This game always struck me as bringing something different to the table since I first stumbled upon it back in 2005 and truly it does in a variety of ways, but after about 6 months of playing the live version there are still some things that just stick in my craw. I'll be playing AoC for many months to come and it provides a lot of good experiences, but there are definately some things that need to be addressed to take that experience to the next level.


1) Guild Experience.
I lead a friendly, tightly knit guild. Being in a guild isn't so much a means to an end, but something that provides added social structure to the game and extra ways to have fun outside of normal game mechanics. Naturally we do the "guild" stuff as well such as village/keep building, raiding, sieging, minigames, etc., but I'm genuinely disappointed in the lack of customization and having your guild able to leave a footprint in the game. You get to name your guild and that may be it as far as open customization. No flags, banners, emblems, or even colors. Preset ranks that come with hardset names and permissions. No ability to set up various guild chats (officer chat for ex.) No ability for special ranks. No ability to tax (which was an issue getting the village up with the gold cost that has since been reduced). We can customize our characters to give a greater sense of uniqueness and ownership, but yet we can't do the same for our guilds.


2.) Village Experience.
I truly thought the villages would be player social hubs in this game similar to SWG despite the instancing. It hasn't even been a possibility. Even if a player wanted to travel to your village unless they have a village in that zone, it isn't happening. Which means the only people in our zone is TDH. The other spots have long since been abandoned. No player vendors to sell wares, no social halls. We don't really have much reason to visit our Village Keep ourselves other than we have our monthly meetings there. I had at least hoped for a Tavern and some drunken brawling, but alas villages seem to serve as crafting buffs and a means into the BK sieging. Not much socialization to be had really. They don't even have the occasional NPC siege that was so talked about during pre-release. And just like our guilds there is very limited options/customization. All the same look, all the same color, all the same buildings. You can't even dictate the build order. The only choice you have is which spot out of 4 do you want to put each crafting building. (and unlike your guild, you can't even name it)


3.) Alliances.
This game even without population issues is in need of an alliance system. You can't search for players by guilds. Which means you have to have those guilds' rosters filling up your friends list and remember which goes where (no ability to make ingame notes on players). Having to patch together raids around the lock out timers. But the most annoying thing to date has been getting two or more guild together for sieging. We've been ported out of sieges as we weren't part of the guild "claiming" the right to siege even though we were part of their raid group. Which led us to just joining their guild about halfway thru the fight (after /petition failed to provide any other option). Joining their guild should work much like the alliance system should (guilds fighting under the same banner so to speak). It not only allowed us to get back in the siege zone, it eliminated other obstacles to present day multi-guild sieges.

1). We were no longer able to attack or be attacked by players in the 2nd raid group who weren't in our guild (as we were all the same guild now)

2). We could actually use the trebuchets (at present only the guild actually signed up for the siege can regardless of whether you are in their raid party or not).

3). You now have access to one chat channel for the entire siege party (assuming everyone is in the same guild (guild channel) instead of only being able to talk to half (raid chat).

4). You no longer get attacked if you are on the defending side by the NPC guards (no longer and issue b/c they removed them). And you can now use the ballistas (same condition as the trebs).

I don't think we should have to drop our guild and join the "defending" / "attacking" guild in order to avoid these issues. There should be an ingame alliance mechanic that will address them instead and hopefully there will be. And not that I'm on a PvP server, but I believe an alliance UI and consequently an enemy UI system that can flag those guilds ingame would be much appreciated.


4.) Socialization
This really ties into all of the above. We are a social guild and we do a lot of events outside of normal gameplay simply to have "fun." But I believe the socialization would be greatly improved by implementing better mechanics/more variety-customization for guilds, villages, and alliances. There is no dueling ingame (only way to fight someone in your guild is to drop guild (which was fine before but now it is followed by OMG FIGHT CLUBBING!) or to get signed up onto different sides in minigames. I'd love to see Drunken Brawling make its way into the game and guild taverns springing up in villages. That way maybe at least Allied guilds could come together and throw down some beers and throw up some dukes and then crown a Champion afterward. This game still has some greater mechanics and content to get out the door. But they also need to flesh out the fun/interesting factor stuff that isn't neccesarily tied into purely PvE questing or PvP balancing. The more we can create our own content and communities the more satisfaction we'll get out of this game. We only need the tools to do so.

We can never deny a constructive post and I think this post in question is very important to everyone. Much like the feedback in the suggestion forum, I take the time to ensure developers do get a copy of it either via email or direct link. Thus making such posts as these are never a waste of time.

Feedback from the developers on this specific post have been good. This one in particular is being reviewed over the team lead for Massive PvP developments. That doesn't mean change is coming relating to the feedback given here, it just means we hear what you are saying and we are looking into it!

Thanks again Wexx, always a pleasure.

Not true in that sense. We don't have the resources to respond to every thread but that doesn't mean it's not being read. It's a Saturday night and I am on here still reading and absorbing.