Sieging Warfare; My Hopes and Dreams

Jul 11, 2023
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TL;DR
1. Make siege equipment more accessible to the crafting community and scale with player lores, like every other crafted item in the game.

2. Make guilds have to coordinate and protect their armamemts as they store and transports them from their Keep to the frontline.

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I think Star Vault has a truly great product that offers a unique experience not governed by pay to win microtransactions or polluted with bots/spammers.

I appreciate the level of detail and commitment to quality, while maintaining a small budget.

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While it may seem like a goofy idea, I had high hopes that players would get to craft siege equipment and allow it to be a object in the world (like a pet or a house).

Yes, it would require a guild parking lot to store them.

Yes, it would likely need to require a new structure and new type of upkeep to maintain them over time.

Yes, it would mean that the guild would need to defend or destroy them when they arent actively being used.

Yes, it would require a logistics officer to coordinate the movement and defense of them from the parking lot to the enemy keep effectively.

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I had imagined siege equipment as being its own crafting skill that branched off of advanced engineering and scaled with the crafters lores for wood and metal (bleck would be a hot commodity!)

The better the crafter and the rarer the material, the stronger the machine would be!

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To draw attention to the spiritual forebearer of all sandbox full loot MMOs, I had hoped to see siege engines better than that of Darkfall.

I have always referred to them as the "Land Boats" and they hold a truly special place in my heart.

They were driven by a single pilot and could hold different canon points (each man'd by a different player) as well as able to transport a small army on them.

They shielded players from arrows/magic and offered a few firing points that players could snipe out of, or into, the machine from.

It was truly a sight when a dozen of them would roll across the landscape, on the way to ruin some other guilds day.

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All of that said, I had really high expectations for what Star Vault would unveil as their siege engines. We have waited a long time and the siege equipment being offered seems a little underwhelming, whether it is effective or not.

I had imagined a fleet of armaments pulled by a herd of plate wearing horses, armored campodons, or even a zombie troll (especially after 18 months of pet/mount based support).

It would have required guilds to create an entire logistics program to determine the crafters, the drivers (person with the campodons/horses/trolls), the platoon which would be needed to defend such a large/slow target, and the best route through the world to the enemy base.

This would create a large point of player interaction leading up to the siege itself. The guild who is under threat (or assumed they were under threat because a massive caravan is approaching near their stronghold) would have the opportunity to engage before it arrived at their gates.

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As someone who has spent the last 18 months foaming at the mouth and reading skill books to prepare for the release of the armaments, I feel very disappointed.

I, personally, feel that the "deploy from tent" mechanic for siege equipment is a major missed opportunity for player interaction.

Crafters work hard to learn lores for metals that have virtually no application in game, and this was suppose to be a boon to metallurgist as much as a tool for guild v guild combat. (In my mind anyways)

There is probably no going back now, but I felt like it was worth expressing this disappointment in a more formal manor.

I understand that horse drawn carriages and such are going to be on future road maps, but that isnt the same as a well coordinated armored battalion venturing from Meduli to Jungle to lay waste and claim rewards.

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Please keep up the great content and I look forward to future (non-pet based) content releases!
 
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Jackdstripper

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Jan 8, 2021
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MO1 had that system, sort of. You had to buy the ammunition for catapults in towns and transport it to the siege in your horse bags.
This created transport chains that defenders could hit to try and disrupt the siege. The attacking force had to protect the catapults at the siege location AND protect the boulders supply chains. It was very fun and very challenging to successfully siege. Taking down a keep would take days of sieging.

This was before ninja sieging, where people figured out that you could just log off hundreds of characters with inventory full of boulders prior to sieging, and totally bypass the whole supply issue. SV was too slow at fixing the boulder holding issue.

Having said that, the system wasnt totally fair (bolder holding aside). Mainly those keeps closer to towns were most vulnerable because of the easy access to boulders. Also this created a lot of guardzone fighting with exploitation of guards. Red guilds couldnt enter towns to buy boulders. As well as other issues.

I think SV is trying to address those problems while still making sieges fun and engaging. The biggest problem being ninja sieging, usually done at 3am when your whole guild is offline. Sieging should be done in stages, and it should take 24 to 48 hours to complete all the stages. It should be up to the attackers to have to maintain the pressure for that whole time. And If a guild cant muster up a defence in that time, then they shouldn’t have a keep imo. Hopefully this time around they get it right.
 
Jul 11, 2023
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The quick solution to that is just have the supply items immediately despawn if you logout lol. Seems pretty easy to fix that ninja siege issue

Im a one man band right now, so I was hoping to be able to sell materials to guilds that are involved in siege warfare.
 

Jackdstripper

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Jan 8, 2021
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The quick solution to that is just have the supply items immediately despawn if you logout lol. Seems pretty easy to fix that ninja siege issue

Im a one man band right now, so I was hoping to be able to sell materials to guilds that are involved in siege warfare.
Trust me, we all knew how easy it would have been to fix that issue, and yet SV refused to do anything about it for years. I guess Henrik didnt have a problem with that strategy. That is until a ton of guilds left the game after getting ninja sieged overnight.

One of many, many horrible decisions by SV in MO1.
 
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Jul 11, 2023
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I hope the siege supplies provide enough long term stability to keep guilds interested in battling. With all the flaws Im still excited to see TC drop, and I think people will inevitably leave the game because of major defeats.

I just hope there is some type of balance that nullifies ninja sieges, but I also think a new set of unknown issues with arrive. Every mechanical system has a way to exploit it and Im sure we will see some crazy theory crafting.
 

Jackdstripper

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Jan 8, 2021
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One other major issue that really stifled sieging (and also pvp), in MO1 was the formation of large nutcup alliances. Since the old siege mechanics favoured larger and larger groups, thats exactly what ended up happening.
Guilds made alliances and alliances got so big that nobody would dare siege, or even engage in pvp with, anyone for fear of pissing off half the server. Or for fear of pissing off neutral guilds and push them to join the enemy alliance. Or for fear of pissing off friendly guilds and lose them from the alliance. It got really silly and this pushed all the vet pvpers to go and greef nubes in the graveyards instead of pvping amongst eachother.

I don't really have a solution for avoiding this in MO2, but hopefully the population of this game will remain large enough that there will always be more than 2 or 3 mega alliances holding everything down.
 
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