Minus the long queue times, most of the irritating launch issues have been resolved. The queue is more stable albeit 1 hour wait at 7:30 AM eastern and upwards of 4 to 6 hours hours starting as early as 4:30 PM eastern. Being disconnected while in game allows a 10 minute grace period for logging right back in without a wait.
A hotfix was applied during live game-play last night to correct the issue people were having where all of their characters were missing from the character select page, leaving them no recourse but to restart the game and re-enter the queue. OUCH! True story, happened to me twice. *sigh*
We also received an in-game notification that walking or riding in circles still counts as AFK and you will be kicked from the game after 45 minutes. They're also going to apply the same 45 minute AFK timer to players who are logged in but sitting at the character select screen to help alleviate the queues.
Questing, Farming and Stuff
I can’t say that I’m back into the rhythm I’d established in Alpha yet. I placed my 16x16 farm the other night because I just can’t produce enough wood on the 8x8. I may move it to Auroria whenever that opens. At the moment, however, I need 300 lumber for my daughter’s house, 300 lumber for my clipper and can’t do any carpentry because of the other two. I’m not going to do carpentry as my primary profession this time around but I still enjoy crafting my own furniture. The proficiency requirements are low for the introductory items. But as things stand, I simply can’t spare the lumber.
I’m doing my self-declared minimum of 3 trade pack turn-ins per day to generate a steady influx of gold. Depending on what I produce and where I take it, this activity nets me 18 to 20 gold a day. So far, I’ve spent it all that same day on seeds, saplings and livestock. I’ve indulged in luxury purchases such as a mailbox and other knickknacks for my house since I can’t spare lumber to craft furniture. I’ve loaned others gold and am buying Hereafter Stones because I haven’t done any mining since grinding out the 600 pieces of raw stone I needed for my first house. I’m NOT looking forward to doing that part again for the second one. Hence I haven’t been mining to get stone for Hereafter Stones either.
I spurged on a mailbox and decorative planters outside my house
Wolf Pet for All
Last night I reached the point of questing in Marianople. And yes, I was saddened riding through the place I'd hope to place my house or at the very least, my 8x8 farm. This is without a doubt my favorite theme for a zone. Oh well, shit happens. Next.
While questing I reached the point of getting the wolf battle pet. I'm not personally a fan of the battle pets. Mine was more often a hassle than a help. It has been suggested that might have been because I was a plate wearing class in alpha. At the time, my pet felt like it was more working trying to keep him alive than fighting by myself. This time I'm cloth so we shall see.
Justicar vs. Paladin
For the moment I’m playing a Justicar instead of my beloved Paladin and I’m digging it. Justicar is Occultism + Vitalism + Defense. Paladin is Battlerage + Vitalism + Defense. As you can see, it’s only a 1 tree difference and I pick the same skills in the two common trees for both variants. The major difference is one plays as caster and thus wears cloth, while the other is melee in plate.
I can heal effectively in either but I’m starting to enjoy the ranged combat and movement available with the Occultism tree. I have enough of the skills now to pull 2 to 3 mobs - with care, and immobilize them, DOT one and kite them around once they’re free until I DPS them down. Pulling multiple mobs is not as face-roll as I’ve experienced in other MMOs. A “missed” hit, ill-timed cast or unexpected re-spawn can mean your crumpled corpse laying at the feet of a Nui Priestess and a portion of your XP down the drain.
Level 30
The leveling is as fluid as what I experienced during Alpha. I’m just out doing my thing and the levels come. Now that I have properties secured and 3 out of 4 are producing materials, I’m integrating questing into my gaming sessions. Albeit at least ½ of my time is consumed by farming and turning in trade packs. If/when I can craft the new farm cart, my transportation time will be reduced by 1/3. I would be able to transport 3 trade packs in a single trip which would be very sweet indeed.
With the weekend rapidly approaching I will easily hit mid 30s before it’s all said and done. I’ve also run Sharpwind Mines a few times. SM is the first instance you encounter on the West faction and my first instance ever in the game. Being the only cloth wearer in our party, I made out like a bandit the first time through. I upgraded 3 pieces of armor and got a ring. Between the next two runs I looted another ring, an arcane ring (purple), arcane staff and necklace. WOOT! Sarzan made off with a sweet upgrade to his bow too. Good loot in SM. It’s a must do once you hit Dewstone Plains. Parties are always spamming for more participants. Go to the portal to find a group if you’re guild or friends aren’t available.
Roundup
I’m enjoying ArcheAge as much as I thought I would. Our guild is growing at a steady pace with more misfits joining our merry band. We’re helpful snarky jokesters which works great for me. I’m looking forward to experiencing the content and zones I intentionally skipped in alpha and seeing how the PVP enabled questing zones work out.
Purchased an aquarium & fish for the inside until I can spare lumber to craft furniture.
My journey thus far is get home from work, boot up AA, wait in queue, do other stuff. Then at the end of the night before I head to bed, I check that I'm still not in the game yet and exit.
:(
Posted by: Winged Nazgul | September 19, 2014 at 09:07 AM
Wow, that sucks!! You're not alone. Several of our usual evening players are MIA because they can't get past the queue after work. Others are going install remote PC software so they can get in the queue from work and hopefully be logged in by the time they get home. It's a sad state of affairs when players have to go to such extremes.
I'm lucky in that I work from home. I get into the queue mid morning then do farming on breaks and at lunch to keep the character active until I can play after work.
I tried getting in a little play-time this morning having woken up unusually early. When I went to log in at 6:15 AM there was a 1,200+ queue. WTF OMG!!
Posted by: Alysianah aka Saylah | September 19, 2014 at 10:40 AM
Unfortunately, I'm in the same boat as Winged. Last night I waited for 5.5 hours and gave up while I was still #800 in the queue. So far I've succeeded in getting a single character to lvl 10.
On a more positive note, I think I'd really enjoy playing as part of the guild you're in. You have a real flair and enjoy things like decorating and housing.
Posted by: Chris | September 19, 2014 at 03:46 PM
Thanks Chris! If you're on Kyrios please message me and I will invite you to our Teamspeak to see how you like our group. This has to abate in the next couple of weeks. Not what people who can't play want to hear but I just can't imagine it going on this way much longer.
Hope you can get some play time in over the weekend. :-)
Posted by: Alysianah aka Saylah | September 19, 2014 at 08:45 PM
Winged, I'm going to install Team viewer and give that a shot. They have an app for your phone so you don't have to worry about the firewall at work. I'll post herer once I get it up and running as well as the results later on.
Posted by: Sarzan | September 20, 2014 at 02:17 PM