Originally Posted by Sun Tzu (view original source)
Today in Ynystere I witnessed hundreds of bots, farming blatantly in open areas, some even multiboxing with obvious names and pathing. It doesn't take rocket science to ascertain that this epidemic is growing out of control. I understand the GM workload must be very high but something has to be done to stop this threat. They are just so obvious and ridiculous, you PK them, they run right back down their path until they arrive at their farming area.
In the past, games like Lineage II have had issues with mass amounts of bots, they ruined the economy and are doing so here, as well.
I propose a fix. In most MMOs, there are "guides", for example - in EverQuest II if you had trouble with a quest a volunteering player who had undergone "guide training" would be able to come and assist you, to lighten GM load.
In EVE Online there is a similar program called ISD or Interstellar Services Department, which works in similar fashion.
They could also do other tasks like host scheduled events, help people with minor technical issues, flag people for botting or abusing the system.
XL Games put justice in the power of the player when it comes to Player-Killing or being a villain. Why not put justice in our hands for the bots? I understand, it isn't some power you could just hand out - allowing people to flag/ban bots at will, but a system with rigid training and perhaps some sort of 'benefit' to the player for being a part of the program would help combat this growing threat.
I don't see how there would be harm in this and I think most of you would agree that a 'guide' system would benefit us all, especially if they had some power to - in the very least - flag someone for botting, much less ban.
If you support this program please explain or simply +1 the thread in some fashion.
I really think we can get something going - if TRION agrees to it.
Lets call it the "ArcheAngel" program.
TRION, we want to make this game succeed just as much, if not more, than you do. We enjoy it, we're happy you publish it, and we don't want it to go to waste. As fellow gamers and professionals I am sure you can understand how this solution would benefit us all. Please consider this and lets work together to make a better gaming experience for all.
If you want to officially show your support for this idea you can head over the official forums and weigh in on the matter. The official thread is currently over 15 pages and has more than 200 votes that are overwhelmingly in favor of the idea. Check out the thread here.
Tuesday, September 30, 2014
Thursday, September 25, 2014
Gilda Stars: A Brief Guide
Originally Posted by Tockity (view original source)
Lately I've been seeing quite a few questions regarding how to get Gilda Stars. I posted this[1] a few days ago which people found helpful, so I figured I'd actually expand it a bit and submit it as its own thread so others may find it.
Edit: Since it's unusual, figured I'd make sure everyone's aware: Dailies reset at 8pm EST.
Priestess of Nui:
Upon hitting level 10, the Priestesses of Nui at the Respawn Bases (trackable as such on your map) begin offering dailies, one every five levels, until you reach level 30.
Each of these grants one Gilda Star.
- The Goddess of Nui[2] (Available from 10-15)
- Simply speak to the Priestess again after accepting the quest
- The Hereafter's Energy[3] (Available from 16-20)
- Purchase a Memory Ink from a General Merchant (10 silver) and bring it to any Priestess of Nui
- Gifts for the Goddess[4] (Available from 21-25)
- Use the emote "/flowers" on a Priestess of Nui
- A Lily Offering[5] (Available from 26-30)
- Bring a Lily to a Priestess of Nui. Lilies grow in the wild or can be planted. They're also purchasable on the auction house.
Blue Salt Brotherhood:
At level 31, these can be accessed in most major towns and cities (e.g. Marianople, Enza, docks in Cindermoore) and effectively replace the Priestess of Nui quests as they're no longer accessible.
Each of these grants one Gilda Star for a total of five.
- A Rare Perfume[6]
- Use 30 Crushed Flowers, Ground Grain, Crushed Spices, or Chopped Produce to create a perfume. These are obtained by growing or finding in the wild Flowers, Grain, Spices or Produce and "using" 10 of them in conjunction with a Blue Salt Knife (purchased from a General Merchant). Typically, you'll get 12-15 Crushed Flowers, Ground Grain, Crushed Spices, or Chopped Produce per 10 items. Visit your local Seed Merchant to see a list of all of the available options. The longer that it takes the plant to grow, the more you'll get from it. Alternatively, these can be purchased on the auction house.
- Available after completing A Rare Perfume
- Place a vase in 3 spots in Lilyut. You're given three vases to place in Lilyut. Just head to the designated spots (marked on your map as with other quests) and drop the respective vase there. You'll know you're in the right spot if you see a slew of vases sitting on the ground.
- Go to Gweonid Forest and raise the elk calf you're provided. This is identical to the initial mount quest you get around level 8. The stable is north of the airship dock and the nearest portal is the Temporary Scarecrow Garden, Gweonid Forest.
- Go to Solzreed and raise the foal you're provided. Same as above. The Stable is in Wardton.
- Tip: While you're waiting, gather a lot of water from the well, purchase several Vita Seeds from the Stablehand and plant them for future use. Every couple steps you have to wait 30 seconds, so it's a good time to stock up on supplies.
- Collect 8 barrels of gunpowder near Roadsend in Dewstone. There are two spots that these spawn, but they respawn very quickly and there are plenty of them. The first is towards the bandits just to the north of Roadsend. The second is to the South-westish, along the rocks bordering Roadsend near the road.
Farmer's Workstation:
These dailies are obtained by crafting a quest giving item at a Farmer's Workstation under the "Quest" category. Each requires 5 raw chicken/duck/goose meat gathered from pens crafted with husbandry which require 10, 20 and 30k proficiency, respectively. The meat, as well as the other materials (15 Ginseng, 25 Garlic, 50 Rice), can be found on the auction house. After crafting the item, you simply turn it in to the nearest auctioneer.
The Farmer's Workstation itself is crafted using your Small Scarecrow Design, 30 Lumber, and Viscous Glossy Oil. It must then be placed on your property to be used.
Each of these grants one Gilda Star for a total of three.
- Hearty Meal[11] (Chicken), Premium Hearty Meal[12] (Duck), and Rare Hearty Meal[13] (Goose)
Menteeing/Mentoring:
Outside of Sharpwind Mines and the Burnt Castle, Lucius the bird will offer you a daily based on your level. If you are within the dungeon's target level, you will receive the Mentee quest which asks you to kill the final boss and loot a chest with a mentor. If you exceed the target level then you will receive the Mentor quest which asks you to kill the final boss and loot a chest with a mentee.
Mentee quests grant one Gilda Star each.
Mentor quests grant three Gilda Stars each.
- Sharpwind Mines
- Mentee[14] : 19-29
- Mentor[15] : 30+
- Burnt Castle Armory
- Mentee[16] : 30-39
- Mentor[17] : 40+
Trade Runs:
These are not dailies and are repeatable ad infinitum. Simply bring a Trade Pack across the pond to Haranya or to Freedich Isle in the middle of the ocean.
- Solis Headlands: One Gilda Star
- Villanelle: One Gilda Star
- Ynystere: Two Gilda Stars
- Freedich Isle: Four Gilda Stars
Editting to correct information. Only one Priestess quest available per day based on level range and ends at level 30 rather than level 29.
Additional information:
So this guide works fine for Hyranya too. Only main differences are:
Gurellia Marketing : Different Location (Tigerspine Mountains)
Raising Elk --> Raising Snowlion cub (Falcorth Plains)
Raising Horse --> Raising Leomorph (Arcum Iris)
Roadsend in Danger --> I don't remember the quest name, but it has you going to the first dungeon (Palace Cellar) and collecting leashes outside
Our first dungeon is Palace Cellar (Mahadevi) and Hadir Farm (Ynystere)
We also seem to have another quest that involves building a catapult in Ynystere, however I couldn't tell you much more on that.
Q: Can you get all 4 of the Priestess dailies every day?
A: Just 1 per day
Q: Is there a level cap on doing the Sharpwind Mines mentor quests?
A: Nope, I'm currently doing them at level 50.
Q: After level 30 can you still get the Priestess of Nui quests?
A: No, they are replaced by Blue Salt quests.
Q: So to get Gilda Stars from a trade pack turn in you have to cross the ocean?
A: Yes, you have to go to another continent.
Q: Can you elaborate on the trade packs?
A: You craft regional specialty goods at a regional specialty crafting station using the required materials and a quality certificate (from a general merchant). You then have to travel to another zone (the further you go to greater your rewards) to get coin, valuable crafting materials, or (if you cross the ocean) gilda stars. The trade pack you craft will go into your glider slot and you can no longer use teleportation of any kind. Be careful, if you are killed by another player you will drop your back, when they turn it in they get 20% of the rewards.
Q: What kind of valuable crafting materials do you get?
A: They are called stabilizers. Stabilizers are essential for crafting and gate it almost as much as Archeum. You can get Charcoal Stabilizers in Solis Headlands (~11), Rock Salt Stabilizers in Villanelle (~8), Crystal Stabilizers (~3), and Dragon Essence Stabilizers in Freedich Isle.
Bonus super secret squirrel tip (don't tell anyone else): Turning in a pack for Stabilizers and then selling them on the AH typically yields more overall gold than turning in a pack for gold domestically.
Q: Does your level matter for trade pack rewards?
A: No, but it may be safer if you are a higher level.
Q: Where do I spend my Gilda Stars?
A: Mirage Island
Q: What can I buy with Gilda Stars?
A: Houses, farms, boats, + more.
Q: How many Gilda Stars do things cost?
A: Here's an incomplete list to give you an idea:
- Underwater Farm x 20
- Farmhouse x 50
- Medium house 1-story x 100
- Medium house 1½-story x 150
- Large house 1-story x 300
- Large house 2-story x 500
- Breezy bungalow x 300
- Mansion x 1000
- Archeum Tree x 3
- Sled cow x 2
- Farm wagon x 50
- Wheeled Mortar x 300
- Apex Squall x 800
- Clipper x 50
- Merchant ship x 400
- Fish-fing longliner x 250
- Lutesong junk x 250
- Eznan Cutter x 250
Q: Should I save up my Gilda Stars or buy things now?
A: Don't buy anything under 50 Gilda Stars on your main, save up for bigger purchases. You can run through the story quests and earn 50 Gilda Stars on an alt in a couple of hours, so there's no point.
Q: Is there any other way to get these Gilda Star items?
A: Yep, people purchase the plans with Gilda Stars and can then do whatever they please with them, like put them on the auction house, so check there. Lots of items are going for 20-40 gold presently (this will rise with time) so you can save some Gilda Stars if you have the extra gold.
Tuesday, September 23, 2014
Gold and Credits Tips to Help New Players (Especially Free to Play)
Originally Posted by sirixamo (view original source)
Hello all, I am by no means a veteran but I was answering a few questions in another thread and thought something like this might be valuable to a wider audience. So, I'll try not to be too wordy, but here are a few tips for newer players and especially F2P'ers!
- 1) Do not spend money at the cash shop. No, really! Things are very cheap on the Auction House right now, just spend the time to farm some gold and buy it that way. I will use my own server as an example (Aranzeb): On our server $2-3 = ~3-4g (1 labor potion = 300 credits = $2 = 4g, but apex goes for ~30g and that's $10). Even at starter levels you could make 4g in 1-2 hours. I can make about 100g a day JUST farming, that's just planting trees on my land and chopping them down, turning them into lumber, and selling them. I have 2 large farms and a small one, this equates to about 30 minutes of work a day. Using the above formula, that is ~$25-35 worth of gold per day for 30 minutes of work, or 1.5 months of playtime if I buy APEX! These prices will fluctuate a lot, so take advantage of them now!
- 2) Get your APEX now! People don't have a lot of Gold, but there are some Whales out there (people with more money than time, I am usually one of them), so you can get APEX dirt cheap. You need 2 APEX to qualify for Patron, and you have 100 credits left over (1 APEX = 1250 credits, you need 2400 credits for Patron).
- 3) If you can rush Patron without getting the Auction House License, do that. Patron gives you permanent access to the auction house, so there is no need to waste the money on the pass. Remember, you can buy on the auction house (that's how you get APEX), you just can't sell.
- 4) The easiest way to make money right now, that I know of, as a non-Patron is mining. Everyone needs Iron/Stone/Ores, and you can mine just fine as a F2P'er! Your limiting factor is going to be Labor, so make 4-5g, buy a labor potion, then spend it all mining! You can easily make 300-500 raw stone an hour mining, that will net you 30-50g on the auction house. But you can't use the auction house to sell, right? Which leads me to....
- 5) Use trade chat to sell your goods! If you can get your APEX without needing the auction house pass that is the best, advertise your Raw Stone or Stone Bricks in trade chat, make enough to get your APEX, and then you have permanent auction house status.
- 6) Make an alt. You will need him for labor. Labor is shared across all characters on a server, but the cooldown for a labor potion (12 hours) is per character. You need to be level 15 to quaff a labor potion. For maximum efficiency: Create an alt, level him to 15, gather 15 gilda stars (should easily be done along the way), buy your housing plans from mirage island (you can do this as F2P you just can't place it), then sell the housing plans for 10-15g. You won't need a house on your alt anyway (probably, if you do you can always remake him), but having the extra cooldown for the labor potions is nice. This means every 12 hours you can generate 2,000 labor for 4-10g.
- 7) Don't worry about land. You missed it, the land rush is over. But it's ok! You can still make good money leveling up, selling goods you find from drops, selling things you buy with Gilda stars, and crafting with the (cheap) mats you get off the AH! You can find small farming plots scattered about, but you likely won't find anything larger. Next Friday will be the next land rush (pt2). Land becomes available a week after you miss your tax payments, so prepare yourself next week to see if you can find a spot. Don't get too greedy! The best spots will be very crowded with a lot of people trying to snag them, it's not a huge benefit to have a pristine lot, just get somewhere to get your large farm up. In a few weeks/months there will be plenty of land available, the population will not stay at this inflated value forever.
- 8) Level! You can level just fine as a F2P player. All the patrons took time out to get their land/farms setup, but now the market is crashing because it is being flooded with supplies without much demand. At higher levels you will make a lot more money from grinding mobs and opening coin purses, so take advantage of that! I bet you could out earn the land owners at this point if you were high level and simply grinding.
- 9) Play on a low population server, but be aware that you might have to server transfer later. Aranzeb had ~700 person queue at prime time last night and it only took a little over an hour to get through. This is the absolute peek time for this game, so don't set your expectations too high. There will be queues, but in 2 weeks they will completely disappear. In a few months, the lower population servers might not have a healthy enough population, so you might have to move servers. Just keep in mind they are implementing that functionality, so don't be afraid to roll somewhere you can play right now!
- 10) Don't over think your race/class choices. Races provide very, very small bonuses (Firran is the best for PvP because of the fall damage passive, but it's a very small perk), pick the race you want to look at for the rest of the game. Also, classes are very flexible, and you can level up another specialization on the same character, so if you make a mistake it is not a big deal.
- 11) Upgrade your glider, you can get a Glider just as good as the $150 archeum phoenix glider for ~2g on mirage island. You need to be level 20 to craft the final version ("Ultimate Glider"), but the 2 prereqs you can make as soon as you get your Experimental Glider. They all build off of the experimental glider, so don't throw that away!
- 12) You will get free mounts as you level up via various quests. You get your first (9m/s) mount at about level 7-8. You get your donkey (can carry trade packs faster) after you complete the 2nd trade quest (you are exposed to these around level 11). You get your Glider soon after you are exposed to the trade quests (follow the instructions above to upgrade it). You get a rowboat fairly quickly on Nuia, and you can get it about level 15 on Haranya via a quest down Mahadevi Port (south end of Mahadevi). I'm not sure about any other mounts, perhaps someone else can fill us in.
- 13) Gear upgrades are fairly infrequent, so don't be worried if you have gone 4-5 levels without upgrading. That's normal.
That's all I have so far, if anyone else has any please add them!
Edit:
What is APEX/Patron?
- APEX = A container that has 1250 credits in it. It costs $10, people use this as a way to turn real money into gold (buy the APEX, put it on the auction house).
- Patron = Subscriber status. This allows you to own land, gives you a 10% experience buff, and allows you to regen more labor (10 per 5 minutes while online, 5 per 5 minutes while offline).
What are credits?
- Credits are the cash-shop currency. Much like Riot Points (League of Legends), Microsoft Points (Xbox), or other currency systems, you buy an amount of currency for real money (750 credits = $5, you get bonuses for buying in larger quantities), and you can use this currency to buy things on the cash shop called 'Marketplace'. The marketplace icon hangs out in the bottom right corner of your screen all the time. Most of the items in the marketplace can be sold on the in-game auction house for in-game gold.
How do I buy Patron status?
- I believe you get it directly off the website, you have to be logged in and it uses your in-game credits:www.archeagegame.com/en/shop/[1]
What is labor/why is it so important?
- Labor is used to do almost anything not involving combat in the game. Crafting and gathering require labor. Opening coin purses require labor (though it is a minuscule amount, you should not have difficulty doing this). Paying taxes (can) cost labor. If you can do it outside of combat, it probably costs labor. This is not hugelylimiting unless you want to craft/gather, but that is often the best way to make gold.
Why is gold so important?
- Because, unlike most modern MMO's, almost everything in ArcheAge is tradeable/sellable for gold. This means you can get fantastic end game gear for gold. You can get mounts, boats, houses, cars, tractors, farms, even land for gold.
Where can I buy Patron?
- I believe you do it on the website here: http://www.archeagegame.com/en/shop/[2] (you still use your in-game credits though, make sure you are logged in)
Many thanks to sirixamo from r/archeage on reddit for providing us this great guide. We are always looking for quality content that can help our readers, if you'd like to have your guide or content featured on our site then please email guestContent@TotalArcheAge.com
Monday, September 22, 2014
News Flash: EU Servers Arriving Early, Another DDoS, Community Concerns
New EU Servers Update
The EU Servers have arrived a day early and are being installed now.
Originally Posted by Trion Scapes (view original source)
EU players! Your new server hardware cleared customs a day early! Physical installation in progress, next up is hardware validation.
DDoS
The EU Servers have arrived a day early and are being installed now.
Originally Posted by Trion Scapes (view original source)
EU players! Your new server hardware cleared customs a day early! Physical installation in progress, next up is hardware validation.
DDoS
Trion has confirmed that they are currently experiencing another DDoS attack.
PvP flagging and why it's an issue
PvP flagging and why it's an issue
The latest trending community concern is pvp flagging. It seems that now people are able to get into game we can start concentrating on giving feedback on actual gameplay issues. This big problem here is when one member of a group gets attacked by someone the only person who can retaliate is the one being attacked. If you are a group of level 40's and a lone lvl 50 comes up and attacks your group you all have to just stand there hoping the lvl 50 uses an aoe attack because if he doesn't hit you then you're stuck watching your friend die.
If you attack anyone in a group of players then they should all be able to retaliate, it's a poor feeling watching a friend die right in front of you and there's nothing you can do to help him.
Sunday, September 21, 2014
Scott Hartsman on Bonus Patron Time, over 10,000 Bots Banned, Customer Service, DDOS, and more
Originally Posted by Scott Hartsman (view original source)
ArcheAge Launch Update #2 – More Capacity, Bonuses, and Faster Service
Hello again, all – We wanted to update you on how everything’s looking and share a progress report on where we’ve been since the last update a few days ago. I’m writing this on a Sunday night, as we’ve all been working through the weekend to bring you the best ArcheAge experience possible.
I’ve hopped around a half dozen servers this weekend, both in Europe and North America, and it’s incredible to see so many people having this amount of fun.
SERVER CAPACITY
Since our last update, we’ve welcomed three new North American worlds Ezi, Lucius, and Calleil into service. They’ve had an effect on improving queue times, as new folks have been steering themselves to the new ones as expected. The experience isn’t globally perfect yet, and queues do still exist, but the new servers and the patron queuing changes have had a noticeably positive impact overall. We’re seeing a lot more of: “I picked a new server, had a short wait, and no problems.” Progress, but still work ahead.
In Europe, we thank you for your incredible patience, and once again wish that there was an even faster way to get your hardware in place. On the internet, an hour feels like a day, and a day might as well be a week. We get that. Your new server hardware is in customs and is expected to be released to us on Tuesday your time. We have people standing by and ready to move as fast as humanly possible to get things rolled out for you.
We have moved to daily restarts to flush out AFKs clogging the servers making it take too long to get in – and we’ve been being aggressive with manual sweeps and bot/fraud banning as well. Around 10k of those have been banned over the last few days.
We’re aware of the bug that some folks are using to hold a spot indefinitely, and a fix is incoming. If all goes well, we’ll be receiving that in the next day and deploying it as soon as we get it through our QA. We do expect that one to help a lot, as we’ve seen cases at peak where far too much of a given world’s capacity was occupied by idle placeholders. Once that’s in, we’ll be able to more accurately evaluate where we should go with hardware capacity from here.
PATRON BONUS TIME
If you were a patron as of launch day, last week you were granted a bonus amount of patron time to cover the head start period. In an update we did while the servers were running on Saturday, we expanded that to more time and more people, essentially making Patron time only begin ticking as of yesterday.
Making sure that all patrons have their bonuses has been incredibly important to us, as is making sure we’re as generous as we can be, wherever we can, and things are now working well for the vast majority. There are still a handful of patrons who need touching up, and making sure that they’re taken care of remains the priority for our software teams.
BONUS FOUNDER’S ITEMS
Another thing that we’d like to make sure everyone knows – If you’ve already used up all six of your sets of Founder’s items, and if that’s what’s holding you back from trying out a new server, or if you just want one extra set to put on one of your existing characters, you can go to the account page at http://archeage.trionworlds.com/ and do this yourself!
This option went up last Friday, and you’re welcome to it whether or not you’ve had any issues. Look for the option up top that contains the words Founder’s Pack – Bonus and enjoy with our compliments. Do remember that you can only do this one time!
Even on top of the above bonuses, we are continuing to look into ways to make sure that everyone’s made good for their troubles during this launch.
CUSTOMER SERVICE
Our CS capacity has continuously been increasing even in the short time since launch. Chat wait times are about two thirds faster than what they were last week, even though the weekend’s been the busiest time ArcheAge has seen as a whole. We‘re still pushing hard here to make sure even more people are wanting to help, and the next group of folks ready to help starts work first thing Monday morning.
AND A LIVE SERVICE NOTE
On Sunday, our North American servers did get poked at by a handful of DDOSes. Europe did not. Our network folks have been working with our ISPs on this and other security topics regularly, and were able to compensate and protect your experience quickly.
The game did stay up and full the entire time, both our infrastructure and countermeasures held, and we do sincerely apologize to those of you who got disconnected briefly. This isn’t the kind of thing we want any of you to be impacted by, and we continue to find new protections here as well.
As always, for faster information, the Launch FAQ thread is where you can go for more rapid updates. The team continues to update that as everything progresses.
And with that, I’ll let you get back to ArcheAge! We look forward to even more improvements this week, and will let you know as they happen.
- Scott
I know many people out there are having dificulties enjoying the game and are quick to dismiss Trion as anything other than a shady company just trying to rip them off, but I think this article does a nice job of showing all the things the are doing to ensure we all are having a positive gaming experience. They've added more customer support staff and even dealt with another DDoS attack (albeit it a smaller one than earlier in the week that caused server instability).
The bonus patron time is a nice addition for the many people out there demanding compensation, if you started with head start then you are getting over a week of free patron time, and they have given out the bonus founder's items to help out people that switched servers due to the queues.
It's music to my ears to hear that they've banned over 10k bots already, now if we could just get something done about all the gold sellers spamming chat.
What are your thoughts on this letter from Scott Hartsman? Do you feel like Trion is really trying to make things better? What actions would you like to be taken that you aren't seeing yet?
New NA Server Calleil Online, EU servers scheduled to arrive onsite Tuesday
Originally Posted by Trion Scapes (view original source)
New Server Added: Calleil (NA)
We’ve added a new world to our North American server list: Calleil (NA)! This server will be on the new Auction House cluster 5 (AH5) with Ezi (NA) and Lucius (NA). Calleil (NA) is online and available to play right now: Sunday September 19 at 9:30 AM PDT (GMT-7).
We also have new European servers en route to our Amsterdam data center. We deeply wish they could be out of international customs faster, but we do have them slated to be received Tuesday local time. For more on this, please check out our Launch FAQ! Additionally, the NA servers Naima, Tahyang, Kyrios, Ollo, Salphira, and Aranzeb have been temporarily closed to new character creation while our newer servers populate.
NOTE: If your character slots are full, you will not be able to make a new character on the new servers until you log into one of them and either delete an existing character or purchase an additional character slot. Sorry for needing a workaround! XLGAMES is working to improve available character slot recognition.
Saturday, September 20, 2014
Putting it in Perspective: ArcheAge Queues at Launch
There are so many vocal players complaining about the queue lengths for ArcheAge, right now. This is understandable as the game is a ton of fun and everyone wants to get in to play.. at the same time. But any MMO veteran knows that queues come with the launch territory (both game launches and expansions) and really should be planned for and expected. One gamer from the official forums sparked quite the long thread in General Discussion by going against the whining grain and refreshing all of our memories about some past game launches with long queues that current complainers seem to conveniently forget.
You also have to remember that Trion wants us in game, that's how they make their money. They don't want anyone in queues, but they want the people in game to have a stable environment to play in. They are doing everything they can to make this smooth for all of us, including making a fix today to speed up queue times and enforcing stricter AFK timers.
Originally Posted by Sun Tzu (view original source)
I am a gamer and understand these issues. I am not upset.
I figured due to the torrent of self-entitled threads, where people who don't understand real world issues that were out of others control, I would make a thread regarding the opposite.
In the past ten to twelve years, many MMORPGs have launched, many of them requiring a subscription to play. Historically, they have had queues for days, even weeks.
This is not abnormal, it is especially more difficult to deal with when a game can be downloaded for free, without a penny paid, and logged into by anyone.
TRION is a business, they want to make money, they understand your grievances and have worked diligently to repair the problems by adding new servers, increasing capacity, and making changes to how we log-in and/or remain logged in.
They have reacted as fast as humanly possible, in my opinion, and this launch is by far not even close to being the worst launch in history. As many of you have claimed.
Lets look at history:
Vanguard: Saga of Heroes a game regarded to be the true successor of EverQuest I, made by Brad McQuaid was unable to even be played, let alone logged into, at its launch. With hundreds of thousands of people screaming across the forums about the inadequacy of the game and the fact that it crashed on almost 90% of systems, regardless of specifications.
World of Warcraft launch was terrible, it had astronomical queues and technical issues across the board.
AION launched with over five hour queues and a host of payment processor issues.
The list goes on. This is nothing new, I am *surprised* you didn't anticipate this. As with history, the queues will soon die down after launch-appeal is gone and people who wish to play will remain, just like all other MMOs.
Threatening chargebacks is not only disgusting but "friendly fraud," in my book. Its why we don't have nice games anymore, robbing companies of oh-so-precious development funds.
A big thanks to Sun Tzu from the official forums for letting us share his content. If you would like to be a guest author on TotalArcheAge comment below or email us at GuestContent@totalarcheage.com.
Friday, September 19, 2014
News Roundup: Patron 10% Marketplace Discount Missing, Bonus Founder's Pack Redemption, Missing Patron Status Fix
Official forum user Scion pointed out:
UPDATE: Trion Ocho has acknowledged the issue, although he didn't say much about it.We're aware, and will address this topic early next week. Thanks for bringing this up, and your patience as we resolve it. - Ocho
No 10% Discount on Marketplace Purchases
Anyone else notice this?
Below are the original Patron benefits:
•Bonus online Labor Point regeneration (10 per 5 minute)
•Offline Labor Point Regeneration (5 per 5 minute)
•Increased maximum Labor Points cap (5000 maximum)
•10% bonus to all Experience gained through combat or labor usage
•10% discount on Marketplace purchase
•5 Loyalty Tokens per day for use in the Loyalty Store
•Ability to claim land by placing farms and houses
•Ability to pay in-game taxes on owned property
•Ability to post auctions on the Auction House by default
The new list on their website is the following:
•BONUS EXPERIENCE
Get a 10% bonus to all Experience gained through questing, combat, and labor usage.
•OFFLINE LABOR
Earn Labor Points (5/5 min) even while you’re offline.
•AUCTION HOUSE LISTING
Get full access to listing and selling items on the Auction House.
•LOYALTY TOKENS
Get 5 Loyalty Tokens when you log in each day. Redeem them for special items at the in-game Loyalty Store!
•FASTER LABOR
Double your Labor Point regeneration to 10/5 min!
•MAX LABOR BONUS
Increase your maximum Labor Points to 5,000
•LAND OWNERSHIP
Claim and own a piece of Erenor by placing farms and houses!
Whether is is an oversight or a short-changing by Trion remains to be seen. Regardless, people are up in arms over this. We'll be sure to update you as soon as there's an official word on this.
From Scapes' Launch FAQ thread on Founder's Pack Bonus:
To make sure that they can enjoy their Founder's Pack items, our Founders now have access to a bonus single-use product that can be used to apply the per-character Founder's Pack items to the character of their choice.
When you've selected the "Founder's Pack - Bonus" product from the ArcheAge product page (make sure you're signed in), click "Apply" and select the character that you'd like to receive these items on. Please note that this can only be done fr one character, so choose wisely! This grant is in addition to the 6 characters who have or will receive the items.
When you sign in you'll see the Founder's Pack - Bonus item for sale for 0 cost and you click apply then it will immediately ask you which character you want to apply the bonus to.
More From Scapes' Launch FAQ on Missing Patron Benefits:
We have just deployed two fixes: a platform fix and an account update script. The first fix makes it so that all purchases from the website store will correctly grant Patron status. The second fix is addressing a large batch of players who should have Patron status but do not. Once the script is complete, in about an hour, please (and I know this is a pain) log out of the game, log out of Glyph, restart Glyph, and then log back into ArcheAge. This fix may not fix all players who are missing their Patron; if you complete the relog and still aren't seeing your Patron status, please let us know in this thread or let our Support Team know via a ticket: http://support.trionworlds.com
These two fixes should address a majority of the players who are missing Patron right now and we are working until absolutely everyone who should have Patron gets it.
While this issue isn't effecting a very large percentage of the player base, to those that it is are having a terrible experience so I'm glad this is being addressed.
On Server Transfers Trion Kiwibird had to say:
This will be a great feature to get added, I'm curious to see if XL Games will want to charge for them. I know in Rift server transfers are completely free. People are clamoring for this feature, but with the current overpopulation of the game it may not make that big of a difference, although it could still reconnect players who had friends seek shorter queue time servers and ended up separated.
A big, unaddressed, question still remains on server transfers and more importantly server merges. What happens to housing in these situations? In transfers you likely forfeit any land left behind and must demolish it before leaving. But in mergers? I foresee this being a massive issue when that time comes.
Two new NA servers live, EU servers en route.
Originally Posted by Trion (view original source)
New Servers Added: Ezi (NA) and Lucius (NA)
We’ve added two new worlds to our North American server list: Ezi (NA) and Lucius (NA)! These servers were racked (physically installed) and imaged (updated with ArcheAge server software) in our Texas data center all in the past day. Here you can see Ezi (NA) and Lucius (NA) in their new home with Senior Systems Engineer Jonathan Johnson. These two servers will be on the new Auction House cluster 5 (AH5). These new servers are now online and available to play right now: Friday September 19 at 4:15 PM PDT (GMT-7).
We also have new European servers en route to our Amsterdam data center, currently passing through international customs at this very moment. They’re making their way to being live as quickly as possible. For more on this, please check out our Launch FAQ! Additionally, the NA servers Kyrios, Ollo, and Salphira have been temporarily closed to new character creation.
NOTE: If your character slots are full, you will not be able to make a new character on the new servers until you either delete an existing character or log into one of them to purchase an additional character slot.
Don't be too quick to jump the gun, thousands of players from all the other servers are jumping ship to try and hop on the new server bandwagon, they both appear to have queue's currently around 2000 players.
New Servers Being Installed Now, Queue times, Server Transfers, and more in Trion Scapes AA Launch FAQ
Originally Posted by Trion Scapes (view original source)
ArcheAge Launch: Frequently Asked Questions (Updated: 9/19 at 10:00 AM PDT)
Hello adventurers!
In the two days since launch, we've seen tons of new players visiting the forums to start and join discussions. We've written up this set of frequently asked questions about launch. Also, be sure to read CEO Scott Hartsman's ArcheAge launch update letter.
UPDATED: Are more servers going to be opened?
Yes! As of this morning (9/19), new NA servers have been physically racked at our Texas data center and are being imaged (which means the standard ArcheAge server software is being installed to them). We have EU servers making their way through customs to our Amsterdam data center right now. We've seen players ask why these servers weren't purchased locally which is a great question: we had to do it this way in the interest of expediency. Going through a new hardware provider in EU would have been weeks of contracts, getting the right configurations, and a bunch of other delays. Even though the new EU servers are in customs, you'll be getting them as quickly as possible.While we've added new servers since launch, we are closely monitoring their populations and queues (and paying attention to player feedback on the forums) to determine when to add more. The reason we're being conservative about adding more is that ArcheAge's launch week just started two days ago and player activity is exceptionally high as a result. We want to avoid a post-launch situation where opening too many servers leads to individual server populations stabilizing down to levels that leave them partially populated.
For more details, please read CEO Scott Hartsman's ArcheAge launch update letter.
NEW: I saw someone using a botting script in-game, what's being done about it?
We're taking a very aggressive stance on handling botting, exploiting, and other forms of illegal gameplay. For example, in the last day alone (9/18), we've blocked more than 5000 bad accounts from making purchases and have banned more than 3000 others from the game.
My server has a really long queue! Why?
ArcheAge's servers have a limit on the number of active players who can be in-game at once. This limit is to prevent the server from becoming unstable due to too many actions being taken in the game (you can see examples of it when trying to access the multi-server Auction House and getting an error message).
Am I in the Patron queue or the general queue?
There are two queues for entering servers: Patron and general. The Patron queue is added to the server faster than the general queue. If you have Patron status in the game, you will be placed in the Patron queue.
Originally, the game clearly showed which queue you were in. We recently introduced a ten-minute grace period that allows players who are disconnected from the game to rejoin their server without having to wait in the queue. A temporary side effect of this addition is that the current queue prompt doesn't designate which queue you're in. We are working with XLGAMES to make it so it does show this information.
How are the long queues being addressed?
Since Head Start, we've opened five new servers effectively adding 50% more capacity to our initial server list. Over the last two days, we've increased the total player capacity of our North American servers by 20% and our largest EU server, Kyprosa, by 10%.
We also introduced an AFK kick that boots players from the game after a set duration of inactivity. This kick will be improved to detect idle players in the character selection screen. Also, we will be reducing the length of the AFK kick timer the next time each server restarts.
I'm missing my Patron status and/or my Patron duration is wrong/inactive!
We're aware that some players who should have Patron Time (via Founder's Packs or direct purchases) are missing it or it isn't activating. Our Platform Team is working to resolve this issue and will make sure that all players who should have Patron Time get it back. This includes the players who were affected by our EU server maintenance on 9/17.
We will also be adding five days of Patron Time to all Founders to compensate for their bundled Patron Time starting at the beginning of the four-day Head Start rather than at launch as previously announced.
Where are my Founder's Pack perks?
Founder's Pack perks are sent to characters via the in-game mail system. We're aware that some players purchased a Founder's Pack but did not receive this in-game mail due to our distribution platform being slower than expected. We will make certain that all Founders automatically get the perks that they purchased.
Our Support Team can assist you in getting your items in the interim. Submitting a help ticket or consulting our live chat will get you the help you need. Please note that we have a lot of tickets and chats active right now but you will definitely be responded to in the order received.
Is leveling my mount while I'm AFK permitted?
No, not when we have server queues. Our Game Masters will be kicking players who are AFK and leveling their mounts to make room for active players.
Can I transfer my existing character to another server?
We are working to offer server transfers, we're eager to make them available!
This thread will be updated as questions are added, answers are updated, and issues are resolved, so be sure to keep checking back. Be sure to also read our ArcheAge Launch: Known Issues thread. Thanks for your patience!
Thursday, September 18, 2014
News Update: More Servers Coming Soon
Originally Posted by Scott Hartsman (view original source)
ArcheAge Launch Update: Capacities, Communication, and Where to Find Info
Hi everyone, we’d like to thank you all for being a part of this absolutely massive launch of ArcheAge.
We’ve heard from a lot of you that ArcheAge has stirred up excitement for an MMO in a way that many of you haven’t felt in a long time. When people are in and playing, we hear a lot that the game’s the great, exciting experience they were waiting for.
While it’s been great for many, it’s been uneven for others, most notably if you’re stuck waiting. (We know, we wait in the same queues you do.)
Know that we haven’t been, and won’t be, resting until the experience is great for everyone. We’ve been talking to you a lot about this on Twitter and our forums, and we wanted to thank you for your patience — which has been extreme in some cases for sure.
I’d like to talk about what we’re doing to make sure that all of you can have that same kind of experience.
SERVER CAPACITIES AND YOU
In an ideal world, we have all the hardware we need to host the ideal number of servers, in a way that works best for everyone. We’d strike the perfect balance between launch popularity, when everyone wants to be online 100% of the time, and the settled population of more normal play patterns that will naturally come over time.
In reality, we have to plan capacity months ahead of time, based on things like web site signups, numbers of people who play in alphas and betas, how long they play, and so on. There’s a fair amount of science that goes into it, and in general it’s pretty accurate. We then include extra for overflow, just in case we need more.
In this case, so many entirely new people showed up that we opened not just all of our launch hardware on the first day, but the overflow hardware soon after as well. Since Head Start, we’ve expanded both the number of servers and the capacity of all servers steadily. We try to let you know this both on the forums and on Twitter (@ArcheAge]) whenever this occurs.
Inside the business you’ll hear people call this “problems of success,” but make no mistake – since it negatively affects you, we remain obsessively focused on the “problem” part, not the “success” part. We treat these as high priority problems that we need to solve, as rapidly as possible.
GREAT, THANKS. THAT’S SUPER. WHAT ARE YOU DOING NOW?
Right. There are things going on both in and out of game to make things better:
1) Yes, more hardware is on its way to helping you! We’re still aiming to strike the balance between short and long term and we know with certainty that more hardware is needed for both. We’ve heard both the “more servers” and “no more servers” crowds, and are certain we need to take steps toward more. I’m happy to share that the next round of hardware landed with our team in Texas this morning.
While I do wish that we could violate the laws of space and time to transport physical servers instantly, and help both NA and EU simultaneously, because of the way hardware is shipped out, and factors like “customs,” there will be some delay between helping out the two regions. Do note that we’re doing everything we can to make sure that delay is as minimal as possible. (We are aiming for days, not weeks, between.)
We’ll be talking more about the details here over the coming days, in our Launch FAQ thread.
2) Note that we’ve been more aggressively sweeping AFKers, even manually when needed. For example, while we had said during beta that we were tentatively tolerant of AFK mount riding, we’d be keeping an eye out to see if it became a problem. Well, it’s officially a problem when actual players who will be playing can’t get in.
If you’re not actively playing, please do be aware that you might not be there when you get back. Of course, while we do appreciate creative justifications such as “I am merely celebrating the excitement of launch by exercising my steed in a circular pattern for an extended period of time,” those will still earn a quick trip to desktop.
We’re also going to be setting up a more aggressive AFK timer as is suited to an over-popular launch, and ensuring that there are fewer ways to get around it. Again, this is all to create the greatest opportunity to get active human beings into the game.
3) As with any launch where you get massive numbers of new players, we need great people helping out with the typical things that happen as services scale up, which is why I wanted to talk Customer Service. You have wanted to talk with them. You’ve wanted to talk with them a lot. And they really do want to help.
Trion’s CS team has already been expanded pretty massively, with scores of new people coming on board in the weeks leading up to ArcheAge’s launch. There’s a veritable dedicated army of people wanting to help. We’re also happy to announce that we’re ramping that up even more. As with all of our CS in the past, we’re continuing down the path of natively fluent CS reps in each language we service.
4) Communication is critical during launches – We do get that. I’ve personally tweeted more during this launch than I think I have since Twitter existed. We’re going to be redoubling our efforts, most notably on our forums, with even more people pitching in.
We had been trying to focus our updates into specific known locations, but that’s not having the effect that we had hoped. We need to be in more places and threads that you’re already discussing, so you can expect more of that beginning today, and in a more visibly 24/7 fashion than it might have appeared previously. We’ve been continuously working like crazy knocking down the types of launch issues one might expect, but if you don’t see evidence of it, then it’s not as helpful to you. We get that too.
Once again – Thank you all for your patience, and we have constant improvements that will continue to be rolled out. As always, to keep track of the latest details of what’s being worked on, you can find updates in theongoing Launch FAQ update thread. We look forward to getting even more capacity up for you across the board, being more visible about it, and giving you all the great experience you deserve.
- Scott
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