Tag: ArcheAge

Trion Worlds At Gamescom: Infodump


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Trion Worlds has announced a major info dump at Gamescom, with details regarding all of their first party titles. More information on individual updates will be coming in the next few weeks, but for today the company has pushed a small blurb on each title:

  • Rift: Patch 3.4 introduces a new calling, the Primalist, along with six new souls and a Planewilds expedition zone, new raid, new dungeon and more.
  • ArcheAge: An update called Heroes Awaken will introduce “significant updates and add fresh content to the game.” The update will bring in a new hero system as well as upgrades to guild progression, housing, and a new Diamond Shore zone.
  • Trove: New end-game content and a new class as the game prepares to launch on Mac.
  • Defiance: Higher tier weapons, a new enemy, and more.

(Source: Trion Worlds press release)

Trion Worlds Declares Light On RNG, Tough on Crime


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To say that ArcheAge has had some controversies would be a gross misstatement somewhere on the level of placing a “watch your step” sign on an active minefield, but it looks like Trion Worlds may be willing to amend their ways to get back the good faith and credit of their community. In a post addressing player concerns, community manager Seraphina “Celestrata” Brennan revealed that Trion has been taking steps to alleviate the game of certain RNG mechanics.

While RNG systems won’t be going away completely, Trion wants to alter or completely get rid of high-failure-chance upgrades.

Will RNG ever completely disappear? Most likely no, as that’s not the type of game ArcheAge is. We want a level of challenge to remain, but we don’t want that challenge to be extremely high. Going forward, we want to continue to either remove or mitigate high failure mechanics by adding linear progression systems — I.E.: There should always be another way to get something.

In addition, Brennan points to a recent increase in bot bans thanks to “a renewed interest in reporting from the community itself,” with ban rates increasing by 300%.

(Source: ArcheAge)

ArcheAge Releases Ongoing Server FAQ


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With ArcheAge’s server merger coming later this year and Trion Worlds vague on details, players naturally have a lot of questions to ask. In order to keep players updated as the plans move along, Trion Worlds has set up an evolving FAQ on the ArcheAge forums answering questions as they pop up.

As we saw in Trion’s latest stream, it looks like ArcheAge’s ‘non-traditional’ merger will emerge in the form of opening up a new server and then shuffling players from their server to these new “evolved” servers. This is how mergers were handled in the Russian version of ArcheAge.

We are still looking at a number of options before solidifying the process. The basic plan is as follows: new servers will be created, and players from current low population servers will be moved to these shiny new servers. Yes, that means… LAND RUSH! All other details are under evaluation.

 

I mentioned in my column yesterday that any merge should naturally see the legacy servers eventually being closed down, and while that hasn’t been confirmed, the FAQ does say that inactive characters will most likely be moved automatically to the new servers:

Most likely, players who are on a low population server and inactive at the time of the Evolution will be relocated automatically.

It’s important to remember that nothing in the FAQ should be considered finalized at this point, that more questions will be answered in the coming weeks/months, as more details are set in stone. You can follow the link below to read the current FAQ.

(Source: ArcheAge)

[Community] Let’s Call A Merger A Merger


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Originally I intended this week’s Community column to be speculation about how Trion Worlds would handle ArcheAge’s upcoming server merge, given that the plans are still in the conceptual stage and any real action that will be taken is still months down the line. To fuel speculation, I looked at how server mergers were handled in Korea and Russia under XLGames and Mail.ru respectively, and hoped to get a comment from each party.

While Mail.ru and XLGames didn’t respond to my request, I was told by Trion Worlds that an FAQ was in the works. It isn’t out as of this publishing (approximately 2pm EST on Monday, June 1st), so I’m going ahead with my original plan.

It’s safe to say that the term “server merger” has such a negative connotation attached to it because, in the eyes of the ever-rational internet mob, developers might as well post an announcement that they’ve failed at business. Couple that with a media in love with negative headlines, and you’ve got a recipe for PR disaster. Because of this, Trion Worlds isn’t the first to treat the phrase like they’ve been accused of having lice, and have joined the growing list of developers shuffling players away from low population servers (before closing them usually) without actually using the term “merger.” Even Blizzard opted to develop its engine to support cross-realm play rather than merge its list of low population servers.

There tends to be an even more negative response to this tactic, since if there’s one thing people hate more than being lied to, it’s when companies talk to them like they are lawyers in a courtroom dodging a guilty plea by questioning the definition of the term “murder.” To go back to the previous analogy, they are the kid in school trying to explain that while their head has been buzzed and their hair smells of medical shampoo, there is no way you can prove that they were responsible for the lice sighting that the school warned about over the morning announcements.

This isn’t the first time Trion Worlds merged without ever using the term. In Rift, Trion would convert low population servers to “trial servers” in order to force players off of them without actually calling it a merger. Designating a server as “trial” would result in character creation being disabled (for subscribers) and would limit players to the two main cities, forcing players to transfer off once they had finished the content available in the free trial.

We won’t know what Trion plans on doing with ArcheAge until they release more information, but we did grab this soundbite from their latest Twitch stream:

“It’s basically taking lower population servers and then creating an entirely new server and allowing players to migrate from that server to the new evolved servers.”

If their approach to merging servers in ArcheAge is anything close to what they did in Rift, it is likely that players will be not so gently coerced into transferring over to these “evolved servers,” through various limitations on these legacy servers. This way, once the population has sufficiently dwindled, the servers can be logically shut down due to lack of activity, with any characters remaining forced to transfer off.

So the notion that the servers were never merged is technically correct, and as I have said before technically correct is my favorite kind of correct.

[ArcheAge] Trion Worlds Unveils Non-Traditional Server Mergers


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Ask Trion Worlds if they are merging servers and the answer is absolutely not, in the traditional sense at least. According to Trion’s community manager Scapes, server transfers are inhibited by the fact that the process currently needs to be done manually. An automated version is currently in development and will hopefully be available later this year, allowing characters and even entire servers to be transferred.

More details will become available at some point, just don’t call it a merger.

We do not currently have plans to merge servers in the traditional sense. Instead, we plan something altogether different and look forward to revealing the plan as soon as we work out the details.

Linda “Brasse” Carlson has also been making the rounds on ArcheAge’s forums to remind players that the merger will be “non-traditional.”

Those are the other obvious questions. I also realize that it’s hard to pose questions before we put up at least a bare-bones FAQ on our plans. Bear with us. We’ll be talking about this with all our fellow players for MONTHS before it comes to pass, and your input is important.

(Source: ArcheAge)

ArcheAge “Reap What You Sow” Event


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ArcheAge’s next big update, Omen of Dread Prophecies, is set for an April 28th launch, introducing new zones, ship customization, and improved ship designs, and more. To get players ready, Trion Worlds is hosting a series of events beginning last week and running through the 28th.

The Reap What You Sow event runs until tomorrow afternoon, rewarding players with 500 labor points for every 1000 that they spend. From the 24th through the 28th, players will be challenged to turn in trade packs in return for loyalty points, with rewards going to those that trade in the most.

After the update launches, there will be a further event that doubles all honor gained in PvP

(Source: ArcheAge)

Trion Worlds Offering “Community Appreciation” Package


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Trion Worlds recently found itself in a bit of controversy following the company’s attempt to win back ex-customers by doling out gift packages. The packages were considered far too generous by members of the community, including expensive gift packages and items that previously required heavy investment into the game’s lockboxes. In response, community manager Scapes announced that a plan would be announced today once it was finalized in internal meetings.

At their Livestream today, Trion announced the details of the plan. Paying patrons (paid real money) will receive a cyanfin mount, starlight glider, 30 Golden Library Index items, 10 Tyrenos index items, 10 experience potions, 7 day passes to the library floors, 5 worker’s comp potions, 2 vocation tonics, and 1 of each lucky point and archeum essence. Non-paying accounts will receive the index items (only one Tyrenos), 4 lockboxes, 2 worker’s comp potions, and 1 vocation tonic.

Players who bought the cash shop lockbox will receive tokens for each box that they purchased that can be used to buy any of the lockboxes that have been released to date.

(Source: Trion Worlds Livestream)

ArcheAge Welcome Back Package Turns Sour


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Update: Trion has laid out its plans here.

Trion Worlds is a company that we see a lot of complaints about here at MMO Fallout, but being too generous is a new one. The developer recently tried to bring back ArcheAge players with lapsed subscriptions by sending emails offering free stuff. Many players received about what you’d expect from such a program: RNG boxes, cosmetic mounts, some resources, etc. Others, however, found themselves the new owners of rare materials, and even gift packages that normally sell for $100 on the cash shop.

Needless to say players are livid, a phrase that seems all too common when talking about ArcheAge. Trion, for their part, have acknowledged that they went too far in what constitutes an acceptable gift and will be addressing the matter further.

We need to ensure our existing loyal patrons and players never feel slighted when we implement programs like this. It’s important for us to treat our community fairly and to do this we are designing a giveaway for all active ArcheAge players. We will have more details tomorrow after internal discussions occur around development of the program.

(Source: ArcheAge)

Trion Worlds Offers Refunds To Bug Abusers


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Trion Worlds is offering loyalty token refunds for players who purchased the Mirage Donkey mount with the purpose of exploiting a bug, after said bug was fixed. The exploit allowed the donkey to run faster while strafing or going backward than it did moving forward.

Community manager Scapes posted the following on the Trion Worlds forum:

We are offering Loyalty Token refunds for Mirage Donkeys due to the upcoming Secrets of Ayanad update fixing a bug that grants the mount unintended speed bonuses. If you want to trade in your Mirage Donkey for its purchase price of 300 Loyalty Tokens, contact our Support Team with the subject “Mirage Donkey Refund”. Please make sure to remove all equipment prior to submitting your ticket. No Companion Crusts used on existing Mirage Donkeys will be refunded.

Players have until Tuesday March 17th to get their refund request in.

(Source: Trion Worlds)

ArcheAge Lifts Prohibition On AFK Players


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AFK players are the scourge of ArcheAge, or at least they were up until this week’s update. Today’s scheduled downtime brought with it the removal of ArcheAge’s AFK timer. Now players can log in and sit still to their heart’s content.

We decided to perform this week’s scheduled downtime earlier rather than later to deliver improvements like the removal of the in-game AFK kick time and a couple adjustments to further discourage in-game spam.

An AFK timer isn’t at all uncommon for MMOs, although ArcheAge saw some controversy at launch with Trion Worlds providing contradicting statements about their policy on circumventing the mechanic.

(Source: ArcheAge)