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Alpha, and changes for the Western market.
I'm not here to hate on the game, I'll say that up front. I bought the alpha access and I've played for a few days now, so my impressions are pretty early still. I'm a huge fan of MMOs and I've been reading about this one for years, and I've been a little hyped. Despite my issues with it, I can see myself playing it for a while.
However! I think it's very clear to see, even just after a few days, that Trion needs to do some work Westernizing this title a lot more before release. I really hope they see that -- that they don't just think translating it and tweaking some of the game mechanics will be enough to draw and hold an audience in the West.
The environment art is a little dated: I can deal with this, as the underlying game mechanics are so deep, interesting, and sandboxy. You get used to it, I've found, but still, after playing ESO and GW2 they are pretty unpolished and rough looking. Some of the loading screens are just so completely bizarre and in the asian MMO style (a club guy standing in a tuxedo with a manga girl, with thigh high stockings and ribbons in her hair, posing in front of a steam powered car, for example. Stuff that just completely breaks the high fantasy they're trying to put across.
The combat is a little clunky. I know this has been mentioned before, but I'd hope they could put some Rift people on tightening this up. As a company, they've done much better in the past and I hope that they'll take some pride in everything they put out, including this.
The cars. I know this has been mentioned in a million threads before, but I'll mention it again. They're just such a bizarre inclusion in the world. I could almost deal with it, if it wasn't for the fact that they have in-game stereos which blare techno music as they drive by.
Anyway, as I said, the game mechanics are very interesting and I hope Trion can clean up the game a bit, as it will be interesting to see how it does in the West. If I could take my Alpha access purchase back though, I guess that I probably would... but hey, that's all part of being an MMO junkie 
Comments
98% chance they will change nothing that you're talking about because it wont be in their license. they're publishing it thats about it.. translation, patch translation and implementation, content translation and implementation and expansion pack translation and implementation... as with the russian version i'd say they will be very limited in the things they can change.
This is false. Trion has confirmed several times they are working with XLgames to take over only the positively received parts of the patches that went out in KR (no cars for example), many of those patches addressed issues that the OP listed.
Played-Everything
Playing-LoL
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guess we'll have to wait n see when it actuall happens. btw the cars arent negative or out of place without spoiling anything, high fantasy doesnt limit itself to no technology and you can glide through the air like an eagle... honestly cars dont seem out of place when gliders are around.
LOL I was accused of being a 'hater' in the ESO forums for months because I listed legitimate and nearly game breaking problems with that hype train.
Now we have guys complaining about splash screens and foliage. But with a good set up maxed out it blows ESO and GW2 away. On lower settings it will suffer a little bit by comparison as those games are made for the masses with generic mid range computers and not necessarily gaming rigs.
I can semi agree on combat as I wish you could cast on the move. But the way they do it is better than most where you can move and move and move and when you do cast or attack you stop immediately. So the skill doesnt interrupt but its application overlays your movement. In other words you run, try to cast a spell that needs you to be stationary to cast it, but instead of it interrupting due to you running you stop dead and the spell goes off. Of course if you move again before it goes off it will interrupt so you arent locked into place. But being able to move and cast at the same time should be a staple in all MMOS now.
Cars, meh, theyre not over the top crazy. There are air ships and other mechanical things anyway.
Is it perfect? No, but for what is is and what theyre trying to do it is pretty advanced.
But in the end if the biggest complaints are splash screens, cars and bad foliage I would say it is way ahead of the pack of garbage we have seen the past few years getting released, and this game is going to be free. Although many people playing now paid for a high end package.
i agree right now archeage blows any mmorpg out of the water, there is no competition you can even build airships.
Seriously which mmorpg cna let your creative fly as a crafter?
by the way where them bugs at? Lawl.
Man I don't get people like you who jump into being hostile on forums immediately. So defensive.
Anyway, I am -- as I said -- very positive about the underlying game mechanics and that's what's important for me personally. I worry more about how it will be received across the Western market in general though, as the game is now (in Alpha, mind you).
The cars, as they are right now... well, I can accept machines in a high fantasy setting. I think that's completely fine. Zepplins are cool and a little steampunk here in there can also fit just fine. If it's worked into the story and universe later in the game, that's cool. I think it's more an issue of how it's presented. There are some visual choices and design choices which are obviously "cool" for an asian market, and perhaps techno music in cars in a fantasy world is one of them. To me it's immersion breaking and takes me out of the well designed world. I hope they change it.
The combat - after playing many years of WoW and Rift, I found the action combat of GW2 very, very tightly designed. It might not be everyone's taste, but it was polished. The combat in WoW is (obviously) also very polished and tight after all these years, and those games all together have set the bar very high for MMO combat. Archeage - which is a game that has been out for a while now - has a long way to go to clean up its act, combat-wise. I'm willing to wait for that as I said, but it's not there yet.
As far as the graphic fidelity, I'm happy to hear it's better at max settings. I'm going to upgrade my rig soon, so I hope that helps. It obviously requires a pretty good rig to push high settings - as pretty well all MMOs I've played recently have allowed me to play on max, while Archeage I'm stuck between Normal and High (which is a step below Very High... Normal in Archeage is apparently a re-branded "Medium", lol).
Anyway, again as I said, I don't want to slam the game, I think it has promise. I'd like to see some work go into having it tailored more to a Western market. I think it needs it in a lot of places.
Irony....
I wasnt being defensive. I just see people trash games here or white knight games here with absurd or no reasons for either.
The really only legit issues with ArcheAge are:
its been released in other countries for over a year so it should be much further along than anything labeled "Alpha" , and it is.
It has memory leaks, which vary. Semi concerning but if they can be addressed then it will be a non issue. But unless youre playing 7 hour stretches (which some are) then no worries there either. But that is also a little ironic because most games out now you cant play that long without crashing or having to reboot due to some issue.
The launcher has major problems. A wide variety of issues and errors. I had several but figured them out eventually. Now it is OK on both computers.
Taxing on lower end computers. This isnt some game mom and dad will be running on their HP in the den. You need mid level gear. Could be related to no hyper threading. But people who are over clocking (answer to non hyper threading)are having problems too.
It has client side 'exploits' which are actually by design due to the 'justice' system. But theyre too lenient and will be fixed I am sure.
Other than that mostly everything else is based on opinions and not objective at all.
We can debate what we like and dont like about how something is implemented all day long but those arent really that important. Bugs, performance, exploits, stability are. On those things AA is a solid B, and if they fix some of the loopholes in some of their systems that are used by griefers and exploiters beyond what they 'should' be, it would go to a B+.
strange becouse there are cars in game
you can even ride them underwater
I don't understand the recommendation to save your money.
How can someone say they followed the game that long and still have basic issues like combat or the cars...or a splash screen as game breaking issues.
You spent $150 on a free game based on what then ?
You're right in a sense. Iv'e changed the title of this thread to something more relevant to my post. I'd started writing it with the thought in mind that the Alpha might disappoint a lot of people based on it's current state, but ended up writing more on my thoughts on the need for Westernization - my bad.
I bought the alpha access because, though it's a little expensive, I was anxious to try it out after following a long time. There have been a lot of posts and talk about the combat being clunky, but I'd hoped that much of that was just hating on the game for whatever random reason people usually hate on MMOs. I do think it's clunky after trying it myself now, but as I said, I feel it's not without hope. I would love it if Trion did take some of their talented mechanics people and polish it up a bit.
My big issue is the style and design choices which stem from it being a korean game and how that will be received by the Western market. Don't get me wrong -- I really want the game to succeed and be successful. I personally believe though that it needs some work to make that happen, based on my first impressions.
As I said above though, I think the underlying systems of the game are fantastic, and the game has huge potential.
Firstly, you do understand that it's an alpha, and a lot of things had to become cheaper (Mirage Island prices) and the XP higher (crafting, mobs) to speed up the testing.
There will be changes to the live client thats 100%, for example they will fix the spamming skills (archer, mage) and adjunct the Mirage Island prices.
Westernization. Love that buzz word. ;-)
After having played Aion and Tera and having experienced the "Westernization" buzz the respective publishers created, in the end westernization equated to localization. Nothing else. I hope Trion will not do the same.
Yeah I guess that's my hope as well. Though in the case of both of those games, the underlying game mechanics were not (in my opinion) as interesting as in Archeage. This game has a lot more potential to break out of the usual themepark trend.
As much as I like the old school idea, we need something made like this in the West. But the problem is we have too many marketers and executives making our decisions for us.
I like every feature the game has to offer, I don't mind out dated graphics. But there are too many variables that can destroy a good thing.
This will have to be a see-what-happens game....This, if any would be best to let it release first. Chances are it will turn out bad. The best we can hope for is that Trion will see the need to make a good old fashioned sand box MMO.
I just have to say here that its kinda weird with all the people complaining about this. This is XLGAMES vision of a fantasy mmo not your idea of a fantasy game. What they are doing does not break anything, its THERE vision not your idea of there vision.
I also first thought that is weird when I saw a car and all the other elements that might be more steampunk and futuristic, but when you start to think in the terms that I should not expect things but I should play in there vision it makes a lot more sense.
Now I like the cars and all the other additions to the game that is not standard Fantasy, diffrent don't have to mean bad.
You meant 'their' right. The possessive noun not 'there' like to go there which indicates a place. Sorry not being a spelling Nazi just thought you might want to correct it seeing as you capitalized it.
I totally agree worlds are the imagination of the creator. We should not put our perceptions into another person's imagination but the problem is people do it any way. So it is a disconnect for them. That is why it is difficult to read fantasy and science fiction books sometimes because we cannot visualize it or our brains get blocked by these thoughts. We should though try to get past this blockage and enjoy the visual representation of the world someone else imagined. It's their world and we should try to go there and enjoy ourselves.
Stop running on low setting, and get yourself decent rig.
120 classes, (ok some of them are pretty bad combinations and do feel clunky) you probably playing one of the clunky one.
Have you read the lore? Have you done main story line? Looks like no you didn`t.
<a href="http://www.danasoft.com"><img src="http://www.danasoft.com/sig/499105419258.jpg"; border="0"></a><div style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:11px;"><p>Sign by Danasoft - <a href="http://www.danasoft.com">For Backgrounds and Layouts</a></p></div>
Trion has not the team to change anything in the coregame. There might be some small changes in the %area- but only beacuse those are variables and not fixed. Everything fixed need to coded, implemented and tested- wich Trion does not do.
A publisher like Trion buys the license and translate, apply patches and does the financial and marketing programm for the game.
Trion does not own the game, or will ever own it. To buy a game like AA they would have to pay millions and need a dedicated team wich also cost money. Publishers like Trion survive with part time jobs- they do not have alot of ppl that are work full time there. All publishers work like that.
Ive watched alot of streamers playing AA now and i decreased my expections alot.
Even the Alpha-streamers are getting bored after 2 weeks.
So in response to the OP...
On your points about the game's "asian style." I dunno, I think this is just a matter of taste. There is actually a lot of asian culture that is really popular in the west. I know that there are people that really hate it, bu I think it's unfair to say that asian art style and what not won't sell over here in the west. Personally, I love it.
About the graphics, yeah as others have said max settings makes a big difference. Honestly, I think this game looks better than ESO in the environments...and the draw distance is INSANE. I mean I can see the the big city Marianpole in the faaar distance even when I'm in another zone! The water particulary looks really good. The game DOES have MAJOR performance issues if you use DX11 though, so I would definitely recommend using DX9.
As for the combat...I've only PVE'd so far but it seems pretty responsive. I do agree that GW2 is more responsive though, however GW2 is the most responsive MMORPG I've ever played so it will be hard to beat. To be honest, I don't see the PvP in AA being as "competitive" as it was in GW2 because of the combat system differences. The combat isn't bad, but it's not as slick as GW2 combat was. Anyway, I don't see this as a horrible thing, I never play MMORPGs for really competitive PvP...that's what MOBA's are for
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Are you team Azeroth, team Tyria, or team Jacob?
this is the point i was getitng at, trion even if they said "we wont give anything people dont want" dont really have that choice and will have very little impact on the game outside of what XLgames does, except for running events, double server xp weekends etc... thats the exact same problem i had on russian servers, i played for like a month and a half, when it first opened i leveled a toon to 50 it was fun... after a while i got a bit bored, and i dont think it had anything todo with language barriers, just not that much to do outside of PvP or ship battles, extremely long crafting missions etc... so i rolled a toon on the opposite faction about 3 weeks in.. well after hitting level 30 getting to 50 made me wanna tear my hair out almost, from the constant ganking from level 50 people trolling lowbies etc in the rest of the contested world but thats fine.. i'm playing a PvP game i expect PvP and it's not that big of deal.. anyway, after getting a second character to 50 i realised how shallow and one sided end game PvP was with the 2 faction and basically one side constantly dominating the other side which made more people roll to the winning side and it turned into what happened to aion and that was only a couple of months in... and outside of the PvP the end game at this point is pretty shallow.