[Megathread] ArcheAge - "Sand-Box" MMORPG

[Rivellana]

It is one of the reasons I prefer sub games. Sure, f2p is nice, but holy fuck the gold seller spam they get. I wish Trion could implement the system they did with Rift that basically killed the gold sellers in that game. One game I have NEVER seen gold seller spam is LotRO.

I'm sure they will, given time. It's only been a week and they're too busy trying to make sure that everything else is fixed first...because let's face it, most everything has gone wrong...before they get around to dealing with the gold sellers and bots.

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Already seeing people say that they consider quitting despite loving the game JUST because of how friendly the game is to pvpers (griefers) in 30+ zones. Groups of 3+ run around ganking questers just for the sake of it even where they don't get honor for it...

Yeah I had a group of those yesterday...was already having issues in Hellswamp because of the pure amount of Westerners in groups of 4+ ganking, got to a peace time and managed to get some stuff done finally, and then as soon as it hit conflict again, there were large groups of them out again. One guild formed up like 5 guys, plus a few more from other guilds, and ran around ganking every Easterner they could find questing, THEN they came and sat next to the graveyard and mocked people because they killed everyone outside of it and couldn't find anyone else to kill.

That was the point I logged off. I was kind of hoping it will get better when I get back to the Eastern continent when I get higher in level...if I ever do.

[Fencers]

Already seeing people say that they consider quitting despite loving the game JUST because of how friendly the game is to pvpers (griefers) in 30+ zones.

Friendly? Archeage is made for such players.

The game intends for exploitative and asymmetrical world PVP. It is part of the core design and gameplay goal of the game.

[Ashnazg]

That was the point I logged off. I was kind of hoping it will get better when I get back to the Eastern continent when I get higher in level...if I ever do.

Unless you are questing just for the joy of questing, you can successfully bypass all pvp on your way to 50 through crafting.

The basic formula is this : craft armor bracers (of any type) that require 1 unit of resource (leather, cloth or metal), 1 archeum (that you can get back 100% of the time through salvaging) and 3 wedges. Doing this, with a vocational exp pot (that costs 8g on AH), you can convert 100 labor points into 5% of your exp pool (at 42, this is ~10k). I believe the experience scales with your level, so it will always give 5%. Meaning that for 2k labor points, you can gain a level. If you have 5k labor stored + workers comp pot, you can grind out 3 levels on a full labor point pool for a minimal cash investment (about 20g if you buy everything from AH, 45g if you have to buy the workers comp as well).

Combined with questing in conflict zones - when they are at peace - this should get you to 50 fairly quickly. If you are a patron anyway.

[ItachiZaku]

Yep sucks to say, but if you are not a patron, and are short on time Kyrios will be a horrible server for you for the next few weeks / month. I'm having no issues, but that's because i'm a Patron AND I queue before I goto bed, play when I get up >.> lol

Yeah, I was planning on taking Rivelle's advise and NOT play there, but I had been in queue all night and still going while I was at work and was sitting on character create screen when I got home, so I gave it a shot.

[Rivellana]

Unless you are questing just for the joy of questing, you can successfully bypass all pvp on your way to 50 through crafting.

The basic formula is this : craft armor bracers (of any type) that require 1 unit of resource (leather, cloth or metal), 1 archeum (that you can get back 100% of the time through salvaging) and 3 wedges. Doing this, with a vocational exp pot (that costs 8g on AH), you can convert 100 labor points into 5% of your exp pool (at 42, this is ~10k). I believe the experience scales with your level, so it will always give 5%. Meaning that for 2k labor points, you can gain a level. If you have 5k labor stored + workers comp pot, you can grind out 3 levels on a full labor point pool for a minimal cash investment (about 20g if you buy everything from AH, 45g if you have to buy the workers comp as well).

Combined with questing in conflict zones - when they are at peace - this should get you to 50 fairly quickly. If you are a patron anyway.

Unfortunately as I already mentioned, I have a leveling partner so unless we're both crafting in our online time, questing is the only way to actually level together.

[Queen of Hamsters]

Friendly? Archeage is made for such players.

The game intends for exploitative and asymmetrical world PVP. It is part of the core design and gameplay goal of the game.

So the gameplay goal is to make people feel so griefed by unfair "pvp" that they feel like quitting despite loving the game in other aspects? That feels a bit weird tbf...and makes me sad since I haven't felt this in love with a game since I first tried WoW 6 years ago...

[Fencers]

So the gameplay goal is to make people feel so griefed by unfair "pvp" that they feel like quitting despite loving the game in other aspects?

In a sense, yes. The gameplay expresses the goals of providing Asymmetrical PVP in the open world for the competition of resources and factional territory. The structure presumes enmity between factions and players as default- literally the default modus of play.

Whether one feels like quitting due to those aspects is entirely based on an expectation contra to the goals of the gameplay.

[loki504]

do you guys know any eu server that has a active pirate population?

[Bugg]

looks and feels cheap, dated skills & mechanics, IMO.

[Attackrabbit]

So did they fix the queues yet? Wanted to try the game yesterday but every server (EU) put me in a 4800+ server queue.

Doesn't seem like it, I joined the queue for Shatigon EU before going out this morning at half 10am. Still 834 people ahead of me and >1hr queue time :/

[Orange Joe]

So the gameplay goal is to make people feel so griefed by unfair "pvp" that they feel like quitting despite loving the game in other aspects? That feels a bit weird tbf...and makes me sad since I haven't felt this in love with a game since I first tried WoW 6 years ago...

I think the true goal is that you are suppose to get friends/guildies/Mercs to help you fight back.

[Cthulhu 2020]

yes and no.

yes, because you can safely stay in the 1-30~ish regions and go ahead farming goods safely without fear of unwanted pvp.

but the 30+ areas are all pvp flagged with breaks only for a short time of peace following all out war.

The peace times are 4 hours long, which is enough time to do all the quests in a zone. There's no guarantee that it'll be peace when you want to play though.

Peace time lasts 4 hours, at which point it goes into "conflict" which allows PvP with the opposing faction, and it can stay that way for hours, or 30 minutes. It apparently depends upon how "active" PvP is in the zone as number of kills will flip it from conflict to war really fast. Then, once war time hits, the war lasts a certain amount of time.

I spent a lot of time doing "safe" trade runs on my home continent. You can only trade goods for gilda stars or "goods" (rare crafting mats) if you make trade runs to the ENEMY continent and a lot of the time the turn ins are going to be camped, but they're going to be camped from obvious approaches. That's how I got my trade pack stolen yesterday. I then approached the coast line from a different angle and area just down the coast, unsummoned my boat a little ways out, and stealthed the rest of the way in. It was incredibly slow, but I got to turn in my trade pack behind the gankers' backs.

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In a sense, yes. The gameplay expresses the goals of providing Asymmetrical PVP in the open world for the competition of resources and factional territory. The structure presumes enmity between factions and players as default- literally the default modus of play.

Whether one feels like quitting due to those aspects is entirely based on an expectation contra to the goals of the gameplay.

I won't say that it's "necessary" for a sandbox to have PvP in it, but it does add a sense of danger and ultimately reward if you pull something big off. It also encourages making friends and finding a big guild to do big trade trains. I've seen people in a big 20+ man trains moving through PvP zones with trade packs out in the open. Nobody is going to mess with them because to "steal" a pack, you have to survive yourself and then grab the trade pack they're carrying, at which point YOU become ultra slow. So unless your enemy has a superior, organized force, a guild trade train isn't going to be attacked.

It's like trading days of yore. It's just not very solo player friendly unless you stick with "safe" trade routes in your home territories. Or are incredibly crafty.

I'm actually pretty glad I rolled east due to the geography. We have a safe zone on the far south side of our coast, and all of the zones all the way up the coast to Ynystere Peninsula are safe zones. Ynystere itself is a PvP zone but it seems western faction really has little incentive to go there as their quests for that range are on their own continent. It's only until Halycona that the two factions merge. So I've found a very safe and very profitable trade route in making runs from south to north. Our PvP zones are inland, and mostly land trade routes. The west doesn't have a similar geographical advantage, as most of their coastal zones are PvP and most of their inland zones are non PvP. They can make trade runs through those safe zones but have to use transportation such as donkeys, farm cars, carriages, and air ships.

[Rivellana]

The peace times are 4 hours long, which is enough time to do all the quests in a zone. There's no guarantee that it'll be peace when you want to play though.

That doesn't seem to apply to all zones. Halcyona was 4 hours long, but I got to Hellswamp and it was only 2 hours long.

[Cthulhu 2020]

That doesn't seem to apply to all zones. Halcyona was 4 hours long, but I got to Hellswamp and it was only 2 hours long.

Hellswamp was 4 hours the minute it swapped over for me, although I was in Ynystere ONCE when for some odd reason it only did 2 hour peace time. Otherwise I've only ever seen 4.

For east continent faction, trade runs back and forth from Ynystere to Solis Headlands grosses almost 7g a run (haven't figured out net profit yet). There are specialty crafting stations a stone's throw from the ocean. You ride your donkey a short distance to the shore and then follow the coast line in safety. Ynys may be a PvP zone but I have yet to see anyone camping the docks. I tried all of the other ports, and the trader turn ins were all camped. Ynys seemed to be the only one that wasn't. It might not be quite as good as the 4 gilda stars you get for going to freerich, but freerich is camped pretty much 24/7.

So I've pretty much worked out a route just going back and forth from Ynys to Solis.

[Rivellana]

Hellswamp was 4 hours the minute it swapped over for me, although I was in Ynystere ONCE when for some odd reason it only did 2 hour peace time. Otherwise I've only ever seen 4.

I just logged on with 4 minutes of war left in Hellswamp, and it changed over to 2 hrs of peace again.

[Attackrabbit]

Almost 10 hours of queuing so far, at least I'm up to 325 in the queue now....might even get to play for 10 minutes or so before I have to think about going to bed

[Cthulhu 2020]

So I had this weird feeling as I was doing my first trade run today, and as I was approaching the Ynystere docks I dismounted my ship in stealth but did not unsummon, watched my ship glide into the docks with its momentum and saw 4 reds load and jump onto my ship from the docks. They were so busy on the deck of my ship I slipped past in stealth in the water and turned in my trade pack to the gold tradesman. I then laughed at them, at which point they realized what had happened, jumped on the docks, attacked me, and the guards killed them before they could off me.

It was such a sweet victory.

[Gsara]

So the gameplay goal is to make people feel so griefed by unfair "pvp" that they feel like quitting despite loving the game in other aspects? That feels a bit weird tbf...and makes me sad since I haven't felt this in love with a game since I first tried WoW 6 years ago...

The best thing anyone can do in this game is join a decent guild. Unless you plan to level entirely through crafting, you will need at least a group of people to farm weapon tokens and profitable trade runs, all in pvp zones. While the "gankers" dont get honor during threat times, killing other players raises the threat level to eventually be war time, which is the best honor in the game. This is why you see those zones flip so fast on the servers with big guilds from alpha.

[Cthulhu 2020]

I just logged on with 4 minutes of war left in Hellswamp, and it changed over to 2 hrs of peace again.

I just got a 2 hour peace time. Maybe it cycles? I'll make sure to check the next time it goes peace.

[noahjam326]

You can also try making friends with your neighbors. Both in Alpha and currently in live I always talk to and try to befriend those around my farm. In Alpha it was Perinoor, and in live it's in Hellswamp. Whenever a group of 3-5 reds tries to roll in someone just needs to let out a call for aid and you'll generally see the neighborhood rise up and push them out of the neighborhood pretty easily. Especially as the game ages and more of your friends and neighbors (and you) reach max level it will only become easier to push the random reds out. I remember on Alpha we even had some fun mini-wars in our neighborhood in Perinoor. We had a small group of veteran Archeage players from both the Korean and Russian servers that kept harassing random farmers in the neighborhood. One of them did nothing but try and camp my on my farm. I was only level 38 at the time and just ignored him and just kept running back and tending my farm. Them spamming yell with taunts alone made them huge targets and the neighborhood rose up and smeared their guts across the area.

I can understand why some people just flat out refuse this kind of PvP, but to me personally it's half of what makes Archeage feel like a real world. Trade packs would be completely pointless if there was no threat of it being stolen. Having to compete for land and resources makes it that much sweet when you actually manage to succeed and carve out your own home. The most fun I have in this game is when it's me and my best friend with trade packs in a clipper, outplaying pirates as we cross the ocean. Yes you "lose" sometimes, but that's what makes it so thrilling. Plus all our failures have forced us to use our abilities in creative ways and have made us experts at escaping those random pirates. There are few things more satisfying in any video game I've ever played then using telekinesis to throw people off my ship while screaming into Teamspeak "GET OFF MY SHIP!!!!"

While I can understand some people's frustration, sometimes stepping out of your comfort zone can lead to some really fun experiences and teach you new ways to play classes and mechanics you thought you had mastered.