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ArcheAge gameplay The good and bad (1 month in)
cybertrucker
Member UncommonPosts: 1,117
Greetings all. I figured I would chime in and give my opinion on AA after a month of Patron Status Play. I wanted to point out some of the good and the bad with this review. So grab up a chair, and I hope you enjoy, or at least find something usefull.
To start out let me tell you a bit about me and what I look for in a game. To start I enjoy PVP and PVE, I have to be honest though and admit, that I find myself PVEing more than I do PVP. I enjoy participating in group oriented gameplay and especially raids. However I am fairly casual in my gaming habits. I work 70 hours a week. Normally in games crafting would be a way for me to kill small bits of downtime. In this game however crafting can definitely be a grind and takes a lot of time if you want to get anywhere with it.
So I will start with Crafting/harvesting. Starting off crafting in this game can be very useful right up front (well at level 20 anyway) I started off trying to skill up in both weaponsmithing and Armorcrafting (Plate). However It didn't take me very long to realize how insanely expensive it was going to be do this. I ended up dropping weaponsmithing for plate armorcrafting. (even that is expensive on its own.) Mats just cost a fortune, making it hard to keep up. Armor smithing thru the 20s is great and easy with what you are making actually being useful. Then the 30s and 40s I almost found it useless (but still expensive) since dungeon armors are better than crafted armors. Then finally top tier armor is good. However good luck getting there.
Tiere is so much more they could have done to help Crafters, like maybe instilling something along the lines that Vanguard had where you could craft work orders to level up, then sell those work orders to vendors. Something Along the lines of trade runs, but just using crafted items instead. No one is willing to spend any in game gold for lower tier crafted items, so its use it or its wasted.
This leads me to another point in Crafting. AA is a game that has the claim that Crafted gear is the best gear you can get in the game at the high end. I think this is the wrong way to do things in a fantasy game....PERIOD... sandbox or not. I am of the opinion that crafters should work hand in hand with adventurers and their dropped items from raids and events. Offering different ways of improving those itemsOr repairing item damage, not competing with those items. As I said above I enjoy my PVE. I want there to actually be a point to it at the top end. I want that dragon to drop uber gear. let me then take that gear to master crafters to make it even better, or possibly even change the weapon type or maybe what stats it effect. I mean whats the point of taking the risk to raid if the reward is worse than what you can just pay a crafter to make, or make yourself.
Ok on to PVE. The mobs in the game are fairly dumb. BAF radius in most areas are miniscule making outdoor adventuring dull and lifeless. There are some decent dungeon battles though, however nothing groundbreaking or new. Open World raid mobs tend to be a zerg fest from the lack of healer support, or even true tank support. This is due to the very poorly designed healing abilities. Healing is mana inneficient, they take to long to cast, and have have long recharge timers , and until you get to the high end of the game healers don't heal for very much. They really need to make more adjustments and buff up healing. As for Tanks.. They get better at high levels. But agro management can be a pain with long cooldowns on taunts and agro builders. This is especially true due to the fact that 95% of the players are playing DPSers, and most only seem to know how to Zerg. I play a paladin (occasionally switching to abolisher) So I am experienced in both the tanking and healing department,
This takes me to PVP, which is where the game does seem to shine. PVP can actually be a lot of fun at times, it also spices up some of the bland open world PVE. I do feel however that there are quite a lot of imbalances that need to be worked out. Stealth is a bit to powerful, and Stunlock, and CC effects are a bit over abundant, which can be very annoying. I get my PVP in Spurts, as I am not a PKer, However I will attack Reds when I see them or (Purple/grey).. As a Paladin as my main build honor points can be hard to come by. Fully dedicated healers get screwed even more on this. This also needs to be adjusted. I also feel the justice system needs to have harsher penalties (longer jail times) for friendly PKers. Making the decision to grief other same faction players hurt a bit more.
Ok class design. While fun. The cookie cutter builds are starting to rear their ugly heads. DPS is king in this game, which is unfortunate. I also dislike the skill rank system. Which you have no control over how they rank. I mean seriously with all the hoorah about designing your class. you cant even choose how to rank up the skills associated with that class. it makes no sense and seems like a huge oversite in overall leveling mechanics.
Things I have not done much of, are trade runs. Just don't have time for it. I have however escorted some friends on theirs. And land ownage. lets face it. Its hard to get.. even though land is starting to open up on my server. As it stands right now. I don't know if I am going to even bother. I already have a lot on my plate when I get the chance to play. Owning land is just going to be more things to do I don't have time for.
OVERALL. The game is fun, but grindy. As a casual player it took me about the full month to make it to the top level. That doesn't put me in the high end of the game by a longshot. PVE needs a huge shot in the arm. I was hoping for open world dungeons Akin to Vanguard or EQ. Unfortunately I got uninspired instances. So much for fully open world. As I stated above. I enjoy the fact there are Open World raid mobs to take down. Its a shame as the game progresses that most likely no one will be doing them for 2 reasons. 1. The lack of healers and 2. the fact whats the point when better gear is to be had from crafting. PVP is definitely the highest point of this game. Especially if you like being a stealthed range weapon wielding DPSer. Unfortunately Tanks and healers while present are underwhelming and waste their skill points on skills that do nearly nothing for them in PVP.
Do I think I will stay with this game for the longhaul? Its to soon to tell. I am interested in seeing what changes may be made to it. However. I know when EQN comes out I will be there to try it out. As it stands right now. Its keeping my interest somewhat. However it has left me feeling fairly disappointed on several fronts where I felt a game of its design should have shined it fell kind of flat.
Comments
yea looks like some really great stuff out there in 1.7 ....with the recent crackdown on hackers bots goldsellers and gold buyer's things are really starting to rock
So I typed up the original earlier from my IPAD.. I just went back and made ALOT of editing and changes.. but ya The outlook is the same. The game has the potential for some fun times. However they could have done so much better with so many things.
Also the UI is really missing some really basic standards in MMO fair. examples no inverted mouse look, No guild MOTDs. No in game voice clients. it also seems a bit clunky for a lot of people. I have 1 friend give up due to constantly being kicked. I really didn't want to to get into a lot of the negtives that you see so many times like bots and hackers, and mega inflation due to them. I wanted to talk about my overall game experience.
Ohh the game runs pretty smoothly for me, and I run over a Verizon wireless MIFI. on an ASUS gaming laptop. the friend that left due to being dropped has a computer that will run circles around mine. His is brand new. mine is 2 years old... just a few more points. so there you go.
If its not firefall or antivirus related, try deleting the asc folder in C:Program Files (x86)GlyphGamesArcheAgeAlphain32hshield then REBOOT. Then run as admin the file in same directory called hsupdate.exe then REBOOT. It worked for me, both times that happened...
"Vidis Fodidis Est"
I fixed it by turning off my firewall, starting the game up, then turning the firewall back on.
Nice review OP and agree with many of your points.
I'm really enjoying my time in AA. So much to do, so little time for me. I have so many goals that it will take me quite some time to get to them and that means me sticking around for quite some time. I would love to see them add more PvE content in the form of dungeons and such. Yes, I know it is a sandboxy game and PvE isn't the main focus. Still would be nice to see.
My big frustration right now is just the lack of time to play around the server maintenances. I know that this is a fact of life with a new launch (in NA at least) but sometimes it seems the game is down more than it is up. The land situation is also a bit frustrating. I was lucky to snag my farmhouse and small garden right at launch but a number of folks are still looking. I really wish that they implemented some type of lottery system when a property goes up for demolition. I feel like there isn't even a snowball's chance in hell to grab a property. Very frustrating.
Aside from my nitnoy complaints, I love the game although will try out EQN or Black Desert when they come out. I've been hungering for a more sandbox game and AA for now has scratched that itch very well.
I fully disagree with the Grindy comment, Idk how it took you a month to max out, you had to of hardly played at all my first character took my 6 days to max out, my seconds character took my 3 days to max out doing hereafter stones from 25 up.
How it took you a month i have no idea unless you stood around chatting or something it seems impossible.
Im one of those people who takes his sweet time. I can see how it might feel grindy if you dont pound it out in 6 days of hardcore play.
Same here. I think people need to understand that others may have different play styles.
You can run all your life but, not go anywhere.
Asian grind is grindy...period. I think I have had about enough myself. I have found this game is nothing but grind designed to keep you losing gold to the point you have to grind up another profession (fishing is the fotm now) or buy Apex from Trion to sell on the AH for gold. Everything is a grind that makes you lose tons of gold if you want any kind of good gear. Socketing lunagems is complete BS. 50g gone just like that.
This game is for people who love to hurt themselves, no fun at all for me losing crap I worked hard for. On other games that only happens when you get hacked.
The real BAD!!!
Your hours and hours of farming and hard work are all summed up by a dice roll and you end up with a randomly generated crafted item. That has a 20% chance of actually being what you want. So you get to spend about 500 gold for a 20% chance of getting an item that you can upgrade to a lvl 50 random item that you have a 20% chance of being what you want. Wooo Hooo
Yes but there is a difference when a player who has been on a game for years loses to a brand new player because of a freak dice roll. Gaming today has overcome that freak accidental death with various factors that play into any given battle. It is best for any industry for the skillful and smart people to have an advantage over a lucky person. The luck factor in archeage's crafting system is currently disliked by 45% of their current playerbase.
I agree this is a very frustraring aspect and the luck factor needs to be a very, very minimal chance
What game caters to every single person's playstyle? This is a grindy MMO in terms of Crafting, not leveling though. You can even get all the dungeon gear, hasla weapon, and level to 50 in a month or so of casual play and be competitive. If you think that's grindy than yeah not your game.
Looking forward to: Crowfall / Lost Ark / Black Desert Mobile