I just don't get why so many of them are surrounded by high ground rather than on the high ground..

I'm curious are we talking about realism here? Realism would probably not be very fun. For example the Gate house would be a much more dangerous place than it currently is, with nice murder holes above to pour the boiling oil (which it does have to some extent) but it would likely have the front gate and two sets of portcullis to trap the enemy in. Often the main gate entry point would also corral the enemy within a self contained portion of the castle where those defending can safely fire arrows and hot boiling oil on their enemy. I personally think it was made to make the interaction between defender and attacker more equitable since they did not place a lot of common defenses. On lowlands many castles had moats to make it hard to put siege right up against the walls. In our cases there's a little mud but otherwise you can plant that siege right up to the wall and hammer the hell out of the Keep. The walls don't tend to have machicolations, they don't have defensive corbelling or crenellations (inner and outer) to make it easier for archers to fire on the enemy without being hit back.

In my view are the castles realistic? answer: No. They were designed to make the game more peppy.

@Nestor

Yes, I was unfair with roofs, we pour oil from them. But as someone said above it would make sense to give them a capture point, so they become the place defenders make their last stand.

Nestor wrote: »

different keeps would make a better game. And, could keep the tactics fresh.

Exactly. Tactics and keeps weren t bad designed at all imo, but it s been a while and out of town captures there has been zero evolution.

Irylia wrote: »

I envision something like faction a sieging mournhold while faction b defends.

This is very ambitious. Could be epic indeed. With a magic wand I could see the two home keeps, gates and scroll shrines replaced by one big walled town.
With as you say multiple capture points and the chaos inherent to urban fights (especially tri-faction fights)

Potenza wrote: »

Flags in different locations is a good idea - maybe put the second one on the second floor or a third one up there.

Definitely agree with a capture point on roof. Could even be a sort a donjon like in real castles of old. I don t care for realism but gameplay-wise keeping the stronger for last would make sense. (not OP either ofc)

Biro123 wrote: »

I just don't get why so many of them are surrounded by high ground rather than on the high ground..

I'd say so we can bombard from surrounding heights. Not realistic but real fortresses were often so strong you couldn t break in no matter what, only starve defenders to death. Bad gameplay... (unless you speed up the starvation process a lot)

dodgehopper_ESO wrote: »

I'm curious are we talking about realism here?

To each his own but initially, really not. Just about refreshing and diversifying tactics.

And not making keeps stronger either, in my quite humble opinion theif strenght is fine.
So I agree (if I get you right wich I m not suret) that stuff like machicolations would be OP and frustrating, as it would mean risk-free shooting.

Portcullis and self contained portions sound great. Question: who controls the portcullis? If the answer is "any defender" one can log an alt and screw the defenders. But it could be great, it should also be risky and a gamble imo. Not sure how to get the best from it.

Nermy wrote: »

I remember this being brought up ages ago and ZoS saying about how long it had taken them to design the keeps so that they had siegable walls that would collapse properly and that to change anything regarding the keeps would just be unrealistic due to manhours and the complexity of each keep.

I'm not surprised to hear that but honestly it drives me mad. Not your fault but I need to rant a bit.

This game has no physical substance. An elevator that we see elevating? Can't be. A boat moving by an inch? Nope. Shapable, constructible/destructible houses? Hell no, just decorate your doll house. Sit arse on chairs? Took 3 years. Grab some decor elements? Nah, the world would collapse.

Interaction with stuff out of combat is a no-no. Other games have walls that it you spit on them it sticks! I'm not asking for a quarter of that, but hearing that having walls collapse properly takes millions in manhours drives me nuts. Noy saying it's X or Y's fault, but why is this game's world such ghostly lifeless eye candy for God's sake? And bugging!!

Ahhh feelin better..

I still want to know why damn near every DC keep has a mountain range next to it that allows you to fire directly into the damn thing at multiple spots.