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A piece of advice on AA
To those that are thinking of playing, don't.
There are a lot of subjective things a person can say about a game. I am not going to say, don't play this game because I don't like mechanic A, feature B etc. because all that would be subjective and my personal opinion.
However, this game is full of hackers. There are hacks for almost everything - instant trade runs, land grabbing hacks, radar/map hacks where you can instantly find thunderstruck trees out in the wild and chop them down etc.
ALl this hacking makes all your efforts worthless. People making 3-4k gold in a weekend from hacking, while I see people in my guild spend weeks to farm up to be able to afford a simple farm cart. People then being unbanned and being left with their gold. Then Trion decides to ANNOUNCE that they are going to reban those people who probably transferred all that gold to some other account.
IF anyone tells you that the hacking situation is fine, they are just lying. The way this game's code is written makes it easily hackable. Too much client side.
So if you want to spend hundreds of hours grinding gold while people hack their ass off, then I guess AA might be for you after all.
Mission in life: Vanquish all MMORPG.com trolls - especially TESO, WOW and GW2 trolls.
Comments
If AA was a competition to see who could get X amount of gold first, I would wholeheartedly agree with you.
However, if you're playing the game to have fun and enjoy what AA's virtual world has to offer, then hackers don't have very much impact.
I will say that the housing situation kinda sucks right now and part of that debacle is most likely being caused by hackers.
Other than that, I'm thoroughly enjoying my time in AA.
And yet last night on Salpheria a GM logged in prime time USA and sent a mass message asking anyone that's near a bot to whisper him so that he can find said bot and eliminate them.
Not only that, but I received multiple in-game mails from the previous day when they banned nearly 10,000 hackers/bots. Those mails were thanks for me reporting said bots using the in-game mechanic that cost 20 labor points; not only was I refunded the 20 labor for a successful report, but they also gave me a bonus 25 labor for each as well.
So the OP's "advice" is moot as the game is being cleared of bots, hackers, and their ilk. It's still a very fun and enjoyable game.
I only get to game 5-6 hours a week so whether it's a hacker or some dude who plays 12+ hours a day, I'll most likely be at a disadvantage in most situations.
I just try to enjoy what time I have to game, I can't get caught up in stuff I have no control over.
Not to mention there are a ton of combat hacks people are using in PvP.
Yep. There are some people that are okay with the possibility that the others they're dealing with in an MMO are hacking or benefitting from hacking. And that's fine.
Just make sure you're ("you" in the general sense) one of those people before you commit heavily to Archeage.
Hackers impact you if:
1) You are trying to get land as it's physically impossible to claim an expiring land spot before someone using the hack.
2) If you ever decide to sell anything on the AH or try to play the market, then you will feel the impact of the huge amounts of gold coming in.
3) You want to gank someone in the ocean in PvP? Too bad their boat just vanished!
4) Doing trade runs for 50 hours when you can instantly tp to the trader.
Basically more gold in the economy => your gold is worth less.
Also your argument about gold would be perfectly fine in a game where gold doesn't matter that much, e.g. most other MMOs. For example in WoW you can't really buy your gear with gold. In AA you can buy everything with gold. Everything!
People who have more gold => better items (either from being able to easily skill up crafting using all that gold or straight up buying the gear). Endgame gear at lvl 50 makes a huge difference. So you will be disadvantaged in PvP.
Mission in life: Vanquish all MMORPG.com trolls - especially TESO, WOW and GW2 trolls.
Bot is different to hacks. They have been doing the report a bot for ages now. Ever since the game launched. YOu make a report, it costs 20 labour, they give yu back 25.
Still there are tons of bots and this hasn't helped.
However, this thread is not about bots. It's about the blatant hacking which is way worse. You see bots in other games but you definitely don't see hacking in most MMOs.
Mission in life: Vanquish all MMORPG.com trolls - especially TESO, WOW and GW2 trolls.
It's a open world pvp after level 30 and even your own faction can kill you so your comment about competition is invalid.
Archeage is a game where the end-game is PvP, and the power of you, your friends, and your foes is heavily dependent on the gear being worn. Obtaining said gear involves lots of gold along the way. This gold can be acquired better either by those spending money on the cash shop, playing longer or smarter than others, or by hacking and not getting caught. Those who are not able to keep up with that for whatever reason will have inferior gear, and thus a significant (VERY) disadvantage in the PvP that comprises the majority of AA's gameplay at the end.
(there are some other subsections in there. Like how having land helps a lot in getting gold, but land itself is a limited resource that you may or may not get depending on several factors, of which hackers are one of)
(also of note is that the "gear race" is pretty much never ending. No one is going to get the best gear any time soon so there won't be a point where "everyone has the best gear and thus PvP equalizes out". People still don't have the best gear in AA in other regions after TWO YEARS)
If you ("you" in the general sense) are fine with that, then fine. Maybe you're capable of keeping up (if so, you'd better have a realistic assessment of yourself and take into account the hackers and the whales). Or maybe you aren't but don't mind that the people you'll be PvPing against have better gear and thus significant (VERY) advantage over you. If that's fine with you, fine. But it's important to know what you're getting into.
Sadly, lots of people probably didn't.
How do you know about a game you don't play?.
Yet OP Trion is confirming that they are Banning these accounts left right and center. On top of that they are removing ALL the damage done by said Hacks. There has even been a guild that someone was hacking to get stone and all that stone was removed from the guild which pissed them off.
No the game is not perfect that blame is squarely on the shoulders of XLGAMES. I have no doubt that more fixes are coming soon to break the teleport hack and so on. Yea AA lacked polish but thats because the RU release company did shit to help XLGAMES to fix the issues because RU is full of hackers anyway and in Korea they dont do it because they are ethical about it. Well here in the US we fix shit like that. The CORE problem of the game is Trion cannot SEE, READ or EDIT the game code to help XLGAMES fix the issues. I am hoping that will get resolved soon because Trion's Scott Hartsman will push to try to make this game work. Add to that XLGAMES didnt want Rift security protocols to be added into to AA because they thought Americans would be more Ethical than we have, well guess what they were wrong and they are allowing Trion to move forward with the plans they had since Alpha.
So If you dont like the game dont play it and quit crying about it.
He hasn't played ESO since early april either... comparing ESO to AA today, in terms of bots and hacking is like comparing wildstar to ESO in terms of population. It's not even close.
I've asked you that very same question ....and I'm still waiting for the answer ?
I didn't know there were that many people playing Wildstar .....boy ESO sure went downhill fast
I am playing Archeage.
I would not suggest people to not try AA. In fact, I would highly suggest to play it for a month and see for yourself. Much of what the OP has listed as "problems" with the game I have not personally seen. I do know of others that would say they have. Has it effected me....not really. Trion has said that they are actively pursuing bots/hacks and hackers. We shall see where that goes. Until such starts to effect me, I will continue to play. If it becomes a problem, I will quit.
Let's party like it is 1863!
Oi, AA fanboi, don't embarrass yourself posting veery old vids about problems that were solved long time ago. I don't mind you liking your AA of course but please stop loving your holy grail through spreading hate on all other games. This is pathetic.
Edit: AA has been around for how long? 5 years, 7 years? ESO had problems but bots were crushed in one month.
OP, why should people take your word instead of playing it, it is free to play after all, and seeing it for themselves if any of what you said is really an issue and if it will prevent them from having fun ?
I've been playing for a couple of weeks now and no hacker or bot has been able to take away my fun so far. If you focus on getting more gold than anyone else, or the best gear in the game before any other player etc. then some hacker making 3-4K gold easily might irritate you I guess. Otherwise the game so far has been fun for me, regardless of what some hackers might be doing.
I recommend that people play it (it is free to play) and make up their own mind.
Yeah yeah, people like you keep touting the code leaves the game vulnerable for hacks and then suddenly jump to the huge conclusion that the game is automatically ruined because of it.
Yes, it can be very detrimental to the game. No, it does not automatically mean the game is ruined.
If the hacking situation would be as bad as you want to claim the server economies would already be in ruins. That has not happened on a single server yet. Land hacks have happened, but that issue was destined to be a short-term issue in the first place - all the land is gone and would have been gone fast regardless of the hacking issues or not. Now you need to buy your way into a plot and no land hack will help you with that.
A prime example of hacking handled well is the new FFXIV. Last year around the time of beta to release the community found massive hacking potential in the game, a hack which was extremely easy to utilize as well. You would've thought the economy and the game itself would've been ruined because of it. It wasn't, though, as the devs with their iron hand took care of the issue. This took months to get done by the way. Not because SE didn't notice it, but because it was a rather fundamental flaw in the code.
TL;DR: Until the hacks actually ruin the game, you can keep touting about the hacks all you want, the game itself is fine.
There are hackers everywhere in every popular new game. They get weeded out over time so the longer a game is around the less you see of them.
It's the state of the industry but not so much because of the developers. There're just many more douchebags attracted to MMOs these days than there used to be, There's a whole gamer "counterculture" with heavily populated sites that cater to them and sell the hacks.
It's silly to try to dissect game code and blame the programmers when the reality is that douches will be douches and will find ways to cheat and brag about it in forums, youtube and twitch.
A lot of assholes play MMOs now too.
“Microtransactions? In a single player role-playing game? Are you nuts?”
― CD PROJEKT RED
I have been to quite a few launches and a lot of them are some very rocky rides. But AAs launch is not your typical launch. Eso has no bots at the moment.
You can keep saying that all other mmos are like that but that doesn't make it true. There's tons of evidence showing these hacks and how people don't get caught. I have never seen someone cheat in such blatant way in wow and I played that game for a very long time.
Mission in life: Vanquish all MMORPG.com trolls - especially TESO, WOW and GW2 trolls.
There must exist a world first for such a hack.
Since many AAA MMORPG's don't implement the feature of a world there can't be performed a hack for it.
Any MMORPG with a persistant world has been plaqued with such things like teleport hack. Well games with no world and just instances have it easier because if someone hacks in an instance in WOW people playing the game in other instance will never notice it. Same goes for raid Bosses you will never notice the hacks on the raid Bosses in someone else instance. But in the persistant world of Archeage you can comfortable notice it because Archeage offers you the feature of a world.
There must exist a world fisrt to meet other players and notice they hacking.
The OP gives a valid point, and a agree with separate hackers from "grinding/leveling bots".
About "dont try the game atm" i might agree if cost any money but it doesnt so there isnt any reason to not trying imo.
Hackers only bother me indirect way (land grab and teleport trade packs) because i have didnt meet one yet, like almost everthing in AA even this situation is "RNG", when we go do something in game theres a chance to meet a hacker, i had be luck untill now
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AA is the only mmorpg i want to play atm, i really hope all this hackers thing can be handle sonner then later. untill then i try to survive in-game having fun with friends.