Mystic Worlds

ArcheAge - Future is Less Bright

Slow Decline

A series of very unfortunate events have caused a slow decline in the ArcheAge population.  A certain amount of attrition is to be expected in any MMO.  However, if what people say and post on forums and Reddit are to be believed, many are fed up with the constant stream of hacks and exploits coming to light in the NA release.  Apparently, none of this is new news for AA that has been out in Korea for almost 3 years and in Russia for 2 years.  If that’s the case, then I have to wonder at the due diligence on Trion’s part in signing on as the NA publisher with this many holes in the code base.

Combine the constant stream of ‘oh shits’ and in the eyes of many players, a few critical mismanagement steps on Trion’s part, a lack of end game that hasn’t been tarnished by the hacks and exploits, and you have a recipe for paying players waving goodbye.  I don’t have to listen to what people say or read the forums, I can see it with my own eyes.  I’m on what was the most populated server and it is slowly emptying out.  Now throw the new WOW expansion into the mix and… Need I really say more?

Impacts to my Game

Only a few of the train wreck of issues have impacted me directly – the NA release of Auroria.  Not even a prayer at getting land with all the issues and lockouts caused me to rethink my commerce and trade plan.  Of course, I’m impacted by the land hacks and exploits that have busted the economy on top Trion and XL attempts at “fixing it” but on the whole, life for me in AA continued on.

I still enjoy what I found appealing about the game during Alpha – gain XP/level however you choose, decent PVE quests, interesting instanced content, OMG variety of trade professions, player housing, farming and an active economy where crafting matters.  Sure there’s grind but show me an MMO that doesn’t have it.  I skip the grinds I don’t find worthy of my time.

However, my game play isn’t unscathed. The player base mood is in a rapid and rabid freefall.  AA holds so much promise.  It’s painful to watch mishap after mishap unfold, knowing there isn’t another MMO like this to run to as an alternative.  It feels like every day there’s a new exploit or game mechanic trollololol making its way around.  It’s a sad situation.  Lots of “honest” players are departing, leaving those of us who are trying to hang on, trapped in a den of thieves. And I don’t mean the acceptable PVP and Pirate kind, I mean the lowlife hacking, cheating, scummy kind.

It's not the End

This doesn't have to be the end of AA by any means.  It wouldn't be the first MMO to continue after a VERY ROCKY beginning.  However, very few of the games that do recover, ever do so to the point of being considered a "successful" MMO.  They may survive for a time  - APB and Vanguard for example.  Yet, they'll never be what they could have been and aren't likely to have the revenue stream necessary for high quality content updates.  They're more likely to linger - live off of lots of fixes, tweaks and minor updates - not the kind of game I commit years of gaming time to.  FFXIV is the only MMO I'm aware of that's risen from the ashes of a failed start and maitain a subscription.

AA's payment model may give it more legs and life than a Vanguard type recovery.  Except that I don't know who puts real money into a game with exploits that directly impede any value gained by having subscribed or contributed real money.  The hacking and exploits are at the level where they completely eclipse any of the subscriber perks with the exception of owning land.  There were issues up until a few days ago directly taking money out of Trion's pocket via a Market Place exploit. I'm not sure it gets much worse.

Some days I think, "AA will be my Vanguard".  Low population game with features I adore but not enough players or new content to be my primary MMO.  I know of players that stayed in Vanguard for years, I didn't even play live after I was in BETA. But now I get it, I feel about AA they way they must have for Vanguard.  Much that I enjoy and can't get anywhere else or at this point, I just might. It's unfortunate that what I enjoy about the game pretty much requires a subscription - needed to own land.  But that's not me.  I'm prefer one MMO and one character at a time. I'm only dibbing and dabbing when I don't have a primary one to call home. And I was hoping AA was going to be home. I was banking on it being that at least until Star Citizen's RGP and persistent universe are released.

Playing w/o Paying

Several former guild mates are selling off their property before dropping their subscriptions. They're not bailing yet but are no longer committed enough to be paying players. Trion has so little control over the code I don't know how they're going to fix issues that have been busted for this long!?!  I may look into supporting my account via in-game gold using APEX instead of subscribing. I know that I can generate enough gold to do it. It's more a question of is that what I want to turn my game play into?? I guess I could turn that into a challenge if nothing else and blog about what it takes for those considering the same.  Hmm...

 

Related articles

ArcheAge Weekend Shenanigans - Saturday Nite PVP Event

ArcheAge - Battle for the Kraken

ArcheAge: What can I say...

ArcheAge - Chitty Chitty Bang Bang

When I named my farm wagon Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, I never dreamed it would fly.

 

Houston, we have a problem!

Seriously WTF is going on?? It may be time for me to disembark.

I was more worried about the wagon falling over into the steam below in some awkard position.  Although using Rider's Escape on bridges is sometimes dodgy, I didn't have much choice.  Luckly, it summoned it on the other end, only partially embedded in the hillside.  :-/  

ArcheAge - Change and More Change

Post Auroria

In the aftermath of disappointment in the release of the NA Auroria content, our guild chatter slowed down considerably.  Guild members logging into ArcheAge was light for a couple of days.  For myself, I decided to restructure my existing properties as though they would be my only pieces of land for the long term.  This meant dropping tertiary produce and livestock to focus on priority production elements.  Less profitable and/or items whose pricing was very volatile were removed from the line-up.  I also added a new product that would help move another set of Trade Packs (TP) into the consistent 130% pay out range.

Gliding  to the frontlines of the the conflict during NA Auroria release

New Trade Pack Production

I recently hit 50K proficiency in Husbandry and Commerce which prompted me to begin crafting and selling Multipurpose Aging Larders (MAL).  MALs are items that are produced and turned into TPs right on your property.  Due to the cost involved in purchasing the larders if you can’t create them yourself, a much smaller percentage of the player base produce them which is why the payout stays at 130%.

MALs are also good if you want to decrease the amount of time you have to spend tending your property.  MALs take 3 days to age and do not require any interaction or maintenance after assembly.  I also added TP creation from two more PVP enable zones which because of the variability in safe access to produce and transport TPs out of the zones, also stay at maximum payout percentages.

Rearranging trees on my small scarecrow farm

Using Multipurpose Aging Larders

To create MALs you must have the prerequisite Husbandry and access to a Farmer’s Workstation.  If not, you can buy them from the Auction House.  Before placing down a MAL be sure that you have all of the necessary ingredients immediately available.  MALs will disappear if not stocked with supplies within 5 minutes – I think. I know it’s a very short timer and they’re not cheap.  I sell the empty larders on the AH for 11 to 15 gold each, depending on the day, time and # already listed.

Larders are about the size of the small bamboo coops which means they only fit on properties that are 16x16 or larger.  After placing your larder, choose from the 3 sets of food items that can be created:

• Aged Honey - requires 5 honey + 5 hay bales
• Aged Salve - requires 40 cultivated Ginseng + 20 olives
• Aged Cheese - requires 30 milk + 10 lemons

Although the larder displays multiple levels, it only produces a single TP.  Since it take 3 days to mature and only produces a single TP, you should choose the longest turn in route to maximize your profit.  For example, my 16x16 is in Gweonid Forrest, making Sandeep my furthest Gold Trader turn in point.  At that distance and 130%, turn in, Aged Cheese pays is 20G each,  Doing this x 5 using a Farm Wagon yeilds up to 100G every three days. Not bad for being my new secondary trade pack product.  But what I was really after was more time to do other things, making larders an excellent option.

Multipurpose Aging Larder on my large scarecrow farm in Gweonid

Looking a Gift Horse in the Mouth

Convenient timing or semi genius, Trion has quelled the anger from the botched release of Auroria on the NA servers for a bit.  Or at the very least, they’ve pushed the conversation to page two of the Times. For players who already own land, the biggest reason for wanting property in Auroria was to grow Archeum trees. Archeum trees produce the coveted and very expensive components needed to craft ALL gear in the game – armor, weapons and accessories, among other things.  This new influx from Auroria property owners, would over time, lower the prices. The current state of prices was making crafted items exorbitantly expensive, putting them out of reach for most players and bankrupting crafters, who weren’t even breaking even.

The addition of one new item into the Market Place (cash shop) killed two birds with one stone.  Enter stage left – a new chest that has a chance to include a Rumbling Archeum Sapling.  An Archeum tree variant with a 10% chance to produce a Thunderstruck tree (another insanely expensive item needed for vehicles), doesn't require Archeum water found only in Auroria and it matures in an hour instead of days.  This new item was introduced at the same time Patrons were given a retroactive 10% discount on all Market Place gems they'd purchased.  Suddenly, thousands of players had gems to spend on the new chests.  In turn, this made it rain Archeum trees in AA.

Within hours, Thunderstuck tree prices plummeted from 1.2K gold to under 300!  And if the tree wasn’t hit by lightning to produce a TS, it dropped Archeum when you chopped it down. Double whammy drop in prices, as Archeum costs fell instantly.  Suddenly, the two most expensive crafting materials in the game are within reach of the many more players.  Both of the supporting systems – AH and CS almost buckled under the onslaught of players accessing them. 

For myself, I sold everything I could to get my hands on to purchase the two TS trees needed to upgrade my 2 slot Farm Cart, to the 4 slot Farm Wagon introduced in the Auroria content patch. After getting the TS and other components, still relatively expensive for a vast majority of players, I was able to craft my ChittyChittyBangBang wagon. Once again, I was busted broke.  Hrm, then it dawned on me to see how many gems I had in the CS from the patron refund.  Uh huh, lots.  YES!!  I purchased chests, planted saplings and landed 2 TS which I immediately sold.  Then I noticed the prices of the trees themselves were going for 35g each – a for sure amount versus planting yourself and hoping for TS to sell. I immediately changed tactics and sold my saplings and invested all the gold into purchasing the materials needed to craft my next set of armor. SCORE

Maiden voyage of my farm wagon - existing Marianople

Two efforts that were going to require weeks of grinding whatever means I had to make gold, were suddenly within reach in 24 hours.  I spent all that evening into the wee hours of the morning playing the AH – watching prices on items I’d horded and selling anything not needed for tailoring or crafting a farm wagon. I’ve already been using the wagon but haven’t started crafting the next tier of armor yet. I need another 3K proficiency first.  I might craft the plus 1K proficiency rug that can be placed in your home to make it happen sooner.

New Place to Call Home

In a bitter sweet decision, I decided to leave TIIL, the guild I’ve been playing with since Alpha. This was a very hard decision for me to make.  They are a great group of people and I’ve enjoyed every minute of their company.  However, they are mostly a guild of Oceanic players and over the past few weeks, there are fewer and fewer people playing in the NA time zone.  Between changing work schedules, travel and people getting busy in real life, I was often one of only 3 people playing during the week in my time slot.  The guild would be gaining critical mass just as I was logging off for the night. *Sad Panda*

I tried to stick it out because Friday and Saturday were good times.  People playing extended hours, there would be at least a few hours where there were lots of people on when I was playing.  In the end, I realized that I was at a point of being ready to do more in AA and more in AA requires bodies.  This is not a solo friendly world for end game content other than farming and running trade packs.  And I don’t want to PUG what there is to do – top tier instances, Hasla weapon grind and world PVP.  That’s what being in a guild is for.  Only time will tell if this was the right decision for me.  I’ve moved from a very social but ultra-casual guild to one that is more formal in organizing group content which means there are roles and rules.

I joined Praetorian, the guild I’d acted as the liaison for to have TIIL invited to participate in weekly Naval PVP events.  My departure while sad was understood.  There’s just no denying that there are very few NA players in TIIL while Praetorian is all NA. I hope to still help to coordinate TIIL participation in Praetorian events in the future.

Last Event as TIIL

I remained in TIIL for 3 days after making my decision and accepting an invite from Praetorian. I wanted time to tell my fellow officers and the guild leader one-on-one and do a last group PVP as a member of their guild.

The weekend Naval PVP outing was a resounding success.  Within the first 30 minutes we encountered and claimed two full trade ships.  It got down and dirty but we did our thing, destroying both ships and recovering all of the trade packs.  This was followed by several other skirmishes including destroying 2 war ships, multiple fishing boats, lots of clippers and an ocean of red players.  A great time was had by all and it was a wonderful way to say goodbye to my now former guild mates but forever AA friends from The Immortal Imperial Legion.

Praetorian member carting a trade pack of Elephant Cookies we looted from "reds"

Full raid was loaded down with the spoils of war within 30 minutes

Oh nice, my Hallowtide costume matches the Praetorian colors.  *smile*

Something New

I’ve been chronicling my MMORPG gaming adventures for over 15 years.  It’s been over 9 years on this particular blog. Today I decided I wanted to change the theme to something lighter and a bit more serene.  At least it is to me.  *Smile*  The image is a close up from a group of pictures I'd taken of my garden last year.  I love roses and have a variety of different types and colors around my deck. *Sigh* This will remind me of summer as the winter months roll in.

ArcheAge: What can I say...

So much promise is being squandered.  I'm not sure what it will take for Trion and XL get it together. Guild attendance is down since the Auroria debacle and TeamSpeak has been empty during my playing times as well.

An article on Massively sums things up nicely and with more effort than I wanted to put into describing the current concerns and issues.  I'm still playing but a bit more hesitantly and changing up my focus just in case things go into a decline.

ArcheAge - Oh Trion!

The last big release of claimable land for some time to come was a disaster. The update introduced an issue where many players were denied access to the game. From our guild, only 3 of us were able to log in to participate.  Only 4 made it into the game before I logged off for the evening around 10 PM Eastern.  And they were trying for hours to get into the game but couldn't.

Given the importance of the event, I'm not surprised by the outrage being expressed by players who couldn't participate due to a bug in the update.  It really begs the question why Trion isn't pushing new content to a test realm first.  We were told that the original Alpha server would become a test realm. I've yet to see that enacted to allow content to be tested under "live" conditions.  

There are guilds and players who prepared for months to participate in the conquest of Auroria.  And while only a few would have realized their goal, some had it snatched from their grasp right at the moment of completion.  There are YouTube videos of key participants, who were holding what was needed to claim a tower, were disconnected and then met with the dread "The Gods have disconnected you..."  while loading into the game - over and over and over, until their chance was taken by another.  The issue at hand was that you could actually log into the game, select your server and your character but get no further, as during the connection sequence you would be disconnected from the game and sent back to your desktop.

If memory serves correctly, I recall outrage in GW2 when connection/access issues barred a huge portion of the player base from participating in a one time event.  The forums were on fire.  A couple of days later, all players received the rewards that could have been obtained if you'd made it to the event.  In this case unfortunately, it's not within Trion's power to reward what people were after - land.

I feel kinda meh this morning about playing.  I'm fine without more land but what started with a bang, ended in a whimper. The whole affair was uninspiring and the drama will drag on for days if not weeks. If you're bored you can visit the AA Reddit section.  The game is offline this morning. Guess I'll go see what BS is going on now. I would like to feed my livestock before work.  I wasn't able to late last night having fallen victim to the error myself.

The EU Auroria deployment is being delayed.  We here in NA are glad to have served as the testbed. Not really. 

ArcheAge – Battling RNGesus

In the Beginning

A few posts ago I discussed the results of my efforts to craft my cloth Illustrious set. After about 500 gold, I was in a mixed group of pieces that because of the RNG side of crafting at this level, didn’t technically amount to a “set”.  No set means, no set bonuses, losing the Arcane bonus from my previous set and having 4 out of 7 pieces be dead-end, not upgradeable to level 50 (Magnificent).  That’s a bitter pill to swallow after pouring so much time and effort into acquiring the gold and leveling my tailoring profession.  What now?

I was bust after getting all of the materials for that run at crafting a full set.  It wasn’t possible to make other attempts or buy the missing pieces to get to 7/7 Ocean (upgradeable to level 50) or Stone (considered decent staying point for a level 50).  Checking the Auction house prices to purchasing single pieces of Ocean put that out of my reach, with individual pieces going for 350 gold and up.  That left me with attempting to craft them again but I didn’t have the funds to do it.

Keep it Moving

I spent the next two days scraping up every copper I could muster, including salvaging the full plate set I had been wearing to gain more crafting materials.  I sold off excess produce of every kind.  I ran trade packs until I couldn’t stand it.  I could give it more but I was pissy about being in the mixed match set of cloth gear.  One the second day I had the materials to craft two pieces again. I had to take a deep breath before unsealing them to see the result.  SCORE - both were Ocean.  Whew, that put in 5/7 Ocean but broke again.  Hrm, now what?

After spamming trade chat resulted in zero offers, I put the two pieces I’d replaced on the AH along with the other two that weren’t Ocean.  This meant I had no helm or pants.  Then I remembered that had 3 pieces of Corrupted Paladin plate gear from GHA in my warehouse.  Bingo, there was a helm and pants.  That let me put the other two pieces I’d crafted that were Stone and Lake version, on the AH too.  With 4 pieces of Illustrious on the AH I’d certainly have to net enough money to purchase 2 pieces.  I didn’t want to battle RNGesus again to complete the set.

The Long Way Home

It took over 24 hours for the pieces to start selling.  I was able to buy an Ocean Hood at a decent price -250 gold.  However, there was only one pair of legs and they were listed at 650 gold.  No fucking way! Grrr!  Life moved on and I participated in the weekend of shenanigans wearing 6 pieces of Ocean cloth and 1 piece of plate, as you can see from the picture (can see I’m wearing greaves instead of a skirt).

All of my items sold which netted me a decent amount of gold. I kept running more trade packs and selling more produce than I normally would.  Finally, more Ocean leg pieces were on the AH. I rushed to spend to 230 gold for the cheapest one.  Yes, 7/7 Ocean and a couple hundred gold to spare but certainly not profit. I used the extra to upgrade my accessories and buy a level 44 Lute – stat stick mainly.

I’m rethinking my plan of attack for getting in Magnificent (level 50) gear.  The base cost is 1K gold if RNGesus is on your side and you proc the stats you want on all 7 pieces the first time around.  FAT CHANCE!!  Earning 1K is no easy feat and knowing that it’s just the starting point gives me pause.  However, the alternative, buying them all on the AH feels absurd when prices start at 700 gold per.

ArcheAge - New Content Releases Today... Queue the Drama

Today's 6 hour downtime brings in new content, more normalization and a few fixes. You can read the official forum post here.  The drama has already started. Let the whining and flame wars begin. I'm preparing for the real war.  I'll be back in my healer build today, helping my guild do the very little we can do.

Preparing for the Real War

A new landmass is being made accessible today in ArcheAge.  Auroria brings with it features many of us have already experienced in the AA Alpha.  The big items are new zones for placing farms/houses, ability for guilds to claim castles and others to siege them, ability to upgrade Farm Carts to Farm Wagons and opportunity to grow Archeum trees, a necessary component in crafting gear among other things.

Auroria is 24/7 PVP and not for the faint of heart.  It’s EVE 0.0, where people will sleep with the devil for short term gains.  Sell out their mother, brother or sister for a trifling. If you already have land, having property in Auroria is desirable because of Archeum.  If you don’t own property, it’s important as one of the last places it will be possible for you to acquire land freely.  Once land in Auroria is gone, land prices everywhere will skyrocket higher than the exorbitant amount of gold being asked for them now.

Thrown into the mix is that the guild who owns the tower for that region gets to set property taxes.  This is often used as a tool to run everyone out of the zone until their members own it all, after which time they reduce them.  The whole zone is an epic clash of wills where both factions are vying for the same towers and properties.  Only the biggest guilds even have a chance at capturing the node necessary to construct a castle.  Midsized guilds may take sides, trying to sway ownership, there by gaining an ally in the zone.  Bootlicking guilds will cross faction lines to spite their rivals and cause chaos, in hopes of being tossed a few crumbs.  Everyone else waits with baited breathe to race out there to grab property once someone – any guild, claims a tower node.

Where we Stand

For TIIL, we’re going to align with the lesser of evils within our faction, one of the only two guilds with a prayer of claiming a node.  Going with the largest guild is much too distasteful amid accusations of them being racist, condoners of hacking, participants in same faction killing, etc.  For me, land in Auroria would be beneficial in crafting armor to alleviate having to purchase Archeum, the most expensive component in my recipes.  However, if it turns out to be a huge cluster out there, I’ll forego the “pleasure” of ownership.  Even if I get a spot I could sell if for a one time influx of gold.  Maybe it’s just me but I feel as though the Alpha players had a bit more class, style and self-restraint than many of the fucktards in the West faction now.  I’m not interested in more property at “any price”.

ArcheAge Weekend Shenanigans – Hell in Hellswamp

Late Sunday evening, a guild member asked for help in transporting 30ish trade packs from Hellswamp to Solzreed.  The problem with large transport out of Hellswamp is that the Specialty workstation is inland.  Unless you have property in Hellswamp, which is a PVP enabled zone, there’s nowhere to stage large expeditions.  You have to craft the trade packs one by one and get them out to the coastline before they can be placed on a ship.  This means running a Farm Cart brigade, if your guild is fortunate enough to have that many, and we do.  *Smile*

Peacetime Masses

Trade Packs out of Halcyona, Cinderstone and Hellswamp pay well but can only be safely transported when those regions go into peace.  When that happens, players who craft those items descend on the region like locusts.  It’s a mad dash to get in and out before it flips back to PVP.  Our guild arrived en masse with farm carts.  For me, it was the first time transporting out of the area.  I tend to avoid it and Cinderstone like the plague.  Dodging the PVP war times in Halcyona are more than enough for me.

Farm Carts don’t like Hell-Swamp

None of us, including the guild member we were helping had ever transported goods out of Hellswamp.  He did have the presence of mind to send someone on a mount to find the best path out to the sea. Unfortunately, things that looked innocuous on a mount were quite the opposite for a caravan of farm carts.  We waited for the intel to come back on which route to take out of the area then lined up for an organized exit.

Vehicles in ArcheAge recognize various types of terrain.  They can get stuck on bumps and not so steep inclines.  They also reduce speed in mud and water.  Hellswamp.  Hell.  Swamp.  Mud.  Water. It might as well have been quicksand.  The base speed of the farm cart is 4 m/s up to 6 m/s with eco fuel.  Even with eco fuel, which only some of us had, we were moving .04 m/s.  POINT OH FOUR M/S through mobs.  Yeah that’s right, level 35 to 40 mobs on your cart while you’re basically crawling and racing the clock on peace time.

Seconds after we drove down the mountain side, away from the Specialty Workstation where they packs were crafted, we were faced with a trek through swampy aka muddy terrain.  As the farm carts hit the mud one by one, gradually grinding to a halt, the people in the back started asking why the hell we were stopping. Uh not stopping.  No, driving through molasses and being attacked on both sides of the muddy fucking path.

The hilarity of it was gut busting. I could hardly talk for laughing so hard at the spectacle we were becoming.  Players were stopping alongside wondering, “What the fuck are these fools doing?”  A few helped by killing mobs for us.  Eventually those of us with AOE came our senses and stopped our tortoise like progression long enough to cast a few AOE spells.  Anytime there was a stretch of green grass we’d head toward it for a few milliseconds of driving at normal speed. 

Wonky Zoning Physics

Finally, we reached the coast!  After winding down a very narrow path along the side of a mountain –a huge thrill for those of us with a fear of heights, we reached the sea.  Whew!  Anti, the guild member we were helping, got off his farm cart and summoned his Merchant ship.  The inlet itself was narrow but was more than wide enough to accommodate the ship EXCEPT for the fact that there were rocks on both sides.  Really unfortunate we didn’t notice that while loading up the damn thing.

It wasn’t until we finished loading and the captain attempted to back out that we encountered dilemma number two.  His attempts to turn in such a way that the back of the ship was in more water, the front of the ship breeched the invisible zoning wall into the nearest zone which WAS BACK IN WAR.  And the front of the ship got stuck on the other side of the inlet in shallow water.  Sweet baby … The ship itself and all the cargo on board, was now in a PVP war zone. Not good, definitely not good. 

At first we’re calm about the situation until a red player arrived and lingered.  Time to worry.  We attempt more drastic maneuvers.  I get on Fannel’s Clipper and harpoon the front of the Merchant ship and pull it forward, trying to help dislodge the back of the ship.  Simultaneously, another Clipper is ramming the back of the ship too.

More reds show up while we’re doing this and have become spectacle part deux.  It’s okay to panic now ‘cuz we’re fucked if shit goes down here.  Most of us also have packs on their backs which greatly diminish your movement speed.  You’re little more than a baby seal waiting for a clubbing with trade pack on.

Other guild members listening to our shenanigans on TeamSpeak arrive to help.  Some start unloading the ship back into farm carts just in case.  Moving them back on to the shore would put us and the trade packs, back into Hellswamp’s peace time.  I leave Fannels clipper and summon my own to start ramming the front of the Merchant ship.  Daedlock’s doing the same.  Killset is pulling in his clipper from the other side.  Now we have 4 Clippers trying to get the damn thing dislodged while the others are scurrying to unload it.  I keep watching my back because I’m on the war time side, Halcyona side, of the inlet.

It’s not clear if the reds can tell for sure what’s happened.  You’d have to target the ship or board it to realize it’s in a wonky zoning issue and no longer considered to be in Hellswamp’s peacetime waters. For all we know they’re just watching and thinking, “These are some dumbasses here.”  We have guild members on the beach bracing for a fight just in case, when suddenly the Merchant ship starts rocking.  Huzzah!  A couple more rams and tugs from Clippers and she breaks free of the rocks.  Killset’s clipper is able to pull the front of the ship, turning it toward open water.  We quickly reload the ship and get the hell out of Hellswamp, with a few minutes to spare on the peacetime count down.  Good grief and thanks be to …!

Bad Luck for you. Good Times for Us!

Just as we finished unloading Anti's trade packs we saw a "red" merchant ship in route to Two Crowns - probably. We chased it down, killed the owner and drove the ship over to our Guild Hall that's situated on an island in 24/7 PVP waters.  

Before you can take trade packs from someone's farm cart or ship, you must destroy the vehicle first, which makes the trade packs drop, becoming free for anyone to claim.  We'd claimed the ship and were damaging it when 3 other "greens" showed up, clearly intent on taking the packs.  Two were from a guild known for PKing (killing their own faction) and had PKed some our ouf guild members.

Fannel game them a subtle warning as advice not to stick around after summoning his Cutter to help destory the enemy ship.  Since they didn't take the warning and are known PKers, we decided we were going to Bloodlust and kill them once the trade packs dropped free.  One... Two... Three... Bloodlust, you're dead. We grabbed the packs and race them to the guild hall. Greedy PK bastadards didn't prosper this time.  It's kill or be killed around PKers. It was an apt ending to a comical and exciting journey, from Hellswamp to Solzreed.  We danced it off at Banana's house, a local neighbor, before parting company for the evening.

ArcheAge Weekend Shenanigans – Saturday Nite PVP Event

On Saturday, we joined another naval PVP event hosted by Praetorian. We roamed in a much smaller formation this time.  Instead of multiple Cutter-class ships flanked by Clippers, there was only one large ship involved, their Black Pearl, with 3 clippers in front sailing in an arrowhead formation.  Assigned to one of the clippers, I was front and center for all of the action.

The evening started off slow with very few enemy targets in sight.  That didn’t last very long.  We went from single clipper encounters to multiple clippers to fishing raids to Cutters with their own Clippers.  With two full raids of players, many of whom don’t play together on a regular basis, it takes a time for people to get into the rhythm of their roles.

We flubbed the first big encounter – 3 fishing boats with Clippers.  When the command was given to change targets from the ships to the players, there was a lot of chaos.  Most kept targeting the boats, which you do to keep them in combat and prevent them from being unsummoned.  The confusion left those of us who were fighting enemy players severely out numbered. I hadn’t heard the command to unsummon our Clippers. I’d only heard to change targets.  It was a bit disorienting to suddenly find myself in the water mid cast. I moved back from the fray and resumed fighting. I heard a lot of people say they were dying and why wasn’t anyone fighting. 

I could see our clipper raid wiping. I saw our healer’s name go gray – dead.  I had an enemy target arrow flashing above my head and was being focus fired. I swapped into Swimfins, cast ‘Shrug it off’ to neutralize the stun on me, cast a shield and drank a health potion then teleported toward the bottom of the seabed.  From there I swam down for all I was worth.  Arrows stopped hitting me in a few seconds. I swallowed another health potion before teleporting forward once more.  Momentarily at a safe distance, I started casting Recall, praying all the while it would transport me away before the bodies I saw coming toward me were in striking distance. *FLASH OF LIGHT* I dissolved to safety.  Whew! It was a very close call.

Hitching a ride back to my Clipper team

The rest of the evening went smoother albeit not picture perfect. I died a few times.  There was another miscommunication as to which team was doing what. One of the two ships we were chasing got away and people died unnecessarily.  But all in all, it was a very successful evening, full of excitement, thievery and lots of pew-pewing.  Our Clipper even spotted a guild from our faction handing off trade packs to an enemy faction in a PVP zone.  Some guilds participate in this trade with the devil to ensure save transport of the goods to the enemy continent for large shipments of cross continent turn-ins for Gilda Stars or Charcoal Stabilizers. Too bad for them we happened on their exchange.  We engaged the “reds” while our back up arrived. The “greens” didn’t bloodlust to defend.  We destroyed the ships and took the loot.

Turning in Marlin from a fishing raid we killed

Our guild is looking to participate with Praetorian on a weekly basis.  Fitting into their schedule will be difficult for us other than on weekends because many of our members are Oceanic and Praetorian is a NA guild.  Hopefully, we can work something out.  This is what I want to do on a regular basis for end game and I’d hate to have to leave my guild to do it.  We don’t have the numbers to support doing it on our own.