Archeage

Krassus_sl said:

Your bank should be able to reach out to them, they did with me on the phone immediately and got me a refund.

Click to expand...

I never considered trying that, good info should I find myself in a similar situation again though, thanks. It all worked out ok for me though, I swapped my Archeage account for some Star Citizen stuff. Money spent is still money spent but at least I have stuff I'll get some use out of one day.

Well before you guys jump the shark because of Labor Pots and Archeum Chests, please be aware of this :

The labor potion change is also not final: we're using Open Beta as a final test phase to see how the change is received. The gameplay data and player feedback will guide how they're changed further.

Click to expand...

_Scapes_ comments on ArcheAge Open Beta Marketplace Changes

We're still looking at the archeum drop rates. After the last Closed Beta, we shared the data on archeum with XLGAMES and there was enough there for them to feel comfortable changing the Sunlight Archeum. They are aware that the other archeum drop rates need looking at too, but they don't have quite enough data to feel comfortable with knowing what the right change is.
As you know, ArcheAge is a highly economy-based game, and it makes sense to make more conservative adjustments. Changes to systems that are this integral tend to have really bad effects when they're done wrong. We're continuing to provide data to XLGAMES in Open Beta to help them find the right answer. The good news is that we're able to harvest and provide that data to them quickly.
We definitely didn't design the Archeum Supply Crate with the intent it'd be a primary source of archeum! The naming of this crate was unfortunate timing and actually a nod to the Archeum Founder?s Pack. The actual archeum inside of it was supposed to be more of a bonus for purchasing it. We had actually expected all of the archeum drop updates to be done by the time this crate was introduced to the Marketplace and we're absolutely going to keep pushing for general improvements to the crafting system.

Click to expand...

_Scapes_ comments on ArcheAge Version 1.2 Build 4.7: Patch Notes

Also please be aware they'll run a Livestream tomorrow :ArcheAge | ArcheAge Open Beta Livestream |

We'll probably have more updated info during this Livestream.

Tuco_sl said:

I'd love it if they did an AMA.

Click to expand...

They're doing a Livestream after 4 days of forum shitstorm, I'm being naive but maybe they heard the complaints ! On the other hand you're probably right, maybe they'll shrug it off (pun) and tell people to kindly fuck themselves.

I've been following this thread for some time now, and I finally decided yesterday to purchase a silver pack, mainly for the head start and month of patron status, so I guess you can take my opinion with a grain of salt. That said, I really don't understand all of the theoretical anger over the archeum and labor potion changes.

Everyone is all up in arms and screaming "pay to win," as if this is the first time that Trion has given people who pay more an extra advantage. Um, hello? How many people paid for a founders pack to gain alpha/beta access? You all understand the game mechanics and what it takes to succeed far better than someone playing the game for the first time in a CBT or open beta. Not to mention the huge advantage you get via the head start when it comes to claiming land.

At the end of the day, the outrage is a bit selective, isnt it? And anyway I'll bet that the people who shell out gobs of cash to min/max as soon as possible will be the first to get bored, and then it will be all cries of "not enough content!"

There is also the hugely social aspect of the game; in a couple months, I'm betting smart guilds will have stockpiles of mats to gear their members up, and the auction house will always be an option.

I will admit that the current values (for archeum drop rates and labor potion effectiveness) need some tweaking, but beyond that all of this rabble rabble rabble I'm seeing all over the internets on this issue don't really make a whole lot of sense to me.

Elurin_sl said:

The only one that pisses me off is the double dipping. An example of this is inventory and warehouse space. Those things are pretty basic but critical elements. The fact that you pay a subscription for Patron and those things are in the cash shop bothers me. There should be some in the loyalty shop that are non-tradeable. I look at SOE games that converted to F2P where subscribers get Station Cash, and I feel like that's the way these games should be. With Archeage though, your subscription doesn't bring a whole lot to the table. The loyalty shop is there, so it's like they considered this aspect, but they didn't put anything worth a damn in it.

Click to expand...

Of course they didn't put any extra bonuses in there worth anything for paying a sub, lol. They are pretty much using the exact same model they have for Rift (Patron status) where you pay a sub, get no cash shop currency of any kind... only store discounts and extra leveling benefits and crap (which did nothing if you're already leveled in Rift).

Major difference is if they gave you monthly stipends in AA for subbing, they'd severely dent their cash shop purchases because then your only market left to buy things are F2Pers, who don't like to buy stuff anyways. F2Pers would cry louder if subs got stipends because it would further tilt the economic balance away from being 'competitive';"Labor points AND free monthly money to buy more shit to make better shit to beat my ass while I get nothing"?

I think they should get nothing being freecheesers myself, but the problem with Trion was they lied right up front:

ArcheAge | The ArcheAge Patron Program and APEX System |

This premium service tier, called Patron status, can be gained through a variety of methods. As a cornerstone of our ?No Tricks, No Traps? approach to free-to-play, it?s important to us that the Patron Program adds to the fun of ArcheAgebut is not required to play the game.This optional programwas jointly designed by XLGames and Trion Worlds and is available to those players who wantto get a little extraout of ArcheAge.

Click to expand...

A "little extra".

This was why I said I was going to wait and see how it launched. That one quote right there from June showed me they were just trying to push packages before most people figured out what was going on. Calling the sub package 'optional' when they knew it was going to be a cornerstone if you wanted to get anywhere at all in this game, more than most any other F2P game told me a lot about Hartsman and Trion.

Explosivo_sl said:

There is also the hugely social aspect of the game; in a couple months, I'm betting smart guilds will have stockpiles of mats to gear their members up, and the auction house will always be an option.

I will admit that the current values (for archeum drop rates and labor potion effectiveness) need some tweaking, but beyond that all of this rabble rabble rabble I'm seeing all over the internets on this issue don't really make a whole lot of sense to me.

Click to expand...

I was going to quote Bondurant, but did yours instead to address the archeum issue. They've known about the archeum drop rate issue for a long time and basically ignored it. As I said earlier, they even have the 1.7 patch in Korea and Russia to go by. After weeks of them saying, "We've taken it to XL Games and they're going to fix it" we got the response in Bondurant's post about what they changed. In reality, most people found that the drop rate hadn't been changed even slightly. Worse, even if it had it wasn't even remotely close enough to what's needed.

I quoted you, because no, in a couple months there won't be stockpiles of materials for gear. Even with the 1.7 drop rates, no one in Korea has a full set of BiS gear. It's that rare. With thecurrentrate we have for open beta, no one will be getting a BiS piece...ever. You're literally talking about thousands of attempts to get one piece, and each piece requiring an absurd amount of archeum. I said before, even if they up the drop rate by 10 times what it is now, it's not enough.

I'm pretty sure that what we had for open beta is the release launch. Nothing else will be changed. I'm sure there will be a few hundred megabyte patch that we'll get on Wednesday or Thursday, but it won't be to change anything significant; more than likely translation fixes for the German and French versions.

Krassus_sl said:

Your bank should be able to reach out to them, they did with me on the phone immediately and got me a refund.

Click to expand...

Apparently, I have to wait 2 weeks (if I don't get a response from Trion) before I can dispute that transaction.

<3 u

Elurin_sl said:

I was going to quote Bondurant, but did yours instead to address the archeum issue. They've known about the archeum drop rate issue for a long time and basically ignored it. As I said earlier, they even have the 1.7 patch in Korea and Russia to go by. After weeks of them saying, "We've taken it to XL Games and they're going to fix it" we got the response in Bondurant's post about what they changed. In reality, most people found that the drop rate hadn't been changed even slightly. Worse, even if it had it wasn't even remotely close enough to what's needed.

I quoted you, because no, in a couple months there won't be stockpiles of materials for gear. Even with the 1.7 drop rates, no one in Korea has a full set of BiS gear. It's that rare. With thecurrentrate we have for open beta, no one will be getting a BiS piece...ever. You're literally talking about thousands of attempts to get one piece, and each piece requiring an absurd amount of archeum. I said before, even if they up the drop rate by 10 times what it is now, it's not enough.

Click to expand...

So people are angry because they'll never be perfect, and upgrading gear is hard. Still not seeing why people are acting like it completely ruins the game. I doubt it will ever be an issue for most people.

Don't get me wrong, I hate RMT in MMOs, because it hugely fucks with the immersion factor to me, even if it's only cosmetic. I just don't see the practice going anywhere anytime soon, so I'll just do what I do with every other game I play: play until I'm not having fun any more, then quit.

Most estimations that I've seen on Reddit and the official forums shows that once you take the RNG element into account, it would cost upwards of 200k USD to craft a full set of the top tier equipment (7 armor pieces + weapon) for a single player using the cash shop as the source of labor points and materials.

If someone pulls that off I say more power to them. Lets a player like myself who does not care for the farmville elements to play this game completely free.

I love it when people come in here to give their opinion when they haven't even played the game, so have no idea what they're talking about. Get to level 8 first like everybody else!

As for the archeum fix in 1.7, from what I've heard, it's mostly an upgrade to archeum trees, which require mineral water from Auroria, which will be closed for 4-6 weeks anyway. They've said that we'll get 1.7 "soon" and XL probably doesn't want to do any major work on a special partial patch.

The patch notes said archeum drops were "increased". And we all know what it means when we get vague terminology like that. It was probably increased from something like 0.5% to 0.7%.

Also, the data they collected during Alpha/Beta is pretty useless anyway. Archeum comes from pve drops. Many people don't bother with PVE once they hit 50. The few that do? Other than running dungeons occasionally they grind Library (closed), Auroria (closed) and Hasla (tier 2 and 3 removed). Never understood why a PVP focused game has the main crafting component acquired through shitty pve anyway.

Also, a good majority of archeum in Alpha was obtained by bots, which they say they have some super secret magic code to fix once the game goes live. If it actually works, that's another source of archeum gone.

The chests aren't even going to be a major factor. No one in their right mind is going to gamble on those chests to actually craft stuff when you could spend the same amount on gold and just buy out the AH and get exactly what you need.

The drop rates on the other hand are out of whack compared to what you need to actually craft stuff. If they are only just looking at OB now it will be 45 days or more until they actually can get it changed IMO. Assuming it ever does.

The gating of content, really the only content (gear) is going to be an interesting decision to see how it all works out. They are taking a chance on people getting bored vs balancing that with locking down some content and keeping them playing longer by stringing out said content artificially. Being F2P I'm not really sure how it will all work out but its probably a better financial decision for them to do so.

Kedwyn_sl said:

The drop rates on the other hand are out of whack compared to what you need to actually craft stuff. If they are only just looking at OB now it will be 45 days or more until they actually can get it changed IMO. Assuming it ever does.

Click to expand...

This + Raes' comment on closed content and botting. What the actual fuck is Trion doing with this game?

That's what bothers me. They could have used the end of alpha and all these beta tests to you know, test out the archeum drop rate. Instead they sat on it until just before open beta where nothing could really be done.

And Explosivo, I'm not sure if you've played, and if so, if you've tried crafting. When we say it's out of whack, it'sreally fucking out of whack. It's basically useless trying to craft the gear as you level up. There's just no possible way you'd keep up. With each tier (I believe every 4 levels?) requiring ever increasing amounts of resources, it just becomes insane trying to make a set of armor. Even just crafting a single set of level 20 gear, which is the first set, takes an amount of resources I wasn't willing to bother accumulating. That's several tiers before you even get into the whole failure process where you have a 3 in 4 chance of getting garbage, or when you start getting the wrong typing of gear. Throw in regrades to get higher tiers of gear. It's seriously three layers of RNG. Per tier.

Is there any element of the game you can't experience if you don't have this super difficult to acquire Archeum gear?

Probably not, no. The PVE elements are pretty weak.

It's just going to make a very large difference in PVP, which is the bulk of the game. A single player with top tier gear doesn't really matter either though. Put a group on him and he dies maybe 1 second slower than a non-geared player. But get a whole guild outfitted, and no one stands a chance. I don't think anyone who hasn't played the foreign versions can comment on the dynamics of that though.

Naj_sl said:

Is there any element of the game you can't experience if you don't have this super difficult to acquire Archeum gear?

Click to expand...

Just one. It's called "progression".

Also wanted to share my favorite quote from Scapes:

"Further tiers of Hasla were introduced for amuch more advanced server, not a fresh server. We'll reintroduce them in the near future."

Scapes: Really?

Yeah, that's true. Just like 99.9% of the other shit we got with 1.2, but we get to keep those!