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ArcheAge details its upcoming update, PTS, and holiday events
What do stockings, a vengeful sea goddess, and a dragon have in common? No, it's not a titillating new fantasy paperback. It's ArcheAge's next update. Version 1.2 Build 4.6 (as it is officially known) heralds the introduction of the Red Dragon to Erenor, an insane ancient Wyrmkin that will test the mettle of the strongest adventurers. Additionally, the jealous sea goddess Dahuta will make traveling the waters near her domain even more treacherous. Other update tidbits include a five-second forced delay between land claim attempts "in order to disrupt rapid spam-placement attempt tools" and the sale of the Comet speedster for 800 gilda. Players can test these new experiences out on the newly launched public test server. More information on all this and instructions for installing the PTS can be found on the official site and the PTS FAQ. This update also introduces the Winter Maiden Festival for the holidays. Featuring buff-giving trees you decorate and stockings you assemble all from loot drops, the event sees players decking the mobs with swords and staffs all through the season. Plushie collectors have the chance to acquire seven new snowman plushies to decorate their homes.
WildStar begins testing Drop 4 and 20-player Datascape raid
WildStar's upcoming Drop 4 is now on the public test realm, and despite Carbine's reluctance to post patch notes, the news on the street is that this content update will be a doozy. Among the changes and additions coming to next year's Drop 4 are new costumes for all of the races, more daily and weekly quests, an underground bunker housing option, the ability to see different armor models at character creation, a character customization vendor, loads of class changes, and a low-level shiphand mission called Fragment Zero. Datascape, the former 40-player raid that is now being retooled as a 20-player instance, is also on the test server for those with 19 good friends.
A dragon interloper is approaching ArcheAge
ArcheAge is gearing up for its December update, and that means getting ready for a dragon. A long time ago in the in-game lore, the dragon Misagon tried to take the land of Erenor for himself and his kin, which led to the Nuon rising up and killing him because that's just a really rude way to move in. The dragons panicked and left, but one among them started planning for Dragon Invasion II: The Dragoning. That invasion is going down as part of the December update, with the somewhat uncreatively named Red Dragon leading his minions in an assault on Erenor. This is the same dragon who resorted to feeding on other dragons to get stronger, so you know he's... well, not a good guy. Go ahead and check out the lore post for a slightly less irreverent explanation of what flies forth on crimson wings, and get ready to undertake some dragon hunting in the game's next major patch.
Leaderboard: Would B2P or a sub-only server bring you back to ArcheAge?
I've been thinking about ArcheAge a lot this month, and most of what I've been thinking about it is pretty negative. XL's fantasy sandpark has more problems than any single MMO should, but despite all of them I would still enjoy it if it weren't for that godawful cash shop. Yeah, the bugs are annoying as are some of the more pervasive exploits (flower dance griefing, really?), but underneath all that is a feature-rich virtual world I'd love to keep playing. At this point, though, the only thing that would bring me back is some sort of subscription-only server, or failing that, a buy-to-play-with-a-cosmetic-cash-shop server that doesn't sell labor potions, tax certificates, appraisals, and the like. What about you, Leaderboard readers and disgruntled ArcheAge expats? Would you come back for a subscription-only server or a less invasive cash shop? Vote after the cut! Ever wish that you could put to rest a long-standing MMO debate once and for all? Then welcome to the battle royal of Massively's Leaderboard, where two sides enter the pit o' judgment -- and only one leaves. Vote to make your opinion known, and see whether your choice tops the Leaderboard!
Carbine's Chad Moore on WildStar's fresh focus on lore
There's a big focus on WildStar's lore recently. Aside from the big lore drops, dubbed "Loremageddon" by Carbine Studios, the game's official site has begun releasing a series of short stories detailing important moments in the game's history, from the first space voyage of the Cassian people to dealing with the Genesis Prime now. That's a lot of storytelling, the sort that should be continuing on well into next year. We had a chance to sit down and ask a few questions of creative director Chad Moore regarding what we've seen thus far for the game and what the goals are with this renewed focus on the game's setting and story. If you'd like to know a little more about the setting and what players can expect from the ongoing history lesson, check out the interview just past the break. There's also a new story available today detailing the first contact between the Cassians and the Eldan.
ArcheAge reinstates APEX purchases
The time since ArcheAge's launch has been a cycle of allowing cash shop purchases, discovering exploits with those purchases, and disabling those purchases, usually APEX. There have been a variety of other goofs hither and yon, but the important one right now is APEX. After a long period of being unavailable, it can be purchased once more, hopefully without a need to disable it again in the future. APEX, for those of you unaware, is essentially a way to purchase subscription time and sell it in-game, a la EVE Online's PLEX or WildStar's CREDD. The exploit issues caused by use of APEX items without actually consuming them have led to the items being removed from the store on multiple occasions. Hopefully this reinstatement signals the end of that particular cycle for the game.
Lost Continent: Yep, F2P sucks for ArcheAge
Thus far I've put up with quite a lot of crap in my quest to like ArcheAge. There was the launch debacle in which no one realized that many millions of people will show up and expect a working service if you yell "come play for free!" Then there was the Auroria debacle, in which no one cared about server accessibility during a competitive launch event. And of course there's ArcheAge's easily exploitable code, the ramifications of which include hacks, cheats, and bot-related problems that continue to be visible to anyone taking Trion's really-guys-it's-only-a-tiny-minority spin with a grain of salt. Finally, there's the grossly intrusive monetization plan that prevents subscribers from playing certain parts of the game unless they spend additional money in the cash shop. ArcheAge has a comically long list of problems, but it's this last one that's finally wearing me down.
Trion compensates ArcheAge players with cash shop potions, play time
Are you still playing ArcheAge? If so you might be interested in the stuff Trion's giving away as compensation for this week's lengthy server outage brouhaha. If you're a patron or former patron, you'll be able to claim a patron pack that contains five days of patron time and a bunch of cash shop potions that will help you bypass some of ArcheAge's more annoying gameplay restrictions. And of course they'll whet your appetite for more cash shop potions! If you've never been a patron, well you get fewer potions and no patron time. [Thanks David!]
ArcheAge servers are back up; Trion is sorting out in-game timers
If you're following the ongoing saga of ArcheAge problems, you probably know that the game had all of the servers shut down over a holiday weekend, which could theoretically solve the game's exploit issues in the same way that setting fire to your house solves any problems you have with your wallpaper. The server issues were stated to be a result of emergency maintenance, with community representatives denying that it was connected to servers overheating, DDoS attacks, or exploits. The good news is that out of the game's 21 servers, 16 were up and running last night, with the last five brought online early this morning. Players are promised compensation, which will be revealed later today. Unfortunately for players who had taxes due, the timers for all services continued to roll while the servers were down, so crops, housing plots, and the like were all still affected by time during the lengthy maintenance cycle. Trion says it is "definitely aware this is an issue for players with taxes due and is talking with XLGAMES about the best way to resolve it while the servers are offline." A server rollback is not in the cards. But at least the servers are back online. We'll have more updates on the compensation for players when it is announced.
Some of ArcheAge's servers are back online this morning
Trion's FireCait addressed the latest ArcheAge downtime crisis on the official forums just before 5 a.m. this morning: Hi all! Here's the latest update for everyone. You can log into the following EU servers: Shatigon, Kyprosa, Eanna, Dahuta, Aier, Orchidna & Melisara. We continue to work on Nui, Janudar and Nebe. In North American, you can log into Aranzeb, Naima, Kyrios, Ollo, Tahyang, Salphira, Enla, Ezi and Lucius. Inoch and Calleil continue to be offline as we work to resolve the issues on those servers. Please note that the servers that are being worked on will show up on the server selection, and vanish from the server selection screen, as they are being worked on. Their visibility is not an indication of their status until we indicate that they are fully online. We expect to have another update for you in the mid-late morning (Pacific time). Thank you all for your patience. The servers were down Sunday and Monday for what Trion called "unscheduled maintenance." The studio told Massively yesterday that players will be compensated for the extended multi-day outage, though exactly how hasn't yet been announced. Queues are reportedly still keeping many players from logging into the live servers on Tuesday. Oh yeah, and that rumor about the servers catching on fire and being in a state of desperate salvage? It's not true. "This did not happen," Trion's Scapes declared to forumgoers. Ocho likewise dismissed the idea that exploits are responsible for the downtime.
ArcheAge's 'unscheduled maintenance' stretches into day two [Updated]
Would you like to play ArcheAge today? Well, good luck with that! Two of the fantasy sandpark's North American servers are currently up but sporting a queue, which wouldn't be that big of a deal except for the fact that they've basically been down since November 30th along with several other shards. Trion community manager Evan "Scapes" Berman first posted about the outage -- due to "unscheduled maintenance" -- yesterday morning, and he continued to update the post as instability and latency issues occurred throughout the day and into the evening. Massively has contacted Trion seeking comment. [Thanks everyone who tipped us.] [Update]: Trion provided Massively with the following statement. "The team's been working all night and has already made a lot of progress improving things and are currently working on fixing the remaining problems with XL GAMES' help. We should have updates coming to the community in the next few hours." The firm also mentioned "extra generous" compensation for the downtime, and said it would have more info on that once the problems are fully resolved.
ArcheAge launching in China in July 2015
If you want to relive the experience of ArcheAge's launch again or just love seeing the game come out in new regions, you'll want to keep your eyes on the game's Chinese version. Tencent Games recently announced that the game will launch in China in July of 2015, complete with some exclusive content to entice players who may have already heard of the game. Players in the Chinese version can look forward to what appear to be panda-styled gliders, special pets, some new costumes, new ship designs, and traditional Chinese house designs. No word has been released on business models, although it's almost a given that the game will be free-to-play as it is almost everywhere else in the world. Let's hope for a smooth launch for Chinese ArcheAge fans free of bugs and game-breaking exploits.
WildStar releases Voyage of the Nomad, plans story rollout
Carbine Studios has just announced new content for WildStar... well, for the WildStar website, anyway. Voyage of the Nomad, a short story that "recollects the tale of the Cassians' first steps into the vast world of deep-space exploration," will go live on the official site's story page today. And it won't be a lone entry. Carbine plans to publish 11 such tales starting today and running every other Tuesday until the plots are played out. "The stories will unfold chronologically, until they reach the events that players have already experienced in WildStar's main story," says the press release. Hey, at least the lore-fiends among the greater MMO playerbase will be happy!
The Soapbox: Six reasons MMOs should abandon raiding, part 2
In yesterday's Soapbox, I had some things to say about why it's time to dump raiding. I'm writing this before I've seen the comment responses, but I'm willing to bet that a fair amount of angry shouting was involved in the comments because that's what I usually expect. But I wasn't done, as suggested by the whole "part 1" thing in the title header. For those don't feel like reading the whole thing, the short version is that raiding is too expensive to develop for too small a portion of the players. This is a solid argument, but it's standard: You hear it every time this debate comes up. In some ways, it's the foundation of the argument against raiding beyond the reality that most people say they just don't like raiding. There's more to be said, though, and there are more serious issues up for discussion. Raiding isn't just expensive in terms of development. It's expensive in lots of ways.
The Soapbox: Six reasons MMOs should abandon raiding, part 1
Raiding is no longer doing MMOs any favors. I've compared raiding to open PvP in the past, and the comparison still holds up. It's something that a lot of games developed in response to a specific genre-defining game have featured. But it's not doing those games any favors, and it might be time to take a hard look at this gameplay element that games survive in spite of rather than because of. If we learn nothing else from WildStar's issues when it launched into what should have been an ideal environment, it's that raiding certainly isn't driving players into a game's waiting arms. But I don't want to just say that and let it roll around on the floor. Let's actually break the argument down across a couple of articles this week. Why does raiding need to shuffle off of the main stage, definitely as the default endgame model, perhaps altogether? I can give you six good reasons.
Trion shuts down ArcheAge APEX purchases again
Good news, ArcheAge fans! APEX purchases have been disabled again following reports of another exploit! Wait, did we say good news? That's not good news. That's bad news. Familiar bad news, but bad news. Community manager Evan "Scapes" Berman addressed a thread calling attention to the exploit on Sunday, stating that the development team was looking into the issue to determine whether or not an exploit existed while disabling APEX purchases as a preventative measure. This is hardly the first time APEX purchases have been disabled due to exploit issues; the same problem was being dealt with last Wednesday, with various hotfixes rolled out to prevent the issue. No ETA has been provided for when APEX purchases will be reinstated, nor have any declarations of rollbacks for characters been made at this time. [Thanks to Siphaed for the tip!]
Pathfinder Online continues to delay early enrollment
While Pathfinder Online groupies may get a little excited at the imminent release of a new patch, Goblinworks put it out there that the long-delayed early enrollment start is still on hold. "This build does not meet our internal requirements for the early enrollment release candidate," the studio announced to players yesterday. Previously, Goblinworks said that the game must be able to support 2,000 simultaneous logins and 100 characters per hex before it would activate early enrollment. However, the good news is that the game is getting better with the release of Alpha 12.1, which is now live. The patch contains balance fixes, better hairstyles, performance improvements, and the activation of the encumbrance system.
Leaderboard: Which aspect of ArcheAge needs immediate attention?
It may be stating the obvious at this point, but ArcheAge has had a rough couple of weeks. First there was the Auroria patch and the resulting downtime fiasco that prompted a Trion apology. Then there was the thunderstruck tree market meltdown that was triggered by a new cash shop item, followed by this week's exploit-related shutdown of the very same cash shop. Clearly XLGAMES and Trion have a lot of work to do, but I'm betting that the community has differing opinions on what that work should entail. In this week's Leaderboard, tell us what aspect of ArcheAge needs immediate attention. As always, the poll's just past the cut! Ever wish that you could put to rest a long-standing MMO debate once and for all? Then welcome to the battle royal of Massively's Leaderboard, where two sides enter the pit o' judgment -- and only one leaves. Vote to make your opinion known, and see whether your choice tops the Leaderboard!
Hartsman addresses ArcheAge APEX exploit: 'There isn't a dupe bug'
ArcheAge has been having a bit of trouble with bugs and exploits since its launch, if you haven't noticed. Trion Worlds head Scott Hartsman has weighed in on the APEX bug that has been affecting the game; specifically, he's said that the bug is not a dupe bug. Players were rather upset as soon as this announcement was made, pointing out that the bug is a known issue that has been affecting the game and the playerbase since it was first discovered. Community manager Evan "Scapes" Berman clarified that the bug in question is not, strictly speaking, a dupe bug; rather than duplicating an item multiple times, the bug was allowing players to continue to reap the benefits of an item without consuming it as intended. APEX are still unavailable as more hotfixes are put into place to prevent further abuse of exploits, with action already being taken to both patch out the issue and remove funds accumulated by abuses of the exploit.
The Daily Grind: Are you still playing WildStar?
My name is Justin, and I have a confession: I still play WildStar. I even... like it. I know! Stop spitting on me already! It seems as though 2014 is the year of new games getting tarred and feathered (usually justly) after their much-anticipated releases, and WildStar is no different. I won't deny that the studio has a lot of work to be done on the game, but my feelings for the game haven't changed. I still really dig this weird sci-fi romp, and I'm not ashamed to admit it. Maybe it's the housing system (the best I've seen, period), the memorable world, the quirky humor, or the variety of activities, but I haven't grown bored of it yet. Are you still playing WildStar? Have you been hesitant to say so after reading so much negativity around the internet? Speak up and let me know that I'm not alone! Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
