195 people in a Discord server. The diagrams have been drawn, and the battle plans laid out. Our shotcaller, a seasoned MMO PvP veteran, calmly addresses our four-guild alliance: our job is to guard the entrance to the castle once the golem has smashed it open, while our soft-alliance, made up of several other guilds on the server we joined forces with to attempt to usurp the defenders, make their way into the castle. This is a culmination of months of work in Throne And Liberty, tweaking our builds, grinding, forming friendships and alliances, all leading up to the chance to find glory by taking Stonegard Castle.
The Battle Commences
The battle begins calmly: we wipe a few smaller guilds that happen to be in our path, and begin our rotation along the base of the wall. Our entire four-guild swarm is wiped out twice as dive-bombers jump from the walls and land in our midst. But we regroup and go again. We get the call from our leaders, one of the most powerful attacking guilds on the server, that it’s time to enter the castle. We rush in through the main gate and swing directly right, capturing a resurrection point, and then push on to begin pillaging one of the loot storage vaults in the courtyard.
We hold the point for the last 15 minutes of the siege, amassing a humble 147 Lucent each (the game’s premium currency) after it’s distributed fairly between the players in our alliance. In the last five minutes, we get the call to attack the main castle gate and push for the Throne room. Capture the Throne, and you’ll take the castle, collecting all of the Lucent inside. The entrance to the castle is pure free-for-all chaos. I’m a tanky healer, so I’m able to stay alive longer than the vast majority of my guildmates, who mostly become fodder for the meat grinder. All alliances are forgotten. It’s just a swarm of death.
As the dust settles, it’s clear that the defenders have been successful in retaining the castle. This is an impressive feat considering the sheer numbers of attackers, but it was a fair fight. The defenders executed their plan perfectly, holding the wall longer than expected. Our guild performed well, amassing almost 1,000 kills. Despite being unable to claim the castle, our performance in the battle cements us as one of the most powerful guilds on the server, and puts us in good stead to form stronger alliances before the next battle.
The entire event ran surprisingly smoothly. There were easily a couple of thousand players in and around the castle during the siege, and yet, I didn’t experience a single crash, I did turn the graphics down to their minimal settings to boost performance, which may have contributed to the fact that I experienced very little lag, but it’s still impressive. The first phase where four large golems attack the walls is, for want of a less hyperbolic word, epic. The mad rush into the smashed-open walls was like no other experience I’ve had in a video game.
It’s All Down To The Players
Our alliance managed to pull off their plans, even though between our four guilds and the soft-alliance we formed with several other guilds on the server, we were likely a group of over 500 players. The sort of time and management that goes into making an event like this work on the player-side is just unbelievable.
We’re talking weeks of meetings, discussions, and drives to keep up player activity to be able to bring as many players to the table as possible when it becomes time to fight. I’ve already written about the sheer number of hours it takes to compete in a game like Throne And Liberty, but I’d also like to take this moment to say thank you to every guild leader out there: your unfaltering work is appreciated by everyone.
The siege event was a lot of fun, and it fills me with optimism about the future of the game. Throne And Liberty has its problems for sure, and I’m the first to be cynical about its PvP favouring those in massive groups. Casual players will be choked out of the game if NCSoft can’t quickly include more relaxed PvP, casual life skills, and other more laidback activities in the game that don’t require hours of endless grind. If the siege is anything to go by, though, Throne has the potential to be a solid MMO for years to come – I hope NCSoft can keep delivering on this excellent foundation.
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