It might be healthier for the game to call it a "Practice Mode" so people don't expect rewards, and then it doesn't pull people away from the open world. The negative loop where only people who have done several castle sieges before can be competitive in a castle siege could be easily broken with your suggestion, and will definitely make the game much better long term for everyone. It might be a separate good idea for this to be a specialty of max level combat nodes. This means that when unlocked, even a level 1 player can go there, but they have to physically travel there. This also brings a similar level of reward as the academic node's teleportation. (And in game lore for why they are powerful enough to open portals to temporary dimensions - they just use portal technology for fighting, not the convenience of transportation).

I think this a really solid solution to what I think could be a real problem for Ashes, the time gating. People decide in hours let alone weeks/days/months if they like something, and I get Ashes isn't going to be for everyone but waiting real time days for your reward from successfully completing a caravan run is pretty rough. City buildings taking days makes more sense but is another time gate, there are many more. Great video, I hope it blows up and a lot of people cover this. We'll figure a lot of things out in the Alpha 2, hopefully this is one of them.

Great video, man. Really hope AGS wake up and fix the war mode. Hopefully Ashes takes from NW's failure and adds an instanced cross-server GvG mode for their wars. Frequency and Accessibility has to be #1 priority, IMO. Brought back some of my old war memories with the footage too. Being in the discord with all the homies after a win is one of the best feelings in any game.

Great vid as always and welcome to the 701!

excelent video mate 10/10

Great vid. I agree that having practice wars would help a lot. People in smaller guilds would at least get a chance to see the content. Also, I really hope they listen when it comes to servers. I have been stressing thinking about playing with my friends on the east coast haha.

Your idea for instanced sieges was actually the biggest part of Apocalypse. Everyone would be able to experience castle siege and horde mode in Apocalypse as a separate game. We were waiting for it but it didn't happen since everyone were too hellbent on saying they ditched the MMO so they skipped it. Here's the kicker: PI members who got to test it out said it was very fun and some even said it was way better than the castle siege in Alpha-1.

I’m against instancing any kind of content besides the story bits Intrepid pointed at. Open world is a core pilar of the game, and content gating is a part of it, just like a merchant is gated from caravans by the risk factor PVPers will be gated out of castle sieges unless they own a castle or are part of a mercenary guild Besides, wanting instanced stuff is kinda wow brain.

Very nice vid 💯

Dear Doc, I just wanted you to know that I'm so glad I found your channel and have absolutely LOVED your videos. I went through a clinic marathon yesterday and crushed all the videos you have released, thank you! I wanted to leave a couple of thoughts that are cons towards this idea of "practice mode": Firstly, I believe this sort of thing would be pvp for pvp sake, which in my opinion in a mmorpg is worthless. PVP in a community should always be WORTH something, be it something you can gain with victory over an opponent (resources, land, prestige etc.) or for infamy (bragging rights, screenshots of corpses being t-bagged on the local forum etc.). Two examples spring to mind - Archeage - small pvp battles over trade resources/castle sieges for obvious monetary and prestige gain. World of Warcraft vanilla (pvp servers) - pure player/guild reputation for killing or posting videos/screenshots on the server forum - this transferred to server battlegrounds - when Blizzard made BGs x-server this was lost, and in doing so - lost all of the community aspects for a server. There is always great value in lauding over a self-proclaimed "great player", by 10 pictures of his corpse on a community forum. As soon as anything goes X-server, the community takes a massive hit. Secondly, Practice? I really don't think a bunch of randoms being thrown together into a castle siege is going to be fair practice. It will be nothing compared to the strategizing of two guilds going head to head over such a precious resource. If the value of a castle is undiminished, make no mistake - a guild strategy session will be like a professional team locker room - reviewing opponents' rosters and marking priority targets ahead of time, watching every video/stream made on castle sieges for advantages. Make note, that the prestige and sentiment of this resource would be greatly diminished if the same map is used for a random instanced kill fest for kicks, it's no longer "our house" it's "SG, RK, BC, BM or whatever acronyms the masses call parts of map". Thirdly, home field advantage "I have fought many wars, master Dwarf. I know how to defend my own Keep." - The longer a guild holds these POIs the easier it will be to defend - from both a resource advantage, but also each successful defense provides more data to repel efficiently. I think this fits into an RPG aspect beautifully, and a guild ties back into my first point that being successful in guild defense/offense through sieges is further risk/reward. Players should look forward to sieges from both the attacker/defender point of view, not just from the resource value - but for the infamy/bragging rights of keeping/taking. The psychological advantage plays a part - rather than just tried and tested ignore half the mechanics and this meta tactic to win castle sieges. Fourthly, mystique, now this has been an argued point for decades for MMORPG players - should all content be accessible to all players? I am a firm believer of NO. I haven't seen any evidence to contradict this, as the golden age for MMORPGs was littered with examples of content that >5% of the player base could possibly take part in. This was a lofty goal, it gained respect of players that wanted to and couldn't take part in it, and it gave players who were driven to take part in this a solid goal. It's a beautiful carrot that adds to the community by providing goals that might not be achievable for many - but those many could contribute to make it achievable for the few. Finally, if Ashes needs to trivialize some of its more pinnacle server-changing and community drama-fueling events for extra content - this game is going to be dead on launch. The only thing that keeps players interested in an MMORPG after launch and checking all the content boxes is the community. Trivializing content checks those boxes faster at the expense of the achievements within the community for those few that have that privilege, it's a short-term gain for a long-term loss. Case and Point - New World's best content was really some of its ONLY content. I LOVED New World until I hit max level for a couple of weeks and well...... yeah, the same fort defenses vs players/monsters and running around areas in the world in a loot train got very old quick. 1 month isn't enough time to get a solid community built, so, all content boxes are checked, no real community outside of discord lulz with the guys that you can get in any game - catastrophic population collapse. Plus it became VERY clear, VERY quick, that the game designers thought they knew better than the players and ignored feedback. That's a whole other can of worms.

Great video bud, Love the intro's I have to figure that out.

7:00 i feel like it would be amiss to not mention that they both intend as they have previously stated after the 250v250 that because it went so well, they wanted to try the 500v500 in alpha 2 and if that goes well, the betas than will be the final test of 1000v1000 meaning that 5% can go up to 10% which could concievably go up to 20% of the total server can participate in the node siege.....

I like the idea of instanced castle sieges in the game. Constantly available instanced PvP as you propose WOULD kill the game. Nobody would do anything else. Once 50 and geared then guilds wont feel the need to be involved in the actual game, just like pure arena and outpost players in NW.

I love your Content! You have always smart Ideas and you fulfill the need of future Players like me to get to know about the Details and because of you I get and will get a better understanding about the small Systems and Tricks. The only Thing I don´t like is that i will not be able to play with you because I live in the EU :) but well maybe for the good so I can´t get wrecked by your future Guild?! LoL Keep on going brother! Much Love.

With content like this and the way you make it.....I think Narc has got to up his game! Nice content and very well made dude!

2:05 Planetside 2 holds no record. Its biggest battle had a peak of around 1500 players. EVE Online was multiple thousands, multiple times.

Team Lama!!!!! man this is such a great video, you hit on some key points.

Great vid! Do you think we will get a big reveal today? I'm hoping so....who knows....

Excellent video, as always. Thank you. I trust/hope there will be an EU server as well. That's usually the best option for playing from South Africa.

Great video, I'd love to hear your opinion on cosmetics and transmog for AOC. I wouldn't mind waiting tho, seems like you have a lot of great ideas to make content for.

I made a cameo in your war clip! Haha

I participated in castle sieges in Lineage 2 which also had 300-500 players sometimes. It was amazing there and it will be even better in AoC

I think we were on the same server... 😂 Dont mind me, just watching all of your videos while i work.

Fire video but my Doctor got a fresh cut too????

I hope that it isn't during the week if it is 4-9pm. I work second shift 4 days a week. So if it's a Tuesday I'll be at work. No matter what week it is.

Also, Central time servers FTW. Midwest gamers need it. Lol

Remind me again, Why is my guild attacking a castle node? What's the point? There is nothing to gain.

Ah yes the action combat healing mechanic 7:15 clearly every healer throwing down a circle is better gameplay and more skillful then the zero skill tab target. 800 healing circles on the ground 🤣 im jk. Great video man. Ive never been a huge large scale pvp guy. I enjoy the more intimate small scale pvp that happens organically in the open world so I think im ok without participating. But if the ol mighty guild leader Ryve requests my assistance I shall offer my blade. Or wand. Or whatever.

I dont like the idea of instanced castle sieges, it splits the population and put a barrier on interaction. Ragnarok Online had a great castle sieges system, you could have hundreds or thousands of people next to a castle portal and that was made in the open world where anyone like low level players could see those massive guilds preparing to attack. It could be done on another server through gates/portals so the load would be separate from the rest of the server, instead of gating it behind an instance.

So, to recap so far Ashes of Creation has promised to have: - No/very little META and definitely no META stagnation due to frequent content updates - No Botting (the botters will 100% not DDOS the servers in retaliation) - 36 classes (L M A O) - Each ability can be augmented by subclasses and by gear, gems, and more, leading to over 36000 possible different abilities - solve the leveling VS endgame dilemma - solve the Solo content VS Guild content dilemma - A live world that reacts to the playerbase's behaviors to correct them and prevent stagnation - no static spawn points for resources and no AFK farming - No P2W - No time gating (?) - A squad of beefed up ripped GMs patrolling the world to personally murder exploiters and botters 24/7 and who will never give their friends free stuff - High end graphics like all those korean MMOs that target whales, but with ugly characters - 100 trillion player sieges with no lag I think it's really cool that Steven decided to swoop in and solve every long standing design dilemma that has defined the genre since the DOS text based MMOs. Very nice of him. A real No Man's Guy. He's Toddally based for that one. Wait till I tell Milo on my Xbox Kinect about this.

They should just do what Eve Online has done and you'd end up with battles consisting of 7000+ players lol. I think PS2 holds the record for largest pvp for fps but definitely no one has beaten Eve Online for the record.

LAMASSSSSSS!!!!

Im not sure I like this idea honestly. I think I'd rather them not be instanced. Makes them really mean something and are something you really have to work towards.

I have to strongly disagree. Players who don't put in the effort shouldn't get to experience that content. That sort of participation award game design is the problem with current MMOs. And making a meaningless, risk-free version of said content is the opposite of what Ashes is about. Additionally, New World is a bad comparison because it had so many other issues, it didn't fail because of wars exclusivity. Hell, wars were unplayable for the first 3 months on Eden. NW was just a low-quality product that died from 1000 cuts at launch.

I really don't think that it's a good idea to make the caste sieges more accessible. If they are rare and have a high impact, then I believe they will actually draw a crowd on streams. If everyone can do them any time, then no one will care about the clashes that really matter. Another thing is that there will be so many different pvp scenarios that these don't necessarily will be the most epic, at least not on a personal level. If someone wanted to destroy my hometown, I would care a lot more. How you try to hype this up, it sounds more like a football match than a fight for the survival of your city. From my perspective, what makes something is not the entertainment bit rather the impact and consequences of the outcome.

Please entrepid dont time gate seiges! Instanced seige is so imporant! And this vid explains exactly why, thank you

I have to disagree with you here, bud. While I understand the sentiment behind some of your points, I'd hate to see Castle Siege turned into an instanced battleground. After playing Guild Wars 2, the mists feel incredibly separate and empty from the rest of the game, and I think that is counter to the immersion and overall vision in AoC. Still great video, though. Keep up the great work.

this one I strongly, strongly disagree, I think you are forgeting about node sieges, those are the ones that everyone can participate and fits everything said in the video, but Castle sieges are, and should be content for the top most dedicated guilds, this should be epic, shouldnt happen often, NW is the perfect exemple of why you shouldnt trivialize sieges

*You're confusing Battlegrounds and Arenas, with Castle Sieges.* *Castles Sieges are GUILD CONTENT. Node Sieges are General Population content.*

It's hard to say what will become of the project in the future. But it's looking like a failure so far