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Is this cereal as delicious as I think it is?
One thing that I'm sure many of the pre-orderers are looking forward to in Age of Conan is the siege warfare. While it is blatantly obvious that on March 21st, there will probably not be any guilds that have a gigantorous fortress that dominates any smaller guild that happens to settle nearby, I have a question, that has probably been asked before.
Point A to Point B. Point A being the beginning of the single-player mode as soon as you finish creating your character to Point B, being in position where you are trying to take over an enemy guild's fortress. I know FunCom has not laid out a step-by-step process on how to get from Point A to Point B, but I'm sure that we can infer at least some of the route, so here is what I know so far.
You make a character, go through the single-player mode, find a guild to join, your guild attacks another guild, and Eureka, you're now at Point B?
I've wasted much time on the introduction to my question, I apologize. Here it is: When I finish up the single-player part of the game, will it really be that easy to get to Point B? Will it be as simple as finding a guild and launching yourself into the fray? If I still have the basic weapon and armor items, will I be able to actually contribute at all in a battle? As soon as I step in will I be able to kill off some of the enemy NPC mercenaries?
To simplify this, I am asking if I will need to invest some of my time into acquiring better armor and better weapons so I can do more good on the battlefield? I know the guild has buildings that require resources to improve the weapons of our NPC fighters, but does it improve ours as well?
Don't get me wrong, I am hoping that I will actually have to dedicate much of my time to just being able to enjoy that sensation of being in a large-scale battle. Thanks for reading, and try not to be too harsh, especially since I'm sure some of the questions I have asked are things that will have to discovered on release. 
Comments
You're basically asking:
"Do I have to grind PvE for months before I can do siege PvP that I actually bought the game for?"
I don't know really... It depends on the difference in power between starter and end-game characters as well as the average levelling speed. From what I know of the game (80 levels... PvE raids...) the answer that suggests itself may not be that pleasant to hear. I might be wrong however. Anyone has any info?
Well if your cerial is made up of decapitated heads, blood and gore and NIPPLES! then yes, yes it is.
Now onto your other questions.
I doubt there will be NPC mercinaries in AoC, they were talking about making an option to have guildless people sign up as mercs and go and fight on behaf of the guild that hired them.
According to Funcom the game will have PvE leves as well as PVP levels. Each activity will provide equipment suited for it's purpose. The more of one you do the more equipment you'll get that will give you an easyer time with it.
My belief is that for the first month or so there will not be any significant keep warfare since the majority of people will not achieve max level or have the resources necessary to support such endevors. I'm sure there will be some other forms of pvp where peole fight over resources and whatnot but the keep battles will IMO come a bit later. All of this is more or less educated guessing on my part since like you I only know what I've read. Like you said, some things will just have to wait till the game comes out.
EDIT: I'm not sure if you will be able to level from PVP alone but I'm hoping you can. There are if I remember correctly 20 pvp levels that you can work through so it should provide a compeling reason to go killing. Yes there are PVE levels as well but the way I play I do both pve and pvp. More so the pvp but every so often I need a change of pace and scenary so I won't mind that much.
No required quests! And if I decide I want to be an assassin-cartographer-dancer-pastry chef who lives only to stalk and kill interior decorators, then that's who I want to be, even if it takes me four years to max all the skills and everyone else thinks I'm freaking nuts. -Madimorga-
And not sure if the OP realises its May 20th launch :P
I do you noobsauce.
I was implying that no guild is going to be able to have "gigantorous fortress" within a mere day after the release. As for the March part, it was a typo, I meant May.
And thanks Illius, that helps.
I think he was referring to the "March 21st" in your OP.
There will be a few different levels / tiers at which your PvE "Player City" can attain. You have to have one in order to be able to build a PvP "Battle Keep" city. The better your PvE City the better for your guild as with resources to for fortification. You can start building stuff at Level 40 as an Architect, so its going to be a while before a PvE Player City is build up in order to stake a claim in the Border Kingdoms (PvP Keep area).
I think it will take atleast a day or more at top to get a house or so for the Guild City (which later gets attacked by another guild). Every guild member have to find alot of wood and stone ect.ect to build anything. And I think I have heard that there will be some keeps a little here and there, that a guild can take over, wich another guild can attack. if the attackers are succesful, they get the ownership of that keep til the next guild tries to take it. and if the deffenders are succesful, they keep the keep, and it will take some time until it can be attacked again. think its the same when attackers gets it.
correct me if I´m totaly off on this information, I got a faint memory of this. but can also be something my head made up to trick myself. ^^
Thanks again.