Siege NPCs

Siege NPCs, NPC guards, and mercenary NPCs serve as defense points during sieges and other events.

• Only combat NPCs are killable during a siege. Non-combat NPCs, such as merchants, will despawn and will respawn if the siege is unsuccessful.

• Upgrades to the node's Barracks may allow a garrison of siege NPCs to be spawned in the event of an attack.

• Mercenary NPCs can be hired in advance. They are intended to be a significant presence but not the main line of defense in a siege.

Mercenary NPCs

Mercenary gear set. 3D model by Jan-Allen Cauton.

Mercenary NPCs can be hired to participate in node and castle sieges.

• Varying tiers of mercenary NPCs may be unlocked based on the investment made in their progression. Highest tier NPC mercenaries are referred to as heros.
  • Mayors are able to allocate treasury funding to hire mercenary NPCs to defend their node during sieges.
  • Nodes can invest in upgrade paths that give a greater selection of roles and quality (gear level) of NPC mercenaries used for caravan defense.
  • NPC mercenaries can be hired to participate in castle sieges based on the allocation made by the governing castle and how successful they have been defending their castle nodes.
  • These mechanics are subject to change based on testing and priorities.

• Neither player or NPC mercenaries are present node wars.

• Players can assign mercenary NPCs, but won't micromanage them, in a similar manner to pets.

There are mercenary NPCs that can be assigned to players. We've discussed about that before and those will follow generically... a pet system even adopted majority of the pet system with the added bonus of objective based points of interest that you can assign them to. But we don't want to inundate the field with these mercenaries they'll be few and far between. They'll be assigned specifically like let's say for example as the mayor of a node during a siege you'll be able to assign these two specific players that are citizens within your node and then they'll have those they'll spawn during the during the node siege; or vice versa and the castle siege guild leaders can assign mercenaries that are available based on the progress of those subsidiary nodes around the castle siege whether or not you have those available to your defense or your attack. – Steven Sharif

NPC guards

Guard uniform.

NPC guards will kill corrupted players on sight.

• NPC guards are capable of being killed, but they have high skill levels, damage mitigation, and power levels.

Guards are capable of being killed. However, that is a very tall barrier to surpass; meaning that their skill level is relatively high. Their damage mitigation, their output, and power: those things are very difficult to overcome. But they can be killed; and again you can upgrade guards through policies, through upgrades within the barracks structures; and you can even place mercenaries and guards ahead of certain events. – Steven Sharif

• Mayors of nodes can unlock higher tier NPC guards through policies or by upgrading their barracks service building.

Some of the following information has not been recently confirmed by the developers and may not be on the current development roadmap.

• NPC guards may be available for hire to defend freeholds after a successful node siege. NPC guards that permanently exist on a freehold are not a planned feature.

See also

• NPCs
• Sieges