There's supposed to be some kind of wise saying about squeezing blood (or some other kind of liquid) out of a stone, and suffice it to say that two months of waiting for a substantial update from Trion Worlds will take its toll on any sane writer's ability to form something meaningful and coherent on a game only a select few English-speaking people have experienced.
I am, thus, very thankful for the support of a number of members of the MMORPG.com community, as they have actually given me some excellent tidbits to share with everyone else. Junyo, Daimyo21, and Kumapon: you three gave me such joy when I checked the forums. A special shout out also goes to Cyclopsslayer, as I've never seen someone send me three messages with relevant ArcheAge information for various language groups in such an organized manner before.
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In case you're wondering what content they actually let me know about... keep reading!
Seeking More Content
Right after posting the last ArcheAge column, I found out MMO Culture uploaded a Fishing trailer for everyone to watch. Shirtless male avatars roaming the seas in a tiny boat? I can handle that.
Following that, however, Cyclopsslayer and Inporylemqq sent me more video sources, of which I enjoyed watching Inporylemqq's own channel and the videos on the SpicyMMOTV channel. Of note in the SpicyMMOTV channel is a set of videos following a series of trade quests, which the narrator explains in English for my benefit. The series is a little long, but it's enthralling stuff if you're information starved, to be sure.
For those who don't want videos, Cyclopsslayer also pointed out a Russian talent calculator for ArcheAge. Seeing as I don't speak Russian, I had to force Google Chrome to keep translating the text when I used it, which works to some degree. It's not what you'd call a perfect solution, but it works well enough for some strategizing, I suppose.
The Siege System's Effects
Information regarding castle sieges, a large-scale PVP mechanic, also became available on MMORPG.com as Kumapon and Junyo lit up the forums with an outline of siege mechanics and an impressions piece from the Fist of the Empire guild.
Kumapon laid out how siege mechanics work. In a nutshell, the siege is a weekly 70 vs. 70 battle for castles in ArcheAge, where only the attacking and defending guilds can participate, though the attackers and defenders can bring in up to 30 extra people outside their guilds, known as “mercenaries” to aid their side, leading to potential 100 vs. 100 battles. MMO Culture also put up the video for people to watch.
While the actual siege witnessed by a member of Fist of the Empire wasn't particularly spectacular - attackers steamrolled defenders 70 to 20 - it seems the repercussions of instituting siege warfare fueled some rather intriguing non-siege battles.
In relation to sieges, one notable aspect of the siege is that it builds intrigue, as you can't actually tell who will end up sieging whom, so alliances can form or otherwise shatter under the weight of good, exclusive loot.
More importantly, logistical requirements of sieges add to PVP tensions outside siege areas. As the post Junyo linked explains, “As a guild you have to bid on the right to be able to attack a castle. Right now minimum bid is 500-600 gold and that is sure to rise. Gold and resources have become important again, so people are once again making and fighting for the best form of income.” The best form of income, however, is slaying a kraken and taking its gold and loot (carrying the trade packs from killing the kraken) to a port for selling.
Because of this, fights break out over spawns that provide significant gold, either for the right to kill a beast for the goods, or for the chance to kill a beastslayer with impressive loot. You can imagine the mayhem caused by giving people one great way to earn money yet making it potentially ease to loot from corpses or steal.
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Given such an intriguing mechanic, I really do hope I can be a part of such a defense or offense in the future, when ArcheAge is released for English-speaking audiences.
Victor Barreiro Jr. / Victor Barreiro Jr. maintains The Devil’s Advocate and ArcheAge columns for MMORPG.com. He also writes for news website Rappler as a technology reporter. You can find more of his writings on Games and Geekery and on Twitter at @vbarreirojr.
- Read Trion Worlds’ connection to ArcheAge.
- Learn about wish fulfillment and whether ArcheAge provides.
- Read up on updates from Korea, and watch more ArcheAge videos.
