This is just a placeholder OP right now, I'm going to post a bunch of videos and info about the game later. ( I'm in the beta - no NDA ).
Archeage is a Sandbox Korean MMO from Jake Songs new studio XLgames. Jake Song was one of the main developers of Lineage and is considered one of the godfathers of the Korean MMO industry.
Simply put, it's massive that he's making a new game.
You can plant trees/chop them down, mine ore, etc and craft and make houses, boats, etc all from small scale ( small 1 room medieval houses - to grand palaces ) and from a rowboat to a massive ship.
It's built on the cryengine so it has good performance and looks fantastic. ( from my time in beta so far, graphically it's > Tera, Aesthetically I think Tera > AA though ).
Opening Cinematic ( available in 1080p if you click through ):
I have been following this game for awhile now. It seriously reminds me of Ultima Online mixed with an open ended world like Asheron's Call. Hopefully North America gets beta sometime soon.
I played in CBT3 and I am currently playing in CBT4. If anyone wants to know anything about the game I can answer questions.
Also, me and my friends from the BOON Control guild are also livestreaming when we play. The server up times are shown below and the links to the streams and when they may be live are shown below. I will point out that not every stream will be online even on days when the player is online, but there should be at least one stream online each day.
(should the game servers go down at any time during the days testing the schedule will be extended, by 1 hour for that day)
We will endeavour to keep livestreams up for the whole time over the 80 days of this CBT. For news and information about BOON Control visit: http://booncontrol.com
Current beta is a closed beta (5000 players) and is only available to Korean residents and press.
The closed beta runs from now till early March, then there will be an open beta sometime after (which will be the same limited to Korean residents and press).
Afaik they are looking to release in Korea next year, but currently no news about EU/NA publishers. T_T
Basically the game is two faction. There are two very large continents that each faction owns and players pick a race that fights for one of the factions and you level up by questing like you would in any other themepark game until you get to endgame. You can however defect and switch sides should you wish to play a certain race but your friends are all on the other faction. Additionally to this, you can also break off from the two main factions and create your own player faction, and this is where the third continent comes in.
If you don't want to play the game whilst having your hand held, you can go the the third continent that on launch, literally has nothing on it. No towns, no NPCs, nothing. This third continent is bigger than the two themepark continents combined and the players within the game must create the content on this continent. You claim land and build guild cities on this continent, you can construct crafting stations to make your guild fully self sufficient whilst on the third continent. You can add vendors to your town etc. However, your town can be assaulted by other players and destroyed or captured. So, this is why you will be setting up guild alliances or factions to protect your lands from pirate guilds or other large player factions.
Other than this, other sandbox elements are things like you must plant trees and let them grow to harvest them for wood to craft with. The crafting system has insane depth. You can create anything from cloth armor to mighty battleships decked out with cannons. Crafted armor is the best you can get in the game which puts a great emphasis on the importance of crafting.
All in all, this game will cater to the casual masses with its two faction style zones that you start on, but the sandbox players will be able to build ships and set sail to the third continent and enjoy a completely different side to the game. The reason ArcheAge caters to everyone is the reason I think it can do really well.
I have a mixed feeling about this Looks like an ordinary asian autoattacking flashing oversaturated grindfest with ridiculous damage counters and health amounts. And that anime young girl moaning voice doesn't help either. Yeah and graphics is awful (are they using the same engine for every korean mmo for the last 5-7 years?), I literally cried when I saw that ground texture. So can you please tell me what is new about that game? Crafting and building guild towns? There are MMOs for that. Big global PvP battles between factions? Not new. Crafting and faction/guild PvP at the same time? Well, I'm not into MMOs, but pretty sure there are plenty of such games too. So whats the deal with this particular game?
I'm not sure of the graphics settings used by the guy in that video, but the game is in the process of being converted from CryEngine 2 to CryEngine 3 and I can get it to look a hell of a lot nicer than that on my PC when I ramp it up to the maximum difficulty, and thats even without my second GFX card working as the game currently doesn't support crossfire or SLI.
As for what it does differently, well, it doesn't have the liner feel of an MMO. What they have done in ArcheAge is remove the rails in all aspects of the game, you can create your own classes by choosing a combination of any 3 of the 8 possible talent trees. Your not pushed down a path by questing and some pre-written lore, in fact players can write their own lore books in the game should they feel the need to RP a bit.However, the one thing it does that no other MMO does, is cater for everyone. It is basically saying, why should developers make a casual friendly themepark game and alienate the more hardcore players who like the more challenging gameplay that the sandbox environment brings. At the same time it is saying why should you alienate the guys who love themepark games by putting them into a harsh world they will hate.
The game is basically giving everyone a bit of what they like which should make it attractive to most MMO players. There are many MMO's out currently that talk about having faction/guild PvP on a "large" or "world" scale, and they have all failed to deliver due to offering instanced PvP alongside the open world stuff which kills it. ArcheAge currently has no instanced content, not even dungeons. Everything is open world and if you want something, you have to fight for it. Kind of like a fantasy version of EVE I guess, but far far less complicated than EVE.
They way it feels to me when I play it is a slightly less hardcore version of Darkfall but much better executed and with much more depth.
On December 20 2011 07:29 Aspira wrote: fantasy version of EVE
Thanks, that tells me a lot actually because I've been playing EVE since 2006. And the engine is CryEngine? Really? Well I guess it looks awful since it is beta and they are trying to lower requirements for a wider audience and use low-res textures. Anyway graphics doesn't bother me at all - my first MMOs were text-based MUDs.
I heard steparu say that they actually had a higher graphics setting in CBT3 but they removed it in CBT4 and some people are raging. However even with the current available settings the game easily has one of the best graphics out of all the current mmos.
Interest will stay low-key until we even know it's getting an English version. And the fact that it'll probably be 1-2 years until said version could come out. People aren't gonna wait years for something new like they do for a new diablo.
Seeing as how CBT 5 has just ended with rumors of an open beta coming before the end of this year, I figure now would be a good time to bump.
List of confirmed features; There are a total of 120 classes + Show Spoiler +
There will be 3 continents, 2 being pve and 1 dedicated to pvp, all of which maybe traveled to by boat + Show Spoiler +
The size of the Archeage world is not known for sure but is rumored to be slightly larger then World of Warcraft before its expansions. it is separated into 3 continents, 2 of the continents are PvE and the last is exclusively PvP.
In the PvP continent there will be resources to fight over, thereby creating a territory war of sorts
Yes, first you must buy the recipe and place your building an open plot of land to begin the building process, building a house takes a considerable amount of time and resources.
poster's note : It was also mentioned you can plant gardens, funiture your house, and even hire NPC's to sell items outside your house/guard it. But most interesting of all is that you can actually build a house/city on water - letting you relive the movie "Waterworld"
Yes - You can become a pirate. If you PK in a PvE enviroment, you have the chance of going to jail - jury being players who were randomly selected + Show Spoiler +
f you kill someone of your own alliance then that player will drop some blood, if another player comes along and picks up the blood of your victim then that player can bring it to a guard and send you to trial, After a trial cut scene you will be convicted of murder and sent to Jail. Do this to many times and you become Red and labeled a Pirate.
Poster's note : in the PvP continent, this wont matter.
-What kind of Armor can I wear? In Archeage you are free to wear what ever armor you please no matter what class or race you have selected, you will instead take a penalty for the choice of armor you make. For example, mages can wear plate mail, but then, as a penalty, the mages casting and movement speed will decrease. -Does Archeage have durability on equipment? Archeage will include durability, this means armor and weapons will slowly decay unless you pay to get them repaired to return back to their full durability. -How does gear differ from other games? There is a temporary term used for Archeage's new idea to make armor and weapons more unique, instead of collecting an item that has good stats, you collect a, "magical essence," which can be returned to a blacksmith to combine with a specific sword/armor that he or she likes the look of. -What kind of required items will be needed for crafting? Recipes, materials, tools and a table of some sort will be required to craft an item, for example to craft a sword you will require an anvil, for clothing, you will need a mannequin. -Will crafting be valuable in Archeage? "Basically, we hope player-crafted items become a key aspect of in-game economy or combat. But, if the game items are solely led by crafted items, it could become somewhat of a restriction to the growth of solo-playing characters. So, items for level-up are also obtainable through quests or from monsters. Crafted items will be allowed continuous enhancements and improvements, whereas such obtainable items wouldn't."
Nice little tidbit to add; you can even build your own cities, fitted with castles and NPC's of your choosing!
EPT
