Funcom talks siege warfare

September 3rd, 2007, 19:52 Posted By: Shrygue

via Eurogamer


Funcom has cried havoc and let slip details of the siege warfare in Age of Conan.

It will let you and your guild members take part in massive battles in the Border Kingdom area, earning prestige and bonuses for yourselves, as well as venturing down a separate player versus player progression system.

Those of you with lots of members in your jolly old throng will want to go for the bigger battlekeep structures. Within these will be stables, blacksmithing equipment, alchemist workshops, universities, and more - each designed to give your guild a bonus in a certain area. You might be able to travel 10 per cent faster when you have a stable, for instance.

You'll have to keep hold of the resources around the map if you want to maintain your grip over these, and fight off attempts by other guilds to gain control.

Other people in smaller guilds will be able to take over forts, which will require less man power to hold on to. And if you're not a member of any group but still want in on the action, then you can be drafted in using a mercenary system, where guilds agree to pay you a fee for fighting on their side.

Smashing someone else's creation to pieces, on the other hand, will mean getting hold of some siege weaponry like trebuchets. This will be linked to a crafting skill, where more powerful and better quality machines can be built as your skill increases.

But you won't be able to attack keeps at any time you please, thanks to the introduction of attack windows. These will stop people rampaging late at night when there's usually significantly less opposition. You can specify when you want your battlekeep to be vulnerable, although you will want to make this as often as possible so you can maximise your rewards.

Those of you doing this a lot will start earning points in the player versus player progression system. It's made up of 20 levels and will reward you with new skills and impressive titles (something like "The Ultimate Slayer of all Men", joked product manager Erling Ellingsen) the further you get. Funcom is even talking about an immortality quest for those of you hardcore enough to chase it, although it won't tell us much more about it.

Siege warfare joins drunken brawling and instanced capture the flag or deathmatch battles in a three pronged player versus player approach. It makes up a key part of Funcom's end game, along with raiding and epic boss encounters, but is said to be designed with everyone in mind, not just the hardcore.

There are 0 comments - Join In and Discuss Here