Will Throne And Liberty End A Cloud Imperium Narrative?

For those who haven't kept up on the news, NCSoft's new MMORPG, Throne and Liberty, is launching as a free-to-play game in the West though Amazon Games. While the global launch is on 1 October, the game launched in Korea back in December 2023. When I asked Copilot about the game's unique features, the first two items stuck out to me.

Throne and Liberty offers several unique features that set it apart from other MMORPGs:

1. Guild-Based Combat: Engage in epic battles against dozens to thousands of players and fantastic creatures in group battles and massive Castle Sieges¹².
   
   
2. Dynamic World: The game features a vast, seamless, and ever-changing world with towering cliffs, cavernous dungeons, and consequential day/night cycles that impact gameplay and abilities¹².

Sources: (1) The Official THRONE AND LIBERTY Website. (2) THRONE AND LIBERTY | Xbox. 

Castle Sieges sounded interesting so I asked specifically about the PvP feature.

Castle Sieges in Throne and Liberty are large-scale PvP events where guilds and alliances compete to control castles. Here are some key aspects:

Objectives

• Attackers: Their goal is to breach the castle defenses and seize control of the throne room.
• Defenders: They must protect the castle and repel the attackers¹.

Mechanics

• Siege Weapons: Both sides can use siege weapons like Golems and Gigantrite to gain an advantage¹.
• Hidden Entry Points: Attackers can use hidden entry points to infiltrate the castle¹.
• Respawn Points: Strategic respawn points are available to both attackers and defenders to keep the battle dynamic¹.

Strategy

• Coordination: Successful sieges require tight coordination and strategy among guild members.
• Tactics: Utilizing the environment, siege weapons, and morphing abilities can turn the tide of battle¹.

Rewards

• Victory: Winning a siege grants control of the castle, which can provide various in-game benefits and resources¹.

Sources: (1) Castle Siege War PVP Event Guide - Throne and Liberty - Maxroll.gg. https://maxroll.gg/throne-and-liberty/events/castle-siege-guide.

Although I'm a PvE player, I play games with large-scale PvP. So how big are Castle Sieges? In an interview with PcGamesN, Amazon globalization design manager Daniel Lafuente indicated in Korea the game had successfully supported a 1700 character fight. I managed to find a video of a 2300 character fight supposedly verified by NCSoft and another claiming over 3000 participants. I've included the hyperlinks for those wishing to see what large fights in Throne and Liberty look like.

I've also watched some quick reviews which indicate the server performance on the global servers now accessible during the current early access period is fast enough that few if any loading screens appear.

Back in July I wrote about the server meshing wars we would see emerge between Cloud Imperium, makers of Star Citizen, and Intrepid Studio's Ashes of Creation in October. Star Citizen even published a self-congratulatory video about how their success in developing server meshing technology.

One of the CIG developers even stated, "I don't think we could have done this anywhere else. Nowhere else would have the patience to really develop this kind of tech on the promise of something that might happen." Another opined, "I don't think there is another game company on the planet that can do what we're doing. We can take risk to produce amazing technologies that other game companies simply can't take. I'm pretty convinced that this couldn't be done anywhere else."

And that is where Throne and Liberty comes into the picture. NCSoft is using Unreal Engine 4 to create EVE-sized PvP experiences. Not the mega battles that set records, but still 2,000 character fights is nothing to sneeze at. Ashes of Creation is also touting its ability to also support large scale fights and seamless open-world experiences using their proprietary game engine built around Unreal Engine 5. The Alpha 2 tests will utilize what sounds very close to what CIG calls dynamic server meshing as Intrepid already uses a static server mesh for its game worlds. As for Star Citizen, CIG's CryEngine-based Star Engine is struggling to support 500 players in current testing.

And this is where the Cloud Imperium narrative goes off the tracks. I've heard so many Star Citizen content creators parrot the CIG line that CIG is not only at the leading edge of the tech to make large-scale virtual worlds possible, but the only ones who think doing so is worthwhile. And yet, here is NCSoft producing a game that currently vastly outperforms the server capacity of Star Citizen. Even worse for the narrative, Intrepid Studios is also working on the problem using Unreal Engine 5, the technological successor to UE4. 

Meanwhile, CIG is stuck using a customized version of CryEngine, which gaming companies have abandoned in favor of UE5. Perhaps for single-player games like Squadron 42 the Star Engine will work wonderfully. But as for massively multi-player games, CIG may have chosen to follow a technological dead end.