Welcome to the World of ArcheAge

BY: SOREN

As one of the most highly anticipated Korean MMORPGs making its way to North America (rumored to be sometime this year) Trion, alongside partner and developer XL Games, look to breathe life into an epic sandpark MMO that promises to deliver all kinds of out of the box fun and a game that you can truly play how you want, when you want.

All players begin their journey on either the Nuia or Harihara continents. From there they explore the world, cooperating or competing with each other as necessary to survive.  Remnants of the Lost Continent, where the ancestors of the world’s races lived together in peace two thousand years ago, still dominate the landscape. If you explore deep into the hearts of these ancient relics, you may discover the secrets of legendary gods and heroes or if you are very lucky, you may reveal more details about the catastrophe that caused the Nuia and Harihara schism.

Build Creators & Theory Crafters Unite! - Classes & Skill Sets

ArcheAge presents a class and skill system that can surprise even the most veteran of MMO players. With 10 interchangeable skills sets and the ability to have 3 slotted at any given time once level 10, players will find themselves with a whopping 120 unique character classes to choose from. Have a warrior that you want to control the undead and give buffs via bard songs? Go for it. Have a rogue that you want to be able to tank and sling spells? Go for it. Have an archer you want to control the elements and heal? You can do that too. And you aren’t just limited to one class either. Should you wish to change and tinker with you character class you can, for a nominal fee, meaning if a player wanted to they could unlock all 120 classes on one character.

The game offers a simplistic system to get players into the game fast. By simply leveling you gather skill points which can be used to unlock various skills within each skill tree. Skills are then selected and a simple drag and drop will allow you to place skills on 1 of 4 unique skill bars. Learned skills can be swapped out at any time a player is not in combat making choosing abilities based on certain fights or areas a player may wander into a breeze. But it doesn’t just stop there! Choosing skills that have synergies with each other will allow players to string together powerful combos that can be unleashed on their enemies with sometimes devastating effects.

Alongside basic and combat skills players will also have access to 21 Proficiency (Crafting) skills, 10 languages, and 46 emotes.

Factions, Guilds & the Pirate Isles

In ArcheAge there are four playable races spread over two continents: the Nuians and the Elves share the western continent- Nuia, while the Firran and Harani inhabit the eastern lands- Haranya. All 4 races are loosely connected by ties long preceding the Exodus however, allegiances are fluid and further complicated by the Pirate and player made factions inhabiting the world. Aside from just meeting up with fellow players in your own faction, ArcheAge goes out of its way to let players group up and run with family and friends in a more personal way.

Families: Similar to a guild, Families allow for smaller tight knit groups of friends and players ranging from 2-8, to play with each other regardless of faction. Families also have a couple perks that make them worth looking into such as the ability to share property rights (houses, farms, shipyards etc) as well as a custom chat channel. The family system runs parallel to the guild system meaning you can be in both a family and a guild and gain all the benefits of!

Expeditionary Forces (Guilds): Expeditionary forces are the lifeblood of the game and are required to explore deep into enemy territory, take and claim land on the Northern Continent, move large amounts of trade packages in relative safety, build guild houses/towns/castles and declare war. In order to form one, players must be at minimum level 5, have a full party and the required gold to create and are limited to faction only members. Expeditions are currently have no cap on alpha but that may change yet.

Player Factions (Nation): Ambition is key! What good are guilds if you can’t join forces with like minded others? With thoughts of expansion firmly in your mind, and alliances to plot and plan, it’s time to usher in a new era of national independence! Any guild owning territory on the Northern Continent can choose to run a special quest and upon completion, have their Expedition Force reborn as a new faction. New factions allow you to combine players of other factions regardless of race or previous faction. So long as they are willing to join your faction everyone will be one big happy family. Player factions have the ability to communicate and establish independent relations to other factions. Currently these settings can only be applied to the East and West factions. Currently no member cap.

Pirate Faction: Aye, shiver me timbers matey! If pirating be in yer blood ye should be joining the crews of the Silent Ocean! That’s right, if thieving, stealing, bribing, pillaging and plundering are your life’s calling the Pirate’s Faction is for you! Anyone who has been exiled from their current faction by collecting 3000 crime points can be a pirate. Crime points can be gathered by committing various felony’s in the eyes of you fellow players. Once the requirements for becoming a pirate have been met you will automatically added to the faction and have access to the Pirate Isles. Keep in mind that as a pirate your reputation will precede you so keep an eye out for other greedy pirates, trade escorts, players and bounty hunters. Currently no member cap.

The Justice System

As an MMO with a high amount of freedom, you can bet your last copper that ArcheAge has quite a few players who are less than savory. Luckily there is a Crime and Punishment system in place to help keep things in balance. Good Samaritans, aka fellow players, may report crimes if they happen to stumble across or witness anything that could be questionable. For example, Murders tend to leave bloody spots on the ground where the event took place while theft will leave a trail of footprints to follow. As players continue to commit various crimes they will accumulate crime points (shown in the character panel). The severity of the transgression will determine how many crime points are handed out. If a player has 50+ crime points they will be sent to prison on their next death. This is where the real fun begins!

Upon awakening in jail, players have the option of giving a guilty plea for a maximum sentence or if they are feeling brave, can go up before a randomly selected jury of their peers and attempt to sway the jury in their favor. Jurors are selected at random from a pool of players over level 30+ that have volunteered for jury duty and when selected, are presented with a window listing the accused’s crimes. They then have the option to ask questions and hear defenses in a special chat window for trials (open to the public). The jury is then asked to vote guilty or not guilty. The amount of guilty votes will determine how much time a player will serve and can range from as little as 1 minute to well over 726 minutes.

Since prison life isn’t meant to be glamorous and a deterrent for future crimes. When a player is sentenced they will receive a severe debuff that lasts until all time is served.

Players, while in prison do have a few options to help pass the time such as soccer, chat, dig, kill rats and of course, escape!

Live Like a King - Player Housing

The ArcheAge housing system is a complex yet highly entertaining open world system that is accessible to anyone playing the game, the same way your house in the real world is there and anyone can come knocking. Leave a door unlocked or a window open and don’t be surprised if things tend to go missing. Housing requires that you have a few things in order before you can begin building such as blueprints and materials like wood and stone. Blueprints can be found for various things like, houses, farms, and castles.

Travelling in Style

The world of ArcheAge is massive, with a huge range of landscapes to seek out and explore. What better way to get around the world than with a variety of transportation options!

Mounts: Your first mount will come from one of you early quests, usually before level 7, though you can also get various mounts from merchants and rare drops. When a player receives a mount it is usually a baby and will need to be raised until they grow into furry companion. Once fully grown, mounts can be summoned into the world. They have their own stat bar, skills, exp, and equip slots. You can ride them, feed them, or simply have them follow you around. Each mount comes with its own special abilities so it is always good to make sure your mount matches your needs. Some mounts include Elk, Deer, Bears, Cows (yes you can milk your own cow), Unicorns, Donkeys and Yata!

Gliders: Take to the air and enjoy a bird’s eye view of the entire world! The basic glider can be acquired through an early quest and can be upgraded through the crafting system at various levels. Every glider has some basic stats such as: Flight speed, gliding ability, turning speed, and decent speed. As an added bonus gliders also have a combination of abilities that can do everything from improve flight time to dropping bombs on enemy factions.

Boats: Oceans are just as expansive as the land based areas with tons of unmapped areas ripe for exploring. Travel on the high seas can be dangerous and rewarding and explorers will have access to a variety of ships such as, rowboats, clippers, merchant ships, submarines, war ships and fishing boats.

Ground Transport: Enter the world of steam-tech! Roadsters and Farm Wagons rule the roads and open areas and can be an asset for fast traveling and efficiency in trade. Keep in mind traffic laws are non-existent and accidents are common.

Portals: Players have the ability to quick travel to memorized locations by using reagents known as Hereafter Stones. As you journey through the continents you will encounter Memory Tombs in various towns that will let you record your location and allow you to set a recall point if desired. World Portals on the other hand are stored and saved in your characters teleport book. They can be used by simply opening your book and clicking on where you’d like to go.

Open Warfare - PvP

World PvP in ArchAge is quite a bit different than your regular MMO. Those that have played EvE: Online will be rather familiar with the open world environment – Think Null-Sec. Players that enter into these areas can be attacked and killed by anyone depending on which zone they are in.

PvP is largely dependent on your level and zone, and zones are divided into 3 types:

Newbie Zones: can’t engage in any pvp and pretty much safe until level 31+ zones. Beware pirates though

Same Faction Peace Zone: When in these zones you can’t be attacked by those of opposing factions unless you attack first. Attacking a player in this zone means that only they can attack you back making this an ideal area to test your skills in 1v1 fights

Same Faction War Zone: Each zone has 5 of these areas. When they are in conflict or at war you can be attacked by anyone in the zone including your own faction. After a certain amount of time has passed the zone enters a peace state where no one can attack each other.

Open PvP: Open water and the Northern Continent are always at war so tread carefully.

Pirate Faction: members of this faction can attack anyone at any time regardless of faction or location. Being a pirate however means you are not welcome on the East or West continents and you can be attacked by anyone at any time including NPCs.

Eventually players are going to be drawn to the hostile Northern continent in search of riches and more lucrative trade deals, and in the case of Expeditionary Forces, claim land for their chosen faction. Owning land does have its perks such as being able to build a castle, build a guild town and charge taxes for those living there, gain rare resources and of course gain the ability to siege other castles.

Sieges start off as 70 vs 70 with the defending guild having the option to hire up to 30 mercenaries, however if the defending guild brings in mercenaries the attacking guild is allowed to bring in reinforcements after 20 minutes so the battle has the potential to be 100 vs 100.

PvP isn’t just restricted to land however. Head on out to the high seas for some epic unrestricted naval warfare! That’s right! On the high sea’s there is no rules and anything goes! Not only do you have to watch out for other merchant ships, mercenaries and pirates, you need to be extra wary of things that lurk deep within the oceans depths.

Throwing Everything we know about MMO’s Out the Window

So far ArcheAge has shown that it isn’t afraid to think outside the typical box. Standard themepark staples such as linear questing and boss raids, combined with the open world and ever changing sandbox elements of the market and pvp, means Archeage has the potential to be something fresh and unique.

ArcheAge has a certain nostalgia that older MMOs had, and brings with it a lot of the older game systems not seen since I first dabbled in EvE. The world feels alive and the community plays an important role in shaping the overall experience.

Currently the game is in its Alpha stages with closed beta set to begin sometime in June. If you are looking to get in on the action early and or just want to see what all the hype is about feel free to wander over to www.archeagegame.com/en and pick up a Founder’s Pack or sign up for the beta!

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