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This game might have potential
I'm brand new to this one, not MMOs.
So far I've only played 3 nights and I'm still in the newbie zones. I just recently got the mount in that farm area. "Nuia" or whatever faction.
Questions for opinions
Anyhow, what's the endgame? Is it a true sandbox like many claim?
Does this game open up a bit more after level 30 like I've heard? So far it's pretty linear and I've seen it all before.
Crafting looks interesting, is it?
How's the PvP? Balance? Group PVP? Open PVP? And most importantly fun?
I hear there's a lot of griefing, but for me that's a good sign in a pvp. Why? Because it means there's more freedom. Real MMOs should have heroes and villains to keep it fresh and interesting.
And important one, what are the "pay to win" elements some people claim?
Comments
1. 'End Game'... Right now; make money, get good gear, prep in every sense to hit the north continent when it opens. You will want a castle there.
2. It was open for me personally from L15... We had our clippers by then and was getting into trouble all over the world. By that time we had our farms running in PvP zones.
3. Crafting IS interesting, but expensive right now.
4. PvP, for me, is fun. A lot of fun. It underpins the risk of every pack run we make. It even turns sport fishing into extreme sports fishing.
5. 'Griefing'... Haven't been griefed much personally, but people like to fuck around and have a laugh. It probably happens though, but, yeah.
The pay to win fallacy is lazy internet received wisdom bullshit, and probably will now dominate this thread. It is wrong though and the people that go on about it should be treated with contempt as the tedious bores that they are.
Endgame is what you make of it. Crafting, PvP, gathering, commerce - up to you. The sandbox opens up around level 30.
Questing seems to be the fastest and cheapest way to level, as it doesn't cost you labor points. You can do something else, though most recommend you complete at least the green diamond quests to get as many gilda stars as possible, as well as the Blue Salt Brotherhood chain to get your farms. It can also help a lot to overachieve the gear quests, as that seems to proc improved gear. At 30, quest dailies open up and can provide a continuing supply of gilda stars.
On the way to 30, you will learn about all the other things you can do in AA if you do the quests. It's a long and boring tutorial, but at the end of it you have ~70 gilda stars, whatever gold you looted, the knowledge of how most game mechanics work and some experience at them. At 30 the main story ends and you can go off into the world and experience the PvP.
It's a highly competitive, PvP game. Expect scamming (which is legal) and griefing.
The loudest complaints are about labor points and land ownership, as there is never enough of either depending on what you want to do. I haven't really seen anything P2W but that is just my perspective.
I recommend you check out the AA forums and reddit for lots more info.
Thanks for responses.
I want to know ahead of time what is paying customer only content?
Is it just fluff items like XP boosts or more?
When you subscribe you get "patron status" which lets you purchase land...which there isnt any on any server unless you want to plop down 200-300g which will turn you over to either buying APEX for gold or going through the goldsellers....if you are a new player coming in you ARE WAY behind...WAY behind...so prepare
I had patron dropped it two days ago worthless gives you lots of labor points but without land you can grow crops without them being stolen .....etc etc...go to the official forums grab some coffee and buckle in its a mess overthere right now
I leveled to 50 twice - once in beta, once in live. I've had an assortment of houses and skills.
1. I wouldn't say it's really a true sandbox like many claim. You'll find the freedom is limited to only a select few things you can do at any point in time - Trade Run, grind Hasla, grind Gilda and grind PvP for Honor. You can construct castles, but only guilds get teat option... which I was part of. Still, there are only those few options for an individual.
2. It does open up anywhere form level 15+, but I can tell you, you've see it before anyhow. If you've played some of the more Indie MMOs out there, many of them have done the sandbox elements much better. If you've played the mainstream Themepark MMOs, they've all done the linear portions better.
3. Crafting... is the bane of your existence once you hit level 50! The grind is long, boring and tedious. Very little you craft will actually be worth much and even some of the most straight forward items require one randomly impossible element to craft them. You want to raise livestock? Buy a cow. You need feed to feed to the cow? Create a Farmer's Workbench. You need Viscous Glossy Oil for one part of the workbench? Craft it. Wait... now you need 10,000 points in alchemy to create a level 1 item in carpentry?!?!
4. PvP feels pointless... and is also a grind. There are no permanent side effects to dying. If anything, dying in PvP is more forgiving than dying in PvE. The only real points to PvP are either gaining Honor for killing enemy faction members, or killing people and stealing their trade packs. In many "PvP zones" you can kill anyone in any faction of any class at any level. So it's open ion that sense. However, the lack of any real threat of dying and the fast speed of PvP makes it feel more like a first person shooter in a sense... a FPS that made you spend over a week to get to play.
5. Griefing isn't really "kill a person over and over" like you may think. Griefing in this game is more like standing outside your doorstep to your house and killing you the instant you come out... over and over again. Griefing is some alt character running up and placing a small farm right next to your land to prevent you from expanding in the future. Griefing is camping a quest port for the sole purpose of stealing newbie trade packs that they need to deliver because the quest tells them to.
6. I don't agree with any of the P2W arguments people make about this game. If people are willing to pay a sub fee for a game like WoW, there's no reason to complain about the benefit paying that same subscription fee in this game also provides. Many of the "premium" items are also sold in-game via the auction house, so it's possible for a free account to still get a chance at using them, as long as they have the in-game gold to pay for them.