War of the Roses, Black Desert Online

The war of the roses takes place across Kamasylvia and O’dyllita. This is truly a large expanse of land so adventurers will be free to utilize their dream/mythical horses to cover more ground quickly. There will be a main castle representing each territory – kamasylvia castle and o’dyllita castle. The castles will be the starting points for all warfare. While conquest wars can be defined as a contest between guilds, we wanted war of the roses to be more of a faction-vs-faction type of warfare. Not that we’re trying to draw permanent lines of division anytime soon. But only during wartime, we wanted adventurers to be truly immersed in the mindset of warring factions.

The conditions for the victory are quite simple. There will be one NPC Commander stationed in each castle. Each faction will be storming the other castle to defeat its respective NPC Commander. Whoever defeats the general first seizes victory and is bestowed with the rose crown.

How to Participate.

You can either opt to join with your guild as the “Leading Guild” of a faction, or individually like a mercenary-for-hire in the “Third Legion.”

The Leading Guild are the main representative guilds of each faction. Guilds who have won a Node War of at least Tiers 4-5 once can apply instantly, and the final designation is dependent on a points system.

Each time a guild wins a Node or Conquest War, They’ll now earn “Leader points”. When multiple guilds apply to be a Leader guild, the guild with the most points will be given priority. Do note that you can also apply as an Alliance.

Next up, we have the Third Legion.
The Third Legion compliments and is allied to the Leading Guild. Even with zero experience in Node or Conquest Wars, as long as your combined AP and DP gear score is at least 680 you can apply for the Third Legion. Gear score are settled on 680 since this content has no stat limits and its necessary there be minimum requirements to participate. When individual adventurers apply for the third legion, their participation will be determined randomly. Having a higher gear score doesn’t increase your chances, so everyone has the same chance of participating in the war of the roses.

The total number of members per faction consists of 100 Leading Guild members and 200 Third legion members. That’s a combined total of 300 members per faction. In other words, the war of the roses will see up to 300 vs 300 scale battles.

There will also be those designated as Third Legion Reserves. If a certain faction doesn’t fill up the maximum allowed 300 member limit, Those in the reserves will automatically be drafted and gain a participation chance. Do note that the reserves are unavailable for pre-season and only drafted from during the regular season.

Precautions when participating in the War of the Roses.

• When participating in the War of the Roses as a leader guild, all guild/alliance members, including apprentice guild members, can participate, regardless of guild position. 
• You can join a battlefield hero in a guild/alliance selected as the leader guild (command guild) in the War of the Roses until the start of the War of the Roses. Once the War of the Roses begins, you cannot join as a battlefield hero until it ends.
• As before, up to 5 battlefield heroes can join. 
• If you join a guild/federation selected as the leader guild in the War of the Roses as a battlefield hero, you cannot apply to participate as the 3rd Legion.
• When applying to participate in the War of the Roses as the 3rd Legion, you cannot join as a battlefield hero of the guild/alliance selected as the leader guild.
• If you are selected as a leader guild/federation among the guilds/federations that applied to participate in the War of the Roses as a leader guild, guild members cannot join, leave, or be expelled from the time of selection until the end of the War of the Roses.
• If you have not received the participation reward after the end of the War of the Roses, you cannot leave the guild.
• Guilds/federations that have applied to participate in the War of the Roses as a leader guild (command guild) cannot disband the guild or disband the alliance from the time they apply for participation until the end of the War of the Roses.
• Guilds that have applied to participate in the war as a leader guild cannot create an alliance from the time they apply for participation until the end of the War of the Roses.
• However, if you cancel your application for participation before the leader guild of the War of the Roses is confirmed, the guild may be dissolved and the alliance may be created/disbanded.
• When an alliance is created or disbanded, the War of the Roses leader points accumulated in each guild and acquired in Node/Conquest Wars will be reset.

Tactical Map

Upon Joining war of the roses, you’ll find your old world map no longer accessible. Instead, you’ll be able to open the tactical map that lets you keep track of the war as events unfold.

Regular participants will not be able to track the locations of allies or foes through the map. Only your own locations will be visible on the map, with the rest hidden under a fog of war. Moving about the map will help remove some of the fog. However, the adventurer designated as the captain mentioned before will be able to track ally locations and share their field of vision. Thus the captain can utilize the tactical map to see the entire battlefield in one picture.

The captain also can issue an absolute order. Available in a variety of commands, to lead their faction to victory. Each captain can select a platoon of the Third Legion on the tactical map to assign certain missions, or drag certain personnel on the map to issue a move to certain location command.

Since other participants won’t have a clear view of the map, the captain’s orders will help guide the rest of the faction to contribute to the war. Successfully completing a mission will net you a reward in the form of some currency. Whether you’ll motivate the Third Legion with greater rewards is something the captain can choose to carry out as well.

From the Third Legion’s perspective, you can choose to either do your own thing or carry out various tasks such as the missions issued by the captain. If the captain says “Attack!” you attack, if they issue a “Move!” command, you move, if their order is “defend!”, you defend. Think of it as the role of an elite soldier of the captain.

This is the captain’s point of view, As you can see, all allied locations are marked on the tactical map. If enemies are caught in your allies field of vision, they too are temporarily marked on your map.

There will be a designated window for platoons you can open to keep track of all them at once. The captain is not responsible for keeping track of them all, as any individual participant can invite or kick any platoon member. The captain can also designate a platoon’s name, especially one appropriate for their assigned task.

Some of the Third Legion members appear to be lost. Select them, then RMB to issue the “Move!” order like this, activating navigation to the designated location. Also, the captain can set a tactical “ping” visible to all allies which can be utilized in a variety of ways.

Next, we have missions. As of now, you can select a platoon, select an objective, and assign a mission. You can also select a certain sanctum to assign missions to.

Selecting a certain sanctum immediately activates the UI. You can select either individual or multiple platoons to assign a mission to at once. Platoons who are tasked with a mission will also see it on their respective screens.

We also made character names display differently for all the war of the roses participants. Only your faction, your rank, and your family name will be displayed. Excluding captain and lieutenant, the rank of all Leading Guild members and Third Legion members. Will be subject to change live, mid-battle, based on their exploits in the war. We felt this would serve as a motivation of sorts.

To sum it up, the captain can steer the course of battle as they see fit in order to achieve tactical victory. Other participants will need to trust in their captain, faithfully carrying out orders like the faction’s elite soldier. In this mock battlefield.

A real-time strategy game not involving AI but actually adventurers being instructed and led to victory. At the same time, all of this could be overwhelming for the captain, So there can also be up to 3 lieutenants per faction.

Sanctums

If we take a look at the overall map, connected to each faction’s castle are 20 or so sanctums “Temporary Nodes.” if you will. Each of these sanctums host boss like NPC, Which, when defeated, grants conquest of the specific sanctum. Sanctums serve as respawn locations, and , once conquered, will grant every participant in your faction a variety of passive buff effects. The passive effect for each sanctum will be unique, and its buff will be maintained as long as a sanctum remains occupied by your faction.

You can’t go conquering sanctums located in the middle of nowhere. Like nodes, there will be a preceding sanctums that connects there which you will need to conquer first. Thus, you will need to expand from your faction’s castle one connected sanctum at a time. If one faction grows too strong, the other faction can turn the tide of battle by storming a sanctum connected in the center of their territory.

For example, if one faction is benefiting from the buff of connected sanctums A-B-C-D-E, And the rival faction occupies sanctum A, the other faction will lose all buffs from sanctums B to E. therefore, your faction will need to decide on whether to continue focusing on occupying sanctums, or determine the opportune moment to storm the enemy faction’s castle and take down the NPC Commander.

Besides the normal sanctums, you can also discover a statue resembling Gyfin Rhasia, referred to as the “Spirit’s Altar.”. This Altar stands at the center between the two factions and requires a unique method of occupation that differs from the other sanctums. To occupy the sanctum, you need to fill the statue with a certain amount of black spirit’s rage. Once you activate the Spirit’s Altar, You gain access to the war of the roses exclusive siege weapon and receive a special effect that enhances your resistance to monsters. This buff provides an advantage when engaging in battles while advancing towards sanctums or castles. And the exclusive siege weapon can be obtained not only through the spirit’s altar. You can also make immediate use of the siege weapons placed throughout the world.

Moving on, to the south of the battlefield, There is a vast sea where our captains can truly shine. In naval battles, there are no strategic strongholds like sanctums. Instead, it’s all about intense combat. If you win these fights, you’ll gain the ability to freely use the wharf of each castle. This opens up a sea route to infiltrate enemy territory.

Faction Skills

In addition to the sanctum buffs, there are also “faction skills” captains can use. These exclusive skills are reserved for the captains and wield formidable power that can decide the outcome of the battle. You can easily view the faction skills from the tactical map. It can expand your vision to see a specific area more clearly, or obstruct the enemy’s sight for a designated duration. There is also a skill that enables you to teleport a platoon to a chosen sanctum, as well as the ability to deploy a griffon or Khalk monster to a designated location causing devastation in the area. Those skills demand careful strategic planning because their immense power can affect the war situation.

To sum it up, both factions aim to conquer the sanctums to gain buffs. And the final goal is to defeat the enemy faction’s commander NPC by employing the captain’s strategic tactics.

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