Figure 7: Trebuchet placed on an upper floor of a Keep being used to attack inner keep .
piece of siege. Figure. 5 shows an example of the area
necessary for siege placement that must be relatively
flat. The circle will turn green when you find an area
that will accept your siege equipment. Zenimax has
done a good job of providing many places where
siege can be placed inside and outside of objectives
and should not pose a problem for either offensive or
defensive players.
During testing I did not experience any problems
with “collision” that is present in some other MMO’s.
What happens in some games is that siege equipment
can “penetrate hard surfaces” and still do damage to
the player on the other side. Arrows shooting through
castle walls and gates is a prime example that occurs in
some games. Thankfully I did not encounter this trait
in AvA testing in ESO as this was a most frustrating
trait in other MMO’s.
Finally, I know during my research for this article that
I found that many different types of siege engines were
put into use during the medieval era. An example of
a trebuchet accompanies this article. The way siege
equipment looks is a big part of the implementation
during the game design. You will find several examples
of the siege in ESO accompanying this article. I think
the designers and art department did a great job with
making these seem like they are right at home on the
ancient battlefields of Cyrodiil, and that only adds to
the enjoyment.
ESO certainly promises to be many things to many
players. For the devoted Elder Scrolls fan, it provides
a glimpse into the past of Elder Scrolls. It provides the
player new to the Elder Scrolls experience a polished
high definition world, complete with magic, sorcery,
epic creatures and yes even player vs player content.
Siege engines in pvp is only one small aspect of the
Elder Scrolls Online experience. We invite all of you to
give AvA a try in ESO. We look forward to seeing you
all in Cyrodiil very soon!
Ref: Figure 1: Source Wiki: Diagram of a trebuchet, from the ‘’Dictionnaire
raisonné de l’architecture française du XIe au XVe siècle’’ (1854–1868)
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