[Megathread] ArcheAge - "Sand-Box" MMORPG

[Heathy]

well i'm lvl 13 nearly now so i thought i'd just mention a few things that i really like, there isn't anything i've seen yet that i dislike, although it is kinda crappy that you can't have a plot without patron but i guess they do need to make money some how. but anyway, there is probably much much more ill find i like or things that stand out to me if i keep going but for now.

I like the crafting it seems very broad and deep.
I like that the mounts aren't just an extension of your character model but actually pets that level and have gear and sit in the world and even fight, kinda like fallen earths mounts. (at least the sitting in the world aspect anyway)
the game feels a bit like a cross between a regular 'wow clone' and wurm online with plots and housing and farming. albeit maybe not so customisable (in a minecraft sense). but the sandbox elements do seem to make it feel more than just a generic mmo.
animations are quite nice, i've noticed there are at least 3 different anims for mounting as an example. (front/back/side)
you lose XP when you die, brings a slight hardcore element to the game, (a la diablo) makes you try a little harder to not get owned. (or at least not afk right next to a mob spawn like i did and find out the hard way)
itemisation seems cool so far, little different but it looks like it'll make sense after a while, quite a few different rarities.
the ability to level all specs with enough time investment, don't really need to make alts. at least not for anything other than bag space maybe.
you can cash quests that you haven't fully completed so, need one more mob but can't be bothered to hunt for it? Nps! just cash the quest anyway and get a slightly less gold and xp reward.

i read a thread that said (that rhymed a little oh well) the healing specs were crap and you couldn't solo at all with them but i'm using songcraft and basically spamming the discord ability and its killing stuff just fine. so i dunno what they were talking about, maybe pvp which i haven't tried yet.

for now thats it, the questing seems a bit easy i suppose its exactly like wow with the map markers it doesn't require any thought. UI is ok so far but i went with a cleric build so i need to get to the point where i can try healing and see if it gives me any problems. so far its slim, sexy, and non-intrusive bar the tutorial popups, the quest tracker is a bit big for my liking but thats the only bit i would like to resize or just move a bit to the right more. all in all it seems pretty deep, looking at the world map theres quite a lot of map thats not implemented yet or being saved for expansions or something. so far so good, i could quite easily see me sinking some subbed time into this and enjoying it fully. basically it has enough good stuff that everyone likes to see in an mmo plus enough unique aspects that set it apart from the rest in its own way.

guess i should also mention that for a beta it runs really well on my toaster i'm only sporting an a8-6600 with a r7 250 and its smooth even when i jumped in and there was a enough newbs on screen to populate a small town i was still getting playable frame rates. most of the details defaulted to high. although i did have to switch it to dx11 for some reason it was on dx 9 and it didn't default to my native res. hopefully this will be enough to tempt ppl on the bench to give it a try. i know ppl throw around the wow killer mmo a lot but funnily enough i could actually see this game taking a decent amount of players from wow, not killing the game but definitely making ppl question what they want to see in an mmo. obviously it'll come down mostly to the amount of content but i think this one has a good chance of being Neo... i mean the one.

[Deleted]

Started a new archer character, really enjoying the range/melee combo!
The game reminds me so much of vanilla wow and guild wars, it's not a wow killer but surely is another nail in it's coffin.....and definitely going to be a drain on subs.
Just had my morning ride down the beach, really impressed by the water effects of the sea, not touched any crafting yet, I'm saving all that for live.
If this is a stress test on the servers ? guessed they passed with flying colours, could not even see the floor because of players in my start zone, yet never even noticed any input lag! which is amazing considering I'm a fool and started this beta on a north American realm
Love the sandbox feel and the fact that I'm not tied down to quest chains, exploring the world and just picking a quest if I feel like it, is a nice welcome change! yet I do see loads of players following the standard A to B route.

[Deleted]

Well, I played first 10 levels and didnt need LP much that time. But I did solve items and coin purses. Now I got introduced to farms and got a quest to create an item. However, I would make dried flowers and that's made out of roses which you couldn't grow on the public farm so I planted them in the middle of nowhere, will login in an hour and see if they are still there. Planted some random things before I went to bed but they were gone when I woke up :P I guess my LP will be eaten now, but this is what makes the game fun. Questing is standard, and annoying without aoe loot and mobstealing so I skipped some quests due to too many people everywhere.
The combat isn't the best ever, a bit clunky which overall movement is. But it's ok I guess. UI is doing it's job. Graphics are decent. Had a bit flickering screen last night.
So the game is alright. Standard questing atm, but I didn't quit at lvl 5 as in ESO so more promising than that. I do however think they have a bit similar gameplay feel, which isn't a good thing :P This stiff feeling when moving, not really feeling that comitted to your char or the world around.
However, now that I'm getting more into other things than questing I will see how things feel, investigate LP system and how much I can really do before I can't do anything. I don't want to quest more than needed, got plenty of other mmos for that. So I will play a bit more and see where it goes.

[Gsara]

Hmmm, looks like they are adding some cash shop items for crafting. Kinda disappointed about this honestly.

http://forums.archeagegame.com/showt...e-At-This-Rate

Specific post about the crafting regrade charms.

http://forums.archeagegame.com/showt...Regrade-Charms

here is the link with screens.

http://www.reddit.com/r/archeage/com...hop_direction/

[Heathy]

its hard for me to judge the outcome of too much craftables on the cash shop, one thing i think the ppl seeing red don't seem to get is that, how many ppl are going to blow so much irl cash on the cash shop that it actually affects prices continually, because rift is almost the same with its cash shop, you can buy nearly everything from it. but it still has a reasonable economy. propped up by tradeable store cred most likely.

but who would spend all their irl money in a cash shop and then sell everything they buy on the AH (wouldn't you buy things like that to use yourself?), wouldn't that in effect stimulate the economy? isn't there easier ways to get in game cash? it might be artificial but its only going to last as long as those ppl's supply of cash shop bought items last. I dunno, i'm not even slightly knowledgeable about a fraction of the items in the game so i have no idea what they even do, all i do know is that, there can't be many ppl in the world with enough irl money to screw an mmo economy without feeling the effects themselves in various ways. remember pay to win is usually subjective, because winning in an mmo is a goal post that moves constantly. if someone powers their way to everything that would be considered winning with cash, kudos to them, but it doesn't really effect anyone else, and if it does the effect wouldn't be permanent.

personally i do prefer these F2P mmos keep their cash shop items purely cosmetic, but we have to be realistic and see that not everyone cares for cosmetics so they need to offer something that ppl will go 'oh cool i wouldn't blow my cash on a hat, but a crafting boost would be worth it for me buying X means i can use my LP on Y'. in the end i guess this is what beta is for, they do stuff, see how many ppl complain, if its enough it'll change and they'll try something else. until a sweet spot is found.

[loki504]

and again people use P2W wrong. P2W means you could buy someting from the cash shop that a free players has no acces to. its a P2Skip. and i'm fine with P2S.sure it might that a few days before i got my items but thats not a problem. a few months later we are both at the same gear level. but i still got xx euro in my pocket.

[Deleted]

Shift+R brings up the raid window, hit invite all and it will invite every player in 100 yards around you. Helpful for when you find yourself with a few other players vying for a quest mob or certain event .

[Terahertz]

Been playing the game for a few hours, took a break but so far I'm liking the game a ton.

Movement and animations are a big deal for me which is what the game is great at IMO. My mage's spells look really cool as well as the animations.

The mount system is also A-MA-ZING. I really love how mounts feel like a unique entity although I'm kinda confused why you would want it to follow you around. It doesn't seem much quicker than dismissing it, but it's still AWESOME being able to have it follow you if you wanted to.

The story and the atmosphere of the game seems very, uhm, simplistic/medieval so far (im only lvl 11-12 or so, im now in the city under the tree). So far what I've gathered is that your character has the memores of this Eanna gal or whatever her name is who's the person that made the portal to the world we live in now because of some guy? The tasks/quests the NPCs give you also don't seem to be "too" monotone. You get send here and there for multiple reasons and stuff but it isn't too bad.

I've only experienced the first two zones so far, but they seem a bit bland to me, not sure if that will change. It's just huge open spaces with towns here and there, I do hope there will be a bit more variety in zones.

Idk about the crafting system yet. I only just got my quest for the farming stuff and I did see a place where you could craft stuff but I didn't have the items neither did I get instructions on how to craft, maybe my own fault for turning off tutorial tips?

Anyhow, I'm liking the game so far but it does seem rather bland so far. A bit simple but maybe that's to be expected for the first few levels? Hoping to see more lush zones with more variety but we'll see.

[Deleted]

The game points you to http://archeage.gamepedia.com/ArcheAge_Wiki the site and info is growing fast

[Piene]

I really like the game so far, but the fact that the game is in beta and you can't even try everything with a free account (no housing, no auction house, probably much more I haven't discovered yet) really annoys me.
I mean it's a beta meant for testing, but they won't let people who don't pay for it test everything?

Everything else, combat system, graphics, music/sound, etc. feels really good so far.

[Vexies]

Im kinda so so on it so far. Id have to say over all its a decent game. On the plus side the shear amount of stuff you can find to waste your time on is phenomenal and that I like. It was done well. Server stability and optimization so far, even for beta is pretty damn impressive. Combat is average. Nothing to write home about but doesn't detract from the experience for me. Most of what bugs me is admittedly cosmetic. I pretty much hate the music and the over all anime'ish style.

I think its biggest killer however is it just starts off so damn slow and plays like any other traditional MMO. I get why they felt like they had to do that but I wonder just how many people will slog through the starting levels long enough to find the real depth the game has to offer. The more I play it the more I like it but I nearly stopped playing after the first 10 lvls

[Deleted]

Well, I played a bit more, not in leveling... only lvl 11, but I've never been a fast leveling person in any mmo. I've spent some time trying to craft first trade pack, lavaspice one. It has been hell of a ride. First I grew roses, dried them up and then I realised how much that lavaspice cost and my flowers were far from enough, and getting 60 of that spice with 3,5 h growing time. I have grown little by little, since I haven't found any public farm to grow on I went out in the wild, planted seeds and logged out and did other things. I didnt have much money, and seeds are expensive. Had planted 13 spice seeds and logged out for quite a bit and when I returned they were all stolen with bloody footprints around them. Now I was out of cash, tried to steal some spices on my own but too low level to pick them up. I stole some cotton and other things I could pick up and vendored so I got some silvers. Planted spices but wasn't enough so I stole some more and vendored and planted again... will see in a couple of hours if they are still there, changed planting position, and if they are enough.
Since it's beta I can go on a crime spree :P But I can see myself play this game in future and having fun with trade packs, don't know how often they come by?
Haven't had that much trouble with LP yet, but since this is a low lvl trade pack I'm creating now I can imagine costs rise.

[Slowpoke is a Gamer]

Only discovered this today, and I'm already hooked on the concept. It's like everything I love (city planning, strategy, and RPG) bundled together in an MMO.

I just hope the RP community for this game is quality.

[Boxilot]

Been playing all closed betas so far. Only got to a bit over level 30 but I have been doing SO much. I have gotten a house, a huge farm, a clipper ship, gotten plenty of gold, gotten hijacked by pirates and helped lowbies through dungeons. Even found two lost souls out on an island and helped them back.

Am super excited for launch. Only problem now is that I feel there is no use progressing any further. Partially because I don't want to spoil it for myself, partially because it is just going to get wiped at launch anyhowsies. Personally this is a stayer for me. Hope people will realise what kind of game this is, and enjoy it for that

- - - Updated - - -

other than the Labor point system, the combat is the worst thing about the game for me. But it is decent for traditional mmo combat I suppose. I understand it is supposed to open up and be much more of a sandbox later on but up to level 27 so far it is a pretty much a quest grinding experience.

Uh... we must have been playing two very different games. I'm over 30 and I've only quested a bit in two zones so far when I've felt like following the story.

[Terahertz]

Only thing I found weird so far is the fact that you have to be a patron to make a house in beta. I'm aware you get refunded all the resources you purchased and used in beta at launch, but it still seems extremely weird considering beta's nowadays are used more for promotion rather than actual testing. And yes, I'm aware this was a stress test, but what better time to get more people hooked properly by showcasing your main features than in a stress test?

[Boxilot]

Only thing I found weird so far is the fact that you have to be a patron to make a house in beta. I'm aware you get refunded all the resources you purchased and used in beta at launch, but it still seems extremely weird considering beta's nowadays are used more for promotion rather than actual testing. And yes, I'm aware this was a stress test, but what better time to get more people hooked properly by showcasing your main features than in a stress test?

It's to test how the f2p models work. Trion has to report to XLgames and they need hard data and numbers in order to make viable changes to the game. Trion probably want something a bit more like how it is done in Rift, but XLgames are a Korean developer so the game is based on that audience. That is why Trion needed actual feedback on how the f2p works or don't work here in the west.

[zito]

It's to test how the f2p models work. Trion has to report to XLgames and they need hard data and numbers in order to make viable changes to the game. Trion probably want something a bit more like how it is done in Rift, but XLgames are a Korean developer so the game is based on that audience. That is why Trion needed actual feedback on how the f2p works or don't work here in the west.

Yea it's a very long and tedious process. Trion can't make any changes to the game. It's all XLgames

[Slowpoke is a Gamer]

So I've been trying to install this game all evening to test the beta before it ends.

Key word: Trying.

Glyph is the biggest problem this game has. This steam knockoff doesn't work, at all. In fact it keeps tossing me 1004 and 1039 errors. I'm downloading a supposed fixed version, but since Trion refuses to acknowledge these bugs and release a fix I could very well be downloading a virus.

[Pachycrocuta]

Are you trying to open the game, or has it not fully downloaded. I believe CBE4 is overwith, so it will toss out errors if you try to open the game.

[Deleted]

Really enjoyed this beta, saving myself till live now