Age of Conan

I have checked lots of Topics in the Forum. I even searched on the AoC wiki, but I couldn't find an answer anywhere. So I was hoping you guys could enlighten me with some wisdom.

We all know the Battlekeeps right? They're controlled by Guilds and on a certain time they can be attacked. About 9 on every server. Old news.

But in some of the interviews and trailers they mention "Guild CITIES". They talk about them as if they're different from the above stated Battlekeeps. And the only thing they mention is that there will be more of them than Battlekeeps on one server. What I would like to know is: how do these Guild Cities go into work? Do you just pick a share of land near one of the resource areas and start building with the help of your Guild? Will people be able to visit? Will other Guilds be able to destroy that city? And is the City your Guild build there to exist forever? Also theres something called the Guild Tax: will it only apply in Battlekeeps or also in Guild Cities?

I would like the idea of having your own city with your Guild. Other people visiting and yourself acting all high and mighty coz hey! it's your City!

But please help me out with some information. I might be wrong with all this.

I can answer a few of your questions.

The guild city won't be attackable by other guilds. It's only npc's who will attack that, so you can hire other npc's to guard it etc, or do it yourself. But npc's don't need any spicific timeframe to attack, so it might be hard to defend 24/7.

I don't know the benefits from building you own guild city, but my guess is that it's similar to what you build in the borderlands, some kind of bonus depending on what you build.

Originally posted by Linuxxx

I don't know the benefits from building you own guild city, but my guess is that it's similar to what you build in the borderlands, some kind of bonus depending on what you build.

To clarify, I am pretty sure that high-end crafting requires using guild city accessories, not only for making weapons and armor, but for architecture and other professions as well.

Battle Keeps: 9 per server, located in the Border Kingdoms, object of PvP seiges, grant bonuses to the guilds holding them.

Player Cities: located elswhere (some say in/near resource playfields), takes 30 members in your guild to start (plus other requirements of resources and maybe character levelss), can NOT be attacked by other players, located in instances with each instance having room for up to 3 cities, assaulted by dynamic NPC camps.

Player cities are also where certain crafting related structures can be built that are necessary for higher end crafting. Other structures can also give bonuses to guild members (what they are, no idea, but it was mentioned).

There is supposed to be 3 different regions where you can set up a player-city.  One in each race's country.  Pontain(I forget the exact name, been a while since I've read the Conan stories) in Aquilonia,  one in Stygia, one in Cimmeria, etc., last I knew.

Granted, you can only have one city per guild, you just have a choice of which region to build it in.

What I don't know, and wonder, is if buildings/architecture in one region is different from the next.  Like, if buildings in Cimmerian cities would look a little more primitive, whereas Stygian city-scapes would be more magical and Egyptian looking.

Maybe it depends on the race of the architect and not in the zone they're in? Good questions, few certain answer tho ;)

Only 9 battle-keeps per server? Seriously? Guess that means 95% of the players can forget ever having one for their guild. Only the hardcore guilds will get them.

Originally posted by Ykalon

Only 9 battle-keeps per server? Seriously? Guess that means 95% of the players can forget ever having one for their guild. Only the hardcore guilds will get them.

So, here's how I see it going down.  Roughly a third of the keeps will be extremely difficult to overtake.  The other six keeps will have a rotating door of guilds owning them.  I really wonder though, is it instanced for only two guilds attacking and defending?  Or, is it one big area that every guild and/or player can come in and freely attack any one of the keeps or players in the zone?  Kind of like DAoC's BG's.

I'm sure someone knows the answer to that..

Battle Keep fights are not instanced.

Anyone can come to the fight, only the tagged guilds and merc's will score the "tickets" though.

You can soften fortifications before a siege begins :)

Originally posted by Ykalon

Only 9 battle-keeps per server? Seriously? Guess that means 95% of the players can forget ever having one for their guild. Only the hardcore guilds will get them.

   The bonuses granted to a guild for owning a Battlekeep and their limited number seem to be main driving force behind meaningful pvp on the servers. 

 The 'war declerations'(for lack of a better term) between the guilds who own and those that want the grounds help set a fairplay time frame to the seiges but, as has been said, it's not stopping others from joining the fray and tipping the balance.

 The server community itself will decide which guild, despite it's actual size, has had a good enough run at a battlekeep.  Also, there are outlying towers from info. gained in the vids.; they're still pvp but don't have a need for war declerations(can be attacked at anytime) and have limited bonuses for the guild that holds it/them.

Long story short, server guild based politics are likely to be a key factor in temporary alliances to outright merges of guilds, in terms of the games pvp focus.