ArcheAge, Ultima Online's rebirth?

grimm said:
I have to say that this land grab mechanic puts me off a little, especially with the pay to win aspect of letting "founders" grab all the best spots first.
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Well all of the founder packs give you the 4 day headstart, even the cheapest one. So anyone who gets any founder pack has the same chance to grab spots. And of course anyone who doesn't subscribe, cant get land anyway, so no harm there.

Makes sense to not allow free 2 play accounts have access to building, because if they did, you would just get people making 40 free accounts and taking up huge swathes of land by themselves.
 
Tombstone said:
Well all of the founder packs give you the 4 day headstart, even the cheapest one. So anyone who gets any founder pack has the same chance to grab spots. And of course anyone who doesn't subscribe, cant get land anyway, so no harm there.

Makes sense to not allow free 2 play accounts have access to building, because if they did, you would just get people making 40 free accounts and taking up huge swathes of land by themselves.
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I completely understand and agree with that point. It still seems like a very flawed way of doing it though. It's not the same as UO was back in the day. It worked in UO because it was in the relatively early days of the internet and was a very niche game.

If all of the best spots are taken before most people can even get into the game then the game will die because people don't like to play on a completely unfair footing. A latecomer that wants to get into farming for example will be at a massive disadvantage. The game will have to support itself somehow but it will be stuck with the elitist few that got in first and claimed the best land.

Of course there will be people who just want to gank traders all day but I just don't think there is enough there to sustain this sort of game in this day and age unless they can put everyone on a fair footing.

I suppose they could limit the population of servers and have lots of servers, but I can see that turning a lot of people off the game as when they realise that they can't play with their friends if they started playing the game later.

I'm not complaining because I don't want to pay for early access. I'm complaining because I don't want to pay money only for the game to die within 12 months just because an element of the game that is actually one of the main attractions is set up to cause it to fail. I am fully aware that I might be completely wrong about that though. It's just the way it looks to me upon first impression.
 
grimm said:
If all of the best spots are taken before most people can even get into the game then the game will die because people don't like to play on a completely unfair footing. A latecomer that wants to get into farming for example will be at a massive disadvantage. The game will have to support itself somehow but it will be stuck with the elitist few that got in first and claimed the best land.

I'm not complaining because I don't want to pay for early access. I'm complaining because I don't want to pay money only for the game to die within 12 months just because an element of the game that is actually one of the main attractions is set up to cause it to fail. I am fully aware that I might be completely wrong about that though. It's just the way it looks to me upon first impression.
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I wouldn't worry about it too much, firstly each account only comes with 2 character slots, so its not like a single paying person can cover huge masses of land with houses and farms anyway. Even now today, I can find space on an Alpha server to place structures. When you consider that the userbase will be split NA and EU, and on multiple servers, there will be plenty of room.

Combine that with the fact that anyone who doesn't pay, will not be placing any structures, then it all cuts down how much land is full up.

Aside from that, I should think that most people who are interested in the game will probably buy the basic founder pack ( £36 ) at this point in time , as that isn't all that much more than normal retail prices for a game, which would give them the 4 day headstart too anyway.

I would say right now that I am 100% certain that there will be land available still, even after the 4 day headstart. Even anyone coming in significantly late will still be able to find land because there will always be structures falling down to make space due to people not paying their housing taxes or moving server or leaving the game etc.
 
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wait... so this game will be free to play.... but if you want housing you need to subscribe?

if that's true what happens to your house should you cancel your sub for a while? will it just vanish instantly, be "condemned" like in UO and collapse after a week or so?

but as stated, without some burden of having a house (have to pay monthly), then you'd get millions of houses on alt accounts taking up all the room with abandoned houses. :(

In UO you could have a few houses and just need to "refresh" them by going inside them now and then. but Now they've limited to one house per account and any other houses become condemned and only options are to demolish it to get the cash back or trade it. else it will fall regardless.

gerico.... you should totally come back to Europa ;) just played a month and bought 3 month time code ;)
 
Sasso said:
wait... so this game will be free to play.... but if you want housing you need to subscribe?

if that's true what happens to your house should you cancel your sub for a while? will it just vanish instantly, be "condemned" like in UO and collapse after a week or so?

but as stated, without some burden of having a house (have to pay monthly), then you'd get millions of houses on alt accounts taking up all the room with abandoned houses. :(

In UO you could have a few houses and just need to "refresh" them by going inside them now and then. but Now they've limited to one house per account and any other houses become condemned and only options are to demolish it to get the cash back or trade it. else it will fall regardless.

gerico.... you should totally come back to Europa ;) just played a month and bought 3 month time code ;)
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Yes, you need to essentially subscribe in order to place houses or farms (as you have to have "Patron" status to do so) It gets condemned like in UO, in effect, the house remains standing for 7 days after the tax payments have run out, then it falls down. The deed for the house then gets mailed to the owner, so that they can re-use it at a later date if they choose to subscribe again.
 
also just to point out. i.e you're farming trees for your ship.

this can be done 3 ways.
1. on your farm with limited space but will be protected.
2. in the open world with unlimited space, BUT anyone could find it / steal it all.
3. buy it all of the AH :p

so technically you don't even need a farm ;)
 
Hmmm so you can only build in this game if you buy a founders pack ? or have i read that wrong ? so no building houses or ships or having a farm, unless you buy a founders pack?
 
linwelin said:
Hmmm so you can only build in this game if you buy a founders pack ? or have i read that wrong ? so no building houses or ships or having a farm, unless you buy a founders pack?
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Not necessarily a founders pack, you simply need to subscribe , its just that the founders packs come with a number of months subscription included.

Only applies to houses/farms, you can have a ship on a free account.
 
cheers :) hummmm... suppose if people aren't that bothered about housing but want a guild house you could just all chip in to the guild leader to keep that acc patron and keep a house for ya mates :)
 
Sasso said:
cheers :) hummmm... suppose if people aren't that bothered about housing but want a guild house you could just all chip in to the guild leader to keep that acc patron and keep a house for ya mates :)
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Indeed, and if push really came to shove and you absolutely couldn't get a hold of a farm for yourself for growing stuff, you could always just use a friends farm to grow your stuff on it if they gave you the permissions to use it
 
I think i read somewhere that you can acquire currency in game to pay for the sub for housing/farms etc. I'm not 100% sure on that though.

Tbh i have no clue how the business model works in this, hopefully i will figure stuff out while trying the beta.
 
ColEx said:
I think i read somewhere that you can acquire currency in game to pay for the sub for housing/farms etc. I'm not 100% sure on that though.

Tbh i have no clue how the business model works in this, hopefully i will figure stuff out while trying the beta.
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You can, I don't generally include that as a method because I bet the "exchange rate" will be such that unless you play 15 hours a day every day, you wont amass enough to pay for it. I could be wrong on that of course, but I'm guessing that they wont make it too easy to get Patron status for ingame currency otherwise people would just do that and they'd make no money :)
 
hehe looks like they're trying to get the gold sinks in early to stop people building vast amounts of gold.

one thing that ruined UO a bit was people farming and duping in the early days, become so rich they'd never run out of money, driving prices for things up so us peasants could barely afford anything :(

be interesting to see how the in-game economy goes :)
 
I think I will skip the betas but grab it on release/headstart.

no games at all have interested me in months :S all but gave up on gaming when it used to take up the majority of my spare time.

need something a bit old schoolish to drag me back in not of this fuzzy carebear crap
 
Tombstone said:
Not necessarily a founders pack, you simply need to subscribe , its just that the founders packs come with a number of months subscription included.

Only applies to houses/farms, you can have a ship on a free account.
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? I thought it was FTP not a subscription (per month etc)?
 
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