Guild keep upgrades: Siege weapons

[kpihuss]

Hi all,

I’d like to propose a new keep upgrade related to siege equipment, aimed at improving the overall quality of keep defense without removing pug participation—by reducing siege weapon waste and encouraging coordinated play.

The key point is that this would be a proper keep upgrade like the others: optional and with a silver cost, so it’s a real investment/trade-off and not a free advantage.

1) Current issue: siege equipment gets wasted too easily
In defense, oil has a fairly clear use case: fixed position, obvious purpose, and it’s naturally more “controllable” (when to use it, when to hold it, etc.).

But siege equipment is the opposite. Very often it gets deployed with little to no coordination and ends up being spent on things that aren’t actually useful for defending the keep, for example:

• Machines are placed in positions that don’t help (or even block/annoy defenders).
• People fire into the inner courtyard or low-value areas just to farm random kills.
• Siege weapons gets used up early, and when the real coordinated push happens, defenders have no meaningful tools left.

This is not a “pugs are bad” complaint. It’s simply the natural result of an open system where anyone can deploy siege weapons and players have different incentives. The issue is that defensive siege equipment is a limited resource—and when it’s spent with no plan, the defense loses a big part of its toolkit.

2) Key point: siege equipment should cover the time windows where oil isn’t available
This becomes especially noticeable during the many common moments where oil is NOT available or isn’t effective:

• Oil is on cooldown
• Oil gets destroyed
• Oil is used too early and the real push comes later

During those windows, siege equipment should be the tool that lets defenders hold the line and “bridge the gap” until oil is back in play.
But because siege equipment is often wasted beforehand, defenders frequently end up with nothing during those crucial intervals. In practice, many defenses become “if oil isn’t up, you just pray,” when there should be more room for skillful defense.

3) Proposal: a “guild-reserved siege equipment” keep upgrade with 2 levels
A new keep upgrade that, once purchased, grants a small pool of war machines (siege equipment) that only members of the guild owning the keep can deploy.

Level 1 (basic upgrade)

• 1 reserved war machine (guild-only)
• Cost: 20 silver / 5 minutes
• Upgrade time: 5 minutes

Level 2 (advanced upgrade)

• 2 reserved war machines (guild-only)
• Cost: 40 silver / 5 minutes
• Upgrade time: 15 minutes

Note: The goal is not to “monopolize” all siege weapons in the keep, but to ensure the owning guild has a small, reliable minimum they can manage and coordinate—especially to cover oil downtime.

4) Why this helps in practice

• The owning guild can save resources for the real push instead of burning them instantly.
• Less chaos from impulse placements and “junk siege” that doesn’t contribute.
• A real Plan B when oil is unavailable (CD / destroyed / bad timing).
• Less frustration from watching defensive resources get wasted on meaningless courtyard kill-farming instead of proper defense.

5) Why this doesn’t “kill” pug contribution

• Pugs still matter a lot: fighting, holding choke points, rotating, supporting, etc.
• This only protects a small critical minimum so an organized defense doesn’t lose all tools at the worst moment.
• Because it’s a paid upgrade with a build time, it’s not automatic—guilds must invest into it.

6) Common concerns (and responses)
“This favors guilds too much.”
It’s an optional upgrade with cost and upgrade time, like other keep upgrades—and it’s limited to 1–2 machines, not total siege weapons control.

“What if the guild isn’t present?”
Even then, the impact is capped (1–2 machines). Also, since it costs silver and time, guilds that don’t plan to defend aren’t incentivized to buy it.

“Shouldn’t we just teach people to use siege weapons better?”
This is not just an education issue—it’s about incentives. If anyone can deploy freely, there will always be early waste and “siege weapons for kills.” A small reserved pool allows real coordination to exist.

Thanks for reading.