Padd Solutions

My latest article has been published at MMORPG.com.

The Fortress War expansion has been out for over a year, yet I know that how exactly a successful takeover works is one of the biggest stumbling blocks to the transfer of control from one guild to another. Fortress War is one of my favorite features, despite the awkward time, because how can you go wrong with two hours of straight group PvP? So bring your love of bashing the opposition, 'cause there are a lot of steps to go through between signing up to fight and being the holder of the fortress.

Preparations:

First, you need to get prepared. Signing up at the fortress administrator in Jangan is merely the beginning. You will need to buy a few supplies and organize your guild as well. Make sure you give fortress positions to people who are going to be there. If you gain control of the fortress, you will need those people to be able to function in order to be able to defend what you have just gained. Also, if you gain the fortress, it can be taken back if there is enough time before the end of the war, so you will need defensive items such as pills, barriers, bombs and repair hammers in addition to a command post. All of these are available at the fortress NPC in Jangan. Buy many stacks of barriers and repair hammers and give them to those who can use them. Buy some Man-hos (White Tigers) also because they are good for defending your command post from low level hammerers trying to destroy it. Every guild leader in your union can use them.

Article continues at MMORPG.com....

Avalon, after holding the fortress since it began has finally lost it. I kinda knew this was coming since Ive been so sick. It seems that Fly and I are really at the heart of the Confederation and without us, it's a limpy pig. (obscure movie reference)

We did have a strange bug tho. We were unable to fight once the heart was destroyed. We all got teleported back to town, as usual, but then the server went into check and we couldnt attack after that. It kept saying we were defending, even though another guild had the fort. So the last hour we all just stood around and stared at eachother. OK, I logged out, because for me, getting up at 3 AM is becoming less and less of an option.

I dont wanna say it but Im glad I dont have to anymore. I do hate losing, but I really have started to hate getting that 2:30 am phone call from the union phone tree also! I hope that the remaining legits on Venus can keep the Confederation going strong.

So how political can one little video game be? Silkroad, I love it, but sometimes, it is so outrageous it makes me laugh. There is a big rivalry between my union and some bot union on the server. I made IGameLegit, they made their own version of the site by twisting the name. Half their members are some variation of the name "Fack Avalon". We have been stalked, our real names and locations ferretted out and in one stunning case, a woman paid one of our members to come visit her and then slept with him. (yes... srsly... I know... )

So for the last week, since the whole "Sleeping with the Enemy" scandal, this rival union has been talking and talking about taking over the fortress and defeating Avalon union once and for all. We have had the fortress since it came out, for over a year now... something like 44 consecutive wars. I usually take idle threats with the usual eye rolling contempt they deserve and move on but they really wanted a fight. So we rallied the troops... I think about 20 of us. Everyone else was kinda busy. Our old friend Asyamura came, he stopped leveling at the last cap so he was kinda low level, but it's always nice to see old buddies.

Seeing them massed outside the gates made my toes curl, I gotta say. I love, love, LOVE PVP. Gritty, wild, out of control PVP in a large group is so much fun to me, so I was all bubbling over with glee when I saw them. They claimed 80 members, but it was probably less. For their sakes, Ill say that at least.

It was a great battle. Some highlights were CaitSidhe, level 94 blader, wrecking about 40 of the opposition's members alone, outside West gate. A single party of level 4X-5X hammerers took out all the enemy Command posts which forces them to res outside the arena and run back in. The roving SuddenDeath party did regular sweeps outside the gates and ShioN_vzla was the first to get the Commander status. Perfect communication kept every gate over 60% with the party leaders functioning perfectly. Odyssey guild, the holder of the server's Bandit Den fortress, fought off a horde of jihadding Turks with a skeleton crew and succeeded through sheer tactics. They are also in my union, YAY! It was a marvel to behold and I am in awe of these hardy group of stalwhart pros.

So what is the moral of the story? It's quality my dearies, not quantity that wins the wars. Avalon union guilds are full of the top people on the server because even the least of us is better than some dumb cheater. Gratz to the union, to SuddenDeath, to Odyssey, to Nox, to Ninjitsu, to Dragonheart, to Rapture and to Avalon.

This fortress war was scary.... for about ten minutes. Fly overslept and didnt show up, I had to drag out the call list and wake some people up cause I started out with two Avalon parties of 5 and one tank and only one person could repair the gate. Grim.... *nods*

So we say, "Screw it" cause the best defense seems to be a balls out offensive. At least that is what we did. Our little undermanned parties just ran out and decimated three guilds full of botters while the lower levels stayed inside the gates and snipred them. I think we only got totally wiped three times. After my initial "OMFG" it soon became quite evident that despite our farming wizards and tank shortage, we still haven't lost our edge. The rest of the union came out and together, we smashed them over and over. The bots got wiped, the rogue party destroyed their command posts and even Corrupt lightened up and started joking around after about 15 minutes.

Im still pretty pissed at Fly for not showing up. *plans evil payback*

So we are the Fortress winners yet again on Venus, both Avalon and Odyssey. The bots always give up half way through and the guy we were killing 10 minutes ago is now globaling, "Tomb Taxi Pls!! I pay good!" The bots tried to party for a while to get better at PVP but they gave up about 2 weeks after the cap raise. They think we win cause we are organized. (Some bot thinks it's because there were two lvl 6X wizards inside, shooting through the gate. LOL!!! zomg h4xxx!!) We arent. We win cause we dont bot.

Special thanks to the union guilds who signed up and showed up. I saw so many people out there doing what they were supposed to be doing and doing it well . You guys really do rock. The group that takes out the command posts reminds me of the pitchfork waving mob in those old black and white movies.

Thanks Prophet, this made my day.

So today was the first day the Bandit Den Fortress was up for grabs. I have two chars, well, two that I am currently playing. My main, a level 90 cleric stayed in our main guild and defended the Jangan Fortress and my secondary char, a 64 glaiver went into our secondary guild and helped to take the new fortress.
I was kinda nervous at first because there is always a possibility that we gambled wrong and that most of the attacking guilds weren't going for the new Bandit Den Fortress, but I have learned to trust my friend Fly's tactical prowess and just do what he says. About 15 of us waited nervously at the Jangan Fortress, a far riper plum financially speaking, for the onslaught. It was like waiting to get a shot, the anticipation building.... building..... and then.... NOTHING. No one came. lol Like 4 opposing members from the Armagedon guild came and we killed them over and over for about an hour listening to the fight for the Bandit Den Fortress in Ventrilo.
First Odyssey, our Union mates, got it and we were all like YAY!!! All of us at the Jangan Fortress were like "Grrrr!" because that sounded like some fantastic PVP!!! But then after holding it for almost an hour, the opposition finally broke through and Odyssey lost it. This of course chucks everyone out of the fortress and the new holder (which was SuddenDeath) has 5 minutes or so to prepare to lose it. I couldn't stand it.
I logged off my main, and logged onto my alternate char. I tried to run through the opposing players but I got slaughtered over and over. Finally I get a party and make it in to help hammer away at the gates. We only had 30 minutes till the end of the war and took the heart in about 15 of them. Thank goodness you don't lose much XP in Fortress War!
I'm glad I switched chars. I couldn't really fight, but it was cool to just be there in that mass of people mobbing the gates. SuddenDeath didn't do their homework apparently because they didn't really defend the gates, they didn't put up any barriers, they just waited for us at the heart. I'm sure they fought well tho because they DID take it from Ody at first.
So Odyssey ended up winning the fortress and we all jumped and cheered. Those screens above were posted by _Ace_ at another forum but I thought they were fabulous.

To see who won the Fortress Wars every week, view or subscribe to the Fortress War feed at IGL. OK,I'm going to bed. Between fortress wars, Christmas and family parties Im so tired I'm sure this post is my customarily incoherent mess of huh, like all post Fortress War posts are. Ill probably delete it later.

I love this new suit! I know, it wasnt anything like we thought it would be. I mean, 28 day rental??? Kind of a rip off but it sure does look awesome! I got a lot of the update details before hand and I really pored over them but there is no subsitute to seeing it on your char in person. I probably wont renew it, just play with it for a month. The rest of the update was interesting.

Apparently you cant own two fortresses. We looked at the sign ups and the button is grayed out. =( We tried to go around and test all the walls and apparently JoyMax fixed the wall hack for the new fortress. Too bad they didnt fix it for the old one. We keep reporting it, but they keep ignoring us.

As for the new fortress, there is a big buff about who is gonna take it. My own guild cant participate, we already hold the older fortress and the game wont let us hold two at once (we could SO do it). We are encouraging our union guilds to man up and go for it. We think they have the manpower to hold a fortress of their own while we defend our own. For more information about the new update, you can visit the silkroad wiki.

I dont mean that in the way you think I do.

I love Fortress War. It has to be the single most amazing thing that JoyMax has ever added to SilkRoad Online. PVP is so much fun. I never knew how aggressive I could be until I discovered the joys of killing someone online and then doing the laugh emote over their dead body. OK, it's childish. I know that. I also dont care. It satisfies some deep female thing (for lack of a better word) to dominate some jackass 2x irl ahole and let him know that it was a girl who did it.

Anyone who knows me irl would say that I am a really relaxed, not quiet, but at least calm, cool woman. I do not argue with people and I do not get into fights. I think that I have learned a kind of confidence from gaming that I cant decide if it's from the company I have kept or from just having the freedom to say what I think and not care about the consequences.

Anyways, FW kicks ass. I am a cleric yet I still get those kill counts. I wish more people would fight us, I like the outrageous odds of our two parties vs. 200 attackers. I cant say I thoroughly enjoy it at the time it is happening cause I get rl tense, but I love that win. I love the pumping up that goes on beforehand, the sessions in Ventrillo where we tell eachother we cant lose. Of course, everyone should know that is really Avalon's secret to winning 26 straight fortress wars without a single loss.

But here is the way in which FW REALLY kicks ass. I have had 3 hours of sleep in the last 24 hours and I am so tired, I will probably delete this entry tomorrow because it is incoherent.

Goodnight and good luck in all your PVP endeavors.

We'd been hearing about it for weeks. The opposition was going to drum up a huge force and attack us at Thanksgiving, cause it was an American holiday and I guess they thought that none of us would be around. They thought wrong. We had most of our union there (two guilds were noob and forgot to sign up) and a couple friendly guilds from another union and of course, Avalon union is all about the PVP.

For those who dont play, SilkRoad Online has a Fortress War every two weeks. The guild that holds it sets the taxes for the attached town and makes a nice sum of gold which they can withdraw after they win the war for that week. It's more like a union vs. union war where there is no outside help. You teleport into an area, with the defending guild inside a Fortress that has defenses you have to build up over time. You can repair but there is a long cool down time. The attackers, when they die, can either spawn in the nearest town or they can erect camps inside the arena to teleport to. These can be destroyed. The Defenders just reserect inside the Fortress.

Everyone was really hyped up for this war. The last few were pretty boring. The opposition said they were "protesting" because... well, I forgot. They had some silly reason. The fortress has this one stupid glitch where if people walk against a wall and keep trying it, they will glitch to the inside. They are supposed to attack the gates and break them to get in through our defenses. They tried to break the gate... for about 30 minutes. We kept harassing them from the outside, picking them off, making them attack us. Odyssey guild did a fantastic job of that. We guarded the two side entrances to keep them off the corners they can wall hump in. After that first attack, they kinda just wilted and started doing whatever they could to just hump in. It was a mop up job. We think a lot of them left after the first 45 minutes cause they started out fun but were getting hard to find by the end of the 1st hour.

A couple got in, but they spent all their time attack a defense tower. Duuuuurrrrr?

So here are my screenshots. Too bad I didnt get one of that weak ass wizard that hit me for 50 dmg. lol I cant remember her name off the top of my head...