fixes:
– Fixed an issue causing queuing jumping long after pressing it when a key has been pressed in state not allowing to jump
– Fixed an issue preventing players from reclaiming the tournament flags if they’re not neutral
– Fixed an issue causing that logging off process hasn’t been interrupted by receiving damage and moving
– From now on, logging off takes place in a sitting position
Known issues:
– The State of War time frame is being saved to database at 1:30AM CEST. If it will be changed after 1:30AM CEST and server restart (2:30PM CEST), it will be reset to previous value on server restart. We’re working on solving this issue – sorry for inconvenience!
– al'Abib position marker isn’t accurate – he can be found a bit further, near the Glory vendors
Hotfix 2017-09-29:
– Added a temporary spawnpoint for the Azebian Empire placed closer the main PVP zone – a ruined fort
– Fixed reported problems in the bug reporting system
– Fixed numerous minor issues in the Azebian quests and improved rewards