Who all is still playing? I basically have just been logging every day to flip my water buffaloes, do a couple daily things and afk craft the rest of my labor.
I'm thinking I've just about played all I want out of the game. Other things are pulling my attention more and more.
Most of the crew are still playing regularly. It's losing the luster a little bit for me too but I'm still enjoying the game. The 2.5 patch has a ton of new stuff including new arenas with prebuilt classes/no gear advantage. Hopefully I'll finally be able to spend some time learning the classes and PvP mechanics without getting instantly smashed. I'm not sure how far out that is though. I think you can pre-pay your taxes on properties and then let your patron sub lapse if you want to take a break. I
Yup, I'll yolo all my celestial equipment shortly. It's not difficult to make what I already had anyways but since I barely do any combat content any more, I figure it'll be fun to see what percentages I get.
Hey Xi, I saw you last night but I didn't get to say hi. These days "playing" archeage for me is basically refreshing the AH every 10 mins and buying or selling accordingly while I watch college hoops.
Yeah. I'm about ready to give my property to whoever wants it and is still playing. My patron goes up at the end of the month so I guess I have to get it to somebody before then.
Upgraded miners farmhouse in marianople and 24x townhouse and adjacent 16x farm spot at portal entrance in diamond shores.
I'd love the place in Marianople. I'll keep it intact and give it back if you change your mind. I know how much stone you mined to upgrade that house (:
Heed the call of the Bloodsong: Mistsong Summit is here!
New Hero's Welcome bundles are available to be claimed on the Glyph Account Management page starting on January 27th! Log into the Glyph store, select your visible bundle, purchase it for 0 credits, and pick which character/server you'd like it delivered to.
There will be two types of Bloodsong Hero's Welcome packs avaialble: the Bloodsong Homecoming Bundle for players returning to ArcheAge and the Bloodsong Loyalty Bundle for existing players (logged in within the last 30 days prior to the release of Update 2.5: Bloodsong).
The Bloodsong Homecoming Bundle includes Mirage Weapon, Armor, Accessory and Vehicle coins for temporary gear to provide a leg-up for returning players. It also provides consumables, a music box for your house, a temporary Wisdom Tree combat pet, and a temporary Springsong Greenman Costume. The combat pet and costume can be made permanent through use of coins that are received from opening the Bloodsong Homecoming Day 1-Day 14 chest included with the bundle.
The Bloodsong Loyalty Bundle includes a myriad of consumable grimoires, labor potions and loyalty tokens (175 in total) to thank current players for their support. It also includes the temporary combat pet and greenman costume which can be made permanent by using the coins distributed in the Bloodsong Loyalty Day 1-Day 14 chest included with the bundle.
The temporary Wisdom Tree pet and the temporary Springsong Greenman Costume will last for 30 days. This means users who wish to keep them as permanent items must open their 14 day chests completely within the 30 day timeframe.
Players who have supported ArcheAge by making a purchase for real money during any time in ArcheAge's past will receive 2 bonus Homecoming Coins or Player Appreciation Coins depending on which bundle they receive. These coins can be traded in for different rewards on Mirage Isle, at the appropriate vending machine in the lobby.
Active ArcheAge Supporters will also receive 20 Loyalty Tokens in addition to their coins and loyalty bundle to compensate for the loyalty tokens lost during the Divine Clock's outage from 1/19 to 1/26.
Newly created characters made after the release of Update 2.5 will now benefit from an improved Supply Chest that will now last for 14 days instead of the prior 7. After a new character receives the temporary farm cart and eco fuel on the 7th day, the 8-14 day chests will now be available. These bonus chests include: a temporary harpoon clipper, temporary polaris bjorn mount, temporary cogwheel longboard, and many other consumable benefits.
Current and lapsed players who have ever had Patron status will also receive 1 skill saver pendant claimable through the Glyph Account Management page as a 0 credit purchase.
Fight on an even playing field in Skirmish and Sparring Arenas!
"They wanted an arena where magical improvements are nullfied? Heh. Wait until they get a load of this place..."
Take your fate into your own hands and fight on your merit alone! Our new 3v3 and 1v1 Arenas will nullify all bonuses provided by gear, potions, and other sources and will place you on an even playing field against your opponent.
Besting your opponent in a 1v1 Sparring Arena will now yield 150 Honor points. Defeat will only yield 90. Defeating your opponent without losing in a match will offer an additional 70 honor for being Invincible.
Victory in the 3v3 Skirmish arena will yield 200 honor points. Defeat will yield 120 honor points.
To learn more about these new types of Arenas and review the stats you're able to choose before going in, click here!
Build statues dedicated to your faction's leaders
"..and so the great masons of the age laid out a plan. Statues were to be erected in the honor of the great rulers, and the Heroes would have the honor of laying the first stone..."
Adventurers of Nuia, Haranya, and the Pirate faction can now build statues honoring their leaders! Both Heroes and common Adventurers will have to combine their might to build these new wonders in Marianople, Austera, and Growlgate. Construct a new type of tradepack available within the Faction Hall in order to being this process. Once complete, the statue will offer the "King's Protection" buff for 3 days. Remember to maintain your statue in order to maintain this new bonus!
The specific name of the buff will vary depending on your leader, but all versions of this buff will offer a +5 bonus to most attack types, -4% damage received to most damage types, increases Vocation Badge earnings by +1, decreases production time by 5%, and increases the skill level of all proficiencies by 500.
Play Castaway Cutthroat for treasures and wealth: January 26 - February 8
"I'mma tellin' ya, that's what the pirates SAID! Even wrote it down on parchment, they did! There's a newfound wealth of treasure down under those waves, and it's certainly more real than those bloomin' Aust Mana Towers. I don' care whatcha' say, I'mma goin', and those blackpowder posers be damned."
At the release of ArcheAge: Bloodsong 2.5 a new festival event will become available: the Castaway Cutthroat Treasure Hunt.
This event allows players to gain a daily quest to search for treasure located underwater in the Castaway Straight/Halcyona Gulf regions. In order to participate in this event, players must visit a new NPC located in Mirage Isle. The NPC will provide 2 Daru's Bubble consumables which grant a special underwater breathing buff for 30 minutes.
As this event takes place in an unruled portion of Erenor, Festival Law will not be enacted during this event. This means PvP will happen. Often. You have been forewarned.
The rewards produced by this event are similar to the present smashing portion of the Winter Maiden Festival. Regrading materials, mining gems, lunarite and library-tier coinpurses (including stolen bags) are the most common rewards for finding sunken treasure during this event. Rarely, you may obtain fragments of lucky regrade materials, Shabby Pirate costume components, Merit Badges and the Gilt Steamfish Submarine.
This event will be active from the release of Bloodsong until 12:01 AM GMT, February 9th, 2016. Good luck in your dives!
World Changes
A period of peace will now lay over Mistmerrow for 2 hours after a battle completes. After that period is over, Mistmerrow will enter back into Conflict and War as normal based on the daily schedule.
The Battle for Mistmerrow will now occur 3 times per day at 2:00 AM, 2:00 PM and 8:00 PM GMT (6:00 AM, 2:00 PM and 6:00 PM PST) in order to allow more players to experience the battle. New system messages will display additional information about the battle as it elapses including conquering of specific capture points and the Crimson Army invasion.
Characters will now be required to speak with an NPC to complete Mistmerrow battle related quests rather than have them automatically completed.
Karkasse will no longer experience a period of peace. The zone will now cycle between War for 12 hours and Conflict for 12 hours. The War period will begin at 8:55 PM GMT daily, and the housing zones will receive their normal protections only during the Conflict period.
The Red Dragon will now only spawn on Wednesdays and Saturdays in Karkasse. The Dragon will spawn at 9:00 PM and last for 12 hours if not killed. After the 12 hours have elapsed, he will leave the world, mocking your cowardice as he does so. Pansies.
Bone chips will no longer drop in the Karkasse Ridgelands. See the items section for more information on this change.
Peace time in Diamond Shores will now begin at 9:00 AM and 9:00 PM GMT, in order to take the Ocleera Rift into consideration.
Common crafting workbenches have been added into the faction bases in Diamond Shores.
Some Merchant NPCs in Diamond Shores have had their spawn locations adjusted.
Players may now enter the "Heart of Ayanad" dungeon 3 times before the daily dungeon reset timers are taken into account.
Players may now use buff items, coinpurses, and similar consumables within the area of a Nui statue. The Goddess now looks kindly upon mundane activities!
A whole tribe of Daru have appeared on Mirage Isle, eager to trade for coins featuring members of the Library Expedition.
The amount of Siege Damage dealt by defensive cannons during the Golden Plains Battle in Halcyona has been reduced (avg. 6000 siege damage is now avg. 3000 siege damage and 3500 ranged damage).
In ArcheAge 1.2, we adjusted the Archeum drop rates to be 4 : 2 : 2 (Sunlight : Moonlight : Starlight) in order to compensate for the demand upon Sunlight and Moonlight Archeum, and less emphasis on Starlight. Now that demands have shifted and all types of crystals are required, the ratio has been shifted to 3 : 3 : 3.
It is now easier to shift zones through Conflict to War.
The Delphinad Ghost Ship now drops multiple packs instead of a single Delphinad Register.
The system broadcast that occurs at the end of a Delphinad Ghost Ship encounter has been changed to occur when the ship dies, not when the loot is acquired.
Adventurous players out on the high seas are now able to find sunken ships hidden at the bottom of the ocean. Here's some pointers to get started:
Broken lifeboats now appear randomly in the Arcadian Sea.
A sunken ship may appear underneath the location of the lifeboat. Its location is marked by bubbles rising from the sand.
To expose a ship, a player must approach it in a vessel capable of revealing its location -- typically this can be done using a Submarine with Sonar.
Once the base material is revealed, it must be unearthed by interacting with it. Doing so costs labor. It can also be blasted with an Air Cannon from a submarine to speed the process.
When the entire vessel is revealed, recovery pouches can be attached to it to being the raising process.
After all the recovery pouches are attached, the sunken ship can be cut loose from the ground. This will cause it to rise to the surface.
Sunken ships contain cargo that require a high level of exploration skill to unseal.
Unsealed cargo reveals multiple tradepacks. These packs can be managed normally and turned into an Ocean Trader.
Tradepacks from a sunken ship can be of basic, grand, or rare grades. Their values vary from 10-30g at 130% turn-in value.
Arena Changes
All arenas outside of the 5v5 arena are now limited to 5 matches per day. To play in additional matches, please purchase a Bruiser's Badge from a merchant for 15 gold. The 5v5 Arena remains unlimited.
New leaderboards were added with new filters. You can now see the top 100 players per server for gear score, not just region. You can also filter by weapons worn -- 1-handed, 2-handed, or bow.
The equipped gear of a player on an Arena Leaderboard can now be viewed, regardless if it's private. Additionally, if they have a tradepack equipped instead of a glider, it will be shown in this area.
Quests and Achievements [snip for post length, check the link for this info]
Auction House
The auction house now keeps track of recently sold items and trends their average prices. This should provide a solid baseline for item values and help manage expectations when listing items for sale. To access this feature, click the Bar icon after searching for or when listing an item. The graph reveals the 7-day price trend for the item along side the 24-hour price info.
Guilds [snip for post length, check the link for this info]
Castle Sieges [snip for post length, check the link for this info]
Housing
Upgraded Thatched Farmhouses now gain specific benefits based on type:
The mineral vein located on the back of a Miner's Farmhouse can now hold up to 6 hours worth of materials extrating.
The animal pen located inside a Rancher's Farmhouse now has a chance to become Glossy when animals are raised in it. Harvesting a Glossy pen results in an increased yield.
A new type of vegetation can sometimes be found growing the roof of an Upgraded Thatched Farmhouse.
Players are now able to revert the design of an Improved Scarecrow Farm with an Evenstone - the result is an 8x8 Scarecrow Garden.
The Basic Nuian and new Harani Mansions can now be upgraded to the Spring Swept-Roof Mansion.
3 new types of 28x28 Tree Houses have been added: Oak Treehouse Design, Cherry Treehouse Design, Aspen Treehouse Design. All are available for 500 Merit Badges.
5 new types of Haranya-inspired private workbenches have been added for purchase with Gilda Stars on Mirage Isle.
42 new types of fences have been added to Mirage Isle.
6 new Masonry furniture items have been added.
4 new UCC Motion Picture Frames have been added.
3 new UCC props that can be stacked or attached have been added.
A Fellowship Plaza now has the option to be remodeled and upgraded to a Culture Plaza.
The name "Tudor Rose Villa" has been changed to "Discontinued Tudor Rose Villa" and the design is no longer available in Mirage Isle.
1 new version of the 44x44 Mansion has been added: The new Haranyan-style Black Tile Mansion design can now be purchased for 1000 Gilda Stars.
Pets, Mounts, and Vehicles
Characters may now use a Battle Pet and a Mount at the same time. Separate tool bars have been provided to manage the abilities of your companions. The global cooldown of mount and pet use will be reflected in the toolbar of the Battle Pet.
Snowlion mount armor is available only for Snowlions. Crimson Lightning is considered to be a Snowlion for purposes of equipping this armor.
The amount of experience required to level a pet from 51 to 55 has been lowered.
When a pet dies it is now unsummoned. It will again be summonable in 2 minutes after a new revival cooldown has elapsed.
Pet Recovery Potions can now be used to remove the 2 minute revival cooldown to resurrect a pet.
The Pet Recovery Potions can only be applied if the pet is stored and no longer visible in the world. If the pet remains summoned in a dead state the potion will be consumed and the pet will not be resurrected.
Pets that are summoned after a revival cooldown has elapsed or is bypassed will spawn with full health and mana.
Pets that have been instructed to Attack or Defend will remain engaged with their target until the target dies, or the pet dies.
A new button has been added for the player to determine the active target of the battle pet.
Pet or mount armor is automatically applied to a Mount or Battle Pet when it is used. The pet inventory is no longer required to be opened to switch equipped gear. Gear cannot be changed during combat.
Equipping mounts is prioritized over battle pets when using right-click equip functionality. Battle pets will be equipped correctly if they're the only pet summoned at the time. Drag functionality is still enabled.
All pets receive a default amount of damage mitigation when afflicted by cleave or area of effect style attacks.
Starting mounts for each race can now be evolved through use of the Anima system. For more information, visit the Distorted Mistsong Workbench outside of the Mistsong Summit Dungeon. Evolved starter mounts have statistics that are more in line with other mounts.
The cooldown of the "Lower Anchor" skill common to light and medium class warships has been adjusted.
The Glider Upgrade System has been reviewed and improve to award a more probable amount of success when upgrading to a tier 2 enhanced glider. The base chance of success when upgrading an enhanced glider to a tier 2 enhanced glider has been increased from 20% to 50%.
All enhanced gliders will now receive the Boost skill which can be triggered through use of a flaming pinion. While under the effects of Boost, flight speed will be increased by +30% for 30 seconds.
Tier 2 enhanced gliders will now receive the Turbo Boost ability increasing this speed bonus by +50% for 30 seconds.
The Flaming Pinion item will be adjusted so it can only be used in conjunction with glider boost and turbo boost abilities. Flaming Pinions will become available for purchase in-game for 50 silver and are also available on the Marketplace.
Items, Crafting, and Regrading
The Sunken Treasure mechanic has been adjusted the following ways:
Sunken Treasure now spawns more frequently.
Sunken Treasure now has a chance to reward the discovering player with a fragment of Vaultstone. If 35 fragments are fused together the Vaultstone is completed and can be opened to reveal new types of treasure. This list includes 28 new Aurorian Relics that can be used as physical housing items or sold to a vendor for a moderate amount of gold. These amounts are lower than past chest values.
Vaultstones may also contain pages from ancient manuscripts that can be bound into books by a Printer.
Necklace, Ring, and Earring recipes have been removed from the Dragonslayer's Workbench in Karkasse Ridgelands and are no longer available. Existing accessories will remain in the world. The Dragon Ward ring is still craftable as it's related to the Red Dragon encounter.
Items purchased with Lord's Coins are now bound to the character.
Restored functionality to the Dawnsdrop Belt item - it now grants its stacking passive buff as intended.
Ancient and Eternal Lunagems now contain more descriptive text to call out their limitations on what types of they cannot be socketed in.
The "Equipped Two-Hand Weapon" passive buff now provides +10% Shield Defense Penetration Rate (the frequency at which it occurs) and +40% Shield Defense Penetration (the amount of shield defense that's ignored).
A new type of Level 55 dungeon re-entry pass, named "Mistsong Grinding Guardian Scroll" has been added to the general merchant. This pass can be purchased for 50 gold. Please double check the type of re-entry pass required for a dungeon you intend to enter prior to purchasing the pass.
The Ship Component Regrade process has changed to more closely align with the Pet Accessory Regrading system. Ship Component Regrades now always have a combination cost of 10 gold. Ship Components from Basic to Unique grades will no longer be destroyed upon failure however they will remain the same grade. No downgrading is possible. Ship Components from Celestial to Legendary grades will be destroyed if the regrade is not successful. The rate of success on Ship Component Regrading has been adjusted from its previous table to emphasize upgrades at lower grades and increase the rarity of top grade components.
Recipes for Rank 5 Food and Drink consumables have been added.
New types of Lunagems related to Shield Defense Penetration / Rate have been added to the Handicraft Profession. These Lunagems can be crafted in Clear, Vivid and Lucid tiers.
The display order of items in the Honor Shop has been adjusted - most notably, cloaks and weapons have been moved to page 8 and 9.
The Ambitious Cloak, Lionhearted Cloak and Freedom Cloak are no longer available.
XP Potions and Growthstones have been removed from the Honor Shop.
Lower tier Honor Lunagems have an increased chance to be socketed successfully.
Clear Honor Lunagems now cost 10 honor and Vivid Honor Lunagems now cost 50 honor. The benefits provided by Clear and Vivid Honor Lunagems has been increased by up to 30%.
Honor purchased Lunafrosts are no longer tradeable to fall more in-line with other honor items. Previously purchased Honor Lunafrosts will remain tradeable.
NPC creatures of level 51 and higher will no longer drop Unidentified Dreadnaught or Shroudmaster Accessores - instead they'll have a chance at dropping a new class of Unidentified Accessories. These drops will be most notable from creatures located inside the Ayanad Library.
The maximum stack amount for all Mana Wisps has been increased to 1000.
Merit Badges
New types of Cozy Loungewear have been added to the Merit Badge store. Wearing these fancy pajamas can increase the amount of labor earned while sleeping.
Skill Changes [snip for post length, check the link for this info]
Miscellaneous
Additional information has been added for items that cost 0 credits to claim in the marketplace. No 0 credit items may be available at this time.
Pirates are no longer allowed to access Memory Tomes located on Haranya or Nuia. If a memory point was registered prior to joining the Pirate Faction it will no longer be accessible. Pirates retain access to Auroria and Ocean-focused tomes.
New sections have been added to the folio to help classify existing recipes. The proficiency to craft specific recipes remains unchanged. Recipes that were previously only accessible by visiting a workbench in the world can also be referenced through the updated Folio.
When players obtain a Proven Warrior Chest the system will now provide both on-screen messages and chat logs to reflect this gain.
More detail has been added for character statistics and combat modifiers in the character information window.
Shield Defense Penetration and Shield Defense Penetration Rate will now appear on the character window.
Confirmation that Lucky Points, or fragments thereof, cannot be obtained from regrade braziers.
Players can no longer join the Arena while they're under the effects of Rebirth Trauma.
Hero candidates must have earned at least 500 Leadership during a previous cycle to be eligible for the next cycle.
Bug Fixes [snip for post length, check the link for this info]
I barely have the time to play anymore myself, though I still think this game has the best combination of pvp/pve/crafting/housing that I've played before, so if anyone is interested in that sort of mmo, definitely give this one a shot as the continued updates show the developers are still hard at work making the game better for the future.
There aren't many of us left from PA, but I'm still active on Ollo. This game is basically Lineage 4 so hopefully you'll find a lot to like. If you have any questions hit me up, my name in game is Mandres too.
If there is anyone still playing, or any newcomers who want to try Arche Age (or any Trion Worlds game), I received a in-game credit code for "all Trion Worlds Titles". I'm looking to give it away. No longer available.
I haven't touched this game in months and I doubt I will get the will to put any extra time into it, but they are finally providing the dwarves I always dreamed of for this game:
I keep seeing this thread when ending up in MMO Extravangza, and some of the AC people mentioned it... So this is open world? Looking at character planners, it looks like rift style pick 3 skillsets? Does it play like any other MMOs I'd know?
The game itself plays great, a massive open world to run, swim, ride, drive, glide, fly and sail around in. It is run by idiots though. Which is a shame, cos it really is fun.
This is just my opinion on the game, having played it from release for over a year or so.
Well it began right at the start, promising things that would be in the game, that ended up being held back for many months. Castles for example. Major patches always ended up with way more downtime that announced. Part of the problem is that Trion themselves cannot change the code themselves, they have to request/interpret what XL games is going to do. PR would say one thing, and what we end up getting was something different.
Back when I played you'd have lots of people trolling/blocking bridges/planting saplings to stop you getting around, most people hated it, but Trion called this 'immersive behaviour'. Went on for many months, until a GM account gets effected by this and suddenly it gets banned. The whole game just feels like a cash grab and I just got sick of giving Trion any more money so that's when I quit.
And I am totally biased against Trion because of this, but even so, the game is fun, And with a good guild its better. Just don't give them too much money, they should not be rewarded for running the game like this.
The way the Auroria rollout was handled was what drove me away from the game. The housing areas being filled by bots almost immediately was enough by itself to make me walk away with both middle fingers raised high.
The whole concept of the game was pretty fun, one of those rare times I actually hit max level in an MMO too which is amusing. Sort of brought out the bloodthirsty nature in me too as I was playing essentially a very bursty rogue-warrior, so people on the other faction creeping into my questing areas tended to be taught to get the hell away.
On the other hand the farming/package delivering system was really fun and gave a real use to getting people to help you out. Whether that's guildies or someone acting as a merc.
I'd say doing guild run inter-faction pack making and pirating that across the ocean was the most fun I've had in an mmo.
For me it was being in a guild with the Goons and pirating all day long. I can't recall the number of fishermen I've personally killed, or the number of ships I've helped sink. Pulling alongside a boat and swarming over on gliders to murder the entire crew and then steal their fish was just so fucking thrilling. Then making the getaway and getting into harbor and selling the fish before they'd catch back up with us and murder us.
You know what, fuck it, I'ma reinstall this and fuck around some. Is there a PA guild still? I remember since I was playing with Goons I was on a different server and I didn't want to start anew just to play with y'all, but it's been so long since I played that now I wouldn't be against starting a new character.
edit: heh, I just remembered that we'd use the Center for Disease Control logo on our sails and we'd announce in chat that the area was being quarantined due to the plague and that all their fish would have to be confiscated, then we'd start hunting them all down. People would get so fucking mad about it while we couldn't stop giggling in whatever voice program we were using.
The way the Auroria rollout was handled was what drove me away from the game. The housing areas being filled by bots almost immediately was enough by itself to make me walk away with both middle fingers raised high.
Land isn't really a concern anymore on most servers :twisted: in 3.0 they added 2 really massive new housing zones though.
Most servers are very dead, including the one that Merchwater was on. Ollo is probably in the worst shape of all the servers. Good news is there is character transfers available if you don't feel like starting over.
Good news is that there is a new 'fresh start' server. Bad news is it has a queue. To play on the fresh start server you need a new account.
Positive changes:
Obsidian weapons were introduced a while back and now its possible to get decent gear while not paying any money (besides patron).
You can regrade gear to celestial without it breaking.
Gear no longer downgrades during regrade with one exception (celestial -> divine, but that replaces destruction chance so its a win/win).
Negative changes:
Fishing is more of a solo activity now
I loved this game - I still think it's the best designed, most feature-rich MMO ever released. The competitive economic nature of the world and the gear/stats progression kept it interesting long after hitting max level, beating all the dungeons and world bosses, etc. Every aspect of the game (art and world design, combat, class-system, farming/crafting economics, progression, social) was exquisitely balanced, polished and fun and it had a ton of great new ideas for the fantasy MMO genre like ships/ocean combat, earning gold by physically transporting goods (at the risk of being robbed), limiting the economic impact of any one player or group through the use of labor points, etc.
I played it like a second job for over a year, and I would probably still be playing except I believe it has two fatal flaws:
1. The game is fundamentally insecure. Hacks/cheats were a problem from day 1 and were never really adequately addressed. Cheaters prospered, got ahead of the curve, and overpowered the rest of the playerbase from very early on. There are a lot of contributing factors for why this happened: too much client-side game data processing, far too little GM presence in game, and the fact that the game was already years old and its weaknesses fully probed in Korea and Russia before our version came out. But it doesn't really matter why - what matters is that customers who didn't cheat ended up at a disadvantage for their entire game life, unless #2:
2. Pay2Win. This is the biggie. I've read that ArcheAge cost nearly $200 million to develop, and apparently in order to recoup that investment the business minds of the Korean developers/publishers resorted to the very worst of the f2p-game style bag of tricks to milk their playerbase. Don't believe the rationalizations that you might see on reddit or the offical forums - "It's not P2W, it's pay to progress faster!" Bullshit. Archeage is in-arguably the most p2w AAA MMO ever released. Spending dollars (in some cases a lot of dollars - I heard really shocking numbers from some of the people I played with) bought you an immediate advantage over other players. And because of the way gear/stats work that advantage could be huge. A $1k cash outlay could bring a brand new player up to power parity with a 2,000-hours played character overnight. $10k spent made you essentially un-killable. $30k made you a god, and there are people who actually did that. It wasn't just the whales either, nearly every aspect of the game had a cash shop element to it. Just dropping $10/week on labor potions meant that you were able to grow more crops, open more coinpurses, and ultimately generate more gold than anyone who didn't pay. It was infuriating that they built this incredibly well-designed, competitive world based on economic specialization, teamwork, and luck and then immediately undercut that delicate balance from day 1 by selling labor potions for cash. The intrusion of real money into the game world was also a major reason for the overall toxic attitude of the community by attracting the type of players willing to spend cash for virtual power (in my experience typically more immature, poorly behaved and aggressive young men) and allowing them to thrive in game at the expense of everyone else, and by generating a ton of miss-trust between players with constant accusations of being a wallet-warrior or whatever.
I've given up on the game and even the new "fresh-start" servers can't really do much to change these two facts in the long term. They should have released the game with no cash shop or p2w elements at all, and a $50/mo. subscription fee. It would have been worth it, and AA would probably have received the attention and admiration it really deserved.
I would agree with mandres's assessment that p2w is important to some point in this game.
I will disagree with the point that it wouldn't be p2w without a cash shop. As the best stuff is exceedingly rare, and thus expensive - without a doubt it would be for sale on a 3rd party website/forum for real cash and gold sellers would still prosper.
I will disagree with a 50$ a month subscription, that seems a bit excessive? Did you mean 50/yr?
As far as your #1 and fs, that's pretty much been addressed. I haven't heard of any real exploits that haven't been addressed quickly on fs besides unproven speculation.
A new update is coming up on April 5, which will include a progression server which is sounding interesting to me. Anyone else out there still playing this or also tempted at all?
I had a really hard time finding out from the internet what Unchained actually is. But I guess it's a re-release of the game with the monetization stuff that people hate taken out? What's the general consensus, should I be interested?
I picked up the $25 version and so far I’ve not found any of the P2W aspects from the original game. There’s a battle pass type thing but the basic version is free and you can upgrade to premium with 10 in game gold, which is paltry even for my lvl 31 self. I’m having an awesome time with it.
I had a really hard time finding out from the internet what Unchained actually is. But I guess it's a re-release of the game with the monetization stuff that people hate taken out? What's the general consensus, should I be interested?
Do you have the will to dedicate maximum free time to playing this one game?
It’s definitely a very fun game, as long as you can provide tons of time and get in a guild that has other people doing the stuff you like to do.
I don’t have the time, so I won’t be getting back in.
Posts
Most of the crew are still playing regularly. It's losing the luster a little bit for me too but I'm still enjoying the game. The 2.5 patch has a ton of new stuff including new arenas with prebuilt classes/no gear advantage. Hopefully I'll finally be able to spend some time learning the classes and PvP mechanics without getting instantly smashed. I'm not sure how far out that is though. I think you can pre-pay your taxes on properties and then let your patron sub lapse if you want to take a break. I
I yolo'd my club last night and it broke.
The good news is I don't have to heal anymore :P
Upgraded miners farmhouse in marianople and 24x townhouse and adjacent 16x farm spot at portal entrance in diamond shores.
Any takers?
edit: oops, nevermind, taxes being prepaid prevents sales of property. bummer. See how things are going in January I guess.
New Hero's Welcome bundles are available to be claimed on the Glyph Account Management page starting on January 27th! Log into the Glyph store, select your visible bundle, purchase it for 0 credits, and pick which character/server you'd like it delivered to.
There will be two types of Bloodsong Hero's Welcome packs avaialble: the Bloodsong Homecoming Bundle for players returning to ArcheAge and the Bloodsong Loyalty Bundle for existing players (logged in within the last 30 days prior to the release of Update 2.5: Bloodsong).
The Bloodsong Homecoming Bundle includes Mirage Weapon, Armor, Accessory and Vehicle coins for temporary gear to provide a leg-up for returning players. It also provides consumables, a music box for your house, a temporary Wisdom Tree combat pet, and a temporary Springsong Greenman Costume. The combat pet and costume can be made permanent through use of coins that are received from opening the Bloodsong Homecoming Day 1-Day 14 chest included with the bundle.
The Bloodsong Loyalty Bundle includes a myriad of consumable grimoires, labor potions and loyalty tokens (175 in total) to thank current players for their support. It also includes the temporary combat pet and greenman costume which can be made permanent by using the coins distributed in the Bloodsong Loyalty Day 1-Day 14 chest included with the bundle.
The temporary Wisdom Tree pet and the temporary Springsong Greenman Costume will last for 30 days. This means users who wish to keep them as permanent items must open their 14 day chests completely within the 30 day timeframe.
Players who have supported ArcheAge by making a purchase for real money during any time in ArcheAge's past will receive 2 bonus Homecoming Coins or Player Appreciation Coins depending on which bundle they receive. These coins can be traded in for different rewards on Mirage Isle, at the appropriate vending machine in the lobby.
Active ArcheAge Supporters will also receive 20 Loyalty Tokens in addition to their coins and loyalty bundle to compensate for the loyalty tokens lost during the Divine Clock's outage from 1/19 to 1/26.
Newly created characters made after the release of Update 2.5 will now benefit from an improved Supply Chest that will now last for 14 days instead of the prior 7. After a new character receives the temporary farm cart and eco fuel on the 7th day, the 8-14 day chests will now be available. These bonus chests include: a temporary harpoon clipper, temporary polaris bjorn mount, temporary cogwheel longboard, and many other consumable benefits.
Current and lapsed players who have ever had Patron status will also receive 1 skill saver pendant claimable through the Glyph Account Management page as a 0 credit purchase.
Fight on an even playing field in Skirmish and Sparring Arenas!
"They wanted an arena where magical improvements are nullfied? Heh. Wait until they get a load of this place..."
Take your fate into your own hands and fight on your merit alone! Our new 3v3 and 1v1 Arenas will nullify all bonuses provided by gear, potions, and other sources and will place you on an even playing field against your opponent.
Besting your opponent in a 1v1 Sparring Arena will now yield 150 Honor points. Defeat will only yield 90. Defeating your opponent without losing in a match will offer an additional 70 honor for being Invincible.
Victory in the 3v3 Skirmish arena will yield 200 honor points. Defeat will yield 120 honor points.
To learn more about these new types of Arenas and review the stats you're able to choose before going in, click here!
Build statues dedicated to your faction's leaders
"..and so the great masons of the age laid out a plan. Statues were to be erected in the honor of the great rulers, and the Heroes would have the honor of laying the first stone..."
Adventurers of Nuia, Haranya, and the Pirate faction can now build statues honoring their leaders! Both Heroes and common Adventurers will have to combine their might to build these new wonders in Marianople, Austera, and Growlgate. Construct a new type of tradepack available within the Faction Hall in order to being this process. Once complete, the statue will offer the "King's Protection" buff for 3 days. Remember to maintain your statue in order to maintain this new bonus!
The specific name of the buff will vary depending on your leader, but all versions of this buff will offer a +5 bonus to most attack types, -4% damage received to most damage types, increases Vocation Badge earnings by +1, decreases production time by 5%, and increases the skill level of all proficiencies by 500.
Play Castaway Cutthroat for treasures and wealth: January 26 - February 8
"I'mma tellin' ya, that's what the pirates SAID! Even wrote it down on parchment, they did! There's a newfound wealth of treasure down under those waves, and it's certainly more real than those bloomin' Aust Mana Towers. I don' care whatcha' say, I'mma goin', and those blackpowder posers be damned."
At the release of ArcheAge: Bloodsong 2.5 a new festival event will become available: the Castaway Cutthroat Treasure Hunt.
This event allows players to gain a daily quest to search for treasure located underwater in the Castaway Straight/Halcyona Gulf regions. In order to participate in this event, players must visit a new NPC located in Mirage Isle. The NPC will provide 2 Daru's Bubble consumables which grant a special underwater breathing buff for 30 minutes.
As this event takes place in an unruled portion of Erenor, Festival Law will not be enacted during this event. This means PvP will happen. Often. You have been forewarned.
The rewards produced by this event are similar to the present smashing portion of the Winter Maiden Festival. Regrading materials, mining gems, lunarite and library-tier coinpurses (including stolen bags) are the most common rewards for finding sunken treasure during this event. Rarely, you may obtain fragments of lucky regrade materials, Shabby Pirate costume components, Merit Badges and the Gilt Steamfish Submarine.
This event will be active from the release of Bloodsong until 12:01 AM GMT, February 9th, 2016. Good luck in your dives!
World Changes
A period of peace will now lay over Mistmerrow for 2 hours after a battle completes. After that period is over, Mistmerrow will enter back into Conflict and War as normal based on the daily schedule.
The Battle for Mistmerrow will now occur 3 times per day at 2:00 AM, 2:00 PM and 8:00 PM GMT (6:00 AM, 2:00 PM and 6:00 PM PST) in order to allow more players to experience the battle. New system messages will display additional information about the battle as it elapses including conquering of specific capture points and the Crimson Army invasion.
Characters will now be required to speak with an NPC to complete Mistmerrow battle related quests rather than have them automatically completed.
Karkasse will no longer experience a period of peace. The zone will now cycle between War for 12 hours and Conflict for 12 hours. The War period will begin at 8:55 PM GMT daily, and the housing zones will receive their normal protections only during the Conflict period.
The Red Dragon will now only spawn on Wednesdays and Saturdays in Karkasse. The Dragon will spawn at 9:00 PM and last for 12 hours if not killed. After the 12 hours have elapsed, he will leave the world, mocking your cowardice as he does so. Pansies.
Bone chips will no longer drop in the Karkasse Ridgelands. See the items section for more information on this change.
Peace time in Diamond Shores will now begin at 9:00 AM and 9:00 PM GMT, in order to take the Ocleera Rift into consideration.
Common crafting workbenches have been added into the faction bases in Diamond Shores.
Some Merchant NPCs in Diamond Shores have had their spawn locations adjusted.
Players may now enter the "Heart of Ayanad" dungeon 3 times before the daily dungeon reset timers are taken into account.
Players may now use buff items, coinpurses, and similar consumables within the area of a Nui statue. The Goddess now looks kindly upon mundane activities!
A whole tribe of Daru have appeared on Mirage Isle, eager to trade for coins featuring members of the Library Expedition.
The amount of Siege Damage dealt by defensive cannons during the Golden Plains Battle in Halcyona has been reduced (avg. 6000 siege damage is now avg. 3000 siege damage and 3500 ranged damage).
In ArcheAge 1.2, we adjusted the Archeum drop rates to be 4 : 2 : 2 (Sunlight : Moonlight : Starlight) in order to compensate for the demand upon Sunlight and Moonlight Archeum, and less emphasis on Starlight. Now that demands have shifted and all types of crystals are required, the ratio has been shifted to 3 : 3 : 3.
It is now easier to shift zones through Conflict to War.
The Delphinad Ghost Ship now drops multiple packs instead of a single Delphinad Register.
The system broadcast that occurs at the end of a Delphinad Ghost Ship encounter has been changed to occur when the ship dies, not when the loot is acquired.
Adventurous players out on the high seas are now able to find sunken ships hidden at the bottom of the ocean. Here's some pointers to get started:
Broken lifeboats now appear randomly in the Arcadian Sea.
A sunken ship may appear underneath the location of the lifeboat. Its location is marked by bubbles rising from the sand.
To expose a ship, a player must approach it in a vessel capable of revealing its location -- typically this can be done using a Submarine with Sonar.
Once the base material is revealed, it must be unearthed by interacting with it. Doing so costs labor. It can also be blasted with an Air Cannon from a submarine to speed the process.
When the entire vessel is revealed, recovery pouches can be attached to it to being the raising process.
After all the recovery pouches are attached, the sunken ship can be cut loose from the ground. This will cause it to rise to the surface.
Sunken ships contain cargo that require a high level of exploration skill to unseal.
Unsealed cargo reveals multiple tradepacks. These packs can be managed normally and turned into an Ocean Trader.
Tradepacks from a sunken ship can be of basic, grand, or rare grades. Their values vary from 10-30g at 130% turn-in value.
Arena Changes
All arenas outside of the 5v5 arena are now limited to 5 matches per day. To play in additional matches, please purchase a Bruiser's Badge from a merchant for 15 gold. The 5v5 Arena remains unlimited.
New leaderboards were added with new filters. You can now see the top 100 players per server for gear score, not just region. You can also filter by weapons worn -- 1-handed, 2-handed, or bow.
The equipped gear of a player on an Arena Leaderboard can now be viewed, regardless if it's private. Additionally, if they have a tradepack equipped instead of a glider, it will be shown in this area.
Quests and Achievements
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Auction House
The auction house now keeps track of recently sold items and trends their average prices. This should provide a solid baseline for item values and help manage expectations when listing items for sale. To access this feature, click the Bar icon after searching for or when listing an item. The graph reveals the 7-day price trend for the item along side the 24-hour price info.
Guilds
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Castle Sieges
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Housing
Upgraded Thatched Farmhouses now gain specific benefits based on type:
The mineral vein located on the back of a Miner's Farmhouse can now hold up to 6 hours worth of materials extrating.
The animal pen located inside a Rancher's Farmhouse now has a chance to become Glossy when animals are raised in it. Harvesting a Glossy pen results in an increased yield.
A new type of vegetation can sometimes be found growing the roof of an Upgraded Thatched Farmhouse.
Players are now able to revert the design of an Improved Scarecrow Farm with an Evenstone - the result is an 8x8 Scarecrow Garden.
The Basic Nuian and new Harani Mansions can now be upgraded to the Spring Swept-Roof Mansion.
3 new types of 28x28 Tree Houses have been added: Oak Treehouse Design, Cherry Treehouse Design, Aspen Treehouse Design. All are available for 500 Merit Badges.
5 new types of Haranya-inspired private workbenches have been added for purchase with Gilda Stars on Mirage Isle.
42 new types of fences have been added to Mirage Isle.
6 new Masonry furniture items have been added.
4 new UCC Motion Picture Frames have been added.
3 new UCC props that can be stacked or attached have been added.
A Fellowship Plaza now has the option to be remodeled and upgraded to a Culture Plaza.
The name "Tudor Rose Villa" has been changed to "Discontinued Tudor Rose Villa" and the design is no longer available in Mirage Isle.
1 new version of the 44x44 Mansion has been added: The new Haranyan-style Black Tile Mansion design can now be purchased for 1000 Gilda Stars.
Pets, Mounts, and Vehicles
Characters may now use a Battle Pet and a Mount at the same time. Separate tool bars have been provided to manage the abilities of your companions. The global cooldown of mount and pet use will be reflected in the toolbar of the Battle Pet.
Snowlion mount armor is available only for Snowlions. Crimson Lightning is considered to be a Snowlion for purposes of equipping this armor.
The amount of experience required to level a pet from 51 to 55 has been lowered.
When a pet dies it is now unsummoned. It will again be summonable in 2 minutes after a new revival cooldown has elapsed.
Pet Recovery Potions can now be used to remove the 2 minute revival cooldown to resurrect a pet.
The Pet Recovery Potions can only be applied if the pet is stored and no longer visible in the world. If the pet remains summoned in a dead state the potion will be consumed and the pet will not be resurrected.
Pets that are summoned after a revival cooldown has elapsed or is bypassed will spawn with full health and mana.
Pets that have been instructed to Attack or Defend will remain engaged with their target until the target dies, or the pet dies.
A new button has been added for the player to determine the active target of the battle pet.
Pet or mount armor is automatically applied to a Mount or Battle Pet when it is used. The pet inventory is no longer required to be opened to switch equipped gear. Gear cannot be changed during combat.
Equipping mounts is prioritized over battle pets when using right-click equip functionality. Battle pets will be equipped correctly if they're the only pet summoned at the time. Drag functionality is still enabled.
All pets receive a default amount of damage mitigation when afflicted by cleave or area of effect style attacks.
Starting mounts for each race can now be evolved through use of the Anima system. For more information, visit the Distorted Mistsong Workbench outside of the Mistsong Summit Dungeon. Evolved starter mounts have statistics that are more in line with other mounts.
The cooldown of the "Lower Anchor" skill common to light and medium class warships has been adjusted.
The Glider Upgrade System has been reviewed and improve to award a more probable amount of success when upgrading to a tier 2 enhanced glider. The base chance of success when upgrading an enhanced glider to a tier 2 enhanced glider has been increased from 20% to 50%.
All enhanced gliders will now receive the Boost skill which can be triggered through use of a flaming pinion. While under the effects of Boost, flight speed will be increased by +30% for 30 seconds.
Tier 2 enhanced gliders will now receive the Turbo Boost ability increasing this speed bonus by +50% for 30 seconds.
The Flaming Pinion item will be adjusted so it can only be used in conjunction with glider boost and turbo boost abilities. Flaming Pinions will become available for purchase in-game for 50 silver and are also available on the Marketplace.
Items, Crafting, and Regrading
The Sunken Treasure mechanic has been adjusted the following ways:
Sunken Treasure now spawns more frequently.
Sunken Treasure now has a chance to reward the discovering player with a fragment of Vaultstone. If 35 fragments are fused together the Vaultstone is completed and can be opened to reveal new types of treasure. This list includes 28 new Aurorian Relics that can be used as physical housing items or sold to a vendor for a moderate amount of gold. These amounts are lower than past chest values.
Vaultstones may also contain pages from ancient manuscripts that can be bound into books by a Printer.
Necklace, Ring, and Earring recipes have been removed from the Dragonslayer's Workbench in Karkasse Ridgelands and are no longer available. Existing accessories will remain in the world. The Dragon Ward ring is still craftable as it's related to the Red Dragon encounter.
Items purchased with Lord's Coins are now bound to the character.
Restored functionality to the Dawnsdrop Belt item - it now grants its stacking passive buff as intended.
Ancient and Eternal Lunagems now contain more descriptive text to call out their limitations on what types of they cannot be socketed in.
The "Equipped Two-Hand Weapon" passive buff now provides +10% Shield Defense Penetration Rate (the frequency at which it occurs) and +40% Shield Defense Penetration (the amount of shield defense that's ignored).
A new type of Level 55 dungeon re-entry pass, named "Mistsong Grinding Guardian Scroll" has been added to the general merchant. This pass can be purchased for 50 gold. Please double check the type of re-entry pass required for a dungeon you intend to enter prior to purchasing the pass.
The Ship Component Regrade process has changed to more closely align with the Pet Accessory Regrading system. Ship Component Regrades now always have a combination cost of 10 gold. Ship Components from Basic to Unique grades will no longer be destroyed upon failure however they will remain the same grade. No downgrading is possible. Ship Components from Celestial to Legendary grades will be destroyed if the regrade is not successful. The rate of success on Ship Component Regrading has been adjusted from its previous table to emphasize upgrades at lower grades and increase the rarity of top grade components.
Recipes for Rank 5 Food and Drink consumables have been added.
New types of Lunagems related to Shield Defense Penetration / Rate have been added to the Handicraft Profession. These Lunagems can be crafted in Clear, Vivid and Lucid tiers.
The display order of items in the Honor Shop has been adjusted - most notably, cloaks and weapons have been moved to page 8 and 9.
The Ambitious Cloak, Lionhearted Cloak and Freedom Cloak are no longer available.
XP Potions and Growthstones have been removed from the Honor Shop.
Lower tier Honor Lunagems have an increased chance to be socketed successfully.
Clear Honor Lunagems now cost 10 honor and Vivid Honor Lunagems now cost 50 honor. The benefits provided by Clear and Vivid Honor Lunagems has been increased by up to 30%.
Honor purchased Lunafrosts are no longer tradeable to fall more in-line with other honor items. Previously purchased Honor Lunafrosts will remain tradeable.
NPC creatures of level 51 and higher will no longer drop Unidentified Dreadnaught or Shroudmaster Accessores - instead they'll have a chance at dropping a new class of Unidentified Accessories. These drops will be most notable from creatures located inside the Ayanad Library.
The maximum stack amount for all Mana Wisps has been increased to 1000.
Merit Badges
New types of Cozy Loungewear have been added to the Merit Badge store. Wearing these fancy pajamas can increase the amount of labor earned while sleeping.
Skill Changes
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Miscellaneous
Additional information has been added for items that cost 0 credits to claim in the marketplace. No 0 credit items may be available at this time.
Pirates are no longer allowed to access Memory Tomes located on Haranya or Nuia. If a memory point was registered prior to joining the Pirate Faction it will no longer be accessible. Pirates retain access to Auroria and Ocean-focused tomes.
New sections have been added to the folio to help classify existing recipes. The proficiency to craft specific recipes remains unchanged. Recipes that were previously only accessible by visiting a workbench in the world can also be referenced through the updated Folio.
When players obtain a Proven Warrior Chest the system will now provide both on-screen messages and chat logs to reflect this gain.
More detail has been added for character statistics and combat modifiers in the character information window.
Shield Defense Penetration and Shield Defense Penetration Rate will now appear on the character window.
Confirmation that Lucky Points, or fragments thereof, cannot be obtained from regrade braziers.
Players can no longer join the Arena while they're under the effects of Rebirth Trauma.
Hero candidates must have earned at least 500 Leadership during a previous cycle to be eligible for the next cycle.
Bug Fixes
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I barely have the time to play anymore myself, though I still think this game has the best combination of pvp/pve/crafting/housing that I've played before, so if anyone is interested in that sort of mmo, definitely give this one a shot as the continued updates show the developers are still hard at work making the game better for the future.
I am a huge Lineage 2 fan and thought I would check this out
edit: made a char on Ollo with the same name
Without a fight - Romeos aborted his baby too.
Anyone want to do this thing? Because I'm thinking about doing this thing. But from what I hear you 100% need a guild/peoples.
Well it began right at the start, promising things that would be in the game, that ended up being held back for many months. Castles for example. Major patches always ended up with way more downtime that announced. Part of the problem is that Trion themselves cannot change the code themselves, they have to request/interpret what XL games is going to do. PR would say one thing, and what we end up getting was something different.
Back when I played you'd have lots of people trolling/blocking bridges/planting saplings to stop you getting around, most people hated it, but Trion called this 'immersive behaviour'. Went on for many months, until a GM account gets effected by this and suddenly it gets banned. The whole game just feels like a cash grab and I just got sick of giving Trion any more money so that's when I quit.
And I am totally biased against Trion because of this, but even so, the game is fun, And with a good guild its better. Just don't give them too much money, they should not be rewarded for running the game like this.
This link might say it better.
http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/5-lessons-mmos-can-learn-archeages-mistakes/
The thing is, they never learnt from any of their mistakes, and every new patch the same things would happen again and again.
The whole concept of the game was pretty fun, one of those rare times I actually hit max level in an MMO too which is amusing. Sort of brought out the bloodthirsty nature in me too as I was playing essentially a very bursty rogue-warrior, so people on the other faction creeping into my questing areas tended to be taught to get the hell away.
On the other hand the farming/package delivering system was really fun and gave a real use to getting people to help you out. Whether that's guildies or someone acting as a merc.
For me it was being in a guild with the Goons and pirating all day long. I can't recall the number of fishermen I've personally killed, or the number of ships I've helped sink. Pulling alongside a boat and swarming over on gliders to murder the entire crew and then steal their fish was just so fucking thrilling. Then making the getaway and getting into harbor and selling the fish before they'd catch back up with us and murder us.
You know what, fuck it, I'ma reinstall this and fuck around some. Is there a PA guild still? I remember since I was playing with Goons I was on a different server and I didn't want to start anew just to play with y'all, but it's been so long since I played that now I wouldn't be against starting a new character.
edit: heh, I just remembered that we'd use the Center for Disease Control logo on our sails and we'd announce in chat that the area was being quarantined due to the plague and that all their fish would have to be confiscated, then we'd start hunting them all down. People would get so fucking mad about it while we couldn't stop giggling in whatever voice program we were using.
Land isn't really a concern anymore on most servers :twisted: in 3.0 they added 2 really massive new housing zones though.
Most servers are very dead, including the one that Merchwater was on. Ollo is probably in the worst shape of all the servers. Good news is there is character transfers available if you don't feel like starting over.
Good news is that there is a new 'fresh start' server. Bad news is it has a queue. To play on the fresh start server you need a new account.
Positive changes:
Obsidian weapons were introduced a while back and now its possible to get decent gear while not paying any money (besides patron).
You can regrade gear to celestial without it breaking.
Gear no longer downgrades during regrade with one exception (celestial -> divine, but that replaces destruction chance so its a win/win).
Negative changes:
Fishing is more of a solo activity now
I played it like a second job for over a year, and I would probably still be playing except I believe it has two fatal flaws:
1. The game is fundamentally insecure. Hacks/cheats were a problem from day 1 and were never really adequately addressed. Cheaters prospered, got ahead of the curve, and overpowered the rest of the playerbase from very early on. There are a lot of contributing factors for why this happened: too much client-side game data processing, far too little GM presence in game, and the fact that the game was already years old and its weaknesses fully probed in Korea and Russia before our version came out. But it doesn't really matter why - what matters is that customers who didn't cheat ended up at a disadvantage for their entire game life, unless #2:
2. Pay2Win. This is the biggie. I've read that ArcheAge cost nearly $200 million to develop, and apparently in order to recoup that investment the business minds of the Korean developers/publishers resorted to the very worst of the f2p-game style bag of tricks to milk their playerbase. Don't believe the rationalizations that you might see on reddit or the offical forums - "It's not P2W, it's pay to progress faster!" Bullshit. Archeage is in-arguably the most p2w AAA MMO ever released. Spending dollars (in some cases a lot of dollars - I heard really shocking numbers from some of the people I played with) bought you an immediate advantage over other players. And because of the way gear/stats work that advantage could be huge. A $1k cash outlay could bring a brand new player up to power parity with a 2,000-hours played character overnight. $10k spent made you essentially un-killable. $30k made you a god, and there are people who actually did that. It wasn't just the whales either, nearly every aspect of the game had a cash shop element to it. Just dropping $10/week on labor potions meant that you were able to grow more crops, open more coinpurses, and ultimately generate more gold than anyone who didn't pay. It was infuriating that they built this incredibly well-designed, competitive world based on economic specialization, teamwork, and luck and then immediately undercut that delicate balance from day 1 by selling labor potions for cash. The intrusion of real money into the game world was also a major reason for the overall toxic attitude of the community by attracting the type of players willing to spend cash for virtual power (in my experience typically more immature, poorly behaved and aggressive young men) and allowing them to thrive in game at the expense of everyone else, and by generating a ton of miss-trust between players with constant accusations of being a wallet-warrior or whatever.
I've given up on the game and even the new "fresh-start" servers can't really do much to change these two facts in the long term. They should have released the game with no cash shop or p2w elements at all, and a $50/mo. subscription fee. It would have been worth it, and AA would probably have received the attention and admiration it really deserved.
I will disagree with the point that it wouldn't be p2w without a cash shop. As the best stuff is exceedingly rare, and thus expensive - without a doubt it would be for sale on a 3rd party website/forum for real cash and gold sellers would still prosper.
I will disagree with a 50$ a month subscription, that seems a bit excessive? Did you mean 50/yr?
As far as your #1 and fs, that's pretty much been addressed. I haven't heard of any real exploits that haven't been addressed quickly on fs besides unproven speculation.
#2 is still very true.
I have yet to purchase my way into the game, but plan to do so after the 1st of November.
Do you have the will to dedicate maximum free time to playing this one game?
It’s definitely a very fun game, as long as you can provide tons of time and get in a guild that has other people doing the stuff you like to do.
I don’t have the time, so I won’t be getting back in.