The Telara Saga

Just wanted to pop in real quick and give a shout out to The Gaiscioch Family, a wonderful guild currently found on Rift’s Faeblight server.  They will soon be holding an epic, 22 week event that begins on March 8th and will run all the way to August 9th.  So if you’re on Faeblight and enjoy a good time, then I suggest you treat yourself to this as soon as it gets going!  Having played with Gaiscioch back in WAR and greatly enjoying their Battle for the Badlands series of events, I can promise a joyous time to be had by all.    Here is a copy of the forum post detailing how this is all going to work in case any of you missed it.

 

 

The Gaiscioch Family Presents: The Telara Saga Public Event Series – Mar 8 – Aug 9

Hail and Well met champions of Telara,
I would like to formerly welcome you all, both Guardian and Defiant to engage in this 22 week server wide public event. Help defend your homelands for the invasions that plague our land or engage each other in battle to the death. The Telara Saga is upon us.

Beginning on Tuesday, March 8th at 6PM PST (GMT-8), The Gaiscioch Family presents their Telara Saga, a 22 week adventure which Begins in Silverwood and progresses all the way to Freemarch through 11 battlefields. The Guardian forces will march each week a step closer to the gates of Merdian. On the 22nd Week, we assault the heathen city of Meridian and kill the 8 Champions of the Defiants, Sylver Valis, Padma Ultan, Brother Damon, Rodan Ismos, Dacia Ultan, Kaspar Massi, Orphiel Farwind, and Asha Catari.

Here is the Full Season One Schedule:

MAR 8 & 15th: Securing Silverwood
MAR 22 & 29th: Advancing to Gloamwood
APR 5 & 12th: The Battle Rages in Scarlet Gorge
APR 19 & 26th: The Securing Of Scarwood Reach
MAY 3 & 10th: Troop Training in Moonshade Highlands
MAY 17 & 24th: Setting up Foreign Opperations In Droughtlands
JUN 7 & 14th: Securing Resources In Iron Pine Peak
JUN 21 & 28th: Scouting The Lands of Shimmersand
JUL 5 & 12th: Testing Our Stregth In Stillmoor
JUL 19 & 26th: Advancing Our Front Line in Stonefield
AUG 2nd: The Siege of Freemarch
AUG 9th: The Battle for Meridian

Over this 22 week campaign we will be taking on Rifts, Invasions, World Events, and most importantly cleansing the heathen Defiants from the lands. We will build our forces, equip them with the best gear we have to offer, and prepare for the battle of the ages to sever the head of the Defiant beast. This event series is design to introduce players to the world of Telara, give them the help they need to understand the mechanics, and expose people to the joys of large community driven events.

EVENT DETAILS:

WHO: All Players of Faeblight Server. Defiants Engage us to your hearts content. PvP Centric folk feel free to have at each other. The PvE folk will be closing Rifts, Invasions, and World Events while the PvP Centric fight to secure the lands against foreign invaders.

WHAT: A 22 Week Public Community Driven Event. Ventrilo Will Be Provided for Guardian Players.

WHEN: Every Tuesday starting on March 8th and running through August 9th, 2011. Event begins at 6PM PST and continues until 9PM PST.

WHERE: 2 Weeks In Each Zone leading up to the Siege of Meridian.

HOW: We will be forming in the town where the previous week ended and marching our way to each region. All Ages welcome to participate.

ABOUT THE GAISCIOCH FAMILY
The Gaiscíoch (Pronounced: Gosh-Kia) Family began as a social gaming community in the industry pioneering MMORPG Dark Age of Camelot. We began on the Nimue server on November 11th, 2001, with a focus on creating a fun and enjoyable community for players of all ages and skill levels.

With our roots firmly attached in the Celtic Mythological Cycle, the Gaiscíoch hold honor, respect, integrity, and fellowship, over hierarchy and dictatorship. Today the Gaiscíoch family spans many games, sports, and social circles.

We are a social casual gaming community with a relaxed approach toward gaming. We allow our members to play how they want, when they want, as long as they want and do not constrict them with quotas or requirements. It is through gaming, athletic competition, and social interaction that we forge new friendships and relationships.

The Gaiscioch Family has been coordinating large scale public events for nearly a decade. We focus on creating fun and enjoyable events for players of all backgrounds. Community development is our primary objective.

If you have any questions please feel free to shoot me a private message or stop by: http://www.Gaiscioch.com/

Slan Go Foil!

Foghladha
Ceannard de Gaiscioch Treubh
http://www.Gaiscioch.com/

Gaiscioch Family City Siege Madness

As a companion to my write-up a few posts below, we now have a video framed by the fearless leader of the Gaiscioch Family, Foghladha.  Full credit goes to him for putting this together.

Foghladha has also been working on a new recruitment video.  I will throw it up here for all to see, along with a link to our website following!

http://www.gaisciochnaanu.com/

This is your place for City Siege testing info

That’s right, dear readers, I will be joining the Gaiscioch Family on the following dates to test the new City Sieges…

4/27: Tue @ 5PM PST / 8PM EST
4/29: Tue @ 5PM PST / 8PM EST
5/4: Tue @ 5PM PST / 8PM EST
5/6: Tue @ 5PM PST / 8PM EST

So be sure to check back here often, as I will be following up our testing with commentary, screenshots, and videos!!!  I can’t wait to try out these new 100% RvR-driven City Sieges and I look forward to bringing all of you as much coverage as I can!  In case any of you missed the info Mythic released regarding the new design, I present it to you here for your viewing pleasure. 

General Information

• City sieges will now be a 24 versus 24 battle.
• City sieges will now last a maximum of 2 hours.
• All PVE instances within the Contested city have been disabled
• Defenders and Invaders will both have a chance at obtaining some of the best items available in the game, including Sovereign equipment!
• As a similar direction taken with the Scenario rewards, players will be awarded for their effort at the conclusion of each stage. The winning Realm will have a PQ chest drop – those who win the roll on a PQ chest will have to make a conscious decision as to what they want from the PQ bag. All other players in both the winning and losing Realms will have Crests placed directly into his or her inventory, with the losing Realm’s based upon how well they performed during the Stage.
• The winning Realm of any Stage will receive a Scenario Insignia.
• Players will be forcibly placed within a Warband upon entering a City instance equipped with an instance-specific chat channel. Manipulation of looting rules will be disabled.
• Players will be resurrected in 30 second waves unless resurrected by another player.
• A scoreboard is accessible within a Contested City by clicking on the mini-map icon. (PLEASE NOTE: This feature will not be present in 1.3.5 but is to be added in a later version)
• Players present at the conclusion of any Stage within the Contested City will have a reward lockout timer applied to their character. This reward lockout timer will force a character to opt out of PQ loot for that specific Stage for the duration of the timer. You are still able to participate in a Contested City battle even if you have a reward lockout applied to your character and will be rewarded with spoils in the form of Crests in lieu of standard rewards.
• Players exiting the Contested City after the setup phase will have all three Stages’ reward lockout timers applied to their character. This is to discourage players from leaving a Contested City battle mid-way through if it appears his or her Realm is going to lose.
• UPDATED: Upon entering a Contested City a player will receive a “Personal Preparation” buff. While this buff is active, a player may leave the battle without incurring any penalty. After this buff has faded, leaving a battle for any reason will result in the player receiving the “Quitter!” debuff and will be unable to rejoin any city battle for the debuff’s duration.
• Players will respawn at the nearest point that is controlled by their Realm during Stages 1 & 2 unless the closest point in the initial entrance location.

Stage 1

• Setup Phase: 5 Minutes
• Duration: 15 Minutes (Maximum: 45 Minutes… details included in the description)
• Invader’s Win Condition: Breach the Palace Gates
• Defender’s Win Condition: Hold Out (until the timer expires)
• Reward Lockout Duration: Approximately 20 Hours

Description:

When a city battle begins, both Realms will be locked within a gated area for 5 minutes in order to allow both Realms to gather reinforcements. During this time, players will be addressed by their Realm leader who is also present within the battle. Just to visualize the idea, here are the two Realm leader parties:

There will be six, chained control points that are represented by familiar locations within the cities. Points will be clearly identified on the map as to what Realm currently has control and whether or not the point is vulnerable to attack. Here are the two city maps with the new control points:

Control points will be locked and impossible to be captured unless a connecting point has been taken by the invading forces. In the images below, connections that have the same line color represent the options within the required progression path in order to siege the gates of the defender’s palace:

Defenders may not recapture points in this stage. Capturing a point increases the duration of the stage by five minutes.

The act of capturing a point is not directly done by players (e.g. there is no proximity bar or interaction with a flag). A point controlled by the defenders will be outfitted with siege equipment. Destroying all the siege equipment will cause the point to become vulnerable. Once vulnerable, the invading Realm will have an NPC sapper that spawns and makes its way toward the location. Here are the sapper NPCs:

As you can see from the images, the sapper NPCs are easily spotted as they both have the familiar RvR “Glow Beam” to distinguish their Realm and location.
The invading Realm must escort this sapper to ensure that he detonates the location and thus claiming the point for the invaders. The sapper can be stunned, rooted, snared as well as being able to be healed by allied players. If the sapper dies then another will respawn shortly and this process will continue until the overall stage timer elapses or the sapper successfully captures the point. Sappers are equipped with the Greater Ward.

This capture process continues throughout this stage until the invading Realm controls one of two points closest to the palace gates. Using Altdorf as an example, this would be the North Dock and the Library. Once the North Dock is controlled by Destruction, reinforcements will arrive by ship in the shape of escorted siege equipment (Goblins with Rock Lobbas). These NPCs will need to be kept alive as they unleash assaults against the palace gates. Players are incapable of harming the palace gates directly and must be done through the usage of these NPCs. Alternatively, controlling the Library will allow the summoning forth of a Lord of Change that will cause massive siege damage to the palace gates.
The moment the palace gates are breached, a two minute timer will occur which is time to allow for the PQ loot window to select winners and such. Since I know that losing Realm will be doing anything they can possibly think of to interfere with the PQ chest looting… we have a fun plan in place to deter players from that behavior

Stage 2

• Duration: 30 Minutes
• Invader’s Win Condition: Escort Either Allied Warlord to the Palace Gates or Defeat Enemy Warlords
• Defender’s Win Condition: Escort Either Allied Warlord to the Palace Gates or Defeat Enemy Warlords
• Reward Lockout Duration: Approximately 44 Hours

During this stage, both the invaders and defenders will have their two Warlords taken to the field; akin to a game of chess to bring out the rooks after the pawns have done their damage. For the defenders, these Warlords are the only method for recapturing points lost during Stage 1. Invading Warlords cannot capture points in this Stage.
After spawning, each Warlord will make its way through capture points along their two unique paths to the enemy gates. Upon reaching a capture point controlled by the invading enemy, a defending Warlord will begin its recapture actions and will successfully recapture the point within a period of time. Invading Warlords ignore capture point ownership and simply pass through them. Warlords will ignore combat initiated by players and will always press forward toward the enemy gates. Warlords may be healed by allied players and are not immune to any form of damage or crowd control abilities by enemy players. Warlords are equipped with the Superior Ward.
If two Warlords of opposing Realms cross paths, they will stop all previous actions (including recapturing a point) and fight one another until one of them dies.
The moment a Warlord from either Realm reaches the enemy’s gates, or at any point in time where both Warlords of a Realm have been defeated, the PQ stage will end and a two minute timer will occur to allow the winning Realm to claim their rewards from the PQ chest.
If the timer on this Stage ever reaches zero, it will be considered a draw. Both Realms will receive rewards based upon their effort as if they lost and no PQ chest will be dropped.

Stage 3

• Duration: 30 Minutes
• Invader’s Win Condition: Defeat the Enemy King
• Defender’s Win Condition: Defeat the Enemy King
• Reward Lockout Duration: Approximately 68 Hours

This is the final stage of the 100% RvR-driven city. Depending on which Realm won the previous Stage, this final battle may occur at one of two locations:

• If Invaders, then within the enemy King’s Palace
• If Defenders, then at the main entrance of the Contested City

Once this Stage begins, all players will be called to the side of their Realm leader (e.g. teleported) and given a brief period to recover from the disorienting effects of teleportation as well as observe the role-play event of their Realm leader. During this role-play event, each Realm leader will select four players and declare them his Champions. Both Kings will be completely immune to all hostile effects so long as any of their respective Champions are alive.

Champions are players blessed with incredible power by their Realm leader. If chosen to be a Champion, you will acquire the following:

• Equipped with the Monster-Version of the Excelsior Ward (your opponents will hope they have some Wards!)
• Increases Damage Dealt
• Increases Healing Done
• Increases Maximum Health
• Cannot Guard or be Guarded
• Reduces Damage Taken from Non-Champion Sources
• Reduces Healing Received from Non-Champion Sources
• Receives the stacking buff of Building Reprisal after being the victim of a critical strike. Cannot acquire a Building Reprisal charge more than once every 6 seconds. Stacks to a maximum of 10 times.

• If Destruction,
  • Receives Temporary Ability: Plead to Tchar’zanek
  • Requests the aid of Tchar’zanek to unleash a devastating tornado of chaos energy at a specified location. Deals X damage immediately at the location and then causes Y damage every second thereafter. Lasts for 20 seconds. Consumes all charges of Building Reprisal on use.
• If Order,
  • Receives Temporary Ability: Petition to the Emperor
  • Requests the aid of Emperor Karl Franz to unleash a comet of Sigmar at a specified location. Deals X damage immediately at the location and then causes Y damage every second thereafter. Lasts for 20 seconds. Consumes all charges of Building Reprisal on use.

Champions will be chosen at random in a manner where one player of each archetype is selected:

• Tank (Black Orc, Chosen, Blackguard, Ironbreaker, Knight of the Blazing Sun, and Swordmaster)
• Healer (Shaman, Zealot, Disciple of Khaine, Runepriest, Warrior Priest, and Archmage)
• Melee DPS (Choppa, Marauder, Witch Elf, Slayer, Witch Hunter, and White Lion)
• Ranged DPS (Squig Herder, Magus, Sorcerer, Bright Wizard, Engineer, and Shadow Warrior)

In addition, while Control Points are no longer able to be captured in this Stage, each Control Point owned by a Realm provides the following additive bonuses to all players of the Realm (including those chosen as Champions):

• Damage Dealt increased by 2%
• Healing Done increased by 2%

Once the final Champion of a Realm dies, his or her allied King will become vulnerable to damage. Defeating the enemy King results in a win. When this occurs, defenders will no longer respawn within the Contested city and the surviving King will… clean up the mess
If the timer ever reaches zero, the invading King will call for a retreat. Both Realms will be rewarded for their effort but no PQ chest will be dropped.
There you have it folks – the exciting new changes to the Campaign that is now 100% RvR-driven! As I mentioned at the beginning of this post, please offer any comments, concerns, complaints, etc. as you see fit but please try to remain on topic.
Thanks!

Mike Wyatt

RvR/Content Design Lead

This is how we WAR

That’s right, the Gaiscioch Family rolls something like this…

In the words of our fearless leader, it was 36 against 79 with a Keep loss on the line for the lock of the HE/DE pairing.  At Arbor of Light we used an outer Pandora and pushed Destro out.  Within two hours we locked Caledor down.  Way to flip a zerg on its head, guys.

In my own words I can only say one thing.  This is how we WAR. 

Battle for the Badlands: Season Finale Write-Up

I have been playing MMOs since there were MMOs.  I have experienced everything from PvE raiding to PvP raiding and all things in between.  I have taken part in more events than I can probably remember and I have served guilds in every position from the grunt all the way to the leader.  Generally, I prefer a certain measure of civility when I am taking part in MMO activities.  My instinct tells me that leading doesn’t require you to act like this…

However…

There are occasions, pivotal moments and the like…a threshold is crossed…and suddenly we find ourselves hurtling like mad to a place where angels fear to tread and noobs dare not speak for fear of being pwned.  It is in the face of horrific, abject stupidity that we stand during these moments, and it doesn’t take a genius to figure out how even a mild mannered person can go from sounding normal to sounding like this…

NOT SAFE FOR WORK

I was reminded of this tonight during another wonderful Battle for the Badlands, hosted as always by The Gaiscioch Family.  The issue was only with a few lazy morons, but it really does make you see how the poor people who try to lead raids in MMOs can go nigh-insane.  We had a few moments where, despite repeated orders, people somehow found themselves in places they were not supposed to be and doing things they were repeatedly told no to do.

But such is the way of things when you get large numbers together, right?  Now onto the Season Finale!  I was going to try and do something different this time around, so I made recordings of our adventures rather than just taking screenshots.  Sadly, during some of the more intense moments, my 3 year-old computer really started to chug and the lag is painfully evident.  But I figured what the heck, I might as well throw some of these up here anyway.

The war was still raging when I left after two hours, so I cannot speak to anything that happened while I was gone.  But things began with the raid gathering together for a lovely photo…group hug!!! 

We then quickly moved to take our first keep in what would be one of many glorious keep captures as the night went on.  The onslaught began in Troll Country, as the smoke bellowed over the hills and the howls of war blended into the whistling wind upon the treetops.

After that we stayed on the move with reports that Destro were out there lurking, and we soon discovered their strength all too well as we ran into a load of them while trying to take Mandred’s Hold.  They kept up their oil, sniping at us from atop the keep until they swept us out of sieging position with a quick burst from the keep floor.

We huddled back up at our Warcamp and licked our wounds, deciding that it was best to keep the enemy on their toes.  So we quickly hopped over to the Elven lands and began sieging keeps straight away.  We strode unhindered across the sun-lit peaks and valleys, taking the first keep we came upon with ease.  As we moved back to the Shadowlands to begin our assault there, we learned that one of our keeps was being taken back by Destro, so many of us immediately ported back to aid in its defense.

This is the part of the story where people need to learn how to…you know…read.  The Gaiscioch Family had no difficulty following the orders of their leader, but it seems that some of our other more aloof participants were not so wise.  So half the raid went back to defend the keep while the other half stayed in the Shadowlands, oblivious to the whole thing despite repeated orders.

This lead to yours truly racing into an already heavily besieged keep and discovering a big ol’ pile of destro waiting for me as they took the keep upon my arrival…then used my face to clean the shiny new floors.

Wasting know time, our leaders had us regroup and move back to the Shadowlands to continue our offensive there.  To my delight, Destro was waiting for us once again and as you can imagine…there was blood and it was glorious.  It was my hope that the video would reflect the thrills of battle all too well, but by the end of it I fear that lag will be your overriding memory.  With the recording going on I was fearful that my computer would catch fire.

As we stood victorious upon the broken corpses of our vanquished foes, we continued the rampage and moved back to Troll Country.  We took several more keeps before I called it a night, and declared the Battle for the Badlands Season Finale to be another roaring success.  It was nice to see such a positive response from the populace as well…and we received quite a few new members who were most impressed by our continued forays into the realms of chaos and mayhem. 

A good time was had by all, and once again I would like to thank my Gaiscioch Family, those who fought with us, and Destro for putting up a fun fight as always.  Until next time, friends!

The Battle for the Badlands: Season Finale!

Join the Gaiscioch Family on the Badlands server this Tuesday (April 13th) at 9pm est/6pm pst, for the Season Finale of Battle for the Badlands!!  We will be assaulting Tiers 2 and 3 as we ravage the land and promote the general chaos!    Anyone under level 32 is more than welcome to join us, and be sure to check the blog of yours truly for a write-up of our adventures once we’re finished.

There will be blood and it will be glorious…