Space is often an issue in a game where player housing isn’t instanced. Unfortunately, ArcheAge is no different. In fact, it’s compounded by the player’s need and desire to possess both types of properties – house and farm.
The need for a dedicated space of your own, goes far beyond cosmetics and roleplay. Working the land is an essential component to advancing a crafting profession and earning gold. There are other ways, as discussed in a previous post but those are for the fringe populace. I believe the average MMO player harvests and/or crafts to improve their character and earn gold. It’s difficult to do either of those things without owning land in AA. Especially when mobs don't drop gear, gold or crafting components.
The Beauty of Non Instanced Housing
The upside to non-instanced housing is that the zones look more like, feel more like, real communities. There’s no one place max level players hang out on their mounts, emptying the rest of the world of activity. People are back and forth to their properties to tend them. You get to know your neighbors because you see them all the time.
Crafting stations that process the raw materials are at hand. Mailboxes, banking and auction house services are nearby, serving as mini hubs spread throughout the entire landmass. Essentially, the housing forms what amounts to player towns and villages, which is a very cool thing.
Please excuse any typos or grammatical errors. I’m trying to get a lot of basic information out in a short amount of time for people who may be entering beta or alpha for the first time. There is so much to learn and figure out in the first few days of playing ArcheAge.
At some point, all MMO players have to figure out how they’re going to earn money, especially if they decide to hang in for the long haul. ArcheAge is not too different from other MMOs, in that it contains the classic revenue generating opportunities. However, it does contain options that are rarer and as such, require explanation.
You have many options for earning gold in AA. This allows you to mix it up to keep things fresh or find something you enjoy doing. As I’ve mentioned in a previous post, you CAN’T farm mobs to make money. Normal quest mobs don’t drop coin, gear or crafting components. You receive coin and gear from completing quests but not enough to bank roll you.
Mining Ore – common and easiest way to make money. Mining nodes are world spawns. You don’t need special gear or skills to mine ore. However, you can earn a mining gear set which I do use on my character.
Harvest and sell base craft components – use a Public Farm or your own farm to grow produce, or conduct husbandry, and sell the byproducts of that effort. These are items crafters will need to advance in their professions. It’s cheap for you and can generate a steady income.
Harvest and sell processed components – to do this in decent volume you need a farm of your own. The newbie Scarecrow farm which is (8x8) will suffice. Grow produce, grow trees or conduct husbandry. Process the byproduct and sell that on the market. The difference between this and the one above, is that you can get the additional XP by “handling” what you produce. Remember that harvesting AND processing components all provide leveling XP in addition to advancing trade skills.
I thought I'd put out this quick post on the class system for people who are just entering beta. Hopefully, this will answer early class mechanics questions.
ArcheAge Class System
The class system in ArcheAge is very diverse. Similar to Rift or Final Fantasy XIV, you select multiple classes that are combined into a single profession. There are 10 base classes to choose from yielding a total of 120 different play styles / professions. Each of the 120 options has a unique class name. However, the skills selected from that trio will differ among players. Of course, there will be cookie cutter builds because we as gamers, sometimes lack originality and go for min/max specs.
Basics
You are required to select a class when you create your character. Don’t fret over it too much as even that selection can be changed. It’s merely the skill set and weapons you’ll be using for the first few levels. At some point before level 7, if I recall correctly, I was asked to choose a second class and it progresses from there.
If you have a favorite class or play style from another game, there’s a good chance you can recreate it in some fashion in AA. That said, the differences might not be to your liking. My first attempt at a trio was a WOW type Warlock, GW2 Mesmer or leech healer. I tried the combinations people suggested as the base classes but none of them appealed to me. My experiences in GW2 and Tera have slanted me toward more active combat. I’m not happy standing still, locked in place, in order to cast spells. That’s feels too old school now for my tastes. So you have to experiment until you find what floats your boat.
I’m no PVP aficionado but don’t I shirk from it either. I go in knowing that I can lose while making my best attempt to win. I don’t cry over unsportsmanlike behavior. I strategize about how to get even!
I started my MMO career in games where players routinely killed each other. My longest consecutive run in an MMO was World of Warcraft and I rolled on a PVP server, having followed my guild from Asheron’s Call 2. It was back then, one of the most highly contested servers and spending 2 hours trying to get a 40 man raid into Molten Core was a typical Sunday afternoon. Forming teams to protect members trying to level in Darkshire and Southshore was a way of life. You took your lumps while a newbie, protected others when you grew up and dished it out once you were geared. As a result, my point of view about dealing with PVP in ArcheAge (AA) is framed by that mentality.
It Began Simply Enough
I joined a very small casual guild called Immortal Imperial League. With our very small size and mixture of NA and EU players, we’re hard pressed to have ten people online at once. Having more than 5 level 50 players on simultaneously is rare. So when two members asked me if I’d like to do a trade run with them even though I was only level 27 at the time, I figured I’d go for the experience alone, if it would help them out.
It began simply enough. We met up in Gweonid, where Denniiss provided each of us with a pack of goods to carry. We walked to the coast on foot because I didn’t own a donkey yet. The slow trek there was pleasant as we chatted and laughed along the way. When we reached the coast, Denniiss summoned his Clipper. We boarded and headed out to sea.
This was my first ship adventure in AA. I knew what to expect from watching Twitch streams. So when we entered contested waters I was on high alert. Killset and I kept an eye out for enemy ships and deadly sea creatures. It wasn’t too long before the drama unfolded.
Cargo Transport Attempt 1 out of 4
The first two pirate attempts started half way into the journey. Unfortunately for them, the distance they were at when they spotted us, didn’t leave them enough time to gain ground. The Clipper is a fast ship and we easily outpaced them. The third attempt was close. Harpoons were shot at our boat but they missed and again, we out ran their fiendish attempts at skullduggery.
The next attempt came swiftly – almost out of the blue someone was on our heels. He harpooned the ship, jumped in his glider and was suddenly on board. We were level 50, 44 and 27. He was level 50 with godly buffs of all kinds. We gave it our best shot, beating him down to less than 20% health. He backed off for a bit but we weren’t organized enough to capitalize on it and when he charged in again, it was lights out. My two partners died in the water, their packs sinking to the bottom. I died on board but didn’t resurrect so I could watch our attacker.
I’m a straight-up undeniable sucker for a beautiful world. I’m a card carrying member of the “it has to look good for me to play it” club. Adventuring in detailed, atmospheric and lush worlds is part of the MMO magic for me. ArcheAge on the water has no equal in my MMO experience. It’s simply breath taking. Mining along the shoreline, fishing or standing by watching players load their ships, is a visual treat.
I’m very intrigued by the trade and economy side of the game but I haven’t participated yet. To be honest, the effort + cost + knowledge has been beyond me thus far. I recently found a guide to getting started. If time permits, I hope to take a whack at soon. I know there are members of the guild I joined that will help me but I’ve been entrenched in doing something else each time the call has gone out for lowbie runs. Getting started is a 2 hour commitment.
Like WildStar (WS), ArcheAge (AA) wasn’t on my radar. I’d heard of it but not having much success with Asian imports in the past, I wrote it off. In between MMOs again, I started watching Twitch streams and noticed more and more AA offerings so I started watching. Initially, I didn’t see anything that would make me scrounge for a BETA key / invite or purchase my way into it, so the thought of the game passed.
My son started playing GW2 again but not with much regularity. Bored by the lack of a more traditional expansion, he began another search for an alternative. Since he’s a PVP fanboi, he decided to pay his way into the AA Alpha. I messed around on his account for a bit which piqued my interest. That combined with finding more varied game play on Twitch, I saw enough to want my own account.
What is ArcheAge
Based on the little I know about the game, I would say ArcheAge is Aion + Vanguard + Final Fantasy XIV + Runes of Magic + Pirates of the Burning Sea meets EVE Online. It’s more horizontal than many recent MMOs and you’ll have to peel the onion to discover all of the game’s features. On the other hand, if you don’t care, it can be as simple as doing quests and running dungeons.
For me, another MMO bites the dust. The waning interest left me wondering if I was past leveling characters in the genre. Then I considered that GW2 wasn’t all that long ago. I leveled 2 characters to max and enjoyed every minute of it. I also stayed very active in GW2 for several months after. Nope, this was merely a waning interest in leveling in WildStar.
What Happened
There is something about the world design that made it feel chopped up and artificially segmented. It kept reminding me, I was in a game. The only thing I can liken it to is Star Trek Online and Age of Conan. I mentioned before that the humor was engaging but at the same time, I wondered if it was leading to the disconnect I had with my character. The game doesn’t take itself too seriously so by association, I wasn’t taking the character seriously either?
The zones felt a bit empty when I was out leveling, something that even cute content couldn’t overcome. It felt like leveling in vanilla WOW after the first few expansions – crickets. After I completed phase one of my property, I was less and less motivated to log into the game and since there’s a subscription, I was forced to decide. Like Final Fantasy XIV, there was enough I enjoyed, that barring a subscription, I might mess around with it occasionally. However, I couldn’t see myself playing enough to warrant a monthly fee.
I became accustomed to the crafting mini-game even when it was annoying and was able to build out my property nicely. I built a day spa alongside my home that consists of a two story spa and clubhouse and a separate building as a sauna. I was planning to host RP events. However, the population wasn’t large enough to support much from what I saw. Any event that I attended, never had more than a half dozen players show up. The social features for locating houses to visit was very limited, bordering on BAD – random list of houses show up. Too many RP houses on the RP server? Lack of features for quickly locating them? No way to promote or share your favorite locations? Who knows, perhaps all of the above but these are issues already solved by EQ2.
I did see some truly amazing custom homes. Mindboggling in the amount of effort and creativity. I always felt bad that very few people probably even knew about them or would ever see them. I was glad that I did. *Smile*
What's Next
My departure from WS is unfortunate. I liked my class. I enjoyed the combat. The quests felt varied and less stale than many recent MMOs. I thought it was funny and it had player housing. And still, there was enough of something else missing. For a combination of reasons, WS didn’t feel like a world to me, the chief reason I play MMOs. My unsubscribing isn’t an indictment of the game. It's a good game and does several things well. It simply didn’t hold my attention or suit my preferences enough to keep leveling through it. I have a lot of things going on in my life (don’t we all) and as a result, I’m more particular than in years past.
Because of GW2, I know that I can still find magic in a new MMO. It may take time before lightening strikes again. I'm still looking foward living out my version of Firefly in StarCitizen. My son purchased alpha access to ArcheAge and this past weekend I played around on his account. I was intrigued enough that I also ponied up for an account and will be blogging about that as I go along.
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