May 2014

How Does your Garden Grow?

stargrace May 7, 2014 2 Comments

I am now level 12, and getting into the finer details of ArcheAge, which is great. I have learned the basics of combat, using my mount, become familiar with my skills, and now it’s time to get into some crafting and gardening. The tutorials explained everything pretty easily. There are a few ways players can plant in the world. One, you can plant in the public. Problem with this is that of course anyone can by and steal what you have planted. Especially true in PVP areas. Still, if you don’t feel like paying taxes on a plot of land in a housing area, you may want to try this. Then there are public garden areas (like the one pictured above). This let me plant 10 items (from a list of items that were accepted) for 24 hours before the items would then become public. I found some potatoes someone had forgotten about this way, and quickly harvested them myself. The garden was filled with all manor of thing, chickens, potato, onions, strawberries, etc. It was cute.

It is also where you go to learn about gardening. You plant some potatoes and harvest them, then deliver them to an NPC. See, some themepark in your sandbox while the game explains the basics to you. Again I appreciate these tutorials because I know it won’t be long before I’m out on my own.

Finally at the end of planting you receive a scarecrow. This is how you claim areas as “yours”. I haven’t bothered to use mine yet as the area I was in was pretty crowded, but it will ensure that anything you plant within the space is marked as yours so that others can’t wander by and steal it. Planting comes with timers, each crop or item takes time to grow. The potatoes were very fast, other things have much longer timers.

I also got into a bit of craft and harvesting. Harvesting is pretty straight forward. I didn’t need any fancy tools or any of that nonsense, which I appreciate. You spend labour points for each crafting action. Every player (well, at my level at least) has 1000 labour points. I smelted some iron into ingots, and noticed a lot of recipes for sale by various NPC standing around the crafting stations. Crafting takes time, something I’m not used to – lets face it I’ve been spoiled by instant clicking everything and having it magically appear in my inventory. My best harvesting came from wandering along the “edges” of mountain ranges. In the trees and against rocks. I found lots of iron, a handful of trees, mushrooms, and some clover. Each item is (thankfully) labelled so I know what craft it is for. There are a LOT of items.

I’m also going to start looking for a guild to join. Hopefully I can find one without too much issue. I would prefer to focus on the crafting / harvesting aspect of the game full time with brief meanderings into PVP and combat. If I can find a guild that welcomes crafters and protects them while I craft useful things for them, that would be ideal.

I’m hoping to get into more crafting and some housing next, but we’ll see how that goes. I’m still not familiar with housing zones or how they work or how you actually place / build a home, but so far everything has been explained in a pretty clear way.

As always, happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!

That’s a Hardcore Mount

stargrace May 5, 2014 No Comments

I divided time between WoW and ArcheAge yesterday, with plans of playing WildStar but no real interest while it’s still in beta. For some reason I want to learn all I can about ArcheAge, but I would rather wait for release for WildStar (perhaps because it’s coming up fairly soon where as ArcheAge remains a mystery).

My character made it to level 10, and was introduced to the mount system. Along the way I also discovered some other neat systems.

Take quests for example. You have the option to over achieve on quests if you want, and you will be rewarded extra experience. On that same note, if you’re in a rush and don’t feel like completing a quest, you can under achieve. Don’t meet all of the goals and you can still turn the quest in but you’ll receive less experience – though you will still get the reward. This is a great feature that I’ve never really seen before (though WildStar does have bonus objectives to their quests).

Mounts in ArcheAge are living creatures. They gain experience. They can die. You can get gear for them, name them, feed them, and when obtaining one you need to take care of it. In fact I got the notification above on my first mount – if I didn’t take care of my mount within 60 minutes after release, it might die.

Really? My MOUNT could DIE?! That thought just boggled my mind. Talk about hardcore.

So I took my little baby mount, and a seed, and spread them both out on a bit of lawn. Then I waited. I danced with the little critter, played with it, gave it water, groomed it, and all other manor of love. Eventually the little guy grew into a fantastic beast that I can ride around on – or who follows me around, depending on my mood.

Enjoying the game so far? Yes, yes I am.

As always, happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself.

ArcheAge? Don’t Mind if I Do

stargrace May 4, 2014 2 Comments

Practically everyone I know decided to buy Elder Scrolls Online, and I decided to sit it out. I knew it wasn’t my type of game, I didn’t even make it through Skyrim, and if I really crave that sort of game.. well, I’ll play Skyrim. I lived vicariously through their posts and streams, looking at screenshots and debating with myself whether I would play the game or not. Thing is I had access to the alpha and didn’t log in once. I mean, why pay to play the game when I couldn’t even be bothered to play it for free.

When ArcheAge started getting a bit of publicity through Trion, it piqued my interest right away. I actually signed up for the game ages ago, before Trion ever got involved. I’m a huge fan of sandboxes, after all I have been playing Wurm Online fairly steadily for almost three years now. The thing is, Wurm Online is not a AAA title, and while I adore it (I truly do) I find it hard to justify the monthly cost. You can’t “do it all” in Wurm Online on one character. You don’t get an account, either. You pay per character. For me to “do it all” I have four characters, at $22 CAN each, every two months. That doesn’t include the cost of my deeds, either. That is just to be premium. A lot of people play Wurm Online because of the amazing terraforming players can do – but – that has never been my appeal for the game. I actually prefer to purchase finished deeds so I can avoid terraforming. ArcheAge doesn’t have terraforming (that I’m aware of) but it does have customization and player created content from every which way. It is also an open world, has navel (yes, leaving this spelling in there, but I did mean naval!) battles, a huge amount of crafting, and a commerce system that will rely on players, much like it does in EVE Online (another favourite game of mine).

Knowing that, and after watching a few videos, I decided to purchase their founders pack. I know, they’re expensive. I wanted in the alpha, and the items the pack came with appealed to me enough to take the plunge. That’s 90 days of subscription time, access to alpha & beta events when they occur, in game potions, a mount, gear, a title, some currency, and I’m not sure if there’s anything else, there probably is.

Right now I’m level 6, and I already know it will be a game I play for quite some time. It DOES start out as a themepark, but don’t let this deter you. One complaint I see all of the time about EVE Online is the learning curve. In ArcheAge they work very hard to make sure that learning curve is something you can overcome. For now, yes, I am killing 10 rats and collecting plants and playing errand girl for various NPC while I learn the basics of the game (crafting, combat, etc) BUT eventually (from what I have heard) that stuff leaves off, and you’ll be on your own in the world.

I have watched a few videos that talk about the player customization. You can upload images to a folder in-game, and use those images as ‘stamps’ on virtually anything. House items, houses (walls), boats, gear. All customized with your images that you have uploaded. A guild emblem, a trader icon, want to be a pirate and have everyone fear your logo? You can. Want to “paint” your house with a stamped image, that you can adjust and rotate and change the placement of? Go ahead.

The graphics are amazing. It IS still in the middle of being translated to English since the game is Korean, and there are some differences between the Korean and English versions of the game, but the basics are all still the same. I’m excited about this game in a way that I haven’t been for the past few releases I have seen. I have been waiting a long time for a AAA sandbox, and I can’t wait to explore this one further. Expect lots of posts over the next while!

What are your thoughts so far of ArcheAge? Let me know in comments! As always, happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself.