ArcheAge, Ultima Online's rebirth?

[LateX'Dog]

The developers promise a community like that of Ultima Online, PvE comparable to World of Warcraft and PvP taken from Lineage 2. The game itself is developed as a “sandbox” – where the player is completely free to chose what to do and how to live. Expanding on this, characters won't be subject to strict limitations on growth, such as is the case in other MMOs.

The game's designers want players to have a big impact on the world; each server will be unique due to players developing their world’s history and exploring the map in different directions. There are 8 races in the game, 5 of which are said to be unique to ArcheAge.

Features

Huge world map
Dynamic environment
Mass PvP (100+ people)
Player housing (A possibility to build your own houses and towns!)
Crafting & production
Adjustable interface
Mounts (eg. horses)
Naval warfare
Persistent World

3 races in ArcheAge so far; Nuian, Ferre, and Elf. There will be a total of two alliances and eight races in ArcheAge but the announcement schedule for the next ones are not decided yet. The two alliances are Nuian and Hariharan. The Nuian alliance (led by the Nuian race, a human race in the Western continent), and Hariharan alliance (led by the Hariharan race, a human race in the Eastern continent) are in a hostile state when the game starts. However, we will design it so that certain races of Nuian alliance can be separated out and become friendly or neutral with Hariharan Alliance, depending on players' behavior. PvP between players from the same alliance will be allowed in certain zones or situations, but will be regarded as a crime and players will be put on trial.

There are 10 abilities in ArcheAge and each player can combine 3 out of 10. That makes 120 unique classes. In the current class system, even if you are in the same class, players can choose the skills they want to learn, and I think this would give originality to each character. If certain skills are too strong, then players will only make the classes that can use that skill. To avoid such situations, we are considering making skills that are not too strong, but can give characteristics to the class. For instance, for the Bard class, there can be a skill that can sing. I think skills that match the classes' names go well with ArcheAge's features.

The answer is half yes and half no. In ArcheAge, players can attack another player if they wish and can steal crops that the other user raised. Such sandbox features can give fun, but it can create conflict and disputes between players, and might damage the game play. Especially free PvP is favored by some but hated by some others. So in ArcheAge there is the trial and jail system. Players who kill another player will be put under a trial by the other players and be judged whether the activity was reasonable or not.

A huge, detailed game world; Quality graphics; Massive PvP and sieges; interesting quests, which will be based on a big plot rather than regular grind; Raid dungeons; A possibility to build your own houses and towns! Archeage is created as a Sandbox - kind of games, where the player is free to do anything he wants in the game world. There will be a plot of course, but the developers want players to create the most vivid events.

There are 8 races in the world of Archeage: including humans, elves, dwarfs and ferre (Catlike humans). The races are divided to 2 fractions, East and West. A long time ago, all races lived on a single continent, but after a cataclysm, the world got divided. The player enters the game a few thousand years later after the catastrophe. If you follow the quest plot, you will learn the history part by part. To write it and the quests, XLGames hired a famous Korean novelist Jeon Min-Hee. So we can expect a lot from the quest lines.

The most amazing part, is that Archeage is made on CryEngine 2. When you look at high res screenshots, made on high graphic levels, you simply can't believe that THIS will be a MMORPG! The developers already released some video clips showing the physics of the Cry Engine 2. Unfortunately, at this moment, the environment destruction physics are enabled only in instances, while you can still interact with other players in the open world accordingly. If enabled for the whole world, it will open great opportunities for tactics in the genre of MMORPG.

The size of the game world exceeds the size of the world of WoW including all expansions. The interactivity of the world in Archeage is very high. There is a day-night cycle. One should take a torch with him in case he gets caught in a dark place during the night. The developers have promised to implement season cycles. In one of his interviews, Jake Song asked to imagine a lake, created after someone casted a meteor to hit the ground in a battle a week ago. It is possible, that things like this await us in Archeage.

Control of the character is also innovated compared to other games. For example one can fight mounted on his horse, climb walls and trees, ropes and build houses. The trees in Archeage grow independently. They have many stages of growth, and you can see them increase in size in real time. Players can then cut these trees and build a house. You can also plant trees, but its way more fun to cut them down. You can place a scout on the top of a large tree. Then watch your enemies approach and cut the tree down with the scout!

Its pretty interesting how the in-game transportation works. There are different types of public and private transport. For example you can ride in a public carriage or on a horse, sail your own boat between islands. The developers don't want to implement ways of teleportation, because that will ruin the feeling of a magnificent world. This can also help solve a problem with top guilds dominating all over the map - it will be way harder to hold castles situated long away apart from each other simultaneously.

Jake Song has a nice opinion about the economy system. As far as you can judge from his words, there won't be auctions in Archeage. However everything can be bought and sold - from houses to crops; from food to weapons, armors and ingredients. This makes the game pretty unique. There are people, who want to get known not by their skills in PvP, or their gear, but by their wealthiness and business connections. You can even sell the world map! This means, that you draw the world map yourself: as you travel, you discover new lands, and mark different townships, created by players, interesting places. As there is no mini-map in ArcheAge, maps will be needed. You will have a set of tools to help you make markings on your map. This aspect of Archeage gives a lot of opportunities.

10 skill schools form up the class system in ArcheAge:

School of Combat Consists of different melee combat skills. Powerful blows, buffs that increase characteristics, aoe skills and stuns. This school is oriented on warriors.

School of Witchcraft Consists of many different types of control. You can slow your enemy or chain him to the ground. This school allows to cast damage over time spells and summon minions. Looks like THE magic PvP school.

School of Stuttering has many different abilities, that help the character survive. Those are skills that increase HP of the player, that stop the enemies from casting, that aggro monsters. So, evidently, this is the tanking school.

School of Will consists of skills that increase the characters mobility. Teleportations, magic resists, silences, hp to mana spells. Looks like a neutral magic school, that can be used for many purposes. It seems less aggressive than Witchcraft.

School of Death is interesting thanks to the amount of assault spells. There is also an AoE skill along with a possibility to summon a wraith

School of Wild is unique. This is the only school that fits an archer. There are many different abilities you use from a large distance, a way to tame animals, and to increase the speed of your character.

School of Magic is the "classic" magic school. Fireballs, meteors, ice arrows, magic shields etc. It seems it will be needed for raids mostly.

School of Assassination is an analogue to the Rogue class from World of Warcraft. For example the ability Raided resembles to "Shadowstep" from WoW. Different nuke abilities, invisibility and all sorts of tricks that help survive.

School of Romance has a big list of buffs. Every single ability from this school magnifies the character and his companions. Maybe there will be more opportunities for this school in the future.

School of Love ends this list, with a large variety of heals. However some skills can damage your opponents. For example "Light and darkness" heals your group members and damages your enemies.

We should let you know immediately, that most schools don't have a clear focus. The majority of schools have similar abilities. This will greatly facilitate the selection of the characters build. You can pick only 3 schools out of 10. This way there is an overall amount of 120 combinatins. Of course not all combinations would be in demand, for example when you cross a mage a tank and an archer, you won't get something extraordinary. You can switch between these schools in-game. The process can be done in the city for a fee. You would need to train your new schools from zero, so it will make your character more vulnerable than usual, until the level of the new school meets the level of all other schools. Your character becomes stronger each time he levels up, however, not only your character will have levels, also your abilities, schools and your mount. Apart from independent choice of schools, you will be offered few premade classes. This will be very useful for beginners.

The combat system works by target. The player has a target, and he will hit it, heal it or control it. However, there still are aoe abilities, that are used on the ground. The developers have announced, that the game's engine already holds a battle of 100 players with no lags. I can't even imagine how beautiful would the sieges be in Archeage. We don't know yet, how will the clan wars work, but we know, that they would be able to create kingdoms. But there is a small problem. On the moment of the release, there will be enough housing space for only 50% of players, as far as XLGames estimated. But thats just a reason to fight for, and is more of a benefit than a minus. By the way, you can hire NPC's for your house, so that they sell different stuff or guard it.

Not much information about PvE however, but if they want the best from each MMORPG, we can suppose, that there would be dungeons with many interesting bosses. Jake Song repeated many times, that he doesn't like instanced dungeons, and that he likes a freedom of action. So a question stands - will small guilds survive in Archeage? If you would need to fight with other players for each raid boss, it would be very hard for small PvE guilds.

The developers regularly publish answers to the questions of players on the official website of the game (Archeage.com). XLGames doesn't want to disappoint players, so they do not talk a lot about aspects of the game, which are still in development. However, many information is wandering around the Internet about Archeage, so you can form up your own point of view on this game, if you read our website as an example. The only thing that Jake Song said straight - is that he wants to make a world like in Ultima Online - where players can create their world and make history. The developers of Archeage listen to the player's opinions very closely. Jake Song underlined that XLGames won't do whatever the player says, but they will take into account the opinion of the players and implement the most interesting ideas.

I'm still heavily sceptical about this MMO and some of videos i've seen are making me wonder about it.

 

[LateX'Dog]

Some closed beta testing reviews:

We managed to do everything this week that an ArcheAge player is able to do : plant a tree, build a house, construct a ship and cut off some severe heads! We have also had time to witness most of the changes from the other beta tests. So what has changed between the 2nd and the 3rd CBT?

First of all, we see that the interface has been completely reworked. The overall view of the client has changed - other cut-scenes, other menus, other navigation. The first thing you notice when you log-on to ArcheAge is a modified version of the character creation. It is way more convenient and logical now: The color of the race determines its fraction - blue for Nuia citizens (West continent) and red for Harihara citizens (East).

After you have selected your race, you are prompted to change the appearance of your character: the face, haircut, color of the skin and the hair, and also various unique markings, such as scars and tattoos. About scars and tattoos - they work as layers, and you can rotate, move and resize them freely. It creates a mass of different variations of the same scar and tattoo.

We have also liked the surprise that XLGames left us in this menu - you could create a copy of Joker from the "Dark Knight" film. The interesting part, is that the mask does not consist of one single layer, but you apply white dye to your face first, and the smudges of mascara and lipstick afterwards. The possibilities of character customization with tattoos, paint, and scars are amazing.

As you select a skill school, you get to see a small animation, that will help you understand the focus of this school. For example, if you have selected a magic school, the character will use some spectacular spell, and if you choose a melee fighter school, your character will start to diligently swing his weapons.

Races begin in the same zones: Nuians on the Solzreed Peninsula, Elves in the Gweonid forest. The Ferres start on the Eastern continent, in a zone named the Falconry plateau. The cut-scenes for different races were deleted from the game however.

The interface was changed significantly too - it became intuitive. The developers decided to add a mini-map along with the time of day information on the top right corner of the screen. We certainly did not appreciate that, since we always thought that the more mysteries in the world - the better.

The craft menu was improved, and now we know the exact amount of jobs available in the 3rd CBT. There are 14 crafting professions (Potion-brewing, blacksmithing, cooking, etc.), but we will discuss them in our other articles.

The abilities menu has also become more comfortable and showed us many new skills and passive abilities. The game map was also completely redrawn, but the player still couldn't draw or mark anything on it. In general, the interface has become much more convenient and easy to manage.

You can now see the position of the transport on the map - the carts are marked with special icons. Actually, the carts were changed a lot since the 2nd CBT. Instead of carriages without horses, they became some kind of mechanical stagecoaches, which are powered by the front axle (by the way, they now have a slightly lower speed than a mounted player, which is, of course, more realistic).

You could also acquire teleportation books, which would allow you to navigate to any destination on the map. And last but not least is the airship, which floats over the locations, and stops each 5 minutes to allow people to mount and dismount. It is powered by gas balloons, which rotate the blades that push the airship forward.

The locations were also changed - not only new zones were introduced, but some old ones were closed too. For example we could not get to the Two Crowns, where stands the beautiful port city Ezna, neither to the Cross Plains, which are filled with volcanoes. The road from Solzreed Peninsula to the Garandol Plains is now littered with stones. The collapse of rocks hints the players that it is too early to go there (the monsters are too strong for the natives of Solzreed Peninsula).

But this doesn't prevent stubborn or high level players to bypass the road through a hill on the left, or run along the coast. To get to there by road, you need to go northwest first and visit a new crossroad location (between the Nuian, Elf starting zones and the Garandol Plains), and follow the road south to get to the Garandol Plains, which hide a lot of dangers.

By the way, about the dangers - the grind in ArcheAge is pretty interesting. Two monsters create a nasty problem for the player, and he will sweat trying to kill them. Three monsters without a proper preparation and kite (they allow to kite themselves with impunity yet), they are simply impossible to kill. So, if you suddenly discover yourself at the mercy of three evil monsters, it is recommended to immediately run for cover.

The character abilities were also quite interesting. The new combo system allows your spells to react with each other to create various effects, which opens plenty of room for experimentation. There might be several combo options for each spell.

The combos don't work effectively all the time, and it is not a single option of character behavior. To effectively use your spells and abilities, you will have to think before casting and use spells, which are not part of a combo too.

Just because of this system, many people will have a unique style of game-play, since there won't be any certain pattern of ability usage - each person will prefer his own combos and will have his own tactics, which will allow to use his character most effectively. You can, for example, lift a character in a water bubble, and then use a spell with a knock-back effect: it will cause the target to fly back even more than usual, because he is high in the air.

We were able to complete our original plan and achieve level 20 for most of our characters. We have had a ranger, 2 mages, a warrior and a priest in our group. It is in fact a perfect set to visit a dungeon. So we have accessed the dungeon and explored it pretty well.

We really liked the game physics, which were available for use in this instance, as well as the structure of the dungeon. It was an enormous pit filled with angry dwarfs and golems. Each room of the dungeon connected to each other in a very bizarre way, so reckless players could wander for hours without finding a way out. In fact, we aren't even sure that we have visited all the corners of the instance, but we have tried.

We were very upset with world PvP, because only one zone was available for it on the west continent (and the whole sea with islands was free PvP too) - Marionople. This location was pretty useless, since it lead nowhere in this beta test, and there were few resources.

Therefore we have not participated in PvP fights until the last two days. But we liked the fact that skilled, good geared players can stand and fight against a crowd of players. We have been unlucky to attack a player without preparation ourselves. He was only 5 levels bigger, but there were 5 of us. So we were destroyed, after a long fight. He seemed to use food for buffs, and potions for hp and mp recovery, which shows us that the cooking and potion-brewing professions will be useful. In this game, it is your ability to play, that matters, not a mindless zerg.

The game depends on physics very much. Since each character uses the physics in some way, this is an important part of the game-play. Of course you could see knock-backs in other MMORPG's, but there is a huge difference between an animation, and a real physics model of the character. For example, if you knock-back in World of Warcraft, you will always get the same result, which is not influenced by the surrounding environment. It will bring the character down for a certain amount of time, which will always be the same.

In ArcheAge it is different. If the character has a wall behind him, then he will stand on his legs way faster, than if he gets knocked down a hill. In that case, he will fall on to an inclined surface and will roll down the hill. Different variants of the same skill can be achieved thanks to CryEngine physics.

Besides that, the physics influence on other factors: Your characters movement slows down, as he enters the water - the higher the water level is in relation with his feet, the slower he runs, until he starts swimming. If you step onto a very steep surface, your character will fall on his ass and slide down.

We are very happy that the character stands realistically. There is no such thing such as having one foot in the air, while the other one stands on a small mound in ArcheAge. The character will place one of its feet on the stairs, and leave the second one on the ground, if it's possible.

The character models do exist in the game as well, so your character can get pushed by players, and they can not pass through you. You can block entrances with your friends, and there will be nothing other players can do apart from paying you money to pass, or trying to knock you around with control spells. We have once stood on a bridge and traded materials with some other guy, and he got hit with a passing by cart and dragged away. Unfortunately, there are no animations for that yet, the characters just slide, so we hope that is on their must do list!

We have also liked the crafting system - it is simply wonderful. The labor points coupled with profession advancement provide excellent conditions for the economy flow. In addition, each character can use any profession without discretion.

No-one restricts your choice, so you can level up all the professions at the same time. However this way will not be sufficient at all, since your labor points are limited. So it would be better to focus on few chosen professions, and keep the golden middle. The character can level up through the labor points too, since he gets real experience from using them.

We are now sure on 100%, that ArcheAge is a team-play game. It will be very hard to play it alone, since everything is expensive and takes a lot of time to achieve. But then, these are online games not for nothing - we have had a lot of pleasure playing ArcheAge in a group of 5 players.

For example, you can not sail the ship effectively without a good team - we were destroyed several times precisely due to lack of coordination. Once we've built the ship, we have immediately engaged into a battle with some vessel. We have left him a low amount of HP, but then we were ambushed by a second ship from the other flank, and we started to panic. It took us too long to choose a target, and gather up at a chosen side of the ship. By the time we have decided and started firing at the ship with the lower amount of HP, an enemy climbed aboard.

That Ferre began to cut our team down one by one, while we were busy standing at the cannons. Not only he managed to kill 4 people with his surprise attack, but he kept his boat safe, while our ship was destroyed by attacks from the second boat. The interesting part in this situation, is that it was three of them against five of us.

The quests in ArcheAge are not remarkable so far. Some of them are accompanied by cut-scenes which involve your character. It looks very beautiful on CryEngine 3 and makes a great addition to the game-play. The quests vary between each other in ArcheAge, but they are still pretty standard and linear. Interesting, that you can hand in some quests under/overworked - to get inferior or superior rewards. We would like to see ramifications of the quest plots. This seems to be the only arguable point of ArcheAges innovative game-play, when compared to other modern MMOs.

You can do many things in ArcheAge, apart from exping: you need to use your labor points each day, do a few quests, buy or cook food (since it gives buffs), brew potions, since monsters are quite dangerous, and your foes are always there to back-stab you; craft some armor, to be not ashamed to show up in a city, build your house, manage your garden, take care of your plants; get money and go traveling.

Your head is full of all sorts of options when you play ArcheAge: you want to touch, feel and taste everything. This creates a high level of immersion in the game-play!

There is RvR in ArcheAge at this stage. Ferre were represented as a separate fraction, and you could not interact with them. If you go to the opposing continent, most of the NPC's will be hostile to you. You do not have to kill the opposing faction in ArcheAge, you can chat with them, which means that you can come to an agreement with them. However, we all know, that once there is a large amount of players, they start acting like a mindless zerg, so we haven't liked this aspect. It robs the players of their freedom of choice of the side of conflict, and has a negative impact on the intercontinental trade. (Which is already under question of existance).

However there is another good news for the hardcore players - your horse can be killed in ArcheAge. If it was killed in a battle, then you can ressurect it at a nearest stable for a price. The higher the level of the horse - the more you pay. Until you get to stables, you will have to walk on your two, or ask someone to give you a ride.

This is actually very important, because myself, I have lost the horse on the opposing continent, and it would take me an hour to get to the nearest friendly stable to ressurect it. So, my friend has rescued me, and took me there. The horse has its own level, stats and can be equipped. The higher the level of the horse - the more skills it gets. Ships can also be destroyed, by the way, but they can be summoned again in 10 minutes after the destruction.

Tester 2

I was lucky enough to be given access to the Korean Closed Beta Test 3 of ArcheAge, which is going on still today and tomorrow, but being in the NA I found myself waking up at three this morning to make sure I was logging in at the right time.

XLGames has been making ArcheAge as a labor of love since 2006, and though I’ve barely scratched the surface so far (due to time constraints and that whole “it’s in Korean thing) I’m starting to believe Jake Song’s got another Lineage on his hands. Yes the times have definitely changed since L1 rocked the Asian market and found a considerable following in the US and abroad.

But ArcheAge uses the CryEngine well and seems to be a healthy blend of both theme-park MMO questing and sandbox crafting. Now bear in mind that I’ve only tip-toed my way to level five, which is hardly long enough to gauge the full game, and also remember that I was playing the Korean client and faced a significant language barrier.

Even so I found ArcheAge to be very familiar and easy to pick up, but containing plenty of depth that I was left wanting an English translation posthaste.

ArcheAge seems like a pretty standard Fantasy setting, with your basic MMO controls. It’s plain to see that the team knows their audience, and doesn’t want to scare them off with something too alien. That said, I found the UI and the controls both responsive and easy to delve into even with the language barrier. Most games that allow click to move controls usually have terrible WASD controls, but I’m pleased to report that it’s not the case here. But let’s back up a bit.

Character creation is standard fare, from picking a race (I stuck with the Nuians/Humans because cat people and elves just aren’t my thing) to picking hair, colors, and facial markings. Right now at least there’s no super in-depth character modeling to be done, which is a bit saddening. In beta at least, everyone pretty much looks the same unless you’re one of the few who actually chooses the Heath Ledger as the joker face make-up for your character (I’m not kidding). I suspect a lot of the face options are just placeholders, or I hope so.

The real icing for character creation isn’t in the looks; it’s in the class system. Basically ArcheAge is broken down into ten categories of Abilities. As a player you’ll select three at character creation which will determine what kind of class you are. For an example a standard “Warrior” is composed of the abilities Fight, Adamant, and Will. Meanwhile a Priest would have Will, Romance, and Love.

You can pick from pre-determined mixes like this or you can mix any three to create your own unique class. Each set of abilities determines what skills you’ll have access to, so it’s entirely feasible to make a class that’s part warrior, part healer, and part mage. I can’t tell from my few hours of play, but it seems like any combination would be viable, though obviously some would be better suited to certain roles.

Once in-game it becomes immediately apparent that the tried and true quest design of ?’s and !’s is alive and well in ArcheAge. This might turn off some, but I suspect that it was done again with the idea of giving players something familiar that’s proven to work. You’ll collect things, kill things, deliver this and talk to this person. It’s all very standard.

But there’s also quests which trigger well animated cinematics, and I’m pretty sad that I don’t understand a lick of Korean because they’re fully voiced. One was pretty cute in that I came upon a child who was climbing a tree far too tall for her. She fell, I talked with her, and was convinced by her cuteness to climb it myself and grab whatever glowing thing she was clamoring for.

Another had me conversing with a ghost about his past life and the betrayal that caused him to lose everything. He even pointed his murderer’s face out to me, and guess what I got to do? Kill that SOB for some healthy comeuppance.

Not all quests are triggered by talking to NPCs as you might expect. It seems that some come to you just by exploring an area. A little dialog box will pop over your character’s head and you’ll be prompted with a new quest, like thinning a herd of wild animals that may be plaguing a town or something along those lines.

One of the more interesting aspects ArcheAge, if not its biggest selling point, I was only able to barely delve into: the crafting. Basically it looks as though players will be able to truly change the landscape of the world, both by cutting down trees, planting new ones, picking away at rocks, building houses, and even massive ships to sail on the oceans.

In this way, it seems like ArcheAge is really blending the traditional quest-based MMO with the free-form player-run worlds we’ve been craving. I wish I could tell you more, but I did little else besides cut down trees and the like. You can read some basics on the game’s official English site.

There’s a whole lot of stuff that goes into building houses and the like, and because of a sort of “crafting mana” called Labor Power players will have to work together to accomplish big goals, making crafting a truly social thing. Of course, you could always whore yourself out and ask to be paid for your work, and there’s nothing wrong with that… unless it’s a guildie you should be helping for free.

Then there’s the horses. Very few MMOs give you a horse early on, and even fewer allow you to use it for anything but running places. ArcheAge does both. Your horse has levels, gains new skills, and can be equipped. It also has health, can be used in combat to boot enemies, you can swipe down at people from it and cast spells on its back, and oh yeah… it can die too. But fear not, you just visit a local stable and resurrect the poor beast for a fee.

Not enough games give this must attention to mounts, and I’m glad to see that players will be able to become attached to their transportation as well as ride into battle upon them. One other person can even hitch a ride with you on your horse, which is pretty handy at times when you find someone who might have killed theirs and you feel like being a good Samaritan.

There are a few important things that I took away from ArcheAge’s CBT3. The primary one is that I can’t wait for an English release, because I’d really like to see it in action on more familiar terms. But I also now know that the game looks great, runs well (despite heavy latency being so far from the servers), and has a considerable amount of depth to pour into.

The world seems massive, and I was very glad to have a horse, and to see that mountains and the like can be climbed often so there are no real artificial barriers to exploration. I was also pleased to see trees fall after I cut them, watch players plant new trees, and see rocks crumble when I mined them.

I think that there will be a few folks who are disappointed by the standard quest-based PvE, but hopefully the crafting and other aspects will shine through. The PvP is still up in the air, as I got nowhere near that part of the game in my short time, but if this game is from the man behind Lineage I expect we’re in for a treat.

This doesn’t appear to be your typical Asian MMO which won’t appeal to Western audiences. And while I’m not prepared to call it “The Next Big Thing”, MMORPG fans have ample reason to look forward to this one. I just hope the same level of quality I saw in the first few levels carries on into the whole game.

 

[LateX'Dog]

Always nice to see devs trying to think a bit outside the box and give a nod to the legendary MMOs of old...however...



and..



There being levels and quests means its not going to be a rebirth of UO

Well if i read the information right, levels are not an xp thing as much as there a spells, skill, mount skill level thing.

So when he says level 10 for example, he might mean level 10 for his spells and skills.

 

[LateX'Dog]

Written an article detailing what to expect from AA at release, to maybe calm any hype or unrealistic expectations. "Ultima Online's rebirth" being one

link

The thread title was a question and not a statement. I guess if you worked for a better gaming site you'd understand the importance of the question mark. .

If this game makes it to Europe and to the UK i bet you it will be under the evil free to play model that ruins so many games and there player base.

 

[LateX'Dog]

If you're going to slap someone around over their grammar, don't then go and make the mistake of mixing up 'their' and 'there'

Amen.

Hey i wasn't trying to correct his grammar, mine is appalling i know. Just merely pointing out i was asking a question rather then making a statement.

Geez

 

[LateX'Dog]

Why?

F2P attracts the wrong crowd, it opens up the player base to the younger community which in turns lowers the tone of the entire game.

The developers then start aiming development around making as much money as possible instead of creating content the gamers want.

The pay to play model forces the younger generation to jump through hoops to play, provides blocks for people too young to play and also forces the developers to be held up to a higher standard.

In the end if your paying £10 a month for a game, you want content that is up to the standard, if you are not paying a monthly fee, who cares? You can pick up the game when ever and if the content is lacking, you can just drop it.

It removes the responsibility in game development and the same can be said about removing the holy trinity from gaming, with no responsibility who can be held accountable for anything?

 

[LateX'Dog]

Because a monthly sub kept the younger generation away from WoW?




Oh wait it didn't

I never said entirely, it just reduces the numbers substantially.

If a 10 year old wants to play WoW, he had to get his parents permission to not only buy the game, but to make the monthly commitment.

 

[LateX'Dog]

Wow proved that a monthly sub is no barrier to playing regardless of age though. To think otherwise is redundent, Xbox live is also proof of age doesn't matter when paying for a sub.

It does provide a barrier, i know a lot of parents who's kids want to play WoW but they wont let them.

So I'm sorry but what you said while only marginally true, is in fact not the case.

A game just has to be designed to be f2p or box cost and then free to play (not p2w) out the door. GW2 I think got this part perfect, aslong as what you are buying doesn't equate to character power gains I don't see any problem with cash shops.

GW2 would definitely not be surviving this long with the content it has if it was P2P. The reason it is still here is down to it being F2P.

There content is horrific, there is nothing to do at max level and the "raids" they offered are bugged since release. The WvWvW is plagued with exploits and imbalance and generally is a shining example of why a F2P model is so crap.

Look at SWTOR, they where P2P and when there customers started complaining about certain features, they where added like looking for group. Yet GW2 still to this day hasn't fixed most of the raiding bugs.

WoW at the beginning had very few raids, content was being consumed faster then they could produce it, so the player base complained and in the end they created more content and longer lasting content.

Free to play is and always will be in the benefit of the publisher and not the consumer.

Quote from MMORPG

Unfortunately, it’s not all peaches with free-to-play. Where MMO developers have focused on addictive qualities to keep gamers playing subscription based games (often to the games’ detriment) in order to maintain those subscriptions, strictly free-to-play games tend to over-integrate their item shops into the game to the point where it becomes obtrusive, if not outright obnoxious. There are, of course, some exceptions to this rule, but the stigma these games have earned, especially the familiar “Pay-to-Win” moniker, isn’t entirely exaggerated.

It’s fine if you want to sell convenience items and the like in order to make up for not having a subscription. However, when you set the XP/currency earning curve such that it feels like purchasing an XP booster is necessary if you want to avoid grinding your eyes out to keep up with other players, at that point I’d rather drop my $15.

Out of interest, what f2p titles do you think chased the $ rather than creating a fun gameplay experiance?

GW2 - Black Lion Trading Key and the booster packs.

SWTOR (Even though it was P2P) - There entire shop

Runes of magic or what ever it was called, where you had to pay £ for being able to resurrect.

To name but a few, but you are creating a strawman argument, so discussion about the above will end right here.

AA is looking very nice, and more importantly they don't appear to be following the WoW style MMO formula. Trouble is Asain MMO = grind.

And free to play.

Ultimately F2P is a curse/blight upon MMORPG's and sadly doesnt seem to be going away. I just hope some companies still care about the players and want to churn out the content for us and not for the publishers share prices.

 

[LateX'Dog]

To which their parent would coincide to because they were thinking "have my kid playing out with hoodlums until 8pm each night, or in a room, in this house, under my roof. With me having the power to cancel his account if it gets out of hand..."

I think the P2P is successful for that reason alone!

Now we are moving into parenting skills and that is an entirely different subject. Not implying anything with that statement, just to clarify.

Personally when my son is old enough to understand what computer games are, i wont be letting him have free run of the computer.

 

[LateX'Dog]

Endless WoW clones are the biggest blight on MMORPG's, it's no coincidence that the biggest success since WoW has been a game that was different, GW2.

That is subject to HEAVY opinion.

GW2 player base halved within the first month and is now probably less then 1.5million.

Which is roughly the same amount as SWTOR.

Sales wise, i think SWTOR actually is the 2nd largest.

GW2 is far away from being a "success" in the MMO space, other then in its niche market.

 

[LateX'Dog]

Concurrent user numbers had GW2 as the 2nd highest behind WoW. ToR has in no way shape or form 1.5 million subs, hell I don't think the even broke 2million box sales, a figure that GW2 hit in the 1st month, ToR sub numbers were at 1.3million in May last year less, than 500,000 subs now is my guess.

Edit - sub numbers are irrelevant for games without monthly subs!

Until you provide proof, everything you have said it irrelevant.

Spoiler

As you can see, ToR subs peaked around 1.6 - 1.8 million, that would make it more then GW2, considering you provide evidence behind your numbers.

 

[LateX'Dog]

Seems like I overestimated sub numbers for ToR last year(less than a million in July 2012: http://www.computerandvideogames.co...-republic-sinks-to-less-than-1m-subscribers/#

So in this link we have an official EA statement, i'm guessing there is even less subscribers now.

GW2 concurrent users (400k): http://massively.joystiq.com/2012/08/28/guild-wars-2-hits-400k-concurrent-users-before-launch/

ToR concurrent numbers (350k): http://www.videogamer.com/pc/star_w..._republic_has_350k_peak_concurrent_users.html

Unofficial estimate by an Equity firm....

You can't compare launch day figures with ToR's currant figures, compare GW2 figures as of now with ToR's now.

Comparing GW2 launch figures with a post 6 month TOR figures is ridiculous.

2 weeks into GW2 launch - over 2 million boxes: http://massively.joystiq.com/2012/09/13/guild-wars-2-breaks-the-two-million-sales-mark/

3 months into ToR launch - approx 2 million: http://massively.joystiq.com/2012/0...bscription-and-sales-numbers-beats-financial/

This i will gladly grant you

 

[LateX'Dog]

So what's going on with this game then? Anything new?

 

[LateX'Dog]

Shame, i think it would have been pretty big over here.

 

[LateX'Dog]

Trion community manager Evan "Scapes" Berman has announced that ArcheAge's western alpha will expand in the weeks following GDC. In a post on AA's early-adopter fansite ArcheAge Source, Berman explained that pre-launch beta packages will be offered which grant closed beta access, and he confirmed that the fantasy sandbox will feature a free-to-play business model and launch "in the Americas and Europe this year, 2014."

While he didn't address the controversial and game-changing 1.0 patch that developer XLGAMES has already pushed live in Korea, Berman did emphasize ArcheAge's sandbox features. "Both Trion Worlds and XLGAMES want ArcheAge to be a free-to-play sandbox that fits our 'no tricks, no traps' vision and will make development decisions to achieve that goal in Trion's territories."

Finally, Berman said that Trion plans to offer cash shop items that "provide solid value and fun, while earned and crafted items are objectively superior."

http://massively.joystiq.com/2014/0...f2p-archeage-says-earned-and-crafted-items-a/

And i don't care about this game any more after reading this. F2P = cancer.

 

[LateX'Dog]

Games out of the top 10 twitch streams, games dying. Confirmed. /sarcasm

 

[LateX'Dog]

Oh thought you might be interested in this:

1) Make a new character.
2) Do the first few green quests until you have 2 Gilda Stars.
3) Go find a guest bed and lie down, to get the Good Night's Sleep buff.
4) After 10 minutes, you now have 100 more labor.
5) Exit to character selection and delete the character.
6) Repeat until max labor.

Just kill those guys on the Island for the "Protect Ynystere" quest where you need to kill hundreds.

They are near a boat down the hill on the beach. You can just OS them and they give you 1 kill.

Pretty sure this is not as intended.

Enjoy.