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[kenpoaj]

Anyone playing in the alpha? I'm on Omega server, lag just got fixed today. Making a guild and looking for a few more.

We'll be prepping for release by doing beta rushes, getting to lvl 10 as fast as possible, then doing a landgrab. After that we will have time to plan for other things, like trade and commerce, and whatever others want to do.

EDIT: Alpha is over, open beta on 9/4, Headstart on 9/12, launch on 9/16
Join Awaken @ http://awakengroup.shivtr.com/forums
We have over 100 Alpha players, a Teamspeak server, and detailed plans for launch!
We are running on Salphira on the East continent at launch (Asians/cat people)

[Folly]

Just beta here. I'm loving the game, but not enough to get Archeum pack.

[Fikes]

Care to tell us a bit more about the game?

[Vendayn]

From what I heard, it is pay to win. But I'm not sure if it is the cash shop or just because free players are locked out of a lot of stuff.

Also, it seems (this is from my friend) it was rather overhyped. He went in expecting it to be open world and a huge game, like Vanguard or SWG was. But instead everything is zoned...sure can go to other zones/continents without loading...but...it was more like WoW zones. And it was super grindy.

Crafting is really good though from what I saw. And PvP looks hectic...but in the end, friend paid 150 dollars for ArcheAge...and then went back to ESO (which he said is a lot better than it used to be).

Granted, that is not my actual experience and I didn't see much when he played (a trade route, sea travel and different areas...plus the crafting)...but...

I guess he thought it was more like a sandbox, instead of what it was. He did get overly hyped about it, which may have let him down. Personally, I didn't see enough to make a judgement.

[Folly]

From what I heard, it is pay to win.

It's more like pay-to-play. There's nothing but cosmetics and small perks like +10% xp gain in the cash shop, and of course patron status, which is like subscription plan.

You can do all of the combat stuff for free, but all tradeskills cost labor points, which are extremely limited unless you buy patron status. You can get decent starter weapons and armor from quests and dungeons, but all of the progression stuff comes from tradeskills, and so does money, so you have to buy patron to progress.

A bit more info about the game...most of the fun comes from interacting with other people and doing tradeskills. Skills include stuff like farming, mining, logging, husbandry, fishing, stoneworking, and so forth. Combining components from several of these skills, you can make trade-packs, which can be sold for large amounts of money. However, trade-packs are worth significantly more the farther you travel to sell them. But, there's open-world PvE, and you can be certain that players from other factions will be trying to kill traveling merchants and steal their packs for profit! For this reason, you really want to team up with a guild, combine your resources, then travel together for protection. As you earn gold you can buy bigger farms and better workstations so that you can produce more trade packs, and create carts and boats allowing you to travel further and faster while carrying more packs, thus earning more profit and allowing you to progress onto bigger and better things. As you move up, you're also learning to craft better weapons and armor so you and your guild can more effectively fend off pirates, or so you can go out and steal from enemy factions if you wish!

In addition to all that, there's hang-gliding, deep-sea diving, pet-raising, music-composition, and of course hanging out with bikini catgirls in hotsprings. 'dat wet fur smell...

[Neonivek]

Its pay to win because the game's largest resource is Labor which only regenerates, if you pay for free, on a 1 for 1 minute basis (though it doesn't regenerate every minute). With equipment drops, and money drops both costing labor to use or even know what they are.

If you get a subscription you can actually regenerate labor points offline.

As well there are labor potions that can give you 1000 labor points.

It can take you a while, since Equipment and money drops cost more and more labor to use while only costing 1 and 5 at the very start, but if you only want to concentrate on combat you could conceivably still play the game free to play without being hurt too bad.

It is something to think about though... 200 labor points is pretty typical for something you make... (and that is excluding collecting the materials yourself) and the costs will keep getting higher.

You can do all of the combat stuff for free

Yeah people keep saying that... That is false. You still need labor points for the combat stuff unless you stick to the anemic portion that they give you for quests (Except a lot of missions STILL charge you Labor points to use the rewards)

It just doesn't cost you labor points to do attacks. Getting drops and getting cash from enemies costs labor points that scale up as you keep playing.

It's more like pay-to-play.

It escapes that because while the paywall is immense... it is still technically possible to move past it. SURE it takes an unreasonable lack of a life to do so... but it is possible.

[Folly]

pay-to-win means getting a direct advantage over other players with minimal effort which is proportionate to an investment of RL currency. Pay-to-play means a fixed investment of RL currency in exchange for the same opportunities for advancement that all other paying players have. By this definition, ArcheAge is pay-to-play. You're not paying for bigger weapons and thicker armor than the people who can't pay as much as you. You pay for the opportunity to advance through the tradeskill system with the same opportunities as all the other paying players.

As for the money-bags, they are extremely negligible and not in any way essential to advancement. A single trade-pack will net several times more coin than a full day of grinding and opening the money bags. The equipment drops can be easily unlocked with the labor you gain without patron status, and they are easily enough to get you through all of the quests and dungeons up to the max level. The crafted gear really only becomes necessary for world-bosses and PvP.

[Neonivek]

Pay to Win can also be xp boosts and stuff like that.

So long as the difference is extreme.

You can do everything free that you can with pay. The difference though is how much time it takes to do either.

[Baijiu]

I was kinda shocked by the pay restrictions too, but then I realized that the restrictions forced activity to take place in certain areas, like the public farms where you can only grow certain crops. Now I think the pay restrictions can be a way to make community, because players will naturally group up when there's a lot of people in the same area.

[KingofstarrySkies]

I'll wait until release. Then I play. I don't have lovely experiences with paid betas and alphas, when it comes to MMOs. I just don't like the idea of it.

[SharpKris]

besides it seems like a plain point and click hotbar quest mmo.
basically WOW with a different hat doing a similar dance.

[Folly]

besides it seems like a plain point and click hotbar quest mmo.

The combat is largely as you describe. They mix it up a little bit with skills interacting in combos, but it's still very much a button masher with unimaginative quests.

What sets ArcheAge apart is the social experience. The necessity for multiple tradeskill professions to craft certain items, as well as the frequent threat of PvP, force people to work together for mutual benefit. It can be a lot of fun once you get into it.

[SharpKris]

besides it seems like a plain point and click hotbar quest mmo.

The combat is largely as you describe. They mix it up a little bit with skills interacting in combos, but it's still very much a button masher with unimaginative quests.

What sets ArcheAge apart is the social experience. The necessity for multiple tradeskill professions to craft certain items, as well as the frequent threat of PvP, force people to work together for mutual benefit. It can be a lot of fun once you get into it.

that's all very nice but what's the risk of dying in pvp? is it like EVE?

[Leyic]

What sets ArcheAge apart is the social experience. The necessity for multiple tradeskill professions to craft certain items, as well as the frequent threat of PvP, force people to work together for mutual benefit. It can be a lot of fun once you get into it.

So... wurm online?

Or Age of Wushu/Wulin.

[Neonivek]

The social experience in ArcheAge depends largely on one thing...

Are you a free player or a patron?

I barely experienced myself but apparently free players are sort of looked down upon by patrons.

But outside that I'll put it to you a different way. There is no real reason to help players, you don't get shared exp, you don't get shared loot. Yet on the other hand some crafts RELY on other people to do them in a expedient manner (Ships for example even the lowest level ship would take a week to make for one player), meaning guilds are absolutely essential.